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How to write a 10 year plan (with examples) and reach your goals

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What’s a 10 year plan?

Creating personal and professional goals, setting smart goals.

Example goals for a 10 year plan

How to create a 10 year plan

Set yourself up for success.

You’ve probably heard this question in a job interview : “Where do you see yourself in five years?” 

If you came prepared, you probably answered with a quick overview of your professional 5 year plan . But if an interviewer asks about a 10 year plan, you might feel put on the spot. Whether you’re just starting your career path or eager to plan for an extreme life change, 10 years seems like a long time — and it is.

But having goals for the next decade will help you create a 1 year, 3 year, or 5 year plan to build the future you want. Here’s how to start visualizing your long-term goals and turn that vision into an actionable 10 year plan, with examples to inspire you .

A 10 year plan is an outline of the tasks or milestones you need to accomplish to meet your goals for the next decade. It combines your short-term and long-term objectives to create an achievable but exciting life plan. 

If you dream of becoming a doctor, “become a doctor” would be your long-term goal. You need to get into med school first — a short-term goal. Actions like studying for the MCAT and applying to schools would be part of the 10 year plan that helps you achieve both your short- and long-term goals .

But your career isn’t the only thing that you can plan for. Say you want to buy a home within the next 10 years. Homeownership is a goal within your plan. Saving, investing, and building credit would be part of the plan that makes that goal a reality. 

A 10 year plan can be whatever you want it to be, whether it concerns your personal life (get married, write a memoir) or your professional goals (start a successful business, become a supervisor). The only rules are that it has to take place over 10 years and contain smaller steps to help you reach goals in the long term.

You’re more than your career. And you’re more than your relationships, your bank account, and the home you live in. But they work together to help you be the person you want to be, living the life you want to live — and you can represent them all in your 10 year plan.

To start creating a realistic plan, divide your 10 year goals into the categories they relate to. You can create as many as you want, but here are the most common categories and what they might include:

Personal and relationship goals

Even if you’re just daydreaming, you probably have some ideas about what your personal life might look like a decade from now. Maybe you want to start a family or volunteer in the community regularly. Start brainstorming a list that matches your vision of the future life you want.

Professional goals

Ask yourself what it would take for you to feel professionally fulfilled. Maybe it’s as straightforward as finding a job at a certain company, or as bold as joining the C-suite at your current job. A lot can happen in your career in 10 years, so this is your chance to dream big. You might even take the leap and start working for yourself as a freelancer or entrepreneur.

Financial goals

Financial wellness can play a huge role in your overall well-being. In 2022, 66% of Americans said money was a significant source of stress in their lives , and creating (and hitting) financial goals can help reduce this stress. If you won’t be satisfied until your credit score is in the 800s and your emergency fund can carry you for a year, add those to the list. 

Learning goals

Some skills take time to comprehend, like learning a new language or complicated software, which is why they should be part of your 10 year plan. No matter how many diplomas hang on your office wall, your life will be richer if you make learning something new a lifelong goal. Even if it’s just for fun, write it down. 

Fitness goals

Your long-term fitness goals can be as simple or lofty as you want them to be. Just make sure the goals you set are realistic . Give yourself something to work toward without setting yourself up for failure. Running a marathon in the next 10 years is achievable, but you need to find a place to start and create a realistic training routine.

Only 19% of people follow their New Year’s resolutions over two years . That’s because they often set goals that aren’t realistic in the long term. It takes willpower and dedication to follow a 10 year plan and meet the milestones you set, but it also takes a planning process that considers attainability.

You can use the SMART goal framework for any type of goal to create the most realistic pathway for you. Here’s what SMART stands for:

Specific: The goal is specific and leaves no room for confusion

Measurable: The goal is something you can make measurable progress toward

Attainable: The goal is something you can realistically achieve

Relevant: The goal is relevant to the values, dreams, and ambitions that matter to you

Time-bound: The goal isn’t open-ended, and you can put a target completion date on it

Some of the ideas you have for your 10 year plan might not be SMART right away. But with these broader goals in mind, you’ll be able to set short-term SMART goals that bring your 10 year vision into focus.

What makes a goal attainable?

Every letter in SMART plays its own role, but the “A” for “attainable” is especially important to note. It’s about setting goals you can actually achieve — but that doesn’t mean they need to be easy. They just need to be in your control.

Winning the lottery, for example, isn’t an attainable goal. Saying you want it and using up your budget won’t make it a reality. Winning the jackpot will always be outside of your control.

Becoming a doctor, on the other hand, might be attainable, even if it seems far away. How realistic this goal is depends on a variety of factors, like what you studied in college and how much time and money you have to go to grad school . But there are actionable steps you can take to make it happen. 

According to a study in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, specific and difficult goals lead to better performance . If every goal you set is easy to complete, you won’t perform to your highest potential. Personal development comes from pushing yourself and leaving your comfort zone . Be realistic, but give yourself a challenge, and don’t be afraid to take risks . 

Example goals for a 10 year plan 

A 10 year plan is personal. It’s about you, the people you’re close to, and your personal values , which makes it harder to ask for advice on what your goals should be. But here are some 10 year goal examples to inspire you and give you a sense of what a plan could include:

• Get promoted: Earning a promotion can happen in much less than 10 years, but if you set your sights on a high-level position, the process can take a long time. You need to start from the bottom, prove your worth, and slowly move up the ladder.

Build a tiny home: You’ll first need to decide where and what you want to build. Materials cost money, so start creating a budget and saving up. If you choose to build on your own, you’ll also need to learn construction skills, so make a plan for adding that knowledge to your tool belt.

Move to Europe: Moving abroad doesn’t just require strong finances. You’ll need to decide where you want to go and why. And you’ll likely need a visa, whether it’s for work, study, or residency. Your 10 year plan should include saving up, finding jobs, and starting to create a network abroad.

Join a rowing team: If you’re looking to join a high-level team, you may need to spend some time working on strength and conditioning. If you’re not a strong swimmer, taking lessons and joining a gym with a pool will help get you closer to your goal over a few years.

Reduce blood sugar: To accomplish this goal, you may need to make some big shifts to your diet. And if exercise isn’t already part of your day-to-day, you’ll want to work on making it a habit. A decade is more than enough time to find consistent routines that work for you.

Pay off student loans: You can keep paying the minimum amount on your student loans forever, but if you want them gone within 10 years, you’ll need a plan. Maybe you need to refinance your loan or adjust your payment plan . Do your research and create a realistic budget.

Learn a new language: If you want to become fluent in another language, you might want to consider spending six months or a year in another country. That’s a plan for the future, but for now, you can look into enrolling in language classes.

Once you decide what your goal is, start mapping out a clear year-by-year plan. Remember that it’ll probably change if you go along. If you find something unachievable, find ways around it, and be kind to yourself. 

Here’s what a 10-year plan might look like for someone who’s trying to get a job as a senior project manager:

Year 1: Start applying for master’s degrees and scholarships

Year 2: Get into a program and start studying in September

Year 3: Graduate and network with peers

Year 4: Find an internship working under a project manager

Year 5: Land an entry-level role

Year 6: Thrive on the job and take extra courses to close skill gaps

Year 7: Get promoted to a project management position

Year 8: Attend networking events and go the extra mile at work

Year 9: Continue working hard, letting senior team members know you’re interested in a larger role

Year 10: Land a senior project manager position

You don’t have to create goals for every aspect of your life all at once. Goal-setting can take place over the course of a week, a month, or even several months. And it’s important to remember that goals can (and will) change, especially when they cover a period as long as 10 years.

Your big-picture goals — the things you want to achieve over the next decade — are likely vague. Things like “learn a foreign language” and “have a happy family life” are just a starting point. You’ll work backward from there to create a plan you can act on. Here’s how to break it down:

1. Define your long-term goals

If professional development is your current top priority, start with your long-term career goals. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit , maybe being your own boss is part of your vision. At this stage, your long-term objectives can be as grand as you want, as long as you can break them down into steps.

2. Start researching

Start with research, both internal and external. If owning a business is your main goal but you’re not sure what exactly you want to do, think about your skills and what kind of small business those skills would be suited for. Find people whose career paths you want to emulate and start learning from them.

3. Start planning

Keep working your way backward from your long-term goal until you find your first steps. If getting a business degree will help you find a better job now while preparing you to start your own company, figure out a realistic timeline. How long would a degree take you to complete? When would you like to start?

In this example, your 10 year goal is to own a business. But you need yearly goals to get you there. Your 1 year plan might include enrolling in a GMAT prep class and taking the test. Your 2 year plan might include applying to schools. Your 5 year plan might include completing your MBA, and so on.

4. Get support from your community

There’s one incredibly valuable resource to keep in mind: other people. As you work to create a life plan for the future you, turn to the friends, family, and mentors you trust for support. Connect with wellness experts to achieve your fitness goals. Make professional moves with a career coach by your side. 

The most important thing to remember is that you’re never alone in achieving your goals. No matter where you are in life, you’ll have people cheering you on. And in 10 years, you can pay it forward, share your wisdom, and inspire others .

These 10 year plan examples are just that — examples. The vision you create for your future will look different than anyone else’s. But with research, hard work, and support from your community, you’ll learn and grow. And whether you achieve all your goals or not, working for them will give you a sense of accomplishment.

Invest in your career

Get your promotion. Make your career change. Build the future you dream about. And do it faster with a world-class BetterUp Coach by your side.

Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

22 workplace goals examples to strive for

How to set short-term professional goals, 15 career goals examples to inspire you to set your own, 9 meaningful life goals to pursue for long-term fulfillment, a goal for each part of your life: 13 types of goals that you need to set, emotional goals: 20 examples and how to reach them, how to make an action plan to achieve your goals and follow it, what 401(k) employer match is and how it works, 10 wellness goals to boost your overall health, similar articles, personal goals that work: 20 examples to get started, how to excel at life planning (a life planning template), long-term versus short-term goals: use both to succeed, how to set realistic goals: 11 tips to reach the clouds with your feet on the ground, going somewhere write the 5-year plan you need to achieve it, the 3 year plan: build a roadmap to success, it’s time for a fresh start: how to embrace new beginnings at 50, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Simple Business Plan

By Joe Weller | October 11, 2021

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A business plan is the cornerstone of any successful company, regardless of size or industry. This step-by-step guide provides information on writing a business plan for organizations at any stage, complete with free templates and expert advice. 

