Step-By-Step Guide to Writing a Business Plan
Doing business anywhere can be tough. But it doesn’t have to be. When you have a business plan in Nigeria, your venture can be much easier than you think. A business plan is an invaluable tool that guides your business and prepares you for future risk. This article will show you how to write a good business plan in Nigeria.
What Is a Business Plan?
A business plan, as the name implies, is a plan for a business (usually a new business) in a written document that gives a sketch, describes, and draws in detail how the business will achieve, reach, execute and accomplish its goals. It is a writing conveying information that outlines the operational and financial aims of a business. It is safe to call it “the business strategy” or “road map”. There are specific step by step guides for writing a good business plan.
Aside from the common mistake that most entrepreneurs make in their business, quite a number of businesses have started and crashed down because of a poorly written business plan or the lack of one. Having a good business plan in Nigeria will serve as a guide through every stage of your business from starting to managing and even dealing with your profits. A business plan can also be used to help you get loans from banks and get people to invest in your business. Likewise, securing grants for your business.
I know how confusing it might seem, and that’s why I’ll be sharing with you 9 easy steps to guide you in writing a business plan in Nigeria:
1. Executive Summary
Here is an important part of your business plan because this is the first part that the reader encounters. It should contain everything about your business including your mission, your objectives, business background, and keys to success. While you must cover everything on this page, be sure to keep it straight to the point.
2. Business Description Summary
In this section, you should state the nature of your business, who your target audience is, and what gives your business an advantage against the others. Be sure to define the services you offer clearly and the problems you hope to solve. Perhaps, you want to run a business of dried fruits, under this section, you’d state that you hope to solve the problem of fruit spoilage when large purchases have been made or for a long time.
This is an essential part of writing your business plan in Nigeria. It will give whoever is reading your plan a true insight into what you’re doing and if they should invest or give you a loan. If you have a location where your business is located, it should be mentioned here too. Your business description should contain all of your strengths and should be appealing to whoever reads it.
3. Product and Service Summary
You cannot write a business plan in Nigeria without in-depth details of the things your business is about.
What sort of products are you producing? What are the services you offer? Are those the only products and services you will offer? Do you intend to add more? Where do you get your raw materials from? How much does it cost you to get a full batch of production? How much profit return does your product bring back?
These are the questions the product and service summary section answer.
4. Market Analysis Summary
Before writing this, you will need to conduct a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threats. This analysis will show you what other businesses are doing, what is the trend and theme related to your business, what’s its position and value in the large-scale market. It’ll help you understand who your competitors are, their strengths, what do successful competitors do? How it works.
After knowing all of that, you should include it in your plan and also, plan strategies on how you can do it better than they did. This is really an essential step in writing a business plan in this country.
5. Management Summary
Here, details of how the business or company is being run, about yourself, and partners you might have (if you are not running it alone) should be noted. How many shares do you have and how much percentage do your partners have?
In addition, include the team that runs the business and highlight their expertise and abilities. It’s safe to mention notable staff, their roles, and talents also. You should also include your plans of getting more people in the team as your business expands if you have any.
6. Strategy and Implementation Summary
In this aspect, it should contain details about how you intend to interact with your target audience – your customers. You should include your brand message, planned advertisements, and promotions that will attract people to your brand.
Furthermore, sales representatives and marketing agents, as well as methods of marketing and outreach, should be included with the strengths. In addition, it should include the advantages your business has over others and how you intend to use that to your sales advantage.
This is a crucial part of your business plan in Nigeria. It plays an important role in convincing your investors that investing will not make them suffer losses.
7. Financial Summary
Here is also an important part of your plan and should include accurate and up-to-date details of your finances. You should include cash flow statements, assets, debts if you have any. More so, the financial state of your business should also be up to date at the time of writing the plan.
You should also include how your finances are being managed, how revenue is being generated. Again, you should include who is in charge of finances, how accurate your financial predictions have been, and if you have been able to reach the goals you set out.
At a glance, your readers should be able to tell if your business is in a healthy cash position or not. If your business is just starting, be sure to include the present relevant details and avoid including false or twisted information.
8. Funding Request
There might not be a need to include this if you do not intend to ask for a loan or grant. This should contain how much you need and details on how the funds acquired would be spent. Additionally, if you are getting a loan, indicate your payment plan and if it is an investment, state the benefits that the investor would gain from their investment in your business.
You should make sure that the details you provide are accurate and detailed to clear every doubt your reader might have.
9. Appendix
Lastly, this should contain other information you may want to add including legal documents, contracts, etc.
Conclusion
Now, with your understanding on how to write a business plan in Nigeria, be sure to be straight to the point and honest with every detail you provide. If you’re still confused, you can head over to a site called bplan. There you can get different samples to practice with.
For people who have so much on their hands or can’t just find time to write a business plan themselves, just visit Mediahooch. They handle writing business and every or anything regarding branding and marketing, can be professionally executed by them.
You should also check out tips for new business owners, this will greatly help your business.
Good luck!
