5 pages business plan

Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Simple Business Plan

By Joe Weller | October 11, 2021

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A business plan is the cornerstone of any successful company, regardless of size or industry. This step-by-step guide provides information on writing a business plan for organizations at any stage, complete with free templates and expert advice. 

Included on this page, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to writing a business plan and a chart to identify which type of business plan you should write . Plus, find information on how a business plan can help grow a business and expert tips on writing one .

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that communicates a company’s goals and ambitions, along with the timeline, finances, and methods needed to achieve them. Additionally, it may include a mission statement and details about the specific products or services offered.

A business plan can highlight varying time periods, depending on the stage of your company and its goals. That said, a typical business plan will include the following benchmarks:

• Product goals and deadlines for each month
• Monthly financials for the first two years
• Profit and loss statements for the first three to five years
• Balance sheet projections for the first three to five years

Startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses all create business plans to use as a guide as their new company progresses. Larger organizations may also create (and update) a business plan to keep high-level goals, financials, and timelines in check.

While you certainly need to have a formalized outline of your business’s goals and finances, creating a business plan can also help you determine a company’s viability, its profitability (including when it will first turn a profit), and how much money you will need from investors. In turn, a business plan has functional value as well: Not only does outlining goals help keep you accountable on a timeline, it can also attract investors in and of itself and, therefore, act as an effective strategy for growth.

For more information, visit our comprehensive guide to writing a strategic plan or download free strategic plan templates . This page focuses on for-profit business plans, but you can read our article with nonprofit business plan templates .

Business Plan Steps

The specific information in your business plan will vary, depending on the needs and goals of your venture, but a typical plan includes the following ordered elements:

• Executive summary
• Description of business
• Market analysis
• Competitive analysis
• Description of organizational management
• Description of product or services
• Marketing plan
• Sales strategy
• Funding details (or request for funding)
• Financial projections

If your plan is particularly long or complicated, consider adding a table of contents or an appendix for reference. For an in-depth description of each step listed above, read “ How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step ” below.

Broadly speaking, your audience includes anyone with a vested interest in your organization. They can include potential and existing investors, as well as customers, internal team members, suppliers, and vendors.

Do I Need a Simple or Detailed Plan?

Your business’s stage and intended audience dictates the level of detail your plan needs. Corporations require a thorough business plan — up to 100 pages. Small businesses or startups should have a concise plan focusing on financials and strategy.

How to Choose the Right Plan for Your Business

In order to identify which type of business plan you need to create, ask: “What do we want the plan to do?” Identify function first, and form will follow.

Use the chart below as a guide for what type of business plan to create:

Is the Order of Your Business Plan Important?

There is no set order for a business plan, with the exception of the executive summary, which should always come first. Beyond that, simply ensure that you organize the plan in a way that makes sense and flows naturally.

The Difference Between Traditional and Lean Business Plans

A traditional business plan follows the standard structure — because these plans encourage detail, they tend to require more work upfront and can run dozens of pages. A Lean business plan is less common and focuses on summarizing critical points for each section. These plans take much less work and typically run one page in length.

In general, you should use a traditional model for a legacy company, a large company, or any business that does not adhere to Lean (or another Agile method ). Use Lean if you expect the company to pivot quickly or if you already employ a Lean strategy with other business operations. Additionally, a Lean business plan can suffice if the document is for internal use only. Stick to a traditional version for investors, as they may be more sensitive to sudden changes or a high degree of built-in flexibility in the plan.

How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step

Writing a strong business plan requires research and attention to detail for each section. Below, you’ll find a 10-step guide to researching and defining each element in the plan.

Step 1: Executive Summary

The executive summary will always be the first section of your business plan. The goal is to answer the following questions:

• What is the vision and mission of the company?
• What are the company’s short- and long-term goals?

See our  roundup of executive summary examples and templates for samples. Read our executive summary guide to learn more about writing one.

Step 2: Description of Business

The goal of this section is to define the realm, scope, and intent of your venture. To do so, answer the following questions as clearly and concisely as possible:

• What business are we in?
• What does our business do?

Step 3: Market Analysis

In this section, provide evidence that you have surveyed and understand the current marketplace, and that your product or service satisfies a niche in the market. To do so, answer these questions:

• Who is our customer? 
• What does that customer value?

Step 4: Competitive Analysis

In many cases, a business plan proposes not a brand-new (or even market-disrupting) venture, but a more competitive version — whether via features, pricing, integrations, etc. — than what is currently available. In this section, answer the following questions to show that your product or service stands to outpace competitors:

• Who is the competition? 
• What do they do best? 
• What is our unique value proposition?

Step 5: Description of Organizational Management

In this section, write an overview of the team members and other key personnel who are integral to success. List roles and responsibilities, and if possible, note the hierarchy or team structure.

Step 6: Description of Products or Services

In this section, clearly define your product or service, as well as all the effort and resources that go into producing it. The strength of your product largely defines the success of your business, so it’s imperative that you take time to test and refine the product before launching into marketing, sales, or funding details.

Questions to answer in this section are as follows:

• What is the product or service?
• How do we produce it, and what resources are necessary for production?

Step 7: Marketing Plan

In this section, define the marketing strategy for your product or service. This doesn’t need to be as fleshed out as a full marketing plan , but it should answer basic questions, such as the following:

• Who is the target market (if different from existing customer base)?
• What channels will you use to reach your target market?
• What resources does your marketing strategy require, and do you have access to them?
• If possible, do you have a rough estimate of timeline and budget?
• How will you measure success?

Step 8: Sales Plan

Write an overview of the sales strategy, including the priorities of each cycle, steps to achieve these goals, and metrics for success. For the purposes of a business plan, this section does not need to be a comprehensive, in-depth sales plan , but can simply outline the high-level objectives and strategies of your sales efforts. 

Start by answering the following questions:

• What is the sales strategy?
• What are the tools and tactics you will use to achieve your goals?
• What are the potential obstacles, and how will you overcome them?
• What is the timeline for sales and turning a profit?
• What are the metrics of success?

Step 9: Funding Details (or Request for Funding)

This section is one of the most critical parts of your business plan, particularly if you are sharing it with investors. You do not need to provide a full financial plan, but you should be able to answer the following questions:

• How much capital do you currently have? How much capital do you need?
• How will you grow the team (onboarding, team structure, training and development)?
• What are your physical needs and constraints (space, equipment, etc.)?

Step 10: Financial Projections

Apart from the fundraising analysis, investors like to see thought-out financial projections for the future. As discussed earlier, depending on the scope and stage of your business, this could be anywhere from one to five years. 

While these projections won’t be exact — and will need to be somewhat flexible — you should be able to gauge the following:

• How and when will the company first generate a profit?
• How will the company maintain profit thereafter?

Business Plan Template

Download Business Plan Template

Microsoft Excel | Smartsheet

This basic business plan template has space for all the traditional elements: an executive summary, product or service details, target audience, marketing and sales strategies, etc. In the finances sections, input your baseline numbers, and the template will automatically calculate projections for sales forecasting, financial statements, and more.

For templates tailored to more specific needs, visit this business plan template roundup or download a fill-in-the-blank business plan template to make things easy. 

If you are looking for a particular template by file type, visit our pages dedicated exclusively to Microsoft Excel , Microsoft Word , and Adobe PDF business plan templates.

How to Write a Simple Business Plan

A simple business plan is a streamlined, lightweight version of the large, traditional model. As opposed to a one-page business plan , which communicates high-level information for quick overviews (such as a stakeholder presentation), a simple business plan can exceed one page.

Below are the steps for creating a generic simple business plan, which are reflected in the template below .

• Write the Executive Summary This section is the same as in the traditional business plan — simply offer an overview of what’s in the business plan, the prospect or core offering, and the short- and long-term goals of the company. 
• Add a Company Overview Document the larger company mission and vision. 
• Provide the Problem and Solution In straightforward terms, define the problem you are attempting to solve with your product or service and how your company will attempt to do it. Think of this section as the gap in the market you are attempting to close.
• Identify the Target Market Who is your company (and its products or services) attempting to reach? If possible, briefly define your buyer personas .
• Write About the Competition In this section, demonstrate your knowledge of the market by listing the current competitors and outlining your competitive advantage.
• Describe Your Product or Service Offerings Get down to brass tacks and define your product or service. What exactly are you selling?
• Outline Your Marketing Tactics Without getting into too much detail, describe your planned marketing initiatives.
• Add a Timeline and the Metrics You Will Use to Measure Success Offer a rough timeline, including milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs) that you will use to measure your progress.
• Include Your Financial Forecasts Write an overview of your financial plan that demonstrates you have done your research and adequate modeling. You can also list key assumptions that go into this forecasting. 
• Identify Your Financing Needs This section is where you will make your funding request. Based on everything in the business plan, list your proposed sources of funding, as well as how you will use it.

Simple Business Plan Template

Download Simple Business Plan Template

Microsoft Excel |  Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF  | Smartsheet

Use this simple business plan template to outline each aspect of your organization, including information about financing and opportunities to seek out further funding. This template is completely customizable to fit the needs of any business, whether it’s a startup or large company.

Read our article offering free simple business plan templates or free 30-60-90-day business plan templates to find more tailored options. You can also explore our collection of one page business templates . 

How to Write a Business Plan for a Lean Startup

A Lean startup business plan is a more Agile approach to a traditional version. The plan focuses more on activities, processes, and relationships (and maintains flexibility in all aspects), rather than on concrete deliverables and timelines.

While there is some overlap between a traditional and a Lean business plan, you can write a Lean plan by following the steps below:

• Add Your Value Proposition Take a streamlined approach to describing your product or service. What is the unique value your startup aims to deliver to customers? Make sure the team is aligned on the core offering and that you can state it in clear, simple language.
• List Your Key Partners List any other businesses you will work with to realize your vision, including external vendors, suppliers, and partners. This section demonstrates that you have thoughtfully considered the resources you can provide internally, identified areas for external assistance, and conducted research to find alternatives.
• Note the Key Activities Describe the key activities of your business, including sourcing, production, marketing, distribution channels, and customer relationships.
• Include Your Key Resources List the critical resources — including personnel, equipment, space, and intellectual property — that will enable you to deliver your unique value.
• Identify Your Customer Relationships and Channels In this section, document how you will reach and build relationships with customers. Provide a high-level map of the customer experience from start to finish, including the spaces in which you will interact with the customer (online, retail, etc.). 
• Detail Your Marketing Channels Describe the marketing methods and communication platforms you will use to identify and nurture your relationships with customers. These could be email, advertising, social media, etc.
• Explain the Cost Structure This section is especially necessary in the early stages of a business. Will you prioritize maximizing value or keeping costs low? List the foundational startup costs and how you will move toward profit over time.
• Share Your Revenue Streams Over time, how will the company make money? Include both the direct product or service purchase, as well as secondary sources of revenue, such as subscriptions, selling advertising space, fundraising, etc.

Lean Business Plan Template for Startups

Download Lean Business Plan Template for Startups

Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF

Startup leaders can use this Lean business plan template to relay the most critical information from a traditional plan. You’ll find all the sections listed above, including spaces for industry and product overviews, cost structure and sources of revenue, and key metrics, and a timeline. The template is completely customizable, so you can edit it to suit the objectives of your Lean startups.

See our wide variety of  startup business plan templates for more options.

How to Write a Business Plan for a Loan

A business plan for a loan, often called a loan proposal , includes many of the same aspects of a traditional business plan, as well as additional financial documents, such as a credit history, a loan request, and a loan repayment plan.

In addition, you may be asked to include personal and business financial statements, a form of collateral, and equity investment information.

Download free financial templates to support your business plan.

Tips for Writing a Business Plan

Outside of including all the key details in your business plan, you have several options to elevate the document for the highest chance of winning funding and other resources. Follow these tips from experts:.

• Keep It Simple: Avner Brodsky , the Co-Founder and CEO of Lezgo Limited, an online marketing company, uses the acronym KISS (keep it short and simple) as a variation on this idea. “The business plan is not a college thesis,” he says. “Just focus on providing the essential information.”
• Do Adequate Research: Michael Dean, the Co-Founder of Pool Research , encourages business leaders to “invest time in research, both internal and external (market, finance, legal etc.). Avoid being overly ambitious or presumptive. Instead, keep everything objective, balanced, and accurate.” Your plan needs to stand on its own, and you must have the data to back up any claims or forecasting you make. As Brodsky explains, “Your business needs to be grounded on the realities of the market in your chosen location. Get the most recent data from authoritative sources so that the figures are vetted by experts and are reliable.”
• Set Clear Goals: Make sure your plan includes clear, time-based goals. “Short-term goals are key to momentum growth and are especially important to identify for new businesses,” advises Dean.
• Know (and Address) Your Weaknesses: “This awareness sets you up to overcome your weak points much quicker than waiting for them to arise,” shares Dean. Brodsky recommends performing a full SWOT analysis to identify your weaknesses, too. “Your business will fare better with self-knowledge, which will help you better define the mission of your business, as well as the strategies you will choose to achieve your objectives,” he adds.
• Seek Peer or Mentor Review: “Ask for feedback on your drafts and for areas to improve,” advises Brodsky. “When your mind is filled with dreams for your business, sometimes it is an outsider who can tell you what you’re missing and will save your business from being a product of whimsy.”

Outside of these more practical tips, the language you use is also important and may make or break your business plan.

Shaun Heng, VP of Operations at Coin Market Cap , gives the following advice on the writing, “Your business plan is your sales pitch to an investor. And as with any sales pitch, you need to strike the right tone and hit a few emotional chords. This is a little tricky in a business plan, because you also need to be formal and matter-of-fact. But you can still impress by weaving in descriptive language and saying things in a more elegant way.

“A great way to do this is by expanding your vocabulary, avoiding word repetition, and using business language. Instead of saying that something ‘will bring in as many customers as possible,’ try saying ‘will garner the largest possible market segment.’ Elevate your writing with precise descriptive words and you'll impress even the busiest investor.”

Additionally, Dean recommends that you “stay consistent and concise by keeping your tone and style steady throughout, and your language clear and precise. Include only what is 100 percent necessary.”

Resources for Writing a Business Plan

While a template provides a great outline of what to include in a business plan, a live document or more robust program can provide additional functionality, visibility, and real-time updates. The U.S. Small Business Association also curates resources for writing a business plan.

Additionally, you can use business plan software to house data, attach documentation, and share information with stakeholders. Popular options include LivePlan, Enloop, BizPlanner, PlanGuru, and iPlanner.

How a Business Plan Helps to Grow Your Business

A business plan — both the exercise of creating one and the document — can grow your business by helping you to refine your product, target audience, sales plan, identify opportunities, secure funding, and build new partnerships. 

Outside of these immediate returns, writing a business plan is a useful exercise in that it forces you to research the market, which prompts you to forge your unique value proposition and identify ways to beat the competition. Doing so will also help you build (and keep you accountable to) attainable financial and product milestones. And down the line, it will serve as a welcome guide as hurdles inevitably arise.

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How to Write a Business Plan, Step by Step

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What is a business plan?

1. write an executive summary, 2. describe your company, 3. state your business goals, 4. describe your products and services, 5. do your market research, 6. outline your marketing and sales plan, 7. perform a business financial analysis, 8. make financial projections, 9. summarize how your company operates, 10. add any additional information to an appendix, business plan tips and resources.

A business plan outlines your business’s financial goals and explains how you’ll achieve them over the next three to five years. Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing a business plan that will offer a strong, detailed road map for your business.

ZenBusiness

A business plan is a document that explains what your business does, how it makes money and who its customers are. Internally, writing a business plan should help you clarify your vision and organize your operations. Externally, you can share it with potential lenders and investors to show them you’re on the right track.

Business plans are living documents; it’s OK for them to change over time. Startups may update their business plans often as they figure out who their customers are and what products and services fit them best. Mature companies might only revisit their business plan every few years. Regardless of your business’s age, brush up this document before you apply for a business loan .

» Need help writing? Learn about the best business plan software .

This is your elevator pitch. It should include a mission statement, a brief description of the products or services your business offers and a broad summary of your financial growth plans.

Though the executive summary is the first thing your investors will read, it can be easier to write it last. That way, you can highlight information you’ve identified while writing other sections that go into more detail.

» MORE: How to write an executive summary in 6 steps

Next up is your company description. This should contain basic information like:

Your business’s registered name.

Address of your business location .

Names of key people in the business. Make sure to highlight unique skills or technical expertise among members of your team.

