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Blog Business

How to Write a Business Plan Outline [Examples + Templates] 

By Letícia Fonseca , Aug 11, 2023

business plan outline

When venturing into crafting a business plan, the initial hurdle often lies in taking that first step.

So, how can you evade those prolonged hours of staring at a blank page? Initiate your journey with the aid of a business plan outline.

As with any endeavor, an outline serves as the beacon of clarity, illuminating the path to confront even the most formidable tasks. This holds particularly true when composing pivotal documents vital to your triumph, much like a business plan.

Nonetheless, I understand the enormity of a business plan’s scope, which might make the task of outlining it seem daunting. This is precisely why I’ve compiled all the requisite information to facilitate the creation of a business plan outline. No need to break a sweat!

And if you’re seeking further assistance, a business plan maker and readily available business plan templates can offer valuable support in shaping your comprehensive plan.

Read on for answers to all your business plan outline questions or jump ahead for some handy templates. 

Click to jump ahead:

What is a business plan outline (and why do you need one), what format should you choose for your business plan outline, what are the key components of a business plan outline.

  • Business plan template examples
  • Writing tips to ace your outline 

A business plan outline is the backbone of your business plan. It contains all the most important information you’ll want to expand on in your full-length plan. 

Think of it this way: your outline is a frame for your plan. It provides a high-level idea of what the final plan should look like, what it will include and how all the information will be organized. 

Why would you do this extra step? Beyond saving you from blank page syndrome, an outline ensures you don’t leave any essential information out of your plan — you can see all the most important points at a glance and quickly identify any content gaps. 

It also serves as a writing guide. Once you know all the sections you want in your plan, you just need to expand on them. Suddenly, you’re “filling in the blanks” as opposed to writing a plan from scratch!

Incidentally, using a business plan template like this one gives you a running head start, too: 

business plan outline

Perhaps most importantly, a business plan outline keeps you focused on the essential parts of your document. (Not to mention what matters most to stakeholders and investors.)  With an outline, you’ll spend less time worrying about structure or organization and more time perfecting the actual content of your document. 

If you’re looking for more general advice, you can read about  how to create a business plan here . But if you’re working on outlining your plan, stick with me.

Return to Table of Contents

Most business plans fit into one of two formats. 

The format you choose largely depends on three factors: (1) the stage of your business, (2) if you’re presenting the plan to investors and (3) what you want to achieve with your business plan. 

Let’s have a closer look at these two formats and why you might choose one over the other.

Traditional format

Traditional business plans  are typically long, detailed documents. In many cases, they take up to 50-60 pages, but it’s not uncommon to see plans spanning 100+ pages. 

Traditional plans are long because they cover  every aspect  of your business. They leave nothing out. You’ll find a traditional business plan template with sections like executive summary, company description, target market, market analysis, marketing plan, financial plan, and more. Basically: the more information the merrier.

This business plan template isn’t of a traditional format, but you could expand it into one by duplicating pages:

business plan outline

Due to their high level of detail, traditional formats are the best way to sell your business. They show you’re reliable and have a clear vision for your business’s future. 

If you’re planning on presenting your plan to investors and stakeholders, you’ll want to go with a traditional plan format. The more information you include, the fewer doubts and questions you’ll get when you present your plan, so don’t hold back. 

Traditional business plans require more detailed outlines before drafting since there’s a lot of information to cover. You’ll want to list all the sections and include bullet points describing what each section should cover. 

It’s also a good idea to include all external resources and visuals in your outline, so you don’t have to gather them later. 

Lean format

Lean business plan formats are high level and quick to write. They’re often only one or two pages. Similar to a  business plan infographic , they’re scannable and quick to digest, like this template: 

business plan outline

This format is often referred to as a “startup” format due to (you guessed it!) many startups using it. 

Lean business plans require less detailed outlines. You can include high-level sections and a few lines in each section covering the basics. Since the final plan will only be a page or two, you don’t need to over prepare. Nor will you need a ton of external resources. 

Lean plans don’t answer all the questions investors and stakeholders may ask, so if you go this route, make sure it’s the right choice for your business . Companies not yet ready to present to investors will typically use a lean/startup business plan format to get their rough plan on paper and share it internally with their management team. 

Here’s another example of a lean business plan format in the form of a financial plan: 

business plan outline

Your business plan outline should include all the following sections. The level of detail you choose to go into will depend on your intentions for your plan (sharing with stakeholders vs. internal use), but you’ll want every section to be clear and to the point. 

1. Executive summary

The executive summary gives a high-level description of your company, product or service. This section should include a mission statement, your company description, your business’s primary goal, and the problem it aims to solve. You’ll want to state how your business can solve the problem and briefly explain what makes you stand out (your competitive advantage).

Having an executive summary is essential to selling your business to stakeholders , so it should be as clear and concise as possible. Summarize your business in a few sentences in a way that will hook the reader (or audience) and get them invested in what you have to say next. In other words, this is your elevator pitch.

business plan outline

2. Product and services description

This is where you should go into more detail about your product or service. Your product is the heart of your business, so it’s essential this section is easy to grasp. After all, if people don’t know what you’re selling, you’ll have a hard time keeping them engaged!

Expand on your description in the executive summary, going into detail about the problem your customers face and how your product/service will solve it. If you have various products or services, go through all of them in equal detail. 

business plan outline

3. Target market and/or Market analysis

A market analysis is crucial for placing your business in a larger context and showing investors you know your industry. This section should include market research on your prospective customer demographic including location, age range, goals and motivations. 

You can even  include detailed customer personas  as a visual aid — these are especially useful if you have several target demographics. You want to showcase your knowledge of your customer, who exactly you’re selling to and how you can fulfill their needs.

Be sure to include information on the overall target market for your product, including direct and indirect competitors and how your industry is performing. If your competitors have strengths you want to mimic or weaknesses you want to exploit, this is the place to record that information. 

business plan outline

4. Organization and management

You can think of this as a “meet the team” section — this is where you should go into depth on your business’s structure from management to legal and HR. If there are people bringing unique skills or experience to the table (I’m sure there are!), you should highlight them in this section. 

The goal here is to showcase why your team is the best to run your business. Investors want to know you’re unified, organized and reliable. This is also a potential opportunity to bring more humanity to your business plan and showcase the faces behind the ideas and product. 

business plan outline

5. Marketing and sales

Now that you’ve introduced your product and team, you need to explain how you’re going to sell it. Give a detailed explanation of your sales and marketing strategy, including pricing, timelines for launching your product and advertising.

This is a major section of your plan and can even live as a separate document for your marketing and sales teams. Here are some  marketing plan templates to help you get started .

Make sure you have research or analysis to back up your decisions — if you want to do paid ads on LinkedIn to advertise your product, include a brief explanation as to why that is the best channel for your business. 

business plan outline

6. Financial projections and funding request

The end of your plan is where you’ll look to the future and how you think your business will perform financially. Your financial plan should include results from your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow projections. 

State your funding requirements and what you need to realize the business. Be extremely clear about how you plan to use the funding and when you expect investors will see returns.

If you aren’t presenting to potential investors, you can skip this part, but it’s something to keep in mind should you seek funding in the future. Covering financial projections and the previous five components is essential at the stage of business formation to ensure everything goes smoothly moving forward.

business plan outline

7. Appendix

Any extra visual aids, receipts, paperwork or charts will live here. Anything that may be relevant to your plan should be included as reference e.g. your cash flow statement (or other financial statements). You can format your appendix in whatever way you think is best — as long as it’s easy for readers to find what they’re looking for, you’ve done your job!

Typically, the best way to start your outline is to list all these high-level sections. Then, you can add bullet points outlining what will go in each section and the resources you’ll need to write them. This should give you a solid starting point for your full-length plan.

Business plan outline templates

Looking for a shortcut? Our  business plan templates  are basically outlines in a box! 

While your outline likely won’t go into as much detail, these templates are great examples of how to organize your sections.

Traditional format templates

A strong template can turn your long, dense business plan into an engaging, easy-to-read document. There are lots to choose from, but here are just a few ideas to inspire you… 

You can duplicate pages and use these styles for a traditional outline, or start with a lean outline as you build your business plan out over time:

business plan outline

Lean format templates

For lean format outlines, a simpler ‘ mind map ’ style is a good bet. With this style, you can get ideas down fast and quickly turn them into one or two-page plans. Plus, because they’re shorter, they’re easy to share with your team.

business plan outline

Writing tips to ace your business plan outline

Business plans are complex documents, so if you’re still not sure how to write your outline, don’t worry! Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind when drafting your business plan outline:

  • Ask yourself why you’re writing an outline. Having a clear goal for your outline can help keep you on track as you write. Everything you include in your plan should contribute to your goal. If it doesn’t, it probably doesn’t need to be in there.
  • Keep it clear and concise. Whether you’re writing a traditional or lean format business plan, your outline should be easy to understand. Choose your words wisely and avoid unnecessary preambles or padding language. The faster you get to the point, the easier your plan will be to read.
  • Add visual aids. No one likes reading huge walls of text! Make room in your outline for visuals, data and charts. This keeps your audience engaged and helps those who are more visual learners. Psst,  infographics  are great for this.
  • Make it collaborative. Have someone (or several someones) look it over before finalizing your outline. If you have an established marketing / sales / finance team, have them look it over too. Getting feedback at the outline stage can help you avoid rewrites and wasted time down the line.

If this is your first time writing a business plan outline, don’t be too hard on yourself. You might not get it 100% right on the first try, but with these tips and the key components listed above, you’ll have a strong foundation. Remember, done is better than perfect. 

Create a winning business plan by starting with a detailed, actionable outline

The best way to learn is by doing. So go ahead, get started on your business plan outline. As you develop your plan, you’ll no doubt learn more about your business and what’s important for success along the way. 

A clean, compelling template is a great way to get a head start on your outline. After all, the sections are already separated and defined for you! 

Explore Venngage’s business plan templates  for one that suits your needs. Many are free to use and there are premium templates available for a small monthly fee. Happy outlining!

How to Write a Business Plan: Step-by-Step Guide + Examples

Determined female African-American entrepreneur scaling a mountain while wearing a large backpack. Represents the journey to starting and growing a business and needing to write a business plan to get there.

Noah Parsons

24 min. read

Updated February 2, 2024

Writing a business plan doesn’t have to be complicated. 

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to write a business plan that’s detailed enough to impress bankers and potential investors, while giving you the tools to start, run, and grow a successful business.

  • The basics of business planning

If you’re reading this guide, then you already know why you need a business plan . 

You understand that planning helps you: 

  • Raise money
  • Grow strategically
  • Keep your business on the right track 

As you start to write your plan, it’s useful to zoom out and remember what a business plan is .

At its core, a business plan is an overview of the products and services you sell, and the customers that you sell to. It explains your business strategy: how you’re going to build and grow your business, what your marketing strategy is, and who your competitors are.

Most business plans also include financial forecasts for the future. These set sales goals, budget for expenses, and predict profits and cash flow. 

A good business plan is much more than just a document that you write once and forget about. It’s also a guide that helps you outline and achieve your goals. 

After completing your plan, you can use it as a management tool to track your progress toward your goals. Updating and adjusting your forecasts and budgets as you go is one of the most important steps you can take to run a healthier, smarter business. 

We’ll dive into how to use your plan later in this article.

There are many different types of plans , but we’ll go over the most common type here, which includes everything you need for an investor-ready plan. However, if you’re just starting out and are looking for something simpler—I recommend starting with a one-page business plan . It’s faster and easier to create. 

It’s also the perfect place to start if you’re just figuring out your idea, or need a simple strategic plan to use inside your business.

Dig deeper : How to write a one-page business plan

What’s your biggest business challenge right now?

  • What to include in your business plan

Executive summary

The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your plan and is ideally just one to two pages. Most people write it last because it’s a summary of the complete business plan.

Ideally, the executive summary can act as a stand-alone document that covers the highlights of your detailed plan. 

In fact, it’s common for investors to ask only for the executive summary when evaluating your business. If they like what they see in the executive summary, they’ll often follow up with a request for a complete plan, a pitch presentation , or more in-depth financial forecasts .

Your executive summary should include:

  • A summary of the problem you are solving
  • A description of your product or service
  • An overview of your target market
  • A brief description of your team
  • A summary of your financials
  • Your funding requirements (if you are raising money)

Dig Deeper: How to write an effective executive summary

Products and services description

This is where you describe exactly what you’re selling, and how it solves a problem for your target market. The best way to organize this part of your plan is to start by describing the problem that exists for your customers. After that, you can describe how you plan to solve that problem with your product or service. 

This is usually called a problem and solution statement .

To truly showcase the value of your products and services, you need to craft a compelling narrative around your offerings. How will your product or service transform your customers’ lives or jobs? A strong narrative will draw in your readers.

This is also the part of the business plan to discuss any competitive advantages you may have, like specific intellectual property or patents that protect your product. If you have any initial sales, contracts, or other evidence that your product or service is likely to sell, include that information as well. It will show that your idea has traction , which can help convince readers that your plan has a high chance of success.

Market analysis

Your target market is a description of the type of people that you plan to sell to. You might even have multiple target markets, depending on your business. 

A market analysis is the part of your plan where you bring together all of the information you know about your target market. Basically, it’s a thorough description of who your customers are and why they need what you’re selling. You’ll also include information about the growth of your market and your industry .

Try to be as specific as possible when you describe your market. 

Include information such as age, income level, and location—these are what’s called “demographics.” If you can, also describe your market’s interests and habits as they relate to your business—these are “psychographics.” 

Related: Target market examples

Essentially, you want to include any knowledge you have about your customers that is relevant to how your product or service is right for them. With a solid target market, it will be easier to create a sales and marketing plan that will reach your customers. That’s because you know who they are, what they like to do, and the best ways to reach them.

Next, provide any additional information you have about your market. 

What is the size of your market ? Is the market growing or shrinking? Ideally, you’ll want to demonstrate that your market is growing over time, and also explain how your business is positioned to take advantage of any expected changes in your industry.

Dig Deeper: Learn how to write a market analysis

Competitive analysis

Part of defining your business opportunity is determining what your competitive advantage is. To do this effectively, you need to know as much about your competitors as your target customers. 

Every business has some form of competition. If you don’t think you have competitors, then explore what alternatives there are in the market for your product or service. 

For example: In the early years of cars, their main competition was horses. For social media, the early competition was reading books, watching TV, and talking on the phone.

