SME CLINIC With Kola Owolabi
One does not need to hire a town crier to sound the alarm at this time for any forward looking business person to know that there is need for a business plan to guide the conduct of one’s business at this time of the year and also at this time in Nigeria.
I have the benefit of the experience of a client that we have been relating with for over fifteen years now. The first time we had the privilege of helping them to prepare a business plan was about sixteen years ago. The company’s turnover at that time was about forty million naira in that year. Over the fifteen years we had helped to prepare three business plans for them. Each business plan was to last five years because we usually make a five-year profitability projection in every business plan we prepare. They have been growing steadily over the years with the benefit of the business plans that we prepared for them.
The same company is now about hitting the five hundred million naira annual turnover mark. This is a growth rate of nearly twenty percent per annum, constantly over the fifteen years. The growth came about because there was a target before them. Each business plan is done with a twenty percent projected increase in turnover every year. The company has been able to achieve just that within the past fifteen years. This is not magic. It is common sense. Planning enables you to set an agenda for your activities in order for you to be properly guided in what you are doing so as to be able to hit the goal.
Imagine a meeting without an agenda. Discussions in a meeting without agenda will soon go off course and the whole time spent at the meeting may end up being totally a waste. That is what will happen when you proceed in business without the benefit of a business plan to guide you in what you are doing so that you don’t go of course and end up achieving nothing for your efforts and resources.
The client I have been referring to has also been guilty of accommodating distractions. They had wanted to go into other things, though within the context of their business focus. Anytime they had wanted to do other things, they had also commissioned business plans to guide their diversification efforts. The business plans prepared for the diversifications enabled them to count the cost of what they wanted to go into in order to determine whether the new ventures will hurt their focus by taking them too far away from their core business, or will be a good complement and help to enhance the success of their existing business. This client chose the path of always going back to the drawing board to chart the path they will tread in whatever they wanted to do. This has helped them to retain their place as a service provider of choice in their business area. They are one of the most reputable in their industry today.
I don’t think you should also leave anything to chance no matter how well your business is doing today. Even if you have good patronage today based on some factors, the state of the economy of Nigeria today calls for high level discretion in terms of planning for you to remain constantly relevant in business. You cannot afford to go on without the benefit of planning, particularly in present day Nigeria.
Kola Owolabi, Fellow, of the Institute of Management Consultants, 08023203198, is the Executive Director of Centre of Entrepreneurial Research and Development based in Igbesa, a surburb of greater Lagos, near Crawford University. The organization has executed landmark business development and market research briefs for organizations both within and outside Nigeria. He can be reached by phone or WhatsApp through 08023203198.
