But a good business plan is not enough to make your business succeed.  Every business really has two aspects: the business concept or model, which is the idea your company is based on, and the business plan, the way your company implements that concept.  We feel that a good concept and a strong business plan are both necessary for you to succeed in today’s market, so before we prepare a business plan for you, or help you write your own, we highly recommend a business concept evaluation.  Don has developed a set of criteria for evaluating the strength of a concept that consists of  what he refers to as the 18 GEL (Great customers, Easy Sales, and Long life) factors.  These criteria have been developed slowly, during the 20 years of Don’s experience, by observing which business concepts turned into winners and why.  This evaluation is a vital step in a business plan, because a well written business plan, no matter how good, will not compensate for a poor concept.  Fortunately, most poor concepts can be tweaked to become winning concepts, but with each change in your concept, you will need a new business plan.  That is why a business concept evaluation is an important first step.  The goal of this evaluation is not to give your concept a score, but rather to show strengths and weak points and to help you create the strongest concept possible.