Now that you have a basic outline of your project, you need to create a more structured plan. This is called a business plan. It outlines the goal of the project, the steps to get there, and the specific actions you will take to perform those steps. A business plan is really like a big set of goals, with some goals more important than other ones. Following these steps will help you outline your goals and make a plan of action that you can follow. After you follow these steps, you will be ready to go on to step three, take action!
Make a mission statement-
You also need to create a mission statement. A mission statement says what the big idea of the project is. This is the most important goal of the whole business plan. It is the purpose of the project, and what you hope the project will help. The mission statement may not describe a goal that you can acheive alone, but with lots of projects like yours, maybe the mission could be accomplished. The mission of Jungleheroes is to help save the orangutans and give other kids a chance to make a positive difference in the world. Saving the orangutans is a REALLY big goal, but it’s good for a mission statement. After you come up with your mission statement, you can move on to the goals of the project.
What are the goals of the project?
The second step to creating a business plan is to establish goals. You know now whether you will be raising funds or not and what you will be raising them for, and also what you will be raising awareness for. You need to use these facts to help you establish your goals. You might also have other goals for example, incorporating “taking action” into schools, AND raising awareness for an endangered animal. These are the goals of Jungleheroes:
Goals:
Raise money for the orangutans
Raise awareness about the orangutans
Get other kids involved in making a difference
The goals are different steps to take to accomplish the mission statement. Your goals should be related to the mission statement, and they should be the basic and steps that you can take to achieve the mission of the project.
What is the name of your project?
Now it’s time to come up with a name for your project. The name should be very few words, catchy sounding, and be directly related to your mission.
When I first started Jungleheroes I named the project “We Help Orangutans” and I called it W.H.O, but W.H.O doesn’t give you any idea what the project is about. Later, I changed the title to Jungleheroes, which is related to the mission because the “other kids” like you who are helping the orangutans ARE jungleheroes. Because getting other kids involved in taking action is part of the mission of my project, I thought Jungleheroes was a good name.
Set objectives-
Objectives is another name for those goals about raising awareness and funds that you made in step one. You should have an objective for raising awareness, and you might have an objective for raising funds. Those will be included in your business plan. Objectives are different from goals because every objective is about numbers. For example, Junglehero’s original objectives are:
Objectives:
Raise $2000 dollars
Get 30 students involved
Present at schools 3 times
I have already achieved all of these objectives a while ago, so I created new ones. As I said in step one, after you complete one of your objectives, you can make a new one. But you can’t achieve these objectives without taking the steps to get there!
Develop strategies-The steps to achieve each objective are called strategies. Each of these strategies is it’s own mini project. Each strategy is made up of 3-5 actions categorized under a name such as “Develop publicity and social media.” First you need to come up with the 3-5 categories of actions. For example, to achieve my objective “Get 30 students involved“ I had three strategy categories, “Get other people involved”, “Develop awareness materials”, and “Enlist kids.” After you come up with the strategy categories, you can put specific actions in the categories. Here are Jungleheroes’s strategy categories with specific actions:
Strategy 1: Develop publicity and social media
-Launch Website
-Create a Facebook Page
-Make a youtube Jungleheroes awareness video
-Write press releases
Strategy 2: Get other people involved
-Develop process for donations
-Host awareness and fundraising campaigns
-Contact other people who are saving the rainforest
-Create an e-mail account for JungleHeroes
Strategy 3: Develop awareness materials
-Get business card printed
-Create an e-info packet for raising awareness
-Make teacher materials
Strategy 4: Enlist kids
-Make a presentation for schools
-Contact schools to get involved
-Do 3 presentations
If you prefer, you can come up with the specific steps before you make the categories. In general, each category will help achieve every objective, but some categories just might be more useful for some objectives more than others. This is the hardest part of the outline process- don’t worry if you have trouble thinking of ideas. If you’re having trouble, try talking to a teacher or parent about it and see what they can come up with, or just take a break and come back to the plan later with fresh eyes.
Your business plan will always be changing, whether it’s because you just accomplished an objective, or you want to add more specific actions to a category, or you just thought of another way to write one of your goals. Don’t worry about getting it right the first time.
After you have all of the parts, the mission, title, goals, objectives, strategy categories, and specific actions, you can put the finished plan together like this:
JungleHeroes
Mission: To help save the orangutans and give other kids a chance to make a positive difference in the world.
Goals:
Raise money for the orangutans
Raise awareness about the orangutans
Get other kids involved in making a difference.
Objectives:
Raise $2000 dollars
Get 30 students involved
Present at schools 3 times
Strategy 1: Develop publicity and social media
-Launch Website
-Create a Facebook Page
-Make a youtube Jungleheroes awareness video
-Write press releases
Strategy 2: Get other people involved
-Develop process for donations
-Host awareness and fundraising campaigns
-Contact other people who are saving the rainforest
-Create an e-mail account for JungleHeroes
Strategy 3: Develop awareness materials
-Get business card printed
-Create an e-info packet for raising awareness
-Make teacher materials
Strategy 4: Enlist kids
-Make a presentation for schools
-Contact schools to get involved
-Do 3 presentations
Great work! You finished the business plan process! Now, you can use you business plan to see what the next step is in taking action, Step three!
jungleheroes 