Business Plan Outline

Business plans may be used to support finance applications, to source equity investors or to plan the future direction of a business or organization.

Business plans have a number of sections, the most usual are:

  • Executive Summary
  • Business Description
  • Market Analysis
  • Products
  • Operations
  • Key Management
  • Personnel
  • Funds Required and their Uses
  • Financial Data
  • Appendices
    • Cash Flow Projections
    • Budgeted Profit & Loss/Balance Sheet
    • Financial Statements (prior 3 years)
    • Market Studies
    • Significant Contracts

An Executive Summary is a brief overview of the plan and may make or break the success of the business plan. If a reader is interested in the document after perusing the Executive Summary then they may read the whole document thoroughly.

The key points of a Business Plan are:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • Purpose of the plan
  • Describe the company
  • Analyse the market
  • Marketing and sales activities
  • Personnel and management
  • Financial data

BUSINESS DESCRIPTION

  • Business name
  • Trading names
  • Locations
  • Core Business
  • Market description
  • Main products/services
  • Our competitive advantages
  • Products and Services
  • Primary target market and your position in the market
  • Analyse the business
  • Analyse your competitors
  • Analyse customer service techniques

MARKET ANALYSIS

  • Marketing strategy
  • Selling Strategies

PRODUCTS

  • Status of your current technology
  • Product/service's current position within its life cycle
  • New technologies or scientific approaches
  • Key future research and development activities
  • Government or approval requirements

OPERATIONS

  • Production or conduct service operations
  • Production or operating advantages
  • Present capacity
  • Supplier/backup supplier
  • Standard costs for production
  • Safety issues
  • Environmental issues

KEY MANAGEMENT

  • Names
  • Qualifications
  • Skills/Experience
  • Primary roles

PERSONNEL

  • Primary duties
  • Reward and compensation method
  • Organisational structures

FUNDS REQUIRED AND THEIR USES

  • Funding sources and terms
  • How these funds will be used
  • Overall funding strategy

FINANCIAL DATA

  • Projections for the next three years
  • Key assumptions
  • Financial analysis