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550+ Business Plan Examples to Launch Your Business

Need help writing your business plan? Explore over 550 industry-specific business plan examples for inspiration. Go even further with LivePlan , which harnesses AI-assisted writing features and SBA-approved plan examples to get you funded.

Find your business plan example

Accounting, Insurance & Compliance Business Plans

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Children & Pets Business Plans

• Children's Education & Recreation
• View All 33

Cleaning, Repairs & Maintenance Business Plans

• Auto Detail & Repair
• Cleaning Products
• View All 40

Clothing & Fashion Brand Business Plans

• Clothing & Fashion Design
• View All 26

Construction, Architecture & Engineering Business Plans

• Architecture
• Construction
• View All 46

Consulting, Advertising & Marketing Business Plans

• Advertising
• View All 54

Education Business Plans

• Education Consulting
• Education Products

Business plan template: There's an easier way to get your business plan done.

Entertainment & Recreation Business Plans

• Entertainment
• Film & Television
• View All 60

Events Business Plans

• Event Planning
• View All 17

Farm & Agriculture Business Plans

• Agri-tourism
• Agriculture Consulting
• View All 16

Finance & Investing Business Plans

• Financial Planning
• View All 10

Fine Art & Crafts Business Plans

Fitness & Beauty Business Plans

• Salon & Spa
• View All 35

Food & Beverage Business Plans

• Bar & Brewery
• View All 81

Hotel & Lodging Business Plans

• Bed and Breakfast

Finish your plan faster with step-by-step guidance, financial wizards, and a proven format.

IT, Staffing & Customer Service Business Plans

• Administrative Services
• Customer Service
• View All 22

Manufacturing & Wholesale Business Plans

• Cleaning & Cosmetics Manufacturing
• View All 68

Medical & Health Business Plans

• Dental Practice
• Health Administration
• View All 41

Nonprofit Business Plans

• Co-op Nonprofit
• Food & Housing Nonprofit
• View All 13

Real Estate & Rentals Business Plans

• Equipment Rental
• View All 21

Retail & Ecommerce Business Plans

• Car Dealership
• View All 116

Technology Business Plans

• Apps & Software
• Communication Technology

Transportation, Travel & Logistics Business Plans

• Airline, Taxi & Shuttle
• View All 62

Example business plan format

Before you start exploring our library of business plan examples, it's worth taking the time to understand the traditional business plan format . You'll find that the plans in this library and most investor-approved business plans will include the following sections:

Executive summary

The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your plan and is ideally only one to two pages. You should also plan to write this section last after you've written your full business plan.

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, and your funding requirements (if you are raising money).

Products & services

The products & services chapter of your business plan is where the real meat of your plan lives. It includes information about the problem that you're solving, your solution, and any traction that proves that it truly meets the need you identified.

This is your chance to explain why you're in business and that people care about what you offer. It needs to go beyond a simple product or service description and get to the heart of why your business works and benefits your customers.

Market analysis

Conducting a market analysis ensures that you fully understand the market that you're entering and who you'll be selling to. This section is where you will showcase all of the information about your potential customers. You'll cover your target market as well as information about the growth of your market and your industry. Focus on outlining why the market you're entering is viable and creating a realistic persona for your ideal customer base.

Competition

Part of defining your opportunity is determining what your competitive advantage may be. To do this effectively you need to get to know your competitors just as well as your target customers. Every business will have competition, if you don't then you're either in a very young industry or there's a good reason no one is pursuing this specific venture.

To succeed, you want to be sure you know who your competitors are, how they operate, necessary financial benchmarks, and how you're business will be positioned. Start by identifying who your competitors are or will be during your market research. Then leverage competitive analysis tools like the competitive matrix and positioning map to solidify where your business stands in relation to the competition.

Marketing & sales

The marketing and sales plan section of your business plan details how you plan to reach your target market segments. You'll address how you plan on selling to those target markets, what your pricing plan is, and what types of activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success.

The operations section covers the day-to-day workflows for your business to deliver your product or service. What's included here fully depends on the type of business. Typically you can expect to add details on your business location, sourcing and fulfillment, use of technology, and any partnerships or agreements that are in place.

Milestones & metrics

The milestones section is where you lay out strategic milestones to reach your business goals.

A good milestone clearly lays out the parameters of the task at hand and sets expectations for its execution. You'll want to include a description of the task, a proposed due date, who is responsible, and eventually a budget that's attached. You don't need extensive project planning in this section, just key milestones that you want to hit and when you plan to hit them.

You should also discuss key metrics, which are the numbers you will track to determine your success. Some common data points worth tracking include conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, profit, etc.

Company & team

Use this section to describe your current team and who you need to hire. If you intend to pursue funding, you'll need to highlight the relevant experience of your team members. Basically, this is where you prove that this is the right team to successfully start and grow the business. You will also need to provide a quick overview of your legal structure and history if you're already up and running.

Financial projections

Your financial plan should include a sales and revenue forecast, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and a balance sheet. You may not have established financials of any kind at this stage. Not to worry, rather than getting all of the details ironed out, focus on making projections and strategic forecasts for your business. You can always update your financial statements as you begin operations and start bringing in actual accounting data.

Now, if you intend to pitch to investors or submit a loan application, you'll also need a "use of funds" report in this section. This outlines how you intend to leverage any funding for your business and how much you're looking to acquire. Like the rest of your financials, this can always be updated later on.

The appendix isn't a required element of your business plan. However, it is a useful place to add any charts, tables, definitions, legal notes, or other critical information that supports your plan. These are often lengthier or out-of-place information that simply didn't work naturally into the structure of your plan. You'll notice that in these business plan examples, the appendix mainly includes extended financial statements.

Types of business plans explained

While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. To get the most out of your plan, it's best to find a format that suits your needs. 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 for external purposes. Typically this is the type of plan you'll need when applying for funding or pitching to investors. It can also be used when training or hiring employees, working with vendors, or in any other situation where the full details of your business must be understood by another individual.

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.

The structure ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template. It encourages you to build connections between every element of your business. It's faster to write out and update, and much easier for you, your team, and anyone else to visualize your business operations.

One-page business plan

The true middle ground between the business model canvas and a traditional business plan is the one-page business plan . This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business.

By starting with a one-page plan , you give yourself a minimal document to build from. You'll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences making it much easier to elaborate or expand sections into a longer-form business plan.

Growth planning

Growth planning is more than a specific type of business plan. It's 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, forecast, review, and refine based on your performance.

It holds all of the benefits of the single-page plan, including the potential to complete it in as little as 27 minutes . However, it's even easier to convert into a more detailed plan thanks to how heavily it's tied to your financials. The overall goal of growth planning isn't to just produce documents that you use once and shelve. Instead, the growth planning process helps you build a healthier company that thrives in times of growth and remain stable through times of crisis.

It's faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your plan is always up-to-date.

Download a free sample business plan template

Ready to start writing your own plan but aren't sure where to start? Download our free business plan template that's been updated for 2023.

This simple, modern, investor-approved business plan template is designed to make planning easy. It's a proven format that has helped over 1 million businesses write business plans for bank loans, funding pitches, business expansion, and even business sales. It includes additional instructions for how to write each section and is formatted to be SBA-lender approved. All you need to do is fill in the blanks.

How to use an example business plan to help you write your own

How do you know what elements need to be included in your business plan, especially if you've never written one before? Looking at examples can help you visualize what a full, traditional plan looks like, so you know what you're aiming for before you get started. Here's how to get the most out of a sample business plan.

Choose a business plan example from a similar type of company

You don't need to find an example business plan that's an exact fit for your business. Your business location, target market, and even your particular product or service may not match up exactly with the plans in our gallery. But, you don't need an exact match for it to be helpful. Instead, look for a plan that's related to the type of business you're starting.

For example, if you want to start a vegetarian restaurant, a plan for a steakhouse can be a great match. While the specifics of your actual startup will differ, the elements you'd want to include in your restaurant's business plan are likely to be very similar.

Use a business plan example as a guide

Every startup and small business is unique, so you'll want to avoid copying an example business plan word for word. It just won't be as helpful, since each business is unique. You want your plan to be a useful tool for starting a business —and getting funding if you need it.

One of the key benefits of writing a business plan is simply going through the process. When you sit down to write, you'll naturally think through important pieces, like your startup costs, your target market , and any market analysis or research you'll need to do to be successful.

You'll also look at where you stand among your competition (and everyone has competition), and lay out your goals and the milestones you'll need to meet. Looking at an example business plan's financials section can be helpful because you can see what should be included, but take them with a grain of salt. Don't assume that financial projections for a sample company will fit your own small business.

If you're looking for more resources to help you get started, our business planning guide is a good place to start. You can also download our free business plan template , or get started right away with LivePlan .

Think of business planning as a process, instead of a document

Think about business planning as something you do often , rather than a document you create once and never look at again. If you take the time to write a plan that really fits your own company, it will be a better, more useful tool to grow your business. It should also make it easier to share your vision and strategy so everyone on your team is on the same page.

Adjust your plan regularly to use it as a business management tool

Keep in mind that businesses that use their plan as a management tool to help run their business grow 30 percent faster than those businesses that don't. For that to be true for your company, you'll think of a part of your business planning process as tracking your actual results against your financial forecast on a regular basis.

If things are going well, your plan will help you think about how you can re-invest in your business. If you find that you're not meeting goals, you might need to adjust your budgets or your sales forecast. Either way, tracking your progress compared to your plan can help you adjust quickly when you identify challenges and opportunities—it's one of the most powerful things you can do to grow your business.

Prepare to pitch your business

If you're planning to pitch your business to investors or seek out any funding, you'll need a pitch deck to accompany your business plan. A pitch deck is designed to inform people about your business. You want your pitch deck to be short and easy to follow, so it's best to keep your presentation under 20 slides.

Your pitch deck and pitch presentation are likely some of the first things that an investor will see to learn more about your company. So, you need to be informative and pique their interest. Luckily, just like you can leverage an example business plan template to write your plan, we also have a gallery of over 50 pitch decks for you to reference.

With this gallery, you have the option to view specific industry pitches or get inspired by real-world pitch deck examples. Or for a modern pitch solution that helps you create a business plan and pitch deck side-by-side, you may want to check out LivePlan . It will help you build everything needed for outside investment and to better manage your business.

Get LivePlan in your classroom

Are you an educator looking for real-world business plan examples for your students? With LivePlan, you give your students access to industry-best business plans and help them set goals and track metrics with spreadsheet-free financial forecasts. All of this within a single tool that includes additional instructional resources that work seamlessly alongside your current classroom setup.

With LivePlan, it's not just a classroom project. It's your students planning for their futures. Click here to learn more about business planning for students .

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Now that you know how to use an example business plan to help you write a plan for your business, it's time to find the right one.

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24 Best Sample Business Plans & Examples to Help You Write Your Own

Published: August 17, 2023

Free Business Plan Template

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Reading sample business plans is essential when you’re writing your own. As you explore business plan examples from real companies and brands, you’ll learn how to write one that gets your business off on the right foot, convinces investors to provide funding, and confirms your venture is sustainable for the long term.

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But what does a business plan look like? And how do you write one that is viable and convincing? Let's review the ideal business plan formally, then take a look at business plan templates and samples you can use to inspire your own.

Business Plan Format

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. 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. Referencing one will keep you on the path toward success. And if your business plan is compelling enough, it can also convince investors to give you funding.

With so much at stake, you might be wondering, "Where do I start? How should I format this?"

Typically, a business plan is a document that will detail how a company will achieve its goals.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Fill out the form to get your free template.

Most business plans include the following sections:

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary is arguably the most important section of the entire business plan. 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.

