new venture business plan

How to develop a strategic business plan for a new venture

by Jenny Bowes | Jul 01, 2021

A key aspect of launching any new business venture is planning – but truthfully, many would-be entrepreneurs aren’t sure where to start.

Business planning has had a revamp in recent years. The old business plan has undergone a massive makeover that reflects the contemporary pace of modern business. Now, your forecasts and proposals can be much more sophisticated and yield better results. When the OKR method is included in this process, you’ll have all the tools you need to get your new business venture off to a strong start.

So, how can you put a strategic business plan in place for a new venture, and where’s the best place to begin? We answer this question in this article.

What is a strategic business plan?

A strategic business plan goes a few steps further than a traditional business plan. Business planning previously focused mainly on numbers. However, a strategic business plan takes a holistic approach, encompassing business values, vision and a variety of goals concerning your business’ philosophy, ethos and methodology.

It also focuses on how best to use and optimise your existing resources in a controlled manner.  It’s essential to account for incremental growth so that you don’t exhaust your current resources too quickly. Of course, when setting up a new business venture you don’t have previous data to work from – so a strategic business plan will use industry insights and competitor analysis to shape your organisational objectives.

Why use a strategic business plan for a new venture?

New business ventures are exciting. They leave you buzzing with the prospect of fresh opportunities approached with abundant enthusiasm. It’s easy to get lost within all the excitement that comes along with starting a new business, but getting down to the nitty-gritty is even more important for fledgling companies. That’s where strategic business planning comes in.

This will help you to streamline your business planning process so that you boost your chances of long-term success. We’ve covered some of the other main benefits below…

How can strategic business planning benefit your new venture?

Focus is key when starting any new venture. Without a clear idea of where you’re headed and how you’re getting there, you’ll likely hit some bumps in the road. Many business owners also cite time management as one of their key challenges. Overwhelm can lead to a scattergun approach, which in turn, impairs productivity. If you can clearly see where you need to focus your time, money and efforts at each stage, you can be confident that nothing is being overlooked as you progress.

• Proactivity over reactivity

When you anticipate the good and the bad, you’ll be prepared for whatever life throws at you. Business can be unpredictable and external influences are not always under your control. However, forward planning for unexpected events enables you to prepare for any unfavourable scenarios before they occur. This allows you to act accordingly and minimise any negative impact. The same can be said for positive, yet unanticipated occurrences such as a steep rise in sales. 

Creating a strategic business plan puts you one step ahead of the game and significantly increases your chances of success!

• Increased efficiency

Streamlining is key for new ventures. Many new businesses waste a significant portion of their resources during their first few years, simply because they’re unable to adequately manage them. Operational efficiency is key for any new business especially as it grows and evolves.

• Improved resilience

Markets change and events occur that are not within your control – take Covid, for instance. But, with strategic business planning, you can increase your long-term resilience by building a more adaptable and flexible organisation. 

Things to consider during the strategic business planning process

Strategic business plans are comprehensive and incorporate multiple elements. Therefore, you’ll need to gather some information and consider various different aspects of your business (both now and how you want it to look in the future) before you begin.

To start with, consider the following elements:

Your vision and values: Who are you, what do you do and most importantly, why? What makes you different? What do you stand for?

Your industry and competitors: Who else is doing what you do, and how do they do it? What’s their market share – and what should yours be? How are you contributing to, or evolving your industry?

Your clients and customers: What does your ideal client or customer look like? Who are they, what do they do? Creating an avatar for your ideal customer can be useful especially for marketing and branding going forward. Go into detail about their salary, lifestyle, likes and dislikes and what other companies (both competitor and non-competitor) they engage with. 

Your products and services: What exactly do you offer? List absolutely everything with a detailed description.

Outlining the above provides a firm foundation for starting the strategic business planning process.

How to make a strategic business plan

There’s no one size fits all approach to the strategic business planning process. Each industry and company is entirely different, so of course, their plans will be unique too! Using a sample strategic business plan could help to guide you through the process, especially if it’s your first time setting up a new business.

You might like to start by sitting everyone down and talking about your business. Verbally communicating what you do and how you do it without the pressure of documenting things formally can allow you to be really open and creative. Doing this with your team will also enable you to gain a variety of insights and perspectives. It can relieve that stagnant feeling that can come with strategic business planning, as you simply talk it out and discuss your company candidly in a safe setting.

In addition, competitor and target market research will be a key element for any new venture – as you’re not working with your own existing data. If you’re looking to disrupt the market you’re in, you’ll be using these insights in reverse.

Once you’ve gathered plenty of notes from your brainstorming session, begin bit by bit to fill in each section of your strategic business plan. Think of this as your first draft – it’ll go through several refinements during this process until you have something solid to work from.

If you’re still struggling to get it right, don’t worry. Getting expert support from strategic planning specialists may be the best way to go.

At There Be Giants we help organisations to execute their strategic plans by using OKRs . The OKR process and strategic planning process go hand in hand. Using both methods can help to boost your chances of achieving sustained business growth.

If you want to learn more about executing your strategic plans, speak to one of our Giants today to learn more about how we can help you.

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How to Write a Business Plan for Raising Venture Capital

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Are you looking for VC funding or funding from other potential investors?

You need a good business idea – and an excellent business plan.

Business planning and raising capital go hand-in-hand. An investor business plan is required for attracting a venture capital firm. And the desire to raise capital (whether from an individual “angel” investor or a venture capitalist) is often the key motivator in the business planning process.

Download the Ultimate VC Business Plan Template here

Writing an Investor-Ready Business Plan

Executive summary.

Goal of the executive summary : Stimulate and motivate the investor to learn more.

• Hook them on the first page. Most investors are inundated with business plans. Your first page must make them want to keep reading.
• Keep it simple. After reading the first page, investors often do not understand the business. If your business is truly complex, you can dive into the details later on.
• Be brief. The executive summary should be 2 to 4 pages in length.

Company Analysis

Goal of the company analysis section: Educate the investor about your company’s history and explain why your team is perfect to execute on the business opportunity.

• Give some history. Provide the background on the company, including date of formation, office location, legal structure, and stage of development.  
• Show off your track record. Detail prior accomplishments, including funding rounds, product launches, milestones reached, and partnerships secured, among others.
• Why you? Demonstrate your team’s unique unfair competitive advantage, whether it is technology, stellar management team, or key partnerships.

Industry Analysis

Goal of the industry analysis section: Prove that there is a real market for your product or service.

• Demonstrate the need – rather than the desire – for your product. Ideally, people are willing to pay money to satisfy this need.
• Cite credible sources when describing the size and growth of your market.
• Use independent research. If possible, source research through an independent research firm to enhance your credibility. For general market sizes and trends, we suggest citing at least two independent research firms.
• Focus on the “relevant” market size. For example, if you sell a portable biofeedback stress relief device, your relevant market is not the entire health care market. In determining the relevant market size, focus on the products or services that you will directly compete against.
• It’s not just a research report – each fact, figure, and projection should support your company’s prospects for success.
• Don’t ignore negative trends. Be sure to explain how your company would overcome potential negative trends. Such analysis will relieve investor concerns and enhance the plan’s credibility.
• Be prepared for due diligence. It’s critical that the data you present is verifiable since any serious investor will conduct extensive due diligence.

Customer Analysis

Goal of customer analysis section: Convey the needs of your potential customers and show how your company’s products and services satisfy those needs.

• Define your customers precisely. For example, it’s not adequate to say your company is targeting small businesses since there are several million of these.
• Detail their demographics. How many customers fit the definition? Where are these customers located? What is their average income?
• Identify the needs of these customers. Use data to demonstrate past actions (X% have purchased a similar product), future projections (X% said they would purchase the product), and/or implications (X% use a product/service which your product enhances).
• Explain what drives their decisions. For example, is price more important than quality?
• Detail the decision-making process. For example, will the customer seek multiple bids? Will the customer consult others in their organization before making a decision?

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Competitive Analysis

Goal of the competitive analysis section: Define the competition and demonstrate your competitive advantage.

• List competitors. Many companies make the mistake of conveying that they have few or no real competitors. From an investor’s standpoint, a competitor is something that fulfills the same need as your product. If you claim you have no competitors, you are seriously undermining the credibility of your business plans.
• Include direct and indirect competitors. Direct competitors serve the same target market with similar products. Indirect competitors serve the same target market with different products or different target markets with similar products.
• List public companies (when relevant, of course). A public company implies that the market size is big. This gives the assurance that if management executes well, the company has substantial profit and liquidity potential.
• Don’t just list competitors. Carefully describe their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the key drivers of competitive differentiation in the marketplace. And when describing competitors’ weaknesses, be sure to use objective information (e.g. market research).
• Demonstrate barriers to entry. In describing the competitive landscape, show how your business model creates competitive advantages, and – more importantly – defensible barriers to entry.

Marketing Plan

Goal of the marketing plan: Describe how your company will penetrate the market, deliver products/services, and retain customers.

• Products. Detail all current and future products and services – but focus primarily on the short-to-intermediate time horizon.
• Promotions. Explain exactly which marketing/advertising strategies will be used and why.
• Price. Be sure to provide a clear rationale for your pricing strategy.
• Place. Explain exactly how your products and services will be delivered to your customers.
• Detail your customer retention plan. Explain how you will retain your customers, whether through customer relationship management (CRM) applications, building network externalities, introducing ongoing value-added services, or other means.
• Define your partnerships. From an investor’s perspective, what partnership you have with whom is not nearly as important as the specific terms of the partnership. Be sure to document the specifics of the partnerships (e.g. how it will work, the financial terms, the types of customer leads expected from each partner, etc.).

Operations Plan

Goal of the operations plan: Present the action plan for executing your company’s vision.

• Concept vs. reality. The operations plan transforms business plans from concept into reality. Investors do not invest in concepts; they invest in reality. And the operations plan proves that the management team can execute your concept better than anybody else.
• Everyday processes. Detail the short-term processes and systems that provide your customers with your products and services.
• Business milestones. Lay out the significant long-term business milestones for the company, and prove that the team will execute on the long-term vision. A great way to present the milestones is to organize them into a chart with key milestones on the left side and target dates on the right side.
• Be consistent. Make sure that the milestone projections are consistent with the rest of the business plan – particularly the financial plan.
• Be aggressive but credible. Presenting a plan in which the company grows too quickly will show the naiveté of the team while presenting too conservative a growth plan will often fail to excite an early stage investor (who typically looks for a 10X return on her investment).

Financial Plan

Goal of the financial plan: Explain how your business will generate returns for your investors.

• Detail all revenue streams. Be sure to include all revenue streams. Depending on the type of business, these may include sales of products/services, referral revenues, advertising sales, licensing/royalty fees, and/or data sales.
• Be consistent with your Pro-forma statements. Pro-forma statements are projected financial statements. It is critical that these projections reflect the other sections of your newly formed business plan.
• Validate your assumptions and projections. The financial plan must detail your key assumptions, and it is critical that these assumptions are feasible. Be sure to use competitive research to validate your projections and assumptions versus the reality in your marketplace. Assessing and basing financial projections on those of similar firms will greatly validate the realism and maturity of the financial projections.
• Detail the uses of funds. Understandably, investors want to know what, specifically, you plan to do with their money. Uses of funds could include expenses involved with marketing, staffing, technology development, office space, among other uses.
• Provide a clear exit strategy. All investors are motivated by a clear picture of your exit strategy, or the timing and method through which they can “cash in” on their investment. Be sure to provide comparable examples of firms that have successfully exited. The most common exits are IPOs or acquisitions. And while the exact method is not always crucial, the investor wants to see this planning in order to better understand the management team’s motivation and commitment to building long-term value.

Above all, the business plan is a marketing document that helps to sell the investor on the business opportunity, the team, the strategy, and the potential for significant return on investment.

How to raise venture capital is a difficult and time-intensive challenge. There is no easy shortcut or silver bullet. However, you can greatly improve your chances of raising venture capital by writing a business plan that speaks directly to the investor’s perspective.

Finish Your VC Business Plan in 1 Day!

Raising venture capital faqs, what is the purpose of a business plan for raising venture capital.

The purpose of writing a business plan for raising venture capital is to convince investors that the proposed new or existing company has a good chance of being successful and can earn them a favorable return on investment (ROI).

What Does VC Funding Entail?

VC funding is a type of financial transaction in which the venture capital firm invests in startup companies or early-stage companies. The firm invests its own capital (which it receives from other entities that invest in the VC firm) in these nascent companies with the goal of rapidly expanding them. Generally, early-stage companies use bootstrapping, self-funding, bank loans, and/or angel investment before raising their first round of venture capital. Companies might receive several rounds of VC funding.

What is a Typical Amount of Capital to Raise?

Typically, the first round (Series A) of venture capital amounts to $2-10 million. To raise that amount from VCs at the very start of your company is often very difficult. Rather, you should consider approaching angel investors and banks to provide initial financing to get you to the point at which venture capitalists are interested in providing funding. Gaining customer traction is generally the point in which VCs are ready to provide Series A financing. VCs will provide Series B funding, Series C funding, etc. to help continue to fund a company’s growth if the company seems poised for success. These funding rounds are usually much larger than Series A rounds.

How Long Does It Take For Investors To Decide If My Business Is Worth Investing In?

It varies from investor to investor, but prepare yourself to wait up to three months before receiving a check from a VC. The process typically includes sending the VC a teaser email to get their interest, following up with a business plan, giving a pitch presentation, and negotiating the terms of the funding round.

How Do I Find Venture Capitalists?

There are many venture capital firms and virtually all of them have websites and are thus fairly easy to find. There are also directories of them available on the internet. You may also be able to find VCs through personal introductions or by attending industry events. 

Look for VCs that have funded companies in your industry/sector, at your stage of development and in your geographical area.

What Capital Raising Options are Available For a Business?

There are four broad options for raising money or venture capital when you run a business. These include venture capital firms, angel investors, loans and venture debt, or bootstrapping.

Venture Capitalists

A Venture Capitalist is an investor that provides equity financing for companies that have already achieved some traction but lack the financial resources to scale up their operations. Their investment objective is typically to grow the company so it can be sold or go public at a later date so the VC can exit or cash in on their success.

Angel Investors

Angel investors are wealthy individuals who invest their own money into startup companies because they believe they will get an above-average return on their investment. They also invest if/when they like the entrepreneurs and/or management team, they are passionate about the concept, or if they’d like to get involved in an exciting new venture.

Loans and Venture Debt

Business loans or venture debt is money given to a company in return for interest and principal payments over time, but without the investor taking an ownership stake in the company. Such funding is typically issued by local banks. Debt funding is typically less expensive than equity financing, but it is much harder for early-stage companies to raise significant amounts of debt capital.

Bootstrapping

Bootstrapping is the process of a startup company funding its own growth from internal sources such as the founder's savings, loans from friends and family, or credit card debt.

Firms that are bootstrapped can grow at a more controlled rate while they achieve product-market fit before an angel investor or venture capital firm injects their money to scale up the company.

Bootstrapping is best for companies with low capital needs because there’s only so much you can raise in this manner. If you need millions of dollars, bootstrapping just won’t work and you’ll need to tap venture capital.

How exactly will your small business persuade these potential investors to sign a check? Once you know what type of capital you are trying to raise, you can develop business plans to suit their exact requirements.

Need help with your business plan?

Speak with one of our professional business plan consultants or contact our private placement memorandum experts.

Or, if you’re developing your own PPM, consider using Growthink’s new private placement memorandum template .

Other Helpful Funding & Business Plan Articles

Developing a business plan for your new venture

Do you have an idea to evolve your business or maybe even starting something brand new? Turning your vision into a reality requires developing a business plan. Here’s how to get started.

Many people are waiting for all the stars to align before taking the next leap in their business or starting an entirely  new company. Because of that hesitation, they never get around to fulfilling their dreams. But by getting rolling on developing your business plan, you can turn your dream into a reality faster. 

In 2022, industries will continue to shift in new ways, and now may be the perfect time to take your project to the next level. To get started, it’s important to know what is involved in venturing into new territory or starting a business, and that’s where a business plan comes in. 

Why is developing a business plan so important?

A business plan is a formal document that provides the roadmap for your company. It can help you navigate through tough decisions and can help you manage any challenges that may come your way. It will also help you stay focused on your end goal as you grow your business. And if you are starting a completely new venture, it’s essential to have one in place before applying for funding or securing partners. 

To create a great business plan — whether for your startup, scaling business or mature enterprise — you’ll want to start with these steps:

Step One: Define your business goals

The first step in creating your business plan is determining the direction of your business (if you’re evolving into new territory) or what kind of company you want to start — along with your overall goals. For example, will you run a physical store, or do you prefer an online business? Do you want to sell a specific product or focus on services? Maybe you already have a hobby that you want to turn into a business, or you have an idea of an innovation you can bring to the market?

