write my business plan for me uk

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Write a business plan

Download free business plan templates and find help and advice on how to write your business plan.

Business plan templates

Download a free business plan template on The Prince’s Trust website.

You can also download a free cash flow forecast template or a business plan template on the Start Up Loans website to help you manage your finances.

Business plan examples

Read example business plans on the Bplans website.

How to write a business plan

Get detailed information about how to write a business plan on the Start Up Donut website.

Why you need a business plan

A business plan is a written document that describes your business. It covers objectives, strategies, sales, marketing and financial forecasts.

A business plan helps you to:

• clarify your business idea
• spot potential problems
• set out your goals
• measure your progress

You’ll need a business plan if you want to secure investment or a loan from a bank. Read about the finance options available for businesses on the Business Finance Guide website.

It can also help to convince customers, suppliers and potential employees to support you.

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Professional Business Plan Writer

I provide a bespoke business plan writing service helping new and established business owners in the UK and overseas plan for growth and investment.

• Over 15 years’ experience as a business plan writer
• Unparalleled cross-sector experience and knowledge
• Multiple business owner and seasoned entrepreneur
• Raised millions in funding and investment

Business Plan Writer Services

Since 2008 I have successfully worked with hundreds of business owners in the UK and overseas, from start-ups to large corporations, helping them achieve their business goals.

Business Plan Writing

Funding success, visa business plans.

Andrew Ludlam – The Business Plan Writer

For over fifteen years I have been helping business owners to plan and grow. One of the UK’s leading business plan writers, I have worked with many hundreds of business owners from start-ups, sole traders, limited companies, through to large corporations.

Whilst much of my work consists of writing business plans to raise finance and investment, my business plan writing service also includes preparing business plans for local authority approval, grant and loan schemes, as well as supporting international entrepreneurs.

The added value I can provide is that, as a multiple business owner, marketing consultant and author, I bring a real-world perspective to every business plan I write. In addition, I do not take the information you supply and simply throw back a business plan after a few weeks. If I feel we need to delve deeper into the commerciality or viability of the business proposition, I will work with you to achieve this. 

Enabled us to develop an extremely strong business plan and strategy

Drawing on Andrew’s experience and network enabled us to develop an extremely strong business plan and strategy, which will ultimately lead to our own funding successes…

STEVE BALDREY

We received the funding we were looking for

I sincerely recommend you use Andrew if you want a professional and detailed business plan… Thank you Andrew for all your help. We received the funding we were looking for…

MICHAEL ST JOHN

HSBC remarked that they had never seen such a comprehensive and well written plan

HSBC remarked that they had never seen such a comprehensive and well written plan. Andrew put together a very professional business plan. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend his services…

TONY COLLISON

Hertfordshire

Why choose The Business Plan Writer?

Experienced.

Since establishing The Business Plan Writer in 2008 I have written hundreds of business plans and worked with a range of UK and international clients providing me with unparalleled cross-sector experience and knowledge.

No Outsourcing

Your business plan will not be outsourced to another business plan writer or delegated to a team of writing staff. As the sole point of contact, every client is guaranteed my complete attention.

Bespoke Service

I provide a 100% bespoke service. No off-the-shelf templates, or repurposing of content from other business plans. I invest time in comprehending each client’s business translating their aspirations, ideas and objectives into a compelling document.

Business Owner

I am a multiple business owner, marketing consultant and author. As such I can bring a very real-world perspective to each business plan I write, ensuring every document is commercially sound and viable.

Added Value

I rarely take the information supplied and simply send back a business plan after a few weeks. If there are knowledge gaps, or the business proposition needs further input then I can help with this.

Beyond Funding

Whilst much of my work consists of writing business plans for finance and investment, I can also prepare business plans for local authority approval, grant and loan schemes, as well as UK visa applications.

Business Plan Writer FAQs

Can you send a sample business plan.

In short, no. I have always maintained the highest level of confidentiality for my clients. I am sure you wouldn’t want your business plan shared, so I never email clients’ plans. 

However, I am always happy to arrange an online meeting to screen-share example business plans. I can also provide many case studies and client feedback—please visit my  results page for more details.

How much does a business plan cost?

My business plan fees depend on several factors, including the amount of information provided, the complexity of the business, whether three or five-year financial forecasts are needed, or if a pitch deck is required etc.

Fees typically range from £1,800 to £3,500. I ask for a 50% deposit before I begin work, with the remaining 50% to be paid before I send the final business plan. Or, if paid in full at commencement, there is a 10% discount on the fee.

How long does it take to write a business plan?

A business plan can take three to four weeks to complete. However, this can differ depending on the client’s needs and my workload. For example, this timeline can be longer for more complex business plans or if we need to explore the business proposition further. I can also work to a specific deadline if required.

What information is required to write a business plan?

Every client is sent a questionnaire to complete. It is not a lengthy document, and the questions are pretty standard. In addition to helping me write the business plan, the questionnaire is often an opportunity to identify any gaps or areas that need to be addressed. I will frequently supplement the questionnaire with a series of online meetings, email exchanges, etc.

Do you provide financial forecasts?

Every business plan includes three—or five-year financial forecasts. These typically comprise a P&L forecast, cash flow forecast, sales forecast, balance sheet, capital and operational expenditures, start-up costs (if applicable), HR costs, and a staffing plan. Depending on requirements, more complex financial analyses and details can be provided. The financial forecasts are prepared by a qualified accountant.

Get in touch

Whether you require a business plan for a start-up venture or existing business, I can provide a truly tailored and comprehensive business plan writing service.

Please contact me to discuss your requirements, and I will respond within 24 hours.

Privacy Policy

I provide a completely bespoke one-to-one business plan writing service, with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs create business plans for investment, growth and acquisition.

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Free Simple Business Plan Template

Our experts

Written and reviewed by:.

Startups.co.uk is reader supported – we may earn a commission from our recommendations, at no extra cost to you and without impacting our editorial impartiality.

Your business plan is the document that adds structure to your proposal and helps you focus your objectives on an achievable and realistic target. It should cover every aspect of what your business journey will look like, from licensing and revenue, to competitor and sector analysis.

Writing a business plan doesn’t need to be a difficult process, but it should take at least a month to be done properly.

In today’s capricious business climate there’s a lot to consider, such as the impact of political challenges like Brexit. These details are especially important in today’s bad economy. Investors are looking for entrepreneurs who are aware of the challenges ahead and how to properly plan for them.

Below, you’ll find everything you need to create a concise, specific and authoritative business plan. So let’s get started turning your idea into a reality!

Click here to download your free Business Plan template PDF – you can fill in your own details and those of your business, its target market, your customers, competitors and your vision for growth.

Our below guide will give you detailed advice on how to write a quality business plan, and our PDF download above can give you a clear template to work through.

But, creating an effective business plan needs….planning! That’s where a high quality planning tool can help.

We recommend creating an account with monday to use this tool – there’s even a free trial . Doing so means you can start your entrepreneurial journey on the right foot.

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What to include in your business plan template

There’s a lot of information online about how to write a business plan – making it a confusing task to work out what is and isn’t good advice.

We’re here to cut through the noise by telling you exactly what you need to include for a business plan that will satisfy stakeholders and help develop a key identity for your brand. By the end, you’ll have a plan to make even Alan Sugar proud and can get started with the most exciting part – running your business.

Throughout this guide, we’ve featured an example business plan template for a new restaurant opening in Birmingham called ‘The Plew’. In each section, you’ll be able to see what the contents we’re describing would look like in a ‘real-life’ document.

What to include in your business plan:

• Executive Summary
• Personal summary
• Business idea
• Your product or service
• Market analysis
• Competitor analysis
• Cash forecast
• Operations and logistics
• Backup plan
• Top tips for writing a business plan
• Business plan template UK FAQs

1. Executive summary

This section is a summary of your entire business plan. Because of this, it is a good idea to write it at the end of your plan, not the beginning.

Just as with the overall business plan, the executive summary should be clearly written and powerfully persuasive, yet it should balance sales talk with realism in order to be convincing. It should be no more than 1,000 words.

It should cover:

• Mission statement  – what is your company’s purpose?
• Business idea and opportunity – what unique selling point (USP) will you provide?
• Business model – how will your business operate?
• Business objectives – what are you aiming to achieve?
• Target market – who is your customer base?
• Management team – who are the owners/senior staff?
• Competition – who are you competing against?
• Financial summary – can you prove the business will be profitable?
• Marketing strategy – what is your marketing plan and associated costs?
• Timeline – how long will it take to launch/grow your new business?

It sounds like a lot – but don’t feel you have to spend hours putting this together. Here’s what the above information for an executive summary might look like when put into our example business plan template for ‘The Plew’:

Startups’ business plan template example: executive summary

2. Personal summary

Investors want to know who they’re investing in, as much as what. This is where you tell people who you are, and why you’re starting your business.

Outline your general contact details first, giving your telephone number, email address, website or portfolio, and any professional social media profiles you might have.

Run through this checklist to tell the reader more about yourself, and put your business ambitions into context.

• What skills/qualifications do you have?
• What are you passionate about?
• What is/are your area(s) of industry expertise?
• Why do you want to run your own business?

Here’s what our two fictional co-founders of ‘The Plew’ might write in their personal summaries for our example business plan. CEO Gabrielle Shelby, has highlighted her expertise in the restaurant industry, while CFO Freya Moore outlines her accounting and finance knowledge.

Startups’ business plan template example: personal summary

Richard Osborne, founder and CEO of UK Business Forums, says personality is important in a business plan.

“Having a strong, personal reason at the heart of your business model will help keep you going and give you the motivation to carry on,” he affirms.

3. Business idea

This section is essentially to offer a general outline of what your business idea is, and why it brings something new to the market.

Here, you should include your general company details, such as your business name and a  one-line summary of your business idea known as an  elevator pitch. This section should also list a few key business objectives to show how you plan to scale over the next 1-3 years.

We also recommend carrying out a SWOT analysis to tell investors what the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are for your business idea. Think about:

• Strengths: ie. why is this a good time to enter the sector?
• Weaknesses: ie. what market challenges might you encounter?
• Opportunities: ie. what demand is your product/service meeting in today’s market?
• Threats: ie. how will the business be financed to maintain liquidity?

In the template below, you can see a breakdown of the above information for ‘The Plew’. At the top is its mission statement: “to craft an unforgettable dining experience in a chic atmosphere.”

Startups’ business plan template example: business idea

Need a business idea? We’ve crunched the numbers and come up with a list of the best business ideas for startup success in 2023 based on today’s most popular and growing industries.

4. Your products or services

Now it’s time to explain what you are selling to customers and how will you produce your sales offering.

Use this section to answer all of the below questions and explain what you plan to sell and how. Just like your business idea outline, your answers should be concise and declarative.

• What product(s) or service(s) will you sell?
• Do you plan to offer new products or services in the future?
• How much does the product or service cost to produce/deliver?
• What is your pricing strategy ?
• What sales channels will you use?
• Are there legal requirements to start this business?
• What about insurance requirements?
• What is the growth potential for the product or service?
• What are the challenges? eg. if you’re looking to sell abroad, acknowledge the potential delays caused by post-Brexit regulations.

What insurance and licensing requirements do you need to consider?

Depending on what your business offers, you might need to invest in insurance or licensing. Our How To Start guides have more details about sector-specific insurance or licensing.

Public Liability, Professional Indemnity, and Employers’ Liability are the most well-known types of business insurance. We’ve listed some other common other licensing and insurance requirements below:

In our example product/service page for ‘The Plew”s business plan, the founders choose to separate this information into multiple pages. Below, they outline their cost and pricing, as well as sales strategy. But they also include an example menu, to offer something a bit more unique and tantalising to the reader:

Startups’ business plan template example: product list and pricing strategy

5. Market analysis

This section demonstrates your understanding of the market you are entering, and any challenges you will likely face when trying to establish your company.

This section pulls all of your target market and customer research together to indicate to stakeholders that you are knowledgable about the sector and how to succeed in it.

• Who is your typical customer and where are they are based? Describe the profile of your expected customers eg. average age, location, budget, interests, etc.
• How many customers will your business reach? Outline the size of your market, and the share of the market that your business can reach.
• Have you sold any products/services to customers already? If yes, describe these sales. If no, have people expressed interest in buying your products or services?
• What have you learned about the market from desk-based research? What are the industry’s current challenges, and how has it been affected by the economic downturn?
• What have you learned about the market from field research? (eg. feedback from market testing like customer questionnaires or focus group feedback).

What is your marketing strategy?

Once you’ve highlighted who your rivals are in the market, you can provide details on how you plan to stand out from them through your marketing strategy. Outline your  business’ USP, your current marketing strategy, and any associated advertising costs.

‘The Plew’ identifies its target audience as young, adventurous people in their mid-30s. Because of the restaurant’s premium service offering, its audience works in a well-paid sector like tech:

Startups’ business plan template example: customer analysis

6. Competitor analysis

This section demonstrates how well you know the key players and rivals in the industry. It should show the research you have carried out in a table format.

Begin by listing the key information about your competitors. Don’t worry about sounding too critical, or too positive. Try to prioritise accuracy above all else.

• Business size
• Product/service offering
• Sales channels
• Strengths/weaknesses

Competitors will take two forms, either direct  or  indirect. Direct competitors sell the same or similar products or services. Indirect competitors sell substitute or alternative products or services.

Here’s a breakdown of the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, and threats presented by a competitor restaurant for ‘The Plew’ called Eateria 24. At the bottom, the founders have written what learnings they can take from the chart.

Startups’ business plan template example: competitor analysis

Check out our list of the top competitor analysis templates to download free resources for your business, plus advice on what to include and how to get started.

7. Cash forecast

Outline your financial outlook including how much you expect to spend, and make, in your first year

All of your considered costs can be put into one easy-to-read document called a monthly cash forecast. Cash forecasts contain:

1. Incoming costs such as sales revenue, customer account fees, or funding.

2. Outgoing costs such as staff wages or operating expenses. The latter can cover everything from advertising costs to office supplies.

For those firms which have already started trading, include any previous year’s accounts (up to three years) as well as details of any outstanding loans or assets.

Annual cash forecast: what is it?

By conducting 12 monthly cash forecasts, you can create an annual cash forecast to work out when your company will become profitable (also known as breakeven analysis) . You will break even when total incoming costs = total outgoing costs.

In your annual cost budget, make sure to also include month opening/closing balance.  This is important to monitor for accounting, particularly for year-end.

• Opening balance = the amount of cash at the beginning of the month
• Closing balance = the amount of cash at the end of the month

The opening balance of any month will always be the same as the closing balance of the previous month. If you are repeatedly opening months with a negative closing balance, you need to adjust your spending. Here’s an example of what ‘The Plew’s financials might look like in its first year of operation:

Startups’ business plan template example: cash forecast

8. Operations and logistics

Explain how your day-to-day business activities will be run, including key business partnerships around production and delivery.

A.) Production

List all of the behind the scenes information about how your business will operate. Include:

• Management team – who do you plan to hire as senior staff and why?
• Premises –  where will you be based? What will be the cost?
• Materials –  what materials/equipment will you need to make your product/service?
• Staffing –  how many employees will you hire? How much will they cost?
• Insurance – what insurance do you need for production?

B.) Delivery

Detail how your customers will receive your product or service. Include:

• Distribution –  how will you sell your product to customers?
• Transport –  how will you transport the product/service to customers or partners?
• Insurance –  what insurance do you need for delivery?

C.) Supplier analysis

Lastly, you should carry out a supplier analysis.  Write down 2-3 suppliers you plan to use as part of your business operations and evaluate them on factors like location and pricing.

In our example business plan for ‘The Plew’, the founders have chosen to present this information in an easily-digestible chart, breaking down the leadership and employees into two different areas: product development and operations.

Startups’ business plan template example: staffing section

9. Backup plan

Explain how you will manage any surprise losses if your cash forecast does not go to plan.

In the event that your business does not go to plan, there will be costs to incur. A backup plan outlines to potential investors how you will pay back any outstanding loans or debt.

In the short-term: 

If your cash-flow temporarily stalls, what steps could you take to quickly raise money or make savings? For example, by negotiating shorter payment terms with your customers.

In the long-term:

If you’ve noticed a drop in sales that seems to be persisting, what changes can you make that would improve cash flow longer term? For example, can you do more of your business online to reduce rent fees?

To placate investors even further, it’s a good idea to include details about potential support channels you can utilise (eg. a business network or contact) who might be able to help if you get caught in a sticky cash-flow situation.

Startups’ 5 top tips for writing a business plan

• Keep your predictions realistic. Your business plan should showcase your knowledge of the sector and what’s achievable. It’s not about impressing investors with big numbers or meaningless buzzwords.
• Don’t go over 15 pages. Business plans should be engaging, which means sticking to the point and avoiding a lot of long-winded sentences. Keep your executive summary to less than 1,000 words, for example.
• End with supporting documents. Use your appendix to include product diagrams or detailed research findings if these are helpful to your business case.
• Get a second pair of eyes. Everyone misses a spelling error or two – invite a trusted business contact or associate to look over your business plan before you send it anywhere.
• Leave enough time to write! It’s exciting to think about getting your business up and running – but planning is an important step that can’t be rushed over. Spend at least a month on writing to get all the details correct and laid-out.

At Startups.co.uk, we’re here to help small UK businesses to get started, grow and succeed. We have practical resources for helping new businesses get off the ground – use the tool below to get started today.

What Does Your Business Need Help With?

Designing a business plan is very important for laying the foundation of your business. Ensure you spend an appropriate amount of time filling it out, as it could save you many headaches further down the line.

Once your plan is complete, you’ll then be ready to look at other aspects of business set-up, such as registering your company. Sound daunting? Don’t worry!

Our experts have pulled together a simple, comprehensive guide on How to Start a Business in 2024, which will tell you everything you need to know to put your new plan into action.

• Can I write a business plan myself? Absolutely! There are plenty of resources available to help, but the truth is a business plan needs to reflect the owner's personal ambitions and passion - which is why entrepreneurs are best-placed to write their own.
• How long should a business plan be? We recommend your business plan is kept to a maximum of 15 pages. Keep it short and concise - your executive summary, for example, should be no more than 1,000 words.
• Is it OK to copy a business plan? While not technically illegal, copying a business plan will leave you in a poor position to attract investment. Customising your plan to your unique business idea and industry specialism is the best way to persuade stakeholders that you have a winning startup formula.

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How To Write A Business Plan

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Updated: Nov 10, 2023, 4:23pm

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Table of Contents

Brainstorm an executive summary, create a company description, brainstorm your business goals, describe your services or products, conduct market research, create financial plans, bottom line.

Every business starts with a vision – and this vision is distilled and communicated through a business plan . A strong business plan outlines short-term and long-term goals, budget and whatever else you might need to get started (in addition, of course, to your hopes and dreams). In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to write a watertight and effective business plan that you can stick to.

Drafting the summary

An executive summary is an extremely important first step in your business. You have to be able to put the basic facts of your business in an elevator pitch-style sentence to grab investors’ attention and keep their interest. This should communicate your business’s name, what the products or services you’re selling are and what marketplace you’re entering.

Ask for help

When drafting the executive summary, you should have a few different options. Enlist a few thought partners to review your executive summary possibilities to determine which one is best.

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After you have the executive summary in place, you can work on the company description, which contains more specific information. In the description, you’ll need to include your business’s registered name, your business address and any key employees involved in the business. 

The business description should also include the structure of your business, such as sole proprietorship, limited liability company (LLC), partnership or corporation. This is the time to specify how much of an ownership stake everyone has in the company. Finally, include a section that outlines the history of the company and how it has evolved over time.

Wherever you are on the business journey, you return to your goals and assess where you are in meeting your in-progress targets and setting new goals to work toward.

Numbers-based goals

Goals can cover a variety of sections of your business. Financial and profit goals are a given for when you’re establishing your business, but there are other goals to take into account as well with regard to brand awareness and growth. For example, you might want to hit a certain number of followers across social channels or raise your engagement rates.

Another goal could be to attract new investors or find grants if you’re a nonprofit business. If you’re looking to grow, you’ll want to set revenue targets to make that happen as well.

Intangible goals

Goals unrelated to traceable numbers are important as well. These can include seeing your business’s advertisement reach the general public or receiving a terrific client review. These goals are important for the direction you take your business and the direction you want it to go in the future.

The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you’re offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit in the current market or are providing something necessary or entirely new. If you have any patents or trademarks, this is where you can include those too.

If you have any visual aids, they should be included here as well. This would also be a good place to include pricing strategy and explain your materials.

This is the part of the business plan where you can explain your expertise and different approach in greater depth. Show how what you’re offering is vital to the market and fills an important gap.

You can also situate your business in your industry and compare it to other ones and how you have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Other than financial goals, you want to have a budget and set your planned weekly, monthly and annual spending. There are several different costs to consider, such as operational costs.

Business operations costs

Rent for your business is the first big cost to factor into your budget. If your business is remote, the cost that replaces rent will be the software that maintains your virtual operations.

Marketing and sales costs should be next on your list. Devoting money to making sure people know about your business is as important as making sure it functions.

Other costs

Although you can’t anticipate disasters, there are likely to be unanticipated costs that come up at some point in your business’s existence. It’s important to factor these possible costs into your financial plans so you’re not caught totally unaware.

Think about task management software

Task management software can be really useful in mapping out the scope of a project, including getting your new business up and running. There are many apps out there, so finding the right solution can be tricky. We compiled this list of the best task management software (which ranks Monday.com in first place) which could help narrow down your search.

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Business plans are important for businesses of all sizes so that you can define where your business is and where you want it to go. Growing your business requires a vision, and giving yourself a roadmap in the form of a business plan will set you up for success.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How do i write a simple business plan.

When you’re working on a business plan, make sure you have as much information as possible so that you can simplify it to the most relevant information.

A simple business plan still needs all of the parts included in this article, but you can be very clear and direct.

What are some common mistakes in a business plan?

The most common mistakes in a business plan are common writing issues like grammar errors or misspellings.

It’s important to be clear in your sentence structure and proofread your business plan before sending it to any investors or partners.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business, an analysis of the industry.

This includes potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services, how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful.

You should also look at financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

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What are you looking for, how to write a business plan uk | free uk business plan template.

• Brought to you by AAT Business Finance Basics

• 1. What is a business plan?
• 2. Download: Free UK business plan template
• 3. Getting started on a business plan
• 4. How to structure a business plan step-by-step
• 5. What content should a business plan include?
• 6. UK business plan example 1: GreenTech Innovations
• 7. UK business plan example 2: EcoBoutique
• 8. UK business plan example 3: BizConsult Solutions
• 9. Business plan writing tips

You’ve got the brilliant business idea, you might have even started setting up or running your business, but writing a business plan and creating business proposals are vital for the launch and growth of any venture. It’s a document where you can organise all your ideas, create a company description, make sure that you’ve considered and researched everything, and ultimately decide that the business is viable. Commitment to making a business plan is a commitment to the business. Read our guide and download your free business plan template. 

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a document that details all the future plans and predictions for your business. It will explain your ideas, map out how they’ll be put into practice and provide relevant information and facts including the business details, management plan, operating plan, marketing and sales strategy , financial projections, and operational and team specifics.  

A business plan is essential in helping you: 

The business plan is a living, working document that should be read and reviewed regularly. If there are multiple directors or partners in the business then they should all be in agreement with what the plan outlines, the detailed information in the plan, and what is written in the plan. You will also need to share it with potential investors. The business plan will formalise all the ideas and assumptions, keep you focused, and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

How long writing your business plan should take will depend on your business size, the complexities of it and what stage you’re at. The most important thing is that it’s user-friendly and doesn’t include any waffle. Get straight to the nitty-gritty so that your stakeholders are engaged when reading it and so that you are more likely to use and update it regularly. Your business plan will probably cover the first three to five years. It’s important to include all the right information (see the checklist below) but it’s not a document to spend too long on. It’s more important that you are spending time running the business.

There are lots of business plan examples out there but typically yours should include: 

• What your business will do 
• The business structure and operations  
• Team members and their expertise 
• Market analysis to see current and projected state of the market and industry
• How your business will sell and market  
• Startup costs and funding required 
• Financial projections 
• Legal requirements 

Writing a business plan will allow you to take a step back and look at the business more objectively, predicting potential issues in advance, such as financial forecasts, and coming up with solutions or a shift in how you originally thought that you would do something.

Download: Free UK business plan template

We want to take the stress out of writing a business plan. Our free downloadable UK business plan template will guide you on everything you need to include and get your business primed for success. 

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Getting started on a business plan

Before you begin to make your business plan, keep these three things at the forefront of your mind. 

Focus on what makes you unique

Be creative with your plan, shout about your unique selling proposition (USPs) and what makes you different. Represent your brand using language and visuals, and talk about why you and your team are best to run this business.

Don’t over complicate it

Keep it concise so that you can get on with running the business and so the business plan is an easily readable and usable document. Too much detail in the plan can become confusing.

Be realistic and honest

The business plan will give you an indication of where you’re supposed to be. Review it every few months, update it as you go and change your activities in line with it. It will be impossible for you to predict everything so just give it your best shot and be prepared to be flexible.

How to structure a business plan step-by-step

The business plan should follow this format with these six sections. 

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The executive summary should always be written last. Think of it as a one-pager giving an overview of all the best bits of your plan. If the executive summary doesn’t captivate and interest the reader then it’s unlikely that they will read the rest of your plan. 

Describe your what, where, who and why - including your product/service, brand, location, business model and size. 

This section will involve the most amount of research as you study the current and projected conditions of the market and the industry, and look at what your competition is doing , before making your own marketing plans . 

Explain the experience, skills and credentials of all the people involved. Why are they the right people to make this a success?

Detail your required facilities, premises, systems and software. 

This section translates everything into numbers - your startup and running costs, funding , revenue projections with a cash flow forecast . 

What content should a business plan include?

Take a look at these business plan sections in more detail to see examples of the sort of details you should include, depending on your type of business. In the next section, we’ve used this framework to create some UK business plan examples featuring three fictional small businesses. 

1. The executive summary

Give a topline description of:

• In the most basic terms, what is the business? Is it a product or service? What does it do and how?
• Why is there a need for this business?
• What does this business do better than similar existing businesses?
• What experience or skills do you have that will help make this business a success?
• How will it make money?
• Who will your customers be?
• Who are your main competitors?
• How will people find out about you?
•  What is the opportunity for investors?

2. Business details and description

In this section:

• Describe your what, where, who and why – including your product/service, brand, location, business model and size.
• Food (lunch / dinner)
• Private hire for meetings / parties / events
• Putting on own events (music, comedy)
• Classes (e.g. cocktail making)
• Opening for breakfast / take away coffee
• What will the legal structure of your company be (LTD, PLC, sole trader, partnership, charity, social enterprise)?

3. Marketing and sales strategy

This section will likely be split into the following areas:

Market conditions and competition

You can include your gut instincts about the market here and what you know, but be sure to also back this up with evidence and research.

• Who are your biggest competitors? (Bear in mind competitors don’t always have to be exactly the same type of business, but something that people might spend their money on instead of your product).
• How do your competitors market and price themselves?
• How much is currently spent in your industry and what is demand like?
• What are the barriers to entry?
• What trends are happening internationally within similar businesses (maybe in countries like the US who may be further ahead)?

Target market

• Who is your target market ?
• Create a customer profile with as much detail as possible about your ideal customer.
• Make a list of friends, clients, business contacts, companies to target that might buy from you and include any current customers.
• For example: if you make jewellery, as well as selling it directly to the customer you could consider selling wholesale to other businesses, or starting jewellery making classes.
• What is your brand’s personality and characteristics?
• What does it stand for? What’s your mission statement?
• Do you have a tone of voice and brand guidelines?
• How will your brand do business/work with clients / communicate with customers?
• For example: business cards, leaflets, templates (invoice, e-newsletter), sales presentation.

Sales and marketing plan

• For example: website, social media, email marketing, blogging and blogger outreach, print advertising, radio, PR, partnerships, networking, podcasts, videos, directories, referrals, PPC, SEO.
• Plan your website – domain name , who will build it, what information and functionality does it need?
• Decide on a marketing budget .

4. Management and employees

• Who will make up your team and what relevant skills and experience do they have?
• Do you need to employ people?
• What friends/family/business contacts do you have with skills that might be able to help you (preferably for free)?
• Do you need to outsource anything?

5. Operational set up

• What premises do you need? Where will they be? Where will you work from?
• What assets/tools do you require (and which of these do you already have)?
• Are there any licences that you require? Any other legal considerations?

6. Financial plan and projections

This section should look at the following areas:

• For example: premises, insurance, licences, staff wages, your salary, stock, delivery costs, machinery, tools, computer, printer, telephone, electric, wifi, website, accountant, marketing, travel, design and print, training, photography, networking events, exhibitions, client entertaining.

Startup finance

• How much do you need to start the business and to ensure you have enough cash flow?
• How will you be financing it?
• Include as much detail as you can about your prices, pricing structure and margins.
• How much money do you need to make on a monthly basis to cover your costs and pay yourself and how much do you have to sell to make this figure?

Projected accounts

• Cash-flow forecast 
• Projected balance sheet 
• Projected profit and loss accounts

UK business plan example 1: GreenTech Innovations

1. executive summary.

GreenTech Innovations is a tech startup developing advanced solar panel technology that increases energy efficiency by 20%. This business addresses the growing demand for affordable and sustainable energy solutions. We stand out with our patented technology and a team of experienced professionals. Our revenue model includes direct sales to consumers and partnerships with energy companies. Our customers are environmentally conscious homeowners and businesses. Competitors include SolarCity and SunPower, but our superior technology and lower costs offer a competitive edge. We will use digital marketing and industry trade shows to gain visibility. 

GreenTech Innovations, based in London, specializes in renewable energy products. Our core product is an innovative solar panel with higher efficiency and lower costs. Revenue streams include direct sales, energy company partnerships, and government contracts. We are structured as an LTD company.

Products/services/revenue streams:

• High-efficiency solar panels
• Installation services
• Maintenance contracts
• Licensing our technology to other manufacturers
• Government and commercial contracts

Market conditions and competition: The renewable energy market is growing, driven by environmental concerns and government incentives. Competitors like SolarCity market themselves as premium providers; we will differentiate by offering better technology at a lower price. The UK market spends billions on renewable energy annually, with strong demand forecasted.

Target market: Our target market includes environmentally conscious homeowners and businesses. Ideal customers are tech-savvy, value sustainability, and are looking for long-term savings on energy costs.

The brand: Our brand stands for innovation and sustainability. Our mission is to make renewable energy accessible and affordable. We will communicate through a professional, approachable tone and prioritize customer education.

Sales and marketing plan:

• Website with e-commerce capabilities
• Social media campaigns
• SEO and PPC advertising
• Email marketing
• Partnerships with green energy advocacy groups
• Presence at trade shows and industry conferences

Our team includes Dr. Jane Smith (CEO), a solar energy expert with 20 years of experience, and John Doe (CTO), who holds several patents in solar technology. We plan to hire additional engineers, marketing professionals, and sales staff. Some tasks, such as legal and accounting, will be outsourced.

We need a manufacturing facility in London, equipped with state-of-the-art machinery for solar panel production. Our office will house our R&D lab, administrative offices, and logistics team. Necessary licenses include manufacturing and environmental permits.

6. Financial plan and projections costs:

• Manufacturing equipment: £500,000
• Initial inventory: £200,000
• Facility lease: £100,000/year
• Staff salaries: £300,000/year
• Marketing: £100,000

Startup finance:  We seek £1 million in funding through equity investment and government grants.

Pricing: Our solar panels will be priced competitively at £500 per unit, with a 30% profit margin.

Projected accounts:

• Year 1: Revenue £2 million, Profit £400,000
• Year 2: Revenue £4 million, Profit £1 million
• Year 3: Revenue £8 million, Profit £2.5 million

UK business plan example 2: EcoBoutique

EcoBoutique is a sustainable fashion retailer offering eco-friendly clothing and accessories. Addressing the rising demand for ethical fashion, we differentiate ourselves with unique designs and fair-trade practices. Our team, led by experienced fashion designer Emma Green, will operate from a flagship store in Manchester and an online platform. Our revenue model includes direct sales and partnerships. Our target customers are environmentally conscious consumers. Competitors include other sustainable fashion brands, but our commitment to quality and ethical sourcing sets us apart. We seek £500,000 in funding to establish our store and marketing efforts, promising growth and strong returns.

EcoBoutique, located in Manchester, sells sustainable clothing and accessories. Revenue streams include in-store and online sales, private events, and wholesale partnerships. The company will be structured as an LTD.

• Sustainable clothing (organic cotton, recycled materials)
• Accessories (bags, jewelry)
• Private hire for fashion events
• Online store
• Wholesale to other retailers

Market conditions and competition: The sustainable fashion market is expanding rapidly. Competitors like Patagonia and People Tree use online marketing and brand loyalty strategies. The UK fashion industry sees significant consumer spending, with growing interest in sustainable options.

Target market: Our ideal customers are eco-conscious individuals aged 20-40, interested in fashion and sustainability.

The brand: EcoBoutique stands for ethical fashion and sustainability. Our mission is to provide stylish, eco-friendly clothing. We will use a friendly, informative tone and emphasize our commitment to fair trade.

• Website with e-commerce and blog
• Social media and influencer partnerships
• Email newsletters
• Community events and pop-up shops
• Print advertising in eco-friendly magazines

Our team includes founder Emma Green, a fashion designer with a background in sustainability, and Liam Brown, our marketing manager with extensive retail experience. We will hire sales associates and an e-commerce manager. Some services, such as accounting and web development, will be outsourced.

We need a retail space in Manchester, designed with sustainable materials, and an e-commerce platform. Licenses required include retail and health & safety permits.

• Store renovation: £200,000
• Inventory: £100,000
• Marketing: £50,000
• Staff salaries: £150,000/year
• E-commerce platform: £50,000

Startup finance: We seek £500,000 through a combination of loans, personal investment, and crowdfunding.

Pricing: Clothing items priced between £30-£150, with a 40% profit margin.

• Year 1: Revenue £1 million, Profit £150,000
• Year 2: Revenue £1.5 million, Profit £300,000
• Year 3: Revenue £2 million, Profit £500,000

UK business plan example 3: BizConsult Solutions

BizConsult Solutions is a consulting firm offering business strategy and digital transformation services for SMEs. We address the need for modern, tech-savvy business solutions in a competitive market. Our experienced team, led by Sarah Lee, specializes in helping businesses innovate and grow. We generate revenue through consulting fees, workshops, and retainer agreements. Our target customers are SMEs across various industries. Competitors include larger consulting firms, but our focus on SMEs and personalized service sets us apart. We will use content marketing and networking to attract clients. We seek £300,000 in funding to establish our office and marketing activities, promising steady growth and high returns.

BizConsult Solutions, based in Birmingham, offers consulting services in strategy and digital transformation. Revenue streams include hourly consulting fees, retainer agreements, and workshops. The company will be structured as an LTD.

• Business strategy consulting
• Digital transformation services
• Workshops and training sessions
• Retainer agreements for ongoing support

Market conditions and competition: The consulting market is competitive, with demand for digital transformation services rising. Competitors include large firms like McKinsey and Deloitte, but they primarily target larger enterprises. We focus on SMEs, offering affordable, high-quality services.

Target market: Our target market is SMEs in various sectors, seeking to modernize their operations and strategies.

The brand: BizConsult Solutions is innovative and client-focused. Our mission is to empower SMEs to thrive through strategic and technological advancements. We will communicate through a professional and approachable tone.

• Professional website with case studies and testimonials
• Content marketing (blogs, whitepapers)
• Webinars and online courses
• Networking events and industry conferences
• Email marketing and LinkedIn outreach

Our team includes Sarah Lee (CEO), with 10 years of consulting experience, and Michael O’Connor (CTO), an expert in digital transformation. We will hire additional consultants and administrative staff as needed. We will outsource web development and legal services.

We need an office in Birmingham, equipped with meeting rooms and collaborative workspaces. Essential tools include project management software and CRM systems. Required licenses include business operation permits.

• Office setup: £100,000
• Technology and software: £50,000

Startup finance: We seek £300,000 through a combination of bank loans and private investment.

Pricing: Consulting fees range from £100-£300 per hour, with retainer packages starting at £2,000 per month.

• Year 1: Revenue £500,000, Profit £100,000
• Year 2: Revenue £750,000, Profit £200,000
• Year 3: Revenue £1 million, Profit £350,000

Business plan writing tips

Writing a business plan can take some time and some areas of the plan will be easier to tackle than others. 

• Make initial notes every time you think of something and don’t worry if you can’t cover all points at the start.
• When you are ready to start to write the plan, make sure you use sections and these are in a logical order.
• It is important that your plan is simple, accurate and easy to follow if you are going to ask others to look at it.
• Try to avoid jargon or terms that only people in your type of industry will understand.

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A business plan is essential for reaching financial success. Download our business plan template and use it to help you achieve your goals.

Whether you’re starting a business or planning to expand, having a business plan can help to get you on track and get some detail behind your ideas.

However, research from Barclays shows that one in four businesses don’t have a business plan.

There are a number of useful tools worth having at your disposal if you want your business to succeed. While one of those is accounting software , so you can keep track of your business admin (forecast your cash flow, manage your invoices , and more), another is a business plan.

So what are the advantages of business planning and how could it help your business to succeed? Read this article to find out more.

What is a business plan?

There are numerous reasons why you might want to start a business .

You might have a great idea. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to run your own company. Or maybe you’ve been made redundant – perhaps due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak – and you’re ready to take the leap to entrepreneurship.

But for your business to be a success, your passion, enthusiasm, hard work and skills should be built on a practical framework. And that’s the case whether it’s a new business or an existing one.

This is where your business plan comes in.

A key part of that practical framework, a business plan is a document that maps out the purpose of your company, what it does and its strategic goals, among other things.

Creating a business plan for your company will guide you in defining your unique selling proposition (USP), and give you clarity of the marketplace you wish to operate in and the competition your business will be up against.

You’ll use your business plan to work towards a series of milestones that will help you to grow your company.

But your business plan shouldn’t be a static document – you should update it regularly as your company evolves, so you can ensure things are moving in the right direction.

Benefits of writing a business plan

Jennifer O’Toole, Senior Partner at accountancy firm Thomas R Dixon, says: “A business plan is like a flight path. It lets you know where you want to go, what you want to achieve, what you have in order to achieve your goals and probably most importantly what problems you can expect along the way.

“Being able to identify potential threats, problem areas that could affect the business, and to be able to develop coping strategies in a proactive manner rather than in a reactive stance, is key to business survival.”

It’s also a great way to share information about your business, to develop your thinking and test scenarios before you make any changes (like leaving your job and going it alone), and it gives you a way to measure how things go when you do start up.

And if you’re looking for finance, then a business plan can make a difference.

Rebecca McNeil, MD for Business Lending and Enterprise at Barclays, says: “A strong plan can help applications for finance from a business loan to alternative forms of finance and investment.”

Reasons people skip business planning

If it’s so helpful, why don’t more people choose to have one? Here are some of the common challenges:

• Time.  If you’ve thought through your business, it shouldn’t take long to create your business plan. Keep it short and simple and choose a format that works for you.
• Uncertainty. It’s true that you can’t know what will happen until you start a business but a plan can help you spot potential pitfalls and helps you to understand the finances behind your idea. Read our advice on ways to get more accurate figures in your business plan.
• Lack of agility. Some people think business planning stops businesses evolving, but a good business plan should be current and adapt as you test and learn. It needs to be part of the business, not left in a drawer.

Read more about business plans

• Business plan template for food and drink companies
• Business plan template for shops and retail companies
• Business plan template for online retail and ecommerce companies
• Business plan template for professional services companies

The best format for your business plan

Many people assume that a business plan will be a hefty document containing lots of facts and figures, but it doesn’t have to be. The key thing is to choose a format that will work for you and your business. That would be:

• One you’ll use.  Something that can become part of your day-to-day business rather than something you’ll never refer to. Have your business plan on the wall as a manifesto or mind map, make a presentation or create a visual guide – whatever works for you.
• One that makes it simple to express your views. If you’re a writer, you may be happy with a document, a designer might like a more visual medium. Your business plan should excite and inspire, so pick a format that lets you do that.
• One that’s shareable.  A business plan will be seen by lots of people, from your bank manager and accountant to prospective investors or employees, so pick a format that makes it easy to share.

What to include in your business plan

What should a business plan include? Every plan is likely to be different but there are some common pieces of information that are often included:

• An overview of the business.  What does it do and what makes it different?
• Goals.  What does the business want to achieve? This should set some SMART objectives that will quickly show if the business is succeeding.
• Your audience and the market.  Who will your business supply and how will it reach them? How big is the market and who are your key competitors?
• Products and pricing.  What will you be selling and how will your prices be set? How does this compare with your competitors?
• Who is involved.  Many investors say they invest as much in the people as they do in the business. Share some information about people’s roles, experience and passions.
• Financials.  Provide details about sales, costs, break-even points and where investment will come from. If you’re looking for people to invest, you should include information about likely returns. If you’re looking for ways to finance your business, crowdfunding , alternative finance and government funding are a good place to start.

Some business plans will include other sections, like a SWOT analysis or a full marketing plan. You might find these useful for your business, so feel free to include them too if you wish.

How to use your business plan

Many business owners invest time in producing a business plan and then never look at it again.

While it’s valuable to get your ideas clarified and to test your thinking before you launch your business, it’s even better if it’s embedded into your day-to-day business too.

As O’Toole says: “Business planning is a continuous process – from the initial start up of any business to stage two of developing and growth of existing sales and developing new income streams.

“As established businesses mature and diversify, business planning continues to play a fundamental role in ensuring that the company’s long-term strategies are being met.”

Here are some ways your business plan can work for you:

• Take the sales, cash flow and expense predictions and measure them against your actual figures. This helps you spot whether you’re on track and if things need to be revised.
• Revisit your goals every month to see how you’re progressing.
• Keep updating it to include customer input and quotes. Real feedback is essential for keeping a business on track.
• Revisit it once a year to see if changes to the market, technology or competition has had an impact. Businesses need to continue to evolve to survive in the longer term.

Where to get help with your business plan

Sometimes you’ll need additional information to pull together your plan. You could:

• Speak to your accountant. They don’t just help you with financials or accounting software , they can also offer advice about planning your business.
• Talk to your bank . Many have small business experts who can help.
• Use business planning templates. Our free, easy-to-follow Word template will help to make the process easier.

Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2017 and has been updated for relevance.

Business plan template

Thinking of starting a business or looking for investment but need help putting a plan together? Get our free, easy-to-use business plan template.

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Comments (2)

Business plans should be flexible and imbibe SMART goals for both short term and long term. Objective oriented plans would fetch results in stipulated time period.

I’ve started a transportation company I’m growing and would need some help with a small loan /grant as I would need a bigger van etc is this something I would be able to get help with?

Sure, there are loans and grants you could apply for. We cover some of them in this article: https://www.sage.com/en-gb/blog/government-grants-for-small-businesses/

Thanks, Stacey

See advice specific to your business

• Business planning

How to write a business plan

24 April 2024

• More like this Less like this

If you're planning to launch a start-up or small business, this guide on how to write a business plan will help you create an effective road map to success. A thoughtfully researched, well-structured business plan can give you greater clarity on your business’s vision, help you avoid potential pitfalls and can help ensure you stay on track for your business goals. Read on to discover the essential elements of business planning, common mistakes to avoid, and business plan tips on how to make your plan compelling and ready for investors.

What is a business plan? Why is a business plan important? What to consider when writing a business plan? What to include in a business plan? Business plan formats How to write a business plan How to start a business plan What does a business plan look like? How long should a business plan be? Common business plan mistakes FAQ on creating a business plan

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a strategic document that details your business's objectives and the steps you’ll take to achieve them.

It is a tool that covers everything from your business strategy and key goals to financial projections and management structure. A business plan is also your opportunity to describe your company or proposed project in detail, showcasing both your short-term and long-term goals, budget details, and unique selling propositions (USPs).

Let's dive into understanding what a business plan looks like, why it's so important, and how you can create one for your business.

Why is a business plan important?

A business plan is important because it helps you create an effective plan for your new enterprise that allows you to make informed decisions, set clear goals, and manage your enterprise effectively.

The importance of a business plan becomes clear when you want to set your business apart from the competition.

Here’s how a business plan can help:

• Guidance and structure: A plan outlines your goals and strategies, providing a roadmap for your business.
• Attracting investment: It's essential for attracting investors and lenders who need to understand your strategy before funding it.
• Identifying strengths and weaknesses: Business plan writing helps identify potential pitfalls and strengths in your business idea.
• Planning for growth: Creates a strategy for facilitating future growth and expansion.
• Understanding your market: Includes research that helps you understand your target audience and competition.

What to consider when writing a business plan

When you write a business plan, there are important questions you need to consider.

Step 1. Understand your target market

The first step is understanding your target market. Who are they? What do they need? How will your product or service cater to these needs?

Your business plan should be designed to serve this audience. You’ll need to conduct thorough market research and include this data in your plan.

Step 2. Define your business goals

The second step is to clearly define your business goals. What do you want to achieve in the next year, five years, or ten years?

Having clear, measurable objectives will guide your business plan and help you stay focused on your end goal.

Step 3. Know your USP

Next, consider your unique selling proposition (USP). This is what sets you apart from the competition. Highlighting your USP in your business plan will not only help you stand out but also attract potential investors.

The financial aspect is another key factor. You need to have a clear understanding of your financial needs, cash flow projections, and profitability forecasts. This information is particularly important if you're seeking funding from investors or lenders.

Lastly, remember that your business plan is a living document. It should evolve as your business grows and changes.

Be prepared to review and update it regularly to reflect new goals, strategies, or market conditions. This flexibility will ensure that your business plan remains relevant and effective.

What should you include in a business plan?

When developing a business plan, it can be helpful to first look at business plan examples in your relevant industry. There is no fixed business plan template, but many plans will include the following elements:

1. Executive summary

Your business plan should start with a succinct overview of your plan that highlights the key points and creates a strong initial impression. It should be compelling enough to encourage readers to read further.

2. Company description

This section should provide an overview of what your business does, the problems it solves, and the market it serves.

3. Market analysis

The market analysis section requires a thorough understanding of your industry, target market, and competition. You should demonstrate knowledge of market trends, customer needs, and the competitive landscape.

4. Business goals

Define both your short-term and long-term objectives to provide a clear vision of where you want your business to be in the future. You can also describe how you plan to achieve these goals.

5. Products and services

You should describe what you're selling or what services you offer, highlighting how your offerings stand out from the competition.

6. Financial plan

You should include a detailed overview of your finances, including cash flow statements and profit projections. This section shows potential investors that you have a solid understanding of the financial aspects of running a business.

Your business plan is a marketing document. It should be concise, engaging, and persuasive, convincing potential investors, partners, and employees of the viability and potential of your business.

Business plan formats

Business plan format can vary depending on industry. For instance, a restaurant's business plan might feature a sample menu and location demographics, while a tech start-up may focus on development timelines and patent protections.

A small business plan is likely to look very different to a large business plan. Tailor your business plan to your specific industry and business type.

The complexity of your business plan might also depend on its purpose. If you're seeking significant investment, you'll need detailed financial projections. However, if the plan is mainly for internal use, you might focus more on strategy and team organisation.

In short, while there are common components in every business plan, the specifics can vary widely. Ensure your business plan is relevant to your industry, audience, and business needs.

Writing a business plan requires research and attention to detail for each section. Below, you’ll find a 9-step guide for researching and defining each element in the plan.

• Write an executive summary
• Draft a business description
• Conduct market analysis
• List your management and organisation structure
• Outline services or products
• Define your marketing and sales strategy
• Describe your funding needs
• Plan financial projections
• Appendix of supporting documents

1. Write an executive summary

This is a brief overview of your business plan. It should include your business’s name, location, and the products or services you offer. Also mention your mission statement and your business’s USP (unique selling proposition). Remember, the executive summary should be concise yet compelling, persuading the reader to learn more about your business.

Your executive summary should include:

• Business concept: What does your company do? What are your products or services? This section should clearly articulate your business’s core concept.
• Company information: Include the company’s name, when it was founded (if applicable), the names of the founders and their roles, the team and size, and location of premises.
• Growth highlights: If your business is already established, describe how much it has grown since inception, including financial or market highlights.
• Products/services: Describe what you sell or the service you offer. Explain how it benefits your customers and what makes it unique to the market.
• Financial information: If you’re seeking funding from investors, include a brief overview of your projections and what you’re asking for.
• Future plans: Summarise where you plan to take your business in the future. This could include potential growth, new products or services, or expansion into new markets.

2. Draft a business description

Describe your business in detail. Include the business structure (sole trader, partnership, limited company), the nature of your business, and the marketplace needs that your business aims to fulfil.

3. Conduct market analysis

This is where you demonstrate that you understand your industry and market. Include information about your target customers, including their demographics and buying habits. Also analyse your competition, outlining their strengths and weaknesses.

What else to include:

• Industry overview: This gives a broad view of your industry. You can include its size, growth rate, trends, and outlook.
• Target market: Identify who your customers are. You should define them by demographic factors like age, gender, income level, and geographic location. Also consider psychographic factors such as lifestyle, values, and attitudes.
• Market need: Determine what problem your product or service solves for your target market. This could be a gap in the market, an unfulfilled need, or an improvement on existing products or services.
• Competition analysis: Identify your direct and indirect competitors. Analyse their strengths and weaknesses, and how your business compares.
• Pricing and forecast: Set your pricing strategy based on your understanding of the market and competition. Include a forecast for your potential market share and sales.
• Regulatory environment: Understand any laws or regulations that could impact your industry. This includes permits, licenses, or regulatory compliance requirements.
• SWOT analysis: Identify your business's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT). This helps you understand your business's position within the marketplace.

4. List your management and organisation structure

Outline your business's organisational structure. Identify the owners, management team, and any key employees. Include an organisational chart if possible.

5. Outline services or products

Describe what your business offers. If you sell products, explain how they are produced, their cost, and how you will sell them. If you provide services, describe them in detail, and list any associated costs.

6. Define your marketing and sales strategy

Detail how you plan to attract and retain customers. Include your sales strategy and the marketing channels you plan to use. Here's what it should include:

• Target market: Define who your customers are - their demographics, behaviours, and needs – and what kinds of marketing message they are likely to respond to. This will guide your marketing efforts.
• Unique selling proposition (USP): Identify what makes your product or service unique. How does it stand out from the competition? How will you convey this in your marketing?
• Pricing strategy: Explain how you have priced your products or services and why this will appeal to your target market.
• Sales plan: Detail how you'll sell your product. Will it be online, in a physical store, or both? Will you have a sales team? How will you bring your business to the target market?
• Promotional strategy: Describe how you will promote your business. This could include social media marketing, SEO, content marketing, advertising, public relations, and more.
• Retention strategy: Outline how you plan to keep your customers coming back. This could involve excellent customer service, loyalty programs, regular updates or improvements to the product or service, etc.
• Partnerships and collaborations: If applicable, discuss any partnerships or collaborations that will play a role in your marketing and sales plan.
• Measurement: Define how you'll measure the success of your marketing and sales efforts. This could be through key performance indicators (KPIs) like website traffic, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, etc.

Your marketing and sales strategy should be flexible. As you learn more about your market and customers, adjust your strategies accordingly.

7. Describe your funding needs

If you are seeking investors or applying for business loans, you should include a funding request section within your business plan. It should include:

• Funding request: Start with the exact amount of funding you are seeking. Be clear and specific.
• Use of funds: Explain in detail how you plan to use the funds. This could be for starting costs, working capital, business expansion, or any other business expenses.
• Future funding: If you anticipate needing additional funding in the future, mention this. Provide an estimate of how much you might need, when you might need it, and what for.
• Business financials: Provide a snapshot of your financial statements and forecasts. Include your income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, business loans, and any other relevant financial data.
• Exit strategy: If you're seeking equity investment, describe your exit strategy. This could be selling the company, merging with another company, or going public with an IPO (initial public offering).
• Repayment plan: If you're requesting a loan, outline your plan for repaying it. Provide a schedule and method of repayment.

When considering where to secure funding, it's essential to explore your options. You may want to consider our app-based HSBC Kinetic Current Account for sole traders and single director shareholder businesses, or our Small Business Bank Account for small enterprises. Eligibility criteria apply.

Both accounts are designed to support the growth and financial management of your business. These platforms provide a range of services that cater to your business's needs, from daily transactions to long-term financial planning.

8. Plan financial projections

Provide a forecast of your business's financial future. This can include balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements for the next three to five years. Consider incorporating HSBC Kinetic into your financial planning for a comprehensive and digital-first approach to managing your business finances. Eligibility criteria apply.

Here are examples of what to include:

• Sales forecast: This is the amount of money you anticipate from sales of your products or services. It should be broken down monthly for the first year, then annually for the following two to five years.
• Income statement (profit and loss statement): This document shows your business’s profitability over time. It should include revenue, costs of goods sold, operating expenses, and net income.
• Cash flow statement: This demonstrates where your business is earning and spending money by highlighting how balance sheets and income affect your cash or cash equivalents.
• Balance sheet: This document provides a snapshot of your business's financial position at a particular moment in time. It lists your assets, liabilities, and equity.
• Capital expenditure budget: If there are large expenses for long-term assets such as property or equipment, these should be detailed here.
• Break-even analysis: This analysis shows when your company can cover all the expenses and make a profit.
• Financial ratios: These ratios compare financial metrics from your financial statements to assess your company’s financial health. They can provide valuable insights into how well the company is performing.

Your projections should be realistic, with all assumptions clearly stated. If you're a start-up with no financial history, base your projections on research and industry averages. If you're an existing business, use your past financial performance as a guide.