Your company description should also define your business structure — such as a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation — and include the percent ownership that each owner has and the extent of each owner’s involvement in the company.

Lastly, write a little about the history of your company and the nature of your business now. This prepares the reader to learn about your goals in the next section.

» MORE: How to write a company overview for a business plan

The third part of a business plan is an objective statement. This section spells out what you’d like to accomplish, both in the near term and over the coming years.

If you’re looking for a business loan or outside investment, you can use this section to explain how the financing will help your business grow and how you plan to achieve those growth targets. The key is to provide a clear explanation of the opportunity your business presents to the lender.

For example, if your business is launching a second product line, you might explain how the loan will help your company launch that new product and how much you think sales will increase over the next three years as a result.

» MORE: How to write a successful business plan for a loan

In this section, go into detail about the products or services you offer or plan to offer.

You should include the following:

An explanation of how your product or service works.

The pricing model for your product or service.

The typical customers you serve.

Your supply chain and order fulfillment strategy.

You can also discuss current or pending trademarks and patents associated with your product or service.

Lenders and investors will want to know what sets your product apart from your competition. In your market analysis section , explain who your competitors are. Discuss what they do well, and point out what you can do better. If you’re serving a different or underserved market, explain that.

Here, you can address how you plan to persuade customers to buy your products or services, or how you will develop customer loyalty that will lead to repeat business.

Include details about your sales and distribution strategies, including the costs involved in selling each product .

» MORE: R e a d our complete guide to small business marketing

If you’re a startup, you may not have much information on your business financials yet. However, if you’re an existing business, you’ll want to include income or profit-and-loss statements, a balance sheet that lists your assets and debts, and a cash flow statement that shows how cash comes into and goes out of the company.

Accounting software may be able to generate these reports for you. It may also help you calculate metrics such as:

Net profit margin: the percentage of revenue you keep as net income.

Current ratio: the measurement of your liquidity and ability to repay debts.

Accounts receivable turnover ratio: a measurement of how frequently you collect on receivables per year.

This is a great place to include charts and graphs that make it easy for those reading your plan to understand the financial health of your business.

This is a critical part of your business plan if you’re seeking financing or investors. It outlines how your business will generate enough profit to repay the loan or how you will earn a decent return for investors.

Here, you’ll provide your business’s monthly or quarterly sales, expenses and profit estimates over at least a three-year period — with the future numbers assuming you’ve obtained a new loan.

Accuracy is key, so carefully analyze your past financial statements before giving projections. Your goals may be aggressive, but they should also be realistic.

NerdWallet’s picks for setting up your business finances:

The best business checking accounts .

The best business credit cards .

The best accounting software .

Before the end of your business plan, summarize how your business is structured and outline each team’s responsibilities. This will help your readers understand who performs each of the functions you’ve described above — making and selling your products or services — and how much each of those functions cost.

If any of your employees have exceptional skills, you may want to include their resumes to help explain the competitive advantage they give you.

Finally, attach any supporting information or additional materials that you couldn’t fit in elsewhere. That might include:

Licenses and permits.

Equipment leases.

Bank statements.

Details of your personal and business credit history, if you’re seeking financing.

If the appendix is long, you may want to consider adding a table of contents at the beginning of this section.

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We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to better understand the unique needs of your business.

Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

Here are some tips to write a detailed, convincing business plan:

Avoid over-optimism: If you’re applying for a business bank loan or professional investment, someone will be reading your business plan closely. Providing unreasonable sales estimates can hurt your chances of approval.

Proofread: Spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors can jump off the page and turn off lenders and prospective investors. If writing and editing aren't your strong suit, you may want to hire a professional business plan writer, copy editor or proofreader.

Use free resources: SCORE is a nonprofit association that offers a large network of volunteer business mentors and experts who can help you write or edit your business plan. The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Centers , which provide free business consulting and help with business plan development, can also be a resource.

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How Many Pages Should a Business Plan Be? 10, 25, 50 or 100?

How many pages should a business plan be? 10, 25, 50, 100 or more? Here is a quick comparison of the business plan types available and their optimum length.

A lot of new entrepreneurs often wonder how long is too long for a business plan. Most business experts and counselors say it should be 30 to 50 pages, as a minimum, while others give a more or lesser number than the one named above. One thing you have to understand is that there is no specific number a business plan should be before it is considered perfect. Everything depends on your audience and what you intend to use the business plan for.

According to the United States’ Small Business Association, ‘a business plan needs to be whatever length is required to excite the financing source, prove that management truly understands the market, and detail the execution strategy’.

From various surveys done by many organizations and professionals, it was concluded that a workable business plan should be in the ranges of 25 to 100 pages, depending on the various factors involved in writing the plan. Some of these factors may include; targeted markets, difficult assumptions or non-industry data, industry risk, poor credit factors that require additional explanation or documentation, financing source, etc.

Using the SBA model, a business plan can range in size from 38 to 50 pages for a basic plan to as high as 80 to 100 pages for complex plans. On the other hand, venture contests have come to the conclusion that an effective business plan should be around 30 pages, sometimes 40, but rarely 50 – and that includes detailed financials in the appendices.

Page Length Expectation for Various Kinds of Business Plans

The various kinds of business plans in existence have their own page length expectation according to experts. They usually fall within these indices;

• For small internal reports, the page length is usually Ten to fifteen pages
• For corporate business plans, the page length allowed can be up to hundred and even over
• Startup and expansion plans used for potential investors, vendors or other business partners can be 20 to 40 pages.
• Venture contests limit page length (including the appendix with financial information), at a minimum 30 pages, and in some rare instances as many as 50 pages.

A Breakdown of the Pages of a Business Plan 

The SBA model allows business plans to run from 38 pages to as much as hundred pages depending on the kind of plan in question. The pages of the typical business plan are broken down as follows;

• Part 1: Introduction (3 to 5 pages)
• Part 2: Market Analysis (9 to 22 pages)

The market analysis section illustrates the knowledge about the particular industry in question. It presents general highlights and conclusions of any marketing research data that have been have collected; however, the specific details of the marketing research studies should be moved to the appendix section of the business plan .

• Part 3: Company Description (1 to 2 pages)

Without going into detail, this section usually includes a high-level look at how all of the different elements of the business fits together. The company description section should include information about the nature of the business as well as list the primary factors that is believe will make the business a success.

• Part 4: Organization and Management (3 to 5 pages)

This section should include the company’s organizational structure, details about the ownership of the company, profiles of the management team, and the qualifications of the board of directors.

• Part 5: Marketing and Sales Strategies (4 to 6 pages)

Marketing is the process of creating customers, and customers are the lifeblood of a business. In this section, the first thing to do is define the company’s marketing strategy. There is no single way to approach a marketing strategy; the strategy should be part of an ongoing self-evaluation process and unique to the company.

• Part 6: Product or Service (4 to 10 pages)

What is the company selling? What is their service? In this section, describe the service or product, emphasizing the benefits to potential and current customers. Focus on the areas where it has a distinct advantage. Identify the problem in your target market for which your service or product provides a solution. Give the reader hard evidence that people are, or will be, willing to pay for your solution.

• Part 7: Equity Investment and Funding Request (2 to 4 pages)

In this section, you will identify how much you plan or have already invested in the business. Identify the exact amount of funding you will need to start and make sure it ties specifically to your Financial Plan.

If necessary, you can include different funding scenarios, such as a best and worst case scenarios, but remember that later, in the financial section, you must be able to back up these requests and scenarios with corresponding financial statements and projections.

• Part 8: Financial Information (12 to 25 pages)

This section is considered the most important part of your business plan and requires significant effort. Make sure your financial information is reviewed by a professional such as your accountant. The financials should be developed after you’ve analyzed the market and set clear objectives. That’s when you can allocate resources efficiently.

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, how often should a business plan be updated, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

A business plan is a document that details a company's goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document describing a company's business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company's short- and long-term objectives.
• There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they'll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn't looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, "Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs."

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan for itself.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and highlighting any potential obstacles to success. A company might also share its business plan with trusted outsiders to get their objective feedback. In addition, a business plan can help keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and priorities.

Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they often have some of the same basic elements, as we describe below.

While it's a good idea to provide as much detail as necessary, it's also important that a business plan be concise enough to hold a reader's attention to the end.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, it's best to fit the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and attached as appendices.

These are some of the most common elements in many business plans:

• Executive summary: This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services: Here, the company should describe the products and services it offers or plans to introduce. That might include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other factors that could go into this section include production and manufacturing processes, any relevant patents the company may have, as well as proprietary technology . Information about research and development (R&D) can also be included here.
• Market analysis: A company needs to have a good handle on the current state of its industry and the existing competition. This section should explain where the company fits in, what types of customers it plans to target, and how easy or difficult it may be to take market share from incumbents.
• Marketing strategy: This section can describe how the company plans to attract and keep customers, including any anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. It should also describe the distribution channel or channels it will use to get its products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections: Established businesses can include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses can provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making.

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should aim to entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its uniqueness and potential for success.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can take many forms, but they are sometimes divided into two basic categories: traditional and lean startup. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These plans tend to be much longer than lean startup plans and contain considerably more detail. As a result they require more work on the part of the business, but they can also be more persuasive (and reassuring) to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans are short—as short as one page—and provide only the most basic detail. If a company wants to use this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or a lender requests it.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan is not a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections to begin with. Markets and the overall economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All of this calls for building some flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on the nature of the business. A well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary. A new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers to give a quick explanation of its business. For example, a brand-new company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide yet.

Sections can include: a value proposition ; the company's major activities and advantages; resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital; a list of partnerships; customer segments; and revenue sources.

A business plan can be useful to companies of all kinds. But as a company grows and the world around it changes, so too should its business plan. So don't think of your business plan as carved in granite but as a living document designed to evolve with your business.

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

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The 5-Page Business Plan

It’s like driving out of town to a place you have never been before.  You have general idea of the way to get there but the exact interchange and offramp are less clear. If you get lost, it will be frustrating, take you more time and ultimately be way more work. I was lost in downtown San Francisco for two hours because of an earthquake a few weeks before and the offramp I was going to take was barricaded. I had not planned to cross San Francisco and it was exhausting and the stuff of which still causes me nightmares.

While you can’t plan for everything that might happen, when you have a clear picture of how you will get from here to there you will be better prepared to solve problems and it will be so much easier.  You will be so very glad you took the time to do a little planning. 

Business Plans are a vital step in starting a business, running a business, and growing a business. Why? Business Plans are your roadmap. It keeps you going forward, on the right path, and smooths things out along the way and if you need to ask directions you will be able to find just the right someone to help along the way. 

Not taking this action will hurt your business! And writing a business plan is EASY!

It’s so easy that I am giving my 5-Page Business Plan away for free! Learn how to make a quick and easy business plan in just 5 pages with this simple guide for entrepreneurs.  Answer each outlined item as a new bullet point in your business plan and you’ll be finished in no time!  Really – 5 pages are all you need!

But that’s not all you’ll get! When you request my free business plan guide, you will also receive my  5-Day Business Plan Writing Email Course  straight to your inbox!

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24 of My Favorite Sample Business Plans & Examples For Your Inspiration

Published: February 06, 2024

I believe that reading sample business plans is essential when writing your own.

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As you explore business plan examples from real companies and brands, it’s easier for you to learn how to write a good one.

But what does a good business plan look like? And how do you write one that’s both viable and convincing. I’ll walk you through the ideal business plan format along with some examples to help you get started.

Table of Contents

Business Plan Format

Business plan types, sample business plan templates, top business plan examples.

Ask any successful sports coach how they win so many games, and they’ll tell you they have a unique plan for every single game. To me, the same logic applies to business.

If you want to build a thriving company that can pull ahead of the competition, you need to prepare for battle before breaking into a market.

Business plans guide you along the rocky journey of growing a company. And if your business plan is compelling enough, it can also convince investors to give you funding.

With so much at stake, I’m sure you’re wondering where to begin.

Free Business Plan Template

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You're all set!

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Fill out the form to get your free template.

First, you’ll want to nail down your formatting. Most business plans include the following sections.

1. Executive Summary

I’d say the executive summary is the most important section of the entire business plan. 

Why? Essentially, it's the overview or introduction, written in a way to grab readers' attention and guide them through the rest of the business plan. This is important, because a business plan can be dozens or hundreds of pages long.

There are two main elements I’d recommend including in your executive summary:

Company Description

This is the perfect space to highlight your company’s mission statement and goals, a brief overview of your history and leadership, and your top accomplishments as a business.

Tell potential investors who you are and why what you do matters. Naturally, they’re going to want to know who they’re getting into business with up front, and this is a great opportunity to showcase your impact.

Need some extra help firming up those business goals? Check out HubSpot Academy’s free course to help you set goals that matter — I’d highly recommend it

Products and Services

To piggyback off of the company description, be sure to incorporate an overview of your offerings. This doesn’t have to be extensive — just another chance to introduce your industry and overall purpose as a business.

In addition to the items above, I recommend including some information about your financial projections and competitive advantage here too.:

Keep in mind you'll cover many of these topics in more detail later on in the business plan. So, keep the executive summary clear and brief, and only include the most important takeaways.

Executive Summary Business Plan Examples

This example was created with HubSpot’s business plan template:

This executive summary is so good to me because it tells potential investors a short story while still covering all of the most important details.

Image Source

Tips for Writing Your Executive Summary

• Start with a strong introduction of your company, showcase your mission and impact, and outline the products and services you provide.
• Clearly define a problem, and explain how your product solves that problem, and show why the market needs your business.
• Be sure to highlight your value proposition, market opportunity, and growth potential.
• Keep it concise and support ideas with data.
• Customize your summary to your audience. For example, emphasize finances and return on investment for venture capitalists.

Check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary for more guidance.

2. Market Opportunity

This is where you'll detail the opportunity in the market.

The main question I’d ask myself here is this: Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will my product fill that gap?

More specifically, here’s what I’d include in this section:

• The size of the market
• Current or potential market share
• Trends in the industry and consumer behavior
• Where the gap is
• What caused the gap
• How you intend to fill it

To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, you'll want to conduct a TAM, SAM, and SOM analysis and perform market research on your industry.

You may also benefit from creating a SWOT analysis to get some of the insights for this section.

Market Opportunity Business Plan Example

I like this example because it uses critical data to underline the size of the potential market and what part of that market this service hopes to capture.

Tips for Writing Your Market Opportunity Section

• Focus on demand and potential for growth.
• Use market research, surveys, and industry trend data to support your market forecast and projections.
• Add a review of regulation shifts, tech advances, and consumer behavior changes.
• Refer to reliable sources.
• Showcase how your business can make the most of this opportunity.

3. Competitive Landscape

Since we’re already speaking of market share, you'll also need to create a section that shares details on who the top competitors are.

After all, your customers likely have more than one brand to choose from, and you'll want to understand exactly why they might choose one over another.

My favorite part of performing a competitive analysis is that it can help you uncover:

• Industry trends that other brands may not be utilizing
• Strengths in your competition that may be obstacles to handle
• Weaknesses in your competition that may help you develop selling points
• The unique proposition you bring to the market that may resonate with customers

Competitive Landscape Business Plan Example

I like how the competitive landscape section of this business plan below shows a clear outline of who the top competitors are.

It also highlights specific industry knowledge and the importance of location, which shows useful experience in this specific industry. 

This can help build trust in your ability to execute your business plan.

Tips for Writing Your Competitive Landscape

• Complete in-depth research, then emphasize your most important findings.
• Compare your unique selling proposition (USP) to your direct and indirect competitors.
• Show a clear and realistic plan for product and brand differentiation.
• Look for specific advantages and barriers in the competitive landscape. Then, highlight how that information could impact your business.
• Outline growth opportunities from a competitive perspective.
• Add customer feedback and insights to support your competitive analysis.

4. Target Audience

Use this section to describe who your customer segments are in detail. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience?

If your immediate answer is "everyone," you'll need to dig deeper. Here are some questions I’d ask myself here:

• What demographics will most likely need/buy your product or service?
• What are the psychographics of this audience? (Desires, triggering events, etc.)
• Why are your offerings valuable to them?

I’d also recommend building a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and be clear on why you're targeting them.

Target Audience Business Plan Example

I like the example below because it uses in-depth research to draw conclusions about audience priorities. It also analyzes how to create the right content for this audience.

