Sample business plan: 5 steps to create a document

Business plan: sample and purpose of the document + reasons for drawing up + 5 stages of creation + writing features for investors and for personal purposes + structure + 15 tips + 7 illustrative examples.

Any actions must be planned and displayed on paper. This is especially true for entrepreneurship. No business planning, i.e. detailed optimization of resources and determination of further tasks, even an experienced entrepreneur will not be able to achieve their goals.

Therefore, it is so important to have at hand sample business plan and compose it correctly. This material will help you with this.

Why and who needs a business plan?

There are several definitions of a business plan on the Internet.

The most common ones are:

Those. a business plan is a document that describes in detail and ways to implement it. Thanks to him, you can fully justify your project, evaluate the effectiveness of decisions made from all sides, understand the feasibility of financing for a particular activity.

The business plan shows:

business development prospects;
sales market volumes, potential consumers;
profitability of the project;
forthcoming expenses for the production and sale of products, the supply of its market, etc.

A business development plan is a tool that evaluates the final results of activities for a specific period of time. It can be used to attract investors and is necessary in creating a business concept, a company's strategy.

Drawing up a business plan is one of the important, crucial stages of planning. It is being developed both for those enterprises that produce goods and for those whose specialization is the provision of services.

Before writing a business plan, specialists or the owner of the company determine the tasks, the means for their implementation. The developed document can attract lenders to implement ideas. For this reason, it is impossible to exaggerate its importance.

Business development plan purpose:

analysis of aspects of entrepreneurship;
competent management of finances, operations;
justification of the need to obtain investments (bank loans, equity participation of companies in the implementation of the project, budget allocations, etc.);
taking into account the financial capabilities and threats (risks) of the enterprise;
selection of the optimal direction of development.

Entrepreneurs write business plans for the following reasons:

Features of drawing up a plan for personal purposes and creditors

It is important to see the difference between a business plan, which is written for internal use, and a document, so to speak "ceremonial", to be transferred to creditors.

1. Create a plan for personal purposes.

If you intend to use a sample business plan and write it for yourself, please note that it will take the form of a practical guide to further actions.

In this case, the business development plan should answer the following questions:

What kind of activity are you (will you be doing)?
What product / service does your company offer to the market?
Who are the consumers, clients?
What goals should you achieve?
What means are needed to achieve the goals?
Who is responsible for completing certain tasks?
How long does it take to cope?
What investments will be required?
What results should the actions lead to?

You need to understand that when drawing up a working document, you need to reflect the real state of affairs in order to know in which direction to move, what to take, what to strive for.

2. Document for investors.

When developing a business plan for the purpose of providing lenders / investors, the methodology is different. The person or organization that will finance your venture should receive a document detailing the situation and the main objectives.

It is your responsibility to convince investors that their money will be used rationally, to identify benefits for them. A business plan must be drawn up logically, every action must be justified.

If you are in doubt in any area, study it more carefully, because according to the program you have outlined, lenders will most likely have "uncomfortable" questions. And how you answer them, the amount of the initial investment for opening / developing your own business will depend.

Confidence in the presentation is also of particular importance. It is good if you can display statistics in the business plan, referring to the example of another company. This will increase your chances of getting your investment.

When writing a business plan, it is worth sticking to the business style and following the structure.

Sample business plan: structure

Regardless of the purpose for which you are drawing up a plan, work with it takes place in 5 stages:

As a business builder, you will have no problem making the first two points. But what should be a competent structure of a business plan?

Let's take a look at the main sections, what information they contain and how to compose them correctly.

# 1. Title page.

He acts as such a visiting card for himself. It indicates: the name of your company, contact information, address information, phone numbers of the founders.

In addition, the title should contain the content of the entire document (chapter - page number). When composing a title, be short, and present information concisely.

The total volume of the business plan is about 30-35 pages, taking into account the attachments.

* Business plan (sample title page)

No. 2. An introductory part of a sample business development plan.

It takes approximately 2 A4 sheets. The introduction describes the main aspects of your business, its essence, what advantages it has.

