annexes business plan

What to Include in Your Business Plan Appendix

Overlapping files, folders, charts, graphs, and documents. Represents the information included in a business plan appendix.

Candice Landau

4 min. read

Updated May 10, 2024

While not required, a well-structured business plan appendix goes a long way toward convincing lenders and investors that you have a great business idea and a viable business.

This article will cover what to include in your appendix and best practices to make it a useful part of your business plan .

What is a business plan appendix?

A business plan appendix provides supporting documentation for the other sections of your business plan .

The appendix typically comes last and includes any additional documents, spreadsheets, tables, or charts that don’t fit within the main sections of your plan.

What goes in the appendix of a business plan?

In general, here is some of the information you might include in your business plan appendix:

Charts, graphs, or tables that support sections of your business plan
Financial statements and projections
Sales and marketing materials
Executive team resumes
Credit history
Business and/or personal tax returns
Agreements or contracts with clients or vendors
Licenses, permits , patents, and trademark documentation
Product illustrations or product packaging samples
Building permit and equipment lease documentation
Contact information for attorneys , accountants, and advisors

You may include some, all, or none of these documents in your appendix. It depends on your business needs and who you share your business plan with.

Similar to your executive summary , adjusting what’s in your appendix may be helpful based on the intended audience.

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Business plan appendix best practices

Here are a few tips to help you create an appendix that supports your business plan.

Make it easy to navigate

If your appendix is more than a few pages long or contains a variety of documents, you may want to consider adding a separate table of contents.

Don’t forget security

If you share confidential information within the business plan appendix, you will also want to keep track of who has access to it.

A confidentiality statement is a good way to remind people that the content you share should not be distributed or discussed beyond the agreed parties. You can include it as a separate page or as part of your business plan cover page .

Make the appendix work as a separate document

Given that the appendix is the last part of the business plan, it’s quite likely your readers will skip it.

For this reason, it’s important to ensure your business plan can stand on its own. All information within the appendix should be supplementary.

Ask yourself: if the reader skipped this part of my plan, would they still understand my idea or business model ? If the answer is no, you may need to rethink some things.

Connect the appendix to sections of your business plan

Make sure that anything you include in the appendix is relevant to the rest of your business plan. It should not be unrelated to the materials you’ve already covered.

It can be useful to reference which section of your plan the information in your appendix supports. Use footnotes, or if it’s digital, provide links to other areas of your business plan.

Keep it simple

This is good general advice for your entire business plan.

Keep it short.

You don’t need to include everything. Focus on the relevant information that will give your reader greater insight into your business or more detailed financial information that will supplement your financial plan.

Free business plan template with appendix

Remember, your appendix is an optional supporting section of your business plan. Don’t get too hung up on what to include. You can flag documents and information you believe are worth including in your appendix as you write your plan .

Need help creating your business plan?

Download our free fill-in-the-blank business plan template with a pre-structured format for your appendix.

And to understand what you should include based on your industry—check out our library of over 550 business plan examples .

Business plan appendix FAQ

How do you write an appendix for a business plan?

Gather relevant documents like financial statements, team resumes, and legal permits. Organize them logically, possibly mirroring your business plan’s structure. If long, include a table of contents, ensure each item is relevant, and focus on keeping it simple. If you’re sharing sensitive information, add a confidentiality statement.

Why is a business plan appendix important?

An appendix provides supporting evidence for your business plan. It keeps your main plan more concise, enhances credibility with additional data, and can house all-important business documents associated with your business.

What additional information would appear in the appendix of the business plan?

The following can appear in your appendix:

Financial projections
Marketing materials
Team resumes
Legal documents (like permits and patents)
Product details (like prototypes and packaging)
Operational documents (like building permits)
Professional contact information.

Candice Landau is a marketing consultant with a background in web design and copywriting. She specializes in content strategy, copywriting, website design, and digital marketing for a wide-range of clients including digital marketing agencies and nonprofits.

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What is an Appendix in a Business Plan?

Appendix is an optional section placed at the end of a document, such as a business plan, which contains additional evidence to support any projections, claims, analysis, decisions, assumptions, trends and other statements made in that document, to avoid clutter in the main body of text.

What is Included in an Appendix of a Business Plan?

Appendix commonly includes charts, photos, resumes, licenses, patents, legal documents and other additional materials that support analysis and claims made in the main body of a business plan document around market, sales, products, operations, team, financials and other key business aspects.

The appendix is the perfect place to showcase a wide range of information, including:

Supporting documentation: References and supporting evidence to substantiate any major projections, claims, statements, decisions, assumptions, analysis, trends and comparisons mentioned throughout the main body of a business plan.
Requested documentation: Information, documents or other materials that were specially requested by the business plan readers (e.g., lenders or investors) but are too large to place in the main body of text.
Additional information: Any other materials or exhibits that will give readers a more complete picture of the business.
Visual aids: Photos, images, illustrations, graphs, charts, flow-charts, organizational charts, resumes.

After reviewing the appendices, the reader should feel satisfied that the statements made throughout the main body of a business plan are backed up by sufficient evidence and that they got even fuller picture of the business.

How Should You Write a Business Plan Appendix? (Insider Tip)

The fastest way to pull the Appendix chapter together is to keep a list of any supporting documents that come to mind while you are in the process of writing the business plan text.

For example, while writing about the location of your business, you may realize the need for a location map of the premises and the closest competitors, demographic analysis, as well as lease agreement documentation.

Recording these items as you think of them will enable you to compile a comprehensive list of appendix materials by the time you finish writing.

Remember to keep copies of the original documents.

Template: 55 Business Plan Appendix Content Samples

For your inspiration, below is a pretty exhaustive list of supporting documentation that typically gets included in the business plan appendix. But please do not feel like you have to include everything from the list. In fact, you definitely shouldn’t!

The purpose of the appendix is to paint a fuller picture of your business by providing helpful supporting information, not to inundate yourself or the readers of your business plan. So, take care to only include what is relevant and necessary .

Company Description

1. Business formation legal documents (e.g., business licenses, articles of incorporation, formation documents, partnership agreements, shareholder agreements)

2. Contracts and legal agreements (e.g., service contracts and maintenance agreements, franchise agreement)

3. Intellectual property (e.g., copyrights, trademark registrations, licenses, patent filings)

4. Other key legal documents pertaining to your business (e.g. permits, NDAs, property and vehicle titles)

5. Proof of commitment from strategic partners (e.g., letters of agreement or support)

6. Dates of key developments in your company’s history

7. Description of insurance coverage (e.g. insurance policies or bids)

Target Market

8. Highlights of relevant industry and market research data, statistics, information, studies and reports collected

9. Results of customer surveys, focus groups and other customer research conducted

10. Customer testimonials

11. Names of any key material customers (if applicable)

Competition

12. List of major competitors

13. Research information collected on your competitors

14. Competitive analysis

Marketing and Sales

15. Branding collateral (e.g., brand identity kit designs, signage, packaging designs)

16. Marketing collateral (e.g., brochures, flyers, advertisements, press releases, other promotional materials)

17. Social media follower numbers

18. Statistics on positive reviews collected on review sites

19. Public relations (e.g., media coverage, publicity initiatives)

20. Promotional plan (e.g., overview, list and calendar of activities)

21. List of locations and facilities (e.g., offices, sales branches, factories)

22. Visual representation of locations and facilities (e.g., photos, blueprints, layout diagrams, floor plans)

23. Location plan and documentation related to selecting your location (e.g., traffic counts, population radius, demographic information)

24. Maps of target market, highlighting competitors in the area

25. Zoning approvals and certificates

26. Detailed sales forecasts

27. Proof of commitment from strategically significant customers (e.g., purchase orders, sales agreements and contracts, letters of intent)

28. Any additional information about the sales team, strategic plan or process

Products and Services

29. Product or service supporting documentation – descriptions, brochures, data sheets, technical specifications, photos, illustrations, sketches or drawings

30. Third-party evaluations, analyses or certifications of the product or service

31. Flow charts and diagrams showing the production process or operational procedures from start to finish

32. Key policies and procedures

33. Technical information (e.g., production equipment details)

34. Dependency on third-party entities (e.g., materials, manufacturing, distribution) – list, description, statistics, contractual terms, rate sheets (e.g., sub-contractors, shippers)

35. Risk analysis for all major parts of the business plan

Management and Team

36. Organizational chart

37. Job descriptions and specifications

38. Resumes of owners, key managers or principals

39. Letters of reference and commendations for key personnel

40. Details regarding human resources procedures and practices (e.g., recruitment, compensation, incentives, training)

41. Staffing plans

42. Key external consultants and advisors (e.g., lawyer, accountant, marketing expert; Board of Advisors)

43. Board of Directors members

44. Plans for business development and expansion

45. Plan for future product releases

46. Plan for research and development (R&D) activities

47. Strategic milestones

48. Prior period financial statements and auditor’s report

49. Financial statements for any associated companies

50. Personal and business income tax returns filed in previous years

51. Financial services institutions’ details (name, location, type of accounts)

52. Supporting information for the financial model projections, for example:

Financial model assumptions
Current and past budget (e.g., sales, marketing, staff, professional services)
Price list and pricing model (e.g., profit margins)
Staff and payroll details
Inventory (e.g., type, age, volume, value)
Owned fixed assets and projected capital expenditure (e.g., land, buildings, equipment, leasehold improvements)
Lease agreements (e.g., leases for business premises, equipment, vehicles)
Recent asset valuations and appraisals
Aged debtor receivable account and creditor payable account summary
Global financial considerations (exchange rates, interest rates, taxes, tariffs, terms, charges, hedging)

53. Debt financing – documentation regarding any loans, mortgages, or other debt related financial obligations

54. Equity financing – capital structure documentation (e.g., capitalization table, 409A, investor term sheets, stock and capital related contracts and agreements)

55. Personal finance – information regarding owners’ capital and collateral (e.g., Personal Worth Statement or Personal Financial Statement, loan guarantees, proof of ownership)

What is bibliography?

