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How to Write a Business Plan (Plus Examples & Templates)

May 24, 2021

Have you ever wondered how to write a business plan step by step? Mike Andes, told us: 

This guide will help you write a business plan to impress investors.

Throughout this process, we’ll get information from Mike Andes, who started Augusta Lawn Care Services when he was 12 and turned it into a franchise with over 90 locations. He has gone on to help others learn how to write business plans and start businesses.  He knows a thing or two about writing  business plans!

We’ll start by discussing the definition of a business plan. Then we’ll discuss how to come up with the idea, how to do the market research, and then the important elements in the business plan format. Keep reading to start your journey!

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is simply a road map of what you are trying to achieve with your business and how you will go about achieving it. It should cover all elements of your business including: 

• Finding customers
• Plans for developing a team
•  Competition
• Legal structures
• Key milestones you are pursuing

If you aren’t quite ready to create a business plan, consider starting by reading our business startup guide .

Get a Business Idea

Before you can write a business plan, you have to have a business idea. You may see a problem that needs to be solved and have an idea how to solve it, or you might start by evaluating your interests and skills. 

Mike told us, “The three things I suggest asking yourself when thinking about starting a business are:

• What am I good at?
• What would I enjoy doing?
• What can I get paid for?”

If all three of these questions don’t lead to at least one common answer, it will probably be a much harder road to success. Either there is not much market for it, you won’t be good at it, or you won’t enjoy doing it. 

As Mike told us, “There’s enough stress starting and running a business that if you don’t like it or aren’t good at it, it’s hard to succeed.”

If you’d like to hear more about Mike’s approach to starting a business, check out our YouTube video

Conduct Market Analysis

Market analysis is focused on establishing if there is a target market for your products and services, how large the target market is, and identifying the demographics of people or businesses that would be interested in the product or service. The goal here is to establish how much money your business concept can make.

Product and Service Demand

A search engine is your best friend when trying to figure out if there is demand for your products and services. Personally, I love using presearch.org because it lets you directly search on a ton of different platforms including Google, Youtube, Twitter, and more. Check out the screenshot for the full list of search options.

With quick web searches, you can find out how many competitors you have, look through their reviews, and see if there are common complaints about the competitors. Bad reviews are a great place to find opportunities to offer better products or services. 

If there are no similar products or services, you may have stumbled upon something new, or there may just be no demand for it. To find out, go talk to your most honest friend about the idea and see what they think. If they tell you it’s dumb or stare at you vacantly, there’s probably no market for it.

You can also conduct a survey through social media to get public opinion on your idea. Using Facebook Business Manager , you could get a feel for who would be interested in your product or service.

 I ran a quick test of how many people between 18-65  you could reach in the U.S. during a week. It returned an estimated 700-2,000 for the total number of leads, which is enough to do a fairly accurate statistical analysis.

Identify Demographics of Target Market

Depending on what type of business you want to run, your target market will be different. The narrower the demographic, the fewer potential customers you’ll have. If you did a survey, you’ll be able to use that data to help define your target audience. Some considerations you’ll want to consider are:

• Other Interests
• Marital Status
• Do they have kids?

Once you have this information, it can help you narrow down your options for location and help define your marketing further. One resource that Mike recommended using is the Census Bureau’s Quick Facts Map . He told us,  

“It helps you quickly evaluate what the best areas are for your business to be located.”

How to Write a Business Plan

Now that you’ve developed your idea a little and established there is a market for it, you can begin writing a business plan. Getting started is easier with the business plan template we created for you to download. I strongly recommend using it as it is updated to make it easier to create an action plan. 

Each of the following should be a section of your business plan:

• Business Plan Cover Page
• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Description of Products and Services

SWOT Analysis

• Competitor Data
• Competitive Analysis
• Marketing Expenses Strategy 

Pricing Strategy

• Distribution Channel Assessment
• Operational Plan
• Management and Organizational Strategy
• Financial Statements and/or Financial Projections

We’ll look into each of these. Don’t forget to download our free business plan template (mentioned just above) so you can follow along as we go. 

How to Write a Business Plan Step 1. Create a Cover Page

The first thing investors will see is the cover page for your business plan. Make sure it looks professional. A great cover page shows that you think about first impressions.

A good business plan should have the following elements on a cover page:

• Professionally designed logo
• Company name
• Mission or Vision Statement
• Contact Info

Basically, think of a cover page for your business plan like a giant business card. It is meant to capture people’s attention but be quickly processed.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 2. Create a Table of Contents

Most people are busy enough that they don’t have a lot of time. Providing a table of contents makes it easy for them to find the pages of your plan that are meaningful to them.

A table of contents will be immediately after the cover page, but you can include it after the executive summary. Including the table of contents immediately after the executive summary will help investors know what section of your business plan they want to review more thoroughly.

Check out Canva’s article about creating a  table of contents . It has a ton of great information about creating easy access to each section of your business plan. Just remember that you’ll want to use different strategies for digital and hard copy business plans.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 3. Write an Executive Summary

An executive summary is where your business plan should catch the readers interest.  It doesn’t need to be long, but should be quick and easy to read.

Mike told us,

How long should an executive summary bein an informal business plan?

For casual use, an executive summary should be similar to an elevator pitch, no more than 150-160 words, just enough to get them interested and wanting more. Indeed has a great article on elevator pitches .  This can also be used for the content of emails to get readers’ attention.

It consists of three basic parts:

• An introduction to you and your business.
• What your business is about.
• A call to action

Example of an informal executive summary 

One of the best elevator pitches I’ve used is:

So far that pitch has achieved a 100% success rate in getting partnerships for the business.

What should I include in an executive summary for investors?

Investors are going to need a more detailed executive summary if you want to secure financing or sell equity. The executive summary should be a brief overview of your entire business plan and include:

• Introduction of yourself and company.
• An origin story (Recognition of a problem and how you came to solution)
• An introduction to your products or services.
• Your unique value proposition. Make sure to include intellectual property.
• Where you are in the business life cycle
• Request and why you need it.

Successful business plan examples

The owner of Urbanity told us he spent 2 months writing a 75-page business plan and received a $250,000 loan from the bank when he was 23. Make your business plan as detailed as possible when looking for financing. We’ve provided a template to help you prepare the portions of a business plan that banks expect.

Here’s the interview with the owner of Urbanity:

When to write an executive summary?

Even though the summary is near the beginning of a business plan, you should write it after you complete the rest of a business plan. You can’t talk about revenue, profits, and expected expenditures if you haven’t done the market research and created a financial plan.

What mistakes do people make when writing an executive summary?

Business owners commonly go into too much detail about the following items in an executive summary:

• Marketing and sales processes
• Financial statements
• Organizational structure
• Market analysis

These are things that people will want to know later, but they don’t hook the reader. They won’t spark interest in your small business, but they’ll close the deal.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 4. Company Description

Every business plan should include a company description. A great business plan will include the following elements while describing the company:

• Mission statement
• Philosophy and vision
• Company goals

Target market

• Legal structure

Let’s take a look at what each section includes in a good business plan.

Mission Statement

A mission statement is a brief explanation of why you started the company and what the company’s main focus is. It should be no more than one or two sentences. Check out HubSpot’s article 27 Inspiring Mission Statement for a great read on informative and inspiring mission and vision statements. 

Company Philosophy and Vision

The company philosophy is what drives your company. You’ll normally hear them called core values.  These are the building blocks that make your company different. You want to communicate your values to customers, business owners, and investors as often as possible to build a company culture, but make sure to back them up.

What makes your company different?

Each company is different. Your new business should rise above the standard company lines of honesty, integrity, fun, innovation, and community when communicating your business values. The standard answers are corporate jargon and lack authenticity. 

Examples of core values

One of my clients decided to add a core values page to their website. As a tech company they emphasized the values:

•  Prioritize communication.
•  Never stop learning.
•  Be transparent.
•  Start small and grow incrementally.

These values communicate how the owner and the rest of the company operate. They also show a value proposition and competitive advantage because they specifically focus on delivering business value from the start. These values also genuinely show what the company is about and customers recognize the sincerity. Indeed has a great blog about how to identify your core values .

What is a vision statement?

A vision statement communicate the long lasting change a business pursues. The vision helps investors and customers understand what your company is trying to accomplish. The vision statement goes beyond a mission statement to provide something meaningful to the community, customer’s lives, or even the world.

Example vision statements

The Alzheimer’s Association is a great example of a vision statement:

A world without Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementia.

It clearly tells how they want to change the world. A world without Alzheimers might be unachievable, but that means they always have room for improvement.

Business Goals

You have to measure success against goals for a business plan to be meaningful. A business plan helps guide a company similar to how your GPS provides a road map to your favorite travel destination. A goal to make as much money as possible is not inspirational and sounds greedy.

Sure, business owners want to increase their profits and improve customer service, but they need to present an overview of what they consider success. The goals should help everyone prioritize their work.

How far in advance should a business plan?

Business planning should be done at least one year in advance, but many banks and investors prefer three to five year business plans. Longer plans show investors that the management team  understands the market and knows the business is operating in a constantly shifting market. In addition, a plan helps businesses to adjust to changes because they have already considered how to handle them.

Example of great business goals

My all time-favorite long-term company goals are included in Tesla’s Master Plan, Part Deux . These goals were written in 2016 and drive the company’s decisions through 2026. They are the reason that investors are so forgiving when Elon Musk continually fails to meet his quarterly and annual goals.

If the progress aligns with the business plan investors are likely to continue to believe in the company. Just make sure the goals are reasonable or you’ll be discredited (unless you’re Elon Musk).

You did target market research before creating a business plan. Now it’s time to add it to the plan so others understand what your ideal customer looks like. As a new business owner, you may not be considered an expert in your field yet, so document everything. Make sure the references you use are from respectable sources. 

Use information from the specific lender when you are applying for lending. Most lenders provide industry research reports and using their data can strengthen the position of your business plan.

A small business plan should include a section on the external environment. Understanding the industry is crucial because we don’t plan a business in a vacuum. Make sure to research the industry trends, competitors, and forecasts. I personally prefer IBIS World for my business research. Make sure to answer questions like:

• What is the industry outlook long-term and short-term?
• How will your business take advantage of projected industry changes and trends?
• What might happen to your competitors and how will your business successfully compete?

Industry resources

Some helpful resources to help you establish more about your industry are:

• Trade Associations
• Federal Reserve
• Bureau of Labor Statistics

Legal Structure

There are five basic types of legal structures that most people will utilize:

• Sole proprietorships
• Limited Liability Companies (LLC)

Partnerships

Corporations.

• Franchises.

Each business structure has their pros and cons. An LLC is the most common legal structure due to its protection of personal assets and ease of setting up. Make sure to specify how ownership is divided and what roles each owner plays when you have more than one business owner.

You’ll have to decide which structure is best for you, but we’ve gathered information on each to make it easier.

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is the easiest legal structure to set up but doesn’t protect the owner’s personal assets from legal issues. That means if something goes wrong, you could lose both your company and your home.

To start a sole proprietorship, fill out a special tax form called a  Schedule C . Sole proprietors can also join the American Independent Business Alliance .

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

An LLC is the most common business structure used in the United States because an LLC protects the owner’s personal assets. It’s similar to partnerships and corporations, but can be a single-member LLC in most states. An LLC requires a document called an operating agreement.

Each state has different requirements. Here’s a link to find your state’s requirements . Delaware and Nevada are common states to file an LLC because they are really business-friendly. Here’s a blog on the top 10 states to get an LLC.

Partnerships are typically for legal firms. If you choose to use a partnership choose a Limited Liability Partnership. Alternatively, you can just use an LLC.

Corporations are typically for massive organizations. Corporations have taxes on both corporate and income tax so unless you plan on selling stock, you are better off considering an LLC with S-Corp status . Investopedia has good information corporations here .

There are several opportunities to purchase successful franchises. TopFranchise.com has a list of companies in a variety of industries that offer franchise opportunities. This makes it where an entrepreneur can benefit from the reputation of an established business that has already worked out many of the kinks of starting from scratch.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 5. Products and Services

This section of the business plan should focus on what you sell, how you source it, and how you sell it. You should include:

• Unique features that differentiate your business products from competitors
• Intellectual property
• Your supply chain
• Cost and pricing structure 

Questions to answer about your products and services

Mike gave us a list  of the most important questions to answer about your product and services:

• How will you be selling the product? (in person, ecommerce, wholesale, direct to consumer)?
• How do you let them know they need a product?
• How do you communicate the message?
• How will you do transactions?
• How much will you be selling it for?
• How many do you think you’ll sell and why?

Make sure to use the worksheet on our business plan template .

How to Write a Business Plan Step 6. Sales and Marketing Plan

The marketing and sales plan is focused on the strategy to bring awareness to your company and guides how you will get the product to the consumer.  It should contain the following sections:

SWOT Analysis stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Not only do you want to identify them, but you also want to document how the business plans to deal with them.

Business owners need to do a thorough job documenting how their service or product stacks up against the competition.

If proper research isn’t done, investors will be able to tell that the owner hasn’t researched the competition and is less likely to believe that the team can protect its service from threats by the more well-established competition. This is one of the most common parts of a presentation that trips up business owners presenting on Shark Tank .

SWOT Examples

Examples of strengths and weaknesses could be things like the lack of cash flow, intellectual property ownership, high costs of suppliers, and customers’ expectations on shipping times.

Opportunities could be ways to capitalize on your strengths or improve your weaknesses, but may also be gaps in the industry. This includes:

• Adding offerings that fit with your current small business
• Increase sales to current customers
• Reducing costs through bulk ordering
• Finding ways to reduce inventory
•  And other areas you can improve

Threats will normally come from outside of the company but could also be things like losing a key member of the team. Threats normally come from competition, regulations, taxes, and unforeseen events.

The management team should use the SWOT analysis to guide other areas of business planning, but it absolutely has to be done before a business owner starts marketing. 

Include Competitor Data in Your Business Plan

When you plan a business, taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of the competition is key to navigating the field. Providing an overview of your competition and where they are headed shows that you are invested in understanding the industry.

For smaller businesses, you’ll want to search both the company and the owners names to see what they are working on. For publicly held corporations, you can find their quarterly and annual reports on the SEC website .

What another business plans to do can impact your business. Make sure to include things that might make it attractive for bigger companies to outsource to a small business.

Marketing Strategy

The marketing and sales part of business plans should be focused on how you are going to make potential customers aware of your business and then sell to them.

If you haven’t already included it, Mike recommends:

“They’ll want to know about Demographics, ages, and wealth of your target market.”

Make sure to include the Total addressable market .  The term refers to the value if you captured 100% of the market.

Advertising Strategy

You’ll explain what formats of advertising you’ll be using. Some possibilities are:

• Online: Facebook and Google are the big names to work with here.
• Print : Print can be used to reach broad groups or targeted markets. Check out this for tips .
• Radio : iHeartMedia is one of the best ways to advertise on the radio
• Cable television : High priced, hard to measure ROI, but here’s an explanation of the process
• Billboards: Attracting customers with billboards can be beneficial in high traffic areas.

