A Business Plan Guides your Entrepreneurial Journey

Posted by at 11 January, 2012, 9:44 am

Monday night was graduation for the students in my WEDC entrepreneurial training course. For 15 weeks I’ve been helping them fine tune their ideas and prepare their business plans.

On the very first night of class, I use a road sign with a heart in the middle of it to describe how designing and launching a business is a lot like taking a road trip.

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Because everyone’s business journey begins with an idea—a passion, symbolized by the heart in the middle of the sign. During the 15 weeks, we work on molding that idea into a fulfilling, profitable enterprise. We soul-search to make sure that we will love that idea for the long haul. We crunch numbers to make sure that the idea will be a money-maker, and I tell my students to imagine a dollar sign in the center of that heart. We do market research to guarantee that potential clients and customers will love that idea too. And we spend 15 weeks flushing out goals for the business and figuring out where we’d like to be in 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and beyond.

Have you done a business plan? The most successful mompreneurs are those who take the time to write a mission statement, and flush out marketing, operational and income goals for their ventures.  You don’t have to write a book. You just have to get started. As Nike says, Just. Do. It.

At the beginning, most of my students are terrified of the idea of writing a business plan.  But by the end of our program, they have detailed ones in hand. Not only that, they have the confidence and courage to move forward, because they’ve done the research and know what it will take to be profitable.

Don’t try to “wing” your business. A business plan will guide you through your entrepreneurial journey. And once you’ve written it, check that business plan often to make sure you don’t want to switch course. As I told my graduating class on Monday night, it’s just as important to pull off the road sometimes, and check that map to make sure the destination is still where you want to be.  Keep listening to your heart to make sure you really are doing what you love, and that what you love can bring in the cash you need.

Congratulations to my WEDC class and to my mompreneur friends everywhere!

Category : Meeting Goals