A bibliography is a list of external sources used in the process of researching a document, such as a business plan, included at the end of that document, before or after an Appendix. For each source, reference the name of the author, publication and title, the publishing date and a hyperlink.

What are supporting documents included in a business plan appendix?

Supporting documents in a business plan appendix include graphs, charts, images, photos, resumes, analyses, legal documents and other materials that substantiate statements made in a business plan, provide fuller picture of the business, or were specifically requested by the intended reader.

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What to include in a Business Plan Appendix?

Free Business Plan Template

May 2, 2024

A business plan appendix is a great way to add depth to your business plan without making it unbearably long and boring.

However, not everyone needs it. And even when you do, it’s important to understand what this section entails and how you can make it useful.

Well, we will figure that out in this blog post.

But before that, what exactly is an appendix in a business plan?

What is a business plan appendix?

A business plan appendix is the last section of your business plan that contains supplementary information and documents to support the claims your plan makes.

This may include a couple of technical documents, detailed financial statements, charts, spreadsheets, and other additional documents that were too detailed or extensive to include within the main sections.

It’s like a reference point for readers who want to gather detailed insights about the information you presented in your business plan.

Let’s understand what the business plan appendix includes in brief detail:

What to include in the appendix of a business plan?

Depending on your business needs and the intended audience for your business plan, the appendix section may include some of these documents.

Supplementary information
Legal documents
Organizational and personnel details
Additional financial documents
Achievements and testimonials

Let’s understand what the appendix business plan includes in brief detail:

1. Supplementary information

Here, you can include documents to support and elaborate on some information mentioned in other sections of your business plan.

Some examples of supplementary information include,

Charts, graphs, and tables used in the analysis
Sales and marketing material
Website and social media documentation
Raw data, research methods, and research protocols
Questionnaires and survey instruments
Product blueprints and images
Technical and user documentation
Detailed competitor analysis
Property designs

2. Legal documents

Adding legal and compliance documents to your appendix will demonstrate your adherence to regulations and legal standards. Such transparency will help win the trust of your stakeholders and potential investors.

Here are a few examples of the kinds of legal documents you can add.

Incorporation papers
Licenses and Permits
Intellectual properties, i.e. trademarks, copyright, patents.
Building permits and rental agreements
Supplier and vendor contracts
Equipment documentation
stock certificates

3. Organizational and personnel details

In this section, you will offer information that will let readers have a peek into the workings of your company and the people behind it. Some of these documents include

Organizational chart
Job descriptions and hiring procedures
Resumes for executive positions
Certifications and degrees
Affiliates such as attorneys or accountants

4. Additional financial documents

The main body of your financial plan already includes adequate financial information. However, depending on your audience, they might need access to certain additional information such as:

List of assets within the business
Credit history
Business and personal tax returns
Spreadsheets of financial projections
Historical and current financial statements
Equity structure and debt repayment plan
SBA (Small Business Administration) loan agreements and business loans.

5. Achievements and testimonials

Lastly, you can include proof of achievements that can help establish your brand’s credibility and performance. This is a great place to highlight:

Media and press clippings
Testimonials and success stories
Expert endorsements
Awards and achievements

And those are pretty much all the things you will include in your plan. Let’s now create an appendix suited for your business plan.

Tips and best practices for business plan appendix

Before you kickstart writing your appendix, we have a few tips to help you make this section more enriching.

1. Make it scannable

Keep the contents of your appendix simple and easy to navigate. If you are planning to add a variety of documents, consider adding a table of contents to help readers find what they need easily.

2. Relate to the business plan

Everything you include in your appendix should be relevant to the contents and elements of your business plan .

You can add footnotes or a link by referencing the supplementary documents to the business plan information it supports.

3. Include the confidentiality statement

If you are adding financial statements or any legally classified information, add a confidentiality statement. This is an effective way of ensuring that the parties with access to confidential information don’t share it with anyone else.

4. Keep the appendix supplementary

When you write a business plan ensure that the document stands on its own without relying on the appendix. Your readers are likely to skip this section, so you don’t want to risk having inadequate information in the main body.

Your appendix should only cover supplementary and supporting information, not any core detail that the reader must quintessentially know.

Start preparing your business plan with the appendix

Now, don’t get caught up trying to figure out what to include in your appendix. Focus on writing your business plan, and you will eventually get a gist of supporting documents essential for your plan.

However, what if you need help writing your business plan in the first place? In that case, a business planning app or sample business plans would help.

For instance, Upmetrics’ AI business plan generator can help create compelling business plans from scratch in less than 10 minutes.

All you have to do is answer some tailored business questions, and an AI assistant will do everything else for you.

Build your Business Plan Faster

with step-by-step Guidance & AI Assistance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the appendix important in a business plan.

Yes, the appendix is an important section of your business plan. Although it’s not compulsory, adding an appendix will help your investors and other audiences gather the required information in in-depth detail. An appendix helps you prove the viability of claims made in different sections of your plan.

How do you write an appendix for a business plan?

Follow these steps to write your appendix section:

Gather all the supplementary documents you want to include in this section.
Organize them logically based on the structure of your plan or their content nature, i.e. financial documents, legal documents, marketing materials, etc.
Label the documents and present them neatly in a professional stack without creating clutter.
Add footnotes and links to the relevant business plan sections and create a table of contents to make the information easily scannable.

Do I need a table of contents for the appendix?

It’s recommended to have a table of contents especially if you are adding multiple long documents supporting different sections of your business plan information.

Are there any online resources for creating a business plan appendix?

Business plan templates are the best resources for creating a clear and impactful appendix section. Most business plan templates online have a section for appendix which can be easily edited to suit your needs.

About the Author

Upmetrics Team

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

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Business Plan - Appendices

Appendices to the Business Plan

Written by Jason Gordon

Updated at April 21st, 2024

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What is the Appendix to my Business Plan?

Material that adds to the business plan, but doesn't belong in the body. The appendices allow you to include valuable information to your business plan that does not fit neatly within the body of the plan. Generally, it is used to include exemplars of the material or information that is referenced within the business plan but does not need to be included in the body. You can include material that will serve a functional purpose in the business or that evidence key relationships. Generally, you can include any outside information necessary to support the propositions or assumptions within the business plan.

Consider including the following information or materials in the appendix of the business plan.

Marketing Material (Advertising) - The ability to drive sales is a critical part of the business plan. Providing samples of marketing material can provide an understanding of the brand that you are attempting to build around your product or service.
Primary and Secondary Research - In order to effectively market your product (and establish a brand) you have to understand your target market. Further, you will need market estimates in order to accurately evaluate the market potential and potential profit from pursuing the venture. This material should support the figures that you introduce within the business plan.
Designs or Property Layout Material - Perhaps you have designs, artwork, facility plans, etc., that provide a picture of your intended venture location, buildings, image. This can help third parties to understand your vision.
Important Contracts - Providing proof of key contracts (such as leases, supplier contracts, etc.) add substance to otherwise seemingly hypothetical plans. Again, this will provide comfort to potential their-party investors.
List of Key Assets - Providing a list of key assets within the business plan would be too large and cumbersome. While you will include the collective value of the assets within the plan, it may be a good idea to attach an itemized index for review. This can help in budget planning.
Organization Chart and Employee Backgrounds - Within the business plan you provide a concise background of your employees and an organizational chart. Here, can provide a more in-depth background on your key employees and their curriculum vitae. If you have many other employees, you may want to provide their backgrounds, key roles, and responsibilities.
Customer or Expert Endorsements - Customer or expert endorsements can serve as excellent credibility for your product/service. While you will mention these or provide brief quotations within the business plan body, you may wish to include the entirety of the endorsement or letter within the appendix.

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BUSINESS PLAN ANNEXES

Section a: introduction.

3.1 Enhanced Engagement Strategy

3.2 Future Stakeholder Engagement Strategy

3.3 Business Plan Testing and Acceptance Results

SECTION B: A VALUED AND TRUSTED SERVICE FOR OUR CUSTOMERS AND COMMUNITIES

4.1 Customer Experience Strategy

4.2 Vulnerability Strategy

5.1 Digitalisation Investment Plan

5.2 Digital Strategy and Action Plan (DSAP)

VIEW SECTION B: SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION AND EVIDENCE

SECTION C: A SAFE, RESILIENT AND RESPONSIVE NETWORK

7.1 Safe and Resilient

7.2 Reliability Strategy

7.3 Climate Resilience Strategy

7.4 Cyber Resilience IT Plan

7.5 Cyber Resilience OT Plan

8.1 Scottish Islands Strategy

VIEW SECTION C: SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION AND EVIDENCE

SECTION D: ACCELERATED PROGRESS TOWARDS A NET ZERO WORLD

10.1 Load Related Plan Build and Strategy

10.2 Connections Strategy

11.1 DSO Strategy

12.1 Whole Systems

13.1 Environmental Action Plan

13.2 Sustainability Strategy

VIEW SECTION D: SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION AND EVIDENCE

SECTION E: VALUE FOR MONEY FOR CUSTOMERS

14.1 Innovation Strategy

15.1 Cost Efficiency

15.2 ENA Ongoing Efficiency Report

15.3 Cost Confidence Assessment

15.4 Establishing an Appropriate Efficiency Challenge

15.5 Price Effects for the RIIO-ED2 Price Control Review

15.6 Operating Business Costs

15.7 Company-Specific and Regional Factors for RIIO-ED2

15.8 Cost Benefit Analysis Process

15.9 BPDT Commentary

16.1 Deliverability Strategy

16.2 Supply Chain Strategy

16.3 Workforce Resilience Strategy

17.1 Uncertainty Mechanisms

VIEW SECTION E: SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION AND EVIDENCE

SECTION F: FINANCE AND FINANCEABILITY

19.1 Finance and Financeability

19.2 Oxera_RIIO-ED2 Cost of Debt and Financeability

19.3 Oxera_ The Cost of Equity for RIIO-ED2

19.4 NERA_Additional Costs of Borrowing and Small Company Premium at RIIO-ED2

OVERARCHING THEMES AND SUPPLEMENTARY ANNEXES

S1 Publishing Statement

S2 Output, UM and CVP Summary Table

S3 Consumer Value Propositions

S4 SDI Proposals

S5 Minimum Requirements Index Sheet

S6 Ofgem Strategic Summary Document

S7 Business Plan Assurance

S8 Business Plan Map

S9 Key Changes Since Draft

Our DSO strategy will provide significant benefits across our plan:

Through flexible connections saving £417.6m in reinforcement costs, offsetting 1.8mtCO 2 .
Deferred reinforcement and avoided capital expenditure saving customers up to £46.3m.

Equipping future customers with the right tools and knowledge to lessen the likelihood of falling into fuel poverty. Targeted support to adults with learning difficulties ensuring they have the help and support they need. Providing access to digital upskilling to ensure customers are not left behind in the digital age. £1.4m benefits delivered to customers in vulnerable situations over RIIO-ED2.

Improved service for all our customers across a number of different channels, including diversified self-serve options alongside traditional means of communication.

Effective Whole Systems solutions delivered aligned with stakeholder needs.

Our proposal will deliver net customer benefits of £27m by enabling a range of benefits across island communities, including sustainable economic development, education, healthcare, and addressing depopulation through access to good quality digital infrastructure.

Net customer benefits of £11.2m delivered by helping to lower long-term costs for customers and local net zero and whole system initiatives through more efficient siting and use of infrastructure.

Stakeholders said that the most effective way to move to a Whole Systems approach is through facilitating access to network data. Benefit: Local authorities are aware of our services and how we can support them in their decarbonisation plans.

£15m societal benefit delivered by reducing oil leakage.

Compliance with new legislative requirement to remove PCB across all DNOs. Transparency on the volume of PCB-contaminated equipment on the network (through our Annual Environmental Report).

Reduced transformer losses by up to 30% through our TASS project. £36m societal benefits delivered by energy savings and lower carbon emissions as a result of reduced losses.

Reduction in the amount of toxic gas emitted by our assets, in line with our 1.5°C SBT. £2.5m societal benefits delivered by reduction in carbon emissions.

A transformational and longer-term approach for net zero, that provides a legitimate and transparent record of carbon abatement Improved air quality and local habitats.

Restoring ancient seagrass beds that have been destroyed by seabed activity provides carbon sequestration rates three times higher than on-land planting:

Improving natural habitats and protecting against coastal erosion.
£3.4m net benefit to the environment.

Improved visual amenity of lines in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

£0.4m financial benefits delivered by cheaper fuel costs. £0.2m societal benefits delivered by a reduction in carbon emissions.

£1.4m financial benefits delivered by cheaper fuel costs. £1.5m societal benefits delivered by a reduction in carbon emissions and improved air quality.

Reduced carbon emissions.

£1.9m societal benefits delivered by reduction in carbon emissions.

Contribution to lower emissions across multiple companies in our supply chain.

Reduced impact of flooding on our network leading to improved resilience to climate change.

Decarbonisation and improved environmental performance of our network and the wider community. Improved air quality, reduced carbon emissions and net zero.

Customers receive guaranteed levels of performance for connections services.

Our proposals will improve the connections process to better cater stakeholder needs.

Major connection customers provided with tailored services thanks to more flexible connection options and enhanced communication throughout the connections process.

Although a relatively low priority for consumers, we will meet our targets through our plan and further aim to reduce time to connect by 2023 for small/minor connections. Benefits: Faster access to LCT.

Our Open Door and Connections+ IT projects will provide more granular detail on our available capacity and real-time updates on network load: £4.6m cost efficiency benefits delivered over RIIO-ED2. £3.8m additional societal benefits delivered to connections customers through saved time and increased satisfaction. These benefits are attributable to the last 2 years of RIIO-ED2 once the improved process is in place. We expect these benefits to be ongoing beyond RIIO-ED2.

£110m carbon benefits and £112m customer financial benefits over RIIO-ED2, enabled by ensuring LCT customers are able to connect on time.

Combined CVP in cost and benefit: £7.1m net benefit delivered to customers and wider society from our proposed interventions within RIIO-ED2.

£7.1m net benefit delivered to customers and wider society from our proposed interventions within RIIO-ED2.

Extended operational life until 2035 as a standby generator to ensure continuity of supply for island customers.

Improved efficiency and sustainability of site operation to minimise societal costs and impacts from their operation.

Enables a Whole System approach to these communities. Needs case development during RIIO-ED2.

Improved service reliability for customers categorised as ‘worst served’ (reduced CML and CI).

Improved resilience to external threats and greater reliability.

Improved resilience in the longer term, and improvements to shorter-term reliability. Greater ability of our assets to withstand climate shocks and support the transition to net zero.

Reliability of service.

Reduced inconvenience caused by power outages.

More reliable supplies for customers. Reduced carbon emissions (from backup generators). £2m in wellbeing benefits delivered to 12,000 customers as a result of fewer power during power cuts over RIIO-ED2.

More reliable supplies for customers. Reduced carbon emissions (from backup generators).

Reduced accidents and increased network safety.

Increased awareness and reduced accidents.

A safe and compliant network for our colleagues, partners and the wider public.

Improving the resilience for customers during a power cut, whilst with the use of the energy efficiency measures seeing financial benefits. £0.5m benefits delivered to customers in vulnerable situations over RIIO-ED2.

The fund enables customers to access the help they would otherwise be excluded from. Through bridging the gap in support available, customers will be able to install energy efficiency measures. £0.25m benefits delivered to customers in vulnerable situations over RIIO-ED2.

Our data-driven approach will help target our activities and register more customers who will benefit from our services. We will have improved support delivered through our partnership approach as required. £17.2m financial benefits delivered through targeted fuel poverty support and energy efficiency measures. £3.7m societal benefits delivered through quality-of-life improvements, health benefits and carbon emission reductions.

Our stakeholders demand better communication and understanding of the benefit accrued from the deployment of innovation. Collaboration with a range of stakeholders was listed as a key facilitator for good innovation, especially learning from others’ mistakes.

Communities empowered to participate in flexibility markets, benefiting from the energy system transition. Digitalisation and IT/ OT investments are a key enabler for many of the outputs across the plans we have co-created with our customers and stakeholders. A direct benefit of £175m.

£8.2m financial benefits and £1.4m societal benefits enabled by ensuring customers in vulnerable situations can access energy transition benefits.

Increased service to customers in vulnerable situations through bespoke Personal Resilience Plans, providing £3.9m net consumer benefits.

£17.2m financial benefits delivered through targeted fuel poverty support and energy efficiency measures. £3.7m societal benefits delivered through quality-of-life improvements, health benefits and carbon emission reductions.

Reduced impact from supply interruptions.

Simplified processes and quicker resolution of complaints.

Our CVP will support local authorities by providing their net zero and whole system initiatives with the greatest chance of success in all phases of their development and delivery. It will lead to more efficient siting and use of infrastructure, from a network perspective, helping lower long-term costs for our customers and the local initiatives.

Supply chain stakeholders told us that they have ambition to achieve net zero themselves and that they wished to collaborate with us to tackle our Scope 3 emissions. Benefits: Contribution to lower emissions.

Stakeholders support ambitious targets for reducing oil-filled cables. We have decided to set a reduction target of 78km to balance this with the high costs of this work. Benefits: £6m societal benefit delivered by reducing oil leakage.

Stakeholders have urged us to be ambitious and support targeted investment in natural capital, which is fundamental to any net zero journey. This is a transformational and longer-term approach for net zero, that provides a legitimate and transparent record of carbon abatement. Benefits: Improved air quality and local habitats.

Stakeholders support our strategy of targeting assets with the highest probability of failure. Our investment will help ensure we deliver longer-term resilience, in line with stakeholder feedback, while recognising that affordability is a key priority for our communities. Benefits: Improved reliability.

A wide range of stakeholders confirmed that reliability is consistently a high priority. We have proposed targeted investment that enables us to meet our targets and further reduce the time customers are off supply. Our stakeholders have identified reducing the length of power cuts as a priority. Our investment will enable us to deliver further improvements. Benefits: Reduced time off supply – less disruption to customers’ lives.

Stakeholders told us that the change in the energy landscape, and the introduction of LCTs could deliver additional benefits to customers in vulnerable situations or low-income households. Benefits: Ensuring vulnerable customers can access energy transition benefits.

