Start New Business With a Business Plan

How to Write a Business Plan

Planning a business and writing a business plan is more than just having a location picked and a product or service to sell. Financing, marketing strategy and future growth all require a well-researched and thought out business plan.

There are many articles and resources available on the Internet explaining how to write a business plan, but writing a business plan is more than merely following a business plan template or copying someone’s business plan examples. A business plan can be as simple as a few notes scrawled on a paper napkin, or it can be a 40-page document with multiple sections and subsections describing every minute detail of a company’s operations, products and finances.

Writing an effective business plan is easier if you take time before starting the writing process to conduct your research and gather the information you will need to incorporate into it. Business owners of new startups or established companies can benefit from thinking through and researching such success-determining issues as:

• Marketing strategies
• Regulatory environment
• Capitalization requirements
• Financing opportunities
• Organization
• Risks
• Competition

From this list you quickly realize that a business plan is more than a document a business uses to get financing or to attract investors. It is a roadmap of how your business will operate in order to succeed. Before you can begin writing your business planning roadmap, you need reliable information about your industry, your competitors, your product and your customers for inclusion in it. An industry analysis, competitor analysis, product feature comparison and market research will give you the information you need.

Too many businesses start out with inadequate planning. No one goes into business to lose money. If you start a business, your expectation is that it will be profitable and that it will succeed. Writing a business plan forces you to focus on the strategies that will make your business a successful one. That is why learning how to write a plan is so important for new businesses or established businesses that might be venturing into new markets or launching new products.

Business plans come in all shapes and sizes, so what you choose to include in your business plan will depend upon your audience, the question it seeks to answer or the problem it seeks to resolve, and your personal preferences. The most frequently included elements of a business plan are the following:

1. Executive summary
2. Business description
3. Business environment analysis
4. Industry analysis
5. Competitive analysis
6. Market analysis
7. Marketing plan
8. Operations plan
9. Team and management plan
10. Financial projections

15 Questions Every Safety Consulting Business Plan Should Address

Every chapter of The Consultants Business Development Guide is penned by a professional safety consultant; each offers proven strategies and practical tips that can be applied by an OSH practitioner launching a consulting business.

For example, the chapter “Creating a Business Plan” is written by Samuel J. Gualardo, CSP, a veteran of the safety profession and OSH consulting business expert. In it, he explains why you need a business plan, and gives start-up owners a list of 15 questions their business plan should address. Here are the first five:

1) What problem will the firm’s product and/or service solve?

2) What niche, if any, will it fill?

3) What is the solution to the problem, and is this solution different from potential competitors?

4) Who are the customers?

5) How will products and/or services be marketed and eventually sold?

Read the complete list by downloading a complimentary excerpt from The Consultants Business Development Guide. Aspiring consultants will reap the rewards of Gualardo’s decades in the field, including four key lessons he learned after a few early career missteps.

The guide’s other chapters are equally enlightening, covering a range of critical business aspects such as finances, insurance, legal considerations, employees, marketing and networking. And in the last chapter, editors Carol Keyes, J.A. Rodriguez Jr. and Pamela Walaski have compiled essays from several seasoned consultants on insights from their experiences, giving the reader real-life examples of the ups and downs one can expect when embarking on that journey.

4 Powerful Strategies to Grow Your Business and Increase Sales

Helping Businesses Grow: Strategic Ways to Grow Your Business And Increase Business Sales

Do you want to know how to grow a business? Every business wants to increase sales and profits, because more sales means your business can grow and expand. Whether business is slower than what you would like or you simply want to increase and capitalize on growth you’ve already made, these tips can help you grow your business by generating leads and making sales more effectively.

Best Ways To Grow My Small Business Fast

Do Your Marketing the Smart Way

People are faced with ads, newsletters and flyers everywhere they turn, and these methods of marketing are just not as effective anymore. For ways to grow your business quickly and to develop trust in your customers, it’s important to have a good online presence not just in a website and social media, but preferably review sites and online directories as well. A great way to keep in touch with your clients is through a newsletter you can send out to provide updates to your customers and inform them of the business’ progress.


Do you want to grow your small business with online marketing? An interesting and informative blog or an eBook can also offer great value to your potential clients increasing their trust and interest in your services. These techniques not only provide something of actual value and use to your potential customers, but also get your company name out there generating leads. It also shows that you are an expert in your field, and that customers can trust you with their business.

