Every successful entrepreneur can say with confidence that one of the most important parts of business organization is having a good business plan. It is necessary so that you can visualize your goals and how much money to invest in each step of the project development. Besides, he or she must know when the next expenses, as well as the first profit, is to be expected.
Having a business plan can help you find partners or investors for the business and also to get a loan for starting or developing the company. Before we will explain how to write a high-quality business plan let's try to figure out- what is a business plan and what types of business plans exist?
What is a business plan?
A business plan is a document or a guide that describes an idea of the project, business processes and mechanisms for their implementation to achieve the goals stated by the author of the document (business plan).
Top types of the business plans in Nigeria:
Investment business plan
It is created for investors and describes the features of the future enterprise and contains detailed data on marketing research.
Enterprise business plan
This type of business plan is the most popular kind created by beginners. The standard form is used here.
A loan plan
This one is required to get a loan from a bank. It shows how much you need for the loan, how the funds will be spent and when the loan will be returned. To date, lending for small businesses is very popular.
A business plan for a grant
This means an aid or loan from the country or foreign donors. In this case, the benefits from your entrepreneurial activity are highlighted for a particular region or the whole country.
So, how to write a business plan?
How to write a good business plan by yourself?
To make a business plan by yourself, you'll need to follow a few rules.
First, appraise all the Pros and Cons, determine the competitiveness of the proposed type of service or product, and consider the sales market, payback, the timing of profit. It is also important to allocate a sum of capital investments then dividing the investment into several steps. If you adhere to the structures, you can create a sequence of actions.
Note that there is no project structure regulated by norms and standards. Each entrepreneur, registering as a PI or LLC, regulates the list of items and the scope of documents regarding his project by him(her)self. But, keep in mind, if you want to attract outside investors, you need to adhere to the special recommendations strictly.
Document’s structure
Any project consists of several items that a business owner must list. Below, you have a step-by-step instruction on how to compile this document starting with the project summary and ending with organizational questions. Please note, in the case of the LLC companies, it may require a more detailed sequence of actions.
A business plan begins with the title page. It includes:
name of the business planname of the project developerdate and place of compilation
Then a memorandum of confidentiality follows, as drafting a business plan is a rather laborious process and you'll not want someone to steal your idea.
Then you have the document’s structure. It can differ depending on the method of plan construction used: UNIDO, EBRD or KPMG.
How to write a business plan under the UNIDO standards?
Below we offer you a structure of the document under the UNIDO standards, but the following business plan format is not mandatory.
1. Summary
It briefly outlines the content of the future project, the main idea, and conclusions. It’s approximately in 6-7 small sentences. After reading this resume, a person should understand what will be discussed further and what the venture will lead to. It’s not a complicated aspect so it should not take much time.
Divide the information into the following points:
amount of investment and loan fundsmaturityinvestors involvementguarantees and risksplanned period of payback
Remember: it’s the only part of the document that will be read by everyone!
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