the cost of business plan

How Much Do Business Plan Writers Cost?

When you’re starting or growing a business, it’s important to have a clear plan in place. Writing a business plan can help you outline your goals and sales strategies, and it can be a valuable tool when seeking funding from potential investors such as venture capitalists or a bank loan. 

If you don’t have time to write your own business plan, or if you need help getting started, professional business plan writing services can be a great option. But, how much do these services cost? And is it worth the investment? Let’s take a closer look.

How Much Should I Pay For a Business Plan Writing Service?

Professional business plan writers and consultants generally charge between $2,000 and $25,000. However, the cost largely depends on the required quality of your plan, the complexity of your business plan, and the length of the document. Professional business plans for very small companies may only require a few thousand dollars to be written, while more complex business plans for larger, growing companies can easily cost over ten thousand dollars.

There are also private consultants who will write or edit your business plan on an hourly fee basis. Fees can range from $50 to $300 per hour or more, depending on the consultant and the complexity of your business plan.

Whoever you choose to get started with your business plan, be sure to consider what’s included in your service. At the very least, you should expect:

• Comprehensive business plan including an executive summary, market analysis, marketing plan, financial plan with 3-5 years of financial projections, and other essential components required by potential investors
• Customization based on your business model and specific to your business needs
• Well-researched business plan based on relevant industry information and a thorough competitive analysis

There are several companies out there that offer complete business plan writing services. However, the quality of their work can vary dramatically. If you’re considering hiring outside help to write your business plan, choose carefully.

It’s important to remember that you get what you pay for when it comes to these types of services. If you go with a cheap plan writer, you run the risk of ending up with a low-quality business plan. If your business plan isn’t strong and professional-looking, it may be harder for you to get funding or attract investors.

Looking for a Business Plan Writer?

You’ve come to the right place!  Since Growthink was founded in 1999, we have provided business plan writing services for thousands of clients including startups, small business owners, nonprofit organizations and mid to large-sized companies. 

We understand that writing a business plan can be a time-consuming process for many entrepreneurs.  Hiring a business plan writer will allow you to quickly and expertly create a custom business plan.

 Expert Team of Business Plan Writers

 Fully Customized Business Plans

 Market & Competitor Research

 Complete Financial Projections

 Strategic Consulting For Growth & Funding

Get Started Now!

Call us at (800) 216-3710 or complete the form below and one of our business plan writers will reach out to you to schedule a time to speak about your business plan needs.

You can learn more about our business plan consulting services here

What Factors Impact Business Plan Pricing?

Some things that impact business planning services pricing include:

• Length – Longer, more complex business plans will cost more than shorter business plans.
• Company Size – A business plan for a large or complicated company can be more expensive to write.
• Level of Expertise – Smaller companies may opt to hire less experienced writers who charge lower prices, while larger, well-established companies choose to work with high-quality professionals who charge higher rates. You can’t expect a less experienced writer to help you achieve your goals (funding, growth) for your business plan.
• Turnaround Time – Generally, shorter turnaround times mean increased prices. Typically it will take 3-4 weeks to write a quality business plan.
• Additional Services – Some companies offer additional services, such as business plan presentation and pitch deck editing and support. These can cost extra.

To really get your business off the ground, it’s important to have a business plan in place that has been written by someone with the expertise to put together a successful business plan. A professional business plan consultant is an excellent investment for increasing your chances of securing the funds you need to start and/or grow your business. However, it’s important to do your research and choose carefully when you’re ready to hire.

Who Can I Hire To Write My Business Plan?

When choosing a business plan writer or consulting firm, it’s important to look for a company with significant business experience and proven expertise in business plan development. Look for companies that have been around for at least five years and do business plan writing on a regular basis. They should also be able to provide references from other companies that they’ve worked with.

A Business Plan Writing Company or Consultant

When hiring a business plan writing service , you’ll have two primary options. You can opt to work with a single writer or a dedicated team of experts who will be responsible for the entire project. The price of the service may vary depending on which option you choose.

A business plan writer typically costs less than an entire team, but it’s important to keep in mind that you may have less control over the outcome. The upside is that your business plan will be written by an expert with a deep understanding of the writing process.

When choosing this route, you should ask for references and examples of previous work. Before hiring any business plan writer, be sure they have the proper credentials and experience to meet your needs. You should also ask about any fees associated with revisions or updates.

Many businesses choose to work with a business plan consulting firm that offers a collaborative team of experts. This type of company will give you the best of both worlds. You’ll be able to utilize the knowledge and expertise of all the experts involved in the project, while still retaining control over the direction and vision of your business plan.

If you’re trying to determine how much it will cost to work with a business plan writing service, take some time to explore all of your options before making a final decision. You should consider both pricing models as well as the qualifications offered by the various service providers in your area. Doing so will ensure you find the most qualified choice for your business planning needs.

You Can Write It Yourself

If you are a newer entrepreneur or business owner or you are trying to save money, there are several free resources available online to help you write your business plan. The Small Business Administration (SBA) and your local Chamber of Commerce offer business plan services, workshops, or courses that can help you get started. Using a business plan template is a great way to quickly and easily complete your plan, especially if you are unfamiliar with the business planning process.

Some business owners are comfortable writing business plans without any outside help. This option offers you complete control over the process, but it typically takes more time than you have to spare. For that reason, not writing your own plan is usually recommended for experienced business owners, even those with plenty of business plan writing experience.

In most cases, experienced business owners who write their own business plans will have a better idea of what elements are needed and how they should be presented. However, it can still take considerable time to compile all the necessary information into a cohesive business plan that meets your audience’s needs. And it’s one thing to write a business plan; it’s another to write a business plan that gets investors or lenders to write you a large funding check.

A Combination of Business Planning Services

If your budget doesn’t allow you to hire a comprehensive business plan service, combining outside services with writing your own business plan may be the best option. This approach gives you complete control over the process, while still allowing you to benefit from an expert business plan writer’s advice. It is also a great option for entrepreneurs who don’t have time to write their plan but aren’t quite ready to hire someone else to do it either.

Other business services that could help you include:

• Market Research – Conducting thorough market research can help you determine which business opportunities are viable. Experienced consultants can help you identify your target customer so you can design the right marketing strategy to reach them.
• Copywriting Assistance – Many entrepreneurs have a great product or idea, but lack the writing skills needed to effectively advertise it in their business plans or online marketing materials. A business plan copywriter can help you create a compelling marketing message that resonates with your target audience.
• Startup / Growth Opportunities – If you’re thinking about starting a business or expanding your established business, it’s important to consider all of the potential opportunities before diving into something that may not be feasible for your current situation. A business plan consultant can help you identify what makes your business idea unique and how you can capitalize on those opportunities.
• Business Plan Review – Once you’ve completed your business plan, it’s important to have it reviewed by an expert. They can identify any gaps or mistakes in logic that could affect how potential lenders or investors perceive your business idea.

As with any decision affecting your company’s future, you should take the time to explore all of your options before committing to a specific service provider. The goal is not only to find the best fit for your budget and needs but also to find a business plan consulting service that can meet your expectations and deliver quality content on time and within budget.

Is It Worth It To Use a Professional Business Plan Writing Service?

As with anything else, you’ll get what you pay for. If you are short on time or don’t have the writing skills required to write a business plan, it may be worth considering a professional writing service. These services can help you complete the necessary research and planning to get a comprehensive business plan written for your company.

How Growthink Can Help Your Business

Since 1999, Growthink has developed thousands of business plans for entrepreneurs and business owners to start and/or grow their businesses. From small business owners to Fortune 500 companies, we have provided a variety of business plan services to meet the needs of each client.

Our business planning services include:

• Business Plan Consultants – Our experienced business plan consulting team has helped numerous businesses from small businesses to multi-million dollar corporations identify new opportunities and develop their business plans using existing information where possible, or by conducting new research as needed.
• Business Plan Writing Services – Our business plan writers are experienced professionals who are committed to providing you with a business plan that delivers results. Depending on your needs, our business writers can either help you complete the research and writing process, or write your business plan for you from start to finish.
• Done For You Market Research – Our market research team can conduct independent market research for your business through access to several market research databases. Utilize this research to help you write a business plan that is more in-depth and gives you a distinct advantage over competitors in your industry.
• Private Placement Memorandums – Growthink’s experienced business consultants can help you prepare a private placement memorandum (PPM) that is tailored to the unique needs of your business. PPMs are used to help businesses raise capital from accredited investors.
• Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template – Our simple business plan template is available in MS Word and when completed can be sent to investors and lenders in Adobe PDF format. Use this business plan template to help you focus your business concept on the information that is most relevant for lenders and investors, while also providing a flexible foundation for future growth.
• Business Plan Writing Help Center – We have a wide variety of free resources for business planning on our website. Use our selection of 200+ business plan examples to help you write a business plan specific to your industry or learn more from our selection of business planning and funding articles.

No matter what product or service you choose, we wish you success in your business venture

How Much Does a Business Plan Cost?

• Written By Dave Lavinsky

A complete business plan helps you to identify your business goals and how you plan on reaching them. Whether you are a new business owner or an experienced entrepreneur, writing a comprehensive business plan can help you start, grow, and/or attract investors to fund your business.  

How Much Does It Cost to Write a Business Plan ?

Business plan pricing depends on what route you take to create it. However, there are a few essential elements that are common to all business plans:

• Executive Summary
• Business Description
• Market Analysis
• Customer Analysis
• Competitive Analysis
• Marketing Strategy
• Operations Plan
• Management Team
• Financial Plan

There are several ways to approach writing a successful business plan, but the cost of each way varies widely. The cost of a business plan can be a significant investment, but it’s an essential tool for any business. Below we provide some tips for what to consider and the costs for the various methods of completing your own business plan.  

Considerations When Writing Your Own Business Plans

There are several things to consider when writing your own plan. Depending on whether you’re in need of funding and how much, the costs for your business plan will be different.

Take into account:

• How long will your business plan be?
• How many hours does it take to complete the business plan?
• What kind of language is used in the business plan?
• Who will use the business plan?
• Who will fund your business?
• How much are you looking to raise or if you need funding at all?

According to our business consultants’ surveys of investor requirements, a 15- to 25-page business plan is the ideal length. Adding more pages may cause your time-constrained investor to skim portions of the plan, even if they are interested, which might result in important information being overlooked. However, fewer pages may lead potential investors to believe that the firm has not been thoroughly thought out or simply doesn’t have enough information for them to make an investment decision.  

Business Plan Template Costs

There are a variety of business plan templates online that you can purchase for a one-time fee. These templates range in price but usually start at around $100. Remember, a bargain business plan template may not include all the information that you need, so it’s important to understand what is included with the template you purchase.

Many of these templates also come with instructions to help you fill in the template and make changes as needed. However, if there is something you want to be changed on the template, it may take time and money to have it done.

Be sure to do your research and find the right template for your business. The wrong template could set you back even further and change the face of your business entirely. If you purchase a professional business plan template, make sure it’s from a reputable business plan company with business plan writing skills   in a variety of industries.

The business plan template should be easily editable and customized for your specific business needs and industry trends.

If you do not want to pay for a template, there are companies that will charge by the page and some that offer free resources . However, these templates may not have been professional business plans written for your exact type of business.  

Experienced Consultants & Business Plan Writers Cost

Hiring a business plan writer or professional writing service will help you get a comprehensive business plan written just for your business. A professional business plan consultant will help you identify your goals and how your company will reach these goals. A business plan consultant fee usually costs more but can be worth it if you do not have the time or resources to complete the business plan yourself.

A business plan writer can be found through online directories, but be sure to do your research prior to engaging in business with them. Be sure to ask for references and read reviews before hiring a business plan writing service.

If you choose to hire a business plan consultant, the complexity and length of the plan will determine how much is a business plan. Generally, a consulting firm or private consultants charge between $1,000 and $5,000 to have a comprehensive business plan written . However, a lengthy and complex plan can easily start at a few thousand dollars and stretch into the tens of thousands of dollars based on the needs of the business.

Some experienced business plan writing services also offer package deals that include additional services, such as market research, a marketing plan, and realistic financial projections.

Business Plan Software Costs

There are business plan software applications that can be used for free or have a monthly subscription cost, which may work better for your needs depending on what you need in a business plan. These apps provide templates and make writing a business plan and business planning easier. They help organize the information you enter into the app and will sometimes offer advice on how to do things like financial projections for your business plan .

The information that you put into the application can be used for several different types of business plan needs. These apps are great for startups and small businesses looking to raise capital or secure funding.

Each app or software varies in what it offers. Some are more customizable than others, some have more options for presenting your business plan, and some even offer investment opportunities. With just your business idea, the business planning software can help you write your own business plan quickly and easily. 

Write Your Own Business Plan from Scratch

If you do not want to purchase a template or use software, the easiest and most cost-effective way is to write a business plan from scratch. This route takes time and effort to complete but can be done by anyone willing to put in the work.

When writing your business plan documents, remember that they should be as detailed as possible. This document is your guide to starting and running your business. The more complete it is, the better off you’ll be.

There are a variety of free resources available online to help you write a business plan, including articles, templates, and even video courses.

When writing a business plan from scratch, it’s important to consider all of your business aspects. This includes your business concept or business model , management, production, market research , sales strategies , customer service, operations, human resources, financial projections , and more.

Try to be as thorough as possible when writing the plan. While the task may seem daunting at first, you’ll find that putting together a business plan is not so bad once you get started. After all, if you can dream it, you can write it.

The cost of writing a b usiness plan is dependent on the purpose, type, and length of the business plan. The amount of time it takes to complete a  business plan , the language used, and who will be using the document also play a factor in the cost. You can find templates for a one-time fee or pay by the page, hire a business plan writing service or a business plan writer , contact a consulting firm , or use software/apps to create your business plan. Whichever option you choose, make sure you do your research, conduct an in-depth business plan review, and find the best resource to meet the goals for your business.  

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How much does a business plan cost?

You need a business plan and are wondering how much creating one costs? 

You’ve come to the right place: in this guide, we’ll look at the factors that influence the cost of a business plan. 

This will help you figure out exactly how much you should pay for a business plan software , writer, or even a template. So, let’s get started.

In this guide:

What are the factors that influence the cost of a business plan?

How much does a business plan software cost, how much does a business plan writer cost, how much does a business plan template cost.

• The final verdict

First, let’s agree on the scope. In this guide we’ll look at the cost of putting together the business plan itself and exclude the costs associated with preparatory research. 

There are a number of things you need to do before you begin drafting your business plan: gathering data, assessing budget lines, and iterating on multiple scenarios to find the best strategy for your business. 

Needless to say, all of these things require both time and money. However, these tasks are performed before creating the business plan itself, and are therefore excluded from the scope of our guide.

Now that we know what we are solving for, let’s get to it. 

We will first look at the tasks that need to be completed to create the business plan, then we will look at tools that can be used to speed up the process, and finally at who can perform these tasks.

What jobs need to be done when drafting a business plan?

Fundamentally a business plan is composed of two main parts:

• A financial forecast which highlights the business’ funding requirements, growth prospects, potential profitability and cash generation
• A written presentation which presents the business operations and strategy in details, and provide the context needed to judge the quality of the forecast

Both of these parts are essential and contribute to the cost of creating the business plan. 

Let’s look at both of them in a bit more detail.

Creating the financial forecast for your business plan

A financial forecast helps assess the business’s viability. This section of a business plan contains at a minimum the following financial tables:

• A cash flow statement - a document that details how money comes in and goes out of the business. 
• A Profits and Loss (P&L) statement - a document that provides information about the expenses and revenues the business has generated over a given time period.
• A balance sheet - a document that details the assets and liabilities of the business at any given point in time. 

There are two ways to create your forecast. You can either opt for that old fashioned spreadsheet method or use a financial forecasting software instead.

The main driver in terms of cost when it comes to creating your forecast is the complexity of your business. 

Modeling a simple brick and mortar business is relatively straightforward. Modeling a complex business organization with multiple processes (manufacturing, storage, distribution, etc.), lines of products and services, and locations or legal entities will require more work and, therefore, increase the cost.

Writing your business plan itself

The written part of a business plan is without any doubt the most time-consuming, and contributes to the cost of creating the plan.

The time required (and, therefore, cost) to draft your business plan will first be influenced by the size of your business. 

Your business plan includes valuable strategic and financial information. If your business has multiple locations or products and services, you’ll have more information to include. This means writing about the business as a whole will take longer, require more effort, and will increase the overall cost. 

Then comes the complexity of the industry your business operates in (or/and your business model). A business plan is argumentative and needs to demonstrate that there is a viable business opportunity to be seized by you on the market. 

To do this you’ll have to provide in-depth explanations backed by market research, so that your reader can understand:

• What you sell
• Who you sell to
• Who you compete against
• Whether the market is large enough and your business correctly positioned to compete effectively 

This is quite straightforward to do if your business operates in an industry your potential readers are familiar with. If your reader is unfamiliar with your niche, however, then you will need to do more explaining. 