Identify your Targets

If you’ve been in your field for a while now, it’s likely you are starting to understand more and more who your clients are and what they want. This is a great opportunity for you to even more closely identify who your target market is, what are their characteristics and needs, in order to streamline and optimize your approach to providing them services.
In this way you can adjust your marketing, your brand, your messaging and even your services to better suit the needs of your targets. This will increase their demand for your business and increase your profits, thus making your small business grow fast.

Diversify and Expand

You already know your product, and you already know your targets, but if you’ve been doing the same thing for a while and not seeing much growth, you may have saturated your market. The upshot is, seeing as you already have the information, you can easily expand and add new products and services targeted to your existing clients’ needs to quickly promote sales and growth.

You already know what your clients want and they already trust your products or services, so it’s only a small jump to diversify your offerings and add a new product or service you know they want and need. An ideal way to implement this idea is by setting up a loyalty or VIP program that offers incentives such as promotions, early access to new products and services, or rewards points. This shows customer appreciation and helps your clients feel involved in the company, and therefore more likely to use your services again.

Get Help

Many small businesses or entrepreneurs think they can save money and time by wearing every hat in the business and stretching themselves thin trying to manage marketing, sales, development and business management all on their own. The reality is that trying to manage everything yourself or pushing your employees to take on roles they aren’t suited for could be causing you to lose money fast.

For example, your sales department shouldn’t be responsible for lead generation and appointment setting, they need to keep their time focused on making sales. Outsourcing these tasks or hiring freelancers to cover these aspects can be much more cost and time effective. If you are the brain behind your business you need to be free enough to have the mobility to inspect all areas of your business operations. If you’re getting bogged down on a certain task you could delegate to someone else, no-one is behind the wheel of your business vehicle, so to speak, and you could be headed for a crash.

These creative ways to grow your business incorporate a whole range of ideas suited to different fields and industries that allow you to increase your sales, increase your customer base, make a profit and thereby grow a successful business.

Developing A Small Business Marketing Plan That Works

3 Keys To Creating A Great Marketing Plan Sample For Small Business

For any small business, developing a business marketing plan is just as important as your overall business plan. This is important if you desire success for your business while preparing long term plans. Some small business owners fail to abide by this recommendation and take marketing as one of those business operations they can execute as the need arises.

In competition, the truth is without a simple small business marketing plan, you can never beat the business owner that has comprehensive marketing plan for a small business . Here are key areas to give careful considerations when trying a develop a small business marketing plan template that is constructed to succeed.

How To Write a Small Business Marketing Plan

Developing marketing plan sample for small businesses

Small Business Marketing Plan  Step 1: Understand Your Market and Its Characteristics
Without a firm grip on the nature of your market, you can never put together an effective small business marketing plan. You should yourself questions like the following and answer them truthfully: Who is my target market? Where is it located? How big is it? What are the problems and expectations peculiar to them?

Not everyone has the funds to employ the services of small business marketing firms to develop a new marketing plan for your small business on products and services to be promoted. What you can do is to hit the streets and carry out a simple survey of public opinion of people you sell or plan to sell to. This powerful marketing concept is simple but powerful as it can also help generate contacts that can be utilized for future marketing purposes.

Small Business Marketing Plan  Step 2: Know Your Business

After knowing your market, the next strategy is to understand the essence of your business and how it will provide value to customers. You should be able to answers the following questions conveniently? What does my business offer? How is it different from the rest? How does the business intend to solve clients' problems? Answers to these questions can be strategically used to develop unique selling points which is a core component of any small business sales marketing plan template. These unique selling proposition should be the key features of your brand as well as all promotional materials and methods.

Small Business Marketing Plan  Step 3: Study Your Competitors' Business Marketing Strategies

The first step in small business marketing is to develop a brand. A brand is that unique identity that defines to your clients who are your and how you're different. The next step is to marketing the particular good or service you provide. Take a careful look at how your competitor markets his small business. You will discover that there are loop holes here and there that you can fill to stand out differently. These lapses in such small business marketing plan examples could range from absence of after-purchase delivery of furniture to lack of small business websites to represent such businesses online.

Your small business marketing online campaign will yield no results if a large chunk of your market do not use the internet. Basic small business marketing plan are developed in line with the peculiarities of the market in concern. Before you think about putting up adverts in that newspaper, find out if that is the local brand your potential clients read. Because a small business advertising channel is cheap or expensive doesn't mean it would be effective. Reach is unarguable one of the many factors that contribute to the success of any creative small business marketing plan.

