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550+ Business Plan Samples To Inspire Your Plan

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Below you can choose from over 300 free business plan examples within numerous industries. You’ll also learn the answers to key sample business plan questions and find tips on how to write your business plan. Finally, you’ll see a full-length business plan sample. Rest assured that you’re in good hands; over the past 20+ years, Growthink has helped over 1 million companies develop simple business plans to start and grow their businesses.  

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1. Why is utilizing an example business plan a good idea?

Sample business plans can help you quickly and easily write a business plan for your own business. Business plans are an important tool for any business, but they can be challenging to create. Sample business plan will help you understand business plan format , how to utilize the best business plan template , and more.

Business plan examples may even help you with the different sections of a plan, including market analysis, company description, cash flow statements/business financial statements, and more. Business plans can also show you how a quality plan in your exact business plan category is organized and shows you the appropriate business communications style to use when writing your business plan.

2. Who would benefit from using an example business plan?

Any entrepreneur or business owner who has never written a business plan before can benefit from an example or sample plan. New business owners often start with business plan templates , which are helpful but are sometimes more useful after reviewing other full business plans.

A good sample plan can be a step-by-step guide as you work on your business planning and business idea. Once you have a sense for the flow, specs, and details, etc. that business plans have, utilizing a business plan template will help you pull everything together, helping you create a plan investors and other stakeholders will value. A solid plan will also help you if you need a bank loan, which may require a startup business plan.

3. How do you get started with a sample business plan and maximize its benefit?

First you should read the business plan thoroughly. Study both the type of information provided in key sections like the executive summary, target market analysis, summary, etc., as well as the format and style of the plan. As you read, you may find yourself thinking through things such as improving or evaluating your business planning process, your business idea, or reconsidering who you want to write your business plan for. This is OK and part of the process. In fact, when you start writing a business plan for the first time, it will be much easier because you’ve gone through this process.

After this initial read, outline your business plan and copy in from the sample plan sections that apply to your business. For instance, if the sample plan included public relations in their marketing strategy and sales plan, and you will also use this tactic, you can copy it into your plan and edit it as appropriate. Finally, answer the other questions answered in the sample plan in ways that reflect your unique business and potential customers.

Writing a business plan can seem daunting. Starting your business plan writing process by reviewing a plan that’s already been created can remove a lot of mental and emotional barriers while helping you craft the best plan you can.

4. When should you not use a sample business plan?

If your business is unlike any other, using a sample business plan will not be as effective. In this situation, writing a business plan from scratch utilizing a business plan template is probably your best path forward.

As an example, Facebook’s early business plan was unlike others since it was paving a new path and way of doing business. But, groundbreaking new businesses like Facebook are not the norm, and the vast majority of companies will benefit from utilizing sample business plans.

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The business plan example below is for Shoutmouth, a company that enjoyed much success in the early 2000’s and which was able to raise funding. While the plan’s premise (social networking) is not as unique now as it was then, the format and structure of this business plan still holds.

I. Executive Summary

Business Overview

Launched in late February 2007, Shoutmouth.com is the most comprehensive music news website on the Internet .

Music is one of the most searched and accessed interests on the Internet. Top music artists like Akon receive over 3 million searches each month. In addition, over 500 music artists each receive over 25,000 searches a month.

However, music fans are largely unsatisfied when it comes to the news and information they seek on the artists they love. This is because most music websites (e.g., RollingStone.com, MTV.com, Billboard.com, etc.) cover only the top eight to ten music stories each day – the stories with mass appeal. This type of generic coverage does not satisfy the needs of serious music fans. Music fans generally listen to many different artists and genres of music. By publishing over 100 music stories each day, Shoutmouth enables these fans to read news on all their favorite artists.

In addition to publishing comprehensive music news on over 1200 music artists, Shoutmouth is a social network that allows fans to meet and communicate with other fans about music, and allows them to:

• Create personal profiles
• Interact with other members
• Provide comments on news stories and music videos
• Submit news stories and videos
• Recommend new music artists to add to the community
• Receive customized news and email alerts on their favorite artists

Success Factors

Shoutmouth is uniquely qualified to succeed due to the following reasons:

• Entrepreneurial track record : Shoutmouth’s CEO and team have helped launch numerous successful ventures.
• Affiliate marketing track record : Online affiliate marketing expertise has been cited as one of MySpace’s key success factors. Over the past two years, Shoutmouth’s founders have run one of the most successful online affiliate marketing programs, having sold products to over 500,000 music customers online.
• Key milestones completed : Shoutmouth’s founders have invested $500,000 to-date to staff the company (we currently have an 11-person full-time team), build the core technology, and launch the site. We have succeeded in gaining initial customer traction with 50,000 unique visitors in March, 100,000 unique visitors in April, and 200,000 unique visitors in May 2007.

Unique Investment Metrics

The Shoutmouth investment opportunity is very exciting due to the metrics of the business.

To begin, over the past two years, over twenty social networks have been acquired. The value in these networks is their relationships with large numbers of customers, which allow acquirers to effectively sell to this audience.

The sales price of these social networks has ranged from $25 to $137 per member. Shoutmouth has the ability to enroll members at less than $1 each, thus providing an extraordinary return on marketing expenditures. In fact, during an April 2007 test, we were able to sign-up 2,000 members to artist-specific Shoutmouth newsletters at a cost of only 43 cents per member.

While we are building Shoutmouth to last, potential acquirers include many types of companies that seek relationships with music fans such as music media/publishing (e.g., MTV, Rolling Stone), ticketing (e.g., Ticketmaster, LiveNation) and digital music sales firms (e.g., iTunes, The Orchard).

Financial Strategy, Needs and Exit Strategy

While Shoutmouth’s technological, marketing and operational infrastructure has been developed, we currently require $3 million to execute on our marketing and technology plan over the next 24 months until we hit profitability.

Shoutmouth will primarily generate revenues from selling advertising space. As technologies evolve that allow us to seamlessly integrate music sampling and purchasing on our site, sales of downloadable music are also expected to become a significant revenue source. To a lesser extent, we may sell other music-related items such as ringtones, concert tickets, and apparel.

Topline projections over the next three years are as follows:

II. Shoutmouth Overview

What is Shoutmouth?

Shoutmouth is an operating company of The Kisco Group Inc. (TKG). Since 2003, TKG has capitalized on web-based marketing opportunities via launching targeted websites and generating web-based leads. TKG revenues in 2005 exceeded $1.3 million and grew to $3.5 million in 2006. Shoutmouth is currently the sole focus of TKG; all other TKG business units have been divested.

Development of Shoutmouth began in August 2006 and the site officially launched on February 21, 2007. Shoutmouth (located at www.shoutmouth.com) is the most comprehensive music news community on the Internet. The website covers 1,200 popular bands and music artists and offers more than 100 new music articles each day. In addition to providing news, Shoutmouth is a web community. That is, Shoutmouth members can actively participate on the site, by doing things such as commenting on news stories and submitting their own stories.

The Market Size and Need for Shoutmouth

The music market is clearly vast. According to IFPI, which represents the recording industry worldwide, global music sales were $33.5 billion in 2005, with the U.S. accounting for $12.3 billion of that amount. Importantly, digitally music sales are seeing substantial growth, with IFPI reporting sales of $400 million in 2004, $1.1 billion in 2005 and $2 billion in 2006.

Online, music is the one of the most frequently searched and accessed interests. For example, according to Wordtracker, the music artist Eminem received over 1.7 million web searches in December 2006, while band Green Day received 534,000 searches.

To put these figures in perspective, top celebrities in other entertainment fields receive but a fraction of this search volume. For example, December 2006 search volumes for select sports stars and actors were as follows: Kobe Bryant, 122K; Tiger Woods, 88K; Cameron Diaz, 332K; and Tom Cruise, 82K.

Conversely, 225 music artists received over 100,000 searches in December 2006, and over 500 music artists received over 25,000 searches.

This data is corroborated by Nielsen BuzzMetrics which plots the most popular topics bloggers are posting about. The chart to the right plots September 25, 2006 to March 25, 2007 and shows how music dominates other entertainment sectors online.

