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Create a Great Visual Business Plan

Writing a business plan isn't something to be taken lightly. A survey by the University of Oregon's Department of Economics found that companies that complete a business plan are twice as likely to grow and secure investment capital as those that don't.

This may seem like an insurmountable task. But it doesn't need to be.

We've boiled the important elements down to a few diagrams. Complete these and you'll have a great, visual business plan that will take a fraction of the time to complete than a traditional narrative one. It will also be appreciated by readers, who can see and understand the key elements of your plan quickly, without wasting a lot of time.

Step 1. Mission: Explain Why the Business Exists

Too many businesses fail because the entrepreneur(s) weren't in business for the right reason. All too often, the drive is a desire to get rich or leave a job one doesn't like. Unfortunately, emotional motives usually doom a new enterprise.

Focus on the "why" of your business—its purpose for existing. Richard Branson believes that a sense of frustration is the key to business success. His first venture, Virgin Records, was launched because he didn't like how a few high-priced London record outlets controlled the market. His company's mission was to ease this frustration by making it easier and cheaper for people to buy music.

A good way to summarize your mission is with a process list diagram. It has five key questions about what your business is, who your customers are, and why it will succeed within its market space. Each answer needs to be brief—no more than a couple of sentences. Keep your thinking very "high level" in this exercise.

Step 2. Objectives: Create Milestones for Important Events

What are your primary objectives over a specific time period? How long a time period? For most businesses, this timeframe should be long enough to get the business to at least its first major milestone—profitability, an equity event, etc. It should not be less than a year nor should it be longer than five years.

A timeline diagram is a good way to present this.

Step 3. Team: Show Them You're the Right People for the Job

Lenders, angel investors, and venture capital firms want to know who comprises the team. Do your backgrounds, qualifications, and experiences fit the mission?

An organizational chart should be included, along with a brief bio of each key individual. Make it clear why each person is the right "fit" for the mission.

Step 4. Marketing: Show How Your Price, Product, and Promotions will Differ

Getting your product into your customers' hands requires a clear and concise strategy. In today's world, having a well-thought-out marketing plan is essential.

A good starting place for this is a 4Ps diagram. It looks at your product, who the potential buyers are, how to reach them, and at what price point they will buy.

Step 5. Tactics: Show Off Your Process

Here's where you want to show you can deliver on your promises. This means getting the product from concept to customers' hands within a timeframe that meets or exceeds their expectations.

There are a number of ways to present this. For most businesses, a basic flowchart, such as a workflow diagram or business process map will work well.

For manufacturing companies, a value stream map is an excellent tool. It not only explains a potentially complicated process succinctly, it also helps your management and production teams to evaluate and streamline operational efficiency.

Step 6. Finances: Presenting the Right Numbers the Right Way is Crucial

What numbers should you present in your business plan? There are many possible answers to this question. It really depends on the purpose of your business plan and who will be receiving it.

For example, say you are writing a business plan for the internal purposes of management. You may not need to document historical data or validate projections to the degree you should, say, for a bank loan.

If you're seeking investment capital, then you need to make sure your forecasts are extremely well thought out, and they show the investor(s) a clear plan for how and when they will be compensated.

Regardless of your intended audience, there are a few financial documents you should include in your business plan.

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10 Free Business Plan Templates in Word, Excel, & ClickUp

Praburam Srinivasan

Growth Marketing Manager

February 13, 2024

Turning your vision into a clear and coherent business plan can be confusing and tough. 

Hours of brainstorming and facing an intimidating blank page can raise more questions than answers. Are you covering everything? What should go where? How do you keep each section thorough but brief?

If these questions have kept you up at night and slowed your progress, know you’re not alone. That’s why we’ve put together the top 10 business plan templates in Word, Excel, and ClickUp—to provide answers, clarity, and a structured framework to work with. This way, you’re sure to capture all the relevant information without wasting time. 

And the best part? Business planning becomes a little less “ugh!” and a lot more “aha!” 🤩

What is a Business Plan Template?

What makes a good business plan template, 1. clickup business plan template, 2. clickup sales plan template, 3. clickup business development action plan template, 4. clickup business roadmap template, 5. clickup business continuity plan template, 6. clickup lean business plan template, 7. clickup small business action plan template, 8. clickup strategic business roadmap template , 9. microsoft word business plan template by microsoft, 10. excel business plan template by vertex42.

A business plan template is a structured framework for entrepreneurs and business executives who want to create business plans. It comes with pre-arranged sections and headings that cover key elements like the executive summary , business overview, target customers, unique value proposition, marketing plans, and financial statements.  

A good business plan template helps with thorough planning, clear documentation, and practical implementation. Here’s what to look for:

• Comprehensive structure: A good template comes with all the relevant sections to outline a business strategy, such as executive summary, market research and analysis, and financial projections 
• Clarity and guidance: A good template is easy to follow. It has brief instructions or prompts for each section, guiding you to think deeply about your business and ensuring you don’t skip important details
• Clean design: Aesthetics matter. Choose a template that’s not just functional but also professionally designed. This ensures your plan is presentable to stakeholders, partners, and potential investors
• Flexibility : Your template should easily accommodate changes without hassle, like adding or removing sections, changing content and style, and rearranging parts 🛠️ 

While a template provides the structure, it’s the information you feed it that brings it to life. These pointers will help you pick a template that aligns with your business needs and clearly showcases your vision.

10 Business Plan Templates to Use in 2024

Preparing for business success in 2024 (and beyond) requires a comprehensive and organized business plan. We’ve handpicked the best templates to help you guide your team, attract investors, and secure funding. Let’s check them out.

If you’re looking to replace a traditional business plan document, then ClickUp’s Business Plan Template is for you!

This one-page business plan template, designed in ClickUp Docs , is neatly broken down into the following sections:

• Company description : Overview, mission, vision, and team
• Market analysis : Problem, solution, target market, competition, and competitive advantage
• Sales and marketing strategy : Products/services and marketing channels
• Operational plan : Location and facilities, equipment and tools, manpower, and financial forecasts
• Milestones and metrics: Targets and KPIs

Customize the template with your company logo and contact details, and easily navigate to different sections using the collapsible table of contents. The mini prompts under each section guide you on what to include—with suggestions on how to present the data (e.g., bullet lists, pictures, charts, and tables). 

You can share the document with anyone via URL and collaborate in real time. And when the business plan is ready, you have the option to print it or export it to PDF, HTML, or Markdown.

But that’s not all. This template is equipped with basic and enterprise project management features to streamline the business plan creation process . The Topics List view has a list of all the different sections and subsections of the template and allows you to assign it to a team member, set a due date, and attach relevant documents and references.

Switch from List to Board view to track and update task statuses according to the following: To Do, In Progress, Needs Revision, and Complete. 

This template is a comprehensive toolkit for documenting the different sections of your business plan and streamlining the creation process to ensure it’s completed on time. 🗓️

If you’re looking for a tool to kickstart or update your sales plan, ClickUp’s Sales Plan Template has got you covered. This sales plan template features a project summary list with tasks to help you craft a comprehensive and effective sales strategy. Some of these tasks include:

• Determine sales objectives and goals
• Draft positioning statement
• Perform competitive analysis
• Draft ideal customer persona
• Create a lead generation strategy

Assign each task to a specific individual or team, set priority levels , and add due dates. Specify what section of the sales plan each task belongs to (e.g., executive summary, revenue goals, team structure, etc.), deliverable type (such as document, task, or meeting), and approval state (like pending, needs revisions, and approved).

And in ClickUp style, you can switch to multiple views: List for a list of all tasks, Board for visual task management, Timeline for an overview of task durations, and Gantt to get a view of task dependencies. 

This simple business plan template is perfect for any type of business looking to create a winning sales strategy while clarifying team roles and keeping tasks organized. ✨

Thinking about scaling your business’s reach and operations but unsure where or how to start? It can be overwhelming, no doubt—you need a clear vision, measurable goals, and an actionable plan that every member of your team can rally behind. 