Tips for Writing Your Target Audience Section

• Include details on the size and growth potential of your target audience.
• Figure out and refine the pain points for your target audience , then show why your product is a useful solution.
• Describe your targeted customer acquisition strategy in detail.
• Share anticipated challenges your business may face in acquiring customers and how you plan to address them.
• Add case studies, testimonials, and other data to support your target audience ideas.
• Remember to consider niche audiences and segments of your target audience in your business plan.

5. Marketing Strategy

Here, you'll discuss how you'll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. I’d suggest including information:

• Your brand positioning vision and how you'll cultivate it
• The goal targets you aim to achieve
• The metrics you'll use to measure success
• The channels and distribution tactics you'll use

I think it’s helpful to have a marketing plan built out in advance to make this part of your business plan easier.

Marketing Strategy Business Plan Example

This business plan example includes the marketing strategy for the town of Gawler.

In my opinion, it really works because it offers a comprehensive picture of how they plan to use digital marketing to promote the community.

Tips for Writing Your Marketing Strategy

• Include a section about how you believe your brand vision will appeal to customers.
• Add the budget and resources you'll need to put your plan in place.
• Outline strategies for specific marketing segments.
• Connect strategies to earlier sections like target audience and competitive analysis.
• Review how your marketing strategy will scale with the growth of your business.
• Cover a range of channels and tactics to highlight your ability to adapt your plan in the face of change.

6. Key Features and Benefits

At some point in your business plan, you'll need to review the key features and benefits of your products and/or services.

Laying these out can give readers an idea of how you're positioning yourself in the market and the messaging you're likely to use. It can even help them gain better insight into your business model.

Key Features and Benefits Business Plan Example

In my opinion, the example below does a great job outlining products and services for this business, along with why these qualities will attract the audience.

Tips for Writing Your Key Features and Benefits

• Emphasize why and how your product or service offers value to customers.
• Use metrics and testimonials to support the ideas in this section.
• Talk about how your products and services have the potential to scale.
• Think about including a product roadmap.
• Focus on customer needs, and how the features and benefits you are sharing meet those needs.
• Offer proof of concept for your ideas, like case studies or pilot program feedback.
• Proofread this section carefully, and remove any jargon or complex language.

7. Pricing and Revenue

This is where you'll discuss your cost structure and various revenue streams. Your pricing strategy must be solid enough to turn a profit while staying competitive in the industry. 

For this reason, here’s what I’d might outline in this section:

• The specific pricing breakdowns per product or service
• Why your pricing is higher or lower than your competition's
• (If higher) Why customers would be willing to pay more
• (If lower) How you're able to offer your products or services at a lower cost
• When you expect to break even, what margins do you expect, etc?

Pricing and Revenue Business Plan Example

I like how this business plan example begins with an overview of the business revenue model, then shows proposed pricing for key products.

Tips for Writing Your Pricing and Revenue Section

• Get specific about your pricing strategy. Specifically, how you connect that strategy to customer needs and product value.
• If you are asking a premium price, share unique features or innovations that justify that price point.
• Show how you plan to communicate pricing to customers.
• Create an overview of every revenue stream for your business and how each stream adds to your business model as a whole.
• Share plans to develop new revenue streams in the future.
• Show how and whether pricing will vary by customer segment and how pricing aligns with marketing strategies.
• Restate your value proposition and explain how it aligns with your revenue model.

8. Financials

To me, this section is particularly informative for investors and leadership teams to figure out funding strategies, investment opportunities, and more.

 According to Forbes , you'll want to include three main things:

• Profit/Loss Statement - This answers the question of whether your business is currently profitable.
• Cash Flow Statement - This details exactly how much cash is incoming and outgoing to give insight into how much cash a business has on hand.
• Balance Sheet - This outlines assets, liabilities, and equity, which gives insight into how much a business is worth.

While some business plans might include more or less information, these are the key details I’d include in this section.

Financials Business Plan Example

This balance sheet is a great example of level of detail you’ll need to include in the financials section of your business plan.

Tips for Writing Your Financials Section

• Growth potential is important in this section too. Using your data, create a forecast of financial performance in the next three to five years.
• Include any data that supports your projections to assure investors of the credibility of your proposal.
• Add a break-even analysis to show that your business plan is financially practical. This information can also help you pivot quickly as your business grows.
• Consider adding a section that reviews potential risks and how sensitive your plan is to changes in the market.
• Triple-check all financial information in your plan for accuracy.
• Show how any proposed funding needs align with your plans for growth.

As you create your business plan, keep in mind that each of these sections will be formatted differently. Some may be in paragraph format, while others could be charts or graphs.

The formats above apply to most types of business plans. That said, the format and structure of your plan will vary by your goals for that plan. 

So, I’ve added a quick review of different business plan types. For a more detailed overview, check out this post .

1. Startups

Startup business plans are for proposing new business ideas.

If you’re planning to start a small business, preparing a business plan is crucial. The plan should include all the major factors of your business.

You can check out this guide for more detailed business plan inspiration .

2. Feasibility Studies

Feasibility business plans focus on that business's product or service. Feasibility plans are sometimes added to startup business plans. They can also be a new business plan for an already thriving organization.

3. Internal Use

You can use internal business plans to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders. In my opinion, internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals.

4. Strategic Initiatives

Another business plan that's often for sharing internally is a strategic business plan. This plan covers long-term business objectives that might not have been included in the startup business plan.

5. Business Acquisition or Repositioning

When a business is moving forward with an acquisition or repositioning, it may need extra structure and support. These types of business plans expand on a company's acquisition or repositioning strategy.

Growth sometimes just happens as a business continues operations. But more often, a business needs to create a structure with specific targets to meet set goals for expansion. This business plan type can help a business focus on short-term growth goals and align resources with those goals.

Now that you know what's included and how to format a business plan, let's review some of my favorite templates.

1. HubSpot's One-Page Business Plan

Download a free, editable one-page business plan template..

The business plan linked above was created here at HubSpot and is perfect for businesses of any size — no matter how many strategies we still have to develop.

Fields such as Company Description, Required Funding, and Implementation Timeline give this one-page business plan a framework for how to build your brand and what tasks to keep track of as you grow.

Then, as the business matures, you can expand on your original business plan with a new iteration of the above document.

Why I Like It

This one-page business plan is a fantastic choice for the new business owner who doesn’t have the time or resources to draft a full-blown business plan. It includes all the essential sections in an accessible, bullet-point-friendly format. That way, you can get the broad strokes down before honing in on the details.

2. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

We also created a business plan template for entrepreneurs.

The template is designed as a guide and checklist for starting your own business. You’ll learn what to include in each section of your business plan and how to do it.

There’s also a list for you to check off when you finish each section of your business plan.

Strong game plans help coaches win games and help businesses rocket to the top of their industries. So if you dedicate the time and effort required to write a workable and convincing business plan, you’ll boost your chances of success and even dominance in your market.

This business plan kit is essential for the budding entrepreneur who needs a more extensive document to share with investors and other stakeholders.

It not only includes sections for your executive summary, product line, market analysis, marketing plan, and sales plan, but it also offers hands-on guidance for filling out those sections.

3. LiveFlow’s Financial Planning Template with built-in automation

This free template from LiveFlow aims to make it easy for businesses to create a financial plan and track their progress on a monthly basis.

The P&L Budget versus Actual format allows users to track their revenue, cost of sales, operating expenses, operating profit margin, net profit, and more.

The summary dashboard aggregates all of the data put into the financial plan sheet and will automatically update when changes are made.

Instead of wasting hours manually importing your data to your spreadsheet, LiveFlow can also help you to automatically connect your accounting and banking data directly to your spreadsheet, so your numbers are always up-to-date.

With the dashboard, you can view your runway, cash balance, burn rate, gross margins, and other metrics. Having a simple way to track everything in one place will make it easier to complete the financials section of your business plan.

This is a fantastic template to track performance and alignment internally and to create a dependable process for documenting financial information across the business. It’s highly versatile and beginner-friendly.

It’s especially useful if you don’t have an accountant on the team. (I always recommend you do, but for new businesses, having one might not be possible.)

4. ThoughtCo’s Sample Business Plan

One of the more financially oriented sample business plans in this list, BPlan’s free business plan template dedicates many of its pages to your business’s financial plan and financial statements.

After filling this business plan out, your company will truly understand its financial health and the steps you need to take to maintain or improve it.

I absolutely love this business plan template because of its ease-of-use and hands-on instructions (in addition to its finance-centric components). If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of writing an entire business plan, consider using this template to help you with the process.

6. Harvard Business Review’s "How to Write a Winning Business Plan"

Most sample business plans teach you what to include in your business plan, but this Harvard Business Review article will take your business plan to the next level — it teaches you the why and how behind writing a business plan.

With the guidance of Stanley Rich and Richard Gumpert, co-authors of " Business Plans That Win: Lessons From the MIT Enterprise Forum ", you'll learn how to write a convincing business plan that emphasizes the market demand for your product or service.

You’ll also learn the financial benefits investors can reap from putting money into your venture rather than trying to sell them on how great your product or service is.

This business plan guide focuses less on the individual parts of a business plan, and more on the overarching goal of writing one. For that reason, it’s one of my favorites to supplement any template you choose to use. Harvard Business Review’s guide is instrumental for both new and seasoned business owners.

7. HubSpot’s Complete Guide to Starting a Business

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know writing a business plan is one of the most challenging first steps to starting a business.

Fortunately, with HubSpot's comprehensive guide to starting a business, you'll learn how to map out all the details by understanding what to include in your business plan and why it’s important to include them. The guide also fleshes out an entire sample business plan for you.

If you need further guidance on starting a business, HubSpot's guide can teach you how to make your business legal, choose and register your business name, and fund your business. It will also give small business tax information and includes marketing, sales, and service tips.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of starting a business, in addition to writing your business plan, with a high level of exactitude and detail. So if you’re in the midst of starting your business, this is an excellent guide for you.

It also offers other resources you might need, such as market analysis templates.

8. Panda Doc’s Free Business Plan Template

PandaDoc’s free business plan template is one of the more detailed and fleshed-out sample business plans on this list. It describes what you should include in each section, so you don't have to come up with everything from scratch.

Once you fill it out, you’ll fully understand your business’ nitty-gritty details and how all of its moving parts should work together to contribute to its success.

This template has two things I love: comprehensiveness and in-depth instructions. Plus, it’s synced with PandaDoc’s e-signature software so that you and other stakeholders can sign it with ease. For that reason, I especially love it for those starting a business with a partner or with a board of directors.

9. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers several free business plan templates that can be used to inspire your own plan.

Before you get started, you can decide what type of business plan you need — a traditional or lean start-up plan.

Then, you can review the format for both of those plans and view examples of what they might look like.

We love both of the SBA’s templates because of their versatility. You can choose between two options and use the existing content in the templates to flesh out your own plan. Plus, if needed, you can get a free business counselor to help you along the way.

I’ve compiled some completed business plan samples to help you get an idea of how to customize a plan for your business.

I chose different types of business plan ideas to expand your imagination. Some are extensive, while others are fairly simple.

Let’s take a look.

1. LiveFlow

One of the major business expenses is marketing. How you handle your marketing reflects your company’s revenue.

I included this business plan to show you how you can ensure your marketing team is aligned with your overall business plan to get results. The plan also shows you how to track even the smallest metrics of your campaigns, like ROI and payback periods instead of just focusing on big metrics like gross and revenue.

Fintech startup, LiveFlow, allows users to sync real-time data from its accounting services, payment platforms, and banks into custom reports. This eliminates the task of pulling reports together manually, saving teams time and helping automate workflows.

"Using this framework over a traditional marketing plan will help you set a profitable marketing strategy taking things like CAC, LTV, Payback period, and P&L into consideration," explains LiveFlow co-founder, Lasse Kalkar .

When it came to including marketing strategy in its business plan, LiveFlow created a separate marketing profit and loss statement (P&L) to track how well the company was doing with its marketing initiatives.

This is a great approach, allowing businesses to focus on where their marketing dollars are making the most impact. Having this information handy will enable you to build out your business plan’s marketing section with confidence. LiveFlow has shared the template here . You can test it for yourself.

2. Lula Body

Sometimes all you need is a solid mission statement and core values to guide you on how to go about everything. You do this by creating a business plan revolving around how to fulfill your statement best.

For example, Patagonia is an eco-friendly company, so their plan discusses how to make the best environmentally friendly products without causing harm.

A good mission statement  should not only resonate with consumers but should also serve as a core value compass for employees as well.

Patagonia has one of the most compelling mission statements I’ve seen:

"Together, let’s prioritise purpose over profit and protect this wondrous planet, our only home."

It reels you in from the start, and the environmentally friendly theme continues throughout the rest of the statement.

This mission goes on to explain that they are out to "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to protect nature."

Their mission statement is compelling and detailed, with each section outlining how they will accomplish their goal.

4. Vesta Home Automation

This executive summary for a smart home device startup is part of a business plan created by students at Mount Royal University .

While it lacks some of the sleek visuals of the templates above, its executive summary does a great job of demonstrating how invested they are in the business.

Right away, they mention they’ve invested $200,000 into the company already, which shows investors they have skin in the game and aren’t just looking for someone else to foot the bill.

This is the kind of business plan you need when applying for business funds. It clearly illustrates the expected future of the company and how the business has been coming along over the years.

5. NALB Creative Center

This fictional business plan for an art supply store includes everything one might need in a business plan: an executive summary, a company summary, a list of services, a market analysis summary, and more.

One of its most notable sections is its market analysis summary, which includes an overview of the population growth in the business’ target geographical area, as well as a breakdown of the types of potential customers they expect to welcome at the store. 

This sort of granular insight is essential for understanding and communicating your business’s growth potential. Plus, it lays a strong foundation for creating relevant and useful buyer personas .

It’s essential to keep this information up-to-date as your market and target buyer changes. For that reason, you should carry out market research as often as possible to ensure that you’re targeting the correct audience and sharing accurate information with your investors.

Due to its comprehensiveness, it’s an excellent example to follow if you’re opening a brick-and-mortar store and need to get external funding to start your business .

6. Curriculum Companion Suites (CSS)

If you’re looking for a SaaS business plan example, look no further than this business plan for a fictional educational software company called Curriculum Companion Suites. 

Like the business plan for the NALB Creative Center, it includes plenty of information for prospective investors and other key stakeholders in the business.

One of the most notable features of this business plan is the executive summary, which includes an overview of the product, market, and mission.

The first two are essential for software companies because the product offering is so often at the forefront of the company’s strategy. Without that information being immediately available to investors and executives, then you risk writing an unfocused business plan.

It’s essential to front-load your company’s mission if it explains your "Why?" and this example does just that. In other words, why do you do what you do, and why should stakeholders care? This is an important section to include if you feel that your mission will drive interest in the business and its offerings.

7. Culina Sample Business Plan

Culina's sample business plan is an excellent example of how to lay out your business plan so that it flows naturally, engages readers, and provides the critical information investors and stakeholders need. 

You can use this template as a guide while you're gathering important information for your own business plan. You'll have a better understanding of the data and research you need to do since Culina’s plan outlines these details so flawlessly for inspiration.

8. Plum Sample Business Plan

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5.1.5: The Business Plan

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe the different purposes of a business plan
• Describe and develop the components of a brief business plan
• Describe and develop the components of a full business plan

Unlike the brief or lean formats introduced so far, the business plan is a formal document used for the long-range planning of a company’s operation. It typically includes background information, financial information, and a summary of the business. Investors nearly always request a formal business plan because it is an integral part of their evaluation of whether to invest in a company. Although nothing in business is permanent, a business plan typically has components that are more “set in stone” than a business model canvas, which is more commonly used as a first step in the planning process and throughout the early stages of a nascent business. A business plan is likely to describe the business and industry, market strategies, sales potential, and competitive analysis, as well as the company’s long-term goals and objectives. An in-depth formal business plan would follow at later stages after various iterations to business model canvases. The business plan usually projects financial data over a three-year period and is typically required by banks or other investors to secure funding. The business plan is a roadmap for the company to follow over multiple years.

Some entrepreneurs prefer to use the canvas process instead of the business plan, whereas others use a shorter version of the business plan, submitting it to investors after several iterations. There are also entrepreneurs who use the business plan earlier in the entrepreneurial process, either preceding or concurrently with a canvas. For instance, Chris Guillebeau has a one-page business plan template in his book The $100 Startup . His version is basically an extension of a napkin sketch, without the detail of a full business plan. As you progress, you can also consider a brief business plan (about two pages)—if you want to support a rapid business launch—and/or a standard business plan.