Customers and partners propose we create bespoke Personal Resilience Plans for supporting customers in the most vulnerable situations. Benefits: Increased service to vulnerable customers, with £3.1m net customer benefits.

Domestic consumers’ highest priority was for setting ambitious targets for helping those in fuel-poverty. Stakeholders have said we have a responsibility to ensure no one is left behind in the energy transition and that working with partners is effective. Our data-driven approach will help target our activities and register more customers who will benefit from our services. Our partnership approach will help us deliver the support required. Benefits: £8.4m financial benefits delivered through targeted fuel poverty support and energy efficiency measures. £0.7m societal benefits delivered through quality of life improvements and health benefits.

Some SME stakeholders told us that they need extra support during power cuts. In response to stakeholder feedback, our Business Support Register will provide more tailored support to businesses in coping with power cuts. Benefits: Reduced impact from supply interruptions.

We will deliver improved service for all our customers across a number of different channels. Benefits: Improved customer service.

Digitalisation and IT/OT investments are a key enabler for many of the outputs across the plans we have co-created with our customers and stakeholders. Benefits: Direct benefit of £292.5m.

Stakeholders broadly consider safety to be a ‘given’ and a high priority for us. It is crucial that our Business Plan continues to deliver a safe network for our communities, colleagues and partners. Benefits: Reduced accidents, increased reliability for customers.

Business Plan Section 9: Appendix

The appendix section of your business plan provides information to support the 8 preceding sections. Here’s how to organize the appendix.

By now, we hope you’ve read through our series on business planning and have reached this final installment, which is what to include in Business Plan Section 9: Appendix. Think of your business plan as the narrative that tells the story, while the appendix is where you put the factual information that supports it. The appendix fleshes things out with details that help corroborate and support the plan you have presented.

Maybe you’re wondering why, if each of the preceding sections is covered so thoroughly, you even need an appendix. Why wouldn’t you just include all the information in the appropriate section? The appendix makes the rest of the plan easier to read, without taking a detour for credentials and corroboration.

In addition, your business plan can serve several different functions, and each requires a different set of documentation. Your plan can serve as a roadmap for your internal planning purposes only, it can be a recruitment tool for employees or investors, or it can support a request for funding from a financial institution. Each of these would require different documentation, and in many cases, you might not want to share some of the information with everyone. Having an appendix allows you to insert and remove items depending on who will be reading your plan.

What Goes Into Business Plan Appendix?

Again, not everything might need to be shown to everyone who reads your plan, but here is a full list of items you might want to prepare for your appendix:

Credit histories for both the business and its owners
Business and personal tax returns
Resumes of the owners and key management
Photos of your products or their prototypes
Samples of marketing materials, logos, and mockup ads
Reference letters from business associates and community leaders
Details of your market research studies
Information about your competitors
Press clippings about you and the business
Any relevant news articles on your product or industry
Legal documents such as your incorporation papers, shareholder certificates, etc.
Copies of patents, permits or licenses you hold
Copies of your property and equipment leases or rental agreements
Contact info for your professional staff, including your accountant and attorney
Contracts for current or future work
Spreadsheets and documentation for financial projections

The appendix will be the final section of your business plan, and just as with every other part, take the time to meticulously prepare these supporting materials, especially if you’re presenting the information to a potential lender or investor . The care and thoroughness you put into your backup documents will be a big clue to your readers about your general approach to business and could help sway opinion one way or the other.

The Small Business Administration suggests keeping a record of who has copies of your plan and what items you’ve included in the appendix. That way, you can update items as necessary. Do keep tight control over who you distribute it to. You may want to consider having your readers sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, or NDA, to help protect the confidentiality of your information. SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, has a free template on its website.

And again, because of the highly privileged nature of some of what you’re providing, be very particular who you share what with. Creditors will likely need to have access to all of your documentation, but more casual readers, who might just want a bit of information about your business, don’t need to see the appendix at all, or at most, just a few select items.

How to Organize a Business Plan Appendix

Because the documents substantiate the information presented in your business plan, it’s best to keep them in the same order as they are referred to in the plan. If you have more than a few pages of documentation in the appendix, start with a table of contents page that lists each section of the business plan, broken up with letters or Roman numerals; then list each item you’ve included in the appendix for that particular section.

This will make it easier to refer to the items as you need to in the plan. For example, when you talk about your planned advertising campaign in the Sales and Marketing section, you can refer to “Appendix, Section IV” for copies of what the ads may look like.

If the appendix contains a lot of material, you can also consider using tabs to break it up, which will make it even easier to locate things. Have each document clearly labeled so readers will know exactly what they’re looking at when they refer to them, and make sure your copies are high quality, clear and legible. Do not include original documents.

Business Plan Recap

Don’t rush through the work of putting your business plan together. Whether it’s for your own use or a lender has asked for it, the information it contains and the work you do to put it together will be extremely valuable to the success of your company. It does take a lot of time and effort to research and write a solid plan, but it will come back to you in spades.

A business plan follows a specific format, so follow the guidelines we’ve set out for you in the following articles:

Business Plans 101
Section 1: Business Plan Executive Summary
Section 2: Business Plan Company Description
Section 3: Business Plan Organization and Management
Section 4: Business Plan Products and Services
Section 5: Business Plan Market Analysis
Section 6: Business Plan Sales and Marketing
Section 7: Business Plan Funding Request
Section 8: Business Plan Financial Plan
Section 9: Business Plan Appendix

If you’ve already read the series, you’ve heard this before: it’s imperative to always keep your audience in mind. Your goals for what you want the business plan to accomplish will dictate who your audience is, and the information you present will be shaped by that.

Finally, remember the importance of presentation. This is a reflection on you and your business, so make sure it represents you well. Proofread and check for errors in grammar and spelling. Consider hiring a writer or editor if you’re not particularly skilled with words. The business concept is yours, but a professional can help you articulate it in a way you may not be able to.

Use a standard business font for the body copy so that it’s easy to read, and be judicious in your use of italics, underlining, and bold. Business News Daily offers links to several free templates you can check out. You can follow one to put your plan together or just look at them for ideas that might work for you. There is also software available that can walk you through the process.

Have the plan printed on good paper and bind it in some fashion, whether into a booklet, in a high-quality binder or spiral binding. Add a cover with the name of your business and make sure to have your contact information easily available. Include a cover letter with the plan, because it may get passed around to other people who aren’t as familiar with your venture.

Remember the old adage, “You only get one chance to make a first impression.” Make yours count.

Next Article: 5 Tips for Sticking to Your 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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Book title: Entrepreneurship
Publication date: Jan 16, 2020
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How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)

Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.

If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.

Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.

You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.

1. Secure Funds

One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.

For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.

A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.

Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.

2. Monitor Business Growth

A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:

The business goals
Methods to achieve the goals
Time-frame for attaining those goals

A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.

You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.

3. Measure Business Success

A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.

Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.

You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.

Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.

In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:

How do you want to reach your target audience?
How do you plan to retain your customers?
What is/are your pricing plans?
What is your budget for marketing?

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.

Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.

A good executive summary should do the following:

A Snapshot of Growth Potential. Briefly inform the reader about your company and why it will be successful)
Contain your Mission Statement which explains what the main objective or focus of your business is.
Product Description and Differentiation. Brief description of your products or services and why it is different from other solutions in the market.
The Team. Basic information about your company’s leadership team and employees
Business Concept. A solid description of what your business does.
Target Market. The customers you plan to sell to.
Marketing Strategy. Your plans on reaching and selling to your customers
Current Financial State. Brief information about what revenue your business currently generates.
Projected Financial State. Brief information about what you foresee your business revenue to be in the future.

The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.

Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.

View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:

Who is your target audience?
What sector or industry are you in?
What are your products and services?
What is the future of your industry?
Is your company scaleable?
Who are the owners and leaders of your company? What are their backgrounds and experience levels?
What is the motivation for starting your company?
What are the next steps?

Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.

The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.

If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.

2. Add Your Company Overview

The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.

Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.

Your company overview should contain the following:

What products and services you will provide
Geographical markets and locations your company have a presence
What you need to run your business
Who your target audience or customers are
Who will service your customers
Your company’s purpose, mission, and vision
Information about your company’s founders
Who the founders are
Notable achievements of your company so far

When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.

If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.

Who are you targeting? (The answer is not everyone)
What pain point does your product or service solve for your customers that they will be willing to spend money on resolving?
How does your product or service overcome that pain point?
Where is the location of your business?
What products, equipment, and services do you need to run your business?
How is your company’s product or service different from your competition in the eyes of your customers?
How many employees do you need and what skills do you require them to have?

After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.

The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.

Mission Statement

The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.

Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”

When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:

Founding Date
Major Milestones
Location(s)
Flagship Products or Services
Number of Employees
Executive Leadership Roles

When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.

Business Objectives

Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.

3. Perform Market and Competitive Analyses to Proof a Big Enough Business Opportunity

The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.

Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.

This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.

Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?

You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.

Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?

Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?

Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.

Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.

Market Analysis

Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.

The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.

A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.

Market Research

To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.

Your target market’s needs or pain points
The existing solutions for their pain points
Geographic Location
Demographics

The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.

Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.

You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.

