Be Your Own Boss Friday: 7 Questions To Build Your Entrepreneur Business Plan

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From now in this newsletter Friday's will be BYOB (Be Your Own Boss Friday's). I recognize that being an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, business owner, or freelancer is also a part of The Future of Work and there are plenty of readers who fall into that category (myself included!) and many who want to be in that category. So from now on, each Friday will be devoted to that audience but the things I share should also be applicable to those with more traditional employment options as well.

Business plans can be daunting. They explain your business and set you up for success, but an entrepreneur’s business plan doesn’t need to be as involved as one for a Fortune 500 company. If you look at most business plans for entrepreneurs they be dozens of pages long and take months to complete.

I've been an entrepreneur for over a decade and my wife Blake for around five years. When we were building our businesses, we never had involved business plans or investors. But we did think through the basics before we jumped in. We had our own version of a business plan which was quick, easy, practical, and allowed us to jump right in.

You can hear more of our stories and strategies in this episode of the Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) Podcast. Click below to play or go here to listen on your favorite platform.

Here are seven questions to ask yourself to build your simple business plan: 

1. What are you going to sell?

To be a successful entrepreneur, you’ve got to make money. Too often we hear about people who are tired of their jobs, so they quit to go off on their own without a real plan in place. Think of the product or service you can sell. In Blake’s case, it came from looking at her talents and what people were already asking her to do. She was constantly asked to create content and speak on customer experience and turned it into a product and service she could sell as an entrepreneur. Blake and I sell things like courses, speeches, and content sponsorships. Whether it's a physical product or a digital one, you need to know what is going to bring in the money.

2. Where is your revenue going to come from?

Think of multiple ways you can make money, either from selling numerous products or diversifying your services. Think bigger than just one idea and look at trends and potential to expand. For us, revenue comes from things like speaking, writing, creating courses, content sponsorships, and book royalties. Aim for three to five potential revenue sources if you can. This will allow you to sustain during tough times. For example the current pandemic has wiped out much of our in-person speaking revenue but has also skyrocketed our virtual revenue sources.

3. How much will you spend to bring your product or service to market?

Everything has a cost, even if you’re starting a largely online business. Know how much it will cost to bring your product or service to market. Know where your money is going and the overhead. You won’t be successful if you spend more than you make. When you keep your costs low, your revenue grows much faster. This includes things like building a website, getting a logo designed, paying for software that you need to run your business, getting incorporated, etc.

4. How many months can you go without making money?

At the beginning of your entrepreneurship journey, you probably won’t be making much (if any) money. It takes time to get customers and to build relationships, and in many cases, you’ll be offering your services for free. Look at your finances to consider how much risk you can take on and how long you can live without money coming in. I started my side hustle while I was still working full time. Once I had enough money to sustain myself for at least seven months, I jumped all in as an entrepreneur. I figured if I didn't make any money at that point I could move back in with parents, become an Uber driver, or even go work at Starbucks! For me, failure was not an option.

5. What do you realistically think you can make to sustain?

Once you do start making money, you need to know how much to shoot for. Track your business and personal expenses so you know how much you need to make every month. Know how much money you need to survive and save and be realistic if your new venture can sustain that. For me, I was living in San Francisco around 12 years ago and my largest expense was my rent which was around $1,200-$1,400/month. I was single, had no kids, no mortgage, and no car so I only needed to make around 3k-5k month to cover my expenses. Your situation is likely quite different so go through the numbers.

6. Who is going to buy from you?

Know your buyer. Have an idea of who would want to buy your product or service before you start to sell to them. Find a need in the market and work to meet that need. Blake's buyers include customer experience leaders and chief marketing officers. My buyers include executives leading teams and HR professionals. Of course these our only buyers, but I know that someone in engineering or creative design isn't my target customer.

7. How are you going to get customers?

It’s one thing to know who your customer will be—it’s another to actually get them. In some cases, getting customers means paying for advertising. In other cases, it means building your personal brand and credibility. Have a plan in place of how you’ll acquire customers and keep them around. Social media has been a major source of customer acquisition for both of us. It took many years to build a personal brand and it's something we both still work on doing every single day via things like this newsletter. Books have also been very valuable customer acquisition tools since our target audience reads those books and then reaches out to us for additional services like speaking or courses. Advertising on the other hand has so far proven to be a massive failure with things like Facebook ads for digital products.

Going into business for yourself is scary and comes with a lot of risk. But there are also huge benefits. Before you jump in all the way, answer these questions to create your basic business plan. Being prepared will put you that much farther down the path to success.

Remember, Blake and I are always here to answer your questions if you have them! Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter for BYOB tips, strategies, and advice.

Learn more in this episode of the Be Your Own Boss (BYOB) Podcast. Click below to play or go here to listen on your favorite platform.

If you enjoyed the article and want more content like this here’s what you can do:

1. Subscribe to The BYOB Podcast Newsletter to get notified when a new episode comes out (one a week).
2. Listen to episode 10 of the podcast where we talk about these things in much more detail including sharing our personal stories.