Business Plan Template

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This Business Plan Template from is one of many

free downloads available at Bplans.com

This template is a simplified business plan outline. It’s a good way to get started, but as you know, you can’t just
type in your details, print it, and turn it in to the bank. Every business is unique, and your business plan should
reflect that.

LivePlan can help. With LivePlan, you can easily create a unique business plan, with all the financial
tables and graphs to go with it. You’ll also be able to:
CONFIDENTIAL

[Your company name here]

Your tagline

Business Plan
Prepared [date]

Contact Information
Jane Smith
jane@yourcompany.com
111-222-3333
www.yourcompany.com
1234 Main St.
Anywhere, OR 12345, USA
Your Business Name Here

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................1

Opportunity............................................................................................................................1

Expectations...........................................................................................................................1

Opportunity....................................................................................................................................3

Problem & Solution...............................................................................................................3

Target Market........................................................................................................................3

Competition............................................................................................................................3

Execution.........................................................................................................................................4

Marketing & Sales.................................................................................................................4

Operations..............................................................................................................................4

Milestones & Metrics............................................................................................................5

Company.........................................................................................................................................6

Overview.................................................................................................................................6

Team.......................................................................................................................................6

Financial Plan.................................................................................................................................7

Forecast...................................................................................................................................7

Financing................................................................................................................................9

Statements.............................................................................................................................10
Appendix.......................................................................................................................................13

Profit and Loss Statement...................................................................................................13

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name Here
Balance Sheet.......................................................................................................................15

Cash Flow Statement...........................................................................................................17

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Executive Summary
Opportunity
Problem Summary

INSTRUCTIONS: Describe very briefly why your business needs to exist. What problem do you
solve for your customers?

Solution Summary

INSTRUCTIONS: Briefly summarize what your company does. The executive summary should
be very short and you can go into more detail later in the plan.

Market

INSTRUCTIONS: Describe your target customer or market segments. Again, keep things very
brief in the executive summary and add more detail later in the plan.

Competition

INSTRUCTIONS: Summarize your key competition. Who will your customers also consider?

Why Us?

INSTRUCTIONS: Write a brief overview of you and your team. Why are you the right people to
build this business?

Expectations
Forecast

INSTRUCTIONS: Write a brief overview of your financial targets. How much do you plan to
sell in the next year? What are your long-term sales goals?

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Financial Highlights by Year

INSTRUCTIONS: Insert a chart of your key financial metrics here. Tools like LivePlan will do
this for you automatically.

Financing Needed

INSTRUCTIONS: If you are writing a business plan to raise money for your business, include a
brief summary of what you are looking for. If you aren’t raising money or getting a loan, you can
delete this section.

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Opportunity
Problem & Solution
Problem Worth Solving

INSTRUCTIONS: Write a little more detail than you provided in the Executive Summary about
the problem you are solving. What do your customers need? Do they need a better product, a
cheaper product, or just a store in a better location? Describe why customers will want to buy
from you.

Our Solution

INSTRUCTIONS: Provide additional detail, beyond what you wrote in the Executive Summary,
about your product or service. What is unique and special about your company that’s going to set
it apart from the competition?

Target Market
Market Size & Segments

INSTRUCTIONS: Describe your key customers – who they are and what their key attributes
are. If your company is targeting multiple customer groups (also called ‘segments’), describe
each group here. If you can, include details about how many people are in each segment and
how large the total market is.

Competition
Current Alternatives

INSTRUCTIONS: Describe your current competition. What products and services are people
using instead of yours?

Our Advantages

INSTRUCTIONS: Explain why your product or service is better than the others. Also, be sure to
describe any competitive advantages you may have, such as a patent or other unique component
to your business.

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Execution
Marketing & Sales
Marketing Plan

INSTRUCTIONS: Explain how you plan on getting the word out about your product to your
target market(s). Will you use advertising? Perhaps you are developing a content marketing
strategy. Whatever your marketing plans may be, describe them here.

Sales Plan

INSTRUCTIONS: If your company relies on sales people to close sales deals, you need a sales
plan. Your sales plan should explain how you convert people who express interest in your
product or service into paying customers. If you are opening a food truck, this section is less
important and you can consider removing it. However, if you are starting a sales-heavy business
like enterprise software or a car dealership, then you need to document how you will nurture
leads and close deals.

Operations
Locations & Facilities

INSTRUCTIONS: Describe your company’s physical locations. This might be your office, store
locations, manufacturing plants, storage facilities — whatever is relevant to your business. How
much space do you have available, and how well will it meet your current and future needs?

