How to do a Business Plan step by step

Feeling pumped to kick-start your coaching business, but the overwhelm is staring right back at you?! Are you still trying to figure out how to get started and wondering what the first step would be? Writing a business plan will make it all much easier. In fact, is the single most important step for your newly launched business.  

Sit tight, we’re about to cover everything you need to know to set bulletproof foundations and get your business started on the right foot.

Introduction

Just a year ago, I was in the same boat as you. I was freelancing for $10 an hour, working my ass off trying to figure out how to unlock the holy “SIX FIGURES” business thingy, that’s so in fashion these days. 

Working hard to create valuable content for my clients (mr. Chat GPT was not a thing yet…), but despite all my efforts, I didn’t get the results I was aiming for.

That’s when I realized the missing link – I was just winging it! I had no idea about how to do a business plan and never really sat and work out a marketing strategy.

By laying out a business plan and following it step by step during the moments when I felt lost, I was able to turn things around and build a successful business. 

So, ready with your notes? This is gonna be an insightful read!

Why is it important to know how to do a business plan?

Creating a business plan can be daunting, especially if you don’t have a business background. But don’t worry – I’m here to guide you through the process so that you can do it like a pro!

A business plan is essentially a document that outlines your vision, mission, and strategies for achieving your goals. In other words, it’s the roadmap to follow to stay on track as you work towards building your dream successful business.

Executive summary

The first part of a business plan is usually your executive summary. 

The executive summary should provide an overview of your business, including the business aims and the financial summary, vision and mission, and elevator pitch and business payoff.

I personally believe that choosing the right niche for your practice is crucial, as it will help you define your services, and ultimately attract the right clients. 

In my particular case, I knew I wanted to work with professionals that share my vision and values, such as professionals in holistic health and wellness, personal development, and self-help. 

So my advice here would be to take the time to identify where your passion lies and then start building your business around that niche. This way, work will not even feel like work sometimes!

Vision and Mission statements

A vision statement should reply to the question “Where do we wish to go?”. Your vision is more than just a dream. It’s a powerful tool that gives you the energy and inspiration to make change happen. It’s the visual image of your business idea that you want to achieve. With a clear vision, you can set goals and stay focused on achieving them!

The mission statement outlines what services your company provides, how it accomplishes them, and who it assists. You will manifest your vision if you stay true to your mission.

You might want to ask yourself: What change do you want to bring? Who can benefit from it?

Your background

Section two of the business plan is about your background: what skills and experience make you an authority in your field? Why should people trust you and what brought you there? 

Talk about your qualifications and why you started your business.

Products and services

Quite self-explanatory, list here all your offerings. Whether free or paid, single sessions or packages. This is crucial for future investors and collaborators to see what your business is about, in a nutshell.

This could include one-on-one coaching sessions, group workshops, online courses, or other related offerings. Make sure to highlight the unique aspects of your business that set you apart from competitors.

Target market & buyer personas

In the Target Market section of your coaching business plan, you will focus on identifying your ideal client base. This step is crucial for the success of your business, as it will help you tailor your marketing efforts and develop spot-on programs and workshops that meet the unique needs of your target audience. 

To begin, it’s important to ask yourself who your services are designed and thought for. For example, are you targeting men or women? What is the struggle that your audience face before approaching you? Where are they located? What’s their age? On which social platform do they spend most of their time? 

• Tip: You want to be as specific as you possibly can here, (I even named my customer avatar – Hello Sarah!). By envisioning your customer avatar, you’ll walk in their shoes, feel their struggles, and be able to address them with your offerings (the solution).

In addition to identifying your ideal client base, it’s important to research the market and competition. Look for gaps in the market and areas where your coaching can bring unique value to potential clients. This can be a unique blend of your skills and expertise, the language you speak or the niche you are targeting. Think about what is it that makes you unique, that is your USP (unique selling proposition).

Market research for a business plan

Market research is possibly the most important section of your business plan, so take enough time to lay it down carefully. This section includes:

• Market growth 
• Industry issues and angles to leverage
• SWOT analysis

Market growth 

Assess the market with useful online tools such as Google Trends or Ubersuggest, to check the popularity of certain search terms over time. By searching for keywords related to your niche, you’ll be able to measure the interest of an audience in a specific niche and whether it’s growing or declining. 

Another tool for market research I like to use is Answer the Public by Neil Patel, to have an idea about how people are looking for a particular topic. 