A good competitive analysis fully lays out the competitive landscape and then explains how your business is different. Maybe your products are better made, or cheaper, or your customer service is superior. Maybe your competitive advantage is your location – a wide variety of factors can ultimately give you an advantage.

Dig Deeper: How to write a competitive analysis for your business plan

Marketing and sales plan

The marketing and sales plan covers how you will position your product or service in the market, the marketing channels and messaging you will use, and your sales tactics. 

The best place to start with a marketing plan is with a positioning statement . 

This explains how your business fits into the overall market, and how you will explain the advantages of your product or service to customers. You’ll use the information from your competitive analysis to help you with your positioning. 

For example: You might position your company as the premium, most expensive but the highest quality option in the market. Or your positioning might focus on being locally owned and that shoppers support the local economy by buying your products.

Once you understand your positioning, you’ll bring this together with the information about your target market to create your marketing strategy . 

This is how you plan to communicate your message to potential customers. Depending on who your customers are and how they purchase products like yours, you might use many different strategies, from social media advertising to creating a podcast. Your marketing plan is all about how your customers discover who you are and why they should consider your products and services. 

While your marketing plan is about reaching your customers—your sales plan will describe the actual sales process once a customer has decided that they’re interested in what you have to offer. 

If your business requires salespeople and a long sales process, describe that in this section. If your customers can “self-serve” and just make purchases quickly on your website, describe that process. 

A good sales plan picks up where your marketing plan leaves off. The marketing plan brings customers in the door and the sales plan is how you close the deal.

Together, these specific plans paint a picture of how you will connect with your target audience, and how you will turn them into paying customers.

Dig deeper: What to include in your sales and marketing plan

Business operations

The operations section describes the necessary requirements for your business to run smoothly. It’s where you talk about how your business works and what day-to-day operations look like. 

Depending on how your business is structured, your operations plan may include elements of the business like:

  • Supply chain management
  • Manufacturing processes
  • Equipment and technology
  • Distribution

Some businesses distribute their products and reach their customers through large retailers like Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, and grocery store chains. 

These businesses should review how this part of their business works. The plan should discuss the logistics and costs of getting products onto store shelves and any potential hurdles the business may have to overcome.

If your business is much simpler than this, that’s OK. This section of your business plan can be either extremely short or more detailed, depending on the type of business you are building.

For businesses selling services, such as physical therapy or online software, you can use this section to describe the technology you’ll leverage, what goes into your service, and who you will partner with to deliver your services.

Dig Deeper: Learn how to write the operations chapter of your plan

Key milestones and metrics

Although it’s not required to complete your business plan, mapping out key business milestones and the metrics can be incredibly useful for measuring your success.

Good milestones clearly lay out the parameters of the task and set expectations for their execution. You’ll want to include:

  • A description of each task
  • The proposed due date
  • Who is responsible for each task

If you have a budget, you can include projected costs to hit each milestone. You don’t need extensive project planning in this section—just list key milestones you want to hit and when you plan to hit them. This is your overall business roadmap. 

Possible milestones might be:

  • Website launch date
  • Store or office opening date
  • First significant sales
  • Break even date
  • Business licenses and approvals

You should also discuss the key numbers you will track to determine your success. Some common metrics worth tracking include:

  • Conversion rates
  • Customer acquisition costs
  • Profit per customer
  • Repeat purchases

It’s perfectly fine to start with just a few metrics and grow the number you are tracking over time. You also may find that some metrics simply aren’t relevant to your business and can narrow down what you’re tracking.

Dig Deeper: How to use milestones in your business plan

Organization and management team

Investors don’t just look for great ideas—they want to find great teams. Use this chapter to describe your current team and who you need to hire . You should also provide a quick overview of your location and history if you’re already up and running.

Briefly highlight the relevant experiences of each key team member in the company. It’s important to make the case for why yours is the right team to turn an idea into a reality. 

Do they have the right industry experience and background? Have members of the team had entrepreneurial successes before? 

If you still need to hire key team members, that’s OK. Just note those gaps in this section.

Your company overview should also include a summary of your company’s current business structure . The most common business structures include:

  • Sole proprietor
  • Partnership

Be sure to provide an overview of how the business is owned as well. Does each business partner own an equal portion of the business? How is ownership divided? 

Potential lenders and investors will want to know the structure of the business before they will consider a loan or investment.

Dig Deeper: How to write about your company structure and team

Financial plan

Last, but certainly not least, is your financial plan chapter. 

Entrepreneurs often find this section the most daunting. But, business financials for most startups are less complicated than you think, and a business degree is certainly not required to build a solid financial forecast. 

A typical financial forecast in a business plan includes the following:

  • Sales forecast : An estimate of the sales expected over a given period. You’ll break down your forecast into the key revenue streams that you expect to have.
  • Expense budget : Your planned spending such as personnel costs , marketing expenses, and taxes.
  • Profit & Loss : Brings together your sales and expenses and helps you calculate planned profits.
  • Cash Flow : Shows how cash moves into and out of your business. It can predict how much cash you’ll have on hand at any given point in the future.
  • Balance Sheet : A list of the assets, liabilities, and equity in your company. In short, it provides an overview of the financial health of your business. 

A strong business plan will include a description of assumptions about the future, and potential risks that could impact the financial plan. Including those will be especially important if you’re writing a business plan to pursue a loan or other investment.

Dig Deeper: How to create financial forecasts and budgets

This is the place for additional data, charts, or other information that supports your plan.

Including an appendix can significantly enhance the credibility of your plan by showing readers that you’ve thoroughly considered the details of your business idea, and are backing your ideas up with solid data.

Just remember that the information in the appendix is meant to be supplementary. Your business plan should stand on its own, even if the reader skips this section.

Dig Deeper : What to include in your business plan appendix

Optional: Business plan cover page

Adding a business plan cover page can make your plan, and by extension your business, seem more professional in the eyes of potential investors, lenders, and partners. It serves as the introduction to your document and provides necessary contact information for stakeholders to reference.

Your cover page should be simple and include:

  • Company logo
  • Business name
  • Value proposition (optional)
  • Business plan title
  • Completion and/or update date
  • Address and contact information
  • Confidentiality statement

Just remember, the cover page is optional. If you decide to include it, keep it very simple and only spend a short amount of time putting it together.

Dig Deeper: How to create a business plan cover page

How to use AI to help write your business plan

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can speed up the business plan writing process and help you think through concepts like market segmentation and competition. These tools are especially useful for taking ideas that you provide and converting them into polished text for your business plan.

The best way to use AI for your business plan is to leverage it as a collaborator , not a replacement for human creative thinking and ingenuity. 

AI can come up with lots of ideas and act as a brainstorming partner. It’s up to you to filter through those ideas and figure out which ones are realistic enough to resonate with your customers. 

There are pros and cons of using AI to help with your business plan . So, spend some time understanding how it can be most helpful before just outsourcing the job to AI.

Learn more: How to collaborate with AI on your business plan

  • Writing tips and strategies

To help streamline the business plan writing process, here are a few tips and key questions to answer to make sure you get the most out of your plan and avoid common mistakes .  

Determine why you are writing a business plan

Knowing why you are writing a business plan will determine your approach to your planning project. 

For example: If you are writing a business plan for yourself, or just to use inside your own business , you can probably skip the section about your team and organizational structure. 

If you’re raising money, you’ll want to spend more time explaining why you’re looking to raise the funds and exactly how you will use them.

Regardless of how you intend to use your business plan , think about why you are writing and what you’re trying to get out of the process before you begin.

Keep things concise

Probably the most important tip is to keep your business plan short and simple. There are no prizes for long business plans . The longer your plan is, the less likely people are to read it. 

So focus on trimming things down to the essentials your readers need to know. Skip the extended, wordy descriptions and instead focus on creating a plan that is easy to read —using bullets and short sentences whenever possible.

Have someone review your business plan

Writing a business plan in a vacuum is never a good idea. Sometimes it’s helpful to zoom out and check if your plan makes sense to someone else. You also want to make sure that it’s easy to read and understand.

Don’t wait until your plan is “done” to get a second look. Start sharing your plan early, and find out from readers what questions your plan leaves unanswered. This early review cycle will help you spot shortcomings in your plan and address them quickly, rather than finding out about them right before you present your plan to a lender or investor.

If you need a more detailed review, you may want to explore hiring a professional plan writer to thoroughly examine it.

Use a free business plan template and business plan examples to get started

Knowing what information you need to cover in a business plan sometimes isn’t quite enough. If you’re struggling to get started or need additional guidance, it may be worth using a business plan template. 

If you’re looking for a free downloadable business plan template to get you started, download the template used by more than 1 million businesses. 

Or, if you just want to see what a completed business plan looks like, check out our library of over 550 free business plan examples . 

We even have a growing list of industry business planning guides with tips for what to focus on depending on your business type.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

It’s easy to make mistakes when you’re writing your business plan. Some entrepreneurs get sucked into the writing and research process, and don’t focus enough on actually getting their business started. 

Here are a few common mistakes and how to avoid them:

Not talking to your customers : This is one of the most common mistakes. It’s easy to assume that your product or service is something that people want. Before you invest too much in your business and too much in the planning process, make sure you talk to your prospective customers and have a good understanding of their needs.

  • Overly optimistic sales and profit forecasts: By nature, entrepreneurs are optimistic about the future. But it’s good to temper that optimism a little when you’re planning, and make sure your forecasts are grounded in reality. 
  • Spending too much time planning: Yes, planning is crucial. But you also need to get out and talk to customers, build prototypes of your product and figure out if there’s a market for your idea. Make sure to balance planning with building.
  • Not revising the plan: Planning is useful, but nothing ever goes exactly as planned. As you learn more about what’s working and what’s not—revise your plan, your budgets, and your revenue forecast. Doing so will provide a more realistic picture of where your business is going, and what your financial needs will be moving forward.
  • Not using the plan to manage your business: A good business plan is a management tool. Don’t just write it and put it on the shelf to collect dust – use it to track your progress and help you reach your goals.
  • Presenting your business plan

The planning process forces you to think through every aspect of your business and answer questions that you may not have thought of. That’s the real benefit of writing a business plan – the knowledge you gain about your business that you may not have been able to discover otherwise.

With all of this knowledge, you’re well prepared to convert your business plan into a pitch presentation to present your ideas. 

A pitch presentation is a summary of your plan, just hitting the highlights and key points. It’s the best way to present your business plan to investors and team members.

Dig Deeper: Learn what key slides should be included in your pitch deck

Use your business plan to manage your business

One of the biggest benefits of planning is that it gives you a tool to manage your business better. With a revenue forecast, expense budget, and projected cash flow, you know your targets and where you are headed.

And yet, nothing ever goes exactly as planned – it’s the nature of business.

That’s where using your plan as a management tool comes in. The key to leveraging it for your business is to review it periodically and compare your forecasts and projections to your actual results.

Start by setting up a regular time to review the plan – a monthly review is a good starting point. During this review, answer questions like:

  • Did you meet your sales goals?
  • Is spending following your budget?
  • Has anything gone differently than what you expected?

Now that you see whether you’re meeting your goals or are off track, you can make adjustments and set new targets. 

Maybe you’re exceeding your sales goals and should set new, more aggressive goals. In that case, maybe you should also explore more spending or hiring more employees. 

Or maybe expenses are rising faster than you projected. If that’s the case, you would need to look at where you can cut costs.

A plan, and a method for comparing your plan to your actual results , is the tool you need to steer your business toward success.

Learn More: How to run a regular plan review

Free business plan templates and examples

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How to write a business plan FAQ

What is a business plan?

A document that describes your business , the products and services you sell, and the customers that you sell to. It explains your business strategy, how you’re going to build and grow your business, what your marketing strategy is, and who your competitors are.

What are the benefits of a business plan?

A business plan helps you understand where you want to go with your business and what it will take to get there. It reduces your overall risk, helps you uncover your business’s potential, attracts investors, and identifies areas for growth.

Having a business plan ultimately makes you more confident as a business owner and more likely to succeed for a longer period of time.

What are the 7 steps of a business plan?

The seven steps to writing a business plan include:

  • Write a brief executive summary
  • Describe your products and services.
  • Conduct market research and compile data into a cohesive market analysis.
  • Describe your marketing and sales strategy.
  • Outline your organizational structure and management team.
  • Develop financial projections for sales, revenue, and cash flow.
  • Add any additional documents to your appendix.

What are the 5 most common business plan mistakes?

There are plenty of mistakes that can be made when writing a business plan. However, these are the 5 most common that you should do your best to avoid:

  • 1. Not taking the planning process seriously.
  • Having unrealistic financial projections or incomplete financial information.
  • Inconsistent information or simple mistakes.
  • Failing to establish a sound business model.
  • Not having a defined purpose for your business plan.

What questions should be answered in a business plan?

Writing a business plan is all about asking yourself questions about your business and being able to answer them through the planning process. You’ll likely be asking dozens and dozens of questions for each section of your plan.

However, these are the key questions you should ask and answer with your business plan:

  • How will your business make money?
  • Is there a need for your product or service?
  • Who are your customers?
  • How are you different from the competition?
  • How will you reach your customers?
  • How will you measure success?

How long should a business plan be?

The length of your business plan fully depends on what you intend to do with it. From the SBA and traditional lender point of view, a business plan needs to be whatever length necessary to fully explain your business. This means that you prove the viability of your business, show that you understand the market, and have a detailed strategy in place.

If you intend to use your business plan for internal management purposes, you don’t necessarily need a full 25-50 page business plan. Instead, you can start with a one-page plan to get all of the necessary information in place.

What are the different types of business plans?

While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. Here are a few common business plan types worth considering.

Traditional business plan: The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used when applying for funding or pitching to investors. This type of business plan follows the outline above and can be anywhere from 10-50 pages depending on the amount of detail included, the complexity of your business, and what you include in your appendix.

Business model canvas: The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea.

One-page business plan: This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business. You’ll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences. It’s most useful for those exploring ideas, needing to validate their business model, or who need an internal plan to help them run and manage their business.

Lean Plan: The Lean Plan is less of a specific document type and more of a methodology. It takes the simplicity and styling of the one-page business plan and turns it into a process for you to continuously plan, test, review, refine, and take action based on performance. It’s faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your plan is always up-to-date.

What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?

A business plan covers the “who” and “what” of your business. It explains what your business is doing right now and how it functions. The strategic plan explores long-term goals and explains “how” the business will get there. It encourages you to look more intently toward the future and how you will achieve your vision.