How to Quantify Your Target Market

One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:

Your Potential Customers: They are the people you plan to target. For example, if you sell accounting software for small businesses , then anyone who runs an enterprise or large business is unlikely to be your customers. Also, individuals who do not have a business will most likely not be interested in your product.
Total Households: If you are selling household products such as heating and air conditioning systems, determining the number of total households is more important than finding out the total population in the area you want to sell to. The logic is simple, people buy the product but it is the household that uses it.
Median Income: You need to know the median income of your target market. If you target a market that cannot afford to buy your products and services, your business will not last long.
Income by Demographics: If your potential customers belong to a certain age group or gender, determining income levels by demographics is necessary. For example, if you sell men's clothes, your target audience is men.

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.

You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:

Industry Description. You find out about the history of your industry, the current and future market size, and who the largest players/companies are in your industry.
Overview of Target Market. You research your target market and its characteristics. Who are you targeting? Note, it cannot be everyone, it has to be a specific group. You also have to find out all information possible about your customers that can help you understand how and why they make buying decisions.
Size of Target Market: You need to know the size of your target market, how frequently they buy, and the expected quantity they buy so you do not risk overproducing and having lots of bad inventory. Researching the size of your target market will help you determine if it is big enough for sustained business or not.
Growth Potential: Before picking a target market, you want to be sure there are lots of potential for future growth. You want to avoid going for an industry that is declining slowly or rapidly with almost zero growth potential.
Market Share Potential: Does your business stand a good chance of taking a good share of the market?
Market Pricing and Promotional Strategies: Your market analysis should give you an idea of the price point you can expect to charge for your products and services. Researching your target market will also give you ideas of pricing strategies you can implement to break into the market or to enjoy maximum profits.
Potential Barriers to Entry: One of the biggest benefits of conducting market analysis is that it shows you every potential barrier to entry your business will likely encounter. It is a good idea to discuss potential barriers to entry such as changing technology. It informs readers of your business plan that you understand the market.
Research on Competitors: You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how you can exploit them for the benefit of your business. Find patterns and trends among your competitors that make them successful, discover what works and what doesn’t, and see what you can do better.

The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.

Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.

Is your product or service of superior quality?
What additional features do you offer that your competitors do not offer?
Are you targeting a ‘new’ market?

Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.

Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.

Four Steps to Create a Competitive Marketing Analysis

Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.

Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.

The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.

Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.

When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.

Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.

What are your successful competitors doing?
Why is what they are doing working?
Can your business do it better?
What are the weaknesses of your successful competitors?
What are they not doing well?
Can your business turn its weaknesses into strengths?
How good is your competitors’ customer service?
Where do your competitors invest in advertising?
What sales and pricing strategies are they using?
What marketing strategies are they using?
What kind of press coverage do they get?
What are their customers saying about your competitors (both the positive and negative)?

If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.

If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.

Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.

The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.

Direct vs Indirect Competition

You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.

There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.

If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.

In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.

For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.

There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.

1. Cost Leadership

A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.

A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.

2. Product Differentiation

Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.

Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.

3. Market Segmentation

As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.

If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.

Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.

If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.

Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.

The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.

Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.

Management Team

The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.

Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.

Create Management Team For Business Plan

A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.

Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.

Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.

If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

Who are the key leaders?
What experiences, skills, and educational backgrounds do you expect your key leaders to have?
Do your key leaders have industry experience?
What positions will they fill and what duties will they perform in those positions?
What level of authority do the key leaders have and what are their responsibilities?
What is the salary for the various management positions that will attract the ideal candidates?

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team

There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.

Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.

2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles

Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.

While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.

Organizational Chart

Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.

If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.

An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.

You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.

Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.

The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.

If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”

Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:

A detailed explanation that clearly shows how your product or service works.
The pricing model for your product or service.
Your business’ sales and distribution strategy.
The ideal customers that want your product or service.
The benefits of your products and services.
Reason(s) why your product or service is a better alternative to what your competitors are currently offering in the market.
Plans for filling the orders you receive
If you have current or pending patents, copyrights, and trademarks for your product or service, you can also discuss them in this section.

What to Focus On When Describing the Benefits, Lifecycle, and Production Process of Your Products or Services

In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.

When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

Unique features
Translating the unique features into benefits
The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
Intellectual property rights or any patents

When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
Time between purchases
Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

The creation of new or existing products and services.
The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
Assembling the products
Maintaining quality control
Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Choosing the right social media platform

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

What makes your competition successful?
What are their weaknesses?
What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Exit Strategy Section of Business Plan Infographic

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

What is your sales forecast for the next year?
When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
What are the core expenses you need to operate?
How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
Additional financial documents or projections
Articles of incorporation and status
Backup for market research or competitive analysis
Bank statements
Business registries
Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
Copies of insurances
Credit histories (personal or/and business)
Deeds and permits
Equipment leases
Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
Industry associations and memberships
Images of product
Intellectual property
Key customer contracts
Legal documents and other contracts
Letters of reference
Links to references
Market research data
Organizational charts
Photographs of potential facilities
Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
Purchase orders
Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
State and federal identification numbers or codes
Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

Table of contents
Introduction
Product or service description
Target audience
Market size
Competition analysis
Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

Business opportunity
Company description
Industry analysis
Target market
Implementation timeline
Marketing plan
Financial summary
Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

The Business Profile
The Vision and the People
Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
Organization
Licenses and Permits
Business Insurance
Communication Tools
Acquisitions
Location and Leasing
Accounting and Cash Flow
Opening and Marketing
Managing Employees
Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

Executive Summary
Company Description
Service Line
Marketing and Sales

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

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

Executive summary
Business description
Products and services
Operations plan
Management organization
Financial plan
Conclusion / Call to action
Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

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

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
Solution: The solutions to each problem.
Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time. They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans. A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs. Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

Use This Business Plan Format to Expertly Write Your Plan

Written by Dave Lavinsky

In this guide, you’ll learn how to format your business plan professionally. Business plan structure and format helps readers look beyond distracting style to the real meat of your idea.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

How to Format Your Business Plan: The Cover Sheet

Every business plan should begin with a simple business plan cover page including the business name, your name and contact information. An easy to read table of contents should follow.

Example Business Plan Table of Contents

I: Executive Summary a. Business Overview b. Success Factors c. Financial Highlights

II: Company Overview a. Who is [Company Name]? b. [Company Name]’s History c. [Company Name]’s Products & Services

III: Industry Analysis a. Industry Trends

IV: Customer Analysis a. Customer Segmentation

V: Competitive Analysis a. Direct & Indirect Competitors b. Competitive Advantage

VI: Marketing Plan a. The [Company Name] Brand b. Promotions Strategy c. Pricing Strategy

VII: Operations Plan a. Functional Roles b. Goals and Milestones

VIII: Management Team a. Management Team Members b. Hiring Plan

IX: Financial Plan a. Revenue Model b. Revenue and Cost Drivers c. Key Assumptions & Forecasts

X: Appendix

The cover sheet should leave no question for readers to be able to identify the business plan when it is in a stack with dozens of others on their desk. The table of contents allows them to easily refer to sections within the plan. For example, after reading the executive summary, some investors with an eye for numbers may turn directly to the financial plan and statements. Proper business plan format allows readers to quickly get the information they want.

Example Business Plan Format

There are 10 business plan components or sections that every entrepreneur and business owner must include in their plan. These include:

Executive summary
Company overview
Industry analysis
Customer analysis
Competitive analysis
Marketing plan
Operations plan
Management team
Financial plan

You should recognize these if you’ve ever worked with the best business plan template .

Formatting your business plan with charts and graphs is welcomed to break up long blocks of text. However, charts and graphs shouldn’t be used for their own sake. They must make the information easier to pass on than text would.

The business plan format that investors and lenders expect includes the following 10 sections. You can download our business plan format pdf here, to help you get started. We’ve included important notes in each section specific to business plan formatting to help you as you write your plan.

1. Start with Your Executive Summary

An executive summary gives readers a crisp overview of your business at the start of your plan. This section should not be more than two pages long and should include the following:

What is the business about?
Where and why did the idea of the business originate?
Who are the owners?
Which industry is it operating in?
What is its core function?
Where is it located?
How is it going to make money?
How much money (if any) is it already making?
What are its financial projections?

The best format for your executive summary is paragraphs. Utilizing bullets and headings is also useful formatting within an executive summary, as it aids the reader in scanning the content on the page.

2. Company Overview Section

The company overview is the perfect place to highlight the strengths of your business. This section gives the reader additional information about your products and/or services and describes your company’s past accomplishments.

Including the below in this section will provide further clarity about your business:

What type of business you are (e.g., C-Corporation, sole proprietor)
When your business started
Business’ accomplishments to date

The best formatting to use in this section is paragraphs to describe your company’s strengths and products/services. You should also include a chart that outlines your company’s achievements to date.

3. Industry or Market Analysis

The industry or market analysis gives the reader a clear understanding of your industry and the audience it serves. It includes a detailed explanation of your market size and trends.

Typically, the format of this section should be paragraphs. Feel free to include charts and graphs to best convey the information to the reader.

4. The Customer Analysis States Who Your Customers Are and What They Need

In this section of your plan, explain who your target customers are and identify their specific needs. Doing this will help you better target and attract customers.

5. Competitive Analysis

The Competitive Analysis section identifies your direct and indirect competitors. It discusses who they are and their strengths and weaknesses. It then details your areas of competitive advantages.

Whether your competitors are small or large businesses, describe them. Telling investors there are no competitors (big or small) often gives the impression that a market does not exist for your company.

With regards to formatting, use paragraphs to describe each competitor. As appropriate, adding a competitor matrix to show similarities and differences between your company and the competition can be very powerful.

6. Your Marketing Plan is a Key Section

The marketing & sales section of your business plan should outline how you plan to attract new customers and retain old ones. This section should outline the ways customers can be introduced to and engage with your offerings and describe how you will convert these prospects into paying customers.

