qualities of a good business plan pdf

10 Qualities of a Good Business Plan Explained

Eleanor Hecks

9 min. read

Updated October 27, 2023

According to the United States Small Business Administration, there are approximately 32.5 million small businesses at the moment. The number fluctuates from year to year with businesses coming and going. If you want to remain profitable and thrive, you must have a plan to move forward. 

A business plan does far more than help secure venture capital when you’re starting out. You’ll use a strong business plan throughout the life of a company. Use it to refocus your goals, refresh your memory on growth plans, and fulfill marketing goals. Share your plan with employees, shareholders, and investors, and refer back to it to see if you need to make adjustments along the way.

Having a solid business plan can help you successfully start, manage, and grow your business. But what are the qualities that make a business plan more than a document? What does it take to write a strong business plan?

• What are the characteristics of a great business plan?

An excellent plan works for your company and keeps everyone on the same page. There isn’t a lot of ambiguity in it, and all things are listed in an orderly fashion that’s easy to absorb.

The format of the business plan may be almost as important as the words within it, so use bullet points, headers, bold print, and other tricks to keep the reader engaged.

Whether you already have a business plan written and want to edit it to perfection or you need to start from scratch , there are six characteristics every strong plan has.

1. Clear language

It might be tempting to throw in a bunch of industry jargon to show your knowledge of your niche. Unfortunately, most lenders won’t know what you mean. It’s much better to stick to language anyone can understand. You never know who you’ll need to share your business plan with.

Read over the plan several times for typos and clarity. Read out loud so you can “hear” the words. You’ll catch awkward phrasing by speaking the words. You can never have too many eyes on the plan. One person might catch a particular spelling error while another sees the grammatical errors.

Get feedback from your employees, family, mentor, and friends. You don’t have to follow every suggestion, but you should consider what everyone says and choose the things that make the most sense for your business model.

Look at the business plan through the eyes of someone outside the industry. Does everything make sense? Are there any phrases someone might have to stop and look up? You don’t want the reader to be thrown out of the flow of the text.

2. Employee recognition

Your business plan should include a layout for employee recognition. Developing a strong workplace culture benefits your brand in numerous ways, such as creating staff loyalty and retaining your best people. It’s difficult for a company to thrive and grow without focusing on its workers.

When employees receive recognition for their accomplishments, they are 82% happier in their jobs . They’ll outperform workers in a company without the plan for an excellent culture. If you aren’t quite sure what your company culture should be yet, just make some notes on the things you’ve loved about your favorite places to work.

Brought to you by

Create a professional business plan

Using ai and step-by-step instructions.

Secure funding

Validate ideas

Build a strategy

3. Realistic goals

While you might love to run a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, most small businesses stay relatively small. That isn’t to say you can’t find great success as a small business owner, but make sure your goals are achievable .

As you work through the potential revenue numbers, pay attention to what others in your industry make in a year. You might be able to exceed that by 10%, but thinking you’ll make four times what your nearest competitor does may not be very realistic.

Making your goals too lofty may hurt your chances of securing financing, too. Those considering investing in your business may feel you don’t fully understand the typical earnings of your industry.

4. Great mission statement

The best business plans outline the purpose of your company. Why did you start the business in the first place, and how will you leave your mark with the brand?

For example, a small landscaping company called Massey Services shares its mission statement on its website. Their overall goal is total customer satisfaction . Everything else in their statement on their webpage ties into that philosophy. They also want to build long-term relationships, they want people to trust them, and they value truth and integrity.

When you have a strong mission statement , it drives everything else you do. If your focus is on building relationships, you’ll develop a company culture based on interactions with employees. Your mission statement might arguably be the thing about your company that never changes.

5. Methodology for results

Make sure your business plan has a way to track results over time. Lay out the methodology of any facts and figures used to estimate revenue or what your costs will be. Then, check against those assumptions from time to time to make sure you’re hitting the right beats.

For example, if you plan to hit a certain level of revenue by the end of the first year, how can you break that down into quarters, months, and weeks? What is the best way to make sure you achieve your goals?

You can’t fix mistakes or make adjustments if you don’t know where you are in the journey. Pay attention to how quickly the brand moves toward objectives and make adjustments as needed.

6. Foundation for marketing strategies

How do you plan to get the word out about your brand? You must have a marketing strategy that makes sense for your budget and your philosophies as a brand. Perhaps you plan to work exclusively with online influencers. How much will you allocate to the budget for influencer marketing?

Take time to study who your target audience is and create buyer personas representing the average person who’ll buy from you. While you might need to tweak your personas from time to time, a solid plan, in the beginning, gets things off on the right foot and helps you bring in new customers.

