Are you planning to start a poultry farming business? If your answer is yes, then you need to write a business plan. Whether you’re starting a small business or exploring ways to expand an existing one, a business plan is an important tool to help guide your decisions. It is essentially your roadmap to success because it will provide greater clarity on all aspects of your business, from marketing and finance to operations and product/service details.

While some owners may be tempted to jump directly into startup mode, writing a business plan is a crucial first step for budding entrepreneurs to check the viability of a business before investing too much time or money. The purpose of a business plan is to help articulate a strategy for starting your business. It also provides insight on steps to be taken, resources required for achieving your business goals and a timeline of anticipated results.

Poultry farming is the commercial rearing of chickens and other birds for their meat and production of eggs. The poultry industry has become one of the most efficient producers of protein for human consumption in response to public concern over dietary fat; poultry has become the popular substitute for beef and other types of meat.

The demand for eggs and chicken in cities has become more prevalent than ever before. The Nigerian poultry industry as at its last survey was estimated at ₦80 billion ($600 million) and comprises approximately 165 million birds and is growing tremendously. From a market size perspective, poultry production in Nigeria amounts up to 454 billion tonnes of meat and 3.8 million eggs per year, with a standing population of 180 million birds.

These statistics clearly show that the demand for poultry products is so high that a huge market has been created for smart entrepreneurs to tap from this. Regardless of this though, many small business owners who run poultry farms often aren’t able to properly articulate why they need business capital from their potential investors or how they intend to use the money once they get it.

One of the best ways you can convince lenders that you will put their money to good use is through a well-written business plan. With a well-written business plan, your chances of accessing the billions in the coffers of private and public institutions are greatly improved. As a small business owner, to write a good poultry farming business plan today, here are the key elements that must not be missed:

1. Company name, logo and Headline
Your company name should appear at the top of your business plan. If you can afford it, get a good graphic designer to design a professional logo for your poultry farming business as well. Do well to describe your company and the business opportunities it will be taking advantage of.
A good headline is compelling. It reveals the company’s mission statement, along with a short description of its products and services. It might also be a good idea to briefly explain why you’re starting your company and include details about your experience in the industry you’re entering.

Avoid needless repetitions here and enumerate your points neatly. Make sure you use strong, compelling and graphic words to describe your company and its business opportunity. Include in your headline the things that will make your company successful (e.g. innovative products, industry experience etc.)

2. Problem(s) your company will solve
Here you have to state the problem(s) that your poultry farming business intends to solve for your target customers. It is always a good idea to think about customer needs and customer benefits as you define your product offerings, rather than thinking of your side of the equation (how much the product or service costs, and how you deliver it to the customer).

The customer needs your poultry business is concerned with maybe new unmet needs in the industry or very simply be a new way of solving an agelong problem in your target market. These concerns could range from making poultry products affordable to low-earning workers who only eat poultry on festive occasions to ensuring that poultry products are well packed and prepared hygienically. Be as specific as possible here.

3. Your company’s solution
In this section, you must explain how your poultry farming business intends to solve the problems your target customers face. The lenders must see clearly what your company offers and how your solution provides a different and unique alternative to what is presently in the marketplace.

This is where you explain why your business stands out from other competitors in the industry and breaks down its strengths, including how it offers solutions for customers and the competitive advantages that will give your business an edge to succeed. For instance, you can specify that your poultry business will make poultry affordable to the masses by reducing the cost of raising poultry by using new feeding methods, practices and feed materials or eliminating the middleman in product distribution by supplying directly to the consumers through the use of e-commerce and community peer sales outlets.

4. Explain your target market
Naturally, the target market of those who are the end consumer of commercial poultry farm produce and also those who benefit from the business value chain of the poultry farming and egg production industry is all-encompassing.

Every household consumes produce from commercial poultry farms, be it chicken or egg. Almost all hotels and fast restaurants sell chicken and eggs. In essence, a commercial poultry farmer should be able to sell his or her chicken and eggs to as many people as possible.

You must be crystal clear about the type of people your poultry farming business intends to serve. Your business plan must be clear on the customers you want to concentrate on, the segment of the populace who will represent your primary market and the segment of the populace your business will actively ignore.

As you identify the potential customers for your poultry business (e.g. average income earners in Nigeria), ensure you get reliable statistics about them. You need to know the number of people who make up your target market and how much they averagely spend each year to address the problem you intend to solve. Do intensive market research here and rely only on credible sources.

5. Your competitive landscape
Whether your goal is to get a clearer picture of your business vision or to secure capital for your poultry farming business, you need to consider your competition. You need to have a good grasp of your competitive landscape, and so it’s best if you make a list of your competitors. Break down industry trends and themes. Show what other businesses are doing and how they are succeeding or failing.

As you list your top competitors, describe or state what makes your solution better or more attractive than theirs. A good poultry farming business plan will present a clear comparison of your business vs your direct and indirect competitors. This is where you prove your knowledge of the industry by breaking down their strengths and weaknesses. Your end goal is to show how your business will stack up. Above all, the numbers should help answer why your business can do it better.

6. Funding needs
If your goal is to raise revenue for your small business, then your business plan must have a section dedicated wholly to funding. In this section, you state the amount of money you want to raise and how you intend to spend the money on your poultry business. If you need funding, this section focuses on the amount of money that you need to set up your business and how you plan to use the capital that you are raising.

For instance, if you intend to raise N1,000,000 for your poultry business, you can further break it down as follows:

Processing Equipment and Machinery— N400,000
Staff & Personnel— N200,000
Birds— N200,000
Feeding Material— N200,000
Be as detailed as possible here.

7. Your sales channels and strategies
Your poultry farming business plan should briefly explain how you plan to get your products or services to market. Your sales strategy must be specific. Break down how many sales reps you will need to hire and how you will recruit them and bring them on board. Make sure to include your sales targets as well.

Are you selling and delivering to your target customers directly through a retail store, website, or catalogue? Do you plan to have a sales team? Do you plan to sell through intermediaries, distributors, dealers, resellers, or others? Identifying your sales channels is important to understand the economics of your business model.

Your sales channels can be outlined to include online stores: where customers can order directly to their homes; peer sales outlets in densely populated areas where customers can buy poultry products from and any other channels you’d choose to sell your products through.

Continue reading here... https://www.sme360.ng/2021/03/17/how-to-write-a-poultry-farming-business-plan/

Good job op, this is the easiest way to write any business proposal not just for only poultry. It is good to be a nairalander where you see the good, the bad and the ugly.

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Nice one @op
It is a good format to start with.