[COMPANY NAME AND ADDRESS]
Business Model Plan
[Company Logo]
[Author]
[Date Prepared]
Template courtesy of www.businessmodelinsitute.com
pg. 1
Using This Template
Before you complete this business model plan template and start using it,
consider the following:
1. Do your research. You will need to make quite a few decisions about your
business including business model, structure, marketing strategies and finances
analysis before you can complete the template. By having the right information to hand
you also can be more accurate in your forecasts and analysis.
2. Determine who the plan is for. Does it have more than one purpose? Will it be
used internally or will third parties be involved? Deciding the purpose of the plan
can help you target your answers. If third parties are involved, what are they
interested in? Although don’t assume they are just interested in the finance part of
your business. They will be looking for the whole package.
3. Do not attempt to fill in the template from start to finish. First decide which
sections are relevant for your business and set aside the sections that don’t apply.
You can always go back to the other sections later. Remember a business model
plan combines the components of a business plan with business model analysis.
4. Use the [italicised text]. The italicised text is there to help guide you by
providing some more detailed questions you may like to answer when preparing
your response. Please note: If a question does not apply to your circumstances it
can be ignored.
5. Get some help. If you aren’t confident in completing the plan yourself, you can
enlist the help of a professional to look through your plan and provide you with
advice.
6. Actual vs. Expected figures. Existing businesses can include actual figures in the
plan, but if your business is just starting out and you are using expected figures for
turnover and finances you will need to clearly show that these are expected figures
or estimates.
7. Write your summary last. Use as few words as possible. You want to get to the
point but not overlook important facts. This is also your opportunity to sell yourself.
But don’t overdo it. You want prospective banks, investors, partners or wholesalers
to be able to quickly read your plan, find it realistic and be motivated by what they
read.
8. Important Point to Remember. The advantage of a business model plan over a
business plan alone is the increased focus on how the business will create profitable
revenue streams and less on how the business will operate once it is generating
revenue. If you focus on what matters — profitable revenue — the rest tends to
take care of itself.
9. Review. Review. Review. Your business model plan is there to make a good
impression. Errors will only detract from your professional image. So ask a number
of impartial people to proofread your final plan.
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pg. 2
Table of Contents
Business Model Plan Summary x
Business Background x
Company x
Industry x
The Crucial Areas of the Business Model x
Market Attractiveness (Offering – Sector 1) x
The Target Market x
Target Customers x
Market Research and Analysis x
Marketing Plan and Strategy x
Marketing Plan x
Unique Value Proposition (UVP) (Offering –Sector 2) X
Products and Services x
Competition x
Brand x
Revenue Model (Monetization –Sector 1) X
Margins x
Cost Advantage x
Financials x
Sales Model (Monetization – Sector 2) X
Sales Forecast x
Sustainable Competitive Advantage (Sustainability – Sector 1) X
Innovation Factor (Sustainability – Sector 2) X
Avoidance of Pitfalls (Sustainability – Sector 3) X
Graceful Exit (Sustainability – Sector 4) X
Operational Overview X
Appendix X
Organizational Chart
Products/Services (MVP)
SWOT ANALYSIS (Pest & Porters)
Competitors & Blue Ocean Positioning
Sales & Distribution Channels & Sales Funnel
Start‐up Costs
Performas (Financial Projections)
Break‐Even Analysis
Risk Analysis
Supporting Documentation – CV’s etc..
MDP Brochure
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Business Model Plan Summary
[Please complete this page last]
[Your business summary should be no longer than 2 pages and should focus on why your
business is going to be successful. Your answers below should briefly summarize your
more detailed answers provided throughout the body of this plan.
It should succinctly give the information that proves your business case and need for this
startup. It should provide sales highlights, the market values, how you reach the market, the
revenue model, profit and margins. It should provide the grand vision and the reason for this
start-up and why it will be successful in succinct and focused way. Don’t forget to tell them
what product/service you are offering and why (The Need). ]
Business Background
[This section should detail your company’s history. This part will vary, depending on how
developed your business is. The history of a startup is obviously different than for an
existing company. This section should be about a page long, although it’s OK to stay under
that limit if you’re starting a brand-new company. Investors will review this section of the
plan to see who is behind the business, how the business idea came about, and the basic
background the business entity has in the marketplace.]
