Tag: Writing

Top 3 Reasons For Writing Business Plans

Whether you are a start up or established business, and whether you are a non-profit organization, writing a business plan can be one of the most useful things you can do for your business. Obviously there are different types of business plans depending on the nature of your company or organization. It’s not enough that you have a “hunch” your new start up will be a roaring success, or you believe your latest web. 2.0 idea a surefire “ten bagger” success for the lucky venture capitalist. There are people who need to take a close look at your business plan; whether it’s you, internal management or external investors. In this article, we will look at the top three reasons for writing business plans.

First to answer the question: “Is the business feasible?”

Before you actually commit funds, manpower and time on starting a business, it helps to actually have a “dry run” to see if the venture you have in mind has a good chance of success. The business planning process forces you to look at what your competitors are doing and to ask yourself how you can differentiate your product or service. Typically we call this a SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. At the same time you want to identify, as clearly as possible your unique selling proposition. This can be a special feature or something unique about your branding. Just be different and attractive in the eyes of your target market. Going through this process will give you a better idea of you chances for success in the marketplace.

Then look at your projected financials – do you have the required funds to start your business? Where are you going to raise the capital? How soon will the business break even? All of them are pertinent questions.

Secondly, a business plan is used to help secure loans from banks or financing from outside investors. Typically if you are a start up, you will find it very hard to get any financing from your local bank unless you have landed collateral, regardless if you have a plan written or not. If your business is established for several years and have healthy cash flow, then the bank will definitely want to see your financials before given you any loans or bridge financing.

If you are looking for angels or venture capital investment, then a business plan, particularly the executive summary is what they will require. What’s more important to these investors, more than the plan itself, is the entrepreneur’s track record and the strength of your management team. Be sure to include these important points in your bplan.

Last but not least, a written business plan should be constantly evolving. It acts as a blue print to guide management in the execution of business strategy and to meet goals. By constantly reviewing and updating the plan, it is used as a useful communication tool within the company to guide business growth.

We’ve looked at some good reasons from writing business plans. Now, if you don’t think you know how to write one, help is available. Look for a template online, such as at the site given below. Or better still get business plan software. The good ones, such as Business Plan Pro 2007, are easy to use and will guide you to input the necessary text and numbers and come out with a complete plan for you. There’s absolutely no reason why any business person should not have a business plan blueprint.

Writing an Effective Business Plan – What to Do and What Not to Do

Business plans are vitally important documents, both for raising investment and for generating common understanding about proposals for the future. Most of these plans take weeks to produce, and many are written with the help of corporate finance advisors and other professionals. We have the pain and privilege of being a paid reviewer of plans, and the frightening reality of our experience is that most of them sit somewhere in the range of poor to terrible. However, most of the problems can be fixed with some simple disciplines.

In this article, we list the most common errors we see, and some recommendations for writing a more effective plan.

Common errors

The plan is too long

No one will invest straight off the back of a plan. If they are intrigued by it, they will want to meet you and find out more. The plan needs to be sensible, but if they invest, they are investing in you. They will be backing your ability to achieve the plan or, more likely, something just as good when life inevitably turns out differently. So your objective is simply to say enough that the reader can decide that they either want to meet you or that they are not interested, and no one’s time is wasted as a result.

Whoever your target reader may be, they need to read the plan in one sitting and retain what they read. This means you have 10-20 pages to get your plan across. You cannot possibly detail every idea, initiative and piece of evidence in a ten-page document. So your challenge for the plan is to summarise the important points, just enough to whet a reader’s appetite and either entice them to want to meet you or decide quickly that it’s not for them.

The plan is overtly optimistic, ignoring the risks and negatives

Plan writers naturally try to put their idea across as positively and attractively as possible. This is natural, and it is important to be positive and put across your passion; but most plans end up as blatantly optimistic sales documents, with little thought to risks and downsides. Unfortunately, this propensity increases with the use of poorly qualified advisers.

Readers want to see their concerns being pre-empted and addressed rigorously in the plan, not dismissed or ignored. Your plan is an opportunity for you to put yourself across as a passionate but practical business person, and build your credibility before meeting potential investors. If the plan dwells only on the upside, you come across as unrealistic.

It looks like a filled-in template

Some sections of plans really are necessary most of the time. It’s rare that you don’t need a section discussing the relevant market trends, the distinctive differences of your service or the projected financials. However, crow-barring in a SWOT analysis or a Porter’s Five Forces puts you in serious danger of looking like an amateur business plan writer, rather than a smart professional with a convincing investment proposal. If a section adds to the reader’s understanding in a neat, focused manner, then go ahead with it, but blind application of template business tools will make your plan much worse.

