Develop Your Business Idea

• Before starting a business, find a profitable idea. The entrepreneur and her team must be well-matched to the business to make it work. The idea must differ enough from existing businesses, with novel processes of implementation, so that competitors cannot easily replicate the start-up's business and push it out of the market. And a small business must target highly profitable products or services. Small businesses do not have the luxury of selling products with a low profit margin, because they will not have the high volume to create profits.
  
  If your new business will involve a lot of marketing or promotional effort to sell something novel, or compete against established players, consider what changes you can make to your plans to make the early going easier. The ideal new business idea fills an empty niche in an existing, profitable marketplace.
  
  

Determine Your Capital Requirements

• Choose one of two broad routes for the business start-up. A shoestring business is started without much initial capital but has an expectation of nearly immediate profitability. Another route is to raise enough initial capital to get the business up and running, without relying on early sales for cash flow.
  
  The shoestring business focuses on selling the product directly to initial customers, while the other business model concentrates on selling the business plan to investors. Entrepreneurs who must raise significant initial capital are essentially starting two businesses with two target markets; those few who can self-fund their businesses or start with minimal capital needs, get a head start on competitors who must spend months or years looking for investment.
  
  

Do Research and Find Help

• After your initial business plan is in hand, do more research to ensure the health of your business. Marketing plans, sales plans, employee manuals and hiring procedures, and even overall exit strategies for the entrepreneurs and investors, may be necessary before the doors open. Throw yourself into the research process, reading as many books with differing perspectives as possible. Contact your local Small Business Development Center, a service of the Small Business Administration, to get access to resources in your area. These services can direct you to mentors, vendor contacts and investment networks that can radically reduce the time it takes to build your business.