We’ve filled out a sample business plan as a companion to our template, featuring a fictional ecommerce business. We’ve noted where—and how—an entrepreneur could add more details to expand on their plans, depending on their goals.
That said, it may not include the specific details or structure preferred by a potential investor or lender. If your goal with a business plan is to secure funding, check with your target organizations—typically banks or investors—to see if they have a template you can follow to maximize your chances of success.
It’s tempting to dive right into execution when you’re excited about a new business or side project, but taking the time to write a business plan and get your thoughts on paper allows you to do a number of beneficial things:
A business plan can be as informal or formal as your situation calls for, but even if you’re a fan of the back-of-the-napkin approach to planning, there are some key benefits to starting your plan from an existing outline or template.
How to write a creative business plan using this free template
Our fictional business creates custom greeting cards with your pet’s paw prints on them, and the founder of the business is writing a plan to help understand the market, as well as the logistics and costs involved, to give themselves the best chance of success before they launch.
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You’re already investing time and energy in planning your small business—there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to formatting your plan. Instead, to help build a complete and effective plan, lean on time-tested structures created by entrepreneurs and startups who have come before you.
Although even the best-crafted plan may not survive its first contact with reality, the act of planning is still invaluable for any business owner.
At the beginning of each year, people in business fields always start their newly prosperous year with a business plan. Creating a business proposal is indeed a big task, you have to cast your eyes into the future and include a definitive guide to shape your business. And luckily, we got open source for business plan templates that fit our needs, which greatly save our time to draft a feasible business plan.
- It helps organize your thoughts and enables you to have a quick startup instead of wasting lots of time and efforts on impractical guidelines
For more accurate OCR results, you can click the "Settings" icon. You will notice that the OCR applied zone are automatically marked as Texts, Images or Tables in different colorful areas, you need to check if all OCR applied zone is marked correctly, if not or improperly, manually adjust (deleted the mark box first, then click on one of the icons under OCR applied zone, now you can drag a mark box to select all zone you want to be marked as the format you prefer). For example, if you want to output a part as table, remove the mark box in this zone, click on "Mark Tables" in the OCR applied zone, then drag a mark box to select those contents you want to mark as Tables. You can resize the mark box by dragging its corners. This is done to make sure all the parts are recognized properly and will be outputed with good formatting.
- Executive Summary
- Business Overview
- Market Analysis
- Company
- Strategy and Implementation
- Financial Plan
- Appendices
Create Your Own Bussiness Plan 2021
But what should a business plan include to take effect? Here are the essential parts you should write into a business plan:
There may be different versions of business plan template, Word or PDF. Here we recommend you to pick PDF format, since PDF are much more flexible to be shared on different platforms, also there won’t be mess-up when opening the PDF files in different viewers.
You can find several business plan template in PDF for different business program. Just click on the “Download this plan” and get the free template in PDF.
Since a one-page plan omits many of the details provided in a traditional business plan, be sure you have market research and other supporting documentation on hand to show stakeholders in case they have questions as they review your plan. In addition, make sure you thoroughly understand the supporting information and know how to restate it in your own words before you disburse the plan.
This one-page business plan covers all the essential elements and offers a visually appealing presentation. Information for each aspect of the plan is concise, with details about the business mission, management team, product offerings, key marketing activities, competitors, and financial projections. This plan also provides links to additional resources so that stakeholders can easily find information to support the specifics of the plan.
Donny’s Food Truck will offer a variety of fresh food at an affordable price in a convenient location. Increased traffic in the Hungry Town area, combined with severely limited dining options, provides an opportunity to offer customers a quick, nutritious meal at a competitive price. A food truck with the necessary equipment has already been acquired, so we are seeking $200,000 to cover wages, emergency repairs, and licenses needed to fund our first year of operations.
- What product or service do we offer?
- Who will use the product or service?
- What problem does our offering solve?
- How will the product or service get to our customers?
- What alternatives do our customers use, and why are we superior?
- What is our unique value proposition?
- What strengths and opportunities can we use to our advantage?
- What resources do we need to get up and running?
- What will our sales look like for the first few years?
- When do we expect to be profitable?
One-Page Lean Business Plan Template
Now that you know how to create a one-page plan and the benefits in doing so, here are some tips to get you started:
Use this one-page template to develop a strategic roadmap for your organization’s product offerings. This template provides space for you to include a business overview, a description of your target market, your competitive advantage, a list of marketing channels and materials you plan to utilize, as well as your pricing strategy, distribution channels, and success metrics. You can also use the visual timeline of milestones at the bottom to enter key dates and events.
This one-page business plan template is created for real estate agents to set objectives and put together an action plan. Enter your overarching goal at the top of the template, and establish three high-level activities you need to complete to achieve the goal. The template also includes a strategic action plan that breaks down each high-level activity into tasks and deadlines, with an accompanying visual timeline to ensure you stay on track.
To streamline your business plan into a one-page document, follow the steps below.
- Location selection
- Permits & Licenses
- Build-out / Construction of the Hotel
- Staffing and Training
- Opening
- GOP Break-even
- NOI Break-even
- 10% Ebitda
Xotels has helped hundreds of hotels to develop and optimize their businesses.
The key is, knowing what to include, and what not to include in your hotel business plan. Create a clear road map for success. Excite investors rather than bore them to death like most business plans full of redundant information do. And you need to lead readers down the exact path you want.
Any of the above examples of hotel segmentation can, if described well, be of great value to your business plan. An example of this could be a hotel located in a beach town, where you should be able to describe how demographics and psychographic differ from summer to winter time. Especially, since this example is typically known for lower demand in winter which you could be compensating for with the right marketing strategy on hand.
10. Key Milestones
Really it is not that difficult to make a good hotel business plan. It is merely a structured summary of your idea. Most people try to include everything about their hotel concept in the plan. This leads to an indigestible super novel like book work, aka a mess.
Why? Many do not have the time, don’t know what to write or how to do the financials. But until you finish your business plan, you will not be able to get the financing either. So you end up with ideas sitting in your head not realizing your dream.
A study of your local competition or global concept competitors, with each of their strengths, weaknesses, occupancy rates and market share ( SWOT analysis ). And don’t forget the most important part
Provide any other relevant information here. Don’t clutter the main sections of your hotel business plan with too many details. Rather support them with attachments in this part.
A business plan is important in that it serves two core purposes
The roadmap gives you and your team a clear path to follow. It keeps you focused and improves your odds of reaching the goals you’ve set.
Click here to download the pdf version of our simple business plan template.
Who is on your management team? What experiences/relationships/other do they possess that will help your venture succeed? Who must you hire in the future to improve your company’s odds of success?
How can I access Growthink's Ultimate Business Plan Template
The Word business plan download includes an outline of each of the 10 key plan sections. Unlike the premium/paid version, it does not include all the key sub-sections, the questions that walk you through step-by-step, the professional designs, nor the financial projections template that allows you to create professional financial statements in minutes versus weeks if creating them from scratch.
Follow the links to each section of our simple business plan template:
What key products/services will you offer and what promotions methods (e.g., radio advertising, pay-per-click ads) will you use to attract customers?
Importantly, the written sections of your plan support your financial projections. For instance, the Industry Analysis section must prove that your market size is large enough to support your success. And, your Marketing Plan section must show that you’ll be employing promotional tactics that allow you to attract customers at a reasonable cost.