Business Plan for a Home Based Business - I-Action step # 8

Welcome back!

 

Define: the financial and time investments you will commit to your business.

 

You should know how much money you can spend on your business and you should know how much you are spending on marketing, and equipment, and other business expenses. Break it down. How many hours can you work your business? You may have to keep your day job in the beginning. Therefore, you may only be able to work your home-based business part-time. You may be able to start working your home-based business full-time right out of the gate. Whichever the case may be, you need to plan it out.

 

To start your own business, you must make a financial investment into your business. A friend of mine is buying a franchise in the children’s learning center business. It is kind of like a Sylvan Learning Center. He has to spend $125,000 to buy the franchise business and then, he has planned to spend another $30,000 in marketing materials for the 1st year: infomercials on the local cable channels, printed ads, mailers, sponsorship to local sports teams, promotional items with his company name on it, advertising at the local fair, etc. Another $30,000 is budgeted for computers and printers for the staff and students, and then there’s the office lease for his learning center. He has it all laid out, which each of us would do with that sort of business. Yet, one of the pitfalls I see people fall into when starting a home-based business is that they get too excited about the business. The start up cost is so low. The process is so simple. New Business owners often forget to lay out their expenses. Do you need a new computer? Do you need a phone line? High-speed Internet? What are your monthly costs for that? You will need a cell phone. You need marketing money. Money to place ads, money to buy leads. This is not intended to intimidate you. It is intended to help you get a better perspective on what you are spending your money on and how much you’re spending. If you lay out your expenses ahead of time, there will be a lot less unpleasant surprises. You don’t want to find yourself saying, “Oh my God, I shouldn’t have gone out on that shopping spree. Now the computer crashed and I need money for a new computer.” Planning on spending for your business needs beforehand can help you avoid misuse of funding.

 

To run your own business you must also make a time investment in your business. An interesting thing I find during my interviews with home-based business owners is their answer to my question, “How many hours a week are you going to work your business?” They answer, “I am going to work it all the time!” Anything that is so easy to do, is also so easy not to do. Therefore, it is important to have an infrastructure. For anything you do in life that you want to have success in, you must plan ahead and structure your time investment. Planning your time ensures you have the time to achieve your success. Decide realistically how many hours you can work your business on a regular basis. 15, 20, 30, 40 hours a week are all okay. Just be honest to yourself. This also helps you to balance your goals. If you can only spend 20 hours a week and your goal is to make $2 million the first year, something is a little off. Honestly contemplating it and writing it down, will help you see and plan your time and goals clearly.

 

Giovanna Garcia