Most executive summaries include:

• Mission statement
• Company history and leadership
• Competitive advantage overview
• Financial projections
• Company goals

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, including only the most important takeaways.

Executive Summary Business Plan Examples

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

And the executive summary below tells potential investors a short story that covers all the most important details this business plan will cover in a succinct and interesting way.

Image Source

Tips for Writing Your Executive Summary

• 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. Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will your product fill that gap?

In this section, you might include:

• 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

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

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

Speaking of market share, you'll 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. Performing a competitive analysis 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

The competitive landscape section of the business plan below shows a clear outline of who the top competitors are. 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

This section will 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. Ask yourself:

• 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?

It can be helpful to build 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

The example below uses in-depth research to draw conclusions about audience priorities. It also analyzes how to create the right content for this 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. You might consider including information on:

• The 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

It can help to already have a marketing plan built out to help you with this part of your business plan.

Marketing Strategy Business Plan Example

This business plan example includes the marketing strategy for the town of Gawler. It offers a comprehensive picture of how it plans to use digital marketing to promote the community.

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 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

The example below outlines products and services for this business, along with why these qualities will attract the audience.

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, you might outline:

• 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

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

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

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 you'll want to include.

Financials Business Plan Example

This balance sheet example shows the level of detail you will need to include in the financials section of your business plan:

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.

Business Plan Types

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, we’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. 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.

Sample Business Plan Templates

Now that you know what's included and how to format a business plan, let's review some 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 We 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

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

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. (We always recommend you do, but for new businesses, having one might not be possible.)

4. ThoughtCo’s Sample Business Plan

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.

We 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 our 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

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 we 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, we 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

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.

Top Business Plan Examples

Here are some completed business plan samples to get an idea of how to customize a plan for your business. We’ve chosen different types of business plan ideas to expand your imagination. Some are extensive, while others are fairly simple.

Take a look.

1. LiveFlow

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

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.

"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 .

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

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.

Outdoor clothing retailer, Patagonia, has one of the most compelling mission statements we’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

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.

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.

5. 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. 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 .

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.

6. Curriculum Companion Suites (CSS)

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 also essential to front-load your company’s mission if it explains your "Why?" 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

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 also use this template as a guide while you're gathering important details. After looking at this sample, you'll have a better understanding of the data and research you need to do for your own business plan.

8. Plum Sample Business Plan

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The 5 Best Business Plan Examples and Templates

Kate williams.

15 November 2023

Table Of Contents

• Business plan examples
• What to include?
• How to conduct market research

Do you need some business plan examples to come up with your own?

Every business needs a plan. If you want to build a thriving company, you need to invest in creating a business strategy. The business world is cruel, cut-throat, and incredibly competitive. You need to find out what you can offer to your customers and how best you can do that- and it requires a strategic business plan.

“Without a plan, even the most brilliant business can get lost. You need to have goals, create milestones and have a strategy in place to set yourself up for success”- Yogi Berra.

In this article, we’ll cover:

The best business plan examples and templates

Basic elements that make a good business plan

How to do market research for your business plan

The 5 Best Free Business Plan Examples and Templates in 2022

1. the one-pager plan.

Here is an example of a simple business plan that will take only one page. A one-page plan will be easier to share with others and have less information for those who don’t have the time to pore through the details. It will be a great thing to giveaway after an elevator pitch.

It will include the following:

• Business Opportunity: What is the problem that you are solving?
• Team: Who are the different stakeholders involved in the company? Why are they the right person to build the brand?
• Target Market: Which is the area that you are targeting? Who are your ideal customers, buyer personas, and audience segments?
• Implementation timeline: When will the business be up and running? What are the resources that you will employ for that?
• Financial Summary: Where is the funding coming from? How much funding is required?

The above fields are enough to prepare a quick business plan example.

2. Bplans Business Plan Example

This one is a bit detailed in nature. Let’s go through it.

Executive Summary

• Problem Summary
• Solution Summary
• Market Summary
• Competition

Expectations

• Financial Highlights by Year [chart]
• Financing Needed

Opportunity

• Problem & Solution
• Target Market
• Competition (Current Alternatives and Our Advantages)
• Marketing & Sales Plan
• Operations (Locations & Facilities, Technology, and Equipment & Tools)
• Milestones & Metrics (Milestones Table and Key Metrics)
• Team (Management Team and Advisors)

Financial Plan

• Forecast (Key Assumptions, Revenue by Month [chart], Expenses by Month [chart], Net Profit (or Loss) by Year [chart])
• Financing (Use of Funds and Sources of Funds)
• Statements (Projected Profit & Loss, Projected Balance Sheet, and Projected Cash Flow Statement)
• Monthly Financial Forecasts
• Additional Documentation

Elaborating on each of the above points gives you enough fodder to make someone on the other side understand your business as well as enough firepower to get started on implementing each of the sections.

3. HubSpot’s Business Plan Template

This is also a comprehensive template that can be used to create a business plan from scratch. Once you have added content to all the fields in this business plan example, you can share it with your investors and stakeholders.

You can add a one or two-page overview of the business here. The executive summary should include a mission statement, company history, leadership model, competitive advantage, financial projections, and company goals.

Company and Business Description

In this section, you can provide a description of your business, describe the products and services you will be offering, talk about your target market, and why your business plan will work. Describe your mission and vision statement, core values, team, and organization structure.

Products and Services

Talk about your product and service offerings. Mention your pricing structure as well.

Market Analysis

Share details about the market that you are targeting and talk about the reason behind doing so. Highlight the demographics and psychographics, including the size of your addressable market. Also, talk about your buyer personas and a competitive analysis report.

Marketing and Sales Plan

You can talk about your positioning strategy, the acquisition channels you plan to use, including the tools and technologies.

Explain how you intend to get leads. What does your inbound and outbound sales strategy look like? What are the different channels that you will be using?

Legal Notes

What type of legal structure do you plan to follow? List out the legal considerations that you plan to keep in mind to operate smoothly.

Financial Considerations

No matter how good a product you have, if you do not possess the funding to run the business, then it will surely go belly up. You should have a solid financial strategy in place.

You can use the executive summary example business plan link to get a detailed understanding of the business plan.

4. US Small Business Administration (SBA) Business Plan Example

If you take a look at Andrew’s business plan by using the link, you will find a comprehensive plan for ‘Wooden Grain Toy Company.’ The company manufactures high-quality toys that are made from solid hardwoods. The target audience for the toys are adults who are in a position to buy for the kids.

The business plan (for which the link has been provided) contains a detailed description of the customers, competitive advantages, the regulations that they are supposed to follow, product lifecycle, pricing structure, and so on. It also talks about how they plan to conduct research and development for the company. The example of a marketing plan that they have in place is also described in the business plan document.

5. US SBA Service Business Plan Example

In the previous example, we considered a business plan example for a product-based company. Here, we consider a consulting company called ‘We Can Do It Consulting.’ The services include office management and business process reengineering.

In this business plan example, the service company we are considering aims to provide services to business owners, CEOs, HR directors, product managers, presidents who are looking to increase their productivity and reduce overhead expenses.

The business plan example also talks about their requirements for the future. It mentions the list of services that they offer, in detail. They mention their pricing structure based on the hourly charges of each of the professionals such as Account Executive, Project Manager, Business Analyst, Process Analyst, and so on.

It also talks about their efforts in R&D. They plan to create custom technology for manufacturers of vehicles. The service company is also intent on finding trends in software solutions to provide competitive automated services to create a niche for themselves in the industry. This is a good example of a business plan PDF that you can use as a template.

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What does a good business plan include?

There are a number of sections that make up a business plan which covers every single part of the business. The more detailed the business plan, the easier it is for investors to validate their investment decisions and for the entrepreneur to execute their ideas.

Let us look at each of the sections in a traditional business plan sample.

Business Summary

This section provides an overview of the business. It usually includes

• Mission and Vision Statement
• About the Company
• Goals of the company
• Company’s differentiators
• Technologies Used
• Financial charts

Sometimes, a few of the above topics will be discussed in detail in the other sections of the free business plan template .

Company Description

Provide detailed information about your company. What are the specific business problems that you aim to solve? How are you better suited to handle them? What are the specific skill sets that your company possesses? Do you have the right location for your physical store? If you are planning to set up an online store, do you plan to outsource the development or do you have an in-house team of developers?

The next step is to present information about the market that you are targeting. You cannot sell ice to an Eskimo. In the same way, the products and services that you offer to your potential customers should be relevant to what they are looking for.

You can include the following in this section:

• Market size
• Population in the market
• What products/services would they be interested in?
• Market trends
• Competitor’s market shares
• Why would they be interested in your products?

Company Structure

This section will give ideas about the company’s structure, leaders in the organization, hierarchy, and so on. It should also spell out the legal structure of your business . The company structure should also mention how the unique experience of each of your employees will add to the success of the organization.

Here, you need to mention the products and services that you plan to offer. It should explain how it will help the end consumer. Share points related to intellectual property, copyright, patent filings, and other relevant documents. If there is ongoing research related to your offerings, mention that as well. It will increase the validity of your business plan.

In this section, you need to showcase the funding details. Money runs businesses. If you do not have enough funding, it will not be possible to pay vendors, employees, suppliers, etc. You should also give an idea of how much funding you will require for the next 2 or 3 years. If there is a source of funding for the future, you might want to disclose that as well.

Competitive Landscape

Find out who the top competitors in your niche are. Try to gather as much intelligence as possible about how they go about their business. Why should your target customers leave your competitors and buy from you? By doing a competitive analysis, you can get an answer for this.

Target market

What does your most ideal customer look like? Without this piece of information, your whole marketing plan will go kaput. You will be targeting even people who will never be your customers. You need to segment your customers based on demographic and psychographic factors.

Build buyer personas to find your ideal customers and it will also help you get an idea of the reasons behind targeting them. Your marketing strategies will be more refined once you know your buyer personas. Every business will have at least 3 to 7 buyer personas and creating personalized content for each of them should be one of your core marketing activities.

Marketing activities

No matter how good a product you have, you cannot sell it if people don’t know that it exists in the first place. Marketing campaigns are so important to your business’ success. While there is no hard and fast rule in marketing as it is quite dynamic, you need to present an outline of the strategies that you plan to implement. A marketing strategy template should be a separate article as there are a number of variables in it.

How to do market research for a business plan

You need to be specific about what you need to know when conducting a market research survey. The data that you gather from market research can be used for a number of purposes. It depends on the kind of objectives you have.

• Is it to ask what people think about your product?
• Do you want to know more about your target audience to refine their details?
• Would you like to know about the channels that they frequent?
• Are you looking to understand the reasons behind why they chose your competitors?

Insights from any of the above objectives will bring you closer to achieving your goals. You need to choose the right marketing tool to get the answers that you are looking for.

SurveySparrow is a powerful online survey tool that lets you ask a variety of questions using a number of attractive features.

Here’s how to use SurveySparrow to conduct market research for your business plan:

Design your survey

The first step is to design an attractive survey. It involves choosing the right questions and question types. If you want to understand more about your market, then you need to ask the respondents questions about their expectations from a product similar to yours, why they choose that particular product, what are the functionalities they use the most in that particular market, and so on.

Do remember that the longer the survey, the chances of a less number of responses are there. Break the surveys into multiple sections so that it is easy for the respondent to finish the survey.

Test your surveys

Before you send the survey to the audience, ensure that there are no technical hiccups. Proofread the questions. Try to understand the relevance of each question in the survey. Do remember that your objective is to understand more about the market. So ask yourself this — ”Are the questions relevant to the objective of the survey?” If not, immediately discard them.

