How to Work from Home: Creating a Business Plan
If you're reading this, you've likely already completed the first step in working from home: Identifying your Needs and Offerings. Now you're ready to move on to creating some kind of basic business plan. This does not need to be complicated, and we recommend you don't make it that way!
A Business Plan is defined by Wiki as: "a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals."
We don't think it has to be so fancy. You're basically wanting to say what you want to get out of your business, how you'll get there, and why it's important to make it. Since reinventing the wheel is dumb (and you're likely NOT a wheel maker, so you'll probably not do as well), we recommend copying someone else's business plan, and adjusting it to fit your needs.
Here are two of my FAVORITE tutorials for creating a small business plan, designed with the work-at-home gal in mind:
- Oprah's step by step guide (including sample PDF's for three businesses: Consulting, Boutique Clothing Company, and a NonProfit.)
- Wise Bread's clever 4 Question Business Plan. (It doesn't get easier than this!)
*Photo by plantoo47 via Flickr.
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