Aggrey Jonathan K Bett

Writing a business plan is essential to starting and running a business correctly. It creates a roadmap and document to clarify your vision, set goals, and state the necessary steps to implement the plan. A business plan confers the following benefits:

• Writing a plan encourages research and analysis of pertinent information for planning.
• Encourages strategic planning, a brainstorming exercise used to think and create clever ideas, concepts, methods, models, actions and strategies for starting and running a business competitively and profitably.
• You can use the document to attract investors, partners and employees.
• A business plan creates a roadmap which guides you in starting and running your business well.

Registering a company in Kenya is an online process that entails several steps, including choosing a company name, preparing and uploading the required documents, and submitting the application to the Business Registration Services. Registering a company is vital for a business that wants to operate legally, build a foundation and a brand and take advantage of many business opportunities available to a legally registered company. The main steps include:

1. Name selection, search and reservation

2. Assembling and preparing necessary documents

3. Completing forms online and submitting/uploading documents

4. Downloading, printing, signing, scanning and uploading for BN-2 form

5. Paying the necessary fees

6. Downloading the registration certificate

This article describes the registration of a business name for unlimited enterprises. Registration of a name for a limited enterprise is a separate process with its requirements. Typical unlimited businesses are sole proprietorships and unlimited partnerships, and you can register a business name in Kenya for one of these enterprises. A sole proprietorship is a business by one individual, while a partnership involves at least two people. However, the registration process for a sole proprietorship and unlimited partnership are similar except for partnership details. Sole proprietorships and partnerships are suitable for freelancers, consultancies, creatives, retailers, wholesalers and anyone who wants to try business in a small way before starting a company. The name registration process involves the following steps:

Step 1: Choose a business name and apply online to the Business Registration Services to reserve the name

Step 2: Assemble the requirements, including eCitizen account, Identity Card, KRA PIN, Photo, personal and business addresses, partnership deed, proposed business activities and form BN-2.

Step 3: Create an eCitizen account and log into it to complete the BN-2 form and upload the required documents

Step 4: Download the BN-2 form, print, sign, scan, upload and submit it

Step 5: Pay the necessary fees using the payment methods provided on the eCitizen portal

Step 6: Download the registration certificate when you get the approval notification in your email
 

Personal financial planning is an exercise an individual or a household performs regularly to manage their income, spending, savings, and investments to attain specific desired goals, including income for daily living now and in the future. This exercise helps you create wealth during your working life and allocate it prudently after you retire and your death. A plan allows you to consider and have a clear view of your financial situation, and with the assessment, you can make a plan. The plan creates a roadmap and discipline, which helps you steer through daily and unforeseen events without wavering until you achieve the goals. The ultimate purpose of financial planning is to develop saving and investment steps to generate financial self-sufficiency in your current and retirement living. Financial planning involves the following main interrelated categories which shape your financial foundation to attain goals and economic sufficiency.

1. Vision and Lifestyle.
2. Cash flow and debt management (Income and Spending).
3. Saving and Investing.
4. Tax Planning.
5. Risk Management and Insurance Planning.
6. Estate Planning.
7. Retirement Planning.

How to Invest in Treasury Bills and Bonds (T-Bills and T-Bonds) in Kenya

Kenya government Treasury bills bonds (T-bills and T-bonds) are investment instruments auctioned weekly by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on behalf of the Government. The Government uses the instruments to borrow money from the public to finance its activities. Therefore, the investors become lenders to the Government and in return, the Government pays them interest and returns the principal upon maturity. T-bills have tenures of 91,182 and 364 days, while the terms for T-bonds are two years or more. All citizen and non-citizen individuals and organizations can buy Kenya T-Bills and Bonds. Buying and selling the securities is an online process. To participate, you visit https://dhowcsd.centralbank.go.ke/ or download the DhowCSD app on the Google Play store or Apple App Store to create a CSD account, https://www.centralbank.go.ke/dhowcsd/ and https://www.centralbank.go.ke/securities/treasury-bills/ to see guidelines and to:

1. Open a CBK DhowCSD Account and provide investor details.
2. Decide what to buy, how much and what price.
3. Complete and submit bids.
4. Obtain the T-bill and bond auction results.
5. Pay for your successful bids. This process is automatic, following the details you provided in (1) above.

