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The Do-Good Business Plan Template for: Coaches, Therapists and Counselors
Presented by:
Turning Stones Coaching (http://turningstonescoaching.com) 2
The Do-Good Business Plan Template for: Coaches, Therapists and Counselors
Contents
Background ................................................................................................................................................... 3
What makes me great at what I do .............................................................................................................. 3
Vision............................................................................................................................................................. 3
Mission .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Values ............................................................................................................................................................ 5
My Message to the World and How I’ll Communicate It .............................................................................. 6
MY MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION PLAN ....................................................................................... 6
Objectives and Priorities This Year ............................................................................................................... 7
People Plan – Personal Development ........................................................................................................... 8
Sustainability and Growth – A Financial Plan ............................................................................................... 8
Risks and Opportunities – A Plan B!............................................................................................................ 10
My SWOT Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 10
How I will know that I am DOING GOOD in the World ............................................................................... 12
The Action Plan ........................................................................................................................................... 13
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The Do-Good Business Plan Template for: Coaches, Therapists and Counselors
Background
Guidance: In this section, you’ll want to outline what you know about the field within
which you are working. Try and compose a little story to tell people what you know
about the need for your service in the environment you are working. You can write it as
if you are telling someone else about your field of work. Here are some questions to try
and cover for this section.
1. What need are you serving? Why is this important to the world right now?
2. Is the field growing or shrinking? Is the need for your service likely to grow or
decline over the next 5-10 years? (Do a bit of research!)
3. What kind of geographic boundaries will you have? What is your reach and what
is the potential for your business in terms of numbers?
4. What is the profile of your most likely clients? Is it men, women, children? What
are their ages? What do you know about this group of people? How will your
service address their needs?
Vision
Guidance: This is the place to really dream big! Imagine you were wildly successful,
that you had unlimited resources, and there were no barriers whatsoever. What would
you accomplish? What would the world look like in 5 years if you could do anything at
all to help your clients? Remember! A vision is something that just gets you moving in
the right direction. It will help you decide to take one track rather than another. It may
be so ambitious that you never actually get there, but it will serve you by laying out your
direction of travel. A good vision is inspiring, focuses on serving the world, and is very
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The Do-Good Business Plan Template for: Coaches, Therapists and Counselors
ambitious. It is often the ideal result, and is bigger than just what you (or your business)
can deliver alone.
Try and develop a Vision of the world as you would like it if you could serve every single
person who needs your services. Capture what the world would be like if you could do
this in 3-5 sentences.
Mission
Guidance: People often confuse the Vision and Mission, but they serve two distinct
functions. The Vision captures how you want the world to change for others. Your
Mission is about your purpose and your part in changing it. For example:
Vision – A world where every person is living and working to their full potential.
(The result of your good works and possibly those of other like-minded people.)
Mission – Helping people discover their career potential and supporting them in
making changes to bring this potential into the world. (Your role in delivering the
vision. What you’ll do to help bring about this change in the world.)
Capture here how you’ll serve people, and what your role in delivering the Vision will be.
This again is usually a sentence or two.
Does it tell the world about your purpose, or the purpose of the business? (these
may be the same thing for you.)
Is it clear and simple?
Will it help keep you focused on the right things?
Does it link in well with your Vision and tell people your part in delivering it?
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The Do-Good Business Plan Template for: Coaches, Therapists and Counselors
Values
Guidance: Your personal values will guide you in completing this section, but they will
be slightly different, so don’t just copy them here. Company Values are critical for a do-
good business! They will guide your decisions and tell the world how you will interact
with people. Below is a list of values that are common in business. Choose up to ten
(or add your own) and compose a sentence or two for each telling the world how this
value will guide your business and help you achieve you Vision and Mission.
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Timebound
To develop two or three packages of services and materials to support single, child-free
women in discovering their life’s purpose, and launch these online by August 2012.
This is specific in that it tells you what you want to do and who it will serve. You can
measure the number of packages and services, and it has a deadline.
Only you will know if this is realistic or achievable – there are too many variables there
for me to guess! Use your own judgment and weigh these up against one another once
you have 3-5 objectives to determine if they are achievable. For example, is it realistic
to have this completed over the summer if you have your kids home from school and
are planning a long family vacation? Don’t be too ambitious, but challenge yourself!
