Sheep,

you can access all kids of b-plans for all kinds of businesses off the web.

Your best bet is probably to talk to an accountant, who can advise you on many of the issues you raised... books, financials, start up capital, etc. You might be wise to also spend $15 on a simple entrepreneurial how-to book from borders, especially one that pertains to your state. It'll help you understand exactly what you need to do, the implications of forming a sole prop, LLC, subch. S corp, corp, etc, and the legal and tax implications for converting at a later date. with a sole prop, once you say you're in business, you are, pending any required licenses for the trade or taxes. Chances are if you think you'll make more than about $30k in revenues, you'll need a tax number. And chances are if the company is called anything other than your name as it's written on your birth cert, you'll need to register that name with the state so you can cash chaecks and stuff like that.

That said, you can also google your state and the word business start up or entrepreneur or whatever. Chances are it'll be a dot-gov site. If you have some business training, that might be enough. Otherwise, like I said, a consultation with an accountant or even $50 on a lawyer to get you going might be wise.

One more thing, your local bank probably has a division dedicated entirely to guys like you, small business. you can likely raise the cash you need that way. But you'll probably need a pretty solid plan in place, with complete proforma financials for the first 3 years. But maybe not, if the amount you need is relatively small. You might want to book an app't with someone at your bank to ask some preliminary quaestions.

I can give you a lot more theory if you need it, but the only way for you to know for sure is to get your hands on the rules and regs governing small business starts in your state. ie, the how-to stuff like naming your biz and tax stuff.