So you want to look into getting grant funding to start you new business do you? Well the first thing you will need is a business plan.

After you have done some research on your new business idea, you will have a better idea of the specifics of the business. Next it is worthwhile to try to articulate all those great ideas on paper, in the form of a business plan.

At this stage it is not a bad idea to carry around a small pad of paper and something to write with everywhere you go, or your favorite high-tech gadget that can record your thoughts. Your ideas will be percolating in your brain even when you are working on other things, and you never know when you will get a good idea, so be ready for it.

A business plan can help you get funding for your business, will explain how you will market your new service or product, and much more. Even before that, however, it can show the new business idea for what it is, in all its glory and warts. Then you can decide if you still want to proceed with it, make some changes to it so that success is more likely, or perhaps try again with another business idea. This paper step can save you a lot of time and frustration when you actually have to go out and provide the new service or begin to manufacture the new product for the first time.

The United States Small Business Administration has a branch called the Office of Small Business Development Centers. These centers can be found in each state, and they offer free or low-cost help with all aspects of starting a new small business, including help with writing a business plan.

A business plan needs to show your methods for running the business. For example, who will be involved in running and working in the business and what expertise they bring to the endeavor. It will show how you plan to sell your product or service, what the product is exactly and what all the steps are that are necessary to manufacture it. Or, in some cases, what specific service will you offer in full detail, and money particulars focusing on what it will cost to bring the product or service to the buying public. Basically, what it will bring in terms of revenue.

Banks and charitable organizations will want to look at your business plan and see if it is a sound investment. A business plan will also offer the entrepreneur peace of mind, because you will have gone through every aspect of the business, and you know how it will work, how much you can make from it, and how much it will cost to start and continue operating. After the business plan is written, you will have a pretty clear idea if your business has a good chance of succeeding or if it won’t work.

I know it seems like a lot of work, but trust me you will be glad you put in the extra effort in the end.

SBA or Small Business Administration is an independent agency of the US government that helps in protecting the interests of the small business organizations by assisting them in securing loans, forming business plan, business counseling so that they can thrive among competition which in the long run is beneficial to the economy of the country.

The SBA business plan provides such guidance so that one can manage the business efficiently from the start to the finish. This agency guides how to start the business by selecting a proper location, frame a strategy of the business and the steps to obtain the license ad permits necessary to run the business successfully.

The basis of a successful business starts from its planning and writing down the features of the business plan in a standardized template guides the business person to the right path in achieving the goals.

The SBA plan starts with mentioning the mission of the business giving a total description of the growth of the organization, its goals and achievements along with the background of the organization. This represents a clear view of the business and the perception of its growth and potential. The plan reflects the outlook of the business and in identifying the target in the market with the special mention of the existing clients and customers and the market share which the business is holding at present.

The detailed information of the products and services are included in this plan emphasizing its uniqueness with other competitors and possible up gradations of the product, supported with the brochures and photographs.

A brief summary of the management and the administration is mentioned in the SBA plan highlighting the names of the key managers duly supported by the organization charts. The strategies adopting in marketing and sales promotion along with the distribution are specified in this plan. Financial management holds a key position in the business plan which is clearly laid out reflecting the financial health of the organization. This guideline by the SBA enables one to generate a business plan.

For those small business owners who think they were ignored in the new stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), think again. While the debate continues to unravel as to “who gets what and whether it is enough”, one thing is certain: more money is coming in the direction of small businesses through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Remember, this is the agency responsible for the outreach, licensing, and implementation of, you guessed it, money into the pockets of small businesses. This is done through private licensed lenders who have agreed to join the SBA program. In other words, if your local community bank has a commercial loan department, it might very well have a SBA department which makes these loans. They are called SBA loans because the Federal government will reimburse, to a certain percentage, defaulted loans, thereby giving incentive for the private banks to loan more money. Net effect–more loans will be available for small business concerns. This is a continuing article (20 in all) on the subject: Help. Is anyone out there loaning to small businesses anymore?

Before we talk about how much more money is available to the SBA under the stimulus package, let’s look at the current status of one of the popular SBA loan programs. There is a loan program out there and SBA lenders are actually making loans currently: the Community Express Loan Program. This gives unsecured small business loans between $5,000 and $50,000 with very little paperwork, answers typically in two days, interest rates presently at 7.75%, funding and two weeks, and monies wired directly to your business account. There are still lenders participating in this program, although Congress has failed to make the program permanent and still has a 10% cap on the number of loans.
Enter the Obama stimulus bill. Let us look how it affects this program and small business lending as a whole.

So should we be excited by the stimulus package? Isn’t it all too customary in a new spending bill for a government agency to receive more funds? Not at all as to the SBA. During the Bush Administration tenure, they could easily have renamed the agency the ISBA (Ignore Small Business Association). As they were making “sound bite” statements to the press of how they were helping small business, they were arrogantly trying to dismantle it, or when they were in a better mood, just cutting the budget.

The point is we have a new administration that actually likes small businesses. Remember these are additional monies over and above the SBA’s current budget . As we all know, budgets are determined in approximately March of each year (assuming Congress has the good graces to agree) to be used for the next year. The SBA has already received their budget. This is whipped cream placed on the top of that small business cake.

And we are not talking about token amounts here. Here is how the additional monies are broken down:

1. 375 million for temporary fee reductions or elimination on SBA loans and increased SBA loan guarantees, up to 90% for some loans. Translation: When a borrower gets a SBA loan they pay a SBA loan guarantee fee which goes to Washington and used as a war chest to pay banks if there has been a default. That guarantee fee, depending upon the loan, is currently between 50% and 85%. There is a possibility that some loan programs can now be increased to a whopping 90% guarantee. If a borrower no longer pays these fees, the money has to come from somewhere, and in this case it is taxpayers’ money which is subsidizing those fees.

2. 255 million for a new loan program to help small businesses meet existing debt payments. Translation. You have a loan secured by fixed assets or real estate and want to refinance it, either to lower payments or put more money in your pockets for expansion.

3. 30 million for expanding SBA’s Micro Loan Program, with $6 million to help finance new lending and 24 million for technical assistance grants to Micro lenders. . Translation: Under the Microloan program, the Federal government loans blocks of money to the Microloan lenders who then reloan it, at higher rates, to the deserving communities and small businesses and usually collateral is required.

4. 20 million for streamlining the SBA lending and oversight process with new technology. Translation: The streamlining process will make it faster and more efficient to process loans and oversight is to monitor SBA licensed lenders–make sure they are acting for the benefit of small businesses and complying with the program guidelines.

5. 15 million for expanding SBA’s surety bond guarantee program. Translation: If you are a building contractor and have to take out a performance or payment bond on a project, you need substantial assets to secure the bond. This will help getting your hands on that needed bond and be able to secure the contract.

6. 25 million for staffing as to the new programs.

7. 20 million for the Office of Inspector General. Translation: To inspect and audit the licensed SBA lenders.

Although one could make the argument this new law is “too little too late”, we have to give our current administration a chance to do good things with this fresh money. And don’t forget the mindset of the SBA lender. Although they are not as wildly quixotic as stock market speculators, their purses open and close based upon the mood of the country. We want them to be as comfortable as possible when we walk toward them for money.