Registration for this event is now open. Please visit our home page for other upcoming events, including the BDA Solvency Immersion Conference, for which July through December 2024 registration is now OPEN.
We will host twelve workshops, all focused on BDA business planning, with a BDA emphasis on business as a spiritual activity and service to the world. During this three-month BDA recovery conference, we will discuss all of the BDA Additional Tools together with a special emphasis on BDA Tool Two:
We write annual one-year business plans with definable and accountable goals and targets.
Because we will be welcoming DA and BDA members to share real-world details of their businesses, we must ask that all workshop participants meet the only requirement for DA and BDA membership:
an ongoing desire to stop incurring new unsecured debt, one day at a time, no matter what
Because we will be discussing the specifics of our businesses, including business names, locations, etc, the only protection for our anonymity will be required registrations and the closed-ness of the conference group. To maintain anonymity, we will not be recording any of the workshop sessions EXCEPT the first-week orientation, for which previous cycle recordings are available here:
Here's the business planning template workbook we recommend using, in general, and especially for this conference series. We've also prepared some helpful guidance for business planning. We suggest planning for July 2023 through June 2024 during this conference cycle.
Before getting started on your business plan, you will likely want to prepare your personal spending plan for 2023, if you haven't already. That plan will inform your salary and benefit needs in your business plan. Here's the personal planning template workbook we recommend using, in general, and especially for this conference series. We've also prepared some helpful guidance for personal planning.
How to register:
Please send a one-time contribution of $99 or more via https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/bdaworkshops with a note that says:
Business Plans (and your preferred email address for follow-up)
Please keep in mind that your $99 donation (or more) will give you access to up to TWELVE 2-hour interrelated events, spanning three months.
All funds received will be split between our General Fund (20%), Literature Fund (40%), and Public Information Fund (40%) — Our service vision is to say "yes" to every request we receive for free DA and BDA conference-approved literature and to provide meaningful outreach to our fellow debtors who need our help. Please support our vision and service activities!
Please see our Service Goals and Treasury Reports for more information about "where the money goes" and reach out to bdaworkshops@gmail.com with questions.
NOTE: For newcomers to DA and BDA — we consider those in their first six months of DA and BDA membership to be newcomers — we do not encourage your attendance in this conference series. Please claim your solvency date, take at least the first five Steps in DA and BDA, and then consider digging into your business plan, applying all of the DA and BDA principles and tools.
For application and support of DA and BDA's principles, especially but not only the 12 Steps, please consider attending one of the six-month BDA Solvency Immersion Conference cycles.
During this cycle of the BDA Business Planning Conference, we will:
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Review and share on all twelve BDA Tools, with a recurring emphasis on BDA Tool Two
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Review and discuss, in depth, the details and instructions for our business planning template workbook
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Review and participate in Q&A with ONE BDA member who has created a BDA business plan with us in a previous cycle, now back to share their actual results and plan comparison
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Review and participate in Q&A with up to EIGHT BDA members who will present annual business plans they'll create during this conference cycle, then have an opportunity to provide feedback in the form of support and encouragement
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Pray and meditate together, a lot, inviting our Higher Powers into our businesses
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Continue to build our growing community of solvent, recovering business debtors
NOTE: Many of our conference participants find it most helpful to commit from the beginning to attend AT LEAST three consecutive BDA Business Planning Conferences. First, to learn and share about the BDA tools and to begin to practice and implement them in our businesses. Second, to create an annual business plan (see qualifications in next section) with a fellow BDA member serving as our plan guide. Third, to carry the DA and BDA message and to support newer DA and BDA members.
Qualifications for receiving 6+ hours of direct one-to-one guidance on your BDA business plan from a fellow BDA member, who has their own business plan and has also registered for the current conference cycle:
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At least six months solvent
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Completed first five Steps in DA and / or BDA
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Working with a DA and / or BDA sponsor or Step guide who is leading you through the Steps and familiarizing you with the rest of the DA and BDA program (we recommend the BDA Solvency Immersion Conference for this recovery help and support)
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Must be a DA and / or BDA member, recovering from debting with money (and leaving out other money-, time-, income-, and earning-related programs and services) — this qualification is non-negotiable, we actively discourage the breaking of DA's Traditions and cross-pollination of programs
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Willingness and ability to surrender to the process of developing your plan, following the instructions of the workshop leader (or another volunteer plan guide who developed their business plan in a previous BDA Business Planning Conference) over 6 or 7 one-to-one meetups, that is often 6-10 hours of volunteer (unpaid) coaching for your business
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Access to support, other than your business planning guide, for your emotional needs during the planning process, including your need to discuss and process your resistance to surrendering to a more-experienced BDA member's guidance and leadership (your plan guide is for business and spiritual support, not for emotional support, and should not be expected to work through your resistance with you)
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Willingness to present your plan to the conference participant group, including allowing your plan and goals document to be shared as a pdf via email to registered participants only (we will work together to protect your and your business' anonymity)
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Registration donations made as requested for the current and next business planning conferences — your spiritual work on your BDA business plan will not be complete until you have come back for another round to share your experience, strength, and hope, both on the process of creating your plan and your experience of implementing and using your plan, which may include being a plan guide for someone else if you're willing
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Commitment to completing an end of conference survey by the requested date
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First come, first served — as long as the qualifications above are met — up to 8 BDA business plans, will be "workshopped" during this three-month BDA Business Planning Conference, the weekly schedule will be updated frequently
Here's our standard timing for "workshopping" up to 8 BDA members' business plans during scheduled workshops:
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20 minutes — Review of the business plan and goals document by its BDA member
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3 minutes — Feedback and input from workshop leader (or other planning guide)
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10 minutes — Q&A with BDA member about their plan
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12 minutes — Feedback and input from workshop participants (up to 1 timed minute each) — What we are seeking here is experience, strength, and hope when our fellows have pursued similar goals, visions, and business plans or have taken similar actions as those being discussed. We are not looking for advice, and this is not a time to ask more questions. This is time to encourage and support our fellow BDA members as they move their businesses forward with an annual one-year business plan with definable and accountable goals and targets, in this case for July 2023 through June 2024.
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2 minutes — Wrap-up comments from our workshop leader (or planning guide)
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3 minutes — Wrap-up comments and gratitude from the presenting BDA member
Here's the survey report from our most recently completed BDA Business Planning Conference:
