This might be an unpopular opinion but often when there are complaints about a market being too “saturated” or “crowded” … I actually think it’s because business owners are frustrated that they are not getting in front of the clients that they want to work with … and it is slightly easier to blame an industry than to do the hard work itself.
Sorry if I ruffled a few feathers there but hear me out! I think the majority of small business industries is technically overflowing with “competitors”, unless you are doing something waaaay niche and never been thought of before. From photography to calligraphy, authors to artists … creativity is a gift that just keeps on giving. And one of the main reasons we think our industry is saturated is because that’s where we spend most of our time in! With that said, we are currently at an all-time high for small businesses being created every day and truth be told – the algorithms are unfortunately never really “on our side” so it’s up to us to come out with a creative solution and stand out.
So today, I want to share my three secrets for showing up and standing out in your industry!
Shift your mindset
Someone once told me that “competition only exists if we are doing the same thing as everyone else”.
My jaw dropped.
How honest was that? We are all individual and unique creators bringing different gifts and skills to this world. There is no two of us that are the exact same even though we might be doing a similar role. At the end of the day, we might be given the same tools, but how we choose to use them differs from one another.
Think of it this way… when you walk down the streets of downtown, you probably see a dozen or so restaurants all on the same block, and a few dozens more surrounding them. If Romeo decided not to chase after his dreams of opening his Italian restaurant because Alberto across the street started a few years ahead of him… we wouldn’t be blessed with the local culinary scene that’s in our cities.
You are NOT competing with anyone else in your industry – in fact, they are your friends, your peers, and the only people that understand what you are going through. The only competition you have is with yourself. At the end of the day, we are all our own individuals with unique lived experiences and personalities. That’s why it’s so important to embrace every single part of who you are and define what makes you authentically stand out in your industry.
Remember… it’s never fun being a second rated version of someone else. Be YOU and the magic will follow. Shift your mindset, step away from the comparison game, and stay true to who you are.
Invest in branding
Once you are able to shift our mindset to realizing the endless amount of potential that you have, the next step is to invest in branding.
Branding WILL help you stand out in a so-called “saturated market” because it highlights the uniqueness that you bring to the industry and the impact that you want to make. Many business owners assume branding is just a logo, a cohesive color palette, and some fonts paired together. But branding is so, so, so much more than that. While the visuals are important – the subconscious behind branding is absolutely significant and plays a vital role in your business.
Expanding on our example from before – while Romeo and Alberto both own and run their own Italian restaurants, what they offer is completely different from flavour to operations. Alberto’s recipes are homemade, authentic, and bringing the flavours of his grandmother’s kitchen to his customers… while Romeo is actually serving a high-end fusion menu that blends in flavours from Italy, France, and Canada. They are two completely different styles, flavours, and audience … meaning the marketing and branding for both restaurants are as different night and day!
Working with a brand strategist can help you uncover the magic behind your brand through voice, positioning, personality, value proposition, and more. A brand strategist is trained to research, problem-solve, and analyze the current market and design a brand that makes you stand out. They also have an objective view of your industry and competitors that you could have never seen before because they aren’t “in your head” every single day.
If you want to get a head start, ask yourself these questions:
What do you want to be known for?
How do you want your clients to feel when they interact with your brand?
What is the #1 thing that you do that your audience needs that your competition doesn’t provide to them?
Deliver A Memorable Client Experience
With a clear direction, a positive mindset, and a strategic brand in place – it’s time for you to bring it all to life through delivering a memorable client experience.
Remember that saying by Maya Angelou? People won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.
Having a solid client experience from beginning to end IS delivering value in itself. At the end of the day, we are all humans and on the same time. We want to feel heard, seen, and valued. Your clients are the same way! By making sure they are taken care of at each stage of the project, you are making them feel important and that every dollar spent is being valued.
Sending out a proposal, contract, with a few emails in between is NOT a client experience. Unfortunately, there are business owners who do not see the value in providing a memorable experience simply because they want to save a few bucks. But going that extra mile to send your client a welcome packet or a Starbucks gift card during a meeting can make all the difference. How ever you decide to go above and beyond supporting your client’s business will speak to your character as a business owner and will allow you to stand out like the shiny gold star that you are in your industry.
To me, a saturated market is sometimes just an excuse our imposter syndrome makes for us and it’s time we squash that one down. While there might be a lot of business owners doing the same job as you are, it doesn’t mean they are performing or delivering value the way that you can. If there is “saturation” in your industry, that must mean the service (or product) that you are offering has been validated and that there is A LOT of demand for it. Use that as an advantage! The business industry will keep growing and evolving everyday… and it’s up to us to show up authentically and put in the hard work. Don’t worry about what Karen or Nancy are doing next door, tend to your own garden and it will flourish like no other.
As a business owner, profitability is your ultimate goal. And identifying the most profitable activities within your business is key to driving growth, maximizing you revenue and ensuring long-term success.
In this episode, we talk about:
Why you need to focus on revenue-generating activities
How to identify which tasks you need to let go so that you can focus on the tasks that are actually going to make you money
The activities guaranteed to generate income in your business
There is a very practical shift you can make that is guaranteed to make you thousands of dollars. And yes, I can actually say that this is a guaranteed strategy and I can wholeheartedly promise you that if you do actually implement this, and stay consistent with it, then you will 100% increase your revenue and make a lot more sales than you’re currently making.
Are you ready for the strategy?
You need to focus more of your time on revenue-generating activities. I’m going to say it again. You need to focus more of your time on Revenue. Generating. Activities.
That is how you’re going to increase your sales, increase your profit and grow your business. By focusing on revenue-generating activities. It really is that simple.
But what exactly does that mean? Well, not all tasks within your business are created equal. If you were to look back at all of the tasks you’ve completed for your business over the past week, I’m sure you’ll find that you’ve spent a lot of time on things that don’t actually drive revenue or move the needle forward within your business.
In fact, let’s do an activity right now.
ACTION STEP: Uncovering your most (& least) profitable business activities
Over the next week, I want you to…
1. Write a list of every business related activity you do throughout the week
Include absolutely everything! Even down to the 5 minutes you spend checking and responding to emails each morning.
2. At the side of each task, ask yourself how that specific task is contributing to your business growth.
Is that task making you money? If that task is directly making you money then that should be a number one priority.
For example, a task that directly makes me money is creating valuable content that educates my audience on what they need to know, understand and believe about my offers before they purchase. This is a number one priority within my business because I know that it’s going to convert to sales.
As the business owner, founder, CEO… whatever you call yourself… the majority of your time should be spent on activities that are going to make you money. Any task that doesn’t directly make you money should be lower on the priority list.
An example of the activities that are going to bring you revenue are things like…
Creating high-value content that’s going to serve your audience
Building your email list
Collaborating with other business owners to reach a wider audience
Creating an affiliate or referral program
Nurturing and connecting with your current audience
Optimizing your offer suite
Creating an order bump or tripwire product
Sharing behind-the-scenes content about your offers and processes
And, of course, actually SELLING
There are sooo many things that are going to generate revenue for your business.
Now that you’re aware of what a needle moving activity is and what’s going to generate profit for your business, make sure to go back and do the earlier activity.
Remember, you will never get the results you want without taking action. Without completing tasks like this. Without actively committing to working on your business growth.
And this isn’t about adding more to your plate. This is about identifying where you’re wasting time with activities that aren’t moving the needle forward and aren’t generating profit, and replacing them with actual revenue-generating activities.
As entrepreneurs, we get so caught up in the busy work. We want to feel productive and so we find more and more things to add to our to-do lists. But a lot of the time, the activities we fill our to-do list with are just busy work. They’re things that distract us from focusing on the revenue-generating activities and actually moving the needle forward.
If you can commit to focusing more of your time on revenue-generating activities over the next quarter, I guarantee that you are going to increase your profit. You are going to make more sales. You are going to sign more clients.
ACTION STEP: Carve out time each morning for your business boosting activity
If you’re a regular listener of the podcast, you might have heard of something I do in my own business called a Business Boosting Activity. If you’ve never heard me talk about this before, this is basically a section of my day where I commit to doing at least one activity that’s going to move my business forward.