Adding these details will help make sure your readers - investors or banks, usually - understand that a commercial opportunity is ripe to be seized on the local market. However, this will require time and will add to the cost. 

Justifying the amount of funding you need for your business is the last factor that can increase the cost of writing your business plan. A funding requirement of $10 million will need more explanation and convincing than that of $10,000. Needless to say that it’ll also take more time and effort. 

Now that we understand the factors that influence the cost of creating the document, let’s have a look at the tools which can be used to create a business plan.

What tools can be used to write a business plan?

There are two ways to put together a business plan: 

• Using a spreadsheet and word processor

Using an all in one business plan software

Using a spreadsheet and a word processor.

Creating a business plan using a spreadsheet and a word processor was the way to go in the 1990s. 

However, this method is quickly falling out of fashion, and for good reasons: 

• It’s incredibly long and needlessly complicated
• It requires knowledge of accounting in order to create the forecast on a spreadsheets without making errors
• Investors and banks are skeptical of figures modeled by entrepreneurs themselves on spreadsheets 
• Formatting such a long document on a word processor takes time and effort

Nowadays, the way to go is to use an all in one business planning software.

Along with being affordable, using an online business plan software has numerous other benefits. 

Some of them include: 

Creating a financial forecast for your business plan without manual calculations

The financial forecast is the most technical part of the business plan. 

Working on this section without adequate knowledge of finance can lead to critical mistakes which endanger the business’s future. 

Making such a forecast using online business plan software enables you to de-risk the process as the calculations and accounting treatments are done for you by the software using best in class modeling assumptions.

Furthermore, good online business plan softwares, such as the one we offer at The Business Plan Shop , come equipped with scoring algorithms which help identify issues within a financial forecast (such as insufficient cash or inventory, for example). 

This ensures that your forecast is free of modeling errors, and provides reassurance to the readers that the numbers can be trusted. 

Getting access to instructions and examples throughout the process  

As mentioned, creating a business plan is a complex process for those who’re not familiar with creating such documents. 

Using online business plan software allows you to have access to expert guidance as you write. 

This means your business plan will be effective and completed faster than with a word processor. 

Being able to use downloadable templates to create a business plan 

Good online business plan softwares, such as the one we offer at The Business Plan Shop, come with dozens of downloadable business plan templates you can use as inspiration to write your business plan. 

Being able to look at concrete examples of business plans helps avoid writer’s block and speed up the writing process, thereby reducing the overall cost of putting the plan together.

Saving time on formatting

Good online business plan softwares, such as the one we offer at The Business Plan Shop, also come with professionally designed themes and color schemes which enable you to quickly get a stunning document matching your brand colors, while delegating the bulk of the formatting to the software.

Software also automatically integrates your forecast into the document, saving hours of manual formatting compared to using word processors. 

Now that we understand what tools can be used, let’s have a look at the last factor that influences the cost of creating the business plan: the person writing the document.

Who’s writing the business plan?

No matter what tool you use, writing a business plan is time consuming and the cost per hour of the person doing the actual writing will have a serious impact on the overall cost.

Here you have two options: either do the writing in-house using your team’s time, or outsource it to a professional business plan writer .

Outsourcing is usually much more expensive than doing the writing in-house as you have to cover the writer’s time, software, marketing costs, and profit margin. But it frees your team’s time which can be used elsewhere.

Now that we’ve covered the factors that influence the overall cost of a business plan, let’s have a look at the concrete price of the most popular options.

Need a convincing business plan?

The Business Plan Shop makes it easy to create a financial forecast to assess the potential profitability of your projects, and write a business plan that’ll wow investors.

Using online software to create a business plan is undoubtedly the best approach, and you’ll probably end up paying for software anyway - whether you pay for software yourself or the software’s cost is included in your business plan writer’s fee.

There is a common misconception that business plan software might be quite expensive. However, that’s not the case with our online business plan software. 

As a publisher, The Business Plan Shop is committed to leveling-up the playing field between small businesses and large corporations by making our solution affordable to businesses of all sizes.  

You might think we’re a bit biased when it comes to talking about our own pricing. But you’re not bound to take our word for it: see our prices for yourself .

If you’re thinking of outsourcing the writing of your plan your next option will be to hire a business plan writer. 

However, you need to know that when you hire a writer to draft a business plan, the cost of the plan will depend on the factors we’ve mentioned earlier in this guide. 

In addition, the pricing structure for writing the business plan varies among writers: 

• Hourly pricing - the writer charges a fixed hourly rate for their services. The hourly rate is multiplied by the hours they spend working on your business plan. 
• Fixed pricing - in this structure, the writer will charge a fixed price based on creating a business plan. The price may depend on the length, level of details, and complexity of the document. 

While getting a fixed price is easier for budgeting purposes, you need to remember that you get what you pay for. 

Business plan writing is a for profit activity, which means that if the price seems low, then there is probably a catch. The writer might either be inexperienced (a business student for example), or take shortcuts and not spend enough time on your document, or the result might be incomplete (only include a P&L in your forecast for example).

If you are writing a business plan to secure funding, you also need to remember that investors want their money to be used to grow your business, not wasted on consulting fees. So the amount you spend on your business plan needs to be reasonable in relation to the amount of financing you are looking for.

For example, if you are trying to secure $100k and spend $10k on business plan writing services and $10k in legal costs, then you’ve wasted 20% of the capital you are trying to secure, which will not impress investors.

Finally you also need to remember that outsourcing your plan is not a completely hands-off process. You still need to provide the writer with the inputs and the research materials needed to write your plan.

You are the only one who knows: how your business operates, what strategic and commercial actions have been planned, and how much sales are expected, and what employees are paid.

So, while we are discussing the amount spent on the actual business plan writing fee, it’s not a total cost by any means, nor a like-for-like comparison with the cost of using software discussed above.

With that in mind, let's look at how much hiring a writer would actually cost. 

How much would a business plan writer cost per hour? 

The hourly rate for a business plan writer is usually around $100 to $300. This might not seem that much at first. However, you must understand that a minimum of 20 hours is usually required to create a business plan. 

So, if your business plan writer charges $100 per hour and works for 20 hours, you’ll pay $2,000 for the document. If they charge $300 per hour, you’ll pay $6,000. 

However, these are just for simple business plans. Depending on your business size and the complexity of your industry, the total price might end-up being much higher.

Another factor is the amount of revisions needed on your business plan. It’s quite common for your plan to require several updates as you gain more information on your market conditions and feedback from lenders and investors.

When you use hourly consultants these revisions can quickly add-up as you have to pay extra for them.

How much would fixed business plan writing services cost? 

When it comes to fixed pricing, the actual cost may vary from one writer to the other. 

However, the price is generally based on their years of experience, level of expertise, and the amount of work they put in. 

Packed-based pricing service might start around $2,000. However, you’ll only get basic-level business plans at such a price. 

If you need a complex business plan with in-depth market analysis, detailed plans about business operations, and three to five years of financial projections. Package services offering such business plans might cost as much as $30,000. 

Considering these prices, it’s safe to say that you should only opt for this approach if you aim to secure a significant amount of funding. 

If you’re in the starting phases of your business, it is better to use online business plan software instead. The money you spend hiring a writer can be used for other business operations such as marketing and product development. 

Need inspiration for your business plan?

The Business Plan Shop has dozens of business plan templates that you can use to get a clear idea of what a complete business plan looks like.

The last alternative to write your business plan at a low cost is to use an Excel and Word business plan template.

Most people often think a business plan template will not cost anything at all. They’re right to a certain extent. 

You can find loads of free business plan templates on the internet, but here also: you get what you pay for. These free templates are usually either: very basic, not properly maintained and outdated, or prepared by unknown “experts” who don’t seem to grasp the basic principles of accounting.

The cost of some business plan templates might go to $300. These templates are more detailed. In addition, some of these paid templates might even have visual aesthetics making them more presentable. 

Before you opt for this approach, you need to understand that these are just templates. This means they’ll provide you with a structure and format. However, you’ll still have to do all the work yourself. 

In comparison to using online business plan software, templates are more expensive and extremely low value for money. Furthermore, using a template still requires you to have a certain level of expertise and is an approach that’s not free from error. 

The final verdict 

When it comes to creating a business plan, you have three options: online software, a business plan writer, or templates. 

Professional software usually offers the best return on investment. Templates are low value for money and should be avoided. And writers can be worth it, if you intend on raising a significant amount of capital. 

Also on The Business Plan Shop

• Business plan vs budget: what's the difference?
• Do I need a business plan? Your questions answered

Know someone who wants to create a business plan? Share this guide with them!

Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd

Guillaume Le Brouster is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier.

Guillaume has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade and has first-hand experience of starting, running, and growing a successful business.

Prior to being a business owner, Guillaume worked in investment banking and private equity, where he spent most of his time creating complex financial forecasts, writing business plans, and analysing financial statements to make financing and investment decisions.

Guillaume holds a Master's Degree in Finance from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business & Management from Paris Dauphine University.

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How to Write a Business Plan: Step-by-Step Guide + Examples

Noah Parsons

24 min. read

Updated April 17, 2024

Writing a business plan doesn’t have to be complicated. 

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to write a business plan that’s detailed enough to impress bankers and potential investors, while giving you the tools to start, run, and grow a successful business.

• The basics of business planning

If you’re reading this guide, then you already know why you need a business plan . 

You understand that planning helps you: 

• Raise money
• Grow strategically
• Keep your business on the right track 

As you start to write your plan, it’s useful to zoom out and remember what a business plan is .

At its core, a business plan is an overview of the products and services you sell, and the customers that you sell to. It explains your business strategy: how you’re going to build and grow your business, what your marketing strategy is, and who your competitors are.

Most business plans also include financial forecasts for the future. These set sales goals, budget for expenses, and predict profits and cash flow. 

A good business plan is much more than just a document that you write once and forget about. It’s also a guide that helps you outline and achieve your goals. 

After completing your plan, you can use it as a management tool to track your progress toward your goals. Updating and adjusting your forecasts and budgets as you go is one of the most important steps you can take to run a healthier, smarter business. 

We’ll dive into how to use your plan later in this article.

There are many different types of plans , but we’ll go over the most common type here, which includes everything you need for an investor-ready plan. However, if you’re just starting out and are looking for something simpler—I recommend starting with a one-page business plan . It’s faster and easier to create. 

It’s also the perfect place to start if you’re just figuring out your idea, or need a simple strategic plan to use inside your business.

Dig deeper : How to write a one-page business plan

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• What to include in your business plan

Executive summary

The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your plan and is ideally just one to two pages. Most people write it last because it’s a summary of the complete business plan.

Ideally, the executive summary can act as a stand-alone document that covers the highlights of your detailed plan. 

In fact, it’s common for investors to ask only for the executive summary when evaluating your business. If they like what they see in the executive summary, they’ll often follow up with a request for a complete plan, a pitch presentation , or more in-depth financial forecasts .

Your executive summary should include:

• A summary of the problem you are solving
• A description of your product or service
• An overview of your target market
• A brief description of your team
• A summary of your financials
• Your funding requirements (if you are raising money)

Dig Deeper: How to write an effective executive summary

Products and services description

This is where you describe exactly what you’re selling, and how it solves a problem for your target market. The best way to organize this part of your plan is to start by describing the problem that exists for your customers. After that, you can describe how you plan to solve that problem with your product or service. 

This is usually called a problem and solution statement .

To truly showcase the value of your products and services, you need to craft a compelling narrative around your offerings. How will your product or service transform your customers’ lives or jobs? A strong narrative will draw in your readers.

This is also the part of the business plan to discuss any competitive advantages you may have, like specific intellectual property or patents that protect your product. If you have any initial sales, contracts, or other evidence that your product or service is likely to sell, include that information as well. It will show that your idea has traction , which can help convince readers that your plan has a high chance of success.

Market analysis

Your target market is a description of the type of people that you plan to sell to. You might even have multiple target markets, depending on your business. 

A market analysis is the part of your plan where you bring together all of the information you know about your target market. Basically, it’s a thorough description of who your customers are and why they need what you’re selling. You’ll also include information about the growth of your market and your industry .

Try to be as specific as possible when you describe your market. 

Include information such as age, income level, and location—these are what’s called “demographics.” If you can, also describe your market’s interests and habits as they relate to your business—these are “psychographics.” 

Related: Target market examples

Essentially, you want to include any knowledge you have about your customers that is relevant to how your product or service is right for them. With a solid target market, it will be easier to create a sales and marketing plan that will reach your customers. That’s because you know who they are, what they like to do, and the best ways to reach them.

Next, provide any additional information you have about your market. 

What is the size of your market ? Is the market growing or shrinking? Ideally, you’ll want to demonstrate that your market is growing over time, and also explain how your business is positioned to take advantage of any expected changes in your industry.

Dig Deeper: Learn how to write a market analysis

Competitive analysis

Part of defining your business opportunity is determining what your competitive advantage is. To do this effectively, you need to know as much about your competitors as your target customers. 

Every business has some form of competition. If you don’t think you have competitors, then explore what alternatives there are in the market for your product or service. 

For example: In the early years of cars, their main competition was horses. For social media, the early competition was reading books, watching TV, and talking on the phone.

A good competitive analysis fully lays out the competitive landscape and then explains how your business is different. Maybe your products are better made, or cheaper, or your customer service is superior. Maybe your competitive advantage is your location – a wide variety of factors can ultimately give you an advantage.

Dig Deeper: How to write a competitive analysis for your business plan

Marketing and sales plan

The marketing and sales plan covers how you will position your product or service in the market, the marketing channels and messaging you will use, and your sales tactics. 

The best place to start with a marketing plan is with a positioning statement . 

This explains how your business fits into the overall market, and how you will explain the advantages of your product or service to customers. You’ll use the information from your competitive analysis to help you with your positioning. 

For example: You might position your company as the premium, most expensive but the highest quality option in the market. Or your positioning might focus on being locally owned and that shoppers support the local economy by buying your products.

Once you understand your positioning, you’ll bring this together with the information about your target market to create your marketing strategy . 

This is how you plan to communicate your message to potential customers. Depending on who your customers are and how they purchase products like yours, you might use many different strategies, from social media advertising to creating a podcast. Your marketing plan is all about how your customers discover who you are and why they should consider your products and services. 

While your marketing plan is about reaching your customers—your sales plan will describe the actual sales process once a customer has decided that they’re interested in what you have to offer. 

If your business requires salespeople and a long sales process, describe that in this section. If your customers can “self-serve” and just make purchases quickly on your website, describe that process. 

A good sales plan picks up where your marketing plan leaves off. The marketing plan brings customers in the door and the sales plan is how you close the deal.

Together, these specific plans paint a picture of how you will connect with your target audience, and how you will turn them into paying customers.

Dig deeper: What to include in your sales and marketing plan

Business operations

The operations section describes the necessary requirements for your business to run smoothly. It’s where you talk about how your business works and what day-to-day operations look like. 

Depending on how your business is structured, your operations plan may include elements of the business like:

• Supply chain management
• Manufacturing processes
• Equipment and technology
• Distribution

Some businesses distribute their products and reach their customers through large retailers like Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, and grocery store chains. 

These businesses should review how this part of their business works. The plan should discuss the logistics and costs of getting products onto store shelves and any potential hurdles the business may have to overcome.

If your business is much simpler than this, that’s OK. This section of your business plan can be either extremely short or more detailed, depending on the type of business you are building.

For businesses selling services, such as physical therapy or online software, you can use this section to describe the technology you’ll leverage, what goes into your service, and who you will partner with to deliver your services.

Dig Deeper: Learn how to write the operations chapter of your plan

Key milestones and metrics

Although it’s not required to complete your business plan, mapping out key business milestones and the metrics can be incredibly useful for measuring your success.

Good milestones clearly lay out the parameters of the task and set expectations for their execution. You’ll want to include:

• A description of each task
• The proposed due date
• Who is responsible for each task

If you have a budget, you can include projected costs to hit each milestone. You don’t need extensive project planning in this section—just list key milestones you want to hit and when you plan to hit them. This is your overall business roadmap. 

Possible milestones might be:

• Website launch date
• Store or office opening date
• First significant sales
• Break even date
• Business licenses and approvals

You should also discuss the key numbers you will track to determine your success. Some common metrics worth tracking include:

• Conversion rates
• Customer acquisition costs
• Profit per customer
• Repeat purchases

It’s perfectly fine to start with just a few metrics and grow the number you are tracking over time. You also may find that some metrics simply aren’t relevant to your business and can narrow down what you’re tracking.

Dig Deeper: How to use milestones in your business plan

Organization and management team

Investors don’t just look for great ideas—they want to find great teams. Use this chapter to describe your current team and who you need to hire . You should also provide a quick overview of your location and history if you’re already up and running.

Briefly highlight the relevant experiences of each key team member in the company. It’s important to make the case for why yours is the right team to turn an idea into a reality. 

