BUSINESSES YOU CAN DO WITH LOW CAPITAL

If you are thinking about starting your own business but have no capital, here is a list of small business ideas you can start with little or no money.

Once you are satisfied that you have the potentials to succeed as an entrepreneur, you must decide on which business is best for you.

However, starting the wrong kind of business is the most frequent mistake start-up entrepreneurs usually make.

If you have not yet decided on a business, we have put together this list of over 30 proven business ideas for you to consider as a starting point.

Obviously, some of these business ideas have relatively low capital intake and are flexible to work with.

Business Ideas You Can Start With Little or No Money

1. Graphic Design Business

While having a formal background in graphic design is absolutely going to be helpful, it’s also relatively easy to learn the foundation of graphic design on your own.

If you are a bit creative, motivated and with little computer skills, you can get paid to create or alter images using your personal laptop computers, installed with some necessary applications like Corel Draw, Photoshop,  AutoCAD or Adobe Illustrator. 

2. Web Design and Development

Web designing is all about mastering the art of creating a beautiful, value-driven websites or Mobile Applications.

There are always new demands for professional web designers. Designers are incredibly valuable for technology and construction companies.

3. Sales/Marketing Rep

 If you have the skill for connecting with people and the willingness to take on some personal selling activities, then a commission-based freelance sales role could be a great fit for you.

Many startups businesses are looking for part-time and commission-only salespeople. Which means you can always make this a home based business option.

If you are good, you could get a big-time profit or get hired if the startup succeeds.

4. Writing of Books

 If you are talented at researching and creating great content within a certain subject or field, you can quickly package your skills and knowledge into a downloadable eBooks or Printed Books.

You can take the time to deliver your values to those seeking to learn or find a solution in your relative projects.

World renowned novelists and writers are creating very lucrative career for themselves – by writing inspiring literature books.

5. Computer and GSM Businesses

With the number of personal computers, tablets and smart phones out there today, you can actually startup these kind businesses and earn good money if you have the technical skills as a computer or GSM hardware/software engineer or service personnel.

There is a huge growing market for mobile phone technology and its accessories, including selling of recharge and SIM cards in retail and wholesale basis.

6. Catering Business

 Eatery is a great way to test a chef!

If you have enough experience in this aspect, you can turn your knife skills into a full-time business.

However, this doesn’t happen overnight because you may have to learn the business by working for someone else first.

Though food stuff businesses are quite moving well in different countries of the world, however, it’s important to note that most people don’t just play with their stomachs.

7. Travel and Tour Agency or Consultant

If you love to travel and find yourself randomly searching for flight tickets sales or browsing places across the globe, why not carve out a niche for yourself as a travel agent for any of the leading companies?

You can start with word of mouth recommendations from friends who can count on you for the cheapest flights and other travel information like hotels or pickup arrangements.

8. Social Media Expert

 Nowadays, we’re all guilty of spending too much time on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram, so why not get paid to put your expertise to work?

Lots of companies, especially those in retail or travel businesses are constantly in need of people to help build their brands online and through social media presentations.

You can start a course in this area and before you know it, you become an expert.

9. Blogging Business

Blogging is now a viable source of income.

Thousands of bloggers are creating content on diverse topics like travel, lifestyle, sports, entertainment, fashion and more.

Launching a self-employed career, with a combination of blog subscribers, adverts placements on your website, can be a way to start.

Since the business will always need high quality content to bring in new customers, your skills will always remain an asset to invest in other revenue sources.

 10. Car Renting Services

 If you own a car but barely use it, you can make some extra cash by renting it out on app-centric taxi services like Uber .

Yes! This can be a very lucrative way to earn money on nights and weekends – working only at your own time.

But before you start out, please know that there is comprehensive insurance policy on all cars, franchise agreements and drivers are trained and screened.

 11. Product Distributor

 Licensing a foreign or well known domestic product like Coca-cola or Chivita drinks for wholesale can lead to a big payoff down the road.

