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What is an MBA Capstone Project?

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An MBA capstone project is the final step in many MBA programs. It’s here that MBA students put all that they’ve learned into practice by analyzing a meaningful and strategic business question. Often, this involves hands-on work within an existing company, but not always: MBA capstone projects can take the form of startup business plans and business simulations, too.

No matter their format or focus, each capstone project will likely be the most intensive and rewarding feature of an MBA candidate’s journey.

A capstone project is not the same as a thesis project, although they do share some qualities. Thesis projects are focused on theory and research and are based on the situations one would face in academia. Often taking the form of a large research paper, thesis projects can last the entire final year of an academic program, and some students may even begin before that, with the ultimate goal of contributing new knowledge to the canon of business research.

MBA capstone projects, by contrast, are more practical and similar to situations one would face in the business world. Here, students work in teams to answer strategic business questions. MBA capstones are hands-on immersions with real-world consequences, and they can have a major impact on an MBA graduate’s program experience and career.

Read on to see some examples of MBA capstone projects and get a walkthrough of the general process.

Stages of an MBA Capstone Project

Most MBA capstone projects occur during a program’s final year and can last anywhere from four weeks to a full semester. They often include some form of instruction (whether through prerequisite courses or scheduled advising) and practical application.

While MBA capstone programs will vary in format from program to program, they generally include the following stages:

Topic Selection
Preliminary Research
Project Execution
Written Report
Final Presentation

It’s not necessarily over after the final presentation, either: some capstone projects carry over beyond the MBA program, leading to successful startup businesses, offers of employment, or investment opportunities.

Choosing a Capstone Topic

Many MBA programs provide some structured options for choosing a capstone topic. This can mean students are allowed to select from a list of possible partnership opportunities; it can also mean that faculty advisors will work with students to find a topic that meets the student’s strengths, weaknesses, and goals. But in other programs, MBA students are more free to choose their topic and their partner organization.

In their capstone project, MBA students should select a topic where they can answer a meaningful and strategic business question: one that’s complex enough to warrant significant time and energy, but also realistic enough to be achievable. These are not theoretical questions; each is tailored to a specific real-world business.

Some examples of MBA capstone topics include:

What are the short-term outcomes of a mutual fund’s impact-investing initiative?
How do multinational companies’ diversity and inclusion efforts adapt to non-Western office environments?
What is the market feasibility of a startup’s application in target demographics?
How can a recently downsized organization recover employee morale while balancing the budget?

The capstone topic must be specifically relevant to the partner company or organization. To this end, MBA students should heavily research the company’s strengths, weaknesses, and objectives before selecting their topic.

Similarly, MBA students should also turn that lens on themselves: what problems do they want to explore in their business careers, what causes do they find interesting, and how can their unique skill set be best put to use?

How an MBA Capstone is Graded

Some programs provide MBA candidates with a rubric for how their capstone will be graded, while others do not. Most capstones are graded through their ability to demonstrate key business skills (theoretical, practical, applied, and reflective) across functional areas (finance, human resources, marketing, and operations).

The final presentation is also a factor, as this is where the candidate demonstrates what they learned, or didn’t, through the course of the capstone.

An MBA candidate will rarely fail their capstone project. After all, they’ve made it through practically an entire MBA program up until then. Even if the project is a failure from a business point of view, an MBA candidate will likely still be able to effectively analyze where and why the project failed, and what lessons can be learned from that failure going forward.

Examples of MBA Capstone Projects

Ucla anderson school of management capstone project.

The MBA program at UCLA Anderson School of Management offers three capstone options: the Global Access Program (GAP), the Business Creation Project (BCP), and Anderson Student Asset Management (ASAM).

In the GAP, students partner with high-growth global companies in a market-entry consulting project. Working in five- to six-person teams, students bid on partnership opportunities, perform five to six months of research, then travel internationally to the partner organization. Combining interviews, meetings, and research, the students develop effective strategic business plans to advance the organization’s growth and present it to the organization’s executives, potential investors, and industry professionals.

Along the way, students are advised by faculty members who have directed, invested in, and provided consulting services to leading companies worldwide. In the last 20 years, over 3,000 students have completed the GAP, impacting 738 companies across 23 countries.

For students with an entrepreneurship focus, the BCP offers them the chance to launch a company. Students will work in teams across two academic quarters after taking two prerequisite courses to prepare their business plans. Through extensive research, development, and implementation, students will put strategies for every aspect of their business into practice. In three years, the BCO has had 47 teams and launched 24 companies.

The ASAM program is for current and aspiring quants who want experience as successful long-term portfolio managers. Guided by a faculty advisor and oversight committee, students in the ASAM program will select an optimal mix of equity, fixed income, and cash investments. Each four-member team manages approximately $200,000. Students will rotate work roles between that of an executive board member, strategy lead, risk manager, and programmer.

Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business Capstone Project

The MBA program at Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business offers students two different forms of capstone program: Strategic Management of the Enterprise and Management Game.

The Strategic Management of the Enterprise capstone is an experiential learning course where students are matched with one of several consulting projects to solve business problems partner companies face. This is a more traditional capstone program, focused on the practical application of business skills learned through the MBA curriculum. Past clients have included Walmart, P&G, and Ameriprise.

Tepper’s Management Game capstone is an applied management experience. Student teams run a computer-simulated multinational manufacturing company for three years, acting as its executive committee. Taking place at the end of the MBA program’s curriculum, the Management Game capstone focuses on the unstructured nature of business problems and prods students to use all the functional skills they’ve learned so far. External-facing exercises include interaction with industry partners and are related to each student’s career choices.

Uniquely, the Management Game capstone is graded by external professionals on the merit of the results students deliver; students can receive direct feedback from corporate partners throughout the process.

University of Dallas Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business Capstone Consulting Experience

The capstone consulting experience in the MBA program at the University of Dallas allows students to solve a strategic problem an organization faces. Since it was launched in 1973 as one of the first student consulting and research programs in the U.S., this capstone consulting experience has prepared graduates to consult with business leaders. MBA students in this capstone consulting experience have completed over 900 projects for over 500 companies including Fortune 1000 firms, entrepreneurial ventures, and nonprofit organizations.

Under the guidance of faculty members, students participate on a team assigned to work with a real organization on a 12-week comprehensive project. Every team will work together to provide actionable recommendations, including a proposal, industry/market research, a presentation, and recommendations in the form of a report.

Matt Zbrog is a writer and researcher from Southern California. Since 2018, he’s written extensively about how new and aspiring business school students can best plan their education and careers. In the Two Views series, he conducts detailed interviews with recent business school alumni, with a particular focus on the choice between in-person, online, and hybrid learning models. His Femme-BA series highlights business schools that not only excel academically but also take unique and robust steps to support a diverse and inclusive learning environment for women.

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How to Choose the Right MBA Project Topics

Table of Contents

Now that we’ve explored some exciting project topics, how do you choose the one that’s right for you? Here are some tips:

Consider Your Interests and Career Goals: Choose a topic that aligns with your passions and future career aspirations.
Evaluate Feasibility and Data Availability: Ensure you have access to the necessary data and resources to complete your project successfully.
Consult with Faculty or Industry Professionals: Seek guidance from your professors or industry experts to refine your topic and approach.
Importance of Originality: Aim for a topic that contributes new insights or approaches to the field, showcasing your creativity and analytical skills.

Human Resources

Employee Engagement Strategies for Remote Teams: Develop effective strategies to enhance employee engagement and motivation in remote work settings.
Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives in Multinational Corporations: Analyze diversity and inclusion programs in multinational companies, assessing their impact on organizational culture and performance.
Talent Management Practices in the IT Industry: Study talent management strategies and practices in the Information Technology sector, focusing on recruitment and retention.
Performance Appraisal Systems: A Comparative Study: Compare different performance appraisal systems used by organizations and their impact on employee performance and satisfaction.
Work-Life Balance Programs and Employee Wellbeing: Evaluate the effectiveness of work-life balance programs in improving employee wellbeing and productivity.
Leadership Styles and Organizational Culture: Analyze how different leadership styles contribute to shaping organizational culture and employee engagement.
Training and Development Programs: Impact on Employee Performance: Investigate the effectiveness of training and development programs in enhancing employee skills and performance.
Workplace Stress Management Strategies: Develop strategies to manage workplace stress and promote employee mental health and wellbeing.
Employee Retention Strategies in High-Tech Industries: Identify and analyze effective strategies for retaining talent in high-tech industries with high turnover rates.
Gender Pay Gap Analysis and Equal Pay Policies: Study the gender pay gap in various industries and evaluate the effectiveness of equal pay policies in reducing disparities.

Operations Management

Supply Chain Optimization in Manufacturing Sector: Optimize supply chain processes and logistics in the manufacturing industry to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Lean Management Implementation in Service Sector: Implement Lean management principles in service-oriented organizations to eliminate waste and improve operational efficiency.
Inventory Management Strategies for Retail Chains: Develop inventory management strategies to minimize stockouts and excess inventory in retail chains.
Six Sigma Implementation in Healthcare: Quality Improvement: Implement Six Sigma methodologies in healthcare organizations to improve quality of care and patient outcomes.
Logistics and Distribution Network Optimization: Optimize logistics and distribution networks to improve delivery times and reduce transportation costs.
Operations Planning and Control in the Food Industry: Develop efficient operations planning and control strategies for food processing and distribution companies.
Total Quality Management (TQM) Practices: Case Studies: Study successful case studies of Total Quality Management implementation in various industries.
Process Automation and Robotics in Manufacturing: Explore the use of automation and robotics in manufacturing processes to improve productivity and efficiency.
Service Quality Measurement and Improvement in Hospitality: Develop tools and techniques to measure and improve service quality in the hospitality industry.
Green Operations: Sustainability Practices in Manufacturing: Implement sustainable and eco-friendly practices in manufacturing operations to reduce environmental impact.

Entrepreneurship

Feasibility Study for a Tech Startup: Conduct a feasibility study for a tech startup, analyzing market demand, competition, and financial projections.
Business Plan Development for a Social Enterprise: Develop a comprehensive business plan for a social enterprise focusing on social impact and sustainability.
Crowdfunding as a Financing Option for Startups: Explore the use of crowdfunding platforms as a viable financing option for early-stage startups.
Franchise Business Model: Analysis and Case Studies: Analyze the franchise business model and study successful case studies of franchise operations.
E-commerce Market Entry Strategy for Small Businesses: Develop an e-commerce market entry strategy for small businesses to expand their online presence.
Innovation Management in Startups: Best Practices: Study best practices for managing innovation and creativity in startup environments.
Angel Investing: Strategies and Risk Management: Explore angel investing strategies and risk management practices for investors in early-stage startups.
Entrepreneurial Leadership: Traits and Success Factors: Analyze the traits and characteristics of successful entrepreneurial leaders in various industries.
International Expansion Strategies for SMEs: Develop strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to expand into international markets.
Business Model Innovation: Disruptive Strategies: Explore disruptive business model innovation strategies used by successful startups to gain a competitive edge.

General Management

Change Management Strategies in Organizations: Develop change management strategies to facilitate organizational transitions and transformations.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programs: Impact Assessment: Evaluate the impact of CSR programs on brand reputation and stakeholder perceptions.
Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures: Case Studies: Study successful case studies of strategic alliances and joint ventures in various industries.
Crisis Management and Communication Strategies: Develop crisis management plans and effective communication strategies for organizations facing crises.
Market Research and Analysis for New Product Launch: Conduct market research and analysis to guide the launch of a new product or service.
Project Management Best Practices: Implementation: Study and implement project management best practices for successful project execution.
Knowledge Management Systems: Implementation and Benefits: Implement knowledge management systems in organizations to capture and share valuable knowledge.
Business Process Reengineering (BPR) for Organizational Efficiency: Redesign and optimize business processes using Business Process Reengineering methodologies.
Strategic HR Planning for Organizational Growth: Develop strategic HR plans to align human resources with organizational goals and growth objectives.
Technology Adoption and Integration Strategies: Develop strategies for the adoption and integration of new technologies to drive business growth.

International Business

Global Market Entry Strategies for Multinational Corporations: Develop market entry strategies for multinational corporations expanding into new global markets.
Cultural Intelligence in International Business Negotiations: Study the role of cultural intelligence in successful international business negotiations.
International Trade Policies and Impact on Global Business: Analyze international trade policies and their implications for global businesses.
Cross-Cultural Leadership: Challenges and Strategies: Explore challenges and strategies for effective cross-cultural leadership in multinational organizations.
Export Marketing Strategies for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): Develop export marketing strategies for SMEs looking to enter international markets.
Global Supply Chain Management: Best Practices: Study best practices in global supply chain management to optimize international operations.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Trends and Analysis: Analyze trends in Foreign Direct Investment and their impact on global economies.
Political Risk Analysis for International Business: Assess political risks and their impact on international business operations and investments.
Global Branding and Positioning Strategies: Develop global branding and positioning strategies for products and services in diverse markets.
International Business Negotiation Strategies: Study negotiation strategies and tactics for successful international business deals.

Information Technology Management

Cybersecurity Threats and Risk Management: Analyze cybersecurity threats and develop risk management strategies for organizations.
Big Data Analytics for Business Intelligence: Implement Big Data analytics to derive business insights and improve decision-making.
Cloud Computing Adoption: Challenges and Opportunities: Study the challenges and opportunities of adopting cloud computing in organizations.
Digital Transformation Strategies for Traditional Businesses: Develop strategies for traditional businesses to undergo digital transformation.
Blockchain Technology Applications in Supply Chain: Explore the applications of blockchain technology in optimizing supply chain processes.
AI and Machine Learning for Predictive Analytics: Implement AI and machine learning algorithms for predictive analytics in business.
IT Governance and Compliance Frameworks: Develop IT governance frameworks to ensure compliance and data security.
Mobile App Development for Business Solutions: Design and develop mobile applications to address business challenges and enhance customer experience.
IT Infrastructure Optimization and Cost Reduction: Optimize IT infrastructure to reduce costs and improve efficiency in organizations.
ERP Implementation and Business Process Integration: Implement Enterprise Resource Planning systems for seamless business process integration.

Healthcare Management

Healthcare Quality Improvement Initiatives: Develop quality improvement initiatives to enhance patient care and safety in healthcare settings.
Healthcare Innovation: Telemedicine and Remote Monitoring: Explore the use of telemedicine and remote monitoring technologies to improve healthcare delivery.
Health Information Systems: Implementation and Benefits: Implement Health Information Systems to improve patient data management and healthcare efficiency.
Healthcare Cost Analysis and Optimization: Analyze healthcare costs and develop strategies to optimize spending and improve financial performance.
Patient Satisfaction and Service Quality in Hospitals: Evaluate patient satisfaction levels and service quality in hospitals, identifying areas for improvement.
Healthcare Policy Analysis and Impact Assessment: Analyze healthcare policies and assess their impact on healthcare organizations and patient care.
Healthcare Marketing Strategies for Hospitals: Develop marketing strategies to promote hospitals and healthcare services to the community.
Electronic Health Records (EHR) Implementation: Implement Electronic Health Record systems to enhance patient data accessibility and accuracy.
Healthcare Compliance and Regulatory Requirements: Ensure healthcare organizations comply with regulatory requirements and standards.
Healthcare Supply Chain Management Optimization: Optimize healthcare supply chain processes to ensure timely and cost-effective delivery of medical supplies.

