Plan your Business First
If there were only one piece of advice I could share with you, it is exactly this, Plan your Business before your launch.
Taking this advice will save you countless hours of work, tons of frustration and make your life so much simpler.
By now, you should have completed your Bio. If you are just joining in, you will want to go back to the Intro and Part 1 to catch up.
In the Intro, I outlined the series for you, and in Planning a New Business, I gave you a little of my backstory and included a Pre-launch Checklist you can download for free. In Your Bio, I shared my About Page with you and we dissected all the elements that go into writing a great Bio/About Page for your business.
As I said before, the process of starting your own handmade craft of jewelry business is a progressive one. Each new step builds on the previous ones.
Keep in mind that you can come back and make changes to your Business anytime you want. If you are just starting out, do as much as you can and come back later to add the rest.
Before we dive into the action steps for writing your Business Plan, let’s review what the term means and the Key Elements all great Business Plans have in common.
What is a Business Plan
Definition of a Formal Business Plan
A Business Plan is a document that describes a new business, its products or services, how it will earn money, leadership and staffing, financing, operations model, and other details that are essential to both operation and success.
Most business plans cover the company’s first three to five years.
Don’t panic. What we are striving for today is not a formal business plan.
Think of this plan as a roadmap to guide you in establishing an online business website.
Keys Elements
- Your Business Profile *
- What your Business provides – products and/or services *
- Your Target Clients – Customers
- What are your Short Term Goals *
- What are your Long Term Goals
- How you plan to reach the outside world (Marketing and Sales) *
- Finances
- How you want your business perceived (Philosophy)
- What your business represents (Mission Statement)
* The Most Important Sections for Now if you are just starting your business.
Benefits
A good basic plan now will help you tremendously when the time for a formal business plan comes along.
Defining the Key Elements outlined above will make all of the following steps in this series much easier and keep you on the right track.
Luckily for us, we have already accomplished a few of the more difficult tasks when we wrote our Bio.
The same tips apply for this step as for your Bio:
- Be Comprehensive but Concise
- Be Organized, especially in regards to your products, materials and any services you may offer.
- Double check your work and make sure to include all the important stuff.
- In this scenario, write as if you are speaking to an investor or business colleague.
Breakdown of the Elements
I have set My Business Plan as a page here on the website so that we can dissect it while we review the key elements. The link opens in a new window so you can easily switch back and forth.
Business Profile
Notice that I use a header section, much like you would use on a resume.
Make sure to include the following information:
- Business Name
- Address
- Telephone Number
- Contact Email Address
- Website URL (add later)
Introduction Section
This section is written in paragraph form and simply describes your business, your products, your processes and any services your may offer.
If you are just getting started in your business, you can use your background info from your Bio and make sure to include why you decided to go into business.
- Note that I used my business name in the first sentence, followed by a clear description of what my business does foremost, which is make jewelry. In this same paragraph I let the reader know about my relevant experience and when I established my business.
- In the second paragraph, I give a very brief overview of my products and where I sell them.
- Next I added a value statement to lead into my services paragraph. I let the reader know about my teaching channels and my blog.
- I added a few statements to let the reader know how my business is doing and a few accomplishments.
- I ended the section with info about recent changes I have made to my business model.
Products and/or Services
Use this section to convey all the details about what you make and how you make it.
Give details about your techniques and the main materials you use.
I included my pricing structures here and gave the average price my good sell for.
- Physical Goods
- Digital Goods
- Virtual Goods
Note that I created a subsection for each type of goods or services I provide through my websites and other related channels.
Target Customers
Key demographics should include:
- Income Bracket
- Age Group
- Career Level or Education Level
- Country or Regional Info
- Social Subsets
In this section you will want to include a statement or two as well as any demographic info you can provide.
I have 2 different types of customers plus an additional audience that I needed to include.
Do as much research as possible to get a good idea of which customers you want to target.
Goals
I think now might be a good time to tell you, that although I have been in business for the last three years, I just wrote my business plan down for the first time this week.
It has been one of my short term goals since the very beginning and I can finally check that sucker off my list.
The reason I am sharing that juicy tidbit with you is this… make sure you set realistic goals and give yourself ample time to achieve them.
When I first started this business I decided to set my goals into three categories.
- Short Term – 3 years
- Long Term – 5 years
- Extreme Goals – 10 years
The most valuable thing I have done for myself and my business was to write down my goals right from the start.
Although they have grown and evolved, that simple list has helped me accomplish everything I have set out to do so far.
Don’t Skip this Step
If you look at my Goals section, I wrote out a whole paragraph on what I have achieved so far in my business.
You can use written paragraphs or bullet points to make your lists.
The Key here is to write out your plans and dreams for your business. Get something down on paper. It really feels good when you get to check things off these lists.
Start with Short Term Goals and you can add the rest as you grow.
Marketing
Write a paragraph or two to describe how you plan to get the word out about your beautiful jewelry.
You do not need an MBA to form your strategy. If you are planning on using leads, or email marketing just briefly say that. If you are planning to use social media, you may want to include your plans on building a following.
If you have future plans, say for advertising, let the reader know about that too.
Just remember to be clear and concise.
Finances
If we were actually writing a professional business plan, this section would be much different than I explain below.
The official definition goes like this:
In the Financial section of a business plan, the business owner projects revenues and expenses for a certain period of time and describes then startup and operational activity and costs related to the business.
I can honestly tell you that I have not even attempted this step. Since I currently run and fund this whole shebang myself, I have not felt the need to break all of this down into written form.
I do however have multiple spreadsheets that I have used to keep track of all my expenses. I set my system up beginning with the very first dollar I spent on my business. Below you will find the way I set this section up for now,
This section is used to tell the reader how you will fund your new enterprise.
Simply explain the basic financial structure of your new business and you are good to go for now.
My business is a sole proprietorship and I have personally provided all the funding to date.
Know that there are templates available online you can use to create financial documents for your business when you need them or you can always hire an accountant.
We will definitely revisit this subject in depth in another series.
Your Philosophy and Mission Statements
Now for the extra easy part. You can totally just copy these sections from your professional Bio.
If you haven’t written them yet, simply refer back to the previous post.
Congratulations!
You now have a great foundation for starting your new business.
This series focuses on building your own business and website.
In the next post, we will begin explore web hosting and content management systems.
I am so pumped to bring you this series and I hope you get what you need to get started on building your own business and your brand.