26/03/2012

MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY GHANA

COURSE NAME: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT COURSE CODE: BBA035 LECTURERS NAME: Mr. Nii Addo Allotey PRESENTATION By NAME OF GROUP MEMBERS 1. ABDULMALIK MUHAMMAD 2. GREMA MALA 3. ABDUL,AZEEZ SALISU SANI 4. MOHAMMED ABDULKADIR 5. AISHA MUHAMMAD BELLO 6. IKOUROU-YOKA JUNIOR

TOPIC: Why planning is important to the entrepreneur, and give detail of what goes in to business plan, elaborating on the various segment whilst examining whilst business fail.

INTRODUCTION Planning is very important to every entrepreneur. It is more important to the entrepreneur's venture because of the uncertainty of success and less room to make mistake. The entrepreneur's focus is on the execution side and how to get the product to the market in the shortest amount of time so as to start earning revenue. Because of hurry of execution, planning often takes a backseat. An entrepreneur may shrug off planning because she feels that it takes too much time. Also with the kind of uncertainty an entrepreneurial venture has, the path of execution of the venture (creating the product/service) may be totally different than what was originally planned. Thus small businesses and ventures often put the planning to the side with the assumption that planning works only for large businesses. In my opinion, this is a big mistake. A small business or an entrepreneurial venture may not be interested in creating large plans that run in pages, but they need to still create a plan. A plan may be small word document where specific goals that can be measured, are written. In front of each goal, the entrepreneur write the strategy and tactics to achieve that. This would not take long depending on the size of the venture. Planning helps the entrepreneur to concentrate on his goals Without specific goals, the entrepreneur will not be able to measure the progress with what she had planned. As a result the goals would change with time leading to a lot of confusion. A good plan talks about strategies and specific steps that needs to be taken in order to achieve the stated goal. Planning helps the entrepreneur to keep finances on track A good plan provides a clear picture of how much money needs to be spent every month or on certain activities. Without a plan, the money projections might go haywire and in the end the entrepreneur may end up spending more than she thought of. Planning helps the entrepreneur to keep track of progress

With good planning, it is very easy to know how many activities have been completed and how many are remaining. It goes one step ahead to determine if there is any critical activity that needs to be attended immediately. Thus it provides a good picture of where we are currently vs where we planned to be. Planning helps to tell the entrepreneur the risk we are going to face in future With good planning, it is very easy to know how many activities have been completed and how many are remaining. It goes one step ahead to determine if there is any critical activity that needs to be attended immediately. Thus it provides a good picture of where we are currently vs where we planned to be. Planning helps the entrepreneur understand the deviations of failure Often things don't go as planned or simply fail to work as expected. If we had planned well, we would know why a part of thing we planned has failed. We can take corrective steps to bring the venture on course once again. A lot of entrepreneurs do create plans but do not write them down. Remember we cannot always trust our memories. Planning may be simple or very complex but it is very important that the entrepreneur plan her venture with enough due diligence. DETAILS OF WHAT GOES IN TO A BUSINESS PLAN BUSINESS PLAN there are two word business and plan business simple mean is an economic activity which related with continues and regular production and distribution of goods and services for satisfy human need. Or the regular production or purchase and sale of goods undertake with objective of earning profit and acquiring wealth through the satisfaction a human need. Then plan preparing sequence of action step to achieve some specific goals. If you do it effectively you can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goals. BUSINESS PLAN : is any plan that work for a business to look ,ahead, allocate resource, focus on key point and prepare for problem and opportunity.

first of all, a good, well structured business plan can be the foundation to your new company. It is important that you spend some time ensuring that it is accurate. Here are the relative portions of your business plan. * Executive Summary. This will be the first thing read by your potential investor and a strong executive summary with an overview of all that is required will ensure that the rest of your business plan is read. * Business Overview and structure including shares issued and who owns them. This is where you describe your physical business, your business model, your Mission Statement, objectives of the business and key milestones, * Business Strategies including business, financial, marketing and exit strategy. This is an important part of your business plan and details how you are going to mange your future business. The business strategy is how you run your business and how you intend to expand and grow from a new business. The financial strategy is how you will manage your finances, when you will invest, how much will go into research, if you will lease or buy etc. Your marketing strategy deals with marketing and advertising your business, to whom, how and at what costs. Your exit strategy is how the investor will be able to recoup their investment. 1. Markets, which is who you expect to buy your products and services with some predictions of volumes. 2. Products, which are the goods and services offered. You should include how they are manufactured or sourced as well as the fulfillment process. * Financials such as costs, overheads, profit etc with realistic indications of why, how and when. You should also include your marketing and staffing budgets as well as overhead costs and your break even position. * Staffing including resumes/CV's of major staff, brief terms of reference and an organization chart. * The Way Forward, what will happen in the future and how an investor will get their money back.

If you include all of these you will have a great business plan. This can seem daunting, which is why it can be worthwhile to employ a business planning consultant, who can also provide business consultancy. Lastly you need some good luck so that you meet the right investor at the right time. WHY BUSINESS FAIL These are the things that can destroy your entrepreneurial dream if they go unaddressed. Do yourself a favor-spend the time to make sure you have these business elements well thought-out in your business planning before you go into business. 1) Not developing a Life Plan-People start small businesses for many reasons. They hate their job. They need extra money. They always wanted to open an art gallery or bakery. The trouble is that too many people do not take the time to really think about what they want out of life first, and then build a business around that. They also don't think about what their life would be like as an entrepreneur. How long do you think you could physically sustain working 7 days per week? Do you like teenagers? Well, they may be the only employees that your business can afford. You need to develop a life plan because you just do not want to start a business that is NOT a good business for you. 2) No network-There's an old saying, "Your network is your net worth." We'll, it's true. Before starting a business you must spend time cultivating the market - which means developing and nurturing your professional and personal connections. If you are not good at making friends or are one of those people who never keep in touch - entrepreneurship might not be for you. Your first customers will come from your personal network. Are you known more internally or externally at your job? People do business with people they like and with people they know. Who do you know and, more importantly who knows you. 3) Lack of a niche target market-Too many small business owners sell to anyone they think has money. Take the time to develop a well-defined niche for your business. Sometimes it's best to be known for the business you turn down. It is so much easier to develop a marketing plan when you know who you are trying to sell to. You have limited time and limited resources. Pick a

niche so you can focus your efforts. After all, specialists can always charge more money. 4) Not saving enough money-In my book, Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, I lay out three pots of money that you need to have before you start a business. Can you survive for two years without bringing in a salary? If you do not save enough money to run your household and fund the first year of operations of your business you may not be able to hang in there until the business can generate any real revenue. The third pot of money is the emergency savings account that Suze Orman has been talking about for years. 6-to-9 months of emergency savings is appropriate. Your car will breakdown, your air-conditioner will die, your kid will need braces-trust me get yourself an emergency fund. 5) Lack of personal and fiscal discipline-If you do not run your household with a budget, you are far less likely to run your business with one. You must make business decisions based on up-to-date financial information. CONCLUSION As an entrepreneur you have to Plan on how to keep finances on track, because a good plan provides a clear picture of how much money needs to be spent every month or on certain activities. Without a plan, the money projections might go haywire and in the end the entrepreneur may end up spending more than he thought off. REFERENCE www.google.com www.answer.com http://www.BusinessPlanNow.com MELINDA EMERSON APRIL 5TH 2010 http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/04/5-reasons-why-start-up-businessesfail.html