#013: Writing Business Plans: The Opportunity for Business Writers

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.

Hey everyone, thanks for joining me for episode 13 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I'm your host, Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level or the part time equivalent. You can find detailed show notes of this episode by going to b2b launcher.com episode 13, the number 13. These are detailed show notes you can reference later at your convenience. I have a great show lined up for you today. My guest is a lady by the name of Jessica Oman. And Jessica is the founder of Write Ahead and an expert on writing business plans for startups and small businesses. In fact, that's mostly what she does for a living, is a writer. And it turns out this is a great opportunity for writers to make a very good living writing these assignments, which come with the extra bonus of helping small businesses and startups get that initial.

Footing and become successful.

So we're going to talk about what business plans are and who uses them, what the basic elements of a business plan are, what you can charge for this type of work, how much demand there really is for them, and what type of writer is best suited for these projects. So I hope you enjoy the episode.

Let's get to it. Hey, Jessica, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Well, we got a really cool and kind of a different topic today, which is that of business plans and writing business plans. Before you get to that, I want you to tell us a little bit about what you do for a living and what types of clients you serve.

All right, thanks. My company is called Write Ahead and it's a business writing firm. Started out as a little bit more of a general firm, but has definitely evolved into a company that specializes in two things. And the one is writing business plans for small companies and startups that are just getting going and also teaching other people how to write their own business plans. So those are really the two, the two main types of clients that we serve. We have a lot of clients who are local to our area and like to drop into our office. But we've been transitioning recently into developing more of an online audience and working with people all across North America who are starting businesses. And it's a really fun opportunity right now because the entrepreneurial spirit throughout North America seems to be growing really fast and gaining a lot of momentum. There's a lot of really Good resources out there, a lot of great energy, and people are really motivated to start their own companies. So we're really excited to be working with people everywhere from Michigan over to Vancouver and down south into California to help them start their new little companies and become really successful.

Oh, very cool. Very cool. Yeah, it does sound like the timing is right for this.

Before we go too far with business.

Plans and just assume that everyone understands what we're talking about, because I'm actually not very sure exactly what these entail, but can you tell us a little bit more about what they are exactly and also tell us who uses them and what they use them for?

Sure. Well, the term business plan, I think, especially with a lot of upsurgence in tech startups, has developed a little bit of a stigma. A lot of people think that they're kind of old hat. But a business plan is basically a roadmap for your startup success. It's the document that can guide your operations, provide metrics for you to benchmark your progress in your business, outline your goals and your objectives. Your ideal customer. It really takes all of those parts and components of a business and puts them all into one place so that the entrepreneur can always have a great frame of reference and a document to look at every time they're trying to make an important decision. Traditionally, a business plan has been used to get a loan from a bank to start a company or grow a company or to attract investment from somebody like an angel investor or a venture capitalist. So think Shark Tank in those kinds of programs. But really, what it comes down to something that is dynamic. It's something you can refer to, revise and revisit as often as you need to. And really just a document that helps you stay on track as you start and grow a company.

All right, so what are the basic.

Elements of a business plan? Give me an idea of what these things entail and what they contain.

Sure. Well, we offer a little bit of a different approach to business planning, and I've written or touched over 300 of these projects to date. And it really comes down to five major elements and major components that really need to be addressed even before you start writing a business plan. And I'll just list them all and then talk about each one in a couple of sentences, but they are the customer that's number one, your perfect customer. The market or the industry that you're in, the people that's who. Who's managing and who's operating your business. The money, where is it coming from? And how much can you make what does it cost to run your business and the format? So this is how you're presenting your business plan, and that's based on the audience or whoever is going to be reading it. So the customer is really that most important element. Everything that we sort of teach in our business plan methodology comes back to that ideal customer, who is that perfect, perfect person that if you could only sell to one of them and then replicate them a million times, who would that be? We spend a lot of time detailing that with our clients and they find it really valuable. And then when we get into the market and industry analysis, which is the second component, we are saying, okay, how many of those ideal customers exist and how much potential is there in the market for your service, as well as who else is competing for that same group of customers? And then we work into, okay, we've got a great customer, we've got a thriving industry, there's lots of demand for the product. Who are the people? Is the business owner suited or skilled to run the business effectively? If not, where are the gaps? How are they going to fill them? Much staff do they need? For an online business, this is going to be a subcontractor, somebody to take on overload. You know, these are important people, a virtual assistant, something like that. You need those people to really make your business thrive. And then, then there's the money. What does it actually cost to run this thing? And of course, with a brick and mortar business, you're evaluating all kinds of things like your rent and your insurance, your leasing costs, marketing costs and all that sort of thing. And then with an online business, your costs are your contractors or online subscriptions, like your billing and bookkeeping systems and that kinds of things. So PayPal fees are important costs. So that's, you know, we spend a lot of time evaluating all those costs because even though they may seem small, they really add up and they can affect profitability. And then once we've done all that, then we're really ready to put it all into some sort of format that the entrepreneur really can work with. And for some businesses, that's a very formal type of document, typical business plan with an executive summary overview and that kind of thing. And for others, it's something a lot more creative. For visual people, it's maybe a collage or a collection of post it notes, a vision board. It could be any of those things. So once we've worked through those five elements, we really have all of the pieces in place that we can start developing into a full, effective business plan.

