All You Need To Know About Business Plan
All You Need To Know About Business Plan
Would you be shocked to know that you will need a business plan to start selling bottled water? The idea is not bottled water but how you see the business.
Take, for instance, Hilda and Bassey decided to start a bottled water business. They both have just enough to get them 10 packs to start with.
Bassey wants his bottled water business to grow into the world's largest water-selling company, while Hilda wants to sell the same to support her main source of income and pay bills.
In spite of what they share in common, one of them needs a business plan and one doesn't. What's your guess?
Got it? Let's get to work.
2 Enterprise business plan: The standard format for business plan applies in this.
3 Loan business plan: When you have a business idea that is capital intensive and needs a huge amount from a financier (bank or a loan issuing organization), this is the type of business plan that fits it. The plan explains every bit of how the funds will be run, spent, regenerated, and returned. It also states clearly when the loan will be returned.
4 Grant business plan: This business plan intends on seeking aid or loan from the country or foreign donors. This explains the benefits of the idea you wish to use the loan for in society.
Take, for instance, Hilda and Bassey decided to start a bottled water business. They both have just enough to get them 10 packs to start with.
Bassey wants his bottled water business to grow into the world's largest water-selling company, while Hilda wants to sell the same to support her main source of income and pay bills.
In spite of what they share in common, one of them needs a business plan and one doesn't. What's your guess?
Here are the highlights of the article:
- Features of a good business plan
- Types of Business plan in Nigeria
- Why you need a business plan
- Cost of business plan in Nigeria
- Why some business plans are costly
- Disadvantages of not having a business plan
- Why some don't have a business plan
- What are the business ideas that don't need a business plan?
Got it? Let's get to work.
Features Of A Good Business Plan
Just in case you are wondering what is in the business plan that people are speaking a lot about, here is an answer to your question. And it is not necessarily chronologically.- Vision/Mission Statement
- Executive summary
- Market Overview
- SWOT analysis
- Unique Selling point
- Financial projection/Prediction of the first 1 -3years.
- Marketing plan
- Sales strategy
- Company description
- Breakdown of your product and services
- Management and Organization
- Operations plan
- Competitive analysis
- Sales Forecast
- Marketing Plan
- Request for funding
- Milestone
Types Of Business Plans in Nigeria
1 Investment business plan: This is the kind of business plan you write with an investor(s) in mind. It describes the features of what your ideal enterprise looks like in short term and long term and has a rich market research background.2 Enterprise business plan: The standard format for business plan applies in this.
3 Loan business plan: When you have a business idea that is capital intensive and needs a huge amount from a financier (bank or a loan issuing organization), this is the type of business plan that fits it. The plan explains every bit of how the funds will be run, spent, regenerated, and returned. It also states clearly when the loan will be returned.
4 Grant business plan: This business plan intends on seeking aid or loan from the country or foreign donors. This explains the benefits of the idea you wish to use the loan for in society.
Why You Need a Business Plan
I strongly suggest, never go for a business plan until you are sure you know why you need it. You can send me a mail or chat with me on WhatsApp (+2347080225737) for further explanation. But in the meantime, here is a little clarity on why you need a business plan.1 Direction
Your business plan is like a map of your business journey for the next few/many years. It gives you a description of where your business is, and where it is going. If you ever need a business seer, your business plan is one, because everything you hope to do has been analyzed, forecasted, and backed up with facts and figures.2 Viability
I did a business plan for a client some time ago on a Soft Drink Business in a location popularly known as Sango Ota, in Ogun State, which shares a boundary with Lagos.And to show how viable the business will be, I had to do researches on each of the products she wants to sell, do findings on the number of drinks consumed each day, the kind of drinks mostly consumed, age range of major consumers, target location, where the products sell the most, the population of the people in the environment, and the buying ratio for each day.
The effect of these data findings, researches and data analysis is to prove logically and beyond a reasonable doubt why and how the business can thrive without the fear of failure.
3 Confidence
The business plan gives the business owner the confidence to venture into it, having understood the game well. It totally erases the fear of going into the wrong business or a business that won't yield profit.4 Clarity
It bills you out in times of confusion: The tendency is high that there will come a time when you will be confused about what to do. Your business plan is what will bill you out, show you the way and substitute your confusion with clarity.5 Structure
If you produce bags, or you produce music, having a business plan lets you know what you are doing, why you are doing it, how you are doing it, where you Are doing it when you are doing it. Structure gives you definition and keeps you within your scope.It also provides a management structure. In other words, it defines the roles needed to successfully carry out the business. Even if all the roles are played by two people or you alone.
6 Milestone
It also helps you to measure your progress. As a makeup artiste, for instance, your business plan will at least include how much you will achieve in the first 6months of Your career, what height you will attain in the first 1year, 2years, 5years, etc.It will also include the methods and strategies you will use to achieve your desired result. If you intend to hold a makeup training for 10 startup makeup artistes once in every 6months, then you are planning on graduating or certifying at least 100 people in 5years time.
This will move you to think bigger than you ever thought.
