Commented [AP1]: You did such a great job.
I really liked
Business Plan
In Lewis Carroll’s famous novel Alice in Wonderland, Alice approaches the Cheshire Cat
asking for directions. “‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’ ‘That
depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat. ‘I don’t much care where—’ said
Alice. ‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.” Because Alice didn’t have a
clear goal in mind, she didn’t have much control over where she would end up, and she didn’t
know which important decisions to make along the way to ensure her journey was worthwhile. In
the same way, if someone wants to start a business that will help them create a profitable career,
they need to establish goals and plans so that the difficult journey remains focused and they can
continually improve. Without a business plan, it is difficult to see the growth of the business and
nearly impossible to confidently move forward in the desired direction.
Many of us have a vision in our minds of a wonderful, productive freelance career—we
wake up whenever we’d like, respond to the hundreds of appreciative and adoring emails from
our clients, and take a few months of vacation time each year. While this luxurious career might
be possible, it certainly won’t come to fruition just by imagining and hoping. A business plan is
the road map to get us from the fantasy to a reality; the U.S. Small Business Administration
compares a business plan to “a GPS for how to structure, run, and grow your new business”
(Gutierrez 2018). It maps out the necessary milestones that can function both to identify where
you need to be and to remind you how far you’ve come already. Having a business plan will also
make it possible to bring in additional employees or apply for loans, because people who are
going to invest in or join your company want to know it has been well thought through.
Business Plan Elements
your ideas and your plans. I loved the Alice in Wonderland
quote, and I think you did a good job of getting your point
across.
Commented [AP2]: I would consider making a creative title
for your paper.
Commented [AP3]: I like the quote a lot, and I think it
works really well with what your paper is about. I would
consider adding a topic sentence before you start the quote
so that readers know what you are insinuating before they
read the quote. Maybe something like, “As we create
business plans, we can often feel as Alice did in Lewis
Carroll’s famous novel…” Or something like that.
This might be unnecessary if you changed the title.
Commented [AP4]: This might be best set off as a block
quote so we can avoid the odd quotation marks.
Deleted: grow into
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Deleted: It
Deleted: s
 Although a business plan should be thorough, it doesn’t need to be very long. It should be
just long enough to be helpful and not so long that it just becomes a chore to look through, in
which case you’ll never look at it again. Some of the important elements that should be included
in your plan are: a summary of the business, a marketing plan, major company milestones,
financial plans, details about members of the company, and a review schedule (Berry 2020). The
summary is like a mission plan for your company; it’s a brief explanation of the business’s
purpose and could simply be a response you would give to the question “What do you do?” The
marketing plan sets forth strategies for accumulating clients and generating business, such as
using social networks, attending relevant conferences, and reaching out to potential clients.
Major company milestones are goals to strive for; these can include things like desired number
of clients, a certain salary level, etc. These milestones are good for both looking forward to other
milestones which can help us find motivation and looking back to realize the business is in fact
�
growing and remind us of how far we’ve come. Financial plans include the company’s current
financial situation and projected growth. These plans should consist of profits and losses, cash
flow, and forecasts for future earnings (Betenson 2020). Details of the company members may
not be necessary for individual freelance businesses, but they can be important if you plan to
employ other people. Finally, a review schedule is a plan to revisit the business plan
intermittently to make sure the company is on the right path and always moving toward a worthy
goal.
My Business Plan Ideas
For my specific freelance business, I would focus especially on the summary, marketing
plan, and major business milestone elements of the business plan. I need to emphasize marketing
because there won’t be a business without clients, and marketing is how to attract the desired
Deleted: and
Commented [AP5]: I would find some way to break up
each of these different elements, maybe by adding transitions
between the different items. As it stands, I was very
confused when the marketing plan came up, as I was still
thinking about the summary.
You could do a first, second, third set of transitions, which
would not add a lot of words to your paragraph.
You could also potentially do this list in bullet point form,
but I don’t know how you feel about that. Just a couple of
ideas.
Deleted: i
Commented [AP6]: I’m not sure that looking forward in
general really motivates people because the future seems
fathomless and never-ending/ unachievable. I added this in
so we are looking forward to a specific, achievable future.
Deleted: to
Commented [AP7]: I added this because I think this is an
important part of looking back, but you are absolutely free to
change it.
Deleted: It
Commented [AP8]: I think we could flesh out this section
more. I would recommend having subheadings under this
heading, and taking each of the ideas you bring up in this
first paragraph (summary, marketing plan, major business
milestones) and filling them out with your specific plans.
Filling out these ideas and adding a little more substance will
help readers really understand your business plan.
prospects to my business. Since I know networking and advertising are important, but I often