Wow. This sounds pretty intimidating.

No, it actually can be a lot of fun. Once you're working on defining that ideal client and working out the potential in real numbers for your business, that can actually be really exciting and motivating, I think.

So give me an idea of. And I know that the formats vary, but let's say that it's a standard document. Right. What are we talking about in terms of length, roughly range?

Yeah, I mean, it really depends on what you're using the plan for. If it's an internal guideline, you can usually get away with something shorter because you're just focusing on the certain things that drive the development of your business. But if they're going for a loan or an investment, you typically want something a little bit longer. I would say maybe 20 to 30 pages. You don't want to overdo it. And I have seen 50, 70 and 100 page business plans, and that is absurd, no matter who's reading it, because an investor doesn't have time, a bank is not going to bother. You know, there's really. There's really a few sections of a business plan that, that anyone who's going to give you money is going to read. And that's the executive summary, the cash flow, the market research, and the management sections. And those are the pieces that you really want to flesh out.

Okay. And I'm assuming that when you put these together right, you have. I'm sure you're working out of some sort of really basic or raw template, but most of this you're creating new every time.

Yeah. And that's what makes it really a lot of fun to do, is that everyone's business is a puzzle and we have to sort of. We have to create the pieces and then put them together. So we do work with a basic template, start with 5 or 7 sections, and then we customize that for each client that we work with, depending on their industry and the audience for their business plan.

Okay. Okay, so give me an idea of what you typically charge for writing a business plan.

Well, we're actually pretty transparent with our pricing. A lot of it is even available on our website. But if we're starting from scratch and writing a business plan, our minimum charge is usually around $3,000. And that's really because there's so much that goes into helping the client make decisions about their business, we end up helping them with their strategy. And that's just part and parcel of doing the work. You know, we can't just write something that's not based on any sort of research. And it's not based on finding a good fit between the client and the industry that they're in. You know, there's quite a lot of background research and work that goes into it. So, you know, it's quite a few hours and we have to charge at least that much. It really goes up based on how much funding or investment the client is going to need to start the business. If they have a really complex business model and Maybe they sell eight or 10 different products and services that have different costs associated with them, that takes a lot more time because each one of those things have to be evaluated as well. If there's a business that plans to operate in multiple locations, we have to do research on each of those locations to figure out what the demand would be. So that's what sort of causes the price to go up.

Oh yeah, I can totally see that. And this sounds very reasonable. I mean, even at 3,000 starting, and I would think that would be your most basic ones, pretty straightforward stuff. What would you say you've seen them go up to?

They can go up to 6 or 7,000 or even more. And there are a lot of consultants out there that charge well into the five digits for business plans. It's not uncommon to see. You would especially see that for industrial types of plans for mining and resources based companies and that kind of thing because they're working with, you know, millions and millions of dollars and the strategic planning is extremely detailed. That's usually not the kind of client that we work with. We, we like to work with lifestyle businesses, brick and mortar companies, retail and that kind of thing. So they're, they're small businesses that are going to remain small. But yeah, I mean, some of them, some of them do get pretty complex if they start blending, you know, E commerce with brick and mortar and that kind of thing. So.

