Business Plan Template
How to Use this Template
Edit this Google Doc version directly to fit your needs. This copy is yours.
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. Use this template as the starting point for your
business plan and customize it to reflect your unique business.
What makes this template unique?
● Each section includes instructions and prompts to help you think through, and clearly
convey, the distinct details of your business.
● Pro tips (noted in blue) are based on our experience helping over a million business
owners write their business plans. Consider these tips as you create your own plan.
● Writing your business plan is just one step in achieving your broader business goal. At the
end of this template, you’ll find next steps to help you achieve your goal faster.
● Because you downloaded this business plan template - you get access to an exclusive
14-day free trial offer for LivePlan, the #1 rated business plan builder, which can be found
throughout this template.
Confidential
Your company name here
Your tagline here
Business Plan
Prepared [date]
Contact Information
Jane Smith
[email protected]
111.222.333
yourcompany.com
1234 Main St.
Anywhere, OR 12345
Table of contents
Executive Summary 1
Opportunity 1
Expectations 2
Opportunity 3
Problem & Solution 3
Target Market 4
Competition 5
Execution 6
Marketing & Sales 6
Operations 7
Milestones & Metrics 8
Company 9
Overview 9
Team 10
Financial Plan 11
Forecast 11
Financing 13
Statements 14
Appendix 17
Your Business Name
Executive Summary
⭐️Pro tip: We typically recommend you revisit this section after you’ve finished the rest of your
business plan so that you can easily summarize what you’ve already written.
⭐Pro tip: Harness the power of AI with LivePlan Assistant’s Rewrite feature and instantly
generate improved versions of your writing in each of these sections, adjusting your tone to sound
more professional or expanding your input to add additional details.
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?
1
Your Business Name
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? A tool like LivePlan can help you create an
automated, accurate financial forecast to include in your business plan.
Financial Highlights by Year
2
Your Business Name
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.
3
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?
4
Your Business Name
Target Market
⭐️Pro tip: Using the power of AI, LivePlan Assistant’s Rewrite feature will instantly help add
additional details to each of these sections when prompted.
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.
5
Your Business Name
Competition
Current Alternatives
Instructions: Describe your current competition. What products and services are people using
instead of yours?
Our Advantages
Instructions: Describe your current competition. What products and services are people using
instead of yours?
6
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.
7
Your Business Name
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.
8
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?
9
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?
10
Your Business Name
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.
11
Your Business Name
Financial Plan
Forecast
⭐Pro tip: Using the power of AI, LivePlan Assistant can help you generate predicted revenue
streams based on your business type so that you can instantly generate ideas for how you might
drive or grow your revenue.
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.
12
Your Business Name
13
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.
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.
14
Your Business Name
Financing
Use of Funds
Instructions: If your forecast includes loans, investments, or other financing, use this space to
explain what you plan to 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.
15
Your Business Name
Statements
Projected Profit & Loss
Instructions: Provide a summary of your financial forecast here.
⭐️ Pro tip: You can certainly crunch these numbers yourself in spreadsheets but LivePlan makes
calculating your numbers much easier with automatic financials, charts, and graphs. Note: If
your numbers don’t fit here, consider adjusting their font size.
FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
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
16
Your Business Name
Projected Balance Sheet
Instructions: Include your balance sheet here.
FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
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
17
Your Business Name
Projected Cash Flow Statement
Instructions: Include your cash flow statement here.
FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
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
18
Your Business Name
Appendix
Profit and Loss Statement (With Monthly Detail)
FY2023 Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov3 Dec3 Jan Feb
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
19
Your Business Name
Profit and Loss Statement (Annual Detail)
FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
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
20
Your Business Name
Balance Sheet (With Monthly Detail)
FY2023 Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov3 Dec3 Jan Feb
Cash
Accounts Receivable
Inventory
Other Current
Assets
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
21
Your Business Name
Balance Sheet (With Annual Detail)
FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Cash
Accounts Receivable
Inventory
Other Current Assets be
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
22
Your Business Name
Next Steps:
Applying for funding?
You’ll want to be sure your pitch and finished plan are well thought through and accurate.
LivePlan’s step-by-step guidance, automated financials, and visual charts and graphs will help
you write a business plan that'll maximize your chances of securing funding, in a format lenders
and investors will expect to see. Learn more →
Validating a business idea?
You likely don’t have any historical data yet so you’ll want to be sure you’ve put some serious
thought into all the factors going into your plan and forecast. Ensure that you’ve thoroughly
thought through your target market and the problem you’re solving as well as your business
model and financials. LivePlan will help you forecast your revenue to see if your idea is financially
sound and provide competitor benchmarks for the ultimate reality check. Learn more →
Growing your business?
You’ll want to compare your forecast to your actual business performance (plan vs. actuals).
Doing so will help you spot where your forecast was accurate (or off), and determine
opportunities for growth. LivePlan's Dashboard easily connects with Quickbooks or Xero to give
you a detailed look at how your revenue measures up to projections, so you can make informed
business decisions. Learn more →
⭐️Pro Tip: If you haven’t already done so - be sure to go back and finish the Executive Summary
(which we recommended you save for last).
23
