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Business Plan Template for Small Businesses

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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.

Start your business plan today

Whether you're writing a business plan to validate your business idea, secure funding, or grow your existing business – our template will help you achieve your goals.

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 to Build a Detailed Business Plan That Stands Out [Free Template]

Updated: March 29, 2022

Published: March 11, 2022

While starting a company may seem easier now than ever before, entrepreneurs have an uphill battle from the moment they start a business. And without a clear, actionable business plan for selling, marketing, finances, and operations, you're almost destined to face significant challenges.

This is why crafting a business plan is an essential step in the entrepreneurial process.

In this post, we'll walk you through the process of filling out your business plan template, like this free, editable version :

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

We know that when looking at a blank page on a laptop screen, the idea of writing your business plan can seem impossible. However, it's a mandatory step to take if you want to turn your business dreams into a reality.

That's why we've crafted a business plan template for you to download and use to build your new company. You can download it here for free . It contains prompts for all of the essential parts of a business plan, all of which are elaborated on, below.

This way, you'll be able to show them how organized and well-thought-out your business idea is, and provide them with answers to whatever questions they may have.

Free Business Plan Template

The essential document for starting a business -- custom built for your needs.

• Outline your idea.
• Pitch to investors.
• Secure funding.
• Get to work!

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Building a Successful Business Plan

In the next section, we'll cover the components of a business plan , such as an executive summary and company description. But before we get to that, let's talk about key elements that should serve as building blocks for your plan.

For some entrepreneurs, the thought of writing a business plan sounds like a chore — a necessary means to an end. But that's a bad take.

A solid business plan is a blueprint for success . It's key to securing financing, presenting your business, outlining your financial projections, and turning that nugget of a business idea into a reality.

At the core, your business plan should answer two questions: why your business and why now?

Investors want to know why your business is entering the market, i.e. what problem it's solving and how it's different from what's currently out there. They also want to know why now is the right time for your type of product or service.

At a minimum, your plan should:

• Be more realistic than idealistic: Too often, business plans focus too much on how things could be instead of how they are. While having a vision is important, your plan needs to be rooted in research and data.
• Legitimize your business idea : If an idea fails on paper, it's a signal to go back to the drawing board. In doing so, you avoid losing precious time or money chasing an unrealistic idea.
• Position your business for funding: To get your business off the ground, chances are you'll need financial backing. Even with a solid business idea, investors, lenders, and banks still need convincing. An effective business plan will outline how much money you need, where it's going, what targets you will hit, and how you plan to repay any debts.
• Lay the foundation: Investors focus on risk – if anything looks shaky, it could be a dealbreaker. Ideally, your business plan will lay down the foundation for how you'll operate your business — from operational needs to financial projections and goals.
• Communicate your needs: It's nearly impossible to communicate your needs if you don't know what they are first. Of course, a business’ needs are always changing — but your plan should give you a well-rounded view of how your business will work in the short and long term.

So back to the question of why and why now – consider three things:

• Your industry – How does your product or service fit within your industry? Are you targeting a specific niche? Where do you see the industry going in the next five to 10 years?
• Your target audience – Who are you targeting? What challenges are they facing? How will your product or service help them in their daily lives?
• Your unique selling proposition (USP) – What sets you apart from your competitors? Is it your product/service features? Your company values? Price?

Once you know the answers to these questions, you'll be equipped to answer the question: why your business and why now.

How to Build a Business Plan

• Executive Summary
• Company and Business Description
• Product and Services Line
• Market Analysis
• Marketing Plan
• Legal Notes
• Financial Considerations

Featured Resource: Free Business Plan Template

1. cover page.

Your business plan should be prefaced with an eye-catching cover page. This means including a high-resolution image of your company logo, followed by your company's name, address, and phone number.

Since this business plan will likely change hands and be seen by multiple investors, you should also provide your own name, role in the business, and email address on the cover page.

At the bottom of this page, you can also add a confidentiality statement to protect against the disclosure of your business details.

The statement can read as follows: " This document contains confidential and proprietary information created by [your company name]. When receiving this document, you agree to keep its content confidential and may only reproduce and/or share it with express written permission of [your company name] ."

Remember to keep your cover page simple and concise — and save the important details for other sections.

Why it matters: First impressions are everything, and a clean cover page is the first step in the right direction.

Example of a Cover Page

2. Executive Summary

The executive summary of your business plan provides a one- to two-page overview of your business and highlights the most crucial pieces of your plan, such as your short-term and long-term goals.

The executive summary is essentially a boiled-down version of your entire business plan, so remember to keep this section to the point and filled only with essential information.

Typically, this brief section includes:

• A mission statement.
• The company's history and leadership model.
• An overview of competitive advantage(s).
• Financial projections.
• Company goals.
• An ask from potential investors.

Why it matters: The executive summary is known as the make-or-break section of a business plan. It influences whether investors turn the page or not — so effectively summarizing your business and the problem it hopes to solve is a must.

Think of the Summary as a written elevator pitch (with more detail). While your business plan provides the nitty-gritty details, your Summary describes — in a compelling but matter-of-fact language — the highlights of your plan. If it's too vague, complicated, or fuzzy, you may need to scrap it and start again.

Example of an Executive Summary Introduction

"The future looks bright for North Side Chicago, particularly the Rock Hill Neighborhood. A number of high-end commercial and residential developments are well on their way, along with two new condo developments in nearby neighborhoods.

While the completion of these developments will increase the population within the neighborhood and stimulate the economy, the area lacks an upscale restaurant where residents and visitors can enjoy fine food and drink. Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will provide such a place."

3. Company & Business Description

In this section, provide a more thorough description of what your company is and why it exists.

The bulk of the writing in this section should be about your company's purpose – covering what the business will be selling, identifying the target market, and laying out a path to success.

In this portion of your business plan, you can also elaborate on your company's:

• Mission statement
• Core values
• Team and organizational structure

Why it matters: Investors look for great structures and teams in addition to great ideas. This section gives an overview of your businesses' ethos. It's the perfect opportunity to set your business apart from the competition — such as your team's expertise, your unique work culture, and your competitive advantage.

Example of a Values/Mission Statement

"Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will be the go-to place for people to get a drink or bite in an elegant, upscale atmosphere. The mission is to be North Side's leading restaurant, with the best tasting food and the highest quality service."

3. Product & Services Line

Here's where you'll cover the makeup of your business's product and/or services line. You should provide each product or service's name, its purpose, and a description of how it works (if appropriate). If you own any patents, copyrights, or trademarks, it's essential to include this info too.

Next, add some color to your sales strategy by outlining your pricing model and mark-up amounts.

If you're selling tangible products, you should also explain production and costs, and how you expect these factors to change as you scale.

Why it matters: This section contains the real meat of your business plan. It sets the stage for the problem you hope to solve, your solution, and how your said solution fits in the market.

There's no one-size-fits-all formula for this section. For instance, one plan may delve into its ability to market in a more cost-effective way than the competition, whereas another plan focuses on its key products and their unique features and benefits.

Regardless of your angle, it's critical to convey how your offerings will differ from the competition.

Example of a Product/Service Offering

"The menu at Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will focus on Moroccan cuisine. The stars of the menu (our specialties) are the Moroccan dishes, such as eggplant zaalouk, seafood bastilla, tagine, and chickpea stew. For those who enjoy American dishes, there will also be a variety of options, from burger sliders and flatbread pizza to grilled steak and salads.

The food at Jay Street will have premium pricing to match its upscale atmosphere. During the summer months, the restaurant will have extra seating on the patio where clients can enjoy a special summer menu. We will be open on all days of the week."

4. Market Analysis

It helps to reference your market research documentation in this section, like a Porter's Five Forces Analysis or a SWOT Analysis ( templates for those are available here ). You can also include them in your appendix.

If your company already has buyer personas, you should include them here as well. If not, you can create them right now using the Make My Persona Tool .

Why it matters: Having an awesome product is, well, awesome — but it isn't enough. Just as important, there must be a market for it.

This section allows you to dig deeper into your market, which segments you want to target, and why. The "why" here is important, since targeting the right segment is critical for the success and growth of your business.

It's easy to get lost (or overwhelmed) in a sea of endless data. For your business plan, narrow your focus by answering the following questions:

• What is my market? In other words, who are my customers?
• What segments of the market do I want to target?
• What's the size of my target market?
• Is my market likely to grow?
• How can I increase my market share over time?

Example of a Market Analysis

"Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will target locals who live and work within the Rock Hill Neighborhood and the greater North Side Chicago area. We will also target the tourists who flock to the many tourist attractions and colleges on the North Side.

We will specifically focus on young to middle-aged adults with an income of $40,000 to $80,000 who are looking for an upscale experience. The general demographics of our target market are women between 20 to 50 years old.

A unique and varied Moroccan-American menu, along with our unique upscale atmosphere, differentiates us from competitors in the area. Jay Street will also set itself apart through its commitment to high-quality food, service, design, and atmosphere."

5. Marketing Plan

Unlike the market analysis section, your marketing plan section should be an explanation of the tactical approach to reaching your aforementioned target audience. List your advertising channels, organic marketing methods, messaging, budget, and any relevant promotional tactics.

If your company has a fully fleshed-out marketing plan, you can attach it in the appendix of your business plan. If not, download this free marketing plan template to outline your strategy.

Free Marketing Plan Template

Outline your company's marketing strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

• Pre-Sectioned Template
• Completely Customizable
• Example Prompts
• Professionally Designed

Why it matters: Marketing is what puts your product in front of your customers. It's not just advertising — it's an investment in your business.

Throwing money into random marketing channels is a haphazard approach, which is why it's essential to do the legwork to create a solid marketing plan.

Here's some good news — by this point, you should have a solid understanding of your target market. Now, it's time to determine how you'll reach them.

Example of a Marketing Plan Overview

"Our marketing strategy will focus on three main initiatives:

• Social media marketing. We will grow and expand our Facebook and Instagram following through targeted social media ads.
• Website initiatives. Our website will attract potential visitors by offering updated menus and a calendar of events.
• Promotional events. Jay Street will have one special theme night per week to attract new clients."

6. Sales Plan

It doesn't matter if your sales department is an office full of business development representatives (BDR) or a dozen stores with your products on their shelves.

The point is: All sales plans are different, so you should clearly outline yours here. Common talking points include your:

• Sales team structure, and why this structure was chosen.
• Sales channels.
• Sales tools, software, and resources.
• Prospecting strategy.
• Sales goals and budget.

Like with your marketing plan, it might make sense to attach your completed sales plan to the appendix of your business plan. You can download a template for building your sales plan here .

Why it matters: Among other things, investors are interested in the scalability of your business — which is why growth strategies are a critical part of your business plan.

Your sales plan should describe your plan to attract customers, retain them (if applicable), and, ultimately, grow your business. Be sure to outline what you plan to do given your existing resources and what results you expect from your work.

Example of a Sales Plan Overview

"The most important goal is to ensure financial success for Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant. We believe we can achieve this by offering excellent food, entertainment, and service to our clients.

We are not a low-cost dining option in the area. Instead, the food will have premium pricing to match its upscale feel. The strategy is to give Jay Street a perception of elegance through its food, entertainment, and excellent service."

7. Legal Notes

Your investors may want to know the legal structure of your business, as that could directly impact the risk of their investments. For example, if you're looking for business partners to engage in a non-corporation or LLC partnership, this means they could be on the line for more than their actual investment.

Because this clarification is often needed, explain if you are and/or plan to become a sole proprietor, partnership, corporation, LLC, or other.

You should also outline the steps you have taken (or will need to take) to operate legally. This includes licenses, permits, registrations, and insurance.

The last thing your investor wants to hear after they've sent you a big chunk of change is that you're operating without proper approval from the local, state, or federal government.

Why it matters: The last thing your investor wants to hear after they've sent you a big chunk of change is that you're operating without proper approval from the local, state, or federal government.

Example of Legal Notes

"Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant is up-to-date on all restaurant licenses and health permits. Our business name and logo are registered trademarks, presenting the possibility of expanding locally."

8. Financial Considerations

Ultimately, investors want to know two things:

• When they will earn their money back.
• When they will start seeing returns on their initial investment.

That said, be clear, calculated, and convincing in this section. It should cover:

• Startup costs.
• Sales forecasts for the next several months/quarters.
• Break-even analysis for time and dollars.
• Projected profit and loss (P&L) statement.

Facts and figures are key here, so be as specific as possible with each line item and projection. In addition, explain the "why" behind each of these sections.

However, keep in mind that information overload is a risk, especially when it comes to data. So, if you have pages upon pages of charts and spreadsheets for this section, distill them into a page or two and include the rest of the sheets in the appendix. This section should only focus on key data points.

Why it matters: One of the most important aspects of becoming "investor ready" is knowing your numbers. More importantly, you need to understand how those numbers will enhance your business.

While it's easy to write a number down on paper, it's more important to understand (and communicate) why you need capital, where it's going, and that your evaluation makes sense.

Example of Financial Projections

"Based on our knowledge and experience in the restaurant industry, we have come up with projections for the business.

Starting with an expenditure of $400,000 in year 1, we forecast sales of $1,500,000 and $2,800,000 for years two and three. We expect to achieve a net profit of 15% by year three."

9. Appendix

A detailed and well-developed business plan can range anywhere from 20 to 50 pages, with some even reaching upward of 80.

In many cases, the appendix is the longest section. Why? Because it includes the supportive materials mentioned in previous sections. To avoid disrupting the flow of the business plan with visuals, charts, and spreadsheets, business owners usually add them in the last section, i.e. the appendix.

Aside from what we've already mentioned – marketing plan, sales plan, department budgets, financial documents – you may also want to attach the following in the appendix:

• Marketing materials
• Market research data
• Licensing documentation
• Branding assets
• Floor plans for your location
• Mockups of your product
• Renderings of your office space or location design

Adding these pieces to the appendix enriches the reader's understanding of your business and proves you've put the work into your business plan without distracting from the main points throughout the plan.

Why it matters: An appendix helps the reader do their due diligence. It contains everything they need to support your business plan.

Keep in mind, however, that an appendix is typically necessary only if you're seeking financing or looking to attract business partners.

Use a Business Plan Template to Get Started

Writing a business plan shouldn't be an insurmountable roadblock to starting a business. Unfortunately, for all too many, it is.

That's why we recommend using our free business plan template. Pre-filled with detailed section prompts for all of the topics in this blog post, we're confident this template will get your business plan started in the right direction.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in June 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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2 Essential Templates For Starting Your Business

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

• Grasshopper

How to Create the Modern Business Plan for Your Startup

A fireside chat hosted by grasshopper academy.

No one starts a business because they are excited to spend time staring into their laptop, pounding out a business plan. Few, if any, entrepreneurs daydream about their plans and think, "This would look great in two dimensions of black and white type."

And yet entrepreneurs who complete a business plan are 21% more likely to grow their businesses, and are twice as likely to secure investment capital and/or loans.

While business plans continue to be scorned—if not totally ignored—by some new business owners, the truth is that potential investors, partners, and business mentors want to see something in writing. They need some evidence that an entrepreneur has done their due diligence, and really does know what they're talking about. The number of startups founded each year in the U.S. has been on a steady incline since 2010, so what makes you stand out?

That said, business plans today don't look like the business plans of 10 years ago. Investors are shifting their priorities to reflecting the changing market, and they have less and less time to read lengthy business documents.

Entrepreneurs today need to capitalize on the opportunities inherent in modern business plan structures, the doors they open with investors, and how they help build a business off the page.

Traditional vs Modern Business Plans

As long as entrepreneurs have dreamed big dreams, they have also been burdened with the task of trying to capture those dreams on business plans. As markets evolve and investment strategies change, the format and best-practices of creating business plans react and change and well.

Today, the ideal business plan is updating again. In fact, some entrepreneurs and business owners are skipping business plans all together.

Modern business plan example: "Make money, have fun." #frsdchat — propecta (@propecta) June 15, 2016

Others are using new softwares and strategies to create highly simplified versions of traditional business plans:

• Lean Canvas helps entrepreneurs create a one-page grid that lays out a business model in a format that is easy to digest and easy to update.
• Plan Cruncher is an online tool that helps busy business owners organize their ideas and info into a one-page business plan.
• LivePlan is a more robust software solution that helps entrepreneurs create modern business plans, and then grows with the company to put the plan into action.

Where traditional business plans could easily become tomes of graphs, charts, and excessive detail, modern business plans are concise, visually engaging, and flexible.

A traditional mindset over-prepares—thinks of every little deal. A modern approach says, "Let’s jump in and do this as we go." Jesse Lear, COO, VIP Waste

Despite what at first appear to be huge, fundamental changes, modern business plans still need to cover some of the traditional basics (even if they do it in a more efficient, well-designed way). Any investor or partner will still want to see about a dozen basic concepts:

Rather than reinvent the wheel, consider starting with the free Microsoft PowerPoint template Business Plan Preparation. These 11 slides cover Mission Statement, the Team, Market Summary, Opportunities, Business Concept, Competition, Goals and Objectives, Financial Plan, Resource Requirements, Risks and Rewards, and Key Issues. Gary Patterson, Fiscal Doctor

How much detail each of those areas needs, and what kind of information should supplement them, will depend largely on the business, industry, and market. Rather than consider what you want to tell an audience, think about what your audience wants to see.

Each plan is a little unique. Rule of thumb: If I were my audience, what would I want to see in order to be convinced of that plan? Put yourself your audience’s shoes. Jesse Lear

Consider the investor's POV when crafting your biz plan. What would they like or need to see? via @jesselear #Frsdchat — Sarah Nagel (@sprout_sarah) June 15, 2016

The substance of a good business plan hasn’t really changed as much as the presentation. Investors still need the same inspiration and assurances, but they have less time and more opportunities to invest. A good, modern business plan needs to cut through the noise.

