Don’t underestimate the importance of due diligence. i Doing your homework will pay off in more ways than one. Although you want to write a competitive IDEA Business Plan, more importantly, you need to determine for yourself if your idea is really going to work. Can you actually make money with your idea? As much as possible, verify and confirm your assumptions. You’ll need to gather lots of information. How long do companies in your industry take to pay their suppliers? Will you need to buy in bulk to reduce your costs? How long will it take to get your supplies? Will it be more feasible to do all the work in‐house or to contract some of it out? The more information you can gather now, the more solid your plan will be, and ultimately, the chance of successfully commercializing your idea will be much better. .