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How to create a business plan: examples & free template.

This guide has been designed to help you create a winning plan that stands out in the ever-evolving marketplace. U sing real-world examples and a free downloadable template, it will walk you through each step of the process.

Table of Contents

How to Write a Business Plan

Executive summary.

The Executive Summary serves as the gateway to your business plan, offering a snapshot of your venture’s core aspects. This section should captivate and inform, succinctly summarizing the essence of your plan.

Example: EcoTech is a technology company specializing in eco-friendly and sustainable products designed to reduce energy consumption and minimize waste. Our mission is to create innovative solutions that contribute to a cleaner, greener environment.

Overview and Business Objectives

This part of the plan demonstrates to investors and stakeholders your vision for growth and the practical steps you’ll take to get there.

Company Description

Include information about the company’s founders, their expertise, and why they are suited to lead the business to success. This section should paint a vivid picture of your business, its values, and its place in the industry.

Define Your Target Market

Example: Our target market comprises environmentally conscious consumers and businesses looking for innovative solutions to reduce their carbon footprint. Our ideal customers are those who prioritize sustainability and are willing to invest in eco-friendly products.

Market Analysis

Our research indicates a gap in the market for high-quality, innovative eco-friendly technology products that cater to both individual and business clients.

SWOT Analysis

Competitive analysis.

In this section, you’ll analyze your competitors in-depth, examining their products, services, market positioning, and pricing strategies. Understanding your competition allows you to identify gaps in the market and tailor your offerings to outperform them.

Organization and Management Team

Example: EcoTech’s organizational structure comprises the following key roles: CEO, CTO, CFO, Sales Director, Marketing Director, and R&D Manager. Our management team has extensive experience in technology, sustainability, and business development, ensuring that we are well-equipped to execute our business plan successfully.

Products and Services Offered

Marketing and sales strategy.

Describe the nature of your advertising campaigns and promotional activities, explaining how they will capture the attention of your target audience and convey the value of your products or services. Outline your sales strategy, including your sales process, team structure, and sales targets.

Logistics and Operations Plan

Inventory control is another crucial aspect, where you explain strategies for inventory management to ensure efficiency and reduce wastage. The section should also describe your production processes, emphasizing scalability and adaptability to meet changing market demands.

Financial Projections Plan

In the Financial Projections Plan, lay out a clear and realistic financial future for your business. This should include detailed projections for revenue, costs, and profitability over the next three to five years.

Income Statement

The income statement , also known as the profit and loss statement, provides a summary of your company’s revenues and expenses over a specified period. It helps you track your business’s financial performance and identify trends, ensuring you stay on track to achieve your financial goals.

Cash Flow Statement

Tips on Writing a Business Plan

3. Set realistic goals: Your business plan should outline achievable objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Setting realistic goals demonstrates your understanding of the market and increases the likelihood of success.

FREE Business Plan Template

To help you get started on your business plan, we have created a template that includes all the essential components discussed in the “How to Write a Business Plan” section. This easy-to-use template will guide you through each step of the process, ensuring you don’t miss any critical details.

What is a Business Plan?

Why you should write a business plan, what are the different types of business plans.

In today’s fast-paced business world, having a well-structured roadmap is more important than ever. A traditional business plan provides a comprehensive overview of your company’s goals and strategies, helping you make informed decisions and achieve long-term success. There are various types of business plans, each designed to suit different needs and purposes. Let’s explore the main types:

Using Business Plan Software

Enloop is a robust business plan software that automatically generates a tailored plan based on your inputs. It provides industry-specific templates, financial forecasting, and a unique performance score that updates as you make changes to your plan. Enloop also offers a free version, making it accessible for businesses on a budget.

Business Plan FAQs

What is a good business plan, what are the 3 main purposes of a business plan, can i write a business plan by myself.

We also have examples for specific industries, including a using food truck business plan , salon business plan , farm business plan , daycare business plan , and restaurant business plan .

Is it possible to create a one-page business plan?

How long should a business plan be, what is a business plan outline, what are the 5 most common business plan mistakes, what questions should be asked in a business plan.

A business plan should address questions such as: What problem does the business solve? Who is the specific target market ? What is the unique selling proposition? What are the company’s objectives? How will it achieve those objectives?

What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?

How is business planning for a nonprofit different.

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How to Write a Business Plan: Beginner’s Guide (& Templates)

Written by: Chloe West

Thinking about starting a business? One of the first steps you’ll need to take is to write a business plan. A business plan can help guide you through your financial planning, marketing strategy, unique selling point and more.

Making sure you start your new business off on the right foot is key, and we’re here to help. We’ve put together this guide to help you write your first business plan. Or, you can skip the guide and dive right into a business plan template .

Ready to get started?

Here’s a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit business plan templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

8-Step Process for Writing a Business Plan

What is a business plan, why is a business plan important, step #1: write your executive summary, step #2: put together your company description, step #3: conduct your market analysis, step #4: research your competition, step #5: outline your products or services, step #6: summarize your financial plan, step #7: determine your marketing strategy, step #8: showcase your organizational chart, 14 business plan templates to help you get started.

A business plan is a document that helps potential new business owners flesh out their business idea and put together a bird’s eye view of their business. Writing a business plan is an essential step in any startup’s ideation process.

Business plans help determine demographics, market analysis, competitive analysis, financial projections, new products or services, and so much more.

Each of these bits of information are important to have on hand when you’re trying to start a business or pitching investors for funds.

Here’s an example of a business plan that you can customize to incorporate your own business information.

We’re going to walk you through some of the most important parts of your business plan as well as how to write your own business plan in 8 easy steps.

If you’re in the beginning stages of starting a business , you might be wondering if it’s really worth your time to write out your business plan. 

We’re here to tell you that it is.

A business plan is important for a number of reasons, but mostly because it helps to set you up for success right from the start.

Here are four reasons to prove to you why you need to start your business off on the right foot with a plan.

Reason #1: Set Realistic Goals and Milestones

Putting together a business plan helps you to set your objectives for growth and make realistic goals while you begin your business. 

By laying out each of the steps you need to take in order to build a successful business, you’re able to be more reasonable about what your timeline is for achieving everything as well as what your financial projections are.

The best way to set goals is using the SMART goals guidelines, outlined below.

Reason #2: Grow Your Business Faster

Having a business plan helps you be more organized and strategic, improving the overall performance of your business as you start out. In fact, one study found that businesses with a plan grow 30% faster than businesses that don’t.

Doesn’t that sound reason enough alone to start out your business venture with a solidified plan? We thought so too, but we’ve still got two more reasons.

Reason #3: Minimize Risk

Starting a new business is uncharted territory. However, when you start with a roadmap for your journey, it makes it easier to see success and minimize the risks that come with startups.

Minimize risk and maximize profitability by documenting the most important parts of your business planning.

Reason #4: Secure Funding

And finally, our last reason that business plans are so important is that if you plan to pitch investors for funding for your new venture, they’re almost always going to want to see a detailed business plan before deciding whether or not to invest.

You can easily create your business plan and investor pitch deck right here with Visme. Just sign up for a free account below to get started. 

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The executive summary is a brief overview of your entire business plan, giving anyone who reads through your document a quick understanding of what they’re going to learn about your business idea.

However, you need to remember that some of the people who are going to read your business plan don’t want to or have time to read the entire thing. So your executive summary needs to incorporate all of the most important aspects of your plan.

Here’s an example of an executive summary from a business plan template you can customize and turn into your own.

Your executive summary should include:

• Key objective(s)
• Market research
• Competitor information
• Products/services
• Value proposition
• Overview of your financial plan
• How you’re going to actually start your business

One thing to note is that you should actually write your executive summary after the rest of your business plan so that you can properly summarize everything you’ve already created.

So at this point, simply leave a page blank for your executive summary so you can come back to it at the end of your business plan.

The next step is to write out a full description of your business and its core offerings. This section of your business plan should include your mission statement and objectives, along with your company history or overview.

In this section, you may also briefly describe your business formation details from a legal perspective.

Mission Statement

Don’t spend too much time trying to craft this. Your mission statement is a simple “why” you started this business. What are you trying to achieve? Or what does your business solve?

This can be anything from one single quote or a paragraph, but it doesn’t need to be much longer than that. In fact, this could be very similar to your value proposition.

What are your goals? What do you plan to achieve in the first 90 days or one year of your business? What kind of impact do you hope to make on the market?

These are all good points to include in your objectives section so anyone reading your business plan knows upfront what you hope to achieve.

History or Overview

If you’re not launching a brand new business or if you’ve previously worked on another iteration of this business, let potential investors know the history of your company.

If not, simply provide an overview of your business, sharing what it does or what it will do.

Your third step is to conduct a market analysis so you know how your business will fit into its target market. This page in your business plan is simply meant to summarize your findings. Most of your time should be spent actually doing the research.

Your market analysis needs to look at things like:

• Market size, and if it’s grown in recent years or shrinking
• The segment of the market you plan to target
• Demographics and behavior of your target audience
• The demand for your product or service
• Your competitive advantage or differentiation strategy
• The average price of your product or service

Put together a summary of your market analysis and industry research in a 1-2 page format, like we see below.

Your next step is to conduct a competitive analysis. While you likely touched on this briefly during your market analysis, now is the time to do a deep dive so that you have a good grasp on what your competitors are doing and how they are generating customers.

Start by creating a profile of all your existing competitors, or at the very least, your closest competitors – the ones who are offering very similar products or services to you, or are in a similar vicinity (if you’re opening a brick and mortar store).

Focus on their strengths and what they’re doing really well so that you can emulate their best qualities in your own way. Then, look at their weaknesses and what your business can do better.

Take note of their current marketing strategy, including the outlets you see a presence, whether it’s on social media, you hear a radio ad, you see a TV ad, etc. You won’t always find all of their marketing channels, but see what you can find online and on their website.

After this, take a minute to identify potential competitors based on markets you might try out in the future, products or services you plan to add to your offerings, and more.

Then put together a page or two in your business plan that highlights your competitive advantage and how you’ll be successful breaking into the market.

Step five is to dedicate a page to the products or services that your business plans to offer.

Put together a quick list and explanation of what each of the initial product or service offerings will be, but steer clear of industry jargon or buzzwords. This should be written in plain language so anyone reading has a full understanding of what your business will do.

You can have a simple list like we see in the sample page above, or you can dive a little deeper. Depending on your type of business, it might be a good idea to provide additional information about what each product or service entails.

The next step is to work on the financial data of your new business. What will your overhead be? How will your business make money? What are your estimated expenses and profits over the first few months to a year? The expenses should cover all the spending whether they are recurring costs or just one-time LLC filing fees .

There is so much that goes into your financial plan for a new business, so this is going to take some time to compile. Especially because this section of your business plan helps potential cofounders or investors understand if the idea is even viable.

Your financial plan should include at least five major sections:

• Sales Forecast: The first thing you want to include is a forecast or financial projection of how much you think your business can sell over the next year or so. Break this down into the different products, services or facets of your business.
• Balance Sheet: This section is essentially a statement of your company’s financial position. It includes existing assets, liabilities and equity to demonstrate the company’s overall financial health.
• Income Statement: Also known as a profit and loss statement (P&L), this covers your projected expenses and revenue, showcasing whether your business will be profitable or not.
• Operating Budget: A detailed outline of your business’s income and expenses. This should showcase that your business is bringing in more than it’s spending.
• Cash Flow Statements: This tracks how much cash your business has at any given point, regardless of whether customers or clients have paid their bills or have 30-60+ days to do so.

While these are the most common financial statements, you may discover that there are other sections that you want to include or that lenders may want to see from you.

You can automate the process of looking through your documents with an OCR API , which will collect the data from all your financial statements and invoices.

The next step is coming up with a successful marketing plan so that you can actually get the word out about your business. 

Throughout your business plan, you’ve already researched your competitors and your target market, both of which are major components of a good marketing strategy. You need to know who you’re marketing to, and you want to do it better than your competition.

On this page or throughout this section of your business plan, you need to focus on your chosen marketing channels and the types of marketing content you plan to create.

Start by taking a look at the channels that your competitors are on and make sure you have a good understanding of the demographics of each channel as well. You don’t want to waste time on a marketing channel that your target audience doesn’t use.

Then, create a list of each of your planned marketing avenues. It might look something like:

• Social media ( Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest)
• Email newsletter
• Digital ads

Depending on the type of business you’re starting, this list could change quite a bit — and that’s okay. There is no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy, and you need to find the one that brings in the highest number of potential customers.

Your last section will be all about your leadership and management team members. Showcasing that you have a solid team right from the start can make potential investors feel better about funding your venture.

You can easily put together an organizational chart like the one below, with the founder/CEO at the top and each of your team leaders underneath alongside the department they’re in charge of.

Simply add an organizational chart like this as a page into your overall business plan and make sure it matches the rest of your design to create a cohesive document.

If you want to create a good business plan that sets your new business up for success and attracts new investors, it’s a good idea to start with a template. 

We’ve got 14 options below from a variety of different industries for you to choose from. You can customize every aspect of each template to fit your business branding and design preferences.

Template #1: Photography Business Plan Template

This feminine and minimalistic business plan template is perfect for getting started with any kind of creative business. Utilize this template to help outline the step-by-step process of getting your new business idea up and running.

Template #2: Real Estate Business Plan Template

Looking for a more modern business plan design? This template is perfect for plainly laying out each of your business plans in an easy-to-understand format. Adjust the red accents with your business’s colors to personalize this template.

Template #3: Nonprofit Business Plan Template

Creating a business and marketing plan for your nonprofit is still an essential step when you’re just starting out. You need to get the word out to increase donations and awareness for your cause.

Template #4: Restaurant Business Plan Template

If your business plan needs to rely heavily on showcasing photos of your products (like food), this template is perfect for you. Get potential investors salivating at the sight of your business plan, and they’re sure to provide the capital you need.

Template #5: Fashion Business Plan Template

Serifs are in. Utilize this template with stunning serif as all the headers to create a contemporary and trendy business plan design that fits your business. Adjust the colors to match your brand and easily input your own content.

Template #6: Daycare Business Plan Template

Creating a more kid-friendly or playful business? This business plan template has bold colors and design elements that will perfectly represent your business and its mission. 

Use the pages you need, and remove any that you don’t. You can also duplicate pages and move the elements around to add even more content to your business plan.

Template #7: Consulting Business Plan Template

This classic business plan template is perfect for a consulting business that wants to use a stunning visual design to talk about its services.

Template #8: Coffee Shop Business Plan Template

Customize this coffee shop business plan template to match your own business idea. Adjust the colors to fit your brand or industry, replace photos with your own photography or stock photos that represent your business, and insert your own logo, fonts and colors throughout.

Template #9: SaaS Business Plan Template

A SaaS or service-based company also needs a solid business plan that lays out its financials, list of services, target market and more. This template is the perfect starting point.

Template #10: Small Business Plan Template

Every startup or small business needs to start out with a strong business plan in order to start off on the right foot and set yourself up for success. This template is an excellent starting point for any small business.

Template #11: Ecommerce Business Plan Template

An ecommerce business plan is ideal for planning out your pricing strategy of all of your online products, as well as the site you plan to use for setting up your store, whether WordPress, Shopify, Wix or something else.

Template #12: Startup Business Plan Template

Customize this template and make it your own! Edit and Download  

This is another generic business plan template for any type of startup to customize. Switch out the content, fonts and colors to match your startup branding and increase brand equity.

Template #13: One-Page Business Plan Template

Want just a quick business plan to get your idea going before you bite the bullet and map out your entire plan? This one-page template is perfect for those just starting to flesh out a new business idea.

Template #14: Salon Business Plan Template

This salon business plan template is easy on the design and utilizes a light color scheme to put more focus on the actual content. You can use the design as is or keep it as a basis for your own design elements.

Create Your Own Business Plan Today

Ready to write your business plan? Once you’ve created all of the most important sections, get started with a business plan template to really wow your investors and organize your startup plan.

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About the Author

Chloe West is the content marketing manager at Visme. Her experience in digital marketing includes everything from social media, blogging, email marketing to graphic design, strategy creation and implementation, and more. During her spare time, she enjoys exploring her home city of Charleston with her son.

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How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)

Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.

If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.

Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.

You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.

1. Secure Funds

One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.

For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.

A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.

Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.

2. Monitor Business Growth

A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:

• The business goals
• Methods to achieve the goals
• Time-frame for attaining those goals

A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.

You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.

3. Measure Business Success

A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.

Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.

You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.

Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.

In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:

• How do you want to reach your target audience?
• How do you plan to retain your customers?
• What is/are your pricing plans?
• What is your budget for marketing?

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.

Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.

A good executive summary should do the following:

• A Snapshot of Growth Potential. Briefly inform the reader about your company and why it will be successful)
• Contain your Mission Statement which explains what the main objective or focus of your business is.
• Product Description and Differentiation. Brief description of your products or services and why it is different from other solutions in the market.
• The Team. Basic information about your company’s leadership team and employees
• Business Concept. A solid description of what your business does.
• Target Market. The customers you plan to sell to.
• Marketing Strategy. Your plans on reaching and selling to your customers
• Current Financial State. Brief information about what revenue your business currently generates.
• Projected Financial State. Brief information about what you foresee your business revenue to be in the future.

The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.

Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.

View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:

• Who is your target audience?
• What sector or industry are you in?
• What are your products and services?
• What is the future of your industry?
• Is your company scaleable?
• Who are the owners and leaders of your company? What are their backgrounds and experience levels?
• What is the motivation for starting your company?
• What are the next steps?

Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.

The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.

If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.

2. Add Your Company Overview

The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.

Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.

Your company overview should contain the following:

• What products and services you will provide
• Geographical markets and locations your company have a presence
• What you need to run your business
• Who your target audience or customers are
• Who will service your customers
• Your company’s purpose, mission, and vision
• Information about your company’s founders
• Who the founders are
• Notable achievements of your company so far

When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.

If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.

• Who are you targeting? (The answer is not everyone)
• What pain point does your product or service solve for your customers that they will be willing to spend money on resolving?
• How does your product or service overcome that pain point?
• Where is the location of your business?
• What products, equipment, and services do you need to run your business?
• How is your company’s product or service different from your competition in the eyes of your customers?
• How many employees do you need and what skills do you require them to have?

After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.

The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.

• Mission Statement

The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.

Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”

When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:

• Founding Date
• Major Milestones
• Location(s)
• Flagship Products or Services
• Number of Employees
• Executive Leadership Roles

When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.

Business Objectives

Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.

3. Perform Market and Competitive Analyses to Proof a Big Enough Business Opportunity

The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.

Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.

This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.

Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?

You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.

Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?

Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?

Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.

Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.

Market Analysis

Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.

The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.

A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.

• Market Research

To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.

• Your target market’s needs or pain points
• The existing solutions for their pain points
• Geographic Location
• Demographics

The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.

Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.

You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.

How to Quantify Your Target Market

One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:

• Your Potential Customers: They are the people you plan to target. For example, if you sell accounting software for small businesses , then anyone who runs an enterprise or large business is unlikely to be your customers. Also, individuals who do not have a business will most likely not be interested in your product.
• Total Households: If you are selling household products such as heating and air conditioning systems, determining the number of total households is more important than finding out the total population in the area you want to sell to. The logic is simple, people buy the product but it is the household that uses it.
• Median Income: You need to know the median income of your target market. If you target a market that cannot afford to buy your products and services, your business will not last long.
• Income by Demographics: If your potential customers belong to a certain age group or gender, determining income levels by demographics is necessary. For example, if you sell men's clothes, your target audience is men.

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.

You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:

• Industry Description. You find out about the history of your industry, the current and future market size, and who the largest players/companies are in your industry.
• Overview of Target Market. You research your target market and its characteristics. Who are you targeting? Note, it cannot be everyone, it has to be a specific group. You also have to find out all information possible about your customers that can help you understand how and why they make buying decisions.
• Size of Target Market: You need to know the size of your target market, how frequently they buy, and the expected quantity they buy so you do not risk overproducing and having lots of bad inventory. Researching the size of your target market will help you determine if it is big enough for sustained business or not.
• Growth Potential: Before picking a target market, you want to be sure there are lots of potential for future growth. You want to avoid going for an industry that is declining slowly or rapidly with almost zero growth potential.
• Market Share Potential: Does your business stand a good chance of taking a good share of the market?
• Market Pricing and Promotional Strategies: Your market analysis should give you an idea of the price point you can expect to charge for your products and services. Researching your target market will also give you ideas of pricing strategies you can implement to break into the market or to enjoy maximum profits.
• Potential Barriers to Entry: One of the biggest benefits of conducting market analysis is that it shows you every potential barrier to entry your business will likely encounter. It is a good idea to discuss potential barriers to entry such as changing technology. It informs readers of your business plan that you understand the market.
• Research on Competitors: You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how you can exploit them for the benefit of your business. Find patterns and trends among your competitors that make them successful, discover what works and what doesn’t, and see what you can do better.

The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.

Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.

• Is your product or service of superior quality?
• What additional features do you offer that your competitors do not offer?
• Are you targeting a ‘new’ market?

Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.

Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.

Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.

Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.

The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.

Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.

When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.

Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.

• What are your successful competitors doing?
• Why is what they are doing working?
• Can your business do it better?
• What are the weaknesses of your successful competitors?
• What are they not doing well?
• Can your business turn its weaknesses into strengths?
• How good is your competitors’ customer service?
• Where do your competitors invest in advertising?
• What sales and pricing strategies are they using?
• What marketing strategies are they using?
• What kind of press coverage do they get?
• What are their customers saying about your competitors (both the positive and negative)?

If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.

If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.

Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.

The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.

Direct vs Indirect Competition

You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.

There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.

If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.

In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.

For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.

There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.

1. Cost Leadership

A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.

A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.

2. Product Differentiation

Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.

Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.

3. Market Segmentation

As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.

If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.

Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.

If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.

Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.

The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.

Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.

Management Team

The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.

Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.

A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.

Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.

Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.

If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

• Who are the key leaders?
• What experiences, skills, and educational backgrounds do you expect your key leaders to have?
• Do your key leaders have industry experience?
• What positions will they fill and what duties will they perform in those positions?
• What level of authority do the key leaders have and what are their responsibilities?
• What is the salary for the various management positions that will attract the ideal candidates?

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team

There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.

Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.

2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles

Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.

While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.

Organizational Chart

Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.

If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.

An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.

You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.

Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.

The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.

If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”

Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:

• A detailed explanation that clearly shows how your product or service works.
• The pricing model for your product or service.
• Your business’ sales and distribution strategy.
• The ideal customers that want your product or service.
• The benefits of your products and services.
• Reason(s) why your product or service is a better alternative to what your competitors are currently offering in the market.
• Plans for filling the orders you receive
• If you have current or pending patents, copyrights, and trademarks for your product or service, you can also discuss them in this section.

What to Focus On When Describing the Benefits, Lifecycle, and Production Process of Your Products or Services

In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.

When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Unique features
• Translating the unique features into benefits
• The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
• Intellectual property rights or any patents

When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
• Time between purchases
• Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

• The creation of new or existing products and services.
• The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
• Assembling the products
• Maintaining quality control
• Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
• The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

• Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
• What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
• What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
• Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
• Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
• How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
• What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
• What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
• What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
• Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
• Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
• How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

• What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
• What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
• Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
• How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

• Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
• Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
• Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

• Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
• Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
• Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

• Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
• What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
• How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

• What makes your competition successful?
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

• What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
• What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
• What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
• Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
• What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
• Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

• Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
• Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
• Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
• Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
• Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
• Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
• Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

• What is your sales forecast for the next year?
• When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
• What are the core expenses you need to operate?
• How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
• How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

• Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
• Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
• Additional financial documents or projections
• Articles of incorporation and status
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Bank statements
• Business registries
• Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
• Copies of insurances
• Credit histories (personal or/and business)
• Deeds and permits
• Equipment leases
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Industry associations and memberships
• Images of product
• Intellectual property
• Key customer contracts
• Legal documents and other contracts
• Letters of reference
• Links to references
• Market research data
• Organizational charts
• Photographs of potential facilities
• Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
• Purchase orders
• Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
• State and federal identification numbers or codes
• Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

• A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
• A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
• A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Product or service description
• Target audience
• Market size
• Competition analysis
• Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

• Business opportunity
• Company description
• Industry analysis
• Target market
• Implementation timeline
• Marketing plan
• Financial summary
• Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

• The Business Profile
• The Vision and the People
• Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
• Organization
• Licenses and Permits
• Business Insurance
• Communication Tools
• Acquisitions
• Location and Leasing
• Accounting and Cash Flow
• Opening and Marketing
• Managing Employees
• Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Service Line
• Marketing and Sales

8. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Products and services
• Operations plan
• Management organization
• Financial plan
• Conclusion / Call to action
• Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

10. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

• Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
• Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
• The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
• Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
• Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
• Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
• Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
• Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
• Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

• Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
• Solution: The solutions to each problem.
• Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
• Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

• Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
• Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
• Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
• Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
• Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
• Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
• Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
• Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
• Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
• Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
• Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
• Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

• Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
• Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
• Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
• Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time.  They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans.  A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs.  Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

• 12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
• 13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
• 5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
• How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

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64 Best Small Business Ideas To Start in 2024

Looking to launch a new business in 2024? Discover the best small business ideas for your niche, budget and skill set to jumpstart your entrepreneurial journey.

Thinking about starting a business this year? Whether you're diving into full-time entrepreneurship or planning a side hustle , this list of more than 60 small business ideas is for you.

Each idea below is selected for its practicality, flexibility, and proven potential for success.

Whether you start a clothing line, pet service, or wellness brand, put your spin on one of these businesses to unlock financial growth in 2024.

Qualities of a good small business idea

Your small business idea should fit your budget, skills, and schedule. It should also meet a market need and have the potential to generate sustainable, long-term profit.

Here's a closer look at what makes a strong small business idea:

Market demand

Good small business ideas solve clear problems for specific groups of people. Before moving forward with an idea, research your target market , customer needs, and competitors' solutions. Study your industry's market trends , customer surveys, and sales data to see what consumers and businesses are doing.

Competitive advantage

How you meet market demand also matters. Competitive businesses often have original approaches that set them apart. This could be a new product, a unique selling proposition , or a competitive pricing strategy. Analyze your competitors to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and develop a business plan that capitalizes on any gaps.

Scalability

Scalability is about the potential for growth and expansion. Can your business idea grow without hitting geographical, financial, or market limits? Many scalable businesses leverage ecommerce platforms to reach global audiences without a physical investment.

Low barrier to entry

Businesses are easier to start when they have lower initial costs, fewer regulatory requirements, less need for specialized training, and minimal technology needs. For example, business ideas like creating freelance content or opening a dropshipping store require minimal setup and no upfront capital.

Profitability

Ultimately, a small business idea needs to make money . Try to estimate potential profits and build a financial model based on predicted sales and operational costs.

Sustainability

Will your small business be part of a growing industry or a trend that's already peaked? Will your operations align with environmental , social, and regulatory expectations? Sustainable businesses not only benefit from increased consumer trust but also set themselves up for long-term success.

Best small business ideas

By using your existing skills and some readymade online tools, it's easier than you might think to launch a small business. Here are some small business ideas that you can start today.

1. T-shirt designer

Websites and apps that offer print-on-demand services are perfect for small businesses. With them, you can sell custom products like t-shirts without worrying about manufacturing, shipping, or pre-paying for inventory.

