job business plan

How to Write a Business Plan Outline in 9 Steps (Example Included!)

Starting a business often begins with writing a business plan , especially if you need funding . It acts as a roadmap, guiding you through each stage of launching and managing your company, and it presents a clear, compelling case to potential investors and partners. But here's the thing: not everyone finds this step intuitive. That's where a business plan outline can be incredibly helpful.

Creating a detailed business plan outline helps you organize your thoughts and ensure you cover all the key aspects of your business strategy. Plus, it might be just what you need to overcome that blank page and start typing.

Below, you'll find an easy-to-follow guide on how to craft your business plan outline, and an example to show you what it should look like.

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What is an outline of a business plan?

Think of a business plan outline as the skeleton of your entire business plan. It gives a high-level overview of the main sections you'll need to flesh out later. It's not the final document but a crucial step in getting you there.

Simply put, it's like creating a detailed table of contents for your business plan, showing you exactly what information to include and how everything fits together. A well-structured business plan outline also helps you plan things ahead, saving time and effort.

Writing a business plan outline in 9 steps

Follow these steps to build your business plan outline and learn exactly what each section should include.

(Bear in mind that every business plan is unique, tailored to the specific needs and goals of the business. While the structure below is common, the order of sections may vary—only the executive summary will always come first.)

1. Executive summary

Imagine you have just 60 seconds to convince someone to invest in your business. That's the essence of a strong executive summary. Although it appears first on your business plan, this section is often written last because it sums up the entire plan. Think of it as your elevator pitch . This section gives a quick overview of your entire business plan, highlighting key points that grab the reader's attention.

Keep it clear and concise. Start with a brief overview of your business, including its name and what it offers. Summarize your mission statement and objectives, and don’t forget to mention crucial aspects like financial projections and competitive advantages.

2. Company description

Here's where you provide detailed information about your company. Begin with the business name and location. Describe the legal structure (e.g., sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation) and ownership. If your business already exists, share a brief history.

For new ventures, explain the business's nature and the problems you aim to solve. Go into more detail about your vision and mission statements, outlining your goals and the principles guiding your business. This section helps potential investors and stakeholders grasp your company’s identity and purpose.

3. Market research and analysis

This section shares insights into your company’s industry. Start with a landscape analysis to give an overview of the market, including its size, growth rate, and key players.

Next, define your target market and customer demographics—age, location, income, and interests—detailing who your ideal customers are. Identify market needs and trends your business will address, and highlight customer pain points your product or service aims to solve.

Consider conducting a SWOT analysis to evaluate your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and gain a strategic view of where your business stands in the competitive landscape.

4. Organization and management

Describe how your business is structured and who runs it. Outline the organizational structure, and if helps, include a chart. Introduce the leadership team and key personnel, highlighting their qualifications and roles. If you have a board of directors, mention them and briefly explain their involvement.

Then, outline your production processes, detailing how your product or service is (or will be) created—from sourcing materials to delivery—to give a comprehensive view of your operational capabilities.

5. Products and services

This section of your business plan outline is crucial for showing potential investors what makes your products and services unique and valuable.

Clearly describe what your business offers, emphasizing your unique selling propositions (USPs) and the benefits and features that set you apart from the competition. Talk about the product life cycle, including any plans for future updates.

If your business holds any intellectual property or proprietary technologies, detail them here to underscore your competitive advantages.

6. Marketing strategy

Having a fantastic product or service is just half the battle. The marketing plan section should outline how you'll reach your target market and convert them into customers.

Begin with market positioning and branding, explaining how you want your brand perceived. Detail your marketing and promotional strategies, including specific tactics to reach your target audience.

Discuss your sales strategy, focusing on how you'll convert leads into customers. Lastly, include your pricing strategy and provide a sales forecast, projecting your expected revenue over a certain period.

7. Operations plan

Here, the goal is to give a detailed overview of the physical and logistical aspects of your company. Start with the business location and facilities, describing where it operates and any significant physical assets. Detail the technology and equipment needed for daily operations.

Briefly describe your supply chain and logistics processes to illustrate how you manage inventory, procurement, and distribution. Finish it by outlining your production process and quality control measures to ensure your products or services consistently meet high standards.

8. Financial plan

Use this section of the business plan to show how your company will succeed financially. Include financial projections like income statements and cash flow statements. Specify how much capital you need and how you plan to use it, discussing funding sources.

Conduct a break-even analysis to estimate when your business will become profitable. Be transparent and address any financial risks and assumptions, outlining how you plan to mitigate them.

9. Appendices and exhibits

In this section, include any additional information that supports your business plan. This might be resumes of key personnel to highlight your team's expertise and experience, or even legal documents and agreements.

Include market research data and surveys to back up your market analysis. Add financial statements for a detailed look at your financial plan. Also, provide detailed product specifications to give a clear understanding of your products and services.

Here's a business plan outline example

Not quite there yet? Take a look at this business plan outline example—it will make everything clear for you.

3.1 Executive Summary

• Overview of the business
• Key points of the business plan

3.2 Company Description

• Business name and location
• History and nature of the business
• Legal structure and ownership
• Vision and mission statement

3.3 Market Research and Analysis

• Industry analysis
• Target market and customer demographics
• Market needs, trends
• Customer pain points
• SWOT analysis

3.4 Organization and Management

• Organizational structure
• Leadership team and key personnel
• Roles and responsibilities
• Board of directors (if applicable)
• Production processes

3.5 Products and Services

• Description of products or services offered
• Unique selling propositions, benefits, features
• Product lifecycle and development plans
• Intellectual property and proprietary technologies

3.6 Marketing Strategy

• Market positioning and branding
• Marketing and promotional strategies
• Sales strategy and tactics
• Pricing strategy and sales forecast

3.7 Operations Plan

• Business location and facilities
• Technology and equipment
• Supply chain and logistics
• Production process and quality control

3.8 Financial Plan

• Financial projections (income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements)
• Funding requirements and sources
• Break-even analysis
• Financial risks and assumptions

3.9 Appendices and Exhibits (if applicable)

• Supporting documents and additional information
• Resumes of key personnel
• Legal documents and agreements
• Market research data and surveys
• Financial Statements
• Detailed Product Specifications

Bonus tips on how to write a winning business plan

Once you've done your business plan outline, it's time to fill in the gaps and craft a winning business plan. Here are some bonus tips to keep in mind:

• Tailor it to fit your business : Customize sections to meet industry-specific needs and highlight what makes your business unique.
• Keep it clear and concise : Use straightforward language and support your points with data to ensure easy understanding and avoid any confusion.
• Set actionable and realistic goals : Define measurable objectives with clear timelines and milestones to track your progress.
• Update regularly : Keep your plan dynamic by making regular updates to reflect changes in goals, market conditions, and strategies.
• Seek feedback : Gain insights from mentors and advisors to refine your plan.

Read this next: How to Start a Business in 8 Steps: A Comprehensive Guide from Concept to Launch

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Why You Should Write a Business Plan for Your Career

A successful career requires specific goals, determining your ideal path, identifying key challenges and opportunities, and coming up with contingency plans. you can accomplish all these with a business plan for your career. here's how.

In the entrepreneurial world, a business plan is a sacred text. You can't get funding without a solid business plan, and even if you manage to scrape by without one, chances are your organization will be so disorganized you won't have a chance at any significant level of success. Outlining your goals, your vision, your competition, your challenges, and the mechanics that will drive your progress, a business plan tries to predict the course of your first few years of a company's growth.

Your career requires a similar level of attention--you'll need to pick out specific goals, determine your ideal path, identify key challenges and opportunities, and come up with some contingency plans--so why don't more people write out business plans for their careers?

Start out with a mission statement

What is "success" in your mind? It's different for everybody. For some, it's getting to retire by the age of 50. For others, it's making six figures every year. For still others, it's making partner or landing some similar directorial role. The mission statement of your career business plan will explain exactly what success is to you, and a general idea of how you plan to get there (the smaller details can wait until later sections).

For this section, limit yourself to two or three sentences. You want to be as concise as possible without eliminating any of your overall vision.

List your short-term and long-term goals

Once you've established a solid mission statement, take the time to list your long-term and short-term goals. Because your mission statement is established, you should have no trouble distinguishing which of your possible goals are aligned under that vision and which aren't wholly or directly related to it. Your long-term goals are ones that will take a year or more to accomplish, and might only serve in a general context, like "get promoted" or "move to a bigger firm." Your short-term goals will be much more actionable and specific, taking priority and leading into your long-term goals with target accomplishments like "land a 50 percent increase in year-over-year traffic." If you keep to your career business plan, you can return to it regularly and start crossing off your goals as you accomplish them.