When searching for music artists online, fans, which are primarily between the ages of 13 and 35, are looking for news, pictures, lyrics, videos and audio files. In addition, fans enjoy publicly voicing their opinions about music and interacting with other fans.

There is currently no website besides Shoutmouth that provides comprehensive music news. Currently, to get the latest news on their favorite artists, fans must visit the official websites or fan websites of each of the artists they like . Even then, it is unlikely that the fan will get all the news that has occurred. To solve this problem, Shoutmouth scours the web and uncovers news from thousands of web sites.

What Shoutmouth Does and Will Offer

As of May 2007, the site covers the 1,200 most popular music artists (popularity primarily based on the number of web searches over the past 12 months for each artist).

Shoutmouth currently offers members the ability to:

• Read over 500 new music articles each week
• Read special features such as album reviews, interviews, new album release dates, top quotes of the week and other special reports
• Watch and rate music videos
• Listen to select music audio clips
• Comment on news stories and music videos
• Submit news stories that they see/hear of elsewhere
• Suggest new music artists to add to the site
• View articles by music artist or by genre (current genres include Rock, Pop, Rap, R&B, Country, and Electronic)
• Create a user profile that includes their favorite music artists, Shoutmouth friends, news stories submitted to Shoutmouth, and comments made. Members have the ability to find other members based on their favorite artists and via our search functions.
• Receive customized news and email alerts. Members can customize their “My News” page to include only artists they specify. Likewise, they can choose to receive email alerts whenever there is a new story on one of their favorite artists.

While establishing itself as the premier music news community, Shoutmouth will embark on the more aggressive goal of becoming the premier music community online . To accomplish this, Shoutmouth will begin to offer additional content (more videos, audio, pictures, lyrics, etc.) and additional functionality (music compatibility testing (e.g., if you like this, you’ll like this), voting capabilities, member-to-member messaging, etc.). We have already begun mapping out our content and technology growths plans to achieve this goal upon financing.

Importantly, Shoutmouth expects to be able to add massive amounts of relevant content (e.g., lyrics, reviews, pictures, video files, audio files, etc.) via member submissions and moderation. This is the same way that YouTube has been able to quickly add millions of videos and Wikipedia has been able to add millions of articles. Importantly, since established music websites (e.g., MTV, RollingStone.com, Billboard.com, etc.) are not community based, they would have to hire thousands of staff members to rival the content that Shoutmouth will have.

How We Get and Publish Our News

Currently, news stories that appear on Shoutmouth are gathered from numerous online sources. Shoutmouth’s staff writers find these stories by using RSS and News feeds that cover thousands of websites. In addition, Shoutmouth community members have the ability to submit stories they find elsewhere.

Typical stories include factual information plus the insight of the author. Shoutmouth editors ensure that all stories are properly classified by artist and genre, and that duplicate articles are filtered out.

Over the past three months, Shoutmouth has developed a solid infrastructure, which we consider a core competitive advantage, that that allows us to provide comprehensive music news . This infrastructure includes:

• Setting up hundreds of RSS feeds based on comprehensive research regarding sites from which to receive feeds
• Training our editorial team regarding identifying a story and weeding out duplicates
• Assigning music artists among our five-person editorial team to better manage work flow and avoid duplicate articles

We are working on a system to ensure that member-submitted articles are automatically routed to the appropriate member of Shoutmouth’s editorial team to improve our efficiencies further.

Shoutmouth’s Goal to Break News First

The majority (approximately 90%) of Shoutmouth’s articles are currently developed by our in-house editorial team, while the balance is submitted by members. In addition, virtually all of our articles are based on information gleaned from other websites. As such, we are generally not the first to publish news; however we are the first and only site to publish all the news in one easily-accessible place. The one current exception is news which is published on bands’ official MySpace pages; Shoutmouth generally publishes articles on this news 24 to 48 hours before it is reported by other news or music sites (due to our efficiencies in finding news).

Shoutmouth realizes that it will gain a key competitive advantage, and will generate significant market buzz, if it is able to report on music news stories before other media sources . To accomplish this, we have begun contacting publicity departments at record labels to gain direct access to music news. We expect these contacts to enable us to gain immediate and sometimes exclusive access to news which will help further establish Shoutmouth as the canonical source for music news. We also plan to more aggressively solicit member submissions of new, buzzworthy news events and will consider offering rewards for unique substantiated news (much the way paparazzi are compensated).

III. Competition in the Online Music Market

This section of the business plan provides a competitive analysis, which is an overview of the competitive landscape, discusses both indirect and direct competitors and then details Shoutmouth’s competitive advantages.

Because consumer demand for music on the Internet is so great, there are a vast number of music websites. In summary, we consider most sectors of the online music market (which are discussed below) to be indirect competitors and potentially partners, rather than direct competitors, because none of them focus on music news.

The reason we believe that no one focuses on music news is that it is very difficult to do. Because news is very important to music fans, most music websites offer news. However, they primarily get their news from organizations such as CNN, Reuters, the Associated Press and BBC. These large organizations only write about the music stories that have mass appeal, which traditionally amounts to 8-10 music news stories per day. However, since music fans are often zealots when it comes to their favorite artists, they are not merely interested in cover stories. For instance, a U2 fan cares about any U2 news, particularly news that a non-U2 fan might consider insignificant.

In fact, because Shoutmouth is the sole one-stop shop for getting comprehensive music news, there might be an opportunity to license our content to other music websites.

Sectors of the Online Music Market

Shoutmouth specifically comPs in the community-based music news market. While players in this market represent direct competitors, Shoutmouth faces indirect competitors in the following markets:

• Community-Based Sites
• Community-Based News Sites
• Community-Based Music Sites
• Traditional Music Websites
• Official Artist and Fan Sites

Each of these markets is described below.

A. Community-Based Sites

Community-based sites, also known as social networking sites, are websites in which members can create profiles, leave comments throughout the site, and communicate with other members among other features.

A June 2006 report by Piper Jaffray entitled “Silk Road: Social Networking is Here to Stay” effectively sums up the power and longevity of social networking:

“We believe social networking sites have become a permanent part of the fabric of web applications and are rapidly becoming one of the most popular activities online, potentially impacting how other popular services such as email, IM, and maybe even search are accessed.

As a clear indication of the growth rate and scale of social networking, consider this: MySpace monthly page views have now surpassed MSN or AOL in the U.S. and are nearly 75% of the size of Yahoo!. Social networking has filled a gap that was left by all the existing portals and web services and it is fulfilling a very important and basic function for millions of users: allowing them to express themselves and connect with their friends, with the two functions tightly integrated.

The leading sites such as MySpace (News Corp), Facebook, and others are amassing significant power in the new landscape of the Internet and the existing Internet companies are likely to have to work with these newcomers as they may yield material control on the flow of traffic to other applications.”

Social networking sites such as MySpace.com, Facebook.com, Tagged.com, and TagWorld.com have educated consumers regarding the value of these sites and how to use them. Their success has spurred genre-specific social networks such as community-based/social networking news sites and music sites, which are discussed below.

Shoutmouth doesn’t view established social networking sites as competitors since these sites have a general focus. That is, members talk about all aspects of life, from dating to music to movies, etc. Conversely, Shoutmouth is solely focused on music.

B. Community-Based News Sites

Community-based news sites are sites in which members decide what’s newsworthy and what’s not. For instance, on Digg.com, the most prominent community-based news site, members “Digg” stories that they feel are most newsworthy. The stories that the community feels are most important rise to Digg’s homepage, while less important stories get little attention.

Digg’s one million members can submit stories, “digg” stories, and comment on stories. Digg focuses on general news with a slant towards technology, gaming and unique/sensational news. While Digg does have a Music area within its Entertainment section, this receives little focus. In fact, at the time of the writing of this plan, Digg’s music home page only includes one article submitted within the past 48 hours. Furthermore, Digg doesn’t pare down the music category into sub-categories such as Rock and individual music artists. Conversely, these sub-categories are the entire focus of Shoutmouth.

Other sites that are similar to Digg include Newsvine.com, Spotback.com and Gabbr.com. Of most relevance is the Digg-like site for music, Noisetap.com, which was launched by Ticketmaster in January 2007.

