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Steps To Draft And Execute A Freelance Business Plan

Steps To Draft And Execute A Freelance Business Plan

For most businesses, drafting a viable business plan is one very important means of achieving the goals and objectives of the business. Business plans are expected to guide you to know the right things to do and serve as a pointer to every business success. A typical business plan captures everything that is expected to happen during the course of the business. It contains the staff structure, organizational ethics and management. In freelance, we can also draft and execute business plans. The fact that a freelance business is being done online does not make it less of a business. Therefore, every normal procedure involved in business set up should also be present in a freelance business, business plan inclusive.

Table Of Contents

  • Importance of business plan for freelance
  • Freelance business plan template
  • Execution of a business plan

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IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS PLAN FOR FREELANCE

The saying that he who fails to plan has planned to fail cannot be overemphasized. To make a freelance business plan is one area many have neglected for a long time. To them, only physical businesses require planning but this is not true. The following are the importance of freelance business plan:

  • Serves as a guide
  • Serves as a check and balance mechanism
  • Helps you monitor your business progress
  • Determines how you'd react to business changes

1. Serves As A Guide

A business plan will guide you. It gives you a sense of direction, tells you where to go and how to go that way. A business plan for freelance has become inevitable. You need to have a guide and that's what a business plan does for you. With a freelance business plan, you are able to understand why you should identify with a particular freelance niche. You can go back to your business plan to know why you started out in the first place.

2. Serves As A Check And Balance Mechanism

If you have to report to a superior, you'd most likely be mindful of what you do. Your superior serves as a check and balance and helps regulate your activities. This is what a business plan does for a freelancer. It helps to monitor what you do and ensure you're not abusing the opportunities presented to you by freelance. The opportunities available for freelancers are numerous and they are subject to abuse if not properly handled. Your freelance business plan ensures you are always on the right track.

3. Helps You Monitor Your Business Progress

Assume you're traveling and you didn't tell anyone about your journey, it simply means that no one can monitor your movement. Your freelance business plan is the vehicle that drives you to your destination and at the same time monitors your progress along the way. If you have drafted out what you want to achieve as a freelancer, you'd be in a better position to check how far you've gone with it. Your business plan enables you know what you have achieved out of all you intended to and at the same time ensures you are able to know those things you haven't done right. Your business progress as a freelancer is easy to be determined when there's a business plan in place.

4. Determines How You'd React To Business Changes

A business plan tells you about expected changes in the course of the business and how best to handle them. You don't draft a business plan in isolation. You must have made certain enquiries and followed antecedents set by others. From this you can predict changes and how you should handle them when they occur. A freelancer without a business plan will be taken by storm when changes occur.

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FREELANCE BUSINESS PLAN TEMPLATE

A typical freelance business plan should capture the following:

  • Freelance market analysis
  • Product or service analysis
  • Staffing
  • Financial analysis
  • Competitive edge

1. Freelance Market Analysis

Every good business plan captures the analysis of the market involved. For freelance, our marketplace is the freelance platform. You have to run a thorough check and find out what freelance platform is compatible with what you want to achieve. A good freelance platform that has remained consistent is UpMyChain. For a freelance firm, your market is the audience who would have to join your platform. You should find out what other freelance firms are doing and decide the best audience to target.

2. Product or Service Analysis

Making a good business plan for a freelancer involves deciding on the niche to identify with. This serves as your product or service. You could decide to concentrate on freelance writing, graphic design or what have you. It's necessary to have it captured in your business plan. For a freelance firm, you can decide to come up with the product and services that your platform can help Individuals carry out. 

3. Staffing

A freelancer is just an individual but you can run a proxy staffing system where you have fellow freelancers helping you get some jobs done collectively. There are freelancers who have teamed up with others with different skills. For a freelance firm, you have to put together the right staff that can help you achieve your organizational goals. A freelance firm can have writers, graphic designers, web developers, etc. This can form your dependable staff. A good staffing structure will help you achieve your business objectives.

4. Financial Analysis

A good business plan takes into account the financial decisions of the organization. As a freelancer, you must know what you intend to charge for your services and this could be according to job done, skill involved or time spent. Have it properly mapped out. For a freelance firm, you have to decide on the right percentage to charge freelancers using your platform, expenses to be made and total income realizable.

5. Competitive Edge

Ensure to find out what other freelancers are doing. The competition is real. So to stay above your competitors, you should endeavour to have better skills, a more productive mindset, robust communication method and good marketing strategy. This will give you an edge either as an individual freelancer or a freelance firm. The freelance firm here means a freelance platform or a freelance company that accepts freelance gigs as a group.

EXECUTION OF BUSINESS PLAN

You cannot execute a business plan when there was no plan in place in the first place. So you must have completed a robust and workable business plan, then follow the execution rules. They are:

  • Follow your business plan religiously. Don't derail.
  • If there's a need for change, put it down in your business plan first before carrying it out.
  • Always check your business progress
  • Keep records
  • Give accounts

Easy Answers

  1. Serves as a guide
  2. Serves as a check and balance mechanism
  3. Helps you monitor your business progress
  4. Determines how you'd react to business changes
  5. Freelance market analysis
  6. Product or service analysis
  7. Staffing
  8. Financial analysis
  9. Competitive edge

If you found this article helpful, do well to leave a comment using the comment box below. 

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