example of a business plan for a publishing company

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Publishing Company Business Plan

Soaring high demands, a wide target audience, and attractive revenue sources make the publishing business a lucrative and rewarding opportunity.

Anyone can start a publishing company. But if one wants to achieve revenue and growth goals with their reputed publishing business, they need a detailed business plan in action.

Need help writing a business plan for your publishing company business? You’re at the right place. Our publishing company business plan template will help you get started.

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• Fill in the blanks – Outline
• Financial Tables

How to Write A Publishing Company Business Plan?

Writing a publishing company business plan is a crucial step toward the success of your business. Here are the key steps to consider when writing a business plan:

1. Executive Summary

An executive summary is the first section planned to offer an overview of the entire business plan. However, it is written after the entire business plan is ready and summarizes each section of your plan.

Here are a few key components to include in your executive summary:

Introduce your Business:

Start your executive summary by briefly introducing your business to your readers.

Market Opportunity:

Products and services:.

Highlight the publishing services you offer your clients. The USPs and differentiators you offer are always a plus.

Marketing & Sales Strategies:

Financial highlights:, call to action:.

Ensure your executive summary is clear, concise, easy to understand, and jargon-free.

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2. Business Overview

The business overview section of your business plan offers detailed information about your company. The details you add will depend on how important they are to your business. Yet, business name, location, business history, and future goals are some of the foundational elements you must consider adding to this section:

Business Description:

Describe your business in this section by providing all the basic information

Describe what kind of publishing company you run and the name of it. You may specialize in one of the following publishing company businesses:

Trade Publishing

Educational and academic publishing, boutique publishing, digital publishing.

• Describe the legal structure of your publishing company, whether it is a sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, or others.Explain where your business is located and why you selected the place.

Mission Statement:

Business history:.

If you’re an established publishing company service provider, briefly describe your business history, like—when it was founded, how it evolved over time, etc.

Future Goals:

This section should provide a thorough understanding of your business, its history, and its future plans. Keep this section engaging, precise, and to the point.

3. Market Analysis

The market analysis section of your business plan should offer a thorough understanding of the industry with the target market, competitors, and growth opportunities. You should include the following components in this section.

Target market:

Start this section by describing your target market. Define your ideal customer and explain what types of services they prefer. Creating a buyer persona will help you easily define your target market to your readers.

Market size and growth potential:

Competitive analysis:, market trends:.

Analyze emerging trends in the industry, such as digitization, interactive media like AR and VR, etc. Explain how your business will cope with all the trends.

Regulatory Environment:

Here are a few tips for writing the market analysis section of your publishing company business plan:

• Conduct market research, industry reports, and surveys to gather data.
• Provide specific and detailed information whenever possible.
• Illustrate your points with charts and graphs.
• Write your business plan keeping your target audience in mind.

4. Products And Services

The product and services section should describe the specific services and products that will be offered to customers. To write this section should include the following:

Describe your products:

Mention all the products that will be provided by your publishing company. This list may include products like,

• Books, academic papers, magazines, etc.
• Video games

Describe your services:

Mention the publishing services your business will offer. This list may include services like,

• Reviewing and Editing
• Printing and Production
• Marketing and Promotion
• Consultation

Quality measures:

This section should explain how you maintain quality standards and consistently provide the highest quality service.

Additional Services:

In short, this section of your publishing company plan must be informative, precise, and client-focused. By providing a clear and compelling description of your offerings, you can help potential investors and readers understand the value of your business.

5. Sales And Marketing Strategies

Writing the sales and marketing strategies section means a list of strategies you will use to attract and retain your clients. Here are some key elements to include in your sales & marketing plan:

Unique Selling Proposition (USP):

Define your business’s USPs depending on the market you serve, the equipment you use, and the unique services you provide. Identifying USPs will help you plan your marketing strategies.

Pricing Strategy:

Describe your pricing strategy. A publishing company adapts one of the following or a mix of pricing strategies to stay competitive and profitable.

• Retail pricing
• Dynamic pricing
• Subscription models
• Freemium pricing
• Tiered pricing

Marketing Strategies:

Sales strategies:, customer retention:.

Overall, this section of your publishing company business plan should focus on customer acquisition and retention.

Have a specific, realistic, and data-driven approach while planning sales and marketing strategies for your publishing company business, and be prepared to adapt or make strategic changes in your strategies based on feedback and results.

6. Operations Plan

The operations plan section of your business plan should outline the processes and procedures involved in your business operations, such as staffing requirements and operational processes. Here are a few components to add to your operations plan:

Staffing & Training:

Mention your publishing business’s staffing requirements, including the number of employees needed. Include their qualifications, the training required, and the duties they will perform.

Operational Process:

Equipment & machinery:.

Include the list of equipment and machinery required for the publishing company, such as printing machinery, scanners and digital imaging equipment, storage systems, etc.

Adding these components to your operations plan will help you lay out your business operations, which will eventually help you manage your business effectively.

7. Management Team

The management team section provides an overview of your publishing company business’s management team. This section should provide a detailed description of each manager’s experience and qualifications, as well as their responsibilities and roles.

Founders/CEO:

Key managers:.

Introduce your management and key team members, and explain their roles and responsibilities.

Organizational structure:

Compensation plan:, advisors/consultants:.

Mentioning advisors or consultants in your business plans adds credibility to your business idea.

This section should describe the key personnel for your publishing company services, highlighting how you have the perfect team to succeed.

8. Financial Plan

Your financial plan section should provide a summary of your business’s financial projections for the first few years. Here are some key elements to include in your financial plan:

Profit & loss statement:

Cash flow statement:, balance sheet:, break-even point:.

Determine and mention your business’s break-even point—the point at which your business costs and revenue will be equal.

Financing Needs:

Be realistic with your financial projections, and make sure you offer relevant information and evidence to support your estimates.

9. Appendix

The appendix section of your plan should include any additional information supporting your business plan’s main content, such as market research, legal documentation, financial statements, and other relevant information.

• Add a table of contents for the appendix section to help readers easily find specific information or sections.
• In addition to your financial statements, provide additional financial documents like tax returns, a list of assets within the business, credit history, and more. These statements must be the latest and offer financial projections for at least the first three or five years of business operations.
• Provide data derived from market research, including stats about the publishing company industry, user demographics, and industry trends.
• Include any legal documents such as permits, licenses, and contracts.
• Include any additional documentation related to your business plan, such as product brochures, marketing materials, operational procedures, etc.

Use clear headings and labels for each section of the appendix so that readers can easily find the necessary information.

Remember, the appendix section of your publishing house business plan should only include relevant and important information supporting your plan’s main content.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

This sample publishing company business plan will provide an idea for writing a successful publishing company plan, including all the essential components of your business.

After this, if you still need clarification about writing an investment-ready business plan to impress your audience, download our publishing company business plan pdf .

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Frequently asked questions, why do you need a publishing company business plan.

A business plan is an essential tool for anyone looking to start or run a successful publishing company business. It helps to get clarity in your business, secures funding, and identifies potential challenges while starting and growing your business.

Overall, a well-written plan can help you make informed decisions, which can contribute to the long-term success of your publishing company.

How to get funding for your publishing company business?

There are several ways to get funding for your publishing company business, but self-funding is one of the most efficient and speedy funding options. Other options for funding are

Small Business Administration (SBA) loan

Crowdfunding, angel investors.

Apart from all these options, there are small business grants available, check for the same in your location and you can apply for it.

Where to find business plan writers for your publishing company business?

There are many business plan writers available, but no one knows your business and ideas better than you, so we recommend you write your publishing company business plan and outline your vision as you have in your mind.

What is the easiest way to write your publishing company business plan?

A lot of research is necessary for writing a business plan, but you can write your plan most efficiently with the help of any publishing company business plan example and edit it as per your need. You can also quickly finish your plan in just a few hours or less with the help of our business plan software .

How do I write a good market analysis in a publishing company business plan?

Market analysis is one of the key components of your business plan that requires deep research and a thorough understanding of your industry. We can categorize the process of writing a good market analysis section into the following steps:

• Stating the objective of your market analysis—e.g., investor funding.
• Industry study—market size, growth potential, market trends, etc.
• Identifying target market—based on user behavior and demographics.
• Analyzing direct and indirect competitors.
• Calculating market share—understanding TAM, SAM, and SOM.
• Knowing regulations and restrictions
• Organizing data and writing the first draft.

Writing a marketing analysis section can be overwhelming, but using ChatGPT for market research can make things easier.

What's the importance of a marketing strategy in a publishing company business plan?

Marketing strategy is a key component of your publishing company business plan. Whether it is about achieving certain business goals or helping your investors understand your plan to maximize their return on investment—an impactful marketing strategy is the way to do it!

Here are a few pointers to help you understand the importance of having an impactful marketing strategy:

• It provides your business an edge over your competitors.
• It helps investors better understand your business and growth potential.
• It helps you develop products with the best profit potential.
• It helps you set accurate pricing for your products or services.

About the Author

Vinay Kevadiya

Vinay Kevadiya is the founder and CEO of Upmetrics, the #1 business planning software. His ultimate goal with Upmetrics is to revolutionize how entrepreneurs create, manage, and execute their business plans. He enjoys sharing his insights on business planning and other relevant topics through his articles and blog posts. Read more

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Creating a Business Plan for a Publishing Company

Table of contents, introduction.

This write-up will dive into the crucial yet often overlooked topic of creating a business plan for a publishing company. Yes, business plans can seem tedious. But stick with me because mastering this fundamental skill can differentiate between a floundering startup and a successful, sustainable publishing business.

Here’s the truth: every publisher needs a clear, thoughtful business plan. Starting a publishing company is no small task. As a strategic document, the business plan serves as your company’s roadmap, keeping you focused and helping you achieve short- and long-term goals. Without it, you’re flying blind, a recipe for failure in the competitive publishing landscape.

With some effort and guidance, you can learn how to craft a winning business plan tailored specifically to the publishing industry. When done right, your business plan will:

By the end of this writing, you’ll have the knowledge and tools to create a polished, persuasive plan to launch and grow your publishing dreams.

Let’s get started.

The Basics of Creating a Business Plan for a Publishing Company

Defining the business plan, key components of a publishing business plan.

While the exact structure can vary, most publishing business plans contain the following key sections:

Attracting Investors with a Strong Business Plan

A well-crafted business plan instills confidence by thoroughly understanding the industry’s competitive landscape and showcasing a path to sustainability and growth.

Why You Need a Business Plan for Your Publishing Company

A business plan is also invaluable for identifying your target demographic and developing marketing campaigns that resonate with them. Market research and analysis can give insight into your audience’s needs and interests. This enables you to tailor your content acquisition, packaging, pricing, and promotions to maximize engagement and sales.

Examining the financial viability of your publishing company is another key reason to create a business plan. You can assess if your company model is sustainable by projecting sales, costs, and profit margins over time.

With a solid plan, you can pursue your publishing goals strategically and purposefully.

Key Reasons for Creating a Business Plan for a Publishing Company:

Step-by-step guide to creating a business plan for a publishing company, conduct thorough market research.

Before anything else, you need to understand your target market inside and out. Research reader demographics, analyze competing publishers, identify gaps and opportunities in the market, and determine where your company fits in the competitive landscape. A data-driven approach is key.

Define Your Company’s Mission and Objectives

Describe your products and services.

Provide an overview of the types of books and services you plan to offer. Will you publish fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, or a mixture? What value do you bring to authors and readers? You want to convey what makes your offerings unique.

The Legal Structure and Ownership

This business plan section should detail the legal structure you’ve chosen for your publishing company. Common structures include sole proprietorship , partnership, limited liability company (LLC) , or corporation. Each has pros and cons, so consult a legal advisor or business consultant to determine the best fit for your situation. For instance, a sole proprietorship is the simplest form but offers no personal liability protection. An LLC provides liability protection without the formalities of a corporation. A corporation is more complex but allows for outside investors and protects personal assets from business liabilities. Here’s what you need to include in this section: 1. Legal Structure: Clearly state the legal structure of your company. If it’s an LLC, specify whether it’s member-managed or manager-managed. If it’s a corporation, note if it’s an S corporation or a C corporation . 2. Ownership Information: List all owners and their percentage ownership. If there are multiple owners, describe their roles and responsibilities. If you plan to seek external investment, mention the equity share available for investors. 3. Registration Details: Include information about where your company is registered, the date of registration, and any relevant registration numbers. 4. Licenses and Permits: Detail any necessary licenses and permits you must obtain. This might include a business license, sales tax permit, or ISBN registrar for a publishing company. 5. Intellectual Property: Discuss how you plan to protect your intellectual property, such as copyrights for the books you publish. By clearly defining your publishing company’s legal structure and ownership, you’ll provide potential investors with crucial information about the risks and rewards associated with investing in your business.

Outline Your Marketing Plan

Use the information from your market research to define your target audience. Include demographic information like age, gender, education level, and psychographic details such as interests, values, and reading habits. 3. Understand Your Competition

Determine which marketing channels will be most effective for reaching your target audience. This might include social media, email marketing, content marketing (blogs, podcasts, videos), public relations, events, and advertising. Consider both online and offline channels. 6. Develop Your Promotional Strategy

Outline your tactics to promote your books and engage your audience. This could include book launch events, author interviews, book signings, giveaways, social media campaigns, email newsletters, and more. 7. Set Your Marketing Budget

Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your marketing efforts. These might include the number of books sold, website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates, or event attendance. 9. Plan for Adjustments

Project Financials and Funding Needs

Describe your management team.

Introduce your experienced leadership team and their qualifications. This gives investors confidence in your ability to execute your plan. This step-by-step guide will help you create a rock-solid business plan tailored specifically for a publishing startup. With clear goals, thorough market research, and financial planning, you’ll be poised for success.

Crafting the Executive Summary for Your Publishing Company’s Business Plan

Convey the essence of your business, emphasize financial highlights.

Include key financial projections and metrics like expected revenues, profit margins, break-even point, and return on investment. These numbers showcase the money-making potential of your publishing company.

Discuss Your Goals and Objectives

Keep it concise.

The executive summary should be about 1-2 pages at most. Use clear, concise language and avoid unnecessary details. Focus on grabbing attention and interest.

Highlight Your Qualifications

Briefly summarize your team’s skills, experience, and expertise to showcase why you are the right people to lead this publishing company.

Include a Call-to-Action

Financial projections and analysis for your publishing company’s business plan.

Creating accurate financial projections is critical to any publishing company’s business plan. These projections allow you to forecast expenses, sales, and profitability over the next several years. While financial projections require some guesswork, they should be based on thorough market research and realistic assumptions.

Key Financial Statements

Financial analysis.

Once you’ve prepared these statements, the next step is to analyze the data to assess your company’s financial viability. Here are some key aspects to evaluate:

Presenting the Financials

Well-prepared financial projections are hugely important for attracting investors to your publishing startup. Master this complex but essential aspect of the business planning process.

Editing and Proofreading Your Business Plan

Professionalism.

A well-edited business plan reflects professionalism and attention to detail. It shows that you take your business seriously and are committed to excellence in all work areas. Remember, first impressions matter. Your business plan may be the first interaction a potential investor or partner has with your company. Any errors or inconsistencies can create a negative impression.

Editing ensures that your ideas are communicated clearly and effectively. It helps you eliminate unnecessary information, clarify complex concepts, and structure your content logically. A clear, concise business plan is easier to read and understand, which increases its persuasive power.

Consistency

Persuasiveness.

Ultimately, your business plan must convince readers that your publishing company is a good investment. Effective editing and proofreading help you build a compelling case by ensuring your arguments are clear, your evidence is accurate, and your language is persuasive. In conclusion, thorough editing and proofreading are vital steps in creating a business plan for a publishing company. By dedicating time and attention to these tasks, you can enhance the clarity, accuracy, consistency, and persuasiveness of your business plan, increasing your chances of securing investment and achieving your business goals.

In this post, we’ve covered a lot of ground on mastering the art of creating a business plan for a publishing company. Let’s recap some of the key takeaways:

When crafting your business plan, conduct thorough market research, analyze the competition, set realistic goals, and project financials. The executive summary should capture the essence of your business plan and excite investors.

Don’t let the business plan writing process intimidate you. Please start with the essential components we outlined, do your research, and get feedback from mentors. The hard work you put into your business plan will pay off tremendously.

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Your Writer Platform

Build your platform. engage your fans. sell more books., your author business plan: a framework for the creative entrepreneur.

by Kimberley Grabas

Does the thought of writing a business plan make you wince?

You’ve been struggling valiantly through most of the non-writing, left-brained activities that have been thrust upon you as a modern writer – do you really need to go through the formality of crafting your “executive summary”, “sales forecasts” and “market analysis”?

Well…yes. (sorry)

But if you’d prefer to skip the spreadsheets in favour of a more “writer-friendly” planning process – because deep down you know you could use a bit more direction to move your writing career to the next level – you’re in luck!

I’ve designed this business plan framework with the creative entrepreneur in mind.

Yep, it’s still a business plan.

But I’ve tried to soften the corporate jargon, as well as give you ideas as to how you can use each section to grow your writing career.

I’ve also created a free downloadable workbook to guide you through the process and that you can complete at your own pace:

Click the image to download your free 30-page Author Business Plan workbook:

Prioritizing Your Business Plan To Get The Most Out Of Your Writing Career

It’s time to overcome your resistance to the idea that, as an author, your job is no longer just to write (if it ever was).

If you want to turn your passion for writing into a business, you’ll need to have a solid and strategic plan in place.

And a b usiness plan is simply a guide to what you hope to accomplish, how you plan to meet those objectives, and your financial projections based on these efforts.

It’s a field guide to your writing business – that you navigate with your readers in mind.

Here’s what you can expect a thorough business plan to help you accomplish:

It will help you to

• clarify and articulate a clear vision for your writing career, which will help guide your business actions and decisions
• nail down the specifics of what you need to get done to move your business forward
• share your strategies, priorities, and specific action points with others (agents, assistants, collaborators, or even your spouse)
• recognize and filter out the distractions, so you can concentrate only on those activities that will help you grow
• determine future needs ahead of time (software, skills, tech, or other resources) so that you can plan for the cost or time expenditure
• beat inertia and take confident action on those things you’ve determined will move your business forward
• notice opportunities to reward yourself for both small accomplishments and big wins

One of the most important (and often ignored) steps to effective goal setting and increased productivity, is to write your goals down and review them daily . This can be a game changer.

By dedicating the time to write your business plan – and review it frequently – you can change the trajectory of your writing career.

Developing Your Author Business Plan: The Key Components

Whether you are working toward a traditional publishing contract or self-publishing, a carefully crafted business plan will help you establish a plan of action, and guide how you will allocate your (often limited) resources.

A. BUSINESS VISION + AUTHOR BRAND

1. Mission Statement (Message)

Clarify your business values and vision. Define why you write and get very clear on the essence of your work–what problems are you solving or what desires are you satisfying? What is your promise to your reader and how will you deliver on that promise? (You can also include a “vision statement” that inspires you, and is a reminder of your purpose and your commitment to your writing career.)

2. Your Ideal Reader

Identify and define the group of people whom you wish to reach. How do they see themselves, and how does your work fit with that perception?  Who already ‘speaks your language’ or conversely, whom does your work speak to? We’ll be digging deeper into this in a later section of the business plan, so the information you gather will help to create a succinct description of your ideal reader here.

Related Content:  Identifying Your Target Audience: The Top 8 Mistakes Writers Make

3. Brand Personality and Culture

What is your brand story and personality? What do you want people to feel or experience when they read your book, a post on your blog, or see you speak at an event? What tone, colors, and visuals characterize your writing, and how does your branding reflect the purpose or message behind your work? What values, standards or best practices will you adhere to? What can your community of readers consistently expect from you in terms of your style, authenticity, voice, and professionalism? Make sure that your branding is relevant to the audience you seek, distinct and meaningful.

Related Content:  Discover and Build Your Author Brand

4. Career Goals, Objectives, and Expansion Plans

Many people do not even think of goals, and of those that do, very few write them down. Forbes reports a remarkable 10-year study about goal-setting carried out in the Harvard MBA Program.  Those students who wrote down their goals accomplished significantly more (i.e., earned on average, 10 times as much as the other 97 percent of the class combined). So write down your goals and objectives. Make sure they’re both S.M.A.R.T and what you really want. Are you willing–and able–to sacrifice the time and effort required to achieve what you’ve outlined? How will you determine your success?

B. BUSINESS DESCRIPTION + PUBLISHING PLAN

1. Your Difference

This is your secret sauce or unfair advantage. Describe who you are as a writer, and how you will portray that uniqueness to your audience. How do you solve their problem or desire and why is it valuable to your readers? The goal here is to answer the question in your reader’s mind, “Why you?”. What sets your work apart from others in your genre or niche? Develop your “brand story”.

Related Content: How to Build Your Brand From Scratch (And Why You Need To)

2. Who Do You Serve

Describe your target audience (demographics, psychographics), and how you can help meet the needs, wants, and desires of that specific group. Often writers make the mistake of working on their projects in a vacuum – with no feedback, input, or even acknowledgment of the reader. Another conundrum authors face, is writing in multiple genres, which makes building a community even more challenging. Note if either (or both) of these are concerns you face, and how you will address them going forward.

Related Content:  Thinking About Writing in Multiple Genres? Here’s What You Need to Know

3. Production

In this part of your business plan, include your writing, editing, and publishing schedule. How many words per day will you write, and at what times? If editing, how many hours per week will you devote? How many books do you plan to publish (and launch) this year? How often will you post new content to your blog or social media? Also note your genre focus, project lengths, and additional projects (workshops, courses, presentations, etc.) you plan to produce per year.

4. Business Structure

What is your writing business structure (sole proprietor, publishing company, or LLC, for example)?  Are you traditionally published, self-published, a hybrid author, or not yet published? Describe the components of your business, like books (digital, print, audio), courses, seminars, workshops (in-person/virtual), speaking, and so on. Is your business primarily online or offline?

5.   Business Tasks + Schedule

It’s important that you treat your writing business as a business . So make a list of regular tasks (everything from sales tracking and accounting, to editorial calendars and words written per day), and add them to your calendar, Asana , your day planner, or whatever system works for you.

6. Distribution Channels

You’ve defined your audience, so now you need to determine how they want to be reached. Where are they already and what are other ways that they will find you? Think social media, email, traditional media, video, podcasts, conferences and events, website, clubs, Amazon and other retailers, and so on.

Click to download your free 30-page Author Business Plan workbook :

C. MARKET ANALYSIS

1. Bestselling Authors/Comparable Titles in your Genre or Niche

Identify bestselling authors, top bloggers, and other influencers in your niche or genre. Look for those that already have the audience you want to reach (search through social media, relevant keywords, Facebook, and other groups). Who are the movers and shakers? The up-and-comers? Start making a list, including their contact info, website, and email. (These people may also become your partners and allies in the future.)

2. Pricing Models

What pricing model(s) are currently being used in your genre or niche? What are readers used to paying for books, products, or services similar to yours?

3. “Competitor” Strengths and Weaknesses

Choose 3-5 authors from the list you made in section C. 1., and break down their strengths and weaknesses. How do they reach and promote to their audience? Are there any strategies that many of your competitors seem to use (for example, are most of them using email marketing strategies)? What are they doing well and what can they improve? What can you add to the mix that draws upon your unique skill set and brand? Use this knowledge to craft your own, well-rounded strategy.

