If you want to win an Olympic gold medal, the first step is to make sure that a medal is even on offer in your sport of choice and that it would be theoretically possible for you to get to the competition. There is no point in investing your time and resources if your goal is impossible to reach. Likewise, in business, I can't stress enough the importance of due diligence before you buy or start a business. Everyone's heard the joke about how it is impossible to sell ice to Eskimos, but sadly many people do enter into business ventures which are highly unlikely to succeed because there is not sufficient demand for their product or service within the market they enter; there was never going to be any gold medal on offer.  It is easy to become emotionally invested in an idea that seems 'good'; hence, I highly recommend doing thorough market research and having someone independent complete a due diligence report on any business you are planning to start or buy. I have done many of these over time and find clients are often very surprised by the opportunities and threats I identify for the proposed business; you really owe it to yourself to find out this information before you apply significant amounts of your time and financial resources into a venture.