I attended a webinar: “Hit Your Author Goals in 2022: 4 Strategies to Transform Your Business and Book Sales.” This was the first time I heard anybody speak about setting author goals. Writing a business plan and setting author goals was presented as something many authors fail to do.

I didn’t start writing a business plan right away, but I started a list of yearly author goals. Over the year, I can look back at the list to see what I need to work on and what I have accomplished. It is a helpful tool. Some things that can go on the list:

• start an email newsletter
• grow newsletter followers
• post regularly on social media
• learn something new about the craft
• learn something new about advertising
• attend a webinar
• start and maintain a writing schedule
• devise a budget

You get the idea.

Creating a business plan required a bit more research. I took a freelance business course, which required a business plan to be created as part of the learning. Questions that were recommended for creating the plan:

1. What do you do?
2. Why do you do it?
3. Why are you starting a business?
4. What brought you to this point?
5. What is your form of business/organization?
6. Are there areas of running a business that are a challenge? What are possible solutions?
7. What products and services are being offered through the business?
8. What is the pricing for your services?
9. What are the business’ payment policies and terms?
10.  What is your relevant experience?
11.  What do you do really well?
12.  What do you need help or developmental assistance with?
13.  What is your timeline for addressing weak areas?
14.  Who are potential clients?
15.  Where will you find potential clients?
16.  Who is your competition?
17.  What makes you different from the competition?
18.  What are your business assets?
19.  What are your annual revenue goals?
20.  What are your regular monthly bills?
21.  What are your other expenses?
22.  Where do you want my business this time next year?
23.  Where do you want to be in five years?
24.  Do you want to grow your business?

The freelance course I took was through Simon Fraser University. It was part of my editing certificate, but the questions can be used for books/writing.

I wrote this post for letter Y of the 2025 A-to-Z blogging challenge.