Drive more traffic to your website and hotline by offering a Personal Action Plan, a convenient online tool that connects business owners and prospective entrepreneurs to network resources.
Watch video from SourceLink Affiliate Quarterly Conversation.
A Personal Action Plan is a customized checklist of next steps and people to meet to move a business forward. The plan is free of charge and emailed within 24 hours from the request.
- An introduction to your organization’s network navigator and/or staff members and establishes a personal connection for continued follow-up and communication
- Customized referrals to three or four organizations based on geography and by type of assistance requested.
Plus, by adding a Personal Action Plan web form to your website, new client data will automatically be sent to your SourceLink℠ database as a Pending Task!
How to get started:
- Create the Personal Action Plan web form in SourceLink Pro. (See Creating Web Forms)
- Create a dedicated web page and embed web form.
- Develop an email template for responding to requests for a Personal Action Plan (see sample below).
- Include recommendations and links to your website for next steps, i.e. evaluating your business idea or how to writing a business plan.
- Refer client to three to four resources in your network include a description of the organization with a contact name, email, phone number and web address. (Use The Resource Navigator® for your search)
- Include information about receiving a follow-up survey to check in on progress.
Additional ways SourceLink℠ can help:
- Capture client interactions and referrals while sending emails. Use Email to Interaction feature to send email to record interaction in your SourceLink CRM.
- Use Surveys to capture additional information like overall satisfaction and referral ratings. Start by using the provided 1-Month Satisfaction Survey and Survey Invitation template to send surveys to new clients at the end of the month.
- Use reports to track increases in hotline calls, emails and number of searches:
- Google Analytics to track website traffic
- BA408 Annual Report Toolkit to track number of entrepreneurs seeking assistance thorough Hotline and/or Email, number of searches through The Resource Navigator®, types of assistance requested and counseling hours provided and level of satisfaction with your services
- SU470 Resource Partner Search Hit Analysis shows the number of times each resource partner was displayed to a user as a result of a search within a specified date range.
- EX623 Extraction of Referral Information produces a spreadsheet listing all incoming and outgoing referrals.
Sample Personal Action Plan Web Pages
https://www.kcsourcelink.com/myplan
https://www.sparkyard.co/myplan
https://www.colmena66.com/es/miplan
Sample Email Template from KC SourceLink
Hello {{Client Name}},
Thank you for reaching out to KCSourceLink. I hope you find the below resources helpful as you move forward to start your business.
Ideas are everywhere. How do you know if your idea is a good business opportunity? If people are willing to buy it. Before you bet the ranch on your idea, take the time to research who will buy your product or service and what competition you will face. A great place to start your research is with Square One Small Business Services by Mid-continent Public Library. Square One has a number of databases that you can tap to help you figure out who your target market would be and who your competition is. I encourage you to make an appointment with them to learn how to use the databases they have on hand and which databases will work best for you.
Square One
15616 E Hwy 24
Independence, MO 64050
(816) 521-7215
[email protected]
The information you are able to pull from your research will go in to helping you write a solid business plan. A business plan serves as a blueprint to guide your business’ policies and strategies. A well written business plan will help you understand the financial impacts and implications as well as marketing for your business. Here are some templates and outlines that can be used to achieve that:
Outline for building your business plan (Small Business Administration)
Business plan template (SBA)
On-line business plan templates (SCORE)
It is always wise to seek out those individuals and organizations who have gone down your path before you that can speak with you and help you focus your thoughts to help you determine if your business concept is strong. A mentor will also be happy to review your business plan once you have it written.
One organization that can provide you with 1-on-1 mentoring is SCORE. The Kansas City SCORE volunteers are real-world professionals with time-tested knowledge who donate thousands of hours to help small businesses succeed. I strongly recommend you go to the SCORE website and sign up to find a mentor. When you are filling out the online request for a meeting, make sure to be as detailed as you possibly can so they can pair you up with a mentor that will have had similar experiences to share with you.
SCORE
4747 Troost Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64110
(816) 235-6675
[email protected]
There are many organizations that provide classes or seminars at little to no cost that can help you in your business journey.
Class options:
SCORE is offering a free class on “Starting Your Business – Basics” on Tuesday, June 11th that you might find beneficial.
If this event does not work for you, I encourage you to take a look at the KCSourceLink events calendar page on our website. Here you will find the most extensive business calendar in KC full of events to help the small business owner.
Once you have accomplished these steps, give us a call. We will be happy provide you with what you need to do next to accomplish your small business goals.
We will touch base next month to see how things are going. If you have questions in the meantime, let us know – we are happy to help.
Good Luck!
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