Sustainability and Green Business

Corporate Sustainability Reporting and Transparency: Develop sustainability reporting frameworks to enhance corporate transparency and accountability.
Green Supply Chain Management Practices: Implement green supply chain management practices to reduce environmental impact.
Circular Economy Strategies for Waste Reduction: Develop strategies for implementing a circular economy model to minimize waste.
Renewable Energy Investment Analysis: Analyze the feasibility and returns of investments in renewable energy projects.
Sustainable Packaging Solutions for Consumer Goods: Develop sustainable packaging solutions to reduce environmental impact in the consumer goods industry.
Carbon Footprint Analysis and Reduction Strategies: Analyze carbon footprints of organizations and develop strategies to reduce emissions.
Water Management and Conservation in Industries: Implement water management practices to conserve water resources in industrial operations.
Biodiversity Conservation Strategies for Businesses: Develop strategies for businesses to contribute to biodiversity conservation efforts.
Green Building Design and Certification: Design green buildings and obtain certifications for sustainable construction practices.
Eco-Tourism Development and Sustainability: Develop eco-tourism initiatives that promote environmental conservation and community engagement.

Embarking on an MBA project is an exciting opportunity to apply your knowledge and make a tangible impact. Whether you’re delving into finance, marketing, human resources, operations, or entrepreneurship, there’s a vast landscape of topics to explore.

Remember, the right project topic can be the launching pad for your career, so choose wisely. Dive into MBA project topics that ignite your curiosity, challenge your intellect, and leave a lasting impression on your audience. Good luck on your MBA journey!

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Mba capstone project ideas | example & outline, bob cardens.

September 2, 2022
Essay Topics and Ideas

MBA Capstone Project Ideas and Topics To Write About

Completing an MBA is no small feat. In addition to completing coursework, students must also complete a capstone project in order to graduate. The capstone project is designed to showcase the student’s knowledge and skills learned throughout their MBA program.

If you’re looking for ideas and topics for your MBA capstone project , look no further! This article will provide you with some great ideas that you can use for your project.

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List of Fifty MBA Capstone Project Ideas (MBA Capstone Project Ideas and Topics To Write About)

Develop a new product or service for your company.
Create a marketing plan for your company’s product or service.
Conduct a customer satisfaction survey and analyze the results.
Develop a social media strategy for your company.
Write a business plan for a new venture.
Develop a financial plan for your company.
Write a human resources policy manual for your company.
Research and write a report on a current business topic of interest to your company.
Develop an advertising campaign for your company’s product or service.
Write a public relations plan for your company.
Design a new company logo or update an existing one.
Create a company website or update an existing one.
Develop a direct marketing campaign for your company’s product or service.
Write a market research report on a current business topic of interest to your company.
Plan and execute a special event for your company (e.g., a grand opening, trade show booth, etc.).
Develop a sales training program for your company’s sales force.
Write an operations manual for your company.
Develop a quality control plan for your company’s products or services.
Create a customer service training program for your company’s customer service representatives.
Research and write a report on a current industry trend of interest to your company.
Develop a business continuity plan for your company.
Develop an environmental health and safety plan for your company.
Create a corporate giving program for your company.
Plan and execute a fund-raising event for your favorite charity.
Develop a social media strategy for promoting your company’s product or service.
Write a marketing plan for launching a new product or service.
Conduct customer focus groups to gather feedback on a new product or service concept.
Write a report on your findings from customer focus groups testing a new product or service concept.
Develop a promotional campaign for a new product or service launch.
Plan and execute a trade show booth display to promote your company’s products or services.
Develop an advertising campaign for a new product or service launch.
Write a public relations plan for promoting a new product or service launch.
Create point-of-purchase displays to promote your company’s products in retail stores.
write an article about your company’sproducts or services for a trade publication.
Develop a direct mail campaign to promote your company’s products or services.
Plan and execute a grand opening event for a new retail store location.
Develop a social media strategy for promoting your company’s grand opening event.
Write a press release about your company’s grand opening event.
Create a TV commercial to promote your company’s products or services.
Produce a radio commercial to promote your company’s products or services.
Plan and execute a media relations campaign to promote your company in the news.
Develop an online marketing strategy to promote your company’s products or services online.
Create banner ads and other online advertising to promote your company’s product or service online.
Optimize your company’s website for search engine visibility to attract new customers online.
Write and distribute press releases about your company’s product or service launches, events, etc., online and offline.
Develop a blog and post regular entries about your company, its products, services, industry, etc.
Create and maintain active social media accounts for your company (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).
Plan and execute a direct marketing campaign to promote your company’s products or services.

MBA Capstone Project Topics

Choosing a capstone project for your MBA can be a daunting task. But never fear! We have compiled a list of fifty potential topics and ideas to help get you started.

Developing a marketing plan for a small business
Creating a business model for a new startup
Conducting a feasibility study for a proposed new product or service
Analyzing the competitive landscape for a particular industry
Evaluating the financial performance of a publicly-traded company
assessing the impact of political, economic, or social factors on business operations
Developing an international expansion strategy for a multinational corporation
Investigating the root cause of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction
designing and implementing a lean manufacturing process
Streamlining the supply chain for a manufacturing company
Implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in a manufacturing company
Creating a human resources plan for a small business
evaluating the effectiveness of training and development programs in an organization
designing and conducting employee engagement survey
Writing a research paper on any business-related topic of your choice
Develop a new business process for your company.
Implement a new software system for your company.
Write a business continuity plan for your company.
Develop a crisis management plan for your company.
Create an employee handbook for your company.
Develop an onboarding program for new employees at your company.
Write a job description for a new position at your company.
Conduct a salary survey and write a report on the results.
Develop a benefits package for employees at your company.
Write an Employee Code of Conduct for your company.
Develop a performance management system for your company.
Write a report on best practices for recruiting and hiring employees.
Develop a retention strategy for your company.
Conduct an exit interview with departing employees and write a report on the results.
Write a paper on the legal aspects of human resources management.
Develop a plan for managing workplace conflict at your company.
Write a report on effective communication in the workplace.
Develop a plan for managing change in the workplace.
Write a report on employee motivation and morale in the workplace.
Develop a wellness program for employees at your company.
Write a report on employee stress and its impact on the workplace.
Develop a plan for managing work-life balance in the workplace.
Write a report on the impact of technology on the workplace.
Develop a social media policy for your company.
Write a report on effective teambuilding in the workplace.
Develop a plan for managing remote employees.
Write a report on cross-cultural communication in the workplace.
Develop a plan for managing diversity in the workplace.
Write a report on ethics and compliance in the workplace.
Choose any other topic related to business management and write a research paper on it.

Current MBA Capstone Project Ideas

MBA students are often required to complete a capstone project as part of their degree program. A capstone project is typically an intensive research project that addresses a real-world problem or challenge faced by businesses or organizations. Students may work on their projects individually or in teams, and they may have the opportunity to present their findings to faculty, peers, and/or industry experts.

The following is a list of thirty ideas for MBA capstone projects:

Develop a marketing plan for a new product or service launch
Conduct a customer satisfaction survey and analyze the results
Develop a social media strategy for a business or organization
Create a financial plan for a small business
Analyze the impact of a change in the tax code on businesses
Study the feasibility of starting a new business in a specific industry
Research and write a white paper on a hot topic in business or management
Developa human resources plan fora small business
Evaluate the effectiveness of a sales training program
Designa customer loyalty programfora retail company
Evaluate the risks and rewards of expanding into international markets
Compare and contrast two differentbusiness models
Develop a business plan for a new venture
Write a case study on a successful or unsuccessful business
Research and write a report on a current trend in business
Developa social media policyfora company
Analyze the financial statements of a publicly traded company
Develop a marketing campaign fora new product or service
Evaluate the effectiveness of an advertising campaign
Conduct market research fora new product or service
Create a brand identity fora new business
Designa customer retention programfora business
Develop a sales strategy fora new product or service
Write a business plan fora new small business
Evaluate the risks and rewards of starting a franchise
Research and write a report on sustainable business practices
Develop an employee handbook fora small business
Write a case study on an ethical dilemma faced by a business
Research and write a report on the impact of technology on businesses
Develop a business continuity plan fora small business

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Kinesiology and health care business plans, writing business plans, books on preparing business plans.

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The following sources contain sample business plans for different types of small businesses:

Bplans.com - sample plans

Examples from MBA Students & Business Plan Competitions:

Business Plan for Caregaroo (Kiana Mohseni, Simon Fraser University) MBA student project (Simon Fraser University)
Business Plan for Launching a Luxury Adventure Tour Operator Based in Canada Greg Hung and Nikolai Khlystov (Simon Fraser University MOT MBA, 2011)
University of Texas Austin, Venture Labs Investment Competition, Business Plans Contains executive summaries and selected full text business plans from competitions held at the University of Texas Austin from 1999 to 2016.

You can find additional examples by searching in Omni for Subject contains Business Plans AND any field contains (kinesiology OR "health care") and limiting the results by Resource Type to Theses and Dissertations. These plans are available in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database .

Long Beach Mobile Fitness, LLC: A Business Plan Prepared by Matthew Vico, Master of Science in Health Care Administration, California State University, Long Beach
Business Plan for a Physical Therapy Clinic in Rural Minnesota Prepared by Rick Borchardt, Master of Business Administration, The College of St. Scholastica
Business plans in physiotherapy:a practical guide for the non specialist Physical therapy reviews, 2011-06-01, Vol.16 (3), p.210-227 The sample business plan for Physio Kids (a hypothetical new paediatric physiotherapy clinic service) is presented in the Appendix
Using Business Plan Development as a Capstone Project for MPH Programs in Canada: Validation Through the Student Perspective Journal of Community Health, 2013, 38(5), 791-798. Describes elements of the business plan as applicable to public health practitioners.

The following sources provide guidance on writing business plans and may also include a sample plan or template.

Writing a Business Plan: An Example for a Small Premium Winery (Cornell University) (PDF) more info... close... An Extension Bulletin prepared by Mark E. Pisoni and Gerald B. White, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University.
Business Plan Guide (Government of Canada)
The business plan and executive summary (MaRS)
Write your business plan (U.S. Small Business Administration)
Planning for success: your guide to preparing a business and marketing plan

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Top 15 MBA Project Ideas & Topics in 2023 [For Freshers]

In this article, you will learn the Top 15 MBA Project Ideas & Topics. Take a glimpse below.

A study on sustainable business models across the consumer internet startups in India.
A study on various investment options available in India, their popularity, advantages, disadvantages, and growth of these investment options in the last decade
A study on risk management and portfolio management of investors in the equity segment
Analysis of working capital management at high cash burn startups in the food tech space
Impact of GST on the fast-moving consumer goods sector in India
Analysis of the satisfaction level of employees in the Banking and financial services sector
A study on the various employee welfare schemes at Hindustan Unilever
Analysis of employee training needs in State Bank of India
Comparative Study & Analysis Of NPA(Non-Performing Asset) In Indian Banks and Financial Institutions
Analysis of financial statements of ICICI Bank for the last 5 Years

Read the entire article to learn all the topic ideas.

Introduction

The best part about going ahead for an MBA is the practical learning experience it provides in the form of projects and case studies that enhance your overall learning experience. The projects may be individual projects or group projects where you learn how to analyze case studies, understand the project topic, work in teams, and complete projects within a timeline.

We take a look at some of the best and unique project topics that you can select during your MBA program across Marketing, HR, Finance, Analytics, Operations, etc. The article also highlights some of the top business analytics projects for MBA students and innovative MBA IT project topics.

What is an MBA?

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a prestigious and versatile postgraduate degree that equips students with a comprehensive understanding of various aspects of business management. The program prepares individuals for leadership roles in various industries and sectors. With its emphasis on developing critical thinking, strategic planning, and effective communication skills, an MBA can significantly enhance career prospects and open doors to various opportunities.

What are the benefits of doing an MBA in any field?

1. knowledge and skill enrichment.

MBA programs cover various subjects such as finance, marketing, operations, human resources, entrepreneurship, and more. This holistic curriculum equips students with a well-rounded understanding of how different business functions interconnect.

Case studies, real-world projects, and interactive classroom discussions provide practical insights, fostering problem-solving and analytical skills.

2. Leadership and Management Acumen

MBA programs emphasize leadership development and nurturing skills to effectively manage teams, projects, and organizations.

Students learn about decision-making, conflict resolution, negotiation, and organizational behavior, which are crucial for successful leadership roles.

3. Networking Opportunities

MBA programs often have a diverse student body with professionals from various industries, cultures, and backgrounds. This creates a fertile ground for networking.

Interaction with peers, alums, faculty, and guest speakers can lead to valuable connections that can benefit one’s career.

4. Career Advancement

An MBA can accelerate career growth by opening doors to higher-level positions and greater responsibilities.

Graduates are better equipped to navigate the complexities of the business world, making them attractive candidates for promotions and leadership roles.

5. Entrepreneurial Spirit

Many MBA programs offer specialized tracks or courses in entrepreneurship, providing aspiring business owners with the skills needed to launch and manage their ventures.

Exposure to real-world business challenges and opportunities encourages innovative thinking and risk-taking.

6. Global Perspective

In an increasingly interconnected world, MBA programs often include international business components that expose students to global market trends, cultural nuances, and international business strategies.

7. Personal Development

The rigorous demands of an MBA program foster time management, discipline, and the ability to handle high-pressure situations.

Students often gain a deeper understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, and areas for personal growth.

8. Enhanced Earning Potential

On average, MBA graduates earn higher salaries than those with only undergraduate degrees.

The specialized knowledge and leadership skills gained during the program contribute to increased marketability and value in the job market.

9. Career Switching and Flexibility

An MBA can serve as a bridge for professionals looking to switch industries or career paths.

The broad skill set acquired during the program enables graduates to pivot and adapt to different sectors.

10. Credibility and Prestige

An MBA from a reputable institution carries weight and prestige in the business world.

Employers often perceive MBA holders as dedicated, knowledgeable, and committed individuals due to the intensive nature of the program.

11. Access to Resources

Many MBA programs provide access to extensive resources such as libraries, research centers, industry partnerships, and career services, which can aid academic and professional pursuits.

12. Lifelong Learning and Growth

The learning mindset cultivated during an MBA often continues beyond graduation. Many professionals engage in continuous learning, staying updated with evolving business trends.

Pursuing an MBA offers students a transformative educational experience beyond theoretical learning. It equips them with the skills, knowledge, and networks needed to excel in the competitive business. The benefits encompass personal growth, career advancement, entrepreneurship, and the ability to make a meaningful impact in various industries. However, it’s important for prospective students to carefully consider their career goals, program options, and the reputation of institutions before embarking on this enriching journey of business education.

Read: Check out the Scope of MBA for IT professionals.

Top MBA Project Ideas

Currently, there are various general mba research project topics available in the market. Choosing the best one can seem to be quite a tedious process. Therefore, we have selected some of the best general mini project ideas for mba students highlighted in the list below.

Before delving into the different general mba project title, it is important to remember you, as a student, need to choose the topic that is closest to your specialization.

Internet Startups are known to burn cash to transform business at scale while also creating a habit in people, however many of them incur heavy losses because their business models are not sustainable.

There are lots of investment options available from mutual funds, stocks, physical gold, digital gold, bonds, etc but very few of these are popular except physical cold. Each of these investment options has their own advantages & advantages. Have they grown in the last 10 years?

Get online MBA certifications from the World’s top Universities. Earn Masters, Executive PGP, or Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career.

The equity segment is known to carry a high risk, how do investors manage this risk? Portfolio management is also crucial and helps investors avoid losses and increase their gains

Analysis of working capital management at high cash burn startups in the food tech space.

Working capital is the liquidity required to meet daily needs. In startups in the food-tech space where there is a lot of cash burn, how is working capital management done?

