business plans for investors

How To Write A Business Plan (2024 Guide)

Updated: Apr 17, 2024, 11:59am

Table of Contents

Brainstorm an executive summary, create a company description, brainstorm your business goals, describe your services or products, conduct market research, create financial plans, bottom line, frequently asked questions.

Every business starts with a vision, which is distilled and communicated through a business plan. In addition to your high-level hopes and dreams, a strong business plan outlines short-term and long-term goals, budget and whatever else you might need to get started. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to write a business plan that you can stick to and help guide your operations as you get started.

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Drafting the Summary

An executive summary is an extremely important first step in your business. You have to be able to put the basic facts of your business in an elevator pitch-style sentence to grab investors’ attention and keep their interest. This should communicate your business’s name, what the products or services you’re selling are and what marketplace you’re entering.

Ask for Help

When drafting the executive summary, you should have a few different options. Enlist a few thought partners to review your executive summary possibilities to determine which one is best.

After you have the executive summary in place, you can work on the company description, which contains more specific information. In the description, you’ll need to include your business’s registered name , your business address and any key employees involved in the business. 

The business description should also include the structure of your business, such as sole proprietorship , limited liability company (LLC) , partnership or corporation. This is the time to specify how much of an ownership stake everyone has in the company. Finally, include a section that outlines the history of the company and how it has evolved over time.

Wherever you are on the business journey, you return to your goals and assess where you are in meeting your in-progress targets and setting new goals to work toward.

Numbers-based Goals

Goals can cover a variety of sections of your business. Financial and profit goals are a given for when you’re establishing your business, but there are other goals to take into account as well with regard to brand awareness and growth. For example, you might want to hit a certain number of followers across social channels or raise your engagement rates.

Another goal could be to attract new investors or find grants if you’re a nonprofit business. If you’re looking to grow, you’ll want to set revenue targets to make that happen as well.

Intangible Goals

Goals unrelated to traceable numbers are important as well. These can include seeing your business’s advertisement reach the general public or receiving a terrific client review. These goals are important for the direction you take your business and the direction you want it to go in the future.

The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you’re offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit in the current market or are providing something necessary or entirely new. If you have any patents or trademarks, this is where you can include those too.

If you have any visual aids, they should be included here as well. This would also be a good place to include pricing strategy and explain your materials.

This is the part of the business plan where you can explain your expertise and different approach in greater depth. Show how what you’re offering is vital to the market and fills an important gap.

You can also situate your business in your industry and compare it to other ones and how you have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Other than financial goals, you want to have a budget and set your planned weekly, monthly and annual spending. There are several different costs to consider, such as operational costs.

Business Operations Costs

Rent for your business is the first big cost to factor into your budget. If your business is remote, the cost that replaces rent will be the software that maintains your virtual operations.

Marketing and sales costs should be next on your list. Devoting money to making sure people know about your business is as important as making sure it functions.

Other Costs

Although you can’t anticipate disasters, there are likely to be unanticipated costs that come up at some point in your business’s existence. It’s important to factor these possible costs into your financial plans so you’re not caught totally unaware.

Business plans are important for businesses of all sizes so that you can define where your business is and where you want it to go. Growing your business requires a vision, and giving yourself a roadmap in the form of a business plan will set you up for success.

How do I write a simple business plan?

When you’re working on a business plan, make sure you have as much information as possible so that you can simplify it to the most relevant information. A simple business plan still needs all of the parts included in this article, but you can be very clear and direct.

What are some common mistakes in a business plan?

The most common mistakes in a business plan are common writing issues like grammar errors or misspellings. It’s important to be clear in your sentence structure and proofread your business plan before sending it to any investors or partners.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

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

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Julia is a writer in New York and started covering tech and business during the pandemic. She also covers books and the publishing industry.

How to Write a Convincing Business Plan for Investors

Noah Parsons

9 min. read

Updated August 1, 2024

Raising money for your business is a major effort. You need lists of investors to reach out to and you need to be prepared for your investor meetings to increase your chances of getting funded . You need to practice your pitch and be ready to intelligently answer any number of questions about your business. A key to making this entire process much easier is to invest a little time and write a business plan . It’s true — not all investors will ask to see your business plan.

But putting together a business plan will ensure that you’ve considered every aspect of your business and are ready to answer any questions that come up during the fundraising process.

• Why do investors want to see a business plan?

The business plan document itself isn’t what’s important to investors. It’s the knowledge that you’ve generated by going through the process that’s important. Having a business plan shows that you’ve done the homework of thinking through how your business will work and what goals you’re trying to achieve.

When you put together a business plan, you have to spend time thinking about things like your target market , your sales, and marketing strategy , the problem you solve for your customers, and who your key competitors are . A business plan provides the structure for thinking through these things and documents your answers so you’re prepared for the inevitable questions investors will ask about your business. 

Even if investors never ask to see your business plan, the work you’ve done to prepare it will ensure that you can intelligently answer the questions you’ll get. And, if an investor does ask for your business plan, then you’re prepared and ready to hand it over. After all, nothing could be worse than arriving at an investor meeting and then getting a request for a business plan and not having one ready.

Beyond understanding your business strategy, investors will also want to understand your financial forecasts. They want to know how your business will function from a financial standpoint — what is typically called your “ business model .” They’ll also want to know what it will take for your business to be profitable and where you anticipate spending money to grow the business. A complete financial plan is part of any business plan, so investing a little time here will serve you well. 

• What do investors want to see in a business plan?

There’s no such thing as a perfect business plan and investors know this. After all, they’ve spent years, and often decades, hearing business pitches, reading business plans, investing in companies, and watching them both succeed and fail. As entrepreneur and investor Steve Blank likes to say, “No business plan survives first contact with a customer.” 

If this is true, then why bother writing a business plan at all? What’s the value of planning and why do investors want them if they know the plan will shortly be outdated?

The secret is that it’s the planning process, not the final plan, that’s valuable. Investors want to know that you’ve thought about your idea, documented your assumptions, and are on track to validate those assumptions so that you can remove risk from your business. 

So what do investors want to see in your business plan? Beyond the typical sections , here are the most important things that investors want to see in your plan.

