BUSINESS PLAN GUIDE

 

Business Plan Guide

 By Ayo Emakhiomhe and John Aigbokhaode

Hi, this is for all of you that has been thinking of how to prepare that business plan to put your venture in proper perspective.

below is a simple guide to help you prepare your business plan.

1              Executive summary

A brief summary of the business/introduction

2              Vision

It is simply defined as “What you make out of what you are out to do”.  A vision is a dream of the future of a department.  It represents the department’s destiny.  It must be bold and realistic.  It must be stated in a short simple sentence that carries no ambiguity e.g. “To be a choice provider of financial services”.

3              Mission

It is simply “What you are out to do”.  This flows from the vision.  It answers such questions as “what business are we in?”  It gives a scope of the business or department.  The mission is a philosophy on the design, availability, orientation and societal role of the enterprise.

4              List proposed products/services.

5              Target market: definition of your proposed clientele classified based on defined characteristics like income base, geographical location and age.

6              Management structure: who will run your business with you? What’s your staffing plan both in the long and short term?

7              Business type: Sole proprietorship, Limited/Un-Limited, NGO, etc.

8              Marketing plan/strategy. What’s your market penetration strategy vis-à-vis your defined business model. This should be divided into long, medium and short term plans. What’s your pricing strategy?

9              Objectives

Objectives answers the question, why are we in business?  This is the end, which the organization seeks to achieve through its existence and operations.  They are short, concise statements usually not more than 5 that help to articulate the purpose of the organization in its environ.  Objectives are more tangible than mission statements.

10            Goals

Goals emanate from the objectives.  They seek to express the set objectives in quantitative and SMART form.  Goals are landmarks of achievement that inspire corporate endeavour towards action.  They become standard for assessing the organizational performance.

Major characteristics of a goal are:

• Specific
• Measurable
•  Attainable
•  Realistic
• Timely

11            Key Success Factors

Immediately following the goal is the key success factors.  These are the critical issues precedent to attainment of your goal.  They represent the fundamentals that must be tackled for achieving the set goals.  Example of key success factors for attainment goals set by a business is:

•  Effective & Efficient Management
•  Quick Turnaround time
•  Efficient use of Information Technology/Communication Network
•  Funding
• Staff Training and Development
• Image

SWOT Analysis

Strength and weakness focus on the internal environment while opportunities and threats focus on the external environment.  SWOT diagnoses is the process by which an entrepreneur determine how to exploit the opportunities and meet the threats of the environment it operates in by using identified strengths and repairing weaknesses in order to build sustainable competitive advantage.

This is an audit of the business environment. 

After setting goals, it is imperative that an environmental scan of the setting within which goals are expected to be achieved is conducted.

12            Strength                     

Internal Analysis

This is the definition of the existing strength mapped against the weakness of the organization.  They are internal and unique to the organization

13            Weakness

14            Opportunities              

External Analysis

These are the opportunities and threats that face the organization from the external environment within which the organization has found itself.

15            Threats                       

16            Strategy

This consist of the key elements of the HOW to achieve stated goals.  It is the means the organization intends to employ.

Strategies must be built around identified strengths and opportunities in order to combat threats and weaknesses.

Strategy is the heart of a business plan.  It is the starting point of performance and it defines the success or failure of department/unit/organization.

The following are the key issues in formulating a strategy:

M Avoid incautious or over-ambitious strategies, which ignore environmental signals.  This can lead to failure.

M Strategies must be formulated towards goals.

M Refusal to change past strategies to articulate present realities may lead to failure.

M Formulated strategies must take cognizance of available resources for implementation.

M Identify specific market through segmentation and formulate service/product strategy for that market with the appropriate marketing mix for each.