Make sure you are leveraging all the advanced features of the online survey tool. Test the survey internally and see how the results pan out. Once you are sure that the surveys can be presented to your audience, send them to your audience.

Survey Analysis

Once you have all the answers to your survey questions, you will be able to see the results in an attractive dashboard. The insights gathered from the tool will help you make a powerful business plan. SurveySparrow offers a variety of visually appealing ways in which you can view the results. Every insight that you gather from your prospective customer base should be considered in your business plan.

Add the feedback to the business plan

The next step is all about considering the insights gathered from the market research survey into your business plan example. It will add more credence to your plan as the data gathered is that of your prospective employees. They can also be used for sales projections, inventory estimation, and so on.

Wrapping up

A business plan is the first step towards building a successful enterprise. There are a lot of risks involved with starting a business. You need to be careful of each step that you take and consider every single variable, starting from funding required to operational planning examples. Taking the right steps will help your business grow, but even a minor tactical oversight can result in losses.

For those who are looking to start their own business, the above article will be really helpful. Some of the templates can be taken as business plan examples for students too, not just for professionals.

If you are looking for an online survey tool that will help you draft irresistible business plans, check out SurveySparrow. When you are not sure about the kind of questions that you need to add to your business plans, you can even choose the business plan templates available with SurveySparrow. Get in touch with us to understand how we can help you create strategic business plans with our survey tool.

Content Marketer at SurveySparrow

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317 Business Planning Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best business planning topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on business planning, 🎓 simple & easy business planning essay titles, 📌 most interesting business planning topics to write about, 💡 interesting topics to write about business planning, 🔎 good research topics about business planning, 💯 free business planning essay topic generator.

