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10 Business Plan Words Every Manager Needs to Know By Heart If you're starting or running a business, you'll need to know this list of essential business planning words.

By Tim Berry • Jan 30, 2012

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

10 Business Plan Words Every Manager Needs to Know By Heart

So I've changed my mind -- again -- and come up with this list of essential business planning words every manager should know:

1. Business plan: An organized collection of milestones, tasks, assumptions and basic business numbers. It covers strategy and details what's supposed to happen when, who's in charge of what, how progress is measured, when money is to be spent and from where, and when money is expected to come in. It isn't a document; it's a plan. If it isn't reviewed and revised monthly, then it won't be very useful. So it has to be practical and just big enough to serve the business need.

Related: To Make Business Planning Less Daunting, Let's Call It Something Else 2. Business planning: Steering a company using a cyclical process. Plan, review and revise as necessary to optimize. Business planning is management.

3. Business strategy: A combination of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, target market, business offering and product-market fit. Focus is vital. Who isn't in your market and what you're not offering can be more useful information than who is and what you are offering. All of this can be expressed in bullets, slides, a few key paragraphs or any other way that keeps strategy and focus top of mind.

4. Business forecast: A simplified, manageable set of assumptions about future cash flow, including sales, cost of sales, expenses, assets, liabilities and capital. It isn't about predicting the future; it's about connecting the dots on assumptions and drivers in your monthly projections over the next year and your annual forecasts for the subsequent two years. It focuses on what drives the key components, expressed as money. Those drivers include factors like capacity, sales and marketing activities, management compensation, direct costs, and so forth. The goal is to lay out connections between key assumptions in projections spread month by month as expected amounts. For example, you would project how direct costs look as a percentage of sales. Usually the relationships are more important than the actual numbers. So, to follow the example, if your actual sales are higher than expected, you can tell from your forecast that direct costs also will be higher than expected. Companies with a good forecasting process rarely get through a month without some change in the forecast.

5. Strategic plan: A business plan that leaves out the nuts and bolts.

6. Operations plan: A business plan that leaves out the strategy.

7. Marketing plan: A business plan that leaves out the overall company financial strategy.

Related: The Top 10 Business Plan Mistakes

8. Annual plan: A business plan that leaves out plans for the second and third year.

9. Bank-ready business plan:

a. A document created as output from a business plan, formatted for easy reading and highlighting past financial performance and current financial position. Bankers look for payment history and assets backing the loan.

b. When used to describe a canned boilerplate document somebody is selling, as in turnkey or ready-made, it is just sleazy sales hype for a bad product. Buyer beware: A ready-made business plan is always a waste of money.

10. Investor-ready or funding-ready business plan:

a. A document or pitch created as output from a business plan, describing a business investors will be interested in based on the specifics of that business. The most common and essential highlights are management team, product-market fit, potential market, potential growth, defensibility (some hard-to-copy elements like technology or knowhow), scalability and potential return for investors. No matter how brilliant, beautiful or creative it might be, it isn't investor ready -- and never will be -- if it doesn't describe a business with real prospects for investors.

b. See 9b above.

Related: Three Financial Guesstimates Every Business Plan Needs

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How to create an action plan (with free templates and examples)

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An action plan template provides a ready-made framework for quickly adding the steps — like tasks, due dates, and assignees — to achieve your project goals. It’s a great way to ensure your project action plans are effective and consistent so everyone understands what’s expected.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to write an action plan step-by-step, with examples for inspiration. Plus, you can download two free action plan templates — including one from our Work OS — to get started immediately.

Download Excel template

What is an action plan?

An action plan is a detailed blueprint that outlines the steps you, your team, or your organization will take to achieve a specific goal. It includes specific tasks or actions with due dates and assignees, a timeline, and the resources required to accomplish your goal.

Action plans include detailed information, such as:

  • A description of each action or task to complete
  • The person responsible for each action
  • Due dates for each task
  • Resources required to complete the action
  • Space to reflect or take notes after you have completed a task

What is an action plan template?

An action plan template is a pre-structured document that gives you a framework for crafting your new action plan. A practical action plan template has designated spaces for each aspect you need to cover, often presented in a table format like this.

Screenshot of monday.com's action plan template

Free action plan templates

Here are two free action plan templates you can download and use today:

Try monday.com’s Action Plan Template:

This action plan template breaks down goals into actionable steps that you can prioritize, assign ownership, and track progress. You can also add start and end dates for each action, plus relevant details and files.

Get the template

Download the free action plan template for Excel:

Why is an action plan template important?

Leaders and managers use action plan templates to speed up the strategic planning process . Rather than spending unnecessary time designing the document used for planning purposes, project managers can simply pull up their template, save a new copy — keeping the existing template intact — and get straight to work scheduling and assigning tasks.

Action plan templates ensure consistency

Additionally, templates help to ensure consistency across plans and teams. When your organization uses the same action plan template for the whole company, it’s easier for team members to interpret and understand the plan — because they’re familiar with the format — and it contributes toward an organized, professional appearance.

Action plan templates help you plan more effectively

Action plan templates help project organizers plan more effectively by offering predefined categories and columns, reducing the chance of human error or omitting information from an action plan. In addition, you can apply any learnings from the project management process to your template. That way, you’ll consistently improve subsequent action plans.

While completing a project, you might find that some of the tasks in your task lists didn’t have clear outcomes. In addition, it wasn’t immediately obvious how to identify when the task was complete. So, you could borrow from the SMART goals framework — Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound goals — and include a new column in your action plan template to note how you’ll measure if the task is complete.

And when using an action plan template built on a Work OS like monday.com, you can add your action plan to relevant project boards, create cross-team automations , and more — making it easier to collaborate with a distributed team in real time.

What are the essential features of an effective action plan template?

Action plan templates should contain the following features:

  • Multiple views — such as tables, timelines, Kanban boards, and Gantt charts to visualize tasks.
  • Task notifications — to detail and assign tasks to team members.
  • Structured layouts — to plan tasks based on priority, status, and resource allocation.
  • Collaboration ability — to maintain notes, comments, and files in one place.
  • Automations — to update task status and notify owners.
  • Status columns — to show the current status, such as Stuck, Working on it, and Done.
  • Dashboards — to track overall progress, timelines, and budgets.

What is the difference between an action plan and a project plan?

A project plan is more detailed than an action plan. Both list the tasks, timelines, and resources required to achieve a desired goal. But project plans also include:

  • Project goals and objectives
  • Project milestones and deliverables
  • Project scope and budget
  • Project roles and responsibilities
  • Project stakeholders and communication schedule
  • Project risk mitigation and contingency plans
  • Project success criteria

You can create an action plan from your project plan to outline the steps required to achieve your project goals.

What are the key elements of a well-written action plan?

A well-written action plan consists of seven components:

  • Goals: define what the action plan aims to accomplish.
  • Steps: detail the actions required to achieve each goal.
  • Items: determine the task dependencies and priorities.
  • Timeline: maps out the schedule and milestones from start to finish.
  • Resources: identify the people, tools, and budget required.
  • Responsibilities: assign tasks to an individual or a team.
  • Review: monitor the overall progress of action items completed.

What are some examples of action plan templates?

Now that we know what they do, let’s look at a few action plan templates.

Business action plan template

This template outlines how to write an action plan to track progress toward a specific business goal.

Example of a business action plan template

( Image Source )

This action plan begins by detailing the primary goal, with the first column dedicated to a breakdown of each action required. For example, if your business goal was to design and launch a new website, your activities might include:

  • Gathering design assets
  • Choosing a color scheme
  • Copywriting for new website pages
  • Assembling design and development teams
  • Creating design wireframes
  • Design and development
  • Launch and promotion

Note that the second to last column in this action plan template is reserved for noting potential hazards. This helps identify roadblocks that might get in the way of achieving your goals to plan around them.

Personal development action plan template

Though action plans are most often used in a business context, they can be a handy tool to help you stay motivated and work toward your personal goals.

Example of a personal development action plan

This template allows you to break down your actions into a step-by-step sequence and includes a “How will I know I’ve been successful?” column to ensure that the actions you write down have a clear outcome.

Corrective action plan template

Creating an action plan can also be a great way to solve a specific business problem or even an issue with a particular employee’s performance. This is known as a corrective action plan, as shown in the example template below.

A corrective action plan template includes important columns, such as “metrics and constraints” — to help users complete tasks and plan for potential roadblocks — and “percent completed” — to help measure the progress toward the goal.

monday.com’s Action Plan Template

As you’ve seen in the examples above, the typical action plan format is a PDF or Microsoft Word document. While this is fine for goal setting and creating the plan itself, it’s not so great for putting it into action.

That’s why we’ve purpose-built a flexible, customizable, intuitive action plan template to use with monday.com.

When you design your action plan on monday.com, you can:

  • Access multiple views (such as a table, Kanban, and timeline) to work in a manner that suits your needs.

Timeline view in the action plan template

  • Assign tasks to individuals and notify them instantly.
  • Comment and collaborate on tasks to keep communication contextual.
  • Design custom automations to save valuable time and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
  • Report on progress with the Progress Tracking Column.

Screenshot of the progress tracking column on monday.com

Once there is buy-in from the team on the plan, it is easy to copy actions, dates, and assignees over to the task management board.

Because monday.com is a comprehensive Work OS, any action plans you create with this template also integrate with relevant project boards. In addition, comprehensive analytics make tracking easy.

How to write an action plan step-by-step

Never created an action plan before? Then, follow this simple guide and get started with the free template above.

1. Determine your goals

First, you need to understand what you’re trying to achieve. Then, make this goal as specific as possible.

For example, “increase sales” is not a clear enough goal. “Increase sales by 20% in quarter three” is more specific and allows you to set a metric for achieving it.

2. Break down the steps required to achieve each goal

What actions are necessary to get there?

In this example, that might include:

  • Hire three new sales development representatives
  • Increase content marketing budget by $20,000
  • Implement a new sales training program for new hires

3. Determine task dependencies and priorities

Remember: you can’t do everything at once! So now that you’ve broken down that big goal into bite-sized chunks, you need to figure out the perfect order for completing the tasks. In the above instance, you need to hire new sales representatives before starting a sales training program.

4. Set milestones

Now, set some milestones for significant events or checkpoints along the project. Some typical milestones are:

  • Completion of a substantial task or phase of the project
  • A significant event, such as a product launch
  • Important meetings, like customer review meetings

5. Add deadlines

When do you need to complete each task? Setting deadlines for each task helps your team stay on track and allows you to identify if your timeline for the larger goal is realistic.

6. Identify the resources you need

What’s getting in the way of completing these tasks? What do you require — perhaps from leadership or another team — to meet or exceed your goals? In our sales team example, we might need some assistance from the HR department to advertise an open role and attract new applicants.

7. Assign tasks to individuals

Who is responsible for each action? Assign a clear task owner to each task. Ownership doesn’t just make someone feel accountable; it empowers them to take the initiative and solve problems without dragging in management at every twist and turn.

8. Agree on a plan to review progress

Before you jump in and start your project, determine how you will measure progress toward your goals. For example:

  • Will you review your action plan every day or every week?
  • Will the task assignees or the project leader be responsible for updating the plan to reflect progress?

Determining these answers upfront means the action plan remains a living document reflecting actual progress.

Customize our Action Plan Template to your needs today

Prepare and present your action plans with our flexible, customizable Action Plan Template. Team members will love the multiple views, automations, and collaboration features to keep them on point. And you’ll benefit from the Progress Tracking column in your weekly reports to stakeholders.

FAQs about action plans

What’s the difference between an action plan and a to-do list.

An action plan and a to-do list are helpful tools for organizing tasks and achieving goals. A to-do list is a list of tasks to complete, but not necessarily for the same goal or project. Typically, to-do lists are less organized than action plans and can change daily. In contrast, an action plan follows specific steps and includes tasks that all lead to completing a common goal.

What's the difference between an action plan and a strategic plan?

An action plan and a strategic plan are essential for an organization’s long-term and short-term planning. A strategic plan outlines an organization’s vision for the future and helps prioritize goals, make resourcing decisions, and unite employees. On the other hand, an action plan makes the strategic plan operational by providing detailed instructions on how to accomplish those goals.

What’s the difference between an action plan and an implementation plan?

An implementation plan and an action plan are essential documents that help teams execute a project successfully. An action plan focuses on the specific tasks needed to achieve a goal. In contrast, an implementation plan is a more holistic document outlining the steps, teams, and resources required to execute a project successfully.

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How to Write an Action Plan (Example Included)

ProjectManager

What Is an Action Plan?

In project management, an action plan is a document that lists the action steps needed to achieve project goals and objectives. Therefore, an action plan clarifies what resources you’ll need to reach those goals, makes a timeline for the tasks or action items and determines what team members you’ll need. We’ll define what project goals, project objectives, action items and action steps are later in this guide.

An action plan documents the execution of the project plan; it’s a detailed list of the work that must be done to complete the project goals, including the action steps that are involved in getting from the start of the project to the finish. An action plan is similar to a project implementation plan and it’s very helpful during the project planning and project execution phases.

Not only are you figuring out the action steps and timeline, but you’ll also determine who you’ll assemble for your project team to work on those tasks. This requires robust project management software like ProjectManager . ProjectManager offers multiple action planning tools such as Gantt charts, kanban boards, project calendars and more. Best of all, these project planning views sync with project dashboards, timesheets and workload charts to keep track of progress, project resources and costs.

ProjectManager's Gantt chart showing a construction action plan

Action Plan Components

An action plan answers the who, what and when of what you’re proposing. Those questions are answered by the various components that make up an action plan. The following are the basic building blocks of a successful action plan.

  • Action Plan Steps: The action plan steps are the answer to the question of what. They’re the activities that’ll lead to achieving your goal. Action plan steps detail what will happen, and the more detail, the better.
  • Action Items: The action items are the specific, small tasks that make up the action plan steps. These are the tasks that, when executed, lead to the next action plan step.
  • Action Plan Timeline: An action plan timeline is the whole action plan laid out from start to finish. It shows the full duration of the action plan and every step and task is also plotted on this timeline, including their start and end dates.
  • Action Plan Resources: Resources are anything needed to execute the action plan. That includes labor, materials, equipment, etc. You’ll want to identify the resources you’ll need for the action plan and attach them to the tasks to which they’ll be applied.
  • Action Plan Matrix: A matrix is just a tool to help you determine which tasks you need to complete and in what order. Use our free action plan template to outline the steps, items, timeline and resources you’ll need to get the plan done right.
  • Action Plan Report: Once you start to execute the action plan, you’ll need to ensure your actual progress matches your planned progress. To track progress, you’ll want to use an action plan report, which is a snapshot of your time, costs and more over a specific period.

business plan action words

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Action Plan Template

Use this free Action Plan Template for Excel to manage your projects better.

Types of Action Plans

There are many different types of action plans that are used on various kinds of strategic initiatives. Each is similar in makeup but differs in their goals. Here are a few of the varieties of action plans.

Business Action Plan

A business action plan is used to set goals and tasks when you want to start a business or grow an existing business. It outlines the vision for the business and the actions you’ll take to achieve that vision.

Project Action Plan

An action plan for a project is really no different from a general action plan. The only difference is that it’s about producing a deliverable at the end of the plan, whether that be a product or service.

Personal Action Plan

Again, a personal action plan differs little from any other action plan except for the goal. For example, a personal action plan might be for an individual to exercise more. Therefore, the goal might be to walk for a half-hour a day, say, during lunchtime.

Action Plan Sample

Take a look at this sample of an action plan. We used our free action plan template for Excel  and filled out some potential marketing tasks, phases and assignees. Download this action plan template for free from our site, and get started on your own plan today.

action plan sample and free action plan template for Excel

How to Write an Action Plan for Project Management in 10 Steps

The benefits of an action plan are simple: you’ve now outlined what action steps and what resources are needed to reach your stated project goals. By having this collected in a single project management document, you can more successfully plan out how to execute your project plan.

People get overwhelmed by project management jargon when having to plan out a project, but the word “action” everyone can understand. The fundamentals to getting an action plan together for any project follow these four project planning basic steps:

1. Define Your Project Goals

There’s a difference between project goals and project objectives. Project goals refer to the high-level goals that the project will achieve. Those generally align with the strategic planning and business objectives of organizations.

2. Define Your Project Objectives

The project objectives are much more specific than the project goals. Project objectives refer to the deliverables and milestones that need to be completed to achieve your project goals.

3. Define Action Steps

The action steps are a group of related tasks or action items that must be executed to produce project deliverables.

4. Identify and Prioritize Action Items

Action items are small, individual tasks that make up the action steps that are outlined in your action plan. First, you need to identify task dependencies among them, and then assign those action items a priority level so that they’re executed sequentially.

5. Define Roles & Responsibilities

Now that you’ve divided the work required to accomplish your action plan, you’ll need to assign action items to your project team members and define their roles and responsibilities.

6. Allocate Resources

As with your project plan, your action plan has resource requirements. Having identified your action steps and action items will help you understand what resources are needed for each task and allocate them accordingly.

7. Set SMART Goals

Your action plan needs to be monitored and controlled to measure its performance. That’s why it’s important that you set SMART goals for your action items, action steps and your project objectives. SMART goals stand for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely.

8. Set a Timeline for Your Action Plan

As a project manager, you’ll need to do your best to estimate how long it’ll take to complete your action items and action steps. Once you do so, you’ll have a timeline. You can use project management techniques like PERT charts or the critical path method to better estimate the duration of your project action plan.

9. Write an Action Plan Template

Create or use a simple action plan template to collect tasks, deadlines and assignments. This is the place where everything task-related goes in your project action plan, so you have a place for all this crucial information.

Writing an action plan template it’s a great idea because you’ll need to use that format throughout the project. That’s why we’ve created a free action plan template that you can download. There are also dozens of other free project management templates for Excel and Word that can help you with every phase of your project.

10. Use a Project Management Tool

Use a project management tool to keep you on task. ProjectManager has project planning features that help you monitor and report on project progress and performance. Get a high-level view of the action plan with our live dashboards. Unlike other tools, we don’t make you set up the dashboard.

Once you’ve mapped out your action plan, you can use project planning tools to zoom into all the details about your action steps and action items. With ProjectManager, you can calculate various metrics, such as project variance, workload and more. They’re displayed in easy-to-read charts and graphs. Share them with stakeholders to give them updates on action steps whenever they want.

ProjectManager's dashboard showing a marketing action plan

Tips to Write an Action Plan

Once you have an action plan, how do you work with it to run a successful project? Here are some tips to help with implementing your action plan:

  • Focus on priorities and what’s due now when identifying action steps and setting your action plan timeline
  • When you complete action steps, mark them off
  • Have your team members work on one project management platform
  • Set up alerts
  • Discuss pending or overdue tasks

Action Plan Example

We’ve been talking a lot about an action plan, but let’s take a look at one in-depth. Below, you’ll see our free action plan template . It’s set up for the development of a website.

It’s broken down into phases, the first being the project planning phase , which includes the action steps, market research and the design of the site. You’ll see that tasks are outlined for each action step, including a description of that task, who’s assigned to execute it, the priority and even the status of its completion.

This is followed by the third action step, which is the launch of the site. This is the execution phase of the action plan, but it follows the same format, such as noting the priority, who’s responsible for the work, what that work is and its status.

action plan steps and action items

There’s also a timeline to define the start dates of each of the tasks in the action steps, including the planned hours. This allows you to determine the length of each task and the duration of the entire action plan, from start to finish.

action plan timeline

Finally, there’s a place to add your resources. They’re broken down into departments, for example, marketing, web development, etc. Then the materials that are required for each task are listed, including their costs. This allows you to estimate the cost of the plan.

action plan resource

How to Make An Action Plan With ProjectManager

Follow along with this action plan example to see how action plans are typically laid out using project planning software .

1. Map Action Plan Steps Using Multiple Project Views

ProjectManager can help you build your action plan and then execute it. Collect all your action steps tasks on our list view, which does more than light-weight to-do list apps because it allows you to then map your action plan with Gantt charts , project calendars and kanban boards. These robust project management tools allow you to prioritize action items, customize tags and show the percentage complete for each task. Our online project management software gives you real-time data to help you create an action plan and stick to it.

ProjectManager's list view

2. Assign Action Items to Your Team Members

Once you’ve mapped out your action plan steps with ProjectManager’s project planning tools , you can assign tasks to your team members and indicate what resources are needed for the completion of each action item. Indicate their roles and responsibilities and set priority levels for each task to ensure the work is carried out properly.

3. Set Action Plan Steps and Deliverables

It’s important to note all the phases of the project timeline to know what action steps and tasks will take place and when. In addition, ProjectManager’s Gantt chart allows you to identify project phases, find the critical path, and set due dates for project milestones and deliverables

4. Track Progress With Real-Time Dashboards

Once you start the project, you’ll need to chart the progress of the work being done. This leads us to the real-time project dashboard , where you’ll check whether your action plan is on schedule and under budget.

Manage Your Project With an Action Plan

Getting a plan together is only the first part of managing a project . Remember, it’s not something to write and put away, but rather it’s a living document that should follow you throughout the project life cycle. Jennifer Bridges, PMP, offers more tips on how to write an action plan in the video below.

Here’s a screenshot for your reference:

project planning fundamentals

ProjectManager’s Action Planning Tools are Ideal for Managing Action Plans

If you’re looking to make an action plan and then take action on it by executing, monitoring and reporting on a project, then you’ll want ProjectManager. Our online project management software lets you make an action plan online with multiple project planning tools such as Gantt charts, task lists, kanban boards and project calendars. Then, you can use timesheets, project dashboards and resource management tools to keep track of progress, time and costs.

