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1.	If you're a customer of Michigan Rehabilitation Services, the Michigan Commission for the Blind or the Department of Veterans Affairs, Read this first.  If you're a person with a disability pursuing self-employment, and you haven't already looked into these agencies, click here to learn why you may want to consider them. As you and I collaborate on researching your business idea and writing your business plan, you'll need to have a place where you can store the information you gather and where you and I can share our work as we develop it. Many of my customers don't have easy access to a reliable, internet-connected PC, and rely on public computers at libraries, schools, and resources like their local Michigan Works! Service Center (click here to find one near you). Even for my customers who do have their own PC and internet access, we often run into issues like lost files, computer crashes, looking at different versions of the same document than each other, and difficulty viewing and editing some files (e.g. trying to open an Office 2010 file on a PC with Office 2003). Fortunately, there's a free, simple-to-use solution to all of the above:Google Docs. Briefly, Google Docs is a free, web-based service that provides you with a combined email, calendar, to-do list, address book and private online area where you can store the documents, spreadsheets, photos, etc. that you collect while developing your business plan. It also lets you (or me) share documents we upload with each other, and to even have live text, audio or video meetings and “screen share” to view each other's documents in real time. Click here for a more in-depth description of Google Docs, or Click here to set up your own Google Docs account.
2.	Now that you understand the basic process for working with me and your vocational rehabilitation provider (if applicable), I'd like to find out more about your background, your business idea, and the work you've done already regarding it. Click here for a quick questionnaire you can fill out and email to me.
3.	Finally, let's set you up with a better understanding of how we'll write a business plan and some of the templates and related files and links that will be helpful in that process. Click here for a generic template for a business plan. Click here for a blank Revenue & Expense Forecast template Click here for some helpful links for researching your business idea.