Do they have the right industry experience and background? Have members of the team had entrepreneurial successes before? 

If you still need to hire key team members, that’s OK. Just note those gaps in this section.

Your company overview should also include a summary of your company’s current business structure . The most common business structures include:

• Sole proprietor
• Partnership

Be sure to provide an overview of how the business is owned as well. Does each business partner own an equal portion of the business? How is ownership divided? 

Potential lenders and investors will want to know the structure of the business before they will consider a loan or investment.

Dig Deeper: How to write about your company structure and team

Financial plan

Last, but certainly not least, is your financial plan chapter. 

Entrepreneurs often find this section the most daunting. But, business financials for most startups are less complicated than you think, and a business degree is certainly not required to build a solid financial forecast. 

A typical financial forecast in a business plan includes the following:

• Sales forecast : An estimate of the sales expected over a given period. You’ll break down your forecast into the key revenue streams that you expect to have.
• Expense budget : Your planned spending such as personnel costs , marketing expenses, and taxes.
• Profit & Loss : Brings together your sales and expenses and helps you calculate planned profits.
• Cash Flow : Shows how cash moves into and out of your business. It can predict how much cash you’ll have on hand at any given point in the future.
• Balance Sheet : A list of the assets, liabilities, and equity in your company. In short, it provides an overview of the financial health of your business. 

A strong business plan will include a description of assumptions about the future, and potential risks that could impact the financial plan. Including those will be especially important if you’re writing a business plan to pursue a loan or other investment.

Dig Deeper: How to create financial forecasts and budgets

This is the place for additional data, charts, or other information that supports your plan.

Including an appendix can significantly enhance the credibility of your plan by showing readers that you’ve thoroughly considered the details of your business idea, and are backing your ideas up with solid data.

Just remember that the information in the appendix is meant to be supplementary. Your business plan should stand on its own, even if the reader skips this section.

Dig Deeper : What to include in your business plan appendix

Optional: Business plan cover page

Adding a business plan cover page can make your plan, and by extension your business, seem more professional in the eyes of potential investors, lenders, and partners. It serves as the introduction to your document and provides necessary contact information for stakeholders to reference.

Your cover page should be simple and include:

• Company logo
• Business name
• Value proposition (optional)
• Business plan title
• Completion and/or update date
• Address and contact information
• Confidentiality statement

Just remember, the cover page is optional. If you decide to include it, keep it very simple and only spend a short amount of time putting it together.

Dig Deeper: How to create a business plan cover page

How to use AI to help write your business plan

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can speed up the business plan writing process and help you think through concepts like market segmentation and competition. These tools are especially useful for taking ideas that you provide and converting them into polished text for your business plan.

The best way to use AI for your business plan is to leverage it as a collaborator , not a replacement for human creative thinking and ingenuity. 

AI can come up with lots of ideas and act as a brainstorming partner. It’s up to you to filter through those ideas and figure out which ones are realistic enough to resonate with your customers. 

There are pros and cons of using AI to help with your business plan . So, spend some time understanding how it can be most helpful before just outsourcing the job to AI.

Learn more: 10 AI prompts you need to write a business plan

• Writing tips and strategies

To help streamline the business plan writing process, here are a few tips and key questions to answer to make sure you get the most out of your plan and avoid common mistakes .  

Determine why you are writing a business plan

Knowing why you are writing a business plan will determine your approach to your planning project. 

For example: If you are writing a business plan for yourself, or just to use inside your own business , you can probably skip the section about your team and organizational structure. 

If you’re raising money, you’ll want to spend more time explaining why you’re looking to raise the funds and exactly how you will use them.

Regardless of how you intend to use your business plan , think about why you are writing and what you’re trying to get out of the process before you begin.

Keep things concise

Probably the most important tip is to keep your business plan short and simple. There are no prizes for long business plans . The longer your plan is, the less likely people are to read it. 

So focus on trimming things down to the essentials your readers need to know. Skip the extended, wordy descriptions and instead focus on creating a plan that is easy to read —using bullets and short sentences whenever possible.

Have someone review your business plan

Writing a business plan in a vacuum is never a good idea. Sometimes it’s helpful to zoom out and check if your plan makes sense to someone else. You also want to make sure that it’s easy to read and understand.

Don’t wait until your plan is “done” to get a second look. Start sharing your plan early, and find out from readers what questions your plan leaves unanswered. This early review cycle will help you spot shortcomings in your plan and address them quickly, rather than finding out about them right before you present your plan to a lender or investor.

If you need a more detailed review, you may want to explore hiring a professional plan writer to thoroughly examine it.

Use a free business plan template and business plan examples to get started

Knowing what information to include in a business plan is sometimes not quite enough. If you’re struggling to get started or need additional guidance, it may be worth using a business plan template. 

There are plenty of great options available (we’ve rounded up our 8 favorites to streamline your search).

But, if you’re looking for a free downloadable business plan template , you can get one right now; download the template used by more than 1 million businesses. 

Or, if you just want to see what a completed business plan looks like, check out our library of over 550 free business plan examples . 

We even have a growing list of industry business planning guides with tips for what to focus on depending on your business type.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

It’s easy to make mistakes when you’re writing your business plan. Some entrepreneurs get sucked into the writing and research process, and don’t focus enough on actually getting their business started. 

Here are a few common mistakes and how to avoid them:

Not talking to your customers : This is one of the most common mistakes. It’s easy to assume that your product or service is something that people want. Before you invest too much in your business and too much in the planning process, make sure you talk to your prospective customers and have a good understanding of their needs.

• Overly optimistic sales and profit forecasts: By nature, entrepreneurs are optimistic about the future. But it’s good to temper that optimism a little when you’re planning, and make sure your forecasts are grounded in reality. 
• Spending too much time planning: Yes, planning is crucial. But you also need to get out and talk to customers, build prototypes of your product and figure out if there’s a market for your idea. Make sure to balance planning with building.
• Not revising the plan: Planning is useful, but nothing ever goes exactly as planned. As you learn more about what’s working and what’s not—revise your plan, your budgets, and your revenue forecast. Doing so will provide a more realistic picture of where your business is going, and what your financial needs will be moving forward.
• Not using the plan to manage your business: A good business plan is a management tool. Don’t just write it and put it on the shelf to collect dust – use it to track your progress and help you reach your goals.
• Presenting your business plan

The planning process forces you to think through every aspect of your business and answer questions that you may not have thought of. That’s the real benefit of writing a business plan – the knowledge you gain about your business that you may not have been able to discover otherwise.

With all of this knowledge, you’re well prepared to convert your business plan into a pitch presentation to present your ideas. 

A pitch presentation is a summary of your plan, just hitting the highlights and key points. It’s the best way to present your business plan to investors and team members.

Dig Deeper: Learn what key slides should be included in your pitch deck

Use your business plan to manage your business

One of the biggest benefits of planning is that it gives you a tool to manage your business better. With a revenue forecast, expense budget, and projected cash flow, you know your targets and where you are headed.

And yet, nothing ever goes exactly as planned – it’s the nature of business.

That’s where using your plan as a management tool comes in. The key to leveraging it for your business is to review it periodically and compare your forecasts and projections to your actual results.

Start by setting up a regular time to review the plan – a monthly review is a good starting point. During this review, answer questions like:

• Did you meet your sales goals?
• Is spending following your budget?
• Has anything gone differently than what you expected?

Now that you see whether you’re meeting your goals or are off track, you can make adjustments and set new targets. 

Maybe you’re exceeding your sales goals and should set new, more aggressive goals. In that case, maybe you should also explore more spending or hiring more employees. 

Or maybe expenses are rising faster than you projected. If that’s the case, you would need to look at where you can cut costs.

A plan, and a method for comparing your plan to your actual results , is the tool you need to steer your business toward success.

Learn More: How to run a regular plan review

Free business plan templates and examples

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How to write a business plan FAQ

What is a business plan?

A document that describes your business , the products and services you sell, and the customers that you sell to. It explains your business strategy, how you’re going to build and grow your business, what your marketing strategy is, and who your competitors are.

What are the benefits of a business plan?

A business plan helps you understand where you want to go with your business and what it will take to get there. It reduces your overall risk, helps you uncover your business’s potential, attracts investors, and identifies areas for growth.

Having a business plan ultimately makes you more confident as a business owner and more likely to succeed for a longer period of time.

What are the 7 steps of a business plan?

The seven steps to writing a business plan include:

• Write a brief executive summary
• Describe your products and services.
• Conduct market research and compile data into a cohesive market analysis.
• Describe your marketing and sales strategy.
• Outline your organizational structure and management team.
• Develop financial projections for sales, revenue, and cash flow.
• Add any additional documents to your appendix.

What are the 5 most common business plan mistakes?

There are plenty of mistakes that can be made when writing a business plan. However, these are the 5 most common that you should do your best to avoid:

• 1. Not taking the planning process seriously.
• Having unrealistic financial projections or incomplete financial information.
• Inconsistent information or simple mistakes.
• Failing to establish a sound business model.
• Not having a defined purpose for your business plan.

What questions should be answered in a business plan?

Writing a business plan is all about asking yourself questions about your business and being able to answer them through the planning process. You’ll likely be asking dozens and dozens of questions for each section of your plan.

However, these are the key questions you should ask and answer with your business plan:

• How will your business make money?
• Is there a need for your product or service?
• Who are your customers?
• How are you different from the competition?
• How will you reach your customers?
• How will you measure success?

How long should a business plan be?

The length of your business plan fully depends on what you intend to do with it. From the SBA and traditional lender point of view, a business plan needs to be whatever length necessary to fully explain your business. This means that you prove the viability of your business, show that you understand the market, and have a detailed strategy in place.

If you intend to use your business plan for internal management purposes, you don’t necessarily need a full 25-50 page business plan. Instead, you can start with a one-page plan to get all of the necessary information in place.

What are the different types of business plans?

While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. Here are a few common business plan types worth considering.

Traditional business plan: The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used when applying for funding or pitching to investors. This type of business plan follows the outline above and can be anywhere from 10-50 pages depending on the amount of detail included, the complexity of your business, and what you include in your appendix.

Business model canvas: The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea.

One-page business plan: This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business. You’ll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences. It’s most useful for those exploring ideas, needing to validate their business model, or who need an internal plan to help them run and manage their business.

Lean Plan: The Lean Plan is less of a specific document type and more of a methodology. It takes the simplicity and styling of the one-page business plan and turns it into a process for you to continuously plan, test, review, refine, and take action based on performance. It’s faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your plan is always up-to-date.

What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?

A business plan covers the “who” and “what” of your business. It explains what your business is doing right now and how it functions. The strategic plan explores long-term goals and explains “how” the business will get there. It encourages you to look more intently toward the future and how you will achieve your vision.

However, when approached correctly, your business plan can actually function as a strategic plan as well. If kept lean, you can define your business, outline strategic steps, and track ongoing operations all with a single plan.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

Table of Contents

• Use AI to help write your plan
• Common planning mistakes
• Manage with your business plan
• Templates and examples

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How Much Should a Business Plan Writing Cost?

Free Guide On Writing A Business Plan

• March 2, 2024

This blog will give you a clear idea about business plan cost and other relevant factors associated with it.

What works for someone else might not work for you. The same goes for a business plan and the type of services you take to write one.

You might have heard and read about the importance of business plans from various resources, so the next step would be to decide upon the method and budget for writing your plan.

Depending on your business, you might not need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a business plan. As effective spending matters for businesses, it is the best practice to go through all of your options and pick the one that fits your business and budget the most.

In this article, we’ll discuss different sources for writing a business plan, and normally how much writing a business plan costs .

How much does writing a business plan cost?

Hiring a business plan writer to help you write a business plan generally costs anywhere between $1,000 and $25,000 , depending on the level of experience and the type of business plan. Expect to spend $25,000 to $50,000 when hiring a consultant.

However, using AI-powered tools to write your business plan costs much less. AI business plan generators like Upmetrics cost between $7 and   $15 a month.

Traditional vs. AI-powered business writing

Working with professional business plan writers or consultants can be costly and requires a great deal of back-and-forth communication. It can be quite overwhelming at times.

With AI-powered business planning tools like Upmetrics, you can easily create comprehensive and investor-ready business plans in just about a few hours.

Business plan writers or AI tools, which are more budget-friendly?

Hiring a professional business plan writer to draft your plan is a pricey affair. Experienced writers generally charge anywhere between $1000 to $3000 and even more. Whereas, Upmetrics’ pricing starts from $7/month .

Generic or unique professional-looking plans?

Business plan consultants and writers generally use a one-size-fits-all approach. The odds of your business plan ending up looking exactly the same as dozens of others are pretty high.

Modern AI tools, however, allow you to customize your business plan and presentation to meet the uniqueness of your business model.

Both are great options to consider, but at the moment, business plan tools seem to have an upper edge.

 Why hire expensive business plan writers and consultants?

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Understanding business plan writing costs

Let’s explore and understand the various processes/methods of writing a business plan to help you find the most suitable one.

Hiring a business plan writer

Entrepreneurs often consider it as the go-to business planning solution as they may not have the time to write a business. If you have a budget to spend a few thousand dollars on creating a business plan, It’s surely a trusted and proven way of writing a business plan.

How much does the business plan writer cost?

A business plan writer costs anywhere between $1000 to $3000 . It is the appropriate method for businesses that need above $50,000  in investment and have complex planning and staffing needs.

Pros and cons of hiring a business plan writer

• Time-saving.
• Well researched with added points.
• Business plan writers know the jargon and style investors prefer.
• Let you focus on other aspects of your business.
• Might look homogenous with other plans in the same industry.
• You might have difficulty including your own vision in the plan.
• Would be a big drawback if the writer doesn’t know enough about your industry.
• Can be difficult to present as you’ve not written it.
• Doesn’t help you answer an investor’s tangent questions.
• Can be expensive, especially if you’re just starting out.

Hiring a business plan consultant

Hiring a consultant is one of the popular options, especially if you are trying to attract a particularly large sum of investment. A consultancy company would help you at every step from research to strategizing, business plan writing, and updating the plan.

But on the downside, consultancy services can be pretty expensive and isn’t for every business.

How much does the business plan consultancy cost?

Consultancy services may cost anywhere between $25,000 to $50,000 . This also depends highly upon the firm you’re approaching and their level of expertise in the industry.

Consultancies also charge on an hourly basis. The rates also depend upon the complexity of the work.

Pros and Cons of hiring a business plan consultancy

• Consultants are usually experts in the niche and can give out-of-the-box ideas.
• They look at things from an unbiased perspective.
• They charge a predecided fixed amount.
• Help with updating and improving business practices and plans.
• They handle multiple clients and struggle with availability.
• They don’t give a guarantee of success.
• Consulting services are expensive and not viable for everyone.
• It can be difficult if the company leaves the organization.
• Many consultants go for generic solutions which might not work.

Using an AI business plan generator

Using an AI business plan generator can be considered the most reliable, efficient, and cost-effective way of creating a business plan for new-age entrepreneurs.

Business planning software like Upmetrics can help you create a detailed business plan in less than an hour.

The subscription includes 400+ sample business plans, AI business assistants, video tutorials, well-written documentation, and guides to ensure you are on the right track.

Upmetrics costs just $7/month on an annual subscription, making it an affordable option for startups and small businesses compared to other business planning processes.

Pros and Cons of using an AI business plan generator

• AI-powered text generation to write your business plan.
• AI-powered revenue and expense stream suggestions.
• Automatically generates financial statements and visual reports.
• It is time-consuming.
• You might need additional help.

Say goodbye to your old-school business planning methods

Using Combined Services to Reduce Business Plan Costs

Now if you don’t want to spend a huge chunk of money on a business plan writer or consultancy, but need a little more help than a business plan software would provide then you can also use a combination of services to write your business plan. If you need more help with the leg work you can do so with the help of a consultant and business plan software.

And if you can do the initial research and create the first draft of your business plan, you can use a combination of business plan software and business plan writer.

This might be a good choice for entrepreneurs who have the initial idea and a rough plan of how to set goals and milestones but would need more help with writing a business plan.

Why Does Your Personal Touch Matter in Your Business Plan?

All of us know that a business plan is much more than a 20-30 page long document. It captures the essence of your business and acts as a roadmap on your business journey. So, even if you’d save loads of time by using a business plan writer or consultant, your business plan would lag in a personal touch and unique vision.

Also, it is important to note that you can’t rely too much on consultants. No matter how good they are at their job, they’re still an external source and can leave your business anytime, and that would be a major setback for your business if you rely solely on your consultant.

Hence, taking part in your business plan writing process would ensure that you have a strong grip on your business from the beginning.

In conclusion, if you look through your options, you can not only save money but also pick a method that would be the best for your business.

A business plan is perhaps the most important document for your business.

Hence, it is essential for you to think through these 4 steps:

• Figure out the time and resources you have.
• Figure out what you can do by yourself and the areas you would need help in writing.
• After you find out what services you’d need, study the different software, writers, and consultants available on the market.
• Look through the services and what their previous clients say about them before you go ahead and take your pick.