Below is a marketing mix matrix

Markets (M1, M2, M3, M4)

	M1	M2	M3	M4
P1
P2
P3
P4

17            Action Plans

Action plan seeks to translate strategies into actions for implementation.  It is therefore a calendar of action, which seeks to identify and measure visible milestone in the journey towards arriving at the goal.  This should follow a specific format as shown below:

Issue	Action	Responsibility	Outcome	Deadline/Date	Supervisor

18            Resource Requirements

This is a statement of all the resources required for the achievement of the business plan and a definition of the role each resource is to play in the achievement of the presumed plan.  It is important to justify each resource required in terms of the value such resources would add to the process of achieving the objectives and goals of the business plan.

19            Budget: set budgets for all areas of your business plan. This budget includes the timelines for achievement and success measurement parameters.

20           What is your exit strategy (if the need arises)

21            Sign Off

A business plan must be concluded with the name, officer signature and date of the writer of the business plan.

Do remember to click on the 'join this site' icon at the top of the page and get all our posts directly to your mail box.

INFO@COINBOXNG.COM

MONEY AND PRODUCTIVITY

By Remi Dairo

Hi!

This week,we shall be looking at the importance of money in productivity and how you can make it happen. I come to realise that money is one of the resources that determines how far and wide your productivity can spread! Money to acquire tools, buying materials, paying human resources etc. Here are 3 ways to raise money and increase your productivity:

1. From Family and Friends: You can raise money through family and friends, telling them what you want to do with the money with a persuasive skill to convince them to give you! Here, getting the money is highly dependent on your past experience with them and if they like your face. You are not in control! If you are lucky to get some money, returning back is important and selling the end-product is less dependent on them.

2. From Banks and Financial Houses: You can raise money by getting loan from your bank or through financial houses in raising cash for you! Here integrity with business track record is very important. The bank may also ask for collateral or guarantors! You are not in control but if you meet all the requirements you may be considered. Selling the end-product has less or nothing to do with them, they would be waiting to collect their money back with interest.

3. From a Network Marketing group: You can also get money by joining or belonging to a network of people whose common goal is to increase your income! They say "Your network determines your net-worth" You get to raise money by inviting more people to the network and there is no need to return the money back because they pay you for inviting someone. Your end-products can be sold within this network and the bigger, the farther your product can fly! 

Friends if you desire to be financially free to do what u want to do and really become productive as you desire,you can PING me! OR send me an email - remidairo@gmail.com.

Have a great week!

Remi Dairo
(Your life and Productivity Coach)
BB: 212C7FDC

ZERO FACTOR LEADERSHIP: LETTER TO NIGERIAN PARENTS

ZERO FACTOR LEADERSHIP: LETTER TO NIGERIAN PARENTS: BY IRENE POPOOLA Friends, Let me add the benefit of my time as a student and then resident in the UK - and I live in Lagos now. ...

PREPARING A BUSINESS PLAN

PREPARING A BUSINESS PLAN

By Ayo Emakhiomhe

The first step in setting out a business plan is the necessity to find a need or spot a gap; a space to fill, find a problem to solve. After spotting a gap, we then find ways of filling this gap; creating value; learning the trade; at this juncture we feel it is very essential to reiterate the fact that we should never go into a business we know next to nothing about.

Never start a business you do not know at least the basics. You might have the idea, good. After that you learn first, it does not mean learning everything, what we are saying is learning enough to be very, very sure you know and understand the basics excellently.

Most times, we pop up with an idea and we decide that we cannot wait a second, we have to start like five years ago.

Well the truth is that it is your idea so it’s original to you and cannot be copied yet, go learn the trade. The time you invest learning the trade is part of the execution and start.

Learning can be one week, one year, one month, one training session, a few books, a few practical sessions, a period of apprenticeship, whatever it takes, learn first.

The reason to learn is because you will have a better understanding of the idea and stronger product knowledge and a very powerful implementation strategy. Also, you will have a level of technical knowledge to be able to define what we call your UNIQUE SELLING POINT – USP. Your USP is that thing you do in that service/product that no one does as good as or better than you.