It contains too many broad generalisations

Most plans focus on a specific opportunity in a specific market, but descriptions of the market and the opportunity are often so generalised as to be meaningless. If your plan is for home pet-sitting in London, showing how many millions of cats are bought every year in the UK is almost irrelevant.

Describe your service, your market and the reasons people will buy as precisely as possible. You will need to make assumptions, but as long as you state what they are and why they are credible or conservative, then you have a context that is meaningful to all involved.

It is written in language that impairs the readers’ judgment of the business

It is amazing how many people have a writing style that detracts from the quality of their thinking and business ideas. A business plan is a serious document that needs snappy, simple writing to get the point across: one idea per paragraph, one point per sentence. No sales-speak, no rhetorical questions, no use of complex technical language. Furthermore, too much business-speak is common in many plans but gives an impression of vague thinking and lack of real world practicality, it can be annoying and a turn-off for the reader. Language may not improve the appeal of your business but it allows the reader to clearly understand your thinking without distractions.

OK, that’s what not to do.  Now we cover the key aspects of an effective plan.

Writing an effective plan

Be clear about who and what the plan is for

You need to think about this to determine what is in the plan and how much you need to explain. The plan is confined to information and context relevant to the target audience to achieve this end. For example, a plan used to attract an external investor will need a market section explaining the fundamentals; one used to generate Board agreement about a new course of action may only need a commentary on recent changes or trends.

Convince yourself first

A good plan needs to convey both passion and credibility. Credibility is the factor that is almost always lacking. The harder the plan writer challenges his own thinking and his own assumptions, the more credible and higher quality the plan. Your own concerns and lack of clarity will come out at some stage during the process, so you need to be the one that takes control – test and pre-empt them before someone else does.

Realise that the plan is step one of many

The most successful, well-written plan will not be the single killer step that by itself secures investment, agreement to proceed, or whatever the ultimate objective may be. It is only step one, to be followed by meetings, questions and challenges.

The role of the plan is to help clarify the opportunity for all involved and build your credibility, so that subsequent discussions are productive and focused on how things are going to get done.

Be brief and clear

The plan needs to contain enough to describe the opportunity, why it is attractive, how you are going to exploit it, and no more. If you are enthusiastic about the opportunity, you will be able to write at-length, most likely well beyond the tolerance level of most readers. You will need to be deliberate in your efforts to bring out the most important points, reduce redundancy, and be clear and specific about anything that is open to interpretation. Use the document to intrigue the reader, not cover every angle.

That covers the key characteristics of the most effective plans we review. Now we outline typical sections that we expect to see in some form in the plans we review:

Plan contents

The bullets below show a typical framework for a plan. This framework is a start point and no more than that. It needs to be cut and changed to tell the story you want to tell in the clearest, most relevant way. With the right mindset and style for the plan, you can adapt the sections below to get your idea across, and generate credibility and interest from your target audience.

Business Plan Template

Executive summary (1 page)

Summary description of the business containing enough for a person to understand it in 5 minutes. One paragraph each on:

– Business background (description of the business)

– Vision and strategy

– Relevant market background and trends

– Revenue and cost expectations (short summary table)

– Key next steps in implementation plan

Business description (1-2 pages)

Background

– Description of the products or services the business will provide, and why they are better or different than what already exists

– Description of the customer groups

– Any other relevant background needed to understand the business

– Any relevant history

Vision

– Description of your vision for the business that will get people excited. Include any tangible targets in terms of sales, customers, product performance, market share, etc.

Strategy

– Summary description of how the business will achieve the vision described above. Include relevant descriptions of how your product or service will developed and marketed, and any other important issues to get right, e.g. technology, sourcing products, etc

Market (1-2 pages)

– Description of the market including estimates of overall size and the opportunity for your product/service

– Description of any market trends that are relevant to demand for your product/service

Competition (1 page)

– Description of direct competitors and alternative products or services customers have to buying your products/services

– Explanation of why your product/service is better or different than the competition

Revenue streams (1 page)

– Description and quantification of all major revenue streams for a three year period, being clear about all assumptions

Costs (1 page)

– Description and quantification of all major costs for a three year period

Implementation plan (1-2 pages)

– Explanation of all major steps required to get business up and running, and performing in the first year. This is best done as a table describing with all major actions with deadlines and responsibilities

Financial projections (1 page)

– 3 year summary profit and loss account

– Description of all major investments

Team background and credentials (1 page)

– One paragraph on each of the team members

So there you have it. At its heart, a great plan will describe a great idea, supported by a great team, but will do so in a brief, clear way, that gets to the point and intrigues the potential backer.

