Company Name Business

Plan
Business Plan Subtitle

Contact: Contact person name

Company Address, City, State Postal Code
Phone: 000-000-0000, Fax: 000-000-0000
Email: name@example.com, Web Site: www.company.com

Executive Summary
The Executive Summary must capture the essence of your proposed business venture. Try

Company Name Business Plan

to keep the summary as brief as possible. Whether you are preparing this proposal for a
venture capitalist, banker, or your boss, it is imperative that your summary be of the
highest quality. These individuals are flooded with requests for assistance. Since the
summary is a distillation of your plan, you might want to complete this section after you
complete the rest of your business plan. Or write the summary first, then create the
business plan and then go back to the summary, improve it and insure its consistency with
the rest of your plan.

Since your objective is to lure the reader to want more information, your summary should
have the following elements:

● It should be concise - you have one or two minutes to tell someone about your
business.
● It should be exciting
● It should communicate how your business concept is unique

No matter how long you spent developing and honing your business plan, the reader of the
plan will only spend five minutes reading it! It’s important to make those five minutes work
to your favor. You may have the most meticulous and well-crafted business plan imaginable
- in the end, however, the best plan is the one that entices the reader.
Surprisingly, many business plans neglect to include their formal name, address and
principal contact. Please insure that you leave a number that is attended. If the business
plan recipient can’t reach you in one or two attempts, they will move on to the next
proposal. Make sure this information is on your proposal - there is a prominent location on
the front cover to put this information. Feel free to repeat the information in the Executive
Summary.

Type of Business
This section answers the question - What business am I in - a non-trivial question. Deciding
what business you are in is probably the most important decision you will have to make. If
you know it, include the SIC code that describes your business. Indicate whether the
business is a start-up or an existing business.

Company or Business Summary

Here, you can briefly describe the history of the company. Is this a startup? An expansion of
an existing business? A division of a larger business that is launching a new product or
service? Is the business a sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation? If your business
is a going concern, briefly describe the company’s historical performance. If the company is
introducing a new web site or if the web site is a critical component of the business
(retailing, business-to-business, virtual community, etc.), briefly describe the web site and
any significant future plans for that web site.

Financial Objectives
Clearly state the sales and profitability objectives and the underlying ways that you will
meet these objectives. Perhaps a chart from the Business Plan Excel workbook would
visually describe your goals. It is within this section that you can summarize sales and
profitability objectives for the five year planning period. Financial goals could be cash flow
related, described by financial ratios, by growth rates of sales, assets, cash flow, and profits,

Company Name Business Plan

or by cost and expense relationships.

Management Overview
Perhaps the biggest keys to success of any business are the people who run it. Be sure to
summarize the expertise of the management in this particular business. Since poor
management is a key contributor to business failure, describe why the cards are stacked in
your favor.

Products and Services

Describe the product or service you are offering and clearly state why the product is unique.
If the product is not unique, be sure to explain why it will succeed over existing products.

Name of Your Product - Here you can briefly describe the primary
characteristics of this product. Use copy and paste if you have
additional products.

Name of Your Product - Here you can briefly describe the primary
characteristics of this product. Use copy and paste if you have
additional products.

Funds Requested (optional)

If you are writing this proposal to an audience from which you are requesting funds, be
specific in your request. Select a number and explain why that amount is needed. Also state
whether the money you are raising is in the form of equity or debt. When you send the
proposal to organizations, you can save valuable time by understanding which types of
investments they make. Some investment companies do not make any equity investments
while others specialize in this investment.

If you are seeking debt financing, be prepared to discuss whether collateral is available. If
you are seeking an equity investment, be prepared to discuss the percentage ownership
position.

Here are some additional questions to consider when writing this section:

● What is the total amount of funds needed by your business? Is it needed immediately
or over the next two to five years?
● What part of this financing is being sought from the investors or lending institution
that will receive this business plan (including the amount, terms, and any related
security agreement)?

Company Name Business Plan

 ● For equity financing, what percentage of the company are you willing to give up and
what is the proposed return on investment and anticipated method of taking out the
investor (e.g., buy-back, public offering, sale)?
● For debt financing, what is your company’s proposed interest rate and repayment
schedule?

