Add Digital Sign Single Page Business Plan with airSlate SignNow

Mark single page business plan

you know that business plans are important and that failing to plan is planning to fail but doing a business plan is boring and are they even that effective and aren't they outdated the minute you press print anyways and do people ever go back and actually read them well a little-known secret in the business community is that the real value of the business plan isn't in the plan itself but in the exercise of working through the questions in order to uncover real tangible and profitable opportunities that you can leverage as well as avoiding costly and dangerous pitfalls and that's why in this episode I'm going to be sharing with you and walking you step-by-step through the exact document that I use personally with any business that I invest in with my teams with my agencies with everything that I run on a day-to-day basis so you can go through the steps and get the same clarity and the same results alright let's get to it hey there my name is Adam Earhart marketing strategist and welcome to the marketing show alright because you're here now you understand the importance of having a proper plan in place maybe you've done a little bit of searching on a business plan and maybe you're required to create one for a new job or a new business whatever the case I'm gonna walk you through the exact business plan the one-page process that I use with all of my teams with all of my businesses in order for us to get better clarity and make sure that we're taking off on the right foot a business plan does not need to be overly complicated in fact it shouldn't be because the worst thing you can do is spend days or weeks or even months putting together the perfect business plan because you know it's gonna be outdated the minute you press print and things are gonna change you're gonna need to evolve and you're gonna need to adapt that's why I'm a huge fan of the one-page business plan that I've created for my businesses something we work through all the time whether it's once a month or even once a quarter we're constantly reviewing it we're constantly going back and making sure that we're on the right track so with all that said let's dive into the document right now and if you haven't already I'm gonna put a link right here where you can go and download your FREE copy of the one-page business plan so you can follow it along or of course you can watch the video now download it after and work through it at your own pace whatever the case it all starts with business opportunity now what we're trying to do here is we're trying to establish why we're even doing this business in the first place because one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your entrepreneurial or business career is doing a business that really has no need or trying to sell something that people just don't want that's why the very first step here is identifying the business concept what it is who it's for and how you help these things sound so unbelievably obvious I totally appreciate that but it's important to be really clear and really articulate all of the answers to these questions because you want to make sure that the business you're building actually serves a real market and solves a real problem and really handles a need that the market is experiencing another important note and the next part of the plan is to address the current situation essentially take a look at things like the economy and the market maybe what else is going on in the world and really make sure that this is the best business to be starting right now that's why one of my fav questions here one of my prompts is why are we doing this now after all there's likely competitors at least there should be because that indicates market demand so why are you trying to enter a crowded marketplace or what is the reason behind this or why do you think that you're going to be successful so don't even that you need to have the best answer in the world you just have to think about it and you have to make sure that you're accountable to the answers that you put forward basically you have to be accountable to yourself you have to be able to answer why you're doing this business now all right moving right along to the mission and vision parts of the business plan now mission statements and vision statements and all of those things they get kind of a bad rap and rightfully so after all they're normally fluffy and airy and kind of shallow what I do not want you to do here is say something like we seek to provide better service or we're gonna change the world or anything like that rather I want you to be practical and tangible and really concrete in describing what you're doing why you're doing it and everything behind it when it comes to your mission statement this is an external statement meaning that it's going to be visible to people outside of your business so you're gonna want to avoid putting really confidential information or revenue numbers or anything that's gonna make you look kind of sleazy you can however put your business objectives and the strategy by which you plan on achieving it to provide some clarity for anyone who is interested in your business your vision statement on the other hand well this is your big goals and your big dreams and the internal message that is really just for people inside of the company and maybe even just for people in the upper levels of the company though it's my opinion that pretty much everybody should be a part of the vision statement so they can understand it and make sure that you're all working towards the same objectives don't be afraid to put numbers here don't be afraid to put targets and don't be afraid to put what you're truly working towards if you've got a strong enough why then the how becomes that much easier all right let's keep moving right along to the next part of the document which is all about the market now as a marketer this is what I believe is probably one of the most important elements of the entire one-page business plan because without customers