So, I’ve been meaning to share a template for a writer’s business plan here, based on what I’ve learned from developing  a distinctly non-writing business plan for my new venture. It’s not quite as simple as it sounds (no business plan is as straightforward as we’d like, or so I have discovered). There are a lot of choices and not a lot of right way/wrong way, so my business plan advice has to take into consideration the huge difference between setting a goal (like hitting the NYT list) and accomplishing it. What I’ve learned is this: if you don’t set the goal, you have less chance of hitting it. Not no chance, lighting does strike out of the blue, after all. But your chances are great to reach a goal if you have an idea what it is and can herd your various business activities in that direction. Just saying.

Yesterday, on the ferry from Long Island to Connecticut, I finally wrote my own writer’s business plan, and realized how I could share it with others in the least confusing manner. I decided to break it down into parts, and tackle each one. First up is the Mission Statement. [Anyone with a negative connotation toward this phrase, I heart you, but suck it up and know this one won't be that bad. Promise.]

A mission statement is a simple declaration that is at the heart of your business venture. For example, a farm stand might have as its mission statement: “To deliver the freshest local produce in season in the county.” The active words are “fresh” “local” and “in season” and “county.” All of these things matter to the owner of the farm stand, and every decision the farm stand makes as the business grows or changes will be evaluated in this light.

Mission statements should be revisited often (at least yearly), and if the statement and the business goals have diverged effort should be made to bring one or the other in line for the future (if the farm stand starts selling frozen produce off season, the mission statement might reflect local quality and shift away from fresh and in season).

A writer’s mission statement can mean the difference between floundering and taking the short cut to success. Writing is such a general term. Words on paper (words on the internet, nowadays). But too much precision can be as bad as too large a generality. A writer who makes the general mission statement of “being a famous published author” is as likely to feel a failure as one who over specifies “to write the best first person, present tense, hard science SF based on the work of Einstein.” The first takes a word like “famous” and fails to nail it down to the writer (#1 on NYT? published by one of the Big Six? interviewed on The Today Show?). The second doesn’t allow for the natural growth a business (even writing) takes over the course of years and — hopefully — decades.

Here’s mine (still a work in progress): Kelly McClymer writes novels, articles and short stories that explore the human capacity to come together to triumph over fear and prejudice — while still celebrating the occasional need for a room of one’s own.

When I began writing (a very long time ago), it may have read: to be a published author. But any business plan knows that you don’t end with the beginning. You begin with the ending.

Which is why we’ll revisit the mission statement when we’ve gone through the business plan step by step.

Kelly