A vision for the future

Investors, particularly those investing in early-stage startups, want to understand your vision . Where do you see your company going in the future? Who will your customers be and what problems will you solve for them? Your vision may take years to execute — and it’s likely that the vision will change and evolve over time — but investors want to know that you’re thinking beyond tomorrow and into the future.

Product/market fit and traction

Investors want more than just an idea. They want evidence that you are solving a problem for customers. Your customers have to want what you are selling for you to build a successful business and your business plan needs to describe the evidence that you’ve found that proves that you’ll be able to sell your products and services to customers. If you have “traction” in the form of early sales and customers, that’s even better.

Funding needed and use of funds

When you’re pitching investors, you need to know how much you’re asking for. Your financial forecast should help you figure this out. You’ll want to raise enough money to cover planned expenses and cash flow requirements plus some additional funding as a safety net. In addition, you’ll want to specify exactly how you plan on using your investment . In a business plan, this section is often called “sources and uses of investment.”

A strong management team

A good idea is really only a small part of the equation for a successful business. In fact, lots of people have good business ideas — it’s the people that can execute well that generally succeed. Investors will pay a lot of attention to the section of your plan where you talk about your management team because they want to know that you can transform your idea into a successful business. If you have gaps and still need to hire key employees, that’s OK. Communicating that you understand what your needs are is the most important thing.

An exit strategy

When investors give you money to start and grow your business, they are looking to eventually make a return on their investment. This could happen by eventually selling your business to a larger company or even by going public. One way or another, investors will want to know your thoughts about an eventual exit strategy for your business.

• What documents do investors want to see?

Even if investors never ask for a detailed business plan, your business planning process should produce a few key documents that investors will want to see. Here’s what you need to be prepared to pitch investors:

Cover letter

These days, a lot of fundraising outreach is done over email and you’ll need a concise cover letter that sparks investor interest. Your cover letter needs to be very brief, but describe the problem you’re solving for your target market.

Great cover letters are sometimes in a “story” format that hooks readers with a real-world, relatable example of the problems your customers face and how our product or service The goal of the cover letter isn’t to explain every aspect of your business. It’s just to spark interest and get a meeting with an investor where you’ll have more time to actually pitch your business. Keep your cover letter brief, engaging, and to the point.

If you get an investor meeting, you’ll almost certainly need a pitch deck to present your idea in more detail and showcase your business idea. Your pitch deck will cover the problem you’re solving, your solution, your target market, and key market trends.

Further Reading: What to include in your pitch deck

Executive summary and/or one-page plan

You might not get a meeting right away. Your cover letter may generate a request for additional information and this is where a solid executive summary or one-page business plan comes in handy. This document, while still short, is more detailed than your cover letter and explains a bit more about your business in a page or two.

Read more about what goes into a great executive summary and how to build a lone-page business plan.

Financial forecasts

Investors will inevitably want to see your financial forecasts. You’ll need a sales forecast, expense budget , cash flow forecast , profit and loss, and balance sheet . If you have historical results, you should plan on sharing those too as well as any other key metrics about your business. Investors will always look deep under the hood of your business, so be prepared to share all the details of how your business will work from a financial perspective.

• What to include in your investor business plan

When you put together a detailed business plan for investors, you’ll follow a fairly standard format. To get started, I recommend you download our free business plan template . It’s lender-approved and, of course, can be customized to fit your business needs.

Remember: your business plan isn’t about the plan document that you create — it’s about the planning process that helps you think through and develop your business strategy. Here’s what most investor business plans will include:

Executive Summary

Usually written last, your executive summary is an overview of your business. As I mentioned earlier, you might use the executive summary as a stand-alone document to provide investors more detail about your business in a concise form. Read our guide on executive summaries here .

Opportunity

The opportunity section of your plan covers the problem you are solving, what your solution is, and highlights any data you have to prove that people will spend money on what you’re offering. If you have customer validation in any form, this is where you highlight that information.

Market Analysis

Describe what your target market is and key trends that are occurring in this market . Is the market growing? Are buying patterns changing? How is your business positioned to take advantage of these changes? Be sure to spend some time discussing your competition and how your target market solves their problems today and how your solution is superior.

Marketing & Sales Plan 

Most businesses need to figure out how to get the word out and attract customers. Your business plan should include a marketing plan that describes how you’re going to reach your target market and any key marketing initiatives that you’re going to undertake. You should also spend time describing your sales plan, especially if your sales process takes time to close customers.

Milestones / Roadmap

Outline key milestones you hope to achieve and when you plan on achieving them. This section should cover key dates for product development, key partnerships you need to create, and any other important goals you plan on achieving.

Company & Management

Here’s where you describe the nuts and bolts of your business. How is your organization structured? Who is on your team and what are their backgrounds? Are there any important positions that you still need to recruit for?

Financial Plan

As I mentioned, you’ll need to create a profit and loss, cash flow, and balance sheet forecast. Your financial plan should be optimistic, yet realistic. This is a tough balance and your forecast is certain to be wrong, but you need to document your assumptions and plans for the business.

Finally, you can include an appendix for any key additional information you want to share. Product diagrams, additional details on how you deliver your service, or additional research can all be included.

• What comes next?

Writing a business plan for investors is really about preparing you to pitch your business . It’s quite likely that you’ll never get asked for the actual business plan document. But, the process will prepare you better than anything else to answer any questions investors may have.

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

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16 Impressive Business Plan Templates to Show Investors

Written by: Raja Mandal

Creating a business plan can significantly increase the chances of launching a successful business.

Statistics show that companies with a plan are 260% more likely to launch than those without one. It's no surprise that 71% of fast-growing businesses create plans in advance.

But here's the kicker: making a well-written, organized, and eye-catching business plan can feel overwhelming, especially when you're juggling multiple aspects of your business. It takes a ton of time, effort, and even money.

That's where Visme's business plan templates come in. They're super user-friendly, give you a clear structure, and include all the vital info that investors are looking for.

Basically, they help you organize your thoughts and make your business look professional and compelling without draining all your resources.

In this article, we present 16 easily customizable business plan templates that you can use to create your own or improve your existing business plan.

Let's get to it!

Table of Contents

What is included in a business plan.

• 16 Business Plan Templates

How to Write an Effective Business Plan

Business plan faqs.

