Live your Dream this Year…but Plan it First

Do you know what the biggest mistake is when starting your own business?

According to a 2018 survey by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics, a majority of start-up businesses fail in their first year of operation. For most, lack of access to working capital is cited as the major reason for this failure. I’d however argue that it’s probably lack of proper planning that results to these failures. Through planning, a young business can obtain either credit or equity financing, as well as lay-out financial, marketing and production goals. At the starting point of a business, proper planning therefore reduces the risk of failure and increases the chances of getting funding for the business.

So what is the solution, well a full proof planning tool that is often ignored by most business is a business plan. “A business plan?” you might ask. “It’s not necessarily!” And some entrepreneurs I respect might agree with you…. they are not big fans of business plans.

The plan I am talking about in this article is however not based on any traditional models. Most people bypass writing a business plan because they search the Internet to create one and finally give up. It’s probably because they find it too difficult with what is available. I agree with this feeling.

When we started our business in 2009 we found the articles and templets that “help” in writing a business plan made writing the plan itself no walk in the park. That was the reason we created the Digital Business Planner (DBP) #dbp #digitalbusinessplanner for Kenyan entrepreneurs.

The DBP is an easy to use, modern, step-by-step tool that breaks down this big project of writing a business plan into bite sized pieces you can actually finish. It’s also online and can therefore be accessed from anywhere.

Technology has made it easier to start and operate a business in Kenya without the hassle of the past. Unlike traditional business plans, the DBP has been made fairly simple to use. You don’t have to worry about structure, wording, or content. Your business plan writing can be a guided and easy process.

Live your dream this year but plan the dream first. As Benjamin Franklin said ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail’.