Print on demand is the process of choosing products from a catalog and customizing them with your designs. A print-on-demand company will produce and ship your t-shirts as orders come in. This allows you to create and sell original shirts and other items with branding and unique visuals.

T-shirts, hats, hoodies, tote bags, and more become canvases for your creativity. Create shirts with witty slogans for developers or cute graphics for cat owners. If there’s passion and pride within a community, a potential print-on-demand t-shirt business is waiting to be started.

If you’re not a designer, hire one from freelancer sites like Fiverr , Upwork , Dribbble , or 99Designs . You can even use t-shirt mockup templates , so you won’t need to spend money on a photoshoot to model your designs.

2. Digital freelancer

A freelance service business is another simple form of self-employment. When you offer a service, “time” is your inventory and your biggest investment. That makes it easy to get up and running if you have in-demand skills and a few spare hours each week.

Writers, graphic designers, virtual assistants, SEO practitioners, developers, and others can build a business around their skills. You could offer your expertise as an ongoing service or start a consulting business that advises on projects.

Once you’ve found your first customers, try apps like BookThatApp or Acerill Appointment Booking for easy booking and appointment management.

You can also offer your services through a freelance marketplace like Upwork to increase your chances of being discovered by people who need your skills.

3. Affiliate marketer

Affiliate marketing refers to a performance-based marketing tactic where a business pays people to promote products for them. Every time an affiliate brings in a new customer, they receive a commission from the business.

Affiliates can promote products on their blogs, social media accounts, websites, or in communities. For many, affiliate marketing is a low-cost way to earn passive income .

To join an affiliate program, do the following:

• Find an affiliate program on sites like ShareASale , CJ , or LinkShare
• Choose offers you want to promote
• Get an affiliate link
• Promote that link across your assets
• Get a commission every time someone signs up or makes a purchase through your link

Commission rates vary, depending on the company and the retail price of products. You could earn as low as 5% for each sale, while some commissions can be as high as 50% if you’re promoting a class or event. Some affiliate programs also offer a flat rate versus a percentage.

4. House or pet sitter

House and pet sitting are good business ideas to start if you feel comfortable caring for and staying in a stranger’s home, potentially with their pets.

You can create an online store to market and sell your services, or register for an account on dedicated home and pet care apps. Here are some examples:

• HouseSitter.com : This website is for both house and pet sitting. You can create a profile and apply to postings. People who need house/pet sitting can also browse sitters and reach out to them.
• Rover : Rover is a website and app specifically for pet sitting. On it, you can create a profile and apply to gigs. These arrangements include drop-in visits but not overnight visits (or house sitting).
• Care.com : Care.com is a listing site where pet sitters can create a profile and list their experience. You can also apply to jobs posted by people seeking pet sitters. Care.com is a good site to use if you offer senior care, tutoring, housekeeping, and child care services.
• TrustedHousesitters : TrustedHousesitters is a great place to start if you need experience or testimonials. The platform specifically prohibits paid gigs, so these arrangements are viewed more as an exchange—you get a free place to stay, and they get free sitting.

Consider that some pet sitters offer on-site services while others care for pets in their own homes. You can even add a dog-walking element to appeal to a wider range of people.

Tutoring school kids or adults who want to learn a new skill can bring in extra income around your regular working hours. You might be great at math, playing the drums, or speaking French, so why not teach others?

Promote your tutoring services on local Facebook groups and in nearby schools to get the word out and build up your client base. If you're planning to create courses for your students, start by watching this guide to making online courses .

6. Personal assistant

Becoming a personal assistant requires little upfront expenditure and means you can work with a range of businesses. You’ll essentially be helping business owners take care of admin tasks, like booking appointments, responding to emails, and taking notes in meetings.

Start by networking with business owners on LinkedIn to build relationships and market your services. Creative effective Linkedin marketing strategies with these tips .

7. Dog walker

Dog walking is a fun and rewarding job (and you get a bit of exercise at the same time). Build a dog walking business by checking your local state laws to see what licensing and insurance you’ll need, then set up a website to advertise your dog walking services. If you don’t want to manage the administrative aspects, sign up with a company like Rover, a directory that owners can use to connect with potential dog walkers.

8. Airbnb host

You don’t need a fancy second home to become an Airbnb host—in fact, the accommodation platform originally started as a way for homeowners to temporarily rent out their spare room for extra cash. If you have the extra space in your house, you can create an account with Airbnb and rent it out at weekends, for overnight stays, or whenever suits you.

Like the idea of running a rental business? Here are some other rental business ideas to consider .

Are you always called on to bake cakes and sweet treats for your friends and family? If the answer is yes, you can sell baked goods to locals in your community. In addition to baking cakes for birthdays and events, your bakery business plan could also include creating batches of baked goods to sell in local coffee shops and cafés, or distribute more broadly through an online store .

10. House cleaner

If you’re a stickler for cleanliness, starting a cleaning business can be a fulfilling way to make money. Create a batch of flyers to stick through doors in your neighborhood and advertise your services on local Facebook groups. If you do a good job, chances are word of mouth will help you organically pick up customers.

11. Car washer

Car washing has long been a source of fundraising for high schoolers, but it can also work as a business for adults too. If you’ve got space outside your house or a nearby yard, you can offer car washing and valeting services to locals. Alternatively, you can go door-to-door to hand out flyers and wash cars on the road while you build up your business.

Best businesses to start with little money

Short on cash and want to start a small business? Check out these cost-effective businesses you can start today.

12. Dropshipping store owner

Dropshipping is a fulfillment model where a third-party supplier stores and ships inventory to customers on your behalf. It’s one of the best businesses to start, because it’s low overhead, hands-off, and scalable.

💡 With Shopify, it’s easy to start a dropshipping business . Sell popular products without the hassle of managing inventory, packaging, or shipping. Orders are sent directly from your wholesaler to your customers, so you can work on what you do best—reaching your customers.

You don’t need to handle any products yourself—you just need to make the sales and pass orders on to your supplier. In fact, it’s one of the quickest and cheapest businesses to start.

You can curate products from one or more suppliers into your own online store under a theme that focuses on a specific dropshipping niche , like gear for yoga enthusiasts or water bowls for dogs. When a customer buys a product from you, the order is sent to your supplier, who fulfills it on your behalf. However, you are still responsible for marketing and customer service.

Dropshipping is a great way to sell trending products and launch a business before you invest in your own original products.

13. Influencer

In today’s connected world, the ability to capture and keep the attention of others is an asset. It’s one many businesses are willing to pay for and one many creators are able to convert into a business with multiple revenue streams.

Whether you choose to grow your following on YouTube , Instagram, TikTok , or a blog (or, ideally, on a combination of different channels), you have many avenues for monetizing your audience:

• Sponsored posts on behalf of brands
• Becoming an influencer
• Selling physical or digital products (via any of the ideas on this list)
• A combination of the above (they’re not mutually exclusive)

Taking an audience-first approach to your small business idea means you’re playing the long game (it might be months until you’ve figured it out). But you don’t need millions of followers to do it: Instagrammer Kat Gaskin, for example, pulled off a $10,000 product launch with only 3,000 followers.

14. Child care provider

The rise in demand for child care services with a decreasing supply is a perfect combination for starting a new business. If you enjoy taking care of kids and can get the proper licenses, a new child care business could be a good business idea for you.

Daycares are a particularly good business idea for parents looking to make money from home.

15. Handy-person

Everyone has a go-to maintenance specialist in their family. You know, the person who’s always doom chores around the house: a plumbing issue, installing tile, cleaning out gutters, putting up a fence. They’re always the person friends and family call on for odd jobs. If this is you, why not get paid for your work?

The home repair and improvement industry sits at around $540 billion in market value. Whether it’s fixing a boiler or building a patio deck, if you’re someone who likes to fix things, this could be a lucrative business for you.

16. Life coach

Life coaches help people navigate career changes and build wellness lifestyles they love . If you’re good at helping people make decisions, are a great communicator, and enjoy guiding people toward their dream lives, this could be a good business idea for you. You’ll need a qualification to get started, but otherwise, you can start picking clients up on social media, via local advertising, and, eventually, through word-of-mouth marketing.

17. Consultant

If you’re a specialist in a certain area or have deep knowledge of a particular subject, you can monetize that by opening a consultancy. For example, you might decide to offer consultancy services to companies looking to improve their hiring practices or, if you’re skilled at search engine optimization , you might open a business offering your knowledge as a service.

18. Newsletter author

Newsletters offer a direct line of communication to a prebuilt audience. If you’ve got an online presence and knowledge to share, consider starting a newsletter business. There’s little you need to get started—just an email marketing provider and a way to generate subscribers—then you can make money selling sponsorships, products, or services directly through your newsletter. Alternatively, when the numbers are high enough, you can charge subscribers to receive your newsletter in a subscription-style model.

19. Bike mechanic

Love fixing bikes? Start a business repairing and building bikes for your local neighborhood. Advertise your services in local Facebook groups, draw up some flyers to stick around local shops, and create a simple website to get the word out.

At-home business ideas

You can also start your own business at home, giving you complete flexibility and freedom. Whether you’re interested in writing a book, creating digital courses, or managing social media for brands, there are numerous opportunities for home-based businesses.

20. Self-published author

Cookbooks, picture books, comic books, poetry books, photo books, coffee table books, and novels—if you’ve got the knowledge or creativity, there are a variety of original books you can bring to the market. The options are endless—that’s why it’s one of the best small business ideas to start.

Print on demand book services are a safe way to test the waters and get started with self-publishing . It also gives you control over the quality and look of your book.

Lulu xPress and Blurb are popular platforms to create, order, and distribute your own books as physical and digital products. You could also sell it on third-party marketplaces like Amazon .

While you can order one book at a time, costs naturally go down when you buy in bulk. Consider preselling or crowdfunding your book idea to ensure there’s demand, and guarantee a certain number of sales so you can feel confident making a bulk order. Publishing your own book can be a great way to monetize a blog if you have or are looking to start one.

21. Digital creator

Digital products like music , courses, podcasts , and templates are unique on this list of low-investment small business ideas. Unlike the others, they’re not tangible. There aren’t recurring manufacturing or shipping costs to worry about, so your margins can remain high, making it another no-brainer for being one of the best businesses to start.

The trick is figuring out what makes for a good digital product, and how much people are willing to pay for it.

Some good digital products include original instrumental beats, stock photos that can be licensed to other creators, and information products and templates that help people level up their skill sets in a particular field.

If you’ve got a talent that can be turned into a digital product, think about packaging it into a new stream of income.

Shopify's has a free Digital Downloads app that lets you offer digital products in your store as easily as physical products.

22. App developer

Creating a million-dollar app business is not easy. In fact, 99.5% of consumer apps fail . Most apps don’t have product-market fit, need a ton of marketing, and are costly to create.

So, why include this business idea? Because consumer app development isn’t the only path for entrepreneurs. New B2B apps for the Shopify App Store crop up daily, with a market of motivated businesses eager to find the tools they need. By offering a simple solution to a common problem encountered by website designers or store owners, you can generate a healthy profit.

23. Coffee seller

Selling coffee can be profitable with a strong brand and the right marketing plan. Sure, coffee has a lot of competition. But that shouldn’t scare you away from this multi-billion-dollar industry . Selling a high-commodity product like coffee has many benefits:

• There is a high volume of customers.
• Customers typically associate small brands as having a higher quality than corporate brands.
• There are many positioning opportunities.

Because coffee is so widely available, it’s easier to sell. People already want coffee—you only need to make them want your coffee.

24. Social media management consultant

In 2024, there are more than 5 billion active social media users around the world. That’s over 60% of the world’s population. Between YouTube , Instagram , Facebook Messenger , TikTok , and all the other social networks available⁠—brands need help managing their accounts.

A social media manager is responsible for creating and analyzing content for brands’ social accounts . Clients will pay you to create engaging content, write attractive bios, respond to comments, run ads, and more. You could charge by the hour or by project rate.

25. Résumé writer

Resumes are crucial to landing a new job, so if you’ve had good responses from previous employers, consider helping job seekers optimize theirs. You can offer two different services:

• Writing résumés and cover letters from scratch
• Improving and optimizing existing résumés

It’s often much more difficult for us to write our own résumés than it is for an objective third party. Use this to your advantage and sell résumé writing services on your website or social media, or via local recruitment centers.

26. Translator

Are you fluent in another language? If the answer is yes, you have a great in-demand skill under your belt. Translators can do everything from translating website copy from one language to another to translating in-person conversations. Consider specializing in a specific form of translation, such as translating medical journals or finance publications. Then, create a website to advertise your services or create flyers to drop through doors.

27. Travel planner

If you’re always the person who gets asked to plan upcoming trips, there might be a career for you in travel planning. While people are using travel agents less and less, there’s still a market for bespoke, luxury travel planning. Set up a website and start advertising your services on social media to generate interest.

28. Virtual assistant

Similarly to personal assistants, virtual assistants help business owners manage tasks they don’t have time for. The only difference is virtual assistants don’t have to be in the same city (or even the same country) as the businesses they work for. Virtual assistant services vary wildly and can include social media work, graphic design, general admin, and sales.

29. Developer

The growing digital landscape calls for more coders (also known as developers). These are the people who build websites from the back end, turn designs into fully functional sites, and build apps from scratch. There are online courses you can take that arm you with the basics, but the best way to improve your coding skills is to practice. Build a website to showcase your skills, reach out to brands you’d like to work with, and create a portfolio of websites and apps.

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30. Data entry clerk

Every business uses data, which means data entry clerks play an important role in collecting, storing, and managing vast quantities of information. If you love a spreadsheet or are well-versed in setting up systems and processes, this could be the business for you. Start by reaching out to local businesses to offer your services and promote your business on social media to reach a wider range of potential clients.

31. Content creator

There are more than 200 million content creators —a positive sign the creator economy is a blossoming industry to get involved in. Content creators are people who post videos, stories, and content on social media to build an audience and make money. This can be done via brand partnerships, product promotions, selling products, or advertising revenue. If you already create content and enjoy sharing stories on social media, it may be a no-brainer to become a content creator.

32. Digital designer

Digital products include templates, journals, checklists, guides, and designs people can download and use from the comfort of their homes. It’s easy to experiment with a variety of different product types to see what sells—simply use a design tool like Canva to design your downloads , and create a website or use a marketplace like Etsy to sell them on.

33. Bookkeeper

Good with numbers? Why not start a bookkeeping business? You’ll be in charge of monitoring and recording small business accounts each month to make sure your clients are on top of their finances. You might need a relevant degree or certification before you get started, but once your business is set up you can work with clients from the comfort of your own home.

Unique small business ideas

Small business owners can also be innovative and make an impact on people’s lives. Want to change the game in a particular market? Check out the ideas below.

34. Nonprofit founder

Starting a nonprofit organization isn’t the only path you can take to help fund a better world.

Having a mission to go along with a business and setting aside some profit for a cause gives social entrepreneurs a unique way to position their company in the market while addressing the issues they care about most.

While many social enterprises offer their own original products, you can also take any of the low-cost small business ideas above and partner with a nonprofit or execute that social good with your own hands, as long as you’re transparent about how it works.

The Give & Grow Donations Shopify app makes it easy to partner with charitable organizations and incorporate your mission into your business. You can set it up to donate a specific amount or a percentage of sales or ask your customers to add a donation at checkout.

35. Pet business owner

The pet industry is an industry that’s worth more than $300 billion and ripe with opportunities. Your pet business could be product- or service-based—selling accessories, food, or toys, or offering grooming, walking, or training expertise.

Perkie Prints makes personalized printed pet products—everything from apparel to framed prints, plus fun projects in between. On the service side of things, Let the Dog Out offers dog walking and “bathroom breaks” to its customers.

36. Membership program founder

Online memberships are ideal for entrepreneurs with an established active and engaged community . They work much like a subscription-based business—customers make recurring payments in exchange for a virtual product or service.

Memberships are great for managing members-only access to content on a website, and even for physical businesses that offer guided sessions online. Yoga studios, gyms, clubs, and art schools are a few examples of businesses that can take advantage of this business model.

It’s easy to start your membership-based business with Shopify. Set up a new product just like you would for a physical product, but create a name and description that tells people about your membership services.

37. Virtual event planner

Virtual event planning is a profitable business idea if you enjoy organizing and connecting people. The significant rise in business events and the adoption of virtual tools for conducting meetings will keep this market growth high. As a virtual event planner, you’ll be responsible for creating virtual conferences, networking opportunities, and educational sessions for companies around the world.

38. Landscape gardener

Got a love for nature and outdoor design? A landscaping business is a great option for you. Landscaping, also referred to as lawn care, means modifying and maintaining the visible features of an area of land. You’re responsible for creating beauty out of natural, living elements like flowers, grass, and trees.

There’s growing interest in landscape maintenance among younger households, with seasonal demand making landscaping a potential summer business idea . Competition in the market is moderate. You’ll face a few leading landscaping companies, like TruGreen, as well as smaller local service providers.

39. Vending machine owner

Here’s a unique business idea : vending machines. Yes, there’s money to be made with vending machines. Though the industry took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, projections indicate vending machines will bounce back.

Offer the right products at the right location to make your vending business a success. Do your research to find high-traffic areas, who is walking by, and what they might need at that moment. Consider the various airport vending machines. You’ll find the expected vending machines with snacks and drinks, but there are also machines with makeup and accessories, like phone chargers and headphones. With a strategic approach, vending machines can be a profitable business with a small investment, and an overall great business idea.

40. Online dating consultant

Consider yourself a bit of a matchmaker? Become an online dating consultant and help singles find love. Besides helping people set up online dating profiles, you can source potential matches, and offer coaching through the initial first dates. Try it out on some willing friends first and use these success stories to promote your services to other singles.

41. Personal trainer

If you enjoy going to the gym and staying active, consider starting a personal training business. You’ll need a qualification to get started, but once that’s in place you can build up a roster of clients who regularly come to work out with you.

Take it a step further and offer personalized training plans, nutrition advice, and exercise mentoring to make additional income. You can advertise your business on local Facebook groups, create flyers to stick around the neighborhood, or create a website to attract remote clients that you can train with via video call.

42. Personal chef

If you love to cook and often find yourself hosting delicious dinner parties for friends and family, a personal chef business might be for you. Start small by cooking meals for your neighbors’ dinner parties and expand to include downloadable menus and personalized multicourse meal plans. It can help to specialize in a specific cuisine or style of cooking to build up your name, such as vegetarian meals or Japanese dishes.

43. Meal prep specialist

Meal prepping is all the rage as people’s lives get busier—just take a look at the success of meal subscription boxes like Hello Fresh and Blue Apron.

Tackle this pain point by offering a meal prep service where you batch-cook food for the week and deliver it to your clients. You can even enhance segments of your meal prep by offering related food, like a line of condiments. Promote your business locally and hand deliver meals or advertise online to a wider audience and send meal boxes by post.

If you’ve got a truck and enjoy physical labor, consider opening a moving company. Make sure you’ve got the correct permits and insurance to start and then build up a name for yourself by sending out flyers, advertising on local Facebook groups, and encouraging word-of-mouth referrals.

45. Voiceover artist

Got a voice smoother than Morgan Freeman’s? Become a voiceover artist who narrates television adverts and online videos. The sheer popularity of video today means there’s plenty of work to go around. Set up a website to advertise your services and sign up for voiceover directories to connect with potential clients.

46. Tour guide

Becoming a tour guide can be a fun way to show people around your city, especially if you enjoy and are knowledgeable about the local history. Consider differentiating your business from other tour guides by focusing on a specific activity, like food, music, or culture. Advertise your services online and create flyers to distribute in well-known tourist spots.

47. Masterclass host

While tutoring often takes place in person, you can also share your subject expertise to groups of people online by teaching online masterclasses. Decide what skill or activity you’ll teach and advertise your services online or through local Facebook groups. As well as teaching subjects like accounting or dance, you can also teach workshops on topics like cooking and wine tasting.

48. Professional organizer

If you’re known as the “organized one” in your group, consider starting a business as a professional organizer who helps people declutter and restore order in their homes. It can be really difficult for people to juggle day jobs and organize their homes to a high standard, so you might find yourself in high demand. This job is obviously geared more toward a local client base, so rely on local Facebook groups, handing out flyers, and word-of-mouth referrals; you can also increase your revenue with organizational videos and paid downloadables.

49. Personal shopper

Personal shoppers help their clients find the right clothes, furniture, or jewelry. If you’ve got a good eye for fashion or interior design, this can be a rewarding way to make money. Start by choosing what kind of personal shopper you’d like to be and then advertise your services locally via Facebook or flyers to spread the word.

Creative small business ideas

Start an exciting business that explores your creativity and self-expression with the following ideas.

50. Poster and card illustrator

If you’ve already got an engaged online following—say you’re a cartoonist or an urban photographer—you’re in an especially good position to sell your art online .

Depending on the printer you work with, you can turn your work into products such as posters, framed wall art, or even greeting cards. There are plenty of low-cost digital templates and mockup generators like Placeit that you can use to showcase your products without having to print out each item and conduct your own photoshoots.

51. Online boutique owner

If you love fashion and sharing your sense of style, you can consider creating your own online fashion boutique. You don’t need to become a fashion designer—you can curate items from other vendors into your own online store (using the dropshipping model we discussed earlier).

Dresses, shoes, swimwear, accessories, and more—you can build your own fashion brand using one of several product-sourcing apps , model them on your own with product photos and social media posts, and build an online following as a trendsetter . Apps like MyOnlineFashionStore let you import various styles into your Shopify store.

52. Crafts-person

If you’re a maker—whether that’s DIY soap, candles, sauces, or pottery—you’re in a position to find a small business idea, because product development and procurement are literally in your hands.

Unlike many of the other ideas on this list, you will need to consider shipping and inventory management , but you can start out simple on a per-order basis or with a small batch until you start generating consistent sales.

In fact, many makers on Shopify started out with a home business idea , selling on Etsy or eBay, or to friends and family through word of mouth, and grew into full-time small business owners after establishing demand for their products.

Just be mindful of any regulations in your product category , especially for anything customers will eat, inhale, or put on their skin.

53. Photographer

Got a passion for taking photos? Turn your hobby into a full-time online photography business . Today, you don’t just have to sell services for weddings and corporate ad campaigns. You can easily set up a store and sell prints, posters, NFTs, and more. Or you can sell your photos on stock photography sites.

54. Beauty entrepreneur

The beauty industry really pulled through the pandemic and the momentum continues to build. Businesses that sell online with unique positioning and enhanced delivery services will continue to win.

Some product ideas with high demand are:

• Personal care products like hand soap and sanitizer
• At-home spa rituals like face masks
• Beauty technology like massage guns, smart mirrors, and makeup refrigerators

Consider launching a makeup brand or a hair care line and targeting a specific audience segment, like curly girls or teens.

55. Phone accessories

Because so many people own mobile phones now, there’s a huge market for phone accessories. And there are many different ways you can go with these accessories—print-on-demand, handmade, niche by product type, dropshipping, and more.

Some ideas for phone accessories to sell include:

• Phone cases
• Car and desk holders
• Earbuds/headphones
• Bluetooth speakers
• Portable chargers
• Wireless chargers

When listing your phone accessories for sale , remember to include which devices they’re compatible with. You don’t want to create a negative yet avoidable experience for customers who receive an item they can’t even use.

56. Subscription box brand

If you’re not interested in creating your own products to sell, you can curate them. One of the best small business ideas is to sell subscription boxes with curated products that follow a certain theme.

One of the great parts about subscription boxes is you can create them for pretty much every niche out there. For example, featuring merchants and makers in your community is one of the best local business ideas for subscription boxes. You can also go for themes like yoga, beer brewing, or pets—the possibilities are limitless.

Like memberships, subscriptions are good business ideas to start because they create a recurring revenue stream. People have to proactively cancel their subscription if they don’t want to continue paying for it.

Subscriptions also lend themselves to collaboration. When you curate products from different merchants, you can get in front of their audiences—a whole group of potential new subscribers.

57. Alterations specialist

People will always need a button sewn back on or a hem altered. If you’re good with a sewing machine, you could be the person to do it. Start small by offering to hem or mend your neighbors’ clothes and, as you grow, add services to your repertoire like dressmaking and alterations.

58. Makeup artist

If you love makeup and enjoy making others look good, start a business as a makeup artist . You can offer your services for weddings, photoshoots, or special occasions and decide whether you want to work with locals or are willing to travel to build your client base. As well as advertising your services on local Facebook groups, create a website and flyers where people can find out more about what you offer.

59. Furniture restorer/upcycler

Furniture upcycling gained huge momentum during the pandemic as people upgraded their living space. If you’ve picked up a few restoration skills along the way and enjoy refurbishing a well-loved piece of furniture, why not open a furniture restoration or upcycling business? You can either buy items from local charity shops or reclamation centers to do up and sell, or you can offer to upcycle people’s existing furniture.

Physical small business ideas

These business ideas may appeal to those who enjoy face-to-face interaction and tangible services. People who are passionate about creating active income streams might find these business ideas appealing, as they require a personal touch and physical presence to succeed.

60. B&B owner

Opening a B&B isn’t a small feat, but if you’ve dreamed of creating a cozy place for travelers to stay in your area, it could be a great business idea for you. You’ll need a big enough space to get started, but after that, you can decide what theme you want your B&B to take on, what packages you’ll offer to guests, and how you’ll create a welcoming experience that keeps people coming back.

61. Delicatessen

If you’re a specialist in a specific type of food (or you simply love a specific product), consider opening up a dedicated food store. Whether it’s cheese, wine, craft beers, or specialty olive oil, you can create a commercial hub for like-minded people to share your passion. As well as sourcing products from local makers, you can use your store to host relevant events, like wine tasting or cheesemaking for extra income.

62. Food truck operator

Food trucks cost less upfront than a restaurant because you only need a vehicle and the cooking equipment to get started. Set yourself up for success by narrowing your offerings down to a specific cuisine or food type—remember, you have limited space in a food truck.

If you don’t want to (or can’t afford to) buy a truck upfront, you can always lease one from a company like the Food Truck Group to get you on your feet. If you’re successful, you can open a restaurant later on down the line, just like The Cheese Bar .

63. Massage therapist

Trained massage therapists are always in high demand. There are three ways you can operate your massage business:

• Visit client homes to provide massages.
• Open a salon where clients can come to you.
• Work on a contract basis for a chiropractor, salon, or acupuncturist.

You’ll need a qualification to get started, but once you’re all set up you can expand your list of services to include other beauty and relaxation treatments.

64. Barista

Turn your love of coffee into a physical coffee shop. Choose to invest in a franchise or start your own coffee shop from scratch. Once you’re set up, you can differentiate your business from competitors by running in-house events, offering special deals, and turning your coffee shop into a valuable community hub.

Market your business with Shopify’s customer marketing tools

Shopify has everything you need to capture more leads, send email campaigns, automate key marketing moments, segment your customers, and analyze your results. Plus, it’s all free for your first 10,000 emails sent per month.

