Two lessons ago we talked about the importance of having a vision, which is basically the big picture of where you want to go. And in the previous lesson we talked about goals, which are the specific milestones along the way toward your vision.
So today we’re going to talk about plans, because you need to have a plan of action to hit your goals…
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
For examples of how to make a typical business plan, you can see:
– Small Business Association business plan info
– Traditional business plan sample
– Name of business
– Vision for the business
– Who is the target market?
– What will we sell? (be specific)
– What makes us different from the competition?
– Marketing strategies
– Goals for building and growing the business
– Plan of action to achieve goals
Action steps:
1) Make a business plan.
If you wish to use my template, you may download it here for free:
Click here to download the PDF file (do a right-click “save target as” to download it to your computer)
So now that you’ve got a plan, you’ll need to commit to it, and figure out how to stay motivated. I’ll be talking about those things in the next lesson.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.
Have a great day!
Eric
This is another valuable lesson on business plan, I’ve downloaded the PDF template for my various niche websites and I do want to thank you for the time and effort you have put in making these free lessons. However, I think you should be in the teaching profession and not Internet Marketing…
Regards
Dola
Hey Eric,
This is absolutely fabulous information. I’m recommending your course to all the moms who email me asking how they can learn to work at home online.
One suggestion. Would it be possible for you to post the Online Business Plan Basic Outline in Word? In the current PDF version it can’t be completed in a digital form -which means handling paper…which isn’t ideal when you’re trying to keep as much of your online business computerized as possible.
Thanks!
Sabrina
Eric,
I Really like the idea of a simple One Page Business Plan. Thanks for streamlining this tedious process.
Thanks for the template Eric…I downloaded it and printed out about 20 copies. I’m keeping them in the same folder as my Internet Marketers Dictionary and will use one each time I begin a new project or website. As far as I’m concerned these lessons are your claim to fame..lol!Your the best!
Gary
😉
We Give You 120 Individual Turnkey Websites With Your Paypal ID On Each
http://www.Instant-Paysites.com
Hehe thanks Dola… I sort of am in the teaching profession thanks to these lessons 🙂
Cool thanks Sabrina. Well the reason for the PDF was to help make sure it was standardized… but since YOU asked…
http://www.ericstips.com/OnlineBusinessPlan.doc
There’s the Word doc for ya — no support included 😉
You’re very welcome 🙂
Great idea, thanks!
Another great video, Eric. I bet 99% of online marketers would benefit from watching it. I know I did. 🙂
Hi Eric
Thanks must go to Sabrina for her request! Although I do recognize that the PDF format helps everyone in being able to read ebooks etc. It’s useless if you want to edit to suit your own particular needs,unless of course if you purchase Adobe’s PDF suite, and as Eric has told me NOT to BUY anything then the Word format is something I can do with!
The plan I have written is surprisingly rather much as you’ve suggested Eric so up to this point I’m in ‘tune’. And Gary hits on something I feel makes good sense, so thanks for that Gary.
Paul (UK)
Hey Eric,
Been following your course and finally took action to do something about it. My website below is the result of what I’ve been following and hope I could apply more of your lesson’s and techniques to improve further.
Thanks for everything.
Your free digital resource center.
Dbookworm.com
Hello! Eric,
So far so good, I created my plan, it was a smooth ride until “plan of action “, I create that part as well but I have some questions:
1) There is no way I can put the bullets in the right order, to follow the order of your lessons, because I don’t know the succession of the lessons. The question is: the order in which you will give us the steps to accomplish the goals are the natural order of achieving success? Or can be just a pedagogical order.
2) Question 2 and 3 are personal: when we do the creation of the Blog, I need to learn how to create a “do follow” Bog, the creation of a Blog is a piece of cake with cPanel – Fantascico, but a “do follow” Blog – I don’t know how to do it.
3)My intension with the new website is to create one that starts as a free membership, but can be up-grated to a paid membership for more sophisticated info. Do you cover the creation of membership sites as well or you think that part must be outsource because involves deeper knowledge about database creation, security etc?
Thanks Eric, you create a lot of excitement and I cannot wait the next lesson.
Regards
Michaela
At a free library “Business Research” workshop, the librarian said she used to run both an ebay business and a grant-writing business. She talked a lot about business plans and said, “If I had written a business plan, I would probably still be doing my grant-writing business.”
Agreed, Business plan is like a beacon and direction you will guiding your ship called “Business” With out it you will get lost and eventually sink. Thanks Eric for all the information!
Online Business Plan
Name of Business:
Infrastructure Healing
Vision of Business:
My vision is to put what I have done in the healthcare field into an online business. I have been doing physical body work for the last 28 years and have developed and created a healing modality I call Infrastructure Healing.
Physically I can not work the hours I did in the past and would like to generate an online business related to my field. I have 28 years of experience in my private practice and feel I can write, create e-books and sell affiliated products I have come to trust.
