In 2001, the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program awarded a $70,000 grant to a Montana entrepreneur to do a feasibility study to determine the best way to provide small business counseling services to rural businesses. This "interactive, web-based resource center would have not only been able to assist small business owners in creating a detailed business plan, but would also have automatically completed all forms necessary for submittal to a federally guaranteed loan program."
The results of the feasibilty study and subsquent SBIR funding yielded the ItsSimple.biz website.
Some of the information on the website is still specific to the State of Nevada, but there is a lot of good business templates from the different organizations like the SBA, SCORE and the Women's Business Information Center ("standardized issues," I don't know). The website is basically a web portal to access the different content from other providers. I was so hoping for a web interface to help me not only "create a detailed business plan, but also automatically complete all forms necessary for submittal to a federally guaranteed loan program." :-)
I don't know how feasible such a project would be. I do know that there are all types of businesses with different requirements and a one-size-fits-all approach would attenuate the effectiveness of the business plan because of the unique circumstances of each business.
posted by Silentman, Henry C. @ 18:07 hours MT(GMT-7)
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