And usually on the small businesses, but usually in the early stages as well. Right. Is that your sweet spot?

Yes. Startups or any business that's about to undergo a financial transition, which is usually a growth phase.

Okay, okay.

Wow.

I'm just curious, how did you learn to do this? I mean, how did you learn to put these things together? Is it trial by fire or did.

You go to school for this?

This is, these are very strategic documents. I agree. This is not the kind of thing you can just kind of plug and play.

Yeah, well, I'm lucky that my background is a good fit. I have degrees in English and education and then I went back and did an MBA in 2008. But I think for Somebody who has started and is successfully running their own freelance operation. They are acquiring quite a bit of knowledge about how to run a business and how to make decisions about how to run a business. So I think that a lot of that, that type of formal business knowledge is useful, but it's also acquirable online and without necessarily going back and doing an MBA like I did. So, you know, I did my first business plan during the MBA program, but it was, you know, it was very much an academic exercise and it was nothing like anything that we produce to our for our clients today. And so I really got into it. I was just approached by somebody who needed help reorganizing and editing their business plan. They just responded to an ad I put on Craigslist, and that's how it started. I looked through it, I read the document. I was able to pick out where the arguments were flawed and didn't make sense, and an advanced writer should be able to do that. And that's where it started.

Wow. So you kind of stumbled into this?

Well, a little bit. I mean, I knew there was an opportunity there just based on the business education that I had acquired. But it did take a few months for me to develop some real confidence to go out there and sell it as a service.

Tell me a little bit about what clients are looking for. Do you think that most prospects out there who need a business plan produced, do you think they're looking for a writer, or do you think they're looking for a consultant? What have you encountered?

We've seen a real blend especially. Well, let me start again. A lot of our clients are actually immigrants, so people who've come over and they want to start an enterprise in Canada, which is where most of our clients are, but also in the United States, and they don't have English as a first language. So a lot of times they'll approach us simply because they need somebody who can write in perfect English and they have the business knowledge and they're able to provide the content. They just need it put into a format that's clear, concise, and understandable and free of grammatical errors. So that's an important segment for us.

Interesting. Yeah. And I could see why then the writer element would be more important there.

Yeah, absolutely. And then for people who don't have any financial knowledge or they really need strategic help and consulting help, you know, we're lucky that we can provide that in house, but it's also useful. And sometimes we do it. We'll contract out some consulting or partner up with somebody who has specific industry expertise so that we can get that. That focus there for the client, and then we just end up doing the writing piece, and then somebody else does the finance piece. So there's an excellent opportunity, I think, for in business planning for writers to partner up and do some collaborative marketing with accountants, business consultants, strategic management consultants, and other professions.

Do you think this is the kind of work where if you're going to do it, it should be one of your main line of business or one of your primary ones? This is not sounding to me like something. It should be kind of as an aside or something you pretty much ignoring. But it's there on your website.

Well, yeah, and I see that a lot on writers websites that they'll list six or seven different services and then business plans is just one of them, I think to be extremely good at it. It's something that you probably should offer if you're passionate about it and about starting businesses that you can offer as a core service. But if you're not totally confident that you can do it, I think a good way to start is to offer reviews and editing services first and work with people who have already written their business plans, and then you're just tightening them up. Because you can acquire a lot of really essential business knowledge just by reading other people's strategies and seeing what they're doing. It's, you know, you start to see patterns and you learn as you go. So that's a really good place for a writer to. To start.

You know, I just thought of something, and I'm wondering if you've used a strategy or if you think it could be worthwhile. Because I have been approached by prospects. They haven't really been existing clients, just prospects who want to know if I could help them with a business plan. And right away I said, you know, I don't. But it's interesting. I don't know anyone until I met you who actually writes those and who actively writes them. So I'm wondering, you know, would there be any value in kind of creating a network of writers and just letting everyone know, hey, this is what I do. So if you come across anything like this, let me know and I'll do the same thing for whatever your specialty is.

Yeah, I mean, are you thinking sort of a referral network?

Yeah, a reciprocal referral network or, you.

Know, any type of referral network? Because I think it's the kind of thing that's so specialized that I think it would really lend itself for that.

