…Creating a Business Plan Continued…
Now that you’ve established the kind of business you will operate, the services you will offer, and the clientele you will serve, let’s dive into bringing this business plan into reality with marketing, operations, management, and financial planning.
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Marketing Plan
Many spiritual entrepreneurs have negativity towards marketing. They view it as manipulation to make people buy something they don’t need. The truth is, if your marketing plan focuses on educating you students, providing value, and inspirational communications, you allow your students to make educated decisions without any sales pressure.
As you begin to piece together a marketing plan, consider the following sections:
- Competitive Advantage What sets you apart from your competition? Avoid making negative remarks towards others in your field (bad karma) and focus on the value you provide that is unique and memorable.
- Product & Price You’ve already outlined the products and services you are offering. Now set a price for each of these services. You will also want to include prices for class packs or unlimited memberships, discounts for specific groups, and special packages for new students.
- Promotion How are you communicating your message and raising awareness about your business? A multiple prong strategy allows you to penetrate your target market more deeply. The more often your ideal client is seeing your name, the more likely they will be curious to check out what you have to offer.
Marketing your business is an ongoing process. Dedicating time to marketing each week – even each day – can drastically increase your business. Not only will you attract new clients, but you will reinforce your value to current students. As the saying goes – it’s easier to keep an existing client than to gain a new client! So don’t forget to consistently share your message with existing students to provide additional value outside the studio, increase student retention, increase class sizes, and generate referrals (word of mouth marketing).
Join me for the Intro to Marketing webinar to create a promotional strategy custom tailored to attracting your ideal client.
Operations Plan
Consider the operations plan to be your resource guide for running your business. This is your checklist for running your business. Make sure to cover your physical requirements for your business and operations checklists.
You may want to include in the operations plan:
- Physical Location Not only the address, but also the layout (if you are opening a studio). Make sure your layout allows for traffic flow between classes, accessible restrooms/change rooms, and access to the front desk. If you are planning to have a boutique, you may want to get some opinions on a layout to ensure you are placing furniture and products in favorable locations.
- Start-Up Equipment What do you need to open the doors to your business? List out each piece of equipment, purpose of equipment, cost of equipment, and supplier. Spend time thinking of anything that you will need – it is better to be prepared and have the money set aside than to be blindsided when you realize you don’t have a credit card scanner as you are checking students in.
- Suppliers Do your research before purchasing supplies, including equipment, marketing materials, or boutique inventory. Make a list of your selected suppliers, along with contact information, what you order from them, and the cost of supplies. This will make it very easy to delegate any purchasing in the future as well as provide reference if you are offered a deal by a new supplier.
- Opening Checklist Putting together these checklists, even before you have additional staff, will make life much easier. Admittedly, you will probably miss things the first time around, so continue to add to this checklist until you have the routine down. (If you are a teacher – this could be a pre-class checklist to ensure everything runs smoothly).
- Closing Checklist Many businesses create an opening checklist, but don’t have a system for closing. If you break up some of the tasks that simply must be done (housekeeping, followup with voicemails, emails, etc.), you will ensure that each day runs smoothly. (If you are a teacher – this could be a post-class checklist to follow up with students, build your relationship with studio or gym, or similar).
- New Student Checklist A new student is the lifeblood of growing your business! A quick checklist will ensure that each new student is welcomed into your community with love and without pressure. Include your student waiver, student information form, perhaps an interest survey, and especially a follow up thank you note!
- Housekeeping Checklist Housekeeping is one of the first things you can delegate! There are dozens of potential students who would love to build a practice, but can’t afford to pay $15 a class. Set up a work exchange – these students will happily sweep floors, wipe down bathrooms, and clean mats after class. A checklist will ensure that things are up to your standards.
Management Plan
Even if you are the only employee of your business, creating a management plan provides you with a strategy to bring in the right people at the right time.
Even if you are handling all the roles of your business, some day you will hire someone else to help you grow. Create job descriptions for your internal team including:
- Studio Manager
- Yoga Teachers
- Retail Manager
- Marketing Manager
- Karma Yoga/Housekeeping
Finally, you are not in this alone. Pull together a team of external experts and coaches. Share your business plan with them and ask them for advice and direction. Learn from the experiences and mistakes of other business owners. Even if they are not in the yoga business, business is business. Most entrepreneurs go through similar struggles. Mistakes are expensive – it is much smarter (and cheaper!) to learn from a mentor!
