Starting a new business requires a wide range of activities and skills: you will need to analyze the market and competition, define your target market, formulate your value proposition, and make appropriate choices about production, promotion and distribution. In addition-even if you are not an accounting expert-you must also understand the consequences of all your choices on your company's financial results, as well as be able to estimate the financial value of your project. This book provides a framework within which to frame start-up activities, providing a number of strategic and operational tools for setting up an entrepreneurial project, whether it is a new venture or a new initiative within an existing enterprise.For years I've taught business planning in universities and mentored entrepreneurial groups in incubators and innovation centres, and this book is the fruit of that experience. Compared to many other texts on business start-ups, this book aims to combine methodological rigor with a very practical and concrete approach.