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How to Write the Perfect Business Plan: A Comprehensive Guide

Thinking of starting a business here's the best step-by-step template for writing the perfect business plan when creating your startup..

Maybe you think you don't need a step-by-step guide to writing a great business plan . Maybe you think you don't need a template for writing a business plan. After all, some entrepreneurs succeed without writing a business plan. With great timing, solid business skills, entrepreneurial drive, and a little luck , some founders build thriving businesses without creating even an  informal business plan . 

But the odds are greater that those entrepreneurs will fail.

Does a business plan make startup success inevitable? Absolutely not. But great planning often means the difference between success and failure. Where your entrepreneurial dreams are concerned, you should do everything possible to set the stage for success.

And that's why a great business plan is one that helps you  succeed .

The following is a comprehensive guide to creating a great business plan. We'll start with an overview of key concepts. Then we'll look at each section of a typical business plan:

Executive Summary

Overview and objectives, products and services, market opportunities, sales and marketing.

• Competitive Analysis

Management Team

Financial analysis.

So first let's gain a little perspective on why you need a business plan.

Key Concepts

Many business plans are fantasies. That's because many aspiring entrepreneurs see a business plan as simply a tool--filled with strategies and projections and hyperbole--that will convince lenders or investors the business makes sense.

That's a huge mistake.

First and foremost, your business plan should convince  you  that your idea makes sense--because your time, your money, and your effort are on the line.

So a solid business plan should be a blueprint for a successful business . It should flesh out strategic plans, develop marketing and sales plans, create the foundation for smooth operations, and maybe--just maybe--persuade a lender or investor to jump on board.

For many entrepreneurs, developing a business plan is the first step in the process of deciding whether to actually start a business. Determining if an idea fails on paper can help a prospective founder avoid wasting time and money on a business with no realistic hope of success.

So, at a minimum, your plan should:

• Be as objective and logical as possible. What may have seemed like a good idea for a business can, after some thought and analysis, prove not viable because of heavy competition, insufficient funding, or a nonexistent market. (Sometimes even the best ideas are simply ahead of their time.)
• Serve as a guide to the business's operations for the first months and sometimes years, creating a blueprint for company leaders to follow.
• Communicate the company's purpose and vision, describe management responsibilities, detail personnel requirements, provide an overview of marketing plans, and evaluate current and future competition in the marketplace.
• Create the foundation of a financing proposal for investors and lenders to use to evaluate the company.

A good business plan delves into each of the above categories, but it should also accomplish other objectives. Most of all, a good business plan is  convincing . It proves a case. It provides concrete, factual evidence showing your idea for a business is in fact sound and reasonable and has every chance of success.

Who  must  your business plan convince?

First and foremost, your business plan should convince  you  that your idea for a business is not just a dream but can be a viable reality. Entrepreneurs are by nature confident, positive, can-do people. After you objectively evaluate your capital needs, products or services, competition, marketing plans, and potential to make a profit, you'll have a much better grasp on your chances for success.

And if you're not convinced, fine: Take a step back and refine your ideas and your plans.

Who  can  your business plan convince?

1. Potential sources of financing.   If you need seed money from a bank or friends and relatives, your business plan can help you make a great case. Financial statements can show where you have been. Financial projections describe where you plan to go.

Your business plan shows how you will get there. Lending naturally involves risk, and a great business plan can help lenders understand and quantity that risk, increasing your chances for approval.

2. Potential partners and investors. Where friends and family are concerned, sharing your business plan may not be necessary (although it certainly could help).

Other investors--including angel investors or venture capitalists--generally require a business plan in order to evaluate your business.

3. Skilled employees . When you need to attract talent, you need  something  to show prospective employees since you're still in the startup phase. Early on, your business is more of an idea than a reality, so your business plan can help prospective employees understand your goals--and, more important, their place in helping you achieve those goals.

4. Potential joint ventures. Joint ventures are like partnerships between two companies. A joint venture is a formal agreement to share the work--and share the revenue and profit. As a new company, you will likely be an unknown quantity in your market. Setting up a joint venture with an established partner could make all the difference in getting your business off the ground.

But above all, your business plan should convince  you  that it makes sense to move forward.

As you map out your plan, you may discover issues or challenges you had not anticipated.

Maybe the market isn't as large as you thought. Maybe, after evaluating the competition, you realize your plan to be the low-cost provider isn't feasible since the profit margins will be too low to cover your costs.

Or you might realize the fundamental idea for your business is sound, but how you implement that idea should change. Maybe establishing a storefront for your operation isn't as cost-effective as taking your products directly to customers--not only will your operating costs be lower, but you can charge a premium since you provide additional customer convenience.

Think of it this way. Successful businesses do not remain static. They learn from mistakes, and adapt and react to changes: changes in the economy, the marketplace, their customers, their products and services, etc. Successful businesses identify opportunities and challenges and react accordingly.

Creating a business plan lets you spot opportunities and challenges without risk. Use your plan to dip your toe in the business water. It's the perfect way to review and revise your ideas and concepts before you ever spend a penny.

Many people see writing a business plan as a "necessary evil" required to attract financing or investors. Instead, see your plan as a no-cost way to explore the viability of your potential business and avoid costly mistakes.

Now let's look at the first section of your business plan: The Executive Summary.

The Executive Summary is a brief outline of the company's purpose and goals. While it can be tough to fit on one or two pages, a good Summary includes:

• A brief description of products and services
• A summary of objectives
• A solid description of the market
• A high-level justification for viability (including a quick look at your competition and your competitive advantage)
• A snapshot of growth potential
• An overview of funding requirements

I know that seems like a lot, and that's why it's so important you get it right. The Executive Summary is often the make-or-break section of your business plan.

A great business solves customer problems. If your Summary cannot clearly describe, in one or two pages, how your business will solve a particular problem and make a profit, then it's very possible the opportunity does not exist--or your plan to take advantage of a genuine opportunity is not well developed.

So think of it as a snapshot of your business plan. Don't try to "hype" your business--focus on helping a busy reader get a great feel for what you plan to do, how you plan to do it, and how you will succeed.

Since a business plan should above all help you start and grow your business, your Executive Summary should first and foremost help you do the following.

1. Refine and tighten your concept.

Think of it as a written elevator pitch  (with more detail, of course). Your Summary describes the highlights of your plan, includes only the most critical points, and leaves out less important issues and factors.

As you develop your Summary, you will naturally focus on the issues that contribute most to potential success. If your concept is too fuzzy, too broad, or too complicated, go back and start again. Most great businesses can be described in several sentences, not several pages.

2. Determine your priorities.

Your business plan walks the reader through your plan. What ranks high in terms of importance? Product development? Research? Acquiring the right location? Creating strategic partnerships?

Your Summary can serve as a guide to writing the rest of your plan.

3. Make the rest of the process easy.

Once your Summary is complete, you can use it as an outline for the rest of your plan. Simply flesh out the highlights with more detail.

Then work to accomplish your secondary objective by focusing on your readers. Even though you may be creating a business plan solely for your own purposes, at some point you may decide to seek financing or to bring on other investors, so make sure your Summary meets their needs as well. Work hard to set the stage for the rest of the plan. Let your excitement for your idea and your business shine through.

In short, make readers want to turn the page and keep reading. Just make sure your sizzle meets your steak by providing clear, factual descriptions.

How? The following is how an Executive Summary for a bicycle rental store might read.

Introduction

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals will offer road and mountain bike rentals in a strategic location directly adjacent to an entrance to the George Washington National Forest. Our primary strategy is to develop Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals as the most convenient and cost-effective rental alternative for the thousands of visitors who flock to the area each year.

Once underway, we will expand our scope and take advantage of high-margin new equipment sales and leverage our existing labor force to sell and service those products. Within three years we intend to create the area's premier destination for cycling enthusiasts.

Company and Management

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals will be located at 321 Mountain Drive, a location providing extremely high visibility as well as direct entry and exit from a primary national park access road. The owner of the company, Marty Cycle, has over 20 years experience in the bicycle business, having served as a product manager for Acme Cycles as well as the general manager of Epic Cycling.

Because of his extensive industry contacts, initial equipment inventory will be purchased at significant discounts from OEM suppliers as well by sourcing excess inventory from shops around the country.

Because of the somewhat seasonal nature of the business, part-time employees will be hired to handle spikes in demand. Those employees will be attracted through competitive wages as well as discounts products and services.

460,000 people visited the George Washington National Forest during the last 12 months. While the outdoor tourism industry as a whole is flat, the park expects its number of visitors to grow over the next few years.

• The economic outlook indicates fewer VA, WV, NC, and MD cycling enthusiasts will travel outside the region
• The park has added a camping and lodging facilities that should attract an increased number of visitors
• The park has opened up additional areas for trail exploration and construction, ensuring a greater number of single-track options and therefore a greater number of visitors

The market potential inherent in those visitors is substantial. According to third-party research data, approximately 30 percent of all cyclists would rather rent than transport their own bicycles, especially those who are visiting the area for reasons other than cycling.

Competitive Advantages

The cycling shops located in Harrisonburg, VA, are direct and established competitors. Our two primary competitive advantages will be location and lower costs.

Our location is also a key disadvantage where non-park rentals are concerned. We will overcome that issue by establishing a satellite location in Harrisonburg for enthusiasts who wish to rent bicycles to use in town or on other local trails.

We will also use online tools to better engage customers, allowing them to reserve and pay online as well as create individual profiles regarding sizes, preferences, and special needs.

Financial Projections

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals expects to earn a modest profit by year two based on projected sales. Our projections are based on the following key assumptions:

• Initial growth will be moderate as we establish awareness in the market
• Initial equipment purchases will stay in service for an average of three to four years; after two years we will begin investing in "new" equipment to replace damaged or obsolete equipment
• Marketing costs will not exceed 14 percent of sales
• Residual profits will be reinvested in expanding the product and service line

We project first-year revenue of $720,000 and a 10 percent growth rate for the next two years. Direct cost of sales is projected to average 60 percent of gross sales, including 50 percent for the purchase of equipment and 10 percent for the purchase of ancillary items. Net income is projected to reach $105,000 in year three as sales increase and operations become more efficient.

And so on ...

Keep in mind this is just a made-up example of how your Summary might read. Also keep in mind this example focused on the rental business, so a description of products was not included. (They'll show up later.) If your business will manufacture or sell products, or provide a variety of services, then be sure to include a Products and Services section in your Summary. (In this case the products and services are obvious, so including a specific section would be redundant.)

Bottom line:  Provide some sizzle in your Executive Summary, but make sure you show a reasonable look at the steak, too.

Providing an overview of your business can be tricky, especially when you're still in the planning stages. If you already own an existing business, summarizing your current operation should be relatively easy; it can be a lot harder to explain what you plan to  become .

So start by taking a step back.

Think about what products and services you will provide, how you will provide those items, what you need to have in order to provide those items, exactly who will provide those items, and most important, whom you will provide those items to.

Consider our bicycle rental business example. It's serves retail customers. It has an online component, but the core of the business is based on face-to-face transactions for bike rentals and support.

So you'll need a physical location, bikes, racks and tools and supporting equipment, and other brick-and-mortar related items. You'll need employees  with a very particular set of skills  to serve those customers, and you'll need an operating plan to guide your everyday activities.

Sound like a lot? It boils down to:

• What you will provide
• What you need to run your business
• Who will service your customers, and
• Who your customers are.

In our example, defining the above is fairly simple. You know what you will provide to meet your customer's needs. You will of course need a certain quantity of bikes to service demand, but you will not need a number of different types of bikes. You need a retail location, furnished to meet the demands of your business. You need semi-skilled employees capable of sizing, customizing, and repairing bikes.

And you know your customers: cycling enthusiasts.

In other businesses and industries, answering the above questions can be more difficult. If you open a restaurant, what you plan to serve will in some ways determine your labor needs, the location you choose, the equipment you need to purchase. And, most important, it will help define your customer. Changing any one element may change other elements; if you cannot afford to purchase expensive kitchen equipment, you may need to adapt your menu accordingly. If you hope to attract an upscale clientele, you may need to invest more in purchasing a prime location and creating an appealing ambience.

So where do you start? Focus on the basics first:

• Identify your industry. Retail, wholesale, service, manufacturing, etc. Clearly define your type of business.
• Identify your customer. You cannot market and sell to customers until you know who they are.
• Explain the problem you solve. Successful businesses create customer value by solving problems. In our rental example, one problem is cycling enthusiasts who don't--or can't--travel with bikes. Another problem is casual cyclists who can't--or choose not to--spend significant sums on their own bikes. The rental shop will solve that problem by offering a lower-cost and convenient alternative.
• Show how you will solve that problem. Our rental shop will offer better prices and enhanced services like remote deliveries, off-hours equipment returns, and online reservations.

If you are still stuck, try answering these questions. Some may pertain to you; others may not.

• Who is my average customer? Who am I targeting? (Unless you plan to open a grocery store, you should be unlikely to answer, "Everyone!")
• What pain point do I solve for my customers?
• How will I overcome that paint point?
• Where will I fail to solve a customer problem, and what can I do to overcome that issue? (In our rental example, one problem is a potential lack of convenience; we will overcome that issue by offering online reservations, on-resort deliveries, and drive-up equipment returns.)
• Where will I locate my business?
• What products, services, and equipment do I need to run my business?
• What skills do my employees need, and how many do I need?
• How will I beat my competition?
• How can I differentiate myself from my competition in the eyes of my customers? (You can have a great plan to beat your competition, but you also must win the perception battle among your customers. If customers don't feel you are different, then you aren't truly different. Perception is critical.)

Once you work through this list you will probably end up with a lot more detail than is necessary for your business plan. That is not a problem: Start summarizing the main points. For example, your Business Overview and Objectives section could start something like this:

History and Vision

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals is a new retail venture that will be located at 321 Mountain Drive, directly adjacent to an extremely popular cycling destination. Our initial goal is to become the premier provider for bicycle rentals. We will then leverage our customer base and position in the market to offer new equipment sales as well as comprehensive maintenance and service, custom equipment fittings, and expert trail advice.

• Achieve the largest market share bicycle rentals in the area
• Generate a net income of $235,000 at the end of the second year of operation
• Minimize rental inventory replacement costs by maintaining a 7 percent attrition rate on existing equipment (industry average is 12 percent)

Keys to Success

• Provide high-quality equipment, sourcing that equipment as inexpensively as possible through existing relationships with equipment manufacturers and other cycling shops
• Use signage to attract visitors traveling to the national forest, highlighting our cost and service advantage
• Create additional customer convenience factors to overcome a perceived lack of convenience for customers planning to ride roads and trails some distance away from our shop
• Develop customer incentive and loyalty programs to leverage customer relationships and create positive word of mouth

You could certainly include more detail in each section; this is simply a quick guide. And if you plan to develop a product or service, you should thoroughly describe the development process as well as the end result.

The key is to describe what you will do for your customers--if you can't, you won't  have  any customers.

In the Products and Services section of your business plan, you will clearly describe--yep--the products and services your business will provide.

Keep in mind that highly detailed or technical descriptions are not necessary and definitely not recommended. Use simple terms and avoid industry buzzwords.

On the other hand, describing how the company's products and services will differ from the competition is critical. So is describing why your products and services are needed if no market currently exists. (For example, before there was Federal Express, overnight delivery was a niche business served by small companies. FedEx had to define the opportunity for a new, large-scale service and justify why customers needed--and would actually  use --that service.)

Patents, copyrights, and trademarks you own or have applied for should also be listed in this section.

Depending on the nature of your business, your Products and Services section could be very long or relatively short. If your business is product-focused, you will want to spend more time describing those products.

If you plan to sell a commodity item and the key to your success lies in, say, competitive pricing, you probably don't need to provide significant product detail. Or if you plan to sell a commodity readily available in a variety of outlets, the key to your business may not be the commodity itself but your ability to market in a more cost-effective way than your competition.

But if you're creating a new product (or service), make sure you thoroughly explain the nature of the product, its uses, and its value, etc.--otherwise your readers will not have enough information to evaluate your business.

Key questions to answer:

• Are products or services in development or existing (and on the market)?
• What is the timeline for bringing new products and services to market?
• What makes your products or services different? Are there competitive advantages compared with offerings from other competitors? Are there competitive disadvantages you will need to overcome? (And if so, how?)
• Is price an issue? Will your operating costs be low enough to allow a reasonable profit margin?
• How will you acquire your products? Are you the manufacturer? Do you assemble products using components provided by others? Do you purchase products from suppliers or wholesalers? If your business takes off, is a steady supply of products available?

In the cycling rental business example we've been using, products and services could be a relatively simple section to complete or it could be fairly involved. It depends on the nature of the products the company plans to rent to customers.

If Blue Mountain Cycling Rentals plans to market itself as a provider of high-end bikes, describing those bikes--and the sources for those bikes--is important, since "high-end cycling rentals" is intended to be a market differentiation. If the company plans to be the low-cost provider, then describing specific brands of equipment is probably not necessary.

Also, keep in mind that if a supplier runs out of capacity--or goes out of business altogether--you may not have a sufficient supply to meet your demand. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships, and describe those relationships fully. 

Remember, the primary goal of your business plan is to convince  you  that the business is viable--and to create a road map for you to follow.

The Products and Services section for our cycling rental business could start something like this:

Product Description

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals will provide a comprehensive line of bicycles and cycling equipment for all ages and levels of ability. Since the typical customer seeks medium-quality equipment and excellent services at competitive prices, we will focus on providing brands like Trek bikes, Shimano footwear, and Giro helmets. These manufacturers have a widespread reputation as mid- to high-level quality, unlike equipment typically found in the rental market.

The following is a breakdown of anticipated rental price points, per day and per week:

• Bicycle $30/$120
• Helmet $6/$30
• Customers can extend the rental term online without visiting the store.
• A grace period of two hours will be applied to all rentals; customers who return equipment within that two-hour period will not be charged an additional fee.

Competition

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals will have clear advantages over its primary competitors, the bike shops located in Harrisonburg, VA:

• Newer equipment inventory with higher perceived quality
• Price points 15 percent below the competition
• Online renewals offering greater convenience
• A liberal return grace period that will reinforce our reputation as a customer-friendly rental experience

Future Products

Expansion will allow us to move product offerings into new equipment sales. We will also explore maintenance and fitting services, leveraging our existing maintenance staff to provide value-added services at a premium price.

When you draft your Products and Services section, think of your reader as a person who knows little to nothing about your business. Be clear and to the point.

Think of it this way: The Products and Services section answers the "what" question for your business. Make sure you fully understand the "what" factor; you may run the business, but your products and services are its lifeblood.

Market research is critical to business success. A good business plan analyzes and evaluates customer demographics, purchasing habits, buying cycles, and willingness to adopt new products and services.

The process starts with understanding your market and the opportunities inherent in that market. And that means you'll need to do a little research. Before you start a business you must be sure there is a viable market for what you plan to offer.

That process requires asking, and more importantly answering, a number of questions. The more thoroughly you answer the following questions, the better you will understand your market.

Start by evaluating the market at a relatively high level, answering some high-level questions about your market and your industry:

• What is the size of the market? Is it growing, stable, or in decline?
• Is the overall industry growing, stable, or in decline?
• What segment of the market do I plan to target? What demographics and behaviors make up the market I plan to target?
• Is demand for my specific products and services rising or falling?
• Can I differentiate myself from the competition in a way customers will find meaningful? If so, can I differentiate myself in a cost-effective manner?
• What do customers expect to pay for my products and services? Are they considered to be a commodity or to be custom and individualized?

Fortunately, you've already done some of the legwork. You've already defined and mapped out your products and services. The Market Opportunities section provides a sense-check of that analysis, which is particularly important since choosing the right products and services is such a critical factor in business success.

But your analysis should go further: Great products are great, but there still must be a market for those products. (Ferraris are awesome, but you're unlikely to sell many where I live.)

So let's dig deeper and quantify your market. Your goal is to thoroughly understand the characteristics and purchasing ability of potential customers in your market. A little Googling can yield a tremendous amount of data.

For the market you hope to serve, determine:

• Your potential customers. In general terms, potential customers are the people in the market segment you plan to target. Say you sell jet skis; anyone under the age of 16 and over the age of 60 or so is unlikely to be a customer. Plus, again in general terms, women make up a relatively small percentage of jet ski purchasers. Determining the total population for the market is not particularly helpful if your product or service does not serve a need for the entire population. Most products and services do not.
• Total households. In some cases determining the number of total households is important depending on your business. For example, if you sell heating and air conditioning systems, knowing the number of households is more important than simply knowing the total population in your area. While people purchase HVAC systems, "households" consume those systems.
• Median income. Spending ability is important. Does your market area have sufficient spending power to purchase enough of your products and services to enable you to make a profit? Some areas are more affluent than others. Don't assume every city or locality is the same in terms of spending power. A service that is viable in New York City may not be viable in your town.
• Income by demographics. You can also determine income levels by age group, by ethnic group, and by gender. (Again, potential spending power is an important number to quantify.) Senior citizens could very well have a lower income level than males or females age 45 to 55 in the prime of their careers. Or say you plan to sell services to local businesses; in that case, try to determine the amount they currently spend on similar services.

The key is to understand the market in general terms and then to dig deeper to understand whether there are specific segments within that market--the segments you plan to target--that can become customers and support the growth of your business.

Also keep in mind that if you plan to sell products online the global marketplace is incredibly crowded and competitive. Any business can sell a product online and ship that product around the world. Don't simply assume that just because "the bicycle industry is a $62 billion business" (a number I just made up) that you can capture a meaningful percentage of that market.

On the other hand, if you live in an area with 50,000 people and there's only one bicycle shop, you may be able to enter that market and attract a major portion of bicycle customers in your area.

Always remember it's much easier to serve a market you can define and quantify.

After you complete your research you may feel a little overwhelmed. While data is good, and more data is great, sifting through and making sense of too much data can be daunting.

For the purposes of your business plan, narrow your focus and focus on answering these main questions:

• What is your market? Include geographic descriptions, target demographics, and company profiles (if you're B2B). In short: Who are your customers?
• What segment of your market will you focus on? What niche will you attempt to carve out? What percentage of that market do you hope to penetrate and acquire?
• What is the size of your intended market? What is the population and spending habits and levels?
• Why do customers need and why will they be willing to purchase your products and services?
• How will you price your products and services? Will you be the low cost provider or provide value-added services at higher prices?
• Is your market likely to grow? How much? Why?
• How can you increase your market share over time?

The Market Opportunities section for our cycling rental business could start something like this:

Market Summary

Consumer spending on cycling equipment reached $9,250,000 in the states of VA, WV, MD, and NC last year. While we expect sales to rise, for the purposes of performing a conservative analysis we have projected a zero growth rate for the next three years.

In those states 2,500,000 people visited a national forest last year. Our target market includes customers visiting the Shenandoah National Forest; last year 120,000 people visited the area during spring, summer, and fall months.

Over time, however, we do expect equipment rentals and sales to increase as the popularity of cycling continues to rise. In particular we forecast a spike in demand in 2015 since the national road racing championships will be held in Richmond, VA.

Market Trends

Participation and population trends favor our venture:

• Recreational sports in general and both family-oriented and "extreme" sports continue to gain in exposure and popularity.
• Western VA and eastern WV have experienced population growth rates nearly double that of the country as a whole.
• Industry trends show cycling has risen at a more rapid rate than most other recreational activities.

Market Growth

According to the latest studies, recreation spending in our target market has grown by 14 percent per year for the past three years.

In addition, we anticipate greater than industry-norm growth rates for cycling in the area due to the increase in popularity of cycling events like the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo.

Market Needs

Out target market has one basic need: The availability to source bicycle rentals at a competitive price. Our only other competition are the bike shops in Harrisonburg, VA, and our location will give us a competitive advantage over those and other companies who try to serve our market.

You may want to add other categories to this section based on your particular industry.

For example, you might decide to provide information about Market Segments. In our case, the cycling rental business does not require much segmentation. Rentals are typically not broken down into segments like "inexpensive," "midrange," and "high-end." For the most part rental bikes are more of a commodity. (Although you'll notice in our Products and Services section, we decided to provide "high-end" rentals.)

But say you decide to open a clothing store. You could focus on high fashion, or children's clothes, or outdoor wear, or casual--you could segment the market in a number of ways. If that's the case, provide detail on segmentation that supports your plan.

The key is to define your market--and then show how you will serve your market.

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but customers must actually know those products and services exist. That's why marketing plans and strategies are critical to business success. (Duh, right?)

But keep in mind marketing is not just advertising. Marketing--whether advertising, public relations, promotional literature, etc.--is an investment in the growth of your business.

Like any other investment you would make, money spent on marketing must generate a return. (Otherwise why make the investment?) While that return could simply be greater cash flow, good marketing plans result in higher sales and profits.

So don't simply plan to spend money on a variety of advertising efforts. Do your homework and create a smart marketing program .

Here are some of the basic steps involved in creating your marketing plan:

• Focus on your target market. Who are your customers? Who will you target? Who makes the decisions? Determine how you can best reach potential customers.
• Evaluate your competition. Your marketing plan must set you apart from your competition, and you can't stand out unless you  know  your competition. (It's hard to stand out from a crowd if you don't know where the crowd stands.) Know your competitors by gathering information about their products, service, quality, pricing, and advertising campaigns. In marketing terms, what does your competition do that works well? What are their weaknesses? How can you create a marketing plan that highlights the advantages you offer to customers?
• Consider your brand. How customers perceive your business makes a dramatic impact on sales. Your marketing program should consistently reinforce and extend your brand. Before you start to market your business, think about how you want your marketing to reflect on your business and your products and services. Marketing is the face of your to potential customers--make sure you put your best face forward.
• Focus on benefits. What problems do you solve? What benefits do you deliver? Customers don't think in terms of products--they think in terms of benefits and solutions. Your marketing plan should clearly identify benefits customers will receive. Focus on what customers  get  instead of on what you provide. (Take Dominos; theoretically they're in the pizza business, but really they're a delivery business.)
• Focus on differentiation. Your products and services have to stand out from the competition in some way. How will you compete in terms of price, product, or service?

Then focus on providing detail and backup for your marketing plan.

• What is your budget for sales and marketing efforts? 
• How will you determine if your initial marketing efforts are successful? In what ways will you adapt if your initial efforts do not succeed?
• Will you need sales representatives (inside or external) to promote your products?
• Can you set up public relations activities to help market your business?

The Sales and Marketing section for our cycling rental business could start something like this:

Target Market

The target market for Blue Mountain Cycling Rentals is western VA, eastern WV, southwestern MD, and northern NC. While customers in the counties surrounding the George Washington National Forest make up 35 percent of our potential customer base, much of our market travels from outside that geographic area.

Marketing Strategy

Our marketing strategy will focus on three basic initiatives:

• Road signage. Access to the forest is restricted to a few primary entrances, and visitors reach those entrances after traveling on one of several main roadways. Since customers currently rent bicycles in the local town of Harrisonburg, road signage will communicate our value proposition to all potential customers.
• Web initiatives. Our website will attract potential visitors to the resort. We will partner with local businesses that serve our target market to provide discounts and incentives.
• Promotional events. We will hold regular events with professional cyclists, like demonstrations and autograph signings, to bring more customers to the store as well as to extend the athletes' "brand" to our brand.

Pricing Strategy

We will not be the low-cost provider for our target market. Our goal is to provide mid- to high-end equipment. However, we will create web-based loyalty programs to incent customers to set up online profiles and reserve and renew equipment rentals online, and provide discounts for those who do. Over time we will be able to market specifically to those customers.

Just as in the Market Opportunity section, you may want to include a few more categories. For example, if your business involves a commission-compensated sales force, describe your Sales Programs and incentives. If you distribute products to other companies or suppliers and those distribution efforts will impact your overall marketing plans, lay out your Distribution Strategy.

The key is to show you understand your market and you understand how you will reach your market. Marketing and promotions must result in customers--your goal is to thoroughly describe how you will acquire and keep your customers.

Also keep in mind you may want to include examples of marketing materials you have already prepared, like website descriptions, print ads, web-based advertising programs, etc. While you don't need to include samples, taking the time to create actual marketing materials might help you better understand and communicate your marketing plans and objectives.

Make sure your Sales and Marketing section answers the "How will I reach my customers?" question.

Competitive Advantage

The Competitive Analysis section of your business plan is devoted to analyzing your competition--both your current competition and potential competitors who might enter your market.

Every business has competition. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competition--or potential competition--is critical to making sure your business survives and grows. While you don't need to hire a private detective, you do need to thoroughly assess your competition on a regular basis even if you plan to run only a small business.

In fact, small businesses can be especially vulnerable to competition, especially when new companies enter a marketplace.

