A Business Plan is a written description
of your ministry’s operations.

Focus Questions:

A. Business planning takes a hard look at your overall business and decide:

B. Four things to know about an effective business plan.

Business Planning Questions for FY 200X

Financial Preparation

How much money do you expect earn at the end of next year?

How much money do you expect your ministry to gross next year?

What can I do to increase revenues this year?

How can I decrease costs this year?

How much money will your ministry net in five years?

What services and products do I offer?

Itemize them by type (speaking engagements, books, tape albums, etc.), by price range (less than $20; $20-50; $3,000 to $5,000; etc).

How will I make my income next year?

Speaking Engagements %____________
Counseling %____________
Product sales %____________
Training %____________
Salary %____________

Do I have any liabilities?

What are they?

Can I eliminate them?

Can I convert them to assets?

Who do I market my products and services to?

What are my monetary assets?

How much is liquid? (‘Liquid’ means easily spendable. If someone owes you money, that is a monetary asset, but you can’t spend it now.)

What does my cash flow look like?

How much do I owe?

How large is my credit line?

How many speaking engagements do I expect to accept?

How much product do I expect to sell?

Impact Preparation

1. Who do I market my products and services to?

2. How can I reach them? (Advertising, direct mail, trade shows, cold calling, etc.)

3. How many people will I reach this year?

4. How much will the marketing material cost?

5. How much revenue will it generate?

6. How is the Internet going to affect my ministry?

7. What conventions, meetings or workshops do I need to attend in the next year?

8. When and where are they scheduled?

9. Are there any scheduling conflicts?

10. Where do I see the overall Body of Christ going?

11. Where does my ministry fit in?

12. Am I prepared to handle the growth or changes when they come?

Asset Preparation

What equipment do I need? (Computer, fax machine, copy machine, voice mail, e-mail, paper shredder, microphone, slide projector, etc.)

What is the state of each item? (Operational, needs to upgraded, needs to be replaced, to be purchased etc.)

What are my unique assets?

Ministry Preparation

What can I do or provide that the average minister doesn’t or can’t? How long will they remain unique to me? How long will they remain assets? What other unique assets can I acquire?

How will I accomplish this?

What training do I need?

Where will I get it?

How much will it cost?

How much time will it require?

Who performs the following services for my ministry? If they’re unavailable, who can I use as backup?