The following points should be covered:
Company
The business you are in or plan to be in, including a description of your product or
services;
The background of your business, including when it was started, current ownership, its
legal structure, and highlights of its progress and prospects; and
The principals of your business and the roles each played or will play in the firm.
Industry
A brief discussion of your industry (e.g., restaurant, plastics, executive recruiting, etc.);
Your view of the current status and prospects for the industry;
Description of your principal competitors and how they are performing in terms of
growth in sales, profits and market share; and
An analysis of the effect of major economic, social, technological or regulatory trends.
The Crucial Areas of the Business Model
[Your business model is the core concept upon which you build your business model plan.
Your business model should be a significant portion of your business model plan.]
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Market Attractiveness (Offering – Sector 1)
It is very important to remember that creating a powerful offering would be a great
advantage for your business model. That is creating a product or service that your
customers want, need and would buy. However, all this will depend on selecting the
right market in order to promote a differentiated offer by defining the business’s unique
selling proposition, price point(s), unique value proposition, and brand. The following
sections will assist you to prepare this section of the business model plan.
The Target Market
[Where do your products/services fit in the market? Are they high-end, competitive or
budget?
How does this compare to your competitors? What is the market size?]
Target Customers
[Define who your target customers are and how they behave. You can include age, gender,
social status, education and attitudes. Identify your key customers. (These can be large
consumers of your products or individuals whose satisfaction is key to the success of your
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business.) How will you educate customers to buy from you? Why will they care? You future
markets beyond start-up Beachhead – these were discovered in your customer discovery
either vertical or horizontal based on slight modifications of your MDP]
Identify your customers, their characteristics, and their geographic locations; that is,
demographics. The description will be completely different depending on whether you
sell to other businesses or directly to consumers. If you sell a consumer product, but sell
it through a channel of distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, you must carefully
analyze both the end user and the intermediary businesses to which you sell.
Market Research and Analysis
[What statistical research have you completed to help you analyze your market? Did you
use a survey/questionnaire? If so, you may like to attach a copy of your urvey/questionnaire
to the back of this plan.]
Summarize market growth, total potential market, current percentage market share and
any marketing projections (use table in appendix).
Marketing Plan and Strategy
[How will you target your products/service to them? How will you maintain a good
relationship with your customers? What techniques will you use? How will you keep your
customers coming back? Have you introduced customer service standards? Do you follow
any particular code of practice?]
Strategy is creative and hard to predict. However, the marketing strategy depends a
great deal on which market segments the firm has chosen as target market groups. You
may also want to look at media strategy, organizational development and other factors.
In addition, your marketing strategy normally depends on the target market focus that
you chose to emphasis your product or service uniqueness.
Marketing Plan
The marketing plan describes how you intend to sell your product or service, how you will
motivate the customer to buy. Begin the process of developing your marketing plan by
looking
at the key factors that affect the marketing of your product or service such as:
Facts about your industry
Total size of your market (TAM)
Percentage share of the market you have. (This is important only if you are a major
factor in the market.) (SOM current size you can service – note TAM , SAM & SOM are in $
value)
Current demand in target market
Growth history
Trends in target market — growth trends, trends in consumer preferences, and trends in
product development
Growth potential and opportunity for a business of your size (SAM – share you want to
have by – scale)
What barriers to entry keep potential new competitors from flooding into your market?
o High capital costs
o High production costs
o High marketing costs
o Consumer acceptance/brand recognition
o Training/skills
o Unique technology/patents
o Shipping costs
o Tariff barriers/quotas
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Unique Value Proposition (UVP) (Offering –Sector 2)
Products and Services
[How will your products/services succeed in the market where others may have failed?