Plan & Schedule With Gantt Charts

ProjectManager’s Gantt chart is ideal to map out your action plan on an interactive project timeline that helps you organize your tasks, link dependencies and set milestones. More than that, you can filter for the critical path. When you’re done scheduling your action steps you can set a baseline. This allows you to always see the planned versus actual progress of your action plan to help you stay on track.

ProjectManager's Gantt chart is ideal to map out action plans

Manage Action Items with Kanban Boards, Task Lists and Project Calendars

Once you’ve used the Gantt chart to create a timeline for your action plan, you can zoom into the nitty-gritty details of everyday work with kanban boards , task lists and project calendars. With these tools, you can assign tasks and give teams a collaborative platform to comment and share relevant documents with unlimited file storage and real-time communication features.

ProjectManager's kanban board showing action steps from an action plan

Track Progress, Resources and Costs With Real-Time Action Plan Dashboards

ProjectManager’s real-time action plan dashboards sync with all its project management tools so you can check the status of your action plan at any time. You can check on your team members’ progress to see who’s over or underallocated, check labor costs and track whether your team is on schedule.

dashboard showing project metrics in real-time

ProjectManager gives you all the tools you need to create and implement a successful action plan. Regardless of the type of action plan that you need to create, our award-winning project management software makes it easy to do so. Get started with a free 30-day trial today. 

Click here to browse ProjectManager's free templates

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  • Create an action plan that drives resul ...

Create an action plan that drives results

Alicia Raeburn contributor headshot

An action plan outlines precisely how you’re planning to accomplish your goals. It’s the perfect way to approach goals systematically and keep your team on target. In this article, we will cover how to create an action plan in six steps and how to implement it successfully. Plus, learn more about the differences between action plans, project plans, and to-do lists.

It can feel good to make goals. After all, you’re defining what you want to accomplish. But goals won’t do much without clear action steps. ​​An action plan is a popular project management technique that lists your action steps so you know exactly how you’re going to accomplish your goals. 

We’re going to show you how to create this clear roadmap step by step and other tools you should utilize to get the most out of your action plan. Let’s dive in.

What is an action plan?

An action plan is a list of tasks or steps you need to complete to achieve your goals. An effective action plan works like a management plan for your company’s initiatives, outlining the steps you need to take to make these larger goals a success. Once you go through the goal-setting process, create an action plan with specific tasks and timeframes to reach each goal. 

Who needs an action plan?

An action plan is useful for anyone who needs a step-by-step planning process. When you create an action plan, you detail exactly what actions you'll take to accomplish your project goals. These plans can help you organize your to-dos and ensure you have the necessary information and resources to accomplish your goals.

But you can create action plans for more than just strategic planning. Use this tool to reach any specific goals in a systematic way. Try setting up:

Business action plan

Marketing action plan

Corrective action plan

Sales action plan

Project action plan

Personal development action plan

Regardless of the type of action plan you create, make sure you create it in task management software . That way, you can easily share action items and timelines with your team to track progress. Instead of manual status updates and unclear deliverables, your team has one central source of truth for everything they need to do in order to hit their goals. 

Now let’s get into how you can create an action plan that increases your team’s efficiency and accountability.

Who needs an action plan?

6 steps to create an action plan

Step 1: set a smart goal.

When it comes to setting goals, clarity is the single most important quality. With the SMART goal method, your goal is clearly defined and attainable. Set specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound goals to benefit from this tactic.

[Inline illustration] SMART goals (Infographic)

For example, your goal could be to deliver your current project (measurable) in four months (time-bound) without overspending (specific). Assuming this goal is both achievable and realistic based on your available resources, it’s a great SMART goal to set for yourself.

Step 2: Identify tasks

Now that your goal is clearly defined and written down, you’ll want to identify the steps you have to take to reach it. Identify all of the tasks that you and your team need to complete to reach milestones and, eventually, the main objective.

Here are a few action plan examples with tasks for different kinds of goals:

Goal: Expand team from seven to nine team members by June.

Meet with Human Resources to discuss the recruitment campaign.

Create a template project to track candidates.

Schedule three interviews per week.

Goal: Select and onboard new work management software to the entire company by the end of Q2.

Apply for the budget.

Create a roll-out plan for Q2.

Schedule training for team members.

Goal: Host 5k charity run in May to raise $15,000 for the local food bank.

Find volunteers and determine responsibilities

Prepare marketing materials and PR plans

Secure sponsors

Step 3: Allocate resources

Once you’ve outlined all of your tasks, you can allocate resources like team members, project budget, or necessary equipment. Whether it’s assigning team members to certain tasks, applying for a budget, or gathering helpful tools—now is the time to plan and prepare.

Sometimes, you can’t allocate all of your resources before you put your action plan in motion. Perhaps you have to apply for funding first or need executive approval before you can move on with a task. In that case, make the resource an action item in your plan so you can take care of it later.

Step 4: Prioritize tasks

When your team is clear on their priorities, they know what work to do first and what work they can reschedule if necessary. No action plan is set in stone, so the best way to empower your team is to let them know what tasks have a high priority and which ones are a bit more flexible.

To make this clear, sort all of your action items by priority and sequence:

Priority: Important and less important tasks.

Sequence: Order in which tasks have to be completed so others can start.

When you’re organizing and prioritizing your action items , you’ll notice that some action items are dependent on others. In other words, one task can’t begin until the previous task is completed. Highlight these dependencies and factor the sequence into your prioritization. This reduces bottlenecks , removing obstacles that would make a less important action item delay a high-priority item.  

Step 5: Set deadlines and milestones

When your team knows what they're working towards, they have the context to effectively prioritize work and the motivation to get great work done. Team members tend to be more motivated when they directly understand how their work is contributing to larger goals.

To engage your teammates from the get go, assign deadlines to all action items and define milestones . Milestones mark specific points along your project timeline that identify when activities have been completed or when a new phase starts

Create a timeline or Gantt chart to get a better overview of your prioritized tasks, milestones, and deadlines. Your timeline also serves as a visual way to track the start and end dates of every task in your action plan. You can use it as a baseline to make sure your team stays on track.

Step 6: Monitor and revise your action plan

Your ability to stay on top of and adapt to changes is what makes you a great project manager. It’s crucial that you monitor your team’s progress and revise the plan when necessary.

Luckily, your action plan isn’t set in stone. The best way to track potentially changing priorities or deadlines is to use a dynamic tool like a work management software . That way, you can update to-dos and dependencies in real time, keep your team on the same page, and your action plan moving.

Action plan vs. plan B vs. project plan vs. to-do list

So how exactly does an action plan differ from all these other plans and lists? To clear this up once and for all, we’re going to explain what these plans are and when to use which plan to maximize your team’s efforts.

Action plan vs. plan B

You may have heard the terms action plan and plan B used interchangeably. But in fact, an action plan and plan B are two completely different types of plans. Here’s how to tell them apart:

Your action plan outlines actions in much detail so you and your team know exactly what steps to take to reach your goal.

A plan B is a secondary action plan, an alternative strategy, that your team can apply if your original plan fails. Whether that’s because of an internal issue or an external factor—having a plan B is a great way to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

Action plan vs. plan B

Action plan vs. project plan

A project plan is a bit more complicated than an action plan. Project plans are blueprints of the key elements your team needs to accomplish to successfully achieve your project goals. A project plan includes seven elements:

Goals and project objectives

Success metrics

Stakeholders and roles

Scope and budget

Milestones and deliverables

Timeline and schedule

Communication plan

Once you’ve created a project plan, use an action plan to outline and document how your team will execute your tasks and hit your goals. This will ensure that everyone on your team knows what their responsibilities are and what to get done by when.

Action plan vs. to-do list

A to-do list is typically used to write down single tasks that don’t necessarily lead to one common goal. To-do lists can change daily and are much less organized than action plans. An action plan will follow specific steps and include tasks that all lead to the completion of a common goal.

How to implement your action plan successfully

You know how to create an action plan, but in order to implement it successfully, you need to use the right tools and use them correctly. Here are our top five tips to ensure your action plan is effective:

How to implement your action plan successfully

Use task management software

Streamline your action plan by keeping all of your tasks and timelines in one central source of truth. Task management software, like Asana , is perfect for your action plan because it allows you to keep track of pending tasks, declare task ownership, assign dependencies, and connect with your team in real time or asynchronously .

Use or create templates

Create or use a template that lists all the action items with notes, status, priority, and ownership. When you create a template that fits your project type, you can reuse it time and time again.

Set up real-time alerts and assign dependencies

Make sure all action items are time-bound and that you assign dependencies. That way, your team can react when an item is ready for them and easily track what other items depend on theirs. 

Check action items off as you complete them

When action items are completed, check them off! Make sure it’s visible to everyone and happens in real time so the person responsible for the next action item can start their work as soon as possible.

Discuss late or pending tasks

If you run into issues or delays, talk to your team to uncover potential bottlenecks and find solutions that keep the action plan on track. You can add notes directly into your action plan or set up calls to discuss more complex issues.

Ready, set, action plan

Like Benjamin Franklin once said: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Creating an action plan helps you stay focused, on track, and brings your goals to life.

Plan to succeed with a structured action plan and helpful tools like Asana’s task management software. Connect and align with your team in a central source of truth while staying flexible enough to revise your action plan when necessary.

What is an Action Plan? Learn with Templates and Examples

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Planning on turning your vision into reality? And what’s your best way to avoid challenges and problems during this journey? A solid action plan.

We have outlined 6 steps explaining how to write an action plan. Once you familiarize yourself with them, go ahead and use the editable templates below to start planning right away.

What is an Action Plan?

Why you need an action plan, how to write an action plan, action plan templates.

An action plan is a specific list of tasks in order to achieve a particular goal. It can be regarded as a proposed strategy to execute a specific project to achieve a specific or general goal effectively and efficiently. It outlines steps to take and helps stay focused and organized, whether it’s personal or work-related. Breaking down the goal into smaller, manageable steps, makes it easier to stay motivated and track progress.

It’s an essential part of the strategic planning process and helps with improving teamwork planning Not only in project management, but action plans can be used by individuals to prepare a strategy to achieve their own personal goals as well.

Components of an action plan include

  • A well-defined description of the goal to be achieved
  • Tasks/ steps that need to be carried out to reach the goal
  • People who will be in charge of carrying out each task
  • When will these tasks be completed (deadlines and milestones)
  • Resources needed to complete the tasks
  • Measures to evaluate progress

What’s great about having everything listed down on one location is that it makes it easier to track progress and effectively plan things out.

An action plan is not something set in stone. As your organization grows, and surrounding circumstances change, you will have to revisit and make adjustments to meet the latest needs.

Sometimes businesses don’t spend much time on developing an action plan before an initiative, which, in most cases, leads to failure. If you haven’t heard, “failing to plan is planning to fail” said Benjamin Franklin supposedly once.

Planning helps you prepare for the obstacles ahead and keep you on track. And with an effective action plan, you can boost your productivity and keep yourself focused.  

Here are some benefits of an action plan you should know;

  • It gives you a clear direction. As an action plan highlights exactly what steps to be taken and when they should be completed, you will know exactly what you need to do.
  • Having your goals written down and planned out in steps will give you a reason to stay motivated and committed throughout the project.  
  • With an action plan, you can track your progress toward your goal.
  • Since you are listing down all the steps you need to complete in your action plan, it will help you prioritize your tasks based on effort and impact.

From the looks of it, creating an action plan seems fairly easy. But there are several important steps you need to follow with caution in order to get the best out of it. Here’s how to write an action plan explained in 6 easy steps.

Step 1: Define your end goal

If you are not clear about what you want to do and what you want to achieve, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Planning a new initiative? Start by defining where you are and where you want to be.

Solving a problem? Analyze the situation and explore possible solutions before prioritizing them.

Then write down your goal. And before you move on to the next step, run your goal through the SMART criteria . Or in other words, make sure that it is

  • Specific – well-defined and clear
  • Measurable – include measurable indicators to track progress  
  • Attainable – realistic and achievable within the resources, time, money, experience, etc. you have
  • Relevant – align with your other goals
  • Timely – has a finishing date

Use this SMART goal worksheet to simplify this process. Share it with others to get their input as well.  

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And refer to our easy guide to the goal-setting process to learn more about setting and planning your goals.

Step 2: List down the steps to be followed

The goal is clear. What exactly should you do to realize it?

Create a rough template to list down all the tasks to be performed, due dates and people responsible.

It’s important that you make sure that the entire team is involved in this process and has access to the document. This way everyone will be aware of their roles and responsibilities in the project.

Make sure that each task is clearly defined and is attainable. If you come across larger and more complex tasks, break them down to smaller ones that are easier to execute and manage.

Tips: Use a RACI Matrix template to clarify project roles and responsibilities, and plan projects

Step 3: Prioritize tasks and add deadlines

It’s time to reorganize the list by prioritizing the tasks . Some steps, you may need to prioritize as they can be blocking other sub-steps.

Add deadlines, and make sure that they are realistic. Consult with the person responsible for carrying it out to understand his or her capacity before deciding on deadlines.

Step 4: Set milestones

Milestones can be considered mini goals leading up to the main goal at the end. The advantage of adding milestones is that they give the team members to look forward to something and help them stay motivated even though the final due date is far away.

Start from the end goal and work your way back as you set milestones . Remember not to keep too little or too much time in between the milestone you set. It’s a best practice to space milestones two weeks apart.  

Step 5: Identify the resources needed

Before you start your project, it’s crucial to ensure that you have all the necessary resources at hand to complete the tasks. And if they are not currently available, you need to first make a plan to acquire them.

This should also include your budget. You can assign a column of your action plan to mark the cost of each task if there are any.  

Step 6: Visualize your action plan

The point of this step is to create something that everyone can understand at a glance and that can be shared with everyone.

Whether your action plan comes in the shape of a flowchart , Gantt chart , or table , make sure that it clearly communicates the elements we have identified so far – tasks, task owners, deadlines, resources, etc.

This document should be easily accessible to everyone and should be editable.

Step 7: Monitor, evaluate and update

Allocate some time to evaluate the progress you’ve made with your team.

You can mark tasks that are completed as done on this final action plan, bringing attention to how you’ve progressed toward the goal.

This will also bring out the tasks that are pending or delayed, in which case you need to figure out why and find suitable solutions. And then update the action plan accordingly.

Business action plan

You may like to read: The Easy Guide to Making a Business Plan for Presentations

Marketing action plan

Strategic action plan, corrective action plan template.

Learn more about: Corrective Action Plan template .

Additional resources: The Easy Guide to Creating a Business Contingency Plan

Simple action plan template

Any more tips on creating an action plan.

An action plan is designed to guide your way to accomplishing your goals. It turns your vision into actionable goals and steps. And it helps you stay focused and motivated.

From an individual employee in an organization to larger departments can make use of action plans to steer their way towards completing their goals.

Maybe you are about to create your very first action plan, or you are already a pro at writing them. Either way, we’d like to hear your opinions on how to write an action plan. Do share them with us in the comments section below.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

FAQs About Action Plan

Lack of clarity on goals: Make sure the team understands the goals and objectives of the action plan. The goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

Unclear responsibilities: Assign clear roles and responsibilities for each team member to avoid confusion and ensure accountability.

Overcomplicating the plan: Keep the action plan simple and easy to understand. Avoid adding unnecessary complexity or detail that may confuse the team.

Failure to prioritize tasks: Prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency. This will ensure that the team focuses on the most critical tasks first.

Inadequate resources: Ensure that the team has access to the necessary resources such as time, budget, and equipment, to carry out the action plan successfully.

Lack of communication: Effective communication is crucial to the success of any action plan. Ensure that team members are regularly updated on progress and any changes to the plan.

Failure to monitor progress: Regularly monitor progress and adjust the action plan as needed to ensure that it stays on track and achieves its goals.

Strategic action plan: This type of plan outlines the long-term goals and objectives of an organization, and the actions that will be taken to achieve them. It typically covers a period of several years and includes high-level strategies and initiatives.

Operational action plan: This plan focuses on the day-to-day operations of an organization, outlining the actions that will be taken to achieve short-term goals and objectives. It typically covers a period of one year or less and includes specific actions and timelines.

Project action plan: This type of plan is used for individual projects and outlines the actions that will be taken to achieve specific project goals and objectives. It includes a detailed breakdown of tasks, timelines, and responsibilities.

Sales action plan: This plan focuses on the actions that will be taken to increase sales and revenue. It includes specific strategies for marketing, sales, and customer service.

Marketing action plan: This plan outlines the actions that will be taken to promote a product or service and increase brand awareness. It includes strategies for advertising, social media, public relations, and other marketing initiatives.

Crisis management action plan: This type of plan outlines the actions that will be taken in the event of a crisis, such as a natural disaster or security breach. It includes specific protocols for communication, evacuation, and other emergency procedures.

An action plan can be used by anyone who wants to achieve specific goals or objectives. It is a useful tool for individuals, teams, and organizations in a variety of contexts. Here are some examples:

Individuals: An individual can use an action plan to achieve personal goals such as losing weight, completing a degree, or starting a business.

Teams: A team can use an action plan to achieve goals related to a specific project or initiative. For example, a marketing team may use an action plan to launch a new product.

Small businesses: Small businesses can use an action plan to achieve goals related to sales, marketing, operations, or finance.

Non-profit organizations: Non-profit organizations can use an action plan to achieve goals related to fundraising, volunteer recruitment, or program implementation.

Government agencies: Government agencies can use an action plan to achieve goals related to policy implementation, disaster response, or public safety.

Educational institutions: Educational institutions can use an action plan to achieve goals related to improving student outcomes, increasing enrollment, or expanding programs.

More Related Articles

Improve Productivity and Efficiency With Action Items

Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

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Blog Training and Development

What is an Action Plan & How to Write One [With Examples]

By Danesh Ramuthi , Oct 26, 2023

action plan

An action plan is a meticulously structured strategy that pinpoints specific steps, tasks and resources vital to turning a goal into reality. It is extremely useful in any project management. 

Crafting an action plan is like plotting a route for a cross-country journey. It’s the strategic map that outlines every step, decision and pitstop needed to reach your ultimate destination.

With a well-thought-out action plan, you’re not just shooting in the dark; you’re making informed, purposeful strides towards your goals. Dive deep with our guide and witness real-world examples that will inspire and guide you.

Need a tool to kickstart your planning? Try out the Venngage business plan maker and explore their extensive collection of action plan templates .

Click to jump ahead: 

What is the purpose of an action plan?

When to develop an action plan, 7 components of a actions plan, 15 action plan examples.

  • How to Write an action plan?

Final thoughts

An action plan serves as a strategic tool designed to outline specific steps, tasks and goals necessary to achieve a particular objective.

Its primary purpose is to provide a clear roadmap and direction for individuals, teams or organizations to follow in order to efficiently and effectively accomplish their goals. 

Action plans break down complex projects into manageable, actionable components, making it easier to track progress and stay on course.

Moreover, action plans play a crucial role in fostering accountability and coordination among team members. By assigning responsibilities and deadlines for each task or milestone, they ensure that everyone involved is aware of their roles and the overall timeline, reducing confusion and enhancing teamwork. 

Additionally, action plans help in resource allocation, budgeting and risk management by enabling stakeholders to identify potential challenges and plan for contingencies. 

Overall, the purpose of an action plan is to transform abstract goals into concrete actions, making them more achievable and measurable while ensuring that the resources and efforts are aligned with the desired outcomes.

Developing an action plan is crucial when you’re looking to achieve a specific goal or outcome. Here are instances when you should consider developing an action plan:

  • Start of an organization : Ideally, an action plan should be developed within the first six months to one year of the start of an organization. This initial plan lays the groundwork for the future direction and growth of the entity.
  • Project initiation : At the start of any project, an action plan helps to clearly define the tasks, responsibilities, and timelines.
  • Goal setting : Whenever you or your organization sets a new goal. Action plans transform these goals from abstract ideas into concrete steps.
  • Strategic planning : For long-term visions and missions, action plans break down the journey into manageable pieces, each with its timeline and responsible parties.
  • Performance improvement : If there are areas where performance is lacking, whether it’s personal or organizational, an action plan can outline the steps needed to elevate performance.

An action plan is a detailed outline that breaks down the steps necessary to achieve a specific goal. Here are the typical components of an action plan.

1. Objective or Goal

The cornerstone of your action plan is the objective or goal. This should be a clear and concise statement outlining the desired outcome or result. Having a well-defined objective provides a direction and purpose to the entire plan, ensuring all tasks and actions are aligned towards achieving this singular aim.

2. Tasks or Actions

Once the objective is set, the next step is to list down the specific tasks or actions required to achieve this goal. These tasks should be broken down into detailed steps, ensuring no essential activity is overlooked. The granularity of these tasks can vary based on the complexity of the goal.

3. Set deadline

For each task or action, set a realistic and achievable deadline. This timeline ensures that the plan stays on track and that momentum is maintained throughout the execution. It also allows for monitoring progress and identifying potential delays early.

4. Resources needed to complete the project

It’s crucial to recognize and list the resources you’ll need to complete the tasks. This can encompass financial resources, human resources, equipment, technological tools or any other assets. Identifying these early ensures that there are no bottlenecks during execution due to a lack of necessary resources.

