Geography & History Notes | KCSE, NECTA, ZIMSEC & GCSE

HERE ARE 7 STEPS INVOLVED IN PREPARING A BUSINESS PLAN  1. Selecting a business opportunity or type of business to engage in, for instance, trading business, service provision business, manufacturing, agro business, e.t.c. 2. Conducting market survey for a selected type of business. This involves gathering information from respondents by communicating with them. 3. Collecting all the relevant data concerning the different aspects of the business and establish the costs of different items like machinery and equipment, raw materials, transport, e.t.c. 4. Drafting the business plan. 5. Discussing the drafted business plan with technical/knowledgeable or experienced people in the similar business. 6. Making a final business plan. 7. Finalizing the business plan process by preparing an action plan for the implementation of the planned activities.

  In the business plan preparation, the entrepreneur is expected to have broken down all the contents of the plan under the following sub headings; 1. General description of the business. 2. Statement of mission, goals and objectives. 3. The Marketing plan 4. The Production plan 5. The Financial plan 6. The Organisational plan (Administrative/Management plan) 7. The Action plan General description of the business This involves giving summarized information about the business. Therefore general description of the business involves establishing the name, address and location of the business, the type of business being planned, the needs of the market it seeks to fulfill, a summary of how the intended business will be different from other businesses (uniqueness) as well as making an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) that the business is likely to face. Statement of mission, goals and objectives These are brief statements indicating why the busines...

 1. It encourages the entrepreneurs and people involved in the proposed business to think about it in a systematic way, i.e it helps the entrepreneurs and his/her staff to focus on important issues and activities for the new venture. 2. It defines the specific goals and objectives of the business which help to serve as bench marks to measure the progress of the business in implementing the planned activities. 3. It consists of an action plan which acts as a time table for implementation of various business activities in a sequenced way. This helps the entrepreneur to ensure that different activities are implemented at the right time as planned. 4. It provides the entrepreneur with information about where the business is going (future of the business). 5. It helps the entrepreneur to identify challenges in advance and lay strategies of overcoming the challenges before they affect his/her business operations. 6. It helps the entrepreneur to monitor the performance of his business ove...