You’ll want to define how you’ll be using each including frequency, duration, and cost. If you have the materials already created, including pictures or links to the marketing to show creative assets.

Mike told us “Most businesses are marketing digitally now due to Covid, but that’s not always the right answer.”

Make sure the marketing strategy will help team members or external marketing agencies stay within the brand guidelines .

This section of a business plan should be focused on pricing. There are a ton of pricing strategies that may work for different business plans. Which one will work for you depends on what kind of a business you run.

Some common pricing strategies are:

• Value-based pricing – Commonly used with home buying and selling or other products that are status symbols.
• Skimming pricing – Commonly seen in video game consoles, price starts off high to recoup expenses quickly, then reduces over time.
• Competition-based pricing – Pricing based on competitors’ pricing is commonly seen at gas stations.
• Freemium services –  Commonly used for software, where there is a free plan, then purchase options for more functionality.

HubSpot has a great calculator and blog on pricing strategies.

Beyond explaining what strategy your business plans to use, you should include references for how you came to this pricing strategy and how it will impact your cash flow.

Distribution Plan

This part of a business plan is focused on how the product or service is going to go through the supply chain. These may include multiple divisions or multiple companies. Make sure to include any parts of the workflow that are automated so investors can see where cost savings are expected and when.

Supply Chain Examples

For instance, lawn care companies  would need to cover aspects such as:

• Suppliers for lawn care equipment and tools
• Any chemicals or treatments needed
• Repair parts for sprinkler systems
• Vehicles to transport equipment and employees
• Insurance to protect the company vehicles and people.

Examples of Supply Chains

These are fairly flat supply chains compared to something like a clothing designer where the clothes would go through multiple vendors. A clothing company might have the following supply chain:

• Raw materials
• Shipping of raw materials
• Converting of raw materials to thread
• Shipping thread to produce garments
• Garment producer
• Shipping to company
• Company storage
• Shipping to retail stores

There have been advances such as print on demand that eliminate many of these steps. If you are designing completely custom clothing, all of this would need to be planned to keep from having business disruptions.

The main thing to include in the business plan is the list of suppliers, the path the supply chain follows, the time from order to the customer’s home, and the costs associated with each step of the process.

According to BizPlanReview , a business plan without this information is likely to get rejected because they have failed to research the key elements necessary to make sales to the customer.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 7. Company Organization and Operational Plan

This part of the business plan is focused on how the business model will function while serving customers.  The business plan should provide an overview of  how the team will manage the following aspects:

Quality Control

• Legal environment

Let’s look at each for some insight.

Production has already been discussed in previous sections so I won’t go into it much. When writing a business plan for investors, try to avoid repetition as it creates a more simple business plan.

If the organizational plan will be used by the team as an overview of how to perform the best services for the customer, then redundancy makes more sense as it communicates what is important to the business.

Quality control policies help to keep the team focused on how to verify that the company adheres to the business plan and meets or exceeds customer expectations.

Quality control can be anything from a standard that says “all labels on shirts can be no more than 1/16″ off center” to a defined checklist of steps that should be performed and filled out for every customer.

There are a variety of organizations that help define quality control including:

• International Organization for Standardization – Quality standards for energy, technology, food, production environments, and cybersecurity
• AICPA – Standard defined for accounting.
• The Joint Commission – Healthcare
• ASHRAE – HVAC best practices

You can find lists of the organizations that contribute most to the government regulation of industries on Open Secrets . Research what the leaders in your field are doing. Follow their example and implement it in your quality control plan.

For location, you should use information from the market research to establish where the location will be. Make sure to include the following in the location documentation.

• The size of your location
• The type of building (retail, industrial, commercial, etc.)
• Zoning restrictions – Urban Wire has a good map on how zoning works in each state
• Accessibility – Does it meet ADA requirements?
• Costs including rent, maintenance, utilities, insurance and any buildout or remodeling costs
• Utilities – b.e.f. has a good energy calculator .

Legal Environment

The legal requirement section is focused on defining how to meet the legal requirements for your industry. A good business plan should include all of the following:

• Any licenses and/or permits that are needed and whether you’ve obtained them
• Any trademarks, copyrights, or patents that you have or are in the process of applying for
• The insurance coverage your business requires and how much it costs
• Any environmental, health, or workplace regulations affecting your business
• Any special regulations affecting your industry
• Bonding requirements, if applicable

Your local SBA office can help you establish requirements in your area. I strongly recommend using them. They are a great resource.

Your business plan should include a plan for company organization and hiring. While you may be the only person with the company right now, down the road you’ll need more people. Make sure to consider and document the answers to the following questions:

• What is the current leadership structure and what will it look like in the future?
• What types of employees will you have? Are there any licensing or educational requirements?
• How many employees will you need?
• Will you ever hire freelancers or independent contractors?
• What is each position’s job description?
• What is the pay structure (hourly, salaried, base plus commission, etc.)?
• How do you plan to find qualified employees and contractors?

One of the most crucial parts of a business plan is the organizational chart. This simply shows the positions the company will need, who is in charge of them and the relationship of each of them. It will look similar to this:

Our small business plan template has a much more in-depth organizational chart you can edit to include when you include the organizational chart in your business plan.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 8. Financial Statements 

No business plan is complete without financial statements or financial projections. The business plan format will be different based on whether you are writing a business plan to expand a business or a startup business plan. Let’s dig deeper into each.

Provide All Financial Income from an Existing Business

An existing business should use their past financial documents including the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement to find trends to estimate the next 3-5 years.

You can create easy trendlines in excel to predict future revenue, profit and loss, cash flow, and other changes in year-over-year performance. This will show your expected performance assuming business continues as normal.

If you are seeking an investment, then the business is probably not going to continue as normal. Depending on the financial plan and the purpose of getting financing, adjustments may be needed to the following:

• Higher Revenue if expanding business
• Lower Cost of Goods Sold if purchasing inventory with bulk discounts
• Adding interest if utilizing financing (not equity deal)
• Changes in expenses
• Addition of financing information to the cash flow statement
• Changes in Earnings per Share on the balance sheet

Financial modeling is a challenging subject, but there are plenty of low-cost courses on the subject. If you need help planning your business financial documentation take some time to watch some of them.

Make it a point to document how you calculated all the changes to the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement in your business plan so that key team members or investors can verify your research.

Financial Projections For A Startup Business Plan

Unlike an existing business, a startup doesn’t have previous success to model its future performance. In this scenario, you need to focus on how to make a business plan realistic through the use of industry research and averages.

Mike gave the following advice in his interview:

Financial Forecasting Mistakes

One of the things a lot of inexperienced people use is the argument, “If I get one percent of the market, it is worth $100 million.” If you use this, investors are likely to file the document under bad business plan examples.

Let’s use custom t-shirts as an example.

Credence Research estimated in 2018 there were 11,334,800,000 custom t-shirts sold for a total of $206.12 Billion, with a 6% compound annual growth rate.

With that data,  you can calculate that the industry will grow to $270 Billion in 2023 and that the average shirt sold creates $18.18 in revenue.

Combine that with an IBIS World estimate of 11,094 custom screen printers and that means even if you become an average seller, you’ll get .009% of the market.

Here’s a table for easier viewing of that information.

The point here is to make sure your business proposal examples make sense.

You’ll need to know industry averages such as cost of customer acquisition, revenue per customer, the average cost of goods sold, and admin costs to be able to create accurate estimates.

Our simple business plan templates walk you through most of these processes. If you follow them you’ll have a good idea of how to write a business proposal.

How to Write a Business Plan Step 9. Business Plan Example of Funding Requests

What is a business plan without a plan on how to obtain funding?

The Small Business Administration has an example for a pizza restaurant that theoretically needed nearly $20k to make it through their first month.

In our video, How to Start a $500K/Year T-Shirt Business (Pt. 1 ), Sanford Booth told us he needed about $200,000 to start his franchise and broke even after 4 months.

Freshbooks estimates it takes on average 2-3 years for a business to be profitable, which means the fictitious pizza company from the SBA could need up to $330k to make it through that time and still pay their bills for their home and pizza shop.

Not every business needs that much to start, but realistically it’s a good idea to assume that you need a fairly large cushion.

Ways to get funding for a small business

There are a variety of ways to cover this. the most common are:

• Bootstrapping – Using your savings without external funding.
• Taking out debt – loans, credit cards
• Equity, Seed Funding – Ownership of a percentage of the company in exchange for current funds
• Crowdsourcing – Promising a good for funding to create the product

Keep reading for more tips on how to write a business plan.

How funding will be used

When asking for business financing make sure to include:

• How much to get started?
• What is the minimum viable product and how soon can you make money?
• How will the money be spent?

Mike emphasized two aspects that should be included in every plan, 

How to Write a Business Plan Resources

Here are some links to a business plan sample and business plan outline. 

• Sample plan

It’s also helpful to follow some of the leading influencers in the business plan writing community. Here’s a list:

• Wise Plans –  Shares a lot of information on starting businesses and is a business plan writing company.
• Optimus Business Plans –  Another business plan writing company.
• Venture Capital – A venture capital thread that can help give you ideas.

How to Write a Business Plan: What’s Next?

We hope this guide about how to write a simple business plan step by step has been helpful. We’ve covered:

• The definition of a business plan
• Coming up with a business idea
• Performing market research
• The critical components of a business plan
• An example business plan

In addition, we provided you with a simple business plan template to assist you in the process of writing your startup business plan. The startup business plan template also includes a business model template that will be the key to your success.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of our business hub .

Have you written a business plan before? How did it impact your ability to achieve your goals?

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15 Most Profitable Franchises To Buy

For many budding business owners, buying a franchise is a no-brainer. That’s because the best franchises to buy have high profit margins and low failure rates.

Entering a franchise agreement helps your business get to financial stability quicker. For instance, Hilton Hotel franchises benefit from a loyal customer base, a recognizable brand, and a proven business model that helps you skip the shaky time when most new businesses fail. Multiple hotels under the Hilton name have less than a 1% failure rate.

Sure, you’ll have high initial investments and have to pay ongoing fees. But that is a small price to pay given that the most successful franchises are 63.3% more likely to succeed than the average small business during a three-year period.

[su_note note_color="#dbeafc"]We’ll discuss the most profitable franchise opportunities to help you choose one. Click on any of the links to jump straight to one of the best franchises to own, or read on.

Are franchises profitable?

What is the most profitable franchise to own, what are the most profitable franchises to own, factors that impact franchise owners’ success, how to measure franchise profitability.

• Are you ready to become a franchise owner? [/su_note]

Yes, franchises can be profitable. According to Sculpture Hospitality , franchisees can expect to have 4% to 12% profit margins within a few years of opening a new franchise.

Profitability will depend on the franchise, investment costs, location, and managerial experience of the franchisee.

Yes, franchises can be more successful than other small businesses

Earlier, we told you the most successful franchises are 66.3% more likely to succeed than the average small business. Here’s how we figured that:

• Franchise failure rate over 3 years (top 100) : Under 2%
• Small business failure rate over 3 years : 40%

That means 98% of the top 100 franchises survive a three-year period, compared to 60% of businesses overall. Do a little more math (98% divided by 60%), and you’ll find that a top-100 franchise has a 63.3% higher probability of surviving three years.

The most profitable franchise to own is Express Employment Professionals, a staffing agency. We’ll dive further into Express Employment Professionals, how we arrived at this conclusion, and the rest of the most profitable franchises below.

The most profitable franchises as measured by the time it takes to make the initial investment back are:

• Express Employment Professionals
• Chick-Fil-A
• Ace Hardware
• Matco Tools

Author’s Note: Our Methodology

We spent a lot of time debating the best way to establish the most profitable franchises.

The absolute best way to establish the most profitable franchise businesses is to review Franchise Disclosure Documents and establish the profit margins for over 2,000 franchises. Unfortunately, that requires a ton of labor (or an amazing web crawler), so we went with the next best viable option.

We found an Insider Monkey report that ranked the top 10 most profitable franchises. It provides annual sales numbers and maximum initial costs. We took that information and went a couple of steps further.

We divided the average annual sales by the number of franchises to find the annual revenue per franchise. This allowed us to determine the average monthly revenue per franchise. Then we divided the high end of the estimated franchise cost by the average monthly revenue to find the “time to return,” or time to recoup the initial franchise cost.

It’s not as precise a method as we would like for the most profitable franchises, but it gives you a good idea of the franchises that will pay for themselves quickly.

#1. Express Employment Professionals

• Number of Franchises: 860 • Average Monthly Revenue: $4,837,209 • Maximum Initial Cost: $400,000 • Time to Return: Less than 1 month

Though Express Employment Professionals is one of the lesser-known names on the list, this staffing agency has been in business for over 40 years.

Once fully operational, the average franchise could cover its initial costs within the first month. That’s hard—nay, impossible—to beat.

• Number of Franchises: 9,175 • Average Monthly Revenue: $1,758,038 • Maximum Initial Cost: $239,500 • Time to Return: Less than 2 months

RE/MAX is the only real estate franchise on this list. This is one of the best franchises in the real estate market, with each RE/MAX real estate agent averaging 13.3 transactions per year.

#3. Wendy's

• Number of Franchises: 6,949 • Average Monthly Revenue: $1,798,820 • Maximum Initial Cost: $698,500 • Time to Return: Less than 5 months

Wendy’s franchises have the shortest time to return of any fast food industry franchise on the list. The brand recognition will help drive net profits, and many franchisees own multiple stores.

#4. Chick-Fil-A

• Number of Franchises: 2,928 • Average Monthly Revenue: $5,836,74 9 • Maximum Initial Cost: $2,803,435 • Time to Return: Less than 6 months

Chick-Fil-A s are some of the best franchises to own because they bring in massive revenue. With less than six months from opening to reach profitability, most franchises will be highly successful. 

They are closed on Sundays and require Christian values, which may exclude some people looking to buy a franchise.

#5. Ace Hardware

• Number of Franchises: 5,555 • Average Monthly Revenue: $4,028,80 3 • Maximum Initial Cost: $1,913,000 • Time to Return: Less than 6 months

Ace Hardware is another one of the best franchises to own. With 5,555 stores and average sales of $4 million per year, it can take six months for this franchise to recoup its initial investment.

#6. UPS Store

• Number of Franchises: 5,465 • Average Monthly Revenue: $631,290 • Maximum Initial Cost: $476,993 • Time to Return: Less than 10 months

The UPS Store is one of the best franchises to open. It consistently ranks in the Entrepreneur Top 10 franchises list, and the average revenue indicates that the franchise requires about 10 months to earn back the initial investment.

