How to write your own business plan (part one) [2006]
- Date : (2006-04-27)
- Author : SAIE
How to write your own business plan (part one)
Profile Nando’s Chickenland is one of South Africa’s most successful business stories. The company is famous for its delicious flame-grilled, Portuguese-style chicken. It is also famous for it’s daring, irreverent and hilarious advertising campaigns. It all began when Fernando Duarte took his friend Robert Brozin to eat at Chickenland in Rosettenville, Johannesburg. So impressed with the restaurant’s delicious chicken, Brozin persuaded Duarte to team up with him and buy the restaurant. With careful planning and a clear vision of where they wanted to go, the duo kept the basic Portuguese identity and launched Nando’s Chickenland. Before they could count their chickens, Nando’s fast-food outlets were opening throughout South Africa. But they didn’t stop there. Soon Nando’s clucked it’s way into 21 countries around the world, including Australia and the UK. Thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign and knock-out product, Nando’s became the chicken that laid the proverbial golden egg!
What goes into a business plan? Writing a business plan is perhaps one of the most important steps you can take in starting your business. Firstly, it will help you crystallize what you need to get started and where you intend to go with your business. Secondly, it will help you to work out how viable your business is and provide you with the means to apply for a business loan. The business plan is split into two parts. In this issue we will cover the summary, the business venture and marketing. 1) Summary. The first page of your business plan should be a summary. Your summary should: Describe your business in one simple sentence. Describe each of the business partners. Make the reader excited about reading the business plan! 2) The business venture. 2a) Market need. Describe why you think customers need or want your goods or service. Explain why customers will be desperate to buy your products or use your service, rather than use any others! 2b) Customer research. Describe the research you have done to find out more about your customers. Who are your customers? What ages are they? Are they boys or girls or both? Men or women or both? What kind of people are they? 2c) Competitor research. Describe the research you have done to find out more about your competitors. Who are your direct competitors and your indirect competitors. What products and services do they offer? What are their prices? 2d) SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. List and rank your internal strengths and weaknesses. List and rank your external opportunities and threats. Provide an action plan showing how you will: build strengths, overcome weaknesses, explore opportunities and minimise threats. 3) Marketing. 3a) Product positioning. How have you made your product or service stand out from competitors’ offerings? Describe the features and benefits of your product or service. (For a T-shirt, a feature might be softness. What's the benefit of that feature? Comfort.) 3b) Promotion. How will you promote your product or service? What materials will you use? Who will you get to help you promote your business? 3c) Place. Where and by what means will you sell your goods or offer your service? Be specific. Give reasons for the location you have chosen. What are its benefits? Give reasons for the means you have chosen: kiosk; wagon; shop; etc. 3d) Price. Include a price list. Explain whether your prices are lower or higher than competing goods and services. Justify your prices!
When compiling your business plan, try to keep it to ten pages or less. Make sure to keep it brief, focused, simple and integrated. Ensure that all your ideas are connected. In the next issue, we will bring you part two of what you need to include in your business plan, which covers running your business and money matters.