Thankfully, ClickUp’s Business Development Action Plan Template is designed to use automations to simplify this process so every step toward your business growth is clear, trackable, and actionable.

Start by assessing your current situation and deciding on your main growth goal. Are you aiming to increase revenue, tap into new markets, or introduce new products or services? With ClickUp Whiteboards or Docs, brainstorm and collaborate with your team on this decision.

Set and track your short- and long-term growth goals with ClickUp’s Goals , break them down into smaller targets, and assign these targets to team members, complete with due dates. Add these targets to a new ClickUp Dashboard to track real-time progress and celebrate small wins. 🎉

Whether you’re a startup or small business owner looking to hit your next major milestone or an established business exploring new avenues, this template keeps your team aligned, engaged, and informed every step of the way.

ClickUp’s Business Roadmap Template is your go-to for mapping out major strategies and initiatives in areas like revenue growth, brand awareness, community engagement, and customer satisfaction. 

Use the List view to populate tasks under each initiative. With Custom Fields, you can capture which business category (e.g., Product, Operations, Sales & Marketing, etc.) tasks fall under and which quarter they’re slated for. You can also link to relevant documents and resources and evaluate tasks by effort and impact to ensure the most critical tasks get the attention they deserve. 👀

Depending on your focus, this template provides different views to show just what you need. For example, the All Initiatives per Quarter view lets you focus on what’s ahead by seeing tasks that need completion within a specific quarter. This ensures timely execution and helps in aligning resources effectively for the short term.

This template is ideal for business executives and management teams who need to coordinate multiple short- and long-term initiatives and business strategies.

In business, unexpected threats to operations can arise at any moment. Whether it’s economic turbulence, a global health crisis, or supply chain interruptions, every company needs to be ready. ClickUp’s Business Continuity Plan Template lets you prepare proactively for these unforeseen challenges.

The template organizes tasks into three main categories:

• Priorities: Tasks that need immediate attention
• Continuity coverage: Tasks that must continue despite challenges
• Guiding principles: Resources and protocols to ensure smooth operations

The Board view makes it easy to visualize all the tasks under each of these categories. And the Priorities List sorts tasks by those that are overdue, the upcoming ones, and then the ones due later.

In times of uncertainty, being prepared is your best strategy. This template helps your business not just survive but thrive in challenging situations, keeping your customers, employees, and investors satisfied. 🤝

Looking to execute your business plan the “lean” way? Use ClickUp’s Lean Business Plan Template . It’s designed to help you optimize resource usage and cut unnecessary steps—giving you better results with less effort.

In the Plan Summary List view, list all the tasks that need to get done. Add specific details like who’s doing each task, when it’s due, and which part of the Business Model Canvas (BMC) it falls under. The By Priority view sorts this list based on priorities like Urgent, High, Normal, and Low. This makes it easy to spot the most important tasks and tackle them first.

Additionally, the Board view gives you an overview of task progression from start to finish. And the BMC view rearranges these tasks based on the various BMC components. 

Each task can further be broken down into subtasks and multiple checklists to ensure all related action items are executed. ✔️

This template is an invaluable resource for startups and large enterprises looking to maximize process efficiencies and results in a streamlined and cost-effective way.

The Small Business Action Plan Template by ClickUp is tailor-made for small businesses looking to transform their business ideas and goals into actionable steps and, eventually, into reality. 

It provides a simple and organized framework for creating, assigning, prioritizing, and tracking tasks. And in effect, it ensures that goals are not just set but achieved. Through the native dashboard and goal-setting features, you can monitor task progress and how they move you closer to achieving your goals.

Thanks to ClickUp’s robust communication features like chat, comments, and @mentions, it’s easy to get every team member on the same page and quickly address questions or concerns.

Use this action plan template to hit your business goals by streamlining your internal processes and aligning team efforts.

For larger businesses and scaling enterprises, getting different departments to work together toward a big goal can be challenging. The ClickUp Strategic Business Roadmap Template makes it easier by giving you a clear plan to follow.

This template is packaged in a folder and split into different lists for each department in your business, like Sales, Product, Marketing, and Enablement. This way, every team can focus on their tasks while collectively contributing to the bigger goal.

There are multiple viewing options available for team members. These include:

• Progress Board: Visualize tasks that are on track, those at risk, and those behind
• Gantt view: Get an overview of project timelines and dependencies
• Team view: See what each team member is working on so you can balance workloads for maximum productivity

While this template may feel overwhelming at first, the getting started guide offers a step-by-step breakdown to help you navigate it with ease. And like all ClickUp templates, you can easily customize it to suit your business needs and preferences.

Microsoft’s 20-page traditional business plan template simplifies the process of drafting comprehensive business plans. It’s made up of different sections, including:

• Executive summary : Highlights, objectives, mission statement, and keys to success
• Description of business: Company ownership and legal structure, hours of operation, products and services, suppliers, financial plans, etc.
• Marketing: Market analysis, market segmentation, competition, and pricing
• Appendix: Start-up expenses, cash flow statements, income statements, sales forecast, milestones, break-even analysis, etc.

The table of contents makes it easy to move to different sections of the document. And the text placeholders under each section provide clarity on the specific details required—making the process easier for users who may not be familiar with certain business terminology.

No business template roundup is complete without an Excel template. This business plan template lets you work on your business financials in Excel. It comes with customizable tables, formulas, and charts to help you look at the following areas:

• Highlight charts
• Market analysis
• Start-up assets and expenses
• Sales forecasts
• Profit and loss
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow projections
• Break-even analysis

This Excel template is especially useful when you want to create a clear and visual financial section for your business plan document—an essential element for attracting investors and lenders. However, there might be a steep learning curve to using this template if you’re not familiar with business financial planning and using Excel.

Try a Free Business Plan Template in ClickUp

Launching and running a successful business requires a well-thought-out and carefully crafted business plan. However, the business planning process doesn’t have to be complicated, boring, or take up too much time. Use any of the above 10 free business plan formats to simplify and speed up the process.

ClickUp templates go beyond offering a solid foundation to build your business plans. They come with extensive project management features to turn your vision into reality. And that’s not all— ClickUp’s template library offers over 1,000 additional templates to help manage various aspects of your business, from decision-making to product development to resource management .

Sign up for ClickUp’s Free Forever Plan today to fast-track your business’s growth! 🏆

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Business Plan Template

Collaborate with your team, craft your business plan, and present your ideas visually with the Business Plan Template.

Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies

About the Business Plan Template

A solid business plan is the key to the success of any project. That's why we have designed a comprehensive business plan template that makes organizing and outlining your business objectives a breeze. This template will help you streamline your process and visualize your goals, creating a roadmap for your business journey.

What's a business plan template?

A business plan template is a pre-structured framework that outlines the core aspects of a business plan. It helps organize and detail key components, providing a clear picture of what the business aims to achieve. Miro's business plan template includes:

Problem: Identify the core problem that the business plans to solve.

Solution: Outline the solution to address the problem.

Resources: Detail the resources required, including time, workforce, and materials.

Benefit: Define the benefits of implementing the proposed solution.

Risks: Analyze potential risks and how they will be mitigated.

Scope: Describe the extent and limitations of the project.

Stakeholders: List the parties involved and their interests.

Costs: Estimate the financial aspects of the project.

Metrics: Identify the key performance indicators to measure success.

How to use the business plan template in Miro

Using Miro's business plan template is an effortless and effective way to craft your business strategy. Here's a step-by-step guide to making the most of this template:

Choose the template: Select the business plan template from Miro's Template Library, tailored to fit any business type.

Define the problem: Identify the core problem your business intends to solve. Use Miro's tagging feature to add relevant tags for easy reference.

Outline the solution: Describe how your product or service addresses the problem. Use Miro's automated diagramming to create flow diagrams or charts illustrating the solution process.

