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Weekly Schedule Template
Tracking employees’ work time and wages is easy with this free weekly schedule template.
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Monthly Report
Provide a professional, concise summary of project activities with this monthly report template.
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One Page Business Plan
Need to write a business plan but don’t know where to begin? Download our free 1-page business plan ...
6 Free Business Plans | PDF Templates & Examples
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Business Case
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Executive Summary Template
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Simple Business Plan Template
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Startup Business Plan Template
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Strategic Planning
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Small Business Trends
How to create a business plan: examples & free template.
This guide has been designed to help you create a winning plan that stands out in the ever-evolving marketplace. U sing real-world examples and a free downloadable template, it will walk you through each step of the process.
Table of Contents
How to Write a Business Plan
Executive summary.
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The Executive Summary serves as the gateway to your business plan, offering a snapshot of your venture’s core aspects. This section should captivate and inform, succinctly summarizing the essence of your plan.
Example: EcoTech is a technology company specializing in eco-friendly and sustainable products designed to reduce energy consumption and minimize waste. Our mission is to create innovative solutions that contribute to a cleaner, greener environment.
Overview and Business Objectives
This part of the plan demonstrates to investors and stakeholders your vision for growth and the practical steps you’ll take to get there.
Company Description
Include information about the company’s founders, their expertise, and why they are suited to lead the business to success. This section should paint a vivid picture of your business, its values, and its place in the industry.
Define Your Target Market
Example: Our target market comprises environmentally conscious consumers and businesses looking for innovative solutions to reduce their carbon footprint. Our ideal customers are those who prioritize sustainability and are willing to invest in eco-friendly products.
Market Analysis
Our research indicates a gap in the market for high-quality, innovative eco-friendly technology products that cater to both individual and business clients.
SWOT Analysis
Competitive analysis.
In this section, you’ll analyze your competitors in-depth, examining their products, services, market positioning, and pricing strategies. Understanding your competition allows you to identify gaps in the market and tailor your offerings to outperform them.
Organization and Management Team
Example: EcoTech’s organizational structure comprises the following key roles: CEO, CTO, CFO, Sales Director, Marketing Director, and R&D Manager. Our management team has extensive experience in technology, sustainability, and business development, ensuring that we are well-equipped to execute our business plan successfully.
Products and Services Offered
Marketing and sales strategy.
Describe the nature of your advertising campaigns and promotional activities, explaining how they will capture the attention of your target audience and convey the value of your products or services. Outline your sales strategy, including your sales process, team structure, and sales targets.
Logistics and Operations Plan
Inventory control is another crucial aspect, where you explain strategies for inventory management to ensure efficiency and reduce wastage. The section should also describe your production processes, emphasizing scalability and adaptability to meet changing market demands.
Financial Projections Plan
In the Financial Projections Plan, lay out a clear and realistic financial future for your business. This should include detailed projections for revenue, costs, and profitability over the next three to five years.
Income Statement
The income statement , also known as the profit and loss statement, provides a summary of your company’s revenues and expenses over a specified period. It helps you track your business’s financial performance and identify trends, ensuring you stay on track to achieve your financial goals.
Cash Flow Statement
Section | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
Executive Summary | Brief overview of the business plan | Overview of EcoTech and its mission |
Overview & Objectives | Outline of company's goals and strategies | Market leadership in sustainable technology |
Company Description | Detailed explanation of the company and its unique selling proposition | EcoTech's history, mission, and vision |
Target Market | Description of ideal customers and their needs | Environmentally conscious consumers and businesses |
Market Analysis | Examination of industry trends, customer needs, and competitors | Trends in eco-friendly technology market |
SWOT Analysis | Evaluation of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats | Strengths and weaknesses of EcoTech |
Competitive Analysis | In-depth analysis of competitors and their strategies | Analysis of GreenTech and EarthSolutions |
Organization & Management | Overview of the company's structure and management team | Key roles and team members at EcoTech |
Products & Services | Description of offerings and their unique features | Energy-efficient lighting solutions, solar chargers |
Marketing & Sales | Outline of marketing channels and sales strategies | Digital advertising, content marketing, influencer partnerships |
Logistics & Operations | Details about daily operations, supply chain, inventory, and quality control | Partnerships with manufacturers, quality control |
Financial Projections | Forecast of revenue, expenses, and profit for the next 3-5 years | Projected growth in revenue and net profit |
Income Statement | Summary of company's revenues and expenses over a specified period | Revenue, Cost of Goods Sold, Gross Profit, Net Income |
Cash Flow Statement | Overview of cash inflows and outflows within the business | Net Cash from Operating Activities, Investing Activities, Financing Activities |
Tips on Writing a Business Plan
3. Set realistic goals: Your business plan should outline achievable objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Setting realistic goals demonstrates your understanding of the market and increases the likelihood of success.
FREE Business Plan Template
To help you get started on your business plan, we have created a template that includes all the essential components discussed in the “How to Write a Business Plan” section. This easy-to-use template will guide you through each step of the process, ensuring you don’t miss any critical details.
What is a Business Plan?
Why you should write a business plan, what are the different types of business plans.
In today’s fast-paced business world, having a well-structured roadmap is more important than ever. A traditional business plan provides a comprehensive overview of your company’s goals and strategies, helping you make informed decisions and achieve long-term success. There are various types of business plans, each designed to suit different needs and purposes. Let’s explore the main types:
Type of Business Plan | Purpose | Key Components | Target Audience |
---|---|---|---|
Startup Business Plan | Outlines the company's mission, objectives, target market, competition, marketing strategies, and financial projections. | Mission Statement, Company Description, Market Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Organizational Structure, Marketing and Sales Strategy, Financial Projections. | Entrepreneurs, Investors |
Internal Business Plan | Serves as a management tool for guiding the company's growth, evaluating its progress, and ensuring that all departments are aligned with the overall vision. | Strategies, Milestones, Deadlines, Resource Allocation. | Internal Team Members |
Strategic Business Plan | Outlines long-term goals and the steps to achieve them. | SWOT Analysis, Market Research, Competitive Analysis, Long-Term Goals. | Executives, Managers, Investors |
Feasibility Business Plan | Assesses the viability of a business idea. | Market Demand, Competition, Financial Projections, Potential Obstacles. | Entrepreneurs, Investors |
Growth Business Plan | Focuses on strategies for scaling up an existing business. | Market Analysis, New Product/Service Offerings, Financial Projections. | Business Owners, Investors |
Operational Business Plan | Outlines the company's day-to-day operations. | Processes, Procedures, Organizational Structure. | Managers, Employees |
Lean Business Plan | A simplified, agile version of a traditional plan, focusing on key elements. | Value Proposition, Customer Segments, Revenue Streams, Cost Structure. | Entrepreneurs, Startups |
One-Page Business Plan | A concise summary of your company's key objectives, strategies, and milestones. | Key Objectives, Strategies, Milestones. | Entrepreneurs, Investors, Partners |
Nonprofit Business Plan | Outlines the mission, goals, target audience, fundraising strategies, and budget allocation for nonprofit organizations. | Mission Statement, Goals, Target Audience, Fundraising Strategies, Budget. | Nonprofit Leaders, Board Members, Donors |
Franchise Business Plan | Focuses on the franchisor's requirements, as well as the franchisee's goals, strategies, and financial projections. | Franchise Agreement, Brand Standards, Marketing Efforts, Operational Procedures, Financial Projections. | Franchisors, Franchisees, Investors |
Using Business Plan Software
Enloop is a robust business plan software that automatically generates a tailored plan based on your inputs. It provides industry-specific templates, financial forecasting, and a unique performance score that updates as you make changes to your plan. Enloop also offers a free version, making it accessible for businesses on a budget.
Software | Key Features | User Interface | Additional Features |
---|---|---|---|
LivePlan | Over 500 sample plans, financial forecasting tools, progress tracking against KPIs | User-friendly, visually appealing | Allows creation of professional-looking business plans |
Upmetrics | Customizable templates, financial forecasting tools, collaboration capabilities | Simple and intuitive | Provides a resource library for business planning |
Bizplan | Drag-and-drop builder, modular sections, financial forecasting tools, progress tracking | Simple, visually engaging | Designed to simplify the business planning process |
Enloop | Industry-specific templates, financial forecasting tools, automatic business plan generation, unique performance score | Robust, user-friendly | Offers a free version, making it accessible for businesses on a budget |
Tarkenton GoSmallBiz | Guided business plan builder, customizable templates, financial projection tools | User-friendly | Offers CRM tools, legal document templates, and additional resources for small businesses |
Business Plan FAQs
What is a good business plan, what are the 3 main purposes of a business plan, can i write a business plan by myself.
We also have examples for specific industries, including a using food truck business plan , salon business plan , farm business plan , daycare business plan , and restaurant business plan .
Is it possible to create a one-page business plan?
How long should a business plan be, what is a business plan outline, what are the 5 most common business plan mistakes, what questions should be asked in a business plan.
A business plan should address questions such as: What problem does the business solve? Who is the specific target market ? What is the unique selling proposition? What are the company’s objectives? How will it achieve those objectives?
What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?
How is business planning for a nonprofit different.
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Simple Business Plan Templates
![example of a simple business plan pdf Strategic Plan Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/strategic-plan-template.png?w=310&v=2444495386)
Strategic Plan Template
Focus on the future and keep your company moving forward with Jotform’s Strategic Plan Template. Simply fill in the attached form with your company overview, delve deeper with a SWOT analysis, and finish off by determining your strategic goals, actions, and financial plans. Our fully-customizable template converts submitted information into polished PDFs, which you can download, print, or share instantly.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Single Page Business Plan - PDF Templates](https://cdn03.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/single-page-business-plan-template.png?w=310&v=3079860922)
Single Page Business Plan
Get down to business with a customizable Single-Page Business Plan template from Jotform. Customize your plan in minutes. No coding. Drag and drop to build.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Operational Plan Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn01.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/operational-plan-template.png?w=310&v=1602080965)
Operational Plan Template
This Operational Plan Sample is structured with important details for your organization. It comes ready to print, but you can simply edit the fields by putting your own organization information.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Marketing Brief Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn02.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/marketing-brief-template.png?w=310&v=1557310394)
Marketing Brief Template
Managing a marketing campaign or promotion is a challenging task. You need to have a marketing plan in order to execute the campaign smoothly with the time and budget provided. Creating a Marketing Brief is very beneficial because it summarizes the marketing strategy for a specific campaign.If you are in the advertising agency or part of the marketing department, then this Marketing Creative Brief Template is for you. This well-designed template contains the client information, project information, and the marketing materials that will be used. The project details explain the project title, description, objectives, target audience, budget overview, advertising guidelines, and competitors.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Glamping Business Plan Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/glamping-business-plan-template.png?w=310&v=507776741)
Glamping Business Plan Template
Grab the attention of the investors by using this Glamping Business Plan Template. This business plan is simple yet effective because it contains all the necessary details when building a successful business.
![example of a simple business plan pdf SOP Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn02.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/sop-template.png?w=310&v=3836356945)
SOP Template
Create a process to organize your employees in managing specific cases or scenarios by using this SOP Template. This template is commonly used in any organization whether it is a small, medium, or large group.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Lean Business Model Canvas Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn02.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/lean-business-model-canvas-template.png?w=310&v=1279632582)
Lean Business Model Canvas Template
See your business from a new perspective with Jotform’s Lean Business Model Canvas Template. Simply fill in a short form with problems your business could solve, how they are currently being solved in the market, and how your company can uniquely work to solve these problems. Our template instantly converts the information into polished PDFs you can download or print for your next big meeting.Our Lean Business Model Canvas Template already looks professional, but you can personalize it further to match your business. Jotform PDF Editor lets you rearrange form fields or add your company logo at the touch of a button! By instantly converting your business model into an accessible PDF format, our Lean Business Model Canvas Template can help you see the bigger picture and determine how to take your business to the next level.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Creative Brief Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn03.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/creative-brief-template.png?w=310&v=1831163032)
Creative Brief Template
A Creative Brief is used in advertising, branding, and marketing industries. In order to have a strong and outstanding creative campaign, you need to have a game plan to follow. This serves as a guideline that will help in making decisions related to the campaign.This Creative Brief Template PDF discusses the project details like the project name, due date, and project description. The marketing materials that will be used are listed in the document which includes its specifications like the dimension size, the medium that will be used, and the quantity. This is the best Creative Brief Template you can use for your next creative marketing campaign.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Business Model Canvas Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn03.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/business-model-canvas-template.png?w=310&v=3347425802)
Business Model Canvas Template
Our Business Model Canvas Template includes nine segments which are key partners, key activities, value proposition, customer relations, customer segments, key resources, channels, cost structure, and pricing model.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Blog Post Outline Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/blog-post-outline-template.png?w=310&v=3083602207)
Blog Post Outline Template
Use this Blog Post Outline Template for your blog content in order to get more visitors, followers, shares, and impressions. This template will definitely help your ranking in search engines.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Gym Business Plan Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn03.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/gym-business-plan-template.png?w=310&v=2824416400)
Gym Business Plan Template
Be successful in the gym business that you're building by securing funding or a loan with the help of this Gym Business Plan Template. This PDF can be printed and given to investors or loan applications.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Meeting Minutes Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn01.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/meeting-minutes-template.png?w=310&v=1655239596)
Meeting Minutes Template
Set goals, plan your actions, and update your team members by tracking the team meetings by using this Meeting Minutes Template. This PDF template will surely help the team in terms of planning and productivity.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Pressure Washing Estimate Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/pressure-washing-estimate-template.png?w=310&v=2686425097)
Pressure Washing Estimate Template
Create estimates for pressure washing services with the use of web tools. Use this Pressure Washing Estimate PDF template and create instant estimates in PDF format without the trouble of hiring programmers.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Memorandum of Understanding Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn03.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/memorandum-of-understanding-template.png?w=310&v=1334707208)
Memorandum of Understanding Template
Build a harmonious relationship between two or more parties by using this Memorandum of Understanding Template. This template is easy to use and can be customized via the PDF Editor.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Business Hours Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn02.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/business-hours-template.png?w=310&v=2504666231)
Business Hours Template
Announce and let the customers know if your business is open and not by using this Business Hours Template. This PDF template can be customized and personalized by using the PDF Editor.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Scope of Work Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/scope-of-work-template.png?w=310&v=15858170)
Scope of Work Template
Establish the responsibilities of the service provider by using this Scope of Work Template. This document will show the list of work and tasks that should be performed by the service provider.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Custom Sales Funnel Plan - PDF Templates](https://cdn03.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/custom-sales-funnel-plan.png?w=310&v=2123653534)
Custom Sales Funnel Plan
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Curriculum Vitae
Curriculum Vitae Template will provide you with all the necessary information that you need for your recruitment procedure and automate the job application process of your business.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Preliminary Notice Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/preliminary-notice-template.png?w=310&v=1948369031)
Preliminary Notice Template
Notify the parties involved like the property owner, hiring party, notifying party, and contractor about the construction project by using this Preliminary Notice Template. This PDF template can be customized if needed via the PDF Editor.
