Business plan template

Thanks for downloading this business plan template from 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: View over 500 complete sample business plans Save time with linked financial tables (the formulas are built in, so you don’t have to do the calculations!) Benefit from tons of help, advice, and resources Collaborate with a partner or a team Work on your plan from anywhere and on any computer Customize every aspect so it’s right for your business Click here and receive 50% off your first month of LivePlan!

 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  Table of Contents  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? 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. 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: 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. 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? 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. 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. 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. 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 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 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  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 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 Balance Sheet (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 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 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 Cash Flow 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 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 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 Your Business Name Here 2 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 7 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 10 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.