Page 190 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

Fearless Career Change

8. Where, ideally, would the home base of your business be
located? Office? Factory? Laboratory? Warehouse? Outdoors?
Your home? On the Internet?
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These informal questions will get you started in thinking about
some of the basic components of your business plan, which I rec-
ommend that you write with the assistance of a class or mentor
from the Small Business Administration (SBA), a government
organization that offers free assistance to entrepreneurs.

The U.S. Small Business Administration

Keeping all of these things in mind, your next step is to get in
touch with the Small Business Administration (SBA) near you or
go to its Web site, www.sba.gov, and begin to explore some of the
state-of-the-art, no-cost offerings for entrepreneurs. Make an
appointment with one of the mentors, and start writing a formal
business plan.

The Small Business Administration is a nation-
wide network of U.S. government offices
dedicated to helping budding entrepreneurs
like you in all aspects of getting started in a
successful venture.

There are SBA offices, where you can have access to in-person
classes and advisement, in most medium to large cities. If you would
prefer to take advantage of online training via the Internet, that too
is available. The SBA’s information is absolutely invaluable, and it
may be just as good as you would receive in a more expensive, pri-
vately run business program. The SBA also supplies easy access to
small-business loans underwritten by the government and/or coop-
erating banks. Here are some of the seminars and services offered
by the organization:

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