conclusions for a business plan

Business Plan Conclusion: Summary & Recap

You’ve written your business plan, but now you want to wrap it up to make a lasting impact on your reader. In this article, we will define the conclusion to a business plan as well as provide some tips to help you attract and seal the deal with potential investors and lenders.  

What is a Business Plan Conclusion?

This business plan conclusion is a concise summary and recap of all of the components of a business plan , but especially the executive summary. It summarizes your business plan in 2-3 paragraphs, with an emphasis on the most important points.  

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Is the Business Conclusion Necessary?

It’s good practice for business plans, but not always necessary to be successful in obtaining funding.

If you have a stellar executive summary, it may be unnecessary.

If the business conclusion is written well enough, it can serve as an executive summary of sorts – a short recap that provides more detail than the business plan as a whole, but only includes the most important points. It could also serve as an executive summary that is more concise than an actual executive summary.  

How To Write a Conclusion for Your Business Plan

The conclusion of your business plan is the last thing people read before deciding to invest in you and your business, so it needs to make a lasting impression.  

Determine Location

Depending on your intended audience, there are two common places for the conclusion. If your plan is meant for internal purposes, you may have the conclusion at the end of the entire document. However, if you are seeking funds from investors, you want to place the conclusion at the end of the Executive Summary, increasing the chances that it is actually read.

Review & Concisely Recap 

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Startups might include the following information:.

• Funding requirements
• Service or benefit to the investor
• Target market and audience
• How products or services solve the target market’s problem
• Marketing strategy
• Competitive advantage
• Management team experience
• Financial projections
• Launch plan

Established businesses might include information in their conclusions such as:

• Mission statement
• Company’s history
• Products and/or services
• Historical growth data
• Financial summary
• Company’s goals

Summarize the 3-5 points in a couple of paragraphs. You don’t need to summarize everything that happened in your business plan, just the most important points of the business plan.

Support Your Claims with Stats and/or Visuals

Establish a Call-To-Action (CTA)

Proofread & Spell-Check

The conclusion needs to give your readers a sense of closure by wrapping up all loose ends while making your last pitch effort to obtain the money your business may need.

Business Plan Conclusion Example

Use this conclusion example to help you with how to end a business plan, but keep in mind to make it relevant to your target audience, industry, and funding requirements:

Expanding into the Seattle metro area will allow Skyridge to provide its cutting-edge technology to more people who need it. Purchasing the fabrication plant in Seattle allows us to produce all of our products in-house and in one location, delivering them promptly and efficiently to the northwestern region.

We have the power to change the way people use technology, and we want [Investor’s Name] to be a part of it. By investing in Skyridge’s growth, [Investor’s Name] will benefit in the following ways:

• Inclusion with a startup that has seen XXX% growth over the past X years and our company’s management team with XX years of experience in the technology industry
• Contribution to Seattle’s economic growth and its citizens’ access to technology that enhances their lives
• Participation in company planning meetings and receive an XX% share in all profits earned

We can add to the number of lives Skyridge’s technologies impact, generate more job opportunities in the region, and alter the technology sector if we work together. If you agree with our vision for a better future for everyone, join us.

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Related Articles To Help You Write a Business Plan

• How to Write an Executive Summary
• How to Expertly Write the Company Description in Your Business Plan
• How to Write the Market Analysis Section of a Business Plan
• The Customer Analysis Section of Your Business Plan
• Completing the Competitive Analysis Section of Your Business Plan
• How to Write the Management Team Section of a Business Plan + Examples
• Financial Assumptions and Your Business Plan
• How to Create Financial Projections for Your Business Plan
• Everything You Need to Know about the Business Plan Appendix

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Writing an Effective Business Plan Conclusion: Tips & Examples

Do you need help concluding the business plan that you have worked so hard to create? A well-crafted business plan conclusion is essential for setting the tone for the entire document, and summarizing the key points that justify why the business will be successful. In this article, we will explore how to write an effective business plan conclusion that will ensure that your plan is read and taken seriously.

How to End a Business Plan?

The conclusion of your business plan should briefly summarize the main points of your argument. It should state why you believe your business will succeed and explain how you intend to achieve your goals. A business plan conclusion should cover the opportunity, highlight the strengths of your plan, summarize your vision, and remind the reader why your business is in a unique position to succeed.

A template example of a solid business plan conclusion follows:

• Opportunity: Explain the opportunity that your business is capitalizing on and why it is attractive.
• Key Strengths: Highlight the key strengths of your plan, such as your competitive advantage and any unique selling points.
• Vision: Summarize your vision for the business and its future.
• Unique Position: Remind the reader why your business is in a unique position to succeed.

It is important to keep your business plan conclusion succinct and to the point. It should be no longer than a few paragraphs, and should be a clear and concise summary of the entire document.

At Atlantabusinesses.com, we understand how important it is to have a clear and effective business plan conclusion. We are experts in the field of business brokering, and we can help you through the entire process of buying or selling a business. Visit our website for more information, and for answers to all your questions about selling a business and about business brokers.

What is the final stage of the business plan?

Conclude your business plan with a presentation for obtaining funding, and provide any relevant data, graphs, and charts to back it up. Make it explicit how much money you are asking for from investors—whether it is equity, a collaboration, or a loan.

What is the appropriate way to conclude a business plan letter?

What should be included in the concluding section of a business plan.

It should also include a description of the problems you are trying to solve, a review of your marketing strategy, and an assessment of the financials. The best way to write an executive summary is to write it after you have a thorough understanding of your entire plan and can succinctly summarize it. The executive summary should include your company’s mission statement, a description of the products and services you offer or plan to offer, an overview of the problems you are aiming to solve, an assessment of your marketing strategy and an overview of the financials.

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How To Write the Conclusion of a Business Plan

Your business plan’s conclusion should encapsulate your overall justification for why your venture will succeed in order to draw investors or motivate your staff. Additionally, it ought to give a short future outlook outlining your goals for development and growth. The conclusion should also restate your company’s key selling points and leave readers with a favorable impression.

How to write a business plan conclusion

When writing a business plan’s conclusion, adhere to these guidelines:

1. Decide where you want it to be

Choose whether you want the executive summary or the entire document to contain your business plan’s conclusion. Consider placing the conclusion at the end of the executive summary if you are writing a business plan to attract investors or raise money. The executive summary introduces the key points of the business plan and outlines the company’s funding requirements and conditions. It can be more persuasive to potential investors to place the conclusion at the end of this summary, and it also increases the likelihood that it will be read.

You might select a more conventional location for your conclusion at the end of the document if you are writing a business plan for an established company to track progress or provide information to a third party. In this case, your conclusion should review and highlight the company’s advantages.

2. Include the right information

Depending on whether your business is a startup looking to raise capital or an established organization evaluating goals, the information you include in your business plan conclusion will vary. New companies trying to get funding might include:

Established businesses might include information in their conclusions such as:

Not all conclusions need all these details. The most crucial information for the purpose of your business plan should be included, but the conclusion should be brief. When selecting what to include in your conclusion, keep your audience in mind. Focus on the value your company provides to investors, for instance, and the reasons why this opportunity is special. Focus on company leadership’s experience and ways to lower the lender’s risk when applying for a business loan.

3. Add facts and statistics

Facts, figures, and statistics should be used to support the conclusions in your business plan. Investors want evidence that your business can succeed and that they will see a return on their investment. Include details like your track record of expanding this or other businesses, or the information you used to calculate how much funding you need. This information is more convincing than assumptions or vague statements.

4. Maintain a positive tone

Your business plan’s conclusion should be formal and upbeat in nature. You want to convey your optimism and enthusiasm for the company’s success so that the reader will feel motivated or enthusiastic to support the business. Use language that is assertive and active and conveys your confidence in the business.

5. Include a call to action

At the conclusion of your essay, include a brief call to action that instructs the reader on what to do next. The reader should be motivated to support the business’s objectives in the manner you desire. You might conclude by saying something like, “Invest in the success of Harper Corps by joining us as a minority partner in WinTec Enterprises.” In your call to action, use action words and emphasize how the reader will benefit from taking that action.

6. Review your conclusion

Make sure your business plan’s conclusion is written with proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation by reading it after you’ve finished. You want it to flow naturally and be both concise and clear. Ask a friend or coworker who is not familiar with the objectives of your company to read it as well. Ask them if they have any questions about the book’s conclusion and whether reading it has piqued their interest or excitement. Then make improvements as needed.

What is a business plan conclusion?

The goal of a business plan conclusion is to persuade the reader of the company’s success by summarizing the plan’s advantages. The conclusion should highlight how the organization makes money and why it is a good investment because businesses typically produce business plans in order to obtain funding or investors. Businesses also create business plans to evaluate their performance or set new objectives.

In a business plan, the conclusion can be found at the end of the whole thing or at the end of the executive summary. The executive summary, which appears at the start of the business plan, provides an overview of what the reader can expect to learn and persuades them to continue reading. Some people conflate the executive summary and the conclusion, but there are several significant differences between the two.

Every business, whether new or established, should have a business plan with a succinct and focused conclusion.

Business plan conclusion example

Use this sample business plan conclusion as a model for your own plan’s conclusion, being sure to customize it to your target audience’s needs and requirements:

Expanding Bridgewater & Co. Our already prosperous company will be able to provide cutting-edge health technologies to more people who need them thanks to its expansion into the Denver metropolitan area. Buying this manufacturing facility in Denver gives us the chance to produce all of our goods internally and in a single location and ship them out quickly and effectively to the area. We want Sixty-Seven Investors to be a part of this exciting revolution because we have the unique ability to change lives. Investing in Bridgewater & Co. s expansion benefits Sixty-Seven Investors by:

We can save more lives if we work together, Bridgewater & Co. Products change, add to the community’s employment opportunities, and revolutionize the health technology sector. Invest with us if you share our vision for a more prosperous and healthy future.

Business Plan Writer Explains How to Write a Business Plan: Part 8 The Conclusion

How do you conclude a business plan presentation?

Conclusion. The conclusion of a business plan doesn’t necessarily need to be lengthy; in fact, it can be quite succinct. Your conclusion should restate the opportunity, highlight the plan’s key strengths, summarize your vision, and remind the reader of the reasons why your company is in a position to carry out the plan successfully.

What is summary in business plan?

One of the most crucial components of your plan is the executive summary, which is a synopsis of all the important sections of your business plan.

What should be done after finishing the business plan?

• Make sure it connects to your purpose.
• Begin to test and measure.
• Use the 80/20 rule.
• Learn something new (quickly)

What is recommendation in a business plan?

A business recommendation letter, also known as a reference letter, is an endorsement of the products or services that one company has provided to another business or individual.

