Why a business plan won't help you

I can taste. Hello and good evening everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. Coming to you live in a few different places on The Facebooks, on LinkedIn, YouTube, and over here on my phone on Instagram. And I'm sitting at this weird angle because I am not gonna lie, I just tripped going up the stairs and I hurt my foot. So anyway, my foot's up, so I'm just coming to you from a different angle. But I still wanted to go live tonight because, because it actually doesn't hurt that much. Anyway, wanted to talk tonight about business plans because I know when you're starting a business, it like it's one of those buzzwords that people hear and they think, okay, well it sounds like something that I need. And so then they spend a ton of time and energy and sometimes money trying to figure out like how to put together a business plan. Hello. And I think it's Carlos, right? Is it Carlos Love Big. I think, I think it's Carlos. And that's what you said last night. Yes, yes, I remembered correctly. Woohoo. I love it when I remember stuff. Okay, Anyway, you do not need a business plan. You don't. If you're running a service based business and you're not looking for funding and you're not going to be taking, well, a loan out from a bank that's also funding. If you're not like going to be renting a brick and mortar space like signing a lease where the landlord needs to, to see that you have a viable business plan, you don't need it. You, you genuinely do not need a business plan for starting a service based business. Okay? Spending too much time trying to figure out these unnecessary bits of your business is just a stalling tactic. Okay? It is a stalling tactic that your brain is so smart at coming up with, right? Because your brain actually wants to prevent you from doing the scary thing. Your brain doesn't want you going out there and announcing that you started a business and marketing it and putting yourself in the position where you might get rejected not just by your potential audience and your potential clients, but by like the people who know you, who might laugh at you, they might ridicule you, they might reject you from the, the village and make you live in the, in the forest by yourself. Obviously that doesn't happen today in most societies, but our brains have not evolved quickly enough just to like stay up to date with how we run things now. Okay? Our brains are still like using like the, the caveman operating System, Okay? It's, it's, it's assessment of danger is not up to date. Okay? So let's talk about what you actually need to be focusing on when you're starting a business, especially if you're offering a service. So I'm talking to you if you're doing coaching, consulting, if you're a lawyer, if you're copywriter, if you're doing something that is like consultative or is a high level service, okay. What you need to focus on is understanding what your profitable niche is. Okay? It really doesn't matter what you do. People really don't care. And your marketing will fall flat if you only talk about what you do. Right now, there are some exceptions for this. So like if you're a lawyer who specializes on wills, trust and estates, anyone who's looking for those things will find you. Right? But like you want to talk about end of life stuff, you want to talk about like planning and getting your affairs in order and all that stuff when you're out marketing. You know, coaching is a lot harder because a lot of people don't know what coaching is. The same for consulting. You know, I have friends who are married to consultants. They don't even know what their spouse does. They don't understand what the consulting thing is. So as a business owner, you have to a identify a profitable niche. Like a group of people who have a problem that you can solve, right. And then you need to figure out a marketing plan and a sales plan to get them in the door to become your client. Okay, my foot is really starting to hurt. I fell up the stairs. It was so embarrassing. I, I wear flip flops all year round, like in the house, you know, and I. We have really steep stairs. They're like the cape styles. They're really steep. And I tripped going up and I hate to say this, but I ripped my big toenail off. It just like it hit just the wrong way and it's starting to hurt really bad. Anyway, thanks. Thank you so much. I can't believe I told everyone on the live that. Anyway, yeah, it's really starting to throb. This is going to be a really fun night. Anyway, so you need to figure out how to get clients as fast as possible, how to make money as fast as, as possible. When I work with my clients, we do this in a couple different ways. Okay. So first and foremost, like if they haven't been getting clients up until then, if they don't have like a profitable niche already, what I'm having them go out and do is market research interviews. All right? Because we need to market test what your idea is. Because, sure, you and I can. Can sit in, you know, on the phone together during a session and come up with a bunch of ideas of things that we think will be profitable. But until we go and talk to the people who will be actually, like, pulling their wallets out and. And reading the credit card number and putting it into your online system, we don't know if this is going to be profitable. We don't know if what you're selling is actually going to be the thing that people sign up for. And we have to figure that out, because the last thing I want my clients doing is playing the fucking guessing game. That takes forever to help you figure out if you can sell something. I had to play the guessing game, okay? I had to come up with, like, this whole market research process, pulling from a bunch of different resources. But I didn't have this when I first started, and I wasted so much time. She was actually, like, a profitable niche, and I got it wrong a couple times, you