The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide, Third Edition

Part III. Other Resources for Entrepreneurs

The two chapters of Part 3 serve as a coda to the book. When we first wrote this book in the mid-1980s, there were limited resources for entrepreneurs. Since then, entrepreneurship has proliferated and resources have grown to astronomical proportions.

Most graduate and even undergraduate schools of business have classes in entrepreneurship. Venture capitalists, state economic development programs, universities, and even foundations run entrepreneur and business plan classes and competitions; many times, the “prize” is a small amount of “seed capital” to develop the business plan to a “proof of concept” stage.

Entire shelves of major bookstores, especially those in central business districts and near universities, are devoted to entrepreneurship, small business owning, business start-ups, business plans, raising capital for your business, and a host of other such subjects.

Possibly the greatest boon to entrepreneurs and those who fund them is the Internet—itself an ever-evolving product that seems to have an inexhaustible need for development capital.

Government agencies at all levels, investors, and lenders all use the Internet to reach out to entrepreneurs looking for capital. Directories of potential sources of capital that used to be updated and published annually or biannually are now maintained on the Internet in near-real time.

Networks of “angel” investors use the Internet to pass along business plans and join in consortiums to invest ...