4. Trends and Opportunities

Note current events and what’s new and noteworthy in the publishing world. Note predictions and future trends that may impact your writing or bottom line. Are there any collaboration or partnership opportunities that you wish to pursue, both within your topic area and with industries or businesses that reach the same audience as you?

D. AUDIENCE RESEARCH

1. Identify Your Ideal Reader

Knowing your target audience has come up several times in this business plan–and for good reason. It is absolutely vital to the growth of your writing career to have a firm understanding of the audience you wish to reach. This section of your business plan informs the other sections, and it’s where you will get crystal clear on who your ideal readers are through research and data (not through guessing or assumptions). (Follow the link below for instructions on how to create an ideal reader persona.)

2. Understand Their Needs and Desires

Your goal is to understand and articulate your readers’ problems or desires better than they can themselves. But remember, this is their most pressing problem or desire, not yours.  Don’t try to create desire or interest where there is none. Outline how you will share your work in a way that encourages people who are already interested, to take action. (To gain a deeper understanding of your audience, spend time and ask questions of your “real” readers, engage in “social listening”, conduct surveys and examine your Google Analytics.)

3. Differentiate Yourself and Your Work

Given what you now know about your target audience, what is the intersection between your unique talents and your readers’ needs or desires? What can they get from you and your work that they can’t get anywhere else?

4. Determine How to Engage With Your Readers

It is much, much easier to create interesting, relevant, and valuable content for your audience now that you know exactly what they are searching for . You can’t possibly develop a marketing and book promotion plan when you have no idea who might be most receptive to your message. How will you learn (and continue to learn) about your readers, but still stay connected to the reasons for creating the work that you do?

E. COMMUNITY AND PLATFORM BUILDING

1. Social Media Plan

What are your (and your readers’) preferred platforms? Where will you place your emphasis and what strategies will you use to develop visibility and interest for your writing? What will you share, how will you create it, when will you share it, and where will you share it, to get the most engagement? (Create a specific plan for each social media platform you’ll engage on).

Related Content:  Social Media Strategy for Authors Plus 4 Tweets to Never Send

2. Email List Building Plan

Developing a responsive email list is one of the most important things you can do to grow your business and stay connected with your readers. What strategies will you implement to grow your list? How often will you communicate with your subscribers, what will you share and what opt-in incentive will you develop to encourage sign-ups? 

Related Content: The Writer’s Guide to Building an Email List

3. Content Strategy

A content strategy is your publishing plan of action for what to create , how to create it, when to create it, and for whom to create it. Develop an editorial or content calendar to map out and keep track of your content plan o’ action. Ensure your “brand story” is woven into the content you share.

4. Speaking, Appearances, and PR Plan

Keynote speeches, personal appearances, and other speaking opportunities all allow you to connect with your readers and fans in real life . Add presentations, interviews, and other appearances you have booked (or plan to book) into your business plan. What strategies will you implement to increase bookings?

5. Reviews, Testimonials, and Endorsements

What steps will you take to encourage reviews (ARCs, email requests, build relationships with influencers, and book bloggers)? How will you gather testimonials and endorsements for your work? Keep in mind that relationships take time to develop, so ensure you include steps to build these connections and goodwill before you ask for something in return.

Related Content: How to Get Reviews For Your Book (Without Begging, Bribing, or Resorting to Subterfuge)

6. Engagement + Exclusivity

How will you ensure your readers feel special? Will you offer special perks, bonuses, and a sneak peek behind the scenes? Or, create a street team or other type of “membership” for your most avid supporters? How is what you have to offer different from other authors in your niche, and how can you add more value? 

7. Networking and Relationship Building

Who are people talking about, sharing content from, and influenced by? What strategies will you use to develop relationships with industry influencers, advocates, and supporters of your work? How do you plan to build connections with organizations, institutions, schools, bloggers, reviewers, businesses, and media outlets? 

F. OFFERINGS + MONETIZATION

1. Your Products and Services

What will you offer to your audience? Books (digital, audio, print, series, bundles), services (speaking engagements, teaching at conferences, and hosting workshops) courses, freelance work, or other products and programs that relate to your work? How will your readers benefit? How will it impact their lives? Given what you’ve discovered about your target audience, will they want, need or desire what you have to offer?

2. Pricing Strategy

What pricing strategy will you employ? Premium, freemium (free + premium), permafree, or discount pricing? Given your goals for your business, will your pricing strategy help you meet your objectives? Does your pricing meet or challenge genre standards? How will your target audience view your pricing? Map out your pricing structure for your books, services, courses or workshops, series, and bundles.

Related Content: Pricing 

3. Collaboration and Partnerships

Affiliate marketing, book bundles, co-writing, and cross-promotion (via email lists) are all great ways to boost your business, visibility, and sales. What methods will you use to develop partnerships and encourage collaborations with other authors?

G. MARKETING STRATEGY

1. Marketing and Promotion

In this section, outline the methods you’ll employ to market and promote your books, products, content, and brand. You’ll want to develop a separate book marketing strategy for each book, as well as an overall strategy that ties current projects together with future plans for your writing career.  

Related Content: 71 Ways to Promote and Market Your Book

2. Resource Commitment

Finding time to write is difficult enough, but your business won’t run itself. You need to schedule time and resources for both the writing side of your business and the marketing side (and then squeeze in family and personal commitments, too 😉 ). How much time, money and other resources are you prepared to realistically commit? 

Related Content:  The Big Question: How Can I Build My Platform and Still Have Time to Write?

3. Launch Strategies

Designing, organizing, and implementing a book launch action plan is not easy. There are a lot of moving parts, so it requires the careful preparation (and execution) of just the right mix of launch activities to propel your new book out into the world. Layered launch strategies (where you use the momentum from one launch to boost the next) can create urgency and excitement, and further establish your brand, message, and authority. What actions will you take to leverage the assets and relationships you’ve established through your marketing activities to promote an upcoming book?

Related Content: Launch Strategy for Authors

H. FINANCIALS

1. Monthly Expenses

Make an itemized list of all the things you will need for your business to run monthly (website, hosting and domain name, email marketing service, business cards and other promotional items, office supplies, membership dues, etc.). If you are saving for some larger future expense (computer, software, cover design ), then note this in your budget, as well.

2. Monthly Revenue

Record your monthly income from all sources related to your writing business (royalties, freelance work, affiliate income, speaking, etc.). At first, this may seem like an exercise in futility, but with a solid business plan in place, you’ll soon start to see your revenue streams grow. 🙂

3. Production Budget (Per Book or Project)

Copyediting , line editing, proofreading, formatting for publishing, formatting for print, cover art, copyright registration, ISBNs, review copies, shipping, and research costs can all be budgeted on a per-book basis. These input costs will help you determine the potential viability (and profitability) of each project. If you also have a website and blog, there may also be production costs for blog posts, email newsletters, and other items (image or graphic fees, costs for giveaways, apps or software, etc.).

4. Sales + Income Projections

If you’re just starting out, creating sales projections may be difficult to do, but it’s certainly a good habit to develop if you’d like to ensure you’re making good business decisions. Forecasting is vital to planning sales, marketing, and spending. (For a free Amazon sales rank tracker, try NovelR ank.com  or SalesRankExpress.com .)

I. ADDITIONAL GROWTH + EXPANSION STRATEGIES

1. Professional Development

Your talent is your best asset. Continuing to improve upon both your writing AND your business skills, is a wise investment. Use this section of your business plan to note any classes, workshops, or conferences you plan to attend, if you plan to find a critique partner or writer’s group to join, or even add specific books you plan to read (for genre or topic research, or to gain additional skills).

Related Content: 39 Things to Remember When Struggling to Build Your Writing Career

2. Paid Advertising and Other Paid Options

Paid advertising, hiring a publicist, or anything else that requires cold hard cash upfront–without a guarantee of return–may not be on the top of your priority list. However, if you are considering some paid options, ensure you note your strategies here. Tracking your return on investment may be easier for some options than others, but it’s always wise to note your efforts and results.

3.   Repurposing

Continuously developing new content can take a lot of effort. Get more mileage out of the excellent content you produce (articles, newsletters, blog content, short stories, guides, updates, videos, etc.) by repurposing it into something fresh. You can change the format, share it on different mediums, turn a book or post into a course or workshop, and reach all new audiences. How will you stretch and repurpose each piece of content you create?

Related Content:  Create Great Content? How to Get More From It Through Repurposing

4. Outsourcing

Wise outsourcing can not only increase your efficiency and help level the playing field, but it allows you to focus on the core of your business–your writing. If you decide to outsource, determine what tasks you’ll pay someone else (editors, virtual assistants, designers, accountants, etc.) to handle.

Writing Your Author Business Plan Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

Kudos to you for making it this far! It may seem like a daunting task to compile your business plan, but I assure you it is well worth the effort.

Plus, your plan can be developed over a period of time and doesn’t have to be nailed down all in one sitting.

A business plan is fluid and ever-evolving. As new info comes in, circumstances change, or as results and analysis dictate, adjust your business plan accordingly. Remove sections from this plan that you feel don’t apply, and add sections that you feel are more relevant to your specific business needs.

Review and re-examine your plan on a regular basis to help keep yourself–and your writing career–on track.

And be sure to reward yourself when you’ve reached certain milestones and objectives. You’ll have most certainly earned it!

Questions? Comments? Please share your thoughts below.

Reading through your posts can be long and tedious, especially for people like me who always take notes. But in the end, it’s worth it. Thanks for another awesome post.

Yes, I’m nothing if not thorough… 😉

That’s why I’ve included the workbook – all the info, without the need to write it all down yourself.

This is just awesome .. Love it!!

Happy to hear it, Ashima. Hope you can put the plan to good use! 😉

Thanks so much, Kimberley! This is super helpful and so timely — my community of Queens, NY, is conducting a business plan competition with nice prize money. Glad to have your insights and guidance in the final days of preparation.

http://www.queensbooks.nyc

My pleasure John! 🙂

I was hoping to grab this fabulous download, but when I entered my email address and went through to the next page, the error message said the pdf could not be found. I thought this was because I was on mobile, but I tried several times on my PC and it still was appearing as not found.

My apologies Kieran – there is a bit of a glitch with the media file. Shoot me a quick email (Kim-at-YourWriterPlatform.com) and I’ll send it to you directly.

Authors with Platforms Sell Books.

It’s that simple.

Get on the Insiders List to receive the free Quick Start Guide to Building Your Writer Platform , exclusive content via email, and instant access to a growing library of downloadable resources.

Privacy Overview

How to Start a Publishing Company: A Great Big Overview

There are several reasons a person might want to learn how to start a publishing company—like an official one with paperwork and a business bank account and all that.

Maybe you plan to self-publish and want to help bookstores and readers take your book seriously with the help of an imprint logo on the spine and an ISBN that belongs to an actual publishing company.

Maybe you’ve been self-publishing and are ready to turn your indie author experiment into an intentional business. Or you’ve been so successful at selling your own books you’ve decided to set up an LLC and start acquiring books from other authors.

Or maybe you’ve never written a book and don’t plan to. You just know great writing when you see it and want to team up with promising authors.

Whatever the reason, you’re at the beginning of a thrilling journey. It won’t be easy, though. Running your own business is complicated and time-consuming no matter what industry you’re in. And heaven knows publishing comes with plenty of its own unique challenges.

So I can’t promise you that this guide has everything you need to know to start a publishing company. You’re gonna want to read a lot of articles. And books. And listen to podcasts, attend publishing conferences, and definitely reach out to people who’ve already had success as publishers.

My goal in this article is to give you a clear overview of how to start a publishing company. We’ll talk about:

• How your company fits into the wider publishing world
• How to research and plan for success
• Legal and regulatory considerations
• How to set up your business
• Financial management tips
• The process of publishing, promoting, and scaling, whether you publish your own work or someone else’s

Hopefully, by the time we’re done, you’ll have a clearer sense of where you’re heading and what you need to do next. Let’s get started.  

Quick Overview of the Publishing Landscape

When a person sets out to publish a book, they essentially have two options: traditional publishing and self-publishing.

There’s technically a third option, hybrid publishing, in which the author pays a hybrid publisher to publish their book. But that particular approach is less common, potentially predatory , and not really what this article is about. If you want to know more about it, we discuss it in this article .

For now, let’s look at the two more typical options and how your future business fits into the larger publishing industry.

Traditional Publishing

In traditional publishing , a publishing company takes care of editing, producing, distributing, and (usually) marketing a book. They pay royalties to the author. Royalties are a percentage of the profits. You can learn more about those puppies here .

When people think of traditional publishers, they most often think of the Big Five, which include major publishing houses like Penguin Random House and Macmillan. But small publishing companies count, too.

So if you start your own company and acquire other authors’ books, those authors will be traditionally published through your imprint.

Self-Publishing

In self-publishing, the author does everything themselves. They might hire editors, a cover designer, or other professionals to execute aspects of the process that require special skills. But ultimately, it’s up to them to oversee the vision and put up the money to get it done.

If you start a publishing company with the goal of releasing your own books under that imprint, you’re still a self-published author.

Why Starting Your Very Own Publishing Company is a Thing

If you choose to self-publish, you’re technically a publisher. You don’t actually have to establish an official publishing company. You can self-publish your book under your own name and pay taxes on that income as an independent contractor. You know, keep things super simple.

So why do so many self-published authors choose to create publishing company?

Some do it because they actually want to own a publishing business. They don’t want to stop at their own work. They’d like to build a full catalog of books from a wide range of authors. To do that, they have to establish the proper business structure for building a team and paying authors.

Others like the air of legitimacy that comes with having the name of a for-real publishing company linked to their books. They also dig the legal protection involved in setting up a registered business, assuming they choose the right business structure for that. We’ll talk more about that in a bit.

Plus, when you start a publishing company, it’s a signal to yourself that you plan to treat your self-publishing journey as a business rather than a hobby or experiment. 

Add in the fact that starting your own publishing business is easier than ever in the digital age, and the choice feels obvious for many self-published authors. That doesn’t mean it’s the perfect path for everyone, but if you’re thinking it might be yours , read on.

Researching the Market and Creating a Business Plan

The first step in starting a publishing company is establishing a vision and determining what you need to do to make that vision work.

Who’s your audience? How will you find them and get them to buy your books? And what about your financial strategies? How will you get all those numbers to number the way you want them to?

The more specifically you can answer these questions, the likelier your odds of success once your publishing company is up and running. Let’s take a closer look at the details you need to nail down.

Finding Your Niche

How does your publishing company fit into the market?

You can start to answer this by looking at the high-level answers. Things like:

• Your genre and subgenre
• Your writing style
• The genre tropes you embrace

It actually helps a lot to create a mission statement, which is a declaration of your values and (non-financial) goals as a business. 

Honestly, I’ve always found mission statements to be pretty eye-roll-y, especially when they come from any for-profit endeavor. But in recent years, I’ve discovered that having that kind of clarity around what I want to put into the world has made me much better at focusing my writing and marketing efforts to connect with the readers who get me.

Do you want to publish dark mysteries that offer readers a spine-tingling escape? Spicy romance that challenges conventional assumptions about love? Narrative nonfiction that promotes empathy and understanding in a divided world?

A more specific vision will help you get a clearer sense of who your target audience is and how to grab their attention.

On that note, it’s also essential that you research your reader. Learn as much you can about their demographics and buying behaviors. Where do they hang out online? Where do they go for book recommendations? What are they saying about their favorite books?

Doug has a great article loaded with tips on researching your target market. I highly recommend you check it out.

Finally, get to know the current bestsellers in your genre so you can study what works. And keep tabs on emerging authors. If you hope to publish works other than your own, you might discover a self-published author who’s nailing the content but could really thrive with someone else overseeing the business end of things.

Creating Your Publishing Imprint

Once you have a sense of what your publishing company is all about, you can start thinking about your publishing imprint.

An imprint is the name you publish your books under. The major publishing houses have several imprints, each representing a specific area of focus. For example, Harlequin is a HarperCollins imprint that publishes romance.

As a small business, you’ll want to start with one publishing imprint. Think of this as your publishing brand. If you plan to only ever publish your own novels, this might overlap with your author brand .  

Your imprint's name and logo will appear on the spine of every book you publish. You’ll also want to set up a website, especially if you hope to attract other authors.

Developing a Business Plan

A business plan is a comprehensive document laying out how you plan to build and sustain a profitable publishing company. There’s way too much involved in a business plan for us to go over all of it here, but the short version is that you’ll want to include things like:

• Your mission statement
• Long-term goals
• Short-term goals
• Strategies for achieving those goals, including your publishing schedule and marketing tactics
• Financial projections, including budget, expenses, sales goals, and how long it will take to turn a profit

There’s a steep learning curve when it comes to running your own publishing business, so it’s a good idea to revisit and revise your business plan periodically. 

I also suggest doing a lot of research and staying conservative when it comes to those financial projections. You don’t want to drain your business bank account because you were betting on an immediate return on investment.

Legal and Regulatory Considerations

When you start a publishing company, you’re 1) starting a small business that 2) profits off of creative work that may or may not be your own. Both of those facts mean you’ll be held accountable for abiding by certain tax and copyright laws.

I’m going to give you an extremely general overview of what that could mean if you’re a U.S. citizen operating your business in the U.S. I’m not remotely qualified to give you tax or legal advice—plus, laws change—so this is just to give you a sense of the types of things you’ll want to consider as you set up your publishing company.

Please research current regulations and consult an accountant or lawyer before making decisions and drawing up contracts.

Registering Your Publishing Company as a Legal Entity

You’ll need to make your publishing company official in the eyes of the country and state. That means selecting which business structure you’d like to establish. Small publishing companies usually opt for either a sole proprietorship or a limited liability company (LLC). 

The biggest benefit of a sole proprietorship is that it’s cheap and easy. You’ll have to claim your business income on a Schedule C when you do your taxes, but you don’t even need to get an employer identification number (EIN) unless you plan to hire people. 

If you want to operate under a business name instead of your own name, you can file a Fictitious Business Name or DBA (“doing business as”). Fees vary by state, but they’re usually inexpensive.

A limited liability company comes with bigger fees, but it offers more legal protection. For example, if someone decides to sue your publishing company and you have an LLC, only your business’s assets will be on the line. If you’re operating as a sole proprietorship, they can go after your personal assets, too.

Whether you go with a DBA or LLC, you’ll need to decide on a business name. You can use your own name, the name of your publishing imprint, or something else entirely. 

Once you decide on a business structure and get an employer identification number (if you need one), you can set up a business bank account. Even if you’re operating as a sole proprietorship, it’s best to keep your personal finances separate from your company’s finances.

Copyright Laws and Intellectual Property Rights

Once again, I’m not remotely qualified to offer legal advice. So I won’t. What I will say is that if you plan to publish the work of other authors, you need to make sure you understand exactly which rights you hold under the contract.

Even if you realize their book would do great in Germany, you can’t start tapping into that market if the contract doesn’t grant you those rights.

You also need to watch for potential copyright violations in any book you publish, including yours. Make sure you work with a cover artist who knows how to determine which images, fonts, and elements are fair game, legally speaking.

Setting Up Operations

Now that you’ve got your own publishing company, it’s up to you to determine how this whole operation is going to work. You’re officially a business owner, which means everyone involved is looking to you to run the show.

Sounds like a lot of pressure, but with some careful planning, you’ll at least have a framework to start from. Plus, you’ve already got a business plan to help you stay focused on your goals, priorities, and strategies.

Let’s take a closer look at the things you’ll need to consider before you officially open shop. 

Processes and Guidelines

If you plan to publish the work of other authors, consider what the editorial process will look like. How will you acquire new titles? What standards must they meet in order to warrant the time and resources you’ll have to invest in them? 

Don’t just look for quality writing and a good story. You’re creating a brand and trying to compete in a saturated publishing industry. Consider what it means for a novel to align with your vision and what it will take to stand out in your target market.

Once you’ve selected a book, then what? How will you determine what you’re willing to offer the author in terms of advance and royalties? What will the contract look like? Again, it’s a good idea to consult with a lawyer on this.

From there, decide what factors will go into setting up your publishing schedule. How many books do you hope to publish in a year? Do you plan to do any season-specific releases, like holiday-themed books? 

How much time will you give yourself to deliver editorial feedback? How much time should you give an author to make changes? Once the content is ready, how long will it take for line editing, formatting, and packaging?

Remember to factor book launch strategies into your publishing calendar. Determine what you’ll need to do to create buzz and generate preorders. These details are important even if the only books you plan to publish are your own.

Of course, your systems are bound to change as you execute them. It’s important to adapt according to the market and your own capabilities, so leave a little room for flexibility. 

Building Your Team

When you first start a publishing company, you’ll probably want to hire other professionals on a contract basis. It’s just simpler and more affordable. Once you’ve had some success and are ready to grow your business, you might consider hiring employees.

Depending on your own skill set, you might choose to work with professionals like a developmental editor , line editor, cover designer, and/or marketing specialist. You might be able to handle one or some of these jobs yourself successfully. If you’ve already published a few books, you probably know what you do well. 

Ultimately, the key to building a great publishing team is being honest with yourself about your own skill set. You might save money by handling line editing or cover design yourself, but if you can’t do expert-level work, your readers will notice and point it out.

Having a logo and business name won’t make up for a product that your target audience perceives as amateur.

Financial Management

Let’s talk money. More specifically, let’s discuss what you’ll have to pay for upfront and where you can find the cash when you don’t have any books out there yet.

These are things you’ll want to think about when you first create your business plan and on an ongoing basis. Your business can only thrive and survive in the long term if you can get more money flowing in than going out before your resources run out.

What Goes in the Budget

You’ll likely have to make some tricky decisions about which business expenses to prioritize and which to skip, at least while your publishing company is still young.

This is not an exhaustive list, but remember to account for things like:

• Annual taxes and fees associated with registering and licensing a business
• Office supplies and equipment
• ISBNs (international standard book numbers—you’ll need one for every book you publish)
• Copyright registration fees
• Contractors (editors, sensitivity readers , cover designers, marketers, etc.)
• Advertising costs
• Website domain
• Subscriptions to trade publications
• Software and subscription-based programs
• Conferences and book festivals
• Associated travel expenses
• Author advances

Also consider additional expenses specific to the way you plan to do business. Will you release audiobooks or publish in foreign markets, for example? Then your budget should include things like narrators or translation services.

Plan for as much as you can ahead of time. When an unexpected expense arises, return to the budget to see if you’ll have to cut back somewhere else to make it work.

Funding Options

Now for the big question: how are you supposed to pay for all these things if you’re not already selling books?

One option is to keep your day job and fund your publishing company yourself. 

That’s not a fun suggestion, I know. If you’re already working while trying to start a publishing company, you won’t exactly be able to hit the ground running, as the business people say. But believe me, many publishing companies start that way, especially when it’s one author setting up a business to support their own novels.

You may be able to pursue grants created to support small businesses, but be aware that many grants are created for specific communities or missions, and even then, they’re unlikely to pay enough to let you quit your day job.

You could apply for a small business loan, but you’ll have to demonstrate that your business will be capable of paying off the loan. Not to mention, you’ll want to know you can pay off the loan, and it can be tough to predict when you’ll start making a profit if this is your first publishing adventure.

As for investors, publishing companies don’t have much luck with them in the traditional sense. That said, crowdfunding is an increasingly popular tactic for authors with a strong fan following. 