How to start a small business

To start a small business, you need a plan as well as a dream. To put the wheels in motion, follow these steps:

• Use the time you have available: It’s good to have a balance of ambition and realism with your business aspirations.
• Identify a new business idea: This could come from your personal interests, a market opportunity, an experience—anywhere, really.
• Validate your business idea: This is where you identify if your idea is viable or not. Are people willing to spend money on this?
• Find a business name: A strong name should be short and simple, memorable, and original. If you need help, use a business name generator .
• Make a plan: Your business plan is critical for keeping your business on track, as well as securing partners, investors, lenders, and more.
• Understand business finances: Open your business bank accounts, secure funding, and set up strong bookkeeping and accounting processes. It might be a good idea to build out your goals in a business plan template to help secure funding.
• Develop your product or service: The fun part! This is where you bring your product or service idea to life.
• Pick a business structure: Your business structure influences taxes, operations, personal liability, and more. Choosing the right business structure is about balancing the legal and financial protections you need with the flexibility offered by different options.
• Research licenses and regulations: Your business is subject to the laws governing businesses in your area, as well as laws and regulations specific to your industry. It’s important to understand this to avoid bigger problems down the road.
• Select your software systems: Accounting, email, ads, project management—you need an entire tech stack to run your business.
• Find a business location: Identify where you can open up a shop based on space, retail needs, and fulfillment needs.
• Plan workload and team size: If you plan to do all of the work yourself, you’re limited by the time you have available to invest. If you plan on hiring help, you’ll need to account for those costs—as well as the time involved in finding and onboarding freelancers or employees.
• Launch your business: Leverage your network, build buzz with promotions, and test paid ads to get word out about your newly launched business.

Generating small business ideas

There are many ways to come up with profitable business ideas of your own. You or someone you know might have a poor personal experience with a company—and you know you can do better.

Or, maybe there’s a gap in the market: for example, demand for a specific product but no one meeting it. Other ideas come from everyday moments, in the shower or right before you fall asleep.

Brainstorming business ideas

If you’re feeling stuck on good business ideas, keep a brainstorming board. Whether tactile or digital, create a place to put down your ideas whenever they come to mind. Then, revisit your notes with fresh eyes.

There’s power in numbers, too. Recruit help from colleagues or friends and family to brainstorm new ideas. Survey your existing customer base or audiences and get their ideas. Look at what people are saying on social media or searching for online. Start with lots of ideas and then refine your list to the top ideas to explore further.

Protecting small business ideas

Most business owners have a few options when it comes to legal protection of their small business ideas, both now and in the future. The right one depends largely on the types of businesses you’re talking about.

• Copyright: Copyrighting protects your intellectual property, meaning others can’t use it without your permission. This applies to text, art, photography, music, graphic design, and similar mediums.
• Trademark: Trademarking is another intellectual property protection. Essentially, you “own” a word, phrase, logo, symbol, or design—preventing others from using it.
• Patent: Patents are applicable for inventions—a patent prohibits anyone else from making, selling, or using your invention in their business for a period of time.
• Confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements (NDAs): These legal documents prohibit people from sharing information, as outlined in the NDA.
• Noncompete agreement: If you hire employees or contractors, you can have them sign this document, which prevents them from working with direct competitors.
• Work-for-hire agreement: Another document—this one is only for employees—that means any work they do during their term of employment belongs to the employer, not the individual.

Funding a business idea

One of the toughest but most important parts of starting a business is finding the money to get your idea off the ground. There are a few ways to get funding for your business idea .

• Small business loans: Shopify Capital offers funding for eligible merchants, who can apply to receive between up to $5 million in capital to grow their business.
• Investors: Lots of investors look for the next big thing—the types of businesses that go viral. Craft a pitch for your business idea to present to investors.
• Crowdfunding: Crowdfunding is similar to getting investors, except you need lots of investors who are each willing to make a small financial commitment.
• Fund it yourself: It’s not realistic for everyone, but less expensive business ideas make it easier to come up with the cash yourself . Just be aware of the risks involved.

💡 Need funding to run and grow your business? Shopify Capital makes it easy to apply for funding quickly to use for inventory, marketing, and more. Automatically make payments as a percentage of your daily sales. No compounding interest.

Got your business idea? Now start

Thanks to the latest commerce tools, third-party suppliers, and the ability to quickly test ideas online, it’s easier than ever to build a successful business and start making sales without getting caught up in sourcing products, renting space, and managing inventory.

The small business ideas above can be implemented directly, morphed into an original idea, or even combined to start a business that’s uniquely yours. If the idea of sourcing, storing, and shipping inventory has kept you from starting a business before, begin with an inventory-free, low-cost business model and grow from there.

The world of self-employment can be challenging, but with a little hard work and know-how, you can work toward building your own business.

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• Top Online Shopping Categories in the US

Small business ideas FAQ

What are the most successful small business ideas.

The most successful small business ideas combine the skills and passions of business owners with simple, practical customer solutions. For example, ecommerce store owners and food truck operators make it easy for customers to access desirable products. Likewise, online courses increase access to education. Pet businesses and personal wellness services can also flourish by serving consumer lifestyle trends.

What are the top 10 small businesses to start?

Starting a business that aligns with online consumer trends can lead to success. Consider these top contenders:

• Dropshipping popular products
• Print-on-demand apparel
• Selling digital products like ebooks or courses
• Blogging on niche subjects
• Offering freelance services such as graphic design or writing
• Crafting homemade products to sell online
• Creating content for podcasts or YouTube
• Becoming an affiliate marketer
• Providing pet-sitting services or selling pet products
• Operating an online clothing store

What is the easiest small business to start?

Online businesses are accessible for new entrepreneurs due to low overhead costs and the ability to reach a broad audience quickly. Examples of online business models include dropshipping, selling digital products, or providing freelance services. Other benefits of online businesses include minimal physical inventory needs, flexible work locations, and scalable marketing strategies.

What’s a good first small business to start?

A good first small business matches your skills and interests with a low initial investment. For instance, launching a freelance graphic design service could be ideal if you have graphic design skills. Look for business ideas you can start from home with accessible, inexpensive equipment such as software. This allows you to keep costs low while you build a client base.

How do I create a unique small business?

To create a unique small business, identify a niche with an unmet consumer need. This could be an area you’re passionate about or have experience in. Offer distinctive products or services that stand out by providing novel solutions or through unique branding that resonates with your target audience. For instance, if you’re a vegan baker who regularly shares recipes and notice your community lacks a vegan bakery, this could be a unique small business idea.

What small business services are in high demand?

Demand continues for services that support businesses’ digital marketing and online activities. These include:

• Freelance writing and content creation
• Specialized consulting in marketing and SEO
• Web development services
• Translation and localization services
• Accounting and financial advisory

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63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024 We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

By Eve Gumpel Edited by Brittany Robins Mar 15, 2024

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Many people dream of starting their own business. Running an enterprise in your home, garage or on the go means you can take more control over your professional goals, set more ambitious financial targets and achieve a more desirable work-life balance.

But what if you're ready to start a business but don't know what type of services to provide? You've come to the right place if you need profitable business ideas. Below, find a detailed breakdown of 63 small business ideas — from financial services to physical labor and creative contracting — to help you chart a path forward.

Related: Want to Start a Simple Business That Helps the Planet? After 'One Night's Worth of Research,' He Started an Eco-Friendly Gig And Now Makes $200K a Year

Some of these opportunities require more experience or credentials than others. Some can be started from home for cheap, while others require dedicated office space and capital investment. To ensure you choose the right business venture for yourself, it's crucial to consider a few factors before you pursue a sole proprietorship.

How do you determine the best small business idea?

Consider your current skill set and credentials..

For instance, if you already have a CPA license, venturing out as a freelance accountant (as detailed below) would be a natural avenue to explore. If you have experience as a writer, you might consider editorial services, or if you've spent years working in the food and beverage industry, you could explore catering or becoming a personal chef.

As you explore your options, consider if you'll need to secure special licenses (for example, hairstylists and electricians) or if the work requires additional education and credentialing.

Determine the goals of your small business.

For some people, starting a small business means leaving their full-time gig and committing to the new endeavor. For others, a part-time business provides meaningful supplemental income and can be managed in addition to other work. Consider how much money you're hoping to earn from the business, how many clients or customers you'll need to be profitable and how many hours you'll need to work each week to make it feasible.

Think about capital costs, as well as growth: Will launching the business require the purchase of equipment or other serious financial investment? Do you plan to hire employees? Will you expand to multiple locations? At the outset, it's a good idea to create a formal business plan .

Study your location and identify what's most feasible there.

Finding customers and clients is essential to any small business, so conduct a market analysis before you open shop. For instance, your boat cleaning business will be significantly more successful if you live near a coast, and your side hustle as an interpreter will likely be more profitable if you live in a diverse community.

You should also research what businesses already exist. Is there a dearth of dependable landscapers in your market? Is there a glut of professional photographers in your town? Answering these questions will help you determine the viability of your idea.

Decide if you want to run a business online or in person.

The digital age has created many opportunities for entrepreneurs to run a business from behind a laptop, meaning their enterprise can go wherever they choose. That's not for everyone, though. If you want to run a brick-and-mortar shop at the heart of your community or are more comfortable interacting with customers and clients in person, launch a business that will allow you to achieve those goals.

Related: TV Shows All Entrepreneurs Should Be Watching

Financial and Business Service Ideas

1. accounting and tax services.

Experience, training or licensing may be needed

At some point, most people seek the advice of a good bookkeeper or accountant, whether to prepare for tax season, get advice for starting a business or simply plan for the future. If you're already a Certified Public Accountant, you can earn good money by going out on your own.

If you're not already trained as an accountant or licensed by the state you live in, you'll want to explore the recommended educational prerequisites and plan to obtain the appropriate credentials. Most tax preparation franchises offer courses, seminars and training to get you ready to work for them.

You'll also want to think about the types of services you'll provide:

• Do you want to simply do bookkeeping for small businesses?
• Or do you also want to prepare balance sheets, income statements and other financial reports?

Other specializations can include tax accounting — a huge area of potential work.

2. Business Consulting

Has expansion possibilities

With a consulting business, you can work with a wide range of businesses on a variety of business problems. You could help new entities get off the ground by creating business plans , conducting market research and organizing a management structure.

Depending on your level of experience, you could also help large organizations through difficult transitions and periods of restructuring or outline a successful exit strategy by providing executive-level advice and guidance on an array of matters core to the business' mission.

A good calendar app will likely come in handy as time-tracking is crucial to accurate billing.

3. Financial Planning and Advising

Financial advisors help millions of Americans save for things like retirement and college funds while also helping them grow their wealth through various investments. If your goal is to become a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), you'll have to complete coursework and ultimately pass an exam. This will earn you a certificate that shows potential clients you have expertise and credibility. Once you're certified, working as an independent financial advisor can provide a steady income.

4. Buying a Franchise

Some business experience needed

The benefits of buying a franchise are many: You'll have a proven business model, the market research is already done and the brand typically provides support to franchisees as part of the purchase. Plus, many franchises can be launched for less than $10,000, including:

• Dream Vacations
• Cruise Planners
• Jazzercise Inc.

To learn more about how to buy and launch a franchise, read Entrepreneur's basics of buying a franchise business .

Related: Considering franchise ownership? Get started now to find your personalized list of franchises that match your lifestyle, interests and budget.

5. Notary Public Services

In most states, a notary public is a state officer who is authorized to witness and attest to the legalities of certain documents by stamping a seal and signing. Most states require that you pass an exam and a background check, but it costs very little to become a notary. You can generate significant income from notary work by charging fees for services such as loan-signing notarizations.

Manual Labor Business Ideas

6. general construction.

If you have experience working in construction, you may be ready to start your own handyman business and take on projects of your own. From building a fence to hanging drywall or framing an addition, many people need skilled laborers who can do quality work on time.

If you have a network of skilled people whose work you trust, you could also subcontract some of the construction and spend more time finding clients and growing your business. Check with your state to determine what permits and licenses you need to get started.

7. Landscaping

Put your green thumb to work. Most people want their yards tidied up in the spring, their lawns mowed in the summer, their leaves removed in the fall, their shrubs trimmed and their trees cared for. Your landscaping business could also offer irrigation services, including the installation and repair of sprinkler lines, as well as blowing them out before winter.

Garden work, such as planting annuals and perennials and vegetable garden preparation, can also be a lucrative business. There is plenty to do in the yard that has nothing to do with plants: stone wall restoration, fencing, artificial turf installation and more.

Read This: Start Your Own Lawn Care or Landscaping Business by The Staff of Entrepreneur Media and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

8. House Painting

Regardless of the season, you can make good money with a residential painting business — inside and out. Before you begin offering services, you'll want to work with professional painters and learn the basics:

• Masking a house
• Laying a drop cloth
• Choosing the appropriate paints and brushes for various indoor and outdoor climates

You'll also need to invest in some basic equipment — ladders, brushes, trays and more. Once you're set up, you can begin marketing your services to customers through a variety of online platforms with relatively low upfront costs.

9. Carpentry

Woodworking is in high demand these days, and if you're a talented carpenter, there are a variety of ways you can make money. Residential projects like cabinets, tables and shelves are often high on homeowners' lists and typically pay well. You can also make good money with boutique projects like gallery frames, hand-carved figurines and other work. In some cases, you can work for general contractors to frame doorways and support larger construction projects.

10. Electrical Work

Becoming an electrician is not easy — you must take classes, work as an apprentice and pass licensing exams before you can start your own business — but there's no shortage of work for electricians. Master electricians are always in demand for small and large projects, and you'll have the ability to hire apprentices, build a team and scale your business offerings.

11. Moving Services

When people move, they often want to hire someone to do the heavy lifting for them — literally. You can focus your work on local moves across town or to the town next door. As your business ramps up, you may also offer large-scale, long-distance moving services if you have the personnel and equipment to accommodate it. Advertise around town to convince the locals to let you take care of their move, provide excellent customer service and watch your business grow.

Read This: Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business and More by Entrepreneur Press and George Sheldon | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

Creative Work Business Ideas

12. content and editorial contracting.

Almost every business or organization needs good writers and editors, and if you have the skills to go out on your own, you'll likely find a bevy of work. From copyediting to developmental editing, ghostwriting and digital content production, freelance writers and editors can find clients in a host of industries, including marketing, communications, journalism and book publishing. To get started, you'll need to create a portfolio of work that exemplifies your skills for writing, content creation and/or editing–this will help you build relationships with potential clients.

13. Graphic Design

Have an eye for design? Logos, fliers, newsletters, information sheets and advertisements are just a few of the types of design materials that businesses hire independent designers to create for them. Websites and online advertising need graphic design services as well. You can offer clients a suite of services to take their project from beginning to end, including coordinating with content creators and print shops and getting products ready to mail and present.

Read This: Start Your Own Graphic Design Business by Entrepreneur Press and George Sheldon | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

14. Web Development

Many in-person and online courses exist to teach you the language of coding and website creation. With some specialized training, you can master the basics of building a website from scratch — a service you can offer to many small businesses, whether they're looking for an ecommerce platform or just a landing page to describe their services. You may also find clients who will hire you to not only design their website but manage their online presence on a day-to-day basis.

15. Marketing or Public Relations Agency

Every business has a story to tell, but not everyone has the know-how to get their message into the world. With your marketing or public relations agency, you can help businesses identify new audiences, craft messages that resonate with new customers and produce newsletters and other products — potentially winning the media's interest along the way. You'll want experience working in this field before you set out on your own, as potential clients will want to hire someone who understands the world of marketing and public relations.

Read This: Start Your Own Consulting Business by Entrepreneur Press and Eileen F. Sandlin | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

16. Photography

Independent photographers can run successful businesses with one or more specialties. You can offer:

• Portraits or senior pictures
• Wedding photography
• Editorial shots for newspapers or magazines

To get your photography business off the ground, you'll want to create an online portfolio of your work so potential clients can see your style and inquire with you. Being active on social media platforms is also a great strategy for growing your brand.

Read This: Start Your Own Photography Business by Entrepreneur Press and Charlene Davis | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

17. Videography

If you can do quality work behind a camera and edit footage well, there are plenty of opportunities for videography work, from creating brand videos for organizations to filming events, weddings and interviews. Your clients could include outdoor brands, small nonprofits and big corporations, but you'll want to have some filming and editing training and experience creating quality content before you launch your business.

18. Audio Editing

Audio storytelling is a growing industry, with countless podcasts being streamed daily by listeners all over the world. If you have experience recording and editing audio, you could shop your services to media brands, businesses or individuals who might want to launch their own podcasts. And who knows? Maybe you can use your skills to launch and monetize a podcast of your own.

19. Social Media Management

Some experience needed

Although many businesses want to enhance their social media presence, they often don't have the skills or internal bandwidth to grow their following and post engaging content.

If you're skilled at brainstorming content plans and writing snappy copy — and you already spend many hours on social media — it might be worth launching your own social media marketing enterprise. Clients might have you create a content marketing plan, monitor and reply to comments and report growth statistics monthly.

If making art is already your hobby, you might be able to turn it into a profitable business. You can sell your work on sites like Etsy, enter your work in shows or ink contracts with clients who need illustrators or custom art as part of their brand assets. Other potential art business offerings include creating portraits, painting murals and teaching art classes.

21. Music Lessons

Turn down the volume and listen up: Your music skills could be in high demand. There are a few ways to approach running your own music business. You can be mobile and teach in your clients' homes or run it out of your own space (a separate building or designated area of your home).

Some people teach music lessons online by recording lessons on YouTube and offering subscriptions. To get started, try connecting with local music schools for part-time gigs. This will allow you to see if you like it and help you build a reputation with potential clients.

Related: 10 Essential Tips For a Long and Lucrative Music Career

Repair and Maintenance Business Ideas

22. mechanic shop.

If you've spent years working on your vehicles and know your way around an engine, it could be time to offer your services to customers. Depending on where you live, you may not need to obtain a mechanics license, but taking some formal classes and earning a certification will help build trust with customers.

Many shops require licensing before hiring mechanics, so if you're looking to get some experience before launching your own business, you'll likely want to take some classes.

23. Appliance Repair

Every household has several appliances — from refrigerators to dishwashers to dryers — and appliances tend to break down, so appliance repair is one of the best business ideas for any area. You can work on your own or contract with appliance stores to cover their warranty service calls — or some of each.

Start slow and build your customer base on recommendations and referrals from work well done. You could also develop relationships with contractors to be the go-to person to install appliances in newly constructed houses.

24. Bicycle Repair

Almost every bike needs a good tune-up. This business tends to be seasonal in many parts of the country, but you can find ways around that. If you have the space, you could offer to store people's bicycles during the winter after you do a tune-up and any needed repairs on them.

And if you keep Saturday shop hours, you could make your shop a meeting place for cycling enthusiasts. If you live in a bike-oriented place, you may be able to purchase and sell used bikes, making some money as a retailer on top of your repair business.

25. Boat Cleaning

Boats hauled out of the water for the winter or even just for mid-season repairs will need their hulls cleaned. Depending on the type of boat, it might also be time for a major cleaning of everything else—the decks, the sleeping quarters, the head and the holds.

Start by advertising on Nextdoor, Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, reaching out to homes with boats sitting in their yard, or marketing your services to a local marina.

26. Car Cleaning & Detailing

Making a car shine inside and out isn't easy work, which is why many people don't want to do it themselves. Plus, because drive-thru car washes don't clean every corner, there's a market for car cleaning and detailing across the country. With a little investment in materials (soaps, scrubs, hoses, vacuums, etc.), you could make house calls or rent a garage space where customers can drop off their vehicles.

27. Electronics Repair

Whether it's a laptop, a television, a tablet or a specialized radio, if you're handy with circuit boards, you could run a profitable business for customers whose electronics are on the fritz. You'll want to run the business out of your home or a storefront so people can bring equipment directly to you. Not unlike other repair shops, your business may evolve to the point where you're buying used electronics and selling them to your customers.

28. Furniture Restoration

If you have a knack for sewing and woodwork, upholstery and restoration might be a natural business idea. Many books and online videos can be helpful as you learn the trade, but nothing will be as helpful as finding some discarded furniture and tearing it apart before restuffing and constructing it.

Often, furniture in need of upholstering will also require repairs—sanding, staining, or reinforcing damaged areas. Much of this work is relatively minor (you don't have to be a carpenter) and can add significant upsell value to your services.

Read This: Spruce: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design by Amanda Brown | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

29. Rug Cleaning

Most people don't have the time or space to do more for their rugs than a basic vacuum. As a rug cleaner, you will need to learn how to work with all kinds of carpet fabrics, from synthetic to wool. You should also decide whether you will take on valuable antique rugs and family heirlooms. If you do, you should consider getting specialized training in handling and properly cleaning these carpets.

Learn how to get tough stains and odors out of carpets — such as dog and cat odors — and customers will seek your services out. You'll need a dedicated space for people to drop off their rugs, so plan for that as you set up your business.

30. Jewelry Making and Repair

There are many different ways of getting into the jewelry business and different types of materials you can work with. Manipulating metal will require specific tools since you need to heat the metal and use tools to cut and engrave, but you'll likely also work with glass, gemstones, and maybe even wood. The wider the variety of materials you can work with, , the broader the range of repair services you can provide to your customers, including stone polishing and setting.

Read This: Start Your Own Fashion Accessories Business by Entrepreneur Press and Eileen F. Sandlin | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

Property and Real Estate Business Ideas

31. real estate.

Every community needs trusted real estate agents. Whether your clients are buying or selling property — or just seeking real estate advice — there are many opportunities to launch your own business. But, first, you'll need to become a licensed agent, and the requirements vary by state. Typically, you'll have to complete coursework and pass an exam. Once you've done that, you can start offering services and building your business from scratch.

32. Property Management

Many people manage properties as a side hustle. Maybe you have a vacation home that you use for short-term rentals or perhaps you have an additional property with a long-term lease. If you want to dive in full-time, you can acquire multiple properties and be a full-time landlord. In the case of rental units, your job will be to make sure the property is running smoothly, ensure tenants are paying rent and honoring their lease terms, and be available in case of any issues. You can also contract with individual property owners to serve as their property manager, lightening their load by taking care of the landlord duties for them.

33. Cleaning Service

No experience needed

There are many directions you can take this small business idea. If you want to work during hours when no one else does, you can focus your cleaning business on office clients. You can provide cleaning services to retail businesses and keep your customers within one or two blocks. Restaurants need daily thorough cleaning and can also be a great source of steady clients. But, if you're more interested in house cleaning, you can start with a small number of clients, and new customers will likely emerge via word of mouth.

Read This: Start Your Own Cleaning Service by Entrepreneur Press and Jacquelyn Lynn | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

34. Professional Organizing

Spatial planning is not everyone's strength. If it's yours, you can make good money as a professional organizer for individuals and businesses. For individuals, you can choose either to do the organizing work — maybe a kids' playroom or a cluttered garage — or consult with the homeowner to help them better organize themselves.

Businesses, too, don't always know how to organize their office and maximize the efficiency of their spaces. You can consult on ways to better arrange furniture, desks, conference areas, stockrooms and more.

35. Home Inspection

To be a successful inspector, first establish contacts with real estate agents who can recommend your services to customers. Home inspection can be an incredibly competitive market so you will need to constantly update your education and knowledge. For instance, Builders are constantly introducing new materials. If you only know about wood decks, you will not know how to inspect and assess the new materials on the market, such as composites that look like real wood. Also, stay apprised of all safety updates regarding materials and problems with things like off-gassing, carbon monoxide production and other chemical hazards.

Read This: Start Your Own Home Inspection Service by Entrepreneur Press | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

36. Home Energy Auditing

Homeowners are always looking for ways to save on their utility bills. With some specialized training, you can help by conducting an audit of their homes and calculating how much they might save on heating, cooling and electrical use by implementing new technology or upgraded appliances.

To grow your business, you can work directly with vendors to refer upgrades or gain a certification and learn how to do electrical work like installing solar panels and heat pumps yourself.

Read This: Toward a Zero Energy Home: A Complete Guide to Energy Self-Sufficiency at Home by David Johnston and Scott Gibson | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

37. Interior Decorating and Design

If you have an eye for design, market your interior decorating talents to building contractors. People purchasing new homes can often be overwhelmed with choices and possibilities. Create questionnaires for each major element and room in the house:

• How will the homeowner use the home?
• Are there children?

Depending on how involved your client wants to be, you can also help them purchase furniture, art, plants and more. You can also work with businesses, such as hotels and restaurants, to design their spaces.

Planning, Training and Coaching Business Ideas

38. event planning.

There are a variety of ways to launch an event-planning business, particularly if you have a professional background in planning large gatherings. First, you'll want to hone in on your niche, some of which include:

• Private parties at people's homes
• Kids birthday parties
• Corporate events

If you work with businesses, you must visit every potential event location you plan to work with. Tour each site and learn what's available, including capacity, AV equipment, chairs and tables and more. If you can nail a big party as an event planner, new clients will seek you out.

Read This: Start Your Own Event Planning Business by The Staff at Entrepreneur Media and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

39. Wedding Planning

You will need to be up-to-date on wedding trends, dress styles, popular colors — and almost every other facet of the wedding industry. Offer your customers an à la carte menu of services, from helping them choose flowers, a wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses to picking the venue and hiring the caterer.

Before you open your business, visit area wedding shops and see what kinds of services they provide. Wedding planners need to know every business detail to assure couples that they are in the right hands.

40. Vacation Planning

Some people take great joy in planning their vacations. However, if you're an experienced traveler and know how to save people money, you can still be very much in demand as a vacation planner for individuals or large groups. You can coordinate hotel and flight bookings, arrange transportation, provide daily itineraries and help your clients re-book in case of unforeseen travel crises. There's typically no required certification for this work, but there are courses you can take that will put you and your clients at ease.

41. Private Coaching

Active children and adults alike often seek athletic instruction beyond what they've learned in group formats. If you're highly skilled in an athletic discipline, you can help take athletes to the next level.

Common business options include:

• Baseball pitching

In terms of qualifications, you should already have some coaching experience and be able to offer high-level instruction. Depending on the community where you're coaching, you may need to have a license to run your business or a certification to use public amenities, like tennis courts, for profit.

42. Personal Training

Many people are looking to improve their overall fitness, and working with a personal trainer is one way to achieve their goals. To get started, you'll need to obtain a certification — especially if you're working with a gym — which will help your clients trust that you know what you're doing and can help them avoid injury. You can advertise your business at gyms and other public places, and having a strong social media and web presence is always helpful.

43. Nutritional Advising

With so many different dieting trends and supplements in the world, a nutritionist can help people better understand the landscape of healthy eating and living. Although nutritionists don't offer medical nutritional counseling or treat illnesses (as a dietitian does), there is still a wide market for the work.

First, determine what kind of nutrition service you want to provide — pediatric, sports, holistic or something else — and then work toward credentialing. At a minimum, you'll need to research the laws for becoming certified in your state and begin taking prerequisite courses to help you become licensed.

