What is needed to obtain a U.S. patent for an invention, then start your business?

Contact SCORE is a good step. Go to http://www.score.org/mentors and enter your zip code. SCORE counselors will help you with business advice. Here are some steps to protect your idea with a patent:
 
First,
 
I recommend you prepare a document that fully describes the invention - how, how, and why do you think is valuable. This document should include drawings of what they have invented a written explaining what is shown in the drawings. 

With these materials (drawings and written description)
 
Can go in two different directions. First, you can present the material yourself with the Patent Office of the U.S. as a provisional patent application. Along with what we have prepared, send a check for filing fee payable to the Patent Office of the U.S. (Current fee is $ 110) and a cover sheet (a copy is in http://www.uspto.gov/forms/ sb0016_fill.p ... Send by express mail, keep the originals and send copies of good, and look for a filing receipt from the office in the mail in about 30 - 45. The days of the patent office email addresses for a new patent application is the Commissioner of Patents, PO Box 1450, Alexandria, VA 22313-1450. Do not worry that require a signature.
 
Alternatively,
 
You can give it prepares a patent attorney and he / she will prepare and file a provisional patent application. If you try to do a very thorough job in describing his invention, which does not need a patent attorney.
 
Provisional
 
After the provisional show, has one year before the next necessary step - filing a provisional patent application no. You need a patent attorney to prepare this version of the application.
 
Consider this
 
Before this year is, you have the opportunity to do two very important things. First, you must know how / if your invention is new. There have been 8 million patents have been issued and probably many items 1000X / publications / academic papers / etc. Your invention must be new to them. Do not worry, most inventions add something new.
 
The trick
 
Is what is the new look and how the patent "claims" You can try this by looking for yourself, the website of the Patent Office and other websites offer free tools for patent search. You can hire a search are not attorneys, search the Web. You can hire a patent attorney, if you hire a patent attorney he / she must provide you with a patent application proposal if he / she thinks that your invention is patentable.
 
After
 
The second thing you should do after filing a provisional application is to seek funding. Getting a patent with a good patent attorney will probably cost $ 10,000 - $ 20,000. You can put together a business plan and see if a bank can lend money to start a business based on its patent. Many cities now have "business incubators" that can support and help find investors. Note, to get the business going to be a lot more work to come up with the idea first.