Figure out how much you’ll spend online and offline on marketing efforts. Where can you reach your average customer? Do they mainly hang out on Facebook? If so, much of your budget can go to Facebook ads. On the other hand, if they use TikTok and rarely visit Facebook, you might want to put more time, energy, and finances into building an audience on the newer platform.

7. It fits the need of your business

The best business plan for your company takes into account why you need a business plan in the first place. Are you going for funding, using the information to improve internal operations, pitching your concept to investors, or perhaps communicating your goals to employees?

There are many different reasons you’ll utilize a business plan. They aren’t one-size-fits-all . You may even find you need addendums or additional plans to match the needs of your business at any given time.

If you intend to use your plan in-house to motivate employees or stick to your goals, a one-page plan may be all you need. You can also use a shorter version to test ideas you have and see how they might match the goals of your company.

On the other hand, a traditional full-length plan works best if you need funding from a bank or want to pitch a concept to an outside investor. You can also use a longer plan to get feedback from a mentor or business coach.

8. Your strategy is realistic

In a recent Gartner Execution Gap Survey, approximately 40% of leaders said their enterprise accountability and leadership were not aligned on an execution strategy. If your business plan doesn’t lay out how the business operates, there may be too much room for interpretation that causes dissent within the company and makes people work against one another instead of as a cohesive unit.

Start by ensuring different operational milestones within your plan are attainable. For example, if you share a financial forecast, is it realistic? Based on current revenue, can you realistically achieve your goals? If you’ve brought in $200,000 per year in revenue for the last few years, don’t expect to jump to $400,000 in the next quarter. Make a plan for increasing revenue – but in increments that make sense and are achievable.

You don’t need an unrealistic plan. Company leaders and employees will only grow frustrated and discouraged if they’re unable to hit any target goals laid out in the plan.

9. Clearly identifies assumptions

When you’re writing out a business plan, you may not have all the answers. At best, some of the information is an assumption based on outside data, past performance, and any testing you’ve completed. There will be times when you make a mistake in your estimates.

Be upfront about what your assumptions are when writing out your plan. Did you assume the company will increase 10% in productivity this year because it did in the last few years? Share your thoughts on why you think this is achievable based on past factors, but also make it clear it’s a guess. In reality, the company may over-or-underperform on those expectations.

Show what is an assumption also point to what might need to be updated or refined after a few months. Consider these areas to revisit frequently for updates or to set new goals.

10. Easy to communicate with the right people

Who is your audience? Knowing who will look at your business plans allows you to create it in a format you can share with the right people. Consider factors such as how easily scannable the text is and what it looks like in different formats, such as a document or PDF file.

Who are you sharing it with, and how will they use it? For example, if you include any links, will the person be able to click on them and go directly to the page you want them to go to? Is the viewer likely to read the plan on a mobile device? How well does the format adapt?

Consider who you’re sharing it with and how they’ll need to use it to make sure you offer it in the best format for viewing by that individual. You may even want to save your business plan in a variety of different formats.

• Keep your plan updated

Your business plan isn’t something you write once and then forget. To truly make yours work for your business model, you must refer back to it and see where you are with your predictions and goals. As you hit high notes, add new objectives and plan them out with measurable goals.

Over time, your business plan won’t look much like the one you used the day you opened your company’s doors. However, the mission statement will likely stay the same, and elements such as company culture won’t change much.

What will change is your knowledge of the industry and how well you can adapt to the challenges faced by all small business owners. With a plan for handling different situations, you’re certain to be one of the small businesses finding success past the 10-year mark.

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

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine . She was the creative director at a prominent digital marketing agency prior to becoming a full-time freelance designer. Eleanor lives in Philadelphia with her husband and pup, Bear.

Table of Contents

Related Articles

8 Min. Read

Tools and Resources to Help You Write a Business Plan

How to Format a Business Plan in 8 Simple Steps

6 Min. Read

Do This One Thing Before You Write Your Business Plan

11 Common Business Plan Mistakes You Should Avoid

The Bplans Newsletter

The Bplans Weekly

Subscribe now for weekly advice and free downloadable resources to help start and grow your business.

We care about your privacy. See our privacy policy .

The quickest way to turn a business idea into a business plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

No thanks, I prefer writing 40-page documents.

Discover the world’s #1 plan building software

Free PDF Business Plan Templates and Samples

By Joe Weller | September 9, 2020

• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

We’ve gathered the most useful collection of business plan PDF templates and samples, including options for organizations of any size and type.

On this page, you’ll find free PDF templates for a simple business plan , small business plan , startup business plan , and more.

Simple Business Plan PDF Templates

These simple business plan PDF templates are ready to use and customizable to fit the needs of any organization.

Simple Business Plan Template PDF

This template contains a traditional business plan layout to help you map out each aspect, from a company overview to sales projections and a marketing strategy. This template includes a table of contents, as well as space for financing details that startups looking for funding may need to provide. 