At the end of the day, do your research, pick the right services, and take part in the process with full force and determination.

After all, your business dreams deserve all of it and more!

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Upmetrics Team

Upmetrics is the #1 business planning software that helps entrepreneurs and business owners create investment-ready business plans using AI. We regularly share business planning insights on our blog. Check out the Upmetrics blog for such interesting reads. Read more

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Business Plan: What It Is + How to Write One

Discover what a business plan includes and how writing one can foster your business’s development.

What is a business plan? 

A business plan is a written document that defines your business goals and the tactics to achieve those goals. A business plan typically explores the competitive landscape of an industry, analyzes a market and different customer segments within it, describes the products and services, lists business strategies for success, and outlines financial planning.  

In your research into business plans, you may come across different formats, and you might be wondering which kind will work best for your purposes. 

Let’s define two main types of business plans , the traditional business pla n and the lean start-up business plan . Both types can serve as the basis for developing a thriving business, as well as exploring a competitive market analysis, brand strategy , and content strategy in more depth. There are some significant differences to keep in mind [ 1 ]: 

The traditional business plan is a long document that explores each component in depth. You can build a traditional business plan to secure funding from lenders or investors. 

The lean start-up business plan focuses on the key elements of a business’s development and is shorter than the traditional format. If you don’t plan to seek funding, the lean start-up plan can serve mainly as a document for making business decisions and carrying out tasks. 

Now that you have a clear business plan definition , continue reading to begin writing a detailed plan that will guide your journey as an entrepreneur.  

How to write a business plan 

In the sections below, you’ll build the following components of your business plan:

Executive summary

Business description 

Products and services 

Competitor analysis 

Marketing plan and sales strategies 

Brand strategy

Financial planning

Explore each section to bring fresh inspiration to the surface and reveal new possibilities for developing your business. You may choose to adapt the sections, skip over some, or go deeper into others, depending on which format you’re using. Consider your first draft a foundation for your efforts and one that you can revise, as needed, to account for changes in any area of your business.  

Read more: What Is a Marketing Plan? And How to Create One

1. Executive summary 

This is a short section that introduces the business plan as a whole to the people who will be reading it, including investors, lenders, or other members of your team. Start with a sentence or two about your business, your goals for developing it, and why it will be successful. If you are seeking funding, summarize the basics of the financial plan. 

2. Business description 

Use this section to provide detailed information about your company and how it will operate in the marketplace. 

Mission statement: What drives your desire to start a business? What purpose are you serving? What do you hope to achieve for your business, the team, your customers? 

Revenue streams: From what sources will your business generate revenue? Examples include product sales, service fees, subscriptions, rental fees, license fees, and more. 

Leadership: Describe the leaders in your business, their roles and responsibilities, and your vision for building teams to perform various functions, such as graphic design, product development, or sales.  

Legal structure: If you’ve incorporated your business or registered it with your state as a legal entity such as an S-corp or LLC, include the legal structure here and the rationale behind this choice. 

3. Competitor analysis 

This section will include an assessment of potential competitors, their offers, and marketing and sales efforts. For each competitor, explore the following: 

Value proposition: What outcome or experience does this brand promise?

Products and services: How does each one solve customer pain points and fulfill desires? What are the price points? 

Marketing: Which channels do competitors use to promote? What kind of content does this brand publish on these channels? What messaging does this brand use to communicate value to customers?  

Sales: What sales process or buyer’s journey does this brand lead customers through?

Read more: What Is Competitor Analysis? And How to Conduct One

4. Products and services

Use this section to describe everything your business offers to its target market . For every product and service, list the following: 

The value proposition or promise to customers, in terms of how they will experience it

How the product serves customers, addresses their pain points, satisfies their desires, and improves their lives

The features or outcomes that make the product better than those of competitors

Your price points and how these compare to competitors

5. Marketing plan and sales strategies 

In this section, you’ll draw from thorough market research to describe your target market and how you will reach them. 

Who are your ideal customers?   

How can you describe this segment according to their demographics (age, ethnicity, income, location, etc.) and psychographics (beliefs, values, aspirations, lifestyle, etc.)? 

What are their daily lives like? 

What problems and challenges do they experience? 

What words, phrases, ideas, and concepts do consumers in your target market use to describe these problems when posting on social media or engaging with your competitors?  

What messaging will present your products as the best on the market? How will you differentiate messaging from competitors? 

On what marketing channels will you position your products and services?

How will you design a customer journey that delivers a positive experience at every touchpoint and leads customers to a purchase decision?

Read more: Market Analysis: What It Is and How to Conduct One   

6. Brand strategy 

In this section, you will describe your business’s design, personality, values, voice, and other details that go into delivering a consistent brand experience. 

What are the values that define your brand?

What visual elements give your brand a distinctive look and feel?

How will your marketing messaging reflect a distinctive brand voice, including the tone, diction, and sentence-level stylistic choices? 

How will your brand look and sound throughout the customer journey? 

Define your brand positioning statement. What will inspire your audience to choose your brand over others? What experiences and outcomes will your audience associate with your brand? 

Read more: What Is a Brand Strategy? And How to Create One

7. Financial planning  

In this section, you will explore your business’s financial future. If you are writing a traditional business plan to seek funding, this section is critical for demonstrating to lenders or investors that you have a strategy for turning your business ideas into profit. For a lean start-up business plan, this section can provide a useful exercise for planning how you will invest resources and generate revenue [ 2 ].  

Use any past financials and other sections of this business plan, such as your price points or sales strategies, to begin your financial planning. 

How many individual products or service packages do you plan to sell over a specific time period?

List your business expenses, such as subscribing to software or other services, hiring contractors or employees, purchasing physical supplies or equipment, etc.

What is your break-even point, or the amount you have to sell to cover all expenses?

Create a sales forecast for the next three to five years: (No. of units to sell X price for each unit) – (cost per unit X No. of units) = sales forecast

Quantify how much capital you have on hand.

When writing a traditional business plan to secure funding, you may choose to append supporting documents, such as licenses, permits, patents, letters of reference, resumes, product blueprints, brand guidelines, the industry awards you’ve received, and media mentions and appearances.

Business plan key takeaways and best practices

Remember: Creating a business plan is crucial when starting a business. You can use this document to guide your decisions and actions and even seek funding from lenders and investors. 

Keep these best practices in mind:

Your business plan should evolve as your business grows. Return to it periodically, such as every quarter or year, to update individual sections or explore new directions your business can take.

Make sure everyone on your team has a copy of the business plan and welcome their input as they perform their roles. 

Ask fellow entrepreneurs for feedback on your business plan and look for opportunities to strengthen it, from conducting more market and competitor research to implementing new strategies for success. 

Start your business with Coursera 

Ready to start your business? Watch this video on the lean approach from the Entrepreneurship Specialization : 

Article sources

1. US Small Business Administration. “ Write Your Business Plan , https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/write-your-business-plan." Accessed April 19, 2022.

2. Inc. " How to Write the Financial Section of a Business Plan ,   https://www.inc.com/guides/business-plan-financial-section.html." Accessed April 14, 2022.

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, how often should a business plan be updated, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

A business plan is a document that details a company's goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document describing a company's business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company's short- and long-term objectives.
• There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they'll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn't looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, "Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs."

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan for itself.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and highlighting any potential obstacles to success. A company might also share its business plan with trusted outsiders to get their objective feedback. In addition, a business plan can help keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and priorities.

Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they often have some of the same basic elements, as we describe below.

While it's a good idea to provide as much detail as necessary, it's also important that a business plan be concise enough to hold a reader's attention to the end.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, it's best to fit the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and attached as appendices.

These are some of the most common elements in many business plans:

• Executive summary: This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services: Here, the company should describe the products and services it offers or plans to introduce. That might include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other factors that could go into this section include production and manufacturing processes, any relevant patents the company may have, as well as proprietary technology . Information about research and development (R&D) can also be included here.
• Market analysis: A company needs to have a good handle on the current state of its industry and the existing competition. This section should explain where the company fits in, what types of customers it plans to target, and how easy or difficult it may be to take market share from incumbents.
• Marketing strategy: This section can describe how the company plans to attract and keep customers, including any anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. It should also describe the distribution channel or channels it will use to get its products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections: Established businesses can include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses can provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making.

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should aim to entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its uniqueness and potential for success.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can take many forms, but they are sometimes divided into two basic categories: traditional and lean startup. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These plans tend to be much longer than lean startup plans and contain considerably more detail. As a result they require more work on the part of the business, but they can also be more persuasive (and reassuring) to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans are short—as short as one page—and provide only the most basic detail. If a company wants to use this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or a lender requests it.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan is not a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections to begin with. Markets and the overall economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All of this calls for building some flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on the nature of the business. A well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary. A new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers to give a quick explanation of its business. For example, a brand-new company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide yet.

Sections can include: a value proposition ; the company's major activities and advantages; resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital; a list of partnerships; customer segments; and revenue sources.

A business plan can be useful to companies of all kinds. But as a company grows and the world around it changes, so too should its business plan. So don't think of your business plan as carved in granite but as a living document designed to evolve with your business.

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

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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.

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How Much Do Business Plan Writing Services Cost?

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The expense of a business plan varies greatly depending on which kind of plan you need. Some plans could be as straightforward as a executive summary and also a one-page financial worksheet, while some can be well more than 50 pages and contain many years of financial projections. Decide what type of business plan your company needs so as to help ascertain the cost of this strategy.

Hiring a Business Plan Writing Service It’s possible to hire a business plan writing service to write your business plan. More complex plans can range into the high thousands, based upon the firm, the amount of staff members operating on the strategy along with the range of the plan. Costs typically start at $1,500 for more simple projects.

Hiring A Traditional Consulting Company Using a traditional consulting company to write your business plan might make more sense when you are looking to raise a larger amount with your business plan. A lengthy plan with five years of financial projections might still cost a few thousand dollars, however, the total price can be much higher depending on the scope of work and the amount of consulting required. Some traditional consultants charge by the hour and let the customer decide how many hours client can budget for the work. For larger corporate jobs, expect to find costs ranging $25,000 to $50,000.

Our approach at GoBusinessPlans is to custom scope each engagement based on the the specific requirements of each client. Our business plan writing services typically cost between $2,000 and $10,000 depending on the work that needs to be completed.

Writing It Yourself The least expensive way to acquire a business plan usually is to compose it yourself. Purchasing the software to speed up this procedure ranges from $50 to $500, and free resources on the Web can offer both templates and suggestions. The U.S. Small Business Administration offers guides, outlines and blogs, and the SBA’s Business Strategy Tool provides step-by-step assistance in building your plan. For companies with very low startup capital, this can be the ideal option.

Combining Services Another option for businesses looking for a business plan option is potentially doing some of the initial leg work and then working with a business plan company to finalize the business plan.  A business plan can cost less if you do the research and make a draft on your own, and then introduce it to a company or consultant for review and completion. For instance, you could complete the written part of the company plan and have somebody else help with the financials. This is sometimes a good option for entrepreneurs that will articulate their business idea clearly but may need help putting together financial projections that are realistic. Review choices are offered for those who need an expert eye to check at their plan before proceeding.

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How to make a business plan

Table of Contents

How to make a good business plan: step-by-step guide.

A business plan is a strategic roadmap used to navigate the challenging journey of entrepreneurship. It's the foundation upon which you build a successful business.

A well-crafted business plan can help you define your vision, clarify your goals, and identify potential problems before they arise.

But where do you start? How do you create a business plan that sets you up for success?

This article will explore the step-by-step process of creating a comprehensive business plan.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a formal document that outlines a business's objectives, strategies, and operational procedures. It typically includes the following information about a company:

Products or services

Target market

Competitors

Marketing and sales strategies

Financial plan

Management team

A business plan serves as a roadmap for a company's success and provides a blueprint for its growth and development. It helps entrepreneurs and business owners organize their ideas, evaluate the feasibility, and identify potential challenges and opportunities.

As well as serving as a guide for business owners, a business plan can attract investors and secure funding. It demonstrates the company's understanding of the market, its ability to generate revenue and profits, and its strategy for managing risks and achieving success.

Business plan vs. business model canvas

A business plan may seem similar to a business model canvas, but each document serves a different purpose.

A business model canvas is a high-level overview that helps entrepreneurs and business owners quickly test and iterate their ideas. It is often a one-page document that briefly outlines the following:

Key partnerships

Key activities

Key propositions

Customer relationships

Customer segments

Key resources

Cost structure

Revenue streams

On the other hand, a Business Plan Template provides a more in-depth analysis of a company's strategy and operations. It is typically a lengthy document and requires significant time and effort to develop.

A business model shouldn’t replace a business plan, and vice versa. Business owners should lay the foundations and visually capture the most important information with a Business Model Canvas Template . Because this is a fast and efficient way to communicate a business idea, a business model canvas is a good starting point before developing a more comprehensive business plan.

A business plan can aim to secure funding from investors or lenders, while a business model canvas communicates a business idea to potential customers or partners.

Why is a business plan important?

A business plan is crucial for any entrepreneur or business owner wanting to increase their chances of success.

Here are some of the many benefits of having a thorough business plan.

Helps to define the business goals and objectives

A business plan encourages you to think critically about your goals and objectives. Doing so lets you clearly understand what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there.

A well-defined set of goals, objectives, and key results also provides a sense of direction and purpose, which helps keep business owners focused and motivated.

Guides decision-making

A business plan requires you to consider different scenarios and potential problems that may arise in your business. This awareness allows you to devise strategies to deal with these issues and avoid pitfalls.

With a clear plan, entrepreneurs can make informed decisions aligning with their overall business goals and objectives. This helps reduce the risk of making costly mistakes and ensures they make decisions with long-term success in mind.

Attracts investors and secures funding

Investors and lenders often require a business plan before considering investing in your business. A document that outlines the company's goals, objectives, and financial forecasts can help instill confidence in potential investors and lenders.

A well-written business plan demonstrates that you have thoroughly thought through your business idea and have a solid plan for success.

Identifies potential challenges and risks

A business plan requires entrepreneurs to consider potential challenges and risks that could impact their business. For example:

Is there enough demand for my product or service?

Will I have enough capital to start my business?

Is the market oversaturated with too many competitors?

What will happen if my marketing strategy is ineffective?

By identifying these potential challenges, entrepreneurs can develop strategies to mitigate risks and overcome challenges. This can reduce the likelihood of costly mistakes and ensure the business is well-positioned to take on any challenges.

Provides a basis for measuring success

A business plan serves as a framework for measuring success by providing clear goals and financial projections . Entrepreneurs can regularly refer to the original business plan as a benchmark to measure progress. By comparing the current business position to initial forecasts, business owners can answer questions such as:

Are we where we want to be at this point?

Did we achieve our goals?

If not, why not, and what do we need to do?

After assessing whether the business is meeting its objectives or falling short, business owners can adjust their strategies as needed.

How to make a business plan step by step

The steps below will guide you through the process of creating a business plan and what key components you need to include.

1. Create an executive summary

Start with a brief overview of your entire plan. The executive summary should cover your business plan's main points and key takeaways.

Keep your executive summary concise and clear with the Executive Summary Template . The simple design helps readers understand the crux of your business plan without reading the entire document.

2. Write your company description

Provide a detailed explanation of your company. Include information on what your company does, the mission statement, and your vision for the future.

Provide additional background information on the history of your company, the founders, and any notable achievements or milestones.

3. Conduct a market analysis

Conduct an in-depth analysis of your industry, competitors, and target market. This is best done with a SWOT analysis to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Next, identify your target market's needs, demographics, and behaviors.

Use the Competitive Analysis Template to brainstorm answers to simple questions like:

What does the current market look like?

Who are your competitors?

What are they offering?

What will give you a competitive advantage?

Who is your target market?

What are they looking for and why?

How will your product or service satisfy a need?

These questions should give you valuable insights into the current market and where your business stands.

4. Describe your products and services

Provide detailed information about your products and services. This includes pricing information, product features, and any unique selling points.

Use the Product/Market Fit Template to explain how your products meet the needs of your target market. Describe what sets them apart from the competition.

5. Design a marketing and sales strategy

Outline how you plan to promote and sell your products. Your marketing strategy and sales strategy should include information about your:

Pricing strategy

Advertising and promotional tactics

Sales channels

The Go to Market Strategy Template is a great way to visually map how you plan to launch your product or service in a new or existing market.

6. Determine budget and financial projections

Document detailed information on your business’ finances. Describe the current financial position of the company and how you expect the finances to play out.

Some details to include in this section are:

Startup costs

Revenue projections

Profit and loss statement

Funding you have received or plan to receive

Strategy for raising funds

7. Set the organization and management structure

Define how your company is structured and who will be responsible for each aspect of the business. Use the Business Organizational Chart Template to visually map the company’s teams, roles, and hierarchy.

