And more research... and a business plan

My next question was funding. Even in Bulgaria, this wasn't exactly going to be cheap.
Could I get a bank business loan? No - they won't give away cash to be taken to Bulgaria, suggetsed that I ask my parents to mortgage their house as that is cheaper than getting a business loan anyway. Well, at least he was honest.
But mortgaging my parents house didn't really seem to be the best option to me - they had already said they would lend quite a big chunk of money so I felt I couldn't really ask for anymore.

So I tidied up my business plan and sent it around a few retired very wealthy people who like investing - I was looking for a business angel and I was very lucky - I actually got a choice of two.

The business plan was very important. Not only to help me find finance but to help me see all the different bits and pieces that I needed to consider - it took me a couple of weeks working on it intensively to get it in a readable state but it made me write down everything.

This meant that other people could see all my ideas - they weren't all locked up in my head, so if I forgot to mention something, if they read my business plan it all becomes clear.

And there were bits that I hadn't considered in detail like exit strategies and insurance, that I had to cover. I used the book, The Definitive Business Plan http://www.amazon.co.uk/Definitive-Business-Plan-Intelligent-Entrepreneurs/dp/0273659219/ref=sr_1_9/202-9471987-9804616?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194594852&sr=1-9 (that's it on Amazon) to help me, and it was very useful and easy to read, but there are loads of different books and websites out there for you to plough through.

I'm still working on my business plan, every 4 months or so I go back read through it, update any bits of research that I have been doing or change any bits that I am learning more about. Doing this keeps me focused and stops me wandering off on a tangent.

Business Link give pretty good advice, they have a section about writing a business plan on:
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073869162

Writing it all down made everything a lot clearer and really made me want to get going.

www.christopherchalets.co.uk