As promised, I would like to introduce you to Nina New Novelist. Nina recently turned 30 and realized that she had neglected her dream to be a career novelist. Instead, to feed herself, she has been working in a bank, doing customer service work, being promoted to management and using her writing talents to create funny flyers for the Friday potluck lunch, memos and training materials for the customer service staff she supervises, and her personal blog.

Nina has been telling herself “someday” ever since she graduated from college. But now she realizes her dream will not come true unless she actually makes a plan, and follows it (just as she tells her trainees at the bank: “If you want it, you need to make it happen.”). She has an idea for a novel, based on a short story she got an A for in high school. Pragmatically, she knows that ideas are a dime a dozen, and she doesn’t want to spend a year on a novel without making sure her idea is solid. She’s also read her share of “could have been better” novels and wants to avoid that fate.

Fortunately, Nina’s BFF runs a small business, and she has the perfect advice: Nina needs to write a business plan. Nina rolls her eyes. She doesn’t want to run a business, she wants to write a novel. BFF challenges: “Do you want to sell the novel after you write it? Do you want to keep on writing and selling?”

After some discussion, Nina reluctantly agrees that her novel can be considered a business product, though it feels cold and uncreative to think of it that way. BFF rolls her eyes, and gets out a business plan template for Nina to fill out.

First, Nina has to decide what kind of business she wants, a sole proprietorship or an LLC. Nina goes for sole proprietorship, as most novelists do. After all, she is the one who is going to write her books, she doesn’t plan to hire employees.

Next, because her new business is in startup phase (cannot make money until she has a novel to sell), Nina has to decide how to support herself and her budding new business until she sells her first novel. She does research to see how long it takes to complete and sell a novel and learns that it can take as little as a year to write and sell a novel — and as long as twenty years. In other words, it takes as long as it takes, and she needs a steady source of income until the writing pays off. Fortunately, Nina had not planned to quit her day job, has no children and is not dating, so this is not an issue for her. She is ready and willing to spend some of her income on the expenditures needed to make her startup business into a successful novelist career.

BFF says great, now let’s track the money. Nina is puzzled, there will be no money until she sells. Wrong, says BFF. There will be negative money — the investment you make in the business before it produces income. Fortunately, before Nina’s head can explode, BFF explains that many start up businesses begin with mostly sweat equity, but they all require some investment capital.

“What for?” Nina wonders? BFF smiles and sighs. “Don’t be like so many business planners, Nina. Paper isn’t free. Neither is the internet, or research books.”

“Oh.” Nina decides not to strangle BFF, even when she sees the ledger columns BFF pulls out.

Next time, how to write a realistic money flow plan before the novel is written and any money is made.

Kelly