• A business plan template is a pre-formatted document that helps you organize and present your business plan.
• A business plan includes key elements like an executive summary, company overview, market analysis, products and services, financial plan and marketing plan.
• Choose a business plan template from the 16 available options in this article and customize it to create your own in minutes.
• To create a business plan, you need to write the executive summary, describe your market and problem, support your claims, outline financials, plan for exit and detail implementation.
• Create an account with Visme and start creating your business plan in a few simple steps.

What Is a Business Plan Template?

A business plan template is a framework that guides you through documenting your business idea, how you plan to make it succeed and the steps you'll take to get there. It's like a fill-in-the-blank exercise that, once completed, provides a comprehensive outline of your business's goals, strategies and financial projections.

These templates are tailored to different businesses and industries. Whether you're opening a coffee shop or launching a tech startup, there's a template that fits your needs.

The best thing about these templates is that they save time and simplify the whole process. They take care of the format so you can focus on the content and strategy. Plus, they organize the business plan into manageable sections so you don't miss anything important.

Not all business plans are created equal. They differ based on your business type, the goals of your business plan and the target audience.

Some business plans may focus on the financials, while others may focus on the marketing and sales strategies.

Regardless of the type of business plan you need, you should always include the following elements in your business plan:

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary concisely summarizes your business plan, outlining your goals and strategies. It helps readers quickly grasp your vision and direction and sets the tone for the rest of the plan.

2. Company Overview

The company overview details what your business does and outlines the services or products you offer, the problems they solve and who your customers are.

Check out our detailed guide on writing a company overview for a business plan to learn more.

3. Market Analysis

The market analysis section examines the specifics of your industry, including your target market, customer demographics and competing businesses. It shows how well you understand the market environment and trends.

4. Products and Services

This section describes your offering, how it serves your customers, and what differentiates it from competitors. It should dive deeper into the tangible and intangible benefits your business delivers.

5. Financial Plan

The financial plan section of your business plan outlines your business's future finances. It’s a comprehensive forecast of your business's expected revenue, expenses and profitability. This part helps you plan how your business will grow and stay financially healthy.

6. Marketing Plan

Here, you lay out how you will attract and retain customers. This section should reflect your pricing, advertising, sales, and distribution strategy to ensure your marketing efforts align with your business objectives.

7. Competitive Analysis

The competitive analysis of your business plan is the evaluation of your position relative to other businesses in your industry. It highlights your strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement to outperform your competitors. It's a critical part of your business plan as it helps you identify the best opportunities for growth and expansion.

8. Return on Investment (ROI)

The Return on Investment (ROI) section outlines how much money investors can expect to make and when they can expect to get it. This helps investors decide if the business is a good investment for them.

If you borrow funds, your plan should outline how and when the company intends to repay them so lenders can clearly understand the repayment schedule.

16 Business Plan Templates for Investors

Let's get to the heart of this article: the business plan templates.

We have curated 15 of the best templates for different industries that are fully customizable. All you need to do is select a suitable template and customize it using our drag-and-drop editor to fit your needs.

Visme is packed with user-friendly tools, professionally designed templates, and millions of design assets that you can easily use to create stunning business documents —no professional design skills required

But don't want you to just take our word for it.  Listen to what one of our satisfied customers has to say:

The templates are great, and the drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to customize them to match my needs. I also appreciate the wide range of features, including charts, graphs, and other visuals that can be used to present data in a clear and concise way.

• Cassandra C. | Graphic Designer & Business Owner

1. Consulting Business Plan Template

Let’s start with this consulting business plan template. With a professional black-and-white theme and high-quality images, it exudes sophistication and a keen eye for detail. The design shows your financial strategy with easy-to-understand tables. When you're crafting this business plan template for investors be sure to use concise and clear data so that readers understand your strategy and layout.

Feel free to customize this business plan template for any consultancy niche, like engineering, financial advising or interior design consulting.

2. Marketing One Pager Business Plan Template

If you're aiming for clarity and brevity, this template has you covered.

This one pager business plan template offers an energetic, concise way to showcase your marketing business plan on a single page. It features a lively red and black color scheme that makes your plan stand out.

The template visualizes company size and niches with vertical bar graphs, operational locations with pie charts and market analysis with radial gauges.

Additionally, Visme gives you 30+ data widgets for all data types and 20+ types of charts and graphs to help you turn statistics and figures into beautiful visuals. Choose your favorite data visualization tool, input your data, and include it in your business plans. This will help investors understand your business's potential without reading through lots of text.

3. Simple Business Plan Template

If you are searching for a simple yet visually appealing business plan template for investors, this template is perfect for you.

It maps your launch plan with a simple flowchart and well-designed icons for essential stages such as buyer personas, UX design, development and testing. The goal is to streamline your planning process, making it accessible and visually attractive.

4. E-commerce Business Plan One Pager Template

Understanding your customers and identifying market opportunities are crucial for the success of any e-commerce venture.

This e-commerce business plan template helps you organize your information on one page. It includes sections for an executive summary, market and competitive analysis, products and services, and marketing strategy.

Using this template, you can share your business vision and growth plans effectively, making sure everyone is on the same page.

Need help crafting persuasive drafts for your business plan? Use Visme's AI writer . This advanced tool can help you edit and summarize your text, create layouts and even generate first drafts for any part of your business plan. Just prompt the tool about what you want and let it handle the rest.

5. Sports Business Plan One Pager Template

Get your sports-centric business idea off the ground with our sports business plan template. It helps you visualize your business model, define your audience, content and growth plan and set transparent pricing on a single page.

What's more, the template is all decked out with sporty-themed green accents and relevant images that are sure to wow potential investors.

RELATED: 10 Efficient Business Model Canvas Templates to Use

6. Sales Business Plan One Pager Template

This awesome template is for sales managers, strategists, and business developers who want to communicate their sales plan quickly and effectively. The condensed format gets all the important points across—sales goals, tactics, revenue—in a single document. On the flip side business plan template works well for investors who need the run down own of how you plan to drive revenue and sales.

Showcase your brand personality on your business plan using Visme's brand design tool . Simply copy and paste your website URL into the tool, and it will automatically extract your brand colors , brand fonts , and company logo and save them under your brand area. This way, you can easily apply your brand elements to any document with just one click.

