AUGUST 8, 2023

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Welcome to The Tilt, a twice-weekly newsletter for content entrepreneurs.

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Make an Operations Plan

A business plan is like a travel itinerary – it tells where you want to go. A business operations plan is like a digital map – it tells you how to get there and helps you get there more quickly by giving you a heads-up on traffic jams, road closures, and more. Here’s how to create it:

1. Excerpt your business plan, aka the Content Inc. model: Briefly detail your business mission, content tilt, target audience, and goals. These elements belong at the top because they are the foundational elements of your venture and should ground the operations plan.

2. Set three to five objectives: Goals usually are big-picture generalities. Objectives detail the thresholds necessary to realize those goals. Each objective should follow the SMART model – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Pay close attention to “measurable” and “time-bound.” Your objectives must have numbers. Without a measurement number, you can never measure progress or success. Without a deadline, you never have to assess if you achieved the metrics. (And let’s face it, you’re a creator who lives life by deadlines. Without one, you’ll probably never do it.)

I recommend limiting the objectives to a few so you don’t get overwhelmed.

3. Document how to do them: Under each objective, detail what must happen to achieve it. What do you do first? And then? Include every step, no matter how small.

4. Assess each step: Estimate the resources necessary to accomplish each step. Include a range of hours for you or someone else to execute the task. Add a budget amount if you plan to hire someone else to do it. What technology will you need? If you don’t already have that tool, detail the cost. What else is necessary to complete this step?

5. Operationalize the work: Now that you know what needs doing and how it will get done, you can develop a calendar that unites everything that needs to get done to achieve your objectives. Don’t expect this process to go quickly. It’s a complicated puzzle to put together.

I recommend adding every step with its investment in the order you would like to execute them. Rank the priority of each one. A indicates a must-do at a designated time. B indicates some flexibility on when it can be accomplished. C means a task that can be done anytime within the objective’s timeframe.

Order them by priority and add the numbers (hours and financial) for each task. Then, map the tasks to a calendar based on your availability and ability to commit the necessary dollars. Review the calendar to see if it’s doable or if tweaks are needed.

6. Mitigate the risks: What could prevent you from achieving the objective? Is there a competitor heavily promoting a similar newsletter? Is your newsletter’s content – topics, format, etc. – still relevant for the audience? Do you have sufficient time to execute the tasks? What about the available budget?

With those potential hurdles in mind, develop a plan to reduce their negative impact.

7. Revise accordingly: The risk assessment could create more tasks to do or suggest a reconfiguring of priorities. If that’s the case, revisit steps four and five.

8. View your business operations calendar twice a day: Keep this map front and center as you go about your work. Review it when you start and end each day to assess what you need to do, what didn’t get done, and what needs to be revised for the next day or week.

A business plan is great. A business operations plan will let you get to where you want to go.

– Ann Gynn

​Read the blog version for abbreviated examples for each step.​

Supported by Lulu

“I see the most growth in my business when I'm actively working on a creative project and sharing the process in public, whether my last book or building courses or the recent podcast season I produced.” -Daren Smith, Craftsman Creative

Publishing a book is a powerful lead-generation strategy. As your fans read and share your book, new opportunities to reach a wider audience will present themselves. Learn how to use a book for lead generation to grow your brand and your bank account.

Entrepreneur: Zack Burris

Biz: Zack the Girl Dad

Tilt: Marriage and parenting humor

Primary Channels: TikTok (103.7K), Instagram (82.9K)

Other Channels: YouTube (169)

Time to First Dollar: 18 months when Swiffer DM’d him on Instagram

Rev Streams: Brand partnerships (Zack also has a full-time tech job.)

Our Favorite Actionable Advice:

• Get a strategy: Zack followed TikTok trends to attract an audience. To retain his viewers, he created series, such as a collection of posts where he performs songs with his daughters’ toy xylophone.
• Make full-time a goal: He creates his brand while holding a full-time job. But Zack’s goal is to make the content business his full-time job and grow an audience he can pass down to his daughters.
• Protect your rights: Several companies have proposed giving them the rights to his videos so they can market them to media outlets and digital publications and split the earnings. Zack never says yes. He advocates for creators to retain the rights to their content.

– Sarah Lindenfeld Hall​
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​Read more of Zack’s story.​

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• Joe talks about his next chapter and an exciting new project on this week's Content Inc. podcast. (Content Inc.)
• ​AI Everywhere All At Once (This Old Marketing)
• ​Tilt Your Business: A Weekly Mastermind for Entrepreneurs in the Creator Economy hits LinkedIn Live at 12 p.m. US ET Tuesday.
• ​The creator economy is dead. Long live the creator economy. We had a thought or two to share. (Indiehackers)

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