The start-up phase of a new business can be confusing and overwhelming without definitive guidance to tackle the start-up maze. A business plan is the necessary road map to incredible entrepreneurial success. Do you need a business plan to start a foreclosure cleanup business? No, not unless you’re planning to borrow money to start. Should you write a business plan? Yes. Absolutely!

Road Map to Success

A business plan is simply a road map that will assist you in planning your foreclosure cleanup business. You’ll discover things about yourself, your business, and your partner (if you have one) before you even start. You’ll change some things before you start as a result of doing a business plan, too. It’s best to work out the kinks on paper, instead of when you’re head-first into your new business.

Business Plan Sections

A business plan is comprised of the following sections, at minimum:

1) Description of Your Business

2) Marketing Section

3) Finances Section

4) Management Section

Using the SBA to Guide You

The U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) is one of those independent agencies of the federal government that is an invaluable resource for small business owners (for start-ups and established businesses alike).

Back in 1953, the SBA was created to aid, counsel, assist and also protect the interests of small businesses. The SBA helps and encourages Americans to start and build businesses. Visit sba.gov for some very detailed information on writing a solid business plan for your foreclosure cleaning business.

Counselors of America’s Small Business Owners

For more assistance with writing your foreclosure cleaning business’ road map, reach out to the Counselors of America’s Small Business Owners (“SCORE”). SCORE, also known as the “Service Corp of Retired Executives,” is a partner of the SBA and will guide you step-by-step in writing an effective business plan for your REO trashout business. They even have business plan templates on their website in both PDF and Word formats.

This is a phenomenal nonprofit group that helps create over 20,000 businesses per year. With an increasing network of over 12,000 volunteers, these executives and volunteers have been in your shoes and can assist you from the startup phase, through growth, financing, licensing, branding, marketing and even selling if ever you decide to sell your business one day.

You can call the Counselors of America’s Small Business Owners for one-on-one counseling, or you can opt to attend workshops. You may even choose to partner with a mentor who has been in your industry. Through this mentoring relationship, you can fondly pick your mentor’s brain over and over again and gain valuable insight on how to go about planning a successful enterprise.

The SCORE organization is one of those beautiful things we pay for with our government tax dollars, so use them. Visit the organization online at score.org.

Value of Business Planning

SCORE sums up the value of a business plan beautifully: “The real value of creating a business plan is not in having the finished product in hand; rather, the value lies in the process of researching and thinking about your business in a systematic way. The act of planning helps you to think things through thoroughly, study and research if you are not sure of the facts, and look at your ideas critically. It takes time now, but avoids costly, perhaps disastrous, mistakes later.”

Beginning of Independent Wealth

Remember, though it can be arduous, this necessary road map you will create during the planning phase can be the beginning of independent wealth for you as a new business owner for the rest of your life. Good luck as you roll of your sleeves and get started planning your foreclosure cleanup business.

Business plan development is considered a necessary evil by many entrepreneurs – it is the process of creating a document which will help them pitch to investors and lenders. However, funding aside, you will improve your chances of business success if you take business plan development seriously.

Planning Does Help

It is a simple “out” for entrepreneurs to throw their hands up, saying “If so much of business is about flying by the seat of my pants, reacting to opportunities and threats and they arise, and changing plans continuously, there is no reason to plan for my own purposes. Certainly, a plan will be required by funders, but that plan does not have to have any similarity to the tactics which are used in the end.”

However, planning does help, even if the plan needs adjustment down the road. A plan can zero in on alternative strategies which might work and throw out those which do not fit the company’s intended brand, customer markets, or competitive situation. Without a written plan, the company is in danger of trying out strategies which seem to make sense on the surface, but really lack a good fit with the company in the long-run.

Keeping the Team Consistent

Another major reason to plan is to keep all team members on the same track. Without a written guide setting out the mission and strategy to achieve that mission, different managers may develop their own ideas about the priorities of the company and end up working at cross purposes. To serve this purpose, the business plan must be shared between the managers at least. The managers must all work to pass on guidance to their staff based on the plan.

Setting a Reflective Tone

It is extremely easy for entrepreneurs and small business owners to be caught up in the action of running their businesses on a day-to-day basis and consider reflection on where the company has come from and is going to be a luxury. Being serious about business plan development from the outset sets reflection as a priority for the company, and a business launched on this foundation stands a better chance of continuing to use planning as a tool going forward. When taken in balance with action and awareness of the present situation, reflection and planning can serve the business well.”

Why is selling so difficult for small business owners? The ability to sell is necessary for every business yet it is often a neglected activity. To simplify the selling process, you need to build a sales approach into your marketing mix program. (Your marketing mix includes product, price, promotion and place – the sales activities belong in the promotion category.)

First, it is important to understand the marketing mix promotion category. Marketing promotion includes personal selling (face to face), direct mail marketing (one-to-one and via email or mail), and use of telemarketing campaigns (one-to-one and via telephone). Additionally, marketing promotion includes the advertising (for example, radio, newspapers, internet, magazines, storefront, and more), promotions (for example, trade shows, coupons, contests, point of purchase displays and more), and public relations (for example, press releases, community involvement, and more) activities.