It can be beneficial to seek professional advice when preparing this section of your business plan, as it will be scrutinised by investors and lenders.

9. Appendix of supporting documents

An optional section that includes any additional supporting documents such as legal documents, permits, and contracts.

Writing a business plan is not a one-time event. It should be updated regularly as your business grows and changes.

How to start a business plan

Starting a business plan generally involves seven practical steps and may require consultation with other professionals. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to start:

Understand the purpose of your plan:

Research your industry:, outline your plan:, write the plan:, review and edit:, get feedback:, finalise your plan:.

Here are some people you might want to talk to when you write a business plan:

• Industry peers or mentors: People with experience in your field can provide valuable insights and advice.
• Business advisors or coaches: These professionals can offer guidance and help you avoid common pitfalls.
• Accountants: They can assist with the financial aspects of your plan, including projections and identifying potential costs.
• Potential customers: Speaking with your target audience can help you understand their needs and preferences, which can inform your marketing and sales plan.
• Legal advisors: If your business has any legal considerations, such as patents or regulations, a legal advisor can ensure these are properly addressed in your plan.

A business plan isn't a static document - it should evolve with your business. Regularly updating your plan can help you adapt to changes and stay on track towards your goals.

How long should a business plan be?

The recommended length of a business plan can vary depending on the complexity of your business model and the purpose of the plan. However, a typical business plan ranges from 15 to 35 pages.

What does a business plan look like?

Your business plan can and should be branded to reflect your business identity. Here's how:

Cover page:

Headers and sub-headers:, colour scheme:, images and graphics:, tone of voice:, consistency:.

Your plan is a reflection of your business. By incorporating your brand into the design, you're not just creating a strategy document - you're showcasing your business's identity.

FAQ on creating a business plan

You may have many questions when creating your new business plan. Below we look at some of the common ones.

How much information should I include in my business plan?

Your business plan should be concise yet comprehensive, providing all the necessary information. The length might also depend on whether you're writing the plan for internal use, for potential investors, or for a loan application, as each audience might have different expectations.

It can be helpful to mark out which sections are for which audience, so that you can edit into a new document as required, rather than starting a new business plan from scratch.

What is the proper business plan format?

Printed versions of your business plan should be on standard A4 paper, bound neatly, and presented in a professional manner. All electronic versions should be in a PDF format and have a clear file name for ease of sharing.

The layout should be clear and easy to navigate, with headers, sub-headers, bullet points, and plenty of white space to make the document easy to read.

Common business plan mistakes

There are common mistakes that businesses can make when writing a plan. These include:

Lack of planning:

Wrong audience:, it’s too long:, insufficient market research:, unrealistic financial projections:, not addressing potential risks:, poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation:, unclear business model:.

Writing a business plan may seem like a daunting task at first, but with careful planning, thorough research, and thoughtful consideration of each section - from the executive summary to financial projections - you can create a powerful document that serves as a roadmap for your business's success.

Business plan template

Remember, a business plan is not a static document. As your business grows and evolves, so too should your business plan. Regular reviews and updates will ensure your plan remains relevant and continues to guide your strategic decision-making.

Whether you're seeking investment, planning for growth, or simply setting the course for your day-to-day operations, a well-crafted business plan is an invaluable tool for every business owner. With the advice and guidance provided in this guide, you're now well-equipped to create a robust and compelling business plan.

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Essential guide to writing a business plan

Your business plan outlines what your business does or will do and what you are trying to achieve. It explains what the market opportunity is, what makes your business special and how you will make it a success.

Business plans are not just for limited companies. They can be valuable tools for self employed sole traders and businesses that are planning expansion into new markets or a change of direction.

Writing a business plan helps you:

• check that your business idea makes sense
• plan your sales, marketing and business operations
• identify potential problems and how to overcome them
• set out your objectives and the financial return you expect
• work out what financing you need
• convince other people to back your business

Why write a business plan?

How to write a business plan

Your business and products

Your market and competition

Your marketing and sales

Management and personnel structure

Your business operations

Financial performance

SWOT analysis

1. Why write a business plan?

Writing a business plan helps you think about what you are doing.

• The plan sets out your strategy and action plan for the next one to three years, or sometimes longer.
• As part of the process, you set concrete objectives and plan how you will achieve them.
• Writing a business plan helps you focus and develop your ideas. Priorities are identified. Non-priorities are dropped, saving precious time.
• Putting the plan in writing makes it easier to spot any gaps where you have more work to do.
• Once written, the plan is a benchmark for the performance of the business.
• By involving your employees in the planning process, you can build a successful, committed team.

You may need a business plan to explain your idea to other people

• A business plan is essential if you are raising finance from a bank or outside investors.
• A good plan can help you attract new senior management, or business partners such as distributors and agents.
• You should tailor your plan to the target audience. For example, you may want the plan to 'sell' the business to your bank manager or investors.
• Ask the intended recipient if there are any specific issues they want the plan to address or a template you should follow.

2. How to write a business plan

Base your business plan on accurate, detailed information where possible. But do not include all the detail in the plan. Leave the detail for operational or marketing plans.

Keep the plan short

• Focus on what the reader needs to know.
• Cut out any waffle.
• Make sure there are no spelling mistakes.
• Detailed business plans are often quickly shelved because they are difficult to use on an ongoing basis.

Include any detailed information you need in an appendix

For example, you might want:

• detailed financial forecasts and assumptions
• market research data that backs up what you say
• CVs of key personnel (essential if you are seeking outside funding)
• product literature or technical specifications

Base your business plan on reality, or it may be counterproductive

• Over-optimistic forecasts can lead to increased overheads followed by a cash flow crisis and drastic cost-cutting.
• Be realistic, even if you are selling the business to a third party. Financiers, business partners and employees will see through over-optimistic plans that ignore weaknesses or threats. Management credibility can be damaged.

Make the plan professional

• Put a cover on it.
• Include a contents page, with page and section numbering.
• Start with an executive summary. This summarises the key points, starting with the purpose of the business plan.
• Use charts, if helpful.

Even if the plan is for internal use only, write it as if it were aimed at an outsider

• Include company or product literature as an appendix.
• Give details about the history and current status of the business.

Review your business plan

• Read through the plan from your target reader's point of view. For example, try to imagine the impression the plan will make on your bank manager.
• Check the plan is realistic. Include evidence to back up what you say (perhaps in the appendix) or provide evidence if needed.
• Make sure you assess the risks. What might go wrong (eg if your main supplier closes down or you lose a key customer) and what would you do about it?
• Concentrate on the executive summary. People often make provisional judgements based on this. Only then do they read the rest of the plan to confirm their decision.
• Show the plan to friends, business peers and expert advisers for comments. Which parts did they not understand or find unconvincing?

3. Your business and products

Explain the history of the business.

• When did it start trading and what progress has it made to date?
• If the business is just starting up, what is your personal industry background and what progress towards launching the business has been made?
• Who owned the business originally?
• What is the current ownership structure?

Describe what your product or service is, avoiding technical jargon if possible

• In general, what makes your product or service different ?
• What benefits does it offer? What are its disadvantages and how will you address these?
• What changes and improvements are you planning?

Explain any key features of the industry

• For example, any special regulations, whether the industry is dominated by a few large companies or any major changes in technology.

4. Your market and competition

Describe the market in which you sell.

• Highlight the segments of the market in which you compete. What are the key characteristics of customers in each segment and what influences their purchasing decisions?
• How large is each market segment? What is your market share?
• What are the important trends, such as market growth or changing tastes? Explain the reasons behind the trend.
• What is the outlook for each important market segment?

Describe the nature and distribution of existing customers

• Do they fit the profile of the chosen market segment? If not, why not?
• Are sales largely made to one or two major customers?
• If you are a new start-up, do you have any confirmed orders and who are your best prospects?

Outline the main competition

• What are the competing products or services ? Who supplies them?
• What are their advantages and disadvantages compared to you? For example, price, quality, distribution.
• Why will customers buy your product or service instead? How will your competitors react to losing business and how you will respond?
• Never openly criticise or underestimate competitors.

5. Your marketing and sales strategy

Where do you position your product or service in the market.

• Is it high quality and high price?
• Is it marketed as a specialist product due to a particular feature?
• What unique benefits does it offer customers? For example, product reliability or customer service.
• Which of these benefits are you going to highlight?

What is your pricing policy?

• Explain how price-sensitive your customers are.
• Look at each product or market segment in turn. Identify where you make your profits and where it may be possible to increase margins or sales or cut costs. Set your pricing accordingly.

How do you promote your product or service?

• Each market segment will have one or two promotional methods that work best. For example, social media marketing, direct marketing, advertising or PR.
• If you are considering a new marketing strategy, start small. A failed investment in marketing can be costly.

What sales channels do you use to reach your target customers?

• For example, do you sell directly to the customer, or through retailers or agents? Do you sell online?
• Compare your current channels with the alternatives. Note the distribution channels used by your competitors.
• Look at the positive and negative trends in your chosen distribution channels.

How do you do your selling?

• Look at the cost-efficiency of each of your sales methods . For example, online sales, in person, through an agent or using telesales.
• Include all the hidden costs, such as management time when calculating prices or return on investment.
• Explain how long it takes to make sales (and to get paid for them), what the average sales value is and how likely customers are to give repeat orders.

6. Management and personnel structure

Set out the structure and key skills and experience of the management team and the staff, if you have any.

• Clarify how you cover the key areas of production, sales, marketing, finance and administration.
• Address any areas of deficiency, and your plans to cover this weakness.
• Explain your recruitment and training plans, including timescales and costs.

Analyse the workforce in terms of total numbers and by department

• Compare the efficiency ratios with competitors, or with similar industries. Useful figures might be sales, average salaries, employee retention rates and measures of productivity.

Be realistic about the commitment and motivation of the workforce

• Show how committed you and other members of the management team are. For example, how much you have invested in the business.
• Consider how you would survive the loss of a key member of the team.
• Note any unusual upward pressure on pay levels.
• Spell out any plans to improve or maintain motivation.

7. Your business operations

Look at the capacity and efficiency of your operations, and any planned improvements.

What premises does the business have?

• Do your business premises meet your current and future needs? What are your long-term commitments to property?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of the present location? Should the business expand or move?

What production facilities do you have and how is production organised?

• How modern is the equipment?
• What is the capacity of the current facilities compared with existing and forecast demand?
• Who are your key suppliers? How do you select and manage them?

What management information systems are in place?

• For example, management accounts, sales, stock control and quality control.
• Are they reliable? Can they deal with any proposed expansion?
• A financier will be very concerned if management information systems are inadequate. Management of a business is always limited by the quality of the information available.

Are your IT systems reliable?

• Is IT a key strength (or weakness) of your business? The development of IT systems to help your business is usually an important issue.

What quality or regulatory standards does the business conform to?

• For example, ISO 9000 or CE approval.

8. Financial forecasts

Your financial forecasts translate what you have said about your business into numbers.

Set out historical financial information for the last three to five years, if available

• Break total sales figures down into component parts. For example, sales of different types of product or to different groups of customers.
• Show the gross margin for each sales component. List what costs are included as direct costs for each component.
• Show the movement in the key working capital items of stock, trade debtors and creditors. Use ratios such as stock turnover (in months), debtors period (in days), and creditors period (in days).
• Highlight any major capital expenditure made.
• Provide an up-to-date balance sheet, and a profit and loss account .
• Explain the reasons for movements in profitability, working capital and cash flow . Compare them with industry norms.

Provide forecasts for the next three (or even five) years

• The sophistication of your forecasts should reflect the sophistication of your business. A sole trader or small business may only need sales, profit and cash flow budgets .
• A more complex, asset-based business - or one with complex working capital requirements - will need balance sheet forecasts as well.
• Use the same format as for the historical information, to make comparison easier.
• Clearly state the assumptions behind the forecasts. These should tie in with what you say in the rest of the plan. For example, if the plan says that the market is becoming more competitive, profit margins should probably be falling.
• Be realistic about forecasts in new markets. For example, how much resource can you devote to selling, what success rate can you expect and how long will it take to convince new customers ?
• Look at the overall trends of historical and forecast numbers. Are they believable? Do the forecasts allow for the possibility of problems and delays in payments that could affect cash flow?
• Consider 'what-if' scenarios. For example, consider what will happen to your cash flow if sales are 20% lower than forecast (or 15% higher).

Put detailed financial forecasts in an appendix at the end

Include a detailed list of assumptions. For example:

• the profit margin on each product
• how long it takes to collect payment from debtors
• what credit suppliers will offer you
• what financing you are expecting and the interest rate you will pay

Use the cash flow forecast to predict any financing requirements

• Add an extra contingency element onto the funding requirement shown in the forecast (perhaps 10-20%). Think about what mid-month peaks might be.
• Identify what types of financing you want. For example, long-term loans or an increased overdraft facility.
• Include the likely interest or dividend costs of any new finance.
• Carry out sensitivity tests on the cash required by changing key factors, such as sales or margin. Note the outcomes.
• Explain why the financing is required and what it will be used for.

If necessary, get help

• Small business advisers at banks and business support organisations may help you put together financial forecasts free of charge.

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9. SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis helps show that you really understand your business and the key external factors that you need to deal with.

Set out a one-page analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

• Strengths might include brand name, quality of product, or management experience.
• Weaknesses might be lack of finance, or reliance on just a few customers.
• Opportunities might be increasing demand or a competitor going bust.
• Threats might be a downturn in the economy or a new competitor.

Be honest about your weaknesses and the threats you face

• Spell out mitigating circumstances and the defensive actions you are taking.