As well as the organization and management structure, discuss the legal structure of your business. Clarify whether your business is a corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, or LLC.

8. Make an action plan

At this point in your business plan, you’ve described what you’re aiming for. But how are you going to get there? The Action Plan Template describes the following steps to move your business plan forward. Outline the next steps you plan to take to bring your business plan to fruition.

Types of business plans

Several types of business plans cater to different purposes and stages of a company's lifecycle. Here are some of the most common types of business plans.

Startup business plan

A startup business plan is typically an entrepreneur's first business plan. This document helps entrepreneurs articulate their business idea when starting a new business.

Not sure how to make a business plan for a startup? It’s pretty similar to a regular business plan, except the primary purpose of a startup business plan is to convince investors to provide funding for the business. A startup business plan also outlines the potential target market, product/service offering, marketing plan, and financial projections.

Strategic business plan

A strategic business plan is a long-term plan that outlines a company's overall strategy, objectives, and tactics. This type of strategic plan focuses on the big picture and helps business owners set goals and priorities and measure progress.

The primary purpose of a strategic business plan is to provide direction and guidance to the company's management team and stakeholders. The plan typically covers a period of three to five years.

Operational business plan

An operational business plan is a detailed document that outlines the day-to-day operations of a business. It focuses on the specific activities and processes required to run the business, such as:

Organizational structure

Staffing plan

Production plan

Quality control

Inventory management

Supply chain

The primary purpose of an operational business plan is to ensure that the business runs efficiently and effectively. It helps business owners manage their resources, track their performance, and identify areas for improvement.

Growth-business plan

A growth-business plan is a strategic plan that outlines how a company plans to expand its business. It helps business owners identify new market opportunities and increase revenue and profitability. The primary purpose of a growth-business plan is to provide a roadmap for the company's expansion and growth.

The 3 Horizons of Growth Template is a great tool to identify new areas of growth. This framework categorizes growth opportunities into three categories: Horizon 1 (core business), Horizon 2 (emerging business), and Horizon 3 (potential business).

One-page business plan

A one-page business plan is a condensed version of a full business plan that focuses on the most critical aspects of a business. It’s a great tool for entrepreneurs who want to quickly communicate their business idea to potential investors, partners, or employees.

A one-page business plan typically includes sections such as business concept, value proposition, revenue streams, and cost structure.

Best practices for how to make a good business plan

Here are some additional tips for creating a business plan:

Use a template

A template can help you organize your thoughts and effectively communicate your business ideas and strategies. Starting with a template can also save you time and effort when formatting your plan.

Miro’s extensive library of customizable templates includes all the necessary sections for a comprehensive business plan. With our templates, you can confidently present your business plans to stakeholders and investors.

Be practical

Avoid overestimating revenue projections or underestimating expenses. Your business plan should be grounded in practical realities like your budget, resources, and capabilities.

Be specific

Provide as much detail as possible in your business plan. A specific plan is easier to execute because it provides clear guidance on what needs to be done and how. Without specific details, your plan may be too broad or vague, making it difficult to know where to start or how to measure success.

Be thorough with your research

Conduct thorough research to fully understand the market, your competitors, and your target audience . By conducting thorough research, you can identify potential risks and challenges your business may face and develop strategies to mitigate them.

Get input from others

It can be easy to become overly focused on your vision and ideas, leading to tunnel vision and a lack of objectivity. By seeking input from others, you can identify potential opportunities you may have overlooked.

Review and revise regularly

A business plan is a living document. You should update it regularly to reflect market, industry, and business changes. Set aside time for regular reviews and revisions to ensure your plan remains relevant and effective.

Create a winning business plan to chart your path to success

Starting or growing a business can be challenging, but it doesn't have to be. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting, a well-written business plan can make or break your business’ success.

The purpose of a business plan is more than just to secure funding and attract investors. It also serves as a roadmap for achieving your business goals and realizing your vision. With the right mindset, tools, and strategies, you can develop a visually appealing, persuasive business plan.

Ready to make an effective business plan that works for you? Check out our library of ready-made strategy and planning templates and chart your path to success.

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Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Simple Business Plan

By Joe Weller | October 11, 2021

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A business plan is the cornerstone of any successful company, regardless of size or industry. This step-by-step guide provides information on writing a business plan for organizations at any stage, complete with free templates and expert advice. 

Included on this page, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to writing a business plan and a chart to identify which type of business plan you should write . Plus, find information on how a business plan can help grow a business and expert tips on writing one .

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that communicates a company’s goals and ambitions, along with the timeline, finances, and methods needed to achieve them. Additionally, it may include a mission statement and details about the specific products or services offered.

A business plan can highlight varying time periods, depending on the stage of your company and its goals. That said, a typical business plan will include the following benchmarks:

• Product goals and deadlines for each month
• Monthly financials for the first two years
• Profit and loss statements for the first three to five years
• Balance sheet projections for the first three to five years

Startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses all create business plans to use as a guide as their new company progresses. Larger organizations may also create (and update) a business plan to keep high-level goals, financials, and timelines in check.

While you certainly need to have a formalized outline of your business’s goals and finances, creating a business plan can also help you determine a company’s viability, its profitability (including when it will first turn a profit), and how much money you will need from investors. In turn, a business plan has functional value as well: Not only does outlining goals help keep you accountable on a timeline, it can also attract investors in and of itself and, therefore, act as an effective strategy for growth.

For more information, visit our comprehensive guide to writing a strategic plan or download free strategic plan templates . This page focuses on for-profit business plans, but you can read our article with nonprofit business plan templates .

Business Plan Steps

The specific information in your business plan will vary, depending on the needs and goals of your venture, but a typical plan includes the following ordered elements:

• Executive summary
• Description of business
• Market analysis
• Competitive analysis
• Description of organizational management
• Description of product or services
• Marketing plan
• Sales strategy
• Funding details (or request for funding)
• Financial projections

If your plan is particularly long or complicated, consider adding a table of contents or an appendix for reference. For an in-depth description of each step listed above, read “ How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step ” below.

Broadly speaking, your audience includes anyone with a vested interest in your organization. They can include potential and existing investors, as well as customers, internal team members, suppliers, and vendors.

Do I Need a Simple or Detailed Plan?

Your business’s stage and intended audience dictates the level of detail your plan needs. Corporations require a thorough business plan — up to 100 pages. Small businesses or startups should have a concise plan focusing on financials and strategy.

How to Choose the Right Plan for Your Business

In order to identify which type of business plan you need to create, ask: “What do we want the plan to do?” Identify function first, and form will follow.

Use the chart below as a guide for what type of business plan to create:

Is the Order of Your Business Plan Important?

There is no set order for a business plan, with the exception of the executive summary, which should always come first. Beyond that, simply ensure that you organize the plan in a way that makes sense and flows naturally.

The Difference Between Traditional and Lean Business Plans

A traditional business plan follows the standard structure — because these plans encourage detail, they tend to require more work upfront and can run dozens of pages. A Lean business plan is less common and focuses on summarizing critical points for each section. These plans take much less work and typically run one page in length.

In general, you should use a traditional model for a legacy company, a large company, or any business that does not adhere to Lean (or another Agile method ). Use Lean if you expect the company to pivot quickly or if you already employ a Lean strategy with other business operations. Additionally, a Lean business plan can suffice if the document is for internal use only. Stick to a traditional version for investors, as they may be more sensitive to sudden changes or a high degree of built-in flexibility in the plan.

How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step

Writing a strong business plan requires research and attention to detail for each section. Below, you’ll find a 10-step guide to researching and defining each element in the plan.

Step 1: Executive Summary

The executive summary will always be the first section of your business plan. The goal is to answer the following questions:

• What is the vision and mission of the company?
• What are the company’s short- and long-term goals?

See our  roundup of executive summary examples and templates for samples. Read our executive summary guide to learn more about writing one.

Step 2: Description of Business

The goal of this section is to define the realm, scope, and intent of your venture. To do so, answer the following questions as clearly and concisely as possible:

• What business are we in?
• What does our business do?

Step 3: Market Analysis

In this section, provide evidence that you have surveyed and understand the current marketplace, and that your product or service satisfies a niche in the market. To do so, answer these questions:

• Who is our customer? 
• What does that customer value?

Step 4: Competitive Analysis

In many cases, a business plan proposes not a brand-new (or even market-disrupting) venture, but a more competitive version — whether via features, pricing, integrations, etc. — than what is currently available. In this section, answer the following questions to show that your product or service stands to outpace competitors:

• Who is the competition? 
• What do they do best? 
• What is our unique value proposition?

Step 5: Description of Organizational Management

In this section, write an overview of the team members and other key personnel who are integral to success. List roles and responsibilities, and if possible, note the hierarchy or team structure.

Step 6: Description of Products or Services

In this section, clearly define your product or service, as well as all the effort and resources that go into producing it. The strength of your product largely defines the success of your business, so it’s imperative that you take time to test and refine the product before launching into marketing, sales, or funding details.

Questions to answer in this section are as follows:

• What is the product or service?
• How do we produce it, and what resources are necessary for production?

Step 7: Marketing Plan

In this section, define the marketing strategy for your product or service. This doesn’t need to be as fleshed out as a full marketing plan , but it should answer basic questions, such as the following:

• Who is the target market (if different from existing customer base)?
• What channels will you use to reach your target market?
• What resources does your marketing strategy require, and do you have access to them?
• If possible, do you have a rough estimate of timeline and budget?
• How will you measure success?

Step 8: Sales Plan

Write an overview of the sales strategy, including the priorities of each cycle, steps to achieve these goals, and metrics for success. For the purposes of a business plan, this section does not need to be a comprehensive, in-depth sales plan , but can simply outline the high-level objectives and strategies of your sales efforts. 

Start by answering the following questions:

• What is the sales strategy?
• What are the tools and tactics you will use to achieve your goals?
• What are the potential obstacles, and how will you overcome them?
• What is the timeline for sales and turning a profit?
• What are the metrics of success?

Step 9: Funding Details (or Request for Funding)

This section is one of the most critical parts of your business plan, particularly if you are sharing it with investors. You do not need to provide a full financial plan, but you should be able to answer the following questions:

• How much capital do you currently have? How much capital do you need?
• How will you grow the team (onboarding, team structure, training and development)?
• What are your physical needs and constraints (space, equipment, etc.)?

Step 10: Financial Projections

Apart from the fundraising analysis, investors like to see thought-out financial projections for the future. As discussed earlier, depending on the scope and stage of your business, this could be anywhere from one to five years. 

While these projections won’t be exact — and will need to be somewhat flexible — you should be able to gauge the following:

• How and when will the company first generate a profit?
• How will the company maintain profit thereafter?

Business Plan Template

Download Business Plan Template

Microsoft Excel | Smartsheet

This basic business plan template has space for all the traditional elements: an executive summary, product or service details, target audience, marketing and sales strategies, etc. In the finances sections, input your baseline numbers, and the template will automatically calculate projections for sales forecasting, financial statements, and more.

For templates tailored to more specific needs, visit this business plan template roundup or download a fill-in-the-blank business plan template to make things easy. 

If you are looking for a particular template by file type, visit our pages dedicated exclusively to Microsoft Excel , Microsoft Word , and Adobe PDF business plan templates.

How to Write a Simple Business Plan

A simple business plan is a streamlined, lightweight version of the large, traditional model. As opposed to a one-page business plan , which communicates high-level information for quick overviews (such as a stakeholder presentation), a simple business plan can exceed one page.

Below are the steps for creating a generic simple business plan, which are reflected in the template below .

• Write the Executive Summary This section is the same as in the traditional business plan — simply offer an overview of what’s in the business plan, the prospect or core offering, and the short- and long-term goals of the company. 
• Add a Company Overview Document the larger company mission and vision. 
• Provide the Problem and Solution In straightforward terms, define the problem you are attempting to solve with your product or service and how your company will attempt to do it. Think of this section as the gap in the market you are attempting to close.
• Identify the Target Market Who is your company (and its products or services) attempting to reach? If possible, briefly define your buyer personas .
• Write About the Competition In this section, demonstrate your knowledge of the market by listing the current competitors and outlining your competitive advantage.
• Describe Your Product or Service Offerings Get down to brass tacks and define your product or service. What exactly are you selling?
• Outline Your Marketing Tactics Without getting into too much detail, describe your planned marketing initiatives.
• Add a Timeline and the Metrics You Will Use to Measure Success Offer a rough timeline, including milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs) that you will use to measure your progress.
• Include Your Financial Forecasts Write an overview of your financial plan that demonstrates you have done your research and adequate modeling. You can also list key assumptions that go into this forecasting. 
• Identify Your Financing Needs This section is where you will make your funding request. Based on everything in the business plan, list your proposed sources of funding, as well as how you will use it.

Simple Business Plan Template

Download Simple Business Plan Template

Microsoft Excel |  Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF  | Smartsheet

Use this simple business plan template to outline each aspect of your organization, including information about financing and opportunities to seek out further funding. This template is completely customizable to fit the needs of any business, whether it’s a startup or large company.

Read our article offering free simple business plan templates or free 30-60-90-day business plan templates to find more tailored options. You can also explore our collection of one page business templates . 

How to Write a Business Plan for a Lean Startup

A Lean startup business plan is a more Agile approach to a traditional version. The plan focuses more on activities, processes, and relationships (and maintains flexibility in all aspects), rather than on concrete deliverables and timelines.

While there is some overlap between a traditional and a Lean business plan, you can write a Lean plan by following the steps below:

• Add Your Value Proposition Take a streamlined approach to describing your product or service. What is the unique value your startup aims to deliver to customers? Make sure the team is aligned on the core offering and that you can state it in clear, simple language.
• List Your Key Partners List any other businesses you will work with to realize your vision, including external vendors, suppliers, and partners. This section demonstrates that you have thoughtfully considered the resources you can provide internally, identified areas for external assistance, and conducted research to find alternatives.
• Note the Key Activities Describe the key activities of your business, including sourcing, production, marketing, distribution channels, and customer relationships.
• Include Your Key Resources List the critical resources — including personnel, equipment, space, and intellectual property — that will enable you to deliver your unique value.
• Identify Your Customer Relationships and Channels In this section, document how you will reach and build relationships with customers. Provide a high-level map of the customer experience from start to finish, including the spaces in which you will interact with the customer (online, retail, etc.). 
• Detail Your Marketing Channels Describe the marketing methods and communication platforms you will use to identify and nurture your relationships with customers. These could be email, advertising, social media, etc.
• Explain the Cost Structure This section is especially necessary in the early stages of a business. Will you prioritize maximizing value or keeping costs low? List the foundational startup costs and how you will move toward profit over time.
• Share Your Revenue Streams Over time, how will the company make money? Include both the direct product or service purchase, as well as secondary sources of revenue, such as subscriptions, selling advertising space, fundraising, etc.

Lean Business Plan Template for Startups

Download Lean Business Plan Template for Startups

Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF

Startup leaders can use this Lean business plan template to relay the most critical information from a traditional plan. You’ll find all the sections listed above, including spaces for industry and product overviews, cost structure and sources of revenue, and key metrics, and a timeline. The template is completely customizable, so you can edit it to suit the objectives of your Lean startups.

See our wide variety of  startup business plan templates for more options.

How to Write a Business Plan for a Loan

A business plan for a loan, often called a loan proposal , includes many of the same aspects of a traditional business plan, as well as additional financial documents, such as a credit history, a loan request, and a loan repayment plan.

In addition, you may be asked to include personal and business financial statements, a form of collateral, and equity investment information.

Download free financial templates to support your business plan.

Tips for Writing a Business Plan

Outside of including all the key details in your business plan, you have several options to elevate the document for the highest chance of winning funding and other resources. Follow these tips from experts:.

• Keep It Simple: Avner Brodsky , the Co-Founder and CEO of Lezgo Limited, an online marketing company, uses the acronym KISS (keep it short and simple) as a variation on this idea. “The business plan is not a college thesis,” he says. “Just focus on providing the essential information.”
• Do Adequate Research: Michael Dean, the Co-Founder of Pool Research , encourages business leaders to “invest time in research, both internal and external (market, finance, legal etc.). Avoid being overly ambitious or presumptive. Instead, keep everything objective, balanced, and accurate.” Your plan needs to stand on its own, and you must have the data to back up any claims or forecasting you make. As Brodsky explains, “Your business needs to be grounded on the realities of the market in your chosen location. Get the most recent data from authoritative sources so that the figures are vetted by experts and are reliable.”
• Set Clear Goals: Make sure your plan includes clear, time-based goals. “Short-term goals are key to momentum growth and are especially important to identify for new businesses,” advises Dean.
• Know (and Address) Your Weaknesses: “This awareness sets you up to overcome your weak points much quicker than waiting for them to arise,” shares Dean. Brodsky recommends performing a full SWOT analysis to identify your weaknesses, too. “Your business will fare better with self-knowledge, which will help you better define the mission of your business, as well as the strategies you will choose to achieve your objectives,” he adds.
• Seek Peer or Mentor Review: “Ask for feedback on your drafts and for areas to improve,” advises Brodsky. “When your mind is filled with dreams for your business, sometimes it is an outsider who can tell you what you’re missing and will save your business from being a product of whimsy.”

