How to create an online business plan as content creator + Free Template

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How do you create an online business plan as a content creator?

And does it have to be intricate and complicated?

Absolutely not.

I love to keep it simple.

The point of this online business plan is to give you clarity and help you visualise your business, not to overwhelm you.

In case you don’t know, I have an online business that has a blog, a YouTube channel, an Instagram profile, and a podcast, as well as several digital products I sell.

Here’s how I stay organised, how I get the clarity that I need and how I can actually create all of these content pieces as a busy mum of 2.

It all starts with creating a business plan for your online business.

How to Create an Online Business Plan as Content Creator + Free Template

I am going to show you step by step how I created my own.

I also have a free business template for you to download, as I know it can be helpful for you to go through the process as well, gain clarity, and figure out your own business plan.

Because here’s the truth: when you have clarity, when you know what you want to achieve and what you are working towards..

Then it’s a lot easier to create content, stay consistent, and do all of the things that help you grow and make money online.

To stay organised in my business, I use ClickUp.

How to use ClickUp to create a Business Plan as Content creator

This is an organising system that you can use on your laptop, phone, or whatever you prefer.

I used to use Trello before, but I decided to switch to ClickUp as this system offers more functionality, and I need that.

It also has a lot of automations that I like to use, and it just makes processes simpler and quicker for me.

If you are new to ClickUp and want to give it a try, know that they have several plans, including one that is forever free.

In my ClickUp, I have several boards created and systems that help me stay more consistent in my business.

In case you are interested, I have also recently launched a course, all about creating an organised business and developing a workflow that works for you and helps you stay consistent as a content creator.

The course is called Organised Business Plan.

In it, I walk you through all of these boards that I have, how I created automations to make them work for me, how I create my year goals, my monthly projects, and all of the admin behind the scenes.

In this course I’m taking you through every little step of the way, including my programs, how I create them, and my processes for them.

There’s so much in this course, and I know it will be really helpful to you if you’re also a content creator.

Back to today’s post, let’s go through the simple business plan.

Feel free to keep reading below or watch the video:

How to Create Your Online Business Plan as a Content Creator

For my Business Plan board in ClickUp, I have five lists and these are the main things I look at when I try to have a bigger picture for my business.

1. Mission and Vision

Here I keep a few things that I have written for myself to know:

what I’m trying to do
who I am (as a content creator)
what I do
why people should care about my brand and the content that I put out there.

It’s the overall mission that I have with my business.

On this list, I also have my BSA model, which stands for “Before – Solution – After”.

This is something I teach my students in my courses.

The idea is to try and think of your audience and imagine or figure out where they are before they come across you or your content.

Then you want to think about how things are for them after they’ve used your content:

the point where they want to be
the transformation that they want to have
the goal they are trying to achieve
the journey they’re trying to take.

This is their reason for following you and buying your products.

In my case, the ‘before’ is ‘my audience doesn’t yet have a business or they have just started one, and they make little or no money from it; they are confused, overwhelmed, and might have a fear of judgement or failure’.

This is my ‘before’ point, where my audience is before they stumble upon my business and my content.

And the ‘after’ point, the result, is ‘they have a thriving business that’s possibly replacing their 9 to 5, and giving them much more flexibility and freedom in their life’.

That’s the transformation that my clients are trying to achieve.

And then the ‘solution’ in between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ is going to be you. Your content, your programs, your products, whatever it is that you sell or create.

In my case, the ‘solution’ is the free content that I created on mindset and business tips, and my paid courses.

This is the BSA for my online business.

I have another BSA for my ‘minimalism’ business. I also have a YouTube channel and an Instagram account that are minimalism-related.

For this business, the ‘before’ is ‘audience struggling to keep on top of housework, feeling like it’s never tidy, feeling overwhelmed by the constant mess’.

The ‘after’ is a calm and peaceful home and also a clutter-free one that is easy to manage.

And then the ‘solution’ in between these two is the systems (my freebies and my content) that they’re going to use to become clutter-free.

These are the BSA for the two sides of my online business, and these are my two missions and what I’m trying to achieve with my content and products.

2. Audience

I do encourage you to do your audience research, as this is going to be extremely helpful.

The more you understand your people and your audience, the better your business will do.

That’s what I have found when it comes to growing an audience and selling products.

On this list, I have two little tasks that I’ve put in: one for my minimalism content, and one for my business content.

I use these places to write down questions that I’ve heard other people ask or from conversations I’ve had with either students or people in my DMs.

The thing is, the more you go out there and research your audience and find out exactly what they’re struggling with, exactly how they word it, and how it’s impacting them in their real life, the more you understand them and their needs, and the better you will do in general.

So I do try to come in here and write down as many things as I can.

Whenever someone says something that’s relevant to my business or tells me something they’re struggling with, I jot it down here.

Having this here helps create content because it will give you a lot of ideas on what you can actually help them with through your content, and it will also help you create better products to sell, products that will do really well.

3. Brand and Vibe

This is where I put a mood board of things that I want to visually represent, what I want my brand to look like.

I keep here my ‘Brand style guide’ with the fonts and colours that I use. I also have my ‘Brand values’.

And then I’ve got ‘Rituals and Lingo’, which contains words that I like to use in my business and little rituals that I have in my community.

And this is one of those things that build up the community for your brand.

A community is truly important for building a powerful brand, as people want to feel like they’re a part of something.

4. Marketing

The first thing on my marketing list is the ‘ABC marketing strategy’:

‘A’ stands for awareness. I list here the platforms that I use to bring awareness to my brand, to get more views, and to get more people aware that I exist and that I have this business.
‘B’ is for building relationships. This happens through Instagram, in my stories, through email marketing, my YouTube videos, my podcast, and any platform where I have more conversations with people and build upon those relationships.
‘C’ stands for conversion, meaning transforming your audience from simply being aware of you and your brand into paying customers. In my case, I do this through my email marketing and my Instagram account. I do soft selling in my YouTube videos as well. There are more platforms out there, but these are my main ones.

My advice to you is to think about these platforms and decide how you are going to use them in your own ABC marketing strategy.

Below the ABC on this list, I have ‘Content pillars’.

These are just a few topics that I want to include in my content.

And then I’ve just listed the platforms that I am present on and using for my businesses – Blog, YouTube, Instagram, and then email. These are my main ones. For each of these platforms, I wrote the main goal that I’m trying to achieve at the moment.

5. Sales and funnels

I keep here a list of my products, my programs, all of my courses, including the ones I’m currently working on, plan to create, or just some ideas that I have for things I might want to create in the future.

For example, as I was working on it, I had listed here the Organised Business Plan, a course into which I poured so much. If you’re having trouble getting organised and lacking clarity in your business, this course is going to be amazing for you.

In it, I also walk you through my CALM framework, which helps you gain more clarity and get to a state where you feel like you can take your business from this chaotic point to one where it feels calm, and organised, and that is working for you.

So this is my online business plan.

Remember to grab your free business plan template here.

And if you need more help and you want to see all of these little boards that I have in my ClickUp and exactly how I use all of these systems, then the Organized Business Plan course is a perfect fit for you.

I hope you found this article helpful. Let me know, in the comments below, how you’re getting on with your business plan, I love hearing from you!