Besides where your market is located and what competitors are doing, your small business marketing strategy will also depend on the size of your budget. You may think a front page colored advert in a popular newspaper is a good marketing strategy for your small business, if you do not have the funds for it then it is not the best sample marketing plan for small business.

I hope you have learnt the basics of how to create a small business marketing plan? How much you understand your market, how much you know your business and how deep you analyze competitors' marketing ideas are powerful signals in determining whether you will fail or succeed at promoting that small business in the long run.

How to Write a Comprehensive Business Plan

One of the most daunting tasks for most small business owners is creating a business plan. Sitting down, staring at a blank page or computer screen is never easy, and even less so when you are creating a document that will govern, to some degree, the path of your business for the next few years. However, there are a few things that can make the process a little easier:

• Unless you are using your business plan to apply for finance, it’s more of a personal road map.

o This is to ensure that you know at least somewhat where you are going, and have a clue as to the way to get there

• Even if you are submitting your business plan for funding consideration, it does not have to be complex or confusing.

o In fact, the simpler you can make your vision seem (and back it up) the more effective your business plan is likely to be

• Understand that your business plan is NOT intended to be written in stone – it’s a working, living document that you alter as the dynamics of your business changes.

Now that we’ve clarified those business plan fundamentals, let’s get into the nitty gritty of how to actually write one.

Spend Some Time Brainstorming

Before you even put pen to paper on your business plan, it’s a good idea to sit down and make notes. Write down anything that occurs to you which may apply to your business. Don’t restrict yourself to the sections or template of a standard business plan; just allow your ideas to flow onto the paper. This will form the underlying basis of your final document, and will help you solidify the content to include in your plan from a holistic perspective. Once you’ve gathered all your thoughts on paper, you’re ready to start writing the plan.

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary of your business plan is pretty much exactly what it says – it’s a summary of the information contained in the rest of the document. Although it is short (around two pages), it’s the most important part of your business plan, and should be written last – after you have covered all the other sections of your plan. The reason for this is that potential funders and investors, who are extremely busy and have limited bandwidth, will NOT read your entire plan. To be honest, they will probably read just this part of your business plan to figure out whether to schedule a first meeting with you or not. Therefore, your executive summary needs to be a knockout!

2. Business Overview

In the business overview section of your business plan, you will cover the idea behind your business and the legal formation it become. For instance, you might be starting an online business that sells pet products. This is the section where you will cover that, as well as outlining what legal form the business will take, were they company is based, etc.

3. Management

Anyone who is seriously considering investing in, or funding your business, will want to know who is behind the idea. They’ll essentially be asking themselves “who will be steering the business from business plan to market success?” In this section of your business plan, outline who the key players in the business are going to be (along with their resumes), as well as detailing the management structure of the business. Use this section of your plan to assure investors that you and your team are the best people for the job, but don’t lie! If you’re lacking in a particular area, for instance, accounting, indicate how you plan to address the issue – for instance, by outsourcing the function. Remember – no one is good at everything!

4. Your Market

Anyone who is considering investing in your business will want to know that there is, in fact, a market for your product/service. Even if you are self funding, you need to know who your target consumer will be! That means examining both the potential demographic your business is aiming for as well as the overall industry landscape. Market research will also help you to avoid costly mistakes. For example, if you are planning to open a fast food restaurant, but the area you have chosen already has five, there’s a good chance you need to rethink your strategy, right?

5. Sales and Marketing Strategy

Once you have covered WHO you are going to sell to, you need to be clear about HOW you plan to do it.

• Are you advertising to the general public, or to business?
• Will you leverage only traditional advertising methods, or will you incorporate technology?
• Will you have a sales force?
• What will your USP be, and what will set you apart from your competitors?

All of this information will help you to gain a foothold in the market while you are starting out. If you continue to build on the above, it will be a very worthwhile step toward ensuring the success of your business over an extended period of time.

6. Financial Statements and Projections

Easily the scariest part of preparing a business plan (for most entrepreneurs) is constructing the financial statements and projections. However, there are plenty of free online resources that can help you. There are an abundance of templates that will provide a framework for creating a clear financial picture of where you are right now, what you need to get started, and what your sales and profits will be in the short-term. Alternatively, you could hire an accountant to compile your information into a financial plan. Based on my experience, in the early start-up days, it’s always best to be engaged in every aspect of the business – there’s nothing worse than trying to present a business plan to investors and not understanding the numbers.

