Page 191 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

For Entrepreneurial Spirits

• Determining a legal structure for your business—sole pro-
prietorship, partnership, limited liability corporation (LLC),
S corporation, or C corporation.
• Buying an existing business or starting a franchise.
• All aspects of business funding—government funding, pri-
vate-bank loans, credit considerations, angel investors,
venture capital firms, self-generated funding, or equity
funding.
• Financial management—bookkeeping for small businesses,
financial forecasting, understanding financial statements,
and accounting and taxation issues.
• Marketing and promotion—the latest, most efficient, and
most cost-effective means to market, advertise, and promote
your new business. In concert with the Small Business
Development Centers www.sba.gov/sbdc/ (with links on the
SBA Web site), they provide instruction on how to write a
marketing plan for your business.
• Liaison to SCORE, a group of retired executives who have
already had the experience of building and running one or
more successful businesses (www.score.org). The SBA offers
one-on-one mentorship to new entrepreneurs from people
in the community who have already assembled successful
companies.

A Practice Business Plan

If you’d like to practice formulating a business plan, there is an
excellent template for doing so on Microsoft PowerPoint, which is
part of the Microsoft Office computer program. You can also find
business plan templates at a very reasonable price at most comput-
er software or office supply stores. To get to the Microsoft PowerPoint
template, which guides you with written prompts all the way through
a business plan and marketing plan:
1. Open the PowerPoint program.
2. Click on the choice marked Design Template.
3. Click on the Presentations tab.

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