This Template is a powerful interactive tool you can use to write your own business plan in a comfortable and also easy step-by-step fashion.
Simply read the instructions and suggestions accompanying each section and also then answer the questions posed. Writing a business plan in any mode is a demanding process that usually takes several weeks at the least.
We suggest you write your business plan in stages, perhaps one section at a time, saving your data after each session as described above.
- Before You Begin
- To Save Your Data
- You’re Ready to Begin Writing a Business Plan Template
- Conclusion
- FAQ
Before You Begin
We know you’re anxious to begin writing, but we suggest you read some useful information on the length of a business plan and also what’s right for you.
To Save Your Data
You can post your answers right online in the space provided here. After you complete a section, press the apply button, and your answers will be set up in an appropriate business plan format, with the right headings accompanying your answers. To save your data for later use,
YOU MUST COPY IT AND ENTER IT INTO YOUR OWN WORD PROCESSING PROGRAM,
OR SAVE YOUR ONLINE DATA AS AN HTML DOCUMENT.
NOTHING YOU WRITE ONLINE WILL BE STORED FOR YOU ONLINE FOR LATER ACCESS.
IF YOU FAIL TO COPY YOUR DATA, YOU WILL LOSE IT.
You’re Ready to Begin Writing a Business Plan Template
Cover Sheet The cover sheet needs to provide all the necessary contact information about the business. (For Investor version: the last thing you want to do is get prospective investors interested in your business, and then be unable to get in touch with you because your cover sheet is missing your phone number.)
The name of the business:
Month and year the plan is being completed:
Name of the chief executive officer:
The exact title of the chief executive:
Address of the company, including street, city, state, and also zip code:
Company’s Web site address:
Phone number, with area code:
Fax number, with area code: E-mail address:
Table of Contents To make your business plan easy to follow for a prospective financing source, a detailed table of contents–showing all sections and also subsections, with page numbers–is an important feature.
A detailed table of contents will give readers the ability to turn to their areas of greatest interest first, whether it be the financial projections, the management team, or the market analysis of the product or service.
Listed here are the topic areas we suggest for the table of contents. You need to fill in the page numbers after you copy the topics into your word processing program, and also adjust the topics if you change any of the names or add new topics.
Executive Summary for Business Plan Template
The executive summary should be a brief synopsis–two pages maximum–of the business concept that gives the reader a clear initial understanding of your business and also its validity.
It is not an abstract, introduction, preface, or a random collection of highlights.
Executive Summary is the business plan in miniature, and also as such should be able to stand alone as an initial business description.
It helps you:
Crystallize your thoughts
Set priorities
Provide the foundation of the full plan.
Once you’ve written this summary, it makes writing the rest of the plan much easier.
If done right, it captures readers’ attention, makes them want to read more, and also conveys a flavour about the rest of the plan.
Assignment: Now it’s time to write your own initial Executive Summary. Remember, no more than two pages. We’ve purposely avoided providing our usual question-and-answer approach so that you can employ a more free-form style, and also give it the “spin” and excitement that captures your business and also its plan for success.
The Company
This is the section of the business plan that captures your strategy, identity, and philosophy. It is about your future, past, and also present.
Determining your strategy
A strategy for Business Plan Template is really a buzzword for your company’s overall approach to producing and selling its products/services–and its goals for maximizing success.
What is your “business model”- -its approach to the market and sales, and also how will that change?
Most important is that your strategy be believable.
Thus, there needs to be consistency between what’s happened in the past and your strategy for the future.
If your business has grown at 10% a year for each of the past four years, and you are now projecting 50% annual growth, you must have a pretty compelling explanation of what it’s doing differently to justify the change.
Assignment: In no more than three paragraphs, summarize your company’s strategy.
Describing the company’s history for Business Plan Template
Here’s where you provide the background of the business, answering such questions as:
How did you come upon the idea for the business?
What forces have helped you succeed thus far?
What obstacles have you overcome to succeed?
If you plan for expansion, how will you dedicate the funds you are seeking financing?
Assignment: In a maximum of three paragraphs, describe your company’s history.
Of course, if you are a start-up, this section of your plan will be shorter, devoted to a brief explanation of how you came up with your idea.
Describe the management team in Business Plan
A key issue for any business is whether the people running the company have what it takes to enable the company to fulfil its strategy. (For investor version only)
Investors, in particular, look especially closely at the management team and make judgments about its likely success by virtue of what the members of the team have accomplished in the past.
The two most common management team in Business Plan Template problems are
1. The “one-man-band” syndrome. The company doesn’t really have a management team because the president won’t delegate or bring qualified senior people aboard.
2. Or everyone comes from the same background.
Be sure you are making the most of your resources–using everyone’s experience and capabilities to their fullest in your descriptions.
Assignment: Provide a one-paragraph summary of your company’s management team, explaining what makes it especially qualified to execute the company’s business plan. Assignment: Next, provide descriptions for each member of the management team, up to two paragraphs each.
Cover sheet in Business Plan
The cover sheet needs to provide all the necessary contact information about the business. (For Investor version: the last thing you want to do is get prospective investors interested in your business, and also then be unable to get in touch with you because your cover sheet is missing your phone number.)
The name of the business:
Month and year the plan is being completed:
Name of the chief executive officer:
The exact title of the chief executive:
Address of the company, including street, city, state, and zip code:
Company’s Web site address:
Phone number, with area code:
Fax number, with area code: E-mail address:
Table of Contents To make your business plan easy to follow for a prospective financing source, a detailed table of contents–
showing all sections and subsections, with page numbers–is an important feature.
A detailed table of contents will give readers the ability to turn to their areas of greatest interest first,
whether it be the financial projections, the management team, or the market analysis of the product or service.
Listed here are the topic areas we suggest for the table of contents.
You need to fill in the page numbers after you copy the topics into your word processing program,
and also adjust the topics if you change any of the names or add new topics.
Conclusion
Simply read the instructions and suggestions accompanying each section and also then answer the questions posed. Writing a business plan in any mode is a demanding process that usually takes several weeks at the least.
To make your business plan template follow the steps and to improve a business plan template by following steps and it’s easy to make it.
FAQ
A strategy is really a buzzword for your company’s overall approach to producing and selling its products/services–and its goals for maximizing success.