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Credit Analysis
![example of a simple business plan pdf Retainer Agreement - PDF Templates](https://cdn03.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/retainer-agreement.png?w=310&v=1229587741)
Retainer Agreement
Create retainer agreements online. Free, easy-to-customize template. Fill out on any device. Collect e-signatures. Save time with automation tools.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Business Plan Financial Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn03.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/business-plan-financial-template.png?w=310&v=1942423345)
Business Plan Financial Template
Create a business plan financial template with Jotform Sign. Drag and drop to customize. Fill out and e-sign from any smartphone, tablet, or desktop.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Transaction Summary - PDF Templates](https://cdn03.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/transaction-summary.png?w=310&v=29981585)
Transaction Summary
![example of a simple business plan pdf Employee Code of Conduct Template - PDF Templates](https://cdn03.jotfor.ms/templates/screenshot/pdf-templates/employee-code-of-conduct.png?w=310&v=1229587741)
Employee Code of Conduct Template
Create a professional code of conduct to send to your employees. Can be signed from any smartphone, tablet, or computer. Easy to customize and share. No coding.
About Simple Business Plan Templates
Plans, strategies, roadmaps – Businesses rely on these things to gain perspective on what’s about to happen. Milestones laid down in strategic and careful planning for growth and expansion, visions of where the company’s headed 10 years from now, goals that should meet timelines, all these require a smart, prudent and calculated planning.
Whether you’re a startup, an SMB, or close to a Fortune 500, a solid business plan is crucial. And of course, writing business plans is a huge task. But, what if you needed something that requires input from others though? Say, an online form or a PDF template where responses from your colleagues and managers matter? Well, here’s a collection of PDF templates for business planning.
These are beautifully designed templates, specifically tailored for businesses and companies who don’t know where to start. The hard part was already done and that’s designing the template. These will serve as boilerplates for whatever milestone your business needs. You won’t need to worry on building something from scratch, you just need to focus on the content. Some of these templates will contain or collect executive summaries, opportunities, expectations, execution, financial plans, forecasts, the whole nine yards.
Business plan templates help give a clear vision of what lies ahead. They help you get things organized, planned out, and help you check off items from your to-do list more efficiently.
Frequently Asked Questions
1) what are the seven parts of a business plan.
- Executive summary. This is an overview of your business plan. The executive summary should include your company’s offerings, mission, goals, and projections. Think of it as the elevator pitch for your business plan. If you can’t get investors interested here, it’s unlikely they’ll want to keep reading.
- Company description and history. Describe your business’s legal structure and history in addition to what you do. If you just started this business, you may replace company history with your leadership team’s experience. The purpose of this section is to explain the company structure and build confidence in the people running the company.
- Products and services. Talk about what your company offers, whether that’s products, services, or a combination of the two. Describe your products and services in detail. Explain what makes your offering unique, what your profit margins are, what kind of demand you’re seeing for it, etc.
- Market and competitor research. Investors want to know if there’s demand for your offering. Describe the target market and how your product or service benefits potential customers. Include projections of where the industry is headed over the next few years. Additionally, detail your competitors and how saturated the market is.
- Sales and marketing strategy. This part of the business plan explains how you’ll promote your product. Outline elements such as your ideal customer profile (ICP) as well as your marketing channels, budget, and methods.
- Operations and logistics. Explain how you’ll source materials if you sell products as well as the technology you need to deliver such products and services. Also, provide details about your team, like how many people you’ll need and how you’ll manage employees.
- Financial plan and projections. It’s crucial to prove that your business will be financially viable. For this, you’ll need revenue and expense projections. Many investors want to see sample account statements, balance sheets, and cash flow projections.
2) How do you write a business plan?
Your business plan should be a realistic roadmap that helps you build a successful company. When writing it, take a balanced approach so that you’re not blind to the potential pitfalls and risks. You’ll draft each of the seven sections previously discussed.
Tackling these sections can be overwhelming, so some people like to start with a one-page business plan that includes short paragraphs for each element. Another way to give yourself a head start is by working from a business plan template. Once you have a good start, you can expand each section to make a compelling case for your business.
3) Can I write a business plan myself?
Yes, you can. However, depending on your writing experience and goals, you may want outside help. If the business plan is for internal use with the purpose of improving business functions, you’ll likely be OK tackling it alone. But if you’re trying to secure funding from a bank or investors, a professional business plan writer can give you a leg up.
Even if you decide to do it yourself, have a trusted friend or business mentor review your plan and provide feedback. An objective point of view will help you refine your work.
4) What are the four types of business plans?
- One-page or mini business plan. The one-page option is a great way to improve the focus of your business plan and highlight the essential elements. It can be an effective way to workshop your company’s plan or quickly give others a rundown of your entire business.
- Traditional business plan. The traditional business plan is more in-depth than its one-page counterpart and will be more thorough in each section (often, plans exceed 40 pages). For example, it may contain detailed financials, branding samples, and competitive research documents.
- Business model canvas (BMC). The business model canvas is a more visual representation of your business architecture. It includes sections for infrastructure, offering, customers, finances, etc. Many businesses find the BMC appealing since it can be summarized in a single page.
- Strategic business plan. The strategic business plan can have different purposes, like proving feasibility, discussing planning operations, or projecting growth. It will outline the company’s goals, its strategy for reaching them, and the company structure. The main difference between this and the traditional plan is its focus on specific strategic initiatives.
5) What are the common mistakes in business plans?
- Poor writing. Sloppy writing may suggest that you’re not serious about your business or you lack the needed professionalism.
- Unrealistic expectations. While you should be optimistic about your business, if your financial projections reflect your hopes more than reality, people may hesitate to back your business.
- Lack of supporting documentation. People reviewing your business plan want to see how you back up your claims. You can include research docs, sample financials, and estimates to make your case.
- Failing to define the target audience. For a successful marketing plan, you need to define your target audience. Investors and financial institutions need to see if you’re confident about who you’re selling to.
- Unbalanced. It’s important to lay out the risks and potential upsides. This analysis shows investors that you’re considering the whole picture regarding your business.
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550+ Business Plan Examples to Launch Your Business
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View all sample business plans
Example business plan format
Before you start exploring our library of business plan examples, it's worth taking the time to understand the traditional business plan format . You'll find that the plans in this library and most investor-approved business plans will include the following sections:
Executive summary
The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your plan and is ideally only one to two pages. You should also plan to write this section last after you've written your full business plan.
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, and your funding requirements (if you are raising money).
Products & services
The products & services chapter of your business plan is where the real meat of your plan lives. It includes information about the problem that you're solving, your solution, and any traction that proves that it truly meets the need you identified.
This is your chance to explain why you're in business and that people care about what you offer. It needs to go beyond a simple product or service description and get to the heart of why your business works and benefits your customers.
Market analysis
Conducting a market analysis ensures that you fully understand the market that you're entering and who you'll be selling to. This section is where you will showcase all of the information about your potential customers. You'll cover your target market as well as information about the growth of your market and your industry. Focus on outlining why the market you're entering is viable and creating a realistic persona for your ideal customer base.
Competition
Part of defining your opportunity is determining what your competitive advantage may be. To do this effectively you need to get to know your competitors just as well as your target customers. Every business will have competition, if you don't then you're either in a very young industry or there's a good reason no one is pursuing this specific venture.
To succeed, you want to be sure you know who your competitors are, how they operate, necessary financial benchmarks, and how you're business will be positioned. Start by identifying who your competitors are or will be during your market research. Then leverage competitive analysis tools like the competitive matrix and positioning map to solidify where your business stands in relation to the competition.
Marketing & sales
The marketing and sales plan section of your business plan details how you plan to reach your target market segments. You'll address how you plan on selling to those target markets, what your pricing plan is, and what types of activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success.
The operations section covers the day-to-day workflows for your business to deliver your product or service. What's included here fully depends on the type of business. Typically you can expect to add details on your business location, sourcing and fulfillment, use of technology, and any partnerships or agreements that are in place.
Milestones & metrics
The milestones section is where you lay out strategic milestones to reach your business goals.
A good milestone clearly lays out the parameters of the task at hand and sets expectations for its execution. You'll want to include a description of the task, a proposed due date, who is responsible, and eventually a budget that's attached. You don't need extensive project planning in this section, just key milestones that you want to hit and when you plan to hit them.
You should also discuss key metrics, which are the numbers you will track to determine your success. Some common data points worth tracking include conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, profit, etc.
Company & team
Use this section to describe your current team and who you need to hire. If you intend to pursue funding, you'll need to highlight the relevant experience of your team members. Basically, this is where you prove that this is the right team to successfully start and grow the business. You will also need to provide a quick overview of your legal structure and history if you're already up and running.
Financial projections
Your financial plan should include a sales and revenue forecast, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and a balance sheet. You may not have established financials of any kind at this stage. Not to worry, rather than getting all of the details ironed out, focus on making projections and strategic forecasts for your business. You can always update your financial statements as you begin operations and start bringing in actual accounting data.
Now, if you intend to pitch to investors or submit a loan application, you'll also need a "use of funds" report in this section. This outlines how you intend to leverage any funding for your business and how much you're looking to acquire. Like the rest of your financials, this can always be updated later on.
The appendix isn't a required element of your business plan. However, it is a useful place to add any charts, tables, definitions, legal notes, or other critical information that supports your plan. These are often lengthier or out-of-place information that simply didn't work naturally into the structure of your plan. You'll notice that in these business plan examples, the appendix mainly includes extended financial statements.
Types of business plans explained
While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. To get the most out of your plan, it's best to find a format that suits your needs. 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 for external purposes. Typically this is the type of plan you'll need when applying for funding or pitching to investors. It can also be used when training or hiring employees, working with vendors, or in any other situation where the full details of your business must be understood by another individual.
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.
The structure ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template. It encourages you to build connections between every element of your business. It's faster to write out and update, and much easier for you, your team, and anyone else to visualize your business operations.
One-page business plan
The true middle ground between the business model canvas and a traditional business plan is the one-page business plan . This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business.
By starting with a one-page plan , you give yourself a minimal document to build from. You'll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences making it much easier to elaborate or expand sections into a longer-form business plan.
Growth planning
Growth planning is more than a specific type of business plan. It's 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, forecast, review, and refine based on your performance.
It holds all of the benefits of the single-page plan, including the potential to complete it in as little as 27 minutes . However, it's even easier to convert into a more detailed plan thanks to how heavily it's tied to your financials. The overall goal of growth planning isn't to just produce documents that you use once and shelve. Instead, the growth planning process helps you build a healthier company that thrives in times of growth and remain stable through times of crisis.
It's faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your plan is always up-to-date.
Download a free sample business plan template
Ready to start writing your own plan but aren't sure where to start? Download our free business plan template that's been updated for 2024.
This simple, modern, investor-approved business plan template is designed to make planning easy. It's a proven format that has helped over 1 million businesses write business plans for bank loans, funding pitches, business expansion, and even business sales. It includes additional instructions for how to write each section and is formatted to be SBA-lender approved. All you need to do is fill in the blanks.
How to use an example business plan to help you write your own
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How do you know what elements need to be included in your business plan, especially if you've never written one before? Looking at examples can help you visualize what a full, traditional plan looks like, so you know what you're aiming for before you get started. Here's how to get the most out of a sample business plan.
Choose a business plan example from a similar type of company
You don't need to find an example business plan that's an exact fit for your business. Your business location, target market, and even your particular product or service may not match up exactly with the plans in our gallery. But, you don't need an exact match for it to be helpful. Instead, look for a plan that's related to the type of business you're starting.
For example, if you want to start a vegetarian restaurant, a plan for a steakhouse can be a great match. While the specifics of your actual startup will differ, the elements you'd want to include in your restaurant's business plan are likely to be very similar.
Use a business plan example as a guide
Every startup and small business is unique, so you'll want to avoid copying an example business plan word for word. It just won't be as helpful, since each business is unique. You want your plan to be a useful tool for starting a business —and getting funding if you need it.
One of the key benefits of writing a business plan is simply going through the process. When you sit down to write, you'll naturally think through important pieces, like your startup costs, your target market , and any market analysis or research you'll need to do to be successful.