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

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

1. Secure Funds

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

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

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

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

2. Monitor Business Growth

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

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

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

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

3. Measure Business Success

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

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

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

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

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

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

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

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

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

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

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

A good executive summary should do the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Add Your Company Overview

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

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

Your company overview should contain the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Mission Statement

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

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

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

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

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

Business Objectives

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Market Analysis

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

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

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

• Market Research

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

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

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

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

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

How to Quantify Your Target Market

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

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

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Competitive Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Direct vs Indirect Competition

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

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

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

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

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

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

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

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

1. Cost Leadership

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

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

2. Product Differentiation

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

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

3. Market Segmentation

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

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

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

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

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

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

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

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

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

Management Team

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

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

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

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

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

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

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

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

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

Organizational Chart

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

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

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

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

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

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

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

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

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

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

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

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

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

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

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

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

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

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

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

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

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

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

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

Target Market and Target Audience

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

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

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

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

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

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

Your Positioning Statement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

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

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

Pricing Strategy

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

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

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

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

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

Advertising

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

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

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

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

Public Relations

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

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

Content Marketing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Social Media

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

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

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

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

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

Strategic Alliances

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

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

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

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

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

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

2. Evaluate Your Competition

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

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

These questions can help you know your competition.

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

3. Consider Your Brand

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

4. Focus on Benefits

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

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

5. Focus on Differentiation

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

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

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

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

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

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

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

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

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

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

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

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

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

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

Case for Equity

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

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

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

Case for Debt

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Use Graphs and Charts

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

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

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Sales Forecast

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Personnel Plan

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

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

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

3. Income Statement

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

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

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

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

4. Cash Flow Statement

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

5. Balance Sheet

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

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

6. Exit Strategy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

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

1. Know Your Audience

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

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

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

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

2. Get Inspiration from People

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

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

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

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

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

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

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

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

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

4. Keep it Simple and Short

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

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

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

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

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

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

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

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

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

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

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

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

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

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

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

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

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

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

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

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

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

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

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

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

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

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

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

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

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

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

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

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

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

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

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

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

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

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

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

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

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

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

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

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

Lean Canvas

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

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

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

Startup Pitch Deck

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Business Plan FAQ

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Closing Statement Example for Business Plan: Tips & Guide

Table of Contents

Your business plan’s closing statement is the last thing an investor will read, so it must be compelling enough to encourage them to invest. The final paragraph of your business plan should do two things. It should summarize the entire document and give the reader a better grasp of your company’s USPs (unique selling propositions). By using persuasive writing techniques and language, you can ensure your ending is as impactful and memorable as possible. To help get you started, this blog post will provide tips and an example of a successful closing statement for a business plan.

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines a business’s strategy and operating procedures . It’s typically used to attract investors, secure funding, and provide direction for the business in the future. Typical components of a business plan include 

• An executive summary
• Market analysis overview
• Financial projections
• Details on how the company plans to achieve its stated objectives.

Tips on Writing a Conclusion for Your Business Plan

Your company’s closing statement in a business plan can inspire investors or motivate employees. It should offer a view into the future by stating your goals for the company’s growth and development.  Consider the following suggestions for concluding your business plan .

Proper Amount of Information

The final section of your business plan should include a concise summary of your essential ideas. Explain why your company will succeed and how you intend to get there. This business plan section is your last attempt to convince potential backers to put money into your venture. The final section of a company plan written for internal use can be more optimistic. You could mention your future goals for growth or expansion in this situation. This will help the audience understand the direction you envision the company heading. To win over investors, you might include the following in your final paragraph:

• The state of your company’s finances as of right now
• Money to help your business expand and thrive
• Customers and clients who fit your target demographic
• Demand from Consumers
• Particulars that set you apart from the competition
• Your strategy to boost revenue.
• Include the following in your conclusion to provide management with some insight into the future of the company:
• Details about your company’s past and its offerings
• Intentions for the long-term
• Future growth or expansion plans

These aren’t the only points that should be mentioned in a conclusion, but they’re among the most crucial.

Incorporate Data and Statistics

To make your case more convincing, you should use evidence like figures and facts. Doing so will strengthen your argument and leave the reader with a favorable impression of your company. Your company’s financial history and growth projections may help convince investors to invest in your company. Market share and customer happiness statistics can help reassure upper management that their company is on the right track.

Keep a Good Attitude

Avoid sounding pessimistic as you wrap things up. Avoid statements like “Despite our difficulties, I am certain that our business will be successful.” Don’t dwell on past failures, but rather on your company’s successes and future prospects.  Using phrases like “I am positive about the future of our company” will leave the reader with a favorable impression of your firm.

End With a CTA

The business plan’s final section should end with a call to action. In this section, you might argue why the reader should join your cause or invest in your business. Your stand must be a concise and direct call to action. Readers need to know exactly what you want them to do, and you need to convince them to do it.

Conclude and Reflect

After you’ve finished writing your conclusion, it’s essential to go back and read it over. Ensure that your point is made without ambiguity and that all relevant details are included. Ensure the tone is upbeat and cheerful, and check for spelling and grammatical problems. To attract investors, it’s essential to have a second pair of eyes look over the final draft of the business plan. Obtaining as much input as possible will help you ensure your argument is well-articulated and persuasive. After you’ve come to a satisfying conclusion, it’s time to move on to the next phase of your business plan.

Location: End of Document or Executive Summary?

Determine whether you want your business plan’s conclusion to appear at the end of the document or the executive summary. If you’re writing a business plan to attract investors or obtain funding, consider adding the conclusion to the executive summary.  Investors will likely skim the rest of your report before getting to your executive summary. Including it there is crucial to ensure they get your main points. Doing so will give your audience a clearer picture of where you are going with your argument.

Closing Statement Example for Business Plan

We are certain that ABC Corporation will become a key player in the XYZ industry due to our extensive market research and analysis. Our unique combination of innovative products and services, competitive pricing, and dedicated customer service makes us the go-to provider for ABC customers.  The funds we secure from this investment round will help us develop and improve our products and services. It will also finance our expansion into new markets.  With your support, we can make ABC Company the industry leader in XYZ. Thank you for considering our business plan and taking the time to learn more about our company. We look forward to working with you and exploring the potential of this partnership.  Thank you for your time.  Sincerely,  XYZ Team 

The closing statement example for business plan above is an excellent example of how a business model should end. It emphasizes the objective, progress, and, most significantly, the business owner’s commitment to its mission . In summary, the conclusion should restate your company’s value proposition and create a lasting impression on the reader.

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

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How to Conclude a Business Plan

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Business plans explain what a company does, who runs the company and how the company plans on hitting revenue goals, based on competitive advantages and marketing strategies. Some businesses write a business plan for internal review, tracking annual goals. Business plans are also used to seek investor loans or to finance their business. When presenting the plan for financing, it's important to conclude the plan with purpose, but to do so succinctly.

Conclusion or Executive Summary?

Business owners might confuse a business plan's conclusion with the plan's executive summary. The executive summary is actually the first section of a business plan, which provides a synopsis and a high-level overview of the major sections of the plan. A business owner might confuse this with the conclusion, because many business experts suggest writing the executive summary last, after the necessary information has been fleshed out.

The executive summary is usually a series of section teasers that give readers a high-level preview of the plan. It's also possible for the business plan to have a formal conclusion at the end of the sections. The conclusion is usually tailored and targets the informational needs of a specific investor or of a specific strategic partner.

Conclusion as a Summary of Needs and Abilities

If the executive summary states what the plan will be, then the conclusion reviews what the plan has stated. A business plan conclusion redefines the company's needs, the competence of management to achieve the goals and the key points to justify why the business will succeed with funding. Investors are looking for reasons why they should risk money in the venture; this is achieved by highlighting the unique ways in which the company solves problems and how an influx of funding will yield success. Usually, there's a specific call to action in the conclusion.

End Notes and References

Creating a business plan requires market and industry research. The larger the company or the more complicated its products or services, then it is even more important that research is needed to verify regulations, industry trends and technology innovations. End notes are the expert resources used in writing the plan and justifying propositions. These are like a bibliography in a high-school research paper.

End notes refer to specific data cited in the plan, listed in order of use by the correlating fact within the business plan. For example, the competitive-analysis section might cite consumer data obtained by public industry reports. If this is the third citation of data, the superscript is the numeral three that corresponds to the third end note.

">The Tone of the Conclusion

The business plan's conclusion should rely on facts and maintain a professional tone. Any projections and assumptions are backed by data points, the business' prior success, and management's ability to deliver. This is similar to a scientist using known facts to create a hypothesis for a new study.

For example, if the conclusion states that funding can scale factory operations by 50 percent more and yield 150 percent more in revenues, the conclusion of growth needs to be backed by those specific data points, which conclude that the assumption is correct.

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With more than 15 years of small business ownership including owning a State Farm agency in Southern California, Kimberlee understands the needs of business owners first hand. When not writing, Kimberlee enjoys chasing waterfalls with her son in Hawaii.

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Business plans might seem like an old-school stiff-collared practice, but they deserve a place in the startup realm, too. It’s probably not going to be the frame-worthy document you hang in the office—yet, it may one day be deserving of the privilege.

Whether you’re looking to win the heart of an angel investor or convince a bank to lend you money, you’ll need a business plan. And not just any ol’ notes and scribble on the back of a pizza box or napkin—you’ll need a professional, standardized report.

Bah. Sounds like homework, right?

Yes. Yes, it does.

However, just like bookkeeping, loan applications, and 404 redirects, business plans are an essential step in cementing your business foundation.

Don’t worry. We’ll show you how to write a business plan without boring you to tears. We’ve jam-packed this article with all the business plan examples, templates, and tips you need to take your non-existent proposal from concept to completion.

Table of Contents

What Is a Business Plan?

Tips to Make Your Small Business Plan Ironclad

How to Write a Business Plan in 6 Steps

Startup Business Plan Template

Business Plan Examples

Work on Making Your Business Plan

How to Write a Business Plan FAQs

What is a business plan why do you desperately need one.

A business plan is a roadmap that outlines:

• Who your business is, what it does, and who it serves
• Where your business is now
• Where you want it to go
• How you’re going to make it happen
• What might stop you from taking your business from Point A to Point B
• How you’ll overcome the predicted obstacles

While it’s not required when starting a business, having a business plan is helpful for a few reasons:

• Secure a Bank Loan: Before approving you for a business loan, banks will want to see that your business is legitimate and can repay the loan. They want to know how you’re going to use the loan and how you’ll make monthly payments on your debt. Lenders want to see a sound business strategy that doesn’t end in loan default.
• Win Over Investors: Like lenders, investors want to know they’re going to make a return on their investment. They need to see your business plan to have the confidence to hand you money.
• Stay Focused: It’s easy to get lost chasing the next big thing. Your business plan keeps you on track and focused on the big picture. Your business plan can prevent you from wasting time and resources on something that isn’t aligned with your business goals.