Once you define your ultimate goals, you’ll be able to start thinking about how you want to achieve those goals.

Step Two: Evaluate your business skills and knowledge

Many new business owners find it helpful to take classes in business to better grasp the intricacies of running a business. Online universities offer convenient solutions for those seeking to learn more about leadership, strategy, operations and general management.

If there are some areas of running a business that you aren’t well-versed in, you’ll want to leverage outside help or software that fills in the gaps. For example, if you’ve never managed payroll, software or apps can help. Many of these services provide same-day direct deposit, automation for payroll and payroll taxes, and time tracking.

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Step Three: Define the structure of your business

Next, you’ll want to clearly define the best business structure for your venture. Incorporating rather than operating as a sole proprietorship does have its benefits. For example, if you form an LLC, you could be eligible for certain tax incentives, tax credits and business incentives. 

You will need a clear idea of what products you will sell at the time of the company launch and how your offering will evolve with time to keep up with industry trends and client demands. You will also need to know if you will be selling directly to consumers, acting as a wholesaler, or offering a B2B service for other businesses.

Step Four: Get your financials in order

An important part of creating a business plan is planning out the financing aspect. What cost structure will allow you to create your product or service and have it reach your final consumer? This would include all the physical production costs, supply chain, marketing, and personnel costs for your company structure.

Once you have all of the above information, you can bring it all together. Make financial projections of what your sales and profits would look like over the first few years and what startup costs and cash flow you need to finance to start the business.

Access to funding will be crucial in getting your venture up and running. Invoice factoring can help build working capital. 

Step Five: Research the market

The final step in creating a business plan is to research the competition . This will help you to avoid starting an unnecessary or unprofitable venture. Think of ways that make your company unique from other similar companies who are also competing for clients in this space. Answering the following questions will help guide your research:

• What is different about your products and services that only you can provide?
• Based on your product, costs, customer target, and competition, what would be the optimal price points for each of your products or services? 
• How are you going to reach your consumers and let them know about your products? 

There are many resources online today that can help you establish a solid business plan. And once you have it on paper, you will see that it makes your vision come to life and gives you a base document that you can work with to approach investors or potential stakeholders in your business.

Up next:  Create a smart digital marketing plan on a budget

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How to launch a new business: Three approaches that work

COVID-19 and its ongoing repercussions have forced business leaders to reevaluate their priorities and strategies. One area where businesses across all regions have accelerated their commitments is around building new businesses. Leading growth businesses in particular have made this strategy a top priority, according to recent McKinsey research .

About the authors

This article was a collaborative effort by Ralf Dreischmeier , Philipp Hillenbrand , Jerome Königsfeld , Ari Libarikian , and Lukas Salomon, representing views from Leap by McKinsey, McKinsey’s business-building practice.

Yet despite the growing enthusiasm for business building, incumbents with good ideas, strong commitments, and big ambitions will frequently run headlong into a big question: How do we actually go about building a business? Getting the answer to this question right is crucial because it shapes the entire operating model of the business-building venture, with significant implications in terms of budget, organization, and strategic direction.

A leading industrial company learned this at a cost. When executives wanted to optimize operations in their factories, they believed setting up a fully independent start-up dedicated to developing new factory concepts was the only way to make it happen. Despite millions of dollars of investment, however, it didn’t work. The start-up struggled to access data and insights, failed to fully grasp the challenges of the core business, and did not attain sufficient support in the parent organization to test and implement changes. This example supports our research, which shows that fewer than a quarter of businesses launched ten years ago are viable large-scale enterprises today .

Figuring out the right approach to business building is especially important now as new opportunities for innovation surface. Prompted by the pandemic, new business-building archetypes have emerged, such as remote service provision, digital retail, and collaboration platforms.

As is true for many complex undertakings, there is no single right approach for launching a new business successfully. In addition, certain strategies will be important no matter which approach a company takes. Joint ventures and alliances, for example, can help to reach scale and enter new markets, and working with partners in ecosystems that, in some cases, include erstwhile competitors can expand offerings, access capabilities, and accelerate scale.

After analyzing more than 200 corporate business builds that we have supported, we have identified three major approaches that have proven successful. While other approaches can certainly work, the three we explore in this article have an established track record and clear conditions for success. The characteristics of each are unique, and so, too, are the criteria and conditions for success (Exhibit 1).

Would you like to learn more about Leap , our business-building practice?

1. internal vc-like incubator.

In this approach, incumbents develop a broad portfolio of ideas, with the goal of producing a few winners that can be successfully commercialized. Teams within the parent organization develop concepts for new businesses and pitch them to a dedicated venture-capital-style board comprising internal and external experts, who select the most promising ones. Successful teams receive milestone-based funding and resources to validate core assumptions and develop a minimum viable product (MVP)—a crucial governance necessity no matter what approach a business chooses (Exhibit 2).

The business has to be vigilant to ensure that the start-up culture “sticks” and that the legacy corporate culture doesn’t slowly start to take over. One way to do that is to assign an experienced business-building coach to each team to build up and nurture an agile test-and-learn culture.

Establishing an incubation approach is particularly suitable for incumbents that have a clear overall sense of the future direction of their business and sector, as well as a strong pipeline of promising early-stage ideas. They may, however, lack initial certainty on what the “winning concepts” will be and how they should be set up for the long term—as an internal division or an external spinout, for example. In our experience, the internal incubation approach works best when the new business is expected to focus on the parent’s core business.

A leading consumer food company achieved great success with this internal incubation approach. After a successful restructuring program, the company’s CEO and board first set a clear vision and ambition that new ventures should primarily benefit the core business and enable significant improvements in the top and bottom lines. Management then invited employees to form small teams that included a team lead and a management sponsor, such as the division head.

Over the course of six weeks, these teams then independently developed more than 100 ideas for new businesses aligned with the overall strategy. All teams scoped out MVPs and pitched their concepts to a newly created internal venture-capital (VC) board that included senior managers, external venture capitalists and technologists, sector experts, and strategic customers.

The VC board then provided initial funding to ten concepts that covered a wide range of applications, including IoT devices, process automation, data platforms, and resourcing marketplaces. Key decision criteria were resources required, path to scale, time to impact, expected overall P&L impact, and unique advantages of the parent company that could be leveraged to build the new businesses. Each initiative was assigned a delivery lead, an experienced business-building coach who helped employees to identify and de-risk the core assumptions first .

Over the course of the next six to ten weeks, these teams built out their MVPs to test core assumptions, such as market demand, required investment, and potential to scale. Those that were successful then approached the VC board and business-unit leadership for additional resources to scale the MVP. Within 16 months, the program to incubate the new businesses became self-funding.

Key success factors

• Adopt a true VC mindset, and kill ideas without clear potential early on in order to cut losses and strengthen the organization’s focus and resources on concepts with high potential.
• Include external experts on your VC board to increase objectivity and add important new perspectives.
• Match venture teams with experienced delivery leads to provide crucial coaching and skill building to test and adapt quickly.

2. Scale-up factory

Frequently, an incumbent organization already has a strong pipeline of new-product and -business concepts that have been validated with first customers and partners. But because it lacks the specialized resources, talent, and expertise required to quickly and successfully scale an entirely new business, promising ideas wither.

A scale-up-factory approach can help address these issues. In this model, the parent sets up a fully owned “factory” that is exclusively dedicated to rapidly scaling promising concepts from the parent’s R&D pipeline into independent businesses. Typically, with this approach, the parent is the first and largest customer of the new businesses. In return, the factory’s new businesses can leverage the parent’s brand, reputation, and customer network. Importantly, providing employees with equity gives them “skin in the game” and helps attract and retain the best digital talent from start-ups and tech firms.

Despite a strong R&D pipeline, new ideas at a leading global energy player frequently did not reach sufficient scale to generate meaningful new revenue streams. To change this, the company used the scale-up-factory approach to address a key business goal: build and scale disruptive technologies and business models from the internal R&D into rapidly growing and revenue-generating businesses.

The new scale-up factory is located in a separate office and staffed with a dedicated team, most of whom were hired to meet the need for specialized skills and a “start-up mindset.” The new company is governed by its own leadership and a dedicated, internal board of directors, rather than by business-unit leaders. While senior group leaders dedicate significant time to strategic decision making and steering toward targets and milestones, they do not get involved in the scale-up factory’s day-to-day decision making.

After two years, the businesses developed by the scale-up factory have scaled to more than 100 employees and have already become a significant revenue-growth motor for the parent company.

• A strong pipeline of “potential blockbuster” ideas within the parent company that have been validated and deemed commercially viable
• Clear funding and governance to establish accountability for each project that has business-unit and factory representation, remove any ambiguity in approvals and funding (such as joint signatures between factory and business unit), and align up front on milestones for the release of further funding
• Strong learning and pattern-recognition processes —the more scale-ups the factory executes, and the better team members become at collecting and codifying learnings, the more efficient the factory’s processes will become (a key insight from our latest research )

Why business building is the new priority for growth

3. ‘clean slate’ business building.

In some cases, executives have identified a big, promising idea for a new business well beyond their organization’s core focus, such as leveraging a disruptive new technology or entering a new industry. In this case, a clean-slate approach works best, with the new business typically fully owned by the incumbent (or jointly owned with external investors) and all talent hired externally.

Similar to the scale-up factory, the new start-up enjoys organizational independence but has greater entrepreneurial latitude. Speed is more important than process perfection in areas such as HR, IT, and procurement. The new business develops its own tech stack, for example, and explores different business models, even working with traditional competitors. It has different compensation and hiring models than the parent company, as well as its own R&D and insights capability to aggressively test completely new markets. Incumbents that have been successful in driving growth via clean-slate business building often start to shift to adapting principles of the scale-up-factory approach described in the previous section.

“Acqui-hiring” talent (that is, hiring an entire team or acquiring a company to access its talent) can be used to turbocharge business builds in any of the three approaches outlined in this article, but it is particularly suitable for accelerating clean-slate builds when internal capabilities are limited. Acqui-hires provide incumbents with immediate access to a well-integrated team with relevant capabilities who can hit the ground running.

Acqui-hiring can work only if the new venture has a strong culture that can quickly and successfully integrate the acqui-hired team. Clear leadership communication and strong alignment of incentives—such as equity awards distributed to all members of the business-building team—are critical to bringing the new team on board and avoiding potential resentment from members from the incumbent organization.

Using a clean-slate approach enabled one of the world’s leading engineering companies to quickly build a highly innovative IoT platform to sell software through an app store. Initial testing had validated the concept, which also had strong support from top management. Given the need to move quickly and lacking the right talent internally, the company set up a new start-up with strong financial backing, a separate office several hundred miles away from parent-company headquarters, and a leadership team hired from leading technology players.

Senior executives from the parent organization narrowed down the catalog of more than 1,000 rules, regulations, and governance processes that new divisions were typically required to implement to only about 50 that were essential. To establish the new business’s neutrality, the company set up a new industry alliance and collaborated with external partners—some of them direct competitors of the parent company—from day one.

To further accelerate this process, the company decided against gradually hiring developers or retraining staff. Instead, it acqui-hired a full development team of more than 30 people from a major software producer. This approach enabled the building of a highly complex digital solution and a thriving ecosystem with dozens of partners at record speed: first sales were generated less than 15 months after the acqui-hire had been completed.

• Strong focus on culture through strong investment in regular team-building activities that are crucial to integrate teams and unite them behind a common goal
• Foundations for an ecosystem of partners built early on by engaging with external partners—even competitors—as soon as the new business is set up, so that the market perceives it as a neutral player; then build out a large-scale ecosystem over time
• A start-up CEO fully committed to the new venture, through incentives (equity, bonus structure, and so on) that are fully tied to the start-up’s fortunes and do not include a “safety net” in the form of guaranteed continued employment with the parent

Business building is increasingly a core strategic pillar for companies operating in a digital world. Selecting the approach that is right for any given business, based on an understanding of the necessary trade-offs, conditions, and criteria for success, is one of the most important decisions incumbents need to make, as it can unlock the opportunity for rapid growth.

Ralf Dreischmeier is a senior partner in McKinsey’s London office; Philipp Hillenbrand is a partner in the Berlin office; Jerome Königsfeld is an associate partner in the Cologne office; and Ari Libarikian is a senior partner in the New York office, where  Lukas Salomon  is a consultant.

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, how often should a business plan be updated, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

A business plan is a document that details a company's goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document describing a company's business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company's short- and long-term objectives.
• There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they'll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn't looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, "Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs."

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan for itself.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and highlighting any potential obstacles to success. A company might also share its business plan with trusted outsiders to get their objective feedback. In addition, a business plan can help keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and priorities.

Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they often have some of the same basic elements, as we describe below.

While it's a good idea to provide as much detail as necessary, it's also important that a business plan be concise enough to hold a reader's attention to the end.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, it's best to fit the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and attached as appendices.

These are some of the most common elements in many business plans:

• Executive summary: This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services: Here, the company should describe the products and services it offers or plans to introduce. That might include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other factors that could go into this section include production and manufacturing processes, any relevant patents the company may have, as well as proprietary technology . Information about research and development (R&D) can also be included here.
• Market analysis: A company needs to have a good handle on the current state of its industry and the existing competition. This section should explain where the company fits in, what types of customers it plans to target, and how easy or difficult it may be to take market share from incumbents.
• Marketing strategy: This section can describe how the company plans to attract and keep customers, including any anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. It should also describe the distribution channel or channels it will use to get its products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections: Established businesses can include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses can provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making.

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should aim to entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its uniqueness and potential for success.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can take many forms, but they are sometimes divided into two basic categories: traditional and lean startup. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These plans tend to be much longer than lean startup plans and contain considerably more detail. As a result they require more work on the part of the business, but they can also be more persuasive (and reassuring) to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans are short—as short as one page—and provide only the most basic detail. If a company wants to use this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or a lender requests it.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan is not a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections to begin with. Markets and the overall economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All of this calls for building some flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on the nature of the business. A well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary. A new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers to give a quick explanation of its business. For example, a brand-new company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide yet.

Sections can include: a value proposition ; the company's major activities and advantages; resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital; a list of partnerships; customer segments; and revenue sources.

A business plan can be useful to companies of all kinds. But as a company grows and the world around it changes, so too should its business plan. So don't think of your business plan as carved in granite but as a living document designed to evolve with your business.

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

• Business Development: Definition, Strategies, Steps & Skills 1 of 46
• Business Ethics: Definition, Principles, Why They're Important 2 of 46
• Business Plan: What It Is, What's Included, and How to Write One 3 of 46
• Organizational Structure for Companies With Examples and Benefits 4 of 46
• Which Type of Organization Is Best For Your Business? 5 of 46
• What Are the Major Types of Businesses in the Private Sector? 6 of 46
• Corporate Culture Definition, Characteristics, and Importance 7 of 46
• What Is an S Corp? Definition, Taxes, and How to File 8 of 46
• LLC vs. Incorporation: Which Should I Choose? 9 of 46
• Private Company: What It Is, Types, and Pros and Cons 10 of 46
• Sole Proprietorship: What It Is, Pros & Cons, and Differences From an LLC 11 of 46
• Bootstrapping Definition, Strategies, and Pros/Cons 12 of 46
• Crowdfunding: What It Is, How It Works, and Popular Websites 13 of 46
• Seed Capital: What It Is, How It Works, Example 14 of 46
• Venture Capital: What Is VC and How Does It Work? 15 of 46
• Startup Capital Definition, Types, and Risks 16 of 46
• Capital Funding: Definition, How It Works, and 2 Primary Methods 17 of 46
• Series Funding: A, B, and C 18 of 46
• Small Business Administration (SBA): Definition and What It Does 19 of 46
• Upper Management: What it is, How it Works 20 of 46
• What is the C Suite?: Meaning and Positions Defined 21 of 46
• Chief Executive Officer (CEO): What They Do vs. Other Chief Roles 22 of 46
• Operations Management: Understanding and Using It 23 of 46
• Human Resource Planning (HRP) Meaning, Process, and Examples 24 of 46
• Brand: Types of Brands and How to Create a Successful Brand Identity 25 of 46
• What Is Brand Personality? How It Works and Examples 26 of 46
• What Is Brand Management? Requirements, How It Works, and Example 27 of 46
• What Is Brand Awareness? Definition, How It Works, and Strategies 28 of 46
• Brand Loyalty: What It Is, and How to Build It 29 of 46
• Brand Extension: Definition, How It Works, Example, and Criticism 30 of 46
• What Is Social Networking? 31 of 46
• Affiliate Marketer: Definition, Examples, and How to Get Started 32 of 46
• What Is Commercialization, Plus the Product Roll-Out Process 33 of 46
• Digital Marketing Overview: Types, Challenges & Required Skills 34 of 46
• Direct Marketing: What It Is and How It Works 35 of 46
• Marketing in Business: Strategies and Types Explained 36 of 46
• What Are Marketing Campaigns? Definition, Types, and Examples 37 of 46
• How to Do Market Research, Types, and Example 38 of 46
• Micromarketing Explained: Definition, Uses, and Examples 39 of 46
• Network Marketing Meaning and How It Works 40 of 46
• Product Differentiation: What It Is, How Businesses Do It, and the 3 Main Types 41 of 46
• Target Market: Definition, Purpose, Examples, Market Segments 42 of 46
• Outside Sales: What They are, How They Work 43 of 46
• What Is a Sales Lead? How It Works and Factors Affecting Quality 44 of 46
• Indirect Sales: What it is, How it Works 45 of 46
• What Is Inside Sales? Definition, How It Works, and Advantages 46 of 46

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The 7 Best Business Plan Examples (2024)

So you want to start a business . Kudos! You’re doing big things.