Included on this page, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to writing a business plan and a chart to identify which type of business plan you should write . Plus, find information on how a business plan can help grow a business and expert tips on writing one .

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that communicates a company’s goals and ambitions, along with the timeline, finances, and methods needed to achieve them. Additionally, it may include a mission statement and details about the specific products or services offered.

A business plan can highlight varying time periods, depending on the stage of your company and its goals. That said, a typical business plan will include the following benchmarks:

• Product goals and deadlines for each month
• Monthly financials for the first two years
• Profit and loss statements for the first three to five years
• Balance sheet projections for the first three to five years

Startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses all create business plans to use as a guide as their new company progresses. Larger organizations may also create (and update) a business plan to keep high-level goals, financials, and timelines in check.

While you certainly need to have a formalized outline of your business’s goals and finances, creating a business plan can also help you determine a company’s viability, its profitability (including when it will first turn a profit), and how much money you will need from investors. In turn, a business plan has functional value as well: Not only does outlining goals help keep you accountable on a timeline, it can also attract investors in and of itself and, therefore, act as an effective strategy for growth.

For more information, visit our comprehensive guide to writing a strategic plan or download free strategic plan templates . This page focuses on for-profit business plans, but you can read our article with nonprofit business plan templates .

Business Plan Steps

The specific information in your business plan will vary, depending on the needs and goals of your venture, but a typical plan includes the following ordered elements:

• Executive summary
• Description of business
• Market analysis
• Competitive analysis
• Description of organizational management
• Description of product or services
• Marketing plan
• Sales strategy
• Funding details (or request for funding)
• Financial projections

If your plan is particularly long or complicated, consider adding a table of contents or an appendix for reference. For an in-depth description of each step listed above, read “ How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step ” below.

Broadly speaking, your audience includes anyone with a vested interest in your organization. They can include potential and existing investors, as well as customers, internal team members, suppliers, and vendors.

Do I Need a Simple or Detailed Plan?

Your business’s stage and intended audience dictates the level of detail your plan needs. Corporations require a thorough business plan — up to 100 pages. Small businesses or startups should have a concise plan focusing on financials and strategy.

How to Choose the Right Plan for Your Business

In order to identify which type of business plan you need to create, ask: “What do we want the plan to do?” Identify function first, and form will follow.

Use the chart below as a guide for what type of business plan to create:

Is the Order of Your Business Plan Important?

There is no set order for a business plan, with the exception of the executive summary, which should always come first. Beyond that, simply ensure that you organize the plan in a way that makes sense and flows naturally.

The Difference Between Traditional and Lean Business Plans

A traditional business plan follows the standard structure — because these plans encourage detail, they tend to require more work upfront and can run dozens of pages. A Lean business plan is less common and focuses on summarizing critical points for each section. These plans take much less work and typically run one page in length.

In general, you should use a traditional model for a legacy company, a large company, or any business that does not adhere to Lean (or another Agile method ). Use Lean if you expect the company to pivot quickly or if you already employ a Lean strategy with other business operations. Additionally, a Lean business plan can suffice if the document is for internal use only. Stick to a traditional version for investors, as they may be more sensitive to sudden changes or a high degree of built-in flexibility in the plan.

How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step

Writing a strong business plan requires research and attention to detail for each section. Below, you’ll find a 10-step guide to researching and defining each element in the plan.

Step 1: Executive Summary

The executive summary will always be the first section of your business plan. The goal is to answer the following questions:

• What is the vision and mission of the company?
• What are the company’s short- and long-term goals?

See our  roundup of executive summary examples and templates for samples. Read our executive summary guide to learn more about writing one.

Step 2: Description of Business

The goal of this section is to define the realm, scope, and intent of your venture. To do so, answer the following questions as clearly and concisely as possible:

• What business are we in?
• What does our business do?

Step 3: Market Analysis

In this section, provide evidence that you have surveyed and understand the current marketplace, and that your product or service satisfies a niche in the market. To do so, answer these questions:

• Who is our customer? 
• What does that customer value?

Step 4: Competitive Analysis

In many cases, a business plan proposes not a brand-new (or even market-disrupting) venture, but a more competitive version — whether via features, pricing, integrations, etc. — than what is currently available. In this section, answer the following questions to show that your product or service stands to outpace competitors:

• Who is the competition? 
• What do they do best? 
• What is our unique value proposition?

Step 5: Description of Organizational Management

In this section, write an overview of the team members and other key personnel who are integral to success. List roles and responsibilities, and if possible, note the hierarchy or team structure.

Step 6: Description of Products or Services

In this section, clearly define your product or service, as well as all the effort and resources that go into producing it. The strength of your product largely defines the success of your business, so it’s imperative that you take time to test and refine the product before launching into marketing, sales, or funding details.

Questions to answer in this section are as follows:

• What is the product or service?
• How do we produce it, and what resources are necessary for production?

Step 7: Marketing Plan

In this section, define the marketing strategy for your product or service. This doesn’t need to be as fleshed out as a full marketing plan , but it should answer basic questions, such as the following:

• Who is the target market (if different from existing customer base)?
• What channels will you use to reach your target market?
• What resources does your marketing strategy require, and do you have access to them?
• If possible, do you have a rough estimate of timeline and budget?
• How will you measure success?

Step 8: Sales Plan

Write an overview of the sales strategy, including the priorities of each cycle, steps to achieve these goals, and metrics for success. For the purposes of a business plan, this section does not need to be a comprehensive, in-depth sales plan , but can simply outline the high-level objectives and strategies of your sales efforts. 

Start by answering the following questions:

• What is the sales strategy?
• What are the tools and tactics you will use to achieve your goals?
• What are the potential obstacles, and how will you overcome them?
• What is the timeline for sales and turning a profit?
• What are the metrics of success?

Step 9: Funding Details (or Request for Funding)

This section is one of the most critical parts of your business plan, particularly if you are sharing it with investors. You do not need to provide a full financial plan, but you should be able to answer the following questions:

• How much capital do you currently have? How much capital do you need?
• How will you grow the team (onboarding, team structure, training and development)?
• What are your physical needs and constraints (space, equipment, etc.)?

Step 10: Financial Projections

Apart from the fundraising analysis, investors like to see thought-out financial projections for the future. As discussed earlier, depending on the scope and stage of your business, this could be anywhere from one to five years. 

While these projections won’t be exact — and will need to be somewhat flexible — you should be able to gauge the following:

• How and when will the company first generate a profit?
• How will the company maintain profit thereafter?

Business Plan Template

Download Business Plan Template

Microsoft Excel | Smartsheet

This basic business plan template has space for all the traditional elements: an executive summary, product or service details, target audience, marketing and sales strategies, etc. In the finances sections, input your baseline numbers, and the template will automatically calculate projections for sales forecasting, financial statements, and more.

For templates tailored to more specific needs, visit this business plan template roundup or download a fill-in-the-blank business plan template to make things easy. 

If you are looking for a particular template by file type, visit our pages dedicated exclusively to Microsoft Excel , Microsoft Word , and Adobe PDF business plan templates.

How to Write a Simple Business Plan

A simple business plan is a streamlined, lightweight version of the large, traditional model. As opposed to a one-page business plan , which communicates high-level information for quick overviews (such as a stakeholder presentation), a simple business plan can exceed one page.

Below are the steps for creating a generic simple business plan, which are reflected in the template below .

• Write the Executive Summary This section is the same as in the traditional business plan — simply offer an overview of what’s in the business plan, the prospect or core offering, and the short- and long-term goals of the company. 
• Add a Company Overview Document the larger company mission and vision. 
• Provide the Problem and Solution In straightforward terms, define the problem you are attempting to solve with your product or service and how your company will attempt to do it. Think of this section as the gap in the market you are attempting to close.
• Identify the Target Market Who is your company (and its products or services) attempting to reach? If possible, briefly define your buyer personas .
• Write About the Competition In this section, demonstrate your knowledge of the market by listing the current competitors and outlining your competitive advantage.
• Describe Your Product or Service Offerings Get down to brass tacks and define your product or service. What exactly are you selling?
• Outline Your Marketing Tactics Without getting into too much detail, describe your planned marketing initiatives.
• Add a Timeline and the Metrics You Will Use to Measure Success Offer a rough timeline, including milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs) that you will use to measure your progress.
• Include Your Financial Forecasts Write an overview of your financial plan that demonstrates you have done your research and adequate modeling. You can also list key assumptions that go into this forecasting. 
• Identify Your Financing Needs This section is where you will make your funding request. Based on everything in the business plan, list your proposed sources of funding, as well as how you will use it.

Simple Business Plan Template

Download Simple Business Plan Template

Microsoft Excel |  Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF  | Smartsheet

Use this simple business plan template to outline each aspect of your organization, including information about financing and opportunities to seek out further funding. This template is completely customizable to fit the needs of any business, whether it’s a startup or large company.

Read our article offering free simple business plan templates or free 30-60-90-day business plan templates to find more tailored options. You can also explore our collection of one page business templates . 

How to Write a Business Plan for a Lean Startup

A Lean startup business plan is a more Agile approach to a traditional version. The plan focuses more on activities, processes, and relationships (and maintains flexibility in all aspects), rather than on concrete deliverables and timelines.

While there is some overlap between a traditional and a Lean business plan, you can write a Lean plan by following the steps below:

• Add Your Value Proposition Take a streamlined approach to describing your product or service. What is the unique value your startup aims to deliver to customers? Make sure the team is aligned on the core offering and that you can state it in clear, simple language.
• List Your Key Partners List any other businesses you will work with to realize your vision, including external vendors, suppliers, and partners. This section demonstrates that you have thoughtfully considered the resources you can provide internally, identified areas for external assistance, and conducted research to find alternatives.
• Note the Key Activities Describe the key activities of your business, including sourcing, production, marketing, distribution channels, and customer relationships.
• Include Your Key Resources List the critical resources — including personnel, equipment, space, and intellectual property — that will enable you to deliver your unique value.
• Identify Your Customer Relationships and Channels In this section, document how you will reach and build relationships with customers. Provide a high-level map of the customer experience from start to finish, including the spaces in which you will interact with the customer (online, retail, etc.). 
• Detail Your Marketing Channels Describe the marketing methods and communication platforms you will use to identify and nurture your relationships with customers. These could be email, advertising, social media, etc.
• Explain the Cost Structure This section is especially necessary in the early stages of a business. Will you prioritize maximizing value or keeping costs low? List the foundational startup costs and how you will move toward profit over time.
• Share Your Revenue Streams Over time, how will the company make money? Include both the direct product or service purchase, as well as secondary sources of revenue, such as subscriptions, selling advertising space, fundraising, etc.