5. Person responsible

Assign a person or a team for each task. This designation ensures accountability and clarity. When individuals are aware of their responsibilities, it reduces overlap, confusion and ensures that every task has someone overseeing its completion.

6. Potential barriers or challenges

Every plan will face challenges. By anticipating potential barriers or obstacles, you can be better prepared to address them. This proactive approach ensures smoother execution and less reactionary problem-solving.

7. Measurement of key performance indicators (KPIs)

Determine how you’ll measure the success of each task or the plan overall. KPIs are tangible metrics that allow you to gauge progress and determine whether you’re moving closer to your goals and objectives. They offer a quantifiable means to evaluate success.

Action plans serve as blueprints, guiding the steps and resources needed to achieve a specific goal. 

They come in various formats, tailored to different scenarios and objectives. Here, we present a range of action plan examples that cater to diverse purposes and situations. 

From business strategies to simple task lists, these examples illustrate the versatility and importance of well-structured planning.

Business action plan example

A business action plan is essentially a strategy roadmap, meticulously tailored for realizing broader business objectives. By crafting a solid action plan, businesses can channel their resources, manpower and strategies in a direction that harmonizes with their larger vision.

Purple Business Action Plan Template

Key to this plan is the identification and alignment of steps that resonate with the company’s comprehensive strategy, ambitions of growth and aspirations for operational enhancements. 

While this might entail a myriad of specific steps based on unique business goals, some common elements include setting clear key performance indicators (KPIs), undertaking a thorough SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to grasp the current business landscape and establishing a timeline to keep track of progress.

Business Action Plan Template

Furthermore, allocating responsibilities to team members or individuals ensures that every aspect of the strategy has a dedicated focus. Budgeting, essential to the success of the action plan, ensures that every initiative is financially viable and sustainable. 

Red Business Action Plan Template

Regular reviews and iterations based on feedback and changing market dynamics keep the action plan agile and relevant.

Related: 5 Steps to Create an Actionable Employee Development Plan [with Templates & Examples]

Company action plan example

A comprehensive company action plan serves as the strategic linchpin, ensuring a coherent and coordinated approach to realizing organizational goals. Central to this plan is the incorporation of rigorous market research and analysis, which provides insights into consumer behaviors, market trends and potential opportunities. 

Clean Green And Gray Action Plan

Equally vital is the focus on product development and procurement, ensuring that the offerings align with market demands and stand out in terms of quality and relevance. 

Alongside, adept legal and financial management safeguards the company’s interests, ensuring compliance with regulations and prudent fiscal oversight.

Simple Green And Orange Company Action Plan

Moreover, the essence of any successful company action plan lies in its sales and marketing strategies. These define how the products or services are positioned and promoted in the market, ensuring visibility and engagement with the target audience. 

Navy And Yellow Modern Minimalist Action Plan

However, while acquisition is crucial, retention plays an equally significant role. Hence, impeccable customer service and nurturing relationships become indispensable components, fostering loyalty and ensuring that clients remain ambassadors for the brand long after the initial transaction.

Related: 30+ Project Plan Examples to Visualize Your Strategy (2023)

Sales action plan example

A well-structured sales action plan serves as the backbone for systematic and efficient progress. Central to this plan is the identification and utilization of the most effective sales channels, whether they are direct, online or through third-party avenues. 

Strategic Food Sales Action Plan Template

Clarity on the products and services on offer, combined with their unique selling propositions, facilitates tailored and resonant sales pitches. 

Budget considerations ensure that resources are judiciously allocated, balancing the act between expenditures and potential returns. This financial prudence is complemented by setting realistic sales projections, which act as both a motivational target and a yardstick for success.

Timelines, or proposed deadlines, infuse the process with a sense of urgency, ensuring that the momentum of the sales drive is maintained. 

business plan action words

However, the true measure of the action plan’s efficacy lies in its key performance indicators (KPIs). These metrics, be it lead conversion rates or customer retention figures, serve as tangible markers, highlighting the plan’s strengths and signaling areas that might require recalibration to increase sales.

Food Retailer Sales Action Plan Template

Corrective action plan example

The essence of a corrective action plan lies in its meticulous structure, tailored to address and rectify deviations or inefficiencies identified within an organization. At its core, each action item serves as a focal point, detailing specific areas or processes that require intervention. 

Black and Green Corrective Action Plan

Accompanying each action item is a clear description that provides a comprehensive understanding of the issue at hand. 

However, merely identifying a problem isn’t enough; delving deep into its origins through root cause analysis ensures that solutions target the fundamental issues, rather than just addressing superficial symptoms. 

Green Minimalist Corrective Action Plan

This analysis then paves the way for defining the corrective action, a tangible step or series of steps designed to mitigate the identified problem and prevent its recurrence.

Besides, to ensure the plan’s effectiveness, assigning a responsible person to each action item is paramount. This individual or team is entrusted with the task’s execution, ensuring accountability and focus. 

business plan action words

The status of each action keeps stakeholders informed about the progress, be it in the planning phase, ongoing, or completed. 

Lastly, setting a due date for each corrective action introduces a sense of urgency and purpose, ensuring that issues are addressed in a timely manner, minimizing disruptions and maximizing operational efficiency.

Simple action plan example

A simple action plan strips away the layers of complexity, offering a concise and direct approach to achieving a goal or addressing an issue. This type of plan is characterized by its straightforward structure, devoid of extraneous details, yet powerfully effective in its clarity. 

It is specifically designed for tasks or objectives that don’t necessitate elaborate strategies or multi-layered approaches.

White and Red Simple Corrective Action Plan

The core components of a simple action plan usually include a clear statement of the task or objective at hand, followed by a sequence of actions or steps to be taken. 

Each step is described succinctly, ensuring that anyone involved has a clear understanding of what is expected. Responsibilities are defined clearly, with each task allocated to an individual or a team, ensuring accountability. Timelines might be integrated, providing a clear framework for completion, even if they’re just broad milestones. 

Simple Yellow And Black Action Plan

Regular check-ins or assessments, although minimal, might be incorporated to monitor progress. 

The beauty of a simple action plan lies in its agility and adaptability, making it particularly suited for individual projects, short-term tasks or situations where a rapid response is required.

Simple Action Plan Flow Chart Template

How to write an action plan?

Creating an effective action plan is a foundational step towards turning aspirations into tangible results. It provides a clear roadmap, ensuring that each step taken aligns with the overall objective.

Whether you’re aiming to enhance a business process or achieve a personal goal, a well-drafted action plan can be your guiding light. Here’s key steps on how you can craft one:

  • Step 1: Establish SMART goals: Initiating with a goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound ensures you have a clear and focused endpoint in sight. Smart goals serves as the cornerstone for your entire strategic blueprint.
  • Step 2: Determine necessary tasks: Decompose your overarching objective into smaller, actionable tasks. This modular approach not only makes the mission less daunting but also provides a sequential pathway to goal attainment.
  • Step 3: Assign essential resources: Depending on the tasks at hand, designate necessary resources, be they human, financial or technological. This ensures that every activity has the backing it needs for successful execution.
  • Step 4: Prioritize tasks by importance: Not all tasks hold equal weight. Determine the hierarchy of tasks based on their impact on the goal and their time sensitivity. This allows for a systematic progression.
  • Step 5: Outline timelines and key markers: With tasks in hand, set clear deadlines for each. Introduce milestones, which act as periodic check-ins, ensuring you’re on track and allowing for celebrations of smaller victories.
  • Step 6: Oversee and modify your strategy blueprint: As you progress, there will invariably be learnings and challenges. Regularly review your plan to make necessary adjustments, ensuring its relevance and effectiveness.
  • Step 7: Consider ready-to-use templates: If starting from scratch feels overwhelming, lean on structured templates to guide your planning. There’s plenty of business plan softwares and platforms such as  Venngage that offer a plethora of action plan templates , tailored to various needs, which can significantly streamline the process.

An action plan is more than just an action steps, it’s a strategic blueprint that bridges the gap between aspirations and realizations. 

Through this comprehensive guide, I’ve walked you through the purpose, ideal timings, core components, and practical examples of action plans across various domains. 

Leveraging tools of project management , you can track progress, assign tasks and ensure every team member stays on the same page. 

It’s not just about setting goals, but about strategically planning every step, ensuring tasks completed align with the larger project goals. 

Remember, success isn’t just about having goals but about charting the right course to achieve them

And if you’re looking to supercharge your planning efforts, don’t miss out on the Venngage business plan maker. 

Dive into their extensive collection of action plan templates and make your strategic planning both efficient and effective. 

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, how often should a business plan be updated, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

business plan action words

A business plan is a document that details a company's goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

  • A business plan is a document describing a company's business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
  • Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
  • For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company's short- and long-term objectives.
  • There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they'll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn't looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, "Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs."

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan for itself.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and highlighting any potential obstacles to success. A company might also share its business plan with trusted outsiders to get their objective feedback. In addition, a business plan can help keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and priorities.

Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they often have some of the same basic elements, as we describe below.

While it's a good idea to provide as much detail as necessary, it's also important that a business plan be concise enough to hold a reader's attention to the end.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, it's best to fit the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and attached as appendices.

These are some of the most common elements in many business plans:

  • Executive summary: This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
  • Products and services: Here, the company should describe the products and services it offers or plans to introduce. That might include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other factors that could go into this section include production and manufacturing processes, any relevant patents the company may have, as well as proprietary technology . Information about research and development (R&D) can also be included here.
  • Market analysis: A company needs to have a good handle on the current state of its industry and the existing competition. This section should explain where the company fits in, what types of customers it plans to target, and how easy or difficult it may be to take market share from incumbents.
  • Marketing strategy: This section can describe how the company plans to attract and keep customers, including any anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. It should also describe the distribution channel or channels it will use to get its products or services to consumers.
  • Financial plans and projections: Established businesses can include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses can provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making.

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should aim to entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its uniqueness and potential for success.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can take many forms, but they are sometimes divided into two basic categories: traditional and lean startup. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

  • Traditional business plans : These plans tend to be much longer than lean startup plans and contain considerably more detail. As a result they require more work on the part of the business, but they can also be more persuasive (and reassuring) to potential investors.
  • Lean startup business plans : These use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans are short—as short as one page—and provide only the most basic detail. If a company wants to use this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or a lender requests it.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan is not a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections to begin with. Markets and the overall economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All of this calls for building some flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on the nature of the business. A well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary. A new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers to give a quick explanation of its business. For example, a brand-new company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide yet.

Sections can include: a value proposition ; the company's major activities and advantages; resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital; a list of partnerships; customer segments; and revenue sources.

A business plan can be useful to companies of all kinds. But as a company grows and the world around it changes, so too should its business plan. So don't think of your business plan as carved in granite but as a living document designed to evolve with your business.

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

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What is an action plan? Steps, template, and examples

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Editor’s note : This blog was updated 27 June 2023 to add more information about action plans, including examples of the types of organizations that can use action plans and an in-depth example study. The action plan template was also updated.

What Is An Action Plan? Steps, Template, And Examples

Have a thoughtfully laid-out product roadmap? Great! What’s next?

It’s time to make things happen and turn your product vision into reality.

As a product manager, you’re akin to an orchestrator, juggling multiple hats that need different levels of skill and communication — the glue that brings everything together. One of the most important things you need to get started is an action plan.

What is an action plan?

An action plan is a guiding document and work breakdown structure that outlines all the tasks that need to be completed so you can achieve your product goals.

An action plan is like a music sheet: if you have a defined set of notes, you know exactly what the music is going to sound like.

As the product manager, you need to be able to define the set of tasks in sequential order, considering dependencies and priorities, that will help you complete your project in the quickest, most efficient way possible.

What is an action plan example?

Action plans do not all have to be for complicated products or things — they can be for easy, short-term plans as well. For example, say a product team at a stationery company wants to introduce a new pen model. Their action plan could involve defining the new model’s design, sourcing materials, setting up manufacturing processes, determining marketing strategies, and setting a timeline for the product launch.

Another example could be a clothing brand apparel brand plans to launch a new, sustainable line. This action plan could include researching sustainable materials and manufacturing processes, designing the clothing line, determining pricing strategies, planning the marketing campaign to emphasize the sustainability angle, and coordinating the product launch across various sales channels.

As you can see, action plans don’t always have to be for complex software products. We’ll walk through an example later in the article more suited toward a digital tech product, but the point is that every team can use an action plan no matter what their product is!

How an action plan complements your product strategy

It’s important to note that an action plan and product strategy are not the same thing. Product strategy defines the high-level direction of what will make a product successful and a general idea of how to get there. An action plan is created from an execution standpoint and is not meant to define product strategy.

However, a good action plan should incorporate a long-term product strategy that aligns with business goals. Taking action that doesn’t ultimately lead to achieving your goals is simply unnecessary and a drain on your resources. A smart action plan embraces the fact that business goals and product priorities can change along the way, making it crucial to create a plan that is flexible and allows you to pivot with minimal disruptions.

All in all, an action plan (especially when finely tuned and strategic) complements your product strategy by providing an actionable roadmap to success. As mentioned earlier, while the product strategy paints the high-level vision for what will make a product successful, the action plan breaks this down into tactical steps — think of it as the bridge between the strategy and actual implementation. It’s important to clarify that a well-crafted action plan does not aim to redefine the product strategy but gives a path to execute it.

business plan action words

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How to create an action plan in 5 steps

Creating an action plan is a logical exercise, much like putting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together. It’s just that sometimes, you don’t have the jigsaw pieces readily available, so you have to do some digging to find them first.

Whether you’re using pen and paper or a more sophisticated project management tool such as Jira or Confluence, it’s important to write down your action plan so you can get everyone on the same page (literally) and reference it later.

The steps to writing an effective action plan are as follows:

  • Define goals
  • Build your framework and task list
  • Define roles and responsibilities
  • Communicate and get feedback
  • Update your action plan

1. Define goals

The most important step in creating an action plan is to define the goals you want to achieve through that plan. This isn’t exclusively about launching a new product feature or enhancing user experience, you can equally use an action plan to reinforce security measures or diminish your product’s tech debt. The goals can be big or small, but defining them clearly is crucial.

To ensure these goals are robust and measurable, incorporate data metrics as your success indicators and set feasible timelines. The more precise and data-centric your goals, the more actionable they become. For example: Increase net-new users by X percent through the release of Y new feature by the end of Q3.

2. Build your framework and task list

Now that you have your goals defined, work backward from your goals and think about all the different pieces you need to reach them.

When dealing with so many moving parts, it’s important to create a structure for them. We call this the work breakdown structure.

Essentially, this involves dissecting the project into smaller, manageable tasks. Organize these tasks into groups and create dependencies and communication links between them. This forms the framework you can use to fully build out your action plan.

The framework will help you create a holistic execution plan and force you to think about the things that you possibly could have missed. No two companies are alike, so create a detailed framework that works for you and your company.

Example action plan framework

Here’s an example of a simple, high-level framework for a process-oriented action plan that’s ideal for software companies:

  • Product scoping
  • Technical scoping
  • UI/UX design
  • Development
  • Release and review

Product scoping — Gather product requirements through product analytics, customer discovery, cross-functional collaboration and internal feedback, competitive and market trends, and any other source that brings insights into the product you’re building. Consider how your product will impact existing customers, other products, teams, revenue streams, etc. within your company.

Technical scoping — Once you have the product requirements nailed down, having technical scoping discussions helps to understand technical feasibility and dependencies better.

UI/UX design — Create prototypes according to user experience and design best practices. This will help validate technical feasibility, customer usability, and alignment with product strategy.

Development — Now that we have a solid set of requirements that are ready to be developed, you can create further action plans specifically for development in collaboration with your engineering manager(s) . Together with your engineering leaders, break down the development phase into manageable chunks of work, taking into account technical dependencies and the sequential order of how the tasks must be developed.

Testing — Once your product is developed, it’s time to test it. Engage a variety of stakeholders to test your product. More feedback means more insights into how customers will perceive and use your product.

Release and review — Releasing a new product feature can be nerve-wracking. Having a release checklist to go with your action plan can be helpful. Think about all the things that need to be put in place before the release, including communicating with other stakeholders (e.g., support, marketing, sales, leadership, etc.). Once you release, review customer feedback to find ways to improve your product.

Once you have your framework, create a detailed list of tasks for each stage. Support each task with a written description of what the task entails and what defines it as completed . Reach out to your team members to help you understand each task better and include any other details that you think are relevant.

3. Define roles and responsibilities

Use the framework as a point of reference to manage your resources. Resources can make or break your project, so it’s important to manage them as efficiently as possible.

In collaboration with your engineering manager, establish the team that will be working on the specific project. Define the roles and responsibilities of each team member and make sure everyone understands how they are expected to contribute to the project.

Assign tasks to team members accordingly and help them understand the scope of their tasks. It’s also important to collaboratively set up deadlines for tasks and then hold them accountable to those timelines.

4. Communicate and gather feedback

You now have a well-established action plan. You know who is doing what, when, and how it all leads up to achieving the goals of your action plan. But there are always caveats.

For instance, sometimes you make assumptions before validating, or you’re just not aware of something that can become a problem later on. The list of potential nags is literally endless.

To avoid this, communicate your action plan to your core team, management, cross-functional stakeholders, and other team members to gather feedback. Being open to feedback is critical to learning and growing. Incorporating feedback will build your own credibility and will help evolve the process of creating action plans.

5. Update your action plan

The only constant is change. As market trends and business strategies evolve, you have to be ready to pivot. This can put a damper on your well-established action plans.

Acknowledging this and building flexibility into your action plans will help you keep projects on track. Create milestones or checkpoints in your action plans; this will enable you to make informed decisions on how best to pivot when the need arises.

As things change, update your action plan and communicate at the earliest possible to the project team, as well as any other stakeholder that needs to be in the loop.

Action plan in-depth example: Improving user engagement with a new feature

Let’s walk through a specific (and realistic) example product managers may face — improving user engagement by releasing a new feature. Specifically, let’s say you’re working on a news app and have been seeing declining user engagement recently. You’re not exactly sure why, but think that introducing a personalization feature might increase engagement. Following the steps outlined to create an action plan, the process would look like this:

The primary goal is to increase user engagement by 20 percent over the next two quarters. You’ll do this by introducing a personalization feature that tailors content to the individual user’s interests — something that we believe our competitors are doing already.

This will be measured by tracking metrics such as session duration, number of articles read per session, and click-through rates on personalized content suggestions.

You’ll use the simple, high-level framework we outlined to build the task list.

Product scoping — Conduct market research to understand user preferences for personalized content and see how our competitors are currently doing it.

Technical scoping — Collaborate with the technical team to assess the feasibility of implementing personalization algorithms, dependencies, and any potential challenges. This step may include meetings with data scientists and backend developers.

UI/UX design — Design the user interface for the personalized content feed. It could include the location of the personalized feed on the home screen, a section for users to choose their interests, etc. This step will involve creating wireframes, developing prototypes, and conducting user testing to validate the design.

Development — Implement the personalization feature, including the development of the algorithm, changes to the backend to handle user data securely, and the frontend changes to display personalized content.

Testing — Extensively test the new feature for usability, security, learning curve, etc.

Release and review — Plan the release of the new feature, and consider a soft launch with a small user group to collect early feedback. After the release, continue to collect user feedback to identify any needs for improvement.

For the sake of our example, let’s assume all of the team members have availability to help. The product manager will work on the product scoping phase and coordinate with the technical team for technical scoping, UX designers will handle the UI/UX design phase, developers and data scientists will work on developing the personalization algorithm and integrating it with the app during the development phase, etc.

4. Communicate and get feedback

The plan is then shared with all stakeholders — the core team, senior management, executives, and other teams impacted by this feature. You’ll get their feedback and make the necessary amendments. You’ll also use project management tools to ensure everyone has a clear understanding of the action plan and their roles.

Lastly, you’ll set up regular reviews to monitor progress and make necessary changes in the plan as we encounter new information or challenges.

Action plan template

Now that you have a foundational understanding of what to include in an action plan and how to write one, where do you start?

This action plan template is designed to help you keep track of tasks, resources, dependencies, and progress in a single, easy-to-read, and even easier-to-update spreadsheet:

Action Plan Template

To customize the action plan template for your next project, click here and select File > Make a copy from the main menu at the top of the page.

5 tips to build an action plan that drives value

A rushed or incomplete action plan will lead to stress and frustration down the road. Here are five best practices to help you create an effective and efficient action plan:

  • Create multiple action plans
  • Identify milestones and critical tasks
  • Communicate early and often
  • Embrace technology
  • Continuously improve your processes

1. Create multiple action plans

Action plans can get pretty daunting for bigger projects. Don’t overwhelm yourself; use the same concept as the work breakdown structure.

Start by creating a holistic, high-level action plan that encompasses the entire project. Then, take each part of that plan and break it down further, and so on.

You can create individual action plans for each part of the high-level action plan. You may also need to do this for specific parts of the project if they have a lot of dependencies or require many people to collaborate with each other.

2. Identify milestones and critical tasks

When you have numerous tasks, you might have trouble managing them all.

Identifying milestones and critical tasks can bring visibility to the most important parts of the action plan. Make sure you have the right stakeholders in the room when discussing these.

Celebrating milestones is also a great way to improve the morale of the team.

3. Communicate early and often

No matter how detailed your action plans are, if you are not able to communicate them properly to the project team, it will be difficult to achieve your goals.