List your current and desired skills and credentials

Chances are, most of your long-term goals will require you to have specific skills, which you might already have (or you might not). For example, if one of your goals is to get promoted to a supervisory position, you might need to develop skills in a related peripheral department before you can make the move, such as a lead developer learning more about other programming languages. This section of your career business plan will help you figure out exactly what you need, have, and need to get to reach your short-term and long-term goals. In a way, this functions as a separate goal list that caters specifically to your skills and credentials. Similarly, you can return to it and cross things off as you learn or develop them.

Describe your operational approach

One of the most important sections of a traditional business plan is the "operations" detail, where entrepreneurs discuss the ins and outs of how they will manage their business, including who they will hire, when they will hire, what roles will need to exist, and what policies, processes, and procedures will be instated. Your career "operations" section will be far less detailed and less strict, but it will still need to outline how you intend to operate. Will you focus on teamwork or prioritize individual efforts? Will you initialize your own projects or stick to exceling at what's assigned to you? These choices will depend on your ultimate vision.

Note your key challenges and opportunities

In businesses, challenges come from competition and weaknesses in the model, and opportunities come from circumstances that can be taken advantage of. In your career, challenges will come from difficulties at the firm, competition from other individuals, and changing landscapes of your industry. Opportunities will come from position openings, economic changes, and new clients. Take the time to speculate about possible challenges and opportunities--not only as they exist for you today, but how they might exist for you over the course of the next several years.

Identify potential problems and contingency plans

Some of your challenges might evolve into full-fledged problems; for example, you might get laid off or suddenly find yourself unable to work. These scenarios will pop up no matter how much you try to avoid them or ignore them. It's your job to think as far ahead as you can and prepare for as many possibilities as you can. The more contingency plans you list out (such as including alternate career paths), the better prepared you'll be for an inevitable hurdle.

Writing out a full-fledged business plan for your career will take some time, but for most people, the investment is worth it. You'll have a go-to document to help guide your course; when you encounter a challenge, you'll have contingency plans to rely on. When you aren't sure about a particular direction, you can compare it to your original "mission statement." And of course, you can always go back and update it as you grow and change as a professional. The key is to have a reasonable backbone to help guide and support your progress.

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• Write a curriculum vitae in 15 lines or less—not a résumé, but a description you might give to someone introducing you as a speaker.
• Repeat the exercise, but write your description as if it were 15 to 20 years from now.
• Start thinking about what it would take to get from the first introduction to the second. In CEO lingo, this kind of thinking is called gap analysis.
• Do you know what your most valuable skills are?
• Could you write an ad for yourself?
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• A vision for the business
• Financial skills
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• What is your advantage over the competition?
• How does your "price" compare?
• Who is your target customer?
• Create your own ad: Fill in the blanks: The goal of your ad is "to convince ______ to buy ________ because _______." With this goal in mind, create your ad.
• Pitch your ad: Invite a friend or co-worker you trust to listen to your pitch. Give yourself three minutes for the pitch, and give your friend two minutes for comments.
• Make an impression: After your pitch, the listener should know what your "brand" was, and what made it different from its competitors. Pop-up window Exercise Two: The Relationship Inventory. Once you know what you're selling, who are you going to tell? In the case of Me, Inc., you're going to be spending your time and energy. You'll be advertising yourself to the people you pay attention to. Make the most of your limited time by spending it with people who can help you grow.

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How To Create A Career Development Plan

Updated: Jun 15, 2024, 12:33pm

Table of Contents

What is a career development plan, benefits of a career development plan, creating an effective career development plan, tips for effective career development plans, sources of support for career development, frequently asked questions (faqs).

Chances are you have specific career aspirations. Maybe you hope to land a management position one day. Or perhaps you’d like to change industries or work at a startup or Fortune 500 company. No matter what you have in mind, a career development plan can come in handy. You can think of it as a roadmap for the future of your career. Keep reading to find out how to create a career development plan and why it’s worthwhile.

Also known as a professional development plan, a career development plan is a document that describes your career goals and the path you’ll take to achieve them. In the past, human resource departments and management teams used career development plans to support their employees’ growth. These days, however, more and more individuals are creating their own career development plans.

As you develop your career development plan, you’ll need to consider the current state of your career, your goals and what you need to do to move forward. While career development plans vary greatly, many of them include a variety of sections, such as a summary statement, short-term and long-term goals, current skills, developing skills and resources.

With a detailed, thoughtful career development plan, you’ll have a clear idea of the steps that will allow you to grow your career and meet (or even exceed) your goals. It can set you up for success in your current role and/or future positions.

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There are several noteworthy advantages of a career development plan, including:

Provides a Roadmap for the Future

If you take the time to create a career development plan, you’ll know exactly what your end goals are and how you can achieve them. Without one, you’ll be more tempted to just “go with the flow” and make random career decisions that may or may not propel you toward your definition of success.

Identifies Skills Gaps

While you likely have many strengths, there’s a good chance you have some weaknesses as well. A career development plan may help you turn those weaknesses into opportunities by encouraging you to fill skills gaps and become a more well-rounded employee. For example, your plan may reveal that while you’re a pro at written communication, your oral communication skills could use some work.

Inspires Motivation

Once you have a career development plan you’re happy with, you’ll be more motivated to work hard and push yourself professionally. If you lack one, you may find it easier to get discouraged and give up. Motivation is key regardless of how realistic or far-fetched your career goals might be.

When it comes to creating a useful career development plan, you’re in complete control. This means you can choose how to go about it. Since it’s your unique plan, the process is up to you. However, here are several steps you might want to consider.

Step 1. Consider your present-day situation

First and foremost, think about where you currently stand with your career. To do so, you may want to ask yourself these questions.

• What are my previous experiences?
• What do I enjoy?
• What do I dislike?
• Do I have a life calling?
• What types of skills do I have?
• Do I prefer to work independently or in a group setting?
• What motivates or excites me the most?

During this step, you’ll want to evaluate your current position and compare it to your past experiences, desires, strengths, skills and values. It will serve as a basis for your future career potential.

Step 2. Determine your goals

Next, it’s time to think about what you hope to accomplish. This will give your plan purpose and direction. As you jot down your goals, make sure they follow the SMART framework. A SMART goal is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.

It’s also in your best interest to break down your goals into short-term goals and long-term goals. Short-term goals will establish where you’ll be in a few years while long-term goals will indicate where you’ll be in the next five to 10 years.

Step 3. Assess your current skill set

Now, consider the skills you’re confident in as well as the skills you need to develop in the future to reach your goals. To help you gauge your skill set, read job postings that are related to your current position and positions you wish to land down the road.

If you’re a marketing manager, for example, you might be a pro at pay-per-click marketing but need to improve on search engine optimization. Be honest with yourself about which skills you’re proficient at and which ones require some more learning and experience.

Step 4. Explore your resources

You don’t have to meet your career goals on your own. In fact, it’s important to take full advantage of a variety of resources to help you out. Find out if your current employer offers a career development program. You can also explore mentorship opportunities at your company or certain organizations. Another option is to participate in career development workshops or classes. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and learn from others.

Step 5. Work toward your goals

During this step, you’ll have to put in the work so you can make some progress toward your goals. You can always get your managers and supervisors involved and check in with them on a regular basis to get their perspective on how you’re doing. As you work toward your goals, try new approaches and seek as much guidance as you need.

Step 6. Track your milestones

It’s not easy to work toward your goals and develop professionally. That’s why you’ll want to keep tabs on your milestones and celebrate them along the way. Let’s say you become an expert at a computer program that will further your career. Treat yourself to a meal out or an experience on your bucket list. This will keep you motivated to continue your hard work.

Step 7. Revisit your plan

A career development plan is not set in stone. It should be useful but also flexible enough to adapt to new situations. As you grow and your circumstances change and goals evolve, your career plan may require some modifications. If possible, review your plan every six months or so and revise it as necessary.

Not all career development plans are created equal. These tips can help you ensure yours sets you up for success.

Don’t Get Discouraged

There’s no denying that career goals can be difficult to meet. However, if you believe in yourself and remain persistent, you will succeed. Remember that setbacks will only make you stronger so don’t be afraid when they come your way.

Celebrate Wins

The key to career success is positive thinking. If you celebrate your wins, you can do just that. Reward yourself every time you check a goal off your list. Also, always consider how far you’ve come and get excited about where you’re going.

Build and Foster Your Network

Don’t wait for others to support you with your career. Instead, be proactive and develop relationships with a group of people who are invested in your growth and willing to provide you with the guidance you need to succeed.