You'll also look at where you stand among your competition (and everyone has competition), and lay out your goals and the milestones you'll need to meet. Looking at an example business plan's financials section can be helpful because you can see what should be included, but take them with a grain of salt. Don't assume that financial projections for a sample company will fit your own small business.
If you're looking for more resources to help you get started, our business planning guide is a good place to start. You can also download our free business plan template .
Think of business planning as a process, instead of a document
Think about business planning as something you do often , rather than a document you create once and never look at again. If you take the time to write a plan that really fits your own company, it will be a better, more useful tool to grow your business. It should also make it easier to share your vision and strategy so everyone on your team is on the same page.
Adjust your plan regularly to use it as a business management tool
Keep in mind that businesses that use their plan as a management tool to help run their business grow 30 percent faster than those businesses that don't. For that to be true for your company, you'll think of a part of your business planning process as tracking your actual results against your financial forecast on a regular basis.
If things are going well, your plan will help you think about how you can re-invest in your business. If you find that you're not meeting goals, you might need to adjust your budgets or your sales forecast. Either way, tracking your progress compared to your plan can help you adjust quickly when you identify challenges and opportunities—it's one of the most powerful things you can do to grow your business.
Prepare to pitch your business
If you're planning to pitch your business to investors or seek out any funding, you'll need a pitch deck to accompany your business plan. A pitch deck is designed to inform people about your business. You want your pitch deck to be short and easy to follow, so it's best to keep your presentation under 20 slides.
Your pitch deck and pitch presentation are likely some of the first things that an investor will see to learn more about your company. So, you need to be informative and pique their interest. Luckily we have a round-up of real-world pitch deck examples used by successful startups that you can review and reference as you build your pitch.
For more resources, check out our full Business Pitch Guide .
Ready to get started?
Now that you know how to use an example business plan to help you write a plan for your business, it's time to find the right one.
Use the search bar below to get started and find the right match for your business idea.
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Didn't find what you are looking for.
The answer is simple.
It’s an informal business plan that can convince you that your idea makes sense to the outside world because you are investing your time, money, and everything into that idea.
To write a business plan, maybe you think you don’t need a step-by-step guide or a sample business plan . After all, some entrepreneurs achieved success without writing a business plan. With great timing, past business experiences, entrepreneurial ambitions, and a little luck, some entrepreneurs build successful businesses without even writing an informal business plan.
But the odds are greater than those entrepreneurs fail.
And that’s why writing a business plan will help you succeed .
The easiest way to simplify the work of writing a business plan is to start with sample business plans.
What is business plan sample?
Why you should refer a business plan example, who should use business plan examples, how to use sample business plans.
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What is Business Plan Sample?
That’s why we created business plan examples to help you get started.
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Use our 400+ business plan examples written for all industries and write your business plan in half of the time with twice the impact.
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- Guidance on what to include in each section. If you’ve never attended business school, you might never have created a SWOT analysis or a balance sheet before. Business templates that give guidance — in plain language — about what to include and how to fill in each section and create a complete and effective plan.
- A business plan is vital to get an investment. If you’re seeking investment for your business, you’ll need to convince banks and investors why they should invest in your business . Lenders and investors will only risk their time and money if they’re certain that your business will be successful and profitable and they will get a great return on their investment.
- A business plan can help you prioritize. A complete, well-balanced business plan is one of the most valuable tools in assisting you to reach your long-term goals. It gives your business direction, defines your goals, outlines out strategies to reach your goals, and helps you to manage possible bumps in the way.
Who should use Business Plan Examples?
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Well Everyone, who wants to write a business plan should use these sample business plans. These plans apply to almost all industries.
We have created a library of professional sample business plans from a wide variety of industries to help you start writing your business plan with minimum effort.
Use our Upmetrics — business plan software that offers step by step guide to start writing your business plan , especially if you’re writing an informal business plan to get a bank loan or outside investment.
Our extensive sample business plans library includes business plan templates and business plan examples for almost all business industries.
Make your plan in half the time & twice the impact with Upmetrics.
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How to use Business Plan Examples to write your own?
Having real-life and industry-specific business plan examples by your side can be incredibly resourceful to help you write a business plan from scratch.
A well-planned structure helps you outline your plan, while content inspiration helps you set the tone for your business document.
Let’s dive deep and understand how to use these examples effectively to write your business plan.
1. Use examples as a guide
2. understanding the structure.
Traditional business plans generally follow a similar structure.
It starts with an executive summary followed by a company description, market analysis, product and services, sales and marketing strategies, operational plan, management team, financial plan, and appendix.
Using an example business plan is the best way to understand the structure and outline your plan.
3. Gaining Inspiration
Reading industry-specific business plan examples can help you gain inspiration for your plan. You can gain insights on presenting your business idea, vision, mission, and values and persuade investors to invest in your idea.
4. Learning Industry-Specific Language
There’s no universal template for business planning that fits all. An industry-specific template can help you learn and understand the business language for your industry and the best way to communicate your message to your investors.
5. Identifying Key Elements
Reading business plan examples of similar businesses can help you identify the key elements and information to include in your plan. You can keep note of these and ensure everything necessary for investors to consider is present in your final draft.
6. Crafting Financial Projections
A financial plan is a critical component of your business plan, and a good business plan example can help you better understand how they project their financials which can be incredibly helpful while forecasting yours.
7. Refining Your Executive Summary
As mentioned earlier, your executive summary is a key factor influencing potential investors and lenders to invest or lend you money. Analyzing free business plan templates can help you optimize your executive summary to make it more brief, persuasive, and attention-grabbing.
8. Realizing What Works and What Doesn’t
Analyzing industry-specific and real-life examples can help you determine what works best and what doesn’t within your industry. Understanding these factors can help you avoid many significant pitfalls.
While business plan examples can be incredibly helpful in writing a plan from scratch, ensure your plan is customized for your business and sends out a unique message. Your business plan must reflect its unique idea, vision, and target market.
Using your Business Plan as a Management Tool
It’s essential to have a business plan, but it’s also crucial to keep it up to date as your business progresses. A business plan is not merely a document that you write once and forget after you get started. It’s a business road map and vision that you should develop as your business progresses and evolves. It’s also important to update your business plan regularly as your business situation and position change.
How Business Plan Software can help you?
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We have created Upmetrics — business plan software to simplify the process of business planning.
Our financial forecasting module will create all the essential reports automatically. You just need to enter numbers and the application will do all the math to generate your financial reports. Later you can embed those reports into your business plan.
After completing your business plan, you can download your business plan in PDF or DOC file using Upmetrics. Also, you can share it online with investors or with other important people just by a quick link.
Ready to take the next step?
Now that you have a business idea and you know how to write a business plan, it’s time to go for it . Our business plan software will take you through each step outlined above in more detail so there are no surprises on your journey.
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After trying Upmetrics, I wish to highly recommend this app to anyone who needs to write a business plan flexibly and to a high standard.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is sample business plan, how do i write a business plan.
In business plan writing you will need to write the following sections into your business plan. These sections include an Executive Summary, Company Overview, Problem Analysis, The Solution, Market Analysis, Customer Analysis, Competitive Analysis, SWOT Analysis, Marketing Plan, Operations Plan, and Financial Plan.
How long should my business plan be?
The length of your business plan depends on the type of plan you choose. There are one-page business plans that offer easy and practical planning. Then you have traditional business plans that usually vary from 20 to 50 pages. It’s worth noting that the quality of your business plan matters more than its length.
Should I hire someone to write my business plan for me?
Absolutely No, You as a business owner know all about your business idea, your business goals, target market and audience, and what you want to achieve by writing your plan. Don’t hire someone who doesn’t know what your readers will want, the reason is that, if you intend to raise funds, you are the best person that understands what investors will look out for in your business plan.
Consultants or business plan writers definitely can write a business plan but not better than you.
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Simple Business Plan
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To reach your goals in business , you need to have strategies in mind. There must be somewhere you can list down all the variables to your success; all the necessary factors to get to where you want to be. If you know how to create a business plan , then you’re a step closer to what you want. Allow this article to shed some light on its complexity. Learn about its purpose, its formats, and browse through an amazing list of sample business plans . Without further ado, here are some of the most useful templates and examples that you can ever find online!
46+ Simple Business Plan Examples
1. simple business plan template.
![example of a simple business plan pdf Simple Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Simple-Business-Plan-Template.jpg)
- Apple Pages
- Google Docs
Size: A4, US
2. Spa Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Spa Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Spa-Business-Plan-Template.jpg)
3. Nonprofit Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Nonprofit Business Plan Template1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Nonprofit-Business-Plan-Template1.png)
Size: 39 KB
4. Trucking Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Trucking Business Plan Template1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Trucking-Business-Plan-Template1.png)
Size: 31 KB
5. Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Business-Plan-Template.png)
Size: 35 KB
6. Business Plan Table of Contents Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Business Plan Table of Contents Template1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Business-Plan-Table-of-Contents-Template1.png)
- MS Publisher
Size: 57 KB
7. Sports Bar Business Plan Template
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8. Saas Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Saas Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Saas-Business-Plan-Template.jpg)
Size: A4 & US
![](http://cintadecorrer.fun/777/templates/cheerup1/res/banner1.gif)
9. Startup Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Startup Business Plan Template1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Startup-Business-Plan-Template1.png)
Size: 33 KB
10. Rental Property Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Rental Property Business Plan Template1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Rental-Property-Business-Plan-Template1.png)
11. Construction Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Construction Business Plan Template1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Construction-Business-Plan-Template1.png)
Size: 34 KB
12. Sample Construction Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Sample Construction Business Plan Template1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Sample-Construction-Business-Plan-Template1.png)
Size: 58 KB
13. Restaurant Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Restaurant Business Plan Template1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Restaurant-Business-Plan-Template1.png)
Size: 36 KB
14. Generic Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Generic Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Generic-Business-Plan-Template.jpg)
15. Freight Trucking Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Freight Trucking Business Plan Template1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Freight-Trucking-Business-Plan-Template1.png)
Size: 40 KB
16. Mortgage Broker Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Mortgage Broker Business Plan Template1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mortgage-Broker-Business-Plan-Template1.png)
17. Boutique Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Boutique Business Plan Template1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Boutique-Business-Plan-Template1.png)
Size: 42 KB
18. Recruitment/Staffing Agency Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Recruitment or Staffing Agency Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Recruitment-or-Staffing-Agency-Business-Plan-Template.png)
Size: 45 KB
19. Modern Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Modern Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Modern-Business-Plan-Template.jpg)
20. Travel Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Travel Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Travel-Business-Plan-Template.jpg)
21. Veterinary Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Veterinary Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Veterinary-Business-Plan-Template.jpg)
22. Renovation Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Renovation Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Renovation-Business-Plan-Template.jpg)
23. Sample Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Sample Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Sample-Business-Plan-Template.jpg)
24. Simple Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Simple Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Simple-Business-Plan-Template.jpg)
25. Business Plan Outline Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Business Plan Outline Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Business-Plan-Outline-Template.jpg)
26. Sample Marketing Business Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Sample Marketing Business Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Sample-Marketing-Business-Plan-Template.jpg)
27. Business Operational Plan Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Business Operational Plan Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Business-Operational-Plan-Template.jpg)
Free Download
28. 30 60 90 Day Business Plan Template
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29. Business Plan Presentation Template
![example of a simple business plan pdf Business Plan Presentation Template](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Business-Plan-Presentation-Template.jpg)
30. Business Plan Outline
![example of a simple business plan pdf Business Plan Outline2](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Business-Plan-Outline2.jpg)
Size: 79 kB
31. Small Business Sample
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Size: 199 kB
32. Cafe Business Plan
![example of a simple business plan pdf Cafe Business Plan2](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Cafe-Business-Plan2.jpg)
Size: 151 kB
33. Restaurant Business Example
![example of a simple business plan pdf Restaurant Business Example1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Restaurant-Business-Example1.jpg)
34. Mini Business Plan
![example of a simple business plan pdf Mini Business Plan3](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Mini-Business-Plan3.jpg)
35. Farm Business Plan
![example of a simple business plan pdf Farm Business Plan2](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Farm-Business-Plan2.jpg)
Size: 32 kB
36. Social Business Sample
![example of a simple business plan pdf Social Business Sample1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Social-Business-Sample1.jpg)
37. Presentation Business Plan
![example of a simple business plan pdf Presentation Business Plan](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Presentation-Business-Plan.jpg)
Size: 774 kB
38. Start-up Business Example
![example of a simple business plan pdf Startup Business Example](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Startup-Business-Example.jpg)
39. Bakery Business Plan
![example of a simple business plan pdf Bakery Business Plan1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Bakery-Business-Plan1.jpg)
40. Car Wash Business Sample
![example of a simple business plan pdf Car Wash Business Sample](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Car-Wash-Business-Sample.jpg)
Size: 125 kB
41. Cleaning Business Plan
![example of a simple business plan pdf Cleaning Business Plan](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Cleaning-Business-Plan.jpg)
Size: 140 kB
42. Daycare Business Example
![example of a simple business plan pdf Daycare Business Example](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Daycare-Business-Example.jpg)
Size: 171 kB
43. Insurance Business Sample
![example of a simple business plan pdf Insurance Business Sample](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Insurance-Business-Sample.jpg)
Size: 324 kB
44. Lawn Care Business Plan
![example of a simple business plan pdf Lawn Care Business Plan](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Lawn-Care-Business-Plan.jpg)
Size: 397 kB
45. Personal Business Plan
![example of a simple business plan pdf Personal Business Plan1](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Personal-Business-Plan1.jpg)
Size: 237 kB
46. Real Estate Business Sample
![example of a simple business plan pdf Real Estate Business Sample](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Real-Estate-Business-Sample.jpg)
47. Retail Business Plan
![example of a simple business plan pdf Retail Business Plan](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Retail-Business-Plan.jpg)
48. Student Business Plan
![example of a simple business plan pdf Student Business Plan](https://images.examples.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Student-Business-Plan.jpg)
What Is the Purpose of a Business Plan?
