 |
Resources
|
 |
How Can the SBDC Help You?
The North Dakota Small Business Development Center has 10 centers throughout North Dakota with experienced counselors along with an excellent staff of business professionals. We offer on-line training classes on small business grants and building market research for your business plan with new classes being added. As our motto says, "Your Ideas, Our Expertise, Your Success" We are here to see your business dreams become reality. Contact an SBDC Center Near You, and see how an SBDC counselor can help you!
|
|
|
|
The Importance of a Business Plan
A business plan is a very important step when starting a business. All good entrepreneurs will agree that having a plan written down will help your idea to exceed.
A business plan is an outline of your idea, how it will work, what type of products and services you are offering, how much financing it will take to get started and who will be your customers. Business plans very in length to the type of business you are starting; don't concern yourself with the length of your plan but with the quality of research within the plan.
Researching your idea allows you to compare your idea to other businesses that may be competitors in your area. This gives you an understanding of how your business is different from the competition. Conducting market research may be the hardest part of building the business plan. The North Dakota SBDC understands the difficulties in researching primary and secondary sources. An on-line training class has been created to help you with this process. Click on the Online Training icon at the top of this page to begin researching your business idea.
There are several Business Plan templates available on this website. They can be found under the Business Articles (Download) section of this website.
The North Dakota Secretary of State website also has a section on building a business plan. It outlines the business plan process step-by-step to view the outline.
The SBA website is a tremendous resource and may be reached by link here for business plan basics.
|
|
|
|
Where's the FREE money?
Free money? Something for nothing? Who wouldn't want free money?
The suggestion that there is free money seems to pop up just about everywhere, your friends, the media, books and the internet.
Calls come to us periodically from individuals seeking their share of the free money, says Ron Newman, regional director of the SBDC in Dickinson. "Do you really think there would be money around for you to start a business if it were free".
We have included all the information we have found and continue to update the information in an online training session entitled "Grants".
You can easily search the internet to find out more about grants if you're determined too, but caution is advised before paying for someone's offer.
|
|
|
|
|