When starting this kind of business, always invest intelligently and choose a well-accepted product you believe in so you can reap the rewards in years to come.

 12. Fitness Training Business

 Most people love moving their bodies and this is fun.

If you are a fitness professional, with the right combination of charisma and business sense, working as a fitness trainer can be both physically and financially rewarding.

All you need is the passion for the business.

 13. Auto Repairs and Vulcanizing Business

 If you have developed valuable skill sets and experience within this industry over the years, you can turn this vocational skills based business ideas into a lucrative money-maker.

You can start by building up a strong network of customers and finding a good location, getting up everything you need to launch.

 14. Song Writing and Music DJ

 You can take the time and develop your skills at either making your own music, or becoming a professional sound mixer.

Starting your performance in local events or clubs could turn this business idea into a much bigger music career.

 15. Clothing and Tailoring Business

 Fashion and style continued to be a lucrative business across the world.

If you know how to sow and design clothes, then you have a growing market of continued customers.

There is no harm in learning and starting small here, as long as you can make magic with needles and threads.

 16. Bakery Business

 It’s always funny how baking can relate to making money.

But by kneading flour, mastering the oven, and sweetening everyone’s mouth, you can start making your cool money just like that.

Don’t be surprise; some people have already turned baking into their “sole bread and butter”.

Find out how they are doing this!

 17. Modeling Business

 If you’ve got the attitude, there are product and service companies out there looking for the right model to promote their brands.

All you have to do is to sign up with the right agency and get mentored through some of the early challenges before establishing your own.

Depending on your preference, you can specialize in a single media format such as videos or images.

 18. Real Estate Business

 The real estate market is on the heights today, and people are buying and selling properties in many locations across the globe.

That means there are a lot of opportunities for professionals who know how to navigate the legal, financial, and commercial aspect of this kind of business.

If you consider yourself an expert in the aspect, it won’t be a bad idea venturing into real estate businesses.

 19. Furniture Making Business

 With more and more people demanding a higher degree of personalized furniture in their homes and offices, count yourself lucky if your craft happens to be the creating a custom furniture.

Depending on your experience and location, you can easily turn your skills into a revenue-generating business.

 20. Laundry Service Business

 We all wear clothes at least some of the time – Which of course makes the laundry cleaning business a lucrative one.

If you have the right skills, experience and finance to back it up, you can include new technology into this business.

Like using modern washing and ironing machines, a website to handle online customers’ orders; home, school, and hotel laundry pickups and delivery services, depending on your location.

 21. Wedding and Event Planning Businesses

 Seminars, corporate events, birthday parties, and marriages happen all the time.

Today, wedding is a recurring fountain of business opportunities.

Wedding cakes, dresses, jewelers, food caterers, ushering job, event rentals (chairs, canopies, venue, etc.), photographers, videographers, printing souvenirs, and a host of other ventures would earn big money every weekend.

Imagine if you can form networks of these service providers and then can offer engaged couples a range of hassle-free wedding packages.

 22. Public and Vehicle Advertising 

 You can turn your car or bus into a money-maker by driving across the streets of Lagos, but be careful about LASMA.

One way to start your vehicle advertising business is to get the vehicle branding, get a power generating set and some public addressing systems or song mixers, and you are ready to start looking for clients.

 23. Public Speaking Business

 If you have the gift of speech, public speaking is a great business to pursue.

Many authors, medical practitioners, scientists, politicians, and other subject matter experts and professionals will earn extra income by delivering seminars and presentations to different groups and associations.

Motivational speakers can also earn good money with this part of their businesses.

 24. Music Instructor

 Do you play a musical instrument well enough to teach others? This business is certainly fun and so is the pay.

Private music instructors are making cool money. You can start by getting family, group or church customers and works also.

Once you build up a reputation for yourself, you could easily turn this into a full-time endeavor.

 25. Makeup Services

Looking good is a good business really!

