Your Business Plan starts with your Business Definition. The four components of the Business Definition are:
- Vision
- Mission
- Values
- Business Opportunity
Your Business Plan is the articulation of your Strategy for growing your business. Strategy is the systematic output of the objectives you want to achieve, the resources and capabilities available to you, and the opportunities and challenges the environment provides.
Your Vision Statement describes the systematic output of what you want to achieve. It is in the Business Opportunity section of your Business Plan that you describe how you will take advantage of the opportunities and challenges the environment provides.
You identify your Business Opportunity by answering four questions:
- Where do you make your money?
- How do you spend your time?
- Who do you sell?
- What do you sell them?
In answering the first question, it is important to think about the tasks you perform that drive revenue. A financial advisor makes money by providing financial solutions for clients.
The advisor can make money from the commissions earned through the sale of products or through charging fees for services such as financial planning and asset management. The more time an advisor spends with prospects and clients, the more successful they will be.
When you describe who you sell, you begin with your Ideal Client Profile(s), the demographic and psychographic description of the types of people you want to serve. You also describe the markets within which you work. What you sell explains the products and services you provide.
Your Business Opportunity also highlights the areas of greatest potential in growing your business. These opportunities could include opening up a new market, new product initiatives or a new approach to an existing market.
You describe in two or three paragraphs why your business has a unique opportunity in your chosen market(s). Whether the opportunity is local, national or international depends upon the geographical scope of your business.
If you want to get serious about focusing on strategically building and growing your business, sign up for our upcoming Business Builder Playbook program cohort. When you join, you get access to a peer-to-peer coaching program that gives you a roadmap to grow your business and achieve and sustain peak performance.
