small business business plan table of contents

AI ASSISTANTS

Upmetrics AI Your go-to AI-powered business assistant

AI Writing Assist Write, translate, and refine your text with AI

AI Financial Assist Automated forecasts and AI recommendations

TOP FEATURES

AI Business Plan Generator Create business plans faster with AI

Financial Forecasting Make accurate financial forecasts faster

INTEGRATIONS

QuickBooks Sync and compare with your QuickBooks data

Strategic Planning Develop actionable strategic plans on-the-go

AI Pitch Deck Generator Use AI to generate your investor deck

Xero Sync and compare with your Xero data

See how easy it is to plan your business with Upmetrics: Take a Tour  →

AI-powered business planning software

Very useful business plan software connected to AI. Saved a lot of time, money and energy. Their team is highly skilled and always here to help.

- Julien López

BY USE CASE

Secure Funding, Loans, Grants Create plans that get you funded

Starting & Launching a Business Plan your business for launch and success

Validate Your Business Idea Discover the potential of your business idea

E2 Visa Business Plan Create a business plan to support your E2 - Visa

Business Consultant & Advisors Plan with your team members and clients

Incubators & Accelerators Empowering startups for growth

Business Schools & Educators Simplify business plan education for students

Students & Learners Your e-tutor for business planning

• Sample Plans

WHY UPMETRICS?

Reviews See why customers love Upmetrics

Customer Success Stories Read our customer success stories

Blogs Latest business planning tips and strategies

Strategic Planning Templates Ready-to-use strategic plan templates

Business Plan Course A step-by-step business planning course

Help Center Help & guides to plan your business

Ebooks & Guides A free resource hub on business planning

Business Tools Free business tools to help you grow

Business Plan Table of Contents

Business Plan Template

• May 10, 2024

Looking for how & why to write a business plan table of contents ? Well, a nicely written TOC is essential for guiding readers through your plan and highlighting key sections.

It also enhances the overall professionalism and readability by setting the tone for the whole plan later. Let’s explore the sample table of contents along with the pros of adding TOC to the plan.

Why include a Business Plan Table of Contents?

A table of contents serves as the outline of a business plan. It assists the reader in navigating through the document and is placed at the beginning of a business plan. This helps the reader effortlessly find and browse through the topics that interest them.

It includes all the major sections and subcategories of a business plan. The sections are arranged logically with page numbers. And it usually precedes the executive summary.

Sample Business Plan Table of Contents

Presenting the sample business plan table of contents—your perfect partner in creating a well-organized plan. It is necessary to highlight all the necessary areas of the plan.

From below, you can even use the business plan template ! It is ready for you to customize according to your needs along with the TOC!

• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• Mission Statement
• Vision Statement
• Purpose and Values
• Problem Identification
• Problem Statement
• Industry Analysis
• Product & Service Overview
• Product & Service Specifications
• Product & Service Benefits and USPs
• Available Substitutes
• Competitive Overview
• Direct and Indirect Competitors
• SWOT Analysis
• Competitive Position
• Market Share Analysis
• Barriers to Entry
• Market Overview
• Market Size
• Market Segmentation
• Ideal Customer Profile
• Sales & Marketing Objectives
• Pricing Strategies
• Promotion Strategies
• Site Location
• Staffing and Training
• Resource Allocation
• Purchasing Process
• Production Process
• Quality Control Metrics
• Customer Service
• Key Management
• Board of Directors
• Board of Advisors
• Financial Overview
• Business Model
• Financial Projections
• Marketing and Personnel Expenses
• Funding Requirements
• Terms of Investment
• Exit Strategy

Benefits of Adding a Business Plan Table of Contents

A table of contents is an extremely important part of any formal document, let alone a business plan. It is the most commonly found aspect in every large format document, from books to magazines to business plans. Let’s see the benefits of a business plan table of contents:

1. Acts as an introduction

The table of contents is placed before all the sections of a business plan . This will help the reader get a good look at the contents before diving into the details. Primarily, it introduces the reader to your business plan. This can get readers interested and excited to read more.

2. Gives an overview of the scope

A table of contents further enables the reader to judge the scope of your business idea. To mirror the exact essence of your business plan, the table of contents should be crafted carefully.

Whether it’s an investor or another company you wish to partner with, any formal entity interested in your business skims through your table of contents. Hence, it is wise to convey exactly what you intend to.

3. Displays attention to detail

While creating a table of contents, you include not only the major sections of your business plan but also the subsections. These subsections will convey that you have paid attention to the smallest of things while drafting your business. This indirectly sends a message that you are serious about your business ventures.

4. Provides easier navigation

This is an obvious but very significant advantage of a table of contents. Incorporating it into your business plan will add a navigational aspect to your document. Regardless if it’s a physical document or an e-document, a table of contents will help the reader go to any specific section they want.

In the case of an e-document, you can include links to the pages. So the reader can go to a particular section by clicking on the page numbers.

Create visual appealing business plans with our

AI Business Plan Generator

Plans starting from $7/month

Build Trust in your Business with a Table of Contents

Writing a table of contents for your business plan is a subtle yet powerful way to captivate your potential investors or business partners. It is essentially a summary of the document that acts as a roadmap for your business activities.

So, whether you’re a new business seeking funding or an established business looking to refine your strategy, investing time in creating a thoughtful table of contents is a wise choice.

You can smoothen the process with the help of business planning software and get guidance for each step. So, all the very best!

Build your Business Plan Faster

with step-by-step Guidance & AI Assistance.

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

Reach Your Goals with Accurate Planning

Business Plan Table of Contents

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on mastering the art of creating an effective Business Plan Table of Contents. As an entrepreneur or business owner, you understand the importance of having a well-structured and organized roadmap for your business. A Business Plan serves as the foundation for your venture, outlining your goals, strategies, and financial projections. However, the Table of Contents often gets overlooked, even though it plays a crucial role in guiding readers through your plan.

In this blog post, we will explore the definition and importance of a Business Plan, as well as the purpose of a Table of Contents within it. We will provide an overview of the key sections of a Business Plan, such as the Executive Summary, Company Description, Market Analysis, Marketing and Sales Strategy, and more.

Next, we will delve into the components of a Business Plan Table of Contents, including the cover page, table of contents itself, executive summary, and various sections of the plan. We will also discuss the role of appendices and supporting documents in providing additional credibility to your plan.

To help you create an effective Table of Contents, we will share valuable tips on organizing the sections in a logical and cohesive manner, as well as formatting and presentation techniques for clear headings and subheadings. We will also provide guidance on updating the Table of Contents to reflect any changes made to the plan’s content.

By the end of this guide, you will understand the importance of a well-structured Table of Contents and its impact on the overall effectiveness of your Business Plan. You will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to create a comprehensive and reader-friendly roadmap for your business.

So, let’s dive in and discover how to master the art of Business Plan Table of Contents and create an effective roadmap for your entrepreneurial journey!

Effective Communication and Order Management

Effective communication and efficient order management are vital components of a successful business plan. In this section, we will explore the importance of establishing clear lines of communication within your organization and implementing effective strategies for managing orders.

Clear and concise communication is essential for ensuring that everyone within your organization is on the same page. It allows for seamless collaboration, minimizes misunderstandings, and promotes a cohesive working environment. Whether it’s communicating with employees, stakeholders, or customers, effective communication lays the foundation for a well-functioning business.

Within your business plan, you should outline your communication strategies, including the channels you will use to communicate with different stakeholders. This may include regular team meetings, email updates, project management tools, or even a dedicated communication platform. By clearly defining these channels, you create a roadmap for efficient communication that aligns with your business goals.

Additionally, effective order management is crucial for businesses that sell products or provide services. Managing orders efficiently ensures timely delivery, customer satisfaction, and streamlined operations. Your business plan should outline the processes and systems you will implement to manage orders effectively.

Consider including information on order tracking systems, inventory management procedures, and fulfillment processes. Detail how orders will be received, processed, and fulfilled, including any technologies or software you will utilize to streamline these processes. By clearly outlining your order management strategies, you demonstrate to potential investors or lenders that you have a solid plan in place to handle customer orders and deliver exceptional service.

Moreover, it is important to address any potential challenges or risks that may arise in the realm of communication and order management. This demonstrates your ability to proactively identify and mitigate potential issues. For example, you may discuss how you will handle customer complaints, resolve order discrepancies, or address any supply chain disruptions. By addressing these challenges upfront, you showcase your preparedness and commitment to providing a seamless customer experience.

In conclusion, effective communication and order management are integral components of a well-rounded business plan. By devoting a section to these critical areas, you demonstrate your commitment to clear communication within your organization and efficient handling of customer orders. By outlining your strategies, processes, and potential challenges, you build confidence in your ability to execute your business plan successfully. So, let’s move forward and explore the next section of our comprehensive guide on Business Plan Table of Contents.

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary is a critical section of the Business Plan Table of Contents as it serves as an overview of the entire plan. It is typically the first section that potential investors, lenders, or stakeholders will read, making it essential to capture their attention and provide a concise summary of your business concept.

In this section, you need to provide a high-level summary of your business idea, highlighting the key elements of your plan. While it appears at the beginning of the document, it is often recommended to write the Executive Summary last, as it requires a comprehensive understanding of the entire business plan.

To create an impactful Executive Summary, focus on the most important aspects of your business. Start by introducing your company and its mission, vision, and values. This provides a glimpse into the overarching goals and aspirations that drive your business.

Next, highlight the unique selling points of your products or services. What sets your offerings apart from competitors? Clearly articulate the value that your business brings to the market and how it addresses customer needs or pain points.

Include a brief overview of your target market and the potential for growth. Demonstrate your understanding of the industry landscape, including market trends, customer demographics, and competitive analysis. This shows that you have conducted thorough research and have a solid grasp of your market’s dynamics.

Financial projections are another crucial element to include in the Executive Summary. Provide a snapshot of your expected revenue, profit margins, and growth projections. This gives potential investors a glimpse into the financial viability of your business and showcases your ability to generate returns.

Lastly, conclude the Executive Summary with a strong closing statement that reinforces the potential of your business and highlights your competitive advantage. Use compelling language to leave a lasting impression on the reader and pique their interest to explore the rest of your business plan.

Remember, brevity is key in the Executive Summary. Aim to keep it concise, usually within one to two pages. While it should provide an overview of your business plan, it should also entice the reader to delve deeper into the document for more detailed information.

In conclusion, the Executive Summary is a vital section of the Business Plan Table of Contents. It effectively summarizes your business concept, unique selling points, target market, financial projections, and competitive advantage. By crafting a compelling and concise Executive Summary, you can capture the attention of potential investors and stakeholders, encouraging them to further explore your business plan. Now let’s move on to the next section of our comprehensive guide.

Company Description

The Company Description section of a Business Plan provides a comprehensive overview of your organization. It serves as an introduction to your company, highlighting its background, mission, vision, and key details that make it unique.

Start by providing a brief history of your company, including its founding date and the story behind its establishment. Discuss the inspiration or motivation that led to the creation of your business. This narrative can help create an emotional connection with readers and showcase the passion and dedication behind your venture.

Next, define the mission and vision statements of your company. The mission statement should encapsulate the purpose of your business and the value it aims to deliver to customers. It should reflect your core principles and goals. The vision statement, on the other hand, outlines your long-term aspirations and how you envision your company’s future success.

In this section, it is also important to highlight the unique aspects of your company. What sets you apart from competitors? This can include factors such as innovative technology, exceptional customer service, sustainable practices, or a proprietary product. Emphasize your competitive advantage and explain why customers should choose your company over others in the market.

Additionally, provide details on the legal structure and ownership of your organization. Specify whether you are a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company (LLC), or corporation. Include information on any key shareholders or stakeholders who play a significant role in the company’s operations.

Furthermore, if your company has achieved any significant milestones or accomplishments, such as awards, patents, or partnerships, highlight them in this section. This helps to build credibility and showcases your track record of success.

Lastly, consider including a section on your company culture and values. This can include information on your approach to employee engagement, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and any philanthropic efforts your company supports. Demonstrating a strong company culture can attract top talent and foster a positive working environment.

In conclusion, the Company Description section provides an overview of your organization, its history, mission, vision, unique selling points, legal structure, and ownership. It sets the stage for the rest of your business plan, giving readers a clear understanding of your company’s identity and what makes it special. Now, let’s explore the next section of our comprehensive guide on Business Plan Table of Contents.

Products and Services

The Products and Services section of your Business Plan Table of Contents is where you provide a comprehensive description of the offerings your company provides to customers. This section plays a crucial role in demonstrating the value and uniqueness of your products or services.

Begin by providing a detailed description of each product or service your company offers. Explain how they meet the needs and solve the pain points of your target market. Include information on the features, functionality, and benefits of each offering. Use clear and concise language to ensure that readers fully understand what sets your products or services apart from the competition.

In addition to describing your products or services, it is important to highlight their unique selling points (USPs). These are the factors that differentiate your offerings from similar ones in the market. USPs can include aspects such as superior quality, affordability, customization options, or innovative features. Clearly articulate why customers should choose your products or services over those offered by competitors.

Furthermore, discuss any intellectual property or proprietary technology associated with your offerings. If you have patents, copyrights, or trademarks, highlight them in this section. Intellectual property protection can provide a competitive advantage and add value to your products or services.

Another important aspect to consider is the lifecycle of your products or services. Discuss any plans for future enhancements, upgrades, or new releases. This demonstrates your commitment to continuous improvement and staying ahead of market trends.

To further strengthen your business plan, consider including case studies or testimonials from satisfied customers. These real-life examples can provide concrete evidence of the value and benefits your products or services deliver. They can also help establish credibility and build trust with potential investors or lenders.

Lastly, discuss your pricing strategy for your products or services. Explain the rationale behind your pricing model, including factors such as production costs, competitive analysis, and perceived value. It is important to strike a balance between affordability for customers and profitability for your business.

In conclusion, the Products and Services section of your Business Plan Table of Contents provides a detailed overview of the offerings your company provides. By clearly describing your products or services, highlighting their unique selling points, and discussing future plans, you can demonstrate the value and potential of your offerings. Now, let’s move on to the next section of our comprehensive guide on Business Plan Table of Contents.

Market Analysis

The Market Analysis section of your Business Plan Table of Contents is a critical component that provides an in-depth understanding of your target market, industry trends, and competitive landscape. This section demonstrates your knowledge of the market dynamics and your ability to identify opportunities for success.

Begin by clearly defining your target market. Identify the specific demographics, characteristics, and behavior patterns of your ideal customers. This includes factors such as age, gender, location, income level, and interests. By clearly defining your target market, you can tailor your marketing and sales strategies to effectively reach and engage your potential customers.

Next, conduct a comprehensive analysis of the market size and potential growth. Utilize market research data and industry reports to understand the current market trends, demand patterns, and growth projections. This information helps you assess the market’s attractiveness and potential for your products or services.

Additionally, analyze the competition in your market. Identify your direct and indirect competitors, their strengths and weaknesses, and their market share. This analysis allows you to understand the competitive landscape and identify strategies to differentiate yourself from competitors. Highlight your competitive advantage and how it positions you for success in the market.

Consider including a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) in this section. This analysis provides a comprehensive overview of your company’s internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. It helps you identify areas where you can leverage your strengths, address weaknesses, capitalize on opportunities, and mitigate potential threats.

Furthermore, discuss any regulatory or legal factors that may impact your business. This can include industry-specific regulations, licensing requirements, or environmental considerations. Understanding and addressing these factors demonstrates your commitment to compliance and responsible business practices.

To further enhance your market analysis, consider conducting primary research such as surveys, focus groups, or interviews with potential customers. This can provide valuable insights into their needs, preferences, and pain points, allowing you to refine your products or services to better meet their expectations.

In conclusion, the Market Analysis section of your Business Plan Table of Contents provides a comprehensive understanding of your target market, industry trends, and competitive landscape. By conducting a thorough analysis, you can identify opportunities, assess market potential, and develop effective strategies to differentiate yourself from competitors. Now, let’s move on to the next section of our comprehensive guide on Business Plan Table of Contents.

Marketing and Sales Strategy

The Marketing and Sales Strategy section of your Business Plan Table of Contents outlines your approach to promoting and selling your products or services. This section demonstrates your understanding of your target market, your strategies for reaching them, and your plans for generating revenue.

Begin by clearly defining your marketing objectives. What are the specific goals you aim to achieve through your marketing efforts? This can include objectives such as increasing brand awareness, expanding market share, driving website traffic, or generating leads. By setting clear objectives, you can align your marketing strategies and tactics accordingly.

Next, outline your marketing strategies. How do you plan to reach and engage your target market? This can include a mix of online and offline marketing channels such as social media, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, advertising, events, and public relations. Discuss the rationale behind your chosen strategies and how they align with your target market’s preferences and behavior.

In addition to marketing strategies, outline your pricing and distribution plans. Discuss your pricing strategy and how it aligns with your target market’s willingness to pay, competitive pricing, and profitability goals. Detail your distribution channels, whether it’s through direct sales, e-commerce platforms, retail partnerships, or wholesalers. Explain how your chosen distribution channels will allow you to reach your target market effectively.

Consider including a section on your sales forecasts and projections. This can include expected sales volumes, revenue targets, and growth projections over a specific timeframe. Use market research, historical data, and industry benchmarks to inform your sales projections. This demonstrates your ability to forecast and anticipate revenue streams.

Furthermore, discuss your customer relationship management (CRM) strategies. How do you plan to build and maintain relationships with your customers? This can include customer service policies, loyalty programs, feedback mechanisms, or personalized communication strategies. Emphasize the importance of customer satisfaction and retention in driving long-term success.