The Goods and Services tax bill has had a huge impact on many sectors. What has been the impact of GST on the FMCG sector which is one of the largest consumer-oriented sectors in India?

Read: Best MBA Online Courses

Analysis of the satisfaction level of employees in the Banking and financial services sector.

Banking & financial services is a crucial sector employing lakhs of employees. The work environments are known to be stressful and the work is tedious. So what is the satisfaction level of employees in this sector?

Hindustan Unilever is one of India’s biggest and most famous brands in the FMCG sector. They employ hundreds of people and they are known to be employee-friendly with a lot of employee-friendly policies & welfare schemes.

Our learners also read: MBA job opportunities !

Analysis of employee training needs in State Bank of India.

SBI is one of the largest banks in India and employee lakhs of people. This also means all the employees need to be trained at regular intervals. What would be the employee training needs in the banking industry?

Checkout: Best Online MBA Courses in India

India’s NPA ratio is one the highest in the world and it may increase further at the end of the current fiscal year 2021-22. What has contributed to this and what is the comparative situation among Indian banks & financial institutions?

ICICI bank is one of the top private sector banks in India. What does the analysis of ICICI bank financial statements for the last 5 years tell you about the company and its performance?

Study on consumer behavioral pattern in the FMCG category of toothpaste in the case of Colgate & Patanjali.

Colgate is one of the top brands in the category of toothpaste and Patanjali Dant Kanti has been a recent challenger with a focus on ayurvedic products. What are the consumer behaviour patterns driving this toothpaste category?

Study of marketing promotions & strategy in the luxury retail market for Louis Vuitton

Luxury marketing communications & strategy are very different compared to a non luxury brand. Louis Vuitton is one of the most famous luxury brands in India. What kind of marketing promotions and strategies did Louis Vuitton use?

Analysis of YouTube ads in digital marketing to reach mass audiences and its comparative effectiveness compared to TV adverting in FMCG industry

Youtube has quickly emerged as a powerful medium for brand marketing and its adoption has accelerated in the last 2-3 years. But is it more effective than TV in order to reach a brand’s target audiences?

Explore our Popular MBA Courses

Analysis of Total Quality Management Implementation at Marico.

Marico is one of India’s well known and top brands with respect to quality. How has Total Quality management helped them achieve high consumer satisfaction?

Also Read: Top Paying Cities for MBA in India

A Study of Six Sigma Implementation Process at a manufacturing company.

Six sigma is a set of techniques and tools that help to improve business processes in an organization. How has the implementation process been at a manufacturing company?

Read: Career in marketing and its scope in the US market.

Best Business Analytics Project Topics For MBA

Here are the best social relevance project topics for mba for candidates which are different from general project topics for MBA students, and significantly offer greater value!

In this today’s technology-driven world, business analytics is one of the most sought-after fields. Almost all big enterprises and organizations rely on business analytics for well-informed decisions and planning. This has led to such an increased demand for this field that many universities from all around India are offering various lucrative Business Analytics courses to their students. We have prepared some of the best business analytics project topics for MBA that are mentioned below.

Sales Conversion Optimization

Companies rely heavily on traditional and digital marketing and campaigns to drive their sales and attract new customers. Email and social media marketing are two of the widely used methods in this regard.

A Study On Predicting Sales Of A Supermarket During Festival Season

A supermarket consists of various departments, and each is responsible for stocking up its items in a regulated manner. However, while doing so, it is important to check that it does not have any excessive stock, which can ultimately lead to a potential loss for the business. This is where forecasting sales come into play. Predicting the demand for particular goods during festive seasons can help to generate profit and avoid loss for a business.

Understanding Employee Attrition And Performance

Various factors can lead to employee attrition. A detailed understanding of all the factors will help companies retain their employees’ loyalty more efficiently. Furthermore, companies can also then make changes in their business environments so that they can hold on to their best employees.

These are some of the best topics currently available for business analytics projects for MBA students . Working on a good project not only adds that extra spark to a person’s resume but also helps boost your technical skills and highlights your maturity.

Innovative Product Ideas For MBA Students

One of the most challenging tasks every entrepreneur faces is deciding what to sell. Whether it is a completely new product or starting a new business with different related products, it can sometimes be difficult to come up with something new and innovative. If you are facing any of these challenges, don’t worry. We are here to help you with the same. The mentioned below list contains some of the latest innovative product ideas for MBA students.

At-home fitness equipment

Following the onset of lockdown during this pandemic, many gyms and other workout facilities had to shut down their offices to comply with government protocols. During this time, at-home fitness equipment witnessed a drastic bloom and became hugely popular among the mass. Some of the most popular at-home fitness equipment include yoga mats, stationary bikes, and resistance bands.

Mobile Phone Accessories

India currently has 1.2 billion smartphone users. This means that these 1.2 billion users are your potential customers when you sell smartphone accessories. The most popular phone accessories are designed to increase your cellphones’ efficiency and usefulness and make them less breakable.

Internet Of Thing Devices

With the evolution of technology, more and more products are slowly transitioning into IoT devices. To put it simply, IoT devices are referred to as those that are equipped with various software and sensors to connect with other systems and devices over the Internet easily. Some examples of these devices are smartwatches, smart light bulbs, and smart cars, among others.

MBA Programs in India

You can consider some of these world class MBA programs offered by top institutions. One of the top MBA learning platforms in India, upGrad can help you apply for an MBA from Liverpool Business School with specialization in marketing.

u pGrad also offers individual mentoring sessions with industry leaders from various domains. You will also get 360-degree career support and placement assistance throughout the MBA program that will help you apply for a job with some of the top brands. upGrad expert mentors will guide you and help you build, review your resume and help you apply for various marketing & business roles across various brands.

Check out Liverpool Business School & upGrad’ Global MBA program which helps you to transform your career. The program provides 1-on-1 mentorship from industry leaders, 1-week immersion program at University campus, dual credentials (MBA from LBS & PGPM from IMT), network with peers at offline basecamps and more.

Kamal Jacob

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

To successfully complete an MBA program, doing an MBA project is important. This will also help you in the real world when you’re looking for jobs. However, the project topic you choose should be something that aligns with your goals and future objectives. Here are a few tips that will help you select a good topic – spend ample time researching on the internet, speak to your seniors and get ideas from them, discuss your shortlisted topics with mentors and professors, choose a topic that matches your future career aspirations, and lastly the topic you choose should be of interest to you.

When you do an MBA program from upGrad, there are many benefits. Besides training students in various subjects, it also offers end-to-end career assistance. Every student gets personalised career counselling from experts, specific inputs on resume structure and content, interview preparation tips by industry mentors and assured job placement offered by 300+ companies partnered with upGrad. The main agenda of every program is offering students unparalleled guidance from teaching assistants and one-on-one feedback on submissions.

MBA graduates are known to earn handsome salaries. The salary earned by MBA passouts in India is primarily based on their overall work or industry experience and their qualifications. That being said, their salary also depends on their MBA specialisation. Usually, those who opt for specialisations such as HR, finance, marketing, and business analytics, are observed to bag jobs with the highest compensation packages. Securing a seat in any of the premier MBA colleges in the country is a bonus since the top business schools offer exceptional placement opportunities with lucrative salaries; the numbers can range from INR 4-14 lakhs an annum for freshers to INR 25 lakhs a year for experienced professionals.

While all of us respect and envy the brilliant career paths of MBA graduates, we often tend to overlook the level of extreme hard work they have had to put in before bagging that dream job. If you ask MBA graduates, you will come to know that studying MBA is indeed taxing. You need to flourish in a highly competitive environment and have to give your best performance all-round, be it practical projects or academics. And the tremendous volume of things that need to be completed, along with the sheer lack of time for self-preparation, studies, or even family, can pose as reasons for enormous stress throughout the study.

HR managers have to deal with employee layoffs, organisational policy violations, payrolls, and company-wide communications. The basic job of the HR manager is to oversee and look after employee life-cycle management, including onboarding, recruitment, training, employee termination, and of course, employee benefits. Basically, human resources managers are responsible for supporting the employees by updating company policies, maintaining records of employees and supporting their career aspirations and growth, facilitating employee education, training and supporting managers, ensuring employee wellbeing and welfare, and enforcing disciplinary action in an unbiased and prudent manner.

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EMBA Final Project

Sample business plans.

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Business Plans Handbook (free) Provides a variety of sample business plans and business plan template.
Business Plans Handbook (Gale) Great source for sample startup costs and financial plan. Be sure to click the radio button "all volumes" to search all available volumes of Business Plans Handbook. CSUS authentication required. Additional volumes available in print in the library at 2 North Reference HD 62.7 .B865
Writing a Business Plan This Small Business Administration site includes information on starting or expanding a business. Includes links to example business plans.
How to Write a Business Plan The library has many ebooks available on starting a business, writing a business plan, etc.

Business Plan Templates

Business Planning Template Gallery SCORE provides downloadable templates for business planning, finance, sales, marketing, and management.
Bplans.com Offers sample plans, articles and tools to help you through the process of writing a business plan.
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11.4 The Business Plan

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Describe the different purposes of a business plan
Describe and develop the components of a brief business plan
Describe and develop the components of a full business plan

Unlike the brief or lean formats introduced so far, the business plan is a formal document used for the long-range planning of a company’s operation. It typically includes background information, financial information, and a summary of the business. Investors nearly always request a formal business plan because it is an integral part of their evaluation of whether to invest in a company. Although nothing in business is permanent, a business plan typically has components that are more “set in stone” than a business model canvas , which is more commonly used as a first step in the planning process and throughout the early stages of a nascent business. A business plan is likely to describe the business and industry, market strategies, sales potential, and competitive analysis, as well as the company’s long-term goals and objectives. An in-depth formal business plan would follow at later stages after various iterations to business model canvases. The business plan usually projects financial data over a three-year period and is typically required by banks or other investors to secure funding. The business plan is a roadmap for the company to follow over multiple years.

Some entrepreneurs prefer to use the canvas process instead of the business plan, whereas others use a shorter version of the business plan, submitting it to investors after several iterations. There are also entrepreneurs who use the business plan earlier in the entrepreneurial process, either preceding or concurrently with a canvas. For instance, Chris Guillebeau has a one-page business plan template in his book The $100 Startup . 48 His version is basically an extension of a napkin sketch without the detail of a full business plan. As you progress, you can also consider a brief business plan (about two pages)—if you want to support a rapid business launch—and/or a standard business plan.

As with many aspects of entrepreneurship, there are no clear hard and fast rules to achieving entrepreneurial success. You may encounter different people who want different things (canvas, summary, full business plan), and you also have flexibility in following whatever tool works best for you. Like the canvas, the various versions of the business plan are tools that will aid you in your entrepreneurial endeavor.

Business Plan Overview

Most business plans have several distinct sections ( Figure 11.16 ). The business plan can range from a few pages to twenty-five pages or more, depending on the purpose and the intended audience. For our discussion, we’ll describe a brief business plan and a standard business plan. If you are able to successfully design a business model canvas, then you will have the structure for developing a clear business plan that you can submit for financial consideration.

Both types of business plans aim at providing a picture and roadmap to follow from conception to creation. If you opt for the brief business plan, you will focus primarily on articulating a big-picture overview of your business concept.

The full business plan is aimed at executing the vision concept, dealing with the proverbial devil in the details. Developing a full business plan will assist those of you who need a more detailed and structured roadmap, or those of you with little to no background in business. The business planning process includes the business model, a feasibility analysis, and a full business plan, which we will discuss later in this section. Next, we explore how a business plan can meet several different needs.

Purposes of a Business Plan

A business plan can serve many different purposes—some internal, others external. As we discussed previously, you can use a business plan as an internal early planning device, an extension of a napkin sketch, and as a follow-up to one of the canvas tools. A business plan can be an organizational roadmap , that is, an internal planning tool and working plan that you can apply to your business in order to reach your desired goals over the course of several years. The business plan should be written by the owners of the venture, since it forces a firsthand examination of the business operations and allows them to focus on areas that need improvement.

Refer to the business venture throughout the document. Generally speaking, a business plan should not be written in the first person.

A major external purpose for the business plan is as an investment tool that outlines financial projections, becoming a document designed to attract investors. In many instances, a business plan can complement a formal investor’s pitch. In this context, the business plan is a presentation plan, intended for an outside audience that may or may not be familiar with your industry, your business, and your competitors.

You can also use your business plan as a contingency plan by outlining some “what-if” scenarios and exploring how you might respond if these scenarios unfold. Pretty Young Professional launched in November 2010 as an online resource to guide an emerging generation of female leaders. The site focused on recent female college graduates and current students searching for professional roles and those in their first professional roles. It was founded by four friends who were coworkers at the global consultancy firm McKinsey. But after positions and equity were decided among them, fundamental differences of opinion about the direction of the business emerged between two factions, according to the cofounder and former CEO Kathryn Minshew . “I think, naively, we assumed that if we kicked the can down the road on some of those things, we’d be able to sort them out,” Minshew said. Minshew went on to found a different professional site, The Muse , and took much of the editorial team of Pretty Young Professional with her. 49 Whereas greater planning potentially could have prevented the early demise of Pretty Young Professional, a change in planning led to overnight success for Joshua Esnard and The Cut Buddy team. Esnard invented and patented the plastic hair template that he was selling online out of his Fort Lauderdale garage while working a full-time job at Broward College and running a side business. Esnard had hundreds of boxes of Cut Buddies sitting in his home when he changed his marketing plan to enlist companies specializing in making videos go viral. It worked so well that a promotional video for the product garnered 8 million views in hours. The Cut Buddy sold over 4,000 products in a few hours when Esnard only had hundreds remaining. Demand greatly exceeded his supply, so Esnard had to scramble to increase manufacturing and offered customers two-for-one deals to make up for delays. This led to selling 55,000 units, generating $700,000 in sales in 2017. 50 After appearing on Shark Tank and landing a deal with Daymond John that gave the “shark” a 20-percent equity stake in return for $300,000, The Cut Buddy has added new distribution channels to include retail sales along with online commerce. Changing one aspect of a business plan—the marketing plan—yielded success for The Cut Buddy.

Link to Learning

Watch this video of Cut Buddy’s founder, Joshua Esnard, telling his company’s story to learn more.

If you opt for the brief business plan, you will focus primarily on articulating a big-picture overview of your business concept. This version is used to interest potential investors, employees, and other stakeholders, and will include a financial summary “box,” but it must have a disclaimer, and the founder/entrepreneur may need to have the people who receive it sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) . The full business plan is aimed at executing the vision concept, providing supporting details, and would be required by financial institutions and others as they formally become stakeholders in the venture. Both are aimed at providing a picture and roadmap to go from conception to creation.

Types of Business Plans

The brief business plan is similar to an extended executive summary from the full business plan. This concise document provides a broad overview of your entrepreneurial concept, your team members, how and why you will execute on your plans, and why you are the ones to do so. You can think of a brief business plan as a scene setter or—since we began this chapter with a film reference—as a trailer to the full movie. The brief business plan is the commercial equivalent to a trailer for Field of Dreams , whereas the full plan is the full-length movie equivalent.

Brief Business Plan or Executive Summary

As the name implies, the brief business plan or executive summary summarizes key elements of the entire business plan, such as the business concept, financial features, and current business position. The executive summary version of the business plan is your opportunity to broadly articulate the overall concept and vision of the company for yourself, for prospective investors, and for current and future employees.

A typical executive summary is generally no longer than a page, but because the brief business plan is essentially an extended executive summary, the executive summary section is vital. This is the “ask” to an investor. You should begin by clearly stating what you are asking for in the summary.