A business plan has one true purpose and that is to help determine the success of a company. No organization makes it to the top of their industry on sheer luck and hard work alone. Writing a business plan becomes essential so that a company can have as much direction as it needs as it claws its way towards the point of success. Such is the role of a quality plan for business and is defined by the following:
- To explain the business model – A good business plan clarifies what the business is about and what is needed to be done to attain success.
- Set goals – Business plans, like work plans , are made to ascertain specific goals detailed in strategic plans directed towards the profitability and success of a company or business
- Detect potential problems – A sure way of finding out problems within a business is the inclusion of an evaluation as a result of actions being done in a business plan.
- Measure development – Having a budget plan for business provides the owner or decision-maker a guide of sorts in determining where the current business is and the next step of the management plan to take in progressing towards the success set by the business plan.
Tips on How to Pick the Right Business Plan Format
Remember that there’s no such thing as right or wrong when you want to learn how to write a business plan. Instead, adjust your thinking towards what is more effective or appropriate for your needs. Keep in mind that formatting is always an important consideration. You can stay up all night working on your simple analysis plan or spend hours browsing for the right business plan template, but if the formatting is wrong, then you still won’t be able to guarantee your document’s efficacy. Nowadays, there are two major formats that you can select. One is the traditional business plan format while the other is the lean start-up format . To help you decide between either of these, here are some important tips to consider:
1. Determine Your Specific Need for the Business Plan
As stated in the previous section, the main purpose of a business plan is to serve as a guide. What hasn’t been said yet is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be your guide alone. Those who want to attract investors or lenders will want the traditional business plan format for reasons that will become apparent soon. Otherwise, the lean start-up format may be more suitable.
2. Look into the Characteristics of Each Type
After you’ve determined why there’s a need for a business plan, now it’s time to tackle the elements of the formats. The traditional format, for example, is much longer and more detailed. Its precise nature is what makes this format attractive to investors or lenders—people who normally require a lot of information. On the other hand, the lean start-up format focuses only on the significant bits of info, such as the company’s organizational infrastructure, finances, and value proposal.
3. Determine Whether or Not Time is on Your Side
The lengthy and specific nature of traditional business plans requires a lot of time and effort to do. If you only have a longer time to prepare, then perhaps that is the best choice for you. Yet those who only have a few hours or days to prepare one may have to go for the lean start-up format instead.
4. Look into Which Type is Better for You
Both of these business plan outline formats have their weaknesses and strengths. It is up to you to choose which of these will you apply in composing your business plan. Remember, consider not your wants but your needs. If you need to obtain a simple, less hassle and faster yet more likely to be ambiguous, you may utilize the lean start-up format. Conversely, if you need to have a precise and detailed business plan which is paired with challenging and time-consuming composition then use the traditional one.
General FAQs
1. what is a business plan.
A business plan is a formal and comprehensive document that is prepared by a business to outline the goals of the business and how it can be attained. It states the time frame within which these goals should be achieved, along with the product details, manpower, and financial estimates.
2. What are the main components of a business plan?
Each business plan examples share common components such as the executive summary , company description, marketing plan, operational plan , and so much more. However, how these components are expressed or explained will differ according to the needs and designs of the business owner.
3. What is the purpose of a business plan?
The purpose of a business plan is to define the goals of a business along with the steps needed to reach them. It also helps in maintaining the focus of your business and securing long-term financing .
If you weren’t so sure before about how to make a business plan, well you are now. Whether it is a simple one-page version, a non-profit business plan , or even a business continuity plan , you now have the skills and knowledge necessary to make a highly effective document. Should that be something you aren’t too keen on yet, then there are always templates like the ones above. Stop hesitating and get started on your plan today!
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Text prompt
- Instructive
- Professional
Create a study plan for final exams in high school
Develop a project timeline for a middle school science fair.
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300+ Business Plan Examples
![example of a simple business plan pdf business plan example](https://www.growthink.com/wp-content/uploads/business-plan-example.png)
With over two decades of experience, Growthink has assisted more than 1 million companies in developing effective business plans to launch and expand their businesses. Trust in our expertise to guide you through developing a business plan that drives your success. In addition to our sample plans, below you’ll learn the answers to key business plan questions and gain insightful tips on writing your business plan.
Quick Links to Sections On this Page:
- Sample Business Plans By Business Category
Answers to Key Sample Business Plan Questions
Shoutmouth business plan example, business plan examples by business category.
Clothing & Fashion Business Plan Templates & Samples
Clothing Store Business Plan
Embroidery Business Plan
Fashion Business Plan
Jewelry Business Plan
Construction, Interior Design & Home Services Business Plan Templates & Samples
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Events Business Plan Templates & Samples
Banquet Hall Business Plan
Event Planning Business Plan
Event Venue Business Plan
Sample Event Venue Business Plan
Party Rental Business Plan
Photo Booth Business Plan
Table and Chair Rental Business Plan
Wedding Planning Business Plan
Farm Business Plan Templates & Samples
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Financial Services Business Plan Templates & Samples
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Fitness & Beauty Business Plan Templates & Samples
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Food & Beverage Business Plan Templates & Samples
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Medical & Health Business Plan Templates & Samples
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Music & Entertainment Business Plan Templates & Samples
Music Business Plan
Party Bus Business Plan
Podcast Business Plan
Production Company Business Plan
Record Label Business Plan
Recording Studio Business Plan
Nonprofit Business Plan Templates & Samples
Sample Non-Profit Business Plan
Charity Business Plan
Sample Nonprofit Business Plan PDF
Social Enterprise Business Plan
Real Estate Business Plan Templates & Samples
Sample Airbnb Business Plan
House Flipping Business Plan
Property Development Business Plan
Property Management Business Plan
Real Estate Business Plan
Real Estate Agent Business Plan
Real Estate Business Plan PDF
Real Estate Development Business Plan
Real Estate Investment Business Plan
Retail & Ecommerce Business Plan Templates & Samples
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Technology Business Plan Templates & Samples
Biodiesel Business Plan
Blogging Business Plan
Clean Tech Business Plan
Mobile App Business Plan
Saas Business Plan
Software Company Business Plan
Technology Business Plan
Transportation Business Plan Templates & Samples
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Travel and Lodging Business Plan Templates & Samples
Bed and Breakfast Business Plan
Campground Business Plan
Glamping Business Plan
Hotel Business Plan
Mobile Home Park Business Plan
Resort Business Plan
RV Park Business Plan
Travel Agency Business Plan
1. Why is utilizing an example business plan a good idea?
Sample business plans can help you quickly and easily write a business plan for your own business. Business plans are an important tool for any business, but they can be challenging to create. A sample business plan will help you understand the business plan format , the benefit of market research, and how to write a compelling executive summary. It can also serve as a guide for creating your own business plan, outlining the key sections and providing examples of successful plans. Utilizing the best business plan template can save you time and ensure that your plan is well-structured and comprehensive.
Business plan examples may even help you with the different sections of a plan, including market analysis, business description, cash flow statements/business financial statements, and more. Business plans can also show you how a quality plan in your exact business plan category is organized and shows you the appropriate business communications style to use when writing your business plan.
2. Who would benefit from using an example business plan?
Any entrepreneur or business owner who has never written a business plan before can benefit from an example or sample plan. New business owners often start with business plan templates , which are helpful but are sometimes more useful after reviewing other sample business plans.
A good sample plan can be a step-by-step guide as you work on your business planning and business idea. Once you have a sense for the flow, specs, and details, etc. that business plans have, utilizing a business plan template will help you pull everything together, helping you create a plan investors and other stakeholders will value. A solid business plan will also help you if you need a bank loan, which may require a startup business plan. Download our free business plan template to help you get started on your own business plan.
Free Download : Free Business Plan Template PDF
3. How do you get started with a sample business plan and maximize its benefit?
First you should read the business plan thoroughly. Study both the type of information provided in key sections like the executive summary, target market analysis, summary, etc., as well as the format and style of the plan. As you read, you may find yourself thinking through things such as improving or evaluating your business planning process, your business idea, or reconsidering who you want to write your business plan for. This is OK and part of the process. In fact, when you start writing a business plan for the first time, it will be much easier because you’ve gone through this process.
After this initial read, outline your business plan and copy in from the sample plan sections that apply to your business. For instance, if the sample plan included public relations in their marketing strategy and sales plan, and you will also use this tactic, you can copy it into your plan and edit it as appropriate. Finally, answer the other questions answered in the sample plan in ways that reflect your unique business and target customers.
Writing a business plan can seem daunting. Starting your business plan writing process by reviewing a plan that’s already been created can remove a lot of mental and emotional barriers while helping you craft the best plan you can.
4. When should you not use a sample business plan?
If your business is unlike any other, using a sample business plan will not be as effective. In this situation, writing a business plan from scratch utilizing a business plan template is probably your best path forward.
As an example, Facebook’s early business plan was unlike others since it was paving a new path and way of doing business. But, groundbreaking new businesses like Facebook are not the norm, and the vast majority of companies will benefit from utilizing sample business plans.
5. How do you choose the right type of business plan for your venture?
Selecting the appropriate type of business plan depends on your business’s stage, needs, and goals. Let’s explore the different types of business plans and how to determine which business plan format is right for you.
- Startup Business Plan : This type of plan is for businesses just starting out and seeking funding or investment. It typically includes a detailed analysis of the market, target audience, competition, and financial projections.
- Traditional Business Plan : Traditional business plans are the most common type of business plan, used by established businesses to outline their goals and strategies. It includes all the key sections such as market analysis, company description, and financial statements.
- Internal Business Plan : Internal business plans are used for internal purposes, to guide the day-to-day operations and decision making of the business. It may not be as detailed as a traditional business plan, but still includes important information such as company mission, objectives, and key performance indicators.
- Feasibility Business Plan : A feasibility business plan is used to assess the viability of a new product or service in the market. It includes detailed research and analysis to determine if the business idea is feasible and profitable.
- One-Page Business Plan : As the name suggests, this type of business plan is condensed into one page and includes the most critical information about the business. It can be a useful tool for pitching to potential investors or partners.
- Strategic Business Plan : A strategic plan looks at the big picture and long-term business goals of a company. It may include the company’s mission statement, core values, and overarching strategies for achieving success.
Ultimately, the type of business plan you choose will depend on your business’s specific needs and goals. It may also be beneficial to combine elements from different types of plans to create a customized plan that best fits your business. Carefully consider your objectives and resources before deciding on the right type of plan for your venture.
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!
The business plan example below is for Shoutmouth, a company that enjoyed much success in the early 2000’s and which was able to raise funding. While the plan’s premise (social networking) is not as unique now as it was then, the format and structure of this business plan still holds.
I. Executive Summary
Business Overview
Launched in late February 2007, Shoutmouth.com is the most comprehensive music news website on the Internet .
Music is one of the most searched and accessed interests on the Internet. Top music artists like Akon receive over 3 million searches each month. In addition, over 500 music artists each receive over 25,000 searches a month.
However, music fans are largely unsatisfied when it comes to the news and information they seek on the artists they love. This is because most music websites (e.g., RollingStone.com, MTV.com, Billboard.com, etc.) cover only the top eight to ten music stories each day – the stories with mass appeal. This type of generic coverage does not satisfy the needs of serious music fans. Music fans generally listen to many different artists and genres of music. By publishing over 100 music stories each day, Shoutmouth enables these fans to read news on all their favorite artists.
In addition to publishing comprehensive music news on over 1200 music artists, Shoutmouth is a social network that allows fans to meet and communicate with other fans about music, and allows them to:
- Create personal profiles
- Interact with other members
- Provide comments on news stories and music videos
- Submit news stories and videos
- Recommend new music artists to add to the community
- Receive customized news and email alerts on their favorite artists
Success Factors
Shoutmouth is uniquely qualified to succeed due to the following reasons:
- Entrepreneurial track record : Shoutmouth’s CEO and team have helped launch numerous successful ventures.
- Affiliate marketing track record : Online affiliate marketing expertise has been cited as one of MySpace’s key success factors. Over the past two years, Shoutmouth’s founders have run one of the most successful online affiliate marketing programs, having sold products to over 500,000 music customers online.
- Key milestones completed : Shoutmouth’s founders have invested $500,000 to-date to staff the company (we currently have an 11-person full-time team), build the core technology, and launch the site. We have succeeded in gaining initial customer traction with 50,000 unique visitors in March, 100,000 unique visitors in April, and 200,000 unique visitors in May 2007.
Unique Investment Metrics
The Shoutmouth investment opportunity is very exciting due to the metrics of the business.
To begin, over the past two years, over twenty social networks have been acquired. The value in these networks is their relationships with large numbers of customers, which allow acquirers to effectively sell to this audience.
The sales price of these social networks has ranged from $25 to $137 per member. Shoutmouth has the ability to enroll members at less than $1 each, thus providing an extraordinary return on marketing expenditures. In fact, during an April 2007 test, we were able to sign-up 2,000 members to artist-specific Shoutmouth newsletters at a cost of only 43 cents per member.
