The Northfield Enterprise Center mantra “Dream It, Plan It, Launch It and Grow It” describe the four stages of business planning from concept to developing the finished product. The NEC has worked hard to be a valuable resource for local businesses at all stages of the development process. As such, the Northfield Enterprise Center has compiled several guidelines to aid you in developing various aspects of your business. Under the Dream It section, you will find resources to utilize before actually commencing the process of starting a business. Under the Plan It section you will find the resources which were compiled to help you get organized and on the path to creating a detailed business proposal. Under the Launch It section you an important financial guide to help walk you through understanding the finances of your business. Under the Grow It section, you can find our Business Health Checklist to help assess your company’s position and resources with advice on how to improve the current state of your business.
Be sure to check back periodically as the NEC will continue to grow the database of online resources for you to utilize.
Dream It:
The NEC has created a workbook to be used concurrently with the book “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber. We believe this book is an excellent resource for aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners, and we recommend that everybody interested starting their own business take the time to read it. This book can be ordered on Amazon here. The NEC created an E-Myth Workbook which is designed to help you interact with this book as it is read.
NEC’s E-Myth WorkBook
The NEC has also created a guide based on the book “Six-Week Start-up” by Rhonda Abrams. This book lays out a step-by-step program for starting your own business and achieving your goals. This book can be ordered on Amazon here. NEC’s guide for this book will provide an outline for starting a business, but will not take you through step by step. We are more than happy to discuss any of the steps with you.
NEC’s 6 Week Business Start-Up Guide
Plan It:
At the Northfield Enterprise Center, we have developed a comprehensive tool to help you plan and assess your start-up business. This handy guide, called the Business Planning Workbook, can be found here.
In addition to the Business Planning Workbook, we have also constructed a Business Plan guide in accordance with the book “Business Plan in a Day” by Rhonda Abrams. This book can be found on Amazon here.
NEC’s Business Plan Guide
Launch It:
The NEC can help you with various aspects of launching your prospective business, whether it is consulting your Business Plan, helping you find a loan, helping you understand your finances, or helping you find out what licenses and regulations you need for your business, let us know.
The NEC has created a Financial Statement Guide to give an overview of how finances work for a small business. We are more than happy to answer any questions, disperse more high-level financial analysis tools, or review and update your own statements.
NEC’s FInancial Statement Guide
The NEC has also developed a short Accounting Quiz to help you gauge how comfortable you are with accounting basics.
Accounting Quiz
Grow It:
Business Health Checklist Questions
Even businesses that are doing well can benefit from consulting outside firms to see where they can improve practices and grow their gross margin. Take the Business Health Checklist to help identify areas in need of improvement.
Risk Assessment Calculator
Take this simple questionnaire to determine your financial vulnerability.
Website Development
Planning on developing a website? Check this list for some additional things to consider that could make managing the site easier once it goes live.
How to Increase Web Traffic for Your Local Business Website
Already have a website? Generate more hits and more business with some of these simple practices.
Is your business financially feasible? Are you not generating enough cash? Play around on this excel tool to determine how you can reach the profit and cash levels that will sustain your business.