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Write your business plan

Business plans help you run your business.

A good business plan guides you through each stage of starting and managing your business. You’ll use your business plan as a roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow your new business. It’s a way to think through the key elements of your business.

Business plans can help you get funding or bring on new business partners. Investors want to feel confident they’ll see a return on their investment. Your business plan is the tool you’ll use to convince people that working with you — or investing in your company — is a smart choice.

Pick a business plan format that works for you

There’s no right or wrong way to write a business plan. What’s important is that your plan meets your needs.

Most business plans fall into one of two common categories: traditional or lean startup.

Traditional business plans are more common, use a standard structure, and encourage you to go into detail in each section. They tend to require more work upfront and can be dozens of pages long.

Lean startup business plans are less common but still use a standard structure. They focus on summarizing only the most important points of the key elements of your plan. They can take as little as one hour to make and are typically only one page.

Traditional business plan

Lean startup plan

Traditional business plan format

You might prefer a traditional business plan format if you’re very detail-oriented, want a comprehensive plan, or plan to request financing from traditional sources.

When you write your business plan, you don’t have to stick to the exact business plan outline. Instead, use the sections that make the most sense for your business and your needs. Traditional business plans use some combination of these nine sections.

Executive summary

Briefly tell your reader what your company is and why it will be successful. Include your mission statement, your product or service, and basic information about your company’s leadership team, employees, and location. You should also include financial information and high-level growth plans if you plan to ask for financing.

Company description

Use your company description to provide detailed information about your company. Go into detail about the problems your business solves. Be specific, and list out the consumers, organization, or businesses your company plans to serve.

Explain the competitive advantages that will make your business a success. Are there experts on your team? Have you found the perfect location for your store? Your company description is the place to boast about your strengths.

Market analysis

You'll need a good understanding of your industry outlook and target market. Competitive research will show you what other businesses are doing and what their strengths are. In your market research, look for trends and themes. What do successful competitors do? Why does it work? Can you do it better? Now's the time to answer these questions.

Organization and management

Tell your reader how your company will be structured and who will run it.

Describe the  legal structure  of your business. State whether you have or intend to incorporate your business as a C or an S corporation, form a general or limited partnership, or if you're a sole proprietor or limited liability company (LLC).

Use an organizational chart to lay out who's in charge of what in your company. Show how each person's unique experience will contribute to the success of your venture. Consider including resumes and CVs of key members of your team.

Service or product line

Describe what you sell or what service you offer. Explain how it benefits your customers and what the product lifecycle looks like. Share your plans for intellectual property, like copyright or patent filings. If you're doing  research and development  for your service or product, explain it in detail.

Marketing and sales

There's no single way to approach a marketing strategy. Your strategy should evolve and change to fit your unique needs.

Your goal in this section is to describe how you'll attract and retain customers. You'll also describe how a sale will actually happen. You'll refer to this section later when you make financial projections, so make sure to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales strategies.

Funding request

If you're asking for funding, this is where you'll outline your funding requirements. Your goal is to clearly explain how much funding you’ll need over the next five years and what you'll use it for.

Specify whether you want debt or equity, the terms you'd like applied, and the length of time your request will cover. Give a detailed description of how you'll use your funds. Specify if you need funds to buy equipment or materials, pay salaries, or cover specific bills until revenue increases. Always include a description of your future strategic financial plans, like paying off debt or selling your business.

Financial projections

Supplement your funding request with financial projections. Your goal is to convince the reader that your business is stable and will be a financial success.

If your business is already established, include income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements for the last three to five years. If you have other collateral you could put against a loan, make sure to list it now.

Provide a prospective financial outlook for the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and capital expenditure budgets. For the first year, be even more specific and use quarterly — or even monthly — projections. Make sure to clearly explain your projections, and match them to your funding requests.

This is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business.  

Use your appendix to provide supporting documents or other materials were specially requested. Common items to include are credit histories, resumes, product pictures, letters of reference, licenses, permits, patents, legal documents, and other contracts.

Example traditional business plans

Before you write your business plan, read the following example business plans written by fictional business owners. Rebecca owns a consulting firm, and Andrew owns a toy company.

Lean startup format

You might prefer a lean startup format if you want to explain or start your business quickly, your business is relatively simple, or you plan to regularly change and refine your business plan.

Lean startup formats are charts that use only a handful of elements to describe your company’s value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. They’re useful for visualizing tradeoffs and fundamental facts about your company.

There are different ways to develop a lean startup template. You can search the web to find free templates to build your business plan. We discuss nine components of a model business plan here:

Key partnerships

Note the other businesses or services you’ll work with to run your business. Think about suppliers, manufacturers, subcontractors, and similar strategic partners.

Key activities

List the ways your business will gain a competitive advantage. Highlight things like selling direct to consumers, or using technology to tap into the sharing economy.

Key resources

List any resource you’ll leverage to create value for your customer. Your most important assets could include staff, capital, or intellectual property. Don’t forget to leverage business resources that might be available to  women ,  veterans ,  Native Americans , and  HUBZone businesses .

Value proposition

Make a clear and compelling statement about the unique value your company brings to the market.

Customer relationships

Describe how customers will interact with your business. Is it automated or personal? In person or online? Think through the customer experience from start to finish.

Customer segments

Be specific when you name your target market. Your business won’t be for everybody, so it’s important to have a clear sense of whom your business will serve.

List the most important ways you’ll talk to your customers. Most businesses use a mix of channels and optimize them over time.

Cost structure

Will your company focus on reducing cost or maximizing value? Define your strategy, then list the most significant costs you’ll face pursuing it.

Revenue streams

Explain how your company will actually make money. Some examples are direct sales, memberships fees, and selling advertising space. If your company has multiple revenue streams, list them all.

Example lean business plan

Before you write your business plan, read this example business plan written by a fictional business owner, Andrew, who owns a toy company.

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Original text

Do you want to increase the odds that your business startup will be a success? Download this step-by-step business plan template to lay the groundwork for your new business.

Writing a business plan allows you to carefully think through every step of starting your company so you can better prepare and handle any challenges. While a thorough business plan is essential in the financing process, it's helpful even if you don’t need outside financing.

Creating a business plan can:

• Help you discover any weaknesses in your business idea so you can address them before you open for business
• Identify business opportunities you may not have considered and plan how to take advantage of them
• Analyze the market and competition to strengthen your idea
• Give you a chance to plan strategies for dealing with potential challenges so they don’t derail your startup
• Convince potential partners, customers, and key employees that you’re serious about your idea and persuade them to work with you
• Force you to calculate when your business will make a profit and how much money you need to reach that point so that you can be prepared with adequate startup capital
• Determine your target market and how to reach them

A detailed, step-by-step plan gives you a blueprint you can refer to during the startup process and helps you maintain momentum.

What this business plan template includes

Writing a business plan for a startup can sometimes seem overwhelming. To make the process easier and more manageable, this template will guide you step-by-step. The template includes easy-to-follow instructions for completing each business plan section, questions to help you think through each aspect, and corresponding fillable worksheet/s for critical sections.

After you complete the 11 worksheets, you will have a working business plan for your startup to show your SCORE mentor .

Business plan sections covered in this template:

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Products and Services
• Marketing Plan
• Operational Plan
• Management and Organization
• Startup Expenses and Capitalization
• Financial Plan

The Appendices include documents that supplement information in the body of the plan.  These might be contracts, leases, purchase orders, intellectual property, key managers’ resumes, market research data or anything that supports assumptions or statements made in the plan.

The last section of the template, “Refining Your Plan,” explains ways to modify your plan for specific purposes, such as getting a bank loan, or for specific industries, such as retail or manufacturing.

Complete the Business Plan Template for a Startup Business to create a working business plan for your startup.

Then, contact a  SCORE mentor  to review and refine your plan online or in person.

Quick Start Business Plan The aim of this module is to give you the tools, direction and ideas you need to build a business plan. If you're starting a business then a business plan is essential, because it forces you to think through your ideas and options.

10 Business Planning Tips for Starting a Business In this webinar, you'll learn 10 business planning tips to help you start your entrepreneurial journey on the right path.

Business Plan 101: Sales & Marketing The sales and marketing section of your business plan describes how you intend to sell your product. Learn what you should include in this section.

Copyright © 2024 SCORE Association, SCORE.org

Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.

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What is a business plan?

A business plan is a document that helps small business owners determine the viability of their business idea. Combining market research and financial analysis, a professional business plan helps startup CEOs and potential investors determine if the company can compete in the target market.

Typically, a good business plan consists of the following:

• Executive summary
• Company description
• Mission statement
• Product and services
• Marketing plan
• Operations plan
• Management organization
• Financial plan
• Conclusion & appendix

Every section involved in a business plan is designed to help startup businesses reach their target market.

A business plan asks founders and entrepreneurs to detail their business strategy in a step-by-step process that makes sense from an operational perspective. This is essential if a startup is seeking a business loan or an investment from a venture capital firm.

However, even small businesses that are already economically viable can benefit from creating a business plan, since it encourages business owners and their management teams to examine their business model and reevaluate the best ways to reach their target customers.

Should I use a business plan template?

Yes.  If you’ve never written one, a business plan can be challenging to write.

Creating a successful plan that you can use to grow your small business can require weeks of market analysis and financial preparation. You may spend time using Microsoft Excel or Powerpoint in order to create documentation which better supports our operational decisions.

However, almost every professional business plan is structured in the same way and most ask for the same information. Because of this, using a business plan template is advisable to save time, money, and effort.

Business plan templates for free

Rather than spending time trying to figure out how to write a business plan , use a free template as a guide to completion.

Business plan templates from PandaDoc can help you reach an effective go-to-market strategy even faster by asking you to provide all the relevant information you need when creating an effective business plan.

Grab a free template to get started!

Frequently asked questions

How many pages should my business plan be.

This depends on the kind of business plan you need to write and how you intend to use the plan that you create.

For example, a plan for a small business seeking potential investors or a business loan will need to provide income statements, cash flow statements, and a balance sheet (usually for a three-year or five-year forecast period).

These financial statements can be omitted if a small business owner isn’t seeking funding and is instead planning to use their business plan as a guiding document for themselves and their management team members.

Some business plans may only run a few pages. Fully-developed business plans can be as long as 50 pages. Much of this depends on the type of business, the operational strategy, and the level of detail that goes into developing the business plan.

Who needs a business plan?

Every business should have a business plan. This is an essential guidance document for any founder or CEO.

Good business plans help a company determine the viability of its place in the market and can help the business develop better strategies for differentiating itself from its competitors.

Business planning also forces business owners to evaluate their marketing strategy, the cost of customer acquisition and retention, and how they plan to grow their business over time.

What is the best business plan template?

Business plans come in all shapes and sizes. The best business plan template for your business is one that you understand and that matches the size and legal structure of your operation.

If you’re a sole proprietor, a business plan template designed for a big corporation probably doesn’t make sense. However, a business plan that helps you build an effective roadmap to grow your business while protecting your intellectual property is a good starting point.

PandaDoc offers specialized business plan templates for common industries along with tips to help you get started with business planning.

Should I hire someone to write my business plan for me?

No. You’ll find freelance writers and business strategy companies out there who are happy to write your business plan for a fee.  These resources can guide you through the process, but you should write (or be heavily involved in) the creation of your business plan.

The reason for this is simple: You know the most about your business, and your business needs you to succeed.

A writer can work with you to make your business plan sound better to investors, and a consultant can help you fill in knowledge gaps — like how to conduct a SWOT analysis — and point out weaknesses in your plan. But, at the end of the day, you need to use the business plan to pitch investors and run your business.

Those ideas and guiding principles aren’t something you can outsource.

Should I use business planning software?

Software isn’t required when creating an effective business plan. Most business planning software is designed to help you navigate the outlining and writing process more effectively.

You don’t need software to write a professional business plan, but a solid template can help you get started. Download a free template from PandaDoc today and take your business to the next level.

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A business plan for your open source project

Opensource.com

Open sourcing your code is only a small part of building a successful open source community. Like any new venture, you need a vision of what you want to achieve and a concrete plan that will take you there. You want to be able to answer questions about your project like:

• Who is this project geared towards?
• Why would someone want to use this code, let alone, contribute to it?
• What core problem am I trying to solve?

When we set out to create  CloudSlang , a flow-based orchestration tool for managing deployed applications, we were faced with these questions. We wanted to find a framework that could help us create such a plan and provide the conceptual tools to measure whether we were achieving what we set out to do in the first place. We decided to look to the world of startups and see whether we could adapt these startup management frameworks to an open source project.

The result of our research was the creation of a new template for managing the creation of open source projects. We call it the Open Source Canvas .

We started our process by looking at one popular methodology.

The Lean Startup for open source

The Lean Startup has become the core methodology for many entrepreneurs. It is a framework for effectively creating new business ventures with an emphasis on eliminating uncertainty through rapid experimentation and learning cycles. Although this model is usually applied to commercial initiatives (it actually originated in manufacturing), it can really be applied to any project in any domain, such as writing a book, managing an event, or creating an open source project.

Creating a business plan is the first step in applying this methodology. Traditional business plans can contain tens or even hundreds of pages of theoretical (and often useless) information. We like to refer to this type of document as write-only—you write it once, and nobody reads it. The Lean Startup business plan, referred to as "the canvas," is a living breathing document confined to one single page. The Business Model Canvas and the Lean Canvas are leading examples of widely-used business plan templates that help you apply Lean Startup principles into a one-page business plan.

Open Source Canvas

We have taken these canvas models one step further and developed a unique canvas for managing open source projects. Like other canvases, each section tackles a different aspect of your business plan.

Download the Open Source Canvas .

What problem are you trying to solve? Even if you have a wonderful solution to a problem, it has to address your potential users' pain points, needs, or desires. This is the critical question that any new venture has to ask itself.

Furthermore, that you've made your project open source introduces additional questions beyond the actual problem your code addresses. For example, you should have good answers for why you have chosen to open source your code in the first place. Are you trying to build up a community of users? Are you trying to enrich the source code with outside contributions?

Who is your target audience? What does a typical user of your solution look like?

In the open source world, you need to identify the user types who are most likely to contribute to your project and become active super-users. These are the people who will be the cornerstone of your community.

Unique value proposition

If you bump into someone in the elevator and they ask you what your project is about, you need to have a one-line answer that you can easily articulate. This is the promise of your project and it's critical for any new venture. You need to present how the open source nature of your offering adds to its appeal.

What solution am I providing to the problem? The solution should include the top three capabilities that actually that solve the problem you have articulated.

When your solution is open source, you need to consider additional aspects. How are you going to license your open source code? The license has a lot of practical ramifications for the future of your project. Another consideration is whether you want to attach yourself to an open source foundation or be independent.

Community relationships

To build up an active community, you need to identify the strategic relationships that you need to foster. Who are the thought leaders in this space? Who can you count on to evangelize the project? In our project, for example, we found that the pre-sales engineers for our enterprise product were very enthusiastic to adopt and promote our project.

People don't just find your project. You need to attract their attention through a series of targeted activities. What kind of activities can you carry out to engage project users? Blog posts? Social media? Attending conferences?

Cost and resources

Early in the process you should outline the main costs and resources required to get your project off the ground. In open source, most of the costs will stem from head count (engineers, community managers, etc.)

Adoption criteria

How will you measure the success of your project? What kind of metrics indicate that you are on the right track? The number of contributors? The size of the project? Overall usage? We used an adaptation of the Pirate Metrics model for measuring the success of our project.

After you've identified your target users, you need to figure out the channels through which you will get your message to the users. For example, in the world of open source, you're likely to find open source enthusiasts hanging out at relevant meetups or conferences. Integrations are also a very strong channel. We developed an integration with StackStorm that generated a lot of interest.

Getting started and feedback

Creating a canvas is not a one-time activity. The canvas will serve as live document that you will revisit often as you progress with your project. Based on the Lean Startup principles of "Build-Measure-Learn," you will be validating your assumptions constantly, measuring your success and refining and pivoting your ideas based on what you have learned.

We hope that you have found this beneficial. The Open Source Canvas is a work in progress and we want to hear your feedback to make it even better.

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Plan for the future, no matter what your business plans are or the size of your business with these designs and templates. whether it's just one big project or an entire organization's worth of dreams, these templates will keep you and your company on track from ideation to completion..

