How to: creating a business plan

Are you thinking about starting your own business? If so, the first typically involves writing a business plan. There are a few different ways to start - so ask yourself these two questions questions to decide how detailed your plan needs to be:

Who is the plan for? and  What time frame are you looking to cover?

If you answered:

The plan is for your reference, short time frame (i.e., one year): Then you may only need a lightweight document that outlines your high-level goals to get the business off the ground and increase revenue to breakeven.

The plan is for external use: Then your business document should be longer term (think 3-5 years) and include project financial information and other nitty gritty details. Business plans for external reference are often used to gain interest from investors or secure loans.

Today, we’ll cover the business plan for reference or internal use, which can also be used as a great starting point to gain external funds when that time comes. Here are the three main bases you should cover:

1. Industry information: This is the very first step to writing a successful business plan. Before you can define your business and how you’ll be successful, you have to understand the industry that you plan to launch a company in. Specifically, outline each of these:

a. An overview of the industry (past, present and future)
b. An in-depth analysis of the market.
c. Where your product fits into the current market.

2. Competitive information: Some business owners don’t start by peeking at the competition for fear of being intimidated or due to the desire to be original. While I understand this logic, not looking at the competition is a mistake. You should understand who is selling similar products or services, what their presence looks like locally and online, and have a full understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. A SWOT analysis of main competitors is an easy way to start.

3. Your plan. This includes an overview of your business and how you are planning for success. What will you sell? Where will you sell? How will you sell? How will you compete with similar businesses? Why is your product or service different or better than anyone else in the space? If there are no true competitors, why will your company be a success? How will you create the need?

Be sure to include both high-level overviews and an appropriate level of detail in each of these sections and you’re well on your way to having a comprehensive business plan. If you plan to use this document externally, be sure to consider financial information as well.

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to drop me a line at jackie@jackiesteinmetz.com or leave a comment below!

3 ways to create event awareness online

Does your business plan events for yourself or other businesses? If so, you know that getting bodies in the door is one of the most important pieces of planning an event. This task may seem daunting - it’s hard to know who will show up and who won’t. The best solution is to promote the event in the places where you can reach a large number of people, online. Here are three ways to amplify your reach and ensure your event is a success:

1. Promote your event on social media. Which social media platforms are you using? Make sure you’re promoting on all of them. Feel free to start as soon as your event is planned and information available online is. If you’re more than four weeks out from the event, mentioning it once or twice a week will suffice.

As the event gets closer, post on each platform as much as you feel is appropriate. My personal promotion rule is 2-3 times per week on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and similar platforms, and up to once per day on Twitter. Make sure you get creative! Post photos of the venue, create online flyers to be distributed, post event links - and remember, images typically get more interaction than simple text posts.

2. Create shareable content - then share it. Do you have a place where you write regularly online, such as a blog? Make sure you drop in mentions of your event when it make sense as you’re writing. Then, write blogs specifically for certain milestones in the event planning process, such as date/venue/topic chosen, early bird registration, end of early bird registration, registration closing, etc.

The key piece of this strategy is sharing your blog, also known as seeding. Seeding is essentially distributing your blog link as much as possible across the web. Here are a few free places to consider submitting your blog: Alltop, Pinterest, Scoop.It, and some paid options: Outbrain, social advertising on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

3. Leverage sponsors, speakers and your audience. Will you have sponsors or speakers at your event? If so, they almost certainly have a dedicated audience that pays attention to what they say. Make sure sponsors and speakers are doing their part to sell tickets or fill seats at your event. Give them a checklist of ways to promote the event (this blog is a great start!) and, if you’re skeptical about follow through, offer sample content for them to use for promotion.

Leveraging your audience can be equally successful. Run a contest; give away tickets to the event, backstage passes, a signed speaker giveaway - whatever you can come up with. Then promote the contest on social media. Make sure you ask participants to share your photos and posts to enter, thus promoting your event to their audiences as well.

What strategies do you use to ensure your event goes off without a hitch? I’d love to hear more about them. Drop me a line at jackie@jackiesteinmetz.com or leave a comment below.