Like Digg, Noisetap.com allows members to submit and vote for music stories. Noisetap.com is organized by music genre and not by music artist. This most likely will not satisfy the needs of many music fans since they don’t have the ability to find news on the specific artists they care most about. Likewise, without a full-time staff actively researching and publishing news stories at the artist-level, Noisetap.com will never be able to offer the comprehensive news that Shoutmouth does.

While Shoutmouth is currently similar to community-based news sites in that members can submit stories and comment on the news they find most interesting, no established player in the market provides a comprehensive focus on music. In addition, Shoutmouth sees these sites as marketing partners as we have and will continue to submit our stories on them to increase our readership.

C. Community-Based Music Sites

There are many community-based music websites, although none focuses on music news such as Shoutmouth. Conversely, these sites generally give members the ability to create and listen to song play lists. The community acts to help individual members find new music and new friends based on similarities in their music tastes. Prominent sites in this genre include Last.fm, Finetune, Pandora, RadioBlogClub, MyStrands, iLike[1] and iJigg.

Last.fm is the most prominent community-based music site and is a good model with which to compare Shoutmouth. Likewise, we will benchmark our performance against Last.fm as we reach of goal of becoming the premier music news community and focus on becoming the premier music community.

According to Alexa, Last.fm is the 359th most visited site on the Internet. While Last.fm focuses on allowing members to create customized Internet stations based on their music tastes, the site has much additional content and social networking features. For instance, for each artist, Last.fm includes pictures, a bio, concert dates, discography, fans on Last.fm, and similar artists. Fans are also able to create journals and communicate with other fans. Key features that Last.fm doesn’t currently focus on include news and video.

D. Traditional Music Websites

Traditional music websites such as MTV.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard.com, NME.com, AOL Music, and Yahoo! Music tend to have many features such as news, reviews, pictures, videos and audio. While these sites are generally very well done and extremely popular, they are under-serving visitors in two core areas: music news and community .

These sites’ lack of music news stems from the difficulty in creating this news, specifically that it requires filtering through thousands of articles and websites to find relevant stories. Likewise, as discussed, these firms might wish to license our news content in the future.

Regarding community , none of the top music sites are thriving communities. Rather, either these sites offer no community features or they recently began offering select features (e.g., submitting reviews or commenting on articles). Even when available, the community features on these sites are afterthoughts and are not engrained within the core fabric of the sites.

While they haven’t been able to transform their current sites into communities, top music websites clearly understand the power of online music communities and have an appetite for them. For example, in January 2007, MTV invested in social networking website TagWorld. MTV also acquired RateMyProfessors.com and Quizilla.com (teen social network) in January 2007 and October 2006 respectively.

As mentioned previously, our vision is to build and incorporate additional technologies, and use our “army” of members to publish vast amounts of music content on Shoutmouth, in order to fully satisfy music fans and leapfrog traditional music sites in terms of their music content.

E. Official Artist and Fan Sites

Shoutmouth com’s with official music artist websites and fan websites. These sites often include news about the specific artist as well as pictures, videos and other relevant information.

On one hand, official music artist and fan websites are direct competitors to Shoutmouth. This is because some of these sites offer comprehensive news on the specific artist they cover. In addition, many offer forums, discussion boards or other ways to communicate with other fans.

However, two factors separate Shoutmouth from these types of sites: 1) breadth and 2) sophistication.

• Breadth : Most music fans love more than one artist. As such, in order to get the news they want, they would have to visit/join multiple fan or artist websites rather than getting all of their news from Shoutmouth.
• Sophistication : While some official music artist websites are technologically sophisticated, offering forums, networking and other worthwhile features, the majority of artist and fan websites have limited usability, functionality and networking ability. In fact, this deficiency has lead to the success of MusicToday, which provides front and back-end technology to power artist websites.

Specifically, MusicToday offers web design and hosting, develops sophisticated online stores, builds online fan clubs and offers web ticketing among other services to select top music artists such as Dave Matthews Band, Christina Aguilera, Kenny Chesney, Britney Spears and Usher. While offering sophisticated tools for select music artist websites, MusicToday offers little to no music news nor advanced social networking functions. For instance, the official Dave Matthews Band website offers less than one news story per month.

F. Direct Competitors: Community-Based Music News Sites

Shoutmouth’s direct competitors are other music news websites that have social or community features that allow users to join the site, submit articles, comment on articles, create public profiles and/or communicate with other members. Shoutmouth has identified one significant player who offers this service, AbsolutePunk.net.

AbsolutePunk.net has done a good job of building a user base (the site claims 125,000+ registered members and nearly 500,000 un-registered members). In addition, the user base is very active — the average story on their site receives approximately 20 comments. AbsolutePunk.net offers music news, reviews, pictures and interviews among other features.

On the negative side, AbsolutePunk.net’s articles are generally posted by one staff writer (as opposed to Shoutmouth’s five writers), most articles are simply one sentence posts rather than full articles, and no attempt seems to have been made to cover all news stories. In addition, the site only covers the punk music genre. Although “punk” is broadly defined on the site, the site doesn’t cater to genres such as R&B, rap and country among others, failing to satisfy the broader market.

AbsolutePunk.net is owned by Indieclick, a Los Angeles-based media company. According to the AbsolutePunk.net website, the site:

• Has developed a loyal (72% return rate) reader base
• 5,182,147 Posts
• 163,535 Threads
• 126,448 Members
• 1,711 Artist Profiles
• 20,774 Multimedia Files
• Approx 76,000 visits per day.
• Approx 276,000 pageviews per day.

Shoutmouth’s Competitive Advantage

In addition to being the first to fill the untapped market void for comprehensive music news, Shoutmouth’s competitive advantage in the market primarily includes the following:

Online Marketing Sophistication

Content Development Experience and Expertise

Shoutmouth’s team, primarily team members DL and PF, has operated an affiliate marketing business focusing on music for the past four years. Affiliate marketing is defined as a system of revenue sharing between one site (the affiliate) which features an ad or content designed to drive traffic to another site (the merchant). The affiliate receives a fee based on traffic to the merchant which converts to sales.

Our affiliate business has focused on connecting music fans, primarily aged 13 to 30, with music offers such as iPods and ringtones. Over the past two years, we have successful sold affiliated offers to over 500,000 customers. We have become a significant online advertiser, receiving Google’s “over 1 million leads” award, and are recognized as a major player among the top affiliate networks.

It is important to note that affiliate marketing success has been credited with part of MySpace’s success. This is because effective affiliate marketers understand how to drive and convert on Internet traffic.

Shoutmouth will employ its affiliate marketing techniques to drive traffic to Shoutmouth.com and enroll members. We will utilize technologies and proprietary techniques that allow us to monitor multiple metrics such as the cost per visitor, cost per member sign-up, etc., so that we can set and maintain profitable metrics.

Another venture that Shoutmouth team members, primarily PK and DL, launched was the development of over 3,000 niche websites. To create the content for these websites, we employed a virtual work force of over 90 researchers in India and 30 writers and editors in the US.

This experience taught us how to manage a large workforce, train writers to improve content quality and motivate a large group of people. These skill sets will be critical in allowing Shoutmouth to grow the content of the site, as developed by both staff and members, while maintaining quality standards.

IV. Marketing Plan

Shoutmouth’s marketing plan includes the following:

Online Advertising : Shoutmouth will initiate pay-per-click advertising campaigns on Google and Yahoo! in order to inexpensively drive traffic to the site. Specifically, Shoutmouth believes it can drive qualified traffic to the site for 20 cents per visitor and achieve a 20% member conversion rate, thus generating members at a cost of $1.00 per member.

Keys to Shoutmouth’s success in achieving this metric include:

• Conducting thorough keyword research and advertising on appropriate keywords and keyword groups
• Creating advertising text that maximizes click through rates
• Creating landing pages that maximize conversions while maintaining the highest Google AdWords quality score possible
• Closely monitoring conversions to quickly stop and/or modify unprofitable campaigns
• Getting individuals to enter their email address to join the newsletter is much easier than getting them to join a site where they have to create a username, select a password, etc. As such, step one will be to get visitors to sign up for artist-specific newsletters.
• Once on the newsletter distribution list, members will constantly receive messages (embedded in their daily newsletter) regarding the benefits of participating more on Shoutmouth.
• Active Shoutmouth Membership: the constant reminders regarding Shoutmouth’s value proposition in the daily newsletters will influence members to participate more actively on the site (e.g., customize their profile, visit the site more often, etc.).

