Competition among business operators is fierce. People work in a business for a living. Whether they are employees or owners of a business, it is vital for everyone involved that the business succeeds.

What steps can business managers and corporations take to maximise the likelihood that their business will get past the startup phase, grow over time and develop new products and services so that it will be relevant or add "value" to customers in years to come?

Business planning is an obvious start to the process of bringing a business concept to reality. A business plan book is a valuable reference point around which the preparation for commencing a new startup can begin.

A business plan is also something that an existing business can use to create new products or services, reach new customers or to establish new relationships with suppliers. Most business plans include headings or sections like these.

Executive Summary
Company Description
Products and Services
Market analysis
Strategy and Implementation
Organization and Management Team
Financial plan and projections

The headings do not of themselves set out to describe the new or improved business. They are merely folders or compartments into which the specific details of a business idea can be placed for easy reference for bankers, suppliers and staff.

The actual ideas, inspirations, intellectual property and methods of operation of the business, are the key elements. Entrepreneurs create new ideas or improved and better ways of performing a task. That is key to the success. Find a need that is not being met or a need that is being met but in an inferior way.

The entrepreneur need not slavishly follow the seven headings of a business plan while the idea is being nurtured but when it is ready to be put into action, a formal business plan is an essential part of the process that takes an idea towards reality. Time spent on business planning is never wasted.

Market research is another part of planning for a new or existing business.

Here are four steps towards creating a pathway for a new business.

Define what the product or service is?

Determine who will be the customers for the new product or service?

Locate suppliers or components or labour for the creation or delivery of the service.

Determine whether or not the cost of creation or provision of the product or service is substantially less than the remuneration that will be received from suppliers.

These four elements are equally applicable to a startup or to an existing business looking to expand.

In both circumstances, it is true that a good business idea will be the starting point and that making it happen will be the hard part. A business plan forces entrepreneurs to do a comprehensive analysis as a formal and indispensable part of the process.