Anyone starting out in the professional speaking business needs to learn how to navigate — from where you are today to where you want to be. Last Saturday, Jim Horan, author of The One Page Business Plan gave members of the NSA/NC Pro-Track training group a personal navigation lesson to guide us on our journey as professional speakers.

Jim left corporate America in the mid-1990’s when he lost his CFO job. By his own admission, he’s an accidental author, an accidental reseller and software creator. He listened to the big and little messages the marketplace gave him. He developed his ‘One Page Business Plan’ company from a simple idea to a $20m global cottage industry. His book and CD costs him $1.95 to produce and retails for $35. It’s generated over $500K income for him. More impressively, his network of over 300 licensed trainers have brought in $19.5m in revenue. Meanwhile, his speaking engagements have paid only $50K in the years since he started. Lesson one: don’t just look to speaking fees as a sole source of income as a professional speaker!

Before working through some of the very practical exercises in his book (creating a Business Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Business Objectives, Business Strategies, and complete Business Plan), Jim encouraged us to realize that “you’re all old enough to already have the customers you want to have” and “to be known by others for something unique”. I realized I am known for writing great speeches for high-tech corporate executives and helping lower the barriers to international business.

Everyone’s business plan is a dialog or conversation that starts inside your own head. Creating the business plan is the first step for a professional speaker who wants to make a living “printing thousand dollar bills with your mouth”. We all already have plans, whether we are the CEO or a Janitor. People who say they don’t have a plan might mean:

Having a written business plan will:

Jim’s genius is in showing how the One Page Business Plan works: it’s simple, focused, readily understandable, versatile, consistent and flexible.

The components of the plan work together to help us navigate the journey of building a business:

Enough theory!

At the end of the day my One Page Business Plan for Executive Communications (rev 1.00001) was as follows:

Vision:

Within the next five years , grow Executive Communications into a successful international consulting company providing business development assistance to companies looking for opportunities to expand overseas.

Mission:

I help successful businesses embrace opportunities for overseas expansion.

Objectives (for my ‘active retirement’ years once I no longer have a W-2 job):

To achieve sales of $240,000 from 24 customers at a rate of one new customer a week for six months of the year with an average dollar engagement of $10,000 comprised of $2,000/day speaking and consulting fees for a total number 1000 of billable hours each year from 2011 onwards.

Strategies:

Plans:

Project 1: Develop this blog into articles and a book.
Project 2: Coach one business into successful overseas expansion.
Project 3: Host overseas companies visiting Silicon Valley.
Project 4: Network with successful international individuals and entities in the corporate world.

Given that this was the result of less than a full day’s energy and attention it’s a good start.

I wonder if there are other folks sharing their business plans on the web? In Blogs? Many people might feel like this is overexposing themselves. That’s so last century. The ascendancy of the open systems approach in the computer world shows the value of networking and sharing. In the business world, The Republic Of Tea is a classic chronicle of the birth of a new business that shows the value in sharing ideas.

With that, I look forward to the comments from my Pro-Track team members about my business plan!