Keep the communication continuously flowing and keep an eye out for blockers. As the product manager, you need to work with the team to remove obstacles and keep things moving along.

Communication also goes a long way to align the team during change management .

4. Embrace technology

Technology can make our lives so much easier when we know how to apply it in the right ways.

There are many software tools that can help you create, document, and manage your action plans. Assess your needs and experiment with free trials to gauge which tool suits your process the best.

If paid software is too far out of the picture at the moment, you can simply use Google Sheets/Docs or Microsoft Excel/Word to create your action plan. Click here for a simple action plan template in Google Docs.

5. Continuously improve your processes

Small things that are done to better the process eventually add up and create drastic efficiencies over time.

Make time for feedback and introspection loops. Find ways to incorporate relevant feedback and distribute the knowledge. Monitor for process patterns and areas that need improvement and discuss with the team how you can make the overall process better for everybody.

Collaborate with the team to make improvements incrementally and continuously .

The framework and process for creating and managing action plans can vary based on the project and team. As long as you have action plans documented and communicate regularly with relevant stakeholders, you will be able to get things done efficiently.

Remember, as the orchestrator (product manager), you need your music sheet (action plan) and your orchestra (project team) to align, and you’ve got yourself a fantastic concert (product)!

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Business Plan English: 20 Key Terms You’ve Got to Know

Are you starting a business ?

Or are you planning to expand your existing business ?

Then you are probably thinking a lot about  dollar signs .

That’s right. To start or expand a business, you need a source of money or financing , as it is called in business.

How do you convince investors and banks to finance your business?

The answer: You need a business plan.

First, you need to write a business plan to impress your potential (possible) investors and lenders.

This business plan needs to convince them that financing (giving money to) your business is a really good idea .

A business plan is like a map. It shows the directions to reach the future of your business. It describes what your company will do and how it plans to succeed and be profitable (make money). After all, business is about making profit, is it not?

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

How to Prepare and Polish Your Business Plan

Writing a business plan sounds easy, but it takes thought and planning. Writing a truly impressive plan takes time and lots of writing . Do not be surprised if writing your plan requires lots of editing and rewriting, too.

In fact, it is common practice to hire a professional editor to proofread and strengthen your writing. A business plan is a very important document, and you will need your writing to be perfect and polished.

When your business plan is completely written and ready for editing, we highly recommend that you contact Proofreading Services . This is an online team of professional editors with tons of knowledge and experience, offering  combined proofreading and editing for over 5,000 clients in 93 countries. They offer an exclusive discount to FluentU readers, and all you need is our secret password: FLUENTU15. This code entitles you to 15% off at ProofreadingServices.com !

If you’re still preparing to write your business plan, you should do some research to get started. There are many styles and formats of business plans on the Internet. Here are some examples . Select one that suits the way you would like to present your information and ideas.

When you are ready to write, you can also follow a step-by-step guide to writing a business plan that includes all the key components, like this simple  Forbes  guide , or this one from the U.S. Small Business Administration .

The 20 Crucial Parts of an Impressive Business Plan Written in English

For our purposes here today, I will be introducing and discussing all the most basic elements of a traditional business plan. If you choose to write one with a different style and format, you will need to adjust your writing a little.

However, each main word or phrase on this list is very important to know, whether you are planning to write your own amazing business plan or just learn more about these plans in general.

So, let’s get started!

1. Business Vision

Business vision  refers to the direction you want to see your business grow in the long term. Answer these questions in your business plan:

  • What kind of business do you want to have in the future?
  • What are the goals of this business?
  • What will success look like?

You will need to write a statement about your business vision in any business plan.

2. Action Plan

To support your business vision, you must have a powerful action plan . You will need to write a great description of your action plan  within your business plan.

This action plan will show all the steps your business will take in order to achieve its main goals and become profitable.

3. Management Team

You will want to get your  management team involved if possible.

Who is part of your management team? Your managers, senior staff and/or board of directors are the people with the ideas and experience to contribute to your business plan.

You will also need to include a strong section about your management team in your business plan , so that investors know who is guiding your business.

4. Executive Summary

The executive summary is a comprehensive (complete) explanation of what your company does and what places it in a unique position to succeed.

The executive summary must be the topmost section of the business plan , so it is the first thing your potential investors will see. It is usually about one or two pages long. Reading these first pages will help investors decide if they want to continue reading and seriously consider investing in your business. So you want to be sure that this section is written to catch their attention and get them interested in financing your business.

An interesting point I’d like to make here is that, although the executive summary is in the first section of a business plan, it is best to write it last, after the rest of the sections have been written. This is simply because the executive summary is, in effect, the summary of all the other sections.

5. Target Market

A target is something you aim for. Your target market will include the people to whom you are aiming to sell things.

For instance, according to  Business Insider , Nike is focused on three target markets: women, young athletes and runners.

6. Market Analysis

A market analysis is basically a study of how you plan to market (sell, advertise) your products and services to your target market.

7. Market Share

In your business plan’s market analysis, be sure to discuss how big of a market share you expect to gain.

Market share refers to the portion of the market your company controls. For instance, according to Statista , Coca-Cola held a market share of 48.6% in the soft drink market in 2015.

8. Competitive Advantage

In your market analysis section, you also need to talk about your  competitive advantage.  This refers to the advantages your products or services have over those offered by competitors.

Some questions you might ask yourself here would be:

  • What makes my product better, stronger or healthier than Product X?
  • Why would a customer choose my product over Product Y?

9. Sales and Marketing Strategy

Think of this strategy as a master plan, a plan which combines all of your best, brightest and most important ideas and shows how success will be achieved.

So then, a sales and marketing strategy combines all of your sales and marketing goals and market research into a master plan that will bring in maximum profit.

Your sales and marketing strategy needs to be fairly detailed . You should include information about products, pricing, branding, competitors and distribution channels.

10. Distribution Channels

This refers to the path a product takes through middlemen or other distributing companies before it reaches the consumer.

11. Sales Forecast

How well will your product sell? How much money do you expect to make from this product? Your investors will be interested to know this.

It is important to include a  sales forecast explaining the projected (expected) sales you plan to achieve for your product using your strategy.

12. Operations Plan

To operate a business means to administer (run, manage) a business. So then, your operations plan will discuss the ways you plan to run your business. Note that in the business context, it is the plural form of the word “operations” that is used.

13. Day-to-day Business Operations

In this section, you must be quite detailed in describing your day-to-day business operations which refers to how you will run your business functions on a daily basis.

For instance, according to USA Today , how you run your day-to-day operations can make a difference in how smoothly your business runs overall, as well as if you can pay your bills and be profitable.

14. Research and Development (R&D)

If your company is going to grow, you need to conduct research and development (R&D) . You will eventually need to develop new products and research new ways to improve existing products.

Your potential investors will be interested to know what research and development efforts you have planned for your company and products, so that you can keep up with time, trends and technology. Be sure to do a good job planning and writing about this topic.

15. Management Summary

The management summary section of a business plan discusses the current members of your management team, as well as their professional backgrounds and roles in the company.

16. Organizational Structure

Your company’s organizational structure should clearly show the hierarchy (levels) of job and supervision functions. You commonly see a company’s organizational structure in the form of a chart showing photos of staff, their positions and levels of reporting.

In startups (newly formed companies), it is common to find gaps in the organizational structure for positions that are yet to be filled. This is why you will need a human resource plan.

17. Human Resource Plan

A human resource plan will map out the manpower (staff) you plan to hire in the future. Ask yourself:

  • Who do you plan to hire?
  • What will their roles be in the business?
  • How can professionals with certain skills help your business grow in the future?

18. Financial Plan

The financial plan is the final and most important section of a business plan. It details how you plan to achieve your business goals, generate revenue and make a profit.

The phrase “generate revenue” is a term used in business to mean “make money” or “earn income.”

19. Revenue Model

Your investors will be interested to see your  revenue model . Show them your sources of revenue, or the ways you plan to generate revenue for your company. Where will the revenue come from? Some questions you might ask yourself here would be:

  • Do you sell a product or service?
  • How do you price your product?
  • What is your product’s potential for making profit?

20. Funding Requirement

Last but not least, you want to state your funding requirement . This refers to the amount of money or financing you will need based on what you have stated in the sections above. Most importantly, you want to let your investors know how you plan to use this money wisely.

That is all for today.

One last thing to know before you go. While a business plan is often used to convince investors and lenders (such as banks) to finance your business, it is also a tool that you can use yourself.

As you build and expand your business, always look at your original business plan and remember your strategies.

I hope these essential business terms we have just discussed will help you write a simple but impressive business plan.

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Status.net

How to Write an Action Plan: Step-by-Step (Examples)

By Status.net Editorial Team on November 9, 2023 — 9 minutes to read

Understanding Action Plans

An action plan is a detailed roadmap of the necessary steps you need to take to achieve a specific goal or objective. It’s like a GPS that guides you from your starting point to your desired destination. Creating an action plan helps you break down a large goal into smaller, more manageable tasks, which makes the goal feel less overwhelming.

To start, you should first identify your end goal and be as specific as possible. For example, if you want to increase sales for your business, set a target like “Increase sales by 20% within the next six months.” This will give you a clear vision of what you want to achieve and make it easier to measure your progress.

Next, list the necessary actions or tasks required to reach your goal. These can be further divided into smaller tasks that are easy to understand and implement. For example, to increase sales, you could:

  • Improve your online presence by revamping your website, optimizing it for search engines, and posting regularly on social media platforms.
  • Reach out to potential clients through email campaigns and cold calls.
  • Offer promotions or discounts to incentivize new customers to try your product or service.

Now, it’s time to set a timeline for each task. Deadlines will enable you to monitor your progress and stay on track. Assign realistic due dates for each task, and if needed, break them down into smaller milestones.

To ensure your action plan’s success, make sure to assign responsibility for each task. If you’re working with a team, delegate tasks according to each team member’s strengths, skills, and workload. This will help ensure everyone knows what their responsibilities are, and they are held accountable.

Lastly, always monitor your progress and evaluate your action plan’s effectiveness. Regularly review the tasks you’ve accomplished, and make note of the tasks that were challenging or required more time than anticipated. This self-assessment will help you improve your action plan and make necessary adjustments as you work towards your goal.

Example Action Plan

Goal : Increase sales by 20% within the next 6 months (By January 1st, 2025)

Actions : 1. Improve online presence a) Revamp website design – Due October 15th b) Optimize website for SEO – Due November 1st c) Post regularly on social media (1x/week min) – Ongoing

2. Reach out to potential clients a) Create email marketing campaign – Due September 15th b) Start cold calling campaign (10 calls/day) – Start October 1st

3. Offer promotions a) Design promotion flyers – Due September 1st b) Run month-long 20% off sale – October 1-31st

Monitoring : – Check website analytics weekly – Track new clients monthly – Evaluate sales figures monthly – Adjust plan as needed at monthly meetings

Responsibilities : – John to revamp website – Susan to handle social media – Michael to create promotions – Jennifer to manage outreach campaigns

Steps to Creating a Powerhouse Action Plan

First, identify your goal . Be specific about what you want to achieve and set a time frame for accomplishing it. This will help keep your efforts focused and prevent you from getting overwhelmed by smaller tasks. For example, instead of “increase sales”, choose “increase sales by 20% in the next six months”.

Next, break your goal down into smaller, manageable tasks . Create a list of activities or steps that must be completed in order to reach your goal. If your goal is to Increase sales by 20%, some tasks might be:

  • Research your target market
  • Develop a marketing strategy
  • Improve product offerings
  • Train your sales team

Assign a deadline and responsible party for each task on your list. This will help ensure that all tasks are completed on time and that everyone knows their role in achieving the goal. Make sure to set realistic timelines for each task, taking into consideration the resources and time available.

Here’s an example:

  • Research your target market – due in one week – assigned to Jane (marketing specialist)
  • Develop a marketing strategy – due in two weeks – assigned to marketing team

Monitor your progress regularly. Keep track of your progress by using tools such as calendars, project management software, or a simple spreadsheet. Regularly assess whether you’re on track to meet your goal and adjust your action plan if needed. For example, if a task is taking longer than expected, you may need to reassign resources or revise the deadline.

Celebrate your milestones and learn from setbacks . Along the way, take the time to acknowledge and celebrate your successes, as well as learn from any setbacks or challenges. This will help maintain motivation and encourage continuous improvement.

Finally, communicate your action plan to all stakeholders involved, such as employees, investors, or clients. Clear communication ensures everyone understands the goal, their responsibilities, and the expectations for the project.

Defining Clear and Smart Goals

Specific goals.

When creating your action plan, start by setting specific goals. These are clear, well-defined goals that leave no room for ambiguity. You should know exactly what needs to be accomplished and how you plan to achieve it. For example, instead of aiming for “increasing sales,” set a goal like “increase sales by 15% over the next six months.”

Measurable Goals

Your goals should be measurable so that you can track your progress and know when you’ve achieved them. This involves identifying quantifiable indicators that will help you determine your progress. For instance, if your goal is to increase sales, a measurable component can be the number of units sold or the amount of revenue generated within a specific timeframe.

Achievable Goals

When setting goals, make sure they are achievable and realistic based on your current resources and constraints. Consider your team’s capabilities, time, and budget. Unattainable goals may negatively impact your motivation and morale. For example, if you have a small team with limited resources, setting a goal to double your company’s size within a month might be unrealistic. Instead, aim for a modest yet challenging growth rate that can be achieved with your available resources.

Relevant Goals

Your action plan goals should also be relevant to your organization’s mission and vision. These are goals that align with your overall strategic plan and contribute to its long-term success. Relevant goals ensure that your efforts are focused on high-impact areas and avoid unnecessary distractions. For example, if your business is focused on sustainability, a relevant goal might be to reduce your company’s carbon footprint by 20% in the next year.

Time-bound Goals

Finally, ensure that your goals are time-bound, meaning they have a deadline for completion. Deadlines keep your team accountable and help maintain a sense of urgency, which is crucial for staying on track and achieving your objectives. A clear timeframe also allows you to measure your progress and adjust your plans as needed. For instance, you could set a goal to expand your customer base by 10% within the next quarter.

Assigning Roles and Responsibilities

When creating an action plan, it’s important to assign roles and responsibilities to your team members. This helps ensure tasks are completed efficiently and everyone is clear about their duties. Here’s how to do it effectively:

  • First, identify the necessary tasks to achieve your goal. Be specific about what needs to be done and break it down into smaller steps if needed. For example, if your action plan involves promoting a new product, tasks could include designing promotional materials, creating social media posts, and reaching out to potential partners.
  • Next, evaluate the skills and expertise of your team members. Consider their strengths, weaknesses, and past experiences with similar projects. This will help you match team members with tasks that best suit their abilities. For instance, someone with graphic design expertise should be responsible for creating promotional materials.
  • Once you’ve determined which team members are best suited for each task, clearly communicate their roles and responsibilities. This can be done through a project management tool, an email, or a team meeting. Make sure everyone is aware of their duties and the deadlines for each task.
  • Keep track of everyone’s progress, and hold regular check-ins to see how each team member is doing with their assigned tasks.
  • Be open to adjusting your action plan and roles as necessary. Sometimes, unforeseen challenges can arise and require you to modify your plan.

Creating a Time Frame

When working on your action plan, it’s important to establish a realistic time frame for achieving your goals. This helps you stay on track and prioritize tasks effectively. We will walk you through the process of creating a time frame for your action plan.

  • First, break down your primary goal into smaller, manageable tasks. Think of these tasks as stepping stones that will lead you toward your overall objective. For example, if your goal is to start a new business, your tasks might include researching your target market, establishing a budget, and developing a marketing strategy.
  • Next, assign a deadline to each task. Deadlines should be specific and set in stone but make sure to be flexible enough to adjust as necessary. Use a calendar or planner to visualize your timeline, marking important dates and milestones. For example, you could set a four-month deadline for completing market research and a six-month deadline for securing initial funding.
  • To keep yourself accountable, set reminders or notifications for important deadlines. This can be done using digital tools like smartphone apps or traditional methods, such as sticky notes on your workspace. Regularly reviewing your progress and adjusting your time frame when needed will help you stay on track.
  • Lastly, consider any external factors that might impact your time frame. Are there seasonal events, holidays, or industry-specific deadlines that could affect your ability to complete tasks? Factor in these considerations as you build your timeline.

Resource Allocation

When creating an action plan, resource allocation plays a major role. You’ll need to determine the resources required for each task and how they’ll be distributed among team members. This usually includes time, budget, and human resources.

  • Start by estimating the time each task will take. Break tasks down into smaller chunks and allocate a specific deadline to each. This will help you prioritize tasks and balance workloads for your team members. For example, if designing a marketing campaign takes four weeks, divide it into weekly tasks like conducting market research, creating promotional materials, and setting up advertisements.
  • Next, determine the budget needed to complete your project. Identify any expenses such as salaries, equipment, software, and project-related costs like travel. Create a budget for each task to avoid overspending, and allocate funds accordingly. Using our marketing campaign example, allocate separate budgets for market research tools, graphic design tools, and advertising platforms.
  • Lastly, allocate human resources to tasks based on their skills and expertise. Delegate responsibilities to your team members, ensuring that everyone has a clear understanding of their role in the project. If needed, identify additional hires or outside consultants to fill gaps in your team’s expertise. For instance, if your team lacks graphic design experience, consider hiring a graphic designer or outsourcing the work to a design agency.
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Summary. An action plan is a plan that allows you to achieve your goals. To write an action plan you should first specify a SMART goal and then strategize a list of tasks leading up to that goal. You should also schedule a timeline to reach your goal and establish milestones through out that timeline. Finally you should track your progress.

It’s an inherent human quality to dream of success. Dreaming is the easy part, but attaining it is much more complicated. It requires vision, goal-setting, and most importantly, a detailed action plan to meet your objectives.

Key Takeaways:

An action plan breaks a complex long term goal down into achievable pieces. It also sets a timeline, which allows you to track your progress.

Action plans can be helpful for managing large projects with multiple goals, or as a way to track personal progress.

There are several different planning techniques that are effective, such as the SMART system and SCHEMES.

business plan action words

What Is an Action Plan?

How to write an action plan, template for action plan, example of an action plan, why an action plan is useful, who needs an action plan, action plan schemes, action plan faq, final thoughts.

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Setting a specific goal illuminates where you want to end up. An action plan lays out a way to achieve that outcome.

A detailed plan for making goals reality provides necessary guidelines for what to do next, milestones to reach, and defines ultimate success . This makes it easier to know how far you’ve come and what’s left to do before you reach a goal.

Formulating an action plan in the early stages of strategic planning is essential. It establishes the steps to take that lead towards completion. This is a crucial practice for any type of project, whether it be professional or personal , because it provides details for how to proceed.

Specify a SMART goal . The first step to writing an action plan is to decide on a concrete goal that adheres to SMART standards. This is a framework that helps align fanciful ideas of a goal to become a realistic objective.

The letters of the SMART framework stand for:

Specific. A good goal needs to be detailed and clear. While a broad goal, such as making more money, seems like the way to go, there’s too much room for straying and not enough direction.

Measurable. The goal that you choose to pursue should be quantifiable. Along the way, this allows you to track your progress and growth . For instance, if your goal is to sell more tickets to a concert, state how many you want to sell exactly.

Attainable. Never set a goal that’s too outlandish to accomplish either in your timeframe or at your skill level. While being ambitious is good quality, it needs to be met in equal part with realism. Evaluate your circumstance and spend time on an attainable goal .

Relevant. SMART goals should be relevant to the overall outcome you’re trying to achieve. In a professional setting, make sure your objectives are relevant to your long-term career plans – vice versa for personal goals.

Timeframe . The final aspect of a SMART goal is specifying a timeframe that you’ll complete the end goal. Stating a timeline keeps your mind focused on finishing goals by the deadline.

Strategize a list of tasks leading up to the goal. Once a SMART goal has been established, start strategizing the actions you’ll take to work towards it. The best way to accomplish this is by creating a list of these tasks.

Schedule a timeline. Having a time-frame in mind is a qualifier for whether a goal is up to SMART standards, and it’s also a requirement for writing an action plan. A timeline should be a series of deadlines, in addition to the final date that you aim to achieve the end goal.

Establish milestones. Define what the milestones of the project are during the writing phase of an action plan. Incorporating milestones into the timeline of an action plan supports motivation and gives you a good idea of where you stand.

Track progress and assess success. After writing a detailed action plan, the final aspect is following through with the map to success you’ve outlined. The effort you put into planning is validated by completing the work you’ve strategized. Begin working on your scheduled plan immediately — or be sure to set a start date.

Track your progress throughout the journey of working towards your goal. This can be done by scheduling a team meeting at work or just doing some self-reflection by yourself for personal goals. If anything needs to be tweaked or isn’t going according to plan, progress tracking is when you’ll be made aware of it.