7. SWOT Analysis

Yet another aspect of the business plan that scares many entrepreneurs is the SWOT analysis. This acronym simply means an analysis of your business in terms of:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats

Spend some time with a sheet of paper for each of the above, and list your ideas. Then simply transfer them to your business plan, and expound upon them with detailed explanations as to how you’re either going to mitigate or capitalize on each of them.

8. Supporting Documentation

This is the section of your business plan where you can supply any other documentation that is relevant to your company or which your readers may find interesting. Maybe you are applying for growth funding, and your company or product has won an award – include a copy. Or maybe you operate in a highly specialized environment that requires certification – include yours here. This section can have a substantial impact on how your business plan is received from a risk mitigation perspective.

Take Your Time, and Treat Your Business Plan as a Learning Tool

As you can probably now see, the concept behind your business plan is not that difficult or complicated.

Yes, building a business plan can be a process that takes some time, but it is an exercise that will help you to gain a clearer picture of your company. Furthermore, a great plan will help you to convince potential investors and funders that you are worth the risk.

Think of your business plan as your sales pitch for your business on paper – invest time in making it great.

Importance of Business Plan For Entrepreneurs

What is the importance of writing a business plan? A business plan is an outline of your business goals and objectives and how you intend to achieve them. Most people do not realize the importance of a business plan to the growth and development of a business. They feel it is a waste of time and not necessary to do as they consider there are more important things to do concerning the business rather than taking out time to draft a good business plan.

They consider registering the company, acquiring assets, recruiting staff, advertising and promotion, funding of the business as more vital to the success of the business. Little do they know that a well drafted plan can help to achieve or pin point other factors that will add value to their business.

For those who accept that a business plan can be helpful to a company or organization, they do not really appreciate its value and therefore do not dedicate enough time to making one.

The points below will go a long way in helping owners of businesses realize the need of creating and drafting a good business plan. A good business plan could be the difference between a company and organization succeeding or failing in their choice of business.

These six points below are some of the importance of a business plan when starting a business.  


#1. HELPS IN GETTING FUNDS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

We all know how money is important to start or run a business. For a start up your savings and personal funds may not be enough to start your business. Also for those who are already in business and may be wishing to expand or try out new things or innovations, money will be required for doing all these. You may need to approach investors to seek for funds for your business.

For those who will want to invest in your business, they will need to see a plan of action to confirm if their investment will be worthwhile and if their money is in safe hands. The major reason for investing is to make profit, therefore investors are careful where they put their money. A good business plan shows them all they need to know about various aspects of the business and its potentials.

#2. HELPS SPOTS POTENTIAL PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY OCCUR

A good business plan helps you to forecast into the future and look at trends that could occur that may help or affect your business. When preparing a business plan for various parts of your business like accounting, marketing, legal among others, you may find out some mistakes you have done in calculating cost for expenses or you would have gone against laid down rule and regulations if you had gone ahead with a certain idea.

Knowing all these helps you avoid making costly mistakes, wasting money, breaking the law and other offenses as with a business plan all aspects of the business are properly outlined.

#3. HELPS YOU STAY ON TRACK

When making a business plan, it includes planning for the future as well. Targets are made for people to meet which helps the organization to know if they are meeting their objectives.  For example in your business plan with proper advertising your company is expected to have a 10% increase in sales within a year. If within that period you have not met that target you can look into various aspects of your business to see what is wrong.

#4. IT HELPS MANAGING THE BUSINESS BETTER

With a good business plan you find out that managing the business becomes much easier and better. The business plan makes you know what goes where and who is responsible for various duties. Delegating responsibilities is easier with well laid out plans.

#5 STAYING ON A BUDGET IS MUCH EASIER

As we had said earlier, finance is so important to a business and is critical for its survival, so it will be such a shame if money that took a lot to get is wasted. A good plan allows you to plan how money will be properly allocated to various aspects of the business. When this is done you could find out there are cheaper alternatives to what you want to buy, but most importantly it helps you stay on a budget and avoid unnecessary spending on the business which saves money that can put back into the business.

#6. HELPS TO DECIDE WHETHER TO START OR CONTINUE WITH THE BUSINESS

This is not something people like to hear, but there comes a time a decision to start a business at all or continue with a business or shut it down will have to be made. We often hear people say “these figures are unrealistic, we can not afford it”, “its either we down size or we are out of business”

A business plan allows you to know when a business is not doing well especially when targets in your plan are not met. This does not mean the idea or business is bad but maybe a different approach is needed for the business. So, do well to write a good business plan if you want to own a good business that will stand a taste of time.

