Goal Setting and Planning

                Starting a business can seem overwhelming, especially when you’re also holding a full-time job. Goal setting and planning are crucial to success. 

 

 

                Use your business plan to map out your goals and the steps necessary to achieve them. When you know your overall business goals, such as how many sales you expect to make in your first quarter of business and when you anticipate reaching profitability, you can set smaller, interim goals to reach these larger milestones.

              For instance, suppose your business model is an e-commerce website selling apparel and accessories for teenage girls. In order to get this business up and running, there are several goals you’ll need to accomplish, including:

•  Developing a website
•  Finding sources of inventory
•  Finding prospective customers
•  Setting up mailing and shipping systems

            Each of these goals can be broken down into smaller steps. For example, steps to developing a website would include:

• Choosing a domain name for your website 
• Registering the domain name
• Finding a web hosting company
• Finding a web designer, website development company or website templates to create your website
• Determining what elements your website needs and how they will be laid out
• Choosing shopping cart and inventory software for your website

     

   The more detailed you can be in laying out each step to startup, the better. For example, “Choosing a domain name” could be broken down into even smaller steps: 

• Brainstorm domain names by myself 
• Brainstorm domain names with friends and family 
• Choose top five to 10 domain names 
• Visit domain registrars to see which names are available
• Narrow down options and select one

         If you break each step into smaller steps, achieving bigger goals will seem more manageable. When you’re starting a business part time, you’ll have limited time to work on your startup each day. Creating tasks you can complete quickly will give you a feeling of accomplishment and generate forward momentum.    

          Once you’ve listed your goals, sub-goals and the specific steps needed to reach each milestone, plan a timeline for your startup’s launch. Create a timeline that is challenging enough to keep you energized, but realistic enough that you don’t get discouraged. Perhaps you’ll commit to accomplishing one small task each day, or one intermediate goal per weekend. Your SCORE mentor can help you develop a realistic timeline and keep you on track.

 

 

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Business Plan Resources

                With hundreds of free business plans and sample business plans available online, you can have your own plan up and drafted in a single afternoon.

 

 

• Bplans – The largest online collection of free sample business plans. Also provides helpful tools and guides to help you better manage your business.

• Bplans's Gallery of Samples – Over 500 examples of business plans.

• Oprah.com's One page Template – Get one-page business plans for a small consulting business, a boutique clothing company and a nonprofit organization.

• Score's General model Startup Template – Business plan template for a startup business, with instructions for each section and fillable worksheet.

• Business Plan Pro, popular business plan software that comes with more than 500 business plan formats for different business models and industries, as well as financial formulas, charts, graphs and tables built in.

  
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Write Your Business Plan

         When you’re starting a business part time, you may think you don’t need a business plan. However, a business plan is important for any startup—big or small. Much more than a tool for obtaining a business loan, the business plan is the road map you will use to keep your startup on the right track. 

 

 

 Business plans typically include these sections:

 Executive Summary: 

1. The Business 

2. Financial Forecasts 

3. Supporting Data

 We’ll explain the Executive Summary last, because you’ll write it last.

 

 1. The Business: This section explains your business model—what your business does and how it will make a profit.

• Describe your business, your product or service and why there is a need for it. 
• Explain who your target market is and how you will market to them.
• Describe the sales channels you will use to sell your product or service.
• Detail who your competition is and what characteristics will enable your business to compete effectively.
• List your experience and background, and that of any co-founders or partners.  

2. Financial Forecasts: Explain how much it will cost to start the business, where the money will come from and how you will spend it, and your financial projections for growth.

• List the equipment you’ll need to buy and any other investments you must make to get started.
• Explain where your startup money will come from, such as personal loans, savings or salary.
• Project your income and expenses for the first year in business and estimate how long it will take to break even.
• Include any outside investors or grants as an option of where your startup money may come from.

 

 3. Supporting Data: Like an appendix for the business plan, this section provides backup evidence for the information you included elsewhere, such as the size of the market for your product or service.

 

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