Invest in Learning Opportunities

Knowledge is power and essential if you’d like to grow your career. It’s up to you to invest in learning opportunities, such as courses, certifications, podcasts, books, meet-up groups, seminars and mentorship programs.

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There are a number of people you may be able to turn to for support with your career development. Here are a few options to consider.

In most cases, managers care about your career. After all, your success often translates into their success. For this reason, it’s a good idea to develop strong relationships with them and turn to them for guidance. This is particularly true if you hope to land their positions one day and know they were in your shoes at one point in time.

Other Employees

Sometimes, the best career development advice comes from other employees in different departments or positions. Everyone has a unique story so it’s wise to get to know the backgrounds of others, especially if you’d like to expand your knowledge and skill set.

Bottom Line

In today’s competitive job market, a career development plan can be a helpful tool that businesses can use to help staff stay on track to achieving their professional goals. In return, it lends to a happier workforce and lower turnover rates, making it a win-win for employers and employees alike.

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When is the best time to create a career development plan?

Ideally, you’d create a development plan as soon as possible. No matter what stage you’re in, you can benefit from a roadmap that outlines your goals and aspirations clearly. Even if you’re already a manager or senior-level employee, a career development plan is worth the time and effort.

What is the difference between career development and professional development?

Professional development accounts for personal development in addition to career development. Career development, however, focuses on the steps you need to take to further your career.

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Anna Baluch is a freelance writer from Cleveland, Ohio. She enjoys writing about a variety of health and personal finance topics. When she's away from her laptop, she can be found working out, trying new restaurants, and spending time with her family. Connect to her on LinkedIn.

How to make a career plan [+templates]

Reading time: about 7 min

Sometimes when we see people with successful careers, we think their career was a result of luck or connections. While that may be true in some cases, often, successful careers are the result of planning. Talk to many executives, and they’ll detail how their career growth took place over a long path that included education, mentorship, challenges, and having an end goal in mind.

While you may have an idea of where you’d like to be, it’s difficult to take action on a general idea. By solidifying what you want exactly, you can take steps in the right direction, and those clear steps can help you feel empowered and motivated. 

What is a career plan?

A career plan is a structured and strategic roadmap that you can use to set and achieve your career goals. This plan outlines the steps, actions, and milestones needed to progress in your career over time. A well-thought-out career plan can help you make informed decisions about your professional development and enable you to work toward your desired career outcomes.

A typical career plan usually includes:

• Goal setting : Clearly define short-term and long-term career goals. These goals may include specific job roles, levels of responsibility, income targets, or personal development objectives.
• Self-assessment : Assess your skills, strengths, weaknesses, interests, values, and personality traits. Understanding yourself is essential for aligning your career choices with your personal preferences and capabilities.
• Research and exploration : Investigate different industries, job sectors, companies, and roles that align with your goals and interests. Gather information about the qualifications, experience, and skills required in your chosen field.
• Skill development : Identify the skills and knowledge you need to acquire or improve to advance in your career. Plan how you will acquire these skills through education, training, or on-the-job experience.
• Networking : Develop a professional network by connecting with colleagues, mentors, and industry professionals. Networking can provide valuable insights, opportunities, and support throughout your career.
• Résumé and personal branding : Create or update your résumé and online profiles to reflect your skills, achievements, and career objectives. Consistency in your personal brand can help you stand out to potential employers.
• Job search and application : If you are actively job hunting, your career plan should include strategies for finding and applying for positions that align with your goals. This might involve using job boards, attending job fairs, or leveraging your network.
• Performance evaluation : Periodically assess your progress toward your career goals. Are you meeting your milestones? Do you need to adjust your plan based on changing circumstances or priorities?
• Adaptability : Be prepared to adapt your career plan as circumstances change, new opportunities arise, or your interests evolve. Flexibility is crucial in navigating a dynamic job market.
• Long-term vision : Consider your ultimate career aspirations. Do you want to be a leader or make a difference in an industry? Maybe you want to start a business. Your long-term vision can guide your decisions and actions over the years.

Let’s be clear: a career plan is far more than just a piece of paper. It can sometimes be the difference between stagnating in a current role (and missing out on promotions, fulfillment, and earlier retirement) or achieving a fulfilling, higher-paying job. 

Career plan examples

With Lucid, you never need to start from scratch. We have a variety of career growth templates to get you started.

Career growth plan

Insert career growth plan template with caption: Career growth plan example (click to use template).

Career path

You may not want to become a project manager, but this career path template is an excellent example of a career path. What’s unique about this template is that it can help guide your research as you determine the steps from your current job to where you’d like to be. The research alone is helpful, but knowing what next steps lie ahead can also be motivating and inspiring. 

Insert career path template with caption: Career path example (click to use template).

Career progression chart

This granular career progression chart template shows the interconnectedness of many job roles, which is helpful for a career progression that can go in multiple directions. It also includes example salary ranges of job grades.

Insert career progression chart with the caption: Career progression chart example (click to use template).

How to make a career plan

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to create a comprehensive career plan:

Self-assessment

• Begin by assessing yourself. Reflect on your interests, values, strengths, weaknesses, and long-term aspirations.
• Identify your short-term and long-term career goals. What specific achievements or positions do you want to reach?

Research and exploration

• Research different career fields, industries, and job roles. Explore job market trends and potential career paths.
• Consider the qualifications, skills, and experience required for your desired roles.

Set SMART goals

• Make your goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, instead of a vague goal like "get a better job," aim for something like "secure a project management role with a 20% salary increase within two years."

Identify skills and knowledge gaps

• Determine the skills and knowledge you need to achieve your goals. Be honest about your current skillset and identify any gaps.
• Create a list of the skills you need to develop or improve to reach your objectives.

Plan skill development

• Develop a plan to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge. This may involve taking courses, attending workshops, seeking mentorship, or gaining on-the-job experience.
• Set milestones and deadlines for skill development.

Build a professional network

• Start or expand your professional network.
• Attend networking events, conferences, and workshops relevant to your field.

Update your résumé and online profiles

• Keep your résumé and LinkedIn profile up-to-date. Highlight your skills, achievements, and career objectives.
• Ensure consistency in your personal brand across all professional platforms.

Job search and application strategy

• If you're actively job hunting, create a strategy for finding and applying for positions that align with your goals.
• Tailor your application materials (résumé, cover letter) for each job application.

Performance evaluation

• Regularly assess your progress toward your career goals. Are you meeting your milestones?
• Adjust your plan as needed based on your performance and changing circumstances.

Adaptability and flexibility

• Be open to adjusting your career plan as opportunities and challenges arise.
• Adapt to changes in your interests, the job market, or personal circumstances.

Long-term vision

• Consider your ultimate career aspirations. Where do you see yourself in 10, 20, or 30 years?
• Your long-term vision can guide your choices and priorities over time.

Seek feedback and guidance

• Don't hesitate to seek feedback from mentors, career counselors, or trusted colleagues. They can offer valuable insights and advice.

Document your plan

• Write down your career plan in a document or digital format. This document should serve as a roadmap for your career journey.

Regularly review and revise

• Periodically review and revise your career plan, especially as you achieve goals, encounter new opportunities, or face unexpected challenges.

Remember that a career plan is a dynamic document, so it should evolve as your career evolves. Regularly revisit and adjust your plan to stay on track and align with your changing aspirations and circumstances.

Start planning your career with Lucidchart

If you’re convinced a career plan is the way to go to make your career dreams come true, we’re here to help!

Get started with this career growth plan template in Lucidchart.  

About Lucidchart

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

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How to Start a Job Board Business

Subscribe to the job board academy.

Are you thinking about starting a job board business? In this article, we'll cover everything you need to know to get your job board up and running.

Online job boards are platforms that allow job seekers to search for open positions and employers to advertise their vacancies. For a more in-depth definition and examples check out our post on what is a job board .

We'll start by discussing the importance of identifying your target audience and niche. Next, we'll explain how to choose a niche for your job board, and we'll discuss the different options to create a niche job board .

Finally, we'll cover some key strategies for launching and promoting your job board, as well as some tips for managing risks and challenges.

By the end of this article, you'll have a solid foundation for launching and growing your job board business.

Identify Your Target Audience and Niche

Identifying your target audience and niche is an essential part of launching a successful job board business.

The Benefits of Choosing a Niche for Your Business

Choosing a niche can be an effective way to reach more people and grow your business. By specializing in a specific area, you can create tailored marketing campaigns that are more relevant to your target audience, which can help to increase brand awareness and attract more qualified leads. Additionally, by focusing on a specific niche, you can become a thought leader in your industry, which can help to boost your credibility and reputation. This can make it easier for you to connect with potential customers, as well as establish partnerships and collaborations with other businesses in your niche. Overall, choosing a niche can help you to reach more people and grow your business by focusing your efforts and resources on a specific group of customers.