Lastly, it is important to monitor and measure the effectiveness of your marketing and sales efforts. Discuss the key performance indicators (KPIs) you will track to evaluate the success of your strategies. This can include metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, customer lifetime value, or return on investment (ROI). By regularly analyzing and adjusting your strategies based on data-driven insights, you can optimize your marketing and sales efforts for maximum impact.

In conclusion, the Marketing and Sales Strategy section of your Business Plan Table of Contents outlines your approach to promoting and selling your offerings. By defining your marketing objectives, strategies, pricing and distribution plans, sales forecasts, and CRM strategies, you demonstrate a comprehensive and well-rounded approach to reaching your target market and generating revenue. Now, let’s move on to the next section of our comprehensive guide on Business Plan Table of Contents.

Organizational Structure and Management

The Organizational Structure and Management section of your Business Plan Table of Contents provides an overview of the key personnel and the structure of your organization. This section demonstrates your ability to effectively manage and lead your team, ensuring that all roles and responsibilities are clearly defined.

Start by introducing the key personnel in your organization. Provide brief profiles and backgrounds of the founders, executives, and other key team members. Highlight their expertise, skills, and experience that make them well-suited for their respective roles. This helps build credibility and confidence in your team’s ability to execute the business plan.

Next, outline the organizational structure of your company. Discuss the hierarchy and reporting lines within your organization. This includes detailing the different departments or functional areas, such as operations, marketing, finance, and human resources. Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of each team member to ensure clarity and accountability.

Consider including an organizational chart to visually represent the structure of your company. This visual representation helps readers understand the reporting relationships and the overall flow of information within your organization.

Furthermore, discuss your management style and approach. How do you plan to lead and motivate your team? Highlight any leadership philosophies, values, or principles that guide your management practices. Emphasize your commitment to fostering a positive and inclusive work culture that values collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.

In addition to your internal team, discuss any external advisors, consultants, or board members who provide guidance and expertise to your organization. Highlight their qualifications and the specific areas in which they contribute to your business’s growth and success.

Lastly, briefly touch upon your succession planning strategies. Outline your plans for developing and grooming future leaders within your organization. This demonstrates your long-term vision and commitment to building a sustainable and resilient organization.

In conclusion, the Organizational Structure and Management section of your Business Plan Table of Contents provides an overview of the key personnel and the structure of your organization. By introducing your team, outlining the organizational structure, discussing your management style, and addressing succession planning, you demonstrate your ability to effectively manage and lead your organization. Now, let’s move on to the next section of our comprehensive guide on Business Plan Table of Contents.

Operations and Production

The Operations and Production section of your Business Plan Table of Contents outlines the practical aspects of running your business, including location, facilities, production processes, and capacities. This section demonstrates your ability to effectively manage and execute the day-to-day operations of your company.

Start by discussing the location and facilities of your business. Describe the physical space where your operations will be conducted, whether it’s a commercial space, office building, or manufacturing facility. Highlight any unique features or advantages of your chosen location, such as proximity to suppliers, target market, or transportation infrastructure.

Next, provide an overview of your production processes and capacities. Detail the step-by-step processes involved in creating your products or delivering your services. Discuss any equipment, technology, or machinery that you will utilize in your production processes. Include information on the capacity of your production facilities and how it aligns with your projected demand.

Consider discussing any key partnerships or suppliers that play a crucial role in your operations. Highlight the relationships you have established and how they contribute to the efficiency and quality of your operations. This demonstrates your ability to manage and maintain important business relationships.

Furthermore, address any regulatory or compliance considerations that are relevant to your operations. This can include health and safety regulations, environmental regulations, or industry-specific compliance requirements. Discuss the steps you will take to ensure compliance and mitigate any associated risks.

Additionally, discuss any plans for scalability and expansion in this section. Outline how you will accommodate future growth in your operations and production capacity. This can include strategies such as investing in additional equipment, hiring more staff, or expanding into new markets.

Lastly, address any potential challenges or risks that may arise in your operations. This can include supply chain disruptions, equipment failures, or changes in market demand. By identifying these challenges upfront, you demonstrate your ability to proactively manage and mitigate risks.

In conclusion, the Operations and Production section of your Business Plan Table of Contents provides an overview of the practical aspects of running your business. By discussing your location, facilities, production processes, capacities, partnerships, compliance considerations, scalability plans, and addressing potential challenges, you demonstrate your ability to efficiently manage your operations. Now, let’s move on to the next section of our comprehensive guide on Business Plan Table of Contents.

Financial Projections

The Financial Projections section of your Business Plan Table of Contents provides a detailed analysis of your company’s financial forecasts, including sales projections, income statements, balance sheets, cash flow projections, and key financial ratios. This section demonstrates your ability to forecast and manage the financial aspects of your business.

Start by discussing your sales forecasts. Provide a breakdown of your projected sales volumes, revenue streams, and pricing assumptions. This can be based on market research, historical data, or industry benchmarks. Clearly outline the factors that contribute to your sales projections, such as market demand, customer acquisition strategies, and growth opportunities.

Next, include your income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow projections. These financial statements provide a comprehensive overview of your company’s financial health and viability. Detail your projected revenues, expenses, assets, and liabilities over a specific timeframe, usually three to five years. This allows potential investors or lenders to assess the profitability and sustainability of your business.

Consider including a break-even analysis in this section. This analysis helps determine the point at which your business generates enough revenue to cover its expenses. It demonstrates your understanding of the financial viability of your business model and the time it will take to reach profitability.

Furthermore, discuss the key financial ratios that are relevant to your industry. These ratios can include liquidity ratios, profitability ratios, efficiency ratios, or solvency ratios. Analyze and interpret these ratios to showcase your understanding of financial performance and your ability to make informed financial decisions.

Additionally, address any funding requirements or capital investments needed to support your business operations. If you are seeking external financing, outline your plans for securing funding, whether through loans, equity investments, or grants. This demonstrates your financial acumen and your ability to manage capital effectively.

Lastly, discuss any contingency plans or risk management strategies related to your financial projections. Identify potential risks or challenges that may impact your financial performance and outline your plans to mitigate these risks. This demonstrates your ability to proactively manage financial uncertainties.

In conclusion, the Financial Projections section of your Business Plan Table of Contents provides a detailed analysis of your company’s financial forecasts, including sales projections, income statements, balance sheets, cash flow projections, and key financial ratios. By presenting comprehensive and realistic financial projections, you demonstrate your financial acumen and your ability to manage the financial aspects of your business effectively. Now, let’s move on to the next section of our comprehensive guide on Business Plan Table of Contents.

The Appendices section of your Business Plan Table of Contents provides additional supporting documents that enhance the credibility and depth of your plan. While the main body of the business plan contains the essential information, the appendices allow you to include more detailed data, research, or financial statements that may be of interest to potential investors or lenders.

Consider including market research data in your appendices. This can include surveys, focus group results, or industry reports that provide valuable insights into your target market, customer preferences, and market trends. Including this data demonstrates your commitment to thorough research and your understanding of the market dynamics.

Additionally, you may include any legal or regulatory documents that are relevant to your business. This can include licenses, permits, patents, trademarks, or copyrights. These documents provide evidence of your compliance with legal requirements and can add credibility to your business.

Financial statements are an important component of the appendices. Include detailed income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements for the projected period. These financial statements offer a comprehensive view of your company’s financial health and allow potential investors or lenders to assess your financial viability.

You may also consider including any relevant contracts or agreements in the appendices. This can include partnerships, supplier agreements, lease agreements, or distribution agreements. These documents validate your business relationships and provide a complete picture of your operations and partnerships.

Furthermore, if you have any testimonials or case studies from satisfied customers, you can include them in the appendices. These real-life examples can demonstrate the value and quality of your products or services, adding credibility to your business.

Lastly, consider including any other relevant documents that support your business plan. This can include resumes of key team members, press releases, or any other documentation that strengthens your case and provides additional insights into your business.

In conclusion, the Appendices section of your Business Plan Table of Contents provides additional supporting documents that enhance the credibility and depth of your plan. By including market research data, financial statements, legal documents, testimonials, and relevant agreements, you showcase your thoroughness and provide a more comprehensive view of your business. Now, let’s move on to the next section of our comprehensive guide on Business Plan Table of Contents.

Tips for Creating an Effective Business Plan Table of Contents

Creating an effective Business Plan Table of Contents is crucial to ensure that your plan is well-organized, easy to navigate, and provides a clear roadmap for readers. Here are some valuable tips to help you create an impactful Table of Contents for your business plan:

• Organizing the Table of Contents:
• Structure: Organize your sections in a logical and sequential order that flows naturally. Start with an overview and progress through the different aspects of your business.
• Grouping: Group related sections together to create a cohesive flow. For example, place sections related to marketing and sales strategies in close proximity to each other.
• Subsections: If your business plan has subsections within each section, consider using indents or bullet points to clearly differentiate them within the Table of Contents.
• Formatting and Presentation:
• Clear Headings: Use clear and descriptive headings for each section. Avoid using generic or vague titles that do not provide a clear indication of the content.
• Font Styles: Use consistent font styles throughout the Table of Contents. Choose a font that is easy to read and aligns with the overall design of your business plan.
• Page Numbers: Include the page numbers for each section in the Table of Contents. Ensure that the page numbers are accurate and updated if any changes are made to the plan’s content.
• Updating the Table of Contents:
• Revisions: As you make revisions to your business plan, remember to update the Table of Contents accordingly. Ensure that the page numbers are accurate and reflect any changes made.
• Renumbering: If you add or remove sections, renumber the sections and subsections throughout the Table of Contents to maintain consistency.
• Cross-Referencing: If your business plan includes cross-references between sections, ensure that these references are accurately reflected in the Table of Contents.

By following these tips, you can create a well-structured and user-friendly Table of Contents for your business plan. A clear and organized Table of Contents not only makes it easier for readers to navigate through your plan but also demonstrates your attention to detail and professionalism.

In conclusion, the Table of Contents is an essential component of your business plan. It provides a clear roadmap for readers and allows them to quickly access the information they need. By organizing the Table of Contents effectively, formatting it consistently, and keeping it updated, you can create a professional and impactful representation of your business plan. Now, let’s move on to the next section of our comprehensive guide on Business Plan Table of Contents.

Congratulations! You have reached the end of our comprehensive guide on creating an effective Business Plan Table of Contents. Throughout this blog post, we have explored the importance of a well-structured Table of Contents and its impact on the overall effectiveness of your business plan.

We began by understanding the definition and significance of a business plan, recognizing it as the foundation of your venture. We then delved into each section of the Business Plan Table of Contents, providing in-depth insights and tips for crafting compelling content.

From the Executive Summary to the Company Description, Market Analysis to Marketing and Sales Strategy, Organizational Structure and Management to Operations and Production, and Financial Projections to Appendices, we covered every key aspect of a business plan. Each section plays a critical role in showcasing your vision, strategy, market understanding, organizational capabilities, and financial projections.

We also provided valuable tips for creating an effective Table of Contents, emphasizing the importance of logical organization, clear headings, consistent formatting, and regular updates. A well-structured Table of Contents enhances the readability and usability of your business plan, guiding readers through its contents with ease.

Remember, your business plan is a living document that should be regularly reviewed, revised, and updated to reflect the evolving nature of your business. As you make any changes, ensure that the Table of Contents accurately represents the content within your plan.

By following the guidelines and tips outlined in this blog post, you can create a comprehensive and professional Business Plan Table of Contents that impresses potential investors, lenders, and stakeholders. A well-crafted business plan not only serves as a roadmap for your own success but also demonstrates your commitment, knowledge, and preparedness to external parties.

We hope that this guide has provided you with valuable insights and practical advice to create an effective Business Plan Table of Contents. Now it’s time for you to put this knowledge into action and craft a compelling business plan that sets you on the path to success.

Remember, a business plan is just the beginning. The real work lies in executing your strategies, adapting to market changes, and continuously refining your approach. Embrace the journey, stay focused, and keep striving for excellence.

All the best in your entrepreneurial endeavors!

How to Write a Business Plan (Plus Examples & Templates)

Have you ever wondered how to write a business plan step by step? Mike Andes, told us: 

This guide will help you write a business plan to impress investors.

Throughout this process, we’ll get information from Mike Andes, who started Augusta Lawn Care Services when he was 12 and turned it into a franchise with over 90 locations. He has gone on to help others learn how to write business plans and start businesses.  He knows a thing or two about writing  business plans!

We’ll start by discussing the definition of a business plan. Then we’ll discuss how to come up with the idea, how to do the market research, and then the important elements in the business plan format. Keep reading to start your journey!

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is simply a road map of what you are trying to achieve with your business and how you will go about achieving it. It should cover all elements of your business including: 

• Finding customers
• Plans for developing a team
•  Competition
• Legal structures
• Key milestones you are pursuing

If you aren’t quite ready to create a business plan, consider starting by reading our business startup guide .

Get a Business Idea

Before you can write a business plan, you have to have a business idea. You may see a problem that needs to be solved and have an idea how to solve it, or you might start by evaluating your interests and skills. 

Mike told us, “The three things I suggest asking yourself when thinking about starting a business are:

• What am I good at?
• What would I enjoy doing?
• What can I get paid for?”

If all three of these questions don’t lead to at least one common answer, it will probably be a much harder road to success. Either there is not much market for it, you won’t be good at it, or you won’t enjoy doing it. 

As Mike told us, “There’s enough stress starting and running a business that if you don’t like it or aren’t good at it, it’s hard to succeed.”

If you’d like to hear more about Mike’s approach to starting a business, check out our YouTube video

Conduct Market Analysis

Market analysis is focused on establishing if there is a target market for your products and services, how large the target market is, and identifying the demographics of people or businesses that would be interested in the product or service. The goal here is to establish how much money your business concept can make.

Product and Service Demand

A search engine is your best friend when trying to figure out if there is demand for your products and services. Personally, I love using presearch.org because it lets you directly search on a ton of different platforms including Google, Youtube, Twitter, and more. Check out the screenshot for the full list of search options.

With quick web searches, you can find out how many competitors you have, look through their reviews, and see if there are common complaints about the competitors. Bad reviews are a great place to find opportunities to offer better products or services. 

If there are no similar products or services, you may have stumbled upon something new, or there may just be no demand for it. To find out, go talk to your most honest friend about the idea and see what they think. If they tell you it’s dumb or stare at you vacantly, there’s probably no market for it.

You can also conduct a survey through social media to get public opinion on your idea. Using Facebook Business Manager , you could get a feel for who would be interested in your product or service.

 I ran a quick test of how many people between 18-65  you could reach in the U.S. during a week. It returned an estimated 700-2,000 for the total number of leads, which is enough to do a fairly accurate statistical analysis.

Identify Demographics of Target Market

Depending on what type of business you want to run, your target market will be different. The narrower the demographic, the fewer potential customers you’ll have. If you did a survey, you’ll be able to use that data to help define your target audience. Some considerations you’ll want to consider are:

• Other Interests
• Marital Status
• Do they have kids?

Once you have this information, it can help you narrow down your options for location and help define your marketing further. One resource that Mike recommended using is the Census Bureau’s Quick Facts Map . He told us,  

“It helps you quickly evaluate what the best areas are for your business to be located.”

How to Write a Business Plan

Now that you’ve developed your idea a little and established there is a market for it, you can begin writing a business plan. Getting started is easier with the business plan template we created for you to download. I strongly recommend using it as it is updated to make it easier to create an action plan. 

Each of the following should be a section of your business plan:

• Business Plan Cover Page
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Description of Products and Services

SWOT Analysis

• Competitor Data
• Competitive Analysis
• Marketing Expenses Strategy 

Pricing Strategy

• Distribution Channel Assessment
• Operational Plan
• Management and Organizational Strategy
• Financial Statements and/or Financial Projections

We’ll look into each of these. Don’t forget to download our free business plan template (mentioned just above) so you can follow along as we go. 

How to Write a Business Plan Step 1. Create a Cover Page

The first thing investors will see is the cover page for your business plan. Make sure it looks professional. A great cover page shows that you think about first impressions.

A good business plan should have the following elements on a cover page:

• Professionally designed logo
• Company name
• Mission or Vision Statement
• Contact Info

Basically, think of a cover page for your business plan like a giant business card. It is meant to capture people’s attention but be quickly processed.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 2. Create a Table of Contents

Most people are busy enough that they don’t have a lot of time. Providing a table of contents makes it easy for them to find the pages of your plan that are meaningful to them.

A table of contents will be immediately after the cover page, but you can include it after the executive summary. Including the table of contents immediately after the executive summary will help investors know what section of your business plan they want to review more thoroughly.

Check out Canva’s article about creating a  table of contents . It has a ton of great information about creating easy access to each section of your business plan. Just remember that you’ll want to use different strategies for digital and hard copy business plans.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 3. Write an Executive Summary

An executive summary is where your business plan should catch the readers interest.  It doesn’t need to be long, but should be quick and easy to read.

Mike told us,

How long should an executive summary bein an informal business plan?

For casual use, an executive summary should be similar to an elevator pitch, no more than 150-160 words, just enough to get them interested and wanting more. Indeed has a great article on elevator pitches .  This can also be used for the content of emails to get readers’ attention.

It consists of three basic parts:

• An introduction to you and your business.
• What your business is about.
• A call to action

Example of an informal executive summary 

One of the best elevator pitches I’ve used is:

So far that pitch has achieved a 100% success rate in getting partnerships for the business.

What should I include in an executive summary for investors?

Investors are going to need a more detailed executive summary if you want to secure financing or sell equity. The executive summary should be a brief overview of your entire business plan and include:

• Introduction of yourself and company.
• An origin story (Recognition of a problem and how you came to solution)
• An introduction to your products or services.
• Your unique value proposition. Make sure to include intellectual property.
• Where you are in the business life cycle
• Request and why you need it.

