1. Don’t underestimate a business plan

2. Don’t get stuck in the past

3. Don’t hire friends

4. Don’t dive in without a plan

5. Don’t fall into a discount trap

6. Don’t be afraid to fail

You can read the rest of the article here.

I like what the author has to say about business planning.  A lot of people think that they only need a business plan if they are going to seek financing for their business.  But, in reality, the process of writing the plan – regardless of whether or not you need financing – is a very helpful exercise in figuring out what this business will look like.

Let me be straightforward here…
If you are yet to launch your business, you will write your plan based on best assumptions at the time.  Chances are many of those assumptions will be wrong or different in reality.  (You really won’t know what your business will be like until it is up and running a couple years.)  But, the plan is a starting point, a set of business goals.  As time goes on, you continue to build your plan.  It should continuously evolve just as your business does.  But, the early stages of ‘dreaming’ with the help of a business plan can be very helpful and eye-opening.

]]> http://www.sageweddingpros.com/2012/02/07/before-starting-a-business/feed/ 1 http://www.sageweddingpros.com/2012/01/03/download-your-new-plan-for-the-new-year/ http://www.sageweddingpros.com/2012/01/03/download-your-new-plan-for-the-new-year/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:00:48 +0000 Michelle Loretta http://www.sageweddingpros.com/?p=8082 We spent the month of December planning for 2012.  Over 9 posts we asked you to review your past, present, and plan for the future.  There were a number of activities and exercises that we asked you to do.  I wanted to make this easier for you by providing a workbook for you to build your plan for 2012.  (drumroll, please)

A New Year! A New Plan! – 2012 Workbook

We’ve put all of the posts into a workbook for you to input your strategy (by typing or handwriting).  Print it out and reference it all year round.  The workbook is 17-page Word document.  You can download it here:

 2012 Workbook – A New Year! A New Plan! – $10

Happy New Year!

Today, let’s create a financial plan!  Yipppeeee!  How are you going to be profitable in 2012?  You’ll want to revisit your financial review that we did for your business in 2011.  It will help to think about your pluses and minuses for the last year when planning for next year.

Also, if you need a refresher, make sure to download our Accounting 101 series.

Image: Creative Commons

Financial Planning

Financial planning can seem ominous if numbers aren’t your friends.  But, after you’ve got yourself organized, the planning part is actually pretty straightforward.  What money do you foresee coming in?  What money do you foresee coming out?  This is guesstimating with best assumptions.  It’s as simple as that.

There are 2 items that will help you in your planning: a sales plan and an expense budget.  I like to make this even simpler and combine the 2.  If you do nothing else to plan for your business finances in 2012, make a Cash Flow Spreadsheet.  The Cash Flow Spreadsheet looks at cash coming IN and going OUT.  What sales do you have forecasted?  What expenses do you have budgeted?  It combines everything so that you know exactly where you are at every step of the way.

We wrote about this a few months back so I won’t beat a dead horse.  Review everything about cash flow planning here. You can download our Cash Flow Spreadsheet here:

Sage Wedding Pros – Cash Flow Plan: $5

The key to this sheet is making sure to review it each month.  Just like with goal-setting, the more you revisit your plan, the better you’ll be able to realize it.

IN SUMMARY

We’ve been REALLY busy over the last 3 weeks!  Thanks for joining us!  I realize you may not have had the chance to get through all the exercises.  We want to make this easy on you, so come back on Tuesday and we’ll have the 3 week series available for you to download.

Happy Holidays!

A holiday deal for you…

Throughout these 3 weeks, we’ll be offering $100 off The Simple Plan Exclusive which is our one-to-one partnership with small business owners to help build a business plan.  Simply visit The Simple Plan website to learn more about The Exclusive and enter the discount code “2012” when you enroll.  This offer is only good through December 30^th and space is limited to first-come-first-served.

