by Marc Allen
What we think about expands.
If our thoughts are focused primarily on our problems and obstacles and shortcomings, those things expand and become even greater. The more we turn our thoughts to what we want to do, be, and have in our lives, the more we let ourselves imagine living the life of our dreams, the more those things expand in our lives.
Once your intention becomes solid, solutions to problems become obvious — or else what were formerly problems simply don’t matter any more, and become irrelevant. Obstacles dissolve, or else you find an easier, simpler way around them.
In the simple act of writing a one-page plan,
the architecture of your abundance is revealed to you.
A MORE EXTENSIVE BUSINESS PLAN
At times you may need a more extensive plan. If you want to raise money from investors, a longer plan is usually necessary. For whatever reasons, it’ll become obvious when you need to write a longer plan.
Writing a longer plan is a powerful visualization process: If you thoroughly think it through and can make it work on paper, then you can make it work in reality.
As Jim Horan writes in The One Page Business Plan, “A business plan gives owners a way to test their ideas without having to put their cash or business at risk.”
Feel free to skip or quickly skim over the next section, of course, if it’s not necessary for you at the moment. Maybe you’ll never have to do a plan longer than one page; I’ve only written one lengthy business plan in my whole career — and it raised the capital that launched New World Library.
CONTENTS
Begin with a Contents page — or, if you wish, the contents page can be placed after the one-page summary. Here is a sample contents page from a good, solid business plan.
CONTENTS
I Summary
II The Company, Past and Present
III The Products and/or Services
IV Marketing
Strategies
Research and Development
The Sales Process The Distribution Network
Publicity and Promotion
V The Team
VI The Future
VII The Financials
Sales, Expenses, and Profits
Balance Sheet
Income and Expense
Cash Flow
Sales Budget
Pro Forma Income and Expense
Pro Forma Balance Sheet
Appendix A — Resumes and Bios
Appendix B — Customer Responses
Appendix C — (Various supporting materials: see notes on page 49)
I — SUMMARY
BEGIN YOUR PLAN WITH A ONE-PAGE SUMMARY. This is for your own good as well as the investors’. Putting it all on one page focuses your mind, brings clarity, and — as we have seen — engages your powerful subconscious mind in the process.
In one page, state who you are, what you’re going to do, and what the results will be — including, if you’re bringing in investors, the form of the investment (we’ll get to that next), and possibly even what a reasonable projected return on their investment could be.
II — THE COMPANY, PAST AND PRESENT
DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY. Be brief, though it can run to several pages if necessary. Highlight the important points in bold, so people can skim through and get the gist of it. Or use this striking format: print the plan on just the right-hand pages, and have the highlights in bigger bold type on the left-hand pages. That makes it easy for anyone (including you) to quickly summarize your plan.
III — THE PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES
KEEP IT SIMPLE FOR THOSE UNFAMILIAR WITH YOUR INDUSTRY. Don’t laden your plan with technical terms known only to those in the business. What exactly is your product and/or service? Put it in terms that someone completely unfamiliar with the industry can understand. Are you unique in some ways? Do you have a special niche?
The single biggest failing of most business plans is that the exact nature of the business — including how the money will be invested and how it will grow and be returned to investors — is not made crystal clear to investors. And there’s an old saying that contains great advice: If you aren’t sure what you’re investing in, don’t invest.
IV — MARKETING
WHAT ARE YOUR STRATEGIES? Do you have a multipronged marketing strategy? Spell that out first, then have additional headings for Research and Development, The Sales Process, The Distribution Network, Publicity and Promotion, and anything else important to your marketing efforts.
V — THE TEAM
EVERY SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS IS A TEAM, working together toward the same goals. List the people, and what they do, under these headings: The Management Team, The Supporting Team, and Supporting Professionals. In the last, list the people outside your company you work with regularly, including a CPA, if you have one, and agents, artists, public relations or advertising firms, and even advisors or board members.
Show that you have developed creative partnerships with all these different, resourceful people.
VI — THE FUTURE
LET YOURSELF SOAR HERE. This is the last prose section of your plan, before you get to the lists of numbers. I like to present two sets of projections here: one that is realistic and attainable, on the conservative side, and another that is optimistic but thoroughly possible. Paint your picture of what the company will be in the future. What do you realistically expect to achieve in five years — and what is your ideal scene?
VII — THE FINANCIALS
GET OUT YOUR SPREADSHEETS. All of these may not be necessary for your particular situation, but the only lengthy plan I ever wrote had all of these reports and projections:
• SALES, EXPENSES, AND PROFITS: If your company has a history, briefly summarize the sales, expenses, and profits for the past two or three years.
• BALANCE SHEET: Your current assets minus your current liabilities.
• INCOME AND EXPENSE STATEMENT for the past six months or past year.
• CASH FLOW PROJECTIONS: A month-by-month projection for the coming year, showing cash in, cash out, and cash balance for each month. Sometimes, all you need for your plan is one year. Other times, you might need up to five years of projections, the first two years month-by-month, the last three years quarterly.
• SALES BUDGET: Project, quarterly for the forthcoming year, your Sales, Operating Budget, Selling Expense, and General and Administrative Expense to get the Projected Profit (before taxes).
• PRO FORMA INCOME AND EXPENSE: Projections for the coming year of income minus expenses to get net profits.
• PRO FORMA BALANCE SHEET: Your projected assets and liabilities in six months, and in one year.
APPENDIXES
Here is where you can add any supporting material, including bios and resumes of key management people, responses and endorsements from customers, articles in the print media about your company, or about your industry in general — anything that would interest or educate investors or that you find worthwhile to include in your plan.
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
— Goethe
FINANCING YOUR BUSINESS
If you wish to raise money with your plan, the type of investment you’re looking for needs to be clearly and concisely spelled out on the opening Summary page.
There are endless creative ways to finance a company, whether it has been around awhile or is brand new. The key to successful financing is to create a win-win arrangement that works for you, your investors, and your company. (Once again, just skim or skip this section if it’s not relevant at the moment.)
Remember, there are certain standards in every industry, and there are good reasons for those standards, but there are no hard and fast rules — everything is negotiable. Keep negotiating until you find something that works for everyone involved.
In this and in all other areas of your business (and life), use the “partnership model” as your gu
ide, and avoid any old “dominator model” words and actions. This is quite possibly the most important key to successful business, and a fulfilling life as well:
Be a partner rather than a dominator.
We’ll go into this in depth in Lessons 5 and 6 (and Riane Eisler goes into this brilliantly in The Power of Partnership, a book I highly recommend).
BASICS OF FINANCING
There are two basic ways to finance a company or artistic enterprise: loans and equity investments. A loan is just an agreement to pay back the money, with interest, over time. Giving equity (ownership in the company or product) can take many forms, from simple profit sharing agreements to owning percentages of the company or shares of stock. The type of equity depends on the wants and needs of the people involved, and on the structure of the business — whether it’s a simple proprietorship, a partnership, a limited partnership, or a corporation.
WAYS TO FINANCE YOUR BUSINESS
There are countless ways to finance your business. The more you learn about it, the more variations and other creative possibilities there are. Look around you, talk to people, and get creative. Here are a few of the most common ways to finance a business or artistic enterprise (over the years I have used the first seven of these):
• “SWEAT EQUITY”: This is how I built my business initially. I got a job in another company, saved as much as I could to put into my start-up business, and worked for my start-up (while still working for the other company) without paying myself. You build equity through your own sweat this way, and give away none of the company. This is a great possibility to consider; it leaves you fully in control of your company, with no investors to report to and to pay back.
• LOCAL “ANGELS”: Once you have created a plan, make several copies and pass it around to friends and relatives. Very often, one of them will be interested in investing, or know someone else who’s interested. Individuals who invest on their own are called angels, a term I’ve always loved. Angels are everywhere. There are angels near you! Many of them are great mentors, as well.
They need to see a clear, concrete plan. Once you write your plan, as long as you’re persistent, you will find the financing you need. The key was expressed in the movie, Field of Dreams:
Build it and they will come.
• LOANS OR EQUITY INVESTMENTS FROM FRIENDS AND FAMILY: When we first started New World Library, a friend loaned us a good chunk of cash, which we repaid monthly over five years at 10 percent interest. It was a win-win arrangement. A few other friends and relatives over the first few years wanted to invest and get equity in the company, and so they became stockholders when we incorporated.
Over the years, we bought these stockholders out when we were able to negotiate a price that felt fair to them and to the company as well.
• CREDIT CARDS: Literally millions of small businesses have been started with credit cards. You have to be careful with them; they’re loans at a fairly high interest rate. But they can be wisely used, at times, when invested to make your business grow. Use them only when you have a clear plan of how you’re going to pay them off, and shop around for the lowest interest rate possible.
• SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (SBA) LOANS: This is a wonderful resource. Our first major loan was through the SBA (we found an “angel” named Bernie who connected small businesses with the SBA). For most SBA loans, you need to have at least a two-year track record as a functioning business.
Later on, we bought our building through an SBA loan, as well. They help small businesses get commercial real estate loans; the government makes it advantageous for the banks involved as well (they get a tax break on the interest they earn).
• LIMITED PARTNERSHIPS: You can finance a wide range of businesses the way films and Broadway plays are financed. Typically, investors put up the money for a specific project or line of products, and they split profits 50–50 with those who create the product or project. We financed specific book and music projects this way in our early years — it’s a great tool for artists and other creative types. A simple written agreement is all that is necessary. Consult an attorney — and tell your attorney to keep it simple.
• LIMITED LIABILITY CORPORATIONS (LLCS): This combines the advantages of a partnership with the protection of a corporation. It needs the aid of a professional in the field to set it up, as do the rest in this list. But an LLC is fairly simple and relatively inexpensive to set up.
• SMALL COMPANY OFFERING REGISTRATION (SCOR): With this nifty vehicle, you can raise up to $1 million; you file with the state. You create a stock offering that is smaller and simpler than the usual public stock offering.
• DIRECT PUBLIC OFFERINGS (DPOS): It is now much easier to offer stock to the public on a small scale than it used to be. Your friends and customers can become stockholders. See a qualified professional for details if you want to explore this further.
There are many good professionals in the financial field who can assist you in financing your business. Ask around in your community for more details. I raised all the capital I needed just by networking in my community. There are many other options, as well. Keep open to the opportunities that will come your way as soon as you’ve written your plan!
The Internet is another great option for finding financing. Go to any major search engine, like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, or AlltheWeb.com, and type in the words “Venture capital,” “Seed money,” or “Business funding.” It’s astounding how much information is available — literally millions of leads.
Every person is the architect
of their own fortune.
— Sallust (1st century B.C.E.)
ONCE YOU HAVE A PLAN
Once you have a plan, don’t forget it.
If you are working through this Course, you’re accumulating more and more pages in your folder — your own condensed and personalized form of the Course. Call it what you will — that single little folder is your tool kit for success, your plan for prosperity and fulfillment.
You’ve written your ideal scene and listed your goals. You’re affirming those goals regularly or doing whatever else feels appropriate to keep those goals in your mind and heart. For each of your major goals, you’ve written a one-page plan. For some of the more complex goals, you may have written a longer plan.
Return to these pages often, and go over them. Keep them current with any new additions, corrections, and updates. Go over them every New Year; go over them on or near your birthday. Every time you do, you’re delivering a powerful piece of programming to your subconscious mind.
HAVE A DEAR FINANCIAL GOAL
What is your main financial goal for the next twelve months?
It’s very powerful to have a clear single number in mind — something your subconscious can get to work on, and something you definitely know at year’s end whether you have achieved or not.
Whether you’re in business or art, always keep a number in mind for the year’s income and/or profits that you’re shooting for. For many years now I’ve had very clear sales goals in mind, and it’s pretty remarkable how many times those exact numbers were reached. I got what I projected, what I asked for — no more, no less.
For the past few years, I’ve been asking the powers that be to increase the profits of our company by 50 percent annually, in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time, for the highest good of all. In the future, maybe I’ll decrease that number to 20 percent annual growth, or some other number. But for now, growing our profits by 50 percent annually seems challenging, doable, and fun.
The first year I started focusing on this, affirming it nearly every morning, our profits didn’t increase at all. Nada. They were flat. I wondered why my affirmations didn’t seem to have any effect, why my prayers didn’t seem to be answered. The next year, though, our profits more than doubled, increasing more than 100 percent from the previous year — and I realized my goal had been reached, though it happened in its own perfect time.
/> A specific numerical goal is something your subconscious mind loves to go to work on. It is simple and unambiguous. Once you create a specific goal, you’ll notice your mind begin to work on different possible ways you can reach your goal.
Begin with the end in mind — and your vastly creative subconscious mind will go to work full time to show you how to get there. You will be guided, step by step, in making your plans, and in working out your plans.
IF IT FEELS OVERWHELMING
Almost any time we try something new, especially if it’s something expansive, there are times when it feels like it’s too much to handle. At these times, remember this great advice from Mark Twain:
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
The secret of getting started is breaking your complex,
overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks,
and then starting on the first one.
— Mark Twain
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step. And it is filled with small steps, every step of the way. Just take the next obvious step in front of you.
