Finance takes you through the necessary financial planning stages that test whether your idea could actually make money.
Submitting your idea takes you through getting the vision over to potential investors.

There are two basic financial issues to consider. The first, and most obvious is profit. Not any old profit but the profit you expect after tax - the net margin. Furthermore, profit on its own is meaningless; it is the profit you expect in comparison to how much capital you are going to use in the business. This is known as the return on capital employed (ROCE).

The capital used in your business idea (click here to access a calculator to determine your initial startup costs) could be used in a different business or even simply deposited and left to earn interest. All financial ventures carry some risk. Money deposited in a bank runs the risk that interest rates will fall and with it the returns earned.
However, there is no doubt that investment in a business proposal is the riskiest of all. This means the returns have to compensate for the risk. More ...

The second issue is as important as profit and for a start-up business perhaps the most important - cashflow. As the name suggests this is all about money flowing in and out of the business. You might have a business that will deliver a huge profit at the end of the financial year but you have run out of money to pay suppliers after a few months and so go bust. More businesses fail for lack of cash flow than for want of profit

Any projections you make to influence potential investors MUST layout how cash is expected to flow in and out of the business on a month by month basis. You have to show that over the course of the first few years (preferably five) the business will generate sufficient cash to meet the bills and deliver a profit at the end of the year. More..