Benefits of personal financial planning

Personal financial planning is an exercise an individual or a household performs regularly to manage their income, spending, savings, and investments to attain specific desired goals for now and in the future. The process also incorporates planning one's present and retirement lifestyles, such as what to do besides one's career, what to do in retirement, and how to finance all these lifestyles. Personal financial planning has several benefits, as follows:

1. It helps you think about your dreams
2. Allows you to analyze your current financial position
3. It helps you to be financially literate
4. Allows you to plan your income and expenses
5. Planning makes for better use of time and money
6. Planning enhances chances of success
7. Planning encourages effective debt management
8. Planning ensures you plan for retirement

In summary, personal financial planning ensures you have a financial and action roadmap; with a roadmap, you are more likely to have goals and steps to implement them. With a plan, your saving and investing will likely be successful in attaining typical personal financial goals such as having an emergency fund, child education fund, staying ahead of inflation, maximizing tax savings, estate and inheritance planning, having asset protection arrangements and creating a retirement income. When you have financial sufficiency, you can lead a life of contentment, prosperity, happiness, joy, health, peace, or whatever you desire.

A business name, brand and branding are aspects that form the identity of every business. A name is a unique identity of a company like Toyota Motor Corporation. A brand is typically the name of a company's product, like Toyota Prado or Landcruiser. A brand is a unique identity, like a name and other identifying marks, and usually has a positive reputation in the eyes of consumers. Branding is creating a unique name, character, and different features for the business and its products and engaging in marketing activities to popularize the company and its brands (products). A name should be creative, catchy, easy to write, read, pronounce, and indicate the company's work. It should project the product's promises, qualities, benefits and the job it will do for the customer. For a product to have brand status, it must have enduring benefits, do its job well, be durable, and make a customer feel good or satisfied by owning it. A marketing campaign (branding) to promote the company and its products must identify a product's benefits, praise them, and connect them to the name of the product and the manufacturer in the eyes of potential consumers to create a lasting appeal.

A viable business is born of a problem-solving business idea. To identify business ideas, you must imagine, self-search, and search the consumer universe to find sustainable ideas and things you would love to do. The business idea you come up with should have matchless appeal, solve a problem for people (filling a void, a gap or a need in the market), and be profitable. A good business idea addresses people's concerns or removes pain for them. However, you should know people do not buy a product or a service for its features and benefits. Instead, they hire the product to solve a problem they have. Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen developed the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) theory, which states that customers don't simply buy a product, service or its attributes - they "hire" it to do a "job" they need to be done. Some of the ways to identify JTBDs include:

1. Take stock of your knowledge, skills and experience.
2. Solve a problem that bothers you or others.
3. Talk to and observe customers at work to discover their needs.
4. Produce a better and cheaper product than the market.
5. Fill gaps where customers are under-served in products, services, delivery systems and customer care.
6. Produce something that enhances people's pleasure and esteem.
7. Save money and time for people.

Merits and demerits of starting your own business

Self-employment is having your own business. A business is an activity that creates and delivers something people want to buy and provides a profit for the owner. Running your own business seems attractive, but it has pros and cons you should consider before setting up your business. Here are the pros and cons:

 Pros include:

1. Personal freedom and flexibility.
2. Potential significant financial rewards.
3. Has higher job satisfaction and self-esteem.
4. Opportunities to learn from your own mistakes without losing your job.

The cons include:

1. The risk of failure and loss.
2. Long hours of hard work.
3. Higher financial responsibilities.
4. Higher operational responsibilities
5. Insecurity and uncertainty.
6. Less free time.
7. No employment benefits.
8. No job security.

People ask what is personal financial planning and how it differs from corporate financial planning. Personal financial planning is about what an individual or a household does to plan their finances, while corporate financial planning is about preparing a financial plan for a business entity. Personal financial planning is an exercise an individual or a household performs regularly to manage their income, spending, savings, and investments to attain specific desired goals for now and in the future. The process also incorporates planning one’s present and retirement lifestyles, such as what to do besides one’s career, what to do in retirement, and how to finance all these lifestyles. It essentially entails active identification and generation of income streams, allocating part of the income for current needs, wants, emergencies and other requirements and saving and investing to create wealth for comfortable current and retirement living. Planning should also look at managing different areas of life, such as estate planning, career, family, children’s education, body, mind, soul, enjoyment, friendships and public service. Planning aims to create a roadmap for navigating all these facets to arrive at the desired destination in an orderly manner.