It is necessary to write what the product / service is attractive to buyers, what is the size of the expected profit. If you intend to raise funds for a business, the introductory part indicates the amount of capital that you need.

Usually the introduction is devoted to the following points of the plan:

The introductory part is made up last, because it describes the general picture of the company's activities.
You can fully depict it only after studying all the nuances of the case.

You can study a sample of this and other parts of the plan at the end of this material - there are collected examples of this document for the main areas of business.

No. 3. The main body of the business plan.

The main section concerns the type of activity and all its key points, the cost of the project.

It consists of subsections:

production;
financial;
marketing;
organizational;
business efficiency calculation;
risks.

We'll look at them separately.

In the end follows final part... In it, you need to take stock of the work done, give a clear definition of the tasks.

Subsections of the main part of business plans

# 1. Development of the production subsection of the business plan.

The main section of the document is the most capacious. Its subsections represent each aspect of your case.

For example, industrial shows what equipment will be used, what premises you have, how much money will be needed to purchase and launch a business.

Also, this plan is intended so that you can calculate the production capacity, determine the likely prospects for growth in production volumes.

In addition, it contains information on the full provision of raw materials, components, highlights the need for labor, time and fixed costs of the business.

To ensure that the production subsection of the plan has a clear structure and contains all the necessary information, indicate:

how well the production process is established, are there innovative solutions;
methods of supplying resources, the degree of development of the transport system;
a complete description of the technologies, why they were chosen;
whether it is necessary to buy / rent premises for doing business;
the composition of the required personnel and all data about it, labor costs;
possible maximum volume of products;
information about suppliers, business subcontractors;
the cost of each product;
an estimate with a mention of running costs, etc.

No. 2. Development of the financial subsection of the plan.

Financial plan summarizes all the stated data by economic indicators for business, i.e. in a cost option.

This includes business reports:

Balance sheet (confirming the company's ability to timely settle its monetary obligations).

Financial results, profit and loss.

It highlights the sources of profit, how losses appeared, estimates changes in business income / expenses that occurred in the reporting period, etc.

About the movement of money.

This report allows you to see operating results, long-term creditworthiness, short-term liquidity.

The financial subsection of a business plan is also characterized by the presence of:

charts of future financial activities,
descriptions of probable investments.

Thoroughly consider the investment opportunity, whether it will be profitable, about the target direction of the investment. Write how you will return the funds attracted to the business.

Try to include in the financial part of your business plan:

No. 3. Development of a marketing subsection of a business plan.

The marketing subsection concerns the analysis of the sales market for the products manufactured by your company. You must indicate in the plan the size, dynamics and trends of the market, its segments, conjuncture.

In addition, the subsection informs about who are the consumers of the business products, what strategy will be used to promote the product.

It calculates consumption volumes, the estimated market share, describes the levers used to influence demand (advertising campaign, pricing, product improvement, etc.), and the competitiveness of the business.

It is necessary to evaluate your product from the point of view of the consumer, what makes it attractive, what is its consumer value, is it safe to use, and the service life.

When making your marketing plan, rely on the following points:

To draw up a marketing plan, information is taken from the external environment, appropriate research and surveys are carried out, professional marketers are involved in order to study the market situation.

No. 4. Development of an organizational subsection of the plan.

In terms of doing business, organizational issues are considered equally important. Therefore, in this subsection, you must describe all the steps that will be taken to implement the project.

For example, as shown in the sample in the picture:

It is better to present the information in the plan in a tabular form so that the sequence of your actions is clearly visible. It would not hurt to mention the normative and legislative acts that govern the chosen field of activity.

In organizational terms, it is worth describing the management side, the responsibilities of all employees, the system of subordination and reward (remuneration), and describe the company's internal regime.

Remember to follow the structure in the sample:

No. 5. How to draw up a calculation of efficiency and probable risks?

In the penultimate sections, you need to give an objective assessment of the company's performance, show the expected prospects based on the estimate, balance sheet, profitability threshold, and projected sales.

The developer of the business plan must write the payback period, NPV (net present value).