7. Finance Business Plan One Pager Template

Make a great impression on potential investors by highlighting your business's unique advantages using this template. It's perfect for startups, SMEs and financial advisors to share financial strategies, goals and key targets.

You'll find revenue and expense plans, market studies, and what makes you unique, all neatly laid out with charts and infographics. Customize it easily to fit your brand, making it a powerful tool for attracting investors.

8. Company Strategic Business Plan Template

Launching a customer relationship management (CRM) tool requires a rock-solid strategy. Use this professional business plan template to outline your strategy for setting up your CRM. It features a robust executive summary, comprehensive company overview, in-depth market analysis backed by data, and well-defined marketing strategies.

The template's cool black theme is sure to keep your audience hooked, and the feature charts and integrations make everything easier to understand.

Visme's dynamic fields feature can help you save time and resources by simplifying repetitive and manual data entry.  This feature lets you create and save fields for your business plans, like addresses, contacts, and finances. When you change information, it will auto-populate across multiple documents with these dynamic fields.

9. Denim Business Plan Template

Dress your business plan in the fabric of your trade with this denim business plan template. The classic denim texture and patterns capture the true essence of your brand and draw your audience's attention.

The template makes it easy to understand your potential buyers and popular trends, especially among teenagers. It uses visuals like charts and graphs to reveal this information. Also, it includes sections on ROI, shown with bar graphs and essential steps for the business with easy-to-understand icons. Additionally, there's a complete outline of the marketing plan.

Once you share your business plan, you can track how viewers engage with it using Visme's analytics feature . Get access detailed insights on viewer engagement, such as views, unique visits, visitors' IP and more.

Use these insights to tweak your strategy and make sure your audience is on board with your vision.

10. Consultancy Business Plan Template

If you're a marketing or advertising consultant looking to establish a strong presence, this business plan template can be a great tool. It includes a detailed "our services" page that you can customize to showcase your unique offerings. The template also outlines the financial side of your business, your target market, your goals and the steps to achieve them.

The template also has a summary of the important expenses, assets, and funding you'll need to start your consultancy.

11. Travel Website Business Plan Template

Start your travel business journey on the right foot with this website business plan template. It’s designed to detail your mission, objectives, market analysis and sales forecasts in an engaging way.

The template is super organized, so it's easy to fill in the necessary information. Furthermore, it contains sections for market analysis, strategy and financials, ensuring that every part of your plan is presented effectively.

After laying out your business essentials, bring your travel website plan to life with Visme's rich library of visuals. Use high-quality stock photos , vector icons and illustrations to tell your story beautifully. Plus, with 3D animated graphics , your audience will get a memorable experience with the business plan.

12. Startup Business Plan Template

It is crucial to have a solid plan in place to launch a successful startup. This startup business plan template helps you document your business's objectives, market analysis, business model, and customer segments.

It also offers a structured approach to planning, making it easier for your startup to present its vision and secure the necessary backing. Customize this template to cover all the essential areas of a strong startup foundation in your business plan.

Breathe life into your business plans using Visme's interactive and animation features . Add dynamic elements such as animated charts, clickable menus, hotspots and more to make your plan even more engaging and visually immersive.

13. Creative Business Plan Template

Who says business plans have to be all serious and traditional? Switch things up with our creative business plan template. It's filled with bright colors, fun design touches and lots of space, making your plan stand out to investors.

You can customize different parts, such as the product overview, launch plan, interviews, surveys, and descriptions of your ideal customers, to match your business idea and branding.

Spice up your business plan with Visme's 3D character creator . Easily design and animate characters to enhance your presentation–customize their appearance, actions and emotions to match your brand. You can also adjust the animation and style to suit your needs and incorporate them into your documents. This is perfect for making your business plan not just informative but also visually captivating and memorable.

14. SaaS Business Plan Template

Our SaaS business plan template is a simple yet comprehensive tool for founders preparing to launch their SaaS tool.

It serves as a blueprint for presenting your business concept in a structured manner that will impress potential investors and collaborators. Use it to outline your strategy, analyze market trends, and make financial projections.

Creating a SaaS business plan often requires multiple revisions and feedback from your team. Visme's collaborative design features can help with this. You can invite your team by email or a link to comment, annotate, and edit the plan in real time. This lets you get feedback right away and make changes as you go.

You can invite people outside your team, such as investors or partners, to view or make changes as well.

15. Photography Business Plan Template

Our photography business plan template is designed to help photographers present their business strategies, secure funding, or organize project proposals. It includes high-quality visuals and copy that bring your vision to life. Why this business plan template for investors, it allows you to effectively merge your creative and professional skills together.

What's more, the template includes ample whitespace to give it a clean and professional look. Whether you're a solo photographer or looking to expand your photography studio, this template will help ensure your ideas are presented beautifully and effectively.

And if you're looking for a way to enhance the quality of your images and make them look professional for your business plan, use Visme's AI image editing tools ! With a few clicks, you can unblur, upscale, edit and touch up your images.

16. Fashion Business Plan Template

Our fashion business plan template is not your average template. It's a unique tool specifically designed for the fast-paced world of fashion. The industry-centric design elements and stylish fonts make it a visual representation of your vision.

The template has sections for analyzing competition and a "Why Us" segment that shows what makes your fashion business unique. It’s perfect for emerging designers, boutique owners and online fashion startups looking to refine their brand strategy, attract investors or streamline operations.

Sharing your business plans with investors and stakeholders has never been easier with Visme's multiple sharing and publishing options. You can download your documents in popular file formats such as PDF, JPG, and PNG for offline use.

Also, you can simply share them via email or link and put them on a web page using a code snippet.

We've explained what a business plan is and provided you with business plan templates to help you get started.

If you're racing against time or need help getting your plan off the ground quickly, Visme's AI business plan generator can help you do that in a few minutes

It uses artificial intelligence to help you quickly create a polished first draft of your plan.

Provide details about your business idea, target market and goals and the generator will create a customized business plan in seconds.

You can further customize the plan in Visme's editor to suit your needs. This saves you valuable time and effort, allowing you to focus on refining your plan and bringing your vision to life.