Yeah, I think it's. That is a Great opportunity as well. And if you can kind of compare it to something like sales page writing, you know, there are people who started entire online businesses and all they do are sales pages because it's a specific type of copywriting. It's, you know, it's a specific type of language that you use to really hit people's pain points and get them to click that buy now button. You know, that's a specialized skill. And actually that was something that we used to offer here at right ahead. And then I just decided that, no, I'm not like, I can do it, but I'm not a core. You know, it's not one of my core services and business plans are really the thing. So I think what we do is. It's kind of the same. It does. It does require some specialized knowledge and some focus. And the more that we focus on developing business plans, I think the better company we become, the better work we can do for our clients. So, yeah, if I knew, you know, I have a couple of writers who are great at direct response. I will definitely forward my clients onto them and hope that they would do the same for me. I think writers are most successful when they focus in on a specific type of writing. So a referral network can be really valuable.

So tell me a little bit about. You talked earlier about the kind of the renaissance that you're seeing in the business world, and especially with startups. How is that factoring into the demand for business plans? What kind of demand are you seeing? What's the trend that you're seeing out there?

Well, one of the reasons that I, I've taken my company and narrowed it down to business plans is because the demand for them has been overwhelming. I mean, it. It's so high. And every time we go into a new market and we start advertising there, we get, you know, a whole flurry of. Of inquiries. It just seems to be building more and more and more, which is very, very exciting. And, you know, and I'm still working primarily within Canada, but I'm heading down to the States to check out Portland and a few other markets to see. To see what's going on. So, yeah, it's been really interesting over the last last three years that more and more people are taking the leap. You know, they get laid off from work, they're maybe thinking about retiring, but they don't quite have enough money and they think a business venture is the way to go. You're seeing a lot of creative energy and a lot of people who are saying, okay, you know what I'm at risk of losing my job, so I might as well go and try this business thing, because a lot of us have ideas in our heads that we'd love to pursue, but for whatever reason, family or just fear, we haven't pursued them. And the economy is such that I think more and more people are deciding that, okay, well, it's now or never.

Well, and it sounds like it's the kind of service that really lends itself to kind of an online relationship. You don't necessarily need to be there physically in their hometown.

No, absolutely not. You know, we do a ton of work by Skype, and it's. It's actually quite easy to connect with people, and it's a really cool way to learn about new markets, and it provides opportunities for travel. I mean, you just can't go wrong.

Yeah, no, I like it.

I like it.

So what would you say is. What type of writer would you say is best suited for this? You know, what if I don't have an mba?

Yeah, Well, I think a writer who has really strong research skills is somebody who is really good at finding information online and going and digging up data and statistics that the entrepreneur just can't be bothered with. So if you're somebody who's really detail oriented and you like acquiring new information and you do a lot of reading, then you're probably a good writer to take on business plans because there's so much information out there and you're just constantly learning.

Tell me about what you enjoy most about this kind of work, because I've kind of sensed the fact. Well, first of all, you seem to really have found your calling. I can tell that by the way you describe this. But tell me, maybe some of the intangible, some of the things that you found that really keep you here and want to make you want to do more of this type of work.

Yeah, the most exciting thing is to see the businesses open after we've worked with the clients. So they may. Yeah, they may take that business plan away to the bank. And a few months later, we see their sign go up. We're following them on Facebook and Twitter, see what they do, and. And then they have their grand opening. And wow. Like, that is so exciting, obviously, that it was the entrepreneur who. Who was able to execute the plan, you know, and they're the ones doing all the legwork. But, you know, to be involved in that foundation of a new business and then see it take off is. It's such a rewarding feeling. I absolutely love it. We have about Six businesses just in our little neighborhood here where my office is, that I worked with over the last three years and I get to go spend money there and enjoy their products and it's so much fun.

Oh, wow. Yeah, that's got to be pretty rewarding. I can see that. I'm curious, now that you've said you've worked with some businesses in your local area. That leads me to another question about your capacity to take on several clients at once. So what would you say at any given time, what would you say is your max? You know, I can only be working on so many business plans at any given time, otherwise it's just too much.

Yeah, our max is 12. And I actually have a colleague that I, that I work with, so she, she does most of the financial side of the business because I'm, I'm the strong writer and strategy person and she's really good with the, with the financial projection. So we have that great in house collaboration between the two of us. 12 is at any given time. Yeah.

