From the moment you received money for mowing your neighbor’s lawn or ­babysitting your neighbor’s child, you’ve been interested in starting your own business. But where do you begin? Do you purchase business cards? Do you create and distribute flyers? Although these might be good ways to get your business moving, they are not the first things you should do when starting a business. The Small Business Association (SBA) suggests that the first step in starting a business is planning. Writing a business plan is usually the first step in that planning process. A business plan is a written document that details a proposed or existing venture, describing the vision, current status, the markets in which it operates, and the current and projected results of a business.

Traditionally, a potential business owner writes a business plan before a business is launched, but it can be written after a business has been established. In some instances, and especially in industries in which change occurs rapidly, a business opportunity might be lost if you do not start operations immediately; you may not have time to take the weeks or months often required to write a business plan. In this situation, you should still begin by answering a few discrete and pointed questions, such as those shown in Figure M2.1. This will help you determine whether the business you’re pursuing will be worth the effort. Eventually, a formal business plan should be written to more thoroughly define the goals and objectives of the business and the means to achieve them.

Figure M2.1

The Simplified Start-Up Plan