Business Starter Part 1: Create a Simple Business Plan

This should be your first step after you have legalized your business in your state/country.

So you want to start an online business. Or maybe a side hustle…or two…or three! If you have the entrepreneurial spirit, then more than likely you are multi-passionate and might not be able to have just one niche business. Totally ok and doable IF you start and build your business with some top key foundational pieces, including a business plan, in the very beginning.

Learn from my mistake:

When I first started my online business back in 2018, I had no clue what I was doing. I discovered the rising virtual assistant industry (ooohhh am I going to write about this soon….it’s coming!) and knew I could start there with all of the prior corporate skills I had. 

My husband has been an entrepreneur for sixteen years, so he helped me with all of the state and federal legal stuff, we’ll skip past all of that. So now you’re a legal business owner in your state…it’s time to start getting clients!! 

Ummmm no…that’s not how it works…and not how it should work! Classic business 101 encourages you to create a business plan before you even launch. I agree with this ideal and wish I had done so in the very beginning. 

I’ve always had a desire to learn and had no problem absorbing as many skills and ideas as I could at the beginning of my journey. I discovered what was growing and popular of the needs of a B2B business. But, without a solid business plan in place, I felt all over the place and so lost in the amount of knowledge, programs, and offers out there saying they could help me become the “best VA ever” and “it’s soooo easy!!” Ha! Spoiler alert…it’s not…and owning your own business is hard, tiring, and rewarding. 

Building a solid foundation, including a simple business plan will support you in the highs and lows of entrepreneurship as you grow, fail, succeed and repeat again.

So what should a business plan include?

Of course my short answer is “it depends”! It doesn’t have to be some long corporate-esk-style document full of hundreds of pages of dull words that don’t make sense to most people.

It is simply your beginner goals research, and plan to where you are and where you want to be in the near and far-off future. And, of course, it will change. But, it gives you a starting point and a sense of focus on how to begin this journey. 

Creating an outline format in a Google Doc is a great way to begin. As I mentioned above, it will look different depending on what type of service or product you are providing. 

I like to include emotional AND logical items in a solopreneur business plan because you need to look back on this and remind yourself of your why when sh*t gets tough…and it will get tough!

Here’s a basic outline you can use to create your own business plan:

1. Executive Summary
   1. Your Vision statement
   2. Your Mission statement
   3. Values
   4. Founder Story
2. Marketing 
   1. Who 
   2. Where
   3. Modes (social media, blog, video, Podcast, email, etc)
   4. ROI analytics
3. Business Management
   1. All of the necessary items you will need to run and manage your business
   2. Team management (if you will have a team)
4. Financials
   1. Goals
   2. ROI analytics

Simple right? Obviously, there are much more robust business plans out there and different ways to organize each section.

I’ve learned not to overcomplicate things, Starting somewhere, imperfectly, is the only way to keep the momentum. 

Once you fill out your business plan, you can start moving forward with organizing your business framework…nope not evening thinking about clients yet! Being prepared is the first step to not burning out in the long run!

Want to get the plan above in Google Doc format with some basic descriptions and prompts of the elements above? Click here and I’ll send it you!

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