Money Money Money

That's the stuff that seems to vanish into thin air when starting a business. From talking to thousands of small business owners over the years, that's the one thing that's in short supply. Every time you turn around, somebody wants money for something.

A little tip – when hiring a company for certain services, ask if they offer payment plans. Any service company that caters to the small business owner should understand the financial burden starting a business entails & well, it never hurts to ask. TradeMark Express started a payment plan option years ago and while it requires a bit more effort in the bookkeeping department, the benefit it provides to our clients is more than worth it.

Business loans are a viable option for many folks and, like anything I talk about here, research this process fully before you embroil yourself into something like this.

To get started, I suggest contacting the Small Business Administration (SBA). Entrepreneur also offers a great site dedicated to money & finance.

Research, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can about the process. Here are some book titles that are relevant:

* How to Get a Small Business Loan: A Banker Shows You Exactly What to Do to Get a Loan (Small Business Series, No 1) by Bryan E. Milling
* The SBA Loan Book: Get A Small Business Loan--even With Poor Credit, Weak Collateral, And No Experience by Charles H. Green
* Secrets Lenders Never Told You: Get Your Business Loan Approved by Patricia H. Wesson

There are plenty of free informational resources out there:

• Get Yourself Started with Small Business Loans by Tim Kelly
• Small Business Lenders by Matt Bacak
• Small Business Loans for Small Business Owners by David Gass
• Small Business Loan Basics by Joseph Kenny

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A VIS (Very Important Step) for your New Business

Piecing Together the Business Plan

Using last week's post as inspiration, I thought it'd be a good idea to delve a bit deeper into the different components of a business plan.

Another inspiration point is Lance Winslow's article Sample Business Plan Outline, which I also recommended last week.

Using Lance's extensive outline, I found further reading for each of his main headings

1) Executive Summary:

• e-Business plan tutorial
• Business Basics…by Mike Volker

2) Objectives:

• AllBusiness - Business plans include vision, mission statement, and objectives, don't they? What's the difference?

3) Company & Industry Analysis

• Company Analysis section of Growthink's Business Plan Development Guide
• Rutger's page on Industry Analysis

4) Marketing Analysis

• INC's Write a Marketing Analysis that Will Simply Dazzle
• MarketingProfs.com marketing FAQs

5) Management

• INC's Making the Most of Your Management Team

6) Operations

• e-Business plan tutorial

7) Legal Strategies

• Prentice Hall's Key Points page

8) Financial Strategies

• HowStuffWorks

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A VIS (Very Important Step) for your New Business

Business Plans: A Quick Guide

Scenario: You've decided to start a small business. You've researched your industry, your customers and your business' message/personality. There seems to be so many 'first steps' when it comes to starting a business but one that's always way, way up there is creating a business plan.

Research, research, research – this cannot be stressed enough. Read as much as you can. Here are some book titles that are relevant:

• Writing a Convincing Business Plan by Arthur R. DeThomas Ph.D., Lin Grensing-Pophal
• The Definitive Business Plan: The Fast Track to Intelligent Business Planning for Executives and Entrepreneurs (2nd Edition) by Richard Stutely
• The Complete Book of Business Plans: Simple Steps to Writing a Powerful Business Plan (Small Business Sourcebooks) by Joseph A. Covello
• The One Page Business Plan with CD-ROM by James T., Jr. Horan

There are plenty of free informational resources out there.

* Five Crucial Components of a Business Plan by Cavyl Stewart

* Sample Business Plan Outline by Lance Winslow

* 8 Business Plan Mistakes to Avoid by Jo Ann Joy

* How to Prepare a Business Plan that Guarantees Big Profits by Julia Tang

* Writing a Business Plan and Check List by Thomas Choo

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A VIS (Very Important Step) for your New Business

Starting a Business: Must Visit Sites

Time is rather elusive today so I'm going to keep this short but sweet. Here is a listing of must visit sites if you're thinking of starting a business, if you're in the throes of starting a business or are going a little mad about starting a business.




• SBA, Small Business Administration
Whether you're interested in planning, starting, managing or even getting out of business, the SBA is the place to check.

• Entrepreneur's ® Starting a Business
Business plans, how-to guides, and success stories – it's all here

• AllBusiness
"The one-stop resource for growing businesses"

• The IRS Checklist for Starting a Business
The basic steps

• PowerHomeBiz
Specific to "starting, managing and growing a home business"

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A VIS (Very Important Step) for your New Business

starting a business * business startup * small business * home business * business links