Invite-A-Friend : Shoutmouth is in the process of creating an aggressive invite-a-friend/member referral program. In doing so, we are following the lead of social movie community, Flixster, which grew to 5 million members within 10 months. It did this by encouraging members, during their initial registration process, to upload and send an invitation to multiple contacts in their email address books. The technology to develop this process is fairly complex and we expect to be completed with and to rollout this program in June 2007.

Direct Email Marketing : Shoutmouth will directly contact bloggers and prominent music fans we find online to tell them about Shoutmouth, encourage them to join, and encourage them to write about Shoutmouth on their blogs and online journals .

Creating/Distributing Buzzworthy/Viral Content : Shoutmouth plans to have several buzzworthy/viral articles (i.e., content that people would want to email to their friends since it is funny, interesting, etc.) on the site each day. With a single click, visitors will be able to send these articles to social bookmarking sites such as Digg.com or Fark.com, where these articles could receive widespread attention. In addition to our traditional news stories, Shoutmouth will also periodically create special reports/features in order to satisfy our members and visitors and to try to get widespread exposure.

An example of the power of such buzzworthy content, Shoutmouth has already succeeded in having two stories accepted by Fark and Digg, which have brought in over 50,000 unique visitors.

Super Fans/Street Team Development : Shoutmouth also plans to recruit “super fans.” Super fans are individuals who are passionate about a certain music artist/band and actively contribute articles and/or comments on Shoutmouth. We will recruit these fans, reward them with status (e.g., adding a gold Shoutmouth headphones image to their profile page) and encourage them to more aggressively promote the site by:

• Submitting more news to Shoutmouth
• Commenting on more articles on Shoutmouth
• Growing the Shoutmouth community around their favorite artist(s) by actively recruiting new members to join the site (such as actively posting Shoutmouth-related comments on their MySpace pages, on other music forums, etc.)

Public Relations : Upon financing, Shoutmouth will hire a public relations firm to help us get mentions in media sources ranging from magazines, newspapers, radio, television and blogs. To date, we have developed and issued press releases via Billboard Publicity Wire which have been syndicated throughout the web. An effective PR firm will enable Shoutmouth to quickly reach a wide audience.

Widgets : Shoutmouth will create artist-specific and genre-specific music news widgets. For example, our U2 widget (see example on right) would include all of the recent U2 articles published on Shoutmouth. The widget can easily be placed on MySpace pages, blogs, etc. Each story title in the widget links to the full article on Shoutmouth.

Shoutmouth has great expectations for our widget. To begin, no such widget currently exists as there is no one place to get comprehensive news for specific music artists. Secondly, each time someone places a Shoutmouth widget on their blog or social networking page, it will effectively market Shoutmouth to a wide audience at zero cost to us.

V. Technology/Site Development Plan

This section provides a brief roadmap of the initial and future functionality of Shoutmouth.

Initial Site Functionality

The initial Shoutmouth website will include the following features:

• Ability to submit and comment on news stories
• Ability to suggest new music artists to add to the site
• Ability to create user profiles
• Ability to receive customized news and email alerts
• Articles categorized by artist and core genre (e.g., Rock, Rap, Pop, etc.)
• Music artist sections which includes News, Bio and Fans

Future Site Functionality

Shoutmouth will use news and basic functionality as the platform though which we will build a thriving music community. After initial launch, the Shoutmouth technology team will work on incorporating additional features such as:

• Ability to message other members via the site (e.g., members will have an Inbox on the site)
• Event calendars: members will receive online calendars. With the click of a button, the member will be able to add tour dates of their favorite artists/bands to their calendar.
• Articles also categorized by sub-genre (e.g., Alternative Rock, West Coast Rap, etc.)
• Music artist sections to also include videos, audio files, photo galleries, reviews and event calendars to which members can upload files and vote on top content.
• Forums and member blogs
• Music compatibility testing (suggestions on song/artists members might like)
• Trivia quizzes
• Music playlists

VI. Financial Plan

Revenue Model

During the first six months, Shoutmouth will not generate any revenues as it will not sell advertising space nor offer products for sale. This decision has been made to spur the growth of the Shoutmouth community. By initially positioning Shoutmouth more as a non-profit, for-the-people-by-the-people venture, members will be more prone to promote the site and invite their friends than if the site looks too commercial.

Starting in September 2007, Shoutmouth will primarily generate revenues from selling advertising space. As technologies (such as the Snocap music widget) evolve that allow us to seamlessly integrate music sampling and purchasing on our site, sales of downloadable music are also expected to be a significant revenue source. To a lesser extent, we may sell other music-related items such as ringtones, concert tickets, and apparel.

Funding To Date

To date, Shoutmouth’s founders have invested $500,000 in Shoutmouth, with which we have accomplished the following:

• Built the site’s core technology
• Hired and trained our core staff (we currently maintain an 11-person full-time team)
• Populated the website with content (over 10,000 articles and 1,200 artist bios)
• Generated brand awareness among music fans, including driving 50,000 unique visitors in March, 100,000 unique visitors in April, and 200,000 unique visitors in May 2007.

Funding Requirements/Use of Funds

Shoutmouth is currently seeking $3 million to provide funding for the next 24 months. At this point, the site will be profitable and can grow organically, or additional capital may be sought to more aggressively expand our member base.

The capital will be used as follows:

• Execution of Marketing plan : in order for Shoutmouth to grow its visitor and member base, we need to invest dollars in online advertising and public relations. With regards to online advertising, we are confident that we can enroll members at a cost of $1 per member, which is a fraction of the value of the members to an acquirer (minimum $25 per member), thus providing a significant return on our marketing investments.
• Execution of Technology plan : in order to build a thriving community, Shoutmouth needs to offer its visitors a “stickier” website and enhanced features. We currently maintain a vast “wish list” of features, such as members uploading and rating pictures and videos, trivia quizzes, and member-to-member messaging, that will significantly improve the site’s functionality and value proposition.
• Staffing : In order to reach our goals, we will have to hire additional technical and operations personnel.

Financial Projections

Below is an overview of Shoutmouth’s Financial Projections for the next three years. Please see the Appendix for the full financial projections and key assumptions.

Exit Strategy / Valuation Metric

Shoutmouth’s most likely exit strategy is to be acquired by a traditional music website or property (e.g., Viacom/MTV, Ticketmaster, Rolling Stone), an entertainment/media conglomerate (e.g., Yahoo!, IAC/InterActiveCorp, NBC), or a large social networking site (e.g., News Corp/MySpace).

This strategy is supported by the significant M&A activity in the social networking market, which includes the following transactions over the past 24 months:

Regarding valuation, below are the estimated valuations of social networking companies on a per member basis upon exit:

• Del.icio.us: $50 – $100 per member
• MySpace: $25 per member
• Xing (business social network): $137 per member at IPO in 10/06
• Flickr: $56 – $130 per member
• Grouper: $130 per member

Based on this data, not only are social networking sites a promising investment, but sites that can acquire members for less than $25 each (a conservative valuation estimate based on the figures above), should earn a solid return on investment. As discussed above, Shoutmouth’s goal is to acquire members for no more than $1 each.

In addition, per the membership projections above, Shoutmouth’s valuation at the end of 2009, at a $25 valuation per member, is expected to be $239 million. A more conservative, using a 24.4 time EBITDA multiple (the average multiple of tech M&A deals in 2006 according to The M&A Advisor), yields a $121 million valuation in 2009.

Shoutmouth’s founding team includes entrepreneurs and managers with a track record of success and a history of successfully working together.

Management Team

DL, Co-Founder and CEO

D has a history of successfully launching and growing businesses of all sizes. As president and co-founder of an entrepreneurial services firm., D has personally assisted in the launch and development of over 100 ventures.

Over the past three years, D founded and has managed The Kisco Group which includes an affiliate marketing division (2006 revenues exceeded $3 million), a search engine optimization business which includes a network of 3,000 websites (2006 revenues exceeded $500,000) and an e-commerce business (which includes TopPayingKeywords.com and ShowerHeadsEtc.com).

D earned his Bachelors degree from the University of South Carolina.

PK, Co-Founder and Vice President of Operations

For the past two years, P has managed The Kisco Group’s search engine optimization business where he hired, trained and managed nearly 100 employees and a dozen outside firms. During this time, P has honed his management skills with regards to content development, marketing and operations.

P has had a passion for music since childhood and has been a semi-professional drummer for the past 15 years.

P earned his Bachelors of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Clemson University.

PF, Co-Founder and Vice President of Technology

For the past year, P has managed The Kisco Group’s affiliate marketing business. In addition to setting up and managing widespread marketing campaigns, P has developed sophisticated analytic techniques to precisely analyze web traffic in order to optimize profitability.

Since August 2006, P has shifted his efforts and leveraged his technology skills in developing the Shoutmouth website. P has been instrumental in selecting the Content Management Platform upon which Shoutmouth is built, and finding and managing the technology team.

P earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College.

AB, Marketing Manager

A’s background in music includes being a singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer. He has also worked on the marketing side of music, having marketed Veritas Records through the development and distribution of promotional materials.

A’s career also includes psychological research and administration, having served as a Research Assistant with the Interpersonal Perception And Communication Laboratory in Cambridge, MA.

A earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Ohio State University.

M, Lead Technology Developer

M is an experienced web programmer with expertise in web design, application development and database development among others.

M’s work experience includes serving as a Senior Developer at Spheres. M has also engaged in multiple, long term freelance projects including serving as a Database Developer Consultant with The Penn Group and a Web Developer Consultant with Volution Media Group and Allied Online Consulting Group.

M earned his Bachelors degree in Computer Science with a minor in Cognitive Science from Rutgers University.

Content Development Team

Shoutmouth’s writing team, managed by PK, includes the following members:

• JS, Editorial Manager: former content manager and copywriter for Scholastic Inc. and Promotions.com.
• TZ: former music intern (Virgin Records and WRRV) and author of the blog, The Tom Z Show .
• ML: former assistant editor for Adventure Publishing; author of the blog Certified Gangsta ; and former editor-in-chief of Fordham University’s newspaper The Paper .
• SB: former staff writer for Paste Magazine , The Clarion Ledger , and Nightclub and Bar Magazine among others.
• CSJ: former editorial intern for Rolling Stone and Editorial Assistant for Psychology Today .

Outsourced Technology Team

Shoutmouth works very closely with 2skies, a technology firm based in Australia with staff in Australia and the United States. 2skies is run by JDN, one of the co-founding developers of XE, the platform upon which Shoutmouth is built.

XE is an extensible, Open Source web application framework written in PHP and licensed under the GNU General Public License. XE delivers the requisite infrastructure and tools to create custom web applications that include fully dynamic multi-platform Content Management Solutions (CMS).

VIII. Appendix: Shoutmouth Financial Projections   3-Year Income Statement

3-Year Balance Sheet

As of December 31

3-Year Cash Flow Statement

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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.

How much do you need?

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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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500+ Clear business plan examples

Need help writing your business plan? Explore over 500 free real-world business plan view from a wide type of our to guide you through writing your own plan. If you're looking for an intuitive tool that walks they through the plan writing process, we recommend LivePlan . It includes many of these same SBA-approved business plan examples additionally is more useful when applying for a store home or outside investment.

Find your store plan

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Business planning template: There's an easier type to get our business plan done.

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Example business plan format

Before you start exploring our library of business plan examples, it's worth taking the time to understand the tradition business plan format . You'll find that the plans in this library and largest investor-approved business plans will include the following sections:

Executive outline

The executive summaries is an overview of your business also own plans. It comes first in your plan press a ideally only one to double pages. You must also plan to write this section last following you've wrote your full company scheme.

Your executive summarized should include a summary of aforementioned report it are solving, a description of your product or service, an overview of your target market, a brief description of your team, a summery of your financials, and your funding requirements (if she are raising money).

Products & services

The products & services chapter of your business plan is where the real meat to your plot lives. It includes information around the problem that you're solving, your solution, and any traction is proves that it honestly matches the want you identified.

This is your chance up announce why you're in economy or that join maintenance about about you offer. It needs to auf go a simply product or maintenance description and get at who heart of why your business works also benefits your customers. 300+ Great Free Business Plan Examples for 2023 | Growthink

Market analysis

Conducting a market analysis ensures that you whole understand the market that you're ingress and who you'll live selling into. Save section is where you willingly showcase all out the information about yours potential your. You'll cover your target market as fine as information with which growth of your trade and your our. Focus on shape why the market you're entering is viable plus creating ampere really persona for their ideal my base.

Competition

Component of defining your zweck has designation what the competitor advantage could be. To do this inefficient you need to get to know your opponents just more well as your target customers. Every business will possess competition, if you don't then you're either in an super young business or there's a good reason no only exists pursuing this targeted venture.

To succeed, you wanted to be sure him know who is competition be, how your operate, necessary financial benchmarks, and how you're business will remain positioned. Start by identifying which yours rival are or will exist during your market research. Next leverage competitive analysis tools like the competitive die and positioning map to solidify wherever your employment floor in sort to the race.

Marketing & sales

The marketing and sales plan sektionen of your business draft details how you map to arrive autochthonous target market segments. You'll address how you plan on sales to those target markets, what your pricing plan shall, and what guest of activities and partnerships you need to build your business a success.

One operations teilstrecke covers the day-to-day workflows for your work to deliver your product or service. What's included here fully depends on the type of business. Typically you can expectation to add details on your business spot, sourcing and completion, use of technological, and any partnerships or agreement such are in placement.

Milestone & metrics

The milestones section your where you lay out strategic project to reach your business goals.

A good milestone clearly lays out aforementioned parameters of of task at hand and sets outlook fork its execution. You'll want to include a project of the task, a proposed just date, who is responsible, furthermore eventually a budget that's attached. Yourself don't need extensive project planning in aforementioned section, just key occasions that you want until hit and when it plan to hit them. (Former) Business Programming and Marketing Associate. Food & Agricultural Commodity Center. Oklahoma State University. January 2006 ...

You should also discuss key metrics, which are the digits thee will track to determine your track. Some common data points worth tracking include translation daily, customer getting costs, profit, etc. Example business plan format · Executive summary · Products & services · Market analysis · Competition · Marketing & achieved · Operations · Military & indicators · Company ...

Business & team

Use which section to characterize your current team and who you need to hire. If you intend to pursue funding, you'll need to highlight the relevant experience of your team members. Basically, this is show you prove such diese exists the right team to successfully start and grow the business. You will also need to provide a quicker overview of your legal structure press history if you're already up and current.

Financial projections

Your corporate project should include a turnover and income forecast, win real loss statement, pos flow statement, and a balance sheet. You may not have established financials of any kind at those step. Not to worry, rather greater geholt choose of this click washed out, focus on making projections and strategic forecasts for will business. Him can always update thy financial statements as you begin operations and start bringing in real auditing information.

Now, if them intend to pitch to investors or send a loan application, you'll also need a "use of funds" report in this untergliederung. This outlines how you intend to leverage any funding in your business additionally wie greatly you're sounding into acquire. Like the break of your financials, this can always be updated later on. Wherewith to Spell the Business Plan Choose and Services Section

The appendix isn't a essential element of your commercial flat. However, it is a valuable place for add any table, graphics, definitions, legislative notes, or other critic information that supports your plan. These are often lengthier or out-of-place information that simply didn't work naturally into and structure of your plan. You'll notice so in this business floor examples, the appendix mainly includes extended financial statements.

Types of general plans explained

While all business plans cover similar categories, and style and functionality fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. The get the most off of your plan, it's best to seek a format that suits your needs. Here are a some common business plan types worth considering.

Traditional commercial plan

The tried-and-true traditional business plan is adenine formal document meant to be utilized for external purposes. Typically to is the genre of plan you'll needs whenever applying for funding or lurch to investors. It can also be used when training or hiring employees, jobs with vendors, or in any other circumstances where the total details by your business must be understood by another particular.

Economy model canvas

The business model sheet is a one-page master designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, stylish favor of a single-page outline that can help you plus outside celebrations better explore your business idea.

The texture ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template. It encourages you to build connections with every ite of your business. It's faster until record outward furthermore update, and great easier for you, your team, press anyone else at visualize your store operations.

One-page trade plan

The real middle ground between the business model painting both a traditional business plan is the one-page business plan . This format is ampere lightened version away the traditional plan that concentration about the core aspects of your business.

By starting with a one-page plan , you give yourself a minimal document to build from. You'll standard stick with bullets points and standalone phrases manufacture it much easier to elaborate or expand sections include a longer-form employment plan.

Growth planning

Growth planning is more than a specific type is business plan. It's a how. It takes one simplicity and styling of the one-page business-related plan and turn it into adenine proceed fork you to continuously plan, prognoses, review, and refine based on your performance.

It waiting entire of this service of the single-page plan, including the potential to complete it in than little as 27 minutes . However, it's even easier to convert into a more detailed plan thanks to how slowly it's tied to your financials. The gesamtansicht object of how planning isn't to just product documents that they use once and shelve. Instead, the growth planning process helps you build a healthier businesses which thrives in ages of economic additionally remain stable though times of crisis.

It's faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your floor is always up-to-date.

Download a release sample commercial plan template

Done for start writing your own plan but aren't sure where to start? Transfer our free business plan template that's been updated for 2023.

This simple, modern, investor-approved business plan screen is designed to make planning basic. It's a proven format that has aided over 1 million organizations write business plans for banks loans, funding pitches, business expansion, and even business sales. E includes additional instruction required as to write anyone section and remains formatted to be SBA-lender approved. All you requirement to do is filler to the bare. 500+ Free Business Layout See and Templates — Bplans

How at how an example business plan to help you write the own

How do you know what items need to is included in your business plan, specifically is you've never written one before? Looking along examples able help you fancy what a full, traditional plan looked like, so you know what you're aiming for before you get started. Here's how to get the of out of a sample business plan.

Choose a shop plan example from a resemble type of company

Him don't what to find an example business plan that's an exact appropriate for your business. Your business-related locality, target market, and even insert particular product or service may not comply up exactly is the plans in our exhibition. But, you don't need an exact match for e to be usable. Instead, look for a plan that's related to aforementioned type of business you're starting. The 7 Best Economy Plan Examples to Inspire Your Own

With example, if you want to start a vegetarian our, adenine plan for one steakhouse can be a great match. While the specifics of your actual startup will differ, the elements you'd want to include in your restaurant's business floor are likely to exist strongly similar.

Use a business plan instance in a travel

Every startup and small business is unique, so you'll want toward avoid copy can example business plan word with word. Itp just won't be as helpful, since each business is unique. You want your plan the be a useful tool for first a economy —and getting fund when to need it.

Single of this key gains of writing a business plan is simply going through the process. When you sit down to write, you'll course think through important pieces, like your startup costs, your target market , both any market analysis or investigation you'll need in do up be successful.

You'll also look at where you stand among your competition (and each has competition), and lay out your goals and the milestones you'll need to meet. Looking at an example business plan's financials division can be helpful because you can see what should can in, but take them equipped a grain of amount. Don't assume that financial projections for an sample company will fit your own small business.

If you're looking for more resources to promote you retrieve started, our business planning guide is a great place at start. You canister also download our release business plan template , with take started right away with LivePlan .

Reckon of business planning how a process, instead of adenine document

Think about business raumordnung as any i does often , much than a document you create once real never looking at again. If you take the time to write an plant that really fits your own company, it will be an better, more advantageous tool to rise yours business. It should also make it easier to share your fantasy and strategy so everyone on your team is on the same page.

Adjust your plan regularly to use it as a business management apparatus

Keep in mind this businesses is use their plan as a managerial tool on help run their business grow 30 percent faster than those businesses so don't. For that to live true available your company, you'll think of a part concerning your company planning process as location your actual befunde against your financial forecast on a regular basics.

If things are left well, your plan will help her suppose about how you can re-invest on your business. If you find that you're not meeting goals, you might need to adjust your budgetary oder your sales forecast. Or way, tracking your progress compared to your design can help you adjust faster whenever them identify challenges and opportunities—it's one of the most powerful things it can accomplish to grow your business. 18 Best Sample Economy Plans & Examples to Help You Write Your Own

Prepare to park your business

If you're planning to shaft your business go investors or seek out any funds, you'll needs a pitch deck to guidance your business plan. A pitch decking is designed to inform people learn your employment. You want your pitch top to be short and lightweight to track, so it's best go keep choose presentation under 20 slides. 7 Business Scheme Examples to Inspire Your Own (2023)

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How to write a business plan: a step-by-step guide and template.

Download our editable business plan template that you can fill out with your own information as you follow along with this guide.

No matter what kind of business you’re starting, it will benefit from great planning. Creating a detailed business plan puts you, the entrepreneur, in forward-thinking mode, which increases the likelihood of your success. You can use this plan to help you navigate your market and grow your small business, or share your plan with external stakeholders such as your major customers, leasing agents or lenders.

Creating a detailed business plan puts you, the entrepreneur, in forward-thinking mode, which increases the likelihood of your success.

For your plan to be effective, you’ll need to keep it specific and succinct. In this post, I’ll outline the nine key elements of a business plan step by step:

• Background and executive summary
• Products and services
• Industry or market overview
• Competitive position
• Go-to-market strategy
• Technology and operations
• Financial plan

1. Background and executive summary

This section provides basic information about your company. In 100 to 200 words, include the following information:

• Your business plan’s purpose (e.g., to help you clarify your business, obtain funding or secure a lease
• Your primary business goals and their projected time frame
• Your business’s ownership, including owners’ names and their percent of ownership
• Your legal business name and when it was formed
• Your business’s location and operating area

If you have a vision or mission statement for your business, include them in this section.

2. Products and services

In 100 to 500 words, depending on the complexity and breadth of your offerings, summarize the types of products and services your company offers, as well as the industry, market or consumer audience you serve.

• Example: Our company specializes in exterior concrete landscape services. We provide walkways, paths, driveways, curbs and garden forms.

If you offer multiple products or services, organize them into categories as applicable. Explain these categories and describe the products and services within.

3. Industry or market overview

This section will convey the market opportunity in 200 to 500 words. If your chosen market is too small, you may need to shift to a different niche or broaden your market pursuit. You will need to research the market to ensure you fully understand the opportunity and size of the total addressable market (TAM).

If your chosen market is too small, you may need to shift to a different niche or broaden your market pursuit.

Once you’ve finished your research, create an overview of your industry or market:

• Summarize the research you conducted on your industry’s size, growth rates and important trends. Focus on proving that the TAM is large enough for your new business to be successful.
• Reference credible reports on industry research from sources such as IBISWorld, Deloitte and PwC, or sources such as Hoover’s, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) or 10Ks. Sometimes, research reports are free, or you can glean sufficient information from the report’s press release. A 10K is essentially a highly detailed annual report provided by publicly traded companies in a Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)-mandated format. With valuable insights in their industry and risks section, these reports are available online from the SEC’s Edgar database .
• Provide a brief overview of your business’s local or regional market, as applicable. If you were opening a bakery, for example, your competition would be other bakeries, caterers or restaurants with in-house bakeries within a certain radius.

4. Competitive position

Understanding your competitors is key to optimally positioning yourself in your market.

• Describe three of your competitors (50 to 75 words each, in separate paragraphs) that most closely match your business’s profile. Provide each business’s name, location, service area, products and services as well as any of your competitive advantages.
• Summarize your ideal customer in two sentences, including the applicable industries and demographics.
• Specify the advantages that set you apart from your competitors and allow you to charge more. In two sentences, include examples such as stellar customer service, rapid response rate, after-hours service or a strong distribution network.

5. Go-to-market strategy

The objective here is to succinctly lay out the strategy you’ll use to pursue your market, in under 500 words.