44. Life Coaching

Life coaching has exploded in popularity over the past decade, as many people are looking to recreate or realign their personal goals. Life coaches do not provide clinical mental healthcare (a therapist does), but they help people create and use tools to move closer to their ultimate goals. To become a life coach, you'll first want to determine what kind of client you're looking for:

• People with professional hurdles to clear
• Folks struggling with romantic endeavors
• Busy entrepreneurs looking to reclaim work/life balance

You don't technically need certification, though many practitioners take courses and have credentials.

45. Career Coaching

Career coaches help people navigate professional transitions, establish business goals and make the most of their skills. As a career coach, you might help people write cover letters and resumes, find new opportunities, establish business plans and success strategies or hone their niche in a crowded market.

Your background and specialty will determine what clientele you should work with:

• Recent graduates
• People looking to start second careers
• Someone who has been out of the workforce for years

Although there is no standard license or certification, many career coaches have earned credentials or successful careers of their own.

46. Tutoring

If you have a background in education, you can make significant supplemental income — or launch a full-fledged business — by offering tutoring services. Start by choosing the subject area that best fits your strengths. For instance, if you're a professional writer or English teacher, you could offer essay writing help. If you're skilled in math and sciences, you could help high schoolers with algebra or precalculus.

You don't have to be a licensed teacher to offer tutoring services, but being a subject matter expert will make it easier to sell your services to potential customers.

Hospitality Business Ideas

47. private chef service.

If you have experience working in restaurants or other areas of the food and beverage industry, you could tap into the growing private chef market. Whether potential customers are looking to accommodate specific dietary needs or an intimate event with friends, a positive experience should lead to client testimonials and referrals to help you grow your business.

You'll want to make sure you have proper training — either via work experience or formal courses — because your reputation is on the line with every dish you create.

48. Bed and Breakfast / Airbnb

Do you have a room that has its own bathroom and is private from the rest of the living space? Or do you own a property that could function as a small lodging establishment near a tourist area, sports stadium or large venue? Maybe you own a charming home in the country. If so, turn your property into a bed and breakfast or Airbnb rental and welcome guests into a home away from home.

Read This: Start Your Own Bed and Breakfast by Entrepreneur Press and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

49. Catering

Are you experienced with managing large-scale food operations? Consider branching out into catering to serve large events like weddings and corporate banquets. You'll need to make sure you have strong project- and personnel-management skills, because catering requires you to lead a team and deliver exceptional service for clients. You'll also need to obtain the proper licensing from the state in which you operate, similar to the requirements for opening a restaurant.

50. Food Truck

Do you want to deliver a specific type of cuisine to the masses without running an entire restaurant? Build (or purchase) a food truck and take your product on the go. You'll have to obtain appropriate operating licenses, but once you've checked those boxes, you can start working at festivals, breweries and other community events. As your reputation grows, you'll likely book business by word-of-mouth.

51. Brewery

Have you always wanted to run your own brewery? Maybe you've already been experimenting with brewing at home.? If so, opening a brewery could be an option. But first, you'll want to pursue training in brewing sciences and work as an apprentice to someone who knows the craft well. From there, you'll need to conduct a competitive market analysis to make sure there's room for another brewery in your area.

Other Small Business Ideas

52. dog walking.

If you have a flexible schedule and can make multiple house calls, you can generate significant revenue as a dog walker. Dog walkers take pooches out for their daily constitutional one or more times a day, individually or in small groups.

In some cities, like New York, dog walking alone can be a booming business. But, it's more common for dog walkers to offer additional services, including playing with and feeding pets, bringing in newspapers and mail and turning lights on and off.

Read This: Start Your Own Pet Business and More by Entrepreneur Press and Eileen F. Sandlin | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

53. Pet Sitting or Boarding

Most people leave behind their pets when they travel. Although big daycare shelters exist, you can make decent money by offering a more personal pet-sitting service — either by staying at someone's house while they're out of town or by hosting their animal at your place.

Starting a pet-sitting service requires almost nothing in startup costs. Your list of credentials should probably include personal pet ownership — if not currently, at least in the past — and other pet-related experience, including referrals from pet owners whose pets you have taken care of before.

Read This: Start Your Own Pet Sitting Business and More by Entrepreneur Press and Cheryl Kimball | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

54. Pet Grooming

Most animals need a bath or fresh cut from time to time. Most pet owners aren't equipped to do a full grooming themselves. This means there's a target market for professional groomers who do house calls or have a space where people can drop their pets for a few hours.

There are no required certifications, but most groomers begin by taking courses, which are widely available in most states.

55. At-Home Daycare

Childcare needs continue to soar in the United States, and many people prefer for their child to be cared for in a home environment as opposed to a more institutional setting. These factors make the market ripe for a home-based childcare business. The regulations for a home-based child care vary by state, so you'll need to pursue appropriate certifications and training depending on where you live.

Read This: Start Your Own Child-Care Service by The Staff of Entrepreneur Media and Jacquelyn Lynn | Amazon | eBooks.com | Barnes & Noble

56. Making Gift Baskets

Finding a niche is the best way to start out in the gift basket business. Are you a dog-lover, horse enthusiast or exercise guru who could put together baskets that hold the things that people with this interest would like?

Do you already create a product that a gift basket could be built around?

You could create custom, place-based gift baskets that could be shipped across the country or sold in a local store, or you can collaborate with local makers to get your business idea off the ground.

57. Hair Styling / Barber Shop

Styling hair or working as a barber is a popular business idea that can be lucrative if you have the right skills and online presence. Typically, a home-based hairstylist business or barber shop would be started by someone with a cosmetology career who wants to go out on their own. If you don't have experience, you can take courses and sharpen your skills by working in someone else's shop. You'll need to obtain the appropriate licenses before you can launch your own business.

58. Nail Technician

If you'd like to offer professional nail styling to clients, most states require that you complete cosmetology school — the number of hours varies depending on where you live. It can be smart to work with someone else before opening your own shop so you learn the skills and techniques you need to be successful.

Once you've completed these steps, you can run your own small business from home or a dedicated storefront.

59. Massage Therapist

Massage therapy can be a successful business, but you must have the proper education and training to not cause injury to your clients. At a minimum, you will want to become certified, which will help you practice safely and ultimately market your qualifications.

Certification courses cover not only human anatomy and physiology and the ways massage affects both, but also how to establish your own successful massage business.

60. Storage Facility

People tend to acquire more things than they can reasonably store in their homes. If you have land, you could make meaningful income by storing large items like recreational vehicles, boats, trailers and campers. Or, if you want to dive deeper into the self-storage business, you could consider opening a storage facility, which would require an increase in overhead costs, appropriate licensing and market analysis.

61. Independent Car Service / Ride-Sharing Driver

Driving experience needed

If you drive for companies like Uber and Lyft, you lose a percentage of your wage to the company. However, there are still market demands for private drivers. If you have a reliable vehicle — or can afford to manage a fleet and other drivers — you can cater to high-end clients not interested in using ride-share apps for their transportation needs.

Newer peer-to-peer car rental services like Turo (think Airbnb for cars) also allow potential business owners to rent out their vehicles to generate incremental income when not in use.

62. Online Reselling Business

Do you have items lurking around your household that you could sell? Or are you scouring Craigslist, eBay, Facebook Marketplace and thrift stores for deals on items you could flip?Here's a relatively straightforward online business idea: Auction or sell the items you find on one of online marketplaces.

Reselling products online can provide a major source of supplemental income, especially if you're willing to refurbish items and sell them at a higher rate. Anyone can get into this type of business as long as they're willing to hustle.

63. Interpreting or Translating Services

In communities with international populations, dependable interpreters and translators are extremely valuable. If you already speak multiple languages, you could earn extra income as an interpreter if you pursue a certification, which typically involves about 40 hours of training.

From there, you can determine what type of translation service clients you're seeking: business professionals, government officials, folks who need documents translated and more.

How to Get Started

Addressing these foundational "business checklist" elements early on can set a strong course for growth and operational efficiency for your entrepreneurial endeavor.

1. Create a Business Plan

Create a detailed business plan outlining your business goals, strategies for achieving them, market analysis, operational structure and financial projections. This document is crucial for guiding your strategy and securing business loans.

2. Decide on Legal Structure

Choose the appropriate legal structure for your business (e.g., sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, corporation), and register your business according to local laws.

Your chosen business structure affects your taxes, liability and business operations, so consult an attorney and a certified accountant before finalizing your decision.

3. Keep Finances Separate

Set up a robust system for managing your finances, including budgeting, bookkeeping and financial forecasting. Consider your startup costs, ongoing expenses and how you will fund your business idea.

Keeping personal and business finances separate is also highly advisable.

• Open a business bank account and use it for all business-related transactions.
• Obtain a business credit card for company expenses.
• Pay yourself a salary from your business account, which then goes into your personal account, rather than directly using business funds for personal expenses.
• Keep all receipts and document all financial transactions meticulously.

4. Plan Operational Needs

Outline your business' operational needs, including staffing, location, equipment, technology and software needs. Consider how you will efficiently manage the production of goods or delivery of services.

5. Develop a Brand and Marketing Strategy

If through social media platforms, affiliate marketing or search engine optimization, consider how you will establish a strong brand identity and develop a marketing plan to reach your target audience.

This should include your branding elements (logo, color scheme) and your strategies for content creation, promotion and advertising.

6. Operate Within the Law

Ensure you know and comply with all relevant city and state laws, regulations and industry standards. This includes obtaining necessary licenses and permits, understanding labor laws if hiring employees and ensuring data protection and privacy.

7. Build a Support Network

Support networks can provide invaluable advice, feedback and connections. Build a network of mentors, advisors and fellow entrepreneurs.

This network might be close friends, former colleagues or paid mastermind groups.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

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How to Write a Business Plan (Plus Examples & Templates)

May 24, 2021

Have you ever wondered how to write a business plan step by step? Mike Andes, told us: 

This guide will help you write a business plan to impress investors.

Throughout this process, we’ll get information from Mike Andes, who started Augusta Lawn Care Services when he was 12 and turned it into a franchise with over 90 locations. He has gone on to help others learn how to write business plans and start businesses.  He knows a thing or two about writing  business plans!

We’ll start by discussing the definition of a business plan. Then we’ll discuss how to come up with the idea, how to do the market research, and then the important elements in the business plan format. Keep reading to start your journey!

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is simply a road map of what you are trying to achieve with your business and how you will go about achieving it. It should cover all elements of your business including: 

• Finding customers
• Plans for developing a team
•  Competition
• Legal structures
• Key milestones you are pursuing

If you aren’t quite ready to create a business plan, consider starting by reading our business startup guide .

Get a Business Idea

Before you can write a business plan, you have to have a business idea. You may see a problem that needs to be solved and have an idea how to solve it, or you might start by evaluating your interests and skills. 

Mike told us, “The three things I suggest asking yourself when thinking about starting a business are:

• What am I good at?
• What would I enjoy doing?
• What can I get paid for?”

If all three of these questions don’t lead to at least one common answer, it will probably be a much harder road to success. Either there is not much market for it, you won’t be good at it, or you won’t enjoy doing it. 

As Mike told us, “There’s enough stress starting and running a business that if you don’t like it or aren’t good at it, it’s hard to succeed.”

If you’d like to hear more about Mike’s approach to starting a business, check out our YouTube video

Conduct Market Analysis

Market analysis is focused on establishing if there is a target market for your products and services, how large the target market is, and identifying the demographics of people or businesses that would be interested in the product or service. The goal here is to establish how much money your business concept can make.

Product and Service Demand

A search engine is your best friend when trying to figure out if there is demand for your products and services. Personally, I love using presearch.org because it lets you directly search on a ton of different platforms including Google, Youtube, Twitter, and more. Check out the screenshot for the full list of search options.

With quick web searches, you can find out how many competitors you have, look through their reviews, and see if there are common complaints about the competitors. Bad reviews are a great place to find opportunities to offer better products or services. 

If there are no similar products or services, you may have stumbled upon something new, or there may just be no demand for it. To find out, go talk to your most honest friend about the idea and see what they think. If they tell you it’s dumb or stare at you vacantly, there’s probably no market for it.

You can also conduct a survey through social media to get public opinion on your idea. Using Facebook Business Manager , you could get a feel for who would be interested in your product or service.

 I ran a quick test of how many people between 18-65  you could reach in the U.S. during a week. It returned an estimated 700-2,000 for the total number of leads, which is enough to do a fairly accurate statistical analysis.

Identify Demographics of Target Market

Depending on what type of business you want to run, your target market will be different. The narrower the demographic, the fewer potential customers you’ll have. If you did a survey, you’ll be able to use that data to help define your target audience. Some considerations you’ll want to consider are:

• Other Interests
• Marital Status
• Do they have kids?

Once you have this information, it can help you narrow down your options for location and help define your marketing further. One resource that Mike recommended using is the Census Bureau’s Quick Facts Map . He told us,  

“It helps you quickly evaluate what the best areas are for your business to be located.”

How to Write a Business Plan

Now that you’ve developed your idea a little and established there is a market for it, you can begin writing a business plan. Getting started is easier with the business plan template we created for you to download. I strongly recommend using it as it is updated to make it easier to create an action plan. 

Each of the following should be a section of your business plan:

• Business Plan Cover Page
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Description of Products and Services

SWOT Analysis

• Competitor Data
• Competitive Analysis
• Marketing Expenses Strategy 

Pricing Strategy

• Distribution Channel Assessment
• Operational Plan
• Management and Organizational Strategy
• Financial Statements and/or Financial Projections

We’ll look into each of these. Don’t forget to download our free business plan template (mentioned just above) so you can follow along as we go. 

How to Write a Business Plan Step 1. Create a Cover Page

The first thing investors will see is the cover page for your business plan. Make sure it looks professional. A great cover page shows that you think about first impressions.

A good business plan should have the following elements on a cover page:

• Professionally designed logo
• Company name
• Mission or Vision Statement
• Contact Info

Basically, think of a cover page for your business plan like a giant business card. It is meant to capture people’s attention but be quickly processed.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 2. Create a Table of Contents

Most people are busy enough that they don’t have a lot of time. Providing a table of contents makes it easy for them to find the pages of your plan that are meaningful to them.

A table of contents will be immediately after the cover page, but you can include it after the executive summary. Including the table of contents immediately after the executive summary will help investors know what section of your business plan they want to review more thoroughly.

Check out Canva’s article about creating a  table of contents . It has a ton of great information about creating easy access to each section of your business plan. Just remember that you’ll want to use different strategies for digital and hard copy business plans.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 3. Write an Executive Summary

An executive summary is where your business plan should catch the readers interest.  It doesn’t need to be long, but should be quick and easy to read.

Mike told us,

How long should an executive summary bein an informal business plan?

For casual use, an executive summary should be similar to an elevator pitch, no more than 150-160 words, just enough to get them interested and wanting more. Indeed has a great article on elevator pitches .  This can also be used for the content of emails to get readers’ attention.

It consists of three basic parts:

• An introduction to you and your business.
• What your business is about.
• A call to action

Example of an informal executive summary 

One of the best elevator pitches I’ve used is:

So far that pitch has achieved a 100% success rate in getting partnerships for the business.

What should I include in an executive summary for investors?

Investors are going to need a more detailed executive summary if you want to secure financing or sell equity. The executive summary should be a brief overview of your entire business plan and include:

• Introduction of yourself and company.
• An origin story (Recognition of a problem and how you came to solution)
• An introduction to your products or services.
• Your unique value proposition. Make sure to include intellectual property.
• Where you are in the business life cycle
• Request and why you need it.

Successful business plan examples

The owner of Urbanity told us he spent 2 months writing a 75-page business plan and received a $250,000 loan from the bank when he was 23. Make your business plan as detailed as possible when looking for financing. We’ve provided a template to help you prepare the portions of a business plan that banks expect.

Here’s the interview with the owner of Urbanity:

When to write an executive summary?

Even though the summary is near the beginning of a business plan, you should write it after you complete the rest of a business plan. You can’t talk about revenue, profits, and expected expenditures if you haven’t done the market research and created a financial plan.

What mistakes do people make when writing an executive summary?

Business owners commonly go into too much detail about the following items in an executive summary:

• Marketing and sales processes
• Financial statements
• Organizational structure
• Market analysis

These are things that people will want to know later, but they don’t hook the reader. They won’t spark interest in your small business, but they’ll close the deal.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 4. Company Description

Every business plan should include a company description. A great business plan will include the following elements while describing the company:

• Mission statement
• Philosophy and vision
• Company goals

Target market

• Legal structure

Let’s take a look at what each section includes in a good business plan.

Mission Statement

A mission statement is a brief explanation of why you started the company and what the company’s main focus is. It should be no more than one or two sentences. Check out HubSpot’s article 27 Inspiring Mission Statement for a great read on informative and inspiring mission and vision statements. 

Company Philosophy and Vision

The company philosophy is what drives your company. You’ll normally hear them called core values.  These are the building blocks that make your company different. You want to communicate your values to customers, business owners, and investors as often as possible to build a company culture, but make sure to back them up.

What makes your company different?

Each company is different. Your new business should rise above the standard company lines of honesty, integrity, fun, innovation, and community when communicating your business values. The standard answers are corporate jargon and lack authenticity. 

Examples of core values

One of my clients decided to add a core values page to their website. As a tech company they emphasized the values:

•  Prioritize communication.
•  Never stop learning.
•  Be transparent.
•  Start small and grow incrementally.

These values communicate how the owner and the rest of the company operate. They also show a value proposition and competitive advantage because they specifically focus on delivering business value from the start. These values also genuinely show what the company is about and customers recognize the sincerity. Indeed has a great blog about how to identify your core values .

What is a vision statement?

A vision statement communicate the long lasting change a business pursues. The vision helps investors and customers understand what your company is trying to accomplish. The vision statement goes beyond a mission statement to provide something meaningful to the community, customer’s lives, or even the world.

Example vision statements

The Alzheimer’s Association is a great example of a vision statement:

A world without Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementia.

It clearly tells how they want to change the world. A world without Alzheimers might be unachievable, but that means they always have room for improvement.

Business Goals

You have to measure success against goals for a business plan to be meaningful. A business plan helps guide a company similar to how your GPS provides a road map to your favorite travel destination. A goal to make as much money as possible is not inspirational and sounds greedy.

Sure, business owners want to increase their profits and improve customer service, but they need to present an overview of what they consider success. The goals should help everyone prioritize their work.

How far in advance should a business plan?

Business planning should be done at least one year in advance, but many banks and investors prefer three to five year business plans. Longer plans show investors that the management team  understands the market and knows the business is operating in a constantly shifting market. In addition, a plan helps businesses to adjust to changes because they have already considered how to handle them.

Example of great business goals

My all time-favorite long-term company goals are included in Tesla’s Master Plan, Part Deux . These goals were written in 2016 and drive the company’s decisions through 2026. They are the reason that investors are so forgiving when Elon Musk continually fails to meet his quarterly and annual goals.

If the progress aligns with the business plan investors are likely to continue to believe in the company. Just make sure the goals are reasonable or you’ll be discredited (unless you’re Elon Musk).

You did target market research before creating a business plan. Now it’s time to add it to the plan so others understand what your ideal customer looks like. As a new business owner, you may not be considered an expert in your field yet, so document everything. Make sure the references you use are from respectable sources. 

Use information from the specific lender when you are applying for lending. Most lenders provide industry research reports and using their data can strengthen the position of your business plan.

A small business plan should include a section on the external environment. Understanding the industry is crucial because we don’t plan a business in a vacuum. Make sure to research the industry trends, competitors, and forecasts. I personally prefer IBIS World for my business research. Make sure to answer questions like:

• What is the industry outlook long-term and short-term?
• How will your business take advantage of projected industry changes and trends?
• What might happen to your competitors and how will your business successfully compete?

Industry resources

Some helpful resources to help you establish more about your industry are:

• Trade Associations
• Federal Reserve
• Bureau of Labor Statistics

Legal Structure

There are five basic types of legal structures that most people will utilize:

• Sole proprietorships
• Limited Liability Companies (LLC)

Partnerships

Corporations.

• Franchises.

Each business structure has their pros and cons. An LLC is the most common legal structure due to its protection of personal assets and ease of setting up. Make sure to specify how ownership is divided and what roles each owner plays when you have more than one business owner.

You’ll have to decide which structure is best for you, but we’ve gathered information on each to make it easier.

• Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is the easiest legal structure to set up but doesn’t protect the owner’s personal assets from legal issues. That means if something goes wrong, you could lose both your company and your home.

To start a sole proprietorship, fill out a special tax form called a  Schedule C . Sole proprietors can also join the American Independent Business Alliance .

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

An LLC is the most common business structure used in the United States because an LLC protects the owner’s personal assets. It’s similar to partnerships and corporations, but can be a single-member LLC in most states. An LLC requires a document called an operating agreement.

Each state has different requirements. Here’s a link to find your state’s requirements . Delaware and Nevada are common states to file an LLC because they are really business-friendly. Here’s a blog on the top 10 states to get an LLC.

Partnerships are typically for legal firms. If you choose to use a partnership choose a Limited Liability Partnership. Alternatively, you can just use an LLC.

Corporations are typically for massive organizations. Corporations have taxes on both corporate and income tax so unless you plan on selling stock, you are better off considering an LLC with S-Corp status . Investopedia has good information corporations here .

There are several opportunities to purchase successful franchises. TopFranchise.com has a list of companies in a variety of industries that offer franchise opportunities. This makes it where an entrepreneur can benefit from the reputation of an established business that has already worked out many of the kinks of starting from scratch.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 5. Products and Services

This section of the business plan should focus on what you sell, how you source it, and how you sell it. You should include:

• Unique features that differentiate your business products from competitors
• Intellectual property
• Your supply chain
• Cost and pricing structure 

Questions to answer about your products and services

Mike gave us a list  of the most important questions to answer about your product and services:

• How will you be selling the product? (in person, ecommerce, wholesale, direct to consumer)?
• How do you let them know they need a product?
• How do you communicate the message?
• How will you do transactions?
• How much will you be selling it for?
• How many do you think you’ll sell and why?

Make sure to use the worksheet on our business plan template .

How to Write a Business Plan Step 6. Sales and Marketing Plan

The marketing and sales plan is focused on the strategy to bring awareness to your company and guides how you will get the product to the consumer.  It should contain the following sections:

SWOT Analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Not only do you want to identify them, but you also want to document how the business plans to deal with them.

Business owners need to do a thorough job documenting how their service or product stacks up against the competition.

If proper research isn’t done, investors will be able to tell that the owner hasn’t researched the competition and is less likely to believe that the team can protect its service from threats by the more well-established competition. This is one of the most common parts of a presentation that trips up business owners presenting on Shark Tank .

SWOT Examples

Examples of strengths and weaknesses could be things like the lack of cash flow, intellectual property ownership, high costs of suppliers, and customers’ expectations on shipping times.

Opportunities could be ways to capitalize on your strengths or improve your weaknesses, but may also be gaps in the industry. This includes:

• Adding offerings that fit with your current small business
• Increase sales to current customers
• Reducing costs through bulk ordering
• Finding ways to reduce inventory
•  And other areas you can improve

Threats will normally come from outside of the company but could also be things like losing a key member of the team. Threats normally come from competition, regulations, taxes, and unforeseen events.

The management team should use the SWOT analysis to guide other areas of business planning, but it absolutely has to be done before a business owner starts marketing. 

Include Competitor Data in Your Business Plan

When you plan a business, taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of the competition is key to navigating the field. Providing an overview of your competition and where they are headed shows that you are invested in understanding the industry.

For smaller businesses, you’ll want to search both the company and the owners names to see what they are working on. For publicly held corporations, you can find their quarterly and annual reports on the SEC website .

What another business plans to do can impact your business. Make sure to include things that might make it attractive for bigger companies to outsource to a small business.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing and sales part of business plans should be focused on how you are going to make potential customers aware of your business and then sell to them.

If you haven’t already included it, Mike recommends:

“They’ll want to know about Demographics, ages, and wealth of your target market.”

Make sure to include the Total addressable market .  The term refers to the value if you captured 100% of the market.

Advertising Strategy

You’ll explain what formats of advertising you’ll be using. Some possibilities are:

• Online: Facebook and Google are the big names to work with here.
• Print : Print can be used to reach broad groups or targeted markets. Check out this for tips .
• Radio : iHeartMedia is one of the best ways to advertise on the radio
• Cable television : High priced, hard to measure ROI, but here’s an explanation of the process
• Billboards: Attracting customers with billboards can be beneficial in high traffic areas.

You’ll want to define how you’ll be using each including frequency, duration, and cost. If you have the materials already created, including pictures or links to the marketing to show creative assets.

Mike told us “Most businesses are marketing digitally now due to Covid, but that’s not always the right answer.”

Make sure the marketing strategy will help team members or external marketing agencies stay within the brand guidelines .

This section of a business plan should be focused on pricing. There are a ton of pricing strategies that may work for different business plans. Which one will work for you depends on what kind of a business you run.

Some common pricing strategies are:

• Value-based pricing – Commonly used with home buying and selling or other products that are status symbols.
• Skimming pricing – Commonly seen in video game consoles, price starts off high to recoup expenses quickly, then reduces over time.
• Competition-based pricing – Pricing based on competitors’ pricing is commonly seen at gas stations.
• Freemium services –  Commonly used for software, where there is a free plan, then purchase options for more functionality.

HubSpot has a great calculator and blog on pricing strategies.

Beyond explaining what strategy your business plans to use, you should include references for how you came to this pricing strategy and how it will impact your cash flow.

Distribution Plan

This part of a business plan is focused on how the product or service is going to go through the supply chain. These may include multiple divisions or multiple companies. Make sure to include any parts of the workflow that are automated so investors can see where cost savings are expected and when.

Supply Chain Examples

For instance, lawn care companies  would need to cover aspects such as:

• Suppliers for lawn care equipment and tools
• Any chemicals or treatments needed
• Repair parts for sprinkler systems
• Vehicles to transport equipment and employees
• Insurance to protect the company vehicles and people.

Examples of Supply Chains

These are fairly flat supply chains compared to something like a clothing designer where the clothes would go through multiple vendors. A clothing company might have the following supply chain:

• Raw materials
• Shipping of raw materials
• Converting of raw materials to thread
• Shipping thread to produce garments
• Garment producer
• Shipping to company
• Company storage
• Shipping to retail stores

There have been advances such as print on demand that eliminate many of these steps. If you are designing completely custom clothing, all of this would need to be planned to keep from having business disruptions.

The main thing to include in the business plan is the list of suppliers, the path the supply chain follows, the time from order to the customer’s home, and the costs associated with each step of the process.

According to BizPlanReview , a business plan without this information is likely to get rejected because they have failed to research the key elements necessary to make sales to the customer.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 7. Company Organization and Operational Plan

This part of the business plan is focused on how the business model will function while serving customers.  The business plan should provide an overview of  how the team will manage the following aspects:

Quality Control

• Legal environment

Let’s look at each for some insight.

Production has already been discussed in previous sections so I won’t go into it much. When writing a business plan for investors, try to avoid repetition as it creates a more simple business plan.

If the organizational plan will be used by the team as an overview of how to perform the best services for the customer, then redundancy makes more sense as it communicates what is important to the business.