The last plan we wrote was for a start-up sports team and it raised a £40m investment, from the first backer the team approached, within two months. The plan was short and simple with not a SWOT analysis in sight, but it was a great idea and had a great team. The plan was just step one.

Why Hire Business Plan Writing and Editing Services?

There can be many ways to approach the writing and editing of a business plan. We will discuss some of the basics about the structure and content of a good plan. One of the keys to creating a great plan that meets the needs of investors, banks, and even grant providers, is to make sure that you understand your business well, whether it’s a start-up company or one that has been in operation for many years. Professional business plan consultants help owners, directors and founders to develop a better understanding of their business in order to assist in providing answers to questions that will create a solid business and financial plan for any purpose.

Business Plan Templates and Outlines

Most experienced business owners strongly recommend hiring a professional plan writing company to create a business plan. They have learned a lot in all their years in business and know that it is important to hire experts in their fields. Companies that are reputable and have been creating plans for many years are the best options. Often, when someone attempts to create their own plan, it can take months to complete if it even gets completed at all! Professionals know how to move through a plan template or outline and fill it in with pertinent and well-written information.

So, what are the key sections of a great plan document? Well, there are many opinions to this as well as ways to approach it, but there are definitely some key ‘ingredients’ to a solid plan. A great plan features all the typical main sections, but also has many refinements not found in the average plan. The main sections recommended include a clean, well-designed cover page, table of contents, cover letter, executive summary, business overview, sales and marketing section, operations section, HR section, action plan and financial section with tables for – at the very minimum – expenses, revenue, and cash flow projections. Within these sections, a professional writer creates many headings and lots of writing that describes every aspect of the business in very good detail. On average, most business plans end up being about 25 to 35 pages in length.

Plan Creation Process

Typically, the process for creating a business plan goes like this: The client discusses their business with the writer and pays a deposit. The writer starts immediately on the business plan by creating an initial layout and inputting all the known information. This is followed by compiling a list of basic questions for the client to answer in point-form related to the details of the business. These questions are usually easy to answer within a day or two because clients already know the basics about their business. The writer then receives the answers and uses the information to create sentences and paragraphs and fill in the plan’s content. Once the written parts are done, the writer will work with the business owner and a financial expert on the financial tables that will go at the end of the plan.

Timelines

Timelines vary greatly for creating a plan depending on the writer’s experience, the business type, the detail required, and how much industry and market research is necessary. There may also be other factors. In most cases, however, a detailed plan can be created within 2-3 weeks.

Plan Costs

Business plan writers and companies charge very different amounts for their services, ranging from as little as $500 to as much as $5000 or more. A good pricing model is based on the factors mentioned earlier, such as length, complexity, research required, etc. Generally, $500 is not enough for a plan because of the many hours that go into creating one, and $5000 is way too much for clients to pay. That being said, a good, well-written and professional document of about 30 pages in length should be more in the range of $900 to $1500. This pricing structure is very reasonable considering that most of the work can take more than 50 hours to complete. In terms of an hourly rate, most professionals charge between $25 to $35 per hour.

Buy a Business Plan Template to Jump Start Your Writing

A business plan template is a product which can give your writing a significant jump start, shaving hours and maybe days off of your business plan development time. Rather than working on a plan from scratch, pulling together directions and guidance from multiple websites or sources, using a business plan template offers you direct and practical guidance on how to create a full business plan all in one package.

Guidance

The template should include directions to show how to customize it to reflect your specific business. This may come within the template itself or in a separate set of instructions. Regardless, the effect is like having a business plan consultant with you, nudging you in the right direction throughout your writing process.

Format

A business plan template comes pre-formatted, with appropriate fonts, colors, and sections. The cover sheet, table of contents, headings, and page layouts will be preset. All of this work allows you to sidestep concerns about your format and presentation style, and move on to focus on the ideas behind the plan’s major sections.

Graphics and Charts

A template may present many potential spots for graphics and charts to replace text. This will make your plan much more attractive and save you the time of developing these graphics yourself.

Financials

A financial model in Excel or a similar program will give you a significant short cut when it comes to the financial section. After entering your financial assumptions (such as average price, units you expect to sell, revenue growth rates, startup costs, and operating costs), the model should automatically generate valid pro forma financial statements in the format required by funders (generally, greater detail for the first one to three years, with annual numbers for the first five years of operation. Not only do you not need to be an accounting whiz to use such a template, but you can quickly and easily try out different financial assumptions and see how they change your statements and return over the years.

Tips on Writing an Effective Social Media Marketing Request For Proposal (RFP)

About a year ago, I wrote an article with guidelines on writing a website design and development Request for Proposal (RFP), which received a great response. Now I think it’s high time to do the same thing for those wishing to engage an agency for Social Media Marketing and other Online Marketing and Advertising consultation and implementation.