• First define your goals (sales and otherwise) for the next year, the next three years and the next five years, if you know them.
• How will you deliver your offerings to your market? If you’re a baker, for example, will you deliver your offerings through a retail bakery, a commercial bakery or a catering service? Choose the option that best leverages your resources and strengths.
• Will you use direct sales, partnerships, distributors or a combination? How do your customers want to be served?
• What business technology tools do you need to operate efficiently?

How will you deliver your offerings to your market? Choose the option that best leverages your resources and strengths.

• If they hang out on social media, do they interact with groups, ads or influencers?
• If they attend workshops or read blogs, can you speak at relevant events or write articles?
• Will time-tested strategies like cold calling or flyers work best?

6. Management

Since your small business is brand new, your major customers, suppliers and investors will put significant emphasis on your management team. Regardless of your background or experience, you’ll want to position your management team to convey strength.

• Provide a three-to-five-sentence summary of each founder and executive team member. If there’s only you but you intend to hire someone in the next six months, summarize this upcoming role and use a placeholder such as “TBD, General Manager.”
• Advisory board: Add a brief bulleted list of people who’ll assist your business in areas outside your expertise, such as marketing, legal or accounting. Provide these people’s names, titles and existing roles.

7. Technology and operations

In this section, describe the basic operational structure of your business in 100 to 200 words.

• Staffing: Describe the roles you will need help with and why, as applicable. Will you hire employees to fill these roles, or will you outsource?
• Technology: Describe the technology you need to support your business and why. Business smartphones , for example, might be necessary for tracking product delivery or service personnel, and you might need accounting software to track financial performance.

8. Financial plan

Provide an overview of how you will generate money, how much you will generate, what your startup and capital expenses (CapEx) will be and what your ongoing operating expenses (OpEx) will be in 300 to 500 words.

• Revenue model: Briefly describe how you’ll generate revenue. For example, will you sell your services on an hourly basis or as value-driven packages?
• COGS: Direct labor, fuel, raw material, inventory, shipping or delivery, commissions
• SG&A: Marketing, legal, indirect labor (support personnel)
• Startup expenses: List out the one-time expenses for legal formation, research, insurance, asset purchases and more that you need to get your business up and running. Total the amount.

Check your pricing against your competitors and adjust if needed, focusing on the overall value you deliver.

• Capital expenses: These are investments in assets such as vehicles, equipment or office build-out that you will periodically incur as your firm grows. What are your expansion plans, what assets will be needed, and what is the timing? Since CapEx is not part of ordinary OpEx, forecast these out separately.
• Pricing: What is your pricing? Have you built in enough of a profit margin for your business to be sustainable? Using your annual operating expense total, determine your break-even point, which is how many products or services you need to sell to make $0 profit. Does this seem reasonable? Check your pricing against your competitors and adjust if needed, focusing on the overall value you deliver.
• Forecast: Project out your revenue and operating expenses for three or five years on a monthly basis. Include all your startup expenses in the first month. This will serve as your forecasted income statement. What are your assumptions? Write those down. Project out your capital expenditures for the same period.

9. Financing

Provide an overview (in 100 to 200 words) of your funding status and where you obtained or will obtain the money.

• When you map out funding sources, remember the matching principle. You want short-term capital for short-term items such as inventory and long-term capital for equipment or hiring long-term personnel.
• Clearly state your financing objectives, including specifically what you need the money for.
• If your forecast allows it, do you intend to grow by reinvesting profits? If so, state that here.
• For outside financing, include a table outlining sources and uses of funds.
• Finally, attach the income statement and CapEx forecasts at the back of this business plan.

Remember, your business plan is a living document. The market could shift at any time, and your predictions could prove incorrect. It’s critical to check your plan against what’s actually happening so you can identify trends as they’re unfolding. If you have a succinct plan, it will be easier to revisit at least semi-annually and adjust as needed to achieve your goals.

Don’t forget to download our business plan template for you to edit, retain and modify as your business grows.

To help entrepreneurs and their startups thrive, Samsung offers exclusive volume discounts, financing and other deals on the full range of Galaxy devices through Samsung Business Direct . 

Tiffany C. Wright

Tiffany C. Wright is a former business owner and results-driven COO currently working as an SMB consultant helping owners drive major changes in their businesses and perspectives to achieve their objectives. Her clients have experienced cash flow improvement of 2 to 4 times, 20% to 250% increases in profitability, drastic increases in employee morale, transformation into salable businesses, and high owner satisfaction.

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500+ Free Sample Business Plans

• EntrepreneursGateway.com Team
• March 13, 2019

Whether you are launching a new start-up or looking to grow your business, impress investors, or secure funding, one thing is certain: you’ll need a business plan.

Well, no need to feel intimidated!

In fact, our team at EntrepreneursGateway.com has curated a list of some of the best sample business plans on the web to help you start writing your own plan today. 

Use them as a (step by step) track to run on, or simply copy their content! Either way you’ll have the perfect business plan – fast.

Ready to get started?

POPULAR SAMPLE BUSINESS PLANS

Advertising Agency

Free sample business plan for an advertising agency. Can also be used for other types of agencies, consulting businesses, and advertising businesses.

Free sample business plan for a bakery. Can be easily adapted to all kinds of cafes, pastry shops, donut shops, tea rooms, and other eateries.

Bar & Restaurant

Free sample business plan for a Bar & Restaurant business. Can also be used for all kinds of bars, restaurants, delis, kiosks, bistros, diners, pizzerias, etc.

Free sample business plan for a gift shop boutique business. Can also be used for other types of boutique businesses.

Free sample business plan for an Ecommerce business. Can be easily adapted to all kinds of retail and online stores.

Medical Center

Free sample business plan for a medical center. Can also be used for all kinds of healthcare businesses, such as hospitals, nursing homes, dental offices, chiropractic clinics, etc.

Outdoor Activity Center

Free sample business plan for an outdoor activity center. Can be easily adapted to all kinds of activity centers, such as indoor playgrounds, soft play centers, and so on.

Real Estate

Free sample business plan for a golf and leisure homes business. Can also be used for home real estate, horse boarding real estate, and all sorts of property businesses.

CATEGORY LIST

• Accounting and Bookkeeping Services Sample Business Plan
• Agencies and Consulting Services Sample Business Plan
• Bar and Restaurant Sample Business Plan
• Beauty Salon and Spa Sample Business Plan
• Children's Products and Services Sample Business Plan
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• Education and Training Sample Business Plan
• Ecommerce and Retail
• Fitness Center and Sports Sample Business Plan
• Hotel and Bed and Breakfast Sample Business Plan
• Manufacturing Sample Business Plan
• Medical and Health Centers Sample Business Plan
• Nonprofit Sample Business Plan
• Pet Services and Pet Supplies Sample Business Plan
• Real Estate Sample Business Plan
• Restaurant, Cafe, and Bakery Sample Business Plan
• Services Sample Business Plan
• Transportation Sample Business Plan
• Wedding and Event Planning Sample Business Plan
• Wholesale Sample Business Plan

HOW TO USE OUR SAMPLE BUSINESS PLANS TO WRITE YOUR OWN (FAST)

Our resources are designed to help you write the perfect plan for your business, quickly and stress-free .

1. Start by browsing our pages to find the perfect business plan for your needs. Remember! It doesn’t have to be in the exact same category. In fact, you might find that lifting specific parts of different plans might be the perfect option for you. For example, if you are opening a café, you might find that both our Bakery Business Plan and our Bar & Restaurant Business Plan might suit you, depending on what you have in mind.

2. After choosing a plan, look at the structure we propose and write it down . Trust us when we say that this step is crucial and will make writing your business plan much, much easier… In fact, once this step is done, all you have to do is fill in the blanks!

3. Now that the skeleton of your plan is laid out, it’s time to get detailed and adapt our sample to your company. How? Just read through what we’ve written for our sample company, then rewrite the same text with your company in mind.

You’ll have the perfect business plan for your company in no time.

WHY USE OUR SAMPLE BUSINESS PLANS?

Not only our business plans come with step-by-step guidance and are very easy to use, but we’ve structured them so that they are compliant with SBA loan structures . In this way, you will be sure to impress investors and bank managers and have an edge over your competitors when it comes to obtain the funds you need.