What gives your products/services the edge?]
For each product or service, describe the most important features. That is, what does
the product do? What is special about it? [In Appendix supply your MDP Brochure &
Specifications]
Describe their benefits. That is, what does the product/service do for the customer?
[Appendix supply Value Proposition Canvas & Evidence that details it]
Competition
[Why do you have an advantage over your competitors? How will your products/services
succeed in the market where others may have failed?]
What products and companies compete with you? List your major competitors
(Appendix table).
Do they compete with you across the board, just for certain products, certain customers,
or in certain locations?
Brand
[Is your brand meaningful to consumers? Do you have a compelling price/value
proposition?
Does your brand reflect the market share? What’s unique about your brand?]
Revenue Model (Monetization –Sector 1)
Margins
[How much of your own money are you contributing towards the business? How much
money will you need up-front? Where will you obtain these funds? What portion will you be
seeking from other sources? What do your gross margins look like? Are your margins high
or low? How much capital did you invest in the business? Where will you obtain funding?
Are you profitable? What portion will you be seeking from loans, investors, business
partners, friends or relatives, venture capital or government funding? Do you sell on credit?
If so, do you really need to? Is it customary in your industry and expected by your clientele?
Do you carefully monitor your payables (what you owe to vendors) to take advantage of
discounts and to keep your credit rating good? What are your payment and customer credit
policies? Briefly outline how much profit you intend on making in a particular timeframe.]
Cost Advantage
[You could also list your main financial management goals such as cost reduction targets.
Do you have superior purchasing power ability? Who are your vendors and suppliers? What
are your distribution channels? Are supply costs steady or fluctuating? If fluctuating, how do
you deal with changing costs? Should you be searching out new sources of supply, or are
you satisfied with present suppliers? How important is price as a competitive factor?]
Financials
[How fast is the business expected to grow? What are you financial projections? What’s
your growth rate? What are your financial objectives?
Note: Numbers here should match your market numbers. Supply the important metrics]
List your key financial objectives. These can be in the form of profit targets or sales
targets (can be placed under the sales model).
Prepare you balance sheet and financials (Appendix)
Use a forecast spreadsheet to prepare a month-by-month projection (Appendix)
Prepare your Break-Even Analysis (Appendix)
Sales Model (Monetization – Sector 2)
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Sales Forecast
[What is your pricing strategy? Compare your prices with those of your competition. Are
they higher, lower, the same? Why? What are the main driving forces behind the sales
forecast?
Who makes up your sales team? What sales techniques will they use? Can you flowchart
your sales process? Can you predict future sales’ accurately? How talented & skilled is your
sales team?]
Sustainable Competitive Advantage (Sustainability – Sector 1)
[Do you have a particular pricing strategy? Why have you chosen this strategy? Is your
competitive advantage defined? Do you have competitive advantage based on
differentiation?
If so how significant is this competitive advantage? What is the ability of the business to
retain skillful and talented work force? What factors give you competitive advantages or
disadvantages? Are there significant threat from new competitive entrants or substitute
products & services?]
Some factors that determine the competitive advantage of a business such as:
o Great Location
o Leveraging a unique IP or process or copyright, or patent or technological “know
how”
o Brand Loyalty
o Unique Products or Services
o Leveraging Key Relationships
o High Quality at lowest price products/service
o Financial Advantage
Innovation Factor (Sustainability – Sector 2)
[What R&D activities will you implement to encourage innovation in your business? What
financial and/or staff resources will you allocate? Do you have the ability or need to
innovate?
How do you compare the innovation factor of the business to other competitors? How do
you
plan to protect your innovations? Do you have confidentiality agreements in place? What
financial and/or staff resources will you allocate?]
List any current IP, trademarks, patents, designs you have registered
Avoidance of Pitfalls (Sustainability – Sector 3)
[Are the pitfalls of the business known or unknown? Do you have location handicap? Is
there a likelihood of changes in government regulations or policies that may affect the
business in the short and long term? Are you financially savvy? Is the business at risk of
litigation?]