Below are my suggestions of how to prepare an RFP for social media projects, retainers and campaigns. I also suggest doing research online and viewing other Request for Proposals to see what works best for your organization. Keep in mind that whatever format you choose will determine not only how long the responses are, but also what type of focus you are looking for from the respondents. Each section of the RFP is outlined below, along with some explanation and suggested questions. Have fun!

Information about your organization and project

Introduction

The purpose of this section is to give a brief overview of the company issuing the RFP and the social media project or desired work relationship between the company and the vendor. Provide as much information as you feel is necessary to allow vendors to prepare an accurate proposal. If you feel that there is certain proprietary or other information that you do not wish to make public, require a Non Disclosure Agreement be signed before receiving that information. This may limit the participation of vendors, but it is oftentimes necessary to protect private information.

1. Company Overview

  • Organizational history
  • Your business objectives
  • Your company’s history using social media or reasons why your organization intends to begin to participate in social media

2. Overview of Project

  • State the project objectives and how they relate to the business objectives stated above. Explain the type of vendor relationship desired i.e. Project-based, Agency of Record, etc. Explain the current involvement your organization has with social media channels and how they relate to both your organization’s primary presence and any related campaigns
  • Explain the social media channels you wish the campaign to involve, unless you are looking for suggestions of which to use, then please specify that to the vendors
  • Explain how the project fits into your overall marketing strategy (online and offline) and if there is another vendor involved in other aspects of your Advertising and Marketing initiatives
  • Explain the measurable outcomes you would like to see
  • Explain the duration of the work – is it a temporary campaign, or an ongoing organizational marketing platform?

3. Overview of Audiences and Stakeholders

  • List primary audiences for the company, i.e. demographics, psychographics, etc
  • List primary information needs of each audience group
  • Identify if any market or audience research will be necessary in the execution of the campaign

4. Overview of Response

  • Make it clear the type of response you are looking for:
  • Are you looking for a hypothetical approach, or an explanation of the vendor’s process of how they will come to create your campaign. Many times a hypothetical approach is not the best way to approach an RFP process simply because a vendor will be missing several key pieces of information that might negatively affect their ability to propose a specific solution. We suggest looking for more general responses and weighing the effectiveness of past client work heavily

Guidelines for Proposal Preparation

  • In order to give all qualified vendors a level playing field, it’s important to set up an easy to follow schedule for both when your RFP is issued, when and to whom questions are allowed, and when and in what format responses are required
  • Specify the date the RFP was issued (Month, Day, Year). If your RFP is publicly listed, it will help those searching for RFPs on Google or by other methods to find relevant Request for Proposals
  • An optional requirement is to specify that all interested vendors register their intent to submit a proposal by a certain date – usually within 1-2 weeks of the RFP issue. This is a good way to limit the potential number of vendors who respond if you anticipate a large volume of proposals and would rather receive a smaller amount
  • We recommend allowing a question and answer period that ends at least 1 week before the proposal is due. It is up to you whether to allow questions by email, conference call or individual phone calls. We do recommend that you share all the questions (and answers) with all interested vendors in order to keep things as equal as possible. Always specify which format -phone call, email, and to whom these questions should be addressed. We recommend identifying a single person in your organization to be the point of contact. Just make sure vacation schedules, etc don’t interfere with this process, and if there is any other reason why the primary point of contact might need to be out of town during the process, specify a secondary point of contact
  • Responses from issuer to be sent by 20XX in the following formats (specify whether electronic submissions, hard copies or both must be either emailed, mailed or hand-delivered)
  • On the basis of the replies to the RFP document, a short list of potential vendors will be selected and this group will be asked to present demonstrations of their capabilities and vision for the project. These meetings will be completed by XXth, 20XX
  • Awarding of the contract to selected Vendor by XXth, 20XX
  • Work to commence by 20XX and to last until (if applicable)

Vendor Questions and Qualifications

The following is a series of questions that, if applicable, we suggest you ask the vendors submitting proposals. Some may not apply, but it is a great idea to get as much of an idea of the vendor’s approach and philosophy on social media as possible. Compare the responses both among each other, and to the research and reading that you have done to make sure that the vendor is up to date with the latest thinking and best practices.