Beyond the reasoning, let’s look at what the data says:

• Simply writing a business plan can boost your average annual growth by 30%
• Entrepreneurs who create a formal business plan are 16% more likely to succeed than those who don’t
• A study looking at 65 fast-growth companies found that 71% had small business plans
• The process and output of creating a business plan have shown to improve business performance

Convinced yet? If those numbers and reasons don’t have you scrambling for pen and paper, who knows what will.

Don’t Skip: Business Startup Costs Checklist

Before we get into the nitty-gritty steps of how to write a business plan, let’s look at some high-level tips to get you started in the right direction:

Be Professional and Legit

You might be tempted to get cutesy or revolutionary with your business plan—resist the urge. While you should let your brand and creativity shine with everything you produce, business plans fall more into the realm of professional documents.

Think of your business plan the same way as your terms and conditions, employee contracts, or financial statements. You want your plan to be as uniform as possible so investors, lenders, partners, and prospective employees can find the information they need to make important decisions.

If you want to create a fun summary business plan for internal consumption, then, by all means, go right ahead. However, for the purpose of writing this external-facing document, keep it legit.

Know Your Audience

Your official business plan document is for lenders, investors, partners, and big-time prospective employees. Keep these names and faces in your mind as you draft your plan.

Think about what they might be interested in seeing, what questions they’ll ask, and what might convince (or scare) them. Cut the jargon and tailor your language so these individuals can understand.

Remember, these are busy people. They’re likely looking at hundreds of applicants and startup investments every month. Keep your business plan succinct and to the point. Include the most pertinent information and omit the sections that won’t impact their decision-making.

Invest Time Researching

You might not have answers to all the sections you should include in your business plan. Don’t skip over these!

Your audience will want:

• Detailed information about your customers
• Numbers and solid math to back up your financial claims and estimates
• Deep insights about your competitors and potential threats
• Data to support market opportunities and strategy

Your answers can’t be hypothetical or opinionated. You need research to back up your claims. If you don’t have that data yet, then invest time and money in collecting it. That information isn’t just critical for your business plan—it’s essential for owning, operating, and growing your company.

Stay Realistic

Your business may be ambitious, but reign in the enthusiasm just a teeny-tiny bit. The last thing you want to do is have an angel investor call BS and say “I’m out” before even giving you a chance.

The folks looking at your business and evaluating your plan have been around the block—they know a thing or two about fact and fiction. Your plan should be a blueprint for success. It should be the step-by-step roadmap for how you’re going from Point A to Point B.

How to Write a Business Plan—6 Essential Elements

Not every business plan looks the same, but most share a few common elements. Here’s what they typically include:

• Executive Summary
• Business Overview
• Products and Services
• Market Analysis
• Competitive Analysis
• Financial Strategy

Below, we’ll break down each of these sections in more detail.

1. Executive Summary

While your executive summary is the first page of your business plan, it’s the section you’ll write last. That’s because it summarizes your entire business plan into a succinct one-pager.

Begin with an executive summary that introduces the reader to your business and gives them an overview of what’s inside the business plan.

Your executive summary highlights key points of your plan. Consider this your elevator pitch. You want to put all your juiciest strengths and opportunities strategically in this section.

2. Business Overview

In this section, you can dive deeper into the elements of your business, including answering:

• What’s your business structure? Sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation, etc.
• Where is it located?
• Who owns the business? Does it have employees?
• What problem does it solve, and how?
• What’s your mission statement? Your mission statement briefly describes why you are in business. To write a proper mission statement, brainstorm your business’s core values and who you serve.

Don’t overlook your mission statement. This powerful sentence or paragraph could be the inspiration that drives an investor to take an interest in your business. Here are a few examples of powerful mission statements that just might give you the goosebumps:

• Patagonia: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
• Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
• InvisionApp : Question Assumptions. Think Deeply. Iterate as a Lifestyle. Details, Details. Design is Everywhere. Integrity.
• TED : Spread ideas.
• Warby Parker : To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.

3. Products and Services

As the owner, you know your business and the industry inside and out. However, whoever’s reading your document might not. You’re going to need to break down your products and services in minute detail.

For example, if you own a SaaS business, you’re going to need to explain how this business model works and what you’re selling.

You’ll need to include:

• What services you sell: Describe the services you provide and how these will help your target audience.
• What products you sell: Describe your products (and types if applicable) and how they will solve a need for your target and provide value.
• How much you charge: If you’re selling services, will you charge hourly, per project, retainer, or a mixture of all of these? If you’re selling products, what are the price ranges?

4. Market Analysis

Your market analysis essentially explains how your products and services address customer concerns and pain points. This section will include research and data on the state and direction of your industry and target market.

This research should reveal lucrative opportunities and how your business is uniquely positioned to seize the advantage. You’ll also want to touch on your marketing strategy and how it will (or does) work for your audience.

Include a detailed analysis of your target customers. This describes the people you serve and sell your product to. Be careful not to go too broad here—you don’t want to fall into the common entrepreneurial trap of trying to sell to everyone and thereby not differentiating yourself enough to survive the competition.

The market analysis section will include your unique value proposition. Your unique value proposition (UVP) is the thing that makes you stand out from your competitors. This is your key to success.

If you don’t have a UVP, you don’t have a way to take on competitors who are already in this space. Here’s an example of an ecommerce internet business plan outlining their competitive edge:

FireStarters’ competitive advantage is offering product lines that make a statement but won’t leave you broke. The major brands are expensive and not distinctive enough to satisfy the changing taste of our target customers. FireStarters offers products that are just ahead of the curve and so affordable that our customers will return to the website often to check out what’s new.

5. Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis examines the strengths and weaknesses of competing businesses in your market or industry. This will include direct and indirect competitors. It can also include threats and opportunities, like economic concerns or legal restraints.

The best way to sum up this section is with a classic SWOT analysis. This will explain your company’s position in relation to your competitors.

6. Financial Strategy

Your financial strategy will sum up your revenue, expenses, profit (or loss), and financial plan for the future. It’ll explain how you make money, where your cash flow goes, and how you’ll become profitable or stay profitable.

This is one of the most important sections for lenders and investors. Have you ever watched Shark Tank? They always ask about the company’s financial situation. How has it performed in the past? What’s the ongoing outlook moving forward? How does the business plan to make it happen?

Answer all of these questions in your financial strategy so that your audience doesn’t have to ask. Go ahead and include forecasts and graphs in your plan, too:

• Balance sheet: This includes your assets, liabilities, and equity.
• Profit & Loss (P&L) statement: This details your income and expenses over a given period.
• Cash flow statement: Similar to the P&L, this one will show all cash flowing into and out of the business each month.

It takes cash to change the world—lenders and investors get it. If you’re short on funding, explain how much money you’ll need and how you’ll use the capital. Where are you looking for financing? Are you looking to take out a business loan, or would you rather trade equity for capital instead?

Read More: 16 Financial Concepts Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know

Startup Business Plan Template (Copy/Paste Outline)

Ready to write your own business plan? Copy/paste the startup business plan template below and fill in the blanks.

Executive Summary Remember, do this last. Summarize who you are and your business plan in one page.

Business Overview Describe your business. What’s it do? Who owns it? How’s it structured? What’s the mission statement?

Products and Services Detail the products and services you offer. How do they work? What do you charge?

Market Analysis Write about the state of the market and opportunities. Use date. Describe your customers. Include your UVP.

Competitive Analysis Outline the competitors in your market and industry. Include threats and opportunities. Add a SWOT analysis of your business.

Financial Strategy Sum up your revenue, expenses, profit (or loss), and financial plan for the future. If you’re applying for a loan, include how you’ll use the funding to progress the business.

5 Frame-Worthy Business Plan Examples

Want to explore other templates and examples? We got you covered. Check out these 5 business plan examples you can use as inspiration when writing your plan:

• SBA Wooden Grain Toy Company
• SBA We Can Do It Consulting
• OrcaSmart Business Plan Sample
• Plum Business Plan Template
• PandaDoc Free Business Plan Templates

Get to Work on Making Your Business Plan

If you find you’re getting stuck on perfecting your document, opt for a simple one-page business plan —and then get to work. You can always polish up your official plan later as you learn more about your business and the industry.

Remember, business plans are not a requirement for starting a business—they’re only truly essential if a bank or investor is asking for it.

Ask others to review your business plan. Get feedback from other startups and successful business owners. They’ll likely be able to see holes in your planning or undetected opportunities—just make sure these individuals aren’t your competitors (or potential competitors).

Your business plan isn’t a one-and-done report—it’s a living, breathing document. You’ll make changes to it as you grow and evolve. When the market or your customers change, your plan will need to change to adapt.

That means when you’re finished with this exercise, it’s not time to print your plan out and stuff it in a file cabinet somewhere. No, it should sit on your desk as a day-to-day reference. Use it (and update it) as you make decisions about your product, customers, and financial plan.

Review your business plan frequently, update it routinely, and follow the path you’ve developed to the future you’re building.

Keep Learning: New Product Development Process in 8 Easy Steps

What financial information should be included in a business plan?

Be as detailed as you can without assuming too much. For example, include your expected revenue, expenses, profit, and growth for the future.

What are some common mistakes to avoid when writing a business plan?

The most common mistake is turning your business plan into a textbook. A business plan is an internal guide and an external pitching tool. Cut the fat and only include the most relevant information to start and run your business.

Who should review my business plan before I submit it?

Co-founders, investors, or a board of advisors. Otherwise, reach out to a trusted mentor, your local chamber of commerce, or someone you know that runs a business.

Ready to Write Your Business Plan?

Don’t let creating a business plan hold you back from starting your business. Writing documents might not be your thing—that doesn’t mean your business is a bad idea.

Let us help you get started.

Join our free training to learn how to start an online side hustle in 30 days or less. We’ll provide you with a proven roadmap for how to find, validate, and pursue a profitable business idea (even if you have zero entrepreneurial experience).

Stuck on the ideas part? No problem. When you attend the masterclass, we’ll send you a free ebook with 100 of the hottest side hustle trends right now. It’s chock full of brilliant business ideas to get you up and running in the right direction.

About Jesse Sumrak

Jesse Sumrak is a writing zealot focused on creating killer content. He’s spent almost a decade writing about startup, marketing, and entrepreneurship topics, having built and sold his own post-apocalyptic fitness bootstrapped business. A writer by day and a peak bagger by night (and early early morning), you can usually find Jesse preparing for the apocalypse on a precipitous peak somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

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How to Conclude a Business Plan

by Mariel Loveland

Published on 28 May 2019

It doesn’t matter if you’re launching a brand new business or planning to expand your already successful venture: you will need a business plan. This is a road map that helps you achieve all of your business goals. It basically answers a series of questions about your company ranging from what your product is to who you’re selling it to. This, of course, can be figurative as some businesses provide services, rather than products.