Image: Creative Commons

Your operational plan should be a roadmap for the who, where, and how of your business.  There is less number-crunching involved than with the marketing and financial plans.  You’ll want to think about how your business is going to function.  Your plan should answer the following questions:

• Who are the key players in your business?  If you haven’t done so, create an organizational chart to plan out the future of your business.
• Do you have contractors, interns, and/or employees?  Will they continue on for 2012?
• Will you hire additional people in 2012?  How will you find them and train them?
• Will your team have enough work to keep them busy?  Will you need to hire additional people to keep up with the demands of your clients?
• Will you outsource any tasks and responsibilities in your business?
• Who are your suppliers/vendors?  If you don’t have suppliers, who are the wedding professionals that you partner with most often?
• Will you work with new suppliers?  Other wedding professionals?
• Where will you meet with clients in 2012?  If you don’t have an office space, where is a good match for your company’s brand?
• Which processes will you create systems for?  How can you service your customers better?  How can you improve your processes?

Goal-setting for Operations

If your plan is looking like a list of 100 to-dos, let’s narrow it down to the most manageable tasks.  Select 3 operational goals that you’d like to accomplish in 2012.  Pick the ones that are your favorites and ‘top of mind’.  It’s easier to stay inspired about your goals if you are passionate about them. Use our SMART goal-setting sheet to help.

Join us tomorrow to craft your financial plan for 2012!

A holiday deal for you…

Throughout these 3 weeks, we’ll be offering $100 off The Simple Plan Exclusive which is our one-to-one partnership with small business owners to help build a business plan.  Simply visit The Simple Plan website to learn more about The Exclusive and enter the discount code “2012” when you enroll.  This offer is only good through December 30^th and space is limited to first-come-first-served.

Image: Creative Commons

By identifying your marketing strengths and weaknesses, you should have been able to identify opportunities for growth.  What are some of the changes you’d like to see in the next year?  Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Can you better hone on a target market than you did in the past?  Who is the ideal client you will aim to work with in 2012?  Where do they go for research and decision-making?
• Can you better define your niche?  How will you communicate your specialty in 2012?
• What changes/updates would you like to make in your branding identity?  How will you make these changes?  Will you work with a graphic designer or are you able to make the updates yourself?
• Will you be introducing new services and/or products in 2012?  What are they?  How will you communicate these to potential clients?
• How will you price your goods and services?
• What are your sales targets for 2012?  Have you updated your sales plan?
• What will you do to promote your business?  (See below.)

Goal-setting for Marketing

All of these questions can draw up a gazillion to-dos.  Let’s not get overwhelmed.  Pick 3 things you want to happen next year and make them your marketing goals.  They can be big or small, short-term or long-term.  But pick the ones that are “top of mind”… the ones that you are most passionate about.  Use our SMART goal-setting sheet to help.

How will you promote your business in 2012?

Once I set my sales targets, I find it really important to tie my promotional strategies to those sales targets.  For example, if I have a sales target of doing 23 weddings in 2012, I want to identify the promotional activities that will get me those 30 weddings.  My promotional plan may look something like this:

Ad on XYZ website –> 3 weddings
Podunk Bridal Show –> 6 weddings
4 networking events each month –> 6 weddings (from colleague referrals)
Feature on 3 bridal blogs (will target Lovely Shmovely, Weddings Galore, & Dress Me Fancy) –> 4 weddings
Past client referrals –> 4 weddings

TOTAL = 23 weddings

So how do I come up with those numbers?  I look at my history of success with those that I’ve done before.  I put in a feel for what I “WANT” to do.  And, really… just guesstimate to the best of my ability.  But, by tying my promotional activities to my sales quota, I’m more likely to put in the effort and get the results.

I break this promotional plan into a month-by-month plan and I also budget any cost to my business in $, or the time it will take for me to devote if there is no cost involved (networking and seeking editorial).

Here is my Promotional Goal Sheet spreadsheet that I use to plan how I will promote my business on an annual basis:

Sage Wedding Pros – Promotional Goal Sheet – $10

What are some of the new ways you’ll promote your business in 2012?  Share your fun tips with us!

Join us tomorrow as we make a plan for our business’ operations.

A holiday deal for you…

Throughout these 3 weeks, we’ll be offering $100 off The Simple Plan Exclusive which is our one-to-one partnership with small business owners to help build a business plan.  Simply visit The Simple Plan website to learn more about The Exclusive and enter the discount code “2012” when you enroll.  This offer is only good through December 30^th and space is limited to first-come-first-served.