List the resources: Detail all necessary resources, including time, workforce, and materials. Create categories and use color coding to organize them effectively.

Highlight the benefit: Define the benefits and why your solution is preferable. Incorporate visual aids like icons to emphasize key points.

Analyze the risks: List potential risks and their mitigation strategies. Use sticky notes to jot down thoughts and ideas collaboratively.

Describe the scope: Clarify the project's limitations and extent.

Identify stakeholders: List the parties involved using symbols or avatars to represent various stakeholders.

Estimate costs: Break down the financial aspects using tables or charts to present the information clearly.

Determine metrics: Set key performance indicators and use Miro's graphs to visualize the success measures.

Customize your plan: Add, remove, or change any fields to suit your specific project. You can expand the quadrants, adding data or other artifacts as needed.

Collaborate and share: Invite team members to collaborate in real time, adding comments and feedback. Miro's collaboration features support seamless teamwork.

To finish, prepare a presentation. With features like frames and the Presentation Mode , you can visually guide stakeholders through your strategy. And remember, ensure that all details are accurate and aligned with your goals.

With this quick guide and Miro's various sets of features, creating a business plan becomes a collaborative and creative process. The ability to visualize, tag, and present your plan ensures a rich and engaging experience for everyone involved. Whether you're a startup or an established business, Miro's business plan template offers the flexibility and robustness needed to succeed in today's competitive landscape.

Can I customize the business plan template in Miro?

Yes, add, remove, or change any fields to fit the specific needs of your project.

How can I share the business plan template with my team?

Miro's collaboration tools make it easy to share your template with team members, either through a direct link or by inviting them to your workspace.

Is the business plan template suitable for small businesses and startups?

Yes, the template is designed to be flexible and can be adapted to businesses of any size, including startups and small enterprises.

Get started with this template right now.

Impact/Effort Matrix Template

Works best for:.

Project Management, Strategic Planning, Prioritization

Growing organizations have countless to-do’s and only so many hours in a day (or weeks before a big launch) to get them done. That’s where an impact effort matrix comes in. It gives you a quick visual guide to help prioritize your tasks and know exactly what’s worth doing. Using our template, you can create a matrix that organizes your activities into four main categories: quick wins that are low effort, effort-intensive projects that provide long-term returns, fill-ins that are low effort but low value, and time-wasters.

Business Case Template

Leadership, Marketing, Market Research

Impress stakeholders and get buy-in with this complete Business Case Template. Cover all key elements of a business case and ensure your pitch is successful.

Strategy Map Template

Leadership, Strategic Planning, Mapping

How do your individual or team goals relate to an organization’s overall strategy? A Strategy Map is a stylized picture of your organization’s strategy and objectives. It’s powerful because it provides a clear visual guide to how these various elements work together. Strategy Maps can help align various different team goals with the overall strategy and mission. With the Strategy Map in place, teams can create set actionable, relevant KPIs. Strategy mapping is often considered part of the balanced scorecard (BSC) methodology, which is a strategic planning tool for setting overall team goals.

Monthly Planner Template

Operations, Strategic Planning, Project Planning

To knock out every task and accomplish every goal for the month, it helps to take a big picture, 10,000 foot view of things—meaning a 30-day view. That’s why a monthly calendar can come in so handy, especially on bigger projects. Use our template to create a visual representation that helps you track and space out every deadline and to-do, both for individuals and full teams. You’ll even be able to customize it your way, with images, video, and sticky notes.

OKR Planning Template

Strategic Planning, Meetings, Workshops

The OKR Planning template helps you turn exhaustive OKR sessions into dynamic and productive meetings. Use this template to make OKR planning more interactive, guiding your team through the session with creative Ice Breakers and Brainstorms, so you can co-create your OKRs and define the key results and action plans to achieve them.

Porter's Five Forces Template

Leadership, Strategic Planning, Market Research

Developed by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, Porter’s Five Forces has become one of the most popular and highly regarded business strategy tools available for teams. Use Porter’s Five Forces to measure the strength of your current competition and decide which markets you might be able to move into. Porter’s Five Forces include: supplier power, buyer power, rivalry among existing competitors, the threat of substitute products or services, the threat of substitute products and services, and the threat of new entrants.

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Blog Business

What is A Business Plan & How To Design It?

By Midori Nediger , Jul 11, 2023

A business plan outlines the goals of your business and how it plans to achieve them.

Real important – because without it, it’s like running a business in the dark. It’s like a roadmap that guides your company’s direction and helps everyone stay on track.

Gone are the days when designing a business plan from scratch was a time-consuming and challenging task. Today, business plan templates offer a convenient solution by providing pre-designed layouts that simplify the process.

In this blog, I’m going to break it down for you. I’ll share the six things you need to know to put together a compelling, engaging business plan. Ready to get started now? Venngage’s online Business Plan Maker  lets anyone create a winning business plan quickly and easily.

Click to jump ahead:

• How to format your business plan

Startup business plan templates

Simple business plan templates.

• How to write your business plan
• How to design an engaging executive summary
• How to use charts and graphs to present data
• How to communicate growth strategies in your business plan

How to present financial data in your business plan

How to format your business plan.

To format your business plan:

• Start with a clear title page.
• Include an executive summary.
• Provide a company description.
• Conduct a market analysis.
• Describe your product or service offering.
• Outline your marketing and sales strategy.
• Include organizational or business structure and management information.

A typical business plan is an in-depth document and covers every facet of your business (present and future). Creating a traditional business plan makes sense when you have a clear growth plan for the next three to five years, are in need of major funding, or want to attract long-term partners.  

A professional business plan typically has the following sections: 

• Table of Contents
• Executive summary
• Company description
• Market analysis
• Organization and management
• Service or product line
• Marketing and sales
• Funding request
• Financial projections
• An appendix

A business plan can span a dozen or more pages because it presents the big picture, as complete as possible, to reassure others to invest in you. Investment can mean a few different things – usually financial, but also as partners or employees. 

The sections that can take a lot of research and add to the bulk of your business plan are your market analysis, marketing and sales plans, and financial projections. 

These are the sections that demonstrate your business acumen, your long-term vision, and your accountability. Whereas, sections like the executive summary are meant to grab attention, inspire and get people excited about your business. 

Start with a business plan template

To get started on your business plan, save yourself some time and use a template.

Most business plan templates will include things like a cover page, table of contents and the main sections you need. It will also have pre-formatted pages with placeholder text and charts that you can swap out. 

It takes time to do market research, present growth plans, put together financial projections, analyze your customer base, create competitor breakdowns…the list goes on.

The last thing you want to do is spend precious time formatting the resulting document. 

Save time by building your business plan from an existing business plan template, and customize it with your own content.

With a clean, consistent structure and clear headings, this template is the perfect starting point:

Then you’re free to customize the template with helpful visual elements like charts, tables, and diagrams, that will make your business pitch impossible to resist.

A Venngage business plan template is designed to help you communicate visually  and explain complex ideas easily. The right business plan template for you depends on the length and detail of your business plan, your brand and style, and the different sections you want to cover.

If your small business doesn’t have a dedicated design team, but you still need to learn how to write a business plan to present to investors–build off of a pre-designed business plan template:

There are just a handful of our business plan templates that can be customized in the Venngage editor. Browse more business plan templates,  choose one that’s best for you and start editing right away.

Structuring your startup business plan involves organizing it into sections such as executive summary, company description, market analysis, product/service offering, marketing and sales strategy, financial projections, and operational plan.

Here are some business plan template examples:

Short Business Plan Template

Number your pages and include a table of contents

A table of contents is crucial to help readers navigate your document and quickly find specific sections that are of interest to them.

It’s a good idea to include page numbers, main section headings, and section subheadings here for easy reference.

Keeping these tips in mind will ensure that your business plan design feels clean and professional and doesn’t distract from your content. You want your information, not your formatting, to be the focus!

