Describe your production methods, the equipment you’ll use and how much it will cost to produce what you sell.

Describe the quality control procedures you’ll use.

In this section, expand on that information with details such as:

What type of legal environment will your business operate in? How are you prepared to handle legal requirements? Include details such as:

What type of personnel will your business need? Explain details such as:

If your business requires inventory, explain:

List your key suppliers, including:

If you plan to sell to customers on credit, explain:

Include brief biographies of the owner/s and key employees. Include resumes in the Appendix. Here, summarize your experience and those of your key employees in a few paragraphs per person. Focus on the prior experience and skills that have prepared your team to succeed in this business. If anyone has previous experience starting and growing a business, explain this in detail.

Explain how you plan to fill in any gaps in management and/or experience.

List the members of your professional/advisory support team, including:

Develop and include an organization chart. This should include both roles that you’ve already filled and roles you plan to fill in the future.

Also known as an income statement or P&L, the 12-month profit and loss projection is the centerpiece of your business plan.

A three-year profit and loss projection is not essential to a business plan. However, you may want to create one if you expect your business’s financials to change substantially after the first year, or if investors or lenders require it.

The cash flow statement tracks how much cash your business has on hand at any given time.

Depending on your needs and the purpose of your business plan, you may also want to include a 3-year cash flow statement.

A balance sheet subtracts the company’s liabilities from its assets to arrive at the owner’s equity.

The break-even analysis projects the sales volume you need in order to cover your costs.

The break-even analysis projects the sales volume you need in order to cover your costs.

Bankers want to know that you’ll be able to repay the loan.

How much money you’re seeking

How you’ll use the money

How that will make your business stronger

Requested repayment terms (number of years to repay)

Any collateral you have and a list of all existing liens against your collateral

Investors are looking for dramatic growth, and they expect to share in the rewards.

Investment amount you need short-term

Investment amount you’ll need in two to five years

How you’ll use the money and how that will help your business grow

Estimated return on investment

Exit strategy for investors (buyback, sale or IPO)

Percentage of ownership you will give investors

Milestones or conditions you will accept

Financial reporting you will provide to investors

How involved investors will be on the board or in management

Explain the operations involved in manufacturing your product/s.

What equipment is needed? What are the production/capacity limits of the equipment?

What are the production/capacity limits of the proposed physical plant?

Is specialized labor needed?

What raw materials do you need for manufacturing? Are there any special requirements for storing these?

What quality control procedures will you use?

How will you manage inventory levels?

What is your supply chain?

Explain any new products you’re developing, or products you plan to begin developing after startup.

Explain your prices and the methods used to set them.

What systems and processes will you use for ensuring consistent delivery of services?

What quality control procedures will you use?

How will you measure employee productivity?

Will you subcontract any work to other businesses? If so, what percentage of work will be subcontracted? Will you make a profit on subcontracting?

Explain your credit, payment and collections policies and procedures.

How will you maintain your client base and get long-term contracts?

Explain any new services you’re developing or services you plan to add after startup.

List specific brands you plan to carry that will give you a competitive advantage.

How will you manage inventory? What inventory management software will you use?

What forms of payment will you accept? What payment processing service will you use?

What point-of-sale software and hardware will you use?

Explain your markup policies. Your prices should be profitable, competitive and in line with your brand.

Initial inventory level: Find the industry average annual inventory turnover rate. Multiply your initial inventory investment by the average turnover rate. The result should be at least equal to your projected first year's cost of goods sold. If not, you may need to budget more for startup inventory.

What are your customer service policies?

How will you handle returns and exchanges?

Will your retail store also have an ecommerce site, or is one planned for the future?

Will you sell a physical product, a service, a digital product (such as eBooks) or some combination of these?

If you’re selling physical products, how will you brand and package them?

Will you sell on your own website, online marketplaces (such as Amazon) or both?

What technology providers and platforms will you use to run your ecommerce site?

Can the solutions you’ve chosen quickly scale up or down as needed?

Where will you get your products? Will you manufacture them in-house, buy them from manufacturers or use drop shippers?

How will you handle returns and exchanges?

What are your customer service policies? How will you provide customer service?

Will you use any proprietary technology of your own and if so, what advantages does that give you?

What is your pricing structure? Will you use a free trial, “freemium” or paid business model?

If you offer free services or a free trial option, how will you upsell customers to a payment model? What percentage of customers are expected to become paying customers?

Have you tested your software? Are any “early adopters” already using the product?

How will you encourage long-term contracts in order to create recurring revenues?

How will you manage rapidly changing markets, technologies and costs?

How will you keep your company competitive?

Will you use in-house developers or outsource this function?

How will you provide customer support?

How will you retain key personnel?

Are you using any proprietary or exclusive software that will give you a competitive edge?

How will you protect your intellectual property?

What additional products or updates to current products are you planning after launch?

The total size of your industry

Trends in the industry – is it growing or shrinking?

The total size of your target market, and what share is realistic for you to obtain

Trends in the target market – is it growing or shrinking? How are customer needs or preferences changing?

High startup costs

High production costs

High marketing costs

Brand recognition challenges

Finding qualified employees

Need for specialized technology or patents

Tariffs and quotas

Unionization in your industry

Explain how the following could affect your business

Conduct a SWOT analysis to identify

Describe the most important features. What is special about it?

Describe the most important benefits. What does it do for the customer?

Explain any after-sale services you plan to provide:

Identify your target customer groups, and create a demographic profile for each group that includes:

Identify your major competitors

Conduct a competitive analysis

Understand your business’s niche (your unique segment of the market) as well as your positioning

Advertising may include:

Which media will you advertise in, why and how often?

Marketing may include:

What image do you want to project for your business brand?

What design elements will you use to market your business? (This includes your logo, signage and interior design.) Explain how they’ll support your brand.

One-Time

Expenses

Monthly or Annual Expenses

Labor Costs

Does your pricing strategy reflect your positioning?

Compare your prices with your competitors’. Are they higher, lower or the same? Why?

How important is price to your customers? It may not be a deciding factor.

What will your customer service and credit policies be?

Convenient location for customers

Adequate parking for employees and customers

Proximity to public transportation or major roads

Type of space (industrial, retail, etc.)

Types of businesses nearby

What methods of distribution will you use to sell your products and/or services? These may include:

Conduct a distribution channel assessment

Long-term goals

Short-term goals

Milestone 1

Milestone 2

Milestone 3

Where do you expect the business to be in one year, three years, five years?

What do they bring to the table that will give your business a competitive edge?

If you’re using the business plan for financing purposes, explain exactly how much money you want, how you will use it, and how that will make your business more profitable.