Crystal Business Plan: A 90-Day Plan That Fits on One Page

A crystal business plan does not need forty pages, a pitch deck or a five-year projection. It needs to tell you what to do this week, what number to hit this month, and when to stop and look honestly at the results. This guide, drawn from Arthur Narin's book How to Start a Crystal Business, turns that into a ninety-day plan and a forecast that fits on one sheet of paper.

If you are still deciding whether to start at all, read our guide to starting a crystal business first. This page assumes you have decided, and now want a plan you will actually follow.

Why a crystal business plan should cover ninety days

Ninety days is long enough for the cash cycle to complete at least once. You buy stock, you sell it, the money lands, and you buy again. It is also short enough that you cannot fill it with preparation.

Think of it as an organising period, not a promise. Registrations, supplier replies and a first order can take longer than you would like. Move at a pace your money and your weekly hours can carry. The point of the sequence is simple: some things are cheap to do late and expensive to do early.

Split the ninety days into three blocks of thirty. Each block has one job.

Days 1 to 30: something to sell

The goal of the first block is something to sell, somewhere to sell it, and the plumbing that lets a real sale happen. Nothing else.

Decide. Set your limits: a loss limit, a launch budget, the hours you can give each week, and a review date. Choose one niche, not "crystals". Tumbled stones, jewellery, raw specimens, kits or decor pieces. Pick one buyer and talk to three people like them about the last crystal they bought. Ask about real purchases, not whether they like your idea. Then choose one channel.

Buy and price. Buy one small starter batch, such as a tray of bulk tumbled stones or a few ready-made crystal kits. Work out the true landed cost of every piece before you price anything. Then set prices from your target margin and check them against the market.

Set up the plumbing. Register what you actually need where you live, including sales tax if and when it applies, and check the current rules with CRA or your state. Open a business bank account this week. Keep books from the first transaction, even in a spreadsheet. Build a startup budget and a simple cash forecast. Our guide to crystal business startup costs walks through the budget lines.

Get ready to sell. Build the smallest selling surface that works: a table, a float and a card reader, or a simple online shop with shipping, returns and contact pages. Run one complete test purchase, from payment to refund. Ten minutes finds most launch-week disasters. Then write down two first targets, small and set from your own hours, such as twenty items listed and five sales.

Notice what is missing: no logo project, no second channel, no ads, no wholesale accounts. An unsolved payment, tax or shipping problem matters more than a font.

Days 31 to 60: first sales

The second block is about your first sales, delivered properly, and real information about your buyer.

• Receive and inspect your stock. Count it against the invoice, set aside damage, and correct any price built on a guessed freight cost.
• Make your first sale, then one to somebody you do not know.
• Work toward ten sales. That is roughly where patterns start to show.
• Over-deliver on those first orders with a handwritten note and a quick follow-up.
• Cost every parcel and time your packing.
• Record customer feedback in their own words.
• Order your second batch from what actually sold, and reorder bestsellers before they run out.

One good week does not earn a much larger order. Let the pattern build before the order grows.

Days 61 to 90: review and decide

The third block is an honest look at the numbers. Compare your forecast with what happened and explain the biggest gaps in writing. The gap is the lesson.

Find your top three and bottom three products twice: once by units sold and once by money left behind. They are rarely the same list. Cut dead stock, deepen the winners and fix any listing that keeps producing the same question. Do a full stock count. Then review your channel. As a rough guide, give a channel about ninety days and not much more than a hundred and eighty.

At the end of the block, pick one of four options on purpose:

• Continue. The evidence supports the offer, so fix the biggest constraint.
• Change the offer. Change the customer, product, price or channel, one at a time.
• Reduce scope. Cut a channel, a line or a selling day, and do the rest properly.
• Pause. Stop buying, sell through what you have, and think.

None of those is failure. Pausing on purpose beats draining your savings by default.

The five-line forecast inside your plan

You do not need a financial model. You need five lines on paper, in this order.

1. Monthly revenue goal. Small enough to be real.
2. Average selling price. What a typical item goes for.
3. Units to sell. Line one divided by line two. This tells you at once whether your stock and channel can carry the goal.
4. Monthly fixed costs. What you pay whether or not you sell: software, phone, insurance, rent if any.
5. Target gross margin. Revenue minus landed cost of goods, as a share of revenue.

The maths behind line five is worth knowing. A price of two times landed cost gives a 50% gross margin. To reach 60%, the price must be at least two and a half times landed cost. Fees, packaging and postage still come out after that, so look at contribution too: what each order leaves behind once those selling costs are paid.

Break-even then becomes a count of orders. Divide your monthly fixed costs by the contribution per order and round up. If each order leaves 22 and your fixed costs are 800, you need 36.4 orders, so 37. Add the pay you want for yourself to the fixed costs and run it again. "I need more sales" becomes a number you can compare with last month.

Watch the lowest balance, not the month end

The forecast tells you whether the business makes money. It does not tell you whether you can pay a supplier on Thursday. For that, keep a separate weekly cash forecast.

Start with the cash you have today. Add money in the week it actually lands, not the day of the sale, because processors and marketplaces pay on their own schedules. Subtract every payment in the week it is due: stock, freight, duty, fees, bills, tax remittances and your own pay.

The most important figure is the lowest projected balance. Set a cash floor, the balance the business account never drops below, and check the low point against it. In the book's worked example, a first draft dipped under the floor in week two. The sales tax on the stock order had to leave before it could come back. Moving one purchase that could wait by a single week fixed it.

Two rules keep the cash forecast honest. Do not subtract both stock purchases and cost of goods sold, because they are the same money seen twice. And build a slower case beside the expected one, with a late shipment or a held payout. If the low point still stays above zero, you can sleep. If it does not, read how to fund a crystal business before you place the next order.

The weekly money appointment that keeps the plan alive

A plan you never look at is a wish. Book fifteen to thirty minutes a week, same day and time. In that slot:

1. Reconcile the week's transactions.
2. Review sales and contribution against the forecast.
3. Check what is unpaid, both ways.
4. List the payments due in the next four weeks.
5. Update the cash forecast and find the new low point.
6. Write one action: cut an order, chase a payment, fix a shipping rule, or reorder a proven seller.

Add a small scorecard to the same appointment. Six numbers are enough for a new shop: orders, net sales before tax, contribution, the lowest projected cash balance, inventory count differences, and fulfilment problems. Set the targets from your own history, not someone else's. A collector shop and a gift shop should not chase the same numbers.

That is the whole plan: three blocks of thirty days, five lines, one cash low point and one weekly habit. It fits on a page you can tape to the wall, which is exactly why it gets used.

Frequently asked questions

What should a crystal business plan include?

Your limits (loss limit, launch budget, weekly hours, review date), one niche, one buyer and one channel, a startup budget, a five-line monthly forecast, a weekly cash forecast with its lowest point, and a date to review everything at ninety days.

How much money do I need to start a crystal business?

There is no single figure. Build a small test budget on five lines: products, inbound shipping, packaging and display, setup, and a reserve. In the book's worked example, products are well under half of it. Set a loss limit and a cash floor before you spend anything, then size the test to fit.

How do I start my own crystal business?

Pick one niche, one buyer and one channel. Buy a small starter batch, price it from its true landed cost, run one test purchase, and aim for ten paid sales before you add a second channel or a bigger order.

How often should I update the plan?

Update the cash forecast every week in a fifteen to thirty minute money appointment. Review the whole plan every ninety days and choose to continue, change the offer, reduce scope or pause.

Stock it for your shop

Stonebridge has no minimum order and ships from Kitchener, Ontario. Open a wholesale account or plan your opening order.