Driving your business forward

Identify what makes you better than the competition.

• Think about what the key ingredients of your future success will be and how you will strengthen your position in the market.

Establish your overall business aims

• Where do you realistically intend to be in three years' time?

Decide on half a dozen key objectives that will make a significant difference

Many businesses think in terms of:

• income - more sales, better margins
• customers - new customers, higher levels of customer satisfaction
• products - improving existing products, launching new ones
• human resources - recruiting new employees, developing new skills

Set clear targets

• You should know exactly what you want to achieve, by when.

Work out how you will reach these targets

• Look at each aspect of your business in turn and create a step-by-step action plan for it.
• Get help preparing a business plan and financial forecasts from your local enterprise agency .
• Find an ICAEW chartered accountant or an ACCA accountancy firm for help with financial forecasting and business planning.
• Find a trade association relevant to your sector through the Trade Association Forum.

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Since 2001, our team of senior business consultants has written professional business plans for start-ups, solopreneurs, and small businesses in over 100 industries. We transform ideas into reality by developing detailed business plans to bring investors to the table. Our proven track record of helping entrepreneurs get funded is second to none.

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First, we’ll research your specific industry and market and review your business strategy to determine your competitive advantages. Then we’ll develop a focused business plan that articulates your business objectives and compels investors to look further. We don’t use templates or automated software to produce your business plan. Our experts will capture the nuances and competitive advantages of your business and ensure they are showcased in your plan.

Many of our clients see us as their business partner, not just a single-output service provider. We’re not like other business plan writers in the UK – we help you create solid business foundations by offering you additional services. We can help you determine the best way to structure your company, show you options for raising capital, provide operations processes, and advise you regarding liquidity and exit strategies. We can even help you secure the funding you are looking for in your new business plan.

We never outsource your project to a junior analyst and we don’t use templates. Our London-based business plan consultants have advised and written business plans for hundreds of start-ups, growing companies, and small to medium-sized businesses worldwide. Let us get to know your business too. We will add value to your team and help your business grow by becoming your personal business consulting team.a

Why Choose Us?

Our business experts have over 100 years of collective business planning experience. We know how to create the best business plans in the UK. If you’re just looking for a run-of-the-mill business plan to satisfy a requirement, you may want to look elsewhere for business plan writing services. Our business plans are dynamic, and we pride ourselves in producing plans that work to produce measurable results. We aim to provide a business plan that accurately presents your ideas to stakeholders and investors and moves them to take action. Investors and bankers are given hundreds of business plans every month. We will break through the clutter and get your idea noticed so it has the best chance of receiving funding.

We focus on writing business plans that contain good content and cold, hard facts, so potential investors can quickly and easily understand the key points of your business strategy and determine if they want to fund it. Our experts have extensive experience in financial services, business consultancy, and market research to create winning business plans. We offer a comprehensive, professional business plan writing service that works in the background to let you stay focused on the critical first steps of starting your business.

Our Expertise and Experience Includes

Traditional business plans.

Many elements comprise a successful business plan, no matter what industry your business is in. A properly written business plan will deliver your vision and strategy for achieving it clearly and concisely. The best business plans will convince your audience to believe in your idea. We align the business plan with your unique business, ensuring that it works to achieve your goals.

Business Plans Tailored for Investors

Modern investors, whether local investors or angels, have incredibly high expectations. We will custom tailor your business plan to get your business plan noticed by potential investors. First impressions are everything and we specialise in impressing investors and getting entrepreneurs funding by preparing comprehensive and persuasive investment materials

Business Plans for Bank Loan Applications

Banks are always careful to consider potential risks before they issue a business loan. Your business plan needs to assure them that you have also considered all the risks associated with starting your business and acted to mitigate them. They must feel confident that you will be able to repay the loan and that serious financial challenges won’t plague your business. We include everything a bank will consider in its decision-making process, like sales projections, trading accounts, and cash flow forecasts.

Immigration Business Plans

For those outside the UK that want to establish a business in the UK, we offer Start-up and Innovator Visa business plans. We consult with the proper immigration officials and attorneys specializing in immigration law to ensure that we cover every aspect correctly and legally. Your Start-up or Innovator Visa business plan will fully comply with the Home Office requirements.

Nonprofit Business Plans

As with a for-profit business, a not-for-profit business also requires a business plan to show how it intends to achieve its mission. The business plan can also outline new projects and ventures an organisation is planning. Our nonprofit business plans clearly present your project as the best solution to the problem at hand, and comply with investor requirements for non-profit businesses that receive private or public grant funding.

Franchise Business Plans

If you have a franchise business, our expert writers can create a bespoke business plan for you. We have an in-depth understanding of franchise businesses and company values, ensuring we provide a franchise model business plan that works for you. We can present your skills, competencies, and background in a fully compliant franchise business plan that clearly shows your ability to run a successful franchise business.

Some Details Of Our Business Plans Include

Executive summary.

The Executive Summary is one of the most crucial parts of your business plan. It provides potential investors with a quick synopsis of your business idea and vision for execution. A perfectly crafted Executive Summary will establish your competence and professional credibility and convince the right people to continue reading.

General Overview

This should be a concise, smartly-written section outlining your Mission Statement, Vision Statement, the business’s history, a breakdown of company ownership, and how the business is positioned in the marketplace. We write General Overview sections at a high level and save the details for other parts of the business plan.

Products or Services

The Products and Services section explains the main issues your business will solve with its product or service offering and the details about the product or service, including pricing, fulfillment, and other factors that show how you intend to operate the business.

Financial Section

The last section of a business plan is the financial section. It is often the crux of a business plan because it includes the relevant financial information and details that explain how you plan to manage the business finances. It contains the expected Profit and Loss Statements and the cash flow projections for the business.

Market Details

The Market Details section is a vital element of your business plan as it helps readers understand who your target market is. It also showcases your backing suppliers and adequately explains the competition in your market. A well-written Market Details section should show the reader what product or service your company provides, where it will provide it, and the competition you will need to overcome to be successful.

Sales Model

Potential investors want to know how you plan to sell your product or service and the general sales and profit projections over the coming years. We will include pricing plans, forecasted sales targets, and a breakdown of the anticipated sales volume and costs of doing business.

A marketing plan is an essential part of a professional business plan. It should explain the types of marketing your business can use and your available marketing budget to help you to reach your target audience. We take a comprehensive approach and, depending on the needs of your business, will include a mix of local, online, and offline marketing strategies.

Management Structure

An often underrated part of a robust business plan is the Management Structure section. It should demonstrate to potential investors that you can be trusted and establish that your business has sound leadership and will operate professionally.

Our Process is Easy

We take the stress out of writing your business plan.

• Free Consultation Call
• Information Gathering
• First Draft
• Final Draft and Handover

How Much Does it Cost?

What Our Satisfied Clients Say

As a start-up company, I knew the importance of having a thorough and well-written business plan. In my search for a company that would be able to write my business plan, I was fortunate to find the Business Plan Writers UK team. The business plan that they wrote was engaging, informative, and well-detailed. One of our investors called it an “excellent business plan.” I would highly recommend them to anyone who is serious about finding funding for their project.

Mark Savvidou

I initially set upon finding a professional business plan writing service to deliver a BP that would attract investors to my business, after discussing options with many different providers I made the choice to choose the ‘Business Plan Writers UK’ based on initial discussions with my designated plan writing expert. The initial contact gave me confidence in the fact that I was in the right hands and that the person on the end of the phone was exceptionally knowledgeable and very capable. Not only did I receive my very detailed plan on time but I also gained expert knowledge along the way. I would highly recommend the business plan writers the UK to anyone wanting a professional, accurate and timely business plan.

Darren Jacks

Rather than the typical client/vendor relationship I’m used to, the ‘Business Plan Writers UK’ team has been more like a strategic partner and trusted advisor. Not only did they provide me with a dynamic business plan but they have given me invaluable advice and feedback along the way. They have exceeded my expectations in every way possible during this exciting time of starting & ultimately growing my business.

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Fast & Affordable Business Plan Writers

We can help you start your business, secure investment, get a startup loan or a visa..

SGI Consultants are experienced professional business plan writers who write high-quality, bespoke business plans to help you attract investors, secure a bank loan or obtain approval from landlords or regulatory organisations.

All businesses should have a business plan. It is an essential document that provides a description and framework of your business’s future. Your business plan should explain your business strategy and fundamental goals to get from where you are now to where you want to be.

Most people need help to write a business plan, and most self-written business plans need to be more comprehensive to get funding.

When you work with one of our business plan writers, you will get more than a business plan; you get a complete business service that helps you achieve your goals. Your business plan will be structured using our Business Success Formula, which lays the foundation for your success.

We only write bespoke business plans, written just for your business.  All business plans include market research, competitor analysis and financial projections (P&L, Cash Flow, Balance Sheet, Business Valuation & Break-Even Analysis).

Our business planning service's primary goal is to help you take the next step in your business development.

Whether you need a business plan for:

• A business loan or startup loan
• To secure investment from Angel Investors, VCs or Crowdfunding platforms
• Get endorsement for an Innovator Founder Visa or Global Expansion Worker Visa.
• Send to a landlord or agent to secure a property
• Test the viability of your business.
• To manage your business performance.

Our experienced business plan writers have helped over 1,800 entrepreneurs start and raise funding through our proven business planning process. We maintain an exceptional funding success rate of over 90% because of our meticulous approach rooted in startup best practices.

Professional Business Plan Writing Services

Business plan features.

Custom-Tailored to Your Business

Using a proprietary methodology, each business plan is developed from the ground up, specifically around your unique business model, industry landscape, target customers, and ownership goals. This bespoke approach allows us to focus on your precise needs.

Created by Industry Expert Business Plan Consultants

Our business plan writers and consultants have decades of combined experience across various industries, from technology to manufacturing to consumer goods. We leverage our extensive background in launching and advising startups to craft optimal strategies.

Ongoing Support and Guidance

We continue collaborating long after plan delivery during launch stages, funding discussions, or growth phases. Retain specialists as on-demand strategic advisors regarding pivots, ideas incubation, and due diligence prep.

Proprietary Business Success Framework

Our proven formula identifies strategic pillars present across various thriving modern companies. We instil elements like market viability, differentiated offerings, mitigated risk, and capital efficiency into all documentation.

Financial Models and Projections

Our business plan writers have extensive financial modelling backgrounds. They can build advanced models projecting revenue, costs, and cash flows based on business model specifics, industry metrics, and macroeconomic assumptions over 5-10 years.

• Strategically validate your business viability
• Attract investors and funding faster
• Crystallise your business proposition
• Mitigate risks through expert planning
• Save time trying to write plans yourself
• Focus energy on operations not documentation
• Accelerate your ability to launch and scale

Business Planning Formula

Most successful businesses contain similar attributes. Our business plan writers follow our Business Success Formula on every business plan, ensuring your business plan includes everything you need to make your business successful.

Your business plan will be meticulously rewritten and carefully crafted by our tried-and-true business success formula. This isn't a mere document; it's a strategic roadmap that integrates key principles and proven methodologies to lay a solid foundation for your business. 

Alignment with a Profitable Market (PM)

Your business plan will identify and analyse your target market, ensuring it's ripe for growth and success.

We'll help you uncover the true demand for your product or service, ensuring your market is both accessible and capable of sustaining your business.

Development of an Appealing Product or Service (PS)

We will assist you in articulating the unique value proposition of your offering.

Your product or service will be positioned not only to meet but exceed the expectations of your target audience.

Optimisation of Operational Strategy (Engine Optimization - EO)

Our formula incorporates robust marketing, sales, and operational strategies to create an efficient and profitable engine for your business.

From technological solutions to human capital, we'll help you build the systems that keep your business running smoothly.

Mitigation of External Threats:

Together, we'll identify and prepare for potential challenges from competition, market dynamics, economic factors, political landscape, and technological changes.

Your business plan will include contingency strategies to navigate these complexities.

Integration of Sustainable Growth Plans

Your business will be positioned for long-term success through careful working capital planning, ongoing business analysis, and continuous improvement strategies.

Collaboration and Expert Guidance

Your business plan writer will work closely with you to understand your vision, goals, and unique challenges.

Your business plan will be tailored to your specific needs, reflecting your ambition and aligning with best practices in your industry.

Business Planning Process

Your business plan writer will go through a 7-step process to ensure consistency and a high standard of work. You will work closely with your business plan writer. You can view your plan while it is being written and collaborate. It's a two-way process; you will entirely control the business plan writing process.

• Discover - Our discovery calls reveal ambitions, challenges, and priorities to inform plan direction.
• Research - We thoroughly analyse markets, competition, and trends to uncover growth opportunities. 
• Strategize - Consultants translate research into strategic pillars formed by our proven methodology.
• Model - Financial models, forecasts, and valuation scenarios quantify business potential.
• Validate - We stress-test assumptions and fine-tune positioning for resilience.
• Finalise - Plans optimised to showcase your venture's value propositions.
• Launch - Advisory on pitching, funding sources, and investor discussions to capitalise on planning.

Standard delivery for our business planning services is 21 days. However, if you need it faster, we can complete it by your deadline.  We guarantee our business plans will improve your business model and help you on the road to getting funding for your business. Our business plan writers will not stop working for you until you have reached your goal.

Pricing Aligned to Each Phase of Growth

Our tiered plans and customised packages are designed to provide a comprehensive business plan service matched to your business’s development needs. We recognise every business follows a nonlinear progression - with shifting priorities across planning, funding, operations and expansion. 

That's why we offer business plan solutions tailored to each phase, allowing flexibility to focus on specific business aspects at any given point on your journey. 