I carve out at least 60 minutes every single morning, before I do any client work, before I start working on my to-do list for the day. And during this time, my sole focus is on revenue-generating activities.
This is a daily non-negotiable within my business and it has helped me grow my business so much over the past few years because I am prioritizing my business growth every day. I’m not getting distracted by other tasks or running out of time for the most important tasks because I haven’t prioritized them. I am committed to getting 1% closer to my goals each and every day because it’s the first thing I do when I get up in the morning.
This is something I encourage all of my clients to do – it’s also something I want to highly encourage you to do! I promise, when you commit to this, you will see so much growth.
There’s plenty of positive aspects to entrepreneurship… getting to do work you love, setting a schedule that works for you and your ideal schedule, the possibility of making a tangible impact on the people and society around you… but unfortunately, thrills don’t pay the bills.
There’s also a feast or famine cycle that’s inherent to the small business owner lifestyle. One month you’ll have so much work you’re struggling to keep up, and the next you’ll be digging for pennies under the couch cushions.
But just because this happens to “everyone” doesn’t mean that you have to play along with the game. With a little bit of thought and sustained effort, you can keep your client stream consistent.
How to get a consistent stream of clients:
1. Promote yourself regularly.
It’s challenging to think about the “next” thing while you’re engrossed in current client projects, but it’s important to look ahead in your calendar. Don’t wait until you’ve wrapped up that big project or ended a contract before you start looking around for the next one.
You’ll be more confident about promoting yourself and taking on projects suited to you if you start looking before you hit that couch-scavenging stage.
Try plugging your e-newsletter on a weekly basis through your social media feeds.
Share testimonials from happy clients on social feeds and in your newsletters.
Share snippets of your working life… nothing confidential, obviously, but enough to let people know you’re actively engaged with projects.
Heck, you can even announce that you’ve got client openings for the summer/two months out/etc, and invite people to book a chat with you.
Remember, people need to be reminded that you exist. It may feel icky to promote yourself so bluntly, but people only see about 1/18th of your posts (and take action on even fewer of them).
2. Maintain good relationships with past clients.
It’s always good to check in with your past clients — especially the ones you really loved working with. This doesn’t have to be a “Hey, I’m looking for work,” sort of email, but simply a friendly, “I was thinking about you and was wondering how things are going!”
You never know when they might have a new project to work on, and keeping in touch keeps you top-of-mind when their colleagues are looking for someone to hire.
Pro tip: If you collect their contract information (email, phone number, address) in your contract, it makes it super simple to follow up later with a card or a note.
3. Make it easy-peasy to contact you.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… make it easy to get in touch with you! Don’t bury your booking link or contact info three pages deep on your website. (And definitely stop doing these other things that are driving your potential clients away.)
Busy entrepreneurs can’t waste 30 minutes looking for your email address. Make it super simple for them to send you a message, tell you what their project is, and get information about how you work.
4. Shoot for quality, not quantity.
The worth of your work is not in how much you churn out, but in the results you get for your clients. This applies no matter what you’re doing… whether it’s a gorgeously handcrafted wedding dress that makes the bride feel amazing, a gallery of family photos where Mom feels good about how she and her kids look, or webcopy that turns readers into customers and gets all the likes and shares.
Do your best work, and the results will do the talking for you. Follow through on the expectations you and your client talked about in your discovery call and outlined in your contract. People who do good work are hard to find, and your reputation will spread.
5. Generosity is not a short sighted act.
There’s a fine line between giving away all your hard work, and giving enough away so that a potential client has a good idea of your knowledge and professionalism. Some entrepreneurs, especially newbies, can struggle with undercharging and giving away too much of their time, and that’s not what I’m talking about here.
Being generous with your knowledge through blog posts, free webinars, and answering questions in public forums can reinforce your position as an expert in your field. Once people realize they can trust your expertise, they’ll start hiring you to meet their needs.
This post should really be called “How to find your first paying client within 30 days”, because honestly? It’s not just about launching a business, it’s about finding paying clients … otherwise you don’t even have a business!
For someone who’s been in the industry for 10 years, and who launched her business before social media was so integrated into our daily lives (I know, I can’t remember what that was like, either 😂), this question really made me think long and hard about how I would do this myself if I had to.
Day 1:
Who Do You Want To Help?
Figure out who you want to help in your business in DETAIL. I mean right down to what time does she get up in the morning to what secret snack does she eat before bed.
What does she / he do? Where did she go to school? Is she married or not? Kids or fur babies? Her hobbies? Her interests? What are her pain points?
You need to know how your client thinks and how she acts so you can predict what she’ll want that’s worth paying you for.
95% of the time, the person you want to help is who YOU were 1, 2, or even 5 years ago. If your business is based off of turning your mess into your message, think about what you were struggling with and how you felt when you had that particular problem that you want to help others with now.
Days 2-5:
Ideal Client Detective Work
Now that you know who you want to help, ASK THAT PERSON DIRECTLY what they want! Don’t sit there guessing!!! Find people who fit the description of your ideal client, and ask them what they want help with, what they struggle with, and what they’ve paid for in the past.
2 great ways to do this are:
Put up a post on social media asking for input; and
Stalking specific Facebook groups that are full of your ideal client (look at what questions have been posted, what answers have been given, and also how they react to those answers).
When you put up a post asking for input, be specific. Make a nice (free!) graphic in Canva that’ll grab their attention, and in the caption say:
Here’s an example post:
“Are you a busy, high-powered professional Mom aged 25-35 with young children who struggles with crappy sleep, low energy, and sugar cravings? Then I want to hear from you!
I’m doing some research for my new business that’ll help me figure out to help YOU in the best way possible.
Click the link below to answer 10 short questions about your work/life balance (what balance, am I right?!) and how you get through the day as the superwoman you are:
[Insert link]
I know your time is SUPER valuable, so I’m doing a draw for a Lululemon gift card. If you complete the 10 questions by Friday, you’ll be entered to win this $100 prize!
While you’re waiting for your ideal clients to answer the questionnaire, do lots of stalking and creeping online!
It can feel tempting to skip this step and go directly to social media, but the more you put into this business foundation, the more time, effort, and heartache you’ll save over the next year.
Days 5-10:
Get on Social Media
Start a Facebook page and Instagram account, and start adding valuable content that speaks directly to that person. It doesn’t ALL have to be around just their health issue, some of it can be fun, too!
I’d post once, or even twice daily if you want to REALLY jumpstart your business, and you can pick a different content focus for each day.
For example, Tuesday can be Q+A Tuesday. Write a post sharing that you’re doing live Q+A’s in your InstaStories. Just before your regular post is published, put up an InstaStory with the Q+A function that they now have, and just answer questions for free throughout the next 24 hours to show them that you know what you’re talking about!
When I say valuable content, I mean tips, tricks, and strategies that are so good, you’d include them in a paid program.
Those recipes you’re hoarding? Share them. Those things you recommend to people, and they tell you that they’re life changing? SHARE THEM. You’re not going to grow your business by keeping all your best knowledge to yourself.
You have to show people that you’re an expert by sharing your expertise.
So give freely of yourself, and watch people give freely from their wallet right back at you in the next few weeks.
By the way, being an expert doesn’t mean you talk in fancy, long, smarty pants words that no one understands. Expertise means that you’re not only smart (because I already know you are), but also that you are capable of leading people to create meaningful change that they can actually DO. Be relatable, share real life examples, and show them that you’re walking the walk right along with them.
Days 10-20:
Start an Email List
After you’ve spent some time getting to know your ideal client in theory, through questionnaires, and in real life on social media, start putting together some sort of challenge (it doesn’t have to be long at all) or high value opt-in for them. You want their email addresses so that you own their info and are not totally dependent on social media algorithms to reach your potential clients.
A high value opt-in could be a 7, 21, or 30 day challenge, or it could be a mini-cleanse, meal plan, or even an entire cookbook. It could even be a series of 7 days of live videos on social media! The point is:
Don’t be stingy with your freebies!