Use of proceeds (optional)

Be as specific as possible on how the proceeds will be spent. Include a chart or table to
describe this if you wish.

Exit (optional)
If you are requesting funds to grow your business, your investor will want to understand
how you are planning your exit strategy. Most investors want to realize a gain over a
medium term horizon. Don’t underestimate the time it will take to either take the company
public or sell the business. Most investors should be willing to wait for a three-year period
before their investment can be realized.

Company Background
The first part of a business plan should clearly define the Identification of Market
Opportunity. Be prepared to discuss the total dollar volume of the market, the rate that the
market is growing and the overall demand for the product or service that you are offering.

Business History
Give a brief history of the company’s business to date, when your product or service was
introduced, and the key milestones that you have met. Be sure to keep this section brief,
since your investor is primarily concerned about the future, not the past. Some of the
information you might include in this section could be:

● The firm’s date of origin.

● The names of the founders.
● A summary of the major milestones achieved or the stages of the life cycle through
which the firm may have passed.
● The major episodes or stages of development in the firm’s past.
● A brief description of any significant changes the business has undergone or
challenges that the company has faced up to.
● Other developmental indicators such as sales levels, net worth, market share, assets,
and company valuation.
● Company mission statement.

Growth and Financial Objectives

The objectives in your business plan can begin with a short list of what you hope to achieve
in the next year or so and those significant goals that you would like to achieve in later
planning periods. Objectives will vary according to your mission statement and where your
company is in the life cycle. For example, a start-up company might want to set a
short-term objective of profitability (to be profitable by year-end) or may take a longer-term
view and simply look to build a competitive business model by the end of year one.

Company Name Business Plan

State your growth and financial objectives as clearly as possible. You can start with the
sales chart for the five-year period and follow that up with the sales table broken down by
product line. Then you might want to explain how you plan to keep certain financial metrics
and use the Financial Highlights table to clearly portray your goals.

Follow this up with the sales table broken down by product line.

Then you might want to explain how you plan to keep certain financial metrics and use the
Financial Highlights table to clearly portray your goals.

Legal Structure and Ownership

Describe how the company is legally organized. This is a decision that is best made in the
early stages of the company. The decision to establish your company as a sole
proprietorship, a partnership or a corporation that will issue stock is an important one. You
may want to consult with an attorney and/or accountant before doing this.

Company Location and Facilities

State where the company conducts its business and what real estate the company owns or
leases. Be sure to address the issues regarding your future space requirements and how
this might determine your need to expand or move.

Name and/or address of your facility - Here you can briefly

describe the facility and location. Use copy and paste if you have
additional locations.

Name and/or address of your facility - Here you can briefly

describe the facility and location. Use copy and paste if you have
additional locations.

Plans for Financing the Business

Investors prefer to see a defined financing proposal which shows the capital needs of the
venture and the proposed equity or debt agreement. The financing proposal may refer to
the Start-Up Costs that are attached in the appendix if it is a start-up. If the company is a
start-up, or an ongoing concern, be sure to detail the use of the proceeds from the
financing. What collateral or personal guarantees will be offered for an equity or debt
investment?

Financial Plan and Analysis

Company Name Business Plan

The sections below contain text summaries of the workbooks that are attached in the
subsequent pages.

Start-Up Costs
Briefly describe the numbers in the report and on the chart.

Financial Highlights
This table includes key financial ratios - discuss the ones that might draw attention.

5-Year Income Statement

Describe these numbers.

5-Year Balance Sheet

Point out any key issues from this report.

Cash Budgets
There are two cash budgets - one for the first 12 months and one for a five-year period. Two
charts also depict these 12 month and 5 year cash balances. Use the ones that make sense
for your business and describe the cash trends.

Break-Even Analysis
Use the Break-Even analysis to compare your projected monthly sales with the break-even
point.

Supplemental Worksheets
Insert other worksheets that you may have developed or include the worksheets from some
of the supplemental files that come with the product to round out your specific plan.

Company Name Business Plan