Use the table in the Appendix to identify your potential business risks and the
contingency strategies that you intend to implement to offset each identified risk.
Graceful Exit (Sustainability – Sector 4)
[Do you have the ability to exist the business gracefully? Do you have any contingency
plans in place? Is your business easily transferable? Is your business undervalued?]
Operational Overview
[In this section, you should describe how you plan to produce your product or perform your
service, including how and where it will be carried out, your physical space and equipment
needs, and your labor requirements.]
Included should be the following information:
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Location - Describe the location of the business and the advantages and
disadvantages of the site with respect to labor and material costs and availability,
proximity to customers, access to transportation, state and local laws (including zoning),
and utility costs.
Physical Space and Equipment - Describe the physical facilities in use or to be
acquired (leased, purchased or built) and the costs and timing of such acquisitions.
Estimate future facilities and equipment needs, based on sales projections, including
the cost of additional capacity and its timing.
Production Processes - Describe the production processes necessary to develop your
product or provide your service, including: method of production; procedures for quality,
production and inventory control; raw materials required (including sources, costs, etc.);
organization and control of purchasing; breakdown of fixed production costs; and
breakdown of variable unit costs by product/service.
Labor - Other than management, describe to what extent the local labor force is
adequate in terms of quality and quantity. If applicable, discuss the type of training
needed and the cost to your company.
Partnerships – Give any crucial partnerships required to make this a reality – suppliers,
distributors, out-sourced operations, organisations that can give access to resources or
markets and /or funding.
Appendix
Organizational Chart
[Outline your business structure in the chart below.]
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Figure 1: Organization Chart. [Complete this chart or include your own.]
Figure 1: Organization Chart. [Complete this chart or include your own.]
Products/Services
[Provide a list of your product and services as well as future derivatives for your product/services in
the parallel- vertical and/or horizontal niches found during Customer Discovery of your beach head
– shows understanding of scale and potential for future sustainability]
(Supply any future products based on findings in customer discovery of parallel niches)
STRATEGIC - SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
[Using your external Environment Analysis – PEST & Porter’s 5 Forces. Now List each of
your opportunities or threats in the table below, Now List your Business Strengths &
Weaknesses. Outline how you plan to address each of the weaknesses/threats. ]
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Competitors
[How do you rate against your competitors? How can your business improve on what they
offer?]
Unfair Advantage Positioning
[How do you align to your customers better than your competition – use the strategy canvas
developed from your Blue Ocean Strategy – Eliminate, Reduce Pains and Raise & Create
Gains – to display this.]
Sales & Distribution Channels
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Sales Funnel:
[Show your sales funnel, indicate understanding of your churn and actual customers.
Give your strategy and assumptions of how to get paying customers to pass through your POS. Can
utilize template provided.]
Risk Analysis
[List the potential risks in the Following Table (in order of likelihood) that could impact your
business.]
Financials
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[Using the templates supplied from NAB Small Business Centre supply following:
Start-up Costs Table
Sales Forecast (12 months)
Projected Cash Flow (12 months)
Projected Profit & Loss (12 months)
Projected Balance Sheet (12 Months)
Projected Cash Flow 3yrs
Projected Profit & Loss 3yrs
Project Balance Sheet 3yrs
Break-even
Various Ratios.]
Supporting Documentation
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pg. 13
Attach any other supporting documentation in relation to this business model plan template.
The attached documents
include:
Minimum Delightful Product:
[Provide your MDP Brochure – a detailed description, schematic and specifications of your
Product/Service. Express the benefits and features in detail]
Customer Definition:
[Provide your Customer Profile; Customer Empathy Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas]
Business Model Canvas
[Provide your MBC – a detailed description and explanations as well as any currently
unproven assumptions.]
Supporting Strategy Information.
[These should include your PEST, Porters Five Forces, etc.]
List all other attachments here.
[These should include resumes, inventory list, survey/questionnaire and/or any other
marketing, sales and/or financial related documents.]
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