How can I get good help writing a business plan without spending a lot of money?

I鈥檝e never had a job that paid enough for me to be able to invest. I don鈥檛 want to wait much longer to start my business; I鈥檓 not young any more. (My mid life crises?) The business will only have start-up costs, then it would be self sustaining.

Writing a business plan isn't that difficult. Go to http://www.sba.gov , http://www.score.org or http://www.bplan.com for sample business plans and instructions on how to write a business plan.

Then, go to http://www.score.org/ and in the upper left hand corner, enter your zip code. On the next screen, you will get information on the nearest SCORE chapter. Call them and arrange for a free meeting with a SCORE counselor to review your business plan and discuss various loan options available to you.

SCORE is a nonprofit association dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

SCORE has 389 chapters in locations throughout the United States and its territories, with 10,500 volunteers nationwide. Both working and retired executives and business owners donate time and expertise as business counselors.

Good help writing a business plan is not cheap. There are good books on the subject, and some of them have sample business plans that you can use as models. As you work on your business plan, you will realize that there is much more to plan than start up costs. A crucial part of a business plan is the budget projections. They have to be thorough, realistic, and not overly optimistic. A business plan prepared by a professional can cost from $3,000 to $30,000 or more. It depends on what it has to include. Best of luck.

Not to discourage you, Auntie, but a business plan is just a VERY simple outline of exactly how your proposed business will generate revenue, supporting evidence & projections for how much revenue it will generate, and supporting projections for how the costs will be low enough that the revenues provide sufficient profit for the business to succeed.

The bank just want to see a piece of paper that says:

Cost of making widgets: $2.00 each

Retail price of widgets: $6.00 each

Anticipated sales: 3000 widgets per month

Projected profit: $12,000 per month

If you cannot produce such a business plan yourself, then you don't want to go into business because it will likely fail...

If you can provide EVIDENCE your business model only requires start-up costs, the bank will be EAGER to lend you money...

Good luck! & Happy New Year...

Hello Aunt Karen,
Kudos to you for having an Entrepreneur Spirit.

As a business owner, I can't stress the need for a "Plan" enough in order to succeed long-term.

It just so happens, While trying to locate a resource for a Dad's group I have in mind, I ran accross this - Learn for Free or you can purchase the Textbook as well as receive a Certificate of completion. At a fair price I might add.
I am presently going through the Free-Course myself.
So therefore I feel I can suggest it with certainty.

Check Out - http://www.myownbusiness.org/

Aunt Karen - Let me know how it goes!

Hope this Helps.

Actually, this is much easier to find than you might think (or have been told).

Here are a couple of places to check.........

1. S.C.O.R.E. (this is a non-profit organization that assists small businesses through an alliance of retired business executives). Their services (generally) are free of charge and they have locations all over the country. Their website is located at www.score.org

2. Place a search in your search engine for "business resource center" along with your state name. Many local colleges and community colleges provide affiliations through state funded centers to assist small businesses, especially in their start up phase. You can also contact your local Community College to see if they have any source assistance with small business resource centers. (These resource centers will specifically work with you to develop a business plan --- usually at little or no cost).

3. While it's not as great as other sources, the Small Business Administration has resources available as well or, at the least, they can refer you to a source local to you. Their website is located at www.sba.gov

Contrary to popular belief, there are a LOT of resources available to small businesses. USE THEM!!!

I hope this helps!!!

Here are some resources that can help you write your business plan:

- SBA Business Plan Basics http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/pla...
- PowerHomeBiz.com Creating a Business Plan section http://www.powerhomebiz.com/startup/busi...
- Entrepreneur.com Writing a Business Plan section http://www.entrepreneur.com/bizplan/0,72...

You may also want to review some sample business plans to see how it actually looks like:

- Bplans.com http://www.bplans.com/sp/businessplans.c...
- MOOT Corp Business Plan competition winners
http://www.businessplans.org/businesspla...
- VFinance - View hundreds of real business plans in pdf format. http://www.vfinance.com/home.asp?bps=1&T...
- Business Owners Toolkit Sample business plans and information on how to create a plan. http://www.toolkit.cch.com/tools/buspln_...
- PlanWare Planning software and information. http://www.planware.org/
- Virtual Business Plan Walk through the design of a business plan. http://www.bizplanit.com/vplan.html
- SBA Business Planning Guide http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/pla...
- Small Business Advancement Center http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/business_plan/b...
- Sample Business Plan General planning guide created by the Canadian Business Service Center. http://www.cbsc.org/servlet/ContentServe...
- Business Plans Index - A subject guide to sample business plans and profiles for specific business types from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. http://216.183.184.20/subject/business/b...

Some recommended books are :

- Business Plans Kit for Dummies
- The Complete Book of Business Plans : Simple Steps to Writing a Powerful Business Plan
- Writing Business Plans That Get Results : A Step-By-Step Guide
- Business Plans For Dummies庐
- Your First Business Plan : A Simple Question and Answer Format Designed to Help You Write Your Own Plan

To get help, I'd go to the SBA, SCORE or SBDC near you :) You can actually do a search for those acronyms and find it. Or you can start at
Lotsa resources, samples, etc.

http://www.theresourcequeen.com/favorite...