People don’t give out their emails as easily as they did a few years ago, and you have to provide them with something truly spectacular for them to be willing to part with their privacy and their time (because reading emails takes time, and most people are SO overwhelmed by their inboxes).
To collect their emails, you need to set up a landing page, which is offered with most email marketing programs for free. No need for a fancy website, you don’t have time for that yet! But you can still collect email addresses before you get around to that.
During these 10 days while you’re creating your freebie and building your landing page, share sneak peeks on social media to get your audience excited about it! Yes, that means that while you’re working your little butt off behind the scenes, you still have to be present on social media. Welcome to the world of owning a business in 2018.
You could even build the landing page FIRST, and share on social media that you have something exciting coming that they can sign up to right now and get it when you’re done in the next few days. On Facebook, you can link up the landing page right in the post. On Instagram, change the link in your profile to this landing page.
Post about this upcoming freebie at least 3 times a week, which might feel like a lot, but remember that only a small percentage of the people who are following you actually see your posts (thanks, social media algorithms!).
It’s estimated that only 3% of your audience sees your content at any given time, so chances are that when you post multiple times in one week about your freebie (or even every day), you’re not repeating the same thing to the same people, but hopefully it’s reaching new followers of yours who raised their hand to your awesomeness in the first place.
Days 20-25:
Design Your Paid Program
One of the fastest ways to create a real income is through a paid 1-1 program. Yes, you could do a digital, online product (like a meal plan or cookbook), but you can really only sell those for $25-$50, maybe $100 if you’re pushing it.
Yes, you could design an online program, but that’s going to take you months of preparing for, and this post is about getting your first paying client in 30 days. Plus, if you’ve never actually worked with clients, you don’t yet know what works and what doesn’t, so I would hate for you to invest months in building an online program that might not sell or even work because you haven’t tested it out with actual people.
So, a paid 1-1 program it is … but first you’ve got to design it! You already had your ideal client tell you exactly what she/he wants, now create it.
P.S. you can use the same steps to create a group program, it would just be priced a little lower, since the participants aren’t getting as much 1-1 time from you.
Here’s another little secret: you don’t have to have everything created for your signature program before you start taking clients and accepting payment! When you offer a 3 or 6 month program, you only need to have the first month’s content done before you start … and if you’re really brave (and don’t have kids that will get sick and inevitably throw your schedule into chaos), you don’t have to have ANYTHING but your program outline done before you sell it.
That’s actually the best way of testing a program or product without investing dozens or hundreds of hours into it: Create an outline, market it for a few weeks at a discount for the first few who trust you enough to jump on board when you’re just starting, and THEN create the program once people buy it.
Be upfront, share that it’s a new program and you want to co-create it with their input, and offer them a 50% discount. You’ll have some really good guinea pigs, they’ll give you great feedback AND (hopefully) testimonials that you can share to sell more of your program, and you’ll create some quick income on something that you’re now sure will sell … because it has.
It doesn’t matter how amazing you think your program is, if your customers and clients don’t see the value in it, it’s not worth much, if anything.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spent dozens of hours creating something that never sold, and it’s a double waste because I can never get that time back AND I could have been creating something else that could have been successful, had I sat back and listened to my customers.
You’ll never regret this testing period, because it’ll either mean the end of something that was going to waste your time anyways OR the beginning of the most epic, life saving program for your future customers. Either way, it’s a win-win!
Days 25-30:
Get Your First Paying Clients
For most of us entrepreneurs, creating programs is the fun part. Breaking apart a problem and outlining the solution feels like you’re truly helping someone …. but not if no one knows how awesome your program is!
You know what I was missing the first 5 years of my business, the thing that YOU should be spending 80% of your time on?
MARKETING
Sounds like kind of a sleazy word, right? Or something that you just don’t need to do? When I first set up my nutrition practice, my marketing could be summed up in this one sentence:
If you build it, they will come.
If I just opened up my office, the right people who needed my help would magically find it, right? I would get referrals from all the other health practitioners in the area, since I was one of the first nutritionists in my city, right? Wrong. Ugh, so wrong!
What I didn’t know is that all those other health practitioners? 95% of them are struggling to pay their own bills, so why would they send a potential client or customer to me when they could try and help them themselves?
And marketing according to the tactics in the movie “The Secret” really don’t work (i.e. just imagine yourself driving a Ferrari, and it’ll happen someday!). Turns out, you have to actually DO something to grow your business. I don’t know how I didn’t know this in the beginning (🤦🏻♀️), but it’s because I was taught to be a nutritionist, NOT a business owner … and that’s OK! But now I know better.
If the word “marketing” is scary to you, let’s not call it that. Let’s call it “telling other people about your business”. There, that’s not so scary, right? But how do you actually do this?
That email list that you’re working so hard to grow? Let’s use it for the first time by telling them about your new program!
I don’t have any sort of script for this, you simply write from the heart, share who your program is for, why you made it, what the outline is, and then tell them that you’re opening up X number of spots (3, 5, or whatever you want) for a discount (your choice, 50% off, 30% off, whatever feels good to you) in exchange for them being the first to try it. Put a deadline on the discount, trust me, people need a little bit of pressure to make a decision.
Oh, and share the details on social media, too. It’s usually harder to sell directly from social media (in my experience), especially if your program is higher priced, but what it IS good for is reminding your email list – who didn’t necessarily read your email – of the details and that your special discounted price is ending on a certain date.
This is what I did the first time I launched my Brand, Build, Blog course, and it went over SO well. I let the first students know that I was still creating the course when they bought it, so it wasn’t 100% done, but it would be by a certain date (spoiler alert: I had yet to create ANY of the online lessons! I had an outline, but that was it 😬).
So yes, it IS possible to create hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of income by the end of 30 days when you’re launching your business! This 30 day plan is not for the faint of heart, but it will create true momentum in your business, plus some much needed income, in the fastest way possible.
Now I know that this is only a plan for 30 days, and you want your business to be around for much longer than that, so I made a plan for your entire first YEAR of your business to get you off the ground in the shortest time possible.
If you’re in business for yourself or are thinking of starting your own business, you probably want to know how to run a successful business, right?
You might be even wondering what makes a business successful compared to all of those businesses that fail within the first few months or years of starting. (According to the Small Business Administration, over 50% of businesses don’t make it past their first five years!)
I want to make sure you’re part of the 50% that succeeds.
Let’s start learning.
What makes a business successful?
The definition of a successful business is a business that grows in the long-term and is profitable.
To me, success means freedom.
So, when you ask: “When is a business considered successful?”
My answer is that a business is successful when:
It keeps making money
Your clients or customers are happy
You get to live the life you’ve always dreamed of
Now, let’s learn how to make ALL of that happen.
10 ways to grow a successful business
What are the strategies to grow a profitable business?
It comes down to a combination of different things.
Let’s explore my top 10 ways to make a successful business.
1. The right business idea
Let’s start with some good news:
To run a successful business, you don’t need to come up with the next Amazon or viral social media app.
What you NEED is a business idea that helps you build your business as fast as possible and offers real value to a specific target market.
There are many different possible business models. But when you’re just starting out, coaching or consulting are a great choice.
They’re profitable and simple to start — no need for major funds.
In fact, you could most likely start TODAY. That’s because you already know things that others will pay for.
Here’s how you can figure out what that is:
Write down things you’re good at.
Think about what people often ask you.
For example, maybe friends frequently ask you about your cooking skills? Or perhaps they’re curious about your amazing public speaking skills?
This helps you find out what you can sell — your business idea.
Need a few examples?
Here are some ideas my clients have come up with within the coaching space:
Relationship coaching
Career coaching
Marketing and sales consulting
Health coaching
Brand consulting
Spiritual coaching
Of course, starting a coaching business isn’t the only option.
Here are some ideas for other business models:
Freelancing: Offer specific skills or services on a project basis. Think of graphic design or content writing.
A creator or influencer: Build a following and monetize your content or promotions. You could become a YouTube vlogger or an Instagram fashion influencer.
