The Business Plan

If you’re a solo professional like I am, you know how tough it is to find any time at all to do any business planning. Doing a full business plan is a must if you’re planning to seek financing or investors, but most solo professionals don’t need anything that complicated.

Don’t get me wrong, business planning is one of the most important things you need to do to succeed in your one man or woman show. Without planning you’ll drift aimlessly from one crisis to the next and one idea to the next, never really getting anything done.

So, what’s a solo pro to do? Here’s what I do in my own business:

My business plan consists of one page with very little on it. It simply lists the three goals that I must achieve this year. Then, I list a statement for each goal: To achieve Goal #1 I need to….This is followed by two to five activities or action items I need to do to make that happen.

That’s it. That’s the whole plan. The beauty is the simplicity. I simply cannot handle more than that. I don’t have a staff. I don’t have “people”. Everything has to be structured so that I can get it done simply and systematically.

So, let’s say one of my goals is to increase sales by a certain number, like $25,000. I then ask myself, “What do you need to do to make that happen?” Maybe I want to develop an ebook or add a new service. How many potential or current customers will I need to reach? How much time will I need to develop the book or service? How will I market it?

From those answers, I develop my schedule. What do I need to do monthly, weekly, daily? I break it up into small pieces that take an hour or less. For example, if I decide I need to send out 100 marketing postcards in a month, I break it into 25 cards a week. Then, I put it on my schedule each week, just as I do my appointments with clients.

To keep myself on track, I place my mini plan in front of my keyboard so every morning it’s the first thing I see. I also include a note to myself. It reminds me that “Nothing Else Matters.” I follow it with my company slogan: Get Knowledge. Get Focus. Get Results.

Complex plans take tons of time to develop and many (if not most) end up gathering dust on a shelf. Using a simple plan improves your focus and helps you to achieve great results.

Design and material are not the only elements you should think about when you create your custom business cards. In addition to these two, you also have to consider the font you are going to use for your content.

When designing, it is crucial for your business card printing pieces to have the right font and at the same time the appropriate size. Your text should be not too small or too big for your print card. If it is too small, it would be difficult for your target audience to read your information.

On the other hand, big letters just do not appear professional and with your limited space, it would be hard for you to cram all that information. Hence, there are standards that you have to adhere to help you create a distinguished business card without appearing like you do not know what you are doing.

First off, there should be a balance in the sizes of your text in your address and contact information, and your names and title. When designing your text, be sure to have your address and phone numbers between 7 to 8 point sizes. Your name should be 1 point bigger than these two elements. That means that if your address is at 7 point, then your name should be 8. On the other hand, your title can either be 1 point smaller than your address text size or similar to it. Your company name in contrast to all these elements should be from 12 to 15 point sizes.

There is a reason for making these sizes standard ones. If you happen to use different sizes for all your elements, I would not be surprised if your marketing tool looked disorderly and untidy. It will only confuse your prospects and clients. The key is to keep your sizes consistent so that your content would not appear disorganized.

In terms of how large or small should you go with your text, your words should not be smaller than 6 point. Use 5 point if you put everything in capital letters. In your name, it should not be more than 11 point. The address has a maximum of 9 point.

You should also consider the type of industry you are in. Most professionals go for smaller sizes such as 6 to 7 point text, especially for their addresses. Then again, it is much larger when sales agents produce their business cards.

But be wary also of fonts that print particularly smaller than the average size. When you use these fonts, be sure to adjust your sizes 1 point higher so as not to make it difficult for your readers to see your text.

The tried and true ideas are some of the best online business ideas to start an internet business with. Even if you are new to trying to earn money on the internet with you have probably heard about selling things on Craigslist or eBay. But you may not be familiar with affiliate marketing or making money with blogging. Those that master either of these two avenues for making money can make a great living and can even become rich doing so.

As with any business venture you will need to determine what you have the ambition, desire, and passion to do everyday. You’ll also want to set goals that are realistic. You will need to consider the nuts and bolts of businesses such as eBay or Craigslist if you want to sell using them. You probably have some “stuff” around your house right now that will sell but what will you do after those are gone?

With research you can determine what the hot items are and buy those cheaply yourself to then resell. But do you have the storage? What about shipping and handling? There are some great training materials available online to assist you in getting started.

Affiliate marketing is for those who would rather just promote products of other companies without the hassle of dealing directly with customers. This again will take some research to determine the best products to promote.

There are a lot of things to consider when coming up with products to promote. What niche are you most interested in? Will you get your own website to direct customers to first or will you strictly supply a link to the company who’s offering the product?

There are pros and cons of both but long term you’ll benefit the most by having your own website. This way you’ve captured the information (names and email address) of those showing interest in the product. You can then contact them in the future with other promotions.

In considering the products to promote it will be important that you find quality items that do what they say they will do. For example there are a lot of affiliate eBooks for sale that really only give basic information that someone could find easily on their own. And many do not offer true solutions to problems.

On the other hand there are thousands of great products that give you a chance to earn 50% to 80% commissions. Part of your research will be determining what products have the best chance to sell and finding out what your commissions will be. Blogging has become another way to promote products and any other business you have. Blogs are very easy to set up and enable you to find a target audience to drive to your site.