Exercise: Business Plan

Now that you've seen how to create a business plan - do it! I've attached a template here for you to use, but (as always) I'm not a lawyer blah blah blah. An this is what I think about that, friendo.

I know I know! You're probably making a mental note right now thinking “when I'm ready I'll get to this”… but that's not going to cut it. One of the things we need to get used to doing is executing.

That means that you, right now, need to crack open a document somewhere and start writing.

Here's a tip if you don't know what do right now… open up a document in Dropbox Paper. This, to me, is a perfect writing space and one that gets out of your way quickly. You can use Markdown and a bunch of other fun things (like pasting code). So… just do it. If you're a Google Docs fan FINE just open the dang thing and paste this:

## Summary

[COMPANY] will launch on [DATE] and will consist of one person: me. It will provide consultancy services to clients of varying size, with the possibility of selling digital good in the next 3 to 5 years.

## Industry Overview

Think about the niche you're going after and why you're going after it. Write that here, try to make it a solid sentence.

## Products and Services

What are you going to sell? Your time? How? Products? What?

## Market Analysis

Something made you pick this market - what was it and why? Did you see a need for valuable [AWS/Azure/GCP] Cloud Consultants? Maybe you thought people could really use your SQL skills. Just write it down here, no matter how small.

## Marketing Plan

You have to let people know at some point what you're doing so you can get money for it. Is your plan Twitter? Blog? Word of mouth? Write it here.

## Financial Plan

It's going to take a while to make money, so what are you going to do in the mean time? If you give yourself a month to get a contract and get paid, that's an investment. Write that down here: "Investing $2500 initially to get going". From that point, how much do you need to survive each month? What's your bankroll (the amount on hand you have to have) amount to?

## Exit Strategy

This is going to end at some point... either with the sale of the company, you purposely folding it because you wanted to work with other people, or maybe your kids take it over. SPELL IT OUT and think about what that might mean. Again: just a few paragraphs here can make a giant difference in your thinking.
International Concerns
I live in the USA so I have, of course, a bias. You might need to translate this a bit based on what your country allows. Either way: business is business and these things in this plan carry through no matter where you're from.