Overview – How to Write a Business Plan
Starting a business is somewhat akin to building a house. Even more so in the modern-day world where a majority of things can go wrong even before you think you have begun.
Just like building a home, good businesses last because they have been crafted from the beginning with well-structured intentions and projections.
That is what all plans are at the end, blueprints and guardrails to give the planner (in this case the entrepreneur) more control over the outcomes of their goals.
Good plans prune your projections into realistic thresholds and takes into consideration as many parameters as are available to the you.
Actually, a well written and rounded business plan should be able to confirm to just about anyone who reads it how feasible your plans are, including potential investors.
Before we move ahead of ourselves, let us first examine the meaning of a business plan more definitely before we dive into how to write a business plan.
LOOKING FOR THE BEST BUSINESS PLAN WRITERS?
In 2020 alone, our business plans at Sam&Wright helped our clients raise a total of $2.75 million. If you can’t afford to waste time and money with a sloppy business plan, schedule a call to speak to us.
Note: Our business plan writing service starts from $500
What Is A Business Plan?
A business plan is a written document that contains a structured breakdown of the objectives, goals and strategies that a business has chosen to achieve those goals.
The ideal business plan should be practicable, easy to understand and refined enough to project the entrepreneur’s blueprint feasibly to the average reader.
Frankly, a large number of Nigerian startups fail to understand the true significance of this one document.
It is the first substantial step any entrepreneur has to take to kickstart their idea. Once completed, a well written plan embodies your idea and carries it onto itself, ready to be set into motion.
It is as such that most investors in the Nigerian market require this document before they can involve themselves with any businesses.
Basically, if you are an entrepreneur in need of financial aid to run your poultry farming business, you’ll need a very convincing well-researched business plan to provide a clear picture of your business model along with all it’s financial and legal intricacies.
Anything other than this is a recipe for disaster that could be easily avoided.
With that said, let’s review some of those common mistakes Nigerian entrepreneurs make when preparing their business plan.
Common mistakes when writing a business plan
The purpose of a business plan can be misconstrued very easily. This fact has made a lot of Nigerian business start-ups botch the preparation of their business plans by focusing totally on the wrong things.
A good business plan exists first and foremost as a guide. Look at it as a form of investment that if properly maintained and updated will be well worth its foresight in gold.
However, a highly effective business plan does not just exist as a concise guide but doubles up as a means for an entrepreneur to secure funding from external sources (banks, investors, grants and other financial institutions).
Knowing this, it’s easy to zero in on some of those common mistakes made by average Nigerian entrepreneur. These faults are easily avoidable if you focus on the reasons mentioned above and stay true to them
Here are some of the more commonly occurring mistakes in business planning;
1. Not making the plan adaptable – business plans are meant to be dynamic; they are meant to change to fit specific situations especially when in pursuit of funding when your audience would differ greatly across a large spectrum of potential financial sources.
2. Not doing enough research – before preparing any plan a certain amount of knowledge has to be gained about whatever market niche your business is in. without an up to date idea of the circumstances of the market, your plan will be deficient in forming an accurate projection.
3. Not constantly updating the plan – you have to ensure that your plan evolves along with the multiples of variables that it is attached to. That includes your business reality and the reality of the market, whatever they are at the moment you are preparing your plan. these variables do not tend to stay static, hence the need for constant review.
4. Not ensuring that the plan is viable before pitching – it very easy to fall prey of overreaching plans and overly enthusiastic and unrealistic business goals. Most investors are conscious of this and would be able to tell if your plans are realistic or just filled with empty words and projections.
How to write a business plan in 5 steps
Writing a business plan may seem daunting and complicated but with a systematic approach, you can easily achieve this task with the right guidance.
Here’s a five-step strategy to aid you and help narrow it down to easily actionable bits.
1. Know the purpose of the plan
Before unknowingly wasting precious time writing a plan that wouldn’t fit its purpose, it’s very important that you know before taking any steps who exactly is going to be reading your plan.