How to write your business plan 

Here are three tips for writing your business plan to ensure it’s easy to read, appears professional and is memorable.

Use bulleted lists, bold text, and a clear type hierarchy for ‘skimmability’

Business plans need to be understandable at a glance to attract funding . Investors are looking for information that will help them understand your business quickly and without much effort.

Take a look at this snippet of the business plan template from above:

What stands out to you?

To me, the large green headers pop out first, making it easy to scan through the sections to find what I want to focus on.

This is because there’s a defined type hierarchy, giving more visual weight to the headers over the body text.

Next, the unique selling points of this business–superior quality products, unique glass carving and brass inlays, and excellent service–jump out. Because they’re presented in an indented list , they’re easier to see at a glance, which will likely make them more memorable.

Finally, I’m drawn to the bolded stats–“top 30% of the industry” and “4 out of 5 households spent money on renovation”.

Key statistics like these can go a long way towards convincing your investors that you’re worth their time and money. If you’re going to include them within larger paragraphs, make sure they stand out by increasing their font weight.

To sum up: make your report skimmable. Draw attention to important takeaways with indented lists, bolded text, and a clear type hierarchy.

Consider using a one-column or two-column grid

If your business plan contains only text, stick with a single-column layout that reinforces the linear flow of the document. If your business plan includes some supporting data in the form of charts and tables, use a two-column layout to juxtapose text with its corresponding data.

Maintain page margins that set text at a readable line length

When we read long passages of text, the ease at which we read depends on how the text flows on the page. Something called line length (the number of characters in a horizontal line of text) plays a huge role in readability, and is something you should consider when formatting your business plan.

To dictate line length, designers and typesetters play with the width of page margins (the edges of a document that don’t contain any text or images) with the aim of maximizing readability.

It’s generally accepted that the ideal line length sits somewhere between 40 and 90 characters per line. Any longer or shorter and you’ll find that something feels “off” about your document.

How do you achieve this in your business plan?

If you use a single-column layout, use nice wide margins (1 ½ to 2 inches) to limit your text to less than 90 characters per line.

With a two-column layout, you might need to use narrower margins (possibly as little as ½ an inch on either side) to make sure there’s enough space for at least 40 characters per line of text.

The last thing to remember about margins and line length–don’t play around with them from page to page. Use consistent margins across your whole document.

How to design an executive summary

An executive summary is a snapshot of your business plan. It should be concise and hook your readers. It should reassure stakeholders that your business plan will be a worthwhile read.

How you choose to structure your executive summary is key. You can deliver a lot of excellent information that simply gets lost in a sea of text and paragraphs. Even if someone reads through it entirely, they may have missed something.

To make key information stand out, use vibrant headings, incorporate visuals throughout, and break up the layout of your text.

Not every investor looks for the same thing. Some will care more about who you or your executive team are, while another is interested solely in the financials of the business. Identifying each section makes it easy for readers to find exactly what they’re looking for.

You can also list out the key takeaways, briefly explaining them in the executive summary. If your reader finds everything they needed to know in the executive summary, they’ll happily move onto the rest of the business plan.

Use one feature color to tie your business plan together

Color should be used with restraint in professional documents like business plans. Instead of adding color solely for aesthetic purposes, think of color selection as another tool to highlight information you want your reader to focus on and to tie the document together.

You shouldn’t need more than a single color (ideally one of your brand colors ) to achieve this in a business plan.

In business plan charts, color should be used only to clarify trends and relationships. Use color to emphasize single important data points, differentiate between real and projected values, or group related data:

In the rest of your business plan, keep color to a minimum. At most, use it to make headers stand out or to highlight key points in long-form text, diagrams, or tables.

The nice thing about keeping document colors this simple? It’s hard to mess up, and without any complex design work, it creates a sense of cohesion and unity within a document.

How to use charts and graphs to present your data

Since your business plan should be backed by solid data, you might want to include some of that data as evidence, in the form of  charts, tables or diagrams . Even simple visuals can communicate better than long paragraphs of text.

I’ll touch on some specific types of charts commonly used in business plans next, but first let’s review a few general chart design tactics.

Use descriptive titles and annotations to spell out chart takeaways

Avoid generic headers whenever possible. Maximize your chart’s value and impact by providing takeaway messages right in the title.

In the same vein, add direct annotations to data points or trends that support your case.

Repeating key messages within a chart, in the title, annotations, and captions, may improve viewers understanding and recall of those messages .

Aid understanding of market size and market share with area charts and pie charts

A market potential analysis is a fundamental pillar of your business plan. Market size and market share are two major components of a market potential analysis.

These numbers are typically in the millions and billions (the bigger the better, really), but most people have trouble grasping the meaning of such big numbers . At a surface level we can understand that one billion is one thousand times larger than one million, but we often struggle to comprehend what that really means.

This is the perfect opportunity to add some visual aids to your business plan.

Use bubble charts to represent market size

Bubble charts are useful for showing general proportions among numbers. Check out this one from our redesigned version of AirBnb’s first pitch deck :

Without having to think about the absolute values of these very large numbers, we can quickly see how they relate to one another.

While bubble charts are good for making quick, general comparisons, they’re less useful when it comes to precise measurements. To help readers make slightly more accurate judgements of proportion:

Use pie or donut charts to represent market share and market composition

Pie and donut charts are the industry standard for showing market share and market composition, since they’re the most widely understood method for representing part-to-whole relationships.

The way Uber breaks down their market with a simple donut chart makes their biggest segment (a key takeaway) really stand out, while the subtler differences between the smaller segments are still evident.

When you present a market analysis, use pie charts, donut charts, or bubble charts to aid the reader understanding proportions and part-to-whole relationships.

Use histograms and bar charts to represent demographic distributions in market segmentation summaries

Another part of analyzing market potential is about identifying and understanding target customers. This means segmenting customers by geography, interests, demographics…really anything that might affect purchasing behaviour.

Two standard metrics that most businesses include in a market segmentation summary are customer age and gender. These data are easily summarized in a histogram, with bars that represent age group distribution.

Bar charts can then be used to contrast the key behaviors and lifestyle choices of the top consumer segments.

Histograms and bar charts are standard features of a market segmentation summary. Use them together to identify and present information about top customer segments.

Outline major milestones with a Gantt chart

Stakeholders will want to see that you have a concrete plan in place to help you reach your revenue goals. When formulating your goals, use the SMART principle to provide your stakeholders with a very clear vision of how you intend to achieve them. 

Use a Gantt chart (a sort of modified bar chart) to outline the major milestones and phases of your business strategy. Try to include a multi-year plan, broken down by quarter and by project or department.

You can create your own Gantt chart with Venngage.

How to communicate growth strategies in your business plan

No matter how impressive your product line or services, your business won’t just magically grow. You concrete marketing and sales plans in place, and effectively communicate strategies to your stakeholders.

Start by acknowledging your target market – who are you going after? This is what your marketing and sales efforts will revolve around after all.

Demonstrate an understanding of the competitor landscape. You will always have direct or indirect competition, and showing how your planning accounts for it is key. Then you can talk about actual plans and strategies you wish to implement.

Present your target audience with persona guides

A product may great on its own. But its value is determined when there is a clear and obvious market for it. You can point out shortcomings of your competition, but you also need to show that your target audience exists and how you’re serving them.

A persona guide provides a great deal of context to readers of your business plan. It’s the best way for them to understand who cares about your product or service, how it aligns with their lifestyle and needs, and why your marketing and sales tactics will work.

A persona guide needs to be detailed, and share an intimate understanding of your target audience. The more you can divulge, the more reassuring your research and overall business plan will be.

Even if you don’t have a substantial customer base, you can still create an ideal persona guide to show who you’re pursuing.

Highlight competitors and differentiate yourself with a SWOT analysis

Every business plan should include an analysis of the competitive landscape–an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of competitive businesses.

In terms of visuals, this competitive analysis is typically summarized in a SWOT analysis matrix .