Download Simple Business Plan Template - PDF

Lean Business Plan Template PDF

This scannable business plan template allows you to easily identify the most important elements of your plan. Use this template to outline key details pertaining to your business and industry, product or service offerings, target customer segments (and channels to reach them), and to identify sources of revenue. There is also space to include key performance metrics and a timeline of activities. 

Download Lean Business Plan Template - PDF

Simple 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template PDF

This template is designed to help you develop and implement a 90-day business plan by breaking it down into manageable chunks of time. Use the space provided to detail your main goals and deliverables for each timeframe, and then add the steps necessary to achieve your objectives. Assign task ownership and enter deadlines to ensure your plan stays on track every step of the way.

Download Simple 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template

PDF | Smartsheet

One-Page Business Plan PDF Templates

The following single page business plan templates are designed to help you download your key ideas on paper, and can be used to create a pitch document to gain buy-in from partners, investors, and stakeholders.

One-Page Business Plan Template PDF

Use this one-page template to summarize each aspect of your business concept in a clear and concise manner. Define the who, what, why, and how of your idea, and use the space at the bottom to create a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) for your business. 

Download One-Page Business Plan Template

If you’re looking for a specific type of analysis, check out our collection of SWOT templates .

One-Page Lean Business Plan PDF

This one-page business plan template employs the Lean management concept, and encourages you to focus on the key assumptions of your business idea. A Lean plan is not stagnant, so update it as goals and objectives change — the visual timeline at the bottom is ideal for detailing milestones. 

Download One-Page Lean Business Plan Template - PDF

One-Page 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template

Use this business plan template to identify main goals and outline the necessary activities to achieve those goals in 30, 60, and 90-day increments. Easily customize this template to fit your needs while you track the status of each task and goal to keep your business plan on target. 

Download One-Page 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template

For additional single page plans, including an example of a one-page business plan , visit " One-Page Business Plan Templates with a Quick How-To Guide ."

Small Business Plan PDF Templates

These business plan templates are useful for small businesses that want to map out a way to meet organizational objectives, including how to structure, operate, and expand their business.

Simple Small Business Plan Template PDF

A small business can use this template to outline each critical component of a business plan. There is space to provide details about product or service offerings, target audience, customer reach strategy, competitive advantage, and more. Plus, there is space at the bottom of the document to include a SWOT analysis. Once complete, you can use the template as a basis to build out a more elaborate plan. 

Download Simple Small Business Plan Template

Fill-In-the-Blank Small Business Plan Template PDF

This fill-in-the-blank template walks you through each section of a business plan. Build upon the fill-in-the-blank content provided in each section to add information about your company, business idea, market analysis, implementation plan, timeline of milestones, and much more.

Download Fill-In-the-Blank Small Business Plan Template - PDF

One-Page Small Business Plan Template PDF

Use this one-page template to create a scannable business plan that highlights the most essential parts of your organization’s strategy. Provide your business overview and management team details at the top, and then outline the target market, market size, competitive offerings, key objectives and success metrics, financial plan, and more.

Download One-Page Business Plan for Small Business - PDF

Startup Business Plan PDF Templates

Startups can use these business plan templates to check the feasibility of their idea, and articulate their vision to potential investors.

Startup Business Plan Template

Use this business plan template to organize and prepare each essential component of your startup plan. Outline key details relevant to your concept and organization, including your mission and vision statement, product or services offered, pricing structure, marketing strategy, financial plan, and more.

‌Download Startup Business Plan Template

Sample 30-60-90 Day Business Plan for Startup

Startups can use this sample 30-60-90 day plan to establish main goals and deliverables spanning a 90-day period. Customize the sample goals, deliverables, and activities provided on this template according to the needs of your business. Then, assign task owners and set due dates to help ensure your 90-day plan stays on track.

‌Download Sample 30-60-90 Day Business Plan for Startup Template 

For additional resources to create your plan, visit “ Free Startup Business Plan Templates and Examples .”

Nonprofit Business Plan PDF Templates

Use these business plan PDF templates to outline your organization’s mission, your plan to make a positive impact in your community, and the steps you will take to achieve your nonprofit’s goals.

Nonprofit Business Plan Template PDF

Use this customizable PDF template to develop a plan that details your organization’s purpose, objectives, and strategy. This template features a table of contents, with room to include your nonprofit’s mission and vision, key team and board members, program offerings, a market and industry analysis, promotional plan, financial plan, and more. This template also contains a visual timeline to display historic and future milestones.

Download Nonprofit Business Plan Template - PDF

One-Page Business Plan for Nonprofit Organization PDF 

This one-page plan serves as a good starting point for established and startup nonprofit organizations to jot down their fundamental goals and objectives. This template contains all the essential aspects of a business plan in a concise and scannable format, including the organizational overview, purpose, promotional plan, key objectives and success metrics, fundraising goals, and more.

