Running your own business can be a real pain. First of all, you need to do all of the things that actually keep it running day to day. For streamers that involves streaming, community management, improving the stream’s quality, and a whole host of other things. However, it should also involve planning for the future. Here are some of the common planning misconceptions I see in streamers around business and finances.
It’s one and done
You put in a ton of time and effort, come up with a plan, and you’re freed from all future planning burdens. Right? Right?
Nope.
Planning is a process, whether it’s for your business or your finances. You can (and should) work hard to make a solid plan for yourself. However, no plan survives first contact with reality unscathed. As life happens and your assumptions are proven incorrect you will need to adapt.
The easiest way to do this is to build a routine around plan review. Pick a schedule that works for you. It’s a good idea to schedule a time once a month or so that’s explicitly for reviewing your business and personal finances. It doesn’t have to be a ton of time but it should be consistent and dedicated time.
The hard part is making the plan
This speaks to the above point. The hard part isn’t making the plan, the hard part is implementing the plan over time and adjusting it as needed. This isn’t to say it’s easy to make your plan but it’s just the start.
Why is that harder than making the plan? It’s because it requires consistent effort. We tend to be bad at things that require consistent effort. This is especially true if it’s something not fun to do or something where your expectations and perhaps goals have to change over time.
If you put in the consistent effort to implement your plan you’ll do a lot better than someone who spends all of their time crafting an immaculate plan and then doesn’t implement. Success ends up being some mix of luck, skill, and hard work. The easiest of those for you to control is your work.
There’s one right answer
There is not one right answer, generally. In fact, there are usually a lot of answers that all could be workable. It’s on you or your advisors to figure out which one makes the most sense given your goals, resources, and abilities.
Another important point to this is to avoid entirely discarding answers that you didn’t choose. It could be that between options A and B A made more sense when you initially constructed the plan. However, option B could make more sense as you move forward and the situation changes. If you’re open to changing in response to a changing reality you will set yourself up for much better odds of success.
Beware someone who tells you there’s one right answer and they have it. They’re either ill-informed or lying.
Once you have your plan you need to tackle everything
It’s exciting to finally have a plan for the future. You worked really hard and now you’re pumped to get it all done!
The biggest mistake you can make is to try to implement everything at once. You’re likely to get distracted and overwhelmed. Usually when that happens you end up doing less than you would have with a reasonable implementation schedule.
For instance, when I work with clients there’s often a massive list of things to do. If I were to give them that entire list and say go they’d probably not make much progress. Instead, I give them a couple of crucial or time-sensitive tasks to start with. Once those are out of the way we adapt the plan and move down the list.
Don’t burn yourself out trying to do everything at once.
Conclusion
I commonly see streamers taking an insufficient approach to planning their business as well as their finances. They view planning as a one and done deal, they think that the plan is the goal, they think that they have to find the perfect, correct answer, or they try to tackle everything in the plan at once. Instead you should take a measured, long term approach to planning acknowledging that there are multiple options with a reasonable implementation schedule that incorporates feedback over time.
You don’t have to figure this out alone. This is what we do- help streamers make great money and business decisions. If that’s something that sounds interesting to you reach out me or schedule some time for a free consult. You can check out what I do here.
