Business Plan Template
Business Plan Template
Business Plan Template
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 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
Target Market........................................................................................................................3
Competition............................................................................................................................3
Execution.........................................................................................................................................4
Operations..............................................................................................................................4
Company.........................................................................................................................................6
Overview.................................................................................................................................6
Team.......................................................................................................................................6
Financial Plan.................................................................................................................................7
Forecast...................................................................................................................................7
Financing................................................................................................................................9
Statements.............................................................................................................................10
Appendix.......................................................................................................................................13
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?
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.
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.
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: 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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Direct Costs
Gross Margin
Gross Margin %
Operating Expenses
Salary
Operating Income
Interest Incurred
Depreciation and Amortization
Income Taxes
Total Expenses
Net Profit
Net Profit / Sales
Inventory
Long-Term Assets
Accumulated Depreciation
Total Assets
Accounts Payable
Income Taxes Payable
Short-Term Debt
Prepaid Revenue
Total Liabilities
Paid-in Capital
Retained Earnings
Earnings
Change in Inventory
Investments Received
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
Revenue
Direct Costs
Gross Margin
Gross Margin %
Operating Expenses
Salary
Operating Income
Interest Incurred
Income Taxes
Total Expenses
Net Profit
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
Accounts Receivable
Inventory
Long-Term Assets
Accumulated Depreciation
Total Assets
Accounts Payable
Short-Term Debt
Prepaid Revenue
Long-Term Debt
Total Liabilities
Paid-in Capital
Retained Earnings
Earnings
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
Accounts Receivable
Inventory
Long-Term Assets
Accumulated Depreciation
Total Assets
Accounts Payable
Short-Term Debt
Prepaid Revenue
Long-Term Debt
Total Liabilities
Paid-in Capital
Retained Earnings
Earnings
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
Net Profit
Depreciation and
Amortization
Change in Accounts
Receivable
Change in Inventory
Investments Received
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
Net Profit
Change in Inventory
Investments Received
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
Need help writing your plan?
Want it done fast?
You'll save time and boost your chances of raising capital by hiring a LivePlan
business plan writer.
• Work directly with a writer who will build a custom business plan
for your industry
• Get free access to LivePlan software, which makes it easier to
share and update your plan
• Join over 850,000 businesses finding success with their business
5. Print (optional)
Once you're 100% happy with your plan, you can
have it professionally printed. You'll receive two
professional-grade, full-color plan copies and a CD
shipped to your door.
GET A QUOTE