E-commerce business: Sell physical products, such as funny T-shirts or home fitness equipment.
Selling online courses: Sell your knowledge or skills in a structured format. For example, you could offer a digital photography course or baking tutorials.
Subscription/Membership model: Offer exclusive content or products for a recurring fee. Ideas: monthly gourmet boxes or an exclusive writing club.
Apps: Create tools or platforms for mobile or desktop use, like a workout tracker or a recipe suggestion app.
There are MANY ways to start.
You just have to figure out what’s right for you.
The next element you need to have in place are goals.
Let’s take a look at them.
2. Goal setting
To run a highly successful business, you need a map. And that map comes in the form of clear goals.
By setting the right goals, you success-proof your business and get rid of a lot of unnecessary worries.
Sure, you can’t plan for everything. But you can be prepared.
According to research, there are other good reasons to have business goals. For example, studies show that they:
Provide motivation to do the work
Help avoid wasting time on things that don’t matter
Increase persistence and reduce the likelihood of giving up
For this to happen, you need to set the right goal.
For example, “I want to make a lot of money this year” is NOT a good goal.
I like big goals. But if you make a goal without a plan to reach it, it’s just a dream.
Instead, you might set a goal of “making a steady amount of money every month.”
Some other good first-year goals are:
Think of a business idea (see above)
Set up a solid business plan
Get your first customers (see step 6)
Collect your first three testimonials
The best goals make you a little nervous, while still being within reach.
3. An entrepreneurial mindset
What are some characteristics of a successful business owner?
Besides a great business model, the MOST successful business owners have another thing in common: they have an entrepreneurial mindset.
This is the KEY to a business that thrives.
In fact, not having it is the reason why so many businesses fail.
Challenges and problems will come up in business. If you can’t handle them and take action, your business won’t last long.
Studies show that our brain often tricks us into focusing on the setbacks rather than the wins. This is called a negativity bias.
Luckily, our mindset is flexible. We can change how we think.
When you learn to see more opportunities instead of roadblocks, you’re likely to push through challenges. You start to believe success isn’t just for others but for you too.
After having learned this myself through trial and error, I now pass this entrepreneurial mindset .
This is the difference between those who dream of success and those who actually achieve success:
4. Leadership skills
To build a successful business, you need to be a leader. Here’s why:
Building a team
As your business grows, you can’t do everything by yourself.
That’s where a team comes in.
According to Gallup, one of the top reasons people leave a job is their boss. Good leadership skills help you pick and keep the right team members.
The best leaders don’t just assign tasks; they inspire and lead by example. Like when a deadline is tight, they’ll stay late with the team, motivating them and making them feel valued.
Planning for the Future
Leaders think about what’s next. They have a vision and big plans, and they tell their team about them. This helps everyone work towards the same goals.
Research shows that when everyone understands the goals, businesses do better. It connects employees to the company’s mission and lets them see their part in it.
Leading yourself
Being your own boss means there’s no one above you setting the pace or direction — it all comes down to you.
So, even before leading a team, you need to lead yourself.
This means staying disciplined without a boss and constantly learning.
5. The right systems
To run a highly successful business, you need to have the right systems.
Now, if you’re just starting out in your business, maybe this isn’t something you need to worry about today.
But this is something you absolutely should be thinking about as soon as possible, because a true business is a system.
In other words, your business doesn’t depend on any one person to continue running.
Besides, you didn’t start your business so you’d have to work on it 24/7 in order to make sales, right?
What are the core principles of your business?
To do this, you have to identify what the core pieces of your business are.
You also need to document them so that if you or someone on your team were to take a day off or step away from the business, the business would still run without you.
I know that this can feel really overwhelming, so what I usually recommend is not necessarily to create a massive organizational chart with all your systems at once. (Although you’re probably going to do that at some point).
Start with listing out the top five most frequent things that you and your team members do in your business.
They can be a list of:
Common customer support questions
Things you do frequently, like setting up and sending a newsletter, or maybe posting on one of your social media platforms
This way, you can knock out the most common tasks first.
Once you get some quick wins with your systems process setup, then you can move on to the long-term process of documenting and systematizing everything.
In terms of what to use to document your business processes, you can use Google Docs.
What systems should you use in your business?
Now, let’s talk a little bit about the main categories of systems that you need to have in your business.
These also happen to be the other elements that are critical to running a successful business, so we’ll be talking about what these are throughout the rest of this tutorial.
I can’t take credit for how I’m going to break out the systems for you, because although I’ve been doing this in my business for quite a while, I didn’t realize how they were falling into certain categories until after I read Mike Michalowicz’s book Clockwork.
I highly recommend that you check that out the next time you’re looking for a good book on really streamlining your business.
More specifically, the systems you’ll want to have in place are a:
Lead generation system
Sales mechanism system
Delivery system
Money collection system
Finance tracking system
Let’s first take a look at lead generation.
6. Lead generation
Lead generation is one of the critical system categories.
In other words, how are you attracting new potential clients to your business?
At this point in my business, we have many, many sources of traffic that delivers us leads on a daily basis…
We have partnerships with businesses that have audiences that are complementary to ours and help promote us.
In addition, we sometimes write articles for great publications that drive their audience to us.
We also focus on driving traffic through lots of other channels like our Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram accounts.
Not only that, but we also have content on the blog to help people find us via organic search as well.
Here’s how I did start…
From day one, I kept in mind what I just shared with you — that these were going to be systems as soon as possible.
So I thought, all right, I’m going to do a combination of the most powerful organic channels for my business first.
And I’m going to combine that with paid traffic because that’s going to allow me to both connect with people organically as quickly as possible while also generating traffic as consistently as possible.
This way, I’m starting to build an audience AND set that consistent foundation to really drive people to me in my business all the time.
For me, with my business, that number one social media platform was Facebook groups. Following a simple, daily marketing plan in Facebook groups, I was able to manually generate a lot of leads for my business and build solid relationships with future clients.
Aside from that, I ran traffic via Facebook ads. We also tested and continue to test lots of different platforms, but Facebook was our #1 paid traffic source.
Once I had those two systems in place, I knew I had that consistent foundation of traffic and sales coming in.
I wouldn’t have to be worried in my business about making money or driving leads today in order to keep the lights on, or having to be worrying about the feast and famine cycle that so many small business owners go through.
That made a massive difference.
With a consistent income basis, I was able to go out there and slowly build up all of my other traffic sources over the years without worrying about revenue.
Build up your lead generation funnel the right way
That’s something that I recommend for the majority of my clients as well, so that you can have one traffic source that provides that consistency first, and then layer your other traffic sources on top of that.
If you try to do too many at once, you’ll get overwhelmed and burnt out and nothing good comes from that, which is why I recommend doing it this way.
A note of warning though — make sure you’re not “wasting” those leads by adding the next element as soon as possible to your business…
Now, what most people do at this point is that they sit back and say, “Great, now I know how to run a successful business.”
But not so fast. There are still a few more steps we need to look at.
7. A sales mechanism
The next element that you have to have is a sales mechanism. Something that automatically converts those leads that you’re now generating into customers.
Because you don’t want to have to just hope and pray for someone to find your sales page and buy from you, right? You have to have a system for doing that.
For us, my favorite way is through automated webinars. In fact, we drive almost all of our traffic through our free automated master classes.
Having these automated webinar systems allows us to automate our conversion process so that we’re making sales every single day without me having to be personally involved.
Once you’ve got that going, can you guess what’s next?
8. Delivery of your products or services
It’s delivery. Because after you make the sale, you have to deliver on the product that you just sold.
As you can see, having a support system allows us to have any one person step away from the business for whatever reason (like a much-needed vacation!) and still have us be able to deliver an amazing customer service experience.
That’s what the delivery process looks like.
This is something that way too many new business owners don’t focus enough on or think about when they’re starting out — how to scale and systematize that delivery process.
But here’s the thing, when you’re in a service-based business, you have to lead with that support, that delivery.
You can’t grow the front of your business, the leads, the conversions, and the sales, and then think, “Okay, I’ll figure out how to catch up in my delivery once I’ve made more sales.”
