This business plan consists of a narrative and several financial
spreadsheets. The narrative template is the body of the business plan. It
contains more than 150 questions divided into several sections. Work through
the sections in any order you like, except for the Executive Summary, which
should be done last. Skip any questions that do not apply to your business.
When you are finished writing your first draft, you will have a collection
of small essays on the various topics of the business plan. Then you will
want to edit them into a flowing narrative.
The real value of doing a business plan is not having the finished product
in hand; rather, the value lies in the process of research and thinking
about your business in a systematic way. The act of planning helps you to
think things through thoroughly, to study and research when you are not sure
of the facts, and to look at your ideas critically. It takes time, but
avoids costly, perhaps disastrous, mistakes later.
The business plan narrative is a generic model suitable for all types of
businesses. However, you should modify it to suit your particular
circumstances. Before you begin, review the section titled Refining the
Plan, found at the end of the business plan. It suggests emphasizing certain
areas, depending upon your type of business (manufacturing, retail, service,
etc.). It also has tips for fine-tuning your plan to make an effective
presentation to investors or bankers. If this is why you are writing your
plan, pay particular attention to your writing style. You will be judged by
the quality and appearance of your work as well as your ideas.
It typically takes several weeks to complete a good plan. Most of that time
is spent in research and rethinking your ideas and assumptions. But then,
that is the value of the process. So make time to do the job properly. Those
who do never regret the effort. And finally, be sure to keep detailed notes
on your sources of information and on the assumptions underlying your
financial data.
Business Plan
OWNERS
Business Name
Street Address
Address 2
City, ST ZIP Code
phone
fax
We suggest that you make it two pages or less.
Include everything that you would cover in a five-minute interview.
Explain the fundamentals of the business: What is your product, who are your
customers, who are the owners, and what do you think the future holds for
your business and your industry?
Make it enthusiastic, professional, complete, and concise.
If you are applying for a loan, state clearly how much you want, precisely
how you are going to use it, and how the money will make your business more
profitable, thereby ensuring repayment.
II. General Company Description
Mission statement: Many companies have a brief mission statement, usually 30
words or fewer, explaining their reason for being and their guiding
principles. If you have a mission statement, this is a good place to put it
in the plan, followed by company goals and objectives and business
philosophy.
What business are you in? What do you do?
What is your target market? (Explain briefly here, because you will do a
more thorough explanation in the Marketing Plan section.)
Describe your industry. Is it a growth industry? What changes do you foresee
in your industry, and how is your company poised to take advantage of them?
Now give a detailed description of the business:
Form of ownership: Sole proprietor, partnership, corporation, or limited
liability corporation (LLC)?
Company history: Years in business, previous owners, successes, failures,
lessons learned, reputation in community, sales and profit history, number
of employees, and events that affected success. Discuss significant past
problems and how you solved and survived them.
Most important strengths and core competencies: What factors will make the
company succeed? What are your major competitive strengths? What strengths
do you personally bring to the business?
Significant challenges the company faces now and in the near future: If you
are asking for funding, go on to explain how the new capital will help you
meet these challenges.
Long term: What are your plans for the future of the business? Growth? If
so, at what rate and how will you achieve it?
Are you developing strategies for continued growth, increased production,
diversification, or eventual sale of the business? What are your time frames
for these?
III. Products and Services
Describe in depth your products and services. (Technical specifications,
drawings, photos, sales brochures, and other bulky items belong in the
Appendices.)
What factors give you competitive advantages or disadvantages? For example,
the level of quality, or unique or proprietary features.
What is the pricing, fee, or leasing structure of your products and
services?
IV. Marketing Plan
Notes on Preparation:
Market research: Why?
You spend so much time on marketing-related matters - customers,
competitors, pricing, promotion, and advertising - that it is natural to
assume that you have little to learn. However, every small business can
benefit from doing market research to make sure it is on track. Use the
business planning process as your opportunity to uncover data and to
question your marketing efforts. It will be time well spent.
Market research: How?
There are two kinds of market research: primary and secondary.
Secondary research means using published information such as industry
profiles, trade journals, newspapers, magazines, census data, and
demographic profiles. This type of information is available from public
libraries, industry associations, chambers of commerce, vendors who sell to
your industry, and government agencies.
Start with your local library. Most librarians are pleased to guide you
through their business data collection. You will be amazed at what is there.
