Writing a Business Plan for Your Online Business: If You Haven’t Already, What’s Stopping You?

I have a very important question for you:

Have you written up your business plan for your online business?

If you have, congratulations! You may count yourself among the ultra elite in this line of work, the top 1% of online business professionals who have taken the time to map out the nuts and bolts of their business including their forecasted profits, who their advisers are, sources of ongoing funding for their businesses, etc.

For the rest of the 99% out there who have yet to write a business plan, my goal is to provide you with some practical resources in this post to help you put together a business plan that will help take your success to an entirely new level.

ALL successful business owners have a business plan. There is no getting around that fact. If you truly want to succeed in ANY kind of business, you absolutely must create a business plan. (Are there people out there who have been successful without a business plan? Yes…but they are rare and frankly, once they have success, in order to hold on to it they discover the importance of creating one!)

“But Mary Lou!” I can hear some people saying. “Writing a business plan takes so much time and I need to get my business up and running, like, yesterday! I don’t have time to write out all those sections!”

I understand, but my response is, Do you want to succeed or not? Because if you really and truly want to be successful as a professional Internet Business Owner, or ANY business owner for that matter, you are going to have to lay the foundation the right way or else your business will be like a house built on quicksand.

I am not saying you can’t take your enthusiasm to get started with your business and run with it. I am saying you will do yourself a huge favor if you take some breaks along the way, check in with your progress, and make notes.

Having a solid foundation is critical, followed by a well designed framing job. Did you ever notice that so many people compare building a business to building a house? It’s because the two have so much in common. Home builders have a blueprint they use to build a house. A business plan serves a similar function for entrepreneurs. At the end of the day, you want your business to be strong and able to withstand the natural forces that will occasionally threaten to knock it down. You aren’t just going to randomly slap some pieces of wood together and call it a home, are you? In the real world, houses are subjected to severe weather conditions, natural disasters, and the usual wear and tear that comes with time. If you want your house to last, you better build it right the first time!

Businesses are no different, except businesses are subjected to economic changes, human error, confidence issues, and cash flow challenges. If you planned well, you are more likely to make it through the “storms” than the people who did not plan at all.

Having a business plan in place in which you, as an Independent Business Owner, are crystal clear about what your intentions are for your business, what you project your profits will be over a 6, 12, 18 month period of time, etc. will serve you well, and give you an edge when times get tough (and believe me, they will at some point). Writing a business plan will also pay you back handsomely for the efforts you put in to developing it up front.

For people who want to work one-on-one with someone who understands the ins and outs of writing a business plan, I recommend visiting your local SCORE office. SCORE is a non-profit organization associated with the Small Business Administration, and is run entirely by volunteers, men and women from the local business community who are committed to giving back to other small business owners and help them succeed.

For the Do It Yourself-ers in the crowd, I have personally found the link at the end of this post very helpful in writing a business plan. There are documents you can download right to your computer that you can fill in according to your business. The site also provides examples of completed business plans for anyone needing a model.

Don’t delay! Take the time to write out your business plan, even if it is simple to start with. Getting clear with yourself about what you are doing can save you tons of time and headache down the road, as well as make you profitable faster. Click on this link right here to get access to free downloadable business plan templates. With these forms, you should have a business plan in no time! 🙂

Business Plan Templates