There is nothing more American than starting your own business. It represents one of the most cherished rights we have in this great country. So how or where do you begin?

The first step might seem a little strange coming from a CPA but it is by far the most important one. Starting and succeeding in your new venture requires the unswerving support of your family. If you are married you need to assess how strong your marriage is. A strong marriage can survive a startup. A weak marriage can be catastrophic.

The ups and downs associated with starting and running a new business takes its toll on your loved ones. If your venture requires funding, the new stress begins the moment you consider how to fund it. The first source of funding is normally yourself or your immediate family. Home equity loans make a good easy first option. If you don’t have a home or enough equity then reaching out to parents, in-laws, or relatives comes next.

The last source for obtaining funding may be the bank or angel investors. Any banker or angel investor worth their salt will want to see your business plan, which we will discuss shortly. In any event, you will soon find out how difficult the task of securing money is. If your venture does not require funding, the stress begins when you consider how long you can go without a paycheck. You need to plan for the worst in this case, since the number one cause of failed businesses is a lack of capital.

Once you are done considering the emotional and funding issues, the next important step is developing a realistic business plan. I cannot emphasize the importance of developing a business plan. Think of a business plan as the process of really getting to understand the business you are thinking of starting.

The business plan will help you uncover the details of running the business. Since you will no doubt have limited working capital in which to spend on professional guidance, I would suggest you first look for help by visiting the Small Business Administration web site: www.sba.gov. Take a look at the “Small Business Planner” tab and to the right of the web site look for the “Write a Business Plan” section. This section will provide you with invaluable insight into developing a business plan.

One of the most important components of a business plan is developing the financial information. The devil is in the details and as you begin to gather details about the financial components of your business plan you will find that many of the financial components of the financial analysis begin to fall together like ripe fruit falling from a tree.

I would recommend developing your revenue and expenses on separate Excel worksheets. You can create these worksheets in the same Excel file.

Getting to the details of the revenue component forces you to delve deeper into what will make up your sources of revenue. This exercise requires asking many questions. What are the types of products or services you will be selling/providing and how much will you charge?

For example, if you are starting a coffee shop, what will you charge for small, medium or large coffee beverages? If you sell complimentary products with the coffee, what complimentary products will you sell and how much will you sell these complimentary products for? For each size of coffee how much will it cost? How much do small, medium and large cups cost to buy? How many cups of coffee are in a pound of coffee and how much does a pound of coffee cost?

The answer to these questions becomes the framework of the financial portion of your business plan. Do not worry about being perfect. This is bull in a china shop time. Gather the raw details by asking questions and worry about fine-tuning the financials later.

Developing the financials is like painting a picture. First you draw your outline, then you add some dimensions, then color etc. The end game is to determine what your cash flow will look like. A realistic cash flow projection will give you an indication as to how much working capital you will need to get you through the early stages of your startup.

If your cash flow projections are not realistic you will find out pretty quickly and this is when my point above about a strong marriage will hit home. When your business experiences cash flow problems it will infect your family’s economic life.

Once you get the guts of your business plan together, you can then begin to think about how you would like the business to be structured. The options you have are a sole proprietorship, corporation (S or C corporation), partnership (if two or more partners), limited liability company or limited liability partnership. If you are starting a business that is a profession, like a doctor, lawyer, engineer, then you have another option, which is professional corporation, or personal service corporation.

You will need a good CPA and a good attorney. They will help you with determining the correct structure, organizing the legal entity, registering your name, registering for taxes, getting your federal ID number and finally creating the framework of your accounting system.

After all this, and assuming you have your funding in place and the location of your business locked up, you need to meet with a banker to open up the commercial bank account. If you don’t know any bankers, ask your CPA or attorney. The banker will ask you for some of the organization documents as well as your federal ID number. Once your account is open you are theoretically open for business.

Good luck on your new venture and your new life. If you work hard, secure adequate funding, have a strong network and a solid marketing plan you will improve your chances of success. Being an entrepreneur is exhilarating, liberating, and can be financially rewarding.