Best's Six Step to Small Business is a journey through 6 key dimensions in the life of a small business.

Through a series of self-administered questionnaires, exercises, readings and mini-case studies, BEST provides an individualized, holistic approach to understanding the complex and challenging world of small business. BEST divides the small business experience into a logical progression of six [6] interactive STEPS. The BEST STEPS are listed below, followed by a summary of the benefits that you can expect from each STEP.

Best Step Packages:

1. Personal/Professional Assessment
2. Business Idea Selection
3. Business Plan Development
4. Business Start-Up Planning
5. Management Development
6. Business Renewal

Step 1: Personal/Professional Assessment:

How strong is your personal profile in terms of entering the small business environment? With fourteen [14] different exercises and related readings, this 1ST STEP should provide for you a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative "read" on how ready you are, personally and professionally, to enter the demanding world of small business ownership at this time.( >> more)

Step 2: Business Idea Selection:

Develop and/or assess your idea[s] for going into small business! Completion of this STEP 2 should result in at least one highly ranked business idea that not only fits your personal profile but also appears to have a good economic/marketing basis. Coupled with this information, you should also have additional insight into the creative thinking process as well as a deeper sense of how marketing research can be used to strengthen your business idea selection.( >> more)

Step 3: Business Plan Development:

Develop a comprehensice business plan that, with some modification, can be presented to any audience! Upon completion of this STEP 3, you'll have an excellent roadmap for the foreseeable future of your business. Usually with only a few modifications, you'll also be able to customize the business plan to satisfy the requirement of any audience, whether they be external [e.g. investors/lenders] or internal [e.g. strategic planning].( >> more)

Step 4: Business Start-Up Planning:

Identify the many different tasks that need to be performed before opening your business, how they relate to one another, and what the costs could be! The focus of this STEP 4 is to help identify all of the different parts of successfully starting an actual business. If there are a relatively large number of parts, critical path methods are presented in detail that will help deal with the complexity.( >> more)

Step 5: Management Development:

Learn about the primary management issues that you will be facing and how to handle them in an effective manner! Completion of this 5th STEP should help you to determine what specific areas of management your business will most likely require and how you might initially address those management needs. You will also learn some key strategies as to how to best manage some specific operational areas, common to many small businesses. Included in this Step is also a variety of personal management techniques.( >> more)

Step 6: Business Renewal:

How do you keep your small business renewed once it is started? In STEP 6, by understanding the nature of a recommended business model and then completing the diagnostic questions, a Business Success Profile can be developed. This Business Success Profile will provide a preliminary picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the business as well as the opportunities and threats from its external environment. With this “organizational compass" in hand, detailed attention can be focused on those areas in most need of attention.( >> more)