Technology

INSTRUCTIONS: Describe any important software, hardware, or other information technology


that you use now or plan to use later to operate your business. That might include a point-of-sale
system to take payments, an e-commerce engine for your website, a CRM solution for managing
your pipeline, marketing tools for generating leads, and so on.

Equipment & Tools

INSTRUCTIONS: List any specialty equipment that you have or plan to acquire to do your
work. This is an important component of the business plan for many industrial companies.

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Milestones & Metrics


Milestones
INSTRUCTIONS: List your key milestones and the dates that you hope to accomplish them by.
If you’ve already accomplished key goals for your business, list them here as evidence that your
business is getting traction – in other words, it’s getting positive attention from potential
customers.

Key Metrics

INSTRUCTIONS: Explain which performance metrics are most important for understanding
how your business is doing. What does success mean for you, and how will you know it when
you see it?

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Company
Overview
INSTRUCTIONS: Use this area to specify who owns your company. If there are multiple
owners, describe each of them and how much of an ownership stake they have. Also, identify
your company’s legal structure. Is it a sole proprietorship — that is, just you working for
yourself? Or a partnership, such as a limited-liability corporation (LLC) or partnership (LLP),
where the profits pass through to the partners involved? Or a nonprofit organization? Or a
proper S- or C-type corporation with its own tax obligations and the rest?

Team
Management Team

INSTRUCTIONS: List the members of the management team, including yourself. Describe each
person’s skills and experience and what they will be doing for the company. It’s OK if you don’t
have everyone for a complete management team yet. In that case, make sure to identify gaps in
your team that you intend to fill over time.

Advisors

INSTRUCTIONS: Describe any mentors, investors, former professors, industry or subject-matter


experts, knowledgeable friends or family members, small-business counselors, or others who can
help you as a business owner.

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Financial Plan
Forecast
Key Assumptions

INSTRUCTIONS: Describe how you came up with the values in your financial forecast. Did
you project your revenue based on past results, market research, your best guess at how many
people who visit your store and what percentage of them might buy, or some other method?
What kind of growth are you assuming? What are your key hires and notable expenses? What
level of profit do you expect to generate?

Revenue by Month

INSTRUCTIONS: Include a chart that shows your projected revenue. A tool like LivePlan can
help you create a chart like this and automatically include it in your business plan.

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Expenses by Month

INSTRUCTIONS: Include a chart that shows your projected expenses. A tool like LivePlan can
help you create a chart like this and automatically include it in your business plan.

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Net Profit (or Loss) by Year

INSTRUCTIONS: Include a chart that shows your projected expenses. A tool like LivePlan can
help you create a chart like this and automatically include it in your business plan.

Financing
Use of Funds

INSTRUCTIONS: If your forecast includes loans, investments, or other financing, use this space
to explain what you plan do with that money.

Sources of Funds

INSTRUCTIONS: Describe your financing plans. Are you investing your own money in the
business? Do you have a credit card or line of credit? What other types of funds — personal or
business loans, equity investments from others, etc. — do you expect to receive and when? If
you do not have the full detail of future financing worked out yet, that is understandable. Just
explain what you do know and when you expect to sort out the details.

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Statements
Projected Profit & Loss

INSTRUCTIONS: Provide a summary of your financial forecast here. You can certainly do this
by yourself, but tools like LivePlan make it much easier.

FY2018 FY2019 FY2020


Revenue

Direct Costs

Gross Margin

Gross Margin %
Operating Expenses
Salary

Employee Related Expenses

Total Operating Expenses

Operating Income

Interest Incurred
Depreciation and Amortization

Income Taxes

Total Expenses
Net Profit
Net Profit / Sales

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Projected Balance Sheet

INSTRUCTIONS: Include your balance sheet here.


FY2018 FY2019 FY2020
Cash
Accounts Receivable

Inventory

Other Current Assets

Total Current Assets

Long-Term Assets

Accumulated Depreciation

Total Long-Term Assets

Total Assets

Accounts Payable
Income Taxes Payable

Sales Taxes Payable

Short-Term Debt

Prepaid Revenue

Total Current Liabilities


Long-Term Debt

Total Liabilities

Paid-in Capital
Retained Earnings

Earnings

Total Owner's Equity

Total Liabilities & Equity

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Projected Cash Flow Statement

INSTRUCTIONS: Include your cash flow statement here.