think of them as uncomfortable or gaudy processes, I want to establish a clear marketing plan so

I can confidently improve my skills and build a clientele. The major business milestones are key

to continual improvement—each milestone confirms that things are going well and provides

direction to the next important goal.
My business summary will need a lot of thought and work because I’m not sure yet what
niche I want to create for my business. I like the interaction of design and writing, so editing for
magazines is attractive to me. I might summarize this idea by stating that I would work for
magazines, completing freelance work in copy and substantive editing, design work, creating
templates, and proofreading.
For my marketing plan, I will start by establishing a clear brand and voice. I would create
business cards and update my website and portfolio. I will then focus on getting to know authors
Commented [AP9]: After reading through this paragraph, I
think it needs some work organizationally. I originally
thought this paragraph was mainly about marketing plans,
but it looks like it serves as a kind of introduction to each
aspect of the things we want to focus on. I would
recommend starting with summary and just giving a sentence
or two intro to the topic before we dive in to the longer
paragraph later.
In this paragraph we skip over summary and go straight to
marketing plan. I think it would be best to mimic your later
paragraphs. This would mean cutting down the marketing
stuff in this paragraph and adding in some summary ideas at
the beginning.
Commented [AP10]: I changed almost every occurrence of
would to will. I think this gives it a more solid and realistic
feel. However, you are welcome to change them back.
Deleted: would
Deleted: ,

and establishing myself as a professional in my field. I will begin this establishment by updating Commented [AP11]: How would you do this? What kind of
brand would you create? How would you make sure your
voice was clear?
my social networks (specifically, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and my blog) and set goals to
Deleted: would
Deleted: Then,
remain active on each platform. I will search for relevant groups—like magazine editor groups or
Deleted: would
just authors in general—and look for opportunities to provide value and contribute to the Deleted: would
Deleted: would
conversations they’re having. I will also look for relevant conferences to attend those and there Deleted: would
Deleted: and plan
speak with several prospective clients.

After I have started generating business, I will create the business milestones. To do this, Deleted: When I felt I had a clear plan for
Deleted: would
I will use the strategies listed in The Wealthy Freelancer, such as envisioning my ideal day and Deleted: would

writing down what elements I want to achieve. For example, I would like to earn a certain salary

per year, so one milestone could be raising my hourly rates when I have enough business to do

so. Another milestone might be to work with a prominent magazine by editing or doing design
work for them. I would like to establish the business as a legitimate career, so smaller milestones

to achieve that could be creating my own home office, seeking out training to effectively

complete my taxes as a small business owner, and gaining a certain amount of traffic on my

website.

Although starting a business can be a daunting task, each small step in the right direction

is progress. To ensure that progress is valuable—and not fruitless like Alice’s aimless wandering Commented [AP12]: Great tie into your intro.

through the forest—the creation of a business plan is vital. It maps out milestones for career

success, makes the acquisition of employees and investors possible, and sets the foundation for

the entire business to grow productively.

 References

Berry, Tim. 2020. “What Is a Business Plan?” Bplans Blog. https://articles.bplans.com/what-is-a-

business-plan/.

Betenson, Trevor. 2020. “The Key Elements of the Financial Plan.” Bplans Blog.

https://articles.bplans.com/the-key-elements-of-the-financial-plan/.

Gutierrez, Allen. 2018. “5 Reasons You Need a Business Plan.” https://www.sba.gov/blog/5- Commented [AP13]: Do you have the company name?
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reasons-you-need-business-plan. Deleted: y
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