In the business concept phase, you’ll describe the business, its product, and its markets. Describe the customer segment it serves and why your company will hold a competitive advantage. This section may align roughly with the customer segments and value-proposition segments of a canvas.

Next, highlight the important financial features, including sales, profits, cash flows, and return on investment. Like the financial portion of a feasibility analysis, the financial analysis component of a business plan may typically include items like a twelve-month profit and loss projection, a three- or four-year profit and loss projection, a cash-flow projection, a projected balance sheet, and a breakeven calculation. You can explore a feasibility study and financial projections in more depth in the formal business plan. Here, you want to focus on the big picture of your numbers and what they mean.

The current business position section can furnish relevant information about you and your team members and the company at large. This is your opportunity to tell the story of how you formed the company, to describe its legal status (form of operation), and to list the principal players. In one part of the extended executive summary, you can cover your reasons for starting the business: Here is an opportunity to clearly define the needs you think you can meet and perhaps get into the pains and gains of customers. You also can provide a summary of the overall strategic direction in which you intend to take the company. Describe the company’s mission, vision, goals and objectives, overall business model, and value proposition.

Rice University’s Student Business Plan Competition, one of the largest and overall best-regarded graduate school business-plan competitions (see Telling Your Entrepreneurial Story and Pitching the Idea ), requires an executive summary of up to five pages to apply. 51 , 52 Its suggested sections are shown in Table 11.2 .

Are You Ready?

Create a brief business plan.

Fill out a canvas of your choosing for a well-known startup: Uber, Netflix, Dropbox, Etsy, Airbnb, Bird/Lime, Warby Parker, or any of the companies featured throughout this chapter or one of your choice. Then create a brief business plan for that business. See if you can find a version of the company’s actual executive summary, business plan, or canvas. Compare and contrast your vision with what the company has articulated.

These companies are well established but is there a component of what you charted that you would advise the company to change to ensure future viability?
Map out a contingency plan for a “what-if” scenario if one key aspect of the company or the environment it operates in were drastically is altered?

Full Business Plan

Even full business plans can vary in length, scale, and scope. Rice University sets a ten-page cap on business plans submitted for the full competition. The IndUS Entrepreneurs , one of the largest global networks of entrepreneurs, also holds business plan competitions for students through its Tie Young Entrepreneurs program. In contrast, business plans submitted for that competition can usually be up to twenty-five pages. These are just two examples. Some components may differ slightly; common elements are typically found in a formal business plan outline. The next section will provide sample components of a full business plan for a fictional business.

Executive Summary

The executive summary should provide an overview of your business with key points and issues. Because the summary is intended to summarize the entire document, it is most helpful to write this section last, even though it comes first in sequence. The writing in this section should be especially concise. Readers should be able to understand your needs and capabilities at first glance. The section should tell the reader what you want and your “ask” should be explicitly stated in the summary.

Describe your business, its product or service, and the intended customers. Explain what will be sold, who it will be sold to, and what competitive advantages the business has. Table 11.3 shows a sample executive summary for the fictional company La Vida Lola.

Business Description

This section describes the industry, your product, and the business and success factors. It should provide a current outlook as well as future trends and developments. You also should address your company’s mission, vision, goals, and objectives. Summarize your overall strategic direction, your reasons for starting the business, a description of your products and services, your business model, and your company’s value proposition. Consider including the Standard Industrial Classification/North American Industry Classification System (SIC/NAICS) code to specify the industry and insure correct identification. The industry extends beyond where the business is located and operates, and should include national and global dynamics. Table 11.4 shows a sample business description for La Vida Lola.

Industry Analysis and Market Strategies

Here you should define your market in terms of size, structure, growth prospects, trends, and sales potential. You’ll want to include your TAM and forecast the SAM . (Both these terms are discussed in Conducting a Feasibility Analysis .) This is a place to address market segmentation strategies by geography, customer attributes, or product orientation. Describe your positioning relative to your competitors’ in terms of pricing, distribution, promotion plan, and sales potential. Table 11.5 shows an example industry analysis and market strategy for La Vida Lola.

Competitive Analysis

The competitive analysis is a statement of the business strategy as it relates to the competition. You want to be able to identify who are your major competitors and assess what are their market shares, markets served, strategies employed, and expected response to entry? You likely want to conduct a classic SWOT analysis (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats) and complete a competitive-strength grid or competitive matrix. Outline your company’s competitive strengths relative to those of the competition in regard to product, distribution, pricing, promotion, and advertising. What are your company’s competitive advantages and their likely impacts on its success? The key is to construct it properly for the relevant features/benefits (by weight, according to customers) and how the startup compares to incumbents. The competitive matrix should show clearly how and why the startup has a clear (if not currently measurable) competitive advantage. Some common features in the example include price, benefits, quality, type of features, locations, and distribution/sales. Sample templates are shown in Figure 11.17 and Figure 11.18 . A competitive analysis helps you create a marketing strategy that will identify assets or skills that your competitors are lacking so you can plan to fill those gaps, giving you a distinct competitive advantage. When creating a competitor analysis, it is important to focus on the key features and elements that matter to customers, rather than focusing too heavily on the entrepreneur’s idea and desires.

Operations and Management Plan

In this section, outline how you will manage your company. Describe its organizational structure. Here you can address the form of ownership and, if warranted, include an organizational chart/structure. Highlight the backgrounds, experiences, qualifications, areas of expertise, and roles of members of the management team. This is also the place to mention any other stakeholders, such as a board of directors or advisory board(s), and their relevant relationship to the founder, experience and value to help make the venture successful, and professional service firms providing management support, such as accounting services and legal counsel.

Table 11.6 shows a sample operations and management plan for La Vida Lola.

Marketing Plan

Here you should outline and describe an effective overall marketing strategy for your venture, providing details regarding pricing, promotion, advertising, distribution, media usage, public relations, and a digital presence. Fully describe your sales management plan and the composition of your sales force, along with a comprehensive and detailed budget for the marketing plan. Table 11.7 shows a sample marketing plan for La Vida Lola.

Financial Plan

A financial plan seeks to forecast revenue and expenses; project a financial narrative; and estimate project costs, valuations, and cash flow projections. This section should present an accurate, realistic, and achievable financial plan for your venture (see Entrepreneurial Finance and Accounting for detailed discussions about conducting these projections). Include sales forecasts and income projections, pro forma financial statements ( Building the Entrepreneurial Dream Team , a breakeven analysis, and a capital budget. Identify your possible sources of financing (discussed in Conducting a Feasibility Analysis ). Figure 11.19 shows a template of cash-flow needs for La Vida Lola.

Entrepreneur In Action

Laughing man coffee.

Hugh Jackman ( Figure 11.20 ) may best be known for portraying a comic-book superhero who used his mutant abilities to protect the world from villains. But the Wolverine actor is also working to make the planet a better place for real, not through adamantium claws but through social entrepreneurship.

A love of java jolted Jackman into action in 2009, when he traveled to Ethiopia with a Christian humanitarian group to shoot a documentary about the impact of fair-trade certification on coffee growers there. He decided to launch a business and follow in the footsteps of the late Paul Newman, another famous actor turned philanthropist via food ventures.

Jackman launched Laughing Man Coffee two years later; he sold the line to Keurig in 2015. One Laughing Man Coffee café in New York continues to operate independently, investing its proceeds into charitable programs that support better housing, health, and educational initiatives within fair-trade farming communities. 55 Although the New York location is the only café, the coffee brand is still distributed, with Keurig donating an undisclosed portion of Laughing Man proceeds to those causes (whereas Jackman donates all his profits). The company initially donated its profits to World Vision, the Christian humanitarian group Jackman accompanied in 2009. In 2017, it created the Laughing Man Foundation to be more active with its money management and distribution.

You be the entrepreneur. If you were Jackman, would you have sold the company to Keurig? Why or why not?
Would you have started the Laughing Man Foundation?
What else can Jackman do to aid fair-trade practices for coffee growers?

What Can You Do?

Textbooks for change.

Founded in 2014, Textbooks for Change uses a cross-compensation model, in which one customer segment pays for a product or service, and the profit from that revenue is used to provide the same product or service to another, underserved segment. Textbooks for Change partners with student organizations to collect used college textbooks, some of which are re-sold while others are donated to students in need at underserved universities across the globe. The organization has reused or recycled 250,000 textbooks, providing 220,000 students with access through seven campus partners in East Africa. This B-corp social enterprise tackles a problem and offers a solution that is directly relevant to college students like yourself. Have you observed a problem on your college campus or other campuses that is not being served properly? Could it result in a social enterprise?

Work It Out

Franchisee set out.

A franchisee of East Coast Wings, a chain with dozens of restaurants in the United States, has decided to part ways with the chain. The new store will feature the same basic sports-bar-and-restaurant concept and serve the same basic foods: chicken wings, burgers, sandwiches, and the like. The new restaurant can’t rely on the same distributors and suppliers. A new business plan is needed.

What steps should the new restaurant take to create a new business plan?
Should it attempt to serve the same customers? Why or why not?

This New York Times video, “An Unlikely Business Plan,” describes entrepreneurial resurgence in Detroit, Michigan.

48 Chris Guillebeau. The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future . New York: Crown Business/Random House, 2012.
49 Jonathan Chan. “What These 4 Startup Case Studies Can Teach You about Failure.” Foundr.com . July 12, 2015. https://foundr.com/4-startup-case-studies-failure/
50 Amy Feldman. “Inventor of the Cut Buddy Paid YouTubers to Spark Sales. He Wasn’t Ready for a Video to Go Viral.” Forbes. February 15, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestreptalks/2017/02/15/inventor-of-the-cut-buddy-paid-youtubers-to-spark-sales-he-wasnt-ready-for-a-video-to-go-viral/#3eb540ce798a
51 Jennifer Post. “National Business Plan Competitions for Entrepreneurs.” Business News Daily . August 30, 2018. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6902-business-plan-competitions-entrepreneurs.html
52 “Rice Business Plan Competition, Eligibility Criteria and How to Apply.” Rice Business Plan Competition . March 2020. https://rbpc.rice.edu/sites/g/files/bxs806/f/2020%20RBPC%20Eligibility%20Criteria%20and%20How%20to%20Apply_23Oct19.pdf
53 “Rice Business Plan Competition, Eligibility Criteria and How to Apply.” Rice Business Plan Competition. March 2020. https://rbpc.rice.edu/sites/g/files/bxs806/f/2020%20RBPC%20Eligibility%20Criteria%20and%20How%20to%20Apply_23Oct19.pdf; Based on 2019 RBPC Competition Rules and Format April 4–6, 2019. https://rbpc.rice.edu/sites/g/files/bxs806/f/2019-RBPC-Competition-Rules%20-Format.pdf
54 Foodstart. http://foodstart.com
55 “Hugh Jackman Journey to Starting a Social Enterprise Coffee Company.” Giving Compass. April 8, 2018. https://givingcompass.org/article/hugh-jackman-journey-to-starting-a-social-enterprise-coffee-company/

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

Determined female African-American entrepreneur scaling a mountain while wearing a large backpack. Represents the journey to starting and growing a business and needi

Noah Parsons

24 min. read

Updated May 7, 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

Kickstart your business plan writing with one of our free business plan templates or recommended tools.

Free business plan template

Download a free SBA-approved business plan template built for small businesses and startups.

Download Template

One-page plan template

Download a free one-page plan template to write a useful business plan in as little as 30-minutes.

Sample business plan library

Explore over 500 real-world business plan examples from a wide variety of industries.

View Sample Plans

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.

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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What to Include in Your Business Plan Appendix

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What is a business plan?

1. write an executive summary, 2. describe your company, 3. state your business goals, 4. describe your products and services, 5. do your market research, 6. outline your marketing and sales plan, 7. perform a business financial analysis, 8. make financial projections, 9. summarize how your company operates, 10. add any additional information to an appendix, business plan tips and resources.

A business plan outlines your business’s financial goals and explains how you’ll achieve them over the next three to five years. Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing a business plan that will offer a strong, detailed road map for your business.

ZenBusiness

A business plan is a document that explains what your business does, how it makes money and who its customers are. Internally, writing a business plan should help you clarify your vision and organize your operations. Externally, you can share it with potential lenders and investors to show them you’re on the right track.

Business plans are living documents; it’s OK for them to change over time. Startups may update their business plans often as they figure out who their customers are and what products and services fit them best. Mature companies might only revisit their business plan every few years. Regardless of your business’s age, brush up this document before you apply for a business loan .

» Need help writing? Learn about the best business plan software .

This is your elevator pitch. It should include a mission statement, a brief description of the products or services your business offers and a broad summary of your financial growth plans.

Though the executive summary is the first thing your investors will read, it can be easier to write it last. That way, you can highlight information you’ve identified while writing other sections that go into more detail.

» MORE: How to write an executive summary in 6 steps

Next up is your company description. This should contain basic information like:

Your business’s registered name.

Address of your business location .

Names of key people in the business. Make sure to highlight unique skills or technical expertise among members of your team.

Your company description should also define your business structure — such as a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation — and include the percent ownership that each owner has and the extent of each owner’s involvement in the company.

Lastly, write a little about the history of your company and the nature of your business now. This prepares the reader to learn about your goals in the next section.

» MORE: How to write a company overview for a business plan

The third part of a business plan is an objective statement. This section spells out what you’d like to accomplish, both in the near term and over the coming years.

If you’re looking for a business loan or outside investment, you can use this section to explain how the financing will help your business grow and how you plan to achieve those growth targets. The key is to provide a clear explanation of the opportunity your business presents to the lender.

For example, if your business is launching a second product line, you might explain how the loan will help your company launch that new product and how much you think sales will increase over the next three years as a result.

» MORE: How to write a successful business plan for a loan

In this section, go into detail about the products or services you offer or plan to offer.

You should include the following:

An explanation of how your product or service works.

The pricing model for your product or service.

The typical customers you serve.

Your supply chain and order fulfillment strategy.

You can also discuss current or pending trademarks and patents associated with your product or service.

Lenders and investors will want to know what sets your product apart from your competition. In your market analysis section , explain who your competitors are. Discuss what they do well, and point out what you can do better. If you’re serving a different or underserved market, explain that.

Here, you can address how you plan to persuade customers to buy your products or services, or how you will develop customer loyalty that will lead to repeat business.

Include details about your sales and distribution strategies, including the costs involved in selling each product .

» MORE: R e a d our complete guide to small business marketing

If you’re a startup, you may not have much information on your business financials yet. However, if you’re an existing business, you’ll want to include income or profit-and-loss statements, a balance sheet that lists your assets and debts, and a cash flow statement that shows how cash comes into and goes out of the company.

Accounting software may be able to generate these reports for you. It may also help you calculate metrics such as:

Net profit margin: the percentage of revenue you keep as net income.

Current ratio: the measurement of your liquidity and ability to repay debts.

Accounts receivable turnover ratio: a measurement of how frequently you collect on receivables per year.

This is a great place to include charts and graphs that make it easy for those reading your plan to understand the financial health of your business.

This is a critical part of your business plan if you’re seeking financing or investors. It outlines how your business will generate enough profit to repay the loan or how you will earn a decent return for investors.

Here, you’ll provide your business’s monthly or quarterly sales, expenses and profit estimates over at least a three-year period — with the future numbers assuming you’ve obtained a new loan.

Accuracy is key, so carefully analyze your past financial statements before giving projections. Your goals may be aggressive, but they should also be realistic.

NerdWallet’s picks for setting up your business finances:

The best business checking accounts .

The best business credit cards .

The best accounting software .

Before the end of your business plan, summarize how your business is structured and outline each team’s responsibilities. This will help your readers understand who performs each of the functions you’ve described above — making and selling your products or services — and how much each of those functions cost.