This is something where as soon as someone buys, they’re going to expect that service, and if it’s not good, you’re not going to continue making sales. That’s why this piece is so important to be thinking about from day one.
Next, moving on to possibly the most important piece to the survival of your business…
9. Money collection
The fourth element, which again a lot of newer entrepreneurs don’t think about, is the money collection.
You are doing an awesome job attracting leads, you are making sales, you are delivering the best service and product possible, and… you need to get paid for it!
The ONE thing you have to set up right now
First, if you don’t have an automated order process, you need to set that up ASAP.
You should have a system that automatically charges your clients, so you’re not waiting for them to pay you every month when they feel like it.
The two systems I recommend for doing this are PayPal or Stripe.
What to do when someone defaults on their payments
Once you have that taken care of, you still have to realize that there are going to be people who need help updating their credit cards or billing information. Or people who may default on their payments, so you have to go and collect those payments.
(This is all just part of being in business! It’s not about being desperate or mean, or bad, it’s just hey, you’re delivering an awesome product and you need to be paid for it.)
We have systems that automatically send out emails when someone’s monthly payment doesn’t go through. They’ll get a few emails, and then, if after a certain number of days, they still haven’t updated their billing information, they’re going to get a call from someone on our team.
After that, they’re going to get one more call, and if after that, after we’ve given them many, many chances to honor their payment and they still haven’t, ultimately we’ll send them to collections.
This is something I very firmly believe in, where you have to walk that fine line between offering the best service and taking care of your clients, but also taking care of yourself and your business too.
Finally, let’s move on to the final yet highly important step…
10. Tracking your finances
As a business owner, you need a clear picture of your finances.
What are your business costs?
Are you making a profit?
How much can you put back into your business?
Keeping track can be straightforward. In the beginning, a simple Excel spreadsheet is usually enough for your accounting.
Frequently asked questions about running a successful business
Ever wondered:
“How long does it take to run a successful business?”
“Is it hard to run a successful business?”
Or my favorite: ”Is it really worth it to start a business?” (YES!)
Well, the right business books answer all those questions.
Here’s my top pick:
“Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz
“The E-myth Revisited” by Michael E. Gerber
“Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill
Each book is packed with awesome business tips for beginners as well as many other tips for running a successful business.
A great business plan can help you clarify your strategy, identify potential roadblocks, determine necessary resources, and evaluate the viability of your idea and growth plan before you start a business.
Not every successful business launches with a formal business plan, but many founders find value in taking time to step back, research their idea and the market they’re looking to enter, and understand the scope and the strategy behind their tactics. That’s where writing a business plan comes in.
Learn how to write a business plan with a step-by-step guide, get tips for getting the most of your plan, and see real business plan examples to inspire you.
What is a business plan?
A business plan is a strategic document that outlines a company’s goals, strategies for achieving them, and the time frame for their achievement. It covers aspects like market analysis, financial projections, and organizational structure, serving as a roadmap for business growth and a tool to secure funding.
Often, financial institutions and investors need to see a business plan before funding any project. Even if you don’t plan to seek outside funding, a well-crafted plan becomes the guidance for your business as it scales.
How to write a business plan in 9 steps
Draft an executive summary
Write a company description
Perform a market analysis
Outline the management and organization
List your products and services
Perform customer segmentation
Define a marketing plan
Provide a logistics and operations plan
Make a financial plan
Few things are more intimidating than a blank page. Starting your business plan with a structured outline and key elements for what you’ll include in each section is the best first step you can take.
Since an outline is such an important step in the process of writing a business plan, we’ve put together a high-level overview to get you started (and avoid the terror of facing a blank page).
Once you have your business plan template in place, it’s time to fill it in. We’ve broken it down by section to help you build your plan step by step.
1. Draft an executive summary
A good executive summary is one of the most crucial sections of your plan—it’s also the last section you should write.
The executive summary distills everything that follows and gives time-crunched reviewers (e.g., potential investors and lenders) a high-level overview of your business that persuades them to read further.
Again, it’s a summary, so highlight the key points you’ve uncovered while writing your plan. If you’re writing for your own planning purposes, you can skip the summary altogether—although you might want to give it a try anyway, just for practice.
An executive summary shouldn’t exceed one page. Admittedly, that space constraint can make squeezing in all of the salient information a bit stressful—but it’s not impossible. Here’s what your business plan’s executive summary should include:
Business concept. What does your business do?
Business goals and vision. What does your business want to do?
Product description and differentiation. What do you sell, and why is it different?
Target market. Who do you sell to?
Marketing strategy. How do you plan on reaching your customers?
Current financial state. What do you currently earn in revenue?
Projected financial state. What do you foresee earning in revenue?
The ask. How much money are you asking for?
The team. Who’s involved in the business?
2. Write a company description
This section of your business plan should answer two fundamental questions: who are you, and what do you plan to do?
Answering these questions with a company description provides an introduction to why you’re in business, why you’re different, what you have going for you, and why you’re a good investment.
Clarifying these details is still a useful exercise, even if you’re the only person who’s going to see them. It’s an opportunity to put to paper some of the more intangible facets of your business, like your principles, ideals, and cultural philosophies.
Here are some of the components you should include in your company description:
Your business structure (Are you a sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, or incorporated company?)
Your business model
Your industry
Your business’s vision, mission, and value proposition
Background information on your business or its history
Business objectives, both short and long term
Your team, including key personnel and their salaries
Brand values and goals
To define your brand values, think about all the people your company is accountable to, including owners, employees, suppliers, customers, and investors. Now consider how you’d like to conduct business with each of them. As you make a list, your core values should start to emerge.
Your company description should also include both short- and long-term goals. Short-term goals, generally, should be achievable within the next year, while one to five years is a good window for long-term goals. Make sure your goal setting includes SMART goals: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.
Vision and mission statements
Once you know your values, you can write a mission statement. Your statement should explain, in a convincing manner, why your business exists, and should be no longer than a single sentence.
Next, craft your vision statement: What impact do you envision your business having on the world once you’ve achieved your vision? Phrase this impact as an assertion—begin the statement with “We will” and you’ll be off to a great start. Your vision statement, unlike your mission statement, can be longer than a single sentence, but try to keep it to three at most. The best vision statements are concise.
3. Perform a market analysis
No matter what type of business you start, it’s no exaggeration to say your market can make or break it. Choose the right market for your products—one with plenty of customers who understand and need your product—and you’ll have a head start on success. If you choose the wrong market, or the right market at the wrong time, you may find yourself struggling for each sale.
Market analysis is a key section of your business plan, whether or not you ever intend for anyone else to read it.
This is why market research and analysis is a key section of your business plan, whether or not you ever intend for anyone else to read it. It should include an overview of how big you estimate the market is for your products, an analysis of your business’s position in the market, and an overview of the competitive landscape. Thorough research supporting your conclusions is important both to persuade investors and to validate your own assumptions as you work through your plan.
How big is your potential market?
The potential market is an estimate of how many people need your product. While it’s exciting to imagine sky-high sales figures, you’ll want to use as much relevant independent data as possible to validate your estimated potential market.
Since this can be a daunting process, here are some general tips to help you begin your research:
Understand your ideal customer profile. Look for government data about the size of your target market, learn where they live, what social channels they use, and their shopping habits.
Research relevant industry trends and trajectory. Explore consumer trends and product trends in your industry by looking at Google Trends, trade publications, and influencers in the space.
Make informed guesses. You’ll never have perfect, complete information about your total addressable market. Your goal is to base your estimates on as many verifiable data points as necessary.
Some sources to consult for market data include government statistics offices, industry associations, academic research, and respected news outlets covering your industry.
SWOT analysis
A SWOT analysis looks at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. What are the best things about your company? What are you not so good at? What market or industry shifts can you take advantage of and turn into opportunities? Are there external factors threatening your ability to succeed?
SWOT is often depicted in a grid or visual way. With this visual presentation, your reader can quickly see the factors that may impact your business and determine your competitive advantage in the market.
Competitive analysis
There are three overarching factors you can use to differentiate your business in the face of competition:
Cost leadership. You have the capacity to maximize profits by offering lower prices than the majority of your competitors. Examples include companies like Mejuri and Endy.
Differentiation. Your product or service offers something distinct from the current cost leaders in your industry and banks on standing out based on your uniqueness. Think of companies like Knix and QALO.
Segmentation. You focus on a very specific, or niche, target market, and aim to build traction with a smaller audience before moving on to a broader market. Companies like TomboyX and Heyday Footwear are great examples of this strategy.
To understand which is the best fit, you’ll need to understand your business as well as the competitive landscape.
You’ll always have competition in the market, even with an innovative product, so it’s important to include a competitive overview in your business plan. If you’re entering an established market, include a list of a few companies you consider direct competitors and explain how you plan to differentiate your products and business from theirs.
For example, if you’re selling jewelry, your competitive differentiation could be that, unlike many high-end competitors, you donate a percentage of your profits to a notable charity or pass savings on to your customers.
If you’re entering a market where you can’t easily identify direct competitors, consider your indirect competitors—companies offering products that are substitutes for yours. For example, if you’re selling an innovative new piece of kitchen equipment, it’s too easy to say that because your product is new, you have no competition. Consider what your potential customers are doing to solve the same problems.
4. Outline the management and organization
The management and organization section of your business plan should tell readers about who’s running your company. Detail the legal structure of your business. Communicate whether you’ll incorporate your business as an S corporation or create a limited partnership or sole proprietorship.
If you have a management team, use an organizational chart to show your company’s internal structure, including the roles, responsibilities, and relationships between people in your chart. Communicate how each person will contribute to the success of your startup.
5. List your products and services
Your products or services will feature prominently in most areas of your business plan, but it’s important to provide a section that outlines key details about them for interested readers.
If you sell many items, you can include more general information on each of your product lines. If you only sell a few, provide additional information on each. For example, bag shop BAGGU sells a large selection of different types of bags, in addition to home goods and other accessories. Its business plan would list out those categories and key details about the products within each.
Describe new products you’ll launch in the near future and any intellectual property you own. Express how they’ll improve profitability. It’s also important to note where products are coming from—handmade crafts are sourced differently than trending products for a dropshipping business, for instance.
6. Perform customer segmentation
Your ideal customer, also known as your target market, is the foundation of your marketing plan, if not your business plan as a whole. You’ll want to keep this person in mind as you make strategic decisions, which is why an overview of who they are is important to understand and include in your plan.
To give a holistic overview of your ideal customer, describe a number of general and specific demographic characteristics. Customer segmentation often includes:
Where they live
Their age range
Their level of education
Some common behavior patterns
How they spend their free time
Where they work
What technology they use
How much they earn
Where they’re commonly employed
Their values, beliefs, or opinions
This information will vary based on what you’re selling, but you should be specific enough that it’s unquestionably clear who you’re trying to reach—and more importantly, why you’ve made the choices you have based on who your customers are and what they value.
For example, a college student has different interests, shopping habits, and pricing sensitivity than a 50-year-old executive at a Fortune 500 company. Your business plan and decisions would look very different based on which one was your ideal customer.
7. Define a marketing plan
Your marketing efforts are directly informed by your ideal customer. Your marketing plan should outline your current decisions and your future strategy, with a focus on how your business idea is a fit for that ideal customer.
If you’re planning to invest heavily in Instagram marketing or TikTok ads, for example, it might make sense to include whether Instagram and TikTok are a leading platform for your audience—if it’s not, that might be a sign to rethink your marketing plan.
Most marketing plans include information on four key subjects. How much detail you present on each will depend on both your business and your plan’s audience.
Price. How much do your products cost, and why have you made that decision?
Product. What are you selling and how do you differentiate it in the market?
Promotion. How will you get your products in front of your ideal customer?
Place. Where will you sell your products? On what channels and in which markets?
Promotion may be the bulk of your plan since you can more readily dive into tactical details, but the other three areas should be covered at least briefly—each is an important strategic lever in your marketing mix.
Here is an example of a marketing plan for a new business:
8. Provide a logistics and operations plan
Logistics and operations are the workflows you’ll implement to make your business idea a reality. If you’re writing a business plan for your own planning purposes, this is still an important section to consider, even though you might not need to include the same level of detail as if you were seeking investment.
Cover all parts of your planned operations, including:
Suppliers. Where do you get the raw materials you need for production, or where are your products produced?
Production. Will you make, manufacture, wholesale, or dropship your products? How long does it take to produce your products and get them shipped to you? How will you handle a busy season or an unexpected spike in demand?
Facilities. Where will you and any team members work? Do you plan to have a physical retail space? If yes, where?
Equipment. What tools and technology do you require to be up and running? This includes everything from computers to lightbulbs and everything in between.
Shipping and fulfillment. Will you be handling all the fulfillment tasks in-house, or will you use a third-party fulfillment partner?
Inventory. How much will you keep on hand, and where will it be stored? How will you ship it to partners if required, and how will you approach inventory management?
This section should signal to your reader that you’ve got a solid understanding of your supply chain and strong contingency plans in place to cover potential uncertainty. If your reader is you, it should give you a basis to make other important decisions, like how to price your products to cover your estimated costs, and at what point you plan to break even on your initial spending.
9. Make a financial plan
No matter how great your idea is, and regardless of the effort, time, and money you invest, a business lives or dies based on its financial health. At the end of the day, people want to work with a business they expect to be viable for the foreseeable future.
The level of detail required in your financial plan will depend on your audience and goals, but typically you’ll want to include three major views of your financials: an income statement, a balance sheet, and a cash-flow statement. It also may be appropriate to include financial data and projections.
Let’s review the types of financial statements you’ll need.
Income statements
Your income statement is designed to give readers a look at your revenue sources and expenses over a given time period. With those two pieces of information, they can see the all-important bottom line or the profit or loss your business experienced during that time. If you haven’t launched your business yet, you can project future milestones of the same information.
Balance sheets
Your balance sheet offers a look at how much equity you have in your business. On one side, you list all your business assets (what you own), and on the other side, all your liabilities (what you owe). This provides a snapshot of your business’s shareholder equity, which is calculated as:
Assets – Liabilities = Equity
Cash flow statements
Your cash flow statement is similar to your income statement, with one important difference: it takes into account when revenues are collected and when expenses are paid.
When the cash you have coming in is greater than the cash you have going out, your cash flow is positive. When the opposite scenario is true, your cash flow is negative. Ideally, your cash flow statement will help you see when cash is low, when you might have a surplus, and where you might need to have a contingency plan to access funding to keep your business solvent.
It can be especially helpful to forecast your cash-flow statement to identify gaps or negative cash flow and adjust operations as required.
Why write a business plan?
Investors rely on business plans to evaluate the feasibility of a business before funding it, which is why business plans are commonly associated with getting a loan.
Business plans also help owners identify areas of weakness before launching, potentially avoiding costly mistakes down the road. “Laying out a business plan helped us identify the ‘unknowns’ and made it easier to spot the gaps where we’d need help or, at the very least, to skill up ourselves,” says Jordan Barnett, owner of Kapow Meggings.
There are several other compelling reasons to consider writing a business plan:
Strategic planning. Writing out your plan is an invaluable exercise for clarifying your ideas and can help you understand the scope of your business, as well as the amount of time, money, and resources you’ll need to get started.
Evaluating ideas. If you’ve got multiple ideas in mind, a rough business plan for each can help you focus your time and energy on the ones with the highest chance of success.
Research. To write a business plan, you’ll need to research your ideal customer and your competitors—information that will help you make more strategic decisions.
Recruiting. Your business plan is one of the easiest ways to communicate your vision to potential new hires and can help build their confidence in the venture, especially if you’re in the early stages of growth.
Partnerships. If you plan to collaborate with other brands, having a clear overview of your vision, your audience, and your business strategy will make it much easier for them to identify if your business is a good fit for theirs.
Competitions. There are many business plan competitions offering prizes such as mentorships, grants, or investment capital.