#7. Matco Tools

• Number of Franchises: 1,937 • Average Monthly Revenue: $400,103 • Maximum Initial Cost: $313,646 • Time to Return: Less than 10 months

Matco Tools is a mobile automotive tool franchise. It is the best franchise to open that doesn’t require a building. Matco Tools franchisees and deliver tools straight to mechanics. It’s easy work, low cost, and doesn’t ask for royalties, which makes it one of the most popular franchises to start.

#8. McDonald's

• Number of Franchises: 40,000 • Average Monthly Revenue: $2,812,500 • Maximum Initial Cost: $2,503,000 • Time to Return: Less than 11 months

People commonly think McDonald’s is the best franchise to buy. It does have high profit margins and an established brand, but there is a hefty initial investment and a lot of competition.

• Number of Franchises: 590 • Average Monthly Revenue: $1,008,47 5 • Maximum Initial Cost: $899,300 • Time to Return: Less than 11 months

PIRTEK focuses on hoses for hydraulic machines. If you’re looking for entrepreneurial endeavors that focus on industrial applications and offer financial stability, PIRTEK might be for you.

#10. Snap-on

• Number of Franchises: 4,775 • Average Monthly Revenue: $429,319 • Maximum Initial Cost: $465,436 • Time to Return: Less than 14 months

Snap-on is another of the most profitable franchises that sells tools, but the retailer focuses on more than just automotive tools. Both the revenue and the minimum initial costs are higher than Matco, but the time to return might be slightly longer because of the higher initial costs.

UpFlip Top Franchise Opportunities

The following franchise ideas are some of the franchises we have interviewed. These make our best franchise opportunity list because they have low start-up costs, good business processes, and great owners who believe in helping franchisees succeed.

#11. MaidThis

This home and Airbnb cleaning franchise lands on the list of most profitable franchises instead because its extensive business support and remote business model provide many financial benefits.

You focus on business processes and pay others to clean the properties.

Franchise units require a $35K franchise fee and between $48K to $67K total startup costs.

The average location makes $10K per month in revenue. Assuming you make 30% profit, you’ll make back your money in less than two years.

Competing with other franchisees will not limit your financial success because most locations do not have a franchise. When you want to expand your business model, you can expand to other cities quickly.

Learn more about how to start a remote cleaning business from Neel below.

Like Neel's strategy?

Find out how to start a MaidThis franchise .

#12. Brown’s Pressure Washing

Brown's Pressure Washing just launched a franchise opportunity developed by founder Joshua Brown and UpFlip that enables you to launch a fully equipped pressure washing business seamlessly. The licensing fee gives franchisees access to video courses, a website, a boot camp, contracts, a territory, systems manuals, brand licenses, and a 24/7 online support community. Franchisees also agree to pay a 10% royalty fee to cover weekly coaching and administrative support.

• Licensing Fee: $20,000 • Total Investment: $50,000-$100,000 • Royalty Fee: 10% • Space Needed: 100-2,000 square feet • Employees: Hire employees or subcontractors to do the cleaning • Territories: You can buy more than one territory if they are available in your area • Franchising Funding Assistance: Yes, through third-party financing services

Find out how Joshua Brown started Brown's Pressure Washing below.

Want to use Josh's recipe? Become a Brown's franchise .

#13. Wise Coatings

A Wise Coatings franchise coats garage floors and other surfaces with a material similar to epoxy.

You’ll need an initial franchise fee of $50K and a total initial investment of $114K-$134K to become a Wise Coatings franchise owner.

The franchises make between $400K and $500K in revenue and 15%-20% profit margins. The average Wise Coatings franchise recoups its initial costs in two to three years.

• Franchise Fee: $50K • Total Investment: $117K-$160K (including 3 months working capital) • Space Needed: 100-2,000 square feet • Number of Employees: 2-4 (suggested) • Territories: Discounts for buying more than one • Franchising Funding Assistance: Provided through Benetrends. Learn how to qualify.

Check out our interview with Brandon Vaughn, who runs a successful epoxy flooring business, below.

#14. Spray-Net

Spray-Net holds patents in a unique painting process that was innovated by Carmelo Marsala after he found a way to modernize the house painting industry. The company has 40 franchisees (and counting) and owns patents that mean only those who buy in and learn the process can offer it to their customers.

• Franchise Fee: $45,000 • Total Investment: $170,825-$241,825 • Royalty Fee: 8% • Space Needed: 100-2,000 square feet • Employees: Hire employees or subcontractors to do the cleaning • Territories: You can buy more than one territory if they are available in your area • Franchising Funding Assistance: Yes, through third-party financing services

See how you can start a Spray-Net painting franchise in this video:

#15. EverLine

John Evans started EverLine with $500 and a unique vision for parking lot maintenance. Twelve years later, the multimillion-dollar company has franchises all over North America that help keep other businesses’ parking lots safe and looking sharp.

• Franchise Fee: $49,500 • Total Investment: $164,744-$332,443 • Royalty Fee: 9% or $500 per territory+ 3%—whichever is greater • Space Needed: 100-2,000 square feet • Employees: Hire employees to provide the services • Territories: You can buy more than one territory if they are available in your area • Franchising Funding Assistance: Yes, through third-party financing services

Learn more about EverLine in our in-depth interview with its founder here:

Other Commonly Mentioned Franchises

There are plenty of other franchises that provide profitable opportunities. Some commonly mentioned options include:

Anytime Fitness

Dream vacations.

Anytime Fitness earns monthly membership fees from people who want a workout. The company has 2,349 franchises and claims a 16.9% profit margin.

Dream Vacations franchises require very little upfront costs. You can get a franchise for a few thousand dollars and then you make a commission on each travel arrangement you help someone book.

Factors that impact a franchise’s profitability include:

• Costs of goods or services: A franchise, like most small businesses, may spend up to 60% of revenue providing the primary products and services of the business.
• Franchisee satisfaction: A franchisee who is happy with the franchise business is more likely to be successful than one who is disgruntled with the franchisor. Prospective franchisees should talk to other franchisees to see if they are satisfied with their franchise units.
• Sales, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs: According to NYU Stern , SG&A costs are 14.4% of business spending, but the exact amount varies by sector. When SG&A is too high, the business is inefficient; when it is too low, the company may not make as much as the franchisee would like.
• Industry trends: Technology is evolving, and how a company responds to industry trends can make or break it.
• Rent: Owning a franchise will be much more profitable if the company can be a home business. You won’t have additional rent and utilities to pay. Read our resource on how to start a home-based business for more.
• Revenue: A franchise opportunity that has higher average gross sales tends to do better than one with lower gross sales.
• Royalties: Most franchisors collect royalties, which may be either a percentage of sales or a fixed rate each month. These royalties will eat into your profits. Be wary if they are substantially higher than your industry’s SG&A costs.

There are a variety of ways to measure a franchise’s profitability. We’ll discuss how to measure a franchise’s profitability using:

• Net operating income (NOI)
• Franchise fee
• Initial investment
• Return on investment (ROI)
• Break-even analysis

Let’s look at how each of these helps prospective franchise owners judge the most profitable franchise opportunities.

Net Operating Income

The best metric to measure a franchise’s profits is the NOI. This measure of profitability excludes taxes, financing costs, earnings from investment activities, and depreciation to show how much money the business is making.

Franchise Fee

Every franchisor charges a franchise fee for the right to use their business name, business model, and intellectual property. Depending on the opportunity, expect to pay initial franchise fees between $1,000 and a million dollars.

Your franchise won’t be truly profitable until you have taken home at least this much from the franchise opportunity.

Initial Investment

In addition to an initial franchise fee, you’ll want to know the total initial investment to start owning a franchise. Franchise opportunities may require up to $5 million initial investment, but most are between $10K and $100K.

Until you make the initial investment back, you haven’t really made a profit.

Return on Investment

Another way to measure the most profitable franchises is by comparing the ROI. To measure this, you’ll use the net operating income divided by the total investment.

You can measure your ROI on both an annual basis and a lifetime basis.

Cash flow is the amount of money going in and out of the business each month. A negative number means cash is flowing out of the business and you’ll need to reinvest or cut your losses, while a positive number means you are bringing more in than your expenses.

You can divide the initial investment by the cash flow to see how long it will take to get the investment back.

Break-Even Analysis

The break-even point considers the initial investment plus fixed and variable expenses and compares them to revenue. To break even, your investment and expenses equal your revenue—and thus, you’re not losing money. Check out our article on performing a break-even analysis .

Are you ready to become a franchise owner?

Buying any of the most profitable franchises is a great way to start your entrepreneurial journey. While buying a franchise location might cost more than starting your own business on the front end, they are more likely to succeed long term.

Which of these successful businesses are you considering purchasing?

27 Best Business Ideas For Women 2024

3 Best Business Ideas For Women

3 manufacturing business for ladies ideas, 3 online business ideas for women, 3 best small business ideas from home for ladies, 3 self-employed ideas for females, 12 unique business ideas for ladies.

• FAQs [/su_note]

#1. Real estate

#2. restaurants, #3. human resources, #1. build custom sheds.

#2. Make your own beauty products

#3. start your own shoe or clothing line, #1. start an online store, #2. make and sell online courses, #3. social media management, #1. photography business, #2. in-home childcare business, #3. wedding planning business , #1. freelance writing business, #2. graphic design business.

#3. Data entry

#1. interior design, #2. virtual bookkeeping business.

#3. Resell shoes or vintage clothes

#4. professional organizer, #5. start a farm, #6. dropshipping business, #7. open a bakery business.

#8. Personal trainer

#9. home, office, or airbnb cleaning business, #10. life coach, #11. laundry business, #12. baby equipment rental business, faqs about what is a good business to start for a woman, what is the best business for a woman to start, what percent of women own businesses.

How to start a business as a woman

Where can i find women in business scholarships.

What is the best way to get a business loan for women?

Which business idea will you choose.

How to Invest in Real Estate: 7 Steps to $100K/Month

• Create passive income
• Invest in real estate actively and passively
• Use online platforms
• Make the most out of a real estate website
• Earn a great living without being a personal finance wiz

How to Invest in Real Estate

• Start with a real estate investment plan
• Consider what is the best tax structure for your income and scenario
• Look at active investment options
• Find ways to invest without buying property
• Get real estate software to manage investments
• Find investors
• Keep growing your business [/su_note]

Step 1. Start with a real estate investment plan

• How old do you want to be when you stop working?
• How much do you want to make?
• How much is the average rent in your area?
• How much profit do you make on each property? 
• How many rental properties do you need to own?

How to Get Started In Real Estate

• Passive : Invest in other people's deals.
• Hands on : Start a joint venture.
• More active : Buy and rent.
• Most hands on : Create your own investment firm.[/su_quote]

Step 2. Think about your taxes, finances, and regulations

• Do you want a liquid asset (stocks, bonds, ETFs , publicly offered REITs ) or to buy properties?
• Are you an accredited investor? Accredited investors are people who make over $200,000 or have a net worth of over $1 million, excluding their first home. This gives you access to private equity opportunities. Learn more.
• Do you need monthly or quarterly distributions? If so, you don't want to invest in capital appreciation models or real estate developers.
• What is your tax income bracket? REITs count as normal income. If it's not in a retirement fund, it will create a major tax consequence.
• Are you a real estate professional? You only qualify as a real estate professional if you spent more than 50% of your working hours managing real estate, own 5% or more of the company, and worked at least 750 hours during the year. Check the IRS website for more information.
• Take detailed notes of date, time, and what work was performed.
• Make sure to have security cameras on all your rental properties—and time stamp the videos. Make a hard copy of the video before the year ends.
• Identify everyone in your phone that is real estate related as “Name (real estate).” Make sure to print out your phone bills before December 31 each year.
• Save all expenses related to the tax claim. Use accounting software to automate documentation.
• Use a mileage tracker to document miles and time spent commuting.

Step 3. Consider ways to invest in real estate actively

Invest in your own home, consider house hacking.

Buy Rental Properties

House flipping, step 4. how to invest in real estate without buying property, airbnb co-hosting, real estate investment trusts (reit): how to invest in real estate stocks, real estate investment groups (reig).

• Acting as a property manager
• Flipping houses
• Running Airbnbs 
• Financing building projects 

Real Estate Limited Partnerships (RELP)

Real estate mutual funds, real estate exchange traded funds (etfs), crowdfunding real estate investing platforms.

• Start with Fundrise to get familiar with how real estate investments work.
• Reinvest dividends.
• Build up to YieldStreet for potentially lower fees.
• Once you reach $5,000, go for RealtyMogul or Equity Multiple.
• Build up to CrowdStreet.
• Keep repeating until you decide which ones you like better and focus on them. 

Step 5. Get real estate software

• Syndication Pro : Publish offerings, automate distributions, and manage investors with this CRM that meets SEC compliance issues.
• Active Campaign : Automation software is good for those who need a custom automation that isn't included in Syndication Pro.
• REI Blackbook : While Syndication Pro is intended for managing investors, REI Blackbook is meant for wholesaling, renting, and flipping properties.

Step 6. Find real estate investors

• Hire a professional photographer for your website.
• Include a bold vision statement and a bold picture in the home page banner.
• The ‘about me’ page should answer, ‘What are you going to do for them?’

Step 7. Keep growing your investments

Can i invest just $100 in real estate, how to invest in real estate with no money and bad credit.

How to invest in real estate with little money

How do beginners make money in real estate.

• Reduce your personal expenditure on housing by nearly 75%.
• Build equity faster because you are only paying $1 for every $4 purchased.
• Give you the ability to buy another quadplex within the first five years.

Which Investment Is Best in Real Estate?

How to invest in real estate book options.

• Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat: The BRRRR Rental Property Investment Strategy Made Simple by David M Greene
• How to be a Real Estate Investor by Phil Pustejovsky
• The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth With Intelligent Buy and Hold Real Estate Investing by Brandon Turner

A Few Words of Caution

• Many financial instruments are governed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Past performance does not predict future performance.
• After-tax profits are more meaningful than pre-tax profits.
• Talk to a financial consultant to evaluate how to buy property within your financial scenario.
• Avoid high fees.[/su_note]

So What's the Best Way to Invest in Real Estate?

• Defining Investment Objectives
• Property Investment Taxes
• Traditional Real Estate Investing
• Equity Investments
• Online Real Estate Platforms
• Growing Your Investment Properties

nice work https://binarychemist.com/

My Name is PRETTY NGOMANE. A south African female. Aspiring to do farming. And finding a home away from home for the differently abled persons in their daily needs.

Become a business owner in less than 90 days

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24 of My Favorite Sample Business Plans & Examples For Your Inspiration

Published: February 06, 2024

I believe that reading sample business plans is essential when writing your own.

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As you explore business plan examples from real companies and brands, it’s easier for you to learn how to write a good one.

But what does a good business plan look like? And how do you write one that’s both viable and convincing. I’ll walk you through the ideal business plan format along with some examples to help you get started.

Table of Contents

Business Plan Format

Business plan types, sample business plan templates, top business plan examples.