You can also present the SWOT analysis as a table or a list. The layout is up to you, but you want to focus on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relation to your competition.

While the SWOT analysis framework provides valuable insights, it’s not the entire reflection of your competitive landscape. For example, it doesn’t make it easy to see at a glance the qualities that differentiate your business from your competitors.

To highlight those offerings that set you apart from your competitors, a comparison matrix is more effective. Take a look at these two templates:

With a direct competitor comparison, it’s easy to present the key differentiators between the existing options for a product or service, and your business.

Alternatively, a “ Magic Quadrant ” can be useful when you’re focused on comparing across two main metrics ( key differentiators ):

Finally, in a competitive market, there are going to be a lot of players who compete directly or indirectly with you.  A breakdown of them all may not be necessary. Instead, you can point visually to the space that you will address, that has been so far ignored up to now.

To do that, a prioritization chart can be used. By plotting competing businesses on a prioritization chart, you highlight experiences existing competitors focus on, and where your business falls. 

Use roadmaps to present your marketing and sales plans

To explain any long-term marketing or sales plan, you want visuals. It’s easier to break down strategies you’ll be deploying every month or each quarter, when you can actually show what you’re talking about.

Keep in mind, those reading your business plan may not be marketers or sales executives. Being able to lay out your approach in a way that’s organized, shows how much thought you’ve given to your growth strategies.

You can design a simple roadmap that points to what you’ll be doing throughout the year. The more detailed you can get, the better.

You can also present your product roadmap , with your marketing roadmap how the business will be growing overall.

You don’t need to use a traditional roadmap layout, either. Experiment with different formats as you may find one easier to work with than another. As long as the time period for different strategies is clear, your roadmap will be easy to understand.

Presenting financial data isn’t easy. You have to crunch a lot of numbers before you can share projections with confidence. You’ll also need to explain how you arrived at the numbers and prepare for your answers.

Understanding how to organize your information is key to walking potential investors and other stakeholders through your projections.

Use organizational flow charts and summary tables for budget breakdowns and financial summaries

The financials section of your business plan will get a lot of attention from stakeholders. Simple bar charts and pie charts won’t suffice, as they can’t present financial data in very much detail.

If your business has already been operating for some time, stakeholders will expect a detailed report of revenues and expenses. Tables are usually the best choice for this kind of financial summary, as they provide an unbiased view of the numbers and allow stakeholders to look up specific values.

If you’re interested in highlighting a particular trend, however, you may want to include a line chart featuring a smaller snapshot of your financial data:

If you’re just starting your business and you don’t have any detailed revenue data, you can still provide useful information about your budget. Outline higher-level budget allocation with an organizational flow chart .

Use line or bar graphs to visualize financial trends

You can use different types of graphs to also show how your business has performed thus far. 

You can share results over the course of a year with a line graph. This is effective to show an overall set of trends and growth rates. 

You can also compare previous years to highlight how your business has grown.

Your audience should be able to draw conclusions from your data within seconds. If there is simply too much information, or it’s hard to find important information, they will lose interest. 

Looking for a business plan software to help save time and reduce errors? Pick from one of these 7 best business plan software to get started.

A quick summary 

A business plan is the one key document that every young business needs to present their vision to potential investors and other stakeholders.

The quality of a business plan can make or break a young business Here’s a quick recap of what we covered for you to keep in mind:

• Get started with a template
• Use a table of contents and numbered pages
• Use lists, bold headings and aim for skimmability
• Consider using a one-column or two-column
• Maintain page margins
• Use headings to identify the most important information
• Use one thematic color palette for your design
• Use descriptive titles and annotations
• Use area and pie charts to explain market size and market share
• Use pie/donut charts to visualize marketing share and market composition
• Use bar charts and histograms to capture demographics data
• Highlight major milestones with a gantt chart
• Identify your target audience using persona guides
• Differentiate yourself with a SWOT analysis/competitor chart
• Use roadmaps to visualize your marketing and sales plans
• Use flow charts and summary tables for financial breakdowns
• Use line or bar graphs for financial trends and projection

You can always reference this post as you work on your business plan. I’ve also included additional blog posts you can reference for specific areas of your business plan.

More Resources for business planning and growth:

• Growth Strategy Checklist: Plan Your Business Goals With These 5 Templates
• What is a Marketing Plan & How to Create One [with Examples]
• How to Communicate Strategy To Your Team Effectively
• 50+ Essential Business Report Examples with Templates

Powerful business plan templates

Plan for the future, no matter what your business plans are or the size of your business with these designs and templates. whether it's just one big project or an entire organization's worth of dreams, these templates will keep you and your company on track from ideation to completion..

Put your ideas to work with simple templates for every business plan

Every successful business took a lot of planning to get there, and these templates will be cornerstones of your future success. Whether you're looking to attract new business, pitch your services or reimagine your company, with these simple, customizable templates at your fingertips you can turn complexity into something tangible. These templates can become marketing assets or simply remain internal touchpoints for your team. And as your dreams change, you'll always have this template to refer to – it's easy to change what exists on paper. If you're a small business, focusing on your niche can help you dominate in your field, and you can forge a plan to figure out exactly what that niche might be and how to target your ideal customer . When it's time to share your vision with stakeholders, craft a presentation that outlines your plan succinctly and with style. Let these templates from Microsoft Designer be your partner in business strategy for years to come.

One-Page Business Plan Templates with a Quick How-To Guide

By Joe Weller | April 6, 2020

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In this article, we’ve gathered a variety of free, one-page business plan templates for you to download in Excel, Word, and PDF formats. 

Included on this page, you’ll find a one-page business plan template for a service business , business plan template for a product business , business plan for a real estate agent , a Lean business plan template , and more. To help get you started, we’ve also included an example of a one-page business plan , and  a quick guide on how to create your one-page business plan .

One-Page Business Plan Template

Download One-Page Business Plan Template

Excel  | Word  |  PDF | Smartsheet

Use this one-page business plan template — designed to be simple, organized, and easy to use — to immediately get started on your plan. Write down your thoughts and key ideas as you decide if your business concept is viable, and adjust it as circumstances change. You can also use this template as a basis to build a more detailed and elaborate plan.

One-Page Business Plan for a Service Business Template

Download One-Page Business Plan for a Service Business Template

Excel | Word | PDF

This business plan template is designed specifically for businesses that provide a service. The one-page plan provides space to list the essential information about your strategy, including the service you offer, the problem you are solving for customers, your mission and vision statements, target audience, staffing requirements, key objectives, and much more. This template also includes a timeline at the bottom for you to add key milestones.

One-Page Business Plan for a Product Business Template

Download One-Page Business Plan for a Product Business Template

Use this one-page template to develop a strategic roadmap for your organization’s product offerings. This template provides space for you to include a business overview, a description of your target market, your competitive advantage, a list of marketing channels and materials you plan to utilize, as well as your pricing strategy, distribution channels, and success metrics. You can also use the visual timeline of milestones at the bottom to enter key dates and events.

One-Page Business Plan for Real Estate Agents Template

Download One-Page Business Plan for Real Estate Agents Template

This one-page business plan template is created for real estate agents to set objectives and put together an action plan. Enter your overarching goal at the top of the template, and establish three high-level activities you need to complete to achieve the goal. The template also includes a strategic action plan that breaks down each high-level activity into tasks and deadlines, with an accompanying visual timeline to ensure you stay on track.

One-Page Business Plan for Nonprofit Organization Template

Download One-Page Business Plan for Nonprofit Organization Template

This one-page business plan is designed for a nonprofit organization, with space to detail your mission, vision, and purpose statements, as well as who you serve, the problem(s) you solve, and programs and resources you offer. Additionally, the template includes space to detail your financial plan, marketing activities, costs, and more.