If any of your employees have exceptional skills, you may want to include their resumes to help explain the competitive advantage they give you.

Finally, attach any supporting information or additional materials that you couldn’t fit in elsewhere. That might include:

Licenses and permits.

Equipment leases.

Bank statements.

Details of your personal and business credit history, if you’re seeking financing.

If the appendix is long, you may want to consider adding a table of contents at the beginning of this section.

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.

Here are some tips to write a detailed, convincing business plan:

Avoid over-optimism: If you’re applying for a business bank loan or professional investment, someone will be reading your business plan closely. Providing unreasonable sales estimates can hurt your chances of approval.

Proofread: Spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors can jump off the page and turn off lenders and prospective investors. If writing and editing aren't your strong suit, you may want to hire a professional business plan writer, copy editor or proofreader.

Use free resources: SCORE is a nonprofit association that offers a large network of volunteer business mentors and experts who can help you write or edit your business plan. The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Centers , which provide free business consulting and help with business plan development, can also be a resource.

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Dr. Forman is the founder and director of the Management Communication Program at the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. In this capacity, she teaches communication strategy and practices in the full-time and executive MBA programs and trains a staff who teach communications across the curriculum. She has taught corporate communication for the last decade as a faculty advisor for more than a hundred MBA "Living Cases," which are extended international strategic studies for multi-national companies, such as Microsoft, Hughes, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Disney, and for start-up firms in Austria, Australia, Chile, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Spain, New Zealand, and the United States. The Fully-Employed MBA Program and the Global Access Program (GAP) in which she teaches business planning and investor communications were ranked first in the United States by Business Week in 2008. She was a founding faculty member of the GAP program.

She was named the outstanding researcher in 1995 by the Association for Business Communication. The award is based on her entire publication record and its pivotal role in extending research in her discipline and in educating managers. She is the recipient of numerous awards for research, including fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the Center for International Business Education and Research, the Council of Public Relations Firms, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Her book, The Power of Corporate Communication, written with Professor Paul Argenti of the Tuck School, won the Distinguished Publication Award for 2003 from the Association for Business Communication. Dr. Forman has published three other books, including The Random House Guide to Business Writing, and numerous articles in publications such as The Journal of Business Communication, Technical Communication Quarterly, The Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Corporate Reputation Review, and Strategy & Business. She is a frequent presenter at international research and business forums and in on the editorial board of Business Communication Quarterly.

Dr. Forman is under contract with Stanford University Press for a book on storytelling and organizations, a project partially funded by the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at UCLA's Anderson School of Management. Her current research focuses on storytelling ("When Stories Create an Organization's Future," Strategy & Business ; "Leaders as Storytellers: Finding Waldo," Business Communication Quarterly) as well as on the related subjects of the role of communication in the implementation of organizational strategy ("The Communication Advantage" in Hatch et al., The Expressive Organization, Oxford University Press, and featured as one of the outstanding articles in management in The Financial Times Book of Management) and the role of storytelling and translation in producing effective strategic communications ("More than Survival: The Discipline of Business Communication and the Uses of Translation," The Journal of Business Communication).

She is the faculty director for the Executive Education Program on Advanced Strategic Management for European-based corporate communication professionals and has consulted to a wide variety of organizations, including Cap Gemini/Ernst & Young, Invesco, Knapp Communications, Colony Capital, the MTA, and BBDO. She has been a visiting professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the University of California at San Diego's Rady School of Business, and the University of Lugano.

Ph.D. 1980, Rutgers College

Communications

Published Papers

Janis Forman. (Second Quarter 1999). When Stories Create an Organization's Future. Strategy & Business, Issue 15.

Janis Forman and Patricia Katsky. (Fall 1986). The Group Report: A Problem in Small Group or Writing Processes. The Journal of Business Communication

Jonathan G. Lasch, Ph.D., is the Executive Director for the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California (AMI-USC), where he brings more than 25 years of experience in science and technology development and evaluation in the fields of biomedical instruments and systems, biotechnology, chemistry, and materials science. He is a Research Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Viterbi School of Engineering and holds a courtesy appointment as a Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship in the Greif Center of the Marshall School of Business at USC.

Prior to joining AMI-USC he served as a Managing Director of Convergent Ventures (CV), an early stage life sciences venture investment and development company. He has served as chairman or member of the boards of directors and CEO of several CV portfolio companies. From 2002-2007, he was on the board of directors of Precision Dynamics Corporation, a privately held healthcare products company, and he currently serves on the board of directors of the Southern California Biomedical Council. Dr. Lasch has held leadership positions at Materia, a materials science company spun out of Caltech, where he served as founding President and CEO, and Cyrano Sciences, a Caltech spin- out based on chemical sensor technology. Previously, he served as vice president, technology development for The Scripps Research Institute, the largest not-for-profit biomedical research institute in the United States and was director of research, biotechnology, for PPG Industries.

He is entering his sixth year as a UCLA Anderson FEMBA GAP faculty advisor, and he served two years as the Director of the EMBA Field Study Program.

B.S. Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin

Phone: (310) 825-3564 / Fax: (310) 267-2193

Since 1995, Eric has been a lecturer in accounting and real estate at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management, where he has been voted Teacher of the Year thirteen times by Anderson's MBA students, and has been awarded the Citibank Teaching Award (1998) and the Neidorf Decade Teaching Award (2008), both voted upon by a committee of faculty members. He has also received recognition by Businessweek as one of the Top Ten Most Popular Business School Professors in the country.

He teaches in the areas of cost/managerial accounting, financial accounting (beginning through advanced), financial statement analysis, equity valuation, corporate financial reporting, and real estate investment and finance to undergraduate, graduate, and Executive Education students. He created Insight FSA, an analytical software tool to automatically and critically measure, evaluate, and report upon the financial accounting and corporate reporting risk for all public companies via Edgar On-line.

In addition, he has advised numerous Full-time and Fully Employed MBA field study teams and consulted for large and small firms, nationally and globally, and is a frequent lecturer on varied financial, accounting, and corporate reporting topics. He has led student travel groups to Brazil, China, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi. He has served as an expert witness and consultant for commercial litigation, involving matters of corporate financial reporting and disclosure, audit effectiveness, valuation, real estate due diligence and related practices, and overall damage analyses.

Outside of campus, Mr. Sussman is president of Amber Capital, Inc., Manager of Fountain Management, LLC and Clear Capital, LLC, and Managing Partner of Sequoia Real Estate Partners, and the Pacific Value Opportunities Funds, which have acquired, rehabilitated, developed, and managed over two million square feet of residential and commercial real estate in the past 20 years. The firms' portfolio presently consists of industrial, multi-family residential, single-family residential, and retail properties (approximately 2,200 residential units and some 500,000 square feet of commercial space).

He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Causeway Capital's group of funds (International Value, Emerging Markets, Global Value, and Global Absolute Return Funds, which collectively have in excess of $5.0 billion in assets), sits on the Board of Directors of Pacific Charter School Development, Inc. and Bentley-Forbes, LLC; and was former Chairman of the Presidio Fund and former Audit Committee Chair of Atlantic Inertial Systems, Inc., a producer and manufacturer of electromagnetic sensors. He received his MBA from Stanford, with honors, in 1993, after graduating Summa cum Laude from UCLA in 1987. He is a licensed CPA in the State of California.

Teaching Focus

Issues in Corporate Financial Reporting, Financial Statement Analysis and Valuation, Complex Deals, Cost Measurement and Evaluation, Real Estate Investment and Finance

MBA 1993, Stanford University B.A. Business and Economics, 1987, UCLA

Auditing, Financial Statement Analysis, Fraud Detection, Personal Finance, Real Estate, Asset Valuation, Shareholder Litigation, Cost Evaluation and Measurement

Recognition

Neidorf 'Decade' Award

[email protected]

UCLA Anderson School of Management in 1985, Peter Cowen has been a technology serial entrepreneur, angel investor, advisor to startups and an investment banker. Today, he is Managing Director at Sutton Capital Partners a middle market technology advisory firm. The focus is on enterprise and Saas software, digital technology and tech- enabled outsourced services. He is currently on the board of 4 venture-backed companies.

Previously, Mr. Cowen co-founded three companies that were sold to strategic investors—one in computer networks (DataVoice Solutions Inc.), another in biometric security (Biometric ID Inc) and the other in logistic fleet optimization (TransDecisions Inc.). After selling his first company he traveled around the world for a year, primarily in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and has visited over 40 countries.

Mr. Cowen has been an angel investor in over 50 early stage companies and VC funds, primarily in digital technology, including Cognition(sold to Nuance NSDQ: NUAN), StyleHaul (sold to Bertelsmann) , Mind Body, Inc. (NSDQ: MB), Pulse (NSDQ: PLSE) and ESalon. He is a foundingmember of Tech Coast Angels, Los Angeles, part of the largest angel network in the country. Before that, he worked in marketing at Unilever and Hewlett Packard, and then worked with the Israeli Export Institute to help Israeli technology companies into the U.S. Mr. Cowen also served on the board of directors of the UCLA Anderson Alumni for over 10 years, and created the “Recurring Revenue Conference” which is the largest conference in Southern California focused on the subscription economy. He has been a GAP advisor for 9 years.

MBA, Finance, UCLA Anderson School of Management

B.A., Psychology, University of Pennsylvania

[email protected]

Daniel Nathanson has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, executive, investor, consultant and educator, with accom- plishments in building businesses, creating financial value, and helping fellow entrepreneurs achieve success. He is a professor of Business Plan Development and New Venture Initiation at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, a position he has held since 2008. In addition to teaching, Dr. Nathanson serves as a faculty advisor to student teams conducting capstone field study projects. In 2010, he became Managing Director of SJ Investment Company (SJIC), an investment fund providing capital, oversight, and direction to high potential, early stage companies that have demonstrated “proof of concept.” SJIC also finances proven operating companies to facilitate strategic growth opportunities.

Dr. Nathanson began his executive career as the EVP and Chief Corporate Planner in charge of Mergers and Acquisitions at Ver- nitron Corporation, a publicly traded medical equipment and diversified electronics firm. As the Executive Vice President, he was responsible for the overall direction and financial performance of the company. He founded and served as CEO of CRS, a nation- wide turnkey point-of-sale computer company. Developing this state-of-the-art technology company from its inception, he guided CRS to become the leading company in its field.

After selling CRS in 1993, Dr. Nathanson accepted a position as Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, where he taught entrepreneurship and business strategy. While at NYU, he founded S.M.A.R.T. Management Consulting, specializing in helping small to mid-size entrepreneurs successfully grow their businesses. He also served as Chairman of two groups of CEOs for Vistage, an international organization of CEOs with over 14,000 members.

Shortly after founding the Washington Square Capital Fund (WSCF), a formalized angel group that invests in early-stage compa- nies, Dr. Nathanson left the Stern School to focus on investing activities and to take active leadership roles in a number of early stage ventures, including the CEO at Tickmark Solutions. In less than 18 months under his leadership, revenues of this software company rose from $500,000 to almost $4 million. In 2002, he engineered the successful sale of Tickmark.

Dr. Nathanson served as CEO and President of a promotional products firm, followed by an asset management venture. He worked with company founders to develop strategies, build infrastructures, raise capital and establish important strategic relationships in order to achieve successful growth and build sustainable value.

Dr. Nathanson is the co-author of Strategy Implementation: The Role of Structure and Process and author of a number of published articles in the area of strategy implementation. He is also a member of the Tech Coast Angels investment organization. He has been a GAP advisor for 7 years.

Ph.D., Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, MBA, NYU’s Graduate School of Business

B.A., Washington University in St. Louis, MO

Terry Kramer has a 30 year career in telecommunications and technology. For 18 of those 25 years, Mr. Kramer worked for Vodafone Group Plc/ AirTouch Communications in a variety of roles domestically and internationally, including Group Strategy and Business Improvement Officer, Regional President, Vodafone Americas which included oversight of Vodafone's 45% interest in Verizon Wireless and Vodafone's venture capital activities, Group Human Resources Officer & Chief of Staff, President AirTouch Paging and Vice President/GM AirTouch Cellular-Southwest Market. In June 2012, Mr. Kramer received an appointment by President Obama to serve as Ambassador, Head of U.S. Delegation for the World Conference on International Telecommunications which was held in December 2012 in Dubai. In this role, he led a 100+ person delegation of U.S. government, industry, and civil society representatives negotiating a treaty on international telecommunications policy. This delegation formulated and communicated the U.S. policy regarding the criticality of a free and open internet, the criticality of inclusive, multi stakeholder governance, the need to proactively address cybersecurity threats and the need for liberalized, open markets which encourage accelerated broadband access in markets worldwide.

Mr. Kramer is currently a full time Adjunct Professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, teaching two courses--the foundational technology management course and a course on the evolution and innovation in the mobile communications industry. He is also a Faculty Advisor in the Global Access Program (GAP) and the Strategic Management Research Program (SMR), advising students working on client assignments involved in new market entry, product development and business strategy. Furthermore, he currently serves as Chair to Thiota. In 2017, he was awarded UCLA Anderson's teaching award from the Fully Employed Executive MBA's. From 2011 to 2013, he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Harvard Business School. Mr. Kramer currently sits on the Boards/Advisory Boards of TeleSign, TangoCard, RapidSOS, Textpert, the Harvard Business School California Research Center, UCLA Economics Department Board of Visitors and is the Chairman of Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco.

MBA, Harvard University

Jeffrey Lapin is the immediate past President of Tech Coast Angels in Los Angeles. He has made over 20 startup investments in the past five years, and serves on many company boards and advises several companies.

Mr. Lapin began his career as an attorney with Mitchell, Silberberg and Knupp in Los Angeles. He then served in various executive capacities with Starwood Hotels & Resorts and its predecessors (NYSE: HOT), from January 1995 to June 1996 as President and Chief Operating Officer, and from May 1991 to January 1995 as President and Chief Executive Officer.

In 1996, Mr. Lapin served as President of House of Blues Hospitality, Inc. and Executive Vice President of House of Blues Entertain-ment, Inc.

Two years later, he began serving as Vice Chairman of THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI), a developer and publisher of interactive soft- ware. During his time with THQ, Mr. Lapin also served as Chief Operating Officer and Director of the company.

Mr. Lapin was the Director and Chief Executive Officer of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), a developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software (sales of $1.2 billion).

From 2009 to 2010, Mr. Lapin served as the Chief Executive Officer of Atari, S.A., a French public company that develops and pub- lishes online and boxed video games and related applications. Prior, Mr. Lapin served as a Director and Chief Executive Officer and President of RazorGator Interactive Group, an ecommerce company which sells secondary event tickets and related services.

Mr. Lapin has served as a private consultant to several companies, including In-Fusio Group, Riverdeep, Ubisoft, Capcom, and Four Queens. He has served and continues to serve as Director of several for profit and nonprofit entities. He has been a GAP advisor for 4 years.

J.D., Loyola Law School B.A., Economics, University of California, Los Angeles

Todd Senturia is a partner based in Bain & Company’s Los Angeles office. Prior to moving to California, Mr. Senturia spent the first part of his Bain career in the Boston office, and three years working in the Asian and Australian practices. He has led projects ranging from corporate and business-unit strategy to the detailed design and implementation of large-scale transformational restructuring and turnaround programs. He has also supported buyer or seller in several merger & acquisition negotiations.

As one of the global leaders of Bain’s Results Delivery/Change Management capability area, Mr. Senturia has personally supported more than 18 large-scale, multi-year client change and transformation programs. He is also a core member of Bain’s performance improvement, organization, tech/telecom and industrial practices. Since 2010, he has also taken on responsibility for co-leading the firm’s internal Professional Development and Training Environment.

