Free Business Plan & Business Planning Template

What is a good structure of an effective business plan ?

There are many types of business plan format or template. The sample listed here may be used when raising finance.

Its purpose is to show that you have a clear vision of what is expected, that you have taken account of key factors and that you can convince the funders (or lenders) that you are a safe bet!

How do you write a Business Plan? Firstly you need to undertake a business planning process. This involves the planning, collection and analysis of the relevant data. As well as being able to use the following as the headings in your Business Plan, you can use this structure to ensure that you have all the relevant data for the business planning process itself. Often a successful business planning process is not achieved in one hour, or even one day, but several sessions spread over several weeks. Its best to use a team approach. If you are in business on your own, then “buddy” up with another person in a similar situation to share ideas and challenge each others thinking. Often business plans fail as they have failed to address real issues and ignored facts found whilst researching.

Sample Business Plan Template

Introduction – The audience for your business plan. Write for them. What is the plan for, what does it set out to achieve?

• Executive Summary
• Vision – what do you want the business to be in the future?
• About the Business
  • Product/ Service Summary – what exactly will you/ do you offer?
  • Business Strategy – What is your USP – Unique Selling Point
  • Financial Summary
  • Market Research
  • Market Trends
  • External Research
  • Market Estimates
  • Management Team & the people involved
  • Business Location
  • Business Organisation
• Analysis – where are you now ?
• External Analysis PESTLE (current situation)
• Internal Analysis PRIMO-F (current situation)
• Competitor Analysis Porters 5 forces
• Resulting SWOT analysis
• Where are you going and how are you going to get there?
• Marketing Strategies – your plans
  • Marketing Mix (4 ps – product, place, pricing, promotion)
    • Product strategy
    • Distribution strategy (Place)
    • Pricing strategy
    • Promotional strategy
  • Positioning statement
  • Branding strategy
  • Target market
  • Customers – acquisition, maintain – also see Ansoff matrix below
• Resourcing requirements
  • Cash and capital investments
• The finance plan for your business plan
  • Cash-flow
  • Balance Sheet
  • Profit & Loss
  • Investment from you? – how much when
  • When finances are expected to be repaid
• Objectives & Plans –  the “Vital Few” objectives required to make the business a success
• Resource Allocation
• Budget Allocation

Sanity check

Always get someone not emotionally involved with your business to read and check both your plan and most importantly your figures. If presenting to investors to raise capital make sure you know the figures inside out and back to front – and how you derived them.

For an excellent list of sample business plans look at http://entrepreneurs.suite101.com/article.cfm/business_plan_updates_and_links

For excel templates see http://www.2-small-business.com/excel_templates.shtml

Other posts about business planning

What ever business you are thinking abour running – good luck! and remember no matter how expensive an accountant seems, they will save you more than they cost you – get one early!