Business and Marketing Plans Resources | Be Your Own Boss – 2/1

Hello, I’m your host Kaycinho, I’m a digital alchemist, and this episode is episode n°1 of a module dedicated to the preparation phase of starting your business. So for the full module I invite you to check this playlist.

And by the way, this module is the first module of a course taking you from the burning desire to become your own boss to actually launching your business. So if you want access to the full course (videos will be added until the course is complete) by clicking here.

Business and Marketing Plans Resources: The Business Plan

So first of all, let’s talk about the Business Plan.

I remember initially wandering through the ton of information on Google and YouTube about business plans… 
And man, it could have killed my motivation right there, because before I knew, I was looking for the ways I could get myself an MBA, and that made me feel even more hopeless.

But, wait a minute… Did Steve Jobs or Bill Gates have an MBA.

Food for thought.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying an MBA is a waste of time, I actually have some friends that did complete their MBA and they are pursuing fantastic careers and most top-salaries are devoted to such graduates.

But it is not possible for everyone to study and get an MBA.

Either time wise, money wise, or both.

What I noticed though, is that some people naturally implement what others study while doing their MBA.

And some of these people happen to have great results, and when they do, they write books.

Now although I love reading, I must admit that I’ve grown very skeptical when a new shiny book comes out. That’s because pretty much anyone can write anything nowadays and self-proclaim themselves “experts”.

But once in a while you stumble upon a gem that feels like the missing piece in your puzzle, and I don’t know about you, but when I find such gems, I just feel like I’ve found a treasure.

Less is more

In my quest for a simple business plan, I stumbled upon the “100 dollars startup” by Chris Guillebeau.

Although it’s a bit old, this book is easy to read and packed with examples of people who started with little money.

And while some of the examples wouldn’t work today (because of the competition for example) many are still relevant, and the key is the pattern of all those case studies.

And once you’ve read the book, you will have a much more practical view of how to craft your one page business plan.

Cherry on the cake, Chris even created a one page guide to craft your simple Business Plan, but I strongly advise you to read the book first, because just taking this PDF and writing your plan would be like starting the engine of a car just because you were given the keys, but without having ever taken a driving lesson.

So read the book, you’ll thank me later : you can get it on Amazon.

And you can also read this interesting article from EntrepreneurMag.

Business and Marketing Plans Resources: the Marketing Plan

NOW what about the marketing plan?

While the business plan is more about the “what & when”, the marketing plan is more about the “how and where”.

Personally, I already had some experience with both offline and online marketing because of my previous positions while I was employed but more times than not I was in the implementation phase and not the strategy phase.

And even though I kind of knew what to do, it just didn’t feel like a solid mastered plan.

So once again, I was in a quest to find a way to craft a simple yet effective marketing plan without spending years studying for it.

And guess what, when I read the title “The one page marketing plan”, it caught my attention.

Now although the title makes you feel like you’re gonna take a white piece of paper and just magically write the ultimate marketing plan, there is a little more than that to it.

The book is very easy to read and very enjoyable, but it takes dedication.

What I did not expect though, was for this book to be another game changer. Allan Dib did a fantastic work breaking down complex mechanisms into simple and logical tasks.

You can get this book on Amazon or on the audible platform if you prefer the audio version.

So what I did personally is audio-read the book once via Audible, and then listened to it again and took some notes so that I could replicate the plan for my projects and put the theory into practice.

Business and Marketing Plans Resources: Tools That Can Help

And for that I used a tool I couldn’t live without today: Trello. I’m pretty sure you know Trello, but if you don’t, you should! Basically it lets you organize your thoughts and notes into stacks and cards.

Trello is web based, cross-browser, but also available on the App Store or Google Play and they have a free plan, so if you don’t have a Trello account yet, I encourage you to do so.

And if you want to go premium on Trello, then you may also want to consider another tool, called Notion, which I use more and more, and although I love Trello, I find that I can achieve more with Notion, but you can totally use the free version of Trello which already packs outstanding value!

Business and Marketing Plans Resources: Get To Work!

So, yes I’m advising you to read 2 books, but trust me: those 2 books can make the difference between you and the person in the cubicle next to you that also wants to quit the rat race and start their own business, but just don’t!

And let’s face it: if you don’t invest time and effort in your own success, nobody else will!

So, I hope this episode helped pointing you in the right direction to craft a simple yet effective Business and Marketing plans.

Let me know in the comments!

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Because let’s face it, there are so many things to do in a day that if you don’t do it now you’ll probably forget.

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So, that’s it for this video, and in the next one we’ll discuss about the resources you need to be in business.

In the meantime, don’t forget to invest in YOUR success today!