The Issue At Hand Is: The End SMART Goal Is:

The Issue At Hand Is: Lacking servers at a restaurant. The End Goal Is: To increase restaurant staff by 3 experienced employees in the next month. Tasks Leading Up To End Goal Who is Handling this Task? Task Timeline Needed Resources For Completion Progress Updates The Result Post a detailed open job posting online to at least three career websites. Include details regarding the restaurant background, position expectations, and requirements for the role. The Restaurant Owner December 28, 2021 A computer Internet connection Information about the position and restaurant A write-up of the job description was completed (12/21/2021) Five free career websites were found to post the job opening (12/23/2021) The position opening was posted on the career websites (12/28/2021) The job opening description was approved and the posting went live on 12/28/2021 Run the applications received from the open job posting through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Go through the resumes of the remaining candidate pool. Reach out to candidates with the most potential to come in for an interview. The Restaurant Manager January 4, 2022 A computer Access to Applicant Tracking System Software (ATS) 25 applications for the job were received (12/31/2020) The applications were run through the applicant tracking system (1/2/2022) 14 applications passed the ATS (1/2/2022) 6 applicants showed potential and were called to come in for an interview (1/4/2022) After receiving many applications, six promising applicants were chosen to come in for an interview. Schedule an interview with the potential hires. Ask a series of approved and relevant questions to assess the candidate’s abilities to succeed in the role. Take notes about particularly remarkable interviewees. The Restaurant Manager January 15, 2022 A place to conduct the interview Pen and paper Relevant interview questions to ask The six candidates with potential were scheduled at various times to come in for an interview (1/6/2022) The first three interviews were all completed. Two candidates seemed to be great candidates for hire (1/11/2022) The last three interviews were completed. One of the applicants never showed up and the other didn’t have enough experience. The final applicant was perfect for the job (1/15/2022) Six candidates were interviewed for the server positions at the restaurant, and three seemed to be a good fit. Gather a list of the strongest interviewees and offer them the job. Discuss the paperwork they will need to begin, their salary requirements, and when they can start. Hire at least three new restaurant staff members. The Restaurant Manager January 22, 2022 Contact information for applicants Necessary hiring paperwork The information about the three chosen candidates was gathered (1/17/2022) The candidates were all called to be offered the position and give more detailed information. All three of the candidates accepted the position. (1/21/2022) Each newly hired employee was scheduled to begin their first training shift on February 25th (1/22/2022) All three applicants who were offered the position accepted. They are scheduled to begin training on February 25th, 2021.

Identifies how far you have to go. A clear picture of how far you have left to go before you reach your goal is a strong case for writing an action plan. It shows you have much work there’s still left to do and what exactly it entails. Having this timeline is especially helpful for accomplishing long-term goals .

Provides direction. Completing a goal is much tougher when the project lacks an objective . An action plan points you in the right direction and keeps you on track.

Strengthens motivation . One of the biggest reasons for falling short of meeting a goal is failing motivation. It takes a lot of personal drive to continue towards a goal that years in the making. A written action plan provides a cushion of motivation when the hurdles seem insurmountable. It’s the reminder that there’s an end in sight and of what exactly you’re trying to achieve.

Establishes milestones. An action plan spells out the steps you need to complete to reach a goal. This can also aid with motivation, as breaking it down into more readily achievable pieces makes you seem like you’re making progress. It also shows you how much closer you are to your ultimate goal.

Action plans can be useful for anyone’s personal or professional life in a wide variety of situations. While the high-level executive plan of action might look a lot different than your entry-level worker’s, the ultimate goal of both is the same: ensuring that daily tasks are building toward a specific goal.

The only real difference between action plans at different levels of a company is scope. A manager needs to plan achievable goals for their employees by setting up a system for measuring results, giving and receiving feedback, budgeting in a smart way, and generally promoting an atmosphere where work can be done efficiently and effectively.

An entry-level employee, on the other hand, might develop a plan of action after meeting with a supervisor . By making sure to write down exactly what the larger business goals are while they’re fresh in your mind, you’ll have a much easier time setting and achieving short term goals that align wtih broader corporate interests.

A good way to check that your plan of action is comprehensive and you’ve got all your bases covered is to run it by SCHEMES, which is an acronym that stands for:

Not every action plan has to consider all of these elements. Some small-scale projects will only require you to consider helpers and expertise, for example.

SCHEMES can help make sure that you haven’t missed anything important while planning your big goal. After all, it would be pretty disappointing to have your vision fall of the rails because you run out of cash or your lack of expert knowledge is creating a bottleneck in production.

What are the parts of an action plan?

The parts of an action plan should include the “who,” “what,” and “when.” Your who should be who will be involved in the plan. You should include responsibilities of the individuals involved in this plan. The “what” should be the steps in the plan and what you want to accomplish. The “when” will be a timeline of when you want to achieve this goal.

Do you need an action plan to be successful?

No, you do not need an action plan to be successful, but they can be an effective way to help you be successful. Action plans are useful when you want to identify how far you have to go and give you a clear picture of your goal. They can also provide you direction to the necessary steps in completing the goal.

What is a written plan of action?

A written plan of action is a plan that indicated what tasks need to get done, the timeline that it needs to get done, and who will be responsible for the tasks. A written plan of action will lay out a plan to achieve your goals that you have set either for yourself or for your team

An action plan is your ticket to a much less stressful project. By setting achievable goals early on, you not only help your time management but also your mindset. It’s much better to start a project off with a plan for achieving it than some vague resolutions or a mission statement without an equally compelling vision for the process.

Writing an action plan doesn’t need to be a daunting task. For how much time it will save you in the long run, it’s worth your while to develop a plan of action today.

Feinberg School of Medicine – Developing a Research Action Plan for Your Organization

Augsburg University – Creating an Action Plan

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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.

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10 Free Action Plan Templates in Word, Excel, & ClickUp

Content Partnership Specialist

February 15, 2024

Blueprint, action plan, roadmap— tomato, to-mah-to! 🍅

Whether you’re pursuing a professional goal , developing a product, or building a house, you always start with a detailed plan to guide your next steps.

But it’s a little easier said than done. 👀

Powerful project management software is the key to creating and overseeing comprehensive action plans. And choosing the right action plan template for your software is the key to saving time on this step-by-step process while making sure you cover all the bases! 🔑

Even simple projects and goals require organized action plans, and action plan templates provide the perfect framework to help you turn these plans into a reality! While there are tons of templates at your disposal, they each carry a unique set of features and value depending on the size of your team, project, or goal.

Instead of combing through pages and pages of search results, start here, with 10 of the best action plan templates for ClickUp , Excel, and Word. You can access each template directly from this blog, and did mention they’re all completely free? 💸

What is an Action Plan Template?

What features make for a good action plan template, 1. clickup action plan template, 2. clickup corrective action plan template, 3. clickup employee engagement action plan template, 4. clickup cybersecurity action plan template, 5. clickup smart action plan template, 6. clickup daily action plan template, 7. clickup action priority matrix whiteboard template, 8. clickup management action plan template, 9. microsoft word action plan template, 10. excel business action plan template, step 1: define your end goal, step 2: break down the goal into manageable tasks, step 3: organize tasks into a timeline, step 4: assign responsibilities, step 5: define success metrics, step 6: review and adapt the plan, step 7: communicate and implement the plan, step 8: monitor progress and update as necessary, step 9: complete and review.

Your action plan is a detailed checklist of items that must happen in order to complete a project or reach a goal. You can make an action plan for virtually anything —and you probably already have!

Think of your action plan as a thorough list of every task included in a workflow or steps in a process. But what makes your action plan different than a simple to-do list is the amount of organization, information, and detail involved.

Your plan justifies the who, what, where, and when of your project and shows how each related task ties back to those ideas. This helps project managers streamline workflows and ensures that every action item is absolutely necessary.

Action plan templates take the “set up” out of setting up your roadmap. Your template may come in the form of a pre-built flowchart, list, document, or table where you can essentially plug and play your project’s information in the proper areas to guide your next steps in the process.

They’re excellent resources to have on hand for fleshing-out fresh ideas, during employee performance reviews when you’re planning professional growth, and so much more. Plus, action plan templates can be customized to more specific use cases and are designed to help you think more proactively and strategically about building processes .

What are the best features to look for in your next action plan template? In a nutshell, there’s a lot to keep in mind.

An action plan template helps you stay on top of your workflows and be more strategic about how you approach them. And since projects vary in complexity, industry, scope, and timelines, no two action plan templates will look or function the same. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you’re looking for the template that best suits your needs, rather than the one that’s just doing the most.

A good rule of thumb is to stick to these five qualities:

  • Multiple views : The ability to choose the way you visualize and complete tasks will put the power back in your hands when it comes to structuring and executing your projects. Every team member works differently, and whether you’re a visual learner or prefer working from a list, multiple views make every person’s preference possible.
  • Highly visual : Especially during brainstorming sessions and R&D, having the option to map out steps in a process is a major asset. Whether your team is using a digital whiteboard or mind map software , highly visual flowcharts and diagrams turn action planning into a more collaborative experience.
  • Intuitive UI : Your template might have all the right features, but if the team can’t figure out how to use them, the value is gone! Make sure your action plan template is easy to navigate, customize, and edit.
  • Collaborative and sharable : An action plan template can be for the entire team, not just the project manager. Everyone involved (including stakeholders) should have easy access to your template and the ability to add updates as needed.
  • Tons of integrations : Integrations extend the functionality of your project management software and fill any feature gaps your template might have.

And that’s just to name a few! Your team or project might require a few other more specific features, but starting with these five will guarantee a powerful and useful business action plan template .

10 Free Action Plan Templates

Now that you’ve got the essentials down, it’s time to set your search in motion! Luckily, project management is kind of our thing. 🤓

We’ve done our homework to bring you 10 of the best project action plan templates for ClickUp, Excel, Word, and more. And the best part? You can download them directly from this blog without even spending a dime. 💰

ClickUp Action Plan Template

Taking the time to create a plan with actionable steps can provide invaluable structure for simple to complex projects!

The ClickUp Action Plan Template sets the stage to review action plans daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly on a Whiteboard. This process will help make goal-setting easier by providing a simple way to structure the action items, determine deadlines and resources, and track progress toward your objectives. 

If this is your first time using a digital whiteboard , no worries! The Getting Started guide inside this template will walk you through how to set up your canvas. 🎨

ClickUp Corrective Action Plan Template

A Corrective Action Plan (CAP) is a structured action plan outlining the steps needed to address problems and improve the performance of a role, process, or system.

With the ClickUp Corrective Action Plan Template , it’s easy to consolidate data and ideas so everything is in one place. The main elements of a CAP in this Whiteboard project action plan template are organized to shorten the time it takes from identifying a mistake to implementing a solution:

  • Areas for Improvement : Identify the fields around your business operations or team performance that needs changes and attention
  • Problems and Root Causes : Define the challenges, roadblocks, and supporting information of each to analyze and develop a solution
  • Possible Solutions : Consider every factor involved in your corrective plan, and list down all the possible solutions to make a change for improvement
  • Measure of Success : Define your success that’s measurable through key performance indicators or metrics that are applicable and beneficial to your team and overall operations
  • Task Owners : Assign specific team members to every task 
  • Timeline: Allocate enough time to prepare for transitions and improvement as you go through this template

ClickUp Employee Engagement Action Plan Template

The ClickUp Employee Engagement Action Plan Template is a Doc packed with examples to increase employee satisfaction and engagement. It offers step-by-step instructions to get the most out of your template to measure progress on common HR goals :

  • Business strategy
  • People strategy
  • Strategic priorities
  • Communication plans

And that’s just the beginning! You can assign tasks directly in the Doc or connect your employee action plan template to tasks and share it with stakeholders. This reduces the number of feedback channels and shortens the time it takes to approve a plan or assign tasks to team members. 

Pro tip : Use subpages to add training programs, reward systems, and other related activities to keep all your work in one place!

ClickUp Cybersecurity Action Plan Template

A Cybersecurity Action Plan is a written framework outlining the steps and resources required to improve security posture. TechTarget defines security posture as “an organization’s overall cybersecurity strength and how well it can predict, prevent and respond to ever-changing cyber threats.” 

A comprehensive cybersecurity action plan starts with an assessment of an organization’s current security posture —analyzing existing policies, procedures, systems, and infrastructure in order to identify any gaps or areas of vulnerability.

Based on this assessment, actionable steps can be taken to improve technical and non-technical aspects of security like implementing new technologies, processes, and practices. ⚙️

The ClickUp Cybersecurity Action Plan Template is a beautifully-designed Doc for any Security team to quickly customize for audience impact and understanding. As you go through the action plan process, you can collaborate with your team in real-time or async! 

Use this free template to easily protect your ClickUp Docs with the Privacy and Edit controls to prevent unwanted changes to the content of your Pages.

ClickUp SMART Action Plan Template

The ClickUp SMART Action Plan Template helps project managers break down complex tasks into more manageable steps while considering the barriers of time, resources, and expertise. 

The acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. This template organizes each SMART goal category while providing helpful prompts for success! After you’ve filled out each category, highlight your text to create actionable tasks and assign a completion date.

From there, you can navigate between your Doc and tasks easily without opening more browser tabs. 

Need to tweak or make mental notes on your action plan? There’s a section in this template just for that—the Follow Through section. Jot down the review date, key accomplishments, improvement areas, and support needed to keep track of all your work! 

ClickUp Daily Action Plan Template

The ClickUp Daily Action Plan Template is a worthy rival to your coveted to-do list on your company-branded notepad. 

A daily action plan is a blueprint template for organizing and prioritizing tasks throughout the day. It helps us to stay focused and productive, while also helping us to better manage our time. The process involves creating a list of tasks that need to be accomplished each day, assigning a time frame for each task, and most importantly, committing to completing them within that time frame. ⏳

Individuals or teams will benefit from its organized layout and connected view of organizational goals. To begin, open the Getting Started guide within the project action plan template to make it your own so you can use it every day! 

Discover more to-do list templates !

ClickUp Action Priority Matrix Whiteboard Template

An Action Priority Matrix is a visualization tool to help anyone assess and rank tasks based on how much effort is required and how important completing the task is for achieving the overall goal. 

The action priority matrix typically includes four sections: action item/task, importance level, timeline, and completion status. This allows teams to easily rank action items by importance so they can make sure important tasks are completed first and within the allotted time frame. 

Tasks with the potential to improve performance or mitigate risks should be given higher priority than those with no direct impact. Similarly, tasks with short-term deadlines should be treated as a higher priority than long-term goals in an action plan’s timeline.

The ClickUp Action Priority Matrix Whiteboard Template is perfect for project managers looking to optimize their action plans in order to improve performance over time. Teams can more easily identify which tasks need attention first while tracking progress along the way. The Getting Started guide in this template includes formatting tips and examples to get your Whiteboard action plan ready!

Check out more matrix templates and matrix structure examples .

 ClickUp Management Action Plan Template

This ClickUp Management Action Plan Template is built to handle any project, but it’s especially helpful for larger or more complex situations. It provides a structured framework to explain your approaches while tracking progress!

The Doc comes with helpful tips and is organized by the following sections:

  • Introduction to provide context on the problem
  • Goals to list the plan’s success criteria and desired results
  • Action Plan to detail specific tasks, projects, and team members
  • Review and Approval to assign the responsible party

Microsoft Word Business Action Plan Template

This detailed work plan template in Microsoft Word gives you an organized space to document a clear planning process. To track progress on your detailed work plan template, consider using a project management platform (like ClickUp) so you can bridge the necessary resources!

Excel Team Action Plan Template

If you’re looking for a free sales action plan template in Microsoft Excel , we recommend this one! It comes with all the essential categories ( Action Item, Rank, Priority, Owner, Assigned, Due, Done, Status , and Notes ) to develop an effective action plan. 

Listing sales team members might become an administrative burden as roles change or new hires come on board. (Try the No. 6 ClickUp Daily Action Plan Template to avoid this issue!) 

You can also use this as a sales action plan template to keep track of budgets, progression, and sales employees. Using this as a sales action plan template could be a faster way to track your team’s work.

Explore other ClickUp action plan templates:

  • Community Engagement Action Plan Template
  • Real Estate Action Plan Template
  • Fundraising Action Plan Template
  • Construction Action Plan Template
  • Outreach Action Plan Template
  • Contingency Plan Templates

How to Create an Action Plan to Complete Tasks?

Creating an effective action plan is a critical step for businesses seeking to achieve strategic goals and operational improvements. This is where a comprehensive business action plan template becomes invaluable. Use the steps below along with one (or more!) of the ClickUp action plan templates above to get started!

Before diving into the planning process, it’s vital to have a clear understanding of what you aim to achieve with the project. This overarching objective will guide all subsequent actions and decisions, ensuring that every task contributes effectively to the end goal.

Once your goal is defined , list down all the tasks that need to be completed to achieve the goal. Breaking down the goal into smaller, more manageable tasks will make the action plan more approachable and easier to manage.

After task identification, organize them into a logical sequence with a start and end date. Consider dependencies between tasks and ensure there is a realistic timeline that accommodates potential delays or challenges.

Determine who in your team is best equipped to take on each task. Assigning tasks to individuals or teams based on their skills , expertise, and workload to ensure a balanced distribution of responsibilities.

It’s crucial to establish clear metrics for success to evaluate the progress and completion of tasks. This will help keep the project on track and ensure that the outcomes meet the expected standards.

An action plan should be a living document. Periodically review the plan to assess progress and make adjustments as needed. This allows you to address any issues promptly and adapt to changing circumstances.

Ensure that all team members understand the action plan and their roles within it. Clear communication is key to effective implementation. Once everyone is on board, put the plan into action.

As tasks are executed, continuously monitor progress against the plan’s timeline and success metrics. Update the plan as necessary to reflect any changes or shifts in strategy.

Upon completion of all tasks, conduct a final review of the project against your initial goals. This is a time to evaluate the effectiveness of the action plan and gather insights for future projects.

Create a Project Action Plan Template by ClickUp

Any of these 10 templates will start your project planning off on the right foot. But while they all share similarities, a select few stand out for their ease of use, customization abilities, power, and functionality…

Templates by ClickUp. 🙌🏼

ClickUp is more than your average project management tool—it’s the ultimate productivity platform and the only software powerful enough to centralize your work across apps into one collaborative hub.

In fact, ClickUp Whiteboards , Docs, and its 15+ unique project views are just a few of the reasons why teams across industries rely on ClickUp, and how it makes your action plans more valuable from start to finish.

Access the templates linked above and hundreds more from ClickUp’s Template Library , and tons of rich project management features across every pricing plan . Plus, ClickUp integrates with more than 1,000 other work tools to streamline business processes even further.

Sign up for ClickUp today and watch your action plans come to life. 🏆

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Business Action Plan

business action plan

A business action plan is a document that can help you be clear with the condition or state where you would like your business to be at. This can also guide you in the direction where the ways on how you can achieve your corporate objectives and vision are presented. If you will have a comprehensive business action plan at hand, then it is for sure that you can follow the right track for business development and operational improvement. Even if not all businesses use a business action plan, we still recommend you to develop one so you can experience business growth and continuous profitability and sustainability.

  • Operational Plan For Cleaning Services Examples – PDF
  • School Action Plan Examples

We have listed several examples of business action plans that can serve as your references if you want to create an action plan for your business. It will be best if you will come up with a draft first that can showcase your preferred discussion before looking into these examples so that you can refine the document while still ensuring that there is focus with the key points that you would like to enumerate.

Business Action Plan Template

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  • Google Docs

Size: A4, US

Small business Action Plan Example

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Accessible Business Action Plan Example

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Business Action Plan Template Example

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School Business Action Plan Example

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What Makes Up a Business Action Plan?

A business action plan is deemed necessary for your business operations as it helps you set the materials, activities, work processes, resources, and other items that are needed for you to be in the business condition that you envision. If you want to reach your goals and objectives as a business, it is important for you to be guided by a comprehensive business action plan. The components of an effective action plan that you always have to consider and look into include the following:

  • You need to have a specific goal. What do you want to achieve? Where do you want your business to be at during its future operations? What particular milestones do you want to get within a particular time period? The vision that you have for your business, supported by your goals and plans of action, can help you put your eyes on your target. Hence, efficiency and effectiveness can be incorporated in all your work processes to ensure that you can get what you would like the business to have.
  • It is important for you to be guided by your objectives. You have to know the reason why you need the business action plan and the purpose that you would like to instill in the workforce and other stakeholders of the business. Knowing the core of your actions can make it easier for you to develop a document that is realistic and attainable which can directly impact the operations and management of the business.
  • Strategies and tactics must be discussed in your business action plan. As a guide for your business operations, the planning and implementation of your business action plan must be strategic so that you can experience the maximum or best results from your efforts. In this manner, you can ensure that the energy and deliverable of the workforce as well as the resources of the business will not be put to waste.
  • Just like an  emergency action plan , your business action plan should specify all the people who will be included in your workforce. You can also include the suppliers and other third parties that you will be working with. Through this, you can easily assess whether you have enough man power that can help you realize your vision in time.
  • Actions, plans, responsibilities, obligations, and tasks must be properly laid out within the business action plan. You have to make sure that accountability can be observed within the entirety to the business action plan development and execution. This can only be done if you will be clear and particular with the deliverable that each stakeholders involved or included in the business action plan are expected to provide the business with.
  • Set a timeline that will help you identify the duration in which the business action plan implementation is supposed to begin and end. Time frames are essential factors that you need to consider as they can dictate whether the action plans are implemented on time or not based on the deadlines that you have set depending on operational and/or management demands and requirements.
  • A list of success indicators must be presented in your business action plan. There should be time frames in which particular milestones and achievements are expected to be observed. Through this, you can develop metrics that will allow you to understand and be aware of the level of successes that your business action plan has brought you with.

8-Step Action Plan Template for Business Activities Example

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Action Plan for Business and Human Rights Example

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Business Development Action Plan Example

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Things to Remember When Making a Business Action Plan

It is not an easy task if you are requested to come up with a business action plan. Aside from the basics of action plan development, you also have to be aware of the factors and elements that can affect the business and its operations. Only with the alignment of the action plan that you have done and the goals and objectives of the business can you attain the success that you want. Some of the things that you always have to remember when making a business action plan are listed below.