Lean Business Plan Template for Startups

Download Lean Business Plan Template for Startups

Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF

Startup leaders can use this Lean business plan template to relay the most critical information from a traditional plan. You’ll find all the sections listed above, including spaces for industry and product overviews, cost structure and sources of revenue, and key metrics, and a timeline. The template is completely customizable, so you can edit it to suit the objectives of your Lean startups.

See our wide variety of  startup business plan templates for more options.

How to Write a Business Plan for a Loan

A business plan for a loan, often called a loan proposal , includes many of the same aspects of a traditional business plan, as well as additional financial documents, such as a credit history, a loan request, and a loan repayment plan.

In addition, you may be asked to include personal and business financial statements, a form of collateral, and equity investment information.

Download free financial templates to support your business plan.

Tips for Writing a Business Plan

Outside of including all the key details in your business plan, you have several options to elevate the document for the highest chance of winning funding and other resources. Follow these tips from experts:.

• Keep It Simple: Avner Brodsky , the Co-Founder and CEO of Lezgo Limited, an online marketing company, uses the acronym KISS (keep it short and simple) as a variation on this idea. “The business plan is not a college thesis,” he says. “Just focus on providing the essential information.”
• Do Adequate Research: Michael Dean, the Co-Founder of Pool Research , encourages business leaders to “invest time in research, both internal and external (market, finance, legal etc.). Avoid being overly ambitious or presumptive. Instead, keep everything objective, balanced, and accurate.” Your plan needs to stand on its own, and you must have the data to back up any claims or forecasting you make. As Brodsky explains, “Your business needs to be grounded on the realities of the market in your chosen location. Get the most recent data from authoritative sources so that the figures are vetted by experts and are reliable.”
• Set Clear Goals: Make sure your plan includes clear, time-based goals. “Short-term goals are key to momentum growth and are especially important to identify for new businesses,” advises Dean.
• Know (and Address) Your Weaknesses: “This awareness sets you up to overcome your weak points much quicker than waiting for them to arise,” shares Dean. Brodsky recommends performing a full SWOT analysis to identify your weaknesses, too. “Your business will fare better with self-knowledge, which will help you better define the mission of your business, as well as the strategies you will choose to achieve your objectives,” he adds.
• Seek Peer or Mentor Review: “Ask for feedback on your drafts and for areas to improve,” advises Brodsky. “When your mind is filled with dreams for your business, sometimes it is an outsider who can tell you what you’re missing and will save your business from being a product of whimsy.”

Outside of these more practical tips, the language you use is also important and may make or break your business plan.

Shaun Heng, VP of Operations at Coin Market Cap , gives the following advice on the writing, “Your business plan is your sales pitch to an investor. And as with any sales pitch, you need to strike the right tone and hit a few emotional chords. This is a little tricky in a business plan, because you also need to be formal and matter-of-fact. But you can still impress by weaving in descriptive language and saying things in a more elegant way.

“A great way to do this is by expanding your vocabulary, avoiding word repetition, and using business language. Instead of saying that something ‘will bring in as many customers as possible,’ try saying ‘will garner the largest possible market segment.’ Elevate your writing with precise descriptive words and you'll impress even the busiest investor.”

Additionally, Dean recommends that you “stay consistent and concise by keeping your tone and style steady throughout, and your language clear and precise. Include only what is 100 percent necessary.”

Resources for Writing a Business Plan

While a template provides a great outline of what to include in a business plan, a live document or more robust program can provide additional functionality, visibility, and real-time updates. The U.S. Small Business Association also curates resources for writing a business plan.

Additionally, you can use business plan software to house data, attach documentation, and share information with stakeholders. Popular options include LivePlan, Enloop, BizPlanner, PlanGuru, and iPlanner.

How a Business Plan Helps to Grow Your Business

A business plan — both the exercise of creating one and the document — can grow your business by helping you to refine your product, target audience, sales plan, identify opportunities, secure funding, and build new partnerships. 

Outside of these immediate returns, writing a business plan is a useful exercise in that it forces you to research the market, which prompts you to forge your unique value proposition and identify ways to beat the competition. Doing so will also help you build (and keep you accountable to) attainable financial and product milestones. And down the line, it will serve as a welcome guide as hurdles inevitably arise.

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How to Write a Business Plan, Step by Step

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What is a business plan?

1. write an executive summary, 2. describe your company, 3. state your business goals, 4. describe your products and services, 5. do your market research, 6. outline your marketing and sales plan, 7. perform a business financial analysis, 8. make financial projections, 9. summarize how your company operates, 10. add any additional information to an appendix, business plan tips and resources.

A business plan outlines your business’s financial goals and explains how you’ll achieve them over the next three to five years. Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing a business plan that will offer a strong, detailed road map for your business.

ZenBusiness

A business plan is a document that explains what your business does, how it makes money and who its customers are. Internally, writing a business plan should help you clarify your vision and organize your operations. Externally, you can share it with potential lenders and investors to show them you’re on the right track.

Business plans are living documents; it’s OK for them to change over time. Startups may update their business plans often as they figure out who their customers are and what products and services fit them best. Mature companies might only revisit their business plan every few years. Regardless of your business’s age, brush up this document before you apply for a business loan .

» Need help writing? Learn about the best business plan software .

This is your elevator pitch. It should include a mission statement, a brief description of the products or services your business offers and a broad summary of your financial growth plans.

Though the executive summary is the first thing your investors will read, it can be easier to write it last. That way, you can highlight information you’ve identified while writing other sections that go into more detail.

» MORE: How to write an executive summary in 6 steps

Next up is your company description. This should contain basic information like:

Your business’s registered name.

Address of your business location .

Names of key people in the business. Make sure to highlight unique skills or technical expertise among members of your team.

Your company description should also define your business structure — such as a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation — and include the percent ownership that each owner has and the extent of each owner’s involvement in the company.

Lastly, write a little about the history of your company and the nature of your business now. This prepares the reader to learn about your goals in the next section.

» MORE: How to write a company overview for a business plan

The third part of a business plan is an objective statement. This section spells out what you’d like to accomplish, both in the near term and over the coming years.

If you’re looking for a business loan or outside investment, you can use this section to explain how the financing will help your business grow and how you plan to achieve those growth targets. The key is to provide a clear explanation of the opportunity your business presents to the lender.

For example, if your business is launching a second product line, you might explain how the loan will help your company launch that new product and how much you think sales will increase over the next three years as a result.

» MORE: How to write a successful business plan for a loan

In this section, go into detail about the products or services you offer or plan to offer.

You should include the following:

An explanation of how your product or service works.

The pricing model for your product or service.

The typical customers you serve.

Your supply chain and order fulfillment strategy.

You can also discuss current or pending trademarks and patents associated with your product or service.

Lenders and investors will want to know what sets your product apart from your competition. In your market analysis section , explain who your competitors are. Discuss what they do well, and point out what you can do better. If you’re serving a different or underserved market, explain that.

Here, you can address how you plan to persuade customers to buy your products or services, or how you will develop customer loyalty that will lead to repeat business.

Include details about your sales and distribution strategies, including the costs involved in selling each product .

» MORE: R e a d our complete guide to small business marketing

If you’re a startup, you may not have much information on your business financials yet. However, if you’re an existing business, you’ll want to include income or profit-and-loss statements, a balance sheet that lists your assets and debts, and a cash flow statement that shows how cash comes into and goes out of the company.

Accounting software may be able to generate these reports for you. It may also help you calculate metrics such as:

Net profit margin: the percentage of revenue you keep as net income.

Current ratio: the measurement of your liquidity and ability to repay debts.

Accounts receivable turnover ratio: a measurement of how frequently you collect on receivables per year.

This is a great place to include charts and graphs that make it easy for those reading your plan to understand the financial health of your business.

This is a critical part of your business plan if you’re seeking financing or investors. It outlines how your business will generate enough profit to repay the loan or how you will earn a decent return for investors.

Here, you’ll provide your business’s monthly or quarterly sales, expenses and profit estimates over at least a three-year period — with the future numbers assuming you’ve obtained a new loan.

Accuracy is key, so carefully analyze your past financial statements before giving projections. Your goals may be aggressive, but they should also be realistic.

NerdWallet’s picks for setting up your business finances:

The best business checking accounts .

The best business credit cards .

The best accounting software .

Before the end of your business plan, summarize how your business is structured and outline each team’s responsibilities. This will help your readers understand who performs each of the functions you’ve described above — making and selling your products or services — and how much each of those functions cost.

If any of your employees have exceptional skills, you may want to include their resumes to help explain the competitive advantage they give you.

Finally, attach any supporting information or additional materials that you couldn’t fit in elsewhere. That might include:

Licenses and permits.

Equipment leases.

Bank statements.

Details of your personal and business credit history, if you’re seeking financing.

If the appendix is long, you may want to consider adding a table of contents at the beginning of this section.

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We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to better understand the unique needs of your business.

Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

Here are some tips to write a detailed, convincing business plan:

Avoid over-optimism: If you’re applying for a business bank loan or professional investment, someone will be reading your business plan closely. Providing unreasonable sales estimates can hurt your chances of approval.

Proofread: Spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors can jump off the page and turn off lenders and prospective investors. If writing and editing aren't your strong suit, you may want to hire a professional business plan writer, copy editor or proofreader.

Use free resources: SCORE is a nonprofit association that offers a large network of volunteer business mentors and experts who can help you write or edit your business plan. The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Centers , which provide free business consulting and help with business plan development, can also be a resource.

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, how often should a business plan be updated, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

A business plan is a document that details a company's goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document describing a company's business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company's short- and long-term objectives.
• There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they'll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn't looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, "Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs."