For example, a plumbing company’s product is fixing pipes, not typically the retail sale of the pipes themselves. A medical practice’s product is diagnosing and curing illnesses, not typically the medicine itself (that’s usually left up to the pharmacies).

Partially completed written business plan.

Word processing software.

Inside every business plan is a conclusion – and it varies depending on the industry and the audience. Regardless, this is your final pitch to summarize your entire report. A solid business plan conclusion example is one that highlights strengths and ensures the reader that your business will be a success.

Share the conclusion of your plan with a few people you trust to make sure company outsiders can understand your points.

Explain The “Why” Behind Your Business Plan

In your business plan conclusion pdf (or printed paper if you’re going old school), you need to tell readers why they’re actually reading your business plan in the first place. For example, the conclusion of a business plan for a coffee shop looking for funding might briefly mention that you’re searching for a certain amount of money to remodel your dining space or buy a new espresso machine.

You might also want to use different business plan conclusion examples for different audiences. If you’re looking for $100,000 in funding from investors, disclose financial details in your conclusion. If you’re looking for a new partner or to sell your business, you’ll need to outline this in your conclusion as well. You might actually be looking for investors and partners or looking for investors or a buyer at the same time. Print out business plan conclusion PDFs for each specific instance.

State The Key Milestones

Your business plan probably has stacks of pages with different milestones. When do you expect to turn a profit? How long will it take you to train new staff? In how many months do you expect to break a sales milestone? Even your executive summary, the shorter preface to your plan that explains your key assumptions in everyday speak versus industry jargon, has a few milestones buried deep in its short pages.

State your key milestones in your conclusion, whether you place this in an executive summary or at the end of your report. For example, the conclusion of a business plan for a coffee shop might say that you expect to sell 1,000 lattes by the first month. Write this down along with the percentage of increased revenue you expect month-to-month and the measures you’ll take to get there. Put the milestones in a graph, table or column for easy digestibility.

Create a Call to Action

The best business plans don’t just end with an “okay, now what?” They end with inspiration. To do this, you’ll need to add a call-to-action to your business plan conclusion. The call-to-action can be anything from “invest money today” to “join us as a partner.”

For example, the conclusion of a business plan for a coffee shop might include “try one of our specialty cold brews today.” This is a successful business plan conclusion example because it gives investors the opportunity to try your product to see if they really believe in what you’re offering.

Not all Business Plan Conclusion Examples Are at the End

Before printing out your business plan conclusion PDF, think about where you’re going to actually put your conclusion. This might come at the end of your executive summary, which is at the beginning of your business plan.

You also might wish to write a longer conclusion at the end of your business plan. Either is effective, though the executive summary does come first and is most easily digested. You might have the biggest opportunity to show your business prowess in a place most investors are going to read first.

Where to write the conclusion of your business plan?

First of all, is there a conclusion to a business plan?

Do business plans have a conclusion?

Yes, but the conclusion of the business plan is not necessarily where you would expect it to be!

The conclusion of the business plan is not at the end of the plan but in the executive summary . And there are two good reasons for that.

Firstly because the executive summary contains the key points of your business plan - the rest of your plan is only there to reinforce and back the claims advanced in the executive summary - which makes it a natural place to conclude the plan.

Then (and mostly?) because the executive summary is very likely to be the only part that will get fully read in your plan!

That's for the form, now let's look at what goes into the conclusion of your business plan.

What is the content of a business plan's conclusion?

Well... it depends on the purpose of you business plan.

If you are writing a business plan to raise financing, then you need to specify the total funding requirements, the amount you already secured (from existing shareholders, banks, business partners, grants, etc.), and eventually an overview of the key terms you would like to obtain (minimum commitment, duration of the loan, or percentage of equity on offer, etc.).

If you are writing a business plan for a supplier or a key hire, then you can adopt a more traditional type of conclusion that simply reiterates and highlights the key strengths of you project.

What tool can I use to write my business plan?

A good way to write your business plan quickly without having to wonder what goes in each part is to use online business plan software . There are several advantages in doing so:

• You are guided through the writing process by detailed instructions and examples for each part of the plan 
• You can be inspired by already-written business plan templates and examples
• You can easily make your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you, without errors
• You get a professional document, formatted and ready to be sent to your bank or investors
• It’s easy to track your forecast against the actual financial performance of your company, and to keep your plan up to date and relevant

If you're interested in using this type of solution, you can try our software for free by signing up here .

I hope this quick guide helped you to get a better understanding of how to write the conclusion of your business plan. You can find some additional information in our guide to writing a business plan .

Also on The Business Plan Shop

• Free business plan template
• Business plan vs. business model
• How to write a five-year business plan?

If you find this article useful please share it with your network.

Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd

Guillaume Le Brouster is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier.

Guillaume has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade and has first-hand experience of starting, running, and growing a successful business.

Prior to being a business owner, Guillaume worked in investment banking and private equity, where he spent most of his time creating complex financial forecasts, writing business plans, and analysing financial statements to make financing and investment decisions.

Guillaume holds a Master's Degree in Finance from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business & Management from Paris Dauphine University.

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How to Write a Great Business Report Conclusion: Everything You Need to Know

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Enjoy reading this blog post written by our experts or partners.

If you want to see what Databox can do for you, click here .

When creating a comprehensive business report for your company, most of your time and energy will go into writing the main section of your report.

Once you come to the conclusion, you will probably be exhausted and you may feel the urge to just ‘wrap it up’ as soon as possible.

This can be a costly mistake.

Your conclusion carries the same importance as all the other sections of the report since it leaves the final impression on the reader.

How you conclude your business report has a direct impact on the way in which the readers will respond to the important information you gathered.

The business report may be spectacular, but without a convincing conclusion, all your efforts may deteriorate.

In this article, we are going to teach you how to write a compelling conclusion that will leave a huge impression on all your readers.

What Is Conclusion in Business Report Writing?

How do you write a conclusion for a report, types of business report conclusions, improve business reporting with databox.

No matter which type of business report you have written, you will need a good conclusion to sum up all the critical information.

A business report conclusion is the last section of the document used for summarizing the most important information, providing a final word to the readers.

Through the conclusion, you are able to convey the main message of your business document. You use it to outline the report as a whole, remind the readers of the main pain points, and present the key findings and decisions.

Depending on whether you have written a shorter or longer business report, the conclusion length may vary, but it should always be included. It is a sign of good organization and it can make the readers understand the pain points much easier.

To put it simply, the conclusion is supposed to create the impression among the readers that the purpose of the report has been achieved.

Business report conclusions have a lot of similarities to executive summaries, which is why a lot of people tend to confuse these two.

However, there are some important things that differentiate them. These include:

• Executive summaries are mainly focused on displaying what the report will be about, while conclusions are an overview of what was discussed in the report.
• Executive summaries provide readers with a broad overview of the business report, while the conclusion summarizes the key pain points and most important data.
• Executive summaries should convince the readers to continue reading the report, while the conclusion should persuade them to take certain action.
• Conclusions tend to include CTAs (Call to Action), which isn’t the case with executive summaries.

Related : Executive Reporting: Management Reporting Best Practices & Report Examples

Now that you understand what a conclusion is and why it’s so important to include it in your report, let’s show you how you can write the perfect one and impress your readers.

Follow these steps to create a great business report conclusion.

Choose the Position

Include the right information, summarize the contents, facts and statistics, maintain a positive tone, develop a cta.

There are two places where conclusions are most commonly placed – at the end of the executive summary and at the end of the entire report.

For business plan reports, the common practice is to place the conclusion at the end of the executive summary.

This way, you make the first step through the executive summary template and introduce the plan’s main pain points and funding needs. Then, you create a conclusion to summarize these numbers to your potential investors, which directly impacts their decision to go over the executive summary once more, this time reading it more thoroughly.

For other types of business reports, the conclusion will generally be placed at the end of the whole report. Established companies use these business reports to track performances and data from important departments, which is why the conclusion should primarily focus on briefly reviewing the key metrics you included and emphasizing the company’s main strengths.

The information you put into the conclusion also depends on whether you are a new startup looking to attract investments or an established company that wants to track performances and asses objectives.

To raise money, startups should include this type of information:

• Financial needs
• The benefits of their product and how it can affect the market
• Target audience/ideal customer persona
• How the product can attract new customers
• Marketing and sales strategy
• Competitive landscape and analysis
• The expertise of the main members of the company
• Financial forecasts (next 3-5 years)
• Launching plan

Existing companies should include information such as:

• Mission statement
• Performance history
• Data that showcases business growth
• Financial summary
• Overall goals and objectives

While these types of details are important, they aren’t universal for all reports. Your primary goal should be to include the most important data from your specific document and keep the conclusion concise and understandable.

PRO TIP: How to Track the Right Metrics for Your SaaS Company

It’s not easy to know which KPIs to track for sales, marketing, and customer success in a SaaS company. There are many possibilities, and so much to do! Why not start with the basic metrics that determine the health of your company?

• Sales (Gross) Volume: How much revenue did your sales team bring in this month, this quarter, or this year?
• MRR Growth: How fast are you growing revenues from recurring subscriptions? 
• Customers: How many customers do you have right now? 
• Customer Churn Rate: What’s your customer churn rate, and how much revenue have you lost to churn?

If you want to track these in Stripe, you can do it easily by building a plug-and-play dashboard that takes your Stripe customer data and automatically visualizes the right metrics to allow you to monitor your SaaS revenue performance at a glance. 

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up this Stripe dashboard , follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your Stripe account with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

The best way to convey your main message is by explaining it in detail throughout the business report and then summarizing it to recap the main points.

When creating the business report, take notes of the most important information that you should later highlight in the conclusion.

Make sure to avoid any extra details since they are already provided within the report. Only include the key points that explain why the business report itself is useful to the company.

Also, don’t use any additional information that you didn’t include in the report. This can only confuse your readers and send mixed messages.

You should prepare some facts, statistics, and data to support the statements in your conclusion. No matter if the reader is a potential investor or the key stakeholders in your company, you will want to include some evidence to back up your claims.

This makes the conclusion much more convincing and the audience will see that your forecasts aren’t based only on vague assumptions.

The tone in your conclusion should match the rest of the document and the best way to leave an impression on the audience is by using a professional and positive tone throughout the whole report.

After going through the conclusion, the readers should feel interested and enthusiastic to support the growth of your organization.

Make sure you exude confidence by using strong and active language.

Including a call to action at the end of your conclusion helps you persuade the readers to support the goals you set up.

This can be anything from “Join us at X enterprises” or “Invest in X and become a part of the success”.

A good CTA includes strong action words through which you emphasize the benefits of investors joining your firm or key stakeholders supporting your objectives.

After you are finished writing the conclusion, go over it once again to make sure there aren’t any spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes you overlooked. The conclusion should be clear, precise, and easy to go understand.