COMPANY DETAILS

  • Company name and parent company name
  • Ownership structure
  • Years in operation
  • Mailing address (headquarters)
  • Other office location(s)
  • Primary phone
  • Fax number
  • Website and blog URL
  • Primary point of contact (name, title, phone and email address)
  • Total number of employees
  • Number of vendor employees whose primary function is social media
  • Current client list with those engaged in social media work identified
  • Percentage of total revenue that is social-media related
  • Three references for social media work including; company name, primary client name, contact details and brief explanation of services provided
  • Any potential conflicts with existing vendor client base and this RFP
  • Senior social media staff bios and links to social media profiles where applicable
  • Please provide a complete list of relevant social media platform and technology partners
  • References from clients currently engaged in social media work with the vendor

CAPABILITIES & EXPERIENCE

  • List all social media and online marketing capabilities
  • Do you have any proprietary tools or products related to social media?
  • Please list any experience you have with integrating social, paid and/or earned media
  • Is there a specific industry or type of work your firm specializes in?
  • Please list and provide links to primary social media communication channels for your company (i.e.company blog,Twitter account, Facebook group, blogs authored by principals, etc.)

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

  • Please outline your social media strategy process
  • Which stakeholder groups do you typically include in a strategy engagement?
  • Describe the final deliverable of a strategy engagement
  • What is your approach to risk management in social media?
  • How do you incorporate existing applications, websites, microsites and newsletter programs into your overall social media strategy?
  • How do you ensure compliance with client legal requirements?
  • Please describe your approach to integrating across client marketing, customer service and corporate communications departments. Please provide an example of your work in this area
  • How do you approach adapting a traditional brand into a two-way dialogue?
  • Please provide a case study of your strategy work that resulted in a social media initiative and the business results achieved

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT & SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING

  • What is your brand/reputation monitoring process (i.e. proprietary tools used, methodology, etc)?
  • What is your opinion on automated sentiment analysis?
  • What technology do you use to assist in online monitoring?
  • How long (on average) between a potential issue being posted online and being flagged to the client?
  • What volume of mentions has your organization handled in the past (e.g. 2,500 mentions per week)?
  • What is your quality assurance process to ensure that the large volumes of data gathered in the monitoring process are handled efficiently and representative of the overall online conversation?
  • Please detail your methodology for handling online crises
  • What services do you provide in support of online crisis management?
  • Please describe the structure of your crisis management team, including bios and relevant experience
  • How do you assess which mentions require immediate responses and which do not?
  • Please outline your general approach to sourcing and responding to comments
  • Please provide a case study detailing your work for the purposes of managing reputation or online crisis management, including outcomes and lessons learned
  • Please include a sample of your monitoring report format and/or a link to appropriate dashboards (specifics should be removed)

METRICS, MEASUREMENT & REPORTING

  • What methodology do you use for measuring the success of your social media programs for clients?
  • Please provide specific examples based on past work
  • Have you developed any proprietary metrics? How have you applied these for clients?
  • How have you defined Return on Investment (ROI) from a social media perspective in the past?
  • How do you take data points generated from various social media channels and measurement tools and combine to give an objective/comprehensive view?
  • What is your approach to server analytics and community analytics for program measurement?
  • Do you have the capability to measure cost per lead or cost per acquisition? Please provide an example of a project on which you have done so
  • What platforms are you unable to measure accurately, or able to provide only limited measurements from?
  • Please provide a sample of a measurement document or final report (specifics should be removed)
  • What percentage of the budget do you recommend be dedicated to metrics and measurement?

CLIENT EDUCATION & TRAINING

  • Do you offer social media training services for clients? If yes, what formats are they available in?
  • What internal processes do you have in place to ensure that your staff is kept current on social media innovations and best practices?
  • How do you measure progress and evaluate training effectiveness?
  • How do you recommend that clients keep up to date on the latest social media innovations and best practices?

SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER DIGITAL CHANNELS

  • What are your design, creative and community management capabilities?
  • What percentage of your staff is dedicated to building and deploying social media solutions versus management and consulting?
  • Please describe your experience with the following platforms and tactics:

– YouTube or similar video sharing sites

– Blogs, Podcasts, Vodcasts, Forums

– Content Management System (CMS)

– Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

– E-mail Marketing

– Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing(SEM)

– Facebook Pages, Apps, API integration

– Mobile application development

– Twitter

– News sharing sites (i.e. Digg, Reddit, etc.)

– Virtual Worlds and Augmented reality

– Photo sharing (i.e. Flickr) and other content sharing sites (i.e. Scribd, Slideshare, Delicious, etc.)

– Social Media press releases(SMPRs)

– Crowdsourcing or Wikis

– Real world events organized via social media (e.g. Tweetups)

– Ratings/Customer service sites (i.e. Yelp, ePinions, etc.)

