2023-05-08 11:28:05
Developing a successful business plan that supports your desired lifestyle requires a thoughtful and intentional approach, but it doesn’t have to be difficult or overly complicated. The key to success lies in determining where you want your personal life to be and working backwards to identify what needs to be done in your business to get there.
- Start with your personal vision
The first step is to create a vision of how you want your personal life to be in the short and long term. Write your goals for one, three, five and 10 years. This includes determining what kind of lifestyle you want to live and the financial resources needed to make it happen. Consider your personal goals and aspirations, such as owning a home, traveling, or starting a family, and attach financial numbers to each of these goals.
This will give you a clear idea of what you need to earn in order to achieve your desired lifestyle. Assign specific monetary amounts to each goal you have and divide it into the required monthly payment amounts. Add up those payments for the month and you have your personal monthly income.
- Work backwards to determine business goals
Once you have a clear understanding of your personal financial goals, it’s time to work backwards to determine what your business must accomplish to support those goals. Look at the percentage of gross income that you currently personally get from the business. Use that number to extrapolate, using the same ownership percentage, what the business income should be to achieve your desired annual and monthly personal income. From there, break down your company’s annual financial goal into monthly, weekly, and even daily goals. Using tools like spreadsheets can help you track your progress and make any necessary adjustments along the way.
- Determine the value of your product or service and the monthly requirements
A critical aspect of building a successful business plan is determining the value of your product or service and then determining how many you need to sell each month to reach your goals. This can be accomplished by looking at the average value per product type in your business and how many of each product type you would need to sell to meet your monthly revenue requirement.
- Consider marketing and staffing needs
Marketing and staffing are two important considerations when creating a successful business plan. Determine the marketing strategies that are most effective for your business and allocate a budget accordingly.
A good rule of thumb is to budget for use of 5% to 10% of los gross income for marketing. This can include investing in digital marketing, hiring a marketing specialist, or attending industry conferences. Staffing needs should also be carefully assessed to ensure you have the right team to achieve your goals. Look at the products or services you calculated earlier to determine your staffing and marketing needs.
Determine how many people you will need to produce and maintain excellent customer service. Anticipate their salaries and add that number to the budget. Remember, adding these salaries can increase your costs, which can reduce your net profit. Be sure to recalculate as you go to make sure you have the right amount of products/services provided as well as staff to earn the desired revenue from the business.
- Stay flexible and open to change
Finally, it’s important to remain flexible and open to change as you implement your business plan. As we saw earlier, making adjustments can affect your final target number. You can also project a gradual increase, as going from $1,000 a month to $50,000 is a substantial jump and will require appropriate systems and procedures to manage the workload, not to mention marketing efforts to generate the required work.
Monitor your progress regularly and be willing to make any necessary adjustments. This can include changing your marketing strategies, adjusting prices, or hiring additional staff on the fly. A successful business plan is one that constantly evolves to meet the changing needs of your business and personal life.
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