Second, it is important to build a sales plan targeted to each product or service category, and also focused on each type of customer. If you are entering new markets, use sales contact management and sales leads software to focus your efforts. This software will also provide good sales service maintenance and follow-up support. Business process management tools help you to focus your sales activities and provide you with valuable time saving tactics. You can track and manage your activity and results for leads, prospects, and customers. You can also integrate your sales leads software with your sales management software to develop reports on customer purchases, service or product launches, price change impacts, service or product change impacts, and more.

Third, develop strong negotiating and closing skills. Always look for a win/win solution both for you and your customer. Make sure you focus on the unique value and benefits of your products and/or services and how that value will benefit your customer (solving their needs or problems). To negotiate a sale and to close a sale effectively requires a specific skill set. You need to be a very good listener and really hear what your customer is saying. You also need to be sincere – how many times have you heard pre-rehearsed closes that just turn you off? You can practice your close but when you are in front of a potential customer make sure that you can close based on what your customer just told you, what you heard, and what you believe you can deliver – in effect, how will you fulfill your customer’s needs more effectively than other suppliers?

To be successful in business, you need to either be successful at selling or be able to hire a great sales person because no matter what you have to sell (product, service, idea or something else), you will have to sell it to someone. Learning how to sell effectively is possible but you need to enjoy it. If you dread the idea of selling, don’t do it (your customers can perceive your discomfort and you will find it even harder to make the sale). Hire someone who loves to sell to do it for you (you can hire an employee, or sales agent, or contract worker, or broker but it is likely that employees will be most committed to you and your business). Customers and potential customers will resist buying from someone who isn’t comfortable with the sales process, and while you might get some orders, hiring someone who is good at selling will free you up to do what you’re good at… a much more effective use of your time and resources.

Overcome the challenge of developing small business sales skills:

learn to focus on developing a marketing mix promotion that includes building service or product differentiation and positioning features and benefits that help you to increase sales successfully; learn to build an effective sales plan and use software and business process tools to help you manage the plan; make sure you develop strong negotiating and closing skills and learn how to manage your own efforts, or the efforts of others.

Learning how to sell effectively is of critical importance to your small business sales growth; and just as important is recognizing when to hire someone to do the selling for you.

What is the ultimate, final, or fundamental internet marketing plan for small businesses…if such there be.

Thousands of small business owners already have lots of internet skills, others are just beginning, and both groups have great ambitions and ideas. So what is the common thread necessary for you and other members of either group to be successful?

It’s the willingness to dig in, realizing that at least in the beginning, money is not your only investment. You must also be prepared to invest many hours of dedicated work to getting your internet marketing plan off the ground.

Have you studied the market? Do you know what your competition is doing? Do you know what your basic objectives are? When you’re sure you can answer yes to these questions, then you’re ready to being making detailed objectives for your internet marketing plan.

First: Decide how many hits per day you want on your site and what you want readers to do when they link onto your site. Do you want them to download information? Buy an item? Do both or do something else? Make sure the answer to that question is evident to your internet visitors.

Second: Identify your marketing focus and your target audience and then determine the keywords for your marketing campaign. Remember that discovering and utilizing keywords on your website are both absolutely essential for Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It is also important that these keywords be popular everyday words which describe your product and appeal to your audience. What are you selling and to whom?

Third: Is the value of your product equivalent to the selling price? If you are selling a product are you selling it at a reasonable price? If you are selling information, look at the information from the customer’s point of view and ask yourself what the content is worth, either in future earnings or just in the importance and helpfulness of the information itself? Then set a fair price, maybe what you would pay for comparable information.

Fourth: Decide what are the best internet tools to accomplish the goals you have set for yourself, and then decide which ones to use and how to integrate them into your plan.

Fifth: Do it…whatever it takes. Set a schedule for yourself to carry out your plan as outlined above and after that – JUST DO IT!

Getting funding for your business is provided by investors, and is typically based on a company’s business plans’ ability to show how much money is needed, how much money is going to be made, and how the investor will benefit.

A well-crafted business plan offers a glimpse into the past, present, and future of the company. Generally the funding is awarded based on financial projections that usually include a 2-3 year cash flow forecast, 3-5 year financial information forecast, and a detailed and specific plan on the how the loan will be repaid.

There are two basic types of business plan funding: debt and equity.

Debt funding is where a company borrows money (as with loans) and must pay it back with interest in a timely manner. There are many sources for debt financing: traditional bank loans, savings and loans, commercial finance companies, and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) are the most common. Usually, these sources are best for companies that have a high ratio of equity-to-debt.

Equity funding means taking on private or commercial investors, and making your business accountable to your investor. Many small business owners raise funding from relatives, friends, colleagues, or customers who hope to see the businesses succeed for a return on their investment. However, the most common source of professional equity funding comes from angel investors or venture capitalists.

Venture Capitalists are institutional risk-takers and may be groups of wealthy individuals that are willing to offer promising new businesses the capital needed. These investors include individuals with substantial net worth, corporations, and corporate financial institutions. If a company has a high proportion of debt to equity, most experts advise increasing the ownership capital (equity investment) for acquiring money to finance your business plan or obtain a commercial line of credit.

As always, it is best to consult with experts and trusted advisors before making a decision that will affect your business.