However, when approached correctly, your business plan can actually function as a strategic plan as well. If kept lean, you can define your business, outline strategic steps, and track ongoing operations all with a single plan.

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Content Author: Noah Parsons

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

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Table of Contents

  • Use AI to help write your plan
  • Common planning mistakes
  • Manage with your business plan
  • Templates and examples

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BUSINESS STRATEGIES

Free business plan template for small businesses

  • Cecilia Lazzaro Blasbalg
  • Dec 7, 2023

Free business plan template for your new business

Creating a successful business is about more than launching a business website or hanging a shingle on your front door. It requires a well-crafted plan that keeps you on track, anticipates obstacles and acts as a concrete roadmap for launching or improving your small business.

Business planning allows you to clarify your vision while providing information to both intrigue and reassure potential investors. The process may seem daunting, but creating a business plan isn’t difficult—and templates like the one below can help simplify the process even further.

Ready to launch your business? Create a website today.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is used by small business owners and entrepreneurs when starting a new business venture. It’s a strategic document that outlines the goals, objectives and strategies of your new or expanding business, including the company's vision, target market, financial projections and operational plans.

A business plan can attract potential partners, convince investors and banks to help you raise capital, and serve as a resource for future growth. Most importantly, you’ll be able to use your business plan as a roadmap for how to structure, operate and manage your new venture, whether it’s a sole proprietorship, a partnership or something larger.

Who needs a business plan?

Every business owner needs a business plan. They’re an essential tool for any person or entity interested in starting a business . There are many benefits, including:

Defining your business idea

Clarifying the market and competitive landscape

Outlining your marketing strategy

Stating your value proposition

Identifying/anticipating potential risks

Seeking investments from banks and other sources

Setting benchmarks, goals and key performance indicators (KPIs)

A business plan also gives you a way to assess the viability of a business before investing too much time or money into it. While all business involves risk, taking the time to create a plan can help mitigate fallout and avoid potentially costly mistakes.

When creating a business plan, it's important to establish your business goals up front and be prepared to spend time researching the market, performing a competitor analysis and understanding your target market .

Download Wix’s free business plan template

Creating a successful business plan is no easy feat. That’s why we’ve put together a simple, customizable, and free-to-download business plan template that takes the guesswork out of getting started. Use it to create a new business plan or to refresh an existing one.

Download your free Wix business plan template

Lean startup versus traditional business plan formats

In terms of types of business plans , there are two main formats to choose from: traditional and lean.

Traditional business plan format

A traditional business plan includes every detail and component that defines a business and contributes to its success. It's typically a sizable document of about 30 to 50 pages that includes:

Executive summary: The executive summary contains a high-level overview of everything included in the plan. It generally provides a short explanation of your business and its goals (e.g., your elevator pitch ). Many authors like to write this section last after fleshing out the sections below.

Company description: A company description should include essential details like your business name, the names of your founders, your locations and your company’s mission statement . Briefly describe your core services (or products if you’re writing an eCommerce business plan ), but don't go into too much detail since you’ll elaborate on this in the service/product section. Wix offers some helpful mission statement examples if you get stuck. It’s also a good idea to create a vision statement . While your mission statement clarifies your company’s purpose, a vision statement outlines what you want your company to achieve over time.

Market analysis: One of the most extensive sections of the business plan, this section requires that you conduct market research and write your conclusions. Include findings for the following: industry background, a SWOT analysis , barriers/obstacles, target market and your business differentiators.

Organization and management: This is where you outline how your business is structured and who's in charge, including founders, executive team members, board members, employees and key stakeholders. To this end, it can be helpful to create a visual layout (e.g., org chart) to illustrate your company structure.

Service or product line: Create a detailed list of your current and future products and services. If you’re still working on your idea, create a concept statement to describe your idea or product. You should also include a proof of concept (POC), which demonstrates the feasibility of your idea. Wherever applicable, include diagrams, product images and other visual components to illustrate the product life cycle.

Marketing and sales: Detail how your business idea translates into selling and delivering your offerings to potential customers. You can start by outlining your brand identity, which includes the colors and fonts you plan to use, your marketing and advertising strategy, and details about planned consumer touchpoints (like your website, mobile app or physical storefront).

Financial projections and funding requests: Include financial statements, such as a balance sheet, profit-and-loss statement (P&L), cash flow statement and break-even analysis. It's not uncommon for a business plan to include multiple pages of financial projections and information. You’ll also want to mention how much funding you seek and what you plan to do with it. If you’ve already secured funding, provide details about your investments.

essential parts of a business plan

Lean startup business plan format

A lean startup business plan—also referred to as a “lean canvas”—is presented as a problem/solution framework that provides a high-level description of your business idea. A lean plan is a single-page document that provides a basic overview of the most essential aspects of your business. It’s a good way to dip a toe into business planning since it doesn't require the same level of detail as a traditional plan. This includes:

Problem: What problem does your product or service solve, or what need does it fulfill?

Solution: How do you intend to solve it?

Unique value proposition (UVP): Why should people use your product or service versus someone else’s?

Unfair advantage: What do you have that other companies don’t?

Customers: Who are your ideal customers?

Channels: How will those customers find you?

Key metrics: How do you define success? How will you track and measure it?

Revenue streams: How will your business make money?

Cost structure: What will you spend money on (fixed and variable costs)?

Benefits of a business plan template

Business plan templates offer numerous benefits for entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners. Here are some key advantages:

1. Save time and effort: Templates provide a pre-defined structure, eliminating the need to start from scratch. This frees up valuable time and effort that can be invested in other crucial aspects of business development.

2. Improve structure: Templates ensure a consistent and organized approach to presenting your business plan. This makes it easier for potential investors, lenders and advisors to understand your vision and evaluate the feasibility of your business. 3. Enhance professionalism: Using a well-designed template demonstrates professionalism and seriousness to external stakeholders. This can significantly impact their perception of your business and increase their confidence in your venture. 4. Guide your thought process: Templates act as a helpful framework, prompting you to consider all the key elements of your business plan and ensuring you haven't overlooked any critical areas. 5. Ensure completeness: Templates often include checklists and prompts to ensure you cover all essential information, minimizing the risk of missing crucial details. 6. Standardize formatting: Templates ensure a consistent and uniform appearance throughout your business plan, contributing to a more polished and professional presentation. 7. Access to expert knowledge: Many templates are developed by experienced business professionals or organizations, incorporating best practices and insights gained from successful ventures. 8. Adaptability and customization: While templates offer a basic structure, they can be easily customized to reflect the unique characteristics and needs of your specific business. 9. Cost-effectiveness: Templates are generally available for free or at a low cost, making them an accessible and budget-friendly option for entrepreneurs. 10. Increased success rate: Studies have shown that businesses with well-developed plans are more likely to succeed. Templates can help you create a comprehensive and persuasive plan, increasing your chances of securing funding and achieving your business goals.

Tips for filling out your business plan template

The hardest part of a journey is always the first step, or so the saying goes. Filling out your business plan template can be daunting, but the template itself is meant to get you over that crucial first hurdle—getting started. We’ve provided some tips aimed at helping you get the most from our template.

These are best practices—they’re not rules. Do what works for you. The main thing to remember is that these tips can help you move more easily through the planning process, so that you can advance onto the next (exciting) step, which is launching your business.

Consider your goals: What is the purpose of your business? Are you looking to expand, launch a new product line or fund a specific project? Identifying your goals helps you prioritize important information in your business plan.

Fill out what you can: You may already have a vague—or specific—idea of what you want your business to achieve. Go through each section of the template and fill out what you can. We suggest leaving the executive summary blank for now, since it'll be the last thing you write.

Be realistic: Even though this document is meant to serve as a marketing tool for potential investors, don't exaggerate any numbers or make any false promises.

Dig into the research: Nothing's more motivating than getting some intel about your competitors and your market. If you're truly stuck, a little research can help motivate you and provide valuable insight about what direction to take your business. For example, if you plan to start a landscaping business, learn about the specific pricing offered in your area so that you can differentiate your services and potentially offer better options.

Get help from others: Bouncing your ideas off a friend, mentor or advisor is a great way to get feedback and discover approaches or products to incorporate into your plan. Your network can also give you valuable insight about the industry or even about potential customers. Plus, it's nice to be able to talk through the challenges with someone who understands you and your vision.

Revise and review: Once complete, step back from your plan and let it "cook." In a day or two, review your plan and make sure that everything is current. Have other people review it too, since having another set of eyes can help identify areas that may be lacking detail or need further explanation.

Once you’ve completed your business plan template, it can become a meaningful resource for developing your mission statement, writing business proposals and planning how to move forward with the marketing, distribution and growth of your products and services.

After launch, you can also analyze your value chain to identify key factors that create value for your customers and maximum profitability for you. This can help you develop a more effective business plan that considers the entire value chain, from research and development to sales and customer support.

Business plan template FAQ

What is the easiest way to write a business plan.

The easiest way to write a business plan is to utilize a template. Templates provide a structured format and guide you through each section, simplifying the process of creating a comprehensive plan.

Is there a template for how to write a business plan?

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The Perfect Business Plan Layout & Outline

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Business plan layout

The layout of a business plan is not an area where great imagination and creativity is needed or recommended. It should be a more or less straightforward task to layout or outline your plan, using industry standard practices which funders have become familiar with through thousands of business plans. Use the following steps to implement this standard layout and save creativity for your business idea within the plan.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

Start by getting your hands on a good business plan template. This will speed your time to completing your plan. Business plans generally start with an executive summary and company overview, move through background research and market analysis, customers, and competition, describe the company’s intended methods in the marketing plan and operation plan, show who’s on the management team, and conclude with the financial plan and appendices featuring full financial statements.

Use the business plan template to guide your understanding of each section and to see how they relate to each other. Don’t assume that any one example should dominate your understanding unless it comes from an extremely trusted source with a reputation for business plan expertise and success.

Business Page Layout Tips

How to finish your business plan in 1 day.

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With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Click here to finish your business plan today.

Sample Business Plan Outline

1. executive summary.

Your executive summary is the most important part of your plan. It comes at the beginning and is the first thing investors or lenders will read. If they aren’t excited by what they see, they’ll unfortunately stop reading. So make sure your executive summary gives a quick overview of what your company does and explains, in an exciting tone, why your company will be successful.

In your Company Description, provide background on your company. When did you incorporate? What have you accomplished to date? Here you will let readers know the history of your business.

In the Market Analysis section of your business plan provide background on the industry in which you operate. Conduct market research to make this section concrete and compelling. Answer questions such as: how big is your industry? what trends are affecting it?

Here you will document your target market. How are they? How many are there? What are their likes and dislikes? Ideally you can provide comprehensive demographic and psychographic profiles of your target customers and show how your company’s product or service are ideally suited to their needs.

In this section of your business plan, document your key competitors. Explain their strengths and their weaknesses. Remember that investors and lenders expect you to have direct competitors. They just want to feel confident that despite them, you can still achieve lasting success.

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Your marketing strategy should primarily focus on the promotional methods you will use to attract new customers. Will you use search engine marketing? Will you employ radio ads? Document each of the promotional methods you will use.

This section of your plan should discuss the key roles that your company must expertly perform and your strategies for operational excellence. You must also outline the long-term milestones your company plans to accomplish and the key dates for each.

In your Management Team section, detail the key members of your team. Document their backgrounds and how their past experiences make them well suited to succeed in your organization.

Here you will layout the key assumptions used in creating your financial model and then provide topline results from your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow projections. If you are seeking funding, document the amount of funding you seek and the key uses for it.

Business Plan Outline financial projections

In your Appendix, you will provide supporting information such as employee or customer agreements, store layouts, etc. You must also include your full, five-year financial model and projections.

By following the above business plan outline, you will ensure your plan is in the format investors and lenders expect.

OR, Let Us Write a Business Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.

Click here to see how Growthink’s business plan consulting services can create your business plan for you.

Business Page Layout FAQs

How do i lay out a business plan.

Laying out a business plan is not, and should not, be complicated. You can lay out your business plan using our sample business plan outline discussed here . An organized business plan structure is key to a successful business plan. 

What is a business plan outline?

A business plan outline allows you to organize your plan and present it in the format that’s most compelling to readers. Also, by starting with your outline, it’s easier to add the required information into the right sections of your business plan.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

Business Plan Template & Guide for Small Businesses

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

ClickUp Contributor

February 13, 2024

Turning your vision into a clear and coherent business plan can be confusing and tough. 

Hours of brainstorming and facing an intimidating blank page can raise more questions than answers. Are you covering everything? What should go where? How do you keep each section thorough but brief?

If these questions have kept you up at night and slowed your progress, know you’re not alone. That’s why we’ve put together the top 10 business plan templates in Word, Excel, and ClickUp—to provide answers, clarity, and a structured framework to work with. This way, you’re sure to capture all the relevant information without wasting time. 

And the best part? Business planning becomes a little less “ugh!” and a lot more “aha!” 🤩

What is a Business Plan Template?

What makes a good business plan template, 1. clickup business plan template, 2. clickup sales plan template, 3. clickup business development action plan template, 4. clickup business roadmap template, 5. clickup business continuity plan template, 6. clickup lean business plan template, 7. clickup small business action plan template, 8. clickup strategic business roadmap template , 9. microsoft word business plan template by microsoft, 10. excel business plan template by vertex42.

A business plan template is a structured framework for entrepreneurs and business executives who want to create business plans. It comes with pre-arranged sections and headings that cover key elements like the executive summary , business overview, target customers, unique value proposition, marketing plans, and financial statements.  

A good business plan template helps with thorough planning, clear documentation, and practical implementation. Here’s what to look for:

  • Comprehensive structure: A good template comes with all the relevant sections to outline a business strategy, such as executive summary, market research and analysis, and financial projections 
  • Clarity and guidance: A good template is easy to follow. It has brief instructions or prompts for each section, guiding you to think deeply about your business and ensuring you don’t skip important details
  • Clean design: Aesthetics matter. Choose a template that’s not just functional but also professionally designed. This ensures your plan is presentable to stakeholders, partners, and potential investors
  • Flexibility : Your template should easily accommodate changes without hassle, like adding or removing sections, changing content and style, and rearranging parts 🛠️ 

While a template provides the structure, it’s the information you feed it that brings it to life. These pointers will help you pick a template that aligns with your business needs and clearly showcases your vision.

