How to Create Your Lean Business Plan
When you think of a business plan, you’re probably thinking of a thick binder of a lot of data and spreadsheets. A lean business plan is a simple plan that you revisit every month to make sure you’re on track to meet your business goals.
This simple business plan includes bullet points and just enough information to document and outline the actions needed to achieve the goals in your business.
A lean business plan:
Is a continual process, not just a one-time plan
Assumes constant change
Encourages accountability because what gets measured gets done
Creating a lean business plan helps you stay focused and gives you the ability to implement in small steps. That ensures you will get things done instead of being in a continuous mode of planning.
In this post, I’ll cover how to create your lean business plan for your online business so you know exactly where to focus to achieve your goals.
Why You Should Consider Adding a Digital Product to Your Portfolio
While you’re reviewing your business plan, now is the perfect time to assess and decide if you should add a digital product to your portfolio.
When you’re in a service-based business that may include working one-on-one with a client or doing freelance work, you feel like you have many bosses or are being pulled in too many different directions.
When you incorporate a digital product into your portfolio, such as an online course or membership, this allows you to:
Say no to one-on-one work that you don’t want or letting a client go who is (fill in the blank: verbally abusive, underpaying, doesn't respect your time or the scope of the project)
Have an automated marketing system with a passive revenue stream that brings in revenue without you lifting a finger
To achieve your goal of reducing your reliance on services or freelance work, you need a solid plan in place to transition some of your revenue from services to digital products.
Let’s walk through the five simple steps to create your lean business plan.
5 Simple Steps to Create a Lean Business Plan
Step 1: Define Your Business Strategy
In this step, you will state what makes your business different. In other words, what is your value proposition? What do you do better than anyone else?
A value proposition is a statement that explains why a customer should purchase your product or service over a competitor. It outlines what differentiates you in the market and makes your offer unique.
A value proposition is the value you promise to deliver to your customers post-purchase. It's what makes your products or services appealing to your target audience.
A convincing value proposition looks like this:
I help (insert who you help) (insert how you help them) so they can (insert the transformation your ideal customer achieves).
You’ll also describe your ideal customer. What are their pain points? What do they want to achieve? What do they value?
As a business owner, it's essential to know whom you plan to market to. Not every product or service you provide is going to appeal to everybody. As the saying goes, when you market to everyone, you’re marketing to no one.
Lastly, you’ll outline, in bullet points, your S.M.A.R.T business goals. Think about what you want your business to look like next year or in six months. These S.M.A.R.T goals should be specific, measurable, action-oriented, results-oriented & time-oriented.
Step 2: Outline Your Tactics
To implement strategies, you need to outline your tactics. Tactics are the actions you take to carry out your strategy.
Your business strategies and tactics should be aligned. In other words, you are connecting what you want to accomplish (goals) with the critical activities for every one of your goals.
Tactics can be marketing or product tactics.
For example, if one of your goals is to reduce reliance on done-for-you services and help people who can't afford our done-for-you packages by X date, a product tactic would be to launch a new membership by X date.
If one of your goals is to increase your visibility in the market, an example of a marketing tactic would be to get booked as a guest on five podcasts per month.
Step 3: Determine Your Monthly Focus
“The secret of getting things done is to act!”
To accomplish your goals, you have to act.
For example, if your goal is to increase visibility in the market and get booked on five podcasts each month, you’ll need to pitch 10-20 relevant podcast hosts to accomplish your goal.
Another example may be if your goal is to increase your email list by 100 new email subscribers each month, you’ll need a plan in place to attract these new leads through SEO, paid advertising, or PR outreach.
Examples of actions to take may include posting two new blogs optimized for SEO with the content curated and posted on social media to attract new leads.
Step 4: Prepare Your Financial Forecast
In this step, you will prepare your financial forecast. This sounds harder than it is. You’ll review your accounting system like Wave and pull any pertinent numbers like revenue and expenses. This will give you your history and a baseline to work with.
Next, you will forecast any future known expenses and estimate future revenue. If you plan to add a digital product by X date, you can forecast expected revenue.
The key here is to know your revenue and expenses. If you haven’t been tracking this information, now is the time to start.
Your financial forecast should include the following:
Revenue
Expenses
Profit
Estimated Tax
Take-Home Pay/Invest Back Into Business
Step 5: The Monthly Review Session
Creating a lean business plan isn't something you write once and forget about until the following year's planning season. You will reexamine your lean business plan every single month. It allows you to see what is working, what is not working, and what needs adjusting.
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