Please provide examples of social media channel development work completed within the last two years

COMMUNITY AND INFLUENCER OUTREACH (SOCIAL PR)

  • What is your process for identifying influencers within various social media channels?
  • How do you determine and define “influence?”
  • What is your outreach process for communicating with identified online influencers?
  • What tools and approaches do you use for Influencer Relationship Management? (Third-party, proprietary,etc.)
  • How have you integrated Influencer Outreach with traditional communications and/or marketing campaigns?
  • How do you approach seeding conversations within stakeholder groups?
  • What is your exit strategy with influencers once the initiative is completed?
  • How do you ensure authenticity and transparency when conducting outreach on behalf of a client?
  • Please provide a case study of an online community outreach project

CLIENT SERVICES & PROJECT MANAGEMENT

  • How is a typical client engagement with your firm structured?
  • How do you structure your account teams?
  • Please outline your internal communication structure. If your account staff is separate from your project management staff, please detail how these teams work together
  • If you are selected to provide social media services, who will be assigned to our business (please provide names, titles and short biographical notes)
  • What percentage of senior staff involvement is structured in to your projects? What role do they play?
  • How are your projects priced? Using an hourly rate? Blended agency rate? If the former, please provide a rate card
  • What change management practices does your agency employ?
  • What reports will be provided to the client in order to communicate project milestones and overall project health?
  • What is the frequency of these reports?
  • What is your process for gathering business requirements?

Writing a Request for Proposal (RFP) is a good first step when considering Online Marketing and Social Media work as it takes thoughtful planning to specify and construct an effective, integrated campaign. A well thought-out, quality RFP is essential to a successful endeavor because it helps you to focus on your goals and exactly how to achieve them.

Writing Resources You NEED to Know About

Many aspiring authors spend hours and hours, alone behind their computers tap, tap, tapping away. Then those hours turn into months, and of course, the months slip into years.

This is admirable. If I’m confident of anything, it’s that to be an author you have to be willing to spend hours of your life equivalent to entire years out of your life slaving away writing. I’m just for sure that you need to read at least just as much.

One thing that gets unfortunately overlooked by many is that you also have to be willing to leave your books and your computer behind sometimes. To engage others.

Not that you can’t be an introvert. Thousands of widely regarded successful authors were introverts. That’s is because in some way or another they were able to overcome, albeit sometimes only briefly, their restrictions and step outside of their comfort zones.

That’s because while writing can take many forms; journaling, hobbies writing, personal letter writing. Authorship is a profession, and that means that it falls within a business structure. No matter how sincerely you believe that Jack Kerouac went from nothing to a fantastic book within two weeks of boozing (which FYI, in reality, he didn’t). If you want to move books from shelves, you will need to approach the task earnestly. With a humble attitude that is open to working with others.

The business of writing, designing, editing, publishing, marketing, and selling your books requires a multitude of strangers. Regardless of whether you have a small budget, or you’re JK Rowling.

In fact, the small your budget, the approach is better suited to involving a large number of people each with small, potentially volunteer style task. For instance, having friends complete a narrative edit before giving it to a professional editor, to reduce the amount of paid time the editor has to spend on the manuscript.

For your first book, I highly suggest having a strong group of people who can offer various products, services, and insights to help you stay focused, motivated, and up-to-speed on the ever-changing self-publishing landscape.

Being a successful author requires a lot more than just writing a great book. You have to get into the weeds, be willing to change out of your writer’s cap and into a variety of other hats depending on where you are in the process.

You may not have the skills or willingness to tackle everything with your own two hands, and that’s why it’s so important to develop your own file of go-to resources along the way.

Here are 30 more resources to tap into along the way!

While this list is mostly self-publishing focused, if you’re going the traditional publishing route, you should still have a rigorous shift through them to make sure you are familiar with what is out there.

Useful Blogs and Sites

1. The Write Life

This workhorse blog is a one-stop-shop offering all you need to figure out how to work with clients, navigate the changing landscape of publishing, learn the ins and outs of social media, grow a following for your blog and find a community that will support you along the way. You’ll always find something useful for your book business here. Try not to get lost in the rabbit hole though. There is so much helpful information here I try to time my visits to make sure I’m not eating into my writing time!

2. Kindlepreneur

If you want to dig deep into the goulash of marketing your books, Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur is your man. His strategies are groundbreaking. Every successful author has to wear many hats, and Dave shares his years of marketing experience and success to show you how to promote the heck out of your books.

3. The Book Designer

Joel Friedlander, the creator of The Book Designer, says “Writers change the world one reader at a time. But you can’t change the world with a book that’s still on your hard drive or in a box under your bed.” This embodies the Community Writer mentality. Joel gives you everything you need to get your book out of the box with a variety of self-publishing guides, advice, templates, and toolkits. With his experience in book design and advertising, Joel has the creds to help you produce and sell a great-looking book.

