The business plan should tell a compelling story about your business, explaining who, what, when, where, how and why. Market opportunity: This is where you'll detail the opportunity in the market. Complete the Business Plan Template for a Startup Business to create a working business plan for your startup. Depending on the business model and a type of business plan, you … Whether you’re a seasoned business owner or just beginning to think about starting a business, demands come at you fast.Tasks, to-do lists, meetings, and more. Include trends and demographics, and economic, cultural, and governmental influences. In other words the business plan format helps you to clarify your own ideas and present them clearly to others. 10 Page-Turning White Paper Examples and Design Tips . A great business plan template will also provide instructions for each step of your plan and show you what an investor-ready and SBA-approved business plan should look like. Include factors that may affect the time frame of production and how you'll deal with potential problems such as rush orders. It’s also the doorway to your plan—after looking over your executive summary, your target reader is either going to throw your business plan away or keep reading, so you’d better get it just right. Written by Clifford Chi The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has one of the best business plan templates available, and it is very thorough — which you would expect from one of the most trusted and respected small business resources. Business plans provide opportunities to raise money for your business and helps you communicate with potential stakeholders. 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 your business’ success. It was created for newer versions of Word and Excel (Office 2007 or later) so that you can easily change the fonts and color scheme and the file will be compatible with the … Pricing has to be competitive to attract customers but high enough to cover costs and generate a profit. Once you complete your simple business plan be sure to format it attractively, print it and get it professionally bound. If addressing to a company or individual include: Executive Summary..............................................Page #, Business/Industry Overview.................................Page #, Market Analysis and Competition........................Page #, Sales and Marketing Plan....................................Page #, Ownership and Management Plan.......................Page #, Operating Plan.....................................................Page #, Financial Plan.......................................................Page #, Appendices and Exhibits......................................Page #. This template provides a business plan outline with sample questions, tables, and a working table of contents. Describe the physical location of the business including location, land, and building requirements. Download a free, editable one-page business plan template. The presentation template above is a business plan template in the form of a slide deck. But how do you actually write a viable and convincing business plan? We created a business plan template for entrepreneurs. Creating a business plan is a key part of starting any business venture. 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’ financial plan and financial statements. It’s just a page or two that highlights the points you’ve made elsewhere in your business plan. The business plan template below is broken into sections as described in the table of contents. How to Transform Your Small Business into a Big Business, Section 3: Market Analysis and Competition, Here's What Your Coffee Shop Business Plan Should Look Like, The Sections a Winning Business Plan Has to Have, One-Page Business Plan Templates for Entrepreneurs, Writing an Operations Plan for Your Business, Business Plan Essentials: Writing a Cash Flow Projection, How to Prepare an Investor-Ready Business Plan, Business Plan Tips: How to Write a Winning Executive Summary, Get Tips on Writing a Comprehensive Outline for Your Business Plan, 5 Easy Steps to Creating a Break-Even Analysis, 6 Key Small Business Financial Statements for Startup Financing, Guide to Starting a Successful Charitable Nonprofit, The Balance Small Business is part of the, Business Plan Example of the Industry Overview, How to Write the Competitor Analysis Section of the Business Plan, Retail Pricing Strategies to Increase Profitability. Summarize the problem you are solving for customers, your solution, the target market, the founding team, and financial forecast highlights. With this business plan, the focus is the investment opportunity. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. The executive summary goes near the beginning of the plan but is written last. You’ll also have to know enough about the process to be sure you’re getting the numbers in the right place. What Is A Marketing Plan and How to Make One (20+ Marketing Plan Templates) 12 Business Pitch Deck Templates and Design Best Practices to Impress Investors. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience? That best way to find out whether you do or not is to do your research and write a business plan to see if your idea is feasible. Describe the overall nature of the industry, including sales and other statistics. 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’ financial plan and financial statements. Executive summary: This section will include an overview of the company, your unique value proposition, and a team overview. For a one-person, home-based consulting business the operating plan will be short and simple, but for a business such as a restaurant or a manufacturer that requires custom facilities, supply chains, specialized equipment, and multiple employees, the operating plan needs to be very detailed. Describe how you will distribute your products to the customer (if applicable). If your business is manufacturing, retail, food services, etc. This is one of my favorite sample business plans, because you can see how implementing visuals can help tell the story of your brand. The same logic applies to business. Depending on your target audience (banks, investors, business plan competition), a business plan can be as simple or complex as you want it. Free and premium plans, Content management system software. We're committed to your privacy. Otherwise, they’ll get crushed. The financial plan section is the most important section of the business plan, especially if you need debt financing or want to attract investors. Include brief resumés. Most business plans include the following sections: While some business plans might include more or less information, these are the key details you'll want to include. The Business Plan Financial Template covers the financial overview of your business plan. There is some disambiguation about what a business plan is, when is it needed and how long should it be, but we'll try to clarify some of these questions in this article. 