A business plan template is a ready-made outline for the document that describes a business and its plans for the future. Investors use it to judge how likely a new business is to bring a profit, and employees, suppliers and partners read it too. Answer a few questions in the free builder below to get a printable plan, then use this page to check each part of your plan.
Last Updated: October 2026. This guide is reviewed and updated regularly to reflect current law. If you notice an error or outdated information, please contact us.
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Almost every business can benefit from a written plan, but three groups use one most often: new businesses, established companies that change direction, and freelancers. Business planning is very useful for new companies, but practically every business would benefit from having one. If a business has been running for some time, periodic updates help it see whether it reached its initial targets or whether they changed.
Startups are the first category of businesses that will benefit from making a business plan. It is a must-do when identifying what a company’s goals are and how it plans to achieve them plus how much money will its development require.
Essentially, a startup business plan would require:
Existing companies, including those that already have an established name, might benefit from business planning as well. A common scenario is deciding to move in a new direction.
In such a case, a business plan should cover:
Freelancers do not always need a business plan. Having one still helps if you want to become an expert in a certain field and are about to spend much time and energy on it. Writing a business plan might help you get the maximum of your potential in the market.
There is no standardized method for assessing a company’s success in a business plan. Most plans rely on four techniques: an assessment of the mission, an assessment of the objectives, a break-even analysis and a market analysis. Each one comes down to a short list of questions that you can answer in a few sentences.
To assess a small business in this aspect, the following questions should be answered in a business plan:
The information that you need to evaluate the objectives is:
For a break-even analysis, these questions help you collect the information for your business plan:
A market analysis answers these questions:
You will not find one standardized business plan template online, but there are several components that most plans include. Work through the parts below in order, from the title page to the management team, and adjust the level of detail to fit your business and your reader.
First, write your name and job title. Include your contact information (phone number, email) as well. After that, specify the name of your business.
This part of your business plan is supposed to catch the attention of a reader and give them an understanding of the essence of your business. Keep it informative and short, with the most important facts about your business.
The executive summary should start with the mission statement – the core idea of your business and its aims. Try to include the essential details in several sentences. It should be the information you want prospective investors to remember first about your business.
Next, give a brief overview of the overall business plan so the reader knows what they will be reading about further. Then address the main points of your plan:
Give more details about the unique solution you offer to your target audience. Outline the competitive advantages you have in the market and how they help you stand out from similar companies.
Define who you will be offering your products or services to. Do not underestimate this step, because determining your target market lets you create appropriate sales and marketing strategies.
List the methods of marketing your solution to a potentially interested audience. It might include handout advertisements, online campaigns in social media, etc.
In this section of your business plan, it is necessary to outline the goals of your business from both short and long-term perspectives. State when you expect to meet these goals and who will take responsibility for reaching them.
Add the system of measurement of success as well, for example, number of daily visitors, number of generated leads, call-to-action button clicks, etc.
The process of achieving the company’s goals will greatly depend on the management team. These people are usually in control of reaching the company’s targets step-by-step, so pick them thoroughly.
Give their names, experience in the field, and their views on the successful operation of your business and ways of its achievement.
Business plans play a crucial role when it comes to presenting a new company’s product or service and its potential for bringing profit. Writing a business plan takes more than a few minutes, and it should present a starting small business as impressively as possible.
Our free online business plan template builder helps you build a plan that fits your business. Answer a few questions about your business, such as the business description, financial plan, management team and aims, and get a printable business plan you can use right away.
A business plan template is supposed to make a good “first impression” on its readers, especially when it comes to investors. Hence, it should be filled thoughtfully and then proofread. The 13 steps below follow the order of the template, so you can work from the first page to the last.
Mission statement. The next step is writing a mission statement. It should include information about the founders, and their qualifications and experience might be described here as well.
In the same section, you should mention whether there is a management team in your company, If yes, their short biography, experience, and qualifications should be added too.
In addition, you should specify whether your business has employees.
Funding. The next piece of information to include is whether your business is seeking funding. If you want to use a business loan, enter the loan amount and loan payment period in either months or years.
One of the most important steps is to elaborate on how the business will use financing. Describe the main ways of using funding, specifying whether the money will be used for marketing, staffing, etc.
Another piece of information needed in business plans is an estimation of the return on investment loan and the moment when the business will reach the break-even point. Also specify what collaterals you can put against a loan.
Financial projections. The second to the last part is called financial projections. It should provide financial proofs that your business has all the chances to become a financial success in the future.
Take this section very seriously and make sure to provide forecasted profit statements, balance reports, cash flow statements, and expenses for the next 5 years. If you want to be very specific, you can supplement this section with quarter-to-quarter and month-to-month financial projections for the first year of operation. Another important thing here is to match your projections to your funding requests.
If you plan to attach a separate financial statement of your future operating expenses, profits, etc., mention it in your business plan.
If your company is not new to the market, this section should be used to include profit statements, balance reports, and cash flow statements for the last 3-5 years.
A business plan can make or break the impression of your business idea in the eyes of prospective investors. This is why it is important to take business plans seriously and make sure you present information about your business in the most compelling way.
If you don’t want to search among numerous websites for good business plan templates, make use of our sample business plans in PDF, DOC, or ODT.
If you download your plan as a PDF, you can fill in or edit it online with the FormsPal PDF editor.
Most questions about a business plan come down to length, order and audience. A short plan suits a quick introduction, a longer one suits lenders and investors, and the executive summary goes first for every reader.
A business plan template is a ready-made outline with the parts most plans share, such as the executive summary, the marketing plan and the finances. You fill in the details of your own company instead of building the structure from scratch.
Length depends on who will read it. A template for your own use can be a few pages. A plan you send to investors often needs more detail on the market, the competitors and the finances. Keep each part as short as the reader allows.
Start with the parts you know best, such as the business description and your product or service. Leave the executive summary for last, because it summarizes everything else in the plan.
Yes. Keep one full version and trim a shorter copy for each reader, such as a lender, a partner or a supplier. Lead with the executive summary in every copy of the template and keep the numbers the same across versions.
A marketing plan covers how you reach customers. It is one part of a business plan, which also covers the product, the team, the targets and the finances.
Review your business plan whenever your targets, market or finances change. A yearly review is also a good habit, because it shows how far you have come.
General information, not legal or tax advice.