One of the first steps to building a strong foundation for your new venture is to write a rock-solid business plan . When done right, your business plan can pave your path to success, all while helping you to smoothly cruise through any obstacles that may come up.

Plus, a good business plan can help you secure critical partnerships and funding that you might need in your early stages.

If you’re unsure how to write one, a great place to start is to learn from the pros. In this article, we’ll look at companies that built incredible business plans.

Take notes on the structure, format, and details. Hopefully you’ll leave with plenty of inspiration to write your own.

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7-part template for business plan examples

We’ll look at a business plan that is structured using a seven-part template. Here’s a quick review of those parts:

• Executive summary: A quick overview of your business and the contents of your business plan.
• Company description: More info about your company, its goals and mission, and why you started it in the first place.
• Market analysis: Research about the market and industry your business will operate in, including a competitive analysis about the companies you’ll be up against.
• Products and services: A detailed description of what you’ll be selling to your customers.
• Marketing plan: A strategic outline of how you plan to market and promote your business before, during, and after your company launches into the market.
• Logistics and operations plan: An explanation of the systems, processes, and tools that are needed to run your business in the background.
• Financial plan: A map of your short-term (and even long-term) financial goals and the costs to run the business. If you’re looking for funding, here’s the place to discuss your request and needs.

7 business plan examples (section by section)

In this section, you’ll find hypothetical and real-world examples of each aspect of a business plan to show you how the whole thing comes together. 

• Executive summary

Your executive summary offers a high-level overview of the rest of your business plan. You’ll want to include a brief description of your company, market research, competitor analysis, and financial information.  

In ThoughtCo’s sample business plan for a fictional company called Acme Management Technology, the executive summary is three paragraphs and occupies nearly half the page:

• Company description

You might go more in-depth with your company description and include the following sections:

• Nature of the business. Mention the general category of business you fall under. Are you a manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer of your products?
• Background information. Talk about your past experiences and skills, and how you’ve combined them to fill in the market. 
• Business structure. This section outlines how you registered your company —as a corporation, sole proprietorship, LLC, or other business type.
• Industry. Which business sector do you operate in? The answer might be technology, merchandising, or another industry.
• Team. Whether you’re the sole full-time employee of your business or you have contractors to support your daily workflow, this is your chance to put them under the spotlight.

You can also repurpose your company description elsewhere, like on your About page, Instagram page, or other properties that ask for a boilerplate description of your business. Hair extensions brand Luxy Hair has a blurb on its About page that could easily be repurposed as a company description for its business plan. 

• Market analysis

Market analysis comprises research on product supply and demand, your target market, the competitive landscape, and industry trends. You might do a SWOT analysis to learn where you stand and identify market gaps that you could exploit to establish your footing. Here’s an example of a SWOT analysis we did for a hypothetical ecommerce business: 

You’ll also want to run a competitive analysis as part of the market analysis component for your business plan. This will show you who you’re up against and give you ideas on how to gain an edge over the competition. 

• Products and services

This part of your business plan describes your product or service, how it will be priced, and the ways it will compete against similar offerings in the market. Don’t go into too much detail here —a few lines are enough to introduce your item to the reader.

• Marketing plan

Potential investors will want to know how you’ll get the word out about your business. As such, it’s essential to build a marketing plan that highlights the promotion and customer acquisition strategies you’re planning to adopt. 

Most marketing plans focus on the four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. However, it’s easier when you break it down by the different marketing channels . Mention how you intend to promote your business using blogs, email, social media, and word-of-mouth marketing. 

Here’s an example of a hypothetical marketing plan for a real estate website:

Logistics and operations

This section of your business plan provides information about your production, facilities, production, equipment, shipping and fulfillment, and inventory.

Financial plan

The financial plan (a.k.a. financial statement) offers a breakdown of your sales, revenue, expenses, profit, and other financial metrics. You’ll want to include all the numbers and concrete data to project your current and projected financial state. For example, the financial statement for ecommerce brand Nature’s Candy includes forecasted revenue, expenses, and net profit in graphs.

It then goes deeper into the financials, citing:

• Funding needs
• Project cash-flow statement
• Project profit-and-loss statement
• Projected balance sheet

You can use Shopify’s financial plan template to create your own income statement, cash-flow statement, and balance sheet. 

Types of business plan (and what to write for each)

A one-page business plan is a pared down version of a standard business plan that’s easy for potential investors and partners to understand. You’ll want to include all of the sections, but make sure they’re abbreviated and summarized.

• Logistics and operations plan
• Financials 

A startup business plan is meant to secure outside funding for a new business. Typically, there’s a big focus on the financials, as well as other sections that help determine the viability of your business idea —market analysis, for example. Shopify has a great business plan template for startups that include all the below points.

• Market research: in depth
• Financials: in depth

Internal 

Your internal business plan acts as the enforcer of your company’s vision. It reminds your team of the long-term objective and keeps them strategically aligned toward the same goal.

• Market research

Feasibility 

A feasibility business plan is essentially a feasibility study that helps you evaluate whether your product or idea is worthy of a full business plan. 

Mix and match to make a killer business plan

The good news is: there’s no single right way to write a business plan. If you’re feeling unsure about how to craft yours, pull bits and pieces that you like from other examples, and leave out the parts that don’t apply or make sense for you.

The important thing is to clearly communicate your reason for starting the company, what’s needed to operate it, and how you plan to make it work in the long run.

When you can convince others that you have a killer game plan, you’ve nailed it.

Want to learn more?

• Question: Are You a Business Owner or an Entrepreneur?
• Bootstrapping a Business: 10 Tips to Help You Succeed
• Entrepreneurial Mindset: 20 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur
• 101+ Best Small Business Software Programs 

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Developing a Business Plan

An important task in starting a new venture is to develop a business plan. As the phrase suggests, a business plan is a "road map" to guide the future of the business or venture. The elements of the business plan will impact the daily decisions of the business and provide direction for expansion, diversification, and future evaluation of the business.

This publication will assist in drafting your own business plan. It includes a discussion of the makeup of the plan and the information needed to develop a business plan. Business plans are traditionally developed and written by the owner with input from family members and the members of the business team. Business plans are "living" documents that should be reviewed and updated every year or if an opportunity for change presents itself. Reviews reinforce the thoughts and plans of the owner and the business and are a key item in the evaluation process. For an established venture, evaluation determines if the business is in need of change or if it is meeting the expectations of the owners.

Using the Proper Format

The format and appearance of the plan should be as professional as possible to portray your business in a positive manner. When dealing with a lender or possible investor, the plan will be reviewed for accuracy and suggestions for changes to the plan may be offered. The decision to recommend a loan for approval will be largely based on your business plan. Often loan officers will not know a great deal about the proposed venture, but they will know the correct structure of a business plan.

Investors will make their decision based on the plan and the integrity of the owner. For this reason, it is necessary to use a professional format. After loan officers complete their evaluations, the loan committee will further review the business plan and make a decision. The committee members often spend limited time reviewing the document, focusing on the message of the executive summary and financial statements to make their determination. They will refer to other sections of the plan for details and clarification. Because of this, these portions need to be the strongest parts of the plan and based on sound in-depth research and analysis.

Sections of the Business Plan

A business plan should be structured like a book with the title or cover page, followed by a table of contents. Following these two pages, the body of the plan normally appears in this order: executive summary, business mission statement, goals and objectives, background information, organizational matters, marketing plan, and financial plan.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is placed at the front of the business plan, but it should be the last part written. The summary should identify the type of business and describe the proposed business, or changes to the existing business. Research findings and recommendations should be summarized concisely to provide the reader with the information required to make any decisions. The summary outlines the direction and future plans or goals of the business, as well as the methods that will be used to achieve these goals. The summary should include adequate background information to support these recommendations.

The final financial analysis and the assumptions used are also a part of the executive summary. The analysis should show how proposed changes will ensure the sustainability of the current or proposed business. All challenges facing the existing business or proposed venture should be discussed in this section. Identifying such challenges shows the reader that all possibilities have been explored and taken into account during the research process.

Overview, Mission, and Goals and Objectives

This section has three separate portions. It begins with a brief overview that includes a general description of the existing or planned business. The overview is followed by the mission statement of the business. You should try to limit the mission statement to three sentences if possible and include only the key ideas about why the business exists. An example of a mission statement for a produce farm might be: The mission of XYZ Produce is to provide fresh, healthy produce to our customers, and to provide a safe, friendly working environment for our employees. If you have more than three sentences, you should be as concise as possible.

The final portion sets the business's goals and objectives. There are at least two schools of thought about goals and objectives. Goals and objectives should show the reader what the business wishes to accomplish, and the steps needed to obtain the desired results. Conducting a SWOT analysis will assist your team when developing goals and objectives. SWOT in an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats and is covered more in-depth later in the publication. You may want to include marketing topics in the SWOT or conduct two SWOT analyses, one for the entire business and one for the marketing plan.

Goals should follow the acronym DRIVE, which stands for D irectional, R easonable, I nspiring, V isible, and E ventual. The definitions of DRIVE are:

• Directional: It should guide you to follow your vision.
• Reasonable: You should be able to reach the goal, and it should be related to your business.
• Inspiring: Make sure the goal is positive but should challenge the business to grow into the goal.
• Visible: You and your employees should be able to easily recognize the goal. Goals should be posted where everyone sees them every day.
• Eventual: The goals should focus on the future and be structured to provide motivation to all to strive towards the goals.

Objectives should follow the acronym SMART, which stands for S pecific, M easurable, A ttainable, R ewarding, and T imed. Objectives are the building blocks to achieve the goals and stand for:

• Specific: Each objective should focus on one building block to reach the goal.
• Measurable: You should be able to determine if your progress is going in the right direction.
• Attainable: You should be able to complete the objective with an appropriate amount of work.
• Rewarding: Reaching the objective should be something to celebrate and provide positive reinforcement to the business.
• Timed: You must have a deadline for the objective to be achieved. You do not want to have the objectives linger for too long. Not reaching the objectives delays reaching the goals. Not achieving goals is detrimental to the morale of the business.

Goals and objectives should follow these formats to allow for evaluation of the entire process and provide valuable feedback along the way. The business owner should continually evaluate the outcomes of decisions and practices to determine if the goals or objectives are being met and make modifications when needed.

Background Information

Background information should come from the research conducted during the writing process. This portion should include information regarding the history of the industry, the current state of the industry, and information from reputable sources concerning the future of the industry.

This portion of the business plan requires the most investment of time by the writer, with information gathered from multiple sources to prevent bias or undue optimism. The writer should take all aspects of the industry (past, present, and future) and business into account. If there are concerns or questions about the viability of the industry or business, these must be addressed. In writing this portion of the plan, information may be obtained from your local public library, periodicals, industry personnel, trusted sources on the Internet, and publications such as the Penn State Extension Agricultural Alternatives series . Industry periodicals are another excellent source of up-to-date information. The more varied the sources, the better the evaluation of the industry and the business, and the greater the opportunity to have a viable plan.

The business owner must first choose an appropriate legal structure for the business. The business structure will have an impact on the future, including potential expansion and exit from the business. If the proper legal structure is not chosen, the business may be negatively impacted down the road. Only after the decision is made about the type of business can the detailed planning begin.

Organizational Matters

This section of the plan describes the current or planned business structure, the management team, and risk-management strategies. There are several forms of business structure to choose from, including sole proprietorship, partnership, corporations (subchapter S or subchapter C), cooperative, and limited liability corporation or partnership (LLC or LLP). These business structures are discussed in Agricultural Alternatives: Starting or Diversifying an Agricultural Business .

The type of business structure is an important decision and often requires the advice of an attorney (and an accountant). The business structure should fit the management skills and style(s) of the owner(s) and take into account the risk management needs (both liability and financial) of the business. For example, if there is more than one owner (or multiple investors), a sole proprietorship is not an option because more than one person has invested time and/or money into the business. In this case a partnership, cooperative, corporation, LLC, or LLP would be the proper choice.

Another consideration for the type of business structure is the transfer of the business to the next generation or the dissolution of the business. There are benefits and drawbacks for each type of structure covering the transition of ownership. If the business has a high exposure to risk or liability, then an LLC might be preferred over a partnership or sole proprietorship.

If the business is not a sole proprietorship, the management team should be described in the business plan. The management team should consist of all parties involved in the decisions and activities of the business. The strengths and backgrounds of the management team members should be discussed to highlight the positive aspects of the team. Even if the business is a sole proprietorship, usually more than one person (often a spouse, child, relative, or other trusted person) will have input into the decisions, and so should be included as team members.

Regardless of the business structure, all businesses should also have an external management support team. This external management support team should consist of the business's lawyer, accountant, insurance agent or broker, and possibly a mentor. These external members are an integral part of the management team. Many large businesses have these experts on staff or on retainer. For small businesses, the external management team replaces full-time experts; the business owner(s) should consult with this external team on a regular basis (at least once a year) to determine if the business is complying with all rules and regulations. Listing the management team in the business plan allows the reader to know that the business owner has developed a network of experts to provide advice.

The risk-management portion of the business plan provides a description of how the business will handle unexpected or unusual events. For example, if the business engages in agricultural production, will the business purchase crop insurance? Does the business have adequate liability insurance? Is the business diversified to protect against the unexpected, rather than "putting all its eggs in one basket"? If the business has employees, does the business carry adequate workers' compensation insurance? All of these questions should be answered in the risk-management portion of the business plan. More information on how liability can affect your business and on the use of insurance as a risk-management tool can be found in Agricultural Alternatives: Agricultural Business Insurance and Agricultural Alternatives: Understanding Agricultural Liability . The business structure will also determine a portion of the risk-management strategy because the way that a business is structured carries varying levels of risk to the owner and/or owners. All opportunities carry a degree of risk that must be evaluated, and mitigation strategies should be included in this portion of the plan.

Marketing Plan

Every purchase decision that a consumer makes is influenced by the marketing strategy or plan of the company selling the product or service. Products are usually purchased based on consumer preferences, including brand name, price, and perceived quality attributes. Consumer preferences develop (and change) over time and an effective marketing plan takes these preferences into account. This makes the marketing plan an important part of the overall business plan.

In order to be viable, the marketing plan must coincide with the production activities. The marketing plan must address consumer desires and needs. For example, if a perishable or seasonal crop (such as strawberries) will be produced, the marketing plan should not include sales of locally grown berries in January if the business is in northeastern United States. If the business plans to purchase berries in the off-season from other sources to market, this information needs to be included. In this way, the marketing plan must fit the production capabilities (or the capability to obtain products from other sources).

A complete marketing plan should identify target customers, including where they live, work, and purchase the product or service you are providing. This portion of the plan contains a description of the characteristics and advantages of your product or service. Identifying a "niche" market will be of great value to your business.

Products may be sold directly to the consumer (retail) or through another business (wholesale) or a combination of both. Whichever marketing avenue you choose, if you are starting a new enterprise or expanding an existing one, you will need to decide if the market can bear more of what you plan to produce. Your industry research will assist in this determination. The plan must also address the challenges of the proposed marketing strategy.

Other variables to consider are sales location, market location, promotion, advertising, pricing, staffing, and the costs associated with all of these. All of these aspects of the marketing plan will take time to develop and should not be taken lightly. Further discussion on marketing fruits and vegetables can be found in Agricultural Alternatives: Fruit and Vegetable Marketing for Small-Scale and Part-Time Growers .