2. The great part of using a PDF Converter OCR , is, you can basically create your own plans basing on a PDF template, even extract contents from scanned or image plans to refine your own business … The income statement shows your projected revenues, expenses and profit. To have a fighting chance against any of their opponents, they need to prepare a specific game plan tailored to each of their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. So how do you keep up? The Small Business Administration offers several free business plan templates that can be used to inspire your own plan. Your plan should be focused and clear. The last section of the template, “Refining Your Plan,” explains ways you may need to modify your plan for specific purposes, such as getting a bank loan, or for specific industries, such as retail or manufacturing. Outline expected staffing needs and the main duties of staff members, especially the key employees. There are tons of free business plan templates available (including the one you can download right here on this page). Financials: This is where you'll detail the funding that's required and discuss investment opportunities. Originally published Aug 7, 2020 3:04:00 PM, updated August 08 2020, 11 Sample Business Plans to Help You Write Your Own, HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template, Harvard Business Review’s “How to Write a Winning Business Plan”, Business Plans That Win: Lessons From the MIT Enterprise Forum, HubSpot’s Complete Guide to Starting a Business, Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template, 6 Reasons You Really Need to Write A Business Plan, 79 Marketing Tools and Software for Every Business & Budget, What is a Business Plan? 319 business plan templates and related forms you can edit, customize, and print for free. Do this on a monthly basis for at least the first year for a startup business. Include the cost and whether it will be leased or purchased and the sources. For instance, not only do you have to complete the financial spreadsheets, but you have to do the math yourself. List the different media you will use to get your message to customers (e.g., What marketing materials you'll use such as. Aditya Sheth is a Content Marketer at Venngage. You can turn to How to Write the Competitor Analysis Section of the Business Plan for help. In this section, you need to demonstrate that you have thoroughly analyzed the target market and that there is enough demand for your product or service to make your business viable. For manufacturing, explain how long it takes to produce a unit and when you'll be able to start producing your product or service. Typically, a business plan is a document that will detail how a company will achieve its goals. The images in this template are cutting edge, which makes sense for an innovative company like Plum. If you’re an entrepreneur, you know writing a business plan is one of the most challenging first steps to starting a business. It is important for demonstrating that you can manage your. Think you have a great idea for a business? Include square footage estimates with room for expansion if expected. A business plan helps you to: The business world moves fast, and it’s full of ambitious companies scrambling to gain the majority of their industry’s market share. A business plan is a formally written document that embodies the detailed process on how a business will operate to achieve its objectives and the steps that it will take to ensure the growth of the company. It’s not easy to keep everything completely up-to-date as you make changes to your numbers, and integrating the right charts and graphs into your business plan is harder than it looks. Sell your business story with the help of this business plan template. Including a breakeven analysis will demonstrate to financiers or investors what level of sales you need to achieve to make a profit. Enter your business information including the legal name, address, etc. Your business plan is not only a necessity when seeking financing for your project, it is a recognized management tool that outlines exactly what your company will do and how it plans to succeed. It covers objectives, strategies, sales, marketing and financial forecasts. Marketing automation software. Then, you can review the format for both of those plans and view examples of what they might look like. Describe managers and their roles, key employee positions, and how each will be compensated. 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. Describe your main product and service offerings. If you already have a business logo you can add it at the top or bottom of the title page. If your business is a partnership or requires multiple employees, you may need a more robust business plan. Pricing and revenue: This is where you'll discuss your cost structure and various revenue streams. Below, let's review the format of a business plan and sample business plans you can use to inspire your own. If using Windows, outline the text to be selected with the mouse and hit CTRL+C to copy and CTRL+V to paste. It is designed to help you, and others, understand how you plan to generate money and make your business sustainable. Each section of the template can be copied into a Word, Excel or similar office document by selecting the text and using copy/paste. 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 they coach. It contains the company overview, revenues, and expenses. Definition, Tips, and Templates. Define the target market(s) for your product or service in your geographic locale. Include the. Describe how you will manage inventory. There is still going to be a lot of work involved. Using their sample business plan as a guide while filling out your own will help you catch and include small yet important details in your business plan that you otherwise might not have noticed. A great business plan template will also provide instructions for each step of your plan and show you what an investor-ready and SBA-approved business plan should look like. A Business Plan is a written document that describes your core business objectives and how you plan to achieve them over a set period of time. The Balance Small Business uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Plus, it shows you the general layout of a standard business plan so you know what goes where and that you're not leaving out anything. A standard business plan consists of a single document divided into several sections including a description of the organization, the market research, competitive analysis, sales strategies, capital and labor requirements, and financial data. Briefly outline your financial projections for the first few years of operation. The executive summary should be no more than two pages long, with brief summaries of other sections of the plan. Then, the plan goes into more detail about the company synopsis industry analysis. How should I format this?". If you're looking for a tool to walk you through writing your own business plan step-by-step, we recommend LivePlan, especially if you're seeking a bank loan or outside investment and need to use an SBA-approved format. Amidst that rush, the idea of writing a good business plan—much less following a business plan template—often feels time-consuming and intimidating. It is an essential document that layouts an organization’s proposals , financial plan , and business models. Detailed market research and analysis of competitors, Copies of mortgage documents, equipment leases, etc. Pros of using a business plan template: A good business plan template can help you get your thoughts organized. Keep in mind, that each of these sections will be formatted differently. The operating plan outlines the physical requirements of your business, such as office, warehouse, retail space, equipment, inventory and supplies, labor, etc. Executive Summary Enterprise Description; Product or Service Description; Industry Analysis; Competition Analysis; Swot Analys is; Marketing Sub-Plan; Operations Sub-Plan; Human Resources Sub-Plan; The Budget; Liquidity; Financial Sub-Plan Finally, merging data from Excel spreadsheets into your Word document is harder than it looks. It describes what you should include in each of its sections, so you don't have to come up with everything from scratch. Describe your product or service, how it benefits the customer, and what sets it apart from competitor offerings (i.e., what is your. Briefly describe the customer base you will be targeting and how your business will serve those customers. Before you get started, you can decide what type of business plan you need -- a traditional or lean start-up plan. You want your business plan to convey the best possible physical impression; make it something people are going to want to pick up and look at. Choose from 500+ free sample business plans in a wide variety of industries. The list below covers a wide range of businesses. This is an excellent template to use if you're going to use your business plan as a means to receive funding. Introduce your company and the management and ownership. Because companies who can find gaps in your business model will quickly learn how to fill those gaps and solve your customers’ problems better than you can. An overview of the industry and how your business will compete in the sector. She has run an IT consulting firm and designed and presented courses on how to promote small businesses. The target market description and competitive analysis portions can be two separate sections in the plan or combined as shown: A description of how you intend to entice customers to buy your product(s) or service(s), including advertising/promotion, pricing strategy, sales and distribution, and post-sales support if applicable. Culina's sample business plan is a great template to use if you just want to fill in your information. This financial business plan sample will also attract potential investors. Similarly, a one-page plan will not be sufficient if you are in need of debt or equity financing and wish to impress financial institutions or potential investors. Susan Ward wrote about small businesses for The Balance Small Business for 18 years. If you want to reference an actual business plan while writing your own, ThoughtCo’s got you covered. A standard business plan consists of a single document divided into several sections including a description of the organization, the market research, competitive analysis, sales strategies, capital and labor requirements, and financial data. A business plan is a written document that describes your business. Free and premium plans, Customer service software. The competitive analysis includes an assessment of your competition and how your business will compete in the sector. 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. There’s also a list for you to check off when you finish each section of your business plan. Marketing strategy: Here, you'll discuss how you'll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. If you want to build a thriving company that can pull ahead of the competition, you need to prepare yourself for battle before you break into a market. This section describes the legal structure, ownership, and (if applicable) the management, and staffing requirements of your business. Describe how the employees will be sourced and the employment relationship (i.e.. It can provide a guideline so you’re not stuck looking at a blank page trying to figure out where to start. The simple business plan template presented here will get you started. A Microsoft business plan template can help get you started. (or quotes on these), Any other supporting material that may impress potential lenders or investors if you are looking for financing. The appendices and exhibits section contains any detailed information needed to support other sections of the plan. Then, you can use a template to guide your process. When you're first getting starting on your business plan, it can be daunting. Some may be in paragraph format, while others will be in charts. Business plan templates offer step-by-step instructions and prefabricated slides for your executive summary, company overview, financial plan, and more. include a description of the materials needed and how you will reliably source them. Referencing one throughout your voyage will keep you on the path toward success. Strong game plans help coaches win games and help businesses rocket to the top of their industries. Summarize the competition and how you will get market share (i.e., what is your competitive advantage?). Will you be selling wholesale or retail? Panda Doc’s free business plan template is one of the more detailed and fleshed out sample business plans on this list. 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