Outside of these more practical tips, the language you use is also important and may make or break your business plan.

Shaun Heng, VP of Operations at Coin Market Cap , gives the following advice on the writing, “Your business plan is your sales pitch to an investor. And as with any sales pitch, you need to strike the right tone and hit a few emotional chords. This is a little tricky in a business plan, because you also need to be formal and matter-of-fact. But you can still impress by weaving in descriptive language and saying things in a more elegant way.

“A great way to do this is by expanding your vocabulary, avoiding word repetition, and using business language. Instead of saying that something ‘will bring in as many customers as possible,’ try saying ‘will garner the largest possible market segment.’ Elevate your writing with precise descriptive words and you'll impress even the busiest investor.”

Additionally, Dean recommends that you “stay consistent and concise by keeping your tone and style steady throughout, and your language clear and precise. Include only what is 100 percent necessary.”

Resources for Writing a Business Plan

While a template provides a great outline of what to include in a business plan, a live document or more robust program can provide additional functionality, visibility, and real-time updates. The U.S. Small Business Association also curates resources for writing a business plan.

Additionally, you can use business plan software to house data, attach documentation, and share information with stakeholders. Popular options include LivePlan, Enloop, BizPlanner, PlanGuru, and iPlanner.

How a Business Plan Helps to Grow Your Business

A business plan — both the exercise of creating one and the document — can grow your business by helping you to refine your product, target audience, sales plan, identify opportunities, secure funding, and build new partnerships. 

Outside of these immediate returns, writing a business plan is a useful exercise in that it forces you to research the market, which prompts you to forge your unique value proposition and identify ways to beat the competition. Doing so will also help you build (and keep you accountable to) attainable financial and product milestones. And down the line, it will serve as a welcome guide as hurdles inevitably arise.

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14 Business Startup Costs Business Owners Need to Know

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money .

Deciding to start a business is exciting, but can also be daunting if you're a new entrepreneur. Calculating business startup costs, worrying about long-term profitability, securing startup funding — it can all be pretty stressful.

The question of costs is critical because the initial investment can be significant. A Kauffman Foundations study shows the average cost to be around $30,000, and costs tend to increase each year.

Fortunately, certain types of businesses, such as micro-businesses and home-based companies, have lower financial entry barriers. Here, we’ve put together a list of 14 different types of business startup costs you’ll need to consider when launching your company.

ZenBusiness

How to calculate the cost of starting a business

Drafting a business plan is the best way to estimate your business startup costs. Within your plan, the financial projections section should estimate your revenue, profit, and expenses for the next three to five years.

There are other resources to estimate your finances as well, such as the SBA’s startup costs worksheet . Templates will help you estimate your initial investment costs, so you know how much capital you should request when you seek startup funding.

Keep in mind that many of the business startup costs we list below are recurring. You'll need to cover these costs over a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis — think rent, office supplies, and payroll. Other expenses, like the incorporation fee or office furniture, are one-time costs.

When calculating your business startup costs, a good rule of thumb is to be able to cover six months’ worth of expenses upfront. So don’t count on your business’s revenue to start easing your costs until at least after that early period is over. You’ll want a cushion while you get your feet under you and work on attracting business.

>> MORE: Best business budgeting tools

14 business startup costs to plan for

Although this is a typical list of business startup costs, your actual startup expenses depend entirely upon your specific business and industry.

Here are some typical business startup costs to plan for:

1. Equipment: $10,000 to $125,000

Almost every business will need to finance equipment immediately. Equipment costs for startups can range anywhere from $10,000 to $125,000, depending on the industry and size of the company.

For example, if you’re starting your own moving or shipping company, you’ll need to finance a truck. If you’re opening a restaurant, you’ll need commercial-grade ovens, stoves, dishware, and cooking utensils. If you own a hair salon, you’ll need styling chairs. And nearly any business will require computers.

Of course, these costs range according to your industry and the size of your business. Hiring employees will incur additional costs, as you may need to secure individual equipment, as well.

How much do you need?

with Fundera by NerdWallet

We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to better understand the unique needs of your business.

Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

2. Incorporation fees: Under $300

One of your first to-dos when setting up a business is to choose a business entity, which has tax, legal, and financial implications.

If you decide to incorporate your business or form a limited liability company, you’ll need to file articles of incorporation or articles of organization, respectively, with your state. The filing fee can range from $50 to as high as $725 depending on the state. However, the fee is under $300 in the majority of states.

Even if you’re not incorporating, you’ll probably need to apply for federal or state licensing or permits. The types of documentation you'll need will vary based on your industry and location. For example, businesses within the agriculture or aviation sectors require federal licensing. Service-based sectors may need to have trade-specific licenses. And retail companies will likely need sales tax licenses or permits.

3. Office space: $100 to $1,000 per employee per month

Paying for an office or retail space will be a sizeable portion of your fixed costs, whether you rent or buy. You might spend between $100 per employee per month up to $1,000 per employee per month — again, it will depend on the type of space you're using.

You can mitigate these costs if you work from home in the beginning, or look into coworking spaces — both ideal for smaller businesses. And if you own a service-based business, you can travel directly to clients to further decrease overhead costs.

4. Inventory: 17% to 25% of your total budget

If you’re in the retail, wholesale, manufacturing, or distribution sector, you'll likely need to secure inventory to sell, as soon as you possibly can.

Knowing how much inventory to carry can be tricky: If you have too much inventory, you risk spoilage or damage. If you have too little, you risk losing customers who won't wait for items on backorder. This is especially true for seasonal businesses where inventory can vary drastically year-round.

You should allocate between 17% to 25% of your budget to inventory, depending on your industry. When you’re first starting out, consider securing more inventory. You'll want to attract customers and generate as much revenue as you can in your company's early stages.

5. Marketing: Below 10% of your total budget (even 0%)

Marketing materials might include physical materials, like signs, banners, and business cards. You might also consider paid ads, as well as more creative options, like videos and giveaways, that might require you to hire a consultant or a video producer.

Courtney Barbee, COO at The Bookkeeper, recommends keeping overall marketing costs to a minimum. Specifically, strive to keep your ad materials under 10% of your budget.

The good news? You can do the bulk of your small business marketing, for free. Thanks to social media and other online marketing strategies, advertising costs are often much lower for small businesses just starting now than they would have been 20 years ago.

6. Website: Around $40 per month

When building your business website, you'll want it to look professional, be easy to navigate, and display information about your services, products, hours, and contact information.

Fortunately, services like Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly, make creating a website easy and cost-effective. These content management systems are sometimes free, but premium plans will come at a monthly or yearly subscription cost:

Wix : $13 to $39 per month for a premium plan.

Squarespace : $12 to $18 per month billed annually, or $26 billed month to month.

Weebly : $5 to $25 per month.

Wix and Weebly also offer basic, free website builders. If you’re relatively tech-savvy, it’s easy to build a website through one of these services, no coding background required. But if you’re not very familiar with computers, you may want to hire someone to build the website — which, of course, is an additional cost (although it might become a worthwhile investment).

7. Office furniture and supplies: 10% of your total budget

Office furniture and supplies add up fast. If you’re operating in a traditional nine-to-five office environment, then every employee will need a desk, a chair, a computer, and a phone. Add in break room appliances, small office supplies, and computer programs, like your accounting software, and you’ll reach a hefty sum.

Again, that sum varies depending on the tools your business needs to operate, and the number of employees you need to outfit. Nate Masterson, the marketing manager at Maple Holistics, estimates that the total cost for office furniture and supplies would be around $5,000. In all, though, Masterson recommends keeping your furniture and supply costs to approximately 10% of your budget.

8. Utilities: Around $2 per square foot of office space

In addition to the fixed costs of rent and a down payment, you’ll be responsible for paying the electric, gas, water, internet, and phone bills for your office space. According to Iota Communications, the average cost of utilities for commercial buildings is $2.10 per square foot.

If you intend to install HVAC units, that will incur an additional cost — usually a couple of thousand dollars, not including installation fees and upkeep.

9. Payroll: 25% to 50% of your total budget

You need to pay your employees, even in the early stages, where you’re not bringing in much revenue. Remember, payroll includes all of the following:

Commissions.

Overtime pay.

Paid time off.

Of course, payroll costs will vary across startups. Typically, an employee will cost 1.25x to 1.4x their salary. For example, an employee on a $40,000 salary will actually cost you around $54,000 after factoring in various payroll tax costs and insurance.

A conservative payroll budget could work if you’re a sole proprietor, or if you’re running a small enterprise and use mostly 1099 contractors — and either is a pretty likely scenario for most startups.

10. Professional consultants: Between $1,000 and $5,000 per year

It’s tempting to take a DIY approach for all your business operations. After all, who knows your business best? But working with experts and professionals can be worth the investment.

For example, certified public accountants can explain the different legal structures, help you choose an employee benefit program, and ensure you're fulfilling your responsibilities as an employer. When tax season rolls around, they’ll prepare your tax returns and help you save on your taxes.

You don't need to hire a full-time accountant either. But it’s often a good idea to consult with your accountant on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis to review your financial statements, and for general financial guidance and advice. Consulting with an attorney regularly can also save you from major legal mistakes like failing to trademark your logo or developing relationships with vendors without a contract in place.

Every CPA and lawyer charges different hourly rates. Rates and additional fees vary depending on the number and level of difficulty involved in the tasks you need outsourced, the time it takes to complete your projects, and your consultant’s tenure. However, you can mitigate these costs by taking on some basic tasks yourself, only outsourcing the most complicated projects. There are even some options to get free business legal advice.

And with the help of good business accounting software, you can handle basic bookkeeping, like processing and managing payroll, creating and tracking invoices, and managing your business bank account.

According to SCORE , all told, the majority of small business owners spend between $1,000 and $5,000 per year on administration tasks, including accounting and legal fees. But as a startup — and by taking advantage of those cost-cutting tactics we mentioned — you’ll probably err on the lower end of that spectrum.

11. Insurance: Average of $1,200 per year

Your business needs the same protections you provide to your health, home, and car. There are many different kinds of business insurance , including protection from customers that file a lawsuit against you and disaster insurance for potential fires that can shut down your restaurant for weeks.

The type of insurance your startup needs is entirely dependent on your business, industry, number of employees, and other risk factors. For instance, a sole proprietor running an online business has far fewer insurance requirements than a construction company with several employees.

Here are a few essential forms of insurance you should look into to protect yourself, and policy costs vary according to several different factors:

General liability insurance : About $400 to $800 per year. Your industry’s risk will be the most significant factor influencing the cost of your policy.

Commercial property insurance: Anywhere from $300 to $2,500+, depending on the value of the property and its assets, and a risk factor dependent upon the nature of the business and the location of the property.

Workers compensation insurance : Approximately $0.75 to $2.74 per $100 of payroll, depending on the business’s size, location, payroll, and risk.

Errors and omissions insurance: Approximately $2,000 to $5,000 per year, depending on your business’s size, industry, location, revenue, legal history, and the quality of your contracts and employee training procedures.

12. Taxes: Variable, but 21% corporate tax rate

When planning your budget, determining the exact amount to allocate toward business taxes can be confusing. It depends on your revenue (which is difficult to predict), your deductible expenses, and your business entity.

Under current federal law, corporations pay a flat 21% corporate income tax. For pass-through entities, business income and losses pass through to the owners' personal tax returns. Pass-through entities can claim a 20% deduction on income before paying their business taxes.

But know that you can often save money and time by working with a CPA. A skilled CPA will determine what you can deduct so that you pay as little as possible.

13. Travel: Variable

Not every new entrepreneur needs to factor travel into their business startup costs. But if you have a consulting business or you visit your customers directly, you will be traveling a lot. You'll need to factor in the price of transportation, food, and lodging — multiply these costs if you have multiple employees traveling. Be mindful of how quickly those costs add up.

Try to keep total travel costs to an absolute minimum so that you can allocate your revenue toward bigger expenses, like payroll and rent. And to make some returns on all that time on the road or in the air, consider using a travel business credit card, which can earn you points and miles for every dollar you spend. If you do have to travel frequently, keep the nonessentials like business class tickets to a minimum.

14. Shipping: Variable

Service-based businesses can probably stop reading here. But if you’re in retail, you might be shipping products to customers. If so, you’ll need to factor shipping into your startup costs, including packing materials and postage. Depending on what you’re sending, these costs can reach into the thousands of dollars.

Services like Stamps.com can ease the burden of shipping costs on small business owners. With this service, you can print postage without having to buy a costly postage meter. If possible, you can secure free or low-cost shipping boxes from your shipping service of choice.

How to save on startup costs

The costs of starting a business can certainly add up, with many expenses being non-negotiable. Do your research before you splurge on high-ticket purchases, and recognize that there are ways to take care of some of these startup costs on the cheap.

For example, using software like QuickBooks can save on the costs of hiring a professional bookkeeper. Working from home or using a coworking space is a cost-effective alternative to leasing office space. And leveraging social media can mitigate your marketing costs.

Some costs are worth the investment. Don’t buy poor-quality equipment just because it’s cheaper — you’ll lose time and money making repairs and eventually need to purchase new equipment. Hire a legal or accounting expert if you’re confused. And make sure your website and advertising campaigns are professional-looking and effective.

Secure funding

If you've calculated your business startup costs and now feel overwhelmed, know that there are plenty of resources to help you find startup financing.

Your initial funding will likely come from a combination of debt and equity financing. But keep in mind that debt financing options — small-business loans — are relatively limited for brand-new businesses. Most lenders only feel comfortable offering loans to established companies with hard evidence of profitability, as well as healthy credit, which most startups simply don’t have yet.

Some lenders work with startup business owners, so don’t completely rule it out if you think it’s your best option. Check out more information on how to get a loan to start a business if you think debt financing is the right move for you.

» MORE: What is a business loan?

Get a business credit card

Once you’ve established a legal entity for your business, we recommend applying for a business credit card.

The application is simple, and a business credit card is usually easier to qualify for than a traditional business loan. Also, you typically gain access to a higher credit limit than your personal card. More importantly, a business credit of card keeps your personal and business finances separate — essential if you wish to maintain your personal liability protections after forming an LLC or corporation.

» MORE: What is a business credit card?

Just make sure you’re not maxing out your credit card or charging more than you can repay. Both can harm your credit score, which might hurt your chances of securing a small business loan down the line.

Start Your Dream Business

Frequently asked questions

1. what is the average cost to start a small business.

The cost of starting a small business depends on the type and size of the business you’re opening and your industry. For example, opening a McDonald’s franchise can cost you $1 million, while starting a social media consulting company may cost less than $10,000. The average cost will vary on a case-by-case basis.

2. How do you calculate startup costs?

The most straightforward method for calculating your startup costs is to use a budget template. Your budget will break down your startup costs and recurring expenses — rent, office supplies, payroll, and more.

It’s prudent to cover six months’ worth of expenses minimum upfront; this financial cushion will support you in your business’s early stages when your profit margins might be slim.

3. Are business startup costs tax-deductible?

While the IRS does not recognize startup costs as capital expenditures, they do state that you can deduct $5,000 of business startup and $5,000 of organizational costs paid or incurred after October 22, 2004, but only if your total startup costs are $50,000 or less.

You can review IRS Publication 535 or consult a business accountant for additional information.

4. What is considered a startup cost?

A startup cost is any expense incurred when starting a new business. Startup costs will include equipment, incorporation fees, insurance, taxes, and payroll.

Although startup costs will vary by your business type and industry — an expense for one company may not apply to another. For example, a brick-and-mortar business will need to pay to rent a separate business location, unlike a home-based online consulting company.

This article originally appeared on JustBusiness, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

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What is a business plan? Definition, Purpose, and Types

In the world of business, a well-thought-out plan is often the key to success. This plan, known as a business plan, is a comprehensive document that outlines a company’s goals, strategies , and financial projections. Whether you’re starting a new business or looking to expand an existing one, a business plan is an essential tool.

As a business plan writer and consultant , I’ve crafted over 15,000 plans for a diverse range of businesses. In this article, I’ll be sharing my wealth of experience about what a business plan is, its purpose, and the step-by-step process of creating one. By the end, you’ll have a thorough understanding of how to develop a robust business plan that can drive your business to success.

What is a business plan?

Purposes of a business plan, what are the essential components of a business plan, executive summary, business description or overview, product and price, competitive analysis, target market, marketing plan, financial plan, funding requirements, types of business plan, lean startup business plans, traditional business plans, how often should a business plan be reviewed and revised, what are the key elements of a lean startup business plan.

• What are some of the reasons why business plans don't succeed?

A business plan is a roadmap for your business. It outlines your goals, strategies, and how you plan to achieve them. It’s a living document that you can update as your business grows and changes.