You can even ask a colleague or a friend to read it since it’s always helpful to have an extra set of eyes. Ask their opinion on how the conclusion makes them feel and whether it was easy to go through.

As we said, depending on which type of business report you have written and what is included in it, there are a few different types of conclusions you should differentiate.

Let’s walk you through them.

Conclusion with a Prediction

Conclusion with a major problem, conclusion with a quote, conclusion with a summary.

If your report focuses on a decision or strategy that already took place, you can write a conclusion that predicts the outcomes of that specific strategy.

You can include financial forecasts, sales expectations, and overall growth predictions. Make sure to also back up your predictions with sufficient evidence.

Writing this type of conclusion can be a bit tricky. You don’t want to come off strong and repeat the same issue over and over again. However, you do want the readers to take the issue seriously and realize why it is important that everyone focuses on solving it as soon as possible.

Be direct, but also lenient. Describe why that issue is important and provide a few ways on how you can solve it. Keep it brief and memorable.

Ending your conclusion with a powerful quotation can leave a great impression on the readers. However, you should be very careful when choosing the right quote.

You can’t just throw in some saying from Shakespeare and wrap it up. It is best to quote someone influential in the industry in such a way that it reinforces your message.

When writing your short but meaningful summary, don’t go into detail about your main points again. Keep it as brief as possible and only remind the readers of the most important information.

Also, you should remember that a conclusion doesn’t have to include only one of these things. Mixing up a summary and a prediction can be a powerful combination, so always try to figure out a few different ways to convey your message and then choose the right one.

Business reporting is one of the indispensable activities within a company, but it is also one of the most time-consuming. 

The traditional way of creating business reports has always been a daunting task for executives around the world – hours spent copying and pasting, checking different tools for data, tracking the performance each week, and constantly updating the reports manually.

Databox has introduced a new way of doing things.

With our customizable dashboards , you will save both time and energy by tracking all of your important data in one place and updating it in real-time. You can connect your favorite devices and monitor business performances in one comprehensive report.

Additionally, you will also be able to prepare beautiful and understandable reports by using some of our advanced visualization tools. With just a few clicks, you can visualize all of the key metrics and turn them into professional-looking graphs and charts.

Sign up for free and improve your business reporting process in no time.

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12.13: Conclusion

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In this chapter, we have illustrated the process and the elements that are used to develop a full-blown business plan. The key points are the following:

• The FAD template, the Organizational and Industry Analysis template, the Business Plan Overview template and executive summary are used as the basis for developing the full-blown business plan.
• The business plan serves many purposes including serving as a communication tool for investors; it is a scaled-down version of how the business will function and it is used as a platform for communications among the founders, employees, consultants, and mentors; and finally, it can be used as a blueprint for operating the business the first year.
• A business plan template is presented that illustrates the typical sections that are contained in the business plan.
• The writing style, the organization and the formatting are just as important as the content for communicating the essence of the business model.
• It is important to pitch and present the business plan before finalizing the full-blown plan. This will help to bring focus and clarity on the emergent business.
• In many instances, investors invest in the management as much as in the idea.
• Many investors are interested in market potential in terms of the growth of the market and the total size of the market.
• Contingency planning and risk assessment should be addressed in the business plan or at least informally among the founders of the business and key management employees.
• Time, hard work, and attention to details will lead to better business plans.
• Legal counsel and accounting expertise are essential for incorporating the business and providing guidance through the legal and financial systems.

The business plan is presented to the outside world through a business presentation and the presentation leads to the development of a short business plan document. An important part of developing the business plan is the learning-by-doing process. It is important that the emerging company make and build things, try experiments, and construct prototypes. Prototypes need to be constructed as early as possible for tangible products and also for systems applications. As illustrated in Figure 12.3 "Planning Process Is Ongoing an Iterative" , the process is iterative and ends only after the business is not in existence.

Figure 12.3 Planning Process Is Ongoing an Iterative

The most important element of the business plan and the business presentation is the “look and feel.” The plan and the presentation should look clean and streamlined. The development of a business model and plan begins with the moment that the entrepreneur has the original aha experience; this is followed with a very brief strategic planning process (we recommend the Ten–Ten approach coupled with a FAD analysis) and this is in turn followed by the development of the executive summary.

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We are optimistic that we can meet our modest financial projections and generate gross revenues greater than (insert projected revenues for year 1) in the first year following the start of the business. Additionally, our management has carefully considered its market, potential clientele, and capacity to increase sales average to seize market share (both domestically and internationally). We confidently project over a (estimate the entity value in year 4) entity value in year four based on our anticipated numbers and the total market share and revenue in the (enter company industry) industry.

We are convinced that our company has the potential to establish itself as a valuable resource in the local and regional markets. The establishment of the company as a respected entity in our industry is now within reach thanks to the company’s aggressive marketing strategy and the carefully developed company products and services.

As business owners, the Managers pledge to personally assume responsibility for all debt (INCLUDE IF BUSINESS NEEDS AN INVESTOR OR LOAN). To ensure a successful business expansion, the company has taken the necessary precautions to ensure that the enterprise is fully capitalized and has addressed all financial shortfalls. BUSINESS NAME will be able to secure repayment of the investment and achieve operational success for many years to come, assuming the business can continue operations and meet requirements during our first year of operation.

In all of the aforementioned, we hope to demonstrate our capacity to provide goods and services to our customers or community that will meet and exceed their needs and expectations. In order to maximize the impact of the aforementioned promotional tools, they will all be effectively integrated and used in tandem throughout the plan.

Entrepreneurs have a propensity to highlight strengths and hide risks in any business plan by painting it with a very optimistic brush. As owners of a business, the Company Managers have a financial stake in the enterprise’s success. The company has taken all necessary precautions to validate its financial and business models, putting a strong emphasis on conservative projections. If you have any questions, please contact the Founders directly.

Visit https://cervitude.com to see the variety of business plan templates and financial projection templates that are available for immediate download. com/shop/.

The consultants at Cervitude IR assist business owners and executives from all over the world by creating top-notch business plans to start and grow their companies. Learn more about our business planning services. If you’re looking for our assistance with startup business planning, click here.

• Decide where you want it to be. …
• Include the right information. …
• Add facts and statistics. …
• Maintain a positive tone. …
• Include a call to action. …
• Review your conclusion.

Business Plan Writer Explains How to Write a Business Plan: Part 8 The Conclusion

Conclusion as a Summary of Needs and Abilities

If the executive summary outlines the plan’s goals, the conclusion should review those goals. A business plan’s conclusion clarifies the firm’s requirements, the management team’s ability to carry out the objectives, and the main arguments for why the company will be successful with funding. Investors are seeking justifications for investing money in the business; this is accomplished by emphasizing the innovative ways in which the company resolves issues and how an influx of funding will lead to success. Usually, theres a specific call to action in the conclusion.

Creating a business plan requires market and industry research. Research is necessary to confirm regulations, industry trends, and technological innovations, and this is especially true the bigger the company or the more complex its products or services are. The expert sources cited in the plan’s end notes are used to support assertions. These are like a bibliography in a high-school research paper.

End notes refer to specific data cited in the plan and are organized by the business plan’s corresponding fact in the order of use. In the competitive analysis section, for instance, consumer information from publicly available industry reports might be cited. The superscript is the number three, which corresponds to the third end note, if this is the third data citation.

What is a Business Plan Conclusion?

This business plan’s conclusion provides a succinct overview of the entire document, particularly the executive summary. It provides a 2-3 paragraph summary of your business plan, focusing on the key ideas.

Is the Business Conclusion Necessary?

Although it’s a good idea for business plans, getting funding isn’t always possible.

It may not be necessary if you have a fantastic executive summary.

If the business conclusion is well-written, it can act as a kind of executive summary, offering more detail than the entire business plan while focusing only on the most crucial points. As opposed to an actual executive summary, it could also act as a shorter version.

How do you write a conclusion for a business study?

Conclusion: Highlight and explain the main findings, point out any problems with the data, and respond to any queries the purpose posed. Recommendations: Suggest remedies for any issues raised in the conclusion, and briefly describe how each remedy would operate.

How do you summarize a business plan?

• Focus on providing a summary. …
• Keep your language strong and positive. …
• Keep it short–no more than two pages long. …
• Polish your executive summary. …
• Tailor it to your audience. …
• Put yourself in your readers’ place.

What do you write last in a business plan?

Draft an executive summary. One of your plan’s most important sections is a strong executive summary; you should write it last.

How do you close a business project?

• Formally transfer all deliverables. Finalizing and transferring the project deliverables to the client is the first step in wrapping up your project.
• Confirm project completion. …
• Review all contracts and documentation. …
• Release resources. …
• Conduct a post-mortem. …
• Archive documentation. …

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Business Plan Templates

How to write the conclusion section of your business plan.

This tutorial explains how to write the conclusion for a business document, for example, a report, thesis, project, or any document that needs a section to gather together the main points.

The structure of the conclusion is as follows:

Reviewing this conclusion, we can see that it mirrors the structure of the executive summary. This serves several purposes:

• Reminding the reader of the messages made in the executive summary
• Reinforce the main message the authors want to highlight
• Laying information throughout the white paper to nudge the reader in the right direction.

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There is no one perfect way to write a business plan. There are many business planning experts with varying business plan writing formats and numerous entrepreneurs that have been successful without one. With the strongest business plan, a company will only be as successful as the execution of the team.

So there’s no guaranteed success, but writing one will increase your chances. It will act as a roadmap and self-check for you to keep your operation day-to-day in line with the over-arching business strategy. It will continue to evolve, but even the most experienced entrepreneur needs a plan.

The business plan has several other valuable uses:

• The plan will not only help you allocate resources effectively, but will also help you manage all the moving parts and cut down on stress. You may (and probably will) come upon obstacles as your new business swings into operation. Being prepared with a plan, strategy and safety net could be the difference of you continuing operation.
• A business plan will help enlist others in your idea. To make your business successful you’ll need some combination of partners, investors, employees, etc. These people are usually more easily compelled to offer the support you’re looking for if you have a business plan. Giving time or money to a startup is always a risk. If you show a convincing plan for success, partners, investors and employees will be more likely to jump on-board.
• A business plan can be used as a guide — or roadmap — as you operate your business. If done well, your business plan will have created a cohesive strategy for the first 3-5 years of operation. You’ll continue to learn a tremendous amount about entrepreneurship — including: improving processes for efficiency, adjusting for your market, expanding and refining your network and data. Your business plan should evolve with you. Your strategy should be periodically revised, kept fresh and ahead of the competition.

Once you’ve completed your business plan, you will need to set up your operational infrastructure. This includes getting your business license, registering as a legal entity, setting up an office if necessary and planning all the operational processes — such as accounting, IT and customer service. The Startup Garage offers a variety of resources for executing on these pre-launch activities. Visit our blog, or connect on any of the platforms below.