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan for itself.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and highlighting any potential obstacles to success. A company might also share its business plan with trusted outsiders to get their objective feedback. In addition, a business plan can help keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and priorities.

Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they often have some of the same basic elements, as we describe below.

While it's a good idea to provide as much detail as necessary, it's also important that a business plan be concise enough to hold a reader's attention to the end.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, it's best to fit the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and attached as appendices.

These are some of the most common elements in many business plans:

• Executive summary: This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services: Here, the company should describe the products and services it offers or plans to introduce. That might include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other factors that could go into this section include production and manufacturing processes, any relevant patents the company may have, as well as proprietary technology . Information about research and development (R&D) can also be included here.
• Market analysis: A company needs to have a good handle on the current state of its industry and the existing competition. This section should explain where the company fits in, what types of customers it plans to target, and how easy or difficult it may be to take market share from incumbents.
• Marketing strategy: This section can describe how the company plans to attract and keep customers, including any anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. It should also describe the distribution channel or channels it will use to get its products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections: Established businesses can include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses can provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making.

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should aim to entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its uniqueness and potential for success.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can take many forms, but they are sometimes divided into two basic categories: traditional and lean startup. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These plans tend to be much longer than lean startup plans and contain considerably more detail. As a result they require more work on the part of the business, but they can also be more persuasive (and reassuring) to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans are short—as short as one page—and provide only the most basic detail. If a company wants to use this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or a lender requests it.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan is not a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections to begin with. Markets and the overall economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All of this calls for building some flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on the nature of the business. A well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary. A new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers to give a quick explanation of its business. For example, a brand-new company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide yet.

Sections can include: a value proposition ; the company's major activities and advantages; resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital; a list of partnerships; customer segments; and revenue sources.

A business plan can be useful to companies of all kinds. But as a company grows and the world around it changes, so too should its business plan. So don't think of your business plan as carved in granite but as a living document designed to evolve with your business.

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

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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.

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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 Create Goals for the Next Ten Years in Business

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Who Reads Business Plans?

How to calculate productivity in sales revenue, simplified structure of an annual report.

• How to Develop Milestones for Your Business
• Business Assessment Questions

A 10-year timeframe for business planning is longer than most forecasting, and is more subject to changes in business environment and other considerations. Because many businesses, including your competitors, are unlikely to have thought that far ahead, a 10-year business plan can help you stay a step ahead in the marketplace.

Start by reviewing your existing business plans and pro forma financials, which, if they include the standard time frame for pro formas, will forecast your business for one to three years. As the author of the plan, or as senior management of your business, you already know whether those future numbers are based on solid assumptions, or whether they were written primarily for the benefit of selling the business plan to investors. Work from only those assumptions and projections which are based on firm ground; your 10-year planning document will be for internal use only, so there is no purpose in making it sound rosier than it actually is.

Consider changes to your market which are likely in the next ten years. Some market areas change very slowly, while others may seemingly change from month to month. The product brands and categories you sell, the suppliers you use, the population of customers you market to, and your actual customer base are all likely to change over a decade's time. Consider each of these factors individually for their expected variability, and brainstorm what changes may occur in each before determining what actions your business will take in response or preparation.

Research overall trends in the larger economy which may have a further impact on your business. At the time of this writing in July 2010, the American and global economies have been in various stages of recession for two years, and while economic indicators are improving, many experts do not expect American employment to improve for several more years. This may affect your business' sales and cash flow, and may also allow you to improve both if you can alter your plans to sell to a recessionary market. Likewise, if you expect a normalization or economic boom to follow, you can begin preparations early to meet those needs.

List your key employees, and develop ideas for what your business will do when a crucial human resource decides to leave. Employers are not allowed to ask about family planning and career issues, but some employees may volunteer this information casually; alternately, it is not difficult to presume that a 60-year-old employee may retire within a decade. If any of these people will be difficult to replace, consider developing internal resources to improve the skills of candidates likely to be promoted to replace them.

Develop your own personal career strategy in conjunction with your evaluation of key employees. If you intend to continue running your business in ten years' time, and your health can be counted upon, your planning for your own replacement may be simple. But if you anticipate making career changes which are independent of your business, develop your personal exit strategy from the business accordingly.

Set goals in line with all of the above, both for your business as a whole, and for yourself. Sales forecasts, anticipated book value of your business, its planned resale or open market value, and other quantitative evaluations of your business only have meaning in correlation with the qualitative evaluations you completed in the earlier steps. Set your numeric goals to meet the needs of your business, your employees and yourself, not the other way around.

Ellis Davidson has been a self-employed Internet and technology consultant, entrepreneur and author since 1993. He has written a book about self-employment for recent college graduates and is a regular contributor to "Macworld" and the TidBITS technology newsletter. He is completing a book on self-employment options during a recession. Davidson holds a Bachelor of Arts in American civilization from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Using a 10 Year Plan in your Business

• April 8, 2024
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All too often I meet with clients that have grand ideas for investing or other business projects for cash flow, but they don’t have a thorough and sensible plan to get there. I have learned time and time again, that a 10-Year Plan is critical to set the path for the business and then build annual plans around it.

Now, this process may seem a little overwhelming or complicated at first, but the beauty of having a small business is that you can be agile and quick to change the course of your ship. You can make executive decisions and implement them rather quickly. Large companies can’t do this. You are the captain of your ship and generally don’t have to answer to anyone, (except, perhaps, your family, backers/investors, or banker). You can make things happen much faster than any Wall Street executive. Use this to your advantage – start with a plan!

Put Your Vision in Writing

Sit down in that special place where you feel like you can think clearly, (which could be anywhere from your home office to the mountains, the beach, the park, or the local library), and create your “ideal scene.” What does your life look like now, and what do you want it to look like, (at least within your business), one year, three years, five years, and even ten years from now? You and your Board of Advisors need to know what you’re planning for. A plan without specific goals is like taking a trip without a destination.

When writing your ideal scene, take away the common constraints of time, money, and education. Assume that you can realistically get the money and education you need, as well as have the time over 10 years to achieve that ideal scene. Don’t just write down a few sentences. Be specific. Where are you sitting? Who are you with? How much is in your bank account as a reserve for emergencies, and how much is in your retirement accounts? Which type of investments do you have? How many rental properties? Is your home paid off? What are some of those recreational items you were hoping to have by then? Where have you traveled?

With all that said, keep it realistic and don’t overdo it. However, be generous with yourself, and know that you can always modify the plan as your life may change or evolve. Don’t get frustrated with yourself if you don’t seem to be making the progress you hoped for. It’s not a race, so don’t compare yourself to others.

Take the Time to Pack your Bags

As I mentioned above, this path to your ‘ideal scene’ is much like a journey you might take to a far away place. It is then expected and realistic to assume you would take the time to prepare yourself? Wouldn’t you pack your bags choosing the right apparel and supplies? The same principles would apply on your path to your ideal scene.

Otherwise stated, you may need to take one step back in order to take two steps forward. For example, you may need to get out of debt, change jobs, optimize your business, move your residence, or even sell some assets. That’s ok. Don’t get frustrated if you don’t make a ton of forward progress the first year. You need to have your structure and foundation in place before you try to build your mansion.

This is almost a universal or even spiritual point of view. How can you expect to build financial freedom if your current house isn’t in order? I also can’t go on without a reference to the Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams . Wherein, the main character played by Costner had to build a baseball field in a cornfield in the middle of nowhere, on a prompting, on faith that “if he built it, they (the players) would come.” I don’t want to ruin the movie for you, but spoiler alert: the players ultimately came after he built the field. As such, your financial freedom is only going to come after you build it (and by that, I mean plan) and have your affairs in order. You can’t put wine in old bottles, so get ready for success if you really want success to come!

How to Build a Ten Year Plan!

Now that you have your 10 year plan based on an ‘ideal scene’ in the future, work backwards with what you need to accomplish in order to get there. For example, if you want 10 rental properties, you would want to have 5 properties in the next 5 years. Then, it would reason you would want 3 properties in the next 3 years, and possibly even 1 property in the next year. However, as I stated above, if you need to get your affairs in order, or even eliminate some consumer debt before buying your first property, maybe you don’t buy a rental property for the first two years. But because you have prepared yourself for healthy and stable growth, you buy 4 properties in year three.

Let’s face it, it’s easy in a small business to become reactionary to the concerns or crisis of the day, and you will often feel like you are holding on for dear life. You can literally be living month to month financially and emotionally. I’ve been there. Heck, I think any honest business owner will admit to having had those moments, days, and sometimes months, or even years of living on the edge. A strategic plan, however, can help you get from where you are to where you want to be. This strategic plan will be designed by you to help YOU succeed as a business owner and build wealth.

A strategic plan sets forth a timeline of specific tasks that need to be completed in order to make your business plan a reality. It’s a specific list of objectives to reach specific goals.

Even experienced business owners can benefit from using a strategic plan as an integral part of their business. It is so difficult to manage all of the loose ends and chaos that can occur when running a small business. A strategic plan will help you overcome these hurdles. Such a plan is essentially a checklist of things that need to be completed in the next month, three months, six months, and twelve months. It takes your business to the next level when you are trying to decide where it is most effective to spend your time. It also takes the guesswork out of what to do next.

Also, keep in mind your 10-Year Plan comes “alive’ when you share it and someone is holding you accountable. I discuss the importance of your Board of Advisors or Board of Directors on a regular basis in all of my workshops and videos. And as I stated above, I suggest you update your plan monthly, and at the very least redraft it every three months. Nevertheless, you should be carrying it around with you everywhere you go. Review it constantly and stay disciplined. Make sure you are adding notes to your plan whenever you have a “brilliant idea.” Don’t say to yourself, “I need to do that next quarter when I review my plan.” Write it down now!

Interested in Learning More:

* To sign up for Mark’s weekly Free Newsletter and receive his Free E-Book “The Ultimate Tax Strategy Guide – 30 Steps to Saving the Most Money on Your Taxes” visit  www.markjkohler.com .

