Are you thinking of starting a business – a physical or online business? Niabusiness here is to help. The planning, sourcing for funds, finding suppliers, researching a market, settling on a business model, buying equipment – there is a lot that happens before a business can see the light of day.

Niabusiness can help you with some of the work – help you start on a firm foundation (and increase your odds of succeeding in your field, niche or industry).

There are freelancers on the site that can help you do research, launch your website, help with customer support, software integrations, help with marketing, but in this post I am just going to tell you about one of the important things you can do for your business: having a business plan.

Thing is, a lot of people know how important having a business plan can be (not talking about the ones who think they are rubbish) but creating one, a detailed and useful business plan, isn’t usually a simple task. And maybe this is one of the reasons why some people think business plans are rubbish.

But all success in business, is usually predicated on a firm foundation. And whether one writes a structured plan when they are starting or just do random things that could – when pulled together – result in a really good business plan just goes out to show how important taking an in-depth look at your idea / business model / product or service can be in the short, mid and long term.

To hire business plan writers in Kenya, outsourcing the writing of the document, is one of Niabusiness’s way to help you hit the ground running as soon as possible.

The services here have been created for you, to help you accelerate things a bit, to take you from the planning stages to your first customer in the least amount of time possible.

Why create a business plan for your new venture?

To see if you are really committed to the idea you want to turn into a profitable business.

Having ideas is one thing, and the excitement we all have can usually lead to us entertaining multiple business ideas at any given time. We can sit and think about the conglomerates and empires we can build – and that’s all fine.

But once you sit down and start taking an in-depth look at your idea; once you start exploring the different ways you can go about executing your idea, things change. Suddenly, you have to think deeply about what it is you want to do for potential customers and clients out there.

That is when it dawns on most people that they can’t deliver on most of the ideas they have – they can’t create a product or service that can meet the standards expected by people out there already buying similar products.

So, the business planning phase can help you weed out all the ideas you can’t deliver on (well) and leave you with one or two ideas you can put your time into. And as you know, focus is a really powerful thing in most areas be it in life, business or investing.

So, just going through the planning process, to enhance the power of focus you give to your ideas, that in itself is worth the money you’d pay a writer to create a business plan for you.

To take an in-depth look at the numbers

So, looking at what you can afford to put your money on right now versus things you can buy later on.

If you don’t have enough money to start (which is most people), the business plan should help you stick to purchasing only the bare essentials.

If you have a table, you can defer buying that nice desk. If you can’t even pay your own rent months in advance, you can just start a home business and later on move to an office (in one of the commercial buildings) in town or the city.

If you can’t afford buying a motorbike or pickup truck for your business, you can look at other options already available to you at a much cheaper price (renting, courier etc.).

And the plan can help you how far your runway goes. So, looking at the numbers you can determine how many months ahead you can afford to work on your idea / business before you break even and start making a profit.

Having that business plan can help you see if you are hitting the milestones that eventually help you towards realizing your mid and long term goals. The plan can also predict areas in your business that may need a bigger cash allocation than earlier plan, so you don’t panic when things go awry.

To determine the expertise you will need from others and plan on getting such people onboard

So, it might be getting a business partner – partnering with someone whose skills compliments yours. Someone that can help you get an edge in the market once you launch.

Or it might be initial employees that you cu in on the action by giving them stakes / equity / shares in your business

Or it might be online freelancers like the ones who have listed their services on Niabusiness.com – so marketers, bookkeepers, programmers, customer support people, virtual assistants, social media strategists, online researchers, lawyers & advocates, intellectual property experts, copywriters, sales people, ad managers and online shop experts.

To determine how you are going to fund your business

The business plan can help you determine if you will be okay just relying on your savings. Or if it would be wise to get business financing (from a bank or sacco).

The plan can also help you determine if you want to ask friends and family for money upfront (funding) or not. Or it can help you figure out how you can turn them into your initial customers (and still get money from them by preselling your service or product to them).

You might, look at the numbers, and decide in bringing your investment group members on board – bringing your chama members in on the action – as long as the resources you pull together gives you a confidence that your business will thrive and make everybody involved happy.

To help you plan for growth – business expansion

The plan can help you figure a growth strategy that accommodates your strengths and weaknesses while you work on bringing in more of the right people in areas where you fall short.

It can also help you avoid growth that rides only on trends and help you build something evergreen, that grows gradually, that is steady and sustainable in the short, mid and long term.

What is the process of hiring a business plan writer on Niabusiness like

Once you have narrowed down on an idea or two, check for freelancers offering business plan writing services in Kenya in this category.

Reply to the listings that look appealing to you – whether they are about business plan writing or not.

And then my advice from here, is that you want to go back and forth with the freelancer supplying them with details about what you want to do.

So, you can hop on a phone call, and they can ask you a few questions about your idea, business model, source for capital, how much you have, what pain you want to solve for others (with your product or service), your expertise, your long term view of the business, hiccups you foresee, the best places you think you should focus on to bring in the right customers (and profits) sooner, your offline or online strategy for leads, how you want to incorporate (sole proprietorship, partnership or limited liability company) among other things.

Think of it as an interview with someone who is more interested in helping you keep your expectations in check. Someone interested in opening your eyes to ideas that can help you stay the course and reap the rewards you are after.

Then they can just go about creating a document for you.

Once the business plan is finished, they will just send it over to you.

Talk about pay and the expected turnaround time.

And good luck building a well-loved, and profitable business.