Welcome! In this post, we are talking about business plans. We will discuss why they are necessary and if you must complete one to start a business. Later in the post you will learn about courses we offer on building a business and creating a business plan, including a discount offer. So, stay tuned!

First, let’s talk about if you must have one to start a business. The answer is no. Now, I know some of you may recoil at that idea. You have always heard you must have a business plan to start a business. I started two businesses without a business plan. In both businesses, I started with an idea and started very small.

If you want to think of it this way, I started working a side gig where I had one client where I was getting my feet wet in the industry. Basically, I started very small and very slow. I did not have to have all the answers for how my business was going to run to get started.

Another way to think about this for those of you who have hobbies on the side. You like doing a particular task – like you may love wood carving, or you may love working on or building computers. You may be a gardener who loves to sell items at a local farmers market.

None of these require a business plan. You are doing it on the side, it is fun to do, and you are enjoying this activity by yourself, or with a friend or family member, and you do it or don’t do it as you choose.

So, if you can start a business without one, why do you even need to do a business plan at all? There are a few scenarios where you will want to pull together a plan.

First, you want to make sure you will make money. I interviewed a business owner once about whether he built a business plan or not and he said he always did a business plan, even if he never showed that business plan to anyone. Why did he do it then? He had owned several restaurants over his career, in different geographical places, and he always mapped out what he thought it would cost to do business in the area.

He mapped out his costs to try and make sure that if he priced his meals at a certain price he would cover his costs. He said that his business plan was never something fancy. He did not memorialize it in a Word document, he often just scribbled it on paper. But that worked for him to make sure that his idea would work. He already had a lot of experience in building businesses like it as he moved around the country, so his plan was only about vetting the costs and dish prices.

Second, a business plan will become crucial if you need to obtain financing from a bank or other funding sources. In this case, you will want to be more formal in your plan. That is when you will use a business plan template of some kind. You can google search for business plan templates and find a bunch of them.

I highly recommend finding the SCORE business template from the Small Business Administration. That business plan is a great place to start, and it has sections that prompt you for what to think about including in each section. A funding source will want to make sure that you know what you are talking about in building or maintaining your business. Thus, funding sources will often ask you for your business plan.

Most of the sections will not be difficult to fill out. Especially if you already have experience in the field of the small business you want to start. Otherwise, you may have to do a little bit of homework. Or, part of your plan may be to work for a company you may want to start in the future. Remember, most businesses start small. However, one of the more challenging sections can be the financial projections. That is where you may want to find a bookkeeping or financial professional to help you.

Where do you find a template? I recommend a Google search for the score business plan template. SCORE stands for the service core of retired executives. This is a part of the small business administration.

Through springboard learning you can take an entrepreneurship bundle that includes four courses. One course covers four different courses. The courses cover topics of developing your business idea, planning your business, executing your business, and growing your business.

Also, if you are only interested in developing your business plan you would just sign up for the planning your business class. Either way, if you sign up for the Introduction to Entrepreneurship bundle or if you only sign up for the Planning Your Business individual course, use the code FIFTY OFF for a 50% discount on any pricing option.

Go to courses.springboard-learning.com and get started today.

Enjoy your course and we will chat again soon!