Business Plan: Checking in

Promo banner created using GIMP

Over the first couple weeks of January, I spent some time developing a business plan for my work as a writer. (I blogged about it HERE and HERE.) Since it's been a month since that last post, I thought I'd check in and see how things were progressing. I figure I started out making this plan public, and for the sake of accountability I should keep putting it out there.

My plan has three main themes:

• Increase Productivity
• Increase Visibility
• Improve Skills

There are goals related to each theme, and for this check in, I'm going to focus on the goals and tasks I'd hoped to accomplish in the last month. Here's what I found out...

Increase Productivity

My first goal for increasing productivity was to improve time management by developing a weekly schedule. I tracked all my writing-related activities for one week but then didn't take the next step to put that information into any kind of template. I did identify Facebook/social networking as a huge time-suck (which, DUH), but my day job and family demands have been so variable it hasn't made sense to come up with a schedule that will only likely frustrate me when I can't keep to it. I have tried to limit my focused social networking to a couple hours in the morning and to dedicate time to writing with the internet turned off.

I set a goal of 4500 words per week, and I've done pretty well with that. I'm about 17,000 words into The Lyric Assassin, but have hit a sticking point so have been playing with a different project while my ideas sort themselves out.

My third goal was to work up a portfolio of resources. I gave myself six months to complete that task, and haven't done anything so far. Maybe next month...

Increase Visibility

First goal: Blog regularly. Check. I've done at least three posts a week for this blog, along with my regular posts for the Spellbound Scribes & the Relentless Writers blogs. For my own blog, the most popular post was the one I did on self-publishing with 604 page views, and my average page view per post is 315, although I need a few more months of doing this so I can assess whether the overall page views are increasing.

My second goal for this time frame was to self-publish another short story. That hasn't happened yet, in part because I picked up a theme in the reviews for The Santa Drag. Most of the reviews were positive, but a couple people mentioned it was too short. On the one hand, SHORT STORY, but on the other hand, I don't want to turn off potential readers by having another release with the same problem. While I'm not sure if this is a valid concern, or just something I'm fretting about needlessly, for the time being I made the decision to defer this goal and focus on longer projects.

Increase Skills

My goal was to take part in 3 classes over the year. So far, I had a great time with the GIMP class. I learned a lot about manipulating images, and hope to keep playing with it. Now I just need to find another good class...

So that's where I am this month. If you're still reading along, THANK YOU. I appreciate your patience, and your willingness to hang in there with me. If you have any thoughts, I'm totally open to suggestion. Am I needlessly worrying about the short story thing? Do you know any good classes I could sign up for?

Thanks again, and I hope your Monday is a happy one!
Liv

Business Plan: Next Steps

Created as an exercise in the GIMP class I'm taking.

Last week I blogged about developing a business plan (here) using some of the ideas found in The 7 Step Business Plan For Writers, These seven steps cover the basics of planning - brainstorming goals, identifying themes, grouping and prioritizing, and detailing the specific tasks needed to accomplish your goals. For my own plan, I added two additional steps: checking my progress, and modifying my activities if things aren't working.

Remember: Plan - Do - Check - Act.

I'm not putting this out there because I'm some kind of business expert, or because I'm raking in the big bucks selling books. Quite the opposite, in fact, which is why I feel the need to take steps to regroup and refocus. There are no guarantees, though I'm optimistic that by both applying structure to my writing life and by taking it more seriously, I'll be able to accomplish more.

And I put it all in a blog post so people can learn along with me.

In my last post, I came up with several goals so I could create an example of a business plan. Over the weekend, I took another look at those goals and refined them. The thing to remember when you create goals is they should be within your control. Researching agents to query is within your control. Getting an offer from an agent isn't. Keep it concrete and do-able, and you'll increase your chances for success.

I looked at my new list of goals and came up with three themes. My next steps were to lay things out over the year, so I don't feel the pressure to do everything at once. For example, my project for January is to come up with a weekly schedule template, so that I have a set number of hours dedicated to writing, and I have a general idea of what I want to accomplish on any given day. My hope is that I'll be able to get more done in less time, because I won't be fooling around on Facebook during hours I know I should be writing. (Many of you probably already do this because it's common sense. Apparently I need special help.)

Here's what the time management goal looks like on my business plan:

Theme	Goals	Timing	Action Items	Evaluation	Modification
Increase Productivity	Improve time management with a weekly schedule template	January	1. Track activities for one week. 2. Use data to create a weekly template that takes into account whether or not I’m working. 3. Apply template to organize work.	Use template for three months, then take a week to track activities

The Modification box is empty, but I'll fill it in this spring with my response to what I learn in the evaluation step. While I mostly work night shifts on the weekends, my work schedule can be variable, so coming up with a template might not be realistic. Even so, I think the exercise will be useful in helping me see how I'm really spending my time.

Another example of how I took timing into consideration is this goal from my second theme, Increase Visibility.

Theme	Goals	Timing	Action Items	Evaluation	Modification
Increase Visibility	Develop one writing-related class.	Summer	1. Brainstorm topics. 2. Talk to Rhay about what makes a good e-class. 3. Generate a list of possible teaching opportunities. 4. Apply for teaching opportunities	After I present a class, track how much fun I had and if I sold any books as a result.

I like to teach, and I've learned a lot in the last five years. Hopefully I'll be able to turn that knowledge around and share it with others. Which is all very worthy, but if I had to deal with this at the same time I'm coming up with a schedule template and blogging and keeping up the (crazy high) word count goal I set myself, I'd implode. So I set this project aside for next summer. If an opportunity slaps me in the face between now and then, I'll take action, but for the most part this is something I'll set aside for now.

