Business Plan Template

A blank template leaves you staring at headings. This one walks you through them. Choose a traditional plan, the section-by-section document lenders and investors ask for, or a one-page lean plan of nine boxes you can finish in an hour. Both follow the outline the US Small Business Administration recommends. Every section opens with what to cover, in plain words, and the plan takes shape beside the form as you write. The numbers are done for you: list your startup costs, give first-year sales, a growth rate and your running costs, and it builds a three or five year profit and loss forecast and works out how many sales a month you need to break even. When you are ready, download a finished PDF with a cover, a linked contents page and page numbers, or a Word file you can keep editing in Word, Google Docs or Pages. A plan takes more than one sitting, so you can keep the draft on your device or save it as a file. Everything happens in your browser, so your idea and your figures are never sent to us.

How it works

Business Plan Template is a web page that does its work on your own device. The file you choose is opened by your browser, changed there and saved from there; it is never sent to a server, so there is no copy of it anywhere to delete, no queue and no waiting for an upload. Most online tools of this kind send your file to their servers and work on it there, and many keep it for a while. This one does not. There is no account, no watermark and no limit on how often you use it, and the result downloads the moment it is ready.

Which plan to write

The US Small Business Administration describes two common formats in its guide Write your business plan, and this template makes both.

• A traditional plan goes section by section and is the one lenders and investors commonly ask for. Choose it if someone has asked you for a business plan, or if you want to think the whole business through in detail.
• A lean plan fits on one page: nine boxes covering who you work with, what you do, what you offer, who buys it, how you reach them, what it costs and how money comes in. Choose it to get started quickly, for a simple business, or when you expect the plan to keep changing.

Many people do both: a lean plan first, to see whether the idea holds together, then a traditional plan when a bank, a landlord or a partner wants the detail.

How to write each section

• Write the executive summary last. It comes first in the document, but it is a summary of the rest, and it is the part most likely to be read. Keep it to a page.
• Be specific. "Event planners in Brooklyn who order banners weekly" tells a reader more than "small businesses". Numbers with a source beat adjectives.
• Name your competitors. A plan that says there are none reads as a plan that has not looked. Say what they do well and where you are different.
• Say who does what. For a lender, the people are much of the risk. Give each key person's relevant experience in two or three lines.
• Write short paragraphs and use bullets for lists. Leave a blank line for a new paragraph and start a line with a dash for a bullet.

How the figures are worked out

Startup costs are added up to a total. The forecast starts from your sales in year 1 and grows them by the rate you give. The cost of sales is the share of sales you enter; what is left is gross profit. Your running costs for a year rise by their own rate, and what remains after them is profit before tax, shown also as a share of sales. The assumptions are printed under the table, because a reader trusts a forecast more when they can see how it was reached.

Break-even is your fixed costs for a month divided by what one sale leaves after the cost of making it. It answers the question a lender asks first: how much do you have to sell just to stand still?

These are simple, even growth rates. A real first year is rarely even, so use the "assumptions, in words" box to say what you expect month by month if it matters.

What this template does not do

• It does not write the plan for you. The words and the numbers are yours; it gives you the structure, the prompts, the arithmetic and the finished document.
• It does not make a balance sheet, a cash flow forecast or a capital expenditure budget, which the SBA's guide also lists under financial projections and which many lenders ask for. Your accountant or your lender's own forms cover those.
• It does not check your figures against your industry, and it is not financial, tax or legal advice.

Read the finished plan through before you send it, and have someone who knows the business read it too.

What it does

• Traditional plan or one-page lean plan, both following the SBA's recommended outline
• Every section starts with what to cover, so you are never facing a blank page
• Live preview of the plan beside the form as you write
• Startup costs, a 3 or 5 year profit and loss forecast and break-even, worked out for you
• A funding request section with the amount, type, terms and what the money is for
• Download a PDF with a cover, linked contents, bookmarks and page numbers
• Download an editable Word file that opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages and LibreOffice
• Keep the draft on your device, or save it as a file and carry on anywhere
• More than 50 currencies, US Letter or A4, your logo and an accent colour
• No sign-up, no watermark, and nothing you write is uploaded

Questions

Is this business plan template really free?

Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark, no trial and no paid version. The plan is put together by your own browser, so it costs us nothing to let you make as many as you like.

Is my business plan uploaded or stored anywhere?

No. What you write never leaves your device: the preview, the PDF and the Word file are all made in your browser. If you tick the box to keep your draft, it is saved in this browser on this device only, and unticking it deletes it. A draft file you save goes to your own downloads folder, nowhere else.

What sections should a business plan have?

The US Small Business Administration's guide lists these for a traditional plan: executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, service or product line, marketing and sales, a funding request if you are asking for money, and financial projections. This template uses the same sections in the same order, and adds an optional appendix for supporting documents.

Should I write a traditional plan or a lean plan?

The SBA's advice is that a traditional plan suits you if you want a comprehensive document or plan to ask for financing from traditional sources, and it notes that lenders and investors commonly request one. A lean plan suits you if you want to explain or start your business quickly, the business is relatively simple, or you expect to change the plan often. You can write the lean plan first and grow it into a traditional one later; both are in this tool.

How long should a business plan be?

Long enough to answer the reader's questions and no longer. The SBA describes lean plans as typically one page, while traditional plans can run to dozens. A clear plan of ten to twenty pages is easier to get read than a long one. Keep the executive summary to one page.

How does the financial forecast work?

You enter sales for year 1, how fast you expect sales to grow each year, what share of sales goes on the cost of making or buying what you sell, and your running costs for a year with the rate they rise. The tool works out sales, cost of sales, gross profit, running costs and profit before tax for three or five years, and prints the assumptions under the table so a reader can see how the numbers were reached.

How is break-even worked out?

Fixed costs a month, divided by what each sale leaves after the cost of making it. If your fixed costs are 5,700 a month, the average sale is 85 and it costs 30 to make, each sale leaves 55, so you need 104 sales a month to cover your costs. If the price is not above the cost of making the sale, no number of sales breaks even, and the tool says so.

Will a bank accept this plan?

The layout and sections are what lenders expect, but a bank decides on the content: your experience, the market, the figures and how believable they are. The SBA's guide says financial projections should include forecast income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements and capital expenditure budgets. This template makes the income (profit and loss) forecast, startup costs and break-even; it does not make a balance sheet or a cash flow forecast. Ask your lender what they need before you finish.

Can I edit the plan after I download it?

Yes. The Word file is an ordinary .docx with real headings, tables and page numbers, so you can change anything in Word, Google Docs, Pages or LibreOffice. To carry on in this tool instead, keep the draft on your device or use Save draft file and open it again later, on this or any other device.

Can I write the plan in a language other than English?

Yes. Write in any language. In the PDF, Western and Central European languages, Turkish, Greek and Cyrillic are set as ordinary text, and text in scripts such as Arabic, Hindi, Chinese or Thai is placed as a sharp picture of the text. The Word file keeps every language as editable text. The section headings are in English.

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