Ask any successful sports coach how they win so many games, and they’ll tell you they have a unique plan for every single game. To me, the same logic applies to business.

If you want to build a thriving company that can pull ahead of the competition, you need to prepare for battle before breaking into a market.

Business plans guide you along the rocky journey of growing a company. And if your business plan is compelling enough, it can also convince investors to give you funding.

With so much at stake, I’m sure you’re wondering where to begin.

Free Business Plan Template

The essential document for starting a business -- custom built for your needs.

• Outline your idea.
• Pitch to investors.
• Secure funding.
• Get to work!

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Fill out the form to get your free template.

First, you’ll want to nail down your formatting. Most business plans include the following sections.

1. Executive Summary

I’d say the executive summary is the most important section of the entire business plan. 

Why? Essentially, it's the overview or introduction, written in a way to grab readers' attention and guide them through the rest of the business plan. This is important, because a business plan can be dozens or hundreds of pages long.

There are two main elements I’d recommend including in your executive summary:

Company Description

This is the perfect space to highlight your company’s mission statement and goals, a brief overview of your history and leadership, and your top accomplishments as a business.

Tell potential investors who you are and why what you do matters. Naturally, they’re going to want to know who they’re getting into business with up front, and this is a great opportunity to showcase your impact.

Need some extra help firming up those business goals? Check out HubSpot Academy’s free course to help you set goals that matter — I’d highly recommend it

Products and Services

To piggyback off of the company description, be sure to incorporate an overview of your offerings. This doesn’t have to be extensive — just another chance to introduce your industry and overall purpose as a business.

In addition to the items above, I recommend including some information about your financial projections and competitive advantage here too.:

Keep in mind you'll cover many of these topics in more detail later on in the business plan. So, keep the executive summary clear and brief, and only include the most important takeaways.

Executive Summary Business Plan Examples

This example was created with HubSpot’s business plan template:

This executive summary is so good to me because it tells potential investors a short story while still covering all of the most important details.

Image Source

Tips for Writing Your Executive Summary

• Start with a strong introduction of your company, showcase your mission and impact, and outline the products and services you provide.
• Clearly define a problem, and explain how your product solves that problem, and show why the market needs your business.
• Be sure to highlight your value proposition, market opportunity, and growth potential.
• Keep it concise and support ideas with data.
• Customize your summary to your audience. For example, emphasize finances and return on investment for venture capitalists.

Check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary for more guidance.

2. Market Opportunity

This is where you'll detail the opportunity in the market.

The main question I’d ask myself here is this: Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will my product fill that gap?

More specifically, here’s what I’d include in this section:

• The size of the market
• Current or potential market share
• Trends in the industry and consumer behavior
• Where the gap is
• What caused the gap
• How you intend to fill it

To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, you'll want to conduct a TAM, SAM, and SOM analysis and perform market research on your industry.

You may also benefit from creating a SWOT analysis to get some of the insights for this section.

Market Opportunity Business Plan Example

I like this example because it uses critical data to underline the size of the potential market and what part of that market this service hopes to capture.

Tips for Writing Your Market Opportunity Section

• Focus on demand and potential for growth.
• Use market research, surveys, and industry trend data to support your market forecast and projections.
• Add a review of regulation shifts, tech advances, and consumer behavior changes.
• Refer to reliable sources.
• Showcase how your business can make the most of this opportunity.

3. Competitive Landscape

Since we’re already speaking of market share, you'll also need to create a section that shares details on who the top competitors are.

After all, your customers likely have more than one brand to choose from, and you'll want to understand exactly why they might choose one over another.

My favorite part of performing a competitive analysis is that it can help you uncover:

• Industry trends that other brands may not be utilizing
• Strengths in your competition that may be obstacles to handle
• Weaknesses in your competition that may help you develop selling points
• The unique proposition you bring to the market that may resonate with customers

Competitive Landscape Business Plan Example

I like how the competitive landscape section of this business plan below shows a clear outline of who the top competitors are.

It also highlights specific industry knowledge and the importance of location, which shows useful experience in this specific industry. 

This can help build trust in your ability to execute your business plan.

Tips for Writing Your Competitive Landscape

• Complete in-depth research, then emphasize your most important findings.
• Compare your unique selling proposition (USP) to your direct and indirect competitors.
• Show a clear and realistic plan for product and brand differentiation.
• Look for specific advantages and barriers in the competitive landscape. Then, highlight how that information could impact your business.
• Outline growth opportunities from a competitive perspective.
• Add customer feedback and insights to support your competitive analysis.

4. Target Audience

Use this section to describe who your customer segments are in detail. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience?

If your immediate answer is "everyone," you'll need to dig deeper. Here are some questions I’d ask myself here:

• What demographics will most likely need/buy your product or service?
• What are the psychographics of this audience? (Desires, triggering events, etc.)
• Why are your offerings valuable to them?

I’d also recommend building a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and be clear on why you're targeting them.

Target Audience Business Plan Example

I like the example below because it uses in-depth research to draw conclusions about audience priorities. It also analyzes how to create the right content for this audience.

Tips for Writing Your Target Audience Section

• Include details on the size and growth potential of your target audience.
• Figure out and refine the pain points for your target audience , then show why your product is a useful solution.
• Describe your targeted customer acquisition strategy in detail.
• Share anticipated challenges your business may face in acquiring customers and how you plan to address them.
• Add case studies, testimonials, and other data to support your target audience ideas.
• Remember to consider niche audiences and segments of your target audience in your business plan.

5. Marketing Strategy

Here, you'll discuss how you'll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. I’d suggest including information:

• Your brand positioning vision and how you'll cultivate it
• The goal targets you aim to achieve
• The metrics you'll use to measure success
• The channels and distribution tactics you'll use

I think it’s helpful to have a marketing plan built out in advance to make this part of your business plan easier.

Marketing Strategy Business Plan Example

This business plan example includes the marketing strategy for the town of Gawler.

In my opinion, it really works because it offers a comprehensive picture of how they plan to use digital marketing to promote the community.

Tips for Writing Your Marketing Strategy

• Include a section about how you believe your brand vision will appeal to customers.
• Add the budget and resources you'll need to put your plan in place.
• Outline strategies for specific marketing segments.
• Connect strategies to earlier sections like target audience and competitive analysis.
• Review how your marketing strategy will scale with the growth of your business.
• Cover a range of channels and tactics to highlight your ability to adapt your plan in the face of change.

6. Key Features and Benefits

At some point in your business plan, you'll need to review the key features and benefits of your products and/or services.

Laying these out can give readers an idea of how you're positioning yourself in the market and the messaging you're likely to use. It can even help them gain better insight into your business model.

Key Features and Benefits Business Plan Example

In my opinion, the example below does a great job outlining products and services for this business, along with why these qualities will attract the audience.

Tips for Writing Your Key Features and Benefits

• Emphasize why and how your product or service offers value to customers.
• Use metrics and testimonials to support the ideas in this section.
• Talk about how your products and services have the potential to scale.
• Think about including a product roadmap.
• Focus on customer needs, and how the features and benefits you are sharing meet those needs.
• Offer proof of concept for your ideas, like case studies or pilot program feedback.
• Proofread this section carefully, and remove any jargon or complex language.

7. Pricing and Revenue

This is where you'll discuss your cost structure and various revenue streams. Your pricing strategy must be solid enough to turn a profit while staying competitive in the industry. 

For this reason, here’s what I’d might outline in this section:

• The specific pricing breakdowns per product or service
• Why your pricing is higher or lower than your competition's
• (If higher) Why customers would be willing to pay more
• (If lower) How you're able to offer your products or services at a lower cost
• When you expect to break even, what margins do you expect, etc?

Pricing and Revenue Business Plan Example

I like how this business plan example begins with an overview of the business revenue model, then shows proposed pricing for key products.

Tips for Writing Your Pricing and Revenue Section

• Get specific about your pricing strategy. Specifically, how you connect that strategy to customer needs and product value.
• If you are asking a premium price, share unique features or innovations that justify that price point.
• Show how you plan to communicate pricing to customers.
• Create an overview of every revenue stream for your business and how each stream adds to your business model as a whole.
• Share plans to develop new revenue streams in the future.
• Show how and whether pricing will vary by customer segment and how pricing aligns with marketing strategies.
• Restate your value proposition and explain how it aligns with your revenue model.

8. Financials

To me, this section is particularly informative for investors and leadership teams to figure out funding strategies, investment opportunities, and more.

 According to Forbes , you'll want to include three main things:

• Profit/Loss Statement - This answers the question of whether your business is currently profitable.
• Cash Flow Statement - This details exactly how much cash is incoming and outgoing to give insight into how much cash a business has on hand.
• Balance Sheet - This outlines assets, liabilities, and equity, which gives insight into how much a business is worth.

While some business plans might include more or less information, these are the key details I’d include in this section.

Financials Business Plan Example

This balance sheet is a great example of level of detail you’ll need to include in the financials section of your business plan.

Tips for Writing Your Financials Section

• Growth potential is important in this section too. Using your data, create a forecast of financial performance in the next three to five years.
• Include any data that supports your projections to assure investors of the credibility of your proposal.
• Add a break-even analysis to show that your business plan is financially practical. This information can also help you pivot quickly as your business grows.
• Consider adding a section that reviews potential risks and how sensitive your plan is to changes in the market.
• Triple-check all financial information in your plan for accuracy.
• Show how any proposed funding needs align with your plans for growth.

As you create your business plan, keep in mind that each of these sections will be formatted differently. Some may be in paragraph format, while others could be charts or graphs.

The formats above apply to most types of business plans. That said, the format and structure of your plan will vary by your goals for that plan. 

So, I’ve added a quick review of different business plan types. For a more detailed overview, check out this post .

1. Startups

Startup business plans are for proposing new business ideas.

If you’re planning to start a small business, preparing a business plan is crucial. The plan should include all the major factors of your business.

You can check out this guide for more detailed business plan inspiration .

2. Feasibility Studies

Feasibility business plans focus on that business's product or service. Feasibility plans are sometimes added to startup business plans. They can also be a new business plan for an already thriving organization.

3. Internal Use

You can use internal business plans to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders. In my opinion, internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals.

4. Strategic Initiatives

Another business plan that's often for sharing internally is a strategic business plan. This plan covers long-term business objectives that might not have been included in the startup business plan.

5. Business Acquisition or Repositioning

When a business is moving forward with an acquisition or repositioning, it may need extra structure and support. These types of business plans expand on a company's acquisition or repositioning strategy.

Growth sometimes just happens as a business continues operations. But more often, a business needs to create a structure with specific targets to meet set goals for expansion. This business plan type can help a business focus on short-term growth goals and align resources with those goals.

Now that you know what's included and how to format a business plan, let's review some of my favorite templates.

1. HubSpot's One-Page Business Plan

Download a free, editable one-page business plan template..

The business plan linked above was created here at HubSpot and is perfect for businesses of any size — no matter how many strategies we still have to develop.

Fields such as Company Description, Required Funding, and Implementation Timeline give this one-page business plan a framework for how to build your brand and what tasks to keep track of as you grow.

Then, as the business matures, you can expand on your original business plan with a new iteration of the above document.

Why I Like It

This one-page business plan is a fantastic choice for the new business owner who doesn’t have the time or resources to draft a full-blown business plan. It includes all the essential sections in an accessible, bullet-point-friendly format. That way, you can get the broad strokes down before honing in on the details.

2. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

We also created a business plan template for entrepreneurs.

The template is designed as a guide and checklist for starting your own business. You’ll learn what to include in each section of your business plan and how to do it.

There’s also a list for you to check off when you finish each section of your business plan.

Strong game plans help coaches win games and help businesses rocket to the top of their industries. So if you dedicate the time and effort required to write a workable and convincing business plan, you’ll boost your chances of success and even dominance in your market.

This business plan kit is essential for the budding entrepreneur who needs a more extensive document to share with investors and other stakeholders.

It not only includes sections for your executive summary, product line, market analysis, marketing plan, and sales plan, but it also offers hands-on guidance for filling out those sections.

3. LiveFlow’s Financial Planning Template with built-in automation

This free template from LiveFlow aims to make it easy for businesses to create a financial plan and track their progress on a monthly basis.

The P&L Budget versus Actual format allows users to track their revenue, cost of sales, operating expenses, operating profit margin, net profit, and more.

The summary dashboard aggregates all of the data put into the financial plan sheet and will automatically update when changes are made.

Instead of wasting hours manually importing your data to your spreadsheet, LiveFlow can also help you to automatically connect your accounting and banking data directly to your spreadsheet, so your numbers are always up-to-date.

With the dashboard, you can view your runway, cash balance, burn rate, gross margins, and other metrics. Having a simple way to track everything in one place will make it easier to complete the financials section of your business plan.

This is a fantastic template to track performance and alignment internally and to create a dependable process for documenting financial information across the business. It’s highly versatile and beginner-friendly.

It’s especially useful if you don’t have an accountant on the team. (I always recommend you do, but for new businesses, having one might not be possible.)

4. ThoughtCo’s Sample Business Plan

One of the more financially oriented sample business plans in this list, BPlan’s free business plan template dedicates many of its pages to your business’s financial plan and financial statements.

After filling this business plan out, your company will truly understand its financial health and the steps you need to take to maintain or improve it.

I absolutely love this business plan template because of its ease-of-use and hands-on instructions (in addition to its finance-centric components). If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of writing an entire business plan, consider using this template to help you with the process.

6. Harvard Business Review’s "How to Write a Winning Business Plan"

Most sample business plans teach you what to include in your business plan, but this Harvard Business Review article will take your business plan to the next level — it teaches you the why and how behind writing a business plan.

With the guidance of Stanley Rich and Richard Gumpert, co-authors of " Business Plans That Win: Lessons From the MIT Enterprise Forum ", you'll learn how to write a convincing business plan that emphasizes the market demand for your product or service.

You’ll also learn the financial benefits investors can reap from putting money into your venture rather than trying to sell them on how great your product or service is.

This business plan guide focuses less on the individual parts of a business plan, and more on the overarching goal of writing one. For that reason, it’s one of my favorites to supplement any template you choose to use. Harvard Business Review’s guide is instrumental for both new and seasoned business owners.

7. HubSpot’s Complete Guide to Starting a Business

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know writing a business plan is one of the most challenging first steps to starting a business.

Fortunately, with HubSpot's comprehensive guide to starting a business, you'll learn how to map out all the details by understanding what to include in your business plan and why it’s important to include them. The guide also fleshes out an entire sample business plan for you.

If you need further guidance on starting a business, HubSpot's guide can teach you how to make your business legal, choose and register your business name, and fund your business. It will also give small business tax information and includes marketing, sales, and service tips.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of starting a business, in addition to writing your business plan, with a high level of exactitude and detail. So if you’re in the midst of starting your business, this is an excellent guide for you.

It also offers other resources you might need, such as market analysis templates.

