Business plan template: ten sections, in order
This is the structure banks, the SBA, and most investors expect. Each section below says what it must contain and what to leave out. The examples show every section filled in for a fictional business with real arithmetic.
| Section | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Executive summary | One page, written last. What the business is, who buys, why now, what you need, what the money does. A lender reads this and decides whether to read the rest. |
| Company description | Legal structure, location, founding date, mission in one sentence, and the problem you solve, stated as the customer would. |
| Products and services | What you sell, at what price, how it is made or delivered, and what makes it worth choosing over the alternative the customer uses today. |
| Market analysis | Who the customers are, how many are reachable, what they spend, and the trend. Use one or two real numbers with sources; skip the "$4 trillion global market" paragraph. |
| Competition | Three to five named competitors, what each does well, where you fit. Honest weaknesses read as credible. |
| Marketing and sales | How the first 100 customers hear about you and what it costs to get each one. Channels, offers, pricing, the sales process. |
| Operations | Location, equipment, suppliers, staffing, hours, licences and permits, the daily workflow. |
| Management and team | Who runs it, what they have done before, who is missing and when you will hire them. |
| Financial plan | Startup costs, monthly operating costs, revenue assumptions by month for year one, break-even, and the funding request with what it buys. Three-year summary if you are asking for money. |
| Milestones and risks | Dated milestones for the first 18 months, the three biggest risks, and what you will do about each. |
Have it written from your numbers
Twelve questions, ten minutes. A complete plan in these ten sections with the financial arithmetic shown, a one-page summary, and a list of every figure to verify. $29, once. Write my business plan
Complete examples by industry
- Coffee shopRidgeline Coffee, with numbers
- Food truckSalt & Lime Tacos, with numbers
- RestaurantHarbor Kitchen, with numbers
- Cleaning serviceBrightside Cleaning, with numbers
- Online storeFernway Goods, with numbers
- Consulting / freelanceNorthstar People Advisory, with numbers
- Hair salonMarlow Hair Studio, with numbers
- Gym / fitness studioIronwood Strength Studio, with numbers
Order of writing
- Products and pricing first. Everything else depends on what you sell and for how much.
- Then customers and competition, with the numbers you can find in an afternoon: population, traffic, competitor prices.
- Then operations and costs, because they set the break-even.
- Then the financial plan, built from the three above.
- Executive summary last, in one page.
Business plan questions
How long should a business plan be?
Ten to twenty pages for a loan, including financials. A one-page summary for a landlord or partner. Investors read the summary and the financial table first; the rest supports them.
Do I need one to get a loan?
For an SBA-backed or bank term loan, almost always. Online lenders and microloans often accept a shorter document, but they still want the financial plan section.
What is the most common mistake?
A market section full of national statistics and a financial section that does not connect to it. Start with how many customers you can actually reach and what each pays; build revenue from that.
Can I use a template from the SBA or a bank?
Yes, the structure is the same everywhere. The value is in the content: your numbers, your competitors, your route to the first hundred customers.