Planning with Patience and Projection

As you begin to work on building your business it is important to take time to plan.  Great ideas must be looked at from all angles…. financial, market analysis, supply resources,  and more.  It is important to develop a clear plan of action with structure enough to with stand busy days and flexibility to allow for the fast paced digital world

Identify your customer – Create a profile for your target market that includes demographics, buying habits, and the feelings and attitudes that make up what’s called psychodemographics. Create this profile as if it were an actual person, or avatar, and focus your efforts on marketing specifically to that person. This will assist with planning your marketing strategies.  If your target audience does not read the newspaper it would be a waste of marketing dollars to advertise in the local paper no matter how inexpensive the ads are.  This information will help you project the best places to market to customers.

 

Plan in Detail – Many times when people start a new business they have  only vague idea of what it is and how it will operate. But to survive and thrive you need details spelled out as clearly as possible. Think about how your business should operate on a daily basis. How specifically will you meet your customers’ needs? Where will the profits to keep you going come from?

 

Be patient with this process. Small business owners must  allow time  to develop a business plan that provides clear structure. 

 

Project for Growth– In your business planning and documentation  be sure to  allow room to grow. A successful business will evolve over time, and your  small business plan must be able to sustain this change. Make each process scalable and write your documentation with your future growth in mind.

 

Creating an effective business plan can seem overwhelming for individuals starting out in the entrepreneurial world.  There are many resources available to assist and support this process.  Be sure to check with your regional and district small business adminstration offices.  Another resource to assist with getting a good business plan established is Live Plan  (aff. link) an online business planning software.  Both these resources will get you off to a great start with the planning and projecting process.

Entrepreneur Thoughts

 

 

The small business owner must always keep their eye on market trends. It is important to  stay on top of news and current events that relate to your niche.. Incorporating a  system  for monitoring the local, national and international  market into your business routine can truly create unique and profitable opportunities.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to create a business calendar that includes all important maintenance  activities.  Ordering supplies, managing sales, marketing and customer service are tasks that are easy to identify as necessary.  Many entrepreneurs fail to keep an eye on how their market is changing or developing.  Sometimes this happens very quickly and can seriously affect sales

 

 

To stay on top of important trends, sign up for Google Alerts and other alert programslike tweetalarm. Identify keywords that are important to your business and sign up for these services so that whenever someone posts that keyword online, you’ll be notified.

Use your social media accounts to subscribe to news services and other sources of information. Twitter and Facebook are great for this and you can even save searches within these platforms. Seek out news sources and thought leaders, and pay attention to what they post.

These modern digital tools can really help with business planning and put a small business owner at the top of their niche.

 

What tools are you currently using to stay abreast of the current trends?

 

Get daily tweets with  the #KlearVue on small business, social media and business tech here —-> Klear_Vue

 

 

The Secret of How To Get Started

Our  first lesson here @ The Small Biz  Classroom  takes you to the logical spot we must all go to  before any products, services or sales can be made….. the beginning!!  So many folks have dreams but few people realize them.   In the video presentation below Derek Halpern of Social Triggers speaks about  how to get started on the journey to success.  It is a simple concept, but one that many with good intentions never understand.

The secret to getting it done is to get started.  Find the one step you can take today and DO IT!!  Planning is great but if you  never take your first step you will never realize the full potential of your great idea.  Just think about this … every  successful small business that is in place right now started in this manner… taking the first step.

Important Note

It is also  truly important  that you don’t stop there… find your next step and take it …. and so on.   These small steps will begin to multiply and compound the results you get over time.  As you reach your goals you will set new ones and the process continues on.

 

Not sure where to start…feel free to post any questions below.  We are here to assist you with the process!!