8. Panda Doc’s Free Business Plan Template

PandaDoc’s free business plan template is one of the more detailed and fleshed-out sample business plans on this list. It describes what you should include in each section, so you don't have to come up with everything from scratch.

Once you fill it out, you’ll fully understand your business’ nitty-gritty details and how all of its moving parts should work together to contribute to its success.

This template has two things I love: comprehensiveness and in-depth instructions. Plus, it’s synced with PandaDoc’s e-signature software so that you and other stakeholders can sign it with ease. For that reason, I especially love it for those starting a business with a partner or with a board of directors.

9. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers several free business plan templates that can be used to inspire your own plan.

Before you get started, you can decide what type of business plan you need — a traditional or lean start-up plan.

Then, you can review the format for both of those plans and view examples of what they might look like.

We love both of the SBA’s templates because of their versatility. You can choose between two options and use the existing content in the templates to flesh out your own plan. Plus, if needed, you can get a free business counselor to help you along the way.

I’ve compiled some completed business plan samples to help you get an idea of how to customize a plan for your business.

I chose different types of business plan ideas to expand your imagination. Some are extensive, while others are fairly simple.

Let’s take a look.

1. LiveFlow

One of the major business expenses is marketing. How you handle your marketing reflects your company’s revenue.

I included this business plan to show you how you can ensure your marketing team is aligned with your overall business plan to get results. The plan also shows you how to track even the smallest metrics of your campaigns, like ROI and payback periods instead of just focusing on big metrics like gross and revenue.

Fintech startup, LiveFlow, allows users to sync real-time data from its accounting services, payment platforms, and banks into custom reports. This eliminates the task of pulling reports together manually, saving teams time and helping automate workflows.

"Using this framework over a traditional marketing plan will help you set a profitable marketing strategy taking things like CAC, LTV, Payback period, and P&L into consideration," explains LiveFlow co-founder, Lasse Kalkar .

When it came to including marketing strategy in its business plan, LiveFlow created a separate marketing profit and loss statement (P&L) to track how well the company was doing with its marketing initiatives.

This is a great approach, allowing businesses to focus on where their marketing dollars are making the most impact. Having this information handy will enable you to build out your business plan’s marketing section with confidence. LiveFlow has shared the template here . You can test it for yourself.

2. Lula Body

Sometimes all you need is a solid mission statement and core values to guide you on how to go about everything. You do this by creating a business plan revolving around how to fulfill your statement best.

For example, Patagonia is an eco-friendly company, so their plan discusses how to make the best environmentally friendly products without causing harm.

A good mission statement  should not only resonate with consumers but should also serve as a core value compass for employees as well.

Patagonia has one of the most compelling mission statements I’ve seen:

"Together, let’s prioritise purpose over profit and protect this wondrous planet, our only home."

It reels you in from the start, and the environmentally friendly theme continues throughout the rest of the statement.

This mission goes on to explain that they are out to "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to protect nature."

Their mission statement is compelling and detailed, with each section outlining how they will accomplish their goal.

4. Vesta Home Automation

This executive summary for a smart home device startup is part of a business plan created by students at Mount Royal University .

While it lacks some of the sleek visuals of the templates above, its executive summary does a great job of demonstrating how invested they are in the business.

Right away, they mention they’ve invested $200,000 into the company already, which shows investors they have skin in the game and aren’t just looking for someone else to foot the bill.

This is the kind of business plan you need when applying for business funds. It clearly illustrates the expected future of the company and how the business has been coming along over the years.

5. NALB Creative Center

This fictional business plan for an art supply store includes everything one might need in a business plan: an executive summary, a company summary, a list of services, a market analysis summary, and more.

One of its most notable sections is its market analysis summary, which includes an overview of the population growth in the business’ target geographical area, as well as a breakdown of the types of potential customers they expect to welcome at the store. 

This sort of granular insight is essential for understanding and communicating your business’s growth potential. Plus, it lays a strong foundation for creating relevant and useful buyer personas .

It’s essential to keep this information up-to-date as your market and target buyer changes. For that reason, you should carry out market research as often as possible to ensure that you’re targeting the correct audience and sharing accurate information with your investors.

Due to its comprehensiveness, it’s an excellent example to follow if you’re opening a brick-and-mortar store and need to get external funding to start your business .

6. Curriculum Companion Suites (CSS)

If you’re looking for a SaaS business plan example, look no further than this business plan for a fictional educational software company called Curriculum Companion Suites. 

Like the business plan for the NALB Creative Center, it includes plenty of information for prospective investors and other key stakeholders in the business.

One of the most notable features of this business plan is the executive summary, which includes an overview of the product, market, and mission.

The first two are essential for software companies because the product offering is so often at the forefront of the company’s strategy. Without that information being immediately available to investors and executives, then you risk writing an unfocused business plan.

It’s essential to front-load your company’s mission if it explains your "Why?" and this example does just that. In other words, why do you do what you do, and why should stakeholders care? This is an important section to include if you feel that your mission will drive interest in the business and its offerings.

7. Culina Sample Business Plan

Culina's sample business plan is an excellent example of how to lay out your business plan so that it flows naturally, engages readers, and provides the critical information investors and stakeholders need. 

You can use this template as a guide while you're gathering important information for your own business plan. You'll have a better understanding of the data and research you need to do since Culina’s plan outlines these details so flawlessly for inspiration.

8. Plum Sample Business Plan

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How to Write a Great Business Case

Explore more.

• Case Teaching

C ase studies are powerful teaching tools. “When you have a good case, and students who are well prepared to learn and to teach each other, you get some magical moments that students will never forget,” says James L. Heskett, UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics, emeritus, at Harvard Business School (HBS). “They will remember the lessons they learn in that class discussion and apply them 20 years later.”

Yet, for many educators who want to pen their own case, the act of writing a great business case seldom comes easily or naturally. For starters, it’s time consuming. Case writers can spend substantial time visiting companies, securing a willing site, conducting interviews, observing operations, collecting data, reviewing notes, writing the case, revising the narrative, ensuring that teaching points come through, and then getting executives to approve the finished product.

The question, then, becomes: Where do you begin? How do you approach case writing? How do you decide which company to use as the subject of the case? And what distinguishes a well-written case from a mediocre one?

We asked three expert HBS case writers—who collectively have written and supported hundreds of cases—to share their insights on how to write a great business case study that will inspire passionate classroom discussion and transmit key educational concepts.

Insights from James L. Heskett

UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics, Emeritus, Harvard Business School

Keep your eyes open for a great business issue.

“I’m always on the prowl for new case material. Whenever I’m reading or consulting, I look for interesting people doing interesting things and facing interesting challenges. For instance, I was reading a magazine and came across a story about how Shouldice Hospital treated patients undergoing surgery to fix inguinal hernias—how patients would get up from the operating table and walk away on the arm of the surgeon.

6 QUALITIES OF GREAT CASE WRITERS

Comfort with ambiguity, since cases may have more than one “right” answer

Command of the topic or subject at hand

Ability to relate to the case protagonists

Enthusiasm for the case teaching method

Capacity for finding the drama in a business situation and making it feel personal to students

Build relationships with executives.

“When writing a case, it’s helpful to start as high in the organization as possible. It helps assure mid-level managers that they can share the information you need with an outsider. It also helps when it comes to getting the case cleared for use. Serving on corporate boards can help in building relationships with senior executives, but there are other ways to make those connections. For instance, you can approach speakers at business conferences if you think their presentations could form the basis for a good business case. If you want to write about a company where you don’t have any personal connections, you can always check with your colleagues to see if any of them have a personal relationship with the CEO or sit on a board where they could introduce you to the right person who would be able to facilitate the case. My colleagues and I make a lot of these introductions for each other.”

“If you make the case into a crossword puzzle that takes five hours to solve, it’s not really fair to the students and will most likely cause them to lose focus.” James L. Heskett

Skip the curveballs and focus on key issues.

“Cases don’t have to be obvious. As a pedagogical objective, you might want students to look beyond a superficial issue to say this is the underlying topic that we need to address, and these are the questions we need to pose. Still, I think it’s unhelpful if cases contain real curveballs where ‘unlocking’ the case depends on finding some small piece of information hidden in an exhibit. Give students a break! They may have to read and digest three cases per day, so they probably won’t be able to devote more than a couple of hours to each one. If you make the case into a crossword puzzle that takes five hours to solve, it’s not really fair to the students and will most likely cause them to lose focus.”

Build a discussion plan while writing the case.

“In case method teaching, the teacher is not in complete control. Students teach each other and learn from each other. On any given day, there will likely be somebody in the room who knows more about the company featured in the case than the professor does. So a professor can’t walk into the classroom and expect to impose a lesson plan that goes in a strict linear way from A to B to C to D. The case ought to be written to allow students to jump from A to D and then come back later to B if that’s how the discussion plays out. At the same time, the case should be structured so that the instructor can collect student comments on a board, organizing them as a coherent set of related ideas, and then deliver a 5-to-10-minute summary that communicates whatever essential concepts the case has covered. This summation can be a very powerful teaching and learning experience.”

Focus on quality over quantity.

“Cases don’t have to be too long. Some good cases are only two or three pages. Students may give more scrutiny to these brief cases than they would a 20-page case.”

Advice from Benson P. Shapiro

Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, Emeritus, Harvard Business School

Take out the chaff in advance.

“You don’t want students to spend too much time separating the wheat from the chaff. If a case has 12 pages of text and 10 pages of exhibits, even the smartest MBA students will likely lose interest. Writers who try to capture a situation from every angle and in every detail end up with sprawling narratives that usually do not make a good case. When writing cases, you need to set good, strong boundaries. Avoid superfluous, flowery, or poetic material that may contain interesting anecdotes or factoids, but that could distract readers from the case’s core topics. Include only those important and useful details that can help students make decisions and understand key issues that the case explores.”

Work in layers and metaphors—subtly.

“The best cases work on multiple levels. A case should focus on a specific situation—for example, whether or not to introduce a certain product. But it should also serve as a metaphor for broader issues in the background: How do we think about introducing new products? Are we introducing enough products? Are new product introductions a source of competitive advantage in our industry? How should we organize and manage new product development? You want the case to encourage students to think broadly about the various cultural, financial, and strategic impacts that managerial decisions have on a company.”

“Writers who try to capture a situation from every angle and in every detail end up with sprawling narratives that usually do not make a good case.” Benson P. Shapiro

Encourage emotional engagement.

“Case writing is an interesting literary form—it needs to be very engaging, but also educational. Great cases revolve around points of contention on which intelligent people can hold different points of view: What should you do? Why? How do you get it done? Ideally, students should have to choose between two very attractive alternatives or two terrible alternatives. The best cases involve questions that get students emotionally engaged so that they really care about choices and outcomes. When you see students physically leaning forward and following what their peers are saying, you know that they have a visceral feel for the importance of the subject. When you hear them debating after class— You were out in left field! You missed what was really important here! —that’s how you can tell you succeeded in developing a great case.”

Lessons from Carin-Isabel Knoop

Executive Director of the Case Research & Writing Group, Harvard Business School

Don’t forget the classroom component.

“Cases are deliberately incomplete documents. What a case writer leaves out of a case is often just as important as what he or she puts into it. Cases are designed to be completed through classroom instruction and discussion. While drafting the case, try to develop the classroom process in parallel. Work on the assignment questions and classroom content. Keep in mind that the case should be able to adapt to your classroom and course needs.”

Hone your elevator pitch.

“Before getting started, always have clear, succinct learning objectives in mind. Don’t start developing the case until you are able to summarize these objectives in less than five minutes.”

Case writing is a relationship, not a transaction.

When choosing a case site, be clear with executives that you are developing a teaching tool and that you will require their time and candor—and eventually their data. Put them at ease, and manage the authorization process, right from the start. Indicate that quotes will be cleared before publication and there will be time for individual review. During the creation process, ask their advice. This creates a process of engagement and helps bring home that this is a pedagogical tool, not gotcha journalism. At HBS, we oftentimes invite someone from the company to attend class. Finally, once the case is done, stay in touch with your case protagonists. They will move to other organizations and spread the good word about their experience with case writing.

Invite disagreement in case discussions.

“The case study method is based on participant-centered learning. The students all start from the same base of 11 (or however many) pages in the case, but they bring different knowledge and experiences into the classroom. So they can take the same facts and disagree about what course of action to pursue. We want students to behave like decision makers, and it can be painful to make decisions. Some critics deride the case teaching method as being unrealistic, but someone who just lectures about marketing doesn’t help students realize how difficult it is to choose between two plausible options to meet the same marketing objectives. For students, a big part of the education process is learning from discussions with classmates who think differently and advocate for different solutions. Witnessing a robust case discussion reminds us of the potential for collective learning to emerge from contrasting views.”

“Faculty don’t just write cases for teaching purposes, they write them to learn.” Carin-Isabel Knoop

The Case Writing Process Is a Worthy Effort

Researching, writing, and publishing cases is well worth the time and effort. “The case research and writing process is important for faculty development,” Knoop adds. “While developing field cases, faculty go to site visits and meet with decision makers. The case writing process helps connect scholars to practitioners and practitioners to the academic world. Faculty case writers get to explore and test how their academic theories work in practice. So faculty don’t just write cases for teaching purposes, they write them to learn. The case method is an integral part of faculty development.”

There’s another big bonus to becoming a case writer, especially for younger educators. “Young business instructors face a credibility gap with their students,” says Heskett. “It’s not uncommon to have MBA students in a class who have more experience than the instructor on a particular subject. Once you go into the field and write a case, you will know more about that subject than anyone else in the class. A primary way for professors to establish their credibility on a topic is to have written the case the class is discussing that day.”

James L. Heskett is UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics, emeritus, at Harvard Business School. He completed his Ph.D. at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and has been a faculty member at The Ohio State University as well as president of Logistics Systems, Inc. Since 2000, he has authored a blog on Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge website .

Benson P. Shapiro is the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing, emeritus, at Harvard Business School where he taught full time from 1970 to 1997. Since 1997, Shapiro has concentrated his professional time on consulting, giving speeches, serving on boards, and writing. He continues to teach at Harvard and has taught in many executive programs and has chaired the Sustainable Marketing Leadership for Mid-Sized Firms Program.

Carin-Isabel Knoop is the executive director of the Case Research & Writing Group at Harvard Business School. She is also coauthor of Compassionate Management of Mental Health in the Modern Workplace .

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How to Write a Business Essay for Impactful Communication and Analysis

So, you've got a business essay coming up, and you're feeling a mix of excitement and a tad bit overwhelmed, right? Totally get it. Writing a business essay might sound boring, but trust me, it's a skill that's gonna come in handy when you're out there in the real world.

In this article, we're dishing out some awesome tips just for you if you have question on how to start a business essay. Think of it as your secret weapon to tackle those business essays like a pro. We'll keep it real, easy, and super practical – no fancy jargon or complicated theories. Let's dive into the world of business essay writing, where your words can make a big impact. In case you lack time or motivation to finish your assignment, use our business essay writing service to streamline the process.

