Business plan template for

entrepreneurs
Instructions
1. The template is provided as a reference only. Some sections may not be relevant for your company
2. Ideas for what to write are provided (in red) for every section. Delete this page as well as the instructions provided in
red in every section before finalizing your business plan.
3. You must ensure that your text is comprehensible without the red text as a guide.
4. The business plan template was primarily created using the Microsoft Word software. You may encounter formatting and
other problems if you are using other software.
5. Write simply and concisely. Consider using bullets instead of paragraphs.
6. *You must provide the source of your information in brackets when you cite numbers and facts throughout this
document!
7. Your business plan is not a static document. You will need to review it regularly and adjust it to reflect changing conditions
as you implement it.
Company Name
Business plan
Prepared
YYYY-MM-DD

Contact Information
Name
(###) ###-####
Email address
Address
Executive summary
Your executive summary provides an overview of your business, a description of your business idea as well as a
simple explanation of your activities. It is an elevator pitch that tells the main points and clearly explains what
you hope to do with this business. The details that prove this will be contained in the main body of your
business plan.

Business description
What to include here:
Summarise:
 What is the name of your business? Will it be a sole proprietorship, partnership (with who) or
corporation?
 Where your company will be located, both the physical premises and the geographic location?
 What is the nature of your business?
 What are the main business goals and objectives?
 Who is your target market?
 What will make you successful?
 What solutions will your business you provide to your customers?
 How will your company fit within the current market?
Your text here…

Products and services

What to include here:
Summarise:
 What products or services will you sell?
 What portion of overall revenues does each product or service represent?
Your text here…

Financing need
What to include here:
 When do you expect to have sales?
 How much money do you require for your business?
 What are your total startup costs?
 Do you have personal investment? How much (in-kind and dollars)?
 Will you borrow money and how much from who?
Your text here…

Key people
What to include here:
Summarise:
 Will you manage this business? By yourself or with employees or a partner?
  What experience, knowledge and skills do you and/or they bring to business
 Who will do your bookkeeping, taxes, marketing etc.?
 Will you need help with any aspects? How will you fill the gaps in the requirements?
Your text here…

Risk assessment and contingency plan

What to include here:
Summarise:
 What are your company’s weaknesses, (internal), or threats, (external), that could unhinge your
business plans?
 Are you facing a skilled shortage?
 What are the risks you face from competitors taking over your customers?
 What are the laws or regulations that may affect your business?
 What other risks are there that could impact your business?
 How you will monitor, measure and respond to these risks?
Your text here…

01.
Business overview
Provide a concise description of what you do and who you serve. Use this section to highlight your competitive
position; include the size of the market, competitors, market and technological trends, and identify laws that
regulate your industry.

Business description
What to include here:
 Begin with a summary of your business concept.
 Where is your location and why have you chosen it for a location?
 What hours will you operate?
 What type of business is it and what are the main sources of revenue?
 What solutions do you provide to your customers?
 Where do you fit within the industry or market?
 What would be your major initiatives of the business?
 What makes this a good choice for a business?
Your text here…

Mission, vision, values

What to include here:
 Mission statement. What does your organization do? What solution do you offer customers?
 Your vision statement describes where you want to go/future goals.
  Your values describe your company culture and offer a glimpse into what customers can expect
when dealing with you.
 How will your business reflect these?
Your text here…

Industry overview and trends

What to include here:
 What’s happening in your industry, or in the market where you’re selling, that could have a positive
or negative impact on your company?
 Have you seen an uptick in demand for a product or service? Explain.
 Is the population changing? Are your customers changing?
 Is your current product or service at risk of becoming obsolete, forcing you to change?
 What is the competition within your target area or outside of it but that your customer might
access?
 Have new competitors emerged?
 Could new regulations, tax or trade laws have an impact on your business?
Your text here…

Technological trends
What to include here:
 Are new technologies disrupting your industry?
 What is your plan to deal with emerging technological trends in your industry?
 What technology will you use and how will you maintain it?
 How do your suppliers and customers use technology? Is that changing?
Tip: Technology can affect your core business as well as back-end processes, hiring, supply chain and customer
purchasing behaviour.
Your text here…

Government regulations
What to include here:
 Are there regulations or laws affecting your product, service, business or industry? What are they?
 Have you seen anything highlighted in the news, for example, or elsewhere?
 Do you work in an industry that’s highly regulated?
 Tip: Industry associations often have a list of recent or impending regulatory changes that affect
their members.
Your text here…

02.
Sales and marketing
The market

Products and services

What to include here:
 What products or services will you sell?
 What is unique or special about your product or service?
 Describe your manufacture process and material source/retail method and product source/service
delivery provisions.
 What are your delivery costs, turn around time and how does this impact your product availability?
 What are your capabilities to meet the needs of your customer?
 What portion of overall revenues does each product or service represent?
 How do your products or services fit within the overall market?
 How can your products or services evolve to respond to market changes?
 Are there any copyright or patent issues that may impact your business?
Your text here…