Successful business plan examples

The owner of Urbanity told us he spent 2 months writing a 75-page business plan and received a $250,000 loan from the bank when he was 23. Make your business plan as detailed as possible when looking for financing. We’ve provided a template to help you prepare the portions of a business plan that banks expect.

Here’s the interview with the owner of Urbanity:

When to write an executive summary?

Even though the summary is near the beginning of a business plan, you should write it after you complete the rest of a business plan. You can’t talk about revenue, profits, and expected expenditures if you haven’t done the market research and created a financial plan.

What mistakes do people make when writing an executive summary?

Business owners commonly go into too much detail about the following items in an executive summary:

• Marketing and sales processes
• Financial statements
• Organizational structure
• Market analysis

These are things that people will want to know later, but they don’t hook the reader. They won’t spark interest in your small business, but they’ll close the deal.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 4. Company Description

Every business plan should include a company description. A great business plan will include the following elements while describing the company:

• Mission statement
• Philosophy and vision
• Company goals

Target market

• Legal structure

Let’s take a look at what each section includes in a good business plan.

Mission Statement

A mission statement is a brief explanation of why you started the company and what the company’s main focus is. It should be no more than one or two sentences. Check out HubSpot’s article 27 Inspiring Mission Statement for a great read on informative and inspiring mission and vision statements. 

Company Philosophy and Vision

The company philosophy is what drives your company. You’ll normally hear them called core values.  These are the building blocks that make your company different. You want to communicate your values to customers, business owners, and investors as often as possible to build a company culture, but make sure to back them up.

What makes your company different?

Each company is different. Your new business should rise above the standard company lines of honesty, integrity, fun, innovation, and community when communicating your business values. The standard answers are corporate jargon and lack authenticity. 

Examples of core values

One of my clients decided to add a core values page to their website. As a tech company they emphasized the values:

•  Prioritize communication.
•  Never stop learning.
•  Be transparent.
•  Start small and grow incrementally.

These values communicate how the owner and the rest of the company operate. They also show a value proposition and competitive advantage because they specifically focus on delivering business value from the start. These values also genuinely show what the company is about and customers recognize the sincerity. Indeed has a great blog about how to identify your core values .

What is a vision statement?

A vision statement communicate the long lasting change a business pursues. The vision helps investors and customers understand what your company is trying to accomplish. The vision statement goes beyond a mission statement to provide something meaningful to the community, customer’s lives, or even the world.

Example vision statements

The Alzheimer’s Association is a great example of a vision statement:

A world without Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementia.

It clearly tells how they want to change the world. A world without Alzheimers might be unachievable, but that means they always have room for improvement.

Business Goals

You have to measure success against goals for a business plan to be meaningful. A business plan helps guide a company similar to how your GPS provides a road map to your favorite travel destination. A goal to make as much money as possible is not inspirational and sounds greedy.

Sure, business owners want to increase their profits and improve customer service, but they need to present an overview of what they consider success. The goals should help everyone prioritize their work.

How far in advance should a business plan?

Business planning should be done at least one year in advance, but many banks and investors prefer three to five year business plans. Longer plans show investors that the management team  understands the market and knows the business is operating in a constantly shifting market. In addition, a plan helps businesses to adjust to changes because they have already considered how to handle them.

Example of great business goals

My all time-favorite long-term company goals are included in Tesla’s Master Plan, Part Deux . These goals were written in 2016 and drive the company’s decisions through 2026. They are the reason that investors are so forgiving when Elon Musk continually fails to meet his quarterly and annual goals.

If the progress aligns with the business plan investors are likely to continue to believe in the company. Just make sure the goals are reasonable or you’ll be discredited (unless you’re Elon Musk).

You did target market research before creating a business plan. Now it’s time to add it to the plan so others understand what your ideal customer looks like. As a new business owner, you may not be considered an expert in your field yet, so document everything. Make sure the references you use are from respectable sources. 

Use information from the specific lender when you are applying for lending. Most lenders provide industry research reports and using their data can strengthen the position of your business plan.

A small business plan should include a section on the external environment. Understanding the industry is crucial because we don’t plan a business in a vacuum. Make sure to research the industry trends, competitors, and forecasts. I personally prefer IBIS World for my business research. Make sure to answer questions like:

• What is the industry outlook long-term and short-term?
• How will your business take advantage of projected industry changes and trends?
• What might happen to your competitors and how will your business successfully compete?

Industry resources

Some helpful resources to help you establish more about your industry are:

• Trade Associations
• Federal Reserve
• Bureau of Labor Statistics

Legal Structure

There are five basic types of legal structures that most people will utilize:

• Sole proprietorships
• Limited Liability Companies (LLC)

Partnerships

Corporations.

• Franchises.

Each business structure has their pros and cons. An LLC is the most common legal structure due to its protection of personal assets and ease of setting up. Make sure to specify how ownership is divided and what roles each owner plays when you have more than one business owner.

You’ll have to decide which structure is best for you, but we’ve gathered information on each to make it easier.

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is the easiest legal structure to set up but doesn’t protect the owner’s personal assets from legal issues. That means if something goes wrong, you could lose both your company and your home.

To start a sole proprietorship, fill out a special tax form called a  Schedule C . Sole proprietors can also join the American Independent Business Alliance .

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

An LLC is the most common business structure used in the United States because an LLC protects the owner’s personal assets. It’s similar to partnerships and corporations, but can be a single-member LLC in most states. An LLC requires a document called an operating agreement.

Each state has different requirements. Here’s a link to find your state’s requirements . Delaware and Nevada are common states to file an LLC because they are really business-friendly. Here’s a blog on the top 10 states to get an LLC.

Partnerships are typically for legal firms. If you choose to use a partnership choose a Limited Liability Partnership. Alternatively, you can just use an LLC.

Corporations are typically for massive organizations. Corporations have taxes on both corporate and income tax so unless you plan on selling stock, you are better off considering an LLC with S-Corp status . Investopedia has good information corporations here .

There are several opportunities to purchase successful franchises. TopFranchise.com has a list of companies in a variety of industries that offer franchise opportunities. This makes it where an entrepreneur can benefit from the reputation of an established business that has already worked out many of the kinks of starting from scratch.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 5. Products and Services

This section of the business plan should focus on what you sell, how you source it, and how you sell it. You should include:

• Unique features that differentiate your business products from competitors
• Intellectual property
• Your supply chain
• Cost and pricing structure 

Questions to answer about your products and services

Mike gave us a list  of the most important questions to answer about your product and services:

• How will you be selling the product? (in person, ecommerce, wholesale, direct to consumer)?
• How do you let them know they need a product?
• How do you communicate the message?
• How will you do transactions?
• How much will you be selling it for?
• How many do you think you’ll sell and why?

Make sure to use the worksheet on our business plan template .

How to Write a Business Plan Step 6. Sales and Marketing Plan

The marketing and sales plan is focused on the strategy to bring awareness to your company and guides how you will get the product to the consumer.  It should contain the following sections:

SWOT Analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Not only do you want to identify them, but you also want to document how the business plans to deal with them.

Business owners need to do a thorough job documenting how their service or product stacks up against the competition.

If proper research isn’t done, investors will be able to tell that the owner hasn’t researched the competition and is less likely to believe that the team can protect its service from threats by the more well-established competition. This is one of the most common parts of a presentation that trips up business owners presenting on Shark Tank .

SWOT Examples

Examples of strengths and weaknesses could be things like the lack of cash flow, intellectual property ownership, high costs of suppliers, and customers’ expectations on shipping times.

Opportunities could be ways to capitalize on your strengths or improve your weaknesses, but may also be gaps in the industry. This includes:

• Adding offerings that fit with your current small business
• Increase sales to current customers
• Reducing costs through bulk ordering
• Finding ways to reduce inventory
•  And other areas you can improve

Threats will normally come from outside of the company but could also be things like losing a key member of the team. Threats normally come from competition, regulations, taxes, and unforeseen events.

The management team should use the SWOT analysis to guide other areas of business planning, but it absolutely has to be done before a business owner starts marketing. 

Include Competitor Data in Your Business Plan

When you plan a business, taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of the competition is key to navigating the field. Providing an overview of your competition and where they are headed shows that you are invested in understanding the industry.

For smaller businesses, you’ll want to search both the company and the owners names to see what they are working on. For publicly held corporations, you can find their quarterly and annual reports on the SEC website .

What another business plans to do can impact your business. Make sure to include things that might make it attractive for bigger companies to outsource to a small business.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing and sales part of business plans should be focused on how you are going to make potential customers aware of your business and then sell to them.

If you haven’t already included it, Mike recommends:

“They’ll want to know about Demographics, ages, and wealth of your target market.”

Make sure to include the Total addressable market .  The term refers to the value if you captured 100% of the market.

Advertising Strategy

You’ll explain what formats of advertising you’ll be using. Some possibilities are:

• Online: Facebook and Google are the big names to work with here.
• Print : Print can be used to reach broad groups or targeted markets. Check out this for tips .
• Radio : iHeartMedia is one of the best ways to advertise on the radio
• Cable television : High priced, hard to measure ROI, but here’s an explanation of the process
• Billboards: Attracting customers with billboards can be beneficial in high traffic areas.

You’ll want to define how you’ll be using each including frequency, duration, and cost. If you have the materials already created, including pictures or links to the marketing to show creative assets.

Mike told us “Most businesses are marketing digitally now due to Covid, but that’s not always the right answer.”

Make sure the marketing strategy will help team members or external marketing agencies stay within the brand guidelines .

This section of a business plan should be focused on pricing. There are a ton of pricing strategies that may work for different business plans. Which one will work for you depends on what kind of a business you run.

Some common pricing strategies are:

• Value-based pricing – Commonly used with home buying and selling or other products that are status symbols.
• Skimming pricing – Commonly seen in video game consoles, price starts off high to recoup expenses quickly, then reduces over time.
• Competition-based pricing – Pricing based on competitors’ pricing is commonly seen at gas stations.
• Freemium services –  Commonly used for software, where there is a free plan, then purchase options for more functionality.

HubSpot has a great calculator and blog on pricing strategies.

Beyond explaining what strategy your business plans to use, you should include references for how you came to this pricing strategy and how it will impact your cash flow.

Distribution Plan

This part of a business plan is focused on how the product or service is going to go through the supply chain. These may include multiple divisions or multiple companies. Make sure to include any parts of the workflow that are automated so investors can see where cost savings are expected and when.

Supply Chain Examples

For instance, lawn care companies  would need to cover aspects such as:

• Suppliers for lawn care equipment and tools
• Any chemicals or treatments needed
• Repair parts for sprinkler systems
• Vehicles to transport equipment and employees
• Insurance to protect the company vehicles and people.

Examples of Supply Chains

These are fairly flat supply chains compared to something like a clothing designer where the clothes would go through multiple vendors. A clothing company might have the following supply chain:

• Raw materials
• Shipping of raw materials
• Converting of raw materials to thread
• Shipping thread to produce garments
• Garment producer
• Shipping to company
• Company storage
• Shipping to retail stores

There have been advances such as print on demand that eliminate many of these steps. If you are designing completely custom clothing, all of this would need to be planned to keep from having business disruptions.

The main thing to include in the business plan is the list of suppliers, the path the supply chain follows, the time from order to the customer’s home, and the costs associated with each step of the process.

According to BizPlanReview , a business plan without this information is likely to get rejected because they have failed to research the key elements necessary to make sales to the customer.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 7. Company Organization and Operational Plan

This part of the business plan is focused on how the business model will function while serving customers.  The business plan should provide an overview of  how the team will manage the following aspects:

Quality Control

• Legal environment

Let’s look at each for some insight.

Production has already been discussed in previous sections so I won’t go into it much. When writing a business plan for investors, try to avoid repetition as it creates a more simple business plan.

If the organizational plan will be used by the team as an overview of how to perform the best services for the customer, then redundancy makes more sense as it communicates what is important to the business.

Quality control policies help to keep the team focused on how to verify that the company adheres to the business plan and meets or exceeds customer expectations.

Quality control can be anything from a standard that says “all labels on shirts can be no more than 1/16″ off center” to a defined checklist of steps that should be performed and filled out for every customer.

There are a variety of organizations that help define quality control including:

• International Organization for Standardization – Quality standards for energy, technology, food, production environments, and cybersecurity
• AICPA – Standard defined for accounting.
• The Joint Commission – Healthcare
• ASHRAE – HVAC best practices

You can find lists of the organizations that contribute most to the government regulation of industries on Open Secrets . Research what the leaders in your field are doing. Follow their example and implement it in your quality control plan.

For location, you should use information from the market research to establish where the location will be. Make sure to include the following in the location documentation.

• The size of your location
• The type of building (retail, industrial, commercial, etc.)
• Zoning restrictions – Urban Wire has a good map on how zoning works in each state
• Accessibility – Does it meet ADA requirements?
• Costs including rent, maintenance, utilities, insurance and any buildout or remodeling costs
• Utilities – b.e.f. has a good energy calculator .

Legal Environment

The legal requirement section is focused on defining how to meet the legal requirements for your industry. A good business plan should include all of the following:

• Any licenses and/or permits that are needed and whether you’ve obtained them
• Any trademarks, copyrights, or patents that you have or are in the process of applying for
• The insurance coverage your business requires and how much it costs
• Any environmental, health, or workplace regulations affecting your business
• Any special regulations affecting your industry
• Bonding requirements, if applicable

Your local SBA office can help you establish requirements in your area. I strongly recommend using them. They are a great resource.

Your business plan should include a plan for company organization and hiring. While you may be the only person with the company right now, down the road you’ll need more people. Make sure to consider and document the answers to the following questions:

• What is the current leadership structure and what will it look like in the future?
• What types of employees will you have? Are there any licensing or educational requirements?
• How many employees will you need?
• Will you ever hire freelancers or independent contractors?
• What is each position’s job description?
• What is the pay structure (hourly, salaried, base plus commission, etc.)?
• How do you plan to find qualified employees and contractors?

One of the most crucial parts of a business plan is the organizational chart. This simply shows the positions the company will need, who is in charge of them and the relationship of each of them. It will look similar to this:

Our small business plan template has a much more in-depth organizational chart you can edit to include when you include the organizational chart in your business plan.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 8. Financial Statements 

No business plan is complete without financial statements or financial projections. The business plan format will be different based on whether you are writing a business plan to expand a business or a startup business plan. Let’s dig deeper into each.

Provide All Financial Income from an Existing Business

An existing business should use their past financial documents including the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement to find trends to estimate the next 3-5 years.

You can create easy trendlines in excel to predict future revenue, profit and loss, cash flow, and other changes in year-over-year performance. This will show your expected performance assuming business continues as normal.

If you are seeking an investment, then the business is probably not going to continue as normal. Depending on the financial plan and the purpose of getting financing, adjustments may be needed to the following:

• Higher Revenue if expanding business
• Lower Cost of Goods Sold if purchasing inventory with bulk discounts
• Adding interest if utilizing financing (not equity deal)
• Changes in expenses
• Addition of financing information to the cash flow statement
• Changes in Earnings per Share on the balance sheet

Financial modeling is a challenging subject, but there are plenty of low-cost courses on the subject. If you need help planning your business financial documentation take some time to watch some of them.

Make it a point to document how you calculated all the changes to the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement in your business plan so that key team members or investors can verify your research.

Financial Projections For A Startup Business Plan

Unlike an existing business, a startup doesn’t have previous success to model its future performance. In this scenario, you need to focus on how to make a business plan realistic through the use of industry research and averages.

Mike gave the following advice in his interview:

Financial Forecasting Mistakes

One of the things a lot of inexperienced people use is the argument, “If I get one percent of the market, it is worth $100 million.” If you use this, investors are likely to file the document under bad business plan examples.

Let’s use custom t-shirts as an example.

Credence Research estimated in 2018 there were 11,334,800,000 custom t-shirts sold for a total of $206.12 Billion, with a 6% compound annual growth rate.

With that data,  you can calculate that the industry will grow to $270 Billion in 2023 and that the average shirt sold creates $18.18 in revenue.

Combine that with an IBIS World estimate of 11,094 custom screen printers and that means even if you become an average seller, you’ll get .009% of the market.

Here’s a table for easier viewing of that information.

The point here is to make sure your business proposal examples make sense.

You’ll need to know industry averages such as cost of customer acquisition, revenue per customer, the average cost of goods sold, and admin costs to be able to create accurate estimates.

Our simple business plan templates walk you through most of these processes. If you follow them you’ll have a good idea of how to write a business proposal.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 9. Business Plan Example of Funding Requests

What is a business plan without a plan on how to obtain funding?

The Small Business Administration has an example for a pizza restaurant that theoretically needed nearly $20k to make it through their first month.

In our video, How to Start a $500K/Year T-Shirt Business (Pt. 1 ), Sanford Booth told us he needed about $200,000 to start his franchise and broke even after 4 months.

Freshbooks estimates it takes on average 2-3 years for a business to be profitable, which means the fictitious pizza company from the SBA could need up to $330k to make it through that time and still pay their bills for their home and pizza shop.

Not every business needs that much to start, but realistically it’s a good idea to assume that you need a fairly large cushion.

Ways to get funding for a small business

There are a variety of ways to cover this. the most common are:

• Bootstrapping – Using your savings without external funding.
• Taking out debt – loans, credit cards
• Equity, Seed Funding – Ownership of a percentage of the company in exchange for current funds
• Crowdsourcing – Promising a good for funding to create the product

Keep reading for more tips on how to write a business plan.

How funding will be used

When asking for business financing make sure to include:

• How much to get started?
• What is the minimum viable product and how soon can you make money?
• How will the money be spent?