There are more online sources than you could possibly use. Your chamber of
commerce has good information on the local area. Trade associations and
trade publications often have excellent industry-specific data.
Primary market research means gathering your own data. For example, you
could do your own traffic count at a proposed location, use the yellow pages
to identify competitors, and do surveys or focus group interviews to learn
about consumer preferences. Professional market research can be very costly,
but there are many books that show small business owners how to do effective
research.
In your marketing plan, be as specific as possible; give statistics,
numbers, and sources. The marketing plan will be the basis, later on, of the
all-important sales projection.
- * Facts about your industry
- * Total size of your market
- * Percentage share of the market you have. (This is important only if
- you are a major factor in the market.)
- * Current demand in target market
- * Growth history
- * Trends in target market - growth trends, trends in consumer
- preferences, and trends in product development
- * Growth potential and opportunity for a business of your size
- * What barriers to entry keep potential new competitors from flooding
- into your market?
- * High capital costs
- High production costs
- High marketing costs
- Consumer acceptance/brand recognition
- Training/skills
- Unique technology/patents
- Unions
- Shipping costs
- Tariff barriers/quotas
- * How could the following affect your company?
- * Change in technology
- Government regulations
- Changing economy
- Change in your industry
In the Products and Services section, you described your products and
services as you see them. Now describe them from your customers' point of
view.
Features and Benefits
List all your major products or services.
For each product or service, describe the most important features. That is,
what does the product do? What is special about it?
Now, for each product or service, describe its benefits. That is, what does
the product do for the customer?
Note the differences between features and benefits, and think about them.
For example, a house gives shelter and lasts a long time; those are its
features. Its benefits include pride of ownership, financial security,
providing for the family, and inclusion in a neighborhood. You build
features into your product so you can sell the benefits.
What after-sale services are supplied? For example: delivery, warranty,
service contracts, support, follow-up, or refund policy.
Customers
Identify your customers, their characteristics, and their geographic
locations; that is, demographics.
The description will be completely different depending on whether you sell
to other businesses or directly to consumers. If you sell a consumer
product, but sell it through a channel of distributors, wholesalers, and
retailers, you must carefully analyze both the end user and the intermediary
businesses to which you sell.
You may have more than one customer group. Identify the most important
groups. Then, for each consumer group, construct a demographic profile:
- * Age
- * Gender
- * Location
- * Income level
- * Social class/occupation
- * Education
- * Other
- * Industry (or portion of an industry)
- * Location
- * Size of firm
- * Quality/technology/price preferences
- * Other
What products and companies compete with you? List your major competitors,
including their names and addresses.
Do they compete with you across the board, just for certain products,
certain customers, or in certain locations?
Use the following table to compare your company with your three most
important competitors.
In the first column are key competitive factors. Because these vary with
each market, you may want to customize the list of factors.
In the cell labeled "Me," state honestly how you think you stack up in
customers' minds. Then decide whether you think this factor is a strength or
a weakness for you. If you find it hard to analyze yourself this way, enlist
some disinterested party to assess you. This can be a real eye-opener.
Now analyze each major competitor. In a few words, state how you think they
stack up.
In the last column, estimate how important each competitive factor is to the
customer. 1 = critical; 5 = not very important.
Table 1: Competitive Analysis
FACTOR Me Strength Weakness Competitor A Competitor B
Competitor C Importance to customer
Products
Price
Quality
Selection
Service
Reliability
Stability
Expertise
Company reputation
Location
Appearance
Sales method
Credit policies
Advertising
Image
After you finish the competitive matrix, write a short paragraph stating
your competitive advantages and disadvantages.
Niche
Now that you have systematically analyzed your industry, your product, your
customers, and the competition, you should have a clear picture of where
your company fits into the world.
In one short paragraph, define your niche, your unique corner of the market.
Marketing Strategy
Now outline a marketing strategy that is consistent with your niche.
Promotion: How do you get the word out to customers?
Advertising: What media do you use, why, and how often? Has your advertising
been effective? How can you tell?
Do you use other methods, such as trade shows, catalogs, dealer incentives,
word of mouth, and network of friends or professionals?
If you have identifiable repeat customers, do you have a systematic contact
plan?
Why this mix and not some other?
Promotional Budget
How much will you spend on the items listed above?
Should you consider spending less on some promotional activities and more on
others?
