For those of you who aren’t skiers, the image to the left is the “double black diamond” — a designation ski resorts display for trails labeled “experts only.” We need to create a similar set of naming conventions, from easy to super impossible, to describe the ways in which you can go about creating a new business. My two cents: if you’re thinking of starting a new business in 2010 (and as we all know, a lot of people are saying that this is a great time to start a new business and buy a home) you’d be smart to write down the words “Keep it simple” and have those at your side for the next 2-3 years. Keep it as easy, painless and stress free as possible. The concept of “Creating a new business” is so open-ended that for most people it’s impossible to think of a structured way to climb such a large mountain, so they end-up waiting until tomorrow. So is the idea of “writing a business plan.”  We’ll get to that — but for now, write a business mission in a single paragraph and don’t change it for a year.  Keep your business plan to a single page. Divide it into Today, Tomorrow, and Next Year. Then update it every day. But keep Next Year the same. Write down your desired income for a year from today, and stick it in your wallet. Start an expense report on Excel and keep it on your desktop and update it daily. A year from now, this will become your budget. Things might get ‘spensy, so don’t get something unless you really need it. You’re fine to use those old pens in the kitchen for a while; being a small business owner doesn’t mean you have to go to Office Depot and drop 20 bucks on a box of nice Pentel’s. Make your life easy. Read “Getting Things Done” by David Allen and bookmark the Inc homepage. Gut your old files and shred your super old financial statements.  Lenders only need the most recent 2-years tax returns anyway.  Don’t hoard files or piles.  Hoard ideas.  Cancel your magazines; read ‘em online.   And organize and store your stuff so you don’t have to see it every day.  If your idea is Your Business, that’s enough to keep you busy for at least a week.  And above all else: back that stuff UP.