Set marketing objectives that include the following (if applicable):

Introducing new products
Extending the market reach
Exploring new markets
Boosting sales
Cross-selling
Creating a long-term partnership with clients
Increasing prices without affecting sales
Creating a content marketing strategy

Organize your Marketing Plan into the 4 P’s – Price, Product, Promotions and Place. If you have multiple products or services, include a menu with each key item and its price.

7. The Operations Plan Format

Your Operations Plan identifies your key operational processes and milestones you expect to accomplish. Using a Gantt chart is a great way to show your expected future milestones. You can also format this section with tables that document the dates of future milestones.

8. You Need to Prove Your Management Team Can Execute

“A company is only as good as the people it keeps.” – Mary Kay Ash, American Entrepreneur and Businesswoman

The Management Team section of your business plan focuses on the people who run the business.

Who are the decision-makers, who is the product expert, who is the operations head, and who is running the entire show? A glimpse into the expertise and capabilities of your team members and how their experiences will help grow your business will boost stakeholder confidence.

To improve the formatting and best convey your management team to readers, consider adding an organizational chart that shows your team members and reporting structure.

9. Format Your Financial Plan

The goal of this section is to convince the reader that your business is stable and will be financially successful. Arm this section with past and/or forecasted cash flow statements, balance sheets, profit & loss statements, expense budgeting and sales forecasts.

If you run an operational business, include 3 years of historical data to help investors gain an understanding of how feasible your funding request is and if your business is capable of generating good returns.

Also include your funding request, if applicable, in this section. You should mention how much investment is required to take your business to the next significant milestone and how the money will be spent. You should also define if you are seeking debt or equity funding. If you are seeking debt financing like an SBA loan, ensure your financial projections include the debt and show steady repayments of both the principal and return under reasonable loan terms.

If you are seeking equity financing, you don’t need to include your valuation expectations in the business plan, but you should be aligned within your ownership team on the amount of equity you are willing to exchange before you pitch investors.

Example Financial Plan

Projected sales, gross profit & net income.

Business Plan Format financial projections

5 Year Annual Income Statement

5 year annual balance sheet, 5 year annual cash flow statement, 10. appendix.

This section includes supporting documentation of your business case. This could include renderings of a planned store location, market research reports referenced in the plan, key supplier or buyer contracts that substantiate your financial projections or historical marketing and sales data.

Formatting Your Business Plan

Overall, business plans should use simple and standard formatting. Twelve point font size in a standard font like Arial or Times New Roman is best, as well as the standard margin size of one inch on each side. Pages should be numbered, and the name of the company should appear on each page in the header or footer.

Use charts whenever possible as it makes it much easier for readers to consume the information in your plan.

How to Finish Your Business Plan in 1 Day!

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your business plan?

With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Click here to finish your business plan today.

OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.

Click here to see how Growthink’s business plan consulting services can create your business plan for you.

How to Create a Business Plan

Ready to achieve your business goals? A business plan is your secret weapon to get everyone excited about what’s next.

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OKC considering job 'mega-site' to draw business with annexation plan

Planners insist that a property encompassing 320 acres at Gregory Road and NW 10 should be annexed by Oklahoma City to draw big business and numerous jobs to the area in the future.

Amanda Carpenter, an attorney representing the city's Industrial and Cultural Facilities trust, presented an annexation plan Tuesday to the Oklahoma City Council that would allow the city to acquire the acreage near Mustang.

Carpenter said the annexation is needed to help create a "mega site," a tract of at least 1,000 acres meant for economic development projects that could court major investors.

“Since 2020, the Oklahoma City area has been a candidate for at least nine different businesses seeking sites of 1,000 acres or more, but has not been able to provide such a site ready and available," Carpenter said. “This area is ideal because it is flat, it is contiguous, it’s next to an interstate system, it’s close to an airport, and it has a readily available workforce in the Oklahoma City metro.”

Related: OKC retained its spot as America's 20th-largest city, and just keeps growing.

In December, the city council and the city's economic development trust allocated $10 million for purchase of a mega site. The 320-acre parcel of land that the city could annex is in unincorporated Canadian County, which Carpenter said means that there are no county zoning regulations or other permit requirements. Annexing the property into Oklahoma City authority, she added, would allow for better safeguards in development.

Right now, no residents actually live on that parcel of land, which is being used for agriculture and industry. But an overall potential mega-site project still might not be without its problems.

Nearby residents protest plans, saying it will disrupt their neighborhoods and agriculture

Some residents living in the broader area surrounding the potential site have been sending protest letters to planning commissioners, objecting to the mega-site's potential to displace nearby residents, disrupt their rural way of life and harm the area's agricultural ecology.

"We moved out here to get away from the noise and traffic of overpopulated areas and businesses on every corner," wrote Jim and Charlette Baird, residents of Canadian County's Banner Creek Addition. "We do not want any kind of industrial facilities anywhere near us. The quiet is one of the reasons people move out here. Not everyone can afford to buy a farm or ranch to build on. If you allow this annex to go through our property values will drop drastically, we will lose our peace and quiet, and probably many of our neighbors."

Another resident, Cory Pivniska, pointed out that the property is serviced by the Canadian County Water Authority and that the city would have to resolve an extension of services to the site.

But Carpenter argued residents in the area would see benefits from increased utilities and road capacities, as well as potential enhancements to the Clarence E. Page Municipal Airport . She also said the local Banner Schools tax base would increase through the mega site without actually increasing the headcount, unlike if a residential development was built.

More: OKC Council votes to annex closer to Moore for $3.6M street project

“This type of development of employment lands would bring large-scale industrial and manufacturing. This means jobs," Carpenter said. "It is projected to create 2,500 to 7,500 jobs for the Oklahoma City metro area. These types of jobs have an average salary of $63,000, and this is bringing new-to-market businesses that the City of Oklahoma City and its metro area currently don’t have.”

An evaluation from city planning staff for the 320-acre parcel near Gregory Road and NW 10 also found that "Oklahoma City residents' quality of life and levels of service will be maintained" and "the change in municipal boundaries will not create adverse impacts."

'Mega sites bring big players to the table'

In April, the city council's annexation/de-annexation committee reviewed the petition for incorporating the property and recommended it be forwarded to the city's planning commission. Planning regulators then recommended the annexation ordinance for city council approval in May. The annexation proposal is also supported by the city's Public Works Department.

The annexation committee was chaired by Ward 3 City Councilwoman Barbara Peck, who represents the area into which the acreage could be incorporated. In a statement shared Wednesday with The Oklahoman, she described the possibility of a mega site as the fulfillment of a call from residents to diversify the economy.

“While we don’t yet know what business will come to our new Mega Site, we can count on it bringing thousands of jobs, city infrastructure to rural west OKC for the site and everything in-between, and economic development beyond our initial hopes and dreams that reignited with MAPS in the 1990s,” Peck said. “Mega sites bring big players to the table who are great community partners and workforce development hubs for our kids to build a career with.”

More: Oklahoma City annexed and rezoned 160 acres; Deer Creek residents feel ignored

The annexation committee also included fellow councilmembers Bradley Carter for Ward 1, Todd Stone for Ward 4, and Mark Stonecipher for Ward 8. The entire city council is expected to vote on the annexation ordinance June 18, but at least one councilmember isn't happy with the proposal.

Ward 7 Councilwoman Nikki Nice believes that incorporating more land into the city is irresponsible, when resources and services for roads and neighborhoods currently under the city's scope have already seen strain going into the next fiscal year .

“We look at $10 million for land, but yet we’re trying to balance a budget and cut the things that people need the most?” Nice asked. “This is insulting.”

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Hochul Halts Congestion Pricing in a Stunning 11th-Hour Shift

Weeks before New York was to charge motorists to enter Manhattan’s business district, Gov. Kathy Hochul postponed the program, citing economic concerns.

Governor Kathy Hochul stands in front of an American flag.

By Grace Ashford

Reporting from the State Capitol in Albany, N.Y.

Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York announced on Wednesday that she was shelving the long-awaited tolling plan known as congestion pricing, just weeks before it was to go into effect.

“After careful consideration I have come to the difficult decision that implementing the planned congestion pricing system risks too many unintended consequences,” Ms. Hochul said, adding: “I have directed the M.T.A. to indefinitely pause the program.”

The move angered environmentalists, transit advocates and economists , with some accusing the governor of abandoning a plan that was decades in the making for political reasons in a critical election year.

The decision, Ms. Hochul acknowledged, was not an easy one, but she said it was nonetheless crucial in light of the lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic on working families and New York City’s economy.

The congestion pricing plan , the first of its kind in the nation, was slated to start June 30 . Drivers using E-ZPass would have paid as much as $15 to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.

The governor said she feared that instituting a toll to drive into the borough would “create another obstacle to our economic recovery.”

“Let’s be real: A $15 charge may not seem like a lot to someone who has the means, but it can break the budget of a hard-working middle-class household,” Ms. Hochul said.

In the days before her announcement, the governor notified the White House and the top House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, of her plans, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

They disputed reports that Mr. Jeffries had directed Ms. Hochul to delay the plan, saying that he had remained neutral on the issue.

“To the extent immediate implementation of congestion pricing is being reconsidered, Leader Jeffries supports a temporary pause of limited duration to better understand the financial impact on working-class New Yorkers,” said Andy Eichar, a spokesman for Mr. Jeffries.