Mark J. Kohler is a CPA, Attorney, co-host of the PodCasts  “The Main Street Business Podcast”  and  “The Directed IRA Podcast” , and the author of  “The Business Owner’s Guide to Financial Freedom- What Wall Street Isn’t Telling You”   and,  “The Tax and Legal Playbook- Game Changing Solutions For Your Small Business Questions” , as well as several other well-known books. He is also the CFO of  Directed IRA Trust Company , and a senior partner at the law firm  KKOS Lawyers.

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How To Set 5, 10 and 15-Year Goals For Your Business

Not long ago, coming up with a five, 10 or 15-year plan for your business was a pretty straightforward process. In fact, if you didn’t have plans like these in place, you were probably falling behind.  

But today, thanks to advances such as artificial intelligence and new digital technologies, many B2B business owners find their industries changing overnight. It’s hard to plan for next year, let alone do long-term planning.

That said, it’s hard to run your business with no plan at all. Even if you never act on half of the plans you make, you’ll be better off than if you charge into battle with no idea of what you’re going to do in the scenarios that come up.

Here’s how to do five, 10- and 15-year planning (if relevant) in a time of rapid change.

Step up your Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analyses.

The days when a small business could do this kind of 360-degree scan of its business environment in the annual meeting have passed. The opportunities in front of your business this year are likely to be very different next year. If you don’t act quickly, the ship will have sailed. The same holds true for threats. They can come up quickly, and if you’re not prepared for them, it may be hard to react from a position of strength.

That doesn’t mean you should operate in a panic, act on every opportunity for fear of missing out or go after opportunities before you’re ready. What it does mean is you should frequently be thinking about situations in the marketplace, so you have time on your side when you do act. Knowing the score will help you come up with plans that are realistic and actionable.

Sometimes, the opportunities and threats may be one and the same, depending on how you frame them in your mind. For instance, let’s say you run a B2B public relations firm. A new technology that helps publicists identify media professionals to pitch has arrived in the marketplace, and some of your competitors are using it. It’s enabling them to lower their headcount and therefore, charge less than you do. Your SWOT analysis might identify this as an opportunity for you: You could subscribe to a technology like this, too, and gain a competitive advantage over the firms that are not using it. Or it might be a threat you need to navigate around, if you don’t want to adopt the technology or can’t afford to invest in it. In that case, you may want to offer something different from the more automated firms in your industry—perhaps a new spin on high-touch service.

Choose the right time frame for your industry.

If you work in a very fast-changing field like technology consulting, coming up with a 10- or 15-year plan may not make sense. A five-year plan may be as far off in the future as you want to go.

In a slower-evolving field, though, it could make sense to draft a longer-term plan. You won’t be able to get as granular in plans that extend a decade or more into the future but committing to big goals, like coming up with a succession plan and selling the business by year 10, so you can retire, can help you stay focused on what really matters to you.

Start with the big picture and then fill in the details.

If you’re not sure where to begin with your plans, work on your big goals first. Perhaps you want to grow from a one-person company to 10 people or break a certain revenue goal by year five, for instance. Then look at how you’ll get there.

• What do you have to do this year to move the needle on those goals?
• Are there certain personnel you need to hire?
• Trainings you need to send your team to?
• What is the business strategy your goal will require?
• How will you act on that strategy?
• And how will you handle the financial side of these things? Beyond that, how will you track your progress?
• Are there key performance indicators (KPIs) you will assign to your big goals?

Overwhelmed? Many entrepreneurs find that Gino Wickman’s book Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business and be a valuable asset in planning.

Keep revising.

A plan is only valuable if you act on it, so don’t leave it tucked away in a computer file or desk drawer. Spend some time every month looking over your plan to make sure it’s current and updating it to reflect new developments, priorities and goals. Once you see how much you’ve already accomplished, you’ll feel motivated to keep planning—and to see those plans through.

It’s hard to know what the future has in store for any of us, but putting together a plan – no matter how short- or long-term – will ensure that you’ve got the long-game in mind. And if you want a cheesy idiom to bring things full circle, we’ll be happy to oblige: “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

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I was put on a performance-improvement plan, so I chose to retire at 58. Sometimes I wish I wasn't a young retiree.

• I was put on a PIP after working at my company for 10 years, so I decided to quit.
• After not being able to find a new job, I retired at 58. It's been a mix of good and bad.
• I sometimes wish I could've kept working, but I am enjoying retirement.

After working for nine years as a communications specialist for a healthcare association, I was put on a performance-improvement plan during my 10th annual job review.

"Has my performance changed so much from my last exemplary review?" I asked, knowing that my previous review had been conducted by a former boss who was no longer at the company.

As a result of the PIP, I was sent to human resources to fill out paperwork outlining how my boss would closely supervise my work. I had three months to improve.

As a 58-year-old, I worried about what this would mean for my career, but it became an opportunity for me to retire early .

I walked away from the job I had held for nearly a decade

I signed all the paperwork with HR and went back to my boss. I wanted to ensure she understood what was happening and get additional guidance on avoiding termination . I started to get nervous.

After an uncomfortable meeting with human resources the following day, I left the company voluntarily. I didn't want to stick around to see how this situation worked out because I already had enough information to know my days there were numbered.

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Leaving my job with no plan was unsettling. My normal approach would not be so rash; I prefer to have a plan and know my next steps. I was especially worried about my financial situation .

I had several interviews, but I felt forced to retire

Shortly after I left my old job, I worked part-time for a vendor I had previously done business with. I eventually started applying for full-time positions and going to interviews. Many of these interviews went well but somehow never resulted in an offer. I wondered if it was because I was close to retirement age .

I could've continued working for the vendor, but the money was not worth the effort or the long commute. Meanwhile, my personal life was getting complicated. My daughter wanted help planning her upcoming wedding, my mother needed more oversight as she approached 90, and I craved more freedom to travel .

So, I decided to retire — in my 50s.

Being a young retiree has its pros and cons

I'm younger than most retirees by almost a decade — which is a blessing and a curse.

I decided to keep freelance writing . I also started writing a longer project about my father's teenage experiences as a Holocaust survivor, so having more time was welcome. In addition, I began volunteering as a docent at the Newseum, which brought me a lot of satisfaction.

Plus, being young enough to go on some adventurous journeys is a nice perk: I enjoyed going on safari and on bike trips to California's wine country. It was also nice to have extra time to help plan my daughter's and son's weddings and be involved in all the pre-wedding activities. Having time to do what you want is a definite benefit of retiring young.

Sometimes, though, I wish I wasn't.

I can't help but feel I still have a few more years left of full-time work in me, so I sometimes regret retiring so young. I was cut off early from building up Social Security for a few more years, so from a financial perspective, I feel like retiring early has been detrimental.

I'm also worried I will quickly lose my grip on technological advancements. I kept up with those advances through work, but as a retiree, I'm worried I'll fall behind.

Either way, I wonder if my age played a role in all of this

In the end, it all worked out, but I do wonder if my age is what caused all of this.

I won't ever know for sure if I was put on a PIP because of my age, nor will I know if I struggled to find a new job for the same reason. But I now stand by my decision to retire and start a new phase. After all, I was given the opportunity to reinvent myself and try new things.

Retirement is a time of rediscovery and transformation, and exploiting that opportunity is the best way to win the game of life.

• Main content

How to Write a Five-Year Business Plan

Noah Parsons

15 min. read

Updated October 27, 2023

Learn why the traditional way of writing a five-year business plan is often a waste of time and how to use a one-page plan instead for smarter, easier strategic planning to establish your long-term vision. 

In business, it can sometimes seem hard enough to predict what’s going to happen next month, let alone three or even five years from now. But, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plan for the long term. After all, your vision for the future is what gets you out of bed in the morning and motivates your team. It’s those aspirations that drive you to keep innovating and figuring out how to grow.

• What is a long-term plan?

A long-term or long-range business plan looks beyond the traditional 3-year planning window, focusing on what a business might look like 5 or even 10 years from now. A traditional 5-year business plan includes financial projections, business strategy, and roadmaps that stretch far into the future.

I’ll be honest with you, though—for most businesses, long-range business plans that stretch 5 and 10 years into the future are a waste of time. Anyone who’s seriously asking you for one doesn’t know what they’re doing and is wasting your time. Sorry if that offends some people, but it’s true.

However, there is still real value in looking at the long term. Just don’t invest the time in creating a lengthy version of your business plan with overly detailed metrics and milestones for the next five-plus years. No one knows the future and, more than likely, anything you write down now could be obsolete in the next year, next month, or even next week. 

That’s where long-term strategic planning comes in. A long-term business plan like this is different from a traditional business plan in that it’s lighter on the details and more focused on your strategic direction. It has less focus on financial forecasting and a greater focus on the big picture. 

Think of your long-term strategic plan as your aspirational vision for your business. It defines the ideal direction you’re aiming for but it’s not influencing your day-to-day or, potentially, even your monthly decision making. 

• Are long-term business plans a waste of time?

No one knows the future. We’re all just taking the information that we have available today and making our best guesses about the future. Sometimes trends in a market are pretty clear and your guesses will be well-founded. Other times, you’re trying to look around a corner and hoping that your intuition about what comes next is correct.

Now, I’m not saying that thinking about the future is a waste of time. Entrepreneurs are always thinking about the future. They have to have some degree of faith and certainty about what customers are going to want in the future. Successful entrepreneurs do actually predict the future — they know what customers are going to want and when they’re going to want it.

Entrepreneurship is unpredictable 

Successful entrepreneurs are also often wrong. They make mistakes just like the rest of us. The difference between successful entrepreneurs and everyone else is that they don’t let mistakes slow them down. They learn from mistakes, adjust and try again. And again. And again. It’s not about being right all the time; it’s about having the perseverance to keep trying until you get it right. For example, James Dyson, inventor of the iconic vacuum cleaner, tried out 5,126 prototypes of his invention before he found a design that worked.

So, if thinking about the future isn’t a waste of time, why are 5-year business plans a waste of time? They’re a waste of time because they typically follow the same format as a traditional business plan, where you are asked to project sales, expenses, and cash flow 5 and 10 years into the future. 

Let’s be real. Sales and expense projections that far into the future are just wild guesses, especially for startups and new businesses. They’re guaranteed to be wrong and can’t be used for anything. You can’t (and shouldn’t) make decisions based on these guesses. They’re just fantasy. You hope you achieve massive year-over-year growth in sales, but there’s no guarantee that’s going to happen. And, you shouldn’t make significant spending decisions today based on the hope of massive sales 10 years from now.