Brandon Sanderson is the most famous example of Kickstarter success(es), but many other writers have been able to get novels and special edition books funded by their own fans in advance. The caveat, of course, is that they already have a following or a super compelling nonfiction book that speaks directly to an unmet need.

If none of these options fit where you are right now and it’s looking like you’ll have to start small with your own money, that’s perfectly fine! The beauty of starting your own publishing business is that you can do it in your living room with the release of one novel and build from there.

Publishing Process

So you’ve got a business name, a strategy, a budget, and a vision. You’re ready to start knocking out some books. What does that look like?

Here’s an overview of the standard publishing process.

Manuscript Acquisition

If you only plan to publish novels you write, you can skip this section. If you’re hoping to add other authors to your catalog, stay right here.

First, you’ll need to make sure people know your publishing company exists and is legit. Make sure you’ve got a professional website up and running. Announce the founding of your company in trade publications. 

Then, when you’re ready, put out a call for submissions in places like Poets & Writers . Be clear about the type of work you’re looking for and whether you want to see the first chapter, 50 pages, or query only. Also, do your prospective writers a solid and mention how long they should wait to hear back from you.

Work with a lawyer ahead of time to draw up a contract so you can move quickly when you’re ready to make a deal. Just be aware that the author may wish to negotiate.  

Editing, Formatting, and Design 

It’s customary for the publisher to request some edits, so don’t be shy about sharing your notes . The author should be expecting it. Or, if there’s a developmental editor whose insight has already been valuable to you, you may wish to contract this work out to them. If you do, remember to factor their availability into your publishing schedule.

Once everybody’s happy with the story and prose, you’re ready for line editing and formatting . If either of these things are not major strengths for you, hire a professional. Typos and poor formatting will hurt you. More specifically, they’ll get called out in reviews.

The same is true for cover design. The book cover is your number one marketing tool, so make it a good one. You can find tips on cover design here .

Printing and Distribution

I would say that this is when you decide where and how you want to distribute the book, but that’s actually a decision for much earlier in the process so you can set up preorders and build relationships with bookstores.

So it’s more accurate to say that this is when you execute on your distribution strategy.

The options for how and where you sell are more expansive than ever, from staying exclusive to Amazon to managing direct sales through TikTok. It’s more than we can get into here, it’s an ever-changing landscape, and there are many factors to consider, so I’ll just recommend you do your research when the time comes to choose the best path for your business.

Marketing and Promotion

In today’s publishing industry, authors shoulder much of the marketing and promotion burden. Even the major publishing houses rarely give debut authors the same advertising push they used to.

Even so, promotional support and a wider reach are some of the biggest reasons authors choose to work with a publishing company instead of going it alone. Plus, you’re trying to make a profit for them and for yourself. 

So get ready to do some serious marketing, whether you’ve got a whole roster of authors or it’s just you on there. Your survival depends on it.

Developing a Marketing Plan

Take your target audience into account as you set up your marketing plan. What is the best way to reach them? What social media platforms do they hang out on? How do they interact with the authors they love? Where are they buying books? What resonates with them?

Study comparable titles and authors. Note what works for them as well as any efforts that seem to fall flat.

Once you’ve done a few bucket loads of research, do your best to lay out a plan for where, when, and how you’ll get this book in front of readers both leading up to the launch and after it’s released. 

Then, be flexible. As you move forward with your marketing plan, double down on what works and let go of what doesn’t.

Marketing Strategies

Of course, it’s easier to create a marketing plan when you have a sense of what tactics might be included in it. 

As always, the best strategies vary depending on your genre, target market, and shifting trends. That said, some common tactics include:

• Newsletter/email marketing
• Social media
• Paid advertising on platforms like Amazon and social media
• Book trailers
• Live author events
• Online author events 
• Cross-promotion with other authors
• Podcast appearances
• Newsletter swaps
• Launch party

You’ll also want to work on getting reviews out prior to the release of the book. And you’ll want to do a lot of this:

Building Relationships

The publishing business is just like every other business in that relationships can get you pretty far, especially when it comes to promotion.

Find ways to connect with bookstores and libraries. Engage with content from book influencers, podcasters, YouTubers, and book bloggers. Build relationships with other authors in the same genre. 

In time, all these relationships could open up more opportunities for cross-promotion, guest appearances, or—in the case of libraries and bookstores—more book sales.

Scaling Your Publishing Businesses

Making money is great and all, but at some point, you’ll want to figure out how to bring in even more income without investing an equivalent amount in time and resources. That’s the key to sustaining a publishing company over time.

Here are some scaling strategies to keep in mind as you grow your business:

Expanding Your Catalogue

One of the best ways to scale your business is to just have more products to sell. Go figure. 

Admittedly, each book you publish requires a significant investment of both time and money, but once it’s out there, it’s a product you can sell forever. You’ll still have to invest in marketing, but you’ll eventually have some word-of-mouth assistance from readers who love the book. Plus, every book you release under an author’s name will help sell other books by that author.

So make sure you treat your authors well so they’ll stick with you. And always keep an eye out for emerging self-published writers who might be a great fit for your publishing company. 

Also, regularly review your backlist to see if you need to make any changes to keep up with market trends, whether that means re-covering a book or creating a new ad campaign for an older novel that happens to be the exact thing readers are currently looking for.

Exploring International Markets

There’s a big world out there. If you’re only selling books in your country and language, you could be missing out on a lot of potential buyers.

Just make sure you do your research before you take on the expense of having a book translated. You never want to assume that a book will be a hit in another country just because it did well in your own.

But if you’ve got good reason to believe a book will succeed in a particular foreign market, the cost of translation is fairly small when you consider the possibility of reaching a nation’s worth of new readers. That’s assuming you have the proper rights. On that note…

Subsidiary Rights and Licensing

Subsidiary rights are the rights to generate revenue from a creative work through processes beyond publishing print books and ebooks . For example, you might want to create audiobooks , graphic novels, translations, or merchandise from one of your bestselling books or series . 

These can all be great ways to get even more money out of your books for a comparatively lower investment. Be aware, however, that if you’re not the author, you can only do this if your contract grants you those rights.

Finding Support for the Journey

As I mentioned before, this guide is simply an overview of how to start a publishing company. By now, it’s probably clear to you that there’s plenty more to learn about each topic we’ve touched on.

That’s why it’s so important to keep a supportive community close as you set up and run your own publishing company. 

Connect with authors and publishers who understand how challenging and fulfilling this process can be. Join communities where you can ask for advice from people who’ve been there. Find ways to stay on top of trends and strategies in the publishing world.

Dabble can help with a bunch of those things. Join the Story Craft Café to connect with authors who are on similar journeys… or may be looking to collaborate with a small publishing company like yours. 

Hang out in DabbleU where you can find tons of advice on both the craft and business of writing and publishing. 

Subscribe to Dabble’s non-spammy newsletter and get new articles and insights delivered right to your inbox once a week.

As challenging as this journey can be, you’re never in it alone. So go ahead. Be bold. 

Create the publishing business you’ve been dreaming of.

Abi Wurdeman is the author of Cross-Section of a Human Heart: A Memoir of Early Adulthood, as well as the novella, Holiday Gifts for Insufferable People. She also writes for film and television with her brother and writing partner, Phil Wurdeman. On occasion, Abi pretends to be a poet. One of her poems is (legally) stamped into a sidewalk in Santa Clarita, California. When she’s not writing, Abi is most likely hiking, reading, or texting her mother pictures of her houseplants to ask why they look like that.

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Last updated on Feb 07, 2023

How to Start a Publishing Company in 2024

If you’ve ever watched the reality show Shark Tank , you may have found yourself daydreaming about starting your own business. And if you’re an indie author who’s learning the self-publishing ropes, you might be wondering if you should start your own publishing business — as opposed to just doing everything under your own name.

So before we get to the details of how to start a publishing company, let’s start by addressing that question first: should you start a publishing company? The answer might be yes if you: 

• Are publishing one or more series of books (the hassle of starting a company might not be worth it if you’re looking to publish just one title)
• Are working in an area with a higher risk of liability (such as health-related or technical books) — or are simply looking for added protection of your personal assets
• Are looking to operate as a “professional” writer (as opposed to a “hobbyist” writer)
• Have a concrete brand that you would like to expand to include similar books by other authors

If these criteria don’t apply to you, you’re likely better off publishing your books under your own name. But if they ring a bell, then this guide to starting a publishing company is a great place to start.

Note: this advice is not coming from legal professionals, and any business ventures should be taken after consideration of local laws and consulting with professionals. What follows mainly applies to starting a company in the United States.

Disclaimer withstanding, let’s get started!

The benefits of starting your own publishing company

To help you better understand whether this is the right time for you to start your own publishing company, let’s look at the benefits a little closer.

Air of professionalism

While self-publishing is a major accomplishment that should be viewed with pride, many bookstores and libraries will not stock their shelves with books clearly published by authors. In addition, readers are often less likely to purchase an obviously self-published title as they’d prefer to go with books that have been vetted by publishers — which of course means they’re missing out on some great reads!

One of the most obvious markers of a self-published title is that the author’s name is listed as the publisher. However, if you start your own publishing company — say, Reedsy LLC or Reedsy Publishing — you can use that name as the imprint, which might give your book a more “professional” air.

Tax benefits

What is the difference between the IRS seeing your publishing endeavors as a hobby versus a business? Well, if it’s a hobby, then those expenses can only be deducted from your writing income. If they consider those activities as a business, on the other hand, you might be able to deduct writing and publishing-related expenses from your non-writing income.

The IRS encourages entrepreneurs by assuming new businesses will lose money from the outset, and allowing them to offset those losses with tax breaks. If you want to enjoy the tax benefits the IRS affords, then it’s key to operate as a business — and and to show that you are running that business with the aim of making a profit.

Protection from liability

You don’t hear about independently published authors getting sued every day. However, writers who want added protection against any crumbling cookies will find assurance in that fact that when you incorporate or start a business such as an LLC, your personal income and assets are protected.

The ability to grow your brand

Indie authors unite? If you've already set up the infrastructure (a mailing list, traction with sales on Amazon, etc.), then looking beyond your own repertoire of titles and publishing more books that appeal to similar readers is a good idea. You can leverage all your hard work establishing your business and learning marketing to expand your brand and sell more books without having to do all the writing yourself. Of course, this comes with the added responsibility of royalty payments.

How to start a publishing company

Before you can fire up the presses and take the publishing world by storm, there are a few T’s to cross and I’s to dot to give your business the best chance for success. Here is a simple process for starting a publishing company in seven steps:

1. Set goals for your publishing company

Starting a publishing company requires authors to fully become an entrepreneur in their own right and is not an endeavor to be taken lightly. If you’re toying with the idea, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Why do you want to start a publishing company?
• What kind of books do you want to publish?
• Will you publish your books only, or titles from other authors, too?
• What income range are you expecting this business to yield?
• How do you see your business growing in the next year? Five years? Ten years?

These are questions you should readily and passionately be able to answer before you get started, as they will affect your business decisions.

2. Choose a business structure

We know, we know, can’t we just skip ahead to the fun part, like choosing a company name? Not just yet, there’s some important groundwork to be laid first, like deciding exactly what type of company you are looking to start.

Businesses come in many shapes and forms. When it comes to publishing in most territories, the main choices are:

• Sole proprietorship: a business operated and owned by one person. The simplest business form, but not the most risk-free (keep reading).
• Corporation: a group of people or an organization authorized to manage the company as a single entity. A more complex business form.
• Partnership: two or more parties contractually agree to manage and operate a business
• LLC: provides the protection of assets that a corporation receives with versatility and pass-through tax benefits of a partnership or sole proprietorship (meaning a business taxes can be paid through someone’s personal tax return).

Most authors will decide to start their own publishing companies as an LLC or sole proprietorship, as these are the most flexible and simple business forms of the bunch. However, our personal suggestion is that you set up as an LLC . As mentioned before, LLCs offer the most liability protection , meaning your personal assets are protected from any debts incurred by the business.

For more information on what structure best suits your goals , check out the Small Business Administration .

3. Pick a business name

After all that business talk it’s time to have some fun: it’s time to christen your publishing company! Here’s a couple of things to keep in mind when deciding on a name :

• Branding. What market or niche are you targeting? In which genre does your company publish? These questions will help you refine your company’s brand — and its name should be a reflection of that. If you’re planning to publish middle-grade fiction primarily, choose a name that reflects that. Take a look at other publishing companies to get a sense of how their name reflects their brand.
• Relatability. We live in a fast-paced world and your allotted time frame to capture someone’s attention is slim to none. So it pays to be strategic when coming up with a name, and to use words that readers will already be familiar with. If there’s a made-up word you really want to use, ask yourself what it will communicate — if anything — to people at first glance.
• Keep it short and to the point. Superkalifragilistikexpialigetisch Press isn’t a smart move.
• Don’t use the word “Inc.” unless you are actually planning to incorporate your business

Finally, make sure whatever name you choose hasn’t already been taken! Check if the name is already trademarked and then search for the availability of the URL-version on a domain registrar site like GoDaddy.

Obtain your Employer Identification Number (EIN)

Once you have a business name, you have to register it with the government. This is a nine-digit number provided by the IRS that includes information about the state the business is registered in. Think of it a bit like your company’s social insurance number. Learn more here .

4. Open a business bank account

After you’ve received an EIN, you can register for a business bank account which will allow you to keep your business and personal finances separate. This will ensure your personal assets are protected should a lawsuit ever arise (knock on wood, this is just a precaution!) and it will make it easier for you come tax season.

Also, consider setting up a PayPal account for online transactions.

5. Set up an accounting process

Stifle that yawn, because this is an important, can’t-be-overlooked step! Whether you’re using a free resource like Google Sheets, a paid tool like Quickbooks, or outsourcing accounting work to a professional, nailing your bookkeeping practices down from the start is essential. It will help you track which of your efforts are paying off and ensure you have a record of all expenses which will be handy for tax write-offs.

Here are a few pieces of accounting software that might come in handy:

• Quickbooks. With over 4.8 million users worldwide, it’s one of the most popular accounting applications. While it has a vast number of tools for all kinds of business (brick and mortar, e-commerce , home-based, etc.), it caters especially to small businesses.
• Freshbooks. A great option for invoicing needs , it allows users to easily add billable time and expenses, customize the look of the invoice, and set up recurring invoices, automatic payment reminders, and late fees.
• Zoho Books. This is a good option for very small businesses looking for a simple solution. It offers basic accounting features, with the option to integrate and access advanced tools as your business grows.
• Wave Financial. If you’re looking for a free option , this might be your best bet. It doesn’t have any bells and whistles, but it does offer no-charge, cloud-based accounting functions designed specifically for small businesses.

6. Create a company website

When people want to know more about your company, it’s likely their natural response will be to Google it. A website is the best way to capture those interested leads and to tell people more about your business. 

You may be tempted to add a page to your author website, but that would be a mistake. Ideally, your publishing company should have its own public identity and branding, even if it starts out only publishing your work. If you want to gain an air of professionalism, this is the way to go. 

Again, we recommend GoDaddy for registering your domain name. A free domain like yourcompany.wordpress.com just won’t do. 

7. Grow your team of publishing professionals

Trust us, your publishing company will only get by with a little help from some friends. Professional ones, hopefully, with lots of experience in publishing. Growing your team is especially necessary if you want to become one of the big players in publishing .

Launching successful titles comes with a lot of specialized work, such as editing, cover design, interior formatting, web design, marketing, etc. Luckily you can turn to online marketplaces (such as Reedsy !) to hire those services — and you don’t need to break the bank at the same time. One of the benefits of starting a publishing company these days is that you can keep things pretty lean by building a network of freelancers you trust, without getting tied down to a head-count.

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And you won’t be alone: more and more traditional publishers are looking to freelancers to help develop books .

We hope this information helps you decide whether starting a company is the right path for you, and, if so, how to start a publishing company that hits the ground running.

Continue reading

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Home / Book Publishing / How to Start a Publishing Company: 2024 Guide

How to Start a Publishing Company: 2024 Guide

You can start your own publishing company with these simple steps:

• Develop a business structure (usually an LLC)
• Choose the name and location for your company
• Register your business
• Obtain your EIN and set up a business banking account

Want more detail? Keep reading. This article is detailed, informative, and easy to comprehend — even for someone who was as legally inept as I used to be.

• If you should set up a publishing company
• The benefits of setting up a publishing company
• How to set up a publishing company

Table of contents

• What does a publishing company do?
• Should you start a publishing company?
• Benefits of Starting Your Own Publishing Company
• When should you start a publishing company? 
• 6 Steps for Starting a Book Publishing Company
• Setting up a Publishing Company with MyCompanyWorks
• WCU’s Publishing MA Program
• And don’t forget to check out my podcast where I spoke with my lawyer about publishing business structure.

A publishing company sells and distributes books (and magazines, newspapers, digital content, etc.) They may contribute to the editing process to ensure their published content is up to snuff. The publishing company decides what kind of marketing (and where to advertise) will best help sell their books.

Starting your own book publishing company is a crucial step in boosting your author brand, selling other people's books, or protecting yourself and your assets.

For many people, establishing your own company can be confusing, tedious, and downright painful. To be honest, it’s a lot of work.

Thankfully, this step-by-step guide will help you determine if you should start a publishing company and show you how to achieve such a daunting task.

Let me make 2 disclaimers:

• Although I have a lot of experience setting up LLCs, including my own book publishing company, I am by no means a lawyer or CPA and cannot speak on their behalf. If you have any questions, it is best to seek legal advice before moving on. This article does not constitute legal advice and should not substitute for the advice of an attorney.
• Some of the paperwork and legal steps listed in this article are pertinent to the US only. Each country will have its own laws for setting up such things. Many of the steps and recommendations below will be relevant to your startup, no matter which country you’re in.

There are 3 primary reasons to start a publishing company:

• Financial protection

Of course, there are many reasons to start a publishing company, but these are the big three. For example, if you want to publish other people’s books, you can do that without an LLC. But if you do establish an LLC, you are protected and legitimate.

With today’s publishing platforms, you don’t have to start a publishing business to publish your own work or even other people’s stories.

However, starting a publishing company has several advantages. Here’s a more detailed list of reasons you may want to establish your own publishing business:

• Conveys professionalism and expertise
• Protects yourself, your work, and your personal assets in case of a lawsuit
• Manages of your intellectual property
• Allows for certain tax write-offs
• Maintains control over your work
• Gives you access to more than one Amazon KDP account
• Shifts your mindset from a hobby writer to a business owner
• Fulfills your dream of being The Boss/CEO/Founder of your own publishing company
• Establishes a legal entity to contract co-writing and licensing properly
• Facilitates future opportunities to publish books by other authors

How do publishing companies make money? Publishing companies make money by taking in book sales, minus the royalties they pay out to authors and other artists. Royalties are 100% negotiable.

There are 6 excellent benefits to starting your own publishing company:

• Tax benefits, write-offs, and more
• Liability protection
• Increased credibility
• Ability to expand your brand
• Double the number of KDP accounts
• Co-writing and licensing

Of course, I could go on and on about the benefits — like being your own boss. But I’ll just take you through the main benefits, then along to the step-by-step process.

1. Tax Benefits, Write-Offs, & Wealth Building

Yes, there are tax benefits to having your own book publishing company. When April 15th approaches, you can write off a surprising number of business expenses.

A company helps you differentiate between your personal income and business income. All those business write-offs may save you a lot of money during tax season.

If you have your own company, I recommend getting a tax accountant (the fee for whom is a tax-deductible expense) to help prepare your taxes. During the year, an accountant can help you make the best choice in certain situations to take full advantage of the tax code.

The most common tax-deductible business expenses:

• Salaries, wages, and contract labor
• Most insurance policies
• Vehicle expenses
• Office internet
• Supplies and office expenses
• Business meals
• Advertising and marketing
• Accounting fees
• Interest on the business-related debt
• Conferences
• Rented office space
• Home office
• Property purchased for business use
• Depreciation on that property

Saving money on taxes isn’t just about short-term gain. The benefits of establishing a publishing company allow you to see this business as an opportunity to build wealth and plan for retirement.

2. Liability Protection

Starting your own publishing company gives you a certain level of liability protection. If someone sues you for writing-related reasons and you have an LLC, they cannot attack your personal assets — only the company’s assets. There are some cases of copyright infringement though, where the author would be held liable for their actions, but in total there is much more protection for such things.

If you don’t have a company and your book, product, or service gets sued, then your personal finances and a public record will be absolute fair game.

Although it’s rare, lawsuits happen.

Vocabulary time: LLC stands for Limited Liability Company.

Ask me about my own experience getting sued. It was a false claim from a competitor looking to knock my book off the shelf. The world is full of jerks who are willing to lie and cheat the system (shocking, I know).

Starting a company gives you legal liability protection and distinguishes between the business’s finances and your personal finances. The courts, or collection agencies, would not be allowed to come after you — only your company’s assets.

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3. Increased Credibility

When you start your own publishing company, it gives you increased credibility. Even though self-published authors are legitimate, having your own LLC sounds more legit and offers you and collaborators more legal protection.

Sharing that you’re a self-published author can be intimidating — you might have a fear that others will hear that you self publish and assume you couldn’t get published by a “real agency.” 

But sharing that you have your own publishing company, through which you publish your books, gives you a sense of legitimacy.

Credibility isn’t just important for your sense of accomplishment, though. Collaborators, authors, and business partners may also be more likely to work with an established publishing company.

4. Ability to Expand Your Brand

Starting your own publishing business improves your ability to expand your author brand .

Author branding is convincing someone to read your book over anyone else’s. This involves establishing credibility, proving your creativity, and maintaining a professional image that doesn’t distract from those books you worked so hard on.

This process is related to book positioning: convincing someone that your book is right for them. Good author branding makes book positioning easier and vice-versa.

Also, having a publishing company can make it easier to collaborate with other authors . Each author has access to each other’s audiences, expanding both author brands.

Having a publishing company not only adds legitimacy to your career but also allows you to maintain control over your book marketing and lets you expand your author brand in so many other little ways.

5. Double the Number of KDP Accounts

Another added benefit to starting a publishing company is that you’ll be able to create another Amazon KDP account and remain within your rights.

Amazon's Terms Of Service (TOS) state that an author can only have one KDP account.

However, the cool part of owning your own publishing company is that your company would have its own EIN and bank account, which allows it to open its own KDP account within the TOS of Amazon.

So the first account is your personal account, and the second one is the company’s publishing account. Two accounts come with the added benefit of increased author pages through Author Central, and therefore more exposure and the use of more pen names .

6. Co-writing & Licensing

Starting your own publishing company lets you co-write with another person or license another individual’s work while maintaining legal protection, liability protection, and legitimacy.

Going through a publishing company is the preferred method of contracting with others to bind with legitimate operating agreements legally. So it’s good to have your own company.

Having a publishing business becomes your platform for licensing and contracting future opportunities, such as co-writing or publishing someone else’s work.

Keep this in mind for later when we discuss naming your company .

You should start a publishing company if you have over $2,000 in book sales, want to protect your personal assets, want to publish other people’s books, and/or want to take full advantage of the US tax code.

I'll be real with you — not everyone should do this.

If you're just starting off or still see writing as a side gig or a hobby, then don't add the extra steps of starting a company to your already-busy schedule. Instead, focus on writing your book and nailing your marketing.