10 Business Plan Templates to Use in 2024

Preparing for business success in 2024 (and beyond) requires a comprehensive and organized business plan. We’ve handpicked the best templates to help you guide your team, attract investors, and secure funding. Let’s check them out.

ClickUp Business Plan Template

If you’re looking to replace a traditional business plan document, then ClickUp’s Business Plan Template is for you!

This one-page business plan template, designed in ClickUp Docs , is neatly broken down into the following sections:

  • Company description : Overview, mission, vision, and team
  • Market analysis : Problem, solution, target market, competition, and competitive advantage
  • Sales and marketing strategy : Products/services and marketing channels
  • Operational plan : Location and facilities, equipment and tools, manpower, and financial forecasts
  • Milestones and metrics: Targets and KPIs

Customize the template with your company logo and contact details, and easily navigate to different sections using the collapsible table of contents. The mini prompts under each section guide you on what to include—with suggestions on how to present the data (e.g., bullet lists, pictures, charts, and tables). 

You can share the document with anyone via URL and collaborate in real time. And when the business plan is ready, you have the option to print it or export it to PDF, HTML, or Markdown.

But that’s not all. This template is equipped with basic and enterprise project management features to streamline the business plan creation process . The Topics List view has a list of all the different sections and subsections of the template and allows you to assign it to a team member, set a due date, and attach relevant documents and references.

Switch from List to Board view to track and update task statuses according to the following: To Do, In Progress, Needs Revision, and Complete. 

This template is a comprehensive toolkit for documenting the different sections of your business plan and streamlining the creation process to ensure it’s completed on time. 🗓️

ClickUp Sales Plan Template

If you’re looking for a tool to kickstart or update your sales plan, ClickUp’s Sales Plan Template has got you covered. This sales plan template features a project summary list with tasks to help you craft a comprehensive and effective sales strategy. Some of these tasks include:

  • Determine sales objectives and goals
  • Draft positioning statement
  • Perform competitive analysis
  • Draft ideal customer persona
  • Create a lead generation strategy

Assign each task to a specific individual or team, set priority levels , and add due dates. Specify what section of the sales plan each task belongs to (e.g., executive summary, revenue goals, team structure, etc.), deliverable type (such as document, task, or meeting), and approval state (like pending, needs revisions, and approved).

And in ClickUp style, you can switch to multiple views: List for a list of all tasks, Board for visual task management, Timeline for an overview of task durations, and Gantt to get a view of task dependencies. 

This simple business plan template is perfect for any type of business looking to create a winning sales strategy while clarifying team roles and keeping tasks organized. ✨

ClickUp Business Development Action Plan Template

Thinking about scaling your business’s reach and operations but unsure where or how to start? It can be overwhelming, no doubt—you need a clear vision, measurable goals, and an actionable plan that every member of your team can rally behind. 

Thankfully, ClickUp’s Business Development Action Plan Template is designed to use automations to simplify this process so every step toward your business growth is clear, trackable, and actionable.

Start by assessing your current situation and deciding on your main growth goal. Are you aiming to increase revenue, tap into new markets, or introduce new products or services? With ClickUp Whiteboards or Docs, brainstorm and collaborate with your team on this decision.

Set and track your short- and long-term growth goals with ClickUp’s Goals , break them down into smaller targets, and assign these targets to team members, complete with due dates. Add these targets to a new ClickUp Dashboard to track real-time progress and celebrate small wins. 🎉

Whether you’re a startup or small business owner looking to hit your next major milestone or an established business exploring new avenues, this template keeps your team aligned, engaged, and informed every step of the way.

ClickUp Business Roadmap Template

ClickUp’s Business Roadmap Template is your go-to for mapping out major strategies and initiatives in areas like revenue growth, brand awareness, community engagement, and customer satisfaction. 

Use the List view to populate tasks under each initiative. With Custom Fields, you can capture which business category (e.g., Product, Operations, Sales & Marketing, etc.) tasks fall under and which quarter they’re slated for. You can also link to relevant documents and resources and evaluate tasks by effort and impact to ensure the most critical tasks get the attention they deserve. 👀

Depending on your focus, this template provides different views to show just what you need. For example, the All Initiatives per Quarter view lets you focus on what’s ahead by seeing tasks that need completion within a specific quarter. This ensures timely execution and helps in aligning resources effectively for the short term.

This template is ideal for business executives and management teams who need to coordinate multiple short- and long-term initiatives and business strategies.

ClickUp Business Continuity Plan Template

In business, unexpected threats to operations can arise at any moment. Whether it’s economic turbulence, a global health crisis, or supply chain interruptions, every company needs to be ready. ClickUp’s Business Continuity Plan Template lets you prepare proactively for these unforeseen challenges.

The template organizes tasks into three main categories:

  • Priorities: Tasks that need immediate attention
  • Continuity coverage: Tasks that must continue despite challenges
  • Guiding principles: Resources and protocols to ensure smooth operations

The Board view makes it easy to visualize all the tasks under each of these categories. And the Priorities List sorts tasks by those that are overdue, the upcoming ones, and then the ones due later.

In times of uncertainty, being prepared is your best strategy. This template helps your business not just survive but thrive in challenging situations, keeping your customers, employees, and investors satisfied. 🤝

ClickUp Lean Business Plan Template

Looking to execute your business plan the “lean” way? Use ClickUp’s Lean Business Plan Template . It’s designed to help you optimize resource usage and cut unnecessary steps—giving you better results with less effort.

In the Plan Summary List view, list all the tasks that need to get done. Add specific details like who’s doing each task, when it’s due, and which part of the Business Model Canvas (BMC) it falls under. The By Priority view sorts this list based on priorities like Urgent, High, Normal, and Low. This makes it easy to spot the most important tasks and tackle them first.

Additionally, the Board view gives you an overview of task progression from start to finish. And the BMC view rearranges these tasks based on the various BMC components. 

Each task can further be broken down into subtasks and multiple checklists to ensure all related action items are executed. ✔️

This template is an invaluable resource for startups and large enterprises looking to maximize process efficiencies and results in a streamlined and cost-effective way.

ClickUp Small Business Action Plan Template

The Small Business Action Plan Template by ClickUp is tailor-made for small businesses looking to transform their business ideas and goals into actionable steps and, eventually, into reality. 

It provides a simple and organized framework for creating, assigning, prioritizing, and tracking tasks. And in effect, it ensures that goals are not just set but achieved. Through the native dashboard and goal-setting features, you can monitor task progress and how they move you closer to achieving your goals.

Thanks to ClickUp’s robust communication features like chat, comments, and @mentions, it’s easy to get every team member on the same page and quickly address questions or concerns.

Use this action plan template to hit your business goals by streamlining your internal processes and aligning team efforts.

ClickUp Strategic Business Roadmap Template 

For larger businesses and scaling enterprises, getting different departments to work together toward a big goal can be challenging. The ClickUp Strategic Business Roadmap Template makes it easier by giving you a clear plan to follow.

This template is packaged in a folder and split into different lists for each department in your business, like Sales, Product, Marketing, and Enablement. This way, every team can focus on their tasks while collectively contributing to the bigger goal.

There are multiple viewing options available for team members. These include:

  • Progress Board: Visualize tasks that are on track, those at risk, and those behind
  • Gantt view: Get an overview of project timelines and dependencies
  • Team view: See what each team member is working on so you can balance workloads for maximum productivity

While this template may feel overwhelming at first, the getting started guide offers a step-by-step breakdown to help you navigate it with ease. And like all ClickUp templates, you can easily customize it to suit your business needs and preferences.

Microsoft Word Business Plan Template by Microsoft

Microsoft’s 20-page traditional business plan template simplifies the process of drafting comprehensive business plans. It’s made up of different sections, including:

  • Executive summary : Highlights, objectives, mission statement, and keys to success
  • Description of business: Company ownership and legal structure, hours of operation, products and services, suppliers, financial plans, etc.
  • Marketing: Market analysis, market segmentation, competition, and pricing
  • Appendix: Start-up expenses, cash flow statements, income statements, sales forecast, milestones, break-even analysis, etc.

The table of contents makes it easy to move to different sections of the document. And the text placeholders under each section provide clarity on the specific details required—making the process easier for users who may not be familiar with certain business terminology.

Excel Business Plan Template by Vertex42

No business template roundup is complete without an Excel template. This business plan template lets you work on your business financials in Excel. It comes with customizable tables, formulas, and charts to help you look at the following areas:

  • Highlight charts
  • Market analysis
  • Start-up assets and expenses
  • Sales forecasts
  • Profit and loss
  • Balance sheet
  • Cash flow projections
  • Break-even analysis

This Excel template is especially useful when you want to create a clear and visual financial section for your business plan document—an essential element for attracting investors and lenders. However, there might be a steep learning curve to using this template if you’re not familiar with business financial planning and using Excel.

Try a Free Business Plan Template in ClickUp

Launching and running a successful business requires a well-thought-out and carefully crafted business plan. However, the business planning process doesn’t have to be complicated, boring, or take up too much time. Use any of the above 10 free business plan formats to simplify and speed up the process.

ClickUp templates go beyond offering a solid foundation to build your business plans. They come with extensive project management features to turn your vision into reality. And that’s not all— ClickUp’s template library offers over 1,000 additional templates to help manage various aspects of your business, from decision-making to product development to resource management .

Sign up for ClickUp’s Free Forever Plan today to fast-track your business’s growth! 🏆

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Ultimate Guide On Writing A Business Plan

Free Ultimate Guide On Writing A Business Plan

  • January 4, 2024

13 Min Read

write a business plan outline

Imagine this: You have a brilliant business idea. You scribble it down and get to the research immediately. Once you have identified competitors and completed the market research. It is time to reach the right investors with a compelling plan based on an effective business plan outline.

You are all flared up to start a business requirement document. But that is when a question like “how do I start writing?” becomes the roadblock.

This is not just a challenge you face alone; many with the same flare to start a business are subject to the same bottleneck.

The question is, “How do you start building a business plan without a hitch?”

It is simple, you need an outline that helps you create a business plan in the most engaging way possible for investors. To help you create your business plan outline, we’ve laid out a few steps.

But first, let’s understand what it is and why you need to have a business plan outline.

Table of Contents

What is a business plan outline, why write a business plan outline, how to write a business plan outline, build a complete business plan outline now.

A business plan outline is a framework that helps you cover the essential information around your business idea. Your outline helps define the results of your market analysis, competitor analysis, products/services, etc.

The outline also helps you plan out the best ways to present your idea and to-be-used resources in front of the investors. Briefly, a business plan outline enables you to present your ideas convincingly.

The most effective way to convince any investor about your business idea is to help them get answers to these three critical questions:

  • What does your business stand for?
  • How is your idea unique compared to competitors?
  • What is in it for them?

Your business plan can help you answer these questions.

To avoid such adverse reactions, it is important that you create an outline first. Further, add your researched information in that format to better present your idea to investors.

Now that it is clear why an outline is crucial to writing a business plan, it is time we see what it should cover. Most experts online will encourage you to start with a table of contents or an index. But you can skip this step if you are using a knowledge base.

With Knowledge base software, you can display a table of contents throughout the plan. They can access any point in question at any time. Except, if you are not planning to make your outline virtually using an internal knowledge base solution, it is advised to create an index first.

An index will help you list all the pointers you aim to cover in your business plan. It makes it easier for investors to go back and refer to the data they’ve already read during the review process.

The ultimate guide to starting a business

1. Create an Engaging Executive Summary

Create an Engaging Executive Summary

First impressions are lasting impressions

No one wishes to take this expression lightly. But here is a fact: there is no way investors will continue reading your business plan if it fails to create an impact that encourages them to read the plan further.

Your executive summary is a critical factor for investors to decide if your project is worth financing or not.

What is an executive summary?

The executive summary is mostly written once you are done writing your entire plan. That’s because it summarizes and offers an introduction to your plan.

Here’s a list of questions your executive summary must answer:

  • Who is your target audience ?
  • What do you plan to sell?
  • How will your offerings evolve over time?
  • How much should investors expect to gain post-financing your business?
  • What is the initial investment you seek to get your business started?

With these questions answered, it will be easier for investors to read through the entire plan.

2. Describe Your Business with a Detailed Description

Describe Your Business with a Detailed Description

The business plan is incomplete without a detailed description. It is similar to an “about us” section. Explain what your business is and why you decided to take up the project. The more detailed it gets the better.

However, it is recommended that you cover sections like:

  • Company background & history: Explain what factors compelled you to start this business. Also, explore when you thought of this idea and what was the source of its inspiration.
  • Structure & ownership: Let your investors learn about other shareholders who plan to help you gain the necessary resources to build the planned product or service. Let investors know where your company is registered and if you have any legal structure in place. This will help them check your eligibility as a potential business investment.
  • Location: Help investors know where you plan to open the office. Make sure to include a map that helps them understand where the location is and what could be the possible expenses to get the needed resources to the location.
  • Experience: It is not about your experience and credibility in the market. You also need to stress the experience of those who will help you execute your plan. Let the investors understand that you are backed by experienced individuals in the sector. Also, do not hesitate to share skill gap-related concerns. The sooner they are tackled the better.
  • Initiatives & cause: If there is any initiative you wish to support through your business, let your investors learn about it fast. You must stand by a cause that you wish to donate to or support through your business. While this will help you build a positive impression on investors, it is good for branding as well.

3. Bring Together Your Market Analysis

Bring Together Your Market Analysis

Market analysis is quite complex. You need to figure out and confirm a lot of factors before you settle on a business plan. To help you get started with the outline of your market analysis section, we’ve listed a few points below.

  • Target audience: This is no doubt the first aspect that investors would be interested in learning about. Therefore, it would be a great idea to discuss your target audience first when you start with the market analysis section. As you explain the target audience, make sure you explain why you aim to target them and how will this audience benefit from your offerings.
  • Demographics: Share details about the specific demographic you wish to target. These details can be inclusive of age group, location, gender, and more. With a detailed insight into the demographics, they can confirm if you are going to target the right audience or not.
  • Segmentation: Once done describing the details on demographics, it will be easier for you to explain which segment you plan to target. You can also segment this audience further into groups of potential buyers and those who will bring more value to your sales.
  • The Need: Explain how your products and services will match the growing need of the customers. You also need to explain the possible reasons that encourage customers to make the purchase and if it is something that they will need regularly.
  • Market Regulations: Another factor that will need to be discussed at length is market regulation. If you identify which market regulation applies to your business, it will be easier for investors to understand the possible ways you will comply with them.

