Just because you are starting a business or have a business doesn't mean you need a traditional business plan. The nature of your business and how you intend to use the plan determines whether you need a business a plan or not and the type of plan that is right for you.

Traditional business plans are critical to off-line businesses...

Off-line businesses usually require large amounts of cash. These cash requirements, if left unchecked, can drain or kill an off-line business before it even has the chance to gain traction. Traditional business plans are also easier to compile for off-line businesses because, unlike on-line businesses, off-line businesses tend to operate in more predictable business environments, which provide a basis on which to build projections.

To raise capital and manage the cash needed to run off-line businesses, owners often rely on elaborate business plans. More important, the people providing the cash to run off-line businesses use these plans to see how off-line businesses are going to use the cash and as a way to track its actual usage. That's why traditional business plans include very detailed financial plans.

But, the Net's environment is much different

Like most small business people's lives, the Web changes very fast. This makes it difficult to project the future of an Internet based business.

Fortunately, the typical Internet business does not require large amounts of cash to maintain or operate. In fact, today, some service providers go beyond just providing you with disk space to park a Web site to providing you with all the tools to build a complete Web Business for just under $25 a month