If you meet any one of the below requirements, I recommend you create a publishing company:

• You make more than $2,000 a month in book sales.
• You write in technical areas or health areas that could put you at risk of legal action.
• You want to publish other people's books.
• You're selling more than just books, such as courses, physical products, etc.
• You're an American citizen, but you live outside of the US and want a base of operations.

If you don’t meet any of these requirements, I recommend not starting your own publishing company.

So you've decided this is what you want to do. Now it’s time to actually start your own business!

Here is a step-by-step guide for starting a book publishing company:

• Evaluate your business goals.
• Develop a business structure.
• Choose a name for your business.
• Choose a location.
• Make it official.
• Grow your team.

That gives you a good idea of what to expect, but let’s dive into the nitty-gritty. I’ll detail each of these 6 steps below.

Step 1 : Evaluate Your Business Goals

The first step in starting your own publishing company is to evaluate your business goals. You need to figure out what your business’s point is — a business plan, of sorts.

A lot of you reading this want to publish your own books through your own publishing company. That’s great. You evaluated your business goals. But go beyond that. Write down a list of goals you can reach for.

For many of us, the goal is to provide extra legal protection and tax breaks.

For some, the goal is to encourage author collaboration or co-author ventures.

It’s smart to estimate what kind of income you plan on bringing in. This helps you plan ahead and lets you compare end-of-year income to expected income.

Ultimately, where do you see your publishing company headed in the next 5-10 years? It’s nice to have business goals set in place so you can aim for specific goals.

Step 2 : Develop a Business Structure 

Before you can start creating your own ebook or book company, you need to decide which type of business structure you would like to make.

There are many different types of businesses. Each has its own pros and cons.

• Corporation : A corporation is a group authorized to manage the company as a single entity. This includes stockholders, a board of directors, officers, company bylaws, etc. Establishing a corporation (S-Corp or C-Corp) requires a great deal more formalities and paperwork than the other items on this list.
• Sole proprietorship : This is a business owned and operated by a single person under their personal Social Security number rather than an EIN (Employer Identification Number). This is the simplest business form, though not the safest. The individual is personally liable in lawsuits. It’s wiser to get the liability protection of an LLC.
• Partnership : This is when multiple people (or entities) officially agree to manage/operate a business together. 
• Limited Liability Company : A Limited Liability Company (LLC) protects assets like a corporation, but with the pass-through tax benefits of a partnership or sole proprietorship.

Most self-publishers end up creating a Sole Proprietorship or an LLC. Here’s a great article that discusses in more depth the difference between a Sole Proprietorship vs. LLC .

In the end, the Limited Liability Company (LLC) is the best one for most book publishers.

An LLC is more flexible in how profit distribution and ownership are organized. It combines the features of a corporation and a sole proprietorship.

A corporation is a lot more rigid in its rules of operation than an LLC.

The controlling document in an LLC is called the “operating agreement.” You may write up this agreement in a myriad of different ways to suit your needs.

For example, your operating agreement may be where you create rules for how money comes in and goes out or for “successor members” (anyone who takes over after you).

An LLC has another benefit: It allows you to tax it as a Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, or S-Corporation. Basically, an LLC is the best of all worlds and fits nicely in the self-publishing business structure.

Chances are, your favorite authors or bloggers often use an LLC to protect their brand and business.

Before you decide which is best for you, do some additional research on each.

To find out more about each type, you can check out the IRS’s resource page on business structure .

Should I set up an S corporation?

Yes, you should set up an S corporation. In other words, you should charter an LLC, then file paperwork that tells the IRS to treat your LLC as an S corporation.

• Business charter — A corporation and a Limited Liability Company (LLC) are business charters issued by state governments and may have state income tax implications.
• Tax election — Subchapter S or an S Corp tax election is paperwork you file with the IRS for the unique tax treatment of a corporation or an LLC.

A business charter and tax election are tools to protect and preserve the wealth you create from your writing. The takeaway is that the S-Corp election would be something you do after you charter your company.

Authors should elect to have their LLC treated as an S Corporation. This is part of a broader tax optimization strategy and wealth creation. Instead of your company paying income tax, the company’s net income passes on to its shareholders to claim it on their personal taxes.

Yet you are still provided with liability protection.

Step 3 : Choose a Name for Your Business

It’s critical to choose a good name for your business that clearly says what you’re about, doesn’t potentially confuse your audience, and isn’t already trademarked or used in your area.

You may consider using your name or your genre, like “Chesson Publications” or “Space Pants Press.” It is a good idea to have backup names ready in case your first choice is not available.

There are 3 things to consider before choosing your business name:

• Make sure it’s not trademarked by anyone.
• Check that it’s not already used by someone in your state if you’re in the U.S.
• Do not use the words “corporation” or “inc.” unless you set up your business as a corporation.

If you’re setting up a Sole Proprietorship, you’ll likely file a DBA (doing business as), also called a “trade name registration” or “fictitious name.”

The good news is that the name availability is state-specific. This means that even though a company called “Intergalactic Press” is registered in New York, you can still use the name if it hasn’t been registered in the state you use to file.

How do you check if your company name is taken? Check to see if your company name is taken by going to your respective state’s name search, by typing “Secretary of State business name search (Name of the selected state)” into Google.

The desired website is often the first result. Start hunting to see if your potential business name is available.

Step 4 : Choose A Location

In setting up the business, you're going to need to choose the State you set up the company in and the actual place of business.

The State of the Business

States issue articles of organization for LLCs (articles of incorporation in the case of a corporation). The first step in location selection is the state of the organization.

For those thrifty business people looking for tax breaks or lower annual registration costs, you may have heard about incorporating in states like Wyoming and Nevada .

A word of caution: The state where you reside and do most of your work expects to be paid income tax . If you live and work in California, setting up an LLC in Nevada doesn’t get you out of California’s income tax.

In fact, doing an out-of-state charter can cost you more money as most states need you to register “foreign entities” to legally do business in the state. Some states are more lenient than others.

Remember, the primary purpose of setting up an LLC is to have the legal separation and protections that come with it. Don’t blow that by not having the appropriate registrations in the state you actually live/work in.

Place of Business

Now that you know your business state, you need a physical place of business where work actually happens.

When setting up an LLC, many self-publishers will make their personal home their place of business since they need a physical place of business. However, this may cause problems down the road.

The address of your business has to be a physical location where legal documents can be served. If you list your home as your place of business, your private information will become public.

In some states, while the owner’s name will be confidential, there must be a registered agent on the public record. You can be your own registered agent in most states, but your own name will be on public record along with your address.

Don’t list your personal home address as your place of business. Do the following instead:

• Rent a Physical Location: Renting a physical location may be nice if you actually need to go somewhere to do your work — for example, if your personal home is a distraction. I don't need to explain that renting is very costly and not a viable option for most of us.
• Get a UPS Mailbox: Most states do not allow you to put a P.O. Box number on the application. Luckily, you can get a UPS mailbox number that looks like a regular address. By choosing this option, you will need to show up in person to set up the mailbox. Once you set up your mailbox, you can have them forward your mail to your real address.
• Use A Registered Agent: Just about every state has registered agents that will act as your office for you. There is a fee associated with this, but it usually includes setting up your LLC as part of the service. This will eliminate your name as the registered agent being on the public record.
• Set up a Virtual Office: Personally, virtual offices are my favorite option. They’re professional offices that give you a specific mailing address, collect your mail, forward it to you, and can be your Registered Agent (an extra level of personal protection). Furthermore, most virtual offices will give you a 1-800 number and record and send your voicemail to you electronically. This option is excellent for those who travel or reside in a state with extraordinarily high business tax rates. You can set it up from your home in a different state or from a foreign country — such as Sri Lanka, as I did.

Step 5 : Make It Official 

Now that you’ve identified your business goals, business structure, business name, and business location, it’s time to make this official!

Below are 7 quick steps to making your new business official:

• Register your business.
• Obtain your Employer Identification Number (EIN).
• Set up a business bank account.
• Set up an accounting system.
• Register your domain name.
• Create a publisher's KDP account on Amazon.
• Schedule an annual business meeting and take minutes.

1. Register your business.

You have 2 main options on how to register your business:

• Do all the required registration and paperwork yourself . Each state has different requirements, so I can’t walk you through those specific steps.
• Or keep it simple and use the services like My Company Works or GovDocFiling to get your publishing company started fast and make sure it’s done right.

And just like that, you could be a President/Owner/Founder of your very own small business!

How much does it cost to start a publishing company? Costs to start a publishing company vary from state to state. Generally speaking, the lowest fees are $50, and the highest is $800. There are usually annual fees due each year. If you plan to use a registered agent, then expect additional fees for those services. Most authors see somewhere from $200-$500 a year in fees.

Some authors need to maintain extra levels of confidentiality — perhaps because of the genre they write in or their personal preference.

Certain states like Wyoming keep member information confidential. Only the registered agent is public, so you could set up a company there and use a registered agent.

In some cases, you may need to create two LLCs to form a legal barrier between you and the public. This doubles the cost of starting a business, but it might be necessary to give you the confidentiality you desire.

Now that you've become an official business in the eyes of the government, it's time to take specific actions to ensure you're a legitimate business. You need to do certain things to get the most out of your publishing company and ensure its legitimacy.

2. Obtain your EIN.

An Employee Identification Number (EIN) is used to identify a business entity. Also known as a Federal Tax Identification Number, an EIN is a 9-digit number that the IRS uses during tax season.

Upon registering your business, you'll get an EIN — like a Social Security number for businesses. When you have an EIN, ensure the documentation for any accounts that you've set up are associated with this number.

3. Set up a business bank account.

To keep your personal income and the business’s financials separate, you need to have a business bank account. Separation of personal funds from business funds is essential.

You may set up an account with a traditional brick and mortar bank or an alternative online banking service like PayPal.

4. Set up an accounting system.

Whether you hired a professional accountant or are keeping detailed Google Sheets, you have to keep track of your financials from the very beginning. And it has to be perfect. All those I’s dotted and those T’s crossed.

Two popular options for accounting software include Quickbooks and Wave Financial . 

5. Register your domain name.

People need to be able to Google your business. You don’t want those leads to go to waste. That’s the main reason you need to register your domain name — a URL.

A professional author website is the best way to tell people about your business and your books.

Official social media accounts also help like Instagram , LinkedIn, Facebook , etc.

6. Create a publisher's KDP account on Amazon.

If you've published books before on your own personal account and you want them to be in the business' account, then you need to do one of two things:

• Change your personal account to the business' by changing the necessary information in your settings to reflect the company (address, EIN, etc.).
• Make a new KDP account and move your books to it.

As per Amazon's TOS, a person is not allowed to have 2 accounts. But don't worry. You have an account, and your business has an account. Those are 2 accounts you control, which is still in compliance with Amazon’s TOS.

7. Schedule an annual business meeting and take minutes.

If you're an LLC or Corporation, you must have at least 1 annual business meeting a year and ensure you document it and place it as your minutes.

Without this, your legitimacy as a company wanes.

For example, my wife and I will schedule a dinner once a year on the company's dime, have a business meeting, and take detailed minutes.

8. Publish a book.

This is the whole reason for a publishing company! Imagine how sweet it will be when you publish that first book.

Whether it’s a children’s book , a biography , a mystery , a short story , an ebook only, or print-on-demand, you’re now a part of the publishing industry.

You need to purchase an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) for each work to sell books. An ISBN is an internationally-recognized 13-digit number that is supposed to simplify sales and distribution. Bowker is the official ISBN agency for the US and Australia.

Step 6 : Grow Your Team

You're now a full-fledged publishing company! With your business made official, it's time to grow your team. (If you intend to be the sole employee of the company or the only author represented by the company, then you’ve already finished the last step.)

Who do you need on your team? Here are some possibilities for expanding your publishing company beyond just yourself:

• A dedicated accountant
• Other authors you can now publish
• Freelancers for cover art , formatting, editing , web design, etc.
• Marketing or social media specialists to maintain your online presence

Look for authors whose works you’re interested in publishing. You can even split royalty through your new, legitimate publishing house.

If your newly minted publishing company manages co-authored projects, you'll have an extra challenge ahead of you.

Calculating royalties and dividends owed can be a hassle — especially if those need to be split up in any way. However, the good folks over at Draft2Digital have created a solution for that exact situation.

While PublishDrive led this charge with PublishDrive Abacus , Draft2Digital is our choice for book distributors, and they also have this revolutionary program in the publishing world. You can read their announcement here .

This program allows the authors to:

• Calculate royalties between co-authors
• Provide each contributor with detailed reports
• And streamline the entire accounting process

This program is geared entirely towards publishing groups that publish on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.

In order to be part of the royalty split program, your books do have to be enrolled on Draft2Digital, even for platforms like Amazon. But the headache it saves you could easily be worth the cost of the commission D2D takes.

See also our review of Draft2Digital .

If going through all the steps above to form your publishing company sounds like a lot of work, you can significantly simplify the process (for an added fee, of course) with a company like MyCompanyWorks , which is a business that helps you set up your own business.

While MyCompanyWorks doesn't take all the work out of the process (you'll still have to do things like visit your bank to set up a business bank account), it does make the process a lot easier.

Here is a brief walkthrough to get started:

From the homepage, you can hover over Order Now then select Form an LLC .

Then you select the state the you want to register under, as well as the desired package.

MyCompanyWorks also has a lot of additional services, some of which are useful (like “Prepare S-Corporation Election”).

Next, you begin inputting your information. I won't screenshot everything here (because it's a lot), but it includes your contact info, your name for the LLC, the list of people that manage the company, and the information needed to get your Federal Employer Identification Number.

MyCompanyWorks walks you through the entire process easily, and before you know it, you'll have a business ready to go!

Resources For Setting Up a Publishing Company

Check out these fantastic resources for setting up your own publishing company. I personally use or have used most of these.

Setting up an LLC, Corporation, or Sole Proprietorship can feel daunting. If you're like me, then you probably conduct plenty of research before carrying out such a monumental task.

Before I jumped into setting up my LLCs, I did a bunch of research.

Get a Master’s degree in Publishing with this Publishing MA program.

If you're looking to create a legitimate company publishing many books and want to take yours to the next level, then perhaps a formal education in publishing is right for you.

Western Colorado University offers a full-fledged Publishing MA program , one of the only such programs to embrace indie publishing.

It is a 1-year program (from July to July) and only requires you to spend two weeks in the gorgeous Colorado mountains while the rest of the course is taught online.

It is equally balanced between traditional publishing and indie.

Students will engage in innovative projects, such as:

• Developing the concept for an anthology (which pays pro rates)
• Soliciting submissions
• Reading the slush pile and choosing the stories
• Issuing contracts
• Editing pieces
• Designing and producing a book and its cover
• Publishing that book
• Making a marketing plan

As the final project, students will select a public-domain classic, acquire the text, and work through every stage of producing and releasing the book via a mid-sized publisher (WordFire Press), which will list their name on the copyright page.

The program is run by the award-winning and legendary science fiction author, Kevin J. Anderson, who personally teaches all the courses. Kevin has 56 national or international bestsellers and 23 million copies in print in 30 languages.

His publishing company, WordFire Press, has released nearly 350 titles from 95 authors in ebook, trade paperback, hardcover, and audio. He is a highly qualified publishing professor.

If you are interested in taking this program, you need to act fast. The program fills up quickly every year, so don't delay!

More Info on Starting a Publishing Company

Need more info? Here are a few articles I found useful when I was doing my original research on starting my own publishing company:

• List of Resources for Setting Up a Publishing Company : This quick guide is great for the terminology and list of resources in each of the steps.
• How to Form an LLC by WSJ : Who better to give you more information than the Wall Street Journal in setting up your own company?
• 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Setting Up Your Corporation or LLC : What more can I say from that title than make sure you don't make any of these mistakes.
• Pat Flynn's Personal Details on Setting Up His LLC : Pat Flynn of SmartPassiveIncome.com does an excellent job explaining why and how he did his LLC setup.
• Nuts and Bolts: Nitty-Gritty Details, Incorporating, and Taxes : This one is my favorite.

Are you ready to start a publishing company?

With a few hundred dollars and some spare time, you are ready to start your own publishing company and establish legitimacy, legal liability protection, and valuable tax breaks.

Thanks to services on the Internet, it is easier than ever to set up your own book publishing LLC or Corporation.

Although annual costs persist each year, the benefits of starting your very own publishing company will quickly outweigh this.

Better taxes, increased personal security, and more publishing capabilities were the main reasons I started 3 different LLCs to support my entrepreneurial habits.

Now that you know how to start your very own publishing company , get started and become a book publisher today!

If you have any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to ask me. Leave a comment below to tell me what you found most helpful.

But do remember that I am not a lawyer — just an experienced entrepreneur.

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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155 thoughts on “ How to Start a Publishing Company: 2024 Guide ”

Publishing companies often have a symbol for their company. Since they offer a service, this begs for trademarking the images used by the company.

Do you have suggested links or a blog piece on trademarking?

BTW: Good, solid content and suggested strategies on starting a publishing company. I appreciated your work; you are my “pathfinder!” =rds

Thank you for this information. I created an LLC for my coaching business and plan on publishing under the same LLC vs having two companies. That being said, my business isn’t structured as a publishing house. Will that be an issue?

It shouldn’t be.

I appreciate the wealth of knowledge in this article. I do have one question though.

If someone creates a new llc for their publishing company does that mean when creating the new kdp account we can avoid using our own name and instead only use the business name?

Dave, how do you move your books to a new KDP account? Wouldn’t you have to republish?

I’ve changed everything in my personal account to my business tax and business info, in the meantime, both on KDP, Smashwords, and D2D.

Is there a legal way to transfer ownership of books from ME to my business?

Yup – unpublish and republish. Although a cleaner way is to switch the current account info to the new account, keeping all your books there, like it sounds like you did. As for legal, I made mark in my LLC book that the ‘assets’ were transferred over to the company. (Again, not legal advice nor am I a lawyer).

Fantastic and valuable article. Thank you so much. I will definitely have to go to the LLC route. Thankfully, I have a bit of reading to do before I have to get busy with that.

I already have my company name, domain name, website, and logo, I just need to handle all the legalities of it.

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How to Start a Publishing Company

Publishing is the act of producing and distributing literature, music rights, video games, and information. The industry is made up of many types of publishing companies. Some companies publish materials for wider public consumption, while others cater to niche markets.

How to Start a Publishing Company — Checklist Download

This free checklist will help you set up your own publishing company.

Publishing Company Business Plan — Free Template

This template will help you to build your business plan from gathering vital information to presenting it professionally.

How to Start a Publishing Company:

A step-by-step guide on how to create a publishing company.

Decide on a type of publishing.

Choose what sort of publishing company you want to start..

The first step in starting a publishing company is in deciding what and how it will be publishing. Consider the options below.

Trade: Aims for wider public consumption. Companies that publish magazines, newspapers, popular music, popular video games, and books for the general reading public all fall into this category.

Academic and educational: Focuses on research and educational material. Academic research journals and syllabus-oriented textbooks fall into this category.

Independent and regional: Made up of small presses focusing predominantly on materials of local or regional interest, such as local histories and tourism pamphlets.

Boutique: Specializes in narrow, niche markets. Small presses publishing genre-specific fiction fall into this category, for example.

Self-publishing: The creator of the material pays the publishing costs and plays a much bigger role in the process.

Electronic: Offers an alternative to traditional publishing, sharing content across digital platforms only.

Name your business.

Come up with a name..

Give your company a name. There are a number of things to consider when naming your publishing company to successfully convey the values and mission of your brand, but you'll want to be creative. A unique name will set your company apart from the rest and will make it easier later when securing a domain name.

Think specifics: What genre are you working in? What subject, and for what age groups?

Revisit values: What are your business's core values? And what values does your market hold as important?

Your name should be easy to remember, spell, and say.

Check availability.

Use the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s trademark search tool to see if your name isn't already in use.

Follow this guide on How to Check Business Name Availability for a more thorough check.

Trademark your business name.

If you have decided on a publishing company business name, secure a trademark so that no one else takes it. You can register a trademark at www.uspto.gov .

Go to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website .

Click on "Trademarks."

Click on "Trademark basics."

Make sure you fully understand what is required of you.

Click on "Apply for a trademark."

Register on the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS).

Pick a distribution model.

Consider the print-on-demand model..

Check to see if print-on-demand works for the publishing you're doing, your goals, and your budget. With this model, nothing is printed before-hand. Someone purchases your publication online, the order is sent to the printer, and then sent to the customer.

Without having to print ahead of time and store inventory in a warehouse, print-on-demand is less risky and requires a lower investment in each title. However, the cost of printing is higher per unit .

Consider the traditional distribution model.

Find out whether printing ahead of time and storing publications in a warehouse fits the kind of publishing you do, your budget, and your goals.

While this model does allow for bulk printing and ensures consistently good quality , it is expensive upfront because it carries storage, returns, and shipping fees.

Consider the direct-to-reader model.

Consider whether cutting out most of the distribution chain and selling digital publications directly to readers through an online sales page makes sense for your company.

There are very little upfront costs and risks with this model, but a comprehensive marketing strategy is needed .

Create a publishing company business plan.

Write the business description section..

Leave a page for the executive summary, which should be written last, and start with the business description section. This section includes legal structure, location, the expected launch dates of publications, and all sources of revenue.

Write the operations and management section.

After describing your business, move on to describe the leadership and management structures. This section includes the backgrounds of all members of your leadership team and demonstrates why they are a good fit. Include information about the major departments such as editorial, sales, legal, operations, etc.

Run through your marketing strategy.

Once you've finished discussing your leadership, break down your business's marketing strategy. Include information about your target market, genre, and promotional outlets.

Do a full SWOT analysis and include the information about your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in this section.

Write about your competition.

Unpack in detail industry revenues for the last few years, paying attention to growth. Then describe what you know about other publishing houses in your area. In particular, note what aspects of their business may be in direct competition with yours.

Talk about your financials.

Discuss your start-up expenses, sources of funding, financial operations, revenue projections, and break-even point.

The better you know your competition and target market, the more accurately you will predict your first-year revenue.

Share your future plans.

Describe any plans you have for your company. Once it has covered all opening costs and is able to maintain strong cash flow, what is next? You can include hiring more people, publishing a few other titles, expanding the office building, creating an app, etc.

You don't need to be as detailed as in the rest of the business plan. A few details will be fine.

Now write your executive summary.

Now that you've written your business plan, it should be easier to distill everything into a snappy, thoughtful, evocative executive summary.

Include your mission statement.

List anything about your company that helps to distinguish it from the rest.

Focus on investment opportunities.

• Form a legal entity.

Choose one of four legal structures for your company.

For professional, financial, and tax purposes, set up your company as a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability corporation (LLC), or corporation.

Independent publishing companies generally go with setting up a limited liability corporation to avoid personal liability and double taxation. It is also more flexible in terms of ownership and profit distribution.

Sole Proprietorship: A business that is owned and operated by just one person, who is then solely responsible for tax and liability issues.

Partnership: Two or more partners who share the business's tax and responsibilities.

Limited Liability Corporation (LLC): An entity that protects owners from liability, while passing taxes on to them. May use corporate or partnership tax rules.

Corporation: A distinct legal entity that assumes all liability and is taxed as a business at corporate tax rates. Has members and shareholders.

Secure start-up financing.

Approach a bank or government program..

Meet with your local bank to find out more about small business loans, or find a qualified lender that offers SBA loans .

