A good business plan is one of the first steps in breaking free from your day job. It will help you clarify your purpose and give you a cohesive vision of the future of your business. What are your goals? Who will you serve? Why should those people want to work with you? Why is your business different? These are all questions your business plan should address.
Building a Better Business Plan
I have written about building a business plan before. It is a step that I see many people get hung up on, and I don’t want to see this hold you back! I highly suggest checking out our Business Plan Template, which will give you everything you need to get started creating a plan.
Today, I am sharing seven tips for building a better business plan. These are questions or points you should be sure to include in your business plan.
1)Make sure you include your personal story in your purpose plan.
The internet is a noisy place, and getting personal will help you break through that noise. What are some of your struggles? Why are you doing this now? Why do you want to start this business? Share who you are, which will attract the right types of clients to your business.
Related Post: The Moment That Changed Everything #MyStartupstory
2) Determine the cost of people not working with you.
Potential clients may think they can figure it out on their own. You are going to have to dive in and show them the cost of not working with you or not buying your product. What is the cost of your client continuing to live like they are now? Are they going to actually lose something by not taking action and moving forward? Are they going to lose money? Are they going to miss out on their family? That’s priceless.
What is the true cost of not taking advantage of your product? This approach will help you be more passionate about what you are selling and help your clients see they really need what you have to offer.
3) Focus on one product to start.
There is so much stuff online and it’s easy to get distracted. I would recommend focusing in on one thing. You have a lot of things you can help people with, but it is important to become an expert at one thing. The market saturation is caused by people selling broad offerings.
What kind of expert do you want to be? You can always expand later on and sell additional items or services.
4) Pick one social media platform and engage.
If you pick Instagram first, you have to be commenting and networking like crazy. Spend at least an hour a day commenting and liking other people’s Instagram accounts and creating 4 posts per day. It takes a lot of work to build up your connections on Instagram.
If you are focusing on Facebook, do consistent Facebook Lives and connect with your listeners based off sharing your own stories. Don’t try to be everywhere all at once. Focus on quality, not quantity.
5) Don’t just post on social media and wait for people to come to you.
Just by putting a blog up, they aren’t automatically going to come. YOU have to be the one to actually go get them. You have to be out there engaging with others. Don’t blog and hope they come. Aim to build a connection. Ask questions and engage with your audience.
6) If you are providing a service, individual coaching is a great place to start in the beginning.
In the beginning, individual coaching is important because you can charge a higher fee, so it’s a quicker pathway to quitting your day job. You will learn so much, including how to create your systems and how to identify what your client’s frustrations are. If you have more time to earn a higher income, you can start selling a low priced course or membership site. It’s going to take a lot longer and you’ll have to sell a lot more products if you have a lower ticket item.
7) If you get on the phone with someone, your conversion rate will increase.
Try to simplify your revenue targets and put a target together for next month. What is doable to get you to the $6,000 per month? How can you make that happen as quickly as possible? Do the math. If you want to make $5,000 per month, you just need 12 people to pay you $500 per month or 24 people paying you $250 per month. It’s up to you and how quickly you want to grow this.
If these tips help you, I would love to hear about it! Share your success on Instagram and be sure to tag @classycareergirl!