Name of Company
Business Plan
Address
City, Province Zip
Phone
E-mail
Author’s Name
Day Month Year
Table of Contents
I. Executive Summary
1. Business Owner(s) & Product/Service Description
2. Mission - Vision Statement
3. Company Structure
4. Target Market(s)
5. Current Opportunity
6. Projection of Business Future
7. Financial Summary
II. Market Analysis
1. Industry, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
2. Competitive Analysis (Appendix B)
3. Demographics & Target Market
4. Entry Barriers
III. Marketing Strategy
1. Product/Service
2. Sales Strategy
3. Promotion
4. Pricing Strategy
5. Web Strategy
6. Differentiation (Competitive Advantage)
IV. Operations Plan
1. Location
2. Operation
3. Organization Structure
4. Employees
5. Space
6. Capacity:
7. Critical Suppliers
8. Financial system
9. Computer system.
10. Equipment
11. Permits and Licenses
12. Insurance
13. Contracts
14. Patents and Copyrights
15. Credit Policy
V. Financial Plan
1. Product and Service Pricing
2. Funding Source(s)
3. Cash Flow Projection (Appendix A)
VI. Appendix A: Cash Flow Statement
VII. Appendix B: Competitive Analysis
VIII. Appendix C: Curriculum Vitae
Executive Summary
Overview of the business, explaining its fundamentals
1. Business Owner(s) & Product/Service
i. Who are you and what qualifies you to operate this business?
ii. What is the product or service (brief description)?
2. Mission – Vision Statement
i. Briefly describe what you will do to be successful and guiding principles (service,
quality, community focus, passion for the business, etc)
3. Company Structure
i. State sole proprietorship
ii. LLC
iii. Corporation
iv. General Partnership
v. Limited Partnership
vi. Status of business (start-up, expansion of a going concern, take-over of existing
business, franchise, etc.).
4. Target Market(s)
i. Who are the customers?
1. Industrial
2. Consumers
3. Government
ii. Is your business B2B (business to business), B2C (business to consumer), B2G
(business to government), etc. Explain.
5. Current Opportunity
i. Why is the opportunity currently available to you?
1. New idea or technology?
2. No competition?
3. Special skills?
6. Projection of Business Future
i. What is the future of the business?
1. Limited (time) opportunity or timeless?
2. Why?
7. Financial Summary
i. Total amount of funds sought for venture: $
ii. Total amount of estimated startup costs: $
iii. Total amount of projected average monthly expenses: $
iv. Total amount of projected average monthly revenue: $
II. Market Analysis
1. Determines access to the market by studying the industry, competitors and customer
demographics (so you can choose a target market).
2. Industry, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
i. What industry does your product/service mix fall under? What has this industry done
in the last several years, what is it doing today, and what do industry analysts (trade
organizations) predict for the future?
3. Competitive Analysis (Appendix B)
i. Who is the competition? If there are many it will be easy to enter the market, but hard
to get significant share- If there are few, it might be harder to enter, but you could gain
significant share.
4. Demographics & Target Market
i. Do a thorough study of the population demographics in the market your business will
sell in. Then, decide what type of person (target market) will buy your product or get
your service. Does the population demographic in your area match well with your
product / service? Is there enough of this type of client (target market) in your area to
have a successful business?
ii. Market Segments can include:
1. Age
2. Gender
3. Income
4. Education Level
5. Occupation
6. Location (region, neighborhoods)
7. Lifestyle (psychographics, hobbies)
8. Business Organization (size, industry)
9. Religion
5. Entry Barriers
i. Are there barriers to entry? High entry cost? High risk and cost to get in, but limits the
amount of competitors. Low entry cost? Low risk and cost to get in, but likely to have
many competitors. Are there permits or regulatory approvals required?
ii. Are there other competencies you need to develop? Are they easily achievable?
III. Marketing Strategy
1. Build strategy from core competencies (quality, speed, service, product, price, convenience,
location, etc.) The strategy is to tell customers what you will do better than the competition.
Customer must be able to clearly see value.
2. Product/Service
i. Give a detailed description of your product or service. Including photos creates a more
powerful presentation.
3. Sales Strategy
i. How will you get your product/service to the market? Direct sales? Through a channel
(distributor, manufacturers representative, retailer, internet)?
4. Promotion
i. How will you promote your product/service to the customer? Examples are:
1. This goes back to demographics and figuring out what types of person (target
market) will buy your product. So, what kind of advertisements does this person
respond to the best?
5. Pricing Strategy
i. How you are going to price your product or service? Look at the competition’s price,
what you believe your costs might be, and can you get the same price or a premium
over the competition?
ii. Penetration pricing strategy
1. Price charged is set artificially low to gain market share. Once achieved, price is
increased.
iii. Skimming pricing strategy
1. Charging a high price because you have a substantial competitive advantage.
However, the advantage is not sustainable. The high price tends to attract new
competitors into the market, and the price inevitably falls due to increased
supply.
iv. Follow-the-leader pricing strategy
1. Set price based on competitors (leads to “price wars”).
v. Variable pricing strategy
1. Price fluctuate based on (changing) costs of production.
vi. Economy Pricing
1. No frills low price; the lowest possible regardless of what others are doing. Cost
of marketing and manufacture are kept at a minimum.
vii. Premium Pricing
1. High price is for uniqueness of the product or service. This approach is used
where a substantial competitive advantage exists.
6. Web Strategy
i. What will you use your web site / social media page for? Examples: simply marketing,
sales transactions, inventory, customer education, partner networking, etc.
7. Differentiation (Competitive Advantage)
This brings your entire marketing strategy together.
i. Why will you succeed? What will you do different than the competitors? These are
called your “core competencies”, what you do well that perhaps the competition does
not. List your core competencies. Examples would be superior service levels,
exceptional quality, speed, better product or service, better location, etc.
ii. If there is enough differentiation, you can be successful. If there is little or no
differentiation, then you will usually need to rely on price to get business; not the best
option for a start up business.
15. s
V. Financial Plan
Explain your financial strategy.
1. Product and Service Pricing
2. List all of your products and services and how they will be priced. Then, list how many you
will sell each month for the first year. Add these totals to your cash flow projection.
i. Product / Service
1. Price / Rate
ii. Product / Service
1. Price / Rate
iii. Product / Service
1. Price / Rate
iv. Product / Service
1. Price / Rate
v. Product / Service
1. Price / Rate
vi. Product / Service
1. Price / Rate
vii. Product / Service
1. Price / Rate
3. Funding Source(s)
4. Explain where you intend to obtain funding and how much you will receive from each source.
i. Location
1. Amount
ii. Location
1. Amount
iii. Location
1. Amount
iv. Location
1. Amount
v. Location
1. Amount
vi. Location
1. Amount
vii. Location
1. Amount
5. Cash Flow Projection (Appendix A)
Appendix A: Cash Flow Statement
Insert Cash Flow Statement
Appendix B: Competitive Analysis
Take a look at your most prominent competitors and rate them on the following characteristics. Now
you have done that, decide how you will make your business appear different (better) to the public, by
rating how you want to be.
Competitor Competitor Competitor Competitor Competitor
Factors You
1 2 3 4 5
1. Products
2. Price
3. Quality
4. Product
selection
5. Customer
Service
6. Product
Service
7. Reliability
8. Abilities:
Services
Offers
9. Image
10. Location
11.
Atmosphere
12.
Appearance
13. Sales
Methods
14. Credit
Policy
15.
Availability
16.
Management
17. Stability
18. Marketing
Appendix C: Curriculum Vitae
