Ten Easy Steps to Writing a Business Plan

It’s fun to start a business, but it’s easy to get lost without a map. That map shows you how to run your business. It is the most important document that explains your business goals and how you plan to reach them. It’s not just a formality to get a loan; it’s a strategic tool that helps you make decisions, track your progress, and keep your whole team on the same page.

A good business plan makes you think carefully about every part of your business, from your main product to your marketing plan and your finances. It helps you find problems before they become big problems and find chances that you might have missed otherwise. This guide will show you how to write a business plan step by step, breaking down each important part into small, easy-to-manage tasks. At the end, you’ll have a clear, useful document that will help your startup succeed.

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary is the first part of your business plan, but you should write it last. Think of it as the movie trailer. It needs to be interesting enough to get investors and other important people to want to see the whole thing. It gives a big picture view of your whole plan, highlighting the most important parts in a short and interesting way.

Your executive summary should be one or two pages long and include:

• Your Mission Statement: A short, strong sentence or two about what your business does.
• Company Information: The name of your business, where it is located, and who is in charge.
• Products or Services: A short description of what you sell.
• Market Opportunity: A quick look at your target market and the problem you solve for them.
• Competitive Advantage: What makes your business stand out from the rest?
• Financial Highlights: Important financial predictions, such as how much money the company will make and how much it needs to get.

This part of your document sets the tone for the rest of it. Make it clear, confident, and convincing.

2. Company Description

This is where you give more details about what you wrote in your executive summary. The company description gives a full picture of who you are, what you do, and why you do it. You can share your vision and passion with the reader now.

Some important things to include are:

• How the business is set up: Do you own a business by yourself, with a partner, as an LLC, or as a corporation?
• Mission and Vision: What is your company’s mission (what it does) and what do you want it to become in the future (vision)?
• History of the Company: A short story about how your business got started or the idea that led to it..
• Objectives: What are your short-term and long-term business goals? Be specific and measurable (e.g., “Achieve $100,000 in revenue in the first year”).
• Legal Status and Ownership: What is the company’s legal status and who owns it?

This part should give a clear picture of your business, what it stands for, and where it’s going.

3. Analyzing the Market

A great business idea is nothing without a market to support it. The market analysis part shows that you really know your industry, your target audience, and your competitors. When writing a business plan for a loan or investors, it’s very important to do a lot of research.

To do a full market analysis, follow these steps:

• Overview of the Industry: Tell us about your industry right now, including how big it is, what trends are happening, and how much room it has to grow..
• Target Market: Identify your perfect customer. Be as clear as you can. How big is this target market? Make customer personas that include demographics (age, income, location) and psychographics (interests, values, and pain points).
• Market Need: What issue does your product or service address for the people you want to reach? Use data and customer research to back up this need.
• Looking at your competitors: Find out who your main competitors are. Look at their strengths and weaknesses, prices, and marketing plans. What can you learn from them, and how will you make your business stand out? A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) of your own business can be very helpful in this situation..

4. Organization and Leadership

Investors don’t just invest in ideas; they invest in people. This section outlines your company’s organizational structure and introduces the key players on your team. It should help you believe that you can follow through with your plan.

Add these:

• Chart for the organization: A chart that shows the hierarchy of your business and who reports to whom. This might be easy for a small startup, but it’s still important.
• Bios of the Management Team: Provide short biographies for each key team member. Highlight their experience, expertise, and accomplishments relevant to their roles. Why are they the best people to run this business?
• Roles and Responsibilities: Clearly spell out what each member of the management team is responsible for.
• Advisors and Board Members: To make your business look more credible, list any board members or professional advisors you have, such as lawyers or accountants.

5. Line of Service or Products

Here is where you go into detail about what you’re selling. Give a detailed description of your goods or services, focusing on how they help the customer. Don’t use too much technical jargon; instead, use simple, clear language to explain everything.

