1/24/2018 A Standard Business Plan Outline [Updated for 2017] | Bplans

A Standard Business Plan Outline [Updated for

2017]
by: Tim Berry FUNDING 184 Shares:

This article is part of our “Business Planning Guide”—a curated list of our articles
that will help you with the planning process!

Editor’s note: We’ve updated this article for 2017.

Start from the very beginning understanding that your business plan ought to be
speci c to your business needs and objectives. Every business ought to have a plan,
but not every business needs a full formal plan with carefully crafted summaries and
descriptions.

If you don’t have a speci c immediate need to show a formal business plan to a
banker or investor, then you are probably better off doing just a lean business plan,
for your internal use only.

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To make the best impression on banks and investors, your business plan should be
presented in the standard business plan format.

Your business plan should present what a banker or venture capitalist expects to see,
in the order they expect to see it in. Following a standard business plan outline will
keep you on track, and save you from botching your best chance at getting your
business funded.

Want to just skip ahead and download our free business plan template? Just click
here.

Build your plan, then organize it.

I don’t recommend writing the plan in the same order you present it as a nished
document.

For example, although the executive summary comes as the rst section of a
business plan, I recommend writing it after everything else is done, so you know
exactly what appears in the rest of your business plan.

Likewise, although the management summary is usually presented toward the end of
a nished business plan, it might be an easy place to start writing.  And some people
prefer to start with a mission statement, or strategy summary. Others like to focus
on the numbers rst, so they start with a sales forecast or spending budget. Start
where you like, and get going. A healthy business planning process will always
involve circling back often to check results and revise as necessary.

Is the order important?

If you have the main components, the order doesn’t matter that much, but what’s
presented here is the sequence I suggest for a standard business plan.

In this article, I will cover the following:

Simple business plan outline

Detailed business plan outline

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Standard tables and charts

You can click each of the above links to jump directly to that section. See an example
of a completed business plan here, and learn even more about writing a business
plan here.

Simple business plan outline:

1. Executive summary

Write this last. It’s just a page or two that highlights the points you’ve made
elsewhere in your business plan.

It’s also the doorway to your plan—after looking over your executive summary, your
target reader is either going to throw your business plan away or keep reading, so
you’d better get it just right.

Summarize the problem you are solving for customers, your solution, the target
market, the founding team, and nancial forecast highlights. Keep things as brief as
possible and entice your audience to learn more about your company.

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2. Opportunity

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Describe the problem that you solve for your customers and the solution that you are
selling.

It is always a good idea to think in terms of customer needs and customer bene ts as
you de ne your product offerings, rather than thinking of your side of the equation
(how much the product or service costs, and how you deliver it to the customer).
Prev Next
Sometimes
Article this part of the plan will include tables that provide more details, such as
Article

a bill of materials or detailed price lists, but more often than not this section just
describes what you are selling and how your products and services ll a need for your
customers.

3. Market analysis summary

You need to know your target market—the types of customers you are looking for—
and how it’s changing.

Use this section to discuss your customers’ needs, where your customers are, how to
reach them and how to deliver your product to them.

You’ll also need to know who your competitors are and how you stack up against
them—why are you sure there’s room for you in this market?

4. Execution

Use this section to outline your marketing plan, your sales plan, and the other
logistics involved in actually running your business.

You’ll want to cover the technology you plan on using, your business location and
other facilities, special equipment you might need, and your roadmap for getting
your business up and running. Finally, you’ll want to outline the key metrics you’ll
be tracking to make sure your business is headed in the right direction.

5. Company and management summary

This section is an overview of who you are.

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It should describe the organization of your business, and the key members of the
management team, but it should also ground the reader with the nuts and bolts:
when your company was founded, who is/are the owner(s), what state your company
is registered in and where you do business, and when/if your company was
incorporated.

Be sure to include summaries of your managers’ backgrounds and experience—these

should act like brief resumes—and describe their functions with the company. Full-
length resumes should be appended to the plan.

6. Financial plan

At the very least this section should include your projected pro t and loss and cash
ow tables, and a brief description of the assumptions you’re making with your
projections.

You may also want to include your balance sheet, your sales forecast, business ratios,
and a break-even analysis.

Finally, if you are raising money or taking out loans, you should highlight the money
you need to launch the business.

Listen to Tim Berry discuss lean business planning:

Bcast

Episode 9: Lean Business Planning with Tim Berry | The Bcast Share

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Detailed business plan outline:

1.0 Executive Summary

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1.1 Problem
1.2 Solution
1.3 Market
1.4 Competition
1.5 Financial Highlights

2.0 Opportunity

2.1 Problem Worth Solving

2.2 Our Solution
2.3 Validation of Problem and Solution
2.4 Roadmap/Future Plans

3.0 Market Analysis Summary

 
3.1 Market Segmentation
3.2 Target Market Segment Strategy
3.2.1 Market Needs
3.2.2 Market Trends
3.2.3 Market Growth
3.3 Key Customers
3.4 Future Markets
3.5 Competition
3.5.1 Competitors and Alternatives
3.5.2 Our Advantages (see an example)

4.0 Execution

4.1 Marketing Plan
4.2 Sales Plan
4.3 Location and Facilities
4.4 Technology

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4.5 Equipment and Tools

4.6 Milestones
4.7 Key Metrics

5.0 Company and Management Summary

5.1 Organizational Structure

5.2 Management Team
5.3 Management Team Gaps
5.4 Personnel Plan
5.5 Company History and Ownership

6.0 Financial Plan

6.1 Revenue/Sales Forecast
6.2 Expenses
6.3 Projected Pro t and Loss
6.4 Projected Cash Flow
6.5 Projected Balance Sheet
6.7 Business Ratios

7.0 Appendix

Standard tables and charts:

Cash ow is the single most important numerical analysis in a business plan, and a
standard cash ow table should never be missing. Most standard business plans also
include a sales forecast and pro t and loss statements.

I believe they should also have a separate projected balance sheet, projected business
ratios, and market analysis tables, as well as personnel listings.

I also believe that every business plan should include bar charts and pie charts to
illustrate the numbers.

More business planning advice:

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Size your business plan to t your business. Remember that your business plan
should be only as big as what you need to run your business.

While every business owner should have an ongoing planning process to help them
run their business, not every business owner needs a complete, formal business plan
suitable for submitting to a potential investor, or bank, or venture capital contest. So
don’t include outline points just because they are on a big list somewhere, or on this
list, unless you’re developing a standard business plan that you’ll be showing to
someone who expects to see a standard business plan.

Consider lean business planning—writing a business plan doesn’t have to be a long,

painful process. Instead, you can use the Lean Planning method to get started easier
and nish faster. Lean Planning will help you start your business in a way that
improves your chances of success. This methodology is baked into LivePlan.

Don’t make common mistakes. I’ve seen thousands of business plans, good and bad,
and I can tell you that avoiding these common business planning errors will put you
far ahead of the curve.

More business planning resources:

Sample business plans: Over 500 free sample business plans from various
industries.

Business plan template: This ll-in-the-blank business plan template is in the

format preferred by banks and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

How to start a business: An easy-to-follow six-step process for starting a new

business.

LivePlan: Easy cloud-based business planning software for everyone. This online
software includes expert advice, built-in help and more than 500 complete
sample business plans.

Business plan consulting: We’re here to give you the tools to write your business
plan on your own. But, sometimes it’s nice to have a professional guide you
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through the process. Let an expert MBA create a business plan for your business
in ve business days.

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Tim Berry
Tim Berry is the founder of Palo Alto Software , a co-founder of Borland
International,…

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