For example, Coca-Cola would tell you that no one can get a refreshing Cola taste as theirs. Qatar airlines would have a USP of a unique five star experience; CNN says no one tells the news better than them. You see, your USP helps to define your brand.

The business plan defines the outlook and vision of the enterprise; the long, medium and short term plans and goals of the enterprise.

By reading a business plan, you can know if the company will be around for a short while or a long while and how serious are the owners of the business. The plan states the boundaries and playing ground of the entity, it gives a focus, vision, direction, meaning, objective, bone structure and definition to the enterprise. This is how important the business plan is. The plan defines the success of the enterprise.

A successful business plan is like a flowing river, it will always find its path.

Another important thing to note is that, your business plan must always be stated and set out by you. It does not matter your level of knowledge or education or skill, you must set it out first, and it can be in form of outlines, bullet points or a very comprehensive plan. It is after you do these that you can now go further to see consultants like COINBOX LIMITED

(You should always try discussing the business plan with consultants, it adds life to the plan) to discuss the plan and how to put flesh to it. The reason you should be the first to put pen to paper is because it is your dream, you are the originator, so there are salient points, we would miss as consultants, but you would have put down as the owner of the dream.

The business plan basics and flesh would then be added by us, but, it will still take you to put life into the plan. It is your drive and passion/desire that will fire up the enterprise.

In outline the business plan will be structured around the following

    The business idea or value proposition. Your proposition should also state the business opportunity or the reason behind the venture. For example you can state a proposition like “the dearth in management of new businesses has propelled us into creating a company that will work to empower businesses into long lasting ventures.”

    Your business concept: for example you can answer the question “is it venture capital, not-for-profit, or a private company?”

    Define your product/service. For example you could simply state your service could be investment advisory, or your product is a rubber doll.

    Define your team and the members. If not now, you will need to have team members later; you can also call them board members, management team, and people to run the ship with you. It’s better to define them now, not when the need arises. The reason is because when the need arises you might not know then that that is the missing link or the trouble spot. As an entrepreneur/business owner, pro-activity is the key to getting ahead and staying there. Stating your team members also helps you define how far you plan to go with your enterprise. Maybe you plan to sell it once it gets very big or you plan to keep it till it goes public or you plan to run the company alone till the day you die of exhaustion or hypertension or heart attack or all these combined.

Having a team list helps you prepare your mind for the level of training you need to set up for expansion and succession as the company grows. A good example is like stating who is likely to be the CEO, listing other portfolios like General Manager Operations, General Manager Human Capital, Director of finance, Director Logistics, head training, etc. it is more of setting out your company organogram.

    State your core business and marketing strategy. For example is that you can decide to start small and grow over time or you will start with heavy advert and promotions while flooding the market with your product.

    The financial requirements. In stating this part, be realistic and specific. Let it include current minimum required financial commitment and a future outlay of a minimum of 3-5 years. State the expected costs, expected sales, projected balance sheet size, expected profits/losses for these periods and how much of these amounts you have available and how you plan on getting the rest and when.

    Set time lines realistically. For example, you can state that for an enterprise that requires one million (NGN1, 000, 000) Naira capital to start off that currently you have cash of four hundred thousand (NGN400, 000) Naira, an equipment costing two hundred thousand (NGN200, 000) Naira had previously been procured for other use by you which you would transfer to the company books at one hundred and fifty thousand (NGN150, 000) Naira while the other equipment costing four hundred and fifty thousand (NGN450, 000) Naira would be leased through a bank to start the company, the lease arrangement are already ongoing and equipment should arrive in three weeks by which time the company would kick off.

Once all the above have been done we move to the next level which is determining the marketing plan.

We are at your service as always.

SUCCESS IS YOURS ! ! !

emakhiomheayo@yahoo.com

Please don't forget to click on the 'join this site' button to ensure you get all our future publications directly to your email box.