Hey everyone, it’s Alexander Seery founder of Shifts to Success, helping police officers break out, make the change and live their lives. Today I want to help you create your very own business plan by using only one page. Creating a business plan is important when you set off on your entrepreneurial journey to achieve success. However, you’ll find yourself lost and difficult to arrive at your destination without a map and this map would be your business plan. That will guide you at the beginning stages so you can start building and creating momentum.
I do say at the beginning stages because your business plan will change over time and that is an important thing to keep in mind, just because it’s written down, doesn’t mean your plans can’t change. You’ll come across new insights, new strategies and naturally your goals will just expand and widen. As I’ve mentioned, your business plan shouldn’t be any longer than one page long and definitely shouldn’t be like the long winded forms you get in police force. That goes through all the necessary things that you need so you can refer back to it each day. You can create a severn page or 10 page or even a 20 page business plan but the issue around this is that it will change so often at the beginning stages, it’s not exactly productive to keep rewriting a lengthy business plan. Which means that you can update your one-page business page with ease, that doesn’t take too much of your time especially when you’re working in the job and you may have other commitments and I personally think it provides more clarity.
Without further ado, here are the things that you should include within your one-page business plan.
First is the title. It’s pretty simple, all you need to do is give your business plan a name to make it more real and tangible. You can write your company name at the top or simply write business plan if you don’t have a name yet. For example, mine would be, Shifts to Success.
No.2. Write down your short-term goals which would be up to one year. Your midterm goals which are one to three years and your long-term goals which are three to five years. Think about how much income do you want to earn, how many sales do you want to make, how much content you want to produce, how many email subscribers do you want on your list, how many people do want to reach and even what kind of media do you want to be featured in. The key is to be very specific with your goals.
No.3. Target market. All you need to do here is write down who your customers will be. Basically, who you’ll be delivering your marketing efforts to and who you’ll be selling to. Be very specific again, and it really helps to pick a niche market.
No.4, How many customers do you need? Write down how many customers do you need to make the kind of money you want to make for your business.
No.5, Your USP. Also known as your unique selling proposition. Here you want to write down what makes you different from your competitors in your market. Think about what makes you better than your competition and what makes you stand out in your market. For example, Shifts to Success USP is that we exclusively support ex and serving police officers in building successful businesses in a remarkable way by providing outstanding mentoring and an online learning portal.
No.6, your biggest three competitors. Write down your top three competitors so you know who you are constantly trying to be better and different than.
No.7, Your team. Here you want to write down who you need on your team. Are you outsourcing them onto freelancers, on peopleperhour.com or upwork.com or fiverr.com. You want to think about videographers, designers, web developers, market researchers, virtual assistants and anyone else you may think you need on your entrepreneurial journey.
N0.8, Marketing. Here you want to write down what platforms you’ll use to generate your leads for your business. Whether it be Facebook ads, Google ads or referrals. Think about what lead magnets you’ll use to get these leads too. And also think about your budget per month on generating these leads.
No,9, products and services. Here write down what you’ll be selling. What are your profit margins too. Meaning how much your products or service will sell for and how much does it cost to actually produce.
No.10, Business values. Think about what means the most to you and your business. Is it integrity, energy, simplicity, support or fun? Think about different words that you may want to align well with. Number 11 and your mission. Think about what’s your big vision. For example, Shifts to Success is to help support 100 police officers in building successful businesses by 2020, providing them with more time, income and passion.
No 11, Your mission. Think about what’s your big vision. For example, Shifts to Success is to help support 100 police officers in building successful businesses by 2020, providing them with more time, income and passion.
Now you have your one-page business plan, you want to ensure that you do place it somewhere you’ll see and read every day. Such as next to your bed or in the toilet! It’s important to read every day so you know what you could be doing to ensure you’re actually following your plan. Just remember, your business plan is like a mini-map to provide you with clarity and some structure at the initial stages of building your business. If you find yourself confused, it’s always a good idea just to refer back to it to regain that clarity and also don’t forget, your business plan can change from time to time so don’t forget to update it when that’s needed.
If have any questions about creating your business plan then let me know in the comments section below and if you’re a serving or ex-police officer, think about going into business one day, then go and take the police officer scorecard quiz by clicking the link in the description.
I hope this video has served you well and thanks for watching and if you think it’s a good video, give me a thumbs up and don’t forget to hit subscribe. See you next time!