I would like to generate $120,000.00 a year. Also my license for my practice is in Arizona and I would like to generate enough income to be able to move to California to watch my grand kids grow up.
Who is the target market?
People wanting information and help with health conditions, people looking for body workers, massage therapists, chiropractors, healers
What will you sell?
Services—Treatment
E-books
Affiliated products
What makes me different than the competition?
28 years experience
Most people looking for someone to give them an answer, I will help them discover that the answer is within and how to do that for there physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being. If they are looking for the ideal diet I will help them to discover what the ideal diet is for them by learning to pay attention to their body.
Marketing strategies:
Website
Blog
Help from Eric
Web traffic
Monetize site
Goals for building and growing the business (specific events/milestones, including financial goals, with deadlines):
Short term goals
Design a website for infrastructurehealing.com
( done by 08-02-08 )
Layout and color scheme
Logo for site
Home page
Articles 2-3
Fees
Privacy statement
Contact page
About the Doctor
Have it online
Links
Blog site up and running ( done by 08-16-08 )
Have it linked to my website
Sign up with Auto responder
Have first 5 auto responses typed up
Think of having a list for signing up.
Set up my business name with the state and the city
Get business cards and letterhead with new business name and have all pertinent data on them. Especially website and blog information
Cancel my AZ Chiropractic License
Medium term goals
By end of 2008 will be earning $5000.00 a month from working on clients and $5000.00 a month from online sales of affiliated products and E-Book.
Plan of actions to achieve goals.
Follow Eric’s on line business plan
Do what I outlined in goals and get information, website and blog out to my past clients.
Hi Eric,
In setting about to write a business plan, I find that I don’t know where to begin. While my goals include product creation and info marketing in several info niches, including the spiritual self help niche, it’s hard to ignore my already-created ‘non-info’ products, which include a published novel, music, and screenplays.
First up is my award-winning comic-adventure children’s novel, Saving Bluestone Belle. This book is available in hard and soft cover editions, and is selling on Amazon and other bookstore and author sites. It will soon be available in an ebook edition. However, it is in need of a business plan, a dedicated website and laser-targeted marketing. Its general market is parents of 9-12 year olds. This horse-themed book also touches on issues related to animal rights, kid entrepreneurs, and broken homes.
Can you suggest an internet marketing approach for this book that will enable me to create a business plan and follow your lessons on info marketing, while building book sales?
Thank you.
Best wishes,
Susan
Thanks Eric,
I have looked at many business plans before and most are so complicated that it is amazing that anyone can get anything out of them.
A one page plan gives me, and those who I share it with, a simplified process for stating what we intend to do, how we are going to do it, and what we expect to receive from it.
Thanks for your help,
Jim
http://www.scc-i.com
http://www.ctrinformationmarketing.com
What a good info you give and also it’s free. Thanks eric.
My vision and I know my other one was pretty lofty. Its just to make a life which assists my family and contributes equally to finance and attaining our dreams together. It at the same time creates more of a network and supports everybody in that network.
Hi Eric,
Thank you very much for the great lesson and information. I am very excited everytime I see you email in my inbox for I know that I will definitely learn something new whenever I receive an email from you. And I am right, you have highlighted the importance of preparing a business plan before starting any business venture. I will surely do that. Thank you also for the business plan sample.
Hi Eric,
Great lesson! Most of online business seeking people are afraid to start because they think it is the same as an offline business. In this lesson you explained clear the difference between online and offline. Thanks and keep on teaching us!
This is a great pace to be going at, Eric. Having been through the pain of having to build entirely innapropriate ‘academic’ business plans before, your ‘Business Plan Lite’ is a breath of fresh air. Because it’s so brief I’ve actually written more than I normally would and things are now already a lot clearer. Lovin’it!
Thanks Eric – good basic advice!
Pingback: A great resource related to yesterday’s post | Internet Marketing for the Masses
Dear Eric,
I am going through all the lessons you are sending me. It is very helpful. You are doing great job for newbie like me.
Will you please answer one question to help me?
How on earth a person like me can be successful having no referral?
Regards
Eric, thanks for your video… yeah doing a business is not easy, we need dedication, discipline and more importantly as you said a business plan. I have known selling digital products are profitable. What I haven’t done is to create my own product. The benefits of creating a product probably is for branding thus increase revenue i guess….
Proson
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Hello Eric, Thanks for the time that you are spending to create Erics Tips / lessons. As always they are very helpful and I tell anyone that I think may be interested in starting an online business about your site. Thanks again Danny.
http://www.succstrat.com
Thats a very nice detailed plan…wish I had mine as organized as yours. I suppose more will fall into place as I continue. Best of lusk to you! 😉
I love reading these lessons. They provide a lot of things that I don’t apply to my own business. Thanks Eric
Hello Eric,
I really appreciate your teaching. Thanks!
