If you do one thing for your business next year...
Please ensure you have a business plan…YES a business plan.
In the spring of 2014 I went to the job centre to take part in a business start up programme.
This was not my first time running a business, but it had been my first time frequenting the local job centre.
I had been made redundant the year before from my job on London 2012, and I had since become a mum…my career had taken a bit of a backseat. The jobs the ever so helpful advisor was putting me forward for were not exactly inspiring, and were unlikely to cover the childcare costs of being able to go back into full-time employment.
But I had a plan.
I was going to turn my popular fitness blog into a coaching business.
There was only one problem with this plan…for the DWP to get off my back, and for me to access a £1500 loan I would have to create a business plan….and I had never had to do one of those before.
But boy am I glad I learned how to.
Business Plans get a bit of a hard time, but I can tell you, the time, effort and focus I took to put my plans for my fledgling fitness business down on paper paid me back ten fold. In the first 3 months of running that business, I made back the loan amount with ease, secured my first piece of national news, and launched a programme that would go on to sell thousands of units.
That business went on to become a multi 6 figure coaching business, positioned me as a global expert, and launched my international speaking business.
And so YES I am a fan of having a business plan.
In the past 5 years I have worked with more than 4000 business owners on helping them grow and scale their ventures, and very few of them have any kind of plan written down when they first started working with me. Even now when I work with larger businessess, very rarely do they have a plan that they refer to regularly and this drives me nuts.
Without a business plan you are making it hard for other people to help you grow your venture.
The clarity and confidence in having a thought-through plan that highlights the key mechanics, objectives and vision for your venture shouldn’t be underestimated, but where the absolute power lies, is in the process of actualy pinning it down.
Over the past 12 months I have helped more than 100 ambitious solopreneurs to create a Business Model on a Page…it is a process I have developed to hep simplify things.
Most businesses don’t require a 20 page document outlining all of the key elements of their venture, but having one clear visual that speaks to the vision, the model, and the route to market considerations can be really helpful.
The feedback I have got from running this service has been incredible.
I think it helps in a few ways.
1. It helps you to clarity what your business is and how it should work
2. It helps you to see it from an outsiders perspective
3. It helps you to see how clients find and engage with you
4. It helps you to see where the potential gaps are or opportunities (or lack of) for scale
5. It gives you a working document to use with clients, collaborators, and cheerleaders
So if you do nothing else in 2025 from a strategic perspective…please, please, please create a business plan and pin down your current thinking. It will help you to think BIGGER and BOLDER and be more open to getting support in terms of growing your venture.
Julie Creffield is an expert on Innovation, Ideas and Entrepreneurship. A business strategist with almost 30 years of experience, having worked with thousands of clients from large multinationals to micro-businessess and everything in between. She is known as The BIG Ideas Lady helping everyone from global brands and local leaders to make impactful change through thinking differently, and taking inspired action. She is a keynote speaker, author and consultant, and works as an innovation director for Oxford Innovation Space with ambitious SME’s across two sites in Hertfordshire/London where she is based.
need a strategist to help you create your plan for 2025? and maybe even get some early results?
I help ambitious small business owners to get clarity on their business model, confidence in their action plan, so that they take fearless consistent (ish) action, that builds credibility and turns on the taps of cashflow.
We start with getting all of your ideas out of your head and into a cohesive brand and business model on a page…I mean if you can’t sum up what you are doing in one clear visual, my guess is you are REALLY making it hard for yourself.