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• Why write a long-term business plan?

So, what is the purpose of outlining a long-term plan? Here are a few key reasons why it’s still valuable to consider the future of your business without getting bogged down by the details.

Showcase your vision for investors

First, and especially important if you are raising money from investors, is your vision. Investors will want to know not only where you plan on being in a year, but where the business will be in five years. Do you anticipate launching new products or services? Will you expand internationally? Or will you find new markets to grow into? 

Set long-term goals for your business

Second, you’ll want to establish goals for yourself and your team. What kinds of high-level sales targets do you hope to achieve? How big is your company going to get overtime? These goals can be used to motivate your team and even help in the hiring process as you get up and running.

That said, you don’t want to overinvest in fleshing out all the details of a long-range plan. You don’t need to figure out exactly how your expansion will work years from now or exactly how much you’ll spend on office supplies five years from now. That’s really just a waste of time.

Instead, for long-range planning, think in broad terms. A good planning process means that you’re constantly revising and refining your business plan. You’ll add more specifics as you go, creating a detailed plan for the next 6-12 months and a broader, vague plan for the long term.

You have a long development time

Businesses with extremely long research and development timelines do make spending decisions now based on the hope of results years from now. For example, the pharmaceutical industry and medical device industry have to make these bets all the time. The R&D required to take a concept from idea to proven product with regulatory approval can take years for these industries, so long-range planning in these cases is a must. A handful of other industries also have similar development timelines, but these are the exceptions, not the rule.

Your business is well-established and predictable 

Long-term, detailed planning can make more sense for businesses that are extremely well established and have long histories of consistent sales and expenses with predictable growth. But, even for those businesses, predictability means quite the opposite of stability. The chances that you’ll be disrupted in the marketplace by a new company, or the changing needs and desires of your customers, is extremely high. So, most likely, those long-range predictions of sales and profits are pretty useless.

• What a 5-year plan should look like

With the exception of R&D-heavy businesses, most 5-year business plans should be more like vision statements than traditional business plans. They should explain your vision for the future, but skip the details of detailed sales projections and expense budgets. 

Your vision for your business should explain the types of products and services that you hope to offer in the future and the types of customers that you hope to serve. Your plan should outline who you plan to serve now and how you plan to expand if you are successful.

This kind of future vision creates a strategic roadmap. It’s not a fully detailed plan with sales forecasts and expense budgets, but a plan for getting started and then growing over time to reach your final destination.

For example, here’s a short-form version of what a long-term plan for Nike might have looked like if one had been written in the 1960s:

Nike will start by developing high-end track shoes for elite athletes. We’ll start with a focus on the North West of the US, but expand nationally as we develop brand recognition among track and field athletes. We will use sponsored athletes to spread the word about the quality and performance of our shoes. Once we have success in the track & field market segment, we believe that we will be able to successfully expand both beyond the US market and also branch out into other sports, with an initial focus on basketball.

Leadership and brand awareness in a sport such as basketball will enable us to cross over from the athlete market into the consumer market. This will lead to significant business growth in the consumer segment and allow for expansion into additional sports, fashion, and casual markets in addition to building a strong apparel brand.

Interestingly enough, Nike (to my knowledge) never wrote out a long-range business plan. They developed their plans as they grew, building the proverbial airplane as it took off.

But, if you have this kind of vision for your business, it’s useful to articulate it. Your employees will want to know what your vision is and your investors will want to know as well. They want to know that you, as an entrepreneur, are looking beyond tomorrow and into the future months and years ahead.

• How to write a five-year business plan

Writing out your long-term vision for your business is a useful exercise. It can bring a sense of stability and solidify key performance indicators and broad milestones that drive your business. 

Developing a long-range business plan is really just an extension of your regular business planning process. A typical business plan covers the next one to three years, documenting your target market, marketing strategy, and product or service offerings for that time period. 

A five-year plan expands off of that initial strategy and discusses what your business might do in the years to come. However, as I’ve mentioned before, creating a fully detailed five-year business plan will be a waste of time. 

Here’s a quick guide to writing a business plan that looks further into the future without wasting your time:

1. Develop your one-page plan

As with all business planning, we recommend that you start with a one-page business plan. It provides a snapshot of what you’re hoping to achieve in the immediate term by outlining your core business strategy, target market, and business model.

A one-page plan is the foundation of all other planning because it’s the document that you’ll keep the most current. It’s also the easiest to update and share with business partners. You will typically highlight up to three years of revenue and profit goals as well as milestones that you hope to achieve in the near term.

Check out our guide to building your one-page plan and download a free template to get started.

2. Determine if you need a traditional business plan

Unlike a one-page business plan, a traditional business plan is more detailed and is typically written in long-form prose. A traditional business plan is usually 10-20 pages long and contains details about your product or service, summaries of the market research that you’ve conducted, and details about your competition. Read our complete guide to writing a business plan .

Companies that write traditional business plans typically have a “business plan event” where a complete business plan is required. Business plan events are usually part of the fundraising process. During fundraising, lenders and investors may ask to see a detailed plan and it’s important to be ready if that request comes up. 

But there are other good reasons to write a detailed business plan. A detailed plan forces you to think through the details of your business and how, exactly, you’re going to build your business. Detailed plans encourage you to think through your business strategy, your target market, and your competition carefully. A good business plan ensures that your strategy is complete and fleshed out, not just a collection of vague ideas.

A traditional business plan is also a good foundation for a long-term business plan and I recommend that you expand your lean business plan into a complete business plan if you intend to create plans for more than three years into the future.

3. Develop long-term goals and growth targets

As you work on your business plan, you’ll need to think about where you want to be in 5+ years. A good exercise is to envision what your business will look like. How many employees will you have? How many locations will you serve? Will you introduce new products and services? 

When you’ve envisioned where you want your business to be, it’s time to turn that vision into a set of goals that you’ll document in your business plan. Each section of your business plan will be expanded to highlight where you want to be in the future. For example, in your target market section, you will start by describing your initial target market. Then you’ll proceed to describe the markets that you hope to reach in 3-5 years.

To accompany your long-term goals, you’ll also need to establish revenue targets that you think you’ll need to meet to achieve your goals. It’s important to also think about the expenses you’re going to incur in order to grow your business. 

For long-range planning, I recommend thinking about your expenses in broad buckets such as “marketing” and “product development” without getting bogged down in too much detail. Think about what percentage of your sales you’ll spend on each of these broad buckets. For example, marketing spending might be 20% of sales. 

4. Develop a 3-5 year strategic plan

Your goals and growth targets are “what” you want to achieve. Your strategy is “how” you’re going to achieve it.

Use your business plan to document your strategy for growth. You might be expanding your product offering, expanding your market, or some combination of the two. You’ll need to think about exactly how this process will happen over the next 3-5 years. 

A good way to document your strategy is to use milestones. These are interim goals that you’ll set to mark your progress along the way to your larger goal. For example, you may have a goal to expand your business nationally from your initial regional presence. You probably won’t expand across the country all at once, though. Most likely, you’ll expand into certain regions one at a time and grow to have a national presence over time. Your strategy will be the order of the regions that you plan on expanding into and why you pick certain regions over others.

Your 3-5 year strategy may also include what’s called an “exit strategy”. This part of a business plan is often required if you’re raising money from investors. They’ll want to know how they’ll eventually get their money back. An “exit” can be the sale of your business or potentially going public. A typical exit strategy will identify potential acquirers for your business and will show that you’ve thought about how your business might be an attractive purchase.

5. Tie your long-term plan to your one-page plan

As your business grows, you can use your long-term business plan as your north star. Your guide for where you want to end up. Use those goals to steer your business in the right direction, making small course corrections as you need to. 

You’ll reflect those smaller course corrections in your one-page plan. Because it is a simple document and looks at the shorter term, it’s easier to update. The best way to do this is to set aside a small amount of time to review your plan once a month. You’ll review your financial forecast, your milestones, and your overall strategy. If things need to change, you can make those adjustments. Nothing ever goes exactly to plan, so it’s OK to make corrections as you go.

You may find that your long-term plan may also need corrections as you grow your business. You may learn things about your market that change your initial assumptions and impacts your long-range plan. This is perfectly normal. Once a quarter or so, zoom out and review your long-range plan. If you need to make corrections to your strategy and goals, that’s fine. Just keep your plan alive so that it gives you the guidance that you need over time. 

• Vision setting is the purpose of long-term planning

Part of what makes entrepreneurs special is that they have a vision. They have dreams for where they want their business to go. A 5-year business plan should be about documenting that vision for the future and how your business will capitalize on that vision.

So, if someone asks you for your 5-year business plan. Don’t scramble to put together a sales forecast and budget for 5 years from now. Your best guess today will be obsolete tomorrow. Instead, focus on your vision and communicate that. 

Explain where you think your business is going and what you think the market is going to be like 5 years from now. Explain what you think customers are going to want and where trends are headed and how you’re going to be there to sell the solution to the problems that exist in 5 and 10 years. Just skip the invented forecasts and fantasy budgets.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

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Trump campaign blasts Biden for ‘largest tax hike ever' as Americans face 'record-high inflation'

Biden's budget plan, according to trump's campaign, is 'defined by massive spending increases and tax hikes on americans'.

Larry Kudlow: Trump cut taxes, and the entire economy benefited

 FOX Business host Larry Kudlow reacts to the U.S. economy stalling under President Biden, on 'Kudlow.'

The campaign for former President Donald Trump — along with other Republicans and critics — has taken aim at President Biden over his recent budget proposals, including what they say would be the "largest tax HIKE ever."

The tax increase is part of Biden's $7.3 trillion budget plan for fiscal year 2025, which includes a $4.9 trillion tax hike and calls for an "unprecedented $86.6 trillion in spending" over ten years, according to Republicans on the House Budget Committee . The plan would also lead to the "largest debt in American history" at $54 trillion by 2034, according to the Republicans.

A Trump campaign spokesperson said Biden's plan "would take nearly $40,000 dollars away from the average American family, who is already losing thousands every year due to Biden's record-high inflation crisis."

