Starting up the right way

A good business plan isn't carved in granite. It should be used to track the progress of your business and underscore the need to make mid-course corrections as needed. Think of it as a planning tool.

The business plan should be read and critiqued by those who will have a hand in launching the business: your banker, insurance agent, financial adviser, certified public accountant and lawyer. They have no emotional stake in the business and should be objective because, unlike your mother or your dog, they don't love you simply for who you are.

This article How To Be Your Own Boss in the online version of Forbes.com reviews many of the areas that are often overlooked when starting a business. And it includes the litany of things - having enough money, planning, niche markets, advisors, incorporation and tax issues, staffing and surprises - every entrepreneur should consider. These items are at the root of most premature business failures. Of course, many successful businesses don't do all or even most of these things and do famously - but that is not the prudent way to begin. Depending on luck rather than preparation is foolish.

And the article includes a quote from Jeffrey R. Cornwall, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Belmont University, frequent contributor to Carnival of the Capitalists and who blogs at The Entrepreneurial Mind, a place we check often. Dr. Cornwall combines practical entrepreneurial experience with an academic orientation that makes his site readable, informative and highly recommended.