Your description of your product or service should include:

• A full description: What is the service or product? What does it do?
• Unique Selling Proposition (USP): What sets your product apart from and above the competition? Is it better quality, cheaper, or easier to use?
• Pricing Strategy:How are you going to set the prices for your goods or services? Tell me why you set your prices the way you did.
• Lifecycle: What stage is your product at in its lifecycle? For example, is it still in development or ready for market?
• Intellectual Property: Do you own any patents, copyrights, or trademarks? If so, please tell us about them here.

The goal is to help the reader understand what you have to offer and why it’s useful.

6. Plan for marketing and sales

You can have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, your business will fail. This part talks about how you plan to get and keep customers. It’s your plan for making money.

Your strategy should include:

• Marketing Plan: What will you do to get to your target audience? Outline the marketing channels you’ll use, such as content marketing, social media, email marketing, SEO, paid advertising, or public relations.
• How to Sell: What do you do to make sales? Will you use an in-house sales team, e-commerce, or third-party distributors? Describe the steps from initial contact to closing the sale..
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How much does it cost to get a new customer?
• Positioning: How do you want your brand to be perceived in the market?
• Promotions: What special offers or promotions will you use to drive initial sales?

This part should be useful and specific, showing a clear way to make sales.

7. Request for Funds

This part is very important if you’re writing a business plan to get money. You need to be very clear about how much money you need, what you’ll do with it, and how you plan to pay it back.

Your request for funding should include:

• Current Funding Need: State the exact amount of funding you are seeking.
• Funding Needs in the Future: Do you think you will need more money in the future? If so, when and how much?
• How the money will be used: Give a full list of how you plan to use the money. For example, $20,000 for equipment, $15,000 for marketing, and $10,000 for initial inventory.
• Terms: Are you looking for debt or equity funding? If it’s a loan, what terms do you want for paying it back? How much ownership are you offering if it’s equity?

Transparency and detail are key to building trust with potential investors.

8. Financial Projections

Financial projections turn your business plan into numbers. This part gives a prediction of how well your business will do financially over the next three to five years. It’s crucial to be realistic and back up your projections with well-reasoned assumptions.

There are three important financial statements you should include:

• Income Statement: This is also called a Profit and Loss (P&L) statement. It shows how much money you expect to make, spend, and make over a certain period of time.
• Cash Flow Statement: This statement shows how much cash your business is getting and spending. It’s important to know how much cash you have and how you can pay your bills.
• Balance Sheet: This shows your company’s financial health at a certain point in time by listing its assets, liabilities, and equity.

Add a “break-even analysis” to show when your business will start making money. If you don’t know much about money, you might want to hire an accountant or use business plan software to help you.

9. Addendum

The appendix is where you put all the supporting documents that are too long or detailed to include in the main body of the plan. It backs up what you’ve said.

Some documents you might want to put in the appendix are:

• Resumes of important team members
• Pictures of the product or mockups
• Letters of intent from customers
• Market research data and reports 
• Permits, licenses, or patents 
• Contracts and other legal papers
• Spreadsheets with a lot of financial information

Including a well-organized appendix shows that you’ve done your homework.

10. Finishing up your business plan

It’s time to go over your plan and make any necessary changes after you’ve written all the parts. Read it over and over again to make sure it is clear, consistent, and free of grammar mistakes. Having someone else read it and give you feedback, like a mentor, advisor, or trusted coworker, can be helpful. How long does it take to make a business plan? Depending on how complicated your business is and how much research you do, it could take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. Take your time.

Are you ready to make your plan for success?

A business plan is more than just a piece of paper; it’s a living guide that will change as your business grows. It provides the structure and clarity needed to navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship and steer your business toward its goals. A good plan is the first and most important thing you should do if you’re a student working on a project or an entrepreneur ready to start your dream business.

Overwhelmed? You don’t have to do it by yourself. At Business Kiwi, we help business owners turn their ideas into real, investor-ready business plans. Our experts can help you with every step to make sure your plan is professional, polished, and strong.

To get started, make an appointment with our team today.