Competitive analysis can be incredibly complicated and time-consuming, but it doesn't have to be. Here is a simple process you can follow to identify, analyze, and determine the strengths and weaknesses of your competition.

Profile  Current  Competitors

First, develop a basic profile of each of your current competition. For example, if you plan to open an office supply store, you may have three competing stores in your market.

Online retailers will also provide competition, but thoroughly analyzing those companies will be less valuable unless you also decide you want to sell office supplies online. (Although it's also possible that they--or, say, Amazon--are your  real  competition. Only you can determine that.)

To make the process easier, stick to analyzing companies you will directly compete with. If you plan to set up an accounting firm, you will compete with other accounting firms in your area. If you plan to open a clothing store, you will compete with other clothing retailers in your area.

Again, if you run a clothing store, you also compete with online retailers, but there is relatively little you can do about that type of competition other than to work hard to distinguish yourself in other ways: great service, friendly salespeople, convenient hours, truly understanding your customers, etc.

Once you identify your main competitors, answer these questions about each one. And be objective. It's easy to identify weaknesses in your competition, but less easy (and a lot less fun) to recognize how they may be able to outperform you:

• What are their strengths? Price, service, convenience, and extensive inventory are all areas where you may be vulnerable.
• What are their weaknesses? Weaknesses are opportunities you should plan to take advantage of.
• What are their basic objectives? Do they seek to gain market share? Do they attempt to capture premium clients? See your industry through their eyes. What are they trying to achieve?
• What marketing strategies do they use? Look at their advertising, public relations, etc.
• How can you take market share away from their business?
• How will they respond when you enter the market?

While these questions may seem like a lot of work to answer, in reality the process should be fairly easy. You should already have a feel for the competition's strengths and weaknesses--if you know your market and your industry.

To gather information, you can also:

• Check out their websites and marketing materials. Most of the information you need about products, services, prices, and company objectives should be readily available. If that information is not available, you may have identified a weakness.
• Visit their locations. Take a look around. Check out sales materials and promotional literature. Have friends stop in or call to ask for information.
• Evaluate their marketing and advertising campaigns. How a company advertises creates a great opportunity to uncover the objectives and strategies of that business. Advertising should help you quickly determine how a company positions itself, who it markets to, and what strategies it employs to reach potential customers.
• Browse. Search the Internet for news, public relations, and other mentions of your competition. Search blogs and Twitter feeds as well as review and recommendation sites. While most of the information you find will be anecdotal and based on the opinion of just a few people, you may at least get a sense of how some consumers perceive your competition. Plus you may also get advance warning about expansion plans, new markets they intend to enter, or changes in management.

Keep in mind competitive analysis does more than help you understand your competition. Competitive analysis can also help you identify changes you should make to  your  business strategies. Learn from competitor strengths, take advantage of competitor's weaknesses, and apply the same analysis to your own business plan.

You might be surprised by what you can learn about your business by evaluating other businesses.

Identify  Potential  Competitors

It can be tough to predict when and where new competitors may pop up. For starters, regularly search for news on your industry, your products, your services, and your target market.

But there are other ways to predict when competition may follow you into a market. Other people may see the same opportunity you see. Think about your business and your industry, and if the following conditions exist, you may face competition does the road:

• The industry enjoys relatively high profit margins
• Entering the market is relatively easy and inexpensive
• The market is growing--the more rapidly it is growing the greater the risk of competition
• Supply and demand is off--supply is low and demand is high
• Very little competition exists, so there is plenty of "room" for others to enter the market

In general terms, if serving your market seems easy you can safely assume competitors will enter your market. A good business plan anticipates and accounts for new competitors.

Now distill what you've learned by answering these questions in your business plan:

• Who are my current competitors? What is their market share? How successful are they?
• What market do current competitors target? Do they focus on a specific customer type, on serving the mass market, or on a particular niche?
• Are competing businesses growing or scaling back their operations? Why? What does that mean for your business?
• How will your company be different from the competition? What competitor weaknesses can you exploit? What competitor strengths will you need to overcome to be successful?
• What will you do if competitors drop out of the marketplace? What will you do to take advantage of the opportunity?
• What will you do if new competitors enter the marketplace? How will you react to and overcome new challenges?

The Competitive Analysis section for our cycling rental business could start something like this:

Primary Competitors

Our nearest and only competition is the bike shops in Harrisonburg, VA. Our next closest competitor is located over 100 miles away.

The in-town bike shops will be strong competitors. They are established businesses with excellent reputations. On the other hand, they offer inferior-quality equipment and their location is significantly less convenient.

Secondary Competitors

We do not plan to sell bicycles for at least the first two years of operation. However, sellers of new equipment do indirectly compete with our business since a customer who buys equipment no longer needs to rent equipment.

Later, when we add new equipment sales to our operation, we will face competition from online retailers. We will compete with new equipment retailers through personalized service and targeted marketing to our existing customer base, especially through online initiatives.

Opportunities

• By offering mid- to high-end quality equipment, we provide customers the opportunity to "try out" bikes they may wish to purchase at a later date, providing additional incentive (besides cost savings) to use our service.
• Offering drive-up, express rental return services will be seen as a much more attractive option compared with the hassle of renting bikes in Harrisonburg and transporting them to intended take-off points for rides.
• Online initiatives like online renewals and online reservations enhances customer convenience and positions us as a cutting-edge supplier in a market largely populated, especially in the cycling segment, by customers who tend to be early technology adapters.
• Renting bikes and cycling equipment may be perceived by some of our target market as a commodity transaction. If we do not differentiate ourselves in terms of quality, convenience, and service, we could face additional competition from other entrants to the market.
• One of the bike shops in Harrisonburg is a subsidiary of a larger corporation with significant financial assets. If we, as hoped, carve out a significant market share, the corporation may use those assets to increase service, improve equipment quality, or cut prices.

While your business plan is primarily intended to convince  you  that your business makes sense, keep in mind most investors look closely at your competitive analysis. A common mistake made by entrepreneurs is assuming they will simply "do it better" than any competition.

Experienced businesspeople know you will face stiff competition: showing you understand your competition, understand your strengths and weaknesses relative to that competition, and that you understand you will have to adapt and change based on that competition is critical.

And, even if you do not ever plan to seek financing or bring in investors, you absolutely must know your competition.

The Competitive Analysis section helps you answer the "Against whom?" question.

The next step in creating your business plan is to develop an Operations Plan that will serve your customers, keep your operating costs in line, and ensure profitability . Your ops plan should detail strategies for managing, staffing, manufacturing, fulfillment, inventory--all the stuff involved in operating your business on a day-to-day basis.

Fortunately, most entrepreneurs have a better handle on their operations plan than on any other aspect of their business. After all, while it may not seem natural to analyze your market or your competition, most budding entrepreneurs tend to spend a lot of time thinking about how they will  run  their businesses.

Your goal is to answer the following key questions:

• What facilities, equipment, and supplies do you need?
• What is your organizational structure? Who is responsible for which aspects of the business?
• Is research and development required, either during start up or as an ongoing operation? If so, how will you accomplish this task?
• What are your initial staffing needs? When and how will you add staff?
• How will you establish business relationships with vendors and suppliers? How will those relationships impact your day-to-day operations?
• How will your operations change as the company grows? What steps will you take to cut costs if the company initially does not perform up to expectations?

Operations plans should be highly specific to your industry, your market sector, and your customers. Instead of providing an example like I've done with other sections, use the following to determine the key areas your plan should address:

Location and Facility Management

In terms of location, describe:

• Zoning requirements
• The type of building you need
• The space you need
• Power and utility requirements
• Access: Customers, suppliers, shipping, etc.
• Specialized construction or renovations
• Interior and exterior remodeling and preparation

Daily Operations

• Production methods
• Service methods
• Inventory control
• Sales and customer service
• Receiving and Delivery
• Maintenance, cleaning, and re-stocking
• Licenses and permits
• Environmental or health regulations
• Patents, trademarks, and copyrights

Personnel Requirements

• Typical staffing
• Breakdown of skills required
• Recruiting and retention
• Policies and procedures
• Pay structures
• Anticipated inventory levels
• Turnover rate
• Seasonal fluctuations in demand
• Major suppliers
• Back-up suppliers and contingency plans
• Credit and payment policies

Sound like a lot? It can be, but not all of the above needs to be in your business plan.

You should think through and create a detailed plan for each category, but you won't need to share the results with the people who read your business plan

Working through each issue and developing concrete operations plans helps you in two major ways:

• If you don't plan to seek financing or outside capital, you can still take advantage of creating a comprehensive plan that addresses all of your operational needs.
• If you do seek financing or outside capital, you may not include all the detail in your business plan--but you will have answers to any operations questions at your fingertips.

Think of Operations as the "implementation" section of your business plan. What do you need to do? How will you get it done? Then create an overview of that plan to make sure your milestones and timeline make sense.

That way the operations section answers the "How?" question.

Many investors and lenders feel the quality and experience of the management team is one of the most important factors used to evaluate the potential of a new business.

But putting work into the Management Team section will not only benefit people who may read your plan. It will also help  you  evaluate the skills, experiences, and resources your management team will need . Addressing your company's needs during implementation will make a major impact on your chances for success.

• Who are the key leaders? (If actual people have not been identified, describe the type of people needed.) What are their experiences, educational backgrounds, and skills?
• Do your key leaders have industry experience? If not, what experience do they bring to the business that is applicable?
• What duties will each position perform? (Creating an organization chart might be helpful.) What authority is granted to and what responsibilities are expected in each position?
• What salary levels will be required to attract qualified candidates for each position? What is the salary structure for the company, by position?

The Management Team section for our cycling rental business could start something like this:

Jim Rouleur, Owner and Manager

Joe has over 20 years experience in the cycling business. He served for 10 years as a product manager for Acme Bikes. After that he was the operations manager of Single Track Cycles, a full-service bike shop located in Bend, Oregon. He has an undergraduate degree in marketing from Duke University and an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University. (A complete resume for Mr. Rouleur can be found in the Appendix.)

Mary Gearset, Assistant Manager

Mary was the 2009 U.S. Mountain Biking National Champion. She worked in product development for High Tec frames, creating custom frames and frame modifications for professional cyclists. She also has extensive customer service and sales experience, having worked for four years as the online manager of Pro Parts Unlimited, an online retailer of high-end cycling equipment and accessories.

In some instances you may also wish to describe your staffing plans.

For example, if you manufacture a product or provide a service and will hire a key skilled employee, describe that employee's credentials. Otherwise, include staffing plans in the Operations section.

One key note: Don't be tempted to add a "name" to your management team in hopes of attracting investors. Celebrity management team members may attract the attention of your readers, but experienced lenders and investors will immediately ask what role that person will actually play in the running of the business--and in most cases those individuals won't play any meaningful role.

If you don't have a lot of experience--but are willing to work hard to overcome that lack of experience--don't be tempted to include people in your plan who will not actually work in the business.

If you can't survive without help, that's okay. In fact, that's expected; no one does anything worthwhile on their own. Just make plans to get help from the  right  people.

Finally, when you create your Management section, focus on credentials but pay extra attention to what each person actually will  do . Experience and reputation are great, but action is everything.

That way your Management section will answer the "Who is in charge?" question.

Numbers tell the story. Bottom line results indicate the success or failure of any business.

Financial projections and estimates help entrepreneurs, lenders, and investors or lenders objectively evaluate a company's potential for success. If a business seeks outside funding, providing comprehensive financial reports and analysis is critical.

But most important, financial projections tell you whether your business has a chance of being viable--and if not let you know you have more work to do.

Most business plans include at least five basic reports or projections:

• Balance Sheet: Describes the company cash position including assets, liabilities, shareholders, and earnings retained to fund future operations or to serve as funding for expansion and growth. It indicates the financial health of a business.
• Income Statement: Also called a Profit and Loss statement, this report lists projected revenue and expenses. It shows whether a company will be profitable during a given time period.
• Cash Flow Statement: A projection of cash receipts and expense payments. It shows how and when cash will flow through the business; without cash, payments (including salaries) cannot be made.
• Operating Budget: A detailed breakdown of income and expenses; provides a guide for how the company will operate from a "dollars" point of view.
• Break-Even Analysis: A projection of the revenue required to cover all fixed and variable expenses. Shows when, under specific conditions, a business can expect to become profitable.

It's easy to find examples of all of the above. Even the most basic accounting software packages include templates and samples. You can also find templates in Excel and Google Docs. (A quick search like "google docs profit and loss statement" yields plenty of examples.)

Or you can work with an accountant to create the necessary financial projections and documents. Certainly feel free to do so, but first play around with the reports yourself. While you don't need to be an accountant to run a business, you do need to understand your numbers, and the best way to understand your numbers is usually to actually work with your numbers.

But ultimately the tools you use to develop your numbers are not as important as whether those numbers are as accurate as possible--and whether those numbers help you decide whether to take the next step and put your business plan into action.

Then Financial Analysis can help you answer the most important business question: "Can we make a profit?"

Some business plans include less essential but potentially important information in an Appendix section. You may decide to include, as backup or additional information:

• Resumes of key leaders
• Additional descriptions of products and services
• Legal agreements
• Organizational charts
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Photographs of potential facilities, products, etc.
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Additional financial documents or projections

Keep in mind creating an Appendix is usually only necessary if you're seeking financing or hoping to bring in partners or investors. Initially the people reading your business plan don't wish to plow through reams and reams of charts, numbers, and backup information. If one does want to dig deeper, fine--he or she can check out the documents in the Appendix.

That way your business plan can share your story clearly and concisely.

Otherwise, since you created your business plan, you should already have the backup.

Tying It All Together

While you may use your business plan to attract investors, partners, suppliers, etc., never forget that the goal of your business plan is to convince  you  that your idea makes sense. 

Because ultimately it's your time, your money, and your effort on the line.

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How to Prepare and Write the Perfect Business Plan for Your Company Here's how to write a business plan that will formalize your company's goals and optimize your organization.

By Matthew McCreary May 5, 2021

Are you preparing to start your own business but uncertain about how to get started? A business plan ought to be one of the first steps in your entrepreneurial journey because it will organize the ideas that have been spinning around in your brain and prepare you to seek funding, partners and more.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a detailed document that outlines a company's goals and how the business, well, plans to achieve those goals over the next three or more years. It helps define expected profits and challenges, providing a road map that will help you avoid bumps in the road.

Stever Robbins writes in an Entrepreneur article titled, "Why You Must Have a Business Plan," that a business plan "is a tool for understanding how your business is put together…. Writing out your business plan forces you to review everything at once: your value proposition, marketing assumptions, operations plan, financial plan and staffing plan." But, a business plan is about more than just reviewing the past state of your business or even what your business looks like today.

Robbins writes that a well-written business plan will help you drive the future by "laying out targets in all major areas: sales, expense items, hiring positions and financing goals. Once laid out, the targets become performance goals."

The business plan can help your company attract talent and funding, because when prospects ask about your business, you already have an articulated overview to offer them. How they react can allow you to quickly understand how others see your business and pivot if necessary.

What should you do before you write your business plan?

It might sound redundant, but you actually need to plan your business plan. Business plans can be complicated, and you'll be held accountable for the goals you set. For example, if you plan to open five locations of your business within the first two years, your investors might get angry if you only manage to open two.

That's why it's essential that, before writing your business plan, you spend some time determining exactly which objectives are essential to your business. If you're struggling to come up with a list of goals on your own, Entrepreneur article "Plan Your Business Plan" offers some questions you can ask yourself to spark some inspiration.

How determined am I to see this venture succeed?

Am I willing to invest my own money and work long hours for no pay, sacrificing personal time and lifestyle, maybe for years?

What's going to happen to me if this venture doesn't work out?

If it does succeed, how many employees will this company eventually have?

What will be the business's annual revenue in a year? What about in five years?

What will be the company's market share in that amount of time?

Will the business have a niche market, or will it sell a broad spectrum of goods and services?

What are my plans for geographic expansion? Should it be local or national? Can it be global?

Am I going to be a hands-on manager, or will I delegate a large proportion of tasks to others?

If I delegate, what sorts of tasks will I share? Will it be sales, technical work or something else?

How comfortable am I taking direction from others? Can I work with partners or investors who demand input into the company's management?

Is the business going to remain independent and privately owned, or will it eventually be acquired or go public?

It's also essential to consider your financial goals. Your business might not require a massive financial commitment upfront, but it probably will if you're envisioning rapid growth. Unless you're making your product or service from scratch, you'll have to pay your suppliers before your customers can pay you, and as "Plan Your Business Plan" points out, "this cash flow conundrum is the reason so many fast-growing companies have to seek bank financing or equity sales to finance their growth. They are literally growing faster than they can afford."

How much financing will you need to start your business? What will you be willing to accept? If you're desperate for that first influx of cash, you might be tempted to accept any offer, but doing so might force you to either surrender too much control or ask investors for a number that's not quite right for either side.

These eight questions can help you determine a few financial aspects of your planning stages:

What initial investment will the business require?

How much control of the business are you willing to relinquish to investors?

When will the business turn a profit?

When can investors, including you, expect a return on investment?

What are the business's projected profits over time?

Will you be able to devote yourself full-time to the business?

What kind of salary or profit distribution can you expect to take home?

What are the chances the business will fail, and what will happen if it does?

You should also consider who, primarily, is going to be reading your business plan, and how you plan to use it. Is it a means of raising money or attracting employees? Will suppliers see it?

Lastly, you need to assess the likelihood of whether you actually have the time and resources to see your plan through. It might hurt to realize the assumptions you've made so far don't actually make a successful business, but it's best to know early on, before you make further commitments.

Related: Need a Business Plan Template? Here Is Apple's 1981 Plan for the Mac.

How to Write a Business Plan

Once you've worked out all the questions above and you know exactly what goals you have for your business plan, the next step is to actually write the darn thing. A typical business plan runs 15 to 20 pages but can be longer or shorter, depending on the complexity of the business and the needs of your venture. Regardless of whether you intend to use the business plan for self-evaluation or to seek a seven-figure investment, it should include nine key components, many of which are outlined in Entrepreneur 's introduction to business plans:

1. Title page and contents

Presentation is important, and a business plan should be presented in a binder with a cover that lists the business's name, the principals' names and other relevant information like a working address, phone number, email and web address and date. Write the information in a font that's easy to read and include it on the title page inside, too. Add in the company logo and a table of contents that follows the executive summary.

2. Executive summary

Think of the executive summary as the SparkNotes version of your business plan . It should tell the reader in as few words as possible what your business wants and why. The executive summary should address these nine things:

The business idea and why it is necessary. (What problem does it solve?)

How much will it cost, and how much financing are you seeking?

What will the return be to the investor? Over what length of time?

What is the perceived risk level?

Where does your idea fit into the marketplace?

What is the management team?

What are the product and competitive strategies?

What is your marketing plan?

What is your exit strategy?

When writing the executive summary, remember that it should be somewhere between one-half page to a full page. Anything longer, and you risk losing your reader's attention before they can dig into your business plan. Try to answer each of the questions above in two or three sentences, and you'll wind up with an executive summary that's about the right length.

Related: First Steps: Writing the Executive Summary of Your Business Plan

3. Business description

You can fill anywhere from a few paragraphs to a few pages when writing your business description, but try again to keep it short, with the understanding that more sections will follow. The business description typically starts with a short explanation of your chosen industry, including its present outlook and future possibilities. Use data and sources (with proper footnotes) to explain the markets the industry offers, along with the developments that will affect your business. That way, everyone who reads the business description, particularly investors, will see that they can trust the various information contained within your business plan.

When you pivot to speaking of your business, start with its structure. How does your business work? Is it retail, service-oriented or wholesale? Is the business new or established? Is the company a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation? Who are the principals and who are your customers? What do the distribution channels look like, and how can you support sales?

Next, break down your business's offerings. Are you selling a physical product, SaaS or a service? Explain it in a way that a reader knows what you're planning to sell and how it differentiates itself from the competition (investors call this a Unique Selling Proposition, or USP, and it's important that you find yours). Whether it's a trade secret or a patent, you should be specific about your competitive advantage and why your business is going to be profitable. If you plan to use your business plan for fundraising, you can use the business description section to explain why new investments will help make the business even more profitable.

This, like everything else, can be brief, but you can tell the reader about your business's efficiency or workflow. You can write about other key people within the business or cite industry experts' support of your idea, as well as your base of operations and reasons for starting in the first place.

4. Market strategies

Paint a picture about your market by remembering the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion.

Start this section by defining the market's size, structure and sales potential. What are the market's growth prospects? What do the demographics and trends look like right now?

Next, outline the frequency at which your product or service will be purchased by the target market and the potential annual purchase. What market share can you possibly expect to win? Try to be realistic here, and keep in mind that even a number like 25% might be a dominant share.

Next, break down your business's plan for positioning, which relates to the market niche your product or service can fill. Who is your target market, how will you reach them and what are they buying from you? Who are your competitors, and what is your USP?

The positioning statement within your business plan should be short and to the point, but make sure you answer each of those questions before you move on to, perhaps, the most difficult and important aspect of your market strategy: pricing.

In fact, settling on a price for your product or service is one of the most important decisions you have to make in the entire business plan. Pricing will directly determine essential aspects of your business, like profit margin and sales volume. It will influence all sorts of areas, too, from marketing to target consumer.

There are two primary ways to determine your price: The first is to look inward, adding up the costs of offering your product or service, and then adding in a profit margin to find your number. The second is called competitive pricing, and it involves research into how your competitors will either price their products or services now or in the future. The difficult aspect of this second pricing method is that it often sets a ceiling on pricing, which, in turn, could force you to adjust your costs.

Then, pivot the market strategies section toward your distribution process and how it relates to your competitors' channels. How, exactly, are you going to get your offerings from one place to the next? Walk the reader step by step through your process. Do you want to use the same strategy or something else that might give you an advantage?

Last, explain your promotion strategy. How are you going to communicate with your potential customers? This part should talk about not only marketing or advertising, but also packaging, public relations and sales promotions.

Related: Creating a Winning Startup Business Plan

5. Competitive analysis

The next section in your business plan should be the competitive analysis, which helps explain the differences between you and your competitors … and how you can keep it that way. If you can start with an honest evaluation of your competitors' strengths and weaknesses within the marketplace, you can also provide the reader with clear analysis about your advantage and the barriers that either already exist or can be developed to keep your business ahead of the pack. Are there weaknesses within the marketplace, and if so, how can you exploit them?

Remember to consider both your direct competition and your indirect competition, with both a short-term and long-term view.

6. Design and development plan

If you plan to sell a product, it's smart to add a design and development section to your business plan. This part should help your readers understand the background of that product. How have the production, marketing and company developed over time? What is your developmental budget?

For the sake of organization, consider these three aspects of the design and development plan:

Product development

Market development

Organizational development

Start by establishing your development goals, which should logically follow your evaluation of the market and your competition. Make these goals feasible and quantifiable, and be sure to establish timelines that allow your readers to see your vision. The goals should address both technical and marketing aspects.

Once the reader has a clear idea of your development goals, explain the procedures you'll develop to reach them. How will you allocate your resources, and who is in charge of accomplishing each goal?

The Entrepreneur guide to design and development plans offers this example on the steps of producing a recipe for a premium lager beer:

Gather ingredients.

Determine optimum malting process.

Gauge mashing temperature.

Boil wort and evaluate which hops provide the best flavor.

Determine yeast amounts and fermentation period.

Determine aging period.

Carbonate the beer.

Decide whether or not to pasteurize the beer.

Make sure to also talk about scheduling. What checkpoints will the product need to pass to reach a customer? Establish timeframes for each step of the process. Create a chart with a column for each task, how long that task will take and when the task will start and end.

Next, consider the costs of developing your product, breaking down the costs of these aspects:

General and administrative (G&A) costs

Marketing and sales

Professional services, like lawyers or accountants

Miscellaneous costs

Necessary equipment

The next section should be about the personnel you either have or plan to hire for that development. If you already have the right person in place, this part should be easy. If not, then this part of the business plan can help you create a detailed description of exactly what you need. This process can also help you formalize the hierarchy of your team's positions so that everyone knows their roles and responsibilities.

Finish the development and design section of your business plan by addressing the risks in developing the product and how you're going to address those risks. Could there be technical difficulties? Are you having trouble finding the right person to lead the development? Does your financial situation limit your ability to develop the product? Being honest about your problems and solutions can help answer some of your readers' questions before they ask them.

Related: The Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan

7. Operations and management plan

Want to learn everything you'll ever need to know about the operations and management section of your business plan, and read a real, actual web article from 1997? Check out our guide titled, "Writing A Business Plan: Operations And Management."

Here, we'll more briefly summarize the two areas that need to be covered within your operations and management plan: the organizational structure is first, and the capital requirement for the operation are second.

The organizational structure detailed within your business plan will establish the basis for your operating expenses, which will provide essential information for the next part of the business plan: your financial statements. Investors will look closely at the financial statements, so it's important to start with a solid foundation and a realistic framework. You can start by dividing your organizational structure into these four sections:

Marketing and sales (including customer relations and service)

Production (including quality assurance)

Research and development

Administration

After you've broken down the organization's operations within your business plan, you can look at the expenses, or overhead. Divide them into fixed expenses, which typically remain constant, and variable, which will change according to the volume of business. Here are some of the examples of overhead expenses:

Maintenance and repair

Equipment leases

Advertising and promotion

Packaging and shipping

Payroll taxes and benefits

Uncollectible receivables

Professional services

Loan payments

Depreciation

Having difficulty calculating what some of those expenses might be for your business? Try using the simple formulas in "Writing A Business Plan: Operations And Management."

8. Financial factors

The last piece of the business plan that you definitely need to have covers the business's finances. Specifically, three financial statements will form the backbone of your business plan: the income statement, the cash-flow statement and balance sheet . Let's go through them one by one.

The income statement explains how the business can make money in a simple way. It draws on financial models already developed and discussed throughout the business plan (revenue, expenses, capital and cost of goods) and combines those numbers with when sales are made and when expenses are incurred. When the reader finishes going through your income statement, they should understand how much money your company makes or loses by subtracting your costs from your revenue, showing either a loss or a profit. If you like, you or a CPA can add a very short analysis at the end to emphasize some important aspects of the statement.

Second is the cash-flow statement, which explains how much cash your business needs to meet its obligations, as well as when you're going to need it and how you're going to get it. This section shows a profit or loss at the end of each month or year that rolls over to the next time period, which can create a cycle. If your business plan shows that you're consistently operating at a loss that gets bigger as time goes on, this can be a major red flag for both you and potential investors. This part of the business plan should be prepared monthly during your first year in business, quarterly in your second year and annually after that.

Our guide on cash-flow statements includes 17 items you'll need to add to your cash-flow statement.

Cash. Cash on hand in the business.

Cash sales . Income from sales paid for by cash.

Receivables. Income from collecting money owed to the business due to sales.

Other income. The liquidation of assets, interest on extended loans or income from investments are examples.

Total income. The sum of the four items above (total cash, cash sales, receivables, other income).

Material/merchandise . This will depend on the structure of your business. If you're manufacturing, this will include your raw materials. If you're in retail, count your inventory of merchandise. If you offer a service, consider which supplies are necessary.

Direct labor . What sort of labor do you need to make your product or complete your service?

Overhead . This includes both the variable expenses and fixed expenses for business operations.

Marketing/sales . All salaries, commissions and other direct costs associated with the marketing and sales departments.

Research and development . Specifically, the labor expenses required for research and development.

General and administrative expenses. Like the research and development costs, this centers on the labor for G&A functions of the business.

Taxes . This excludes payroll taxes but includes everything else.

Capital. Required capital for necessary equipment.

Loan payments. The total of all payments made to reduce any long-term debts.

Total expenses. The sum of items six through 14 (material/merchandise, direct labor, overhead, marketing/sales, research and development, general and administrative expenses, taxes, capital and loan payments).

Cash flow. Subtract total expenses from total income. This is how much cash will roll over to the next period.

Cumulative cash flow . Subtract the previous period's cash flow from your current cash flow.

Just like with the income statement, it's a good idea to briefly summarize the figures at the end. Again, consulting with a CPA is probably a good idea.

The last financial statement is the balance sheet. A balance sheet is, as our encyclopedia says, "a financial statement that lists the assets, liabilities and equity of a company at a specific point in time and is used to calculate the net worth of a business." If you've already started the business, use the balance sheet from your last reporting period. If the business plan you wrote is for a business you hope to start, do your best to project your assets and liabilities over time. If you want to earn investors, you'll also need to include a personal financial statement. Then, as with the other two sections, add a short analysis that hits the main points.

9. Supporting documents

If you have other documents that your readers need to see, like important contracts, letters of reference, a copy of your lease or legal documents, you should add them in this section.

