Business Plan - It's all on scraps of paper!

Business Plan – It's all on scraps of paper!

Posted 30 Jul 2009

On our previous post We discussed getting your idea out of your head and onto paper in a visual form.

This is the first step to starting to organize and arrange all that information that is floating around in your brain. Sometimes what happens next is that this generates a whole new drive on thinking about that project and getting more ideas onto paper.

At other times, by just getting that out of the brain and onto paper, the brain rests and you may not do anything with this anymore for awhile.

The most common challenge that next comes up is “it’s a mess, I have bits of paper everywhere”. In addressing this is it important to look at how this project fits in with your current business and personal life and what priority is to be given to it. This will drive how much time you contribute to the project, research and how to timetable it into your life.

How critical the project is a combination of emotional and physical restraints. The emotional component drives the passion for the project. The physical restraints are our own use of time, money etc.

The most common example is someone who is currently employed and is looking to create a second income stream in conjunction with their paid job with a view for extra income or to create a business to move into later. How critical the project becomes depends on the difference between where they are now and the need for where they want to be. i.e. the project becomes driven by the clarification of your goals and the formalization of your business plan.

Different people use different methods of sorting out their concept into a logical sequence (the draft of a business plan). This ranges from inserting their existing information into a business plan template, cut and paste (literally) onto a large chart, doing the same thing on computer software etc. Which ever method you use, it needs to be something that you can relate to and use (or delegate someone to do). There is no point using a Word based business plan when you are a creative visual arts based person.

Choose a method that works for you. If you don’t know where to go, ask someone who is “wired” similarly to you and see what method they use.

More information on business planning in the next blog.

John B. – Amplio Business Solutions

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