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If you struggle defining your business’s short- and long-term goals, a solid business plan can help. Not only does it lay the groundwork for your firm’s success, but it also plays a strong role in securing business funding. With a free business plan template, you can effectively outline and communicate your strategy and goals to investors.
Templates serve as a one-stop-shop for your business planning needs: a professional design, comprehensive overview of essential elements, built-in formatting, and customizable sections to tailor your business needs.
From polished one-pagers to multi-paged coverage, download our free templates and follow the provided examples to write a powerful business plan in no time.
What Our Business Plan Templates Include
Our business plan templates consist of the following key components found in traditional business plans:
Executive Summary: A concise summary of the critical aspects of your business plan. Make this attention-grabbing to your readers and/or investors.
Company Description: An introduction of your business, such as its history, industry, mission, and target market.
Product and Services: A description of your products or services and their benefits. This can also explain pricing and advantages over competitors.
Market Analysis: The market research, such as an analysis of industry trends, target audience, and competition. This can identify opportunities and threats.
Organization and Management: Your company operations or roles and responsibilities of key team members, highlighting everyone’s qualifications.
Sales and Marketing Strategy: An outline of the marketing plan, including tactics, customer acquisition methods, and budget allocation for efforts.
Financial Projections: Your revenue, expenses, cash flow, and funding requests if seeking investment.
Appendix: This is for additional supportive documents, such as team resumes and chart demonstrations.
A great business plan should outline the objectives and goals of your business, as well as your strategies and plan of action to achieve them. Use our customizable templates below to develop a business plan and strategize for success.
Simple Business Plan Template
Whether a small business or a large organization, a simple business plan helps identify key areas and functions to consider for your industry and business size. By creating one, you’re converting thoughts and ideas into concrete tasks and goals for team members and investors to see.
With our template, you can solidify your ideas and fill in any necessary details. Determine which pages of the template work best for your business goals, adding or omitting sections as needed.
One-Page Business Plan Template
A one-page business plan is more like a compressed version of the traditional style for scannability. With a one-pager, you can still impress investors by sharing key elements briefly and to the point. The simplistic format helps you organize and summarize the plan in a concise way, communicating your vision and ideas without overwhelming the reader.
Use this one-page template to create a quick snapshot or preview of a more detailed plan to come.
Startup Business Plan Template
Do you need to pitch your startup ideas to potential investors? Engage them with a comprehensive business plan. Creating a startup business plan is a crucial step for emerging companies, as it can help to better articulate your mission and establish a visible roadmap for success.
Customize pages of this template to best outline your growth tactics, launch strategies, and funding needed for your startup.
Business Plan Examples by Section
Having writer’s block while drafting your executive summary? Unsure of how to word your marketing strategy? It can be helpful to draw ideas from a few business plan examples. Check out the following samples below for inspiration.
Executive Summary
As the first section of your business plan, an executive summary should immediately grab the reader’s attention.
The example below summarizes a fictional toy brand’s key points in an organized, concise way.
Company Description
The company description should answer “Who are you?” “What do you do?” and why your company is worth the investment.
The following example from a well-known personal care product company makes their purpose and mission easy to understand.
Product or Services Offered
Map out your products or services and how they’re unique. The sample below from a fictional bar makes a clear distinction between its main attraction and complementary products as the main source of revenue.
Market Analysis
A good analysis of the market will show there’s a need and demand for your business compared to the competition.
The following sample from a fictional limousine service explains:
- Areas ignored by their competitors
- Where they’ll concentrate marketing efforts
Organizational Structure and Management
You’ll want to show that your core management team is aligned and have the expertise to bring your company’s vision to fruition.
Below, you can see how Starbucks, a renowned coffeehouse chain, highlights the qualifications and years in the industry of each leadership member.
Sales and Marketing Strategy
You want your sales and marketing strategy to effectively demonstrate:
- How potential customers will see your products and services
- How you’ll sell it to them
Here, a fictional consulting firm explains their different methods of exposure to clients, including participation in local events and relationships through news outlets.
Financial Projections
Financial projections should provide:
- An estimate of what it costs to run your business
- Working capital for daily operations
- A projection of potential revenue.
Note how the following example makes a realistic projection of their revenue for investors for three consecutive years.
Appendix
Use the appendix section to provide supporting materials, such as resumes, licenses, and legal documents. For example, restaurant franchisees may include their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), such as the one for a Chick-fil-A chain below.
Small Business Loans To Fund Your Vision
While there’s no single way to create a business plan, it should accurately reflect your unique business and goals. Fortunately, you can share and edit digital templates collaboratively with team members for thoughtful analysis and planning.
With an impressive business plan, you’ll be one step closer to completing the application process for small business loans. Our helpful advisors will match and connect you with the right lenders to secure the funds you need.
Nishank Khanna
Chief Marketing Officer
Nishank is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of digital marketing experience. He has founded six profitable businesses, two of which have been acquired. He's a data-driven marketer fueled by his passion to help people solve problems and has led product teams throughout his career. More about the Clarify team →
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