One-Page Business Plan for Startup Template

Download One-Page Business Plan for Startup Template

This one-page business plan template is intended for an entrepreneur or a small startup business to document a plan as they determine if an idea is feasible. This template provides space to describe the problem and solution, the product or service, the target customer, existing alternatives, the unique value proposition, a marketing and sales plan, success metrics, and other information. You’ll also find room to detail sources of funding and how the funds will be used.

One-Page Business Plan for Small Business Template

Download One-Page Business Plan for Small Business

Use this one-page small business plan template to outline the essential aspects of your business strategy. Provide details on your organization’s vision, mission, product or service offering, and management team. Then identify the target audience, market size, competitor offerings, and your competitive advantage. This plan also includes room to detail your marketing and sales strategy, key objectives, and financial plan.

One-Page Lean Business Plan Template

Download One-Page Lean Business Plan Template

This one-page template uses a Lean approach to develop your business plan. Use this customizable template to detail the crucial elements of your strategy, including a brief business and industry overview, your product or service offering, options from your competitors, and your competitive advantage. Plus, this template includes room to detail your marketing plan, success metrics, financial plan, and a visual timeline of milestones.

One-Page Business Planning Template with Timeline

Download One-Page Business Planning Template with Timeline

Excel | Smartsheet

Use this business planning template to organize and schedule key activities for your business. Fill in the cells according to the due dates, and color-code the cells by phase, owner, or category to provide a visual timeline of progress.

One-Page Business Plan Example

This one-page business plan covers all the essential elements and offers a visually appealing presentation. Information for each aspect of the plan is concise, with details about the business mission, management team, product offerings, key marketing activities, competitors, and financial projections. This plan also provides links to additional resources so that stakeholders can easily find information to support the specifics of the plan.

How to Write a One-Page Business Plan (with Sample Outline)

A one-page business plan takes a standard business plan and extracts the fundamental aspects, then condenses the essential information down to one page. To determine the key elements to emphasize in your one-page plan, consider the type of business you operate, as well as the financial (and other resources) needs of your business.

To streamline your business plan into a one-page document, follow the steps below.

• Create a simple outline for your plan using bullet points. Below, you’ll find an example of an outline for a one-page business plan. You can add or remove sections according to the needs of your business. 
• Business mission
• Problem you are solving
• Funds needed (if applicable)
• Product or service positioning statement
• Unique value proposition
• Target customers
• Market size
• SWOT analysis
• Direct competitors
• Existing alternatives
• Competitive advantage
• Key marketing strategy (e.g., channel or method that will yield the best results)
• Key sales strategy
• Specialized equipment or facilities
• Staffing requirements (e.g., key personnel, skills, and training needs)
• Distribution method
• Sales projection
• Profit and loss projection 
• Gather all your findings on your business and industry.

Compile all the current information you have gleaned from market research, interviews, surveys, and various teams in your business (e.g., the marketing and finance teams). Comb through each document and extract the information that is fundamental to your business’s operation and relevant to the bullet points on your outline.

• Write two to three brief sentences for each main bullet point.

Once you create your outline and gather information, write two to three sentences for each main bullet point that expands on and summarizes the sub-bullet points for that section. For example, the plan summary section could say the following:

Donny’s Food Truck will offer a variety of fresh food at an affordable price in a convenient location. Increased traffic in the Hungry Town area, combined with severely limited dining options, provides an opportunity to offer customers a quick, nutritious meal at a competitive price. A food truck with the necessary equipment has already been acquired, so we are seeking $200,000 to cover wages, emergency repairs, and licenses needed to fund our first year of operations.

• Ensure you are able to support all the information provided in your plan.

Since a one-page plan omits many of the details provided in a traditional business plan, be sure you have market research and other supporting documentation on hand to show stakeholders in case they have questions as they review your plan. In addition, make sure you thoroughly understand the supporting information and know how to restate it in your own words before you disburse the plan. 

• Ensure your plan answers all the vital questions .

At a minimum, an effective one-page business plan should answer the following questions:

• What product or service do we offer?
• Who will use the product or service?
• What problem does our offering solve?
• How will the product or service get to our customers?
• What alternatives do our customers use, and why are we superior?
• What is our unique value proposition?
• What strengths and opportunities can we use to our advantage?
• What resources do we need to get up and running?
• What will our sales look like for the first few years?
• When do we expect to be profitable?

In addition to the steps provided above, you can save time and get started on your plan by downloading one of the templates provided on this page. You can also check out “ Free Executive Summary Templates ,” which can serve the same purpose as a one-page business plan.

Benefits of a One-Page Business Plan

Organizations and stakeholders can unite behind a strategic direction when they have a business plan in place. Developing a traditional business plan can be a daunting task, so many entrepreneurs, small startups, graphic designers, freelancers, and consultants find a one-page business plan a less intimidating place to start. 

Creating a one-page business plan benefits your organization in the following ways:

• Push you to prioritize and focus on key ideas.
• Enable your audience to quickly scan and grasp the core concepts of your plan.
• Allow you to easily share and pitch your business idea to prospective investors and stakeholders (e.g., email attachment, single piece of paper).
• Accelerate business setup, especially businesses that don’t need a loan or investment to get going.
• Provide a solid starting point to expand upon at a later time.
• Enable you to document your thoughts and ideas to see if you have a feasible plan.

Tips for Creating a One-Page Business Plan

Now that you know how to create a one-page plan and the benefits in doing so, here are some tips to get you started:

• Set a time limit (up to one hour) to focus and work on your plan.
• Use a one-page business plan template (you can choose from the options above), or refer to the sample outline provided on this page.
• Ensure your plan details only the core aspects that are fundamental to running and operating your business. 
• Remember that this is a living document — continue to revisit and adjust it as strategies and objectives change.
• Expand on your plan as your business size and needs grow. 

When the time comes that you need more space to lay out your goals and strategies, choose from our variety of free simple business plan templates . You can learn how to write a successful simple business plan here . 

Visit this free non-profit business plan template roundup  or download a  fill-in-the-blank business plan template  to make things easy. If you are looking for a business plan template by file type, visit our pages dedicated specifically to  Microsoft Excel ,  Microsoft Word , and  Adobe PDF  business plan templates. Read our articles offering  startup business plan templates  or  free 30-60-90-day business plan templates  to find more tailored options.

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Are Business Plans Highly Visual

In today’s business landscape, the role of visual elements in communication and presentation has gained significant prominence, with businesses increasingly recognizing the power of visual storytelling and engaging graphics in conveying complex information.

While traditional business plans have typically been characterized by text-heavy content and detailed financial analyses, the evolution of digital tools and multimedia platforms has paved the way for a more visually dynamic and interactive approach to business plan development. This shift toward visual-centric communication has prompted entrepreneurs and business professionals to explore innovative strategies for integrating visual elements into their business plans, enhancing the overall appeal and accessibility of their strategic vision and operational framework.

The Impact of Visual Communication

Visual communication plays a pivotal role in capturing the attention of stakeholders, investors, and potential business partners, enabling businesses to convey their value proposition and market potential in a compelling and easily digestible format. By incorporating infographics, charts, graphs, and multimedia presentations, businesses can effectively illustrate complex data, market trends, and competitive analyses, fostering a deeper understanding of the business’s key objectives and growth trajectory.

While adding infographics, charts, graphs into your plan can take time, there are AI business plan generators that can do it automatically for you.

Engaging Stakeholders through Visual Storytelling

Visual storytelling serves as a powerful tool for engaging stakeholders and fostering meaningful connections with target audiences. Integrating immersive visuals, dynamic animations, and interactive multimedia components within the business plan enables entrepreneurs to narrate their brand story, showcase product features, and highlight market opportunities in a visually captivating and emotionally resonant manner, fostering a sense of authenticity and brand identity that transcends traditional textual narratives.

Enhancing User Experience and Accessibility

Incorporating visual elements into business plans enhances user experience and accessibility, facilitating seamless navigation and intuitive comprehension of complex business strategies and financial projections. Utilizing user-friendly interfaces, intuitive data visualizations, and interactive design features can empower stakeholders to actively engage with the business plan content, facilitating informed decision-making and fostering a sense of transparency and trust between the business and its key stakeholders.