The former president's campaign said Biden's budget plan was "defined by massive spending increases and tax hikes on Americans" and claimed the "bloated" budget does not address the priorities of the American people.

BIDEN'S TAX-HIKE PLAN WOULD COST THE US ECONOMY NEARLY 800K JOBS

The Trump campaign took aim at President Biden for his budget proposal, which they argued includes the "largest tax HIKE ever" and is "defined by massive spending increases." (Getty Images / Getty Images)

Citing a figure provided by Richard Stern , the director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation, Trump's campaign said the tax hikes amount "to almost $36,000 in tax hikes per American family."

Instead of being used to cut the deficit, Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who focuses on budget, tax and economic policy, argued that roughly half of that revenue would be "plowed into … new entitlement expansions."

"So all these historic, revenue-maximizing taxes would barely even cut the deficit. Most goes to more spending," Riedl wrote in a post to X.

"When President Trump is back in the White House, he will advocate for more tax cuts for all Americans and reinvigorate America's energy industry to bring down inflation, lower the cost of living and pay down our debt," the Trump campaign spokesperson said.

Biden's tax increase proposal would also dramatically raise the rates paid by corporations and wealthy Americans.

As part of the proposal, Biden called for a 25% minimum tax rate on households worth more than $100 million, raising the capital-gains tax rate, quadrupling the corporate stock buyback tax to 4%, raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, increasing the Medicare tax paid by wealthy Americans, implementing a global minimum tax on multinational corporations and closing the carried interest loophole used by private equity and hedge fund managers.

A report released this month by the Tax Foundation, a group that advocates for lower taxes, found that the higher taxes laid out in Biden's plan would reduce economic output by 2.2% in the long run, slash wages by 1.6% and kill about 788,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

President Biden speaks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 13, 2024. (Alex Wroblewski for The Washington Post via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Higher taxes on corporations are the "largest driver of the negative" economic effects and alone would trim the nation's GDP by 0.9%, wages by 0.8% and full-time equivalent jobs by 192,000, the study revealed.

TRUMP-ERA TAX CUTS POISED TO EXPIRE SOON, MEANING YOU COULD FACE STEEPER TAXES

Altogether, the tax increases would reduce the federal deficit by about $3 trillion. Money from the newly generated revenue would also help to pay for expensive new programs floated by the president, including a monthly tax credit to help some homeowners offset steep mortgage payments, subsidies for child care and lower prescription drugs.

In the case of the capital gains tax, the proposed changes would "push the United States beyond international norms," according to the Tax Foundation.

The plan stands in contrast to the tax cuts offered during Trump's tenure in the White House. However, millions of Americans could soon face steeper tax bills when massive components of that legislation — known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — expire at the end of 2025.

Signed into law by Trump in 2017, the law drastically overhauled the nation's tax code, including reducing the top individual income tax bracket to 37% from 39.6% and nearly doubling the size of the standard deduction.

However, those changes to the individual section of the tax code are poised to sunset in 2025, meaning that many taxpayers will face steeper levies if the law is not extended.

In addition to lowering the top tax bracket for wealthy Americans, the Trump-era law raised the thresholds for several income tax brackets — essentially lowering the liability for many households.

The expiration of the tax law on Dec. 31, 2025, will essentially mean that many Americans will be forced to pay anywhere between 1% and 4% more in taxes unless certain provisions are extended or made permanent.

Former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the Forum River Center March 9, 2024, in Rome, Georgia. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The topic is likely to be a source of contention during the general election . Trump has pledged to make the tax cuts permanent if he is re-elected in November. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has also suggested that President Biden would seek to retain the tax reductions for Americans earning less than $400,000 during a second term in the White House.

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The problem, however, is that the Congressional Budget Office estimates that extending the TCJA would add roughly $3.7 trillion to the federal budget deficit.

Fox Business' Megan Henney contributed to this report.

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What a TikTok ban in the US could mean for you

The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban. Here’s what to know.

FILE - A TikTok content creator, sits outside the U.S. Capitol, April 23, 2024, in Washington. TikTok is gearing up for a legal fight against a U.S. law that would force the social media platform to break ties with its China-based parent company or face a ban. A battle in the courts will almost certainly be backed by Chinese authorities as the bitter U.S.-China rivalry threatens the future of a wildly popular way for young Americans to connect online. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, file)

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A TikTok content creator, speaks to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in Washington, as Senators prepare to consider legislation that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Jennifer Gay, a TikTok content creator, sits outside the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in Washington as Senators prepare to consider legislation that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

FILE - The TikTok Inc. building is seen in Culver City, Calif., March 17, 2023. The House has passed legislation Saturday, April 20, 2024, to ban TikTok in the U.S. if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake, sending it to the Senate as part of a larger package of bills that would send aid to Ukraine and Israel. House Republicans’ decision to add the TikTok bill to the foreign aid package fast-tracked the legislation after it had stalled in the Senate. The aid bill is a priority for President Joe Biden that has broad congressional support. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

No, TikTok will not suddenly disappear from your phone. Nor will you go to jail if you continue using it after it is banned.

After years of attempts to ban the Chinese-owned app , including by former President Donald Trump , a measure to outlaw the popular video-sharing app has won congressional approval and is on its way to President Biden for his signature. The measure gives Beijing-based parent company ByteDance nine months to sell the company, with a possible additional three months if a sale is in progress. If it doesn’t, TikTok will be banned.

So what does this mean for you, a TikTok user, or perhaps the parent of a TikTok user? Here are some key questions and answers.

WHEN DOES THE BAN GO INTO EFFECT?

The original proposal gave ByteDance just six months to divest from its U.S. subsidiary, negotiations lengthened it to nine. Then, if the sale is already in progress, the company will get another three months to complete it.

So it would be at least a year before a ban goes into effect — but with likely court challenges, this could stretch even longer, perhaps years. TikTok has seen some success with court challenges in the past, but it has never sought to prevent federal legislation from going into effect.

WHAT IF I ALREADY DOWNLOADED IT?

TikTok, which is used by more than 170 million Americans, most likely won’t disappear from your phone even if an eventual ban does take effect. But it would disappear from Apple and Google’s app stores, which means users won’t be able to download it. This would also mean that TikTok wouldn’t be able to send updates, security patches and bug fixes, and over time the app would likely become unusable — not to mention a security risk.

BUT SURELY THERE ARE WORKAROUNDS?

Teenagers are known for circumventing parental controls and bans when it comes to social media, so dodging the U.S. government’s ban is certainly not outside the realm of possibilities. For instance, users could try to mask their location using a VPN, or virtual private network, use alternative app stores or even install a foreign SIM card into their phone.

But some tech savvy is required, and it’s not clear what will and won’t work. More likely, users will migrate to another platform — such as Instagram, which has a TikTok-like feature called Reels , or YouTube, which has incorporated vertical short videos in its feed to try to compete with TikTok. Often, such videos are taken directly from TikTok itself. And popular creators are likely to be found on other platforms as well, so you’ll probably be able to see the same stuff.

“The TikTok bill relies heavily on the control that Apple and Google maintain over their smartphone platforms because the bill’s primary mechanism is to direct Apple and Google to stop allowing the TikTok app on their respective app stores,” said Dean Ball, a research fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. “Such a mechanism might be much less effective in the world envisioned by many advocates of antitrust and aggressive regulation against the large tech firms.”

SHOULD I BE WORRIED ABOUT USING TIKTOK?

Lawmakers from both parties — as well as law enforcement and intelligence officials — have long expressed concerns that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over data on the 170 million Americans who use TikTok. The worry stems from a set of Chinese national security laws that compel organizations to assist with intelligence gathering - which ByteDance would likely be subject to – and other far-reaching ways the country’s authoritarian government exercises control.

Data privacy experts say, though, that the Chinese government could easily get information on Americans in other ways, including through commercial data brokers that sell or rent personal information.

Lawmakers and some administration officials have also expressed concerns that China could - potentially – direct or influence ByteDance to suppress or boost TikTok content that are favorable to its interests. TikTok, for its part, has denied assertions that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government. The company has also said it has never shared U.S. user data with Chinese authorities and won’t do so if it’s asked.

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Exxonmobil unveils thailand 2024 business plan.

• Catering to diverse needs with Mobil 1 ™ and Mobil Super ™
• Celebrate Mobil 1 ™ 50th Anniversary – The living proof of trust from consumers and motorsports partners worldwide

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4/4 From left to right: Manoch Munjitjuntra, director of ExxonMobil Marketing (Thailand) Limited and lubricant sales manager, Suda Ninvoraskul, managing director, Dr. Taweesak Bunluesin, public and government affairs manager, ExxonMobil Limited.

April 24th, 2024, Bangkok – ExxonMobil Marketing (Thailand) Limited  revealed its 2024 business plan for Thailand under the theme, “ Unrivaled quality, Journey with confidence, ” levering on the strength of “Quality Wins with Mobil™ lubricants, while offering Mobil Super™ to fulfill diverse consumer needs. This year, the company targeted 10% growth for its flagship product, Mobil 1™.

Today, there are more than 20 million personal vehicles on the roads of Thailand,1 ranging from personal cars for daily commutes to pickup trucks for heavy loads. Engine oil is a key element that enables the cars’ engines to function consistently. Therefore, good engine oil must effectively protect the engines, enhance their performance, extend lifespan, and improve fuel economy to enable all vehicles to function as intended in transporting goods and people.

Quality Wins – Mobil ™ ’s Vision and DNA

Manoch Munjitjuntra, director of ExxonMobil Marketing (Thailand) Limited and lubricant sales manager , said, “Mobil™ has been in Thailand for over 90 years. The word ‘quality’ is not just a standard but our way of work. Our commitment to ‘ Quality Wins ’ shows in every product we deliver. This year, under the theme, “ Unrivaled quality, Journey with confidence, ” we want to be the top-of-mind brand regarding quality and innovation. Customers can trust our products, which have proven successful.”

Driving Ultimate Performance with Mobil 1™ and Extending Proven Protection with Mobil Super™ 2

“With our commitment to quality and innovation, we applied the technology used in Mobil 1™ to the production of Mobil Super™ as well. While Mobil 1™ serves the drivers of high-performance cars, Mobil Super™ serves those who want to protect their engines from heavy usage, such as pickup trucks and SUVs. As part of our customer base expansion plan in 2024, we plan to utilize our products’ highlights to capture more customers.”

