Question
Should I pay a fee to apply for grants given by the government? And/or is it free to apply for grants, minority/women grants in particular.
Answer
Some grants require some administrative fees, but these are usually relatively small fees. The government isn’t just one single entity, it is lots of different federal, state, and local agencies, [...]

Question
1. How can I incorporate the return to equity investors into my business plan?
2. How can I incorporate debt service into my business plan?
Answer
I see you are using Business Plan Pro, so I’ll answer your questions with specifics regarding that software.

Answering the easier question first, your debt service is the sum of interest [...]

Question
How can I find a sincere partner who believes in my art and will help me start a business selling it on products or selling original art and prints. I have no way to finance my business and need help with that too.
Answer
You need, what is called in the private sector financing world, an Angel. [...]

Question
We operate a small computer store which offers new, used, upgrades, service and, in some instances, trade-in.
We have been trying to determine the best method of calculating our true gross profit margin when trade-ins are involved in order to determine whether these transactions are sufficiently profitable to continue including them in our business and [...]

Question
My co-director in the new business we are setting up who is an accountant by profession has suggested that in order to increase gross margin percentage on sales in the Pro-forma P&L we have to remove the Operations Payroll from the 1st three colunms of the P&L.
Is this correct? Are there not other ways to [...]

Question
We have been in business for four years in technical and computer sales. The company has grown every year(1998-2000) while focusing on small business consulting and video on demand sales.
With the collapse of the PC hardware margins the business focus changed in 2001 to more consulting and multimedia sales. We have shown a large increase [...]

Question
I am writing a business plan for an errand service and I am not quite sure how I should determine the actual variable cost of my service.
I want to charge a fee of $8.00 to the customer but I need to know what expenses I should factor in when writing my plan. Can you [...]

Question
My husband and his partner are in the process of writing a business plan to buy/open an upscale casual restaurant & bar (my husband has 15+ years experience in the business).
What would you say is generally the ratio % of the loan (what we put down vs. loan), and is it unheard of to finance [...]

Question
I’m currently working on my business plan. I’ve reached the financing section and I wanted to know if acquiring enough funds to run the business for two years is too much.
I’ve got it figures that we’ll be in the black by one year, but want the extra buffer.
Answer
Many years ago the answer would have been [...]

Question
I am looking to open my own screen print/graphic imaging shop. I have worked at one for many years and know virtually everything I need to know about running the show, but not much about starting from scratch.
What I really need to know to get my plan rolling is, how exact do the financial numbers [...]