The Business Mapping Guide For Entrepreneurs

If you’re a new entrepreneur who has stepped foot in the new world of virtual success, sooner or later, you’ll perhaps start to feel like a juggler trying to keep ten balls flying through the air simultaneously. There are just too many factors in your game plan to keep them all going at once.

The solution?

For many people, the solution would be to list all the critical elements in their business plan. But lists are linear, and the mind doesn’t think linearly. The mind feels in terms of hierarchy, associations, color, image, pattern, and form. To arrange your ideas and produce new ideas, a Map is much more effective than a list. In fact, you presumably already have a hazily defined map of your online business at the back of your mind. A Mind Map is just a way of putting that structure down on paper.

Here is how you can map your business in simple steps.

1. Place a concept or central idea in the center of a blank page, and circle it.
2. Jot down 7-12 Basic Ordering Ideas, spreading out from the central concept.
3. Connect each Basic Ordering Idea to the fundamental concept with outward-pointing arrows.
4. As an aid to designing your Basic Ordering Ideas, ask yourself: “If the central concept of my Mind Map were a book, what would be the chapter headings?”
5. Rach Basic Ordering Idea can become the center of another business map.

Here is how you can map your business with vivid colors.

1. Create a Central Idea: The central idea is the origin of your business map and outlines the topic you will explore. This must be in the middle of your page and include a color or an image that fits your topic.
2. Add extensions to your map: The following step to get your creative juices flowing is to add extensions. The main components which flow from the focal image are the critical themes. You can explore each of the pieces in greater depth by attaching child branches. The advantage of a business map is that you can keep adding new components, and you’re not limited to just a few options.
3. Key Idea: When you add a section to your map, you will need to introduce a key idea. Try to keep this idea as short as possible; this will allow you to spark off a more significant number of associations than longer, more complex idioms.
4. Color code your branches: Business mapping fosters the whole brain thinking as it draws together a broad range of cortical skills from numerical and logical, to special and creative.
5. Include visual signifiers: Don’t forget to attach images and other visual elements to your business map, as pictures have the power to convey much more information than a sentence, word, or even an essay.