Put your ideas to work with simple templates for every business plan

Every successful business took a lot of planning to get there, and these templates will be cornerstones of your future success. Whether you're looking to attract new business, pitch your services or reimagine your company, with these simple, customizable templates at your fingertips you can turn complexity into something tangible. These templates can become marketing assets or simply remain internal touchpoints for your team. And as your dreams change, you'll always have this template to refer to – it's easy to change what exists on paper. If you're a small business, focusing on your niche can help you dominate in your field, and you can forge a plan to figure out exactly what that niche might be and how to target your ideal customer . When it's time to share your vision with stakeholders, craft a presentation that outlines your plan succinctly and with style. Let these templates from Microsoft Designer be your partner in business strategy for years to come.

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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.

• Best Business Plan Software

10 Best Business Plan Software In 2024

Updated: May 3, 2024, 5:15pm

Writing a business plan not only helps you stay on track as you start a new business but it can also help you secure funding. You can create one from scratch with a simple template, but business plan software often has features to make it easier, more nuanced and overall better. It could even make the difference between bringing investors on board and going it alone. So, Forbes Advisor found the best business plan software that has the features you need at an affordable price.

• Best Project Management Software
• Best Construction Project Management Software
• Best Project Portfolio Management Software
• Best Gantt Chart Software
• Best Task Management Software
• Best Kanban Software

The Best Business Plan Software of 2024

Forbes advisor ratings, methodology, how to choose a business plan software, benefits of business plan software, frequently asked questions (faqs), next up in business.

Featured Partners

From $8 monthly per user

Zoom, LinkedIn, Adobe, Salesforce and more

On monday.com's Website

Yes, for one user and two editors

$9 per user per month

Google Drive, Slack, Tableau, Miro, Zapier and more

On Smartsheet's Website

Yes, for unlimited members

$7 per month

Slack, Microsoft Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Timely, Google Drive and more

On ClickUp's Website

$9.80 per user per month

Salesforce, Adobe, Miro, Netsuite, Quickbooks, SAP

On Wrike's Website

• Wrike: Best overall
• Smartsheet: Best for goal management
• LivePlan: Best for financial forecasting
• Aha!: Best for roadmapping
• Bizplan: Best for beginners
• IdeaBuddy: Best for ideation
• iPlanner: Best for no-frills business planning
• Enloop: Best for automatic business plan creation
• AchieveIt: Best for consultant groups
• Business Sorter: Best for teams

Best Overall

Starting price

Free; $9.80 per user

Team messaging

Roadmapping

Wrike is a project management (PM) tool that works well as business plan software because it gives you tools to help you gather and compare your data. Wrike makes it easy to start your business plan with its collaboration tools, business plan templates , drag-and-drop interface and goal management features. Another benefit of using Wrike to build your plan is that you see your ideas and goals from multiple views: Gantt chart, calendar or board views.

There are a few reasons why it’s a good idea to use Wrike for your business plan. First, you can map out exactly what your business goals are in a project, invite teammates to collaborate and message business partners to discuss everything. Plus, you can export your data when you’re ready to put all the details into a presentation to hand over to potential investors.

Wrike offers a free plan that’s good for putting your vision down in task and project form, but you may want to upgrade to a paid plan to invite collaborators, get custom workflows and add more views and automations. Paid plan pricing ranges from $9.80 per user, per month, to $24.80 per user, per month, both billed annually.

Learn more: Read our full Wrike review .

Who should use it:

Wrike makes it easy for any new business owner to create a business plan and collaborate with others on the financial and operational goals. Plus, it provides value after you finalize your business plan because it’s a good pick for a PM tool.

• Roadmapping ability
• Multiple views (Gantt, calendar and board)
• Business plan templates included
• Goal management via projects and tasks
• Free plan available
• Affordable plans
• No pitching tools
• No financial tools

Best for Goal Management

$7 per user, per month

(billed annually)

(added cost)

Using PM software like Smartsheet is a good idea for starting a business plan because it includes all the tools you need to collaborate and plan across multiple teams or stakeholders. It’s especially good for real-time goal management. Get your ideas in place, go over market and competitive research from other teammates and finalize everything together.

Smartsheet won’t help you write your business plan, but it does give you a place to compile all the data and then you can use one of its free business plan templates. As you figure out your milestones, you can invite an unlimited number of viewers to see how it’s going. The only downsides are that Smartsheet doesn’t have a native messaging app (you’ll have to use an integration), only commenting allowed and there’s no free plan.

Paid plans from Smartsheet cost $7 per user, per month, or $25 per user, per month (billed annually for both). The low-priced Pro plan limits you to 10 editors, but the Business plan allows unlimited editors (but it also has a three-user minimum).

Learn more: Read our full Smartsheet review .

Smartsheet lets you make changes in real time, so it’s a good option for those who are just starting to piece together a plan and looking for a way to manage ideas and goals before finalizing a business plan.

• Discounts for nonprofits available
• Automations on every plan
• Popular integrations allowed on low-tier plan
• 30-day free trial
• No free plan
• Only 10 viewers allowed on low-tier plan
• Three-user minimum on Business plan

Best for Financial Forecasting

$15 per month

One of the strongest cases for using LivePlan to create your business plan is its financial forecasting. It isn’t just a single feature, rather it’s a tool that lets you turn your balance sheet and cash flow statements into charts, graphs and what-if situations to help you show possible investors the best- and worst-case scenarios for your business.

There are two plans available: Standard or Premium (there is no free plan). The low-priced plan, which costs $15 per month (billed annually), doesn’t limit your contributors or guests and includes instructions to help you complete a business plan. It even includes the financial forecasting features and more than 500 sample plans to get you started.

The Premium plan costs $30 per month (billed annually), but it’s full-featured. You get a milestone planner and industry benchmark data, which can save you research time. Another timesaver: At this plan level, you can integrate QuickBooks or Xero to add your financial data seamlessly.

LivePlan is business plan software that includes prompts and accounting software integrations, making it great for new business owners that want easy financial forecasting.

• Unlimited guests and contributors
• Export finished business plan as PowerPoint presentation
• Includes step-by-step instructions with prompts
• 35-day money-back guarantee
• No free trial

Best for Roadmapping

$59 per user, per month

Every business plan starts with strategy and Aha! makes it easier to map out what you plan to do to get from point A to point Z. Aha! is primarily roadmapping software that product teams use to plan features, products or bug fixes. Any business in any industry can use it to shape ideas and strategy into plans and milestones.

Much like product development, business plans have phases and Aha! is ideal for the first few phases of business planning. Although you won’t find a scorecard feature with Aha! Roadmaps, you can score and prioritize your business vision and goals. Finally, you can present your plan to viewers (stakeholders) before you create your official business plan and secure funding.

There are three plans from which you can choose: Premium at $59 per user, per month; Enterprise at $99 per user, per month; and Enterprise+ at $149 per user, per month, all billed annually. The only reasons to upgrade to either Enterprise plan is if you want to add on automation, development tools and custom worksheets and tables.

Aha! Roadmaps is a great tool to help you strategize and get your ideas for your business in one place. You can use the presentation feature to share your business’s roadmap on your way to creating your finalized business plan.

• User-friendly interface
• Ability to score and prioritize ideas
• Share roadmaps with others
• Expensive for business plan creation
• Has a bit of a learning curve

Best for Beginners

$20.75 per month

Bizplan is specifically for business plan creation. It offers a guided walkthrough of each section you need for a complete business plan to use for funding or pitching to partners. Plug in the information, from your mission and goals to financial forecasts, and Bizplan will do the math and create the visual charts you need to get your point across.

Bizplan is very easy to use because it includes prompts and questions that take away the manual effort of figuring out what you need, so you can simply focus on providing the answers. When you’re satisfied you included all the data needed, you can invite stakeholders and consultants to look it over and add comments for approval or change requests. A unique feature of Bizplan is it gives you access to Fundable, a crowdfunding platform, on which you can share your business plan to try to generate funding.

Monthly pricing costs $29, but you can opt for annual pricing that averages to $20.75 per month. If you expect to need business plan software for much longer than a year, there’s a lifetime access option for $349 flat. All plans come with all features and access, including business courses, business planning tools and a route to investors.

If it’s your first time creating a business plan, Bizplan is a great choice to help guide you through all the sections you need to include in your plan for potential investors and partners.

• Monthly, annual and lifetime plans
• Unlimited business plans
• Unlimited collaborators
• Step-by-step instructions
• Modular, drag-and-drop interface
• Online business courses
• Access to Fundable
• Financial forecasting
• No roadmapping tools
• Lack of customization
• Only integrates with Xero

Best for Ideation

Free; $6 per month

IdeaBuddy is a basic business plan tool that lets you start for free, which is great for beginners who aren’t quite ready to create a plan. The idea plan feature is great because it lets you lay out your business plan on one page, giving you an overview. There are built-in sticky notes for brainstorming and custom templates to start you off with a bit of a guide (or just create your own).

Another great feature of IdeaBuddy is the whiteboard, which lets you drag and drop various elements, draw on it and collaborate with others to come up with your perfect business idea. That feature is locked behind the highest tier, so you’ll have to pay $22 per month (billed annually) to use it. However, that plan also gives you up to 10 collaborators and 10 ideas.

Other plans are more limiting: The free plan is for a solopreneur who has a single idea to work on and the Dreamer plan is $6 per month while the Founder plan is $12 per month, both billed annually. The Dreamer plan is also limited to one idea, but you get one collaborator while the Founder plan gives you up to three ideas and three collaborators. Plus, you’ll get access to the paid plans to export and share your plan with viewers.

IdeaBuddy is just what it sounds like: It’s best for ideation. You can create a full-fledged business plan, but this program is best suited for the very beginning stages of business creation.

• Free forever plan
• Affordable paid plans
• Monthly and annual billing options
• Easy to use
• Export to Word, Excel or as PDF
• Flexible whiteboard feature
• May be too basic for some users
• Doesn’t offer much guidance

Best for No-Frills Business Planning

$55 for one year

Business plan software doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective, and iPlanner certainly fits that bill. It’s been around since 2007 and it doesn’t appear to have updated its look or functions. The browser-based business planning software gives you a place to build out your business model and a business plan.

There are two different software options from iPlanner: Strategy Designer and Startup Framework. The Strategy Designer costs $59 for three plans, but it’s a one-time fee for the year. Choose it if you want a more condensed and no-frills kind of business plan. You can export it to Word or as a PDF.

The iPlanner Startup Framework is $55 per year, which gives you one plan to create. It’s similar to the Designer version, but you can create a business model, separate financials and build a team with various roles (view only, project owner or consultant).

iPlanner is best for those who have created a business plan before and don’t need hand-holding or fancy features.

• Business modeling option
• Samples on site for demoing
• Export to Word or as PDF
• No free plan or trial
• Not a lot of guidance
• Outdated interface

Best for Automatic Business Plan Creation

$11 per month

Enloop is a unique business plan app that generates a business plan for you based on information you provide. You can edit the text Enloop writes for you to make it more specific or change numbers in your financial forecasts as you see fit. Enloop offers a scorecard that updates as you change things, finish sections and make your business plan overall better.

Then Enloop compares your financial forecasts to industry standards, so you don’t have to do the research. The software shows you up to 16 ratios, such as sales, inventory and payables and then shows you what the average is for your industry as it compares to your financials. Enloop then gives you either a pass or fail so that you can modify your plan before you put anything into play.

Although Enloop doesn’t offer a free plan, there is a free trial for one week so you can see if it’s right for you. The Detailed plan costs $11 per month while the Performance plan is $24 per month, both billed annually. The biggest difference between the two plans is how many financial ratios Enloop analyzes: The Detailed plan only gets three ratios and Performance plan gets 16.

Enloop is best for those who have some experience creating business plans, not necessarily for those who are starting from scratch as there are no brainstorming or strategizing tools included. Use Enloop to create business plans quickly.

• Three business plans for each tier
• Generates a business plan automatically
• Compares your financials to industry standards
• Seven-day free trial available
• Scorecards indicate odds of success
• No messaging team members through app
• Not meant for strategizing

Best for Consultant Groups

$80 per, user per month

Not everyone wants to go it alone when creating business plans and consultants are often hired for industry expertise and business plan creation. AchieveIt offers generous plans that won’t limit the number of plans and projects you can create, so you can work on multiple business plans at one time.

Specifically, AchieveIt is planning software meant for medium to large teams to work on projects simultaneously. For business planning, it’s a great option for those strategizing and analyzing a variety of data points with multiple people—all of AchieveIt’s plans have a minimum requirement of 20 users.

Plans are pricey, especially when you consider the user minimum. Core, the lowest-priced plan, costs $80 per user, per month, and Plus is $90 per user, per month, both billed annually. So, it’s going to cost $1,600 per month, at least, which puts this software out of reach for most small businesses.

AchieveIt is a good choice for large businesses that need planning software and for business plan purposes, it makes most sense for established consultant groups.

• Unlimited plans and projects
• Collaboration tools
• Goal management
• 20-user minimum
• Pricier than most competitors
• Integrations at added cost

Best for Teams

Business sorter.

$10 per month

When you’re ready to craft your business plan, it can help immensely to have business planning software like Business Sorter. The cloud-based app makes it easy for you to start a plan and kicks off your business planning with a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). Then, you can follow a guide to build your plan with each section divided by areas. After which, you can choose cards to help steer you toward the right objectives and goals for your business.

You won’t find roadmapping tools in Business Sorter, but the card system keeps you on track (and even gives you goals you may not have considered). As you prioritize goals, you’ll find steps you need to take that guide you to completing your business plan. Every plan allows multiple users, so you can collaborate on what takes precedence.

Plans start at $10 per month, billed annually, and allows you to have three users on board. For 10 users, the Medium plan costs $30 per month, billed annually, and if you need 30 users, the Large Team plan will run you $80 per month, billed annually. It’s one of the most affordable business planning apps for teams.

Although Business Sorter doesn’t offer a messaging tool, it’s still one of the best options for teams. You don’t have to pay per person, but you can add multiple people to the account to work on creating business plans.

• Easy-to-use business plan templates
• Free trial available
• Card system helps guide your goal setting
• Create up to 40 business plans
• Plans limit user count
• No messaging in app
• Very limited integrations

Forbes Advisor carefully considered a variety of software to choose the right business planning apps for this ranking. We compared features, ease of use, costs and collaboration. We ranked each company based on these factors using a 5-star rating system. The highest possible score is 5 out of 5 stars.

Here are the details of the factors we considered:

• Features: We looked at general and unique features of each app and gave more credit to software that provides better functionality for business planning.
• Cost: Regardless of your business size, cost is an important factor to consider when you’re adding new software to your tech stack. We awarded a higher score to those that offer free trials, free plans and affordable options.
• Ease of use: Programs that have a steep learning curve aren’t likely to be adopted by you or your team, so we chose software that’s user-friendly. Drag-and-drop interfaces or guidance through features and tools are helpful for any team.
• Customer reviews: An important factor for any software is how the general public views the program. We considered other ratings and studied the pros and cons listed by other users of the software to help us with our ranking.

Technically, you don’t need business plan software, but using it can make the entire experience easier and you’ll have better odds of creating a solid plan. You don’t even have to choose software made specifically for business planning—project management software is great for roadmapping and goal management. Aside from looking for software that includes financial forecasting, you’ll want collaboration tools, a user-friendly interface, affordable plans and ways to brainstorm or roadmap for your business idea.

One of the most important sections of any business plan is the financials. If you haven’t already done the research and calculations, look for a business plan app that automatically calculates these numbers for you.

Collaboration is also key if you’re working with a partner, team or consultants. At the very least, look for software that lets you invite viewers to see the work you’re doing, but the best business plan software lets users leave comments or work on a plan in real time simultaneously.

Ease of use is nearly as important as pricing. You’ll need software you and your team will use without spending too much downtime learning how to use it. It also makes no sense to choose a cost-prohibitive tool for creating a business plan—most of the software Forbes Advisor suggests is appropriate for small business budgets.

Finally, depending on the stage you’re in of business planning, you may want a tool that offers features that make it easy for you to create a roadmap for your business. If you’re in the early stages, these tools can help with brainstorming, prioritizing goals and managing your goals before you finalize your actual business plan.

Most business plan software helps guide you through the creation of a business plan with prompts, suggestions or tips. So, using business plan software is especially helpful for new business owners who don’t know all the sections to include to increase the odds of getting funding or luring a partner to join your operation.