Quality control policies help to keep the team focused on how to verify that the company adheres to the business plan and meets or exceeds customer expectations.

Quality control can be anything from a standard that says “all labels on shirts can be no more than 1/16″ off center” to a defined checklist of steps that should be performed and filled out for every customer.

There are a variety of organizations that help define quality control including:

• International Organization for Standardization – Quality standards for energy, technology, food, production environments, and cybersecurity
• AICPA – Standard defined for accounting.
• The Joint Commission – Healthcare
• ASHRAE – HVAC best practices

You can find lists of the organizations that contribute most to the government regulation of industries on Open Secrets . Research what the leaders in your field are doing. Follow their example and implement it in your quality control plan.

For location, you should use information from the market research to establish where the location will be. Make sure to include the following in the location documentation.

• The size of your location
• The type of building (retail, industrial, commercial, etc.)
• Zoning restrictions – Urban Wire has a good map on how zoning works in each state
• Accessibility – Does it meet ADA requirements?
• Costs including rent, maintenance, utilities, insurance and any buildout or remodeling costs
• Utilities – b.e.f. has a good energy calculator .

Legal Environment

The legal requirement section is focused on defining how to meet the legal requirements for your industry. A good business plan should include all of the following:

• Any licenses and/or permits that are needed and whether you’ve obtained them
• Any trademarks, copyrights, or patents that you have or are in the process of applying for
• The insurance coverage your business requires and how much it costs
• Any environmental, health, or workplace regulations affecting your business
• Any special regulations affecting your industry
• Bonding requirements, if applicable

Your local SBA office can help you establish requirements in your area. I strongly recommend using them. They are a great resource.

Your business plan should include a plan for company organization and hiring. While you may be the only person with the company right now, down the road you’ll need more people. Make sure to consider and document the answers to the following questions:

• What is the current leadership structure and what will it look like in the future?
• What types of employees will you have? Are there any licensing or educational requirements?
• How many employees will you need?
• Will you ever hire freelancers or independent contractors?
• What is each position’s job description?
• What is the pay structure (hourly, salaried, base plus commission, etc.)?
• How do you plan to find qualified employees and contractors?

One of the most crucial parts of a business plan is the organizational chart. This simply shows the positions the company will need, who is in charge of them and the relationship of each of them. It will look similar to this:

Our small business plan template has a much more in-depth organizational chart you can edit to include when you include the organizational chart in your business plan.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 8. Financial Statements 

No business plan is complete without financial statements or financial projections. The business plan format will be different based on whether you are writing a business plan to expand a business or a startup business plan. Let’s dig deeper into each.

Provide All Financial Income from an Existing Business

An existing business should use their past financial documents including the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement to find trends to estimate the next 3-5 years.

You can create easy trendlines in excel to predict future revenue, profit and loss, cash flow, and other changes in year-over-year performance. This will show your expected performance assuming business continues as normal.

If you are seeking an investment, then the business is probably not going to continue as normal. Depending on the financial plan and the purpose of getting financing, adjustments may be needed to the following:

• Higher Revenue if expanding business
• Lower Cost of Goods Sold if purchasing inventory with bulk discounts
• Adding interest if utilizing financing (not equity deal)
• Changes in expenses
• Addition of financing information to the cash flow statement
• Changes in Earnings per Share on the balance sheet

Financial modeling is a challenging subject, but there are plenty of low-cost courses on the subject. If you need help planning your business financial documentation take some time to watch some of them.

Make it a point to document how you calculated all the changes to the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement in your business plan so that key team members or investors can verify your research.

Financial Projections For A Startup Business Plan

Unlike an existing business, a startup doesn’t have previous success to model its future performance. In this scenario, you need to focus on how to make a business plan realistic through the use of industry research and averages.

Mike gave the following advice in his interview:

Financial Forecasting Mistakes

One of the things a lot of inexperienced people use is the argument, “If I get one percent of the market, it is worth $100 million.” If you use this, investors are likely to file the document under bad business plan examples.

Let’s use custom t-shirts as an example.

Credence Research estimated in 2018 there were 11,334,800,000 custom t-shirts sold for a total of $206.12 Billion, with a 6% compound annual growth rate.

With that data,  you can calculate that the industry will grow to $270 Billion in 2023 and that the average shirt sold creates $18.18 in revenue.

Combine that with an IBIS World estimate of 11,094 custom screen printers and that means even if you become an average seller, you’ll get .009% of the market.

Here’s a table for easier viewing of that information.

The point here is to make sure your business proposal examples make sense.

You’ll need to know industry averages such as cost of customer acquisition, revenue per customer, the average cost of goods sold, and admin costs to be able to create accurate estimates.

Our simple business plan templates walk you through most of these processes. If you follow them you’ll have a good idea of how to write a business proposal.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 9. Business Plan Example of Funding Requests

What is a business plan without a plan on how to obtain funding?

The Small Business Administration has an example for a pizza restaurant that theoretically needed nearly $20k to make it through their first month.

In our video, How to Start a $500K/Year T-Shirt Business (Pt. 1 ), Sanford Booth told us he needed about $200,000 to start his franchise and broke even after 4 months.

Freshbooks estimates it takes on average 2-3 years for a business to be profitable, which means the fictitious pizza company from the SBA could need up to $330k to make it through that time and still pay their bills for their home and pizza shop.

Not every business needs that much to start, but realistically it’s a good idea to assume that you need a fairly large cushion.

Ways to get funding for a small business

There are a variety of ways to cover this. the most common are:

• Bootstrapping – Using your savings without external funding.
• Taking out debt – loans, credit cards
• Equity, Seed Funding – Ownership of a percentage of the company in exchange for current funds
• Crowdsourcing – Promising a good for funding to create the product

Keep reading for more tips on how to write a business plan.

How funding will be used

When asking for business financing make sure to include:

• How much to get started?
• What is the minimum viable product and how soon can you make money?
• How will the money be spent?

Mike emphasized two aspects that should be included in every plan, 

How to Write a Business Plan Resources

Here are some links to a business plan sample and business plan outline. 

• Sample plan

It’s also helpful to follow some of the leading influencers in the business plan writing community. Here’s a list:

• Wise Plans –  Shares a lot of information on starting businesses and is a business plan writing company.
• Optimus Business Plans –  Another business plan writing company.
• Venture Capital – A venture capital thread that can help give you ideas.

How to Write a Business Plan: What’s Next?

We hope this guide about how to write a simple business plan step by step has been helpful. We’ve covered:

• The definition of a business plan
• Coming up with a business idea
• Performing market research
• The critical components of a business plan
• An example business plan

In addition, we provided you with a simple business plan template to assist you in the process of writing your startup business plan. The startup business plan template also includes a business model template that will be the key to your success.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of our business hub .

Have you written a business plan before? How did it impact your ability to achieve your goals?

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Starting a Cleaning Business Checklists (2024)

Every Great Cleaning Business Starts with a Plan 

Name your cleaning business checklist.

•  Make the name easy to spell
•  Purchase a domain
•  Register and pay the DBA fee (if not included with the business structure)
•  Trademark the business name and logo

Form the Cleaning Business Structure Checklist

• Limited Liability Company
• Corporation
• Partnership
• Get a DBA if you will operate under a different name.
• Apply for an EIN on the IRS website.
• Get county and city licenses.
• Apply for the required insurance.
• Get a seller’s permit (state tax ID).

Get the Financial Tools to Run Your Cleaning  Business Checklist

• Set up a business bank account.
• Apply for a business credit card.
• Consider getting business loans.
• Find a payroll solutions provider.
• Get a payment processor.
• Choose and set up accounting software.
• Decide whether you want to set up a 401K.

Cleaning Business Insurance Checklist

Cleaning business equipment checklist.

• Company vehicle
• Laptop or PC
• Business phone number 
• Point-of-Sale machine or credit card reader

Get the Software to Run Your Cleaning Services Checklist

• Payroll solutions
• Payment processor
• Accounting solutions
• Scheduling software
• Professional website (domain from GoDaddy and hosting)
• Online booking software
• Marketing tools (We have a complete list for them.)

Marketing for a Cleaning Service Checklist

• Business cards
• Signs on location (if you run a dry cleaner or another cleaning shop)
• Signs on vehicles (for a mobile business model)
• Click Funnels
• Google My Business
• Google Local Ads
• Siri and Apple Maps
• Yelp for Business

Cleaning Supplies Checklist

• Home Cleaning

Mobile Laundry Cleaning Services, Laundromat, Clothes Cleaning Business, Dry cleaning

Decluttering services or organizer, green cleaning services.

• Airbnb, Vrbo  
• Home or Commercial Construction Cleaning
• Move-In, Move-Out Cleaning

Office Cleaning

Duct cleaning.

• Carpet Cleaning
• Window Washers
• I.T. Cleaning
• Property Cleaning,  Pressure Washing
• Hazardous Waste Removal

Boat Cleaning

Home cleaning supplies checklist.

• Glass cleaner (Windex or similar)
• Vacuum cleaner
• Wet floor signs
• Microfiber mop (optional if you are just starting)
• Regular mop
• Toilet bowl brush
• Bags for dirty rags
• Bags to carry clean rags
• Neutral floor cleaner (Bona or similar)
• Disinfectant cleaner
• Cleaning bucket
• Mini grout brush

• Rolling baskets
• Laundry soap
• Cleaning chemicals for dry cleaning
• Dryer sheets
• Clothing racks
• Washing machines
• Garment covers
• Spot cleaner
• Information tags
• Clothing conveyor
• Cleaning materials
• Storage bins of various sizes
• 3D modeling software to model spaces
• Carpentry tools for creating more storage space
• Shelving units
• Organic glass cleaner 
• Aprons (from recycled materials)
• Microfiber mop
• Eco-friendly gloves
• Reusable bags for dirty rags
• Reusable bags to carry clean rags
• Gas mileage-friendly, hybrid, or electric car
• Natural floor cleaner
• Natural disinfectant 

What do I need to start a cleaning business for Airbnb properties?

• Microfiber mop (Optional)
• Booties for shoes
• Spare sheets
• A deal with a local laundromat
• Conditioner

New Home Construction Cleaner or New Commercial Construction Cleaning

• Indoor, outdoor vacuum
• Neutral floor cleaner

Move-In and Move-Out Cleaning, Apartment Cleaning

• Putty to help fill holes
• Putty application tool

• All-purpose stain and spot remover
• Baking soda
• Toilet paper
• Broom and dustpan
• Clorox disinfecting wipes 
• Facial tissue
• Feather duster 
• Floor cleaning solution or vinegar
• Cleaner for glass and mirrors
• Bulk supply of hand soap to refill dispenser
• Disinfecting spray
• Micro-fiber cleaning cloths 
• Paper towels
• Sponge mop and/or dry mop
• Toilet cleaner
• Trash bags 
• Industrial mop bucket
• Wood polish 
• Floor polishing machine
• Extension cords

Specialty Cleaning

• Caution signs
• Air compressor
• HEPA vacuum
• Duct restoration products
• Parts for maintenance of equipment
• HEPA filters and bags
• Indoor air quality testing equipment
• Safety goggles
• Latex gloves
• Electric shock prevention gloves
• Masks to protect against dust in lungs (or chemicals in some industrial facilities)
• Lockout, tagout system (a lock with a tag that specifies who locked the breaker)

Carpet Cleaning Business, Rug Cleaning

• Carpet shampooer
• Air scrubber
• Carpet cleaning wand
• Rubber gloves
• Corner guards
• Defoaming agent
• Crevice tools
• Carpet rake
• furniture protectors 
• Window Cleaning Business
• Two 18” squeegees
• Window cleaner with silicon (keeps dust from sticking to windows)
• Rags to catch excess liquids
• Replacement s-channels (the rubber part of a squeegee)
• Sleeves (goes over squeegee to wash the window)
• Hard hat (primarily for use on scaffold)
• Safety harness (use with scaffold)
• Scaffold (for larger windows)

IT Cleaning Business

• Vacuums: Two Options
• Preferred : ULPA (Ultra Low Particulate Air) filter with 99.999% efficiency at 0.12 microns
• OK : HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filter with 99.97% efficiency at 0.3 microns
• Tools, Attachments, and Supplies: Requirements
• Non-conductive 
• Low-lint materials
• Packaging specifies that it is designed to be used in cleanroom environments
• Cleaning Chemicals
• Floor surfaces
• Non-ammoniated
• Designated as safe for data center environments
• Intended for HPL floor tiles
• Equipment Surfaces
• Anti-static cleaner 
• Designed to be used in a data center environment

Property Cleaning Services, Power Washer Business

• Trash picker
• White and yellow paint (maintain the parking lot lines)
• Graffiti removal kit
• Pressure washer
• Towing hitch (if tank won’t fit in vehicle)

Hazardous Waste Removal, Mold Remediation

• Portable air scrubbers
• Negative air machines
• Mobile containment tent
• Meters to measure levels
• Asbestos testing kit
• Dehumidifiers
• Disinfectants 
• Kneeling mats
• Ventilators
• Hazmat suits (for some materials)
• Special licensing based on type of removal
• Rust remover 
• Metal polish
• Wood varnish
• Fabric cleaner
• Rubber cleaner

Hopefully, You Found the Cleaning Company Checklist You Need

How to Start a $125K/Month Cleaning Business

Did you know that it costs less than $5K to start a cleaning business, but with the right strategies you can make more than $1.5M per year?

Join us as we discuss how to start a cleaning business from scratch. We’ll explore Cristobal Mondragon’s remarkable journey from starting Queen Bee Cleaning Services in 2015 to becoming a featured speaker at cleaning conventions.

We’ll share his story, the strategies and lessons Chris learned from starting a cleaning business from home, general information about the cleaning industry, and how you can start one of your own. Chris told us:

[su_quote] This is the best time to start a cleaning business. [/su_quote]

[su_note note_color="#dbeafc"] Get ready to learn how to open a cleaning business. Click on any link below to jump to that portion of the article, or just read on.

Case Study: Queen Bee Cleaning Services

Cleaning industry outlook, consider cleaning certifications, learn to run a new cleaning company successfully, step #1. choose your target market, step #2. choose the type of cleaning business to start, step #3. create a cleaning business plan, step #4. get funding, step #5. register the cleaning business, step #6. price your services, step #7. get cleaning clients, step #8. invest in advertising, step #9. hire a cleaning crew.

• Ready to Start Your Own Cleaning Business? [/su_note]

This guide will show you exactly how to start a cleaning service. Let's start by discussing the Queen Bee Cleaning Services:

Cristobal Mondragon and his wife started Queen Bee Cleaning Services in 2015. Today, he makes over $1.5M annually and has opened a second location. He’s been recognized by industry organizations for his excellence, and he’s used his success to expand into courses, customer relationship management, and coaching.

But it hasn’t been without challenges. Chris made the costly mistake of misclassifying employees as subcontractors, leading to a hefty fine.

That might stop many business owners, but he overcame the $10K hit and is passing his knowledge on to you.

Check out our interview with him below.

Now, let's look at what you need to know about the industry before starting a cleaning business.

According to IBIS World , the contract cleaning industry made over $90B in revenue in 2022 and will grow to nearly $100B by 2027.

There are 1,163,718 cleaning companies in the U.S., so considering the revenue figure above, that means they average $77,122.63 in annual revenue each. With wages being approximately 38.4% of revenue, that means it's pretty easy for cleaners who want to start their own business to take home around $45K after expenses.

Chris provided a spreadsheet of his accounts, which I modified to make his accounting match IBIS World's database for an easy comparison. His strategies help him earn nearly double the after-tax profit and nearly four times the take-home pay of the average cleaning business owner.

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Get ready to find out the answers to these frequently asked cleaning company questions. We’ll answer questions like:

• How much can a cleaning company owner make?
• How much money do I need to start a cleaning company?
• What is the easiest cleaning company to start?

How profitable is starting a cleaning business?

According to The BBQ Cleaner , cleaning services can earn between $20K and $100K in annual profit. A solopreneur cleaning business normally makes around $50K per year.

The Janitorial Store estimates the average profit margin for commercial cleaning businesses is between 10% and 15%. Profitability will vary based on your location, target market, pricing strategy, and the size of your business.

The factors below could make your cleaning business profitable:

• High Demand: Most wealthy families and businesses need cleaning professionals.
• Growth Potential: Cleaning businesses can grow from a one-person operation to cleaning business dynasties with locations across the country or world.
• Low Overhead: Cleaning businesses have low startup costs and are commonly run from home.

How Much Does It Cost to Start a Cleaning Business?

Chris started Queen Bee with less than a $5K budget. He estimates you can start for less than $2.8K if you have a car. You can expect around 50% of earnings to go to payroll, including your wages. Another 30% of revenue will be spent on bookkeeping, advertising, overhead, and taxes.

Udemy offers inexpensive courses on budgeting that are worth checking out. Many cleaning companies love using Jobber as their cleaning business software to help lower costs.

What is the best type of cleaning business to start?

Residential cleaning is the easiest type of cleaning business to start because it requires less initial investment than business cleaning services or specialized cleaning services.

You might also consider starting the following:

• Commercial Cleaning Company: Cleaning services for offices, manufacturing spaces, and commercial spaces make higher profits but have higher startup costs.
• Specialized Cleaning: Upholstery cleaning, vehicle detailing, closet organization, mattress cleaning, and clothing cleaning services require additional knowledge to provide proper cleaning techniques, but they have less competition and a narrower target market.
• Other cleaning services: Carpet cleaning, chimney cleaning, window cleaning, and crime scene cleaning are all high demand cleaning solutions in local markets.

Completing International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA) certifications will land you on their database of certified professional cleaners. That's a high-authority link to your website!

Queen Bee has a certification from the Association of Residential Cleaning Services International (ARCSI) as well as the Institute of Inspection and Restoration Certification (IIRC). He told us:

[su_quote] ARCSI certification teaches you how to use chemicals properly and avoid creating toxic fumes. It basically comes down to teaching you the chemistry behind each product and how to clean each [surface] … and avoid damaging them. [An] IIRC certification is similar to the ARCSI certificate but focuses on carpet cleaning and tile cleaning. [/su_quote]

Find out about more than 45 cleaning certifications .

Get FREE training for building your cleaning business with Chris Mondragon's webinar, “How to Start a $125K Per Month Cleaning Business From Scratch.” During this FREE training, Chris will share his proven secrets for starting your own 7-figure cleaning business in just one week. You don't want to miss this rare opportunity to learn from this multi-million-dollar cleaning business entrepreneur for free!

How to Start a Cleaning Business

Starting a cleaning service company doesn’t have to be hard. We've outlined the process for starting a successful cleaning business in nine steps:

• Choose a target market.
• Choose your specialty.
• Create a cleaning business plan.
• Fund your business.
• Register your business.
• Price your services.
• Find clients.
• Invest in advertising.
• Hire a cleaning crew.

Let's start by discussing what cleaning company customers to serve.

You need to understand who your target clients are to run the business successfully. Do some market research to find out where they are located.

A house cleaning business will normally do cleaning jobs for more affluent homeowners, while an office cleaning company will be looking for new business owners. Both groups can benefit from finding prospective clients who are unhappy with their current provider.

Take some time to do market research about how to align your brand and company values with the target market. Then choose a cleaning business name .

Next, you’ll learn what cleaning company services to provide.

Research different types of cleaners and establish what is right for you. Specialized services tend to do particularly well. We created a list of cleaning company types and what they offer. Consider starting some of these cleaning businesses:

• Airbnb Cleaning Business
• Home Cleaning Business
• Carpet Cleaning Business
• Pressure Washing Business
• Laundromats

Offering a variety of services can help you reach more clients. Queen Bee Cleaning Services provides house cleaning (including Airbnb and move-out cleaning), janitorial services, carpet cleaning, and hospital-grade disinfectant services. Chris told us:

[su_quote] Recurring house cleaning is our bread and butter. Move-in and move-out services can have some surprises. Airbnb can be really profitable when you get it right. [/su_quote]

Next, you’ll learn what goes into a business and marketing plan for a local cleaning company.

You need a business plan to help guide your decision-making. It keeps you focused. The plan will help define your vision, target market, objectives, startup costs, and strategy to get potential clients.

A business plan is a living document that will help you secure financing and help you manage logistics better than other small business owners. Make sure you write one!

Try out our business plan templates and resources below as you learn how to start a cleaning business.

Establish a Location

Most cleaning businesses operate from home for the following reasons:

• Home-based businesses have lower startup costs.
• Equipment and supplies can be stored at home.
• A room in the home can be converted into an office.
• Work is performed on an external job site.

Chris runs his small business from home, and when we interviewed him two years ago, his business expenses for rent and utilities were only $750 per month. He even told us most of those expenses actually helped the business from an accounting standpoint.

However you plan to do your bookkeeping, don't forget to check the Municode Library to find the local ordinances about starting a home-based cleaning business.

Keep in mind that running a cleaning business where children and pets live can be dangerous. Cleaning materials can be toxic, and some are explosive if combined. The EPA offers guidance on handling household hazardous waste.

Templates and Resources

These business plan templates and resources will help you prepare to get residential and commercial cleaning jobs. Want to know the best part? They're all free!

• UpFlip: Business Plan Template
• Fit Small Business: One-Page Business Plan
• U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA): Business Guide
• UpFlip: How to Write a Business Plan
• SBA: How to Write a Business Plan
• UpFlip: Our cleaning business checklist is an easy way to make sure you do everything you need for any business.

Also, check out our interview with Mike regarding business plans. Mike offers lawn care services, but his advice applies to commercial cleaning services. Plus, his small business is one of the fastest-growing franchises in the country.

Create Standard Workflows

Chris has tons of resources to help you start your own cleaning business. Check them out in his free training course .

He emphasizes the importance of getting every facet of your process documented to create workflows. His clients appreciate the transparency he provides with his pricing. You can be confident in your endeavors if you seek to model your business after Queen Bee.

Get Cleaning Supplies and Equipment

Your cleaning supplies depend on the services you provide, but you can start by purchasing equipment like a vacuum cleaner, window cleaner, and a few microfiber towels.

For more information about what cleaning equipment you'll need for a maid service, check out our guide . It's effectively a cleaning business starter kit!

Chris even offers a hospital-grade disinfecting service , which requires specific supplies. He told us:

[su_quote] We use an electrostatic sprayer to apply the disinfectant. The sprayer ‘loads’ the mist with a positive charge, making the disinfectant stick to all surfaces, killing 99% of the pathogens. Our hospital-grade disinfectant is an EPA-certified product safe to use around children and pets and safe on all surfaces. [/su_quote]

Next, we’ll discuss whether you need a business loan when you start your local cleaning company.

Ever wonder why so many people get into the cleaning business? It has a low barrier to entry. The initial investment to start a home cleaning business can be one shopping trip to a home improvement store.

Funds to start your cleaning service can come from:

• Personal funds: People commonly pull from their savings and paychecks.
• Loan from family or friends: Sometimes friends and family are willing to help people start a business. At the very least, they might hire you to clean their homes.
• Business partners: It's easier to get twice as much done if you have a business partner. They can be an active or a silent investor.
• Government programs: Some people will qualify for Small Business Administration loans or other government grants.
• Crowdfunding: If your business idea is something that can be scaled to sell all over the country, crowdfunding is an option.
• Credit cards: Your business may need credit cards to pay for expenses. Each business purchase could earn some cash back and help build business credit. Like personal credit scores, business credit scores impact loan rates.
• Home equity loan: Refinancing your home loan is a great way to get startup cash.
• Rollover for business startups (ROBS): If you start an S-Corp or C-Corp, you can move your 401(k) from your employer to your new corporation and buy the company stock with the 401(k), giving your business an influx of cash. During operations, you can reinvest dividends into the 401(k) to increase the funds in it.

Check out our article about business funding . We cover 17 ways of funding a business to help you decide which practices are best for you.

Alternatively, the SBA offers free courses on financing options and funding programs . The Hartford published the pros and cons of using personal funds to start a business.

Don't forget to check out our lending partners .

Once you’ve got the money, it’s time to register your business and get your cleaning business license.

Once you have a business plan, you'll want to come up with a memorable name. Considering each of these aspects will help you beat out your competition:

• Does it state what you do? If you wash windows, does the name or logo indicate you perform window washing? Don't be too specific, though, because businesses evolve.
• Is it easy to remember? Potential customers will need to search your business name.
• Does it indicate the location you serve? Major cities can be too big to serve in their entirety. Using local terms can narrow the audience and improve ranks on Google.
• Does it communicate the brand message? Queen Bee Cleaning Services’ company logo is a picture of a bee along with the name of the company. Simple, right?

Queen Bee does a great job as a brand because it is the hive leader (best of the local residential cleaning businesses), but it doesn't clarify for potential customers where the service is, widening its potential customers.

Register a Dot Com

Once you have a name idea, run it by your friends and family. Test it on Google Trends. Our business name generator connects you directly to NameCheap when you click on one of the business names. There, you can buy the domain name and other services.

Pro Tip: Aid your brainstorming even more with our ultimate list of cleaning business names .

Establish a Legal Structure and Register With the State

When you have your name, you'll want to choose a legal structure. Legal structures include sole proprietorships, limited liability companies, and corporations.

To establish a legal business structure, work with an attorney, accountant, tax specialist, or government official for the best results. Then you can register your business with the necessary state and local agencies.

Next, you'll want to get your business licenses.

Licenses, Permits, and Tax Forms

Regardless of the business structure, determine if your cleaning company requires a business license, permit, or a specific set of tax forms to operate legally. We researched each state to create our guide to cleaning business licenses . Alternatively, you can use the SBA tool to find out which business licenses you need.

Get Cleaning Services Insurance

A local business owner should purchase general liability insurance, especially if they serve commercial clients, which require it. General liability insurance covers property damage and bodily injury.

Check out our blog about how to get business insurance for more information. We recommend using Simply Business to find the best business insurance rates.

How to Start a Cleaning Business Franchise

A franchise consists of a franchisor company and a franchisee in a joint venture to sell the franchisor's products and services. In essence, a franchise enables you to enter the market with a ready-made cleaning company.

Many franchise opportunities exist in the cleaning industry. Well-known franchises are The Maids, ChemDry, and PuroClean. Learn more about buying a franchise .

At this point, you know how to set up proper licensing, but a successful business needs to provide consistent services and pricing.

A small business owner will need to establish how much to charge for cleaning services. Research reasonable prices to stay competitive while still making a profit.

There are three typical ways house cleaning prices are calculated by a house cleaner:

• Hourly: $25 to $90 per hour, per cleaner
• Flat fee : $100 to $800 weekly or biweekly for standard cleaning of a single-family home
• Room rate: $100 for 1 bed/1 bath + $10 to $20 for each additional bedroom and bathroom
• Per square foot: $0.05 to $0.10 per square foot

Learn more in our house cleaning pricing guide .

Next we’ll discuss how to get commercial cleaning contracts.

