I’m delighted to announce that Sterling Peake will be teaching a JamSession at BizJam on June 9th, titled Business Plans – Your Roadmap To Freedom. It’s a topic that I think a lot of us indie business people skip in the rush to building our businesses, but Sterling believes that’s a mistake. “The process of writing a business plan is one of the most rewarding experiences there is for a business owner,” she says. “It will instill confidence in you to help you face the day-to-day challenges of owning a company because you always know what you’re working toward.”

Here’s the full text of her session description:

So you’ve got an idea and you want to share it with the world. Now where do you begin? What skills do you have and what skills are you missing in order for you to realize this dream? Though many of us lay in bed asking these questions, very few of us actually write them down and answer them. The process of writing a business plan is one of the most rewarding experiences there is for a business owner. It will instill confidence in you to help you face the day-to-day challenges of owning a company because you always know what you’re working toward. In this session we’re going to talk about the following:

• What you need before you can start writing a business plan
• Why you should even bother spending the time on this
• How and where you begin this journey
• Plans are different depending on who is reading them (i.e. you, investors, clients etc.)
• Common pitfalls and short cuts that only make your life harder
• Making the process easier with friends, family and resources

We will cover market research, financial projections, advertising strategies, management skills and how to effectively describe your product or service. It’s easy to write a 50 page business plan. The real challenge is writing an effective 5 page one. Come to this session to find out how to end up with your plan finished in two weeks.

More about Sterling

I’ve been dreaming up businesses since I was 13 and I’ve been writing business plans since I was a freshman in high school. I’ve won over $15,000 in prize money and written plans from restaurants to services to manufacturing. Though most of the plans I’ve written have been for competitions, one of my recent plans has turned into a full-time job for me. I started Green Paw Studios in June of 2006 and having been running this dog training and boarding company ever since. I’m usually always working on a business plan on the side though.

Writing business plans has always been a passion of mine. It’s like trying to solve a puzzle. You ask yourself a million questions so you can stand up and say, I know this is a great idea and it can work! I am fortunate to have a very colorful background in marketing, finance and sales which has helped me in understanding the different aspects of a business plan from the advertising strategy to the projected cash flow statements. Like anything, the more you do something, the better you get at it. After 7 years of writing business plans, I’ve boiled the process down to the essentials and can craft a very effective plan in a few weeks. I love sharing this information with people because it builds stronger companies and together, our business network can make the world a better place.