Pricing
What is your pricing strategy? For most small businesses, having the lowest
prices is not a good strategy. Usually you will do better to have average
prices and compete on quality and service. Does your pricing strategy fit
with what was revealed in your competitive analysis?
Compare your prices with those of your competition. Are they higher, lower,
the same? Why?
How important is price as a competitive factor?
What are your payment and customer credit policies?
Location
You will describe your physical location in the Operational Plan section of
your business plan. Here in the Marketing Plan section, analyze your
location as it affects your customers.
If customers come to your place of business:
- * Is it convenient? Parking? Interior spaces? Not out of the way?
- * Is it consistent with your image?
- * Is it what customers want and expect?
car dealers or fast-food restaurants) or distant (like convenience food
stores)?
Distribution Channels
How do you sell your products or services?
* Retail
* Direct (mail order, World Wide Web, catalog)
* Wholesale
* Your own sales force
* Agents
* Independent reps
Has your marketing strategy proven effective?
Do you need to make any changes or additions to current strategies?
Sales Forecast
Now that you have described your products, services, customers, markets, and
marketing plans in detail, it is time to attach some numbers to your plan.
Use a forecast spreadsheet to prepare a month-by-month projection. Base the
forecast on your historical sales, the marketing strategies that you have
just described, your market research, and industry data, if available.
You may want to do two forecasts: 1) a "best guess," which is what you
really expect, and 2) a "worst case" low estimate that you are confident you
can reach no matter what happens
.
Remember to keep notes on your research and your assumptions as you build
this sales forecast and all subsequent spreadsheets in the plan. Relate the
forecast to your sales history, explaining the major differences between
past and projected sales. This is critical if you are going to present it to
funding sources.
V. Operational Plan
Explain the daily operation of the business, its location, equipment,
people, processes, and surrounding environment.
Production
How and where do you produce your products or services?
Explain your methods of:
- * Production techniques and costs
- * Quality control
- * Customer service
- * Inventory control
- * Product development
Describe the locations of production, sales, storage areas, and buildings.
Do you lease or own your premises?
Describe access to your buildings (walk in, parking, freeway, airport,
railroad, and shipping).
What are your business hours?
If you are trying to get an expansion loan, include a drawing or layout of
your proposed facility.
Legal Environment
Describe the following:
- * Licensing and bonding requirements
- * Permits
- * Health, workplace, or environmental regulations
- * Special regulations covering your industry or profession
- * Zoning or building code requirements
- * Insurance coverage
- * Trademarks, copyrights, or patents (pending, existing, or purchased)
- Personnel
- * Number of employees
- * Type of labor (skilled, unskilled, professional)
- * Where do you find new employees?
- * Quality of existing staff
- * Pay structure
- * Training methods and requirements
- * New hiring in the coming year?
- * Who does which tasks?
- * Are schedules and procedures in place?
- * Do you have written job descriptions for employees? If not, take
- time to write some. Written job descriptions really help internal
- communications with employees.
- * Do you use contract workers as well as employees?
- Inventory
- * What kind of inventory do you keep: raw materials, supplies,
- finished goods?
- * Average value in stock; that is, what is your inventory investment?
- * Rate of turnover and how it compares with industry averages?
- * Seasonal buildups?
- * Lead time for ordering?
Note the following information about your suppliers:
Their names and addresses.
Type and amount of inventory furnished.
Credit and delivery policies.
History and reliability.
Do you expect shortages or short-term delivery problems?
Are supply costs steady or fluctuating? If fluctuating, how do you deal with
changing costs?
Should you be searching out new sources of supply, or are you satisfied with
present suppliers?
Credit Policies
Do you sell on credit? If so, do you really need to? Is it customary in
your industry and expected by your clientele?
Do you carefully monitor your payables (what you owe to vendors) to take
advantage of discounts and to keep your credit rating good?
You need to carefully manage both the credit you extend and the credit you
receive.
Managing Your Accounts Receivable
If you do extend credit, what are your policies about who gets credit and
how much?
How do you check the creditworthiness of new applicants?
What terms will you offer your customers; that is, how much credit and when
is payment due?
Do you offer prompt payment discounts? (It is best to do this only if it is
usual and customary in your industry.)
Do you know what it costs you to extend credit? This includes both the cost
of capital tied up in receivables and the cost of bad debts.