Word of the governor’s last-minute misgivings began to circulate in Albany on Tuesday night, and quickly sent shock waves through the New York State Capitol by Wednesday morning, the penultimate day of the legislative session.

Few lawmakers could say they loved congestion pricing and the optics of taxing constituents. But the proposal was championed by economists and environmentalists alike as the solution not only to the financial woes of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs New York’s subways and buses, but also the city’s infamous gridlock.

The program was also being contested in court by eight separate lawsuits, with plaintiffs including the Trucking Association of New York and Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey .

Mr. Murphy’s case in particular, which is being argued in Federal District Court in Newark, was regarded as the most serious challenge to congestion pricing. State officials are seeking a more comprehensive environmental study of the program.

But in New York, most Democrats had made a grudging peace with the plan after decades of debate, hearings, studies and planning — none more publicly than Ms. Hochul, who had defended it as a necessary step toward rebuilding New York’s economy.

Just two weeks ago, the governor told attendees at the Global Economic Summit in Ireland that implementing congestion pricing was critical to “making cities more livable.”

Many key players in New York politics, from Albany to New York City, expressed dismay at the reversal, which cast the transportation authority’s finances into uncertainty.

“I’m very upset that suddenly, out of the blue, this would pop up,” State Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, said on Wednesday, adding: “If we stop congestion pricing now we’re never going to get it.”

Kate Slevin of the Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit urban research and advocacy group that has championed the tolling program, called the move “a total betrayal of New Yorkers and our climate.”

The president of the Partnership for New York City, Kathryn Wylde, said the governor’s decision was a disappointment and that she hoped the pause would be temporary.

Yet an undercurrent of support for Ms. Hochul’s move was also evident among lawmakers, particularly those representing swing districts.

“Many see it as welcome news,” said James Skoufis, a Democrat who represents Orange County in the State Senate, adding that despite the plan’s approval five years earlier, opposition had been growing in the Legislature. “Some of it is outspoken, some of it is quieter, but it is widespread.”

Shortly after Ms. Hochul’s announcement, U.S. Representative Pat Ryan, a Democrat facing a tough re-election race in the northern exurbs of New York City, sent out a statement taking partial credit for defeating the plan.

“Since Day 1, I’ve fought alongside countless Hudson Valley families against this unfair, uninformed and unacceptable congestion pricing plan,” Mr. Ryan said. “Today, I’m proud to say we’ve stopped congestion pricing in its tracks.”

Indeed, the plan has been largely unpopular in suburban areas of the Hudson Valley and Long Island where Democrats are desperate to make gains this cycle.

A Siena poll from April found that 72 percent of New York suburbs opposed congestion pricing. Statewide, the number is lower, but still a majority — including 54 percent of Democrats.

Transit experts say that such opposition is common among communities acclimating to tolling plans, but not always lasting.

“We know from the experiences of other cities that have implemented congestion pricing that public support is at its nadir right before implementation,” said Nicholas Klein, an assistant professor of city and regional planning at Cornell University. “That is when the public, media and politicians panic. But time and again, we see that the sky does not fall.”

In her address, Ms. Hochul stressed her commitment to public transit, and ensuring that the transportation authority had the funding it needed to complete long overdue capital projects. But she said that the city’s outlook had changed since the plan was approved in 2019.

“Workers were in the office five days a week, crime was at record lows and tourism was at record highs,” she said. “Circumstances have changed and we must respond to the facts on the ground.”

The decision has the awkward effect of bringing Ms. Hochul, a centrist Democrat who has at times served as a surrogate for President Biden, into alignment with former President Donald J. Trump, who has derided the plan , as well as her predecessor, Andrew M. Cuomo, who championed the concept as governor but now questions its timing.

To halt implementation of the plan, Ms. Hochul needs only the approval of the authority’s board, which she controls. But without the projected $1 billion a year for the city’s buses and subways, the transit system could quickly fall into crisis.

Ms. Hochul could fill that gap, at least temporarily, with money from the state’s reserves. But she is also said to be looking at a more durable revenue source, possibly in the form of a tax on city businesses, which would require the approval of the State Legislature.

The transportation agency has already invested heavily in infrastructure to implement the pricing plan, including $507 million it paid to a Nashville company.

In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams endorsed Ms. Hochul’s move. “I think that if she’s looking at analyzing what other ways we can do it and how we do it correctly, I’m all for it,” Mr. Adams said Wednesday at an unrelated news conference on Staten Island.

Mr. Adams, who has not been a strong proponent of congestion pricing, said he was worried that charging vehicles to enter Lower Manhattan would be an undue burden for “everyday New Yorkers” and potentially affect the city’s economic recovery from the pandemic.

“We have to get it right,” the mayor said, noting that he had been communicating with the governor over the last few days. “This is a major shift in our city and it must be done correctly.”

Reporting was contributed by Nicholas Fandos , Jeffery C. Mays and Claire Fahy .

Grace Ashford covers New York government and politics for The Times. More about Grace Ashford

Space elevators could get us to Mars in record time — and Japan is planning one for 2050

A space elevator could make it much cheaper and faster to get goods to other planets, like Mars.
The Obayashi Corporation based in Japan announced in 2012 plans to begin building one by next year.
Not only would it cost $100 billion, there are huge technological and organizational challenges.

Imagine a long tether linking Earth to space that could launch us to orbit at a fraction of the cost and slingshot us to other worlds at record speed.

That's the basic idea behind a space elevator .

Instead of taking six to eight months to reach Mars, scientists have estimated a space elevator could get us there in three to four months or even as quickly as 40 days .

The concept of space elevators isn't new, but engineering such a structure would be no easy feat , and many other issues besides technology stand in the way.

That's why the ambition to seriously build one is fairly recent.

The Japan-based company Obayashi Corporation thinks it has the expertise.

Japan aims to build a space elevator by 2050

Known for constructing the world's tallest tower, the Tokyo Skytree , Obayashi Corporation announced in 2012 that it would reach even loftier heights with its own space elevator.

In a report that same year, the company said it would begin construction on the $100-billion project by 2025 and could start operations as early as 2050.

We checked in with Yoji Ishikawa, who wrote the report and is part of the company's future technology creation department, to see how the project is progressing ahead of 2025.

While Ishikawa said the company likely won't start construction next year, it is currently "engaged in research and development, rough design, partnership building, and promotion," he told Business Insider.

Some have doubted such a structure is even possible.

"It's been sort of a kooky idea," said Christian Johnson, who published a report on space elevators last year in the peer-reviewed Journal of Science Policy & Governance.

"That said, there are some people who are real scientists who are really on board with this and really want to make it happen," Johnson said.

A cheaper route to space

Launching humans and objects into space on rockets is extremely expensive. For example, NASA has estimated its four Artemis moon missions will cost $4.1 billion per launch .

The reason is something called the rocket equation . It takes a lot of fuel to get to space, but the fuel is heavy, which increases the amount of fuel you need. "And so you see the kind of vicious cycle there," Johnson said.

With a space elevator, you don't need rockets or fuel.

According to some designs, space elevators would shuttle cargo to orbit on electromagnetic vehicles called climbers. These climbers could be remotely powered — like through solar power or microwaves — eliminating the need for on-board fuel.

In his report for the Obayashi Corporation, Ishikawa wrote that this type of space elevator could help drop the cost of moving goods to space to $57 per pound. Other estimates for space elevators in general have put the price at $227 per pound.

There's not enough steel on Earth to make a space elevator

Right now, one of the biggest obstacles to building a space elevator is what to make the tether or tube from.

To withstand the tremendous tension it would be under, the tube would have to be very thick if it were made out of typical materials, like steel. However, "if you try to build it out of steel, you would need more steel than exists on Earth," Johnson said.

Ishikawa's report suggested Obayashi Corporation might use carbon nanotubes . A nanotube is a rolled-up layer of graphite, the material that's used in pencils.

It's much lighter and is less likely to break under tension compared to steel, so the space elevator could be much smaller, Johnson said. But there's a catch.

While nanotubes are very strong, they're also tiny, a billionth of a meter in diameter. And researchers haven't made them very lengthy. The longest is only about 2 feet.

To be properly balanced while still reaching geosynchronous orbit — where objects stay in sync with Earth's rotation — the tether would need to be at least 22,000 miles long, per Ishikawa's report.

"So we're not there," Johnson said of the nanotube length. "But that doesn't mean it's impossible."

Instead, researchers might need to develop an entirely new material, Ishikawa said.

Other obstacles

Whatever the material turns out to be, there are still other problems.

For instance, a space elevator's tether would be under such incredible tension that it would be prone to snapping, Johnson said. A lightning strike could vaporize it. There's also other weather to consider like tornadoes, monsoons, and hurricanes.

Locating the tether base at the equator would lessen the likelihood of hurricanes , but it would still need to be in the open ocean to make it more difficult for terrorists to target, Johnson said.

It would also take a lot of trips to make up for that giant price tag for construction.

That's only scratching the surface of the challenges. And they can't all be solved by one company, Ishikawa said. "We need partnerships," he said. "We need different industries."

"Of course," Ishikawa said, "raising funds is very essential."

That's a lot of obstacles to overcome to start construction in time for operation by 2050, especially since Ishikawa estimated it would take 25 years to build. He noted that the 2050 estimate always came with caveats about the technology progressing. "It's not our goal or promise," he said, but the company is still aiming for that date.

"I think that those time estimates are optimistic," Johnson said, "even assuming there was a breakthrough tomorrow."