SWOT Analysis

An adequate way of determining the answers to business and marketing issues is to conduct a SWOT analysis. The acronym SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Strengths represent internal attributes and may include aspects like previous experience in the business. Experience in sales or marketing would be an area of strength for a retail farm market. Weaknesses are also internal and may include aspects such as the time, cost, and effort needed to introduce a new product or service to the marketplace.

Opportunities are external aspects that will help your business to take off and be sustained. If no one is offering identical products or services in your immediate area, you may have the opportunity to capture the market. Threats are external and may include aspects like other businesses offering the same product in close proximity to your business or government regulations impacting business practices and cost.

Financial Plan

The financial plan and assumptions are crucial to the success of the business and should be included in the business plan. One of the foremost reasons new businesses fail is because they do not have enough start-up capital to cover all expenses to make a profit. The scope of your business will be determined by the financial resources you can acquire. Because of this, you will need to develop a financial plan and create the supporting documents to substantiate it.

The financial plan has its basis in historical data (if you are an existing business) or from projections (for a proposed business). The first issue to address is recordkeeping. You should indicate who will keep the necessary records and how these records will be used. Internal controls, such as who will sign checks and handle any funds, should also be addressed. A good rule to follow for businesses that are not sole proprietorships is having at least two people sign all checks.

The next portion of the financial plan should detail where funding will come from. This includes if (and when) the business will need additional capital, how much capital will be needed, and how these funds will be obtained. If start-up capital is needed, this information should be included in this portion. Personal contributions should be included, along with other funding sources. The amount of money and repayment terms should be listed. One common mistake affecting many new businesses is under-funding at start-up. Many start-up businesses do not evaluate all areas of expense and underestimate the amount of capital needed to see a new business through the development stages (including personal living expenses, if off-farm income is not available).

Typically, a balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, and partial budget or enterprise budgets are included in a business plan. More information on agricultural budgets can be found in Agricultural Alternatives: Budgeting for Agricultural Decision Making . These documents will display the financial information in a form that lending institutions are used to seeing. If these are not prepared by an accountant, having one review them will ensure that the proper format has been used.

Financial projections should be completed for at least two years and, ideally, for five years. In agricultural businesses, five-year projections are sometimes difficult to make because of variability in prices, weather, and other aspects affecting production. One way to illustrate these risks is to develop several projection scenarios covering a range of production assumptions. This attention to detail will often result in a positive experience with lenders because they realize that the plan covers several possible circumstances and provides insight into how the business plans to manage risk. More information on financing agricultural businesses can be found in the publication Agricultural Alternatives: Financing Small-Scale and Part-Time Farms .

Financial Statements

To keep personal assets and liabilities separate from business assets and liabilities, it is beneficial to create both business and personal financial statements. A lender will need to see both, but the separation will show how the business will support the family or how the off-farm income will support the business.

Cash Flow Statement

A cash flow statement is the predicted flow of cash into and out of a business over a year. Cash flow statements are prepared by showing the total amounts predicted for each item of income or expense. This total is then broken down by month to show when surpluses and shortfalls in cash will occur. In this way, the cash flow statement can be used to predict when additional cash is needed and when the business will have a surplus to pay back any debt. This monthly prediction allows the owner(s) to better evaluate the cash needs of the business, taking out applicable loans and repaying outstanding debts. The cash flow statement often uses the same categories as the income statement plus additional categories to cover debt payments and borrowing.

After these financial statements are completed, the business plan writer will have an accurate picture of how the business has performed and can project how the business will perform in the coming year(s). With such information, the owner—and any readers of the business plan—will be able to evaluate the viability of the business and will have an accurate understanding of actions and activities that will contribute to its sustainability. This understanding will enable them to make better informed decisions regarding loans or investments in the business.

Income Statement

The income statement is a summary of the income (revenue) and expenses for a given accounting cycle. If the balance sheet is a "snapshot" of the financial health of the business, the income statement is a "motion picture" of the financial health of the business over a specific time period. An income statement is constructed by listing the income (or revenue) at the top of the page and the expenses (and the resulting profit or loss) at the bottom of the page.

Revenue is any income realized by the sale of crops or livestock, government payments, and any other income the business may have (including such items as fuel tax refunds, patronage dividends, and custom work). Other items impacting revenues are changes in inventory and accounts receivable between the start of the time period and the end—even if these changes are negative.

Expenses include any expense the business has incurred from the production of the products sold. Examples of expenses include feed, fertilizer, pesticides, fuel, labor, maintenance, repairs, insurance, taxes, utilities, and any changes in accounts payable. Depreciation, which is the calculated wear and tear on assets (excluding land), is included as an expense for accounting purposes. Interest is considered an expense, but any principal payments related to loans are not an expense. Repayment of principal is recorded on the balance sheet under "Loans Payable."

As the income statement is created, the desired outcome is to have more income than expenses, so the income statement shows a profit. If not, the final number is shown in parentheses (signifying a negative number). Another name for this financial record is a Profit and Loss Statement. Income statements are one way to clearly show how the farm is making progress from one year to the next and may show a much more optimistic view of sustainability than can be seen by looking at a single year's balance sheet.

Balance Sheet

A balance sheet is a snapshot of a business’s assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity at a specific point in time. A balance sheet can be prepared at any time, but is usually done at the end of the fiscal year (for many businesses, this is the end of the calendar year). Evaluating the business by using the balance sheet requires several years of balance sheets to tell the true story of the business’s progress over time. A balance sheet is typically constructed by listing assets on the left and liabilities and owner’s equity on the right. The difference between the assets and liabilities of the business is called the "owner's equity" and provides an estimate of how much of the business is owned outright.

Assets are anything owned by, or owed to, the business. These include cash (and checking account balances), accounts receivable (money owed to the business), inventory (any crops or supplies that the business has stored on farm), land, equipment, and buildings. This may also include machinery, breeding stock, small-fruit bushes or canes, and fruit trees. Sometimes assets are listed as current (those easily converted to cash) and fixed (those that are required for the business to continue). Assets are basically anything of value to the business. Some valuations of assets are not easily determined for items such as breeding stock, small-fruit bushes or canes, and fruit trees and may require the use of a certified appraiser familiar with the items.

Balance sheets may use a market-basis or a cost-basis to calculate the value of assets. A market-basis balance sheet better reflects the current economic conditions because it relies on current or market value for the assets, rather than what those assets originally cost. Market values are more difficult to obtain because of the difficulty in finding accurate current prices of assets and often results in the inflation of the value of assets. Cost-basis balance sheets are more conservative because the values are often from prior years. For example, a cost-basis balance sheet would use the original purchase price of land, rather than what selling that land would bring today. Because purchase records are easily obtained, constructing a cost-basis balance sheet is easier. Depreciable assets such as buildings, tractors, and equipment are listed on the cost-basis balance sheet at purchase price less accumulated depreciation. Most accountants use the cost-basis balance sheet method. Whether you choose to use market-basis or cost-basis, it is critical that you remain consistent over the years to allow for accurate comparison.

Liabilities are what the business owes on the date the balance sheet is prepared. Liabilities include both current liabilities (accounts payable, any account the business has with a supplier, short-term notes, operating loans, and the current portion of long-term debt), which are payable within the current year, and noncurrent liabilities (mortgages and loans with a term that extends over one year).

Owner's equity is what remains after all liabilities have been subtracted from all assets. It represents money that the owner(s) have invested in the business, profits that are retained in the business, and changes caused by fluctuating market values (on a market-basis balance sheet). Owner’s equity will be affected whenever there are changes in capital contributed to the business or retained earnings, so if your practice is to use all earnings as your "paycheck," rather than reinvesting them in the business, your owner's equity will be impacted. On the balance sheet, owner’s equity plus liabilities equals assets. Or stated another way, all of the assets less the amount owed (liabilities) equals the owner’s equity (sometimes referred to as "net worth"). Owner's equity provides the "balance" in a balance sheet.

Putting It All Together

After the mission, background information, organization, and marketing and financial plans are complete, an executive summary can then be prepared. Armed with the research results and information in the other sections, the business will come alive through this section. Research results can be included in an appendix if desired. The next step is to share this plan with others whose opinions you respect. Have them ask you the hard questions—make you defend an opinion you have expressed or challenge you to describe what you plan to do in more detail. Often, people are hesitant to share what they have written with their families or friends because they fear the plan will not be taken seriously. However, it is much better to receive constructive criticism from family and friends (and gain the opportunity to strengthen your plan) than it is to take it immediately to the lender, only to have any problems pointed out and receive a rejection.

Once all parts of the business plan have been written, you will have a document that will enable you to analyze your business and determine which, if any, changes need to be made. Changes on paper take time and effort but are not as expensive as changing a business practice only to find that the chosen method is not viable. For a proposed venture, if the written plan points to the business not being viable, large sums of money have not been invested and possibly lost. In short, challenges are better faced on paper than with investment capital.

Remember, a business plan is a "road map" that will guide the future of the business. The best business plan is a document in continual change, reacting to the influence of the outside world on the business. Having the basis of a written plan will give you the confidence to consider changes in the business to remain competitive. Once the plan is in place, the business will have a better chance of future success.

For More Information

Publications.

Abrams, R. The Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies (Successful Business Plan Secrets and Strategies) . Palo Alto, Calif.: Planning Shop, 2014.

Becker, J. C., L. F. Kime, J. K. Harper, and R. Pifer. Agricultural Alternatives: Understanding Agricultural Liability . University Park: Penn State Extension, 2011.

Dethomas, A., and L. and S. Derammelaere. Writing a Convincing Business Plan (Barron's Business Library) . Hauppauge, N.Y.: Barron's Educational Series. 2015.

Dunn, J., J. K. Harper, and L. F. Kime. Agricultural Alternatives: Fruit and Vegetable Marketing for Small-scale and Part-time Growers . University Park: Penn State Extension, 2009.

Grant, W. How to Write a Winning Business Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide for Startup Entrepreneurs to Build a Solid Foundation, Attract Investors and Achieve Success with a Bulletproof Business Plan (Business 101). Independently published. 2020.

Harper, J. K., S. Cornelisse, L. F. Kime, and J. Hyde. Agricultural Alternatives: Budgeting for Agricultural Decision Making . University Park: Penn State Extension, 2019.

Kime, L. F., J. A. Adamik, E. E. Gantz, and J. K. Harper. Agricultural Alternatives: Agricultural Business Insurance . University Park: Penn State Extension, 2019.

Kime, L. F., S. Cornelisse, and J. K. Harper. Agricultural Alternatives: Starting or Diversifying an Agricultural Business . University Park: Penn State Extension, 2018.

Lesonsky, R. Start Your Own Business Fifth Edition: The Only Start-Up Book You'll Ever Need.  Irvine, Calif.: Entrepreneur Media Inc., 2010.

Shelton, H. The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan: A Pro Shares a Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Plan That Gets Results. Rockville, Md.: Summit Valley Press, 2017.

Stokes, J. S., G. D. Hanson, J. K. Harper, and L. F. Kime.  Agricultural Alternatives: Financing Small-scale and Part-time Farms . University Park: Penn State Extension, 2005.

Online Course

Starting a Farm: Business Planning  

Periodicals

• American Agriculturist Magazine Farm Progress Companies Inc. 5482 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 260 Los Angeles, CA 90036
• Businessweek Magazine
• Fortune Magazine
• Kiplinger's Personal Finance
• Money Magazine
• BizPlanit - Virtual Business Plan
• PA Business One-Stop Shop
• Small Business Administration
• SCORE—volunteer business assistance
• The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue Starting a Business in Pennsylvania—A Guide to Pennsylvania Taxes
• The Pennsylvania State University Agricultural Alternative Tools
• The Pennsylvania State University Conducting a SWOT Analysis
• The Pennsylvania State University Happy Valley Launch Box

Prepared by Lynn F. Kime, senior extension associate; Linda Falcone, extension educator in Wyoming County, Jayson K. Harper, professor of agricultural economics; and Winifred W. McGee, retired extension educator in Dauphin County

Additional financial support for this publication was provided by the Risk Management Agency of the United States Department of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

This publication was developed by the Small-scale and Part-time Farming Project at Penn State with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Extension Service.

• Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education

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Personalize your experience with penn state extension and stay informed of the latest in agriculture..

• 15.1 Launching Your Venture
• Introduction
• 1.1 Entrepreneurship Today
• 1.2 Entrepreneurial Vision and Goals
• 1.3 The Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Review Questions
• Discussion Questions
• Case Questions
• Suggested Resources
• 2.1 Overview of the Entrepreneurial Journey
• 2.2 The Process of Becoming an Entrepreneur
• 2.3 Entrepreneurial Pathways
• 2.4 Frameworks to Inform Your Entrepreneurial Path
• 3.1 Ethical and Legal Issues in Entrepreneurship
• 3.2 Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurship
• 3.3 Developing a Workplace Culture of Ethical Excellence and Accountability
• 4.1 Tools for Creativity and Innovation
• 4.2 Creativity, Innovation, and Invention: How They Differ
• 4.3 Developing Ideas, Innovations, and Inventions
• 5.1 Entrepreneurial Opportunity
• 5.2 Researching Potential Business Opportunities
• 5.3 Competitive Analysis
• 6.1 Problem Solving to Find Entrepreneurial Solutions
• 6.2 Creative Problem-Solving Process
• 6.3 Design Thinking
• 6.4 Lean Processes
• 7.1 Clarifying Your Vision, Mission, and Goals
• 7.2 Sharing Your Entrepreneurial Story
• 7.3 Developing Pitches for Various Audiences and Goals
• 7.4 Protecting Your Idea and Polishing the Pitch through Feedback
• 7.5 Reality Check: Contests and Competitions
• 8.1 Entrepreneurial Marketing and the Marketing Mix
• 8.2 Market Research, Market Opportunity Recognition, and Target Market
• 8.3 Marketing Techniques and Tools for Entrepreneurs
• 8.4 Entrepreneurial Branding
• 8.5 Marketing Strategy and the Marketing Plan
• 8.6 Sales and Customer Service
• 9.1 Overview of Entrepreneurial Finance and Accounting Strategies
• 9.2 Special Funding Strategies
• 9.3 Accounting Basics for Entrepreneurs
• 9.4 Developing Startup Financial Statements and Projections
• 10.1 Launching the Imperfect Business: Lean Startup
• 10.2 Why Early Failure Can Lead to Success Later
• 10.3 The Challenging Truth about Business Ownership
• 10.4 Managing, Following, and Adjusting the Initial Plan
• 10.5 Growth: Signs, Pains, and Cautions
• 11.1 Avoiding the “Field of Dreams” Approach
• 11.2 Designing the Business Model
• 11.3 Conducting a Feasibility Analysis
• 11.4 The Business Plan
• 12.1 Building and Connecting to Networks
• 12.2 Building the Entrepreneurial Dream Team
• 12.3 Designing a Startup Operational Plan
• 13.1 Business Structures: Overview of Legal and Tax Considerations
• 13.2 Corporations
• 13.3 Partnerships and Joint Ventures
• 13.4 Limited Liability Companies
• 13.5 Sole Proprietorships
• 13.6 Additional Considerations: Capital Acquisition, Business Domicile, and Technology
• 13.7 Mitigating and Managing Risks
• 14.1 Types of Resources
• 14.2 Using the PEST Framework to Assess Resource Needs
• 14.3 Managing Resources over the Venture Life Cycle
• 15.2 Making Difficult Business Decisions in Response to Challenges
• 15.3 Seeking Help or Support
• 15.4 Now What? Serving as a Mentor, Consultant, or Champion
• 15.5 Reflections: Documenting the Journey
• A | Suggested Resources

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain the importance of creating and discussing the vision statement
• Determine the documents necessary for managing risks
• Describe company culture and the purpose of a code of conduct
• Summarize how to outline and schedule the operational steps of the launch

The big day has arrived. Your opportunity recognition process noted that your idea solves a significant problem or need, you double-checked that the target market is large enough for potential profitability, you have a method to reach this target market, you have a passion to start this company, and you found resources to support the start-up. Knowing that you analyzed and addressed these topics, you now need to consider some of the more sensitive topics regarding the agreements within your team. Many entrepreneurs overlook the issues discussed here or act on them in a generic manner instead of fitting them to the specific needs of the venture. This lack of due diligence can be detrimental to the success of the business. The advice presented here can help you avoid those same mistakes.