Download One-Page Business Plan for Nonprofit Organization Template - PDF

Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan PDF Templates

Use these fill-in-the-blank templates as a foundation for creating a comprehensive roadmap that aligns your business strategy with your marketing, sales, and financial goals.

Simple Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan PDF

The fill-in-the-blank template contains all the vital parts of a business plan, with sample content that you can customize to fit your needs. There is room to include an executive summary, business description, market analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, financial statements, and more. 

Download Simple Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan Template - PDF

Lean Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan PDF

This business plan is designed with a Lean approach that encourages you to clarify and communicate your business idea in a clear and concise manner. This single page fill-in-the-blank template includes space to provide details about your management team, the problem you're solving, the solution, target customers, cost structure, and revenue streams. Use the timeline at the bottom to produce a visual illustration of key milestones. 

Download Fill-In-the-Blank Lean Business Plan Template - PDF

For additional resources, take a look at " Free Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan Templates ."

Sample Business Plan PDF Templates

These sample business plan PDF templates can help you to develop an organized, thorough, and professional business plan.

Business Plan Sample 

This business plan example demonstrates a plan for a fictional food truck company. The sample includes all of the elements in a traditional business plan, which makes it a useful starting point for developing a plan specific to your business needs.

Download Basic Business Plan Sample - PDF

Sample Business Plan Outline Template

Use this sample outline as a starting point for your business plan. Shorten or expand the outline depending on your organization’s needs, and use it to develop a table of contents for your finalized plan.

Download Sample Business Plan Outline Template - PDF

Sample Business Financial Plan Template

Use this sample template to develop the financial portion of your business plan. The template provides space to include a financial overview, key assumptions, financial indicators, and business ratios. Complete the break-even analysis and add your financial statements to help prove the viability of your organization’s business plan.

Download Business Financial Plan Template

PDF  | Smartsheet

For more free, downloadable templates for all aspects of your business, check out “ Free Business Templates for Organizations of All Sizes .”

Improve Business Planning with Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

• Case Studies

Ten Characteristics of an Effective Business Plan

1. Planning for business should be a process not an event. Even if it is designed to produce a tangible output like a business plan to be studied by potential investors, it is the process of planning which will ensure focus, commitment and understanding, not the plan itself.

2. The process should be continuous, frequently reviewed and updated. A "once a year" formal meeting is likely to produce significant omissions, constrain creativity and invite people to switch-off from strategic and tactical thinking for the rest of the year.

3. It should directly involve everyone accountable for implementing the business plan. It should also involve, whether directly or indirectly, everyone in the organisation at some stage. The purpose of involvement is to secure deep understanding and commitment.

4. Business planning should be led but not constrained by strategy. Objectives and action plans are extremely difficult to set without an idea of their purpose and focus.

5. To ensure communication is simple and action effective, business planning should define a few, harmonised priorities.

6. When planning for business, organisations should have a good understanding of:

• Clients, their current and anticipated needs and behaviour; how these may change  << click for more >>
• The market within which the organisation operates and how it is likely to develop in the future
• Competitive forces and how they are likely to evolve in the medium to long term
• Macro factors affecting the organisation and their likely impact  << click for more >>

7. It should attempt to balance this analysis of the external environment with a clear understanding of its internal resources and competences  << click for more >>

8. The organisation’s strategic purpose and intent should derive from decisions about how best to manage its resources and competences in order to prosper in the environment in which it operates

9. The process should seek to capture what the organisation has learned from its past, from its competitors, suppliers and customers, and from its own people

10. Finally, planning and review should be lock-stepped together. This means defining plans in terms that are measurable, but also ensuring that frequent reviews examine progress, as well as the effectiveness of the plans themselves.

What is your interest in Business Planning? << Click Here >> to see if I can offer further help.

Click here for Business Plan Templates

We can help you develop your business plan

We provide a confidential 1 to 1 business coaching service. We get your business unstuck and get it going. Use our simple, proven business tools and techniques to improve performance and profit. We’ll help you set objectives and check your progress.

What our customers say

Stay connected.

Sign up for our e-newsletter by filling the form below. Stay up to date with our latest news and views.

We respect your privacy. We will never sell your information to third parties. You can unsubcscribe to our mailing list at any time.

• Business Essentials
• Leadership & Management
• Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation
• Digital Transformation
• Finance & Accounting
• Business in Society
• For Organizations
• Support Portal
• Media Coverage
• Founding Donors
• Leadership Team

• Harvard Business School →
• HBS Online →
• Business Insights →

Business Insights

Harvard Business School Online's Business Insights Blog provides the career insights you need to achieve your goals and gain confidence in your business skills.

