Having spent the last couple of years writing plan for clients, I have some great tips to share, in other to help you write your Business plan. I believe that Nigeria needs more Entrepreneurs like you, to help reduce the level of unemployment that is currently bedeviling the nation. This is my own little way of assisting in making more entrepreneurs and by extension reducing unemployment in Nigeria.
You have a great idea, now you're ready to take that great idea that you have and turn it into a profitable venture. To achieve that, you'll need to know how you are going to develop your business, when you are going to do it, who's going to be involved and how you will manage the finances.
The process of building your plan will focus your mind on how your new business will need to operate to give it the best chance of success.

Your business plan should be a reflection of the purpose of your business and serve as a map with which you operate your business when you get started eventually. Let’s take for example, after making your sales projections, you determine that you need to make a gross revenue of NGN1,000,000 monthly to break even, this means that your monthly revenue target should be at least NGN1,000,000 for you to remain in Business. Well that’s the basics. So let’s get started. Our discussion will contain the following:

1> Introduction
2> Need for advisor or help in writing your business plan
3> The purpose of your business plan
4> The length of your plan
5> What should be the contents of your business plan
6> First impression matters
7> Detail discussion of the contents of your plan

Introduction
For the entrepreneur, writing a business plan can be one of the most difficult tasks. In its simplest form a business plan is like a map with which you navigate the waters of business. It defines where you want your business to be within a certain period of time (usually 12 months to five years) and how you plan on getting there. It's as important for starting a business as architectural plans are for constructing a building.

It is a chance to refine strategies and "make mistakes on paper" rather than in the real world, by examining the company from all perspectives, such as marketing, finance, and operations. It's a vital document to have if you are going to approach potential investors and funders (eg YouWin). Once completed, a business plan will make you feel more confident about your ability to set up and operate the business.

Need for advisors/help in writing your business plan
Considering the fact that the business plan is yours, it is best written by you or you and your partners, but you may need professional help from an accountant or other business adviser who can provide assistance and guidance in the preparation of your business plan. You must however maintain control over your plan and have the ability to understand it.

The purpose of your business plan
You cannot travel to an unknown destination without a map or atleast a description. Drawing up a business plan will help you to identify where your business is headed, your strengths and weaknesses, key areas where you need to develop expertise and the financial risk involved in setting up the business.

It represents the dynamic process of planning and reviewing the business strategy over time, and it should be continually updated.
a) For Start-ups
An entrepreneur who is launching a new business will write a business plan with the aim of attracting start-up financing, both capital investment and loans. Attracting an investor, whether it's a venture capitalist or angel investor, is not an easy task. It takes time and patience. You can attract investors for your start-up with preparation, planning, strategy and proper research, all of which will shine through in the business plan. You may also want to use crowd funding to finance your business, especially in Nigeria where getting a hassle free loan is very challenging. I will explain more on crowd funding later. But for you to get crowd funding, a convincing business plan is a must.
b) What if I am doing the financing
It is great that you have all the money for the financing. But do not make unnecessary assumptions that will make you lose your money. Some of such assumptions include (People will buy my product or my services will sell). You need to test all these assumptions before you commit your hard earned money. Even if you're starting a business without outside investors and you're funding it all yourself that does not mean you don't need a business plan. In fact, if you want to minimise uncertainty and maximise your chance of success a business plan is essential. You can use it to focus on the elements of the business that are going to help you build and grow it, providing you with a blueprint.
c) For Existing businesses
Business successes do not happen by accident. It requires consistent and conscious efforts. Growing or expanding an existing business requires careful planning. Owners of existing businesses have overcome many hurdles in the pre-planning and start-up stage. But they continue to face a variety of challenges such as competition, dwindling sales, high rising cost of doing business etc. Business owners must effectively use limited resources to improve their position in the market while continuing to manage the critical aspects of their operations. To achieve long-term success, business owners must lay the foundation for future growth in the business plan.

What should be the length of your business plan
A typical business plan runs 15 to 20 pages, but much will depend on the nature of your business. If you have a simple concept, you may be able to express it in a few pages. If you're proposing a completely new kind of business you may have to provide a more in-depth explanation. The purpose of your plan will also determine its length. If you want to use it to seek millions of Naira in seed capital to start a risky venture, you may have to do a lot of explaining.

What should be the contents of your business plan
Business plans generally include the following sections:
1. Table of contents: Here write main headings of the business plan and their page numbers. You need to complete this section last to ensure the numbers are correct.
2. Executive summary: Her you include the major points of your business plan in two pages or less.
3. Company overview: Your mission, vision, values, products, unique attributes, and the business opportunity or gap in the market that you plan to take advantage of.
4. Business environment: An analysis of your industry, your marketplace, your customers, your competition, and how you measure up against them. This will be based on the research you conducted prior to writing the business plan. Discuss why this gap exists, how you identified it and how you will fill it.
When writing about the industry, provide information about barriers to entry and how easy or difficult it is for future competitors to enter the same market and offer the same product or service as you do. Describe customers, list suppliers, name competitors and state the total size of the market, what percentage of the market share you will have, and major trends.
5. Company description: This is where you give an overview of the company and its business. Include the company's name, mission statement, goals and objectives, and strengths. Talk about the capabilities that give you a unique advantage over your competitors - including your management, technology, operations, distribution, service, finances and marketing. If you have a registered company name, trademarks, patents, BEE credentials and a VAT number include those details here.
6. Company Strategy: Your roadmap to the future (including how you'll seize opportunities and avoid threats), your growth plans, your promotional strategy and even your exit strategy.
7. Business model: Your business model must include information on what your company offers, what makes your offering unique, who you will sell to and how you will make your money. Consider the source of revenue, the major costs incurred in generating revenue, the profitability of the business, the investment required to get the business up and running and the critical success factors.
8. Strategy: How will your business compete in its specific market? Explain the strategic choices you have made including the focus of the business, how you will create a unique value proposition, what is distinctive about your business and what value there is for customers.
9. Management team: Provide a breakdown of the people in the business. Include founders and their qualifications and experience, a description of who will manage the business, and an organisational chart.
10. Marketing plan: The marketing plan should include important marketing decisions about the product or service and its value, as well as a detailed description of the target market, the product or service's positioning, the pricing strategy, the sales and distribution channels and the promotion strategy.
11. Operations plan: Here you must explain the daily operation of your business. It should include the business's operating cycle, where the skills and materials will be sourced from, if anything is to be outsourced and how you will manage those relationships, and the payment cycle.
12. Financial review: This is the state of your finances, including your income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, profit projection, and budget. The financial plan is an overview of your business's financial future. You should back up the main features of the financial plan with accurate financial projections.
Include start-up expenses and capitalisation, a 12-month profit and loss projection, a 12-month cash-flow projection, a projected balance sheet at start-up and at the end of years one, and three, and a break-even calculation.
13. Action plan & timeline: Steps you'll take to implement your business plan to meet your goals and objectives.
14. Appendix: Here you can attach supporting documents like brochures and advertising, industry studies, blueprints and plans, maps and photos of locations, articles, lists of equipment, contracts, letters of support from future customers, market research studies, and detailed financial calculations and projections.