Cost of this
Area of development
Development (Both in terms of
Needed What I will do When I will do it time and money)
Example: Website Attend a course, By the end of July 2 days time; $125
design, leadership read a book, talk to
skills, accounting someone and get
tips
Next, (and this is important!) summarize how this personal development will help you
serve your clients better. How will investing this time, energy and resource into yourself
help you deliver your objectives and mission better?
Use the worksheet below to help you determine your financial needs and then capture
your estimation of how the activities you have in your Communication Plan and
Objectives/Priorities will help grow your income over the next year. (If this is Year 1 of
your business, it may be that these investments will not increase your income this year,
but you can simply make general projections for year 2, 3, etc.)
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The Do-Good Business Plan Template for: Coaches, Therapists and Counselors
The above worksheet is a very simplified version of a profit/loss ledger. Consult your
accountant or bookkeeper for advice on developing a more detailed financial planning
document. There are plenty of software options available on the market that can help
you develop more detailed financial plans, which can help you monitor and track your
costs closely. These are definitely worth the investment!
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The Do-Good Business Plan Template for: Coaches, Therapists and Counselors
Likewise, it’s a good time to think about any opportunities that we haven’t thought about
yet so that we don’t miss any good ideas along the way.
Use the tool below to think about all the things that could go wrong, and to plan how
you’ll deal with these things. (This is called a SWOT Analysis.) Think too about what
could go really, really right in terms of new opportunities for your business. How will you
react to these things?
My SWOT Analysis
Strengths of my business Weaknesses of my business
(List here anything you can think of that makes (What isn’t quite the way you’d like it to be yet?
your business a sure-thing! Include what you know What is missing? Include what you know about
about yourself!) yourself!)
Of these, only the ones listed below fit with my priorities and goals THIS YEAR:
Of these, the ones below are most likely to affect me THIS YEAR:
Guidance: All these actions and activities will be worthless if you don’t know how to
measure the good you’re doing by undertaking them. In this section, capture how you
will manage your business and monitor your success. What will tell you that the things
you’re doing are working to bring your message to the world and helping you achieve
your Vision and Mission? Focus these on what you’ll look for THIS YEAR. You may
want to have up to 10 of these, or you can simply find one for each of your
objectives/goals/priorities. For example:
Measures:
“Life Purpose” Packages launched by 1 Aug 2012.
10 Clients enrolled each month between August and December. (Or $x income
generated from packages each month.)
Good feedback from clients. One testimonial gathered each month for the
website.
Important:
Also capture how often you’ll review this Business Plan. It is essential that you don’t do
all this great work and the let it gather dust on a shelf somewhere. Your business plan
will be “LIVE” and will need to reviewed and updated at least every quarter.
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The Do-Good Business Plan Template for: Coaches, Therapists and Counselors
Guidance: This is the most flexible part of your Business Plan. It is the part that you will use to help stay focused, keep
you from being overwhelmed, and make sure that you stay on track with your plans. Use the template below to help
break down your objectives and goals into manageable chunks so that you can get started on putting this plan into action
NOW! There may be some things you don’t know yet. That’s okay! Just capture when you WILL know and what you’ll do
to find out. Plan to “replan.” Once you know more, you can plan more. Come back to this action plan at least every few
months to check in on your progress.
Quarter 1 (Dates: )
Resources
Action to take Related Objective Start Date End Date Cost, time, people
Quarter 2 (Dates: )
Resources
Action to take Related Objective Start Date End Date Cost, time, people
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The Do-Good Business Plan Template for: Coaches, Therapists and Counselors
Quarter 3 (Dates: )
Resources
Action to take Related Objective Start Date End Date Cost, time, people
Quarter 4 (Dates: )
Resources
Action to take Related Objective Start Date End Date Cost, time, people
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The Do-Good Business Plan Template for: Coaches, Therapists and Counselors
Rebecca is an active blogger, and enjoys connecting online with like-minded Do-
Gooders. You can connect with Rebecca on Facebook, Skype, Twitter, or LinkedIn
by visiting her website at: http://turningstonescoaching.com
Rebecca has lived all over the world, but now calls Nashville, TN her home, where
she lives with her Scottish husband and two very American cats. She has big plans
for the world!
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The Do-Good Business Plan Template – Coaches, Therapists and Counselors