Overview of market trends

What to include here:
 What value does your organization provide to customers that no one else can?
 What group of customers do you serve?
 What is the size of that customer group? Is this number growing or changing?
 How has customer behaviour changed over time?
 Are there new products or services that have emerged?
 Are there products that may serve as an alternate to yours in the eyes of your customer group?
 Has the supply chain changed?
 Are there regulatory changes that affect your potential customers or their ability to buy your
product or service?
Your text here…

Target market
Create three personas or imaginary individuals. They should correspond to the most important customer
segments you want to attract. For example, a coffee shop near a university might be going after students,
parents of young children and the local business crowd.
Your personas will help you visualize the customers you are targeting and develop brand messages and
marketing tactics that will resonate with them.

PERSONA 1 PERSONA 2 PERSONA 3

Demographic
profile?
Age, gender,
profession, income,
social status,
education, etc.

Values, attitudes,
interests, needs and
lifestyle choices
What is important to
them?
How do they do
business?
Online or face-to-face?
How much do
they spend?
What kind of products
do they buy?
What do they want
in terms of features,
functionality and cost?

Where are they are

located

Why will they buy

your
product/service

The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer. This makes understanding customers the top
priority of any business.
What to include here:
 Describe your ideal customer.
 Where are they located and how will they access your business goods/services?
 What makes them potential customers (demographics-age, gender, education, income, marital
status, work, needs etc.)?
 What are their needs in connection to your business?
 What is their purchasing behaviour? Is it changing?
 How many are there in the area(s) you will serve?
 What percentage of these could become your customer?
 Do you have any customers that have indicated they will buy from you?
 Your text here…

The competition

Competitors and types of competition

What to include here:
 Who are your direct competitors?
 Who sells similar products or services in your market?
 Identify your indirect competitors?
 Are there companies disrupting or undermining your industry or selling a new product or service
that may replace yours?
Your text here…

Identify each of your top three competitors by name? Use the following chart to analyze them.
Top Three Competitors
COMPETITOR 1 COMPETITOR 2 COMPETITOR 3

Location
Length of time in
business

Target markets

Unique selling points,

competitive
differentiators

Strengths, weaknesses

Competitors’ strengths and weaknesses

What to include here:
 Where do you see your competitors as vulnerable?
 What are they doing successfully?
Your text here…

Business strengths and weaknesses

Now it’s time to take a hard look at your own business. You do this with a classic SWOT analysis—defining your
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Strengths
What characteristics does your business possess that give it an advantage over others?
Your text here…

Weaknesses
What places your business at a disadvantage versus others? You must address these weaknesses immediately.
Your text here…

Opportunities
What conditions or situation in the marketplace or that your competitors offer could you exploit to your
advantage?
Your text here…

Threats
What conditions or situation in the marketplace, or activities by your competition could work against you?
Your text here…

Competitive advantage and differentiator

You’re ready to craft a unique selling point (USP), a description of what makes you distinct in the marketplace.
A USP must articulate a compelling and decisive advantage you have over the competition. Consider writing
your USP as an “only statement” as in: “We are the only business in the city/the country/the world that does
X.” Refer to your vision, values and positioning statements in Part 1. This is your Elevator Pitch as well.
What to include here:
 What is your unique selling point? Succinctly explain who you are and what you bring to the market
that no one else does.
 What would make customers choose your product or service over your competitors’ offerings?
 What’s different about your product or service?
 What unique solution are you offering?
  Do you have unique means of distributing your product or service, competitive payment terms or
guarantees?
Your text here…

Customers
What to include here:
 Will your business be reliant on a few primary customers?
 How will you diversify your customer base?
 What will be your sales terms to customers?
 List by name and describe any customers if you have some lined up
 List by name and describe any potential customers.
Your text here…

Advertising and promotion

Your goal is to deliver the right messages, to the right people, at the right time. It’s essential to communicate
your brand consistently throughout your customer’s entire journey with you—from discovery to purchase to
after-purchase support and repeat business. The key is to understand, at each point in the journey, what
customers hope to achieve from the transaction and what their expectations of your business are. By referring
to the customer personas you created earlier, complete the following chart to clarify what marketing activities at
each point on the journey are necessary for creating a loyal customer.

Customer’s journey
PERSONA 1 PERSONA 2 PERSONA 3

ATTENTION
How will we make this
person aware of our
business?

INTEREST
How will we get them
interested in our
business?

DESIRE
How will we create a
desire to purchase?

ACTION
How will we get them to
act and buy?