As with many aspects of entrepreneurship, there are no clear hard and fast rules to achieving entrepreneurial success. You may encounter different people who want different things (canvas, summary, full business plan), and you also have flexibility in following whatever tool works best for you. Like the canvas, the various versions of the business plan are tools that will aid you in your entrepreneurial endeavor.

Business Plan Overview

Most business plans have several distinct sections (Figure 5.1.5.1). The business plan can range from a few pages to twenty-five pages or more, depending on the purpose and the intended audience. For our discussion, we’ll describe a brief business plan and a standard business plan. If you are able to successfully design a business model canvas, then you will have the structure for developing a clear business plan that you can submit for financial consideration.

Both types of business plans aim at providing a picture and roadmap to follow from conception to creation. If you opt for the brief business plan, you will focus primarily on articulating a big-picture overview of your business concept.

The full business plan is aimed at executing the vision concept, dealing with the proverbial devil in the details. Developing a full business plan will assist those of you who need a more detailed and structured roadmap, or those of you with little to no background in business. The business planning process includes the business model, a feasibility analysis, and a full business plan, which we will discuss later in this section. Next, we explore how a business plan can meet several different needs.

Purposes of a Business Plan

A business plan can serve many different purposes—some internal, others external. As we discussed previously, you can use a business plan as an internal early planning device, an extension of a napkin sketch, and as a follow-up to one of the canvas tools. A business plan can be an organizational roadmap, that is, an internal planning tool and working plan that you can apply to your business in order to reach your desired goals over the course of several years. The business plan should be written by the owners of the venture, since it forces a firsthand examination of the business operations and allows them to focus on areas that need improvement.

Refer to the business venture throughout the document. Generally speaking, a business plan should not be written in the first person.

A major external purpose for the business plan is as an investment tool that outlines financial projections, becoming a document designed to attract investors. In many instances, a business plan can complement a formal investor’s pitch. In this context, the business plan is a presentation plan, intended for an outside audience that may or may not be familiar with your industry, your business, and your competitors.

You can also use your business plan as a contingency plan by outlining some “what-if” scenarios and exploring how you might respond if these scenarios unfold. Pretty Young Professional launched in November 2010 as an online resource to guide an emerging generation of female leaders. The site focused on recent female college graduates and current students searching for professional roles and those in their first professional roles. It was founded by four friends who were coworkers at the global consultancy firm McKinsey. But after positions and equity were decided among them, fundamental differences of opinion about the direction of the business emerged between two factions, according to the co-founder and former CEO Kathryn Minshew. “I think, naively, we assumed that if we kicked the can down the road on some of those things, we’d be able to sort them out,” Minshew said. Minshew went on to found a different professional site, The Muse, and took much of the editorial team of Pretty Young Professional with her. Whereas greater planning potentially could have prevented the early demise of Pretty Young Professional, a change in planning led to overnight success for Joshua Esnard and The Cut Buddy team. Esnard invented and patented the plastic hair template that he was selling online out of his Fort Lauderdale garage while working a full-time job at Broward College and running a side business. Esnard had hundreds of boxes of Cut Buddies sitting in his home when he changed his marketing plan to enlist companies specializing in making videos go viral. It worked so well that a promotional video for the product garnered 8 million views in hours. The Cut Buddy sold over 4,000 products in a few hours when Esnard only had hundreds remaining. Demand greatly exceeded his supply, so Esnard had to scramble to increase manufacturing and offered customers two-for-one deals to make up for delays. This led to selling 55,000 units, generating $700,000 in sales in 2017. After appearing on Shark Tank and landing a deal with Daymond John that gave the “shark” a 20-percent equity stake in return for $300,000, The Cut Buddy has added new distribution channels to include retail sales along with online commerce. Changing one aspect of a business plan—the marketing plan—yielded success for The Cut Buddy.

LINK TO LEARNING

Watch this video of Cut Buddy’s founder, Joshua Esnard, telling his company’s story to learn more.

If you opt for the brief business plan, you will focus primarily on articulating a big-picture overview of your business concept. This version is used to interest potential investors, employees, and other stakeholders, and will include a financial summary “box,” but it must have a disclaimer, and the founder/entrepreneur may need to have the people who receive it sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA). The full business plan is aimed at executing the vision concept, providing supporting details, and would be required by financial institutions and others as they formally become stakeholders in the venture. Both are aimed at providing a picture and roadmap to go from conception to creation.

Types of Business Plans

The brief business plan is similar to an extended executive summary from the full business plan. This concise document provides a broad overview of your entrepreneurial concept, your team members, how and why you will execute on your plans, and why you are the ones to do so. You can think of a brief business plan as a scene setter or—since we began this chapter with a film reference—as a trailer to the full movie. The brief business plan is the commercial equivalent to a trailer for Field of Dreams , whereas the full plan is the full-length movie equivalent.

Brief Business Plan

As the name implies, the executive summary summarizes key elements of the entire business plan, such as the business concept, financial features, and current business position. The executive summary version of the business plan is your opportunity to broadly articulate the overall concept and vision of the company for yourself, for prospective investors, and for current and future employees.

A typical executive summary is generally no longer than a page, but because the brief business plan is essentially an extended executive summary, the executive summary section is vital. This is the “ask” to an investor. You should begin by clearly stating what you are asking for in the summary.

In the business concept phase, you’ll describe the business, its product, and its markets. Describe the customer segment it serves and why your company will hold a competitive advantage. This section may align roughly with the customer segments and value-proposition segments of a canvas.

Next, highlight the important financial features, including sales, profits, cash flows, and return on investment. Like the financial portion of a feasibility analysis, the financial analysis component of a business plan may typically include items like a twelve-month profit and loss projection, a three- or four-year profit and loss projection, a cash-flow projection, a projected balance sheet, and a breakeven calculation. You can explore a feasibility study and financial projections in more depth in the formal business plan. Here, you want to focus on the big picture of your numbers and what they mean.

The current business position section can furnish relevant information about you and your team members and the company at large. This is your opportunity to tell the story of how you formed the company, to describe its legal status (form of operation), and to list the principal players. In one part of the extended executive summary, you can cover your reasons for starting the business: Here is an opportunity to clearly define the needs you think you can meet and perhaps get into the pains and gains of customers. You also can provide a summary of the overall strategic direction in which you intend to take the company. Describe the company’s mission, vision, goals and objectives, overall business model, and value proposition.

Rice University’s Student Business Plan Competition, one of the largest and overall best-regarded graduate school business-plan competitions, requires an executive summary of up to five pages to apply. Its suggested sections are shown in Table 5.1.5.1.

ARE YOU READY?

Create a Brief Business Plan

Fill out a canvas of your choosing for a well-known startup: Uber, Netflix, Dropbox, Etsy, Airbnb, Bird/Lime, Warby Parker, or any of the companies featured throughout this chapter or one of your choice. Then create a brief business plan for that business. See if you can find a version of the company’s actual executive summary, business plan, or canvas. Compare and contrast your vision with what the company has articulated.

• These companies are well established but is there a component of what you charted that you would advise the company to change to ensure future viability?
• Map out a contingency plan for a “what-if” scenario if one key aspect of the company or the environment it operates in were drastically is altered?

Full Business Plan

Even full business plans can vary in length, scale, and scope. Rice University sets a ten-page cap on business plans submitted for the full competition. The IndUS Entrepreneurs, one of the largest global networks of entrepreneurs, also holds business plan competitions for students through its Tie Young Entrepreneurs program. In contrast, business plans submitted for that competition can usually be up to twenty-five pages. These are just two examples. Some components may differ slightly; common elements are typically found in a formal business plan outline. The next section will provide sample components of a full business plan for a fictional business.

Executive Summary

The executive summary should provide an overview of your business with key points and issues. Because the summary is intended to summarize the entire document, it is most helpful to write this section last, even though it comes first in sequence. The writing in this section should be especially concise. Readers should be able to understand your needs and capabilities at first glance. The section should tell the reader what you want and your “ask” should be explicitly stated in the summary.

Describe your business, its product or service, and the intended customers. Explain what will be sold, who it will be sold to, and what competitive advantages the business has. Table 5.1.5.2 shows a sample executive summary for the fictional company La Vida Lola.

Business Description

This section describes the industry, your product, and the business and success factors. It should provide a current outlook as well as future trends and developments. You also should address your company’s mission, vision, goals, and objectives. Summarize your overall strategic direction, your reasons for starting the business, a description of your products and services, your business model, and your company’s value proposition. Consider including the Standard Industrial Classification/North American Industry Classification System (SIC/NAICS) code to specify the industry and ensure correct identification. The industry extends beyond where the business is located and operates, and should include national and global dynamics. Table 5.1.5.3 shows a sample business description for La Vida Lola.

Industry Analysis and Market Strategies

Here you should define your market in terms of size, structure, growth prospects, trends, and sales potential. You’ll want to include your TAM and forecast the SAM. This is a place to address market segmentation strategies by geography, customer attributes, or product orientation. Describe your positioning relative to your competitors’ in terms of pricing, distribution, promotion plan, and sales potential. Table 5.1.5.4 shows an example industry analysis and market strategy for La Vida Lola.

Competitive Analysis

The competitive analysis is a statement of the business strategy as it relates to the competition. You want to be able to identify who are your major competitors and assess what are their market shares, markets served, strategies employed, and expected response to entry? You likely want to conduct a classic SWOT analysis (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats) and complete a competitive-strength grid or competitive matrix. Outline your company’s competitive strengths relative to those of the competition in regard to product, distribution, pricing, promotion, and advertising. What are your company’s competitive advantages and their likely impacts on its success? The key is to construct it properly for the relevant features/benefits (by weight, according to customers) and how the startup compares to incumbents. The competitive matrix should show clearly how and why the startup has a clear (if not currently measurable) competitive advantage. Some common features in the example include price, benefits, quality, type of features, locations, and distribution/sales. Sample templates are shown in Figure 5.1.5.2 and Figure 5.1.5.3. A competitive analysis helps you create a marketing strategy that will identify assets or skills that your competitors are lacking so you can plan to fill those gaps, giving you a distinct competitive advantage. When creating a competitor analysis, it is important to focus on the key features and elements that matter to customers, rather than focusing too heavily on the entrepreneur’s idea and desires.

Operations and Management Plan

In this section, outline how you will manage your company. Describe its organizational structure. Here you can address the form of ownership and, if warranted, include an organizational chart/structure. Highlight the backgrounds, experiences, qualifications, areas of expertise, and roles of members of the management team. This is also the place to mention any other stakeholders, such as a board of directors or advisory board(s), and their relevant relationship to the founder, experience and value to help make the venture successful, and professional service firms providing management support, such as accounting services and legal counsel.

Table 5.1.5.5 shows a sample operations and management plan for La Vida Lola.

Marketing Plan

Here you should outline and describe an effective overall marketing strategy for your venture, providing details regarding pricing, promotion, advertising, distribution, media usage, public relations, and a digital presence. Fully describe your sales management plan and the composition of your sales force, along with a comprehensive and detailed budget for the marketing plan. Table 5.1.5.6 shows a sample marketing plan for La Vida Lola.

Financial Plan

A financial plan seeks to forecast revenue and expenses; project a financial narrative; and estimate project costs, valuations, and cash flow projections. This section should present an accurate, realistic, and achievable financial plan for your venture. Include sales forecasts and income projections, pro forma financial statements, a breakeven analysis, and a capital budget. Identify your possible sources of financing. Figure 5.1.5.4 shows a template of cash-flow needs for La Vida Lola.

ENTREPRENEUR IN ACTION

Laughing Man Coffee

Hugh Jackman (Figure 5.1.5.5) may best be known for portraying a comic-book superhero who used his mutant abilities to protect the world from villains. But the Wolverine actor is also working to make the planet a better place for real, not through adamantium claws but through social entrepreneurship.

A love of java jolted Jackman into action in 2009, when he traveled to Ethiopia with a Christian humanitarian group to shoot a documentary about the impact of fair-trade certification on coffee growers there. He decided to launch a business and follow in the footsteps of the late Paul Newman, another famous actor turned philanthropist via food ventures.

Jackman launched Laughing Man Coffee two years later; he sold the line to Keurig in 2015. One Laughing Man Coffee café in New York continues to operate independently, investing its proceeds into charitable programs that support better housing, health, and educational initiatives within fair-trade farming communities. Although the New York location is the only café, the coffee brand is still distributed, with Keurig donating an undisclosed portion of Laughing Man proceeds to those causes (whereas Jackman donates all his profits). The company initially donated its profits to World Vision, the Christian humanitarian group Jackman accompanied in 2009. In 2017, it created the Laughing Man Foundation to be more active with its money management and distribution.

• You be the entrepreneur. If you were Jackman, would you have sold the company to Keurig? Why or why not?
• Would you have started the Laughing Man Foundation?
• What else can Jackman do to aid fair-trade practices for coffee growers?

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Textbooks for Change

Founded in 2014, Textbooks for Change uses a cross-compensation model, in which one customer segment pays for a product or service, and the profit from that revenue is used to provide the same product or service to another, underserved segment. Textbooks for Change partners with student organizations to collect used college textbooks, some of which are re-sold while others are donated to students in need at underserved universities across the globe. The organization has reused or recycled 250,000 textbooks, providing 220,000 students with access through seven campus partners in East Africa. This B-corp social enterprise tackles a problem and offers a solution that is directly relevant to college students like yourself. Have you observed a problem on your college campus or other campuses that is not being served properly? Could it result in a social enterprise?

WORK IT OUT

Franchisee Set Out

A franchisee of East Coast Wings, a chain with dozens of restaurants in the United States, has decided to part ways with the chain. The new store will feature the same basic sports-bar-and-restaurant concept and serve the same basic foods: chicken wings, burgers, sandwiches, and the like. The new restaurant can’t rely on the same distributors and suppliers. A new business plan is needed.

• What steps should the new restaurant take to create a new business plan?
• Should it attempt to serve the same customers? Why or why not?

This New York Times video, “An Unlikely Business Plan,” describes entrepreneurial resurgence in Detroit, Michigan.

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Confused On How Long Should A Business Plan Be? Here Is The Answer

Business Plan Template

• December 18, 2023

What should be my business plan length? It is a common question for entrepreneurs who are new to business planning.

Certain people hold the opinion that a business plan should be one page long, while some people hold that a business plan should be extensive and filled with minute details.

Are you confused about the length of a business plan? Every business plans and businesses are different. While some strategies may be heavily text-based and include extensive market research, others may rely on graphics to make their points.

If your business plan is too brief, you’re probably not offering potential investors enough details about your operation. In contrast, if it goes on for too long, you will bore them, and they will lose interest since you are giving them too much information.

Your business plan should be as extensive as necessary to persuade the reader that it is worthwhile to invest in or take an interest in.

In light of this, a business plan for achieving that objective typically has between 15 and 30 pages.

Let’s see the detailed guide on how long should a business plan be .

Length Depends On The Purpose Of Your Business Plan

While determining the ideal length of your business plan, don’t overlook the main mission of your plan. The goal of your business plan is to persuade readers to support your business financially or by being an active part of your business.

The length depends on the purpose of the action you want your audience to take. Certain questions to answer to know your purpose are:

• Who is the target audience, first, for whom you are creating a business plan ? (as an example for banks, investors, hiring people, or someone else)
• Will it have details of the business and the management team that everyone can read?
• Do you require showing the whole business plan or only the executive summary to your readers?
• Does it contain thorough research, plans, designs, and charts?

The Length Of An Executive Summary Is Crucial

The executive summary is typically the whole overview of the business plan, so it is one of the essential components. Therefore, make sure your summary is well-presented and brief with all the details.

The Executive Summary’s opening paragraph in particular is of utmost significance, since if you don’t grab the reader’s attention right away, they won’t continue reading.

It should normally be one to two pages long to get the reader’s interest in your plan.

A good executive summary should be 5-10% of the whole business plan, so write all the information in a synchronized yet clear manner.

Your business plan has six essential components after the executive summary. These sections should each be between one and two pages long.

→ Download Now: Executive Summary Template

Correctly Format Your Plan

By organizing your plan, you can avoid including information that would make the plan too cluttered, long, and difficult to read. Formatting will:

• Give readers a more enjoyable experience and make it simple for them to locate the exact information
• Help you fit in the ideal length of the business plan
• Increases engagement and your chances of getting results
• Will also help you understand key elements of your business

No One Wants A Novel

When it comes to your business plan length: no one would be interested in reading 100 long pages.