Watch: Why Hot Air Balloons Are So Expensive

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What to Include in Your Business Plan Appendix
In general, here is some of the information you might include in your business plan appendix: Charts, graphs, or tables that support sections of your business plan. Financial statements and projections. Sales and marketing materials. Executive team resumes. Credit history. Business and/or personal tax returns.
Template: 55 Business Plan Appendix Content Samples
4. Other key legal documents pertaining to your business (e.g. permits, NDAs, property and vehicle titles) 5. Proof of commitment from strategic partners (e.g., letters of agreement or support) 6. Dates of key developments in your company's history. 7.
What to include in a Business Plan Appendix?
Let's understand what the appendix business plan includes in brief detail: 1. Supplementary information. Here, you can include documents to support and elaborate on some information mentioned in other sections of your business plan. Some examples of supplementary information include, Charts, graphs, and tables used in the analysis.
Business Plan Appendix [Updated 2024]
The appendix in a business plan is a supplementary section that contains additional information and supporting documents, such as charts, graphs, financial statements, market research, and legal papers, which complement the main body of the plan. Although the final section of a comprehensive business plan, the appendix is an integral part of ...
Business Plan
Material that adds to the business plan, but doesn't belong in the body. The appendices allow you to include valuable information to your business plan that does not fit neatly within the body of the plan. Generally, it is used to include exemplars of the material or information that is referenced within the business plan but does not need to ...
Business Plan Annexes
BUSINESS PLAN ANNEXES SECTION A: INTRODUCTION. 3.1 Enhanced Engagement Strategy. 3.2 Future Stakeholder Engagement Strategy. 3.3 Business Plan Testing and Acceptance Results. SECTION B: A VALUED AND TRUSTED SERVICE FOR OUR CUSTOMERS AND COMMUNITIES. 4.1 Customer Experience Strategy. 4.2 Vulnerability Strategy. 5.1 Digitalisation Investment Plan
PDF Annex 7 Guide to the Business Plan
GUIDE TO THE BUSINESS PLAN1. The business plan is an essential document for a consortium. It provides a road map for the later operations by specifying the strategic vision of the group, listing the activities that members wish to undertake jointly and providing an overview of the expenses involved. The business plan will play a large role when ...
PDF ANNEXES BUSINESS PLAN
ANNEXES BUSINESS PLAN . 1 Financial management A. Financial management (in general): The coordinating organisation, Czech Technical University in Prague, manages all financial matters. A Financial Manager, member of the SUSCOS_M Management Team is assigned to the project, and is also in charge of all ...
Business Plan Section 9: Appendix
Section 9: Business Plan Appendix. If you've already read the series, you've heard this before: it's imperative to always keep your audience in mind. Your goals for what you want the business plan to accomplish will dictate who your audience is, and the information you present will be shaped by that. Finally, remember the importance of ...
Annexes
Annexes. Supporting our business plan, we are also submitting a number of Annexes that provide more detailed information about our proposed plans, rationale, costs, and how our plan has been developed through, and shaped by, customer and stakeholder engagement. Some of our annexes have further appendices providing even more detail where ...
Business Plan Executive Summary Example & Template
Bottom Line. Writing an executive summary doesn't need to be difficult if you've already done the work of writing the business plan itself. Take the elements from the plan and summarize each ...
11.4 The Business Plan
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.
How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)
1. Create Your Executive Summary. The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans. Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.
Our RIIO-2 Business Plan
In RIIO-2 BP2, we are planning to deliver numerous activities against each of the following areas: Role 1 - Control centre operations. Role 2 - Market development and transactions. Role 3 - System insight, planning and network development. Find out more about these activities and milestones from our Delivery Schedule.
PDF ED2 Final Report
Annexes Business Plan Incentive. The Customer Engagement Group (CEG) is an independent body established to act . on behalf of Northern Powergrid's stakeholders. Chair Justin McCracken was appointed in July 2019, following an independent . recruitment process involving the energy industry regulator Ofgem.
Business Plan Format & Structure
Organize your Marketing Plan into the 4 P's - Price, Product, Promotions and Place. If you have multiple products or services, include a menu with each key item and its price. 7. The Operations Plan Format. Your Operations Plan identifies your key operational processes and milestones you expect to accomplish.
How to Create a Business Plan
You can also join this program via the mobile app. Go to the app
Our RIIO-2 business plan (2021-2026)
Find out more about how you shaped our business plan. We're pleased to publish the final business plan for the period 2021-2026, which has been submitted to Ofgem on Monday 9 December 2019. We want to be as transparent as possible, so in addition to publishing the business plan, we'll also be publishing supporting evidence that underpins the ...
Business Plan
Here is a basic template that any business can use when developing its business plan: Section 1: Executive Summary. Present the company's mission. Describe the company's product and/or service offerings. Give a summary of the target market and its demographics.
PDF Business plan outline
The business plan should be tailored to fit your unique business. Business Plan Outline 1. Description of the Business 1.1 What business are you in? 1.2 How can you serve the market better than your competitor(s)? 1.3 What is the present status of the business? Is it a start-up, expansion of a going concern, or take-over of an existing business?
PDF Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans Comprehensive
Preface. Comprehensive Preparedness Guide ( CPG) 101 provides guidance from FEMA on the fundamentals of planning and developing emergency operations plans. The guide describes the steps to produce an emergency operation plan, possible plan structures and components of a base plan and its annexes. Other FEMA guides provide detailed information ...
ESO RIIO-2 Business Plan 2 Supporting Information
Business Plan. 1.2 Additional supporting information for activities and sub-activities Information which is noted as additional to the content contained in the main Business Plan is included in this Annex. This information may provide further background, context or clarity to materially changed and new activities/sub-activities.
RIIO-T2 Business Plan Annexes
Annex 11: Business Plan Data Tables. Annex 11 sets out proposed cost, volume and output delivery information for RIIO-T2 period in a format determined by Ofgem. It covers both qualitative and quantitative information that will be used by the regulator to better understand the submission by the licence company and facilitate a full and proper ...
OKC could draw jobs, big businesses in annex plan, developers say
OKC considering job 'mega-site' to draw business with annexation plan. Planners insist that a property encompassing 320 acres at Gregory Road and NW 10 should be annexed by Oklahoma City to draw big business and numerous jobs to the area in the future. Amanda Carpenter, an attorney representing the city's Industrial and Cultural Facilities ...
NY Gov Hochul delays controversial NYC congestion pricing plan ...
Pedestrians cross a street past traffic in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York, US, on Saturday, June 17, 2023. New York City's congestion pricing plan has been "indefinitely" delayed by New ...
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Walmart, America's largest private-sector employer, is starting a bonus program for its hourly employees. The company said on Wednesday that the program will be aimed at rewarding employees who ...
Facebook has a plan to win over Gen Z. Don't laugh.
Meta just unveiled its plan for Facebook to win over a surprising demographic: Gen Z. I say surprising because it's widely known that Facebook is "for old people" — many teens and young people ...
Hochul Halts Congestion Pricing in a Stunning 11th-Hour Shift
June 5, 2024. Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York announced on Wednesday that she was shelving the long-awaited tolling plan known as congestion pricing, just weeks before it was to go into effect ...
Tesla Chair on What Happens If Musk Pay Rejected
Fairfax Media/Getty. Tesla board chair discussed what could happen if Elon Musk's pay package is rejected. Robyn Denholm said a new plan could cost an extra $25 billion worth of stock-based ...
Space Elevators: Pros, Cons, and the Japan Company ...
Space elevators could get us to Mars in record time — and Japan is planning one for 2050. Jenny McGrath. Jun 5, 2024, 10:43 AM PDT. The Obayashi Corporation's concept drawing for its proposed ...

What to Include in Your Business Plan Appendix

What goes in the appendix of a business plan?

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Business plan appendix best practices

Make it easy to navigate

Don’t forget security

Make the appendix work as a separate document

Connect the appendix to sections of your business plan

Keep it simple

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What is an Appendix in a Business Plan?

What is Included in an Appendix of a Business Plan?

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Company Description

Target Market

Competition

Marketing and Sales

Products and Services

Management and Team

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What is a business plan appendix?

What to include in the appendix of a business plan?

1. Supplementary information

2. Legal documents

3. Organizational and personnel details

4. Additional financial documents

5. Achievements and testimonials

Tips and best practices for business plan appendix

1. Make it scannable

2. Relate to the business plan

3. Include the confidentiality statement

4. Keep the appendix supplementary

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BUSINESS PLAN ANNEXES

SECTION B: A VALUED AND TRUSTED SERVICE FOR OUR CUSTOMERS AND COMMUNITIES

SECTION C: A SAFE, RESILIENT AND RESPONSIVE NETWORK

SECTION D: ACCELERATED PROGRESS TOWARDS A NET ZERO WORLD

SECTION E: VALUE FOR MONEY FOR CUSTOMERS

SECTION F: FINANCE AND FINANCEABILITY

OVERARCHING THEMES AND SUPPLEMENTARY ANNEXES

Business Plan Section 9: Appendix

What Goes Into Business Plan Appendix?

How to Organize a Business Plan Appendix

Business Plan Recap

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11.4 The Business Plan

Business Plan Overview

Purposes of a Business Plan

Link to Learning

Types of Business Plans

Brief Business Plan or Executive Summary

Are You Ready?

Full Business Plan

Executive Summary

Business Description

Industry Analysis and Market Strategies

Competitive Analysis

Operations and Management Plan

Marketing Plan