Mike emphasized two aspects that should be included in every plan, 

How to Write a Business Plan Resources

Here are some links to a business plan sample and business plan outline. 

• Sample plan

It’s also helpful to follow some of the leading influencers in the business plan writing community. Here’s a list:

• Wise Plans –  Shares a lot of information on starting businesses and is a business plan writing company.
• Optimus Business Plans –  Another business plan writing company.
• Venture Capital – A venture capital thread that can help give you ideas.

How to Write a Business Plan: What’s Next?

We hope this guide about how to write a simple business plan step by step has been helpful. We’ve covered:

• The definition of a business plan
• Coming up with a business idea
• Performing market research
• The critical components of a business plan
• An example business plan

In addition, we provided you with a simple business plan template to assist you in the process of writing your startup business plan. The startup business plan template also includes a business model template that will be the key to your success.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of our business hub .

Have you written a business plan before? How did it impact your ability to achieve your goals?

80% of businesses fail... Learn how not to.

Learn from business failures and successes in 5 min or less. The stories, frameworks, and tactics that will make you a 10x better founder.

Brandon Boushy

Related articles

How to Start a Junk Removal Business in 11 Steps

How to Start a $500K/Year Auto Repair Shop (2024)

Marketing a Service Business: Ultimate Guide (2024)

nice work https://binarychemist.com/

My Name is PRETTY NGOMANE. A south African female. Aspiring to do farming. And finding a home away from home for the differently abled persons in their daily needs.

Become a business owner in less than 90 days

Start your 10-day free trial of the UpFlip Academy and learn how to start your own business from scratch.

Get business advice straight to your   Inbox 

How to Write a Business Plan for a Small Business

Noah Parsons

24 min. read

Updated September 2, 2024

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

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

• The basics of writing a business plan

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

You understand that writing a business plan helps you: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brought to you by

Create a professional business plan

Using ai and step-by-step instructions.

Secure funding

Validate ideas

Build a strategy

• What to include in your business plan

Executive summary

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

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

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

Your executive summary should include:

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

Dig Deeper: How to write an effective executive summary

Products and services description

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

This is usually called a problem and solution statement .

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

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

Market analysis

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

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

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

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

Related: Target market examples

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

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

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

Dig Deeper: Learn how to write a market analysis

Competitive analysis

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

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

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

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

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

Marketing and sales plan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Business operations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key milestones and metrics

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

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

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

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

Possible milestones might be:

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

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

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

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

Dig Deeper: How to use milestones in your business plan

Organization and management team

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

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

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

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

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

• Sole proprietor
• Partnership

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

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

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

Financial plan

The last section of your business plan is your financial plan and forecasts. 

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

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

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

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

Dig Deeper: How to create financial forecasts and budgets

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

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

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

Dig Deeper : What to include in your business plan appendix

Optional: Business plan cover page

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

Your cover page should be simple and include:

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

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

Dig Deeper: How to create a business plan cover page

How to use AI to help write your business plan

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

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

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

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

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

• Writing tips and strategies

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

Determine why you are writing a business plan

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

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

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

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

Keep things concise

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

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

Have someone review your business plan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Use your business plan to manage your business

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn More: How to run a regular plan review

How to write a business plan FAQ

What is a business plan?

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

What are the benefits of writing a business plan?

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

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

What are the 7 steps of writing a business plan?

The seven steps to writing a business plan include:

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

What are the 5 most common business plan mistakes?

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

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

What questions should be answered in a business plan?

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

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

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

How long should a business plan be?

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

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

What are the different types of business plans?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Table of Contents

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

Related Articles

5 Min. Read

How To Write a Business Plan for a Life Coaching Business + Free Example

1 Min. Read

How to Calculate Return on Investment (ROI)

7 Min. Read

How to Write a Bakery Business Plan + Sample

3 Min. Read

What to Include in Your Business Plan Appendix

The LivePlan Newsletter

Become a smarter, more strategic entrepreneur.

Your first monthly newsetter will be delivered soon..

Unsubscribe anytime. Privacy policy .

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

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

No thanks, I prefer writing 40-page documents.

Discover the world’s #1 plan building software

Use This Business Plan Format to Expertly Write Your Plan

Written by Dave Lavinsky

When you’re starting a new business, having a solid business plan is super important. But knowing how to format that plan can be tricky. A good business plan format helps you organize your ideas, set clear goals, and show others why your business will succeed. In this guide, we’ll break down what a business plan format should look like, so you can create a plan that’s easy to follow and gets you the results you want. Whether you’re looking for investors or just want a clear path forward, getting your business plan format right is the first step to success.

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.

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.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

• Entrepreneurship
• Affiliate Marketing
• WordPress And Webdesign
• Sales Funnel
• Motivation And Affirmation
• Get in Touch

4 Examples of Business Plan Table of Contents

Written by   Peter Keszegh

When crafting a lengthy business plan, it’s best to create a table of contents that can serve as the backbone for your business blueprint. This will allow you to guide readers and potential investors from beginning to end, allowing them to find what exactly they need to know about your business proposal in a convenient way.

In this article, we’ll give you some tips on how to structure your business plan table of contents and provide you with a few examples to help you get started.

What’s a business plan table of contents?

A business plan table of contents is an outline of all the relevant sections listed in your business plan. It’s more than just a simple list; it’s also the first impression you’ll be giving to potential investors , which is why it’s important to make sure your table of contents is well-written and detailed from the get-go.

The business plan table of contents will immediately show what your business is all about, and will give readers an overview of relevant subsections and other aspects of your proposal.

A roadmap to your business strategy

Your business plan table of contents is an overview of all the relevant parts of your overall business strategy . This will make it easier for readers and potential investors to identify the key elements to how you plan to run your business.

Saves time for busy readers

In today’s busy world, time is money. Don’t waste the time of potential investors by giving them a business plan that’s difficult to get through. A good business plan table of contents should save readers time and provide them a detailed outline of your business proposal from the start.

Reflects your attention to detail

If you put a lot of thought into making your business plan table of contents detailed, that’s a testament to how meticulous you are as an entrepreneur and how well you handle business strategies and finances. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone!

Enhances readability and professionalism

If you have a business plan table of contents that’s easy to read and concisely written, that shows potential investors that you know your business plan inside and out , and understand your vision well enough to write it all down in simple terms. It’s a good look for professionalism!

Ultimately, a good table of contents all comes down to getting your business vision across in the most effective way possible, and leaving an impact on potential investors. This document should spell out why these investors should believe in your vision for the future.

Sections to include in your business plan

It’s important to make sure you nail down all the important details in your business plan. Here are some sections you should consider including in your own plans:

Executive summary

An executive summary is exactly that – a glimpse into what your business is all about. Here, you should state your business mission statement, what products and services you’re offering, your leadership team and its employees, and where relevant stakeholders can find you.

It’s also important to mention what your business goals are and the financing you’ll need to achieve those objectives.

Company description

This section will provide readers with a more detailed look into your business. Here, you should describe what your business does, the market needs you address, and the impact of your products or services on the existing market.

Emphasize what sets your business apart from others and explicitly mention the competitive advantages you have.This section will be dedicated to a more extensive look into your business.

Market analysis

In this section, you’ll have to show potential investors that you have a deep understanding of your market, competitors, and overall industry. Write about your target market and its demographics and needs , as well as areas for potential growth . You can use case studies and statistics to illustrate your arguments.

Organization and management

Investors need to know your business’ organizational framework , as well as who your team managers and members are. Make sure to provide biographies of relevant team members that include their current duties and responsibilities , as well as how they contribute to larger organizational goals.

Services or products

Let investors know the products you’re selling or the services you’re providing. This section should give them an idea of the life cycles of your products as well as the research and development activities your business is investing in for future products and services.

Marketing and sales

This section should discuss your business strategies in attracting customers and keeping them . Outline your marketing and sales plans and give investors an idea of what your brand messaging and advertising strategies are.

Funding request

If you’ll be needing additional funds from external financing and investments , you should also include this in your business plan. Make sure to mention how much money you’ll be needing and how you’ll be using them , and whether you plan to source them via loans, grants, or other means . Include specific timeframes as well.

Financial projections

A business plan should also include financial forecasts to show potential investors the business’ profitability. Prepare an income statement, cash flow forecasts, and a balance sheet. It’s also good to provide a break-even analysis to determine the period when your business is likely to become profitable.

The appendix is where you should include all supporting documents or materials mentioned earlier on in your business plan. These may include resumes, permits, lease agreements, legal documents, and any other relevant files.

Consider each section of your business plan as a building block that will shape your overall vision, to make it attractive and easy to understand for investors. By working on these sections, you’ll be able to create a well-prepared document that reflects the true potential of your business.

Business plan table of contents examples

A clear and concise business plan table of contents is a great tool that will help entrepreneurs from all kinds of industries.

Here are four examples:

Standard business plan table of contents

You can opt to use a standard structure for your business plan table of contents. This format is good for any industry, and gives your potential investors a simple but powerful look into what your business is all about.

Executive Summary

Business concept and vision

Financial features and requirements

Current business position and major achievements

Company Description

Business formation history and milestones

Location and facilities

Mission statement and core values

Market Analysis

Industry background

Market needs and trends

Target market and customer profile

Organization and Management

Organizational structure chart

Management team bios

Legal and ownership structure

Products or Services

Detailed description of products or services

Development status and R&D activities

Sourcing and fulfillment

Marketing and Sales Strategy

Market penetration and growth strategy

Sales strategy and forecast

Communication channels

Funding Request

Current funding requirements

Future funding requirements over five years

Proposed terms and use of funds

Financial Projections

Income statements and cash flow statements

Balance sheets

Break-even analysis

Resumes of key managers

Legal documents

Any other relevant documents

Tech startup business plan table of contents

If you’re running a tech startup or looking to create an innovative product that will disrupt the market, you may want to tailor your business plan to highlight these. This kind of table of contents will emphasize your startup’s vision, how you plan to develop your products, and your user acquisition strategies.

Startup vision and quick growth plan

Unique value proposition

Company Overview

Founding story

Technology and innovation edge

Market Validation

Proof of concept results

Customer feedback and market demand

Product Roadmap

Current product offerings

Future development pipeline

User Acquisition and Marketing

Digital marketing strategy

Partnership and network growth plans

Operational Plan

Day-to-day operational details

Supplier and partner relationships

Management Team

Founders and key team members

Advisory board

Financial Plan

Revenue model and projections

Funding history and future rounds

Technical specifications

Patent details

Any additional supporting information

Service industry business plan table of contents

If you're working in the service industry, make sure your business plan table of contents clearly outlines your daily operations and workflows, your customer engagement strategies, and quality control measures.

Service offerings and key benefits

Summary of financial objectives

Business Description

Background and development

Service delivery process

Market Analysis and Strategy

Competitive landscape

Pricing and sales strategy

Customer Engagement

Customer service approach

Loyalty and retention programs

Operational Workflow

Service fulfillment logistics

Quality control measures

Management and Staffing

Organizational chart

Hiring and training plans

Financial Overview

Cost structure and profitability analysis

Funding requirements and strategy

Client testimonials

Key contracts and agreements

Retail business plan table of contents

If you’re working in retail, it’s ideal to highlight your strategies for inventory management , customer relations, and sales. This will give potential investors a clear look into how you plan to run your retail business.

Overview of business concept

Financial features

Current market position

History and vision

Unique value proposition in the retail industry

Detailed examination of target market

Customer demographics

Overview of competitive landscape

Product Line and Services

Description of products

Inventory sourcing strategies

Additional services offered

Marketing Strategy

Advertising strategies

Customer loyalty programs

Operations Plan

Daily operations

Location details

Supplier agreements

Management and Organization

Structure of the business

Profiles of management team

Employee roles

Sales Strategy

Sales forecast

Pricing strategy

Sales channels (in-store and online)

Detailed financial projections including profit and loss

Cash flow statement

Resumes of key staff

Detailed market research

Letters of intent from suppliers

All in all, it’s good to make sure your business plan table of contents lays out all the important details your investors need to know, depending on what industry you’re in. Make sure your table of contents has everything others need to know about your business, and that it’s complete and easy to understand.

Final thoughts: Business plan table of contents

When you’re creating a detailed and well-structured business plan table of contents, you’re a step closer to realizing your business ambitions. Remember that your business plan is what’ll give you a strong case and make you look good to investors, so it’s ideal that you promote your vision in the best way possible.

Once you’ve created a solid business plan, you can ensure that you’ll be on your way to career development, business growth, and meaningful success.

Financial modeling spreadsheets and templates in Excel & Google Sheets

• Your cart is empty.

Ultimate Guide: Table Of Contents For A Business Plan

Staggeringly, 8 out of 10 businesses fail within the first 18 months. This often happens because of poor planning and lack of clarity. Creating a structured table of contents for your business plan can be a game-changer in navigating this challenge.

The table of contents serves as a roadmap, guiding readers through the essential components of your business vision. Historically, a well-organized plan has helped entrepreneurs secure funding and make informed decisions. A clear structure can mean the difference between success and failure, making it an indispensable tool.

Ultimate Guide: Table of Contents for a Business Plan

A table of contents in a business plan acts like a roadmap. It directs readers to key sections, making the plan easy to navigate. Without it, finding specific information can be a hassle. This guide helps you organize your content efficiently. An organized business plan increases your chances of impressing investors.

When creating your table of contents, it’s essential to think about your audience. Investors want to see a clear, logical structure. This means including sections like executive summary, company description, and financial projections. Here is a typical list of sections:

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Market Analysis
• Organization and Management
• Service or Product Line
• Marketing and Sales
• Funding Request
• Financial Projections

Each section has a purpose. The executive summary provides a snapshot of your business. The market analysis demonstrates your understanding of the industry. By organizing these sections well, you make your business plan clear and persuasive.

Remember, the table of contents is the first thing people see. It sets the tone for the entire document. A well-structured table of contents shows that you are organized and pay attention to detail. This can make a big difference when you’re seeking funding or partnerships.

The Importance of a Business Plan Table of Contents

A table of contents in a business plan doesn’t just make it look professional; it serves as a crucial navigation tool. Readers can find specific sections quickly without having to skim through the entire document. This saves time and reduces frustration. When investors see a well-structured table, they know the business owner pays attention to detail. It leaves a positive first impression.

A comprehensive table of contents sets the stage for what’s to come. It outlines the key sections of your business plan. These usually include the executive summary, market analysis, and financial projections. By summarizing the main sections, it gives readers an idea of what to expect. This helps them focus on areas that matter most to them.

Including a table of contents also shows that you are organized. Organization is a trait investors and partners highly value. They want to know you have planned your business meticulously. A good table of contents reflects your ability to structure and prioritize. It shows that you understand the flow of your own business plan.

Another benefit is that it acts as a checklist. Before you finalize your business plan, you can use it to ensure all important sections are covered. This reduces the chances of missing out on critical information. A complete and well-organized table of contents is a small step that can make a big impact on the success of your business plan.

Recommended Structure for your Business Plan

Having a proper structure for your business plan makes it easier to read and understand. It typically starts with an executive summary, which provides a brief overview of your plan. Then comes the company description, where you explain your business goals and what makes your company unique. Following that, the market analysis section dives into industry trends and target audience insights. These sections set the stage for more detailed parts of your plan.

After the market analysis, the organization and management section outlines your company’s hierarchy. This includes details about the team and their roles. The service or product line section describes what you are selling. Whether it’s a product or a service, this part explains its benefits, lifecycle, and any research and development efforts. This helps readers understand what you offer and how it stands out.

Next is the marketing and sales strategy, essential for showing how you plan to attract and retain customers. This includes pricing, advertising, and sales tactics. Following this, the funding request section details the financial resources you need, how you will use them, and your future financial plans. Investors pay close attention to this part, so be clear and concise.

Finally, the financial projections section provides a financial roadmap for the next three to five years. This includes income statements, cash flow projections, and balance sheets. The appendix, which is optional, can include resumes, product pictures, or any additional information. A well-structured business plan makes it easier for investors to follow and more likely to invest.

Components of a Business Plan: Deep Dive

The executive summary is the first critical component of any business plan. It provides a snapshot of your entire plan, including your business objectives and key financial points. This section should be engaging and concise to grab the reader’s attention. An effective executive summary can determine whether someone reads the rest of your plan. It acts as a hook, drawing people into the details.

Next is the company description, where you delve into the specifics of your business. This section outlines your mission, vision, and the nature of your organization. It also explains what sets your business apart from competitors. Providing background information helps readers understand the foundation of your company. This foundational knowledge is crucial for investors.

The market analysis section is all about understanding your industry. Here, you will include data and research on market trends, target audiences, and competitive landscapes. Showing a deep understanding of the market can convince stakeholders that you are well-prepared. Include tables or charts if needed to make the data easily digestible. An informed market analysis reveals your strategic thinking.

The organization and management section details your business’s structure. It introduces your team and their roles within the company. Use this part to highlight the skills and experiences that make your team strong. A well-structured management team can instill confidence in investors. Organizational charts or bios can add depth to this section.

In the service or product line section, you describe what you are selling. This part should explain the benefits of your offerings and how they meet market needs. Whether it’s a product or service, be clear about its life cycle and development status. Highlighting any unique selling points can set you apart from competitors. This section is essential to showcase your innovation.

Lastly, the financial projections section provides a future outlook for your business. You should include income statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets. These projections offer insights into your financial health and future profitability. Clear and accurate financial projections can build trust with investors. This section ties everything together with quantitative support.

Optimizing your Business Plan for Your Target Audience

Knowing your audience is key when writing a business plan. Different stakeholders look for different things. For example, investors are interested in your financial projections and market strategy. Meanwhile, potential partners may focus on your team and management structure. Tailoring your content to meet these needs can make your business plan more effective.