If you have talents for helping people look their best through hair dressing and barbing services; and you know how to play with eyeliners and lipsticks; then consider using your beauty skills to create a profitable business for yourself.

You can start your own make-up artist, hair salon business by first attend the necessary classes to learn the arts.

 26. Financial Investments

 If you have been keeping your money including your retirement benefits hidden in a savings account, you might want to consider putting it to better use through smart investing.

However, with the current economic recessions, there are risks to look out for when buying shares or planning to start a Forex Business.

Most finance experts like brokers will advise you to start learning about the stock market if you want to grow your wealth.

But we think you can become an 'angel investor' to small businesses within your communities.

 27. Professional Services

 Many companies and startups now outsource jobs that are not part of their core businesses (such as admin, HR, logistic, and accounting).

Because companies always need to track their cash flow, you can really benefit by offering them part-time accounting and bookkeeping services.

We have a platform to help support some of your freelance services if that is your thing.

 28. Buying and Selling Cars

 You can turn your love for cars into a quick profit if you have the capital.

Buying and selling of cars are similar to other “buy low, and sell high” business models – with a high-profit potential and inherent investment risks.

You can learn how to start a car dealing business by investing some time in learning the trade though.

 29. Waste Management Services

 As the saying goes, one man’s food is another man’s poison.

Without cleaning up our environments, the world would be a mess than it already is.

This business might not be glamorous, but you get to make the world a better place while earning your income.

To start this kind of job, you will need a second-hand truck and standard equipment like shovels, wheelbarrows, rakes, and garbage cans.

 30. Car Washing Business

 A lot of car owners don’t have time to personally care for their vehicles.

With simple equipment such as car shampoo, polishing wax, and water supply, you can start earning a decent income by taking good care of your customers’ vehicles.

 31. Coaching Sports Teams

Nothing beats playing your favorite game.

And coaching a sport team or officiating community sports events can be an exciting way to earn extra income on weekends.

Not only will you learn new skills, you will make money for getting your team into shape.

 32. Child Care

 Many families with kids have very limited time due to work schedules.

If you love kids and have some spare time, you can start earning income by looking after children while their parents are away.

This can be in the form of operating a nursery or daycare center.

Just be sure to identify the particular age group you’re comfortable caring for, with the necessary training in home-based daycare services and first aid.

 33. Customer Service Center

Some firms like Airtel, MTN, and most banks outsource their customer service operations today.

If you’re already a CSR specialist with management skills, then you can form and lead a virtual team and engage clients as a bona fide customer service company.

You may need more information on this, including service training for your team.

 34. Personal Chef

Busy schedules can stress people out.

It can also disrupt family life to the point that busy parents barely have time to prepare decent dinners and weekend meals for the family.

Hence, the surprising demands for part-time family chefs.

If cooking healthy and delicious meals is your thing, then this business idea can supplement your regular income.

 35. Subject Teacher/Tutor

Teaching and tutoring English language, Mathematics and other subjects is a great way to make a solid income.

If you have the technical know-how, you can start by offering home lessons and tutorials within your neighborhood.

 36. Interior Designing

Some families out there would like to remodel their house and needs to pay you for giving them the shade, wall portraits, landscaping, etc that will match best with tile flooring.

If arts and decoration is your line then this is going to be a good source of finance.

 37. Online Business

If you’re an expert at something, there’s likely an audience of people online who would be willing to pay to get your products or service.

For example, developing the Best E-commerce Website is another strategy for creating and launching your successful online retail businesses like many others such as Jumia, eBay, Amazon, Flipkart, etc.

 38. Dance Instructor

Most people love moving their bodies and this is fun too.

If at some point in your life, you had to hang your dancing shoes for a more sensible office job, there’s nothing stopping you from earning money on the side with this passion project.

You can start a weekend dance instructing job and enjoy some thousands of Naira each month.

 39. Property Manager

A property manager is essential for most real estate investors who rent out property to others.