Now let's show you how to write a winning business plan.

Step 1: Write the Executive Summary

The executive summary gives a brief overview of your business.

In a few paragraphs, share the heart of your business—the what, why and how. This section should highlight your business idea, goals and what makes you stand out.

Think of it as your business’s elevator pitch: quick, engaging and convincing enough to make people want to learn more.

Save the executive summary for the end so you get a clear idea of what to summarize. Just make sure you always include it at the beginning of your business plan.

Step 2: Define Your Market and Problem

Provide a detailed description of your target customers and the problem you are addressing.

Then identify the individuals or companies that fit your ideal customer profile and the specific challenges they encounter that your product or service resolves.

This section proves you understand your potential customer’s needs and the market gap you aim to fill. It’s about showing that you know who needs your help and why your business is the solution they’ve been looking for.

Step 3: Back-Up Your Claims and Appeal to Investors

In this section, it's crucial to back up your business claims with solid facts and research.

Describe what sets your business apart and why it's an attractive opportunity for investors. Use data, market research and testimonials to demonstrate your business's potential for success.

Then explain how investors can expect to profit from their investment. When writing this section, be sure to convince and provide facts to show that your business is not just a good idea, but a viable one that can make money.

Step 4: Project Your Financials

This step is where you talk numbers. Offer a clear overview of your business's financial future. Share your expected earnings, expenses and how you plan to maintain a healthy cash flow. This isn't just about showing you'll make money but detailing your financial strategy for growth and stability.

Break down your sales forecasts, cost estimates, and how long until you expect to turn a profit. This will reassure investors that your business is fully prepared for success, not just a pipe dream.

Step 5: Plan Your Exit Strategy

When planning your business, it's important to consider how you'll eventually transition or sell it to ensure you and your investors get the best returns.

So, in this part, outline your long-term plans for eventually stepping away from the business. An exit strategy is important for investors—it shows you're thinking ahead and considering the financial implications of future changes.

Discuss the various ways you could exit, such as selling the business, merging with another company, or passing it on to a family member or employee. Highlight which strategy aligns with your goals and how it benefits investors.

Step 6: Map Your Progress and Implementation

Remember to set short-term and long-term goals and create key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your progress. It's important to regularly review and adjust your goals to respond to changes in the market or operational challenges.

You need to document and analyze each step of your progress to make good decisions and keep everyone informed and engaged. This also helps keep your team focused and makes sure things keep getting better.

For a deep dive into creating a precise, persuasive and practical business plan, read our comprehensive guide: How to Write a Business Plan . It provides detailed instructions, tips and templates to help you every step of the way.

Q. What is a business plan template?

A business plan template is a pre-formatted document outlining the key sections of a business plan. It guides you through essential elements, saving time and ensuring you include all necessary information.

Q. How many hours does it take to write a business plan?

The time it takes to write a business plan varies depending on several factors, such as the complexity of your business, your experience with business planning, and the level of detail required. A simple plan might take 10-20 hours, while a complex plan for seeking funding could take 80+ hours. Templates and professional help can speed up the process.

Q. How long should a small business plan be?

Ideally, a small business plan should be around 15-20 pages. Investors often prefer shorter, more focused plans that highlight key information.

Q. What is a mini business plan called?

A mini business plan is often referred to as a simple business plan. It is a concise way to present the company to investors. The brief plan is followed by a detailed plan sent to the most interested parties.

Q. What is the hardest part of writing a business plan?

Writing a business plan can be daunting, and the most difficult part varies from person to person. However, here are some of the common challenges of writing a business plan:

•  Overcoming the initial hurdle of a blank page.
• Researching and analyzing your market and competition.
• Creating realistic financial forecasts
• Staying focused on the key elements of your plan.
• Finding the right format to present your plan

Visme’s business plan templates will help you overcome these challenges by giving you a clear structure and a starting point for your business plan.

Create Professional Business Plans in Minutes with Visme

Creating a compelling business plan is crucial to when you're looking to share your vision and secure investments.

Take a look at the list and pick a customizable business plan template for investors, that's also right for you.

Beyond the templates we've shared in this article, Visme offers an extensive library of professionally designed business plan templates perfect for businesses of all sizes and industries.

It comes packed with dozens of features and a drag-and-drop editor that makes it easy for anyone to whip up attention-grabbing business documents such as presentations, infographics and reports–no professional design skills needed.

Sign up for a free Visme account today and explore the powerful tools to create your business plans!

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How To Write A Business Plan: A Comprehensive Guide

The Startups Team

How To Write A Business Plan: A Comprehensive Guide

A comprehensive, step-by-step guide - complete with real examples - on writing business plans with just the right amount of panache to catch an investor's attention and serve as a guiding star for your business.

Introduction to Business Plans

So you've got a killer startup idea. Now you need to write a business plan that is equally killer.

You fire up your computer, open a Google doc, and stare at the blank page for several minutes before it suddenly dawns on you that,  Hm…maybe I have no idea how to write a business plan from scratch after all.

Don't let it get you down. After all, why would you know anything about business planning? For that very reason we have  4 amazing business plan samples  to share with you as inspiration.

For most founders,  writing a business plan  feels like the startup equivalent of homework. It's the thing you know you have to do, but nobody actually wants to do.

Here's the good news: writing a business plan doesn't have to be this daunting, cumbersome chore.

Once you understand the fundamental questions that your business plan should answer for your readers and how to position everything in a way that compels your them to take action, writing a business plan becomes way more approachable.

Before you set fingers to the keyboard to turn your business idea into written documentation of your organizational structure and business goals, we're going to walk you through the most important things to keep in mind (like company description, financials, and market analysis, etc.) and to help you tackle the writing process confidently — with plenty of real life business plan examples along the way to get you writing a business plan to be proud of!

Keep It Short and Simple.

There's this old-school idea that business plans need to be ultra-dense, complex documents the size of a doorstop because that's how you convey how serious you are about your company.

Not so much.

Complexity and length for complexity and length's sake is almost never a good idea, especially when it comes to writing a business plan. There are a couple of reasons for this.

1. Investors Are Short On Time

If your chief goal is using your business plan to secure funding, then it means you intend on getting it in front of an investor. And if there's one thing investors are, it's busy. So keep this in mind throughout writing a business plan.

