What is a ‘holistic business plan’ and why do you need one?

You’re an online entrepreneur (or aspiring one) because you value freedom, flexibility and creativity, right? You want your work to reflect your life and for all of it to harmoniously work together. . . But you’re confused and overwhelmed. There is SO much to do as an entrepreneur! Where do you even start? 

Enter The Holistic Business Plan, the 5 part framework that I have spent years perfecting, using and coaching others on.

As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t have a lot of clarity when I was starting out. So i *wasted* (though I hate to use that term, because it’s all learning!) a lot of time in trial-and-error phase, instead of setting specific goals and organizing my systems and processes.

It’s easy to get bogged down in a never-ending to-do list and “supposed to do” list when creating or re-structuring a business.. . which a lot of people understandably put off because they have to devote most of their time to actually solving problems for clients and making money! This framework will save you tons of time and get you out of the seemingly never-ending trial-by-error spiral that we so often fall into.

I’ve spent the past few months organizing the most important content of this framework into a course called The Holistic Business Plan. It’s geared towards any aspiring, new or seasoned online entrepreneur who feels overwhelmed and un-focused when it comes to actually running their business, and are looking for clarity, focus and direction.

The 5 modules include:

1. Goals & Finances

This section looks a little bit like a traditional business plan- organizing your financial goals, and overhead costs, but also asking yourself the big WHY of your business. Before going any further into planning, I suggest you write down your WHY or a “mission statement” that can guide you through the rest of the planning stages.

2. Mindset

This is SO important and one of the things that I think sets the HBP apart from more traditional business plans. Of course, this is a vast topic and everyone is in a different place as far as mindset goes. And specifically I’m talking about cultivating a mindset that encourages growth, clarity, self-confidence and other traits that I believe are necessary to thrive as an online business owner today. Now of course this is an ongoing process, and this short course is not going to be all that you need. But besides walking you through some exercises to identify what might be standing in your way from having the life & business that you want, I also include a lot of resources for ongoing support, including a visualization meditation that you can use every day to help move forward. 

3. Branding

Nowadays “your brand” is synonymous with your business, which means that you have to start strong with design elements that express the purpose of your brand, who your “tribe” is, and why they should work with you/ buy from you. When I am working with a client on their website or marketing, the brand is the foundation that we start with. Once that is solid, everything else will fall into place much easier. In the HBP course, we look mostly at strategic branding and then how that can be translated into visual branding. This isn’t a course that will teach you how to create a logo, but you will get super clear on all of the details that will help immensely when you (or a designer) go to create your logo, or you go to write copy for your website, or start a social media campaign. 

4. Your Website

For an online business, the website is as important as a storefront is to a brick-and-mortar business! Whether you hire a web designer or DIY-it, organization is key when designing and building a website. Inevitably, once you start to consider all the functions that your website needs, you will realize that the scope of the website is bigger than you originally expected. In the course,  I walk you through a step-by-step process for getting clear on the scope of your site and what your steps are towards creating one that will super useful to potential clients, it will showcase your awesome branding and it will be an integral part of your overall marketing funnel. Then if you end up working with a web designer, this will be hugely helpful to them when getting started. . . or if you decide to DIY it, you will be 5 steps ahead of the game!

5. Marketing

This is a broad topic, but I suggest at least having a basic marketing plan in mind, and/ or knowing what your options are, as soon as possible in your planning. Social media, email marketing, and SEO (search engine optimization) are just some of the free/ cheap ways to start marketing your business and providing value to your ideal audience, and these are what I focus on in the course.