Small Business Establishment, Development, and Management Unit 2 - Individual Project

Essay by shksprsysUniversity, Master'sA+, February 2005

download word file, 2 pages 3.4

All businesses, both large and small, in order to secure investors, financing, or both, need to begin with writing an effective and thorough business plan. According to an article entitled, "Do You Hate to Write Business Plans?

How Business Planning Helps Entrepreneurs Succeed"

By William Clark, Past FastTracTM Executive Director, located online at:

http://www.entreworld.org/About/FastTrac.cfm, the

purpose of a business plan is to help to guide both potential and existing business owners, in evaluating their business, bringing possible risks to the surface so they may be dealt with, and in addition, identifying the requirement for the business to run such as manpower and financial obligations. This step is essential to the start-up of a firm, because it provides a "blueprint" for the potential owner to follow in order to make sure that all necessary steps are taken to run the business successfully.

Taking into consideration all the information included in a business plan, the financial is one of the most critical.

There are several sources of funding to choose from. While researching potential funding options, I came across a website owned by The Wallstreet Journal entitled,

www.startupjournal.com. The article viewed was titled; Consider the Benefits Of Funding Alternatives, by Mark Henricks. The article showed funding options such as Small Business Administration guaranteed loans, which are a good option if you have an excellent business plan written, however they may be facing cut-backs which means less funding to go around, and stricter guidelines. Another option was Venture Capital, which is great if you can find big business investors who can give you a name to stand behind, however the process in finding investors is timely, and they do not always just expect capital returns. They could possibly contract you into sharing rights to your inventions/ideas.

Before starting a business, entrepreneurs must take...