Creating a business plan is one of the most important steps you will take because the plan serves as your road map for the early years of your business and an essential road map for business success. It defines exactly what you want to achieve and how you plan to achieve it. Business Plan will help you collate and clarify your business ideas, plan for the future of your business, and will help to show whether your idea is realistic and workable. Your
Business Plan will play a key role in attracting funding to get your business started,
Most small business owners never had business plan. In fact, most of them don’t know how to write it

Why you need a business plan
• It will define and focus your objective using appropriate information and analysis.
• You can use it as a selling tool in dealing with important relationships including your lenders, investors and banks.
• Your business plan can uncover omissions and/or weaknesses in your planning process.
• You can use the plan to solicit opinions and advice from people, including those in your intended field of business, who will freely give you invaluable advice.
• You will also end up with a plan that you can share with business partners, investors, and friends and family. Sharing your vision and your strategy is the best way to get everyone on the same page and pushing forward to build a successful business.
• Business plan can be use for more investment and to develop a better strategy for your business
I will like to show you how to write a good business plan for your small business and give you a great sense of what a finished plan looks like, what should be included, and how a plan should be structured. By creating your own business plan, you are going to have to think about how you are going to build your own business. What marketing tactics are you going to use? What kind of management team do you need to be successful? How is your business going to set itself apart from the competition?

STEPS TO WRITING A BUSINESS PLAN:
Your small business plan should clearly state:
Personal details:
 Name
 Address
 Country of residence
 Telephone contacts
 Educational background
 Relevant Work Experience

Business Details:
 Your business idea
 Resources, Expertise and Equipments needed
 Name: The name you choose for your business should reflect the image you want to project to your market. Pick one that’s easy to pronounce and remember. And make sure that it’s not already in use, as you won’t have to change it again by the time you want to register the name with CAC
 Type of Business; what you do: i.e The products or services it will provide
 Sales Promotion
 Business goals (short-term/Long-term)
 Financial goals (short-term/Long-term)
 Your pricing, selling methods (whether on credit base or cash base)
 How customers will access your products or services (for example, in a shop, mobile, online or by phone)
 Marketing and sales plans: Explain how you plan to market your business and generate sales. It helps to research your competition when drafting this section.
 Explain how your business will meet customer needs and how it will compete with similar businesses.
 Knowing your customers range/category i.e. are they young or old? Are they Male, female or both? Are they Elites or illiterates?
 Staffing: whether to take on employees and base on how – part-time or full time
 Funding requests: Outline current and expected funding needs for the next five years. Include a budget that shows how you expect to use invested capital and any long-term financial strategies

When you write your business plan, remember to be clear, realistic and concise. Use research to support your conclusions and include an action plan. And remember that business plans are dynamic documents – meaning that you should adjust your plan as your business develops.
I strongly believe that a good well written and followed business plan will help promote your business much more effectively.