Building customer relationships is crucial for starting a cleaning business. Some of the best digital and traditional marketing techniques when you start a cleaning business include:

• Market your business: Identify your target audience and the cleaning services they need. Then use social media, flyers, and local associations to promote your brand. You’ll also want a website to show potential customers the services you offer.
• Get reviews: Client testimonials on social media or Google Business Profile help attract new customers. Make sure to ask for them and make them easy to provide.
• Build a network: Local business and trade associations are great places for business networking and referral groups.
• Use online marketplaces: Let people know about your services on marketplaces to help get low-cost leads.
• Get referrals: Ask clients to refer their friends. Starting a cleaning company is easier when satisfied customers, friends, and family recommend your business to other people.
• Offer discounts: First-time customer discounts often attract new clients. You can also provide subscription-based discounts for routine cleaning.
• Optimize your website: Make sure your website directly answers customer searches.

Learn more about how to get clients for your cleaning business .

Chris reveals all these incredible tactics, plus his pricing structure, in his 7-Figure Cleaning Business Blueprint course. You get to see how Chris executes all the most important techniques from the course live.

It’s time to implement your marketing plan next.

Advertising and promotion marketing are important for starting any business, especially a cleaning service. In fact, marketing is one of Chris’s biggest expenses in his budget.

His marketing budget is an average of $4,212.50 per month. He spends primarily on Google Local Ads , but he also spends a portion on Yelp, Craigslist, and Facebook. He told us:

[su_quote] Craigslist ads are low-cost and have done really well. You should definitely include them [in the list of places you run ads]. [/su_quote]

Chris has become highly ranked on Google, Yelp, Nextdoor, Houzz, Thumbtack, HomeAdvisor, and Porch. Focusing on building your business presence on highly ranked websites helps increase your site's authority.

He shares his Facebook ad strategy in our master course . It's surprisingly simple but gets a return on ad spend of 16-41X.

You'll want to use a combination of:

• Digital marketing: This includes email newsletters, social media, and search engine optimization. Neil Patel is a renowned authority in this area. Check out his website .
• Printed materials: This includes business cards, flyers, brochures, T-shirts, and even car magnets. Canva is an excellent tool for designing your own business cards. And here's our guide for getting them cheap .
• SMS marketing: Sending text messages is a highly successful digital marketing strategy.
• Branding: Uniforms, vehicles, and customer service are all crucial aspects of marketing for residential cleaning businesses.

One of Chris's marketing strategies is putting door hangers on three houses in each direction after each cleaning. These fliers give first-time customers discounts. Many customers who took advantage of this sale were so impressed with the service they happily joined his subscription plans.

Pro Tip: Check out our article on how to get cleaning contracts .

As a business owner, you might have a goal for your house cleaning services to create jobs and make more profit. If you do, check out this next section.

Imagine what it would be like to have so many referrals and so much business that you can't handle it all yourself!

While many cleaning businesses are one-person operations, owners often find that it helps to have employees for practical and profit-based reasons. After all, you might want to take a vacation!

Before you hire employees, you must address the following:

• Employer Identification Number (EIN): Get your business an EIN from the IRS. Apply for one online or call 800-829-4933.
• Tax Filing and Withholding: The IRS publishes a handy guide for employers that is available here
• Unemployment Insurance Tax: You will need to pay Unemployment Insurance Tax through the UI Program under the Social Security Tax for employers.
• Federal Employment and Labor Laws: All employers must display workplace posters that are downloadable on the U.S. Department of Labor website.

Other requirements include:

• Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9)
• Reporting to your state's new hire program
• Worker's compensation insurance
• Disability insurance, as required by some states
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) training

Compensating employees is probably going to be your most significant expense. It is for Chris. You can either pay employees an hourly rate or per task. Chris pays an hourly rate of about $19, but local businesses can choose which works best.

If you're a busy house cleaning company with lots of customers near each other, both you and the employees can benefit from performance-based pay.

Ready to Start Your Own Cleaning Business?

Now you have the tools and knowledge to embark on your path to success in the cleaning industry.

Remember, it's crucial to understand your target audience, choose the right type of cleaning services, and create a solid business plan. Proper funding, registration, and pricing strategies will lay a strong foundation for your business.

Once your business formation is complete, build a loyal client base through effective marketing and excellent service. Don’t forget to ask for reviews to ensure long-term success.

As your business grows, don't forget the importance of hiring and managing a reliable cleaning crew.

Whether you're dreaming of starting a small residential cleaning service or building a multi-million-dollar empire like Queen Bee Cleaning Services, the journey begins with a single step. Take the knowledge and insights gained from this guide and start your journey to entrepreneurial success in the cleaning industry today.

What's stopping you from starting a cleaning business?

The 15 Best HR Outsourcing Companies (2024)

Which HR Tasks Can Be Outsourced?

• HR Consulting
• Benefits Administration
• Time Tracking
• Insurance Services
• Performance Management
• Payroll Administration
• Bookkeeping
• Client Management
• Policy Compliance Management
• Unemployment Claims
• Policy Development
• Staff Training and Coaching
• Labor Law Compliance
• Employee Termination
• Audit and Wage-Claim Assistance
• Talent Management

SaaS Providers

Business process outsourcing, single source outsourcing, shared services, professional employer organizations.

• BambooHR - Primarily concerned with hiring, compensation, and analyzing performance. Includes payroll as an additional service.
• Deputy - Scheduling, time tracking, and labor law compliance. Has a free edition.
• Gusto - Gusto was PC Mag's 2021 Best HR software payroll selection, but they have software to help with other processes as well.

What are the benefits of HR Outsourcing For Small Businesses?

• Better compliance with federal, state, and local regulations.

Increased growth of the business

• Potentially reduced cost of administrative services
• Ability to offer better benefits.

Outsourced HR helps small businesses comply with regulations

Outsourced hr reduces the cost of administrative services.

• Hire internal HR staff
• Outsourced human resources

Ability to offer better benefits

The cons of HR outsourcing

Hr services do things their way, you might pay for hr tasks you don't need..

• Outsourcing staff gives you less control of the hiring process

HR companies have consistently poor communication reviews

Questions to ask when talking to hr service companies.

• Does your payroll service include time tracking apps to help collect employees' hours and reimbursable expenses?
• Does your HR technology easily integrate with my current HR systems?
• Is workers' compensation included in your full-service HR package?
• What will I need to do to make sure your HR systems and HR department can handle my payroll in the future without me being actively involved?
• If I have HR-related compliance requests, what process do we have to go through?

Outsourcing HR staff gives you less control of the hiring process

Reviewing hr outsourcing services.

• Gathered a list of the 16 companies that have been reviewed by top-ranking blogs.
• Reviewed each company's website and compared it to the 15 services typically offered by HR outsourcing companies (If they offer the service, they get a 100. If unsure, or no, they get a 0).
• Compared the number of plans they offered with a maximum of 10, then multiplied by 10 get scores ranging from 10-100.
• As long as the website did not have a major issue, they got an extra 100 points for their website. CPE HR (given a zero for broken links) and G&A Partners (80 because there wasn't additional information where I wanted it) were the only ones penalized.
• Then I compared reviews on Capterra and Trust Pilot and took whichever had more reviews. I used the calculation, (# of reviews* stars given)/100=Score from 0-100. This step is for purpose of giving extra weight to ones with more reviews.
• Multiplied average stars by 20 to get a score from zero to 100. This step was to reward the strength of reviews.
• Added all scores up and divided by 19 to create a score that will range between 0 and 100.

The Best Small Business HR Outsourcing Companies & Services

ADP is the top-ranked company

Hr tasks adp offers:, what makes adp the best hr outsourcing organization:, what is adp the best at.

ADP Features, Pricing, and Reviews:

Paychex comes in at number 2, hr tasks paychex offers:, what makes paychex one of the best hr outsourcing organizations, what is paychex the best at.

Paychex Features, Pricing, and Reviews:

The third best hr outsourcing service is gusto, hr tasks gusto offers:, what makes gusto one of the best hr outsourcing organizations:, what is gusto the best at.

Gusto Features, Pricing, and Reviews:

Insperity takes 4th place, hr services insperity offers:, what is insperity the best at.

Insperity Features, Pricing, and Reviews:

Zenefits rounds out the top 5 hr service businesses, hr services zenefits offers:, what is zenefits the best at.

Zenefit Features, Pricing, and Reviews:

• Essentials: $10/mo/employee
• Growth: $18/mo/employee
• Zen: $27/mo/employee

The rest of the list

• G&A Partners - With a score of 88.4, G&A Partners offers all the services as a PEO or mix and match. Lack of reviews on common review sites harmed their rating. If you work in construction or other safety fields they might be best. They also carry the liability for HR decisions, which is great for risk management.
• CoAdvantage PEO - With a score of 88.4, CoAdvantage is another PEO that appears to offer all the services, but some were hinted at more than specifically covered. They also didn't have any ratings, but a nice referral program.
• TriNet - TriNet Scored an 85 due to an average of 2.7 stars on 97 ratings, poor disclosure of whether they offer services separately, and only offering some types of insurance. One of the things I liked about TriNet is they claim that when the SSI cap is reached, you pay less. They don't charge more when wages go up though.
• Oasis Advantage - At a score of 84.7, Oasis Advantage has the 8th best outsourcing services. They are a subsidiary of Paychex so I would just go with Paychex. Once again, ratings were missing and you have to request a quote.-
• Engage PEO - At a score of 84.7, Engage is another PEO without ratings on common sites. They were middle of the pack when it comes to their options as they primarily offer PEO services with 6 optional benefit plans.
• Workday - Workday scored an 80.3 with demerits due to lack of insurance, lack of clarity on whether they consult, and numerous reviews saying that people will not work for companies that use Workday. They came in 9th cause their overall ratings are a 4.5, but you have to take care of your employees. Trust Pilot Capterra
• BambooHR - Bamboo is primarily focused on the hiring process and payments. That's why it received a score of 73.5. It has great reviews though.
• Bambee - Bambee is a consultant to make sure you follow legal procedures. At $99/mo it is a reasonable price and has great reviews, but you can get this included in other packages. Best if you just want someone to consult with you so you can expand your skills. Their total score was 73.2
• CPEhr - I honestly don't even want to give you their link because they annoyed me. They have no reviews, they have broken links, and places where there isn't a link that there should be. They scored a 68.4
• Accenture HR - I feel like Accenture HR scored way lower than it should (36.1), but that's because it is specialized in analytics. If you want better data to manage your HR, use them. You'll need your team or another service though.

Upwork Freelancers

HR tasks they will take:

What makes hr freelancers great:, what are hr freelancers the best at, features, pricing, and reviews:.

nice work https://binarychemist.com/

My Name is PRETTY NGOMANE. A south African female. Aspiring to do farming. And finding a home away from home for the differently abled persons in their daily needs.

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Subscribe for exclusive access, how to write a business plan (tips, templates, examples).

Written by Jesse Sumrak | May 14, 2023

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Business plans might seem like an old-school stiff-collared practice, but they deserve a place in the startup realm, too. It’s probably not going to be the frame-worthy document you hang in the office—yet, it may one day be deserving of the privilege.

Whether you’re looking to win the heart of an angel investor or convince a bank to lend you money, you’ll need a business plan. And not just any ol’ notes and scribble on the back of a pizza box or napkin—you’ll need a professional, standardized report.

Bah. Sounds like homework, right?

Yes. Yes, it does.

However, just like bookkeeping, loan applications, and 404 redirects, business plans are an essential step in cementing your business foundation.

Don’t worry. We’ll show you how to write a business plan without boring you to tears. We’ve jam-packed this article with all the business plan examples, templates, and tips you need to take your non-existent proposal from concept to completion.

Table of Contents

What Is a Business Plan?

Tips to Make Your Small Business Plan Ironclad

How to Write a Business Plan in 6 Steps

Startup Business Plan Template

Business Plan Examples

Work on Making Your Business Plan

How to Write a Business Plan FAQs

What is a business plan why do you desperately need one.

A business plan is a roadmap that outlines:

• Who your business is, what it does, and who it serves
• Where your business is now
• Where you want it to go
• How you’re going to make it happen
• What might stop you from taking your business from Point A to Point B
• How you’ll overcome the predicted obstacles

While it’s not required when starting a business, having a business plan is helpful for a few reasons:

• Secure a Bank Loan: Before approving you for a business loan, banks will want to see that your business is legitimate and can repay the loan. They want to know how you’re going to use the loan and how you’ll make monthly payments on your debt. Lenders want to see a sound business strategy that doesn’t end in loan default.
• Win Over Investors: Like lenders, investors want to know they’re going to make a return on their investment. They need to see your business plan to have the confidence to hand you money.
• Stay Focused: It’s easy to get lost chasing the next big thing. Your business plan keeps you on track and focused on the big picture. Your business plan can prevent you from wasting time and resources on something that isn’t aligned with your business goals.

Beyond the reasoning, let’s look at what the data says:

• Simply writing a business plan can boost your average annual growth by 30%
• Entrepreneurs who create a formal business plan are 16% more likely to succeed than those who don’t
• A study looking at 65 fast-growth companies found that 71% had small business plans
• The process and output of creating a business plan have shown to improve business performance

Convinced yet? If those numbers and reasons don’t have you scrambling for pen and paper, who knows what will.

Don’t Skip: Business Startup Costs Checklist

Before we get into the nitty-gritty steps of how to write a business plan, let’s look at some high-level tips to get you started in the right direction:

Be Professional and Legit

You might be tempted to get cutesy or revolutionary with your business plan—resist the urge. While you should let your brand and creativity shine with everything you produce, business plans fall more into the realm of professional documents.

Think of your business plan the same way as your terms and conditions, employee contracts, or financial statements. You want your plan to be as uniform as possible so investors, lenders, partners, and prospective employees can find the information they need to make important decisions.

If you want to create a fun summary business plan for internal consumption, then, by all means, go right ahead. However, for the purpose of writing this external-facing document, keep it legit.

Know Your Audience

Your official business plan document is for lenders, investors, partners, and big-time prospective employees. Keep these names and faces in your mind as you draft your plan.

Think about what they might be interested in seeing, what questions they’ll ask, and what might convince (or scare) them. Cut the jargon and tailor your language so these individuals can understand.

Remember, these are busy people. They’re likely looking at hundreds of applicants and startup investments every month. Keep your business plan succinct and to the point. Include the most pertinent information and omit the sections that won’t impact their decision-making.

Invest Time Researching

You might not have answers to all the sections you should include in your business plan. Don’t skip over these!

Your audience will want:

• Detailed information about your customers
• Numbers and solid math to back up your financial claims and estimates
• Deep insights about your competitors and potential threats
• Data to support market opportunities and strategy

Your answers can’t be hypothetical or opinionated. You need research to back up your claims. If you don’t have that data yet, then invest time and money in collecting it. That information isn’t just critical for your business plan—it’s essential for owning, operating, and growing your company.

Stay Realistic

Your business may be ambitious, but reign in the enthusiasm just a teeny-tiny bit. The last thing you want to do is have an angel investor call BS and say “I’m out” before even giving you a chance.

The folks looking at your business and evaluating your plan have been around the block—they know a thing or two about fact and fiction. Your plan should be a blueprint for success. It should be the step-by-step roadmap for how you’re going from Point A to Point B.

How to Write a Business Plan—6 Essential Elements

Not every business plan looks the same, but most share a few common elements. Here’s what they typically include:

• Executive Summary
• Business Overview
• Products and Services
• Market Analysis
• Competitive Analysis
• Financial Strategy

Below, we’ll break down each of these sections in more detail.

1. Executive Summary

While your executive summary is the first page of your business plan, it’s the section you’ll write last. That’s because it summarizes your entire business plan into a succinct one-pager.

Begin with an executive summary that introduces the reader to your business and gives them an overview of what’s inside the business plan.

Your executive summary highlights key points of your plan. Consider this your elevator pitch. You want to put all your juiciest strengths and opportunities strategically in this section.

2. Business Overview

In this section, you can dive deeper into the elements of your business, including answering:

• What’s your business structure? Sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation, etc.
• Where is it located?
• Who owns the business? Does it have employees?
• What problem does it solve, and how?
• What’s your mission statement? Your mission statement briefly describes why you are in business. To write a proper mission statement, brainstorm your business’s core values and who you serve.

Don’t overlook your mission statement. This powerful sentence or paragraph could be the inspiration that drives an investor to take an interest in your business. Here are a few examples of powerful mission statements that just might give you the goosebumps:

• Patagonia: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
• Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
• InvisionApp : Question Assumptions. Think Deeply. Iterate as a Lifestyle. Details, Details. Design is Everywhere. Integrity.
• TED : Spread ideas.
• Warby Parker : To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.

3. Products and Services

As the owner, you know your business and the industry inside and out. However, whoever’s reading your document might not. You’re going to need to break down your products and services in minute detail.

For example, if you own a SaaS business, you’re going to need to explain how this business model works and what you’re selling.

You’ll need to include:

• What services you sell: Describe the services you provide and how these will help your target audience.
• What products you sell: Describe your products (and types if applicable) and how they will solve a need for your target and provide value.
• How much you charge: If you’re selling services, will you charge hourly, per project, retainer, or a mixture of all of these? If you’re selling products, what are the price ranges?

4. Market Analysis

Your market analysis essentially explains how your products and services address customer concerns and pain points. This section will include research and data on the state and direction of your industry and target market.

This research should reveal lucrative opportunities and how your business is uniquely positioned to seize the advantage. You’ll also want to touch on your marketing strategy and how it will (or does) work for your audience.

Include a detailed analysis of your target customers. This describes the people you serve and sell your product to. Be careful not to go too broad here—you don’t want to fall into the common entrepreneurial trap of trying to sell to everyone and thereby not differentiating yourself enough to survive the competition.

The market analysis section will include your unique value proposition. Your unique value proposition (UVP) is the thing that makes you stand out from your competitors. This is your key to success.

If you don’t have a UVP, you don’t have a way to take on competitors who are already in this space. Here’s an example of an ecommerce internet business plan outlining their competitive edge:

FireStarters’ competitive advantage is offering product lines that make a statement but won’t leave you broke. The major brands are expensive and not distinctive enough to satisfy the changing taste of our target customers. FireStarters offers products that are just ahead of the curve and so affordable that our customers will return to the website often to check out what’s new.

5. Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis examines the strengths and weaknesses of competing businesses in your market or industry. This will include direct and indirect competitors. It can also include threats and opportunities, like economic concerns or legal restraints.

The best way to sum up this section is with a classic SWOT analysis. This will explain your company’s position in relation to your competitors.

6. Financial Strategy

Your financial strategy will sum up your revenue, expenses, profit (or loss), and financial plan for the future. It’ll explain how you make money, where your cash flow goes, and how you’ll become profitable or stay profitable.

This is one of the most important sections for lenders and investors. Have you ever watched Shark Tank? They always ask about the company’s financial situation. How has it performed in the past? What’s the ongoing outlook moving forward? How does the business plan to make it happen?

Answer all of these questions in your financial strategy so that your audience doesn’t have to ask. Go ahead and include forecasts and graphs in your plan, too:

• Balance sheet: This includes your assets, liabilities, and equity.
• Profit & Loss (P&L) statement: This details your income and expenses over a given period.
• Cash flow statement: Similar to the P&L, this one will show all cash flowing into and out of the business each month.

It takes cash to change the world—lenders and investors get it. If you’re short on funding, explain how much money you’ll need and how you’ll use the capital. Where are you looking for financing? Are you looking to take out a business loan, or would you rather trade equity for capital instead?

Read More: 16 Financial Concepts Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know

Startup Business Plan Template (Copy/Paste Outline)

Ready to write your own business plan? Copy/paste the startup business plan template below and fill in the blanks.

Executive Summary Remember, do this last. Summarize who you are and your business plan in one page.

Business Overview Describe your business. What’s it do? Who owns it? How’s it structured? What’s the mission statement?

Products and Services Detail the products and services you offer. How do they work? What do you charge?

Market Analysis Write about the state of the market and opportunities. Use date. Describe your customers. Include your UVP.

Competitive Analysis Outline the competitors in your market and industry. Include threats and opportunities. Add a SWOT analysis of your business.

Financial Strategy Sum up your revenue, expenses, profit (or loss), and financial plan for the future. If you’re applying for a loan, include how you’ll use the funding to progress the business.

5 Frame-Worthy Business Plan Examples

Want to explore other templates and examples? We got you covered. Check out these 5 business plan examples you can use as inspiration when writing your plan:

• SBA Wooden Grain Toy Company
• SBA We Can Do It Consulting
• OrcaSmart Business Plan Sample
• Plum Business Plan Template
• PandaDoc Free Business Plan Templates

Get to Work on Making Your Business Plan

If you find you’re getting stuck on perfecting your document, opt for a simple one-page business plan —and then get to work. You can always polish up your official plan later as you learn more about your business and the industry.

Remember, business plans are not a requirement for starting a business—they’re only truly essential if a bank or investor is asking for it.

Ask others to review your business plan. Get feedback from other startups and successful business owners. They’ll likely be able to see holes in your planning or undetected opportunities—just make sure these individuals aren’t your competitors (or potential competitors).

Your business plan isn’t a one-and-done report—it’s a living, breathing document. You’ll make changes to it as you grow and evolve. When the market or your customers change, your plan will need to change to adapt.

That means when you’re finished with this exercise, it’s not time to print your plan out and stuff it in a file cabinet somewhere. No, it should sit on your desk as a day-to-day reference. Use it (and update it) as you make decisions about your product, customers, and financial plan.

Review your business plan frequently, update it routinely, and follow the path you’ve developed to the future you’re building.

Keep Learning: New Product Development Process in 8 Easy Steps

What financial information should be included in a business plan?

Be as detailed as you can without assuming too much. For example, include your expected revenue, expenses, profit, and growth for the future.

What are some common mistakes to avoid when writing a business plan?

The most common mistake is turning your business plan into a textbook. A business plan is an internal guide and an external pitching tool. Cut the fat and only include the most relevant information to start and run your business.

Who should review my business plan before I submit it?

Co-founders, investors, or a board of advisors. Otherwise, reach out to a trusted mentor, your local chamber of commerce, or someone you know that runs a business.

Ready to Write Your Business Plan?

Don’t let creating a business plan hold you back from starting your business. Writing documents might not be your thing—that doesn’t mean your business is a bad idea.

Let us help you get started.

Join our free training to learn how to start an online side hustle in 30 days or less. We’ll provide you with a proven roadmap for how to find, validate, and pursue a profitable business idea (even if you have zero entrepreneurial experience).

Stuck on the ideas part? No problem. When you attend the masterclass, we’ll send you a free ebook with 100 of the hottest side hustle trends right now. It’s chock full of brilliant business ideas to get you up and running in the right direction.

About Jesse Sumrak

Jesse Sumrak is a writing zealot focused on creating killer content. He’s spent almost a decade writing about startup, marketing, and entrepreneurship topics, having built and sold his own post-apocalyptic fitness bootstrapped business. A writer by day and a peak bagger by night (and early early morning), you can usually find Jesse preparing for the apocalypse on a precipitous peak somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

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How to make a business plan

Table of Contents

How to make a good business plan: step-by-step guide.

A business plan is a strategic roadmap used to navigate the challenging journey of entrepreneurship. It's the foundation upon which you build a successful business.

A well-crafted business plan can help you define your vision, clarify your goals, and identify potential problems before they arise.

But where do you start? How do you create a business plan that sets you up for success?

This article will explore the step-by-step process of creating a comprehensive business plan.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a formal document that outlines a business's objectives, strategies, and operational procedures. It typically includes the following information about a company:

Products or services

Target market

Competitors

Marketing and sales strategies

Financial plan

Management team

A business plan serves as a roadmap for a company's success and provides a blueprint for its growth and development. It helps entrepreneurs and business owners organize their ideas, evaluate the feasibility, and identify potential challenges and opportunities.

As well as serving as a guide for business owners, a business plan can attract investors and secure funding. It demonstrates the company's understanding of the market, its ability to generate revenue and profits, and its strategy for managing risks and achieving success.

Business plan vs. business model canvas

A business plan may seem similar to a business model canvas, but each document serves a different purpose.

A business model canvas is a high-level overview that helps entrepreneurs and business owners quickly test and iterate their ideas. It is often a one-page document that briefly outlines the following:

Key partnerships

Key activities

Key propositions

Customer relationships

Customer segments

Key resources

Cost structure

Revenue streams

On the other hand, a Business Plan Template provides a more in-depth analysis of a company's strategy and operations. It is typically a lengthy document and requires significant time and effort to develop.

A business model shouldn’t replace a business plan, and vice versa. Business owners should lay the foundations and visually capture the most important information with a Business Model Canvas Template . Because this is a fast and efficient way to communicate a business idea, a business model canvas is a good starting point before developing a more comprehensive business plan.

A business plan can aim to secure funding from investors or lenders, while a business model canvas communicates a business idea to potential customers or partners.

Why is a business plan important?

A business plan is crucial for any entrepreneur or business owner wanting to increase their chances of success.

Here are some of the many benefits of having a thorough business plan.

Helps to define the business goals and objectives

A business plan encourages you to think critically about your goals and objectives. Doing so lets you clearly understand what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there.

A well-defined set of goals, objectives, and key results also provides a sense of direction and purpose, which helps keep business owners focused and motivated.

Guides decision-making

A business plan requires you to consider different scenarios and potential problems that may arise in your business. This awareness allows you to devise strategies to deal with these issues and avoid pitfalls.

With a clear plan, entrepreneurs can make informed decisions aligning with their overall business goals and objectives. This helps reduce the risk of making costly mistakes and ensures they make decisions with long-term success in mind.

Attracts investors and secures funding

Investors and lenders often require a business plan before considering investing in your business. A document that outlines the company's goals, objectives, and financial forecasts can help instill confidence in potential investors and lenders.

A well-written business plan demonstrates that you have thoroughly thought through your business idea and have a solid plan for success.

Identifies potential challenges and risks

A business plan requires entrepreneurs to consider potential challenges and risks that could impact their business. For example:

Is there enough demand for my product or service?

Will I have enough capital to start my business?

Is the market oversaturated with too many competitors?

What will happen if my marketing strategy is ineffective?

By identifying these potential challenges, entrepreneurs can develop strategies to mitigate risks and overcome challenges. This can reduce the likelihood of costly mistakes and ensure the business is well-positioned to take on any challenges.

Provides a basis for measuring success

A business plan serves as a framework for measuring success by providing clear goals and financial projections . Entrepreneurs can regularly refer to the original business plan as a benchmark to measure progress. By comparing the current business position to initial forecasts, business owners can answer questions such as:

Are we where we want to be at this point?

Did we achieve our goals?

If not, why not, and what do we need to do?

After assessing whether the business is meeting its objectives or falling short, business owners can adjust their strategies as needed.

How to make a business plan step by step

The steps below will guide you through the process of creating a business plan and what key components you need to include.

1. Create an executive summary

Start with a brief overview of your entire plan. The executive summary should cover your business plan's main points and key takeaways.

Keep your executive summary concise and clear with the Executive Summary Template . The simple design helps readers understand the crux of your business plan without reading the entire document.

2. Write your company description

Provide a detailed explanation of your company. Include information on what your company does, the mission statement, and your vision for the future.

Provide additional background information on the history of your company, the founders, and any notable achievements or milestones.