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5 Consequences of Skipping a Business Plan

9 min. read

Updated May 10, 2024

You’ve got a great business idea, something that could be truly special. 

You’re ready to dive in, ditch the day job, and build it yourself.

But you keep being told you need to write a business plan .

It feels like an unnecessary roadblock when all you want to do is go, and you’re tempted to skip it entirely.

After all, what’s the worst that could happen? 

That’s the question we’re tackling in this article. 

I spoke with seasoned planning experts Tim Berry , Sabrina Parsons , and Noah Parsons to uncover the consequences of starting a business without a plan. 

1. An idea isn’t always a business

That initial rush of excitement when a business idea hits is intoxicating. You imagine the possibilities, the potential…but the journey from concept to reality is where things get tricky.

“Without a business plan, you won’t know if your idea can be turned into a business,” Sabrina cautions. “To transform an idea into an actual business, you need to test if it’s viable .”

The problem? Most people lack a framework for that testing. 

The idea remains trapped in your head. You lack answers to critical questions, like:

• Does it solve a real problem ? Who are your ideal customers, and what pain point are you addressing?
• Is there a market? Are enough people willing to pay for your solution?
• How will you make money? What’s your basic business model for turning a profit?

Creating a one-page plan gives you a structured way to answer these questions. It could save you from wasting time and resources chasing a dream that was never meant to be a business. 

Or it might just reveal that your idea has potential and deserves more research.

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2. If you build it, they don’t always come

Even a seemingly good idea may not actually work . 

It could be too expensive to execute, face overwhelming competition, or simply not appeal to enough customers. 

“If you build it, they will come” is one of the biggest myths in business,” says Sabrina. “You need to attract people who actually want to buy what you are selling.”

This means finding product-market fit—the sweet spot where your solution meets a real customer need.

“It’s the single most important factor in the early stages of a business,” explains Noah. “If your product doesn’t solve a problem for your customers, you don’t have a business.”

True product-market fit requires testing. It means getting out there, talking to potential customers, and getting honest feedback:

• Do they truly need what you offer?
• Is the price point appealing?
• Are you even targeting the right audience?

You can’t meaningfully ask these questions without first outlining the assumptions baked into your idea. Who are your customers? What problem do you solve? What’s your basic business model?

Again, creating a one-page plan forces you to address these assumptions from the start. It lays the groundwork for the kind of testing that separates successful startups from those that fizzle out because they misread the market.

3. You won’t know how much money you need

You hear about bootstrapping success stories—entrepreneurs building empires from scratch. But the reality is every business requires some investment, even if it’s your own .

“You need to know how much it will cost to start and keep the business running—and then what it will take to become profitable,” Noah stresses. 

If you lack a business plan, you’ll have no idea of your revenue and expense categories. These are the starting points for creating sales, expense, and cash flow forecasts that help you understand:

• Startup Expenses : How much cash do you need to make your business operational?
• Operating Costs: How much will it take to run your business for the first year?
• Hidden Fees: Have you considered every potential expense, from licenses to marketing?
• Cash Flow : How long will it take for enough money to come in to cover your ongoing expenses?

Trying to figure this out in real-time is a recipe for disaster. 

As Sabrina puts it, “It’s like playing high-stakes poker blindfolded. You’re risking everything without a clear picture of what you’re working with.”

A plan brings clarity. It helps you determine whether you have the funds to succeed, how quickly you might become profitable, and how to allocate your cash wisely. 

Without it, you risk running out of money before your business has a fighting chance.

4. You won’t know what is and isn’t working

“Tracking your business performance— reviewing how your actual results measure up to your plan—is the key to running a successful business,” Noah emphasizes. 

Without a business plan and financial forecasts, you’ll lack the foundation to build a business strategy. That ‘blindfold’ that Sabrina mentioned before will stick with you throughout the life of your business.

Here’s what that means:

• Inefficiencies bleed profits: You won’t be able to identify the areas where you’re losing money.
• “Big decisions” are risky: You won’t know when it’s the right time to make critical decisions (like hiring team members or expanding).
• Profitability is a mystery: Without tracking towards specific business goals, “what it will take to be profitable” remains unknown.
• No data for decisions: When do you need to change course? Without the clarity a business plan provides, it’s impossible to say.

“Managing your business against your plan leads to better decisions,” says Sabrina. 

It doesn’t have to be complicated—again, with a simple one-page plan, you’ll have a tool “to better understand your financial drivers and revenue opportunities.” 

This plan becomes your roadmap. It lets you make data-driven decisions, minimize risk, and proactively steer your business toward success. With this knowledge, surprises become fewer, and your understanding of your business will grow deeper.

• 5. You will struggle to raise money

Investors and banks live in the world of business and financial plans . 

As Tim states, “Don’t get caught thinking investors just want pitches and summaries. They expect a plan and will want to go over every detail.” Without these documents, you’ll face serious hurdles in securing funding. Tim adds: “I’ve seen investors reject a startup from just summaries without reading a business plan document. But I’ve never seen them invest without having seen a plan.”  

Think of it this way: If you don’t have a plan, you either scramble to assemble one or walk into investor meetings unprepared. 

“I’ve seen it countless times in actual investor pitches,” Tim recounts. “Things seem promising until investors start digging into specifics like marketing spend or administrative costs. Those without a well-thought-out plan freeze up. Investors can smell that a mile away.”

The very process of creating a business plan primes you for the questions investors will undoubtedly ask. “The planning process forces you to answer questions about your business that you may not have thought to ask yourself,” explains Noah. 

This includes the critical question: How much funding do you truly need?

“Getting the right amount of financing for your business will save you heartache and money,” says Sabrina. “Do yourself a favor and create a full financial forecast to understand exactly how much funding you need.” Otherwise, you risk under or overestimating, damaging your credibility with investors.

TLDR: If you’re seeking outside funding, a formal business plan isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. While a more detailed plan is likely necessary, the one-page plan we’ve discussed will form the foundation.

• Failing to plan is planning to fail

Writing a business plan will make you a better business owner.

It’s not just about avoiding pitfalls; it’s about unlocking your business’s full potential. The planning process forces you to dig deep, examine your ideas, and refine them into a powerful strategy built for long-term success.

The best part? You don’t need a complex, time-consuming document to reap these rewards. 

“We’re talking about a lean one-page plan to run your business,” Tim emphasizes. It’s easy to develop, keep updated, and build on bullet points, lists, and tables. If you know your business, you can do it quickly.”

So, whether you’re a new or existing business—don’t face the consequences caused by skipping out on your business plan.

Download our free one-page business plan template and write it in as little as 30 minutes . You and your business will be glad you did.

What are the consequences of not having a business plan?

Skipping the business planning process can lead to several negative consequences:

• Your idea might not be viable: You risk wasting time and money on a product or service that nobody wants or isn’t profitable.
• You could miss your target market: A plan helps you understand your ideal customer and ensure you’re offering something they truly need.
• You’ll be financially unprepared: You won’t know your true startup and operational costs or how to reach profitability.
• You’ll lack a roadmap: Without a plan, it’s difficult to track progress, identify problems, or make strategic decisions.
• You’ll struggle to get funding: Investors and lenders rely on business plans and financial statements to assess the potential of your venture.

Remember, even a simple one-page plan can help you avoid these pitfalls and set your business up for success.

Can a business survive without a business plan?

Technically, yes, a business can survive without a plan. There are examples of businesses that found success without traditional planning—but they are the outliers.

The reality is that businesses without a plan face significantly greater obstacles. They’re more likely to:

• Make costly mistakes due to a lack of foresight.
• Miss out on opportunities due to a lack of direction.
• Struggle to obtain funding from investors and lenders.
• Fail to understand their full financial picture.

While survival is possible, a business plan dramatically increases the odds of not just surviving but thriving.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Kody Wirth is a content writer and SEO specialist for Palo Alto Software—the creator's of Bplans and LivePlan. He has 3+ years experience covering small business topics and runs a part-time content writing service in his spare time.

Table of Contents

• 1. An idea isn’t always a business
• 2. If you build it, they don’t always come
• 3. You won’t know how much money you need
• 4. You won’t know what is and isn’t working

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How To Start an Eyelash Business Successfully: Step-by-Step Guide

Eyelash technicians today are privileged – eyelash extensions are a popular beauty service, technicians can work flexible hours if desired, and of course, a creative outlet means a lot for both clients and practitioners.

Clients are seeking high-quality services and are willing to pay a lot for skilled lash artistry.

If you are looking to join the industry and start an eyelash business on your own, we’ve prepared a step-by-step guide of the main aspects to have on your radar.

General Aspects of Eyelash Business

An eyelash business is a niche-specific beauty business – compared to a full-service/multi-service salon (such as for hair, nails, facials, etc.). So, unlike a general salon, your eyelash business will focus on a specific set of supplies: lash extensions, adhesives, removers, cleansing products, applicators, and more. This means you might have a smaller but more loyal audience.

At the same time, eyelash technicians typically require specialized training and certification programs compared to some generalist beauty services.

Another crucial aspect is that strict hygiene protocols are of high priority in eyelash application. You’ll need to invest in proper sterilization equipment to avoid any infections and ensure technicians follow proper sanitation procedures. Probably even have extra equipment, such as an air cleaner, in your salon.

A lot also depends on the customer consultation and your ability to handle it well – online or at the salon. So, you also need to hire an expert consultant, who will assess natural lashes, discuss desired styles, and recommend suitable options – these can be your technicians as well. 

Related articles:  

• Beauty Salon Booking Website Ideas to Boost Your Performance
• How to Increase Retention Rate for Appointment Business?
• Content Strategy for a Beauty Salon Website Blog

Write a Business Plan

You can write a business plan simply intuitively, relying on well-known expenses, or download business plan samples and use any as a basis. 

• Decide on the type of product: eyelash services/ eyelash products / both.
• Create an exclusive name for your business .
• Think of the number of employees – is it a salon or solo technician business.
• Include main expenses (inventory, utilities, salaries, advertising).
• Choose between a sole proprietorship or a partnership business, and learn more details of the business registration in your country.
• Choose the location and consider safety and regulations terms for your business.
• Start a website under your brand domain names and create social network brand accounts.
• Include costs for basic marketing efforts. 

An eyelash business plan helps you with planning, clear documentation, and practical implementation of every step, even if you are not going to follow it strictly.

Choose a Salon Location

The cost of rent, property taxes, and utilities of the potential location are always on top of your list when you are choosing the location. However, if you have resources, try to identify a location with good foot traffic, for example, near other beauty-related businesses or malls.