Business plan software can also automate some processes, such as calculations of financials or comparisons of those finances with industry standards. Some business planning apps give you whiteboards or editable cards you can use for brainstorming. Other features may include scorecards to let you know if you’re on the right track or roadmapping tools to give you an overview of your business plan.

The biggest benefit of business plan software is that it helps you organize and prioritize all of your goals so you can more easily analyze and then compile the data you need to create your business plan. After that, you can create your plan from scratch or if you’re using business planning software made specifically for crafting plans, you can piece it all together and then export it as a PDF or to Microsoft Word.

Which business plan software is the best?

Forbes Advisor suggests Wrike, Smartsheet or LivePlan to help you write your business plan. Depending on the stage you’re in of business planning, one tool or another may be better for you.

How do I create my own business plan?

There are several steps you should follow to create a good business plan, but there are different types of plans you can create. Every business plan starts with a strong executive summary and includes your business goals and financial forecasting. Follow a guide on how to create a business plan to ensure you include all the sections needed.

What are the different types of business plans?

There are many types of business plans you can create and the one that makes the most sense for you depends on your situation. A standard business plan is meant for when you need to present to investors or a bank for financial help. A lean plan doesn’t include all the summaries and background information a standard plan does, so it’s more suitable for established business owners. There are also one-page business plans that are more like pitches. You may also run across operational, tactical, strategic and contingency business plans. We created a simple business plan template that you can use to get started when launching a side gig or small business.

Is business plan software secure?

As  with most types of software, the best business plan software programs offer many levels of security. When choosing this type of software, you want to look for security features that include multifactor authentication (MFA), intrusion detection, the monitoring of user activities, documentation that shows frequent security updates and patches, data encryption and privacy protection.

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Amy Nichol Smith spent more than 20 years working as a journalist for TV and newspapers before transitioning to software and hardware product reviews for consumers and small businesses. She has been featured in publications such as L.A. Times, Tom's Guide, Investopedia and various newspapers across the U.S.

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Top 10 Business-Plan Templates You Can Download Free

Why reinvent the wheel get free professional business plan templates at no cost..

Writing your business plan. Ughhhh.

It's definitely not the most exciting part of starting a business. In fact, if you're like a lot of entrepreneurs, you're probably going to find yourself pulling a few all-nighters to get one done before heading into your first pitch for funding . Because that's the thing--your business plan is a pretty important.

Any funder worth his or her salt wants to see it right off the bat. Moreover though, a solid business plan is a living document that will continue to guide your efforts as your business grows. Recently, I shared 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups , an infographic created by Mark Vital over at Funders and Founders.

A lot of those mistakes (most of them, in fact) are the result of poor planning. Bad location, a marginal niche, having no specific user in mind, raising too much or too little money--all of these issues can be prevented or at least mitigated with good planning.

Creating your business plan is more than just getting your ideas down on paper for potential funders to see. It's an exploratory process in which you can evaluate your options, test your assumptions about your idea, and even discover new opportunities. It might even lead you to kill off aspects of your business before investing too much time or money in them.

That doesn't mean you have to bust out Word and start the plan from scratch. A template is great--you probably aren't doing anything that hasn't been done before, so it provides a proven structure for your plan. Pretty much everything on it can be customized. Check out these comprehensive business plan templates you can download for free to get you started:

1. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit dedicated to helping entrepreneurs get their companies off the ground. Its template, available as a PDF or Word download, asks a whopping 150 questions and is generic enough to customize for most types of businesses. The Refining the Plan resource that comes with it is helpful, especially if this is your first crack at writing a business plan.

2. U.S. Small Business Administration Business Plan Engine

The SBA's template is available to fill out online and then download as a PDF. You can go back in and edit it as needed, so don't worry about having everything ready the first time you sit down to tackle it. Even broken into sections, it's a long document and a bit of a slog to get through, but it produces a professional-looking and useful business plan. This is particularly helpful if your idea isn't fully fleshed out and you know you have homework to do--it prompts you for information.

3. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

Who said a business plan has to be a long, complicated document? Some funders are going to want to see a lot of detail, but you can provide that in appendices. The $100 Startup, the website for the best-selling book of the same name, has a ton of stripped-down resources for entrepreneurs, including this super simplified business plan template.

4. LawDepot's WYSIWYG Business Plan Template

This one says you just have to answer a few simple questions and will be "done before you know it!" Don't believe it. A business plan should take time and a lot of homework, but if you've already done that, LawDepot's template is a decent choice. It walks you through getting started, marketing, product, competitive analysis, SWOT, and more, with a window below the input fields to show you the plan as you work away at it. You can download it free with a trial subscription, but you'll have to remember to cancel it within the week if you don't plan to continue using it.

Editor's Note: Looking for Business Loans for your company? If you would like information to help you choose the one that's right for you, use the questionnaire below to have our partner, BuyerZone, provide you with information for free:

5. sme toolkit business plan samples.

The SME Toolkit, jointly offered by IFC and IBM, offers a simple two-page outline of what should be included in your business plan to meet the minimum requirements of funders and tax authorities (in the U.S.). It contains 10 broad sections, including market analysis, management and organization, etc., with a one-paragraph explanation of each. A second download on the same page is an Excel file to help with your financial projections.

6. Office Online Templates Galore

Of course, Microsoft offers a ton of business plan templates for Office users (you can get birthday invitations while you're at it). If you'd rather do a business plan presentation than a Word doc, you can download one of Microsoft Office's half a dozen or so PowerPoint templates for just that purpose. You'll want to customize it with your company branding (you have your branding down, right?), but it's easier than starting from a blank PPT.

7. vFinance Inc. Business Plan Template and Guide

Global financial services firm vFinance offers a basic, 30-page business plan template to download from its website--one the company says has been downloaded more than a quarter of a million times. No, it won't be completely unique, but vFinance knows what it's doing and the template is pretty comprehensive. VFinance is the creator of the massive Venture Capital Directory and has tailored the plan to appeal to funders. If that's your goal, definitely check this one out.

8. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

U.K. online invoicing software brand Invoiceberry offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats. Each one also contains a marketing plan and executive summary template. There's a catch, though--the company asks you to take one of the following three actions before you can download the template: like it on Facebook, give it a +1 on Google+, or give it your email address. If you don't mind doing that, it's a good deal. Kudos to Invoiceberry for figuring out this effective lead-gen tactic too!

9. Santa Clara University's My Own Business Institute Plans

Santa Clara U's MOBI is an initiative of its Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Leavey School of Business. On the site, you can download each of the 15 business plan sections individually as Word documents, or grab all 15 together in one doc. There's a ton of other helpful resources as well, including guidelines for evaluating your potential sites, a list of key people to review your plan, and sample financial sheets.

10. RocketLawyer's Business Plan Templates by State

Like some of the others, you fill out RocketLawyer's form and download the business plan when you're done--but its template allows you to choose your state before getting started. These plans are tailored to meet your financing requirements in your state, which is a huge bonus for those seeking funding through banks. It's also heavily geared toward financing, making it a good choice if that's a priority for you.

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Best Open Source and Free Business Plan Software

Explore top-notch free and open source Business Plan Software for your business. To discover a wider range of products and assess various feature options, it's advisable to conduct a thorough comparison of different Business Plan Software solutions.

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SoftwareSuggest offers verified & unbiased user reviews based on user ratings and feedback. Our ratings and reports do not contain any paid placements. Learn more about our ranking methodology.

List of 7 Best Free and Open Source Business Plan Software

InPhase Decision Xperience Software

Software by InPhase

Product Description

InPhase Decision Xperience Software is a transformative tool that empowers organizations to make data-driven decisions effortlessly, enhancing efficiency and fostering continuous improvement across various sectors, from healthcare to local authorities. Experience seamless integration and unparalleled support with InPhase. Learn more about InPhase Decision Xperience Software

This is Free Business Plan Software

Starting Price: Available on Request

productboard

Software by productboard, Inc

ProductBoard is a powerful online business plan software that helps businesses understand their customers' needs, prioritize what to build next, and align everyone around the roadmap. ProductBoard centralizes feedback, uses AI to transform it into actionable insights, and engages customers to validate ideas. Learn more about productboard

Starting Price: $49 Per Month

Software by StratPad

StratPad is an excellent product management tool that offers a variety of features to make business planning more streamlined and efficient. It is a free business model software offering business plan templates, financial projections, investor management, and more on a single, user-friendly platform. Learn more about StratPad

Jira Software

Software by Atlassian

Jira is a popular project management software that simplifies business team collaboration. This open-source business plan software provides an all-in-one platform for business teams to collaborate, align, and deliver work in one place. Jira saves time and resources and gives admins the autonomy to take control of their processes and practices. Learn more about Jira Software

Starting Price: $0 Per Month

Recent Review

"Jira helps improve collaboration across different company..." - Eugenia Artyushevskaya

Software by PlanGuru

PlanGuru is an easy-to-use, intuitive, modern business plan software that helps businesses, nonprofits, and advisors make better decisions, increase profits, and accomplish goals. It provides budgeting and financial analytics to set financial goals and assign accountability for results and strategic planning to define a long-term vision of your business. Learn more about PlanGuru

Starting Price: $99 Per Month

Powerful collaboration tool for teams of all sizes

Wrike is an online business plan software that helps businesses boost productivity and improve ROI. This versatile and robust software helps businesses with project management, work organization, enhanced collaboration, and accelerated execution. Wrike provides better visibility to the employees by bringing everything on a single platform, empowering them with a deeper understanding of business activities. Learn more about Wrike

Starting Price: $0 User/Month

"I have been using Wrike for the..." - Charles Mattson

Mobile & Web Applications Development - MLM Softwa

MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) software is designed to help businesses manage their multi-level marketing operations. MLM is a business model where individuals can earn money not only through their direct sales but also through recruiting and building a team of salespeople. Learn more about LETSCMS

Starting Price: $200 Single User

"LETSCMS is Unilevel MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) plan..." - Namrata Varshney

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Write a business plan

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

Business plan templates

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

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

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Read example business plans on the Bplans website.

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

Why you need a business plan

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

A business plan helps you to:

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

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

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Business Plan Templates in Google Docs and Word

Choose the best business plan templates in google docs, google slides, google sheets, and other formats. we provide you with startup, botanical business, coffee shop business plan forms, and more. find your blank in white or dark colors and with trendy designs.

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Modeling Agency Business Plan

Do you need to pick the right editable business plan template? Our options have an exceptional design yet comprehensible concept. Keep in mind that you can edit and customize these samples using Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets. You can find options for any startup idea on our website. Our samples are 100% unique. Designers are creating free business plan templates from scratch.

Business plans on the website draw attention immediately. They have a memorable design that is easy to remember. You can edit, adjust, download, and publish our templates for free. No hidden fees, no additional payments.

There are 50+ business plan templates now, and you can opt for other categories of free templates. Our website has hundreds of designer options to offer. Just saying, keep that in mind.

Customize and print our free and ready-to-use layouts using Google Docs. It doesn’t require much time or effort. The majority of users say that they can edit the template unaided in just a few minutes. We are analyzing your feedback and making new templates with outstanding designs. Feel free to give us any feedback or recommendations.

Each of our unique spreadsheets is editable, customizable, and completely free. Therefore, we do not expect to get anything in return. If you like our free business plans, subscribe to our social media and stay tuned for the latest updates.

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Floridians balk at DeSantis administration plan to build golf courses at state parks

Red mangroves line the shore at Oleta River State Park, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in North Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Joshua Gross, right, and his brother Joseph, of Miami, prepare to launch their kayaks off the beach at Oleta River State Park, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in North Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Javier Fernandez, of Hollywood, rides on a mountain bike trail at Oleta River State Park, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in North Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Families enjoy the beach at Oleta River State Park, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in North Miami Beach, Fla. The park is Florida’s urban park. A proposal by the Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection to build new sports facilities, hotels, and glamping sites at eight state parks across the state has drawn a wave of opposition, not just from nature lovers and birdwatchers but also from members of Governor Ron DeSantis’ Cabinet. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

A boat docks near the beach at Oleta River State Park, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in North Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Tristan Martin and his girlfriend Lilly Ortega of Miami, go fishing on their day off at Oleta River State Park, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in North Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Bathers enjoy the warm water at Oleta River State Park, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in North Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The golf course is not a threatened species in the Sunshine State — but the Florida scrub-jay is.

And advocates are warning that life for the small blue and gray birds and many other imperiled species could get much harder if Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration follows through on a proposal to build golf courses, pickleball courts and 350-room hotels at state parks from Miami to the Panhandle.

State parks “are the last strongholds for a lot of wildlife in rapidly urbanizing communities in Florida,” said Julie Wraithmell, executive director of Audubon Florida.

“They have an outsized importance — not just to wildlife but also as places where Floridians and visitors can continue to see what Florida was like,” she said. “It’s the best of Florida.”

DeSantis has enjoyed rock solid support from the Republicans who dominate state politics. It has been rare for DeSantis to get pushback on anything from GOP lawmakers, and he has a reputation for seeking vengeance when they do.

But it appears a political line in the sand is being drawn after DeSantis’ administration announced plans this week to carve out golf courses and pickleball courts in Florida’s beloved state parks.

Unlike the issues of abortion, LGBTQ rights, race and guns that have divided voters, state parks apparently hold a place in the hearts of Floridians regardless of party. The state park system has received national recognition for years, and people are resistant to change the protected lands they enjoy.

The proposal announced by Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection to build new sports facilities, hotels and glamping sites at nine state parks across Florida has drawn a wave of opposition, not just from nature lovers and birdwatchers but also from members of DeSantis’ Cabinet, a Republican member of Congress and conservative state lawmakers. That includes outgoing Republican Senate President Kathleen Passidomo.

“Our vision (for state parks) did not contemplate the addition of golf courses and hotels, which in my view are not in-line with the peaceful and quiet enjoyment of nature,” Passidomo posted on X. “From what I know at this time, the proposal should not move forward in its current form.”

A spokesperson for DeSantis defended the plans — which are not final — and touted the administration’s investments in protecting and conserving the state’s natural resources.

“Teddy Roosevelt believed that public parks were for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, and we agree with him,” press secretary Jeremy Redfern said. “But it’s high time we made public lands more accessible to the public.”

The Department of Environmental Protection did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

All of the parks slated for development are located near heavily visited tourist destinations, including Miami, Tampa, Panama City and St. Augustine.

Florida’s state park system is a bastion of wildness in a state where vast stretches of sugar sand beaches and mangrove forests have long given way to condos, motels and strip mall souvenir shops.

Advocates say places like Topsail Hill Preserve State Park near Destin are literal beacons on a hill — the preserve is known for its 25-foot high sand dunes that tower over a stretch of the Panhandle known for its spring break destinations and military installations.

Eric Draper, a former head of the Florida Park Service, said Topsail is one of the last undeveloped stretches of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

In that part of the state, Draper said, “you can stand on the beach, you look right, you look left, and you just see a lot of condos and developments and houses. But this is one place that you can stand and look for three miles and not see any development.”

Under the new plans, Topsail would get up to four new pickleball courts, a disc golf course and a new hotel with a capacity of up to 350 rooms — a scale of development that Draper said is more in line with a conference center than a quiet beach retreat.

Another proposal is for a golf complex at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County on the state’s southeast coast north of West Palm Beach. Building the golf courses would entail removing a boardwalk and observation tower as well as relocating the residences and offices of park staff, as well as existing cabins for visitors.

A change.org petition targeting the would-be golf complex at Jonathan Dickinson had netted more than 60,000 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.

It is not the first time a Republican administration has raised the idea of leveraging more revenue from state parks by providing golf, lodging and other attractions. But past ideas were quickly dropped after public opposition.

In 2015, then-Gov. Rick Scott’s administration floated plans to allow cattle farmers to graze their herds and loggers to harvest timber from park lands.

Legendary former professional golfer Jack Nicklaus has long lobbied state officials to underwrite his push to build golf courses in state parks, efforts that fizzled following public pushback.

Wraithmell, the head of Audubon Florida, said she hopes state officials will listen to the Floridians who plan to pack public meetings next week to weigh in on the proposals.

“Absolutely there is demand for more people to enjoy state parks,” she said. “The solution is not to try to cram as many people into a park as we can .... The solution is to create more state parks.”

This story was first published on Aug. 22, 2024. It was updated on Aug. 23, 2024, to correct that there are nine state parks included in the proposal, not eight.