Have you built the costs into your prices?
You should do an aging at least monthly to track how much of your money is
tied up in credit given to customers and to alert you to slow payment
problems. A receivables aging looks like the following table.
Table 2: Accounts Receivable Aging
Total Current 30 Days 60 Days 90 Days Over 90 Days
Accounts receivable aging
Collecting from delinquent customers is no fun. You need a set policy and
you need to follow it.
When do you make a phone call?
When do you send a letter?
When do you get your attorney to threaten?
Managing Your Accounts Payable
You should also age your accounts payable (what you owe to your suppliers).
Use this format.
Table 3: Accounts Payable Aging
Total Current 30 Days 60 Days 90 Days Over 90 Days
Accounts payable aging
This helps you plan whom to pay and when. Paying too early depletes your
cash, but paying late can cost you valuable discounts and damage your
credit. (Hint: If you know you will be late making a payment, call the
creditor before the due date. It tends to relax them.)
Are prompt payment discounts offered by your proposed vendors? Do you always
take them?
VI. Management and Organization
Who manages the business on a day-to-day basis?
What experience does that person bring to the business? What special or
distinctive competencies?
Is there a plan for continuation of the business if this person is lost or
incapacitated?
If you have more than 10 employees, prepare an organizational chart showing
the management hierarchy and who is responsible for key functions. Include
position descriptions for key employees.
Professional and Advisory Support
List the following:
- * Board of directors and management advisory board
- * Attorney
- * Accountant
- * Insurance agent
- * Banker
- * Consultants
- * Mentors and key advisors
Owners often have to draw on personal assets to finance the business. This
statement will show you what is available. Bankers and investors usually
want this information as well. They will ask owners to cosign or personally
guarantee any business loans.
Document your assumptions, notes, definitions, and any special financial
situation. Include details of notes, securities, contracts, etc. on the
bottom of a personal financial spreadsheet. Include one such spreadsheet for
each principal.
VIII. Financial History and Analysis
A solid analysis of the past must precede any serious attempt to forecast
the future. A financial history and ratios spreadsheet will allow you to put
a great deal of financial information from other statements on a single page
for ease of comprehension and analysis. You may also enter industry average
ratios for comparison.
In the Appendices, put year-end balance sheets, operating statements, and
business income tax returns for the past three years, plus your most current
balance sheet and operating statement.
Debt Schedule
This table gives in-depth information that the financial statements
themselves do not usually provide. Include a debt schedule in the following
format for each note payable on your most recent balance sheet.
Table 4: Debt Schedule
To whom payable Original amount Original date Present balance Rate of
interest Maturity date Monthly payment Security Current/
past due
IX. Financial Plan
The financial plan consists of a 12-month profit and loss projection, a
four-year profit and loss projection (optional), a cash-flow projection, a
projected balance sheet, and a breakeven calculation.
Together, these spreadsheets constitute a reasonable estimate of your
company's financial future. More important, however, the process of thinking
through the financial plan will improve your insight into the inner
financial workings of your company.
12-Month Profit and Loss Projection
Explain the major assumptions used to estimate company income and expenses.
Your sales projection should come from an annual sales forecast. Pay special
attention to areas where historical performance varies markedly from your
projections.
Four-Year Profit Projection (Optional)
The 12-month projection is the heart of your financial plan. However, this
worksheet is for those who want to carry their forecasts beyond the first
year. It is expected of those seeking venture capital. Bankers pay more
attention to the 12-month projection.
Of course, keep notes of your key assumptions, especially about things you
expect to change dramatically over the years.
Projected Cash Flow
The cash-flow projection is just a forward look at your checking account.
For each item, determine when you actually expect to receive cash (for
sales) or when you will actually have to write a check (for expense items).
Your cash flow will show you whether your working capital is adequate.
Clearly if your cash on hand goes negative, you will need more. It will also
show when and how much you need to borrow.
Explain your major assumptions, especially those that make the cash flow
differ from a profit and loss statement, such as:
* If you make a sale in month 1, when do you actually collect the
cash?
- * When you buy inventory or materials, do you pay in advance, upon
- delivery, or much later?
- * How will this affect cash flow?
- * Are some expenses payable in advance?
- * Are there irregular expenses, equipment purchase, or inventory
And of course, depreciation does not appear at all because you never write a
check for it.
