Business Planning and Funding for the Start Up

by Shannon Suetos

When starting a business there are a few initial steps you need to take, such as writing a business plan, how to get financial backing and so on. If you didn’t take many business classes, or marketing courses you may not know exactly how to get started with everything.

Business Plan

Writing a business plan can help you organize your business early on, not to mention help you get capital. If you aren’t sure how to write your business plan, there are many services you can take advantage of. You can find templates starting at around $10 and you could spend up to $5000, depending on what you need done.

Even with the initial sticker shock, investing in your business plan can yield a positive ROI. Your business plan is what investors are going to want to read, and it needs to be laid out well, and have specific information.

The most important thing to keep in mind is to answer this question, “how will you make your investor money?” Once you answer that question, the rest should fall into place. “I will be able to make money because of A, B and C—I will do this by XYZ.” Avoid using a lot of buzz words—instead be straight forward, and get to the point.

Location

According to CNN Small Business, the top ten best cities to start a business are:

1. Oklahoma City, OK
2. Pittsburgh, PA
3. Raleigh, NC
4. Houston, TX
5. Hartford, CT
6. Washington, DC
7. Charlotte, NC
8. Austin, TX
9. New York City, NY
10. Baltimore, MD

CNN goes on to report, the best cities to get capital from banks are:

1. Salt Lake City, UT
2. Minneapolis, MN
3. Milwaukee, WI
4. Los Angeles, CA
5. Chicago, IL
6. Dallas, TX
7. Detroit, MI
8. Columbus, OH
9. Boston, Ma
10. Newark, NJ

If you aren’t fortunate enough to live in one of these cities, there are still plenty of viable options to choose from other than bank lending. Such as angle investors and VC loans.

Gaining Capital

Angle investors are a great place to start for the new entrepreneur. There are now social networking sites that help you connect directly with angle investors.
FundingUniverse

This site helps connect entrepreneurs to the right lending source based on their future company’s needs.
Gaebler

This site has a state by state run down of angle investors.
Go4Funding

Similar to FundingUniverse, this site connects people to the right kind of investors.
These are just three of many sites you can find by doing a quick search on Google. The SBA is also a great resource for new entrepreneurs for business plan writing, all legal documents you may need, and how to find investors.

Shannon Suetos is an expert on lead generation writer based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as telephone answering systems at Resource Nation.