Business Plan outline (update) template and resources I’m using for products, services, and the content engine that will move them.

I spent the last seven hours going back over tasks in Asana and other online resources. What I plan to do next is update the playbook for our products & services as well as the content that will help propel the machine.

I swear all I was getting ready to do was watch Cubs / Mets 2015 #NLCS #2. Where did the time go?

Not to bury the lead: here’s the topic-level business plan template I’m using. As I start to use this list, I’ll flush out the details and turn it into a step-by-step Asana template. I’ll be giving it a dry run for this site before I use it on a full scale:

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Business Plan, Top-Level Topics

Phase 1: Hypothesis

1. Mission Statement
2. Vision Statement
3. Core / Onliness Statements
4. Market Research
   1. Market Description
   2. Business Data
   3. Business Types
   4. Feasibility Study: Fight or Flight (“Should we stay or should we go?”)
5. Revise (or Put to Rest) the plan based on 5. Market Research

Phase 2: Planning (Business Plan)

1. Executive Summary
2. Company Description
3. Market Analysis (from data in 5. Market Research)
4. Organization & Management: structured / outline
5. Services / Product Outlines
6. Marketing & Sales
   1. Positioning
   2. Branding
   3. Brand Positioning
7. Funding Request
8. Financial Projections

Phase 3: Accents / Finishing Touches

• Appendix (according to SBA.gov)
• “How to Make Your Business Plan Stand Out,” according to SBA.gov

Phase 4: Launch the ******

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Sources Consulted during business plan creation

• My BS in Business and subsequent experience
• SBA.Gov
• Enterpreneur.com
• “Designing Brand Identity _{Third Edition},” by Alina Wheeler
• “Show Me. Don’t Tell Me,” by David Holston
• “Louder Than Words: Harness the Power of Your Authentic Voice,” by Todd Henry

Why those online resources

For the most part I used the U.S. Small Business Administration website offered by the federal government. Though, I’ll admit, I wish Entrepreneur.com had their resource up when I was in college (or if it was up, I had found it). I find myself reading it quite a bit.

And, for the thrifty, those resources are free.

As for the books

I’ve only glanced over them. I’ll have some reading materials for when Katie and I vacation this weekend along the Bay Area coast. They’re her books. In fact, the “Designing Brand Identity” book is one of the textbooks from one of Mizzou’s marketing classes. She acquired it under remarkable circumstances.

She’s read those books backwards and forwards and peppered them with post-it notes. She frequently shows me stuff from those pages, probably every other day or so. Her continual positive vibrations was what probably gave me the confidence to get this done. True story.

I even used it for my personal site to give it a professional feel

Speaking of dry run, I first started testing the outline on this site. One of the beautiful things that came from translating the Business Plan outline into the Asana project management system was that, for the first time in this site’s 7 and a half + years existence, I started treating my personal site like a true business resource. I started fleshing out the following categories:

• Executive
• Marketing
• Operations
• Product Development
• Design & Dev

When I saw the new ones next to my content categories, I started getting the this could really happen shivers.

Fake it till you make it, right?

Hey, at least it helped keep my mind off the Cubs’ futility this evening. Man, I’m’ not emotionally prepared for a 7-game series…

How did I do?

Was this business plan outline helpful? What did I miss?

photo credit: pixabay.com. Great place. Buy them some coffee.