While we are building Shoutmouth to last, potential acquirers include many types of companies that seek relationships with music fans such as music media/publishing (e.g., MTV, Rolling Stone), ticketing (e.g., Ticketmaster, LiveNation) and digital music sales firms (e.g., iTunes, The Orchard).
Financial Strategy, Needs and Exit Strategy
While Shoutmouth’s technological, marketing and operational infrastructure has been developed, we currently require $3 million to execute on our marketing and technology plan over the next 24 months until we hit profitability.
Shoutmouth will primarily generate revenues from selling advertising space. As technologies evolve that allow us to seamlessly integrate music sampling and purchasing on our site, sales of downloadable music are also expected to become a significant revenue source. To a lesser extent, we may sell other music-related items such as ringtones, concert tickets, and apparel.
Topline projections over the next three years are as follows:
2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
Shoutmouth Members | 626,876 | 4,289,580 | 9,577,020 |
Unique Visitors | 2,348,050 | 8,390,187 | 18,633,659 |
Total Page Views (Millions) | 20.7 | 273.5 | 781.0 |
Revenues | $165,431 | $2,461,127 | $7,810,354 |
Expenses | $1,407,958 | $2,591,978 | $2,838,423 |
EBITDA | ($1,242,527) | ($130,851) | $4,971,931 |
II. Shoutmouth Overview
What is Shoutmouth?
Shoutmouth is an operating company of The Kisco Group Inc. (TKG). Since 2003, TKG has capitalized on web-based marketing opportunities via launching targeted websites and generating web-based leads. TKG revenues in 2005 exceeded $1.3 million and grew to $3.5 million in 2006. Shoutmouth is currently the sole focus of TKG; all other TKG business units have been divested.
Development of Shoutmouth began in August 2006 and the site officially launched on February 21, 2007. Shoutmouth (located at www.shoutmouth.com) is the most comprehensive music news community on the Internet. The website covers 1,200 popular bands and music artists and offers more than 100 new music articles each day. In addition to providing news, Shoutmouth is a web community. That is, Shoutmouth members can actively participate on the site, by doing things such as commenting on news stories and submitting their own stories.
The Market Size and Need for Shoutmouth
The music market is clearly vast. According to IFPI, which represents the recording industry worldwide, global music sales were $33.5 billion in 2005, with the U.S. accounting for $12.3 billion of that amount. Importantly, digitally music sales are seeing substantial growth, with IFPI reporting sales of $400 million in 2004, $1.1 billion in 2005 and $2 billion in 2006.
Online, music is the one of the most frequently searched and accessed interests. For example, according to Wordtracker, the music artist Eminem received over 1.7 million web searches in December 2006, while band Green Day received 534,000 searches.
To put these figures in perspective, top celebrities in other entertainment fields receive but a fraction of this search volume. For example, December 2006 search volumes for select sports stars and actors were as follows: Kobe Bryant, 122K; Tiger Woods, 88K; Cameron Diaz, 332K; and Tom Cruise, 82K.
Conversely, 225 music artists received over 100,000 searches in December 2006, and over 500 music artists received over 25,000 searches.
This data is corroborated by Nielsen BuzzMetrics which plots the most popular topics bloggers are posting about. The chart to the right plots September 25, 2006 to March 25, 2007 and shows how music dominates other entertainment sectors online.
When searching for music artists online, fans, which are primarily between the ages of 13 and 35, are looking for news, pictures, lyrics, videos and audio files. In addition, fans enjoy publicly voicing their opinions about music and interacting with other fans.
There is currently no website besides Shoutmouth that provides comprehensive music news. Currently, to get the latest news on their favorite artists, fans must visit the official websites or fan websites of each of the artists they like . Even then, it is unlikely that the fan will get all the news that has occurred. To solve this problem, Shoutmouth scours the web and uncovers news from thousands of web sites.
What Shoutmouth Does and Will Offer
As of May 2007, the site covers the 1,200 most popular music artists (popularity primarily based on the number of web searches over the past 12 months for each artist).
Shoutmouth currently offers members the ability to:
- Read over 500 new music articles each week
- Read special features such as album reviews, interviews, new album release dates, top quotes of the week and other special reports
- Watch and rate music videos
- Listen to select music audio clips
- Comment on news stories and music videos
- Submit news stories that they see/hear of elsewhere
- Suggest new music artists to add to the site
- View articles by music artist or by genre (current genres include Rock, Pop, Rap, R&B, Country, and Electronic)
- Create a user profile that includes their favorite music artists, Shoutmouth friends, news stories submitted to Shoutmouth, and comments made. Members have the ability to find other members based on their favorite artists and via our search functions.
- Receive customized news and email alerts. Members can customize their “My News” page to include only artists they specify. Likewise, they can choose to receive email alerts whenever there is a new story on one of their favorite artists.
While establishing itself as the premier music news community, Shoutmouth will embark on the more aggressive goal of becoming the premier music community online . To accomplish this, Shoutmouth will begin to offer additional content (more videos, audio, pictures, lyrics, etc.) and additional functionality (music compatibility testing (e.g., if you like this, you’ll like this), voting capabilities, member-to-member messaging, etc.). We have already begun mapping out our content and technology growths plans to achieve this goal upon financing.
Importantly, Shoutmouth expects to be able to add massive amounts of relevant content (e.g., lyrics, reviews, pictures, video files, audio files, etc.) via member submissions and moderation. This is the same way that YouTube has been able to quickly add millions of videos and Wikipedia has been able to add millions of articles. Importantly, since established music websites (e.g., MTV, RollingStone.com, Billboard.com, etc.) are not community based, they would have to hire thousands of staff members to rival the content that Shoutmouth will have.
How We Get and Publish Our News
Currently, news stories that appear on Shoutmouth are gathered from numerous online sources. Shoutmouth’s staff writers find these stories by using RSS and News feeds that cover thousands of websites. In addition, Shoutmouth community members have the ability to submit stories they find elsewhere.
Typical stories include factual information plus the insight of the author. Shoutmouth editors ensure that all stories are properly classified by artist and genre, and that duplicate articles are filtered out.
Over the past three months, Shoutmouth has developed a solid infrastructure, which we consider a core competitive advantage, that that allows us to provide comprehensive music news . This infrastructure includes:
- Setting up hundreds of RSS feeds based on comprehensive research regarding sites from which to receive feeds
- Training our editorial team regarding identifying a story and weeding out duplicates
- Assigning music artists among our five-person editorial team to better manage work flow and avoid duplicate articles
We are working on a system to ensure that member-submitted articles are automatically routed to the appropriate member of Shoutmouth’s editorial team to improve our efficiencies further.
Shoutmouth’s Goal to Break News First
The majority (approximately 90%) of Shoutmouth’s articles are currently developed by our in-house editorial team, while the balance is submitted by members. In addition, virtually all of our articles are based on information gleaned from other websites. As such, we are generally not the first to publish news; however we are the first and only site to publish all the news in one easily-accessible place. The one current exception is news which is published on bands’ official MySpace pages; Shoutmouth generally publishes articles on this news 24 to 48 hours before it is reported by other news or music sites (due to our efficiencies in finding news).
Shoutmouth realizes that it will gain a key competitive advantage, and will generate significant market buzz, if it is able to report on music news stories before other media sources . To accomplish this, we have begun contacting publicity departments at record labels to gain direct access to music news. We expect these contacts to enable us to gain immediate and sometimes exclusive access to news which will help further establish Shoutmouth as the canonical source for music news. We also plan to more aggressively solicit member submissions of new, buzzworthy news events and will consider offering rewards for unique substantiated news (much the way paparazzi are compensated).
III. Competition in the Online Music Market
This section of the business plan provides a competitive analysis, which is an overview of the competitive landscape, discusses both indirect and direct competitors and then details Shoutmouth’s competitive advantages.
Because consumer demand for music on the Internet is so great, there are a vast number of music websites. In summary, we consider most sectors of the online music market (which are discussed below) to be indirect competitors and potentially partners, rather than direct competitors, because none of them focus on music news.
The reason we believe that no one focuses on music news is that it is very difficult to do. Because news is very important to music fans, most music websites offer news. However, they primarily get their news from organizations such as CNN, Reuters, the Associated Press and BBC. These large organizations only write about the music stories that have mass appeal, which traditionally amounts to 8-10 music news stories per day. However, since music fans are often zealots when it comes to their favorite artists, they are not merely interested in cover stories. For instance, a U2 fan cares about any U2 news, particularly news that a non-U2 fan might consider insignificant.
In fact, because Shoutmouth is the sole one-stop shop for getting comprehensive music news, there might be an opportunity to license our content to other music websites.
Sectors of the Online Music Market
Shoutmouth specifically comPs in the community-based music news market. While players in this market represent direct competitors, Shoutmouth faces indirect competitors in the following markets:
- Community-Based Sites
- Community-Based News Sites
- Community-Based Music Sites
- Traditional Music Websites
- Official Artist and Fan Sites
Each of these markets is described below.
A. Community-Based Sites
Community-based sites, also known as social networking sites, are websites in which members can create profiles, leave comments throughout the site, and communicate with other members among other features.
A June 2006 report by Piper Jaffray entitled “Silk Road: Social Networking is Here to Stay” effectively sums up the power and longevity of social networking:
“We believe social networking sites have become a permanent part of the fabric of web applications and are rapidly becoming one of the most popular activities online, potentially impacting how other popular services such as email, IM, and maybe even search are accessed.
As a clear indication of the growth rate and scale of social networking, consider this: MySpace monthly page views have now surpassed MSN or AOL in the U.S. and are nearly 75% of the size of Yahoo!. Social networking has filled a gap that was left by all the existing portals and web services and it is fulfilling a very important and basic function for millions of users: allowing them to express themselves and connect with their friends, with the two functions tightly integrated.
The leading sites such as MySpace (News Corp), Facebook, and others are amassing significant power in the new landscape of the Internet and the existing Internet companies are likely to have to work with these newcomers as they may yield material control on the flow of traffic to other applications.”
Social networking sites such as MySpace.com, Facebook.com, Tagged.com, and TagWorld.com have educated consumers regarding the value of these sites and how to use them. Their success has spurred genre-specific social networks such as community-based/social networking news sites and music sites, which are discussed below.
Shoutmouth doesn’t view established social networking sites as competitors since these sites have a general focus. That is, members talk about all aspects of life, from dating to music to movies, etc. Conversely, Shoutmouth is solely focused on music.
B. Community-Based News Sites
Community-based news sites are sites in which members decide what’s newsworthy and what’s not. For instance, on Digg.com, the most prominent community-based news site, members “Digg” stories that they feel are most newsworthy. The stories that the community feels are most important rise to Digg’s homepage, while less important stories get little attention.
Digg’s one million members can submit stories, “digg” stories, and comment on stories. Digg focuses on general news with a slant towards technology, gaming and unique/sensational news. While Digg does have a Music area within its Entertainment section, this receives little focus. In fact, at the time of the writing of this plan, Digg’s music home page only includes one article submitted within the past 48 hours. Furthermore, Digg doesn’t pare down the music category into sub-categories such as Rock and individual music artists. Conversely, these sub-categories are the entire focus of Shoutmouth.
Other sites that are similar to Digg include Newsvine.com, Spotback.com and Gabbr.com. Of most relevance is the Digg-like site for music, Noisetap.com, which was launched by Ticketmaster in January 2007.
Like Digg, Noisetap.com allows members to submit and vote for music stories. Noisetap.com is organized by music genre and not by music artist. This most likely will not satisfy the needs of many music fans since they don’t have the ability to find news on the specific artists they care most about. Likewise, without a full-time staff actively researching and publishing news stories at the artist-level, Noisetap.com will never be able to offer the comprehensive news that Shoutmouth does.
While Shoutmouth is currently similar to community-based news sites in that members can submit stories and comment on the news they find most interesting, no established player in the market provides a comprehensive focus on music. In addition, Shoutmouth sees these sites as marketing partners as we have and will continue to submit our stories on them to increase our readership.
C. Community-Based Music Sites
There are many community-based music websites, although none focuses on music news such as Shoutmouth. Conversely, these sites generally give members the ability to create and listen to song play lists. The community acts to help individual members find new music and new friends based on similarities in their music tastes. Prominent sites in this genre include Last.fm, Finetune, Pandora, RadioBlogClub, MyStrands, iLike[1] and iJigg.
Last.fm is the most prominent community-based music site and is a good model with which to compare Shoutmouth. Likewise, we will benchmark our performance against Last.fm as we reach of goal of becoming the premier music news community and focus on becoming the premier music community.
According to Alexa, Last.fm is the 359th most visited site on the Internet. While Last.fm focuses on allowing members to create customized Internet stations based on their music tastes, the site has much additional content and social networking features. For instance, for each artist, Last.fm includes pictures, a bio, concert dates, discography, fans on Last.fm, and similar artists. Fans are also able to create journals and communicate with other fans. Key features that Last.fm doesn’t currently focus on include news and video.
D. Traditional Music Websites
Traditional music websites such as MTV.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard.com, NME.com, AOL Music, and Yahoo! Music tend to have many features such as news, reviews, pictures, videos and audio. While these sites are generally very well done and extremely popular, they are under-serving visitors in two core areas: music news and community .
These sites’ lack of music news stems from the difficulty in creating this news, specifically that it requires filtering through thousands of articles and websites to find relevant stories. Likewise, as discussed, these firms might wish to license our news content in the future.
Regarding community , none of the top music sites are thriving communities. Rather, either these sites offer no community features or they recently began offering select features (e.g., submitting reviews or commenting on articles). Even when available, the community features on these sites are afterthoughts and are not engrained within the core fabric of the sites.
