The siblings behind Bedside Business Plan
Hey everyone!
We’re Jana & Brad Boyko: entrepreneurs, authors, consultants, coaches, and yes, siblings! We’re the creators of Bedside Business Plan: a guided journal for aspiring entrepreneurs, and we’d like to tell you more about who we are and give you a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to write and self-publish our journal.
Without further ado, let’s dig in!
Prior to developing Bedside Business Plan, I (Jana) had been running my private coaching practice, All of Her Business, for nearly 5 years where I had the honor of supporting handfuls of women in their journey from employee to entrepreneur. Given my background and field of work, I constantly had people coming to me and saying:
“I want to start a business, I just don’t know where to start”
In addition to not knowing where to start, many people would tell me that business intimidated them and the idea of writing a business plan felt overwhelming. This surprised me as entrepreneurship was such a natural part of Brad and I’s upbringing and not once did it ever feel intimidating.
To give you some history, our grandparents owned businesses (on both sides) and our Dad ran a commercial company in Calgary, Alberta for most of our lives. Our parents also encouraged us to start little businesses of our own when we were young (hello lemonade stand!) and both Brad and I graduated from the Haskayne School of Business in our early twenties.
To say entrepreneurship is in our DNA is an understatement.
It was in October 2020 when a lightbulb when off in my brain and I thought, what if there was a warm and approachable way for someone to get their business idea off the ground? What if a guided journal existed with a variety of questions and prompts to guide aspiring entrepreneurs through the process of writing a business plan?
Shortly after the initial idea for Bedside Business Plan entered my mind, I asked Brad if he wanted to help me write the content and build a guided journal business. Thankfully, he loved the idea and couldn’t wait to be involved!
Like nearly all entrepreneurs, we had a big vision but we had to start small.
We began by drafting content for the journal in a Word document. I still have the original file, can you believe it? A few months later, we went to our local fabric store, bought a few feet of navy linen, and created a sample journal at home.
From there, we had to find a printing partner who could produce linen journals. After months of conversations with potential printers and deliberation amongst ourselves, we landed on the perfect partner and placed our first purchase order.
We launched bedsidebusinessplan.com in November 2021 and soon after we made it our mission to get our journal into Indigo stores across Canada. We brought sample journals to local Indigo locations, got to know the managers, and slowly made connections higher up at the company. We knocked on doors and had to be willing to get uncomfortable.
Old-school entrepreneurship was truly the foundation for our success in business.
In December 2021 we signed a national deal with Indigo and within six months Bedside Business Plan was in all of their big box stores across Canada. Furthermore, in 2022, our journal was named an Indigo Staff Pick. To this day, we’re still pinching ourselves over how quickly our business has grown and how much impact it’s had on entrepreneurs.
We truly believe entrepreneurship is for everyone. We believe everyone with a dream has the power to make it a reality. And we believe entrepreneurship has the power to change the world.
If you’re new to the world of business and want to be supported as you move forward, Bedside Business Plan is an incredible tool to help you create a foundation for lasting success. If you have questions or would like to get in touch with us, we’d love to hear from you and can be reached by email at hello@bedsidebusinessplan.com.