Over the next 3 weeks we will be helping you put together a plan for 2012.  This week, we’ll be examining our past.  In week 2, we’ll be focused on the present.  And, in week 3, we’ll be building for the future.  We’ll be examining our marketing, operations, and finances.

Make sure to revisit our post from Tuesday where we reviewed your marketing strategy in this past year and yesterday when we reviewed your operational structure.

Let’s continue!

Image: Creative Commons

Do an inventory of your financial results…

Financial results are the most important to me.  I could have amazing vision and an innovative service or product.  I could have done an outstanding job marketing my business.  I could have run my business operationally superior to most.  But, if I’m not profitable, those things don’t mean anything.

Finances are also a good benchmark for performance. It’s difficult to measure your marketing results.  But if your sales $ improved from 2011 to 2010 then you’re doing something right.  So, let’s examine how your business is running financially.

Take a look at your Profit & Loss Report (otherwise called the P&L.)  If you use accounting software you can print this from the report options.  If you don’t, go back and read my Accounting 101 series.

Here are some good questions to ask yourself:

• How is your profit margin?  Are you priced high enough for your business model?  Are your costs of goods sold (services rendered) reasonable?  OR – do you spend too much money on raw materials, labor, etc?
• Was your business profitable overall this year?  Did you earn the income you wanted from your business?
• Did you make your sales targets/goals?
• Did you stay within your expense budget?  Were there any unplanned expenses?  Do you feel that your expense decisions were good ones?
• Did your business take on debt?  Did it pay off business debt?
• Did you purchase new equipment?  Was it a worthy investment?

Now, make 3 columns on a sheet of paper and label them each: “Financial Factors, Strengths, and Weaknesses”.  Spend a few minutes listing strengths and weaknesses for the following financial factors:

• Profit Margins (This is your price vs. your cost to service your customer or produce goods)
• Setting sales goals
• Achieving sales goals
• Sales results for 2011
• Making expense budgets
• Keeping to an expense budget
• Expense results for 2011
• Debt acquisition (how you take on business debt)
• Asset acquisition (how you purchase big ticket items: equipment, computers, etc.)

Come back next week!  We’ll be taking a look at the present before planning for the future… what’s going on these days?

A holiday deal for you…

Throughout these 3 weeks, we’ll be offering $100 off The Simple Plan Exclusive which is our one-to-one partnership with small business owners to help build a business plan.  Simply visit The Simple Plan website to learn more about The Exclusive and enter the discount code “2012” when you enroll.  This offer is only good through December 30^th and space is limited to first-come-first-served.

Over the next 3 weeks we will be helping you put together a plan for 2012.  This week, we’ll be examining our past.  In week 2, we’ll be focused on the present.  And, in week 3, we’ll be building for the future.  We’ll be examining our marketing, operations, and finances.

Make sure to revisit our post from yesterday where we reviewed your marketing strategy in this past year.

Let’s continue!

Image: Creative Commons

Do an inventory of your business operations…

Your business operations are the ‘who, what, and where’ of your business.  How does your business function?  How did it run in 2011?  Was it smooth as silk?  Or were there any hiccups?  It may be a good idea to whip out a calendar and review the year month by month.  OR, examine your 2011 clients to see if your operations best supported their needs.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Did you have any personnel?  Were they interns, contractors, or employees?  Did you feel they were hired and trained effectively?
• How about your suppliers?  (These are the people whom you order raw materials from or the outside people who help service your clients?)  Did they deliver when promised?  Are they good partners for your business?
• Do you have an organizational chart?
• Do you have systems and processes?
• Do your systems and processes help you run a smoother business?  Do they bring consistency to the client experience?  Do they help you in training personnel?
• Do you have solid accounting procedures?
• Have your contracts been reviewed by a legal professional?
• Do you have trademarks and copyrights to protect your company name and your intellectual property, respectively?
• Where do you meet with clients?  Is it a good representation of your company and your brand?

Now, make 3 columns on a sheet of paper and label them each: “Operational Factors, Strengths, and Weaknesses”.  Spend a few minutes listing strengths and weaknesses for the following operational factors:

• Your personnel: interns, contractors, and employees
• Your hiring and training procedures
• Your suppliers
• Your business systems (particularly your sales process and your ‘production’ process – or the process by which you make your goods or the process by which you service a wedding)
• Your legal protection
• Your accounting process
• Your location (if you work at home, where do you meet with clients?)