Related: 7 Steps to a Perfectly Written Business Plan

What do I do with my business plan after I've written it?

The simplest reason to create a business plan is to help people unfamiliar with your business understand it quickly. While the most obvious use for a document like this is for financing purposes, a business plan can also help you attract talented employees — and, if you share the business plan internally, help your existing employees understand their roles.

But it's also important to do for your own edification, too. It's like the old saying goes, "The best way to learn something is to teach it." Writing down your plans, your goals and the state of your finances helps clarify the thoughts in your own mind. From there, you can more easily lead your business because you'll know whether the business is reaching the checkpoints you set out to begin with. You'll be able to foresee difficulties before they pop up and be able to pivot quickly.

That's why you should continue to update your business plan when the conditions change, either within your business (you might be entering a new period or undergoing a change in management) or within your market (like a new competitor popping up). The key is to keep your business plan ready so that you don't have to get it ready when opportunity strikes.

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How to Make a Killer Business Plan Presentation (+Templates)

Learn how to make a business plan presentation with tips for slide design, structure, and engaging examples, as well as templates to bring your vision to life.

7 minute read

helped business professionals at:

Short answer

What slides should a business plan presentation include?

• Opening slide
• Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
• Business overview
• The challenge you're addressing
• Market analysis
• Your solution
• Marketing and sales strategy
• Goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Team composition
• Funding request and allocation

Your business plan presentation needs to be as strong as your idea

Having a well-crafted business plan is crucial, but if it's not presented effectively, it's like having a treasure map that no one can read.

Even the best ideas can fall flat if they're not communicated clearly, potentially burying your chance of getting your business off the ground.

Remember, presenting a business plan is more than just sharing facts and figures. It's about engaging your audience, whether they're investors or stakeholders, and making them believe in your vision.

But don't worry, you're not alone in this. This guide is here to help you master the art of business plan presentation. You'll learn how to structure your presentation, design slides that captivate, and conclude in a way that leaves a lasting impact and drives action.

Let's dive in!

What to include in a business plan presentation?

A business plan presentation is your chance to delve deep, showcasing not just the what and the how, but also the why of your business. It's your strategic playbook that can persuade investors, guide your team, and set the foundation for your business's success.

11 essential slides of a business plan presentation:

Opening slide: Set the tone with an engaging first impression.

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Define what sets your business apart.

Business overview: Offer a concise snapshot of your company.

The challenge you're addressing: Describe the problem your business solves.

Market analysis: Demonstrate your understanding of the industry and market trends.

Your solution: Detail how your product or service addresses the problem you’ve identified.

Marketing and sales strategy: Outline your approach to winning and keeping customers.

Goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Specify your objectives and how you’ll measure success.

Team composition: Introduce key team members, their roles, and expertise.

Funding request and allocation: Explain your financial requirements and how the funds will be utilized.

Next steps: Guide the reader on the next steps after reviewing your plan, whether it's a meeting request, further discussion, or a specific action you want them to take.

What does a business plan presentation look like?

In today's fast-paced business world, static business plan presentations are losing their edge. Imagine having to constantly pinch and zoom on a mobile device just to see the details. It's frustrating and distracting.

People also get disengaged when faced with walls of text. They're there to hear a story, not read a novel.

Interactive presentations, on the other hand, bring your business plan to life. They encourage audience participation, adapt to the flow of discussion, and make complex ideas more digestible and memorable.

You can see what an interactive business plan presentation looks like below:

How to turn a business plan into a presentation

Transforming your business plan into a presentation is a crucial step in bringing your vision to life. It's not just about having a plan; it's about presenting it in a way that resonates with investors and partners.

Start by distilling the essence of your plan, focusing on key points like your mission, market analysis, and financial projections. Use engaging visuals and a clear narrative to make complex information accessible.

For detailed insights on how to write a business plan , check out our guide.

How to make a business plan presentation in 6 easy steps

Crafting a business plan is about blending vision and strategy into a narrative that captivates your audience. With Storydoc's AI business presentation maker, creating this narrative becomes intuitive and easy.

In the guide below, we'll show you how to turn your plan into an engaging presentation in 6 simple steps. Stick around to see how seamlessly Storydoc can bring your business story to life.

1) Describe your presentation’s objective

Kick things off by sharing with our AI the type of business plan you're looking to create. This is like setting the GPS for your journey, ensuring every part of your plan is aligned with your end goal.

2) Give an overview of yourself, your organization, and your offering

Introduce the essence of your business - who you are, what your company stands for, and the unique value of what you offer. This sets the stage for a personalized and relevant presentation.

3) Select a suitable design template

Dive into our collection of design templates and pick one that resonates with your business's personality.

4) Tailor your business plan presentation to your needs

Now, here’s where you add your personal touch. Fill in your details, tweak the design, and watch the magic happen as the template adapts to your content. This is where your business plan presentation starts to take on a life of its own.

Then, you can either upload your own multimedia elements or sit back as our AI assistant generates some for you.

5) Add personalized elements

Next up, sprinkle in some personalization. It works just like personalizing a newsletter - you can insert dynamic variables that automatically fill up with your recipient's data.

This level of customization not only makes your presentation feel tailor-made for each reader but also adds a layer of engagement. As a matter of fact, it can get 68% more people to read your deck in full , and share it internally 2.3x more often!

6) Review and refine your business plan presentation

Finally, take a step back and review your plan. Ensure it looks good, flows well, and clearly conveys your message.

The beauty of Storydoc is that it's a living document – if you spot a mistake or need to update information after sharing, you can. You're in control, ensuring your audience always sees the most polished and up-to-date version of your business plan presentation.

Business plan design principles to turn average into impressive

Designing a business plan presentation is about more than just putting words on a page; it's about creating an experience that captures and holds attention. In today's digital age, the way you present your plan can be just as important as the content itself.

Let's explore how to design a business plan presentation that stands out in the modern business landscape.

1) Move from static to interactive

Gone are the days of static, text-heavy business plan presentations. Today's plans are interactive, engaging readers with clickable elements, dynamic charts, and even embedded videos.

This interactivity not only makes your plan more interesting but also allows readers to engage with the content in a more meaningful way.

Here's a great example of an interactive business plan presentation:

2) Use scroll-based design

Forget the hassle of pinching and zooming on a PDF. A scroll-based design, similar to a modern website, offers a fluid reading experience.

It's straightforward and aligns with how we naturally consume content online, making your business plan presentation easier and more enjoyable to read.

Here's an example of scroll-based design:

3) Make sure your business plan presentation is mobile-friendly

With so many people reading on their phones, your business plan presenttion needs to look good on any device.

Responsive design means your plan is easily readable on a phone, tablet, or computer, ensuring that your message is clear no matter how your audience accesses it.

4) Shift from local files to online documents

Step away from traditional Word docs or PDFs and embrace online documents. They're great for sharing, updating in real time, and collaborating with others.

Plus, they're accessible from anywhere, which is perfect for busy investors who are always on the move.

For more information, check out our comparison of the best business plan document types .

5) Embrace visual storytelling

Use visuals like infographics and charts to tell your business's story. They can turn complex data into easy-to-understand, engaging information. A well-placed visual can often do a better job of explaining your points than text alone.

Here's a great example of visual storytelling:

Best business plan software

Selecting the right tool to create your business plan presentation is vital for any startup. To ease your journey, I've compiled a list of the top business plan software, each designed to cater to different needs.

From comprehensive platforms guiding you step-by-step to dynamic tools that add interactive elements to your presentation, there's something for every entrepreneur.

The best business plan software currently available:

LivePlan.com

BizPlan.com

Upmetrics.co

GoSmallBiz.com

Business Sorter

MAUS Master Plan Lean

For a deep dive into each tool and to find the one that best fits your business's needs, explore our detailed guide to the best business plan software .

Interactive business plan presentation templates

The pressure to get your business plan presentation right can be overwhelming. After all, in many cases, you only get one shot to impress.

These business plan presentation templates offer a framework that takes care of the structure and design, allowing you to focus solely on fleshing out your strategy.

Whether you're pitching to investors, partners, or stakeholders, these templates give you the confidence that your plan is presented in the best possible light.

Grab one and see for yourself.

Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.

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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 (2024 Guide)

Updated: Apr 17, 2024, 11:59am

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, frequently asked questions.

Every business starts with a vision, which is distilled and communicated through a business plan. In addition to your high-level hopes and dreams, a strong business plan outlines short-term and long-term goals, budget and whatever else you might need to get started. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to write a business plan that you can stick to and help guide your operations as you get started.

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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.

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.

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.

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―including 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 and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

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How To Write a Business Plan

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Starting a business is a wild ride, and a solid business plan can be the key to keeping you on track. A business plan is essentially a roadmap for your business — outlining your goals, strategies, market analysis and financial projections. Not only will it guide your decision-making, a business plan can help you secure funding with a loan or from investors .

Writing a business plan can seem like a huge task, but taking it one step at a time can break the plan down into manageable milestones. Here is our step-by-step guide on how to write a business plan.

Table of contents

• Write your executive summary
• Do your market research homework
• Set your business goals and objectives
• Plan your business strategy
• Describe your product or service
• Crunch the numbers
• Finalize your business plan

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Step 1: Write your executive summary

Though this will be the first page of your business plan , we recommend you actually write the executive summary last. That’s because an executive summary highlights what’s to come in the business plan but in a more condensed fashion.

An executive summary gives stakeholders who are reading your business plan the key points quickly without having to comb through pages and pages. Be sure to cover each successive point in a concise manner, and include as much data as necessary to support your claims.

You’ll cover other things too, but answer these basic questions in your executive summary:

• Idea: What’s your business concept? What problem does your business solve? What are your business goals?
• Product: What’s your product/service and how is it different?
• Market: Who’s your audience? How will you reach customers?
• Finance: How much will your idea cost? And if you’re seeking funding, how much money do you need? How much do you expect to earn? If you’ve already started, where is your revenue at now?

Step 2: Do your market research homework

The next step in writing a business plan is to conduct market research . This involves gathering information about your target market (or customer persona), your competition, and the industry as a whole. You can use a variety of research methods such as surveys, focus groups, and online research to gather this information. Your method may be formal or more casual, just make sure that you’re getting good data back.

This research will help you to understand the needs of your target market and the potential demand for your product or service—essential aspects of starting and growing a successful business.

Step 3: Set your business goals and objectives

Once you’ve completed your market research, you can begin to define your business goals and objectives. What is the problem you want to solve? What’s your vision for the future? Where do you want to be in a year from now?

Use this step to decide what you want to achieve with your business, both in the short and long term. Try to set SMART goals—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound benchmarks—that will help you to stay focused and motivated as you build your business.

Step 4: Plan your business strategy

Your business strategy is how you plan to reach your goals and objectives. This includes details on positioning your product or service, marketing and sales strategies, operational plans, and the organizational structure of your small business.

Make sure to include key roles and responsibilities for each team member if you’re in a business entity with multiple people.

Step 5: Describe your product or service

In this section, get into the nitty-gritty of your product or service. Go into depth regarding the features, benefits, target market, and any patents or proprietary tech you have. Make sure to paint a clear picture of what sets your product apart from the competition—and don’t forget to highlight any customer benefits.

Step 6: Crunch the numbers

Financial analysis is an essential part of your business plan. If you’re already in business that includes your profit and loss statement , cash flow statement and balance sheet .

These financial projections will give investors and lenders an understanding of the financial health of your business and the potential return on investment.

You may want to work with a financial professional to ensure your financial projections are realistic and accurate.

Step 7: Finalize your business plan

Once you’ve completed everything, it's time to finalize your business plan. This involves reviewing and editing your plan to ensure that it is clear, concise, and easy to understand.

You should also have someone else review your plan to get a fresh perspective and identify any areas that may need improvement. You could even work with a free SCORE mentor on your business plan or use a SCORE business plan template for more detailed guidance.

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The takeaway

Writing a business plan is an essential process for any forward-thinking entrepreneur or business owner. A business plan requires a lot of up-front research, planning, and attention to detail, but it’s worthwhile. Creating a comprehensive business plan can help you achieve your business goals and secure the funding you need.

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The Easy Guide to Making a Business Plan Presentation

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

That’s why a business plan is crucial to your business. If you want to make sure that the promising business idea in your head is feasible, you have to start with a business plan .

Visuals make anything easier to understand. That’s why including them in your business plan presentation is a foolproof way to ensure that it’s readily welcomed by your audience and digested without confusion.

By no means is this business plan template limited to presentations; you can also include these diagrams in your business plan documents to make them more readable.

Following are downloadable Simple Business Plan Templates

• Business Plan Template PDF
• Business Plan Template Word
• Business Plan Template PowerPoint

What is a Business Plan?

Benefits of using a business plan presentation, executive summary, company profile, customer profiles.

• Perpetual Map
• Porter’s Five Forces

SWOT Analysis

Pest analysis, competitor profile.

• Competitive Intelligence

Marketing and Sales Strategies

Organizational structure and management, product canvas, value proposition canvas.

• Financial plan

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Creating a Business Plan Presentation

Faqs about business plan presentations, want to extend the guide to creating a business plan presentation.

Let’s start by clarifying the business plan definition.

A business plan is a document that describes your business in terms of what it does, the products and services it offers, your business strategy and business goals, and your action plan outlining how you plan to achieve your goals and earn money.

The main purposes of a business plan are to

• Show the future financial performance of the company and its economic situation for the owners and investors.
• Help identify risks that may affect the growth of the company and provide strategies to overcome them.
• Help make predictions about market trends, competitor behavior, customer requirements and define and prioritize key business objectives .
• Serve as a key resource for developing budgets

Clarity and Communication

A business plan presentation helps you communicate your business idea, goals, and strategies with clarity. It allows you to distill complex information into concise and visually appealing slides, making it easier for your audience to understand and grasp the key points. Presenting your business plan in a structured and organized manner enhances clarity and ensures that your message is effectively communicated.

Engaging and Persuasive

A well-designed and well-delivered business plan presentation can be highly engaging and persuasive. By using visual aids, such as graphs, charts, and images, you can capture the attention of your audience and create a memorable impact. Effective storytelling and compelling visuals can help you convey the value proposition of your business, showcase market opportunities, and convince investors, stakeholders, or potential partners to support your venture.

Feedback and Interaction

Presenting your business plan allows you to receive immediate feedback and engage in discussions with your audience. This feedback can be invaluable in refining your business strategy , identifying potential gaps or weaknesses, and addressing questions or concerns. The interactive nature of a presentation enables you to have a dialogue, gather insights, and build relationships with key stakeholders. It also provides an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise, passion, and confidence, which can further strengthen your credibility and increase the likelihood of securing support or funding for your business.

The Key Elements of a Business Plan

A business plan should contain the following key components.

• Executive summary
• Company profile
• Market analysis
• Marketing and sales strategies
• Organizational structure and management
• Services and products

Although this comes first, it’s smarter to write it at the end. The executive summary of your business plan should explain what is great about your business model and its products or services.

It should be concise and appealing to the reader. And it’s easier to write a meaningful summary once you have filled in the rest of your plan.

Your company profile should provide details on,

• Company history
• Overview of the company
• Mission Statement
• Key resources
• Business contact information
• Products or services
• Location details
• The market you serve
• Your key customers
• The customer issue you seek to solve

All these details can be presented in a much nicer way with an infographic like the one below. It’s easier to read and understand and more compact and clearer than paragraphs of detail.

Market Analysis

Through a market analysis , you can find enough detail to define your target market, its size, customer segments, and their needs.

Your market analysis should also include a competitor analysis, where you will research your key competitors in terms of their influence in the market, their strengths and weaknesses, the threats they pose to you, their products and services, their pricing plans, their marketing strategies etc.

Some visual techniques you can use in this section to present your data are

These aptly summarize all your findings on your customers such as their demographic details, jobs, responsibilities, needs, challenges etc.

Perceptual Map

This tool helps you depict and analyze how your (potential) target customer perceives the brands or products of your competitors. It helps you make sense of your product or service’s competitive positioning through the survey data at your hand.

Porter’s Five Forces

This tool is used to assess your business competitive strength and position against your competitors. Using it you can understand whether your new product or service is profitable.

SWOT analysis is a great way to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and the opportunities and threats they bring to you within the industry. You can also use it to assess the capabilities of your own company.

More on SWOT Analysis: What, Why and How to Use Them Effectively

PEST stands for Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural and Technological factors. It’s a great way to examine how the external forces in your market can impact your company. It will also help you shape your marketing strategy and develop your risk management plan.

View More More on SWOT Analysis: PEST Analysis Tools

All the details you have gathered on your competitors, such as their sales numbers, strategies, partners, suppliers etc. can be organized here. It’s a great way to prepare your competitor analysis data to be added to your business plan presentation.

View More Competitor Analysis Tools

Competitive Intelligence Mind Map

Or you can convey these data in a mind map. You can use Creately Viewer to add this to your online documents, websites, intranet, Wiki, or business plan presentations. This way you can view any links included in the mind map and navigate through it easily.

You can learn how to use these tools along with other useful techniques in more detail in;

View More Market Strategy Planning Tools

This is where you outline how you plan to market and sell your product. It’s easier to do now as you have extensive knowledge about your market, target customer and your competitors.

With your marketing strategy, you have to consider factors like your marketing or communication channels, marketing goals, marketing budgets, resources etc.

With your sales plan , pay attention to your sales targets, sales tools, resources etc.

You can use mind maps to visualize all this data to your audience. You can either use two mind maps to outline your sales and marketing strategies separately or a single mind map to showcase both.

Marketing and Sales Plan Template

If you want separate a marketing plan and sales plan, check out the templates below,

• Marketing Plan Template for Business Plan Presentation
• Sales Plan Template for Business Plan Presentation

Who are the key personnel involved in your organization? List them down in this section along with their expertise.

Use an organizational chart to represent your team, their roles and skills. It can help you highlight the hierarchy of your organizational structure as well.

Services and Products

This section explains your services or products and how they can benefit the customers. Here are some visualizations you can use to make this section more interesting to your audience.

Product canvas is a tool used to map, design and describe your product strategy. It takes into consideration your target audience, the important features of your product decided by storyboards , epics, design sketches, mockups , and the tasks you need to carry out to build the product.

Learn about this in more detail here .

It’s a tool you can use to ensure that your product or service fits the requirements of your customer. It helps you look into

• The value you can deliver to the customer via your product or service
• Which customer problems/s that you are trying to solve
• Which is the job that your product helps the customer to finish
• Which customer needs you are satisfying
• What are the different products you are offering to each customer segment

Financial Plan

This is the section where you provide all financial information related to your business. This section is required if you are presenting your business plan to investors.

It will include both historical data such as cash flow statements,profit and loss statements, income statements etc. and financial projections based on the impact of your new product.

If you are pitching a new product to your investors, you may also want to include your funding requirements.

For a business plan presentation, you can use a digital database of your financial information with a simple Creately mind map. You can link up all your financial statements on your mind map.

This way anyone who refers to the mind map can easily access the linked resources from one single place.

Overloading with Information

One of the most common mistakes is including too much information on each slide. This overwhelms the audience and makes it difficult for them to follow along. Keep your slides concise and focused on key points. Use bullet points or visuals to convey information effectively.

Lack of Visual Appeal

A presentation that lacks visual appeal can fail to engage the audience. Avoid using too much text and opt for visually appealing elements such as images, graphs, and charts. Use a consistent color scheme and fonts that are easy to read. Make sure your visuals support your message rather than distract from it.

Ignoring the Audience’s Needs

It’s essential to consider the needs and interests of your audience when creating a presentation. Tailor your content to address their concerns and provide relevant information. Avoid using jargon or technical terms that your audience may not understand. Focus on presenting the most compelling aspects of your business plan that align with their interests.

Lack of Practice and Rehearsal

Presenting a business plan without sufficient practice and rehearsal can lead to a lack of confidence and a disjointed delivery. Practice your presentation multiple times to become familiar with the content, timing, and transitions. Rehearse in front of a mirror or a small audience to receive feedback and improve your delivery.

By avoiding these common mistakes, you can create a compelling and effective presentation that effectively communicates your business plan to your audience.

In this post we have explained how to create a business plan presentation step-by-step. Make use of the templates that are provided to make your presentation more eye-catching and easy-to-understand.

Here are some more tips on making your presentation a hit.

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

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Should i include all the details of my business plan in the presentation, more related articles.

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

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How to Write a Detailed Business Plan Step-by-Step [Free Template]

Posted july 17, 2024 by noah parsons.

Writing a business plan is one of the most valuable things you can do for your business. 

Study after study proves that business planning significantly improves your chances of success by up to 30 percent 1 . That’s because the planning process helps you think about all aspects of your business and how it will operate and grow.

Ready to write your own detailed business plan? Here’s everything you need ( along with a free template ) to create your plan.

Before you write a detailed business plan, start with a one-page business plan

Despite the benefits of business planning , it’s easy to procrastinate writing a business plan. 

Most people would prefer to work hands-on in their business rather than think about business strategy . That’s why, if you’re writing a business plan for the first time, we recommend you start with a simpler and shorter one-page business plan.

With a one-page plan, there’s no need to go into a lot of details or dive deep into financial projections—you just write down the fundamentals of your business and how it works. 

A one-page plan should cover:

• Value proposition
• Market need
• Your solution

Competition

Target market.

• Sales and marketing
• Budget and sales goals
• Team summary
• Key partners
• Funding needs

A one-page business plan is a great jumping-off point in the planning process. It’ll give you an overview of your business and help you quickly refine your ideas.

Check out our guide to writing a simple one-page business plan for detailed instructions, examples, and a free downloadable template .

When do you need a more detailed business plan?

While I will always recommend starting with the one-page plan format, there are times when a more detailed plan is necessary:

• Flesh out sections of your plan: You need to better understand how your marketing, operations, or other business functions will operate.
• Build a more detailed financial forecast: A one-page plan only includes a summary of your financial projections. A detailed plan includes a full financial forecast, including a profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and cash flow forecast to better measure performance.
• Prepare for lenders and investors: While they may not read the full plan, any investor will ask in-depth questions that you can only answer by spending time writing a detailed business plan.
• Sell your business: Use your business plan as part of your sales pitch, and show potential buyers all the details of how your business works.

How to write a detailed business plan

Let’s walk through writing a detailed business plan step-by-step and explore an example of what a finished business plan (for a local swim club Pools & Laps) built with LivePlan’s business plan builder looks like.

1. Executive summary

Yes, the executive summary comes first in your plan, but you should write it last—once you know all the details of your business plan. 

It is just a summary of your full plan, so be careful not to be too repetitive—keep it between one or two pages and highlight: 

• Your opportunity: This summarizes what your business does, what problem it solves, and who your customers are. This is where you want readers to get excited about your business
• Your team: For investors, your business’s team is often even more important than what the business is. Briefly highlight why your team is uniquely qualified to build the business and make it successful.
• Financials: What are the highlights of your financial forecast ? Summarize your sales goals, when you plan to be profitable, and how much money you need to get your business off the ground.

For existing businesses, write the executive summary for your audience—whether it’s investors, business partners, or employees. Think about what your audience will want to know, and just hit the highlights.

2. Opportunity

The “opportunity” section of your business plan is all about the products and services that you are creating. The goal is to explain why your business is exciting and the problems that it solves for people. You’ll want to cover:

Problem & solution

Every successful business solves a problem for its customers. Their products and services make people’s lives easier or fill an unmet need in the marketplace. 

In this section, you’ll want to explain the problem that you solve, whom you solve it for, and what your solution is. This is where you go in-depth to describe what you do and how you improve the lives of your customers.

In the previous section, you summarized your target customer. Now you’ll want to describe them in much greater detail. You’ll want to cover things like your target market’s demographics (age, gender, location, etc.) and psychographics (hobbies and other behaviors). 

Ideally, you can also estimate the size of your target market so you know how many potential customers you might have.

Every business has competition , so don’t leave this section out. You’ll need to explain what other companies are doing to serve your customers or if your customers have other options for solving the problem you are solving. 

Explain how your approach is different and better than your competitors, whether it’s better features, pricing, or location. Explain why a customer would come to you instead of going to another company. 

3. Execution

This section of your business plan dives into how you will accomplish your goals. While the Opportunity section discussed what you’re doing, you now need to explain the specifics of how you will do it.

Marketing & sales

What marketing tactics will you use to get the word out about your business? You’ll want to explain how you get customers to your door and what the sales process looks like. For businesses with a sales force, explain how the sales team gets leads and what the process is like for closing a sale.

Depending on the type of business that you are starting, the operations section needs to be customized to meet your needs. If you are building a mail-order business, you’ll want to cover how you source your products and how fulfillment will work.

If you’re building a manufacturing business, explain the manufacturing process and the necessary facilities. This is where you’ll talk about how your business “works,” meaning you should explain what day-to-day functions and processes are needed to make your business successful.

Milestones & metrics

So far, your business plan has mostly discussed what you’re doing and how you will do it. 

The milestones and metrics section is all about timing. Your plan should highlight key dates and goals that you intend to hit. You don’t need extensive project planning in this section, just key milestones that you want to hit and when you plan to hit them. 

You should also discuss key metrics : the numbers you will track to determine your success.

The Company section of your business plan should explain your business’s overall structure and the team behind it.

Organizational structure

Describe your location, facilities, and anything else about your physical location relevant to your business. You’ll also want to explain the legal structure of your business—are you an S-corp, C-corp, or an LLC? What does company ownership look like?

Arguably one of the most important parts of your plan when seeking investment is the “Team” section. This should explain who you are and who else is helping you run the business. Focus on experience and qualifications for building the type of business that you want to build. 

It’s OK if you don’t have a complete team yet. Just highlight the key roles that you need to fill and the type of person you hope to hire for each role.

5. Financial plan and forecasts

Your business plan now covers the “what,” the “how,” and the “when” for your business. Now it’s time to talk about money. 

Financial forecasts

What revenue do you plan on bringing in, and when? What kind of expenses will you have? How much cash will you need?

These are the types of questions you’ll answer by creating detailed forecasts. Don’t worry about getting it perfect, these are just educated guesses. Your goal is to get numbers down that seem reasonable so you can review and revise financial expectations as you run your business. 

You’ll want to cover sales , expenses , personnel costs , asset purchases, cash , etc, for at least the first 12 months of your business. If you can, also create educated guesses for the following two years in annual totals. 

If you intend to pursue funding, it’s worth noting that some investors and lenders might want to see a five-year forecast. For most other cases, three years is usually enough.

If you’re raising money for your business, the Financing section is where you describe how much you need. Whether you’re getting loans or investments, you should highlight what and when you need it. 

Ideally, you’ll also want to summarize the specific ways you’ll use the funding once you have it. 

For more specifics, check out our write-up explaining what to include in your business plan for a bank loan .

Historical Financial statements

If your business is up and running, you should also include your profit and loss statement , balance sheet , and cash flow statement . These are the historical record of your business performance and will be required by lenders, investors, and anyone considering buying your business. 

If you don’t want lengthy financial statements overwhelming this section of your business plan, you can just include the most recent statements and include the rest within your appendix.

6. Appendix 

The final section of your business plan is the appendix . Include detailed financial forecasts here and any other key documentation for your business. 

If you have product schematics, patent information, or any other details that aren’t appropriate for the main body of the plan but need to be included for reference.

Tips to write a detailed business plan

Keep it brief.

You may not be limited to one page, but that doesn’t mean you need to write a novel. Keep your business plan focused using clear, plain language and avoiding jargon. Make your plan easier to skim by using short sentences, bulleted lists, and visuals. Remember, you can always come back and add more details.

Related Reading: 7 tips to make a high-quality business plan  

Start with what you know

Don’t worry about following a strict top-to-bottom approach. Instead, build momentum by starting with sections you know well. This will help you get information down and ultimately make you more likely to complete your business plan. 

Set time limits

You don’t have to write your business plan in one sitting. It may be more valuable to set a time limit, see how much you get done, and return to it again in another session. This will keep you focused and productive and help you fit plan writing into your other responsibilities.

Reference business plan examples

Real-world business plan examples from your industry can provide valuable insights into how others have successfully presented their ideas, strategies, and financials. Exploring these examples can inspire your own approach and offer practical guidance on what to include and how to tailor it to your specific needs.

Just be sure not to copy and paste anything.

Prioritize sections that really matter

When writing a detailed business plan, focus on the parts most important to you and your business. 

If you plan on distributing your plan to outsiders, you should complete every section. But, if your plan is just for internal use, focus on the areas that will help you right now.

Download a free business plan template

Are you ready to write your detailed business plan? Get started by downloading our free business plan template . With that, you will be well on your way to a better business strategy, with all of the necessary information expected in a more detailed plan.

