- Why Every Solopreneur Needs A Business Planner
- Why Every Solopreneur Needs A Business Plan To Be
- Why Every Solopreneur Needs A Business Plan Summary
- Why Every Solopreneur Needs A Business Plan For A
After taking a month-long hiatus from blogging, I’m BACK! And what better way to kick off the new year than with some business planning tips for solopreneurs?
This will make the writing process easier for your first business plan. If you still don’t really get why this is so important, keep reading. I’m going to drop 5 reasons why every business, especially yours, needs to put a business plan into writing. Directions for the future. A business plan maps out your future. Your business plan will show you not only how much cash you need, but how you can access it too. What’s more, simply showing a plan to a creditor or investor could improve the chances that you can get access to the money that you need. Most banks won’t even consider a business loan without seeing a plan first. Creating an Action Plan.
Why Every Solopreneur Needs A Business Planner
(By the way, if you’re wondering, “but what IS a solopreneur?”, it’s pretty straightforward! A solopreneur is simply someone who has a one-person business—including freelancers and most home-based business owners. If you have a business without employees, you’re a solopreneur. And in 2017, I’m expanding my area of focus to include all kinds of solopreneurs, not just freelancers—starting with today’s blog post. Yay!)
I’ve been doing A LOT of business planning over the past month, and I know this is something that many solopreneurs really struggle with. In fact, NOT creating actionable plans (which you then actually implement) is a major reason why solopreneurs fail in business.
Cheryl reevethe initials game. But not you! These solopreneur business planning tips will help you to FOCUS on one goal at a time and create concrete action steps to help you achieve those goals.
- What Is a Business Plan? A business plan is a tool that describes every aspect of your business, from the product or service you offer to your finances, management, and marketing plans. It’s designed to tell your reader — potential lenders, investors, and suppliers, for example — the goals of your business and how you plan to achieve them.
- As a solopreneur, you may not think you need a formal business plan. However, having a business plan prepared will be necessary if you plan to seek business funding or grants. It can also help you stay on track with your goals for your business.
- To outline the importance of business plans, here are 10-reasons why you need one for your small business. To help you with critical decisions. While business plans have many purposes, the primary importance of a business plan is that they help business owners make better decisions.
Pssst… one of the best ways you can get really clear and focused with your business priorities is to host your own solo business retreat. Watch my (free) video training on exactly how to do that:
Let’s get started with 4 business planning tips for solopreneurs…
Business planning tip for solopreneurs #1: start with your BIG goal.
Your BIG goal should be something you want to achieve at least 6 months from now—and ideally, it should be something you want to achieve within 1—3 years. Basically, the bigger the goal, and the more long-term you’re able to plan ahead, the better you’ll be able to create actionable steps and ensure that everything you do NOW works toward your bigger overarching goal.
For example, maybe you have a goal of finally quitting your 9 to 5 job. Or maybe you want to make a certain amount of money from your small business, or maybe you want to work with a specific number of people (or a celebrity client), or maybe you want to transition from solopreneur to entrepreneur.
Everyone’s BIG goal will be different! You need to figure out yours before moving onto the next step.
Don’t know what your big business goal is? No problem! I’ve created a special workbook to help you figure out what your business goal is.
Business planning tip for solopreneurs #2: identify smaller goals which will contribute towards your BIG goal.
Let’s say your BIG goal takes place three years in the future. In that case, what do you need to accomplish within the next 12 months to work toward that BIG goal? Can you break that one-year goal into four smaller goals (one for each quarter of the year)? The more you can identify smaller, more manageable goals, the more realistic and doable your BIG goal will be.
Business planning tip for solopreneurs #3: prioritize your smaller goals and arrange them realistically on your calendar.
Alright, so you know what you want to achieve 3 years from now. And you know where you need to be 1 year from now, in order to be heading in the right direction for your 3-year BIG goal.
You’ve even broken down your 1-year goal into four more manageable goals that you can spend each quarter of the year on.
But hold up! Have you prioritized those smaller goals? Have you arranged them on your calendar in a way that realistically fits into your schedule?
More than that, when you look at your 1-year goal, have you focused on the right priority to contribute to your 3-year goal… or do you need to go back to the drawing board and choose a goal that’s connected more meaningfully with your 3-year goal?
Prioritizing your goals and arranging them strategically on your schedule is fundamental to making your goals a reality.
Business planning tip for solopreneurs #4: create daily/weekly actionable steps to achieve each of your smaller goals.
Plans and actions go hand-in-hand. There is no point in taking action without having a plan, and no point in having a plan if you aren’t going to take action: the former could destroy your business, and the latter could prevent your business from ever being a reality.
I cannot stress enough the importance of having concrete, actionable strategies that you implement for your business.
Why Every Solopreneur Needs A Business Plan To Be
Creating daily/weekly actionable steps for achieving goals is a strategy I LOVE: the concept behind the actionable steps is that you are breaking down each one of your smaller goals into something practical and tangible.
Why Every Solopreneur Needs A Business Plan Summary
So, if you have a 3-month goal, then you can break down your 3-month goal into even smaller weekly goals, and you can add daily action items that you’ll need to take to achieve each of your weekly goals.
Why Every Solopreneur Needs A Business Plan For A
If you want to quit your 9 to 5 job within 3 months, for example, then you might have a weekly goal to get a new client for your business… and you can break that weekly goal into a series of action steps for marketing your business and pitching to clients (CLICK HERE to get a day-by-day breakdown for how to get your first client!).
See how it works? Your goals can be broken down into smaller and smaller chunks, until they can be broken into concrete action steps that you can take to actually ACHIEVE those goals.
The cool thing about using this method is that it works for pretty much any size of goal. We’ve gone with a 3-year BIG goal plan in this case, but you could adapt it to fit a 6-month BIG goal, or a 10-year BIG goal if you wanted. Just switch up the timelines and the workload to fit accordingly!
Want more help with your solopreneur business?
Watch the FREE video training, which teaches you all about how to host your own business planning retreat…
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