A business plan can be a key element to guide you through each stage of starting and growing your business. You can start creating your very own business plan by using a business plan template to get you started or use our document builder to help guide you through the process. Below you can find sample business plans and useful information to help you start writing yours today.
What is a Business Plan?
A business plan is a document that lays out the details of how a business, both start-ups and existing companies, will achieve its goals and objectives.
Business plans can be the foundation of your business, acting as a written roadmap that covers all aspects of how to structure, run and grow your business and allows you to track your business’s success.
As well as being a useful document internally, they are also vital for businesses looking to secure investment and funding by showing potential investors how the proposed business will be successful or profitable.
A business plan will ideally be updated as you go, allowing you to alter your business goals depending on whether you’re meeting them or whether your business direction has changed.
Components of a Business Plan
When writing a business plan there are a number of elements that need to be covered. A typical business plan includes the following elements:
- Executive Summary
- Management Team
- Products and Services
- Customers and Marketing
- SWOT Analysis
- Financials
- Operations
- Appendix
Who Needs a Business Plan?
You need a business plan if you intend to, or already have, committed to a serious business endeavor. A business plan can play a key part in your business’s success.
You won’t need a business plan if you’re looking at freelancing to supplement your income, but you will need one if you’re starting a business or if you’ve already started one.
If you need an investment, need to apply for an investment loan or if you plan on working with partners, then you need a business plan.
You also need a business plan if you want to successfully communicate with a management team or sell or set a value on your business.
Sample Business Plans and How to Create One For Your Business
Below you can find business plan samples for specific business types. You can also find more in-depth information on how to create a business plan for your business, whether it’s a food truck, coffee shop or real estate business:
Why Use a Business Plan Template?
There are a number of reasons you should use a business plan template, including:
1. Write with confidence — you won’t be forgetting any important information
Using our free template can help you write your own plan, without the hassle of figuring out how to order your chapters or the worry of feeling like you might be missing a section. We provide the entire bare-bones skeleton of a business plan within a Microsoft Word .doc download. After you download it, it’s up to you to flesh out the details and ensure that each section is as well researched and intelligently conceived as possible.
2. Step-by-step writing guide and writing samples included
Our plans come with a complete how-to guide with examples from our professional business plan samples to help steer you through your writing.
3. Completely free – no hidden costs, just download and start writing
Our business plan template is completely free. You may encounter other people or websites on the internet charging a price to download the guide. Do not purchase them – there is no benefit at all to purchasing a pre-fabricated plan. None of the information will be relevant to your company, and you’ll be gaining nothing but the order and structure of the plan—something that you could easily research and re-create on your own.
Alternatively, you can use our document builder to guide you through the process of writing a business plan.
A business plan template alone may not be practical to use in all situations. Consider supplementing your template with the assistance of an appropriate professional if your business plan requires complicated calculations, requires visual graphs or charts, or you desire the ability to track your business’ progress.
Business Plan Word Templates
You can download a free business plan template below, in Word format: