Before the Business Plan

Suppliers of conventional wisdom would have you believe that this is the first of what should you do to establish a new company set up a business plan.

It does not matter whether you are selling odds and ends on eBay from your living room or something larger and more complex

Business plans are excellent and necessary. Far too few of us self-employed and freelance people use them.

They force us to clarify our objectives. We need to assign numbers to our expectations, and assign a time line with our objectives. They are our roadmap and keep us on track.

But I suggest that you can do any business plan is worth nothing until you've done your homework.

And knowing what you do and how you do, i.e. and to determine that there is sufficient demand for your product to earn enough money to cover their costs in order to generate a profit.

In other words, before the business plan come researches.

If a body of knowledge that already exists, it is useful to their usefulness and saving work. The U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and other public sources, such as demographic information. Some of it is very useful.

But it is also likely that the only creative owner, no meaningful statistics on your specialty is not.

Many micro-businesses to target a niche market very specific. And there are many belong to a creative product or service to sell does not meet the well-trampled prototypes.

It is particularly difficult to find such people to make meaningful published data.

If you fall into these categories, you must generate your data.

Limit your search to a purely commercial data. You build a life as a business.

Are the requirements and conditions of your company with the life you want to create?

For example, illustrators often work on short deadlines - meaning they often work late into the night to finish a project on time. In addition, some customers are demanding, and some do not pay on time too. After all, you can always "love" enough?

Or perhaps your business is such that sales fluctuate during the year. How will you go months on the slim? Can you with the uncertainty of a fluctuating income?

So how do you find the information?

First, if other people provide services similar to yours, talk to them. You will quickly gain a lot of information. Your answers to your questions will save you a lot of work on the ground and open our eyes to factors that you may not be considered.

Try to talk to at least five or six people, so you can get a number of factors.

You can find them through associations, schools, word-of-mouth. Information when the locals are reluctant to share - perhaps because they see you as direct competition - similar to those in a different language.

Then create the information you need.

Mimic and simplify, to do what large companies. Reduce their methods to a level that is practical and affordable.

For example, you might want to interview clients and potential clients to get feedback.

If you have a creation of micro-enterprises are on a shoe-string, it may not be affordable, but almost Commission, a group discussion. But you may be able to speak informally to potential targets or using direct mail to send a simple survey.

Finally, you have to "Imagine your toes in the water." Try again in a small way - so you will not lose much if it does not work - and observe the results. The experiment and modify as needed. If it works to your liking, you can now delve into this approach, the technical term "trial and error is known," all facets of your business are applied.

After all, even the largest market for producers to test new products before rolling them out.

Set some parameters for your efforts. Decide in advance how long you want to allow and how much you want on the budget.

Use trial and error for every aspect of your business. Experiment with different types of packaging for your services, various courses and prices, various types of marketing, etc.

You will find that some approaches work better than others. Finally, your experience and your data will suggest viable strategies.

And then you're ready to create your business plan.