There are a few pivotal questions that your business plan should be able to answer. Not being able to answer these questions reflects a lack of knowledge and is simply frightening for most you present it to. You have probably heard them before, but I’m going to tell you again. They are who, what, when, how, and why.

Who -  Who are you? Who is going to be working with you? Who will be under you? Who is your target market? Who are your competitors?

What - What are you selling or offering? Is it a service or a product? What does it do?

Why - Why is your product or service different? Why should a consumer or business use your company?

How - How are you going to differentiate? How is your service going to be offered? How is your product going to be made? How are you going to market it? How marketable is it?

When - When is your service available? When is your product ready for shelves? When are marketing initiatives going to take place? When will you break even?

It probably sounds elementary, but I promise these are basic questions that YOU and YOUR business plan better be prepared to answer.

SCORE - Counselors to America’s Small Business

I was introduced to SCORE about two years ago, when working at a small business resource lab (think tank, incubator, whatever you want to call it). What SCORE does is offer free services to smal businesses and entrepreneurs. It is a great resource and should be used when writing your business plan. SCORE is mostly retired executives, lawyers, and entrepreneurs that have been through the ropes and learned a thing or two.

If you want to read more about SCORE, just visit the website.

There are a few avenues you can go through to get assistance with your business plan or other business or legal matters.

First you can search for help. This is broken down by a basic keyword search, expertise search, or by state if you want local help. Expertise search will probably be your best bet if you have an industry specific question. Once you are at the expertise search screen, this is mostly self explanatory. However, there are a few industry listings that are not there. Photography for example is not listed under photography or commercial photography. That is something I would lump under Art and you’ll find that that is where most photographers or related fields are residing. Just select your expertise and hit submit to get a listing of counselors you can contact. By clicking on the persons name you wish to contact it will bring you to a form you can fill it to contact via email with them.

Another way to get help from SCORE counselors for your business plan is to lookup your local chapter. You can do so from the main SCORE website or by the Find SCORE page. My search sends me over to SCORE Baltimore.

Once there a “Counseling” link should be somewhere, you can click that and register to schedule a request for counseling.

Most SCORE chapters have workshops or seminars that can also be of help. Generally cheap to attend. SCORE baltimore is 40.00 for their workshop which is a full work day long and includes a “manual.” This could be an avenue you could explore, I know in my chapter if you view the workshop page they recommend you have a business plan ready before attending, that way you can get better use of the workshop through questions and review.

I suggest atleast exploring the SCORE website, there is a lot of information and avenues to contact them. A lot of people (myself included) think SCORE is a great thing and rave about it. I have received quite a bit of in-depth help from SCORE counselors, so I know how much of a value they can be.