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Business Plan
The Right Foundation For Your Business

A business plan is a written document that outline your vision for the future of your business. It describe and analise your business and gives detail projection about its future.

A business plan look at where your business is now, where it want to be at a given date and how you intend getting there. It also covers the financial aspect of starting or expanding your business. It look at how much money you need and how you intend paying them back.

Business plan is not only for business start-up. It is a document that needs regular review.

Purpose of a business plan

Business plan is about a business objectives and the strategy used for achieve its strategy. When a business lack a clear objective and strategy it will be difficult for that business to succeed.

Writing a business plan enable you to set a clear objective for your business and strategy for getting there.

The following are some of the major purpose of a business plan.

A good business plan gives a sense of direction to a business and provides a good action plan that act as a guide to the business.
A good plan helps an entrepreneur sets achievable target for his business and measures the business success.
Business plan enable you to identify likely problems and device a way of resolving such problem.
Business plan provides informations to investors and other stakeholders about your business, its aim, strategy of achieving its objectives and other information that can enable them make decission about the seriousness of your intention

Content of a business plan

A business plan should contain the following:

Purpose of the business

The purpose of the business should be clarify. You should be able to state a purpose that is beyond profit making.

Business Objectives

You should have a SMART objectives for your business. :

Specific
Measurable
Actionable
Realistic
Timed

You should have a long and short term objective for your business.

Business Strategy

Your business strategy is like an action plan you will follow to meet your business objectives.While your strategy may be flexible, it should always be grounded in thorough market research. You should investigate:

Potential customers and
Business competitors.
Economic and market conditions.
Your suppliers.
The staff, facilities and equipment required.
Trends and emerging technologies

Include in your strategy your business SWOT analysis, This is the listing of your business’ Strengths and Weaknesses and then the Opportunities and Threats to your business from the outside world. This will help you make sense of your research.

Budget

When preparing your business plan, adequate attention should be given to your budget. All investor will scrutinize your business budget before making investment decission.

Your budget should show the business cashflow and estimated profit projection for about two years. Your budget should properly shows the business estimated income and expenditure.

Remember to include contingencies in every area to cover unexpected costs. While you need to show confidence in your business, unrealistic projections are likely to do more harm than good.

Business Plan Resources

Executive Summary Am executive summary is a summary of your business plan. it is the first part of your business plan to be read but the last part to be written.

Business Description The business description tells your users of the business plan all about the business.It informs them of the nature, purpose and scope of the business. This is very important to the user's of the business plan because if gives them complete detail of the business.

Product and Services When writing about your business product and services, you have do describe to your investors what you are selling. You should also let them know how the product will benefit your consumers.

Market Analysis A market analysis is a documented investigation of a market. Market analisis is used to determin the attractiveness of a market. The finding of a market analysis is used to guide the investment decision.