Action Plan

Make a Working Business Plan:

Having a simple, yet effective mini-business plan for your telephone answering service is essential in keeping you on track and focused.  Unless you will be borrowing money or seeking investors, your business plan does not need to be formal or long.  (If you do need a formal business plan, then you should read a book about doing so.)

In your business plan you should indicate what type of business entity you will form: sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, S-Corp, or C-Corp.  Check with both your lawyer and accountant before you make this decision, as you will need to balance their different perspectives (legal protection and tax minimization) to determine the right solution for you.  There will also be licenses or permits to obtain and insurance to buy.

Your business plan must have a mini-budget for the first year and rough protections for the first five.  This is next to impossible to do since you have nothing to base it on, but do your best.  Your budget should be conservative on income and generous on expenses.  Also, it takes longer to break even than most entrepreneurs think.

As you complete the following steps about marketing, equipment, and staffing, you will be able to continually expand and complete your answering service's business plan.

<- previous step  -  action plan list  -  next step ->