If you include every question, your plan will be excessively lengthy, and the majority of readers will become bored. Keep in mind that no one will read a 100-page business plan.

Instead, include the most significant information in the executive summary, and then in the other sections of your plan, validate what you mentioned in the executive summary.

Move Supporting Documents To the Appendix

While an executive summary gives a quick overview of your overarching strategy, the appendix supports the data presented in the plan, making it simple to read with all the evidence.

For instance, the primary component of your plan includes revenue projections for years 1 and 5. You can include the specifics of how those forecasts were made in your appendix, rather than putting all pertinent information in the main text.

Therefore, do not include all the documents in the other sections of a business plan, and move all the supporting documents to the appendix.

The 15 Minutes Readability

The 15-minute readability is an actual answer to the question; how long should a business plan be? After quickly scanning the main points of a strong business plan for 15 minutes, the reader should have a good understanding of its main components.

Format, headlines, white space, and graphics all significantly impact readability. The main ideas of a business strategy should be presented as rapidly as they are in a business proposal or business presentation.

If you are still confused about how to write a business plan, then you can also use free business plan samples  to make your plan perfect.

Use Graphics Wisely

Never reduce a plan by removing helpful graphics. Readability and understanding of the plan are much more important with the help of graphics.

Make your financial projections easier to understand by using business charts to illustrate the numbers. As much as possible, use pictures and drawings to illustrate locations, items, sample menus, product images, and other things.

Types Of Business Plans

The page count of a business plan also depends on its type. There are three types of business plans , let’s deep dive into them, and then you can decide the ideal length of your business plan.

One-Page Business Plan

A business owner prefers a one-page business plan to introduce their business to investors. A one-page business plan encompasses the key elements of the company into one page, much like an executive summary.

One of the advantages is that investors can read it quickly because it is simply one-page long and has just enough details to pique their interest.

A one-page business plan is not for investors who are already interested in your business, as it doesn’t give away much information.

→ Download Now: One Page Business Plan Template

Mini Business Plan

A mini business plan contains 1 to 10 pages and has every component that is in a normal business strategy, but all are synchronized.

A short business plan gets right to the point and frequently uses bullet points to complete the section. Even though it contains some of the same details, a detailed business plan is still necessary.

If an investor asks for further details, after reading a one-page business plan, then this mini-business plan can come in handy.

This version will contain more detailed information, such as the problem, the solution, the marketing plan, the expected financial results, the target market , the company and management team, short financial tables, business charts, and the details to secure funding.

The Comprehensive Business Plan

Comprehensive business plans can range in length from 15 to 35 pages and beyond.

This business plan provides readers with a complete overview of the company, including the market problem, the proposed solution, company description, objectives, and goals, as well as its marketing plan, competitive analysis, operational plan, financial projections, financial plan, management team, and funding request.

A comprehensive plan starts with an executive summary and then expands on it with supporting data. This plan includes essential research to validate the overall business idea.

These business plans should only be provided upon request and following the delivery of a one-page or mini-business plan. An extensive business plan gives investors a complete picture of the company while raising the starting capital.

Which Type Of Business Plan Do You Want?

Many business owners merely write up one business plan, which they send out in every circumstance. Unfortunately, this approach is ineffective.

Instead, business owners should be prepared to provide the appropriate business plan when required by having all three types of business plans in their toolbox.

The most crucial factor isn’t how long your plan is; it’s knowing which kind of plan to utilize and when that will offer you an advantage when looking for finance.

Are You Ready For Your Business Plan?

Whether you are a small business or a startup, a business plan page count can not be that lengthy. To keep your readers interested till the last page, make it to the point and be researchful.

Start writing your plan today with the help of our sample business plans, and make the procedure of an investment-ready plan as easy as possible with us.

Build your Business Plan Faster

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 7 essential elements of a business plan.

• Executive summary 
• Company description 
• Products and services 
• Market analysis 
• Strategy and implementation 
• Organization and management 
• Financial plan and projections

How Long Should A Business Plan Take?

According to the research , three months was the ideal amount of time to devote to the plan. This led to a 12% improvement in the likelihood of developing a successful business plan with all the market analysis and business understanding. 

What Are The 3 C's Of A Business Plan?

The main three C’s of the business plan are: 

• A clear idea of what your business entails
• Determining who your customers or clients will be
• The cash flow of your firm 

About the Author

Riya Shah is a skilled content writer experienced in various areas of writing, currently working with Upmetrics. Fascination with reading led her to be a writer. Highly creative, focused, imaginative, and passionate. Read more

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How long your business plan should be?

It’s a common question: How long should a business plan be? This is one of the most important questions to ask when you’re creating your business plan since it impacts how much time and effort you put into writing the document.

Introduction (3 to 5 pages)

Market analysis (9 to 22 pages), company description (1 to 2 pages), organization and management (3 to 5 pages), marketing and sales strategies (4 to 6 pages), product or service (4 to 10 pages), equity investment and funding request (2 to 4 pages), financial information (12 to 25 pages), in conclusion.

In answering the question as to how long a business plan should be, the first thing to know is that it shouldn’t be any longer than necessary. Why are you writing the document in the first place? Recall that it should be considered a “living document.” You’ll want to revise it over time.

In this article, we’ll give you a good idea about how many pages should a business plan be so that you know how much work is required ahead of time!

The introduction section of your business plan should be around three to five pages long and is your chance to seize the reader’s attention and give them a broad overview of what you’re trying to do. You should include:

• The problem that you are solving or an issue in need of resolution
• How your product, service, or company can solve the problem
• Why it matters for the reader (the investor or company executive) and why they’ll care about the suggested solutions
• How much of a profit do you believe you’ll realize?
• Who is your target audience? What are their demographics?
• What is the size of the market?
• How large of a market share do you believe you can seize?

These points help paint a picture of who you are and what you intend to achieve.

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• Make your next company event an outdoor movie party

In brief, your introductory section should include:

• An attention-grabbing Cover Page (1 page)
• An Executive Summary (1 to 2 pages); and
• A Table of Contents (1 page)

Generally, a market analysis should include the following:

• Background information about your company and its products/services
• An overview of the industry with an examination of key trends that are driving change in the marketplace (industry structure)
• Identification of customer needs and how these compare to competitive offerings (customer profiles), which will help you determine where there is an opportunity for profitable growth.

It’s also essential to understand how well positioned your company is relative to competitors on various performance indicators such as product quality or service levels.

The company description is a snapshot of your organization’s history, what you do, and how the values that drive success. It should be succinct – no more than two pages.

The following are some potential parts to include in this section:

• How long has the company existed? What were its early years like?
• How does it operate today?
• How have recent changes impacted operations or strategy, and why was change needed?
• What sets your business apart from competitors (products/services)?
• Why would someone want to work at the organization as opposed to others out there in similar industries?

The organization and management section of a standard business plan includes all the information about running and developing your organization. You also explain what your company’s culture is like and who your executive team members are.

This section should cover how you will promote your products/services, the media channels being used, and whether or not there is any need for additional help. How much of a budget do you have? What’s your target audience? Have all these questions been answered before spending valuable time creating ads without knowing if they will produce results?

The product or service section is one of the most important parts and should give an in-depth look at your company’s products and services. How will they be produced? How much do you charge for them? This section may take some time to write if it includes things like manufacturing costs, but it’ll save time later when making decisions about how to sell your goods.

The investment and funding request section is a brief overview of the requester’s strengths, what you need from an equity partner, how much it’ll cost an investor to be invested in your business, and other pertinent information.

This section is detailed and provides all relevant information about the company’s financials, such as how much money you’ve made in past years. This includes a comparison to other companies of similar size or industry.

The length of a typical business plan ranges from 15-25 pages. How long yours be? That’s up to you. How much information do your readers need or want about your company and its plans for growth? For example, if investors are looking at investing in your company, they may require more detailed financial information.

Finally, keep in mind that the Executive Summary at the beginning of your plan is the section most people will read and pay attention to the most. You’ll want to write it after you’ve written the rest of your document as it summarizes everything you’ve put together. However, you’ll want to ensure that the summary is presented in an exciting and engaging style so that it keeps the reader’s interest.

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You are a hard worker who does constant labor on the job. You could be a construction worker, electrician, fisherman or woman, or a scientist, hard labor requires a lot of supplies. You want certain tools for your job that prevents you from possible issues or injuries. Your job can be dangerous, and it could be quite stressful not being able to accomplish one thing during your work hours. Your safety is your top priority. You enjoy the hard labor, so you rely on a lot of planning ahead. Your job requires tools for safety and for storage as well.

You want constant supplies for your job, supplies that make it easier for you to finish the task at hand. In your job, you run the risk of toxication, burned from chemicals, and electrocuted. You risk your life every day in your labor job. That is why supplies are essential to your daily work life. The listed supplies are some supplies that are required for your daily work life. These supplies are a way to plan your job and accomplish your job tasks. You will appreciate having the supplies to make it easier for you to do your job in labor.

Event planning can make or break a business. Events can help market products, improve business networks, and launch successful ventures, but that is only if they are considered a success. Whether your event includes a series of speakers or simply a short welcome from the CEO, the business's message can be lost if the audio isn't up to par. That's why the products on this list are so important to planning the event.

This list goes beyond the microphone and speaker, since those are often provided by the venue. A professional event planner should bring their own inventory of a few key products to ensure they can handle the audio. A couple of cords, a filter, and some stands should cover any last minute concerns that might arise. It's definitely a good idea to have these products on stand by because the audio is one of the most important aspects of the event.

As a part of your journalism career, it involves traveling and the weather. You report the weather, and sometimes it could be hard to speak with your microphone with chattering teeth. When it comes to the cold or rainy seasons, it can be tough for you to report the weather. You need the supplies to keep you dry and warm while reporting the weather news forecast. You do not want to catch a cold or get frostbite while trying to warn people about the current weather conditions. It is a part of your job that involves traveling and the weather.

It can be freezing during the winter season, especially when you have to stand outside to report the news. You want to stay focused on the camera and speak clearly without your teeth chattering or the distraction from the cold breeze. As a reporter, the weather can make it difficult for you to have a clear mind and clear speech. You are risking your body during the cold season with determination to report information for everyone's safety. You love your career in journalism, but you also have to rely on thinking ahead. Importantly, you need the supplies to keep yourself and your equipment from freezing during the winter season.

Starting a Business | How To

One-Page Business Plan: The Step-By-Step Guide

Published July 2, 2020

Published Jul 2, 2020

WRITTEN BY: Blake Stockton

This article is part of a larger series on Starting a Business .

Right now you likely have a business idea. Awesome! Now you need to think through that idea by getting your thoughts on paper. The One-Page Business Plan will walk you through each step of planning your business idea. Once you know your financial projections, you can finish the basics of this plan in less than 15 minutes. Planning is a great way to thoroughly understand the costs and income potential of your business idea.

Before continuing, download our one-page business plan template:

Download the template and save it to your desktop for easy access. The fields in the PDF are editable. You can also print out the document and write by hand. Answer each question with one or two sentences—feel free to write in incomplete sentences.

If you need additional space to write then place your basic ideas on the template, and continue writing on a personal document.

Question: What problem will your business solve?

Every business solves a problem. What specific problem will your business solve for a customer? Try to get down to the core issue your customer is having.

For example, for a landscape company, “time wasted” maintaining a lawn may be a problem for your customer; however, if possible, make it more specific. For example, the specific problem may be an unkempt lawn. You can visually see an unkempt lawn—it’s much harder to see “time wasted.”

2. Solution

Question: What will your business provide to solve that problem?

You’ve identified the problem, now you need the solution. What specific action will you take to resolve the customer’s issue? This solution is your product or service. Don’t be afraid to get specific with your solution.

Going back to the landscaping example, your solution is to improve an unkempt lawn and maintain it. However, I challenge you to go one step further with your solution. Perhaps you’re creating a lawn that makes neighbors jealous, which is a solution tied to an emotion—very powerful.

Tip: If you’re starting a new type of business , try to test your solution on a small scale without spending a lot of money. This test makes sure customers will pay you for the solution. In entrepreneurship, a common saying for a struggling new business is that it created “a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.” Don’t be that business.

3. Business Model

Question: How will your business make money?

For many businesses, its business model is straightforward. A product is sold or service is provided, and the company is paid.

You also want to outline how and where the products and services will be sold. Will they be sold in your own business or office. Someone else’s store or office? Will you be engaging in ecommerce—on your own website or an online marketplace such as Amazon?

During this step, you should also set your pricing—which basically means, how much will you charge? This can be difficult to figure out. Consider browsing competitor websites for pricing. You may want to call a competitor and ask for a quote.

4. Target Customers

Question: Who will purchase your products or services?

Your target customers are your ideal customers. The worst answer to who is your target customer is “everyone.” Not even some of the most popular companies started out for everyone—Facebook was for college students, Amazon sold books. Also, a common marketing saying is that if you’re “marketing to everyone, you’re marketing to no one.”

When thinking about who your target customers are, think demographics. Think about features such as age, income, gender, hobbies, and location.

When you’re clear on your target customers, your marketing strategy will become apparent as well—you’ll understand where and how to spend your marketing dollars.

5. Promotion

Question: How will target customers learn about your business?

List any strategies you will use to get potential customers to learn about your business. As a new business, it may be challenging to reach and persuade your first customers. How will you do it?

In-person networking and marketing for your business are often more effective than online marketing. However, some online marketing is free and can have the ability to reach a lot of people.

If looking for local customers, consider claiming and optimizing your free Google My Business (GMB) listing . Additionally, once you create your GMB listing, set up your free one-page website. Affordable!

6. Competitive Advantage

Question: What will your business do better than the competitors?

Before you can state your competitive advantage, study your competitors—learn their strengths and weaknesses. Once you know you can do better than competitors, choose one or two areas where you know you can outperform them.

For example, if you notice they have poor online reviews, you can have exceptional customer service. In fact, your marketing can even call that out, such as a satisfaction guarantee.

Or maybe you can be faster than your competitors—“done in two days or less!” Don’t be afraid to call out your competitors and state why your business has the best “X.”

7. Financial Projections

Question : How much money do you need to start?

One part of financial projections is called startup costs —how much money you need to open your doors. For this cost, simply list all the items and services you need to get your business started.

When estimating the startup cost, you’ll want to overestimate on the amount, rather than underestimate. Often, a new business owner may be unaware of certain startup costs. If you underestimate costs, you could run out of cash before you get your first customer.

Question : How much will you spend every month?

Calculate how much money your business is likely to spend every month. Make the calculations for the first 12 months.

This may take research. You may have to pick up the phone and request a quote for items such as raw materials, equipment, and insurance.

Question : How much will you earn every month?

Now for the fun part—the amount of money you expect to make. How many customers do you plan on having every month for the first 12 months? You should have your pricing from the business model step. Take the number of customers times the price to come up with an estimated income every month.

Depending on your type of business, you may expect to grow your customer base every month. You may expect to only have a few customers in your first month—by 12 months, dozens of new customers. However, you don’t have to grow. Some companies may be content with a few consistent customers every month.

8. Funding Required

Question: How much money do you need to both start and operate your business?

Funding required is the total amount of money you need to start and operate your business for at least six months. You typically should have more funding than just the amount to start.

What if the company doesn’t get the sales you initially predicted? Or a natural disaster hits such as a hurricane or pandemic? Does your business have enough funds saved up to get through a difficult time?

Now that you have the amount of funding required to start and operate for at least six months, you can go out and raise that money through various sources, such as:

• Personal funds
• Family and friends
• Crowdfunding
• Business credit cards
• Personal loan

The One-Page Business Plan Alternative

If you’d like to create a more in-depth business plan after reading through this guide, remember, there are different types of business plans . For example, if you’re seeking funding from a bank or investor, you will need to create a traditional business plan . This type of plan requires more thorough market research and financial forecasting.

Bottom Line

Now that you have your one-page business plan created don’t put it in a drawer never to be looked at again! As you move forward with your business, revisit your plan often.

It’s a best practice to keep track of your income and expenses to see if your predictions played out correctly. Did you outperform your goals? What’s working well or not so well? Use your one-page business plan to reflect on your business’s current state and update it if necessary.