By examining your strengths and weaknesses you should be working towards areas of improvement for 2012.

Come back tomorrow and we’ll review your financial strategy in 2011.

A holiday deal for you…

Throughout these 3 weeks, we’ll be offering $100 off The Simple Plan Exclusive which is our one-to-one partnership with small business owners to help build a business plan.  Simply visit The Simple Plan website to learn more about The Exclusive and enter the discount code “2012” when you enroll.  This offer is only good through December 30^th and space is limited to first-come-first-served.

Over the next 3 weeks we will be helping you put together a plan for 2012.  In week 1, we’ll be examining our past.  In week 2, we’ll be focused on the present.  And, in week 3, we’ll be building for the future.  We’ll be examining our marketing, operations, and finances.

The 3 weeks will be based on elements that we teach at The Simple Plan, our business planning education for wedding pros.  If you’ve done The Simple Plan – just whip it out and freshen it up!  BUT never fear, if you haven’t come to the workshop or done The Exclusive with one of us, you’ll still benefit from this series.  We’ll be referring to many of our previous posts so that you can catch up on anything you’ve missed in 2011.

A holiday deal for you…

Throughout these 3 weeks, we’ll be offering $100 off The Simple Plan Exclusive which is our one-to-one partnership with small business owners to help build a business plan.  Simply visit The Simple Plan website to learn more about The Exclusive and enter the discount code “2012” when you enroll.  This offer is only good through December 30^th and space is limited to first-come-first-served.

Image: Creative Commons

Let’s get started!

Do an inventory of your marketing results…

Let’s think about the past year(s) and what you were able to achieve in regards to your marketing strategy.  Here are some questions to get your juices flowing:

• Do you know who you are and who your customer is?  Can you clearly define both?
• Does your branding reflect you, your business, and what your ideal customer is drawn to?  Are your website, business cards, and promotional materials consistent in your branding identity?
• What makes your product or service different?  What is the value that your company brings to its clientele? to the wedding experience?
• How good at you at communicating (and selling) the value that you bring to the client experience?
• Does your pricing appropriately reflect the value of your product or service?  Is it in line with what the market demands?
• How did you promote your business?  What worked and what didn’t work?  What was a good investment of your time and money?  What was a poor investment?

Now, make 3 columns on a sheet of paper and label them each: “Marketing Factor, Strengths, and Weaknesses”.  Spend a few minutes listing strengths and weaknesses for the following marketing factors:

• Knowledge of your market – regional and national
• Knowledge of your business niche and your ideal customer
• Your sales ability and technique
• Your branding
• Your product and the value it brings to the market
• Your pricing
• Your promotional strategy

It’s easy to be hard on ourselves so don’t leave out the STRENGTHS.  We focus so much on what we haven’t done in our business, but it’s important to reflect back on all the things we’ve been able to achieve.

Join us tomorrow as we take a look back on your business operations.

Image: Creative Commons License

Kelly and I have been busy putting together our list of cities for upcoming The Simple Plan workshops. We are happy to announce that we’ll be squeezing in one more Dallas workshop this December!  This is great timing with the New Year just a couple months away.  We hope you can join us.

Here are the details:

The Simple Plan
December 13-14, 2011
9:30am-4:30pm (each day)
Edison’s Dallas
1724 COCKRELL STREET
Dallas, TX 75215

The Simple Plan workshop is about collaboration. Join us for a simple approach to writing your business plan. In two days, we will work with you to:

• Write a mission statement for your business
• Set short and long term goals
• Refine your target market and your niche
• Determine how many weddings you need to do to be profitable
• Examine your advertising and whether it’s working for your business.
• Identify how to grow your business: when to hire people, how to do so, and how to train them
• Make a sales plan
• Make an expense budget
• Learn how to understand if you’re financial successful
• Network with other business savvy wedding professionals

COST: $499 includes all workshop materials including The Simple Plan ™ workbook. Lunch will be provided for you on both days. (The early bird rate is $449 thru November 30.)