• Career Development
• Communication
• Decision-Making
• Earning Your MBA
• Negotiation
• News & Events
• Productivity
• Staff Spotlight
• Student Profiles
• Work-Life Balance
• AI Essentials for Business
• Alternative Investments
• Business Analytics
• Business Strategy
• Business and Climate Change
• Design Thinking and Innovation
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• Disruptive Strategy
• Economics for Managers
• Entrepreneurship Essentials
• Financial Accounting
• Global Business
• Launching Tech Ventures
• Leadership Principles
• Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
• Leading with Finance
• Management Essentials
• Negotiation Mastery
• Organizational Leadership
• Power and Influence for Positive Impact
• Strategy Execution
• Sustainable Business Strategy
• Sustainable Investing
• Winning with Digital Platforms

10 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs

• 07 Jul 2020

Multiple factors go into starting a successful business venture, including a strong concept and initial funding. But, perhaps the most important ingredient is the entrepreneur. These are individuals who must transform their ideas into a fully operational business.

If you’re thinking about launching your own venture, you might be wondering if you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur . But first, what’s an entrepreneur, and what do they do?

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Entrepreneurship?

While entrepreneurship is commonly thought of as the process of starting a business, there are several nuances to consider.

In the HBS Online course Entrepreneurship Essentials , entrepreneurship is defined as “the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources currently controlled.” An opportunity can be a myriad of things, but the course describes it as "a proposed venture to sell a product or service for which customers are willing to pay more than the required investments and operating costs.”

Entrepreneurs —either as individuals or in teams—discover opportunities throughout their personal and professional lives. They form hypotheses on ways to deliver value to customers and perform structured tests to validate their ideas. This often involves recruiting teammates through networking and investing funds to determine how they’ll deliver a product or service at an acceptable cost.

Great entrepreneurs come from all walks of life. In Entrepreneurship Essentials, it’s noted that “there’s no single personality profile, and it’s important to pay attention to the entrepreneurial team, rather than focus on the individual.” And while that's true, there are certain characteristics and skills that are particularly important for entrepreneurs to have when starting and leading a venture.

Here are 10 characteristics shared by successful entrepreneurs.

1. Curiosity

Successful entrepreneurs have a distinct personality trait that sets them apart from other organizational leaders: a sense of curiosity. An entrepreneur's ability to remain curious allows them to continuously seek new opportunities. Rather than settling for what they think they know, entrepreneurs ask challenging questions and explore different avenues.

This is validated in the online course Entrepreneurship Essentials , where entrepreneurship is described as a “process of discovery." Without curiosity, entrepreneurs can’t achieve their main objective: discovering new opportunities.

The drive they have to continuously ask questions and challenge the status quo can lead them to valuable discoveries easily overlooked by other business professionals.

2. Willingness to Experiment

Along with curiosity, entrepreneurs require an understanding of structured experimentation, such as design thinking . With each new opportunity, an entrepreneur must run tests to determine if it’s worthwhile to pursue.

For example, if you have an idea for a new product or service that fulfills an underserved demand, you’ll have to ensure customers are willing to pay for it and it meets their needs . To do so, you’ll need to conduct thorough market research and run meaningful tests to validate your idea and determine its potential.

3. Adaptability

Entrepreneurship is an iterative process, and new challenges and opportunities present themselves at every turn. It’s nearly impossible to be prepared for every scenario, but successful business leaders must be adaptable.

This is especially true for entrepreneurs who need to evaluate situations and remain flexible to ensure their business keeps moving forward, no matter what unexpected changes occur.

4. Decisiveness

To be successful, an entrepreneur has to make difficult decisions and stand by them. As a leader, they’re responsible for guiding the trajectory of their business, including every aspect from funding and strategy to resource allocation.

Being decisive doesn’t always mean being correct. Entrepreneurs need the confidence to make challenging decisions and see them through to the end. If the outcome turns out to be less than favorable, the decision to take corrective action is just as important.

Check out our video on the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs below, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

5. Self-Awareness

A great entrepreneur is aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Rather than letting shortcomings hold them back, they build well-rounded teams that complement their abilities.

In many cases, it’s the entrepreneurial team, rather than an individual, that drives a business venture toward success. When starting your own business, it’s critical to surround yourself with teammates who have complementary talents and contribute to a common goal.

Related: 10 Tips to Help You Boost Team Performance

6. Risk Tolerance

Entrepreneurship is often associated with risk. While it’s true that launching a venture requires an entrepreneur to take risks, they also need to take steps to minimize it.

While many things can go wrong when launching a new venture, many things can go right. According to Entrepreneurship Essentials , entrepreneurs who actively manage the relationship between risk and reward position their companies to “benefit from the upside.”

