The first step in financing your business is to determine how much money you need. To do this, you need to develop a business plan. The process of planning involves thinking through the things you will need to get started and how much it will cost you to operate your business on a month-by-month basis. Your financing needs are based on these projections. One of the most common causes of business failure is undercapitalization – that is, not recognizing how much cash you really need to get started, or not having access to this capital. The SBDC at UNF has many tools available to help you through the business planning process, including outlines, workshops, one-on-one counseling, and ActivePlans, a netware program that provides a secure, on-line template for you to use in building your plan