know, and it happens, and I don't want that to happen for my clients. So we start there, and then from that information, we're taking that information, and we're directly, like, plopping it into your offer. Like, what is it that people say that they're struggling with? And how do you know that you can help them with that? That becomes your offer. From there, we're again taking from the market research, and we're using all of that data in your marketing. You know, one of the hardest parts about running a business is the constant need to market yourself, right? And a lot of people get overwhelmed by this because they think that they have to come up with, like, new and exciting things to say all the time. You don't. You actually don't want to come up with too many new things all the time. You want to learn how to say the same three things over and. And over and over again a thousand different ways, okay? That is how you are going to make serious money in your business, and that is how your audience is going to be really well trained to know how you're useful to them, okay? If you're constantly changing the things you're talking about, like, they're not going to be able to follow, and they're not going to be able to, like, connect the dots that, like, you're talking about this thing over here, but really you sell this thing over here. We want them to know inside and outside, like, how you're useful to them. I got this great DM from one of my connections on LinkedIn today, Justin. He connected me up with someone who he thought, like, needed to work with me. And his message was just so on point because he knows what I do so well, because he watches my lives, because he pays attention to my content, because I'm constantly saying the same thing over and over and over again. Justin's never worked with me, he's never been my client, and he was able, in this message introducing me to someone, to distill exactly what it is that I do. Right? When you're creating a marketing strategy for your business, you need to be able to do the same thing. And when you're able to pull from market research the way I have my clients do, makes life so much easier, you know? And lastly, you need to figure out, well, not lastly, there's a lot of other stuff, but, like, the top thing here is you need to learn how to sell, right? I know when I talk about selling, a lot of people get, like, all clenched up. Like, their butt cheeks go up, you know, like, it's really uncomfortable. You know, selling is stressful. It is scary. Even when you're in sales, it can be really stressful and scary. I want to let you know that the fact that you feel so amped up about it, that it feels like almost life or death when you do it, and is so normal. Because here's the thing, like, sales on its own. Like, you're usually selling something that's separate from you. You're selling cars, you're selling houses, you're selling, like, software as a service, right? And even when someone says no to buying those things and you're the salesperson, it feels bad, okay? It feels so bad, and it feels like you've been rejected. And here you are, you've started a business, congratulations, you're offering a service, and you really, genuinely want to help people, but you have to sell to do it. And now you have this added layer that if they say no, they're not just saying no to the car, the house, or the software as a service, they're saying no to you. Okay? And that feels so much more vulnerable, and I just want to nod to it. So if you're feeling this way, you're not alone. It is extra scary to sell your time, your expertise. One of the things that I train my clients on is my style of selling, which is holistic selling. It's a genuine conversation where you're basically assessing if this is the right client for you. And if they are, can you genuinely help them in that call and then invite them to be your client in the future. It is so relaxed. It is very, very simple. But if you're really struggling to get clients, I just want to let you know that, like, I have to train everyone on this. Even my clients who come to me who have a sales background have to be retrained on how they can sell their services. All right? Because it is so different. All right? You know, as you're starting this business, you're going to be really tempted to do a whole bunch of stuff and you're going to feel like it's productive. You're going to feel like you're getting ahead of the game and that it's really helping you. A business plan, unless you're getting funding or signing a lease or something that requires a business plan, you really don't need it. You need a strategy to get clients and to make money. Website. I know it sounds crazy. Sounds crazy. I probably sound like the most sacrilegious business strategist you've ever met in your life. But until you have market tested your idea, gotten a whole bunch of paying clients who are in that niche and who have verified with their money, with their dollars flowing from them to you that this idea is profitable, you actually don't want a website. Okay? Any website that you make in the interim, you're going to have to redo. So if you want to have like a standard website that's like your name, like what you do and how to get in touch, it's almost like a business card website, Go for it. But do not spend any dollars on having a really nice website built before you have, like a solid list of clients. Okay? You're going to have to redo it. It's going to be very, very expensive for you. But really what you need is you need social media. You need to understand which social media platform your clients want to hang out on. And is that the social media platform that they are buying from? Because those can be two different things. You want to understand what your offer is and you want to start selling it. And that's essentially it. That's sounds really scary. And it is. It absolutely is. Because you've never done this before and you're