How much does it cost to start up a small business?

What we have found is that information and knowledge are critical. Before you ever open the doors you need to talk about what kind of money you need. And in that regard, SBA has partnered in every community

across the country to provide free face to face counseling or business coaching, as we call it, as well as training. And these partners (which are SCORE, the Small Business Development Center, and the third is the Women's Business Center) offer free consulting to the public that can help them at every stage of their entrepreneurial career. So, this can be the dream stage where you are thinking about owning your business. It can be when you are in the early startup; a very critical stage. Or it can be when you're established and we help you sustain that business or grow out. So, the first thing that you need to do to position yourself for success is go contact one of the resource partners; and this is available both online and face-to-face. They will assist you in developing your comprehensive plan, but it would also include a basic business plan. Once you have the business plan, and every successful business has one, it's your blueprint that will help guide you on things such as capitalization or inventory or hiring practices. So it's very important to have a plan; of course capital is important, but it's only one part of the equation.