What Is a Business Essay

Business essays are written pieces that explore and analyze various aspects of business-related topics, often focusing on management, marketing, finance, or entrepreneurship. They provide a platform for students and professionals to articulate their understanding of business concepts, theories, and real-world applications. Typically written in a formal and structured manner, a business essay requires critical thinking, research skills, and the ability to communicate ideas effectively. Whether delving into case studies, discussing industry trends, or evaluating business strategies, the essay aims to provide insights, draw conclusions, and contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamic world of business.

How to Write an Introduction for a Business Essay

A business essay introduction sets the tone for the entire paper and captures the reader's attention. Here are some steps and tips to help you write an effective introduction for a business essay:

• Understand the Purpose of the Introduction

Clearly understand the purpose of your essay. Are you providing an overview of a business concept, analyzing a case study, or arguing a specific point? Tailor your introduction accordingly.

• Start with a Hook

Grab the reader's attention with a compelling hook. This could be a relevant quote, a surprising fact, a rhetorical question, or a thought-provoking statement. The goal is to make the reader want to continue reading.

• Provide Context

After the hook, provide some background or context related to the topic of your essay. Help the reader understand the significance and relevance of the subject matter in the business world.

• Thesis Statement

Clearly state your thesis or the main argument of your essay. This should be a concise and focused statement that outlines what the reader can expect from the rest of the essay. Make sure it is specific and reflects the purpose of your writing.

• Outline the Scope

Briefly outline the main points or areas that your essay will cover. This gives the reader a roadmap of what to expect and helps them understand the structure of your essay.

• Use Clear and Concise Language

Keep your introduction clear and concise. Avoid unnecessary jargon or complex language that might confuse the reader. Aim for clarity and precision.

• Be Relevant

Ensure that every sentence in your introduction is directly related to the topic of your essay. Avoid going off on tangents or providing excessive information that doesn't contribute to the main points.

• Consider the Tone

Choose a tone that is appropriate for your audience and the nature of your essay. Business essays can vary in tone, from formal and academic to more conversational, depending on the context.

Are You a Business Student with a Hectic Schedule?

 Try our professional writing service – it can do wonders for your curriculum!

Business Essay Introduction Example

Here’s an example of an introduction for an essay titled “The Rise of E-commerce: Shaping the Future of Retail”:

The retail landscape is undergoing a seismic shift as e-commerce continues to redefine the way consumers shop. In this essay, we explore the profound implications of this digital transformation on traditional retail models and analyze the key strategies businesses are employing to thrive in this dynamic environment. From changing consumer behaviors to the strategic use of technology, the impact of e-commerce on the retail sector is undeniable, prompting businesses to adapt or face the risk of obsolescence.

How to Write a Business Essay

Working on a business essay might seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be. In this guide, we'll break down the process into simple steps to help you navigate through it smoothly. In this next section. We’ll be breaking down the essentials of drawing up a business essay from start to finish. From defining your main argument to structuring your points effectively, let's explore the key strategies that will set you on the path to success. 

Analyze the Prompt

Start by carefully reading and understanding the essay prompt. This involves breaking down the question to grasp what it's asking for, identifying the main topics, and recognizing any specific tasks or points to cover. This step helps you set the stage for a focused and relevant essay by ensuring you address all aspects mentioned in the prompt. You can hire a business essay writer to expedite the process if you want.

Think of a Thesis Statement

When writing a business essay, think of the thesis statement as the essay's compass. It should be a concise, strong sentence that lays out your main argument or viewpoint on the topic. Your thesis guides the entire essay, so make sure it's specific, debatable, and gives readers a clear idea of what to expect in your writing.

Create an Outline

We’ve already shared tips on how to write an introduction for a business essay, so let’s move on to the next stages. Organize your thoughts by outlining the main points and structure of your essay. This doesn't have to be too detailed; just a roadmap that helps you see how different ideas connect. An outline ensures a logical flow in your writing and prevents you from going off track. By the way, have you already picked business essay topics ? If not, here’s a list of great ideas you can use!

Provide Topic Background

Before diving into your main points, the business essay writing format implies giving your reader some context about the topic. Briefly introduce the key concepts, relevant facts, or historical background that will help readers understand the importance and relevance of your essay.

Write the Main Body

Start developing your essay by expanding on the main points outlined in your thesis. Each paragraph should focus on a specific idea or argument supported by evidence or examples. Be clear and concise, ensuring a smooth transition between paragraphs. It’s the most difficult part of the assignment, meaning you can use our college essay service to simplify it.

Write a Conclusion

Summarize your key points and conclusively restate your thesis. The conclusion should tie up the loose ends and leave a lasting impression on the reader. Avoid introducing new information but rather reinforce your main argument. For more details about how to write a conclusion for an essay , please refer to our guide.

Add a Bibliography

List all the sources you used in your research. Be meticulous about citing your references properly, following the chosen format (APA, MLA, etc.). This adds credibility to your essay and avoids plagiarism issues.

Edit and Proofread

As you’ve learned how to write a business essay, it’s time to master the art of self-revising. Review your essay for clarity, coherence, and grammatical errors. Editing ensures that your ideas flow smoothly, and proofreading catches any overlooked mistakes. It's a crucial step to polish your essay and present a professional piece of writing. Do you have another assignment on business management ? This guide will help you!

Choose the Writing Format

Reiterate the importance of selecting and adhering to the chosen writing format throughout the essay. Consistency in formatting, citations, and other style elements contributes to the overall professionalism of your work.

Business Essay Example

Business essay examples offer practical assistance to students tackling assignments by showcasing the application of essential writing principles in a real-world context. As a tangible reference, it demonstrates an effective essay structure and how to formulate a clear thesis statement and provide coherent arguments. By examining examples, students can glean insights into research techniques, proper citation practices, and overall essay organization, empowering them to approach their business assignments with increased confidence and proficiency.

Example 1: “The Impact of Technological Advancements on Modern Business Operations”

This essay explores the multifaceted impact of technology on operational efficiency, innovation, customer relations, and global connectivity. From integrating automation and artificial intelligence for streamlined processes to facilitating global expansion through digital platforms, technology emerges as a driving force shaping the success and sustainability of contemporary enterprises. While acknowledging the numerous benefits, the essay also highlights the challenges and ethical considerations inherent in adopting these technologies, emphasizing the need for businesses to navigate these complexities responsibly for long-term growth and competitiveness.

Example 2: “Sustainable Business Practices: A Strategic Imperative for Corporate Success”

This essay explores the pivotal role of sustainable business practices as a strategic imperative for corporate success in the contemporary entrepreneurship scene. Addressing environmental concerns, social consciousness, and economic viability, the essay delves into the multifaceted benefits of adopting sustainable approaches. It discusses how businesses can align profitability with responsible practices, emphasizing environmental stewardship, social impact, and community engagement. The essay underscores the importance of regulatory compliance and risk mitigation in business by examining the economic advantages and innovation opportunities arising from sustainable initiatives.

Final Considerations

Students engage in writing business essays to develop essential skills and knowledge crucial for success in the professional world. These essays serve as a platform for honing critical thinking, analytical, and communication skills, allowing students to articulate and analyze complex business concepts. Through the process of researching, organizing thoughts, and constructing coherent arguments, students gain a deeper understanding of business principles and practices. Business essays also cultivate the ability to synthesize information, evaluate various perspectives, and present well-reasoned conclusions. If you find with task troublesome, you can always tell us, ‘ write my research paper ,’ and one of our wordsmiths will fulfill the assignment quickly.

Writing Business Essays Doesn’t Work for You?

 Here’s an alternative – an expert writer with relevant experience and proper skills.

How Many Paragraphs Does a Business Essay Have?

What is the most important part of a business essay, how do you start off a business essay, related articles.

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Blog Business How to Write Business Proposal (Examples + Free Templates)

How to Write Business Proposal (Examples + Free Templates)

Written by: Aditya Sheth Jan 25, 2024

The great Mark Cuban once said, “Sales cure all.” If a business doesn’t sell, it doesn’t make money and by extension the business fails. That’s why you need to write business proposals .

A well-written business proposal can often mean the difference between winning or losing a prospective client.

In this in-depth guide to creating business proposals, we show you how to close more deals, make more sales and crush your business goals — all by using easy-to-edit professional business proposal templates .

Here’s what this guide will cover (click to jump ahead):

What is a business proposal, what are the components of a business proposal.

• How to write a business proposal step by step

What should you include in a business proposal?

What are the types of business proposals, more business proposal examples + writing and design tips.

• FAQs about business proposals

Looking for a shortcut? Watch this quick video for an overview of everything to include in your business proposal:

A business proposal is a document designed to outline a business plan to convince potential client, investor or partner to engage in a business agreement with you or your company. It’s basically a sales pitch in writing to persuade potential clients to show them benefits of working with you or your company for their business success.

A business proposal outlines what your business does and what you can do for your client . It can be general like this business proposal example:

Or it can be more specific, like this business proposal template which focuses on proposing a project for the Newton Center Rail:

Or this business proposal sample, which presents a plan for a social media strategy and campaign:

To design a business proposal that holds the client’s attention, identify their pain points . Then provide your buyer with the right solution to alleviate those frustrations.

Working on a new project? These project proposal examples might come in handy for you.

The components of a business proposal can change depending on the field, company size and client needs. While details may differ, strong proposals typically introduce your company, explain the problem, offer a solution and its benefits, highlight your team’s skills, and outline timeline, cost and next steps.

How to write a business proposal step by step

Before you start creating your business proposal template, you need to understand the business proposal format. At a high level, your effective business proposal should include the following:

• Create a compelling business proposal title
• Build a table of contents
• Craft the executive summary
• Write a detailed problem statement
• Propose your solutions
• Showcase your team’s expertise
• Create a realistic timeline
• Present your payment structure
• Specify the terms and conditions
• Receiving the decision

Below, you can see business proposal examples that demonstrate how to include these 10 sections.

1. Create a compelling business proposal title

A compelling title could mean the difference between someone reading your proposal or ignoring it in favor of a competitor’s . 

What makes a good title page? Here are the essential elements to include: 

• Your name along with your company’s name
• The name of the prospect (or their business) 
• The date you’re submitting the proposal

The gray business consulting proposal template above contains all the details a prospect would want to know. The title also offers a strong tangible benefit to the prospective buyer. Honestly, “Who doesn’t want to grow their business?”

2. Build a table of contents

The table of contents is a fundamental part of every winning business proposal template. It makes your proposal scannable and easy to read.

The people you will be pitching to are usually C-level executives. These are busy people who don’t have time to read your entire proposal in one go.

That’s why most of the business proposal examples in this list include a table of contents.

Adding a table of contents to your document makes it easy for them to go through it at their own pace. They can also skim through parts of the proposal that they deem more important. You can see how this abstract business proposal template uses the table of contents:

You can also make your business proposal template easier to navigate by adding hyperlinks to the document, particularly in the table of contents. This way your clients can jump to specific sections without having to scroll through the entire document. Ensuring your business plan format follows a clear structure can greatly enhance readability and comprehension for potential investors or partners.

It’s easy to add hyperlinks in the Venngage editor. Select the text you’d like to turn into a link, then click the link icon in the top bar. From there, select the page you want to link to! Then download your completed design as an Interactive PDF .

3. Craft the executive summary

The executive summary is a staple in all kinds of annual reports , leadership development plan , project plans and even marketing plans . It is a concise summary of the entire contents of your document. In other words, write a business proposal outline that is easy to glance over and that highlights your value proposition.

The goals of your executive summary are:

• Introduce your company to your buyer
• Provide an overview of your company goals
• Showcase your company’s milestones, overall vision and future plans
• Include any other relevant details

This gray business proposal example has a detailed yet short executive summary including some social proof in the form of clients they’ve worked with:

Take note of how precise this business proposal example is. You want to keep your executive summary concise and clear from the get-go. This sets the right tone for the rest of your proposal. It also gives your buyer a reason to continue reading your proposal.

Crafting an executive summary and keeping it concise and compelling can be challenging. but you can use an AI summarizer online to generate an executive summary. Such tools are trained on relevant AI models that can extract core points from a given text. You can get such a point either in bullet form or in abstract summary form.

Pro Tip: Try to write an executive summary such that, even if your prospective client doesn’t read the entire proposal (with a good executive summary, they most likely will), they should have a clear idea about what your company does and how you can help them.

4. Write a detailed problem statement

The point of writing a business proposal is to solve a buyer’s problem. Your goal is to outline the problem statement as clearly as possible. This develops a sense of urgency in your prospect. They will want to find a solution to the problem. And you have that solution.

 A well-defined problem statement does two things: 

• It shows the prospect you have done your homework instead of sending a generic pitch
• It creates an opportunity for you to point out a problem your prospect might not be aware they had in the first place. 

This bold business proposal template above clearly outlines the problem at hand and also offers a ray of hope i.e. how you can solve your prospect’s problem. This brings me to… 

5. P ropose your solutions

The good stuff. In the proposed solution section, you show how you can alleviate your prospective buyer’s pain points. This can fit onto the problem statement section but if you have a comprehensive solution or prefer to elaborate on the details, a separate section is a good idea.

Spare no details regarding the solution you will provide. When you write a business proposal, explain how you plan to deliver the solution. Include an estimated timeline of when they can expect your solution and other relevant details.

For inspiration, look at how this business proposal template quickly and succinctly outlines the project plan, deliverables and metrics :

6. Showcase your team’s expertise

At this point, the prospect you’re pitching your solution to likes what they’re reading. But they may not trust you to deliver on your promises. Why is this?

It’s because they don’t know you. Your job is to convince them that you can fix their problem. This section is important because it acts as social proof. You can highlight what your company does best and how qualified your team is when you write a business proposal for a potential client.

This free business proposal template showcases the company’s accolades, client testimonials, relevant case studies, and industry awards. You can also include other forms of social proof to establish yourself as a credible business. This makes it that much more likely that they will say yes!

Pro Tip: Attaching in-depth case studies of your work is a great way to build trust with a potential client by showcasing how you’ve solved similar problems for other clients in the past. Our case study examples post can show you how to do just that.

7. Create a realistic timeline

To further demonstrate just how prepared you are, it’s important to outline the next steps you will take should your buyer decide to work with you.

Provide a timeline of how and when you will complete all your deliverables. You can do this by designing a  flow chart . Or add a  roadmap  with deadlines. Pitching a long-term project? A timeline infographic would be a better fit.

If you look at this abstract business proposal template below, even something as simple as a table can do the trick.

The timeline is not always set in stone, rather it’s an estimation. The goal is to clarify any questions your potential client might have about how you will deliver for the underlying B2B sales process.

8. Present your payment and terms

On this page, you can outline your fees, payment schedule, invoice payment terms , as well as legal aspects involved in this deal. You can even use the  Excel Invoice Template  to create professional-looking invoices (including brand logo and other elements) and add them to this page.

