You Can Not
Start a Small Business without a Personal Business Plan
Rosemary Hossenlopp © 2006 All Rights Reserved
Are you business owners unsure of how to turn your business idea into a brilliant and powerful business?
You need a personal business plan. A personal business plan clarifies what you want the future to be and how you are going to get there.
Powerful Tips for
Creating a Personal Business Plan
Step one. Create your business vision--This is your desired future. Write down what you want the business to be. The vision must identify the customer, the geographic scope and your product or service. For example you might be starting a consulting business to provide network security assessment services to fortune 500 banks in North America. That vision statement clearly states your desired future. The business vision can also be intensively personal and not necessarily shared with customers. You may want to have 50% growth a year to allow you to create a business that can be sold. Or you may want to create a business that allows you to have a platform for your personal mission in life. Your personal vision may be spending time with your family, climbing Mt. Everest or providing money and visibility to your favorite charity cause. Your personal business vision is your motivator to get you out of bed and to continue through the rough spots of business.
Step two. Clarify your business mission--This is the purpose of the business. It has three key parts; your product or service, the benefits you provide to your customer and your specific niche. It sounds very similar to your vision but you need to add the benefit you provide to your customer. You share in your business mission on your website, and in your sales and marketing literature. For example, you may provide thought leadership that your market niche can not get from anyone else. You may provide a unique consulting process that will produce results that no one else can match. You can provide better service or lower costs than your competitors. Write your business mission by stating your product or service, the benefits you provide and your market niche. Continue writing it until the offer is so compelling that it jumps off the page.
Step three. Construct critical success factors-- These are your business priorities. All business owners are sales people. You need to create a list of how to grow your business, be the expert in your industry and provide outstanding value for your services. Now that doesn’t mean cheap, it means outstanding value that your customers can’t get anywhere else.
Step four. Create business results needed for profitability--These are your measurable outcomes. Business results are your goals and objectives. Create a business result for each critical success factor by adding time or numbers to it. For example, every business owner needs to be an expert in their field. For example, if you are a speaker, you need expert status. Write down how often you will have a speaking engagements, when you will write your best seller book, when you will launch a new seminar series or newsletter. All these activities are measurable and let the world know you are an expert.
Step five. Complete project plans for critical activities--These are your plans to get the results you want. You need to create a plan for how you make progress on your critical success factors. If your critical success factor is number of sales calls, your business results that will be measured is 10 new customer calls a week, determine how you will create a system to get leads, call the leads, follow up with the leads and close deals with the leads. If you are in internet marketing, your key project is too create a website that converts visitors into buyers. Create a plan to drive internet traffic to the site, compel visitors to buy and then support them with a product.
Create a personal business plan by writing down your personal business vision, clarifying your business mission, constructing your success factors, composing the business results needed for a profitable business and completing plans for critical activities. Your personal business plan clarifies what you want the future to be and how you are going to get there.
Rosemary Hossenlopp, MBA, author of Step into Your Future,
A Businesswoman’s Path to Profits, advises business owners on how to make
more money with less stress.
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Small Business Growth Expert, Rosemary Hossenlopp, MBA, advises business
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