___ Associated Press reporter Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed to this story.

Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Business Plan Template

Use this document as a basic template:

• From http://library.syr.edu/research/internet/management/nutsandbolts.doc
• 1 Links to Resources
• 2.1 Executive Summary
• 2.3 Financial Model
• 3 Detailed Sample Business Plan Template
• 4 Executive Summary
• 6.1 The Company and Concept
• 6.2 Product
• 6.3 Entry and Growth Strategy
• 7.1 Definition of Relevant Market and Customer Overview
• 7.2 Market Size and Trends
• 7.3 Buyer Behavior
• 7.4 Market Segmentation and Targeting
• 7.5 Competition and Competitive Advantages
• 7.6 Estimate Market Share and Sales
• 7.7 Ongoing Market Evaluation
• 8.1 Revenue Sources and Gross and Operating Margins
• 8.2 Fixed and Variable Costs
• 8.3 Operating Leverage and its Implications
• 8.4 Breakeven Chart and Calculation
• 8.5 Overall Economic Model
• 8.6 Profit Potential and Durability
• 9.1 Overall Marketing Strategy
• 9.2 Pricing
• 9.3 The Selling Cycle
• 9.4 Sales Tactics
• 9.5 Advertising and Sales Promotions
• 9.6.1 Customer Service
• 9.6.2 Warranty or Guarantee Policies
• 9.7 Distribution
• 10 DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN
• 11.1 A.Operating Model and Cycle:
• 11.2 B.Geographic Location:
• 11.3 C.Facilities, Equipment and Improvements:
• 11.4 D.Strategy and Plans:
• 12.1 A.Organization:
• 12.2 B.Key Management Personnel:
• 12.3 C.Management Compensation and Ownership:
• 12.4 D.Other Current Investors:
• 12.5 E.Employment and Other Agreements, Stock Options and Bonus Plans:
• 12.6 F.Board of Directors:
• 12.7 G.Other Shareholders, Rights, and Restrictions:
• 12.8 H.Supporting Professional Advisors and Services:
• 13 OVERALL SCHEDULE
• 14 CRITICAL RISKS, PROBLEMS AND ASSUMPTIONS
• 15.1 A. Pro Forma Income Statements:
• 15.2 B. Pro Forma Balance Sheets:
• 15.3 C.Pro Forma Cash Flow Analysis:
• 15.4 D. Months to Breakeven and to Positive Cash Flow:
• 15.5 E. Cost Control:
• 15.6 F. Highlights of the Financial Statements:
• 16 PROPOSED COMPANY OFFERING
• 17 COVERING YOUR BASES: FORTY ISSUES TO DIE FOR
• 18 Judge’s Rating Sheet

Links to Resources

• From Renee at SupporTED - http://blog.rockthepost.com/2012/07/a-business-plan-is-for-you-first-then-for-investors/?goback=.gde_1839330_member_138101680
• From Renee - "Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers", by Alex Osterwalder - suggested guidelines.
• Key points - HOW he is going to get what he says he is going to get. He says what his projections are, but when a business investor looks at these things he/she wants to see how you’re going to make your prediction come true. How many people doing what for how long at what cost to produce the result you say you’re going to produce? What evidence do you have for that? What are the downside risks that are obvious? Are there any risks you’re hiding from yourself because they’re inconvenient in your vision of what you want to happen?

Key Elements of a Business Plan

Executive summary.

• The problem and your solution . These are your hooks, and they better be covered in the first paragraph. State your value proposition, and what specifically you are offering to whom. Skip the acronyms, history of the company, and the disruptive technology behind your solution.
• Market size and growth opportunity . Investors are looking for a large and growing market. Spend a few sentences providing the basic market segmentation, size, growth and dynamics – how many people or companies, how many dollars, how fast the growth, and what is driving the segment. Skip the comment that you are conservatively estimating your penetration at 1%.
• Your competitive advantage . Identify your sustainable competitive advantage, like unique benefits, cost savings, or industry ties. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition. At minimum, you compete with the way things get done currently. Most likely, the investor has already seen multiple plans with similar solutions.
• Business model . Who is your customer, what is the price, and how much does it cost you to build one? Do you now have real customers, are just starting development. Outline your sales and marketing strategy (direct marketing, sales channel, viral marketing, and lead generation). Identify key quantities, such as customers, licenses, units, and margin.
• Executive team . Remember that investors fund people, more than ideas. Why is your team uniquely qualified to win, and what have they done before? Explain why the background of each team member fits, by naming roles and names of relevant companies. Include outside advisors if they have relevant experience.
• Financial projections and funding . You need to show your summary revenue and expense projections for three to five years. Investors need to know the amount of funding you are asking for now, and what they get. The request should generally be the minimum amount of cash you need to reach the next major milestone in your plan.

Do at least first 7 of these -

• Value proposition . What is the need you fill or problem you solve? The value proposition must clearly define the target customer, the customer’s problem and pain, your unique solution, and the net benefit of this solution from the customer’s perspective.
• Target market . Who are you selling to? A target market is the group of customers that the startup plans to attract through marketing and sales their product or service. This segment should have specific demographics, and the means to buy your product.
• Sales/Marketing . How will you reach your customers? Word-of-mouth and viral marketing are popular terms these days, but are rarely adequate to initiate a new business. Be specific on sales channels and marketing initiatives.
• Production . How do you produce your product or service? Common choices include manufacturing in-house, outsourcing, off-the-shelf parts. The key issues here are time to market and cost.
• Distribution . How do you distribute your product or service? Some products and services can be sold and distributed online, others require multi-level distributors, partners, or value-added resellers. Decide whether the product is local or international.
• Revenue model . See Top 10 Business Models How do you make money? The key here is to explain to yourself and to investors how your pricing and revenue stream will cover all costs, including overhead and support, and still leave a good return.
• Cost structure . What are your costs? New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on product direct costs, and underestimate marketing and sales costs, overhead costs, and support costs. Test your projections against actual published reports from similar companies.
• Competition . How many competitors do you have? No competitors probably means there is no market. More than ten competitors indicates a saturated market. Think broadly here, like planes versus trains. Customers always have alternatives.
• Unique selling proposition . How will you differentiate your product or service? Investors look for a sustainable competitive advantage. Short-term discounts or promotions are not a unique selling proposition.
• Market size, growth, and share . How big is your market in dollars, is it growing or shrinking, and what percent can you capture? Venture capitalists look for a market with double-digit growth, greater than a billion dollars, and a double-digit penetration plan.

Financial Model

• See more at [1]
• Focus on headcount. Outside of marketing programs, the basis for all cost in Internet software is headcount. Just figure out whom you’ll hire and how much you’ll pay and you can’t go far wrong.
• Plan slow, run fast. The most likely scenario is that you won’t be able to hire engineers fast enough, and that revenues will come more slowly too. Investors expect their money to drive artificially accelerated growth rates, but signing up for that sometimes just blows a company up before you’ve had a chance to figure everything out. At least in the financial model, give yourself as much time to grow as you can.
• Run top-down sanity-checks. To estimate what a company is likely to spend each year, try doubling the average salary and multiplying it by the number of employees. A 100-person company might spend as much as $15 million per year.
• Forget economies of scale. The biggest whopper is that a business will magically become more efficient as it grows. If you really believe this, just walk into the headquarters of Amazon or eBay. Bureaucracies grow. Salaries float away. Straining to make a model work, I always forget that per-employee costs rise every year.
• Admit that revenues are a mystery. If you don’t have any revenues yet, you can’t say what they’ll be. The point of a model is to prove you can make money if people buy your product, not to insist that they will. By developing different scenarios based on different levels of demand, you can later calibrate hiring and spending according to which scenario fits reality best.
• Build from building blocks. Nearly every model is the sum of smaller units. In Redfin’s case, our unit is a market like the San Diego real estate market, which we plan to grow to a certain size in a certain number of months, hopefully returning a certain amount of profit to the overall business. We can then gauge whether the model works by just looking at whether San Diego works, and then asking, “Now what if we had twenty San Diegos?” For another company, it may be a user-created website, with so many page-views and so many ads, or it may be the productivity of a single salesperson, with a million dollars in quota per year.
• Take out “hope.” Think about what is most likely to happen, so that a bookie would say you’re as likely to out-perform the plan as under-perform it. Generally speaking, “hope” is not a strategy.
• Flag your assumptions. Rather than burying your assumptions in Excel formulae, call them out in a separate tab of the workbook, so that you have a control panel for adjusting the model. This is especially important if you plan to share your model with potential investors.
• Hit $100 million in revenues within five years. The premise of most venture investments is the possibility of generating ten-fold returns in five to seven years, which is hard to do if you spend $5 million to build a $25 million company.
• Keep market-share under 20%. Most startups reach a jillion in projected revenues by assuming that the business grows by leaps and bounds for five years. Since there’s a natural limit on growth, be ready for the question: “What would your market-share be in year five?” If it’s over 20%, take the jillion-dollar projection down a notch. Even a hit like iPod doesn’t have 20% market-share. You’ll be lucky to come close to 20% of any market.

Detailed Sample Business Plan Template

Summarize the industry:

Market segmentation:

Industry size, growth rate, trends:

Trends or factors that could affect the business:

Key success factors for the industry and conclusions:

Standard and key financial ratios for the industry:

Company, Concept, and Product

The company and concept.

Define the company, where it will be based, and when it will begin operations:

Outline of the history of the company and it's founders and it's current status:

Objectives of the company:

Describe the concept of the business, how it will address user's needs:

Fully describe the product, what it is and is not:

Describe what the product does, who will use it, and why:

Describe differences between other products and this product, and what will account for market penetration:

Describe drawbacks of the product:

Describe key factors for the success of the product:

Describe where the product is in it's development:

Discuss what improvements or other products can be developed and how they can be implemented:

Entry and Growth Strategy

How will the company enter the market: Summarize how quickly the business intends to grow over the next 5 years and for growth beyond the initial product: Discuss how the company will stay competitive against others:

Market Research and Analysis

Definition of relevant market and customer overview.

Provide a very specific definition of the relevant market, where the specific customers will come from, and what parameters are being used to define the relevant market:

Discuss who the customers for the product will be:

Provide general demographics for the customer base:

Market Size and Trends

Estimate market size and potential:

Note assumptions that projections are based on:

Estimate the size of the primary and selective demand gaps:

Describe the potential growth rate for 3 years for the product for each major customer group and region:

Discuss major factors affecting market growth and review previous trends in the market:

Buyer Behavior

Why buys what, where, why, when, how:

Who is the actual purchase decision maker, and does anyone else get involved in the buying decision process:

How long is the customer's buying process:

What are the key stages of the customer's buying process and what happens in each stage that might have marketing implications:

Show who and where the major purchasers are for the product in each market segment:

Indicate if this is a high medium or low involvement purchase and draw implications:

Indicate if customers are easily reached and receptive:

Describe customer's purchasing processes including factors influencing purchasing decisions and why they might change current purchasing decisions:

Discuss interviews you have had with users of the product category:

List orders or contracts already placed, list potential customers that have expressed interest and indicate why, list potential customers who have shown no interest and discuss why, explain how you will overcome negative customer reaction, and how quickly the product is believed to be accepted in the market:

List and describe the 5 potentially largest customers and what percentage of sales they will represent:

In what way are customers dissatisfied with current offerings in the market or what emerging customer groups are being ignored:

Market Segmentation and Targeting

Discuss how the defined market can be broken down into segments (groups having common identifiable characteristics, demographics, phychographics, benefits sought, information sources utilized, product usage rate, etc):

Table of segments:

Which segments represent the largest sales potential:

Which segments will be prioritized:

Competition and Competitive Advantages

Identify potential/actual direct and indirect competitors, make a realistic assessment of their strengths and weaknesses, discuss them and figure out why customers buy from them and why they might leave them:

Assess the substitute and/or alternative products and the companies that supply them:

Discuss the current advantages and disadvantages of these products and say why they are not meeting customer needs:

Compare competing and substitute products on the basis of market share, sales, distribution methods, economies of scale, and production. Review the financial position resources, costs, and profitability of the competition and their profit trends:

Compare also important attributes such as quality, price, performance, delivery, timing, service, warranties, and pertinent features of your product with those of competitors:

Indicate any knowledge of competitor's actions or lack of action that could lead you to new or improved products and an advantageous position (for example discuss whether competitors are simply sluggish or non-responsive or asleep at the switch):

Indicate who are the service, pricing, performance, cost, and quality leaders. Discuss why any competitors have entered or dropped out of the market in recent years:

From what you know about your competitor's positions explain why you think they are vulnerable and you can capture a share of their business. Discuss what makes you think it will be easy or difficult to compete with them:

Estimate Market Share and Sales

Summarize what it is about your product that will make it saleable in the face of current and potential competition. Mention the fundamental value added by the product:

Discuss which customers could be major purchasers in future years and why:

Based on your assessment of the advantages of your product, the market size and trends, customer, the competition and their products, and the trends of sales in prior years, estimate the share of the market and the sales in units and dollars that you will aquire in each of the next three years. Remember to show assumptions used in your calculations:

Show how the growth of the company sales in units and market share are related to the growth of it's industry and customers and the strengths and weaknesses of competitors. Clearly state the assumptions used to estimate market share and sales:

Ongoing Market Evaluation

Explain how you will continue to evaluate your target markets so as to assess customer needs and service and to guide product improvement programs and new product programs, plan for expansion of your production facility, and guide product pricing. Explain how you make the necessary strategic changes to your plan:

The Economics of The Business

The economic and financial characteristics, including the apparent magnitude and durability of margins and profits generated, need to support the fundamental attractiveness of the opportunity. The underlying operating costs and each conversion cycle of the business, the value chain, and so forth, need to make sense in terms of the opportunity and strategies planned.

Revenue Sources and Gross and Operating Margins

Summarize the major revenue sources of the business and proportionately where you expect to make your money:

Describe the size of the gross margins (selling price less costs of goods sold) and the operating margins for each product you are selling in the market niche you plan to attach. Where you have multiple products calculate weighted average margins. Include results of you contribution analysis:

Fixed and Variable Costs

Provide a detailed summary of fixed, variable, and semi-variable costs, in dollars and as percentages of total cost as appropriate, for the product or service you offer and the volume of purchases and sales upon which these are based. For analysis purposes, classify semi-variable as either fixed or variable. Show relevant industry benchmarks for costs.

Operating Leverage and its Implications

Characterize whether your cost structure is predominantly fixed or variable and then indicate the implications. For example, if you have a high fixed cost structure, you have high operating leverage which means it takes longer to reach breakeven, but once there, much more of your revenue flows straight to the bottom line. Look at operating leverage as it relates to margins and volume to argue the viability of your business.

Breakeven Chart and Calculation

Make clear what your unit of analysis is for the purpose of calculating breakeven. Calculate breakeven and prepare a chart that shows when breakeven will be reached and any stepwise changes in breakeven that may occur. Present a chart for the break-even point in the appendix. Discuss the breakeven shown for your venture and whether it will be easy or difficult to attain breakeven, including a discussion of the size of break-even sales volume relative to projected total sales, the size of gross margins and price sensitivity, and how the break-even point might be lowered in case the venture falls short of sales projections.

Overall Economic Model

Put the pieces above together. Indicate how you will make money in terms of the combination of costs, margins, volumes, and revenue sources.

Profit Potential and Durability

Describe the magnitude and expected durability of the profit stream the business will generate (before and after taxes) and reference appropriate industry benchmarks, other competitive intelligence, or your own relevant experience. Address the issue of how solid or vulnerable the profit stream appears to be. Provide reasons why your profit stream is solid or vulnerable, such as barriers to entry you can create, your technological and market lead time, and so on.

THE MARKETING PLAN

The Marketing Plan describes how your projected sales will actually be attained. How will you make sales actually happen? A great idea is meaningless if you cannot find customers. Thus, this section builds on the Market Section, where you defined your market and outlined your targeted segments and their buyer behavior. The marketing plan needs to provide detail on the overall marketing strategy that will exploit the opportunity and your competitive advantages.  Include a discussion of sales and service policies, pricing, distribution, promotion and advertising strategies, and sales projections. The marketing plan needs to describe what is to be done, how it will be done, when it will be done, and who will do it. 

