The Plan - Col's Business Blog

Well, at this point, I don’t really have one.

Actually, that’s not totally true. This is the extent of my plan:

Start documenting processes for digital lead generation.
Do all of the things that need to be done to create a business – website, CRM, registration, bank account etc.
Find 3 or 4 initial clients to use to refine the methods.
Start to generate leads for these clients, and therefore recurring income for me.
Use the methods that I’ve developed to generate more clients for myself.
Get the processes nailed down enough such that I can start using other people to do the bulk of the work.
Get to the point where I can employ somebody to manage the day-to-day running of the business.
Develop more services, complimentary to the initial offering.

It’s not a complicated plan…

The Vision

I’ve always had clear visions for businesses that I’ve been involved with. The vision often loses a lot when it’s put onto paper, as my visions are more of a picture in my head of how I image the company to look and “feel” in a few years time.

It’s so important when embarking on a new business to really understand why you’re doing it and what you want out of it.

It’s a bit of a mantra in the small business community that you need to expect to work 80 hour weeks and never take holiday.

This is total rubbish.

Yes, setting up a new business can be hard work and stressful, but what’s the point in doing it if you never see your family again?

The point of being in charge of a business is that you’re in control.

Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.
Dolly Parton

You set the ground rules; you set the priorities. If money is more important than time, fill your boots. If quality of life is top of the list then you need to manage the business to achieve this. If you’re not achieving this, then the business isn’t working for you – and if it isn’t working for you, it isn’t working full stop.

Have I always got this right? No. But I’ve always been home for tea, I’ve always taken decent holidays and I’ve always changed things when the balance has got wrong.

Anyway, for this business, these are my aims:

To be earning a wage by next summer.
To work 3 days per week, taking regular holidays.
To create a process-driven business.
To create good, easily managed employment.
To create opportunities for neurodivergent people.
To build recurring revenue and profitability year on year, with the company ready to sell in 5 years.
To have a payment by results model.

When I started my previous businesses, a large part of the challenge was to to prove to myself that a quiet bloke with no sales skills and a hatred of negotiating could successfully run a business by using his brain to figure out how to compensate for all of this.

This time round, the challenge to myself is to prove that it’s possible to create a successful business only working part of the week, which can include building a team and embracing diverse characteristics.