Over his career, Mr. Senturia has worked for Bain clients in North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. He has significant depth of experience in the technology and telecom practices, including semiconductors and computers, wireline and wireless telecommunications, and cable television. Mr. Senturia has also served multiple aerospace and defense, industrial, and automotive clients on issues ranging from growth to cost reduction. His consumer products/retail clients have included branded packaged goods, consumer electronics, consumer imaging, and a wide variety of food categories.

Prior to joining Bain, Mr. Senturia spent almost nine years on the senior management team of a small high technology sensor and instrumentation company, where he served most recently as Vice President of Marketing and Sales, as well as Treasurer. He was also a founding board member of Polychromix, a VC-backed startup in the optical sensing sector that was recently purchased by Thermo-Electron.

Mr. Senturia joined UCLA Anderson as an Executive in Residence for Management Consulting in 2011, and became a GAP faculty advisor in 2012.

His Master’s thesis, “Globalizing the Emerging High Technology Company”, was subsequently published in Industrial Marketing Management. Todd Senturia has been a GAP advisor for 4 years.

M.S., Management, MIT Sloan School of Management B.A., East Asian Studies, Harvard College

Gary Hutchinson has over 30+ years of experience in business and entrepreneurship. He served as a panel judge for the Global Access Program (GAP) at The UCLA Anderson School of Management from 2003-2013. In 2014, he accepted a position as faculty advisor to the program.

Mr. Hutchinson currently serves as the President and CEO of Biothelium, a startup focused on the cardiology market with tech- nology developed in conjunction with the Alfred E. Mann Institute at the University of Southern California (AMI) and U.C. San Francisco. He also serves as Entrepreneur in Residence at AMI, which is a non-profit organization that supports research, develop- ment and commercialization of biomedical devices and other technologies. In addition, Mr. Hutchinson is Executive Chairman of Nelson-Miller Inc, a leading company in electronic human interface solutions serving the healthcare, defense and consumer industry markets.

Mr. Hutchinson began his career as the Chairman, President and CEO of Zymed, a privately held company focused on the research, development, production and marketing, and sales of Holter EKG Ambulatory Monitoring Systems, Event Monitoring, In Patient Telemetry Monitoring Systems and Trans-telephonic Systems. Through extensive technology development and strategic alliances, the company became the industry leader in Ambulatory Monitoring and Arrhythmia Detection Algorithms. The company grew to $25M in sales and $5M in EBITDA.

Following the acquisition of Zymed by Philips Medical Systems, Mr. Hutchinson assumed the VP/GM position of the Cardiology Division. The $200M business unit was responsible for manufacturing, research and development, sales and marketing world-wide for non-invasive cardiology products focused on EKG Carts, Holter / Event Monitoring, EKG Data Storage & Analysis Systems and Transtelephonic EKG monitoring. Offices were also maintained in Shanghai, China.

From 2002 to 2010, Mr. Hutchinson served as President and CEO of Precision Dynamics Corporation (PDC), a privately held company is the leading manufacturer of healthcare and patron management identification solutions. In late 2010 he assumed a directorship and executive advisory role through the sale of the company to Brady Corporation in December 2012. The company grew from $43M to $170M in sales, and from $2M to $30M in EBITDA. It established European headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, developed manufacturing operations in Tijuana, Mexico, and partnered with Water Street Healthcare Partners, a Chicago private equity firm. Furthermore, the company acquired the wristband product line from Hollister, Inc., (Libertyville, IL) and TimeMed Labeling Systems, Inc. (Burr Ridge, IL).

Mr. Hutchinson has served on ten boards of directors, and contributed as advisor and consultant to twelve assignments.

B.A. in History from Ohio State University, 1971

Molly Schmid has specific expertise in guiding early stage companies and technology commercialization, stemming from her roles in scientific management, project leadership, and business development in four biotechnology companies. Her career has been about equally split between academia and industry. Currently, she serves primarily as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at USC and as a Senior Counselor for TriTechSBDC.

Dr. Schmid has held senior leadership positions in the biotech industry, where she served as Group Vice President, Life Science at ieCrowd (Riverside, CA), Senior Vice President of Preclinical Programs at Affinium Pharmaceuticals (Toronto, ON), Director of Genomics and Bioinformatics at Genencor International (Palo Alto CA), and Vice President of Research Alliances at Microcide Pharmaceuticals (Mountain View, CA).

In these companies, she was part of executive teams that raised over $200MM in funding through venture capital, corporate partnerships, public markets, and US and Canadian federal research grants. Her experiences with these companies included two IPO’s, two compounds that entered human clinical trials, international, multi-year, multi-million dollar corporate partnerships with a number of companies, including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Daiichi Pharmaceuticals, and building and managing first-rate scientific teams, while satisfying the business needs of the organizations. She has nine issued U.S. patents, and several others pending.

She began her career in academia, where she has had a distinguished career. Most recently, she was Professor and Entrepreneur- in-Residence at Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences in Claremont, CA and formerly an Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. In addition, she has held adjunct professor positions at the University of Southern California (Marshall School of Business), San Diego State University (Biology), and Claremont Graduate University (Drucker School of Management). Dr. Schmid has served on numerous NSF and NIH grant review panels, and served as chair of an NIH SBIR/STTR grant review panel for several years. She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, a Searle Scholar, and a Damon-Runyon Fellow.

She has embedded herself in the Southern California entrepreneurial community since moving here in 2005. She is a member and past president of the Inland SoCal Tech Coast Angels, a member of the TCA Board of Governors (2011-2014), and a Senior Counselor for TriTech Small Business Development Center. Molly Schmid has been a GAP advisor for 3 years.

Ph.D., Biology University of Utah B.S., Biology, University at Albany - SUNY

Business Creation Project

BCP Success Story: Bellanove (Class of 2017)

BellaNove offers a monthly rental service for modern, sophisticated, professional maternity clothing items, aiming to help all women stay sharp and stylish from boardrooms to doctor check-ups with less hassle and fuss.

BellaNove Founder and Wolfen Fellow, Jenny Leung (’17) launched the company October 2017.

BCP Mentors

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Subject to minimum liquidity requirements, the Fund may hold the stock of any publicly traded U.S. firm on an approved list of stocks. A portion of the long-term profits of the fund will be donated to the UCLA Anderson School of Management for support in student scholarships and for support of research in finance.

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MBA 541 - Global Business Plan Project Resource Guide

Phase One: Choosing a Company and Global Business Opportunity
Phase Two: Planning the Global Enterprise
Phase Three: Organizing Global Business Activities
Phase Four: Implementing the Global Marketing Plan

Resource Guide Overview

Every organization conducts research to plan and implement a business idea. This resource guide is designed to help you find the resources necessary to build the foundation for an international business plan. These steps offer flexibility for many settings related to global business enterprises. The guide may be used for planning global expansion of an existing product or service or may be used to research a new foreign business opportunity. Each phase and section in this guide contains a research component or goal that will help you build your Global Business Plan for MBA 541.

The final result of your global plan may be in one of the following formats:

a written report with supplementary tables and visuals
an oral presentation with visuals
a summary in a poster format or other visual display (website, video, newsletter)

For more information about this project, please refer to your online course shell. Please direct any questions about assignment expectations or requirements to your instructor. Any questions about resources or research tips presented in this guide can be directed towards Ask a Librarian.

Note about research

Keep in mind that you may not explicitly find the information for every component listed in this guide. Rather, be prepared to create data by extrapolating, inferring, estimating, and making judgments based on related and relevant information. Lastly, while research starters and recommend resources have been included under each section, many of the resources and reports can be applied across multiple steps. Be flexible with how you use and apply the information you find throughout the research process.

Next: Phase One: Choosing a Company and Global Business Opportunity >>
Last Updated: May 14, 2024 4:20 PM

CityU Home - CityU Catalog

24 of My Favorite Sample Business Plans & Examples For Your Inspiration

Published: February 06, 2024

I believe that reading sample business plans is essential when writing your own.

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As you explore business plan examples from real companies and brands, it’s easier for you to learn how to write a good one.

But what does a good business plan look like? And how do you write one that’s both viable and convincing. I’ll walk you through the ideal business plan format along with some examples to help you get started.

Table of Contents

Business Plan Format

Business plan types, sample business plan templates, top business plan examples.

Ask any successful sports coach how they win so many games, and they’ll tell you they have a unique plan for every single game. To me, the same logic applies to business.

If you want to build a thriving company that can pull ahead of the competition, you need to prepare for battle before breaking into a market.

Business plans guide you along the rocky journey of growing a company. And if your business plan is compelling enough, it can also convince investors to give you funding.

With so much at stake, I’m sure you’re wondering where to begin.

Free Business Plan Template

The essential document for starting a business -- custom built for your needs.

Outline your idea.
Pitch to investors.
Secure funding.
Get to work!

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Fill out the form to get your free template.

First, you’ll want to nail down your formatting. Most business plans include the following sections.

1. Executive Summary

I’d say the executive summary is the most important section of the entire business plan.

Why? Essentially, it's the overview or introduction, written in a way to grab readers' attention and guide them through the rest of the business plan. This is important, because a business plan can be dozens or hundreds of pages long.

There are two main elements I’d recommend including in your executive summary:

Company Description

This is the perfect space to highlight your company’s mission statement and goals, a brief overview of your history and leadership, and your top accomplishments as a business.

Tell potential investors who you are and why what you do matters. Naturally, they’re going to want to know who they’re getting into business with up front, and this is a great opportunity to showcase your impact.

Need some extra help firming up those business goals? Check out HubSpot Academy’s free course to help you set goals that matter — I’d highly recommend it

Products and Services

To piggyback off of the company description, be sure to incorporate an overview of your offerings. This doesn’t have to be extensive — just another chance to introduce your industry and overall purpose as a business.

In addition to the items above, I recommend including some information about your financial projections and competitive advantage here too.:

Keep in mind you'll cover many of these topics in more detail later on in the business plan. So, keep the executive summary clear and brief, and only include the most important takeaways.

Executive Summary Business Plan Examples

This example was created with HubSpot’s business plan template:

business plan sample: Executive Summary Example

This executive summary is so good to me because it tells potential investors a short story while still covering all of the most important details.

Business plans examples: Executive Summary

Image Source

Tips for Writing Your Executive Summary

Start with a strong introduction of your company, showcase your mission and impact, and outline the products and services you provide.
Clearly define a problem, and explain how your product solves that problem, and show why the market needs your business.
Be sure to highlight your value proposition, market opportunity, and growth potential.
Keep it concise and support ideas with data.
Customize your summary to your audience. For example, emphasize finances and return on investment for venture capitalists.

Check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary for more guidance.

2. Market Opportunity

This is where you'll detail the opportunity in the market.

The main question I’d ask myself here is this: Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will my product fill that gap?

More specifically, here’s what I’d include in this section:

The size of the market
Current or potential market share
Trends in the industry and consumer behavior
Where the gap is
What caused the gap
How you intend to fill it

To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, you'll want to conduct a TAM, SAM, and SOM analysis and perform market research on your industry.

You may also benefit from creating a SWOT analysis to get some of the insights for this section.

Market Opportunity Business Plan Example

I like this example because it uses critical data to underline the size of the potential market and what part of that market this service hopes to capture.

Business plans examples: Market Opportunity

Tips for Writing Your Market Opportunity Section

Focus on demand and potential for growth.
Use market research, surveys, and industry trend data to support your market forecast and projections.
Add a review of regulation shifts, tech advances, and consumer behavior changes.
Refer to reliable sources.
Showcase how your business can make the most of this opportunity.

3. Competitive Landscape

Since we’re already speaking of market share, you'll also need to create a section that shares details on who the top competitors are.

After all, your customers likely have more than one brand to choose from, and you'll want to understand exactly why they might choose one over another.

My favorite part of performing a competitive analysis is that it can help you uncover:

Industry trends that other brands may not be utilizing
Strengths in your competition that may be obstacles to handle
Weaknesses in your competition that may help you develop selling points
The unique proposition you bring to the market that may resonate with customers

Competitive Landscape Business Plan Example

I like how the competitive landscape section of this business plan below shows a clear outline of who the top competitors are.

Business plans examples: Competitive Landscape

It also highlights specific industry knowledge and the importance of location, which shows useful experience in this specific industry.

This can help build trust in your ability to execute your business plan.

Tips for Writing Your Competitive Landscape

Complete in-depth research, then emphasize your most important findings.
Compare your unique selling proposition (USP) to your direct and indirect competitors.
Show a clear and realistic plan for product and brand differentiation.
Look for specific advantages and barriers in the competitive landscape. Then, highlight how that information could impact your business.
Outline growth opportunities from a competitive perspective.
Add customer feedback and insights to support your competitive analysis.

4. Target Audience

Use this section to describe who your customer segments are in detail. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience?

If your immediate answer is "everyone," you'll need to dig deeper. Here are some questions I’d ask myself here:

What demographics will most likely need/buy your product or service?
What are the psychographics of this audience? (Desires, triggering events, etc.)
Why are your offerings valuable to them?

I’d also recommend building a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and be clear on why you're targeting them.

Target Audience Business Plan Example

I like the example below because it uses in-depth research to draw conclusions about audience priorities. It also analyzes how to create the right content for this audience.

Business plans examples: Target Audience

Tips for Writing Your Target Audience Section

Include details on the size and growth potential of your target audience.
Figure out and refine the pain points for your target audience , then show why your product is a useful solution.
Describe your targeted customer acquisition strategy in detail.
Share anticipated challenges your business may face in acquiring customers and how you plan to address them.
Add case studies, testimonials, and other data to support your target audience ideas.
Remember to consider niche audiences and segments of your target audience in your business plan.

5. Marketing Strategy

Here, you'll discuss how you'll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. I’d suggest including information:

Your brand positioning vision and how you'll cultivate it
The goal targets you aim to achieve
The metrics you'll use to measure success
The channels and distribution tactics you'll use

I think it’s helpful to have a marketing plan built out in advance to make this part of your business plan easier.

Marketing Strategy Business Plan Example

This business plan example includes the marketing strategy for the town of Gawler.

In my opinion, it really works because it offers a comprehensive picture of how they plan to use digital marketing to promote the community.

Business plans examples: Marketing Strategy

Tips for Writing Your Marketing Strategy

Include a section about how you believe your brand vision will appeal to customers.
Add the budget and resources you'll need to put your plan in place.
Outline strategies for specific marketing segments.
Connect strategies to earlier sections like target audience and competitive analysis.
Review how your marketing strategy will scale with the growth of your business.
Cover a range of channels and tactics to highlight your ability to adapt your plan in the face of change.

6. Key Features and Benefits

At some point in your business plan, you'll need to review the key features and benefits of your products and/or services.

Laying these out can give readers an idea of how you're positioning yourself in the market and the messaging you're likely to use. It can even help them gain better insight into your business model.

Key Features and Benefits Business Plan Example

In my opinion, the example below does a great job outlining products and services for this business, along with why these qualities will attract the audience.

Business plans examples: Key Features and Benefits

Tips for Writing Your Key Features and Benefits

Emphasize why and how your product or service offers value to customers.
Use metrics and testimonials to support the ideas in this section.
Talk about how your products and services have the potential to scale.
Think about including a product roadmap.
Focus on customer needs, and how the features and benefits you are sharing meet those needs.
Offer proof of concept for your ideas, like case studies or pilot program feedback.
Proofread this section carefully, and remove any jargon or complex language.