Successful entrepreneurs are comfortable with encountering some level of risk to reap the rewards of their efforts; however, their risk tolerance is tightly related to their efforts to mitigate it.

7. Comfort with Failure

In addition to risk-management and calculated decision-making , entrepreneurship requires a certain level of comfort with failure.

“Of startups that have more than one employee, 70 percent survive at least two years, half last at least five years, and a quarter last 15 years,” says Harvard Business School Professor William Sahlman in Entrepreneurship Essentials . “Even then, only a small fraction of the survivors get to be significant employers.”

The reasons for failure are vast and encompass everything from a lack of business scalability to low product-market fit . While many of these risks can be avoided, some are inevitable.

Despite this, entrepreneurs must prepare themselves for, and be comfortable with, failure. Rather than let fear hold them back, they maintain a positive attitude to allow the possibility of success to propel them forward.

8. Persistence

While many successful entrepreneurs are comfortable with the possibility of failing, it doesn’t mean they give up easily. Rather, they see failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Throughout the entrepreneurial process, many hypotheses turn out to be wrong, and some ventures fail altogether. Part of what makes an entrepreneur successful is their willingness to learn from mistakes, ask questions, and persist until they reach their goal.

Related: How to Become a More Resilient Leader

9. Innovative Thinking

Innovation often goes hand-in-hand with entrepreneurship. While innovation in business can be defined as an idea that’s both novel and useful, it doesn’t always involve creating an entirely new product or service. Some of the most successful startups have taken existing products or services and drastically improved them to meet the changing needs of the market.

Although innovation doesn’t come naturally to every entrepreneur, it’s a type of strategic mindset that can be cultivated. By developing your problem-solving skills , you’ll be well-equipped to spot innovative opportunities and position your venture for success.

10. Long-Term Focus

Most people associate entrepreneurship with starting a business. While the early stages of launching a venture, such as securing funding , are critical to its success, the process doesn’t end once the business is operational.

According to Entrepreneurship Essentials , “it’s easy to start a business, but hard to grow a sustainable and substantial one. Some of the greatest opportunities in history were discovered well after a venture launched.”

Entrepreneurship is a long-term endeavor, and entrepreneurs must focus on the process from beginning to end to ensure long-term success.

How to Develop the Qualities of an Entrepreneur

There’s no right or wrong way to be an entrepreneur. Characteristics and behaviors like experimentation, persistence, and innovation can be developed with time, experience, and training. As long as you possess the entrepreneurial spirit, you'll be able to seize opportunities and overcome challenges throughout your journey.

Are you interested in learning the ins and outs of entrepreneurship? Explore our four-week online course Entrepreneurship Essentials and our other entrepreneurship and innovation courses to learn to speak the language of the startup world. If you aren't sure which course is the right fit, download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals.

This post was updated on August 14, 2023. It was originally published on July 7, 2020.

About the Author

Top 10 Characteristics of a Good Planning

This article throws light upon the top ten characteristics of good planning. Some of the characteristics are: 1. It is Based on Clearly Defined Objectives 2. It is Simple 3. It Provides for a Proper Analysis and Classification of Action 4. It is Flexible 5. It is Balanced, Practicable and Suitable According to the Size and form of the Business 6. It is Time-Bound and Others.

Good Planning: Characteristics # 1.

It is Based on Clearly Defined Objectives:

A good plan is based upon clear, well-defined and easily understood objectives. General objectives like improving morale or increasing profits are ambiguous in nature and do not lend to specific steps and plans. If possible, objectives must be quantified for sake of simplicity.

Good Planning: Characteristics # 2.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

It is Simple:

A goods plan must be simple and comprehensive. When the plan is simple, all employees of the organisation can know its significance and it can be easily put into operation, which leads to achieve objective.

Good Planning: Characteristics # 3.

It Provides for a Proper Analysis and Classification of Action:

It provides for a proper analysis and classification of action i.e., it establishes standards. A good plan should establish standard. Comparing actual results with standards can make a proper analysis. It leads to effective control.

Good Planning: Characteristics # 4.

It is Flexible:

Planning should be flexible enough to incorporate any changes in the resources, if necessary. Additionally, it should be responsive to changed conditions so that if future events do not follow the anticipation, the same plan can be modified and adopted to the altered situation.

Good Planning: Characteristics # 5.

It is Balanced, Practicable and Suitable According to the Size and form of the Business:

A good plan should be well balanced so that the existing resources are properly utilized for all functions and short-term gains are not at the cost of long-term gains and vice-versa.

Good Planning: Characteristics # 6.

It is Time-Bound:

The time period allowed for achieving goals should be reasonable even though planning is an attempt to anticipate the future. Long-range planning are more uncertain. Hence, the time period covered should be reasonable and reasonably stable.

Good Planning: Characteristics # 7.