By carefully selecting the types of job seekers and employers you want to help, as well as choosing a specific niche or industry for your platform, you can focus your efforts and resources on a specific group of customers, which can help to increase your chances of success.

How to Choose a Niche for Your Job Board

When it comes to choosing a niche for a job board business, there are a few key factors to consider. First and foremost, it’s important to identify the types of job seekers and employers you want to help.

This can include looking at the job market in your local area and identifying areas of high demand, as well as considering your own interests and expertise. For example, if you have a background in healthcare, you may want to focus on helping job seekers and employers in the healthcare industry.

Once you have identified the types of job seekers and employers you want to help, it’s important to conduct market research to assess the potential demand for your job board. This can include surveying potential customers to see if there is interest in your platform, as well as looking at competitors to see how they are positioning themselves in the market. By conducting thorough market research, you can gain valuable insights that can help you to refine your business plan and choose a niche that is well-suited to your target audience.

In addition to considering demand and competition, it’s also important to choose a niche that aligns with your personal interests and expertise. This can help to make your job board more enjoyable to run, as well as give you an edge over competitors who may not have the same level of knowledge and experience in your chosen niche.

Overall, choosing a niche for your job board business requires a combination of market research, strategic planning, and personal alignment. By carefully considering these factors, you can select a niche that is well-suited to your target audience and has the potential to grow and succeed.

By carefully selecting the types of job seekers and employers you want to help, and choosing a specific niche or industry for your platform, you can focus your efforts and resources on a specific group of customers, which can help to increase your chances of success.

Build a Job Board Website

Creating a website for your job board business is an essential step in launching and growing your platform. There are several options for creating a website, including choosing a job board software , using a website builder with a job board plugin, using a job board theme, or hiring a development team. Each option has its own benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important to carefully consider your specific needs and goals before making a decision.

When To Use Job Board Software

If you choose to use job board software, you can take advantage of pre-built features and functionality that are specifically designed for job boards. This can save you time and money, as you won’t have to build everything from scratch.

When To Use a Generic Website Builder

Using a website builder can be a more affordable option, and it allows you to easily create a basic job board website if you have enough technical expertise. Many website builders also offer pre-built templates and features that are specifically designed for job boards, which can save you time and effort. However, website builders can be limited in terms of customization, are troublesome to maintain, and don’t offer as many advanced features as job board software.

When To Hire a Software Development Team

Hiring a development team can be the most expensive option , but it also gives you the most control over the design and functionality of your website. A development team can create a custom website that is tailored to your specific needs and goals, and they can also help you to add advanced features and functionality. However, hiring a development team can be time-consuming and may require a significant investment.

What Makes a Good Job Board Website?

Regardless of the option you choose, it’s important to design a user-friendly and professional-looking website. This can include using clean, modern design elements, as well as making sure that your website is easy to navigate and use.

Additionally, you’ll want to add necessary features that are essential for job boards, such as:

• SEO and Google for Jobs integration : One important feature of a job board is robust search engine optimization (SEO) and integration with Google for Jobs. This means that your job board is designed to be easily discoverable by search engines, which can help to increase its visibility and reach. By optimizing your website for relevant keywords and phrases, you can improve its ranking in search results, which can help more job seekers and employers to find your platform. Additionally, by integrating with Google for Jobs, you can make your job postings more discoverable on the world's largest search engine. This can help to drive more traffic to your website and increase engagement and retention on your platform. Overall, robust SEO and integration with Google for Jobs is an important feature for any job board, as it can help to improve its visibility and reach, and ultimately drive more success for your business.
• Modern, easy to use, and remote-friendly job search experience : A modern, easy to use, and remote-friendly job search experience is a key feature of any job board. This means that job seekers can easily and quickly find relevant job postings that fit their preferences and qualifications, regardless of whether they are looking for in-person or remote positions. By providing a user-friendly and intuitive search experience, you can help job seekers to find the right opportunities more quickly, which can increase engagement and retention on your platform. Additionally, by making it easy for job seekers to find remote positions, you can help to meet the growing demand for flexible and remote work opportunities.
• Talent network : A talent network is a feature that helps employers discover and connect with job seekers. This can include tools and resources that allow employers to search for job seekers with specific skills and experience, as well as tools that help job seekers to showcase their skills and qualifications. By providing a talent network, you can help employers to easily find and connect with potential candidates, and you can provide job seekers with a platform to showcase their abilities and stand out to potential employers. This can help to improve engagement and retention on your job board.
• Employer and job seeker communication : A way for employers and job seekers to communicate within the job board is an important feature that can help to improve engagement and retention on your platform. This can include tools and resources that allow employers and job seekers to easily connect and communicate in real-time, such as messaging and chat functions. By providing a way for employers and job seekers to communicate within your job board, you can make it easier for them to schedule interviews and discuss job opportunities, which can save them time and effort and ultimately improve the overall user experience. Additionally, by facilitating communication between employers and job seekers, you can increase engagement and retention on your job board.
• Customizable applicant tracking system for employers : A customizable applicant tracking system allows employers to easily track and manage the job application process, from posting a job to reviewing and interviewing candidates. By providing a customizable applicant tracking system, you can give employers the ability to tailor the system to their specific needs and preferences making them more efficient and effective. This can help to improve the overall user experience for employers, and make your job board more appealing and useful for them, which can save them time and effort.
• Flexible job taxonomy and filters : This can include options for categorizing jobs by category, location, type, salary, and any other relevant factors you can imagine. By taking advantage of flexible job taxonomy, you can make it easier for job seekers to find jobs that are relevant to their interests and qualifications, and you can make it easier for employers to find candidates who are a good fit for their job postings.
• Customizable fields for company and job seeker profiles : Decide what info employers and job seekers can fill out on their profiles, what's required, what's visible publicly, and what's searchable. This can include things like job seeker skills and experience, company size and industry, and more. By giving employers and job seekers the ability to tailor their profiles, you can make the job search experience on your platform more personal and relevant. It can also make it easier for employers and job seekers to connect and communicate.
• Ability to scrape and aggregate relevant jobs : Automatically collect and populate your job board with job postings from external sources, such as other job boards, company websites, and job search engines. This can save you time and effort, as you won’t have to manually enter job postings onto your job board. Additionally, by scraping and importing relevant jobs from other sources, you can make your job board more comprehensive and up-to-date, which can improve the user experience and make it more appealing to both job seekers and employers. Overall, the ability to scrape and import jobs from other sources is a valuable feature for any job board, as it can help to save time, improve the user experience, and keep job seekers coming back.
• Sophisticated monetization capabilities : Maximize revenue by selling and upselling high-margin recurring revenue products to employers at the right time. This can include offering sponsored job listings, as well as premium features and services that employers can purchase to enhance their job postings and attract more qualified candidates. By taking advantage of sophisticated monetization capabilities, you can give employers the ability to easily and conveniently purchase products and services that are relevant to their needs and goals, which can help to drive more revenue for your business. Additionally, by offering high-margin recurring revenue products, you can create a steady stream of income for your business, which can help to improve its financial stability and growth potential. Be sure to choose a solution that can support your business model.

Creating a website for your job board business requires careful consideration and planning. By choosing the right platform or development team, and designing a user-friendly and professional-looking website, you can create a website that is effective and successful in helping job seekers and employers connect.

Looking for all of the above, plus platform extensibility, customizability, and stellar support at every step of your job board journey? Check out our job board software .

Create a Pricing Model

Creating a pricing model for a job board business can be a complex task, as you need to balance the need to generate revenue with the need to provide value and remain competitive in your industry. One key factor to consider when creating a pricing model is analyzing the competitive landscape in your industry to offer comparable prices. This means researching the prices and pricing models of other job boards in your market and using this information to inform your own pricing decisions.

Once you have a good understanding of the competitive landscape, you can start thinking about how to price and sell your core products and services. This can include pricing and selling individual job posts, as well as pricing and selling job post packages that allow employers to purchase multiple job posts at a discounted rate. You can also consider selling services, such as resume and cover letter building tools, that can help job seekers to improve their job application materials.

Another key aspect of your pricing model is upselling featured listings. This means offering employers the option to purchase additional features and services, such as highlighted job posts or priority placement in search results, that can help their job postings to stand out and attract more qualified candidates. By offering these options as add-ons, you can increase the value of your core products and services, and generate additional revenue for your business.

