What should I do before I draft a business plan?

What should I do before I draft a business plan?

William A. Cohen (Author & Founder, Institute of Leader Arts) gives expert video advice on: What is the key to a successful business plan?; What are the top business plan mistakes?; Should I hire someone to write a business plan for me? and more...

The more you can find out about that business the better, because you're going to need this stuff anyway. You're going to need the information about the market you're going to go after. You're going to have to get information together regarding costs--how much different things cost. You're going to have to start thinking about your pricing. You're going to have to think about distribution--all these different things. Start getting the information as soon as you can--you will naturally anyway as you get interested in this--but you want to start collecting all this information together. The business plan is really not that difficult, to tell you the truth. They say you can eat an elephant as long as you eat it a bit at a time. That's kind of like the business plan.