Balancing Visual Appeal with Content Depth

While visual elements serve as effective tools for enhancing the appeal and accessibility of business plans, striking a balance between visual engagement and substantive content depth is essential for ensuring the comprehensive communication of critical business insights and strategic analyses. The integration of visuals should complement the textual content and financial analyses, providing a comprehensive and holistic overview of the business’s market positioning, competitive advantage, and long-term growth prospects.

Adapting to Evolving Digital Trends

As digital technologies continue to evolve, businesses must adapt to emerging trends and best practices in visual communication to stay relevant and competitive in the contemporary business landscape. Embracing interactive presentations, virtual reality simulations, and augmented reality experiences can foster a dynamic and immersive business plan presentation, enabling stakeholders to actively participate in the strategic vision and experiential journey of the business.

How to Make Your Business Plan Visually Appealing

Crafting a visually appealing business plan is essential for capturing the attention of stakeholders, investors, and potential partners, effectively communicating your business’s value proposition, and showcasing its growth potential. Integrating engaging visuals, dynamic design elements, and intuitive infographics can elevate the aesthetic appeal and overall readability of your business plan, fostering a compelling and memorable narrative that resonates with your target audience. Here are key strategies to make your business plan visually engaging and impactful:

1. Visual Branding and Design Consistency: Infuse your business plan with cohesive visual branding elements, including logos, color schemes, and typography that align with your company’s brand identity. Ensure consistency in design elements throughout the document, reinforcing a strong and unified visual identity that reflects your business’s core values and market positioning.

2. Utilize Infographics and Data Visualizations: Transform complex data sets, market trends, and financial projections into visually compelling infographics and data visualizations. Use charts, graphs, and diagrams to illustrate key metrics and performance indicators, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of your business’s growth trajectory and market potential.

3. Incorporate High-Quality Imagery: Integrate high-resolution images, product photographs, and visual representations of your business operations to enhance the visual appeal of your business plan. Use captivating visuals to showcase your products, services, and unique selling points, providing stakeholders with a vivid and immersive glimpse into your business’s offerings and value proposition.

4. Interactive Multimedia Elements: Leverage interactive multimedia elements, such as videos, animations, and virtual presentations, to create an engaging and immersive business plan experience. Use multimedia content to demonstrate product functionalities, showcase customer testimonials, and articulate your business’s competitive advantage, fostering a dynamic and interactive engagement with your target audience.

5. Clear and Concise Visual Hierarchy: Implement a clear and intuitive visual hierarchy that organizes the content flow and highlights key information within your business plan. Utilize visual cues, bullet points, and section dividers to structure the document effectively, enabling stakeholders to navigate through the business plan seamlessly and access critical insights and analyses with ease.

6. Engage with Professional Design Tools: Leverage professional design software and online tools to create visually polished and professional business plan layouts. Explore design platforms that offer customizable templates, graphic design elements, and intuitive editing features, empowering you to craft visually stunning and industry-standard business plans that reflect a high level of professionalism and sophistication.

7. Incorporate Visual Case Studies and Success Stories: Integrate visual case studies, success stories, and customer testimonials to demonstrate your business’s track record, achievements, and market credibility. Use visually compelling narratives and real-life examples to highlight your business’s impact, success stories, and contributions to the industry, fostering a sense of trust and confidence among stakeholders and potential investors.

8. Responsive Design for Digital Platforms: Ensure that your business plan is optimized for digital platforms and mobile devices, incorporating responsive design elements that adapt seamlessly to various screen sizes and resolutions. Prioritize user-friendly interfaces, intuitive navigation, and accessible content formatting to facilitate a seamless and engaging viewing experience for stakeholders accessing the business plan across different devices and platforms.

In conclusion, the integration of visual elements within business plans has become increasingly vital for facilitating effective communication, engaging stakeholders, and fostering a comprehensive understanding of the business’s value proposition and growth potential. By leveraging the power of visual storytelling, businesses can create impactful and immersive business plans that resonate with stakeholders, inspire confidence, and showcase the compelling narrative and strategic vision that underpin their long-term success and market competitiveness.

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Powerful and versatile table with advanced customizability to record, organize, and categorize your business data to uncover trends.

Built-in tools to create interactive and dynamic presentations , reports, and dashboards on business strategies and plans to onboard stakeholders.

Import images, vectors, screenshots, and more to the canvas to add more context to your business plans.

Embed business documents and resources with in-app previews and centralize all business assets in a single location for easier access.

Embed your business plans securely in any site or intranet, or export them as PDFs, PNGs, JPEGs, or SVGs to share or publish them.

Collaborate Seamlessly with Your Team

Video conferencing built into the platform to make you feel like you are in the same room.

Real-time cursors for seamless collaboration with any number of participants, bring your team on board for easy business discussions and decision making.

Comment on anything, with context. Async collaboration with comments and discussions.

Smart notifications feature to stay updated on changes other stakeholders make to your documents.

Full version history to keep track of each iteration of your workspaces. Branch out from an earlier version of your business plan if needed at any time.

Multiple access and role levels to streamline reviewing, editing, and managing your strategic business plans.

Expand Your Business Plans

Build custom databases for any type of business data from sales data or customer contact information to website traffic statistics.

Frames for Kanban boards, timelines, grids, and more to visually arrange your data and create a view for your own working style on the canvas.

Generate multiple views of the same business information with model objects; easily convert a Kanban board into a workflow into a roadmap.

Extend your business plans by documenting key details on different elements with custom properties and additional fields.

Connect to your favorite tools with Creately plugins for Slack, Google Workspace, Confluence, and more.

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that explains your business and what it does, your strategy, key future goals, and an action plan which should outline how you plan to make money and what you need to do to achieve your goals.

How to Make a Business Plan?

• Start with writing your business overview, which should include who you are, company timeline, industry information, objectives, organizational chart, products & services.
• Define your target market with customer profiles, and carry out a market analysis to understand your market position. You can use perceptual maps and other marketing strategy tools to do this.
• Get an understanding of your competitive landscape. Using a SWOT analysis, identify the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.
• Add a section featuring your products and services along with general information related to them.
• Base your marketing strategy on your market and competitor analysis and the research you did on your customers.
• What are the workflows you’ll implement to achieve your objectives? These should come under your operations plan along with your suppliers, production processes, team and their responsibilities, equipment, facilities etc.
• The financial plan should include your cash statements, profits and losses, projections of revenue and the funds you will need.
• Export the diagrams you have created as PDFs or in other image formats for publishing, sharing and printing.

Visual Business Plan Presentation Template

Download this Visual Business Plan Presentation Template Design in PDF, PowerPoint, Google Slides Format. Easily Editable, Printable, Downloadable.

Empower your vision with our Free Visual Business Plan Presentation Template. Crafted for clarity, our template features 12 professionally designed slides, each meticulously structured for conveying key business concepts. Impress stakeholders with sleek visuals, concise content, and strategic insights. Elevate your presentations, streamline your planning, and captivate your audience.

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Pinterest Marketing Small Business Guide

Briana Morgaine

9 min. read

Updated April 11, 2024

Sure, Pinterest is a visual treasure trove of all things wedding, baking, and fashion-oriented. But don’t write the social network off if your business doesn’t fall into those industry categories.

Even if your brand is lacking an inherently Pinterest-friendly visual product, you can still develop a content strategy to take advantage of Pinterest. Here’s how to do it.

See Also:  Facebook Marketing: A Small Business Guide

Know your audience—and know who uses Pinterest

Before you begin mapping out a Pinterest strategy, it’s a good idea to cross-compare your existing audience (or potentially the new audience you’re trying to attract) with Pinterest users.

