Where's the Map?
Posted On: 2015-09-10
I had the chance to attend a mainstream business networking meeting last night that included a talk about business plans. It was an interesting evening because, not only did we get to walk away with some new business, but we also got a refresher on business plans.
Business plans are not something that most of us tend to talk about ... or even think about ... here in the adult online world and yet we should be because the basic principles of business are the same whether you're selling solar panels or porn and businesses don't succeed without a plan.
Most of the people who come into this industry have just two goals in mind. They want to escape from the nine to five grind and they want to make money and those are quite valid goals but are they enough to ensure your success?
To my way of thinking it's a bit like declaring that you want to visit some place you have never been before ... some place on the other side of the planet ... and then walking out your front door and thinking that you're on your way. You might be on your way but how far are you going to get if you don't have a map that's going to help you plan your trip.
Without that map and a plan you're not going to know whether you're actually moving towards your goal or further away from it. You're not going to know what the terrain is like that lies ahead of you. You won't know if you have to learn new skills or change the direction that you're heading in.
If you don't have a plan and a map it's as if you've started your journey by walking into a thick fog. Sure, you might be able to see a little way in front of you but can you see far enough ahead to avoid falling down any holes that may be across your path?
And how do you know that you're even heading in a straight line? If you're in a fog, in a place you've never been before, you could just be blundering around in circles and you will never reach your destination.
What is even more sad is that you could even blunder passed your destination and spend years trying to achieve some goal when, if you had a clear idea of what your goals were, you would have realised that you had already achieved it. A map and a plan are useful tools even in a fog.
So what are your long-term goals? If you have reached the point where you have escaped the nine to five grind and you're making money then you have arrived... but is this where you want to be for the rest of your life? Do you want to stay in the industry and just do free sites and galleries for the rest of your days?
Isn't there something bigger ... better ... that you could do in this industry? So where do you go from here?
If this was as far as you thought ahead then you've reached the point where you really need to start laying out some serious plans but you don't have to do it in the same way that many mainstream businesses do.
Over in mainstream small business people are encouraged to come up with business plans that range from 20 to 200 pages long! Ask a bank for a loan and they'll ask you for your business plan. If you don't have one then some banks will give you a template to help you build your business plan and then they'll tell you to go away and do it.
But for any industry that's just plain crazy. It doesn't matter whether a business plan is 20 or 200 pages long, it's still going to lock you into something that gives you little or no flexibility so don't think that your business plan should be anything like that.
Yes, it's important for you to have a business plan but it's got to be flexible because the world is changing and our marketplace is changing at an incredibly fast rate. In an inflexible business plan could be out of date before you've even finished writing it so it needs to be flexible.
Of course the plan should set out your final goal and lots of smaller goals that you will need to achieve along the way. And your business plan needs to set out the ways that you are going to achieve those goals but it needs to be flexible.
When you can see the plan laid out before you, and that plan includes the things you are going to have to do to achieve those goals, you get a much clearer picture of what all the factors are that will help you achieve those goals.
You won't reach a point where you suddenly have to stop your business from growing because you need to take time to upskill. When you can see where you're going and what you need to do to get there, your march towards your goals won't suddenly grind to a halt because you don't have ... and can't afford ... the equipment you need.
When you can clearly see the challenges in front of you then you can plan for them, you can factor them into your life and your finances and be prepared for them.
If you don't have a plan and map you will never achieve your final goal ... it's as simple as that!