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50 Years of Mobil 1 ™ Success is Proof of World-Class Innovation and Quality.

Mobil 1™ is the first full synthetic engine oil introduced in 1974. From then on, it continues to be widely recognized as the leader in the engine oil industry. Various leading racing teams, including Oracle Red Bull Racing, Porsche Racing, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, and high-performance carmaker partners like Porsche, have trusted this flagship product.

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For special promotions, additional information, or inquiries, please visit http://www.mobil.co.th

For more information, please contact Public and Government Affairs Email : [email protected] 

• From the transportation statistics report, fiscal year 2019-2023  https://web.dlt.go.th/statistics/plugins/UploadiFive/uploads/6f6897ce35cd1d6a488eab4c29a548a0b5d0973421176078322eff0d7d61b5a5.pdf
• Based on Sequence IVB (Iron Wear) test results compared to API SP standards for Mobil Super All-in-one Protection 0W-20 and 5W-30 only.

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Winslow looks to revitalize its downtown, improve pedestrian walkability in new 10-year plan

Officials hope to bring new business to Bay Street, build new affordable housing and curtail the impacts of climate change as part of the town's new comprehensive plan.

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The intersection of Bay Street and China Road on Wednesday in Winslow. The town’s comprehensive plan sets a tentative 10-year vision for future development to include the expansion of a proper “downtown.” The stretch of Bay Street from the intersection of China Road to the town office is the focus of the plan. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

WINSLOW — New storefronts, restaurants and other businesses along Bay Street. Unified architectural design standards. Encouraged pedestrian walkability. Preparation for the impacts of climate change.

This is the vision laid out in a new comprehensive plan for Winslow, in which town officials have described their goals over the next decade for making community improvements.

Winslow Town Manager Ella Bowman said that the comprehensive plan will maintain Winslow’s rural character while advancing new development downtown.

“I think Winslow’s gonna grow, just like everybody else,” Bowman said. “Winslow is a nice community to live in, and we want to keep going in that direction.”

A comprehensive plan is a nonbinding document drafted about once a decade that broadly plans how the town will grow in the future. One of the plan’s loftiest goals is building Winslow a proper downtown. The comprehensive plan aims to develop a downtown stretch along Bay Street that would reach from its intersection with China Road to the Winslow Town Office.

“I think that’s a logical area to try to direct business,” Bowman said. “It’s something that’s been talked about by the town of Winslow for a couple years.” Advertisement

Still, concerns remain about the viability of a future downtown Winslow. The high traffic on Bay Street may hamper the town’s plans to attract business downtown, according to Councilor Ray Caron, who sat on the comprehensive plan committee for the last 2 1/2 years while the document was in development.

“A downtown, per se, in Winslow is difficult at best, just because it’s not going to be what I would consider a traditional downtown,” Caron said. “I think there’s some challenges here because of U.S. Route 201 and the traffic it has. But hey, any time you can get business in, that would be very positive for the town.”

Roughly 5,000 cars travel up and down Bay Street each day,  according to data recorded last year by the Maine Department of Transportation.

The town has commissioned a study with the Central Maine Growth Council to determine how the downtown area should develop. The comprehensive plan notes that the town will seek to encourage walkability and create architectural design standards for new buildings.

MIXED-USE CONCERNS

At a Town Council meeting Monday night, Planning Board Chairman Gary Owen said Winslow’s widespread usage of mixed-use districts will hinder future development, especially along Bay Street. Advertisement

A mixed-use district is a type of zoning area that allows residential and commercial development to coexist. And in Winslow, it often includes larger individual plot sizes. Roughly one-fifth of Winslow’s land is classified as a mixed-use district.

“There is an over-reliance on this sizable district because it’s (the) largest district in the growth area, and this over-reliance essentially enables a lot of incompatible development and land uses,” Owen said. “The Planning Board determined that this change ought not to pass. I am standing here to encourage you to either table this or look for another option.”

Vehicles travel through the intersection of China Road and Bay Street in Winslow on Oct. 5, 2023. About 5,000 vehicles travel Bay Street every day, according to 2023 data from the state Department of Transportation. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel file

Most of the area along Bay Street is already classified as a mixed-use district, which Owen said draws both businesses and residents away from one specific area, resulting in Winslow’s lack of a proper downtown. The comprehensive plan recommends the zoning be amended before development begins.

“As it currently exists, the mixed-use district is too sprawling to be the town center,” the plan reads. “Incompatibility issues and haphazard results occur when a community simply enables multiple uses without providing guidance about the mix of uses.”

Building new and affordable housing will also be critical in the next 10 years, the plan says, though it does not call for a specific number of housing units to be built.

Caron said that the town is eyeing a number of projects that would put new housing units inside of older unused buildings, such as its proposal with Kennebec Valley Community Action Program to build more than 40 affordable housing units inside the old Winslow Junior High School building. Advertisement

Winslow council, KVCAP again consider building affordable housing in old junior high

“There are lots of opportunities in the town of Winslow for increased housing, but at this particular time, those are not in the developmental stage for whatever reason,” Caron said. “We haven’t seemed to be able to connect the dots to take the facilities we have and retrofit them to housing.”

The comprehensive plan notes that Winslow’s current vacancy rate of about 9% means the town does not face a housing shortage as acute as many others in the area and encourages the development of new affordable single and multi-family homes to incentivize more people to move to Winslow.

“Essentially, it is important to keep in mind that affordable housing is not ‘low class’ housing,” the plan states. “Promoting housing affordability is for the seniors already living in Winslow who want to downsize, it’s for the young couple who are struggling to start their careers and a family, it’s for the younger generation who want to live in the town where they grew up.”

Still, the plan forecasts that Winslow’s population will continue to decline over the next 15 years, falling from roughly 8,000 now to about 7,000 people by 2040.

FUTURE IMPACTS

Officials are also bracing for future impacts related to climate change as part of the plan, most notably recurring flooding along the Kennebec River. Advertisement

The area surrounding Bay Street, which runs parallel to the Kennebec, has long been notorious for flooding. The area became inundated with water nearly every time a large rainstorm blew in for decades, prompting crews to begin work late last year to curtail the flooding at Bay Street’s intersection with China Road.

Winslow digs into $2.4 million project as part of broader effort to finally curtail flooding

Concerns have also arisen about potential erosion along the river’s banks since the Dec. 18 storm. When floodwaters swelled over Fort Halifax Park, which is off Bay Street, they took chunks of soil and warped the ground as they went.

About 130 structures in Winslow — including businesses, homes and barns — currently sit within a floodplain. The comprehensive plan does not lay out specifics as to how the town will address flooding or other impacts of climate change, but notes that they must be a consideration for future development.

“I think we’re seeing the results of climate change right now,” Bowman said. “In the past year, we’ve had three high-rain events. Mother Nature is going to do what Mother Nature does, but we can try to adjust and prevent the erosion.”

Onlookers pass debris on Dec. 20, 2023, that damaged a picnic shelter when the Kennebec River, in background, flooded Fort Halifax Park in Winslow the prior day. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel file

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UK's Labour Outlines Plan to Renationalise Railways Within 5 Years

UK's Labour Outlines Plan to Renationalise Railways Within 5 Years

A train passes in front of Battersea Power Station as it enters Victoria station in London, Britain, February 10, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo

(This April 24 story has been refiled to say that Arriva is being sold to I Squared, not owned by I Squared, in paragraph 10)

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour Party said it planned to renationalise the country's rail network within five years without paying compensation to private operators as it set out its plans to fix the troubled railway system.

Britain's train services were privatised in the 1990s but several operators have been renationalised in recent years, some of them losing their franchises after underperforming.

Labour wants to set up a publicly owned Great British Railways which will inherit passenger rail contracts currently held by private firms as they expire, a process it expects to be completed within its first term in office.

The party leads the governing Conservative Party by around 20 percentage points in opinion polls with a national election expected later this year.

"Labour will deliver the biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation," Labour transport policy chief Louise Haigh said ahead of a speech on Thursday setting out the plans.

Photos You Should See - April 2024

Battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently disrupted by industrial unrest, the deteriorating quality of key services has drawn widespread criticism.

Nearly 70% of voters support bringing train operators back into public ownership permanently, a poll conducted this month by polling firm YouGov showed. Fewer than 10% opposed it.

NO SURPRISE

In the 2010s, Britain had several listed transport groups operating rail contracts, but they have either been taken private, such as Go Ahead Group, or exited the sector, such as National Express now Mobico, leaving FirstGroup the only quoted stock.

Shares in FirstGroup, which runs buses and also has contracts for rail services in western England, to Edinburgh from London, and some commuter services in London, fell 2% in early deals. Analysts said FirstGroup's stock does not price in any future rail contracts, hence the small move.

Among the other companies running rail contracts in Britain are Trenitalia which operates the c2c line east of London and Arriva Group, which is being sold to private equity firm I Squared, and they are unlikely to be surprised that their British rail contracts would not be renewed.

"This is not a surprise. Labour have been talking about this for absolutely ages," said Liberum analyst Gerald Khoo. "The only thing that's slightly more tangible is they're much closer to getting into power."

Train operators in Britain will still have a chance to operate some lines as Transport For London outsources some of its connections, such as the Overground which is operated by Arriva.

SUNAK'S PLAN

The current government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunakhas also proposed establishing a new Great British Railways (GBR), company but with a different role.

The government's proposals would group responsibility for rail infrastructure and services under GBR while maintaining a franchise system, giving it the role of contracting out passenger services to private firms.

The government has highlighted the need for private sector involvement to boost efficiency in the network after the coronavirus pandemic reduced commuting by passengers.

Latest statistics show that cancellations in the last three months of 2023 were at their highest level since records began in 2018 although industrial action by staff was a factor behind some of the problems.

Labour said the increases in cancellations and rail fares showed the current system - with four rail operators already managed by the government - had failed.

It said it planned to establish a Passenger Standards Authority to hold GBR accountable for its performance and passengers would be given price guarantees for future fares.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout, additional reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by William Schomberg, Alex Richardson and Daniel Wallis)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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