If you’re looking for a structured way to lay out your thoughts and ideas, and to share those ideas with people who can have a big impact on your success, a business plan is an excellent starting point.
Business plan types
Business plan types can span from one page to multiple pages with detailed graphs and reports. There’s no one way to create a business plan. The goal is to convey the most important information about your company for readers.
Common business plans we see include, but are not limited to, the following types:
Traditional business plans
These are the most common business plans. Traditional business plans take longer to write and can be dozens of pages long. Venture capitalist firms and lenders ask for this plan. Traditional business plans may not be necessary if you don’t plan to seek outside funding. That’s where the next type comes in.
Lean business plans
A lean business plan is a shorter version of a traditional business plan. It follows the same format, but only includes the most important information. Businesses use lean business plans to onboard new hires or modify existing plans for a specific target market.
6 tips for creating a small business plan
There are a few best practices when it comes to writing a business plan. While your plan will be unique to your business and goals, keep these tips in mind as you write.
1. Know your audience
When you know who will be reading your plan—even if you’re just writing it for yourself to clarify your ideas—you can tailor the language and level of detail to them. This can also help you make sure you’re including the most relevant information and figure out when to omit sections that aren’t as impactful.
2. Have a clear goal
When creating a businesss plan, you’ll need to put in more work and deliver a more thorough plan if your goal is to secure funding for your business versus working through a plan for yourself or even your team.
3. Invest time in research
Sections of your business plan will primarily be informed by your ideas and vision, but some of the most crucial information you’ll need requires research from independent sources. This is where you can invest time in understanding who you’re selling to, whether there’s demand for your products, and who else is selling similar products or services.
4. Keep it short and to the point
No matter who you’re writing for, your business plan should be short and readable—generally no longer than 15 to 20 pages. If you do have additional documents you think may be valuable to your audience and your goals, consider adding them as appendices.
5. Keep the tone, style, and voice consistent
This is best managed by having a single person write the plan or by allowing time for the plan to be properly edited before distributing it.
6. Use a business plan template
You can also use a free business plan template to provide a skeleton for writing a plan. These often guide you through each section from financial projects to market research to mission statement ensuring you don’t miss a step.
7. Try business plan software
Writing a business plan isn’t the easiest task for business owners. But it’s important for anyone starting or expanding a business. Fortunately, there are tools to help with everything from planning, drafting, creating graphics, syncing financial data, and more. Business plan software also has business plan templates and tutorials to help you finish a comprehensive plan in hours, rather than days.
A few curated picks include:
LivePlan: the most affordable option with samples and templates
Bizplan: tailored for startups seeking investment
Go Small Biz: budget-friendly option with industry-specific templates
Common mistakes when writing a business plan
Other articles on business plans would never tell you what we’re about to tell you: Your business plan can fail. The last thing you want is for time and effort to go down the drain. Avoid these common mistakes:
Bad business idea. Sometimes your idea may be too risky for potential investors, too expensive to run, or there’s no market. Aim for small business ideas that require low startup costs.
No exit strategy. If you don’t show an exit strategy, or a plan for investors to leave the business with maximum profits, you’ll have little luck finding capital.
Unbalanced teams. A great product is the cost of entry to starting a business. But an incredible team will take it to the top. Unfortunately, many business owners overlook a balanced team. They focus on potential profits, without worrying about how it will be done.
Missing financial projections. Don’t leave out your balance sheet, cash flow statements, P&L statements, and income statements. Include your break-even analysis and return-on-investment calculations in your financial projections to create a successful business plan.
Spelling and grammar errors. All the best organizations have an editor review their documents. If someone spots typos while reading your business plan, how can they believe you’ll run a successful company?
Prepare your business plan today
A business plan can help you identify clear, deliberate next steps for your business, even if you never plan to pitch investors—and it can help you see gaps in your plan before they become issues.
Whether you’re working on starting a new online business idea, building a retail storefront, growing your established business, or purchasing an existing business, you now understand how to write a business plan that suits your business’s goals and needs.
Nonprofit business plans
A nonprofit business plan is for any entity that operates for public or social benefit. It covers everything you’ll find in a traditional business plan, plus a section describing the impact the company plans to make. For example, a speaker and headphone brand that aims to help people with hearing disabilities. Donors often request this plan.
As a new entrepreneur, you’re likely short on two precious resources: time and money. Startups don’t make a profit right away, and without funds to pay yourself or employees, the race is on to make a sale.
That’s why so many first-time businesses choose dropshipping. By outsourcing manufacturing, warehousing, and shipping to a third-party seller, you can keep costs low and focus on actionable tasks like marketing and creating a great online shopping experience.
Just because dropshipping is an accessible business model, however, doesn’t mean you necessarily know where to get started.
No worries! Follow this step-by-step guide on how to dropship. Find your dropshipping niche, select your target audience, source reliable suppliers, build your ecommerce store, and market your dropshipping business. Let’s get into it.
Table of contents
What is dropshipping?
How to dropship with Shopify
3 tips for dropshipping
How to dropship FAQ
What is dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a business model where a retailer or ecommerce store sell products that are manufactured, warehoused, and shipped by a third-party supplier. The store only pays for products after they’ve made a sale.
Dropshipping is a great option for first-time entrepreneurs. It provides a low-risk way for small businesses to create a storefront, and allows established businesses to test out new product lines without paying for inventory.
How to dropship with Shopify
Below are the five big steps you’ll need to complete to get your dropshipping business off the ground using Shopify. Follow this workflow to find your products and supplier, set up your store, and begin the process of finding customers.
As you dive into each step, you’ll encounter questions and issues that are unique to your business. Remember, it’s how you overcome these obstacles that will define your dropshipping journey and shape your success.
Find a dropshipping niche
Understand a target audience
Select a product and a dropshipping supplier
Build an ecommerce store
Market your dropshipping store
1. Find a dropshipping niche
Some dropshippers sell unique private-label or print-on-demand products. But most dropshipping catalogs consist of items also available in other stores. So, how do you beat the competition and differentiate your business in a crowded marketplace?
The easiest way to avoid the threat of more established dropshipping stores is to find an under-served niche.
A niche is a segment of a larger market that’s defined by unique customer needs, preferences, or interests. Through niching, smaller businesses are able to reduce competition and identify a customer base.
If you’re dropshipping coffee, for example, you’re going to face a ton of competition from other dropshippers and traditional retail businesses. But, if you sell vegan coffee, you can expect fewer competitors. Niche-down another level to vegandecaf coffee or vegan coffee subscription boxes, and you may find yourself with a unique value proposition.
How do you find a lucrative dropshipping niche?
Most dropshipping niches are found through keyword research. By analyzing the popularity of search queries entered into search engines and social media platforms, as well as the competitiveness of search results, you can identify areas of underserved demand.
Popular audience demand research tools include:
Facebook Audience Insights. Facebook has roughly three billion monthly active users. Audience Insights provide a well of information about their interests, demographics, and online activity.
Google Keyword Planner. Google processes billions of searches each day. With its keyword planner tool, you can parse those searches for patterns and opportunities.
Google Trends. Like keyword planner, Google Trends has a deep well of information about what products people are searching for, and how interest fluctuates over time.
Ahrefs. Keyword research tool Ahrefs is a favorite among SEO marketing professionals. Use this tool to evaluate whether you can compete for traffic with established websites.
A niche audience is only valuable to your business if you can source relevant products to serve it. As you are learning how to dropship, you may find you’re limited in the variety of products you can offer a specialist audience.
Product availability is one of the main reasons why some niches remain underserved by dropshipping stores. So, working with a supplier or manufacturer to set up dropshipping for a new product line is another way to differentiate your business.
2. Understand a target audience
Once you’ve found a niche audience that would benefit from a dropshipping store, you’ll want to learn more about them.
Understanding your target audience will help you speak to customers in a way that resonates. You’ll have a better idea of which marketing channels you can use to reach people, what product features your prospects are looking for, and what types of content will effectively transport people toward your online store.
Test your understanding of your target market by checking whether you can give detailed answers to these questions:
Where does your target audience spend time online?