Choose an option with interest rates that aren't too high.

Pitch to investors.

Sell equity in your business to interested investors. Investors give you money in exchange for part ownership.

Apply for a business credit card.

Approach a bank and apply for business credit. Interest rates for credit cards are high but are an option for a short term injection of capital.

Try crowdfunding.

Create a crowdfunding campaign to reach as many people as possible and offer them something for their financial help.

• Purchase insurance.

Find coverage against libel and copyright lawsuits.

Buy several types of insurance including Media Liability Insurance, Publisher's Perils Insurance, and Business Interruption Insurance.

Search for an insurance company that offers packages designed particularly for publishers.

• Find an office.

Lease commercial real estate.

If your home office won't suffice, start looking for an office space to rent. You'll need to take a serious look at your budget before approaching an agent.

Buy International Standard Book Numbers.

Buy an isbn number from an isbn service..

Help buyers and sellers identify your business as the publisher of a given book by buying a unique ISBN for each title. You can buy an ISBN from any number of ISBN services. A single ISBN costs between $18.00 and $150.00. Buying them in bulk often brings the price per number down.

They can be used for e-books, but aren't necessary.

• Hire employees or freelancers.

Recruit the talent you need.

If you have started your company to self-publish, you'll play most of the roles found in the average publishing company. For a larger operation, you'll need help to produce, market, and distribute your published materials. You can decide to employ fulltime or make use of freelancers to fulfill different functions. Such functions include editing, sales, design, public relations, and bookkeeping.

Use hiring software to streamline the process of posting jobs, accepting applications, scheduling job interviews, and sending out final job offers. Or you can connect to freelancers through gig-economy platforms such as Upwork .

Approach a staffing agency. They often have access to large talent pools and can, therefore, reach more candidates.

Advertise your publishing company.

Create a company website..

Register a domain name and build a site that explains who you are and what you offer. Use a website builder to design a website or pay an expert to help you. Having a website increases your visibility, discoverability, and legitimacy.

Start social media accounts for your business.

Facebook and Twitter pages, in particular, will make it easier for people to engage with you. Be sure to keep these pages active and don't underestimate the value of engaging directly.

Publish a blog.

Keep your website active and full of fresh, topical, and interesting information by publishing a blog. They're a great way to showcase your authors, books, magazines, newspapers, and games, and give you a strong platform for conveying your values, approaches, and mission.

Join your local publisher's association.

Become a member of your local publisher's association. This will give you access to exclusive events, professional development, networking opportunities, and the latest industry intelligence. It will also increase your company's visibility and credibility as a serious business.

Publishing Company Metrics:

Contribution margin per book sold..

The contribution margin in book publishing is the earnings from each title after all the variable costs accrued in the production and distribution of the book have been covered.

It is important to calculate the contribution margin from each book because it tells you how much each sale contributes towards paying your fixed costs and establishes a benchmark for how many books you need to sell before turning a profit.

Here are the three steps for calculating the contribution margin for each book:

Book list price x number of books sold = total sales.

Total sales - variable costs = total contribution margin.

Total contribution margin/number of books sold = contribution margin per book.

A book sells for $16 and a total of 10,000 are sold. This adds up to the total sales of $160,000.

Take the $160,000 total sales and subtract the associated variable costs, which for this example come to $100,000. This gives you a total contribution margin of $60,000.

Now, divide the $60,000 total contribution margin by the 10,000 books sold, and you have your contribution margin per book: $6.

Each book you've sold has contributed $6 towards paying your fixed costs. If all your fixed costs have been paid, then each book is contributing $6 towards your profit.

List price: The price on the cover of the book in the bookstore or online store.

Variable costs: Retailer discount, distribution, paper, printing, binding, cover design, cover art, line editing, copy editing, text design, layout, proofreading costs, marketing, and royalties.

Fixed costs: Rent, salaries, insurance, licenses, permits, property tax, utilities, etc.

Expert Advice on Starting a Publishing Company:

Must-Reads Before Starting a Publishing Company:

• Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future by Jason Epstein.
• The Self-publishing Manual by Dan Poynter.
• Publishing for Profit by Thomas Woll.
• The Book Publishing Industry by Albert Greco.
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White.
• The Chicago Manual of Style by The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff.

Publishing Logos

How do I start my own publishing company?

• Decide on the type of publishing .
• Name your company.
• Choose a distribution model.
• Create a business plan.
• Secure financing.

What does a publishing company do?

Publishing companies produce and distribute literature, music, games, and information.

How much does a publishing company make?

It is difficult to say how much publishing companies make on average. According to the latest Association of American Publishers (AAP) report , the book publishing industry had estimated revenue of $258 billion in 2018.

What is an independent publishing company?

Independent publishing companies are small companies that are not part of large conglomerates or multinational corporations. The terms "indie press," "small press," and "independent press" are all used to describe these businesses.

How much does it cost to publish a book?

It costs anywhere from $0 to $50,000 or more. You could literally post a book to a free blogging site like WordPress, or you can have it printed on fine paper, distributed around the world, and heavily marketed.

How do publishers make money?

Publishers take a small percentage of every sale after paying retail, distribution, author, production, and overhead costs. This percentage ranges between 5% and 12%.

How do I get an ISBN?

You can buy an ISBN from Bowker , an official source of ISBNs in the U.S.

How much do publishers pay authors?

Publishers often pay authors an advance on predicted sales and then pay royalties on every book sold. Royalties can follow a sliding scale such as up to 10 percent on the first 5,000 books sold, 20 percent on the next 5,000, and so on.

How do I start an online publication?

• Pick a topic.
• Choose a name.
• Do market research.
• Secure a domain name .
• Build a website.
• Build your team.
• Generate content.
• Monetize the site.

How do I start a music publishing company?

• Decide on the type of music.
• Find an office and recording studio.
• Hire employees.

How do publishing companies work?

Book publishing companies and music publishers buy the rights to produce and sell the works of authors and musicians and pay them royalties on each unit sold.

How much does it cost to start a publishing company?

It costs between $50.00 and $500.00 to register your company. After that, there are advertising costs, rent, and the expenses associated with getting an initial product out to market. These costs can range from thousands to millions of dollars, depending on the size of your operation.

How much money does a publisher make?

Publishers make between $60,000 and $280,000 a year, according to our research. Publishers salaries depend on the type and size of the publishing company.

Does every book have an ISBN number?

Every edition of a book should have its own unique ISBN.

How much does it cost to get an ISBN number?

A single ISBN costs between $18.00 and $150.00.

Do authors pay publishers?

Not traditionally, no. Publishers pay authors royalties on sales.

Does your business need media liability insurance?

Yes, if your business needs media liability insurance to protect itself against libel, plagiarism, and invasion of privacy lawsuits.

How much does media liability insurance cost?

Media liability insurance policies cost $2,500.00 a year on average but can cost as little as $500.00 a year.

How do bookstores get their books?

Bookstores order books directly from publishers and distributors, but they also receive books from wholesalers.

What is an ISBN?

An ISBN is a 13-digit number used to help buyers and sellers identify your business as the publisher of a given book. Each title requires its own ISBN. They can be used for e-books, but aren't necessary.

What genre of books sells the most?

The top three best-selling genres are Romance/Erotica, Crime/Mystery, and Religious/Spiritual, in that order.

Can I be my own music publisher?

Yes, you can set up a music publishing company to publish your original music.

What is a micro-publisher?

Publishers with total revenues below a certain level are considered to be micro-publishers. Publishers publishing for a specific micro-market and those creating predominantly digital content shared across social media platforms, email, and public websites are also forms of micro-publishers.

How much money can you make from a self-published book?

Self-published authors can earn up to 35 percent on every printed book sold, and as high as 70 percent on every ebook sold.

How long does it take to publish a book?

According to our research, it can take anywhere from three weeks to six months. The process includes writing, editing, production, printing, and binding.

What goes into a business plan for a publishing company?

• Executive summary.
• Company description.
• Products and services.
• Marketing plan.
• Operational plan.
• Management description.
• Financial plan.

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How to start a social media marketing agency, how to write a business letter, how to write a business proposal, how to start a production company.

Business Plan Template for Book Publishers

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Business Plan Template for Book Publishers Benefits

A Business Plan Template for Book Publishers offers a range of benefits to help publishers successfully navigate the industry:

• Provides a clear roadmap for launching or expanding a publishing business, outlining the vision and goals.
• Assists in identifying target audiences, understanding market trends, and developing effective marketing strategies.
• Helps publishers analyze competition and differentiate themselves in the market.
• Allows for comprehensive financial projections, including revenue streams, expenses, and potential funding sources.
• Ensures a structured approach to managing operations, distribution channels, and author relationships.
• Facilitates strategic decision-making and adjustments based on market dynamics and industry shifts.
• Provides a professional document that can be shared with investors, partners, and stakeholders to secure funding and support.
• Enables publishers to demonstrate a deep understanding of their industry and the viability of their business concept.

Main Elements of Book Publishers Business Plan Template

When it comes to creating a business plan for your book publishing venture, ClickUp has you covered with a template tailored specifically for the industry. Here are the key elements of ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Book Publishers:

• Custom Statuses: Keep track of your progress with statuses like Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, and To Do, ensuring your business plan stays on track.
• Custom Fields: Use custom fields such as Reference, Approved, and Section to add important details and track the status of each section of your business plan.
• Custom Views: Take advantage of five different views, including Topics, Status, Timeline, Business Plan, and Getting Started Guide, to organize and visualize your business plan in the most effective way possible.
• Document Collaboration: Collaborate with your team members and stakeholders using ClickUp's Docs feature, allowing you to work together seamlessly on your business plan.
• Task Management: Break down your business plan into actionable tasks using ClickUp's tasks feature, assigning responsibilities, setting due dates, and tracking progress every step of the way.

How To Use Business Plan Template for Book Publishers

Creating a business plan for a book publishing company can be a daunting task, but with the help of ClickUp's Business Plan Template, you can break it down into five simple steps:

1. Define your vision and mission

Start by clearly defining your vision and mission for your book publishing business. What is your ultimate goal? What do you want to achieve? This will help guide your decision-making process and set the tone for your business.

Use the Docs feature in ClickUp to write down your vision and mission statements for easy reference.

2. Identify your target audience

Next, identify your target audience for the books you plan to publish. Who are the readers you want to reach? What are their preferences and interests? Understanding your target audience will help you tailor your publishing strategies and marketing efforts accordingly.

Create custom fields in ClickUp to track important information about your target audience, such as demographics and reading preferences.

3. Develop your publishing strategy

Now it's time to develop a comprehensive publishing strategy. This includes deciding what genres and types of books you will focus on, establishing relationships with authors and agents, and determining your distribution channels.

Use the Gantt chart feature in ClickUp to create a timeline and visually plan out each step of your publishing strategy.

4. Create a financial plan

A solid financial plan is crucial for any business, including book publishing. Determine your startup costs, projected revenue, and expenses. Consider factors such as printing costs, marketing expenses, and royalties for authors. This will help you understand the financial feasibility of your business and make necessary adjustments.

Utilize the Table view in ClickUp to create a spreadsheet and track your financial projections and expenses.

5. Set goals and milestones

Lastly, set specific goals and milestones for your book publishing business. These can include targets for the number of books published, revenue generated, or market share gained. Break these goals down into smaller milestones to track your progress and keep yourself motivated.

Use the Milestones feature in ClickUp to set and track your goals and milestones, ensuring that you stay on track and celebrate your achievements.

By following these five steps and utilizing ClickUp's Business Plan Template, you'll have a comprehensive and well-structured business plan for your book publishing company.

Get Started with ClickUp’s Business Plan Template for Book Publishers

Book publishers can use the Business Plan Template for Book Publishers to create a comprehensive plan for their publishing endeavors.

First, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to create a successful business plan:

• Use the Topics View to organize your plan into different sections such as market analysis, marketing strategies, and financial projections
• The Status View will help you track the progress of each section, whether it's complete, in progress, needs revision, or to do
• Utilize the Timeline View to set deadlines and milestones for each section of your plan
• The Business Plan View will give you an overview of your entire plan, allowing you to easily navigate and make updates
• Use the Getting Started Guide View to access helpful resources and tips on how to create a successful business plan
• Add custom fields like Reference, Approved, and Section to provide additional information and track important details
• Update statuses and custom fields as you work through your plan to keep stakeholders informed of progress
• Monitor and analyze your plan to ensure it aligns with your goals and objectives
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The Publishing Business Plan ; 7 Essential Elements

If you are like most aspiring authors, the idea of becoming a published author probably excites you. Even if you are planning to produce an ebook to boost your business, adding “author” to your credentials could represent the fulfillment of a dream you’ve had your whole life or might catapult you into the ranks of the other authorities and thought leaders in your industry.

It’s important to realize that you are not just becoming an author. You are also becoming a publisher. And with that new title comes a new start-up business.

Author vs. Entrepreneur

If you are like most aspiring authors, you may just want to write. You may have no desire to become an entrepreneur. Most writers don’t realize that when they decide to self-publish their work they are making a decision to go into business.

In fact, when you choose to self-publish a book—any type of book— you go into business for yourself. You actually become a publisher and open a publishing company.

You go into the business of writing, producing, and publishing your own books. To a certain extent, you also are responsible for distributing those books, or for finding a way to do so.

If you are writing ebooks to support your existing business, you now have a new business venture to support. As with any other business, it takes time, effort…and money.

How to Create a Business Plan for Your Indie Publishing Company

Besides your good, marketable ebook ideas, you need a variety of things to get your publishing business up and running. First, you need a business plan.

Any seasoned entrepreneur will tell you a plan is necessary to start a company.

A book proposal serves as a great template for such a plan since initially you are creating a plan that revolves around one book. You don’t need to traditionally publish to use it as your business plan; a book proposal serves as an excellent business plan for an indie publisher as well.

This template can be expanded to serve as a business plan for your whole publishing company. I write about this extensively in my new book, The Author Training Manual .

A book proposal is used to prove to a publisher the marketability of a book idea. You want to prove to yourself , since you are the publisher, that your book idea is viable—that it will sell and make you money. And you want to make sure it will enhance, not detract from, your current business.

Seven Essential Publishing Business Plan Elements

There are seven essential elements that should be in every publishing entrepreneur’s business plan:

• A “Resources Necessary to Complete the Book” Calculation

Before you begin any business, or any project, be sure you can afford it. For example, aspiring authors are often shocked at the cost of editing a manuscript, which can prove much more costly than design. Determine what resources you need to complete your book. At the minimum, these can include:

• ISBN numbers
• Ebook conversion
• Permissions
• Review copies
• A Break-Even Analysis

It’s extremely difficult to achieve success if you haven’t defined it. The publishing industry defines success in terms of book sales, and as a publisher, sales must become part of your definition. Must you sell 500, 1000 or even more copies per year to earn back your investment and start making money?

A “break-even analysis” will help you determine this. This entails knowing what it cost to produce your book. Beyond this, how much money do you want to make?

Most companies have monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual goals to meet. This helps them continuously move toward their vision of success—their long-term goal. As the publisher, it’s up to you to create the goals for your company.

• A Promotion Plan

Be sure you create a sound promotion plan for your book. Promotion helps sell books, so this is an important aspect of the book publishing business.

• A Profit and Loss Statement

To keep track of how your company fares financially, you need a profit and loss statement. This allows you to determine if your start up is getting out of the red and into the black. You need to know if your company is actually making money—or if you are losing it. If you publish more than one book, you’ll need to track each.

• Contractor Lists, License Information and Legal Plans

Create a list of contractors you will use to help you run your business—editors, designers, virtual assistants, accountants, etc. Then make a list of the licenses you will need, such as to set up your business in the county where you live, with the tax office, etc.

Then make a list of additional business-related things you need to do, such as set up bank accounts and possibly incorporate your business to reduce personal liability.

• Branding Plans

Make sure you have plans for a website, logo and how you might develop your brand with more books and related products and services. A good publisher always thinks beyond one book.

In fact, you’ll sell more books if you write more books. And you’ll earn more money as an author if you brainstorm additional ways to build a business around your book.

[pullquote position=”right”]The most successful start-up companies are based on sound business plans.[/pullquote] If you are already a business person, you know this. Now apply it to your desire to become an author and self-publish an ebook (or more than one) — to become a successful publisher.

If you are writing an ebook to start a business venture, then treat your desire to get published like an entrepreneurial venture from day one. If you see yourself as a publisher, you’ll be more successful if you do!

This article was originally published on The Future of Ink and is reprinted here in its entirety for our Magnolia Media Network readers.

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With the advent of the Internet, this business industry has grown with further progressions. However, running a business isn’t enough to make profit. You always require knowing the tweaks and tricks of running an effective business. For the beginners, simple business plan samples would help you to progress in this field with flying colors.

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• Attain the targeted circulation level.
• Control the costs when spending maximum on the subscription marketing in just one year.
• Monitor the response rates of the media executions.
• Follow-on the marketing of the book titles in the first half of the year or the first year.
• Attain the targeted advertising sale revenues.
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• Jan 20, 2023

Understanding the Financials of a Book Publishing Company Business Plan

A crucial aspect of a business plan for a book publishing company is the financial section, which includes projected income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. This section provides an overview of the company's financial performance and is used to make informed decisions about the company's operations and budgeting.

The income statement, also known as the profit and loss statement, shows the company's revenue and expenses over a specific period of time. It is used to determine the company's net income or loss and is an important indicator of the company's overall financial performance. The income statement should include projected revenue from book sales, as well as any other sources of income such as grants, subsidies, or investments.

The balance sheet is a snapshot of the company's financial position at a specific point in time. It shows the company's assets, liabilities, and equity. The balance sheet is used to determine the company's net worth and is an important indicator of the company's solvency. The balance sheet should include projections for the company's cash, accounts receivable, inventory, and fixed assets.

The cash flow statement shows the company's cash inflows and outflows over a specific period of time. It is used to determine the company's net cash flow and is an important indicator of the company's liquidity. The cash flow statement should include projections for cash from operations, investing, and financing activities.

The financial section of a business plan for a book publishing company should also include an overview of the company's funding requirements and the sources of funding that will be used to support the business. This includes information on any loans, grants, or investments that will be used to start and maintain the business.

Overall, the financial section of a business plan is a critical aspect of a book publishing company, as it provides a clear and detailed overview of the company's financial performance, position, and funding requirements. It is used to make informed decisions about the company's operations, budgeting, and growth.

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How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)

Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.

If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.

Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.

You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.

1. Secure Funds

One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.

For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.

A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.

Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.

2. Monitor Business Growth

A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:

• The business goals
• Methods to achieve the goals
• Time-frame for attaining those goals

A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.

You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.

3. Measure Business Success

A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.

Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.

You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.

Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.

In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:

• How do you want to reach your target audience?
• How do you plan to retain your customers?
• What is/are your pricing plans?
• What is your budget for marketing?

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.

Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.

A good executive summary should do the following:

• A Snapshot of Growth Potential. Briefly inform the reader about your company and why it will be successful)
• Contain your Mission Statement which explains what the main objective or focus of your business is.
• Product Description and Differentiation. Brief description of your products or services and why it is different from other solutions in the market.
• The Team. Basic information about your company’s leadership team and employees
• Business Concept. A solid description of what your business does.
• Target Market. The customers you plan to sell to.
• Marketing Strategy. Your plans on reaching and selling to your customers
• Current Financial State. Brief information about what revenue your business currently generates.
• Projected Financial State. Brief information about what you foresee your business revenue to be in the future.

The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.

Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.

View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:

• Who is your target audience?
• What sector or industry are you in?
• What are your products and services?
• What is the future of your industry?
• Is your company scaleable?
• Who are the owners and leaders of your company? What are their backgrounds and experience levels?
• What is the motivation for starting your company?
• What are the next steps?

Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.

The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.

If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.

2. Add Your Company Overview

The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.

Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.

Your company overview should contain the following:

• What products and services you will provide
• Geographical markets and locations your company have a presence
• What you need to run your business
• Who your target audience or customers are
• Who will service your customers
• Your company’s purpose, mission, and vision
• Information about your company’s founders
• Who the founders are
• Notable achievements of your company so far

When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.

If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.

• Who are you targeting? (The answer is not everyone)
• What pain point does your product or service solve for your customers that they will be willing to spend money on resolving?
• How does your product or service overcome that pain point?
• Where is the location of your business?
• What products, equipment, and services do you need to run your business?
• How is your company’s product or service different from your competition in the eyes of your customers?
• How many employees do you need and what skills do you require them to have?

After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.

The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.

• Mission Statement

The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.

Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”

When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:

• Founding Date
• Major Milestones
• Location(s)
• Flagship Products or Services
• Number of Employees
• Executive Leadership Roles

When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.

Business Objectives

Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.

3. Perform Market and Competitive Analyses to Proof a Big Enough Business Opportunity

The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.

Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.

This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.

Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?

You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.

Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?

Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?

Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.

Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.

Market Analysis

Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.

The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.

A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.

• Market Research

To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.

• Your target market’s needs or pain points
• The existing solutions for their pain points
• Geographic Location
• Demographics

The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.

Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.

You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.

How to Quantify Your Target Market

One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:

• Your Potential Customers: They are the people you plan to target. For example, if you sell accounting software for small businesses , then anyone who runs an enterprise or large business is unlikely to be your customers. Also, individuals who do not have a business will most likely not be interested in your product.
• Total Households: If you are selling household products such as heating and air conditioning systems, determining the number of total households is more important than finding out the total population in the area you want to sell to. The logic is simple, people buy the product but it is the household that uses it.
• Median Income: You need to know the median income of your target market. If you target a market that cannot afford to buy your products and services, your business will not last long.
• Income by Demographics: If your potential customers belong to a certain age group or gender, determining income levels by demographics is necessary. For example, if you sell men's clothes, your target audience is men.

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.

You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:

• Industry Description. You find out about the history of your industry, the current and future market size, and who the largest players/companies are in your industry.
• Overview of Target Market. You research your target market and its characteristics. Who are you targeting? Note, it cannot be everyone, it has to be a specific group. You also have to find out all information possible about your customers that can help you understand how and why they make buying decisions.
• Size of Target Market: You need to know the size of your target market, how frequently they buy, and the expected quantity they buy so you do not risk overproducing and having lots of bad inventory. Researching the size of your target market will help you determine if it is big enough for sustained business or not.
• Growth Potential: Before picking a target market, you want to be sure there are lots of potential for future growth. You want to avoid going for an industry that is declining slowly or rapidly with almost zero growth potential.
• Market Share Potential: Does your business stand a good chance of taking a good share of the market?
• Market Pricing and Promotional Strategies: Your market analysis should give you an idea of the price point you can expect to charge for your products and services. Researching your target market will also give you ideas of pricing strategies you can implement to break into the market or to enjoy maximum profits.
• Potential Barriers to Entry: One of the biggest benefits of conducting market analysis is that it shows you every potential barrier to entry your business will likely encounter. It is a good idea to discuss potential barriers to entry such as changing technology. It informs readers of your business plan that you understand the market.
• Research on Competitors: You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how you can exploit them for the benefit of your business. Find patterns and trends among your competitors that make them successful, discover what works and what doesn’t, and see what you can do better.

The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.

Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.

• Is your product or service of superior quality?
• What additional features do you offer that your competitors do not offer?
• Are you targeting a ‘new’ market?

Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.

Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.

Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.

Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.

The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.

Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.

When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.

Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.