5 Simple Things You Can Do To Keep Your Business Finances Fabulous!

Keeping track of business finances can be the source of a great deal of stress for many business owners and it never seems to get easier. You will always have to pay an invoice, pay your taxes and pay yourself!

Here are a few effective methods that can aid you in keeping on top of your finances:

Accounting - having an experienced, high quality accountant is invaluable particularly when it comes to those annual reports and tax returns. A good bookkeeper is also recommended if possible to help with the day-to-day organisation of your financial paperwork.

Organisation - Keeping all your receipts and invoices well organised allows for stress free record keeping and troubleshooting where needs be. If you can afford to hire an administrator or bookkeeper who can help with this then go for it! Anything that will keep you organised.

Credit control - Make sure that all credit terms are strictly adhered to - chase up unpaid invoices regularly; a well organised system is vital here to ensure healthy cash flow. Again if you can afford to outsource this then by all means do so if it helps to keep things stress free.

Budget & Planning - Make a monthly budget which allows for all regular outgoings as well as any new projects that require a financial injection. Plan your projects accordingly in order to work well with your budget.

Awareness - Most people take it for granted but its crucial to keep up to date on what the financial markets are doing and how this will affect your business. Understanding market trends and interest rate fluctuations can prove priceless for long term financial planning.

Remember that making money may be hard work but it should not be stressful. Find a away to stay on track and the process can be much easier. 

Ambush Marketing: Definition, Meaning, Strategies And Examples

Ambush Marketing Strategies: Advantages Disadvantages

The merits of practicing ambush marketing in any industry cannot be over-emphasized, because most people get interested in products through this. The simple word "ambush" is mostly associated with negative and aggressive procedures that even the government discourages. You may want to know the meaning of ambush marketing, and here it is;

Types of ambush marketing
Ambush marketing is a marketing  used method which entails the company riding the coattails of an event but not paying for the sponsorship. Let us use the case of the Super Bowl as an example. Imagine Pepsi pays to be the main sponsor at the bowl, then if coke surrounds the stadium with adverts related to the event that Pepsi sponsored. Coke would get lots of publicity even without sponsoring the event. 

The merit is crystal clear, as Coke takes advantage of an event to increase traffic. The people that argue that this would be unethical are very wrong. Using events to promote one's product is ethical, and Pepsi the sponsor gets numerous privileges that Coke will not get.

The advantage of ambush marketing to the consumer is that it makes the competition fierce. And when the competition is fierce, the prices reduces as seen in common ambush marketing examples in India.

5 Reasons Why Every Start Up Should Have A Business Plan

Business Planning is crucial in turning a successful business idea into a successful business. Many people argue that you don't need a business plan to start a business and quite often people steer clear of business plans for fear of the level of work that goes into writing them. However writing a business plan does not have to be something too difficult or complicates it just need to be something that can be used to help give structure to your new idea. 

Here are a few reasons why business plans are so important when starting a business:

1. They can help you to remain focused on the core goals of your business and to evaluate the steps you need to take in order reach your goals. By writing down your vision it makes it easy for you to keep track of your growth as you accomplish successes along the way.
2. They help to secure future finance and possible investment. Unless you are very lucky and win the lottery, or perhaps meet someone who just wants to give away their money (if you do meet that person please send them my way) you need a structured financial plan. Cash Flow Forecast, Break-even Charts and a budget are just a few aspects of a straightforward, yet necessary financial plan.
3. Plans help to keep you organised! It just makes sense to have all the key areas of your business laid out in an easy to read format which you can refer to whenever you need to remind yourself why you started your business in the first place.
4. A well written plan can guide you through difficult times - allowing you to see which areas you can work on when the going gets tough.
5. It is a working document which grows and changes as your business grows. A plan is never static and thus will change to suit your changing goals and standards so don't feel restricted by a business plan.

You don’t need a huge budget to write a fully functioning business plan but you do need to use it. If your idea is to have any hope of doing well it is important that your plan remains a working document and is used for everything from research to funding. 

However don’t make the mistake of becoming so engrossed in the planning of your business that you can’t become active in the “doing” of your business. One has to strike a fine balance between planning and action in order to see true results come to fruition.