Looking for someone to write a business plan?

Find professional business plan writers for your business success.

These are the following purpose of business plan:

• Attract investors and lenders: If you’re seeking funding for your business , a business plan is a must-have. Investors and lenders want to see that you have a clear plan for how you’ll use their money to grow your business and generate revenue.
• Get organized and stay on track: Writing a business plan forces you to think through all aspects of your business, from your target market to your marketing strategy. This can help you identify any potential challenges and opportunities early on, so you can develop a plan to address them.
• Make better decisions: A business plan can help you make better decisions about your business by providing you with a framework to evaluate different options. For example, if you’re considering launching a new product, your business plan can help you assess the potential market demand, costs, and profitability.

The executive summary is the most important part of your business plan, even though it’s the last one you’ll write. It’s the first section that potential investors or lenders will read, and it may be the only one they read. The executive summary sets the stage for the rest of the document by introducing your company’s mission or vision statement, value proposition, and long-term goals.

The business description section of your business plan should introduce your business to the reader in a compelling and concise way. It should include your business name, years in operation, key offerings, positioning statement, and core values (if applicable). You may also want to include a short history of your company.

In this section, the company should describe its products or services , including pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other relevant information could include production and manufacturing processes, patents, and proprietary technology.

Every industry has competitors, even if your business is the first of its kind or has the majority of the market share. In the competitive analysis section of your business plan, you’ll objectively assess the industry landscape to understand your business’s competitive position. A SWOT analysis is a structured way to organize this section.

Your target market section explains the core customers of your business and why they are your ideal customers. It should include demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and geographic information about your target market.

Marketing plan describes how the company will attract and retain customers, including any planned advertising and marketing campaigns . It also describes how the company will distribute its products or services to consumers.

After outlining your goals, validating your business opportunity, and assessing the industry landscape, the team section of your business plan identifies who will be responsible for achieving your goals. Even if you don’t have your full team in place yet, investors will be impressed by your clear understanding of the roles that need to be filled.

In the financial plan section,established businesses should provide financial statements , balance sheets , and other financial data. New businesses should provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years, and may also request funding.

Since one goal of a business plan is to secure funding from investors , you should include the amount of funding you need, why you need it, and how long you need it for.

• Tip: Use bullet points and numbered lists to make your plan easy to read and scannable.

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Business plans can come in many different formats, but they are often divided into two main types: traditional and lean startup. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) says that the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

Lean startup business plans are short (as short as one page) and focus on the most important elements. They are easy to create, but companies may need to provide more information if requested by investors or lenders.

Traditional business plans are longer and more detailed than lean startup business plans, which makes them more time-consuming to create but more persuasive to potential investors. Lean startup business plans are shorter and less detailed, but companies should be prepared to provide more information if requested.

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A business plan should be reviewed and revised at least annually, or more often if the business is experiencing significant changes. This is because the business landscape is constantly changing, and your business plan needs to reflect those changes in order to remain relevant and effective.

Here are some specific situations in which you should review and revise your business plan:

• You have launched a new product or service line.
• You have entered a new market.
• You have experienced significant changes in your customer base or competitive landscape.
• You have made changes to your management team or organizational structure.
• You have raised new funding.

A lean startup business plan is a short and simple way for a company to explain its business, especially if it is new and does not have a lot of information yet. It can include sections on the company’s value proposition, major activities and advantages, resources, partnerships, customer segments, and revenue sources.

What are some of the reasons why business plans don't succeed?

• Unrealistic assumptions: Business plans are often based on assumptions about the market, the competition, and the company’s own capabilities. If these assumptions are unrealistic, the plan is doomed to fail.
• Lack of focus: A good business plan should be focused on a specific goal and how the company will achieve it. If the plan is too broad or tries to do too much, it is unlikely to be successful.
• Poor execution: Even the best business plan is useless if it is not executed properly. This means having the right team in place, the necessary resources, and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
• Unforeseen challenges:  Every business faces challenges that could not be predicted or planned for. These challenges can be anything from a natural disaster to a new competitor to a change in government regulations.

What are the benefits of having a business plan?

• It helps you to clarify your business goals and strategies.
• It can help you to attract investors and lenders.
• It can serve as a roadmap for your business as it grows and changes.
• It can help you to make better business decisions.

How to write a business plan?

There are many different ways to write a business plan, but most follow the same basic structure. Here is a step-by-step guide:

• Executive summary.
• Company description.
• Management and organization description.
• Financial projections.

How to write a business plan step by step?

Start with an executive summary, then describe your business, analyze the market, outline your products or services, detail your marketing and sales strategies, introduce your team, and provide financial projections.

Why do I need a business plan for my startup?

A business plan helps define your startup’s direction, attract investors, secure funding, and make informed decisions crucial for success.

What are the key components of a business plan?

Key components include an executive summary, business description, market analysis, products or services, marketing and sales strategy, management and team, financial projections, and funding requirements.

Can a business plan help secure funding for my business?

Yes, a well-crafted business plan demonstrates your business’s viability, the use of investment, and potential returns, making it a valuable tool for attracting investors and lenders.

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Planning, Startups, Stories

Tim berry on business planning, starting and growing your business, and having a life in the meantime., business plan financials: starting costs.

It’s really important to have an idea of what you need before you start. Continuing with my series on standard business plan financials , startups need to project starting costs. Starting costs set up a starting balance, which is necessary to plan cash flow. And the starting costs are critical to determining whether a startup can bootstrap or needs outside funding. For existing companies that already have financial results, projections start with the expected ending balance of the previous period. But for startups, it’s about starting costs.

Starting costs are essentially the sum of two kinds of spending. You can estimate them both in two simple lists:

• Startup expenses : These are expenses that happen before the beginning of the plan, before the first month of operations. For example, many new companies incur expenses for legal work, logo design, brochures, site selection and improvements, and signage. If there is a business location, then normally the startup pays rent for a month or more before opening. And if employees start receiving compensation before the opening, then those disbursements are also startup expenses.
• Startup assets : Typical startup assets are cash (the money in the bank when the company starts), business or plant equipment, office furniture, vehicles, and starting inventory for stores or manufacturers.

A Simple Starting Costs Example

I’ve used a bicycle store as an example in several posts that are part of this series of standard business plan financials. Here’s a visual in spreadsheet form, of sample starting costs for a hypothetical bicycle store.

Notice that the lists for estimating starting costs, on the left in the illustration above, are matched to another list of starting funding, on the right side of the illustration. Books have to balance, so the initial estimates need to include not just the money you spend, but also where it comes from. In the case above, Garrett had to find $124,500, and you can see that he financed it with Accounts Payable, debt, and investment in various categories.

Another Simple Starting Costs Example

Here is another simple example: the starting costs worksheet that Magda developed for the restaurant I used for a sample sales forecast . Magda’s list includes rent and payroll, the same as in her monthly spending, but here they are included in starting costs because these expenses happen before the launch.

I included rent and payroll because they point out the importance in timing. The difference between these as startup expenses and running expenses is timing, and nothing else. Magda could have chosen to plan startup expenses as a running worksheet on expenses, starting a few months before launch, as in the illustration below. The launch in this case is early January, so the expenses for October through December are startup expenses. I prefer the separate lists, because I like the way the two lists create an estimate of starting costs. But that’s an option.

The LivePlan Alternative

If you’re a LivePlan user, the LivePlan interface assumes this method and has a more intuitive interface than the spreadsheet version I’m showing in this post. For LivePlan, you start your plan when you start spending, regardless of launch date. So the spending you do for rent and salaries and such, before launch, is part of the flow, as above. Also, LivePlan has its own guided way of helping you figure out what assets you need, how much they cost, and how you are going to finance starting costs, to set up your balance. And the LivePlan cash flow estimator will help you decide how much cash you need, so you don’t have to follow the spreadsheet method here (below).

How to Estimate Your Starting Costs

Obviously the goal with starting costs isn’t just to track them, but to estimate them ahead of time so you have a better idea, before you start a new business, of what the financial costs might be. Breaking the items down into a practical list makes the educated guess a lot easier. Ideally, you know the business you want to start, you are already familiar with the industry, so you can do a useful estimate for most of the startup costs from your own experience. If you don’t have enough firsthand knowledge, then you should be talking to people who do. For others, such as insurance, legal costs, or graphic design for logos, call some providers or brokers, and talk to partners; educate those guesses.

Starting Cash is the Hardest and Most Important

How much cash do you need in the bank, as you launch? That’s usually the toughest starting cost question. It’s also prone to misinformation, such as those alleged rules of thumb you can find everywhere, saying you need to have a year’s worth of expenses, or six months’ worth, before you start. It’s not that simple. For most businesses, the startup cash isn’t a matter of what’s ideal, or what some expert says is the rule of thumb – it’s how much money you have, can get, and are willing to risk.

The best way is to do a Projected Cash Flow while leaving the supposed starting cash balance at zero, which shows how much (at least in theory, according to assumptions) the startup really needs in cash to support the business as it grows, before it reaches a monthly cash flow break-even point. Magda did that to determine the $12,000 needed as starting cash for her restaurant. Note how, in the illustration here, the lowest point in cash is slightly less than $12,000:

That low point comes, theoretically, in the third month of the business, March. The low point is $11,609. Obviously that’s just an educated guess, but it’s based on assumptions for sales forecast, expense budget, and important cash flow factors including sales on account and purchasing inventory. So it’s better than a stab in the dark, or some rule of thumb. Just as an example, the total spending with the estimates shown here, the theoretical “year’s worth of spending,” is $182,000 (which you don’t see on the illustration, by the way, but take my word for it). The total for the first six months is $93,000. If Magda sticks to those old formulas, she can’t start the business. She is able to raise enough money, between loans and her savings, to put $12,000 into the starting cash balance. So that’s what she does. Then she launches and continues to have her monthly reviews, and watch the performance of all key indicators very carefully.

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What is Sling TV?

How much is sling tv.

• What channels can you stream?
• Is there a free plan?
• What devices are supported?

What is Sling TV like to use?

Is sling tv worth it, the bottom line, sling tv review: essential cable channels for cord-cutters on a budget.

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Sling TV is one of the best live TV streaming services you can sign up for without breaking the bank. With plans starting at $40 a month, it's an excellent midrange option with a healthy assortment of popular channels and features that cord-cutters crave. 

But Sling isn't the only live TV option out there, and there are some areas where it falls behind more expensive services. To help you decide if Sling TV is the right choice for you and your household, we've broken down everything you need to know, including our thoughts on what it's like to use and how it stacks up to its main competitors.

For just the essentials without any extra fluff, Sling TV is the streaming service you're looking for. It's more customizable than other plans, with three options you can choose from, so you pay for only what you need. New members get their first month for $25 off.

• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Two affordable base plans to choose from
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Options with sports or local networks
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Up to three simultaneous streams
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Certain channels are exclusive to Orange or Blue
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Gets pricey once you start adding extra channel packages
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Local channels limited to select cities and no option to get CBS

Sling is a live TV streaming service that offers access to many popular cable and satellite channels via an internet connection. That means no bulky cable boxes or tricky contracts, and you can get Sling for a fraction of the cost of most traditional pay-TV providers. 

The service offers two primary plans geared toward different types of programming: Sling Orange leans toward sports, and Sling Blue toward news and entertainment. You can also combine both plans to get access to all of their channels, and there are add-on packages you can buy to unlock even more networks and premium stations, like Starz and Showtime.

Sling TV offers three primary plans, with prices starting at $40 a month. All Sling plans include 50 hours of DVR storage, but members can pay $5 a month extra to unlock DVR Plus with 200 hours. 

Here's how much each of Sling TV's three main plans cost:

*Sling Blue and Orange + Blue pricing and total channel offerings vary depending on location. Local NBC, Fox, and ABC stations are only available in select cities. Members must pay an extra $5 in areas that include all three local stations.

What channels come with Sling TV?

Both Sling Orange and Blue start with the same selection of 25 channels, including popular cable networks like CNN, HGTV, Food Network, and more. But in addition to this base lineup, each plan has its own unique assortment of additional channels.

Orange has seven exclusive sports and family channels, including ESPN, Disney Channel, and Freeform. Meanwhile, Blue has 17 exclusive news and entertainment channels, including Discovery Channel and TLC, and local stations from ABC, Fox, and NBC in supported markets. On the downside, there is no option to stream your local CBS channel. 

Sling TV also offers several add-on packages that you can purchase for an additional cost to unlock even more channels. Bundles like Sports Extra, Entertainment Extra, News Extra, and Kids Extra cost an extra $6 to $11 a month, each including anywhere from six to 14 additional channels. The Sports Extra add-on, for example, includes ESPNU, MLB Network, NBA TV, and more for $11 a month.

Many of these extra channels are included with base offerings from more expensive competitors like YouTube TV , Hulu + Live TV , and Fubo , but some viewers may prefer how Sling TV lets you save money by offering these networks as optional add-ons.

Check out our Sling TV channels guide for a full breakdown of networks and features included with each plan and add-on.

Does Sling TV offer a free plan?

Sling TV does offer a free streaming option called "Freestream" that anyone can watch without an account. Though this plan does not include any traditional cable or local networks, it does feature access to over 400 ad-supported live internet TV channels. 

Some of these stations are offshoots of major networks that broadcast select content from their libraries. For instance, you can watch channels like AMC Thrillers and VH1 I Love Reality.

These free internet channels aren't a substitute for true cable or satellite TV offerings, but they're a nice option for cord-cutters who aren't ready to commit to a paid subscription.

How do I stream Sling TV?

The Sling TV app is supported on several media players and mobile products, including all of the best streaming devices from Apple, Roku, Fire TV, and Chromecast, as well as iOS and Android phones, Xbox Series X|S, web browsers, and more. The app is also available directly through many of the best TVs from brands like Samsung, LG, Sony, Hisense, Vizio, and TCL. 

Check out a full list of every supported device on the Sling website .

After testing Sling on a web browser, smart TV, and Roku Ultra, we found the service to be intuitive and easy to use, an important characteristic for subscribers making the switch from cable. In our experience, streaming is stable and without interruption, but your results may differ based on your network connection quality. 

Sling's interface lets you access a traditional channel guide where you can sort channels by their name or genre, and you can see which networks you've most recently watched. Once you choose a program and start watching live TV, you can press down on your remote to toggle an overlay on the bottom of the screen, which lets you see details about the program or jump into other content. 

You can also press up on your remote to easily return to the full-screen guide from any live channel. The program you were watching keeps playing on a small pop-up screen in the lower right corner until you select another channel.

Outside the guide, Sling has a menu on the left side of the screen that lets you access a homepage with content recommendations, your DVR recordings, on-demand content, and settings. This is all simple to navigate, and there are no glaring omissions. 

Sling is an excellent live TV streaming option for viewers who don't want to spend much money but still want more than the bare minimum. It lacks some perks that come with Hulu's pricier live TV service, like unlimited DVR and a complimentary Disney Plus subscription, but it includes some key networks that cheaper services, like Philo , are missing.

One of Sling's most attractive features is how it lets you choose between two affordable base plans to keep costs low. If you don't care about watching sports on ESPN networks, opting for Sling Blue at only $40 a month saves you a great deal of money compared to signing up for a service like Fubo, which costs double the price and forces you to pay for channels you might not want. Sling Blue even includes local channels in big cities, which is something that Philo's less expensive service lacks.  

However, if you're looking for a live TV streaming solution to suit a big household with varied viewing needs, Sling may not be for you. Though you can customize a comprehensive plan with options for many different tastes by subscribing to Sling Orange + Blue and tacking on packages like the Sports Extra plan and DVR Plus, the cost adds up quickly. To get a fully inclusive Sling TV package with a channel selection and set of features that rivals Hulu + Live TV or YouTube TV's base offerings, you'll end up paying about the same or, in some cases, even more than those services charge.

Sling is ultimately best for people who just want an Orange or Blue plan to get the essentials of cable TV but don't want to pay extra for all the other channels that come with more expensive services.

Starting at $40 a month, Sling TV is a competitive option for subscribers who want an affordable live TV streaming service that provides popular news, sports, entertainment, and family programming. 

It's considerably cheaper than most competing live TV streaming services, and it offers more sports and news channels than Philo, Sling's top budget competitor. Though Philo is even cheaper at just $25 a month, Sling has plans that include stations like ESPN, NFL Network, CNN, ABC, NBC, and Fox, which are all missing from Philo.  

Ultimately, Sling TV cements itself as a unique midrange option that rests between Philo's true budget pricing and the more common $65-$75 starting prices of other live TV services. Options like Hulu + Live TV remain a better fit for people willing to pay more for additional channels and extra perks like unlimited DVR, but in an age of rising prices, Sling TV's lower costs provide a nice streaming solution for first-time cord cutters switching over from cable or satellite TV.

You can purchase logo and accolade licensing to this story here . Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at [email protected] .

