Writing A Business Plan:
Your Internet Business Startup

Your internet business startup could be a one person home based business or a hundred person international marketing force. Magically, both options are equally possible.

Your Small Internet Business Startup

This is, without doubt, one of the lowest cost, and highest profit, businesses on earth.  

A recent study showed that internet business startups had a much higher return on investment (ROI) than brick and mortar businesses. The reason is easy to see: minimal overhead, with very high profit potential.

In fact, all you really need is a computer and good web host.

For a minimal investment of $299 you can get the very top web host. You can pay more, if you insist, but you won't get more.

I recommend SiteBuildIt because I use it. There is, in fact, nothing on this website that I recommend that I don't use myself.

I recommend SBI because it is so customer-focused. Your success is their success. The SBI business plan is to build a community of successful web sites, not to churn sites over and over each year.

The site you are looking at is in the top 1% of all web sites. Yours can be, too. Take a look at the Results page at SBI to see some of the top 1% sites.

That "results" orientation is what makes creating your business plan so much easier. You're not starting from scratch, reinventing the wheel. All the ground work has already been done -- the templates, choosing the right topic, pinpointing the right key words, structuring your site, constantly submitting your site to search engines, easy blogging -- the list really goes on and on.  

AND no HTML is needed! (If you already know ExpressionWeb, or any of the other popular programs, you may, of course, use it.)

Best Business Plan for Your Internet Business Startup

Your demo of your new site has got to be the best piece of business plan development you can do.  

If you are planning to remain a solo practitioner, perhaps as a work at home mom, odds are that you won't need any outside financing at all at the beginning of your internet business startup.

However, as your business grows, don't be afraid to help it along. Sometimes employees or contractors can accomplish a task much faster and more efficiently than you can. If that task will result in higher revenue for your business, don't be shy about borrowing for it.
And when you step into the bank, take a written business plan with pertinent information. And also take a portable computer so that you can demo your site.

Don't be surprised if your site is one of the best small internet business startup sites that your banker has ever seen.

Large Internet Business Startup

You know, of course, that your biggest hurdle is something you probably didn't do: the dotcom bust.

It can also be your strongest asset.

If indeed you were part of the dotcom bust, put it right up front, and note a couple of the lessons you learned in the process.

If you were not, note how you have used the intervening time to learn all you can to make your internet business startup a success.

The internet itself is so highly volatile that business plans are pretty unreliable. Rather than trying to put everything into black and white, rely on your ability to create and adapt to the ever changing online world. A lender or investor will be much more impressed with your personal abilities than with your great pie charts.

Odds are, too, that you will begin with angel investors.  They just have a stronger pulse on the technology involved than most bankers.  By the time you need outside funding, yours will be a solid, growing business.

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Other Articles of Interest:

Financing an Online Business: How One Musician Financed His Online Business.)

SBA Microloans. If all you need is a minimal loan, perhaps $2,000 to $5,000, a Small Business Administration microloan may be your best answer.