7. Pricing and Revenue

This is where you'll discuss your cost structure and various revenue streams. Your pricing strategy must be solid enough to turn a profit while staying competitive in the industry.

For this reason, here’s what I’d might outline in this section:

The specific pricing breakdowns per product or service
Why your pricing is higher or lower than your competition's
(If higher) Why customers would be willing to pay more
(If lower) How you're able to offer your products or services at a lower cost
When you expect to break even, what margins do you expect, etc?

Pricing and Revenue Business Plan Example

I like how this business plan example begins with an overview of the business revenue model, then shows proposed pricing for key products.

Business plans examples: Pricing and Revenue

Tips for Writing Your Pricing and Revenue Section

Get specific about your pricing strategy. Specifically, how you connect that strategy to customer needs and product value.
If you are asking a premium price, share unique features or innovations that justify that price point.
Show how you plan to communicate pricing to customers.
Create an overview of every revenue stream for your business and how each stream adds to your business model as a whole.
Share plans to develop new revenue streams in the future.
Show how and whether pricing will vary by customer segment and how pricing aligns with marketing strategies.
Restate your value proposition and explain how it aligns with your revenue model.

8. Financials

To me, this section is particularly informative for investors and leadership teams to figure out funding strategies, investment opportunities, and more.

According to Forbes , you'll want to include three main things:

Profit/Loss Statement - This answers the question of whether your business is currently profitable.
Cash Flow Statement - This details exactly how much cash is incoming and outgoing to give insight into how much cash a business has on hand.
Balance Sheet - This outlines assets, liabilities, and equity, which gives insight into how much a business is worth.

While some business plans might include more or less information, these are the key details I’d include in this section.

Financials Business Plan Example

This balance sheet is a great example of level of detail you’ll need to include in the financials section of your business plan.

Tips for Writing Your Financials Section

Growth potential is important in this section too. Using your data, create a forecast of financial performance in the next three to five years.
Include any data that supports your projections to assure investors of the credibility of your proposal.
Add a break-even analysis to show that your business plan is financially practical. This information can also help you pivot quickly as your business grows.
Consider adding a section that reviews potential risks and how sensitive your plan is to changes in the market.
Triple-check all financial information in your plan for accuracy.
Show how any proposed funding needs align with your plans for growth.

As you create your business plan, keep in mind that each of these sections will be formatted differently. Some may be in paragraph format, while others could be charts or graphs.

The formats above apply to most types of business plans. That said, the format and structure of your plan will vary by your goals for that plan.

So, I’ve added a quick review of different business plan types. For a more detailed overview, check out this post .

1. Startups

Startup business plans are for proposing new business ideas.

If you’re planning to start a small business, preparing a business plan is crucial. The plan should include all the major factors of your business.

You can check out this guide for more detailed business plan inspiration .

2. Feasibility Studies

Feasibility business plans focus on that business's product or service. Feasibility plans are sometimes added to startup business plans. They can also be a new business plan for an already thriving organization.

3. Internal Use

You can use internal business plans to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders. In my opinion, internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals.

4. Strategic Initiatives

Another business plan that's often for sharing internally is a strategic business plan. This plan covers long-term business objectives that might not have been included in the startup business plan.

5. Business Acquisition or Repositioning

When a business is moving forward with an acquisition or repositioning, it may need extra structure and support. These types of business plans expand on a company's acquisition or repositioning strategy.

Growth sometimes just happens as a business continues operations. But more often, a business needs to create a structure with specific targets to meet set goals for expansion. This business plan type can help a business focus on short-term growth goals and align resources with those goals.

Now that you know what's included and how to format a business plan, let's review some of my favorite templates.

1. HubSpot's One-Page Business Plan

Download a free, editable one-page business plan template..

The business plan linked above was created here at HubSpot and is perfect for businesses of any size — no matter how many strategies we still have to develop.

Fields such as Company Description, Required Funding, and Implementation Timeline give this one-page business plan a framework for how to build your brand and what tasks to keep track of as you grow.

Then, as the business matures, you can expand on your original business plan with a new iteration of the above document.

Why I Like It

This one-page business plan is a fantastic choice for the new business owner who doesn’t have the time or resources to draft a full-blown business plan. It includes all the essential sections in an accessible, bullet-point-friendly format. That way, you can get the broad strokes down before honing in on the details.

2. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

Sample business plan: hubspot free editable pdf

We also created a business plan template for entrepreneurs.

The template is designed as a guide and checklist for starting your own business. You’ll learn what to include in each section of your business plan and how to do it.

There’s also a list for you to check off when you finish each section of your business plan.

Strong game plans help coaches win games and help businesses rocket to the top of their industries. So if you dedicate the time and effort required to write a workable and convincing business plan, you’ll boost your chances of success and even dominance in your market.

This business plan kit is essential for the budding entrepreneur who needs a more extensive document to share with investors and other stakeholders.

It not only includes sections for your executive summary, product line, market analysis, marketing plan, and sales plan, but it also offers hands-on guidance for filling out those sections.

3. LiveFlow’s Financial Planning Template with built-in automation

This free template from LiveFlow aims to make it easy for businesses to create a financial plan and track their progress on a monthly basis.

The P&L Budget versus Actual format allows users to track their revenue, cost of sales, operating expenses, operating profit margin, net profit, and more.

The summary dashboard aggregates all of the data put into the financial plan sheet and will automatically update when changes are made.

Instead of wasting hours manually importing your data to your spreadsheet, LiveFlow can also help you to automatically connect your accounting and banking data directly to your spreadsheet, so your numbers are always up-to-date.

With the dashboard, you can view your runway, cash balance, burn rate, gross margins, and other metrics. Having a simple way to track everything in one place will make it easier to complete the financials section of your business plan.

This is a fantastic template to track performance and alignment internally and to create a dependable process for documenting financial information across the business. It’s highly versatile and beginner-friendly.

It’s especially useful if you don’t have an accountant on the team. (I always recommend you do, but for new businesses, having one might not be possible.)

4. ThoughtCo’s Sample Business Plan

One of the more financially oriented sample business plans in this list, BPlan’s free business plan template dedicates many of its pages to your business’s financial plan and financial statements.

After filling this business plan out, your company will truly understand its financial health and the steps you need to take to maintain or improve it.

I absolutely love this business plan template because of its ease-of-use and hands-on instructions (in addition to its finance-centric components). If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of writing an entire business plan, consider using this template to help you with the process.

6. Harvard Business Review’s "How to Write a Winning Business Plan"

Most sample business plans teach you what to include in your business plan, but this Harvard Business Review article will take your business plan to the next level — it teaches you the why and how behind writing a business plan.

With the guidance of Stanley Rich and Richard Gumpert, co-authors of " Business Plans That Win: Lessons From the MIT Enterprise Forum ", you'll learn how to write a convincing business plan that emphasizes the market demand for your product or service.

You’ll also learn the financial benefits investors can reap from putting money into your venture rather than trying to sell them on how great your product or service is.

This business plan guide focuses less on the individual parts of a business plan, and more on the overarching goal of writing one. For that reason, it’s one of my favorites to supplement any template you choose to use. Harvard Business Review’s guide is instrumental for both new and seasoned business owners.

7. HubSpot’s Complete Guide to Starting a Business

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know writing a business plan is one of the most challenging first steps to starting a business.

Fortunately, with HubSpot's comprehensive guide to starting a business, you'll learn how to map out all the details by understanding what to include in your business plan and why it’s important to include them. The guide also fleshes out an entire sample business plan for you.

If you need further guidance on starting a business, HubSpot's guide can teach you how to make your business legal, choose and register your business name, and fund your business. It will also give small business tax information and includes marketing, sales, and service tips.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of starting a business, in addition to writing your business plan, with a high level of exactitude and detail. So if you’re in the midst of starting your business, this is an excellent guide for you.

It also offers other resources you might need, such as market analysis templates.

8. Panda Doc’s Free Business Plan Template

PandaDoc’s free business plan template is one of the more detailed and fleshed-out sample business plans on this list. It describes what you should include in each section, so you don't have to come up with everything from scratch.

Once you fill it out, you’ll fully understand your business’ nitty-gritty details and how all of its moving parts should work together to contribute to its success.

This template has two things I love: comprehensiveness and in-depth instructions. Plus, it’s synced with PandaDoc’s e-signature software so that you and other stakeholders can sign it with ease. For that reason, I especially love it for those starting a business with a partner or with a board of directors.

9. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

sample business plan: Small Business Administration

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers several free business plan templates that can be used to inspire your own plan.

Before you get started, you can decide what type of business plan you need — a traditional or lean start-up plan.

Then, you can review the format for both of those plans and view examples of what they might look like.

We love both of the SBA’s templates because of their versatility. You can choose between two options and use the existing content in the templates to flesh out your own plan. Plus, if needed, you can get a free business counselor to help you along the way.

I’ve compiled some completed business plan samples to help you get an idea of how to customize a plan for your business.

I chose different types of business plan ideas to expand your imagination. Some are extensive, while others are fairly simple.

Let’s take a look.

1. LiveFlow

One of the major business expenses is marketing. How you handle your marketing reflects your company’s revenue.

I included this business plan to show you how you can ensure your marketing team is aligned with your overall business plan to get results. The plan also shows you how to track even the smallest metrics of your campaigns, like ROI and payback periods instead of just focusing on big metrics like gross and revenue.

Fintech startup, LiveFlow, allows users to sync real-time data from its accounting services, payment platforms, and banks into custom reports. This eliminates the task of pulling reports together manually, saving teams time and helping automate workflows.

"Using this framework over a traditional marketing plan will help you set a profitable marketing strategy taking things like CAC, LTV, Payback period, and P&L into consideration," explains LiveFlow co-founder, Lasse Kalkar .

When it came to including marketing strategy in its business plan, LiveFlow created a separate marketing profit and loss statement (P&L) to track how well the company was doing with its marketing initiatives.

This is a great approach, allowing businesses to focus on where their marketing dollars are making the most impact. Having this information handy will enable you to build out your business plan’s marketing section with confidence. LiveFlow has shared the template here . You can test it for yourself.

2. Lula Body

Sometimes all you need is a solid mission statement and core values to guide you on how to go about everything. You do this by creating a business plan revolving around how to fulfill your statement best.

For example, Patagonia is an eco-friendly company, so their plan discusses how to make the best environmentally friendly products without causing harm.

A good mission statement should not only resonate with consumers but should also serve as a core value compass for employees as well.

Patagonia has one of the most compelling mission statements I’ve seen:

"Together, let’s prioritise purpose over profit and protect this wondrous planet, our only home."

It reels you in from the start, and the environmentally friendly theme continues throughout the rest of the statement.

This mission goes on to explain that they are out to "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to protect nature."

Their mission statement is compelling and detailed, with each section outlining how they will accomplish their goal.

4. Vesta Home Automation

business plan example: Vesta executive summary

This executive summary for a smart home device startup is part of a business plan created by students at Mount Royal University .

While it lacks some of the sleek visuals of the templates above, its executive summary does a great job of demonstrating how invested they are in the business.

Right away, they mention they’ve invested $200,000 into the company already, which shows investors they have skin in the game and aren’t just looking for someone else to foot the bill.

This is the kind of business plan you need when applying for business funds. It clearly illustrates the expected future of the company and how the business has been coming along over the years.

5. NALB Creative Center

business plan examples: nalb creative center

This fictional business plan for an art supply store includes everything one might need in a business plan: an executive summary, a company summary, a list of services, a market analysis summary, and more.

One of its most notable sections is its market analysis summary, which includes an overview of the population growth in the business’ target geographical area, as well as a breakdown of the types of potential customers they expect to welcome at the store.

This sort of granular insight is essential for understanding and communicating your business’s growth potential. Plus, it lays a strong foundation for creating relevant and useful buyer personas .

It’s essential to keep this information up-to-date as your market and target buyer changes. For that reason, you should carry out market research as often as possible to ensure that you’re targeting the correct audience and sharing accurate information with your investors.

Due to its comprehensiveness, it’s an excellent example to follow if you’re opening a brick-and-mortar store and need to get external funding to start your business .

6. Curriculum Companion Suites (CSS)

business plan examples: curriculum companion suites

If you’re looking for a SaaS business plan example, look no further than this business plan for a fictional educational software company called Curriculum Companion Suites.

Like the business plan for the NALB Creative Center, it includes plenty of information for prospective investors and other key stakeholders in the business.

One of the most notable features of this business plan is the executive summary, which includes an overview of the product, market, and mission.

The first two are essential for software companies because the product offering is so often at the forefront of the company’s strategy. Without that information being immediately available to investors and executives, then you risk writing an unfocused business plan.

It’s essential to front-load your company’s mission if it explains your "Why?" and this example does just that. In other words, why do you do what you do, and why should stakeholders care? This is an important section to include if you feel that your mission will drive interest in the business and its offerings.

7. Culina Sample Business Plan

Culina's sample business plan is an excellent example of how to lay out your business plan so that it flows naturally, engages readers, and provides the critical information investors and stakeholders need.

You can use this template as a guide while you're gathering important information for your own business plan. You'll have a better understanding of the data and research you need to do since Culina’s plan outlines these details so flawlessly for inspiration.

8. Plum Sample Business Plan

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Answered By: Cynthia Thomes Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024 Views: 6777

Project 4 for MBA 670 asks you to choose a product and country from lists provided in your classroom and to then create a business plan that discusses how you could expand a company's business into your chosen country by introducing your chosen product to that country.

Following is information that should help you find the information that you've been asked to include in your business plan.

Main competitors : One way to find the main companies that already offer the product that you chose in the country that you chose is to find the NAICS code that applies to the product's industry (see the information in your classroom and/or NAICS Codes for more information about how to find an industry's NAICS code; many medical devices, for instance, will have NAICS code 334510 , which covers electromedical and electrotherapeutic apparatus manufacturing, or NAICS code 334516 , which covers analytical laboratory instrument manufacturing, or NAICS code 339113 , which covers surgical appliance and supplies manufacturing) and to then run an industry search in Hoovers for that NAICS code. On the industry overview page, scroll down to the Geographic Segmentation section and click on the hyperlinked number in the Companies column to see a list of companies. (Note that you may need to click on the “Show Rows with Values Less Than 5% of Total” link in order to see the country that you chose.) Alternately, if you know the name of a company that makes the product that you chose in the country that you chose, you can use databases such as Business Market Research Collection , Business Source Ultimate , Hoovers , and Nexis Uni to look up the company and find its competitors. For more information about finding a company's competitors, see Finding a Company's Competitors .
Forecasted market and segment growth: See Business Research: Trends and Projections for tips on finding industry forecasts, including financial forecasts. If you're having trouble finding forecasts for the specific product that you chose, you may need to broaden your search to find forecasts for the broader category that includes the product that you chose (e.g., instead of looking for forecasts for incubators for babies, you may need to look for forecasts for medical devices/equipment).

You may be able to find relevant forecasts in Statista by running a search for your chosen product and country -- for example:

(Note that, unlike most other library databases, Statista uses an implied AND ; you shouldn't enter AND between search terms.)

You may also need to make educated inferences about the need for the product that you chose in the country that you chose based on the country's demographics. see Business Research: Finding Demographic or Psychographic Information for search tips.

Competitive edge: Since you need to discuss ways that your company could gain a competitive edge over other companies, one way to find an area where your company could stand out would be to look at SWOT analyses for some of the companies that you identified as being competitors to your company; the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that others have found for those companies should give you some ideas of how your company could set itself apart from the competition. To find companies’ SWOT analyses, see Business Research: SWOT Analysis
Value chain activity relocation: Use the course material and links in your classroom to help you decide which activity or activities from your company’s value chain you might want to relocate to your chosen country.
Legal business entity to market the chosen product in the chosen country: Use the course material and links in your classroom to help you determine the best mode of entry for introducing your chosen product to your chosen country.
Impact of the chosen country’s legal, ethical, and cultural standards on the company’s operations in the country: Use the course material and links in your classroom to help you understand how your company’s expansion to your chosen country might be affected by formal or informal structures in place in that country.

