This year is quickly coming to a close. That means you should be asking yourself a very important question, whether you have already started your freelance bookkeeping business or not.
What will your financial and business situation be next year at this time? Do you know?
I do.
No, I’m not psychic. But I do have a plan. And this is the time of year when I revise my business road-map, pointing me to the destination I want to visit in my business by this time next year.
Every year during the “slow” holiday season, I carve out some time for myself and envision where I will be next year; what my life will look like, and how it will be different than it is today. I acknowledge the progress I’ve made over the past 12 months, seeing how far I’ve really come. Then I set my course for the next year, capturing the specifics in writing. I type up my plans in Word, and keep the printed pages in a binder for easy reference.
Am I talking about a business plan? In a general sense, yes. But my belief is that your business plan should take on the format that works best for you, otherwise you’ll never use it. But it should be down in writing (not just in your head).
The only exception to that rule is if you need to secure funding from an outside source, such as an SBA loan, to get your business running. Then, you do need to follow a specific format. For our purposes though, I’m assuming that is not your situation.
Start With The Big Picture
You’ve probably been thinking about your business and trying to imagine what it will be like once you are “successful.” Great! Now let’s get specific about what (reasonable) success for you will look like in just 12 months time.
Start by answering these questions:
- How much do you expect to make by the end of the year?
- Which types of services will be your primary revenue generators?
- What will your work schedule be like?
If you don’t already know what you want in these areas, guess. We will refine what is realistic for you as we go along. But you’ve got to start somewhere. And it is a lot more fun to just say what you want first. Then worry about how you can actually make it happen later. Don’t worry, your plan will not just be a pipe-dream. I’m just trying to stop you from thinking too small.
So before we go on, take some time for yourself over the next week or so and think about what you really want your business to be like by December 31, 2008. Visualize it. Then write it down. This is your plan, so include whatever detail you want at this point. This is just your first draft at the big picture stage. Have fun with it!
As always, if you have questions, ask them. But for now I want you to just commit to paper what you want and think you can achieve over the next 12 months (without fussing about the obstacles yet).
By the way, this is a great exercise to see how much you think you can get done in a certain amount of time at a gut level. That is a skill worth developing, especially since you will be juggling multiple client projects in the future and will need to know what your capacity is so you can set realistic deadlines. So start honing that skill now!
Then we’ll take the next step in building a plan that will get you into action and on your way quickly. It’s a lot easier to get where you’re going when you’ve got a map. So get to work on your 2008 business map this week!
Source: business plan
