Last week we took the first steps to starting the growth of your business. We discussed how to approach the idea, decide on it, and who to talk to. Today we’re going to be talking about the planning stages of setting up your business.

If you remember, last week I brought up a bear of a document: The Business Plan. While I highly recommend working with a business professional on your business plan, if you are anything like me, you want to do as much of it yourself as you possibly can. So with that in mind, we’re going to overview some of the basics of the business plan.

Today we are going to talk about what you can fill in on your business plan with relatively little research. If you’ve ever written a paper for a class, you learned at some point to write the introduction last. The same applies to your business plan. The first section—the Executive Summary—is going to be skipped for now. We’re going to focus on the next section, the Company Description. This section contains several subheadings. They are as follows:

  • Legal Name and Legal Form of Business
  • Mission
  • Goals and Objectives
  • Names of Top Management and Qualifications
  • Location
  • Company’s Development Stage
  • Products and Services
  • Specialty Information

If some of these have you scratching your head, don’t worry, that’s what I am here for.

Legal Name and Legal Form of Business: What are you going to call yourself? Did you come up with a special name? Are you going to use your initials or name? Does it have to do with the region you are in, or something special about the area or service?

For Legal Form of Business, you have to include after your name the letters that go with it. Are you an LLC, and incorporation, a non-profit? We’ll discuss this more in depth later.

My Legal name and Legal Form of Business:

Key Changes Music  Therapy Services, LLC.

Mission: The company mission is the company’s goal. What do you aim to provide? What level do you aim to provide it at? What will your business do that others may not? I fashioned my company’s mission after the wording I learned to use for setting a client’s goal.

My Mission statement:

Our mission at Key Changes Music Therapy Services is to provide quality, evidence-based music therapy services to individuals and organizations in the midlands area of South Carolina. We also aim to educate the public about the uses and credibility of music therapy as a useful and necessary treatment modality.

Goals and Objectives: This one is FUN! I think that in writing my business plan, this was the most enjoyable part. Here you get to dream. Think one year, two years, and three years into the future. What goals to you want to achieve? What are the objectives of those goals? We, as music therapists, are wonderfully prepared for this part of the business plan. Do you want to have a set number of clients being seen? Do you want to have purchased all your equipment? Do you want to have grossed this much income? Think about where you want to be with your business. Don’t be afraid to set the bar too high or low, your business plan is a constantly evolving document. If you don’t achieve the goal you set, put it for next year instead. If you meet it way too early, set the bar a little higher for the remainder of the year.

My Goals and Objectives:

Year One:

  • To serve a private population in the community:
  1.   Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC will serve at least twenty (20) individual clients in its first year of operation
  2.   Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC will serve at least twenty (20) group clients in its first year of operation.
  • To serve a public or private organization through contract services:
  1.   Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC will serve at least one (1) public or private contract.
  • To educate the public about the Music Therapy and Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC:
  1.   Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC will provide at least (3) in-services or seminars to caregivers or organizations.
  • To contribute to the learning of others in the field of Music Therapy
  1.   Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC will participate in or present at the South Eastern Region American Music Therapy Association Conference as well as maintain good standing with the Music Therapy Association of South Carolina.

Year Two:

  • To serve a private population in the community:
  1. Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC will serve at least twenty (20) individual clients in its second year of operation
  2.   Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC will serve at least twenty-five (25) group clients in its second year of operation.
  • To serve a public or private organization through contract services:
  1.   Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC will serve at least two (2) public or private contract.
  • To educate the public about the Music Therapy and Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC:
  1.   Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC will provide at least (3) in-services or seminars to caregivers or organizations.
  • To contribute to the learning of others in the field of Music Therapy:
  1.   Key Changes Music Therapy Services, LLC will present at the South Eastern Region American Music Therapy Association Conference as well as maintain good standing with the Music Therapy Association of South Carolina.

Year Three:

  • Maintain the goals from year two.
  • Begin development of an internship program for graduating Music Therapists.

Names of Top Management and Qualifications: Who is running this business and how are they qualified? Include a little professional bio about yourself.

Location: Where are you providing this service at? Out of a clinic, out of your car, out of your home? Do you serve a limited geographic area?

Company’s Development Stage: Does your company already exist? If not, simply put “Start up company to begin ____________”

Products and Services: What are you providing? Do you do individuals, groups, take contracts from facilities, provide assessments, work with corporations, educate? What do you do? Make it into a list and put it here.

Specialty Information: This category is good to include because it demonstrates (for my purposes), that if there is a heading in the business plan that doesn’t make sense to you, don’t include it! If you have a specialization, you could include it here, but I deleted this section because to me (and if you look at the template, it expresses this), a license to handle nuclear products didn’t fit my business model.

We won’t be going over every section of the business plan in this series. These are just a few examples of the things you can fill in on your own. Next time, we’ll look at a few of the business plan topics that require some research. After that, we’ll move on in our starting of our practice.