It has put lots of puzzles/questions in place.
Just a question. Are you going to guide us on traffic generation?
Great stuff.
Thanks
Wonderful tips on Online Business Plan. I have printed the standard form and intent to list Name of my Business, Vision and other relevant details.
Together we shall win!
Adesegun Akitoye
http://www.repeatrichrelief.com/pips.html
Thank you Eric. It is nice to have things made simple.
Can I leave a message for Dbookworm.com
I tried to leave a comment on your first post and it would not let me submit.I wanted to wish you well.
Thanks Neil! I’m honored to count you as a reader 🙂
Awesome video. Yeah love the old school bus plan that becomes part of the dust on the shelves.
THanks for the PDF
Rich
It’s great to see that you have a site up and running! I look forward to see how it grows as you learn more.
1) The order of the steps is the best order that I’ve been able to come up with to guide you to success. As I’ve said before, my way isn’t the only way, but yes I would say it’s a natural order.
2) I think you are referring to not using “no follow” tags on your blog. OK I will try o cover that, and if I forget, just ask me when we get to the lesson where we set up a blog.
3) I am hoping to cover membership sites, but it will be much later on in the lessons. I thionk it could be outsourced, but it’s not too difficult if you’re comfortable with basic website stuff.
that’s a great testament to the lesson!
Cool, thanks for sharing it with us!
I’m glad to have a published author such as yourself on board 🙂
Ultimately, you need to determine what business you really want to be in, and write a business plan for it. Could you mix info-products, fiction books, and music in the same business? Sure… it’s a writing/publishing business. However, it could cause some problems like lack of focus.
I also hate to say it, but in general fiction books do not make much money on the internet. So if you’re going that route, you will have to really think outside the box. Most fiction authors don’t sell enough books to make a living, so you would really need to set yourself apart by working on branding, buzz marketing, back-end monetization, ancillary products… basically turning your fiction book into a series with a business enterprise built around it.
Many of the marketing techniques in these lessons can help in those areas.
So one option would be to focus on your existing products, and you would need to “adapt” some of the lessons for your situation.
The other option would be to focus on a new business with a money-making product that helps you fund your other passions (writing, music, etc.)
Yes I will be talking a lot about traffic later on in the lessons 🙂
Hey, thanks for the wishes.
🙂
I have a question. Would you do some market research before picking a product or after? I, like many others, overthink things like this. But, I know that there are probably a lot of people that only have one thing for an idea. I have tons, and have a hard time reeling myself in. So is the exercise to just go for something or should it be researched first to determine its marketability and target audience, etc?
Eric, thank a lot for responding!
About blog, “no follow” is the default in WordPress, and this means we don’t have a back link. My understanding is that if we change to “do follow†we will have back links, but to do so we need something: a plug in or some script. I probably need more info about the correct meaning of “no/do follow†and which and why is better to have in blogs. Please try to explain, because what I know at this point is vague and not enough for a clear picture.
I am happy that the order will be the natural progression to succeed. I cannot thank you enough for this considering approach.
By the way, I am a big fun of Squidoo, when we progress, I volunteer to create a lens in which I’ll talk about your education FREE program and I’ll attached all the sites which was create during the training and some good success story as well.
I little more exposure for your training and for our URL’s is going to help.
Do I have your permission to do this? But I have to wait a little, probably in the middle of training it is the right time to start the lens, because I want to show some early results and keep going update the lens with the progress, and finish with the 100% success stories! What do you think?
Regards
Michaela
Thank you Eric! as always another brilliant video.
Hi Eric:
This is for a subscriber from lesson #13 His name is Raymond. Hi Raymond how are you doing today?. You were saying you were having trouble understanding Adwords and Clickbank, well I was just wondering if we could contace each other, together we might be able to figure this thing out. My Dad always said 2 heads are better than one lol. It would be a great honor to beable to be of some help to a fellow subscriber. I must admit I’am not very knowledgeable with computers, but together we may shine some light on this goal towards our vision. If you are interested in trying this? post a comment on Eric’s Tips and we can figure out a way to contact and help each other.
Have a great day Raymond,
Gus
PS. Thanks Eric for making things possible.
Hey Eric Great job you are doing
Hey Eric one quick question are you the same person as Eric Rockerfeller that promotes/affiliated to Mike Filsaime?
No I’m not the same person. I know E-rock and he’s a decent guy, but I’m not him 🙂
Thank you Eric for all your time. I have been gathering info for over six months now. Too many other teachers/gurus are in the mode of get rich quick. Your latest action steps are not even mentioned by many other marketers. Some of your lessons have been very basic, however if you can teach someone that is starting from that level to generate an income online, then even I should be able to succeed.
I look forward to all of your lessons, and their action steps.
Thanks for giving us a great foundation to build a business.
Thanks Eric.
One of my Goal is to Meet you in Person and Thank you.