Projected Balance Sheet
This is an estimate of what the balance sheet will look like at the end of
the 12-month period covered in your projections.
In the business plan section related to your projected balance sheet, state
the assumptions that you used for all major changes between your last
historical balance sheet and the projection.
Breakeven Analysis
A breakeven analysis determines the sales volume, at a given price, that is
required to recover total costs.
Expressed as a formula, breakeven is as follows.
Breakeven sales = Fixed costs
1- Variable costs
(Where fixed costs are expressed in dollars, but variable costs are
expressed as a percentage of total sales.)
X. Appendices
Include details and studies used in your business plan; for example:
- * Brochures and advertising materials
- * Industry studies
- * Blueprints and plans
- * Maps and photos of location
- * Magazine or other articles
- * Detailed lists of equipment owned or to be purchased
- * Copies of leases and contracts
- * Letters of support from future customers
- * Any other materials needed to support the assumptions in this plan
- * Market research studies
The generic business plan presented above should be modified to suit your
specific type of business and the audience for which the plan is written.
For Raising Capital
For Bankers
Bankers want assurance of orderly repayment. If you intend to use this plan
to present to lenders, include:
- * Amount of loan.
- * How you will use the funds.
- * What will this accomplish (how will it make the business stronger)?
- * Requested repayment terms (number of years to repay). You will
- probably not have much negotiating room on interest rate, but you may be
- able to negotiate a longer repayment term, which will help cash flow.
- * Collateral offered, and a list of all existing liens against the
- collateral.
Investors have a different perspective from bankers. They are looking for
dramatic growth, and they expect to share in the rewards. Include the
following in the plan that you present to potential investors:
Funds needed short term
Funds needed in two to five years
How the company will use the funds, and what this will accomplish for growth
Estimated return on investment
Exit strategy for investors (buyback, sale, or IPO)
Percentage of ownership that you will give up to investors
Milestones or conditions that you will accept
Financial reporting that you will provide
Involvement of investors on the board or in management
Refine Your Plan for the Type of Business
Manufacturing
- * Present production levels
- * Present levels of direct production costs and indirect (overhead)
- costs
- * Gross profit margin, overall and for each product line
- * Possible production efficiency increases
- * Production-capacity limits of existing physical plant
- * Production capacity of expanded plant (if expansion is planned)
- * Production-capacity limits of existing equipment
- * Production capacity of new equipment (if new equipment is planned)
- * Prices per product line
- * Purchasing and inventory management procedures
- * Anticipated modifications or improvements to existing products
- * New products under development or anticipated
Service businesses sell intangible products. They are usually more flexible
than other types of business, but they also have higher labor costs and
generally very little in fixed assets.
- * Prices
- * Methods used to set prices
- * System of production management
- * Quality control procedures
- * Standard or accepted industry quality standards
- * How do you measure labor productivity?
- * What percentage of total available hours do you bill to customers?
- * Breakeven billable hours
- * Percentage of work subcontracted to other firms
- * Profit on subcontracting?
- * Credit, payment, and collections policies and procedures
- * Strategy for keeping client base
- * Strategy for attracting new clients
- High-Tech Companies
- * Economic outlook for the industry
- * Does your company have information systems in place to manage
- rapidly changing prices, costs, and markets?
- * Is your company on the cutting edge with its products and services?
- * What is the status of R&D? And what is required to bring the product
- or service to market and to keep the company competitive?
- * How does the company:
- * Protect intellectual property?
Supply necessary capital?
Retain key personnel?
If your company is not yet profitable or perhaps does not yet even have
sales, you must do longer-term financial forecasts to show when profit
take-off will occur. And your assumptions must be well documented and well
argued.
Retail Business
- * Company image
- * Pricing: Explain mark-up policies. Prices should be profitable,
- competitive, and in accord with the company image.
- * Inventory:
- * Selection and price should be consistent with company image.
- Calculate your annual inventory turnover rate. Compare this to the industry
- average for your type of store.
- * Customer service policies: These should be competitive and in accord
- with the company image.
- * Location: Does it give the exposure you need? Is it convenient for
- customers? Is it consistent with company image?
- * Promotion: What methods do you use and what do they cost? Do they
- project a consistent company image?
- * Credit: Do you extend credit to customers? If yes, do you really
- need to, and do you factor the cost into prices?
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