The key to good pricing is to provide your buyer with options. A  pricing comparison table can help with this. You want to give your client some room to work with. Make sure you’re not scaring off your client with a high price, nor undervaluing yourself. 

Breaking up your pricing in stages is another great way to make sure your potential client knows what he’s paying for. Look at how this simple business proposal template does this:

The legal aspects can slot right into the terms and conditions section. Alternatively, you can add them to the signature section of the proposal to keep things simple.

9. Specify the terms and conditions

Summarize everything you have promised to deliver so far. Include what you expect from your prospective buyer in return.   Add the overall project timeline from start to end, as well as payment methods and payment schedule, incorporating these details into an online digital project management tool. This way, both of you will be clear on what is being agreed on.

This step is very important as it outlines all the legal aspects of the deal. That is why the terms and conditions section of your proposal needs to be as clear as possible.

I recommend consulting a lawyer or your legal team when working on this section of the business proposal. If you’re a business veteran and understand the legalities of your business, you can use the same terms and conditions across all your proposals.

10. Receiving the decision

The final step of this whole process. Your client has read your business proposal and they want to buy what you have to offer.

Add a small section at the end of your proposal to get the necessary signatures. This way, you and your client can sign the proposal and the partnership becomes official.

Be sure to also include your contact information in your business proposal template. It acts as a gentle prompt to your client to contact you in case they have any questions. A professional way of doig that would be to include an e-business card with your contact details, email i.d and any other social links you want to share. You can go through this article for the best digital business cards .

A business proposal usually aims to answer the following questions: 

• Who you are and what your company does
• The problem your buyer is facing
• The solution your company offers to alleviate the problem
• How your company will implement this solution effectively
• An estimate of resources (time, money, etc) required to implement the solution

You can see how this sample business proposal template covers the above points.

Notice how this proposal template addresses the same project like in one of the previous templates, but uses a completely different design style (more retro, while the previous business proposal template is more modern and minimalistic).

Generally, there are three types of business proposals:

1. Formally solicited 

A formally solicited business proposal is made when you respond to an official request to write a business proposal.

In this scenario, you know all the requirements and have more (if not all) information about a prospective buyer. You simply need to write the business proposal for your buyer to evaluate so you can begin the sales process .

2. Informally solicited 

Informally solicited business proposals are written when there isn’t an official request for a proposal. A prospective buyer is interested in your services and asks for a proposal so they can evaluate it.

An informally solicited proposal requires a lot more research from your end. These types of proposals are usually created out of informal conversations. They are not based on official requests which often contain more detail.

3. Unsolicited 

Think of this as a marketing brochure or a cold email . Unsolicited business proposals will often take a generic, one-size-fits-all approach to business proposals. Unsolicited proposals lack any understanding of the buyer or their requirements.

But with additional  market research , personalization and identifying customer pain points , you can propose a customized solution based on your buyer’s needs. This can be a very persuasive approach, such as in this business proposal example:

Now that you know how to write a business proposal, let’s look at how you can optimize your proposal to deliver results!

Below you’ll find some winning business proposal templates and examples to get you started. I’ve also included some design tips to keep in mind when you’re creating your next business proposal: 

1. Know your audience 

If you have some clarity on who your ideal buyer is — their pain points, their budget, deadlines, among other things — you’ve already won half the battle.

If you are a business that helps clients with everything from running giveaways or helping grow their blog , identify which customers to pitch. This is a sure-shot way to close the deal.

Mapping user personas  for your ideal buyer can help bring some clarity. It will also help you position your business proposal correctly. This improves the chance of your buyer moving your business proposal to the “Yes!” pile.

2. Put your brand front and center

If your company follows certain brand guidelines, incorporate them in your business proposal templates. Consider how business proposal examples like the one below highlight brand identity :

From the color palettes to the company logos , everything follows their brand guidelines. The result: a business proposal that’s consistent across the board.

Pro Tip: Switching this template to match your brand assets is actually pretty easy. Venngage’s My Brand Kit feature allows you to import your color palettes, logos as well as font choices. Any Venngage template can now be your template.

You can also consider this sample business proposal template:

App design companies sure do know their design. They did a phenomenal job keeping their brand colors consistent while opting for a black design. This unique color scheme also makes their white logo prominent throughout the proposal.

3. Try less text, more visuals

Have you ever read a proposal and thought to yourself, “Wow, this is all text and has no images, I love it!”? Yeah, me neither.

The free business proposal template below is a perfect example of the “less is more” principle. It does a phenomenal job of communicating what it needs to. By substituting some of the text with icons and visuals, you get a clean business proposal that’s much more scannable.

Want to keep things strictly professional? Instead of icons, you can always add your team’s headshots. This shows your buyer exactly who they’ll be working with.  

Check out this formal business proposal format for some inspiration:

4. Switch up your business proposal designs

It doesn’t hurt to go above and beyond once in a while. Jazz up your business proposal template with some extra colors. This helps make your business proposal more engaging. It also helps your buyers retain information faster.

The business proposal example alternates between black, white and grey backgrounds. It still manages to maintain consistency in its branding . Just switching up your backgrounds once in a while can also bring in some variety to an otherwise standard business proposal.

This SEO business proposal sample proves that it’s possible to switch up the colors in every other page. But it still maintains the same color scheme across the entire proposal just like a professionally designed website : 

Pro Tip: Not a color expert? Our guide on picking colors can help you pick the right color scheme for your proposals.

FAQ about business proposals

What is the purpose of a business proposal.

A business proposal aims to streamline the B2B sales process (which is often complex ) between you as a seller and a buyer.

It does this by serving the dual purpose of acting as a source of information. The proposal also acts as a sales pitch aimed at convincing your buyer why they should buy what you have to offer.

What are the best practices for business proposal design?

• Do a thorough spell-check. The goal of your business proposal is to convince your buyer why you’re the perfect person for the job. A proposal with typos or grammatical errors communicates the opposite. A thorough spell-check before you send your proposal is a must.
• Keep things clear and readable: Clarity is an important aspect that you have to ensure in your business proposal. If you want your proposal to hit home and make an impact on the buyer, you have to write it in an understandable way. To keep things clear and readable, there are a couple of things that you can do. You can, for one, take care to use easy wording and segmented sentences from the get-go. You can also try paraphrasing the hard parts of your proposal once you are done writing it.
• Let your brand shine. As discussed before, writing a business proposal is all about knowing your ideal buyer and focusing on their pain points. But that doesn’t mean your business proposal template has to be boring. Demonstrate how different you are compared to other companies. You can do this through your brand guidelines , by using more visuals, switching up your proposal design or showing off your personality in your writing . 
• Create a business proposal PDF. Downloading your business proposal in PDF format allows you to attach other collaterals with your business proposal. These can include a company explainer video or case studies showcasing the work done with past clients. Also, who doesn’t love saving paper?

How long should your business proposal be? 

The length depends on the scope of the work as well as the complexity of the project. Here is a one-page business proposal template:

Can your business proposal template really be one page? Yes, as long as you understand who your buyer is and their pain points. You should also have the ability to communicate everything your ideal buyer needs to know about your business in a succinct manner.

Or if you’re feeling adventurous how about just two pages? Often, clients prefer if you go straight to the point and avoid all the fluff.

For example, this green modern marketing proposal template wastes no time in getting down to brass tacks:

Need more inspiration? Check out this blog on the 5 marketing proposal examples that’ll help elevate your business.

There is no one size fits all approach when it comes to deciding how many pages you should include in your business proposal template. And at the end of the day, “the only rules are the ones you set for yourself”.

At the end of the day, writing winning business proposals that sell is all about you understanding your buyer, their potential pain points and positioning yourself as someone who can alleviate those pain points. 

Now that you know how to write compelling business proposals, what are you waiting for?

Take action and start creating your own business proposals to close more deals and grow your business today!

More business communications templates + writing tips you might be interested in…

• 31 Consulting Proposal Templates to Close Deals
• 20+ Professional Business Letterhead Templates + Branding Tips
• How to Write a White Paper [Tips & Templates]

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GEB 6895: Integrated Business Applications

• Assignment: Business Plan - Textbook and Examples
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These resources will assist you as you complete your assignment of creating a business plan. Not all business plans are created equal, so be sure to look at various examples as well as pay attention to the direction that Professor Artis offers to make sure it meets your assignment parameters. 

• B-plans Free business plan examples.
• Business Insurance Small business insurance planning resource.
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The assignments in this course are openly licensed, and are available as-is, or can be modified to suit your students’ needs. Selected answer keys are available to faculty who adopt Waymaker, OHM, or Candela courses with paid support from Lumen Learning. This approach helps us protect the academic integrity of these materials by ensuring they are shared only with authorized and institution-affiliated faculty and staff.

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Sun City Boards Assignments and Discussions

Half of the written assignments and discussions are based on a case study, whose focus is a fictional high-end surfboard company, Sun City Boards, which is also highlighted in the Why It Matters and Putting it Together in Module 3: Planning and Mission. Many of these assignments take the form of asking students to give Tom, the company’s inexperienced owner, advice about how he can run his business more effectively. The Sun City Boards assignments create a common framework for applying knowledge and skills developed through the course, encouraging students to demonstrate mastery of the content through real-world tasks and work products.

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We recommend assigning one discussion OR one assignment per chapter, rather than all of them. Some instructors prefer to stick with the Sun City Boards theme throughout the course; others like to use some of the alternates along the way. You can view any assignments or discussions below or throughout the course.

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How To Write A Solid Assignment Introduction

By: Derek Jansen | December 2017

I’ll kick off this post by making a bold assertion:

The introduction chapter of your assignment is the single most important section in your entire assignment.

Yip. Not the analysis chapter. Not the recommendations chapter. The introduction chapter. Yip, that short 200/300/400-word chapter that so many students rush through to get to the meatier chapters.  Why do I say this? There are a few reasons:

It creates the first impression.

Apart from the executive summary (which some assignments don’t have), the introduction creates the very first impression on your marker. It sets the tone in terms of the quality of the assignment.

It introduces your industry.

You might have decades of experience in your industry – but your marker won’t. This means that the simplest concepts can be misunderstood (and thereby cost you marks) if not explained right at the beginning of your assignment. A good introduction lays the foundation so that the marker can understand your upcoming arguments.

It defines and justifies your topic.

The introduction, if developed correctly, clearly outlines what the assignment will be about (and what it won’t) and why that’s important (i.e. a justification). In other words, it makes it clear what the focus of the assignment will be about, and why that is worth investigating. This clarity and justification of the topic are essential to earning good marks and keeping you focused on the purpose of the assignment.

It clarifies your approach.

Beyond the what and why, a good introduction also briefly explains how you’ll approach the research, both from a theoretical and practical perspective. This lays a clear roadmap both for the marker and for yourself. For the marker, this improves the readability and digestibility of the document (which is essential for earning marks). And for you, this big-picture view of the approach keeps you from digressing into a useless analysis.

In short, a good introduction lays a solid foundation and a clear direction for the rest of your assignment. Hopefully, you’re convinced…

The 5 essential ingredients.

In this post, I’ll outline the key components of a strong introduction chapter/section. But first, I want to discuss the structure.

Some assignment briefs will provide a proposed structure which combines the introduction and analysis chapters. I always encourage my clients to split this up into two chapters, as it provides a clearer, more logical structure. You’ll see why once I discuss the core components.

#1 – The Four Ws

A logical starting point is to assume the marker knows nothing about your business . Make sure you cover the basics:

• Who – what is the name of the business? If its multiple words, you should take the opportunity to introduce an acronym here. Then, stick to the acronym throughout the rest of the assignment. It’s also good practice to provide a list of acronyms in the appendix.
• What – explain what the business does, in simple English. Avoid industry jargon and explain the basic operating model of the business.
• Where – explain where the business operates from and where its customers operate. If you have multiple offices and serve multiple markets, a visual representation can save you some words.
• When – mention the age of the business, and how many staff it employs. You can also note the ownership structure (private company, listed entity, JV, etc).

If you’re only going to focus on one country/branch/department, make mention of this now. Also, be sure to justify why you’re focusing on that (for example, due to limited access to data).

If done right, you will have now painted a very clear (but concise) picture of the organisation for the marker. The next step is to discuss the context that the business operates in.

#2 – A brief discussion of the context.

Now that you’ve introduced the business, you need to move towards identifying the key issue(s) that will form the focus of the assignment. To do this, you need to lay a context, which will then lead to the issue(s). This will vary between assignments, and could be something like:

• The entry of new competitors resulting in reduced market share (STR, SM)
• A merger leading to a culture clash and poor performance (MP)
• A corporate scandal resulting in reputation damage (R&R)
• Changing regulation leading to the opening of a new potential country market (IB)

In other words, you need to present a (brief) story of how the key issue(s) or opportunity has arisen – X has lead to Y, which caused Z.

#3 – Identification of the key issue and research question(s).

With the context set, you need to clearly state what the key issue(s) or opportunity is, and why this is worth investigating (for example, due to the financial impact if left unresolved). This is pretty straightforward, but it is a critical step often missed by students, and results in the marker questioning the quality of the entire assignment.

With the key issue identified, its time to lay out your research question(s). In other words, state in question format, what question(s) your assignment will seek to answer.

For example:

• “What has changed in Organisation X’s competitive context, and how should it best respond to ensure sustainable competitive advantage?”
• “Should Organisation X internationalise to Country Y?”
• “What segments exist within Industry X and which segment should Organisation Y target?”
• “Which digital business model should Organisation X adopt?”

By stating your research question(s) up front, you are providing a very clear, focused direction for your assignment, thereby reducing your risk of getting distracted by the shiny objects that will invariably pop up along the way. You are stating clearly what you will and won’t focus on, and ring-fencing the assignment to a manageable breadth. This is critically important for earning marks, as it allows you to go deep into a highly relevant set of theories and develop meaningful insights, rather than superficially fluttering with numerous less-relevant ones.

What’s critically important is that you achieve alignment between the context, the issue(s) and the research question(s). They should all flow in a logical fashion, as shown below. 

If you achieve this alignment, you have a rock-solid foundation for your assignment, and your marker will be crystal clear regarding your direction, and why you chose that direction.

#4 – A brief outline of your theoretical approach.

Now that you’ve made it clear what your assignment is aiming to achieve (i.e. what research question(s) it wants to answer), it is very good practice to briefly mention:

• How you will approach the analysis.
• What key theory you will draw on.

In other words, you should give the marker an indication of how you approached the analysis, and on what theoretical basis. For example:

“The report begins by briefly looking at the organisation’s broader strategy, as well as values using Schwartz’s model (1994). It then reviews stakeholders using Mitchell et al.’s framework (1997) and identifies a key group with which reputation needs to be managed to achieve strategic alignment. It then analyses antecedents, reputation, and outcomes of the said group using Money et al.’s (2012) RELATE framework. This is followed by proposed strategic actions.”