Finally, do a competitor check: by analyzing the growth of your competitors, you can get a sense of how the market as a whole is doing. If your competitors are growing, it’s likely that the market is also growing. We will talk about this one in a minute.

Industry issues and angles to leverage

What is your unique selling point? What makes you different from anyone else? Is it your unique skillset or background, a course you took or your approach to a certain discipline that could make you emerge easily in the market? Make sure to mention it here. 

Hang on online communities: Youtube and Instagram comment sections, Quora, and Facebook groups are gold mines to look for your customer avatar and understand what bothers them/they struggle with.

SWOT analysis

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis is a strategic assessment to evaluate these 4 aspects of your business. It helps you identify the internal and external factors that may affect the success or failure of your business (or project).

Examples of strengths:

• Years of experience
• Small niche (angles to grow)
• Low competition
• Marketing channels (YT, podcast..)
• Online presence

Marketing strategy

It comes a time, when creating a business plan for your coaching or service-based business, when you need to start thinking about how you will market your services to potential clients – AKA Selling Time!

Here are some key points you might want to keep in mind:

Identify your target clients and locate them through sales and marketing strategies, both online and offline.

ONLINE	OFFLINE
Share your story! There’s nothing more powerful than storytelling in marketing, and by doing so, you’ll be able to build a deep connection with your audience.	Send a personal note or even a small gift (if it makes sense for your industry) to your clients, when they sign up to work with you.
Start an online community: create a private group on Facebook, Podia, or similar, and ask your network to sign up by downloading your lead magnet.	Print out stickers or little quotes with your QR code that people can easily scan or search for you online.
Do collabs! Collaborations with similar or bigger accounts will let you showcase your expertise, be a resource and reach a new audience!	Organize and take part in online or offline networking events to keep your community alive and growing.
Use paid Ads to drive traffic to your website (make sure it’s optimized for SEO) or landing page.	Take part in retreats or live experiential events in partnership with other coaches (ex. If you are a Self-Love coach, you could reach out or organize a yoga retreat with self-love and yoga classes).

2. Remember to always consider your customer avatar, when crafting your marketing plan, to your target their struggles and needs. 
3. If it’s relevant, link your coaching certifications to your socials and website, this will increase your credibility and marketability (and make it easier to raise your rates!)

Competitor analysis

What an ideal word would it be if we had no competitors?! It’s a love/hate thing… but competition is a good sign that there is actually a market for our product or service. 

By doing a competitor analysis, you are going to research the marketing strategies and business features of businesses in your same niche – locally or internationally. So make sure not to skip this step.

Identify your competitors: Begin by listing down the professionals you admire the most in your niche or those who offer similar services or target your same audience. Include both local and global competitors.

• Tip: It doesn’t make sense to compare yourself to GaryVee if you just started your Youtube channel. You got my point?! Consider your competitors those professionals with similar numbers and analytics. 

Dig deeper into their online presence: Study their websites and social media profiles to understand their branding, messaging, and overall positioning strategy. Check the quality of their content, design, user experience, and engagement levels with their audience. Check their coaching programs, target audience, pricing, unique selling points, and marketing strategies. 

Check their services and programs: Do they have a course? Offer 1:1? Have a membership? Look for details such as coaching methods, areas of expertise, coaching formats (e.g., one-on-one, group sessions, online courses), duration, and pricing structure. Check how your offerings compare in terms of value offered, pricing and differentiation.

Analyze their marketing strategies: It’s time to put on your investigative hat and check the actual marketing of your competitor. This is going to be a bit difficult in the beginning, but it’s a must-do for your business plan. Check your competitors’ advertising channels (online ads, print media, radio, etc.), content marketing efforts (blogs, podcasts, videos), social media presence, and email campaigns. 

Review customer feedback: Read customer reviews and testimonials about your competitors. Check the comments on their socials, or Facebook communities. Look for common strengths and weaknesses mentioned by their clients. This will help you identify areas where you can differentiate yourself or improve on existing services. Identify gaps and opportunities that would make you unique in that niche. How can you provide an even better service or customer experience? 

Now that you have all the insights you needed from the competitor analysis, it’s time to refine your own business strategy. You can use these prompts to help you in the process.

And voilà! 

Well…not really. (Side eye – I know!)

Remember that a marketing strategy is a never-ending game, so it’s important to stay up to date with the market trends and the evolution of your business and adjust your strategy accordingly!

Overwhelmed and unsure where to start? We got you! Book your strategy consultation and let us handle it for you!

Rooting for your success!