If you want to improve your ability to build a healthy, growing business, consider LivePlan.

It’s a product that makes planning easy and features a guided business plan creator , drag-and-drop financial forecasting tools , and an AI-powered LivePlan Assistant to help you write, generate ideas, and analyze your business performance. 

Use your detailed business plan to grow your business

Your business plan isn’t just a document to attract investors or close a bank loan. It’s a tool that helps you better manage and grow your business. And you’ll get the most value from your business plan if you use it as part of a growth planning process . 

With growth planning, you’ll easily create and execute your plan, track performance, identify opportunities and issues, and consistently revise your strategy. It’s a flexible process that encourages you to build a plan that fits your needs.  

So, whether you stick with a one-page plan or expand into a more detailed business plan—you’ll be ready to start growth planning.

Sources in this article

• Parsons, Noah. “Do You Need a Business Plan? This Study Says Yes” Bplans: Free Business Planning Resources and Templates , 10 May 2024, www.bplans.com/business-planning/basics/research .

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How to Write a Business Plan in 6 Easy Steps + Examples [2023]

The information in this article is intended for general information purposes only. You should not rely on it as the sole basis for making any business, legal, or other decisions. While we make every effort to ensure that facts stated are correct at the time of publication, we do not accept any responsibility for keeping this information up to date. Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Pay.com.

Companies that start out with business plans are more likely to succeed. When you sit down to create a business plan, you have the opportunity to really think through and formulate how you are going to start the business, operate it and make it grow. 

Whether you are going to write a formal business plan that you’ll use to get investors or if you just want to get your ideas down on paper, going through the process is something that should be on every budding entrepreneurs to-do list. 

We will walk you through how to do it and will point you in the direction of some great templates that you can use as well. In this article, we discuss:

Do You Need to Write a Business Plan for Your Online Business?

The short answer is yes, you do need to write a business plan for your online business . While many online businesses by nature do not require a lot of overhead, you may not be seeking investors or funding, which means you don’t necessarily need a formal business plan.

However, as you grow, there are situations in which you might need a business plan, such as opening a business account at a bank or increasing your credit limit. Even if you are never asked for your business plan, it will serve you well to have this roadmap of what you expect your business to look like over time. 

Why and How Would it Help You?

Above all else, writing a business plan forces you to put pen to paper and flesh out exactly what the business will look like, which means you will need to think about the elements that go into creating a successful business and determine whether or not your idea is sustainable. While going through the process, you will inevitably discover areas of weakness that you will then be able to address, saving you additional costs (and heartache) later on. 

Practically speaking, here’s how a business plan will help you:

• Faster growth - think of your business plan as a dynamic working document that you can adjust as needed. It’s your baseline that will help you see where you are starting from and your roadmap to getting where you want to go. By mapping out a plan, you can then be focused on reaching your desired milestones faster. 
• Attract funding - if you are at (or one day get to) the stage of looking for investors or loan providers, your business plan will show them that you’ve got a solid foundation and strategy for maintaining a financially stable and viable business. Your business plan will include certain financial statements and forecasts that, combined with the written narrative, present potential investors or loan providers with the full picture in a clear and concise manner.
• Make better strategic decisions - running your own business means making hundreds of decisions all the time. Sometimes you’ll be so busy that you won’t necessarily have the time to gather and analyze the data you need to make the best decision and a “wrong” decision could have dire consequences. If you create a business plan that you can then refer back to and update regularly, you will always have the information you need at your fingertips. 
• Research - writing a business plan requires a significant amount of research, both to describe your ideal customer and to understand your target market, general market conditions and the competitive landscape. If you don’t write a business plan, you may be tempted to skip over these important steps and just go full steam ahead starting the business. Of course, you may get lucky, but why risk falling flat when you can increase your chances of success by first taking the time to plan?

A business plan will provide you with a structured plan , with all of the main points and relevant information about your business laid out in one place that you can easily share with potential investors, employees, or partners. 

Choose Your Business Plan Type

Depending on what type of business you are starting, your business plan may look slightly different. A corporation will need more detail and different financial documents than a sole proprietorship, for example. Unless you have been given specific requirements by a particular potential investor or loan provider, the choice is really yours in terms of how detailed you want your plan to be. 

There are two generally recognized types or formats of business plans: the traditional business plan format is a longer, more detailed plan that is used to seek funding or other official purposes with heavy emphasis on the financials. The lean startup business plan format , on the other hand, is a condensed, often just 1-2 pages, plan that is usually used only for internal purposes. 

Step by Step Guide: How to Write a Business Plan

Following is a review of the sections you should include in your business plan and the type of information that goes in each one. Most business plans begin with an executive summary (that you will probably actually write at the end) that is a short introduction highlighting the main points from within the plan itself. 

Keep in mind that the sections described below are commonly used, but you should feel free to leave out ones that are less relevant or add other sections that are more relevant to your specific business and needs. 

Business Overview

In the business overview section, you need to answer the questions of who you are and what you plan to do . When someone reads this section, they should be able to get an understanding of your business idea and what makes you different from your competitors. 

This section should include basic information about your business structure, industry, goals and key personnel with more detail on your USP, the specific market problem that your business addresses and the solution you offer. 

Identifying and describing your unique selling proposition is an important exercise and will help you clarify for yourself and anyone who reads your business plan exactly what you have to offer and why it’s better than anything else on the market. 

Market Problems 

As part of the process of identifying your USP, you will need to understand the market situation and specific problems or challenges that exist that you propose to solve . For example, if you are selling a specialty product online, you will want to research and prove that there is a current demand for that product but a lack of affordable options or lack of high quality items. This section should include some statistics and data analysis to back up your claims. 

Solutions You Offer

In this section of your business overview, you’ll describe the service or product that you plan to sell and how it serves as a solution to the market challenge you just described. You do not need to include a lot of technical details, but rather keep the explanation simple and to the point - here is what the business will offer and how it answers a need. 

You can choose how detailed you want to be in describing your products and/or services. The level of detail may depend on how complex the product or service is and whether it is something brand new or an already proven concept. You might want to include pricing information in this section as well.

Market Segmentation

Understanding the market in which your business will operate is key to your success. Your business plan should include information about the demographics and habits of your target customers as well as market trends in the industry as a whole. In researching the market, you will get a good understanding of whether there is actually a viable and sustainable market for your business idea. 

Some of the key questions to consider when writing this section of your business plan include:

• How big is the market for this product/service? Is it growing, shrinking or staying the same?
• What’s the status of the industry as a whole?
• Is there a specific market segment that you intend to target? What are the key demographics of that segment?
• Is there clear demand for the product/service?
• What does the competitive landscape look like?

Target Market

Clearly defining your target market from the start will save you a lot of time further down the road. Here are some of the things to consider when defining and narrowing down your target market:

• Demographics - age, location, company types (if you are a B2B business)
• Is there a particular niche that you want to address?
• Market size - how many people fit your ideal customer description?
• What are the spending habits of your ideal customers?

Distribution Channels

You also need to consider how you are going to get your product out to customers . Are you going to manufacture the product or work with suppliers? Or are you going to focus on drop-shipping ? What systems will you put in place to ensure smooth operations and a clear path from a customer placing an order to receiving their product.

Of course, this section is less relevant if your company will offer a service and not a physical product, but as a service provider you may also want to consider whether you will meet clients in person or what your onboarding process will be. 

Competitors 

Unless you are doing something super unique, you are likely to have competitors in your field. A competitive analysis is an important component of your business plan and will help you identify opportunities to fill in the gaps where competitors are falling short . You can also learn from what your competitors are doing well and try to do the same and better. 

Your competitor analysis should focus primarily on your direct competitors who are operating in the same space as you. Here are some key questions you will want to answer about each competitor:

• What are their strengths? - i.e. price, quality, customer service etc. 
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are their objectives? 
• How do they market themselves?

It may take a bit of detective work to uncover all of the information you need. A good place to start is with their websites, and you can also check out their social media and brick and mortar stores if they have them. 

As part of your competitor analysis, you’ll likely uncover new ways that you can differentiate your own business - perhaps you can offer a cheaper price or focus on a different market niche. 

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is a great way to really take a look at what’s great and not-so-great about your company. To complete this type of analysis, you look at internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats to your business . The SWOT analysis is then laid out in a grid so that it’s very easy to see where your challenges and potential opportunities lie. 

a Business Plan blackboard

Marketing Campaign - Planning and Distribution

You need to have a marketing plan in order to let the world (or your target market anyway!) know that your business exists and is ready to serve. A comprehensive marketing plan includes both paid advertising as well as public relations and digital and content marketing. 

Creating marketing campaigns will be closely tied to who your target market is and what your competition is doing. This is also the section in which you can consider your brand and how you want to show up in the market and be perceived by your customers and potential customers. 

In addition to deciding what the messaging is that you want to convey via your marketing campaigns, you will also need to consider how you are going to spread that message. Important questions to consider as you develop your marketing strategy include:

• What’s your budget for marketing activities?
• How will you monitor and track the success of marketing efforts?
• What’s your positioning statement - how are you going to position yourself in front of your audience?

Finally, there are 4 key components of most marketing plans that you may also want to include in this section:

• Price - how much are you going to charge and why?
• Product - what exactly are you selling and what are the key differentiators?
• Promotion - how will you let your target audience know that your products/services exist?
• Place - where will you sell your products (including online)?

Management Team and Support

If you are a sole proprietor, your whole management team description may be just about you! It’s still important to share your experience and what gives you the skills and knowledge to run this business. Of course, if you do have partners or employees helping you run and manage the business, this is where you can also include information about them and their backgrounds. 

You can also use this space to plan for the future and think about the type of management structure you will need or want in place as your business grows. 

Financial Analysis

The financial analysis section is the most important when it comes to pitching investors or asking for a loan. This is where you will present a financial picture of your business - the start-up capital you need and a description of your costs and income projections. The financial analysis section, in essence, t ells the story of your business through numbers and should align with the narrative that you’ve shared in the previous sections. 

The financial analysis section of your business plan should include some combination of the following financial documents:

• Balance Sheet - this shows the overall financial health of the business by presenting a snapshot of all assets and liabilities. 
• Profit and Loss Statement - sometimes called an income statement, this document shows all projected revenues and expenses for a specific time period (usually quarterly) and is used to show whether and how profitable that time will be.
• Cash Flow - this statement projects when cash will come into the business and when expenses will be paid. A healthy cash flow indicates a company’s ability to pay its expenses (including salaries) on time and in full and is a sign of a healthy business. 
• Operating Budget - the budget provides details about projected income and expenses and shows how the company will operate in financial terms.
• Break-Even Analysis - this analysis projects when and under what conditions the company will expect to become profitable, meaning when the revenue is projected to be more than enough to cover all expenses. 

Business Plan Examples for Your Online Business

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the thought of having to write a business plan, do not worry! There is a treasure trove of sample plans and templates you can customize and use all over the internet. We suggest checking out Bplans or Venngage for easy-to-use templates. 

You can also simply open up your favorite note-taking app or word processor, use the sections described in this article as a guide and just start writing!  

Why do Business Plans Fail?

Although it is a proven fact that entrepreneurs who create a business plan are more likely to succeed, not every business plan is a guaranteed success. There are few common mistakes that you can easily avoid to ensure that you put your best foot forward in your business plan and set yourself up for the best chance of success:

• Present a bad business idea - it’s possible that your business is just not viable. If it’s very risky or you can’t prove that there is any market demand, you may not see any success from your business plan. On the bright side - it’s better to realize this when you’re just writing the plan before you’ve actually invested any time or money in the business. You can go back to the drawing board and come up with a better plan!
• Missing an exit strategy - this is especially important if you’re showing a business plan to potential investors as they will want to know what the plan is for them to ultimately “make an exit” and earn a profit on their investment.
• Poor management team - if you present a management team that does not have the right skills or experience necessary to run a business in your chosen industry, it may make your business appear less viable.
• Lacking financial projections - again, especially when it comes to investors the numbers are the most important part of the business plan so make sure that you are not missing any of the key forms. 

When Do You Need to Create a Business Plan?

You should create a business plan before you officially launch your business. It should, in fact, be one of the first things that you do once you decide that you want to start a business. If you’ve already passed that point and are already running a business, then there is no time like the present to get that business plan on paper!

What is a Business Plan Format?

There is no standard required format for a business plan and you can structure it and design it however you like. There are, however, plenty of templates and samples online that you can use to make sure that you are covering all of the major information and presenting it in a way that is easy to read and understand.

What are the 3 Main Purposes of a Business Plan?

Business plans are used mainly to help you clarify your own plans for starting and growing your business, to help understand the capital and financial needs that you have, and to secure funding from investors and/or lenders.

What are the 4 Types of Business Plans?

Depending on the stage of your business and your goals, you may want to choose between a longer or shorter business plan. There are also business plans for different scenarios with the 4 main types being: mini-plans that are a very short overview; presentation decks that present the business plan as a slideshow for viewing by potential investors, lenders or partners; working plans that serve as a roadmap and that get updated periodically; and what-if plans that focus on contingency plans if the unexpected happens.

What are the 5 Elements of a Business Plan?

Most business plans will contain the following 5 elements:1. Executive Summary2. Business Overview3. Market Analysis4. Marketing Plan5. Financial Statements

What is the Most Important Part of a Business Plan?

The most important part of a business plan is different for different audiences. For investors and lenders, it’s the financial statements. For you, as the business owner, it may be the competitor analysis or your market analysis or any other section depending on your specific goals and priorities.

What Makes a Good Business Plan?

A good business plan is somewhat subjective and depends on the reader. But a good rule of thumb that applies no matter what is that the plan should be clear and concise. It’s highly unlikely that anyone is going to read a business plan that is 50+ pages long. If you do need to include more information, you can always add appendices, but the bulk of the material should be somewhere in the 5-10 page range. In addition, a good business plan is a dynamic document. Don’t just create it once and then leave it in a drawer (or saved on your desktop). Use it, edit it, revisit it, treat it as the roadmap to success that it’s meant to be.

Where can I Find a Sample Business Plan?

Check out BPlans and Venngage for lots of sample business plans and templates. Or simply search for “sample business plans” in any search engine.

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How to Create a Business Plan Presentation [Plus Templates]

Written by: Masooma Memon

You know your business idea is strong, but presenting it in a way that captivates your audience and inspires them to take the desired action? That’s a different story.

But don’t worry. With the right approach and resources, you can create a business plan presentation that not only conveys your idea in the best possible way but also wins over potential investors, partners and clients.

In this article, we’ll cover everything you have in mind like how many slides does your business idea presentation need, what goes into those slides, and how to create, design and present an impressive business plan presentation.

Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit business plan presentation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme

Along the way, we’ll also show you a series of ready-to-use business plan presentation templates that you can customize to use as your own. See? We did say creating a presentation isn’t rocket science.

Ready to learn how to create a business presentation?

Let’s get started already.

Table of Contents

• What Is a Business Plan Presentation?
• What Should Be In a Business Plan Presentation?

How to Create a Business Plan Presentation

• How to Design a Business Plan Presentation With Visme

Business Plan Presentation Best Practices

How to present a business plan presentation, business plan presentation faqs.

• A business plan presentation is a formal slide deck that includes your goals, mission, strategy, pricing model, financial projections, teams and other information about your new business.
• Typically, a business plan presentation includes a title slide, problem, solution, pricing plan, business operations information, marketing plan, industry overview, financial projections, team and a concluding slide with your contact details.
• To create a business plan presentation, identify your goals, conduct research, create an outline, develop the content, design your slides, prepare supporting material, and finalize and polish.
• Design a business plan presentation easily in Visme by picking a template, adjusting the slides, customizing the template, and then downloading and sharing your presentation.
• Some tips for creating impressive business plan presentations include drawing attention to your core message, making your slides easy to read and understand, sticking to one or two fonts, picking a nice color scheme, using minimal text and paying attention to the visuals.
• To effectively present a business plan presentation, keep your presentation concise, add interactivity, pay attention to the design and incorporate data visualization.
• Visme makes it easy to create a professional business plan presentation that leaves a solid impression on your audience. Use features like ready-made templates, built-in graphics, animations, branding and AI-powered tools to create stunning presentations.

What is a Business Plan Presentation?

We know a business plan as a formal document that includes your business goals, mission, strategy and the rest of the starting-a-business shebang. 

A business plan presentation is all that with added pressure since you’ve to convey the entire information in slides – clearly and concisely. 

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• Spend less time on presentations and more time strategizing
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Put another way, you don’t have wordy documents to convey your ideas. Instead, you’ll need to be clear about selling your idea to investors by sharing all the important details in an engaging and succinct manner. 

What Should Be in a Business Presentation?

Now that you know how your slides need to look, let’s talk about another important point—your presentation’s slides and what they need to talk about. 

The bare minimum slides you need are 10. Remember, cover only one business aspect per slide.  Here’s what your slides should be about.

Slide 1: The Title Slide

This needs no explanation — it’s your introductory page that should include your business’s name, any slogan that you may have, and a logo as well (if it’s ready). Don’t forget to add your name to the slide. 

Since this is the first slide, it needs to be an impression maker. One way to create such a slide is to rely on a powerful image that showcases your business idea. 

Take, for example, this presentation template by Visme. It pretty much speaks for itself, narrating the business idea is related to social media scheduling.

Looking for the perfect image for your presentation? Grab one from a pool of 700+ free presentation images . 

Slide 2: The Problem Your Business Solves

Dedicate your second slide to diving into the pain point your business solves.  You can use facts to make things convincing. But, there’s nothing that beats a good story. 

Here is an amazing business plan presentation example that does just that.

Additionally, make sure you let your design do the talking. For instance, this presentation template uses a few words and pairs them with icons that explain facts.

Slide 3: Your Business’s Solution

Now that you’ve introduced the problem, give the solution. 

This is the part where your story comes to its happy ending. And what’s the happy ending? Your business idea.  

Again, make sure your solution-offering slide isn’t wordy, but digestible. Try a diagram or sketch to explain your idea like here.

Slide 4: Your Pricing Plan

Okay, so investors know you’ve a great idea that you’ve delivered in an even greater story format. They’re impressed. What’s next? Your pricing structure. 

In your business model slide, go on to tell who your customers are, what your revenue sources are going to be, and how much you expect customers to pay for your product/service?

But, instead of writing it all, present your pricing plans in a simple-to-grasp chart. 

Here’s what I mean.

Slide 5: Business Operations Information

Now is the time you give your audience an inside peep into the operating nuts and bolts of your business. 

Where will your business headquarters be located? What about the staff that runs the show in the background. What equipment will you need? Answer all that in this slide. 

Just make sure you offer all this info in a chart or diagram.

Slide 6: Your Marketing Plan

Next, tell your audience how you plan to market your business. 

Nope, "TV and ads" is not the right answer. Instead, share your marketing plan including the channels you’ll use and how you plan to do so. 

Planning to make a separate marketing presentation? Dig into this guide to create one with free templates.

Slide 7: Industry Overview

In other words, this slide is for competitor analysis. Make sure you keep it clipped and use a positive approach. 

Defaming or bad-mouthing competitors won’t help. What’ll make a difference in your favor though is how well you explain your unique selling proposition (USP) or what makes your business a winner. 

Share this information in a chart or outline the key pointers like this template below does.

Slide 8: Financial Projections

Time to pull out the crystal ball that shows the future!

Answer the following in this slide: what financial projections do you’ve for the next 3 years and 5 years to come. Then, explain how you reached those numbers. 

Here’s a template that does that well:

Slide 9: Your Team

Here’s the part when you talk about the key players who’ll help you build your business. 

See how this template intros teammates.

Slide 10: Concluding Slide

This is your last slide. It’s best to close your presentation with your contact details (check out the slide below for an idea) and a sense of urgency.

But why the urgency, you ask? Because you want to tell your audience that now is the right time for your business to enter the market. 

1. Identify Your Goals

Before diving into your presentation, take a step back and clarify your purpose.

Are you seeking investment, looking for partners or pitching to potential clients. Knowing your aim helps shape your entire approach.

Then, set clear goals for your presentation. Maybe you want to secure a certain amount of funding or land a specific partnership. Having these objectives in mind keeps you focused and helps you measure success later on.

2. Research and Gather Information

Now it's time to roll up your sleeves and dig into the nitty-gritty.

Start with thorough market research—understand your industry inside out and know your competitors like the back of your hand.

Also, get a solid grasp on your target audience. Research their backgrounds, interests and what they're looking for. This insight is gold when tailoring your content.

Don't just skim the surface; dive deep. Collect hard data, compelling statistics and solid financial information that backs up your claims.

As you gather all this information, keep it organized. Use spreadsheets, mind maps or whatever system works for you. The point is to have this valuable intel at your fingertips when you need it.

For example, you can use Visme’s whiteboard tool for this purpose. Or design an engaging mind map that you can easily share with your team.

3. Outline Your Presentation Structure

Think of your presentation as a story—it needs a beginning, middle and end. And all of these parts need to flow seamlessly.

Start by mapping out the key points and sections you want to cover. Then, arrange them in a logical order that builds momentum. Make sure each section naturally leads into the next, creating a compelling narrative.

As you plan, consider how much time and emphasis each part deserves. Your game-changing product might warrant more time than your office location, for instance. A well-structured presentation keeps your audience engaged and helps them follow your vision effortlessly.

Want to learn more? Here’s a detailed guide on the different types of presentation structures you might want to use for your business plan presentation.

4. Develop Your Content

Here's where you breathe life into your presentation.

Craft content that's not just informative, but captivating. Think about what makes your business unique and exciting— that's the story you want to tell.

Develop a clear, punchy value proposition that instantly communicates your worth. As you write, keep your audience in mind. What matters to them? Align your content with their interests and needs. If you need help with crafting the perfect words, use Visme’s AI Writer for assistance.

For each slide, aim for concise, impactful statements. Back up your claims with solid data and facts—investors love numbers. And while it's good to show you know your stuff with industry jargon, remember to explain complex terms. You want to impress, not confuse.

5. Design Your Slides

Now it's time to make your presentation visually appealing. If you’re using a template, choose a design theme that's professional and aligns with your business idea.

Ideally, your presentation design should be clean, modern and easy on the eyes. Use high-quality visuals, charts and graphics to illustrate your points. We’ll discuss more about how to design a business plan presentation in the next section.

Be careful not to go overboard. Keep your slides uncluttered and easy to read. A good rule of thumb is no more than six bullet points per slide. Use them to highlight key points and provide visual interest, not to display every word you're going to say.

6. Prepare Supporting Materials

Your presentation is just one part of the package. Create handouts or leave-behind documents that reinforce your key points and provide additional details. These could include executive summaries, product specifications or financial projections.

Also, develop a one-page business plan or a more detailed one for those who want to dive deeper. These materials show you're thorough and prepared, and they give interested parties something concrete to review after your presentation.

Visme offers a bunch of business plan templates to help you in that area. Here’s a business plan template you can use right away:

The best part about using Visme is you can ensure your document design is consistent with your presentation. Simply upload your brand elements like fonts, colors and logo, and our Brand Kit will apply your unique style across any project you create.

In fact, you don’t even have to manually upload anything if you’re short on time and have a website. Input your site URL into our Brand Design Tool and let the AI pull the brand elements automatically and apply them to your designs.

7. Finalize and Polish

You're almost done! But before you call it a day, revisit and fine-tune your presentation so it’s free from any potential issues. Proofread everything meticulously and check for spelling errors, consistency in formatting and accuracy in your data and projections.

Make sure all your information is up-to-date and relevant. Also, pay attention to any animations and transitions between your slides—they should be smooth and logical.

This is also a great time to get some outside perspective. Present to trusted advisors, mentors or colleagues who can give you honest, constructive feedback. They might catch things you've missed or have ideas to make your presentation even stronger.

If you’re creating your business plan presentation in Visme, you can invite team members to review your slides, leave feedback by commenting or annotating and even work on the content with you using our collaboration and workflow features.

How to Design a Business Plan Presentation with Visme

So far, you’ve learned a lot of theory on making a business plan presentation. It’s time to put all that and more into practice. 

Start off with writing your content. And, go on to design your slides next. 

With Visme, you’ve two ways to go about creating your presentation: either start with a template or work from the scratch. 

Have you already started making your presentation in PowerPoint, but only just discovered Visme?  No worries! Nobody’s going to ask you to start over.

Instead, simply follow the steps in here to import your PowerPoint presentation in Visme .  Or, watch this video to understand how do so.

Now, let’s start designing.

1. Pick a Template

Visme offers templates in various categories, so you’ll be sure to find a template that fits your business idea. 

For instance, here’s a business presentation template.

Here’s something for those of you with an idea in the finance sector.

Plus, a template for a product idea.

Each of the available templates are editable, which means if there’s something you want to change about it, you can easily do so.

Looking for something that takes creativity to a whole new level? Pick from one of our animated presentation templates. And if you’re short on time, you can use Visme’s AI Presentation Maker to whip up a custom design tailored to your business idea and vision.

2. Adjust the Slides

Once you’ve picked your template, click  Add New Slide to bring other slides from the template into your presentation. Pick and choose any and all of the slides you need to use in your business plan presentation.

You can also bring in slides that you've previously saved to your slide library to help customize your presentation even further.

3. Customize the Template

Lastly, customize your template’s font and color. 

If you already haven’t settled on your brand colors, dive into color psychology to pick colors for your presentation that inspire trust.

If you plan to power your first slide with images, you can either select images from Visme’s stock photo library or upload your own image. You can also add icons , shapes, animated graphics, illustrations, 3D characters , gestures and more to spruce up your slides.

And if you can’t find the perfect image, whip one up using the AI Image Generator or edit existing images using the AI Image Editing tool . It can unblur, upscale and remove unwanted backgrounds in seconds.

Pro Tip : Take advantage of Dynamic Fields to always keep important data like names, dates and contact information accurate. Once you've customized the fields and assigned values , your data will be pulled in throughout your project.

Alternatively, you can create your presentation from the ground up using a blank canvas or by starting with a presentation theme .

4. Download and Share

Finally, it’s time to share your business plan presentation.

You have several options to do that in Visme. Here they are:

• Download: Save your presentation in PDF or PPTX (PowerPoint) format. You can also download in HTML5 (offline web) format to preserve animation and interactivity,
• Share online: Publish and share your presentation online using a public or private link. No need to download any files—your presentation will be hosted on Visme.
• Embed: Generate an embed code for your presentation to add it to a website or portal.

Also, fun fact: when you share your presentation online with Visme, you can track built-in analytics to understand how people are interacting with your slide deck.

With the recap out of the way, let’s talk about the fundamentals of preparing a business presentation that you need to keep front and center as you plan.

1. Draw attention to your core message.

This is the heart of any successful presentation — one that makes it a winner. To ensure your message comes off coherently, explain your business idea to yourself.

The stronger your grip on your idea, the better you’d be able to explain it in a few sentences, or paragraphs at most. 

In other words, make sure you can summarize your plans into an elevator pitch. Also, don’t forget, use simple language — can a child understand your business idea? If so, you’re in the right direction. 

2. Make your slides easy to read and understand.

If a clear message is the heart of a prizewinning (read: investor winning) presentation, good readability and ease in understanding are the lungs, working to keep your presentation alive and breathing. 

The question now is, how do you go about creating digestible slides? Here are a couple of things that can help.

3. Stick to one or two fonts.

Garamond, Helvetica and Gill Sans are some of the best fonts to use in a presentation .

And while you’re at it, select a readable font size. 30 points is a good benchmark size to keep in mind like we discussed above. 

Take a look at how well the font size is adjusted in this template. The changing font size also creates a visual flow that navigates viewers’ attention.

4. Pick a nice color scheme.

Know those bright colors that hurt the eye and are hard to look at? Steer away from them. A subtle color combination works best like in the Visme presentation template below.

5. Use minimal text.

To do so, read each word carefully and ask yourself: can I do just fine without this word? If you find yourself replying in the affirmative to this question, remove the word. In short, make each word earn its keep.

Here’s a template using only as many words as needed to get the message across.

6. Pay attention to the visual elements in each slide.

The goal is simple: you’ve got to use design elements smartly without overdoing them. Sure, you’ve heard a picture is worth a thousand words, but nailing visual components in your presentation can take some effort. 

Put another way, it isn’t about throwing in a bunch of thumbnail images and icons to each slide and calling it a day. Instead, it’s about adding them thoughtfully so they’re impactful rather than extra baggage. 

Check out this template from Visme to get an idea of what we’re talking about here.

On the whole, aim to create a business plan presentation that’s readable, comprehensible and clutter-free. 

Before we wrap this up, here are some tips to help you deliver more memorable presentations:

Keep Your Presentation Concise

Short, powerful messages leave a far deeper impression than long, rambling presentations.

