I’ll never forget my first business plan.
I scribbled it onto the back of a cocktail napkin on a Delta flight from Arizona to Indiana.
I had just attended my very first training session to become a Certified Life Coach, and I was bursting with excitement about my new (future) career. I could envision my new life so clearly—working with clients, helping them to set audacious goals and achieve them, and most importantly, NO MORE real estate paperwork! (I was sooo-oo done with real estate sales, and so ready for a big career change.)
I wanted to map out a business plan ASAP.
I grabbed a napkin and I wrote on the back:
COACHING BUSINESS
Network your ass off.
Start with 8 clients a week at $125 per session.
4 workshops a year.
Start a blog.
Get on local TV.
(I wish I had kept that napkin SO BADLY. I should have framed it. It would look so nice hanging in my office. But I digress…)
Here’s what happened:
In that next year, I graduated from coaching school and I did EVERYTHING that I wrote down on that napkin. I wound up earning $99,500 during my very first year as a coach.
Moral of the story:
Your business plan does NOT have to be complicated. You don’t necessarily need to have 28 different products and services and 47 different ways of spreading the word about your work or a super-complicated mailing list “marketing funnel” on your website. SIMPLICITY is a huge key to success.
I know entrepreneurs who churn out business plans that contain 60+ pages of information—but they aren’t making any money. I know entrepreneurs who write 6 words on a Post-It note—and then generate 6 figures a year.
My business model is a little more complex than it was 10 years ago, when I scribbled my initial vision on a Delta napkin. I’ve evolved, and my business has evolved too. I offer two masterminds, BARE Coach and BOLD Facilitator Training, online programs, Agency services and a couple other things that I didn’t offer 14 years ago, back when I was just getting started. My income has gone up significantly, too. But even with all of those changes, my business plan could STILL fit on the back of a napkin.
Today, it would go:
COACHING BUSINESS
Show up every day
Launch BOLD for Girls
Lead two masterminds for amazing women entrepreneurs
Run two training sessions for BARE Coaches
Post a new podcast episode every Monday
Grow The Agency team and services offered
Start a TV show on YouTube
Have the most fun ever and invite women to join me for a Summer of YES!
Inspire women to ask for everything, love themselves, and MAKE A SCENE.
And that’s pretty much it. Those are my benchmarks of success for 2020.
How about you?
What’s your business, career, or personal goal-plan for 2020?
Is it feeling wobbly and overly complicated? Or tight and focused?
See if you can get the main points of your plan onto the back of a napkin. Seriously, try it. If you can do that, you’ll be right on track.
Do less… and do it better.
Do less… and ultimately, you’ll end up earning and achieving more.
Simplicity is where it’s at.