3. Conduct a market analysis

Conduct an in-depth analysis of your industry, competitors, and target market. This is best done with a SWOT analysis to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Next, identify your target market's needs, demographics, and behaviors.

Use the Competitive Analysis Template to brainstorm answers to simple questions like:

What does the current market look like?

Who are your competitors?

What are they offering?

What will give you a competitive advantage?

Who is your target market?

What are they looking for and why?

How will your product or service satisfy a need?

These questions should give you valuable insights into the current market and where your business stands.

4. Describe your products and services

Provide detailed information about your products and services. This includes pricing information, product features, and any unique selling points.

Use the Product/Market Fit Template to explain how your products meet the needs of your target market. Describe what sets them apart from the competition.

5. Design a marketing and sales strategy

Outline how you plan to promote and sell your products. Your marketing strategy and sales strategy should include information about your:

Pricing strategy

Advertising and promotional tactics

Sales channels

The Go to Market Strategy Template is a great way to visually map how you plan to launch your product or service in a new or existing market.

6. Determine budget and financial projections

Document detailed information on your business’ finances. Describe the current financial position of the company and how you expect the finances to play out.

Some details to include in this section are:

Startup costs

Revenue projections

Profit and loss statement

Funding you have received or plan to receive

Strategy for raising funds

7. Set the organization and management structure

Define how your company is structured and who will be responsible for each aspect of the business. Use the Business Organizational Chart Template to visually map the company’s teams, roles, and hierarchy.

As well as the organization and management structure, discuss the legal structure of your business. Clarify whether your business is a corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, or LLC.

8. Make an action plan

At this point in your business plan, you’ve described what you’re aiming for. But how are you going to get there? The Action Plan Template describes the following steps to move your business plan forward. Outline the next steps you plan to take to bring your business plan to fruition.

Types of business plans

Several types of business plans cater to different purposes and stages of a company's lifecycle. Here are some of the most common types of business plans.

Startup business plan

A startup business plan is typically an entrepreneur's first business plan. This document helps entrepreneurs articulate their business idea when starting a new business.

Not sure how to make a business plan for a startup? It’s pretty similar to a regular business plan, except the primary purpose of a startup business plan is to convince investors to provide funding for the business. A startup business plan also outlines the potential target market, product/service offering, marketing plan, and financial projections.

Strategic business plan

A strategic business plan is a long-term plan that outlines a company's overall strategy, objectives, and tactics. This type of strategic plan focuses on the big picture and helps business owners set goals and priorities and measure progress.

The primary purpose of a strategic business plan is to provide direction and guidance to the company's management team and stakeholders. The plan typically covers a period of three to five years.

Operational business plan

An operational business plan is a detailed document that outlines the day-to-day operations of a business. It focuses on the specific activities and processes required to run the business, such as:

Organizational structure

Staffing plan

Production plan

Quality control

Inventory management

Supply chain

The primary purpose of an operational business plan is to ensure that the business runs efficiently and effectively. It helps business owners manage their resources, track their performance, and identify areas for improvement.

Growth-business plan

A growth-business plan is a strategic plan that outlines how a company plans to expand its business. It helps business owners identify new market opportunities and increase revenue and profitability. The primary purpose of a growth-business plan is to provide a roadmap for the company's expansion and growth.

The 3 Horizons of Growth Template is a great tool to identify new areas of growth. This framework categorizes growth opportunities into three categories: Horizon 1 (core business), Horizon 2 (emerging business), and Horizon 3 (potential business).

One-page business plan

A one-page business plan is a condensed version of a full business plan that focuses on the most critical aspects of a business. It’s a great tool for entrepreneurs who want to quickly communicate their business idea to potential investors, partners, or employees.

A one-page business plan typically includes sections such as business concept, value proposition, revenue streams, and cost structure.

Best practices for how to make a good business plan

Here are some additional tips for creating a business plan:

Use a template

A template can help you organize your thoughts and effectively communicate your business ideas and strategies. Starting with a template can also save you time and effort when formatting your plan.

Miro’s extensive library of customizable templates includes all the necessary sections for a comprehensive business plan. With our templates, you can confidently present your business plans to stakeholders and investors.

Be practical

Avoid overestimating revenue projections or underestimating expenses. Your business plan should be grounded in practical realities like your budget, resources, and capabilities.

Be specific

Provide as much detail as possible in your business plan. A specific plan is easier to execute because it provides clear guidance on what needs to be done and how. Without specific details, your plan may be too broad or vague, making it difficult to know where to start or how to measure success.

Be thorough with your research

Conduct thorough research to fully understand the market, your competitors, and your target audience . By conducting thorough research, you can identify potential risks and challenges your business may face and develop strategies to mitigate them.

Get input from others

It can be easy to become overly focused on your vision and ideas, leading to tunnel vision and a lack of objectivity. By seeking input from others, you can identify potential opportunities you may have overlooked.

Review and revise regularly

A business plan is a living document. You should update it regularly to reflect market, industry, and business changes. Set aside time for regular reviews and revisions to ensure your plan remains relevant and effective.

Create a winning business plan to chart your path to success

Starting or growing a business can be challenging, but it doesn't have to be. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting, a well-written business plan can make or break your business’ success.

The purpose of a business plan is more than just to secure funding and attract investors. It also serves as a roadmap for achieving your business goals and realizing your vision. With the right mindset, tools, and strategies, you can develop a visually appealing, persuasive business plan.

Ready to make an effective business plan that works for you? Check out our library of ready-made strategy and planning templates and chart your path to success.

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What is a Business Plan? Definition, Tips, and Templates

Published: June 07, 2023

In an era where more than 20% of small enterprises fail in their first year, having a clear, defined, and well-thought-out business plan is a crucial first step for setting up a business for long-term success.

Business plans are a required tool for all entrepreneurs, business owners, business acquirers, and even business school students. But … what exactly is a business plan?

In this post, we'll explain what a business plan is, the reasons why you'd need one, identify different types of business plans, and what you should include in yours.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a documented strategy for a business that highlights its goals and its plans for achieving them. It outlines a company's go-to-market plan, financial projections, market research, business purpose, and mission statement. Key staff who are responsible for achieving the goals may also be included in the business plan along with a timeline.

The business plan is an undeniably critical component to getting any company off the ground. It's key to securing financing, documenting your business model, outlining your financial projections, and turning that nugget of a business idea into a reality.

What is a business plan used for?

The purpose of a business plan is three-fold: It summarizes the organization’s strategy in order to execute it long term, secures financing from investors, and helps forecast future business demands.

Business Plan Template [ Download Now ]

Working on your business plan? Try using our Business Plan Template . Pre-filled with the sections a great business plan needs, the template will give aspiring entrepreneurs a feel for what a business plan is, what should be in it, and how it can be used to establish and grow a business from the ground up.

Purposes of a Business Plan

Chances are, someone drafting a business plan will be doing so for one or more of the following reasons:

1. Securing financing from investors.

Since its contents revolve around how businesses succeed, break even, and turn a profit, a business plan is used as a tool for sourcing capital. This document is an entrepreneur's way of showing potential investors or lenders how their capital will be put to work and how it will help the business thrive.

All banks, investors, and venture capital firms will want to see a business plan before handing over their money, and investors typically expect a 10% ROI or more from the capital they invest in a business.

Therefore, these investors need to know if — and when — they'll be making their money back (and then some). Additionally, they'll want to read about the process and strategy for how the business will reach those financial goals, which is where the context provided by sales, marketing, and operations plans come into play.

2. Documenting a company's strategy and goals.

A business plan should leave no stone unturned.

Business plans can span dozens or even hundreds of pages, affording their drafters the opportunity to explain what a business' goals are and how the business will achieve them.

To show potential investors that they've addressed every question and thought through every possible scenario, entrepreneurs should thoroughly explain their marketing, sales, and operations strategies — from acquiring a physical location for the business to explaining a tactical approach for marketing penetration.

These explanations should ultimately lead to a business' break-even point supported by a sales forecast and financial projections, with the business plan writer being able to speak to the why behind anything outlined in the plan.

Free Business Plan Template

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• Secure funding.
• Get to work!

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Free Business Plan [Template]

Fill out the form to access your free business plan., 3. legitimizing a business idea..

Everyone's got a great idea for a company — until they put pen to paper and realize that it's not exactly feasible.

A business plan is an aspiring entrepreneur's way to prove that a business idea is actually worth pursuing.

As entrepreneurs document their go-to-market process, capital needs, and expected return on investment, entrepreneurs likely come across a few hiccups that will make them second guess their strategies and metrics — and that's exactly what the business plan is for.

It ensures an entrepreneur's ducks are in a row before bringing their business idea to the world and reassures the readers that whoever wrote the plan is serious about the idea, having put hours into thinking of the business idea, fleshing out growth tactics, and calculating financial projections.

4. Getting an A in your business class.

Speaking from personal experience, there's a chance you're here to get business plan ideas for your Business 101 class project.

If that's the case, might we suggest checking out this post on How to Write a Business Plan — providing a section-by-section guide on creating your plan?

What does a business plan need to include?

• Business Plan Subtitle
• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• The Business Opportunity
• Competitive Analysis
• Target Market
• Marketing Plan
• Financial Summary
• Funding Requirements

1. Business Plan Subtitle

Every great business plan starts with a captivating title and subtitle. You’ll want to make it clear that the document is, in fact, a business plan, but the subtitle can help tell the story of your business in just a short sentence.

2. Executive Summary

Although this is the last part of the business plan that you’ll write, it’s the first section (and maybe the only section) that stakeholders will read. The executive summary of a business plan sets the stage for the rest of the document. It includes your company’s mission or vision statement, value proposition, and long-term goals.

3. Company Description

This brief part of your business plan will detail your business name, years in operation, key offerings, and positioning statement. You might even add core values or a short history of the company. The company description’s role in a business plan is to introduce your business to the reader in a compelling and concise way.

4. The Business Opportunity

The business opportunity should convince investors that your organization meets the needs of the market in a way that no other company can. This section explains the specific problem your business solves within the marketplace and how it solves them. It will include your value proposition as well as some high-level information about your target market.

5. Competitive Analysis

Just about every industry has more than one player in the market. Even if your business owns the majority of the market share in your industry or your business concept is the first of its kind, you still have competition. In the competitive analysis section, you’ll take an objective look at the industry landscape to determine where your business fits. A SWOT analysis is an organized way to format this section.

6. Target Market

Who are the core customers of your business and why? The target market portion of your business plan outlines this in detail. The target market should explain the demographics, psychographics, behavioristics, and geographics of the ideal customer.

7. Marketing Plan

Marketing is expansive, and it’ll be tempting to cover every type of marketing possible, but a brief overview of how you’ll market your unique value proposition to your target audience, followed by a tactical plan will suffice.

Think broadly and narrow down from there: Will you focus on a slow-and-steady play where you make an upfront investment in organic customer acquisition? Or will you generate lots of quick customers using a pay-to-play advertising strategy? This kind of information should guide the marketing plan section of your business plan.

8. Financial Summary

Money doesn’t grow on trees and even the most digital, sustainable businesses have expenses. Outlining a financial summary of where your business is currently and where you’d like it to be in the future will substantiate this section. Consider including any monetary information that will give potential investors a glimpse into the financial health of your business. Assets, liabilities, expenses, debt, investments, revenue, and more are all useful adds here.

So, you’ve outlined some great goals, the business opportunity is valid, and the industry is ready for what you have to offer. Who’s responsible for turning all this high-level talk into results? The "team" section of your business plan answers that question by providing an overview of the roles responsible for each goal. Don’t worry if you don’t have every team member on board yet, knowing what roles to hire for is helpful as you seek funding from investors.

10. Funding Requirements

Remember that one of the goals of a business plan is to secure funding from investors, so you’ll need to include funding requirements you’d like them to fulfill. The amount your business needs, for what reasons, and for how long will meet the requirement for this section.

Types of Business Plans

• Startup Business Plan
• Feasibility Business Plan
• Internal Business Plan
• Strategic Business Plan
• Business Acquisition Plan
• Business Repositioning Plan
• Expansion or Growth Business Plan

There’s no one size fits all business plan as there are several types of businesses in the market today. From startups with just one founder to historic household names that need to stay competitive, every type of business needs a business plan that’s tailored to its needs. Below are a few of the most common types of business plans.

For even more examples, check out these sample business plans to help you write your own .

1. Startup Business Plan

As one of the most common types of business plans, a startup business plan is for new business ideas. This plan lays the foundation for the eventual success of a business.

The biggest challenge with the startup business plan is that it’s written completely from scratch. Startup business plans often reference existing industry data. They also explain unique business strategies and go-to-market plans.

Because startup business plans expand on an original idea, the contents will vary by the top priority goals.

For example, say a startup is looking for funding. If capital is a priority, this business plan might focus more on financial projections than marketing or company culture.

2. Feasibility Business Plan

This type of business plan focuses on a single essential aspect of the business — the product or service. It may be part of a startup business plan or a standalone plan for an existing organization. This comprehensive plan may include:

• A detailed product description
• Market analysis
• Technology needs
• Production needs
• Financial sources
• Production operations

According to CBInsights research, 35% of startups fail because of a lack of market need. Another 10% fail because of mistimed products.

Some businesses will complete a feasibility study to explore ideas and narrow product plans to the best choice. They conduct these studies before completing the feasibility business plan. Then the feasibility plan centers on that one product or service.

3. Internal Business Plan

Internal business plans help leaders communicate company goals, strategy, and performance. This helps the business align and work toward objectives more effectively.

Besides the typical elements in a startup business plan, an internal business plan may also include:

• Department-specific budgets
• Target demographic analysis
• Market size and share of voice analysis
• Action plans
• Sustainability plans

Most external-facing business plans focus on raising capital and support for a business. But an internal business plan helps keep the business mission consistent in the face of change.

4. Strategic Business Plan

Strategic business plans focus on long-term objectives for your business. They usually cover the first three to five years of operations. This is different from the typical startup business plan which focuses on the first one to three years. The audience for this plan is also primarily internal stakeholders.

These types of business plans may include:

• Relevant data and analysis
• Assessments of company resources
• Vision and mission statements

It's important to remember that, while many businesses create a strategic plan before launching, some business owners just jump in. So, this business plan can add value by outlining how your business plans to reach specific goals. This type of planning can also help a business anticipate future challenges.

5. Business Acquisition Plan

Investors use business plans to acquire existing businesses, too — not just new businesses.

A business acquisition plan may include costs, schedules, or management requirements. This data will come from an acquisition strategy.

A business plan for an existing company will explain:

• How an acquisition will change its operating model
• What will stay the same under new ownership
• Why things will change or stay the same
• Acquisition planning documentation
• Timelines for acquisition

Additionally, the business plan should speak to the current state of the business and why it's up for sale.

For example, if someone is purchasing a failing business, the business plan should explain why the business is being purchased. It should also include:

• What the new owner will do to turn the business around
• Historic business metrics
• Sales projections after the acquisition
• Justification for those projections

6. Business Repositioning Plan

When a business wants to avoid acquisition, reposition its brand, or try something new, CEOs or owners will develop a business repositioning plan.

This plan will:

• Acknowledge the current state of the company.
• State a vision for the future of the company.
• Explain why the business needs to reposition itself.
• Outline a process for how the company will adjust.

Companies planning for a business reposition often do so — proactively or retroactively — due to a shift in market trends and customer needs.

For example, shoe brand AllBirds plans to refocus its brand on core customers and shift its go-to-market strategy. These decisions are a reaction to lackluster sales following product changes and other missteps.

7. Expansion or Growth Business Plan

When your business is ready to expand, a growth business plan creates a useful structure for reaching specific targets.

For example, a successful business expanding into another location can use a growth business plan. This is because it may also mean the business needs to focus on a new target market or generate more capital.

This type of plan usually covers the next year or two of growth. It often references current sales, revenue, and successes. It may also include:

• SWOT analysis
• Growth opportunity studies
• Financial goals and plans
• Marketing plans
• Capability planning

These types of business plans will vary by business, but they can help businesses quickly rally around new priorities to drive growth.

Getting Started With Your Business Plan

At the end of the day, a business plan is simply an explanation of a business idea and why it will be successful. The more detail and thought you put into it, the more successful your plan — and the business it outlines — will be.

When writing your business plan, you’ll benefit from extensive research, feedback from your team or board of directors, and a solid template to organize your thoughts. If you need one of these, download HubSpot's Free Business Plan Template below to get started.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Blog Business 15+ Best Business Plan Examples for Entrepreneurs & Startups

15+ Best Business Plan Examples for Entrepreneurs & Startups

Written by: Jennifer Gaskin Jun 09, 2021

Not having a solid plan makes it unlikely for you to achieve the goals you seek, whether it’s getting your to-do list done or launching a successful organization.

In the early stages of a company, that means developing things like pitch decks, business plans, one-sheeters and more. With Venngage’s Business Plan Builder , you can easily organize your business plan into a visually appealing format that can help you win over investors, lenders or partners.

Learn more about how to create a business plan so you can hit the ground running after reading through this list for inspirational business plan templates .

15+ Best business plan examples for entrepreneurs and startups

Simple business plan example, startup business plan example, small business plan example, nonprofit business plan example, strategic business plan example, market analysis business plan example, sales business plan example, organization and management business plan example, marketing and sales strategy business plan example, apple business plan example, airbnb business plan example, sequoia capital business plan example.

While your business plan should be supported by thorough and exhaustive research into your market and competitors, the resulting document does not have to be overwhelming for the reader. In fact, if you can boil your business plan down to a few key pages, all the better.

Simple business plan outline:

• Table of contents : List all sections and sub-sections within the business plan.
• Business review : Include an overview of the business’s purpose, history, and key objectives.
• The market : Analyze the target market, including customer demographics and market needs.
• The competition : Evaluate the main competitors and their strengths and weaknesses in the market.

The simple, bold visual aesthetic of this  business plan template  pairs well with the straightforward approach to the content and various elements of the business plan itself.

Use Venngage’s My Brand Kit  to automatically add your brand colors and fonts to your business plan with just a few clicks.

An essential startup business plan should include a clear and compelling value proposition, market analysis, competitive analysis, target audience identification, financial projections, and a well-defined marketing and operational strategy.

For a typical startup, the need to appear disruptive in the industry is important. After all, if you’re not offering anything truly new, why would an investor turn their attention toward your organization. That means establishing a problem and the ways in which you solve it right away.

Startup business plan outline:

• The problem : Identify the specific issue or pain point your startup aims to solve.
• Target market & opportunity : Define your customers and the potential market size.
• The solution : Describe the product or service that addresses the identified problem.
• Traction and validation/roadmap : Outline the progress made so far and the future milestones and goals.

Whether it’s a full-scale business plan or, in this case, a pitch deck, the ideal way for a startup to make a splash with its plans is to be bold. This successful business plan example is memorable and aspirational.

In the Venngage editor, you can upload images of your business. Add these images to your plans and reports to make them uniquely your own.

All businesses start out small at first, but that doesn’t mean their communications have to be small. One of the best ways to get investors, lenders and talent on board is to show that you’ve done your due diligence.

Small business plan outline:

• Table of contents : List down of all the sections and sub-sections in the business plan.
• Business overview : Include a quick overview of what your business is all about, including your mission and goals.
• The market : Analyzes who your customers are, what they need, and how big the market is.
• The competition : Look into your main competitors and what they’re good at (and not so good at).
• Sales and marketing plan : Lay out your game plan for attracting and keeping customers.
• Operating plan : Explain how you’ll run the day-to-day operations and manage the business.

In this small business plan example, the content is spread over many pages, which is useful in making lengthy, in-depth research feel less like a chore than packing everyone on as few pages as possible.

Organizations that set out to solve problems rather than earning profits also benefit from creating compelling business plans that stir an emotional response in potential donors, benefactors, potential staff members or even media.

Nonprofit business plan outline:

• Table of contents : Lists all sections and sub-sections of your nonprofit business plan.
• Introduction : Provide an overview of your mission and purpose.
• Goal : State the specific objectives your nonprofit organization aims to achieve.
• Impact & strategy : Explain how you plan to create positive change and the methods you will use.

Simplicity is the goal for nonprofits when it comes to business plans, particularly in their early days. Explain the crisis at hand and exactly how your organization will make a difference, which will help donors visualize how their money will be used to help.

Business plans are also helpful for companies that have been around for a while. Whether they’re considering new products to launch or looking for new opportunities, companies can approach business plans from the strategy side of the equation as well.

Strategic business plan outline:

• The problem, issue, or job at hand : Define the specific challenge or task the strategic plan addresses.
• Approach & methodology : Describe the methods and strategies that will be used to tackle the problem or achieve the objective.

Strategic business plans or strategy infographics should be highly focused on a single area or problem to be solved rather than taking a holistic approach to the entire business. Expanding scope too much can make a strategy seem too difficult to implement.

Easily share your business plan with Venngage’s multiple download options, including PNG, PNG HD, and as an interactive PDF.

One-page business plan example

For organizations with a simple business model, often a one-page business plan is all that’s needed. This is possible in any industry, but the most common are traditional ones like retail, where few complex concepts need to be explained.

This one-page strategic business plan example could be easily replicated for an organization that offers goods or services across multiple channels or one with three core business areas. It’s a good business plan example for companies whose plans can be easily boiled down to a few bullet points per area.

Especially when entering a saturated market, understanding the landscape and players is crucial to understanding how your organization can fit it—and stand out. That’s why centering your business plan around a market analysis is often a good idea.

Market analysis business plan outline:

• Table of contents : Lists all sections and sub-sections of the market analysis business plan.
• Executive summary : Provide a brief overview of the key points of the market analysis.
• Business overview : Summarize your business’s mission, vision and core activities.
• The market : Analyze the target market, including customer demographics and market trends.
• The competition : Review the main competitors and their market positioning.
• Sales & marketing plan : Outline strategies for reaching and engaging customers.
• Operating plan : Details the day-to-day operations and management structure.

In this example, the majority of the content and about half the pages are focused on the market analysis, including competitors, trends, pricing, demographics and more. This successful business plan example ensures the artwork and style used perfectly matches the company’s aesthetic, which further reinforces its position in the market.

You can find more memorable business plan templates to customize in the Venngage editor. Browse Venngage’s  business plan templates  to find plans that work for you and start editing.

Company description business plan example

Depending on the market, focusing on your company story and what makes you different can drive your narrative home with potential investors. By focusing your business plan on a company description, you center yourself and your organization in the minds of your audience.

Company description business plan outline:

• Executive summary : Briefly summarize the key components and objectives of the company description section.
• Approach & direction : Outline the company’s strategy, goals and the direction it intends to take in achieving them.

This abbreviated plan is a good business plan example. It uses most of the content to tell the organization’s story. In addition to background about the company, potential investors or clients can see how this design firm’s process is different from their rivals.

With Venngage Business , you can collaborate with team members in real-time to create a business plan that will be effective when presenting to investors.

Five-year business plan example

For most startups or young companies, showing potential investors or partners exactly how and when the company will become profitable is a key aspect of presenting a business plan. Whether it’s woven into a larger presentation or stands alone, you should be sure to include your five-year business plan so investors know you’re looking far beyond the present.

With Venngage’s Business Plan Builder , you can customize a schedule like this to quickly illustrate for investors or partners what your revenue targets are for the first three to five years your company is in operation.

The lifeblood of any company is the sales team. These are the energetic folks who bring in new business, develop leads and turn prospects into customers. Focusing your energy on creating a sales business plan would prove to investors that you understand what will make your company money.

Sales business plan outline:

• Table of contents : List all sections and subsections within the sales business plan.
• Target market : Identify the specific segment or segments of customers the sales efforts will focus on.
• Customer profile : Provide detailed descriptions of the ideal customers, including demographics, preferences and needs.
• Action plan : Outline the specific steps and strategies to be taken to reach and engage the target market and achieve sales objectives.

In this example sales business plan, several facets of ideal buyers are detailed. These include a perfect customer profile that helps to convey to your audience that customer relationships will be at the heart of your operation.

You can include business infographics in your plan to visualize your goals. And with Venngage’s gallery of images and icons, you can customize the template to better reflect your business ethos.

Company mergers and shakeups are also major reasons for organizations to require strong business planning. Creating new departments, deciding which staff to retain and charting a course forward can be even more complex than starting a business from scratch.

Organization and management business plan outline:

• Table of contents : List all sections and subsections within the organization and management business plan.
• About us : Provide an overview of the organization, its mission, vision and values.
• Project summary : Summarize the key details and objectives of the project.
• Project timeline : Outline the milestones and schedule for completing the project.

This organization and management business plan focuses on how the company can optimize operations through a few key organizational projects.

Executive summary for business plan example

Executive summaries give your business plan a strong human touch, and they set the tone for what’s to follow. That could mean having your executive leadership team write a personal note or singling out some huge achievements of which you’re particularly proud in a business plan infographic .

Executive summary business plan outline:

• Table of contents : Lists all sections and subsections within the executive summary business plan.
• Executive summary : Provide a concise overview of the entire business plan, highlighting key points and objectives.
• Statement of problem : Clearly define the specific issue or challenge the business aims to address.
• Approach & methodology : Outline the methods and strategies that will be employed to solve the stated problem or achieve the desired goals.

In this executive summary for a business plan, a brief note is accompanied by a few notable achievements that signal the organization and leadership team’s authority in the industry.

Marketing and sales are two sides of the same coin, and clever companies know how they play off each other. That’s why centering your business plan around your marketing and sales strategy can pay dividends when it comes time to find investors and potential partners.

Marketing and sales strategy business plan outline:

• Table of contents : List all sections and subsections within the marketing and sales strategy business plan.
• Positioning : Describe how the business intends to position its products or services in the market to stand out from competitors.
• Value prop : Highlight the unique value proposition that the business offers to its target customers, including its benefits and advantages.
• Marketing strategy : Outline the overall approach and tactics that will be used to promote the products or services and attract customers.

This marketing and sales business plan example is the picture of a sleek, modern aesthetic, which is appropriate across many industries and will speak volumes to numbers-obsesses sales and marketing leaders.

Do business plans really help? Well, here’s some math for you; in 1981, Apple had just gone public and was in the midst of marketing an absolute flop , the Apple III computer.  The company’s market cap, or total estimated market value,  could hit $3 trillion this year.

Did this Apple business plan make the difference? No, it’s not possible to attribute the success of Apple entirely to this business plan from July 1981, but this ancient artifact goes to show that even the most groundbreaking companies need to take an honest stock of their situation.

Apple’s 1981 business plan example pdf covers everything from the market landscape for computing to the products that founder Steve Jobs expects to roll out over the next few years, and the advanced analysis contained in the document shows how strategic Jobs and other Apple executives were in those early days.

Inviting strangers to stay in your house for the weekend seemed like a crazy concept before Airbnb became one of the world’s biggest companies. Like all disruptive startups, Airbnb had to create a robust, active system from nothing.