  • Identify the best channels our touch points that you can use so that you can connect and communicate with your target and current market. Being able to ensure that you can deliver your message in the most appealing way possible can directly affect your profitability and sales potential.
  • Your customers matter. You need to have an assessment of who your target audience is. Being aware of your customer’s activities, needs, and demands can help you develop programs and activities that can affect their purchasing decisions. Moreover, it is suggested for you to identify market niches and market segments. Know the demographic and geographical conditions of the market who you would like to notice your business actions and marketing efforts.
  • It is essential for you to have a revenue plan. The financial condition of the business is important to be considered as you will be needing resources for you to execute your action plan. Through a well-developed revenue plan, you can measure the attainability of your suggested actions.
  • You have to know the gap of the conditions of the business—one, where you are currently now and the other is where you would like to be. If you can have an idea about this gap, then you can identify the items that can help you bridge the reality to your desired future. This also goes when developing an  employee action plan  as you need to identify the current performance of your employee as well as the desired performance that you would like him or her to deliver.

Restaurant Business Action Plan Example

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Business Improvement Action Plan Example

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Is Your Business Action Plan Truly Effective?

A simple action plan is developed due to different reasons and purposes. Hence, there are differences among various kinds and types of business action plan examples. Are you planning to create this document? Or do you want to check the quality of one that you have already made? Here are some ways on how you can ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the business action plan draft that you have developed:

  • It is very important for you to come up with a unique selling and branding proposition. Your business action plan can deliver the best results if it can help you to standout from your competition. Your relevance and visibility in the market place can help you become a sustainable business, which is why you have to ensure that you will come up with a business action plan that can help you penetrate markets, target leads, and deliver the corporate marketing message that you would like your target audience to know.
  • Taking action is one of the things that you always have to prepare for. Know the trends, shifts, and changes in the market so you can create a business action plan that is relevant and fit for your operations. With this, you can retain the image of the business while providing the market with what they currently need.
  • Have SMART goals when drafting your business action plan. You have to consider the timeliness of your actions as well as the precision and attainability of your desired functions. If you will make sure that the features of the business action plan are developed in a measurable manner, then you can prepare your workforce to execute their deliverable accordingly while still leaving a wiggle room should changes occur. It is important for flexibility, action backups, and adaptability to always be incorporated in your business action plan.

Effective Action Plan Format for Your Business Example

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Action Planning Model for Your Business Example

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Having a Hard Time Making a Business Action Plan?

In project management, you can use either an agile project plan or a traditional project action plan. This can also be reflected when identifying the options that you can select from in terms of how you will manage your business and its operations. Developing a business action plan can be one of your strengths if you can ensure that it is made based on realistic and credible research study results as well operational and management observations within a particular time period.

It may be overwhelming to begin the processes of business action plan drafting. However, you will get to nowhere if you will not find ways on how to start. Some of the tips that you can follow if you want to have a faster, more efficient, and easier time to draft a business action plan are all listed below.

  • You should involve a team or any stakeholders of the business that is concerned with the development of the action plan. You need to collaborate with the entities who are assigned in specific work processes or business areas so you can list down all concerns that you need to address with the help of your business action plan.
  • The call-to-actions, tactics, and strategies that you will come up with must be specific and direct to the point. You need to have clarity within the discussion so that all people involved can easily understand what you would like them to do. This can also help set the expectations with regards the results of the business action plan usage.
  • Know how to properly designate your resources. A business action plan can work at its best and finest if the appropriate and reasonable designation of raw materials, financial resources, efforts, and time can be achieved. If you can use what you have at hand in the most efficient way possible, then you can utilize work processes while still getting maximum and desired results.

The discussion above as well as the downloadable examples within this post can already help you properly develop a business action plan. Always keep in mind that you need to stick to the core and nature of your business prior to the development of the document so that you will not veer away from the vision that you would like to someday realize. Feel free to browse through the entire discussion again and/or download any of the examples that we have presented. Try to make a business action plan draft now so you can already start using it in your business’s actual operations.

business plan action words

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What Is an Action Plan? (With Example and Template)

June 8, 2023 - 10 min read

Kelechi Udoagwu

An action plan is a definitive checklist of tasks and resources needed to complete a project or achieve a goal. You can think of it as a visual countdown to the project delivery or a list of tasks needed to achieve desired results.

Now you may be thinking, “What is the purpose of an action plan vs. a to-do list ?” The most significant difference between action plans and to-do lists is that action plans focus on achieving a specific goal. In contrast, to-do lists are ongoing and include tasks for different goals and projects. 

Understanding this distinction, it becomes clear that action plans are powerful tools for goal setting and project execution. They help teams manage resources, adhere to schedules, and track progress toward specific goals and projects.

In this article, we’ll go through the purposes of action plans, the key steps usually included in them, how you can use action plans to help your project management, and step-by-step instructions on how to put one together yourself.

And as a bonus, we’ll also give you information on Wrike’s pre-built action plan template , which can jump-start your action plan process. Here is a preview of what the action plan template looks like:

What is the purpose of an action plan?

Action plans help order project tasks in a sequential and timely manner to achieve a goal. Project managers and individuals can use action plans to achieve their work and personal project goals.

Developing an action plan clarifies goals to be achieved, teams and service providers to involve, tasks, dependencies, milestones, and resources needed to complete the project.

Working with an action plan ensures you complete every task and requirement to meet the expected standards of a project. As you develop an action plan, you identify any critical paths and dependencies. 

Keep in mind that a developed action plan is not set in stone. It should be a dynamic document you can adjust as your environment changes.

Why are action plans important in project management?

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An action plan in project management is a quick and easy way to manage projects. You can quickly map out the resources and requirements you need and sketch a timeline to complete tasks. 

Because of their simplicity and ease of setup, action plans help maintain operational efficiency without taking much time. They declutter managers ’ minds and provide a framework for structuring new projects in a sensible order. Action plans also clarify the objectives of the project and build consensus on how the work should be done.

Action plans prepare you for predictable and preventable challenges and focus your resources to achieve your main goals. Effective action plans maximize personal and team productivity and resource allocation.

Following action plan steps also:

  • Reduces the possibility of forgetting tasks in the project
  • Generates a goal-driven workflow, so you know what to work on throughout the project
  • Provides a way to track progress as you check tasks off the action plan as you complete them

Action plan vs. project plan

Action plans should not be confused with project plans . Both list the tasks, resources, and timelines required to achieve a desired goal, but project plans go deeper, including details such as contingency action steps, risk mitigation strategies, quality assessment criteria, and stakeholder communication schedules. In contrast, action plans simply list the tasks, resources, and timelines needed to achieve a goal. 

Think of it this way: For big, long-term, or complex projects, you create a project plan first. Once your project plan is in place, an action plan helps you detail the steps and flow for allocating resources, sharing and executing tasks, and setting deadlines.

In summary, action plans and project plans differ in the following ways: 

  • Complexity: Action plans are simpler than project plans. They focus solely on the tasks, resources, and timelines required to achieve a goal. Project plans include sections for other measures, standards, and procedures for completing a project. 
  • Duration: Action plans focus on specific, short-term goals. These may be for standalone goals or part of a larger project. Project plans are more encompassing — covering longer-term objectives, which may take months or years to complete. 
  • Flow: Action plans are linear, one task following another until the goal is achieved. Project plans may have multiple phases, e.g., planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and reviewing, with each stage containing its own distinct tasks and deliverables.

The components of an action plan

Let’s take a look at the essential components of an action plan:

  • Action plan objectives: The action plan objectives serve as the guide for the action plan, defining and communicating what the plan seeks to achieve. 
  • Action plan steps:   Action plan steps form the core of the action plan. They detail crucial targets and milestones that must be completed to reach the goal. These steps divide the goal or project into manageable chunks and provide a framework for identifying tasks (action items), allocating resources, and determining timelines. 
  • Action plan items: Action plan items are the nitty-gritty details of the action plan — the actual tasks to be performed. Each action plan item must be clearly defined, actionable, and understood by the team involved. 
  • Action plan timeline : The action plan timeline maps out the plan schedule from start to finish. It’s crucial for setting expectations, tracking progress and performance, and ensuring the project stays on schedule. 
  • Action plan resources: These are the inputs required to execute the plan, e.g., labor, time, tools, and funds. Identifying action plan resources before delving into execution helps ensure tasks are not delayed or compromised due to resource constraints. 
  • Action plan matrix: The action plan matrix provides a structured layout for planning tasks. It serves as a roadmap and helps to categorize your action steps and tasks based on priority, status, and resource allocation. This alignment helps identify any dependencies or potential bottlenecks.
  • Action plan report: The action plan report provides an overview of the progress made in executing the action plan. It includes details like the tasks completed, time taken, costs incurred, resources used, and any deviations from the plan.
  • Assignments: Each task should be assigned to a person, team, or group. Clear assignment of responsibility is crucial for accountability and the successful execution of any action plan. 

What are the key steps of an action plan?

The main point of an action plan is to ensure you don ’ t overlook critical tasks and milestones of your project. In its simplest form, developing an action plan entails listing tasks you need to complete and prioritizing them. 

As you develop your action plan, you decide which tasks you can delegate, outsource, or delay. The steps below map out how to write a sound action plan to increase your chance of success. 

Step 1: Define your goal 

Get clear on what you want to achieve with your project. Define where you are and where you want to be. If you have alternative methods to achieve your goal, assess your situation and decide the best chances of success depending on your resources. 

Step 2: List tasks

Once you have your goal, list the tasks and activities you must complete to achieve it. Then order them sequentially by adding key dates and deadlines.

business plan action words

Step 3: Identify critical tasks

Are there any steps that must be completed before others can start? These are critical tasks with dependencies. Prioritize these tasks and set realistic deadlines. If you plan to assign them to team members, be sure to let them know the dependencies and allow them enough time to deliver them. 

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Step 4: Assign tasks

Now the project is broken down, you can start assigning tasks. Will you be handling some yourself in addition to managing the project? Make sure you allocate time and human resources carefully — you may choose to delegate or outsource specific tasks. 

Step 5: Assess and improve

At the end of each project, assess performance and take lessons to improve your action planning and project execution. If you work with a team, collect feedback and improvement suggestions from team members for better future performance. 

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Action plan best practices

Following these best practices will mean you ’ re more likely to succeed: 

  • Involve your team: When working with a team, involve them early in the planning process to get their input and save time. Get team members ’ work schedules before assigning tasks to avoid conflicts. Communicate clearly to enable them to prepare for their responsibilities.
  • Set SMART goals: SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Ensure your action plan starts with a strong foundation by defining clear and SMART goals that add value, either as a personal project or at work. 
  • Make your action plans into templates: To get more benefits from your action plans, make them into templates for similar projects. After assessing your action plans at the end of a completed project, make a copy of the plan and remove all project-specific details, so you ’ re able to use the action plan template in future projects. This reduces rework and saves a lot of time and also mistakes. 

Who needs to write an action plan?

Action plans are not solely used in project management. They are handy for project managers, professional service providers, and individuals, and useful for both personal and business projects. Action plans can also be used alone or with a team.

In teams, the leader develops the action plan with input from team members. Developing an action plan helps individuals, managers, and organizations complete more successful projects. They are great for kick-starting, tracking, and maintaining progress on any project. Remember to check off tasks as they are done, update the plans, and communicate with your team as your project progresses.

Action plan example

Action plans are quick and easy to create. It’s all about putting down what you need to accomplish your goal or project. 

Here’s a simple action plan example for a marketing team working on a new campaign:

Action plan objective: Increase brand awareness and boost product sales by 30% by the end of Q4 2023 through a localized multimedia marketing campaign.

Action plan template

business plan action words

Wrike’s action plan template simplifies goal and project management with an intuitive interface designed to help teams plan and launch projects with teams of any size. This template’s features enable real-time collaboration, easy task assignments, time tracking, and reporting.

Common issues like a lack of visibility on remote workers’ assignments and confusing project priorities are mitigated with functionalities such as: 

  • Organizing tasks by departments into folders, making the journey from “To Do” to “In Progress” to “Completed” smooth
  • Identifying dependencies and defining the priority of tasks to determine which tasks need to be done first
  • Providing a snapshot of the tasks due now and in the coming weeks, ensuring the project schedule is adhered to
  • Securing sensitive data from unauthorized personnel with permissions levels offering various levels of access and visibility for collaborators and stakeholders

How to create an action plan with Wrike

Using project management tools helps to organize your action plan visually. With software such as Wrike, you can easily input your project resources, requirements, and timelines, and track your progress throughout the project.

As outlined above, the best way to jump-start your action plan is to use our pre-built template. It helps you take control of your task management by providing sample folders to organize tasks, a calendar for project scheduling, and pre-built dashboards for monitoring progress. All you have to do is add your tasks and due dates to get a complete overview of project work.

If you’re ready to develop action plans and track your progress while executing projects better, you need Wrike. We make it easy to plan, execute, and ensure success, even when you’re on the go.

Click here to start your free two-week trial and kick off your action plan today.

Kelechi Udoagwu

Kelechi Udoagwu

Kelechi is a freelance writer and founder of Week of Saturdays, a platform for digital freelancers and remote workers living in Africa.

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How to Write a Killer Sales Pitch (With Examples)

An effective sales pitch email is a gamechanger for teams wanting to reach the next level. It sounds difficult, but our guide on how to write a sales pitch that wins clients will provide all the tips you need to convert leads.  Keep reading to learn more about why sales pitches are important plus tips for how to write a good sales pitch no matter what you’re selling. After, discover good sales pitch examples you can use to inspire your own.  Why are sales pitches important? If your customer or revenue goals are being fulfilled on autopilot every month then you can probably skip sales pitches. But if you’re like most businesses, you’ll greatly benefit from sales pitches that provide the company-wide benefits of better relationships and completed goals.  Chances are, the people you’re reaching out to have not yet heard about your company — otherwise, they may have already become customers by now. Sales pitches give you the opportunity to introduce your brand and show how you can help the customer with their pain points. They’re also a great way for you and your entire sales team to improve together.  But in order to win more clients, you’ll first need to learn how to write a sales pitch that gets results. Otherwise, you may not see these benefits right away. Even if you already know how to write a sales pitch, the following tips will help you improve your ROI rates.  Tips for writing a good sales pitch The best advice for writing a good sales pitch is to follow the three-step structure we’ve outlined below. Whether you’re leaving a voicemail or meeting in person, the following tips will help you make a strategic and strong first impression.  Tip 1: Grab attention When you first learn how to write a sales pitch, you have to start from the very beginning. Make the opening line of your sales pitch engaging so that the customer doesn’t close your email before they finish reading it. In general, you should always aim at the emotional side of the client’s mind – not the rational one. Here are three ways to grab attention in your sales pitch:  Find a creative phrase to start your proposal. This can be a joke, a piece of news, or an interesting fact. For example, you can start with the sentence, “If it saves you $50,000 per year, wouldn’t you consider spending $1,000 now?” Or show that there’s proof of the value you bring by using quantitative indicators. Engage your prospect with figures and relevant statistics right from the start. Include a relevant fact such as “more than 75% of your potential clients spend at least five hours a day on their smartphones. You can benefit from this — ! let me show you how.” Alternatively, consider personalizing your message so that your prospect knows you’re reaching out to them specifically with a tailored offer. Emphasize that your proposal is unique and available only for certain clients.  Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What are you more likely to choose: a product available for everyone or something tailored exclusively for you? Feel this difference and create customer-focused messages.  Tip 2: Offer solutions As you continue learning how to write a sales pitch, it’s important to have a clear ‘why’ when starting out. Why are you writing to this person? Why do they need your services or products? Why are your solutions the best?  But before you tell your potential client what you can do to help, you must first acknowledge their real pain points. For example, if you’re a budget-conscious wedding planner, you may open with: “You probably think that to arrange a dream wedding, you’ll need Jeff Bezos’ fortune. We’ll show you the other way to do it.” Next, explain how you can help. That means providing real solutions to customers’ problems. Make it clear that all the client needs to do is purchase your product and put the pain out of their mind.  For example, you could write, ”We specialize in transforming outdated web design into user-friendly interfaces that are a pleasure to work with. Our best solutions are attached.” Then, include an example specifically chosen for this pain point.  Lastly, make the client admire the benefits you provide. Supplement your product with unexpected options or advantages. For example, if your service is catering, emphasize the unique benefits you provide, such as free wait staff or a cake created especially for the client’s event. Your customer will be impressed by the bargain. Tip 3: Clarify next steps If you really want to learn how to write a sales pitch that people actually respond to, you have to practice giving instructions in the form of next steps.  At the end of the email, briefly emphasize the best statements of your proposal. Choose the ones most relevant to the customer’s needs and those that are most persuasive. Then, make a clear and concise offer, so you don’t mislead your customer on what they should do next. Write this in the form of a one to two-sentence call-to-action.  You can also set a time limit. Explain that a decision should be made quickly and within the given time frame. Point out the unique benefit within your proposal that is valid for “only five days.” That stimulates the client to decide faster and to get to the next step in the sales process. For example, you can say “If you decide within 14 days, we promise you the best price with a 15% discount.” Tips for writing an email sales pitch Email, like any form of digital communication, has its own unique set of best practices and uses. As a sales tool, it’s great for either resurfacing old threads or starting fresh with a cold message. It’s so great, in fact, Inc. reported that a recent McKinsey & Co. study found email is 40 times more effective at major social media websites at winning new business. In that same article, Inc. went as far as to dub email as “the best way to reach customers.”  Here are some tips for how to get the most out of this powerful sales pitch channel:  Keep it short and sweet. In our personal experience, a three-sentence email is more likely to be read and responded to than a long-form message.  Link out to key points. If you mention your portfolio, make sure to link out to it. You can also link to screenshots of results you’ve achieved or your personal LinkedIn if you think it will help you make the sale.  Mention your famous clients. Name dropping is a great way to prove your expertise in an email sales pitch. Mention your best clients or, at the very least, the solutions and projects you’ve done for clients like them. Don’t forget about real figures to emphasize the results. Align with marketing. Collaborating with marketing ensures that your message is on brand and relevant for your email list. Your marketing team may even create or provide original content to help strengthen your pitch. Whether it’s a well-designed client testimonial or a pitch video edit, they’re a great resource for making a fantastic and cohesive customer journey from Day 1.  Good sales pitch examples Learning from the best will help you overcome common beginner mistakes and get that much closer to closing. Below are some of our favorite examples of good sales pitches that can teach you how to write a sales pitch that actually works.  Alphalake Ai’s artificial intelligence pitch video There are two things that stand out about this sales pitch. The first is the fact that it uses artificial intelligence to generate a speaking avatar, something that few can say they’ve seen in their inboxes lately. The second is that it’s quite personal. Not only does the avatar look like the sender, but it’s also a great representation of the brand itself since they offer AI products.  Shopify’s whitepaper for client sales pitches In 2019, Shopify created a sales guide for merchants who want to pitch Shopify as their platform of choice. The whitepaper itself doesn’t give a specific pitch email. However, it does outline the following key talking points:  The benefits of using a fully hosted eCommerce solution Shopify’s key solutions for merchants Simple payment plans You can easily use any combination of these points to persuade a new user to join your site. Or have your customers do the selling for you with a guide like Shopify’s.  Lavender’s foolproof LinkedIn message pitch Co-founder Will Allred recently shared this great sales pitch template that leaders at the company have had success with:  “Hey ____, Saw you're growing the sales team by 20% this quarter. Would knowing which reps are at risk of missing email quota (and why) be helpful?” With social media, it’s best to keep your sales pitches even shorter and sweeter than email, just like Allred did here.  Now that you know how to write a sales pitch that works, it’s time to continue breaking down the wall between sales and marketing with Wrike’s project management platform. Start your two-week free trial today and begin organizing lead conversion projects more efficiently and effectively.

What Are Segmentation Bases in Marketing?

What Are Segmentation Bases in Marketing?

Organizations use segmentation bases to focus marketing efforts on specific customer groups. Learn how to create an effective segmentation strategy with Wrike.