Follow the 9-minute rule —originally for salespeople but equally valuable for presenters—to deliver more impactful presentations.

Aim to deliver 2-3 slides per minute, keeping your key points within about 9 minutes. This helps maintain your audience’s attention and ensures your core message is communicated without overwhelming the listeners with excessive information.

Add Interactivity to Your Presentation

Breathe life into your business presentations and stand out by incorporating interactive elements, such as animated icons, popups, clickable buttons, embedded videos and more.

Interested in creating an interactive business presentation? Here are 20 tips to get you started.

You can also take a look at how to create an interactive quiz within your presentation below.

Create engaging interactive content with Visme.

• Add interactive pop-ups and hover effects
• Increase interest and engagement on your design
• Lead your audience to specific content with interactivity

Pay Attention to Your Presentation’s Design

Not only is visual design an important component of any presentation , but it’s also what hooks your audience. It takes about 50 milliseconds for your audience to assess a design’s visual appeal so aim to leave a strong visual impression. 

Use a powerful image as this template does.

Or try a color-based design with a modern layout like the one in this business presentation template:

Incorporate Data Visualization

Wherever possible, use any of the various chart types at your disposal to present your data. These could be line or bar graphs, pie charts, Gantt charts, Venn diagrams, pictograms, population pyramids and much more.

But why should you use charts to share your data? Simple: data visualization makes complex numbers easy to understand at a glance and more interesting to look at.

Check out this funnel chart template by Visme that you can add to your business plan presentation:

Or this cool gauge chart to track the achievements of your sales staff:

With a few clicks of a button, add creative infographics to your Visme presentations and take them to a whole new level.

Q. How Many Slides Does Your Business Presentation Need?

Aim for 10-12 slides in your business presentation. This aligns with Guy Kawasaki's 10-20-30 rule: 10 slides max, presented in 20 minutes, using at least 30-point font. This approach helps you stay focused and keep your audience hooked to your presentation till the end.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

  If absolutely necessary, you can stretch to 13 slides, but try not to go beyond this to prevent overwhelming your audience. Remember, a concise presentation often has more impact than a lengthy one.

Create a Business Plan Presentation That Wins Investors

Creating a business plan presentation really isn’t much of a tough nut to crack. Consider half your work done if you’re cent percent clear about your business idea. This way your presentation’s content will come easy to you.

As for the design? Leave that to Visme. Our online presentation software makes it easy to create a beautiful and professional business plan presentation that leaves a solid impression on your audience.

Use features like built-in graphics, custom 3D characters, animations, branding and AI-powered tools to create the best business plan presentation you could envision.

Create beautiful presentations faster with Visme.

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About the Author

Masooma Memon is a pizza-loving freelance writer by day and a novel nerd by night. She crafts research-backed, actionable blog posts for SaaS and marketing brands who aim to employ quality content to educate and engage with their audience.

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5 Steps to Develop a Viable Business Plan

Small Business

No matter what type of business you run, you need a business plan. A business plan is a description of your business and objectives and the strategies of how you expect to achieve your goals with a management team and financial resources. Contrary to belief, you don’t need a business plan just to obtain financing. You also need a plan to help you guide your company.

Step 1: Define Your Business

Defining your business is the most vital thing that can help your company become successful. By defining your business, you are better able to achieve your goals and sustain superior performance.

Two things that you need to consider when you define your business are your marketing position statement and your unique selling proposition. A marketing position statement is a one- to two-sentence statement that says what you do and for whom you do it to uniquely solve an urgent need or fulfill a desire. A unique selling proposition is a statement that shows the reader how your product or service stands out and is different than other substitutes on the market. Your USP must be strong enough to attract customers and compel them to buy your product or service.

Surprisingly, not all business owners and managers know the answer to how they define their business. As a result, their businesses can ultimately fail.

The U.S. Small Business Administration highlights a store owner who repairs and sells watches. After analyzing his business operations, the owner came to realize most of its earnings were from repair, even though the company spent most of its resources on selling products. As a result of his analysis, the owner concluded that his business was a repair shop. He shut down the product sales operation and focused on the repair service. This move resulted in dramatic increases in sales and profits.

Step 2: Determine Your Target Audience

Knowing your target audience is an integral part of business plan success. Although your product or service can appeal to many different types of buyers, a one-size-fits-all marketing and sales approach is not focused enough . The more you know about the audience you target, the better able you are to reach and communicate with them and sell your products and services.

You can get a better idea of your target audience by looking at the demographic and psychographic segments of prospective customers that can benefit from your products and services. Do they fit a specific gender or age range? What income bracket do they mostly share? What problems do they need solved? What common attitudes, opinions, values and behaviors do they share?

The more narrow your target market, the more focused you can be in your marketing. On the other hand, if you are tempted to serve more than one target market it can be costly, and you may not succeed.

Take a look at the dilemma Aviva Weis faced after she hired a new marketing executive . Weiss is the co-founder and lead designer of Fun and Function, a company that makes items for special needs children, such as therapy balls that help children develop fine motor skills. Her company grew more than sevenfold from 2007 to 2010 by targeting the consumer market. However, her new marketing executive–who previously worked for a competitor–wanted Fun and Function to target schools and hospitals. This was NOT a good strategy to serve two target markets because it not only required a huge investment and a change in operations, but it also increased risk to alienate the company’s base of loyal consumer customers.

Step 3: Understand the 5 Forces that impact Your Business

Every business–yours included–is subject to five external forces. These forces include existing competitors, threat of new competitors, substitute products or services, bargaining power of its suppliers, and bargaining power of its customers, according to Michael Porter of Harvard Business School .

By understanding these five forces, you are able to comprehend the environment that impacts your business. If your company is in an industry that requires government approval of its products, such as pharmaceuticals or medical devices, then you operate in an environment that makes it difficult for new competitors to enter your market. Yet, if your company is in an industry that does not require proprietary products, special know-how or high investment, then you may have new competitors as you grow.

It’s not enough to know about your industry from just its products or services. You also need to understand the demand and supply of raw materials, manufacturing and labor. Plus, you need to comprehend political and legal related issues. These factors can affect the bargaining power of suppliers or customers. For example, the nutrition supplement industry has many distributors, fewer manufacturers and even fewer raw material suppliers that dominate and influence costs. If one raw material supplier reduces production, that can cause a shortage of products and raise prices accordingly.

Step 4: Create a Competitive Strategy

To demonstrate the viability of your business, your plan needs to demonstrate how you will sustain a competitive advantage. Porter says there are three unique strategies a business could choose from to sustain competitive advantage, namely cost leadership, differentiation and focus. If you are a small company with limited resources, your best strategy is focus .

Your strategy needs to show how you will capture your target market. What are the marketing strategies and tactics that you will create and execute to generate customers and sales? What advertising message will you create that will resonate with prospective buyers and compel them to buy from you? Who will be on your marketing team? What functions will you perform in house and which will you outsource? These are some of the important questions you need to address in your business plan.

Step 5: Project Your Financial Performance

Your financial performance is a measure of your success. Your business plan must include a projection of how you expect your company to perform based on what you discover developing the first four steps of your plan.

You’ll need to address the price and profitability of your products and services. Your projections include the number of customers you expect you’ll attract. How much will they each buy?

A rule of thumb is to underestimate your expected revenues and overestimate your company expenses. You can never know what types of delays may occur in receiving revenues from the sale of your products or services. Plus, you may be hit with unexpected expenses or hidden costs you don’t yet know about.

Another rule of thumb, especially for start-up and early stage companies, is that cash flow is more important than profits. Cash is what lubricates the flow of business. You can always manipulate profits through various accounting techniques, such as deciding if you record inventory as first in-first out or last in-first out. But you can’t do this with cash flow.

Your projected financial performance is also a factor that can influence investors. Higher operating profit margins can attract more investors. However, the reality of your ability to achieve these projections comes from the quality of your plan and execution.

Now that you’ve become more knowledgeable about the five steps to developing a viable business plan, what’s your next step? If you don’t have a business plan, then get started right away...even if you have a successful company. And if you have a plan, see how you can improve it with some of what you have learned here.

Eric Wagner

While Eric now focuses on internet marketing, he also has a background in web development. He loves being among the first to find out about new tech—and better yet, being a part of making that tech succeed. Eric is known to be a good listener, seeking to understand how each individual sees the world. He is a harmonizer in group settings, cultivating unity while constructing the overall goal and strategy. When he’s not busy helping i7 clients dominate the online marketplace, Eric enjoys drone videography (he’s got a UAV pilot’s license), woodworking, community service, and all things outdoors.

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From Idea to Investment: How to Make a Business Plan Presentation

Renderforest Staff

26 Sep 2023

13 min read  

Companies that have solid business plans are 129% more likely to grow beyond the startup phase and develop into successful enterprises. 

Moreover, a business plan is the driving force that makes those with business ideas 260% more likely to actually take steps toward launching their ventures .

Why’s that?

We can call it a power of knowing what you’re doing . A good business overview presentation dispels ambiguity and defines a clear path towards success. 

A thorough introduction business plan is a well-oiled and highly organized machine behind the scenes that makes companies thrive and move forward regardless of the competition, changes in the economy, or other forces.

So, if you’re an aspiring individual looking to conquer the business world with your new idea and make investors believe in it, you need a business plan presentation.

This practical how-to guide will help you with that and provide you with top-notch business presentation examples to use as a ready-to-go template .

Business Plan Presentation: Goals and Applications Explained

A business idea presentation is a written, formal, and detailed document that outlines a company’s goals and objectives, strategies, financial projections, and operational plans for achieving success and sustainability.

• The key reason why you need a business plan slide deck is to attract external investors and raise capital for your project . With most early-stage companies striving with the shortage of financial resources, this task is critical for your startup’s survival and success. 
• The secondary objective of the business plan presentation is keeping your internal team focused, motivated, and on track . The plan ensures everyone involved in the project has an understanding of where they’re heading and what the company’s goals are.

Focusing more on the first goal, you should clearly understand that potential investors will first evaluate your business plan’s real chances of generating a return on their investment. So, your first task is to have a presentation plan that shows how you’re going to achieve profit. First things first, you’ll want to have a catchy brand name, and for that, you can use the AI business name generator .

Among other factors that can motivate investors to approve your project , some are critical. 

• You need to be detailed and clear . Investors tend to engage in projects in the industry that are well-familiar to them or explained to them in great detail. They also need to see a logical flow of action items you plan to implement to reach the desired goal.
• Your team should be reliable and professional . Investors put resources into teams they believe in. So ensure your team, their expertise, and clear priorities are represented and explained properly in the business overview slide. 
• Market validation evidence is needed . Investors need to see that the product you try to create is in demand. Given the current market trends and customer behavior, people need to have tangible proof that you are able to feed their needs with your product or service.
• A clear cost breakdown is a must . Your potential investors need to understand what costs are necessary and how much is allocated for each part of the project. Pay close attention to this part, and be realistic with the expenses and estimations. 

Well, you guessed it. Regardless of which business plan presentation template you choose, your presentation should translate your ideas into convincing facts, plans, and actions for the investors to see. 

Consider This While Creating a Business Plan Presentation

You can have a sea of business presentation ideas, but a typical audience’s attention span is 7 minutes . Well, 10 minutes at most if you have a super-engaging presentation or talk like Steve Jobs used to reveal Apple’s new products. 

Based on the short time frame you have, Guy Kawasaki introduced a 10/20/30 rule – a must-follow answer to your “how to make a business plan presentation” question. 

• Have up to 1 0 business plan slides .
• Structure your business model presentation to fit a 20-minute timeframe at most.
• Choose a font size no smaller than 30 . It is better to focus on easy-to-read and professional-looking fonts like Helvetica or Garamond.

Choose a Business Project Plan Presentation Template from Renderforest!

Eliminate the need to spend time creating a business plan presentation from scratch. With Renderforest’s online template library, you can choose any ready-to-go business plan slides template that’s designed with all the key features, creative elements, and professional approach. 

Choose anything from creative, modern, and sleek presentations to minimal or flat designs. Customize in a few clicks to have a personalized, unique presentation. 

Here are the key principles you should keep with your business plan presentation.

Have Clear Objectives

There are different company presentation examples based on the specific objective you chase with your business overview. You may ( and ideally should ) have one core business plan presentation, including all the key sections and details and a few different versions of it based on the key audiences and places you’re going to present it.

Let’s make it clear. 

Say you have a meeting with investors on Monday, another one with your marketing team on Tuesday, and you’re also invited as a speaker to the business event on Saturday. Each of these events has different audiences you need to captivate. And even though the primary idea you want to get across doesn’t change, you need to adapt your visual business plan for each audience. 

• For investors , you should have a thorough business plan presentation outline with a strong emphasis on the financials part. 
• For your marketing team , focus more on the strategic part and ideas for brand recognition you plan to implement. Here, more concentration is needed on motivating the team and having a clear breakdown of responsibilities.
• Finally, for a business event , it’s better to remove some sensitive business plan slides like finance, risks, etc., and replace them with more general and inspiring slides about your company’s vision and story. 

It may take you a few minutes to create a slightly modified version of your presentation, but the audience you’re addressing will appreciate it. 

Try to appear with an adjusted presentation for each audience and place. 

Keep It Clear and Concise

We should probably apologize for overusing the words “clear and concise,” but that’s what really working business slideshow examples are about. 

So, we can’t stress this enough: be as brief as possible. Remember, an overloaded business plan presentation is your no-go area!

• Choose 1, max two font styles, and ensure they go well together.
• Pick colors that form a good contrast together, avoiding too many bright shadows.
• Ensure your business plan slideshow has a healthy portion of negative space.
• Have as much text per page as can be read and digested by the audience without rushing.
• Keep a healthy balance between visuals and text.

The template below is a brilliant business presentation example, considering all the above tips. 

Maintain Visual Consistency

A cohesive, professional, and unified structure across all slides is essential . This means every slide in your business plan presentation should follow the same layout and design principles.

Colors, fonts, graphics, background, and buttons – all should follow the same rules . This will create a holistic, consistent experience for your audience while conveying your message clearly. 

In some cases, certain slides can have different colors than others, but they should all have the same general look. When you look at your business plan presentation, there should be a feeling of congruence across all slides. 

Otherwise, you risk leaving an unorganized, messy impression. 

Template Packs Are Your Best Friends for Creating Visual Consistency

What are business plan slide template packs from Renderforest, and why are they the best solution for a consistent look?

Packs are a collection of different slides – intro, overview, summary, budget, team, mission & vision, etc. that are all designed to work together . No matter which ~10 sample business plan presentations you will choose from them, the final result will be a unified look.

See how our Startup Pitch Deck pack slides go together. 

11 Cornerstones: Business Plan Slides to Include in Your Next Pitch

Well, by now, you should’ve grasped the fundamentals of how to do company presentations. And when you know the theory, it’s time to move on to the practical part – the actual slides you should include in your business plan presentation. 

The good news is you don’t need even a hint of design talent to have a striking business growth plan presentation. With Renderforest’s ready-to-use business plan presentation ideas, your manual work is limited to small editing with drag & drop options.

We’ve collected the key business plan presentation examples for you to grab and go.

Just scroll down to pick one!

Recommended Reading

• Elevate Your Pitch | Marketing Presentation Templates That Convert!
• The Art of Consulting Presentations: Boosting Impact with Renderforest Templates
• 10 Business Presentation Examples | Say Goodbye to PowerPoint!

The Title Slide

Hello, it’s me!

The title slide is the very first impression your audience will get from your business plan presentation. That’s why it should be catchy, intriguing, and not too overloaded with information.

Keep in mind – the title slide of your business plan doesn’t have to include all the text; a few headlines or statements can be enough to captivate the audience.

The best business plan presentation tips say the title slide should include all or some of the following.

• Company/product name
• Presenter’s name
• Short motto or statement
• Catchy photo

Executive Summary

Consolidate all the high-level insights of your presentation here – this is the part to grab the audience’s attention and get them interested in the details.

The goal of an executive summary is to raise interest without revealing too much or giving away all your secrets. 

You should be concise and clear here, focus on the top priorities that make you stand out from the competition, and share insights about what has been achieved and what business goals are ahead.

You can also share a few success stories from your industry or your own company, show how your current strategies have worked well in the past, and use them as an example to move forward. 

Statistics, facts, numbers – these are all great attention grabbers. 

Business Problem and Your Solution

The most successful businesses effectively solve the existing problems which don’t have successful solutions yet. So it’s no surprise a problem & solution is your business plan pitch presentation’s fundamental block.

Describe the issue you’re solving, explain why it’s a major problem ( backed up by relevant statistics ), and show how your product or service can overcome the difficulty.

Include visuals – images, infographics, graphs, and diagrams to emphasize on the issue. You can also highlight customer reviews or success stories to further illustrate the issue. 

Depending on how convincing you are at this stage, you can make or break the whole pitch. 

Your Value Propositions

So, what’s all the buzz about you? It’s time to showcase the unique features of your business and what makes it stand out from the competition. 

Value propositions are the distinguishing features of your product/service that should differentiate you from others in the market.

You can discuss such elements as quality, price, usability, support services, customization opportunities, and other factors of your provided solution that make you better than anyone else and what should drive people to choose you. 

Value propositions can be presented in the form of competitive advantages, service catalogs, benefits, or a simple list of features. 

The golden rule here is to avoid generic phrases and be as specific as possible. 

Market Analysis, a.k.a. Industry Overview

Investors will trust you if you prove you know the field you’re in. Knowing what you and your team are ready to do and knowing what the industry demands or how it works – are two different things. 

So, however deep is your approach to presenting your company’s value propositions, be twice as deep and detailed when it comes to market analysis or industry overview part. 

Explain the size of the market, its development over time, and the competitive landscape. Provide a full list of competitors, their strengths & weaknesses you should consider.

A good practice is to add trends & drivers in your industry – different components that shape the current state of affairs and will impact your future decision-making.

We highly recommend you proceed with your own research here, as publicly available stats ( though very useful ) don’t completely reveal your initiative and dedication to the project.

Even a small survey with your target audience or a focus group can be a great asset for your business ideas presentation. 

Go-to-Market Strategy

Reaching the paramount section – market strategy. When presenting a business plan to investors, that’s your chance to explain what business tactics you’ve chosen and why they are likely to work well.

For this part, you should outline the strategies, tactics, and approaches that will be used to acquire customers. Mention channels you’ll use for customer acquisition (SEO, PPC, social media campaigns, etc.) and their advantages and disadvantages in different markets. 

Talk about pricing models – how will you charge users for different plans/packages, and how are they tailored to attract customers from different market segments? 

Timeline format is one of the best practices when it comes to business plans for presentations . Picture your planned activities in chronological order, with estimated timelines to accomplish tasks. You can also include milestones in the timeline – significant events that will determine the success and development of your business.

Financial Projections

You also need a detailed accounting business plan presentation, where you show a thorough picture of how your company will be making money. 

To make it work, you need to provide a realistic estimate about the amount of money that could be brought in from different areas: sales, investments, grants, etc., and then calculate expenses – salaries for key personnel, office rent & utilities, travel costs.

Try to think outside the box when it comes to financial projections. Include the cost of any external services required, such as virtual assistants, accounting personnel, or marketing campaigns that will be necessary. 

Financial projections are the part where most startups fail because while many know how to scale their business, few can predict future expenses. If you don’t have a proper financial education to carry out this step, consider consulting an experienced financial analyst or accountant. 

Risks and Mitigations

Your business decisions have potential outcomes depending both on external and internal factors. Predicting those outcomes and including them in the business plan presentation for potential investors is called risk assessment or risk analysis – a crucial element without which your business plan presentation can’t be complete. 

The risk assessment part should include an overview of the potential risks, your reserve plan to mitigate them, and the steps you will take for each risk.

Usually, businesses analyze external ( economic, political, and technological ) risks that are beyond their control and internal ( operational, legal, financial ) risks that can be managed and controlled. 

It’s also common to calculate your business’s debt-to-equity ratio as a common financial risk evaluation tool . As debt is a potential risk for your company, and equity is your main resource to cover it, this ratio helps investors measure the financial stability of your business. 

Competitive Landscape 

Where do you stand in the competitive landscape? Here, you need to provide a full list of your competitors, their strengths & weaknesses. 

Besides that, it’s important to explain how you’re different from them and what makes you unique – this is where your value propositions come into play. Show investors how your solution can solve a problem better than others through compelling evidence or experiences related to previous cases. 

The two common ways to include competitor information in your business presentation outline are SWOT analysis and competitor analysis framework . 

In the SWOT analysis, you should talk about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats your company has and how it compares to your competitors. 

The competitor analysis framework requires you to compare, evaluate, and rank each of the different business strategies they are using against yours. By doing this, you can identify potential areas and opportunities for improvement in the future. 

Team Overview

When presenting a business plan, don’t forget to honor the people who help you build your business. Investors care about who is on the team and how capable they are of performing their tasks, so it’s important to introduce them in an appropriate way. 

If you’re a small startup, list all key personnel – founders, CMOs, CFOs, etc., and talk briefly about their experience & achievements. Describe the combination of skill sets that makes your team unique and provide evidence to support it. 

If you’re a larger organization, focus on introducing key executives. Show investors how each person is important to successfully make decisions, drive business growth, or innovate in their areas of expertise. 

Also, mention if you have any experienced mentors, advisors, or board members who can help you move your business forward.

Conclusion and Call to Action

If you ask how to present a business plan that leaves a lasting impression, your conclusion and call to action are the key. Basically, you need to explain what will put everything together and leave investors with an overwhelming sense of enthusiasm. 

Summarize your main points and emphasize how all the previous parts create a powerful vision for potential success. Show them why it’s the right time to invest in your business and how they will get a return on their investment.

Finally, explain what you need from them – investments in cash or resources, board memberships, mentorship, etc., and give clear instructions on what investors should do next. 

Tips to Create an Ideal Business Plan Presentation with Renderforest

It’s time to create your new business presentation, and it’s easier than you may think with Renderforest. 

Follow the below quick steps to create the actual presentation of a business plan to your potential investors to secure funding.

Step 1. Choose a Business Plan Presentation Template

Head to our library of business plan presentations to find anything from financial and marketing to startup pitch decks, and choose the one that fits your business best. 

Each business plan presentation pack has a different number of scenes. You can check out which ones have enough slides to include all the important information and pick the best one. 

We recommend picking all your scenes from the same example business presentation pack, as each one differs in design and style, and keeping consistency can be tricky when mixing different packs.

Click on the pack you like the most, and choose “ Create .” All the scenes available in the pack will be accessible to reorder, add, or remove as many business slide examples as you need. 

Step 2. Customize the Slides to Match Your Corporate Branding

Though every business plan slide in Renderforest comes in a neatly organized, professional design, you can still make it fit your corporate branding. 

There are many editing options to make each slide look unique – change colors, font styles & sizes, and add your own images, icons, or GIFs. Make sure that design elements like backgrounds, shapes, or color schemes are all in line with your brand identity to show you mean business. 

Step 3. Download It in Your Preferred Format

Done? Ready to present a business plan? Get the high-quality version of your business plan presentation in different formats, all adjusted to different devices you may use to present. 

Renderforest business plan presentation is all yours – download it in JPG or PDF formats, or share a public link with your potential investors. 

You can be confident about the output quality, as Renderforest has both 4k and HD resolution versions of your presentation slides.

The Bottom Line

Now, the question “how to start a business plan presentation” shouldn’t scare you with too many tasks to do. 

The design part is handled by Renderforest with professionally chosen color and font combinations to fit the industry and purpose.

The tasks left to you are to input all the important information in slides and make sure all your branding elements are present and ready to download.

Dive into our Forestblog of exclusive interviews, handy tutorials and interesting articles published every week!

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How To Present A Business Plan: 9 Key Elements

• By Judhajit Sen
• April 22, 2024

Key Takeaways:

• A business plan serves as a roadmap for your business journey, outlining its purpose, operations, and future trajectory.
• A business plan presentation, or pitch deck, is a condensed version of your plan that showcases essential details to potential investors or partners.
• A compelling plan presentation is crucial for securing funding, attracting investors, and rallying support for your venture.
• A successful presentation includes the executive summary, company overview, business opportunity, management and leadership team, product and service details, sales and marketing plan, funding request, financial projections, and the appendix. Each section plays a vital role in articulating your business vision and potential for success.

A business plan is like a map of your business journey. It’s a formal paper explaining what your business is all about and what it aims to do. Think of it as a kind of storybook about your business, where you tell people what it does, how it works, and where it’s headed.

Inside a business plan, you’ll find information about the business structure, who’s in charge, and how things are set up. It also discusses how the company plans to sell stuff and make money with fancy financial projections. Plus, it lists everything the business needs, like equipment and supplies, to do its job well.

A winning business plan is like a guidebook for your business adventure. When you write a business plan, it helps you figure out where you’re going, what you need to get there, and how you’ll know when you’ve arrived. And if you’re looking for extra cash for your business, having a solid plan can help persuade folks to invest in your big ideas.

Business Plan Presentation

A business plan presentation, sometimes called a “pitch deck,” is like a slideshow introducing your business basics. It’s something you show during a meeting, whether in person or on Zoom, to give folks the lowdown on your business.

A good presentation covers the essentials: what you’re all about, who you’re trying to reach, how your business works, and what you’re asking for. When you’re presenting your plan, you’re not just sharing your cool idea—you’re hoping to get your audience to help you out with something.

Importance of a Business Plan Presentation

A plan presentation is crucial for your business journey. It’s not just about jotting down ideas; it’s a strategic tool that can help you overcome hurdles and spot opportunities you might have missed. When you present your business plan successfully, you’re clarifying it for yourself and making a compelling case for potential backers—like lenders, investors, or partners—that your venture has what it takes to succeed.

Research backs this up: Studies suggest that entrepreneurs who create a business plan are more likely to build viable businesses and secure funding than those who don’t. It’s not just about writing it down; how you present your plan matters. A polished, professional-looking presentation can make all the difference whether you seek a business loan, pitch your business to investors, or wooing potential partners.

Your business plan is a roadmap for your business endeavors, guiding your decisions and actions.  It’s not just a document for internal use; it’s also a key asset in external interactions. From securing loans to attracting investors or leasing a commercial space, having a solid plan can open doors and set you on the path to success in various professional arenas.

Following are nine tips for presenting your business plan step-by-step.

Executive Summary: A Snapshot of Your Business

The executive summary is the highlight reel of your plan presentation, offering a quick glimpse into your business. It’s your chance to grab the attention of potential investors and lenders right from the start, so it needs to be engaging and informative.

Start by revisiting your plan and picking out the most significant bits. Consider what makes your business unique and why  it’s  poised for success. Highlight vital elements like your business concept, goals, and vision for the future. Describe your offerings and what sets it apart from the competition. Identify your target market and outline your strategy to reach them.

Give a snapshot of your financial standing and lay out your projected revenue and profits for the next few years. Be clear about how much money you need to achieve your goals. Introduce the members of your management team, emphasizing their relevant experience.

The executive summary  must include:

• Your mission statement.
• Details about your products or services.
• Information  about your team.
• Your plans for growth.

Keep it concise yet comprehensive, giving readers a clear understanding of your business and why they should invest.

Company Overview: Setting the Stage for Success

The company overview section of your business plan demonstrates why your venture is poised for greatness. Start by pinpointing the problem your business aims to solve and who will benefit from your solution. Provide demographic data about your target customers and highlight what differentiates your company from the competition, whether it’s specialized expertise or unique product features.

Offer a brief history of your business and detail your products or services. Explain how your offerings address the identified problem and outline your business model , such as direct-to-consumer sales or online distribution. Clarify your business structure, whether it’s a sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation, and why this setup is advantageous.

Use storytelling techniques to make the problem relatable to your audience and emphasize the significance of your solution. Describe how your offerings meets your customers’ needs and surpasses alternatives in the market.

Outline your revenue model, whether it’s through direct sales, subscription fees, or advertising revenue. Provide examples of early success, such as initial customers, pre-orders, or signed contracts, to demonstrate the viability of your business and build confidence in its prospects. This section sets the stage for the rest of your presentation, showcasing the potential for success and garnering interest from potential investors or partners.

Business Opportunity: Seizing the Moment

This section of your business presentation showcases the potential for growth in your chosen market. Begin by delving into your market analysis, which sheds light on the landscape of your industry. Research competitors’ actions, identify trends and understand what resonates with customers.

Investors look for growth potential of your business, so provide insights into your target market’s size and demographics. Conduct a SWOT analysis to highlight your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Detail how you developed projections, citing interviews or market research data to lend credibility.

Describe the industry’s current state and areas ripe for improvement. If your business operates locally, assess the market in your area and identify gaps or areas for enhancement. List competitors and explain how your business will stand out in the crowd.

