There’s a lot to consider when writing a business plan for your LGBTQ+-owned business. Take the guesswork out of it with the 10 Steps below. Better yet – use this list as the outline for your LGBT business plan, and fill-in-the-blanks with information specific to your goals and mission.
Before going into business as a queer owner, you’ll need a strong business plan. With over half of all businesses failing in the first year, thriving in our community means we need to put even more thought into our businesses before getting them off the ground.
Your business plan is an actual document you’ll want to spend a lot of quality time developing and editing because it’ll play a big part in how you lead and grow your business. This living document will:
- Clarify your mission
- Provide you with a document to share to gather feedback on Product-Market Fit
- Uncover blind spots or problems in your business or offers
- Increase credibility with potential investors, lawyers, and other business partners
- Guide you as your business grows
1. The Executive Summary
Once you’re up and running (and of course, wildly successful), you’ll need to be able to quickly tell people what you do. Whether you’re at a dinner party, a networking event, or a Pride parade – you never know where you’ll meet your next customer or the employee you never knew you needed.
To get your point across concisely, you’ll need an Executive Summary. An elevator pitch, even though saying that sounds very “business bro” of me, it’s true.
The executive summary has 3 important pieces of information: What does your business do? Who does it serve? Why do you do it?
When people ask what I do at Titanology, here’s how I answer:
I help LGBTQ+ business owners explode their businesses by providing high-level coaching for every aspect of their business, to increase the market share owned by Queer people in every industry and eventually eradicate LGBTQ+ Business failure.
Boom. My Executive Summary. Anyone I say this to knows right away what Titanology does, whom we work with, and why we do it.
It’s important that anyone you’re considering working with, know whom they’re getting in bed with. By placing your values right at the top of your business plan, you set the tone immediately that hey, if you’re not down with this, I’m not the right business for you to be working with.
2. Business Vision
Start with your executive summary and expand upon it. Here’s where you get to wave your magic wand and imagine your business over the next 1, 3, 5, or 10 years.
Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
What’s the bigger picture? What services are you going to offer that will be in service of the big goals you’re setting for your new business?
This part of your business plan might be very specific and feel daunting but remember that this is a living document that will change over the time period you’re imagining. You’ll also learn a lot over that time, so be prepared that this might change.
But it might look something like the following:
We’ll be the preferred financial advisors for queer Europeans in 10 years. We’ll do this by providing services tailored to the queer community including inclusive family financial planning services, and financial advice that respects the different lived experiences of our community.
3. Customer and Market analysis
You can’t operate a business without customers, right? Your business plan needs to include information about exactly who you’re serving and prove that there’s a space in the market for you.
You’ll want to know things like:
- Demographical information like age, socioeconomic factors, location, what professions are they in
- Will you be offering one-time services, or ongoing services, and does this match up with what your ideal customer is looking for?
- If you’re selling to businesses, you’ll also need to know who the decision-makers are, what tone to use to convince them
Once you know all this information, you also need to know who your competitors are, so you know how you can stand out and be unique so you can position yourself as the clear choice. You’ll be researching who’s already in the market (if anyone) just as much as your customers, so your marketing efforts (we’ll get there in a minute), are delivering the highest value.
4. Products and Services
This one is pretty self-explanatory, right? What products and services are you offering that will allow you to meet all those goals you’ve defined?
If you’re offering a service, you’ll need to give some serious thought to how you’ll productize that service. Productizing your services will allow you to sell more without doing more, which is the dream, right?
More than just information on what services you’re offering, you’ll define the details of what sets you apart from the existing competition. Your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. It’s what you do, that no one else does, and it’s why your customers will pick you over every other option!
Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash
5. Operations
If fundamentals are the building blocks of fun, get ready to party.
This section of your LGBT business plan outlines the operational plans, the financial policies, and the boring stuff about your business.
It’s not the sexiest thing you’ll ever do, but it is one of the most important. You want this in place before you even think of getting started – you wouldn’t want to eventually hire someone without having these policies in place. So do it now and know that when you’re ready to expand your team, you’ve already set in place the policies that will guide all the decision-making.