3 Common Business Plan Mistakes You Don’t Always Hear About

There is no shortage of blog posts and web articles about common mistakes entrepreneurs make on their business plans. The chorus to all of them goes something like this:

• Poor grammar and/or structure
• Sloppy structure and/or presentation
• Vague and/or unrealistic forecasts or assumptions
• Poor research
• Failing to acknowledge the competition and/or challenges
• Inconsistencies

It’s all good advice, but it often leaves out three big-picture mistakes that get overlooked on modern business plans.

1. Losing Focus

It's easy to get lost in a sea of market research, industry analysis, financial projections, etc., because all of this data is accessible on an unprecedented level. So make sure your accurate, honest, well-structured data is also on task. Review your plan and ask yourself how every data point and number is related to your main idea. If it's unclear or only distantly related, remove it.

Going overboard is a common mistake: focusing on things that aren’t that important. Allan Christensen, COO, ToDoIst

2. Failing to Capture Short Attention Spans

Investors are intelligent business people, but they’re also very busy. Start with your elevator pitch, and make sure to engage your audience in the first few sentences.

The biggest mistake is trying to say too much upfront. Investors are inundated by hundreds of business plans each year and have short attention spans. If you can't clearly communicate the key points of your story in a few paragraphs, or better yet, a few sentences, the investor is not going to continue reading. George Deeb, Partner, Red Rocket VC

3. Confusing Passion with Pomp

Your business plan, short as it may be, should definitely convey passion for your solution or idea, but don’t let that enthusiasm lead to exaggerated or overestimated conclusions.

Avoid BS. (We can tell.) Do not overestimate your market, i.e. 5 billion people owning a computer is not a target for a computer accessory product you are selling. George Deeb, Partner, Gary Bizzo

Investors want to see creativity and confidence, but they’ve also seen their fair share of hot shots blow what could have been good opportunities. Be humbly enthusiastic.

3 Steps to a Killer Executive Summary

The executive summary is the movie trailer to your business plan. It is arguably the most important part of your plan, because it is often the only part anyone will read. It’s the bait, the first impression, the opening scene.

It’s supposed to sell; it’s not supposed to describe. How big is this opportunity? Allan Christensen

Steer clear of too many details in an executive summary of your biz plan, via @zjellstrom #Frsdchat — Sarah Nagel (@sprout_sarah) June 15, 2016

A good executive summary will grab your reader's attention and entice them to keep reading. It answers the, "Why?" more than the, "How?"

It is less about your product, and more about your proof-of-concept around that product. Less, "what you do," and more, "why you matter to customers." George Deeb

The stakes are definitely high, so how do you craft an executive summary that stands out from the crowd and gets your business plan considered?

1. Start at the Climax of Your Story

Your executive summary needs to tell a quick, gripping story. So think about some of the movies or books that really draw you in from the beginning: they tend to abandon the traditional plot line to some extent.

They don't start by setting the scene and slowly introducing rising action and conflict. The stories that pull you in right away start in the middle. They open with the conflict: the fight scene, the tragedy, the last 10 seconds on the glowing red countdown. Your executive summary should start there too.

It all comes down to pain or pleasure. You’re helping people avoid or get rid of a pain they have, or reach an opportunity for a pleasure they want. The executive summary should include that. The people reading are very smart people, so if there’s a good opportunity there, they’ll recognize it. Jesse Lear

2. Introduce the Hero (You)

Now that you’ve described the problem or opportunity, briefly outline how you, your team, and/or your brand are uniquely qualified and capable of solving it.

"Investors invest in people, not plans." - Jesse Lear #frsdchat // #startup #entrepreneur #smb — propecta (@propecta) June 15, 2016

Do you have connections? Patents? Clients or customers? What experience and/or insights make you and your team unique? Assume the investor is meeting with a dozen other entrepreneurs who want to address the same pain point that you do — why should they choose you over the others?

@Grasshopper executive summary should include the differentiation of your product / service #frsdchat — Kyle Golding (@KyleGolding) June 15, 2016

3. Make It Urgent

Don't wrap up your executive summary without creating some urgency. Opening at the climax of your story is a good start, but make sure the reader understands why the time to act is now. This makes your business plan timely, and helps make sure it will actually get read. Don’t leave investors feeling like you have a good idea, but all the time in the world to act on it—because then no one will ever act on it.

How to Find, Choose, and Talk to Investors

The time you spend in market research and industry analysis will almost always reveal companies and angels who have invested in similar solutions or startups as yours. If, however, you get a business plan put together, but you still aren’t sure who to talk to, here are a few tips:

• Talk to your business mentors. They might not have capital to invest themselves, but they will probably know people who do. There may also be the added benefit of an existing relationship, so a credible introduction would help you make a good first impression.
• Set up a profile on AngelList or Republic . These sites connect startups and investors, and make it easy for the later to invest. Set up a profile for your company and start sharing it on your social networks.
• Research recent winners in your industry. If you’re developing STEM toys for grade school kids, dig into industry news and find out what other STEM education startups were recently acquired. Their founders know your industry, agree with your passion, and—most importantly—have recently improved their net worth.
• Connect with an angel investors’ network. These networks let everybody win: investors get to stay anonymous and work with someone who vets opportunities for them, and entrepreneurs get access to groups of investors with one phone call. The ACA has a member directory to help you get started.

3 Secrets to Choosing the Right Investors

Once you know where to look, you’ll start seeing opportunities everywhere, but resist the urge to start pitching every potential investor you meet. These relationships are about more than just money, and you want to make sure you are partnering with the right people.

1. Vet Potential Investors

As a cash-strapped startup it might seem crazy to even think about weeding out potential investors, but it’s better for everyone in the long run.

Before talking with investors, look them up on LinkedIn. Look through their profiles, posts, and groups they belong to, to get a feel for the types of companies they are interested in and have invested in before. You should vet investors just like they are going to vet you and your business. Priyanka Prakas

Entrepreneurs and investors are two of the busyest types of people, and the last thing either of you wants to do is waste each other’s time on a relationship that doesn’t make sense. Look into the investor’s criteria and investment history, and don’t reach out unless your idea really fits within their interests and experience.

2. Check the Investors References

Definitely do not ask an investor for "references," but figure out whom they have invested in previously, and talk to those business owners.

Be sure to speak to CEOs of other companies that have raised capital from that investor, to serve as a reference. They will tell you how the investor's behavior changed, or not, before and after closing the deal. George Deeb

Ask about the entire experience: how that entrepreneur won the investor’s favor, how the investment process was handled, how the investor’s behavior changed (or didn’t), how the relationship has been maintained (or not). Investors are selling themselves a little bit too, so make sure you get the whole story.

3. Weigh the Non-Financial Benefits

Remember, it’s not just about the money. An investor will be part of your professional life for a long time, so as you are weighing the value of each opportunity, remember to consider non-monetary assets as well.

When choosing investors, always find people with deep pockets, but even deeper Rolodexes. Your investors should be worth a lot more than the cash they provide. Research their LinkedIn profiles and Google search for news articles about them to see what kind of successes they've had in the past. Find out who is in the investor's network that could help you accomplish your business goals. Leo Welder

Most importantly, make sure the investor is bringing you more than capital. Hopefully, they have deep expertise or relationships in your space to help accelerate your growth. Not all cash is the same shade of green. George Deeb

Consider assets like: industry experience (successes and failures); professional connections; and business, marketing, and/or industry expertise. Also take into account—if you’re working with individuals—the investor’s proximity to you and your business, and their availability. Someone you can take out for lunch regularly may be of much greater benefit to you and your company.

How to Talk to Investors

If you’re pursuing individuals, start building a relationship in whatever way is simplest. Don’t put the investor in a sales funnel and try to move them through to a sale—just network. If they are interested in partnering with you, you will know.

Relationships are key. If you have relationships, you should be having coffee with them and they’ll ask for your business plan. Put yourself in their shoes again: when it’s interesting to investors, share it. Jesse Lear

The key to maintaining an established investor relationship is confident humility. Of course you’re confident in your idea, your team, and your business, and that should be evident. But while every entrepreneur knows that their brand will grow and succeed, consider the investor’s risk as well and proceed appropriately.

Always treat money, people, and time as scarce and precious resources. The person you are asking for any of these wants to absolutely know you will return their investment quickly, with minimal risk, and with an obscene return for him/her. Gary Patterson

That grateful attitude will also serve you and your business. Keeping your requests modest will keep as much of the brand as possible under your control.

Only ask for the money you need—go low versus high. You don’t want to give up most of the company to an investor, therefore be conservative. Gary Bizzo

Investors have the potential to become a huge part of your business: don’t give that up to just anyone. It’s wise and considerate to thoroughly screen every opportunity. When you do find someone who might be a good fit, remember that individual is more than their net worth and build a relationship first.

From Plan to Practice: When and How to Hire

As investors sign on and your business gets off the page, you will start to face all of the difficult decisions related to hiring. Plan for this exciting and nerve-wracking time, and outline your strategy in your business plan.

First, make it clear that you know when to consider hiring.

