Guest Author - Lucinda Moriarty

Creating a business plan for your own personal use is relatively easy. Once written, you can use it to increase your productivity, eliminate distractions, and move closer to your goal of writing for children professionally.

If you are looking for guidance on the best way to organize your business plan, the Small Business Administration (www.sba.gov) offers a very detailed breakdown of a standard business plan on their website. The plan shown is very in-depth and includes many sections that may or may not apply to you.

Starting out, I prefer a simple plan. A plan is no good if it is too complicated to use. Your plan will grow in detail as you become more and more successful as a writer.

The essence of your business plan should state what you want to do, where you want to go, and how you plan to get there. Think of it as a plan of action. The following sections are what I recommend using when organizing a simple business plan.

I. Your Purpose. This is your overall mission statement, your passion. Write one or two sentences describing the reason you write for children.

II. Defining Your Business. This where you start to outline how you plan to accomplish your mission. In this section, describe the type of children’s writing you do as it pertains to your purpose. Are you writing books, plays, magazine articles or a combination of these? Define how much time you will dedicate to writing. If you are writing part-time but eventually want to be a full-time writer, include a proposed time line.

III. Marketing Plan of Action. This could very well be the most important part of a writer’s business plan. This is where you state how you will get your work into the hands of publishers, agents, schools, libraries, booksellers and readers. Will you develop a website? Newsletters? Present lectures? Attend networking events and conferences? Have stationery and business cards designed? Anything that has to do with selling and promoting your writing goes in this section.

IV. Your Competition. In order to be successful, you need to know your competition. Challenge yourself to fully explore your competitors. Sometimes your competition will include more than other authors in your genre.

V. Financial Goals. This section can be used to establish some financial goals for your writing. Be reasonable with your expectations. This is just a starting point for you to aim toward. Also include any necessary expenses you think you might need to incur in order to fulfill your writing goals. Including this information can help you plan for the expenses in advance.

As you move further along in your writing career you will want to revise your business plan. Include any subsections that you feel you need to keep you on track. Delete the parts that are no longer priorities.

Remember, the purpose of your plan is to help you attain your goals as a writer. It is no good if you don't use it, so make it as user friendly as possible.