Cycle Time vs. Lead Time: Everything You Should Know

Cycle Time vs. Lead Time: Everything You Should Know

Lead time and cycle time are often confused with one another. Both cycle and lead time are important time metrics in manufacturing, but they’re also important strategic tools for project management. Project managers and team leaders need to fully understand their differences and similarities to harness their power.  In this article, we’ll go over cycle time vs. lead time and what they do. We’ll also share some tips on managing both cycle time and lead time in your project management solution to achieve better results.  An introduction to cycle time vs. lead time In a nutshell, cycle time measures the time it takes for a team to make a product, while lead time measures the time between the customer order and order fulfillment. Lead time is always longer than cycle time because cycle time fits into the timeline of lead time. In Scrum methodologies, cycle times are equivalent to a sprint.  Here, we’ll discuss the differences and similarities between the two metrics. Keep reading to discover the answers to your most common questions about cycle time vs. lead time.  What are the differences between lead time and cycle time? The cycle time is the time it takes for a developer or a team to finish a project. It is typically the time between when the work item is in progress and when it has been completed. The cycle time officially starts when an item is moved to “In Progress” and ends when it is marked “Done” in whatever project management solution you’re using.  For example, when a marketing manager builds a social media campaign for Twitter, the cycle time begins when the team starts preparing the content.  The lead time is the time it takes for a single unit of product to be created and added to the backlog when it is shipped. This is typically the time it takes for one project to be completed and sent to the customer. If you’re using a Kanban board, the lead time will begin once the item is added to the “To Do” list column.  In the marketing example scenario above, the lead time will end once all the content is published on the platform.  By measuring cycle time, you can identify areas of concern that need to be addressed to improve the efficiency of your team. But by measuring lead time, you can determine how many items are flowing into your queue and how long it takes for your team to check them off.  And when it comes to testing the system's efficiency, focus on the lead time, not on the overall development process. In simpler terms, lead time refers to the time that has already passed, while cycle time refers to the time it would take. They are not easily compared side by side for this reason.  What are the similarities between lead time and cycle time? First and foremost, lead time and cycle time both measure the minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months it takes a product to get from a starting point to an ending point. Those points are different for each, but they do represent a quantifiable period of time.  If those measurements are consistent, then teams can achieve business continuity. If they aren’t, they may need to adjust in order to better plan and execute projects.  Because of this, both lead time and cycle time offer insight into the efficiency of teams and their processes. These values examined simultaneously create an accurate picture of how a company uses its time when properly monitored and measured. From there, project managers and team leads can create realistic benchmarks. They can easily make the necessary adjustments, calculate these values again, and weigh the results side by side to see if any progress has been made.  Lead time and cycle time are also values that represent effort versus output. After all, not all effort resolves in progress and not all output leads to outcomes you’re looking for. What does it really take to create this product? And what does it take to create this product once our team makes it? What about our customer orders — do those match up with our fulfillment plans?  All of these questions and more can be answered with the help of these two tools.  What do both lead time and cycle time metrics miss? Lead time and cycle time metrics miss the human element of project management. Although there are ideal turnaround times for a product or service, there may be interferences that you simply can’t account for in a mathematical model. For example, unexpected supply chain hiccups or sudden team shakeups from the Great Resignation may create longer than average cycle or lead times.  Also, they may be great for predicting issues, but they’re not useful for diagnosing them. Only a holistic project management software can give you the full picture of what’s going on. Even if you know you need to make a change, simply relying on lead time and cycle time to determine your course of action may negatively impact other areas of your business if not used wisely.  Cycle time vs. lead time vs. takt time The cycle time, lead time, and takt time are the three key factors that determine the average time it takes to produce a product. To better understand what they are and how they compare, let’s take a look at how to calculate each one:  Cycle time: When the team begins to fill one customer order/ number of units in one customer order Lead time: When the incoming work request is received — the time it takes to deliver the end product Takt time: Total number of work hours available/ total number of products needed to meet total customer demand  As you look at these equations, it’s easy to spot the differences. Cycle time and lead time refer to a singular order, whereas takt time refers to overall customer demand. This means that cycle time and lead time are smaller values within takt time.  Lead time is useful for setting customer expectations of delivery times. The lag time between when the order is placed and the cycle time begins can sometimes take longer than the time it takes to create the product itself. This means that it’s important to incorporate the entire lead time in with delivery estimates. If you only use the cycle time to set expectations, customers may feel disappointed when their product takes longer to get to them than they were originally told.  To summarize:  Cycle time measures the time it takes your team to complete an order. Lead time measures the time it takes between order input and fulfillment. Lead time measures how long it takes to fulfill one order. Takt time measures the total number of hours you have available and how many average orders you can fulfill within that time frame. How to manage time metrics with Wrike Understanding both cycle time and lead time metrics will help you keep track of your team’s progress. It will also provide insight into how to pick up the pace and ensure that your customers are satisfied. There are plenty of tools available to help you determine cycle and lead time, but understanding how they're calculated can be helpful in planning releases. Project management solutions like Wrike add context to your metrics and make it possible to plan, monitor, and measure different strategies to improve them.  One of the biggest obstacles to accurately measuring both cycle time and lead time is updating progress statuses. From order input to order fulfillment, there are quite a few different phases a request can go through. If even one status update is missed, the entire team can lose track of where they are in the fulfillment cycle.  Wrike offers a few different features to help keep track of the statuses of all your projects, orders, and tasks. First, there are detailed task views which allow users to choose from a customizable menu of status updates.  Then, once the task is marked as ready for review or ready for the next phase, Wrike will automatically trigger a notification to the next responsible party, saving time on individual updates and eliminating the opportunity for team members to miss the change on their own.  Wrike also has time tracking, a must-have data feature for measuring cycle time and lead time. Time tracking is automatically recorded and measured so that project leaders can measure progress. This information helps laser focus on which phases or team members are responsible for higher than expected numbers. And with Wrike’s reporting capabilities, it’s easy to turn those insights into actionable adjustments.  Now that you understand the nuances of cycle time vs. lead time, you’re ready to apply what you’ve learned with Wrike. Improve productivity, manage resources more efficiently, and better understand which processes are or not working with Wrike’s two-week free trial. 

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Simple Business Plan Templates

By Joe Weller | April 2, 2020

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In this article, we’ve compiled a variety of simple business plan templates, all of which are free to download in PDF, Word, and Excel formats.

On this page, you’ll find a one-page business plan template , a simple business plan for startups , a small-business plan template , a business plan outline , and more. We also include a business plan sample and the main components of a business plan to help get you started.

Simple Business Plan Template

Simple Business Plan Template

Download Simple Business Plan Template

This simple business plan template lays out each element of a traditional business plan to assist you as you build your own, and it provides space to add financing information for startups seeking funding. You can use and customize this simple business plan template to fit the needs for organizations of any size.

One-Page Business Plan Template

business plan action words

Download One-Page Business Plan Template

Excel | Word | PDF  | Smartsheet

Use this one-page business plan to document your key ideas in an organized manner. The template can help you create a high-level view of your business plan, and it provides easy scannability for stakeholders. You can use this one-page plan as a reference to build a more detailed blueprint for your business. 

For additional single page plans, take a look at " One-Page Business Plan Templates with a Quick How-To Guide ."

Simple Fill-in-the-Blank Business Plan Template

Simple Fill In The Blank Business Plan Template

Download Simple Fill-in-the-Blank Business Plan Template

Use this fill-in-the-blank business plan template to guide you as you build your business plan. Each section comes pre-filled with sample content, with space to add customized verbiage relevant to your product or service.

For additional free, downloadable resources, visit " Free Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan Templates ."

Simple Business Plan for Startup

Start-Up Business Plan Template

‌ Download Startup Business Plan Template — Word

This business plan template is designed with a startup business in mind and contains the essential elements needed to convey key product or service details to investors and stakeholders. Keep all your information organized with this template, which provides space to include an executive summary, a company overview, competitive analysis, a marketing strategy, financial data, and more. For additional resources, visit " Free Startup Business Plan Templates and Examples ."

Simple Small-Business Plan Template

Small Business Plan Template

Download Simple Small-Business Plan Template

This template walks you through each component of a small-business plan, including the company background, the introduction of the management team, market analysis, product or service offerings, a financial plan, and more. This template also comes with a built-in table of contents to keep your plan in order, and it can be customized to fit your requirements.

Lean Business Plan Template

Lean Business Plan Template

Download Lean Business Plan Template

This lean business plan template is a stripped-down version of a traditional business plan that provides only the most essential aspects. Briefly outline your company and industry overview, along with the problem you are solving, as well as your unique value proposition, target market, and key performance metrics. There is also room to list out a timeline of key activities.

Simple Business Plan Outline Template

Simple Business Plan Outline Template

Download Simple Business Plan Outline Template

Word  | PDF

Use this simple business plan outline as a basis to create your own business plan. This template contains 11 sections, including a title page and a table of contents, which details what each section should cover in a traditional business plan. Simplify or expand this outline to create the foundation for a business plan that fits your business needs.

Simple Business Planning Template with Timeline

Simple Business Planning Template with Timeline

Download Simple Business Planning Template with Timeline

Excel | Smartsheet

This template doubles as a project plan and timeline to track progress as you develop your business plan. This business planning template enables you to break down your work into phases and provides room to add key tasks and dates for each activity. Easily fill in the cells according to the start and end dates to create a visual timeline, as well as to ensure your plan stays on track.

Simple Business Plan Rubric Template

business plan action words

Download Simple Business Plan Rubric

Excel | Word | PDF | Smartsheet

Once you complete your business plan, use this business plan rubric template to assess and score each component of your plan. This rubric helps you identify elements of your plan that meet or exceed requirements and pinpoint areas where you need to improve or further elaborate. This template is an invaluable tool to ensure your business plan clearly defines your goals, objectives, and plan of action in order to gain buy-in from potential investors, stakeholders, and partners.

Basic Business Plan Sample

Basic Business Plan Sample

Download Basic Business Plan Sample

This business plan sample serves as an example of a basic business plan that contains all the traditional components. The sample provides a model of what a business plan might look like for a fictional food truck business. Reference this sample as you develop your own business plan.

For additional resources to help support your business planning efforts, check out “ Free Strategic Planning Templates .”

Main Components of a Business Plan

The elements you include in your business plan will depend on your product or service offerings, as well as the size and needs of your business. 

Below are the components of a standard business plan and details you should include in each section:

  • Company name and contact information
  • Website address
  • The name of the company or individual viewing the presentation
  • Table of Contents
  • Company background and purpose
  • Mission and vision statement
  • Management team introduction
  • Core product and service offerings
  • Target customers and segments
  • Marketing plan
  • Competitive analysis
  • Unique value proposition
  • Financial plan (and requirements, if applicable)
  • Business and industry overview
  • Historical timeline of your business
  • Offerings and the problem they solve
  • Current alternatives
  • Competitive advantage
  • Market size
  • Target market segment(s)
  • Projected volume and value of sales compared to competitors
  • Differentiation from competitors
  • Pricing strategy
  • Marketing channels
  • Promotional plan
  • Distribution methods
  • Legal structure of your business
  • Names of founders, owners, advisors, etc.
  • Management team’s roles, relevant experience, and compensation plan
  • Staffing requirements and training plans
  • Physical location(s) of your business
  • Additional physical requirements (e.g., warehouse, specialized equipment, facilities, etc.)
  • Production workflow
  • Raw materials and sourcing methods
  • Projected income statement
  • Projected cash flow statement
  • Projected balance sheet
  • Break-even analysis
  • Charts and graphs
  • Market research and competitive analysis
  • Information about your industry
  • Information about your offerings
  • Samples of marketing materials
  • Other supporting materials

Tips for Creating a Business Plan

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the thought of putting together a business plan. Below, you’ll find top tips to help simplify the process as you develop your own plan. 

  • Use a business plan template (you can choose from the variety above), or refer to the previous section to create a standard outline for your plan.
  • Modify your outline to reflect the requirements of your specific business. If you use a standard business plan outline, remove sections that aren’t relevant to you or aren’t necessary to run your business.
  • Gather all the information you currently have about your business first, and then use that information to fill out each section in your plan outline.
  • Use your resources and conduct additional research to fill in the remaining gaps. (Note: It isn’t necessary to fill out your plan in order, but the executive summary needs to be completed last, as it summarizes the key points in your plan.)
  • Ensure your plan clearly communicates the relationship between your marketing, sales, and financial objectives.
  • Provide details in your plan that illustrate your strategic plan of action, looking forward three to five years.
  • Revisit your plan regularly as strategies and objectives evolve.
  • What product or service are we offering?
  • Who is the product or service for?
  • What problem does our product or service offering solve?
  • How will we get the product or service to our target customers?
  • Why is our product or service better than the alternatives?
  • How can we outperform our competitors?
  • What is our unique value proposition?
  • When will things get done, and who is responsible for doing them?
  • If you need to obtain funding, how will you use the funding?
  • When are payments due, and when do payments come in?
  • What is the ultimate purpose of your business?
  • When do you expect to be profitable?

To identify which type of business plan you should write, and for more helpful tips, take a look at our guide to writing a simple business plan .

Benefits of Using a Business Plan Template

Creating a business plan can be very time-consuming, especially if you aren’t sure where to begin. Finding the right template for your business needs can be beneficial for a variety of reasons. 

Using a business plan template — instead of creating your plan from scratch — can benefit you in the following ways:

  • Enables you to immediately write down your thoughts and ideas in an organized manner
  • Provides structure to help outline your plan
  • Saves time and valuable resources
  • Helps ensure you don’t miss essential details

Limitations of a Business Plan Template

A business plan template can be convenient, but it has its drawbacks — especially if you use a template that doesn’t fit the specific needs of your business.

Below are some limitations of using a business plan template:

  • Each business is unique and needs a business plan that reflects that. A template may not fit your needs.
  • A template may restrict collaboration with other team members on different aspects of the plan’s development (sales, marketing, and accounting teams).
  • Multiple files containing different versions of the plan may be stored in more than one place.
  • You still have to manually create charts and graphs to add to the plan to support your strategy.
  • Updates to the plan, spreadsheets, and supporting documents have to be made in multiple places (all documents may not update in real time as changes are made).

Improve Your Business Plan with Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

  • Business Account
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Business Action Plan Template in Word

Create Corrective Action Plans, Marketing Plans, Project Plans, and Strategic Plans Using Our Free Business Action Plan Word Templates. Download Our Editable Planner Templates in Word Document Format and Customize in Microsoft Word. Your Goal Setting Process Will Be Much Easier to Carry Out Using Our Action Plan Examples on Template.net!

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A Business Action Plan is an effective strategy that will assist you in getting back on track. It's an important document that lays out the steps you must follow to reach a goal within a specific time frame while managing your company. Be it that you’re owning a small business, startup, construction, restaurant, or furniture business, you must need a detailed and well-organized business action plan. We know how challenging it already is in handling a business, that is why we have the solution to all of your document needs—our quality templates!

To make it beneficial to our users, we've compiled a list of Business Action Plan Word Templates that you may use to easily create your own version. Our team of professionals has created these templates with high-quality graphic design and a professional layout. As a result, you may rest guaranteed that your business action plan will exude authenticity and efficacy, resulting in a more organized business action planning. Our Action Plan Word Templates , of course, include all of the necessary information so that you won’t have to go through the hassle of putting out your own idea. However, the most significant aspect is that you may personalize it to your desire and make it more informative.

Template.net ensured that everything is as uncomplicated as possible. You can add more details and edit them at your leisure by changing default texts, experimenting with font styles, and altering them to meet your standards. Other kinds of plan templates can be found here too which include 90 Day Sales Plan Word Templates and Communication Plan Word Templates .

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Small Business Trends

Sba launches enhanced equity action plan to bolster small business growth and economic equity.

business plan action words

Isabel Casillas Guzman, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator, has unveiled an updated Equity Action Plan in a bid to foster inclusivity and economic opportunity. This initiative is set to transform the landscape for America’s 33 million small businesses and startups, particularly benefiting those from underserved communities.

The SBA’s refreshed Equity Action Plan zeroes in on crucial areas such as improving access to capital, enhancing entrepreneurial support services, and broadening economic opportunities to advance the national economy. This plan is part of the administration’s broader commitment to equity, initiated by President Biden’s Executive Order on his first day in office, mandating a comprehensive equity assessment across federal agencies.

Empowering Diverse Entrepreneurs

“As America continues to enjoy an unprecedented Small Business Boom, the SBA remains determined in its efforts to boost entrepreneurship among people of color, women, veterans, and those from rural communities, and this updated Equity Action Plan is a testament to that commitment,” stated Administrator Guzman.

The Equity Action Plan is pivotal in acknowledging and harnessing the value these entrepreneurs bring through job creation, innovation, and competitiveness on both domestic and international fronts.

Strategic Enhancements and Achievements

The 2023 Equity Action Plan outlines strategic improvements in several key areas:

Small Business Deals

  • Access to Loan Capital: Introducing new lenders capable of reaching underserved markets, simplifying lending rules, and promoting policies to support justice-involved entrepreneurs.
  • Federal Government Procurement: Enhancing Small Disadvantaged Businesses (SDBs) access to contracting opportunities and advocating for their inclusion in federal agency contracts.
  • Disaster Assistance: Modernizing application processes and bolstering support for underserved communities in disaster recovery efforts.
  • Business Counseling and Training: Tailoring resources to meet the specific needs of underserved entrepreneurs.
  • Investment Capital: Implementing rules to diversify fund managers within the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) Program, aimed at directing more investments toward underserved entrepreneurs.

These strategies build on the successes of the initial Equity Action Plan, which notably increased Community Advantage lending, expanded SBLC licenses targeting underserved businesses, and enhanced SBIC financing to minority-owned, women-owned, and veteran-owned businesses.

Community Engagement and Resource Allocation

The SBA’s engagement with the small business community has been instrumental in shaping the Equity Action Plan. Through nationwide outreach, training events, and consultations with Resource Partners and trade associations, the SBA has honed its strategies to meet the evolving needs of small business owners. Noteworthy accomplishments include the launch of new Small Business Lending Companies (CA SBLCs), significant increases in SDB contracting, and the implementation of the Disaster Loan Program Modifications Rule.

Forward Momentum

As the SBA continues to refine its approach to equity and inclusivity, the updated Equity Action Plan stands as a testament to the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to creating a more equitable economic landscape. By addressing systemic barriers and fostering a supportive environment, the SBA aims to ensure that all entrepreneurs have the resources and opportunities needed to thrive.

For more information on the SBA’s efforts and to read the complete Equity Action Plan, visit the SBA’s official website.

This initiative not only promises to reshape the future of small business ownership in the U.S. but also reinforces the government’s role in facilitating equitable economic growth and resilience.

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Our next-generation model: Gemini 1.5

Feb 15, 2024

The model delivers dramatically enhanced performance, with a breakthrough in long-context understanding across modalities.

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A note from Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai:

Last week, we rolled out our most capable model, Gemini 1.0 Ultra, and took a significant step forward in making Google products more helpful, starting with Gemini Advanced . Today, developers and Cloud customers can begin building with 1.0 Ultra too — with our Gemini API in AI Studio and in Vertex AI .

Our teams continue pushing the frontiers of our latest models with safety at the core. They are making rapid progress. In fact, we’re ready to introduce the next generation: Gemini 1.5. It shows dramatic improvements across a number of dimensions and 1.5 Pro achieves comparable quality to 1.0 Ultra, while using less compute.

This new generation also delivers a breakthrough in long-context understanding. We’ve been able to significantly increase the amount of information our models can process — running up to 1 million tokens consistently, achieving the longest context window of any large-scale foundation model yet.

Longer context windows show us the promise of what is possible. They will enable entirely new capabilities and help developers build much more useful models and applications. We’re excited to offer a limited preview of this experimental feature to developers and enterprise customers. Demis shares more on capabilities, safety and availability below.

Introducing Gemini 1.5

By Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, on behalf of the Gemini team

This is an exciting time for AI. New advances in the field have the potential to make AI more helpful for billions of people over the coming years. Since introducing Gemini 1.0 , we’ve been testing, refining and enhancing its capabilities.

Today, we’re announcing our next-generation model: Gemini 1.5.

Gemini 1.5 delivers dramatically enhanced performance. It represents a step change in our approach, building upon research and engineering innovations across nearly every part of our foundation model development and infrastructure. This includes making Gemini 1.5 more efficient to train and serve, with a new Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture.

The first Gemini 1.5 model we’re releasing for early testing is Gemini 1.5 Pro. It’s a mid-size multimodal model, optimized for scaling across a wide-range of tasks, and performs at a similar level to 1.0 Ultra , our largest model to date. It also introduces a breakthrough experimental feature in long-context understanding.

Gemini 1.5 Pro comes with a standard 128,000 token context window. But starting today, a limited group of developers and enterprise customers can try it with a context window of up to 1 million tokens via AI Studio and Vertex AI in private preview.

As we roll out the full 1 million token context window, we’re actively working on optimizations to improve latency, reduce computational requirements and enhance the user experience. We’re excited for people to try this breakthrough capability, and we share more details on future availability below.

These continued advances in our next-generation models will open up new possibilities for people, developers and enterprises to create, discover and build using AI.

Context lengths of leading foundation models

Highly efficient architecture

Gemini 1.5 is built upon our leading research on Transformer and MoE architecture. While a traditional Transformer functions as one large neural network, MoE models are divided into smaller "expert” neural networks.

Depending on the type of input given, MoE models learn to selectively activate only the most relevant expert pathways in its neural network. This specialization massively enhances the model’s efficiency. Google has been an early adopter and pioneer of the MoE technique for deep learning through research such as Sparsely-Gated MoE , GShard-Transformer , Switch-Transformer, M4 and more.

Our latest innovations in model architecture allow Gemini 1.5 to learn complex tasks more quickly and maintain quality, while being more efficient to train and serve. These efficiencies are helping our teams iterate, train and deliver more advanced versions of Gemini faster than ever before, and we’re working on further optimizations.

Greater context, more helpful capabilities

An AI model’s “context window” is made up of tokens, which are the building blocks used for processing information. Tokens can be entire parts or subsections of words, images, videos, audio or code. The bigger a model’s context window, the more information it can take in and process in a given prompt — making its output more consistent, relevant and useful.

Through a series of machine learning innovations, we’ve increased 1.5 Pro’s context window capacity far beyond the original 32,000 tokens for Gemini 1.0. We can now run up to 1 million tokens in production.

This means 1.5 Pro can process vast amounts of information in one go — including 1 hour of video, 11 hours of audio, codebases with over 30,000 lines of code or over 700,000 words. In our research, we’ve also successfully tested up to 10 million tokens.