Overall Marketing Strategy

Describe the specific marketing philosophy and strategy of the company, given the value chain and channels of distribution in the market niche(s) you are pursuing. Include, for example, a discussion of the kinds of customer groups that have already placed orders, have expressed an interest, or will be targeted for either initial intensive selling efforts. Explain how you will try to position your products or services in the marketplace and in the minds of particular target audiences. How will you differentiate your product/service from your competitors? Make it clear how your marketing strategy reflects the characteristics of the priority market segments you will be targeting. Indicate whether the product(s) or service(s) will initially be introduced internationally, nationally, regionally, or locally; explain why, and indicate any plans for extending sales at a later date. From an overall standpoint, make it clear whether marketing efforts will center on personal selling, media advertising, or what (you will get into specifics below).

Discuss pricing strategy, including the prices to be charged for your product and service, and compare your pricing policy with those of your major competitors, including a brief discussion of payback (in months) to the customer. Explain how the price you set will enable you (1) to get the product or service accepted, (2) to maintain an increase in your market share in the face of competition, and (3) to produce profits. Justify your pricing strategy and differences between your prices and those for competitive or substitute products or services in terms of economic payback to the customer and value added through newness, quality, warranty, timing performance, service, cost savings, efficiency, and the like. If your product is to be priced lower than those of the competition, explain how you will do this and maintain profitability (e.g., through greater value added vial effectiveness in manufacturing and distribution, lower labor costs, lower material costs, lower overhead, or other component of cost). Discuss pricing structure, or how your prices will differ by aspect of the product or service, by customer group, and by time and form of payment (e.g., the discount structure). Discuss the use of special price offers, rebates, coupons, and so forth.  This can be done under price or under sales promotion.

The Selling Cycle

In the MARKET section you described the customer’s buying process. Now, map out a selling cycle or process that reflects that buying process. How do you plan to move a customer from never having heard of you to being a loyal user? Make it vividly clear how your overall use of personal selling, advertising, and publicity will reflect a blend of tools that moves your target customer through their buying process.

Sales Tactics

Describe the methods (e.g., own sales force, sales representatives, ready-made manufacturers’ sales organizations, direct mail, or distributors) that will be used to make sales and distribute the product or service. Also include both the initial plans and longer-range plans for a sales force.  Include a discussion of any special requirements (e.g., refrigeration). Describe how distributors or sales representatives, if they are used, will be selected when they will start to represent you, the areas they will cover and the build-up (a head count) of dealers and representatives by month, and the expected sales to be made by each. If a direct sales force is to be used, indicate how it will be structured and at what rate (a head count) it will be built up; indicate if it is to replace a dealer or representative organization and, if so, when and how. How will you recruit, train and compensate the sales force? Show the sales expected per salesperson per year and what commission, incentive, and/or salary they are slated to receive, and compare these figures to the average for your industry. Present a selling schedule and a sales budget that includes all marketing promotion and service costs. Discuss any seasonal trends that underlie the cash conversion cycle in the industry and what can be done to promote sales out of season.

Advertising and Sales Promotions

Describe the media approaches the company will use to bring its product or service to the attention of prospective purchasers. How will you inform your target market about the availability of your product/service and continue to communicate the benefits you are offering to that market If direct mail, magazine, newspaper, or other media, telemarketing, or catalog sales are to be used, indicate the specific channels or vehicles, costs (per 1,000), and expected response rates and yield (as percentage) from the various media, and so on, used.  Discuss how these will be built up. For original equipment manufacturers and for manufacturers of industrial products, indicate the plans for trade show participation, trade magazine advertisements, direct mailings, the preparation of product sheets and promotional literature, and use of advertising agencies. For consumer products, indicate what kind of advertising and promotional campaign is planned to introduce the product.  Specify types of media to be employed and what kinds of sales aids will be provided to dealers, what trade shows, and so forth, are required. Present a schedule and approximate costs of promotion and advertising (direct mail, telemarketing, catalogs, etc.), and discuss how these costs will be incurred. Determine the total marketing budget required. Note any viral or buzz marketing efforts you plan to employ.

What methods will you use to get free publicity for your business?  What sort of guerrilla publicity tactics will you employ? How might you create news?

Customer Service

How will customer service be defined and measured? What system will you have in place to manage customer service and ensure service levels are consistent?

Warranty or Guarantee Policies

If your company will offer a product that will require service, warranties, or training, indicate the importance of these to the customers’ purchasing decisions and discuss your method of handling service problems. Describe the type and terms of any warranties to be offered, whether company service people, agencies, dealers and distributors will handle service, or simply return to the factory. Indicate the proposed charge for service calls and whether service will be a profitable or loss operation. Compare your service, warranty, and customer training practices to those of principal competitors.

Distribution

Describe the methods of distribution you will employ. Why is this best/better? Discuss the value chain and the resulting margins to be given to retailers, distributors, wholesalers, and salespeople and any special policies regarding discounts, exclusive distribution rights, and so on, given to distributors or sales representatives and compare these to those given by your competition. What distribution channel(s) will be important to your business? How will you gain access to these channels? Note any special issues that need to be resolved, or present potential vulnerabilities. Explain any methods to be employed to obtain distributor cooperation and support. If international sales are involved, note how these sales will be handled, including distribution, shipping, insurance, credit, and collections.

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN

This is a very important section for those teams developing a non-existent product, doing research and development, having technical obstacles to overcome, or seeking patent or copyright protection. However, if your in a business where research and development is not a major issue (e.g., many consumer services), then you can leave this section out and just address and technologies you plan to employ in the OPERATIONS section. The nature and extent of any design and development work, and the time and money required before the product or service is marketable, need to be considered in detail. (Note that design and development costs are often underestimated.)  Design and development might be the engineering work necessary to convert a laboratory prototype to a finished product; the design of special tooling; the work of an industrial designer to make a product more attractive and saleable; or the identification and organization of employees, equipment, and special techniques, such as the equipment, new computer software, and skills required for computerized credit checking, to implement a service business.    A. Development Status and Tasks: Define the present state of development of the product or service and how much time and money will be required to fully develop, test, and introduce the product or service.  If appropriate provide a drawing, or a summary of the functional specifications and photographs of the product, if available.  Explain what remains to be done to make the product fully useable and ready for sale. Describe briefly the competence or expertise that your company has or will require to complete this development. List any customers or end users who are participating in the development, design, and/or testing of the product or service. Indicate results to date or when results are expected. How do you intend to ramp-up your business? Give a roadmap of how you are going to get from where you are now to where you want to be in the future. B. Difficulties and Risks: Identify any major anticipated design and development challenges and approaches to their solution. Discuss the possible effect on the cost of design and development, on the time to market introduction, and so forth, of such problems. C. Product Improvement and New Products: In addition to describing the development of the initial products, discuss any ongoing design and development work that is planned to keep product(s) or service(s) competitive and to develop new related product(s) or service(s) that can be sold to the same group of customers. Discuss customers who have participated in these efforts and their reactions, and include any evidence that you may have. D. Costs: Present and discuss the design and development budget, including costs of labor, materials, consulting fees, and so on. Discuss the impact on cash flow projections of underestimating this budget, including the impact of a 15 to 30 percent contingency. E. Proprietary Issues: Describe any patent, trademark, copyright, or intellectual property rights you own or are seeking. Describe any contractual rights or agreements that give you exclusive or proprietary rights. Discuss the impact of any unresolved issues or existing or possible actions pending, such as disputed rights of ownership, regulated to proprietary rights on timing and on any competitive edge you have assumed.

OPERATIONS PLAN

The operations section outlines how you will run your business and deliver value to your customers. Operations is defined as the processes that deliver your products/services to a customer or user and can include the production process for delivering your service to a given customer, manufacturing process if you are a manufacturer, transportation, logistics, travel, printing, consulting, and after-sales service. It also includes such factors as plant location, the type of facilities needed, space requirements, internal processes, capital equipment requirements, and labor force (both full- and part-time) requirements.

For a manufacturing business, the manufacturing and operations plan needs to include policies on inventory control, purchasing, production control, and which parts of the product will be purchased and which operations will be performed by your workforce (called make-or-buy decisions).

A service business may require particular attention to location (proximity to customers is generally a must), the service delivery system, minimizing overhead, and obtaining competitive productivity from a labor force.  In all likelihood 80% of your expenses will be for operations, 80% of your employees will be involved in operations and 80% of your time will be spent worrying about operating problems You will probably have to make trade-offs with your operations ---it is impossible to have the lowest costs, highest quality, best on-time delivery and most flexibility in your industry all at the same time.  This is where you have to make trade-off decisions that fit your other plans.

A.Operating Model and Cycle:

Outline the operations process for your business. Identify the inputs, operations (key steps or stages) and outputs (present a flow diagram). This is a day in the life of actually producing your product or creating and delivering your service---walk us through the mechanics of doing so. Where are you likely to have bottlenecks in your service delivery or manufacturing process and how will these be anticipated and addressed. Describe the lead/lag times that characterize the fundamental operating cycle in your business. Explain how any seasonal production loads will be handled without severe dislocation (e.g., by building to inventory using part-time help in peak periods). What quality consistency issues exist and how will quality consistency be ensured? What controls exist, for instance, to ensure every burger is cooked exactly the same?

B.Geographic Location:

Describe the planned geographic location of the business.  Include any location analysis, site selection etc. that you have done. Discuss any advantages or disadvantages of the site location in terms of such factors as labor (including labor available, whether workers are unionized, and wage rate), closeness to customer and/or suppliers, access to transportation, state and local taxes and laws (including zoning regulations), access to utilities, and so forth.

C.Facilities, Equipment and Improvements:

Describe the facilities, including plant and office space, storage and land areas, special tooling, machinery, and other equipment needed to conduct business.  Discuss any economies to scale. Provide a schematic diagram of the layout of your facility. Describe how and when the necessary facilities to start production will be acquired. Discuss whether equipment and space will be leased or acquired (new or used) and indicate costs and timing of such actions and how much of the proposed financing will be devoted to plant/equipment. Discuss how and when, in the next three years, office/ retail site/ plant space and equipment will be expanded to the capacities required by future sales projections and any plans to improve or add to existing space or move the facility; indicate the timing and cost of such acquisitions.

D.Strategy and Plans:

Describe the manufacturing processes involved in production of your product(s) – what will you do in-house and what will we purchase (i.e. make versus buy decision)?  or

Describe the service delivery processes involved in providing your service(s) and any aspects of the service that are outsourced or provided by others.

Justify your proposed make-or-buy policy in terms of inventory financing, available labor skills, and other non-technical questions, as well as production, cost, and capability issues.

Discuss who potential subcontractors and suppliers are likely to be and any information about, or any surveys that have been made of, these subcontractors and suppliers. Discuss relationships with them.

Present a plan for operations that shows cost/volume information at various sales levels of operation with breakdowns of applicable material, labor, purchased components, and factory overhead, and that shows the inventory required at these various sales levels.

Describe your approach to quality control, production control, inventory control, and explain what quality control and inspection procedures the company will use to minimize service problems and associated customer dissatisfaction. How will you win in the market place on cost, quality, timeliness or flexibility?

MANAGEMENT TEAM

This section of the business plan includes a description of the functions that will need to be filled, a description of the key management personnel and their primary duties, an outline of the organizational structure for the venture, a description of the board of directors and key advisors, a description of the ownership position of any other investors, and so forth.  You need to present indications of commitment, such as the willingness of team members to initially accept modest salaries, and of the existence of the proper balance of technical, managerial, and business skills and experience in doing what is proposed.

A.Organization:

Present the key management roles and responsibilities in the company. Discuss the individuals who will fill each position. If it is not possible to fill each executive role with a full-time person without adding excessive overhead, indicate how these functions will be performed (e.g., using part-time specialists or consultants to perform some functions), who will perform them, and when they will be replaced by a full-time staff member. If any key individuals will not be on board at the start, indicate when they will join the company. Discuss any current or past situations where key management people have worked together that could indicate how their skills complement each other and result in an effective management team.

B.Key Management Personnel:

For each key person, describe career highlights, particularly relevant know-how, skills, and track record of accomplishments that demonstrate his or her ability to perform the assigned role. Include in your description sales and profitability achievements (budget size, numbers of subordinates, new product introductions, etc.) and other prior entrepreneurial or general management results. Describe the exact duties and responsibilities of each of the key members of the management team. Complete resumes for each key management member need to be included here or as an exhibit and need to stress relevant training, experience, any concrete accomplishments, such as profit and sales improvement, labor management success, manufacturing or technical achievements, and meeting of budgets & schedules.

C.Management Compensation and Ownership:

State the salary to be paid, the stock ownership planned, and the amount of their equity investment (if any) of each key member of the management team.

D.Other Current Investors:

Describe here any other investors in your venture, the number and percentage of outstanding shares they own, when they were acquired, and at what price.

E.Employment and Other Agreements, Stock Options and Bonus Plans:

Describe any existing or contemplated employment or other agreements with key members. Indicate any restrictions on stock and vesting that affect ownership and disposition of stock. Summarize any incentive stock option or other stock ownership plans planned or in effect for key people and employees.

F.Board of Directors:

Discuss the company’s philosophy about the size and composition of the board. Identify any proposed board members and include a one or two sentence statement of the member’s background that shows what he or she can bring to the company.

G.Other Shareholders, Rights, and Restrictions:

Indicate any other shareholders in your company and any rights and restrictions or obligations, such as notes or guarantees, associated with these.  (If they have all been accounted for above, simply note that there are no others.)

H.Supporting Professional Advisors and Services:

Indicate the names and affiliations of the legal, accounting, advertising, consulting, and banking advisors selected for your venture and the services each will provide. 

OVERALL SCHEDULE

A graphical schedule that shows the timing and interrelationship of the major events necessary to launch the venture and realize its objectives is an essential part of a business plan.  The underlying cash conversion and operating cycle of the business will provide key inputs for the schedule.  In addition to being a planning aid by showing deadlines critical to a venture’s success, a well-presented schedule can be extremely valuable in convincing potential investors that the management team is able to plan for venture growth in a way that recognizes obstacles and minimizes investor risk.  Since the time necessary to do things tends to be underestimated in most business plans, it is important to demonstrate that you have correctly estimated these amounts in determining the schedule.  

Create your schedule as follows:

• Step 1: Prepare a month-by-month schedule that shows the timing of such activities as product development, market planning, sales programs, production, and operations, and that includes sufficient detail to show the timing of the primary tasks required to accomplish an activity.
• Incorporation of the venture.
• Completion of design and development.
• Completion of prototypes.
• Rental of facilities.
• Obtaining of sales representatives.
• Obtaining product display at trade shows.
• Hiring of key managers.
• Obtaining critical financing.
• Initiating marketing activities and in what order.
• Signing up of distributors and dealers.
• Ordering of materials in production quantities.
• Starting of production or operation.
• Receipt of first orders.
• Delivery on first sale.
• Receiving the first payment on accounts receivable.
• Step 3: Show on the schedule the “ramp up” of the number of management personnel, the number of production and operations personnel, and plant or equipment and their relation to the development of the business.
• Step 4: Discuss in a general way the activities most likely to cause a schedule slippage, what steps will be taken to correct such slippages, and the impact of schedule slippages of the venture’s operation, especially its potential viability and capital needs.

Note: You want to be fairly detailed for the first six months to a year, and then just hit key developments or benchmarks for years two and three.  A three-year schedule is adequate 

CRITICAL RISKS, PROBLEMS AND ASSUMPTIONS

The development of a business has risks and problems, and the business plan invariably contains some implicit assumptions about these issues.  You need to include a description of the risks and the consequences of adverse outcomes relating to your industry, your company and its personnel, your product’s market appeal, and the timing and financing of your startup.  Be sure to discuss assumptions concerning sales projections, customer orders, and so forth.  If the venture has anything that could be considered a fatal flaw, discuss why you do not see it as a problem or how you intend to overcome it.  The discovery of any unstated negative factors by potential investors can undermine the credibility of the venture and endanger its financing.  Be aware that most investors will read the section describing the management team first and then this section.  It is therefore recommended that you not omit this section.  If you do, the reader will most likely come to one or more of the following conclusions:

• You think he or she is incredibly naïve or stupid, or both.
• You hope to pull the wool over his or her eyes.
• You do not have enough objectivity to recognize and deal with assumptions and problems.

Identifying and discussing the risks in your venture demonstrate your skills as a manager and increase credibility of you and your venture with a venture capital investor or a private investor.  Taking the initiative on the identification and discussion of risks helps you to demonstrate to the investor that you have thought about them and can handle them. Risks then tend not to loom as large black clouds in the investor’s thinking about your venture.

