bother with the exercise of calculating a value proposition? First, the process can help you diagnose quickly whether you're on to something promising and potentially profitable. Second, it shows where you need to focus your efforts to improve a marginal business idea. It can make it easier to identify where the problems lie before you get started. If your customer utility and your production costs are both high, for example, then you might need to focus your efforts on reducing costs. If customer utility and production costs are both low, you might focus on finding different customers for whom your product might have a higher utility. Can you find customers with more pressing needs? Is there a way to make your product better without spending much more money? Finally, if costs are low while utility is high, you could focus on how much you can increase the asking price, putting you in a position to capture more value. Hopefully you'll make more money while also building a more interesting, stable and rewarding business. Jon Burgstone is the San Francisco-based co-founder and former CEO of SupplierMarket, an Internet technology firm, and teaches entrepreneurship at the University of California, Berkeley. Bill Murphy Jr. writes about entrepreneurship and national security from Washington, D.C. Today's Editor's Picks Comments: Starting a business with good idea can take you to the success in the business and it can be your profitable business. So it is very important to start business with a excellent idea. @ Business