Starting the path to becoming a business owner is an exciting time, but it is a path with a lot of steps, roadblocks, and milestones. Making a business plan acts as a sort of map for your business, keeping you motivated and on track to get your embroidery business open. Additionally, you can use your business plan when you are talking to prospective investors and clients to show that you are serious about success.
There is a lot of information online about writing a business plan, so we have put together our list of the things that we think are too-often overlooked.
Long and Short Term Goals for Your Embroidery Business
As you are starting a promotional products or embroidery business, making goals should be a key part of designing your business plan. It is important to include long and short term goals so that you can measure your success and reevaluate your goals when necessary. You want to set long and short term goals because each serves a different purpose: Long term goals give you the vision for how you want your business to shape up, while short term goals give you the short term motivation to always keep yourself on track.
Remember, your goals should be measurable so that you can really keep track of what is and isn’t working. Vague, undefined goals like, “Earn more money,” don’t give you a lot of direction. Change that to, “Increase revenue by 5%,” to get a measurable, tangible goal.
Market Research
Before you make any business investment, researching your market is a necessary step that tells you important details about your proposed territory and customers. Ideally, market research will reveal the reasons why your business will succeed in the area — although sometimes your research reveals why you may want to reconsider where you locate an embroidery business.
Market research is an important step in creating a well thought out marketing strategy. Key to good marketing is getting your message to the right people, so your research should provide some insight. In addition, market research demonstrates to any potential investors exactly why and how your business will succeed.
Products and Services
Include a section about the products and services your business will sell to customers. Be sure to include the competitive advantages of the specific products/services you have chosen and the providers you will be working with to show why your customers will be buying from you and not your competitors.
This is one of many places where joining a franchise system for assistance with your embroidery business is advantageous. Investing in a franchise means that the research and development of new products is done for you, so you can focus on starting and running your business. Even better, when you invest in Fully Promoted, you have the flexibility to choose the products and services you offer your customers so that you can maximize your profits.
Becoming a business owner is a big step, and writing out your business plan helps you navigate that step with a carefully thought out strategy. For more help writing a business plan, get in touch with the experts at Fully Promoted.