Planning your business- Who are you?

I introduced the idea of a business plan for your hand crafted business here. Today, we are gong to start writing one. The first section in every business plan, whether for personal use or to attempt to get funding from outside sources is the business overview. For our purposes, we will be writing a short version of a real overview. This plan is not for the purpose of seeking loans or anything like that, it is to keep you and your business on the right the track. It is for your personal use, but if down the road you wish to write a full plan you will already have the basic frame work.

The first element of the overview is a description of your business. Answer the questions below to begin formulating your own overview.Plans for GLOBAL DOMINATION Artists sketch book by Champignon

1)What is the business? Jewelry, clothing, bath and beauty? Get detailed here. What kind of jewelry? Kids clothing, skirts, high fashion? Just soap, or lotions too?

2) Who's your demographic? Men, women, parents, students, retired people? What is their age range? Income level? Study your competition to get an idea of who you should be marketing to.

3) Who is your main competition? We're not looking for specific names here. If you make soap do you see other artisan soap makers as your main competition, or do you see specialty soaps from the department store counter as your competitors? Think of your demographic. You can have more than one source of competition.

4) Do you have any employees? Is it just you, or do you have a spouse helping out? Mention a little about yourself and your qualifications. This will help you see yourself as a true business person and not just someone who sells stuff.

5)Do you need insurance? Do you have it? What about licenses or permits? List them here.

6) Why are you opening this business? As a part time job? Full time career? To make a profit or to donate proceeds to a non profit? To grow your business into a huge company or to stay a small operation? Be truthful here. You can always change it later as your business and your dreams evolve.


Now take everything you wrote above and arrange it into coherent sentences. You don't want to be trying to decipher your shorthand and run on sentences six months from now! If you want, you can type it up and print it out on nice paper, or you can make a back-up and just keep a digital file. Just keep it somewhere safe, because before this series is done, I will give you some more tips on how to use it for years to come.

Next week we'll go over the second section, The financial information. We'll also cover some ideas on creative debt free funding!