Imagine you’re going on a trip to a new place. What’s the first thing you will need? Directions, of course! Well, starting a business is a bit like that road trip. You need a clear roadmap to guide you toward your goals.
A business plan is that direction for your business. It helps you understand what you want to achieve in the short & long term and how to achieve it.
It also acts as a guide for the finances of the startup, assists you in financial planning, and keeps your expenses under check, which will help you run your company smoothly.
Not only does it keep your business operations under control, but also helps you in raising investment for your firm. It shows them the financial forecast, USPs of your business, marketing & sales strategies, products & services of your business, and much more. This helps investors or other readers better understand your business.
In other words, a business plan serves as a roadmap, keeps you on track, helps in financial decision-making, and impresses possible investors. Therefore, having one is crucial when starting or growing your business.
Here are the sections of a standard business plan:
Business plan sections
Executive summary
This is a quick overview of the whole business plan. It includes the business concept, the company’s mission, company history, market opportunity, management team, and financial projections.
Company overview
It includes an in-depth description of your business including company description, mission statement, business objectives, business history, and future goals.
Market analysis
Market analysis is all about your target market, industry description, and potential growth of your business.
Products and services
As the name of the section, give a detailed description of what you provide and how it is different from competitors.
Sales and marketing strategies
It includes all the promotional strategies you will use to attract potential customers and retain them.
Operations plan
It outlines what your daily activities will be like to achieve the business goals in a certain timeline.
Management team
This section contains the introduction of the key members and owners with their compensation plans.
Financial plan
A summary of your financial forecasts (generally for 3-5 years) and financing needs.
How to Write a Successful Business Plan?
Before writing your business plan, set a goal – whether it is for impressing investors or for internal business management because investors will go through your plan in depth.
Moreover, focus on what makes your business unique, and perform SWOT & competitor analysis to better understand it.
In short, your business plan should provide insight into why someone would likely partner with or invest in your firm. But to write a business plan is no easy task, right? To save time, there are various business plan templates available online, let us walk you through the 7 best of all.
7 Best Business Plan Examples
1. Sample business plans of Upmetrics
Upmetrics’ business plan library has 400+ sample business plans for various niches to help you write yours. These thoughtfully crafted business plans will provide you with step-by-step assistance on which section should deliver what information.
First, you have to choose a category of your business plan, download the template, and make changes as you see fit. The templates they provide are very easy to edit and present in front of your readers.
Apart from writing business plans, you can also:
- Do financial forecasting without fuss of long & confusing formulas
- Create pitches that impress investors and readers
- Make one-page business plans to make your presentation smooth
- And get AI assistance to write your business plan from scratch
- And get beautiful cover pages
Here is the outline of the restaurant business plan by Upmetrics:
- Executive summary
- Company overview
- Market analysis
- Sample menu
- Restaurant design
- Management team
- Operations plan
- Marketing plan
- Financial plan
In short, you can leverage this tool for your firm’s success in business planning and financial forecasting.
2. SBA business plan example
There is a detailed guide available on the website of SBA on how to write a business plan. They also have a template that you can download and then edit in the Word document. Simply, fill in all the details about your business and you are good to go.
The business plan of SBA has a detailed description of target customers, USPs, pricing structure, product lifecycle, etc.
3. SCORE business plans for startups
SCORE offers business plan templates to assist business owners in writing their own. The template of SCORE is available for download with each required section and is excellent for new entrepreneurs.
It is an organization of retired business executives, which means they can guide you for any of your business problems too.
4. HubSpot’s business plan templates
They have a thorough template that can be used to write an entire business plan for startups or existing businesses. The template guides you through the process of outlining your business strategies, financial projections, marketing plans, and more.
After editing your plan, you can easily share your plan with the team, stakeholders, or anyone else for presentation.
5. Venngage business plan templates
Venngage provides various business plan templates along with ready cover pages that have fictional company descriptions so that you can write yours.
It also uses interesting images to break up long passages of text. This may be readily modified to fit almost any business across a variety of industries. To make your plan visually appealing you can try Venngage.
6. Growthink’s business plans
Growthink has various business plan templates that provide insights into each section of the plan. You can buy the template and then edit it according to your needs. The content provided already in the template helps you understand your industry more.
Apart from business planning, they also provide strategic advisory and investment banking services. A huge qualified Growthink team is working continuously to make your businesses better.
7. Review42 business plans
Review42 provides detailed resources on various business plans for:
- Standard business plan
- Internal business plan
- Startup business plan
- Feasibility business plan
- One-page business plan
- Growth business plan
- Strategic business plan
- Operation business plan
These in-depth plan templates provide a wealth of information on how to write a business plan perfectly.
Wrapping up
Crafting a flawless business plan can be challenging, and without one, you won’t be able to impress your audience with your requests.
Therefore, with the above business plan tools, you can write your plan smoothly. However, these plans are not only for owners or entrepreneurs but also for students and nonprofit organizations.
We hope this will help you and wish you all the luck for your business’s future.
About the Author
Riya Shah is a highly skilled and experienced writer with 4+ years of expertise in social media, technical, business, and content writing. Currently, she works at Upmetrics as a content writer, sharing insightful advice on business planning through her exceptional writing skills.
Connect with Riya on social media (LinkedIn) or follow the Upmetrics blog to explore her latest articles on market analysis, business & financial planning, and more.
Disclaimer: This article contains sponsored marketing content. It is intended for promotional purposes and should not be considered as an endorsement or recommendation by our website. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and exercise their own judgment before making any decisions based on the information provided in this article.