4. The Creative Penn

The Creative Penn is run by Joanna Penn, who has been wildly successful with fiction and nonfiction. In her blog and podcast, she covers every aspect of what it takes to start and run a successful author business. She also has a grab bag of books on various self-publishing topics if you can’t get enough on her blog.

5. Jane Friedman’s website

Jane has more than 20 years of experience in the book and magazine publishing industry, with expertise in digital media and the future of authorship. Her site is full of actionable content and detailed strategies for the aspiring author from someone who’s been there and done that many times over.

Podcasts Worth Your Time

6. Podcast – Neuralle (Uncommon)

Please forgive the shameless self-promotion here, but aside from the fact that I will be most likely appearing on this podcast at some point, Neuralle is a fantastic self-development podcast and in my humble opinion a must for any aspiring author or entrepreneur.

Past guests have included Venture Capitalists, Entrepreneurs, Chefs, Restaurant Owners, Body Builders, Strength Coaches, Activists, Winemakers, Filmmakers and many, many more.

7. Tim Ferris Podcast

This show is the first publishing-related podcast that I followed, and it’s still an all-time favourite. It’s hosted by Tim Ferris an American best-selling author, entrepreneur, self-proclaimed “human guinea pig”, and public speaker.

8. Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Every green writer should bookmark this podcast. With helpful and insightful tips on grammar and storytelling, Mignon Fogarty’s podcast is sure to help you improve your narrative and technical writing skills.

9. The Writer Files

Hosted by Kelton Reid, The Writer Files is a long-running podcast that delves deep into habits and habitats of famed writers. Reid interviews writers from a broad spectrum, giving each listener a chance to see into the mind of an accomplished wordsmith within their genre or interest.

Forums

10. Neil Gaiman Board

Neil Gaiman’s Official Message Board. Enough said.

11. Goodreads Groups

Goodreads is the mega-site (with over 20 million members) for authors and readers. They have more specific groups than you can count, and if you can’t find an answer or inspiration here, then it doesn’t exist. You might feel a bit overwhelmed, but here’s a smart article on using Goodreads to support your author business.

12. Scribophile

There are tons of writing forums out there to choose from, so I suggest you have a play with a few of them. This one works a bit differently which is why I like it though. Scribophile provides detailed and helpful critiques from a member exchange. The analyses you’ll get are so much more than just a pat on the back – you’ll get actionable ways to improve your writing.

Writing Tools

13. Scrivener

Scrivener is a powerful writing tool for authors that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring your documents. Get a free 30-day trial and watch some brief YouTube tutorials to get acquainted with the system quickly.

14. Grammarly

This proofreading application is an improved version of your standard spellchecking program. Just copy and paste blocks of text into Grammarly, and it will check your writing for common mistakes. The reason it’s better than most spellcheckers is that it provides useful feedback that will improve the overall quality of your book. You will learn a lot very quickly by taking heed of the side bar suggestions and explanations.

15. Hemingway Editor

Excellent writing is quite often straightforward writing, and Hemingway was the master at that. Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, your narrative should get to the point with simple language. With the Hemingway software, you will learn how to simplify your writing.

Book Publishing and Freelance Help

16. Archangel Ink

Archangel Ink is a one-stop solution for getting your book ready to publish. Archangel offers a range of services to help you with cover design, editing, formatting, audiobook production and much more. I feel that if you haven’t published before you learn a lot by manually going through the process of completing your manuscript via Scrivner, finding editors/cover creators via say Reedsy/Freelancer and then uploading it to KDP/Createspace. However it can be frustrating, so I completely understand throwing down some cash and handing of some or all of this to someone else. I’m currently considering using Archangel Ink to produce and audiobook for me.

17. 99 Designs

This is a service where you post a design project, like your book cover, and dozens of freelancers submit mock-up examples. You then select finalists based on the submissions and choose the winner to work with you to create a finalised version. 99Designs can be pricey, but it’s a great option if you want a professional cover design for your book.

18. Grammarly

I won’t rant on this too much as already do that frequently enough if you don’t have the free version of this you need to get it now. What some of you might not know, is that via the paid version they have an option to connect you with a professional proof reader. I haven’t used this before but considering the calibre of everything else they do I think it’s worth investigating.

19. Freelancer

One the most significant websites for hiring freelance talent. If you want to find the largest pool of people, then this is a great place to look. The app makes chatting with prospective freelancers seamless so you can manage your project and selection of the perfect candidate on the go.

20. Reedsy

Reedsy offers a boutique experience in editing and cover design. Most freelancers here have worked in the publishing industry, so they have a thorough understanding of what will work for your books. But you should also expect to pay more for the freelancers you find here. If you’re going the self-publishing route within fiction, a professional editor is a must, an absolute necessity, seriously. Reedsy is a great way to find one, with almost every budget available. If you can’t afford the lower tier, I suggest saving your pennies or going the traditional publishing route, where a publisher will provide you a professional editor to work with.

