HOW MY BUSINESS PLAN KEEPS ME AFLOAT

Seven years ago, when I announced to my husband that I wanted to quit my successful marketing career and start my own business, the first thing he asked was ‘Where is your Business Plan?’

Business Plan!?

I didn’t have one.

As a marketer I’ve created countless marketing plans, but a business plan was new territory, so I got stuck into some research and realised he was right – this is exactly what I needed. 

I dedicated the next month to designing a business plan that worked for me, and as I filled it in, my business dream became a reality. 

By the time I handed it over, I knew quitting the 9-5 was the right decision for me and felt confident that my new business idea would work. 

Fast forward seven years, and my business – and my business plan – has grown and developed along with me. 

I’ve honed it over the years, crafting it into a practical and straightforward document that has guided me to keep focussed and stay on track. 

My business plan is what I credit for seven absolutely incredible years of (pretty much!) a consistent income and a steady stream of clients (there are ALWAYS ups and downs, but I’m still standing and my bank balance is still in the black!). 

When I look back over my time as a business owner, I realise that the lowest points were when my business plan was gathering dust in a drawer – I get side-tracked and a bit lost without it. 

I’d spend a few months in the doldrums, wondering what was going wrong, then I’d reach for my trusty plan, read through it, and the fire would fill my belly again and I’d be off! 

So many business owners I talk to, new and established, don’t have a Business Plan, and this makes me feel a bit sad and worried for them…how are they staying on track and not getting lost in the overwhelming noise of today’s business world? 

So if you are feeling a little lost, and don’t have a plan of your own, here’s how my Business Plan helps me run my business, and how it could help you run yours too… 

STAY ON TRACK 

When times are tough, imposter syndrome sets in, and everything feels like it’s going wrong, my plan helps me refocus and stay on track. 

I follow it step by step because I know it has been designed to meet my objectives. 

It takes the guesswork out of my every day actions, and gives me confidence that I’m working towards my goals. 

Using my plan makes me proactive instead of reactive – I’ve already thought about and anticipate challenges and hurdles, and am prepared for them. 

I know exactly what I want to achieve and how to get it.  

KNOW YOUR MARKET 

While developing Your Business Playbook (my group coaching programme which is literally based on my own business plan), I’ve been reviewing all sections of my plan and it’s brought up some revelations about my ideal audience.  

I was shocked to discover that some of my assumptions about them were totally off base. 

The new Ideal Client section of my plan has real depth and soul to it, and gives me total confidence that my messaging is speaking to the pain, problems, feelings and beliefs of my community. 

My plan also gives me the space to better understand my fellow coaches – I know what works for them and how we all differ from each other.

This is crucial information when it comes to identifying you place in the market and your own unique selling points. 

I also take the time to analyse trends in the market and in my industry a few times a year, to make sure I’m staying on the leading edge and delivering to the best of my ability.  

ASSUME THE POSITION 

Because I know my market and my offering so well, I know exactly how to position myself and my brand within my community. 

My plan houses my brand guidelines, purpose, vision, values and mission – so I refer to it all the time to make sure I’m being consistent and reliable in the eyes of my ideal client. 

Whenever I want to shift anything, the first thing I do is review my SWOT analysis and consider how the changes I want to make will fit into my plan and the position I’m taking in my market place. 

TOTAL FOCUS 

Everyone who knows me knows I’m all about focus and clarity – the level of focus I haven’t isn’t an accident – it comes from having a plan. 

The actual process of writing the plan brings a whole new level of focus – it validates your entire business proposition and gives you complete clarity on why you’re doing it, who you’re doing it for, how you deliver, and how much you charge. 

A good business plan will challenge your assumptions (like the ideal client work did for me recently!) and highlight things that otherwise may not even occur to you! 

My plan houses all of my marketing and business strategies and my schedule, and it allows me to focus on one thing at a time.  

EYES ON THE PRIZE 

The very start of my plan is my end game – what is the overall outcome I want to achieve from running my business. 

All of my goals, targets and business milestones are focussed on that end game – meaning I keep my eye on the prize.  

I have short and long term goals and break them down, placing them all neatly into schedule, which again keeps me organised and focussed.  

HOW TO PROMOTE 

My promotional plan, lead generation strategies, and marketing mix is all in my plan, with costings and details of everything spread throughout the year so I know how much to budget for promotional opportunity and what I expect to make back from my marketing Pounds.

Because my plan has so much detail, I know what to promote, to who, and when, and I also know how to create new offers that my audience will want to buy.  

THE MONEY STUFF 

All of my budgets, forecasts, costs, prices and targets are set out in my plan. 

Having this clear focus on the money stuff has taken me years to get right, and is probably the thing I’m still working on the most – it’s taken a lot of mindset work to get my relationship with the green stuff on track. 

My income streams, revenue models and monetisation structures are all in my plan – so I know exactly how much of each offer I need to sell in order to make my annual targets. 

Getting control of this is probably a key thing that made me start to feel like a proper business woman, and not just a marketer working from home. 

KEEP THE MEASURE 

You’ll never know if something has succeeded unless you have the means to measure it. 

I have success measures against every element of my business so I know very quickly if something rings the bell or lands in the bucket. 

The cool kids call it Growth Hacking – but essentially it’s measuring, analysing and shifting based on your analysis.  

Having these metrics in place allows you to clearly see if you’ve achieved your strategic, financing, and operational goals (and why you have or have not).   

So you see, I’m quite lost without my little plan – it’s rescued me and kept me afloat on many occasion and my bank balance, and sanity, is eternally grateful to it. 

If you don’t have a plan of your own yet, there’s no time like the present to get one up and running.  

I’ll be guiding a group of passionate and driven business owners to design their own Business & Marketing Plans during Your Business Playbook.

This is all based on my own my own business plan and it includes a pretty epic mindset section – because strategy without the right mindset will always fail.

We start on 9 September and if it’s a plan you’re after, this one will see you through.   

Clicking the above link will take you to all the details, you can book a call from here and also go straight ahead and enrol.