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• MAC Cosmetics Business Plan Case Study The business strategies and founding principles of MAC are extremely simple yet very effective in terms of contributing to the success of the company.
• Business Plan for Star Fitness Center Those living and working in the city will have the opportunity to use the facility that is equipped with the latest technology for body fitness.
• Business Plan for First Choice Car Rent In addition, the management of the first choice will use quality marketing strategy in order to create the awareness of the services and product of the company to the customer.
• Innovation Enterprise and Winning the Bid – Business plan Therefore, the aim of Event Pace Group is to introduce the software product to the market and enable players in the industry promote efficiency and increase revenue.
• Online Grocery Store Business Plan The mission of the business is to provide fast and reliable delivery of groceries and consumer goods to all the esteemed customers at the comfort of their homes.
• Creating an Online Business Expansion Plan for Healthcare Products There are scripts that will be embedded in the website to optimize the website’s findability through search engines and this is intended to increase flow of traffic to the website which ultimately is intended to […]
• Business Plan for Stay Fit and Healthy Club Mission of Stay Fit and Healthy Club is to provide training programs that relate to health care services and come up with strategies that will promote healthy living among the people of Florida, as well […]
• Business Plan: Consultancy Services Objectives To investigate the business challenges that lead to the early failure of start-up businesses To determine the entrepreneurial skills necessary for start-up business to be successful To establish the type of offerings necessary for […]
• The Business Plan Idea and Outline After establishing the restaurant in one of the major cities in United Arabs Emirates, the restaurant is expected to expand as a chain of fast food restaurants to other parts of United Arabs Emirates as […]
• Business Plan: Coffee Shop Report The main reason for positioning itself in this segment is that the business has the opportunity of incorporating new features to the existing services to cater for the changing demands and needs of our targeted […]
• Chocolate Business Plan To give a practical experience of the concepts and issues involved in the preparation of a business plan In doing an industry analysis of UK’s high-end chocolate industry this business plan uses the Porter’s five […]
• Business Plan of Agro-Wrom in 2010 The product development plan will tell the consumer the purpose of bringing a new product or service into the market and the necessary marketing strategy that the company intends to follow in order to achieve […]
• Business Plan of ABC Fitness Center In the content of advertise, the ABC center will highlight the positive sites, emphasis on the importance of fitness center in public health, environment of this center, and the advantages of the membership.
• Business Plan for Zeek’s Music Shop In addition, the company will obtain these products and services from a wide range of sources in order to meet the demands of the clients.
• Texas Religious Music Promotion Company Business Plan The company’s long-term goal is to be the leading company in the music promotion services in public and private events within Texas in the next three years.
• Non-Profit Religious Music Promotion Business Plan Among the most viable external funding sources available for the Texas Religious Music Promotion Company include loan capital in the form of bank overdraft or bank loan, engaging external investors and convincing business angels to […]
• Texas Religious Music Company Business Plan Texas Religious Music Company believes that excellent customer service and professionalism in provisions of services would be the key to its success in a competitive music industry of the US.
• Business Plan – Fitness Center The aim of this business is to curb the burgeoning problem of a sedentary lifestyle in Saudi Arabia. Close to 30% of the population fall within the criteria, the fitness center is interested in.
• Marketing Business Plan The organization’s strategy will thus be tailored in such a way so as to offer the needed services to the mass market. This will enhance the ability of the organization to extend its operations to […]
• Addicted 2 Football Business Plan Principally, the advertising of the filming will show the quality of the work I will be producing. The equipment to be purchased will show the quality of the professionals.
• New Venture Business Plan The peculiar feature of the chosen concept is to prove that bakery is not just the sphere for people to work in. The idea to create a bakery shop with a number of services offered […]
• Neptune Gourmet Seafood Business Planning In the case of Neptune Gourmet Seafood, there are a number of actions the company can undertake, in order to place itself in a strategic position.
• Risk Register and Business Contingency Plan A review of the BCP will need to be done and all the procedures followed. There should also be a re-examination of the resources that will be crucial to the recovery process.
• Business Plan of the Art Wheelchairs Company The second goal of the company is to ensure that the wheelchair venture is profitable in the short run and in the long run.
• DL Limited Company Business Plan The known firm to the public is Sterling Company and therefore DL limited will have to strategic market itself to be recognized as the provider of distant learning services to client universities.
• Business Plan for Cloud Sec The main goal is to deliver security protection over Cloud to savvy mobile device users and businesses.”Security, trust, dependability and privacy are issues that have to be considered over the whole life-cycle of the […]
• Business Plan of Sports Center Consequently, the mission of Sports Center is to meet the needs and requirements of our target market by providing them with aftermarket products within the skating industry.
• Summary Business Plan of KenSpo In the course of its operation, KenSpo is committed at providing customers with high quality products; consequently the firm will outsource experienced sports footwear designers to aid in the designing and development of the new […]
• Little Angels Nursery Daycare Center Business Plan Nonetheless, marketing is very beneficial as it seeks to inform the target audience about the salient features of the nursery daycare programs and the competitive advantages; this will help in erasing all the doubts that […]
• Strategic Business Plan: Small Size Dog Boarding Business Business Goals/ Objectives The goal is to transform the speed of the entire business structure and the business environment that affects every sphere of the internal communication issues in the business.
• Kids Designed Craft Cards: E-Business Planning According to Bhusry, it is important for a firm to come up with an appropriate model that will be able to respond to the market dynamics in order to enable a firm succeed in the […]
• Plush Café Business Plan The objectives are to: Provide top selling meals and snacks from the best home cooks in the country Offer homemade meals and desserts from the best ten online cuisine businesses Offer the convenience of enjoying […]
• Business Plan Competitions After analyzing the effects of business plan competitions on the organizers, community and the participants, it is with no doubt that, the events are very valuable.
• LeBanze Automotive Company Business Plan The LeBanze Automotive Company team will identify unique characteristics of their SUVs by comparing with the SUVs of the competitors, assess the emotional demand from the perspective of the customers, and find out the limitations […]
• The Business Plan: JAMA Company Mission Statement The mission of the JAMA Company is to provide the high-quality services in relation to normal cleaning, outside polishing, and full polishing in order to satisfy the customers’ needs with references to the […]
• Best Bet Business Plan This will ease the transport complications for the clients and it will be convenient for the business as well. This will ease the transport complications for the clients and it will be convenient for the […]
• Timberlake Soap Manufacturer Business Plan The characteristics of the company’s product will be uniquely differentiated in design, functionality, and value. This will allow the company to expand and maintain its market share.
• How to Write a Great Business Plan An effective business plan should show that the venture’s team has the experience and ability to manage the business. The business plan should indicate who the customers in the new venture are, customers’ patterns of […]
• Business Plan For Second Cup’s Coffee Outlet Startup Among the alternatives given, it is recommended that the two principal co-owners come up with a market entry approach that will bring together three partners the co-owners as the benefactor custodians of the business, Second […]
• Car Detailing Business: Strategic Plan Eventually, such strategies and tactics will greatly help in increasing the sales volume of the company and the number of customers that the company would be serving.
• Smart Cup Coffee Shop Business Plan The Canadian and the US coffee market attributes represent the similar consumption dynamics; only difference is that the juice and bottling beverage and water consumption in the US-market is higher while the Canadian market is […]
• Car Wash Business Marketing Plan in Saudi Arabia As a result, the number of automobiles on the Saudi Arabian market is approximately 9 million, a factor that facilitates the successful creation and development of car wash business in the region. 6 million cars, […]
• Nonprofit Organization Business Plan Strategic planning is the most efficient way of the organization as far as it presupposes the analysis of the problematic aspects, and employment of the systemic approach.
• The Road Side Service Business Plan Project The idea of starting a road side cab services business was driven through our minds due to the fact that it is a highly profitable business based on the fact that many people are becoming […]
• Business Start-up Plan for a Car Wash in UK To characterize the car wash most precisely, it is necessary to mention that, unlike most of the modern car washes, it is going to comprise the machine, conveyor-belt approach and the help[ of the qualified […]
• ILK Cement Company Business Plan The cement industry in the US is one of the main industries that have been characterized by an increased level of competition where each organization is determined to win the largest share in the market.
• Exclusive Weddings Website: Planning for E-Business Popularity and profitability of the Exclusive Weddings website depend on the effective planning and organization of the business’s operations, management, budgeting, and security, along with the development and implementation of the e-business strategy. The top […]
• New Motor Company Business Plan The web-website has inbuilt features that enable the company’s operations manager to add/delete products, control the provision of spare parts, assess the status of the existing stock, and find the products that are out of […]
• Spurs Airlines Company Business Plan Houston is the main hub of Spurs Airline because it has the potential for a wide range of business operations for the company.
• S&S Recycling: A Business Plan S&S Recycling is a company that collects recycled material and offers it to the companies that produce their goods from recycled resources.
• S&S Marketing Overview: Business Plan Analysis Since the S&S Recycling Company is going to offer a number of various recycled materials, such as appliances, metal items, mostly the objects made of aluminum, it will be necessary to restrict the target market […]
• The High-quality Mobile Apps Company Business Plan The company’s niche is the development and the production of the high-quality mobile apps that allow a customer and a driver cooperate on the mutually beneficial basis.
• Replay Plastics Company Business Plan Replay Plastics will take advantage of both increased market for the recycled plastics and the huge availability of raw materials to establish in the American market.
• Effective Business Planning: HR and Data Management One of the most valuable reasons to promote the participation of HR in the business planning is the relation between the construction of executable plan and consideration of the special skills and knowledge possessed by […]
• Developing a Partnership Business Plan The main objective of the business will be to provide consulting services to different clients and companies. The nature of the business will ensure the company provides quality consulting services to every client.
• New Clothing Store Business Plan The above section of this paper shows that the market potential for Alice’s petite shop is 20%. This means that Alice’s market share is limited to 10% of the existing fashion market.
• Green Lighting Company Business Plan The product targets retail companies in the US, which are engrossed in using the LED lighting to reduce lighting costs. The main objective of the firm is to fill the gap in the lighting sector […]
• ICare Solutions Company Business Plan Our vision is to become a market leader in the development and sale of cost-effective external reporting solutions to long-term care providers.iCare Solutions is a start-up company that specialises in the development and sale of […]
• The Liquid Innovations Company Business Plan The company is of the view that pursuing this mission will lead to the development of a high level of customer satisfaction. The firm’s success in the non-alcoholic beverage industry will be subject to the […]
• Mrhb Car Safety Ltd Business Plan The market for drowsy driver detection systems is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 7% in the next five years. The vision of the company is to be the leading manufacturer of […]
• Starlight Computer Solutions Ltd Business Plan A business plan refers to a formal presentation of business goals, how the business intends to achieve the goals, and the reasons for choosing those goals.
• Electronica Enterprises’ Business Plan The business will also be offering after sell services to our customers to attract them. Our customers will be in a position to order service and the devices online.
• Fitness Express Ltd Business Plan Fitness and sporting market continues to grow in Australia and New Zealand. The vision of the company is premised on delivering fitness and sporting gears to customers as quickly and efficiently as possible in […]
• UAE Tours Company’s Business Plan UAE Tours boasts an important competitive advantage over the other tour operators in Abu Dubai in that it will actively develop strategic partnerships with high profile events in the regions and the many of the […]
• The Eelites Hotel Business Plan The hotel industry in the UAE is doing much better as the demand for hotel services increases. Eelites Hotel will bring quality and affordable services to the people living in Dubai.
• Eden Land Firm’ Business Plan The firm will endeavor to produce Eden a healthy drink, which is one of the most quality pure water in the market.
• Office Furniture and Stationery Store Business Plan The entrepreneurs selected the name ‘The ABC Office Furniture and Stationery Store’ for this proposed business; however, the entrepreneurs will establish this private company in order to meet local market demand for office furniture and […]
• Fast Foods Restaurant Business Plan: Full Services Geared Towards Full Customer Satisfaction The loan will be paid from the cash flow of the business, collateralized by the business assets, and backed by the character, experience, and personal guarantees of the owners.
• Loly Bakery Business Plan This direct contact with the customers is aimed by the business to avail the products at the convenience of the customers as well as satiate the objective of offering quality products at the economic level […]
• Dubai Consulting Firm’s Service Business Plan The goal of the consulting firm is to offer advice and guidance to the business travellers on ways of getting better business deals, ways of accessing funds to purchase their products, and the legal restrictions […]
• Meat Seller with Dron Delivery: Business Plan This results in a threat to the business due to lower product patronage from consumers that prefer the convenience of having to go to a super market and finding everything that they need there.
• Problem-Solving in Business Plan Creation It is hard to avoid the problems and challenges in the chosen activity; that is why it is necessary to gather additional and necessary information relating to the problem and prove the correctness of the […]
• UAE Recruitment Agency’s Business Plan It is especially true in the light of the upcoming Expo 2020 that is expected to boost the demand for the workforce despite the oil prices plunge.
• Learner’s Hope University School’s Business Plan The inspiration behind the development of the university idea for the establishment of the Learner’s Hope University came following the increasing market for engineers, scientists, and technologists in the UAE labor market given the demand […]
• Apple Business Plan This competition has been worsened by a number of Chinese firms that mimic the products of the top brands and sell them in the international market. The firm was chosen because of its strategic importance […]
• Coffee Shop in the UAE: Business Plan According to Stokes and Wilson, the mission statement helps in defining the direction of the business and what it seeks to achieve in the market.
• UAE Freelancer House’s Business Plan The number of companies offering freelance services is still relatively few because the concept of freelancing is yet to become popular in the country.
• The TeraNova Advertising Agency’s Business Plan The business area for the company is informed by the fact that despite the enormous growth of the economy of the UAE and the influx of companies, the main challenge for companies is gaining visibility […]
• Ingonish Beach Company: Business Plan The result of the proposal indicates that with effective utilisation of the available resources, the business will be profitable in the end. Partners in the business will provide the capital that will be sufficient for […]
• Toronto Paradise Feast Restaurant: Business Plan It is important to state that in this business description section, the general purpose and nature of the new business will be discussed in order to give a normal idea about it.
• Zenith School Supplies: E-Business Planning Under the B2C model, the business will consider the application of two other e-commerce models: the virtual community e-commerce model and the brand awareness model.
• XL Ladies Clothing’s Business Plan The target market for the firm will comprise of the women populace particularly the middle aged and young women that constitute around 62% of the market.
• Entrepreneurship: Business Planning and Characteristics The aim of the report is to conduct a critical appraisal of the business planning process an evaluation of entrepreneurial characteristics.
• STAR Insole Innovation: Business Plan As the demand for customised insoles continues rising, most of the insoles available meet the general needs of the consumers. That is why we propose the development of Insoles, which warm the feet based on […]
• Tamwal Mobile Food Trucks Business Plan The current mobile food service sector is underdeveloped meaning that the proposed Tamwal Mobile Food Truck business will be interested in growing the mobile food service through a fleet of three trucks at the beginning […]
• Emirati Today and Its E-Commerce Business Plan Other members will be the employees of this firm. In order to achieve success in the market, it will be necessary to clearly define the objectives that will be defining the operations of this firm.
• Business Plan: Repairing Old Things The offered business idea is the possibility to provide people with an opportunity to save money, learn how to create something with their own hands, and use the products that are necessary and convenient.
• Business Planning Process and Entrepreneurial Characteristics A SWOT analysis will therefore state the demerits and merits of the actual idea that need to be identified during the idea generation process.
• Home Gardening Veggies Business Plan It is to this growing concern that the home gardening veggies business came up with an idea of developing a vegetable and fruits home garden to help the town residents to purchase fresh and healthy […]
• Zara Restaurant and Lounge: Business Plan Evaluation This paper evaluates Zara’s business plan, including its financial plan, management team, and marketing strategies in order to determine the restaurant’s internal strengths and potential to attract investors.
• United Hearing Center Business Plan To provide an innovative hearing solution for the people to meet their hearing needs by providing them with medical earphones which are consistent with the hearing demands of the customers according to the professional ethics […]
• PricewaterhouseCoopers Company: International Business Plan Another factor that has led to the expansion of businesses on the international front is growth in the global transport and communication.
• Debt Collection Agency in Dubai: Business Plan The report provides a detailed discussion of the aim and structure of the proposed business and its services. This factual information and stats provide a rationale for setting up a debt collection agency in Dubai, […]
• George’s Winery’s Marketing and Business Plan The financial plan is detailed or described in terms of the expected returns on the business, the ownership of the enterprise which is a limited company, the sources of the funding and how that capital […]
• Australia New Zealand Food Authority Business Plan The bakery that Beck and Anna intend to open should correspond to the standards set by the Australia New Zealand Food Authority or ANZFA.
• Zumba Fitness Strategic Business Plan Because of a communication error between Zumba business owners and Crunch gyms, the Zumba business ended up losing a lot of time and money in legal negotiations concerning the rights of the songs used in […]
• Mind-Reading Shopping Cart: Business Plan As already mentioned in the presentation on the Mind-Reading Shopping Cart, key partners of the company are software providers that develop software for the cart itself.
• Best Choice Company in Malaysia: Business Plan The key approaches to handling the investment that can be discussed as advantageous for Best Choice Company include the development of promising relationships with suppliers, customers, and partners; the integration of diversification approaches to distributing […]
• Portable Lab Tester: Business Plan The business model concept is based on the emerging need in the broad customer segments to lead a healthy life despite the existing pressures and the ever-increasing pace and need for mobility.
• Takeaway Food in Saudi Arabia: Business Plan The Saudi government has diversified its economy to the private sector involvement especially in the food production. The main drivers of the food sector in Saudi Arabia are its huge population and the increased growth […]
• Smartcard: Business Plan and Feasibility Analysis In this bank, when the customers come to the customer service representative or the bank tellers, they take between 1 to 2 minutes to give them their account numbers or to explain the reason why […]
• US Microfinance Company’s Strategic Business Plan Therefore, a large share of 47% of the income is present in the US, which goes to the middle 60% of the population.
• Happy Knowledge Centre for Special Needs: Business Plan Facilities for children in the UAE, including Children’s City and other public facilities, are not fully accessible to children with special needs, others with rare conditions, or others with mental or physical disabilities.
• Telecom Liechtenstein’s Strategic Business Plan A futuristic approach, enhancement of strategic business initiatives, and improvement of revenue, and the global competitiveness of the organization are of great importance to the overall performance of the Telecom Liechtenstein Company.
• ABox4You: Subscription Box Business Plan Subscription boxes are a rising trend in the United States of America and the practice is quickly spreading into Canada. The only difference is that instead of papers and articles, the subscription box supplies clients […]
• Mobipharm Moving Pharmacy’s Business Plan The form of ownership of the Mobipharm Moving Pharmacy will be through partnership. The Mobipharm Moving Pharmacy will follow the following principles as guidance for sustainable business; Honesty and integrity in handling the need and […]
• Business Plan Short & Long Cycles and Analysis In fact, the person owning the idea for the business plan, also termed as the founder, chooses its stringency and process.
• Elevator Limited Company’s Business Plan
• Bozz Café in Nice: Business Plan
• The K&M Pizza Restaurant’s Business Plan
• Helicopter Tours Company’s Business Plan
• Costco Warehouse Business in Canada: Business Plan
• Greenland Healthcare Clinic’s Business Plan
• Personal Concierge Company’s Business Plan
• Sweet Milk Company’s Objectives and Business Plan
• RADAR Model for Business Planning
• Ambulatory Surgery Center’s Business Plan
• Full of Life Nonalcoholic Beverages: Business Plan
• Al Jawhar Indian Dishes Restaurant’s Business Plan
• Salad Vending Machine Business Plan
• New York Shoe Company: Business Plan
• Innovative Aluminum Closets Company’s Business Plan
• Carrena Bakers Limited’s Business Plan
• Andulo Coffee Shop’s Business Plan
• Vigorous Company’ Business Plan
• Vigorous Company’s Business Plan
• Online Dating Start-Up Business Plan
• Do-Do Online Fresh Food Supply LLC’s Business Plan
• CarServ Mobile Application and Its Business Plan
• Water Billing IT Solutions Company Business Plan
• Saint Louis Medical Center’s Business Plan
• Kimango Farm Enterprises: Business Plan
• Alternatives Start-Up and Its Business Plan
• Monte’s Natural Juice Manufacturing Company: Business Plan
• MaryJane’s Toke and Tavern: Business Plan
• Wireless Zone Franchise: Business Plan
• Washington Retail Bakery’s Business Plan
• Herbal Company: Business Plan
• SportSmart App Company’s Business Plan
• Sharp Teenager Recreation Center’s Business Plan
• Planning in Business and Project Management
• Business Plan: Event Management in Bottaccio
• D. Light Company: Business Plan and Strategies
• Screen Tasmania’s Business Plan
• Sunshine Coffee Shop Business Plan
• Saudi Research and Development Corporation’s Business Plan
• Mobile Phone Retail Company’s Business Plan
• Travel Healthy Snacks: Business Plan
• Red Lobster Restaurant: Student Business Plan
• Business Plan: Preschool Startup in Dubai
• K.I.S.S Car Wash and Laundry Company’s Business Plan
• Restaurant Business and Entrepreneurship Plan
• Travel Agency: Personal Business Plan
• Tourism and Technology Business Plan
• Bakery Start-Up: Personal Business Plan
• Innovative Technology: Personal Business Plan
• Furniture Workshop: Personal Business Plan
• Dam Computers Company’s Strategic Business Planning
• ABC Online Legal Consulting Firm Business Plan
• Strategic Management and Business Planning
• The Green Card Company’s Business Plan
• Alserkal Cultural Foundation’s Business Plan
• PawPaw VetHelp Clinic’s Business Plan
• Wuph Business Plan: Fluffy Market Research
• Nurse Practitioner’s Business Plan
• Air Hotel’s Market Analysis and Business Plan
• Home Health Agency: Business Plan
• Car Dealer Business Plan Proposal
• Business Plan: Beijing ZhiYing Educational Agency
• Pet Care: Business Plan for Small Entrepreneurship
• The Vegan Dog Kit Company’s Business Plan
• Sals Hardwood Flooring Company’s Business Plan
• Business Plan: How to Develop a Storage Facility
• Business Plan: Oloibon Eateries
• Virtual Fitting Room Online Business Plan
• Business Plan of Dri-Diamonds Solution Inc.
• Casual Dining Restaurant in Leysin: Business Plan
• Soho Art Gallery Business Plan Proposal
• Business Planning and Investment: Different Cases
• CJ’s Health Foods Business Plan Proposal
• IBG Join Venture & Toothpaste Business Plan
• Biodiesel Company Business Plan
• Succession Plan for a Family Business
• Specialty High-End Flooring Contractor: Business Plan
• A Video Game Store’s Business Plan
• Innovative Business in Honolulu: A Plan of Development
• Cost Analysis and Profit Planning in Business
• Smart Education: Business Plan
• Macpac Company: Business Plan
• Macas World Company’s Pay TV: Business Plan
• Fandom Fitness Center in London: Business Plan
• Business Plan: General Characteristics
• Business Plan for Resort in Bari, Italy
• Business Plan for Luggage Wrapper
• Sports Bar in Georgia: Business Plan
• Business Plan of “L.k Bennett”
• Business Plan Proposal: Financial Forecast
• Elderly Kit Business Plan for Dementia in the UAE
• Sunday’s Best Apparel Stores’ Business Plan
• The Flying Centre Airline’s Business Plan
• New Business Park Marketing Plan for Dubai Internet City
• Business Ethics of Pension Plan
• Business Plan for Healthy-Mart Organic Supermarket
• Touch Fm Radio Station: Business Operations Plan
• NEWCO Business Plan Analysis
• Strategic Plan for a New Start-Up Business
• Building a Sky Garden: Vertical Farming System Business Plan
• Business Plan For the Rock T-Shirt Brand
• Personal Business Plan, Risks, Ethics
• Dr. Vending Company’s Business Plan for New Product
• Australian Telecommunication Company’s Business Plan
• Risk Management Based on Business Plan Analysis
• Business Plan For an Engineering and Technical Consultancy Service
• Eco Works Company’s Business Plan
• Business Plan For Delicacy Hotel Limited
• Advanced Practice Nursing: Professional Business Plan
• Debra Graphic Designers Business Plan
• Business Plan on Fawz Olympic Academy
• Business Plan for Ceka Bar in San Antonio, Texas
• Red Rocks Ambulatory Surgery Center’s Business Plan
• Pearly Whites Stomatology: Business Plan
• Olympus Strength and Power Fitness Center’s Business Plan
• Eden Drink: The Business Plan For Start-Up
• Business Plan. Furniture Industry Case
• Choco-Flavored Toothpaste for Kids: Business Plan
• ESPRIT: Export Business Plan
• AJ Distributors: Business Plan
• ExquisiteLeight’s Boutique, Inc.: Business Plan
• Jazz’in Restaurant: Business Plan
• Business Plan: UAE Social Club House
• Chevere Team-Cuisine: Proposed Business Plan
• Business Plan of Hooray Sports Tour Operator
• Personal Business Plan for a Retail Store
• BBQ Restaurant in Montgomery, AL: Business Plan
• Zipbike: Business Plan
• Healthy Way Company’s Analysis and Business Plan
• Entrepreneurship: Making a Business Plan
• “The Second Home” Business Plan
• Florida Department of Health: Business Plan
• Aggregated Planning in Business
• Comprehensive Business Plan for a Strategic Initiative
• Per Ludum Business Plan Formulation
• Multi-Brand Retail Online Store Business Plan
• Eco-Coffee Shop: Successful Business Plan
• Business Plan Management Strategies
• Business Plan for a Coffee Shop
• The Medical Watch Product: Business Plan
• Party Products Company’s Strategic Business Plan
• Blockchain-Based Parking Lot: Business Plan
• Strategic vs. Business Planning Differences
• “Sensibility Summit” Concept and Business Plan
• Diversicare Medical Care: A Business Plan
• Business Plan: Devoted Elderly Healthcare Services
• Laundry Dream King Services: The Business Plan
• A Business Plan: Definition, Key Elements, and Process of Creation
• The Primary Principles of Entrepreneurship and Personal Business Plan
• Personal Business Plan and Development of Innovation
• The Planning Process in Business
• Childcare Program Business Plan
• The Kernel Keto Firm’s Business Plan Analysis
• The Gourmet Food Retail Store’s Business Plan
• The Process of Advanced Practice Nurse Business Planning
• Nursing Business Planning: A Training Need
• An Automation Business Plan in the Food Industry
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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300+ Business Plan Examples

