Find resources to determine if your new business idea is viable, develop an initial plan for putting your plan in motion, find funding sources, and learn ways to exit from your plan at the appropriate time.
Provides access to resources for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Contains sample business plans, small business videos, and industry information organized by small business type.
Click on the Pitch Support box to find resources to help with starting a business, including writing a business plan. Also, hover over Tools and select Case Studies to search for related research about your idea.
Incubators offer diverse support services and professional advice for entrepreneurs in early stages of setting up their business. This directory offers a quick way to identify and learn more about local incubators and their business specializations by industry sectors.
This article (by Bolt) offers points to consider by potential founders to map their way through an idea maze or "bird's eye view" before committing to a potential business idea and plan.
Books
Zero to One by Peter Thiel; Blake Masters#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets. The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things. Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we're too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself. Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won't make a search engine. Tomorrow's champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today's marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique. Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: it starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places.
Use this subject heading to search in SMU Library Catalog for books, many available electronically, that discuss developing a business plan. Click on Browse and change the dropdown menu to Subject.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Business Plans Plus by Gwen Moran; Sue JohnsonThe right way to start a business. This book includes all the invaluable information from The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to Business Plans, Second Edition, but adds a content-rich CD-ROM, featuring more than 90 time-saving planning tools, business forms, and financial worksheets to help entrepreneurs prepare, write, and make the most of their business plans. According to the Small Business Administration (USA), in 2007, the number of new businesses was 680,000, and that number is expected to be higher in 2011 as the economy drives people into starting their own businesses. Features eight business plans covering a broad range of businesses. The new CD-ROM is user-friendly, up-to-date, and content-rich. 400 pages.
Provides financial and operating ratios for businesses in hundreds of industries. IBISWorld US NAICS industry reports from 2016 and on include RMA Annual Statement Studies industry ratios.