Speak the language of your audience to keep them engaged. If your audience consists of financial experts, include detailed charts and figures. If they are not as familiar with the business lingo, simplify complex terms and explain them. This helps ensure that everyone can understand your plan, no matter their background. Clear communication is crucial.

Segment your document to highlight key areas of interest. Use headings, subheadings, and bullet points to make it easier to read. For instance, you can create sections like:

• Management Team

This structured format allows readers to skip to the parts they find most relevant. It makes your plan more reader-friendly.

Consider the tone and style of your content. Formal language may be appropriate for some audiences, while a more conversational tone might work better for others. Also, use visuals like graphs, tables, and infographics to break up text and present data clearly. This aids in making complex information accessible.

Finally, always proofread and get feedback. A polished business plan free of errors shows professionalism. Feedback from others can provide new perspectives and points of improvement. These steps will help you create a business plan that resonates with your target audience.

Common Mistakes to Avoid when Drafting a Business Plan Table of Contents

One frequent mistake is making the table of contents too vague. Unclear section titles can confuse readers and make it hard to find specific information. Titles should be precise and descriptive. This helps readers understand exactly what each section covers. Being specific and clear makes navigation easier.

Another common error is leaving out key sections. A complete business plan should include parts like an executive summary, market analysis, and financial projections. Skipping these can make your business plan seem incomplete. Always double-check to ensure you’ve included all essential sections. Missing important information can weaken your plan.

Inconsistency in formatting is also a problem. Different fonts, sizes, and styles can make the table of contents look unprofessional. Keeping a consistent layout throughout your document is crucial. Consistent formatting enhances readability and demonstrates attention to detail. This can make a significant difference.

Failing to update the table of contents as the plan evolves is another common oversight. As you add or remove sections, ensure your table of contents reflects these changes. An outdated table of contents can lead to confusion. Regularly updating it keeps everything aligned and accurate. This habit ensures your business plan stays current and reliable.

Finally, neglecting to proofread can lead to errors. Typos and mistakes in the table of contents can set a negative tone for the rest of the document. Taking the time to review and correct errors shows professionalism. A polished and error-free table of contents builds trust with your readers. Attention to detail is always appreciated.

Frequently Asked Questions

Understanding the essentials of a business plan’s table of contents can significantly enhance its effectiveness. Below are some common questions and detailed answers to help you craft a comprehensive and impactful table of contents for your business plan.

1. What is the purpose of a table of contents in a business plan?

A table of contents serves as a roadmap for your business plan. It allows readers to navigate through sections easily and find specific information quickly. This feature is especially useful for investors who may be looking to review particular aspects such as financial projections or market analysis. Therefore, it helps make the document more user-friendly.

The table of contents also sets a professional tone right from the start. It shows that you have meticulously organized your thoughts and data. By having an accessible structure, you demonstrate attention to detail, making it easier for readers to follow along. This can leave a positive first impression and can influence stakeholders’ perceptions.

2. How detailed should my table of contents be?

Your table of contents should be detailed enough to guide readers but not overcrowded with sub-sections. Typically, you’ll want major headings like Executive Summary, Market Analysis, and Financial Projections clearly outlined. If certain sections require further breakdowns, include appropriate sub-headings under those main categories.

This balance ensures that your document remains navigable without overwhelming your reader with too much information upfront. Keep in mind that simplicity often aids clarity. The goal is to enable the audience to get an overall sense of the document while knowing exactly where they can find crucial details without hassle.

3. What are some tools I can use to create a table of contents?

Most word processing software like Microsoft Word and Google Docs offer built-in features for generating tables of contents automatically. These tools allow you to mark section headings which then populate your content list dynamically as you write or edit your document. Utilizing these features can save you time and ensure consistency throughout your plan.

You can also use specialized business planning software which often includes templates with pre-designed tables of contents tailored specifically for business plans. Such tools usually offer drag-and-drop functionality, making it even easier to organize sections properly. Leveraging these resources helps ensure professional results with minimal effort.

4. How often should I update my business plan’s table of contents?

Your business plan’s table should be updated each time significant changes are made within the content itself. For instance, if new sections are added or reordered based on evolving strategies or feedback, ensure those updates reflect in the table promptly so it stays accurate.

An outdated TOC creates confusion among readers trying to locate revised parts within existing pages provided earlier copies used before amendments happened — ultimately leading them offtrack from point info matters most referred now ensuring lost opportunities arise correcting impression both organization thoroughwentness displayed initially intended!

5 Should Appendices Be Included Within Business Plan Besides Core Sections Covered Mainly Listed Properly Aligned Orderly Manner ?

Yes appendices additionals data visuals charts references documents support give context lend credibility ideas suggestions scenarios depicted basis recommendations proposed inherently linked described articulated relevant thoroughness guarantees verifiable evidence claiming indeed authored comprehensive assertive measure good practice !

Final Thoughts

Creating a well-structured table of contents for your business plan is essential for clarity and professionalism. It serves as a navigation tool, guiding readers through each crucial section. Paying attention to detail in this aspect can significantly impact the perception of your entire plan.

Remember, a detailed, organized plan impresses investors and stakeholders. It shows that you are prepared and serious about your business. Make sure each section is well-thought-out, informative, and easy to locate. This can set the stage for your business’s success.

Beverage Manufacturing Start-up Financial Model

The beverage manufacturing industry is a dynamic and rapidly growing sector that caters to a diverse market ranging from soft drinks and juices to alc... read more

•   Excel Model  –  $199.95 Version 5.2
•   PDF Demo  –  $0.00 Version 5.2

Liquor Distillery Financial Plan Template

Distilleries, with their rich history of crafting spirits, have experienced a resurgence in popularity, driven by consumer interest in artisanal and l... read more

•   Excel Version  –  $199.95 Version 5.5
•   PDF Demo Version  –  $0.00 Version 5.5

Corporate Finance Toolkit – 25 Financial Models Excel Templates

The toolkit is an essential resource for any organization, providing a comprehensive collection of tools and templates designed to streamline financia... read more

•   All Excel Model Templates  –  $249.00 Version 1
•   PDF Demo & Excel Free Download  –  $0.00 Version 1

Taxi Company Business Financial Model

Embark on the road to success by starting your own Taxi Company Business. This comprehensive 10-year monthly Excel financial model template offers an ... read more

•   Excel Version  –  $129.95 Version 1.6
•   PDF Demo Version  –  $0.00 Version 1.6

Trucking Company Financial Model

Embrace the road ahead, where every mile traveled isn’t just a journey—it’s a commitment to keeping the gears of the global economy turning. Sta... read more

•   Excel Version  –  $129.95 Version 1.3
•   PDF Version  –  $0.00 Version 1.3

Crypto Trading Platform – 5 Year Financial Model

Financial Model presenting an advanced 5-year financial plan of a Crypto Trading Platform allowing customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital curr... read more

•   Excel Financial Model  –  $139.00 Version 1
•   PDF Free Demo  –  $0.00 Version 1

Truck Rental Company Financial Model

This detailed 10-year monthly Excel template is specifically designed to formulate a business plan for a Truck Rental Business. It employs a thorough ... read more

•   Excel Version  –  $129.95 Version 2.4
•   PDF Version  –  $0.00 Version 2.4

Kayak Boat Rental Business Model

Dive into the future of your kayak boat rental business with our cutting-edge 10-year monthly financial model, tailored to empower entrepreneurs and b... read more

Event Organizer Business Model Template

Elevate your event planning business to new heights with our state-of-the-art Event Organizer Business Financial Model Template in Excel. The Excel sp... read more

•   Event Organizer Template - Full Excel  –  $129.95 Version 1.4
•   Event Organizer Template PDF Demo  –  $0.00 Version 1.4

Motorboat Rental Business Financial Model

Dive into the heart of financial planning with our Motorboat Rental Business Financial Model, designed to propel your venture into uncharted waters wi... read more

Webinar Organizer Business Plan Template

Discover the key to financial success in your webinar ventures with our Webinar Organizer Business Plan Template. This webinar business template is an... read more

•   Excel Version  –  $129.95 Version 1.4
•   PDF Version  –  $0.00 Version 1.4

Paddle Boat Rental Business Model

The Paddle Boat Rental Business Financial Model is a pivotal tool for entrepreneurs venturing into the leisure and tourism industry. Crafted with prec... read more

Three Statement Financial Model Template

The three statement financial model template offers a fundamental Excel template designed to project the three key financial statements over the next ... read more

•   Free Excel Version  –  $0.00 Version 1.1

Gantt Chart Template: Intuitive and Innovative Planning Tool

Very simple to use, intuitive and innovative planning tool/Gantt Chart

•   Gantt Chart Tool  –  $20.00 Version 1

Gas / EV Charging Station 10-year Financial Forecasting Model

This model is adaptable and useful for a Gas Station, an EV Charging Station, or a combination of both types of Stations. The model is coherent, easy ... read more

•   Full Open Excel  –  $50.00 Version 7
•   PDF Preview  –  $0.00 Version 7

Student Accommodation / Village Development Model – 20 years

This Student Accommodation 20-year Development Model (hold and lease) will produce 20 years of Three Statement Analysis, Re-valuations and the consequ... read more

•   Excel Full Open  –  $50.00 Version 7
•   PDF Explainer  –  $0.00 Version 7

Party Planning Business Financial Model

Introducing the Party Planning Business Financial Model – Your Ultimate Tool for Flawless Financial Management in Event Planning! In a highly person... read more

•   PDF Demo Version  –  $0.00 Version 1.4

Tennis Court and Club Development – 10-year Financial Forecasting Model

Introducing our Tennis Courts and Club Financial Forecasting Model – your winning strategy for tennis court and club development. With unmatched coh... read more

•   Full Open Excel  –  $49.00 Version 8
•   PDF Preview  –  $0.00 Version 8

Gym and Fitness Club 10 year Financial Forecasting Model

Introducing our indispensable 10-Year Excel Financial Forecasting Model, a vital asset for gym and fitness club owners navigating the complexities of ... read more

•   Full Open Excel  –  $40.00 Version 8
•   PDF Explainer  –  $0.00 Version 8

Business Plan on Two Pages

Simple but effective business plan template - on two pages.

•   Business Plan Template  –  $32.00 Version 1

Squash Court and Club Dynamic Financial Model 10 years

Introducing our Squash Courts and Club Financial Forecasting Model – a game-changer for aspiring squash enthusiasts and club developers. With unpara... read more

•   Free PDF Preview  –  $0.00 Version 8

Self-Storage Park Development Model

This Self-Storage Park development model will produce 20 years of three-statement analysis and valuations. There is a sheet focused on the Investor An... read more

•   Free PDF Explainer  –  $0.00 Version 7

McKinsey 7S Model Excel Template

Originating in the late 1970s by consultants at McKinsey & Company, the McKinsey 7S framework is a strategic management tool designed to align sev... read more

•   Excel Template  –  $39.00 Version 1

Surfboard Rental Business Financial Model

Surfing is not just a sport—it's a lifestyle booming globally. With eco-tourism on the rise and outdoor adventures in high demand, now's the time to... read more

•   Excel Version  –  $129.95 Version 2.2
•   PDF Version  –  $0.00 Version 2.2

Manpower Planning and Analysis Model

The Manpower Analysis Model was designed to equip HR managers and analysts with a tool to control the transition of a workforce from one year to anoth... read more

•   Excel Model  –  $50.00 Version 7
•   Model Manual  –  $0.00 Version 7

Brandy Distillery Business Financial Model

Discover the ultimate Brandy Distillery Business Financial Model, meticulously designed to provide 10-year comprehensive insights and strategies for y... read more

3-Statement Financial Model

3-year financial model that is specially designed for early-stage companies.

•   3-Statement-Excel-Model-with-5-year-Forecast.xlsx  –  $39.00 Version 1

Cider Distillery Financial Model

With its longstanding tradition and swiftly growing global demand, the cider industry offers a lucrative opportunity for investors looking to tap into... read more

•   PDF Version  –  $0.00 Version 5.5

E-Commerce Startup Company (5-year) Financial Forecast Model

By developing a detailed 5-year dynamic financial forecast model for a e-commerce startup, founders, investors, and stakeholders can gain insights int... read more

•   Excel Model  –  $70.00 Version 1
•   PDF Model  –  $0.00 Version 1

Bike Rental Business Financial Model

Elevate your bike rental business with our 10-year Bike Rental Business Financial Model. This invaluable tool is meticulously crafted to offer in-dept... read more

•   Excel Template  –  $129.95 Version 2.4
•   PDF File  –  $0.00 Version 2.4

50,000 Barrels per day Gas to Liquid Economic Model

This model is used to provide a robust economic analysis of a 50,000BBls/ day Gas to liquid(GTL) Processing plant across various product configuration... read more

•   Excel Model  –  $500.00 Version 1
•   PDF Demo Version  –  $0.00 Version 1

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Everything that you need to know to start your own business. From business ideas to researching the competition.

Practical and real-world advice on how to run your business — from managing employees to keeping the books

Our best expert advice on how to grow your business — from attracting new customers to keeping existing customers happy and having the capital to do it.

Entrepreneurs and industry leaders share their best advice on how to take your company to the next level.

• Business Ideas
• Human Resources
• Business Financing
• Growth Studio
• Ask the Board

Looking for your local chamber?

Interested in partnering with us?

Start » business ideas, the definitive guide to writing a startup business plan.

Our guide covers all the components of your startup business plan and explains why startups have unique business plan needs.

To understand what should be included in a business plan, you have to understand who the plan is for and what stage of your business you’re in. If you’ll be taking a business plan to a financial institution as part of a loan application, you’re going to want a more traditional plan. These tend to be on the longer side and should be as detailed as possible, without getting too technical.

If you’re in the early planning stages of your business or just want something to show to a few angel investors, you might consider a startup business plan format, which will be more of a summary of key points. That might only be one page long but should still hit on all the major highlights and goals of the business.

According to the Small Business Administration, the length of your business plan should be long enough to accomplish three goals: (1) excite the financing source, (2) prove that you truly understand the market, and (3) fully detail the execution strategy.

Regardless of length, your business plan must get across why you are passionate about your company and why you think it will succeed. You should have a command of your market, your subject area and be authoritative. You should include market data and financial projections, but not come across overly dry. You want the readers of your business proposal—even bank loan officers—to see your commitment to your goals and the emotional connection you have formed to your business idea. At the same time, you want your plan to appear factual and professional.

Startup business plan requirements

If you’re writing a business plan for a bank or lending institution, consider including the following major components in your plan. Keep your plan in a binder with numbered pages and provide a table of contents to make it easy to follow.

Executive summary. This is a brief (1-2 page) explanation of what your company is, what it does and why it will be successful. Although this summary will come first in the plan, you should write it last so that you have all the information to draw from. Not succinctly summarizing your business idea is one of the biggest mistakes that can be made in a business plan. If you don’t hook your reader with your executive summary, that person is not going to want to keep reading. Here are some of the pieces to include:

• The mission statement — a short statement summing up your business and explaining your product or services
• A brief overview of the structure of your company and the leadership team
• Some basic financial information, such as banking relationships and any investors
• A summary of your company growth and any financial highlights
• Company facts like number of employees, date founded and location

Mission statement. Although this is a part of the executive summary section, the mission statement deserves a separate callout because you’ll need to carefully craft your message. The statement needs to pack a punch, but remain a tight and coherent thought. Mission statements should be written in the present tense, and answer questions like who your customers are, what values are important to your business and what marker you’ll use to decide if your company is successful.

Market analysis. In your company description you started to explain why your company is a good idea. Your market analysis is where you’ll back up those statements with an authoritative understanding of your industry and target market. Address why your competitors are successful and prove that you know why what they’re doing is working. You also need to establish why your idea is better or will be more successful. The market analysis section should be between 9 and 22 pages long. In this section, include information like:

• Trends and themes in your industry
• A description and size of your target market
• Your pricing and gross margin targets
• Industry risks
• Key personnel
• Five-year projected revenues

If you need help with market research there are several free tools available. The U.S. Census is obviously data rich and can help you answer questions about the size of specific industries and businesses and which products in your industry are growing. The U.S. Census also offers Economic Indicator data that can help you digest what’s going on in different industrial sectors.

The SBA offers a tool called Sizeup that helps you process data points to get details on your competition, figure out where your competitors are located and where there might be gaps in the market. It’s important to remember that having a similar business plan as a competitor doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be successful. It’s possible that two similar businesses can thrive, but you should be able to explain why the market you are entering is conducive to that.

Your business plan must get across why you are passionate about your company and why you think it will succeed.

You should also be able to prove that you know the customers to whom your business caters and be able define and research their habits. Know when they buy, how often they buy or how often they will need your service.

Company description. A good way to describe your company is by answering this question: What problem does your company solve? That can help determine who your customers are and what advantages your company has over your competitors. The question will also lead you to explain and highlight the expertise of your team and the benefits of your physical location. A company description is an easy place to show your commitment and passion for the company as well as boast your company's strengths.

Organization and management. Here’s another place to show your team’s competence and explain the passion behind your business. This is where you’ll outline who is running your company, how it’s structured and what you all bring to the table. The main components to include are:

• An organizational chart
• The name of all owners and percentages they own
• Resumes of some of your key staff/leaders
• The legal structure of your business (i.e., an LLC, a partnership, etc.)