Guarantee: We are confident that you walk away with a business plan, a stronger business perspective, and an all-encompassing strategy. If you don’t finish the workshop feeling that you’ve gained value for your business, we will fully refund you.

A BIG thank you to Edison’s for hosting us!

Need more info?

Visit The Simple Plan website here.
SEE what past graduates have to say.
SEE FAQs here.

Wanna buy tickets?

Visit Eventbrite for ticketing here.

Wanna split this into 2 payments?  Click the google shopping cart by November 18th to make your first payment of $224.50.  An invoice will be sent to you on December 7th for the second payment.

Etcetera…

Please email me if you have any questions: michelle-at-sageweddingpros.com

We will be setting 2-3 more dates for 2012.  While we cannot make any certain confirmations yet, Chicago looks to be a frontrunner.  We take our interest survey into strong consideration when determining our workshop cities… so let us know where we should go.

Image: Creative Commons License

The following is a post written by me, featured on Nancy’s Liu Chin’s Brown Bag Blog.  Make sure to visit Nancy’s blog for all sorts of goodies, inspiration, and business know-how.

This week we are discussing the question of all questions in business ownership:

Where do you want to go with your business?

At the end of your business’s life, you’ll most likely end up in one of three places:

• Selling Your Business
• Passing On Your Business
• Closing Your Business

If your plan is one of the first two, you’ll want to create a succession plan.  You’ll want to start laying out the roadmap by which you build your business and pass it along to a new owner, a family member, or your employees.

Here are some considerations that I want you to make in exploring each of these options in the succession of your business:

Selling Your Business

Here are some things to keep in mind if you want to sell your business someday:

• Write a succession plan.  Identify a potential buyer.  This can be a real actual company that may be interested in acquiring your business to strengthen their company.  Or, you can create a “type of” buyer that would buy your business.
• Identify the reasons that this buyer would be acquiring your business.  Is it your incredibly strong brand name?  Is it for your assets and equipment?  Is it your innovation in the industry?  Is it to gain competitive advantage?  Is it because of your reputation and goodwill in your region?  Is it your profitable business model?
• Build a succession plan around the assumption that this business (or person) will acquire your business.  Structure your every business move around this and the reasons they would buy your business.  You are now in the business of selling your business – not jut the product or service on which your business is modeled.

Passing Along Your Business

If you plan to leave your business to family members or employees, here are some points to consider:

• Write a succession plan.  Who would you like to see take over this business?  How will you train them to do so?  Will they take on any ownership in addition to managing operations?
• Find the right people for the right jobs and let them do their work.  Often employees perform poorly because we expect them to do something that they aren’t skilled at doing OR we haven’t trained them sufficiently.  Your job is to teach them how to do so or put them in a role where they can excel.  Once you have the right people in the right positions, you company will thrive better than ever.
• Create a timeline and start working towards this now.  If your plan is to take a less active role in your business in 10 years, then start NOW in paving the path to get there.
• Study other businesses with solid succession plans.  Nordstrom and Zappos are two strong companies with succession plans at every level of their operations – not just at the executive level.

Closing Your Business

You may already know that you have no desire to sell or pass along your business.  Once you retire from this business, your business will close.  OR – you may not know this yet… you may just find yourself there some day.  Here are some questions to ask yourself as you explore this:

• How long do you see yourself working in your business?
• Do you see yourself evolving your business into something new?  For example, if you have a brick-n-mortar flower shop do you foresee closing your shop to service a limited number of exclusive events on a smaller scale?
• What is your timeline for closing your business?  If your longest sales cycle is 2 years (2 years between booking an event and servicing the event), when do you stop taking new jobs?
• How will you decide that it’s a good time to close your business?
• Will you sell any portion of your business?  Your assets – equipment, machinery, and inventory – can all be sold.

Other Elements of a Succession Plan

I’ve identified the first big question in creating a succession plan for your business: what do you want to do with your business?  It’s up to you to fill in all the other little pieces.  A succession plan is much like a business plan in that it details a series of goals in relation to your business model.  It identifies where you are and how are you going to get to the eventual goal you have for your business.

Another element of the succession plan is planning for the scary questions: what if something happens to you? How will your business go on without out?  Can it go on without you?  What does that look like

What do you think?  What are your thoughts on the future of your business?