The 2015 business plan

I've been working on my 2015 business plan lately.

I'm going to be making significant changes beginning next year* (probably late spring or early summer), and the plan I'm developing is a major part of it.

In fact, I'm (sort of) developing two business plans for the year since the first portion of the year will be continuing what I'm doing now, and the second portion of the year will be a major shift.

I've never had a "real" business plan, though I've always had objectives and plans to achieve them. But with the shift in my work in 2015 (and what that change will mean from behind the scenes), it's important to have something significantly more formalized.

So I'm working on tweaking my mission statement and value proposition, doing market research, and thinking about all I'm going to need to make this change happen successfully.

I was hopeful that I'd be able to launch the change at the beginning of 2015, but because of all that's involved, later in the year works much better. I'll be able to unveil everything by the end of July.

In the meantime, there's a lot of administrative work going on in between projects for clients, and I'll have my business plan in my files by the end of next month.

Is it time for Thanksgiving break yet?






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*I'm not ready to talk about the change that's coming. Yet. But I will give you a hint: it's going back to doing some of what I loved about the office job I had before I moved back to Florida.

Wrapping up the office for 2011

Photo source:
nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If there's anything I love it's paperwork. (end sarcasm)

Unfortunately, paperwork is necessary even in a paperless office. Of course, by paperwork, I mean all those little administrative things that need to be done like invoicing and updating records and organizing (digital) files. And the next few weeks I'll have to spend some extra time going through all that paperwork-y stuff. It's getting to the end of the year, and I have to close out the office for 2011 and get it ready for 2012. There's not too much more I have to do, but since I'm spreading it out to give myself time to, yanno, do freelance writing, it will take the next few weeks to get done.

This year, I'm also taking the time to write a business plan for 2012. In the past I only had small business plans (more like a list of goals) because while I was technically a full time writer, I was only spending about half my work day doing freelance work. The rest of my time was divided between mommyhood and fiction. This year, though, I hope to grow my freelance career, and the best way to make sure I do that the right way is to have a specific, written business plan that I can turn to as the year goes.

Even if you're not incorporated or doing freelance writing once in a while for extra cash, a business plan is a good idea. It will help keep you accountable to yourself and give you a direction for your career. Having a business plan will help remind me that what I do is, in fact, business, and will help keep me on track for my earning goals throughout the year so I can make sure my son has all the "fruit snackehs" he can eat.

Do you have a business plan? Why or why not? How did you develop it?