Of all the social networks, Pinterest is perhaps the most clearly skewed in one demographic direction: Pinterest is most commonly used by women ages 19 to 29, who have graduated college and make over $75,000 annually.

Take a look at your own customer demographic information; if you don’t know right away who your customer base is, spend some time doing  market research  before going any further.

If there isn’t much overlap between your existing customer base (or the customers you’re hoping to attract) and Pinterest’s main demographic, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should forego Pinterest. But, it is worth keeping in mind as you develop a content strategy, and it is possible that you may not find as much success on Pinterest as you would on other social platforms.

• Set up a Pinterest business account

Now that you’ve taken a minute to compare your customer demographics with Pinterest’s primary user base, spend a moment setting up your business’s Pinterest account.

Setting up a Pinterest account is very straightforward, but make sure you’re linking it to your business’s website. Pinterest for Business  walks you through the process of setting up your account here.

See Also:  Twitter Marketing: A Small Business Guide

• Create Pinterest boards

Once you’ve created your account, it’s time to set up Pinterest boards.

The types of Pinterest boards you create will largely depend on what kind of business you run. As a rule, however, try to create a variety of boards that reflect your company culture, product or service, industry, and topics of interest to your ideal client.

The outdoor-focused brand highlights their culture and brand values by featuring boards dedicated to outdoor activities, pets, National Parks, and beyond. It feels authentic and varied, and encapsulates the brand.

Now, you don’t have to create quite so many (L.L.Bean has over 30!), but creating a variety of Pinterest boards is a key part of establishing a Pinterest presence that is multifaceted and captures the feeling of your brand.

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• Make your website Pinterest-friendly

If you want people to pin content directly from your website, there are two things to keep in mind: you need to make it easy for them to pin your content, and you need to post content worth pinning.

We’ll get to creating Pinterest-worthy content in the next step, but for now, we’ll focus on the easy part—adding Pinterest buttons to your website. The “save” button enables visitors to your site to pin directly to their Pinterest pages, without having to leave your website. It’s well worth adding as ideally your content will be shared on Pinterest by outsiders—not just by you!

Pinterest has a page on  adding a save button  on their Pinterest for Business guide, and again the  Pinterest Widgets  page is a good resource if you’re looking for other buttons (such as follow buttons and embedded boards).

See Also:  Instagram Marketing: A Small Business Guide

• Create Pinterest-worthy content

In addition to optimizing your website for Pinterest, it’s important to make sure that the content on your site is appropriate for the platform.

It’s no secret that Pinterest centers primarily around visual content; in fact, it’s not even a question of if visuals do better on Pinterest, but rather what  kind  of visual content performs best.

Focus on creating interesting visual content

If you want your content to be pinned and repinned on Pinterest, there should be a visual draw.

But, what if you  don’t  have a highly visual product or service? There are still ways you can make your website content appealing and Pinterest-worthy, but it’s a little trickier and you’ll have to get creative.

Infographics and graphic lists are popular on Pinterest and can be created easily in programs like  Canva.  You can also look to your customers for inspiration, and focus on curating content that speaks to your brand image, company culture, community, and the varied aspects of your brand identity that make up your business—not just your actual product or service.

It’s hard to think of a brand seemingly  less  likely to have curated a strong, visual Pinterest presence, but GE has managed to create fantastic visual content based around their brand and services.

If you’re a B2B company or you lack a visually appealing product, that doesn’t mean you should avoid creating great visuals. It just means you need to get a little more creative.

Size your images correctly

On a more practical level, there is one specific thing you can do to make your visual content more shareable: make sure it is sized appropriately. The  basic rule is an aspect ratio of 2:32,  which could look like 600x900px, 800x1200px, and so on.

In addition (and just to plug Canva one more time),  Canva  has a template specifically for Pinterest, which will allow you to create a perfect image easily.

If you want a more detailed look at what goes into the ideally-sized pin, check out  this guide to image sizing from Buffer.

• Repin other content to your boards

When it comes to building a strong presence on Pinterest, creating your own original content is only half of the equation.

Pinterest is a unique social platform in that its beauty comes in the form of curation. Think of your Pinterest boards as organized collections of content that will inspire, help, or otherwise positively benefit your customers and followers.

To augment your own original pins on your Pinterest boards, spend some time curating content from other sources, and repinning this content. This will add richness to your boards, and help position you as an influencer, someone who keeps up on their respective industry, rather than someone who is after a cheap marketing tactic.

Think of it this way: When you follow your favorite brands, do you only want to see information about their product or service, or their own blog posts? Probably not.

Personally, I prefer to follow accounts that post not only their own original content but also content they source from other businesses and influencers. I might love a certain skincare brand, but if all they pin are links back to their own product or articles from their blog, I won’t continue following them. Why should I? I can find all that information by visiting their website!

Think of how you can add value for a follower, and what you can do to create a unique experience for them, and make them enjoy following your boards on Pinterest.

• Enable rich pins

Pinterest is a social network that relies on sharing and resharing content. As such, great images and posts can sometimes circulate without proper attribution. The last thing you want is one of your pins going viral without users knowing that it came from your business!

Rich pins have your website name and icon displayed beneath the pin so that users know where the pin came from. You can find out  how to enable rich pins through this guide from Pinterest,  and  Melyssa Griffin details another easy way here.

• Consider promoted pins

The beauty of social media marketing is that beyond the labor and time you and your team devote to developing your social presence, social media marketing can be a completely free endeavor.

That being said, there are ways to throw money at the problem.  Promoted pins  are exactly what they sound like: they are pins that you’ve chosen to pay to promote. The benefit of promoted pins is that you’re reaching a new, wider audience. The downside is, of course, that it’s going to cost you.

This article on  creating a promoted pin campaign by Social Media Examiner  will help you learn how to create one if it suits your business’s needs and financial situation. It’s worth noting, however, that a free strategy is a perfectly good place to start.

See Also:  4 Social Media Mistakes Your Business Should Avoid

• Tell your customers about your Pinterest page

There are a number of tactics you can employ to tell your existing customer base about your new Pinterest page.

If you have a physical storefront, consider creating a small sign to hang in your window, a stack of cards to keep at your front desk or reception area, or similar signage prompting your customers to find you on Pinterest. Check out my article on  finding great offline marketing materials  for suggestions on where to source these materials.

Beyond letting your customers know in person, make sure you lead customers to your new Pinterest page via your website. Check out  Pinterest’s Website Widgets  page for information on setting up a “follow us” button on your website, in addition to your pin buttons.

Don’t forget to utilize your email marketing to draw people to your Pinterest page, too. Consider sending out an email to your customer list, announcing your new Pinterest page and urging them to follow you, and you can also add a “follow us!” prompt to your email signature as well.

• Keep track of key metrics

As your Pinterest strategy starts to take shape, don’t forget the importance of establishing and tracking indicators of success.

Now, what these success indicators are will vary depending on what you want to track for your business. Maybe you’re interested in gaining as many followers as possible, or tracking which content gets the most repins, or tracking clicks back to your site. Whatever metrics you’re tracking, find a tool that will help you measure your success, and check back at a designated time to determine what is working and what isn’t.

Pinterest itself has an  analytics function  which will allow you to track certain aspects of a Pinterest page, but it’s also worth looking into third-party tracking tools .

The exact tool you use is up to you, your business, and your particular needs and budget. What matters most is that you don’t just pin blindly, but that you determine what success looks like for your Pinterest page, and enable yourself to measure your success.

Ultimately, creating a Pinterest marketing strategy is all about thinking creatively. Furthermore, it’s about tapping into what makes your brand unique, memorable, and valuable to customers—not just what product or service you offer.

Clarify your ideas and understand how to start your business with LivePlan

Bri Morgaine is a seasoned content marketing leader with a decade of experience in copy editing, social media operations, and content strategy— having honed her skills at industry giants like Palo Alto Software and Andreessen Horowitz.

Table of Contents

• Know your audience—and know who uses Pinterest

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