4. Identify Your Market Competitors with a Competitive Analysis

Identify Your Market Competitors with a Competitive Analysis

Let investors know that you are not behind in your competitive analysis. This section will be a terrific way to introduce your direct and indirect competitors. Elaborate about their strengths, weaknesses, and the USP that helps them stand out in the market.

Other than these crucial factors, you should not miss answering questions like:

  • Who is this competitor ? (Name, brand visibility, and where they are located)
  • How big is this competitor? (Number of employees, rough customer count, and more)
  • Who is their target audience? (Demographics and segmentation)
  • What do they offer? (Discuss unique characteristics, services, products, pricing, and more)

With this detailed outline, you can give a stand on how your brand will be positioned in the market. Concisely, it will help you show investors how different you are from the competitors.

5. Build an Actionable Sales & Marketing Plan

Build an Actionable Sales & Marketing Plan

This is a dedicated section to display your numbers. Here is a list of things you can add.

  • Milestones: It would be a good start if you show investors the goals plan to achieve . Remember that if they are relevant, achievable, and measurable according to the resources you plan to locate in the business process, the easier it will be to convince investors of your business.
  • Risks & Mitigations: Both you and the investors can anticipate risks or roadblocks you may face while bringing the business plan to life. While you do share the possible risks your business might get subjected to in the future, make sure to identify the best ways to overcome them. This will help you increase the investor’s confidence in your idea and foresight.
  • Marketing plan: USP is indeed a crucial aspect of any marketing plan. However, that is not the only thing you need to focus on when trying to reach out to your audience. Marketing is about the reach you have once you start as a brand. It is also about identifying the best channels to help you reach as many potential customers as possible. You also need to show what your competitors are doing as they take a step forward to become a brand. More importantly, you need to decide on the marketing initiatives and their stakeholders who will help you implement them successfully.
  • Profits: Predicting your sales target is important for any investor. By predicting how many sales you make in a week, month, or quarter, investors can get an idea of when you will start making profits. To predict profits, you need to arrive at the right pricing that gives you a competitive edge over others while being rational about it.

6. Inform Investors About Operations Plan

Inform Investors About Operations Plan

In this part of the business plan outline, you need to help investors understand how your organization is planning to function. Here is what you need to include in this section.

  • Employment plan: Share your employment plan which is divided into phases. Let investors know how many people you plan to hire in the first phase of your business. Initially, you cannot go all out. Decide task priorities and the resources needed to build a base for your business. Also, highlight the possibility of increasing the workforce as your business grows.
  • Suppliers: Let us not forget the suppliers in the operation plan . Give details about the suppliers you plan to work with. Investors can check if the suppliers are reliable sources or not.
  • Assets: It is also important that you inform investors about the assets you plan to use or that are crucial for the functioning of your business. Be specific about these assets and explain how they will play a role in the development of your products and services. On top of that, explain how you aim to protect assets or intellectual property that streamlines the functioning of the business.

7. Show a Realistic Financial Plan

Show a Realistic Financial Plan

A financial plan plays a crucial role in the decision-making process. Investors need to understand how they plan to allocate the capital received. As you give a bifurcation of the capital in the financial plan, here is a list of things you can start focusing on.

  • An Initial/Start-up funding : The first thing you need to cover in this outline is the initial funding you will require to give your business a kick-start. Explain the fund’s allocation and how shareholders may benefit from this initial funding.
  • Cost Structure: Your cost structure needs to identify operational risks that a business may potentially face. You can use both breakeven and operating leverage that will allow investors to evaluate operational risks hassle-free.
  • Financial Assumptions: Let us not take investors’ assumptions about your financial plan lightly. If you are proposing a business plan for starting your app, the development cost may keep as you grow the app. However, this assumption may not be true in the case of all app-based business ideas. Make sure you identify the assumptions around the revenue you may earn and the cost of implementation. By doing this, you can clarify a lot of doubts that investors may have about the funds you may require to keep the business running.
  • Forecast: Another important aspect of your financial plan is to bring the sales forecast to light. You need to include all the key aspects of your business plan outlines like competitor analysis, marketing strategy, sales plan, and more. These crucial factors will help investors understand why you are projecting a certain number of sales and profits in the plan. You can share a forecast for the next three to five years with them.

8. Prove Why Your Business is a Credible Investment

Prove Why Your Business is a Credible Investment

This is a popular section that goes by the name ‘Appendix.’ This section is your savior. There are a lot of things that you cannot add to other sections of the plan.

But no worries, the Appendix is one section where you can add the additional details of your plan to make sure you have not left anything out from your research. You can share additional information like office layout plans, stakeholder agreements, credit histories, and more.

outline of business plan template

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Creating your business plan outline can be confusing, especially if you are making one for the first time. Sadly, a lot of business ideas get rejected by investors because they fail to deliver the right message, or they feel lacking in presentation.

But fret not. Our business plan outline will allow you to bring your idea to life. This detailed and well-structured approach helps you expand on your business values, what you know about the market and your competitors, and more. That is not all.

You can even find ways to add all the additional information you have found during the research and ideation process that helps investors arrive at the right decision.

Concisely, it will work as a guide that will help investors know your idea better and assist your team to align with your direction of work.

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About the Author

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Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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Practical example of a business plan outline

business plan outline

This article provides a detailed business plan outline as well as a step by step guide to writing a business plan.

I encourage you to read this article in relation to our series of guides on how to write a business plan .

Business plan outline

Below is The Business Plan Shop's recommended business plan outline. Every company is different and the business plan needs to be tailored to reflect that, therefore this is more a guideline than a strict template.

Our business plan outline is structured so that each section answers a specific set of investor questions about your business.

It also offers a natural progression making it suitable for both the investor who wants to read the plan cover to cover and the one who wants to simply jump into specific parts to clarify particular points.

  • Business Overview
  • Market Overview
  • Financial Highlights

Structure & Ownership

Management team.

  • Products and Services

Demographics and Segmentation

Target market, market need, competition, barriers to entry, competitive edge.

  • Marketing Plan
  • Risks and Mittigants

Personnel Plan

Key assets and ip, start-up funding, important assumptions, sales forecast, cost structure.

Let me walk you through each section and get into the details of what to write and where to find the information.

1. Executive Summary

The first section, the executive summary, is the most important one. It is only if they find this section attractive enough that potential investors will dive into the other sections of your plan to get more details.

Because this section is a summary of the rest of the plan this is the one you will write last.

The executive summary is all about getting your investor excited in 5 minutes. Do not try to tell everything about your business. Keep it short and to the point.

There are four things that you must cover:

  • Who you are
  • What you sell
  • How big and profitable it can get
  • How much you need

The objective of this section is to introduce the company and its management. The content of this section will vary slightly depending on if you already have a business or if you are starting a new venture.

This is a purely descriptive part, the key questions you need to answer here are:

Who are the shareholders

Where is the company registered and what is the legal structure.

As part of the anti-money laundering regulation, investors have the legal obligation to check the identity of the shareholders of any business they invest in or lend money to.

Giving them the full list enables them to do a quick sanity check and gives them the opportunity to raise any concern they might have.

If your reader is an equity investor it also gives them a grasp of who the other shareholders are. It is also important that you mention if any of your co-shareholders brings more than just money to the company.

For example if one of your shareholders is an expert in your industry and also brings advice and credibility to the company.

This is also one of the anti-money laundering requirements. But it also gives the reader an indication of the size of the business and the applicable tax system.

Some investors also have geographical restrictions on investments, hence this is also where they will check if you are eligible.

If you are writing a business plan for an existing company, this is where you would present the key highlights to date.

The idea here is to build your credibility and show to your reader that you have a viable business. The main points you want to touch on are:

  • How long you have been in business: this is a real reassuring factor for any investor as it proves that your business is a viable one.
  • Company milestones: you want to show what has been achieved so far in terms of growth, product launches, internationalisation. If you are seeking growth capital this will build your credibility and show that you have the ability to execute your plan.
  • Past difficulties: if there have been periods when the company was in danger (for example because of a new entrant in the market, or a sudden drop in demand) and you managed to turn things around and stay in business.

If you are writing a plan for a business for which location is important (for example a shop or a restaurant), or if you are managing a large business with multiple stores or factories, this is where you would describe (ideally using a map) the main location(s) of your business.

This is one of the most important section of your business plan. You must demonstrate that your team has strong experience in your sector and the skills to run this business.

If there are any important skill gaps in your team, you need to address them and mitigate them here. It could be that you are looking for someone with these skills or that you have a board member or a non-executive director that can fill the gap.

Try to put some pictures if you can. From experience, is always better when one can put a face on a name! And it helps if you are due to meet your investors at some point.

Now that you have introduced the company it is time to dive into what it does.

3. Products and Services

The key to writing a good product and services section is to be precise about the product or service you sell, the client you are targeting, and the channel you are targeting them through.

After this section, your reader will start thinking about how big, how crowded and how profitable your market is and try to guess what the overall strategy is going to be.

You want to send them in the right direction! So be ultra-precise, don't say for example "I sell shoes" but "I sell leather boots targeted at women aged 16-25 who buy online".

If you can try to include pictures of your products.

By now your reader knows who you are and what business you are in. It is time you show them why this is a good opportunity.

4. Market Analysis

This part is a summary of our guide on how to do a market analysis , please refer to our for more details.

The objectives of the market analysis section are to show the investors that:

  • The market is large enough to build a sustainable business
  • You know who your customers are and why they buy
  • Despite the competition, there is a gap in the market that your business can fill

The first step of the analysis consists of assessing the size of the market.

The way you look at the market will depend on your type of business. If it is a small business, such as a coffee shop for example, then you need to look at the market on a local basis (your town, your street). If you are targeting a wider audience, then you need to evaluate the market at a national or an international level.

When assessing the size of your market, you need to come up with two variables: the number of potential customers and the value of the market.

The idea here is to get a sense of how atomised your market is:

  • If you are in a market where there is a small set of high-value customers then it might be complicated to compete against more established players and your business is likely to be dependent on a handful of customers - meaning that losing one would potentially threaten your business.
  • If you are in a market with lots of low-value customers, it might be complicated and costly to reach enough of them to get to the minimum volume for your business to be profitable.
  • Ideally, you want to be in a market with a high number of medium value customers meaning that there are enough customers to leave room for a few players and that each customer brings a decent amount of revenues.

Once you have estimated the market size, you need to explain to your reader which segment(s) of the market you view as your target market.

The target market is the type of customers you target within the market. You need to identify the different segments in your market and explain who you are going after and why.

One way to identify the segments is to group customers by buying pattern or demographics. For example in the fashion market you could have:

  • Men vs. women
  • Low price vs. premium clothing
  • Online vs. in-store
  • Shoes, accessories, and outfit

This section is where you demonstrate that you have insight into your market. You know what makes people buy!

You need to describe the buying pattern of your target customers. What triggers a purchase? Is it something they need such as food? Is it a value associated with the product or a brand perception? Etc.

Later in your plan, you will use this analysis to justify your market positioning.

Here you have to explain who your competitors are, how they are positioned on the market, and what their strength and weaknesses are. Some of the items you need to cover include:

  • Who are they? (name, brand, independent vs. part of a larger group, location)
  • How big are they? (turnover, number of staff, etc.)
  • Which customer do they target? (segments)
  • What are the key characteristics of their offerings? (price, associated services, etc.)

You should write this part in parallel with the Competitive Edge part of the Strategy section, as the idea here is to find a weakness in your competitors' positioning or a gap in the market that your company will be able to use in its own market positioning.

Here, the objective is to show to investors that the risk of having new competitors entering the market is fairly remote. Hence if you are writing your business plan for a start-up then this section is a bit tricky as you need to show that you will succeed where others will fail!

In this section, you need to details which regulation is applicable to your sector and how you are going to comply with it.

5. Strategy

Until now, all the sections of the business plan outline we covered were very descriptive, this is where things get a bit more interesting.

Strategy is a big word for what is really just explaining your view of the market, how you want to attack it, and why it should work.

The first part of the strategy section is the Competitive Edge sub-section which is where you explain your market positioning.

The competitive edge part is where you answer investors' favourite question: "what makes you different from the competition?"

Hopefully, you will have laid the groundwork for this section in the previous ones and orientated your analysis of the market in a way that prepares the reader to embrace your positioning.

In order to explain and justify your pricing strategy you must touch on the following points:

  • Compare it to your competitor's pricing
  • Show that you are profitable at that level
  • Explain the rationale behind your price

I won't touch on the two first points which are pretty obvious but I think the third one deserves a bit more explanation. Setting a price is not easy but there are a couple of techniques you can use to guide you.

The first thing to do is to assess if you have control over your prices. It could very well be that you have limited control over your prices. If you are in a price a driven market where all your competitors price at £9.90 it can be complicated to justify a higher price to your customers.

Now if you have control over your prices you then need to come up with a figure. Here are the two main strategies that you can use to do so:

  • Cost-plus pricing: this consist of adding a percentage margin to the cost of the good or service you are selling. The advantage of this strategy is that you are guaranteed to earn your margin on every sale. The disadvantage is that your price could be below or above what customers are willing to pay for a product or service.
  • Benefit driven pricing: this consist of estimating the gain procured by your good or service to the customer and set the price as a fraction of this gain. It is easier to do when your product or service procure a hard benefit (i.e. when you can quantify the money your customer will save) than when your product procures a soft benefit (i.e. when you cannot easily quantify the value of the benefit as for example if it makes your customer save time). The advantage of this technique is that it allows you to maximise the price of your goods and services. The disadvantage is that it usually requires trying different price points in order to find the right market price.

It is always a good thing to test different prices. Do one week with price A and one week with price B and compare the results in terms of sales and volume.

Ok, so now we know who you will target and how you will price your products. It is time to explain how you are going to reach those customers.

Sales & Marketing Plan

This is the first section where we start to leave aside the helicopter view of the market to really dive into the implementation and execution strategy of your plan. Therefore, you need to show your investor that not only you know your market inside-out but that you also have a credible plan to conquer said market.

The best way to show that your business plan is realistic is to get into the specifics of the implementation. Your reader needs to feel that you are ready to go and that he just has to push on a button (write you a check) to make it happen.

In the marketing plan section, you need to show that you have identified the best channels to use to target your customers.

