By Charles T.M.J. Dube

IN my previous installments on the Heroes’ holiday, I spoke about the need for us to honour the heroes and heroines by being productive and investing in our development and the prosperity of future generations.
I went onto the spiritual side of heroism from both the African Traditional Religion (ATR) and Christian perspectives.
In earlier articles we spoke about the two million jobs and how these were supposed to be created by the citizens and Government’s responsibility to facilitate by creating a conducive environment.
I also emphasised that a proper business-minded person must not wait for a made-in-heaven environment to start a business and those with an eye for opportunities read them in every situation with some even thriving in war situations.
I then wrote about the forms of business organisation one could use to start a business.
I wrote about farming as a business and pointed to the advantages that we had as a Nation in having over 90 percent literacy rate.
Writing and the ability to read instructions about processes was a very important instrument to business development and implementation.
Even writing down those simple processes we take for granted like agriculture is very valuable.
The starting point in project development is to identify the activity you would like to get into.
Write your dream down, for it all begins with a dream, just an idea.
You do not write a project document to seek funding.
You do it as a plan for putting your ideas into effect.
It is an opportunity for you to interrogate yourself and plan.
Most people write project documents to impress the bank.
You should do it to convince yourself.
If it can convince you, then it can equally convince other stakeholders.
It should be able to address who you are and where you have come from; what exactly you want to do and with what market in mind; what resources you will require to be able to bring your product to the buyer and how you will get it to him; how you will fund your operations; what cash you will be able to generate and how; who else you will need to pay and for what; who you will need to hire to get what; and how much profit you expect to get.
Your starting point should be to the project background.
This is very handy, especially if you intend interesting some third parties like bankers and potential partners.
They have to know who they are dealing with.
Then you move on to provide a description of your project, including its intended location and why you chose that location, i.e. whether the motivation was resource or market-based.
What is it that has motivated you to start your project?
Was it some shortage or opportunity to export or meet some market niche?
This part is known as the project orientation, which could be either export oriented or meeting local market requirements.
It also includes any government policy that supports your kind of project.
Remember in talking farming as a business, we identified the economic problem as one of choice with regards to what to produce and in what quantities, how to produce it and for whom.
A write-up on the demand and marketing of your intended product becomes essential.
In these days of internet, a search about the product can give you information on the world market for the product and an idea about the prices.
You could even visit a producer association related to your product and get some information.
The statistics office is a very handy source of information on your product just like other government reports.
Enquiries with participants in the specific industry is helpful in getting to know your market, just like finding market expectations from your intended customers is.
A visit to people already in the industry would shed more light, including on their marketing challenges.
This part of your project document should be able to address who your intended customers will be; who your competitors will be; when the product sells best and what affects sales of the product; what new ideas you could bring into the market to your advantage; what market niche you could be able to capture; whether how you package your product could influence your sales; how you would get the market to know about you and whether there is an unexploited market for your product; and how you could distribute your product(do your customers come and collect from your factory/farm or you take the product to them.
This must lead you into producing a sales and marketing plan for your product/s.
Remember also, how you do in business is also affected by how the economy will be performing or is expected to perform generally.
Major employers such as Government’s expenditure patterns also affect your sales.
In brief, this part of your project document would normally begin with a write-up on the overall economic outturn, a sector analysis, a general demand/market analysis, a product demand analysis and an address on the competitors.
This is then followed by your marketing and sales plan which should talk to your advertising methods and their costs; whether you will have any promotions and their costs; any special packaging and requisite costs and how you will distribute the product and the cost thereto.
At this stage, you should also be able to project your sales.
Remember, unless it is a shortage product, your sales will only grow over time as the market gets to know and get confidence in you and your product.
It is important at this stage to remind the reader of the primacy of the customer to your business.
With Zimbabwe having gone through stages of shortages and the seller’s market where availability mattered more than customer care, this is an area which leads to the collapse of many business people in a competitive environment.
Remember, when you get a customer, you do not want to lose him/her at any time due to unreliability in terms of quality and service.
In the next installment we will be discussing the production planning element of the project document and the preparation of cash flow projections.
Charles T.M.J. Dube is a development economist with interests in Policy Studies and International Development