Your Simple Business Plan

Creating a Business Plan for Business Bootstrapping

Use a simple business plan for your cleaning business. In fact, we'd encourage most people not to have a business plan at all. And most of all don't confuse a business plan with a marketing plan.

To make my point, and to help you succeed, here are some business planning and marketing basics for your home based cleaning business.

We talk to so many people who think they need a fancy business plan, with an executive summary, business description, market analysis, management team overview, and operations overview. A business plan of this type also covers risk and reward regarding finances, and an appendix section to cover additional documentation typical to the type of business that the business plan was written for.

Don't do it. Don't think for a minute that you need this type of plan. This whole site is dedicated to supporting you creating a simple, successful cleaning business.

I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted just thinking about this kind of complex plan! And really, to start a cleaning business the way we'll teach you here--you don't need a business plan that's this fancy.

I actually wrote one. Once. It was a grueling experience that I wasted a lot of time on, because my aim wasn't to attract a huge pile of money from an investor. Someone told me that I had to have a business plan to start my business.

That's wrong. It's not true.

Know why?

This type of business plan, and all that are made of these parts aren't for you (the business owner). The only reason these lengthy business plans are written is for banks and venture capitalists. They're for proving that you have a business worth investing in--they're for getting money to run your business.

Creating a business plan can be helpful if you get some perspective on how to run your business better. We here at Think-House-Cleaning.com do not want you to get into big debt right at the beginning! Everything we show you on this site can generally be accomplished with savings, a credit card, or a small bank loan.

Then of course we want you to run your business with your cash flow! That's the best. Rather than getting big bank loans or VC money, this is business bootstrapping at its best.

We've shown you the parts of a fancy business plan at the opening of this article so you can see what they entail. Now you can forget them!

The rest of this article shows you the parts of a simple business plan that you can follow without creating huge debt and without bringing in partners who will take over your business (where you'll lose control)...

Your plan is singular... Make money. Now, for those who think that sounds crass, then soften it by saying you'll make money by providing great service.

Feel better? ;-)

The Essential Parts of Your Simple Business Plan

With your goal in mind, keep the following points in front of you (on note cards, a printed list on your wall, or a virtual sticky on your computer screen)...

1. Every day that you clean for pay is a day that you've moved ahead with your goal.
2. Always do actions that take you closer to your goals, as opposed to actions that are just busy work.

That's it! That's your business plan. Clean. Simple.

For clarification, a right action would be prospecting or cleaning. Actions that don't put money in the "in" column can generally be outsourced. You may not be able to outsource work yet, but that time is coming. So be clear for now on what activities pay the bills and which ones just take up your time.

Using the simple business plan we've outlined for you, you can expect to make money.

For the purposes of our plan, you should expect to make more money than you spend. Simple economics makes sense, right?

Expanding Your Cleaning Business with Your Simple Business Plan

All good businesses know how to expand. So will you with yours. You'll be able to use the plan we've listed above as the foundation of your business for the life of the business. How you do certain activities, however, may change over time. So the good news is, as you make more money, you may not be the one who restocks your shelves, or orders supplies.

And remember, a business plan is different than a marketing plan. Your business plan is what you're doing. Your marketing plan is how you'll do it.

Even though your simple business plan is about "what" and not "how" necessarily, let's expand on the first two steps above.

You will want to plan for yourself what you'll do to get more business and to keep your existing clients. My favorite employee is the trusty web site. Your web site will do your advertising marketing online for you, and will even let you sleep at night (if done properly).

You'll also want to plan for the equipment you'll use. We covered that a bit in our cleaning equipment page.

The Simple Business Plan Summary

Your simple business plan will keep you out of most of the trouble that new small business owners run into nearly 99% of the time. Focus on doing your business. Let the business grow and take care of you. Use the tools and methods we teach here.

We want you to succeed!

Return Home from Your Simple Business Plan.