By channel, I mean both the distribution network (online, owned stores, third party network, door to door, etc.) and the means of communication (flyers, print advertising, online marketing, etc.).

You want to start by listing all the different options and then start diving into the ones you picked and explain why you think they are the most relevant in terms of:

  • Reach: why do you think you will be able to touch most of your potential customers through that channel?
  • Cost: why do you think this will be cost-effective? What is the budget allocated in your plan?
  • Competition: why do you think you stand a better chance against your competitors by using this channel?
  • Implementation: who is going to be responsible for that? What makes him relevant? Which partners/suppliers have you approached so far?

This section is where you set the goals for your company. This is a commitment you are making to your investors and you will be judged on your ability to achieve these goals. It is therefore important that you take time to identify goals that are:

  • Relevant: i.e. objectives that will make a real difference to the business
  • Achievable: you don't want to get labelled as a dreamer but rather want to be perceived as an entrepreneur who delivers his business plan
  • Measurable: you want to be able to get back to your investors and say "we said we'll get 1,000 customers by year-end and we delivered 1,200!".

Here you will be judged on your ability to identify and focus on the key objectives to bring your business to the next level. This will help build your credibility towards your investor and ultimately play a part in his investment decision.

From a relationship perspective, being able to over-achieve these objectives will be key if you are to raise more money in the future.

Risks and Mitigants

The risks and mitigants section has one key objective: enable you to anticipate any objection or doubt an investor might have on your plan or your ability to deliver it and give you an opportunity to show that:

  • You know this is a key risk,
  • You thought about it,
  • You have a contingency measure in place.

It is very important to be transparent in this section. If an investor spots a key risk in your plan that you haven't disclosed he is going to think "well I am not sure they know this market as well as they claim", and that looks bad.

You want to do everything to build credibility and trust with your investors because the moment they start doubting you they will start doubting the investment.

6. Operations

This section is where you get into the details of how your company will operate. It usually starts with the personnel plan.

In the personnel plan section, you must explain how many people you will employ and what will be their roles.

If your staff is planned to increase over the duration of your business plan, it is recommended to explain what will be the driver. It could be that you plan a new shop opening or that you will increase support staff with sales.

If you have a shop or a restaurant it is also recommended to put the staff plan in perspective with the opening hours.

The idea behind this section is to identify or dismiss any operational risks that could arise on the asset side.

You need to explain which are the assets and intellectual property without which the company could not operate (for example a delivery truck or a licence) and the steps you took to protect them.

In this section, your investor will want to check that you intend to do business with respectable counterparties and that you are not dependent on a single supplier.

Therefore, you need to explain who will be your main suppliers, the relationship you have with them (if any) and what is your backup plan if one was to be replaced.

You also need to mention the main terms you have negotiated with your suppliers (price, days of credit, delivery schedule, etc.).

Now that you have explained how your company will be operated it is time to dive into the numbers.

7. Financial Plan

This is the most crucial part of your business plan. The tone of this section will depend on who the recipient of your business plan is.

If the recipient of your business plan is a lender you need to show that your business is going to be stable, profitable and cash generative and that you are not going to take too many risks.

If it is an equity investor you need to show that your business can become big and cash generative enough to make it easy to sell and enable him to reach his target return.

As a minimum, you will need to show a full set of financial statements (P&L, cash flow statement and balance sheet) over three years and a monthly cash flow statement. It is also good practice to show a monthly P&L and balance sheet (at least for the first year).

The reason why investors like to see monthly numbers for the first year is that it is going to be the most critical year as:

  • It is the year you are the most vulnerable
  • Any delay or underperformance will have some repercussions over the year 2 and 3

If you don't have a background in finance it is recommended that you use a professional tool to help you with the financial forecast.

The Business Plan Shop offers an easy to use online solution that can help you easily produce your financial statements - as well as a professional business plan exportable in PDF. In our application, you will find most of the tips included in this guide along with precise examples for each section of the plan.

You can learn more about our financial forecasting solution here .

In this section, you will list the sources and uses of funds required to start your business.

The investor will look at how much is needed and how much money is brought to the table by the shareholders.

If you are writing your plan for a bank it is important that you isolate the assets, inventory and VAT on a separate line as they often offer specific loans adapted to each of these categories.

This section is a disclaimer section. You must identify the key assumptions underlying your financial forecasts.

These are the assumptions the investor will stress (i.e. run scenarios on) to test the viability of your plan and estimate the potential downsides and upsides.

Try to identify both assumptions on the revenue and on the cost side of the business.

Let's take an example and look at an e-commerce site.

If you are operating an e-commerce site there are usually two main drivers to your business's profitability:

  • The average basket: which is how much one customer is expected to spend in average
  • The customer acquisition cost: which is how much you need to spend in marketing to acquire one customer

The first item is revenue related and has the most significant impact on your plan. This assumption has a 1:1 impact on your sales forecast and even a greater impact on your profit. The second one is also crucial as it impacts your profitability and your ability to scale.

Let's look at a numerical example in order to get a better understanding of the impacts of these two drivers:

As you can see from the table above a 10% deviation on price will have a 30% impact on profit, a 10% deviation in the customer acquisition cost would cost you 20% of your profit, and both impacts would reduce your profit by 50%!

And these are not remote possibilities. Let's say that your acquisition costs are related to pay per click advertising on the internet and that your average cost per click is £0.4. An £8 cost per customer means that you have a conversion rate of 5%: it takes 20 clicks to make one sale. Now a £8.8 cost per customer means that it takes you 22 clicks to make one sale. As little as 2 more clicks can cost you 20% of your profit!

Now the positive thing is that if you built a complete financial model and identified these key drivers you can closely monitor these two elements.

Chances are that you will get these wrong in your first plan but if you monitor them you will be able to quickly update your plan and get a revised financial projection.

This will enable you to get a better view of how much cash your business will generate or need. And give you the ability to anticipate any upcoming difficulties with your investors or plan what to do with the excess cash flow if things go better than expected.

Note that in my example I did not take the number of customers nor repeat purchases as a key assumptions. This is because I made the assumption that 100% of the traffic was coming from advertising. This is specific to new e-commerce sites: chances are your site in its first year will rank on page 20 of Google and that you will have to acquire the main part of your traffic.

The sales forecast section is probably the second most important one in your business plan.

This section relates directly to the market analysis, competitive edge, marketing plan and pricing sections.

The objective here is to build and justify your sales estimate for the next three years.

Building a sales forecast is a double exercise. You first need to build the numbers using a bottom-up approach and then sanity checks them using a top-down approach. For a complete how-to guide, we encourage you to read our sales forecast article .

Once you have built a realistic top line, you need to focus on the costs.

This part is all about analysing the operational risk of a business. The analysis resides in two fundamental notions: operating leverage and breakeven point.

Let's start with the breakeven point which is the level of sales required to reach profitability.

Every business has two types of costs: fixed and variable costs. The fixed costs as their name indicates are the costs that will be incurred independently from the level of sales. For example the rent of a shop.

The variable costs are the costs that depend on the level of activity. For example the cost of the goods sold in a shop.

The breakeven point is then computed by dividing the total amount of fixed costs by the margin of variable costs.

Let's take an example. If the only fixed cost of a shop is its rent of £2,000/month and if the shop sells goods it buys at £30/item at a price of £50/item.

Then the shops make 50 - 30 = £20 of profit over variable costs per item. This means it needs to sell 2,000 / 20 = 100 items to cover the cost of the rent. The breakeven point of this shops is therefore 100 items.

The direct conclusion of this is that the higher the fixed costs, the more sales are required to cover them, and therefore the higher the risk of the business is.

In plain English: variable costs are great fixed costs are bad!

Operating leverage

What about operating leverage then? Well, operating leverage has to do with operating profit elasticity, which is the impact of a difference of 1% in sales on the operating profit.

This seems complex but it is in fact really simple. There are two dimensions in the operating leverage: the level of fixed vs. variable costs, and the margin on variable costs.

As we just saw above the more fixed costs a business has the more sales it needs in order to start making a profit. But this is not the whole story.

Consider two businesses in the same industry. Business A is manufacturing its own goods, while business B is outsourcing the manufacture to a supplier.

As a result business A has higher fixed costs than business B (the cost of the factory), but at the same time business A is earning more on each sale than business B because it doesn't have to pay the supplier's margin.

Therefore, there is an expectation that a more operationally leveraged business will generate higher returns past its breakeven point.

The second aspect of operating leverage is the level of contribution (or margin on variable costs).

If your contribution is high then it takes only a few sales to cover your fixed costs and start making a profit.

The flip side of this is that a small forecasting error will have a huge impact on your level of profit and cash flows.

The key takeaways here are that investors will look at the level of fixed vs. variable costs in your business to evaluate its operating risk. They will expect to see the calculation of your breakeven point either expressed in units or days of sales.

Investors will also judge you on your ability to use operating leverage to your advantage. If you are starting up in a niche where the market is uncertain they will expect you to focus on sales and to have outsourced as many services as possible. You will make less profit but will require fewer sales to make a profit hereby de-risking the cost side of your business to balance with the risks on the revenue side.

Now if you are an established business in a price-driven market, investors will expect you to do the exact opposite: outsource services only if it makes you save money and try to limit margin frictions to the maximum by using vertical integration and economies of scale to either increase your margin or reduce your price to increase market share.

Financial Statements

This section is where you present your financial statements. You can have the yearly statements here along with the monthly cash flow projections and put the monthly balance sheet and P&L in the appendix.

You need to walk the reader through the key items of each statement:

  • P&L: revenues, growth, EBITDA, EBITDA margin and any unusual or one-off items
  • Cash flow statement: operating cash flow, operating cash flow conversion (% of EBITDA), any major investments, main debt repayments if any, and any unusual items.
  • Monthly cash flow statement: any working capital swings or seasonal peaks or troughs.
  • Balance sheet: level of cash, debt and equity.

Your funding requirements need to be balanced (positive cash position), and you need to break even during the course of your business plan.

You might also want to touch on some additional ratios. In particular, if your business has a significant working capital requirement, you can mention the working capital ratios (WC / sales, days of payables and receivables).

You can also mention either some credit ratios if the plan is for a bank (debt/EBITDA, net debt/EBITDA, interest coverage ratio), or some more equity-focused ratios (operating cash flow / capital employed, revenues / total assets, dividend yield and dividend per share, if relevant).

This is where you add any detailed piece of data or backup materials you might have.

The objective of the appendix section is to serve as a reserve of materials that the investor can use either to investigate certain areas of your business plan in more details, or as a starting point to do their due diligence.

I hope this detailled business plan outline helped you better understand the basics of writing a business plan. Now let's get to work!

Also on The Business Plan Shop

  • Free business plan template
  • How investors analyse business plans
  • TAM SAM SOM - what it means and why does it matter
  • The difference between business case and business plan
  • How to design a business plan cover page

Guillaume Le Brouster

Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd

Guillaume Le Brouster is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier.

Guillaume has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade and has first-hand experience of starting, running, and growing a successful business.

Prior to being a business owner, Guillaume worked in investment banking and private equity, where he spent most of his time creating complex financial forecasts, writing business plans, and analysing financial statements to make financing and investment decisions.

Guillaume holds a Master's Degree in Finance from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business & Management from Paris Dauphine University.

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Business Plan Outline and Example

  • Written By Dave Lavinsky

Traditional Business Plans Template

As you begin writing a business plan outline, you will quickly realize that there is more to it than meets the eye. Not only do you need to have a clear understanding of what a business plan is and what types of information it should include, but you also need to be aware of the different types of business plans that are available. Furthermore, it is important to understand why you should write a successful business plan and what common mistakes people make when doing so. Finally, this article provides a brief overview of what should be included in your business planning, such as an executive summary , market analysis, company description, and financial statements , as well as a template and an example to help you get started.

What is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a formal document that provides an executive summary and outlines the goals and objectives of a business. It provides a roadmap for the business, outlining how it will achieve its goals and reach its target market analysis. The traditional business plan outline should also include business financials and a marketing plan.

Types of Business Plans

There are several different types of business plans, each of which serves a different purpose. The most common types of business plans are start-up, growth, and exit business plans. 

Start-up Business Plan

A start-up business plan is a document that outlines the goals and objectives as well as provides an executive summary of a new business. It provides a roadmap for the business, outlining how it will achieve its goals and reach its target market. The start-up business plan should also include financial projections and a marketing strategy.

Growth Business Plan

A growth business plan is a document that outlines the goals and objectives of a business that is looking to expand. It provides a roadmap for the business, outlining the market analysis section, and the company’s history as well as how they plan to secure funding to grow the business. The growth detailed business plan should also include financial health and a cash flow statement.

Exit Business Plan

An exit business plan is a document that outlines the goals and objectives of a business that is looking to be sold or go public. It provides a roadmap for the business, outlining how it will achieve its goals and reach its target market. The exit business plan should also include financial projections and a marketing strategy.

Why Write a Business Plan?

There are several reasons why you might want to write a traditional business plan outline. Firstly, it can help you to clarify your ideas and bring structure to your thoughts. Secondly, it can help you to communicate your operations plan to others, such as potential investors or partners. Thirdly, it can help you to track your progress and make necessary adjustments along the way. Many business owners find it can give you a sense of direction and purpose, helping you to stay focused on your goals.

Tips for Creating a Business Plan

  • Do your research . Before you start writing your business plan , you should research your industry and competitor businesses. This will help you to better understand the market opportunity and the potential for your business idea.
  • Keep it simple . Your business plan should be clear and concise. Communicating your key points should not be longer than necessary.
  • Be realistic . When making a financial plan and projections, be conservative and realistic. overestimating your revenue and profits can make it difficult to attract investors even for an established business.
  • Get help . If you are unsure how to write a business plan, many resources are available to help you. You can hire a consultant, or use one of the many business plan templates or software programs available.

Common Mistakes When Writing a Business Plan

  • Not doing your research . Before you start writing your business plan, you should do your homework and gather all of the information that you will need. This includes market research, financial projections, and competitive analysis.
  • Not being clear and concise . Your business plan should be clear and concise. It should be free of jargon and technical terms, and easy for the reader to understand.
  • Not having a solid financial plan . Your business plan should include a realistic financial plan, including income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.
  • Not having an exit strategy . You should have a clear exit strategy in place before you start your business. This will help you to focus on growth and profitability and will make it easier to attract investors.
  • Not being realistic . Your business plan should be realistic and based on solid market research and financial projections. Don’t try to over-hype your business or make unrealistic promises.

