Business Plan – Laying the Foundation

Day Twenty-Three of How to Attract Clients and Grow a Thriving Private Practice in 40 Days: One woman’s personal journey of applying Manifestation and Marketing principles to re-building her private practice

By Kathryn Yarborough

I’m considering writing out a business plan – one that I can use like a map for my business. It can include my one year goals and clear step-by-step directions of how to achieve them.

If you're like a lot of healing arts practitioners and conscious business owners I know, you may not have a business plan or even think you need one.

If that's the case, read on to see why I think having one is a good idea...

I’ve been asking myself the question:

If I’m actually seeing 25 clients a week by Oct. 1, what are the actions I will take and the changes I will make between me today and me on Oct. 1?

One is obvious… between now and then I will have attracted more clients. So between now and then, every week I will be receptive to new clients contacting me and making appointments.

The second thought isn’t so obvious – or at least it wasn’t to me…

...What if I put up the framework and lay the foundation of my business… with a one-year business plan?

Let me tell you how I got to this second thought…

After talking with Judy Schramm of ProResource about setting up a Nurture Marketing program for Breath of Life coaching I was inspired to think about creating a whole year plan.

Nurture marketing is a systematic way of using email or snail mail to stay in touch with prospective and/or current clients. It can help prospective clients become ready to use your services and current clients be open to new services or more likely to refer others to you. (You can find out how to do this well at ProResource and they even help you plan it and provide administrative support to help you do it!)

Prior to this conversation I had never even thought of planning emails a whole year in advance!

After talking with Judy I realized that I’ve had a pattern of behavior of scrambling at the last minute to put things together – new services, marketing, handouts.

I think I’ve done this because I love being creative and generative.

However, it gets in the way of me being able to put up the “framework,” lay the “foundation,” and stick with anything long enough to “paint, decorate, and move in” to my business. In the past I’ve gone from one new idea, service or way of marketing to another and then rushed around to implement it.

What’s different now is that I REALLY want to do Breath of Life Coaching. This work feels like the integration of everything I’ve done in my lifetime and the full flowering of my Purpose at this moment in time.

I REALLY want to fully manifest it.

However...

...I realized that one of my blocks to having 25 client contact hours a week right now is that I feel like there are all these other things that I want to do – like write about this process, design and implement a nurture marketing program, and so much more.

And I thought… what if I could have a marketing and business plan in place that takes into account that I am with clients 25 hours a week and I have other administrative work to do as well? Then I would be free to attract and see the clients.

What if I could have systems in place for all the administrative and marketing tasks I have and want to do – like bookkeeping, copying handouts for workshop participants, tending the center, and writing emails - and a schedule for when I will do them.

That way, I can take a few hours a week to do these tasks and have the rest of my time free to be with clients. And when I’m ready I can hire someone else to do some of them.

With a plan, I wouldn't have to keep figuring out what I'm doing. Instead I could just implement it!

What if I could really have a one-year business plan that would give my business form and structure… like the framework and foundation give a building?

Without a business plan my business could continue to float willy-nilly wherever I feel like going with it on any given day.

The plan could include a one year vision, goals and action steps for the year, and strategies to support the manifestation of the plan. With it I could be clear about what I’m doing for the next 12 months.

Of course I will probably evolve (what creative person wouldn’t?)… yet there is something so soothing and relaxing about having a clear one year plan that in this moment I’m feeling wonderfully reassured.

So over the next few weeks, I intend to write out a one-year business plan and begin implementing it.

By the way, if you're looking for a good book to help you write your Business Plan, I've found a great book for the "creative entrepreneur":

Do you have any questions or comments about business plans?

Share your questions or comments about business plans or why to have one here. If you have a question or comment, you're probably not alone. Your sharing helps all of us grow and learn.