I will explain each of these concepts in detail with examples, in the course of this thread .

First impression matters
Nothing highlights sloppiness more than a business plan with spelling and grammar errors. Once you have completed your plan, have someone read it and copy edit the document to ensure there are no language mistakes.

The next series of write ups will be detailed explanation of the contents of your business plan, but not after I have answered some of your questions. So hit me up.

The is very insightful, thanks a lot.

Pls I would like to ask this question:
What is the place of a business plan in writing a business proposal, especially in a service rendering proposal?

masterpiecer: The is very insightful, thanks a lot.
Pls I would like to ask this question:
What is the place of a business plan in writing a business proposal, especially in a service rendering proposal?

Thanks for your question. I am sure you understand the difference between a business plan and a Business proposal. I have had instances when clients come to me saying they want a business plan and after interviewing them, I get to realize that what they actually need is a Business proposal and vice versa. A business plan and a business proposal are altogether different documents. By the by, the two documents have distinctive purposes and objectives. A business plan is an accurate expansive portrayal of an organization and its prospects. A business proposal is a focused sales document expected to show how an organization will approach a project, state the estimation of the project to the customer and then solicits the customer's business. A business plan is a written presentation of certainty. A business proposal is a quote and call to action.

Based on this you notice that a Proposal is more of a document that needs to portray your organisation as competent enough to do a given project.

The structure of a Business Proposal is such that a business proposal is usually written in response to an RFP or to create and develop a business opportunity. Proposal in response to RFP should follow the format requested in the RFP. Generally, this involves a quick description of your company's services and products that are relevant to the goals of the RFP, a reiteration of the scope of work, answers to specific questions posed in the RFP and a quote detailing materials, tools, labor, delivery and other elements of the cost of the project. while an unsolicited business proposal intended to create and develop a business opportunity follows essentially the same format but anticipates questions the potential client might have. A proposal is more of a marketing document, designed to convince the audience to do business by presenting a value proposition and a call to action. Hence the relationship that exists between a Business plan and a Business proposal is mainly based on the fact that your proposals should always be in line with your business Values, Tenets, Vision and Objectives as clearly spelt out in your business plan.

Meaning that your Business Plan should serve as an input into the development of your Business proposals.

Thank you so much Op. Quite an intelligent post. I must say we still have intelligent chaps in Nigera . Please I am on the verge of writing my plan for the start up of a car wash business in Lagos. I need help on how to come up with a convincing plan that will enable me get finance from investors.

priscasegz: Thank you so much Op. Quite an intelligent post. I must say we still have intelligent chaps in Nigera . Please I am on the verge of writing my plan for the start up of a car wash business in Lagos. I need help on how to come up with a convincing plan that will enable me get finance from investors.

Hi Priscasegz, I am sure with the outline I gave so far you can pull this through. However if you have any challenge in the writing of you plan you can pm me or send a mail to info@cielglobalresources.com

Wish you the best as you start up your business.

I work for an lng company. We are into sale of liquified natural gas. I was asked to draft a proposal for companies in lagos suggesting lng as a cheaper and clean alternative to diesel. Please how do I go about this?

Thanks for the answer, I appreciate

Ranwuli: I work for an lng company. We are into sale of liquified natural gas. I was asked to draft a proposal for companies in lagos suggesting lng as a cheaper and clean alternative to diesel. Please how do I go about this?

I will be sharing a comprehensive approach to business proposal writing in the next couple of days.

masterpiecer: Thanks for the answer, I appreciate

you are welcome

OBALINE:

Hi Priscasegz, I am sure with the outline I gave so far you can pull this through. However if you have any challenge in the writing of you plan you can pm me or send a mail to info@cielglobalresources.com

Wish you the best as you start up your business.

i just sent u an emai , pls chk it and get back to me . thanks

Ranwuli: I work for an lng company. We are into sale of liquified natural gas. I was asked to draft a proposal for companies in lagos suggesting lng as a cheaper and clean alternative to diesel. Please how do I go about this?

Can ur company supply a vessel load of diesel? 5metric tons of diesel to be precise?!

Pls its urgent... U can get back to me thru 07062503257 or email aphynih@gmail.com

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Good one..

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See factors you can consider while writing your business plan...

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Great post, actually this document is not that simple, it's important to stick to the structure and also be concise and precise in your miscalculations. Before writing, I studied the business plan process in order to better understand how it works.