Business Plan Template

Below is a basic business plan template that you can use when creating your business plan.

Executive Summary

The executive summary section of the business plan template should provide a brief overview of your business, including your company name, your mission statement, your product or service, and your target market.

Company Overview

This section should provide an overview of your company, including your history, your management team, your industry, and your competitive advantage.

Product or Service

This section should describe your product or service, including its features and benefits, your target market, and your pricing strategy.

Marketing Plan, Market Analysis, and Sales Strategy

This section should describe your marketing and sales strategy, including your advertising and promotion plans, your marketing plan, your sales process, your target customers, and your distribution channels.

Financial Plans

This section should include your financial statements, financial model, income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

Exit Strategy

This section should describe your exit strategy, including your plans for selling your business or exiting the market.

Business Plan Example

Below is an example of a traditional business plan.

XYZ Corporation is a start-up company that will provide an innovative new product to the market. Our product is an XYZ widget that will revolutionize the way people use widgets. We have a strong management team, a solid business model, and a clear path to profitability. We are seeking $1 million in funding to help us launch our product and grow our business.

XYZ Corporation was founded in XYZ by John Doe and Jane Smith. John is a widgets expert with over 20 years of experience in the widget industry. Jane is a marketing wizard who has helped launch several successful products. Together, they make a perfect team to bring the XYZ widget to market.

The XYZ widget is an innovative new product that will revolutionize the way people use widgets. It is smaller, lighter, and more durable than any other widget on the market. It also has a unique feature that allows it to be used in XYZ ways. We are targeting the widget market, which is estimated to be $1 billion annually.

Marketing and Sales

We will use a combination of online and offline marketing to reach our target market. Our website will be the centerpiece of our marketing efforts, and we will also use print ads, trade shows, and direct mail. Our sales team will consist of experienced widget salespeople who know how to close deals.

Financial Projections

We are requesting $1 million in funding, which will be used to finance our inventory, marketing efforts, and working capital. We anticipate generating $5 million in revenue in our first year of operation and reaching profitability by the end of year two.

Our exit strategy is to sell the company to a larger widget manufacturer or private equity firm within five years. We believe that our innovative product and strong growth potential will make us an attractive acquisition target.

Business Plan FAQ

What is a business plan.

A business plan is a document that describes your business, its objectives, its strategies, its market, and its financial projections. It is typically used to attract financing from investors or lenders.

Why write a business plan?

A business plan can help you to clarify your business goals, and to develop a plan of action to achieve them. It can also be a useful tool to communicate your business plan to potential investors or lenders.

What are the different types of business plans?

There are many different types of business plans, and each one is tailored to the specific needs of the business. Some common types of business plans include startup plans, growth plans, expansion plans, acquisition plans, and exit plans.

Why is a business plan important?

A business plan is important because it helps to clarify the goals of the business and to develop a plan of action to achieve those goals. It also helps communicate the business plan to potential investors or lenders.

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Traditional Business Plans Template

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24 of My Favorite Sample Business Plans & Examples For Your Inspiration

Clifford Chi

Published: February 06, 2024

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I believe that reading sample business plans is essential when writing your own.

sample business plans and examples

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As you explore business plan examples from real companies and brands, it’s easier for you to learn how to write a good one.

But what does a good business plan look like? And how do you write one that’s both viable and convincing. I’ll walk you through the ideal business plan format along with some examples to help you get started.

Table of Contents

Business Plan Format

Business plan types, sample business plan templates, top business plan examples.

Ask any successful sports coach how they win so many games, and they’ll tell you they have a unique plan for every single game. To me, the same logic applies to business.

If you want to build a thriving company that can pull ahead of the competition, you need to prepare for battle before breaking into a market.

Business plans guide you along the rocky journey of growing a company. And if your business plan is compelling enough, it can also convince investors to give you funding.

With so much at stake, I’m sure you’re wondering where to begin.

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  • Secure funding.
  • Get to work!

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First, you’ll want to nail down your formatting. Most business plans include the following sections.

1. Executive Summary

I’d say the executive summary is the most important section of the entire business plan. 

Why? Essentially, it's the overview or introduction, written in a way to grab readers' attention and guide them through the rest of the business plan. This is important, because a business plan can be dozens or hundreds of pages long.

There are two main elements I’d recommend including in your executive summary:

Company Description

This is the perfect space to highlight your company’s mission statement and goals, a brief overview of your history and leadership, and your top accomplishments as a business.

Tell potential investors who you are and why what you do matters. Naturally, they’re going to want to know who they’re getting into business with up front, and this is a great opportunity to showcase your impact.

Need some extra help firming up those business goals? Check out HubSpot Academy’s free course to help you set goals that matter — I’d highly recommend it

Products and Services

To piggyback off of the company description, be sure to incorporate an overview of your offerings. This doesn’t have to be extensive — just another chance to introduce your industry and overall purpose as a business.

In addition to the items above, I recommend including some information about your financial projections and competitive advantage here too.:

Keep in mind you'll cover many of these topics in more detail later on in the business plan. So, keep the executive summary clear and brief, and only include the most important takeaways.

Executive Summary Business Plan Examples

This example was created with HubSpot’s business plan template:

business plan sample: Executive Summary Example

This executive summary is so good to me because it tells potential investors a short story while still covering all of the most important details.

Business plans examples: Executive Summary

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Tips for Writing Your Executive Summary

  • Start with a strong introduction of your company, showcase your mission and impact, and outline the products and services you provide.
  • Clearly define a problem, and explain how your product solves that problem, and show why the market needs your business.
  • Be sure to highlight your value proposition, market opportunity, and growth potential.
  • Keep it concise and support ideas with data.
  • Customize your summary to your audience. For example, emphasize finances and return on investment for venture capitalists.

Check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary for more guidance.

2. Market Opportunity

This is where you'll detail the opportunity in the market.

The main question I’d ask myself here is this: Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will my product fill that gap?

More specifically, here’s what I’d include in this section:

  • The size of the market
  • Current or potential market share
  • Trends in the industry and consumer behavior
  • Where the gap is
  • What caused the gap
  • How you intend to fill it

To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, you'll want to conduct a TAM, SAM, and SOM analysis and perform market research on your industry.

You may also benefit from creating a SWOT analysis to get some of the insights for this section.

Market Opportunity Business Plan Example

I like this example because it uses critical data to underline the size of the potential market and what part of that market this service hopes to capture.

Business plans examples: Market Opportunity

Tips for Writing Your Market Opportunity Section

  • Focus on demand and potential for growth.
  • Use market research, surveys, and industry trend data to support your market forecast and projections.
  • Add a review of regulation shifts, tech advances, and consumer behavior changes.
  • Refer to reliable sources.
  • Showcase how your business can make the most of this opportunity.

3. Competitive Landscape

Since we’re already speaking of market share, you'll also need to create a section that shares details on who the top competitors are.

After all, your customers likely have more than one brand to choose from, and you'll want to understand exactly why they might choose one over another.

My favorite part of performing a competitive analysis is that it can help you uncover:

  • Industry trends that other brands may not be utilizing
  • Strengths in your competition that may be obstacles to handle
  • Weaknesses in your competition that may help you develop selling points
  • The unique proposition you bring to the market that may resonate with customers

Competitive Landscape Business Plan Example

I like how the competitive landscape section of this business plan below shows a clear outline of who the top competitors are.

Business plans examples: Competitive Landscape

It also highlights specific industry knowledge and the importance of location, which shows useful experience in this specific industry. 

This can help build trust in your ability to execute your business plan.

Tips for Writing Your Competitive Landscape

  • Complete in-depth research, then emphasize your most important findings.
  • Compare your unique selling proposition (USP) to your direct and indirect competitors.
  • Show a clear and realistic plan for product and brand differentiation.
  • Look for specific advantages and barriers in the competitive landscape. Then, highlight how that information could impact your business.
  • Outline growth opportunities from a competitive perspective.
  • Add customer feedback and insights to support your competitive analysis.

4. Target Audience

Use this section to describe who your customer segments are in detail. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience?

If your immediate answer is "everyone," you'll need to dig deeper. Here are some questions I’d ask myself here:

  • What demographics will most likely need/buy your product or service?
  • What are the psychographics of this audience? (Desires, triggering events, etc.)
  • Why are your offerings valuable to them?

I’d also recommend building a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and be clear on why you're targeting them.

Target Audience Business Plan Example

I like the example below because it uses in-depth research to draw conclusions about audience priorities. It also analyzes how to create the right content for this audience.

Business plans examples: Target Audience

Tips for Writing Your Target Audience Section

  • Include details on the size and growth potential of your target audience.
  • Figure out and refine the pain points for your target audience , then show why your product is a useful solution.
  • Describe your targeted customer acquisition strategy in detail.
  • Share anticipated challenges your business may face in acquiring customers and how you plan to address them.
  • Add case studies, testimonials, and other data to support your target audience ideas.
  • Remember to consider niche audiences and segments of your target audience in your business plan.

5. Marketing Strategy

Here, you'll discuss how you'll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. I’d suggest including information:

  • Your brand positioning vision and how you'll cultivate it
  • The goal targets you aim to achieve
  • The metrics you'll use to measure success
  • The channels and distribution tactics you'll use

I think it’s helpful to have a marketing plan built out in advance to make this part of your business plan easier.

Marketing Strategy Business Plan Example

This business plan example includes the marketing strategy for the town of Gawler.

In my opinion, it really works because it offers a comprehensive picture of how they plan to use digital marketing to promote the community.

Business plans examples: Marketing Strategy

Tips for Writing Your Marketing Strategy

  • Include a section about how you believe your brand vision will appeal to customers.
  • Add the budget and resources you'll need to put your plan in place.
  • Outline strategies for specific marketing segments.
  • Connect strategies to earlier sections like target audience and competitive analysis.
  • Review how your marketing strategy will scale with the growth of your business.
  • Cover a range of channels and tactics to highlight your ability to adapt your plan in the face of change.

6. Key Features and Benefits

At some point in your business plan, you'll need to review the key features and benefits of your products and/or services.

Laying these out can give readers an idea of how you're positioning yourself in the market and the messaging you're likely to use. It can even help them gain better insight into your business model.

Key Features and Benefits Business Plan Example

In my opinion, the example below does a great job outlining products and services for this business, along with why these qualities will attract the audience.

Business plans examples: Key Features and Benefits

Tips for Writing Your Key Features and Benefits

  • Emphasize why and how your product or service offers value to customers.
  • Use metrics and testimonials to support the ideas in this section.
  • Talk about how your products and services have the potential to scale.
  • Think about including a product roadmap.
  • Focus on customer needs, and how the features and benefits you are sharing meet those needs.
  • Offer proof of concept for your ideas, like case studies or pilot program feedback.
  • Proofread this section carefully, and remove any jargon or complex language.

7. Pricing and Revenue

This is where you'll discuss your cost structure and various revenue streams. Your pricing strategy must be solid enough to turn a profit while staying competitive in the industry. 

For this reason, here’s what I’d might outline in this section:

  • The specific pricing breakdowns per product or service
  • Why your pricing is higher or lower than your competition's
  • (If higher) Why customers would be willing to pay more
  • (If lower) How you're able to offer your products or services at a lower cost
  • When you expect to break even, what margins do you expect, etc?

Pricing and Revenue Business Plan Example

I like how this business plan example begins with an overview of the business revenue model, then shows proposed pricing for key products.

Business plans examples: Pricing and Revenue

Tips for Writing Your Pricing and Revenue Section

  • Get specific about your pricing strategy. Specifically, how you connect that strategy to customer needs and product value.
  • If you are asking a premium price, share unique features or innovations that justify that price point.
  • Show how you plan to communicate pricing to customers.
  • Create an overview of every revenue stream for your business and how each stream adds to your business model as a whole.
  • Share plans to develop new revenue streams in the future.
  • Show how and whether pricing will vary by customer segment and how pricing aligns with marketing strategies.
  • Restate your value proposition and explain how it aligns with your revenue model.

8. Financials

To me, this section is particularly informative for investors and leadership teams to figure out funding strategies, investment opportunities, and more.

 According to Forbes , you'll want to include three main things:

  • Profit/Loss Statement - This answers the question of whether your business is currently profitable.
  • Cash Flow Statement - This details exactly how much cash is incoming and outgoing to give insight into how much cash a business has on hand.
  • Balance Sheet - This outlines assets, liabilities, and equity, which gives insight into how much a business is worth.

While some business plans might include more or less information, these are the key details I’d include in this section.

Financials Business Plan Example

This balance sheet is a great example of level of detail you’ll need to include in the financials section of your business plan.

Business plans examples: Financials

Tips for Writing Your Financials Section

  • Growth potential is important in this section too. Using your data, create a forecast of financial performance in the next three to five years.
  • Include any data that supports your projections to assure investors of the credibility of your proposal.
  • Add a break-even analysis to show that your business plan is financially practical. This information can also help you pivot quickly as your business grows.
  • Consider adding a section that reviews potential risks and how sensitive your plan is to changes in the market.
  • Triple-check all financial information in your plan for accuracy.
  • Show how any proposed funding needs align with your plans for growth.

As you create your business plan, keep in mind that each of these sections will be formatted differently. Some may be in paragraph format, while others could be charts or graphs.

The formats above apply to most types of business plans. That said, the format and structure of your plan will vary by your goals for that plan. 

So, I’ve added a quick review of different business plan types. For a more detailed overview, check out this post .

1. Startups

Startup business plans are for proposing new business ideas.

If you’re planning to start a small business, preparing a business plan is crucial. The plan should include all the major factors of your business.

You can check out this guide for more detailed business plan inspiration .

2. Feasibility Studies

Feasibility business plans focus on that business's product or service. Feasibility plans are sometimes added to startup business plans. They can also be a new business plan for an already thriving organization.

3. Internal Use

You can use internal business plans to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders. In my opinion, internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals.

4. Strategic Initiatives

Another business plan that's often for sharing internally is a strategic business plan. This plan covers long-term business objectives that might not have been included in the startup business plan.

5. Business Acquisition or Repositioning

When a business is moving forward with an acquisition or repositioning, it may need extra structure and support. These types of business plans expand on a company's acquisition or repositioning strategy.

Growth sometimes just happens as a business continues operations. But more often, a business needs to create a structure with specific targets to meet set goals for expansion. This business plan type can help a business focus on short-term growth goals and align resources with those goals.