How To Write A Poultry Farm Business Plan

The importance of writing a business plan for your new or existing poultry business can never be underestimated. It will give you more clarity about your business and it can be used to attract investors or to apply for a loan or grant. Unless you have your intentions for your business written down, you might miss an opportunity to communicate it to someone else or even to clarify things for yourself.

Whether you’re starting or expanding a poultry business, writing a business plan will help you become clear about what you want to do and how you will be going about it. Most emerging poultry farmers will have to make use of loans or grants when starting their business. In order to access these, you will need to write a business plan and submit it to your prospective financier or grant officer.

Here are some basic topics you need to discuss in your business plan.

What is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a basic outline of what your business is all about. It must serve as an action plan and guideline for you to use on a daily basis. The essence of it is to act as a roadmap to your desired destination. Be practical when writing it and keep it realistic.

 

There are several key elements to be discussed in your business plan. They are as follows:

Your Executive Summary

Write a summary of what your business is all about. What will you be selling and why is it going to work? Your executive summary is an introduction to the rest of your business plan – keep it short and mention the strong points of your plan.

Your Mission Statement

It’s important to explain why you want to start this specific new business. The simple question to answer in your mission statement is “Why am I doing this?”

Your Goals

This section should answer the question of what you want to achieve in terms of income, turnover, profits and percentages—some achievable thing. Focus on the notion of, “This is what I want to have and how much of it”. It is important to be clear and realistic about your goals. Make them achievable and set your mind to achieving them.

Your Lift Speech

This is where you give the short answer to the question, 'What do you do?'. Make sure this summary is in line with your mission and goals. By answering this question you will force yourself to be specific about what your business will be doing and how you will be doing it. Write it in less than 100 words.

The Financial Plan

This is the most important section of your business plan. Investors and grant officers will analyze and examine your financial info. Be specific about how much money you will need to get started, where you will spend the funds, how long it will take to start becoming profitable, how big your potential market is and what your running costs will be. The key is to show a potential investor that you will be able to make a financial success of your business and be profitable.

The Marketing Plan

How are you going to sell your products and how are people going to hear about it? How will you be promoting your products? What marketing channels will you be using? What’s unique about your product? Be as creative as possible when looking at various marketing channels.

What's the perfect business plan for a new product ?

I had a meeting with an inventor about her product idea, and in our talking it occurred to me to put down what I consider the key points for a business plan for a new product. Although aimed at private inventors, it makes good sense for small companies too.

As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. The outline given below is a simplification but a good start. I met many inventors in my time at the British Library and most, I'm sorry to say, were unrealistic and naive in their expectations. They did not realise how many experts they need to call on for help (much of which will be charged for). Nor did they think that exploiting an invention would take much time.

1. First is is vital to sort out what you are trying to achieve, and constraints in finance and time. All this may sound obvious, but keeping them in mind both informs and dictates the rest of the plan.

For example, is the prime motive making lots of money, to get an idea into production, to help the world with the invention ? Particularly if it is money, you have to take into account what economists call "opportunity cost" -- if you earn £50,000 p.a. and take a year out to earn £80,000 at a cost of £60,000 (the first figure is unrealistically high, the second is only too realistic), you've lost £30,000 in earnings. I once had a conversation with such a person who was convinced that income was profit.

In considering this, it is vital to think about what finances you have, your attitude to financial risk, and how much you are prepared to lose. Someone with £10,000 in savings will probably have a very different attitude to someone with £500,000. Are you prepared to say, "I will spend a maximum of £20,000" ? Many would say to me "I've gone this far, I can't give up now." That's what gamblers say, too.

Do you want to work long hours ? Chances are good that, regardless of making any money, you will be spending a lot of time on the project trying to get interest.

A timescale is also a good idea. Will you allow say a year, or two years, to get it off the ground ? That's not much time, and how is success measured ? That's your call.

2. The first of the four Ps (the other Ps are at the end of this list):

Product (what is it, why is it a good idea. Does it have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) ?  Do people really need it, can they afford it ? Is the way it works important ? Its looks ? Both ? Does the product need to observe laws and regulations on safety, or to keep to technical standards ?) If you are not familiar with the industry, learn about it.

