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CREATING A STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN

The business plan is a road map for the business. This will be a guide on what exactly needs to be done and what
is the direction of the business. Having a business plan means that you are a serious entrepreneur because you
are stating the goals to consider for your start-up business.
WRITING A BUSINESS PLAN
The common impression of some when they heard the word “Business Plan” is a business research paper with
many pages. While sometimes, it may be true, but you will be putting up a Multimedia business or a creative
business as a future creative entrepreneur. So, this will be a different approach for creative or multimedia
businesses. The business plan that you will be writing as creatives is somewhat different from the usual business
plan because it is specifically designed for creative business and will discuss every aspect of the business plan in
detail in a simplified way.

HOW TO WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN FOR CREATIVES?

• Start by introducing your business. Share your mission, vision, goals, your business’s look and feel, why
did you choose that business name, why did you choose that kind of business, etc. Give your potential
clients an overview of what you do as a business. This is a good start to create a good impression on
them.

• Make it simple. This means that you use basic English for your texts, avoid deep vocabularies. Make it
brief and straight to the point. It means that you go straight into discussing the most important details
of your business plan.

• Since you are putting up a creative business, put a little design on your document but still looking
professional. It is because when you put a little design on your business plan, it will look inviting to your
potential client.

THE COMPONENTS OF YOUR Market Competitive Marketing Products

BUSINESS PLANS AS CREATIVES Pricing
Validation Analaysis Plan and Services

These components will be

discussed in further
detail in the next
pages and handouts. Client Workflows and Business Goals (which includes
Summary Processes the financial plan)

Brand Summary
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BRAND SUMMARY
The brand summary is giving your potential clients an overview of your business. It is introducing to them what
the business can offer.

Brand Look and Feel

When you present your business to potential clients or business partners, you must keep in mind running a
creative business. This means that you must include visuals. You may start your introduction with your demo
reel during your presentation, or you may want to design your PowerPoint presentation for them to have a
glimpse of what your company does.

All strong brands are consistent and strategic with their visual identity. So think about how you want
readers and customers to feel on your site. What do you want your brand to say about you? What voice do
you want to write in? What will you show people? What types of pictures will you use? What graphic
elements or fonts will you use? Take all those notes and turn them into a brand style guide, so people will
recognize your brand. All your brand elements should have a cohesive look everywhere – blog, website,
email, signatures, business card, sales pages, social — all of it. ("HOW TO WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN FOR
CREATIVES", n.d.)

WHAT SHOULD YOU PUT IN THE BRAND SUMMARY?

The name of your company. Make sure that you choose a good professional brand name. Make it unique and
memorable to your future clients.

Vision Statement. This is saying what do you want your business to be in the next years. This is also stating the
direction of your business. When you construct your vision statement, visualize your business success. Make this
passionate and emotional.

Mission Statement. This is stating what your business does, why you are doing what you are doing, who you are
doing it for and what value you provide. You have to say why your business exists.

Make your brand summary, vision, and mission statement brief but straight to the avoid. Avoid lengthy
statements. Otherwise, your future clients will not take the time to read it because it’s long.

Example:
This is the mission, vision, and values of Graphic Roots Design
Mission
To provide high quality, professional and complete creative services in all design & communication fields
including:
Graphic Design / Printing / Advertising / Branding / Packaging / Promotional Materials Design &
Supply / Copywriting / Photography / Strategic Marketing / Multimedia / Web Design, Development
& Hosting / Interiors Design

Vision
Example:
Our focus on the future is to supply the business market in the region as well as in the world with our
outstanding
Mission, Visiondesign solutions
& Values that would
of Graphic Rootsgrow together the firm and our clients’ success.
Design

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Values
Graphic Roots highly values "Creativity" in its services and products, "Cooperation" within the team and
with its clients, "Commitment" to excellence, and "Customer Satisfaction".
Source: http://www.graphicroots.net/en/about-us/our-mission-vision-a-values.html

CLIENT SUMMARY
The client summary is identifying “who is your target market”. Before you identify who your target market is,
you have to first identify what the problem is, what people look for right now, what they want, and how your
service can solve the problem.

For example, the drone is popular with young adults these days because of cinematic or artistic shots. If you will
open a photo and video company, your target audience is our young adults who have a high income to afford,
and you will offer aerial shots using a drone as part of your service.

MARKET VALIDATION
Once you already have a target market, this is where market validation will come in. It is identifying if your
product or service will fit your target market. In short, it is validating if consumers will buy your product or
service.

It is important to validate your idea early in the entrepreneurial process to ensure you do not waste time and
resources, creating a product that is not a good fit. Securing market validation can also instill confidence among
investors, crowd funders, and banks, considering funding your start-up.

By going through the process of validating your business idea, you can gain a deeper understanding of how your
product does or does not meet your target customers’ pain points. The insights you gain can help you create an
offering that not only addresses your market segment’s needs but earns you your first paying customers. (Cote,
2020)

HOW DO WE VALIDATE THE MARKET?

Write Down Research

Your Goals Search Volume

Customer
Interviews

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•Think of what you want to achieve for your
business.
•Ask yourself: What is the value of my
product/service? , What makes my
product/service unique among others?.
•Answering these questions will help you
communicate the value and differentiating
factors of your product/service.
•Another way to check if your
product/service would fit your target
market is to research on the search
volume of potential clients.
•Nowadays, people uses social media than
google to search for a service provider
than Google. So, if you might want to
utilize social media to search how many
people are looking for product or service
that you are about to offer.

•For example, if you will put up a wedding

photography business, you might as well
Write Down Your Goals Research
check how Search Volumesearch for a
many people
supplier for wedding photo shoots.

•So far, this is one effective way to check if

your business will work on your potential
target market or not. You ask people by
sending online surveys or a conversation
with someone. The feedback of others
matters to check the potential of your
creative business in the market.

Customer Interviews

Once you have already validated or assessed that your creative business fits your target market, you must give
your conclusion/findings as to why your creative business fits your target market.

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References

HOW TO WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN FOR CREATIVES. Conversion Minded. Retrieved 2 October 2020, from https://conversionminded.com/how-to-write-a-
business-plan-for-creatives/.

Cote, C. (2020). 5 STEPS TO VALIDATE YOUR BUSINESS IDEA. Harvard Business School Online. Retrieved 5 October 2020, from
https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/market-validation

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