You can make a decent amount of money from getting tenants, connecting buyers, providing building caretaking and maintenance, etc.

 40. General Cleaning Business

House and office cleaning services cover carpets, floors, lawns, garages, windows, walls, and roofs, requiring a whole range of cleaning tools.

A lot of people also include fumigation services.

You can hire people to do the actual cleaning while you handle administrative and customer service tasks.

Or, you can start small by actually getting your hands dirty by learning on the job before launching your own cleaning company.

Conclusion

There are many more businesses out there to discover and this is just a starting point.

More businesses such as food packaging, poultry raising, art and sign making, blocks and concrete molding industry, fish farming, soap production, coco production, bricklaying, plumbing, electric welding, etc.

All we were trying to do here is to inspire your brain about innovating the business concept you want.

This list will continue as you embark on your new side of business and life hustle.

Remember that you are only limited by your own imagination and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t succeed.

However, you must not fear to hear the negative aspects of the business; it is much better to be aware of them and face them early on. Courtesy:  Abbakin

-      Be Inspired.

WAYS TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE.

Checking out some popular content sites, I can’t help but feel that people have their priorities more than a little screwed up. Everyone seems hell-bent on becoming instantly rich, famous, happy, inspired, or successful. Everyone thinks they can be a leader or an entrepreneur by following what Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Richard Branson do.  

The irony is, if Musk, Zuckerberg, and Branson set such ludicrous goals, they never would have achieved what they’ve achieved.

Then there’s the cause crowd. They either want their work to mean something, they want to be part of something bigger than themselves, or they want to change the world, whatever that means. They want, they want, they want. It’s always something they want and it’s got to be big.

You sort of getting the feeling that they want to make it about them. They want to make it their cause. Look at me. You see I’m special because I’ve got this cause and I’m helping others all over the world. In reality, it makes them feel important, like a big shot. That’s why they do it. Instead of trying to sound like you care when you’re really just being self-centered and self-important, how about setting genuine goals you can reasonably accomplish that will matter most to you and your loved ones? If you can do that, guess what? The outcome will likely be prosperity and happiness for you and everyone around you.

If you really want to leave the world a better place than you found it, this is how you do it.

1. First, do no harm.

Think about it. If everyone could pull off this simple goal, the world would be transformed overnight into a far, far better place. It sounds so easy in theory and yet it’s so hard in practice. Still, it’s a pretty impressive priority, if you ask me.  

2. Enjoy your time here.

How much of our time do we spend hating, whining, arguing, fighting, and generally making ourselves and everyone around us miserable. Sadly, social media, blogs, and comments have extended that to include just about everyone. Try making it a priority to enjoy yourself. See how that works out for you … and everyone around you.

3. Provide kids with more opportunities than you had.

This may sound like falling off a log but, in it’s not. In this day and age, just being a good parent and ensuring that your children have a chance for a better life than you had is an incredibly honorable and difficult goal to achieve. And the payoff is a better next generation.

4. Experience the real world, explore your inner world.

The greatest learning comes from two places: experiencing the real world and exploring your inner world. Today, we’ve become voyeurs of a two-dimensional world bound by tiny little displays. If you get out and do things and quietly explore your mind, your learning will become boundless. And that leads to the next two goals.

5. Leave a legacy of knowledge.

Where would we be without the breakthroughs and insights of great scientists and philosophers? The lessons of our forefathers? The art, music, and creations of those who lived to share their unique perception and gift with the rest of us?

6. Do great work.

If you can somehow manage to figure out what you love to do, you can strive to be the best and achieve great things. Whether that’s building wonderful products that customers can’t get enough of or make sick people well, that will serve you, your family, and the greater good. Doing your best work is a powerful goal.   

7. Be a good man among your fellow man.

The longer I’m on this planet, the more I’ve come to realize that what seems to be the simplest of goals is actually the most difficult to achieve … and the most noble. In my experience, none is more challenging than simply being a good man among your fellow man. Try it for a week, or even just a day. See how long you last.

