Setting goals is key to success of your business

Business planning. Kenya stands as the epicentre for entrepreneurship in the entire region. FILE 

By Scott Bellows

In Summary

• Save money, write your own business plan, but first know the aim of prospective business.Mohammed left the meeting with his family and friends feeling determined, yet slightly puzzled. On average, his group of the closest people in his life supported his idea to start a new business venture.

Mohammed desired to begin manufacturing sufurias at the Export Processing Zone in Athi River for distribution throughout East and Central Africa. He exited the meeting with a commitment amongst the attendees to provide Sh250,000 to hire a consultant to assist Mohammed write a business plan.

However, two individuals stood out to challenge him: Juma and Isa. Both having recently completed their MBAs, Juma and Isa strongly encouraged Mohammed to take a new and different look at his proposed business.

The two argued that Kenya had enough copy cat businesses and they did not see the unique value that Mohammed’s business would bring to the market and to society.

Kenya stands as the epicentre for entrepreneurship in the entire region. Whenever someone travels the world and then arrives in Kenya, our entrepreneurial spirit strikes them.

Not only do Kenyans try and find a solution for every ailment befalling humankind, we also compete fiercely in nearly every industry. Further, high proportions of Kenyans do not merely hold a regular job, but instead hold a job while also owning a kiosk, farm, consultancy, and a startup business or two.

Entrepreneurship runs deep in our blood as the framework for our own unique national identity. One merely needs to look out our First Family to notice the string of businesses they continue to diversify into over the years as an example of the Kenyan dream.

One Kenyan obsession in business planning involves engaging strategic planning consultants to author business plans for entrepreneurs and business owners.

Consultants throughout Kenya get rich by writing substandard business plans for unsuspecting clients. Now, holding strategic planning meetings with your staff or, for a startup business, your initial investors or partners remains critical as a salient right of passage towards success.

However, most business plan consultants merely write the business plan based on limited client involvement, the plan looks nothing like how the company will progress in the near to mid-term future, and the company often does not find it helpful or useful as a roadmap.

The company likely simply provides the business plan to a financial institution for funding, and then puts the plan in a drawer. Why not write the business plan yourself? A business owner should not find authoring a strategic plan difficult.

Save money. Hire a consultant for some brainstorming ideas, then write it yourself.

In honour of USIU, Colorado State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Business Daily, and USAid’s annual Jamii Social Business Plan Competition January through April 2014 with cash prizes, incubation, and scholarship awards, Business Talk hereby commences on a three month series covering how to start a business venture, write a business plan, and secure business startup funding.

Starting off, a mistake most budding entrepreneurs make revolves around their product. Perhaps they had a dream or spoke to a friend about a certain product and became obsessed with the probability of selling that product.

However, before you develop a product for sale, you should, instead, determine your goal. What exactly do you wish to accomplish? So take a piece of paper right now and draw a straight line across the page.