These days, a lot of people are starting up their own businesses. It's a good time to do it, as the Internet offers a wider door to opportunity than ever before. People are also becoming more fed up with big business, and are starting to look for the modern day mom and pop shop for most things, once again.

Whether you want to sell pet products to factories or print greeting cards, all good businesses have one thing in common: they all started out with a plan.

A business plan is the cornerstone of your business, what you build it on, and what you can refer back to should you feel things are getting too big too quickly. A business plan is also a good place to put any new ideas you have had which inspired your thoughts in the first place. You may be fresh out of real estate training and think you'll never forget what you've learned, but three months into your first brokerage you might find the ideas you wrote down at the start of your venture quite helpful.

In order to make a good business plan, split it up into parts. It's easier to tackle these one by one, and all of your ideas should fit nicely into one of the following categories.

Description

This is also known as a mission statement. Describe in detail the product you want to offer, and your overall business or service. For example, David from Referral Serviced is certain to target customers that are looking for a specific lawyer type so that he can refer them to the appropriate firm. He says that if you want to be a major player in the scene, this is the place to put it. Remember to state why your product is original in your niche.

Market analysis

Come up with an idea of who exactly your target market is. If you are offering data encryption services, it might be businesses. You can narrow that further into what kind of businesses will be most receptive to your product.

Competition

Take a look at who your competitors are, what they offer, their strengths and weaknesses. Don't underestimate the competition; the strengths of a rival corporate event catering business, are what you are going to have to counter, so be realistic.

Operations

Write down how you are going to conduct business, from marketing to management.

Financials

How much will it cost to start up? How much do you expect to earn the first year, and how did you come up with that amount? Where are you going to get seed money?

Summary

Finally, sum everything up in the last section of the report. Remember, this is the file you will be showing potential investors and partners, maybe even potential clients. A clear business plan is the key to starting up a good business.