Writing a business plan is hard

It shouldn't be hard but somehow every time I sit down I go blank.  So this time I'm going to try the Small Business Administration's 'Business Plan Template.'  Supposedly once I've gone through all the steps the template/form will generate a completed plan.  While some business owners never create one, if I want to apply for loans or grants I absolutely have to have one.

Unfortunately, while I’m fully aware of the importance of a business plan, writing the thing is a slow slog.  That’s either because I can't gather my thoughts or because I haven't done enough research.  One of the core parts of the business plan is to describe the target customers, the market potential, and costs estimates. 

I do have an idea of the market I’m targeting which is individuals and/or families with storage issues.  I want to create products for the home and my first product will specifically address an item that is important to people but used infrequently and therefore takes up valuable storage space for a significant part of the year.  By creating a product that still serves the intended function but has a significantly reduced storage footprint I can assist my customers in recovering valuable storage space.

I know that the ‘organizing’ industry is a multi-billion dollar market and spans the services of professional organizers to products that help DIY customers better organize their belongings.  But what I need to do is create a list of sources that confirm this and whose information I can summarize in my business plan to confirm my concepts market potential.  I can probably find statistics that show how many households would probably use my potential product in the U.S. as well as the home sizes in various locations.  I.e. where people live and how big their homes are.   I really need to find statistics that directly correlate home size with the households that are likeliest to use my product.

I also should include the statistics on the market for self-storage since my product would help decrease the amount my customers would need to pay for.  Self-storage is a huge and growing market in the U.S. and one my product would help households reduce the need for and therefore save money long-term.

I’ve done some research in the past on both the self-storage and organization markets so what I need to do for the next few days is redo the research so that it is current, summarize it, cite it, and write up some analysis of why this provides an opportunity for my product.  

See you tomorrow!

The Small Business Adminstration

I alluded to the Small Business Administration (SBA) when I talked about the Small Business Development Centers yesterday. While the SBDC provide information on the local and state level, the SBA provides small businesses with information on a more national level.  It's more impersonal that the SBDC but still provides a wealth of current information. You can get an idea of what I mean if you look at the list of forms offered on the SBA site.  Or use their Business Loans, Grants and Financing Results checklist in order to search for funding. 

In my case I can mark the following boxes; I'm looking for financing to start my business, I will eventually want to ship overseas, I'm a woman, I'm in a rural area, I plan to manufacture a product (but through existing manufacturers), and I live in Oregon.  At the bottom of my checklist there were 23 loan programs, 3 seed and venture capital programs, and 7 potential grants.  Although at closer examination many simply do not apply to my potential business.  Of the 7 potential grants, six don't apply..  The three seed and venture capital options do look interesting.  Of the 23 loan programs it's a real mixed bag, there's two that address the exporting I want to eventually do, 12 for mostly small loans, and one that I expect won't apply once I examine the requirements more closely.  So there are only 14 loan programs that might apply to my situation now and in the future.

In the workshop I attended at SBDC they mentioned a few local grants that might be more obtainable for me, simply because there will be less competition (there's only 64,000 people in our county).  Also, grants would be more advantageous because they don't have to be paid back, which certainly helps the bottom line for a new business. 

In any case I really need to work on my business plan because any application for funding is going to require that I have one.  The SBA provides brief information (there are entire books on how to write a business plan) on the essential parts of a good business plan.  SBDC offers support and mentors to help you write yours and since I'm already struggling with mine I'm going to have to call and ask for help soon.

Small Business Development Centers

SBDC's are located widely; in fact there is one in all 50 states (along with Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories.  They are a partnership between the Small Business Administration and local colleges and universities.  They provide mini-courses geared toward potential and current business owners, as well as a wealth of free information.  The one near me has a whole wall of business forms, brochures, and CDs, all of which can speed up the process of registering a business, setting up a business structure, and submitting for an employer id.  Just looking at the selection can open your eyes to issues you might need to address in forming your company.  If my little rural county has one it's pretty likely that yours will to.  The regional office for Oregon, where I live, has a website here.  The one located closest to me in North Bend has this website.  Notice that this local branch has their information on the college's website.  So it pays to check with your closest college to see if they host a SBDC.

They can provide assistance with "financial, marketing, production, organization, engineering and technical problems and feasibility studies."  All this is free and confidential, although they do have some low cost training available as well.

While you are starting a small business, or improving an existing one you are eligible to utilize SBDC, that is until you become too successful.  Once you are profitable enough to afford consultants you are out of luck.  So use them heavily at the beginning.  Free advice like this is priceless and can save you a lot of money down the road. 

I've taken their 2-hour workshop, Ready, Set, Start Your Business, and found it useful.  I'm hoping to eventually take their QuickBooks (accounting software for businesses) classes. 

Best advice ever?

So you have a dream? What's the best advice I could give for getting started? It's simple really. Go to your local public library and ask the reference librarian what material they have on small business startups. S/he can point you in the direction of books on small business, magazines they have on hand, web sites they may recommend, and vast databases of business journal articles they provide you access to.

Many libraries pay for access to hundreds of magazines, newspapers, and journals so that you aren't limited to the few subscriptions that are available locally. Many of these database include full-text articles (i.e. the entire article is provided instantly) going back to the 1970's.

What's more, if a book that sounds perfect isn't available in your area, you can ask your library to borrow it from another library for you.

So pick out a couple of interesting books, download a few business articles, and start reading.