• What are your successful competitors doing?
• Why is what they are doing working?
• Can your business do it better?
• What are the weaknesses of your successful competitors?
• What are they not doing well?
• Can your business turn its weaknesses into strengths?
• How good is your competitors’ customer service?
• Where do your competitors invest in advertising?
• What sales and pricing strategies are they using?
• What marketing strategies are they using?
• What kind of press coverage do they get?
• What are their customers saying about your competitors (both the positive and negative)?

If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.

If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.

Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.

The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.

Direct vs Indirect Competition

You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.

There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.

If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.

In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.

For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.

There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.

1. Cost Leadership

A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.

A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.

2. Product Differentiation

Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.

Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.

3. Market Segmentation

As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.

If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.

Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.

If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.

Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.

The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.

Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.

Management Team

The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.

Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.

A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.

Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.

Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.

If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

• Who are the key leaders?
• What experiences, skills, and educational backgrounds do you expect your key leaders to have?
• Do your key leaders have industry experience?
• What positions will they fill and what duties will they perform in those positions?
• What level of authority do the key leaders have and what are their responsibilities?
• What is the salary for the various management positions that will attract the ideal candidates?

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team

There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.

Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.

2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles

Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.

While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.

Organizational Chart

Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.

If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.

An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.

You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.

Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.

The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.

If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”

Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:

• A detailed explanation that clearly shows how your product or service works.
• The pricing model for your product or service.
• Your business’ sales and distribution strategy.
• The ideal customers that want your product or service.
• The benefits of your products and services.
• Reason(s) why your product or service is a better alternative to what your competitors are currently offering in the market.
• Plans for filling the orders you receive
• If you have current or pending patents, copyrights, and trademarks for your product or service, you can also discuss them in this section.

What to Focus On When Describing the Benefits, Lifecycle, and Production Process of Your Products or Services

In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.

When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Unique features
• Translating the unique features into benefits
• The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
• Intellectual property rights or any patents

When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
• Time between purchases
• Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

• The creation of new or existing products and services.
• The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
• Assembling the products
• Maintaining quality control
• Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
• The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

• Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
• What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
• What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
• Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
• Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
• How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
• What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
• What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
• What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
• Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
• Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
• How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

• What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
• What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
• Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
• How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

• Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
• Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
• Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

• Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
• Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
• Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

• Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
• What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
• How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

• What makes your competition successful?
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

• What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
• What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
• What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
• Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
• What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
• Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

• Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
• Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
• Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
• Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
• Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
• Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
• Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

• What is your sales forecast for the next year?
• When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
• What are the core expenses you need to operate?
• How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
• How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

• Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
• Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
• Additional financial documents or projections
• Articles of incorporation and status
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Bank statements
• Business registries
• Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
• Copies of insurances
• Credit histories (personal or/and business)
• Deeds and permits
• Equipment leases
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Industry associations and memberships
• Images of product
• Intellectual property
• Key customer contracts
• Legal documents and other contracts
• Letters of reference
• Links to references
• Market research data
• Organizational charts
• Photographs of potential facilities
• Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
• Purchase orders
• Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
• State and federal identification numbers or codes
• Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

• A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
• A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
• A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Product or service description
• Target audience
• Market size
• Competition analysis
• Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

• Business opportunity
• Company description
• Industry analysis
• Target market
• Implementation timeline
• Marketing plan
• Financial summary
• Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

• The Business Profile
• The Vision and the People
• Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
• Organization
• Licenses and Permits
• Business Insurance
• Communication Tools
• Acquisitions
• Location and Leasing
• Accounting and Cash Flow
• Opening and Marketing
• Managing Employees
• Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Service Line
• Marketing and Sales

8. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Products and services
• Operations plan
• Management organization
• Financial plan
• Conclusion / Call to action
• Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

10. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

• Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
• Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
• The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
• Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
• Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
• Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
• Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
• Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
• Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

• Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
• Solution: The solutions to each problem.
• Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
• Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

• Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
• Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
• Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
• Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
• Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
• Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
• Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
• Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
• Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
• Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
• Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
• Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

• Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
• Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
• Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
• Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time.  They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans.  A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs.  Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

• 12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
• 13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
• 5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
• How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

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Business Analysis Publishing Business Plan

Start your own business analysis publishing business plan

The Wonderkind

Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">.

Our Mission : Our mission is to tap into the brightest young minds of today and tomorrow by empowering them to research the trends, themes, and technological advances that are prevalent among college students and decipher how these phenomena translate into the investing dynamics of the stock market.

Description of the Business Concept : We will offer bright, motivated college students who are passionate about business and investing a forum to gain real business experience by empowering them to analyze trends, themes, and companies and write about them outside of the classroom. The original thoughts and ideas of these business-minded wunderkinds will be available on the Internet at our website: www.thewonderkind.com and in a hard copy newsletter printed quarterly and mailed to subscribers. We are an informational publishing company which provides analysis citing key trends in various industries to our subscribers. The Wonderkind’s focus allows students to discuss business matters most relevant to them and their Wall Street analyst counterparts-–current market and product trends, social issues, and general stock market dynamics-–and decipher how these phenomena translate into current investment opportunities. Our analysts are independent from the biases created due to the investment banking relationships between traditional Wall Street firms and their clients. Interested readers from across America will be able to access the collaborative findings of The Wonderkind by subscribing via the website for a monthly fee of $12.95 or $129.95 per year. This flat fee includes unlimited access to our online database, including email interaction with our analysts, as well as our quarterly newsletter, which provides the top articles and analyses in a printed form.

Opportunity and Strategy : The founding partners will rely upon their own investment wisdom and perspicacity as well as that of their network of peers from other schools from across the country to create the initial knowledge base. This foundational base will be used as a marketing tool to encourage motivated students from any university to submit their own original investment ideas to be considered for publication on the website and newsletter of The Wonderkind. We believe that motivated students will flock to this opportunity to gain exposure and honor through publication on the website as well as in the quality periodical without the need for other monetary compensation. Judging from the quality of investment analyses submitted we would look to recruit additional full-time writers and compensate them accordingly. As our subscriber base continues to grow, so will the number and quality of articles submitted by students.

The Wonderkind has a range of possible recruitment and implementation methods including the Internet; promotion via official college and university newsletters and magazines; with business and entrepreneurial departments at other schools; and lastly, through friend and family networking and support.

Target Market : Subscribers of The Wonderkind will be motivated to gain exposure to the pulse of collegiate America. The Wonderkind’s target market consists of:

• Business professionals who enjoy a multitude of information sources.
• College students with business, finance, or marketing interests.

Competitive Advantage : Our competitive advantage is two fold:

• There is currently no other investment publication that taps into the collective collegiate intellect.
• Our internship would be offered during the school year as well as during the summer.
• Because our internship would be performed electronically, students will not need to relocate nor arrange for lodging.

The Wonderkind’s uniqueness stems from its planned creation of an elite team of college students who embody America’s most technologically savvy and dynamic generation of youth. College students of today command more respect from business professionals and society at large than ever before. With the incredible success stories of college entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Sean Fanning, everyone seems to have an interest in the pulse of the collegiate America.

Economic Potential : Our five year projected models indicate over one million dollars in annual revenue. Additional value-added services and cross marketing initiatives could become accretive to our bottom line beginning two years out.

Management : Both founding partners, Frank Peanut and Jacob Sweller have unique resumes and background experiences. They each bring to the table distinct personal qualities that will complement one another as they manage and grow their business.

Frank Peanut is majoring in finance and is ranked in the top 5% of his class. His past experience includes being mentored under the guidance of two hedge fund managers in Minneapolis. Frank currently serves as the Co-fund Manager of the Investment Club at school responsible for approximately $400,000 in assets. Frank has been managing his own personal funds in the equity markets since the age of 14. His future plans after graduation entail working in the Investment Banking industry for a short duration and then attending graduate school.

Jacob Sweller is on track to receive a dual degree in finance and government. Jacob, enrolled in the Honors Program, scored a 1500 on the SAT exam and is currently ranked in the top 10% of his class. While at school, Jacob has been extremely active in the business arena and has directed business-consulting presentations to the Credit Suisse First Boston investment banking firm as well as McKinsey & Co. consulting firm.  Jacob has received over 30 prestigious awards in academics and athletics over the past few years. Jacob currently serves as the Co-fund Manager of the Investment Club responsible for approximately $400,000 in assets.

The Offering : We propose to offer a large minority stake in The Wonderkind in exchange for our desired financing to cover start-up costs associated with promotion of our services, and business infrastructure. We are open for negotiations.

Risks : While any start-up company investment necessitates a high degree of risk, we are committed to using any funds received conservatively and wisely. However, The Wonderkind is not an Internet company. We are an informational publishing company which provides services citing key trends in various industries to our customers. We have decided to utilize the Internet for distribution purposes because it is the most cost efficient method.

1.1 100 Word Summary of Business Venture

The Wonderkind is an informational publishing company whose focus allows exceptionally bright students with business/investing interests to discuss business matters most relevant to them and their Wall Street analyst counterparts–current market and product trends, social issues, and general stock market dynamics-–and decipher how these phenomena translate into current investment opportunities.  Our analysts are independent from the biases created due to the investment banking relationships between traditional Wall Street firms and their clients.

Team leaders and contact personnel:

Frank Peanut:  [email protected].  Office: (555) 589-3432

Jacob Sweller:  [email protected].  Office: (555) 589-3453

1.2 Objectives

We will offer bright, motivated students who are passionate about the stock market a forum to gain real business experience by allowing them to analyze companies and write about them outside of the classroom.

Our objectives for growth in our subscriber base are as follows:

1.3 Mission

1.4 Keys to Success

The following is a list of crucial steps in which we will take:

• Recruit qualified college students from around the country and properly integrate their research into our services.
• Ensure that the content we publish is truly original and unique in all aspects.
• Convince investors and interested readers of the quality and differentiated content of our service.
• Market our concept to institutional interests at the collegiate level and in business to ensure that more than just individual subscribers endorse it.
• Retain existing subscribers and persuade them to recommend our service to others.
• Keep our costs minimized to ensure self-sufficiency and longevity in all operations.

Company Summary company overview ) is an overview of the most important points about your company—your history, management team, location, mission statement and legal structure.">

The Wonderkind is an informational publishing company comprised of the best and brightest college students with business/investing interests. The Wonderkind’s focus allows students to discuss business matters most relevant to them and their Wall Street analyst counterparts-–current market and product trends, social issues, and general stock market dynamics-–and decipher how these phenomena translate into current investment opportunities. Our analysts are independent from the biases created due to the investment banking relationships between traditional Wall Street firms and their clients. Student analysts will offer a unique perspective in the following areas: 

• Company analysis and recommendation.
• Business and investment issues from the perspective of generation Y.
• Current market and product trends/themes prevalent on the college campus.
• What’s happening now in collegiate America and business today?

An online edition and hard-copy newsletter will be available to subscribers for $12.95 per month or $129.95 per year.

2.1 Company Ownership

The Wonderkind will be a privately owned, operated, and funded partnership.

2.2 Start-up Summary

At this time, we anticipate minimal start-up related costs associated with our company. We plan on devoting a substantial amount of our personal time and utilizing already existent resources available to us at little or no cost. Our website is hosted and maintained by Vista.com for a monthly charge of $50. However, through a special partnership with Vista we will receive Web hosting and developing capabilities free of charge for the first year. Marketing and business infrastructure expenses will be the primary source of cash outflow during the beginning stages of growth.

2.3 Company Locations and Facilities

The primary operations of The Wonderkind will take place in New York, NY. Because all activities and information can be tracked and maintained using a personal computer and the Internet, we will not need exclusive office space until our operations have reached a scale in which dedicated office space is necessary.

The Wonderkind will publish a website and newsletter that provides product, market trends, and theme analysis, company insight, and interesting business issues impacting society from the collegiate perspective. The angle that we address business and societal issues from is unique in that it is representative of today’s and tomorrow’s top college students opinions. The interests of today’s college generation indicates broader themes that will eventually transform society as a whole. The Wonderkind offers bright, motivated students who are passionate about business and/or the stock market a forum to gain real business experience by allowing them to analyze companies and trends and write about them outside of the classroom. The original thoughts and ideas of these wunderkinds will be available on the Internet at our website: www.thewonderkind.com and in a hard copy newsletter printed quarterly.

3.1 Competitive Comparison

The Wonderkind is a collection of the best young financial minds in the U.S. These people see trends and issues in the market that the Wall Street analysts fail to realize. In addition, our analysts do not have the investment banking ties that create a major bias in the Wall Street analysts’ opinion. Certain trends cannot be read in yearly reports and can only be realized at the earliest moments by those with a feel for the future of trends in business and technology. In addition, our analysts are willing to perform the more hands-on research carried out by the Wall Street analyst of thirty years ago. This kind of research could include actually eating at a restaurant with the intent of judging the quality of food service. Or perhaps visiting the local mall and witnessing the consumer traffic at Abercrombie & Fitch vs. The Gap vs. J. Crew. If a hot new MP3 player is creping into the popular music scene, then college students with an astute wit will detect the trend first. Our team of college students will be the Wall Street analysts and business professionals of the future. The Wonderkind provides a forum for these brilliant students to voice their observations and ideas before they become biased by their investment banking counterparts.

The Wonderkind’s uniqueness stems from its creation of an elite team of college students who embody America’s most technologically savvy and dynamic generation of youth. College students of today command more respect from business professionals and society at large than ever before. With the incredible success stories of college entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Sean Fanning, everyone seems to have an interest in the pulse of the collegiate America.

Our competitive advantage is two fold:

• There is currently no other business/investment publication that taps into the collective collegiate intellect.
• We will appeal to motivated college students who are frustrated with the lack of response and organization of internship programs at large corporations.
• Because our internship would be performed electronically, students will not need to relocate nor arrange for lodging.

3.2 Sales Literature

Nearly all needed sales literature will be produced in-house using personal computer desktop publishing software such as Microsoft Publisher. We will outsource all of our printing needs. Sales literature will consist of brochures that can be passed out in person or mailed to our initial list of prospective clients. In addition we will publish performance reports including graphs and charts from our analysts using software such as Microsoft Excel.

3.3 Future Services

After creating the initial knowledge base for our business and we have a growing base of subscribers to our service, we will explore opportunities to further personalize the relationships between our subscribers and our analysts/writers. Our analysts will become available via email communication to subscribers who wish to further discuss the ideas presented by the writer. We will also explore the possibilities of adding additional channels of more consistent communication between subscribers and writers. One possibility for a future channel would be aimed at the corporate recruitment division of firms seeking top collegiate talent. The Wonderkind could become a means to establish an early link between corporations and students.

3.4 Technology

The Wonderkind will be heavily reliant upon the use of the Internet as a means for publishing its website and communicating with clients through email. We feel that technology will be utilized strictly to our advantage and we currently do not see any competitive threats resulting from the advent of new technologies. This mentality is subject to change and will be reevaluated continually in the future.

3.5 Fulfillment

The core value of The Wonderkind will lie in our analysts’ role as the brightest and most motivated college students in the country. The Wonderkind is different from other informational publishing services in that it represents collegiate America. Furthermore, value of this company will lie in the experience, education, dedication, and willingness of the analysts and owners to go out on a limb to observe the most pressing trends and tech themes prevalent today. Sound, unbiased analysis of these market trends, themes, and investment ideas, will be our objective.

Market Analysis Summary how to do a market analysis for your business plan.">

Subscribers of The Wonderkind will be motivated to gain exposure to the pulse of collegiate America. The Wonderkind’s target market consists of business professionals who enjoy a multitude of information sources.

4.1 Market Segmentation

We will target business professionals who enjoy a range information sources. These people could include buy/sell-side Wall Street analysts or other marketing managers at companies with an interest in consumer trends. The perspective offered by college students is truly separate from the bombardment of traditional business periodical sources. The interests of today’s college generation indicates broader themes business professionals need to be aware of.

4.2 Market Trends

The most relevant trend to the success of The Wonderkind is the continuing recognition of college business persons. No longer are the top Wall Street analysts and managers the only voices being heard. After the astounding success stories of college students such as Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and Sean Fanning, everyone seems to have an open ear to the collective collegiate conscious.

Another important trend originating in the last few years results from the “Fair Disclosure Act” which was created by the S.E.C. This act states explicitly that companies must disclose all information to the general investing public at the same time as releasing information to Wall Street analysts. In other words, individual investors can be present in the same conference calls with management along with Wall Street analysts effectively leveling the playing field for individual investors.

Another critical market influence on the investing public deals with the separation of the Wall Street research analysts from their investment banking counterparts. The inherent biases of investment banking research is being realized by the investing public. Investors want unbiased fundamental research to make decisions.

4.3 Market Growth

J. P. Morgan estimates that that 18 million Americans used online brokerages in 2000. This number is expected to increase to 27 million users with online accounts by the year 2003. J. P. Morgan also projects European online accounts to increase from 3.9 million in 2000 to an estimated 17 million accounts by 2003, an anticipated average annualized growth of over 60%. We mention the European statistics here because we expect some foreign investors to utilize The Wonderkind’s service as a concise, interactive, and cost-efficient method of gaining insight into the American markets. This trend indicates that more people are investing without the aid of a traditional broker. Such people, whether they be college students or business professionals, need supplementary research and information to make their investment decisions.

4.4 Service Business Analysis

The online investment research industry consists of a handful of all-inclusive websites that touch on nearly all realms of financial activity. Next, there are numerous lesser-known websites and newsletter services that take a more limited approach, specializing in various aspects of the financial markets.

The Wonderkind’s biggest challenge will be to establish itself as a quality niche service in an arena already filled with a wealth of information.

4.4.1 Business Participants

To our knowledge, there is no other company that offers the same services as The Wonderkind. However, there are several virtual businesses that charge fixed monthly rates for their analysts’ suggested portfolios along with periodic email newsletters. These companies will certainly be competition. However, we believe that The Wonderkind offers many competitive advantages over these more automated market information services. The uniquely powerful collection of extremely smart college students that we plan to create will separate us from these other standardized information services.

4.4.2 Distributing a Service

The Wonderkind will be distributed via Internet subscriptions and mailed newsletters, which will be promoted via our marketing campaigns. The highly scalable knowledge-based platform on which we will operate, will allow us to efficiently leverage our business to a large audience. In addition, we will be able to communicate with our clients via our website, email, and telephone.

4.4.3 Main Competitors

The Wonderkind is removed from these otherwise comparable sites because of our collection of the best and brightest young minds representative of the American collegiate pulse:

1. All-inclusive online financial services:

Already established financial sites such as Yahoo! Finance, CBS MarketWatch, MSN MoneyCentral, The Street.com, and Fool.com certainly could be grouped in the same industry as The Wonderkind. We also group any information provided by discount brokers into this category as well. These services provide market research, daily articles, charts, quotes, and much more. We certainly recognize the breadth and reputation of these sites. However, our object will not be to take away market share from this group. Instead we will strive to serve as a desired supplementary informational service.

2. Reputable and focused companies:

3. Stock Picking Services/Technological Forecasting

Persons such as George Gilder and Michael Murphy have set up subscription-based revenue models similar to what we will strive to achieve for The Wonderkind.

Strategy and Implementation Summary

We plan to collect an extensive network of bright and talented college students as writers and analysts. We will gather student representatives from schools across the nation. The position of writer and analyst for The Wonderkind will become more coveted than an internship because of the manner in which our newsletter will provide students with a voice to be heard. Lastly, the college community has a perspective and insight that the overall investing world needs to hear.

5.1 Value Proposition

Subscribers have access to the stock ideas and societal trend/theme analysis generated by our analysts. In addition, subscribers will have access to a more personalized form of communication with our advisors regarding their own investment ideas as well as further exploration into those ideas already put forth by our analysts.

While traditional stockbrokers and Wall Street Analysts are biased in their buy/sell recommendations due to their financial incentives being aligned with the quantity of trading and preconceived investment banking relationships rather than the soundness of individual investment decisions, The Wonderkind analysts remain independent and unbiased in their advice. The Wonderkind analysts have no incentives other than to offer practical stock picking and trend/theme analysis based upon independent and thorough research.

5.2 Competitive Edge

The Wonderkind is a collection of the best young financial minds in the U.S. These people see trends and issues in the market that the Wall Street analysts fail to realize. In addition, our analysts do not have the investment banking ties that create a major bias in the Wall Street analysts’ opinion. Certain trends cannot be read in yearly reports and can only be realized at the earliest moments by those with a feel for the future of trends in business and technology. Furthermore, our analysts are willing to perform the more hands-on research carried out by the Wall Street analyst of thirty years ago. This kind of research could include actually eating at a restaurant with the intent of judging the quality of food service, or perhaps visiting the local mall and witnessing the consumer traffic at Abercrombie & Fitch vs. The Gap vs. J. Crew. If a hot new MP3 player is creeping into the popular music scene, then college students with an astute wit will detect the trend first. Our team of college students will be the Wall Street analysts and business professionals of the future. The Wonderkind provides a forum for these brilliant students to voice their observations and ideas before they become biased by their investment banking counterparts.

The Wonderkind’s uniqueness stems from its elite team of college students who embody America’s most technologically savvy and dynamic generation of youth. College students of today command more respect from business professionals and society at large than ever before.

5.3 Marketing Strategy

Our marketing strategy for The Wonderkind will focus on our differentiation by virtue of representation of college students and their opinions and advice. We seek out the brightest and most motivated students at colleges and universities around the country. The name ‘The Wonderkind’ is a play on the German and American word wunderkind, which describes a person of remarkable talent or ability who achieves great success or acclaim at an early age especially in business.

5.3.1 Promotion Strategy

Our most effective means of gaining exposure to a wide audience will come as a result of communicating with the business/entrepreneurial offices at the top 100 universities in the country. We will look to establish permanent links with these institutions in order to generate interest for student writers as well as publicity from university publications. Also, we will be mailing brochures and information to selective lists of potential subscribers and investors.

Our promotion strategy will be in-line with our main competitive advantage from a business perspective: our ability to contain costs. We will rely upon inexpensive forms of publicity that reach a large number of potential clients. Examples of such publicity will manifest in the form of articles written for student-business publications. One publication in which we have already contacted regarding our proposal is Business Today magazine. Business Today is the largest and most influential student-run publication in the country and is distributed widely to over 200,000 subscribers nationwide.

It is our assumption that one effective means of promoting our service will come by word-of-mouth from all people connected with our service including our analysts, writers, and customers. We expect that networks of friends and family will represent a portion of our initial cliental base and that word of mouth will continue to spread. We will be offering incentives for clients to sign up their friends and colleagues. This incentive will take the form of credit toward our existing services for referring clients. We will reward two free months of service for each new subscriber that is referred by an existing subscriber.

5.3.2 Positioning Statement

The Wonderkind will be positioned as an alternative form of investment advice designed to offer an enjoyable and energetic source of investment advice from an otherwise unrecognized group of people–college students. We provide investment advice from those who will be making the rules in the future. Ultimately, we fall into the category of an  informational publishing service utilizing the Internet as well as traditional paper printing methods of distribution.

5.3.3 Pricing Strategy

While we believe that our services are premium in quality, we have decided to offer them for a flat monthly charge. We believe that we should enter the market with a pricing strategy that is focused on convincing possible clients to give us a try. If we were to initially charge a much higher amount, possibly more in-line with the quality of service our clients will be receiving, we may experience a more difficult time selling to new clients. Once we have established ourselves in the eyes of our clients, we will begin raising our prices accordingly.

We will initially charge a fee of $12.95/month or $129.95/year for our basic service which provides access to all articles and content on our website in addition to a quarterly newsletter mailed to the subscriber.