you don't have a business just a really expensive hobby this is why you want to be very crystal clear on who it is that you're trying to serve and really break down that ideal customer avatar that ideal target market they you're going after and the way I want to suggest you do that is in a number of different ways for starters be clear about their demographic details these are the stereotypical things that people think about when they're talking about an ideal target market that include things like age gender income occupation title things like that next you've got their geographic details this is what city they live in or state or province or country or maybe if you're a small local business maybe even what neighborhood or what street from there you want to move on to their psychographic details and this is where things really get interesting because this is all the head stuff and their attitudes and their beliefs and their organizations and affiliations and everything that kind of goes on upstairs but it doesn't stop there I want you to take it even a step further and look at two things that I call their miracles and their miseries their miracles are their dreams and their desires and their goals and everything that they really want to achieve and everything that they really want to have that ideally your business is positioned to offer to them their miseries on the other hand or all their fears and their frustrations and their pains and all of the nightmares that they're trying to move away from that again your business is ideally positioned to help them move away from all right let's keep moving to the next part of the one-page business plan which is all about the solution now the solution is broken up into a few different parts starting with the USP or unique selling proposition this essentially is what your business offers and how you do it differently and better than any of your competitors you really want to be able to answer the question of what makes you different what makes you better and why somebody would choose you over your competitors now diving into the weeds of a USB or unique selling proposition is a bit beyond the scope of this video but what I really want you to consider is where is the market demand where is the need that they've expressed and where does your business uniquely fit in a strength or an area of differentiation that you're able to solve that for them and where those two things overlap the market need and your unique strengths well that's where you find your USP next up we have pricing and this is an incredibly important topic because if you don't charge then you won't be in business and you can't help anybody pricing is also an incredibly detailed subject so spend a bit of time here and really decide what you're going to charge and try to figure out what a good range is you're obviously going to have to take look at competitors and what they're charging and see how you can add more or less value if you want to charge more or less keep in mind that pricing is incredibly subjective so there's a lot that goes into it about how you position and how you mark it and all of the elements that go into your business that make it look more valuable or less valuable which leads me perfectly to the next part which is a positioning map now what you can see here is that we're gonna map out quality versus cost and it's a bit of a spectrum so you get to decide whether you want to go for high quality high cost or low quality low cost neither of which is right or wrong but they are gonna require very different strategies there are also some areas that you really want to avoid like high cost low quality because then nobody's gonna buy it or they're certainly not gonna buy twice or high quality low cost because that sounds great in theory but you're not going to be making enough money to reinvest into the business and provide that high quality all right so now that you've got that covered the next thing is to take a really high-level overview at the four different pillars of business just to make sure that you've got an understanding or you're at least addressing any issues or any concerns or any areas of problems or opportunities that could arise in the future in the four main areas of business the first of which is the marketing aspect this is all about how you're going to go out there and attract more customers a big thing here is really identifying not only who that ideal target market is but where they're active and present so that you can focus your efforts there and avoid all of the places that your market isn't active or present again that sounds obvious but I call that the marketing wasteland essentially all of the different channels and networks and areas where your target market is not active and not present and yet so many people waste so much time there so don't do that once marketing is complete time to move on to sales this is all about how you're going to sell and how you're gonna onboard new customers and essentially your entire sales process important here to spend a bit of time and think through these things after that you've got operations this is the day-to-day operation of your business could include things like customer service and human resource management and the delivery of your product and all of the other areas that go into it obviously there's a lot more here then we have room for in a one-page business plan but it's important to be aware of them and to at least consider them the fourth pillar of course is accounting this is all about cash how are you gonna collect money how you're gonna pay expenses and how you're gonna keep your books straight so when it comes to tax time you don't end up in a heap of trouble all right the next piece of the puzzle is to really dial in your marketing which is why you're gonna want to check out the video right here on introduction to marketing so check that out now and I'll see you in the next episode as I fell in love with marketing years ago when I first got interested in figuring out why people buy and act the way they do and later how to influence