• Revenue forecasts (price, volumes, discounts, margins).
• Development expenses (number of people, key salaries, sub-contracts)
• Average cost of a unit.
• COGS (material, etc.).
• Working capital (accounts receivable, inventory, payables)
• Capital expenditures (major items)
• Ability to obtain key distribution channel.
• Getting a patent licenses or permit.
• Rate of growth in sales.
• Obtaining a particular site or facility that is key to the business.
• Hiring of key staff members with experience in a critical area.
• Approval of critical financing.
• Overcoming key obstacles in product design.
• Running out of cash before orders are secured.
• Competitor risks e.g. you are pre-empted in the market by a competitor
• Technological risks i.e. cannot make the product work
• Potential price-cutting by competitors.
• Any potential unfavorable industry-wide trends.
• Design or manufacturing costs in excess of estimates. 
• Sales projections not achieved.
• Difficulties or long lead times encountered in the procurement of parts or raw materials.
• Difficulties encountered in obtaining needed bank credit.
• Larger-than-expected innovation and development costs.
• Running out of cash after orders pour in.
• Indicate what assumptions or potential problems and risks are most critical to the success of the venture, and describe your plans for minimizing the impact of unfavorable developments in each case. What is the worst-case scenario and how will you respond?  Focus on risks that are important and critical to your business, not the ordinary operating risks faced by any business.

FINANCIAL PLAN

Documents To Be Developed For This Section (Put In Appendix)

• Pro forma income statements (3-5 years)
• Pro forma balance sheets (3-5 years)
• Pro forma cash flow analysis (3-5 years)

This section lays out exactly what you are requesting from investors; it is number-oriented.  Give the investors the columns and rows that they want to see.  The more you give them, the more difficult it will be for them to challenge the assumptions that you have made to produce those numbers.

The financial plan is basic to the evaluation of an investment opportunity and needs to represent your best estimates of financial requirements.  The purpose of the financial plan is to indicate the venture’s potential and to present a timetable for financial viability.  It also can serve as an operating plan for financial management using financial benchmarks.  In preparing the financial plan, you need to look creatively at your venture and consider alternative ways of launching or financing it.

As part of the financial plan, financial exhibits need to be prepared.  To estimate cash flow needs, use cash-based, rather than an accrual-based, accounting (i.e., use a real-time cash flow analysis of expected receipts and disbursements).  This analysis needs to cover three years (or five depending on your type of business).  Included also are pro forma income statements and balance sheets; and a break-even chart. 

On the appropriate exhibits, or in an attachment, assumptions behind such items as sales levels and growth, collections and payables periods, inventory requirements, cash balances, cost of goods, and so forth, need to be specified.  Your analysis of the operating and cash conversion cycle in the business will enable you to identify these critical assumptions. Pro forma income statements are the plan-for-profit part of financial management and can indicate the potential financial feasibility of a new venture.  Usually the level of profits, particularly during the start-up years of a venture, will not be sufficient to finance operating asset needs, and since actual cash inflows do not always match the actual cash outflows on a short-term basis, a cash flow forecast that will indicate these conditions and enable management to plan cash needs is recommended.  Further, pro forma balance sheets are used to detail the assets required to support the projected level of operations and through liabilities, to show how these assets are to be financed.  The projected balance sheets can indicate if debt-to-equity ratios, working capital, current ratios, inventory turnover and the like are within the acceptable limits required to justify future financing that are projected for the venture.  Finally, a break-even chart showing the level of sales and production that will cover all costs, including those costs that vary with production level and those that do not, is very useful: 

A. Pro Forma Income Statements:

Using sales forecasts and the accompanying operating costs, prepare pro forma income statements for at least the first three years.  Be sure these numbers are consistent with what is being proposed in all the earlier sections of the plan (marketing, operations, management team, etc.) Fully discuss assumptions (e.g., the amount allowed for bad debts and discounts, or any assumptions made with respect to sales expenses or general and administrative costs being a fixed percentage of costs or sales) made in preparing the pro forma income statement and document them. Draw on Section X of the business plan and highlight any major risks, such as the effect of a 20% reduction in sales from those projected or the adverse impact of having to climb a learning curve on the level of productivity over time, that could prevent the venture’s sales and profit goals from being attained, plus the sensitivity of profits to these risks.

B. Pro Forma Balance Sheets:

Prepare pro forma balance sheets semi-annually in the first year and at the end of each of the first three years.

C.Pro Forma Cash Flow Analysis:

Project cash flows monthly for the first year of operation and quarterly for at least the next two years, detailing the amount and timing of expected cash inflows and outflows; determine the need for and timing of additional financing and indicate peak requirements for working capital; and indicate how needed additional financing is to be obtained, such as through equity financing, bank loans, or short-term lines of credit from banks, on what terms, and how it is to be repaid. Remember they are based on cash, not accrual, accounting. Explain how much money you will need. For debt funding, what will you use as collateral? How will the money be used-for working capital, R&D, marketing, capital acquisitions? This dictates the level of risk of the investment.  Investors generally feel that expenditures for R&D and marketing are riskier than are expenditures for capital acquisitions. Discuss assumptions, such as those made on the timing of collection of receivables, trade discounts given, terms of payments to vendors, planned salary and wage increases, anticipated increases in any operating expenses, seasonality characteristics of the business as they affect inventory requirements, inventory turnovers per year, capital equipment purchases, and so forth.  Again, these are real time (i.e., cash), not accrual. Discuss cash flow sensitivity to a variety of assumptions about business factors (e.g., possible changes in such crucial assumptions as an increase in the receivable collection period or a sales level lower than that forecasted).

D. Months to Breakeven and to Positive Cash Flow:

Given the above strategy and assumptions, show when the venture will attain a positive cash flow. Show if and when you will run out of cash. Note where the detailed assumptions can be found. Note any significant stepwise changes in cash flow that will occur as you grow and add capacity Given your entry strategy, marketing plan, and proposed financing, how long it will take to reach a unit breakeven sales level. How many months to breakeven? Briefly describe your break-even estimates. In other words, how many units (or dollars’ worth) of the product (or how many hours of the service) must be sold to cover your costs?

E. Cost Control:

Describe how you will obtain information about report costs and how often, who will be responsible for the control of various cost elements, and how you will take action on budget overruns. Explain any unusual items not identified in the financial statement.

F. Highlights of the Financial Statements:

Highlight the important conclusions, such as what is the maximum amount of cash required is and when it will be required, the amount of debt and equity needed, how fast any debts can be repaid, etc., start up costs, etc. To help validate your financials compare critical financial ratios from your plan with those of your industry.  Explain and justify significant differences.

PROPOSED COMPANY OFFERING

The purpose of this section of the plan is to indicate the amount of any money that is being sought, the nature and amount of the securities offered to the investor, a brief description of the uses that will be made of the capital revised, and a summary of how the investor is expected to achieve its targeted rate of return.   It is important to realize the terms for financing your company that you propose here are only the first step in the negotiation process with those interested in investing, and it is very possible that your financing will involve different kinds of securities than originally proposed.

A.Desired Financing:

Review the monthly real-time cash flow projections and your estimate of how much money is required over the next three years to carry out the development and/or expansion of your business as described. Determine the amount and timing of cash infusions required to prevent cash balances from going negative. Add a cash safety cushion (~25% as a good “guesstimate”) to the anticipated cash needs to protect against unexpected expenses or delayed income. Determine the type of funding that will suit your business: debt/equity or non-traditional financing. Indicate how this capital requirement will be obtained -- from whom and how much will be obtained via term loans or lines of credit.

B.Offering (deal structure – pitch for money):

If you have decided to seek equity capital, then you need to describe the type of security being offered (e.g., common stock, convertible debentures, debt with warrants, debt plus stock), the unit price, and the total amount of securities to be sold in this offering. If securities are not just common stock, indicate by type, interest, maturity, and conversion conditions. Show the percentage of the company that the investor in this offering will hold after it is completed or after exercise of any stock conversion or purchase rights in the case of convertible debentures or warrants i.e. what share of your company does the investor get for a specified investment. Securities sold through a private placement and that are therefore exempt from SEC registration should include the following statement in this part of the plan: “The shares being sold pursuant to this offering are restricted securities and may not be resold readily. The prospective investor should recognize that such securities might be restricted as to resale for indefinite period of time. Each purchaser will be required to execute a Non-Distribution Agreement satisfactory in form to corporate counsel”. If you are seeking a loan, then you need to indicate to the potential lender how the loan will be repaid and what the interest rate is. What is the collateral for the loan?

C.Capitalization:

Present in tabular form the current and proposed (post-offering) number of outstanding shares of common stock. Indicate any shares offered by key management people and show the number of shares that they will hold after completion of the proposed financing. Indicate how many shares of your company’s common stock will remain authorize debut un-issued after the offering and how many of these will be reserved for stock options for future key employees. Identify any other terms that you are willing to negotiate as part of the deal e.g. right of first refusal, seat on board, voting rights, and other rights and preferences.

D.Use of Funds:

Investors like to know how their money is going to be spent. Provide a brief description of how the capital raised will be used. Summarize as specifically as possible what amount will be used for such things as product design and development, capital equipment, marketing, and general working capital needs.

E.Investors’ Return (Exit Strategy).

What is the value of your company?  How did you calculate this value? Indicate how your valuation and proposed ownership shares will result in the desired rate of return for the investors you have targeted. What will be the likely harvest or exit mechanism (IPO, outright sale, merger, MBO, operate and grow, etc.)? What is the exit strategy for the investors and founders?

COVERING YOUR BASES: FORTY ISSUES TO DIE FOR

As the Nuts and Bolts booklet makes clear, there is much that goes into a great business plan. Below is a checklist of things you might want to ensure appear somewhere in your plan. While this is not a comprehensive list, it covers the primary issues.

1. Define the industry and characterize it in terms of size and the life cycle and draw implications. If it has an SIC or NAICS industry code, indicate so.

2. Develop a diagram of the value-added chain and the approximate number of firms at each level, and indicate the proportion that are large firms or chains.

3. Evaluate the attractiveness of the industry in terms of Porter’s 5-factor model.

4. Identify at least three ways that companies are differentiating themselves in this industry.

5. Specify other leading trends in the industry (e.g., in costs, prices, marketing approaches, new products or services, use of technology, etc.) and identify the three most critical success factors in this industry.

6. Summarize key industry financial norms for companies in this industry.

7. Identify the principal components of the business concept. Be sure you are defining the concept in terms of customer value and customer benefits. Apply the five key criteria for a good business concept.

8. What is the need that the business exists to satisfy? How well satisfied is that need already? How high are the customer’s switching costs from whatever they are currently using or doing?

9. What is the set of forces creating the opportunity? What is the likely window of opportunity?

10. How is the market defined? What is the size of the market opportunity in dollars, units or both? Distinguish current market size from market potential and estimate the size of the primary and selective demand gaps. What is the growth rate of the market?

11. How are you segmenting the market? Are the key segments homogenous, sizeable, reachable, and responsive? Provide descriptors of the customers who make up the key segments. Which segments will you be targeting (provide a prioritization)? Who will be your early adopters? Are their segments with different price elasticities?

12. Develop a simple model of customer buying behavior for this product or service. How long is the buying process? Who is the decision-maker? Why do they buy? It is a high or low involvement purchase? How loyal are customers to existing vendors/products?

13. What are the key factors affecting sales in the market? Will there be patterns to the company’s sales. Is seasonality an issue? Is the business cyclical? Do interest rates have an impact?

14. Who are the direct competitors? Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each. How is each differentiating itself? Who are the indirect competitors? As a group, how much of a threat are they and why?

15. Be sure that you have developed a price list. Do prices adequately reflect: a) overall marketing strategy, b) costs, c) competition, d) customer demand, and e) legal issues?

16. Explain whether the company will be set up as a sole proprietorship, a partnership, an S corporation, a C corporation, or a limited liability company.

17. Describe the economics of the business. What is your average price, average cost per unit and average margin? How much of your cost structure is fixed versus variable? How much operating leverage do you have, and what are the implications of this? Calculate your contribution margin and breakeven levels in dollars and units. Make it clear where you will be making your money (for instance, in a bar, how much of profit will come from drinks versus food, in a copier business how much will come from selling machines versus selling service?)

18. Have you formulated measurable objectives? Are you certain you’ve established objectives in all the appropriate performance areas?

19. How will you ensure that the company has a strong market-orientation?

20. What will be the principal or core competencies of the company? Is strategy built around these competencies.

21. Separate from the business concept, define the company’s product mix. Assess the company’s principal offering to customers in terms of the core, tangible and augmented product. Be sure to include such product-related issues as hours, facility layout, parking, etc.

22. How will the company’s products be positioned?

23. If it is a service business, develop a diagram of the visible and non-visible aspects of the service delivery system.

24. How will operations be organized? If it is a manufacturing or assembly operation, what is the overall layout. Provide a schematic as well as a diagram of the workflow. If it’s a service business, again describe the operational layout, and then how the service will be delivered.

25. Are any product policies needed (warrantees, returns policies)? If so, what will they be.

26. What is the company’s unique selling proposition?

27. Have you developed an integrated communications mix that matches the customer’s buying process. Summarize the company’s complete mix of customer communications, including personal selling, advertising, sales promotion and publicity. Explain how they will be coordinated and managed as a mix.

28. What will the distribution channel look like? How much market coverage will this give you? What key approaches will be used to achieve cooperation among channel members?

29. How is customer service to be defined, measured and managed? What are the key components of customer service? Construct a comprehensive list of the points of customer contact involving any personnel, paperwork or facilities of the company.

30. What is the current stage of product development? Is a prototype completed? What further R&D work is needed and by when will it be completed? What’s the ongoing plan for R&D?

31. Provide a detailed cash flow statement for each of the first 3-5 years of operation. Provide pro forma income statements and balance sheets for the first three years.

32. Have you identified all of the resources (human, financial, channels, customer base, information) the company will require to start up and achieve success over the first 3 years?

33. Identify the major direct competitors and assess the strengths, weaknesses, strategy and source of differentiation relied upon by each of them.

34. How will the firm’s logistical arrangements work (inventory policies, physically getting products to customers, warehousing/storage)? What is the intended order cycle time?

35. Who will be the key members of the management team? Provide a resume of each of these individuals in an appendix. Briefly describe the role of each in the firm and how it fits their background and experience. Also, will there be a board of directors or advisors?

36. What are your staffing needs beyond the management team? What kind of people are you looking for and what is your plan for getting them?

37. Identify the major technology, legal/regulatory, economic and social developments that are likely to impact on this business in the next two years, and indicate the likely impact.

38. How much money are you asking for, from which sources, how will investors earn their return, and when? Will funding come in stages?

39. Identify the five major downside risks or things that could go wrong, and indicate your contingencies for dealing with each of them.

40. Is there internal consistency in your plan? For example, can one see the logical fit and consistency between you target market, the product/service you are selling, your marketing approach, and the budget you have put together?

Judge’s Rating Sheet

Business Plan Evaluation: Written Syracuse Business Plan Competition March 2004 Judge Name:____________

Please provide a rigorous evaluation of this first draft of the team’s written plan. They will have an opportunity to revise, but we will also be eliminating some teams. Could you first rate the written plan first on each of the nine content areas listed in Part I below, and then rate the overall document in Part II. Your written comments are also very much appreciated and will be shared with the team. It is critical that we give them tangible help on how to improve.

I.Coverage of Key Components (please rate each area below on a 5- point scale where 1 = poor, 5 = excellent)

a.The Industry (definition, size, growth, structure, key trends, success factors) __________ b.The Business Concept and Product(s) (core concept for

c.The Market (definition, size, market potential, target

d. Economics of the Business (margins, breakeven, cost

e. Marketing (pricing, promotion, selling, distribution,

f. Operations (staffing requirement, how product or

g. Non-financial resource requirements (people,

h.Management Team (players, roles, experience/credibility, Compensation, board of directors, key advisors) __________

i.Venture financing (money needed, from where, how

j.Financials (projected cash flow, income statement, balance

II. Overall Document (again, please rate each area below on a 5-point

a. Pragmatism/Realism __________

b. Completeness/Comprehensiveness __________

c. Internal Consistency __________

d. Writing Style __________

e. Professionalism of the Document __________

III. Overall Recommended Score (100 = outstanding---I want to invest) __________

IV. Written Comments on the Written Plan (Please provide a page---or more if possible---of detailed suggestions to the team on how they can improve the plan prior to the major cut that will determine which 15 teams go to the finals): (attach comment sheet(s))

Judge’s Rating Sheet Name of Concept___________________

Business Plan Evaluation: Oral Presentation

Syracuse Business Plan Competition

April 2004 Judge # ___

Please rate the presentation of the business plan first on each of the seven content areas listed in Part I below, and then rate the presentation itself in Part II. In Part III, please give the presentation an overall rating from 0 to 100. Your written comments are very much appreciated and will be shared with the team.