Below you can choose from over 300 free business plan examples within numerous industries. You’ll also learn the answers to key sample business plan questions and find tips on how to write your business plan. Finally, you’ll see a full-length business plan sample. Rest assured that you’re in good hands; over the past 20+ years, Growthink has helped over 1 million companies develop simple business plans to start and grow their businesses.  

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1. Why is utilizing an example business plan a good idea?

Sample business plans can help you quickly and easily write a business plan for your own business. Business plans are an important tool for any business, but they can be challenging to create. Sample business plan will help you understand business plan format , how to utilize a business plan template , and more.

Business plan examples may even help you with the different sections of a plan, including market analysis, company description, cash flow statements/business financial statements, and more. Business plans can also show you how a quality plan in your exact business plan category is organized and shows you the appropriate business communications style to use when writing your business plan.

2. Who would benefit from using an example business plan?

Any entrepreneur or business owner who has never written a business plan before can benefit from an example or sample plan. New business owners often start with business plan templates , which are helpful but are sometimes more useful after reviewing other full business plans.

A good sample plan can be a step-by-step guide as you work on your business planning and business idea. Once you have a sense for the flow, specs, and details, etc. that business plans have, utilizing a business plan template will help you pull everything together, helping you create a plan investors and other stakeholders will value. A solid plan will also help you if you need a bank loan, which may require a startup business plan.

3. How do you get started with a sample business plan and maximize its benefit?

First you should read the business plan thoroughly. Study both the type of information provided in key sections like the executive summary, target market analysis, summary, etc., as well as the format and style of the plan. As you read, you may find yourself thinking through things such as improving or evaluating your business planning process, your business idea, or reconsidering who you want to write your business plan for. This is OK and part of the process. In fact, when you start writing a business plan for the first time, it will be much easier because you’ve gone through this process.

After this initial read, outline your business plan and copy in from the sample plan sections that apply to your business. For instance, if the sample plan included public relations in their marketing and sales plan, and you will also use this tactic, you can copy it into your plan and edit it as appropriate. Finally, answer the other questions answered in the sample plan in ways that reflect your unique business.

Writing a business plan can seem daunting. Starting your business plan writing process by reviewing a plan that’s already been created can remove a lot of mental and emotional barriers while helping you craft the best plan you can.

4. When should you not use a sample business plan?

If your business is unlike any other, using a sample business plan will not be as effective. In this situation, writing a business plan from scratch utilizing a business plan template is probably your best path forward.

As an example, Facebook’s early business plan was unlike others since it was paving a new path and way of doing business. But, groundbreaking new businesses like Facebook are not the norm, and the vast majority of companies will benefit from utilizing sample business plans.

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The business plan example below is for Shoutmouth, a company that enjoyed much success in the early 2000’s and which was able to raise funding. While the plan’s premise (social networking) is not as unique now as it was then, the format and structure of this business plan still holds.

I. Executive Summary

Business Overview

Launched in late February 2007, Shoutmouth.com is the most comprehensive music news website on the Internet .

Music is one of the most searched and accessed interests on the Internet. Top music artists like Akon receive over 3 million searches each month. In addition, over 500 music artists each receive over 25,000 searches a month.

However, music fans are largely unsatisfied when it comes to the news and information they seek on the artists they love. This is because most music websites (e.g., RollingStone.com, MTV.com, Billboard.com, etc.) cover only the top eight to ten music stories each day – the stories with mass appeal. This type of generic coverage does not satisfy the needs of serious music fans. Music fans generally listen to many different artists and genres of music. By publishing over 100 music stories each day, Shoutmouth enables these fans to read news on all their favorite artists.

In addition to publishing comprehensive music news on over 1200 music artists, Shoutmouth is a social network that allows fans to meet and communicate with other fans about music, and allows them to:

• Create personal profiles
• Interact with other members
• Provide comments on news stories and music videos
• Submit news stories and videos
• Recommend new music artists to add to the community
• Receive customized news and email alerts on their favorite artists

Success Factors

Shoutmouth is uniquely qualified to succeed due to the following reasons:

• Entrepreneurial track record : Shoutmouth’s CEO and team have helped launch numerous successful ventures.
• Affiliate marketing track record : Online affiliate marketing expertise has been cited as one of MySpace’s key success factors. Over the past two years, Shoutmouth’s founders have run one of the most successful online affiliate marketing programs, having sold products to over 500,000 music customers online.
• Key milestones completed : Shoutmouth’s founders have invested $500,000 to-date to staff the company (we currently have an 11-person full-time team), build the core technology, and launch the site. We have succeeded in gaining initial customer traction with 50,000 unique visitors in March, 100,000 unique visitors in April, and 200,000 unique visitors in May 2007.

Unique Investment Metrics

The Shoutmouth investment opportunity is very exciting due to the metrics of the business.

To begin, over the past two years, over twenty social networks have been acquired. The value in these networks is their relationships with large numbers of customers, which allow acquirers to effectively sell to this audience.

The sales price of these social networks has ranged from $25 to $137 per member. Shoutmouth has the ability to enroll members at less than $1 each, thus providing an extraordinary return on marketing expenditures. In fact, during an April 2007 test, we were able to sign-up 2,000 members to artist-specific Shoutmouth newsletters at a cost of only 43 cents per member.

While we are building Shoutmouth to last, potential acquirers include many types of companies that seek relationships with music fans such as music media/publishing (e.g., MTV, Rolling Stone), ticketing (e.g., Ticketmaster, LiveNation) and digital music sales firms (e.g., iTunes, The Orchard).

Financial Strategy, Needs and Exit Strategy

While Shoutmouth’s technological, marketing and operational infrastructure has been developed, we currently require $3 million to execute on our marketing and technology plan over the next 24 months until we hit profitability.

Shoutmouth will primarily generate revenues from selling advertising space. As technologies evolve that allow us to seamlessly integrate music sampling and purchasing on our site, sales of downloadable music are also expected to become a significant revenue source. To a lesser extent, we may sell other music-related items such as ringtones, concert tickets, and apparel.

Topline projections over the next three years are as follows:

II. Shoutmouth Overview

What is Shoutmouth?

Shoutmouth is an operating company of The Kisco Group Inc. (TKG). Since 2003, TKG has capitalized on web-based marketing opportunities via launching targeted websites and generating web-based leads. TKG revenues in 2005 exceeded $1.3 million and grew to $3.5 million in 2006. Shoutmouth is currently the sole focus of TKG; all other TKG business units have been divested.

