So You Want to Start a Side Hustle or Business? Part 2: The Plan

Are you ready to take that bold leap into entrepreneurship but feel overwhelmed at the thought of drafting a business plan? Worry no more! I'm Erin Olson, your personal guide to simplifying this daunting task into digestible and achievable steps. In this episode, we're not just crafting a business plan, we're crafting a roadmap to success.

We break down the complexities of a business plan into eight straightforward sections, discussing everything from identifying your target market to setting your pricing structure. We’ll dive into the importance of having a clear vision, discuss your unique selling points, and even tackle the often intimidating topic of financial projections. Plus, I'll share a free, simple business plan worksheet for you to use. Ready to embark on your entrepreneurial journey? Tune in and let's get your business plan sorted!

Home work:
Fill out the worksheet below:
The Simple Business Plan Worksheet

Resources:
Episode #20 Winning! What does it look like?

Thanks for listening! I'm glad you're here.

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See ya next week!
Erin

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Welcome to the Quality of Life podcast. My name is Erin Olson and I am a businesswoman and mother who has been studying personal growth for over 15 years. I've tried almost all of the habits and hacks out there. My goal is to use my real life experience to show you which tricks and habits make the biggest changes to your quality of life with the least amount of time and energy on your part. We will cover everything from habits to hacks, fitness to family and everything in between. Now let's dive on into today's topic. Hey guys, and welcome back to the Quality of Life podcast. I'm Erin Olson, your host with part two of the series.

Speaker 1: 0:53

So you Want to Start a Side Hustle or Business? In part one, we talked about what a good idea for a business or side hustle could be and asked some questions that might give you some clarity or an idea for something you could start. The homework last week was to get clear on what you can offer others and to write it down. Well, this week is part two of the series. We are going to take your idea and get a simple business plan fleshed out. This step can be so daunting if you let it. So many new entrepreneurs just skip it, and I was one of them. When I took over the handmade soap company, I was in need of a loan to get some much needed equipment and supplies to grow it. The bank was asking for a business plan and I got stumped. I didn't even know there was such a thing. That was back in the year Y2K, and the internet wasn't the plethora of information that it is now. I actually had to go to the library and read a huge book on how to write one. Then, years later, with the hey Chicks, we had entered a contest called the Minnesota Cup. That was a business plan startup competition at the University of Minnesota. So my skills got honed in on writing business plans.

Speaker 1: 2:12

You can make your business plan as simple or as complex as you want to, but I am all about simple and easy. So if you're ready to get super clear on what you know and where you're going, let's get started. So what exactly is a business plan? It's essentially just a document that outlines your business or side hustles, goals and the plans on how to achieve them. It is basically a roadmap for the business, providing you a strategy for its growth and development. Lots of mumbo jumbo. Well, for our purposes, we are going to create this super easy business plan to help you get a vision for how you will make money with your product and service, and it's going to keep you from losing focus when new ideas or distractions come up. So there are eight sections to a standard business plan and, like I said, you can go as deep into the details as you want to, but I suggest you keep it super simple to start.

Speaker 1: 3:12

It's always a good idea to go back and review and update your business plan at least once a year, but sooner if you change the main points. Yeah, I might be thinking, uh, wait a minute, my side hustle is so small, I don't think I need a business plan. But hear me out. Creating a plan for any goal, business or personal, is not only key to increasing your odds that you will actually achieve success, but it will also help you to get clear on some things to help prepare you for the future. With a simple business plan, you can see the target you're aiming for, and a target you can see is so much easier to hit. The Bible even says in Proverbs 29, 18, where there is no plans, the people perish. So to help make this super easy and doable, I have created a worksheet for you called the simple business plan worksheet. You can download it now for free at the Aaron Olsoncom slash plan. I will put that in the show notes as well, so you don't have to write that down right now.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Now let's go through the eight sections of a simple business plan and get your target in sight. Section one, the executive summary, sounds pretty fancy, doesn't it? Well, those words mean that this is just a basic, short summary of your idea. That's it. So here's where you just talk high level about your business. Some would call this an elevator pitch, but seriously, don't overthink it right now. In a few episodes we are going to talk all about your elevator pitch and how to come up with it. So in this video, keep it simple.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Section two is called the business description. Okay, so that one actually makes sense. In this section you are going to talk about your business's values. That's what you stand for, your mission, what you're striving for and your vision. What winning looks like. Check out podcast episode number 20, called Winning. What Does it Look Like? This section also talks about the problem that you solve. It's pretty straightforward, but you can totally get lost in the verbiage, so just jot down what comes to mind when you hear this. There are no wrong answers and you can always come back and revamp this in the future.