To protect the interests of all parties involved at launch, the team should develop several important documents, such as a founders’ agreement, nondisclosure and noncompete forms, and a code of conduct. Before these are drafted, the team should ensure the venture’s vision statement is agreed upon. (See Entrepreneurial Vision and Goals for a discussion around creating a vision statement.) The entrepreneurship team needs to be in complete agreement on the vision of the venture before they can successfully create the founders’ agreement. If some team members have an interest in creating a lifestyle business (a venture that provides an income that replaces other types of employment), while other team members want to harvest the venture with significant returns, there is a clash between these expectations. An angel investor will also have a strong opinion on the vision for the venture.

Founder’s Agreement, Nondisclosure Agreement, and Noncompete Agreement

Honest and open discussions between the entrepreneurial team members, including your angel investor if an angel investor is part of your initial funding, must take place before opening the venture. These frank discussions need to include a founders’ agreement as well as the identified vision for the venture. The founders’ agreement should describe how individual contributions are valued and fit into the compensation plan and should consider and answer these questions:

• Will the entrepreneurial team members receive a monthly compensation?
• Is there a vesting plan with defined timelines aligned with equity percentages?
• What happens if a team member decides to leave the venture before an exit event? How will that team member be compensated, if at all?

Discussing the entrepreneurial team members’ expectations avoids the problem of an entrepreneurial team member expecting a large equity stake in the company for a short-term commitment to the venture, and other misguided expectations. Such problems can be avoided by addressing the following questions:

• What activities and responsibilities are expected from each team member, and what is the process or action when individual overstep their authority?
• Is there an evaluation period during which the team members discuss each other’s performance? If so, how is that discussion managed, and is there a formal process?
• What happens if a team member fails to deliver on expected actions, or if an unexpected life event occurs?

The founders’ agreement should also outline contingency plans if the business does not continue. The following questions help define those next steps and need to be answered prior to opening the venture:

• If the venture is unsuccessful, how will the dissolution of the venture be conducted?
• What happens to the assets, and how are the liabilities paid?
• How is the decision made to liquidate the venture?
• What happens to the originally identified opportunity? Does a team member have access to that idea, but with a different team, or implemented using a different business model?

Once the venture opens, discussing these topics becomes more complicated because the entrepreneurial team is immersed in various start-up activities, and new information affects their thoughts on these issues. Along with these topics, the founders’ agreement should also state the legal form of ownership, division of ownership (this refers to the division of equity at either the next round of financing, or harvesting of the company), as well as the buyout, or buyback clause. (See Entrepreneurial Journey and Pathways for a discussion on the life cycle stages of a venture, including end stages of harvesting, transition, and reincarnation of the business.)

The buyback clause addresses the situations in which a team member exits the venture prior to the next financing round or harvesting due to internal disputes with team members, illness, death, or other circumstances, clearly stating compensation and profit distribution (with consideration of what is reinvested into the venture). Discussing these topics provides agreement between all team members about how to address these types of situations. The buyback clause should also include a dispute resolution process with agreement on how the dispute solution is implemented. Identifying exactly how these items are handled within the founders’ agreement prevents future conflicts and even legal disputes.

If the entrepreneurship team includes an angel investor, the angel investor typically has the final say in these questions. In the best possible scenario, the angel investor has experience creating a founders’ agreement and can provide valuable insights into working through this document. One common approach to creating this document, given the angel investor’s available time, is for the entrepreneurship team to discuss and agree on the final document, then have the angel investor review the document for final approval. Making Difficult Business Decisions in Response to Challenges will help in finalizing your founders’ agreement.

After completing the formal vision statement and the founders’ agreement, you might want to have an attorney evaluate the documents. This checkpoint can identify gaps or decisions that were not stated clearly. After receiving the examined documents back, the team should once again review the documents for agreement. If everyone is satisfied with the documents, each entrepreneurship team member should sign the document and receive a copy. If, later, the entrepreneurship team decides a change needs to be made to either the vision statement or the founders’ agreement, an addendum can be created, again with all parties agreeing to any changes.

Two other formal documents your team might want to consider include a nondisclosure agreement and a noncompete agreement. These documents can be applied to all employees, including the startup team, with consideration of extending to other contributors such as contractual personnel. A nondisclosure agreement agrees to refrain from disclosing information about the venture. Topics that might be included in this document include trade secrets, key accounts, or any other information of high value to the venture or potentially useful to a competitor. A noncompete agreement states that the person signing the agreement will not work for a competing organization while working for the venture, and generally for a set length of time after leaving the venture. Often, this time period is one year, but it can be longer depending on the know-how or intellectual property the exiting team member has.

Company Culture and Code of Conduct

In conjunction with these formal documents, the founding team should determine the culture they would like to build for their venture. Ideally, the organization’s company culture is made up of the behaviors and beliefs that support the success of the organization. For example, when you walk into a business, is there a bustle of noise and activity, or is the business calm and restrained? This impression results from the organization’s culture. We could compare the difference between walking into a high-end jewelry store and walking into a fast food restaurant. Both businesses have distinctly different cultures. If the venture is highly dynamic with fast-paced decisions and constant change, then the culture should support this type of venture. Perhaps the team wants to create a work hard, play hard culture. In that case, standards that support ad hoc team creation for impromptu discussions should be encouraged, rather than setting up a bureaucratic culture that requires approval of all meetings and deliberation of decisions prior to action. Many tech companies support a work hard, play hard culture. This culture is reinforced with open office spaces that provide opportunities to collaborate with colleagues. Or perhaps ping pong tables and kitchens are provided to encourage interaction. Even the hours of operation contribute to culture creation by either encouraging employees to set their own hours or restricting work hours through regulated entry. In contrast, a more bureaucratically structured environment may fit a venture whose success relies upon compliance with external regulations and the use of highly sensitive or private information. An example of a bureaucratic culture aligns with many financial institutions. The culture within a bank conveys security of our deposited funds; we want a bank to have processes and systems in place that reinforce that we can trust the bank with our finances.

The culture-defining process should include the entrepreneurship team’s creation of a code of conduct . Some organizations develop a code of conduct that includes guiding principles, while other organizations create detailed descriptions of what is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable. Your venture’s code of conduct should fit with your venture’s vision, the culture desired, and the entrepreneurship team’s values. Codes of conduct should be created as documents that include a sensitivity to people within the company as well as the greater community. A code of conduct addresses the values that the organization supports, as well as ethical considerations. The purpose of a code of conduct is to help guide employee actions to align with the desired behavior. Including uniquely specific examples that align with the specific venture, can further communicate the desired behaviors. There are many varieties of codes of conduct; the main point is to create a code that supports the values and behaviors that you want to advance throughout your organization. Figure 15.2 and Figure 15.3 show two approaches to developing a code of conduct that fits the company’s culture and vision. The first example might be used by an advocacy-based venture that desires a principle-based approach to guiding employee behaviors through a code of conduct that provides general guidelines, rather than a more rule-based approach as presented in the second example. These two examples highlight the importance of creating a code of conduct that fits the beliefs and culture that you want to encourage within your venture.

Earlier, we discussed the importance of the lead entrepreneur taking the initiative to discover the investor’s business knowledge and learning about the investor’s previous experience in funding an entrepreneurial venture. The code of conduct is another area that entrepreneurial teams frequently skip over by accepting a generic code of conduct rather than recognizing that there are a multitude of topics, phrases, and principles that should be uniquely designed to fit the venture. These two examples demonstrate the vastly different topics addressed within a code of conduct as evidence for why your code of conduct must fit your intentions for how you will conduct business and support the success of your venture.

These preparatory documents should be personalized to align with the entrepreneurial team and desired behaviors that support the success of the venture. Although standard language and forms addressing these topics are available online, these generic models aren’t intended to meet your unique venture’s needs or the entrepreneurial team’s needs. Taking the time to discuss and prepare these documents pays off in well-crafted documents and aligns the entrepreneurship teams’ vision, goals, and dreams for their venture.

Are You Ready?

Google ’s code of conduct.

Review Google’s code of conduct as you think about developing your own code of conduct. What do you like about Google’s code of conduct? What would you change? How does this example help you in creating a code of conduct for your venture?

Operational Steps to Launch

The next action is outlining the operational steps in the venture creation process. A good approach is to create a chart that identifies how you should proceed. The goal in creating this chart is to recognize what actions need to be taken first. For example, if you need a convection oven for your business, what is the timeline between ordering and receiving the oven? If you need ten employees to manually prepare and package your product, how long will it take to interview and hire each person? According to Glassdoor, the hiring process took 23 days in 2014 and appears to be lengthening in time as organizations become more aware of the importance of hiring the right person. 2 What about training? Will your employees need training on your product or processes before starting the venture? These necessary outcomes need to be identified and then tracked backwards from the desired start date to include the preparatory actions that support the success of the business. You’ve probably heard the phrase that timing is everything. Not only do entrepreneurs need to be concerned about finding the right time to start the venture, they also need the right timing to orchestrate the start-up of the venture.

Below is a sample Gantt chart , a method to track a list of tasks or activities aligned with time intervals. You can use this tool to help identify and schedule the operational steps that need to be completed to launch the venture. One approach to creating a Gantt chart is for each team member to independently create a list of operational activities or tasks required to start the venture that fall under their area of involvement. Then the team can create a master list of activities to discuss: This helps clarify who is contributing to or owning each task. Next, have all team members create their own Gantt chart based on their task list: That is, the time required for each task should be spelled out, including steps that must happen sequentially (when one task cannot be started until another step is complete). Once again, bring all team members together to create one master Gantt chart. This will help ensure that dependencies from member to member are accounted for in the planning. These contingencies and dependencies need to be identified and accommodated for in the master schedule. For example, in Figure 15.4 , we see that Mike Smith cannot perform system testing until Sam Watson has developed the system modules, and in turn, that task can’t be done until Mike Smith has documented the current systems. After completing the chart, agree on assignments of responsibility to follow through on the activities, based on the timelines from the Gantt chart.

See the Suggested Resources for more information on how to use a Gantt chart to assist in tracking the actions needed to support the start-up of your venture and to organize each action based on your necessary timelines. You might want to reach out to other sources to find examples of how other entrepreneurs worked through their operational start-up steps.

Link to Learning

This TED Talk features Paul Tasner sharing how he found himself changing his career at the age of 66, reinforcing the idea that the world of entrepreneurship is open to all people regardless of age, race, background, health, or geographic location. In this presentation, he references a variety of activities he needed to experience in order to understand the process of starting his venture. Regardless of what we learned in our past experiences, launching a new venture includes new experiences and decisions.

After watching this video, do you have some ideas regarding starting a new venture around the idea of senior entrepreneurs? How could you support this group or build a network that creates a community of support for this large population?

Launch Considerations

Sage advice in launching the new venture is to quickly recognize when you don’t have the answer or information to make the best decisions. In the early stage of launching the venture, the level of uncertainty is high, as is the need for agility and spontaneity. Even identifying the actual moment when the venture becomes a new venture can be difficult to determine. Should the venture be recognized as a new venture after receiving the necessary licenses or tax identification number, or when the first sale occurs, or when funds are first invested, or by some other method?

It is also important to keep in mind the end goal of the venture, often referred to as "begin with the end in mind." For example, many highly successful ventures never earn a dollar in sales. Depending on the entrepreneurial team’s vision and the business model selected, the venture could be highly valuable from a harvest, or sale of the venture, perspective. Frequently, this decision is dictated by the angel investor. These people frequently started their own venture, harvested the venture, and as a result have funds available to invest in other new ventures. In most cases, the angel investor expects to cash out of the venture at some point in the future. These are investors who are not interested in holding a long-term equity position but rather expect to grow the venture into a position where another company buys out the venture. This buyout is also known as the harvesting of the venture and the point at which the angel investor receives a percentage of the harvested dollar sale to cover the equity stake in the new venture. Because of this pattern, entrepreneurs are often advised to “begin with the end in mind” when launching a new venture. If the goal is to sell the venture to another company, we want to identify that company before launching the venture. Of course, at this point, this is only a desire or hope, as you cannot require or expect another company to have an interest in your new venture. But you can design the new venture to align with this end goal by making decisions that support this end goal.

Consider the example of YouTube , a startup with zero dollars in sales but with a harvest price of $1.65 billion in stock from Google . The startup team, former PayPal colleagues, understood that the technology was being developed for video searching and recognized that creating a platform to house video-sharing would be desired by companies such as Google at some point in the future. Consider the tight timeline between 2005 when YouTube began supporting video sharing, and the harvest of YouTube to Google in 2006, 21 months later. This example clearly points to the importance of beginning with the end in mind.

Entrepreneur In Action

A new greeting card concept.

Is there a connection between ship architecture and greeting cards? Most people would quickly say there isn’t any connection between these two disparate ideas. However, Wombi Rose and John Wise studied ship architecture, with Wise moving on to a boat-building start-up in Louisiana when they reconnected and decided to start a new venture. While traveling in Vietnam, the two ship architects came across the paper-cutting process of kirigami, similar to origami, but rather than folding paper, the paper is cut. The two engineers realized that the same design software used in building ships could also be used in creating these three-dimensional paper objects. Despite the declining greeting card industry’s sales, these two entrepreneurs decided to enter the greeting card industry with a new approach to greeting cards. Pop-up kirigami art folds flat until the envelope opens, and a kirigami object pops up. Lovepop , the name of their greeting card line, has grown to 30 employees and $6.7 million in revenue. 3

What evidence is there that Rose and Wise followed the concept of “begin with the end in mind”? If Rose and Wise followed this advice, and you were a part of this team, at what point would you begin seeking a buyer for this company? What milestones might you select for harvesting the company? Consider what actions you would accomplish to increase the sale amount to the maximum amount.

Launching your venture is a unique experience for every entrepreneurial team and for every venture. These novel situations and uncertainties create both challenges and new learning opportunities. Accepting that a multitude of possibilities exists and recognizing the importance of researching and discussing actions are valuable to the success of the team. Angel investors hold a wealth of knowledge, and with an equity stake in the venture, these investors should be included in all discussions. If you have an angel investor on your team, you have an added advantage to tap into the expertise available to support the venture. In conjunction with a well-aligned angel investor, conducting research to explore decisions will improve your venture’s success. Although these decisions might seem difficult, the next section addresses how to approach difficult decisions and the role emotional connections for the venture and its team play in those decisions.

• 1 Some language adapted from the U.S. Department of State Sexual Harassment Policy: https://www.state.gov/s/ocr/c14800.htm.
• 2 Glassdoor Team. “How Long Should the Interview Process Take?” June 18, 2015. https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/long-interview-process/
• 3 Stephanie Schomer. “This Hot Greeting Card Company Uses 3-D Design and Origami to Beat Hallmark. Inc . June, 2017. https://www.inc.com/magazine/201706/stephanie-schomer/lovepop-greeting-card-design-awards-2017.html

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Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution License and you must attribute OpenStax.

Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/entrepreneurship/pages/1-introduction

• Authors: Michael Laverty, Chris Littel
• Publisher/website: OpenStax
• Book title: Entrepreneurship
• Publication date: Jan 16, 2020
• Location: Houston, Texas
• Book URL: https://openstax.org/books/entrepreneurship/pages/1-introduction
• Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/entrepreneurship/pages/15-1-launching-your-venture

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24 Best Sample Business Plans & Examples to Help You Write Your Own

Published: August 17, 2023

Free Business Plan Template

The essential document for starting a business -- custom built for your needs.

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Reading sample business plans is essential when you’re writing your own. As you explore business plan examples from real companies and brands, you’ll learn how to write one that gets your business off on the right foot, convinces investors to provide funding, and confirms your venture is sustainable for the long term.

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But what does a business plan look like? And how do you write one that is viable and convincing? Let's review the ideal business plan formally, then take a look at business plan templates and samples you can use to inspire your own.

Business Plan Format

Ask any successful sports coach how they win so many games, and they’ll tell you they have a unique plan for every single game. The same logic applies to business. If you want to build a thriving company that can pull ahead of the competition, you need to prepare for battle before breaking into a market.

Business plans guide you along the rocky journey of growing a company. Referencing one will keep you on the path toward success. And if your business plan is compelling enough, it can also convince investors to give you funding.

With so much at stake, you might be wondering, "Where do I start? How should I format this?"

Typically, a business plan is a document that will detail how a company will achieve its goals.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Fill out the form to get your free template.

Most business plans include the following sections:

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary is arguably the most important section of the entire business plan. Essentially, it's the overview or introduction, written in a way to grab readers' attention and guide them through the rest of the business plan. This is important, because a business plan can be dozens or hundreds of pages long.

Most executive summaries include:

• Mission statement
• Company history and leadership
• Competitive advantage overview
• Financial projections
• Company goals

Keep in mind you'll cover many of these topics in more detail later on in the business plan. So, keep the executive summary clear and brief, including only the most important takeaways.