In addition to selling job posts and featured listings, you can also consider selling access to your talent network. This can include offering employers the ability to search for and connect with job seekers who have specific skills and experience, as well as offering job seekers the ability to showcase their abilities and qualifications to potential employers. By selling access to your talent network, you can provide value to both employers and job seekers, and generate additional revenue for your business.

One way to generate high-margin recurring revenue is by selling any of these products and services as subscriptions. This means offering employers the ability to purchase job posts, featured listings, and talent network access on a recurring basis, such as monthly or annually. By offering subscriptions, you can create a steady stream of revenue for your business, and improve its financial stability and growth potential.

Overall, creating a pricing model for a job board business requires careful consideration of the competitive landscape, the value of your products and services, and the needs and preferences of your target audience. By offering comparable prices, selling core products and services, upselling featured listings, selling access to your talent network, and selling subscriptions, you can create a pricing model that generates revenue and drives success for your business.

Create a Marketing Plan

Creating a marketing plan for a job board business is essential for promoting your platform and attracting job seekers and employers. A comprehensive marketing plan can help you to develop a clear and effective strategy for reaching your target audience, and it can provide a roadmap for implementing and managing your marketing efforts.

One key step in creating a marketing plan is identifying the most effective marketing channels and tactics for reaching your target audience. This can include researching your target audience and understanding their needs, preferences, and behavior, as well as assessing the effectiveness and feasibility of different marketing channels and tactics.

Some popular job board marketing channels, tactics, and strategies include:

Content Marketing

Content marketing is an effective way to promote a job board business, as it allows you to provide valuable and engaging information to job seekers and employers, and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry. To use content marketing to promote your job board, you can follow these steps:

Develop a content marketing strategy : To effectively use content marketing to promote your job board, you need to develop a content marketing strategy that outlines your goals, target audience, content themes, distribution channels, and measurement methods. By developing a content marketing strategy, you can create a roadmap for your content marketing efforts, and ensure that they are aligned with your business goals and your target audience.

Create and publish content : Once you have developed a content marketing strategy, you can start creating and publishing content that provides value and engages your target audience. This can include blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, podcasts, and other types of content that are relevant to your target audience and your industry. By creating and publishing valuable and engaging content, you can build trust and credibility with your audience, and encourage them to visit your job board and engage with your content.

Promote your content : To maximize the impact of your content marketing efforts, it’s important to promote your content and make it visible to your target audience. This can include sharing your content on social networks, email marketing, and other distribution channels, as well as using search engine optimization and paid advertising to increase its visibility and reach. By promoting your content, you can increase its visibility and engagement, and drive more traffic and engagement to your job board.

Monitor and analyze your content performance : To effectively use content marketing to promote your job board, it’s important to monitor and analyze your performance. This can include tracking metrics such as website traffic, social media engagement, and conversion rates, as well as conducting surveys and focus groups to gather feedback from your audience. By monitoring and analyzing your content performance, you can identify what’s working and what’s not, and make adjustments to your content marketing strategy to improve its effectiveness.

Overall, content marketing is a powerful tool for promoting a job board business, as it allows you to provide valuable and engaging information to job seekers and employers, and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry. By developing a content marketing strategy, creating and publishing content, promoting your content, and monitoring and analyzing your performance, you can use content marketing to increase brand awareness, attract job seekers and employers, and drive traffic and engagement with your job board.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is an effective way to promote a job board business, as it can help to increase brand awareness, attract job seekers and employers, and drive engagement and traffic to your platform. To use social media marketing to promote your job board, you can follow these steps:

Choose the right social media platforms : There are many different social media platforms to choose from, and it’s important to select the ones that are most relevant to your target audience and your marketing goals. For example, if your job board focuses on a specific industry or location, you might want to focus on platforms that are popular among job seekers and employers in that industry or location.

Develop a social media content strategy : To effectively promote your job board on social media, you need to develop a content strategy that provides value and engages your target audience. This can include sharing job postings, industry news and trends, career advice, and other relevant and interesting content. By providing valuable and engaging content, you can build trust and credibility with your audience, and encourage them to visit your job board and engage with your content.

Use social media advertising : In addition to organic content, you can also use social media advertising to promote your job board and reach a wider audience. This can include running sponsored posts, sponsored stories, and other types of paid advertisements that are targeted to your target audience. By using social media advertising, you can increase the visibility and reach of your job board, and drive more traffic and engagement with your platform.

Monitor and analyze your social media performance: To effectively use social media marketing to promote your job board, it’s important to monitor and analyze your performance on social media. This can include tracking metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and clicks.

Community-led Marketing

Community-led marketing is an effective way to promote a job board business, as it allows you to leverage the power of your community to promote your platform and attract job seekers and employers. To use community-led marketing to promote your job board, you can follow these steps:

Identify and engage with your community : The first step in using community-led marketing to promote your job board is to identify and engage with your community. This can include identifying groups and individuals who are interested in your job board, and engaging with them through social media, forums, events, and other channels. By engaging with your community, you can build relationships, gather feedback and insights, and create a supportive and engaged group of individuals who can help to promote your job board.

Encourage community involvement : To effectively use community-led marketing to promote your job board, you need to encourage community involvement and participation. This can include providing incentives, rewards, and recognition to community members who contribute to your job board and promote it to others, as well as creating opportunities for community members to collaborate, share ideas, and support each other. By encouraging community involvement, you can create a dynamic and engaged community that can help to promote your job board and attract job seekers and employers.

Leverage community content and reviews : Another way to use community-led marketing to promote your job board is to leverage community content and reviews. This can include featuring community-generated content, such as blog posts, videos, and photos, on your website and social media channels, as well as sharing community reviews and testimonials to showcase the value and benefits of your job board. By leveraging community content and reviews, you can increase the credibility and trustworthiness of your job board, and encourage more job seekers and employers to engage with your platform.

Overall, community-led marketing is a powerful tool for promoting a job board business, as it allows you to leverage the power of your community to promote your platform and attract job seekers and employers.

By identifying and engaging with your community, encouraging community involvement, leveraging community content and reviews, and monitoring and engaging with your community, you can use community-led marketing to increase brand awareness, attract job seekers and employers, and drive traffic and engagement with your job board.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is an effective way to promote a job board business, as it allows you to directly target and engage with job seekers and employers who have expressed an interest in your platform. To use email marketing to promote your job board, you can follow these steps:

Build an email list : The first step in using email marketing to promote your job board is to build an email list of job seekers and employers who have expressed an interest in your platform. This can include collecting email addresses through sign-up forms on your website, registration forms at job fairs or networking events, or other methods. By building an email list, you can create a group of individuals who are interested in your job board and are more likely to engage with your emails.

Develop email templates : Once you have built an email list, you can start developing email templates that you can use to promote your job board. This can include templates for newsletters, job alerts, special offers, and other types of emails that are relevant to your target audience. By developing email templates, you can create a consistent and professional look and feel for your emails, and save time and effort when sending them to your email list.

Create and send emails : Once you have developed email templates, you can start creating and sending emails to your email list. This can include sending newsletters that provide updates and news about your job board, job alerts that notify job seekers of new job postings that match their interests and qualifications, special offers that provide discounts or incentives to job seekers and employers, and other types of emails that provide value and engage your audience.

Monitor and analyze your email performance : To effectively use email marketing to promote your job board, it’s important to monitor and analyze your performance. This can include tracking metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, as well as conducting surveys to gather feedback from your audience. By monitoring and analyzing your email performance, you can identify what’s working and what’s not, and make adjustments to your email marketing strategy to improve its effectiveness.

By building an email list, developing email templates, creating and sending emails, and monitoring and analyzing your performance, you can use email marketing to increase brand awareness, attract job seekers and employers, and drive traffic and engagement with your job board. By implementing an effective email marketing strategy, you can create another valuable and engaging marketing channe for your job board businessl.

Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is an effective way to promote a job board business, as it allows you to reach a wider audience and drive more traffic and engagement to your platform. To use paid advertising to promote your job board, you can follow these steps:

Choose the right advertising channels : There are many different advertising channels to choose from, and it’s important to select the ones that are most relevant to your target audience and your marketing goals. For example, if your job board focuses on a specific industry or location, you might want to focus on channels that are popular among job seekers and employers in that industry or location.

Develop an advertising strategy : To effectively use paid advertising to promote your job board, you need to develop an advertising strategy that outlines your goals, target audience, ad formats, budget, and measurement methods. By developing an advertising strategy, you can create a roadmap for your advertising efforts, and ensure that they are aligned with your business goals and your target audience.