It uses Available Resources to the Utmost before Creating New Authorities and New Resources:

A good plan strives for optimal utility of physical as well as human resources in unison and harmony.

Good Planning: Characteristics # 8.

Participation by Subordinates:

Planning should not be an exclusive responsibility of top management. Subordinates will not be responsible if a plan is imposed upon them. Also subordinate participation generally ensures the sincere and serious effort on their part to make the plan successful.

Good Planning: Characteristics # 9.

Planning is initiated by different managers of different divisions at different times. It is necessary that a good plan should incorporate all these departments, maintaining the consistency, and centralised objective must be the focus.

Good Planning: Characteristics # 10.

It is Comprehensive:

It is comprehensive and includes each and every aspect of the objectives.

Related Articles:

• Comparison between Plan and Planning | Management
• Steps to Make Planning Effective | Planning | Functions | Management
• Characteristics of Planning

We use cookies

Privacy overview.

Six Characteristics of Successful Strategic Plans

If you want to grow, refine or even define your business, a strategic plan is a must. It determines the purpose of your business, sets a vision for the future and determines specific steps to get there.

Most senior executives understand the value of strategic plans and are willing to invest significant time and resources to develop them. However, all too often strategic plans fail to deliver on their vision. In fact, by some estimates 70 percent of strategic plans fail.

What makes for a successful strategic plan? After 20 years of facilitating strategic planning for dozens of organizations, I have come to understand that regardless of the industry, company size or current market conditions, strategic plans require the following six characteristics to succeed.

Six must-haves for successful strategic plans

Must-have 1: senior management collectively owns the strategic plan.

In most organizations each senior manager has a silo or line responsibility under his or her purview. In strategic planning, however, the entire senior management team must come together to recognize their collective ownership of the overall vision and strategic direction of the entire organization. To make this work, it’s advisable to have each senior manager’s compensation or bonus structure be tied to the organization’s execution of the plan as a whole, not just that of an individual department or area.

Must-have 2: The strategic plan is inclusive.

We often see strategic plans developed by CEOs or senior management teams and then cascaded down their respective organizations. This approach rarely works because the people on the ground—those ultimately responsible for executing the nuts and bolts of the plan—haven’t had input along the way.

The best plans make space for employees to be heard and to contribute to the plan as management begins to design tactics that will deliver on the vision. People respond better and feel ownership when they feel respected and included. What’s more, input from people on the front lines is invaluable because it grounds the strategic plan in the practical realities of the workplace and culture.

Must-have 3: The strategic plan incorporates operational realities.

Many organizations struggle to acknowledge their challenges and weaknesses. Without a candid assessment of the organization’s landscape, a strategic plan will not be effective.

With strategic planning, there’s an entire marathon between the starting blocks and the finish line. An organization’s operational realities will dictate the best way to run that marathon. If you don’t know your weaknesses, you will hit the wall before you even get to the five-mile marker.

Must-have 4: The strategic plan includes specific and tangible actions assigned to individuals.

We typically see an organization’s senior management team go off-site and create grandiose strategic plans that sound great in principle. However, when those same mangers get back to their desks, the operational realities of their jobs take precedence. Day-to-day tasks sideline many of their inspired plans and ideas.

The best strategic plans are extremely detailed. They drill down to the specificity of who will do what by when—and then not only hold those individuals accountable for delivery, but also provide them with the resources to do so.

Must-have 5: The strategic plan incorporates specific measures to evaluate progress.

How will you know that your strategic plan is a success?

It’s amazing how many organizations don’t ask themselves that question. In the majority of cases, organizations have to spend a few years just laying a strong foundation—they may have to build or refine a team, put in place systems, develop partnerships or more. This often means that monetary results don’t come quickly. So, how do you know you’re on track? How do you appease a board of directors that might be looking at the bottom line as an indicator of success?

The best strategic plans build in regular quantitative and qualitative measurements and milestones. In addition, those milestones must take into account not just whether an action was completed, but that it was done well.

Must-have 6: The strategic plan is linked to the organization’s profit and loss statement.

To be effective, strategic plans must be grounded in economic realities: planning takes considerable time and resources, embracing dramatic change can be expensive, and plans need to be funded and marketed to be successful. All these factors have associated costs that affect the profit and loss of the organization over both the short and long term. It’s essential that organizations understand these costs when devising and approving goals and actions.

How to Dial Back Fear in the Workplace

Strategy, Boards and Organizational Culture – A Shared Responsibility

Designing a Work Environment for a Post-Pandemic Future: Which Model is Best?