While they haven’t been able to transform their current sites into communities, top music websites clearly understand the power of online music communities and have an appetite for them. For example, in January 2007, MTV invested in social networking website TagWorld. MTV also acquired RateMyProfessors.com and Quizilla.com (teen social network) in January 2007 and October 2006 respectively.
As mentioned previously, our vision is to build and incorporate additional technologies, and use our “army” of members to publish vast amounts of music content on Shoutmouth, in order to fully satisfy music fans and leapfrog traditional music sites in terms of their music content.
E. Official Artist and Fan Sites
Shoutmouth com’s with official music artist websites and fan websites. These sites often include news about the specific artist as well as pictures, videos and other relevant information.
On one hand, official music artist and fan websites are direct competitors to Shoutmouth. This is because some of these sites offer comprehensive news on the specific artist they cover. In addition, many offer forums, discussion boards or other ways to communicate with other fans.
However, two factors separate Shoutmouth from these types of sites: 1) breadth and 2) sophistication.
- Breadth : Most music fans love more than one artist. As such, in order to get the news they want, they would have to visit/join multiple fan or artist websites rather than getting all of their news from Shoutmouth.
- Sophistication : While some official music artist websites are technologically sophisticated, offering forums, networking and other worthwhile features, the majority of artist and fan websites have limited usability, functionality and networking ability. In fact, this deficiency has lead to the success of MusicToday, which provides front and back-end technology to power artist websites.
Specifically, MusicToday offers web design and hosting, develops sophisticated online stores, builds online fan clubs and offers web ticketing among other services to select top music artists such as Dave Matthews Band, Christina Aguilera, Kenny Chesney, Britney Spears and Usher. While offering sophisticated tools for select music artist websites, MusicToday offers little to no music news nor advanced social networking functions. For instance, the official Dave Matthews Band website offers less than one news story per month.
F. Direct Competitors: Community-Based Music News Sites
Shoutmouth’s direct competitors are other music news websites that have social or community features that allow users to join the site, submit articles, comment on articles, create public profiles and/or communicate with other members. Shoutmouth has identified one significant player who offers this service, AbsolutePunk.net.
AbsolutePunk.net has done a good job of building a user base (the site claims 125,000+ registered members and nearly 500,000 un-registered members). In addition, the user base is very active — the average story on their site receives approximately 20 comments. AbsolutePunk.net offers music news, reviews, pictures and interviews among other features.
On the negative side, AbsolutePunk.net’s articles are generally posted by one staff writer (as opposed to Shoutmouth’s five writers), most articles are simply one sentence posts rather than full articles, and no attempt seems to have been made to cover all news stories. In addition, the site only covers the punk music genre. Although “punk” is broadly defined on the site, the site doesn’t cater to genres such as R&B, rap and country among others, failing to satisfy the broader market.
AbsolutePunk.net is owned by Indieclick, a Los Angeles-based media company. According to the AbsolutePunk.net website, the site:
- Has developed a loyal (72% return rate) reader base
- 5,182,147 Posts
- 163,535 Threads
- 126,448 Members
- 1,711 Artist Profiles
- 20,774 Multimedia Files
- Approx 76,000 visits per day.
- Approx 276,000 pageviews per day.
Shoutmouth’s Competitive Advantage
In addition to being the first to fill the untapped market void for comprehensive music news, Shoutmouth’s competitive advantage in the market primarily includes the following:
Online Marketing Sophistication
Content Development Experience and Expertise
Shoutmouth’s team, primarily team members DL and PF, has operated an affiliate marketing business focusing on music for the past four years. Affiliate marketing is defined as a system of revenue sharing between one site (the affiliate) which features an ad or content designed to drive traffic to another site (the merchant). The affiliate receives a fee based on traffic to the merchant which converts to sales.
Our affiliate business has focused on connecting music fans, primarily aged 13 to 30, with music offers such as iPods and ringtones. Over the past two years, we have successful sold affiliated offers to over 500,000 customers. We have become a significant online advertiser, receiving Google’s “over 1 million leads” award, and are recognized as a major player among the top affiliate networks.
It is important to note that affiliate marketing success has been credited with part of MySpace’s success. This is because effective affiliate marketers understand how to drive and convert on Internet traffic.
Shoutmouth will employ its affiliate marketing techniques to drive traffic to Shoutmouth.com and enroll members. We will utilize technologies and proprietary techniques that allow us to monitor multiple metrics such as the cost per visitor, cost per member sign-up, etc., so that we can set and maintain profitable metrics.
Another venture that Shoutmouth team members, primarily PK and DL, launched was the development of over 3,000 niche websites. To create the content for these websites, we employed a virtual work force of over 90 researchers in India and 30 writers and editors in the US.
This experience taught us how to manage a large workforce, train writers to improve content quality and motivate a large group of people. These skill sets will be critical in allowing Shoutmouth to grow the content of the site, as developed by both staff and members, while maintaining quality standards.
IV. Marketing Plan
Shoutmouth’s marketing plan includes the following:
Online Advertising : Shoutmouth will initiate pay-per-click advertising campaigns on Google and Yahoo! in order to inexpensively drive traffic to the site. Specifically, Shoutmouth believes it can drive qualified traffic to the site for 20 cents per visitor and achieve a 20% member conversion rate, thus generating members at a cost of $1.00 per member.
Keys to Shoutmouth’s success in achieving this metric include:
- Conducting thorough keyword research and advertising on appropriate keywords and keyword groups
- Creating advertising text that maximizes click through rates
- Creating landing pages that maximize conversions while maintaining the highest Google AdWords quality score possible
- Closely monitoring conversions to quickly stop and/or modify unprofitable campaigns
- Getting individuals to enter their email address to join the newsletter is much easier than getting them to join a site where they have to create a username, select a password, etc. As such, step one will be to get visitors to sign up for artist-specific newsletters.
- Once on the newsletter distribution list, members will constantly receive messages (embedded in their daily newsletter) regarding the benefits of participating more on Shoutmouth.
- Active Shoutmouth Membership: the constant reminders regarding Shoutmouth’s value proposition in the daily newsletters will influence members to participate more actively on the site (e.g., customize their profile, visit the site more often, etc.).
Invite-A-Friend : Shoutmouth is in the process of creating an aggressive invite-a-friend/member referral program. In doing so, we are following the lead of social movie community, Flixster, which grew to 5 million members within 10 months. It did this by encouraging members, during their initial registration process, to upload and send an invitation to multiple contacts in their email address books. The technology to develop this process is fairly complex and we expect to be completed with and to rollout this program in June 2007.
Direct Email Marketing : Shoutmouth will directly contact bloggers and prominent music fans we find online to tell them about Shoutmouth, encourage them to join, and encourage them to write about Shoutmouth on their blogs and online journals .
Creating/Distributing Buzzworthy/Viral Content : Shoutmouth plans to have several buzzworthy/viral articles (i.e., content that people would want to email to their friends since it is funny, interesting, etc.) on the site each day. With a single click, visitors will be able to send these articles to social bookmarking sites such as Digg.com or Fark.com, where these articles could receive widespread attention. In addition to our traditional news stories, Shoutmouth will also periodically create special reports/features in order to satisfy our members and visitors and to try to get widespread exposure.
An example of the power of such buzzworthy content, Shoutmouth has already succeeded in having two stories accepted by Fark and Digg, which have brought in over 50,000 unique visitors.
Super Fans/Street Team Development : Shoutmouth also plans to recruit “super fans.” Super fans are individuals who are passionate about a certain music artist/band and actively contribute articles and/or comments on Shoutmouth. We will recruit these fans, reward them with status (e.g., adding a gold Shoutmouth headphones image to their profile page) and encourage them to more aggressively promote the site by:
- Submitting more news to Shoutmouth
- Commenting on more articles on Shoutmouth
- Growing the Shoutmouth community around their favorite artist(s) by actively recruiting new members to join the site (such as actively posting Shoutmouth-related comments on their MySpace pages, on other music forums, etc.)
Public Relations : Upon financing, Shoutmouth will hire a public relations firm to help us get mentions in media sources ranging from magazines, newspapers, radio, television and blogs. To date, we have developed and issued press releases via Billboard Publicity Wire which have been syndicated throughout the web. An effective PR firm will enable Shoutmouth to quickly reach a wide audience.
Widgets : Shoutmouth will create artist-specific and genre-specific music news widgets. For example, our U2 widget (see example on right) would include all of the recent U2 articles published on Shoutmouth. The widget can easily be placed on MySpace pages, blogs, etc. Each story title in the widget links to the full article on Shoutmouth.
Shoutmouth has great expectations for our widget. To begin, no such widget currently exists as there is no one place to get comprehensive news for specific music artists. Secondly, each time someone places a Shoutmouth widget on their blog or social networking page, it will effectively market Shoutmouth to a wide audience at zero cost to us.
V. Technology/Site Development Plan
This section provides a brief roadmap of the initial and future functionality of Shoutmouth.
Initial Site Functionality
The initial Shoutmouth website will include the following features:
- Ability to submit and comment on news stories
- Ability to suggest new music artists to add to the site
- Ability to create user profiles
- Ability to receive customized news and email alerts
- Articles categorized by artist and core genre (e.g., Rock, Rap, Pop, etc.)
- Music artist sections which includes News, Bio and Fans
Future Site Functionality
Shoutmouth will use news and basic functionality as the platform though which we will build a thriving music community. After initial launch, the Shoutmouth technology team will work on incorporating additional features such as:
- Ability to message other members via the site (e.g., members will have an Inbox on the site)
- Event calendars: members will receive online calendars. With the click of a button, the member will be able to add tour dates of their favorite artists/bands to their calendar.
- Articles also categorized by sub-genre (e.g., Alternative Rock, West Coast Rap, etc.)
- Music artist sections to also include videos, audio files, photo galleries, reviews and event calendars to which members can upload files and vote on top content.
- Forums and member blogs
- Music compatibility testing (suggestions on song/artists members might like)
- Trivia quizzes
- Music playlists
VI. Financial Plan
Revenue Model
During the first six months, Shoutmouth will not generate any revenues as it will not sell advertising space nor offer products for sale. This decision has been made to spur the growth of the Shoutmouth community. By initially positioning Shoutmouth more as a non-profit, for-the-people-by-the-people venture, members will be more prone to promote the site and invite their friends than if the site looks too commercial.
Starting in September 2007, Shoutmouth will primarily generate revenues from selling advertising space. As technologies (such as the Snocap music widget) evolve that allow us to seamlessly integrate music sampling and purchasing on our site, sales of downloadable music are also expected to be a significant revenue source. To a lesser extent, we may sell other music-related items such as ringtones, concert tickets, and apparel.
Funding To Date
To date, Shoutmouth’s founders have invested $500,000 in Shoutmouth, with which we have accomplished the following:
- Built the site’s core technology
- Hired and trained our core staff (we currently maintain an 11-person full-time team)
- Populated the website with content (over 10,000 articles and 1,200 artist bios)
- Generated brand awareness among music fans, including driving 50,000 unique visitors in March, 100,000 unique visitors in April, and 200,000 unique visitors in May 2007.
Funding Requirements/Use of Funds
Shoutmouth is currently seeking $3 million to provide funding for the next 24 months. At this point, the site will be profitable and can grow organically, or additional capital may be sought to more aggressively expand our member base.
The capital will be used as follows:
- Execution of Marketing plan : in order for Shoutmouth to grow its visitor and member base, we need to invest dollars in online advertising and public relations. With regards to online advertising, we are confident that we can enroll members at a cost of $1 per member, which is a fraction of the value of the members to an acquirer (minimum $25 per member), thus providing a significant return on our marketing investments.
- Execution of Technology plan : in order to build a thriving community, Shoutmouth needs to offer its visitors a “stickier” website and enhanced features. We currently maintain a vast “wish list” of features, such as members uploading and rating pictures and videos, trivia quizzes, and member-to-member messaging, that will significantly improve the site’s functionality and value proposition.
- Staffing : In order to reach our goals, we will have to hire additional technical and operations personnel.
Financial Projections
Below is an overview of Shoutmouth’s Financial Projections for the next three years. Please see the Appendix for the full financial projections and key assumptions.
Exit Strategy / Valuation Metric
Shoutmouth’s most likely exit strategy is to be acquired by a traditional music website or property (e.g., Viacom/MTV, Ticketmaster, Rolling Stone), an entertainment/media conglomerate (e.g., Yahoo!, IAC/InterActiveCorp, NBC), or a large social networking site (e.g., News Corp/MySpace).
