You have to get the word out about your business somehow. That’s drilled into every entrepreneur’s head from the moment he plans on starting a company. Every business professor will tell you so. Every magazine or book on startups will swear by marketing. Even your grandma knows you have to market your company. And they’re all right.

But not every marketing technique is something you should try---especially not yet. Not now. If you’re starting a business, think Twitter, not television--or spread the word on Facebook instead of filming a commercial to air on Face the Nation What you need to know is that certain marketing venues can be risky. Forking over a wad of cash to promote the company might seem like the thing to do, but if your return on your investment is next to nothing, it could kill your company. So with that in mind, you need to decide what marketing strategies will work best for you.

Whether you´re just starting out, need funding or want to monitor the health of your business, creating a business plan is your first step on the path to success

A business plan is a written description of your business´s future. That´s all there is to it--a document that desribes what you plan to do and how you plan to do it.

Business plans can help perform a number of tasks for those who write and read them. They´re used by investment-seeking entrepreneurs to convey their vision to potential investors. They may also be used by firms that are trying to attract key employees, prospect for new business, deal with suppliers or simply to understand how to manage their companies better.

So what´s included in a business plan, and how do you put one together? Simply stated, a business plan conveys your business goals, the strategies you´ll use to meet them, potential problems that may confront your business and ways to solve them, the organizational structure of your business (including titles and responsibilities), and finally, the amount of capital required to finance your venture and keep it going until it breaks even.