I. Coverage of Key Components (please rate each area below on a 5- point scale where 1 = poor, 5 = excellent)

a. The Opportunity (forces creating the opportunity, size of the

k.The Business Concept (core concept for capitalizing on the

l.The Market (definition, size, market potential, target

m.Operations (staffing requirements, how product or

n.Marketing (pricing, promotion, selling, distribution, how an actual sale will be accomplished) __________

o.Economics of the Business (margins, breakeven, cost

p.Financials (projected cash flow, income statement, balance

II. Overall Assessment of Oral Presentation (again, please rate each area below on a 5- point scale where 1 = poor, 5 = excellent)

a. Powerpoint or other audiovisuals __________

b. Ability to capture audience attention __________

c. Completeness of the presentation __________

d. Mastery of facts and material related to venture __________

e. Professionalism of the presentation __________

f. Handling of questions __________

III. Overall Recommended Score (100 = Outstanding, I want to invest!) __________

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The 28 Best HTML & CSS Dashboard Templates for Admins & Users

Published: August 26, 2024

When running a site for your business, I’ve learned you must juggle different priorities and keep track of your progress. Are you increasing traffic month to month? Are you reducing bounce rate ? How’s your conversion rate ?

The good news is that an admin dashboard will keep track of all of this information in one place.

In this post, I’ll review the best HTML and CSS dashboard templates.

Table of Contents

What Is an HTML Dashboard?

• Best HTML & HTML5 Dashboard Templates
• HTML & CSS Dashboard Template Code

An HTML dashboard is a set of pages representing all the information a site owner needs to know in real time to make informed decisions about their website and business. It typically consists of graphs and tables that display key performance metrics in a digestible format.

There are several benefits of having an HTML dashboard, including:

• Real-time data visualization .
• Centralized data from multiple sources.
• Customizable views that focus on relevant metrics.
• Interactive and easy data exploration.
• Improved collaboration and communication among team members.

Overall, HTML dashboards can enhance your team’s efficiency by providing a clear overview of your data. However, creating a dashboard from scratch can be daunting and time-consuming, so I recommend using dashboard templates.

Below are my favorite HTML dashboard templates that can give you a jump start on creating the best dashboard for your team.

Best HTML & HTML5 Dashboard Templates

• Porto Admin
• Elite Admin
• ArchitectUI
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• Light Blue HTML5
• Cliniva Hospital
• Crypto Admin

Below is a unique collection of templates. Some are built entirely with the latest version of HTML , others with Bootstrap CSS or another framework. Each will help you create a custom dashboard for your website.

Star rating: 5.0/5.0 (10 Reviews)

50 Free Coding Templates

Free code snippet templates for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript -- Plus access to GitHub.

• Navigation Menus & Breadcrumbs Templates
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Tesla’s Rivals Still Can’t Use Its Superchargers

Elon Musk’s plan to open Tesla’s charging network is proceeding slowly. Nobody is entirely sure why, or when that might change.

By Jack Ewing

Scarce and finicky public chargers are among the biggest reasons people hesitate to buy electric cars. So when Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, agreed last year to open the company’s well-regarded Supercharger network to vehicles from other carmakers, many drivers and industry experts celebrated the decision.

But more than 12 months later, Tesla’s network, with nearly 30,000 fast-charging plugs in the United States and Canada, remains largely inaccessible to most people who don’t drive Teslas because of software delays and hardware shortages.

The delays have fueled speculation that Mr. Musk was having second thoughts about opening up Tesla’s network, possibly because he was worried that access would help other automakers sell battery-powered models and lure customers from Tesla, which has suffered from declining sales .

Tesla eased those fears a bit on Friday when the company’s charging unit posted on X that it had stepped up production of a crucial piece of hardware: adapters that drivers of Ford, Rivian and other car brands need to connect to Tesla chargers.

A Tesla factory in Buffalo is producing 8,000 of the adapters per week, the company said, noting that outside suppliers are also producing the part. Still, it is unclear how fast those adapters would reach electric vehicle owners.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, and the other automakers have been reluctant to speak in detail, apparently because they do not want to antagonize Tesla and Mr. Musk.

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Best Business Plan Software

Compare the top business plan software as of august 2024.

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What is Business Plan Software?

Business plan software is designed to help entrepreneurs and business developers with the process of creating business plans for potential investment opportunities. Compare and read user reviews of the best Business Plan software currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.

Talk to one of our software experts for free. They will help you select the best software for your business.

Planium Pro

Levant Software Technology

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Productboard

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Smart Software

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startnew.app

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ESM Software Group

Business Plan Quick Builder

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WhatAVenture

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getLaunched

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Guide to Business Plan Software

Business plan software is a type of computer program designed to help entrepreneurs and small business owners create complete and organized plans for their businesses. These programs can provide guidance on topics such as setting goals and objectives, analyzing market opportunities, planning budgets, identifying financial sources, and developing marketing strategies.

Business plan software can be used by both startup businesses as well as established companies that are looking to make changes or expand their operations. Some of the tools offered by these programs include templates for creating professional-looking documents and automatic calculators for estimating expenses and analyzing financial information. Additionally, many business plan software applications offer key tips from experienced entrepreneurs who have already achieved success in the domain they are operating in.

For those just starting out, comprehensive business plan software applications can guide users through each step of the process by providing detailed instructions on how to organize ideas into a coherent document that fulfills all legal requirements associated with launching a new enterprise. Instead of having to research several different topics on their own, users get access to specialized sections that cover areas like product planning, financial projections, customer analysis, risk assessment, and market positioning – amongst other important components.

When it comes time to actually write all this information down into one cohesive narrative, the best business plan solutions provide easy-to-use collaboration features so that multiple team members can work together at once from any location around the world. This way all stakeholders have access to real-time updates which helps ensure there are no discrepancies or miscommunications during such an important process.  Ultimately this type of technology greatly reduces time spent researching complicated concepts while still maintaining quality standards among your team’s output.

Whether you’re trying to launch a single store on Main Street or attempting something bigger like selling products online globally – there is no denying that having access to good business plan software can make success a lot easier for any kind of venture!

What Features Does Business Plan Software Provide?

• Financial Planning: Business plan software provides tools and guidance to help users create financial projections, including cash flow statements, income statements, and balance sheets.
• Automated Reports: Software can generate reports for investors or lenders based on a user’s business plan data. These reports are usually updated as the business plan evolves.
• Collaboration Tools: Business plan software typically includes collaboration tools that allow multiple users to work together on a single document or project. These tools can also be used for team building and communication during planning sessions.
• Content Management: Content management features in business plan software make it easy to store documents, images, videos, and other content related to the business in one place. This helps keep everyone organized and on the same page when working on projects or plans.
• Presentation Support: When it comes time to present their ideas to potential investors or lenders many users find presentation support helpful. Business plan software often includes templates and wizards that can help users create professional-looking presentations quickly and easily.
• Data Analysis & Visualization: Many business plan software programs feature powerful data analysis capabilities that allow users to gain valuable insights into their businesses. This includes features like interactive dashboards and charts that give users a real-time view of their company's performance metrics over time.
• Automated Forecasts & What-If Scenarios: Business plan software usually offers automated forecasting functions that allow owners to see what their financials would look like under certain conditions or scenarios in order to better anticipate future outcomes.

What Are the Different Types of Business Plan Software?

• Online Business Plan Software: This type of business plan software is often cloud-based, making it easy to access from anywhere. It usually comes with templates, financial options, and other features designed to help users develop an effective business plan.
• Desktop Business Plan Software: Unlike online versions, desktop software is installed on a user's computer and generally requires regular updates. These programs typically come with more customizable features and advanced tools that can be helpful for in-depth research or complicated planning tasks.
• Mobile Business Planning Apps: The mobile app version of a business plan tool lets users create plans, track trends, and manage finances from their smartphone or tablet. This type of software is best for entrepreneurs who are frequently on the go but still need to stay informed about their company's progress.
• Spreadsheet Templates: While not true business plan software, spreadsheet templates can often be used as a starting point for writing up a comprehensive plan for your company. They're especially useful for incorporating charts, tables, and other visuals into your document.
• Customizable Word Processing Templates: Like spreadsheets, word processing templates aren't necessarily built to serve as full-fledged business planning tools. However, they can offer a convenient starting point for entrepreneurs who want to put together basic plans without investing in specialized software products.

Recent Trends Related to Business Plan Software

• Increased Use of Template Software: Business plan software often includes templates and outlines that make it easier for users to create a comprehensive business plan. Template software allows users to customize their plans to meet the needs of their businesses, while also providing guidance on how to best structure a plan.
• Automated Financial Projections: Many business plan software options include automated financial projections, which can provide users with accurate estimates of their company's potential revenues and expenses. This helps entrepreneurs create realistic budgets and forecasts for their businesses.
• Variety of Formats: Different software packages offer different formats for creating business plans. For example, some offer spreadsheets and templates that allow users to easily fill in the necessary information, while others provide more comprehensive tools that walk users through the entire process.
• Collaborative Features: Business plan software typically includes collaborative features, such as document sharing and task management tools. These features allow groups of people to work together on a business plan without having to be in the same physical space. This can be especially helpful for remote teams or when working with consultants and advisors.
• Cloud-Based Solutions: Cloud-based solutions are becoming increasingly popular for business plan software, allowing users to access their plans from any device with an internet connection. This makes it easier for businesses to stay organized and access their plans whenever they need them.
• Built-In Analytics Tools: Many business plan software also come with built-in analytics tools that allow users to track the effectiveness of their plans over time. These tools can provide valuable insights into how well different strategies are performing and help businesses adjust their plans accordingly.

Benefits Provided by Business Plan Software

• Simple and Fast: Business plan software provides a streamlined process for creating a professional-quality business plan. It allows users to quickly put together the necessary components of a comprehensive business plan in an organized, user-friendly format. This makes it easier to assemble all the required information and make sure that it is error free before submitting it for review.
• Cost Effective: Business plan software can reduce costs associated with the creation of a comprehensive business plan. Because it removes much of the legwork involved in creating the document, there's no need to hire outside consultants or pay for expensive design services. The cost savings associated with using this type of software can be considerable, especially when compared with traditional methods of creating a business plan.
• Comprehensive Formatting: Business plan software offers an easy way to create a well-structured document that looks professional and credible. It includes templates and formatting options that allow users to customize their presentation as needed, making sure that all essential details are included in an aesthetically pleasing format.
• Automated Calculations: Many business planning tools come equipped with automated calculations so users don't have to manually run numbers or crunch spreadsheets by hand. This can save plenty of time on complex number crunching tasks, allowing entrepreneurs to focus on other aspects like market research or product development instead.
• Accessible Anywhere: Most cloud-based business planning solutions also offer mobile applications so users can access their plans anytime, anywhere—making it easier to keep track of progress even when they're away from their computers.

How to Select the Best Business Plan Software

Choosing the right business plan software can help ensure the success of your business. Here are some tips to consider when selecting the right software:

• Understand Your Needs: Before selecting a business plan software, take time to understand your needs and goals. Are you looking for a tool that helps with financials and projections? Or do you need something more comprehensive, such as a program that can help with customer relationship management? Identifying what you need will help narrow down your options.
• Research Software Options: Once you have identified what kind of features and capabilities you want in a business plan software, it’s time to do some research on different options available. Look at reviews, ask for recommendations from people who have used similar products, and compare different features and pricing models of each option to find the one that best fits your budget and needs.
• Test Out Products: Once you have narrowed down your selection to a few potential choices, try out the programs with free trials or demos offered by each company. This will give you an up-close look at how easy or difficult it is to use their platform as well as determine if there are any compatibility issues with other software tools you may use in your business operations.
• Get Feedback From Other Users: Lastly, seek feedback from other users who are already experienced in using this particular business plan software so they can provide insights into its efficacy and reliability based on their own usage experience. This will give you greater assurance that the product lives up to its promises before committing long-term investments in it for your own business operations.

On this page you will find available tools to compare business plan software prices, features, integrations and more for you to choose the best software.

What Types of Users Use Business Plan Software?

• Entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurs use business plan software to develop and organize ideas for starting a new business, attract potential investors, and obtain funding.
• Small Business Owners: Small business owners often use business plan software to create an actionable strategy for the development of their company’s products and services. They use it to document how they will achieve growth targets and set out detailed plans for achieving them.
• Consultants: Consultants may use business plan software as part of their work with clients. It provides tools that help consultants review existing operations, identify potential opportunities, and come up with creative solutions that can be beneficial to their clients’ businesses.
• Developers: Developers can benefit from using business plan software when creating innovative new products or services. The software can help developers understand what customers are looking for in terms of product features or services and provide helpful insights on how to better meet those needs.
• Freelancers: Freelancers often need a way to present their ideas for projects or initiatives to clients in order to obtain contracts and secure jobs. Business plan software can help freelancers create compelling presentations that showcase the potential value they bring to the table.
• Nonprofit Organizations: Nonprofits can greatly benefit from using business plan software by creating comprehensive plans detailing how they will achieve various goals such as increasing donations or expanding volunteerism within their organization’s mission statement.

How Much Does Business Plan Software Cost?

The cost of business plan software can vary greatly depending on the individual needs of your business. For example, a basic, easy-to-use template may cost around $69, while more professional and comprehensive software programs can range from $100 to over $1,000. Many business plan software packages come with additional perks such as online training resources and one-on-one support from industry experts. It’s important to assess your needs and budget ahead of time so that you can find the best package for you.

If you're just getting started or have limited funds, there are some free alternatives available as well. These typically provide basic templates that make it easy to set up a business plan without having to learn complex design programs or hire professionals. Additionally, there are numerous online resources where entrepreneurs can find helpful tutorials and advice on writing their own business plans. While these methods require more work upfront, they are often well worth the effort in the long run if done correctly.

What Does Business Plan Software Integrate With?

Business plan software can integrate with a variety of different types of software, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, accounting and invoicing software, analytics tools, marketing automation platforms and financial forecasting software. By integrating these other applications with their business plan software, companies are able to synchronize existing data in order to more accurately create forecasts, track progress towards goals and make well-informed decisions. Many business plan software providers also offer built-in integrations with popular third party applications like QuickBooks or Salesforce that make transferring and syncing data even easier.

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25 Open Source Website Templates [FREE] for Easy Modification

Thousands of people create and release websites every day. Even though we’re talking about businesses, startups, personal websites , or portfolios , every good project needs a simple but effective website. If you’re one of those people that are looking to create a user-friendly and well-organized platform for their ideas, then you know that finding free open-source templates is easy. The really hard part is finding a free template that’s also well-coded and will pass all your requirements.

That’s where this list comes in handy. We’ve gathered here a carefully-curated list with 25 of our favorite open-source website templates that are super easy to install and customize.

Feel free to use any of these if you want to create a strong online presence for your business or personal projects, or if you just want to test out different designs to see what works best for you.

Savory – Free Multi Page HTML5 Portfolio Template

This is a free HTML5 website template that’s perfect for people that need to create an awesome website where they can showcase their work and previous projects. It suits well creative individuals but also different kinds of agencies. This template is fully responsive and very easy to customize, too! Savory is built on Twitter Bootstrap which makes it fully responsive and completely adaptable to any device and screen size. This template also has some cool CSS3 animations that will make your website stand out from the rest!

ESTATE FREE CSS TEMPLATE

Estate is an awesome choice for any real estate agencies or agents that want to showcase their properties or business details in a very modern way. It comes with great typography options and subtle animations that will create a memorable experience for the users and visitors. Estate can be easily customized and changed in order to achieve the perfect look for your website.

Profile – Free One-Page Portfolio Bootstrap Template

Profile is a very good choice if you want to create an online presence for free and showcase your portfolio works. This is a completely responsive template, created with CSS3, HTML5, and also the CSS framework and its newest version Bootstrap3.3.5. Because of its elegant and simple look, this theme is very versatile and also useful for resumes. One of its best features is the sticky background header which also has a cool parallax scrolling effect.

