We feel pretty strongly that a business plan can help you to define your business goals and give you a road-map for the future of your company. But, what makes a company that has used a business plan different from others? How has a business plan made the difference for that business?

Studies have shown that having a business plan doubles your chances of success. It’s not the paper that is magical. It’s the process of writing, thinking, strategizing that puts you one step ahead of your competitors.

Photo Credit: Laurel McConnell Photography

Photo Credit: Laurel McConnell Photography

4 years ago we launched The Simple Plan workshop in Seattle. We follow up with attendees periodically to ensure they are still getting value from the investment they made. Here’s a pretty cool stat: of the 15 business owners who attended the Seattle 2009 workshop, 14 are still operating (and THRIVING at leaps and bounds!)

We sat down with one of our attendees from our Seattle 2009 workshop, Barbie Hull. Barbie is a phenomenal photographer (and a funny lady) who’s been snapping pictures since 2001. Barbie shares what has worked for her in business planning…

Why a business plan is important…

After being in business for so many years I thought it was important to create a new business plan to re-focus my goals. It is so easy to keep your head down and work work work on day-to-day tasks when you should really be keeping your head up and your eyes on the bigger picture. What are my goals? How much do I want to work? What is my exit strategy? For all of these questions – a good business plan helps you create a path to answer them!

A-HA moments during the business planning process…

Well, we had a lot of hahahaha’s at our workshop!! What a fun and super smart group! The biggest A-HA moment I had that couple of days was the outsourcing idea – outsource anything and everything you can – all while keeping an eye on it. This will leave you available to be more profitable and lessens the chance of burnout.

How the business plan helped explore my biggest challenge… 

Pricing. I have always worried about pricing – is it right, will it work, how will I explain the increase to my existing clients. By creating this business plan I figured out my expenses and my break even point – being aware of how much I have to work just to live, really helped give me the confidence to increase my prices and realize that I was worth it. (THANKYOU!!)

How the business plan helped on an on-going basis…

After the Simple Plan workshop – I started meeting with three other business owners, we would meet every other Monday morning for breakfast – kind of like an inspiration group to help keep each other focused. We would talk through creative decisions, bookkeeping & accounting problems, and when we were stuck on a client issue anything business related and I honestly don’t think we would have thought to do this if we hadn’t created our business plan.

Biggest improvements as a result of the business plan…

I feel in the last few years my business has grown quite a bit – not only in amount of work accomplished or funds raised, but also in what we learned from Christy & Blair of Junebug Weddings – about living your brand. I wanted to attract fun clients, ones who are low key and enjoyable to be around. So I started to be a bit more comfortable being my goofy self in public – mailing glittery cards, posting hilarious photos and inviting clients over for a beer or margarita, all of this plus more has helped me to live my brand and in return my clients are all really fun and pretty laid back!

Thanks Barbie!

You can read more case studies here. Find our workshop schedule here.