Marketing and sales. It’s not enough to simply say you have a great product. In a traditional business plan, you have to explain how you intend to get this great product or service to the right customers. You should convey how your strategy is going to evolve once you have more (or any) customer data. Still, you should lay out a roadmap for how to start and potential opportunities to attract and retain customers. Consider including the following:

• An explanation of your business model and how your product leads to revenue
• How and when you will introduce new products or services
• Potential new territories for your company to enter
• The plan to boost sales on a particular product
• Potential long-term relationships with other companies or clients
• The possibility of price increases
• Improvements to your product or your processes for manufacturing or delivery
• Ideas for advertising and social media strategy

Service or product line. In this section you will need to again answer what your company does and what you’re selling. You can go into more detail about what sets your product and company apart from your competitors, as well as how you target customer benefits. Some items to include are:

• The life cycle of your product
• Information on any copyrights, patents and any other ways you protect your intellectual property
• Any non-disclosure or non-compete agreements
• Any research and development you’ve done

Funding request. If the goal of your business plan is to secure an investment or a loan, then this is where you’ll explain how much funding you need and why. In addition, you want to explain how you will pay off your debt. Also include any information that would majorly impact your future financial situation, like plans to take the company public or sell the company.

Financial information. It might seem obvious, but in your financial projections you want to show that your business is strong. If you have an established business, this is where you’ll include cash flow statements, income statements and balance sheets as well as collateral that you could put up against a loan. You should also discuss how the business is being funded and your current costs. Also, make sure that the projections clearly match up to your funding requests, avoiding overreaching. This section of your business plan should also have some heft, possibly as long as 12 to 25 pages.

Some of the documents you should provide include:

• Current financial data of all owners
• Financial data from the past three years, such as balance sheets and profit and loss statements
• A list of all your debt, including what you owe and to whom
• A five-year forecast of income and expenses
• A certification or review letter from a financial advisor saying that your information meets generally accepted accounting principles

Appendix. This section is for any supporting documents that can be used to support your plan statements. Consider including credit histories, the resumes of your staff or key leaders, product pictures, permits, patents or other relevant contracts.

Startup business plan template

For a startup business, it might be worthwhile to look at a less involved version of a traditional business plan. A popular one is the Business Model Canvas developed by Alex Osterwalder. The idea of the canvas is to explain your business model in a simple way to relevant parties, such as partners and potential investors.

Here are the main components of the Canvas model:

Key partnerships. Discuss the other businesses or services required to run your new business. This can include suppliers, contractors, manufacturers or other partners that are necessary for your company to operate.

Key activities. Format a list of how your business will gain an advantage in your industry through your chosen business model. You should highlight what makes your company more effective at reaching your target customer than your competitors.

Key resources. List your important business assets which may include staff, capital or intellectual property. These are the things that will make your chosen business model successful and help you deliver to your customer.

Value proposition. This is a good place to showcase your passion as well as your understanding of your market. You should make a compelling case for why a customer would choose you over the competition.

Customer relationships. Describe a customer’s experience working and interacting with your business. Address both customer acquisition and customer retention.

Customer segments. Explain who your customers are. You’ll want to give a clear sense of your target market and who is being served by your business. Be specific.

Channels. Describe how you will communicate with your customers and why those methods are effective. Most businesses use a mix of channels and optimize them over time.

Cost structure. Address how your company will reduce cost, maximize value and make money on your product or service. Be honest about the most significant costs that you anticipate facing.

Revenue streams. List all the revenue opportunities in your plan, including the product or service you're selling, advertising space for sale and membership fees.

See Also: Business Plan Mistakes to Avoid

CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.

Join us on October 8, 2024!   Tune in at 12:30 p.m. ET for expert tips from top business leaders and Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes. Plus, access our exclusive evening program, where we’ll announce the CO—100 Top Business! - Register Now!

CO—is committed to helping you start, run and grow your small business. Learn more about the benefits of small business membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, here .

RSVP Now for the CO—100 Small Business Forum!

Discover today’s biggest AI and social media marketing trends with top business experts! Get inspired by Dominique Dawes’ entrepreneurial journey and enjoy free access to our exclusive evening program, featuring the CO—100 Top Business reveal. Register now!

By continuing on our website, you agree to our use of cookies for statistical and personalisation purposes. Know More

Welcome to CO—

Designed for business owners, CO— is a site that connects like minds and delivers actionable insights for next-level growth.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce 1615 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20062

Social links

Looking for local chamber, stay in touch.

Business Plan Example and Template

Learn how to create a business plan

What is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that contains the operational and financial plan of a business, and details how its objectives will be achieved. It serves as a road map for the business and can be used when pitching investors or financial institutions for debt or equity financing .

A business plan should follow a standard format and contain all the important business plan elements. Typically, it should present whatever information an investor or financial institution expects to see before providing financing to a business.

Contents of a Business Plan

A business plan should be structured in a way that it contains all the important information that investors are looking for. Here are the main sections of a business plan:

1. Title Page

The title page captures the legal information of the business, which includes the registered business name, physical address, phone number, email address, date, and the company logo.

2. Executive Summary

The executive summary is the most important section because it is the first section that investors and bankers see when they open the business plan. It provides a summary of the entire business plan. It should be written last to ensure that you don’t leave any details out. It must be short and to the point, and it should capture the reader’s attention. The executive summary should not exceed two pages.

3. Industry Overview

The industry overview section provides information about the specific industry that the business operates in. Some of the information provided in this section includes major competitors, industry trends, and estimated revenues. It also shows the company’s position in the industry and how it will compete in the market against other major players.

4. Market Analysis and Competition

The market analysis section details the target market for the company’s product offerings. This section confirms that the company understands the market and that it has already analyzed the existing market to determine that there is adequate demand to support its proposed business model.

Market analysis includes information about the target market’s demographics , geographical location, consumer behavior, and market needs. The company can present numbers and sources to give an overview of the target market size.

A business can choose to consolidate the market analysis and competition analysis into one section or present them as two separate sections.

5. Sales and Marketing Plan

The sales and marketing plan details how the company plans to sell its products to the target market. It attempts to present the business’s unique selling proposition and the channels it will use to sell its goods and services. It details the company’s advertising and promotion activities, pricing strategy, sales and distribution methods, and after-sales support.

6. Management Plan

The management plan provides an outline of the company’s legal structure, its management team, and internal and external human resource requirements. It should list the number of employees that will be needed and the remuneration to be paid to each of the employees.

Any external professionals, such as lawyers, valuers, architects, and consultants, that the company will need should also be included. If the company intends to use the business plan to source funding from investors, it should list the members of the executive team, as well as the members of the advisory board.

7. Operating Plan

The operating plan provides an overview of the company’s physical requirements, such as office space, machinery, labor, supplies, and inventory . For a business that requires custom warehouses and specialized equipment, the operating plan will be more detailed, as compared to, say, a home-based consulting business. If the business plan is for a manufacturing company, it will include information on raw material requirements and the supply chain.

8. Financial Plan

The financial plan is an important section that will often determine whether the business will obtain required financing from financial institutions, investors, or venture capitalists. It should demonstrate that the proposed business is viable and will return enough revenues to be able to meet its financial obligations. Some of the information contained in the financial plan includes a projected income statement , balance sheet, and cash flow.

9. Appendices and Exhibits

The appendices and exhibits part is the last section of a business plan. It includes any additional information that banks and investors may be interested in or that adds credibility to the business. Some of the information that may be included in the appendices section includes office/building plans, detailed market research , products/services offering information, marketing brochures, and credit histories of the promoters.

Business Plan Template

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.
• Summarize the industry competition and how the company will capture a share of the available market.
• Give a summary of the operational plan, such as inventory, office and labor, and equipment requirements.

Section 2: Industry Overview

• Describe the company’s position in the industry.
• Describe the existing competition and the major players in the industry.
• Provide information about the industry that the business will operate in, estimated revenues, industry trends, government influences, as well as the demographics of the target market.

Section 3: Market Analysis and Competition

• Define your target market, their needs, and their geographical location.
• Describe the size of the market, the units of the company’s products that potential customers may buy, and the market changes that may occur due to overall economic changes.
• Give an overview of the estimated sales volume vis-à-vis what competitors sell.
• Give a plan on how the company plans to combat the existing competition to gain and retain market share.

Section 4: Sales and Marketing Plan

• Describe the products that the company will offer for sale and its unique selling proposition.
• List the different advertising platforms that the business will use to get its message to customers.
• Describe how the business plans to price its products in a way that allows it to make a profit.
• Give details on how the company’s products will be distributed to the target market and the shipping method.

Section 5: Management Plan

• Describe the organizational structure of the company.
• List the owners of the company and their ownership percentages.
• List the key executives, their roles, and remuneration.
• List any internal and external professionals that the company plans to hire, and how they will be compensated.
• Include a list of the members of the advisory board, if available.

Section 6: Operating Plan

• Describe the location of the business, including office and warehouse requirements.
• Describe the labor requirement of the company. Outline the number of staff that the company needs, their roles, skills training needed, and employee tenures (full-time or part-time).
• Describe the manufacturing process, and the time it will take to produce one unit of a product.
• Describe the equipment and machinery requirements, and if the company will lease or purchase equipment and machinery, and the related costs that the company estimates it will incur.
• Provide a list of raw material requirements, how they will be sourced, and the main suppliers that will supply the required inputs.

Section 7: Financial Plan

• Describe the financial projections of the company, by including the projected income statement, projected cash flow statement, and the balance sheet projection.

Section 8: Appendices and Exhibits

• Quotes of building and machinery leases
• Proposed office and warehouse plan
• Market research and a summary of the target market
• Credit information of the owners
• List of product and/or services

Related Readings

Thank you for reading CFI’s guide to Business Plans. To keep learning and advancing your career, the following CFI resources will be helpful:

• Corporate Structure
• Three Financial Statements
• Business Model Canvas Examples
• See all management & strategy resources
• Share this article

Create a free account to unlock this Template

Access and download collection of free Templates to help power your productivity and performance.

Already have an account? Log in

Supercharge your skills with Premium Templates

Take your learning and productivity to the next level with our Premium Templates.

Upgrading to a paid membership gives you access to our extensive collection of plug-and-play Templates designed to power your performance—as well as CFI's full course catalog and accredited Certification Programs.

Already have a Self-Study or Full-Immersion membership? Log in

Access Exclusive Templates

Gain unlimited access to more than 250 productivity Templates, CFI's full course catalog and accredited Certification Programs, hundreds of resources, expert reviews and support, the chance to work with real-world finance and research tools, and more.

Already have a Full-Immersion membership? Log in

Simple Business Plan Templates

By Joe Weller | April 2, 2020

• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

In this article, we’ve compiled a variety of simple business plan templates, all of which are free to download in PDF, Word, and Excel formats.

On this page, you’ll find a one-page business plan template , a simple business plan for startups , a small-business plan template , a business plan outline , and more. We also include a business plan sample and the main components of a business plan to help get you started.

Simple Business Plan Template

Download Simple Business Plan Template

Word  |  PDF

This simple business plan template lays out each element of a traditional business plan to assist you as you build your own, and it provides space to add financing information for startups seeking funding. You can use and customize this simple business plan template to fit the needs for organizations of any size.

One-Page Business Plan Template

Download One-Page Business Plan Template

Excel  |  Word  |  PDF  | Smartsheet

Use this one-page business plan to document your key ideas in an organized manner. The template can help you create a high-level view of your business plan, and it provides easy scannability for stakeholders. You can use this one-page plan as a reference to build a more detailed blueprint for your business. 

For additional single page plans, take a look at " One-Page Business Plan Templates with a Quick How-To Guide ."

Simple Fill-in-the-Blank Business Plan Template

Download Simple Fill-in-the-Blank Business Plan Template

Use this fill-in-the-blank business plan template to guide you as you build your business plan. Each section comes pre-filled with sample content, with space to add customized verbiage relevant to your product or service.

For additional free, downloadable resources, visit " Free Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan Templates ."

Simple Business Plan for Startup

‌  Download Startup Business Plan Template — Word

This business plan template is designed with a startup business in mind and contains the essential elements needed to convey key product or service details to investors and stakeholders. Keep all your information organized with this template, which provides space to include an executive summary, a company overview, competitive analysis, a marketing strategy, financial data, and more. For additional resources, visit " Free Startup Business Plan Templates and Examples ."

Simple Small-Business Plan Template

Download Simple Small-Business Plan Template

This template walks you through each component of a small-business plan, including the company background, the introduction of the management team, market analysis, product or service offerings, a financial plan, and more. This template also comes with a built-in table of contents to keep your plan in order, and it can be customized to fit your requirements.

Lean Business Plan Template

Download Lean Business Plan Template

This lean business plan template is a stripped-down version of a traditional business plan that provides only the most essential aspects. Briefly outline your company and industry overview, along with the problem you are solving, as well as your unique value proposition, target market, and key performance metrics. There is also room to list out a timeline of key activities.

Simple Business Plan Outline Template

Download Simple Business Plan Outline Template

Use this simple business plan outline as a basis to create your own business plan. This template contains 11 sections, including a title page and a table of contents, which details what each section should cover in a traditional business plan. Simplify or expand this outline to create the foundation for a business plan that fits your business needs.

Simple Business Planning Template with Timeline

Download Simple Business Planning Template with Timeline

Excel  | Smartsheet

This template doubles as a project plan and timeline to track progress as you develop your business plan. This business planning template enables you to break down your work into phases and provides room to add key tasks and dates for each activity. Easily fill in the cells according to the start and end dates to create a visual timeline, as well as to ensure your plan stays on track.

Simple Business Plan Rubric Template

Download Simple Business Plan Rubric

Once you complete your business plan, use this business plan rubric template to assess and score each component of your plan. This rubric helps you identify elements of your plan that meet or exceed requirements and pinpoint areas where you need to improve or further elaborate. This template is an invaluable tool to ensure your business plan clearly defines your goals, objectives, and plan of action in order to gain buy-in from potential investors, stakeholders, and partners.

Basic Business Plan Sample

Download Basic Business Plan Sample

This business plan sample serves as an example of a basic business plan that contains all the traditional components. The sample provides a model of what a business plan might look like for a fictional food truck business. Reference this sample as you develop your own business plan.

For additional resources to help support your business planning efforts, check out “ Free Strategic Planning Templates .”

Main Components of a Business Plan

The elements you include in your business plan will depend on your product or service offerings, as well as the size and needs of your business. 

Below are the components of a standard business plan and details you should include in each section:

• Company name and contact information
• Website address
• The name of the company or individual viewing the presentation
• Table of Contents
• Company background and purpose
• Mission and vision statement
• Management team introduction
• Core product and service offerings
• Target customers and segments
• Marketing plan
• Competitive analysis
• Unique value proposition
• Financial plan (and requirements, if applicable)
• Business and industry overview
• Historical timeline of your business
• Offerings and the problem they solve
• Current alternatives
• Competitive advantage
• Market size
• Target market segment(s)
• Projected volume and value of sales compared to competitors
• Differentiation from competitors
• Pricing strategy
• Marketing channels
• Promotional plan
• Distribution methods
• Legal structure of your business
• Names of founders, owners, advisors, etc.
• Management team’s roles, relevant experience, and compensation plan
• Staffing requirements and training plans
• Physical location(s) of your business
• Additional physical requirements (e.g., warehouse, specialized equipment, facilities, etc.)
• Production workflow
• Raw materials and sourcing methods
• Projected income statement
• Projected cash flow statement
• Projected balance sheet
• Break-even analysis
• Charts and graphs
• Market research and competitive analysis
• Information about your industry
• Information about your offerings
• Samples of marketing materials
• Other supporting materials

Tips for Creating a Business Plan

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the thought of putting together a business plan. Below, you’ll find top tips to help simplify the process as you develop your own plan. 

• Use a business plan template (you can choose from the variety above), or refer to the previous section to create a standard outline for your plan.
• Modify your outline to reflect the requirements of your specific business. If you use a standard business plan outline, remove sections that aren’t relevant to you or aren’t necessary to run your business.
• Gather all the information you currently have about your business first, and then use that information to fill out each section in your plan outline.
• Use your resources and conduct additional research to fill in the remaining gaps. (Note: It isn’t necessary to fill out your plan in order, but the executive summary needs to be completed last, as it summarizes the key points in your plan.)
• Ensure your plan clearly communicates the relationship between your marketing, sales, and financial objectives.
• Provide details in your plan that illustrate your strategic plan of action, looking forward three to five years.
• Revisit your plan regularly as strategies and objectives evolve.
• What product or service are we offering?
• Who is the product or service for?
• What problem does our product or service offering solve?
• How will we get the product or service to our target customers?
• Why is our product or service better than the alternatives?
• How can we outperform our competitors?
• What is our unique value proposition?
• When will things get done, and who is responsible for doing them?
• If you need to obtain funding, how will you use the funding?
• When are payments due, and when do payments come in?
• What is the ultimate purpose of your business?
• When do you expect to be profitable?

To identify which type of business plan you should write, and for more helpful tips, take a look at our guide to writing a simple business plan .

Benefits of Using a Business Plan Template

Creating a business plan can be very time-consuming, especially if you aren’t sure where to begin. Finding the right template for your business needs can be beneficial for a variety of reasons. 

Using a business plan template — instead of creating your plan from scratch — can benefit you in the following ways:

• Enables you to immediately write down your thoughts and ideas in an organized manner
• Provides structure to help outline your plan
• Saves time and valuable resources
• Helps ensure you don’t miss essential details

Limitations of a Business Plan Template

A business plan template can be convenient, but it has its drawbacks — especially if you use a template that doesn’t fit the specific needs of your business.

Below are some limitations of using a business plan template:

• Each business is unique and needs a business plan that reflects that. A template may not fit your needs.
• A template may restrict collaboration with other team members on different aspects of the plan’s development (sales, marketing, and accounting teams).
• Multiple files containing different versions of the plan may be stored in more than one place.
• You still have to manually create charts and graphs to add to the plan to support your strategy.
• Updates to the plan, spreadsheets, and supporting documents have to be made in multiple places (all documents may not update in real time as changes are made).