For example, a simple plan written for the purpose of attracting investors would always differ from one written for internal use only.
Furthermore, before writing any part of your plan, even in the search for investors, you should consider especially who your readers are and try as much to cater to their particular expectations without losing track of your initial road map.
That said, you should aim to make your plan adaptable, editing it as the situation demands.
2. Do your research
To write the most functional and perfect business plan you need to know a lot of things and that means research.
It’s considered a safe bet in theses matters to spend twice as much time researching as you would actually spend drafting the actual business plan.
This is because entrepreneurs need to know their market sphere, their customers, their product and services very intimately to draw any plan of relevance. Read everything you can afford to read.
Talk to people, seek professional counsel. Blow up YouTube. Scour the internet. Ultimately, as a business owner you’ll have to eventually make it into a habit and constantly inform yourself whenever the chance presents itself.
That’s how you grow.
3. Summarize your whole plan, be as brief and passionate as you can.
This part of the plan is usually referred to as the executive summary and it usually is the part of your plan that convinces the reader if they want to know more about your business.
That is why it’s very important that you do not make mistakes here. Whatever summary you end up putting on the plan would serve as the façade, the doorway into your plan.
Be as brief as you can. Be passionate. Entice them into the doorway.
4. Use your research, construct the body of the plan, fill in the blanks and flesh out the plan.
This step involves you filling your plan with more valid details to enhance the reader’s view of your idea.
Starting from a proper description of your company, you have to share all the relevant information that connects together to form your typical business plan.
This includes:
- Company description and overview
- Market or industry analysis
- Organization and management
- Service or product line
- Marketing and sales
- Operations plan
- Financial projections
Maintain the same earnestness and confident passion from your summary, present as detailed a description as you can using whatever medium can portray your ideas the best – tables, charts, verified industry statistics etc.
5. Attach all valid documentation.
To ensure that there is no doubt as to the viability of your claims in your plans, you need to present a backbone of supporting documents and specially requested details as the situation requires.
The situation may demand things like permits, receipts, licenses, patents, resumes, contracts but it usually varies depending your plan too.
Business Plan templates for small businesses in Nigeria in 2021
1. Poultry business plan
The food industry is always constantly in demand of poultry products. It’s no wonder that this industry is one of the behemoths of the farming industry.
In the country, there are thousands of homes that have a makeshift chicken stalls in their backyards.
From that remote level right up to the big leagues of industrial poultry farming, the industry still holds so much promise and an ever-increasing demand.
Looking to create a business plan for your poultry business? Click here to check out our poultry farm business template.
2. Fish farming business plan
This industry is similar to the poultry in that a lot of average families dabble on the retail level too.
The market has evolved quite well in the past decade. People are more open, willing even to wade into these financial waters.
3. Fashion business plan
It is safe to say that there has been quite the upsurge in activity in the Nigerian fashion industry of late.
More fashion entrepreneurs have emerged and more activity means more investors usually. That’s a good thing.
4. Pig farming business plan
As it stands agriculture in Nigeria, has quite the global reputation.
The sector’s potential for growth keeps encouraging economic activity regardless of the general outlook. Pig farmers also enjoy access to a lot of these growing opportunities.
5. Bakery business plan in Nigeria
The Nigerian market for baked products like bread, chin-chin, fish rolls, buns and biscuits is huge.
This has in turn created a huge demand in the wheat flour industry. Opportunities keep materializing in this industry.
Growth in this sphere is like the ever-malleable dough, able to take a lot of unexpected forms.
6. Pure water business plan
The pure sachet water economy has settled in the country’s economic bowels since it’s inception.
In recent times, the players in the industry have exponentially increased.
With the constantly brewing competition, and ever-present demand for drinking water – this industry would always draw investment.
7. Food processing business plan
This industry siphons raw materials directly from Nigeria’s generally robust agricultural economy.
