How would I get help starting a business from scratch?

It will be hard to partner with a major company if you don’t have an established business. Hiring a consultant would be a huge waste of money. You’re better off building a small-scale business first, proving your concept and working out the kinks. If you’re doing that successfully for a year-or-so, then you might be better off bringing in a partner and giving him some equity instead of using a consulting service.

You could try SCORE. They help with getting a business off the ground.

Thanks @Adirondackwannabe , I came across SCORE in my research earlier today. I’ll check them out!

@gorillapaws – I totally agree. I’m looking for a consultant to help me get the business established intitially for that very reason. I would never approach potential partners without a proven, working business model and some statistics under our belt. Thanks!

Take a look at Art of the Start. That might be a good place to begin before spending lots of money on a consultant.

You could also talk to SBA, the Small Business Administration. They might have some ideas.

Is there a way to scale down your business model so that it can be tried on a local level? Finding backing for a concept that “calls for partnerships with several MAJOR companies” isn’t realistic without some kind of track record.

If you have an infallible business idea and no experience, it’s more likely that you’ll pitch to someone that will steal the idea than someone that will fund it.

The best part about SCORE is that it’s free (and likely funded partly by your tax dollars.

The acronym stands for Service Core of Retired Executives so this is precisely what you need and they’re used to doing quite a bit of hand-holding.

They try their best to march you up with someone who has experience in your potential field.

I think you are looking for a “wedding arranger” or agent for your company.
Most larger companies looking at partners want a long history of profit and actively looking for themselves; there is a mergers and acquisitions or a partner and joint ventures group in most Fortune 500 companies.