The Basic plan is aimed at those seeking pre-seed funding from government startup loans and grant schemes. Our popular Standard Plan provides a comprehensive business plan for loans, landlords, visas and investors. The Premium plan is aimed at companies seeking high growth potential, aiming to impress investors and endorsing bodies. The Elite Plans advisory services provide additional support and guidance to help you reach your goals.

With every engagement, our business plan writers and consultants transfer decades of experience into frameworks personalised for your success, empowering your startup to strategically progress to that critical next level.

Basic Support & Advice

Basic Market Research

Basic Executive Summary

3 Years of Financial Projections

Basic Business Analysis (Risk Analysis, SWOT)

Marketing Plan

Operations Plan

Basic Competitor Analysis

Business Plan Written In Loan Provider Template

Funding Advice / Application Support

Standard Plan

The Standard plan provides comprehensive business plans adapted for worldwide startup and business visa programs, fundraising, investor-ready formatting, detailed marketing and 5-year projections.

Standard Market Research

Heptalysis Executive Summary

5 Years Of Financial Projections

Competitor analysis

Standard Business Analysis (Risk Analysis, SWOT, PESTLE)

Funding Advice / Visa Application Advice

Investor ready format

Premium Plan

The Premium plan offers enhanced research and analysis for startups pitching to top-tier investors and endorsing bodies, with multiple plan versions, valuation, and expert consultation sessions. 

Standard Support & Advice

Advanced Market Research

5 Years Of Financial Projections With Sensitivity Analysis

Detailed marketing plan

Competitor analysis with Porter Five Forces Analysis

Advanced Business Analysis (Risk Analysis, SWOT, PESTLE)

Business Valuation (Pre & Post Money)

Investor-ready format

Investor-ready Pitch Deck

The all-inclusive Elite plan features the highest level of business plan preparation with extensive analysis, scenario models, and dedicated mentorship to position leading startups for Series A funding.

Priority Support & Advice

nvestor-ready format

Multiple Business Plans Based on Funding Scenarios

Post Engagement Support

Business Plan Types We Write

A loan business plan should focus on demonstrating repayment ability, financial management capabilities, and risk mitigation. Project realistic cash flows, include collateral/security details, and outline measures in place to ensure consistent profits.

Investment 

An investment business plan should highlight large market opportunities, key competitive advantages and IP, projections of high returns, and strengths of the leadership team. The goal is to get investors excited about growth potential.

A visa business plan must thoroughly validate your startup's viability and significant growth prospects in the UK market. This includes extensive market research and competitor analysis to demonstrate a clear customer need and gap in the competitive landscape. The plan should also include five years of realistic yet ambitious financial projections for revenue and jobs created. Finally, you must detail how you will invest visa funds into UK growth, including specifics on expenditures over two years and the precise impact on target customer acquisition, product development, hiring projections and other expansion metrics. 

Established Businesses

Existing companies need business plans when entering new growth stages. These plans detail expansion goals, new marketing initiatives, partnerships and hires to support scaling, and updated financials connected to these growth strategies.

Additional Business Planning Services

At SGI Consultants, we offer complementary services to support your business growth and success.

Our experienced consultants and analysts provide expert guidance and support tailored to your needs.

Financial Forecasting and Analysis

Our financial experts can help you create accurate, data-driven financial projections to support your business planning and decision-making. We offer standalone services, including:

Detailed financial modelling and sensitivity analysis

Cash flow forecasting and budgeting

Financial viability and profitability assessments

Scenario planning and risk analysis

Our financial forecasting and analysis services enable you to make informed decisions, optimise your financial performance, and achieve your growth objectives.

Market Research and Competitive Analysis

Understanding your market and competitors is crucial for business success. Our market research and competitive analysis services provide in-depth insights to help you:

Identify and prioritise target customer segments

Assess market size, trends, and growth potential

Analyse competitor strengths, weaknesses, and strategies

Identify opportunities for differentiation and competitive advantage

Develop effective market positioning and go-to-market strategies

With this knowledge, you can make data-driven decisions, refine your business strategy, and build a sustainable competitive edge.

Pitch Deck Design and Development

A compelling pitch deck is essential for securing investment and stakeholder buy-in. Our team can create professional, visually impactful pitch decks communicating your business idea, value proposition, and growth potential. We offer:

Customised pitch deck design aligned with your brand identity

Compelling storytelling and content development

Visualisation of key metrics, milestones, and financial projections

Coaching and support for pitch delivery and investor meetings

With a powerful pitch deck, you can make a lasting impression on investors and stakeholders and increase your chances of success.

Fundraising Strategy and Support

Navigating the fundraising process can be complex and time-consuming. Our fundraising experts can help you develop and execute a comprehensive strategy to secure the capital you need to grow your business.

We provide:

Identification and prioritisation of potential investors

Development of compelling investment materials and proposals

Coaching and support for investor meetings and negotiations

Advice on valuation, deal structure, and terms

Ongoing support and guidance throughout the fundraising process

With our fundraising strategy and support services, you can focus on running your business while we help you secure the investment you need to achieve your goals.

Business Coaching and Mentoring

Starting and growing a business can be challenging, but you don't have to navigate it alone. Our experienced business coaches and mentors provide ongoing guidance and support to help you:

Refine your business strategy and operational plans

Identify and overcome obstacles to growth

Develop effective leadership and management skills

Make data-driven decisions and optimise performance

Build a strong, sustainable business foundation

With our business coaching and mentoring services, you can benefit from the wisdom and experience of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders who are invested in your success.

Visa Application Support for Lawyers

We partner with law firms to provide comprehensive business planning support for clients seeking Innovator Founder or Global Mobility visas to start businesses in the UK. Our expert business plan writers work closely with your legal team to develop plans that meet all visa requirements, including:

Extensive market research and competitor analysis demonstrating apparent demand and market opportunity in the UK

Detailed 5-year financial projections showcasing revenue growth and job creation potential

Strategies for investing visa funds into UK business growth, with specific expenditure plans and anticipated impact on key expansion metrics.

Due Diligence and Growth Planning for Investors, Incubators, and Accelerators

We offer in-depth business planning services for investors, incubators, and accelerators to support your portfolio companies' growth and funding goals. Our team can assist with:

Conducting thorough due diligence on business models, market potential, and financial projections to validate investment opportunities

Developing comprehensive growth strategies and detailed execution plans to guide startups through successful funding rounds and scaling phases.

Creating investor-ready business plans and pitch decks that effectively communicate each venture's unique value proposition and growth potential to secure further investment

By leveraging our business strategy, financial modelling, and investor relations expertise, we help your portfolio companies navigate the startup landscape's complexities and position themselves for long-term success.

Frequently Asked Questions

The three most important purposes of a business plan are:

• To create an effective strategy for growth.
• To determine your future financial needs.
• To secure a loan or attract investors (including angel investors and VC funding) and lenders.

Get a Free Business Plan Consultation

Sign up for a 30-minute session to discuss your business goals with our expert team. We will review your business concept, plans, or existing model to provide strategic advice and next steps.

In this free consultation, we will:

• Learn about your business idea, product or startup
• Assess and analyse your business plan if you have one
• Provide advice on your target market and customers
• Evaluate your business and revenue model
• Suggest improvements to your business strategy
• Identify risks, gaps and areas for better planning
• Recommend priorities and next actions based on business growth best practices

Many entrepreneurs make avoidable mistakes early on or have gaps in their business plans or ideas. Book a session to get an outside look at your business and a professional opinion on improvements to set you up for success.

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• Business Funding
• Business Ideas
• Business Plan
• Business Start-up Advice
• Business Start-up Guides
• Business Strategy
• Business Success Formula
• Leadership & Management
• Marketing & Sales
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Small Business UK

Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

Top tips for writing the perfect business plan

Getting your business plan right is a fundamental step in your company journey

In this piece, we provide essential pointers on how to write the perfect business plan to help your company succeed.

If the first question that springs to mind is ‘do I need a business plan?’ the answer is a very simple ‘yes.’

Whether established business or concept-stage start-up, the business plan is a nuts and bolts action plan, an essential tool for both marking out the future and reviewing the course along the way, says Simon Joyce, director of Anchor Vans . Here, he gives his views on how to get your business plan right.

What is a business plan?

In short, a business plan is a document that states the business goals and how they will be achieved. Every business should have a business plan. It might be a brief one-pager or it may be an all-encompassing report including marketing and finance plans.

Reasons to create a business plan

The business plan is key when applying for a loan or convincing potential investors, in fact this will be the only time many business owners will even use one. But aside from raising funds there are many other overlooked benefits to writing a business plan and referring to it on an ongoing basis.

The Young Entrepreneur Council in New York asked some of its members to give their opinion on reasons to write a business plan. The answers they gave ranged from developing a better understanding of the market to reaffirming the figures and measuring success, all pretty positive stuff when working to drive forward a business.

In itself, the process of writing a business plan allows for a step back from being absorbed in the business, it forces time for research and evaluation and brings greater clarity on a strategic level. The business plan will assist in steering the business from A to B, identifying possible problems and helping to manoeuvre around them.

Writing a business plan

Consider who your business plan is for. It may be aimed at potential investors, attracting business partners or simply for personal reference in developing your business.

Write your plan with the target audience in mind , anticipate the questions they might ask and include information that will be of particular interest to them.

Write your business plan so that someone from outside of the business will understand exactly what your business is about and what it aims to achieve.

Keep content short and simple, cut the waffle, it should be concise and easy to read. For a plan that is longer than a couple of pages be sure to include a contents page.

Your business plan should be individual to your business, typical content may include:

• Executive Summary
• Company Summary
• Products/Services
• The Market/Market Research/Strategy
• Competitor Analysis
• Operations/Premises/Equipment/Suppliers
• Financial/Costs/Pricing/Forecasts

Executive summary

If the recipient looks at nothing else in the business plan they are going to read this section. Your executive summary should outline the entire plan. Save writing it until the end, so you can easily summarise the plan, and use it to capture your audience’s interest.

Are you able to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers? If you are unable to put forward an argument for this, it may be worth revisiting your business idea.

Work out what makes you unique . What will your business offer that no one else does? Differentiating your product and/or service from the rest of the market will help make you stand out. Remember that this applies to more than just your end product, it encompasses your whole brand experience. Make sure to express this in your executive summary.

Check out the video from HubSpot Marketing for more detail.

Be realistic

The brutal reality, at the very base level a business plan will outline whether a business idea is viable or not.

Realism is fundamental to creating a business plan – ensure your business goals and expectations are clear and realistic – be your own critic!

Confidence in your business proposition is essential, a certain level of optimism goes a long way – and also creates interest, however unrealistic goals will inevitably cause disappointment further down the line.

Over-inflated sales figures or underestimated costs will be obvious to potential investors and reduce your plan’s credibility at the least. If maths is not your strength, it might be worth obtaining some assistance or having an expert glance over them first.

Know your market. Conduct in-depth research and present your findings. Establish that there is a market for your product or service, show that you know where your target market hangs out and be clear on the competition.

Consider likely issues, such as competitor activity, and address them in the business plan. This forethought will help to highlight bumps in the road in advance, and give you time to work around them – or change your plan. Acknowledging potential problems and having strategies in place will be reassuring to investors and also give you peace of mind.

When writing a business plan there is a fine line between optimism and realism. Finding the balance is crucial, especially where investors are concerned.

Presentation

A business plan should be clear and easy to navigate at the very least. Include a contents page and make sure the document order flows well.

If your plan will be viewed by anyone but you, ensure it is typed, spell checked and grammatically correct.

Fancy presentation is not necessary but it should look professional. In some cases a PowerPoint presentation may be useful.

There is a wealth of information available at your fingertips, make the most of the internet, you will find countless templates and examples of business plans.

Revisit your plan

Remember that your business plan will be helpful in the future. Don’t forget to review your plan at regular intervals, updating and referring to it as both your business and the economy changes. Your business plan is essentially your roadmap.

Further reading on writing a business plan

Advice from business founders for new start-ups

Simon Joyce

Simon Joyce is the managing director of Anchor Vans. More by Simon Joyce

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Creating a business plan for your startup: step-by-step guide

You’ve had a great idea for a startup or new business. Now you need to make sure it all makes sense and create a document that shows how and why your business will succeed.

Every company is unique and this will be reflected in its business plan. The steps below can be tailored to your requirements but should ensure the key elements are all included.

Step 1. Set out your stall

You may be clear about what will make your new business great, but you need to be able to communicate that to investors, customers and other stakeholders. An effective business plan will often start with a clear statement about what the business will do, and what product or service it will sell.

Step 2.  Set clear goals

Do you want to takeover the world or just a small corner of it? Is creativity, social impact or innovation more important than maximum profit? Decide on the business, financial and even personal goals you want to achieve in the short and medium term.

Step 3. Explain your product

Describe what your product or service will be, and what makes it unique or different. What are its limitations or downsides? How will you make, develop or source it?

Step 4. Introduce your customer and market

Who is your target customer and how big is your potential market? The better you understand the customer, the more likely you will create something they will buy. Market research is critical. Consider how you could test the market and assess demand with a Minimal Viable Product.

Step 5. Explain your sales and marketing approach

How will you make potential customers aware of your product or service? Marketing and advertising costs are often underestimated, especially in a crowded market with a lot of competition for customers. Will you have time to do the marketing yourself or will you need to hire staff or outsource tasks?

Step 6. Consider variable costs

These are the costs associated with the product or service itself, including manufacture, storage and delivery. For a digital business this could include development and testing.

Step 7. Estimate fixed costs

There will also be fixed costs that you will need to pay no matter how much you sell. These could include salaries and wages, National Insurance, tax, office costs, accountant’s fees, bad debts, interest payments and rates.