Moreover, beauty products being quite often about the in-store experience, you can offer various ways for a customer to get a feel for the lash look they desire:

• Offer premade lash trays.
• Create photo books or portfolios with lash extensions.
• Offer pre-made fans of lashes that they can place under the customer’s eye.
• Give a consultation on styles, lengths, and thicknesses of lashes (offer consultant appointment scheduling ). 

Create Online Promotion Strategies

Today, beauty brands, including eyelash technicians, heavily rely on online promotion. Considering that all the client attention is mostly going to streaming services, social media, and email, think of implementing the following ways of reaching your customers: 

• Your own website (you can concentrate all your activities around it).
• Streaming services (YouTube, Facebook, online education platforms).
• Email (create free downloadable resources like eyelash aftercare plans and exchange them for an email address of the client).
• Create short videos showcasing your everyday work (TikTok, Youtube Shorts).
• Find partner websites that would want to tell you about your brand.
• Learn the basics of SEO for a beauty salon and apply them across your site and networks. 

If you can’t hire Zendaya to be the spokesmodel of your beauty brand, think of the quality of the content you can create yourself. Remember that your target audience is always inundated with ads so we are highly recommending finding creative ways to use those marketing channels where you’ll have the most attention (streaming services, social media, and email), but in the most creative way.

Take Client Reservations Online on Your Website

While you can use social networks and third-party platforms to create your brand page and find clients, this is not the most trusted method in the long run for a successful beauty brand. 

To be fully independent and have the design, marketing, and payments under your control, starting your own website is a must. With WordPress, it’s really hassle-free. You will not just have an awesome online presence with your preferred design, but also have the desired functionality for accepting client reservations, when they can select the available time in the booking calendar and even make a payment. 

For example, using the BookingPress beauty salon software , you can manage:

• Booking forms: accept bookings online for any of your lash services or consultations.
• Multiple lash artists and locations: Manage a team of lash technicians across different salons or in one salon.
• Technician availability: schedule your lash artists with their individual schedules, supporting breaks, days off, and more.
• Customizable pricing: set prices for services based on duration, type of service, and discounts.
• Popular methods are available: collect deposits or offer full online payment options.
• Automated notifications: timely emails, SMS, or WhatsApp alerts about appointments.

For those clients who need to refill or apply a new full set on a regular basis, they can easily schedule recurring visits with this booking plugin.

Conclusion: Start an Eyelash Business with Confidence

Starting a beauty business means joining a profitable, thriving market, so even if you start small – do it with confidence.

Test things out with the brand messages, salon and website design, and the selection of services you can offer as an eyelash practitioner to find your ground. Last but not least, many challenges of starting a beauty business as an eyelash practitioner can be solved with technologies – POS in your salon for contactless payments, automated online appointment bookings in advance, and AI automation .

Brian is a WordPress expert with a decade of developing experience & technical-writing. He enjoys blogging, movies & hiking.

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Politics latest: Keir Starmer accused of 'rank hypocrisy' by Rishi Sunak after setting out what he'll do to tackle small boat crossings

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer lays out his party's plans to try and tackle small boat crossings if it wins power. Listen to the latest episode of the Electoral Dysfunction podcast as you scroll.

Friday 10 May 2024 18:30, UK

• Starmer says small boat crossings 'one of the greatest challenges we face'
• Explained: What's in Labour's plan to try and tackle problem
• Darren McCaffrey: Will Labour's plan cut it with voters?
• Starmer says no flights to Rwanda will take off under Labour
• Sunak accuses Starmer of 'rank hypocrisy'
• Electoral Dysfunction:  Jess Phillips says Elphicke defection like 'being punched in gut'
• UK exits recession | Economy 'returning to full health'
• Faultlines:   Can British farming survive?
• Live reporting by Tim Baker

Across the UK, anger is brewing amongst some farmers.  

Protests have already been held in London, Dover and Cardiff, with more planned - mirroring similar tensions seen across Europe in the last six months.     

They say they’re annoyed about cheap foreign imports and changes to subsidies forcing them to give up land in favour of environmental schemes.    

But what does this mean for the food on our table - and does British produce risk becoming a luxury product for the wealthy only?    

On the Sky News Daily , Niall Paterson is joined by West of England and Wales correspondent Dan Whitehead to find out why farmers are so concerned, and speaks to Liz Webster, the founder of Save British Farming, about why she believes eating British isn't just good for our farmers - it's good for the nation's health, too.   

In response to our report, Farming Minister Mark Spencer, said: "We firmly back our farmers. British farming is at the heart of British trade, and we put agriculture at the forefront of any deals we negotiate, prioritising new export opportunities, protecting UK food standards and removing market access barriers. 

"We've maintained the £2.4bn annual farming budget and recently set out the biggest ever package of grants which supports farmers to produce food profitably and sustainably."

The Welsh government said: "A successful future for Welsh farming should combine the best of our traditional farming alongside cutting-edge innovation and diversification. 

"It will produce the very best of Welsh food to the highest standards, while safeguarding our precious environment and addressing the urgent call of the climate and nature emergencies."

👉  Listen above then tap here to follow the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts   👈

Following the defection of the Dover and Deal MP Natalie Elphicke to Labour, Beth, Ruth and Jess discuss the surprise move and whether it could have been handled differently by Sir Keir Starmer.

They also talk about Beth's interview with the former immigration minister Robert Jenrick and his warnings about Reform UK.

Plus, how significant was the defeat of former Conservative mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street? Beth and Jess were both there to tell the story.

And they answer a question on Labour and the Muslim vote, and what the party can do to restore confidence and trust.

Email Beth, Jess, and Ruth at [email protected] , post on X to @BethRigby, or send a WhatsApp voice note on 07934 200 444.     

👉 Listen above then tap here to follow Electoral Dysfunction wherever you get your podcasts 👈

In January 2023, Rishi Sunak made five promises.

Since then, he and his ministers have rarely missed an opportunity to list them. In case you haven't heard, he promised to:

• Halve inflation • Grow the economy • Reduce debt • Cut NHS waiting lists and times • Stop the boats

See below how he is doing on these goals:

The Sky News live poll tracker - collated and updated by our Data and Forensics team - aggregates various surveys to indicate how voters feel about the different political parties.

With the local elections complete, Labour is still sitting comfortably ahead, with the Tories trailing behind.

See the latest update below - and you can read more about the methodology behind the tracker  here .

Speaking to Sky political editor  Beth Rigby , Sir Keir Starmer has defended his decision to allow Tory MP Natalie Elphicke into Labour.

Ms Elphicke was on the right of the Conservative spectrum, and previously defended her sex-offender ex-husband, comments which she apologised for this week following her defection.

Addressing Tory voters, Sir Keir says he wants Labour to be a "place where they who have ambitions about their families, their communities, their country, can join and be part of what we are trying to build for their country".

Asked by Beth if he was ruthless, Sir Keir said: "Yes, I'm ruthless in trying to ensure we have a Labour government that can change this country for the better.

"Not ruthless for my own ambition, not ruthlessness particularly for the Labour Party - I'm ruthless for the country. 

"The only way we'll bring about a change in this country is if we're ruthless about winning that general election and putting in place a government of public service, that’ll be a major change.

"Politics, I believe, should be about public service, that's what I've been about all my life."

More now from political editor Beth Rigby's interview with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

She reminded him that he previously ruled out doing a deal with the SNP - but has not done so for the Liberal Democrats.

Sir Keir again ruled out a coalition with the SNP - adding that he is aiming for a "majority Labour government".

He says Labour needs "to keep working hard, keep disciplined and getting our message across, which is something fundamental to me".

Pushed on his lack of ruling out a possible agreement with the Lib Dems, Sir Keir says: "I'm going for a majority.

"That's the answer I gave you a year ago. It's the same answer I'm giving you now."

Sir Keir Starmer was earlier today pushed on whether Rwanda deportation flights will take off if he was prime minister - although it was not clear if he would cancel flights which had already been organised.

Sky News understood that previously booked deportation flights to Rwanda would still go ahead if Sir Keir entered Number 10. 

But the Labour leader has now gone further.

Speaking to political editor Beth Rigby , Sir Keir has ruled out any flights taking off.

"There will be no flights scheduled or taking off after general election if Labour wins that general election," he says.

He says: "Every flight that takes off carries with it a cheque to the Rwanda government. 

"So I want to scrap the scheme - so that means the flights won't be going."

Sir Keir says he would rather spend the money on his own measures to counter small boats.

"No flights, no Rwanda scheme. It's a gimmick," he says.

By Alix Culbertson , political reporter

Scotland's new first minister has told Sky News that the controversial gender recognition reforms "cannot be implemented."

John Swinney,  who became first minister this week , has faced questions over his stance on gender recognition after MSPs voted in 2022 to pass a bill to make it simpler for people to change their gender without having to obtain a medical diagnosis.

The UK government blocked the bill from being made into law and the Supreme Court rejected a request by the Scottish government for a judicial review.

Asked if he would be fighting to push the bill through, Mr Swinney told Sky News: "The reality of the situation we face is that the Supreme Court has said that we can't legislate in that area. We can't take forward that legislation."

The UK economy is no longer in recession, according to official figures.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by a better-than-expected 0.6% between January and March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Economists had predicted the figure would be 0.4%.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it showed the economy had "turned a corner".

He told Sky News's Ed Conway: "I am pleased that while there's more work to do, today's figures show that the economy now has real momentum, and I'm confident that with time, people will start to feel the benefits of that.

"We've had multiple months now where wages are rising, energy bills have fallen, mortgage rates are down and taxes are being cut... I'm pleased with the progress that we're making."

Mr Sunak added: "I am confident the economy is getting healthier every week."

You can read more here:

Rishi Sunak has criticised Sir Keir Starmer's position on Rwanda as "rank hypocrisy".

Speaking to broadcasters, the prime minister says the Labour leader has announced things the government is "already doing".

He gives the example of "punching through the backlog, having more law enforcement officers do more, that's all happening already".

"We've announced all of that more than a year ago," the prime minister adds.

"The question for Keir Starmer if he cares so much about that, why did he vote against the new laws that we passed to give our law enforcement officers new powers? 

"They've now used those to arrest almost 8,000 people connected with illegal migration, sentenced them to hundreds of years in prison.

"And if it was up to him, all those people would be out on our streets, so I think it's rank hypocrisy property of his position."

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Why Your Choice of NBN Plan Matters

• May 9, 2024 1:59 PM / Updated: May 9, 2024 1:59 PM

When choosing a National Broadband Network (NBN) plan, it’s essential to consider more than just the cost of the service. Your plan can significantly impact your daily life, affecting everything from your work-from-home setup to your leisure time activities like streaming movies or playing online games. 

This blog article discusses the importance of selecting the right nbn plans for your needs. 

Understanding NBN and Its Importance

The NBN is a national wholesale open-access data network project in Australia designed to provide faster and more reliable internet access nationwide. It’s a crucial infrastructure upgrade from the older, slower connections, aiming to meet the country’s growing digital demands.