Investors wade through hundreds of business plans a year. There's no version of you presenting an 80-page business plan to an investor and they enthusiastically dive in and take hours out of their day to pour over the thing front to back.

Instead, they're looking for you to get your point across as quickly and clearly as possible so they can skim your business plan and get to the most salient parts to determine whether or not they think your opportunity is worth pursuing (or at the very least initiating further discussions).

You should be able to refine all of the key value points that investors look for to 15-20 pages (not including appendices where you will detail your financials). If you find yourself writing beyond that, then it's probably a case of either over explaining, repeating information, or including irrelevant details in your business plan (you don't need to devote 10 pages to how you're going to set up your website, for example).

Bottom line: always be on the lookout for opportunities to “trim the fat" while writing a business plan (and pay special attention to the executive summary section below), and you'll be more likely to secure funding.

2. Know Your Audience

If you fill your business plan with buzzwords, industry-specific jargon or acronyms, and long complicated sentences, it might make sense to a handful of people familiar with your niche and those with superhuman attention spans (not many), but it alienates the vast majority of readers who aren't experts in your particular industry. And if no one can understand so much as your company overview, they won't make it through the rest of your business plan.

Your best bet here is to use simple, straightforward language that's easily understood by anyone — from the most savvy of investor to your Great Aunt Bertha who still uses a landline.

How To Format Your Business Plan

You might be a prodigy in quantum mechanics, but if you show up to your interview rocking cargo shorts and lime green Crocs, you can probably guess what the hiring manager is going to notice first.

In the same way,  how  you present your business plan to your readers equally as important as what you present to them. So don't go over the top with an extensive executive summary, or get lazy with endless bullet points on your marketing strategy.

If your business plan is laden with inconsistent margins, multiple font types and sizes, missing headings and page numbers, and lacks a table of contents, it's going to create a far less digestible reading experience (and totally take away from your amazing idea and hours of work writing a business plan!)

While there's no one  right  way to format your business plan, the idea here is to ensure that it presents professionally. Here's some easy formatting tips to help you do just that.

If your margins are too narrow, it makes the page look super cluttered and more difficult to read.

A good rule of thumb is sticking to standard one-inch margins all around.

Your business plan is made up of several key sections, like chapters in a book.

Whenever you begin a section (“Traction” for example) you'll want to signify it using a header so that your reader immediately knows what to expect from the content that follows.

This also helps break up your content and keep everything nice and organized in your business plan.

Subheadings

Subheadings are mini versions of headings meant to break up content within each individual section and capture the attention of your readers to keep them moving down the page.

In fact, we're using sub-headers right now in this section for that very purpose!

Limit your business plan to two typefaces (one for headings and one for body copy and subheadings, for example) that you can find in a standard text editor like Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

Only pick fonts that are easy to read and contain both capital and lowercase letters.

Avoid script-style or jarring fonts that distract from the actual content. Modern, sans-serif fonts like Helvetica, Arial, and Proxima Nova are a good way to go.

Keep your body copy between 11 and 12-point font size to ensure readability (some fonts are more squint-inducing than others).

You can offset your headings from your body copy by simply upping the font size and by bolding your subheadings.

Sometimes it's better to show instead of just tell.

Assume that your readers are going to skim your plan rather than read it word-for-word and treat it as an opportunity to grab their attention with color graphics, tables, and charts (especially with financial forecasts), as well as product images, if applicable.

This will also help your reader better visualize what your business model is all about.

Need some help with this?

Our  business planning wizard  comes pre-loaded with a modular business plan template that you can complete in any order and makes it ridiculously easy to generate everything you need from your value proposition, mission statement, financial projections, competitive advantage, sales strategy, market research, target market, financial statements, marketing strategy, in a way that clearly communicates your business idea.

Refine Your Business Plans. Then Refine Them Some More.

Your business isn't static, so why should your business plan be?

Your business strategy is always evolving, and so are good business plans. This means that the early versions of your business plans probably won't (and shouldn't be) your last. The details of even even the best business plans are only as good as their last update.

As your business progresses and your ideas about it shift, it's important revisit your business plan from time to time to make sure it reflects those changes, keeping everything as accurate and up-to-date as possible. What good is market analysis if the market has shifted and you have an entirely different set of potential customers? And what good would the business model be if you've recently pivoted? A revised business plan is a solid business plan. It doesn't ensure business success, but it certainly helps to support it.

This rule especially holds true when you go about your market research and learn something that goes against your initial assumptions, impacting everything from your sales strategy to your financial projections.

At the same time, before you begin shopping your business plan around to potential investors or bankers, it's imperative to get a second pair of eyes on it after you've put the final period on your first draft.

After you run your spell check, have someone with strong “English teacher skills” run a fine-tooth comb over your plan for any spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors you may have glossed over. An updated, detailed business plan (without errors!) should be constantly in your business goals.

More than that, your trusty business plan critic can also give you valuable feedback on how it reads from a stylistic perspective. While different investors prefer different styles, the key here is to remain consistent with your audience and business.

Writing Your Business Plan: A Section-By-Section Breakdown

We devoted an entire article carefully breaking down the  key components of a business plan  which takes a comprehensive look of what each section entails and why.

If you haven't already, you should check that out, as it will act as the perfect companion piece to what we're about to dive into in a moment.

For our purposes here, we're going to look at a few real world business plan examples (as well as one of our own self-penned “dummy” plans) to give you an inside look at how to position key information on a section-by-section basis.

1. Executive Summary

Quick overview.

After your Title Page — which includes your company name, slogan (if applicable), and contact information — and your Table of Contents, the Executive Summary will be the first section of actual content about your business.

The primary goal of your Executive Summary is to provide your readers with a high level overview of your business plan as a whole by summarizing the most important aspects in a few short sentences. Think of your Executive Summary as a kind of “teaser” for your business concept and the information to follow — information which you will explain in greater detail throughout your plan. This isn't the place for your a deep dive on your competitive advantages, or cash flow statement. It is an appropriate place to share your mission statement and value proposition.

Executive Summary Example

Here's an example of an Executive Summary taken from a sample business plan written by the Startups.com team for a fictional company called Culina. Here, we'll see how the Executive Summary offers brief overviews of the  Product ,  Market Opportunity ,  Traction , and  Next Steps .

