Check it out, heres part 5 of the develop your business plan videos on youtube. 8 parts in total.

Here is this weeks business plan related blogs, articles, stories, and otherwise cool finds.

Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford from Planning Startup Stories

Startup Nation, 10 best home based businesses 

Old but good:

The Zen of Business Plans by Guy Kawasaki

More next week, when I find time to scour digg and others more.

I have told you before how great a resource SCORE is, if you did not believe me then, read this article! Everyone has uses for SCORE and it truly is FREE HELP. When is anything ever truly free? SCORE is definitely the premier source you should be using while writing your business plan.

NYTimes.com - Starting a Small Business? A Retired Executive Wants to Help.

I know, I know… not much activity and I’ve been back for about two weeks now. I have been catching up on life and work, and now that I am caught up I had to goto the doctor Friday. I have awful strep and sinus infection. I did manage to finish up one post which I’m about to put out after I write this. So definitely check that out.

I have another in the works I’ll shoot for tomorrow to get going, since I will be spending new years at home! Oh well, I dont need to miss anymore postings so I better get well.

As usual, be sure to subscribe if you like the information you find and wish to get more. As well don’t be hesitant to contact me if you have specific questions either via comment or email if private.

Have a great 2008!

Drew

Alright everyone, I’m sure you have noticed I put in a few good posts before the other day. That’s to keep everyone content for the next week. I’m off to the Bahamas this Sunday, and will not be back for a week.

I’ll make it up by putting in a really good post when I come back!

I hope everyone likes the new look. It’s just a template from www.wpdesigner.com, but I’ve done a lot of modifications and alterations to get it where I want. Let me know if you think something should change. I am open to suggestions!

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.

I thought this was an excellent post and wanted to share.

5 Reasons Why You Should Simplify What You Say, and How to Do It.

This goes well for anything, from business plan writing to everyday uses. I’ve encountered a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs that really need help in this arena. They have incredible ideas but the execution in explaining it is so poor that it turns everyone off to the idea. I like to follow KISS as much as possible because I feel that having clarity in the business world is such a huge thing.

I recently read an article entitled “How to get a winning business plan” and the first thing in my face is PRICE. I can tell you just by showing you a picture why price is NOT and never will be a winning formula.

This guy, right here:

We all know who he is, don’t we? Just like Wal-Mart your competitor will slash their prices too.

Recently, I had the privledge of attending the e-nnovations 2007 Mid Atlantic Entrepreneurs Conference. It took place the BWI Marriot hotel, which was astounding. The one thing I like about conferences: free stuff and food. Seriously, they feed you like its their job! Check out the rundown on the menu for the day.Breakfast:

• Cereals, snacks, pastries, milk, juice, water, coffee.

Lunch:

• Prime rib sliced thinly over caesar salad.
• Vegetable crab soup.
• Raspberry cheesecake.

Mid-day Snack:

• Haagen-dazs and Good Humor ice creams.
• Powerbars, fruits, granola.
• Gatorade, soda, water, juices.

Dinner:

• Spinach salad with gorgonzola cheese and walnuts w/ dressing.
• Chicken breast over rice with a light mango salsa, carrots and green beans.
• Raspberry Chocolate Cake!!

I’m still full, and that was a week ago.

We also got some free swag and snazzy name tags.

Besides brochures and ads from sponsors, along with the agenda and handouts, we also received a beautiful padfolio, a book on franchise opportunities, and a faux addidas gym bag to put it all in.

But in all seriousness, what really counts is what you take away from the conference. Which for me was handfuls of powerbars and gatorade. Just kidding (not really…). There are great networking (I know, scary.) and learning potentials at conferences. As long as you don’t eat so much you pass out in a breakout seminar. You can check out the agenda for the entrepreneurship conference by clicking here (pdf).

I managed to not just give out cards to a few people, this time I came back with someone to exchange emails with and a person who has a gig for my company. Between the food, free gear, and picking up a job.. That’s pretty sweet and goes to show you the great potential of these types of events, even if you hate networking as much as I do.