Pull together the following external team:
- Financial Planner/Coach If you are unsure about business finance, especially how it relates to your personal financial goals, find a financial planner who specializes in working with small business owners. Look for a Certified Financial Planner – they understand the types of business structures, can help you value your business, create retirement plans for small business owners, manage estate planning, and help you achieve your personal and business financial goals – such as planning for retirement or sending your kids to college.
- CPA/Bookkeeper Taxes are a major challenge for all business owners. Laws change frequently and mistakes come with hefty fines. Hire a good CPA to handle your taxes. When it comes to paying the bills and managing the day-to-day finances, look for a good bookkeeper or bookkeeping service. These businesses will help you stay on top of the finances including bills, paying suppliers, payroll, etc.
- Business Insurance There is more to business insurance than liability. What if something happens to you? If you are disabled even for only a short period of time, would your business survive? A insurance agent specializing in business insurance can make sure that no matter what happens, your business will stay open.
- Banking You may want access to online banking, but as a business owner, you don’t want to be talking to a different operator each time there is a question. Go to your local branch and introduce yourself to the business banking specialist. Make sure they know who you are. A personal relationship will help when there is a snafu in your finances.
- Lawyer A good lawyer is indispensable. They can save you a lot of headache when it comes to negotiating leases, writing contracts (for teachers or subleasing), and making sure that you are protected if someone decides to sue you. Don’t wait until something goes wrong – develop a relationship with a lawyer so that when something happens, they already understand your business.
- Mentors Find a mentor! A mentor is someone who you can turn to when you have questions or need someone to help brainstorm. Your mentor does not even have to be in your industry if they have a good background in small business and marketing.
- Business Coach A business coach can help you identify and achieve goals in your business by working with you to create strategies and action plans.
Financial Plan
The financial plan section of your business plan is one of the most complicated and crucial sections, especially if you have to carry the high overhead of running a studio.
Start your financial plan with your financial objectives. Consider:
- When will the studio break-even (ie income is more than expenses)?
- When will you be able to draw an income? How much?
- When will you hire additional staff? How much will they get paid?
- Any other assumptions that you may include when planning the growth of expenses.
Now consider your start-up expenses. Depending on what kind of yoga business you are starting, your start up expenses could be as low as a couple hundred dollars or as high as several thousand. Consider:
- Business license fees
- Rent/prepaid rent/deposits
- Signage
- Marketing materials
- Yoga props/supplies
- Any other expenses – depending on your business.
The most challenging part of the financial plan – financial projections. If you do now have a background in finance or accounting, save yourself the trouble and ask for help.
Many small business owners overestimate income, setting themselves up for failure by paying too much for rent or other fixed expenses. If your location only pays for itself with 5 maxed out classes per day, be aware that it could take years until your business consistently fills an entire yoga class. It is much easier to start small, with lower expenses, than to start with very high expenses and struggle to pay the bills.
When creating financial projections, create the following financial statements projecting out at least 5 years:
- Income statement/Profit Loss statement
- Cash Flow statement
- Balance Sheet statement
Download Quickbooks Simple Start to help you track income and expenses.
Milestones
Finally, wrap up your business plan with a section detailing milestones you intend to achieve. You created your vision for your business and your life in the first section of your business plan. In the milestones section, you can set target milestones, month by month, for each section of your business plan.
A five year action plan to achieve your milestones may look like this:
- Year 1 – Monthly action steps (Marketing/Management/Financial milestones)
- Year 2 – Quarterly action steps (Marketing/Management/Financial milestones)
- Year 3-5 – Annual action steps (Marketing/Management/Financial milestones)
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July Business Bootcamp
Allow The Yogipreneur to guide you through the process of creating a functional, results-oriented business plan. This series of 4 webinars will take you through each section of a business plan with a bonus session on creating systems to allow you to achieve more of your goals with less time and energy!
Two Week Series | Tuesdays & Thursdays 1PM – 4PM | July 14 – 23 2009
Creating a five year strategic action plan for your business.
Read more and Register Online