Create and run ads : Once you have developed an advertising strategy, you can start creating and running ads that promote your job board and attract job seekers and employers. This can include running display ads, search ads, social media ads, and other types of ads that are targeted to your target audience. By creating and running ads, you can increase the visibility and reach of your job board, and drive more traffic and engagement with your platform.

Monitor and analyze your advertising performance : To effectively use paid advertising to promote your job board, it’s important to monitor and analyze your performance. This can include tracking metrics such as impressions, clicks, and conversions, as well as conducting surveys and focus groups to gather feedback from your audience. By monitoring and analyzing your advertising performance, you can identify what’s working and what’s not, and make adjustments to your advertising strategy to improve its effectiveness.

By identifying your target audience, choosing the right advertising channels, developing an advertising strategy, creating and running ads, and monitoring and analyzing your performance, you can use paid advertising to increase brand awareness, attract job seekers and employers, and drive traffic and engagement with your job board.

Once you have identified the most effective marketing channels and tactics for your niche, you can start implementing and managing your marketing plan.

By developing a comprehensive marketing plan, identifying the most effective marketing channels and tactics, and implementing and managing your marketing plan, you can drive traffic and engagement with your job board.

Develop Relationships With Employers

Developing relationships and partnerships with employers is an important part of running a successful job board business, as it allows you to build trust and credibility with your clients, and provide value and support to help them achieve their hiring goals. To develop relationships and partnerships with employers, you can follow these steps:

Identify and engage with potential employers : The first step in developing relationships and partnerships with employers is to identify and engage with potential clients. This can include researching employers in your target industries and locations, and reaching out to them through social media, email, phone, and other channels. By engaging with potential employers, you can learn more about their hiring needs and goals, and assess whether your job board can provide value and support to help them achieve their objectives.

Offer value and support : To effectively develop relationships and partnerships with employers, you need to offer value and support to help them achieve their hiring goals. This can include providing job posting and applicant tracking services, offering advice and guidance on hiring and recruiting, and sharing insights and trends to help employers stay up-to-date on the latest developments in their industry. By offering value and support, you can build trust and credibility with employers, and establish yourself as a valuable partner who can help them succeed.

Develop personalized solutions : To build strong relationships and partnerships with employers, you need to develop personalized solutions that are tailored to their specific needs and goals. This can include creating custom job posting packages, offering specialized applicant tracking systems, and providing training and support to help employers use your job board effectively. By developing personalized solutions, you can demonstrate your understanding of employers’ unique needs, and create a tailored and effective offering that can help them achieve their objectives.

Establish a relationship-building process : To effectively develop relationships and partnerships with employers, it’s important to establish a relationship-building process that outlines the steps you will take to connect with potential clients, offer value and support, and develop personalized solutions. By establishing a relationship-building process, you can create a systematic and effective approach that can help you to build strong and sustainable relationships and partnerships with employers. This can include creating a schedule for reaching out to potential employers, setting up regular check-ins to assess their needs and goals, and providing ongoing support and guidance to help them achieve their objectives. By implementing a relationship-building process, you can ensure that you are building relationships and partnerships with employers in a consistent and effective way, and providing value and support to help them succeed.

Create a Customer Service Plan

Developing a customer service plan is an essential part of running a successful job board business. With the right plan in place, you can ensure that your customers – both job seekers and employers – have a positive experience with your platform, which can help to improve customer satisfaction and increase retention.

One key aspect of a customer service plan for a job board business is creating a system for responding to job seeker and employer inquiries. This can include setting up dedicated email addresses or phone lines for customers to contact, as well as establishing clear guidelines for how and when inquiries should be responded to. For example, you may decide to prioritize urgent inquiries from employers who are looking to fill a position quickly, or from job seekers who are seeking assistance with their job search.

Another important aspect of a customer service plan is developing a plan for resolving customer complaints or issues. This can include creating a process for handling complaints, such as documenting the issue and working with the customer to find a resolution. It may also involve training your customer service team on how to handle different types of complaints and issues, as well as how to escalate them to management if necessary.

Finally, implementing a feedback and review system can help to improve the customer experience on your job board. This can include soliciting feedback from customers through surveys or other means, as well as encouraging customers to leave reviews on your platform or on third-party review sites. By regularly reviewing and responding to customer feedback, you can identify areas for improvement and make changes to your platform to better meet the needs of your customers.

Overall, a well-developed customer service plan is crucial for a successful job board business. By creating a system for responding to inquiries, developing a plan for resolving customer complaints, and implementing a feedback and review system, you can improve the customer experience and increase satisfaction with your platform.

Analyze and Improve Your Performance

To effectively analyze and improve the performance of your job board business, you need to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that can help you to measure and assess the success of your platform. Some possible KPIs for a job board business can include:

Average number of applications per job posting : This metric measures the average number of applications received for each job posting on your job board, and can help you to assess the quality and relevance of job seekers to a job posting.

Average time to fill a job posting : This metric measures the average amount of time it takes for a job posting to be successfully filled, and can help you to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of your job board in connecting job seekers with employers.

Candidate retention rate : This metric measures the percentage of candidates who are successfully hired and remain with the company for a defined period of time, and can help you to assess the effectiveness of your job board in helping employers find and retain top talent.

Employer churn rate : This metric measures the percentage of employers who stop using your job board within a defined period of time, and can help you to assess the satisfaction and loyalty of your employer clients.

Job seeker churn rate : This metric measures the percentage of job seekers who stop using your job board within a defined period of time, and can help you to assess the satisfaction and loyalty of your job seeker audience.

Job posting engagement rate : This metric measures the level of engagement of job seekers with a job posting, and can include metrics such as clicks, views, and shares. This can help you to assess the popularity and relevance of a job posting, and identify areas for improvement.

Employer engagement rate : This metric measures the level of engagement of employers with your job board, and can include metrics such as job postings, applicant tracking, and other services and products. This can help you to assess the value and effectiveness of your job board, and identify areas for improvement.

Job seeker engagement rate : This metric measures the level of engagement of job seekers with your job board, and can include metrics such as job searches, applications, and other services and products. This can help you to assess the value and effectiveness of your job board, and identify areas for improvement.

Customer lifetime value : This metric measures the total value of a customer over the course of their relationship with your job board, and can help you to assess the long-term value and potential of your audience. By tracking and analyzing this KPI, you can gain insights into the long-term potential of your job board business, and identify areas for improvement and growth.

Once you have identified your KPIs , you can analyze your metrics to identify areas for improvement, and implement changes and improvements to increase the effectiveness of your job board. This can include improving the user experience of your website, adding new features and services, and implementing a customer feedback and review system to gather feedback from your audience. By analyzing and improving the performance of your job board, you can ensure that your platform is providing value and support to your target audience.

Manage Risks and Challenges

Running a job board business can be a rewarding and challenging experience, and managing the risks and challenges that come with it is an essential part of success. Some common risks and challenges of running a job board business can include:

• Competition : To manage competitive risk you can conduct market research to assess the competitive landscape, identify your unique value proposition, and implement strategies to differentiate your job board from others.
• Technology : Job boards rely on technology to function, and technical issues can disrupt your platform and impact your audience. To manage this risk, you can implement robust technology infrastructure, regularly test and update your systems, and have contingency plans in place for unexpected issues. Job board software providers like Job Board Fire help ease the burden of managing your own technology platform so you can focus on growing your job board business.
• Customer satisfaction : Job seekers and employers are the core of your job board business, and their satisfaction is essential to your success. To manage this risk, you can implement a customer feedback and review system, regularly assess customer satisfaction, and implement strategies to address any issues or concerns.

Overall, managing the risks and challenges of running a job board business requires a proactive and strategic approach, and it’s important to regularly assess and address potential risks and challenges to ensure the success and sustainability of your platform.

Stay up to Date with Industry Trends and Best Practices

Staying up to date with the latest trends and best practices in the job board business is key to staying ahead of the competition.

To do this, you can join industry organizations, attend conferences and events, follow industry publications and blogs, and connect with peers and experts. This will give you access to important news, insights, and analysis, and can help you to stay on top of the latest developments in the field.

It's important to regularly engage with industry resources and networks to gain valuable knowledge and stay up to date.

An easy way to stay up to date on job board related news and trends is to subscribe to the Job Board Academy by Job Board Fire.

Starting a job board business can be a rewarding and lucrative venture. By carefully identifying your target audience and choosing a niche, you can focus your efforts on a specific group of customers and increase your chances of success. Building a user-friendly and professional-looking website, adding necessary features, and creating a comprehensive marketing plan are all key steps in launching and promoting your job board. Additionally, developing relationships and partnerships with employers, analyzing and improving your performance, and staying up to date with industry trends and best practices can help you to manage risks and challenges, and ensure the long-term success of your job board business.

