Series - Jump-Start Your Small Business
Step 4 of 5 – Detailed Plans!
Welcome to the fourth installment of the “Jump Start Your Small Business” blog! This week we are tackling the finer points of owning a business – you’ve done all the major leg work to get started, now you need to start putting detailed plans together.
There are two major types of plans we will discuss this week – Business Plans and Marketing Plans. Depending on the type of business you are starting, you may need one or both of these plans.
Business Plans
Probably a good idea for any small business to have, but a business plan would be required if you need to secure money to start or sustain your business. I’ve included a few article links this time, mainly so you can gather some quick information and decide for yourself whether you need a business plan or not.
Why would you need a business plan? Mainly if you need to request money to get started. Loans come into play with companies in fields that require machinery and raw materials to produce your product to sell or businesses that need to lease storefront space. Machinery and equipment can be thousands of dollars, raw materials can be expensive, and commercial spaces typically want you to lease for at least a year. All of this requires a lot of money all at once to start producing or selling products.
That’s where the business plan is needed: to communicate to potential investors exactly what their money will go towards and the risks involved.
There are all sorts of online resources about business plans – here are a few of my faves from the “you definitely need one” to “eh, you might not need one” points of view:
1. Key components of a business plan: https://smartasset.com/small-business/top-components-of-a-business-plan
2. You definitely need a business plan! https://www.thebalancesmb.com/do-you-really-need-a-business-plan-2951567
3. Do you even need a business plan at all? https://www.businessinsider.com/business-plan-advice-startup-entrepreneurs-2018-5
Let’s move to the other type of plan, which sometimes is a subset of the business plan…
Marketing Plan
While not every business needs a business plan, I would strongly recommend that EVERY business have a marketing plan!
A marketing plan helps you figure out exactly who your customers are and how to reach them, because it forces you to sit down and think about these very things! A marketing plan helps you narrow your audience down to very specific groups to increase your sales while being spend-conscious on your advertising. After all, you don’t have endless dollars to waste on low-reach Facebook or Google ads – you want each and every penny to be maximized and turn into sales!
Think about who your ideal customer is and their characteristics. Is your ideal customer married or single, do they have small children or any children at all, do they have pets, do they have a certain income level (if you are selling $200 custom dog sweaters, income matters!), do they shop at certain stores, do they have specific professions, do they own a car or take mass transit every day – you get the idea!
Your ideal customer will be the basis for your marketing plan, so start there, and then read this article for some straightforward advice on what to do next! https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-a-marketing-plan-1794426
When it’s all said and done, planning is key to being successful, so you can anticipate issues and meet your customers where they expect to find your product or service. I’m including some Small Business Resources here as well, which have plenty more information on planning and any other topic you might think of related to starting and owning a small business!
· Score: a small business owner resource and mentoring group - www.score.org
· US Small Business Association: business guides, funding info, and other support resources - www.sba.gov
· Local experts – if you know a small business owner locally, reach out to them to pick their brain on what planning they used and how it helps!
That’s all for this week’s edition, see you next week for the final installment of the blog, “Step 5 – Start Implementing Systems and Processes”! Thanks, as always, for reading – feel free to leave your comments, questions, and feedback in the comments section!