Lonely entrepreneurs want a team, and start hiring a team they don’t need. That’s not good for anyone. Have you maximized yourself yet? When you literally can’t do it all, then it’s time to hire someone. Jesse Lear

Be willing to admit what you cannot do, so you know when it’s time to bring in help. What business skills and/or knowledge do you not have? What is your limit on hours/week that you can dedicate to the business?

@SproutJim 🙌 @Zjellstrom #Frsdchat — Sarah Nagel (@sprout_sarah) June 15, 2016

Second, outline the financial requirements and benefits of each of the first few positions you will need to fill. What financial milestone does the brand need to hit before you can hire? What kind of impact will those new hires have on your revenue stream, and how quickly?

Ideally, you should have at least three to six months of that person's salary in your business bank account. You should also think about how your first hires are going to make your business money and how quickly. Will they open up new revenue channels? Expand existing ones? After a new hire gets ramped up, they should add value to your business. Priyanka Prakas, Editor, Fit Small Business

Finally, create a plan for working with freelancers and contractors for as long as it is financially beneficial to do so. Freelancers can provide a lot of the services you might not be able to do yourself—from finances to graphic design to content marketing—without the financial burden of a salary, additional equipment, and/or employee benefits.

Today, it makes more sense to hire contractors than employees when first proving your business concept. Once you've proven that the model has a good chance for success, then you can considering hiring full-time employees (as long as you have the finances to cover them). Leo Welder, CEO, ChooseWhat

Services like Upwork , Outsource , and Guru make it easy for business owners to find, vet, and pay high-quality freelancers. Or for something more aligned to an entrepreneur’s budget, check out Fiverr .

When you are personally maxed out, the business is financially stable, and managing freelancers is becoming inefficient, remember to be very strategic about your fire few hires. In addition to performing their job functions, these team members, especially, will represent and shape your brand’s culture.

The first few hires are so important: they are ambassadors. If culture starts getting off-track early, it’s really hard to change later. Allan Christensen

And brand image doesn’t just reflect to your target market, but to future team members as well. Early hires will shape your employer brand as well.

Whatever your business strategy, make sure that your first hires are extremely talented with strong experience, because this will lay the foundation for future hires. A+ talent doesn't typically like to work with B talent, so if you hire B talent first, you'll have a very hard time attracting A+ talent later. Leo Welder

It may seem preemptive, but as you’re planning for your brand’s launch and growth, at least craft a basic outline of when and how you will start growing your team.

From Plan to Practice: Do You Need Advisors?

Once upon a time, a board of advisors was a prerequisite for any serious business, but so were 80-page business plans. Today, many business owners are seeking out advisors as they are needed and working with them in less conventional ways.

When and whether you need advisors depends on your strengths. We hired a finance advisor early on, for example, because we couldn’t even sign up for QuickBooks. Jesse Lear

Planning for bringing on advisors is more complicated than planning for staff. It’s one thing to understand what you can’t do, but it’s usually impossible to know what you don’t know. More likely, you will hit a wall or get stuck in a rut, and realize you need some help.

If you don’t have the knowledge you need to push the business in the right direction, at the pace you want, consider putting together a board. Allan Christensen

But working with advisors doesn’t mean you need to set up a board room and pay stipends for travel. An informal board can be a half-dozen business mentors with different strengths and networks, on whom you call individually when you have a need. Every entrepreneur should be surrounding themself with accomplished people anyway, and many successful business people are happy to invest their wisdom in an ambitious visionary.

Modern Business Plans Drive Real Success

Creating a business plan is no one’s favorite part of organizing a startup, but it’s critical to your brand’s success.

A good business plan will come off the page to help you with hiring, finding advisors, and much more. It will help you identify the investors who are a good fit for your brand, and then it will help turn those networking relationships into investor relationships.

Fortunately, the tomes of old have fallen out of style and you have modern options. As you relent to sitting down and starting your business plan (or getting serious about the one you started and filed away), remember to still include the basic, traditional info—even if you design it in a much more engaging format. Then, take the time to craft a blockbuster of an executive summary, and you will be ready to start building your dream.

Other Resources to Help You Grow Your Business

Meet the Panelists

Allan christensen – coo - todoist.

Allan is the COO of Doist. He was born in Denmark and is a professionally trained Pipe Organ Builder. He originally planned to follow in his family’s footsteps and join their pipe organ business, but instead decided to pursue his MBA from HTW University in Berlin.

He met Amir, the founder of Doist, while finising his thesis in Chile. Amir needed someone to help him build the business around Todoist and Wedoist, and Allan was up for the job – and the rest is history.

Allan has lived close to 8 years abroad in countries such as the US, Germany, Chile & Portugal. He speaks Spanish, German, and English, in addition to his native language Danish.

Question: What questions should be answered in a business plan?

Hear Sabrina's answer:

Connect with Allan Allan's Website

Jesse Lear – Co-Founder, V.I.P. Waste Services

Jesse Lear, SBA's 2014 Young Entrepreneur of The Year, is Co­Founder of V.I.P. Waste Services. Headquartered in Columbus, V.I.P. Waste contracts with apartment communities as a luxury amenity to pick up trash and recyclables from every resident's door.

Since its launch in 2010, the company has grown rapidly and now serves more than 30,000 units with operations in 5 cities across 3 states. In 2014, V.I.P. Waste was named one of the Top 30 Startups to Watch by Entrepreneur and was also recognized at the United Nations as one of the top companies in the U.S. run by entrepreneurs under age 35.

Jesse is also the Founder of Nellie's Natural Ice Pops, an Ohio ­based company that manufactures and distributes handcrafted ice pops with gourmet flavors, and Party For A Reason, a non­profit that throws unforgettable theme parties to support worthy causes.

Question: What are some easy ways to do competitive analysis?

Hear Jesse's answer:

Connect with Jesse Jesse's Website Jesse on Twitter

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Blog Business What is A Business Plan & How To Design It?

What is A Business Plan & How To Design It?

Written by: Midori Nediger Jul 11, 2023

A business plan outlines the goals of your business and how it plans to achieve them.

Real important – because without it, it’s like running a business in the dark. It’s like a roadmap that guides your company’s direction and helps everyone stay on track.

Gone are the days when designing a business plan from scratch was a time-consuming and challenging task. Today, business plan templates offer a convenient solution by providing pre-designed layouts that simplify the process.

In this blog, I’m going to break it down for you. I’ll share the six things you need to know to put together a compelling, engaging business plan. Ready to get started now? Venngage’s online Business Plan Maker  lets anyone create a winning business plan quickly and easily.

Click to jump ahead:

• How to format your business plan

Startup business plan templates

Simple business plan templates.

• How to write your business plan
• How to design an engaging executive summary
• How to use charts and graphs to present data
• How to communicate growth strategies in your business plan

How to present financial data in your business plan

How to format your business plan.

To format your business plan:

• Start with a clear title page.
• Include an executive summary.
• Provide a company description.
• Conduct a market analysis.
• Describe your product or service offering.
• Outline your marketing and sales strategy.
• Include organizational or business structure and management information.

A typical business plan is an in-depth document and covers every facet of your business (present and future). Creating a traditional business plan makes sense when you have a clear growth plan for the next three to five years, are in need of major funding, or want to attract long-term partners.  

A professional business plan typically has the following sections: 

• Table of Contents
• Executive summary
• Company description
• Market analysis
• Organization and management
• Service or product line
• Marketing and sales
• Funding request
• Financial projections
• An appendix

A business plan can span a dozen or more pages because it presents the big picture, as complete as possible, to reassure others to invest in you. Investment can mean a few different things – usually financial, but also as partners or employees. 

The sections that can take a lot of research and add to the bulk of your business plan are your market analysis, marketing and sales plans, and financial projections. 

These are the sections that demonstrate your business acumen, your long-term vision, and your accountability. Whereas, sections like the executive summary are meant to grab attention, inspire and get people excited about your business. 

Start with a business plan template

To get started on your business plan, save yourself some time and use a template.

Most business plan templates will include things like a cover page, table of contents and the main sections you need. It will also have pre-formatted pages with placeholder text and charts that you can swap out. 

It takes time to do market research, present growth plans, put together financial projections, analyze your customer base, create competitor breakdowns…the list goes on.

The last thing you want to do is spend precious time formatting the resulting document. 

Save time by building your business plan from an existing business plan template, and customize it with your own content.

With a clean, consistent structure and clear headings, this template is the perfect starting point:

Then you’re free to customize the template with helpful visual elements like charts, tables, and diagrams, that will make your business pitch impossible to resist.

A Venngage business plan template is designed to help you communicate visually  and explain complex ideas easily. The right business plan template for you depends on the length and detail of your business plan, your brand and style, and the different sections you want to cover.

If your small business doesn’t have a dedicated design team, but you still need to learn how to write a business plan to present to investors–build off of a pre-designed business plan template:

There are just a handful of our business plan templates that can be customized in the Venngage editor. Browse more business plan templates,  choose one that’s best for you and start editing right away.

Structuring your startup business plan involves organizing it into sections such as executive summary, company description, market analysis, product/service offering, marketing and sales strategy, financial projections, and operational plan.