About the Author

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Blake Stockton

Blake Stockton is a staff writer at Fit Small Business focusing on how to start brick-and-mortar and online businesses. He is a frequent guest lecturer at several undergraduate business and MBA classes at University of North Florida . Prior to joining Fit Small Business, Blake consulted with over 700 small biz owners and assisted with starting and growing their businesses.

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How to Write a Five-Year Business Plan

Noah Parsons

15 min. read

Updated October 27, 2023

Learn why the traditional way of writing a five-year business plan is often a waste of time and how to use a one-page plan instead for smarter, easier strategic planning to establish your long-term vision. 

In business, it can sometimes seem hard enough to predict what’s going to happen next month, let alone three or even five years from now. But, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plan for the long term. After all, your vision for the future is what gets you out of bed in the morning and motivates your team. It’s those aspirations that drive you to keep innovating and figuring out how to grow.

• What is a long-term plan?

A long-term or long-range business plan looks beyond the traditional 3-year planning window, focusing on what a business might look like 5 or even 10 years from now. A traditional 5-year business plan includes financial projections, business strategy, and roadmaps that stretch far into the future.

I’ll be honest with you, though—for most businesses, long-range business plans that stretch 5 and 10 years into the future are a waste of time. Anyone who’s seriously asking you for one doesn’t know what they’re doing and is wasting your time. Sorry if that offends some people, but it’s true.

However, there is still real value in looking at the long term. Just don’t invest the time in creating a lengthy version of your business plan with overly detailed metrics and milestones for the next five-plus years. No one knows the future and, more than likely, anything you write down now could be obsolete in the next year, next month, or even next week. 

That’s where long-term strategic planning comes in. A long-term business plan like this is different from a traditional business plan in that it’s lighter on the details and more focused on your strategic direction. It has less focus on financial forecasting and a greater focus on the big picture. 

Think of your long-term strategic plan as your aspirational vision for your business. It defines the ideal direction you’re aiming for but it’s not influencing your day-to-day or, potentially, even your monthly decision making. 

• Are long-term business plans a waste of time?

No one knows the future. We’re all just taking the information that we have available today and making our best guesses about the future. Sometimes trends in a market are pretty clear and your guesses will be well-founded. Other times, you’re trying to look around a corner and hoping that your intuition about what comes next is correct.

Now, I’m not saying that thinking about the future is a waste of time. Entrepreneurs are always thinking about the future. They have to have some degree of faith and certainty about what customers are going to want in the future. Successful entrepreneurs do actually predict the future — they know what customers are going to want and when they’re going to want it.

Entrepreneurship is unpredictable 

Successful entrepreneurs are also often wrong. They make mistakes just like the rest of us. The difference between successful entrepreneurs and everyone else is that they don’t let mistakes slow them down. They learn from mistakes, adjust and try again. And again. And again. It’s not about being right all the time; it’s about having the perseverance to keep trying until you get it right. For example, James Dyson, inventor of the iconic vacuum cleaner, tried out 5,126 prototypes of his invention before he found a design that worked.

So, if thinking about the future isn’t a waste of time, why are 5-year business plans a waste of time? They’re a waste of time because they typically follow the same format as a traditional business plan, where you are asked to project sales, expenses, and cash flow 5 and 10 years into the future. 

Let’s be real. Sales and expense projections that far into the future are just wild guesses, especially for startups and new businesses. They’re guaranteed to be wrong and can’t be used for anything. You can’t (and shouldn’t) make decisions based on these guesses. They’re just fantasy. You hope you achieve massive year-over-year growth in sales, but there’s no guarantee that’s going to happen. And, you shouldn’t make significant spending decisions today based on the hope of massive sales 10 years from now.

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• Why write a long-term business plan?

So, what is the purpose of outlining a long-term plan? Here are a few key reasons why it’s still valuable to consider the future of your business without getting bogged down by the details.

Showcase your vision for investors

First, and especially important if you are raising money from investors, is your vision. Investors will want to know not only where you plan on being in a year, but where the business will be in five years. Do you anticipate launching new products or services? Will you expand internationally? Or will you find new markets to grow into? 

Set long-term goals for your business

Second, you’ll want to establish goals for yourself and your team. What kinds of high-level sales targets do you hope to achieve? How big is your company going to get overtime? These goals can be used to motivate your team and even help in the hiring process as you get up and running.

That said, you don’t want to overinvest in fleshing out all the details of a long-range plan. You don’t need to figure out exactly how your expansion will work years from now or exactly how much you’ll spend on office supplies five years from now. That’s really just a waste of time.

Instead, for long-range planning, think in broad terms. A good planning process means that you’re constantly revising and refining your business plan. You’ll add more specifics as you go, creating a detailed plan for the next 6-12 months and a broader, vague plan for the long term.

You have a long development time

Businesses with extremely long research and development timelines do make spending decisions now based on the hope of results years from now. For example, the pharmaceutical industry and medical device industry have to make these bets all the time. The R&D required to take a concept from idea to proven product with regulatory approval can take years for these industries, so long-range planning in these cases is a must. A handful of other industries also have similar development timelines, but these are the exceptions, not the rule.

Your business is well-established and predictable 

Long-term, detailed planning can make more sense for businesses that are extremely well established and have long histories of consistent sales and expenses with predictable growth. But, even for those businesses, predictability means quite the opposite of stability. The chances that you’ll be disrupted in the marketplace by a new company, or the changing needs and desires of your customers, is extremely high. So, most likely, those long-range predictions of sales and profits are pretty useless.

• What a 5-year plan should look like

With the exception of R&D-heavy businesses, most 5-year business plans should be more like vision statements than traditional business plans. They should explain your vision for the future, but skip the details of detailed sales projections and expense budgets. 

Your vision for your business should explain the types of products and services that you hope to offer in the future and the types of customers that you hope to serve. Your plan should outline who you plan to serve now and how you plan to expand if you are successful.

This kind of future vision creates a strategic roadmap. It’s not a fully detailed plan with sales forecasts and expense budgets, but a plan for getting started and then growing over time to reach your final destination.

For example, here’s a short-form version of what a long-term plan for Nike might have looked like if one had been written in the 1960s:

Nike will start by developing high-end track shoes for elite athletes. We’ll start with a focus on the North West of the US, but expand nationally as we develop brand recognition among track and field athletes. We will use sponsored athletes to spread the word about the quality and performance of our shoes. Once we have success in the track & field market segment, we believe that we will be able to successfully expand both beyond the US market and also branch out into other sports, with an initial focus on basketball.

Leadership and brand awareness in a sport such as basketball will enable us to cross over from the athlete market into the consumer market. This will lead to significant business growth in the consumer segment and allow for expansion into additional sports, fashion, and casual markets in addition to building a strong apparel brand.

Interestingly enough, Nike (to my knowledge) never wrote out a long-range business plan. They developed their plans as they grew, building the proverbial airplane as it took off.

But, if you have this kind of vision for your business, it’s useful to articulate it. Your employees will want to know what your vision is and your investors will want to know as well. They want to know that you, as an entrepreneur, are looking beyond tomorrow and into the future months and years ahead.

• How to write a five-year business plan

Writing out your long-term vision for your business is a useful exercise. It can bring a sense of stability and solidify key performance indicators and broad milestones that drive your business. 

Developing a long-range business plan is really just an extension of your regular business planning process. A typical business plan covers the next one to three years, documenting your target market, marketing strategy, and product or service offerings for that time period. 

A five-year plan expands off of that initial strategy and discusses what your business might do in the years to come. However, as I’ve mentioned before, creating a fully detailed five-year business plan will be a waste of time. 

Here’s a quick guide to writing a business plan that looks further into the future without wasting your time:

1. Develop your one-page plan

As with all business planning, we recommend that you start with a one-page business plan. It provides a snapshot of what you’re hoping to achieve in the immediate term by outlining your core business strategy, target market, and business model.

A one-page plan is the foundation of all other planning because it’s the document that you’ll keep the most current. It’s also the easiest to update and share with business partners. You will typically highlight up to three years of revenue and profit goals as well as milestones that you hope to achieve in the near term.

Check out our guide to building your one-page plan and download a free template to get started.

2. Determine if you need a traditional business plan

Unlike a one-page business plan, a traditional business plan is more detailed and is typically written in long-form prose. A traditional business plan is usually 10-20 pages long and contains details about your product or service, summaries of the market research that you’ve conducted, and details about your competition. Read our complete guide to writing a business plan .

Companies that write traditional business plans typically have a “business plan event” where a complete business plan is required. Business plan events are usually part of the fundraising process. During fundraising, lenders and investors may ask to see a detailed plan and it’s important to be ready if that request comes up. 

But there are other good reasons to write a detailed business plan. A detailed plan forces you to think through the details of your business and how, exactly, you’re going to build your business. Detailed plans encourage you to think through your business strategy, your target market, and your competition carefully. A good business plan ensures that your strategy is complete and fleshed out, not just a collection of vague ideas.

A traditional business plan is also a good foundation for a long-term business plan and I recommend that you expand your lean business plan into a complete business plan if you intend to create plans for more than three years into the future.

3. Develop long-term goals and growth targets

As you work on your business plan, you’ll need to think about where you want to be in 5+ years. A good exercise is to envision what your business will look like. How many employees will you have? How many locations will you serve? Will you introduce new products and services? 

When you’ve envisioned where you want your business to be, it’s time to turn that vision into a set of goals that you’ll document in your business plan. Each section of your business plan will be expanded to highlight where you want to be in the future. For example, in your target market section, you will start by describing your initial target market. Then you’ll proceed to describe the markets that you hope to reach in 3-5 years.

To accompany your long-term goals, you’ll also need to establish revenue targets that you think you’ll need to meet to achieve your goals. It’s important to also think about the expenses you’re going to incur in order to grow your business. 

For long-range planning, I recommend thinking about your expenses in broad buckets such as “marketing” and “product development” without getting bogged down in too much detail. Think about what percentage of your sales you’ll spend on each of these broad buckets. For example, marketing spending might be 20% of sales. 

4. Develop a 3-5 year strategic plan

Your goals and growth targets are “what” you want to achieve. Your strategy is “how” you’re going to achieve it.

Use your business plan to document your strategy for growth. You might be expanding your product offering, expanding your market, or some combination of the two. You’ll need to think about exactly how this process will happen over the next 3-5 years. 

A good way to document your strategy is to use milestones. These are interim goals that you’ll set to mark your progress along the way to your larger goal. For example, you may have a goal to expand your business nationally from your initial regional presence. You probably won’t expand across the country all at once, though. Most likely, you’ll expand into certain regions one at a time and grow to have a national presence over time. Your strategy will be the order of the regions that you plan on expanding into and why you pick certain regions over others.

Your 3-5 year strategy may also include what’s called an “exit strategy”. This part of a business plan is often required if you’re raising money from investors. They’ll want to know how they’ll eventually get their money back. An “exit” can be the sale of your business or potentially going public. A typical exit strategy will identify potential acquirers for your business and will show that you’ve thought about how your business might be an attractive purchase.

5. Tie your long-term plan to your one-page plan

As your business grows, you can use your long-term business plan as your north star. Your guide for where you want to end up. Use those goals to steer your business in the right direction, making small course corrections as you need to. 

You’ll reflect those smaller course corrections in your one-page plan. Because it is a simple document and looks at the shorter term, it’s easier to update. The best way to do this is to set aside a small amount of time to review your plan once a month. You’ll review your financial forecast, your milestones, and your overall strategy. If things need to change, you can make those adjustments. Nothing ever goes exactly to plan, so it’s OK to make corrections as you go.

You may find that your long-term plan may also need corrections as you grow your business. You may learn things about your market that change your initial assumptions and impacts your long-range plan. This is perfectly normal. Once a quarter or so, zoom out and review your long-range plan. If you need to make corrections to your strategy and goals, that’s fine. Just keep your plan alive so that it gives you the guidance that you need over time. 

• Vision setting is the purpose of long-term planning

Part of what makes entrepreneurs special is that they have a vision. They have dreams for where they want their business to go. A 5-year business plan should be about documenting that vision for the future and how your business will capitalize on that vision.

So, if someone asks you for your 5-year business plan. Don’t scramble to put together a sales forecast and budget for 5 years from now. Your best guess today will be obsolete tomorrow. Instead, focus on your vision and communicate that. 

Explain where you think your business is going and what you think the market is going to be like 5 years from now. Explain what you think customers are going to want and where trends are headed and how you’re going to be there to sell the solution to the problems that exist in 5 and 10 years. Just skip the invented forecasts and fantasy budgets.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

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How to Write a Business Plan Cover Page Complete Guide with Examples

Fill the form to download business plan cover page examples.

A business plan cover page may not come to mind when you think of writing your business plan. Although it’s traditionally one of the last sections of a business plan, it’s one of the most crucial.

Your business plan only has one chance to make a good impression on your reader. The cover page of a book or business plan can easily make a person make a decision.

In this article, we will explain the importance of business plan cover pages and provide a step-by-step guide to help you create your own cover page for your business plan. See our real world business plan examples to see what should be included in the other sections of your business plan.

What is a business plan cover page?

The cover page of a business plan summarizes all the important aspects of the business and serves as an introduction to the full business plan. Bankers and investors can quickly determine the purpose of a business plan by viewing the cover page.

You should include the name of your company, your logo, addresses, and other information that identifies your business. This is the first page of your plan, so it should look professional, visually pleasing, and informative.

What is the purpose of a cover page?

The purpose of the cover page is to communicate what the document enclosed is and to provide information that enables a reader to contact you about your business.

Make sure your business plan’s cover page is visually appealing, free of errors, and concise to set the tone for its content.

A strong business plan cover page should be simple, clean, and powerful. Don’t clutter your cover page with details about how your business will operate. Save those details for the executive summary .

Whether you are writing a business plan , marketing plan, or proposal, the business plan cover page is an essential part of your plan. Read on to find out which elements your business plan cover page should contain and how to design it for maximum impact.

What to Include in the Business Plan Cover Page?

Although there are no specific rules regarding what should be included on your business plan cover page, we have prepared some essential information that you should not overlook.

Company logo

• Business name
• Document title
• Tagline (optional)
• Contact information and address
• Completion date
• Confidentiality statement

Now let’s look at each of these elements in greater detail so you know what you need to include on your business plan cover page.

1. Company Logo

Use a neat, clean, high-quality logo to make your business plan cover page look professional. The logo should be placed at the top of the page.

The image should be large enough to see details, but not so large that it becomes a distraction. Brand identity begins with your logo. The company logo is the first and most significant section that will capture your readers’ attention immediately.

People are 90% more likely to remember your logo if you place it in the top left corner.

2. Business Name

After the company logo, your company name is the second most important section of your cover page as you want your reader to remember your company name as they read the document.

To make your company name stand out from the rest of the information on the business plan cover page, you should use a readable, bold font that is the largest font on the page.

Please keep in mind that if your company logo includes your company name, you can remove either your company logo or name from the cover page.

You can download 50+ Free Business Plan Templates here that include not only pre-built cover pages but also provide step-by-step guidance in the creation of your entire business plan.

3. Document Title

Plan titles tell the reader immediately what the document is about, whether it is a business plan , marketing plan, expansion plan, recovery plan, or anything else.

It is commonly referred to as a “Business Plan,” but you can also customize it by saying “Five-Year Business Plan” or “Merger Business Plan” if you want to outline more specific objectives.

The title of the plan should be large and prominent on the cover page. Readers should know the purpose of the document immediately.

Increase readability by using a clear, bold font, such as Times New Roman, Garamond, or Arial. It may be difficult to read script lettering and doesn’t appear professional.

Please Note: Make sure your name isn’t more prominent than your business plan title cover page.

4. Tagline (optional)

Business owners sometimes use taglines to describe what they do and how they’re different. It’s optional, but you can also include a catchy slogan or motto describing your business.

A tagline becomes an essential part of your cover page if you want your reader to immediately understand what you do.

Generally, your business plan will be more interesting to investors or readers if the tagline is memorable. A business tagline is a short catchy marketing slogan that signifies your brand or company name, as well as other important aspects of your business.

Create a tagline by describing what you do in a few words. Put your tagline under your company logo on your cover page so readers understand what you do immediately.

5. Contact Information and Address

“Prepared By” contains contact information the reader can use to contact the person. It includes information about the company’s mailing address, phone number, e-mail address, and website.

To make investors aware of where to direct their inquiries, include your name as the business owner as well as the names of any partners or executives.

