Small Business Administration

• The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) knows the importance of business planning to the eventual success of a business, so it has dedicated an entire section of its website to business planning. The website includes a comprehensive small business planner tool for you to plan your business at any stage of your company's cycle.
  
  

Develop a Business Plan

• Developing a blueprint for your business is a critical part of the planning process. Write a business plan that combines factual information, a marketing plan and a prediction of the financial future of your business. According to the SBA's website, a written guide to starting and running your business successfully is essential. A plan will encourage loans, promote growth and provide a map for you to follow.
  
  

Business Plan Templates

• To make the writing easier, use a business plan template. Many resources provide a free template based on your business type and stage of business cycle. The Service Corps of Retired Executives, known as SCORE, has on its website a template gallery that includes a business plan for an existing or start-up company.
  
  

Conduct Business Research

• Before you begin to write your business plan you must conduct industry market research. It's imperative for your company to know what type of products or services would be profitable to introduce to the marketplace. Or, if your company's existing products and services satisfy customer needs and whether any changes need to be made. Conducting research enables your company to formulate a viable marketing plan or measure the success of its existing plan. Roberta Tipton and Ka-Neng Au, business subject matter Librarians at the Rutgers University Library, created a Road Map for Business Plan Research. This road map includes everything from understanding how to organize the business planning process to finding and understanding your customers.
  
  

Securing Financing

• Capital for businessone million dollars and credit cards image by Veniamin Kraskov from Fotolia.com
  
  Use your business plan as a tool to help you secure financing for your company. Determine if you are a candidate for equity or debt financing. Debt financing typically involves a loan from a lending institution that you pay back usually in monthly installments over a period of time. Equity financing involves obtaining money from investors in exchange for an ownership share in your business. These funds may come from friends and family, angel investors or venture capital firms. The main advantage to equity financing is that your business is not obligated to repay the money. However, investors will want a return on their investment, known as ROI, out of future profits.