Archive for 'Plan'

The Biggest Mistake in Your Marketing Plan

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 at 6:00 am  
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The Biggest Mistake in Your Marketing Plan

To market your business and to do it effectively, you need a marketing plan. Trying to just jump in and implement strategies as they come might seem like a carefree way to handle your marketing, but doing so will never create highly profitable results in your business.

For a marketing plan to create results, the plan must be developed with your specific business goals in mind. You cannot market a graphic design business the same way you market a retail product. For your marketing plan to work for you, it needs to be customized for what you do, who you serve and what you want to accomplish. You also need to avoid the number one biggest mistake you can make in your marketing plan.

What is the Number One Mistake in a Marketing Plan? Failing to Narrow Your Focus.

While the idea of making yourself available to anyone who wants to hire you may sound like the way to start raking in some serious cash, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, to be successful with your marketing plan you need to have in mind selling your services to a single individual. That’s right – one person and one person only. This person is your ideal client and it’s critical to identify as much about this person as you possibly can

Think about who your business serves and who you would like to serve. It isn’t “at home moms with children who want to work online.” It isn’t even “at home moms of small kids who want to be online business owners.” It just might be “35 year old work-at-home mothers of preschoolers who want to start a freelance web design business from home.”

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You will get the best results from your marketing plan if you narrow your ideal client right down to a description like this: “Mary, a married, 35 year old mother of twins from New Jersey with no college education, an artistic eye for decorating, who enjoys spending time with her family and friends and has 20 hours a week to invest in learning how to create websites for graphic designers.”

Can’t you just picture her, sitting at her laptop reading your blog? With the twins spilling juice on the kitchen floor and the Labrador licking it up as fast as it drips? OK, now that you know who you are talking to, you can begin to market to Mary! You’ll stay more focused, think more clearly and work on a personal level to help her succeed. This is effective marketing at its best and keeping this in mind will help you create a marketing plan that will help you consistently connect with ideal prospects.

It sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? After all, how could getting dead-on specific about a single, imaginary client possibly help you do anything other than potentially attract that single client? People are different and they have different needs, right? Absolutely. The thing to keep in mind, however, is that you are you. One individual. One individual with some really great insights on how to help people have happier and more productive lives. One individual who has the potential to make it big. But you operate in a very specific way – unique to you. It’s what makes you stand out from the crowd. It’s also what makes you the perfect solution to ideal client’s problems. The beauty of it all is your ideas and products are exactly what your ideal prospects are looking for – and because you have taken the time to drill down your market to an individual person with specific needs and wants, you are in the perfect position to create just what he or she needs.

Narrowing your marketing efforts down to a single person lets you focus clearly on what you do best, who needs what you have and how to deliver it efficiently. Once you develop a marketing plan that convinces Mary to buy everything you could ever dream up to sell, you’ll be ready to sell it to every Mary you’ll ever meet – and that’s as much business as you will ever possibly need or want!

Sydni Craig-Hart, expert marketing consultant for service professionals, supports her clients in creating success – in both their businesses and lives. Known as “The Smart Simple Marketing Coach,” the tech-savvy Sydni uses a results-focused, “how to” approach in implementing simple, customized strategies so service professionals create profitable businesses in which they enjoy the lifestyle they choose. To tap into Sydni’s expertise with your marketing plan, get your free training course “5 Simple Steps to More Clients, More Visibility and More Freedom” at http://www.SmartSimpleMarketing.com.

 

How To Implement Daycare Business Plan

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 at 1:07 pm  
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How To Implement Daycare Business Plan

Like any new business venture, opening a day care also requires prior strategizing, meticulous planning and dedication of time, efforts and resources. It goes without saying that the most important pre-requisite is that you must love children.

From business point of view, a day care can be a successful business venture, the owner must have a business plan ready that covers every aspect of day care operation be it day to day operations, procuring the required equipment, hiring proper help and professionals for smooth running, figuring out a prime location where the day care will be situated and lastly financing for the entire operation.

First of all, you need to decide whether you have enough capital for starting such a venture. If not, you might have to look for a financier or an investor who would definitely want to see your business plan ahead of the startup, so make sure you have done your homework beforehand. After this stage has been dealt with successfully, you need to find a prime location which is easily accessible to working parents for dropping off their kids. It should not be exactly on a main street but set apart from it.

Choices are available at this juncture, that are, either you start the day care out of your own home to minimize startup cost or you could go hunting for a building to purchase if your business plan has enough monetary capacity, last option would be to rent out a building or a house. If you are going with the last option, then a quick way of finding a cheap space would be to look for businesses or properties which are nearing foreclosures and those who would be glad to rent it out on lower rates than the market to save their mortgage.

Once you have rented or purchased the property for the day care, next step would be to furnish it appropriately for the incoming children. Here, too, the option of renting or purchasing is at your disposal, though purchasing good quality furniture is recommended, but if it’s not within your budget then you can opt for renting.

Many states in addition to obtaining a license also require the day care to have a medical professional to be present on the premises. Other than this depending upon the magnitude of the establishment and the number of children enrolled, you might have to hire licensed teachers and caretakers.