This strategy is supported by the significant M&A activity in the social networking market, which includes the following transactions over the past 24 months:
Del.icio.us | social bookmarking | 12/05 | $30-$35 million | Yahoo! |
eCrush Inc. | teen social network | 01/07 | Undisclosed | Hearst Magazines Digital Media |
FanNation | sports social networking | 01/07 | $20+ million | Sports Illustrated |
Five Across Inc. | social networking | 02/07 | Undisclosed | Cisco Systems Inc. |
Flickr | photo uploading and sharing community | 03/05 | $15-35 million (rumored) | Yahoo! |
Grouper | video creating, uploading and sharing community | 08/06 | $65 million | Sony Pictures |
Jumpcut | video creating, uploading and sharing community | 09/06 | $15 million (rumored) | Yahoo! |
KiwiBox.com | teen social network | 02/07 | Undisclosed | Magnitude Information Systems, Inc. |
MyBlogLog | blog community tool | 01/07 | $10 million (rumored) | Yahoo! |
MySpace | social networking | 07/05 | $580 million | News Corp. |
Quizilla.com | teen social network | 10/06 | Undisclosed | Viacom/MTV Networks |
RateMyProfessors.com | community focused on rating college professors | 01/07 | Undisclosed | Viacom/MTV Networks |
social news site | 10/06 | Undisclosed | Conde Nast/ Wired Digital | |
Sconex.com | social network for high school students | 03/06 | $6.1 million | Alloy Inc. |
TelevisionWithoutPity.com | TV fan site | 03/07 | Undisclosed | Bravo |
Weblogs Inc. | blogging network | 10/05 | $25 million (rumored) | AOL |
YouTube | video community | 10/06 | $1.65 billion | Google Inc. |
Regarding valuation, below are the estimated valuations of social networking companies on a per member basis upon exit:
- Del.icio.us: $50 – $100 per member
- MySpace: $25 per member
- Xing (business social network): $137 per member at IPO in 10/06
- Flickr: $56 – $130 per member
- Grouper: $130 per member
Based on this data, not only are social networking sites a promising investment, but sites that can acquire members for less than $25 each (a conservative valuation estimate based on the figures above), should earn a solid return on investment. As discussed above, Shoutmouth’s goal is to acquire members for no more than $1 each.
In addition, per the membership projections above, Shoutmouth’s valuation at the end of 2009, at a $25 valuation per member, is expected to be $239 million. A more conservative, using a 24.4 time EBITDA multiple (the average multiple of tech M&A deals in 2006 according to The M&A Advisor), yields a $121 million valuation in 2009.
Shoutmouth’s founding team includes entrepreneurs and managers with a track record of success and a history of successfully working together.
Management Team
DL, Co-Founder and CEO
D has a history of successfully launching and growing businesses of all sizes. As president and co-founder of an entrepreneurial services firm., D has personally assisted in the launch and development of over 100 ventures.
Over the past three years, D founded and has managed The Kisco Group which includes an affiliate marketing division (2006 revenues exceeded $3 million), a search engine optimization business which includes a network of 3,000 websites (2006 revenues exceeded $500,000) and an e-commerce business (which includes TopPayingKeywords.com and ShowerHeadsEtc.com).
D earned his Bachelors degree from the University of South Carolina.
PK, Co-Founder and Vice President of Operations
For the past two years, P has managed The Kisco Group’s search engine optimization business where he hired, trained and managed nearly 100 employees and a dozen outside firms. During this time, P has honed his management skills with regards to content development, marketing and operations.
P has had a passion for music since childhood and has been a semi-professional drummer for the past 15 years.
P earned his Bachelors of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Clemson University.
PF, Co-Founder and Vice President of Technology
For the past year, P has managed The Kisco Group’s affiliate marketing business. In addition to setting up and managing widespread marketing campaigns, P has developed sophisticated analytic techniques to precisely analyze web traffic in order to optimize profitability.
Since August 2006, P has shifted his efforts and leveraged his technology skills in developing the Shoutmouth website. P has been instrumental in selecting the Content Management Platform upon which Shoutmouth is built, and finding and managing the technology team.
P earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College.
AB, Marketing Manager
A’s background in music includes being a singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer. He has also worked on the marketing side of music, having marketed Veritas Records through the development and distribution of promotional materials.
A’s career also includes psychological research and administration, having served as a Research Assistant with the Interpersonal Perception And Communication Laboratory in Cambridge, MA.
A earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Ohio State University.
M, Lead Technology Developer
M is an experienced web programmer with expertise in web design, application development and database development among others.
M’s work experience includes serving as a Senior Developer at Spheres. M has also engaged in multiple, long term freelance projects including serving as a Database Developer Consultant with The Penn Group and a Web Developer Consultant with Volution Media Group and Allied Online Consulting Group.
M earned his Bachelors degree in Computer Science with a minor in Cognitive Science from Rutgers University.
Content Development Team
Shoutmouth’s writing team, managed by PK, includes the following members:
- JS, Editorial Manager: former content manager and copywriter for Scholastic Inc. and Promotions.com.
- TZ: former music intern (Virgin Records and WRRV) and author of the blog, The Tom Z Show .
- ML: former assistant editor for Adventure Publishing; author of the blog Certified Gangsta ; and former editor-in-chief of Fordham University’s newspaper The Paper .
- SB: former staff writer for Paste Magazine , The Clarion Ledger , and Nightclub and Bar Magazine among others.
- CSJ: former editorial intern for Rolling Stone and Editorial Assistant for Psychology Today .
Outsourced Technology Team
Shoutmouth works very closely with 2skies, a technology firm based in Australia with staff in Australia and the United States. 2skies is run by JDN, one of the co-founding developers of XE, the platform upon which Shoutmouth is built.
XE is an extensible, Open Source web application framework written in PHP and licensed under the GNU General Public License. XE delivers the requisite infrastructure and tools to create custom web applications that include fully dynamic multi-platform Content Management Solutions (CMS).
VIII. Appendix: Shoutmouth Financial Projections 3-Year Income Statement
Total Page Views (MILLIONS) | |||
Revenues | $165,431 | $2,461,127 | $7,810,354 |
Staffing | $891,058 | $1,328,078 | $1,522,923 |
Outsourced Technology | $115,000 | $60,000 | $60,000 |
Office Space | $26,400 | $90,000 | $90,000 |
Advertising | $254,000 | $900,000 | $900,000 |
Other Marketing/Public Relations | $72,000 | $120,000 | $150,000 |
Web Hosting | $11,500 | $33,900 | $55,500 |
Other | $38,000 | $60,000 | $60,000 |
$1,407,958 | $2,591,978 | $2,838,423 | |
($1,242,527) | ($130,851) | $4,971,931 | |
Depreciation | $1,600 | $4,200 | $5,800 |
($1,244,127) | ($135,051) | $4,966,131 | |
Income Taxes @ (40%) | ($497,651) | ($54,020) | $1,986,452 |
Income Taxes Paid | $0 | $0 | $1,434,781 |
Income Tax Credit | ($497,651) | ($551,671) | $0 |
($1,244,127) | ($135,051) | $3,531,350 |
3-Year Balance Sheet
As of December 31
Cash | $1,845,206 | $1,614,336 | $4,726,360 |
Accounts Receivable (30 days) | $13,597 | $202,284 | $641,947 |
Inventory | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Current Assets | $1,858,803 | $1,816,620 | $5,368,307 |
Other Assets | |||
Equipment (Computer systems, office equipment, etc.) | $16,000 | $26,000 | $32,000 |
Accumulated Depreciation | ($1,600) | ($5,800) | ($11,600) |
Total Long-Term Assets | $14,400 | $20,200 | $20,400 |
$1,873,203 | $1,836,820 | $5,388,707 | |
Accounts Payable (30 days) | $117,330 | $215,998 | $236,535 |
Total Current Liabilities | $117,330 | $215,998 | $236,535 |
Long Term Debt | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Paid In Capital | $3,000,000 | $3,000,000 | $3,000,000 |
Retained Earnings | ($1,244,127) | ($1,379,178) | $2,152,172 |
Total Equity | $1,755,873 | $1,620,822 | $5,152,172 |
$1,873,203 | $1,836,820 | $5,388,707 |
3-Year Cash Flow Statement
Net Income/Loss | ($1,244,127) | ($135,051) | $3,531,350 |
Depreciation | $1,600 | $4,200 | $5,800 |
Minus Increase in Accounts Receivable | ($13,597) | ($188,687) | ($439,663) |
Plus Change in Current Liabilities | $117,330 | $98,668 | $20,537 |
Net Cash Flow from Operating | ($1,138,794) | ($220,870) | $3,118,024 |
Purchases of Property & Equipment | ($16,000) | ($10,000) | ($6,000) |
Net Cash Flow from Investing | ($16,000) | ($10,000) | ($6,000) |
Cash Received from Investors | $3,000,000 | $0 | $0 |
Net Cash Flow from Financing | $3,000,000 | $0 | $0 |
$1,845,206 | ($230,870) | $3,112,024 | |
$1,845,206 | $1,614,336 | $4,726,360 |
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How To Start A Business In 11 Steps (2024 Guide)
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Updated: Apr 7, 2024, 1:44pm
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Table of Contents
Before you begin: get in the right mindset, 1. determine your business concept, 2. research your competitors and market, 3. create your business plan, 4. choose your business structure, 5. register your business and get licenses, 6. get your finances in order, 7. fund your business, 8. apply for business insurance, 9. get the right business tools, 10. market your business, 11. scale your business, what are the best states to start a business, bottom line, frequently asked questions (faqs).
Starting a business is one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences you can have. But where do you begin? There are several ways to approach creating a business, along with many important considerations. To help take the guesswork out of the process and improve your chances of success, follow our comprehensive guide on how to start a business. We’ll walk you through each step of the process, from defining your business idea to registering, launching and growing your business .
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The public often hears about overnight successes because they make for a great headline. However, it’s rarely that simple—they don’t see the years of dreaming, building and positioning before a big public launch. For this reason, remember to focus on your business journey and don’t measure your success against someone else’s.
Consistency Is Key
New business owners tend to feed off their motivation initially but get frustrated when that motivation wanes. This is why it’s essential to create habits and follow routines that power you through when motivation goes away.
Take the Next Step
Some business owners dive in headfirst without looking and make things up as they go along. Then, there are business owners who stay stuck in analysis paralysis and never start. Perhaps you’re a mixture of the two—and that’s right where you need to be. The best way to accomplish any business or personal goal is to write out every possible step it takes to achieve the goal. Then, order those steps by what needs to happen first. Some steps may take minutes while others take a long time. The point is to always take the next step.
Most business advice tells you to monetize what you love, but it misses two other very important elements: it needs to be profitable and something you’re good at. For example, you may love music, but how viable is your business idea if you’re not a great singer or songwriter? Maybe you love making soap and want to open a soap shop in your small town that already has three close by—it won’t be easy to corner the market when you’re creating the same product as other nearby stores.
If you don’t have a firm idea of what your business will entail, ask yourself the following questions:
- What do you love to do?
- What do you hate to do?
- Can you think of something that would make those things easier?
- What are you good at?
- What do others come to you for advice about?
- If you were given ten minutes to give a five-minute speech on any topic, what would it be?
- What’s something you’ve always wanted to do, but lacked resources for?
These questions can lead you to an idea for your business. If you already have an idea, they might help you expand it. Once you have your idea, measure it against whether you’re good at it and if it’s profitable.
Your business idea also doesn’t have to be the next Scrub Daddy or Squatty Potty. Instead, you can take an existing product and improve upon it. You can also sell a digital product so there’s little overhead.
What Kind of Business Should You Start?
Before you choose the type of business to start, there are some key things to consider:
- What type of funding do you have?
- How much time do you have to invest in your business?
- Do you prefer to work from home or at an office or workshop?
- What interests and passions do you have?
- Can you sell information (such as a course), rather than a product?
- What skills or expertise do you have?
- How fast do you need to scale your business?
- What kind of support do you have to start your business?
- Are you partnering with someone else?
- Does the franchise model make more sense to you?
Consider Popular Business Ideas
Not sure what business to start? Consider one of these popular business ideas:
- Start a Franchise
- Start a Blog
- Start an Online Store
- Start a Dropshipping Business
- Start a Cleaning Business
- Start a Bookkeeping Business
- Start a Clothing Business
- Start a Landscaping Business
- Start a Consulting Business
- Start a Photography Business
- Start a Vending Machine Business
Most entrepreneurs spend more time on their products than they do getting to know the competition. If you ever apply for outside funding, the potential lender or partner wants to know: what sets you (or your business idea) apart? If market analysis indicates your product or service is saturated in your area, see if you can think of a different approach. Take housekeeping, for example—rather than general cleaning services, you might specialize in homes with pets or focus on garage cleanups.
Primary Research
The first stage of any competition study is primary research, which entails obtaining data directly from potential customers rather than basing your conclusions on past data. You can use questionnaires, surveys and interviews to learn what consumers want. Surveying friends and family isn’t recommended unless they’re your target market. People who say they’d buy something and people who do are very different. The last thing you want is to take so much stock in what they say, create the product and flop when you try to sell it because all of the people who said they’d buy it don’t because the product isn’t something they’d buy.
Secondary Research
Utilize existing sources of information, such as census data, to gather information when you do secondary research. The current data may be studied, compiled and analyzed in various ways that are appropriate for your needs but it may not be as detailed as primary research.
Conduct a SWOT Analysis
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Conducting a SWOT analysis allows you to look at the facts about how your product or idea might perform if taken to market, and it can also help you make decisions about the direction of your idea. Your business idea might have some weaknesses that you hadn’t considered or there may be some opportunities to improve on a competitor’s product.
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Asking pertinent questions during a SWOT analysis can help you identify and address weaknesses before they tank your new business.
A business plan is a dynamic document that serves as a roadmap for establishing a new business. This document makes it simple for potential investors, financial institutions and company management to understand and absorb. Even if you intend to self-finance, a business plan can help you flesh out your idea and spot potential problems. When writing a well-rounded business plan, include the following sections:
- Executive summary: The executive summary should be the first item in the business plan, but it should be written last. It describes the proposed new business and highlights the goals of the company and the methods to achieve them.
- Company description: The company description covers what problems your product or service solves and why your business or idea is best. For example, maybe your background is in molecular engineering, and you’ve used that background to create a new type of athletic wear—you have the proper credentials to make the best material.
- Market analysis: This section of the business plan analyzes how well a company is positioned against its competitors. The market analysis should include target market, segmentation analysis, market size, growth rate, trends and a competitive environment assessment.