Improve Your Business Plan with Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

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

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

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

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

Simple Business Plan Template (2024)

Updated: May 4, 2024, 4:37pm

Table of Contents

Why business plans are vital, get your free simple business plan template, how to write an effective business plan in 6 steps, frequently asked questions.

While taking many forms and serving many purposes, they all have one thing in common: business plans help you establish your goals and define the means for achieving them. Our simple business plan template covers everything you need to consider when launching a side gig, solo operation or small business. By following this step-by-step process, you might even uncover a few alternate routes to success.

Featured Partners

ZenBusiness

$0 + State Fees

Varies By State & Package

On ZenBusiness' Website

Northwest Registered Agent

$39 + State Fees

On Northwest Registered Agent's Website

Tailor Brands

$0 + state fee + up to $50 Amazon gift card

Varies by State & Package

On Tailor Brands' Website

$0 + State Fee

On Formations' Website

Whether you’re a first-time solopreneur or a seasoned business owner, the planning process challenges you to examine the costs and tasks involved in bringing a product or service to market. The process can also help you spot new income opportunities and hone in on the most profitable business models.

Though vital, business planning doesn’t have to be a chore. Business plans for lean startups and solopreneurs can simply outline the business concept, sales proposition, target customers and sketch out a plan of action to bring the product or service to market. However, if you’re seeking startup funding or partnership opportunities, you’ll need a write a business plan that details market research, operating costs and revenue forecasting. Whichever startup category you fall into, if you’re at square one, our simple business plan template will point you down the right path.

Copy our free simple business plan template so you can fill in the blanks as we explore each element of your business plan. Need help getting your ideas flowing? You’ll also find several startup scenario examples below.

Download free template as .docx

Whether you need a quick-launch overview or an in-depth plan for investors, any business plan should cover the six key elements outlined in our free template and explained below. The main difference in starting a small business versus an investor-funded business is the market research and operational and financial details needed to support the concept.

1. Your Mission or Vision

Start by declaring a “dream statement” for your business. You can call this your executive summary, vision statement or mission. Whatever the name, the first part of your business plan summarizes your idea by answering five questions. Keep it brief, such as an elevator pitch. You’ll expand these answers in the following sections of the simple business plan template.

• What does your business do? Are you selling products, services, information or a combination?
• Where does this happen? Will you conduct business online, in-store, via mobile means or in a specific location or environment?
• Who does your business benefit? Who is your target market and ideal customer for your concept?
• Why would potential customers care? What would make your ideal customers take notice of your business?
• How do your products and/or services outshine the competition? What would make your ideal customers choose you over a competitor?

These answers come easily if you have a solid concept for your business, but don’t worry if you get stuck. Use the rest of your plan template to brainstorm ideas and tactics. You’ll quickly find these answers and possibly new directions as you explore your ideas and options.

2. Offer and Value Proposition

This is where you detail your offer, such as selling products, providing services or both, and why anyone would care. That’s the value proposition. Specifically, you’ll expand on your answers to the first and fourth bullets from your mission/vision.

As you complete this section, you might find that exploring value propositions uncovers marketable business opportunities that you hadn’t yet considered. So spend some time brainstorming the possibilities in this section.

For example, a cottage baker startup specializing in gluten-free or keto-friendly products might be a value proposition that certain audiences care deeply about. Plus, you could expand on that value proposition by offering wedding and other special-occasion cakes that incorporate gluten-free, keto-friendly and traditional cake elements that all guests can enjoy.

3. Audience and Ideal Customer

Here is where you explore bullet point number three, who your business will benefit. Identifying your ideal customer and exploring a broader audience for your goods or services is essential in defining your sales and marketing strategies, plus it helps fine-tune what you offer.

There are many ways to research potential audiences, but a shortcut is to simply identify a problem that people have that your product or service can solve. If you start from the position of being a problem solver, it’s easy to define your audience and describe the wants and needs of your ideal customer for marketing efforts.

Using the cottage baker startup example, a problem people might have is finding fresh-baked gluten-free or keto-friendly sweets. Examining the wants and needs of these people might reveal a target audience that is health-conscious or possibly dealing with health issues and willing to spend more for hard-to-find items.

However, it’s essential to have a customer base that can support your business. You can be too specialized. For example, our baker startup can attract a broader audience and boost revenue by offering a wider selection of traditional baked goods alongside its gluten-free and keto-focused specialties.

4. Revenue Streams, Sales Channels and Marketing

Thanks to our internet-driven economy, startups have many revenue opportunities and can connect with target audiences through various channels. Revenue streams and sales channels also serve as marketing vehicles, so you can cover all three in this section.

Revenue Streams

Revenue streams are the many ways you can make money in your business. In your plan template, list how you’ll make money upon launch, plus include ideas for future expansion. The income possibilities just might surprise you.

For example, our cottage baker startup might consider these revenue streams:

• Product sales : Online, pop-up shops , wholesale and (future) in-store sales
• Affiliate income : Monetize blog and social media posts with affiliate links
• Advertising income : Reserve website space for advertising
• E-book sales : (future) Publish recipe e-books targeting gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
• Video income : (future) Monetize a YouTube channel featuring how-to videos for the gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
• Webinars and online classes : (future) Monetize coaching-style webinars and online classes covering specialty baking tips and techniques
• Members-only content : (future) Monetize a members-only section of the website for specialty content to complement webinars and online classes
• Franchise : (future) Monetize a specialty cottage bakery concept and sell to franchise entrepreneurs

Sales Channels

Sales channels put your revenue streams into action. This section also answers the “where will this happen” question in the second bullet of your vision.

The product sales channels for our cottage bakery example can include:

• Mobile point-of-sale (POS) : A mobile platform such as Shopify or Square POS for managing in-person sales at local farmers’ markets, fairs and festivals
• E-commerce platform : An online store such as Shopify, Square or WooCommerce for online retail sales and wholesale sales orders
• Social media channels : Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest shoppable posts and pins for online sales via social media channels
• Brick-and-mortar location : For in-store sales , once the business has grown to a point that it can support a physical location

Channels that support other income streams might include:

• Affiliate income : Blog section on the e-commerce website and affiliate partner accounts
• Advertising income : Reserved advertising spaces on the e-commerce website
• E-book sales : Amazon e-book sales via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
• Video income : YouTube channel with ad monetization
• Webinars and online classes : Online class and webinar platforms that support member accounts, recordings and playback
• Members-only content : Password-protected website content using membership apps such as MemberPress

Nowadays, the line between marketing and sales channels is blurred. Social media outlets, e-books, websites, blogs and videos serve as both marketing tools and income opportunities. Since most are free and those with advertising options are extremely economical, these are ideal marketing outlets for lean startups.

However, many businesses still find value in traditional advertising such as local radio, television, direct mail, newspapers and magazines. You can include these advertising costs in your simple business plan template to help build a marketing plan and budget.

5. Structure, Suppliers and Operations

This section of your simple business plan template explores how to structure and operate your business. Details include the type of business organization your startup will take, roles and responsibilities, supplier logistics and day-to-day operations. Also, include any certifications or permits needed to launch your enterprise in this section.

Our cottage baker example might use a structure and startup plan such as this:

• Business structure : Sole proprietorship with a “doing business as” (DBA) .
• Permits and certifications : County-issued food handling permit and state cottage food certification for home-based food production. Option, check into certified commercial kitchen rentals.
• Roles and responsibilities : Solopreneur, all roles and responsibilities with the owner.
• Supply chain : Bulk ingredients and food packaging via Sam’s Club, Costco, Amazon Prime with annual membership costs. Uline for shipping supplies; no membership needed.
• Day-to-day operations : Source ingredients and bake three days per week to fulfill local and online orders. Reserve time for specialty sales, wholesale partner orders and market events as needed. Ship online orders on alternating days. Update website and create marketing and affiliate blog posts on non-shipping days.

Start A Limited Liability Company Online Today with ZenBusiness

Click to get started.

6. Financial Forecasts

Your final task is to list forecasted business startup and ongoing costs and profit projections in your simple business plan template. Thanks to free business tools such as Square and free marketing on social media, lean startups can launch with few upfront costs. In many cases, cost of goods, shipping and packaging, business permits and printing for business cards are your only out-of-pocket expenses.

Cost Forecast

Our cottage baker’s forecasted lean startup costs might include:

Gross Profit Projections

This helps you determine the retail prices and sales volume required to keep your business running and, hopefully, earn income for yourself. Use product research to spot target retail prices for your goods, then subtract your cost of goods, such as hourly rate, raw goods and supplier costs. The total amount is your gross profit per item or service.

Here are some examples of projected gross profits for our cottage baker:

Bottom Line

Putting careful thought and detail in a business plan is always beneficial, but don’t get so bogged down in planning that you never hit the start button to launch your business . Also, remember that business plans aren’t set in stone. Markets, audiences and technologies change, and so will your goals and means of achieving them. Think of your business plan as a living document and regularly revisit, expand and restructure it as market opportunities and business growth demand.

Is there a template for a business plan?

You can copy our free business plan template and fill in the blanks or customize it in Google Docs, Microsoft Word or another word processing app. This free business plan template includes the six key elements that any entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a new business.

What does a simple business plan include?

A simple business plan is a one- to two-page overview covering six key elements that any budding entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a startup. These include your vision or mission, product or service offering, target audience, revenue streams and sales channels, structure and operations, and financial forecasts.

How can I create a free business plan template?

Start with our free business plan template that covers the six essential elements of a startup. Once downloaded, you can edit this document in Google Docs or another word processing app and add new sections or subsections to your plan template to meet your specific business plan needs.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business,  an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

• Best LLC Services
• Best Registered Agent Services
• Best Trademark Registration Services
• Top LegalZoom Competitors
• Best Business Loans
• Best Business Plan Software
• ZenBusiness Review
• LegalZoom LLC Review
• Northwest Registered Agent Review
• Rocket Lawyer Review
• Inc. Authority Review
• Rocket Lawyer vs. LegalZoom
• Bizee Review (Formerly Incfile)
• Swyft Filings Review
• Harbor Compliance Review
• Sole Proprietorship vs. LLC
• LLC vs. Corporation
• LLC vs. S Corp
• LLP vs. LLC
• DBA vs. LLC
• LegalZoom vs. Incfile
• LegalZoom vs. ZenBusiness
• LegalZoom vs. Rocket Lawyer
• ZenBusiness vs. Incfile
• How To Start A Business
• How to Set Up an LLC
• How to Get a Business License
• LLC Operating Agreement Template
• 501(c)(3) Application Guide
• What is a Business License?
• What is an LLC?
• What is an S Corp?
• What is a C Corp?
• What is a DBA?
• What is a Sole Proprietorship?
• What is a Registered Agent?
• How to Dissolve an LLC
• How to File a DBA
• What Are Articles Of Incorporation?
• Types Of Business Ownership

Next Up In Company Formation

• Best Online Legal Services
• How To Write A Business Plan
• Member-Managed LLC Vs. Manager-Managed LLC
• Starting An S-Corp
• LLC Vs. C-Corp
• How Much Does It Cost To Start An LLC?

What Is SNMP? Simple Network Management Protocol Explained

What Is A Single-Member LLC? Definition, Pros And Cons

What Is Penetration Testing? Definition & Best Practices

What Is Network Access Control (NAC)?

What Is Network Segmentation?

How To Start A Business In Louisiana (2024 Guide)

Krista Fabregas is a seasoned eCommerce and online content pro sharing more than 20 years of hands-on know-how with those looking to launch and grow tech-forward businesses. Her expertise includes eCommerce startups and growth, SMB operations and logistics, website platforms, payment systems, side-gig and affiliate income, and multichannel marketing. Krista holds a bachelor's degree in English from The University of Texas at Austin and held senior positions at NASA, a Fortune 100 company, and several online startups.

Small Business Plan Table of Contents Template

Start crafting your successful venture with our small business plan template. Design your path to success today!

• Design style modern
• Colors dark
• Size Letter (11 x 8.5 in)
• File type PNG, PDF, PowerPoint

Our Small Business Plan Table of Contents Template is the perfect tool to organize and present your entrepreneurial ideas efficiently! It's designed to guide you through each section of your business plan in a straightforward manner. But here's the best part - you can tailor it perfectly to your needs. Spice it up with your brand colors, resize elements to your liking, and pick the most engaging visuals from our extensive free stock libraries on Venngage. This template is exactly what you need to showcase your business strategy and get the word out about your ideas. Turn your vision into a professional, easy-to-navigate business plan with this user-friendly design template.

Explore more

Related table of contents.

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Building Your Business
• Becoming an Owner
• Business Plans

How to Write a Business Plan Outline

Step-by-Step Guide to Your Best First Impression

Susan Ward wrote about small businesses for The Balance for 18 years. She has run an IT consulting firm and designed and presented courses on how to promote small businesses.

Business Plan Outline

• Organize Your Business Plan
• Title Page and Table of Contents
• Appearance Matters

Adrian Mangel / The Balance

Are you an entrepreneur looking to turn your idea into a business? Do you have a business plan? There is some debate about whether new businesses need a business plan when just starting out, especially if they're not asking for money. According to Carl Schramm, author of "Burn the Business Plan," many large corporations didn't have business plans when they first started:

"If you look at all our older major corporations—U.S. Steel, General Electric, IBM, American Airlines—and then you look at our newer companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, none of these companies ever had a business plan before they got started."

The U.S. Small Business Administration takes a middle-of-the-road approach, recognizing that not all businesses need a comprehensive plan. Instead, it suggests that smaller businesses and startups use a "leaner" and more streamlined version to outline the essentials and highlight strengths. Lean or long, your business plan should cover the basics.

The outline below offers a brief overview of what each section of your business plan should cover. It is not a definitive guide, as you may wish to expand or combine sections or add extra detail in a way that is customized to your particular venture. Keep in mind the idea is to present your venture in the most attractive and professional way possible.

Executive Summary

Though it appears first in the business plan, the executive summary is a section that is usually written last, as it encapsulates the entire plan. It provides an introduction and high-level overview of your business, including your mission statement and details about what product(s) and/or service(s) you offer.

Since the executive summary is your business's first impression, it must be outstanding, especially if you're seeking funding.

Business Description

Provide information about the business you're starting, including what sort of problem your products/services solve and your most likely buyers. You can also expand this description by offering an overview of the industry that your business will be a part of, including trends, major players, and estimated sales. This section should give a positive perspective on your place within the industry. Set your business apart from the competition by describing your or your team's expertise, as well as your competitive advantage.

Market Analysis

The market analysis is a crucial section of the business plan, as it identifies your best customers or clients. To create a compelling market analysis, thoroughly research the primary target market for your products/services, including geographic location, demographics, your target market's needs, and how these needs are currently being met. Your purpose here is to demonstrate that you have a solid and thorough understanding of the people you are planning to sell your products/services to so that you can make informed predictions about how much they might buy, and convince other interested parties.

Competitive Analysis

In preparing to write the competitive analysis section, you'll learn how successful your direct and indirect competitors are in the marketplace. This section of your business plan includes an assessment of your competition's strengths and weaknesses, any advantages they may have, and the unique qualities that make your business stand out from the competition. It also includes an analysis of how you will overcome any barriers to entry in your chosen market.

The primary goal here is to distinguish your business from the competition, but a strong competitive analysis will be able to persuade potential funding sources that your business can compete in the marketplace successfully . A useful tool to help articulate this section of the plan is sometimes referred to as a SWOT analysis, or a "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats" assessment.

Sales and Marketing Plan

The sales and marketing section offers a detailed explanation of your sales strategy, pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, and all the benefits of your products/services. This is where to outline your business's unique selling proposition, describe how you plan to get your products/services to market, and how you'll persuade people to buy them.

When developing your unique selling proposition, your goal is to answer the question: Why should people buy from me over my competition?

Ownership and Management Plan

This section outlines your business's legal structure and management resources, including the internal management team, external management resources, and human resources needs. Include any experience or special skills that each person in your management team brings to the business. If the goal of your business plan is to get funding, it's wise to include an advisory board as a management resource.

Operating Plan

The operating plan offers detailed information about how your business will be run. It provides your business's physical location, descriptions of facilities and equipment, types of employees needed, inventory requirements, suppliers, and any other applicable operating details that pertain to your precise type of business, such as a description of the manufacturing process, or specialty items needed in day-to-day operations.

Financial Plan

Starting a business is usually about making a profit, so it's important to demonstrate that you have a solid sense of your current finances, funding needs, as well as projected income. In the financial section , provide a description of your funding requirements, your detailed financial statements, and a financial statement analysis. This part of the business plan is where you present the three main financial documents of any business: the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement, or in the case of a new business, a cash flow projection.

Appendices and Exhibits

In addition to the sections outlined above, at the end of your business plan, include any additional information that will help establish the credibility of your business idea, or bolster your potential success. You may choose to include marketing studies, photographs of your product, permits, patents and other intellectual property rights, credit histories, résumés, marketing materials, and any contracts or other legal agreements pertinent to your business.

How to Organize Your Business Plan

There is no set order to your business plan, the only exception being that the executive summary should always come first. Beyond that, the order depends on your goals.

If your purpose for writing a business plan is to help you organize, gather information, and create a roadmap, organize it in the way that is most intuitive to your process. You might group similar content together, such as all the material relating to markets (industry overview, marketing analysis, competitive analysis, and marketing plan).

If your goal is to seek funding, organize the plan based on what your audience values, and lead with the best, most convincing material first. If you have a stellar group of people serving on your new business's advisory board, put that section directly after the executive summary. Highlighting your new business's strengths will encourage your readers to continue reading your plan.

Add a Title Page and Table of Contents

After completing all the sections, don't forget to insert a title page at the beginning of the plan followed by a table of contents listing each section with page numbers.

