The Business Plan 

Should you be seeking outside financing for your startup or early stage business, a business plan is mandatory. (We don't make up the rules, we just learn them.)

Nowhere else is the Golden Rule: "They who have the gold, rule." more prevalent than in the financial community investing or lending to new entrepreneurs. Business plans are universally required by virtually all banks, venture capitalists, angel investors, seed fund and grant administrators, etc. Fair enough, it's their money.

"Business plan building" is a big business, as demonstrated by the hundreds of books, tapes, videos and courses sold today. Even your friendly, neighborhood, tax-subsidized, small business development center will be happy to sell you numerous courses on the topic, with such enticing titles as "Roadmap to Success" or "How to get a Loan."

The requirement for the business plan has been forwarded by those with the deep pockets and propagated by academic institutions, filled with those who can't "do" so they "teach." These are same people who have minimum capacity to understand and operate at risk.

Four things to know about business plans:

1. Even the most perfect plan ever written will not necessarily get funded.
2. Even the most perfectly written business plan perfectly executed will not necessarily produce a successful business.
3. The struggle in composing the business plan has caused more than one potentially great entrepreneur to never launch a wonderful idea.
4. There are literally thousands upon thousands of successful businesses in operation that were started without a business plan, a college degree or deep pockets. (The next time you're hob-nobbing with Bill Gates or Michael Dell, ask about their business plan?)

Now, if your heart is set on a business plan or you have to have one for funding, we'll be delighted to guide you though it. Just be aware that there are alternatives and we'll be equally delighted to share those with you, too.

 "Throughout history, men have walked down unknown roads to success armed with nothing more than their own vision." - Ayn Rand

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