That direct supply chain has brokered growth in the food processing industry and made room for some new kids on the block. There’s even room for more.
8. Snail farming business plan
This market is quite niche but a lot of local delicacies require the support of well garnished snail meat.
Because of this, the snail business remains profitable and even grows in popularity.
9. Restaurant business plan
The restaurant businesses in Nigeria are also evolving, and within this evolution trying out newer and bolder techniques to stay astride the economic rail.
Seeing as we cannot do food without, the country’s restaurant market is definitely looking at better days ahead.
10. Salon business Plan
This constitutes one of the largest individual owned businesses in Nigeria.
The skilled services an average salon offers does not require any college degree or qualification of any sort. This a lucrative business niche and that isn’t changing any time soon.
11. Goods export business plan
Nigeria is a major exporter of raw materials in a lot of industries, this is evidenced in our ever busy ports and boundaries.
So long as our export channels are open, this industry will bustle constantly with opportunities.
12. Nursery and primary school business plan
Schools in the country are starting to kick back and resurge after last year’s drop.
This new resurgence has proved to be slightly different and a re-adaptation of the previous schemes.
13. Mini Importation/ecommerce business plan
There are a load of products that fall into this category. Products that are in demand in Nigeria, that need entrepreneurs to set up a pipeline.
This in addition to recent Ecommerce advancements in the country, means the industry cannot grow fast enough.
Funding opportunities for small businesses in Nigeria
To take it home, let’s address one of the major issues faced by small businesses across the globe.
The problem of capital. Because it’s a major and common place problem, a lot of solutions exist in the form of grants, loans and charities.
These setups exist to assist businesses and there are quite a few them:
1. Bank of Industry youth entrepreneurship support program. (BOI)
The BOI grant exists as part an initiative that hopes to mentor, train and fund innovative business ideas.
It is targeted towards young entrepreneurs and was conceived of as means to tackle the increasing rate of unemployment in the youths.
The Youth Entrepreneurship Support Program (YES) of the BOI aims to expand the knowledge of the youths and finance their ideas.
You can visit their website to apply: Click here to apply
2. Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program (TEEP)
This program occurs yearly and was launched by one of the country’s business giants, Mr. Tony Elumelu via his Foundation (Tony Elumelu Foundation).
Since 2015 that the program launched, every year, the program selects 1000 entrepreneurs across the African continent out of a staggering 50,000 applicants.
Each of these applications is examined by business professionals in the industry. The selected candidates are usually chosen based on their market feasibility
You can visit their website to apply: Click here to apply
3. GroFin Fund
GroFin is setup to fund and support small and growing businesses (SGB’s), focusing on those that are heavily underserved by other funding aids and financiers.
The initiative provides a unique solution for patient risk capital. An integrated approach to support start-up and growing businesses at the SME Base.
They have a fund size of more than $100 million to funding micro, small and medium businesses in the country (MSMEs).
You can visit their website to apply: Click here to apply
4. Youwin Connect Nigeria
This is a multimedia program set-up by the Federal ministry of finance to promote entrepreneurship, innovation and wealth through enterprise education of young citizens of the country.
These entrepreneurs will improve their productivity by acquiring relevant SME development tools.
Ventures like YouWin promote the government’s goal of diversifying the economy and promoting competition and transparency.
You can visit their website to apply: Click here to apply
Conclusion
To write a business plan that serves its purpose, you have to try your best to make the words on the page tell your story. Your words should talk to the reader and convince them as it convinced you.
If a plan speaks for you, passionately and true, it will move mountains.
LOOKING FOR THE BEST BUSINESS PLAN WRITERS?
In 2020 alone, our business plans at Sam&Wright helped our clients raise a total of $2.75 million. If you can’t afford to waste time and money with a sloppy business plan, schedule a call to speak to us.
Note: Our business plan writing service starts from $500
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