Here are some business plan template examples:

Short Business Plan Template

Number your pages and include a table of contents

A table of contents is crucial to help readers navigate your document and quickly find specific sections that are of interest to them.

It’s a good idea to include page numbers, main section headings, and section subheadings here for easy reference.

Keeping these tips in mind will ensure that your business plan design feels clean and professional and doesn’t distract from your content. You want your information, not your formatting, to be the focus!

How to write your business plan 

Here are three tips for writing your business plan to ensure it’s easy to read, appears professional and is memorable.

Use bulleted lists, bold text, and a clear type hierarchy for ‘skimmability’

Business plans need to be understandable at a glance to attract funding . Investors are looking for information that will help them understand your business quickly and without much effort.

Take a look at this snippet of the business plan template from above:

What stands out to you?

To me, the large green headers pop out first, making it easy to scan through the sections to find what I want to focus on.

This is because there’s a defined type hierarchy, giving more visual weight to the headers over the body text.

Next, the unique selling points of this business–superior quality products, unique glass carving and brass inlays, and excellent service–jump out. Because they’re presented in an indented list , they’re easier to see at a glance, which will likely make them more memorable.

Finally, I’m drawn to the bolded stats–“top 30% of the industry” and “4 out of 5 households spent money on renovation”.

Key statistics like these can go a long way towards convincing your investors that you’re worth their time and money. If you’re going to include them within larger paragraphs, make sure they stand out by increasing their font weight.

To sum up: make your report skimmable. Draw attention to important takeaways with indented lists, bolded text, and a clear type hierarchy.

Consider using a one-column or two-column grid

If your business plan contains only text, stick with a single-column layout that reinforces the linear flow of the document. If your business plan includes some supporting data in the form of charts and tables, use a two-column layout to juxtapose text with its corresponding data.

Maintain page margins that set text at a readable line length

When we read long passages of text, the ease at which we read depends on how the text flows on the page. Something called line length (the number of characters in a horizontal line of text) plays a huge role in readability, and is something you should consider when formatting your business plan.

To dictate line length, designers and typesetters play with the width of page margins (the edges of a document that don’t contain any text or images) with the aim of maximizing readability.

It’s generally accepted that the ideal line length sits somewhere between 40 and 90 characters per line. Any longer or shorter and you’ll find that something feels “off” about your document.

How do you achieve this in your business plan?

If you use a single-column layout, use nice wide margins (1 ½ to 2 inches) to limit your text to less than 90 characters per line.

With a two-column layout, you might need to use narrower margins (possibly as little as ½ an inch on either side) to make sure there’s enough space for at least 40 characters per line of text.

The last thing to remember about margins and line length–don’t play around with them from page to page. Use consistent margins across your whole document.

How to design an executive summary

An executive summary is a snapshot of your business plan. It should be concise and hook your readers. It should reassure stakeholders that your business plan will be a worthwhile read.

How you choose to structure your executive summary is key. You can deliver a lot of excellent information that simply gets lost in a sea of text and paragraphs. Even if someone reads through it entirely, they may have missed something.

To make key information stand out, use vibrant headings, incorporate visuals throughout, and break up the layout of your text.

Not every investor looks for the same thing. Some will care more about who you or your executive team are, while another is interested solely in the financials of the business. Identifying each section makes it easy for readers to find exactly what they’re looking for.

You can also list out the key takeaways, briefly explaining them in the executive summary. If your reader finds everything they needed to know in the executive summary, they’ll happily move onto the rest of the business plan.

Use one feature color to tie your business plan together

Color should be used with restraint in professional documents like business plans. Instead of adding color solely for aesthetic purposes, think of color selection as another tool to highlight information you want your reader to focus on and to tie the document together.

You shouldn’t need more than a single color (ideally one of your brand colors ) to achieve this in a business plan.

In business plan charts, color should be used only to clarify trends and relationships. Use color to emphasize single important data points, differentiate between real and projected values, or group related data:

In the rest of your business plan, keep color to a minimum. At most, use it to make headers stand out or to highlight key points in long-form text, diagrams, or tables.

The nice thing about keeping document colors this simple? It’s hard to mess up, and without any complex design work, it creates a sense of cohesion and unity within a document.

How to use charts and graphs to present your data

Since your business plan should be backed by solid data, you might want to include some of that data as evidence, in the form of  charts, tables or diagrams . Even simple visuals can communicate better than long paragraphs of text.

I’ll touch on some specific types of charts commonly used in business plans next, but first let’s review a few general chart design tactics.

Use descriptive titles and annotations to spell out chart takeaways

Avoid generic headers whenever possible. Maximize your chart’s value and impact by providing takeaway messages right in the title.

In the same vein, add direct annotations to data points or trends that support your case.

Repeating key messages within a chart, in the title, annotations, and captions, may improve viewers understanding and recall of those messages .

Aid understanding of market size and market share with area charts and pie charts

A market potential analysis is a fundamental pillar of your business plan. Market size and market share are two major components of a market potential analysis.

These numbers are typically in the millions and billions (the bigger the better, really), but most people have trouble grasping the meaning of such big numbers . At a surface level we can understand that one billion is one thousand times larger than one million, but we often struggle to comprehend what that really means.

This is the perfect opportunity to add some visual aids to your business plan.

Use bubble charts to represent market size

Bubble charts are useful for showing general proportions among numbers. Check out this one from our redesigned version of AirBnb’s first pitch deck :

Without having to think about the absolute values of these very large numbers, we can quickly see how they relate to one another.

While bubble charts are good for making quick, general comparisons, they’re less useful when it comes to precise measurements. To help readers make slightly more accurate judgements of proportion:

Use pie or donut charts to represent market share and market composition

Pie and donut charts are the industry standard for showing market share and market composition, since they’re the most widely understood method for representing part-to-whole relationships.

The way Uber breaks down their market with a simple donut chart makes their biggest segment (a key takeaway) really stand out, while the subtler differences between the smaller segments are still evident.

When you present a market analysis, use pie charts, donut charts, or bubble charts to aid the reader understanding proportions and part-to-whole relationships.

Use histograms and bar charts to represent demographic distributions in market segmentation summaries

Another part of analyzing market potential is about identifying and understanding target customers. This means segmenting customers by geography, interests, demographics…really anything that might affect purchasing behaviour.

Two standard metrics that most businesses include in a market segmentation summary are customer age and gender. These data are easily summarized in a histogram, with bars that represent age group distribution.

Bar charts can then be used to contrast the key behaviors and lifestyle choices of the top consumer segments.

Histograms and bar charts are standard features of a market segmentation summary. Use them together to identify and present information about top customer segments.

Outline major milestones with a Gantt chart

Stakeholders will want to see that you have a concrete plan in place to help you reach your revenue goals. When formulating your goals, use the SMART principle to provide your stakeholders with a very clear vision of how you intend to achieve them. 

Use a Gantt chart (a sort of modified bar chart) to outline the major milestones and phases of your business strategy. Try to include a multi-year plan, broken down by quarter and by project or department.

You can create your own Gantt chart with Venngage.

How to communicate growth strategies in your business plan

No matter how impressive your product line or services, your business won’t just magically grow. You concrete marketing and sales plans in place, and effectively communicate strategies to your stakeholders.

Start by acknowledging your target market – who are you going after? This is what your marketing and sales efforts will revolve around after all.

Demonstrate an understanding of the competitor landscape. You will always have direct or indirect competition, and showing how your planning accounts for it is key. Then you can talk about actual plans and strategies you wish to implement.

Present your target audience with persona guides

A product may great on its own. But its value is determined when there is a clear and obvious market for it. You can point out shortcomings of your competition, but you also need to show that your target audience exists and how you’re serving them.

A persona guide provides a great deal of context to readers of your business plan. It’s the best way for them to understand who cares about your product or service, how it aligns with their lifestyle and needs, and why your marketing and sales tactics will work.

A persona guide needs to be detailed, and share an intimate understanding of your target audience. The more you can divulge, the more reassuring your research and overall business plan will be.

Even if you don’t have a substantial customer base, you can still create an ideal persona guide to show who you’re pursuing.

Highlight competitors and differentiate yourself with a SWOT analysis

Every business plan should include an analysis of the competitive landscape–an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of competitive businesses.

In terms of visuals, this competitive analysis is typically summarized in a SWOT analysis matrix .

You can also present the SWOT analysis as a table or a list. The layout is up to you, but you want to focus on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relation to your competition.

While the SWOT analysis framework provides valuable insights, it’s not the entire reflection of your competitive landscape. For example, it doesn’t make it easy to see at a glance the qualities that differentiate your business from your competitors.

To highlight those offerings that set you apart from your competitors, a comparison matrix is more effective. Take a look at these two templates:

With a direct competitor comparison, it’s easy to present the key differentiators between the existing options for a product or service, and your business.

Alternatively, a “ Magic Quadrant ” can be useful when you’re focused on comparing across two main metrics ( key differentiators ):

Finally, in a competitive market, there are going to be a lot of players who compete directly or indirectly with you.  A breakdown of them all may not be necessary. Instead, you can point visually to the space that you will address, that has been so far ignored up to now.