Ready to kick off your job board business? Get a demo of our job board platform .

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December 9, 2022

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January 25, 2022

A millennial dentist with $231,000 in student debt is worried he'll have to sell his home or get a second job if Biden's new repayment plan is axed

• David, 30, got affordable student-loan payments through the SAVE plan.
• But the 8th Circuit blocked the plan, leaving 8 million SAVE borrowers in limbo until the court issues a final ruling.
• If SAVE is permanently blocked, David said he might have to sell his house or get a second job.

David had no problem making his student-loan payments over the past year. That could soon change.

After graduating from dental school in 2019, David — who requested to use a pseudonym to protect his privacy but whose identity is known to Business Insider — said he had over $260,000 in student loans , even after receiving partial scholarships to fund his education.

David, 30, said he aggressively started paying off his student loans during the pandemic payment pause to take advantage of the interest-free payments, and he got his balance down to just over $231,000, according to documents reviewed by BI. However, the pause ended in September 2023 when interest started accruing again, and at that point, he was in the process of paying off the dental practice he purchased in 2021.

His wife also has student-loan payments, and he said he pays his dental staff more than he pays himself, so his finances are strained. That's where President Joe Biden's new SAVE income-driven repayment plan comes in — the plan lowered David's monthly payments to $280 a month from over $1,000, giving him and his wife the financial freedom to invest in other areas of their lives, like purchasing a home.

"Practicing the way I do at my office, I'll never be the type of dentist that owns a lake home, but I don't want to be that type of dentist," he said. "I just want to be able to go to work to help my patients and go home without having to worry about whether or not I'm going to be able to make a house payment."

That house payment is now a concern. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the SAVE plan in its entirety on July 18 as the legal process progresses, in response to two lawsuits groups of GOP state attorneys general filed earlier this year to block parts of the plan . This means that for now, the fate of SAVE is up in the air, and 8 million enrolled borrowers are on forbearance until a court issues a final decision. It's unclear when exactly that could be.

Related stories

Should the plan ultimately be blocked, David said he might have to sell his home or get a second job to afford higher student-loan payments again.

"Right when my wife and I felt like we were in a position to start a family and start the next chapter of our lives, it feels like the rug got pulled out from underneath us because it sure seemed like the SAVE plan was something that we could rely on," David said.

"We took a risk in deciding to purchase a home and stop renting," he added. "And as a result, we've made a calculation for our future with incorrect data."

'It's almost too scary to even think about'

Even with the financial strain of the student-loan payments, David made clear he's not asking for any loan forgiveness.

"I made my bed, and I got to sleep in it," he said. "So you'll never hear me say that I think that my student loan should be absolved."

But he's highly concerned about his fate with the SAVE plan up in the air. Along with potentially having to sell his home and get a second job, David also said he and his wife want to start a family, but doing so will not be possible if they both have to contend with high monthly student-loan payments.

"I would love to be saving for my 401(k) and retirement, and I'd love to start a family, but really, this is going to be a deciding factor as to whether or not we're financially secure enough to have a child," David said. "It's going to cause instability at home and instability with our jobs. And ultimately, that's what causes me the most stress as a human being: instability."

The Education Department has warned that permanently blocking SAVE would be a significant administrative burden, requiring the department to recalculate every borrower's payments while servicers have to inform borrowers of the changes.

However, the GOP attorneys general who filed the lawsuits said the plan is an overreach of Biden's authority and comes with a cost to taxpayers. They cited an estimate from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania that found the SAVE plan could cost $475 billion over 10 years.

For now, all David can do is wait for the final court decision, and he's not feeling optimistic.

"There's just so much uncertainty. It's almost too scary to even think about," he said. "So I've kind of resigned myself to the fact that SAVE won't go through. I can't depend on it."

Are you enrolled in the SAVE plan and concerned about student-loan payments? Will student loans influence how you vote in the election? Share your story with this reporter at [email protected] .

Watch: Supreme Court strikes down Biden's student-debt relief plan

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Tom Brady on the Art of Leading Teammates

• Nitin Nohria

When our society talks about leaders, we focus on formal roles, such as the CEO. This view undervalues the role of informal leaders—team members who influence outcomes by the tone they set, how they conduct themselves, and how they interact with their peers. Their job title doesn’t include the word “manager,” but they play an outsize role in how teams perform.

In this article, NFL great Tom Brady and Nitin Nohria, of Harvard Business School, present a set of principles that people in any realm can apply to help teams successfully work together toward common goals.

The NFL great explains how he motivated himself and fellow players.

When our society talks about success, we tend to focus on individual success. We obsess about who is the “greatest of all time,” who is most responsible for a win, or what players or coaches a team might add next season to become even better.

• Tom Brady achieved great success in his 23-year NFL career, winning seven world championships. He is also an entrepreneur, a New York Times best-selling author, and a business adviser.
• Nitin Nohria is the George F. Baker Jr. and Distinguished Service University Professor. He served as the 10th dean of Harvard Business School, from 2010 to 2020.

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Their job was saving lives. They lost their own in Brazil’s horrifying plane crash

The debris at the site where an airplane crashed with 61 people on board, in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, early on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. Brazilian authorities are working to piece together what exactly caused the plane crash in Sao Paulo state the previous day, killing all 61 people aboard. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Brazilian authorities worked Saturday to piece together what exactly caused the plane crash in Sao Paulo state the previous day that killed all 62 people on board. Local airline Voepass’ plane, an ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop, was headed for Sao Paulo’s international airport in Guarulhos with 58 passengers and 4 crew members when it went down in the city of Vinhedo. (AP Video/Andre Penner and Maycron Abade)

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A worker carries an empty coffin into the morgue where the bodies of plane crash victims were brought in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. The flight crashed into the backyard of a home in the city of Vinhedo on Aug. 9. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

People arrive for the burial of Danilo Santos Romano at Penha Cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. Romano was the pilot of the plane that crashed into the backyard of a home in the city of Vinhedo on Aug. 9. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

The coffin of Danilo Santos Romano, 35, is taken to his burial site at Penha Cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. Romano was the pilot of the plane that crashed into the backyard of a home in the city of Vinhedo on Aug. 9. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Firefighters and rescue teams work at the site in a residential area where an airplane with 61 people on board crashed the previous day in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Locator map showing the departure, destination and crash sites of a Brazilian commercial airplane that crashed on Friday Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Digital Embed)

Relatives from victims of the plane crash arrives at the headquarters of the institute of legal medicine for the recognition of victims, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Ettore Chiereguini)

Police guard the gated community where a plane crashed in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Brigadier Marcelo Moreno, head of the National Air Accident Investigation Center, gives a press conference about the Vinhedo plane crash, at his headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Police patrol the street leading to the gated community where a plane crashed in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Arianne Risso worked every day to help her patients battle cancer. That made it all the more heart wrenching when her life — along with that of seven other doctors — ended abruptly after a plane tumbled from the sky in Brazil.

She boarded the ill-fated flight Friday in the city of Cascavel, in Parana state, bound for Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport. It crashed in the city of Vinhedo, and footage of the ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop plunging while in a flat spin horrified people across Brazil.

It smashed into the backyard of a home inside a gated community and transformed into a fiery wreck. All 62 people aboard were killed, among them the eight doctors, according to a statement from Parana’s Medical Council. Risso and at least one colleague were headed for an oncology conference to sharpen their knowledge about a disease that kills tens of thousands of Brazilians every year.

“They were people used to saving lives, and now they lost theirs in such tragic circumstances,” Parana Gov. Ratinho Júnior told journalists in Vinhedo on Friday, adding that he had friends on the doomed plane. “It is a sad day.”

Risso’s cousin, Stephany Albuquerque, recalled in a phone interview that the two often played together when she was young. Even then, Risso wanted to become a doctor and, as she grew older, applied herself so intensively to her studies that she rarely went out on the town. Medicine was her calling.

“Arianne treated people who were terminally ill at a time in their lives when they were struggling. But Arianne was always available and did everything with a lot of love,” Albuquerque told The Associated Press by phone from Florida, where she now lives. “She wasn’t the kind of doctor who would the tell the patient, ‘This is your illness, take this.’ No, Arianne took care of people. ... She would give out her personal phone number to patients.”

Risso, 34, was flying with her colleague Mariana Belim, 31. The two had been in residencies at Cascavel’s cancer hospital, and a statement from the institution praised them for the conscientiousness, care and respect with which they treated their patients.

“It’s no wonder that praise for them both would often reach us. Their love of the profession was very clear,” the hospital said.