Your NBN plan’s speed tier directly influences how quickly you can download and upload content. Speeds vary from NBN 12 (basic evening speed) to NBN 100 (fast) and even higher for some connections. Higher speeds are essential for households with multiple users or devices online simultaneously, supporting everything from video conferencing to HD streaming without buffering.

Understanding Your Needs

Data allowance is another important factor. While many plans offer unlimited data, some have capped data usage, which can be a cheaper option for light users. Exceeding your data limit can result in throttled speeds or additional charges, affecting your internet experience.

Balancing Cost and Value

NBN plans vary in price, generally reflecting their speed and data allowances. It’s important to balance the cost against your needs; paying for more than you use is wasteful, but saving money with a plan that’s too slow or restrictive can be frustrating.

Provider Reliability and Customer Service

Not all NBN providers are created equal. Researching and reading reviews can help you choose a provider that matches your expectations for reliability and support.

The Impact on Work and Leisure

A suitable NBN plan can transform your work-from-home experience, enabling efficient cloud-based working and smooth video calls. For leisure, it ensures high-quality streaming and gaming, making relaxation time more enjoyable.

Future-Proofing Your Connection

Choosing the right plan also involves thinking about the future. As our reliance on digital services grows, opting for a slightly higher speed tier or unlimited data can ensure your connection remains satisfactory for longer.

Your choice of NBN plans matters significantly, affecting your wallet and your daily internet experience and satisfaction. Remember, the suitable plan for you offers the right balance of speed, data, price, and service quality, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable online experience at home.

This content is brought to you by the FingerLakes1.com Team. Support our mission by visiting www.patreon.com/fl1 or learn how you send us your local content here .

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5 Best AI Business Name Generators in 2023 (+ Domain Name)

5. Brandroot

Creating a new business name can be challenging, often requiring hours of brainstorming and research. Thankfully, with the advancement of AI, businesses can now rely on AI-powered business name generators to quickly generate catchy and memorable names. In this article, we'll discuss the factors that go into generating a captivating business name, what AI tools you can use to get one, and how to select the right domain name for your website with AI.

 With millions of start-ups entering the market yearly, having yours stand out is challenging. The US Census Bureau estimates that 4.4 million new businesses start every year. However, only 25% of those companies go beyond fifteen years. Of course, a myriad of factors exist for a business’s success. And a strong business name is a crucial one.

However, generating the right business name is challenging. Other businesses may already be using your desired titles, and a branding agency can charge at least $7,500 to give a list of simple business names. But that’s where an AI business name generator comes into play. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most significant phenomenon of the 21st century. An MIT report suggests 87% of global organizations use AI to give them a competitive edge. 

Generative AI is even more enthralling with its ability to generate several content types, such as text, images, audio, and videos. And among the extensive use cases of generative AI, generating a concise, compelling, and creative business name is one of them. In this article, we’ll discuss the factors that go into generating a captivating business name and what AI tools you can use to get one. We’ll also discuss the significance of digital presence and effective domain name selection for your websites for a more significant impact.

In This Article

5 factors to consider when choosing a business name

2. namesnack, 3. themeisle, [bonus] how to choose the right domain name with ai.

Take any big business name from Google, Amazon, Apple, and Netflix to Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nike, Adidas, amongst many others; all have one thing in common, they all are parts of our daily lives, and we often use a few of them as ordinary English words. It’s pretty common to hear people say, “Let’s Google,” whenever they want to search for something over the internet.

Of course, a business name is one of the many other factors that lead to such big brands, yet it is an essential first step. An effective business name tells what your product or service is about and helps you establish a particular position in the market. So, how should you choose a business name? Below we discuss some important factors that will guide you in selecting the perfect name for your new venture.

1. Value Proposition: A value proposition provides your customers with a clear understanding of your product’s or service’s benefit. It’s a simple sentence highlighting your unique selling point (USP), convincing customers that your product or service is better than your competitors.

Your business name should, in essence, reflect your value proposition.

For example, The name “Google” comes from the word “Googol”, used in math, which indicates a number beginning with 1 and having a hundred zeros. Founders chose the name to signify the vastness of their search engine.

2. Brand Identity: Understanding your brand identity can be a valuable guide for naming your business. After all, brands help you distinguish your company from competitors and tell customers what you stand for. Brand names like Nike, Adidas, Gucci, Rolex, etc., carry meaningful, inspirational stories that appeal to a particular target audience.

Nike, for example, gets its name from the Greek goddess of victory, indicating the company wants to associate its products with triumph, motivation, and power. Similarly, the name “Alibaba” comes from the famous folktale about a woodcutter and forty thieves. Jack Ma, the co-founder, chose the name due to its global appeal, indicating the company’s mission to have a global reach.

3. Memorable: The name should be memorable and must strike a balance between being generic and unique. A generic name may not grab attention, and a name too unique may be challenging to remember. You can choose simple, easy-to-spell names relatable to a broader audience.

Apple is an excellent example of a memorable name that’s simple yet unique for a company and catchy with global relevance (everyone knows what’s an apple!).

4. SEO-friendly: In today’s highly technologized age, you can only have a successful business with a robust digital presence. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical to your digital success. SEO ensures that your website appears at the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) when people search for your products or services.

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SEO is an extensive field involving several techniques for optimizing your website and content for higher rankings on SERP. But one way to improve your SEO score is to have a business name that will help boost search engine rankings. You can begin by searching for relevant keywords in your niche and then craft a name incorporating the keyword or its meaning.

5. Domain Name: Choose a title for which you have a domain name available. A domain name is essential since it will be the primary address for potential customers visiting your website. A business name identical to the domain name will reinforce your brand and make it easier for customers to remember your company.

Usually, the “.com” domain extension is the most memorable. But it’s also the most competitive. So try choosing a name for which the “.com” domain is available. You can also use keyword variations to make the domain name unique for better availability.

Considering the above factors, try giving an AI business name generator appropriate prompts to get relevant business names instead of randomly telling the tool to generate ideas. Make sure you do ample research on your target audience, competitors, and keywords to select the perfect name that will have an enduring impression on your customers.

The following section will list some popular AI tools for generating business, brand, domain, app, or product names.

5 AI tools to generate business, brand, domain, app, or product names

Wix business name generator offers a simple interface and lets you generate several business names by entering relevant keywords or industries to give specific business name suggestions, as shown below.

For example, you can enter “AI Assistant” as the primary keyword and “Technology company” as your industry to get the following suggestions:

As you can see, several suggestions pop up. Of course, not all will suit your style and brand identity. So choose a name considering the factors mentioned in the previous section. Once you decide which name to use, click on it, and Wix will direct you to the domain name generator page to check for domain availability.

For example, if you select “Creatively Ai Assistant,” you can check for domain availability by entering the name in the search bar as shown below.

If the domain name is available, you’ll get a message as follows:

Here, the .com domain is available for “Creatively Ai Assistant”

NameSnack is an easy-to-use AI business name generator that lets you enter relevant keywords for your niche to generate creative names for your company. You’ll also see whether the .com is available against the names the tool suggests.

For example, if you enter “AI Assistant” as the primary keyword and click “Generate,” you’ll get the following:

You can also enter a category or niche you’re targeting and generate more specific results. The snapshot below shows suggestions for the “Copywriting” category.

As you can see, you get several unique suggestions, and the tool also lets you get a free logo. You can learn more about AI logo generators in our article .

Themeisle’s simple interface allows you to enter your primary keyword and search for available top-level domains (TLDs). It offers several domain options besides the .com domain.

That is, the AI business name generator gives you many options, such as .net, .com, .org, etc. You can select more from the “TLD’s” drop-down menu, as shown below:

Also, the tool suggests some premium names. You can view them by scrolling further down the page.

Clicking “View Details” will direct you to the page where you purchase the available domain. Premium domains can cost $300 at least.

Zyro’s AI business name generator can take several keywords at a time and generate brandable business names, which you can copy with a single click. 

Let’s enter “AI Assistant,” “Website Builder,” and “Automatic Web Design” as the primary keywords in Zyro to get the following results:

The names, as it happens, are unique, making Zyro a suitable tool for businesses wanting a fancy title.

The tool also offers many top-level domains (TLDs), such as .com, .tech, .net, .yt, etc., but you’ll have to buy a plan first to get these domains. You can purchase the basic plan costing $11.99 monthly, or the business option at $14.99 monthly.

With Brandroot’s AI business name generator , you can generate unique business names by entering relevant keywords according to your niche.

For instance, the keyword “AI Assistant” generates the following results:

As you can see, unlike other tools, Brandroot generates visually appealing logo designs and allows you to filter names by length, type, and position. 

Also, you can see that the.com domains are available for all the options if you click on a particular name.

An effective digital presence requires an appropriate domain name that’s easy to remember. An AI business name generator helps you quickly generate attractive business names based on keywords for your niche. However, as we saw, domain name availability is also a crucial element. Below are helpful tips for selecting the right domain name using an AI business name generator .

Be brand-specific

The first thing you must do before using a business or domain name generator AI is to define your branding strategy. Your domain name must match your brand identity.

Do a keyword research

As mentioned, an effective digital strategy depends heavily on SEO, which requires choosing appropriate keywords for your domain. You can use AI SEO tools to conduct keyword research. Also, you can get ideas through ChatGPT-3 by entering suitable prompts. Once you find your primary keyword, you can use AI domain name generators to help you find domain names that include your keyword or its variations.

Make it simple

Generating a simple domain name is easier said than done. On the one hand, you want the name to be unique, while on the other, you want it to be easy to remember and short. Getting it right can involve a lot of trial and error, but always ensure that the domain name has no hyphens, numbers, or other special characters.

Choose a popular extension

The .com is typically the first choice for an extension. However, you can also use other extensions, such as .net, .org, .tech, etc., if the .com extension is unavailable. The AI tools discussed above help you find relevant top-level domains (TLDs) quickly.

A website is how a customer primarily discovers your business and its name. So, you must have a user-friendly website with all the correct elements to explain your products and services in a way that convinces the customer to convert. 10Web AI Website Builder is a tool that lets you build professional websites 10x faster with AI. The tool provides AI-generated images and content you can easily customize using editor based on Elementor. 

The creation process is also straightforward. All you have to do is answer a few questions regarding your company, and the AI will generate tailored content while letting you add more pages to complete your website. 

The editor has over 50 widgets, several forms, menus, and sliders, with various colors, typography, and design structures. Also, it ensures all your websites are entirely responsive for a better user experience. 

You can use an AI business name generator with 10Web AI Website Builder for free to create a compelling website. So sign up now and take your business to new heights!

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How to make sure the name AI suggested is unique?

How to validate the AI-suggested business name idea?

Can domain name be the same as the business name?

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