The best option would be to arrange this in a table, as in the example below:

Business risks should also be considered. Be sure to indicate in the plan what measures you will take, if any, to minimize, which self-insurance program to resort to.

Experienced business planners pay particular attention to risks, and consider the likelihood of the worst possible outcome. By taking notes on how to fix the perceived difficulties, you will make your future work easier. If losses and financial losses arise, you will already know how to compensate them.

When this section of the business plan causes difficulties, they turn to experts for help.

Business SWOT analysis is often used for this purpose:

This is a method for identifying external / internal factors that influence business development.

Thanks to him, you will be able to evaluate:

their weaknesses (suppose the need to rent a building, unrecognizable brand),
advantages (low price, high service, professional staff),
designate opportunities (these include the availability of funds for the introduction of innovations, the use of modern equipment, coverage of a larger market segment, etc.).

And, ultimately, threats are considered that you cannot reverse, for example:

economic crisis,
deterioration of the demographic situation,
increase in customs duties,
growing political tension,
fierce competition, etc.

If you provide a clear and reasonable algorithm for solving risks in the document, it is guaranteed that you can attract partners and creditors for your business.

15 tips for beginners to write a competent business plan

very painstaking and complex. In the process of compiling it, many questions will arise. For this reason, most beginners make mistakes.

To avoid them and make your business plan worthwhile, follow these guidelines:

Before you start writing, it is better to look at more than one sample of drawing up a business plan.

It is easy to find illustrative examples on the Internet, and they may even relate to your line of business.

There is no need to "pour water", thinking that the document is supposed to be voluminous.

A business plan should contain only important, realistic information that is of interest to investors and is useful to you in doing business (as in the examples below).

Errors, corrections, misprints are strictly not allowed.
The business plan should reflect the ability of your enterprise to reach a higher level and the strengths of the management team.
When developing a business plan, one should not underestimate the competition and possible difficulties.
If the information you want to display is confidential, you must skip it.

Do not whip up the document.

Such a plan will not have the desired impression on lenders. If you compose it for yourself, all the same, it should not be in the form of a draft version.

Use more tables, graphs (as in the samples below).

Providing statistics in this way makes the material more descriptive.

Market analysis is often inaccurate.

Therefore, approach the marketing section responsibly, collect all the necessary data.

Be sure to provide competitive and distinctive characteristics in your business plan.

Throw out too abstruse expressions from the business plan, as well as those that are understood ambiguously and demonstrate your insolvency.

For example, “a product that has no analogues”, “at the stage of consideration”, “ease of sale”, etc.

Consider absolutely all business expenses.

Lenders consider this column to be particularly important. Therefore, they may have a lot of questions for you on such items as salary to personnel, taxes, purchase of raw materials, etc.

Don't ignore risk considerations.

As mentioned, this will protect you from the challenges you face in achieving your goals, and will also allow investors to see you as a serious, responsible entrepreneur.

Focus on the business plan not on the first profit, big earnings, but on a stable cash flow.

Remember to include time limits.

Any task has a deadline (quarter, year, several years).

If you are not sure that you can master a business plan on your own, even using the samples below, do not spare the money for a specialist.

He understands this issue more than you do, so he will draw up a document accurately, without technical, methodological and conceptual oversights that you can make without proper experience.

A detailed diagram of a high-quality business plan with explanations

you will find in this video:

Ready-made business plans (samples) for different areas of activity

The pharmaceutical business does not lose its relevance, because the need for medicines does not disappear. Moreover, most of the family budget is usually spent on medicines.

Because of this, opening a pharmacy is a very profitable business.

Therefore, it makes sense to take a closer look at the example of such a business plan in this sample:.

If you are looking to pursue a different field, consider opening a cafe.

There are quite a lot of such establishments and the competition is great. However, the demand for them is growing. If you take into account all the points of arrangement, you will offer healthy food, you will surely be successful.

To get the document right, check out the sample cafe business plan!

The male half of the population may be interested in the idea of organizing a car service.

The owner of the service station will not be left without income if the activities for the repair and maintenance of vehicles are detailed with all the ensuing factors in the business plan.

You can sample it.