What this really comes down to is this. The interactive Web has given us all a false impression of global impact. It may seem that way, but in reality, your best chance of having a broad impact is by focusing on what’s right in front of you: your inner self, your behavior, your loves ones and your work.

If you stick to that, everything will turn out fine.

• Be Inspired 

WAYS TO KNOW YOUR MIGHT BE AN ENTERPRENEUR

1.You come from a family of individuals who just couldn't work for someone else. Your parents worked for themselves. Though this isn't true for every entrepreneur (myself included), many have a family history with one or both parents having been self-employed.

2. You hate the status quo. You’re a person who is always questioning why people do the things they do. You strive to make things better and are willing to take action on it.

3. You’re self-confident. Have you ever met an entrepreneur who was pessimistic or self-loathing? After all, if you don’t have confidence, how can others believe in you?  Most entrepreneurs are very optimistic about everything around them.

4. You’re passionate. There will be times when you spend an excessive amount of time and do not make a dollar. It’s your passion that will keep you going.

5. You don’t take no for an answer. An entrepreneur never gives up -- ever.

6. You have the ability to create unlikely partnerships from out of nowhere because of your ability to connect the dots. People tend to gravitate toward you because you are likable. Many times this is because of your passion.  

7. You spend more time with your co-founder than your spouse or significant other.

8.  You see opportunities everywhere. For example, you walk into a building and are curious about its worth or the companies inside.

9. The daily commute to your office is from the bedroom to the living room.

10. You were always a lousy employee and probably have been fired a lot. Don't worry; you're not alone. I personally have been fired several times in my life. Don't take it as a sign that you're a bad person. Sometimes it's in your DNA.

11. You’ve always resisted authority; that's why you've had a problem holding down a job.

12. You believe that there is more than one definition of job security: You realize that your job is safe as long as you are in control as opposed to relying on a boss who could ruin your career after one swift mistake.

13. Most of your wardrobe consists of T-shirts; some you probably got at SXSW. Others display your company's name or logo.

14. You have a competitive nature and are willing to lose. You always know that you can do something better.

15. You check GitHub when you wake up in the morning.

16. You ask to be paid in game tickets, shoes or whatever else you love. There are just some things that are better than money, right?

17. Your idea of a holiday is a working day without anything interfering with the tasks you really need to get done.

18. You’re unemployable, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Life skills are more valuable than the office politics commonly found at 9-to-5 gigs.

19. You work more than 60 hours a week; yet you earned more money at an hourly job when you were in high school.

20. You want to be in control and in command of your own company. You typically like overseeing most things that go on at your company.

Be Inspired.

Answers You Need About Yourself Before Starting Your Own Business

When considering starting your own company, there are a lot of financial, legal and business questions you need to ask yourself. "How am I going to raise money? Who are my competitors? Are there patents on similar products?" I’m not going to focus on those types of questions here. I’m going to focus on the intangibles. Here are nine questions that you need to ask yourself about your own capabilities and personality as an aspiring leader. 

1. How much responsibility can I take on?

You will be responsible for not only yourself and your business but everyone that has a vested interest in it. This includes employees and their families, investors, business partners, clients and the community in which you run your business. It’s one thing to put your own fortune and reputation on the line; it’s another when you get other people and their livelihoods involved.

I am responsible every day to the BRIC Language System team in NYC, China, Brazil and Mexico -- as well as every one of our language learners, interns and business partners. Being your own boss sounds nice, but you’ll realize quickly just how much weight your shoulders can hold. Make sure you know you can handle it, for your own sake and theirs.

2. What am I willing to sacrifice in order to make this work?

There are tremendous sacrifices involved in starting up a business. Those sacrifices will include sleep, hobbies, exercise, relationships, vacations and your own personal freedom. A lot of these sacrifices are the result of realizing who you’re responsible to (see above). Be ready to sacrifice a lot in order to succeed and ask yourself if those sacrifices are worth the potential reward? More importantly, and more realistically, ask yourself if it would still be worth it if all of that sacrifice results in failure?