Wow, that's a lot.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've gotten pretty efficient over the last couple of years, so we can take on quite a few clients at once.

I know you have a training program for how to write business plans. Can you tell us a little bit about that and where listeners can learn more about it?

Yeah, well, the training program was really inspired by all the free consultations I had given to potential clients who just weren't able to come up with the funds to work with us. And I can respect the bootstrapper. I started my company with $170. That's all I had to invest. So I really understand where people are coming from, where they say, I'd love to work with you and I just can't. So I developed this training program as a way to introduce new entrepreneurs to the concepts that they really need to expl before they start writing a business plan and made the pricing accessible, you know, and, and it's a pretty lengthy, meaty guide with a lot of information in it. So it's a really good starting point for people to, to start to really work on the, the concept of their business and understanding their ideal customers so that by the time they're ready to go and get funding or launch, they, they have all that in their head and they can, they can compile it into a clear and concise plan.

Well, I'll make sure to include a link to that resource in the show notes in the title of the program itself.

Remind me again the title of the program is how to write a business plan to launch your entrepreneurial journey.

Super, super. We'll make sure to include that there. And any parting thoughts? This has been fantastic. I mean, you've really opened my eyes to this opportunity that I didn't even know exist, to be honest with you. And I'm actually really excited about this.

Cool. That's great. Yeah, I mean, I just, I hope that some of the work that I do is going to take away the stigma that a business plan is a useless document. Because if you read a lot of entrepreneurial startup journals and online articles, a lot of people are saying that they're pointless documents, they're just an exercise in futility, and that it's more important to be out there working on the business. But really the way I see it is if you don't have some kind of business plan, it's like driving from LA to Chicago without a map or a GPS or anything. I mean, you'll get there. You kind of know generally which direction to go in, but you probably make a few wrong turns and some mistakes along the way and possibly waste a lot of money on gas. So, you know, having a plan really kind of straightens out the line and gets you to where you want to be in your business more efficiently, I think. And so that's why I feel that everybody should have one.

Well, Jessica, thanks again for coming on. Again, super information. I really appreciate it.

Good, thanks. Yeah, I was really glad to be here and I hope your listeners get a lot out of it.

Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed that interview. You know, what a great opportunity. And until I talked to Jessica, I had no idea that there was such a great opportunity for writers in the business plan arena. As with everything else, this type of work is not for everyone. But if what Jessica said here resonated.

With you, you may want to look.

Further into this opportunity.

And her PDF guide is definitely a great nuts and bolts introduction and tutorial. I personally explored it and it's really excellent.

Gives you a good introduction, it gives you some templates, templates, outlines, step by step instruction. Really good primer.

If this is an area that's of.

Interest to you, a couple of quick announcements before I sign off. First, I wanted to let you know that I've just opened enrollment to my very popular program, Effortless Productivity. This is a three part class where I'll show you how to boost your productivity by 30% or more with less stress and hassle. My approach to productivity improvement is very different from the typical time management advice you read out there, you hear about out there. And it's designed specifically for freelancers because it's based entirely on my personal experience in my own experiments in my freelance business. You can learn more about the program@www.productivesolo.com. just keep in mind that enrollment closes next Wednesday, July 24, because the first class starts the following day. Also, remember that you can grab the detailed show notes for this episode@b2b launcher.com these are detailed show notes. They make great reference material, especially if you're somewhere right now where you can't take notes. If you enjoyed this episode, I would be grateful if you shared it with friends, colleagues, relatives, whoever you think might benefit from it. The easiest way to do that is to go to www.b2b launcher.com love or to simply use any of the social media sharing buttons on the show Notes page. And I finally wanted to thank all of you who have taken the time to leave me either a rating or review on itunes. This means the world to me, folks. This podcast thing can be pretty lonely at times. You really don't know if your message is resonating with people, so it's extremely encouraging to get that kind of feedback. One of the benefits that's come out of this is the podcast has been featured in the New and Noteworthy section in the what's Hot section in the Business category in itunes, which is truly amazing. If you want to leave me some love on itunes, the easiest way to do that is just to go to b2b launcher.com iTunes so that's it for this episode. Again, I'm your host, Ed Gandia. Thanks so much for listening and I hope you have an awesome day.

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