Hi there,

Running a business can be so exciting - particularly when it’s new.

There’s your logo to design, your sparkling new website and most of us go into business because we know we have a unique set of skills or expertise that makes life noticeably better for the people we work with. Yet, in the day to day of working life, it’s easy to lose focus in all the noise and distraction and we can find ourselves caught up in shiny object syndrome or procrastination.

We run the risk of losing sight of our goals, our vision and our bigger picture. It’s a relatively easy fix though - carve out some time to create a business plan. Before you groan and close your laptop, bear with me - I don’t mean a five hundred page business plan that details the ins and outs of everything in your business including your favourite highlighter colour, I’m referring to my fabulous one-page business plan process.

Look, there is a place for an extensive business plan. In fact, I have a business plan product that has been the secret weapon in many of my past businesses including my gourmet catering business in Western Australia. Clients use it when they’re looking for financial support from banks, angel investors or from venture capital.

When they’re scaling their businesses to the point where external investment is required, then they simply require more detail to support their applications, and so my extended business plan fits the bill perfectly. However, there’s a time and place for a quick one-page business plan and there are so many benefits to creating one.

In my work with women as a holistic business coach I absolutely love the moment when together we uncover their vision and they fall in love with their business all over again - this sounds overly dramatic, I know, but often in the overwhelm our passion for our work becomes lost. Our vision is our bigger picture, our desired end state, and so is a driver of everything we do in our business- or it should be! My one-page business plan is a way to cement and embed our vision into the here and now in a practical, action-focused document that drives momentum.

A one-page business plan is great for getting started as a launchpad for your extended plan. It’s equally powerful for launching a business in that it forces you to focus down on the core of your concept. It will also help test out an idea, service or even a new revenue stream within an existing business. It’s actually quite genius in its simplicity in that it links planning and strategy with specific, targeted actions and so it’s a great way to explore, on paper, to see how something could work as well as how you could make that something, well, something!

My one-page business plan has a basic structure:

Overview:
Write a quick summary of your business that sets out what you do, who you do it for, why it’s needed and the basics of how it will make money.

Vision:
This is where you go into a little more detail about linking your unique point of difference with the needs of your target audience. Remember, we’re keeping this to one page so add your enthusiasm and excitement with clever, yet concise copy.

Objectives:
If your vision is where you shared your passion, objectives are where you share the cold, hard data. This is where you outline the bottom line goals for the next five years and this coming year to inform your quarterly plans and your action items. I encourage clients to do this in categories to simplify the implementation of the business plan over time such as marketing, admin and finance and service delivery.

That’s it - overview, vision and objectives. Told you in was simple! However, the real magic, the transformation, comes in bringing this one pager to life through action, rather than sticking it in a filing cabinet never to see the light of day. The objectives section will dictate your workplan in terms of practicality, but I also encourage clients to print it out and have it near their work space to keep it front of mind and stay focussed on both your bigger picture within the detail of daily life but also the purpose of why you’re in business.

Of course, it can also form the basis as a pitch document for new business, you could rework it into a media kit and it’s a document you could share with aligned businesses or outsourced support to keep you literally on the same page when it comes to your business.

This is a very quick and basic overview of my one-page business plan - when I work through this process with my coaching clients there is a lot more detail that we delve into as we explore possibilities and opportunities. This is also an excellent exercise for all of us to touch base with our businesses from time to time as a first step, followed by my extended business plan which often becomes a business’ bible.

You can find out more about working with me through my fabulous programs right here and I also offer a discovery session - just reach out!