I lived in China for eight years. I sacrificed going to best friends weddings, the births of their children, my health, college football Saturdays and so much more. So far, it is well worth it, not only because BRIC is doing well, but even more so because of the experiences and friendships that developed out of my time there. If BRIC blew up tomorrow -- which I don’t expect nor want -- I can honestly say that it was worth it.

3. Can I remain calm amid constant chaos?

Batton down the hatches! You’ll be dealing with a storm of confused emotions and organizational chaos. How you relieve stress is incredibly important. Make sure that you have the mental fortitude to deal with an incredibly stressful environment and that you know how to decompress. Whether it’s exercise, meditation, yoga or whatever else -- make sure that you know how to relieve stress.

During my time in Shanghai I took kungfu classes at Longwu Kungfu, tried Taichi, and ran the Bund in the mornings. This helped me get through an otherworldly amount of stress and chaos that only expats living in Shanghai will understand. No matter where you are, stress relief is one sacrifice you can’t afford to make.

4. Can I make a decision under pressure?

When you start a company, you will be dealing with issues that you could have never imagined. You’re involved in every decision and every detail. This means everything from legal to hiring, accounting, marketing, sales, IT and design. You need to be able to calmly, rationally and quickly assess a situation and act. You’ll need to be decisive.

As Brian Tracy says “decisiveness is a characteristic of high-performing men and women. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all”. Be able to make the decision, move on, and deal with the results. We all make bad decisions at some point, I know I’ve made a lot of them in getting BRIC up and running.

5. Am I able to back down when I realize I’m wrong?

Leadership is as much about being able to accept when you’re wrong and listening to your team, as it is about being right. No one likes a boss who can’t admit when their wrong. If you’re leading the team in the wrong direction and people are pointing it out to you, as a leader you need to accept that fact and change course.

Being able to listen to your team and heed their advice is a hallmark of a good leader. I’ve been lucky in every leadership situation that I’ve been in to have either had a good team handed down to me or built a good team from the ground up. Those teams are why I’m where I’m at today.

6. What are my own weaknesses?

Being self-aware isn’t a prerequisite for being a good leader, but it should be. You need to know how what you think, say and do are perceived by others. This is far different from being self-conscious. Being self-aware allows you to understand others and effectively motivate, discipline and lead them. It’s recognizing not only where you’re strong but also where you’re weak -- and using that to build a team that compliments those weaknesses with strength.

7. Can I manage a diverse group of people?

You are going to be responsible for putting a team together that will inevitably have different political, social and economic backgrounds. They will have different attitudes, personalities and viewpoints. These differences are to be celebrated, but they will also need to be managed and lead towards a common goal.

Can you, as a leader, bring your team together when they don’t see eye-to-eye and are at each other’s throats? It will happen, you need to be able to help them forward as a team. Sometimes these differences are impossible to overcome and change needs to happen.

8. Can I let someone go, including someone close to me?

A lot of startups involve friends. Those friends may come from the neighborhood, university or a previous job. Sometimes those friendships get in the way of good business judgement. If anyone, including a friend, is dragging down the business despite repeated attempts to motivate them and having given them a fair chance, they need to go. This is part of your responsibility to everyone on the team who is executing, as well as all of the others mentioned in no. 1 above. 

I’ve had to let people go in all kinds of circumstances. Some of them were close to me. I’ve had people break down in tears, and I’ve broken down in tears myself, but we were able to have the conversation and get through it. It's not easy, so ask yourself whether or not you can handle that type of situation?

9. What are my reasons for starting this company?

Is it to make money, change the world, disrupt an industry, work for yourself, passion, pride? There are a lot of reasons people start companies. Make sure you know why you’re starting your company and that the reason is sound. 

Be realistic if you’re setting out to change the world. Change doesn’t come easy. Make sure that change is wanted or necessary when trying to disrupt an industry. Be self-motivated if you want to work for yourself, and make sure that passion and pride are both in check.