Executive Summary Business Plan Examples

This example was created with HubSpot’s business plan template:

And the executive summary below tells potential investors a short story that covers all the most important details this business plan will cover in a succinct and interesting way.

Image Source

Tips for Writing Your Executive Summary

• Clearly define a problem, and explain how your product solves that problem, and show why the market needs your business.
• Be sure to highlight your value proposition, market opportunity, and growth potential.
• Keep it concise and support ideas with data.
• Customize your summary to your audience. For example, emphasize finances and return on investment for venture capitalists.

Check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary for more guidance.

2. Market Opportunity

This is where you'll detail the opportunity in the market. Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will your product fill that gap?

In this section, you might include:

• The size of the market
• Current or potential market share
• Trends in the industry and consumer behavior
• Where the gap is
• What caused the gap
• How you intend to fill it

To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, you'll want to conduct a TAM, SAM, and SOM analysis and perform market research on your industry. You may also benefit from creating a SWOT analysis to get some of the insights for this section.

Market Opportunity Business Plan Example

This example uses critical data to underline the size of the potential market and what part of that market this service hopes to capture.

Tips for Writing Your Market Opportunity Section

• Focus on demand and potential for growth.
• Use market research, surveys, and industry trend data to support your market forecast and projections.
• Add a review of regulation shifts, tech advances, and consumer behavior changes.
• Refer to reliable sources.
• Showcase how your business can make the most of this opportunity.

3. Competitive Landscape

Speaking of market share, you'll need to create a section that shares details on who the top competitors are. After all, your customers likely have more than one brand to choose from, and you'll want to understand exactly why they might choose one over another. Performing a competitive analysis can help you uncover:

• Industry trends that other brands may not be utilizing
• Strengths in your competition that may be obstacles to handle
• Weaknesses in your competition that may help you develop selling points
• The unique proposition you bring to the market that may resonate with customers

Competitive Landscape Business Plan Example

The competitive landscape section of the business plan below shows a clear outline of who the top competitors are. It also highlights specific industry knowledge and the importance of location, which shows useful experience in this specific industry. This can help build trust in your ability to execute your business plan.

Tips for Writing Your Competitive Landscape

• Complete in-depth research, then emphasize your most important findings.
• Compare your unique selling proposition (USP) to your direct and indirect competitors.
• Show a clear and realistic plan for product and brand differentiation.
• Look for specific advantages and barriers in the competitive landscape. Then, highlight how that information could impact your business.
• Outline growth opportunities from a competitive perspective.
• Add customer feedback and insights to support your competitive analysis.

4. Target Audience

This section will describe who your customer segments are in detail. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience?

If your immediate answer is "everyone," you'll need to dig deeper. Ask yourself:

• What demographics will most likely need/buy your product or service?
• What are the psychographics of this audience? (Desires, triggering events, etc.)
• Why are your offerings valuable to them?

It can be helpful to build a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and be clear on why you're targeting them.

Target Audience Business Plan Example

The example below uses in-depth research to draw conclusions about audience priorities. It also analyzes how to create the right content for this audience.

Tips for Writing Your Target Audience Section

• Include details on the size and growth potential of your target audience.
• Figure out and refine the pain points for your target audience , then show why your product is a useful solution.
• Describe your targeted customer acquisition strategy in detail.
• Share anticipated challenges your business may face in acquiring customers and how you plan to address them.
• Add case studies, testimonials, and other data to support your target audience ideas.
• Remember to consider niche audiences and segments of your target audience in your business plan.

5. Marketing Strategy

Here, you'll discuss how you'll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. You might consider including information on:

• The brand positioning vision and how you'll cultivate it
• The goal targets you aim to achieve
• The metrics you'll use to measure success
• The channels and distribution tactics you'll use

It can help to already have a marketing plan built out to help you with this part of your business plan.

Marketing Strategy Business Plan Example

This business plan example includes the marketing strategy for the town of Gawler. It offers a comprehensive picture of how it plans to use digital marketing to promote the community.

Tips for Writing Your Marketing Strategy

• Include a section about how you believe your brand vision will appeal to customers.
• Add the budget and resources you'll need to put your plan in place.
• Outline strategies for specific marketing segments.
• Connect strategies to earlier sections like target audience and competitive analysis.
• Review how your marketing strategy will scale with the growth of your business.
• Cover a range of channels and tactics to highlight your ability to adapt your plan in the face of change.

6. Key Features and Benefits

At some point in your business plan, you'll review the key features and benefits of your products and/or services. Laying these out can give readers an idea of how you're positioning yourself in the market and the messaging you're likely to use . It can even help them gain better insight into your business model.

Key Features and Benefits Business Plan Example

The example below outlines products and services for this business, along with why these qualities will attract the audience.

Tips for Writing Your Key Features and Benefits

• Emphasize why and how your product or service offers value to customers.
• Use metrics and testimonials to support the ideas in this section.
• Talk about how your products and services have the potential to scale.
• Think about including a product roadmap.
• Focus on customer needs, and how the features and benefits you are sharing meet those needs.
• Offer proof of concept for your ideas, like case studies or pilot program feedback.
• Proofread this section carefully, and remove any jargon or complex language.

7. Pricing and Revenue

This is where you'll discuss your cost structure and various revenue streams. Your pricing strategy must be solid enough to turn a profit while staying competitive in the industry. For this reason, you might outline:

• The specific pricing breakdowns per product or service
• Why your pricing is higher or lower than your competition's
• (If higher) Why customers would be willing to pay more
• (If lower) How you're able to offer your products or services at a lower cost
• When you expect to break even, what margins do you expect, etc?

Pricing and Revenue Business Plan Example

This business plan example begins with an overview of the business revenue model, then shows proposed pricing for key products.

Tips for Writing Your Pricing and Revenue Section

• Get specific about your pricing strategy. Specifically, how you connect that strategy to customer needs and product value.
• If you are asking a premium price, share unique features or innovations that justify that price point.
• Show how you plan to communicate pricing to customers.
• Create an overview of every revenue stream for your business and how each stream adds to your business model as a whole.
• Share plans to develop new revenue streams in the future.
• Show how and whether pricing will vary by customer segment and how pricing aligns with marketing strategies.
• Restate your value proposition and explain how it aligns with your revenue model.

8. Financials

This section is particularly informative for investors and leadership teams to figure out funding strategies, investment opportunities, and more. According to Forbes , you'll want to include three main things:

• Profit/Loss Statement - This answers the question of whether your business is currently profitable.
• Cash Flow Statement - This details exactly how much cash is incoming and outgoing to give insight into how much cash a business has on hand.
• Balance Sheet - This outlines assets, liabilities, and equity, which gives insight into how much a business is worth.

While some business plans might include more or less information, these are the key details you'll want to include.

Financials Business Plan Example

This balance sheet example shows the level of detail you will need to include in the financials section of your business plan:

Tips for Writing Your Financials Section

• Growth potential is important in this section too. Using your data, create a forecast of financial performance in the next three to five years.
• Include any data that supports your projections to assure investors of the credibility of your proposal.
• Add a break-even analysis to show that your business plan is financially practical. This information can also help you pivot quickly as your business grows.
• Consider adding a section that reviews potential risks and how sensitive your plan is to changes in the market.
• Triple-check all financial information in your plan for accuracy.
• Show how any proposed funding needs align with your plans for growth.

As you create your business plan, keep in mind that each of these sections will be formatted differently. Some may be in paragraph format, while others could be charts or graphs.

Business Plan Types

The formats above apply to most types of business plans. That said, the format and structure of your plan will vary by your goals for that plan. So, we’ve added a quick review of different business plan types. For a more detailed overview, check out this post .

1. Startups

Startup business plans are for proposing new business ideas.

If you’re planning to start a small business, preparing a business plan is crucial. The plan should include all the major factors of your business. You can check out this guide for more detailed business plan inspiration .

2. Feasibility Studies

Feasibility business plans focus on that business's product or service. Feasibility plans are sometimes added to startup business plans. They can also be a new business plan for an already thriving organization.

3. Internal Use

You can use internal business plans to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders. Internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals.

4. Strategic Initiatives

Another business plan that's often for sharing internally is a strategic business plan. This plan covers long-term business objectives that might not have been included in the startup business plan.

5. Business Acquisition or Repositioning

When a business is moving forward with an acquisition or repositioning, it may need extra structure and support. These types of business plans expand on a company's acquisition or repositioning strategy.

Growth sometimes just happens as a business continues operations. But more often, a business needs to create a structure with specific targets to meet set goals for expansion. This business plan type can help a business focus on short-term growth goals and align resources with those goals.

Sample Business Plan Templates

Now that you know what's included and how to format a business plan, let's review some templates.

1. HubSpot's One-Page Business Plan

Download a free, editable one-page business plan template..

The business plan linked above was created here at HubSpot and is perfect for businesses of any size — no matter how many strategies we still have to develop.

Fields such as Company Description, Required Funding, and Implementation Timeline give this one-page business plan a framework for how to build your brand and what tasks to keep track of as you grow. Then, as the business matures, you can expand on your original business plan with a new iteration of the above document.

Why We Like It

This one-page business plan is a fantastic choice for the new business owner who doesn’t have the time or resources to draft a full-blown business plan. It includes all the essential sections in an accessible, bullet-point-friendly format. That way, you can get the broad strokes down before honing in on the details.

2. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

We also created a business plan template for entrepreneurs.

The template is designed as a guide and checklist for starting your own business. You’ll learn what to include in each section of your business plan and how to do it. There’s also a list for you to check off when you finish each section of your business plan.

Strong game plans help coaches win games and help businesses rocket to the top of their industries. So if you dedicate the time and effort required to write a workable and convincing business plan, you’ll boost your chances of success and even dominance in your market.

This business plan kit is essential for the budding entrepreneur who needs a more extensive document to share with investors and other stakeholders. It not only includes sections for your executive summary, product line, market analysis, marketing plan, and sales plan, but it also offers hands-on guidance for filling out those sections.

3. LiveFlow’s Financial Planning Template with built-in automation

This free template from LiveFlow aims to make it easy for businesses to create a financial plan and track their progress on a monthly basis. The P&L Budget versus Actual format allows users to track their revenue, cost of sales, operating expenses, operating profit margin, net profit, and more.

The summary dashboard aggregates all of the data put into the financial plan sheet and will automatically update when changes are made. Instead of wasting hours manually importing your data to your spreadsheet, LiveFlow can also help you to automatically connect your accounting and banking data directly to your spreadsheet, so your numbers are always up-to-date.

With the dashboard, you can view your runway, cash balance, burn rate, gross margins, and other metrics. Having a simple way to track everything in one place will make it easier to complete the financials section of your business plan.

This is a fantastic template to track performance and alignment internally and to create a dependable process for documenting financial information across the business. It’s highly versatile and beginner-friendly. It’s especially useful if you don’t have an accountant on the team. (We always recommend you do, but for new businesses, having one might not be possible.)

4. ThoughtCo’s Sample Business Plan

One of the more financially oriented sample business plans in this list, BPlan’s free business plan template dedicates many of its pages to your business’s financial plan and financial statements.

After filling this business plan out, your company will truly understand its financial health and the steps you need to take to maintain or improve it.

We absolutely love this business plan template because of its ease-of-use and hands-on instructions (in addition to its finance-centric components). If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of writing an entire business plan, consider using this template to help you with the process.

6. Harvard Business Review’s "How to Write a Winning Business Plan"

Most sample business plans teach you what to include in your business plan, but this Harvard Business Review article will take your business plan to the next level — it teaches you the why and how behind writing a business plan.

With the guidance of Stanley Rich and Richard Gumpert, co-authors of " Business Plans That Win: Lessons From the MIT Enterprise Forum ", you'll learn how to write a convincing business plan that emphasizes the market demand for your product or service. You’ll also learn the financial benefits investors can reap from putting money into your venture rather than trying to sell them on how great your product or service is.

This business plan guide focuses less on the individual parts of a business plan, and more on the overarching goal of writing one. For that reason, it’s one of our favorites to supplement any template you choose to use. Harvard Business Review’s guide is instrumental for both new and seasoned business owners.

7. HubSpot’s Complete Guide to Starting a Business

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know writing a business plan is one of the most challenging first steps to starting a business. Fortunately, with HubSpot's comprehensive guide to starting a business, you'll learn how to map out all the details by understanding what to include in your business plan and why it’s important to include them. The guide also fleshes out an entire sample business plan for you.

If you need further guidance on starting a business, HubSpot's guide can teach you how to make your business legal, choose and register your business name, and fund your business. It will also give small business tax information and includes marketing, sales, and service tips.

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of starting a business, in addition to writing your business plan, with a high level of exactitude and detail. So if you’re in the midst of starting your business, this is an excellent guide for you. It also offers other resources you might need, such as market analysis templates.

8. Panda Doc’s Free Business Plan Template

PandaDoc’s free business plan template is one of the more detailed and fleshed-out sample business plans on this list. It describes what you should include in each section, so you don't have to come up with everything from scratch.

Once you fill it out, you’ll fully understand your business’ nitty-gritty details and how all of its moving parts should work together to contribute to its success.

This template has two things we love: comprehensiveness and in-depth instructions. Plus, it’s synced with PandaDoc’s e-signature software so that you and other stakeholders can sign it with ease. For that reason, we especially love it for those starting a business with a partner or with a board of directors.

9. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers several free business plan templates that can be used to inspire your own plan. Before you get started, you can decide what type of business plan you need — a traditional or lean start-up plan.

Then, you can review the format for both of those plans and view examples of what they might look like.

We love both of the SBA’s templates because of their versatility. You can choose between two options and use the existing content in the templates to flesh out your own plan. Plus, if needed, you can get a free business counselor to help you along the way.

Top Business Plan Examples

Here are some completed business plan samples to get an idea of how to customize a plan for your business. We’ve chosen different types of business plan ideas to expand your imagination. Some are extensive, while others are fairly simple.

Take a look.

1. LiveFlow

One of the major business expenses is marketing. How you handle your marketing reflects your company’s revenue. We included this business plan to show you how you can ensure your marketing team is aligned with your overall business plan to get results. The plan also shows you how to track even the smallest metrics of your campaigns, like ROI and payback periods instead of just focusing on big metrics like gross and revenue.

Fintech startup, LiveFlow, allows users to sync real-time data from its accounting services, payment platforms, and banks into custom reports. This eliminates the task of pulling reports together manually, saving teams time and helping automate workflows.

When it came to including marketing strategy in its business plan, LiveFlow created a separate marketing profit and loss statement (P&L) to track how well the company was doing with its marketing initiatives. This is a great approach, allowing businesses to focus on where their marketing dollars are making the most impact.

"Using this framework over a traditional marketing plan will help you set a profitable marketing strategy taking things like CAC, LTV, Payback period, and P&L into consideration," explains LiveFlow co-founder, Lasse Kalkar .

Having this information handy will enable you to build out your business plan’s marketing section with confidence. LiveFlow has shared the template here . You can test it for yourself.

2. Lula Body

Sometimes all you need is a solid mission statement and core values to guide you on how to go about everything. You do this by creating a business plan revolving around how to fulfill your statement best. For example, Patagonia is an eco-friendly company, so their plan discusses how to make the best environmentally friendly products without causing harm.

A good mission statement should not only resonate with consumers but should also serve as a core value compass for employees as well.

Outdoor clothing retailer, Patagonia, has one of the most compelling mission statements we’ve seen:

"Together, let’s prioritise purpose over profit and protect this wondrous planet, our only home."

It reels you in from the start, and the environmentally friendly theme continues throughout the rest of the statement.

This mission goes on to explain that they are out to "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to protect nature."

Their mission statement is compelling and detailed, with each section outlining how they will accomplish their goal.

4. Vesta Home Automation

This is the kind of business plan you need when applying for business funds. It clearly illustrates the expected future of the company and how the business has been coming along over the years.

This executive summary for a smart home device startup is part of a business plan created by students at Mount Royal University . While it lacks some of the sleek visuals of the templates above, its executive summary does a great job of demonstrating how invested they are in the business.

Right away, they mention they’ve invested $200,000 into the company already, which shows investors they have skin in the game and aren’t just looking for someone else to foot the bill.

5. NALB Creative Center

This fictional business plan for an art supply store includes everything one might need in a business plan: an executive summary, a company summary, a list of services, a market analysis summary, and more. Due to its comprehensiveness, it’s an excellent example to follow if you’re opening a brick-and-mortar store and need to get external funding to start your business .

One of its most notable sections is its market analysis summary, which includes an overview of the population growth in the business’ target geographical area, as well as a breakdown of the types of potential customers they expect to welcome at the store. This sort of granular insight is essential for understanding and communicating your business’s growth potential. Plus, it lays a strong foundation for creating relevant and useful buyer personas .

