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Writing a business
plan will help you evaluate the viability of your idea.
It will define your product and help you conduct market
research. Market research will, in turn, help you define
the size of your market, market share, competition and potential
for growth. These figures will then help you create financial
statements.
Check out the Feasibility
Checklist for Starting a Small Business at the Canada
Business Service Centre Web site. This is a checklist
for the owner-manager of a small business enterprise,
or for someone contemplating going into business for the
first time. The questions concentrate on areas you must
seriously consider to determine if your idea represents
a real business opportunity. Do you really know what you
are getting into? Use this checklist to evaluate a completely
new venture proposal or an apparent opportunity in your
existing business.
It's often difficult to figure out how to research an
idea, especially if you have never been in business
for yourself. You will need to decide if your idea has profit
potential. The Canada Business Service Centre articles
should help you make that decision.
Industry Canada's Small Business
Profiles ("Performance Plus") will provide
you with sample income statements for more than 700 types
of small business. The data in these examples is compiled
from a representative sample of real Canadian businesses.
Everyone makes mistakes. But wouldn't it be nice
to make fewer mistakes? Learning from other people's missteps
is often much less painful than suffering through your own.
Some mistakes are common to all entrepreneurs. From the
Royal Bank's Enterpreneurs' Library, Top
10 Entrepreneurial Mistakes examines the cold hard facts
about running a business.
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