What types of marketing content does your target audience respond to positively?
What products are your target audience interested in?
What product features do they care about most?
What existing brands do your target audience like?
What existing businesses successfully serve your target audience?
Researching your target market doesn’t need to be complex. But by the end of this step, you should have a good idea of the type of person you’re selling to.
3. Select a product and a dropshipping supplier
Use your keyword research and target audience analysis to find a product category that’s relevant to your niche.
When you have a type of product in mind, the next step is to identify a supplier who manufactures or stocks it.
There are a ton of dropshipping suppliers to choose from. Some have online platforms where you can create a seller account and search their catalog for products. Others negotiate bespoke deals with retail partners.
If you want a completely automated solution for sending orders to a supplier, use a Shopify dropshipping app from the App Store.
When you use Shopify for dropshipping, information about your orders is sent directly to your third-party supplier, who marks the order as complete and (if available) sends a tracking number directly to your customer.
Here are a few popular dropshipping supplier apps:
Spocket
With Spocket, you can sell products from US, European, and international dropshippers through your Shopify store. Spocket features dependable suppliers and automatically updates inventory counts. It’s also an official partner of AliExpress and Alibaba.
Reviewers say that Spocket’s customer service is prompt and shipping from US and EU suppliers is relatively fast. You can even order product samples to check the quality before adding items to your store.
DSers
With DSers, merchants can search, import, and edit product data from suppliers on AliExpress. One notable feature is the ability to compare different AliExpress dropshippers selling the same products, so you can find the most competitive prices.
Modalyst
Like the other dropshipping apps, Modalyst syncs with AliExpress, making it easy for merchants to import products directly into their Shopify store. Modalyst also offers curated lists of independent manufacturers, as well as high-end brands like Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana.
Print-on-demand apps
One drawback of dropshipping is that your products will likely be available from other online stores.
With print-on-demand dropshipping, merchants can add custom designs to products like t-shirts, tote bags, notebooks, and household items. That makes print-on-demand a good model for differentiating your store, while retaining a no-inventory approach to ecommerce.
4. Build an ecommerce store
With a catalog of products in mind, and a dropshipping supplier selected, you’re ready to start building your online store.
Log in to your Shopify account
First, log in to your Shopify account. If you don’t have a Shopify account, use the free trial to get started.
Choose a domain name
A domain name is the address that identifies your website. Domain names consist of two parts: the second-level domain and the top-level domain (TLD).
A second-level domain is unique to your website. For example, “google” is the second-level domain in “google.com.”
A TLD is used by multiple websites and follows the second-level domain. “.com” is the top-level domain in “google.com.”
Registering a domain name is the next step in creating your dropshipping store. If you don’t have an existing domain, choose one that fits your niche and clearly signals your product catalog. Land on a good online store name by following these tips:
Check availability. There are few things worse than coming up with the perfect domain name, only to find that it’s taken. Be sure to check for available domains.
Keep it short. Short domain names are easier to remember and pronounce—and harder to misspell.
Match search terms. Many SEO experts recommend choosing a domain name that matches a popular search engine query used by your potential customers. For example, if you plan to dropship hockey sticks, you might select the domain name “besthockeysticks.com.”
Be different. If a popular phrase isn’t available, try a domain name that reflects your wider niche or brand.
Use a unique TLD. If your second-level domain is taken with a .com TLD, consider using a unique extension like .shop or .store.
Design your ecommerce website and import products
Use one of Shopify’s professionally designed themes to quickly build your store. Brand your website with a color scheme, set up your checkout, and populate your most important pages with copy and images—but don’t invest too much time in the look of your store at this stage.
When your business is up and running, you can analyze successful store examples to improve your website design.
Once your store is live, start importing products from your dropshipping app. With Shopify, you can directly import products, including product images and descriptions, then edit them in your dashboard.
Price your products
Setting the right product prices is a delicate balancing act. You need to ensure your prices are competitive enough to attract customers and encourage them to browse your store, but you also need to maintain healthy profit margins.
It’s important not to engage in a price war with other dropshipping stores, as this can erode your profits until business becomes non-viable. Remember, it’s not always necessary to have the lowest price. When pricing among competitors is similar, customers also value factors like brand ethics, customer service, and shopping experience.
Don’t forget to account for additional costs such as shipping when calculating your profit margin.
5. Market your dropshipping store
Developing a marketing strategy for your dropshipping store is perhaps the most crucial step in generating sales. You’ll likely be competing against stores that sell the same products as you, so reaching potential customers first—or providing the most satisfying customer experience—is paramount.
Differentiation
The most basic aspect of dropshipping marketing is differentiation. By building a brand and carefully curating your product catalog, you can create the impression of a unique and relevant online store.
Strong brands are visually and conceptually consistent. The colors used in your website theme, your logo, the images you use, and the tone of your copywriting should all convey a cohesive message.
That message should match the content of your marketing materials, the values suggested by the products you choose to sell, and the story you tell about your business.
Pricing is another effective form of differentiation. However, if you choose to reduce your margins to become more competitive, make sure you can still generate a profit after all of your costs have been deducted.
Harness social media
Social media marketing is an exceptionally useful tool for small businesses. Paid social ad campaigns have adjustable budgeting limits, so it’s easy to keep costs within your budget. Audiences are segmented by variables like their interests, online behavior, and the accounts they follow, making it easy to target users that are most likely to have an interest in your products.
Even without an advertising budget, there’s a lot you can do on social media for free. To sell on Instagram and Facebook and Instagram, you can open a “Shop” and sync your inventory, so followers can purchase your products without leaving the app. Market products on TikTok by putting your spin on popular trends and livestreaming product demonstrations.
Leverage search engine optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of using data to make the content on your website more relevant to common questions and queries, with the aim of increasing your site’s ranking in search engine listings.
Google processes more than 100,000 searches every second, making increased visibility valuable to any small business. And with a ton of free SEO tools available to help you research the right keywords and select relevant queries to answer with your content, the cost of SEO marketing can be kept relatively low.
Use email marketing to nurture your existing audience
When a person signs up to receive your email newsletter, they’re indicating an interest in your products. Don’t let those leads go to waste—nurture them with an ecommerce email marketing campaign.
Email marketing opens up an ongoing stream of communication with your customers. Good email content is a great way to share useful information about your products and help build brand loyalty.
Email campaigns produce lots of metrics, such as an email’s open rate and whether readers clicked on a CTA button. Use this information to refine your subject lines and content.
3 tips for dropshipping
Finished the steps above and started your dropshipping business? Here are three pieces of advice to keep in mind during your first months as a dropshipper.
1. Handle product issues professionally
As you learn how to dropship, you’ll find supplier mistakes are unavoidable. While repeated issues with products and delivery may signal the need to find a new wholesale partner, you should cover for occasional errors from your supplier. When they happen:
Own the issue. Apologize to the customer and explain the solution.
Compensate the customer. Offer a refund, exchange, or product upgrade.
Involve the supplier. A good supplier should cover the cost of any mistakes.
2. Source inventory from multiple suppliers
Dealing with multiple suppliers can make admin more challenging, but selling products from more than one wholesaler reduces the risk of stockouts and supply-chain issues. Try to:
Diversify your suppliers. This gives you more product options and a safety net for unexpected issues.
Select common products. Choose items that many suppliers carry.
Use generic descriptions. If necessary, you may be able to sell similar products under the same description.
3. Have an order fulfillment plan
When it comes to fulfilling orders, dropshippers play a minimal role. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be smart about processing your customer’s orders:
Route orders based on location. If possible, choose a supplier that’s nearest to the customer’s location.
Use automation to maximize availability. Automation tools can help you route orders to suppliers that have items in stock.
Leverage high sales. When your store grows and order numbers increase, invite suppliers to outbid each other to increase your profit margin.
Start a dropshipping store today
Shopify helps dropshippers get up and running quickly—while keeping costs low. With manufacturing, warehousing, and shipping outsourced to a third party, entrepreneurs have extra time to focus on product marketing and building their brand.
Autumn 