It’s 2014, obviously, and I’ve been in the process of prepping for a big year for Pallas Athena. Specifically, I’ve been doing some planning work — the garage workshop is far too cold to actually accomplish anything in (insert heavy sigh here), so I’m resorting to crafting a battle plan for the year. It’s been rewarding and eye-opening.

Business Plan

I started with a business plan, using a book from the library, an Excel spreadsheet, and some good old-fashioned thinking. It paints a picture that isn’t grim, but isn’t stellar either. It’s looking like 2014 will be a break-even year and 2015 will see me turning a profit, should everything go according to plan. While some people would bemoan that state of affairs, it’s important to note that I have been flying by the seat of my pants the last few years, and have lost money every year. So, honestly, if I can stick to the plan and meet my goals, then things will be looking a lot better as I go forward.

Marketing Plan

As some of you may or may not know, I make my living full-time in interactive marketing. As such, I’ve got a pretty good idea of how to approach this sort of thing. In the past, I’d relied on a good website, some PPC, and some social media. This year, I decided to write out a marketing plan for the first time, with an emphasis on keeping costs low. Initially, I thought I’d have a document of no more than 10 pages, with a rough outline of the goals of the program and the steps I’ll take to get there.

I’m at 28 pages right now, the total cost for the program is insanely low, given the volume of work I’ll be doing, but I’m pretty excited about what I’ve created. At the end of this year, I’ll post what my 2013 metrics were, what my 2014 goals were, and what my 2014 actual numbers were, just for the sake of “keeping it real”…

It’s Going to Be a Big Year

So this marketing plan includes some amazing stuff — the one expensive part of it (my cost ~$800) is going to be a very gutsy play. If it works, I’m sitting on a gold mine. If it doesn’t work, I still get some satisfaction out of having tried it.

The Freedom of a Plan

Over on a Framebuilders community on Facebook, I had some interesting banter with Richard Sachs and Don Ferriss over the nature of a planned business. We talked a bit about how some framebuilders come to the craft because they want to be beholden only to themselves and, in some cases, to a client. What we came upon was this:

Independence is an awesome thing, but it isn’t destroyed by having a business plan or doing marketing work.

As an “artist” (I have a degree in creative writing, and do consider framebuilding on the cusp of being art), I find I work far better when I have a framework.

Plans are frameworks.