3. You should put together a SWOT analysis of your product and also of yourself. SWOT is a useful tool: it stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. In my one hour meetings with inventors when I worked at the British Library quite a few presented SWOT analyses of their product, but none offered a SWOT of themselves. Again and again they had the idea but no finance, no knowledge of accountancy or marketing or engineering... yet did not see any problem. Having weaknesses such as these won't necessarily kill the idea, but they make it harder for the inventor to succeed. My own preference was inventors who at least knew about engineering, and ideally worked with someone who knew about accountancy and/ or marketing.

In some areas, a PEST analysis of the product is also a good idea. It stands for Politics, Economics, Social, Technological. Think, say, of apps to summon cheap taxis. Perhaps the landscape has changed to suggest changes in products or processes.

4. Is it patentable ? A hugely complicated subject, and a patent attorney should be consulted. Many will offer an initial free half hour -- if so, make sure you ask questions like what will you do for me and how much do you charge for what. If it's not patentable then the odds against it being a success rise a lot. Do not reveal the idea except in confidence until you've filed for a patent, and if possible spell out the advantages instead of how it works. For example, you could say you have a new method of closing garments that operates without a zipper and which is easy for all to use.

5. Carry out a patent search, remembering that just because you thought of it doesn't mean it's not been thought of by someone before (I met someone who said he had written an idea down and locked the paper inside his desk, and was furious when he saw the product for sale a few years later. Clearly, he said, someone had burgled him). You can try doing a search online but it's better to employ an expert or at least ask someone at a public patent collection to advise you. Be prepared to take days searching and analysing the results (you will probably need help on this).

A useful starting point, particularly good for cheap products, is Google Shopping which can be used to rank by price products available through websites.

If'it turns out that the idea is protected in the country you want to sell in, give up. If not protected but it's out there already, that's a big strike against it. It greatly adds to the odds against success as competitors are either already out there or can easily compete.

6. What is your intellectual property (IP) strategy -- e.g. Europe and USA ? Patent, trade mark ? Add more countries if you like but remember that you'll need to translate the patent specification into the local languages, and probably advertising, brochures, etc. into them as well -- do you want to spend that ?

7. Make a working prototype. I can't remember how many times people would tell me that no they knew nothing about the industry, but yes, "in theory" the product would do the job. No need, they thought, to go to the trouble of making a working prototype to persuade a company to take them on. The problem is that they will immediately be shown the door.

If the prototype is to be shown at say a trade show or on Dragons' Den it needs to look good as well as working properly. Some companies offer to make prototypes and sometimes to help improve the product.

8. Should you sell, license, manufacture yourself ?

Some want to sell the idea and just collect some money. Usually in my experience some people are unrealistic in their expectations, like the man who thought of the idea of handheld flippers and didn't realise that the idea already existed. All he had was the general idea, not a specific design (this was pre Internet days).

Others like the idea of licensing it to a manufacturer, to keep some control of the product. This is a very complicated subject in itself, and is fraught with dangers (such as many companies refusing to sign non-disclosure agreements). 4% of the manufacturer's (not retailer's price) is usually the best the inventor can hope to be paid. Contract law is vital here.

Manufacturing the product yourself can be the most lucrative but also exposes the inventors to the most financial risk, and means they must spend a huge amount of time running all the aspects of the business. Rather than your own factory, it probably means sorting out an agreement with a supplier to make the product. This is very common -- it's Apple's method, for example.

9. Do you need outside finance ? Work out careful estimates, and decide how much you need. You may think crowdfunding sites are a good idea, or need business angels.

The remaining three Ps:

10. Price (how much does it cost to make, what retail price is anticipated, is it a premium product with high prices but low sales, and remember that often a retail markup is three to four times the manufacturer's price. It may cost too much for the market. Financial projections are a good idea)

11. Place (where to sell it -- online, through shops, etc. You should know by now the answer)

12. Promotion (which I've put last as the Place determines the publicity. Who is the ideal customer, what to call it, how to advertise it -- is social media vital, for example ? Despite what some people told me, not everyone will love your product, so market research to gather information is important)

Finally there should be an executive summary, which is a sober and realistic summing up of the 4 Ps. It's written last but is read first by a potential buyer or investor, and should be enough to interest them.

It may help to think through in detail what needs to happen to get from the idea to the product being in the hands of the consumer. There will be lots of steps, although not all have to be done by you. It may also help to imagine yourself in the mind of a manufacturer or supplier you might want to approach, as they want to make money too. Getting others to read the draft plan will probably help, too, especially if they have relevant skills. And don't forget to quantify as much as possible, for (realistic) figures will be your friend.