For additional information about starting or expanding a business into a particular country, you might also want to consult:

Santander's Establish Overseas guides and/or Analyze Markets guides
The World Bank’s Doing Business guides
Michigan State University’s globalEDGE country information
the International Monetary Fund’s country information
Lex Mundi’s Guides to Doing Business
the Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration’s Country Commercial Guides
Nexis Uni’s BMI Country Risk Reports
Statista's Country & Region Reports

You may also want to use databases such as ABI/INFORM Collection and Business Source Ultimate to search for articles that discuss the market for your chosen product in your chosen country or that discuss regulations that could affect how your product might fare in the country, etc. To do that, you can run searches such as:

[product] AND [country] AND market*
[product] AND [country] AND (customer* OR consumer* OR purchaser* OR buyer*)
[product] AND [country] AND (law* OR regulation*)

If you need further assistance with finding information for project 4, please Ask a Librarian .

If you have questions about the requirements for project 4, please contact your instructor.

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The Business Plan

Brief and Easy explanation, and a Guide for beginners and professionals about preparing and presenting a Business Plan and its content

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Yasin A Barre

The study aimed at determining the effect of strategic planning on financial performance of commercial bank in Mogadishu. The study was three objectives to examine the effect of goal setting on financial performance of commercial bank in Mogadishu, to identify the effect of generic strategies on financial performance of commercial bank in Mogadishu, to explain the effect of monitoring and evaluation on financial performance of commercial bank in Mogadishu A comprehensive literature review has been undertaken to understand various aspects of strategic planning as reviewed by other authors and researchers. The chapter has addressed the effects of goal setting on financial performance; effects of Generic strategies implementation on financial performance and effects of strategy monitoring and evaluation on financial performance Descriptive design was employed in the study. The population under study was 80 employees' working at two banks in Mogadishu IBS bank and Premier bank. Sample random sampling was used select the respondents into the study. A sample size of 67 participants was targeted in the study. The collection of primary data was facilitated through the use of questionnaires. The study found out that goal-setting was positive relationship with financial performance in commercial bank. The findings further indicated that there was a low positive correlation between goal-setting and financial performance (r=0.392; p=0.001). Generic strategies were low positive correlation between generic strategies and financial performance rated among the strategic planning of commercial bank (r=0.358; p=0.003). The study further found Strategic monitoring and evaluation was medium positive correlation with financial performance (r=0.608; p=0.000). In conclusion strategic planning have medium positive correlation of financial performance(r = .570; p=0.000) Since respondents agreed that strategic planning is more influenced factor in financial performance, researcher recommended giving them high effort, and Management of the institution is encouraged to enlarge their products and services to whole society.

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Charting your MBA path: Helpful tips from the Class of 2024

Evening and Weekend MBA

Graduates in the Class of 2024 give their best advice to future generations of Kellogg students. Check out what they have to say.

The student experience at Kellogg is full of ways to get involved, learn and grow — from global opportunities and its extensive immersive learning experiences to its rich community on campus that participates in creating impact and paying it forward.

Starting business school is an exciting chapter of your life that will bring about a myriad of new experiences. Whether you're just starting your MBA journey or already deep into it, we’ve collected a roundup of advice and perspectives to help you make the most out of your time at Kellogg.

Graduates in the Class of 2024 gave their best advice here to future generations of Kellogg students. Here’s what they had to say:

Bushra Amiwala ’24 Evening & Weekend MBA

“Entering business school is a time where you have an opportunity to slightly re-brand yourself. While at Kellogg, you will learn just as much about yourself personally, as you will acquire business knowledge if you truly lean into how you show up authentically in a professional space.”

Peter Good Dissinger ’24 Two-Year MBA

“Be intentional in seeking out hands-on learning opportunities and one-on-ones with professors. In particular, I recommend cultivating personal relationships with two or three professors by going above and beyond in their classes: Visit them at office hours, participate regularly in class and submit high quality homework.

“The three professors I’ve invested in were extremely excited when I asked to do more with them outside of a class setting. I conducted independent studies (self-directed projects that I conducted while advised by faculty) with two of those professors and was a teaching and research assistant for the third. Those learning experiences were professionally transformative and defined my second year at Kellogg.”

Corin Hernandez ’24 Evening & Weekend MBA

“This is your chance to push yourself out of your comfort zone in a low-risk high reward environment. Take advantage of every opportunity whether through clubs, experiential classes, networking events, study abroad opportunities and/or case competitions. Don't forget, we are all trying to ‘figure it out’ and are here to learn! No one here has all the answers.”

“Carve out time to relax, recharge and reflect throughout your time at Kellogg. Time constantly feels like it is moving at the speed of a bullet train. This creates a pressure to do more and go to more events which ironically reduces your ability to process these experiences.”

Swetha Medapati ’24 Two-Year MBA Program at Kellogg

Swetha Medapati ’24 Two-Year MBA Program “As they say, ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO) is real. However, getting carried away by that usually results in you not getting the most out of the Kellogg experience. “Choose your priorities for each quarter — while ensuring to diversify them each time — and focus on them to make the most out of your time here. Avoid making one priority, including recruitment, your sole focus; creating balance will ensure a fulfilling Kellogg experience. “And, most importantly, don’t shy away from trying new things and seeking new experiences. You might discover a new side of yourself here!”

Jeffrey Ng ’24 MMM Program “Carve out time to relax, recharge and reflect throughout your time at Kellogg. Time constantly feels like it is moving at the speed of a bullet train. This creates a pressure to do more and go to more events which ironically reduces your ability to process these experiences.

“Whether it’s taking a walk around the lakefill or journaling at the coffee shop on a Sunday morning, taking time for just you and your thoughts enables you to slow down, be more intentional and make the most of your time here.”

Bre Thomas ’24 Two-Year MBA

“The MBA will steal time you didn’t know you had. Be sure to make time for the things that you love and that keep you grounded. “Your classmates are your greatest resource while here! I’ve been able to reach out to my peers about payment transactions in Colombia as well as understanding diversity in risk management careers. If I need help, I can rely on my peers to offer a helping hand.”

Priyanka Toddywala ’24 Two-Year MBA at Kellogg

Priyanka Toddywala ’24 Two-Year MBA “Business school is very much ‘choose your own adventure.’ I recommend you actively create the opportunities you want to have. That means being intentional about the people you want to become closer to, events you want to attend and firms you recruit for. “The opportunities at Kellogg are endless, and you can’t expect your ideal experience to just happen. My advice would be to actively work towards the experience you envision. Whether it be hosting an event you’ve been thinking about or planning a trip to somewhere you’ve been wanting to visit, intentionality matters. Don’t wait for it all to just land in your lap, otherwise, your life will unfold around others’ plans and schedules and not yours. Be in the driver’s seat of your Kellogg experience.”

“Make sure to also get out of your comfort zone and meet others that you likely wouldn’t encounter outside of business school. You may end up missing out on a huge network of connections, and perhaps lifelong friends, by sticking with only those who feel familiar to you.”

Shivani Taskar ’24 Two-Year MBA at Kellogg

Shivani Taskar ’24 Two-Year MBA “My favorite part of the Kellogg experience is the small group dinners (SGDs). Picture a cozy gathering of six to eight students where every gathering is hosted by a classmate in the warmth of their home. Each dinner carries a unique theme, often reflecting the host's personal interests. “I’ve celebrated the Chinese New Year, learned the most scrumptious Swiss raclette recipes, candidly discussed world politics and enjoyed numerous trivia and game nights. SGDs are the most underrated way to discover the breadth of experiences that your classmates have to offer! They’re more than just a meal — they're a doorway to new connections and unforgettable memories.”

Cherry Jessica Tran ’24 Two-Year MBA at Kellogg

Cherry Jessica Tran ’24 Two-Year MBA “When it comes to academics, take a broad range of classes and pay attention to professor course evaluations. Even if the subject matter isn’t 100% what you’re interested in, the world-class Kellogg faculty are experts in engaging and challenging their students — you’ll find yourself learning a ton! Also, take advantage of the academic advisors to help talk through bidding strategy and plan out your classes. “Make sure to also get out of your comfort zone and meet others that you likely wouldn’t encounter outside of business school. You may end up missing out on a huge network of connections, and perhaps lifelong friends, by sticking with only those who feel familiar to you. At the start of the year, everyone is excited and eager to meeting new people, so I encourage you to keep an open mindset throughout your time at Kellogg and beyond.”

Read next: “It’s the people who ultimately won me over,” says a Full-Time MBA student

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COMMENTS

What is an MBA Capstone Project?
An MBA capstone project is the final step in many MBA programs. It's here that MBA students put all that they've learned into practice by analyzing a meaningful and strategic business question. Often, this involves hands-on work within an existing company, but not always: MBA capstone projects can take the form of startup business plans and ...
How To Write A Business Plan (2024 Guide)
Describe Your Services or Products. The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you're offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit ...
Top 100 MBA Project Topics [Updated 2024]
Dive into MBA project topics that ignite your curiosity, challenge your intellect, and leave a lasting impression on your audience. Good luck on your MBA journey! Discover 100 MBA project topics across finance, marketing, HR, operations, and entrepreneurship to boost your career prospects.
550+ Sample Business Plan Examples to Inspire Your Own
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. The structure ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template.
MBA Capstone Project Ideas
The following is a list of thirty ideas for MBA capstone projects: Develop a marketing plan for a new product or service launch. Conduct a customer satisfaction survey and analyze the results. Develop a social media strategy for a business or organization. Create a financial plan for a small business.
Online MBA Capstone Projects and Thesis Guide
An MBA thesis functions similarly to a capstone in some regards, but the two projects maintain notable differences. While capstones address practical business problems, thesis projects draw on original research to contribute new knowledge to the field of business. This section outlines major components of an MBA thesis.
Research Guides: MBAB 5P23: Entrepreneurship: Business Plans
Prepared by Rick Borchardt, Master of Business Administration, The College of St. Scholastica. Business plans in physiotherapy:a practical guide for the non specialist. Physical therapy reviews, 2011-06-01, Vol.16 (3), p.210-227. The sample business plan for Physio Kids (a hypothetical new paediatric physiotherapy clinic service) is presented ...
Top 15 MBA Project Ideas & Topics in 2023 [For Freshers]
5. Entrepreneurial Spirit. Many MBA programs offer specialized tracks or courses in entrepreneurship, providing aspiring business owners with the skills needed to launch and manage their ventures. Exposure to real-world business challenges and opportunities encourages innovative thinking and risk-taking.
PDF Capstone Project Examples
The following are examples typical of past OEMBA Capstone Business Projects: • Business plan for a new start-up venture, or product • Marketing plan and associated financials for a new product or service • Study evaluating the feasibility of establishing an international consultancy • Strategic analysis of how to combat reduced market ...
Research Guides: EMBA Final Project: Sample Business Plans
Great source for sample startup costs and financial plan. Be sure to click the radio button "all volumes" to search all available volumes of Business Plans Handbook. CSUS authentication required. Additional volumes available in print in the library at 2 North Reference HD 62.7 .B865
Business Plan: What It Is + How to Write One
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 ...
11.4 The Business Plan
An in-depth formal business plan would follow at later stages after various iterations to business model canvases. The business plan usually projects financial data over a three-year period and is typically required by banks or other investors to secure funding. The business plan is a roadmap for the company to follow over multiple years.
How to Write a Business Plan: Guide + Examples
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 ...
MBA Project
The final MBA project is personalised according to your post-MBA goals, so you can opt for one of 6 choices. You can choose to do a business plan for example, which is perfect if you followed the entrepreneurship track, take a 2 or 6 month paid internship, or you can choose to work in a team on a real-life consulting project.
Business Plan: What it Is, How to Write One
Learn about the best business plan software. 1. Write an executive summary. This is your elevator pitch. It should include a mission statement, a brief description of the products or services your ...
PDF GRADUATE BUSINESS CAPSTONE HANDBOOK (MGT695C)
Business Plan learning outcomes • Assess/evaluate the requirements of a comprehensive business plan, which includes appropriate background information ... CDs will be sent by the faculty project advisor to the MBA Director or to the Department Chair of Finance, Accounting, and Ec onomics before they may graduate.
Capstone Project
Applying MBA Knowledge in Real Time. The capstone project is your opportunity to apply the tools from the first two years of the program to a real-world business challenge in real time. Whether you're part of a consulting team working for an international tech company or creating your own business from the ground up, UCLA Anderson offers ...
MBA 541
The guide may be used for planning global expansion of an existing product or service or may be used to research a new foreign business opportunity. Each phase and section in this guide contains a research component or goal that will help you build your Global Business Plan for MBA 541. Delivery
24 of My Favorite Sample Business Plans & Examples For Your Inspiration
8. Panda Doc's Free Business Plan Template. PandaDoc's free business plan template is one of the more detailed and fleshed-out sample business plans on this list. It describes what you should include in each section, so you don't have to come up with everything from scratch.
How can I create an international business plan for project 4 for MBA
Mar 27, 2024 6766. Project 4 for MBA 670 asks you to choose a product and country from lists provided in your classroom and to then create a business plan that discusses how you could expand a company's business into your chosen country by introducing your chosen product to that country. Following is information that should help you find the ...
Barcenas Gabriel Project5 International business plan 1 .docx.pdf
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS PLAN MBA 670 Project 5 International Business Plan MediCorp General Partnership with ADAVIUM Medical. Automated Hospital Beds Market: Brazil December 15, 2020 Gabriel Barcenas MBA 670 83203 Strategic Decision Making Professor Bijlani 1 .
BUSINESS PLAN ASSIGNMENT FOR MBA
BUSINESS PLAN ASSIGNMENT FOR MBA. We Care aims to connect customers in GoHana, Sonipat to reliable local professionals through their mobile apps and website for household services like cleaning, repairs, and caregiving. This provides an affordable single platform for services needed regularly. Their target audiences are working individuals, new ...
(PDF) The Business Plan
The Business Plan. Brief and Easy explanation, and a Guide for beginners and professionals about preparing and presenting a Business Plan and its content. The study aimed at determining the effect of strategic planning on financial performance of commercial bank in Mogadishu. The study was three objectives to examine the effect of goal setting ...
Charting your MBA path: Helpful tips from the Class of 2024
Graduates in the Class of 2024 gave their best advice here to future generations of Kellogg students. Here's what they had to say: Bushra Amiwala '24 Evening & Weekend MBA. "Entering business school is a time where you have an opportunity to slightly re-brand yourself. While at Kellogg, you will learn just as much about yourself ...

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Stages of an MBA Capstone Project

Choosing a Capstone Topic

How an MBA Capstone is Graded

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Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business Capstone Project

University of Dallas Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business Capstone Consulting Experience

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Top 100 MBA Project Topics [Updated 2024]

How to Choose the Right MBA Project Topics

Top 100 MBA Project Topics: Category Wise

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Introduction

What is an MBA?

What are the benefits of doing an MBA in any field?

2. Leadership and Management Acumen

3. Networking Opportunities

4. Career Advancement

5. Entrepreneurial Spirit

6. Global Perspective

7. Personal Development

8. Enhanced Earning Potential

9. Career Switching and Flexibility

10. Credibility and Prestige

11. Access to Resources

12. Lifelong Learning and Growth

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