Now that you know what's included and how to format a business plan, let's review some of my favorite templates.

1. HubSpot's One-Page Business Plan

Download a free, editable one-page business plan template..

The business plan linked above was created here at HubSpot and is perfect for businesses of any size — no matter how many strategies we still have to develop.

Fields such as Company Description, Required Funding, and Implementation Timeline give this one-page business plan a framework for how to build your brand and what tasks to keep track of as you grow.

Then, as the business matures, you can expand on your original business plan with a new iteration of the above document.

Why I Like It

This one-page business plan is a fantastic choice for the new business owner who doesn’t have the time or resources to draft a full-blown business plan. It includes all the essential sections in an accessible, bullet-point-friendly format. That way, you can get the broad strokes down before honing in on the details.

2. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

Sample business plan: hubspot free editable pdf

We also created a business plan template for entrepreneurs.

The template is designed as a guide and checklist for starting your own business. You’ll learn what to include in each section of your business plan and how to do it.

There’s also a list for you to check off when you finish each section of your business plan.

Strong game plans help coaches win games and help businesses rocket to the top of their industries. So if you dedicate the time and effort required to write a workable and convincing business plan, you’ll boost your chances of success and even dominance in your market.

This business plan kit is essential for the budding entrepreneur who needs a more extensive document to share with investors and other stakeholders.

It not only includes sections for your executive summary, product line, market analysis, marketing plan, and sales plan, but it also offers hands-on guidance for filling out those sections.

3. LiveFlow’s Financial Planning Template with built-in automation

Sample Business Plan: LiveFLow

This free template from LiveFlow aims to make it easy for businesses to create a financial plan and track their progress on a monthly basis.

The P&L Budget versus Actual format allows users to track their revenue, cost of sales, operating expenses, operating profit margin, net profit, and more.

The summary dashboard aggregates all of the data put into the financial plan sheet and will automatically update when changes are made.

Instead of wasting hours manually importing your data to your spreadsheet, LiveFlow can also help you to automatically connect your accounting and banking data directly to your spreadsheet, so your numbers are always up-to-date.

With the dashboard, you can view your runway, cash balance, burn rate, gross margins, and other metrics. Having a simple way to track everything in one place will make it easier to complete the financials section of your business plan.

This is a fantastic template to track performance and alignment internally and to create a dependable process for documenting financial information across the business. It’s highly versatile and beginner-friendly.

It’s especially useful if you don’t have an accountant on the team. (I always recommend you do, but for new businesses, having one might not be possible.)

4. ThoughtCo’s Sample Business Plan

sample business plan: ThoughtCo.

One of the more financially oriented sample business plans in this list, BPlan’s free business plan template dedicates many of its pages to your business’s financial plan and financial statements.

After filling this business plan out, your company will truly understand its financial health and the steps you need to take to maintain or improve it.

I absolutely love this business plan template because of its ease-of-use and hands-on instructions (in addition to its finance-centric components). If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of writing an entire business plan, consider using this template to help you with the process.

6. Harvard Business Review’s "How to Write a Winning Business Plan"

Most sample business plans teach you what to include in your business plan, but this Harvard Business Review article will take your business plan to the next level — it teaches you the why and how behind writing a business plan.

With the guidance of Stanley Rich and Richard Gumpert, co-authors of " Business Plans That Win: Lessons From the MIT Enterprise Forum ", you'll learn how to write a convincing business plan that emphasizes the market demand for your product or service.

You’ll also learn the financial benefits investors can reap from putting money into your venture rather than trying to sell them on how great your product or service is.

This business plan guide focuses less on the individual parts of a business plan, and more on the overarching goal of writing one. For that reason, it’s one of my favorites to supplement any template you choose to use. Harvard Business Review’s guide is instrumental for both new and seasoned business owners.

7. HubSpot’s Complete Guide to Starting a Business

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know writing a business plan is one of the most challenging first steps to starting a business.

Fortunately, with HubSpot's comprehensive guide to starting a business, you'll learn how to map out all the details by understanding what to include in your business plan and why it’s important to include them. The guide also fleshes out an entire sample business plan for you.

If you need further guidance on starting a business, HubSpot's guide can teach you how to make your business legal, choose and register your business name, and fund your business. It will also give small business tax information and includes marketing, sales, and service tips.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of starting a business, in addition to writing your business plan, with a high level of exactitude and detail. So if you’re in the midst of starting your business, this is an excellent guide for you.

It also offers other resources you might need, such as market analysis templates.

8. Panda Doc’s Free Business Plan Template

sample business plan: Panda Doc

PandaDoc’s free business plan template is one of the more detailed and fleshed-out sample business plans on this list. It describes what you should include in each section, so you don't have to come up with everything from scratch.

Once you fill it out, you’ll fully understand your business’ nitty-gritty details and how all of its moving parts should work together to contribute to its success.

This template has two things I love: comprehensiveness and in-depth instructions. Plus, it’s synced with PandaDoc’s e-signature software so that you and other stakeholders can sign it with ease. For that reason, I especially love it for those starting a business with a partner or with a board of directors.

9. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

sample business plan: Small Business Administration

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers several free business plan templates that can be used to inspire your own plan.

Before you get started, you can decide what type of business plan you need — a traditional or lean start-up plan.

Then, you can review the format for both of those plans and view examples of what they might look like.

We love both of the SBA’s templates because of their versatility. You can choose between two options and use the existing content in the templates to flesh out your own plan. Plus, if needed, you can get a free business counselor to help you along the way.

I’ve compiled some completed business plan samples to help you get an idea of how to customize a plan for your business.

I chose different types of business plan ideas to expand your imagination. Some are extensive, while others are fairly simple.

Let’s take a look.

1. LiveFlow

business plan example: liveflow

One of the major business expenses is marketing. How you handle your marketing reflects your company’s revenue.

I included this business plan to show you how you can ensure your marketing team is aligned with your overall business plan to get results. The plan also shows you how to track even the smallest metrics of your campaigns, like ROI and payback periods instead of just focusing on big metrics like gross and revenue.

Fintech startup, LiveFlow, allows users to sync real-time data from its accounting services, payment platforms, and banks into custom reports. This eliminates the task of pulling reports together manually, saving teams time and helping automate workflows.

"Using this framework over a traditional marketing plan will help you set a profitable marketing strategy taking things like CAC, LTV, Payback period, and P&L into consideration," explains LiveFlow co-founder, Lasse Kalkar .

When it came to including marketing strategy in its business plan, LiveFlow created a separate marketing profit and loss statement (P&L) to track how well the company was doing with its marketing initiatives.

This is a great approach, allowing businesses to focus on where their marketing dollars are making the most impact. Having this information handy will enable you to build out your business plan’s marketing section with confidence. LiveFlow has shared the template here . You can test it for yourself.

2. Lula Body

Business plan example: Lula body

Sometimes all you need is a solid mission statement and core values to guide you on how to go about everything. You do this by creating a business plan revolving around how to fulfill your statement best.

For example, Patagonia is an eco-friendly company, so their plan discusses how to make the best environmentally friendly products without causing harm.

A good mission statement  should not only resonate with consumers but should also serve as a core value compass for employees as well.

Patagonia has one of the most compelling mission statements I’ve seen:

"Together, let’s prioritise purpose over profit and protect this wondrous planet, our only home."

It reels you in from the start, and the environmentally friendly theme continues throughout the rest of the statement.

This mission goes on to explain that they are out to "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to protect nature."

Their mission statement is compelling and detailed, with each section outlining how they will accomplish their goal.

4. Vesta Home Automation

business plan example: Vesta executive summary

This executive summary for a smart home device startup is part of a business plan created by students at Mount Royal University .

While it lacks some of the sleek visuals of the templates above, its executive summary does a great job of demonstrating how invested they are in the business.

Right away, they mention they’ve invested $200,000 into the company already, which shows investors they have skin in the game and aren’t just looking for someone else to foot the bill.

This is the kind of business plan you need when applying for business funds. It clearly illustrates the expected future of the company and how the business has been coming along over the years.

5. NALB Creative Center

business plan examples: nalb creative center

This fictional business plan for an art supply store includes everything one might need in a business plan: an executive summary, a company summary, a list of services, a market analysis summary, and more.

One of its most notable sections is its market analysis summary, which includes an overview of the population growth in the business’ target geographical area, as well as a breakdown of the types of potential customers they expect to welcome at the store. 

This sort of granular insight is essential for understanding and communicating your business’s growth potential. Plus, it lays a strong foundation for creating relevant and useful buyer personas .

It’s essential to keep this information up-to-date as your market and target buyer changes. For that reason, you should carry out market research as often as possible to ensure that you’re targeting the correct audience and sharing accurate information with your investors.

Due to its comprehensiveness, it’s an excellent example to follow if you’re opening a brick-and-mortar store and need to get external funding to start your business .

6. Curriculum Companion Suites (CSS)

business plan examples: curriculum companion suites

If you’re looking for a SaaS business plan example, look no further than this business plan for a fictional educational software company called Curriculum Companion Suites. 

Like the business plan for the NALB Creative Center, it includes plenty of information for prospective investors and other key stakeholders in the business.

One of the most notable features of this business plan is the executive summary, which includes an overview of the product, market, and mission.

The first two are essential for software companies because the product offering is so often at the forefront of the company’s strategy. Without that information being immediately available to investors and executives, then you risk writing an unfocused business plan.

It’s essential to front-load your company’s mission if it explains your "Why?" and this example does just that. In other words, why do you do what you do, and why should stakeholders care? This is an important section to include if you feel that your mission will drive interest in the business and its offerings.

7. Culina Sample Business Plan

sample business plan: Culina

Culina's sample business plan is an excellent example of how to lay out your business plan so that it flows naturally, engages readers, and provides the critical information investors and stakeholders need. 

You can use this template as a guide while you're gathering important information for your own business plan. You'll have a better understanding of the data and research you need to do since Culina’s plan outlines these details so flawlessly for inspiration.

8. Plum Sample Business Plan

Sample business plan: Plum

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2 Essential Templates For Starting Your Business

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

Business Plan Template.

While your company’s goals might be crystal clear in your head, going in without a formal business plan could make things tricky. If the idea of creating one seems daunting, don’t worry. With a free business plan template, you can be up and running in no time. 

Discover more about how to create your ideal business plan and download free templates to get started here. 

Download Your Free Business Plan Template. 

Download your own free business plan template and jump right into planning your next venture. You can download a free business plan template with Adobe.  

outline of business plan template

Edit templates using Acrobat.

Explore Adobe’s online PDF editor . Add text, sticky notes, highlights, drawings and more to your PDF with ease. Work smart with Adobe. 

What you'll learn:

•   What is a Business Plan?

•   Why is a Business Plan important?

•   How to Write a Business Plan.

•   Download Your Free Business Plan Template.

What is a Business Plan?

Business plans define core business objectives and the strategies to achieve them, in the form of a written document. They’re key for all types of businesses - whether they’re small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), start-ups or individual entrepreneurs.  

Generally, a straightforward and simple business plan template can be divided into the following five sections: 

  • Executive summary
  • Business description and structure
  • Market analysis and strategies
  • Organisation and management
  • Financial documents.

Why is a Business Plan important? 

A good business plan can be a vital tool, as it can act as a guide through each stage of starting your company. When you’re lost, it can be your compass to get back to the right track and help you and your team realign with the original vision. Think of it as a map pointing you from now to the future.  

It can also be a helpful document for the relevant external parties, such as investors or lenders.  

Here are some key benefits: 

  • Outline and Clarify Goals . Using a business plan template can help you to define and set goals, helping you to easily pitch them when required. It can serve as an excellent touchstone, too. 
  • Identify Issues . By clearly outlining plans ahead of time, you may be able to identify issues early - whether in the planning stage or based on the reality of deliverables versus the plan. 
  • Secure Financing . Being able to confidently lay out your goals, analysis, forecasted spending, personnel requirements and business structure is a great way to build confidence and potentially secure financing. 
  • Measure Progress . By comparing progress against your goals, you can get a sense of a project’s timescale and forecast for any potential disruptions or changes. This means you can stay on track and better adapt to any unknowns. It may help you plan for the future, too. 

How to Write a Business Plan.

Building upon a business plan template may seem daunting - but when you break it down, it’s no more intimidating than planning a trip. Just like a holiday, it requires preparation and organisation, but can be exciting. It’s a chance to see all your ideas come together into something coherent and actionable. 

Important Sections to Include in Your Business Plan Template.

  • Business, Products and Key Objectives . This lets you set an overall scope for your business plan and serves as a fundamental part of your company. 
  • Target Market and Competition . Analysing your target market and competition lets you make informed business decisions and can help to justify your plan. 
  • Sales and Marketing Plans . Detailing your sales and marketing plans can help you to arrange KPIs in the future and show how you’re utilising the data from your market research. 
  • Operational Plans . This section details the day-to-day running of your business, giving an in-depth outline of strategies for specific teams or supply chains. 
  • Personnel Structure . Writing a personnel structure gives you a sense of key responsibilities and requirements within the wider business. This can be an excellent place to take note of the skills that roles might require, what you already have and what you might need. 
  • Financials . Breaking down the operational costs and funding required for your business can help you to set future goals and secure backing if required. 

Having a PDF printable business plan template makes things easier when it comes time to format, print and share it with potential stakeholders. If you want to change the file format of your business plan, you can easily convert PDF to Word   and back again. 

Sharing your business plan as a PDF also allows for easy collaboration, with no subscription required and the ability to add comments, highlights and notes with our free online PDF editor tool .  

Top Tips for Your Business Plan.

Writing a business plan template is easier with these top tips, so you can get off to a smooth start - whatever your project. 

  • Be Realistic . Being realistic about your business plan means you can make informed decisions and will have minimal friction as the project progresses. 
  • Understand Your Market . By demonstrating an understanding of your market, you can better inform decisions and plan. It also makes your vision an easier sell. 
  • Keep it Concise . Don’t waffle on or obscure important facts in jargon. If you want to add additional detail, create an appendix to expand on areas. 
  • Stay Professional . This is key, as your business plan serves as a reference point both for internal operations and potential business. 
  • Review Your Business Plan . During the process of creating a business plan, certain details may change and mistakes can be made. Review your plan to ensure everything is correct and to double-check if anything needs to change with any new information during the process. You can easily edit business plans in PDF with Adobe Acrobat PDF editor online . 

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COMMENTS

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