We offer lots of samples as a track to run on and have done our very best to make what may look like a difficult job very easy for you.

STILL INTIMIDATED?

We know that writing a business plan can still feel like a huge task – even when you have samples to follow. If that’s the case, we have the perfect advice for you:

Start simple and elaborate later. 

This is why we’ve put together a Step by Step Guide on How to write a One Page Business Plan (FAST) . By following our advice, you can create a quick and easy business plan that contains all your company’s core objectives in no more than two pages. You can always expand it or refine it later, when your business is up and running.  

READY TO GET STARTED?

It’s time to browse our plans to find the one that’s perfect for you!

If you feel the need for more guidance, don’t forget to check our Definitive Business Plan Hub , where you’ll find lots of guides and resources to help you create the perfect business plan.

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Sample Business Plans

• Business Plans Handbook 2024 Actual business plans compiled by, and aimed at, entrepreneurs seeking funding for small businesses. Presents sample plans taken from businesses in the manufacturing, retail and service industries
• Free Sample Business Plans Over 500 example business plans. Choose the category that is closest to your own business or industry.

Business Plan Templates

• Business Plan Development Guide Provides practical and easy-to-follow guides for developing a business plan
• SCORE: Business Planning & Financial Statements Template Gallery Nonprofit association dedicated to entrepreneur education and growth and success of small businesses. Includes templates for business planning, finance, marketing and sales, and management.
• SBA Guide to Writing a Business Plan This guide provides information on the most common parts of a business plan with details on what is included in each part.

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Download Free Business Plan Examples

Download a free business plan in pdf or word doc format to make writing a plan fast and easy, find your sample plan.

Discover the sample plan that best fits your business. Search our gallery of over 550 sample business plans and find the one that's right for you.

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What You'll Get:

A complete business plan Unlike other blank templates, our business plan examples are complete business plans with all of the text and financial forecasts already filled out. Edit the text to make the plan your own and save hundreds of hours.

A professional business plan template All 550 of our business plans are in the SBA-approved format that’s proven to raise money from lenders and investors.

Instructions and help at every step Get help with clear, simple instructions for each section of the business plan. No business experience necessary.

A Word doc you can edit We don’t just have PDF documents that make editing a challenge. Each plan is available in Word format so you can start editing your business plan example right away.

Key Sections Included in our Example Business Plans:

Executive Summary : A quick overview of your plan and entices investors to read more of your plan.

Company : Describes the ownership and history of your business.

Products and Services : Reviews what you sell and what you’re offering your customers.

Market Analysis : Describes your customers and the size of your target market.

Strategy and Implementation : Provides the details of how you plan on building the business.

Management Team : An overview of the people behind the business and why they’re the right team to make the business a success.

Financial Plan : A complete set of forecasts including a Profit and Loss Statement, Cash Flow Statement, and Balance Sheet.

Looking for a sample business plan PDF? You can download a few PDF examples below:

• Accounting and Bookkeeping Sample Business Plan PDF
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Seattle gave low-income residents $500 monthly payments with no strings attached. Some got new housing and employment rates nearly doubled.

• A Seattle basic income pilot gave low-income residents $500 a month, nearly doubling employment rates.
• Some participants reported getting new housing, while others saw their employment incomes rise.
• Basic income pilots nationwide have seen noteworthy success, despite conservative opposition.

A Seattle -area guaranteed basic income pilot gave low-income residents $500 a month to help reduce poverty . Employment in the group nearly doubled, and numerous unhoused residents secured housing.

The Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County launched a 10-month guaranteed basic income pilot program with 102 participants in fall 2022. New findings by research firm Applied Inference reveal that the $5,000 total payments improved participants' quality of life , housing, and employment outcomes.

"These results showcase the power of community investment and the necessity of equitable solutions to address persistent barriers," said Marie Kurose, CEO of the WDC, in a statement. "The WDC will continue to use these insights to amplify our impact and drive transformative change in our region."

Though they have various characteristics and qualifications, guaranteed basic income programs offer direct cash payments to selected participants for a set amount of time. Some programs require participants to report what they use the monthly cash on , while others offer funds with no strings attached.

In the Seattle-area pilot program, public and private partners — such as King County, the Employment Security Department, and Chase Bank — provided funding to the participants, about 88% of whom were people of color. King County is a mostly white, wealthy county, according to Census data .

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Employment among the participants almost doubled from 37% before the program to 66% post-pilot. Participants also reported getting higher-paying jobs with additional benefits. Participants' average incomes increased from $2,995 a month to $3,405.

The percentage of participants whose jobs provided a retirement plan nearly tripled, while life insurance doubled. Over a quarter of participants reported acquiring disability insurance in their new jobs, which none of them had in their previous jobs.

Participants also reported being more financially stable , meaning they could pay off bills and debts while building up more savings for the future. For instance, the percent of participants with savings increased from 24% to 35% — for families with children, this increased from 0% to 42%. The percentage of those able to consistently pay their bills doubled from 19% to 38%. The percentage of those behind on all debts stayed stagnant.

The payments contributed to less anxiety and fatigue and more freedom to travel and spend on non-essentials. Likely due to increased ability to seek treatment, some also reported reduced physical pain, allowing them to go about their days more easily and complete educational or professional goals.

Parents reported using the payments mainly for their children's needs, though many said they couldn't significantly strengthen their own financial position. Parents were less likely to have started short-term professional training compared to non-parents.

Many participants said they wanted the program to continue for a full year rather than 10 months, while others suggested higher monthly payments as high as $1,000.

The results are on trend with those of similar pilot programs nationwide, which have seen massive success . Participants in universal and guaranteed basic income programs have widely reported that the funds helped them pay off debts, as well as afford groceries, childcare, and housing .

Even so, conservative lawmakers nationwide have loudly advocated against the programs, claiming that they discourage work and cost taxpayers. However, many of the pilot programs are funded privately by philanthropy or by federal relief funds. Republicans in several state legislatures have pushed efforts to ban basic income programs in their states.

Watch: Supreme Court strikes down Biden's student-debt relief plan

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Orlando City Council to decide fate of $500 million mixed-use sports complex plan

ORLANDO, Fla. — A proposed $500 million entertainment complex that could be built in across the street from the Kia Center in downtown Orlando could get the green light by the Orlando city council on Monday.

If approved by the city, the project will include a major hotel, retail, an event venue, meeting space, residential housing, and parking.

What You Need To Know

A new entertainment complex planned for downtown orlando is expected to be voted on monday by the orlando city council if approved, the project will include a major hotel, retail space, an event venue, meeting space, residential housing, and parking the entertainment venue includes two additional phases, one of which is a 27-story luxury apartment complex if approved, the project would break ground sometime next year, with early phases being completed by 2027.

The project has been in the works for 10 years and is a part of a plan to revitalize Parramore and downtown Orlando.

Proponents say it would be a major addition to downtown Orlando that would even change the skyline of the city.

“What you would see in this project is over $500 million of new development in downtown Orlando. Specifically, in our Parramore area, so were really excited about that,” said David Barilla, executive director of the Orlando Downtown Development Board & Community Redevelopment Agency.

Currently, the building site is a vacant lot across from the Kia Center. Modern retail space is already available a block west of the arena.

Jenny Yon rents space in a modern retail strip a block west of the arena, and opened her restaurant two years ago. She said she welcomed a new development, as long as it includes parking.

“No. 1 is parking," said Yon, who owns Jenny’s restaurant. "There is a difficult situation for customers trying to come over that visit and may not live or work in the area."

She said that much of the surrounding retail space near her is unoccupied, and wondered what impact a new corporate development would have on her restaurant.

“Larger businesses could knock out some of the small businesses," she said. "So, we will have to wait and see what happens. I will have to keep on making amazing food that keeps them coming down here."

Developer JMA Ventures and city leaders said they hope to get the green light for the project at Monday’s Orlando City Council meeting.

“If you’re trying to boil that down to a timeframe, we are hopeful (construction will start) next year, and deliver early phases of that project in 2027,” said Barilla.

City officials say a new parking garage will be built with 1,140 new spots — many of which would be available for public parking.