Business Planning

Having a business plan in place that is iterative, clear, and functional creates a solid foundation for the long term. It can be done. We hold possibility while creating realities that use your strengths to move forward.

This includes a rigorously co-designed and facilitated business model and pitch deck. Our ambition is to support and advance your vision taking into consideration the limitations of so many hours in the day.

Using customized a Business Model Canvas, we begin with a two-day in-person sprint utilizing the key concept of pivotal play. We cover the walls and tables with butcher paper and post-its. We get messy.

We switch out dry language like "Channels" to "Community", and swarm the space with everything that has worked, failed, and is too scary to approach.

We then drill down the possibilities to what is realistic for the capacity of the staff and organizational health. We examine expectations, financials, and set the stage for business offerings that fit your parameters.

We develop models of stable resources for all constituents served. This informs all future interactions with stakeholders, funders and community advocates. There will be three to five year projected outcomes.

This is actually fun. Let’s do this!

We have great brains. Our brains are full.

Can your company survive a partner taking a vacation for two weeks while being completely offline? Can the Executive Director be incapacitated for a month without your organization falling into ruins? Has your hair started to fall out because you can’t find that friggin’ template that was supposed to save you hours of time in Google Drive?

Technology was supposed to make things easier, right? Humans aren't computers. Technological creations are fallible. You need a Bible, a Master Manual of everything that makes your company tick. A Who, What, How and Why resource guide so anyone can pick up the slack and follow through. This serves as your back up plan if anything goes wrong or you simply forget where a document lives.

I’ll create an systematized brain dump of every operational element, strategy, administrative duty, client relation, and web tool into a comprehensive living document. The Master Manual is both a reference document and on-boarding procedure for each new client, employee and sub-contractor that interfaces with your company. Add-on options include a comprehensive wiki for secondary reference.

As this is a human process I’ll interview partners about communication styles, client relations, and all internal/ external methods of operation. Confidential access to all current tools (Asana, Slack, Google Drive, et al) help us fine tune the comprehensive overview of the day-to-day operations.

This is also known on more informal level as the sigh-of-relief document.