Day 15: Business Plan

Intro

You want to get out of the matrix or this rat race and live a financially free life. You want to simply generate enough money that will change your financial situation that you are in right now. You want to be your own boss. You want that success and that freedom. Thus you want to start a business. What you need to understand is that a business is set for the long term. If it's not for long term then is either a hobby or a side hustle. Before starting your business, you need to know the 2 things that have helped many successful entrepreneurs to have great success in their businesses and they are a business plan and a business blueprint.  

What Is A Business Plan?

A business can either be started and run by one individual or a group of individuals. It can be any business from brick and mortar, real estate, E-commerce, MLM or even the core 4 online businesses. A business plan gives you or anyone who is working with you the overall idea to you or to anyone with you on this business to understand what the business you are doing is about. They are well-elaborated strategic documents through which you will

• Know what your business is about and if it is feasible or not
• Understand your market and competitors
• The long term vision of the business
• Understand the business requirements
• Know who is responsible for what job or task
• Know the milestones
• Know the cost you will be needing for funding your business
• Know the estimated revenue or expected outcome you will be expecting monthly or annually
• Be able to get the required funds, as a loan from the bank or investors, to kick start your business.

  Now you might be asking yourself,  "so where does a business blueprint fits in and what is it?", right?  

What is a Business Blueprint?

Most of the time, a business plan is confused with a business blueprint. A business blueprint is a set of elaborated and planned steps that only you know and is suited for only you to use and to make your business a successful one. If the business plan is considered a "Game", then the business blueprint is considered "the instructions", for only you, to know how to play it. Now it all depends on you if you are playing to win or simply for fun.

 

5 Questions To Get Your Business Plan Started

Starting a business plan may look time - consuming or a lot of work, but it is very essential for nourishing the business to make it grow successful.  

1. What is your business about?

You need to know the purpose and type of your business. Without understanding what your business does, you will be wasting your energy and effort. Your company should have a purpose and for that, it needs a vision and a mission.

• Vision: represents the big picture of what you want your business to achieve.
• Mission: represents a general statement of how you will achieve your vision.

Secondly, as an entrepreneur, you need to know how the mission will be used to achieve your vision. For that, the needs to develop these steps are necessary (form part of your business blueprint).

• Strategy: one or more than one ways to use the mission statement to achieve your vision
• Goal: One or many general statements of what needs to be accomplished to implement a particular strategy
• Objective: They provide specific milestones allocated to their specific timelines to achieve a particular goal
• Action Plan: These are the specific implementation plans of how a particular objective will be achieved

 

2. What is your target market?

Next, is for you to know who will be the people that you intend to make your potential customers. In one of my previous posts, I elaborated on the 3 pillars of revenue that was explained by Jay Abraham. For your business to be more successful, you need

1. to get more customers
2. do repeat business with those same customers
3. sell high ticket products to increase revenue

Knowing who are your customers and how do you intend to target them is very important to grow your business. Are they men? women? children? Youngsters? Elderly  people? etc... One of the best tips I received is "Sell what they are already buying"  

3. In what skills are you proficient?

Starting a business is neither a piece of cake nor an impossible feat. Skills related to your business are required. You also have to know what are the tools and software your business need. For example, basic computer skills like writing contents on a word document, typing an email, use of automated emails, understanding the importance and use of funnels and how to set up an ad on any social platform, etc... You either learn them to perform the required tasks, employ people who are proficient with those tasks or outsource those tasks with people who have those required skills.  

4. What is your budget?

Once you know what you can and what you can't do, it is easier for you to set a budget. This budget is here to allow you to outsource your work, to buy the required tools or software needed to set up, maintain, and scale your business.  

5. What is your estimated financial goal?

You should know what you are expecting as your revenue or turnover from your business after processing your budget and investment. This revenue or turnover can be sequenced in a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly format.  

Do I Need To Change My Business Plan?

You need to understand that a business plan is not just papers you create and view once. As your business grows, you and your team(if any) grow together. Therefore, as time passes, you develop more skills. And in this ever-changing era of technology, it is very essential of a growing company to adapt itself to changes. Your business plan needs constant timely reviewing. It is also done in order to update your budget and financial goal.  

Final Thoughts

If you are planning to start an online business, you will be required to at least know the most basic skills. Here is my number 1 recommendation. My other recommendation that provides the best funnels (free 14 days trial) is Click Funnels. You can also attend the Web Class to know more. If you have found value in this post, always feel free to comment and share it with your loved ones. Stay blessed.   * If you purchase anything through a link in this article, you should assume that I have an affiliate relationship with the company providing the product or service that you purchase, and that I’ll be compensated in some small way at no extra cost to you