Like anything in life, setting goals gives us drive and
determination. Without a focus or a deadline, us feeble human beings
tend to drift along a never ending road of confusion and despair. By
setting some well defined and realistic business goals right from the
start, you will feel achievement when you have reached them and also get
a clear definition of how your business is growing in line with your
expectations.
You need to determine where you want your business
to be in one year, two years and three years time. Hard as it is to
judge, you must try and estimate the number of weddings that you think
you may undertake in the first, second and third year. You must also
assess where you are going to advertise and how much to allocate to this
in these years, who are you going to secure funding from, how much
profit you would like to achieve etc.
Below I have shown an example of some typical business goals:
Year 1
- Secure funding in line with the forecasted financial needs
- Purchase all necessary equipment
- Establish website and get it up and running
- Analyse good advertising avenues
- Build relationships with other local wedding providers
- Create 3 distinctive albums for display purposes
- Take on 10 weddings
- Enter 3 competitions for experience
- Achieve 2,000 profit
Year 2
- Take on 20 weddings and put prices up by 50%
- Employ a Digital Imaging assistant to process up weddings
- Undertake 2 wedding fayres
- Rent out own studio and start expanding portrait side of the business
- Build on relationships made with other wedding providers
- Attain LBIPP status
- Achieve a profit of 10,000
Business Plans
A
thorough business plan is absolutely vital and the importance of it
cannot be stressed highly enough. The business plan is not just
something that must be done in order to secure funding; every business
venture needs to do one. You need to sit down and construct a well
thought out business plan, which details every aspect of your business.
You need to do this, not only to focus your minds but it is also a
requirement for grant providers and bank lenders who may not take you
seriously otherwise.
It is equally important to amend the plan on a
regular basis, as time progresses and priorities change. The whole
purpose of the written plan is to focus your mind on the key elements
and goals of your business. The very act of preparing the plan will make
you take a close look at the competition; the services they provide and
their pricing structures; yourself and your strengths and weaknesses.
This enables you to identify any potential problem areas you may
experience and turn them into positives.