Every successful business is the result of serious research and planning.

Effective planning starts well before your business opens to the public.

It’s also essential to understanding your product, customers, competition, and how to communicate with others about your business.

For your business to be profitable and sustainable, you need to understand: Your customers and their needs, Your product or service and its strengths, How your product or service is unique and connects with customers, The strengths and weaknesses of your business model, Your competition, And how your business sets itself apart from the competition.

Researching and understanding these elements is the first step to creating a business plan.

A business plan is a written document that contains important details about a proposed business.

It also describes goals and strategies for reaching them.

A solid business plan helps you make informed business decisions.

It also prepares you to discuss and promote your business with others, including people who might support you financially.

In this lesson, you will conduct online research and gather information to prepare to write an informed business plan.

You will: Research your target market and competitors, Gather your research in a document, Organize your findings to prepare to write a business plan, And add a table to analyze your competition and their strengths.

The examples in this lesson research a pet care business.

“You” will research a business that you are starting, that you plan to start, or that you would like to start.

This lesson uses Google Docs, but you could apply these skills and concepts in any word processing application or even on a piece of paper.

To work on this lesson, sign in to your Google account.

Open a new tab in your browser, and navigate to Google dot com.

If you are not signed in, do so now.

If you do not have a Google account, pause the video and create one now.

To begin, open your Google Drive.

Create a new document in Google Docs, rename it, and add a title at the top of your page.

In this document, you will collect and organize your internet research.

These notes will be useful to refer to when you create your business plan.

Then, open another browser tab and navigate to google dot com.

Keep both tabs open.

You will conduct research in one browser tab and take notes in the other.

Now, it’s your turn: Create and title a new document in Google Docs, And open another browser tab and navigate to google.com.