6. Financials
More boring, but super important stuff. Every business will incur costs to operate. You need to outline these costs for your business. You can keep it simple, especially at first, because you’re probably operating with just yourself for some time. Again, as this is a living document, you’ll be able to adjust it as you prepare to hire a team or open an actual office space.
As a quick reference, be sure you include the below costs:
- Legal costs like your business license and any certifications needed to operate on the up and up
- Any staffing or recruiting costs
- Cost to make and distribute your products and services
- Any marketing costs, anything from ads to copywriters
- Overhead like your office space and accounting
- Revenue projections from expected sales, and expected future costs if you can foresee those increasing
You may want to consider talking to an accountant to ensure you’ve thought about all the possible costs, so your business plan is accurate and up to date as you grow.
7. Marketing and Sales
No matter what you’re selling, you’ll be doing some kind of marketing to promote yourself and your products and services. You can opt for an organic route, like growing your engagement on various social media channels, which is the most cost-effective method but does take time to grow and position yourself as the authority. Social selling is certainly going to continue to be relevant, but it’s only as effective as the time you’re willing to put into it.
But if you’re opting for paid marketing, outline those budgets, how they’ll be spent, and what Return on Investment (ROI) you’re expecting from them. This will include monies spend on ads, writers, and graphic designers. You’ll also outline what channels you’re using and explain why these are the correct channels for your ideal customer.
8. Management and Organizational Structure
Pretty much what it sounds like, right? If your business plan requires you to start out with a team, you’ll want to define who does what, who reports to whom, and what the divisions of responsibility are.
If it’s just you, well then that makes this part far simpler. However, do put some thought into how you’ll expand and when. If you’re planning on hiring a salesperson once you hit $10K per month in revenue, that information also goes here.
9. Funding
This section only applies to you if you’re planning on seeking external funding for your business. If you’re a service provider, chances are you’ll be skipping this on your business plan as your time is going to be your biggest expense.
If you’re looking for investors, they’ll want to know the following information:
- How much funding are you seeking, and from how many investors?
- What will they be getting in exchange for their investment? This may be royalties or a percentage of ownership, or some other agreed-upon exchange for giving you their money.
- You’ll need to prove your worth. This isn’t shark tank, but if you’re asking people for money, you should expect that they’ll want to see a history of great returns for previous investors, or that you’ve consistently made a profit (and how much) for some amount of time. They may be satisfied with great PMF and the rest of your business plan being on point, but this all depends on whom you’re asking and how much you’re asking for.
10. Action Plan
This is my favorite part because it’s all about how you’ll know your business is successful!
Your action plan should include milestones that are relevant to your business model, which might include:
- Monthly Retainer Revenue of $10K per month
- 5 new subscriptions per month
- 4X-ing your monthly revenue at the end of one year
This could be a lot of things, and it’ll all depend on what products and services you’re offering and how those will be contributing to your bigger goals as outlined in Step 2 of your LGBT business plan.
In your Action Plan, also think about the timeline you want to be meeting these milestones in. $10K months within 6 months, is a very different goal than $10K months in 2 years. Make sure the timeline and milestones feel a little scary. If you’re too confident about your ability to make it happen, you’re not pushing hard enough!
Make it a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or BHAG.
I’m hosting a FREE webinar about how to set your BHAG and make it happen on February 28, register here to attend! (I also send out the recording after, so even if you can’t make it, sign up anyway so you don’t miss out!)
Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash
Finally, your business plan can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be. After all, it’s your business, damn it! 😆
So long as you’re confident that you’ve outlined what truly matters, you’re good. Remember, your business plan is a living document, so you’ll come back to it as you grow. You might find that your mission changes, your services may evolve, and lots of things will happen to bring you back to your original business plan – so what you don’t want to do is create one and feel like it’s canon. It changes over time, just like you and I.
As I mentioned in Step 1, the Executive Summary:
I help LGBTQ+ business owners explode their businesses by providing high-level coaching for every aspect of their business, to increase the market share owned by Queer people in every industry and eventually eradicate LGBTQ+ Business failure.
In the Out & Proud Business Hub, my Team of Titan Masters and I are committed to growing LGBTQ+-owned businesses – it’s literally all we do, all we work with.
Find out more about ME, The Gay Business Titan, and how the OPBH can give your business the edge it needs to explode.
