Planning Your Business

Hey, you! It's Thursday. It's 10 am, and you know what time it is – it's Coffee Chats with Candice. Let's grab a cup of coffee, or a beverage of your choice. No judgement here, and that includes your business, too. Not your personal business, but your business business, but not judgmental either. So, we're going to chat “Business Planning" today. All right, so, so excited to be in this fourth quarter, and discussing business again. I'm so excited to help you get ready to start your business, for going into the new year, going into the holiday season, if you're, you know, a crafty person and you want to create some things. So, anyway, let's get started. 

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Candice Montgomery, and I'm the founder of the “Beginner's Guide to Budgeting” and “Monetize Your Dream,” a course to master business basics. I help new and aspiring women entrepreneurs master business basics, so that they can achieve personal and financial freedom. I own three businesses. The first one, my husband and I started in 1996 and it's now in its 27th year. We've paid-off over $450,000 in 7 years time. And since 2022, we have been completely debt-free, in our personal and in our business lives. I am so passionate about business, and budgeting and sharing that with you, and encouraging you being your cheerleader helping you grow. So let's talk about “Planning your business.” 

Today, we're talking about planning your business, it’s not about business planning, as in projections, or charts or anything like that. I'm talking about business planning to start a business or to get you rolling, if you've just started and you need some help moving along.

The first thing you want to do is you want to dream it. Write it down. What do you envision that your business will be like? Will you have a brick and mortar location? Or will you be online? We have both brick and mortar locations, and then we have an online business, so they both operate the same as far as business goes, but they operate different as far as how you acquire customers. How will you market your business? And so on. But we're not going to go into details on that. Are you going to sell products or services? Or will you do both? So, that's something to think about. What is your business going to be? How do you see yourself in your business? Are you going to be making things are you going to be just providing a service? So, consulting or just repairs or anything, I mean, it could be anything you can do. Being a CPA, which I'm not a CPA, or an accountant. I've already said that, so that's the disclaimer, but just giving you an example.

The next thing you want to do is you want to make a list. That is the very first thing I did when my husband said he wanted to have a business 27 years ago, he said, “I want it,” and I said, “Okay, what do we need, and how are we going to get it?” I'm the planner and the doer, and so I got my pen and my paper, and I just started writing things down and whatever came to my mind – so basically did a brain dump. What did you know? what do you need to get started licensed? Do you have to take tests or do you have to pass things? Do you have to purchase products in order to make products? Do you have to have an inventory of anything? What tools do you have to have?  So, there's so many things that you need to do, and making a list is the very first thing to do it and you need to dream about it. You know, what do you see?

I want to encourage you also, when we start a business, sometimes we we wish that our friends and our family would be our biggest supporters, but sometimes they're not. Because they don't realize the passion, or they don't see what we want to do. I don't want you to get discouraged if you talk to talk to your friends or your family, and they say, “You know what, you're never going to be able to do that,” or “Nobody's going to do that. Nobody's gonna buy that.” So, I want to be here, that's what I'm here for –  is to encourage you and to help you, and to tell you, “Hey, are you on the right path? Or do you need to rethink that? So you want to do some research? That's the next thing you want to do?” So who do you know that can help you? I can help you. What do you think? “Oh, you know, what I could have done?” I could have done that, you know, the Blake Shelton thing this way? So what do you think the cost is gonna cost to you to have a business? Do you have to put some money up front? Do you have to purchase a location? Are you just going to start in your home? So many things! You need to write it down, and think about what the cost of that is. Now, you're not going to know exactly what things are going to cost, that you want to put that down to start that process of thinking, and start that process of learning, the things to expect, and that not all the money that you're going to make is going to be yours, you're going to have to put it aside. And there's different things I've talked about with that as well. So, do people actually want what you want to sell?That's kind of important. If they don't want what you want to sell, then nobody's gonna buy it, right? If you price too high, then maybe that particular demographic that you're going after is not the right demographic. Maybe you have to change that. Maybe not change your pricing, but maybe change who you're going to who you're directing your business towards.  

When it comes to starting a business, I've been where you are, I know how you feel. When we started. It was before Google and Facebook existed. I was 22, my husband was 24. And I know it's confusing, and I was so excited! I was just so “gung ho" to do it. I mean, I never thought about having a business. I mean, maybe I did, because my parents were both entrepreneurial. But at the time, when we were first married, and everything, that wasn't something that was just on my radar. So when he said it, I was just like, “Okay, let's do it!” or “I can do this!” So, I know it can be confusing and I can help you with that. If you, or someone you know needs help, send them my way. I do one-on-one coaching. And soon, I will be launching a new group! It’s a new group program, and I can't wait to share more information with you about what's coming. 

All right. So I want to thank you so much for joining me here today. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to listen to me, and if you found value in this message, please share it with your friends and family or acquaintances business, colleagues, and share, like, and comment because that helps get my message out and that helps more people be able to see and I can serve more people. So, thank you so much, and I hope you have a fabulous Thursday and a fabulous weekend!