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

The Importance Of A Good Business Plan

2010, Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER)

Related Papers

csupomona.edu

Jerry Kirkpatrick

… of the Fifth Entrepreneurship Workshop at …

Richard-Nicolas Lacroix

International Journal of Professional Business Review

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the contribution of business plan in the expansion of small company. No matter how big or small a business is or what stage it is in,it needs a business plan to improve how it runs internally and to describe and market the business to possible outside investors. Theoretical framework: A business plan gives the company direction and brings employees together to work towards the same goals. When everyone works together, it&#39;s easier to manage time and resources and set the company up for growth. Planning is a big part of how successful a new or small business will be. Setting goals and making plans to reach those goals are two important parts of running a successful business. A business plan is a good way for a company to organize its goals and objectives in a way that makes sense. Design/methodology/approach: This is descriptive based study. In this research paper we survey on random sample of 250 respondents. Findings: Th...

Fariba Azizzadeh

The Service Industries Journal

Lorenzo Revuelto Taboada

Son Ca Bui Chuoi

Seval Ozbalci

Creating a new business titled "Crosstudy". It was an assignment for Entrepreneurship class.

Kate Svishcheva

This project proposal pertains to newly evolving studies dealing with business planning for startups and is intended to investigate essential issue of business plan characteristics that increase probability of getting funds for startup development. The general purpose of this project is to analyse and develop general tendencies in existing business plans for startups that succeeded in attracting financing. The aim of this issue scrutiny is to formulate general guidance for elaborating business plans for nascent entrepreneurs and structure common criteria set by investors.

Entrepreneurship - Development Tendencies and Empirical Approach

Amélia Brandão

RELATED PAPERS

Bangladesh Journal of Veterinary Medicine

Dr Mohammad Alam Miah

Mikio Hasegawa

Roczniki Humanistyczne

Agnieszka Flor-Górecka

The Journal of Urology

Fumitaka Koga

Aura Gastelbondo Carmona

Journal of Geographic Information System

Tomiwa Oluwajuwon

Shirinov Temur

Fong Peng Chew

Rita Cristiana Reis

Podravski zbornik

Dubravko Bilić

Ahmad Fatikhul Khasan

Mycopathologia

sonia silva

Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira

ANTONIO GOES

Jurnal pengelolaan sumberdaya alam dan lingkungan

Daniel Andrade de Siqueira Franco

International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Safety

Florentino Manuel Santos Serranheira

Physics Letters A

Guillermo González

Acta Amazonica

Marco Cremasco

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms

Biljana Gakovic

Almasya Zaskia Oktaviola

Industrial Management &amp; Data Systems

Ezlika Ghazali

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

THE Journal : Tourism and Hospitality Essentials Journal

Farhana Sabidin

실시간카지노 토토사이트

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Your Article Library

9 basic features of a good plan – explained.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Nine Basic Features of a Good Management Plan are: 1. It should define objectives, 2.It should be simple, 3. It should be clear, 4. It should be comprehensive, 5. It should be flexible, 6. It should be economical, 7. It should establish standards, 8. It should be balanced, 9. It should be practicable!

1. It should define objectives:

Objectives are the ultimate goals towards which all activities are directed.

A statement which lays down objectives should be clear and definite and everyone in the organisation should understand it in the same sense.

2. It should be simple:

If a plan is expressed in a language which is not understandable by the personnel of the concern or it is complicated, it may create problems for those who are to actually put it into action.

3. It should be clear:

A good plan must not contain anything that is ambiguous or indefinite.

4. It should be comprehensive:

A good plan should contain all that is necessary for the attainment of the objectives of the enterprise. If a master plan is prepared for the whole organisation it will be more useful as it can be seen that nothing is left from it.

5. It should be flexible:

A flexible plan adjusts the changes in the plans without any delay. Hence a plan must not be rigid. A plan should be broad enough to meet the future challenges and uncertainties.

6. It should be economical:

A plan should be made keeping in mind the resources available with the concern and making optimum utilisation of the available resources. In other words, a plan must recover its cost and should result in the least operating cost.

7. It should establish standards:

A plan must lay down the standards to be achieved. The actual performance is compared with these standards and deviations if any are noted.

8. It should be balanced:

It is necessary ensure that there is a proper co­ordination between different types of plans such as short-term and long term plans, “plans of different departments etc. A business enterprise usually has a number of department’s viz., production, marketing, finance etc. Each department frames its own plans. It is for the management to see that all these plans are well balanced.

9. It should be practicable:

A plan is worth only if it is practically workable and realistic. It should be formulated keeping in view the limitations of planning. If a plan is good in theory but bad in practice, it is of no use. Similarly, if the desired results are not achieved by a plan, it leads to frustration at all levels in the organisation.

Related Articles:

• How to make your Business Plan Tremendously Effective? (9 Principles)
• Formulating the Financial Plan of a Firm: 6 Basic Considerations

No comments yet.

Leave a reply click here to cancel reply..

You must be logged in to post a comment.