Willian Rodrigo Feistler, a general practitioner who grew up in Cascavel, knew six people who died in the crash and was particularly close to Belim, with whom he studied and had maintained a 15-year friendship.

“Mariana was serene with a melancholic temperament, but very intelligent, empathetic and devoted to her profession,” Feistler said by phone from Cascavel. “She dedicated much of her life to studies and medical training. She had already specialized in clinical medicine and was completing her specialization in clinical oncology.”

José Roberto Leonel Ferreira, a recently retired doctor who also died in the fiery wreck, was one of Feistler’s teachers during his undergraduate studies. He had a radiology clinic in Cascavel.

“I went over cases with him on several occasions. He was a receptive person who helped other doctors in the discussion of cases to reach diagnoses,” Feistler said.

Brazil’s Federal Council of Medicine said the loss of the doctors left Brazil’s medical world in mourning, and expressed its solidarity for the victims’ friends and relatives. They were venturing forth from Cascavel in search of knowledge as a means to better treat their patients, its statement said.

For now, there are more questions about the crash than answers. Metsul, one of Brazil’s most respected meteorological companies, said Friday that there were reports of severe icing in Sao Paulo state around the time of the crash. Local media cited experts pointing to that as a potential cause, although others cautioned against jumping to a conclusion.

Both the plane’s “black boxes” — one with flight data and the other with cockpit audio — were recovered. The air force’s center for the investigation and prevention of air accidents began analyzing them at its laboratory in the nation’s capital, Brasilia. Airports Minister Silvio Costa Filho said the center was also opening a criminal probe. The airline Voepass and the French-Italian ATR manufacturer are assisting investigations, they said in statements.

All of Brazil — but in particular victims’ loved ones — are eager to learn why these people were ripped from this world.

“It wasn’t God who took my daughter; it wasn’t God, because he chose her to save lives,” Risso’s mother, Fatima Albuquerque, told reporters Sunday. She said she blamed the crash on profit-hungry capitalists and authorities’ neglect.

Stephany Albuquerque echoed her indignation.

“I only hope that the prosecutors will investigate,” she said. “I hope justice is done, because that’s the least my cousin and the other 61 people deserve.”

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What Caused a Plane to Fall From the Sky in Brazil?

Officials are investigating potential causes of a plane crash that killed 62 people near São Paulo. Using videos and other clues, aviation experts have formed theories.

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By Jack Nicas and Ana Ionova

Jack Nicas, the correspondent in Brazil, previously reported on aviation and has covered multiple plane crashes. He and Ana Ionova reported from Rio de Janeiro.

Brazilian investigators on Saturday began analyzing the black boxes from a São Paulo-bound flight to try to understand why the passenger plane fell from 17,000 feet on Friday , in a crash that killed all 62 on board.

But to aviation experts around the world who watched the videos showing the 89-foot plane spinning slowly as it plummeted before crashing almost directly on its belly, the question of what had happened was simple to answer: The plane had stalled.

In other words, the plane’s wings had lost the lift needed to keep the aircraft aloft, causing it to stop flying and start falling.

“You can’t get into a spin without stalling,” said John Cox, an airline pilot for 25 years who now aids plane crash investigations. “It’s A plus B equals C.”

The question of why VoePass Flight 2283 might have stalled, however, remained a mystery.

Did it lose significant speed? Did its nose pitch up too high? Did ice build up on its wings? Did an engine fail? Was its stall-warning system working? Were the two pilots tired or distracted?

“The main thing we know is that it’s never one thing,” said Thomas Anthony, director of the aviation safety program at the University of Southern California.

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JD Vance wrote the foreword for Project 2025’s Kevin Roberts’ upcoming book

The Trump-Vance campaign has sought to distance itself from Project 2025

In his maiden speech as the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz attacked his Republican opponent, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

He argued that Vance’s close ties to Project 2025 are clear.

“JD Vance literally, literally wrote the foreword for the architect of the Project 2025 agenda,” Walz said Aug. 6  in Philadelphia, Vice President Kamala Harris standing behind him.

Walz’s description is accurate.

Project 2025 , led by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, is a  900-page manual  published in 2023 that includes detailed policies that the next Republican presidential administration could apply.

The Trump-Vance campaign has sought to  distance itself  from Project 2025, which included a foreword from Heritage Foundation President Kevin D. Roberts titled “A Promise to America.”

Roberts’ forthcoming book, “Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America,” includes a foreword by Vance, HarperCollins Publishers’  website  and other  marketing  materials show.

In  leading the Heritage Foundation, Roberts has promoted Project 2025 and has been called on its leaders and architects by numerous news outlets, including  The Associated Press ,  The New York Times ,  The Washington Post ,  Axios  and  PolitiFact .

In his opening to Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” Roberts said that “The Heritage Foundation is facilitating this work,” and called it “an agenda prepared by and for conservatives who will be ready on Day One of the next Administration to save our country from the brink of disaster.”

When the Heritage Foundation  confirmed  that Project 2025 Director  Paul Dans  had  stepped down, Roberts took over as the project’s head . Dans served in Trump’s  administration  in the Office of Personnel Management.

Before former President Donald Trump in July selected Vance as his 2024 running mate, Vance touted his involvement in “Dawn’s Early Light.”

“I was thrilled to write the foreword for this incredible book, which contains a bold new vision for the future of conservatism in America,” Vance wrote in a  June 19 X post .

Broadside Books, a HarperCollins imprint that specializes in conservative literature, is publishing the book. At 304 pages, it “outlines a peaceful ‘Second American Revolution’ for voters looking to shift the power back into the hands of the people,” the publisher’s description says.

“Dawn’s Early Light” was originally scheduled to be released in  September , but  has been postponed  to the post-Election Day date of  Nov. 12 . Vance’s name is on the book’s cover, according to the publisher’s digital  preview . The book’s marketing strategy has changed in recent weeks, however, following an assassination attempt against Trump, heightened pushback against Project 2025 and Vance’s selection for the Republican ticket.

The New York Times reported July 31 that Broadside Books removed a downloadable advanced copy of the book that had been made available to reviewers and booksellers, removed from the front cover art that showed an image of a burned out match and swapped out its original subtitle, “Burning Down Washington to Save America,” for “Taking Back Washington to Save America.”

In an  Aug. 11 interview  with CNN’s Dana Bash, Vance tempered his connection to Project 2025 and called Roberts a friend — a word  Roberts has also used  to describe Vance.

“Project 2025 is not affiliated with the Trump campaign,” Vance said. “Kevin Roberts is a friend of mine, but I wouldn’t say that he speaks for the president in the same way I wouldn’t say that he speaks for me.”

The Associated Press on July 30 shared  an excerpt  of an advance copy of Vance’s foreword that read, “Never before has a figure with Roberts’s depth and stature within the American Right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism. The Heritage Foundation isn’t some random outpost on Capitol Hill; it is and has been the most influential engine of ideas for Republicans from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump.”

The New Republic reported  July 30  that it also obtained a copy of the foreword, which it reprinted on its website. There is no mention of Project 2025 in the excerpt attributed to Vance. It contains the passage shared by the AP and goes on to liken “modern liberalism” to “a well-meaning gardener” who treats a garden with chemicals, killing both weeds and “many of the good things.” A modern conservative movement, the excerpt said, needs to recultivate the garden:

“The old conservative movement argued if you just got government out of the way, natural forces would resolve problems—we are no longer in this situation and must take a different approach. As Kevin Roberts writes, ‘It’s fine to take a laissez-faire approach when you are in the safety of the sunshine. But when the twilight descends and you hear the wolves, you’ve got to circle the wagons and load the muskets.’”

A Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson pointed us to evidence including Vance’s July 19 X post, as well as  book readings  and  speeches  Vance has participated in at the Heritage Foundation.

When we asked Vance’s team about Walz’s claim, the campaign responded with an Aug. 9 statement from spokesperson William Martin reiterating that Vance “has previously said that he has no involvement with (Project 2025) and has plenty of disagreements with what they’re calling for.”

Walz said Vance “literally wrote the foreword for the architect of the Project 2025 agenda.”

Vance wrote the forward for a book authored by Roberts, the Heritage Foundation’s president and a Project 2025 leader.

We rate this claim True.

This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact , which is part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this fact check here .

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Opinion | Pressing for the release of Austin Tice, a dozen years after he was abducted

Tice, a Marine veteran, was covering the Syrian civil war as a freelance journalist when he disappeared on Aug. 14, 2012.

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Eventually, Harris will have to sit down for a one-on-one interview or press conference. But, so far, not doing so hasn’t hurt her.

‘Full-circle’ moment: Asian American journalists get engaged while co-emceeing gala

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