Complex reasoning about vast amounts of information

1.5 Pro can seamlessly analyze, classify and summarize large amounts of content within a given prompt. For example, when given the 402-page transcripts from Apollo 11’s mission to the moon, it can reason about conversations, events and details found across the document.

Reasoning across a 402-page transcript: Gemini 1.5 Pro Demo

Gemini 1.5 Pro can understand, reason about and identify curious details in the 402-page transcripts from Apollo 11’s mission to the moon.

Better understanding and reasoning across modalities

1.5 Pro can perform highly-sophisticated understanding and reasoning tasks for different modalities, including video. For instance, when given a 44-minute silent Buster Keaton movie , the model can accurately analyze various plot points and events, and even reason about small details in the movie that could easily be missed.

Multimodal prompting with a 44-minute movie: Gemini 1.5 Pro Demo

Gemini 1.5 Pro can identify a scene in a 44-minute silent Buster Keaton movie when given a simple line drawing as reference material for a real-life object.

Relevant problem-solving with longer blocks of code

1.5 Pro can perform more relevant problem-solving tasks across longer blocks of code. When given a prompt with more than 100,000 lines of code, it can better reason across examples, suggest helpful modifications and give explanations about how different parts of the code works.

Problem solving across 100,633 lines of code | Gemini 1.5 Pro Demo

Gemini 1.5 Pro can reason across 100,000 lines of code giving helpful solutions, modifications and explanations.

Enhanced performance

When tested on a comprehensive panel of text, code, image, audio and video evaluations, 1.5 Pro outperforms 1.0 Pro on 87% of the benchmarks used for developing our large language models (LLMs). And when compared to 1.0 Ultra on the same benchmarks, it performs at a broadly similar level.

Gemini 1.5 Pro maintains high levels of performance even as its context window increases. In the Needle In A Haystack (NIAH) evaluation, where a small piece of text containing a particular fact or statement is purposely placed within a long block of text, 1.5 Pro found the embedded text 99% of the time, in blocks of data as long as 1 million tokens.

Gemini 1.5 Pro also shows impressive “in-context learning” skills, meaning that it can learn a new skill from information given in a long prompt, without needing additional fine-tuning. We tested this skill on the Machine Translation from One Book (MTOB) benchmark, which shows how well the model learns from information it’s never seen before. When given a grammar manual for Kalamang , a language with fewer than 200 speakers worldwide, the model learns to translate English to Kalamang at a similar level to a person learning from the same content.

As 1.5 Pro’s long context window is the first of its kind among large-scale models, we’re continuously developing new evaluations and benchmarks for testing its novel capabilities.

For more details, see our Gemini 1.5 Pro technical report .

Extensive ethics and safety testing

In line with our AI Principles and robust safety policies, we’re ensuring our models undergo extensive ethics and safety tests. We then integrate these research learnings into our governance processes and model development and evaluations to continuously improve our AI systems.

Since introducing 1.0 Ultra in December, our teams have continued refining the model, making it safer for a wider release. We’ve also conducted novel research on safety risks and developed red-teaming techniques to test for a range of potential harms.

In advance of releasing 1.5 Pro, we've taken the same approach to responsible deployment as we did for our Gemini 1.0 models, conducting extensive evaluations across areas including content safety and representational harms, and will continue to expand this testing. Beyond this, we’re developing further tests that account for the novel long-context capabilities of 1.5 Pro.

Build and experiment with Gemini models

We’re committed to bringing each new generation of Gemini models to billions of people, developers and enterprises around the world responsibly.

Starting today, we’re offering a limited preview of 1.5 Pro to developers and enterprise customers via AI Studio and Vertex AI . Read more about this on our Google for Developers blog and Google Cloud blog .

We’ll introduce 1.5 Pro with a standard 128,000 token context window when the model is ready for a wider release. Coming soon, we plan to introduce pricing tiers that start at the standard 128,000 context window and scale up to 1 million tokens, as we improve the model.

Early testers can try the 1 million token context window at no cost during the testing period, though they should expect longer latency times with this experimental feature. Significant improvements in speed are also on the horizon.

Developers interested in testing 1.5 Pro can sign up now in AI Studio, while enterprise customers can reach out to their Vertex AI account team.

Learn more about Gemini’s capabilities and see how it works .

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Create a form in Word that users can complete or print

In Word, you can create a form that others can fill out and save or print.  To do this, you will start with baseline content in a document, potentially via a form template.  Then you can add content controls for elements such as check boxes, text boxes, date pickers, and drop-down lists. Optionally, these content controls can be linked to database information.  Following are the recommended action steps in sequence.  

Show the Developer tab

In Word, be sure you have the Developer tab displayed in the ribbon.  (See how here:  Show the developer tab .)

Open a template or a blank document on which to base the form

You can start with a template or just start from scratch with a blank document.

Start with a form template

Go to File > New .

In the  Search for online templates  field, type  Forms or the kind of form you want. Then press Enter .

In the displayed results, right-click any item, then select  Create. 

Start with a blank document 

Select Blank document .

Add content to the form

Go to the  Developer  tab Controls section where you can choose controls to add to your document or form. Hover over any icon therein to see what control type it represents. The various control types are described below. You can set properties on a control once it has been inserted.

To delete a content control, right-click it, then select Remove content control  in the pop-up menu. 

Note:  You can print a form that was created via content controls. However, the boxes around the content controls will not print.

Insert a text control

The rich text content control enables users to format text (e.g., bold, italic) and type multiple paragraphs. To limit these capabilities, use the plain text content control . 

Click or tap where you want to insert the control.

Rich text control button

To learn about setting specific properties on these controls, see Set or change properties for content controls .

Insert a picture control

A picture control is most often used for templates, but you can also add a picture control to a form.

Picture control button

Insert a building block control

Use a building block control  when you want users to choose a specific block of text. These are helpful when you need to add different boilerplate text depending on the document's specific purpose. You can create rich text content controls for each version of the boilerplate text, and then use a building block control as the container for the rich text content controls.

building block gallery control

Select Developer and content controls for the building block.

Developer tab showing content controls

Insert a combo box or a drop-down list

In a combo box, users can select from a list of choices that you provide or they can type in their own information. In a drop-down list, users can only select from the list of choices.

combo box button

Select the content control, and then select Properties .

To create a list of choices, select Add under Drop-Down List Properties .

Type a choice in Display Name , such as Yes , No , or Maybe .

Repeat this step until all of the choices are in the drop-down list.

Fill in any other properties that you want.

Note:  If you select the Contents cannot be edited check box, users won’t be able to click a choice.

Insert a date picker

Click or tap where you want to insert the date picker control.

Date picker button

Insert a check box

Click or tap where you want to insert the check box control.

Check box button

Use the legacy form controls

Legacy form controls are for compatibility with older versions of Word and consist of legacy form and Active X controls.

Click or tap where you want to insert a legacy control.

Legacy control button

Select the Legacy Form control or Active X Control that you want to include.

Set or change properties for content controls

Each content control has properties that you can set or change. For example, the Date Picker control offers options for the format you want to use to display the date.

Select the content control that you want to change.

Go to Developer > Properties .

Controls Properties  button

Change the properties that you want.

Add protection to a form

If you want to limit how much others can edit or format a form, use the Restrict Editing command:

Open the form that you want to lock or protect.

Select Developer > Restrict Editing .

Restrict editing button

After selecting restrictions, select Yes, Start Enforcing Protection .

Restrict editing panel

Advanced Tip:

If you want to protect only parts of the document, separate the document into sections and only protect the sections you want.

To do this, choose Select Sections in the Restrict Editing panel. For more info on sections, see Insert a section break .

Sections selector on Resrict sections panel

If the developer tab isn't displayed in the ribbon, see Show the Developer tab .

Open a template or use a blank document

To create a form in Word that others can fill out, start with a template or document and add content controls. Content controls include things like check boxes, text boxes, and drop-down lists. If you’re familiar with databases, these content controls can even be linked to data.

Go to File > New from Template .

New from template option

In Search, type form .

Double-click the template you want to use.

Select File > Save As , and pick a location to save the form.

In Save As , type a file name and then select Save .

Start with a blank document

Go to File > New Document .

New document option

Go to File > Save As .

Go to Developer , and then choose the controls that you want to add to the document or form. To remove a content control, select the control and press Delete. You can set Options on controls once inserted. From Options, you can add entry and exit macros to run when users interact with the controls, as well as list items for combo boxes, .

Adding content controls to your form

In the document, click or tap where you want to add a content control.

On Developer , select Text Box , Check Box , or Combo Box .

Developer tab with content controls

To set specific properties for the control, select Options , and set .

Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each control that you want to add.

Set options

Options let you set common settings, as well as control specific settings. Select a control and then select Options to set up or make changes.

Set common properties.

Select Macro to Run on lets you choose a recorded or custom macro to run on Entry or Exit from the field.

Bookmark Set a unique name or bookmark for each control.

Calculate on exit This forces Word to run or refresh any calculations, such as total price when the user exits the field.

Add Help Text Give hints or instructions for each field.

OK Saves settings and exits the panel.

Cancel Forgets changes and exits the panel.

Set specific properties for a Text box

Type Select form Regular text, Number, Date, Current Date, Current Time, or Calculation.

Default text sets optional instructional text that's displayed in the text box before the user types in the field. Set Text box enabled to allow the user to enter text into the field.

Maximum length sets the length of text that a user can enter. The default is Unlimited .

Text format can set whether text automatically formats to Uppercase , Lowercase , First capital, or Title case .

Text box enabled Lets the user enter text into a field. If there is default text, user text replaces it.

Set specific properties for a Check box .

Default Value Choose between Not checked or checked as default.

Checkbox size Set a size Exactly or Auto to change size as needed.

Check box enabled Lets the user check or clear the text box.

Set specific properties for a Combo box

Drop-down item Type in strings for the list box items. Press + or Enter to add an item to the list.

Items in drop-down list Shows your current list. Select an item and use the up or down arrows to change the order, Press - to remove a selected item.

Drop-down enabled Lets the user open the combo box and make selections.

Protect the form

Go to Developer > Protect Form .

Protect form button on the Developer tab

Note:  To unprotect the form and continue editing, select Protect Form again.

Save and close the form.

Test the form (optional)

If you want, you can test the form before you distribute it.

Protect the form.

Reopen the form, fill it out as the user would, and then save a copy.

Creating fillable forms isn’t available in Word for the web.

You can create the form with the desktop version of Word with the instructions in Create a fillable form .

When you save the document and reopen it in Word for the web, you’ll see the changes you made.

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WordPress pricing in 2024: Is it worth the cost?

Cat McAlpine

Sierra Campbell

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“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.

Published 7:27 a.m. UTC Feb. 22, 2024

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Featured Image

fotostorm, Getty Images

WordPress is a well-known web hosting service employed by large enterprises like Time, Disney and CNN. But for individuals and smaller businesses, WordPress can also be an excellent option, offering a free plan and five different paid tiers with varying features and highlights.

The free option provides some monetization options for your site, like gated content and paid subscribers. Higher tiers offer benefits like customization of templates, the ability to add plugins, centralized site management and increased storage.

But which option is best suited for you, and is it worth the cost? Read on as we take a deep dive into WordPress pricing, comparing its tiers and value.

Who is WordPress best for?

WordPress’ best features are available at its higher tiers, most notably its large and varying library of plugins that allow for advanced customization. WordPress is best suited for businesses that want to develop their own custom website, whether or not they plan to provide e-commerce. 

Web developers will find that WordPress provides a staging site, real-time backups and advanced security measures. For those looking to host e-commerce sites, WordPress is also an excellent option, with a large suite of international e-commerce features available in the Entrepreneur plan.

Featured website builder offers

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Via Wix’s website

Monthly fee

Free domain

For one year

Drag-and-drop builder

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Via Shopify’s website

Squarespace

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Via Squarespace’s website

WordPress pricing overview

WordPress provides five separate payment tiers before the Enterprise level, ranging from free to $45 per month when billed annually. The Free plan includes several tools to support revenue but also takes the largest fee out of each transaction. 

Beyond the Free plan, every paid tier includes a free year of domain hosting and added complexity and depth of features. 

WordPress offers its Free plan with its most basic features available. Choose from any of the available themes to build unlimited pages and manage your site with unlimited users. You can use the free version of the platform for e-commerce, but WordPress will take a hefty 10% and a processing fee from each transaction. 

The Free plan includes some minor features to support monetization, like gated content, paid subscribers, donations and tips. Visitor stats, contact forms and limited shares of social media are also included. If you want a custom domain, though, you’ll have to pay for it.

The Free plan is a good option if you want to start an e-commerce business but don’t have much up-front capital. WordPress’ Free plan also suits users who are exploring different website hosting options or need a straightforward website to host something like a portfolio or blog. 

Starter plan

The Starter plan includes everything offered in the Free plan. The greatest value of the Starter plan is the ad-free user experience and the addition of a custom domain, free for one year. This feature is the same for all tiers above Starter. If you’re looking for a professional touch to your website but aren’t ready for a big investment, the Starter Plan is best for you. 

Additionally, at this level, WordPress’ commission fee goes down to 8% per transaction and it provides email support. The upgrade from the Free plan to the Starter plan boasts the least amount of features for any upgrade, so if you’re looking for a more robust website, you’ll need to turn to the higher tiers. Luckily, the Starter plan is still relatively affordable at $9 per month.

Explorer plan

Including the features of the lower tiers, the Explorer plan is $18 per month. Its most notable feature is the ability to customize themes with color and font choices and a reduced 4% commission fee for transactions. This plan also allows for 4K video hosting, advanced site analytics and a site activity log, improving your website management experience.

At this level, users have access to better support as well, with live chat. For the more casual user, this tier is the best overall value. The Explorer plan includes customization and premium themes, some limited monetization options with a lower commission fee and unlimited shares to social media. 

These features can all support a growing business, expanding your brand awareness and developing a unique website catered to your tastes. If you’re sold on using WordPress to host your site, this is where we recommend you start. 

Creator plan

WordPress markets the Creator plan as the best option for devs. With all the features of the lower tiers, the highlight of the creator plan is its ability to utilize plugins and its heightened security features. For companies looking to develop a fully custom website, this is the best option, starting at $40 per month.

Plugins are WordPress’ best overall feature, allowing you to customize the way your site functions on both the front and backends. It’s what they’re known for, and the more than 58,000 plugins available for WordPress are a testament to the feature. 

The Creator plan also has unlimited bandwidth, Web Application Firewalls (WAF), a free staging site, centralized site management and a 2% commission fee. Developers can rest assured that the Creator plan has real-time backups, one-click restores and integrated SEO tools.

Entrepreneur plan

The Entrepreneur plan is the best option for websites looking to host large-scale, international business. In addition to all the features available at lower tiers, the Entrepreneur plan includes premium store themes, unlimited products, tools to help manage stock and order quantities, loyalty programs, shipping integrations and a 0% commission fee. This is the final tier before the Enterprise level and is priced at $70 per month. 

Additional costs

Additional storage for your website is available at the Creator and Entrepreneur levels for a fee. Upgrading to 100 GB adds an additional $50.00 per month. For 150 GB of storage, expect to pay an extra $83.33 monthly. 150 GB is the cap on WordPress’ storage. However, you can only add extra storage if you are paying for your plan annually, not monthly.

Also, keep in mind the additional cost of buying a domain once your free year is over. 

Bottom line: Is WordPress worth it?

If you’re willing to pay for the mid- or upper-tiers, then WordPress can be a great solution for your website. However, with advertisements and no customization, the lower tier options don’t provide a user experience or product comparable to competitors like Squarespace or Square. 

E-commerce is best supported at the highest payment tier, while lower tiers have limited features and high commission fees. For businesses with a web developer already on staff and looking to develop their own custom site, WordPress is an affordable and popular solution. 

With its expansive library of plug-ins and automatic updates, WordPress is one of the best choices on the market for professionally hosting your website. For those looking for more user-friendly building tools that enable attractive, personal websites, it’s best to look for other options.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

There are five monthly payment tiers that range from $0 to $45 per month when billed annually. Each payment tier comes with different features, so review them carefully before deciding what you need and how much it will cost you.

Yes, you can start a WordPress website for free, and your site will always be available.

It depends. If you choose any of the paid plans with WordPress, you get a free domain for one year. After that, you’ll have to pay for it. The free version of the website does not offer this feature.

It depends on your skill set. WordPress has pre-built templates and advanced customization capabilities with HTML and plug-ins, making it a good option for those new to web building or experienced web developers. For those finding themselves wanting easy customization with a drag-and-drop style builder, WordPress may be more difficult to use.

Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy . The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.

Cat McAlpine

Cat McAlpine is a writer and marketer based in Columbus, OH. She uses her expertise to support small businesses and arts organizations in her city.

Sierra Campbell is a small business editor for USA Today Blueprint. She specializes in writing, editing and fact-checking content centered around helping businesses. She has worked as a digital content and show producer for several local TV stations, an editor for U.S. News & World Report and a freelance writer and editor for many companies. Sierra prides herself in delivering accurate and up-to-date information to readers. Her expertise includes credit card processing companies, e-commerce platforms, payroll software, accounting software and virtual private networks (VPNs). She also owns Editing by Sierra, where she offers editing services to writers of all backgrounds, including self-published and traditionally published authors.

How to start a small business: A step-by-step guide

How to start a small business: A step-by-step guide

Business Eric Rosenberg

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos completes $8.5bn share sale plan

  • Published 2 days ago

Jeff Bezos and partner Lauren Sanchez at Milan Fashion Week.

Multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos has sold another 14 million Amazon shares, worth around $2.4bn (£1.9bn).

The latest sale brings the total number of shares he has sold in the firm over the last nine trading days to about 50 million, with a value of around $8.5bn.

The tech giant had previously said Mr Bezos would sell up to 50 million shares by the end of January 2025.

His sales of Amazon stock comes after they have risen by more than 76% in the past year.

Mr Bezos, who is the firm's founder and executive chair, had previously last sold Amazon shares in 2021.

He has also given away shares in Amazon as part of his philanthropy, most recently in 2022.

As Mr Bezos moved to Miami in Florida from Seattle in Washington last year, he will save almost $600m in tax on the $8.5bn worth of stock he has sold.

Gains above $250,000 from the sale of shares or other long term investments, are taxed at 7% in Washington state. Florida does not have state taxes on incomes or capital gains.

However, he will still be liable to federal taxes as a result of selling the shares.

When Mr Bezos announced his move to Florida it prompted speculation over whether it was because of a potential tax bill he would have faced in Washington after the state approved a new tax on large stock sales.

Mr Bezos said in November that his parents had recently moved back to Miami where he spent some of his childhood and that he wanted to be close to them and to his Blue Origin space project, which was "increasingly shifting to Cape Canaveral".

"Lauren and I love Miami," he wrote on Instagram, referring to his fiancée Lauren Sánchez.

"For all that, I'm planning to return to Miami, leaving the Pacific Northwest," he added.

Mr Bezos remains Amazon's biggest shareholder and is one of the richest people in the world, with an estimated fortune of more than $190bn.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.

Related Topics

More on this story.

Amazon founder Bezos sells shares worth over $4bn

  • Published 14 February

Lauren Sánchez and Jeff Bezos arrive at the Dolce&Gabbana Party during the Milan Menswear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 on 13 January, 2024 in Milan, Italy.

Call for billionaires to face a minimum tax rate

  • Published 23 October 2023

Man with £10 notes

Jeff Bezos pledges to give away most of his wealth

  • Published 14 November 2022

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez

IMAGES

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    Describe Your Services or Products. The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you're offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit ...

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    This action plan begins by detailing the primary goal, with the first column dedicated to a breakdown of each action required. For example, if your business goal was to design and launch a new website, your activities might include: Gathering design assets. Choosing a color scheme. Copywriting for new website pages.

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    Business Action Plan. A business action plan is used to set goals and tasks when you want to start a business or grow an existing business. It outlines the vision for the business and the actions you'll take to achieve that vision. Project Action Plan. An action plan for a project is really no different from a general action plan.

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    Read: 8 steps to create a contingency plan to prevent business risks Action plan vs. project plan. A project plan is a bit more complicated than an action plan. Project plans are blueprints of the key elements your team needs to accomplish to successfully achieve your project goals.

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    There are seven steps to follow that serve as a guideline for writing a strategically well-detailed action plan. 1. Define Your Goals. The first step to writing a good action plan is to define the goal, be it a personal or business plan. Break down the overall goal into smaller, easier, and understandable sub-goals.

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  12. Business Plan: What It Is, What's Included, and How to Write One

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    18. Financial Plan. The financial plan is the final and most important section of a business plan. It details how you plan to achieve your business goals, generate revenue and make a profit. The phrase "generate revenue" is a term used in business to mean "make money" or "earn income.". 19.

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  24. SBA Launches Enhanced Equity Action Plan to Bolster Small Business

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  26. Introducing Gemini 1.5, Google's next-generation AI model

    A note from Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai: Last week, we rolled out our most capable model, Gemini 1.0 Ultra, and took a significant step forward in making Google products more helpful, starting with Gemini Advanced.Today, developers and Cloud customers can begin building with 1.0 Ultra too — with our Gemini API in AI Studio and in Vertex AI.

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  29. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos completes $8.5bn share sale plan

    Mr Bezos, who is the firm's founder and executive chair, had previously last sold Amazon shares in 2021. He has also given away shares in Amazon as part of his philanthropy, most recently in 2022 ...