Business Plans Gone Wrong

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Approaching the bank for a business loan? Good luck. However, you need a business plan. It’s both a financial and legal document, prepared in a certain format, and language that can only be dissected by accountants and corporate lawyers.

Your business plan will be perfect I’m sure, after forking out a couple thousand dollars to the person who prepared it. Then you wait in anticipation for the bank’s positive respond. It all depends on the people around the table. The human element must identify with what is on paper. They must be in sync with why you want to make designer pampers for dogs. They must understand how it will affect pet stores and that is in the business plan.

This blog was triggered by Davids Tea. I was surprised to see all the flavored tea on drugstore shelves. The last time I saw the brand, was some years ago before the 2020 pandemic. Davids Tea was a stand-alone store in shopping malls, very attractive store layout and colorful tea in eye catching colors. They had tea tasting some times. I don’t know how Davids Tea put their idea in the business plan, but I was one of the skeptics. Whether flavored or not, Canada is coffee country. My mother drank tea like all mothers in the British Empire. As grandchildren, we knew when it was time for uncle, grandma and grandpa’s tea.

I started drinking coffee in the U.S. Other students dragged me along to coffee shops. There was no ‘tea break’ only coffee break. Time passed, and I got addicted to coffee until my teeth turned yellow. I had to reduce the consumption. If I had been part of the bank panel about giving Davids Tea a loan, I would have recused myself. Davids Tea was about flavored tea in coffee country. It was not going to make it. By the way, tea addicts don’t want hibiscus or lemon tea. They want it raw.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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