5.4 Sales Strategy

We imagine that our sales strategy will be a natural follow up from our marketing strategy. Once we have attracted users to our website, the natural progression will be to retain them as subscribers. The majority of this process will be carried out through the website itself. The website will describe the specific benefits of subscribing to our service as well as address any questions prospective subscribers may have. We will give prospective subscribers a sample of the services offered by The Wonderkind. Sample articles and abridged articles will be available free of charge by accessing our website at www.thewonderkind.com. We will make an extraordinary effort to accommodate new subscribers in the beginning and throughout the duration of his or her subscription. We will strive to familiarize our subscribers with our services both on the website and through the comprehensive quarterly newsletter.

5.4.1 Sales Forecast

Our objectives for growth in our subscriber base are as follows:

Assuming our yearly subscription fee of $129.95, projected subscriber bases translate into yearly revenue projections of:

For fiscal accounting purposes, this plan begins in June even though we do not expect to receive income from subscriptions until January of the following year. In the seven months between these dates, we will be carrying out an aggressive marketing campaign to attract both subscribers and contributors.

5.5 Strategic Alliances

Once we have established The Wonderkind as a viable entity, we will begin to evaluate strategic alliances and co-marketing initiatives. One possibility for a future alliance exists in another student-operated investment service called WallStreetProdigy.com which offers recommended stock portfolio analysis via its website. WSP offers analysis and live quotes for all stock picks and represents some of the best investing students in universities and colleges in the U.S. However, for now, our main focus will be on building the foundation of The Wonderkind alone.

Management Summary management summary will include information about who's on your team and why they're the right people for the job, as well as your future hiring plans.">

The initial management team consists of the founders, Frank Peanut and Jacob Sweller. As we grow, we will be looking to recruit exceptionally qualified students. Both partners are currently taking on as much responsibilities as possible and working together on a number of critical issues.

6.1 Organizational Structure

Frank Peanut and Jacob Sweller will remain full-time partners for the short term. We will look to expand our organizational structure of student networks very shortly and have already contacted a select few potential analysts for The Wonderkind. These students come from universities including: University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, and Duke University.

6.2 Management Team

Both founding partners have unique resumes and background experiences. They each bring to the table distinct personal qualities that will complement one another as they manage and grow their business.

Jacob Sweller is on track to receive a dual degree in finance and government. Jacob, enrolled in the Honors Program, scored a 1500 on the SAT exam and is currently ranked in the top 10% of his class. While at school, Jacob has been extremely active in the business arena and has directed business-consulting presentations to the Credit Suisse First Boston investment banking firm as well as McKinsey & Co. consulting firm. Jacob has received over 30 prestigious awards in academics and athletics over the past few years. Jacob currently serves as the Co-fund Manager of the Investment Club responsible for approximately $400,000 in assets.

6.3 Management Team Gaps

Our management team identified insufficient expertise in Web development as an area of concern. While both Frank Peanut and Jacob Sweller have some experience with HTML hard coding and building basic Web pages, neither has the expertise to develop the website that they had originally envisioned.

Several solutions to this problem were evaluated:

•  Bringing in a third partner to specialize entirely in building and maintaining the company’s website.
•  Hiring a professional Web-development team to build and host a custom website.
•  Partnering with Vista.

Vista.com is a revolutionary e-Business Infrastructure Provider (eBIP) delivering a fully automated and integrated infrastructure platform for corporations to rapidly deliver e-business services to their small- and medium-size business customers. Vista will be providing us with an all-inclusive solution to develop our Web-based business. We are able to access a full range of tools through a Web browser platform from any computer terminal with Internet access. In addition, Vista will be hosting our site and managing a range of smaller details related to maintaining a business on the Web. They have provided us with the tools necessary to implement a fully enabled e-commerce site that has many features including customer database management, password protected content filled areas, email management, and a myriad of other back office applications that will prove extremely useful and necessary. While Vista has empowered us to create our website on our own, they also have customer support and technical specialists available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in the event that we need assistance with any area of our site. We feel that in choosing to setup our business with Vista, we have effectively filled the Web design gap that initially existed. Vista should allow for our growth and expansion plans as we envision them.

6.4 Personnel Plan

The Writers : Our writers will be students who submit articles for publishing on The Wonderkind website and newsletter. Only select articles that embody the quality and spirit of The Wonderkind will be published. The writers will not be paid but will gain the opportunity to be promoted to analyst status through exceptional written articles.

The Analysts : An analyst is defined as a consistent writer for The Wonderkind. These analysts will represent the best of our writers and will be true investment wunderkinds. We estimate that each analyst will make approximately $400 per month. Each analyst will be paid X amount of dollars per customer for every month plus a monthly commission determined by the analyst’s quality of service provided to the customers. We estimate the average commission at about $100 monthly for the first year.

The Wonderkind will not have any personnel during the initial stages of operation, during which the partners of the company will handle all services and site operations. We plan to employ 10 full-time analysts by the end of year one. By year three we plan to have 25 analysts on payroll. The table below indicates the payroll provided by The Wonderkind. Not all analysts are expected to produce articles for our company every month.

Financial Plan investor-ready personnel plan .">

We want to finance growth mainly through free cash flow. We recognize that this means we will have to grow more slowly than we might like. We think that this strategy of more conservative financial management makes sense since we are not trying to create a conglomerate financial company, rather one that focuses on what we believe to be our core competencies and interests. We believe in financing opportunities that add value to our company from a cost/benefit analysis perspective. However, we will not blindly invest our resources in endeavors that do not have a high likelihood of bearing fruit in the future.

7.1 Important Assumptions

Our most important assumption is regarding the arrangement we have obtained with Vista whereby we are in essence being subsidized 100% for the first year. Vista, nonetheless, currently charges regular paying customers $100/month or $599/year.

7.2 Key Financial Indicators

We foresee steadily rising service revenues starting in June of 2001. Our initial objectives for client retention should lend itself directly to our sales forecasts. It is important to note that these goals as stated are extremely subjective to change once we begin operating and acquire a better feel for our market.

7.3 Break-even Analysis

By the beginning of the second year, assuming that we pay the costs related to Vista’s services, and assuming 10 analysts on the payroll, the Break-even Analysis below shows what is needed in sales to break even.

7.4 Projected Profit and Loss

The Wonderkind should be a profitable entity following the first year. This is possible because of our minimal start-up expenses and projections for consistent sales growth. Also, our arrangement with Vista for a full year’s worth of service free of charge is a substantial financial subsidy. The primary expenses incurred will be marketing and payroll. Marketing expenses will include printing fees for brochures to be distributed and other promotional initiatives.

The following table shows the Projected Profit and Loss for The Wonderkind.

7.5 Projected Cash Flow

The following chart and table show the Projected Cash Flow for The Wonderkind.

7.6 Business Ratios

The Industry standard ratios are for the Other Management Consulting service industry, NAICS code 541618. A quick comparison between the industry standards and Wonderkind shows that our company is in a class all by itself. Therefore, some explanation is necessary. First of all, because it is primarily an Internet company, all sales will be on credit. This means that the company has a very high amount of accounts receivable. In addition, the company has a very high gross margin for the same reasons. Furthermore, because it is a service company utilizing currently owned assets, the company has few long-term assets. We expect the company to have a decreasing net worth as the sales growth slows down, however it may seem abnormally high for some time.

7.7 Projected Balance Sheet

The table below is the Project Balance Sheet.

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The 7 Best Business Plan Examples (2024)

As an aspiring entrepreneur gearing up to start your own business , you likely know the importance of drafting a business plan. However, you might not be entirely sure where to begin or what specific details to include. That’s where examining business plan examples can be beneficial. Sample business plans serve as real-world templates to help you craft your own plan with confidence. They also provide insight into the key sections that make up a business plan, as well as demonstrate how to structure and present your ideas effectively.

Example business plan

To understand how to write a business plan, let’s study an example structured using a seven-part template. Here’s a quick overview of those parts:

• Executive summary: A quick overview of your business and the contents of your business plan.
• Company description: More info about your company, its goals and mission, and why you started it in the first place.
• Market analysis: Research about the market and industry your business will operate in, including a competitive analysis about the companies you’ll be up against.
• Products and services: A detailed description of what you’ll be selling to your customers.
• Marketing plan: A strategic outline of how you plan to market and promote your business before, during, and after your company launches into the market.
• Logistics and operations plan: An explanation of the systems, processes, and tools that are needed to run your business in the background.
• Financial plan: A map of your short-term (and even long-term) financial goals and the costs to run the business. If you’re looking for funding, this is the place to discuss your request and needs.

7 business plan examples (section by section)

In this section, you’ll find hypothetical and real-world examples of each aspect of a business plan to show you how the whole thing comes together. 

• Executive summary

Your executive summary offers a high-level overview of the rest of your business plan. You’ll want to include a brief description of your company, market research, competitor analysis, and financial information. 

In this free business plan template, the executive summary is three paragraphs and occupies nearly half the page:

• Company description

You might go more in-depth with your company description and include the following sections:

• Nature of the business. Mention the general category of business you fall under. Are you a manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer of your products?
• Background information. Talk about your past experiences and skills, and how you’ve combined them to fill in the market. 
• Business structure. This section outlines how you registered your company —as a corporation, sole proprietorship, LLC, or other business type.
• Industry. Which business sector do you operate in? The answer might be technology, merchandising, or another industry.
• Team. Whether you’re the sole full-time employee of your business or you have contractors to support your daily workflow, this is your chance to put them under the spotlight.

You can also repurpose your company description elsewhere, like on your About page, Instagram page, or other properties that ask for a boilerplate description of your business. Hair extensions brand Luxy Hair has a blurb on it’s About page that could easily be repurposed as a company description for its business plan. 

• Market analysis

Market analysis comprises research on product supply and demand, your target market, the competitive landscape, and industry trends. You might do a SWOT analysis to learn where you stand and identify market gaps that you could exploit to establish your footing. Here’s an example of a SWOT analysis for a hypothetical ecommerce business: 

You’ll also want to run a competitive analysis as part of the market analysis component of your business plan. This will show you who you’re up against and give you ideas on how to gain an edge over the competition. 

• Products and services

This part of your business plan describes your product or service, how it will be priced, and the ways it will compete against similar offerings in the market. Don’t go into too much detail here—a few lines are enough to introduce your item to the reader.

• Marketing plan

Potential investors will want to know how you’ll get the word out about your business. So it’s essential to build a marketing plan that highlights the promotion and customer acquisition strategies you’re planning to adopt. 

Most marketing plans focus on the four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. However, it’s easier when you break it down by the different marketing channels . Mention how you intend to promote your business using blogs, email, social media, and word-of-mouth marketing. 

Here’s an example of a hypothetical marketing plan for a real estate website:

Logistics and operations

This section of your business plan provides information about your production, facilities, equipment, shipping and fulfillment, and inventory.

Financial plan

The financial plan (a.k.a. financial statement) offers a breakdown of your sales, revenue, expenses, profit, and other financial metrics. You’ll want to include all the numbers and concrete data to project your current and projected financial state.

In this business plan example, the financial statement for ecommerce brand Nature’s Candy includes forecasted revenue, expenses, and net profit in graphs.

It then goes deeper into the financials, citing:

• Funding needs
• Project cash-flow statement
• Project profit-and-loss statement
• Projected balance sheet

You can use Shopify’s financial plan template to create your own income statement, cash-flow statement, and balance sheet. 

Types of business plans (and what to write for each)

A one-page business plan is a pared down version of a standard business plan that’s easy for potential investors and partners to understand. You’ll want to include all of these sections, but make sure they’re abbreviated and summarized:

• Logistics and operations plan
• Financials 

A startup business plan is meant to secure outside funding for a new business. Typically, there’s a big focus on the financials, as well as other sections that help determine the viability of your business idea—market analysis, for example. Shopify has a great business plan template for startups that include all the below points:

• Market research: in depth
• Financials: in depth

Your internal business plan acts as the enforcer of your company’s vision. It reminds your team of the long-term objective and keeps them strategically aligned toward the same goal. Be sure to include:

• Market research

Feasibility 

A feasibility business plan is essentially a feasibility study that helps you evaluate whether your product or idea is worthy of a full business plan. Include the following sections:

A strategic (or growth) business plan lays out your long-term vision and goals. This means your predictions stretch further into the future, and you aim for greater growth and revenue. While crafting this document, you use all the parts of a usual business plan but add more to each one:

• Products and services: for launch and expansion
• Market analysis: detailed analysis
• Marketing plan: detailed strategy
• Logistics and operations plan: detailed plan
• Financials: detailed projections

Free business plan templates

Now that you’re familiar with what’s included and how to format a business plan, let’s go over a few templates you can fill out or draw inspiration from.

Bplans’ free business plan template

Bplans’ free business plan template focuses a lot on the financial side of running a business. It has many pages just for your financial plan and statements. Once you fill it out, you’ll see exactly where your business stands financially and what you need to do to keep it on track or make it better.

PandaDoc’s free business plan template

PandaDoc’s free business plan template is detailed and guides you through every section, so you don’t have to figure everything out on your own. Filling it out, you’ll grasp the ins and outs of your business and how each part fits together. It’s also handy because it connects to PandaDoc’s e-signature for easy signing, ideal for businesses with partners or a board.

Miro’s Business Model Canvas Template

Miro’s Business Model Canvas Template helps you map out the essentials of your business, like partnerships, core activities, and what makes you different. It’s a collaborative tool for you and your team to learn how everything in your business is linked.

Better business planning equals better business outcomes

Building a business plan is key to establishing a clear direction and strategy for your venture. With a solid plan in hand, you’ll know what steps to take for achieving each of your business goals. Kickstart your business planning and set yourself up for success with a defined roadmap—utilizing the sample business plans above to inform your approach.

Business plan FAQ

What are the 3 main points of a business plan.

• Concept. Explain what your business does and the main idea behind it. This is where you tell people what you plan to achieve with your business.
• Contents. Explain what you’re selling or offering. Point out who you’re selling to and who else is selling something similar. This part concerns your products or services, who will buy them, and who you’re up against.
• Cash flow. Explain how money will move in and out of your business. Discuss the money you need to start and keep the business going, the costs of running your business, and how much money you expect to make.

How do I write a simple business plan?

To create a simple business plan, start with an executive summary that details your business vision and objectives. Follow this with a concise description of your company’s structure, your market analysis, and information about your products or services. Conclude your plan with financial projections that outline your expected revenue, expenses, and profitability.

What is the best format to write a business plan?

The optimal format for a business plan arranges your plan in a clear and structured way, helping potential investors get a quick grasp of what your business is about and what you aim to achieve. Always start with a summary of your plan and finish with the financial details or any extra information at the end.

Want to learn more?

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The Publishing Plan: What It Is, and How to Create One

by Lesley-Anne Longo

Published at 2023-05-31

What is a publishing plan? Honestly, a publishing plan is exactly what it sounds like! It involves scheduling and planning for the writing and publishing of your manuscript, from start to finish. 

And why do you need a publishing plan? Well, publishing can be an amazing journey...but it can also be an overwhelming one. There's the actual writing of the book, the editing process, then the steps of sending out manuscript submissions, or, if you're self-publishing, finding a typesetter/cover designer/etc....there's a lot of items to juggle in order to end up with a finished book. A well thought out publishing plan can help you manage aspects of this process that you didn’t even realize were involved! The tips below can help you develop the right plan for you and your project, to help you manage your publishing journey with ease.

In this blog, I'll identify key components of a publishing plan, beginning with the writing of your manuscript, followed by the editing process, and then taking steps to prepare your manuscript to send out to publishers.

The Writing of Your Manuscript

The first part of the publishing plan that an author has to consider is the actual writing of the manuscript. If you’ve already done this, good job! That’s one part of the plan you can check off.

However, if you haven’t written or finished your manuscript yet, it’s a good idea to consider a schedule that will help you get started on the writing, continue the writing, and finish the writing. How can you do this? We know that writing is a demanding process, one with many starts and stops. And we know setting a schedule is easy to do on paper but much harder to actually carry out in practice.

Consider your manuscript: what you are writing and what your goals for your published work are. This can help you draft a schedule. You can set goals to write at least 250 words a day, 2000 words a week, a chapter every two weeks...whatever is realistic and achievable for you. The "achievable" part is key, because ther's nothing worse than setting a goal for yourself and falling short. Attempting to write a chapter a day is a quick path to getting burnt out! Slow and steady is the key here.

The Editing Process

Once your manuscript is completed, the editing begins. This process can take varying amounts of time, depending on the level of editing that is required. What are your options? Substantive editing, copy editing, proofreading...how do you know what your manuscript needs to make it shine?

At TEC, we can actually provide an assessment of your full manuscript to determine what will be needed. What this involves is:

• A full and thorough read of your entire manuscript.
• In-depth and detailed notes on big picture issues such as pacing, flow, missing subject matter, plotting issues, structure and organization, etc.
• Notes on smaller-scale issues such as spots where the text may be too exhaustive, tense issues, extraneous detail, continuity misses, etc.
• A write-up of the editor’s thoughts on the manuscript overall and where they think the text would benefit from which types of editing (substantive editing, copy editing, line editing, etc.).

From here, we can provide an even more detailed quote for editing based on the findings of the assessment. The assessment will also provide a more accurate idea of how long the editing process will take. We go over all our findings with you in a post-assessment meeting, to ensure you know exactly what will be happening during the editing process, should we move forward. This is also a great time to discuss any queries the editor may have had while reading and assessing your work.

And we will always recommend a strong copy edit, regardless of whether or not we feel the manuscript needs substantive work. A copy edit corrects faulty grammar, incorrect punctuation, misspelled words, and inconsistencies (in spelling and in other ways, like number usage or formatting style). If your writing is already clear and sharp, this process can move fairly quickly.

If you want to learn more about the different types of editing and what is involved as you build your publishing plan, definitely check out our resource guide " Building Your Publishing Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide for Authors ," which expands on the handy information in this blog and will help you build a publishing plan that works for you!

Other Considerations

During the editing process, allow time for any finalizing of details the project may need. For example, are there any permissions or copyright work that you need to do? If you want to use an excerpt from a story or if there is a particular illustration or image you want to use, we can clear permissions with the copyright holders on your behalf.

Or perhaps you have someone in mind to write a preface for you, or an introduction? Have you contacted this person and can they meet your deadline?

Once the editing is completed and your manuscript is undergoing its final polish, it’s time to start thinking about your publishing options.

Traditional Publishing or Self-Publishing?

This is an important decision you will have to make as an author. Do you want to publish traditionally through a publishing house, or would you prefer to publish your work through a self-publishing company?

Self-Publishing

If you decide on self-publishing, it is important that you choose a reputable self-publishing company to work with. Unfortunately, there are many self-publishing companies out there that are all too eager to take advantage of authors. As an exercise, check reviews of self-publishing companies on an unbiased site, run the company’s name and “scam” through a search engine, or, if you’re part of a writing community, ask around to see if anyone you know has had a great experience with a company they’ve used.

An important note though: Self-publishing often requires that you have designated storage space for the books when they are delivered and that you have a strong marketing plan in place for promoting your book. Some self-publishing companies can help you with marketing, but you can be assured it will be for an extra fee.

Traditional Publishing

If you decide you want to find a traditional publishing house for your book, one of the most important steps in this process is making sure it is a good fit.

Once you have a list of possibilities, it's time to begin to draft cover letters, write a synopsis, develop a marketing plan, and other necessary submission package items. Each publisher has different requirements and it is important that these materials reflect their specific requirements.

Once your components are ready, then it's time to send the manuscript packages out. Many publishers ask that submissions be sent electronically through a portal, emailed to a specific address, or mailed in the old-fashioned way.

If you choose to go the traditionally published route, this work is an important part of your publishing plan. What is the best fit for your book?

Setting a Budget

Publishing is a pursuit that requires investments of both time and money, and it’s a good idea to have a rough outline of how much money you might need to save before you embark on your publishing journey. This may take a bit of time, but it is better to know before you begin the process the cost than to be surprised at the outset.

Today, most publishers require that your book be edited before it is submitted, so editing is an important part of the publishing plan. If you're still in the writing phase of your publishing process, it can be a great idea to start reaching out to editors for quotes once you've got a solid draft in front of you. You'll need to know how many words your manuscript is, as this will help editors gauge how much time they'll need to complete any editing work on your book. Be aware that higher word counts mean higher costs — doing a copy edit on a 40,000 word manuscript is going to take a fair bit less time than a 120,000 word manuscript!

Let the editors know your word count, your desired timeline (if any), and what type (or types) of editing you're looking to have done. The quotes you receive back will help you get a sense of whether you can proceed with editing once the drafting and writing is finished, or whether you might need more time to save up.

Submissions

The submissions process takes a good amount of research and time, which you should take into account when planning and budgeting. What this step involves is looking up different publishers, examining their catalogues, backlists, and publishing mandates, and deciding if they are a good fit for your book. As previously mentioned, this will also involve creating any number of documents that will be submitted with your manuscript, including cover letters, author bios, chapter outlines or a synopsis, etc. This step requires more budgeting of your own time than money.

If you’ve decided to go the self-publishing route, that’s great! However, you should be very much aware of how much it will cost you to publish your book this way. Many self-publishing companies offer a variety of services that you can choose from, and some offer comprehensive packages for publishing your book that include things like editing, design and layout of book and a cover, and maybe even some marketing.

For example, if I wanted to print through BookBaby, for 100 copies of a 6 x 9 soft & gloss cover, 250-page print book and ebook combo that requires formatting and a basic cover design, and print-on-demand for global retailers (including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.), plus ISBNs and a dynamic layout, that’s already $2,231.00 USD. If I add book promotion services on to that, the total jumps to $3,428.00 USD. Of course, there will be some services that are lower, and some that are likely higher as well. That’s why it’s important to look into these things.

There are other options that allow you to design your own book through portals or by using templates, and you may find these options are more to your liking financially. So, do your research, ask for quotes, and see what services are out there and which ones you think your book will need, and budget accordingly.

Creating a Social Media Plan

Using social media in a planned and thoughtful way can help you promote your book well and get your name out there. As TEC’s Social Media Editor Jean puts it in her blog  A Beginner’s Guide to Social Media for Writers & Editors:

Today is a great age for freelance work and entrepreneurship! Literary professionals and freelancer editors can carve out a space for themselves to advertise and promote their work on various social media outlets. You don’t need to have marketing or PR professionals. You don’t need an executive team to curate what, when, or how you publish and market the things that you do. Social media gives you the breathing room to build your brand, content, and audience the way that you want to. And for writers, it means that self-publishing is within the realm of possibility if you dedicate some serious time to building your social media presence.

Remember that you need to build a strong social media presence during the writing of your book so that when your book is published you have an audience who is ready to hear about it and keen to help you promote it.

Many authors make the mistake of creating a social media presence upon publication of their book, then trying to build an audience using a lot of self-serving content to promote their book. The right way to build an audience is to start the process months or even a year in advance. Build an audience by providing great content, join writing communities, and get involved. Once you’ve built up a good number of followers who follow you for the right reasons, then start teasing the release of your book. Lastly, avoid buying followers in the form of bots — sure, your numbers are inflated, but remember, bots can’t buy books, only real live people can.

Why Is a Publishing Management Plan So Important?