Once you’ve answered these nine questions, get ready for a whirlwind. You’ll feel extremes of every emotion from exhilaration to sorrow, success to failure, anxiety to serenity, doubt to certainty and anger to pleasure. You’ll feel many of those conflicting emotions at the same time and sometimes for the same reason. It’s a wild ride, and if you’re ready for it take the gloves off and come out swinging for the fences, it’s totally worth it.

Lastly, don’t overthink it. If you ask yourself too many questions, you’ll never get them answered and wind up never starting anything at all.

- Be Inspired.

Do You Really Need a Business Plan?

Do You Really Need a Business Plan?

Starting a business was the last thing on Sean Hackney's mind when he sat down to write a business plan business plan. Hoping to persuade a soft drink company to hire him, Hackney scripted a plan for taking on his former employer, Red Bull North America Inc. But when he showed it to his corporate attorney father and former Red Bull managing director, "they said, 'Don't send this to Coke or Pepsi. Start the business, and we'll start it with you,'" he recalls.

That was in 2000. Today, the 40-year-old is co-founder and co-owner of Roaring Lion Energy Drink, a $6.2 million company in Sun Valley, California. "We've grown the business from a $62,000 investment to the No. 2 energy drink in bars and nightclubs," Hackney says. The company has 32 employees, and Hackney's erstwhile sounding boards are now his investors and co-managers. The business plan he wrote has been through numerous revisions, and today, a regularly updated marketing plan guides the company. Writing the plan, Hackney says, was "absolutely" worthwhile. "I had a lot of stuff in my head that needed [to be] put on paper."

Clemson University entrepreneurship professor William B. Gartner believes business plans are essential. And the SBA notes on its website: "The importance of a comprehensive, thoughtful business plan cannot be over-emphasized." But lately, questions have arisen.

In 2006, William Bygrave, a professor emeritus at Babson College and longtime entrepreneurship researcher, studied several years' worth of Babson graduates to find out how much better those who started businesses with a formal, written plan did than those who didn't. "We can't find any difference,"?he admits. In other words, Bygrave and his team found that entrepreneurs who began with formal plans had no greater success than those who started without them.

For or Against

That's hardly the final word, however. Gartner also set out to study the idea. "Going into the study, I was very skeptical about the value of business plans," Gartner says. But after he and his colleagues looked at data from the Panal Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, a national generalizable survey of more than 800 people in the process of starting businesses, he found that writing a plan greatly increased the chances that a person would actually go into business. "You're two and a half times more likely to get into business," he points out. "That's powerful."

Gartner's earlier concerns about the necessity of business plans, he says, were that they were "all talk. Our research shows that business plans are all about walking the walk. People who write business plans also do more stuff." And doing more stuff, such as researching markets and preparing projections, increases the chances an entrepreneur will follow through.

For his part, Bygrave doesn't think his research says business plans are a waste of time. "We're saying that writing a business plan ahead of time, before you open your doors for business, does not appear to help the performance of the business subsequently," he explains.

So what would Bygrave like to see instead of a business plan? Attempts to sell the product to actual customers, even if it doesn't exist yet. "Have you talked to a customer?" he asks. "If not, I don't want to talk to you about the business."

Bygrave still thinks plans help, however. Forty percent of Babson students who have taken the college's business plan writing course go on to start businesses after graduation, twice the rate of those who didn't study plan writing. "Even if they don't write a plan," Bygrave says, "they've had to think about how opportunity recognition fits with marketing, building the right team, making financial projections and so on."

And a wide gulf separates having a formal written plan and having no plan at all. "Every business has to start with a plan," says Bygrave, whether it's a mental construction never committed to paper or a more advanced description jotted down on the back of an envelope.

The Money Factor

Skeptics and fans of business plans agree on one point: Securing funding almost always requires a formal plan. Companies funded by friends and family may not need a plan, Bygrave says, but if you go to venture capitalists, commercial banks, government-backed lenders and most angel investors, you will need a business plan.