It’s essential to keep this information up-to-date as your market and target buyer changes. For that reason, you should carry out market research as often as possible to ensure that you’re targeting the correct audience and sharing accurate information with your investors.

6. Curriculum Companion Suites (CSS)

If you’re looking for a SaaS business plan example, look no further than this business plan for a fictional educational software company called Curriculum Companion Suites. Like the business plan for the NALB Creative Center, it includes plenty of information for prospective investors and other key stakeholders in the business.

One of the most notable features of this business plan is the executive summary, which includes an overview of the product, market, and mission. The first two are essential for software companies because the product offering is so often at the forefront of the company’s strategy. Without that information being immediately available to investors and executives, then you risk writing an unfocused business plan.

It’s also essential to front-load your company’s mission if it explains your "Why?" In other words, why do you do what you do, and why should stakeholders care? This is an important section to include if you feel that your mission will drive interest in the business and its offerings.

7. Culina Sample Business Plan

Culina's sample business plan is an excellent example of how to lay out your business plan so that it flows naturally, engages readers, and provides the critical information investors and stakeholders need. You can also use this template as a guide while you're gathering important details. After looking at this sample, you'll have a better understanding of the data and research you need to do for your own business plan.

8. Plum Sample Business Plan

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Milestones for Successful Venture Planning

• Zenas Block
• Ian C. MacMillan

Entrepreneurs draw up business plans for new ventures to make various marketing, pricing, financial, and other projections. More often than not, though, their estimates bear little relationship to reality. These authors argue that planning for new enterprises differs fundamentally from planning for existing companies, given the inherent instability of start-ups. How can managers launching new […]

Starting a new business is essentially an experiment. Implicit in the experiment are a number of hypotheses (commonly called assumptions) that can be tested only by experience. The entrepreneur launches the enterprise and works to establish it while simultaneously validating or invalidating the assumptions. Because some will be dead wrong and others partially wrong, an important goal of the business plan must be to continually produce and build on new knowledge. Managers must justify moving to each new stage or milestone in the plan on the basis of information learned in the previous stage.

• ZB Zenas Block and
• IM Ian C. Macmillan is the Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

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Pearl Lemon Ventures

What Is A New Venture?

A new venture is an entrepreneurial project that involves the creation of a new product, service, or even a new business. A new venture may be one of many companies in a family, or it may be a spin-off from an existing company.

A new venture can also be a startup, typically one of three types: pre-revenue , revenue-generating , or post-revenue .

Pre-revenue startups are not generating revenue and have not secured funding. Revenue-generating startups have raised funding and have started generating revenue but do not yet have profit margins. Post-revenue startups have secured funding and generated revenue to start turning a profit.

Every new venture starts with an idea or vision of what the company will look like in the future. There are many different types of new ventures, such as:

– Service industry

– Manufacturing industry

– Technology industry

– Retail industry

– Food and beverage industry

– Healthcare industry

This article will help us learn more about What is a new venture. Let’s begin.

The Formation Of New Ventures

As an entrepreneur or founder of a venture, a venture capitalist must understand and manage the entire enterprise to start a new venture.

It tackles the successive challenges faced by entrepreneurs:

• Finding and evaluating new business opportunities
• Building a team, creating an effective board of directors, and negotiating with resource providers to acquire and leverage resources
• The management and growth of the company
• Collecting and harvesting value when appropriate

What Are The Risks Of Starting A New Venture?

Starting an independent business is a risky endeavour. It requires a lot of hard work, dedication, and determination. It also requires taking on some risks.

The risk of starting a new venture is that a VC may not be able to generate enough revenue to sustain their company. A variety of factors may contribute to this problem. The risks differ with the size and nature of the business and the industry they operate.

One reason could be that entrepreneurs are not targeting the right market, or there are competitors in their space who are doing better than them. Another reason could be that they have not found the right product-market fit yet or that there is no market for what they want to sell.

Another risk that entrepreneurs face is financial risk , which includes uncertainties about startup costs and expenses, cash flow, and long-term financing needs. To mitigate this risk, it is essential to understand what a startup will cost before jumping in headfirst . Entrepreneurs should also know how much money they need for each stage.

5 Components Of The Process Of New Venture Creation

It is helpful to break the entrepreneurial process into five phases. We provide more details about these phases and the Opportunity Evaluation and Planning steps below.

Idea Generation For A New Venture

Idea generation or ideation refers to the forming of ideas. It is a process of generating, developing and communicating new ideas and concepts, which are then used as the basis for a new venture strategy .

There is always an idea at the beginning of a new venture. Specifically, we see an idea as a description of a need or problem of a constituency coupled with a concept of how it might be resolved.

An idea generation technique can offer an excellent opportunity to shake up an entrepreneur’s routine and spark new ideas. Teams and organisations can benefit from structured ideation to solve problems and collaborate.

Opportunity Evaluation To Utilize New Venture Ideas

After generating a new venture idea, an entrepreneur should look for opportunities to apply that idea. An entrepreneur has to determine whether it is worthwhile to invest in the opportunity.

Investment primarily involves the time and capital of individuals or groups of individuals. Those individuals or groups of individuals contribute the capital. Additionally, entrepreneurs should consider other assets, including intellectual property , relationships with others , and physical assets .

Planning To Take Advantages Of Opportunities

As soon as a current market opportunity is determined, entrepreneurs need to decide how to take advantage of it. As a business develops, it begins with a relatively simple set of ideas and becomes more complex. Creating a strategy and an operating plan are two things entrepreneurs will need to do during the planning stage.

Company Formation/Launch

Once the venture team has identified a sufficiently compelling opportunity and a viable plan, it will begin creating the legal entity for the venture and choosing the correct form of corporate entity.

Growth of a New Venture

As soon as a company launches, it works on developing its product or service, generating revenue and moving toward sustainability. Efforts shift from planning to implementation. Here, entrepreneurs are more focused on executing their plans than asking questions.

How To Grow With A New Venture And Stay Competitive In Today’s Market

Starting a new venture is very challenging in today’s competitive market. It is not enough to just have the right idea and skills. Entrepreneurs also need to be able to grow their businesses and stay competitive.

First , entrepreneurs should establish goals for their business. There are a set of questions that will guide their business decisions.

What do you hope to achieve from your venture?

You can hope for Improved product development processes for your company. Market analysis data and customer demographics can support the design and planning of products that meet demand. By addressing concerns and suggestions from customers, you can design products that meet demand.

As a result, you can create high-quality offerings that customers will want to buy. Offerings that provide more value to customers can be created by improving the product development cycle.

Would you describe your growth goals as too conservative or too aggressive?

Once an entrepreneur has redefined the business and verified its essential soundness, they need to decide whether or not growth is appropriate. Every venture will grow at its own pace. A young company needs to set the right pace as an amateur cyclist.

How will you handle the day-to-day operations of your business?

Whenever a business generates a profit and increases its intrinsic value, it operates on a day-to-day basis.

Ways To Handle Your Day-To-Day Operations:

• Hire third parties to handle time-consuming HR tasks
• Use better communication methods
• Encourage telecommuting
• Make inventory management more automated
• Encourage intrinsic motivation

The next step is to make sure you have the right team . You need people who are passionate about the idea and talented enough to execute it. Without this, even the best ideas will fail.

Too often, people rely on hiring marketing consultants or agencies to help execute their ideas. It’s hard to find the right person when they are engulfed in tons of offers and only want the best ones (which you can’t guarantee).

Businesses should invest in sales training, professional development, and skill-building workshops to increase customer value. Teams that are experienced and skilled can better meet customer needs and create offerings that deliver lasting value to their customers.

Finally, it is essential to know where you fit in the market and what niche or product category you are targeting.

For example, knowing what type of website you would like allows for a better understanding of how much competition there is and where your audience might be.

What Is A New Venture Plan?

Participants in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Planning understand identifying new business opportunities, researching and developing a business concept and analysing the resources and strategies necessary to implement it. For example;

• Take the time to listen to your potential clients and past leads
• Listen to your customers.
• Look at your competitors.
• Look at industry trends and insights.

How Does Venture Capital Work?

The concept of venture capital (VC) is to invest in a company poised for significant growth in exchange for equity , typically a minority stake. Venture capitalists invest in companies of this type. They are technically private equity (PE) investors.

How Is A New Venture Created And Started?

A start-up can happen when an entrepreneur identifies an opportunity or an idea, then organises activities, mobilises resources, and creates competence using their network in an environment to create value.

These are the necessary information on a new venture. There is a market for New Venture Strategy in courses on entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, new venture competition, small business, and strategic planning. Additionally, people involved in business development, business plan, new venture funding, facing new venture challenges and marketing will find it helpful.

You might also like

The Disadvantages Of A Joint Venture Arrangement When Entering A New Global Market

How is an Equity Alliance Different from a Joint Venture?

How to Get a Job in Venture Capital – A Guide to Landing your Dream Job

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Venture Capital Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business Plans » Financial Services

Are you about starting a venture capital firm ? If YES, here’s a complete sample venture capital business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE to raise money .

If you are interested in the capital market and you have some form of financial expertise and certifications, one of the businesses that you can conveniently start is a venture capital firm. As a venture capital firm, your responsibility is to pool capital from investors and then invest it in startups businesses.

Aside from the money invested, venture capitalists also ensure that they provide the capacity and support which startups companies need to grow and become profitable. The first step you need to take if you want to start your own venture capital firm is to conduct an extensive research on venture capital firm.

A Sample Venture Capital Firm Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

The Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry is an industry that comprises of firms and investment consultants basically acting as principals in the buying or selling of financial contracts. Essentially, principals in this context are investors who trade (buy or sell) for their own account, rather than on behalf of their clients.

This industry consist of venture capital firms, investment clubs and venture  settlement companies and does not include investment bankers, securities dealers and commodity contracts dealers trading as principals.

It is a fact that, the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry is growing faster than most industries in the financial services sector not only in the united states but across the global market. Industry value added (IVA), a measure of the industry’s contribution to the overall economy, is projected to increase at a 6.9 percent annualized rate over the next 10 years.

Indeed, the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry is a very large and thriving industry not only in the developed nations, but also in developing and under developing countries of the world. Statistics has it that the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry in the United States of America, is worth $106 billion, with an estimated growth rate of 4.2 percent.

There are about 29,069 registered and licensed venture capital firms in the United States and they are responsible for employing about 74,814 people. It is important to state that there is no company with a dominant market share in this industry; the industry is open for fair competitions for the available market.

Over and above, the main reasons for starting a venture capital firm is obviously to provide funding for startup companies with great potential of making profits and growing big in the future.

So your responsibility is not just to raise capital but also to look for startup companies where the capital can be invested and it will generate good returns for over a period of time. The truth is that it takes a core professional to be able to identify a startup company that has the potential to grow and become profitable if funds and pumped into it.

2. Executive Summary

St. Martins& Associates, LLP is a registered, licensed and accredited venture capitalist firm that will be based in New York City – New York.

The company will handle all aspect of venture capitalists services such as investing in financial contracts on own account, participating in investment clubs (group of people who pool their money to make investments), mineral royalties or leases dealing (as principal in dealing to investors), oil royalty dealing (as principal in dealing to investors), vertical settlement (purchasing life insurance policy at a discount to later collect the death benefit), venture capital (investing in startups and small businesses with long-term growth potential), trade in financial products and other relevant investment advisory and consulting services.

We are aware that to run a standard venture capital firm can be demanding which is why we are well trained, certified and equipped to perform excellently well. St. Martins & Associates, LLP is a client – focused and result driven venture capitalist firm that provides broad- based services.

We will offer trusted and profitable venture capitalists services to all our individual clients, and corporate clients at local, state, national, and international level. We will ensure that we work hard to meet and surpass our clients’ expectations whenever they invest their funds with us.

At St. Martins & Associates, LLP, our client’s best interest would always come first, and everything we do is guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hire professionals who are well experienced in venture capitalist line of business and other investment portfolios with good track record of return on investments.

St. Martins & Associates, LLP will at all times demonstrate her commitment to sustainability, both individually and as a firm, by actively participating in our communities and integrating sustainable business practices wherever possible.

We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely. We will cultivate a working environment that provides a human, sustainable approach to earning a living, and living in our world, for our partners, employees and for our clients.

Our plan is to position the business to become one of the leading brands in the venture capitalists line of business in the whole of New York City, and also to be amongst the top 20 venture capitalists firms in the United States of America within the first 10 years of operations.

This might look too tall a dream but we are optimistic that this will surely be realized because we have done our research and feasibility studies and we are enthusiastic and confident that New York is the right place to launch our venture capitalists business before expanding our investment portfolio sourcing for start – ups from other cities in The United States of America.

St. Martins & Associates, LLP is founded by Martin Yorkshire and his business partners for many years Carlos Dominguez. The organization will be managed by both of them since they have adequate working experience to manage such business.

Martin Yorkshire has well over 15 years of experience working at various capacity as a venture capitalist for leading investment banks and related firms in the United States of America. Martin Yorkshire graduated from both University of California – Berkley with a Degree in Accounting, and University of Harvard (MSc.) and he is an accredited and certified venture capitalist.

3. Our Products and Services

St. Martins & Associates, LLP is going to offer varieties of services within the scope of the financial investment services industry in the United States of America. Our intention of starting our St. Martins & Associates, LLP firm is to work with promising start – ups and other business ventures.

We are well prepared to make profits from the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry and we will do all that is permitted by the law in the United States to achieve our business goals, aim and ambition. Our business offering are listed below;

• Investing in financial contracts on own account
• Participating in investment clubs (group of people who pool their money to make investments)
• Mineral royalties or leases dealing (as principal in dealing to investors)
• Oil royalty dealing (as principal in dealing to investors)
• Vertical settlement (purchasing life insurance policy at a discount to later collect the death benefit)
• Venture capital (investing in startups and small businesses with long-term growth potential)
• Trade in financial products
• Related investment consulting and advisory services

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our vision is to build a venture capitalists brand that will become one of the top choices for investors in the whole of New York City – New York.
• Our vision reflects our values: integrity, service, excellence and teamwork.
• Our mission is to position the business to become one of the leading brands in the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry in the whole of New York City, and also to be amongst the top 20 venture capitalist firms in the United States of America within the first 10 years of operations.

Our Business Structure

Ordinarily we would have settled for two or three staff members, but as part of our plan to build a standard venture capitalist firm in New York City – New York, we have perfected plans to get it right from the beginning which is why we are going the extra mile to ensure that we have qualified, competent, honest and hardworking employees to occupy all the available positions in our firm.

The picture of the kind of the venture capitalist firm we intend building and the business goals we want to achieve is what informed the amount we are ready to pay for the best hands available in and around New York and environs as long as they are willing and ready to work with us to achieve our business goals and objectives. Below is the business structure that we will build St. Martins & Associates, LLP;

• Chief Executive Officer
• Venture Capitalists Consultants

Admin and HR Manager

Risk Manager

• Marketing and Sales Executive

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) / Chief Accounting Officer (CAO).

• Customer Care Executive / Front Desk Officer

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Office:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; developing incentives; developing a climate for offering information and opinions; providing educational opportunities.
• Creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Creates, communicates, and implements the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization

Venture Capitalist Consultants

• Provides market research and implementing new investment product and strategies
• Creates research and review platforms for new, existing and potential investment products
• Exceeds client expectations with returns on investments
• Works closely with analysts and traders to ensure trading strategy is carried out correctly
• Construct and review performance reports to show to investors
• Works directly with marketer to relay investment strategy and risk measures for website and other forms of marketing for your hedge fund
• Performs due diligence visits and assessing investment management firms and quantitatively analyzing investment pools
• Has extensive knowledge of industry policies and regulations set in place by the SEC
• Focuses on capital introductions and networking to sign up new investors to your fund
• Plans, designs and implements an overall risk management process for the organization;
• Risk assessment, which involves analyzing risks as well as identifying, describing and estimating the risks affecting the business;
• Risk evaluation, which involves comparing estimated risks with criteria established by the organization such as costs, legal requirements and environmental factors, and evaluating the organization’s previous handling of risks;
• Establishes and quantifies the organization’s ‘risk appetite’, i.e. the level of risk they are prepared to accept;
• Risk reporting in an appropriate way for different audiences, for example, to the board of directors so they understand the most significant risks, to business heads to ensure they are aware of risks relevant to their parts of the business and to individuals to understand their accountability for individual risks;
• Corporate governance involving external risk reporting to stakeholders;
• Carries out processes such as purchasing insurance, implementing health and safety measures and making business continuity plans to limit risks and prepare for if things go wrong;
• Conducts audits of policy and compliance to standards, including liaison with internal and external auditors;
• Provides support, education and training to staff to build risk awareness within the organization.
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
• Design job descriptions with KPI to drive performance management for clients
• Regularly hold meetings with key stakeholders to review the effectiveness of HR Policies, Procedures and Processes
• Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Defines job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carries out staff induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Responsible for arranging travel, meetings and appointments
• Updates job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations.
• Oversees the smooth running of the daily office activities.