Use data to illustrate your business’s performance compared to others in the industry. Incorporate facts and statistics from reputable sources to bolster your presentation’s credibility and professionalism.

Finally, articulate the size of your market and the specific business opportunities it presents. Utilize market research to quantify potential customers and identify target segments. This section paints a clear picture of the market landscape and underscores the vast opportunities awaiting your business’s success.

The Management and Leadership Team: Key Players in Success

Spotlight the individuals driving your business forward. Start by confirming your business’s legal entity status, whether it’s an LLC or another form. Then, introduce your ownership and leadership teams, clarifying roles with an organizational chart and providing resumes to showcase key members’ skills and experience.

Investors often prioritize the team behind a business over the idea itself. Highlight the expertise and talent of your management team through short bios that emphasize relevant experience and industry recognition. Consider including headshots to put faces to names and build rapport.

Describe your organization’s structure, whether it’s a sole proprietorship, LLC, or corporation. If you plan to hire staff or rely on outside consultants , outline your staffing plans here. Investors are looking for assurance that you’ve consulted experts in your field needed to drive your business forward.

Ultimately, investors want to know why your team is the right one to bring your business idea to life. Use this section to showcase the capabilities and dedication of your team, emphasizing their ability to turn your vision into reality. The strength of your team can be the deciding factor in securing support for your business venture.

Product and Service Details: Delivering Value to Customers

Start by describing what you offer and how it meets the needs of your market. Highlight its unique features and the benefits it brings to customers. If you’re taking steps to protect your intellectual property, such as trademarks or patents, be sure to mention it. Similarly, if you’re investing in research and development to enhance your offerings, explain how this will benefit your business and customers alike.

Success depends on offering products or services that customers want or need. Explain the value your offerings provide, how they differ from competitors, and the buying cycle. Demonstrating your understanding of customer needs and preferences boosts confidence in your ability to deliver.

If you’re pursuing intellectual property protections like copyrights or patents, outline your strategy. Additionally, discuss any ongoing research and development efforts aimed at expanding your product line or improving existing offerings. This showcases your commitment to innovation and highlights potential avenues for future revenue growth. By clearly articulating your product and service details, you lay the groundwork for success and instill confidence in potential investors or partners.

Sales and Marketing Plan: Reaching Your Audience

In crafting your sales and marketing plan, remember that even the best product needs a push to reach customers. Outline your strategy for reaching, convincing, and retaining your target audience. Describe the steps leading to a sale, essentially designing your sales funnel, a crucial aspect of effective planning.

Give details on how you’ll spread the word about your offerings. Will you utilize paid online ads, social media promotions, direct mail, local print ads, radio or TV sponsorships, YouTube content, or other methods? List all chosen approaches.

Ensure clarity on the sales journey and why it resonates with your target and existing customer segments. If you’ve begun implementing these methods, share data on their effectiveness.

Include an overview slide of your marketing and sales plan , emphasizing how you’ll reach and sell to your target market. You’ve identified your audience; now explain how you’ll engage and convert them. This section underscores your commitment to connecting with customers and driving sales, essential for business growth and success.

Funding Request: Securing Support for Growth

Outline your financial needs and how you plan to use that money to fuel your business’s growth over the next five years. Clearly articulate the amount of funding required and its intended use, whether for marketing, research and development, hiring key personnel, or expansion into new markets or locations.

Specify whether you’re seeking equity, debt, or a combination of both, and outline the terms  you’re  seeking for the funding. Potential investors or lenders will want to understand the rationale behind the requested amount and the type of financing being sought.

If you’re contributing personal funds to the project, highlight this to demonstrate your commitment and confidence in the venture. It shows that you have “skin in the game “  and are invested in its success.

Explain the purpose behind the funding request, detailing how it will support your business objectives and drive growth. Whether it’s to enhance product development, scale operations, or increase market presence, clarify why the funding is necessary and how it aligns with your overall business strategy. This section is crucial for garnering support from investors or lenders, showcasing your vision and readiness to take your business to the next level.

Financial Projections: Mapping Your Business’s Future

Demonstrating profitability is paramount to securing funding for your business. If your company is operational, include financial statements like profit and loss, balance sheets, income, and cash flow statements.

For both established and new business, a five-year financial plan is crucial. Detail forecasted income and expenditures, breaking the first year into quarterly or monthly projections. Utilize professional-looking charts, graphs, and tables for clarity.

Even if your business lacks past financial data, preparing a budget and financial plan showcases your domain understanding. For new ventures, utilize resources like the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) guide or SCORE’s financial projections template. For existing businesses, provide income statements, profit and loss statements, and balance sheets, ideally covering the past three years.

Detail specific steps to achieve outlined financial goals, with more emphasis on the first year. Include interactive spreadsheets for a detailed financial analysis covering production costs, profits, planned investments, and tax projections.

A detailed sales forecast spanning up to five years helps attract outside support. If your business hasn’t launched yet, utilize market research for estimates.

In your presentation, highlight key financial data such as sales forecasts, profit projections, and estimated profitability timelines. Aim to pique interest and prompt further inquiries using facts and figures without overwhelming your audience with excessive details.

Appendix: Additional Resources for In-Depth Understanding

In the appendix section at the end of your presentation , provide supplementary materials to address potential questions and offer deeper insights into your business. Anticipate inquiries and include slides that offer the information you need, showcasing your thorough preparation and understanding of all aspects of your venture.

While the core slides of your PowerPoint presentation capture the essence of your business, the appendix offers additional resources to enrich understanding. Depending on your industry, include permits, licenses, deeds, professional certifications, media clips, patents, customer contracts, and other relevant documents. These materials offer investors and bankers a comprehensive view of your business’s potential.

Consider including a list of critical concepts and industry terms to aid understanding, mainly if your business operates in a niche field. This ensures clarity and fosters better comprehension among readers unfamiliar with industry-specific terminology.

Remember, the appendix is an opportunity to provide supplementary information that bolsters your presentation and demonstrates your thoroughness and preparedness. While the plan document may not be directly referenced, the planning process equips you to present and advocate for your business efficiently.

Navigating Your Business Journey: How To Present A Business Plan

Crafting a plan presentation is akin to mapping out your entrepreneurial journey. It’s more than just a slideshow; it’s your opportunity to portray a vivid picture of your business, its potential, and its path to success. Whether you’re seeking funding, pitching to investors, or rallying support from partners, a well-prepared presentation can make all the difference.

At its core, the presentation distills the essence of your venture into digestible bits, offering a snapshot of your business basics. It covers everything from your business concept and target audience to your revenue model and financial projections. But it’s not just about sharing information—it’s about persuading your audience to join you on your business adventure.

By outlining the importance of a plan presentation and dissecting its key components, we’ve delved into the strategic approach needed to craft a compelling pitch. From the executive summary to business projections, each section plays a vital role in articulating your vision and garnering support for your venture.

Armed with insights into what makes a successful plan presentation, you’re better equipped to navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship. Whether you’re a veteran business owner or a debutant entrepreneur, a well-crafted presentation can pave the way for future growth and success. So, harness the power of storytelling , data, and strategic planning to chart a course for your business’s bright future.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is a business plan, and why is it important?

A business plan is like a roadmap for your business journey, detailing what your business is about, what it aims to achieve, and how it plans to do so. Think of it as a storybook about your business, explaining its concept, structure, target market, marketing strategy, financial projections, and more. It’s essential because it helps you clarify your business vision, spot opportunities, overcome obstacles, and persuade potential backers to invest in your ideas .

2. What is a business plan presentation, and why do I need it?

A business plan presentation, also known as a “pitch deck, “  is a slideshow that introduces the basics of your business to potential investors, lenders, or partners. It offers a concise overview of your business concept, target audience, operations, and funding needs. It’s crucial because it allows you to present your business in a visually appealing and engaging format, making it easier for others to understand and support your venture.

3. What are the critical elements of a successful plan presentation?

A successful plan presentation comprises several key elements, including the executive summary, company overview, business opportunity, the management and leadership team, product and service details, sales and marketing plan, funding request, financial projections, and appendix. Whether you want to grab your audience’s attention or provide detailed insights into your business and its potential for success, each section serves a specific purpose,

4. How can I make my plan presentation more compelling?

Focus on storytelling, clarity, and professionalism to make your presentation more compelling. Use engaging visuals , such as charts, graphs, and images, to illustrate key points and data. Keep your language simple and concise, avoiding  jargon that may confuse your audience.  Practice your presentation beforehand to ensure smooth delivery and confidence. Finally, be prepared to answer queries and address concerns raised by your audience, demonstrating your knowledge and readiness to lead your business to success.

Supercharge Your Business Plan Presentation with Prezentium

Transform your plan presentation from ordinary to outstanding with Prezentium ‘s AI-powered services. Whether  you’re  pitching to investors, seeking funding, or sharing your vision with stakeholders, Prezentium equips you with the tools and expertise to create killer presentations that captivate your audience.

Overnight Presentations : Need a polished presentation in record time? Email your requirements to Prezentium by 5:30 pm PST, and we’ll work our magic overnight. By 9:30 am PST the following business day, you’ll receive a stellar presentation delivered straight to your inbox—ready to impress.

Presentation Specialists : Our team of experts at Prezentium is here to bring your ideas to life. From transforming meeting notes into exquisite presentations to crafting new designs and templates, we’ve got you covered. Let us help you elevate your presentation game and make a lasting impression.

Zenith Learning : Elevate your communication skills with Prezentium’s interactive workshops and training programs. Combining structured problem-solving with visual storytelling, our programs empower you to communicate with impact and clarity.

Unlock the full potential of your presentation with Prezentium’s AI-powered services. From compelling visuals to data-driven insights, we’re here to help you shine. Contact us today to supercharge your presentation and take your business to new heights!

Why wait? Avail a complimentary 1-on-1 session with our presentation expert. See how other enterprise leaders are creating impactful presentations with us.

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Business Plan: What It Is and How to Write One in 9 Steps

Business plans aren’t just for entrepreneurs who need to secure funding—they can help you plan and evaluate new ideas or growth plans, too. Find out how to write a business plan and get the most out of the process in this comprehensive guide.

A great business plan can help you clarify your strategy, identify potential roadblocks, determine necessary resources, and evaluate the viability of your idea and growth plan before you start a business .

Not every successful business launches with a formal business plan, but many founders find value in the process. When you make a business plan, you get to take time to step back, research your idea and the market you’re looking to enter, and understand the scope and the strategy behind your tactics.

Learn how to write a business plan with this step-by-step guide, including tips for getting the most of your plan and real business plan examples to inspire you.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a strategic document that outlines a company’s goals, strategies for achieving them, and the time frame for their achievement. It covers aspects like market analysis , financial projections, and organizational structure. Ultimately, a business plan serves as a roadmap for business growth and a tool to secure funding.

Often, financial institutions and investors need to see a business plan before funding any project. Even if you don’t plan to seek outside funding, a well-crafted plan becomes the guidance for your business as it scales.

The key components of a business plan

Putting together a business plan will highlight the parts of your company’s strategy and goals. It involves several key business plan components that work together to show the roadmap to your success.

Your business plan’s key components should include: 

• Executive summary: A brief overview of your entire plan.
• Company description: An explanation of what your business does and why it’s unique. 
• Market analysis: Research on your industry, target market, and competitors.
• Organization and management: Details about your business structure and the people running it.
• Products or services: A description of what you’re selling and how it benefits customers. 
• Customer segmentation: A breakdown of your target market into different groups.
• Marketing and sales plan: The strategy for promoting and selling your products and services.
• Logistics and operations: An overview of how your business will run its daily activities and manage resources.
• Financials: A complete look at projected income, expenses, and funding needs. 

How to write a business plan in 9 steps

• Draft an executive summary
• Write a company description
• Perform a market analysis
• Outline the management and organization
• List your products and services
• Perform customer segmentation
• Define a marketing plan
• Provide a logistics and operations plan
• Make a financial plan

Few things are more intimidating than a blank page. Starting your business plan with a structured outline and key elements for what you’ll include in each section is the best first step you can take.

Since an outline is such an important step in the process of writing a business plan, we’ve put together a high-level overview to get you started (and help you avoid the terror of facing a blank page).

Once you have your business plan template in place, it’s time to fill it in. We’ve broken it down by section to help you build your plan step by step.

1. Draft an executive summary

A good executive summary is one of the most crucial sections of your business plan—it’s also the last section you should write.

The executive summary distills everything that follows and gives time-crunched reviewers (e.g., potential investors and lenders) a high-level overview of your business that persuades them to read further.

Again, it’s a summary, so highlight the key points you’ve uncovered while writing your plan. If you’re writing for your own planning purposes, you can skip the summary altogether—although you might want to give it a try anyway, just for practice.

An executive summary shouldn’t exceed one page. Admittedly, that space constraint can make squeezing in all of the salient information a bit stressful—but it’s not impossible. 

Your business plan’s executive summary should include:

• Business concept. What does your business do?
• Business goals and vision. What does your business want to accomplish?
• Product description and differentiation. What do you sell, and why is it different?
• Target market. Who do you sell to?
• Marketing strategy. How do you plan on reaching your customers?
• Current financial state. What do you currently earn in revenue?
• Projected financial state. What do you foresee earning in revenue?
• The ask. How much money are you asking for?
• The team. Who’s involved in the business?

2. Write a company description

This section of your business plan should answer two fundamental questions: 

• Who are you?
• What do you plan to do? 

Answering these questions with a company description provides an introduction to why you’re in business, why you’re different, what you have going for you, and why you’re a good investment. 

For example, clean makeup brand Saie shares a letter from its founder on the company’s mission and why it exists.

Clarifying these details is still a useful exercise, even if you’re the only person who’s going to see them. It’s an opportunity to put to paper some of the more intangible facets of your business, like your principles, ideals, and cultural philosophies.

Here are some of the components you should include in your company description:

• Your business structure (Are you a sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, or incorporated company?)
• Your business model
• Your industry
• Your business’s vision, mission, and value proposition
• Background information on your business or its history
• Business objectives, both short and long term
• Your team, including key personnel and their salaries

Brand values and goals

To define your brand values , think about all the people your company is accountable to, including owners, employees, suppliers, customers, and investors. Now consider how you’d like to conduct business with each of them. As you make a list, your core values should start to emerge.

Your company description should also include both short- and long-term goals. Short-term goals, generally, should be achievable within the next year, while one to five years is a good window for long-term goals. Make sure your goal setting includes SMART goals : specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

Vision and mission statements

Once you know your values, you can write a mission statement . Your statement should explain, in a convincing manner, why your business exists, and should be no longer than a single sentence.

Next, craft your vision statement : What impact do you envision your business having on the world once you’ve achieved your vision? Phrase this impact as an assertion—begin the statement with “We will” and you’ll be off to a great start. Your vision statement, unlike your mission statement, can be longer than a single sentence, but try to keep it to three at most. The best vision statements are concise.

3. Perform a market analysis

Market analysis is a key section of your business plan, whether or not you ever intend for anyone else to read it.

No matter what type of business you start, whether a home-based business or service-based, it’s no exaggeration to say your market can make or break it. Choose the right market for your products—one with plenty of customers who understand and need your product—and you’ll have a head start on success. 

If you choose the wrong market, or the right market at the wrong time, you may find yourself struggling for each sale. Your market analysis should include an overview of how big you estimate the market is for your products, an analysis of your business’s position in the market, and an overview of the competitive landscape. Thorough research supporting your conclusions is important both to persuade investors and to validate your own assumptions as you work through your plan.

How big is your potential market?

The potential market is an estimate of how many people need your product. While it’s exciting to imagine sky-high sales figures, you’ll want to use as much relevant independent data as possible to validate your estimated potential market.

Since this can be a daunting process, here are some general tips to help you begin your research:

• Understand your ideal customer profile. Look for government data about the size of your target market , learn where they live, what social channels they use, and their shopping habits.
• Research relevant industry trends and trajectory. Explore consumer trends and product trends in your industry by looking at Google Trends, trade publications, and influencers in the space.
• Make informed guesses. You’ll never have perfect, complete information about your total addressable market. Your goal is to base your estimates on as many verifiable data points as necessary.

Some sources to consult for market data include government statistics offices, industry associations, academic research, and respected news outlets covering your industry.

Read more: What is a Marketing Analysis? 3 Steps Every Business Should Follow

SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis looks at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

That involves asking questions like: 

• What are the best things about your company? 
• What are you not so good at? 
• What market or industry shifts can you take advantage of and turn into opportunities? 
• Are there external factors threatening your ability to succeed?

SWOT is often depicted in a grid or otherwise visual way. With this visual presentation, your reader can quickly see the factors that may impact your business and determine your competitive advantage in the market.

Competitive analysis

There are three overarching factors you can use to differentiate your business in the face of competition:

• Cost leadership. You have the capacity to maximize profits by offering lower prices than the majority of your competitors. Examples include companies like Mejuri and Endy .
• Differentiation. Your product or service offers something distinct from the current cost leaders in your industry and banks on standing out based on your uniqueness. Think of companies like Knix and QALO .
• Segmentation. You focus on a very specific, or niche, target market, and aim to build traction with a smaller audience before moving on to a broader market. Companies like TomboyX and Heyday Footwear are great examples of this strategy.

To understand which is the best fit, you’ll need to understand your business as well as the competitive landscape.

You’ll always have competition in the market, even with an innovative product, so it’s important to include a competitive overview in your business plan. If you’re entering an established market, include a list of a few companies you consider direct competitors and explain how you plan to differentiate your products and business from theirs.

For example, if you’re selling jewelry , your competitive differentiation could be that, unlike many high-end competitors, you donate a percentage of your profits to a notable charity or pass savings on to your customers.

If you’re entering a market where you can’t easily identify direct competitors, consider your indirect competitors—companies offering products that are substitutes for yours. For example, if you’re selling an innovative new piece of kitchen equipment, it’s too easy to say that because your product is new, you have no competition. Consider what your potential customers are doing to solve the same problems.

4. Outline the management and organization

The management and organization section of your business plan should tell readers about who’s running your company. Detail the legal structure of your business. Communicate whether you’ll incorporate your business as an S corporation or create a limited partnership or sole proprietorship.

If you have a management team, use an organizational chart to show your company’s internal structure, including the roles, responsibilities, and relationships between people in your chart. Communicate how each person will contribute to the success of your startup.

5. List your products and services

Your products or services will feature prominently in most areas of your business plan, but it’s important to provide a section that outlines key details about them for interested readers.

If you sell many items, you can include more general information on each of your product lines. If you only sell a few, provide additional information on each. 

For example, bag shop BAGGU sells a large selection of different types of bags, in addition to home goods and other accessories. Its business plan would list out those categories and key details about the products within each category.

Describe new products you’ll launch in the near future and any intellectual property you own. Express how they’ll improve profitability. It’s also important to note where products are coming from—handmade crafts are sourced differently than trending products for a dropshipping business, for instance.

6. Perform customer segmentation

Your ideal customer, also known as your target market, is the foundation of your marketing plan , if not your business plan as a whole. 

You’ll want to keep this buyer persona in mind as you make strategic decisions, which is why an overview of who they are is important to understand and include in your business plan.

To give a holistic overview of your ideal customer, describe a number of general and specific demographic characteristics. Customer segmentation often includes:

• Where they live
• Their age range
• Their level of education
• Some common behavior patterns
• How they spend their free time
• Where they work
• What technology they use
• How much they earn
• Where they’re commonly employed
• Their values, beliefs, or opinions

This information will vary based on what you’re selling, but you should be specific enough that it’s unquestionably clear who you’re trying to reach—and more importantly, why you’ve made the choices you have based on who your customers are and what they value.

For example, a college student has different interests, shopping habits, and pricing sensitivity than a 50-year-old executive at a Fortune 500 company. Your business plan and decisions would look very different based on which one was your ideal customer.

Put your customer data to work with Shopify’s customer segmentation

Shopify’s built-in segmentation tools help you discover insights about your customers, build segments as targeted as your marketing plans with filters based on your customers’ demographic and behavioral data, and drive sales with timely and personalized emails.

7. Define a marketing plan

Your marketing efforts are directly informed by your ideal customer. That’s why, as you outline your current decisions and future strategy, your marketing plan should keep a sharp focus on how your business idea is a fit for that ideal customer.

If you’re planning to invest heavily in Instagram marketing or TikTok ads , for example, it makes sense to include whether Instagram and TikTok are leading platforms for your audience. If the answer is no, that might be a sign to rethink your marketing plan.

Market your business with Shopify’s customer marketing tools

Shopify has everything you need to capture more leads, send email campaigns, automate key marketing moments, segment your customers, and analyze your results. Plus, it’s all free for your first 10,000 emails sent per month.

Most marketing plans include information on four key subjects. How much detail you present on each will depend on both your business and your plan’s audience.

• Price: How much do your products cost, and why have you made that decision?
• Product: What are you selling and how do you differentiate it in the market?
• Promotion: How will you get your products in front of your ideal customer?
• Place: Where will you sell your products? On what channels and in which markets?

Promotion may be the bulk of your plan, since you can more readily dive into tactical details, but the other three areas should be covered at least briefly—each is an important strategic lever in your marketing mix.

8. Provide a logistics and operations plan

Logistics and operations are the workflows you’ll implement to make your business idea a reality. If you’re writing a business plan for your own planning purposes, this is still an important section to consider, even though you might not need to include the same level of detail as if you were seeking investment.

Cover all parts of your planned operations, including:

• Suppliers. Where do you get the raw materials you need for production, or where are your products produced?
• Production. Will you make, manufacture, wholesale , or dropship your products? How long does it take to produce your products and get them shipped to you? How will you handle a busy season or an unexpected spike in demand?
• Facilities. Where will you and any team members work? Do you plan to have a physical retail space? If yes, where?
• Equipment. What tools and technology do you require to be up and running? This includes everything from software to lightbulbs and everything in between.
• Shipping and fulfillment. Will you be handling all the fulfillment tasks in-house, or will you use a third-party fulfillment partner?
• Inventory. How much will you keep on hand, and where will it be stored? How will you ship it to partners if required, and how will you approach inventory management ?

This section should signal to your reader that you’ve got a solid understanding of your supply chain, with strong contingency plans in place to cover potential uncertainty. If your reader is you, it should give you a basis to make other important decisions, like how to price your products to cover your estimated costs, and at what point you anticipate breaking even on your initial spending.

9. Make a financial plan

No matter how great your idea is—and regardless of the effort, time, and money you invest—a business lives or dies based on its financial health. At the end of the day, people want to work with a business they expect to be viable for the foreseeable future.

The level of detail required in your financial plan will depend on your audience and goals, but typically you’ll want to include three major views of your financials: an income statement, a balance sheet, and a cash-flow statement. It also may be appropriate to include financial data and projections.

Here’s a spreadsheet template that includes everything you’ll need to create an income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement, including some sample numbers. You can edit it to reflect projections if needed.

Let’s review the types of financial statements you’ll need.

Income statements

Your income statement is designed to give readers a look at your revenue sources and expenses over a given time period. With those two pieces of information, they can see the all-important bottom line or the profit or loss your business experienced during that time. If you haven’t launched your business yet, you can project future milestones of the same information.

Balance sheets

Your balance sheet offers a look at how much equity you have in your business. On one side, you list all your business assets (what you own), and on the other side, all your liabilities (what you owe). 

This provides a snapshot of your business’s shareholder equity, which is calculated as:

Assets - Liabilities = Equity

Cash flow statements

Your cash flow statement is similar to your income statement, with one important difference: it takes into account when revenues are collected and when expenses are paid.

When the cash you have coming in is greater than the cash you have going out, your cash flow is positive. When the opposite scenario is true, your cash flow is negative. Ideally, your cash flow statement will help you see when cash is low, when you might have a surplus, and where you might need to have a contingency plan to access funding to keep your business solvent .

It can be especially helpful to forecast your cash-flow statement to identify gaps or negative cash flow and adjust operations as required.

📚 Read more: Cash Flow Management: What It Is & How To Do It (+ Examples)

Why write a business plan?

Investors rely on business plans to evaluate the feasibility of a business before funding it, which is why business plans are commonly associated with getting a business loan. 

Business plans also help owners identify areas of weakness before launching, potentially avoiding costly mistakes down the road. “Laying out a business plan helped us identify the ’unknowns’ and made it easier to spot the gaps where we’d need help or, at the very least, to skill up ourselves,” says Jordan Barnett, owner of Kapow Meggings .

There are several other compelling reasons to consider writing a business plan, including:

• Strategic planning. Writing out your plan is an invaluable exercise for clarifying your ideas and can help you understand the scope of your business, as well as the amount of time, money, and resources you’ll need to get started.
• Evaluating ideas. If you’ve got multiple ideas in mind, a rough business plan for each can help you focus your time and energy on the ones with the highest chance of success.
• Research. To write a business plan, you’ll need to research your ideal customer and your competitors—information that will help you make more strategic decisions.
• Recruiting. Your business plan is one of the easiest ways to communicate your vision to potential new hires and can help build their confidence in the venture, especially if you’re in the early stages of growth.
• Partnerships. If you plan to collaborate with other brands , having a clear overview of your vision, your audience, and your business strategy will make it much easier for them to identify if your business is a good fit for theirs.
• Competitions. There are many business plan competitions offering prizes such as mentorships, grants, or investment capital. 

If you’re looking for a structured way to lay out your thoughts and ideas, and to share those ideas with people who can have a big impact on your success, making a business plan is an excellent starting point.

Business plan types

Business plan types can span from one page to multiple pages, with detailed graphs and reports. There’s no one right way to create a business plan. The goal is to convey the most important information about your company for readers.

Common business plans we see include, but are not limited to, the following types:

Traditional business plans

These are the most common business plans. Traditional business plans take longer to write and can be dozens of pages long. Venture capitalist firms and lenders ask for this plan. Traditional business plans may not be necessary if you don’t plan to seek outside funding. That’s where a lean business plan comes in.

Lean business plans

A lean business plan is a shorter version of a traditional business plan. It follows the same format, but only includes the most important information. Businesses use lean business plans to onboard new hires or modify existing plans for a specific target market. If you want to write a business plan purely for your own planning purposes when starting a new small business, a lean business plan is typically the way to go. 

Nonprofit business plans

A nonprofit business plan is for any entity that operates for public or social benefit. It covers everything you’ll find in a traditional business plan, plus a section describing the impact the company plans to make. For example, a speaker and headphone brand would communicate that they aim to help people with hearing disabilities. Donors often request this type of business plan.

📚 Read more: 7 Business Plan Examples to Inspire Your Own (2024)

7 tips for creating a small business plan

There are a few best practices when it comes to writing a business plan. While your plan will be unique to your business and goals, keep these tips in mind as you write.

1. Know your audience

When you know who will be reading your plan—even if you’re just writing it for yourself to clarify your ideas—you can tailor the language and level of detail to them. This can also help you make sure you’re including the most relevant information and figure out when to omit sections that aren’t as impactful.

2. Have a clear goal

When creating a business plan, you’ll need to put in more work and deliver a more thorough plan if your goal is to secure funding for your business, versus working through a plan for yourself or your team.

3. Invest time in research

Sections of your business plan will primarily be informed by your ideas and vision, but some of the most crucial information you’ll need requires research from independent sources. This is where you can invest time in understanding who you’re selling to, whether there’s demand for your products, and who else is selling similar products or services.

4. Keep it short and to the point

No matter who you’re writing for, your business plan should be short and readable—generally no longer than 15 to 20 pages. If you do have additional documents you think may be valuable to your audience and your goals, consider adding them as appendices.

5. Keep the tone, style, and voice consistent

This is best managed by having a single person write the plan or by allowing time for the plan to be properly edited before distributing it.

6. Use a business plan template

You can also use a free business plan template to provide a skeleton for writing a plan. These templates often guide you through each section—from financial projects to market research to mission statement—ensuring you don’t miss a step.

7. Try business plan software

Writing a business plan isn’t the easiest task for business owners. But it’s important for anyone starting or expanding a business. 

Fortunately, there are tools to help with everything from planning, drafting, creating graphics, syncing financial data, and more. Business plan software also has business plan templates and tutorials to help you finish a comprehensive plan in hours, rather than days.

A few curated picks include:

• LivePlan : the most affordable option with samples and templates
• Bizplan : tailored for startups seeking investment
• Go Small Biz : budget-friendly option with industry-specific templates

📚 Read more:  6 Best Business Plan Software Platforms (2024)

Common mistakes when writing a business plan

Other articles on business plans would never tell you what we’re about to tell you: Your business plan can fail. 

