Steve,

That is great to hear.  I hear that often about my long-winded emails by those who read. In fact, in my GovCon business, I tell clients I can teach them in 30 days what it took me 30 years to learn. So I can save them alot of time on research and interpretation of regs.    

Never heard that only 1 out of 20 new businesses survive without having business plan, but I would believe that.  I did not have business plan or even a plan to have a business, however, I do not really recommend to anyone to start a business same way that I did.

Although I did start with the most important ingredients:

#1 - Clients = Companies offering to hire my services.

#2 - Revenue = Payments received to open bank acct.

#3 - Intentions = Help by answering questions online.

#4 - References = Past employers, clients & colleagues.

#5 - Experience = Ability to provide what clients want.

Teri