Airbnb business plan outline:

• Problem : Identify the specific challenge or need in the accommodation industry that the Airbnb business aims to address.
• Solution : Describe how Airbnb’s platform provides a solution to the identified problem by connecting hosts with guests.
• Market validation : Demonstrate through research or evidence that there is demand for Airbnb’s services.
• Market size : Estimate the total addressable market for Airbnb’s accommodation services.
• Product : Detail the features and functionalities of the Airbnb platform for both hosts and guests.
• Business model : Explain how Airbnb generates revenue and sustains its operations.
• Market adoption : Discuss the rate at which Airbnb’s services are being embraced by hosts and guests.
• Competition : Identify other players in the accommodation industry offering similar services to Airbnb.
• Competitive advantages : Highlight the unique strengths or advantages that set Airbnb apart from its competitors.

As this Airbnb business plan pitch deck example shows, for companies that are introducing entirely new concepts, it’s helpful not to get too into the weeds. Explain the problem simply and boil down the essence of your solution into a few words; in this case, “A web platform where users can rent out their space” perfectly sums up this popular company.

Sequoia Capital is one of the most successful venture capital firms in the world, backing startups that now have a combined stock market value of more than $1 trillion, according to a Forbes analysis .

For young companies and startups that want to play in the big leagues, tailoring your pitch to something that would appeal to a company like Sequoia Capital is a good idea. That’s why the company has a standard business plan format it recommends .

Sequoia capital business plan outline:

• Company purpose : Clarify the core reason for the business and its overarching goals.
• Problems : Identify specific challenges or pain points that the business aims to solve.
• Solution : Describe how the business addresses the identified problems with its products or services.
• Market potential : Assess the size and growth opportunities within the target market for the business.
• Competition : Analyze existing competitors and their strengths and weaknesses in the market.
• Business model : Outline how the business plans to generate revenue and sustain its operations.
• Our team : Introduce the key members of the team and their relevant expertise and experience.
• Financials : Provide projections and forecasts for the financial performance of the business.
• Vision : Articulate the long-term aspirations and goals that the business seeks to achieve.

Using Sequoia Capital’s business plan example means being simple and clear with your content, like the above deck. Note how no slide contains much copy, and even when all slides appear on the screen at once, the text is legible.

Use Venngage to design business plans that will impress investors

Not every business plan, pitch deck or one-sheeter will net you billions in investment dollars, but every entrepreneur should be adept at crafting impressive, authoritative and informative business plans.

Whether you use one of the inspirational templates shared here or you want to go old school and mimic Apple’s 1981 business plan, using Venngage’s Business Plan Builder helps you bring your company’s vision to life.

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Simple Business Plan Template (2024)

Updated: May 4, 2024, 4:37pm

Table of Contents

Why business plans are vital, get your free simple business plan template, how to write an effective business plan in 6 steps, frequently asked questions.

While taking many forms and serving many purposes, they all have one thing in common: business plans help you establish your goals and define the means for achieving them. Our simple business plan template covers everything you need to consider when launching a side gig, solo operation or small business. By following this step-by-step process, you might even uncover a few alternate routes to success.

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Whether you’re a first-time solopreneur or a seasoned business owner, the planning process challenges you to examine the costs and tasks involved in bringing a product or service to market. The process can also help you spot new income opportunities and hone in on the most profitable business models.

Though vital, business planning doesn’t have to be a chore. Business plans for lean startups and solopreneurs can simply outline the business concept, sales proposition, target customers and sketch out a plan of action to bring the product or service to market. However, if you’re seeking startup funding or partnership opportunities, you’ll need a write a business plan that details market research, operating costs and revenue forecasting. Whichever startup category you fall into, if you’re at square one, our simple business plan template will point you down the right path.

Copy our free simple business plan template so you can fill in the blanks as we explore each element of your business plan. Need help getting your ideas flowing? You’ll also find several startup scenario examples below.

Download free template as .docx

Whether you need a quick-launch overview or an in-depth plan for investors, any business plan should cover the six key elements outlined in our free template and explained below. The main difference in starting a small business versus an investor-funded business is the market research and operational and financial details needed to support the concept.

1. Your Mission or Vision

Start by declaring a “dream statement” for your business. You can call this your executive summary, vision statement or mission. Whatever the name, the first part of your business plan summarizes your idea by answering five questions. Keep it brief, such as an elevator pitch. You’ll expand these answers in the following sections of the simple business plan template.

• What does your business do? Are you selling products, services, information or a combination?
• Where does this happen? Will you conduct business online, in-store, via mobile means or in a specific location or environment?
• Who does your business benefit? Who is your target market and ideal customer for your concept?
• Why would potential customers care? What would make your ideal customers take notice of your business?
• How do your products and/or services outshine the competition? What would make your ideal customers choose you over a competitor?

These answers come easily if you have a solid concept for your business, but don’t worry if you get stuck. Use the rest of your plan template to brainstorm ideas and tactics. You’ll quickly find these answers and possibly new directions as you explore your ideas and options.

2. Offer and Value Proposition

This is where you detail your offer, such as selling products, providing services or both, and why anyone would care. That’s the value proposition. Specifically, you’ll expand on your answers to the first and fourth bullets from your mission/vision.

As you complete this section, you might find that exploring value propositions uncovers marketable business opportunities that you hadn’t yet considered. So spend some time brainstorming the possibilities in this section.

For example, a cottage baker startup specializing in gluten-free or keto-friendly products might be a value proposition that certain audiences care deeply about. Plus, you could expand on that value proposition by offering wedding and other special-occasion cakes that incorporate gluten-free, keto-friendly and traditional cake elements that all guests can enjoy.

3. Audience and Ideal Customer

Here is where you explore bullet point number three, who your business will benefit. Identifying your ideal customer and exploring a broader audience for your goods or services is essential in defining your sales and marketing strategies, plus it helps fine-tune what you offer.

There are many ways to research potential audiences, but a shortcut is to simply identify a problem that people have that your product or service can solve. If you start from the position of being a problem solver, it’s easy to define your audience and describe the wants and needs of your ideal customer for marketing efforts.

Using the cottage baker startup example, a problem people might have is finding fresh-baked gluten-free or keto-friendly sweets. Examining the wants and needs of these people might reveal a target audience that is health-conscious or possibly dealing with health issues and willing to spend more for hard-to-find items.

However, it’s essential to have a customer base that can support your business. You can be too specialized. For example, our baker startup can attract a broader audience and boost revenue by offering a wider selection of traditional baked goods alongside its gluten-free and keto-focused specialties.

4. Revenue Streams, Sales Channels and Marketing

Thanks to our internet-driven economy, startups have many revenue opportunities and can connect with target audiences through various channels. Revenue streams and sales channels also serve as marketing vehicles, so you can cover all three in this section.

Revenue Streams

Revenue streams are the many ways you can make money in your business. In your plan template, list how you’ll make money upon launch, plus include ideas for future expansion. The income possibilities just might surprise you.

For example, our cottage baker startup might consider these revenue streams:

• Product sales : Online, pop-up shops , wholesale and (future) in-store sales
• Affiliate income : Monetize blog and social media posts with affiliate links
• Advertising income : Reserve website space for advertising
• E-book sales : (future) Publish recipe e-books targeting gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
• Video income : (future) Monetize a YouTube channel featuring how-to videos for the gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
• Webinars and online classes : (future) Monetize coaching-style webinars and online classes covering specialty baking tips and techniques
• Members-only content : (future) Monetize a members-only section of the website for specialty content to complement webinars and online classes
• Franchise : (future) Monetize a specialty cottage bakery concept and sell to franchise entrepreneurs

Sales Channels

Sales channels put your revenue streams into action. This section also answers the “where will this happen” question in the second bullet of your vision.

The product sales channels for our cottage bakery example can include:

• Mobile point-of-sale (POS) : A mobile platform such as Shopify or Square POS for managing in-person sales at local farmers’ markets, fairs and festivals
• E-commerce platform : An online store such as Shopify, Square or WooCommerce for online retail sales and wholesale sales orders
• Social media channels : Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest shoppable posts and pins for online sales via social media channels
• Brick-and-mortar location : For in-store sales , once the business has grown to a point that it can support a physical location

Channels that support other income streams might include:

• Affiliate income : Blog section on the e-commerce website and affiliate partner accounts
• Advertising income : Reserved advertising spaces on the e-commerce website
• E-book sales : Amazon e-book sales via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
• Video income : YouTube channel with ad monetization
• Webinars and online classes : Online class and webinar platforms that support member accounts, recordings and playback
• Members-only content : Password-protected website content using membership apps such as MemberPress

Nowadays, the line between marketing and sales channels is blurred. Social media outlets, e-books, websites, blogs and videos serve as both marketing tools and income opportunities. Since most are free and those with advertising options are extremely economical, these are ideal marketing outlets for lean startups.

However, many businesses still find value in traditional advertising such as local radio, television, direct mail, newspapers and magazines. You can include these advertising costs in your simple business plan template to help build a marketing plan and budget.

5. Structure, Suppliers and Operations

This section of your simple business plan template explores how to structure and operate your business. Details include the type of business organization your startup will take, roles and responsibilities, supplier logistics and day-to-day operations. Also, include any certifications or permits needed to launch your enterprise in this section.

Our cottage baker example might use a structure and startup plan such as this:

• Business structure : Sole proprietorship with a “doing business as” (DBA) .
• Permits and certifications : County-issued food handling permit and state cottage food certification for home-based food production. Option, check into certified commercial kitchen rentals.
• Roles and responsibilities : Solopreneur, all roles and responsibilities with the owner.
• Supply chain : Bulk ingredients and food packaging via Sam’s Club, Costco, Amazon Prime with annual membership costs. Uline for shipping supplies; no membership needed.
• Day-to-day operations : Source ingredients and bake three days per week to fulfill local and online orders. Reserve time for specialty sales, wholesale partner orders and market events as needed. Ship online orders on alternating days. Update website and create marketing and affiliate blog posts on non-shipping days.

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6. Financial Forecasts

Your final task is to list forecasted business startup and ongoing costs and profit projections in your simple business plan template. Thanks to free business tools such as Square and free marketing on social media, lean startups can launch with few upfront costs. In many cases, cost of goods, shipping and packaging, business permits and printing for business cards are your only out-of-pocket expenses.

Cost Forecast

Our cottage baker’s forecasted lean startup costs might include:

Gross Profit Projections

This helps you determine the retail prices and sales volume required to keep your business running and, hopefully, earn income for yourself. Use product research to spot target retail prices for your goods, then subtract your cost of goods, such as hourly rate, raw goods and supplier costs. The total amount is your gross profit per item or service.

Here are some examples of projected gross profits for our cottage baker:

Bottom Line

Putting careful thought and detail in a business plan is always beneficial, but don’t get so bogged down in planning that you never hit the start button to launch your business . Also, remember that business plans aren’t set in stone. Markets, audiences and technologies change, and so will your goals and means of achieving them. Think of your business plan as a living document and regularly revisit, expand and restructure it as market opportunities and business growth demand.

Is there a template for a business plan?

You can copy our free business plan template and fill in the blanks or customize it in Google Docs, Microsoft Word or another word processing app. This free business plan template includes the six key elements that any entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a new business.

What does a simple business plan include?

A simple business plan is a one- to two-page overview covering six key elements that any budding entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a startup. These include your vision or mission, product or service offering, target audience, revenue streams and sales channels, structure and operations, and financial forecasts.

How can I create a free business plan template?

Start with our free business plan template that covers the six essential elements of a startup. Once downloaded, you can edit this document in Google Docs or another word processing app and add new sections or subsections to your plan template to meet your specific business plan needs.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business,  an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

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Krista Fabregas is a seasoned eCommerce and online content pro sharing more than 20 years of hands-on know-how with those looking to launch and grow tech-forward businesses. Her expertise includes eCommerce startups and growth, SMB operations and logistics, website platforms, payment systems, side-gig and affiliate income, and multichannel marketing. Krista holds a bachelor's degree in English from The University of Texas at Austin and held senior positions at NASA, a Fortune 100 company, and several online startups.

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Watch: Business plans versus personal and family plans

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Microsoft 365 business subscriptions  can help you grow your business, no matter if you're a team of one or more. 

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Personal and family subscriptions are ideal for personal use like home, personal, or family projects and school related activities.

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Additionally, if you already have Microsoft 365 Family that you're sharing with friends and family who aren't part of your business, keeping that personal subscription might be the best thing for everyone. This means you don't have to move anyone off that plan, and you don't have to worry about any personal files you already have associated with that subscription and your personal account. 

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NATO is making plans for surging US troops into Europe in case Russia invades

• NATO is creating land corridors in Europe for the US in case Russia attacks, The Telegraph reported.
• Under the plan, soldiers would land at ports in the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Turkey, and Norway.
• Soldiers would then travel overland to NATO's eastern flank, per the outlet.

NATO is busy setting up land corridors that US soldiers and military vehicles would use in the case of a Russian invasion of Europe, The Telegraph reported , citing unnamed officials.

Under the plan, US soldiers would land at one of five key ports in the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Turkey, and Norway, before being sent along established routes to counter Russian attacks, the officials said.

While some US forces would be transported by land from Italian ports to Hungary, which borders Ukraine, others would be moved from Greek and Turkish ports to the eastern border of the alliance via Bulgaria and Romania.

Local legislation would not restrict militaries in these corridors, allowing them to move cargo without constraints, according to The Telegraph.

Plans are also being developed to move troops through ports in Sweden, Finland, and the Balkans, the outlet reported.

Under previous plans, US troops would have arrived in the Netherlands, then boarded trains to travel through Germany and on to Poland, the outlet reported.

But contingencies are now being prepared to extend this, The Telegraph said.

Related stories

In the event that NATO forces were struck in Dutch ports or northern European ports were destroyed, the military alliance would refocus its attention on landing sites in Italy, Greece, and Turkey.

Last year, NATO leaders agreed to keep 300,000 soldiers in a state of high readiness, The Telegraph reported.

European nations have repeatedly warned of the risk of a possible Russian invasion.

Vaidotas Urbelis, the defense policy director of Lithuania's defense ministry, told BI in February that despite its setbacks in Ukraine, Russia seemed to be better prepared for a future attack than it was before the invasion of Ukraine.

In March, Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, said there was a "real" threat of conflict in Europe and that the continent was in a "prewar" era.

Despite experts saying Russia has been weakened by the war in Ukraine and is in no position to attack, some European countries aren't taking any chances.

Poland unveiled a plan in May for new border defenses, and the Baltic States said in March that they're investing more in defense than ever.

Last week, the Financial Times reported that NATO had less than 5% of the air defenses needed to protect Central and Eastern Europe, citing people familiar with NATO's defense plans.

But Alexander Sollfrank, the commander of NATO's Joint Support and Enabling Command, told The Telegraph that everything required to create resilience is being worked out.

"Everything is created in a way so the necessary resilience exists — robustness, reserves and also redundancies," he said.

"With regards to air defence ... It's always scarce," he added. "I cannot imagine a situation that you have enough air defence."

Watch: Ukrainian army tests new Western weapons as NATO boosts supplies

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Why you need a business plan

Writing a business plan can seem like a big task, especially if you’re starting a business for the first time and don’t have a financial background. After all, business plans have changed over the years, and what lenders and investors expect now is different than it was even just 10 years ago.

What hasn’t changed is that writing a business plan will help you:

• Develop a strategy for success
• Reduce the risk of starting a business
• Explore new business ideas
• Attract investors and get funding

Learn more about how you can get value out of your business plan .

What is included in this business plan template?

This template includes definitions, guidance, and examples for every business plan component needed to start, fund, and grow your business.

After downloading the full template, you’ll receive instructions on how to fill out each of the following sections.

Executive summary

The brief summary of your business plan introduces everyone to your business, the problem you solve, and what you’re asking from your readers. It’s the first chapter of your business plan and the last thing you write once you have the details from your full plan.

Problem & solution

More than a simple description of your products and services – here you define the problem you’re solving and the value you provide. It’s also your chance to showcase any initial traction that shows you’re on the right track.

Market analysis and target market

A detailed assessment of the market you intend to enter, including the size and value of the market, potential customer segments, and their buying patterns.

Competition

Show that you know who your competitors are, what advantages you have, and how you’re positioning your business to be competitive.

Marketing & sales

Describe how you’ll reach and sell to potential customers with a detailed sales plan and chosen marketing channels.

What makes your business run? Outline the day-to-day workflows and what needs to be set up for your business to deliver a product or service.

Milestones & metrics

Set goals for your business that include the dates and people responsible for accomplishing them. This is what you’ll use to manage responsibilities, track growth, and execute your larger strategy.

Company overview and team

Provide a brief rundown of the legal and structural components of your company, including your history, current team, and gaps you need to fill.

Financial plan

Create well-structured and accurate financial statements to help you pitch to investors, land funding, and achieve long-term success. All without the help of a financial advisor or a degree in accounting.

While not required, this last section of your business plan is a great place to drop in additional documents that support and strengthen the rest of your plan.

How do you write a simple business plan?

If you’re exploring a business idea and don’t plan to pursue funding, then you actually don’t need to write a traditional business plan. Instead, opt for a one-page plan , which is far easier to create but just as effective.

To write a simple one-page business plan, follow the same core sections as a traditional plan. But instead of lengthy paragraphs and multiple pages covering each area of your business, stick with single sentences and bulleted lists.

If a one-page plan sounds like a better option, download our free simple business plan template to get started.

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Business plan template FAQ

What file formats are available for this business plan template?

You can download and use this business plan template as a Google Doc, .docx (Microsoft Word), or PDF.

Can you print out this template?

This is a printable business plan template that can be downloaded and printed no matter which format you choose.

Why should you start with a business plan template?

Starting with a good business plan template (like this one) includes everything you need to get started. It helps you organize your thoughts, and provides guidance, instructions, and examples to create an investor-ready and SBA-approved business plan format. It really speeds up the planning process. Oh, and it's 100% free!

Is writing a business plan easy?

Using a business plan template can make writing a business plan easier. Additionally, if you focus on just getting your information down quickly, with the expectation that you'll revisit and revise your plan, you can speed up and simplify the process .

Can someone write your business plan for you?

If you're still struggling to write your business plan even when using a template, you can look into hiring a professional business plan writer. We even have a free resource to help you ask just the right questions  to make sure you find the right plan writer.

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• How Saudi Aramco plans to win the oil endgame

The world’s biggest energy firm is the linchpin of the kingdom’s ambitions

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T HE MANAGERS of Saudi Aramco could have the cushiest jobs in the energy business. The oil colossus produces 11m barrels of oil a day, more than any other firm and a tenth of the world’s total (see chart 1). It boasts by far the largest proven reserves of the stuff, which would last into the second half of the century at current pumping rates. Its piddling production costs of $3 a barrel, a tenth of what many Western private-sector rivals must content themselves with, allowed it to generate an eye-watering $282bn in total net profit over the past two years. And although its oil burns as dirtily as any other, Aramco emits less carbon when liberating it from rock formations than competitors do. That makes the company’s product appealing in a world increasingly concerned about global warming but still hooked on hydrocarbons .

As less generously endowed rivals fall by the wayside, Aramco’s market share would, in other words, be almost certain to rise with a few modest investments in maintaining reservoirs. Yet the company’s employees are busier than ever. That is because Aramco is the linchpin of the strategy of Muhammad bin Salman , Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto ruler, to end his country’s reliance on its oil riches, diversify its economy and decarbonise its energy production.

Aramco is, for a start, the chief source of funds for this vision. On June 2nd it launched a long-awaited secondary share offering, hoping to raise $13bn in exchange for just 0.7% or so of its government-held stock. This followed a record-breaking $30bn initial public offering in 2019. Some of the money will again flow to the Public Investment Fund, the main vehicle for the kingdom’s sovereign wealth.

Yet Aramco is more than just a princely piggy bank. As the kingdom’s most important business, it also has to transform itself in line with the royal strategy. “Our goal is to make our energy source as affordable and sustainable as possible,” says Ahmad al-Khowaiter, Aramco’s head of technology and innovation.

Achieving that goal involves a three-pronged strategy. Its first element is to double down on oil, but to extract it in ever-cleaner ways. Aramco is planning to spend between $48bn and $58bn this year on capital investments. Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy, reckons it will disburse more than $200bn on exploration and production between 2024 and 2030, far and away the most in the industry. At the same time, Mr al-Khowaiter stresses that his firm is determined to keep its own emissions in check. It routinely uses sophisticated modelling and clever drilling technology to minimise how much carbon is released in its operations. It has pledged to spew no net greenhouse gases by 2050, a decade ahead of Saudi Arabia’s national target.

In particular, Aramco is cracking down on methane, the main ingredient of natural gas, which is often produced alongside oil. Since 2012 it has flared less than 1% of this potent planet-cooking compound, compared with perhaps 4% that America’s shalemen set alight. As a member of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, a group of large oil firms, it has vowed to reduce methane emissions to close to zero by 2030. At Abqaiq, the world’s largest oil-processing facility, Aramco staff show off drones being used to sniff out leaks of the gas, so they can be patched up. Recent analysis of satellite data by Kayrros, a French analytics firm, shows that methane intensity from Saudi oil and gas production last year was the second-lowest in the world, behind only greener-than-thou Norway.

The second pillar of Aramco’s strategy involves broadening its hydrocarbon portfolio to reduce its exposure to oil, which has historically dominated its production and exports. This pivot gained sudden momentum earlier in the year when the government ordered Aramco to stop work on expanding its maximum oil-production capacity by 1m barrels per day, from 12m-13m. With the global market well supplied and the country sitting on a lot of spare capacity, the expansion made little sense. And the $40bn or so of capital spending that it would have consumed between 2024 and 2028 can be put to use elsewhere.

One area of diversification is natural gas. Because it burns more cleanly than oil or coal, and because the resulting CO 2 emissions are more concentrated and thus easier to capture and store, it is considered by many governments a realistic bridge to a greener energy future. Aramco wants to produce 165bn cubic metres of gas a year by 2030, up from 110bn in 2022.

Petrochemicals, another big area of interest for Aramco, could soak up a further $100bn in Saudi investments this decade. The firm plans to direct 1m barrels of its oil into making such products. SABIC , a Saudi petrochemical company in which Aramco has a 70% stake, is working with two industrial giants, BASF and Linde, on technology that converts oil into chemicals using electricity rather than natural gas to heat the process. A full-scale pilot plant was inaugurated in Germany in April.

This points to the third pillar of Aramco’s master plan—decarbonisation. The company has turned itself into one of the biggest green investors in the energy world (see chart 2). A tenth of its capital spending (equivalent to $4bn-5bn a year) and a sixth of its research-and-development budget (another $540m) are earmarked for non-hydrocarbon investments. Last year a fifth of the roughly 1,000 patents Aramco secured in America related to decarbonisation and digital technologies, up from a seventh in 2022. The company is also planning to place $2bn of its $4bn in new venture-capital wagers on such things. During a visit to Saudi Arabia in May by Jennifer Granholm, America’s energy secretary, Aramco signed agreements with several American green startups.

The most mature of the green technologies in Aramco’s sights is renewable power. Rystad Energy, a research firm, estimates that the company will develop 12 gigawatts ( GW ) in wind and solar capacity by 2030, up from virtually nothing a few years ago. Prince Muhammad has ordained that half the country’s currently filthy power-generation mix must be clean by 2030. Thanks to scorching desert sun and, in places, fierce night winds, Saudi renewables projects enjoy among the lowest costs in the world. One of the startups that tagged along with Ms Granholm was Rondo, which is developing batteries that store renewable energy as heat.

Some of this clean power can be used to produce equally clean hydrogen, which could replace hydrocarbons both as a store of energy and in some industrial processes such as steelmaking. In addition to this “green” hydrogen, made by splitting it from oxygen in water molecules using lots of renewable energy, Aramco wants to become the world leader in “blue” hydrogen, which is derived from natural gas but in a process that prevents the resulting carbon from reaching the atmosphere.

As part of this effort the company is working with Topsoe, a Danish engineering firm, on ways to reduce such emissions. It has already shipped small quantities of blue ammonia, a gas from which hydrogen can be easily derived but which is less fiddly to transport, to customers in Asia. These were the first-ever commercial shipments to be independently certified as low-carbon. Aramco plans to make 11m tonnes of blue ammonia per year by 2030, a fifth of what the International Energy Agency, an official forecaster, expects to be the global market for the stuff.

Hydrogen can also be used to produce synthetic liquid fuels that would do the same job—and use the same infrastructure—as petrol, diesel and aviation fuel, minus the carbon emissions. Aramco is planning to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in partnership with Repsol, a Spanish oil company, to produce such “drop-in” e-fuels. As a proof of concept, Mr al-Khowaiter points to Formula One motor racing. Starting in 2026 the teams, including Aramco’s partnership with Aston Martin, a British sports-car maker, will have to use 100% sustainable fuels.

All Aramco’s blue-hydrogen plans rely on its ability to capture the carbon emitted in its production. As its collaboration with Topsoe and its shipments of blue ammonia to Asia show, it is having some success in this area. But its carbon-capture plans are much grander, and go far beyond hydrogen production.

Many of Saudi Arabia’s sources of industrial carbon emissions, whether oilfields or petrochemical plants, are conveniently near rock formations where the captured emissions can be stored (see map). Aramco is working with Linde and SLB , an American oil-services firm, to build a vast hub in Jubail, an eastern city. This could capture 6m tonnes a year of Aramco’s own emissions, and another 3m from industrial customers, and either sequester them underground or turn them into useful products such as fertiliser (into which SABIC has been turning carbon at one of its chemical plants since 2015). The company’s long-term ambition is to capture 44m tonnes of CO 2 a year, equivalent to about 7% of Saudi emissions today. It looks likely, experts reckon, to reach its initial goal of 6m tonnes from 2026.

Most ambitiously of all, Aramco is working with companies like Siemens, a German engineering giant, and Spiritus, another of Ms Granholm’s startup travel companions, on “direct air capture” equipment. This can offset emissions elsewhere in Aramco’s operations, by scrubbing carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere rather than from industrial point sources—or, eventually, from the burning of its oil by motorists and other end-users.

None of these green bets is guaranteed to pay off. Meeting the royal target of 50% clean electricity generation looks a stretch, given that the figure today is 3%. Blue ammonia, which costs the equivalent of $250 per barrel of oil, three times the current price of crude, remains too expensive to persuade buyers to sign long-term contracts. Synthetic fuels could likewise prove a costly and energy-intensive dead-end that serves only to slow the electrification of transport. As for snatching carbon from industrial flues, let alone from the atmosphere, despite years of efforts the technology remains pricey, untested at scale and controversial among environmentalists, many of whom see it as a pretext for not cutting emissions in the first place.

Many of Aramco’s decarbonisation plans are indeed designed to keep the world using its products, says Christyan Malek of JPMorgan Chase, a bank. But, he adds, it also involves making those products “as green as possible”. Helima Croft of RBC Capital Markets, an investment firm, says that given the level of Aramco’s non-oil investments, the Saudi strategy cannot simply be dismissed as “window dressing”. Such assurances will not persuade diehard environmental campaigners to embrace what they view as one of the world’s chief climate villains. For climate realists, the oil giant’s efforts can be seen as a real step in the right direction. ■

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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Turning brown desert into green oasis”

Business June 8th 2024

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