LOYALTY
How will we make them
loyal to our business?
Marketing Tactics
You’ve done the hard work of defining your business and its market. Now it’s time to bring it all together by
planning the marketing tactics you will use to attract and keep customers. Describe how you will promote your
product or service, remembering that not every tactic makes sense for every business. Consider what will
resonate with those customer personas you created, given your budget and human resources.
What to include here:
 What is your marketing budget for Year 1? Year 2?
 Who is on your marketing team?
 Who is responsible for what?
 What is your pricing strategy?
 How will you distribute your goods or services?
 What will your website look like?
 How will you ensure it is modern, attractive and effective?
 What kind of content will you have?
 Who will maintain it?
 What is your social media strategy?
 What platforms make sense for your business and why?
 Who will manage it?
 What is your email strategy, keeping in mind Canada’s anti-spam law?
 Will you use pay per click advertising?
 Will you use print, tv or radio advertising?
 What is your public relations strategy (efforts too woo journalists etc. to cover your business)?
 How will you ensure customers remain loyal and happy in the long term?
 How will you measure the effectiveness of your marketing?
Your text here…

03.
Operating plan
This will detail how and where you get your work done. Include equipment and technology required to serve
your customers, anticipated financial requirements to maintain and operate your business, and external
environmental regulations or laws that govern your business or industry.

Business location
What to include here:
 List your business’s locations (stores, offices, production facilities)
 Include a short description of every location
 Hours of operations.
 Does the location affect your operations and sales?
 Do you own your property? Do you have a mortgage?
 Do you lease or rent? What are the terms?
Your text here…
Equipment
What to include here:
 What kind of equipment do you rely on to conduct business?
 Will you have to purchase new equipment or replace/upgrade existing equipment soon?
 Do you have the right equipment to respond to changes in the market?
Your text here…

Suppliers
What to include here:
 Do you rely on one or two primary suppliers?
 If you are dependent on a supplier to run your business successfully, identify it here.
Tip: If operating a web-based or virtual consulting service, you may want to include internet service providers
and third-party web security providers.
Your text here…

Pricing and distribution

What to include here:
 How will you price your services or products?
 What is the average industry price? What are the benchmarks? What is the high and low ?
www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/pp-pp.nsf/eng/home
 How does your price fit into the market? Is it higher or lower?
 Justify your pricing compared to the market.
 What is your markup percent and margin percent on goods?
 How do you distribute your product or service?
 Is there anything external that could affect or alter your pricing or delivery?
 What are your terms of payment and credit policies?
Your text here…

Customer service policy and warranties

What to include here:
 What kind of service or product guarantee does your company offer?
 Do you have a warranty?
 What happens if the customer is unhappy with your service or product?
 What happens if your services or goods aren’t available when the client needs them?
Your text here…

Technology requirements and investment needs

What to include here:
 Do you need to purchase new technology to remain competitive and serve your customers?
 What is the anticipated cost of this new technology, including purchase, monitoring and
maintenance?
  Tip: Part of maintenance costs may include data storage and security.
Your text here…

Environmental compliance
What to include here:
 What type of permits, monitoring and inspections do you require to ensure your business complies
with environmental regulations?
 Are you subject to hazardous waste compliance, pollution monitoring or packaging regulations?
 Identify regional, national and international regulations or laws that affect your operations.
 Are there any new regulations or laws in place or impending that could impact your business?
Your text here…

04.
People
Here you will identify key people within your organization, along with external advisors that you rely upon to
conduct your business successfully.

Description of the management team

What to include here:
 Include name, title, short bio and itemized responsibilities of the management team.
Your text here…

Description of advisory team

What to include here:
 Do you have lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, trade/distribution consultants, or external
sales representatives that you engage with regularly to offer advice and support your business?
Your text here…

Key employees
What to include here:
 Are there non-managerial employees who are integral to the business?
 Can you think of an employee whose absence is greatly noticed?
 Is there an individual or team of people who must be consistently present in order to ensure smooth
running of the business?
Name or title Key responsibilities Qualifications
1
2
 3
4
Additional information

05.
Action plan
Here you will outline the goals of the business, resources required, (people and money), key milestones
(including dates and measurable outcomes), and an end-date. Identify key individuals or teams responsible,
external dependencies and risk management and contingencies, (Plan B).

Business objectives
What to include here:
 Summarise your main objective for Year 1 and for Year 2
Your text here…

Action Plan
Action Key Person responsible
milestone/metrics
1
2
3
4
Additional information

Resources required
What to include here:
 How much money will you require for startup?
 How much money will you require for initial operations until projected revenues can cover
expenses?
 Do you have any buffer in case revenues begin later or are less than projected?
 Will you require new equipment or real estate?
 Do you have any in-kind? What is it? What is its value?
 How much will you finance yourself?
 Will you have loans, grants or lines of credit?
 Do you need to hire new people? When? Will you have sufficient financial resources to do so?
Your text here…
Risk assessment and contingencies
What to include here:
 Identify any internal or external events that could trigger an adjustment in your timetable.
 Do you have the right employees and leaders in place?
 Could there be delays in product development or delivery?
 Is there anything that could affect your cash flow?
 How will you monitor and mitigate these risks?
 What is your Plan B?
Your text here…