To do that, a prioritization chart can be used. By plotting competing businesses on a prioritization chart, you highlight experiences existing competitors focus on, and where your business falls. 

Use roadmaps to present your marketing and sales plans

To explain any long-term marketing or sales plan, you want visuals. It’s easier to break down strategies you’ll be deploying every month or each quarter, when you can actually show what you’re talking about.

Keep in mind, those reading your business plan may not be marketers or sales executives. Being able to lay out your approach in a way that’s organized, shows how much thought you’ve given to your growth strategies.

You can design a simple roadmap that points to what you’ll be doing throughout the year. The more detailed you can get, the better.

You can also present your product roadmap , with your marketing roadmap how the business will be growing overall.

You don’t need to use a traditional roadmap layout, either. Experiment with different formats as you may find one easier to work with than another. As long as the time period for different strategies is clear, your roadmap will be easy to understand.

Presenting financial data isn’t easy. You have to crunch a lot of numbers before you can share projections with confidence. You’ll also need to explain how you arrived at the numbers and prepare for your answers.

Understanding how to organize your information is key to walking potential investors and other stakeholders through your projections.

Use organizational flow charts and summary tables for budget breakdowns and financial summaries

The financials section of your business plan will get a lot of attention from stakeholders. Simple bar charts and pie charts won’t suffice, as they can’t present financial data in very much detail.

If your business has already been operating for some time, stakeholders will expect a detailed report of revenues and expenses. Tables are usually the best choice for this kind of financial summary, as they provide an unbiased view of the numbers and allow stakeholders to look up specific values.

If you’re interested in highlighting a particular trend, however, you may want to include a line chart featuring a smaller snapshot of your financial data:

If you’re just starting your business and you don’t have any detailed revenue data, you can still provide useful information about your budget. Outline higher-level budget allocation with an organizational flow chart .

Use line or bar graphs to visualize financial trends

You can use different types of graphs to also show how your business has performed thus far. 

You can share results over the course of a year with a line graph. This is effective to show an overall set of trends and growth rates. 

You can also compare previous years to highlight how your business has grown.

Your audience should be able to draw conclusions from your data within seconds. If there is simply too much information, or it’s hard to find important information, they will lose interest. 

Looking for a business plan software to help save time and reduce errors? Pick from one of these 7 best business plan software to get started.

A quick summary 

A business plan is the one key document that every young business needs to present their vision to potential investors and other stakeholders.

The quality of a business plan can make or break a young business Here’s a quick recap of what we covered for you to keep in mind:

• Get started with a template
• Use a table of contents and numbered pages
• Use lists, bold headings and aim for skimmability
• Consider using a one-column or two-column
• Maintain page margins
• Use headings to identify the most important information
• Use one thematic color palette for your design
• Use descriptive titles and annotations
• Use area and pie charts to explain market size and market share
• Use pie/donut charts to visualize marketing share and market composition
• Use bar charts and histograms to capture demographics data
• Highlight major milestones with a gantt chart
• Identify your target audience using persona guides
• Differentiate yourself with a SWOT analysis/competitor chart
• Use roadmaps to visualize your marketing and sales plans
• Use flow charts and summary tables for financial breakdowns
• Use line or bar graphs for financial trends and projection

You can always reference this post as you work on your business plan. I’ve also included additional blog posts you can reference for specific areas of your business plan.

More Resources for business planning and growth:

• Growth Strategy Checklist: Plan Your Business Goals With These 5 Templates
• What is a Marketing Plan & How to Create One [with Examples]
• How to Communicate Strategy To Your Team Effectively
• 50+ Essential Business Report Examples with Templates

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Powerful business plan templates

Plan for the future, no matter what your business plans are or the size of your business with these designs and templates. whether it's just one big project or an entire organization's worth of dreams, these templates will keep you and your company on track from ideation to completion..

Put your ideas to work with simple templates for every business plan

Every successful business took a lot of planning to get there, and these templates will be cornerstones of your future success. Whether you're looking to attract new business, pitch your services or reimagine your company, with these simple, customizable templates at your fingertips you can turn complexity into something tangible. These templates can become marketing assets or simply remain internal touchpoints for your team. And as your dreams change, you'll always have this template to refer to – it's easy to change what exists on paper. If you're a small business, focusing on your niche can help you dominate in your field, and you can forge a plan to figure out exactly what that niche might be and how to target your ideal customer . When it's time to share your vision with stakeholders, craft a presentation that outlines your plan succinctly and with style. Let these templates from Microsoft Designer be your partner in business strategy for years to come.

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The Entrepreneur’s Guide to the Modern-Day Business Plan

For the past 20 years, my company and I have written business plans for thousands of firms. Interestingly, over this time, many aspects of business planning have stayed the same. Specifically, the three core reasons why entrepreneurs must create a business plan have not changed in decades. But today, business plans must deal with modern-day realities such as crowdfunding , chatbots , artificial intelligence and more.

Below, you’ll learn the keys to creating a winning modern-day business plan.

Why you must create a business plan

Entrepreneurs have and continue to need business plans for three core reasons:

• To prove the viability of your company

Particularly for startup companies, the act of creating your business plan helps determine the viability of your business opportunity.

For example, if you learn the market size is too small, you may not want to launch the venture. Likewise, if you uncover that established competitors pose too big of a threat, or the capital requirements of the business are too much, you should consider pursuing a different opportunity.

• To market your company to others

Rarely does an entrepreneur create a business plan and keep it to themselves. Rather, their business plan is often shown to prospective investors or lenders who you want to fund your company. It’s often shown to potential employees you’d like to join you. And many times, it’s shown to prospective partners; other companies with whom you can form mutually beneficial relationships.

Without a business plan in place, it’s often impossible to effectively market your company to these key groups.

• To create a roadmap to follow

A great business plan will detail the key steps your company must accomplish to achieve success. It identifies the milestones you need to attain and when, as well as what human and financial resources you need. This gives you a written action plan to execute upon, aiding in your success.

Related: A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing a Killer Business Plan

The key sections of your modern-day business plan.

Below is an overview of each of the sections your business plan should include, including factors that differentiate today’s plans from those of the past.

Company analysis

The company analysis section of your business plan should start by providing background information on your company. When was it launched? Where are you located? What have you accomplished?

It must also explain your company vision and/or mission statement. This part of the company analysis section has evolved over time as more companies’ missions include aspects other than profits, such as social and environmental responsibility.

Industry analysis

Your industry analysis section must detail the industry in which you are competing, its size and trends that are affecting it. Years ago, completing this section relied primarily on accessing market studies. Today, new questions need to be asked and answered, like has the industry already been disrupted or is it ripe to be disrupted soon?

Likewise, in recent years it has become much easier to distribute both products and services globally. This increases potential market sizes, but also competitive threats.

Customer analysis

Traditional business plans detail customer needs and target customer demographics. Completing this exercise is even more critical today as online customer targeting has become so advanced.

In the past, online advertising was mostly restricted to the keyword searched by the user or the general website the user was on. Today, you can add significant additional demographic and psychographic criteria to pinpoint the precise customers you’d like to reach.

Competitive analysis

As mentioned above, today’s competitive analysis must often include competitors located in a wide geographic region, as companies can reach much further today. Fortunately, there are also many new tools available to “spy” on your competitors.

For example, there are multiple websites which will tell you the demographic profiles of customers who visit your competitors’ website. Many of your competitors might even list their key customers on their websites. They also typically list their management team members. This gives you a wealth of great competitive information. For instance, don’t hesitate to look at the bios of their team on LinkedIn to identify the best backgrounds of people you should hire.

Marketing plan

Your marketing plan identifies how you will target and serve customers. In today’s businesses, it’s much more common to use new technologies such as artificial intelligence to find and prospect clients. If applicable, include this information in your business plan.

Operations plan

Your operations plan details the key operations processes your company will fill and the milestones you hope to achieve and when.

With regard to operational processes, today companies can be run much differently than in the past. For instance, major customer service roles may be provided by chatbots. Outbound sales prospecting could be outsourced or streamlined by employing artificial intelligence technologies. And key operational roles can be virtually staffed both domestically and internationally.

Management team

Your management team section should document the key players on your team. As mentioned above, no longer do your team members need to reside in the same city, state or even country.

Technology has given entrepreneurs and companies the flexibility to work with others seamlessly throughout the world. Leverage this fact to create the best management team you can at the cost you’re able to pay.

Financial plan

Key aspects of your financial plan, such as your financial projections, have not changed over the years. But technology has significantly lowered the costs to start and scale a company. Be sure to identify and leverage such technologies.

Likewise, funding traditionally came from banks, angel investors and venture capital firms. Today, entrepreneurs can use crowdfunding , which was in its infancy just a decade ago, to raise initial funding to prove a business concept.

Executive summary

Finally, and most importantly, is your executive summary. This section of your business plan appears first and summarizes the key points from the other sections. Be sure to use this section to excite your readers and encourage them to read the rest of your plan.

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Your modern-day business plan.