That viewpoint gets no traction from Daniel Stewart, co-founder of Port Richey, Florida-based Envala. Stewart and his partner funded the small-business software provider, yet Stew-art still put together a business plan complete with financial projections. "We didn't need to because we're our own invest-ors," says Stewart, 38,"but to be a responsible entrepreneur, you have to see things as they are."

A primary purpose of the plan was to evaluate the feasibility of their proposal to sell online automation software to small businesses. So they created three sets of financial forecasts: a rosy picture, a more reasonable one and a disaster scenario. They also placed extra emphasis on describing the corporate culture mission. "We exist to increase satisfaction, productivity and profitability of small businesses," Stewart says. "It was important for us to establish that [early on] when everything is uncertain."

Planning Trends

Plans today no longer need the 20 to 40 pages prescribed by classic planners. "The shorter [it is], the better chance [it has] of being read," says Bygrave, who recommends devoting no more than five pages to income, cash flow and balance sheets. "And don't have any numbers in [there] you can't explain instantaneously."

As tools such as spreadsheets and plan writing software have grown in importance, some critics say business plans have become overstuffed with complex financials that are often backed up by little more than guesswork. "[These tools have] made it easier to produce a business plan," says Bygrave. "But they've produced page after page of financials that basically came out of thin air." As a result, investors today want fewer and better-documented financials.

"No one's impressed by spreadsheets," agrees Gartner. "[It's] the action behind the spreadsheets." By that, he means investors want to see that an entrepreneur has actually examined the market for a product or service, identified potential customers, assembled a capable team, devised a business model and more.

While investors want to see action, they don't want to work for it. A plan today is more likely to be a modest deck of slick, colorful presentation slides than a thick stack of white paper. Digital slides are easier to distribute to a dispersed audience via e-mail and to present to large groups on an overhead projector.

But limit your presentation to no more slides than you would in a paper plan, meaning 20 or fewer. And don't cram a lot of information on a single slide. "Just put highlights," says Bygrave. "[No] more than six or eight lines on a slide."

Planning for the Future

Whether plans today are long, short, elaborate or simple, they still contain the same basic elements they always have. Typically, most have an executive summary, a marketing plan, a management team description and financials (income, cash-flow and balance sheet projections).

The recent studies are hard to ignore because they're based on reasonable samples and were performed by reputable researchers. But business plans show no sign of going extinct. Business plan competitions and college-level business plan courses are more abundant than ever. "Why do people write business plans?" Bygrave asks. "They've been trained to write business plans, so they do. Another cause is that investors or strategic partners insist on it."

Hackney's experience writing the plan for Roaring Lion convinced him of both the benefits and limitations of business planning. Simply writing a plan helped push him to start a business when he had no intention of doing so. But the plan wasn't nearly as effective when it came to identifying and quantifying the risks and opportunities his company would face.

One problem arose when it became apparent he had overestimated the business's revenue potential by about 500 percent. His company's annual sales are nothing to sneeze at, but they are far less than Hackney expected in his plan.

Among other missteps, he underestimated the actual selling price of the company's products. The economic appeal to customers is still strong, but it's not as strong as he'd hoped. Perhaps most important, his plan didn't recognize the amount of financial capital it would require to grow the company, which has made it difficult for him to reach those early sales forecasts.

Like many entrepreneurs, Hackney learned to write a business plan from a book. That, plus feedback and many hashing-out sessions with his soon-to-be investors and partners, produced a plan that was accurate in its basic aim: to describe a business model that would allow him to build a successful enterprise.

Today, Hackney says he'd definitely write a business plan if he started another business. But he'd be much more conservative with his financial projections and de-emphasize the use of them. "I'd make it much shorter," he adds. "I'd deliver the core principles of what the business is founded on in such a way that the purpose would be finding money.”

-Be Inspired