Try to center this information on the page to maintain consistency in formatting. As long as the information is clearly visible and readable, you may use a smaller font size than you used for the company name and title.

6. Completion Date

When was this plan written? The date is important to readers, so include it (month and year are sufficient).

Under the contact information, write the year (or the year and month) in which the business plan was finalized and published. It’s a good idea to update your business plan throughout the year if you’re including the month, so readers don’t think it’s old.

It is important to note that your company name should appear more prominently than your title and date. Depending on your business plan’s writing style, you may spell out the date, like Jan 20, 2023, or write it numerically, like 20/1/23.

Dates should be formatted consistently throughout the document. To maintain consistency, center the text and use the same font size as your address and contact information.

7. Confidentiality Statement

Adding a confidentiality statement to your cover page protects your idea from being disclosed. It is not required, but you may want to include a confidentiality statement on the cover page, or just text “Confidential” to emphasize that this is a confidential document such as the following:

Example of Confidentiality Statement

It is understood that the information provided in this [Company’s Name] Business Plan is totally confidential, and the reader undertakes not to disclose any aspect of it without the express written consent of the business owner.

How to write a business plan cover page that captures investors' attention?

• Keep it concise and to the point: Investors are busy people, so they don’t want to read a long and rambling cover page. Keep your cover page brief and to the point, highlighting your key business strengths and unique selling points.
• Use clear and concise language: Avoid using jargon or technical language that your target audience may not understand. Use clear and concise language to communicate your business vision and goals.
• Highlight your key business strengths and unique selling points: What makes your business unique and different from the competition? What are your key strengths? Highlight these things on your cover page to grab investors’ attention.
• Make sure your cover page is visually appealing and professional: Your cover page is the first thing that potential investors will see, so it’s important to make a good impression. Use a professional design and layout, and avoid using too many colors or fonts.
• Proofread carefully for any errors: Typos and grammatical errors on your cover page will make you look unprofessional. Proofread your cover page carefully before submitting it to any potential investors.

What are some creative business plan cover page design ideas?

• Use high-quality images or graphics that are relevant to your business: Images and graphics can be a great way to add visual interest to your cover page and make it more engaging for potential investors. Choose high-quality images or graphics that are relevant to your business and that will help to communicate your brand message.
• Use a unique and eye-catching font scheme: Your cover page should stand out from the crowd, so use a unique and eye-catching font scheme. Avoid using overused or generic fonts.
• Use your company colors and branding to create a cohesive look: Your cover page should be consistent with your overall branding. Use your company colors and fonts to create a cohesive look and feel.
• Keep your design simple and elegant: A simple and elegant design is often the most effective. Avoid cluttering your cover page with too much text or too many images and graphics.

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What makes a great cover page for a business plan

Formatting should be consistent.

Messy or unprofessional cover pages can create negative perceptions in your readers’ minds before they even open your business plan.

The cover page of your business plan is the first impression of your company, so your logo, fonts, and brand colors should all work together to capture the reader’s attention.

Follow these best practices to create a cover page that stands out:

Keeping your cover page neat and consistent will allow your reader to perceive your organization and professionalism. Use consistent formatting through

• Maintaining equal spacing between characters and lines
• Choosing fonts that are similar or identical
• Make sure each line of your cover page is centered

When it comes to fonts, it’s best practice to stick to one type of typeface, such as serif or sans serif. It’s also important to choose fonts that are simple, easy to read, and represent your brand.

It is important to ensure your business plan’s cover page is free of spelling and grammatical errors. Make sure you proofread your document several times before publishing the final version, and ask others to review it as well.

The less the better

In your business plan executive summary , you will summarize its contents. The cover page should not do the same. It is also unwise to create a business plan cover that is graphically complicated because the information will be difficult to discern. A strong business plan cover page should be simple, clean, and powerful.

Make use of the color scheme of your company

Color plays a crucial role in establishing your brand’s credibility and trustworthiness. Choosing the right brand color will reveal more about your business than you could ever imagine.

In addition, using the right colors can enhance your brand value by creating a strong visual identity. To make your business plan more appealing, your brand color should be incorporated everywhere, such as titles, subtitles, features, images, etc.

Ensure the colors don’t distract from the important information and consider coordinating them with your company’s brand or logo.

Colors represent 90% of your brand’s personality and elicit the right emotions from your customers, so choose colors that represent your brand’s personality and evoke the right emotions.

When it comes to choosing a logo, simplicity is key. Try to create something that represents your brand and speaks to your audience without being too busy (in other words: white space is your friend).

It’s also important to remember to be practical: your logo should look good in any medium, size, color, and even time period. Beyond your business plan cover page, you’ll need it for your social media, marketing material, or labels.

Download Pack of 6 Business Plan Cover Page Examples

We will show you some real-world business plan cover page examples so you may know how to design your own.

Download Business Plan Cover Page Templates

Here are a few business plan cover examples to illustrate the structure and format. Download and customize it according to your needs.

Business Plan Cover Page Example 1

Business Plan Cover Page Example 2

Business Plan Cover Page Example 3

Business Plan Cover Page Example 4

Business Plan Cover Page Example 5

Business Plan Cover Page Example 6

If you’re not confident in your ability to create a business plan on your own, or if you simply don’t have the time to do so, Wise Business Plans can help.

Our expert business plan writers have years of experience crafting comprehensive plans for businesses of all sizes and industries. We’ll work with you to understand your unique vision and goals, and we’ll create a customized plan that outlines your marketing strategy, target market, financial projections, and more.

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5 page business plan: wave of the future.

Lately I’ve been rethinking business plans. On the one hand, in the consulting and academic world, what is meant by a business plan is a fairly comprehensive research project with thorough analysis of issues including customers, markets, competitors, pricing, marketing strategies, risks – always followed with detailed multi-paged financial projections looking three to five years into the future. To create this kind of a plan, management works on it for months, or hires a consultant to do it for them. Either way, it’s not unusual to invest a hundred hours or more into creating it.

On the other hand, in most of the business world, what is generally meant by a business plan is a brief written statement indicating goals and overall steps for achieving those goals. The goals might relate to customers, sales, units sold, profits, facilities. It looks out a year, maybe two. This is something the owner or management puts together in a few meetings, when then gets updated every year or two.

These are two very different meanings of the term business plan, and I’m beginning to wonder if both are missing the mark. The comprehensive plan isn’t all that practical for small businesses or nonprofits that lack the time or dollars to do all that work, however valuable it might be to do so. And the brief plan can be very superficial to the point that it does little more than set ambitious goals with minimal guidance on what to do when the business encounters those pesky potholes in the road.

So here’s my idea for a third kind of plan, taking the best of both worlds. For now I’m calling it the Five Page Business Plan. Keep it short and simple, but still useful. It involves doing “just enough” research and analysis into “just the right areas” that will matter for achieving success with this business. Summarize all that in three pages of text, then a page of financial projections and a page about the expertise of the management team and the facilities and key equipment that will be utilized.

Can this offer the best of both worlds? It just might. Will it attract investors? I don’t know, but I do know they’re more likely to read it than the 38 page variety. When I get the chance, I’m going to convert some of the comprehensive plans I’ve written over the years into that format. The idea is to see if it’s possible to get into five pages all that is really important in a business plan. I think it can be done.

What do you think?

——————

For more resources, see our Library topic Business Planning .

Copyright © 2010 Rolfe Larson Associates – Fifteenth Anniversary, 1995 – 2010 Author of Venture Forth! Endorsed by the late Paul Newman of Newman’s Own Read my weekly blogs on Social Enterprise and Business Planning

Rolfe Larson

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8 Incidents in 2 Weeks: What’s Going on With United’s Planes?

While no one was injured, most of the mishaps required emergency landings or diversions. One safety expert said the incidents were not the result of “systemic problems.”

By Christine Chung

An engine fire sparked by plastic packaging wrap , a tire lost shortly after takeoff and a plane veering off the runway : These are among the eight incidents that have occurred over the past two weeks on flights operated by United Airlines. While no injuries — or worse — have been reported, the mishaps have generated headlines and stoked rising anxiety about aviation safety among federal officials and passengers alike.

All of the incidents happened on flights that took off from or were headed to airports in the United States, and five involved airplanes made by Boeing, a manufacturer already under intense scrutiny. In January, a door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner in mid-flight, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.

United, one of the world’s largest airlines, flies aircraft manufactured mainly by Boeing and Airbus. In an email United began sending to customers on Monday, the company’s chief executive, Scott Kirby, wrote that while the recent incidents were unrelated, they were “reminders of the importance of safety.”

“I want you to know that these incidents have our attention and have sharpened our focus,” he continued, adding that every case was being reviewed by the airline and would influence its safety training and procedures.

Here’s what travelers should know about the latest in airplane woes.

What exactly happened on or to the planes?

Most of the incidents reported in the last two weeks required emergency landings or diversions.

March 4: A Boeing 737-900 departing from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston returned to the airport to make an emergency landing after one of the plane engines ingested and burned plastic wrap .

March 7: A Boeing 777 leaving San Francisco for Osaka, Japan, made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport after the aircraft lost a tire .

March 8: A Boeing 737 Max 8 veered off the runway upon landing at George Bush Airport in Houston and tilted onto the grass .

Later that day, a flight leaving San Francisco for Mexico City was diverted to Los Angeles after the Airbus A320 experienced issues with its hydraulic system.

March 9: An Airbus A320 heading to Salt Lake City turned back to Chicago O’Hare International Airport after it reported maintenance issues .

March 11: A Boeing 777, flying from Sydney, Australia , to San Francisco, turned back after takeoff because the plane had a hydraulic leak.

March 14: An Airbus A320 that departed from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport had a hydraulic leak shortly before it landed in its scheduled destination, San Francisco.

Later that day, a Boeing 737-800 that took off from San Francisco landed at Rogue Valley International Medford Airport in Oregon missing an external panel .

Are the recent issues typical, or cause for concern?

The mishaps were not the result of “systemic problems,” said Robert Sumwalt, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board who now heads a new aviation safety center at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

“Some of these issues are things that happen occasionally, but often don’t get reported in media,” Mr. Sumwalt said, though he emphasized that none were acceptable.

Kyra Dempsey, who writes about aviation accidents in a blog called Admiral Cloudberg, said that United’s recent issues were being “falsely conflated with Boeing’s troubles.”

“While it’s bad luck that United had so many incidents in such a short period, in general such incidents happen frequently around the world and they aren’t on the rise overall,” Ms. Dempsey said.

How has United responded?

Mr. Kirby’s 270-word message to United customers, including to members of the airline’s frequent flier program, started to be sent on Monday morning, said Josh Freed, a spokesman for United.

Starting in May, United pilots will have an extra day of in-person training, a change that was already planned before the incidents, Mr. Kirby wrote. The airline will also use a “centralized training curriculum for our new hire maintenance technicians” and will dedicate additional resources to the carrier’s supply chain.

What government agencies oversee these issues, and how are they responding?

The Federal Aviation Administration regulates the country’s aviation system and investigates safety incidents on U.S. airlines, while the N.T.S.B. investigates the causes of accidents, collisions and crashes involving planes flown by U.S. carriers, in addition to other accidents involving commercial and mass transit operators. Both agencies have discretion on what they investigate, Mr. Sumwalt said.

Currently, the N.T.S.B. is investigating the incident that occurred on March 8 in Houston, when the plane veered off the runway, an agency spokesperson said. The N.T.S.B. is also looking into a Feb. 10 Los Angeles-to-Newark flight , operated by United, that experienced severe turbulence, leading to injuries among more than a dozen passengers. (The Boeing 777 landed normally, but the flight was met by medical personnel.)

Safety experts said some issues don’t necessarily rise to the level of an investigation by either agency.

For example, partial loss of some of an airplane’s multiple hydraulics systems is common, said Michael McCormick, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a former F.A.A. control tower operator. The F.A.A. may or may not get involved for this kind of issue, unless there’s a pattern, Mr. Sumwalt said.

The January episode involving the blown door plug aboard the Alaska Airlines jet is under investigation by the N.T.S.B. and the Justice Department.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Christine Chung is a Times reporter covering airlines and consumer travel. More about Christine Chung

Boeing: A Company in Turmoil

Boeing is weathering a particularly difficult period: two fatal crashes, a loose panel that blew out during a flight, quality concerns and production slowdowns..

‘Shortcuts Everywhere’: Quality issues have plagued Boeing  even after two fatal crashes. Many employees blame the company’s focus on increasing production speed .

A Major Reshuffle : Boeing said that it was overhauling its leadership  amid its most significant safety crisis in years, announcing sweeping changes that included the departure of its chief executive, Dave Calhoun , at the end of the year.

United’s Planes : An engine fire sparked by plastic packaging wrap, a tire lost shortly after takeoff and a plane veering off the runway: These are among several recent incidents that have occurred  on Boeing flights operated by United Airlines.

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282: After a section of a plane blew out  10 minutes after it took off , there was increased scrutiny  on the plane’s manufacturer: Boeing . The Justice Department has since launched a criminal investigation .

Quality Control Issues: An audit that was initiated by the Federal Aviation Administration after the Alaska Airlines incident found dozens of problems  throughout Boeing’s manufacturing process and one of its key suppliers.

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MacKenzie Scott donates $640 million, more than doubling her planned gifts to nonprofit applicants

FILE - Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, March 4, 2018, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Scott announced Tuesday, March 19, 2024 she would give $640 million to more than 360 organizations in response to an application process she launched last year. The award is more than double the amount that she initially promised in an “open call” for applications. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

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Billionaire philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott announced Tuesday she is giving $640 million to 361 small nonprofits that responded to an open call for applications.

Yield Giving’s first round of donations is more than double what Scott had initially pledged to give away through the application process. Since she began giving away billions in 2019 , Scott and her team have researched and selected organizations without an application process and provided them with large, unrestricted gifts.

In a brief note on her website, Scott wrote she was grateful to Lever for Change, the organization that managed the open call, and the evaluators for “their roles in creating this pathway to support for people working to improve access to foundational resources in their communities. They are vital agents of change.”

The increase in both the award amount and the number of organizations who were selected is “a pleasant surprise,” said Elisha Smith Arrillaga, vice president at The Center for Effective Philanthropy. She is interested to learn more about the applicants’ experience of the process and whether Scott continues to use this process going forward.

Some 6,353 nonprofits applied to the $1 million grants when applications opened.

“The donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and the award amount,” said Lever for Change, which specializes in running philanthropic prize awards.

The 279 nonprofits that received top scores from an external review panel were awarded $2 million, while 82 organizations in a second tier received $1 million each.

Competitions like Scott’s open call can help organizations who do not have connections with a specific funder get considered, said Renee Karibi-Whyte, senior vice president, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

“One of the best things about prize philanthropy is that it surfaces people and organizations and institutions that otherwise wouldn’t have access to the people in the power centers and the funding,” she said. Her organization also advises funders who run competitive grants or philanthropic prize competitions to phase the application to diminish the burden of applying on any organization that is eliminated early.

Megan Peterson, executive director of the Minnesota-based nonprofit, Gender Justice, said the application was a rare opportunity to get noticed by Scott.

“Having seen the types of work that she has supported in the past, we did feel like, ‘Oh, if only she knew that we were out here racking up wins,’” said Peterson.

Her organization has won lawsuits recently around access to emergency contraception and the rights of trans youth to play sports. They plan to use the funds to expand their work into North Dakota. Peterson said the funds must be used for tax exempt purposes but otherwise come with no restrictions or reporting requirements — just like Scott’s previous grants.

“I think she’s really helping to set a new path for philanthropy broadly, which is with that philosophy of: Find people doing good work and give them resources and then get out of the way,” Peterson said of Scott. “I am grateful for not just the support individually, but the way in which I think she is having an impact on philanthropy broadly.”

The open call asked for applications from nonprofits who are community-led with missions “to advance the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means,” Yield Giving said on its website. Only nonprofits with annual budgets between $1 and $5 million were eligible to apply.

The awardees were selected through a multilayer process, where applicants scored fellow applicants and then the top organizations were reviewed by a panel of outside experts.

Scott has given away $16.5 billion from the fortune she came into after divorcing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Initially, she publicized the gifts in online blog posts, sometimes naming the organizations and sometimes not. She launched a database of her giving in December 2022, under the name Yield Giving.

In an essay reflecting on the website , she wrote, “Information from other people – other givers, my team, the nonprofit teams I’ve been giving to – has been enormously helpful to me. If more information about these gifts can be helpful to anyone, I want to share it.”