The Appearance of Your Business Plan Matters

If you're writing a business plan as an organizational exercise—for your eyes only—feel free to get loose with the style and organization; the simple act of putting all your ideas into a practical template may be a valuable brainstorming tool. However, if you're looking for funding or investors, the business plan is a formal document, so it should look like one. Every aspect of your business plan should impress your potential funding source.

Pay attention to margins and formatting; make sure it's spell-checked and grammatically sound. If you're not good at this, pay a professional to do it.

Hiring a professional to design, edit, or review your business plan may be a good idea, regardless of how skilled you are; a fresh pair of eyes can often spot issues that the original writer missed.

If you need printed copies, get them professionally printed and bound. Keep in mind that you may only have a short amount of time to sell your idea, and first impressions pack a powerful punch.

How Long Should a Business Plan Be?

A good business plan can't be pinned to a minimum or maximum page count. This is because the right length depends on your business. Your business plan should be brief enough to convey the essentials without redundancy or fluff content, yet long enough to demonstrate to your audience that your business is well-researched and fully considered.

A simple plan for a modest startup might be around 40 pages, while a more complex business plan may need 100 pages to convey an ambitious financing strategy, product diagrams, industry data, or the full scope of the venture. The goal is to allow for a full explanation of the pertinent information about your business, presented in a concise and well-organized fashion.

Knowledge@Wharton. " Why Creating a Business Plan Is a ‘Waste of Time’ ."

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

Corporate Finance Institute. " Barriers to Entry ."

6 types of business risks and how to plan for them

Table of contents, understanding business risk, 1. financial risk, 2. strategic risk, 3. operational risk, 4. compliance and legal risk, 5. reputational risk, 6. environmental risk, implementing a comprehensive risk management strategy.

In today’s dynamic corporate landscape, understanding and planning for various types of business risks is crucial for long-term success and sustainability. As a leader, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the old adage, “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.” This wisdom couldn’t be more relevant when it comes to managing business risks.

In this article, we’ll explore the primary types of business risks you’re likely to encounter and provide actionable strategies to help you plan for and mitigate these challenges. By the end, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of your company’s risk landscape and the tools you need to protect your business.

How do you handle risk ?

Take our Risk Archetype Quiz to find out if your risk mitigation strategies are helping your business thrive, survive, or otherwise.

Take the Quiz

Before we dive into specific types of risks your organization may face, let’s define what we mean by “business risk.” Simply put, business risk refers to the potential for a company to experience decreased profits or even financial losses due to uncertainties or unforeseen events. These risks can arise from internal or external factors — such as operational inefficiencies and poor management decisions, or regulatory changes and economic downturns, respectively — and can significantly impact your company’s ability to achieve its strategic, financial, and operational objectives.

Key types of business risks

Financial risk is perhaps the most obvious type of business risk, encompassing issues related to a company’s financial health and stability.

Subtypes include:

• Credit risk: The possibility that your debtors will default on their obligations
• Liquidity risk: The risk that you won’t have sufficient funds to meet short-term obligations
• Market risk: Potential losses due to changes in market conditions, such as interest rates, exchange rates, or commodity prices

How to plan for financial risks:

• Maintain a robust cash flow management system
• Diversify your investment portfolio
• Implement strict credit control policies
• Consider hedging strategies for market-related risks

Strategic risks arise from poor decision-making or the failure to adapt to changes in the business environment.

Examples include:

• Entering new markets without adequate research
• Failing to innovate in the face of changing consumer preferences
• Misalignment between business strategy and market realities

How to plan for strategic risks:

• Conduct regular SWOT analyses
• Stay informed about industry trends and competitor activities
• Foster a culture of innovation within your organization
• Develop flexible strategic plans that can adapt to changing circumstances

Operational risks are related to the day-to-day running of your business and can stem from internal processes, people, or systems.

Common operational risks include:

• Equipment failure
• Supply chain disruptions
• Human error or misconduct
• IT system failures or cybersecurity breaches

How to plan for operational risks:

• Implement robust quality control processes
• Develop and regularly update business continuity plans
• Invest in employee training and development
• Maintain up-to-date IT systems and cybersecurity measures

These risks arise from the failure to comply with laws, regulations, or industry standards applicable to your business.

• Regulatory fines or penalties
• Lawsuits from customers, employees, or partners
• Reputational damage due to noncompliance 

How to plan for compliance and legal risks:

• Stay informed about relevant laws and regulations
• Implement a comprehensive compliance program
• Conduct regular internal audits
• Seek legal counsel when necessary

Reputational risk refers to the potential damage to your company’s image or brand due to negative publicity or customer dissatisfaction.

Sources of reputational risk can include:

• Product recalls or quality issues
• Ethical scandals
• Poor customer service
• Negative social media attention

How to plan for reputational risks:

• Prioritize product quality and customer satisfaction
• Develop a strong corporate social responsibility program
• Create and maintain a crisis communication plan
• Monitor your online reputation and engage with customers on social media

Environmental risks are becoming increasingly important in today’s business world. These risks can stem from natural disasters, climate change, or your business’s impact on the environment.

• Natural disasters disrupting operations
• Increased costs due to environmental regulations
• Reputational damage from perceived environmental irresponsibility

How to plan for environmental risks:

• Develop sustainable business practices
• Create disaster recovery plans
• Consider environmental insurance
• Stay informed about environmental regulations affecting your industry

Now that we’ve explored the main types of business risks, it’s essential to develop a holistic approach to risk management. Here are some key steps to implement a comprehensive risk management strategy:

• Identify risks : Regularly assess your business environment to identify potential risks across all categories.
• Analyze and prioritize : Evaluate the likelihood and potential impact of each identified risk, and prioritize them accordingly.
• Develop risk mitigation strategies : Create specific plans to address each prioritized risk, focusing on prevention and mitigation.
• Implement controls : Put systems and processes in place to monitor and manage risks on an ongoing basis.
• Review and update : Regularly review your risk management strategies and update them as your business and the external environment evolve.
• Foster a risk-aware culture : Encourage employees at all levels to be aware of potential risks and contribute to risk management efforts.

Understanding and planning for the various types of business risks is not just a defensive measure — it’s a proactive strategy that can give your company a competitive edge. By identifying potential risks early and developing robust mitigation strategies, you can protect your business from unforeseen challenges and position it for long-term success.

Remember, the goal isn’t to eliminate all risks — which would be impossible — but to manage them effectively. With a comprehensive understanding of the types of business risks and a solid plan in place, you’ll be well-equipped to navigate the complexities of today’s business landscape and turn potential threats into opportunities for growth and innovation.

So, take the time to assess your business’s risk profile and start implementing these strategies today. Your future self (and your stakeholders) will thank you for it.

2024 Tech Company Risk Index is here

AI, staffing, the economy, and more. Find out what your industry is dealing with, and what you can to do mitigate your risks.

Related Articles

The biggest risks in software development.

Risks in software development abound. Have a problem? A potential solution? A service you want to provide or a product you desperately need in order to better your day-to-day life? Well there’s probably an app for that–or at least one in development. Society relies on technology for the simplest and most sophisticated of tasks. That […]

2024 Tech Company Risk Index: AI, Staffing, and Less Cyber Risk?

The ever-changing tech landscape has put the new kid front and center: AI. As companies navigate its implementation (and implications), they encounter a new problem — balancing its enormous benefits and equally weighty risks. However, not everyone is looking forward to the future of AI: artificial intelligence is often made a scapegoat for replacing workers amidst […]

• Name Search
• Browse Legal Issues
• Browse Law Firms

How To Start a Cleaning Business

By Amber Sheppard, Esq. | Legally reviewed by Amber Sheppard, Esq. | Last reviewed September 25, 2024

Legally Reviewed

This article has been written and reviewed for legal accuracy, clarity, and style by  FindLaw’s team of legal writers and attorneys  and in accordance with  our editorial standards .

Fact-Checked

The last updated date refers to the last time this article was reviewed by FindLaw or one of our  contributing authors . We make every effort to keep our articles updated. For information regarding a specific legal issue affecting you, please  contact an attorney in your area .

Are you looking to start a cleaning service? There are many advantages to operating a cleaning business. For example, you have low overhead for a new business, minimal startup costs, flexibility in your hours, and, in most cases, do not need specialized education or training. Follow this article to create a business plan, secure funding, and understand environmental regulations for your cleaning business.

Form your LLC with confidence.  Our trusted partner LegalZoom has packages starting at $0 + filing fees.

• 1. Determine the Scope of Your Cleaning Business
• 2. Put Together Your Business Plan
• 3. Register Your Business Name
• 4. Choose Your Business Structure
• 5. Determine Staffing Needs
• 6. Obtain Business Licenses and Permits
• 7. Get Business Insurance
• 8. Market and Advertise Your Cleaning Service
• 9. Draft Client Contract Agreements

9 Steps to Start a Cleaning Business

Determine the scope of your cleaning business.

Will you clean homes or businesses? House cleaning services have different considerations than commercial cleaning businesses.

Do you plan to focus on one type of cleaning? Some new businesses focus only on one of the following cleaning jobs:

• Carpet cleaning
• Grout cleaning
• Title cleaning
• Window washing

If you plan to offer a specific service, find out if you need any special equipment or training. Your pricing structure should consider additional overhead costs like continuing education classes or increased business insurance.

Research Your Market and Potential Clients

Before you launch your own cleaning business, it's critical to know your target market. First, you should know your potential customers and what they look for when hiring a cleaner.

• Will your clients want you to use eco-friendly cleaning products?
• Do they want proof that you have business licenses and certifications?
• Are they expecting you to have liability insurance?

Research the market rates in your area. Do similar companies charge by flat rates, square footage, or hourly rates? What do they charge? Can you offer similar rates and still turn a profit?

Find a Cleaning Specialty

An easy way to set yourself apart from other residential cleaning businesses is to focus on one or two growing areas for a cleaning company.

Some examples include:

• Eco-friendly green cleaning that focuses on environmentally, pet, and child-friendly cleaning products
• Airbnb and short-term rental cleaning
• Hoarding cleaning
• Post-construction cleaning
• Post-home renovation cleaning
• Window cleaning

Pick a niche that aligns with your business plan and values. If you aren't passionate about eco-friendly green cleaning, don't make it a pillar of your business.

Determine Your Costs and Set Up a Budget

Knowing all your costs before starting your business is essential to ensure profitability. You will have upfront costs such as business formation, cleaning supplies like mops, and equipment. Will you need a company vehicle? Determine the costs of a car, including insurance.

Also, consider your ongoing expenses, such as:

• Advertising
• Credit card fees
• Transportation

Small business owners should be realistic about their costs and what they can expect to see as profits. Many local businesses don't show a profit after several months or even a year after opening.

Analyze how to fund your cleaning service with a business plan.

Put Together Your Business Plan

Even a one-person business benefits from an  organized business plan . If you need a loan to fund your business, you need a business plan to show banks or potential investors.

Contents of a Cleaning Business Plan

Your business plan doesn't have to cover everything, but you should address critical areas, such as:

• What is your business?
• What are your goals?
• Who is your potential customer?
• Where will you operate?
• Who is your competition?
• How can you differentiate yourself from your competitors?
• What are your costs in setting up and continuing operations?
• How will you fund your business venture?
• Do you need to purchase or rent cleaning equipment outside of mops and brooms?
• Can you handle your business expansion?
• How will you market or advertise to attract clients?
• Do you need partners or employees?
• Will you do all the cleaning yourself or plan to hire staff?
• How many homes or businesses do you hope to clean for a successful cleaning business? What are your staffing requirements to meet that goal?

These are questions you should answer to determine the scope of your business. Once you know these answers, you will have an idea of how much money you need to fund your startup.

Fund Your Cleaning Business

Before you can start invoicing clients, you need to open your business and provide cleaning services. To do that, you need funding.

• Business loans
• Small Business Administration (SBA) loans
• Venture capital  from angel investors

Crowdfunding  is only a likely option if you plan on starting nationwide. Pay attention to interest rates and repayment terms no matter which source you choose.

Register Your Business Name

You will need a business name. Your business name is important—it's part of your brand.

First,  research your business name  to see if it's already in use. Avoid brand confusion and potential trademark infringement by using the same or a similar name as another business. Check for its use on social media and in an internet search before printing business cards.

Once you pick a name, you must register it. If you're a sole proprietor, you file a fictitious business name or a  doing business as  (DBA). This filing links to your legal name. Check your business name with your county clerk or secretary of state to determine their filing requirements.

If you choose a legal structure such as a corporation, partnership, or limited liability company (LLC), register the business name with the secretary of state. You don't need to file a separate name registration.

Choose Your Business Structure

Many small businesses operate as  sole proprietorships.  But this exposes you to personal liability for your janitorial services-based business operations. In addition to sole proprietorship, there are other legal entities to consider.

Corporation

Corporations  provide liability protection. This means your business operations are separate from your personal assets. If you opt for a corporation and want to avoid  double taxation , consider filing  Form 2553  with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for a  subchapter S corporation .

Partnership

If you plan to have a partner, you may consider a  partnership . In a partnership, the partners share the company's profits, losses, and liabilities personally. There's no personal asset protection.

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

An LLC is a type of corporation that avoids double taxation. The main advantage of forming a corporation or an LLC is liability protection. A corporation or LLC separates your business assets and liabilities from your personal assets. So, if a client were to sue you for  negligence  (i.e., if you accidentally ruined an antique rug), the client could only go after the assets in the corporate entity, not you personally.

Similarly, suppose an employee is injured on the job. In that case, they can only sue the corporate entity, not you, for personal injuries.

Advantages of an LLC or Corporate Entity

Another advantage is that clients view an LLC or corporate entity as more professional. So, if you plan to clean for businesses, they prefer paying a corporation instead of an individual.

Businesses don't want to pay individuals because they don't want the liability as a business employee. The business will need to file  1099 forms  for  independent contractors . Businesses also don't want any liability associated with your services.

Determine Staffing Needs

If you hire employees, conduct background checks before allowing them into your client's homes or offices. Suppose they attack someone or damage property, and you could have anticipated it from their background check. In that case, your business may be liable for damages.

You must get an employer identification number (EIN) when hiring employees, even as a sole proprietor. You'll use this number on all your business tax filings.

Obtain Business Licenses and Permits

Before starting your cleaning service business, you must get your state or local town's appropriate business licenses and permits. Investigate whether you need special permits or training to perform certain cleaning services.

Follow State and Federal Regulations

Suppose you're handling dangerous materials such as biohazardous waste. In that case, you may need certain state permits or to follow Occupational Health and Safety regulations ( OSHA regulations ).

You must follow  environmental law  regulations and laws. This includes waste disposal regulations. An easy real-world scenario is where your commercial cleaning business has a business contract with an art facility. The facility uses oil-based paints for its work. The water they use to clean supplies or create work is now contaminated. You must dispose of that water in line with federal environmental regulations, even if you're just cleaning.

The  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,  Department of Energy (DOE) , and  U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)  enforce environmental regulations. Failure to follow federal and state laws can result in fines, criminal charges, and a shutdown of your business. If you don't dispose of waste properly,  toxic tort  class action lawsuits can be filed against you.

The EPA has the  Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU)  to help small businesses understand these regulations and be in compliance.

Get Business Insurance

While a cleaning service can be lucrative, it is a business with inherent risks. There is a potential for accidents when dealing with hazardous chemicals, physical labor, and personal property. You should insure your cleaning business because there are risks of bodily injury and property damage.

Look into the different types of business insurance policies .

• Business operations policy (BOP)
• Commercial vehicle
• General liability
• Property insurance for your businesses

If you have employees, you must get a  workers' compensation policy  in case of an injury at work.

Market and Advertise Your Cleaning Service

You are your best advertisement. First, let people know about your new residential cleaning services business. Then, once you complete a job to your customers' satisfaction, ask them if you can use them as references for your business. The easiest way is for them to leave a review on social media or Google.

Ask your customers if they can give referrals of your work to their friends and family. Again, word-of-mouth advertising is the best and cheapest way to market your services.

Draft Client Contract Agreements

Make sure your company drafts a contract for each customer. This helps set expectations and responsibilities for you and your client. Include the following in your document:

• What is the term length of the contract? Is it month to month or for a 6-month period?
• What is the pricing for your services, including how much is owed, when it's owed, and how you want payment?
• Does your client provide disinfectant, or do you bill them for using your products?
• On what schedule will you provide your services and for how long (for example, every first Tuesday of the month for 3 hours or every Tuesday for 1 hour)?
• How much notice do the parties need to give to end the contract?
• What are the reasons for ending the contract?
• If someone has pets, do you want them put in a crate when you clean or off the premises completely?
• If someone sues for breach of contract, can they get reasonable attorney's fees and costs?

Don't be in such a rush to land a client that you skip this process. Even with a signed contract, make sure you know the  refund policy of your state.  Some states follow the  cooling-off period , which allows a refund within a set number of days after purchase.

Seek Professional Help

While you can launch your cleaning service business by yourself, it may help to use a local business attorney to meet all the legal requirements and safety regulations.

However, if you are ready to start your business, you can let our  trusted partner LegalZoom  handle your business formation filing for $99 plus filing fees.

FindLaw will earn a commission if you purchase business formation products through these affiliate links.

Meet FindLaw's trusted partner LegalZoom , an industry leader in online business formations

Let's start your free LLC!

Join the millions who launched their businesses with LegalZoom.

LLC plans start at $0 + state fees.

SELECT AND START LLC

Prefer to work with a lawyer?

Attorney Directory

• Business Organization Attorneys
• Mergers & Acquisitions Attorneys
• Antitrust Lawyers
• Banking & Finance Lawyers
• Business & Commercial Lawyers
• Employment Lawyers

Find a Lawyer

• Search Legal Resources
• Find Cases and Laws