Resources for Starting a Business

Last updated on Feb 13, 2022

Sections of this topic

Legal Structures of Organizations

Legal Forms and Traditional Structures of Organizations

Market Research — Inbound Marketing

Strategizing

Understanding Strategy and Strategic Thinking

Competitor Analysis

Product Planning

Sales and Services Planning

Advertising (Planning) — Outbound Marketing

Staffing Analysis and Management Planning

Financial Analysis and Management

Feasibility Analysis

Pricing

Funding – Getting

Recommended for you

Ultimate Business Planning Guide with Updated Resources

Complete Business Planning Guide with Extensive Resources Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD. NOTE: Your business plan should be highly customized to your current organizational situation. Thus, using a generic business plan template could completely misrepresent the needed focus of your business plan. (This step-by-step manual is a complement to the topic How to Start Your …

Business Planning

Learn Strategic Thinking from Napoleon

Biographers of Napoleon Bonaparte talk about his ability to size up a situation with a single coup d’oeil,(pronounced koo-DOY), meaning “a stroke of the eye” or “glance.” Napoleon was so knowledgeable about his strategic situation—the landscape, the enemy, available technology, similar situations from the past—that he could understand and respond quickly to ever- changing circumstances. …

Business Planning

Strategic Planning Facilitator: Guiding the Planning Process

Strategic Planning: The Crucial Role of a Facilitator The goal of strategic planning should be to produce a Plan that is 1) relevant, realistic, and flexible; 2) with a very high likelihood of being implemented; 3) in order to achieve the purpose of the planning, e.g., a purpose to evolve to the next stage of …

Business Planning

Mistakes Made by Strategic Planning Facilitators

Here’s a list of the biggest mistakes that I have seen made by strategic planning facilitators over the years: 1. Not getting sufficiently trained on how to do facilitating, e.g., planning the meeting, goals, ground rules, which techniques to cultivate complete participation, doing interventions, managing conflict 2. Not learning a variety of strategic planning models, …

Business Planning

Strategic Thinking in the Age of LinkedIn

LinkedIn founder and triple billionaire Reid Hoffman has two endearing mannerisms that reveal the way he sees–and reasons with–the strategic environment. First, he peppers his statements with the word so. Almost a verbal tic that would grate on a speaking coach like the overuse of the dreaded uh … but he uses it more like …

Business Planning

Avoid the Silicon Valley Syndrome!

Guest blog from my colleague, Adam Brock, Director of Social Enterprise at Joining Vision and Action (formerly JVA Consulting): How can a well-meaning startup avoid “Silicon Valley Syndrome” and actually use a social startup to create real value for society? Every era has an industry that epitomizes its values. At the turn of the 20th …

Business Planning

Develop Your Strategic Intuition

The best decision-makers in chaotic “fog of war” conditions seem able to call on intuition – knowing what to do without knowing why or how they know.

Business Planning

Free Online Program to Learn Strategic Planning Facilitation

Unlock Your Facilitation Skills | Free Strategic Planning Program The Consultants Development Institute is offering a complete, online series to teach how to facilitate strategic planning for any type of organization. The series Facilitating Strategic Planning includes a pro bono Audit Track with unlimited enrollment. In that Audit Track, you get free access to all …

Business Planning

Moneyball: The Role of the Chief Strategy Officer

Moneyball and the Work of the Strategist Paul DePodesta was recently named the Chief Strategy Officer by the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. This is significant because, as any fan of Moneyball knows, Mr. DePodesta has spent his career in the sport of baseball, not football. This matters to the community of strategic …

Business Planning

50 Tips and Tools for Effective Strategic Thinking Skills

To engage in strategic thought, you must think and reflect on the big picture—on the diverse players and forces in your competitive environment. Anticipate the future. Use your right brain for intuition and wisdom, and your left for planning. As Isaac Newton said, “Truth is the offspring of silence and meditation.” Here are 50 tips …

Business Planning

To Learn Strategy, Know History

When you are faced with the most important and strategic decision of your life, where can you go for wisdom? Can you find insight in a book of history? Facing a world in crisis, John F. Kennedy did just that. Generally, we learn skills by trying something, failing, and trying again until we get it …

Business Planning

Execution Trumps Strategy

The results are in – Execution trumps strategy. Your business plan may have great strategies, but it will be a great failure if executed poorly. So just hire the right people, right? Turns out the answer is not what you think. At least according to a recent Harvard Business Review Article. Five Myths About Effective …

Business Planning

Is Balance Possible?

Now here’s a frank perspective: Balance doesn’t work. So don’t even try. Accept the fact that the only way to really make something happen is to go “full out” at it, with everything you have.

Business Planning

B Corp As A Competitive Edge?

Last week, I attended a celebration for B corps in Colorado. These are for-profit companies certified by a nonprofit called B Lab for achieving social and environmental goals along with business ones. What I noticed differently from other discussions among B Corps in the past, was a stronger focus not only on this vibrant community …

Business Planning

Starting Planning with Attention to Mission Statement (and Brainstorming Goals) — Is that Best?

It still seems common that many facilitators start strategic planning by having planners attend first to the wording on the mission statement, and soon after to start brainstorming strategic goals. While that approach often can be done in a half-day or full-day of fun and creative “planning,” it has many drawbacks. Here’s a list of …

Business Planning