Development of Shoutmouth began in August 2006 and the site officially launched on February 21, 2007. Shoutmouth (located at www.shoutmouth.com) is the most comprehensive music news community on the Internet. The website covers 1,200 popular bands and music artists and offers more than 100 new music articles each day. In addition to providing news, Shoutmouth is a web community. That is, Shoutmouth members can actively participate on the site, by doing things such as commenting on news stories and submitting their own stories.

The Market Size and Need for Shoutmouth

The music market is clearly vast. According to IFPI, which represents the recording industry worldwide, global music sales were $33.5 billion in 2005, with the U.S. accounting for $12.3 billion of that amount. Importantly, digitally music sales are seeing substantial growth, with IFPI reporting sales of $400 million in 2004, $1.1 billion in 2005 and $2 billion in 2006.

Online, music is the one of the most frequently searched and accessed interests. For example, according to Wordtracker, the music artist Eminem received over 1.7 million web searches in December 2006, while band Green Day received 534,000 searches.

To put these figures in perspective, top celebrities in other entertainment fields receive but a fraction of this search volume. For example, December 2006 search volumes for select sports stars and actors were as follows: Kobe Bryant, 122K; Tiger Woods, 88K; Cameron Diaz, 332K; and Tom Cruise, 82K.

Conversely, 225 music artists received over 100,000 searches in December 2006, and over 500 music artists received over 25,000 searches.

This data is corroborated by Nielsen BuzzMetrics which plots the most popular topics bloggers are posting about. The chart to the right plots September 25, 2006 to March 25, 2007 and shows how music dominates other entertainment sectors online.

When searching for music artists online, fans, which are primarily between the ages of 13 and 35, are looking for news, pictures, lyrics, videos and audio files. In addition, fans enjoy publicly voicing their opinions about music and interacting with other fans.

There is currently no website besides Shoutmouth that provides comprehensive music news. Currently, to get the latest news on their favorite artists, fans must visit the official websites or fan websites of each of the artists they like . Even then, it is unlikely that the fan will get all the news that has occurred. To solve this problem, Shoutmouth scours the web and uncovers news from thousands of web sites.

What Shoutmouth Does and Will Offer

As of May 2007, the site covers the 1,200 most popular music artists (popularity primarily based on the number of web searches over the past 12 months for each artist).

Shoutmouth currently offers members the ability to:

• Read over 500 new music articles each week
• Read special features such as album reviews, interviews, new album release dates, top quotes of the week and other special reports
• Watch and rate music videos
• Listen to select music audio clips
• Comment on news stories and music videos
• Submit news stories that they see/hear of elsewhere
• Suggest new music artists to add to the site
• View articles by music artist or by genre (current genres include Rock, Pop, Rap, R&B, Country, and Electronic)
• Create a user profile that includes their favorite music artists, Shoutmouth friends, news stories submitted to Shoutmouth, and comments made. Members have the ability to find other members based on their favorite artists and via our search functions.
• Receive customized news and email alerts. Members can customize their “My News” page to include only artists they specify. Likewise, they can choose to receive email alerts whenever there is a new story on one of their favorite artists.

While establishing itself as the premier music news community, Shoutmouth will embark on the more aggressive goal of becoming the premier music community online . To accomplish this, Shoutmouth will begin to offer additional content (more videos, audio, pictures, lyrics, etc.) and additional functionality (music compatibility testing (e.g., if you like this, you’ll like this), voting capabilities, member-to-member messaging, etc.). We have already begun mapping out our content and technology growths plans to achieve this goal upon financing.

Importantly, Shoutmouth expects to be able to add massive amounts of relevant content (e.g., lyrics, reviews, pictures, video files, audio files, etc.) via member submissions and moderation. This is the same way that YouTube has been able to quickly add millions of videos and Wikipedia has been able to add millions of articles. Importantly, since established music websites (e.g., MTV, RollingStone.com, Billboard.com, etc.) are not community based, they would have to hire thousands of staff members to rival the content that Shoutmouth will have.

How We Get and Publish Our News

Currently, news stories that appear on Shoutmouth are gathered from numerous online sources. Shoutmouth’s staff writers find these stories by using RSS and News feeds that cover thousands of websites. In addition, Shoutmouth community members have the ability to submit stories they find elsewhere.

Typical stories include factual information plus the insight of the author. Shoutmouth editors ensure that all stories are properly classified by artist and genre, and that duplicate articles are filtered out.

Over the past three months, Shoutmouth has developed a solid infrastructure, which we consider a core competitive advantage, that that allows us to provide comprehensive music news . This infrastructure includes:

• Setting up hundreds of RSS feeds based on comprehensive research regarding sites from which to receive feeds
• Training our editorial team regarding identifying a story and weeding out duplicates
• Assigning music artists among our five-person editorial team to better manage work flow and avoid duplicate articles

We are working on a system to ensure that member-submitted articles are automatically routed to the appropriate member of Shoutmouth’s editorial team to improve our efficiencies further.

Shoutmouth’s Goal to Break News First

The majority (approximately 90%) of Shoutmouth’s articles are currently developed by our in-house editorial team, while the balance is submitted by members. In addition, virtually all of our articles are based on information gleaned from other websites. As such, we are generally not the first to publish news; however we are the first and only site to publish all the news in one easily-accessible place. The one current exception is news which is published on bands’ official MySpace pages; Shoutmouth generally publishes articles on this news 24 to 48 hours before it is reported by other news or music sites (due to our efficiencies in finding news).

Shoutmouth realizes that it will gain a key competitive advantage, and will generate significant market buzz, if it is able to report on music news stories before other media sources . To accomplish this, we have begun contacting publicity departments at record labels to gain direct access to music news. We expect these contacts to enable us to gain immediate and sometimes exclusive access to news which will help further establish Shoutmouth as the canonical source for music news. We also plan to more aggressively solicit member submissions of new, buzzworthy news events and will consider offering rewards for unique substantiated news (much the way paparazzi are compensated).

III. Competition in the Online Music Market

This section of the business plan provides an overview of the competitive landscape, discusses both indirect and direct competitors and then details Shoutmouth’s competitive advantages.

Because consumer demand for music on the Internet is so great, there are a vast number of music websites. In summary, we consider most sectors of the online music market (which are discussed below) to be indirect competitors and potentially partners, rather than direct competitors, because none of them focus on music news.

The reason we believe that no one focuses on music news is that it is very difficult to do. Because news is very important to music fans, most music websites offer news. However, they primarily get their news from organizations such as CNN, Reuters, the Associated Press and BBC. These large organizations only write about the music stories that have mass appeal, which traditionally amounts to 8-10 music news stories per day. However, since music fans are often zealots when it comes to their favorite artists, they are not merely interested in cover stories. For instance, a U2 fan cares about any U2 news, particularly news that a non-U2 fan might consider insignificant.

In fact, because Shoutmouth is the sole one-stop shop for getting comprehensive music news, there might be an opportunity to license our content to other music websites.

Sectors of the Online Music Market

Shoutmouth specifically comPs in the community-based music news market. While players in this market represent direct competitors, Shoutmouth faces indirect competitors in the following markets:

• Community-Based Sites
• Community-Based News Sites
• Community-Based Music Sites
• Traditional Music Websites
• Official Artist and Fan Sites

Each of these markets is described below.

A. Community-Based Sites

Community-based sites, also known as social networking sites, are websites in which members can create profiles, leave comments throughout the site, and communicate with other members among other features.

A June 2006 report by Piper Jaffray entitled “Silk Road: Social Networking is Here to Stay” effectively sums up the power and longevity of social networking:

“We believe social networking sites have become a permanent part of the fabric of web applications and are rapidly becoming one of the most popular activities online, potentially impacting how other popular services such as email, IM, and maybe even search are accessed.

As a clear indication of the growth rate and scale of social networking, consider this: MySpace monthly page views have now surpassed MSN or AOL in the U.S. and are nearly 75% of the size of Yahoo!. Social networking has filled a gap that was left by all the existing portals and web services and it is fulfilling a very important and basic function for millions of users: allowing them to express themselves and connect with their friends, with the two functions tightly integrated.

The leading sites such as MySpace (News Corp), Facebook, and others are amassing significant power in the new landscape of the Internet and the existing Internet companies are likely to have to work with these newcomers as they may yield material control on the flow of traffic to other applications.”

Social networking sites such as MySpace.com, Facebook.com, Tagged.com, and TagWorld.com have educated consumers regarding the value of these sites and how to use them. Their success has spurred genre-specific social networks such as community-based/social networking news sites and music sites, which are discussed below.

Shoutmouth doesn’t view established social networking sites as competitors since these sites have a general focus. That is, members talk about all aspects of life, from dating to music to movies, etc. Conversely, Shoutmouth is solely focused on music.

B. Community-Based News Sites

Community-based news sites are sites in which members decide what’s newsworthy and what’s not. For instance, on Digg.com, the most prominent community-based news site, members “Digg” stories that they feel are most newsworthy. The stories that the community feels are most important rise to Digg’s homepage, while less important stories get little attention.

Digg’s one million members can submit stories, “digg” stories, and comment on stories. Digg focuses on general news with a slant towards technology, gaming and unique/sensational news. While Digg does have a Music area within its Entertainment section, this receives little focus. In fact, at the time of the writing of this plan, Digg’s music home page only includes one article submitted within the past 48 hours. Furthermore, Digg doesn’t pare down the music category into sub-categories such as Rock and individual music artists. Conversely, these sub-categories are the entire focus of Shoutmouth.

Other sites that are similar to Digg include Newsvine.com, Spotback.com and Gabbr.com. Of most relevance is the Digg-like site for music, Noisetap.com, which was launched by Ticketmaster in January 2007.

Like Digg, Noisetap.com allows members to submit and vote for music stories. Noisetap.com is organized by music genre and not by music artist. This most likely will not satisfy the needs of many music fans since they don’t have the ability to find news on the specific artists they care most about. Likewise, without a full-time staff actively researching and publishing news stories at the artist-level, Noisetap.com will never be able to offer the comprehensive news that Shoutmouth does.

While Shoutmouth is currently similar to community-based news sites in that members can submit stories and comment on the news they find most interesting, no established player in the market provides a comprehensive focus on music. In addition, Shoutmouth sees these sites as marketing partners as we have and will continue to submit our stories on them to increase our readership.

C. Community-Based Music Sites

There are many community-based music websites, although none focuses on music news such as Shoutmouth. Conversely, these sites generally give members the ability to create and listen to song play lists. The community acts to help individual members find new music and new friends based on similarities in their music tastes. Prominent sites in this genre include Last.fm, Finetune, Pandora, RadioBlogClub, MyStrands, iLike[1] and iJigg.

Last.fm is the most prominent community-based music site and is a good model with which to compare Shoutmouth. Likewise, we will benchmark our performance against Last.fm as we reach of goal of becoming the premier music news community and focus on becoming the premier music community.

According to Alexa, Last.fm is the 359th most visited site on the Internet. While Last.fm focuses on allowing members to create customized Internet stations based on their music tastes, the site has much additional content and social networking features. For instance, for each artist, Last.fm includes pictures, a bio, concert dates, discography, fans on Last.fm, and similar artists. Fans are also able to create journals and communicate with other fans. Key features that Last.fm doesn’t currently focus on include news and video.

D. Traditional Music Websites

Traditional music websites such as MTV.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard.com, NME.com, AOL Music, and Yahoo! Music tend to have many features such as news, reviews, pictures, videos and audio. While these sites are generally very well done and extremely popular, they are under-serving visitors in two core areas: music news and community .