Now that you have done with all the initial phases and have a place of business ready, it’s time to advertise for it to let the parents know that you are in business. Advertising is totally dependent on the scale of budget which is allocated for it; you can go for television commercials which can provide you the quickest exposure and publicity but at a high cost. Other alternative is to revert to print media like newspaper ads and printing pamphlets and distributing them at social places like churches and community centers.  

Once your day care is up and running, you might want to incorporate an education package too which would provide more edge to your establishment, as it would be providing babysitting services in combination with pre-school education.

For best tips, resources and practical advice on how to make a daycare business plan, visit DayCareStartingGuide one stop solution for all queries regarding day care.

Child Day Care Business Plan – The Marketing Section

Friday, April 22nd, 2011 at 11:23 pm  
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Child Day Care Business Plan – The Marketing Section

The marketing section of your child care business plan is just one of the essential parts of the document. Here are tips for working your way through major sections of the marketing plan.

Brand Image

Even if you do not seek to build your in such a way as to plan expansion or franchising down the road, having a strong brand in your local market can be an important success factor. For a child care business, a strong brand means that customers connect with what the company as a whole stands for and not just with specific caregivers they value. It is very important to make sure customers see the value the company as a whole creates so they are confident of the safety and daily development of their children, regardless of which caregiver is on duty that day. Remember that the brand that develops is influenced, but not controlled by everything you do as a business,. At the end of the day your brand is created in the minds of your customers, stakeholders, and competitors.

Promotion

The first question of your promotion strategy is whether you will get customers by taking them from the current businesses in your market or whether you will create extra capacity in a growing market (such as a town where population is growing through births or where there is a new influx of young parents). The tactics you write about in your plan for promotion will depend on this strategy. If you have to compete directly for customers, you may focus on competitive advertising and deals for parents who switch to your center, as well as marketing messages which details your strengths relative to competitors’ weaknesses. If you can pick up new customers to the market, you may focus on advertising where these new parents can see it, and offer deals to those who just moved to the area or had children.

Pricing

When detailing your pricing strategy don’t just say what your pricing will be, but provide the rationale for why you chose that pricing. Explain the decision factors behind how you will decide pricing in the future for your current services and for new products and services as they are added. Also, explain how your pricing will distinguish you on the spectrum of prices offered by competitor child care services. This shows readers of your marketing plan that you have put in real thought behind the numbers you give for your prices and have not simply guessed at a number on basic intuition.

Are you looking for more advice on how to open a child care business or develop your child care business plan? Call 877-BIZ-PLAN to learn how Growthink can help you build your child care business.

Daycare Tips : Starting a Daycare Business Plan

Friday, April 1st, 2011 at 3:00 am  
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Daycare business plans are available at the library or local bookstore, and making an outline of each topic can form the template for goals, mission statements, marketing and employees. Set up a daycare business plan, tailoring it to fit the needs of a new childcare center, withadvice from a daycare owner and operator in this free video on childcare. Expert: Veronica Baragas Contact: www.mywigglesandgiggles.com Bio: Veronica Baragas was born and raised in Austin, Texas and has been working with children and families for 10 years. Filmmaker: Todd Green
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Child Care Center Business Plan Preparation

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at 10:00 pm  
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Child Care Center Business Plan Preparation

When developing the business plan for your child care center, there are a few key decisions to make at the beginning of the process. The one that may have the greatest impact on the speed and cost of the process is whether you and your partners will create the plan yourself, share the work with a business plan writer, or outsource it entirely to a business plan consulting firm.

Writing the Plan Yourself

The advantage of creating the plan yourself is that, as the business’s manager, you must be in a position to understand the market opportunity, to decide how the business will run, and to know the financial drivers of the business in any case. Since you will have to spend time to understand these elements, documenting them in a plan is just one more step. However, you lack understanding of the proper plan format and face an even greater hurdle in the creation of a financial model for your plan in Excel. If that is the case, make sure to use a business plan outline from a reputable source or, better yet, a template suited to the child care industry that you can adapt for your company.

Hiring a Writer

If you feel unsure that your writing skills are good enough to create a successful plan, hiring a writer may be the route to go. Be careful to work with someone with experience and the ability to show multiple writing samples. Also be clear on the extent to which you will rely on this person. Will the writer simply put your notes into narrative format? Will the writer be responsible for market and competitor research? Will the writer need to create the financial model and therefore demonstrate experience with Excel and financial concepts? As the responsibilities grow, you move from simply needing a copywriter skilled with business language to an experienced businessperson with MBA-level skill.

Hiring a Consulting Firm

Using a business plan consulting firm ensures that you have a partner that will guide you through the preparation process rather than requiring you to guide them. Generally, such a company can do much of the research for you and should be asking to get your feedback a number of times during the creation process. Speak to past clients to learn about both the process and product of the firm, and to understand how working with the firm can increase your capacity to lead the company from what you learn during the writing process.

Are you looking for more advice on how to start a child care business or develop child care business plans? Call 877-BIZ-PLAN to learn how Growthink can help you build your child care business.

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