In the end, creating a publishing management plan is important because it helps to guide your project from manuscript to published book, no matter what publishing direction you take. It will give you a realistic expectation of how much time and money the process is going to require, and helps you manage your expectations of how things are going to progress. These are all important steps in the publishing journey, and the plan helps you map out each step of the way. Our resource guide, " Building Your Publishing Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide for Authors ," will give you all the information you need to create a customized publishing plan that will work for you and your needs, so make sure you take a look!

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300+ Business Plan Examples

With over two decades of experience, Growthink has assisted more than 1 million companies in developing effective business plans to launch and expand their businesses. Trust in our expertise to guide you through developing a business plan that drives your success. In addition to our sample plans, below you’ll learn the answers to key business plan questions and gain insightful tips on writing your business plan.

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1. Why is utilizing an example business plan a good idea?

Sample business plans can help you quickly and easily write a business plan for your own business. Business plans are an important tool for any business, but they can be challenging to create. A sample business plan will help you understand the business plan format , the benefit of market research, and how to write a compelling executive summary. It can also serve as a guide for creating your own business plan, outlining the key sections and providing examples of successful plans. Utilizing the best business plan template can save you time and ensure that your plan is well-structured and comprehensive.

Business plan examples may even help you with the different sections of a plan, including market analysis, business description, cash flow statements/business financial statements, and more. Business plans can also show you how a quality plan in your exact business plan category is organized and shows you the appropriate business communications style to use when writing your business plan.

2. Who would benefit from using an example business plan?

Any entrepreneur or business owner who has never written a business plan before can benefit from an example or sample plan. New business owners often start with business plan templates , which are helpful but are sometimes more useful after reviewing other sample business plans.

A good sample plan can be a step-by-step guide as you work on your business planning and business idea. Once you have a sense for the flow, specs, and details, etc. that business plans have, utilizing a business plan template will help you pull everything together, helping you create a plan investors and other stakeholders will value. A solid business plan will also help you if you need a bank loan, which may require a startup business plan. Download our free business plan template to help you get started on your own business plan.

Free Download : Free Business Plan Template PDF

3. How do you get started with a sample business plan and maximize its benefit?

First you should read the business plan thoroughly. Study both the type of information provided in key sections like the executive summary, target market analysis, summary, etc., as well as the format and style of the plan. As you read, you may find yourself thinking through things such as improving or evaluating your business planning process, your business idea, or reconsidering who you want to write your business plan for. This is OK and part of the process. In fact, when you start writing a business plan for the first time, it will be much easier because you’ve gone through this process.

After this initial read, outline your business plan and copy in from the sample plan sections that apply to your business. For instance, if the sample plan included public relations in their marketing strategy and sales plan, and you will also use this tactic, you can copy it into your plan and edit it as appropriate. Finally, answer the other questions answered in the sample plan in ways that reflect your unique business and target customers.

Writing a business plan can seem daunting. Starting your business plan writing process by reviewing a plan that’s already been created can remove a lot of mental and emotional barriers while helping you craft the best plan you can.

4. When should you not use a sample business plan?

If your business is unlike any other, using a sample business plan will not be as effective. In this situation, writing a business plan from scratch utilizing a business plan template is probably your best path forward.

As an example, Facebook’s early business plan was unlike others since it was paving a new path and way of doing business. But, groundbreaking new businesses like Facebook are not the norm, and the vast majority of companies will benefit from utilizing sample business plans.

5. How do you choose the right type of business plan for your venture?

Selecting the appropriate type of business plan depends on your business’s stage, needs, and goals. Let’s explore the different types of business plans and how to determine which business plan format is right for you.

• Startup Business Plan : This type of plan is for businesses just starting out and seeking funding or investment. It typically includes a detailed analysis of the market, target audience, competition, and financial projections.
• Traditional Business Plan : Traditional business plans are the most common type of business plan, used by established businesses to outline their goals and strategies. It includes all the key sections such as market analysis, company description, and financial statements.
• Internal Business Plan : Internal business plans are used for internal purposes, to guide the day-to-day operations and decision making of the business. It may not be as detailed as a traditional business plan, but still includes important information such as company mission, objectives, and key performance indicators.
• Feasibility Business Plan : A feasibility business plan is used to assess the viability of a new product or service in the market. It includes detailed research and analysis to determine if the business idea is feasible and profitable.
• One-Page Business Plan : As the name suggests, this type of business plan is condensed into one page and includes the most critical information about the business. It can be a useful tool for pitching to potential investors or partners.
• Strategic Business Plan : A strategic plan looks at the big picture and long-term business goals of a company. It may include the company’s mission statement, core values, and overarching strategies for achieving success.

Ultimately, the type of business plan you choose will depend on your business’s specific needs and goals. It may also be beneficial to combine elements from different types of plans to create a customized plan that best fits your business. Carefully consider your objectives and resources before deciding on the right type of plan for your venture.

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The business plan example below is for Shoutmouth, a company that enjoyed much success in the early 2000’s and which was able to raise funding. While the plan’s premise (social networking) is not as unique now as it was then, the format and structure of this business plan still holds.

I. Executive Summary

Business Overview

Launched in late February 2007, Shoutmouth.com is the most comprehensive music news website on the Internet .

Music is one of the most searched and accessed interests on the Internet. Top music artists like Akon receive over 3 million searches each month. In addition, over 500 music artists each receive over 25,000 searches a month.

However, music fans are largely unsatisfied when it comes to the news and information they seek on the artists they love. This is because most music websites (e.g., RollingStone.com, MTV.com, Billboard.com, etc.) cover only the top eight to ten music stories each day – the stories with mass appeal. This type of generic coverage does not satisfy the needs of serious music fans. Music fans generally listen to many different artists and genres of music. By publishing over 100 music stories each day, Shoutmouth enables these fans to read news on all their favorite artists.

In addition to publishing comprehensive music news on over 1200 music artists, Shoutmouth is a social network that allows fans to meet and communicate with other fans about music, and allows them to:

• Create personal profiles
• Interact with other members
• Provide comments on news stories and music videos
• Submit news stories and videos
• Recommend new music artists to add to the community
• Receive customized news and email alerts on their favorite artists

Success Factors

Shoutmouth is uniquely qualified to succeed due to the following reasons:

• Entrepreneurial track record : Shoutmouth’s CEO and team have helped launch numerous successful ventures.
• Affiliate marketing track record : Online affiliate marketing expertise has been cited as one of MySpace’s key success factors. Over the past two years, Shoutmouth’s founders have run one of the most successful online affiliate marketing programs, having sold products to over 500,000 music customers online.
• Key milestones completed : Shoutmouth’s founders have invested $500,000 to-date to staff the company (we currently have an 11-person full-time team), build the core technology, and launch the site. We have succeeded in gaining initial customer traction with 50,000 unique visitors in March, 100,000 unique visitors in April, and 200,000 unique visitors in May 2007.

Unique Investment Metrics

The Shoutmouth investment opportunity is very exciting due to the metrics of the business.

To begin, over the past two years, over twenty social networks have been acquired. The value in these networks is their relationships with large numbers of customers, which allow acquirers to effectively sell to this audience.

The sales price of these social networks has ranged from $25 to $137 per member. Shoutmouth has the ability to enroll members at less than $1 each, thus providing an extraordinary return on marketing expenditures. In fact, during an April 2007 test, we were able to sign-up 2,000 members to artist-specific Shoutmouth newsletters at a cost of only 43 cents per member.

While we are building Shoutmouth to last, potential acquirers include many types of companies that seek relationships with music fans such as music media/publishing (e.g., MTV, Rolling Stone), ticketing (e.g., Ticketmaster, LiveNation) and digital music sales firms (e.g., iTunes, The Orchard).

Financial Strategy, Needs and Exit Strategy

While Shoutmouth’s technological, marketing and operational infrastructure has been developed, we currently require $3 million to execute on our marketing and technology plan over the next 24 months until we hit profitability.

Shoutmouth will primarily generate revenues from selling advertising space. As technologies evolve that allow us to seamlessly integrate music sampling and purchasing on our site, sales of downloadable music are also expected to become a significant revenue source. To a lesser extent, we may sell other music-related items such as ringtones, concert tickets, and apparel.

Topline projections over the next three years are as follows:

II. Shoutmouth Overview

What is Shoutmouth?

Shoutmouth is an operating company of The Kisco Group Inc. (TKG). Since 2003, TKG has capitalized on web-based marketing opportunities via launching targeted websites and generating web-based leads. TKG revenues in 2005 exceeded $1.3 million and grew to $3.5 million in 2006. Shoutmouth is currently the sole focus of TKG; all other TKG business units have been divested.

Development of Shoutmouth began in August 2006 and the site officially launched on February 21, 2007. Shoutmouth (located at www.shoutmouth.com) is the most comprehensive music news community on the Internet. The website covers 1,200 popular bands and music artists and offers more than 100 new music articles each day. In addition to providing news, Shoutmouth is a web community. That is, Shoutmouth members can actively participate on the site, by doing things such as commenting on news stories and submitting their own stories.

The Market Size and Need for Shoutmouth

The music market is clearly vast. According to IFPI, which represents the recording industry worldwide, global music sales were $33.5 billion in 2005, with the U.S. accounting for $12.3 billion of that amount. Importantly, digitally music sales are seeing substantial growth, with IFPI reporting sales of $400 million in 2004, $1.1 billion in 2005 and $2 billion in 2006.

Online, music is the one of the most frequently searched and accessed interests. For example, according to Wordtracker, the music artist Eminem received over 1.7 million web searches in December 2006, while band Green Day received 534,000 searches.

To put these figures in perspective, top celebrities in other entertainment fields receive but a fraction of this search volume. For example, December 2006 search volumes for select sports stars and actors were as follows: Kobe Bryant, 122K; Tiger Woods, 88K; Cameron Diaz, 332K; and Tom Cruise, 82K.

Conversely, 225 music artists received over 100,000 searches in December 2006, and over 500 music artists received over 25,000 searches.

This data is corroborated by Nielsen BuzzMetrics which plots the most popular topics bloggers are posting about. The chart to the right plots September 25, 2006 to March 25, 2007 and shows how music dominates other entertainment sectors online.

When searching for music artists online, fans, which are primarily between the ages of 13 and 35, are looking for news, pictures, lyrics, videos and audio files. In addition, fans enjoy publicly voicing their opinions about music and interacting with other fans.

There is currently no website besides Shoutmouth that provides comprehensive music news. Currently, to get the latest news on their favorite artists, fans must visit the official websites or fan websites of each of the artists they like . Even then, it is unlikely that the fan will get all the news that has occurred. To solve this problem, Shoutmouth scours the web and uncovers news from thousands of web sites.

What Shoutmouth Does and Will Offer

As of May 2007, the site covers the 1,200 most popular music artists (popularity primarily based on the number of web searches over the past 12 months for each artist).

Shoutmouth currently offers members the ability to:

• Read over 500 new music articles each week
• Read special features such as album reviews, interviews, new album release dates, top quotes of the week and other special reports
• Watch and rate music videos
• Listen to select music audio clips
• Comment on news stories and music videos
• Submit news stories that they see/hear of elsewhere
• Suggest new music artists to add to the site
• View articles by music artist or by genre (current genres include Rock, Pop, Rap, R&B, Country, and Electronic)
• Create a user profile that includes their favorite music artists, Shoutmouth friends, news stories submitted to Shoutmouth, and comments made. Members have the ability to find other members based on their favorite artists and via our search functions.
• Receive customized news and email alerts. Members can customize their “My News” page to include only artists they specify. Likewise, they can choose to receive email alerts whenever there is a new story on one of their favorite artists.

While establishing itself as the premier music news community, Shoutmouth will embark on the more aggressive goal of becoming the premier music community online . To accomplish this, Shoutmouth will begin to offer additional content (more videos, audio, pictures, lyrics, etc.) and additional functionality (music compatibility testing (e.g., if you like this, you’ll like this), voting capabilities, member-to-member messaging, etc.). We have already begun mapping out our content and technology growths plans to achieve this goal upon financing.

Importantly, Shoutmouth expects to be able to add massive amounts of relevant content (e.g., lyrics, reviews, pictures, video files, audio files, etc.) via member submissions and moderation. This is the same way that YouTube has been able to quickly add millions of videos and Wikipedia has been able to add millions of articles. Importantly, since established music websites (e.g., MTV, RollingStone.com, Billboard.com, etc.) are not community based, they would have to hire thousands of staff members to rival the content that Shoutmouth will have.

How We Get and Publish Our News

Currently, news stories that appear on Shoutmouth are gathered from numerous online sources. Shoutmouth’s staff writers find these stories by using RSS and News feeds that cover thousands of websites. In addition, Shoutmouth community members have the ability to submit stories they find elsewhere.

Typical stories include factual information plus the insight of the author. Shoutmouth editors ensure that all stories are properly classified by artist and genre, and that duplicate articles are filtered out.

Over the past three months, Shoutmouth has developed a solid infrastructure, which we consider a core competitive advantage, that that allows us to provide comprehensive music news . This infrastructure includes:

• Setting up hundreds of RSS feeds based on comprehensive research regarding sites from which to receive feeds
• Training our editorial team regarding identifying a story and weeding out duplicates
• Assigning music artists among our five-person editorial team to better manage work flow and avoid duplicate articles

We are working on a system to ensure that member-submitted articles are automatically routed to the appropriate member of Shoutmouth’s editorial team to improve our efficiencies further.

Shoutmouth’s Goal to Break News First

The majority (approximately 90%) of Shoutmouth’s articles are currently developed by our in-house editorial team, while the balance is submitted by members. In addition, virtually all of our articles are based on information gleaned from other websites. As such, we are generally not the first to publish news; however we are the first and only site to publish all the news in one easily-accessible place. The one current exception is news which is published on bands’ official MySpace pages; Shoutmouth generally publishes articles on this news 24 to 48 hours before it is reported by other news or music sites (due to our efficiencies in finding news).

Shoutmouth realizes that it will gain a key competitive advantage, and will generate significant market buzz, if it is able to report on music news stories before other media sources . To accomplish this, we have begun contacting publicity departments at record labels to gain direct access to music news. We expect these contacts to enable us to gain immediate and sometimes exclusive access to news which will help further establish Shoutmouth as the canonical source for music news. We also plan to more aggressively solicit member submissions of new, buzzworthy news events and will consider offering rewards for unique substantiated news (much the way paparazzi are compensated).

III. Competition in the Online Music Market

This section of the business plan provides a competitive analysis, which is an overview of the competitive landscape, discusses both indirect and direct competitors and then details Shoutmouth’s competitive advantages.

Because consumer demand for music on the Internet is so great, there are a vast number of music websites. In summary, we consider most sectors of the online music market (which are discussed below) to be indirect competitors and potentially partners, rather than direct competitors, because none of them focus on music news.

The reason we believe that no one focuses on music news is that it is very difficult to do. Because news is very important to music fans, most music websites offer news. However, they primarily get their news from organizations such as CNN, Reuters, the Associated Press and BBC. These large organizations only write about the music stories that have mass appeal, which traditionally amounts to 8-10 music news stories per day. However, since music fans are often zealots when it comes to their favorite artists, they are not merely interested in cover stories. For instance, a U2 fan cares about any U2 news, particularly news that a non-U2 fan might consider insignificant.

In fact, because Shoutmouth is the sole one-stop shop for getting comprehensive music news, there might be an opportunity to license our content to other music websites.

Sectors of the Online Music Market

Shoutmouth specifically comPs in the community-based music news market. While players in this market represent direct competitors, Shoutmouth faces indirect competitors in the following markets:

• Community-Based Sites
• Community-Based News Sites
• Community-Based Music Sites
• Traditional Music Websites
• Official Artist and Fan Sites

Each of these markets is described below.

A. Community-Based Sites

Community-based sites, also known as social networking sites, are websites in which members can create profiles, leave comments throughout the site, and communicate with other members among other features.

A June 2006 report by Piper Jaffray entitled “Silk Road: Social Networking is Here to Stay” effectively sums up the power and longevity of social networking:

“We believe social networking sites have become a permanent part of the fabric of web applications and are rapidly becoming one of the most popular activities online, potentially impacting how other popular services such as email, IM, and maybe even search are accessed.

As a clear indication of the growth rate and scale of social networking, consider this: MySpace monthly page views have now surpassed MSN or AOL in the U.S. and are nearly 75% of the size of Yahoo!. Social networking has filled a gap that was left by all the existing portals and web services and it is fulfilling a very important and basic function for millions of users: allowing them to express themselves and connect with their friends, with the two functions tightly integrated.

The leading sites such as MySpace (News Corp), Facebook, and others are amassing significant power in the new landscape of the Internet and the existing Internet companies are likely to have to work with these newcomers as they may yield material control on the flow of traffic to other applications.”

Social networking sites such as MySpace.com, Facebook.com, Tagged.com, and TagWorld.com have educated consumers regarding the value of these sites and how to use them. Their success has spurred genre-specific social networks such as community-based/social networking news sites and music sites, which are discussed below.

Shoutmouth doesn’t view established social networking sites as competitors since these sites have a general focus. That is, members talk about all aspects of life, from dating to music to movies, etc. Conversely, Shoutmouth is solely focused on music.

B. Community-Based News Sites

Community-based news sites are sites in which members decide what’s newsworthy and what’s not. For instance, on Digg.com, the most prominent community-based news site, members “Digg” stories that they feel are most newsworthy. The stories that the community feels are most important rise to Digg’s homepage, while less important stories get little attention.

Digg’s one million members can submit stories, “digg” stories, and comment on stories. Digg focuses on general news with a slant towards technology, gaming and unique/sensational news. While Digg does have a Music area within its Entertainment section, this receives little focus. In fact, at the time of the writing of this plan, Digg’s music home page only includes one article submitted within the past 48 hours. Furthermore, Digg doesn’t pare down the music category into sub-categories such as Rock and individual music artists. Conversely, these sub-categories are the entire focus of Shoutmouth.

Other sites that are similar to Digg include Newsvine.com, Spotback.com and Gabbr.com. Of most relevance is the Digg-like site for music, Noisetap.com, which was launched by Ticketmaster in January 2007.

Like Digg, Noisetap.com allows members to submit and vote for music stories. Noisetap.com is organized by music genre and not by music artist. This most likely will not satisfy the needs of many music fans since they don’t have the ability to find news on the specific artists they care most about. Likewise, without a full-time staff actively researching and publishing news stories at the artist-level, Noisetap.com will never be able to offer the comprehensive news that Shoutmouth does.

While Shoutmouth is currently similar to community-based news sites in that members can submit stories and comment on the news they find most interesting, no established player in the market provides a comprehensive focus on music. In addition, Shoutmouth sees these sites as marketing partners as we have and will continue to submit our stories on them to increase our readership.

C. Community-Based Music Sites

There are many community-based music websites, although none focuses on music news such as Shoutmouth. Conversely, these sites generally give members the ability to create and listen to song play lists. The community acts to help individual members find new music and new friends based on similarities in their music tastes. Prominent sites in this genre include Last.fm, Finetune, Pandora, RadioBlogClub, MyStrands, iLike[1] and iJigg.

Last.fm is the most prominent community-based music site and is a good model with which to compare Shoutmouth. Likewise, we will benchmark our performance against Last.fm as we reach of goal of becoming the premier music news community and focus on becoming the premier music community.

According to Alexa, Last.fm is the 359th most visited site on the Internet. While Last.fm focuses on allowing members to create customized Internet stations based on their music tastes, the site has much additional content and social networking features. For instance, for each artist, Last.fm includes pictures, a bio, concert dates, discography, fans on Last.fm, and similar artists. Fans are also able to create journals and communicate with other fans. Key features that Last.fm doesn’t currently focus on include news and video.

D. Traditional Music Websites

Traditional music websites such as MTV.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard.com, NME.com, AOL Music, and Yahoo! Music tend to have many features such as news, reviews, pictures, videos and audio. While these sites are generally very well done and extremely popular, they are under-serving visitors in two core areas: music news and community .

These sites’ lack of music news stems from the difficulty in creating this news, specifically that it requires filtering through thousands of articles and websites to find relevant stories. Likewise, as discussed, these firms might wish to license our news content in the future.

Regarding community , none of the top music sites are thriving communities. Rather, either these sites offer no community features or they recently began offering select features (e.g., submitting reviews or commenting on articles). Even when available, the community features on these sites are afterthoughts and are not engrained within the core fabric of the sites.

While they haven’t been able to transform their current sites into communities, top music websites clearly understand the power of online music communities and have an appetite for them. For example, in January 2007, MTV invested in social networking website TagWorld. MTV also acquired RateMyProfessors.com and Quizilla.com (teen social network) in January 2007 and October 2006 respectively.

As mentioned previously, our vision is to build and incorporate additional technologies, and use our “army” of members to publish vast amounts of music content on Shoutmouth, in order to fully satisfy music fans and leapfrog traditional music sites in terms of their music content.

E. Official Artist and Fan Sites

Shoutmouth com’s with official music artist websites and fan websites. These sites often include news about the specific artist as well as pictures, videos and other relevant information.

On one hand, official music artist and fan websites are direct competitors to Shoutmouth. This is because some of these sites offer comprehensive news on the specific artist they cover. In addition, many offer forums, discussion boards or other ways to communicate with other fans.

However, two factors separate Shoutmouth from these types of sites: 1) breadth and 2) sophistication.

• Breadth : Most music fans love more than one artist. As such, in order to get the news they want, they would have to visit/join multiple fan or artist websites rather than getting all of their news from Shoutmouth.
• Sophistication : While some official music artist websites are technologically sophisticated, offering forums, networking and other worthwhile features, the majority of artist and fan websites have limited usability, functionality and networking ability. In fact, this deficiency has lead to the success of MusicToday, which provides front and back-end technology to power artist websites.

Specifically, MusicToday offers web design and hosting, develops sophisticated online stores, builds online fan clubs and offers web ticketing among other services to select top music artists such as Dave Matthews Band, Christina Aguilera, Kenny Chesney, Britney Spears and Usher. While offering sophisticated tools for select music artist websites, MusicToday offers little to no music news nor advanced social networking functions. For instance, the official Dave Matthews Band website offers less than one news story per month.

F. Direct Competitors: Community-Based Music News Sites

Shoutmouth’s direct competitors are other music news websites that have social or community features that allow users to join the site, submit articles, comment on articles, create public profiles and/or communicate with other members. Shoutmouth has identified one significant player who offers this service, AbsolutePunk.net.

AbsolutePunk.net has done a good job of building a user base (the site claims 125,000+ registered members and nearly 500,000 un-registered members). In addition, the user base is very active — the average story on their site receives approximately 20 comments. AbsolutePunk.net offers music news, reviews, pictures and interviews among other features.

On the negative side, AbsolutePunk.net’s articles are generally posted by one staff writer (as opposed to Shoutmouth’s five writers), most articles are simply one sentence posts rather than full articles, and no attempt seems to have been made to cover all news stories. In addition, the site only covers the punk music genre. Although “punk” is broadly defined on the site, the site doesn’t cater to genres such as R&B, rap and country among others, failing to satisfy the broader market.

AbsolutePunk.net is owned by Indieclick, a Los Angeles-based media company. According to the AbsolutePunk.net website, the site:

• Has developed a loyal (72% return rate) reader base
• 5,182,147 Posts
• 163,535 Threads
• 126,448 Members
• 1,711 Artist Profiles
• 20,774 Multimedia Files
• Approx 76,000 visits per day.
• Approx 276,000 pageviews per day.