- Organization and structure: Write about the type of business organization you expect, what risk management strategies you propose and who will staff the management team. What are their qualifications? Will your business be a single-member limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation ?
- Mission and goals: This section should contain a brief mission statement and detail what the business wishes to accomplish and the steps to get there. These goals should be SMART (specific, measurable, action-orientated, realistic and time-bound).
- Products or services: This section describes how your business will operate. It includes what products you’ll offer to consumers at the beginning of the business, how they compare to existing competitors, how much your products cost, who will be responsible for creating the products, how you’ll source materials and how much they cost to make.
- Background summary: This portion of the business plan is the most time-consuming to write. Compile and summarize any data, articles and research studies on trends that could positively and negatively affect your business or industry.
- Marketing plan: The marketing plan identifies the characteristics of your product or service, summarizes the SWOT analysis and analyzes competitors. It also discusses how you’ll promote your business, how much money will be spent on marketing and how long the campaign is expected to last.
- Financial plan: The financial plan is perhaps the core of the business plan because, without money, the business will not move forward. Include a proposed budget in your financial plan along with projected financial statements, such as an income statement, a balance sheet and a statement of cash flows. Usually, five years of projected financial statements are acceptable. This section is also where you should include your funding request if you’re looking for outside funding.
Learn more: Download our free simple business plan template .
Come Up With an Exit Strategy
An exit strategy is important for any business that is seeking funding because it outlines how you’ll sell the company or transfer ownership if you decide to retire or move on to other projects. An exit strategy also allows you to get the most value out of your business when it’s time to sell. There are a few different options for exiting a business, and the best option for you depends on your goals and circumstances.
The most common exit strategies are:
- Selling the business to another party
- Passing the business down to family members
- Liquidating the business assets
- Closing the doors and walking away
Develop a Scalable Business Model
As your small business grows, it’s important to have a scalable business model so that you can accommodate additional customers without incurring additional costs. A scalable business model is one that can be replicated easily to serve more customers without a significant increase in expenses.
Some common scalable business models are:
- Subscription-based businesses
- Businesses that sell digital products
- Franchise businesses
- Network marketing businesses
Start Planning for Taxes
One of the most important things to do when starting a small business is to start planning for taxes. Taxes can be complex, and there are several different types of taxes you may be liable for, including income tax, self-employment tax, sales tax and property tax. Depending on the type of business you’re operating, you may also be required to pay other taxes, such as payroll tax or unemployment tax.
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When structuring your business, it’s essential to consider how each structure impacts the amount of taxes you owe, daily operations and whether your personal assets are at risk.
An LLC limits your personal liability for business debts. LLCs can be owned by one or more people or companies and must include a registered agent . These owners are referred to as members.
- LLCs offer liability protection for the owners
- They’re one of the easiest business entities to set up
- You can have a single-member LLC
- You may be required to file additional paperwork with your state on a regular basis
- LLCs can’t issue stock
- You’ll need to pay annual filing fees to your state
Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)
An LLP is similar to an LLC but is typically used for licensed business professionals such as an attorney or accountant. These arrangements require a partnership agreement.
- Partners have limited liability for the debts and actions of the LLP
- LLPs are easy to form and don’t require much paperwork
- There’s no limit to the number of partners in an LLP
- Partners are required to actively take part in the business
- LLPs can’t issue stock
- All partners are personally liable for any malpractice claims against the business
Sole Proprietorship
If you start a solo business, you might consider a sole proprietorship . The company and the owner, for legal and tax purposes, are considered the same. The business owner assumes liability for the business. So, if the business fails, the owner is personally and financially responsible for all business debts.
- Sole proprietorships are easy to form
- There’s no need to file additional paperwork with your state
- You’re in complete control of the business
- You’re personally liable for all business debts
- It can be difficult to raise money for a sole proprietorship
- The business may have a limited lifespan
Corporation
A corporation limits your personal liability for business debts just as an LLC does. A corporation can be taxed as a C corporation (C-corp) or an S corporation (S-corp). S-corp status offers pass-through taxation to small corporations that meet certain IRS requirements. Larger companies and startups hoping to attract venture capital are usually taxed as C-corps.
- Corporations offer liability protection for the owners
- The life span of a corporation is not limited
- A corporation can have an unlimited number of shareholders
- Corporations are subject to double taxation
- They’re more expensive and complicated to set up than other business structures
- The shareholders may have limited liability
Before you decide on a business structure, discuss your situation with a small business accountant and possibly an attorney, as each business type has different tax treatments that could affect your bottom line.
Helpful Resources
- How To Set Up an LLC in 7 Steps
- How To Start a Sole Proprietorship
- How To Start a Corporation
- How To Start a Nonprofit
- How To Start a 501(c)(3)
There are several legal issues to address when starting a business after choosing the business structure. The following is a good checklist of items to consider when establishing your business:
Choose Your Business Name
Make it memorable but not too difficult. Choose the same domain name, if available, to establish your internet presence. A business name cannot be the same as another registered company in your state, nor can it infringe on another trademark or service mark that is already registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Business Name vs. DBA
There are business names, and then there are fictitious business names known as “Doing Business As” or DBA. You may need to file a DBA if you’re operating under a name that’s different from the legal name of your business. For example, “Mike’s Bike Shop” is doing business as “Mike’s Bikes.” The legal name of the business is “Mike’s Bike Shop,” and “Mike’s Bikes” is the DBA.
You may need to file a DBA with your state, county or city government offices. The benefits of a DBA include:
- It can help you open a business bank account under your business name
- A DBA can be used as a “trade name” to brand your products or services
- A DBA can be used to get a business license
Register Your Business and Obtain an EIN
You’ll officially create a corporation, LLC or other business entity by filing forms with your state’s business agency―usually the Secretary of State. As part of this process, you’ll need to choose a registered agent to accept legal documents on behalf of your business. You’ll also pay a filing fee. The state will send you a certificate that you can use to apply for licenses, a tax identification number (TIN) and business bank accounts.
Next, apply for an employer identification number (EIN) . All businesses, other than sole proprietorships with no employees, must have a federal employer identification number. Submit your application to the IRS and you’ll typically receive your number in minutes.
Get Appropriate Licenses and Permits
Legal requirements are determined by your industry and jurisdiction. Most businesses need a mixture of local, state and federal licenses to operate. Check with your local government office (and even an attorney) for licensing information tailored to your area.
- Best LLC Services
- How To Register a Business Name
- How To Register a DBA
- How To Get an EIN for an LLC
- How To Get a Business License
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Open a Business Bank Account
Keep your business and personal finances separate. Here’s how to choose a business checking account —and why separate business accounts are essential. When you open a business bank account, you’ll need to provide your business name and your business tax identification number (EIN). This business bank account can be used for your business transactions, such as paying suppliers or invoicing customers. Most times, a bank will require a separate business bank account to issue a business loan or line of credit.
Hire a Bookkeeper or Get Accounting Software
If you sell a product, you need an inventory function in your accounting software to manage and track inventory. The software should have ledger and journal entries and the ability to generate financial statements.
Some software programs double as bookkeeping tools. These often include features such as check writing and managing receivables and payables. You can also use this software to track your income and expenses, generate invoices, run reports and calculate taxes.
There are many bookkeeping services available that can do all of this for you, and more. These services can be accessed online from any computer or mobile device and often include features such as bank reconciliation and invoicing. Check out the best accounting software for small business, or see if you want to handle the bookkeeping yourself.
Determine Your Break-Even Point
Before you fund your business, you must get an idea of your startup costs. To determine these, make a list of all the physical supplies you need, estimate the cost of any professional services you will require, determine the price of any licenses or permits required to operate and calculate the cost of office space or other real estate. Add in the costs of payroll and benefits, if applicable.
Businesses can take years to turn a profit, so it’s better to overestimate the startup costs and have too much money than too little. Many experts recommend having enough cash on hand to cover six months of operating expenses.
When you know how much you need to get started with your business, you need to know the point at which your business makes money. This figure is your break-even point.
In contrast, the contribution margin = total sales revenue – cost to make product
For example, let’s say you’re starting a small business that sells miniature birdhouses for fairy gardens. You have determined that it will cost you $500 in startup costs. Your variable costs are $0.40 per birdhouse produced, and you sell them for $1.50 each.
Let’s write these out so it’s easy to follow:
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Lean Business Plan Template PDF. This scannable business plan template allows you to easily identify the most important elements of your plan. Use this template to outline key details pertaining to your business and industry, product or service offerings, target customer segments (and channels to reach them), and to identify sources of revenue.
Download Simple Small-Business Plan Template. Word | PDF. 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 ...
A complete business plan Unlike other blank templates, our business plan examples are complete business plans with all of the text and financial forecasts already filled out. Edit the text to make the plan your own and save hundreds of hours. A professional business plan template All 550 of our business plans are in the SBA-approved format that ...
This one page small business plan template is ideal for quick, simple presentations. Use this template to summarize your business overview, market analysis, marketing, and sales plan, key objectives and success metrics, and milestones timeline. Complete the fillable sections to educate investors and inform stakeholders.
Bonus Appendices section, if you want to get fancy. Detailed instructions for each section. Add new sections or delete unnecessary ones -- the template is your oyster. Make it yours with your logo and branding. Download it as a PDF or Word file. Print it, email it, send it by carrier pigeon if that's your jam.
Common items to include are credit histories, resumes, product pictures, letters of reference, licenses, permits, patents, legal documents, and other contracts. Example traditional business plans. Before you write your business plan, read the following example business plans written by fictional business owners.
To write a simple one-page business plan, follow the same core sections as a traditional plan. But instead of lengthy paragraphs and multiple pages covering each area of your business, stick with single sentences and bulleted lists. If a one-page plan sounds like a better option, download our free simple business plan template to get started.
Explore Template Collections. Kick start your business with our hand-curated collection of ready-to-use templates. A collection of professionally designed Business Plans templates available for PDF. Download, customize, and send in minutes.
Tips on Writing a Business Plan. 1. Be clear and concise: Keep your language simple and straightforward. Avoid jargon and overly technical terms. A clear and concise business plan is easier for investors and stakeholders to understand and demonstrates your ability to communicate effectively. 2.
Skip to start of list. 90 templates. Create a blank Simple Business Plan. Restaurant Business Plan in Terracotta Coral Peach Friendly Dynamic Style. Document by Canva Creative Studio. White and Blue Modern Business Plan Cover Page. Document by cavani team. Small Business Plan in Pink White Minimal Corporate Style.
Focus on the future and keep your company moving forward with Jotform's Strategic Plan Template. Simply fill in the attached form with your company overview, delve deeper with a SWOT analysis, and finish off by determining your strategic goals, actions, and financial plans. Our fully-customizable template converts submitted information into ...
The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea. The structure ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template.
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 ...
A business plan is a document that helps small business owners determine the viability of their business idea. Combining market research and financial analysis, a professional business plan helps startup CEOs and potential investors determine if the company can compete in the target market. Typically, a good business plan consists of the following:
simple small business plan template what do we do? how do we do it? who do we serve? define customer problem define solution provided pricing + billing strategies income streams customer reach strategy referral generation strategy top competitors our competitive advantage success milestone marker 1 success
company, having the right business plan is crucial. We are thrilled to present this Free Business Plan Template in a convenient PDF format, to help transform your entrepreneurial vision into a reality. Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, our business plan PDF download is designed to suit you.
Identifying Key Elements. Reading business plan examples of similar businesses can help you identify the key elements and information to include in your plan. You can keep note of these and ensure everything necessary for investors to consider is present in your final draft. 6. Crafting Financial Projections.
751 templates. Create a blank Business Plan. Beige Aesthetic Modern Business Plan A4 Document. Document by Rise & Roar Design. Green Professional Strategic Business Plan Executive Summary. Document by Antler. Startup Business Plan. Document by Maea Studio. Startup Business Plan in Cream Black and White Modern Sophisticated Style.
2.1 Business Details. Example Sandwich Co. High Street. Example Sandwich Co. Page 9 of 29 Town County UK1 1XX Telephone: 0191 2668877 Fax: 0191 2668878 Email: [email protected] Website: www.examplesandwichco.co.uk VAT Details: Not VAT Registered Legal Status: Sole Trader Financial Year Start Month: April.
1. What is a business plan? A business plan is a formal and comprehensive document that is prepared by a business to outline the goals of the business and how it can be attained. It states the time frame within which these goals should be achieved, along with the product details, manpower, and financial estimates. 2.
7: OPERATING PLAN • Describe the physical location(s) of your business • Detail any additional physical requirements (e.g. warehouse, specialized equipment, facilities) • Describe the production workflow • Describe materials needed to produce your product or service, and how you plan to source them 8: FINANCIAL PLAN
Shoutmouth Business Plan Example. The business plan example below is for Shoutmouth, a company that enjoyed much success in the early 2000's and which was able to raise funding. While the plan's premise (social networking) is not as unique now as it was then, the format and structure of this business plan still holds. I. Executive Summary
The best way to accomplish any business or personal goal is to write out every possible step it takes to achieve the goal. Then, order those steps by what needs to happen first. Some steps may ...
10 steps to start your business; Plan your business. Market research and competitive analysis; Write your business plan; Calculate your startup costs; Establish business credit; Fund your business; Buy an existing business or franchise; Launch your business. Pick your business location; Choose a business structure; Choose your business name ...
Step 7. Create a social media content calendar. Step 8. Create compelling content. Step 9. Track performance and make adjustments. Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template to quickly and easily plan your own strategy. Also use it to track results and present the plan to your boss, teammates, and clients.