FY2018 FY2019 FY2020
Net Cash Flow from Operations
Net Profit

Depreciation and Amortization

Change in Accounts Receivable

Change in Inventory

Change in Accounts Payable

Change in Income Tax Payable

Change in Sales Tax Payable

Change in Prepaid Revenue

Net Cash Flow from Operations


Investing & Financing
Assets Purchased or Sold

Investments Received

Change in Long-Term Debt

Change in Short-Term Debt

Dividends & Distributions

Net Cash Flow from Investing &


Financing
Cash at Beginning of Period
Net Change in Cash

Cash at End of Period

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret


information and is shared only with the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas
with third parties without the express written consent of the plan author.
Your Business Name

Appendix
Profit and Loss Statement (With Monthly Detail)
FY2018 Mar '17 Apr '17 May '17 Jun '17 Jul '17 Aug '17 Sep '17 Oct '17 Nov '17 Dec '17 Jan '18 Feb '18

Revenue

Direct Costs

Gross Margin

Gross Margin %

Operating
Expenses

Salary

Employee
Related
Expenses

Total
Operating
Expenses

Operating
Income

Interest Incurred

Depreciation and
Amortization

Income Taxes

Total Expenses

Net Profit

Net Profit /
Sales

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret information and is shared only with
the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas with third parties without the express written consent of the plan
Your Business Name

Profit and Loss Statement (Annual Detail)


FY2018 FY2019 FY2020

Revenue

Direct Costs

Gross Margin

Gross Margin %

Operating Expenses

Salary

Employee Related Expenses

Total Operating Expenses

Operating Income

Interest Incurred

Depreciation and Amortization

Income Taxes

Total Expenses

Net Profit

Net Profit / Sales

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret information and is shared only with
the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas with third parties without the express written consent of the plan
Your Business Name

Balance Sheet (With Monthly Detail)


Mar
FY2018 Apr '17 May '17 Jun '17 Jul '17 Aug '17 Sep '17 Oct '17 Nov '17 Dec '17 Jan '18 Feb '18
'

Cash

Accounts Receivable

Inventory

Other Current Assets

Total Current Assets

Long-Term Assets

Accumulated Depreciation

Total Long-Term Assets

Total Assets

Accounts Payable

Income Taxes Payable

Sales Taxes Payable

Short-Term Debt

Prepaid Revenue

Total Current Liabilities

Long-Term Debt

Total Liabilities

Paid-in Capital

Retained Earnings

Earnings

Total Owner's Equity

Total Liabilities & Equity

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret information and is shared only with
the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas with third parties without the express written consent of the plan
Your Business Name

Balance Sheet (Annual Detail)


FY2018 FY2019 FY2020

Cash

Accounts Receivable

Inventory

Other Current Assets

Total Current Assets

Long-Term Assets

Accumulated Depreciation

Total Long-Term Assets

Total Assets

Accounts Payable

Income Taxes Payable

Sales Taxes Payable

Short-Term Debt

Prepaid Revenue

Total Current Liabilities

Long-Term Debt

Total Liabilities

Paid-in Capital

Retained Earnings

Earnings

Total Owner's Equity

Total Liabilities & Equity

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret information and is shared only with
the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas with third parties without the express written consent of the plan
Your Business Name

Cash Flow Statement (With Monthly Detail)


Mar
FY2018 Apr '17 May '17 Jun '17 Jul '17 Aug '17 Sep '17 Oct '17 Nov '17 Dec '17 Jan '18 Feb '18
'

Net Cash Flow


from Operations

Net Profit

Depreciation and
Amortization

Change in Accounts
Receivable

Change in Inventory

Change in Accounts Payable

Change in Income Tax


Payable

Change in Sales Tax Payable

Change in Prepaid Revenue

Net Cash Flow from


Operations

Investing & Financing

Assets Purchased or Sold

Investments Received

Change in Long-Term Debt

Change in Short-Term Debt

Dividends & Distributions

Net Cash Flow from


Investing & Financing

Cash at Beginning of Period

Net Change in Cash

Cash at End of Period

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret information and is shared only with
the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas with third parties without the express written consent of the plan
Your Business Name

Cash Flow Statement (Annual Detail)


FY2018 FY2019 FY2020

Net Cash Flow from Operations

Net Profit

Depreciation and Amortization

Change in Accounts Receivable

Change in Inventory

Change in Accounts Payable

Change in Income Tax Payable

Change in Sales Tax Payable

Change in Prepaid Revenue

Net Cash Flow from Operations

Investing & Financing

Assets Purchased or Sold

Investments Received

Change in Long-Term Debt

Change in Short-Term Debt

Dividends & Distributions

Net Cash Flow from Investing & Financing

Cash at Beginning of Period

Net Change in Cash

Cash at End of Period

CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT DISSEMINATE. This business plan contains confidential, trade-secret information and is shared only with
the understanding that you will not share its contents or ideas with third parties without the express written consent of the plan
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