Culina Tech specializes in home automation and IoT technology products designed to create the ultimate smart kitchen for modern homeowners.

Our flagship product, the Culina Smart Plug, enables users to make any kitchen appliance or cooking device intelligent. Compatible with all existing brands that plug into standard two or three-prong wall outlets, Culina creates an entire network of Wi-Fi-connected kitchen devices that can be controlled and monitored remotely right from your smartphone.

The majority of US households now spend roughly 35% of their energy consumption on appliances, electronics, and lighting.  With the ability to set energy usage caps on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, Culina helps homeowners stay within their monthly utility budget through more efficient use of the dishwasher, refrigerator, freezer, stove, and other common kitchen appliances.

Additionally, 50.8% of house fires are caused in the kitchen — more than any other room in the home — translating to over $5 billion in property damage costs per year.  Culina provides the preventative intelligence necessary to dramatically reduce kitchen-related disasters and their associated costs and risk of personal harm.

Our team has already completed the product development and design phase, and we are now ready to begin mass manufacturing. We've also gained a major foothold among consumers and investors alike, with 10,000 pre-ordered units sold and $5 million in investment capital secured to date.

We're currently seeking a $15M Series B capital investment that will give us the financial flexibility to ramp up hardware manufacturing, improve software UX and UI, expand our sales and marketing efforts, and fulfill pre-orders in time for the 2018 holiday season.

2. Company Synopsis

Your Company Synopsis section answers two critically important questions for your readers: What painful  PROBLEM  are you solving for your customers? And what is your elegant  SOLUTION  to that problem? The combination of these two components form your value proposition.

Company Synopsis Example

Let's look at a real-life company description example from  HolliBlu * — a mobile app that connects healthcare facilities with local skilled nurses — to see how they successfully address both of these key aspects.  *Note: Full disclosure; Our team worked directly with this company on their business plan via Fundable.

Notice how we get a crystal clear understanding of why the company exists to begin with when they set up the  problem  — that traditional nurse recruitment methods are costly, inconvenient, and time-consuming, creating significant barriers to providing quality nursing to patients in need.

Once we understand the painful problem that HolliBlu's customers face, we're then directly told how their  solution  links back directly to that problem — by creating an entire community of qualified nurses and directly connecting them with local employers more cost-effectively and more efficiently than traditional methods.

3. Market Overview

Your Market Overview provides color around the industry that you will be competing in as it relates to your product/service.

This will include statistics about industry size, [growth](https://www.startups.com/library/expert-advice/the-case-for-growing-slowly) rate, trends, and overall outlook. If this part of your business plan can be summed up in one word, it's  research .

The idea is to gather as much raw data as you can to make the case for your readers that:

This is a market big enough to get excited about.

You can capture a big enough share of this market to get excited about.

Target Market Overview Example

Here's an example from HolliBlu's business plan:

HolliBlu's Market Overview hits all of the marks — clearly laying out the industry size ($74.8 billion), the Total Addressable Market or TAM (3 million registered nurses), industry growth rate (581,500 new RN jobs through 2018; $355 billion by 2020), and industry trends (movement toward federally-mandated compliance with nurse/patient ratios, companies offering sign-on bonuses to secure qualified nurses, increasing popularity of home-based healthcare).

4. Product (How it Works)

Where your Company Synopsis is meant to shed light on why the company exists by demonstrating the problem you're setting out to solve and then bolstering that with an impactful solution, your Product or How it Works section allows you to get into the nitty gritty of how it actually delivers that value, and any competitive advantage it provides you.

Product (How it Works) Example

In the below example from our team's Culina sample plan, we've divided the section up using subheadings to call attention to product's  key features  and how it actually works from a user perspective.

This approach is particularly effective if your product or service has several unique features that you want to highlight.

5. Revenue Model

Quite simply, your Revenue Model gives your readers a framework for how you plan on making money. It identifies which revenue channels you're leveraging, how you're pricing your product or service, and why.

Revenue Model Example

Let's take a look at another real world business plan example with brewpub startup  Magic Waters Brewpub .*

It can be easy to get hung up on the financial aspect here, especially if you haven't fully developed your product yet. And that's okay. *Note: Full disclosure; Our team worked directly with this company on their business plan via Fundable.

The thing to remember is that investors will want to see that you've at least made some basic assumptions about your monetization strategy.

6. Operating Model

Your Operating Model quite simply refers to how your company actually runs itself. It's the detailed breakdown of the processes, technologies, and physical requirements (assets) that allow you to deliver the value to your customers that your product or service promises.

Operating Model Example

Let's say you were opening up a local coffee shop, for example. Your Operating Model might detail the following:

Information about your facility (location, indoor and outdoor space features, lease amount, utility costs, etc.)

The equipment you need to purchase (coffee and espresso machines, appliances, shelving and storage, etc.) and their respective costs.

The inventory you plan to order regularly (product, supplies, etc.), how you plan to order it (an online supplier) and how often it gets delivered (Mon-Fri).

Your staffing requirements (including how many part or full time employees you'll need, at what wages, their job descriptions, etc.)

In addition, you can also use your Operating Model to lay out the ways you intend to manage the costs and efficiencies associated with your business, including:

The  Critical Costs  that make or break your business. In the case of our coffee shop example, you might say something like,

“We're estimating the marketing cost to acquire a customer is going to be $25.  Our average sale is $45.  So long as we can keep our customer acquisition costs below $25 we will have enough margin to grow with.”

Cost Maturation & Milestones  that show how your Critical Costs might fluctuate over time.

“If we sell 50 coffees a day, our average unit cost will be $8 on a sale of $10.  At that point we're barely breaking even. However as we scale up to 200 coffees a day, our unit costs drop significantly to $4, creating a 100% increase in net income.”

Investment Costs  that highlight strategic uses of capital that will have a big Return on Investment (ROI) later.

“We're investing $100,000 into a revolutionary new coffee brewing system that will allow us to brew twice the amount our current output with the same amount of space and staff.”

Operating Efficiencies  explaining your capability of delivering your product or service in the most cost effective manner possible while maintaining the highest standards of quality.