putting yourself out there in really brave ways, and that's frighten and you're doing great anyway. My poor foot. This is gonna be a fun night. I don't think I'm gonna be able to sleep. It's really starting to hurt right now. Have you guys ever ripped a Toenail off. This is my first one and it not good. Anyway, this is not how I planned on this live going, by the way. I did not plan on being in exclusion, excruciating pain through it. Carlos, I'm sorry. Sorry, dude. Anyway, on that note, I want you to just take a deep breath. If there's any stuff that you're working on, your business, if it makes you feel better, if it makes you feel a little more confident, like you have your shit together, go for it. But if you think that those things are going to be the things that help you get clients, they're not. They're not. And I don't want you wasting your time on them. I want you spending your time on. On. Oh, Justin Loisey. Ice ibuprofen and something green would help. Lol. You know, I actually have all those things and I know what you're talking about. Yay, from Massachusetts. What was I saying? Oh, yeah. So if you feel like having those things will make you feel better, more confident, whatever, go for it. But if you're depending on those things to help you get clients, cut the crap. Don't do that, okay? You're bullshitting yourself. You are trying to sell yourself a bill of goods. I, you know, went through this coach training program with a ton of people. There were about 150 people in the various different sessions that I was in. A lot of them, like, I. Out of everyone, there are two people I know besides myself who coach full time right now. Hi, Hognam. Welcome. And a lot of people tried to start a coaching business. And what they ended up doing was a lot of the time wasting things, you know, building a business plan, getting a logo, putting up a website. And they thought all those things would give them the confidence to go out and get clients. And it didn't. And so they figured, okay, well, I got this training. Maybe if I go and get more training, I'll feel confident enough to go out and start a web. A business. Hi. And it didn't. They went and got certified in other things and other things and other things and other things until they had like, buttloads of certifications and trainings. They had a beautiful website explaining how special they were, and still no clients. And they still didn't feel ready to go out and start a business. Getting certifications just makes you really good. Getting certifications, it doesn't make you ready to start a business. All right? Starting a website makes you good at starting websites. It doesn't make you good at getting clients and starting a business. If you Want to start the business, you got to start the business. Okay? You have to start getting clients. A business that doesn't have any paying clients is not actually a business. It is a very expensive hobby, and I don't want that for you. Unless. Unless you're independently wealthy and you actually don't need to make any money from that. This. Anyway, if you would like to join me this Friday, Every single Friday. I'm sorry, every single fourth Friday of the month, I open up my weekly Brave Biz Lab call to my whole damn community. And this is a call where you can show up and ask any question you have on how to get clients, how to market your services, how to set pricing that actually pays the bills and then some and doesn't just keep you at the poverty level and a whole bunch of stuff. If it's something that's holding you back in your business, we cover it. It's an open Q and A Hognam. Am I inviting you to the U.S. i am always inviting you to the U.S. absolutely. But this one, this particular call that I'm talking about is on Zoom, so you don't have to travel. But I would love it if you came to the U.S. let me see. It's a hobby. Yes, it is. Justin. Be an entrepreneur, not a wantrepreneur. Oh, my God, I'm gonna steal that. That needs to be on a T shirt. Anyway, but anyway, this call, I do the fourth Friday of every month. It's at 11:00am Eastern Standard Time. So in Norway, I think that's 4:00pm I don't know. I don't know the time difference. Anyway, and it's open Q and A, so any question you have, we cover it. And one thing that I always promise people that, like, people are very used to this. You won't get a hard sales thing at the end. Okay? It's not something I do on this call. This call is genuinely about paying it forward to my community. So I hope to see you there. The link to join that if you go to Brave Biz Labs in the link in my bio, you should be able to register. And I also, also, also before I log off to. I'm hosting a workshop next Thursday the 28th, all about you strategizing your next 12 months to hit six figures in your business. I don't know. It's dark 247 here now. Oh, my God. That's right. You're so far north. Oh, my God. I hope you have one of those, like, UV lamps so you don't get depressed. I would definitely need one. Anyway, so this workshop is about strategizing. Not just like, what you need to do all year long, but breaking down what your monthly action actions need to be, what your weekly actions need to be, and things you need to do every damn day to be able to build your new business up to six figures in 12 months. This is a paid workshop. It's $97, but if you want to grab a ticket, then I have it in the link in the description of this live on YouTube, right, LinkedIn and the Facebooks and on Instagram. It will very shortly be in my bio. So I look forward to seeing you there. Anyway, I'm gonna go take care of my foot. Thank you for the. The advice, Justin. I really appreciate that. And thank you to Hogne and to Carlos and everyone else who's been here who didn't comment. It's been lovely, everyone. I will be going live again tomorrow, so I look forward to seeing you then. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. Have a great night. Bye.