Getting Feedback

21. Survey Monkey

Is an easy to use survey builder; ask multiple choice questions and get demographic information about your audiences, like age, sex, or occupation. You can use it for your current email list, or post a survey with a lead magnet somewhere your target audience will see it (forums, pay-per-click ad etc.)

22. PickFu

PickFu allows authors to get instant feedback on your book before you publish using audience polls. This is a more advanced option for those who already have income streams, again I don’t suggest paying for a resource unless you’ve used a free version and had equitable success with it.

Email Marketing

23. AWeber

With a drag and drop email builder, unlimited image storage and an easy to use interface, AWeber is a great option to manage your email marketing communication.

24. MailChimp

MailChimp offers 12,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers – free. That’s what MailChimp can do for you. A great email marketing resource if you’re just getting started. MailChimp is easy to set up, easy to manage and offers an easy to scale pricing plan as your list grows. As the Wix email option ‘Shoutout’ has a capped number of emails you can send but an exportable email list. You can use MailChimp to send additional emails if you are pushing the boundaries of the free Wix option.

25. Constant Contact

You can’t call yourself constant contact and then not be available to your customers. And that’s just what makes this email automation company shine. They offer round the clock support 7 days a week. They also offer 60-day FREE trial.

26. SpyFU

Search for any domain and see every place they’ve shown up on Google: every keyword they’ve bought on AdWords, every organic rank, and every ad variation in the last 11 years. This combined with Wix’s seamless SEO makes key words unbelievably easy. You don’t need to have some ten years long.

Learn how to connect with these domains, too. Find online and traditional leads methods — social media, email, phone, and address — you can’t find anywhere else. So you can look at other authors within your niche and find out exactly where readers are going to find them.

Staying Organized

27. Google Keep

Keep is an excellent organisation tool. It stores every idea, research plan and content structure. Which can quickly be dumped into Scrivner later.

28. Evernote

Another option this is with a few more features is Evernote, you can save snippets of content you find online and go back to all of it in a searchable, taggable easy to find notebooks on Evernote. It also connects to my Google Home via IFTTT which frustratingly Google Keep doesn’t seem to, so I can handsfree keep notes easily.

29. Google Drive

Accessible from anywhere with internet, Google Drive is a great collaborative tool for teams to use when you’re working with content, files, or images in tandem. Google Sheets and Google Docs makes group work seamless, and all work can easily be shared with hyperlinks.

30. Tomato Timer

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management strategy preferred by many authors. It’s not always easy to keep track of the non-writing tasks related to your book projects. With Brain Focus Productivity Timer, an excel sheet (or just pen and paper) and Scrivner’s session tracking you can keep motivated with tangible evidence of how hard you’re working. Not only time associated with the project. Team Viz is another excellent paid alternative to this method, and you can’t forget the simple Tomato Timer (tomato-timer.com)

31. Slack

It’s like super chat. Instant communication. Instant file transfer. Indexed and Searchable. It is fantastic for collaboration if you have a specific project you are working on. Again, use wisely, if you are co-authoring for example. Not if you’re just working with a freelancer for a short time, instead use the platform’s chat for content protection!

32. Lander App

You can learn more about A/B testing here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing

I have experimented with A/B testing in the past but didn’t feel that it was hugely beneficial. I think that you have to have a relatively sophisticated reason to use A/B testing. Potentially I’ll use this for a book launch with a landing page in the future. Of those that I experimented with, I found Lander App to be the most straightforward to use.

Again, if you don’t know what A/B testing doesn’t worry, you don’t need to! Don’t jump to trying to use A/B testing, focus instead on the following:

– Mailing list Opt-in rate

– You unique visitor Site traffic

– Total engagement (comments, email responses) / Book Sales

For the third point there, you concentrate on engagement if you haven’t released your first book yet!

Website Hosting

33. Freenom – A Name for Everyone

One of my favourite hosting companies, if you’re just starting out, I don’t suggest spending any money on anything if you can avoid it. This is perfect for this, as instead of choosing a.com or a.net you can get a free domain and easily swap with redirection later once you’re profitable. Personally, I use Wix for all website things, but this is an excellent option if you’re just starting out.

34. WP Engine

WP Engine is a hosting company that provides managed WordPress hosting for websites around the world. They have great support, and their servers help your WordPress site run a top speed. I use Wix as I find it far more user-friendly, however, the advanced features do require a minimum annual cost. With WordPress, most features can be scaled up for free, but a bit more mucking around with add-ons and tech stuff.

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