The last thing you want is for time and effort to go down the drain, so avoid these common mistakes:

• Bad business idea. Sometimes your idea may be too risky for potential investors or too expensive to run, or there’s no market. Aim for small business ideas that require low startup costs.
• No exit strategy. If you don’t show an exit strategy, or a plan for investors to leave the business with maximum profits, you’ll have little luck securing capital.
• Unbalanced teams. A great product is the cost of entry to starting a business. But an incredible team will take it to the top. Unfortunately, many business owners overlook a balanced team. They focus on potential profits, without worrying about how it will be done operationally. 
• Missing financial projections. Don’t forget your balance sheet, cash flow statements, P&L statements, and income statements. Include your break-even analysis and return-on-investment calculations in your financial projections to create a successful business plan.
• Spelling and grammar errors. All the best organizations have an editor review their documents. If someone spots typos while reading your business plan, sloppy errors like those can evoke a larger sense of distrust in your capabilities to run a successful company. It may seem minor, but legibility and error-free writing helps make a good impression on your business plan’s audience. 

Updating and revising a business plan

Business plans aren’t static documents. The business world moves fast and your plan will need to keep up. You don’t want it to get stale. 

Here’s a good rule of thumb for business plan revisions:

• Monthly: Update KPIs like sales, website traffic, and customer acquisition costs. Review your cash flow. Is your money situation as expected? Make the necessary changes.
• Quarterly : Are you hitting your targets? Be sure to update your financial performance, successful marketing campaigns, and any other recent milestones achieved.
• Yearly : Think of this as a big overhaul. Compare projections to actuals and update your forecasts. 

When updating your plan, don’t just go with your gut. Use data like surveys and website analytics to inform each update. Using outdated information will only lead to confusion and missed opportunities.

Remember not to just update one part of your plan—it’s all connected. Fortunately, with business plan software you can easily give your plan attention and help your business thrive. 

How to present a business plan

Here are some tips for presenting your business plan to stakeholders.

Understand your audience

Start by doing homework on who you’ll be presenting to. Are they investors, potential partners, or a bank? Each group will have different interests and expectations. 

Consider the following about your presentation audience:

• Background: What’s their professional experience?
• Knowledge level: How familiar are they with your industry?
• Interests: What aspects of your plan will excite them most?
• Concerns: What might make them hesitant about your idea?

Depending on who you’re presenting to, you can tweak your presentation accordingly. For example, if you’re presenting to a group of investors, you’d probably want to highlight financial projections and market analysis. 

Structure your presentation

Once you know your audience, you can organize your presentation. Think of this as the story you’ll tell listeners. A well-structured presentation helps listeners follow along and remember key points. 

Your opening should grab attention and give a snapshot of what’s to come. It’s kind of like an elevator pitch that gives an overview of your business idea. 

From there, break your presentation into clear sections:

• Problem: What issue are you solving?
• Solution: How does your business address this problem?
• Market: Who are your potential customers?
• Competition: Who else is in this space, and how are you different?
• Business model: How will you make money?
• Financial projections: What are your expected costs and revenues?
• Team: Who’s involved, and what makes them qualified?

Use visual aids to support your points. Graphs, charts, and even simple illustrations can make your information more digestible. Remember to practice your timing, too. A good presentation flows smoothly, giving each section the right amount of attention for its intended audience. 

Handle objections and questions

Facing objections or questions can be nerve-wracking, but it’s actually a great opportunity. It shows your listeners are engaged and thinking critically about your idea. The key is to be prepared and stay calm. 

Try to anticipate potential questions. Put yourself in the listener’s shoes: What would you want to know if you were them? Come up with clear answers to these questions ahead of time.

When handling questions:

• Listen carefully: Make sure you fully understand the question before answering.
• Stay positive: Even if the question seems critical, respond with enthusiasm.
• Be honest: If you don’t know something, it’s OK. Offer to find out and follow up. 

Use questions as a way to highlight the strengths of your business plan. If a question needs more thought or refresh, it’s perfectly fine to say, “That’s a great question. I’d love to look further into it and get back to you with a detailed answer.”

Handling questions well shows that you’re knowledgeable, thoughtful, and open to feedback—all things that will impress listeners and make them feel confident in your business plan. 

Prepare your business plan today

A business plan can help you identify clear, deliberate next steps for your business, even if you never plan to pitch investors—and it can help you see gaps in your plan before they become issues. 

Whether you’re working on starting a new online business idea , building a retail storefront, growing your established business, or purchasing an existing business , you now understand how to write a business plan that suits your business’s goals and needs.

Feature illustration by Rachel Tunstall

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Business plan FAQ

How do i write a business plan.

Learning how to write a business plan is simple if you use a business plan template or business plan software. Typically, a traditional business plan for every new business should have the following components:

• Executive summary
• Company description, including value proposition
• Market analysis and competitive analysis
• Management and organization
• Products and services
• Customer segmentation
• Marketing plan
• Logistics and operations
• Financial plan and financial projections

What is a good business plan?

A good business plan clearly communicates your company’s purpose, goals, and growth strategies. It starts with a strong executive summary, then adequately outlines idea feasibility, target market insights, and the competitive landscape. 

A business plan template can help businesses be sure to follow the typical format of traditional business plans, which also include financial projections, details about the management team, and other key elements that venture capital firms and potential investors want to see.

What are the 3 main purposes of a business plan?

The three main purposes of a business plan are: 

• To clarify your plans for growth
• To understand your financial needs
• To attract funding from investors or secure a business loan

What are the different types of business plans?

The types of business plans include startup, refocusing, internal, annual, strategic, feasibility, operations, growth, and scenario-based. Each type of business plan has a different purpose. Business plan formats include traditional, lean, and nonprofit. Find a business plan template for the type of plan you want to write.

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• Business Plans

Download the Guide to Making Great Presentations (Free eBook)

Also, be sure to grab a copy of the perfect complement to this tutorial. Our free eBook:  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations will help you master the presentation process. You'll learn everything from coming up with the initial idea through to writing, design, and delivering with impact. 

Now let's learn step by step how to make a great business plan PowerPoint presentation.

The Best Source For Unlimited Business Plan PowerPoint Templates

If you want to learn how to make a business plan PPT, the secret is this: start with a template . You'll be amazed by how much work is already done for you. 

One way of working in PowerPoint is to draw everything from scratch. Then add your content and revise it until it's usable. But this takes too long.

Instead, source business plan templates for PowerPoint from Envato Elements. This saves you design work and lets you re-focus on planning and running your business.

Even better, Envato Elements is an "all-you-can-download" service. You can source unlimited PowerPoint business plan templates and so much more—all for a single, flat-rate cost. Learning how to make a PowerPoint presentation is so easy with templates.

If you're wondering how to make business plan PPTs like the professionals, don't forget the design extras like stock photos, graphics, and more. Those are included as part of your subscription to Envato Elements .

If you're an early-stage business and want to learn how to launch, check out the tutorial below. It focuses on pitch decks, which help you garner support for your new business:

5 Top Business Plan Templates for PowerPoint on Envato Elements

With Envato Elements, just fill in the placeholders to complete your PowerPoint business plan. Open the business plan template. Add your content. And you're ready to share your business plan.

Here are five of the best PowerPoint business plan designs on Envato Elements to help you create your business plan presentation:

1. Business Plan PowerPoint Template

The success of a business plan presentation often hinges on the professionalism of the slide. This template is sure to hit the mark with well-designed slides. 

If you're learning how to make a business plan presentation, a template like this is the best possible investment. Thanks to the included slides you'll easily make your presentation.

2. Business Plan PowerPoint

The clean and minimal designs in this template cut straight to the chase. Your business model takes center stage with the help of this template. 

One of my favorite features in this business plan for PowerPoint is the infographics and charts. They show data and financial plans for your business that show your objectives.

3. Business Plan 3.0 PowerPoint Template

You're staring at a blank screen, wondering " how do I prepare a business plan in PPT? " You've got a big idea, but you need help launching it and don't know what to include. 

The answer is a great business plan template for PowerPoint like this one. It already has all the slide designs you need so you won't be left guessing what to include.

4. Business Plan PowerPoint Presentation

Making a business plan presentation is easier when you start with a template. This one is the perfect example with plenty of business-centric slide designs. It features free icons, engaging animations, and a wide variety of layouts that work for any business concept.

5. Business Plan Multipurpose PowerPoint

Modern and minimal slides make this template a great choice. Custom image placeholders are just waiting for illustrations to show your business plan in action. With 30 unique slide designs and five color schemes, there's no shortage of slide designs.

How to Quickly Make Great  Business Plan Presentations With PowerPoint PPT Templates (Video)

Are you ready to start learning how to quickly make business plan PowerPoint presentations?  Watch this quick video to find out what you need to know to use PowerPoint templates to create effective presentations quickly:

For even more tips on how to make a business plan PPT, study the rest of the written tutorial below.

How to Make a Business Plan PowerPoint Presentation With an Elements Template

Are you wondering how to make a business plan with PPT? So far, you've seen top business plan PowerPoint templates that you can use for your presentation.

But you might  still  be wondering: how do you use those templates to create your own business plan? If these slides are already populated, how do you customize them?

Now, let's learn how to make a business plan PPT with the help of an Envato Elements business plan template . You'll see that you don't trade off customizations when you start with a template.

1. Choose a Template

Luckily, choosing a template is the hardest part of this process. And it's only challenging because Envato Elements has such an extensive library of business plan templates!

In this section, I'm going to customize the Business Plan 3.0 PowerPoint  presentation. It's got over 40 unique slide designs that are perfect for building a business proposal.

Don't forget: Envato Elements has an incredibly deep library of business plan templates. You don't learn how to make a business plan PPT on your own when you use a template.

2. Open the Template

Once you download your template, open it up. It comes packaged as a zip file that you can double click to open. Then, open the  PPTX  folder. Choose from the animated or non-animated versions, depending on your preferences. 

For my example, I'll use the animated version.

3. Select the Slides to Use

As you work with business plan PPT templates, you'll find that they include a ton of slide designs. They usually include far more slide layouts than you'll need. That's not a problem because it helps to have more options. Skip the designs you don't need.

Open the PowerPoint template and select the slides you need. Drag and drop the slides you'll use to the front of the presentation. On the left side of PowerPoint, click and drag the slide thumbnails into proper sequence.

Spend some time thinking about what slides are most crucial to  your  business plan. Then, drag-and-drop the slides to the top of the deck.

4. Customize Your Slides - Part I

Remember: slide templates are a starting point. They need to be customized with your content to represent  your  business idea. That's easy to do.

Let's walk through customizing a slide. I'm going to work with  slide 37  in the original template. It's a simple team slide that would work perfectly in any business plan.

Most slides are customizable in just a few steps. In this example, here's what I'll change:

• Team images . Click on the photo icon, then browse to your team's photos to add them to the slide.
• Update text . Type over the placeholders with your team's names and titles.
• Slim the slide . Finally, I'll remove the text boxes below each of my team members. Those are better handled as speaking points instead of flooding the slide with too much text.

5. Customize Your Slides - Part II

As you learn how to make a business plan presentation, it may help to see multiple slides customized. Let's work with a second slide from our business plan PowerPoint.

On slide 24, you've got a flexible project status infographic. As you're launching your business, it's important to keep track of your objectives. With the help of a project slide like this one, you can show how key projects are progressing.

Again, this slide is customizable. Here are just some of the steps you can take to customize it:

• Update the headline . Make sure that you update the title to match your business and project.
• Adjust the progress bars . The gradient (blue-green) boxes represent each project stage. Click and drag them to show the percent completion.
• Add your project milestones . Tiny text placeholders are too hard to read. Increase the size and add simple project sections.

This is just one example of customizing a PowerPoint slide. Repeat this process for any other slides that you need to round out your business plan PowerPoint presentation. Learning how to make a business plan PPT is a matter of replacing placeholders.

6. Save and Print Your Finished Presentation

Once you've selected and customized your favorite slides, it's time to wrap up your business plan. 

First, save your presentation. Go to the  File > Save As  option to save a copy that's separate from the original template. Save your business plan for PowerPoint somewhere safe and accessible so that you can share it easily.

Use our guide below to help you print your PowerPoint business plan. Potential investors and employees might want a copy they can use to review your concept.

How to Customize a Pro Business Plan PowerPoint Template From GraphicRiver

With it's all you can download deal, Envato Elements has a fantastic offer. But if you don't expect to need other business plan templates in PowerPoint or other design assets Envato can still help. 

Get a single  PowerPoint business plan template  as a one-time purchase from GraphicRiver. You'll find the same professional layouts and ease of use.

1. Choose the Perfect Business PowerPoint Template

You could open PowerPoint. Throw a bunch of pictures and charts up every which way and call it a day. But if that's your plan, you might as well skip your business plan presentation altogether and accept defeat now.

The success of your business plan is riding on this presentation. Now isn't the time to lean on your own design skills.

With the help of PowerPoint presentation templates , quickly and easily create your own professional-looking presentation in a matter of minutes.

Are you unsure of where to start with so many templates to choose from? Look at some of the most popular business plan PowerPoint templates that business professionals and freelancers love and trust for closing deals:

2. Choose Your Favorite PowerPoint Presentation

After browsing and drooling over all the wonderful business PPT presentations, it’s time to choose one. Difficult step, I know!

Choose a template that's got plenty of options. That means choosing a business plan with plenty of layouts, as well as extras like icons. Also, be on the lookout for print friendly templates that are ready to share.

For this tutorial, I’ve selected this Modern Business Plan PowerPoint Presentation . This template has 50 slides and three custom color schemes for an unlimited number of combinations.

Here's a demonstration of this PowerPoint template's features:

The template also comes with lots of icons that you can use to draw attention to key points. And thanks to image placeholders, there's less to learn as you build your business plan in PowerPoint.

3. Set Up Your Template

After downloading a template, you’ll see that you've got a few options to choose from in the main folder before you edit your presentation.

First, decide the ratio of your presentation: 4:3 or 16:9. (Some templates also offer a third, printer-ready mode). It's all about maximizing the screen that you'll share your presentation on.

Check out our guide to choose the best PowerPoint size, every time:

For this tutorial, I’ll use the 16:9 ratio of the Modern Business Plan PowerPoint Presentation template .

Next, choose whether you want to open up the presentation in PPT or PPTX mode. This depends on the version of PowerPoint you’re using for your presentation.

If you’re using Microsoft Office version 2007 or later, use the PPTX file. If you’re using a Microsoft Office version that was released before 2007, you’ll want to use PPT. Creating and saving your presentation in PPTX allows for greater compatibility of your file with other programs and software. So, opt for that whenever possible.

Now, decide whether you want to create an animated or simple presentation. 

• If you choose NO Animation, new slides will appear on the screen immediately as soon as you press the Next arrow. 
• If you choose Animation, new slides will appear on the screen through some kind of animation. They may fade in and out or slide in from the side of the screen. Each element of the slide may even pop onto the screen one after the other.

Both versions look and act the same during the editing process of the presentation. Your choice depends on the aesthetics you’d like for your finished products. Since I enjoy animated presentations, I’m going with that version.

Finally, choose your favorite color template. Launch it, and we’re ready to start editing!

4. “Save As” Your Presentation!

It may seem weird to start saving when we haven’t created anything in our presentation.

It's not so weird when you understand the two things we’re trying to avoid:

• We don’t want you to accidentally overwrite your template file with this specific presentation.
• We don’t want you to lose the work due to an unexpected program freeze or any other technical hiccup.

So, after opening your template is to click on File in your horizontal menu bar. Then click Save As…

Give your file the desired name and save it to the appropriate location on your computer.

Note : If you don’t already do so, get into the habit of hitting Ctrl + S (or Command + S , if you’re working on a Mac) every now and again. This will save the latest changes you've made to your presentation.

5. General Editing and Options

In the center of your screen, you've got the first slide of your presentation. In the left you can see a vertical menu containing all the different slides of your presentation. And in the top of your screen you see various horizontal menu bars and options that'll help you edit your presentation.

The great thing about making a PowerPoint presentation from a template is that everything you see on a slide is editable. That means you can make your presentation look exactly like you want it to.

Let’s start with the text elements in this step and move on to the graphic and visual ones in the following step.

Double-click on the title of your first slide to change the words “Our Business Plan” to the name of your presentation. Do the same for the subtitle and all other textual elements on the first slide to add your details.

When you’re happy with the information on the first slide, go over to the menu on the left and click on the second slide. Double-click on any piece of writing or numbers on the slide to edit, just like before. Change the wording to fit your presentation or delete a piece of text entirely if it doesn’t suit your purposes.

Want to add a new line of text where currently no text appears? Click once on the edge of the slide’s grey background to deselect any item you may currently have selected with your mouse. (You should see no editing boxes anywhere on the slide when all items are deselected.) Then insert a text box where you want the new text to appear and begin typing, as in the image below.

Using the top menu of your software, edit any new or existing piece of text to the size, font, color, and look you like. The options are countless!

In the same way, change, add, or delete any textual elements on any of your presentation slides. You can even change text that doesn’t run horizontally on your screen. For example, the word “Renew” in slide 4 of our Modern Business Plan PowerPoint Presentation.

Double-click it and type to edit.

6. Images, Graphics, and Other Elements

Knowing how to make a PowerPoint presentation say exactly what you want it to say is only half the work. The other half is making it show exactly what you want to show. Which is just as easy!

You can edit, change, or delete any icon, picture (or picture placeholder), and graphic element you see on your template.

Let’s start with pictures. The little images with a yellow sun shining over green mountains that you see in the screenshot below and which appear scattered throughout your template mark the location of picture placeholders.   

Think of these picture placeholders as ghost pictures. They’re holding the space that your actual picture will occupy once you insert it into your presentation.

When you click on the picture-placeholder icon a dialog box will appear on your screen. Select the picture you want to use from your computer. Or, you can also drag a picture from your computer over to the picture placeholder to add it on.

The best thing about picture placeholders? No matter how large your image is, it'll be automatically resized to fit the area occupied by the placeholder. Look how different my picture looks when I add it to slide 1 of the template.

And when I add it to slide 8 of the template.

Same picture, same process, same template. Both additions took two seconds of my time. And I haven't had to make any changes to my picture. Magic!

A good PowerPoint template doesn’t just allow you to add pictures to your presentation. It also has places for icons.

Pictures are the full-colored photographs or images you can add to a presentation. Icons are simpler graphic elements that help enhance the main points of your presentation through visual representation.

To change an icon in your PowerPoint presentation, click on it once to select it. Then right-click (or click down with two fingers on a Mac trackpad) to bring up the Options menu.

Choose the Change Picture option. When the dialog box opens, find your saved template folder. Choose the icons subfolder, select your desired icon, and click Insert.

Resize, reshape, and recolor all png icons in any way you like using the right-hand side and top menu bars of your program.

Finally, let’s talk about other visual elements of your presentation, such as graphs.

Our template already contains some graphs in it. Like all other elements, these are fully editable. To change a graph, click on the specific element you want to change and drag it to a new position. Change its color or resize it to fit your data.

Notice how in the example below I’ve changed the size and color of both the red and light blue lines in the chart of Slide 6 of our presentation template.

7. Add or Delete Slides

Each business PowerPoint presentation is as different as the entrepreneur or freelancer creating it. Besides changing the text and visual elements of each slide, you may also want to delete entire slides of the template or add new ones.

To delete a slide, select it from the left-hand side menu. Double-click (or click down with two fingers on a Mac trackpad) for the Options menu. Select Delete Slide .

As you can see in the image above, the option above Delete Slide says Duplicate Slide . If you want two slides with the same layout in your presentation, click that option. A new, duplicate slide will be added right after the original one.

The Options menu also gives you the choice to add a New Slide , which will be added right after the slide you’ve clicked on. The Duplicate Slide option will add a new slide to your presentation with the same layout as the one you’re currently on. The New Slide option will add a new, empty slide to your presentation for you to style as you wish.

There’s also a second way of adding new slides that you should know.

Select the place in your presentation where you want the new slide to be added. (Note: new slides are always added after the slide in your current selection.) Click the Insert option from your main horizontal menu bar. The first picture option you see beneath it says New Slide . 

If you click on the picture, you’ll get an empty new slide. But if you click on the little arrow to the right of the picture, a menu of template slides will open up for you to choose from.

8. Reorder Your Presentation

The great thing about using a template to create your PowerPoint presentation is that the template acts as a guide to the structure of your presentation. The slides come already ordered in a logical sequence that'll help you present your plan or proposal in a convincing manner.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t make changes to the order of your slides. Reorder the slides in your presentation in any way that suits you and your purposes.

To change the order of your slides, click on a slide in the left-hand side menu to select it. Then click-and-hold your desired slide and drag it to its new position.

9. Add Transitions

Remember that at the beginning of this tutorial I told you I would choose the animated version of the tutorial? Well, you can change even the animation of our business plan presentation to fit your taste.

Click on any slide in your presentation. Then click on Transitions in the main horizontal menu bar of your software. The slide I’ve selected in the image below has a transition called Fly Through . But as you can see in the area I’ve highlighted in red below, you can choose to change that transitions.

You can also change the duration of the transition and even add a sound if you so wish. Keep in mind though, a light touch goes a long way with transition animations. 

10. Play Your Presentation

After all the clicks and changes it’s finally time to view the masterpiece you’ve created in real time! Always play your presentation before presenting it to your clients or prospects. Check to make sure that everything flows nicely and makes sense.

The last thing you want is a small transition hiccup or other minor detail to undermine the work you’ve put into creating an awesome presentation.

Go to the beginning of your PowerPoint presentation, choose Slide Show in the main horizontal menu bar. Then click the first option below that, Play from Start . Sit back and enjoy!

Find the Ideal PowerPoint Presentation Template for You

In this article, you've seen two outstanding choices for business plan templates for PowerPoint. It's true that both Elements and GraphicRiver both offer professionally designed templates. So, which one should you choose? And what are the key benefits of each marketplace?

1. Key Benefits of Envato Elements

One subscription, unlimited downloads. Every month, more creatives subscribe to Envato Elements to give themselves a major design advantage. 

With Elements, the unlimited business plan PowerPoint templates are just a start. The value really starts to show when you consider all the included stock photos and graphics.  It's an unbeatable offer.

2. Key Benefits of GraphicRiver (and Envato Market)

GraphicRiver is a fantastic marketplace for purchasing single-use assets like business plan PPT templates. It's a part of the Envato Market network that includes every type of digital asset you might need.

When you know what you need and want to start fast, jump over to GraphicRiver. Buy a single business plan PPT, open it, and add your details to build your plan. Here are the  best PowerPoint templates that are currently trending on GraphicRiver :

Your Choice (What’s Right for You?)

If you're an entrepreneur who always has fresh ideas, then you'll need business plan PPT templates to match. With the help of Envato Elements, you can download all the resources you need. This maximizes your value and keeps costs low.  Sign up for Envato Elements now .

Or, if you know exactly what you need and only want a single business plan for PPT , jump to GraphicRiver. You can download a business plan for PPT and start your design quickly.

Learn More About Making Great PowerPoint Presentations

With the help of templates, you've learned how to prepare a business plan for PPT. But, there's always more to learn when you use powerful apps like Microsoft PowerPoint.

To keep learning how to prepare a business plan for PPT, check out our resource, How to Use PowerPoint (Ultimate Tutorial Guide.)   Check out these beginner templates to kickstart your learning:

Download Our (Free) eBook on Making Great Presentations 

We've got the perfect complement to this tutorial. It'll help you learn how to write, design, and deliver great presentations—deconstructing the entire process.

Grab  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations  now for FREE with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter. Get your ideas formed into a powerful presentation that'll move your audience. 

Design Your Business Plan for PowerPoint Today

In this tutorial, you learned how to prepare a business plan for PPT. With the help of a template, you can drop your business idea into ready-made slides.

Don't forget: you skip learning how to make business plan for PPTs from scratch when you use templates. With the help of Elements, you can source unlimited business plan PPT downloads , plus stock photos, and more. On GraphicRiver , you can buy single PowerPoint business plan templates.

It's time to go design a business plan of your own. Use what you learned in this tutorial to build your business plan for PPT and launch your idea to success!

Editorial Note: This tutorial was originally published in November of 2015. It's been updated to include new information including a quick start video—with special assistance from Andrew Childress .

Home Blog Business How To Craft & Deliver an Effective Business Plan Presentation (Quick Guide)

How To Craft & Deliver an Effective Business Plan Presentation (Quick Guide)

A vital element in today’s highly competitive business landscape is the ability to craft and deliver a business plan presentation. This applies to both entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. 

This guide describes essential aspects required to build a business plan presentation and deliver it to stakeholders. 

Table of Contents

What is a Business Plan Presentation?

Is a business plan presentation the same as a business presentation, executive summary, justification of the business proposal, swot analysis, the niche of the proposal & actors in the industry, competitors, competitive intensity, trend analysis and critical variables, value chain, market analysis, jobs-to-be-done, value proposition, revenue streams, cost structure, distribution channels, key partnerships for the business model, organizational structure & management, go to market and marketing plan, development plan, qa, and continuous improvement model, distribution plan, inventory management, initial funding and financing structure, projection of income and costs.

• Evaluation of Projected Return vs. Required

Risk Evaluation

Sensitivity to critical variables, how to present bibliographical information in a business plan presentation, how to deliver a business plan presentation.

A business plan presentation is the medium we use to communicate a business plan to an audience. 

Presenters commonly ask what is the target length of a business plan presentation in terms of slides. Our expertise in this field tells us it’s advisable to work between 13-20 slides, remaining as concise as possible and using the help of visual aids. Let the graphics speak rather than fill your slides with text blocks.

No. A business plan presentation is used to communicate an identified business opportunity and how it is planned to be served in a way that generates profit. A business presentation is a more generic term, explained in our article about business presentation examples . 

How to Create a Business Plan Presentation

This section will list our recommended content for a successful business plan presentation. We broke it down into four stages which help the presenter build the story backing the business: a-. The opportunity and the competitive landscape analyzed, b- the business model designed and tested to serve the opportunity, c- the implementation plan of the business model, and finally, d- the financial and economic projections estimated that show the profitability of the opportunity.

For the purpose of this guide, the slides will refer to a case study of photo editing software. To replicate this slide deck creation process, you can speed up design decisions by working with the SlideModel AI Presentation Maker and tailoring it to your project.

So, how to make a business plan presentation? Let’s see a step by step guide.

Stage 1 – Identifying the Opportunity

After the title slide that defines how to start a presentation , any business plan should proceed by introducing the executive summary in a concise but impactful format.

The purpose of the executive summary is to inform the audience what to expect from the presentation and its conclusion.

Work with a maximum of two slides for this section, highlighting the key elements through visual cues. Check our guide on how to present an executive summary .

The next slide should disclose all the reasoning behind the business plan proposal, why this plan is being presented at this present moment, and projections of how the plan aligns with the current market trends.

Presenters can share the analysis done by the Market research team as long as it’s made clear which problem is relevant to the current market trends that this business plan aims to solve.

Mention all the references used to arrive at the conclusions expressed so data is backed with meaningful sources.

Any corporate PPT template can help you craft this slide, but presenters can also boost their performance through the use of infographics . If your solution for the selected problem involves a complex process, consider using a process flow template to expose the step-by-step justification of this proposal.

Use a SWOT template to showcase the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of this business opportunity.

Make sure the SWOT diagram is legible. Work your way to meet the same aesthetic style despite speeding up the process with templates. Mention the tools used for gathering the information for this SWOT Analysis in the footnote and ensure the audience understands which information elements help you reach conclusions in each quadrant. Check our guide on how to create a SWOT analysis and see if your business plan requires a SWOT or SOAR analysis . 

Every business plan is scoped under a niche or industry sector. With this slide, describe the sector in which the proposal is immersed. Communicate its value,  list the actors involved, and describe their high-level relationships.

List the analyzed competitors. Communicate their attributes. The competitors’ comparison in business plan presentation can be visually explained using tools from the Blue Ocean Strategy framework, like the Strategy Canvas . 

The competitive intensity of an industry sector is studied through the Porter’s 5 Forces model. This intensity expresses how attractive the industry is. Explain the conclusion in each force showcasing the model.

First, introduce the variables identified as important for the industry sector, citing the insight’s source. Secondly, drill down each variable and break down the different trend dimensions ( PESTEL ) 

• Use a highly visual slide, like a dashboard template , to introduce factual data regarding the trends over a specific time period. Growth rates must be represented in time frames of over 180 days to evaluate the trend accurately.
• List the critical variables (consumers, product, production capability, and financing) briefly.
• Disclose how each variable can affect pricing and your position within the niche for that trend. Presenters can refer to case studies from successful competitor stories on how they responded to trend changes in the niche.

