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To be successful in starting a new business or even adding a change to an existing one, the most important thing you must have, is a business plan.

Your business plan is the base structure around how you will manage your fledgling business, it directs you in what you need to do to ensure your business thrives. Business plans are made up of several key components, which determine the likelihood of the business making money.

Here is a short and simple 7 step guide to give you a basic understanding of what your business plan should contain. However! Remember! Each business is different, so whilst this is a guide for you to follow, it is still up to you to determine the future of your business.

STEP 1: Front cover and contents.

This step in conjunction with the next one is what initially keeps the reader interested. Like most articles, books and texts it is the first few pages that catch the readers interest, the same applies to business plans. The front cover should look as professional as you can make it. Investors will take one look at a gaudy badly done front cover and not even glance at what is contained within. The most common and successful covers just include the business logo what the business is.

STEP 2: Introduction.

You need to grasp the attention of the reader in this part of your business plan. It is important that you keep this section short and to the point due to the fact a lengthy introduction can put off some readers. Your introduction should include what your proposed business or change is, and what you expect the effect this will be to the business.

STEP 3: Market Research.

To ensure that you have an understanding of the business and location that you may be moving to; you will need to conduct something called market research. This involves either yourself doing the work or you could hire a company to do it for you. Having a professional conduct your market research is extremely useful, however do remember that it will be expensive to hire them.

Market research basically involves looking into the customers, location and everything that directly affects your business. This can be something along the lines of; what is the influence of the other businesses in the area and are the local people even interested in the product or service you are offering. Market research is a lengthy and time consuming task and I would highly recommend looking up the subject at your local library or the Internet.

STEP 4: SWOT analysis

In this part you think about the strengths,

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