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Small business CPA Michael Hanley says most entrepreneurs don't need one. "Many people are surprised to hear that, as a small business CPA, I am not a proponent of entrepreneurs creating business plans," Hanley notes. "I view business plans as the #1 barrier to starting a business; 95 percent of the time, once you start your business, you end up going in a completely different direction than you had originally planned as you discover your strengths, your weaknesses, what your customers want and what the economy is dictating.

"Far too often, I see people who want to start a business, but create the 'I'll start up as soon as I'm done writing my business plan' excuse. If you have an idea or a skill and you know how to put that skill to use or bring that idea to market, just get started and everything else will fall into place," he notes.

Rather than a business plan, Hanley suggests, create a "Milestones Plan." This involves setting concrete milestones that will dictate your time-line over the next few years. Start off by setting the following milestones and add or adjust again a few months after your business gets off the ground. Hanley recommends these benchmarks:

• Set a "shut down" milestone. Determine at what point you should pull the plug on your business. This can be a financial milestone (once you invest $10,000 and don't see any potential for profitability) or a time milestone (if after 24 months, you don't see any potential for profitability).
• Set a "part-time" milestone. Determine at what point you will convert your full-time job into a part-time job so that your side business can turn into a part time business. This can be a financial milestone (once you hit $5,000 a month in revenue or once you hit $1,000a month in profit) or a customer-driven milestone (once you start getting two new customers/week, once you have 25 customers).
• Set a "full-time" milestone. Determine at what point you will quit your part-time job and start running your business full time. This milestone will be similar to your "part-time" milestone, just with the bar set at a higher level.