A common mistake made by many individuals is to blindly pursue business ownership without adequately evaluating whether their idea is actually feasible. Before you go any further, you need to examine your idea for feasibility.

What is a feasibility evaluation, and why would you want to take the time to do one? A feasibility evaluation is a process that will allow you to make a more informed "go" or "no go" decision. A good feasibility evaluation involves a detailed examination of financial, personal, and market realities. This is the time consuming, research part of starting your business. This research produces the information needed for both your feasibility study, and if you choose to continue, creating your business plan.

I'm writing this section in workbook fashion, giving you questions to answer, and solutions to find, and a place to write your answers. If you save these files from the internet to your hard drive, Then open them in "MS Word", you should be able to use the computer to write your answers. If not, print them out, so you have a place to write your answers.

Save your information, it will be the same information you will need to plug into your business plan when the time comes. For now we are thinking out the entire process of your chosen business, and multiplying out the numbers to see whether it is feasible to begin.

Table of Contents:

Define your business - Define your business in terms of what your product and service is, whom it is designed for and what the mission or purpose of your business is.
Organizational Plan - The business part of your business, what criteria will you use to make your decisions, who will be the key personnel.
Operating Plan - how will you provide your service and/or product, where, and with what support.
Collecting Industrial information - This is step one in identifying your place in the market. With things, methods and priorities of things continuing to change, this is your chance to look to where your type of business is today, and where it might go tomorrow.
Marketing Plan - What is the market for your service and/or product, what part is yours, who is your competition, what is your target market, your niche?
Financial Plan - write a budget find what you want for an income - and estimate what it will take to get that.
Feasibility - "crunching the numbers" Identifying your goal, what it takes to reach that goal and if this business will reach that goal.

Next: Define your Business