Definitive Business Plan, Second Edition, The

Business partners

Do not underestimate the extent to which business partners can help you. Your most-important partners are your channels to market (those individuals and companies that help you find customers, make sales and provide ongoing customer support) – and your suppliers.

Suppliers

Suppliers provide you with raw materials, components, part-finished and finished goods, and services. Form good relationships with your suppliers and you can both win. Do not try to cheat them, or they will do the same to you. Of course, you need to watch competitive pressures among suppliers to ensure that you are buying from the best sources and that their products are not being outmoded by, for example, technological developments elsewhere. In other words, ...