Business plans are important for growth! In fact, my business plan is the most valuable tool I have.
Unfortunately, most business owners don’t know how to build one much less understand that there are actually 2 kinds of business plans.
The first kind of business plan is 20-pages long, has an appendix, often requires outside help to build. It’s rarely helpful for day-to-day operations. This business plan is the one you take to the bank to get funding. It’s important to build if you need funding, and I highly recommend reaching out to your local Small Business Development Center for a free advisor to help you build it. It’s not something to try and do alone!
But in the real world, a 20-page business plan isn’t very valuable for growing your business because it tends to end up sitting on a shelf doing nothing.
The other kind of business plan is the plan you use everyday in your day-to-day operations to grow your business. It is a 1-page tool that you can come back to every day, and use to refocus yourself and create dynamic and rapid growth in your business. This is what we’ll walk through today.
The One-Page Plan
There are plenty of kinds of business plans out there, but the One-Page Plan has been the most valuable to me. It’s utilized by a plethora of consultants and coaches, because it can be posted on a wall in your office and therefore kept at the front of your mind.
There are a few keys to making this business plan work for you…
It’s One Page for a Reason
The key is that it’s a One Page Plan that you put up somewhere you can see it regularly. If you can keep your long-term business plan and goals where you can see it every day, it helps to motivate you and keep you focused on activities that will actually bring you closer to your goal. But if it’s on two pages, it’s that much harder to use as a focusing tool. (Plus, I hope you see the irony in having a One Page Business Plan that’s two pages)
It’s Focused on Active Things
Another incredibly important aspect is that it is focused on things you can control. Activities and goals you can accomplish without worrying about outside influence. Don’t focus on activities that rely on people outside the business to accomplish.
E. G., Create goals like “Setting 40 Sales Appointments Per Week,” rather than “Running 40 Sales Appointments Per Week.” Because you can control if you set 40 sales appointments in your week (even if that number is a little crazy), but you can’t control if people cancel on you or just don’t show up. If you phrase your goals so that you’re in control of them, you don’t have to worry about someone else messing up your goals.
It’s Updated Monthly
Life changes and business changes. A business plan that sits there as a piece of paper holding stagnant goals is useless. So your business plan has to adapt. Once a month go over it again and update different aspects of the plan such as…
Goals you’ve achieved that need to be removed
Goals that are no longer relevant because the business is moving in a different direction
Every aspect presented in the 2nd half of this article is current/updated
The Nitty Gritty Details…
There are five individual pieces that compose this business plan.
1: The Vision
This section is based on the Latin root of the word Vision which is vis.
Vis: {Latin} to see.
The vision is what you see your business looking like when it is at its pinnacle. It is the ultimate, long-term, overarching plan for your company. This is the exact, measurable goal for your company’s growth.
Create a statement around this concept by writing down what the pinnacle looks like geographically, employee-wise, clientele wise, and revenue wise. Make it real by including tangible concepts in your vision. E. G., Instead of saying that you want incredible company culture, include a clause about setting industry records for lowest turnover rates ever.
One psychological cue is to write the statement in the present tense, even if it’s several years from reality. Your brain can’t distinguish between tenses, so it becomes easier to see it as a reality when you write in the present tense.
A good vision statement will look something like this:
“X Company is a multi-billion dollar international organization that provides assembly line efficiency consulting to factories around the globe. Our dedicated team of highly trained and certified advisors & consultants work in concentrated teams at our 14 international locations. We are renowned as the Go-To advisor for assembly lines by all major media publications”
2: Mission Statement
If the vision is what you’re building, the mission is why you’re doing what you’re doing.
A mission statement is not “We provide blue light glasses.”
A mission statement is the reason you exist. The purpose behind your action. The reason you are out there to improve people’s lives. The issue you are out there to change on the planet.
A mission statement is “We empower women entrepreneurs to perform better & stay focused.” Can be the same company, but speaks to the WHY instead of the what.
A mission statement is incredibly important because the marketplace regulates itself -- if a company isn’t providing value, sales stop coming in and the doors have to close. With a mission statement, you have a clear understanding of the value you want to bring to the marketplace and therefore have a better chance of actually delivering on value in the marketplace.
3: Objectives
This is where you list out the annual goals that will lead to your vision.
If your vision is the 10-15 year goal, the objectives are the yearly goals that will lead you to the 15 year goal. Objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, and action-focused. Good objectives are goals like:
Launch the New Website
Launch an Online Training Platform with 200 subscribers at $99/month
Achieve $250K Revenue between training & consulting
Produce a New Event
Launch a New Product Line
To discover what objectives your company needs, think about what steps you need to take to get to your vision and break them down into definite projects. To make the objective list effective, you need 6-9 goals in this section of the business plan because they will keep you focused and on-track for your vision.
4: Strategies
Strategies are your recurring activities that drive you toward your vision.
In the same way that a sports strategy is the details of a game-plan, these business strategies are the first line of details that bring your Objectives to fruition. This section of the business plan contains 6-9 activities that you’ll repeat on a daily, weekly or monthly basis that will, when executed consistently, will make the objectives happen!
E. G., If one of your objectives is to increase revenue by $100k through sales, then you might also have strategies to set 15 sales appointments per week and generate 25 leads per week. If you have a sales team (beyond just you), your strategy might be to run weekly one-on-ones with them to make sure they are hitting their goals.
5: Action Plans
These are the short-term goals you’ll hit over the next 3 months that will lead you to your Objectives.
The key here is to avoid restating your Objectives. Instead, create stepping-stone goals that will lead to your objectives. The way to create an Action Plan is to look at an Objective and determine what steps will lead you to that objective. Those steps then become your Action Plans. And just like your Objectives and Strategies, you need 6-9 of these.
A quick example is that if your Objective is to generate $120K revenue, your Action Plan might be to launch a product that will generate $10K a month in sales rather than just restating “Hit $10K in Sales by End of Month.”
This is a great highlight of the Business Plans that we teach at Grow Disrupt…
If you’ll take the time to build this business plan out, you’ll find it will be one of the most valuable tools in your business! Every single client we’ve implemented this One Page Business Plan with has come back a few months later to rave about how helpful it is.
Get this business plan going in your business and I guarantee you’ll start to see growth and progress!
This business plan is based heavily on being able to set and achieve goals, and if that’s something that you struggle with then make sure you check out our Goal Setting & Achieving course. It will teach you how to set achievable goals, and then the steps you’ll need to take to accomplish them!
About the Author:
Stephanie Scheller is a TED speaker, a two-time best-selling author and the founder of Grow Disrupt: a San Antonio based company dedicated to disrupting the way the world does business through training. In just under a decade, Stephanie has been behind the scenes with nearly 2500 small businesses. She has worked in groups and one-on-one to create total business transformation & help business owners live the life they got into business to create!