These sites’ lack of music news stems from the difficulty in creating this news, specifically that it requires filtering through thousands of articles and websites to find relevant stories. Likewise, as discussed, these firms might wish to license our news content in the future.

Regarding community , none of the top music sites are thriving communities. Rather, either these sites offer no community features or they recently began offering select features (e.g., submitting reviews or commenting on articles). Even when available, the community features on these sites are afterthoughts and are not engrained within the core fabric of the sites.

While they haven’t been able to transform their current sites into communities, top music websites clearly understand the power of online music communities and have an appetite for them. For example, in January 2007, MTV invested in social networking website TagWorld. MTV also acquired RateMyProfessors.com and Quizilla.com (teen social network) in January 2007 and October 2006 respectively.

As mentioned previously, our vision is to build and incorporate additional technologies, and use our “army” of members to publish vast amounts of music content on Shoutmouth, in order to fully satisfy music fans and leapfrog traditional music sites in terms of their music content.

E. Official Artist and Fan Sites

Shoutmouth com’s with official music artist websites and fan websites. These sites often include news about the specific artist as well as pictures, videos and other relevant information.

On one hand, official music artist and fan websites are direct competitors to Shoutmouth. This is because some of these sites offer comprehensive news on the specific artist they cover. In addition, many offer forums, discussion boards or other ways to communicate with other fans.

However, two factors separate Shoutmouth from these types of sites: 1) breadth and 2) sophistication.

• Breadth : Most music fans love more than one artist. As such, in order to get the news they want, they would have to visit/join multiple fan or artist websites rather than getting all of their news from Shoutmouth.
• Sophistication : While some official music artist websites are technologically sophisticated, offering forums, networking and other worthwhile features, the majority of artist and fan websites have limited usability, functionality and networking ability. In fact, this deficiency has lead to the success of MusicToday, which provides front and back-end technology to power artist websites.

Specifically, MusicToday offers web design and hosting, develops sophisticated online stores, builds online fan clubs and offers web ticketing among other services to select top music artists such as Dave Matthews Band, Christina Aguilera, Kenny Chesney, Britney Spears and Usher. While offering sophisticated tools for select music artist websites, MusicToday offers little to no music news nor advanced social networking functions. For instance, the official Dave Matthews Band website offers less than one news story per month.

F. Direct Competitors: Community-Based Music News Sites

Shoutmouth’s direct competitors are other music news websites that have social or community features that allow users to join the site, submit articles, comment on articles, create public profiles and/or communicate with other members. Shoutmouth has identified one significant player who offers this service, AbsolutePunk.net.

AbsolutePunk.net has done a good job of building a user base (the site claims 125,000+ registered members and nearly 500,000 un-registered members). In addition, the user base is very active — the average story on their site receives approximately 20 comments. AbsolutePunk.net offers music news, reviews, pictures and interviews among other features.

On the negative side, AbsolutePunk.net’s articles are generally posted by one staff writer (as opposed to Shoutmouth’s five writers), most articles are simply one sentence posts rather than full articles, and no attempt seems to have been made to cover all news stories. In addition, the site only covers the punk music genre. Although “punk” is broadly defined on the site, the site doesn’t cater to genres such as R&B, rap and country among others, failing to satisfy the broader market.

AbsolutePunk.net is owned by Indieclick, a Los Angeles-based media company. According to the AbsolutePunk.net website, the site:

• Has developed a loyal (72% return rate) reader base
• 5,182,147 Posts
• 163,535 Threads
• 126,448 Members
• 1,711 Artist Profiles
• 20,774 Multimedia Files
• Approx 76,000 visits per day.
• Approx 276,000 pageviews per day.

Shoutmouth’s Competitive Advantage

In addition to being the first to fill the untapped market void for comprehensive music news, Shoutmouth’s competitive advantage in the market primarily includes the following:

Online Marketing Sophistication

Content Development Experience and Expertise

Shoutmouth’s team, primarily team members DL and PF, has operated an affiliate marketing business focusing on music for the past four years. Affiliate marketing is defined as a system of revenue sharing between one site (the affiliate) which features an ad or content designed to drive traffic to another site (the merchant). The affiliate receives a fee based on traffic to the merchant which converts to sales.

Our affiliate business has focused on connecting music fans, primarily aged 13 to 30, with music offers such as iPods and ringtones. Over the past two years, we have successful sold affiliated offers to over 500,000 customers. We have become a significant online advertiser, receiving Google’s “over 1 million leads” award, and are recognized as a major player among the top affiliate networks.

It is important to note that affiliate marketing success has been credited with part of MySpace’s success. This is because effective affiliate marketers understand how to drive and convert on Internet traffic.

Shoutmouth will employ its affiliate marketing techniques to drive traffic to Shoutmouth.com and enroll members. We will utilize technologies and proprietary techniques that allow us to monitor multiple metrics such as the cost per visitor, cost per member sign-up, etc., so that we can set and maintain profitable metrics.

Another venture that Shoutmouth team members, primarily PK and DL, launched was the development of over 3,000 niche websites. To create the content for these websites, we employed a virtual work force of over 90 researchers in India and 30 writers and editors in the US.

This experience taught us how to manage a large workforce, train writers to improve content quality and motivate a large group of people. These skill sets will be critical in allowing Shoutmouth to grow the content of the site, as developed by both staff and members, while maintaining quality standards.

IV. Marketing Plan

Shoutmouth’s marketing plan includes the following:

Online Advertising : Shoutmouth will initiate pay-per-click advertising campaigns on Google and Yahoo! in order to inexpensively drive traffic to the site. Specifically, Shoutmouth believes it can drive qualified traffic to the site for 20 cents per visitor and achieve a 20% member conversion rate, thus generating members at a cost of $1.00 per member.

Keys to Shoutmouth’s success in achieving this metric include:

• Conducting thorough keyword research and advertising on appropriate keywords and keyword groups
• Creating advertising text that maximizes click through rates
• Creating landing pages that maximize conversions while maintaining the highest Google AdWords quality score possible
• Closely monitoring conversions to quickly stop and/or modify unprofitable campaigns
• Getting individuals to enter their email address to join the newsletter is much easier than getting them to join a site where they have to create a username, select a password, etc. As such, step one will be to get visitors to sign up for artist-specific newsletters.
• Once on the newsletter distribution list, members will constantly receive messages (embedded in their daily newsletter) regarding the benefits of participating more on Shoutmouth.
• Active Shoutmouth Membership: the constant reminders regarding Shoutmouth’s value proposition in the daily newsletters will influence members to participate more actively on the site (e.g., customize their profile, visit the site more often, etc.).

Invite-A-Friend : Shoutmouth is in the process of creating an aggressive invite-a-friend/member referral program. In doing so, we are following the lead of social movie community, Flixster, which grew to 5 million members within 10 months. It did this by encouraging members, during their initial registration process, to upload and send an invitation to multiple contacts in their email address books. The technology to develop this process is fairly complex and we expect to be completed with and to rollout this program in June 2007.

Direct Email Marketing : Shoutmouth will directly contact bloggers and prominent music fans we find online to tell them about Shoutmouth, encourage them to join, and encourage them to write about Shoutmouth on their blogs and online journals .

Creating/Distributing Buzzworthy/Viral Content : Shoutmouth plans to have several buzzworthy/viral articles (i.e., content that people would want to email to their friends since it is funny, interesting, etc.) on the site each day. With a single click, visitors will be able to send these articles to social bookmarking sites such as Digg.com or Fark.com, where these articles could receive widespread attention. In addition to our traditional news stories, Shoutmouth will also periodically create special reports/features in order to satisfy our members and visitors and to try to get widespread exposure.

An example of the power of such buzzworthy content, Shoutmouth has already succeeded in having two stories accepted by Fark and Digg, which have brought in over 50,000 unique visitors.

Super Fans/Street Team Development : Shoutmouth also plans to recruit “super fans.” Super fans are individuals who are passionate about a certain music artist/band and actively contribute articles and/or comments on Shoutmouth. We will recruit these fans, reward them with status (e.g., adding a gold Shoutmouth headphones image to their profile page) and encourage them to more aggressively promote the site by:

• Submitting more news to Shoutmouth
• Commenting on more articles on Shoutmouth
• Growing the Shoutmouth community around their favorite artist(s) by actively recruiting new members to join the site (such as actively posting Shoutmouth-related comments on their MySpace pages, on other music forums, etc.)

Public Relations : Upon financing, Shoutmouth will hire a public relations firm to help us get mentions in media sources ranging from magazines, newspapers, radio, television and blogs. To date, we have developed and issued press releases via Billboard Publicity Wire which have been syndicated throughout the web. An effective PR firm will enable Shoutmouth to quickly reach a wide audience.

Widgets : Shoutmouth will create artist-specific and genre-specific music news widgets. For example, our U2 widget (see example on right) would include all of the recent U2 articles published on Shoutmouth. The widget can easily be placed on MySpace pages, blogs, etc. Each story title in the widget links to the full article on Shoutmouth.

Shoutmouth has great expectations for our widget. To begin, no such widget currently exists as there is no one place to get comprehensive news for specific music artists. Secondly, each time someone places a Shoutmouth widget on their blog or social networking page, it will effectively market Shoutmouth to a wide audience at zero cost to us.

V. Technology/Site Development Plan

This section provides a brief roadmap of the initial and future functionality of Shoutmouth.

Initial Site Functionality

The initial Shoutmouth website will include the following features:

• Ability to submit and comment on news stories
• Ability to suggest new music artists to add to the site
• Ability to create user profiles
• Ability to receive customized news and email alerts
• Articles categorized by artist and core genre (e.g., Rock, Rap, Pop, etc.)
• Music artist sections which includes News, Bio and Fans

Future Site Functionality

Shoutmouth will use news and basic functionality as the platform though which we will build a thriving music community. After initial launch, the Shoutmouth technology team will work on incorporating additional features such as:

• Ability to message other members via the site (e.g., members will have an Inbox on the site)
• Event calendars: members will receive online calendars. With the click of a button, the member will be able to add tour dates of their favorite artists/bands to their calendar.
• Articles also categorized by sub-genre (e.g., Alternative Rock, West Coast Rap, etc.)
• Music artist sections to also include videos, audio files, photo galleries, reviews and event calendars to which members can upload files and vote on top content.
• Forums and member blogs
• Music compatibility testing (suggestions on song/artists members might like)
• Trivia quizzes
• Music playlists

VI. Financial Plan

Revenue Model

During the first six months, Shoutmouth will not generate any revenues as it will not sell advertising space nor offer products for sale. This decision has been made to spur the growth of the Shoutmouth community. By initially positioning Shoutmouth more as a non-profit, for-the-people-by-the-people venture, members will be more prone to promote the site and invite their friends than if the site looks too commercial.

Starting in September 2007, Shoutmouth will primarily generate revenues from selling advertising space. As technologies (such as the Snocap music widget) evolve that allow us to seamlessly integrate music sampling and purchasing on our site, sales of downloadable music are also expected to be a significant revenue source. To a lesser extent, we may sell other music-related items such as ringtones, concert tickets, and apparel.

Funding To Date

To date, Shoutmouth’s founders have invested $500,000 in Shoutmouth, with which we have accomplished the following:

• Built the site’s core technology
• Hired and trained our core staff (we currently maintain an 11-person full-time team)
• Populated the website with content (over 10,000 articles and 1,200 artist bios)
• Generated brand awareness among music fans, including driving 50,000 unique visitors in March, 100,000 unique visitors in April, and 200,000 unique visitors in May 2007.

