Hi, Mel and Ben here,

Today’s episode is called Chasing Rainbows, and it’s all about business planning.

There’s a strong theme of “do as we say, not as we do” in this episode 🙃. We both tend to approach our business planning with the start point of, “how do we want our family life to look?”

We both have young children and share school run duties with Mr Barfield & Mrs McKinney. For others, business goals might be all about earning as much as possible even if it means working 80-hour weeks.

Alastair Thomson’s book How to Build a Better Business Plan: A hands-on action guide for business owners is available here.

The Business Model Canvas is available online, this page has an explainer video and download. Both Canva and Miro have templates so have a look if you have those pieces of software.

We discuss how important it is to have ringfenced time to reflect on the business and plan ahead. Ben attends Phil Budd’s quarterly planning sessions and Mel is part of friend-of-the-show Jodie Newman’s Business Allotment, with monthly planning.

We give a shout out to Melanie Johnson (aka Mel1). Mel’s from The Sussex Social, and her LinkedIn newsletter covers all things social media marketing.

Do you have a business plan? What format do you use?

Please follow, like, review, whatevs…

Spotify / Apple podcasts / Amazon Music and AudibleThanks for listening,

Mel & BenFind our producer and theme composer Ant Henderson on LinkedIn and our indie business club page is also there.