Step 8. Work out your pricing

Take the cost of the product or service away from the sales price and you have your gross profit. Subtract your overhead costs for the relevant time period and you’ll start to have an idea of how much you’ll need to sell to make a profit. There are various pricing models and you may need to experiment to find the right one for your business.

Step 9. Evaluate the competition

Identify other businesses that could compete for customers. Make a list of factors related to their product or service – everything from cost and service level to features and reputation. Assess your idea against the competition to spot risks and opportunities.

Step 10. Crunch the numbers

Financial calculations and forecasts are at the heart of a business plan. They could include capital requirements, profit and loss forecasts, cashflow forecasts, required assets and funding requirements. How much startup capital do you need and what runway will that give you before more investment or revenue is required?

Step 11. Decide on a legal structure and business organisation

Will you be a sole trader, limited company or set up a business partnership, perhaps with a co-founder? Do you need staff and will they be offered any equity?  What access to advice and expertise do you have – and what will you need to pay for?

Step 12. Assess the risks

With so much disruption and uncertainty it has never been more important to assess the risks your business may face. Be honest about gaps in the founders’ knowledge or experience and look to fill them. Work out contingency plans and stress-test your assumptions.

Step 13. Iterate your approach

A business plan should be an evolving document that reflects what you are learning and the data and insight that is being collected. The sections may need to be adapted or added to, depending on the nature of the business, its sales model and type of funding.

Step 14. Talk to Barclays Eagle Labs

The Ecosystem Managers at Barclays Eagle Labs are used to working with founders and entrepreneurs at the start of their business journey. They can advise you on approaches, considerations and next steps. Find your nearest Eagle Lab here.

Step 15. Find a business plan template to suit your needs

There are numerous business plan templates online with some specifically tailored for startups. No two are the same, so it pays to search widely and borrow from multiple sources to create the business plan that best fits your circumstances and concept.

This Barclays Business Plan Generator is a great first step in clarifying your business idea.

Barclays (including its employees, Directors and agents) accepts no responsibility and shall have no liability in contract, tort or otherwise to any person in connection with this content or the use of or reliance on any information or data set out in this content unless it expressly agrees otherwise in writing. It does not constitute an offer to sell or buy any security, investment, financial product or service and does not constitute investment, professional, legal or tax advice, or a recommendation with respect to any securities or financial instruments.

The information, statements and opinions contained in this content are of a general nature only and do not take into account your individual circumstances including any laws, policies, procedures or practices you, or your employer or businesses may have or be subject to. Although the statements of fact on this page have been obtained from and are based upon sources that Barclays believes to be reliable, Barclays does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness.

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How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)

Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.

If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.

Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.

You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.

1. Secure Funds

One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.

For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.

A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.

Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.

2. Monitor Business Growth

A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:

• The business goals
• Methods to achieve the goals
• Time-frame for attaining those goals

A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.

You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.

3. Measure Business Success

A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.

Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.

You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.

Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.

In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:

• How do you want to reach your target audience?
• How do you plan to retain your customers?
• What is/are your pricing plans?
• What is your budget for marketing?

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.

Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.

A good executive summary should do the following:

• A Snapshot of Growth Potential. Briefly inform the reader about your company and why it will be successful)
• Contain your Mission Statement which explains what the main objective or focus of your business is.
• Product Description and Differentiation. Brief description of your products or services and why it is different from other solutions in the market.
• The Team. Basic information about your company’s leadership team and employees
• Business Concept. A solid description of what your business does.
• Target Market. The customers you plan to sell to.
• Marketing Strategy. Your plans on reaching and selling to your customers
• Current Financial State. Brief information about what revenue your business currently generates.
• Projected Financial State. Brief information about what you foresee your business revenue to be in the future.

The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.

Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.

View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:

• Who is your target audience?
• What sector or industry are you in?
• What are your products and services?
• What is the future of your industry?
• Is your company scaleable?
• Who are the owners and leaders of your company? What are their backgrounds and experience levels?
• What is the motivation for starting your company?
• What are the next steps?

Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.

The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.

If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.

2. Add Your Company Overview

The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.

Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.

Your company overview should contain the following:

• What products and services you will provide
• Geographical markets and locations your company have a presence
• What you need to run your business
• Who your target audience or customers are
• Who will service your customers
• Your company’s purpose, mission, and vision
• Information about your company’s founders
• Who the founders are
• Notable achievements of your company so far

When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.

If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.

• Who are you targeting? (The answer is not everyone)
• What pain point does your product or service solve for your customers that they will be willing to spend money on resolving?
• How does your product or service overcome that pain point?
• Where is the location of your business?
• What products, equipment, and services do you need to run your business?
• How is your company’s product or service different from your competition in the eyes of your customers?
• How many employees do you need and what skills do you require them to have?

After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.

The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.

• Mission Statement

The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.

Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”

When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:

• Founding Date
• Major Milestones
• Location(s)
• Flagship Products or Services
• Number of Employees
• Executive Leadership Roles

When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.

Business Objectives

Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.

3. Perform Market and Competitive Analyses to Proof a Big Enough Business Opportunity

The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.

Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.

This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.

Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?

You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.

Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?

Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?

Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.

Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.

Market Analysis

Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.

The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.

A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.

• Market Research

To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.

• Your target market’s needs or pain points
• The existing solutions for their pain points
• Geographic Location
• Demographics

The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.

Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.

You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.

How to Quantify Your Target Market

One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:

• Your Potential Customers: They are the people you plan to target. For example, if you sell accounting software for small businesses , then anyone who runs an enterprise or large business is unlikely to be your customers. Also, individuals who do not have a business will most likely not be interested in your product.
• Total Households: If you are selling household products such as heating and air conditioning systems, determining the number of total households is more important than finding out the total population in the area you want to sell to. The logic is simple, people buy the product but it is the household that uses it.
• Median Income: You need to know the median income of your target market. If you target a market that cannot afford to buy your products and services, your business will not last long.
• Income by Demographics: If your potential customers belong to a certain age group or gender, determining income levels by demographics is necessary. For example, if you sell men's clothes, your target audience is men.

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.

You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:

• Industry Description. You find out about the history of your industry, the current and future market size, and who the largest players/companies are in your industry.
• Overview of Target Market. You research your target market and its characteristics. Who are you targeting? Note, it cannot be everyone, it has to be a specific group. You also have to find out all information possible about your customers that can help you understand how and why they make buying decisions.
• Size of Target Market: You need to know the size of your target market, how frequently they buy, and the expected quantity they buy so you do not risk overproducing and having lots of bad inventory. Researching the size of your target market will help you determine if it is big enough for sustained business or not.
• Growth Potential: Before picking a target market, you want to be sure there are lots of potential for future growth. You want to avoid going for an industry that is declining slowly or rapidly with almost zero growth potential.
• Market Share Potential: Does your business stand a good chance of taking a good share of the market?
• Market Pricing and Promotional Strategies: Your market analysis should give you an idea of the price point you can expect to charge for your products and services. Researching your target market will also give you ideas of pricing strategies you can implement to break into the market or to enjoy maximum profits.
• Potential Barriers to Entry: One of the biggest benefits of conducting market analysis is that it shows you every potential barrier to entry your business will likely encounter. It is a good idea to discuss potential barriers to entry such as changing technology. It informs readers of your business plan that you understand the market.
• Research on Competitors: You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how you can exploit them for the benefit of your business. Find patterns and trends among your competitors that make them successful, discover what works and what doesn’t, and see what you can do better.

The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.

Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.

• Is your product or service of superior quality?
• What additional features do you offer that your competitors do not offer?
• Are you targeting a ‘new’ market?

Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.

Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.

Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.

Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.

The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.

Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.

When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.

Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.

• What are your successful competitors doing?
• Why is what they are doing working?
• Can your business do it better?
• What are the weaknesses of your successful competitors?
• What are they not doing well?
• Can your business turn its weaknesses into strengths?
• How good is your competitors’ customer service?
• Where do your competitors invest in advertising?
• What sales and pricing strategies are they using?
• What marketing strategies are they using?
• What kind of press coverage do they get?
• What are their customers saying about your competitors (both the positive and negative)?

If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.

If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.

Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.

The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.

Direct vs Indirect Competition

You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.

There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.

If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.

In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.

For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.

There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.

1. Cost Leadership

A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.

A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.

2. Product Differentiation

Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.

Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.

3. Market Segmentation

As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.

If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.

Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.

If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.

Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.

The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.

Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.

Management Team

The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.

Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.

A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.

Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.

Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.

If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

• Who are the key leaders?
• What experiences, skills, and educational backgrounds do you expect your key leaders to have?
• Do your key leaders have industry experience?
• What positions will they fill and what duties will they perform in those positions?
• What level of authority do the key leaders have and what are their responsibilities?
• What is the salary for the various management positions that will attract the ideal candidates?

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team

There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.

Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.

2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles

Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.

While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.

Organizational Chart

Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.

If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.

An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.

You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.

Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.

The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.

If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”

Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:

• A detailed explanation that clearly shows how your product or service works.
• The pricing model for your product or service.
• Your business’ sales and distribution strategy.
• The ideal customers that want your product or service.
• The benefits of your products and services.
• Reason(s) why your product or service is a better alternative to what your competitors are currently offering in the market.
• Plans for filling the orders you receive
• If you have current or pending patents, copyrights, and trademarks for your product or service, you can also discuss them in this section.

What to Focus On When Describing the Benefits, Lifecycle, and Production Process of Your Products or Services

In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.

When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Unique features
• Translating the unique features into benefits
• The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
• Intellectual property rights or any patents

When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
• Time between purchases
• Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

• The creation of new or existing products and services.
• The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
• Assembling the products
• Maintaining quality control
• Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
• The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

• Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
• What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
• What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
• Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
• Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
• How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
• What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
• What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
• What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
• Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
• Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
• How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

• What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
• What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
• Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
• How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

• Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
• Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
• Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

• Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
• Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
• Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

• Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
• What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
• How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

• What makes your competition successful?
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

• What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
• What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
• What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
• Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
• What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
• Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

• Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
• Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
• Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
• Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
• Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
• Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
• Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

• What is your sales forecast for the next year?
• When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
• What are the core expenses you need to operate?
• How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
• How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

• Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
• Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
• Additional financial documents or projections
• Articles of incorporation and status
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Bank statements
• Business registries
• Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
• Copies of insurances
• Credit histories (personal or/and business)
• Deeds and permits
• Equipment leases
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Industry associations and memberships
• Images of product
• Intellectual property
• Key customer contracts
• Legal documents and other contracts
• Letters of reference
• Links to references
• Market research data
• Organizational charts
• Photographs of potential facilities
• Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
• Purchase orders
• Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
• State and federal identification numbers or codes
• Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

• A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
• A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
• A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Product or service description
• Target audience
• Market size
• Competition analysis
• Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

• Business opportunity
• Company description
• Industry analysis
• Target market
• Implementation timeline
• Marketing plan
• Financial summary
• Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

• The Business Profile
• The Vision and the People
• Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
• Organization
• Licenses and Permits
• Business Insurance
• Communication Tools
• Acquisitions
• Location and Leasing
• Accounting and Cash Flow
• Opening and Marketing
• Managing Employees
• Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Service Line
• Marketing and Sales

8. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Products and services
• Operations plan
• Management organization
• Financial plan
• Conclusion / Call to action
• Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

10. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

• Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
• Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
• The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
• Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
• Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
• Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
• Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
• Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
• Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

• Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
• Solution: The solutions to each problem.
• Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
• Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

• Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
• Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
• Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
• Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
• Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
• Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
• Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
• Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
• Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
• Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
• Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
• Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

• Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
• Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
• Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
• Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time.  They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans.  A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs.  Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

• 12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
• 13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
• 5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
• How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

How to Write a Business Plan for a Small Business

Noah Parsons

24 min. read

Updated September 2, 2024

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

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

• The basics of writing a business plan

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

You understand that writing a business plan helps you: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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• What to include in your business plan

Executive summary

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

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

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

Your executive summary should include:

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

Dig Deeper: How to write an effective executive summary

Products and services description

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

This is usually called a problem and solution statement .

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

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

Market analysis

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

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

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

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

Related: Target market examples

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

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

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

Dig Deeper: Learn how to write a market analysis

Competitive analysis

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

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

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

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

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

Marketing and sales plan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Business operations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key milestones and metrics

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

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

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

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

Possible milestones might be:

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

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

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

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

Dig Deeper: How to use milestones in your business plan

Organization and management team

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

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

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

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

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

• Sole proprietor
• Partnership

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

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

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

Financial plan

The last section of your business plan is your financial plan and forecasts. 

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

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

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

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

Dig Deeper: How to create financial forecasts and budgets

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

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

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

Dig Deeper : What to include in your business plan appendix

Optional: Business plan cover page

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

Your cover page should be simple and include:

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

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

Dig Deeper: How to create a business plan cover page

How to use AI to help write your business plan

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

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

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

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

Learn more: 10 AI prompts you need to write a business plan

• Writing tips and strategies

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

Determine why you are writing a business plan

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

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

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

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

Keep things concise

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

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

Have someone review your business plan

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

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

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

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

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

There are plenty of great options available (we’ve rounded up our 8 favorites to streamline your search).

But, if you’re looking for a free downloadable business plan template , you can get one right now; download the template used by more than 1 million businesses. 

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

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

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Use your business plan to manage your business

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn More: How to run a regular plan review

How to write a business plan FAQ

What is a business plan?

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

What are the benefits of writing a business plan?

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

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

What are the 7 steps of writing a business plan?

The seven steps to writing a business plan include:

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

What are the 5 most common business plan mistakes?

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

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

What questions should be answered in a business plan?

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

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

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

How long should a business plan be?

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

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

What are the different types of business plans?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Table of Contents

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

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