When presenting the value chain, we ought to articulate the sequence of activities the company handles to create value within the business plan. Start by breaking down the value chain into its key components, briefly explaining the stages from inbound logistics all the way through customer service. It is important to highlight the linking point between each stage and express the value of coordinating team activities to enhance overall efficiency.

We can use flowchart diagram templates as visual aids for the audience so they can understand the process sequence. Check our guide on how to make a flowchart .

Present the identified Market and its Segments. Continue explaining how conclusions were driven through the analysis and sizing of the market.

Presenters can use target market analysis templates , market segmentation templates , or TAM SAM SOM templates to compare their target market with the total available market. 

We recommend you check our guide on market segmentation for this process.

Then drill down with a Persona definition.

This study can be made by creating ideal customers, describing their demographics and psychological factors that make them prospective candidates to purchase the product or service this business plan presentation refers to.

Here is our guide on creating buyer personas . 

The Jobs-to-be-Done theory explains why certain customers are attracted to products and services and how those elements solve core problems in the consumers’ lives. 

A Perceptual Map is a tool we can use to measure the consumer perception of different products/services in the same market. This can be particularly useful if our value proposal is to brand ourselves as cheaper alternatives to already existing solutions. Check our guide on perceptual maps for further information.

Check our guide on the Jobs-to-be-Done framework and add suggestions to the business plan presentation.

Stage 2 – Business Model

To describe the  Business Model in your Business Plan Presentation, use the business model canvas analysis tool. Display your design in one slide.

For specific sections of the BMC, you can add slides if you need to drill down for further details. In our experience, the following sections require a deeper level of explanation.

List the Segments targeted in your Business Model. You can include a slide with additional information and segment size. Reference the Market analysis explained earlier to justify the selection or which were the pivots applied.

In order to explain the reasoning behind the Value Proposition and how it serves the segments selected, you can use the Value Proposition Canvas tool to explain the logic behind this selection.

The Value Proposition outlines the unique benefit our product or service offers the market and why customers should choose our offer over potential alternatives. Since we have already analyzed the potential buyers and presented the market, it’s time to deliver that value proposition using our best assets: customer testimonials, report data, surveys, etc.

As testimonials often weigh the most in established brands, be sure to present this information through a narrative that showcases why your product or service had a positive impact on the life of that customer. You can use customer testimonial templates to give an extra boost through visual aids.

Explaining how much the customers will pay for the product/services is critical to understanding the viability and profitability of the business. Showcase for each segment the pricing model and the engagement terms.

The Income Model expresses the sources of revenue for our business plan. This has to be in relationship with the pricing strategy for established businesses. Lean startups can work concerning their minimum viable product (MVP) and then elaborate with projections for future releases or changes in their income stream structure.

At this point, companies need to present the sources of revenue depending on their origin:

• Product Sales
• Subscription Model
• Freemium Model
• Partnerships with other brands in different niches
• Advertising and Sponsorships
• Monetization

Check our guide on pricing strategy models for more information about how to present this point. You can use revenue stream templates to represent this data in style.

Drill down the cost structure categories and relate them to the Value Chain explained earlier. Show a cost breakdown chart to make it easier for the audience to understand their weight in the total costs.

As this step can be a bit complex to articulate, we recommend you check our guide on Cost Structure to see how you can resume all that information in one slide.

At the business model stage, distribution channels should be briefly introduced since they will be mentioned again in the Distribution Plan . In some industries, it is important to highlight which channels are chosen over others for the sake of revenue and faster operation.

Our Distribution Channels PowerPoint Template is a perfect resource for this.

Presenting the strategic partnerships for the business plan is a way to prove the plan’s potential reach and success factor. On this behalf, companies must list which resources they are sharing with their business partners regarding expertise, technology, distribution channels, or capital, as these elements will impact the cost structure.

You can use the Business Partnership PowerPoint Template to present this information in a professional-looking format.

Stage 3 – Implementation

The business plan is designed to offer a product, deliver a service, or combine both. At this stage, the business plan presentation drills down on how the organization will build/deliver the product/service implementing the business model outlined earlier.  

Describe how the company operates regarding human capital and its roles. Presenters must describe to the audience the hierarchical structure, responsibilities, and how they play a role within the value chain.

You can use Org Charts to represent the roles and responsibilities in the organization visually. It is also advisable to highlight the expertise and experience of the management team, as it helps to build trust.

The Human Resource Plan must refer to your planned recruitment, training, and employee onboarding. Which talent will be required, and how is it planned to build the different teams of the structure.

Check the Go To Market Strategy guide and describe how the Business Plan will enter the market and overcome the initial barriers. Continue with the Marketing Plan limited to 1-2 slides resuming the plan’s tactics to increase brand awareness and the selected channels for this strategy. 

You can use the Marketing Plan Templates help to speed up the process by focusing on the content to fill rather than the design or creating complex charts from scratch.

Present the sales plan describing the full sales process, lead generation, nurturing customers, and conversion strategies.

Use Sales PowerPoint Templates to visually illustrate your sales process, like the Sales Pipeline Slide Template for PowerPoint , which depicts the process from lead acquisition to a closed deal.

Check our guide on Sales Plan for further information on this topic.

This step refers to presenting the product/service development plan, the Quality Assurance processes behind its validation, and your company’s commitment to a continuous improvement process based on surveyed data or customer feedback.

We can refer to testimonials, user case experiences our team successfully troubleshot, or experiences we learned from competitors in the same niche.

Presenting the distribution plan involves addressing logistics topics, supply chain , and sharing fulfillment strategies. Although we already presented the potential distribution channels, this is the step in which you detail how each will interact and their impact on the estimated revenue. 

Present one slide mentioning your company’s approach to these channels, if applicable:

• Direct Sales (either physical store or e-commerce)
• Retail Partnerships
• Wholesalers or Distributors
• E-Commerce marketplaces

This step involves two different approaches depending on the kind of industry we’re in. For traditional business, inventory management in a business plan presentation must highlight how the inventory will be handled to minimize transportation costs or overproduction. Projections must be shown per quarterly period and take into account seasonality if it has a significant impact on the required storage capacity.

On the other hand, e-commerce companies have to present their online infrastructure to secure the product’s availability 24/7, how customer tickets are handled when the customer cannot access the product, server costs, and how we prevent online leaks.

Stage 4 – ROI and Risk Evaluation

This section will outline the Financial Plan of your Business.

Showcase the financial structure, including equity, debt, and potential investors, at the moment of kick-starting this business. It is a good practice to consider the initial funding slide to be a brief summary of those points, with particular emphasis on the funding needs.

Cash Flow Diagrams , Comparison Chart templates , and Timeline templates to showcase when funds help to meet each of the plan’s milestones are good ideas to represent the elements on this slide.

Income and expense projections must be presented over a defined time period by using graphs or charts to clearly visualize the trends supporting each change.

Break down the revenue sources with clear, identifiable icons to showcase: product sales, subscription fees, advertisement, affiliates, etc. Sales estimations have to be realistic and conservative, as they will be contrasted with the production, marketing, administrative, and personnel costs to leave a gross profit margin calculation. 

Evaluation of Projected Return vs. Required 

Demonstrate the feasibility of your business plan. Start by presenting the profit margins in relation to the projection of income and expenses, then introduce the break-even analysis .

Presenters can make their message more relevant by presenting an ROI calculation and contrasting it with industry benchmarks in the same niche. By following this approach, presenters prove how the ROI offered by this business plan aligns with the investment’s risk projection.

Presenting a risk evaluation analysis in a business plan presentation involves introducing both risks and their mitigation strategies. 

Risk Management templates , like the ROAM framework, can help organize potential risk sources by their severity and impact on the organization. A pyramid diagram can be used to demonstrate how risk management can be delegated across the organization to completely eradicate the risk factor depending on its severity. 

The elements you should consider presenting are mainly regulatory changes, market changes, competitors (new or existing), and financial crises. 

The final point in our business plan presentation involves summarizing how key variables can influence the projected returns in our plan. Examples of these variables can be sudden increases in raw materials (affecting production costs and sales prices), a new pandemic (affecting workforce capacity and shortage of raw materials), geopolitical situations like war, etc.

We highly recommend presenting these critical variables using scenario analysis techniques according to measured data. Introduce best-case, worst-case, and most likely-case to give a full panorama of how your organization is prepared against any contingency.

An often overlooked point in a business plan presentation comes when listing the bibliographical information used to craft the business plan. Follow these steps to ensure a professional outcome for this slide or document.

• Use a title like: “Bibliography,” “Source Credits,” or “References.” If your business plan presentation cites examples from other companies, use a “Works Cited” section.
• References are usually shown in the APA style, but the MLE or Chicago style can be requested depending on your location or situation.
• Maintain a consistent style in terms of reference style used, font, text size, and formatting options across the entire slide deck. Footnotes or in-text citations can be used for important data.
• Verbally acknowledge your sources when required throughout the course of your presentation. This helps to establish credibility and respect for other people’s work rather than just dropping a slide with chunks of text.

This section will cover the most commonly asked questions on delivering a business plan presentation.

How many slides should my business plan presentation list?

This will depend entirely on your niche and the complexity of the business plan. Generally, work with at least 15 slides and no more than 30. It is best to use an extra slide rather than overcrowd an existing slide with tons of information.

What is the best format to present a business plan?

There are different options to present any business plan, so the selected option will mostly consist of the presenter’s preferred style and the audience’s age and interests.

• PowerPoint Presentation : You can start from a blank slide and go all the way through a professionally designed PPT template . PowerPoint documents allow you to present images, text, audio, videos, and any kind of graphic to help you convey the core ideas behind the business plan. They can work with any PC or Mac device, as well as mobile devices.
• PDF Documents: This can be a choice made in a hurry or by preference. Sharing a PDF document can work, but you must include the fonts used in the original document, as some compatibility issues can be present. 
• Pitch Deck : Rather than doing a lengthy business plan presentation, a pitch deck consists of a maximum of 15 slides to deliver your proposal concisely. This is the typical approach we can see in TV shows like Shark Tank. 
• Video Presentation : In some cases, using a video in a business plan presentation is relevant, especially if we are to introduce an innovative product in the market. You can use videos to showcase features, present services in a live format, introduce your team, and plenty of other options.

Are printables required in business plan presentations?

Although they are not required, using supplementary material in business plan presentations can be useful. You can prepare reference material for investors, especially involving complex data like graphs in an amplified format (and reference the slide in which they appear and vice versa).

Providing a printable to accompany your business plan presentation helps to give an image of professionalism and respect to your proposal.

What are the don’ts of writing a business plan?

The main purpose of this article is to craft and deliver a business plan presentation. Still, we would like to clarify some common errors seen in business plans that typically affect the performance of the presentation.

• Using overcomplicated language : Jargon or unnecessary acronyms may confuse spectators who are not in touch with all the details relevant to a particular industry. 
• Ignoring the audience : Not considering the variety of interests among investors, partners, and team members can hinder your presentation.
• Neglecting/underestimating competitors : Any realistic business plan considers the existing competitors in their niche and perhaps potential newcomers. Not doing so will leave you unprepared to present a doable business plan.
• Ignoring Risk Assessment : Omitting the Risk Assessment analysis and mitigation strategies does not respect the value investors and your team have. 

How long should the business plan presentation be?

As a general guideline, try to fit your business plan presentation between 20-30 minutes. Some complex plans may require additional time to be presented.

Does the presentation need to be tailored to different audiences? 

Using this tactic can be a winning factor for both investors and your team, as you prioritize effective communication for the roles they are relevant. Take these items into consideration for tailoring the presentation for specific needs.

In-Company Presentation

The focus should be on goal accomplishment and the strategies targeted to the team’s roles. Emphasize how teamwork is the pathway to success and how each individual contributes to the bigger picture.

If new technologies or knowledge are required as part of the business plan implementation, then this is the moment to disclose that information and inform the process to coach the team into it.

Board Meeting

Whenever delivering the business plan presentation to a board of directors, focus on the strategic goals, financial projections, and KPIs. 

Showcase how this business plan aligns with the company’s core values, mission, vision, and long-term strategy. 

Potential Investors

Presenting your unique value proposition, potential ROI, and highlighting the market opportunity is extremely important. Focus on selling your business model and vision with accurate financial projections and growth strategy. 

Dedicate some minutes to present your industry’s competitive landscape and answer why your product or service is a better offering than what competitors produce.

As we can see, creating a business plan presentation is a process that can be time-consuming if we lack the required business plan presentation tools to turn data into visually appealing formats. 

Remember to work concisely without losing the big picture of what you intend to explain. Your presentation is the entry point into the heart of your business; therefore, by adopting a structured approach, you can deliver an experience that engages, inspires, and builds confidence. 

Finally, let’s see some business plan PowerPoint presentation examples & business plan templates that you can use to speed up the presentation design process and save time.

1. Coffee Shop Illustration Business Plan Slides

Create your new business plan presentation with quality vector illustrations for Coffee Shops. Ideal for cafeterias, coffee bars, barista giftshop stores, bookshops and more.

Use This Template

2. Real Estate Business Plan PowerPoint Template

Realtors looking to start their own agencies should take a look at this attractive selection of slides with tailored real estate vector illustrations. These presentation plan slides show the different stages that a prospective buyer may incur, from hiring the services of a Real Estate agent, checking different properties, to finally buying a home.  Graphs and charts are included in vivid colors that are fully editable to meet the required branding.

3. Restaurant Business Model PowerPoint Template

As we’ve seen with the previous cases, these vector images depicting typical restaurant activities can help us build a business plan presentation sample to discuss with our team prior to an important meeting. Save time and money by introducing these professional designs into your presentation.

4. One Pager Business Plan PowerPoint

To briefly summarize the objectives of your business plan, work in-team with this one-pager business plan slide. Ideal to take notes, give a general picture of the current status of the business plan and key growth opportunities.

5. Business Plan PowerPoint Templates

If you want to create the best business plan presentation, this slide deck can make that task 100% easier. Containing all the elements described in this guide, introduce your data and prepare to deliver a powerful speech.

6. Flat Bold Business Plan PowerPoint Template

Another slide deck intended for those looking at how to make a business plan presentation that delivers a memorable experience. With a minimalistic design approach, it perfectly balances formal elements and impactful visual cues to help increase your audience’s retention rate.

7. Car Sharing Business Plan PowerPoint Template

Create the next Uber-like car-sharing service with the help of these carpooling vector illustrations perfectly arranged in a cohesive business plan slide deck. Presenters can explain the ins and outs of their business model with highly detailed graphics that grab the attention of potential investors. Check it out now!

8. Beauty Salon Business Plan PowerPoint Template

Business plan presentations don’t have to look formal or boring. This slide deck is geared towards beauty salon businesses, especially for those targeted to women. Chic design, bold color scheme, and extremely useful tools like a pricing list to present an idea like a subscription-based model where consumers see the total value of their investment.

9. CrossFit Business Plan PowerPoint Template

Finally, we list an option filled with tools and gym vector illustrations for those looking to start a gym business or CrossFit academy. These illustrations were crafted with care to express the core idea on every single slide, such as human-shaped graphs to present relevant KPIs.

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Business Planning, Business Presentations Filed under Business

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Is Your Business Model Viable? An 8-Point Test

You have a great business idea, and even got started on a business plan . But now you wonder: is my upstart business model really viable? Here is an eight-point test to tell you if you should forge ahead with your business idea.

1. Uniqueness

Before you worry about upstart financing, marketing or business location, you should begin with an idea—not just any idea, but one that's unique. What makes your business stand out from the rest?

Uniqueness doesn't necessarily mean you have to invent something (though that's never bad—just look at Snuggie's success), it just means that you have to set yourself apart from the competition. If you're starting a catering company, say, what will make your catering service different from the rest? These are tough questions, but important ones. The most successful businesses have a strong, unique concept, and a clear identity. Take the time to define yours.

2. Upstart Funds

What will your start-up cost be? Every business has some expenses at the start, whether you're paying for equipment, rent or just basic marketing materials. Make a realistic estimation; you'll need these figures to obtain a loan or simply to budget if you're paying these expenses out of pocket.

3. Customer

Who's your customer? Knowing who will be buying your product or service is vital to your business success—how else will you find your customers if you don't know who they are? Are you catering to busy professionals, stay-at-home moms, college students, retirees? Define your customer, even if you have to be broad at first. If you'll be renting a space, make sure the local demographic fits this profile; the real estate agent will be able to provide you with that data.

4. Competition

Unless you're lucky enough to find a hole in the market, your business will have competitors. Check them out, because your future customers surely will. Competitors can be a great resource to you as an upstart; you can see how much they charge, what marketing strategy they use and the location they chose. Ask yourself: how can I do better than the competition? Use your uniqueness identified in step one to find ways to outdo your competitors.

5. Economic Mood

Your business' success can greatly depend on economic mood: imagine starting a luxury real estate business at the start of the housing crisis. Gauge the state of the economy , and think of how it relates to your upstart: where are consumers' mind right now? Are they cutting back, spending more time at home, concerned about the environment?

Even an economic downturn can be an opportunity if you can meet the mood of the consumer. If your business idea doesn't fit the current trends in spending, think of ways you can tweak it to tap into today's needs.

Timing is crucial, especially for an upstart. Opening an ice-cream shop in January is a bad idea; opening Memorial Day can make it the place to be that summer. Do you expect your business to be seasonal? If so, time your opening to the strongest consumer demand. You'll come out of the gates with a flood of new customers, customers who will come back for more.

7. Marketing

Remember step three, where you identified your customer? Now you have to develop a marketing strategy to make sure these potential buyers know about your great new business. With today's internet capacity, marketing can be relatively low-cost, using online coupons and mailing lists. Brainstorm ideas with friends and family, and look at what your competitors do to get new business.

Your local SCORE chapter, which consists of business counselors for startups, is a great free resource with counseling, classes and networking opportunities.

Continuing Cash Flow

Imagine this: business is booming, you're on a roll and getting in more orders than you ever imagined. But you have to front the money for supplies and other costs, and you're out of cash—just like that, your business stumbles because you can't meet demand. This is a classic cash flow problem many new businesses face, and one that can be prevented with proper financial planning.

Before you open up shop, prepare a detailed financial plan ; there are many guides available in places like the Small Business Administration . Now is the time to plan for your business' first year, to make sure you can face any obstacle thrown your way—especially financial ones.

The Bottom Line

Did your upstart idea pass the test? If not, find ways to adjust. There are many more things to consider, like zoning , insurance, and legal entity, so take the time to plan and do your research. Use every resources you have available—SCORE, the Small Business Administration, even your local bank have information to plan your business venture, so you can be a successful entrepreneur for years to come.

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What are the 5 Factors that Determine the Viability of a Business?

To stay competitive in a market landscape that’s constantly in flux you’ll need to understand the dynamics that govern the success and sustainability of a business. There are five critical elements that dictate the viability of a business. Asking what they are and how they relate to your business model is what sets established business owners apart from those who fail quickly. 

The viability of a business is determined by a combination of various factors including, but not limited to, market demand, competition, financial stability, operational efficiency, and the quality of the management team.

In this article, we will delve into the five pivotal factors that determine the viability of a business to dissect each element and provide you with a comprehensive understanding that will help you steer your business towards success. 

By the end of this read, you will be equipped with the knowledge to assess the potential and sustainability of a business venture effectively. If you have any questions at the end, ask us for help and clarification on how you use these five factors to determine how viable your business is.

How can I Determine the Viability of a Business?

Business viability is like asking whether a business has a good chance of surviving and thriving in the real world. It’s all about figuring out if a business idea or a company is likely to be successful and make a profit.

Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a year or two into your journey, going through the following steps will be an invaluable exercise to help you work out if you should forge on or pivot.

Think of it this way: Imagine you want to open a bakery. To determine if it’s viable, you’d need to consider things like:

• Market Demand : Is there a strong desire for baked goods in your area, or are there too many bakeries already? If people love pastries, your bakery might have a good chance.
• Competition : How many other bakeries are there, and how well are they doing? If there are too many, it might be tough to stand out. What point of difference can you offer?
• Costs : What does it take to run the bakery? This includes ingredients, rent, staff, and more. Can you cover these costs and still make a profit?
• Revenue : How much money can you make from selling your baked goods? Are people willing to pay the prices you need to charge to cover your costs and make a profit?
• Sustainability : Can your business keep making money over the long term, or is it just a short-lived trend?
• Legal and Regulatory Issues : Are there any laws or regulations that might affect your bakery, like health and safety standards or zoning rules?

Business viability is about looking at all these factors and how they apply to your business to decide if your money-making idea is likely to work out and be successful. 

Does your idea have big enough wings to fly? 

Check these five critical factors against what business plan …

#1 Market Demand

Understanding the market demand involves analysing market trends, understanding the needs and preferences of your target audience and offering products or services that meet those needs. 

Conducting market research can help identify current gaps in the market and create a unique value proposition that sets you apart from the competition.

#2 Competition

A business cannot operate in isolation; it has to contend with other players in the market – which isn’t always a bad thing. Having competition can help hold you accountable to excelling in your business, pushing your boundaries and innovation. Analysing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors can provide insights into market opportunities and help carve out a niche for your business where you can excel.

#3 Financial Stability

Financial stability involves maintaining a healthy cash flow , having sufficient capital to cover operational costs and ensuring profitability in the long run. A business with a robust financial foundation is more likely to withstand economic downturns and emerge victorious.

#4 Operational Efficiency

Operational efficiency involves streamlining processes, reducing waste, and improving productivity to give your business the ability to utilise resources in the most optimal way. A business that operates efficiently can offer better quality products and services at competitive prices, to gain an edge in the market.

#5 Management Team

A competent management team has the power to steer a business in the right direction, make informed decisions and provide a positive work environment. This is an easy one to overlook but it gives back in so many ways with high employee satisfaction , less turnover and the ability to attract a highly skilled team to back you up. It’s also important to have a strong management team to handle stressful situations. It’s one thing to have a stable team around when the going is good, but really you want a team that sticks with it when the plan hits the fan.

It is essential to have a team that is skilled, experienced and aligned with the vision of the business. 

You will need the leadership skills to see the big picture and bring it all together through great communication, realistic expectations and the ability to give and receive feedback.

What else do you need to know to fully grasp the intricacies of business viability? We answer the biggest questions for you below. If we’ve missed your question, email it through and we’ll get back to you on how you can make these viability factors a backbone of your business setting.

How Can I Assess the Market Demand for My Business?

To assess your market demand, start with market research to get a feel for the current trends and customer preferences. There are plenty of online tools that can help, including Google Trends as well as consumer surveys to gather data. Studying your competitors and their customer base can offer insights into the market dynamics as well as your own personal experiences and grievances with the products on offer.

What Strategies Can Be Employed to Stay Ahead of the Competition?

To stay ahead of the competition, focus on offering superior quality products or services. Secondly, invest in customer service to build a loyal customer base. Innovative marketing strategies and leveraging technology can also give you a competitive edge. Remember, understanding your unique selling proposition (USP) and capitalising on it is key.

How Do I Ensure Financial Stability for My Business?

Ensuring financial stability involves budgeting, financial forecasting and maintaining a healthy cash flow. I get that that sounds obvious but it’s a ball a lot of businesses drop. Setting up great money habits early on makes the financial side of things a lot easier in the long run. It’s just as important to monitor every money movement as a sole trader as it is when you are an enterprise. Consider seeking the advice of a financial advisor to help you navigate the complex financial landscape. They can also help you forecast risk and put aside a contingency fund to safeguard your business if something unforeseen knocks the wind out of your sails.

How do I Enhance Business Operational Efficiency?

Set up a business system and flow with intent and purpose from the start. So many businesses just allow their business to grow ‘naturally’. This creates a patchwork of operating methods from all over and the result is far from smooth and seamless. 

Streamline your everyday business processes by blocking out task times, delegating effectively, creating a system (which will automatically show up double handling and gaps) and bringing in automation when relevant. Implementing systems that facilitate smooth workflow and reduce manual errors can be a game-changer. Make sure you and your team stay up-to-date with training to foster productivity and efficiency as well as personal growth.

Utilising Resources Wisely

Allocating resources wisely is a critical aspect of enhancing operational efficiency. When you use your resources efficiently, you spend less money on things like materials, labour and energy to put more profit in your pocket, or reinvest in better services for your audience.

Resource allocation also loops back into effective leadership and decision-making, stemming from having a solid plan and crystal clear objectives that allow you to use financial, human and material resources in the most efficient way possible. 

Smart resource management can give you an edge over your competitors. You can offer better prices, higher quality, or faster delivery, making customers choose you over others.

Trying to do more with less can help push you out of the rut of a comfort zone, leading to creative solutions and innovations to improve your business processes. Efficient resource use makes your business more resilient. You can weather economic ups and downs better because you’re not wasting resources during tough times.

As well as looking professional and well-oiled, being known as a business that uses resources wisely can boost your reputation. Customers and investors like to support companies that are responsible and efficient.

Feedback and Continuous Improvement

True viability in your business comes back to your mindset. If you are ready and willing to take on feedback from employees and customers you’ll have the flexibility and early warning you need to make improvements and shift gears to stay relevant. A culture of continuous improvement can lead to enhanced operational efficiency over time as well as your professional growth and overall satisfaction with your business performance.

What are the Common Pitfalls to Avoid?

The biggest ways business owners can stick their heads in the sand and run into trouble are by avoiding feedback and resisting change.

Avoiding Customer Feedback

Ignoring or avoiding customer feedback can be detrimental as it can lead to a disconnect from the market needs and preferences, resulting in lost opportunities.

Resistance to Change

All businesses must respond to the changing landscape. No one is immune. Businesses that resist change and do not adapt to the evolving market trends will lag behind, missing out on potential growth opportunities while their competitors fill the gaps and make off with all the profits.

Final Thoughts

As you navigate the complex landscape of establishing and running a successful business, it’s important to consider how viable your business idea is. The five crucial factors that determine viability will help get your business feet under you, and if you don’t have everything it takes, you can look at the changes you can make or another offer with a better fit.

Wanting to make a lot of money is not going to be enough to get you the lifestyle you are dreaming of. You need to have something other people want and need. 

After defining market demand, competition, financial stability, operational efficiency, and the role of a competent management team you’ll be better positioned to steer your new venture in the right direction, making informed decisions that foster growth and sustainability.

Remember, the journey of building a viable business is a continuous learning process. Stay curious, be open to feedback and never stop learning. The road to success is paved with diligence, resilience and a deep understanding of the business landscape. Here’s to forging a path to success with a business that stands the test of time, grounded in viability and poised for growth.

For help assessing the viability of your business, book a free ‘meet and greet’ session today.

What are the 5 Factors that Determine the Viability of a Business – FAQs

How do you determine business viability.

A1: Determining business viability involves assessing several critical aspects. Firstly, conduct a thorough market analysis to understand the demand for your product or service. Evaluate the competition and identify a unique selling proposition. Consider your financial feasibility, including startup costs, revenue projections, and profitability. Assess the skills and expertise of your team, and ensure you have a clear business plan. Lastly, analyse potential risks and challenges that may affect your business’s viability.

What are the 4 main factors businesses must consider?

Four main factors that businesses must consider for success include:

Market Demand: Ensure there is a genuine need for your product or service in the market.

Financial Sustainability: Assess your financial resources, including startup capital, operating costs, and revenue generation capabilities.

Competitive Landscape: Analyse your competition and find ways to differentiate your business in the market.

Effective Management: Having a skilled and efficient team, along with a well-defined business strategy, is essential for managing and growing your business.

What are the 5 things to consider when evaluating a business opportunity?

When evaluating a business opportunity, focus on these five key factors:

Market Potential: Determine if there is a sizable and sustainable market for your product or service.

Profitability: Assess the potential for generating consistent profits and a positive return on investment.

Competitive Advantage: Identify what sets your business apart from competitors and how you can maintain that advantage.

Resource Requirements: Calculate the resources needed, including funding, manpower, and technology, to successfully operate the business.

Risk Analysis: Evaluate potential risks and challenges and develop strategies to mitigate them.

What is the key to success in business?

The key to success in business is multifaceted but often centres around the ability to adapt and innovate. Successful businesses consistently meet customer needs, stay ahead of market trends, and maintain financial stability. Additionally, effective leadership, a strong team, ethical practices, and a focus on customer satisfaction contribute significantly to business success.

What are the three significant things we need to consider in starting a business?

When starting a business, prioritise these three critical considerations:

Market Research: Thoroughly research your target market, understand customer preferences, and assess competition.

Financial Planning: Determine the startup capital required, create a budget, and plan for ongoing financial management.

Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Ensure that you understand and comply with all legal requirements, such as permits, licences, and tax obligations, to operate your business legally and avoid potential issues in the future.

Evolve your business today