You should know what you want to do, how you want to run the business. You may have business advisors to help you set direction or set sales goals or talk about how you might want to operate your business. How many days a week you should operate or whether you want a website and all of those things, but unless it's genuine it is not going to be a real business plan. The passion has to show in the business plan. You can't just pick up a business plan from somebody and say this looks like a good business plan; I am going to run my business using this.
So, if you hire someone to write a business plan that person should be more a scribe and note taker or writer, but should incorporate the business owner's ideas not theirs. And then there's the expense. Some people charge a high price to help you work on your business plan. There are all kinds of people, some more qualified than others, but we think most people should be able to write a business plan and that's really what our seminar is about. We get people to sit down and just write bullet points, which are the major items that have to be covered in a business plan. Then you can take it to somebody else and let them write it, but it shouldn't be very expensive. Don't spend a lot of money on it because that's capital you can use to run your business.
Another thing, a business plan doesn't have to be very long. People think you need a 20, 30, 40 page plan, but all you need is if you are starting a small business is maybe 5 to 8 pages, but its got to be your thoughts, your reality, and express what you want to do not what somebody thinks you should do.