While the purpose and structure of today’s business plan doesn’t differ much from plans of the past, you have learned there are many aspects within your plan that should reflect today’s realities. Fortunately, these realities have made it cheaper, faster and easier to start and grow a great company. So, don’t hesitate to leverage them!

Originally published Aug. 30, 2019.

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13 Free Business Plan Powerpoint Templates To Get Now

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Are you looking for business plan PowerPoint templates to grab right away and blow your audience away? In this selection, we’ve gathered 12 modern and completely free business plan PowerPoint templates designed according to the latest trends . The templates include everything you need in order to impress your potential partners with your business planning. They are easily editable, certainly memorable, and completely free to download.

You may also be interested in The Best Free PowerPoint Templates to Download in 2022

1. Strategic Business Free Powerpoint Template

An attractive template for Powerpoint made to help you present your business plan and strategies. The template comes with 25 handy slides that can be edited according to your needs. Plus, you have over a hundred business icons and high-quality vector graphics to depict your concepts and ideas.

• 25 different slides
• PPT file format
• 16:9 aspect ratio
• 100 business icons and high-quality vector graphics

2. Voodoo 2.5 Free Powerpoint Template with Animations

• 10 slides in the free version: 5 presentation slides and 5 infographic slides
• a modern, clean business design with smooth animations
• fully editable graphic elements and free fonts
• includes a dark version, as well

3. Investment Business Plan Template for Google Slides & Powerpoint

A minimalist business plan Powerpoint template made in a modern style and a classy grayscale color theme. The template includes 30 different slides with super useful layouts. Pretty much, you’ve got all you need to present your business overview, market analysis and competition, marketing, management, operating, and financial plans, and more.

• 30 different slides for various purposes
• 16:9 widescreen format
• compatible with PowerPoint and Google Slides
• graphics, maps, and over 1000 icons
• attribution is required (in the final slide)

4. Insurance Business Plan Template for Google Slides & Powerpoint

A business plan presentation template is available with versions for PowerPoint and Google Slides. This template is made in a modern corporate style and is suitable for serious topics. With 30 different templates and customizable assets, you can easily include your business overview, present your sales, management, and financial plans, and more.

• 30 slides in a modern corporate style
• PowerPoint and Google Slides compatibility
• graphics, maps, and 1000+ icons for customization

5. Clean Corporate Biz Free Powerpoint Template

A clean Powerpoint template with 10 different slides for professional business presentations. In this short template, you will find all you need to present your business objectives, business plan, key features, and more. Loaded with useful graphs and charts, you will easily visualize your data, as well.

• 10 unique slides with a corporate feel
• 16:9 widescreen layout
• includes charts, graphs, maps, and more

6. A Free PowerPoint Template “Investor”

• a professional corporate design
• 15 free slides in 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio

7. Marketing Plan Free Powerpoint Template

A tastefully prepared business-themed presentation template for Powerpoint in a blue-and-green color scheme. This template is available in two aspect ratios: 4:3 and 16:9. It also contains useful data visualization tools like charts, graphs, tables, and more.

• 26 business-themed slides
• 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios
• includes tables, flowcharts, graphs, and more

8. Business Idea Free Powerpoint Template

A rich business plan template consisting of 31 unique and useful slides. The design is available in 27 color schemes, so you can customize it according to your brand. You will find all kinds of charts, graphs, infographic slides, SWOT analysis slides, and more useful content.

• 31 useful slides
• 27 color options

9. “Nook” Minimalist Pitch Deck Powerpoint Template

This template will allow you to make a quick overview of your company and business plan. With 12 attractively designed slides, made in a gold, white, and black color scheme, you will definitely impress with style and modern vision. Easy to edit with high-quality vector graphics included.

• 12 different slides with modern designs

10. Free Simple Business Plan Presentation Template

A simple and practical business plan template suitable for presentations in most PowerPoint versions, Keynote, and Google Slides. The 8 slides included are designed to be useful and effective in presenting your company data. You will find high-quality vector shapes, diagrams, charts, and infographics. The slides are versatile and can serve various purposes.

• 8 slides that can be edited easily
• compatible with PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides
• design with modern gradients
• free to download (requires your email)

11. Free ‘Xe’ PowerPoint Modern Business Minimal Template

• 42 unique free slides with a modern, relaxing design
• includes animations, transitions, and video placeholders
• PPTX file format

12. Free Modern Business Powerpoint Template

A two-color design choice of light or dark including charts, maps, diagrams, and other useful slides for multipurpose presentations. a smooth, consistent, well-ordered look.

• Resolution – High 16:9
• Number of slides – 2 color versions of 34
• Color themes – white/light blue or dark/blue

13. Corporate Presentation Free Template

Clean and classic design suitable for presenting your business. The pack has 85 different slides for you to customize and adapt to your brand.

• Auto-animated
• Font file included

That’s all!

Fingers crossed that this collection helped you find the right free business plan Powerpoint tutorial for your needs. With their modern design and fully editable content, you are on the way to success for sure.

Would you like to browse even more freebies? Check out these suggestions:

• The Best Minimalist Powerpoint Templates for Free Download
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Premium: MultiSplash PowerPoint Templates

A professionally designed PowerPoint template with 77 slides for every type of presentation – report, marketing, educational, product introduction, plans, and more.

• 77 multipurpose presentation slides
• 120 Icons and illustrations included

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Iveta Pavlova

Iveta is a passionate writer at GraphicMama who has been writing for the brand ever since the blog was launched. She keeps her focus on inspiring people and giving insight on topics like graphic design, illustrations, education, business, marketing, and more.

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Modern Business Plan Presentation Template

The Modern Business Plan Presentation Template is a valuable aid for businesspeople and entrepreneurs keen on showcasing their strategies to investors, shareholders, or key decision-makers. The template boasts an extensive choice of slides, all of which exude a modern and stylish aesthetic, making it suitable for a plethora of businesses and brands.

The template aims to be a customizable tool, with slides capable of being adjusted to meet the unique requirements of every individual presentation. It's versatile, offering compatibility with PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote platforms, allowing you to customize it to fit your specific needs.

Being able to effectively convey your business strategies to potential stakeholders, is key to garnering buy-in. This template allows for just that, wrapping up your ideas in a neat, professional package that's bound to impress.

Details & Features

• Professionally designed slide layouts
• Complete editability for personal customization
• Wide screen ratio of 16:9
• Drag and drop picture placeholders for inclusion of visuals
• Free fonts included for text diversity
• Available in PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides formats

Why We Like It

We're fans of this template due to the comprehensiveness of its content. The slides address all key elements of a robust business plan, including market studies, product/service offerings, target demographics, marketing tactics, financial forecasting, and more. Besides, these slides are designed with usability and aesthetics in mind–allowing you to craft a sophisticated, professionally polished presentation swiftly and with ease.

Related Business Plan Presentation Templates

Corporate Business Plan Template

Planr Business Plan Presentation Template

VANSHA Presentation Template

Latitud Business Pitch Deck Template

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Modern Business Plan Templates, Designs & Documents

Download a Free Modern Business Plan Template from Template.net to Make a Well-Organized Presentation of Your Document! Our Templates Include a Sample Cover Page with a High-Quality Graphic Design Which Are All Downloadable in Powerpoint, Word, Pdf, and Indesign. So, Browse through Our Website and Get a Template Now!

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What Is A Business Plan

In its purest form, a business plan is a written description of your business’s future. It is like a roadmap that clearly outlines your goals and details the plans of your business endeavor. Whether you are an experienced trade entrepreneur aspiring to expand your market. Or a small business startup like a bakery, car wash, coffee shop, restaurant, and the likes. Blank Business plans are generally used by investment-seeking entrepreneurs to convey their vision to potential investors.

How To Create A Modern Business Plan

Gone are the days of long-page business plans. Modern business plans are shorter, more comfortable to write, and simpler to read. It has that lean characteristic of having few bullet points to focus strategy, tactics, milestones, and responsibilities. It also includes the necessary financial projections you need to plan, such as cash flow, budget, and expenses. Below are some aspects you need to consider in creating a comprehensive, one-page business plan .

1. Business Concept

Start with a sample plan and put all your creative thinking on it. Analyze the industry, your business structure, your particular product or service, and how you plan to make your business a success. Learn more about how most people cook up their business concept, take good ideas, and add innovation to it. However, most of all, come up with a great view of what’s the unique thing about your concept.

2. Marketplace

This aspect should address questions like what are you selling, how are you solving a problem for your market, and who are your target market and competition. Therefore, you need to have a prior target market analysis to describe and examine potential customers for who and where they are, what makes them buy, and so on. Also, you have to define the prospective competitors and how you’ll position yourself to outplay them.

3. Financial Factors

It is critical in running a successful business to pay close attention to how much money you are bringing in and how much you are spending. Having a solid financial plan will help you figure out how much capital your business needs to get started or to grow. According to statistics, 65 percent of small businesses admitted to not being fully confident that they had enough money to start. So, if you are a startup and are seeking funding, you should know precisely how much money to ask for from the bank or investors.

4. Management

Investors are also on the search for great teams in addition to brilliant ideas. Describe your current unit and whom you need to hire effectively. Furthermore, provide a quick overview of your legal structure or organizational chart , location, and history if your business is already up and running.