Speaker 1: 5:31

Section three is called a market analysis. This is where you take a look at who is your target market, who's going to pay you for your product and service? It helps if you have an actual person come to mind, but if not, write down a few words to describe your perfect customer. This is also where you write down a few of your competitors and what makes you unique, what sets you apart from the others in your market. Don't dwell on the competition too much, but you've got to know who's already doing something similar right.

Speaker 1: 6:05

Section four is called marketing, sales and strategy. So this is all about how are you going to market this and sell it. This is where you decide if you are a door-to-door salesman or if you are going to market it on Facebook, tiktok or Instagram, or if you're going to go do trade shows or having parties, or if you're going to be a person who cold calls people. What is the easiest way to start? Also, how are you going to price your product or service? This is something I didn't give much thought to when I started all of my businesses but, for the sake of starting, write down what you think you'll charge at first, and we will cover pricing in depth in a future episode as well. Section five is your product or service line. This is where you break down your idea a little bit more how your thing meets the needs of your target customers and what future or complimentary goods or services you can offer could be. This is a great place to brainstorm, but, once again, keep it short and sweet.

Speaker 1: 7:11

Section number six talks all about the organization or the management of your business. This is where you talk about who is the company. Is it you or are you partnering up with somebody? Do you need employees of any sort, and how are you or they qualified to run this company? Also, what are the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved? One of the saving graces of my last company, hey Chicks, was that before we ever had a single sale, we discussed how our partnership would work and what our expectations were moving forward. If you have a partner in mind, be sure to talk about the hard stuff before you get in too deep. We will talk about this in a future episode as well, about how to structure your business down the road, but for now, write down what you know for sure.

Speaker 1: 8:05

Section seven is your funding needs. This is what hardly anybody who starts a business talks about. How much is it going to take to get this thing off the ground? How are you going to use those funds, and are you planning to get an investor alone, or are you going to bootstrap it with your own cash? Also, this is where you take a quick look into the future needs and stages of growth, so that you can plan setting up a website, receiving payments, hiring employees or buying equipment to scale it Once again. You could spend months preparing this section, but we are going for simple, so limit yourself to 10 minutes on this. You can always come back if you think of something you want to add.

Speaker 1: 8:54

And finally, section eight is financial projections. Cue the scary music, because financial projections are something that are just really hard to kind of think of when you're first starting out. So this is all about how much do you plan to make in a week, a month and a year? How much do you think your expenses are going to be in those times as well? How will you use your cash flow and are you going to put all of your sales back into the business, or a percentage. When do you think you're going to break even, that is, start making a real profit, and, most importantly, how and when are you going to pay yourself? You're not doing this for charity, so this is definitely something to think about.

Speaker 1: 9:45

So those are the sections to a very basic and simple business plan. It's a lot, I know, but, like I said, so important. So obviously you already know what this week's homework is right. Download the free worksheet at thearronolsoncom slash plan and fill it out with what you know here, what you don't. But seriously, don't spend a lot of time on it. Just flesh it out, get it in writing and if you get hung up on any of the points, just shoot me a DM on Instagram or Facebook and skip it. For now, keep it simple.

Speaker 1: 10:25

Well, guys, I hope this helps you get sight of the target that you're aiming for with your business or your side hustle, and it fires you up. I am so, so, so excited for the next episodes to help you get in business. If you know what I mean. If you know anyone who could be starting a business or who has a side hustle or a business, please share this episode with them because I want to help everybody to not make the mistakes that I did and to help them to be as profitable as possible. Well, guys, I will see you next week on the quality of life podcast. We'll see you later. Bye, thanks for listening to today's episode. Be sure to check us out on the quality of life podcast Facebook and Instagram pages and our website, thearenolsoncom, for downloads and more information. That is T-H-E-E-R-I-N-O-L-S-O-Ncom. Stay up to date by joining our email newsletter. Together, we can improve all of our quality of life.