Funding Requirements/Use of Funds

Shoutmouth is currently seeking $3 million to provide funding for the next 24 months. At this point, the site will be profitable and can grow organically, or additional capital may be sought to more aggressively expand our member base.

The capital will be used as follows:

• Execution of Marketing plan : in order for Shoutmouth to grow its visitor and member base, we need to invest dollars in online advertising and public relations. With regards to online advertising, we are confident that we can enroll members at a cost of $1 per member, which is a fraction of the value of the members to an acquirer (minimum $25 per member), thus providing a significant return on our marketing investments.
• Execution of Technology plan : in order to build a thriving community, Shoutmouth needs to offer its visitors a “stickier” website and enhanced features. We currently maintain a vast “wish list” of features, such as members uploading and rating pictures and videos, trivia quizzes, and member-to-member messaging, that will significantly improve the site’s functionality and value proposition.
• Staffing : In order to reach our goals, we will have to hire additional technical and operations personnel.

Financial Projections

Below is an overview of Shoutmouth’s Financial Projections for the next three years. Please see the Appendix for the full financial projections and key assumptions.

Exit Strategy / Valuation Metric

Shoutmouth’s most likely exit strategy is to be acquired by a traditional music website or property (e.g., Viacom/MTV, Ticketmaster, Rolling Stone), an entertainment/media conglomerate (e.g., Yahoo!, IAC/InterActiveCorp, NBC), or a large social networking site (e.g., News Corp/MySpace).

This strategy is supported by the significant M&A activity in the social networking market, which includes the following transactions over the past 24 months:

Regarding valuation, below are the estimated valuations of social networking companies on a per member basis upon exit:

• Del.icio.us: $50 – $100 per member
• MySpace: $25 per member
• Xing (business social network): $137 per member at IPO in 10/06
• Flickr: $56 – $130 per member
• Grouper: $130 per member

Based on this data, not only are social networking sites a promising investment, but sites that can acquire members for less than $25 each (a conservative valuation estimate based on the figures above), should earn a solid return on investment. As discussed above, Shoutmouth’s goal is to acquire members for no more than $1 each.

In addition, per the membership projections above, Shoutmouth’s valuation at the end of 2009, at a $25 valuation per member, is expected to be $239 million. A more conservative, using a 24.4 time EBITDA multiple (the average multiple of tech M&A deals in 2006 according to The M&A Advisor), yields a $121 million valuation in 2009.

Shoutmouth’s founding team includes entrepreneurs and managers with a track record of success and a history of successfully working together.

Management Team

DL, Co-Founder and CEO

D has a history of successfully launching and growing businesses of all sizes. As president and co-founder of an entrepreneurial services firm., D has personally assisted in the launch and development of over 100 ventures.

Over the past three years, D founded and has managed The Kisco Group which includes an affiliate marketing division (2006 revenues exceeded $3 million), a search engine optimization business which includes a network of 3,000 websites (2006 revenues exceeded $500,000) and an e-commerce business (which includes TopPayingKeywords.com and ShowerHeadsEtc.com).

D earned his Bachelors degree from the University of South Carolina.

PK, Co-Founder and Vice President of Operations

For the past two years, P has managed The Kisco Group’s search engine optimization business where he hired, trained and managed nearly 100 employees and a dozen outside firms. During this time, P has honed his management skills with regards to content development, marketing and operations.

P has had a passion for music since childhood and has been a semi-professional drummer for the past 15 years.

P earned his Bachelors of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Clemson University.

PF, Co-Founder and Vice President of Technology

For the past year, P has managed The Kisco Group’s affiliate marketing business. In addition to setting up and managing widespread marketing campaigns, P has developed sophisticated analytic techniques to precisely analyze web traffic in order to optimize profitability.

Since August 2006, P has shifted his efforts and leveraged his technology skills in developing the Shoutmouth website. P has been instrumental in selecting the Content Management Platform upon which Shoutmouth is built, and finding and managing the technology team.

P earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College.

AB, Marketing Manager

A’s background in music includes being a singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer. He has also worked on the marketing side of music, having marketed Veritas Records through the development and distribution of promotional materials.

A’s career also includes psychological research and administration, having served as a Research Assistant with the Interpersonal Perception And Communication Laboratory in Cambridge, MA.

A earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Ohio State University.

M, Lead Technology Developer

M is an experienced web programmer with expertise in web design, application development and database development among others.

M’s work experience includes serving as a Senior Developer at Spheres. M has also engaged in multiple, long term freelance projects including serving as a Database Developer Consultant with The Penn Group and a Web Developer Consultant with Volution Media Group and Allied Online Consulting Group.

M earned his Bachelors degree in Computer Science with a minor in Cognitive Science from Rutgers University.

Content Development Team

Shoutmouth’s writing team, managed by PK, includes the following members:

• JS, Editorial Manager: former content manager and copywriter for Scholastic Inc. and Promotions.com.
• TZ: former music intern (Virgin Records and WRRV) and author of the blog, The Tom Z Show .
• ML: former assistant editor for Adventure Publishing; author of the blog Certified Gangsta ; and former editor-in-chief of Fordham University’s newspaper The Paper .
• SB: former staff writer for Paste Magazine , The Clarion Ledger , and Nightclub and Bar Magazine among others.
• CSJ: former editorial intern for Rolling Stone and Editorial Assistant for Psychology Today .

Outsourced Technology Team

Shoutmouth works very closely with 2skies, a technology firm based in Australia with staff in Australia and the United States. 2skies is run by JDN, one of the co-founding developers of XE, the platform upon which Shoutmouth is built.

XE is an extensible, Open Source web application framework written in PHP and licensed under the GNU General Public License. XE delivers the requisite infrastructure and tools to create custom web applications that include fully dynamic multi-platform Content Management Solutions (CMS).

VIII. Appendix: Shoutmouth Financial Projections   3-Year Income Statement

3-Year Balance Sheet

As of December 31

3-Year Cash Flow Statement

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How to write your business plan cover page

When you think of putting together your business plan , the business plan cover page may not be the first thing that comes to mind. While it’s traditionally one of the last sections you create in a business plan, it’s one of the most important.

Definition: What is a business plan cover page?

The cover page of a business plan is used to give an overview of all the key information of your business. This includes your company name, logo, address, and any other information that may define your business. It's the first page of your plan, so it should look professional, visually pleasing, and informative.

When potential investors or banks read a business plan, their first impression is the cover page—but don’t overthink it. A business plan cover page is meant to be simple and straightforward, with some important contact information and, more importantly, your logo.

Use this breakdown to find out what the purpose of your cover page is, which elements you need to include, and how to structure it to maximize your impact:

What is the purpose of a cover page?

Your cover page exists to communicate what the enclosed document is and to provide the necessary information for a reader to contact you about your business.

The appearance and quality of a business plan cover page will set the tone for your business plan’s content, so make sure it’s visually appealing, free of errors, and concise.“ Simple, clean and powerful are the three goals of a strong business plan cover,” suggest the experts at Growthink . Don’t clutter your cover page with details about how your business will operate—save those important details for the executive summary .

What should you include on a business plan cover page?

To keep it simple, your business plan cover page should include:

Company logo

• Document title
• Business name
• Business address and contact information
• Business plan completion date
• Confidentiality statement

How should you format a business plan cover page?

Once you know what information belongs in this section, all that remains now is to organize it. If you need some further guidance, these downloadable templates can streamline the process of drafting a cover page—and the rest of your business plan, too.

1. Company logo

Add a high-resolution thumbnail of your logo at the top of the cover page. This will help establish a brand identity and allow readers to connect visually to the business right from the start.

Hot tip: people are 89% more likely to remember your logo if you put it in the top left corner.

Give the logo some space and then include the words “Business Plan” in a large, bold font. You can also frame the title as “Three–” or “Five–Year Business Plan,” if you intend to make those kinds of financial projections in the document.

3. Business name

Beneath the title, write your company name in a bold font. This should be the most noticeable and prominent feature on the page, so choose a large typeface.

4. Tagline (optional)

This part is optional, but you can also include a catchy slogan or motto that describes your company and what you do.

5. Address and contact information

Under the company name, include your business’s physical address and website if you have one. Provide the details necessary for interested parties to contact you, such as a phone number and email address.

It’s also helpful to include your name as the business owner and the names of any partners or executive officers so that potential investors know where to direct their inquiries.

6. Date of completion

Below the contact information, write the year (or year and month) in which this business plan was finalized and issued. If you’re including the month, it’s a good idea to update it throughout the year as you send out your business plan so readers don’t assume it’s outdated.

7. Confidentiality Statement

At the bottom of the page, include a sentence to the effect of:

“This document contains confidential and proprietary information created by [business name]. This document is issued exclusively for informational purposes and should not be reproduced without the consent of [business name].”

Adding this confidentiality statement offers a protective measure against the disclosure of your business idea , according to this cover page guide .

Send invoices, get paid, track expenses, pay your team, and balance your books with our free financial management software.

Cover page design

Now it’s time for the finishing touches: the actual design of your cover page. Your business plan’s cover page gives the first impression of your business, so your company logo, fonts, and brand colors should all work together to make people want to read more.

Brand colors

90% of a customer’s impression of your business comes from the brand colors you choose, so it’s important to choose colors that represent your business’s personality and elicit the right emotions from your readers.

Don’t know where to start? Grab a pen and paperand write down three emotions you want your customers to feel when they think of your brand. Now you can brainstorm some colors that represent those emotions. For example, you might choose blue if your product is associated with reliability, or yellow if your product is supposed to make your clients feel happy. It’s safer to only choose 2-3 colors , including black, for your color scheme.

You can also analyze the competition and choose colors that help you stand out. Canva has more detailed instructions on how to create your brand color palette .

When it comes to fonts, it’s best practice to stick to one type of typeface, such as serif or sans serif . It’s also important to choose fonts that are simple, easy to read, and represent your brand.

Serif fonts give off the impression that your brand is trustworthy and dependable, and work great for more traditional businesses, like law practices. “Serif fonts have been widely used in books, newspapers, and magazines, which is why they remind us of more classical, formal and sophisticated themes—think of Old English and Roman scripture,” Robyn Young, founder of branding agency robyn young & co, told Canva .

But if you’re going for a more contemporary and youthful feel, then sans serif is the way to go. “Brands that want a modern aesthetic that scales well at different sizes and is easy to read on screens are going to choose sans serif for their main branding elements,” said Young .

When it comes to choosing a logo, simplicity is key. Try to create something that represents your brand and speaks to your audience without being too busy (in other words: white space is your friend).

It’s also important to remember to be practical: your logo should look good in any medium, size, color, and even time period. Beyond your business plan cover page, you’ll need it for your social media, marketing material, or labels.

Business plan cover page examples

To further illustrate the structure and format of a business plan cover page, we’ve compiled a few cover page template examples. The first example from officetemplatesonline is simple but attractive and effectively emphasizes pertinent information. The next cover page example is from a fictional clothing store . They usea pop of color to instantly tell you about their brand personality.

Keep your business plan cover page simple

As you prepare to write your business plan , remember to keep your cover page simple and concise. With your logo, business name, and contact information, you’ll introduce the reader into your business plan quickly and easily—and set yourself up for success as a result.

Just don’t forget to proofread and keep an eye out for typos!

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Let our How to Start a Business Playbook guide the way.

The information and tips shared on this blog are meant to be used as learning and personal development tools as you launch, run and grow your business. While a good place to start, these articles should not take the place of personalized advice from professionals. As our lawyers would say: “All content on Wave’s blog is intended for informational purposes only. It should not be considered legal or financial advice.” Additionally, Wave is the legal copyright holder of all materials on the blog, and others cannot re-use or publish it without our written consent.