As you can imagine, I’ve been doing a little reading on the topic of starting a small business. In everything I’ve read so far, there is a lot of emphasis placed on the need to write up a thorough business plan before jumping into starting up a new business. I’ve heard that the big hurdle for a small business is making it through the first year– those first crucial months are what make or break new businesses, and a business plan is intended to minimize the risk of crashing and burning in a very simple way: It allows you to get a glimpse of what you’re getting yourself into.
Now, if you’re anything like me, you hear advice like, “You have to have a business plan” and go, “Okay, sure. So what do I write?” It’s not like you can just open up a blank Word document and type this thing up from scratch (and if you can, you scare me a little).
Luckily, there are lots of resources out there to help fledgling business owners get a comprehensive business plan written up. Here’s a couple of the better ones I’ve found:
Microsoft Office Business Plan Template
If you’ve got a copy of Word, or anything that can read .doc documents, this is a great option. It’s a pretty hefty document, but it walks you through coming up with a business plan by asking questions. I know, it sounds like of exam-ish, but be thankful that this is a document that will actually be useful when you’re done with it!
Canada Business Interactive Business Planner
Since I’m starting my business in British Columbia (which is in Canada if you didn’t know, idiot), there’s a great website I’ve been perusing, Small Business BC where I found a link to this Interactive Business Planner courtesy of the government of Canada. I’m not sure how useful this will be if you’re outside of our great frozen nation, but it sure impressed me. You have to register for an account, but after that’s out of the way, you are walked through a series of questions, and you fill in the blanks to create a clear and concise plan that you can update later, download for your own files, or print. Great!
So, using the tools I’ve mentioned above, this week is all about me writing up my wonderful business plan. I’ll write a post next week detailing what I’ve come up with, and I may upload my business plan as a sample for those going into a creative field. I’ll also detail my next steps in the process of starting my business.
If you have any other tools or resources for writing business plans, I would love to hear about them! Please feel free to let me know about them in the comments.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week!