As you can see, this excerpt clearly outlines how the analysis was approached, and what key theory was used in the relevant sections. This gives the marker a big-picture view of the assignment, which aids the digestibility of the document.

#5 – A brief outline of your fieldwork.

Now that you’ve communicated the approach, structure and underpinning theory, it’s best practice to make a quick mention of your fieldwork. Yes, you’re typically supposed to collect some primary data (for example, undertake some semi-structured interviews or a survey), as well as secondary data (for example, review industry reports, company data, etc), for your assignments – especially in Stage 2 and 3 of the program. 

In this final section, you should very briefly outline what you did in this respect so that the marker can rest assured that your assignment is not an opinion piece. A quality assignment draws on multiple data sources to make well-informed, data-backed arguments. Show that you’ve done this, and be sure to refer the reader to the appendices for evidence of this work (for example, interview transcripts, survey results, etc.).

Lastly, make mention of your relationship with the business, and your broad responsibilities. Remember to keep this in third-person language. For example:

“The author is employed as the [INSERT YOUR TITLE] and is responsible for X, Y and Z.”

Let’s recap.

In this article, I’ve hopefully convinced you of the critical importance of writing a strong introduction chapter. I’ve also presented 5 essential ingredients that you should bake into your intro in every assignment. By incorporating these ingredients (ideally, in this order), you will set the foundation for a strong assignment.

To recap the 5 essentials:

• A (plain language) explanation of the organisation.
• A brief discussion of the context.
• Identification of the key issue and research question(s).
• A brief outline of your theoretical approach.
• A brief outline of your fieldwork and your professional position.

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Informative and easy to apply advice…tx D

You’re welcome, Rishen 🙂

It is a very useful and understandable explanation of writing a research paper. Thank you so much for the sharing free such a useful example.

Yours sincerely Tara

This is really good, thank you.

Thanks for the feedback, Paul. Best of luck with your Henley MBA.

Very useful guide for the MBA. You mention that it’s good practice to use a range of sources to support arguments. If an assignment task isn’t that strategic (e.g. reviewing a process for a particular team within the business), can the assignment be supported purely by ‘fieldwork’ and models/theory? Thank you.

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10 Tips To Write A Good Business Management Assignment

• The Pinnacle List

Do you feel the pressure of a business assignment? Are you looking for quick business management assignment help ? This is a common problem faced by all students. You have been assigned to write a business management paper but you just don’t know where to begin or what points to include in your work. In this case, follow these simple tips to get started on your writing project.

1. Choose a Good Topic

If you are looking for ideas, start from home. Look at what interests you and think about how it will apply to the course content. If nothing comes out, look at the syllabus and find two things that interest you most. If you still don’t see anything interesting, ask your teacher what topics should be covered in your class during this semester before going back to your notes and class discussions.

2. Review Expectations of Your Professor

Review the instructions of your assignment sheet carefully. The lecturer may also give you some hints on what topics should be included. Make sure that you fully understand all requirements before starting writing.

Sometimes, deciding on the topic gets easy when you read the assignment guidelines over and over again. There could be a few hints that you can discover by carefully going through the set of instructions.

3. Assess Information Sources

To ensure the validity of information, always check out the source of data. Ask yourself questions like: 

• Who made this?
• Where did this come from?
• When was it published?
• Why do they know this information and I don’t?
• How many reported errors occurred in this study? 

To determine reliability, look at who created the source, how long ago it was created, and where it is located.

4. Collect All Resources Before Writing

The easiest way to start your writing project is to collect everything you need. Print out the information and add any links to websites so that they can be easily accessed while researching or writing. You don’t want to lose anything by having only a hard copy at hand, especially if it’s an online link.

5. Write an Outline Before Starting Work

An outline helps you better and faster organize your thoughts and ideas in order of priority and importance, helping you solve problems quickly while working on your business assignment.

If you have no idea where to start, try this method: Take a blank sheet of paper and draw three columns, labeling them “Problem,” “Action” and “Result.” In the top section, write down three or more problems that you have encountered in your work, a problem with a product, a situation requiring a solution, and so on. 

The bottom section will contain actions taken to resolve these issues. This allows you to make sure that all solutions were implemented correctly and completely.

6. Collect Sources of Information

This is an important step when preparing to write your assignment because it gives you an idea of ​​what points should be covered in your article. For example, if you need to discuss how Starbucks uses social media tools, then find articles about other companies that have used something similar.

Do not forget to also spend time reading other topics from the syllabus before writing a scientific article.

7. Spend Time Reading the Materials You’ve Collected

Don’t immediately start writing when you finish your homework; read everything carefully before you write anything to make sure that all information is correct and relevant. This will also give you an idea of ​​what points should be included in your assignment.

8. Summarize Areas Requiring Research

Before starting, summarize what has already been done on the topic so that later you can use this information for reference material. For example, if you have to do something about how Facebook is used by companies, then do not forget to mention previous studies on the subject during your presentation. 

If there are none, however, say this at the beginning of your work so that the reader will not expect to see something new under the sun.

9. Set A Writing Schedule and Follow It

The main trick to keeping yourself on track, when you are working on an assignment or anything else, is to set up a schedule and adhere to it as much as possible. 

It’s easy for things like reading news sites, playing games, and other leisure activities to take over your time if you do not plan them ahead of time. 

Schedule your research and writing tasks depending on how long they usually take; this way it will be easier to organize your work time efforts.

10. Read Everything You’ve Written Before Submitting

This is one of the most important steps in writing because even the most experienced writers, editors, or proofreaders can miss something when they write content. 

To avoid this mistake, especially when you are in a hurry to complete your work, always check what you have written before sending it to the teacher. If possible, ask one of your good friends or family members to review the document for you. They might be able to pinpoint errors that you couldn’t detect even after checking the paper time and again.

Conclusion 

Finalizing details of an academic project is one of the most time-consuming tasks that students face during the course. However, it’s worth considering that not all assignment proposals produce high-quality results because some students do not know how to write them well. If you want good grades, make sure your proposal satisfies all requirements of your tutor. Try to adhere to all the guidelines and follow writing standards.

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4 Examples of Business Analytics in Action

• 15 Jan 2019

Data is a valuable resource in today’s ever-changing marketplace. For business professionals, knowing how to interpret and communicate data is an indispensable skill that can inform sound decision-making.

“The ability to bring data-driven insights into decision-making is extremely powerful—all the more so given all the companies that can’t hire enough people who have these capabilities,” says Harvard Business School Professor Jan Hammond , who teaches the online course Business Analytics . “It’s the way the world is going.”

Before taking a look at how some companies are harnessing the power of data, it’s important to have a baseline understanding of what the term “business analytics” means.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Business Analytics?

Business analytics is the use of math and statistics to collect, analyze, and interpret data to make better business decisions.

There are four key types of business analytics: descriptive, predictive, diagnostic, and prescriptive. Descriptive analytics is the interpretation of historical data to identify trends and patterns, while predictive analytics centers on taking that information and using it to forecast future outcomes. Diagnostic analytics can be used to identify the root cause of a problem. In the case of prescriptive analytics , testing and other techniques are employed to determine which outcome will yield the best result in a given scenario.

Related : 4 Types of Data Analytics to Improve Decision-Making

Across industries, these data-driven approaches have been employed by professionals to make informed business decisions and attain organizational success.

Check out the video below to learn more about business analytics, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

Business Analytics vs. Data Science

It’s important to highlight the difference between business analytics and data science . While both processes use big data to solve business problems they’re separate fields.

The main goal of business analytics is to extract meaningful insights from data to guide organizational decisions, while data science is focused on turning raw data into meaningful conclusions through using algorithms and statistical models. Business analysts participate in tasks such as budgeting, forecasting, and product development, while data scientists focus on data wrangling , programming, and statistical modeling.

While they consist of different functions and processes, business analytics and data science are both vital to today’s organizations. Here are four examples of how organizations are using business analytics to their benefit.

Business Analytics Examples

According to a recent survey by McKinsey , an increasing share of organizations report using analytics to generate growth. Here’s a look at how four companies are aligning with that trend and applying data insights to their decision-making processes.

1. Improving Productivity and Collaboration at Microsoft

At technology giant Microsoft , collaboration is key to a productive, innovative work environment. Following a 2015 move of its engineering group's offices, the company sought to understand how fostering face-to-face interactions among staff could boost employee performance and save money.

Microsoft’s Workplace Analytics team hypothesized that moving the 1,200-person group from five buildings to four could improve collaboration by increasing the number of employees per building and reducing the distance that staff needed to travel for meetings. This assumption was partially based on an earlier study by Microsoft , which found that people are more likely to collaborate when they’re more closely located to one another.

In an article for the Harvard Business Review , the company’s analytics team shared the outcomes they observed as a result of the relocation. Through looking at metadata attached to employee calendars, the team found that the move resulted in a 46 percent decrease in meeting travel time. This translated into a combined 100 hours saved per week across all relocated staff members and an estimated savings of $520,000 per year in employee time.

The results also showed that teams were meeting more often due to being in closer proximity, with the average number of weekly meetings per person increasing from 14 to 18. In addition, the average duration of meetings slightly declined, from 0.85 hours to 0.77 hours. These findings signaled that the relocation both improved collaboration among employees and increased operational efficiency.

For Microsoft, the insights gleaned from this analysis underscored the importance of in-person interactions and helped the company understand how thoughtful planning of employee workspaces could lead to significant time and cost savings.

2. Enhancing Customer Support at Uber

Ensuring a quality user experience is a top priority for ride-hailing company Uber. To streamline its customer service capabilities, the company developed a Customer Obsession Ticket Assistant (COTA) in early 2018—a tool that uses machine learning and natural language processing to help agents improve their speed and accuracy when responding to support tickets.

COTA’s implementation delivered positive results. The tool reduced ticket resolution time by 10 percent, and its success prompted the Uber Engineering team to explore how it could be improved.

For the second iteration of the product, COTA v2, the team focused on integrating a deep learning architecture that could scale as the company grew. Before rolling out the update, Uber turned to A/B testing —a method of comparing the outcomes of two different choices (in this case, COTA v1 and COTA v2)—to validate the upgraded tool’s performance.

Preceding the A/B test was an A/A test, during which both a control group and a treatment group used the first version of COTA for one week. The treatment group was then given access to COTA v2 to kick off the A/B testing phase, which lasted for one month.

At the conclusion of testing, it was found that there was a nearly seven percent relative reduction in average handle time per ticket for the treatment group during the A/B phase, indicating that the use of COTA v2 led to faster service and more accurate resolution recommendations. The results also showed that customer satisfaction scores slightly improved as a result of using COTA v2.

With the use of A/B testing, Uber determined that implementing COTA v2 would not only improve customer service, but save millions of dollars by streamlining its ticket resolution process.

Related : How to Analyze a Dataset: 6 Steps

3. Forecasting Orders and Recipes at Blue Apron

For meal kit delivery service Blue Apron, understanding customer behavior and preferences is vitally important to its success. Each week, the company presents subscribers with a fixed menu of meals available for purchase and employs predictive analytics to forecast demand , with the aim of using data to avoid product spoilage and fulfill orders.

To arrive at these predictions, Blue Apron uses algorithms that take several variables into account, which typically fall into three categories: customer-related features, recipe-related features, and seasonality features. Customer-related features describe historical data that depicts a given user’s order frequency, while recipe-related features focus on a subscriber’s past recipe preferences, allowing the company to infer which upcoming meals they’re likely to order. In the case of seasonality features, purchasing patterns are examined to determine when order rates may be higher or lower, depending on the time of year.

Through regression analysis—a statistical method used to examine the relationship between variables—Blue Apron’s engineering team has successfully measured the precision of its forecasting models. The team reports that, overall, the root-mean-square error—the difference between predicted and observed values—of their projection of future orders is consistently less than six percent, indicating a high level of forecasting accuracy.

By employing predictive analytics to better understand customers, Blue Apron has improved its user experience, identified how subscriber tastes change over time, and recognized how shifting preferences are impacted by recipe offerings.

Related : 5 Business Analytics Skills for Professionals

4. Targeting Consumers at PepsiCo

Consumers are crucial to the success of multinational food and beverage company PepsiCo. The company supplies retailers in more than 200 countries worldwide , serving a billion customers every day. To ensure the right quantities and types of products are available to consumers in certain locations, PepsiCo uses big data and predictive analytics.

PepsiCo created a cloud-based data and analytics platform called Pep Worx to make more informed decisions regarding product merchandising. With Pep Worx, the company identifies shoppers in the United States who are likely to be highly interested in a specific PepsiCo brand or product.

For example, Pep Worx enabled PepsiCo to distinguish 24 million households from its dataset of 110 million US households that would be most likely to be interested in Quaker Overnight Oats. The company then identified specific retailers that these households might shop at and targeted their unique audiences. Ultimately, these customers drove 80 percent of the product’s sales growth in its first 12 months after launch.

PepsiCo’s analysis of consumer data is a prime example of how data-driven decision-making can help today’s organizations maximize profits.

Developing a Data Mindset

As these companies illustrate, analytics can be a powerful tool for organizations seeking to grow and improve their services and operations. At the individual level, a deep understanding of data can not only lead to better decision-making, but career advancement and recognition in the workplace.

“Using data analytics is a very effective way to have influence in an organization,” Hammond says . “If you’re able to go into a meeting, and other people have opinions, but you have data to support your arguments and your recommendations, you’re going to be influential.”

Do you want to leverage the power of data within your organization? Explore Business Analytics —one of our online business essentials courses —to learn how to use data analysis to solve business problems.

This post was updated on March 24, 2023. It was originally published on January 15, 2019.

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Examples of Role Mappings

You must provision roles to users either automatically or manually. This topic provides some examples of typical role mappings to support automatic and manual role provisioning.

Creating a Role Mapping for Employees

All employees must have the Employee role automatically from their hire dates. In addition, the few employees who claim expenses must request the Expenses Reporting data role.

You create a role mapping called All Employees and enter the conditions shown in this table.

In the role mapping you include the:

Employee role, and select the Autoprovision option

Expenses Reporting role, and select the Self-requestable option

Creating a Role Mapping for Line Managers

Any type of worker can be a line manager in the sales business unit. You create a role mapping called Line Manager Sales BU and enter the conditions shown in this table.

You include the Line Manager role and select the Autoprovision option. Any worker with at least one assignment that matches the role-mapping conditions acquires the role automatically.

In the same role mapping, you can include roles that line managers can:

Provision manually to other users.

You select the Requestable option for these roles.

Request for themselves.

You select the Self-requestable option for these roles.

Creating a Role Mapping for Retirees

Retired workers have system access to manage their retirement accounts. You create a role mapping called All Retirees and enter the conditions shown in this table.

You include the custom role Retiree in the role mapping and select the Autoprovision option. When at least one of a worker's assignments satisfies the role-mapping conditions, he or she acquires the role automatically.