13: How to Write a Simple, One Page Business Plan with Dave Sullivan

Are you a business owner that would like to retire one day and be able to pass off an excelling company? Then today’s show is just for you! Creating a one-page business plan that any business can use to get their company in order. Dave Sullivan has his own podcast “The Roofer show”, where he helps teach others to grow their business, make more money and have more free time.   In 1979, Dave graduated from the top-ranked business school at the University of California. His plan was a long summer of travel and adventure before joining the family roofing business. He was looking forward to working with my father and learning the ins and outs of running the business. And he was looking forward to his retirement and finally relaxing and traveling himself. Something he could never do while he was “chained” to the business. But those plans were all cut short when he suffered a heart attack from the long hours and stress of running the roofing company for all those years. Suddenly, Dave had to step up take the reins of the family business. Now he was a contractor. But without his father’s “real world” guidance, it didn’t take him long to run the business into the ground. He knew he needed help but like so many contractors, he let his pride get in the way. After finally setting his ego aside he started the long climb out of the hole he had gotten into. But he didn’t do it alone. He hired a business consultant and it changed his life. With his help they designed a plan to take Dave where he wanted to go. He knew he didn’t want the stress of doing everything himself and grinding out a living working 14 hour days. He’d seen first hand how that works out. He wanted to travel while he was still young and have the time to watch his 3 boys grow up. Essentially, he wanted to be able to do whatever he wanted to do. He wanted to enjoy life. He wanted to have a business that worked for him. Not just a job where he worked for his business. And that’s exactly what he did. Over the years he built a wildly successful roofing business that allowed him to step away from the stressful day to day decision making and live the life he wanted.   A generous gift from Dave Sullivan: Check out his website to download his one page business plan!   Show Highlights Dave’s rough start and what lessons he learned early on in the business What Dave realized he needed to help him with his problems The one-page business plan, and what you need to make the plan Focus on what your company does well, that is when Dave’s business finally took off 8 step plan and actually convincing someone they need a business plan Step 1 - Start at the end, at the destination so you can reverse engineer a roadmap to get there Step 2 - Who, what, where and why about the customers Step 3 - Mission Statement, an elevator pitch that focuses on what problem you solve Step 4 - The SWOT - Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your company Step 5 - Operation, the key to business, sell work, do work and keep score Step 6 - The process, having systems in place so you can get out of the way Step 7 – The action, what is the most important thing we can do Step 8 – The view, what it will be like when you are at the end, exiting your business Resources Check out the conversation between Mike and Sabrina that 95% of entrepreneurs never have at the Profit by design website. Profit by design Podcast Website Profit by design Facebook group Email: [email protected]   Check out and Subscribe to Dave Sullivan’s “The Roofer Show” Podcast website   Sponsors: Tap the Potential website Contractor Business Solutions - Small Business Consulting Group Website