Business plans bring up all sorts of feelings of dread. We
picture thick tomes full of graphs, spreadsheets, and endless paragraphs on
marketing segements.
Today I want to you think about writing a different sort of
business plan. This one is solely for you and will only take a couple hours of
your time and will provide clear action steps for growing your business.
The Big Money Picture
Start with the big picture in money, what does your business
need to make and how soon does it need to make that? There’s a time and a place
for vision and mission statements, but right now I want you to get straight to
the point. Focus on the business you want to build and how long you have to
make it work.
List out all
your possible expenses - rent, utilities, travel, marketing, employees, etc.
and what you want to pay yourself to come up with a monthly income.
This number might seem scary big, but you want this to be a
sustainable business, not a hobby. You need to pay yourself well, invest in the
business (marketing, rent, conferences), and still have a cushion for the
unexpected.
You also need to know how long you have for the business to
reach this level. Do you only have 6 months of savings or do you have a 2-year
runway?
The Right Now Picture
Now let’s look at what's already coming in. List all the
income you know you can count on and estimate what you’ve been averaging for
all the revenue streams you have. Be as specific as you can even if you need to
guess at averages.
If you’ve got revenue streams that you’re still building,
but haven’t brought anything in yet, don’t forget to note those too.
What’s the difference in these two numbers? Are you
thousands off or only hundreds? This will give you a better idea of how hard
you need to work, how far you need to go, and how long it will take you.
Where’s The Money?
Now let’s look at your time spent to bring in that income.
What are you doing right now that’s bringing in the most money? Can you devote
more hours to it? What are you doing that’s bringing in the least amount of
money? Is it worth the effort, do you need to charge more, or are you still
working to prove a model?
You might see that custom work brings in great money when
you get it, but you’re not booking much. Instead you’ve been focusing on marketing
your online store. It might be time to switch your efforts toward booking more
custom projects. Or you might see that for the time investment craft fairs and
trunk shows just aren’t cutting it. You might need to cut the number you commit
to drastically and invest your time in securing wholesale accounts instead.
Building A Plan
Now that you’ve got a clearer picture of where the money is
coming from and where your time is best spent build an actionable plan to get
your numbers where you need them to be. Start with modest goals, but set them
high enough to challenge yourself and keep things moving forward.
You might need to slowly extract yourself from the parts of
the business that aren’t making money, before you can invest more time into the
areas that are. Do you need to learn more about sales or gaining retail
accounts? Set goals like increasing your revenue by 20% or booking 2 new
clients next month and build from there.
Numbers are hard to ignore, so taking a good look at them
will give you a pretty clear picture of what’s working and what’s not. It’s
easier to build on what’s already working than add new strategies, products or
services that haven’t been tested.
What step can you take next month to get you closer to your
goal?
This is the kind of work I do with my clients, because
sometimes it’s hard to do on your own. I help them gain perspective on where
they are, where they want to go, and what paths will get them there. If you’ve
got big goals this year send me an email and I’ll tell you how I can help.
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