Like everything in life, setting goals gives us drive and determination. Without a focus or a deadline, we weak human beings tend to drift down an endless path of confusion and despair. By setting some well-defined and realistic business goals early on, you’ll feel accomplished when you’ve achieved them, and you’ll also get a clear definition of how your business is growing in line with your expectations.
You need to determine where you want your business to be in one year, two years, and three years. As difficult as it is to judge, you should try to estimate the number of weddings you think you can do in the first, second, and third years. You should also evaluate where you are going to advertise and how much to allocate to this in these years, from whom you are going to secure funding, how much profit you would like to achieve, etc.
Here is an example of some typical business goals:
Year 1
- Secure funding in line with anticipated financial needs
- Buy all the necessary equipment
- Set up a website and get it up and running
- Analysis of good advertising channels
- Build relationships with other local wedding vendors
- Create 3 distinctive albums for display purposes.
- Attend 10 weddings
- Participate in 3 contests per experience
- Achieve 2,000 wins
year 2
- Participate in 20 weddings and increase prices by 50%
- Employ a digital imaging assistant to process weddings
- Hold 2 wedding parties
- Rent your own studio and start expanding the portrait side of the business
- Leverage established relationships with other wedding vendors
- Achieve LBIPP status
- Achieve a profit of 10,000
Business plans
A complete business plan is absolutely vital and its importance cannot be stressed enough. The business plan is not just something that needs to be done to secure financing; every business company needs to make one. You need to sit down and build a well thought out business plan, detailing every aspect of your business. You need to do this, not only to focus their minds, but it’s also a requirement for grant providers and bank lenders who might not otherwise take you seriously.
It is equally important to modify the plan periodically, as time passes and priorities change. The entire purpose of the written plan is to focus your mind on the key elements and objectives of your business. The very act of preparing the plan will make you look closely at the competition; the services they provide and their pricing structures; yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. This allows you to identify any potential problem areas you may be experiencing and turn them into something positive.
You must also identify all the financial implications and make a cash flow forecast. (explained later).
You can certainly guarantee that your business plan will bring about things you hadn’t even thought of. For example, your operating costs and anticipated expenses and turnover, as well as identifying your need for additional financing.
By preparing a detailed business plan, you will learn about market trends, your business goals and strategies, your place in the market, resources, and expected cash flow. This is vitally important, especially with a new business venture, as you will no doubt be looking to reinvest your hard-earned money back into the business. Being mindful of your cash flow can save you from the potentially crippling situation where one month you can pay for that new AppleMac laptop and the next month you can’t put the gas in your car so you can get to work in the first place. The Business Plan will help you decide how much you can pay and when. Remember that prevention is prevention!
To reiterate, a good plan is very important:
- If you want to apply for bank grants/loans, as these institutions usually insist on seeing a well thought out plan.
- In measuring success within your business.
- In detecting problem areas before they arise.
- In focusing on the key areas of development.
The key elements of a business plan are as follows:
Company Name
Executive summary of your business
This should list the highlights of each of the other sections of the business plan, so it’s a good idea to leave this part until the rest of the business plan is completed. It is also necessary in this section to detail if your company is sole proprietorship, limited, etc. The purpose of this section is to interest the reader and concisely inform him of the whole purpose of your business. If you apply for funding, sometimes that’s the only part that gets read!
mission status
This is a clear and concise statement of your company’s long-term mission. It should incorporate your ultimate goals and aspirations (mission) for the Company.
Products and services
This section should detail how you are going to brand your company and its products. Are you going to do weddings only or do you plan to offer portraits, commercials, etc. You should also think about and detail which market you are targeting (eg low-end, high-end). It should detail when it began operations, any history (for example, was it an acquired business), and plans for the future, etc. Also detail the service you intend to provide to customers and how it compares to the competition. Don’t get hung up on technical jargon – keep it simple because those reading it may not appreciate the industry you’re in, but they still need to be able to understand the concepts.
Sales and Marketing
This section is vitally important and time and effort should be put into this area to ensure your business is successful. You need to think about:
Where to position your business in the market (eg, top quality, low volume, etc.) Pricing your products – This is one of the most important and difficult decisions as you need to set your prices at the right level to be profitable.
You need to analyze the competition to see what they offer and what they charge and then establish your own niche. If you charge more, there must be tangible reasons why a customer wants to pay more for your product or service.
Advertising – It is important to identify the most effective routes to promote and advertise your products or services, ie how you will cost-effectively reach your potential customers and how you will control the effectiveness of your advertising. Also what media you intend to use for your advertising; It is through websites, editorials, social networking sites like Facebook/MySpace/Twitter, YouTube, magazine/newspaper ads, window displays, wedding fairs, emails, published flyers and brochures, etc.
It is important to identify in the business plan why people would choose your product at that price and why it is different from the competition (eg, quality, price, exclusive, additional benefits or add-ons, etc.).
The team
Although you may be starting out on your own initially, due to financial constraints, you will eventually need help. You need to establish what staffing requirements will be needed and at what stage. You should also identify the skills they will need to possess and any areas of weakness where they may need training.
Commercial Premises and Equipment
Most of the time, it’s best to start your business from home, as this keeps your overhead low. This section should detail where the business operates from (home or not), the advantages and disadvantages of its location, leased or owned, and for how long, the equipment purchased or the investment required. In addition, the IT facilities, the necessary outsourcing, the management and accounting systems necessary to control the business and future plans to improve in these areas.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
This is known as a SWOT analysis and it is a useful exercise to analyze exactly what it states: Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It is helpful to divide a sheet of paper into 4 areas and build a list in each section. Think carefully about all your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and eventually your goal is to turn your weaknesses into strengths.
Some examples:
Strengths:
- Prime location with potentially an elite customer base
- BIPP Qualified Member
- Excellent photographic skills
Weaknesses:
- No help: You have to juggle photography, marketing, accounts, etc.
- Photoshop skills need improvement
- Not very experienced in Sales and Marketing
Opportunities
- Some lovely wedding venues around us
- Many Wedding Companies I Can Affiliate With
threats
- Many photographers after the same business.
Competition
Although the competition is included in the Sales and Marketing section, it is a worthwhile exercise to establish the names, locations, prices, products and services, sales tactics of all your main competitors in your niche; basically, find out everything you can about them. . Call them and pretend to be a client who wants their services. This will give you a real idea of where you are in the market and what you can offer that they don’t, as well as how to sell against them. This is an ongoing process throughout the life of the business.
Goals and Objectives – Goals at one and five years
A written statement of where you see yourself one year from now and five years from now, both in financial terms and in market share. Visualizing where you want to be is the key to success and propels you forward.