7 Budget
No business plan goes without a budget for all proposed expenditures including miscellaneous. And with counting your cost comes the instinct to plan towards generating capital for the budget.As a business proposal, it helps you to have an idea of what you are to present to your potential sponsors, or the bank as the budget to be financed, or the loan to be obtained.
8 Funding
There are enough people out there who are willing to finance your project/business/idea especially when they see how serious and well prepared you are, and how viable your business or idea is.I know of some people who got foreign investors to finance business of promoting African culture on media. They were given over $50,000 (N18m), and guess what they did with it? They got a bar in Ibadan and got two massive TVs that showed Nigerian films steadily. Next, they stocked the bar with drinks and furniture, and of course, squandered the rest of the money. This is true life.
Yep, in case you are interested in your ideas being sponsored, you can try AYEEN. It's a trusted sponsoring body that helps young entrepreneurs throughout Africa.
I once watched them on TV and they are credible and impressive. You should check out some of their 'project defense shows' online, and you will be jolted into the reality of being serious with your plans. Besides, if you are serious with the business plan, you can contact me via my email, call or chat me up via WhatsApp (+2347080225737)
9 Competitors
Business plan helps you to learn about your competitors, and suggest how to stand out among them. You learn your competitor's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. These help you to know where you are strong, and where you need to be strong. Simply put.Read also: 17 things to consider before srarting a business Nigeria
Cost of business plan
Having explained the types, the cost of business plans varies for different business plan writers, and for different countries. The only predictable one is the one you write by yourself. Though for the sake of accuracy, proficiency, and professionalism, I won't advise you to write it yourself.Why Some Business Plans Are Costly
I have heard some startup clients tell me that a business plan is too expensive. And my response is, do you even know what a business plan means at all? Or did someone just recommend a business plan for you and you jumped at the option?
Here is why business plan costs.
Business plan is about facts and figures. You don't just wake up and write a business plan. It takes time and lots of intellectual work. It takes lots and loads of research. The reason is, business is a logical map of a predicted and calculated future.Business plan is a guarantee of business success. It not only tells you, it shows you how, why, and when you will succeed.
It is a skeleton of your entire business. It shows you what your business is made up of. Permit me to say business plan is a logical mirror of that business idea in your head.
Business plan is a compendium of so many things. Sales strategy, marketing strategy, market research, business structure, swot analysis, and many more. All these things, on a good day, are written separately. Yet, a business plan offers you a full package of all of them in one place at once.
A business plan is not something that can be written in days. I used to think I could until I went into professional writing of the business plan.
Note that there are several reasons why business plans cost the way they do. These are just a few.
You may like: Generating leads for real estate in Nigeria through blogging
Disadvantages of not having a business plan
First, you will lose thousands of opportunities when they show. Because the only proof you have to show that you are worth the opportunity presented to you is your business plan.Opportunity must meet preparation for 'luck' to happen. your business plan. A saying goes thus: luck is when opportunity meets preparation. But how can you be lucky when Tony Elumelo Foundation sends you a mail informing you that they want to sponsor 50 people's ideas with $50,000 each, and the first and best 50 business plans to be submitted between the next 24 hours will be picked? Opportunity must meet preparation for 'luck' to happen.
On March 8th, 2020, His Excellency, the vice president of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo, awarded a couple of people N1 million naira each to start a business. A week before then, a client contacted me that he needed a business plan...any business plan. There was none on the ground, unfortunately. And that was how the opportunity slipped away.
Second, as I earlier mentioned, an idea or a business that does not have a written plan might not have a good structure like that of one who has a business plan and lives by it.
Thirdly, the focus will hardly be maintained as those who have theirs written down. In other words, a business that has a clearly written plan is likely to have more focus than a business without one.
Fourthly, you cannot measure your productivity without a business plan. Lack of writing down plans, in general, is usually one of the main reasons we have a jack of all trades moving from one idea or business to another without stability.
Why some don't have Business Plan
Here are a few reasons some don't feel compelled to have a business plan.- No one around them is writing it.
- No one around them seems to be talking about it or laying emphasis on it.
- People are scared of the cost of writing it, especially when they give professionals to write it for them. (But they are not scared of the cost of a slowly developing, or dying business/idea).
- People feel they can do without it because they see others 'making it' without necessarily writing a business plan.
- Some are not even aware of something like a 'business plan' that exists.
- Many don't know the disadvantages of not having a business plan. And that's what I'll be sharing with you as I round off.
What are the business ideas that don't need a business plan?
The business ideas that don't need a business plan are the ones that don't have a long-term vision or that are inspired by hunger or the need to satisfy immediate needs.To know if your business idea needs a business plan, ask yourself the following question:
Why are you going into the business?
Where do you see the business in the next 5 years?
If the business crashes in the first 6 months, will you give up or try again.
If a bigger job opportunity comes your way tomorrow, will you still continue with the business or close it down?
If your answers favor the business, then you need a business plan, but if your answers make the business look like it's an option and don't matter that much, then it's time to kiss that business idea goodbye.
Do you have a question? Or do you need a business plan? You can send me a mail, or chat with me on WhatsApp (+2347080225737)
..with Manicle, it's all about you...
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