B is for Business Plan

This series of 26 posts is an attempt to alphabetically bring my insights to you. Although it speaks to Women Entrepreneurs, I hope it will help anyone who is thinking of setting up their own business.
You may read the previous post here.
A is for Ambition 

 

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B is for Business Plan

We discussed how to narrow down to a viable business idea. Now we build the idea into a business that is a recognizable brand. Many women are so happy at the idea of having something to do that they rush into things without thinking them through. This results in a number of errors which could have been easily avoided with some foresight. Speak with others who have ventured into entrepreneurship and get their inputs. Most people are happy to talk about what went wrong for them initially. Don't do triage, do prevention!

The first thing to remember is that you are building a business and must develop a business mentality. Remember to start as you want to go along. Now that you have a list of goods or services that you are able to produce and sell, it's time to work out how you are going to do it. Have a rate list for each item. This needs to include your production costs along with costs of what labour you want to add to it for your own skill, effort and man hours spent on production. 

Another aspect you have to think about is the scale of your production. How many products or services can you handle? Are you going to do it alone or hire others to help you with the work? Think about the needs of prospective customers and how you can fulfill them. Work out what bulk order discounts would be for units of tens, hundreds and thousands. Figure out how many free samples you would like to offer initially.

To be able to distinguish what you offer from others in the market, your potential customers need to see a proper business name, logo and presence. While it is not necessary to spend money on building up a brand, there are a number of things that can be done to keep your fledgling business in the mind of your customers. Having a formal business plan can help with this, as it works as a road map for your business to follow.

The Exercise

What You Will Need: Paper, pen, someone to bounce ideas off and quiet time.

The business plan starts with your goals. What is it that you wish to achieve? You need to big picture goal over here. For someone it may be simply enough money to travel for a holiday each year, while others may have specific sums of money in their head that they wish to generate through the sales each month.

Once you have the big goal set, now break it up into manageable steps. It's a good idea to create a visual chart with the vision or map of what you are hoping to achieve. This helps keep the end game in your mind. For instance if one of your goals is to have a website for the business, the smaller goals would include finding a hosting company, deciding the content of the website, having a programmer put it all together, and updating it regularly.

The best way to work through your smaller goals is to give yourself deadlines to meet each bite sized goal leading to the main goal. Time can literally disappear down the rabbit hole for a woman who is already running the home and managing the family's needs. You need to ensure that you set aside that hour every single day for the needs of your business. Only you can ensure that you stick to the deadlines that you have marked on your calendar.

Another aspect that needs to be spelt out clearly in the business plan is the money. What is your initial investment going to be? Work out where you will get that sum of money. It can come from your personal savings, or you could approach a bank for a soft loan, Many banks offer special loans for women entrepreneurs and you will need to educate yourself about these with a visit to the bank. Find out about the documents that you will need to produce to have such a loan sanctioned.

Also handling the money flow from the business in terms of invoicing customers, ordering supplies and the general book keeping must also be done. Are you going to handle all this yourself? Will you bring in someone to do the book keeping officially? Also consider the daily interaction that you will have with potential customers. Factor in time in your day to deal with the emails and phone calls that will come from leads or from suppliers.

Create a concise product or service list that will be offered by the business. Have an accompanying rate list. Decide if you wish to display the rates on your website, or would you prefer for people to call in and check with you. Many people are too lazy to want to call to check the rates, however those who do call will be much more likely to convert into customers. 

These are decisions that you need to take and periodically review. Don't worry about getting everything right the first time. There will always be an opportunity to learn and change what is not working for the business at a later date. Still, it is best to go in as well prepared as possible.