• Main content

Whirlpool Slashing 1,000 Jobs as Part of Cost-Cutting Plan (1)

By Leslie Patton

Whirlpool Corp. , the owner of the Maytag and Amana appliance brands, is cutting about 1,000 salaried positions worldwide to reduce costs as slow US home sales limit demand.

The company has completed its first wave of layoffs of office staff and is planning to start another soon, Chief Financial Officer Jim Peters said in an interview. Earlier this year, the company said it was cutting jobs without saying how many. Whirlpool employed 59,000 workers worldwide as of the end of 2023.

Whirlpool stock sank as much as 9.6% in Thursday trading, the biggest drop since October. The company’s shares ...

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Some workers are choosing housing and student loan benefits over a retirement plan, and it says a lot about America's cost-of-living crisis

• Workers and companies are trying non-traditional job benefits to combat the rising cost of living.
• Housing assistance, student loan repayments, and commuting support are increasingly popular.
• Unconventional benefits could also entice remote workers back to the office.

As Americans deal with the rising cost of living , more companies and workers are rethinking the types of job benefits that are most important.

Recent surveys have shown that some workers prefer non-traditional job benefits such as housing assistance and help with commuting costs over things like extra vacation time. Additionally, companies are getting creative with their benefits packages so that can help both the business and the employees, such as matched contributions to help pay off student loans in place of retirement benefits and adoption assistance, said John Newcome, vice president and senior consultant at the benefits administration firm Kelly Benefits.

"Employees want a holistic approach to benefits that address their overall well-being, including work-life balance, mental health support, and financial guidance," Newcome told Business Insider. "Standard benefits, like medical, dental, or vision care, are typically included in most employee benefits plans. However, many employees now seek more specific benefits."

The most direct form of housing assistance can be in the form of rental or down payment assistance, which Newcome said more companies are starting to implement, especially among public entities, such as major universities, public school districts, and even the US federal government. However, there are other more creative ways to help with home ownership, he added.

For example, a company can guarantee a loan to help secure a lower interest rate for an employee or even share ownership of a house with the worker, which they can buy out over time.

Walmart is one example of a company offering housing assistance to employees . When qualified workers buy a new home or refinance a house, Walmart will help with the process and pay part of the closing costs.

Elon Musk's tunneling company, Boring, announced plans in 2023 to build a 110-home subdivision for employees near the Austin suburb of Bastrop. The homes are expected to be offered as lease to own, with prices below market rate and close to facilities for Boring and other Musk-led businesses, Tesla and SpaceX.

Non-traditional perks can be chosen to help with more immediate needs

Other non-traditional perks on the rise include some voluntary benefits that can lower or eliminate living expenses, said Newcome. These include family planning benefits, such as help with fertility procedures or adoption costs, along with supplements to basic health insurance, including mental health support and even pet insurance.

Student loan repayment assistance is another benefit growing in popularity, said Newcome. In some cases, workers can choose this benefit and pause other benefits such as retirement contributions.

"With workers of all ages repaying student debt, student loan assistance should be a key consideration in the enhancement of employee benefit programs," Newcome said.

One way companies are offering student loan assistance is similar to a 401(k), in which the company makes matching contributions to the student loan each month based on how much the employee pays.

In cases where employees can choose between student loan help and retirement contributions, it can help keep the company and the workers from having to take on additional benefits costs.

To be sure, there can be downsides to accepting these perks. Many Americans are facing a retirement crisis without enough saved up for their post-work lives. Postponing retirement savings in favor of more immediate needs could just be trading one problem in and creating a bigger one later.

In addition, some of these perks, such as supplements to health insurance, might be offered as optional with an added cost. If taken, the employee faces potentially lower after-tax, take-home pay.

Non-traditional benefits could also convince workers to rethink remote work

Rethinking employee benefits could also be the key to enticing remote workers back to the office .

In a survey of 1,020 employers and workers about office perks, performed by the bonding and insurance company JW Surety Bonds and published in January, 47% of respondents said they would be willing to return to the office if housing benefits were offered. Additionally, 69% said they would be willing to change their job or career for employer-based housing benefits.

Additionally, 43% said they would take less vacation time in exchange for help with housing costs, and 30% said they would prefer housing assistance over a pay raise.

Similarly, providing employees with commuting assistance could be key to luring more workers back to the office in a post-pandemic world, according to a survey of 1,038 US adults and remote employees performed in February by the cloud communications company Ringover .

When asked which perks would convince them to give up remote work, the top response was "paid commute," with 83.2% of respondents picking that as an important incentive.

As the landscape of employee benefits evolves to meet the changing needs of the workforce, companies are becoming more innovative.

If you enjoyed this story, be sure to follow Business Insider on Microsoft Start.

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Improve Your Work-Life Balance By Applying These 4 Business Skills to Your Personal Life Stressed? Try one of these four strategies to improve your work/life balance today. Hint: You already use them every day at work.

By Tivi Jones • Apr 24, 2024

Key Takeaways

• Analyze the opportunity costs of different activities and determine the trade-offs you're willing to make to prioritize what matters most to you.
• Embrace discomfort as an indicator or areas in your life that need adjustment. Be open to pivoting and experimenting with new approaches to find solutions and improve your balance.
• Treat your quest for work-life balance like you would a business plan — establish a "balance plan" for yourself and determine what you want your work-life balance to look and feel like.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Although work-life balance has been a part of the public narrative since the 70s, entrepreneurs still struggle to understand how to even out the scales when it comes to building their businesses while still taking time to enjoy their lives.

Over the last decade of my entrepreneurship journey, I've learned that the same skills that led to my business success also helped me achieve the elusive balance in my life.

So I come to you with an unusual proposal. Instead of turning off your entrepreneurial mojo in the quest to achieve balance, crank it way up. Here are four elements I use daily to maintain balance.

Related: 6 Secrets Smart Leaders Employ to Achieve Work-Life Balance

Analyze opportunity costs and trade-offs

Instead of thinking of "balance" as "all things being equal and excellent" analyze the opportunity costs of the activities you're involved in. Then, determine the trade-offs you're willing to make, just as you might in your business.

As entrepreneurs, we understand everything has a cost. The root of making good trade-offs for the benefit of your work/life balance is taking time to analyze the opportunity costs of how you spend your time, resources, money and energy in relation to all areas of your life.

As an entrepreneur managing multiple companies, I actively make decisions about things I'm willing to let go of in my quest to honor what I care about most. Of course, those decisions can change, but I make the decisions without letting external forces make them for me.

One trade-off I recently made was lessening my relationship with social media. Since one of my companies is a marketing communications agency, this might be seen as a poor trade-off since social media is a key vehicle for client marketing. What I discovered was that I was spending too much time on social media as a consumer (and not a leader, influencer or producer). This was cutting into the time I could have spent on other activities I value more.

I value my time and prioritize trade-offs that give me more of it. In my work-life balance quest, time has become a core value for me, but yours might be different.

Pivot like your life depends on it — because it does

When we don't experience our ideal work-life balance scenario, we may feel stuck or even adopt an "it is what it is" mentality. But if there's one thing we know from entrepreneurship, it's the power of pivoting to help us see the growth we need.

Pivoting allows you to course-correct while still maintaining enough familiarity to avoid cognitive overload or to bite off more than you can chew.

In my world, the need for pivoting is fully driven by problems, challenges or discomfort. I like to say "discomfort is data" — and data, as you know, is a powerful tool.

If you're feeling discomfort in your quest for work-life balance, this means something has risen in your awareness that you can identify needs changing. The power is in pivoting around this discomfort to experiment with temporary or long-term solutions.

For example, I implemented this tool to solve a source of discomfort for me: my morning routine. My solution was to pivot and start experimenting. I kept some things the same, including my rising time, but I wanted to change almost everything else. I began pivoting to see what worked for me and what didn't. First, I coupled activities. Then I decoupled some activities. I also removed some activities and modified others.

The most important place to start is by asking yourself: Where am I experiencing discomfort in my work-life balance journey, and what's one pivot I can make today to improve it ?

Related: 4 Business Practices That Will Improve Your Personal Life, Too

Create a balance plan

Think back to when you first started your business — what was the one thing that everybody and their mama told you to have to get started? A business plan !

Your quest for work-life balance is no different. Do you have a "balance plan?"

Similar to how you would set aside time for strategic planning for your business, do the same for your personal life. Maybe you have non-negotiable items you do daily to help with balancing. Perhaps your balance plan is more of a playbook for how you handle certain things.

For example, do you have "calendar rules" for when you're online or offline at work? Do you have specific personal goals you track and report on with an accountability buddy just like you do with your professional goals? I do all these things and each of them contributes to my work-life balance.

Additionally, part of my balance plan is regular strategic planning around work-life balance with annual, quarterly and weekly goals. I even maintain a spreadsheet of all my goals together.

Since I'm the person at the center of my business, it's important for me to value the work I do for my personal life just as much as my professional life.

Before your next work-life balance pivot, take 30-60 minutes and come up with a balance plan for yourself. Start by asking yourself: What do I want my work-life balance to look and feel like?

Complete a plus/delta or post-mortem review

When you complete a launch in your business, the best way to improve upon your success, mitigate future issues and plan for the next launch is to do a post-mortem on the project, complete a plus/delta analysis or do a performance review.

But analysis and measurement shouldn't just be reserved for business operations. This same strategy can be used outside of your business to align your daily actions with your vision for running your life.

Analyze your work-life balance efforts with the same or similar cadence as your business efforts.

In my life, I adopted the "12-Week Year" methodology for strategic planning. Every week, I briefly review how well I did on my goals and use that information to plan for the next week. At the end of the 12 weeks, I analyze the entire process. Since I track my personal goals alongside my professional goals, I see the balance, because I kept all elements of my life as blended on my strategic planning pages as they are in real life.

Related: 10 Leaders Who Set Good Work-Life Balance Examples

Let's be real. Adulting is hard, and when you consider the added challenges that entrepreneurship brings, it can feel like an insurmountable endeavor to keep all the plates spinning. The truth is, being an entrepreneur is all about taking responsibility and accountability for your success, but that sense of responsibility and accountability doesn't end when you close your laptop and go from professional mode to personal mode.

Whether it's applying strategic planning to your personal life and creating a balance plan, embracing trade-offs, experimenting with pivoting on particular issues or conducting regular post-mortems on your balancing act, these are all tools in your arsenal. They are proven to work in business empires, so now it's time to apply them to You, Inc. and see what awesome growth you can achieve.

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Mission-Driven Business Owner, Partner + Leader

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Bears unveil plans for new stadium near Soldier Field, will include fixed roof

By Jenna West, Kevin Fishbain and Adam Jahns

After playing at Soldier Field since 1971, the Chicago Bears plan to build a new multipurpose stadium just south of their current home.

Bears president Kevin Warren unveiled plans Wednesday for the franchise to build a lakefront stadium with a fixed roof and a 20 percent increase in green space on the museum campus outside the stadium for visitors to enjoy. Warren said the new stadium will allow the Bears to hold more concerts and events and give them a chance to bid on hosting a Super Bowl.

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The goal is to get approval during the current legislative session, with shovels in the ground by the summer of 2025 that could allow a stadium to open by 2028, Warren said.

Sports fields and gardens will replace Soldier Field, with the stadium’s historic colonnades preserved as a tribute to Chicago’s military veterans. The Bears will continue playing at Soldier Field while the new stadium is under construction.

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“This marks a pivotal moment for Chicago as we introduce a visionary project prioritizing the public good,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement. “The proposed stadium, accompanied by expanded open spaces and recreational facilities, exemplifies my administration’s commitment to enhancing the quality of life for all Chicagoans. … I look forward to the positive impact it will have on our beloved city.”

A world-class destination for a world-class city. Introducing initial designs for a new lakefront stadium. #StadiumForChicago — Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) April 24, 2024

The stadium project will cost $3.2 billion, and Bears ownership will contribute $2 billion toward that proposed cost. Karen Murphy, the Bears executive vice President of stadium development and COO, said the club will apply for a $300 million NFL loan as part of the private investment plan.

Johnson said the project will not result in new taxes on the city’s residents.

While the capacity for the new stadium will be similar to Soldier Field (65,000 seats), the plan is to include more standing-room-only options.

The first phase of the Bears project is the stadium, followed by adding infrastructure to the surrounding campus in phase two. Phase three is “optional infrastructure to enhance the campus, improve circulation, and maximize public economic benefits, totaling $665 million.” They project the building of the surrounding infrastructure will take five years after the stadium’s completion.

Project plans include improving access to the museum campus near the stadium with better infrastructure and adding public restrooms and food and beverage options for park users.

Greenberg: Can the Chicago Bears land both Caleb Williams and a new stadium?

The Bears last underwent a major renovation on Soldier Field 20 years ago, and previously planned to move the team to the suburbs north of Chicago.

In September 2021, the Bears signed a purchase agreement to buy a 326-acre plot of Arlington Park racecourse property in Arlington Heights, Ill, for $197.2 million. The idea was to build a stadium and create a “mixed-use” area full of restaurants, bars and hotels that provide the franchise with more revenue. The deal was finalized in February 2023 and the horserace track was demolished.

But the team turned its attention back to Chicago as arguments over school districts and real estate taxes for the Arlington Park property stalled the project. The Cook County Board of Review recently appraised the land at $125 million. The Bears have argued it should be valued at $60 million, and an appeal by the team is likely.

Warren reiterated Wednesday that while the Bears are the biggest landowner in Arlington Heights, their stadium efforts remain focused on the city of Chicago.

Bears chairman George McCaskey shared that same sentiment at the NFL owners’ meetings in March.

“We want what’s best for Bears fans and what’s best for the community,” McCaskey said. “And if that can be done on the museum campus, we’d be thrilled.

“That area is a jewel of our great city. But it needs better access. And this is an opportunity to provide that and bring out all that the Museum Campus has to offer. And I think if we do it right, it will be great for the museums, great for Bears fans, great for the people of the city of Chicago and great for the region.”

Warren played a major role in helping the Vikings build U.S. Bank Stadium, a domed venue considered one of the best in the NFL. He envisioned something similar for the Bears and unveiled those plans Wednesday.

Required reading

• Bears pivot new stadium plans to dome near Soldier Field, rather than Arlington Heights
• Bears say proposed Arlington Heights stadium no longer team’s ‘singular focus’
• Bears Arlington Park stadium project beginning to win over more fans?

(Photo courtesy of Chicago Bears)

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Oil price could exceed $100 a barrel if Middle East conflict worsens, World Bank warns

Increase in cost of crude could drive inflation up and force central banks to keep interest rates high

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A serious escalation of tensions in the Middle East would push the price of oil above $100 (£80) a barrel and reverse the recent downward trend in global inflation, the World Bank has said.

The Washington-based institution said the recent fall in commodity prices had been levelling off even before the recent missile strikes by Iran and Israel – making interest rate decisions for central banks tougher.

But it added that its forecast that crude prices would average $84 a barrel this year would prove too optimistic in the event of the crisis worsening.

Fears of a full-scale war in the Middle East have already led to a rise in oil prices and dearer fuel costs for motorists. A barrel of Brent crude is trading at $87, while the average price of a litre of unleaded petrol in the UK has edged above £1.50 for the first time since last November.

The World Bank’s latest commodity markets report said: “A moderate conflict-related supply disruption could raise the average Brent price this year to $92 a barrel. A more severe disruption could see oil prices surpass $100 a barrel, raising global inflation in 2024 by nearly one percentage point.”

Between mid-2022 and mid-2023, global commodity prices plummeted by nearly 40% and were the driving force behind a near-two-percentage-point drop in global inflation over that period. Since mid-2023, the World Bank said its index of commodity prices had remained essentially unchanged.

Financial markets have already pared back expectations about the scale and pace of interest rate cuts this year in response to stickier than expected inflation.

Indermit Gill, the World Bank chief economist, said: “Global inflation remains undefeated. A key force for disinflation – falling commodity prices – has essentially hit a wall.

“That means interest rates could remain higher than currently expected this year and next. The world is at a vulnerable moment: a major energy shock could undermine much of the progress in reducing inflation over the past two years.”

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The World Bank said an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East could also drive up prices of natural gas, fertilisers and food. A fifth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports pass through the strait of Hormuz and, if the supply were interrupted, prices of fertilisers reliant on LNG in their production would rise substantially, with the likely effect of driving up food prices.

Assuming the crisis does not deepen, the Bank’s baseline forecast is for overall food prices to decline by 6% in 2024 and 4% in 2025. Fertiliser prices are expected to fall by 22% in 2024 and 6% in 2025.

The World Bank said the pickup in investment in green technologies had pushed up prices of key metals that were critical for the global clean-energy transition.

Prices of copper, which is needed for electricity-grid infrastructure and electric vehicles, surged to a two-year high in April and were expected to rise 5% in 2024 before stabilising in 2025. Prices of aluminium are forecast to increase by 2% in 2024 and 4% in 2025, bolstered in particular by the production of electric vehicles, solar panels and other renewable-power infrastructure.

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