The plan I created is pretty comprehensive, but it doesn't cover every possible action I could take to develop myself as a writer. For example, I haven't made enter (x-number) contests a goal. I know contests are a great way of getting your name out, but they're not something I get all excited about. With my plan in mind, the next time someone suggests I enter a contest, I can smile and nod, knowing it's not on my list of goal/action items so I don't have to feel guilty for saying no. Now, if in six months or a year I haven't seen much progress, I can go to my evaluation/modification columns and add enter contests to my bullet points, if I think that'll move me ahead faster.

Bottom line: I've prioritized certain goals that I believe play to my strengths, and by limiting the number of those goals (2-4 for each of my three themes) I'll be able to hone in on these areas with less distraction.

One final thought about the evaluation step...I tried to keep things as discretely measurable as possible. One of my goals is to blog regularly, and the measure for that is to track blog hits. I'll also be looking at whether blogging interferes with my word count goals, which is a little more nebulous, but I want hard data wherever possible. Another goal is to publish two more of my short stories over the next six months, and for those I'll track Amazon sales rank and (if I can figure out how) author rank.

So, here are the bullet points for my writer's business plan:

• Plan - do - check - act
• Keep goals within my control
• Consider timing - I don't have to do it all at once
• Specific and focused but flexible
• Measurable outcomes

When I started the post last week, I thought I'd need a few posts to cover everything, but this pretty much sums it up. The next time I blog about my business plan will be in a couple months, to take a look at how it's going - unless something relevant happens between now and then. Meantime, I hope you find something useful here. 

Cheers!

Liv

Do you have a business plan or have you thought about developing one? Why or why not?

Developing A Business Plan - Step One

I can do this. Yes I can.

So here's the thing. I started getting serious about writing the year I blew out the disk in my back. Up until that point in my life, my main hobby was needlework - very fancy embroidery in all different styles. The back injury made sitting for long periods a real problem, which made needlework a real problem. I couldn't stitch, but - laying on my belly with a pencil and paper - I could write.

And while I was laying on my belly, attempting to write fiction for the first time since college, I realized I was almost 50 years old, and if I didn't get to it, my lifelong dream of Being A Writer wasn't going to happen. I put my focus on writing, learning what I could about craft and technique, but most of all DOING it, and five years later, here I am,

Being A Writer.

More or less.

After five years, it's time to take stock and to organize my thoughts on how to proceed. By the end of 2014, I felt like I was spending a lot of time flailing, without getting a whole lot accomplished. In order to increase my productivity and to move my writing to the next level (= sell more books), I've decided it's time to develop a business plan. I'm willing to work at this writing thing, to give it my time and energy and passion, but want to work smarter.

I want to get more done.

Back in the day, I survived a short stint in management, and in addition to learning I didn't like managing people, I picked up a few ideas about putting together a strategic plan. Then, in getting ready for this blog entry, I did a quick google search and found a wonderful post by Angela Ackerman, who co-wrote The Emotion Thesaurus. Her post, The 7 Step Business Plan for Writers, does an excellent job of explaining the steps involved in coming up with a business plan.

The basic steps in Ms. Ackerman's post involve brainstorming your goals, identifying themes, grouping and prioritizing, identifying areas for focus & the steps it'll take to meet your goals, and putting it all on one page. I would add that it's important to build in a way of evaluating your progress and reconfiguring things as needed. I mean, there's no point in doing something that's not working in June just because you thought it'd be a good idea in January, right?

I totally stole this from the interwebs, but you get the idea.

The seven steps in Ms. Ackerman's blog post are the planning and the doing, and to that I'd add a way of checking on my progress, then acting, or adjusting my activities to better accomplish my goals. One of the key ideas when you're brainstorming your goals (the planning phase) is to make sure they're within your control. Getting a book contract from Publisher Z may be your secret - or not so secret - desire, but ultimately you don't control the outcome. Writing a sequel or making a list of publishers to submit to are concrete, measurable, and in your control.

Those are the goals you should focus on.

Over the next couple weeks, I'll be developing my business plan and blogging about it, then periodically check back in to see how it's going. For example, here's a quick list of goals that might make it into my final plan.

• Self-publish at least two more of the short stories from Still Moments Publishing.
• Work with Margaret to get Aqua Follies edited and ready for submission.
• Dedicate two hours a day to WRITING, with the internet turned OFF.
• Identify my next project, whether it's a sequel to something I've already got or a completely new idea.
• Take at least three craft-related classes in 2015.
• Develop blog posts suitable for guest shots on higher profile blogs.
• Develop the skills to create my own cover art and promotional materials.

Now, while I was brainstorming I noticed a couple things. These are all concrete tasks that are within my ability to complete. However, they're steps, small elements that make up a couple bigger pictures. As it said in the 7 Steps blog post, once you come up with your list of goals, you group them according to theme. Given what I've got on my quick brainstorm list, I'd say my three themes are:

• Increase productivity.
• Refine My skills.
• Further develop my author's platform.

If those are my themes, then the first two steps of my business plan might look like this:

Themes	Goals
Increase Productivity	Work with Margaret to get Aqua Follies edited and ready for submission. Dedicate two hours a day to WRITING, with the internet turned OFF. Identify my next project, whether it's a sequel to something I've already got or a completely new idea.
Refine My Skills	Take at least three craft-related classes in 2015. Develop the skills to create my own cover art and promotional materials.
Develop Author’s Platform	Self-publish at least two more of the short stories from Still Moments Publishing. Develop blog posts suitable for guest shots on higher-profile blogs.

I hope this gives you an idea about the first couple steps in the process. While I suspect the three themes are pretty solid, the actual goals may get some tweaking before I hit print on my final plan. I'll be back some time next week with another post on the next couple steps in my plan. Meanwhile, you should be writing. Me too. Write on!
Peace,
Liv

BTW, are you developing a business plan? Have you gone through these steps before? What worked for you?