“By using energy efficient Ecoboilers, we're able to keep our water hot while minimizing the amount of energy required. Our machines also feature an energy saving mode. Both of these allow us to dramatically cut energy costs.”

7. Competitive Analysis

Like the Market Overview section, you want to show your readers that you've done your homework and have a crazy high level of awareness about your current competitors or any potential competitors that may crop up down the line for your given business model.

When writing your Competitive Analysis, your overview should cover  who  your closest competitors are, the chief  strengths  they bring to the table, and their biggest  weaknesses .

You'll want to identify at least 3 competitors — either direct, indirect, or a combination of the two. It's an extremely important aspect of the business planning process.

Competition Analysis Example

Here's an example of how HolliBlu lays out their Competitive Analysis section for just one of their competitors, implementing each of the criteria noted above:

8. Customer Definition

Your Customer Definition section allows you to note which customer segment(s) you're going after, what characteristics and habits each customer segment embodies, how each segment uniquely benefits from your product or service, and how all of this ties together to create the ideal portrait of an actual paying customer, and how you'll cultivate and manage customer relationships.

Customer Definition Example

HolliBlu's Customer Definition section is effective for several reasons. Let's deconstruct their first target market segment, hospitals.

What's particularly successful here is that we are explained why hospitals are optimal buyers.

They accomplish this by harkening back to the central problem at the core of the opportunity (when hospitals can't supply enough staff to meet patient demands, they have to resort on costly staffing agencies).

On top of that, we are also told how  big  of an opportunity going after this customer segment represents (5,534 hospitals in the US).

This template is followed for each of the company's 3 core customer segments. This provides consistency, but more than that, it emphasizes how diligent research reinforces their assumptions about who their customers are and why they'd open their wallets. Keep all of this in mind when you are write your own business plan.

9. Customer Acquisition

Now that you've defined who your customers are for your readers, your Customer Acquisition section will tell them what marketing and sales strategy and tactics you plan to leverage to actually reach the target market (or target markets) and ultimately convert them into paying customers.

marketing Strategy Example

Similar to the exercise you will go through with your Revenue Model, in addition to identifying  which  channels you're pursuing, you'll also want to detail all of relevant costs associated with your customer acquisition channels.

Let's say you spent $100 on your marketing plan to acquire 100 customers during 2018. To get your CAC, you simply divide the number of customers acquired by your spend, giving you a $1.00 CAC.

10. Traction

This one's huge. Traction tells investors one important thing: that you're business has momentum. It's evidence that you're making forward progress and hitting milestones. That things are happening. It's one of the most critical components of a successful business plan.

Why is this so important? Financial projections are great and all, but if you can prove to investors that your company's got legs before they've even put a dime into it, then it will get them thinking about all the great things you'll be able to accomplish when they do bankroll you.

Traction Example

In our Culina Traction section, we've called attention to several forms of traction, touching on some of the biggest ones that you'll want to consider when writing your own plan.

Have I built or launched my product or service yet?

Have I reached any customers yet?

Have I generated any revenue yet?

Have I forged any strategic industry relationships that will be instrumental in driving growth?

The key takeaway here: the more traction you can show, the more credibility you build with investors. After all, you can't leave it all on market analysis alone.

11. Management Team

Here's what your Management Team section isn't: it's not an exhaustive rundown of each and every position your team members have held over the course of their lives.

Instead, you should tell investors which aspects of your team's experience and expertise directly translates to the success of  this  company and  this  industry.

In other words, what applicable, relevant background do they bring to the table?

Management Team Example

Let's be real. The vast majority of startup teams probably aren't stacked with Harvard and Stanford grads. But the thing to home in on is how the prior experience listed speaks directly to how it qualifies that team member's current position.

The word of the day here is relevancy. If it's not relevant, you probably don't need to include it in your typical business plan.

12. Funding

Funding overview.

The ask! This is where you come out and, you guessed it,  ask  your investors point blank how much money you need to move your business forward, what specific milestones their investment will allow you to reach, how you'll allocate the capital you secure, and what the investor will get in exchange for their investment.

You can also include information about your  exit strategy  (IPO, acquisition, merger?).

Funding Example

While we've preached against redundancy in your business plan, an exception to the rule is using the Funding section to offer up a very brief recap that essentially says, “here are the biggest reasons you should invest in my company and why it will ultimately benefit you.”

13. Financials

Spreadsheets and numbers and charts, oh my! Yes, it's everybody's “favorite” business plan section: Financials.

Your Financials section will come last and contain all of the forecasted numbers that say to investors that this is a sound investment. This will include things like your sales forecast, expense budget, and break-even analysis. A lot of this will be assumptions, or estimates.

The key here is keeping those estimates as realistic as humanly possible by breaking your figures into components and looking at each one individually.

Financials Example

The balance sheet above illustrates the business' estimated net worth over a three-year period by summarizing its assets (tangible objects owned by the company), liabilities (debt owed to a creditor of the company), and shareholders' equity (source of financing used to fund the assets).

In plain words, the balance sheet is basically a snapshot of your business' financial status by laying out what you own and owe, helping investors determine the level of risk involved and giving them a good understanding of the financial health of the business.

If you're looking to up your game from those outdated Excel-style spreadsheets,  our business planning software  will help you create clean, sleek, modern financial reports the modern way. Plus, it's as easy to use as it is attractive to look at. You might even find yourself enjoying financial projections, building a cash flow statement, and business planning overall.

You've Got This!

You've committed to writing your business plan and now you've got some tricks of the trade to help you out along the way. Whether you're applying for a business loan or seeking investors, your well-crafted business plan will act as your Holy Grail in helping take your business goals to the next plateau.

This is a ton of work. It's not a few hours and a free business plan template. It's not just a business plan software. We've been there before. Writing your [business plan](https://www.startups.com/library/expert-advice/top-4-business-plan-examples) is just one small step in startup journey. There's a whole long road ahead of you filled with a marketing plan, investor outreach, chasing venture capitalists, actually getting funded, and growing your business into a successful company.

And guess what? We've got helpful information on all of it — and all at your disposal! We hope this guides you confidently on how to write a business plan worth bragging about.

Ronald Calderon

Great info for feedback my current business plan!

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