Whether you wrote a business plan in preparation for launching your practice, or not - whether you wrote it just for your own reference/inspiration or in order to establish some greater purpose in opening your practice, please share your own personal business planning story!

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I found a business plan template on line that I really liked! It was thought provoking to go through the process and had me really considering how I wanted to operate. Although it will probably never see the light of day, it helped me to align why I was going into business for myself and how I wanted to accomplish it.

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

I have a great business plan according to the SCORE people. I learned the hard way with my husbands company and never actually wrote one out. Although we were quite successful, many things we encountered could have been easily taken care of if we had a written plan to refer to.

Dawn, just out of curiosity (and for the sake of those of us who haven't always seen the immediate importance of a business plan ) what kinds of 'things' did you encounter that made you wish you'd written one out in full?

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No, I didn't write one out. I use a 'Road Map' instead of a business plan.

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Sincerely,

Erin Blaskie of Business Services, ETC

Well first off we did many things by the seat of our pants . Marketing for example, we never clearly defined out target area and we had a mix of residential and commercial clients. When conducting business there were certain permits you needed for commercial jobs vs. residential and we were constantly back and forth checking ordinances and what have you. Also commercial accounts pay you when they want to pay you, on their terms not yours! If we defined our target area initially in our plan we would have researched some of these issues more thoroughly and would have some reference to go back on.

Also, we ended up leasing a few pieces of heavy equipment and renting some pieces when needed which was costly and we never figured it into our original mental plan of how we were going to get the jobs done. If again we had a plan, we could have went for a small business loan and at a lower interest rate saved a lot of money.

We basically overlooked many things because we didn't plan well initially by IMO not having a written plan. If I had known some of the potential issues we encountered ahead of time, we could have worked on resolutions or done some things differently in order to avoid the many headaches!

Though I have been in business now for a year, my business partner & I did not put a business plan in place...it is on our to-do-list! I have a 'mental' business plan but I think having a structured written out plan would have helped in keeping me focused and structuring exactly which direction our business should go. Like vainparadise we sort of flew by the seat of our pants when it came to marketing - we discovered some things that worked and some that we will never do again. Harder lesson to learn when the starting budget wasn't so big. I really need to get that business plan done

Tammy

Yes, I did. I had time on my hands whilst I was starting to plan my business, so I did a business plan too. This was good as it actually helped me map out my direction. I then reviewed it for the first few years and now periodically pull it out, to see how things have changed and how much I've achieved. I do set annual goals every January and they are posted on my wall in colour and laminated - and I usually achieve at least 75% of what's on that list each year.

You didn't have an option for someone doing a business plan AFTER they started.

My first client came about because I applied for a part time job in the local newspaper. He took one look at my rather large pregnant belly and asked me if I wanted to subcontract and do it from home so I said why not.

After a couple of emails back and forth with Kathie I decided to go for it and be a 'proper' business. Part of that was doing my business plan which I now revise every 12 months.

I like your idea Kathie of putting your goals up on the wall, laminated!

Kylie Short
Tilda Virtual Services

Originally Posted by tildavirtual

I like your idea Kathie of putting your goals up on the wall, laminated! Kylie Short Tilda Virtual Services

Thanks Kylie. I started doing it about 3 or 4 years ago after a short session with a business coach for whom I was doing some work - we bartered our services. Doing an annual goal sheet was one of those things he encouraged me to do and I took it a step further because of something I learnt years ago through an MLM. Affirmations are important - if you write something down it's more likely to happen than to keep it in your head.

Visualising takes it even further. So I make sure the text is in colour and large, I have images that relate to the theme of the goals and it has a coloured background. Printed in bold bright colour (I use PowerPoint) and then laminate it and it sits on the wall so every time I look at my monitor, the goals sheet is within sight too.