5. Milestones and Metrics

Management plans will be useless without proper implementation. Having well-defined benchmarks and metrics helps you layout concrete tasks that you plan to accomplish, complete with due dates, and the names of the people to be held responsible. It should also detail the key metrics that you plan to use in tracking the growth and determining the health of your business.

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The 7 Levels of Strategy Mapping

Well-crafted strategic plans are mapped in detail from business design to agile solution delivery and execution to enable the necessary changes within an organization in response to customer needs, competition, and innovation. To achieve its strategies and goals, a firm needs to map and disseminate them cohesively throughout its organization using its entire planning ecosystems from executives, mid-level managers, strategists, business architects, enterprise architects, change managers, process experts, business analysts, and agile experts using the 7 levels of strategy mapping.

Benefits of Strategic Mapping

According to the Harvard Business Review, “Most digital transformations fail. Various studies from academics, consultants, and analysts indicate that the rate of digital transformations failing to meet their original objectives ranges from 70% to 95%, with an average of 87.5%.[1]”, as I’ve pointed out in this article entitled “ Increasing your Digital Transformation Success Rate with Enterprise Architecture ”. The reasons for such failures are usually because HR and IT organizations develop strategic plans that are not linked to the enterprise strategy and because most employees do not understand their organization’s strategy to the point where 37-40% of workers according to surveys say their jobs make no difference according to the Economist[2].

To work, strategy mapping needs to closely align to the five agile strategy execution steps described in this book entitled “ Practical Guide to Agile Strategy Execution: Design, Architect, Prioritize, and Deliver your Corporate Future Successfully ” and shown in Figure 1 above. Strategy mapping has five benefits for organizations of all sizes. Firstly, it clarifies a firm’s purpose and direction, ensuring that everyone involved in the organization is working cohesively towards the same strategies and goals. Secondly, strategy mapping enables an organization to anticipate and react to changes in its internal and external environments, such as shifts in market trends, new competitive threats, changes in regulations, and the arrival of new innovations for example. Thirdly, strategy mapping allows prioritizing and ensuring that resources, including time, money, and personnel, are used effectively. Finally, strategy mapping provides a basis for ongoing assessments, allowing a company to continuously achieve its strategies and goals over time.

Strategy mapping in an agile strategy execution setting includes 7 levels, as shown in Figure 2 below. They are 1- mission and vision, 2- strategies and goals, 3- tactics and objectives, 4- corresponding KPIs, 5- problematic capabilities identification, 6- Corresponding initiatives or projects, and 7- business outcomes.

Level 1 – Mission & Vision

A Mission is a short statement of why an organization exists and is often specified more precisely with a Vision statement to be achieved within a finite time frame and made of a series of long-term goals and short-term objectives. As shown in Figure 3 below.

Level 2 – Strategies & Goals

Strategies consist of high–level plan items that also include short-term Tactics to achieve an organization’s major goals under conditions of uncertainty. A Goal is the desired result that an organization envisions, plans, and commits to achieve within a finite time frame.

Level 3 – Tactics & Objectives

As for Objectives, they are essentially short-term goals whose achievement brings an organization closer to its long-term goals. Goals are derived from strategies, which are conceptual long-term actions to deliver and execute a strategy. Objectives are derived from tactics, which are conceptual short-term actions to deliver and execute a tactic.

Level 4 – Corresponding KPIs

Each goal and objective can be measured by its corresponding key performer indicators. These can be operational, financial, or client-driven as shown in Figure 4 below.

Level 5 – Problematic Capabilities Identification

Often through the examination of value streams and sometimes customer journeys, business architects should then identify the problematic capabilities that need to be fixed for an organization to reach its goals and objectives.

Measuring enabling capabilities of a value stream or a customer journey, as shown in Figure 5 above, according to their priority, performance, and business complexity, for example, will allow the identification of problematic capabilities that need to be enhanced to reach the goals and objectives of the organization. In this example, enabling business capabilities are sorted first by their priority, performance, and complexity. It enables the detection of the most problematic business capabilities, indicated here by a red arrow. These are of very high or critical priority and perform at a low level. In case there are too many problematic capabilities, starting initiatives on the less business complex initiatives will enable quicker delivery and execution of improved business capabilities.

Level 6 – Corresponding Initiatives / Projects

For each identified problematic capability, an initiative or project needs to be examined. This is usually completed by examining several scenarios based on financial ratios and risk factors. After the complete analysis of all scenarios relating to all identified problematic capabilities, a final scenario should be selected and become the business digital transformation roadmap of the organization. It will need to be described in detail. The roadmap should be broken into multiple projects, sub-projects, and sprints, laying out their nomenclature and GANTT Chart.

Level 7 – Business Outcomes

Each project and sub-project composing the business digital transformation should include appropriate budgeted human and capital resources that should be used in a specific timeframe and should finally aim at a precise business outcome, as shown in Figure 6 above. Setting a definition of a milestone may only be technical, but each business outcome should be derived from precise and detailed goals and objectives defined in level 3 of your strategy mapping.

To realize its strategies and goals, an organization needs to map and disseminate them cohesively throughout its organization using its entire planning ecosystems using the 7 levels of strategy mapping. It’s the only way to really improve the success rate of its digital transformation.

Daniel Lambert, M.Sc., is a business strategist assisting business and enterprise architecture teams in collaborating better with the entire planning ecosystem of their firm and increasing the success rate of their organization's digital transformation initiatives and projects. He can be reached at  https://www.businessarchitecture.info .

References/footnotes:

• This quote is extracted from the article entitled “ 3 Stages of a Successful Digital Transformation ” written by Didier Bonnet in September 2022 and published on the Harvard Business Review website.
• Percentage quoted in this article are extracted from the article entitled “ Bullshit Jobs and the Yoke of Managerial Feudalism ” published in The Economist on June 29, 2018.

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The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

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Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney’s office and state criminal courts in Manhattan. More about Jonah E. Bromwich

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Verizon Business offers business customers pre-orders for the new Google Pixel 8a with Google AI

The newest phone from google offers ai and more for businesses to help deliver productivity, security, and support - all at an affordable price.   pixel 8a will be widely available to verizon business customers  starting may 14, with preorders beginning on may 7..

NEW YORK - Verizon Business today announced that starting on May 7, 2024 customers can preorder the innovative new Google Pixel 8a smartphone, specially designed to meet the demands of modern businesses. And for a limited time, you can get the new Pixel 8a on us.*

The Pixel 8a redefines business mobility by seamlessly blending essential features and benefits for businesses, including advanced collaboration tools, robust security features, and state-of-the-art AI technology. In fact, it’s the first Google Pixel smartphone whose primary activation method is through convenient eSIM. The Pixel 8a has premium features and technology that let you and your team do more without breaking the bank.

Verizon Business customers will benefit from Google AI, security, and productivity to help improve existing workflows. 

Recorder app + Chat with Gemini: Simply use the Recorder app to record your meeting and then chat with Gemini to help draft, format, and edit notes into a professional follow-up email. 1,2

Strong Security Features: Pixel 8a comes with Google Tensor G3, Pixel’s most powerful chip yet. It’s custom-designed with Google AI for smarter ways to help throughout the day. 3 With the custom-built Google Tensor G3 processor and the certified Titan M2 security chip, the Pixel 8a is an affordable smartphone built to help keep your business’s data safe. 4

A device as resilient as your team. With your new Pixel 8a, you’ll receive the latest OS and security updates for 7 years, plus new and upgraded features every few months with Feature Drops. 5 Help your business save time by investing in a phone that lasts.

AI Technology Integration: With Google AI on the Pixel 8a, you and your team can not only enhance photos, but also search for everything needed in your day-to-day. When you are reviewing materials from customers or your business partners on your Pixel 8a device, you can analyze components using Circle to Search. 6 Just quickly circle the image, text, or video right from the app you are in, and Google AI will find it fast. 6

For a limited time, get the new Pixel 8a on us (new line & select data plan required).*

Discover more about the Pixel 8a and explore special Verizon Business offers by visiting Verizon Business online.

*Taxes & fees apply. New line w/device payment purchase agmt & Business Unlimited Plus or Unlimited Pro plan req’d. 0% APR. $549.99 credit applied to acct. over the term of your agmt (up to 36 mos); promo credit ends when eligibility requirements are no longer met. Credits begin in 2-3 bills & will include appropriate credit amounts from order date. Cannot be combined with other device offers. Pixel 8a monthly fee after credit: $0. Offer available 5.7 through 6.30.2024.

1. Available only in English.

2. Features may differ depending on subscription and results may vary. Google Workspace extension must be enabled. Availability varies by country. See g.co/gemini/appavailability for details. Actual response times, results and availability may vary.

3. Compared to earlier Pixel phones.

4. Common Criteria certification for hardware and cryptographic library. See g.co/pixel/certifications for details.

5. Pixel updates for 7 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the US. See g.co/pixel/updates for details.

6. Requires internet connection and compatible apps and surfaces. Results may vary depending on visual matches.

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