Starting Your Own Business

by Tim Berry

Looking for help on how to start a business? Bplans.com offers a variety of free startup resources, all intended to guide you through the process of creating a business plan and getting financing for your new venture. Beyond these tools, we also offer Business Plan Pro software, which we recommend for new businesses, although it isn't free.

Free business planning book

Hurdle: The Book on Business Planning — my full-length book on how to develop a business plan — is available in its entirety on the Web at www.hurdlebook.com. You can read the entire book for free. If you would prefer a hard copy, you can buy one for $19.95 on Amazon. The book is also included for no extra charge with our Business Plan Pro software.

Articles about starting a business

Here on Bplans.com, we offer dozens of introductory and intermediate articles on how to start and grow your business. The business planning section provides a step-by-step, start-to-finish guide to developing your own business plan. Other articles cover financing, marketing, growth strategies, and more.

Sample business plans

To help you get started on your startup strategy, we also offer over 100 free business plan examples for all sorts of companies — restaurants, retail stores, consultants, and more. This is an easy way to see samples of what a finished business plan looks like. The entire content of these plans is available here for free, and they all were approved for money in one way or another, so they're worth looking at.

Don't look for a sample plan you can just pick up and call your own, because every business is unique and every business plan is unique. Look instead for a good example of what's included, and what's involved in doing the plan.

Business calculators

Also free on Bplans.com is our series of business planning calculators, which make it easy to estimate your starting costs, return on investment, and more.

Business plan software

To make the next step beyond our free tools, take a look at Business Plan Pro. It is a software tool for developing a business plan, available for under $100. It includes over 500 sample business plans, including the 100+ available here. With its step-by-step process and SBA-approved document format, you can easily create a winning business plan on your own.

About Tim Berry

Founder and President of Palo Alto Software and a renowned planning expert. He is listed in the index of "Fire in the Valley", by Swaine and Freiberger, the history of the personal computer industry. Tim contributes regularly to the bplans blog, the Huffingtonpost.com as well as his own blogs, Planning, Startups, Stories, Up and Running, and Planning Demystified. His full biography is available at timberry.com.

More from Tim Berry

  • http://www.smallbusinesspro.co.uk small business pro uk

    What a great set of resources. I guess others include your bank’s local advisor as you’ll also be writing for their eyes as well and there are some great free software packs from them. Otherwise, using your software is a good idea. Great site. Keep it up. http://www.smallbusinesspro.co.uk

  • Vivek Tyagi

    Hi,

    I want to start up a company in partnership but confusion in terms of business line to start with.
    I have lots of options like Event Management or Tour & travels or Information Technology or Manpower and many more.
    But from where i start is the key decision in which i need your help.

    Please advice how to proceed and what steps need to be taken to make our business successful.

    Thanks & Regards
    Vivek Tyagi

  • Pingback: Steve Hartman

  • http://stopchasingpromises.com Janet

    Those 5 steps are essential in starting your own business. This is a great resource!

  • http://google Nondumiso

    Hi
    i would like to open a business but i’m notsure which one to open and how to start i need help.

  • rukmini sahu

    Hello!

    I want to start up my own business mainly in food industry. I own a small resturant, i wish to change it into a business house.

  • http://www.bplan.com JESSICA FUENTES

    Hello,

    I would like to open a small business store and i need help how to start, and to build
    my capital.

    THANK YOU,
    JESSICA

  • http://masterstouchvac.com Lewis Spencer

    I have a business ready to get off the ground but i don’t have the capital to fund it. I will be paid by the my home state but i need the money to purchase the insurance and the recommended tool list which totals about 19,000 dollars. Where do you suggest i look for such funds. I am a minority business owner.

  • http://www.supercoloncleansefreeinfo.com Olinda Morra

    Is it my online browser or the internet site, but I can only see a fraction of the post. How should I revise this?

    ———–

    The line “Article continues below advertisement” is automatically generated and sometimes generates at the end of the article instead of the middle. Sorry about the confusion, Olinda!

  • http://www.startingyourownbusinessovernight.com SYOBO_Works

    I’ve always loved a quote from one of my mentors, Peter F. Drucker, who said “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”

    When it comes to starting your own business the difference between plans and hard work lies in never thinking that having completed a business plan that took hard work to write means that you’ve started your own business.

  • ally

    i need to start a business but i don’t know which business will be perfect for me
    I want to start up a company in partnership but confusion in terms of business line to start with.
    I have lots of options like Event Management or Tour & travels or Information Technology or Manpower and many more.
    But from where i start is the key decision in which i need your help.

    Please advice how to proceed and what steps need to be taken to make our business successful.

    Thanks & Regards
    ally.

  • http://facebook akash

    how to start my own business in my area difference between plan own business

  • http://facebook akash

    how to start my business?

  • Davanedondada

    spida

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