Men’s Hair Salon – Men’s Hairdressing Website Template Free Download

Men’s Hair Salon is a fully responsive Bootstrap website template that works perfectly for any hairdressing-related website, including salons or individuals. It was built with HTML5 and CSS3 and it can be used for free for creating your unique website. Because it’s so easy to customize, it offers a lot of flexibility and creativity. It comes packed with awesome features such as sticky top navigation, a spacious footer, a hero header, and much more!

Rage – A One-Page Multipurpose Bootstrap Template Free Download

Here we have another awesome example of a free HTML website template. Rage is a template that has a one-page design and can be used for tons of different purposes because it’s very versatile and easy to customize. Rage was created by combining Bootstrap 3 with HTML5, CSS3, and jQuery. It has a clean and modern look and you don’t need to have any coding knowledge to get your website up and running in no time!

Soft-Tech – SASS Landing Page Bootstrap Template Free Download

Soft-Tech is another great option if you want to create a stunning landing page for your product or app without any costs. This template is based on the powerful Bootstrap framework and you can use it to successfully launch your MVP or SASS product. It’s also fully responsive and can be used for both personal or commercial projects and ideas. It also comes with a cool animated price table!

Bino – Creative Free Bootstrap Template for agency websites

Bino is a Bootstrap template that’s completely free to use for your projects and ideas. It has a clean design and a layout that’s very easy to change and personalize according to your own needs. It’s perfect for start-ups or creative agencies but the possibilities are endless! It also comes with some unique sections such as a header area with a customizable slider, services, portfolio, case study, and many more! Bino also comes with a fully responsive design that works great on various devices and screen sizes.

Cooking School – A High-Quality Mobile-Friendly Free HTML5 Bootstrap Template

Cooking School is the greatest option for anyone that wants to create a website for a restaurant, bakery, catering company, professional chef, bar, and any other cooking-related industry! This template is very responsive and mobile-friendly. It has a one-page layout design that follows the latest trends in the market. It’s also completely free to use for any personal or commercial website.

Logic – Free Bootstrap HTML5 Responsive Multipurpose Website Template

Logic is a fully responsive HTML5 website template that can be used for various purposes. We recommend it for different types of creative agencies, start-ups, and any other kind of company that’s looking to create a professional-looking website and establish a strong online presence. You can also use it as a landing page for different products or apps. It was developed using Bootstrap, HTML5, CSS3, and jQuery and it comes with bold, modern color schemes.

WOW – Good quality Product Landing HTML5 Bootstrap Template Free Download

Another great option for creating stunning landing pages is WOW, a very accessible HTML5 and Bootstrap template that’s free to download and use. It comes with a simple but effective design that uses good color schemes and typography. It’s also fully responsive and incredibly easy to set up and customize in order to achieve the result you desire. If you have a bit of coding knowledge then you won’t have any problems in creating your landing page in seconds!

Lazy Fox – Free Bootstrap HTML5 Landing Page Template

Lazyfox is another free HTML5 template that was created with products that need a cool landing page in mind. It was created using CSS3, jQuery, Bootstrap 3, and HTML5 so you can rest assured that your website will look and work great on a wide range of devices, screen sizes, and browsers. It comes packed with lots of features and a clean design with perfect colors that will impress your users and visitors.

Sight Lite – Free HTML5 One Page Multi Page Website Template with Bootstrap

Sight Lite is a completely free-to-use HTML5 website template that was created by Technext Limited with agencies in mind. You can use it for one-page or multi-page websites and it’s super simple to customize and set up. It lets you easily create lots of pages such as Home, About Us, Services, Portfolio, Team, Contact, and more! Its simple design makes it suitable for many purposes and projects.

Navigator – Simple one-page bootstrap template free download

Navigator is a clean but effective one-page website template that’s both fast and user-friendly! Navigator is fully responsive and it works and looks perfect on all screen sizes, devices, and browsers you may be using! This template is neatly organized and content-oriented so your texts and images will look great! It’s also SEO friendly and very easy to personalize!

Acidus – Free Bootstrap Agency Business Portfolio Personal Website theme

Acidus is a completely free-to-use website template designed and developed by Keenthemes. It has a simple yet effective design that will create a unique scrolling experience for your visitors! This template comes with 4 different pages and sections that are very useful for any personal and commercial website. These are Home, About, Work and Contact.

BizExpress – Free One-Page Bootstrap HTML5 Template for Business Agency

BizExpress is a one-page website template that’s completely free to use. It’s super easy to customize and can be used for various purposes. BizExpress comes with 8 useful sections that can be personalized in order to showcase your most important information and images. It was designed on the popular Twitter Bootstrap template which makes it completely responsive.

KNIGHTONE FREE CSS TEMPLATE

Knightone is a free CSS template created using HTML5 and jQuery. It can be used for various purposes and we recommend it to anyone that wants to create a business website that looks both professional and friendly. It comes in different color variations and a three-column template.

FOCUS FREE CSS TEMPLATE

Here is another great example of a CSS template that can be used for free and it’s filed under the Creative Commons license. It has a fully responsive layout. It’s a perfect choice if you’re looking to create a stunning portfolio with a grid-based look. We recommend this template for any creative person that’s looking to make a simple but efficient platform to showcase their work to the world.

MODUS FREE CSS TEMPLATE

Modus is a 4-column CSS template that has a clean and modern look. It’s a perfect choice for creative agencies and individuals that want to present their services and portfolio in a very simple way. This template comes with great color and font options and it’s also easy to use and install.

MERCIANO FREE CSS TEMPLATE

Merciano is a very good option for an open-source website template that can be easily customized in order to achieve a wonderful result. We recommend it to anyone that wants to rapidly create a platform where they can insert all important information about their business, services, and team members, and even add a pleasant portfolio. It’s very suitable for any art-related or photography business.

BEAM FREE CSS TEMPLATE

Beam is a CSS website template that can be used for free for your personal or commercial projects. It’s licensed under Creative Commons and it comes with a nice and simple color scheme and lots of customization options. It was built on the powerful Bootstrap framework and it also uses jQuery for a modern and effective design. It’s also fully responsive and it looks great on all screen sizes.

Clemo – Modern HTML5 Site Template Free Download

Clemo is a free template created by Bootstrap Themes Co. It was designed for anyone that wants to create a creative and outstanding portfolio for a creative agency or individual. It has a fully responsive design that’s compatible with lots of devices and browsers. It comes with a two-service page style and different blog options.

JD – A Creative Personal Portfolio Bootstrap Template Free Download

JD AKA John Doe is a completely free-to-use HTML template that’s perfect for any kind of online portfolio. It has a simple design that can be easily changed and personalized to fit your needs and ideas. We recommend it for architects, musicians, photographers, web and graphic designers, freelancers, illustrators, and more! You can easily change the text and insert your own image to create a website that will stand out from the crowd.

Infinity – Best Free coming soon Bootstrap 4 template

If you want to create a simple, effective, and completely free-of-charge ‘Coming Soon’ place, then Infinity is the right choice for you. It was created using the awesome Bootstrap 4 framework and it has a very comprehensive single-page look. It also comes with an awesome countdown timer, an about section, a service section, and a fully working contact form so your visitors can easily reach you and find more info.

Garo Estate – Free HTML5 Bootstrap Multipage Real Estate Template

Garo Estate is another stunning free HTML5 multipage template that’s perfect for a real estate website. Regardless if you’re a big real estate agency or company or just a real estate agent that’s looking to establish a great online presence, then Garo Estate is the perfect choice for you. This template gives you the option of creating a fully working and user-friendly website where you can showcase your services and properties. It’s the perfect way of easily selling apartments, lands, villas, and more!

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Absolutly great and its free thank you so much highly recommeneded

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Imagine a symphony orchestra where each musician plays their own tune without listening to others. The result would be chaotic and dissonant, right? Similarly, in the business world, when decision-making happens in silos and planning processes are disconnected, it’s like having a group of individuals playing their own instruments without any coordination. The harmony is lost, and the organization becomes inefficient, misses opportunities, and struggles to keep up with the fast-paced market.

Integrated Business Planning (IBP) addresses these challenges by providing a comprehensive framework that integrates strategic, operational and financial planning, analysis, and reporting to drive better business outcomes.   A retail company experiences a sudden surge in online sales due to a viral social media campaign. Integrated planning incorporates supply chain planning, demand planning, and demand forecasts so the company can quickly assess the impact on inventory levels, supply chain logistics, production plans, and customer service capacity. By having real-time data at their fingertips, decision-makers can adjust their strategies, allocate resources accordingly, and capitalize on the unexpected spike in demand, ensuring customer satisfaction while maximizing revenue.   This blog explores the significance of IBP in today’s modern business landscape and highlights its key benefits and implementation considerations.

Integrated Business Planning (IBP) is a holistic approach that integrates strategic planning, operational planning, and financial planning within an organization. IBP brings together various functions, including sales, marketing, finance, supply chain, human resources, IT and beyond to collaborate across business units and make informed decisions that drive overall business success. The term ‘IBP’ was introduced by the management consulting firm Oliver Wight to describe an evolved version of the sales and operations planning (S&OP process) they originally developed in the early 1980s.

1. Strategic planning

Integrated Business Planning starts with strategic planning. The management team defines the organization’s long-term goals and objectives. This includes analyzing market trends, competitive forces, and customer demands to identify opportunities and threats. Strategic planning sets the direction for the entire organization and establishes the foundation for subsequent planning roadmap.

2. Operational planning

Operational planning focuses on translating strategic goals into actionable plans at the operational level. This involves breaking down the strategic objectives into specific targets and initiatives that different departments and functions need to execute.

For example, the sales department might develop a plan to enter new markets or launch new products, while the supply chain department focuses on inventory optimization and ensuring efficient logistics. The key is to align operational plans with the broader strategic objectives to ensure consistency and coherence throughout the organization.

3. Financial planning

Financial planning ensures that the organization’s strategic and operational plans are financially viable. It involves developing detailed financial projections, including revenue forecasts, expense budgets, and cash flow forecasts. By integrating financial planning with strategic and operational planning, organizations can evaluate financial profitability, identify potential gaps or risks, and make necessary adjustments to achieve financial targets.

 4. Cross-functional collaboration

A fundamental aspect of IBP is the collaboration and involvement of various functions and departments within the organization. Rather than working in isolation, departments such as sales, marketing, finance, supply chain, human resources, and IT come together to share information, align objectives, and make coordinated decisions.

5. Data integration and analytics

IBP relies on the integration of data from different sources and systems. This may involve consolidating data from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, supply chain management systems, and other relevant sources. Advanced analytics and business intelligence tools are utilized to analyze and interpret the data, uncovering insights and trends that drive informed decision-making.

6. Continuous monitoring and performance management

The Integrated Business Planning process requires continuous monitoring of performance against plans and targets. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are established to measure progress and enable proactive management. Regular performance reviews and reporting enable organizations to identify deviations, take corrective actions, and continuously improve their planning processes.

By integrating strategic, operational, and financial planning organizations can unlock the full potential of IBP and drive business success and achieve their goals.

Enhanced decision-making

IBP facilitates data-driven decision-making by providing real-time insights into various aspects of the business. By bringing together data from various departments, organizations can develop a holistic view of their operations, enabling them to make better-informed decisions.

Improved alignment

By aligning strategic objectives with operational plans and financial goals, IBP ensures that every department and employee is working towards a common vision. This alignment fosters synergy and drives cross-functional collaboration.

Agility and responsiveness

In the rapidly changing business landscape, agility is crucial. IBP allows organizations to quickly adapt to market shifts, demand fluctuations, and emerging opportunities. By continuously monitoring and adjusting plans, businesses can remain responsive and seize competitive advantages.

Optimal resource allocation

Integrated Business Planning enables organizations to optimize resource allocation across different functions. It helps identify bottlenecks, allocate resources effectively, and prioritize initiatives that yield the highest returns, leading to improved efficiency and cost savings.

Risk management

IBP facilitates proactive risk management by considering various scenarios and identifying potential risks and opportunities. By analyzing data and conducting what-if analyses, companies can develop contingency plans and mitigate risks before they materialize.

Implementing an effective IBP process requires careful planning and execution that may require substantial effort and a change of management, but the rewards are well worth it. Here are some essential strategic steps to consider:

1. Executive sponsorship

Establish leadership buy-in; gain support from top-level executives who understand the value of Integrated Business Planning and can drive the necessary organizational changes. Leadership commitment, led by CFO, is crucial for successful implementation.

2. Continuous improvement

Continuously monitor and adjust; implement mechanisms to monitor performance against plans and targets. Regularly review key performance indicators (KPIs), conduct performance analysis, and generate timely reports and dashboards. Identify deviations, take corrective actions, and continuously improve the planning processes based on feedback and insights.

3. Integration of people and technology

To foster cross-functional collaboration, the organization must identify key stakeholders, break down silos, and encourage open communication among departments. Creating a collaborative culture that values information sharing and collective decision-making is essential.

Simultaneously, implementing a robust data integration system, encompassing ERP, CRM, and supply chain management systems, ensures seamless data flow and real-time updates. User-friendly interfaces, data governance, and training provide the necessary technological support. Combining these efforts cultivates an environment of collaboration and data-driven decision-making, boosting operational efficiency and competitiveness.

4. Technology

Implement advanced analytics and business intelligence solutions to streamline and automate the planning process and assist decision-making capabilities. These solutions provide comprehensive functionality, data integration capabilities, scenario planning and modeling, and real-time reporting.

From a tech perspective, organizations need advanced software solutions and systems that facilitate seamless data integration and collaboration to support IBP. Here are some key components that contribute to the success of integrated business planning:

1. Corporate performance management

A platform that serves as the backbone of integrated business planning by integrating data from different departments and functions. It enables a centralized repository of information and provides real-time visibility into the entire business.

2. Business intelligence (BI) tools

Business intelligence tools play a vital role in analyzing and visualizing integrated data from multiple sources. These tools provide comprehensive insights into key metrics and help identify trends, patterns, and opportunities. By leveraging BI tools, decision-makers can quickly evaluate financial performance, make data-driven business decisions and increase forecast accuracy.

3. Collaborative planning and forecasting solutions

Collaborative planning and forecasting solutions enable cross-functional teams to work together in creating and refining plans. These planning solutions facilitate real-time collaboration, allowing stakeholders to contribute their expertise and insights. With end-to-end visibility, organizations can ensure that plans are comprehensive, accurate, and aligned with business strategy.

4. Data integration and automation

To ensure seamless data integration, organizations need to invest in data integration and automation tools. These tools enable the extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) of data from various sources. Automation streamlines data processes reduces manual effort and minimizes the risk of errors or data discrepancies.

5. Cloud-based solutions

Cloud computing offers scalability, flexibility, and accessibility, making it an ideal choice for integrated business planning. Cloud-based solutions provide a centralized platform where teams can access data, collaborate, and make real-time updates from anywhere, at any time. The cloud also offers data security, disaster recovery, and cost efficiencies compared to on-premises infrastructure.

6. Data governance and security

As organizations integrate data from multiple sources, maintaining data governance and security becomes crucial. Establishing data governance policies and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations are vital steps in maintaining data integrity and safeguarding sensitive information. Implementing robust data security measures, such as encryption and access controls, helps protect against data breaches and unauthorized access.

IBM Planning Analytics  is a highly scalable and flexible solution for Integrated Business Planning. It supports and strengthens the five pillars discussed above, empowering organizations to achieve their strategic goals and make better data-driven decisions. With its AI- infused advanced analytics and modeling capabilities, IBM Planning Analytics allows organizations to integrate strategic, operational, and financial planning seamlessly. The solution enables cross-functional collaboration by providing a centralized platform where teams from various departments can collaborate, share insights, and align their plans. IBM Planning Analytics also offers powerful data integration capabilities, allowing organizations to consolidate data from multiple sources and systems, providing a holistic view of the business. The solutions’s robust embedded AI predictive analytics uses internal and external data and machine learning to provide accurate demand forecasts. IBM Planning Analytics supports continuous monitoring and performance management by providing real-time reporting, dashboards, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that enable organizations to track progress and take proactive actions.  As the business landscape continues to evolve, embracing Integrated Business Planning is no longer an option but a necessity for organizations. To succeed in this dynamic environment, businesses need an integrated approach to planning that brings all the departments and data together, creating a symphony of collaboration and coordination.

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