Smith Arrillaga, of CEP, said it was important that Scott is, “continuing to honor her commitment in terms of giving away her wealth, even though she’s thinking, changing and tweaking the ‘how’ of how it’s done and she’s still trying to go with the spirit of what she committed to.”

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy .

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WEATHER ALERT

A watch and 2 advisories in effect for 11 regions in the area

‘the heart of roanoke’: business association’s plan to bring vitality to williamson road, the greater williamson road area business association is applying for several grants.

Abbie Coleman , Multimedia Journalist

ROANOKE, Va. – ‘The heart of Roanoke’ — that’s how Greater Williamson Road Area Business Association Executive Director Valerie Brown thinks of Williamson Road.

“We want the road to become very vibrant like it used to be back in the day before the highways came through,” Brown said.

Brown tells 10 News they’re actively working towards that goal.

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On Monday she presented the “State of the Road” to council — focusing on several grant applications. One of which is a vitality grant through the Virginia Main Street Grant.

“One of the ones that they have is a vitality grant. From that we can do a façade grant project, which is what we’re working on,” Brown said.

She said this would give a boost to businesses, along with their application for a Thriving Cities Grant. A grant through local, state and federal transportation departments to address road conditions.

“That will help several businesses up and down the road to make them more visually inviting as well as help the business owner in that location,” she said.

In addition to the grants, Brown tells council she wants to work one-on-one with businesses to get a better idea of how the association can help.

“They think they don’t matter. Because you have all of these wonderful things going on downtown, and then you have 581 and all of the side roads, and they feel that people have to go out of their way to go to Williamson Road,” she said.

Next Monday, grant consultants for the Thriving Cities Grant will come to Williamson Road, to assess the road, and meet with business owners.

“They’re going to be able to see firsthand the lack of sidewalks, the lack of curbs, even the lack of driveways in some cases,” Brown said.

Brown said she hopes this will help get business owners and community members alike, excited about the future of Williamson Road.

“Increase their economic revenue from that, but anything we can do to help helps the city,” she said.

The walk-along with the committee Monday is just the start of the process. After that, they will meet with neighborhood groups, libraries, and other impacted groups.

They hope to be able to submit a grant proposal in 18 months.

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Asha Ama Bias-Daniels crafts costumes for Cincinnati Ballet's 'Mercurial Landscapes'

Uc daap alumna brings a unique blend of artistry, innovation and cultural heritage to the stage.

Event Information

The Cincinnati Ballet is set to dazzle audiences once again with their upcoming production of " Mercurial Landscapes ," a breathtaking journey through dance and design. As the anticipation builds for the performances April 5-7 at the Aronoff Center, one name stands out in the realm of design:  Asha Ama Bias-Daniels .

Cincinnati Ballet presents Rep 4—Mercurial Landscapes, featuring four dynamic contemporary works, including a world premiere by Rena Butler, with costume design by Asha Ama Bias-Daniels, a UC DAAP alumna, fashion designer and artist. Photo/provided

Renowned for her authentic and captivating creations, Asha Ama Bias-Daniels, a 2013 University of Cincinnati alumna, brings her unparalleled talent to the forefront of the Cincinnati Ballet's latest production. With a penchant for blending technical design with contemporary flair, Bias-Daniels' creations promise to elevate the visual storytelling of "Mercurial Landscapes" to new heights of innovation.

In anticipation for the upcoming show, Bias-Daniels has been featured in  Cincinnati Ballet  news,  CityBeat  and the  Cincinnati Business Courier , receiving high praise for her work and dedication to making the arts more Inclusive and accessible to the Cincinnati community.

Her relentless drive for excellence has propelled her to the top of the fashion world, while her unwavering determination has made strides in making the arts more inclusive and accessible to the community.

Cincinnati Ballet

Rena Butler's world premiere for 'Mercurial Landscape: Bloom'

Asha Ama Bias-Daniels’ couture costume for 'Bloom.' Photo/Cincinnati Business Courier

Bias-Daniels shared her insights into the creative process behind crafting the costumes for this ballet production.

"The concept of 'Bloom ,'  one of four sections of this show,  is inspired by our experiences as Black women and the pressue we feel to make ourselves smaller," she explained. "Each costume has vibrant floral bursts that push out of sequin fabric. Each burst serves as a visual representation of our greatness always coming out somewhere. Even if we try to suppress it, who we are will always find a way to blossom."

Bias-Daniels elaborates on her perspective, seeing women through "God eyes," perceiving beauty and greatness in all, even when others do not see it in themselves. This ethos permeates her designs, aiming for viewers to recognize their truest selves in her creations, she says.

I am most fulfilled when people see their greatest self in my work.

Asha Ama Bias-Daniels

About Asha Ama Bias-Daniels

Photo/Marek Urbanski

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Bias-Daniels is inspired by the female form and her work celebrates duality with soft, rhythmic draping against pieces with an armored feel. She incorporates ornate detailing, print mixing, strong lines and cut outs that accentuate the curves of the "immaculate female form."

She has created pieces for a diverse range of artists from Zendaya to Little Big Town. Bias-Daniels has worked the full range of the fashion industry from corporate to couture design, designing the showpiece of Marchesa’s couture bridal collection and custom pieces for Lizzo’s Special tour . Bias-Daniels competed as a finalist on Tim Gunn's Project Runway: Under the Gunn . She was also invited back to compete on the hit show Project Runway All Stars .  Her work has adorned the halls of the Contemporary Arts Center, the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Taft Museum of Art.

As a Black woman, Bias-Daniels often found herself misunderstood, stereotyped and misidentified. She says sge was able to navigate the fashion world and survive because she was raised with a great knowledge of self that she tries to impart to others through her designs. Bias-Daniels has always had a heart for mentoring and education. It is her core belief that it is her duty to pull others up while finding her way.

Bias-Daniels is thankful for the technical design skills she learned during her time as a student in the fashion design program in UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). She credits her technical sewing skills as a contribution to her first big break as a designer. She also wants to remind current and future artists in DAAP and beyond to take those technical skills and also live for their authentic-selves.

"You only have one life to live. You have to be selfish about your dream," she said. "Try new and different things now. Take chances. Bet on you. Find meaning in your work".  

You only have one life to live. You have to be selfish about your dream.

Bias-Daniels' designs for 'Bloom'   are dedicated to to her father, Charles Daniels, for always seeing her greatness and pushing her to be her biggest self. Her work is inspired by the great women that remind her who she is whenever forgotten: Ayan Daniels, Tasha Johnson, Jehan Altman, Rita DeRaedt, Kelly Sheehy and Kristen Wright.

For those eager to witness Bias-Daniels' stunning creations come to life,  tickets  for "Mercurial Landscapes" are available now.

Featured image at top of Asha Ama Bias-Daniels. Photo/Marek Urbanski

Become a Bearcat

Interested in our Fashion Design program? Whether you’re a first-generation student or from a family of Bearcats, UC is proud to support you at every step along your journey. We want to make sure you succeed — and feel right at home.

Apply today.

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Filmed in July 2021, UC’s episode is a crash-course in being a Bearcat, starring a few of the university’s best and brightest students and alumni. Some are lifelong Cincinnatians; others are from across the globe. But they’re all excited to show viewers why they've called UC home: From its beautiful spaces and state-of-the-art facilities to co-op and campus life.

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• Today’s best savings rates
• Where top savings rates stand today 

Why you should open a high-yield savings account today

• Factors to weigh before choosing a high-yield savings account 

Methodology

Best savings rates today – earn up to 5.35% apy with one of these high-yield savings accounts, march 27, 2024 .

Don’t settle for near 0% APYs from big banks when these savings accounts boast APYs up to 5.35%.

Liliana Hall

Associate Writer

Liliana Hall is a writer for CNET Money covering banking, credit cards and mortgages. Previously, she wrote about personal credit for Bankrate and CreditCards.com. She is passionate about providing accessible content to enhance financial literacy. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in journalism, and has worked in the newsrooms of KUT and the Austin Chronicle. When not working, she is probably paddle boarding, hopping on a flight or reading for her book club.

Kelly Ernst

Kelly is an editor for CNET Money focusing on banking. She has over 10 years of experience in personal finance and previously wrote for CBS MoneyWatch covering banking, investing, insurance and home equity products. She is passionate about arming consumers with the tools they need to take control of their financial lives. In her free time, she enjoys binging podcasts, scouring thrift stores for unique home décor and spoiling the heck out of her dogs.

CNET staff -- not advertisers, partners or business interests -- determine how we review the products and services we cover. If you buy through our links, we may get paid.

For the last two years, savers have been able to maximize their interest earnings with savings accounts that earn more than 5% annual percentage yield, or APY. And though savings rates remain elevated after the Federal Reserve kept savings rates unchanged last week, the clock is ticking on high APYs. The Fed still forecasts three rate cuts at some point in 2024.

The best high-yield savings accounts currently earn APYs up to 5.35%, which is more than 10 times the national average of 0.47%. So, if you’re earning less than 1% in a traditional savings account, now’s the time to switch.  

Read on to learn more about today’s top savings rates.

Key takeaways

• A high-yield savings account can help you grow your money faster. 
• Today’s best high-yield savings accounts earn APYs as high as 5.35%. 
• There’s still time to enjoy a high APY, but now’s the time to act -- experts predict rates will drop later this year. 

Experts recommend comparing rates before opening a savings account to get the best APY possible. You can enter your information below to see CNET’s partners’ rates in your area.

Today’s best savings rates

Here are some of the top savings account APYs available right now:

Where top savings rates stand today 

High interest rates caught everyone’s attention for the better part of 2022 and 2023. As the Fed steadily raised the federal funds rate to fight record inflation, banks raised rates on consumer products like savings accounts and certificates of deposits. 

But after 11 rate hikes since March 2022, the Fed has opted to leave the federal funds rate unchanged at its last five meetings, indicating to experts that savings rates are likely at their peak.

Here’s where rates stand compared to last week:

The Fed announced rates would once again remain unchanged at last week’s FOMC meeting, maintaining its target range of 5.25% to 5.5%. Experts still expect rate cuts to begin later this year, but after the most recent Consumer Price Index report revealed an uptick in inflation, the timeline for future rate cuts is less clear. 

“The first rate cut is unlikely to occur before the Fed’s June meeting, and if the current inflation trend continues into March and April, the Fed may decide to push out the first rate cut into the second half of 2024,” said Ken Tumin, a senior industry analyst at LendingTree.

Since savings rates are variable -- meaning they move in lockstep with the federal funds rate -- your APY is likely to go down once the Fed drops rates. But even after rates fall later this year, high-yield savings accounts will continue to offer significantly better APYs than traditional ones. 

Still, experts believe that savings rates will remain elevated until the Fed begins dropping rates.

Savings rates have been soaring for the last few years, but they’re likely at their peak. However, a high-yield savings account can be a smart savings strategy in any rate environment, so don’t let anticipated rate drops keep you from opening one today. 

Here’s what makes HYSAs stand out:

• High rates: HYSAs often have APYs 10 times higher (or more) than the national FDIC average.
• Low or no fees: Monthly maintenance fees can eat into your savings. Many online banks can charge low or no fees thanks to their lower operating costs.
• Liquidity: You can access money in your HYSA anytime without penalty (as long as you mind any withdrawal limits). CDs, another popular savings product, charge a penalty if you take out funds before the term is up.
• Accessibility: If you open an HYSA at an online bank, you’ll enjoy 24/7 account access through its mobile app. You may also have lots of customer service options, including by phone, online chat and secure messaging.
• Low risk: HYSAs are protected by federal deposit insurance if they’re held at an FDIC-insured bank or NCUA-insured credit union. That means your money is safe up to $250,000 per account holder, per account type.

If you’re earning less than 1% with your current savings account -- some big banks offer as little as 0.01% APY -- you don’t have to close your existing account to enjoy higher rates. You can open a new account from an online bank in minutes and set up recurring transfers or direct deposits to start funding it.

Factors to weigh before choosing a high-yield savings account 

High-yield savings accounts usually have higher APYs than traditional savings accounts, which help you yield a bigger return. But there are other factors you should consider when choosing the right account for your financial goals. 

“Some accounts have mandatory minimums, transaction fees or other charges you might not expect,” said Ben McLaughlin , chief marketing officer and president of digital savings marketplace Raisin. “These hidden fees can chip away at your savings, so be sure you are satisfied with the terms and conditions before opening an account.”

So, in addition to APY, you should also weigh the following when comparing savings accounts:

• Minimum deposit requirements: Some HYSAs require a minimum amount to open an account -- typically, from $25 to $100. Others don’t require anything. How much you have to deposit initially can help you narrow down your options.
• Fees: Monthly maintenance and other fees can eat into your balance. Avoid unnecessary charges by looking for a bank with low or no fees.
• Accessibility: If in-person banking is important to you, look for a bank with physical branches. If you’re comfortable managing your money digitally, look for an online bank with a user-friendly app with all the features you need.
• Withdrawal limits: Some banks charge an excess withdrawal fee if you make more than six monthly withdrawals. If you think you may need to make more, consider a bank without this limit.
• Federal deposit insurance: Look for a bank that belongs to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or a credit union that belongs to the National Credit Union Administration. Accounts at these institutions are protected up to $250,000 per account holder, per category in the event of bank failure
• Customer service: You want a bank that’s responsive and offers convenient support options if you ever need assistance with your account. Read online customer reviews to see what current customers say about their experiences. You can also contact customer service to get a feel for what it would be like to work with the bank.

CNET reviewed savings accounts at more than 50 traditional and online banks, credit unions and financial institutions with nationwide services. Each account received a score between one (lowest) and five (highest). The savings accounts listed here are all insured up to $250,000 per person, per account category, per institution, by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or National Credit Union Administration.

CNET evaluates the best savings accounts with a set of established criteria that compares annual percentage yields, monthly fees, minimum deposits or balances and access to physical branches. None of the banks on our list charge monthly maintenance fees. An account will rank higher for offering any of the following perks:

• Account bonuses
• Automated savings features
• Wealth management consulting/coaching services
• Cash deposits
• Extensive ATM networks and/or ATM rebates for out-of-network ATM use

An account will rank lower if it doesn’t have a professional-looking website or doesn’t provide an ATM card, or if it imposes restrictive residency requirements or fees for exceeding monthly transaction limits.

Recommended Articles

Best high-yield savings accounts for march 2024, why do women save less money than men the answer may surprise you, 6 female finance influencers changing the way we think about money, are you earning your bank’s best savings rate see if you’re missing out on interest, 6 reasons why you should own multiple savings accounts, 64% of americans are missing out on hundreds in savings account interest. are you one of them.

CNET editors independently choose every product and service we cover. Though we can’t review every available financial company or offer, we strive to make comprehensive, rigorous comparisons in order to highlight the best of them. For many of these products and services, we earn a commission. The compensation we receive may impact how products and links appear on our site.

Writers and editors and produce editorial content with the objective to provide accurate and unbiased information. A separate team is responsible for placing paid links and advertisements, creating a firewall between our affiliate partners and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from advertisers.

CNET Money is an advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We’re compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and services, or when you click on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact where and in what order affiliate links appear within advertising units. While we strive to provide a wide range of products and services, CNET Money does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.

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Switch and get $200 off each new smartphone.

Offer available to new Verizon business customers on initial new smartphone purchase only. Acct. creation & initial purchase must be completed in one transaction. New line w/device payment agmt & $34.99 or higher price plan req’d. 0% APR. $200 credit applied to acct after 2-3 bills. Can be combined with select offers. Verizon reserves the right to charge back to your acct all or a portion of the value of any promotional credit you received as part of this offer in the event you no longer meet the eligibility requirements. Any such charge back may be subject to the terms of your Verizon agmt. Offer available online only for a limited time.

Switch with your phone and number. Save $600.

New line with month-to-month agreement and Business Unlimited Plus 5G or Unlimited Pro 5G plan req’d. Customer must transfer smartphone and number to Verizon; new line activation and number transfer must be completed in one transaction. Smartphone must be compatible with Verizon network. $600 credit applied to account over 24 months; promo credit ends when eligibility requirements are no longer met. Credits begin in 1-2 bills and will include appropriate credit amounts from order date. Customer must retain smartphone and remain on selected plan in order to receive credit(s). Cannot be combined with other device offers. Business Unlimited 5G plan terms apply. Limited-time offer.

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