Contents

Build Your Vision

How to Design Your Business at Month 24

3 min read

You'll have a finalized Design: one month of your business two years from now, with a profit that clears your target.

Before You Start

  • Where: the "Design" card on a Blueprint's dashboard. It stays locked until you set your target.
  • Plan: free on every plan.
  • Have ready: your vision of your business.

Steps

  1. Choose a starting point. Design opens empty. A Blueprint copied from My Business offers "Load My Current Numbers". "Start Blank" gives you empty tables, and "Ask Occam To Build It" drafts the whole Design for you (see How to Have Occam Draft a Plan for You). Screenshot to come: Design page chooser with Start Blank, Load My Current Numbers and Ask Occam To Build It (design-chooser.png)
  2. Enter revenue for one month. Under "Revenue", add rows to "Services", "Products" or "Subscriptions". For a service, enter clients, sessions and price. For a product, enter sales a month and price. For a subscription, enter subscribers and a monthly price.
  3. Enter direct costs. Under "Direct Costs", add what it costs to deliver each stream, plus "Payment Processing" under "General".
  4. Enter operating expenses. Fill "Selling", "Marketing", "Administrative" and "Other". Owner pay goes in "Owner Compensation" under "Administrative". On an S-Corp or C-Corp, that includes "Owner Salary", and "Employer Payroll Tax" is worked out from it. Screenshot to come: Design editor with Operating Expenses open and the Owner Compensation rows visible (design-operating-expenses.png)
  5. Review with Occam. Click Occam's avatar in the bottom right corner to open the chat sidebar. Under "Double-check my…", pick a section, such as "Marketing" or "Product direct costs", and click "Review for blind spots". Occam researches current prices for what you've entered, flags costs that look too high or too low, and names the expenses a business like yours usually has that you're missing. This is what gives you confidence in the numbers. It needs a paid tier and costs 1 credit.
  6. Finalize. The bar at the top shows Revenue, Costs, Net Profit and Target. "Finalize" stays greyed out until Net Profit is above $0, and it saves only once Net Profit reaches the Target. Screenshot to come: Design summary bar showing Net Profit above the Target and the Finalize button (design-finalize.png)

Tips

  • Every figure is monthly, for month 24 with the business fully running. Build draws the months in between.
  • Click "Save" to keep a partial Design. Only "Finalize" checks the target.

Common Questions

Why won't Finalize go through?
Net Profit has to reach your Target, and the Design needs at least one revenue row. Raise prices or volume, or cut a cost, until it clears.

Is the Target before or after owner pay?
Net Profit counts every row, Owner Compensation included. Pay for yourself in those rows, then clear the Target with what's left.

Can I change the Design after finalizing?
Yes. Edit and finalize again. Later steps aren't reset, and an existing forecast updates on its own.

Will Occam change my numbers?
No. Occam points out what to change, and you make the edits. Ask follow-up questions in the same chat, 1 credit each.