Marketing / Investor Relations Officer

• Identifies, prioritizes, and reach out to new partners, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of projects; assures the completion of relevant projects.
• Writes winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with company policy
• Responsible for handling business research, marker surveys and feasibility studies for clients
• Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
• Develops, executes and evaluates new plans for expanding increase sales
• Documents all customer contact and information
• Represents the company in strategic meetings
• Helps increase sales and growth for the company
• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• create reports from the information concerning the financial transactions recorded by the bookkeeper
• Prepares the income statement and balance sheet using the trial balance and ledgers prepared by the bookkeeper.
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyzes financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for the company
• Serves as internal auditor for the company

Client Service Executive / Front Desk Officer

• Welcomes guests and clients by greeting them in person or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the manager in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the company’s products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients
• Receives parcels / documents for the company
• Distributes mails in the organization
• Handles any other duties as assigned my the line manager

6. SWOT Analysis

St. Martins & Associates, LLP engaged the services of a core professional in the area of business structuring to assist our organization in building a well – structured venture capitalist firm that can favorably compete in the highly competitive Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry.

Part of what the team of business consultant did was to work with the management of our organization in conducting a SWOT analysis for St. Martins & Associates, LLP. Here is a summary from the result of the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of St. Martins & Associates, LLP;

Our core strength lies in the power of our team; our workforce. We have a team that can go all the way to give our clients value for their money ( good returns on their investment ) and also to increase our annual returns; a team that are trained and equipped to pay attention to details and to deliver excellent jobs. We are well positioned and we know we will attract loads of clients from the first day we open our doors for business.

As a new venture capitalist firm, it might take some time for our organization to break into the market and gain acceptance especially from corporate clients in the already saturated Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry that is perhaps our major weakness. So also we may not have the required cash to give our business the kind of publicity we would have loved to.

• Opportunities:

The opportunities in the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry is massive considering the number of small businesses who would need financial supports and strategies from venture capitalists to grow their business and increase their profits.

As a standard and accredited venture capitalist firm, we are ready to take advantage of any opportunity that comes our way.

Venture capitalist firms services involves large amount of cash and it is known to be a very high risk venture,      Hence, whoever chooses to manage it must not just have solid investment background, but must also know how to handle risks and discover potential thriving businesses and opportunities.

The truth is that if you are not grounded in risks management as a venture capitalist, you may likely throw away peoples’ monies and investment. Just as in any other business and investment vehicles, economic downturn, unstable financial market and unfavorable government economic policies can hamper the growth and profitability of venture capitalist firms.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

A close watch on the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry shows that in the dawn of recessionary declines, the industry is expected to continue on a path to growth, but not without a few more ups and downs. This group of firms and individuals has benefited from rising security prices and increasing merger and acquisition activity over the last five years.

As a result of this trend, Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry revenue is expected to grow over the five-year period at an annualized rate of 9.1 percent to $42.9 billion in 2016.

The revenue growth for the industry was restrained in the early part of the period as the industry was reluctant to bounce back from the financial crisis and subsequent recession of the prior period that caused stock markets and business activity to dramatically contract in the United States and of course in the global market.

On the average, it is trendy to find venture capital firms employ strategies that can help them reduce market risk specifically by shorting equities or through the use of derivatives.

8. Our Target Market

The main reasons for starting a venture capital firm is obviously to provide funding for startup companies with great potential of making profits and growing big in the future. So your responsibility is not just to raise capital but also to look for startup companies where the capital can be invested and it will generate good returns for over a period of time.

The truth is that it takes a core professional to be able to identify a startup company that has the potential to grow and become profitable if funds and pumped into it.

As a standard, accredited and licensed venture capitalist firm, St. Martins & Associates, LLP offers a wide range of investment portfolio management services hence we are well trained and equipped to services a wide range of clientele base and start – ups.

Our target market cuts across businesses and investors that have the required capital to invest in start – ups and other investment portfolios. We are coming into the industry with a business concept and investment strategies that will enable us produce good returns on investment for ourselves and our clients.

Below is a list of the individual and organizations that we have specifically design our products and services for;

• Small and medium scales businesses
• Accredited Investors
• Start – ups
• Investment Clubs
• Top corporate executives
• Corporate Organizations / Blue Chip Companies

Our Competitive Advantage

Despite the fact that venture capitalist investment strategies give huge returns on investment, it is indeed risky venture. If you drive through the street of New York City, you will come across several venture capitalists firms and related business ventures; that goes to show you that there is competition in the industry.

For you to survive as a venture capitalist firm, you should be able to come up with workable investment strategies; strategies that will help you attract the required cash / capital and above all you should be a good risks manager and one that can spot a potential thriving business from afar.

We are quite aware that to be highly competitive in the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry means that we should be able to give good returns on investments to our clients, turn around the fortune of a dying company for good , spot potential successful business ideas and invest in them, deliver consistent quality service, our clients should be satisfied with our investment strategies and we should be able to meet the expectations of clients.

St. Martins& Associates, LLP might be a new entrant into the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry in the United States of America, but the management staffs and owners of the business are considered gurus. They are people who are core professionals and licensed and highly qualified portfolio management experts in the United States. These are part of what will count as a competitive advantage for us.

Lastly, our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category (start – ups venture capitalist businesses) in the industry meaning that they will be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

St. Martins& Associates, LLP is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry and we are going to go all the way to ensure that we do all it takes to attract clients on a regular basis. St. Martins& Associates, LLP will generate income by offering the following investment related services;

10. Sales Forecast

One thing is certain, there would always be accredited investors, small scale and medium scale businesses and wealthy individuals who would need the services of tested and trusted venture capitalist firms.

We are well positioned to take on the available market in New York City and other key cities in the United States of America and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income / profits from the first six month of operations and grow the business and our clientele base beyond New York City to other cities in the United States of America.

We have been able to critically examine the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry and we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. The sales projection is based on information gathered on the field and some assumptions that are peculiar to similar startups in New York City.

Below is the sales projection for St. Martins& Associates, LLP, it is based on the location of our business and the wide range of investment management services that we will be offering;

• First Fiscal Year-: $750,000
• Second Year-: $1.5 Million
• Third Year-: $3 Million

N.B : This projection is done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and there won’t be any major competitor offering same additional services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

We are mindful of the fact that there are stiffer competition amongst venture capitalists firms and other related financial investment cum consulting service providers in the United States of America; hence we have been able to hire some of the best business developer to handle our sales and marketing.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the industry and they will be trained on a regular basis, so as to be well equipped to meet their targets and the overall goal of the organization.

We will also ensure that our return on investment and excellent job deliveries speaks for us in the market place; we want to build a standard venture capitalist business that will leverage on word of mouth advertisement from satisfied clients (both individuals and corporate organizations).

Our goal is to grow our venture capitalists firm to become one of the top 20 venture capitalist firms in the United States of America which is why we have mapped out strategy that will help us take advantage of the available market and grow to become a major force to reckon with not only in the New York City but also in other cities in the United States of America.

St. Martins& Associates, LLP is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

• Introduce our business by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to corporate organizations, start – ups, accredited investors, entrepreneurs and key stake holders in New York City and other cities in The United States
• Advertise our business in relevant financial and business related magazines, newspapers, TV stations, and radio station.
• List our business on yellow pages ads (local directories)
• Attend relevant international and local finance and business expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
• Create different packages for different category of clients (start – ups and established corporate organizations) in order to work with their budgets and still deliver good returns on investment
• Leverage on the internet to promote our business
• Engage direct marketing approach
• Encourage word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

The uniqueness of the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry is such that it is the result they produce that helps boost their brand awareness.

Venture capitalists firms do not go out there to source any businesses or investors that they can come across but they are strategic when it comes to inviting investors to invest in a project or when it comes to acquiring a struggling company.

It will be out of place to boost your venture capitalist firm brand if you have not proven your worth in the industry. If you have successfully proven that you have what it takes to operate a successful venture capitalist firm, then you next port of call is to strategically engage the media to help you promote your brand and also to create a positive corporate identity.

We have been able to work with our brand and publicity consultants to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us walk our way into the heart of our target market.

We are set to take the Venture Capital and Principal Trading industry by storm which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our venture capitalist firm. Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote and advertise St. Martins & Associates, LLP;

• Place adverts on both print ( community based newspapers and magazines ) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community based events / programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook , twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our brand
• Install our Bill Boards on strategic locations all around New York City.
• Engage in road show from time to time
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
• Ensure that all our workers wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our company’s logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

Venture capitalists are known to generate income from various investment portfolios hence there are no pricing models for this type of business.

But on the other hand, they tend to negotiate with their financial partners on percentage whenever they invest their hard earned money in an investment vehicle handled by a venture capitalist firm. At St. Martins& Associates, LLP we will ensure that we give good returns on investment (ROI) and always maximize profits.

• Payment Options

At St. Martins & Associates, LLP our payment policy will be all inclusive because we are quite aware that different people prefer different payment options as it suits them. Here are the payment options that we will make available to our clients;

• Payment by via bank transfer
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via check
• Payment via bank draft
• Payment with cash

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will help us achieve our plans with little or no itches.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

The cost of starting a venture capitalists firm is in the two fold; the cost of setting up the office structure and of course the capital meant for investment. The amount required to invest in this line of business could range from 1 Million US Dollars to even multiple Millions of Dollars. So you must employ aggressive strategies to pool such cash together.

As regard the cost of setting up the office structure, your concern should be to secure a good office facility in a busy business district; it can be expensive though, but that is one of the factors that will help you position your hedge fund firm to attract the kind of investors you would need. This is the financial projection and costing for starting St. Martins & Associates, LLP;

• The Total Fee for incorporating the Business – $750.
• The budget for basic insurance policy covers, permits and business license – $2,500
• The Amount needed to acquire a suitable Office facility in a business district 6 months (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) – $40,000.
• The Cost for equipping the office (computers, software applications, printers, fax machines, furniture, telephones, filing cabins, safety gadgets and electronics et al) – $5,000
• The cost for purchase of the required software applications (CRM software, Accounting and Bookkeeping software and Payroll software et al) – $10,500
• The Cost of Launching your official Website – $600
• Budget for paying  at least three employees for 3 months plus utility bills – $10,000
• Additional Expenditure (Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions et al) – $2,500
• Investment fund – 1 Million Dollars
• Miscellaneous: $1,000

Going by the report from the market research and feasibility studies conducted, we will need $150,000 excluding $1M investment capital to successfully set – up a medium scale but standard venture capitalist firm in the United States of America.

Generating Funding / Startup Capital for St. Martins & Associates, LLP

St. Martins & Associates, LLP is a business that will be owned and managed by Martin Yorkshire and his business partners for many years Carlos Dominguez. They are the sole financial of the firm, but may likely welcome other partners later which is why they decided to restrict the sourcing of the start – up capital for the business to just three major sources.

These are the areas we intend generating our start – up capital;

• Generate part of the start – up capital from personal savings
• Source for soft loans from family members and friends
• Apply for loan from my Bank

N.B: We have been able to generate about $50,000 ( Personal savings $40,000 and soft loan from family members $10,000 ) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $100,000 from our bank. All the papers and document has been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the numbers of loyal customers that they have the capacity and competence of the employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business (company), then it won’t be too long before the business close shop.

One of our major goals of starting St. Martins & Associates, LLP is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need for injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running. We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to give investors good returns on their investment.

We will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare is well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and re – training of our workforce is at the top burner of our business strategy.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more as determined by the board of the organization. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List / Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check:>Completed
• Business Incorporation: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts various banks in the United States: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of All form of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Securing a standard office facility in New York City: Completed
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating part of the start – up capital from the founder: Completed
• Applications for Loan from our Bankers: In Progress
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: Completed
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the Needed software applications, furniture, office equipment, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business (Business PR): In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with vendors and key players in the industry: In Progress
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Business Venture Definition: Everything You Need to Know

The business venture definition is a new business that is formed with a plan and expectation that financial gain will follow. 3 min read

The business venture definition is a new business that is formed with a plan and expectation that financial gain will follow. Often, this kind of business is referred to as a small business, as it typically begins with a small amount of financial resources. 

A business venture is usually formed out of a need for a service or product that is lacking in the market. This need is often a product consumers are requesting or something that serves a particular purpose. After the need is determined, an investor or small-business person with the time and resources to develop and market the new service or product can start a business venture. Most likely, the development will be funded in its early stages by an investor, who is often the business owner or creator of the idea. Oftentimes, business ventures are funded by more than one investor, with the expectation that the plan will be profitable in time. 

As the business gets off its feet, additional investors may become involved by providing support and capital to expand development and marketing of the venture. All this is done with the intention of sharing a substantial profit among all investors. 

Small-Business Venture vs. Startup

The primary difference between startups and traditional business ventures is the way they consider growth. In contrast to traditional businesses, startups are designed to grow fast. This requires startups to have something to offer to a very large market, which is why most startups are tech companies. For most businesses, however, a large market is not a requirement. Generally, a business can sell to any market it can reach and serve. 

Another common difference between startups and traditional businesses is the source of funding. Startups often rely on capital from angel investors or venture capital firms, while traditional small businesses typically rely on grants and loans. In general, those providing venture capital tend to take a more active role in the company they invest in, as opposed to small businesses, with whom lenders don't often play an active role. After all, investors take the biggest risks when it comes to business ventures, and as such, they are more likely to give advice and offer a helping hand. 

As opposed to small businesses, startups also require an exit strategy. Investors will need to see their returns, often within a shorter timeframe than small businesses, which may be in business for decades or even longer. If you're hoping to attract venture capital without an exit strategy, you'll be unlikely to receive it.

Is a Startup the Right Type of Business Venture for You?

Considering whether a  startup is the right type of business venture for you? Creators of startup companies must have a few key characteristics. 

• You must enjoy working hard and then moving on. If you work enthusiastically and determinedly, yet you know you get bored easily, startups may be a good direction for you. Serial entrepreneurs are those with a handful of ideas they'd like to see through, and since startups generally have a short lifespan, these entrepreneurs may find that launching startup companies can fulfill many of these ideas.
• Does your product or service have a huge market, ideally in the millions? In order to grow rapidly, you're going to have to think big. The internet or digital realm could be a naturally expansive market if you have the right product or service to offer it. 
• Startups may be a good idea if you'd like expert advice or assistance in your endeavor, as investors often play an active role in their development. For those who have never launched a business before, incubators and accelerators can provide more valuable assistance. Incubators offer support and guidance to assist startups in growing and thriving in an unstructured way, without any goals or timeline. On the other hand, accelerators provide a specific course of action within a short period of time to rapidly grow the value and size of a company in pursuit of a particular goal, typically funding. Both can be significant resources for the budding entrepreneur. 

If you need help with your business venture, you can  post your legal need  on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

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Week 4 - Assgnment 1 Strategic Business Plan for a New Venture

This strategic business plan details a structured plan of an investment in an African country, Zambia for the manufacture of plastic lumber from recycled plastic waste. The plan is in line with the strategy of XY Investments Inc. to diversify into untapped areas offshore without XY Investments Inc. footprint. This will ensure continued enhancements of human capital development, corporate social responsibility (CSR), enhanced robust risk management platform, treasury and accounting function. In this regard, a subsidiary company XY Poly Ltd. has been incorporated in Zambia as a vehicle through which the holding company, XY Investments Inc. will spread its corporate footprint into Africa as part of its grand strategy to meet long term objectives and a generic strategy to meet strategy in the short term.

Related Papers

Sustainable Resources Management Journal (SRMJ) , Weston Sakala

The purpose of this research was to determine the contribution of solid waste recycling companies to the job market in Zambia. A comprehensive database of patents and company registration agency for thirty-four companies working with waste recycling in Zambia was used. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. The results revealed that recycling companies create job opportunities and environmental benefits. The study has also established that recycling industry is growing rapidly. However, the sector has a lot of challenges e.g. the poor status of machinery. Old technologies have made the industry structure more costly to operate at full capacity. There was no significant difference (p >.05) in job creation between companies using old and new technologies (p = 0.635). Similarly, there was no significant difference (p >.05) in contribution to job creation between paper and plastic recycling (p = 0.456). However, there was a significant (p<.05) difference in efficiency between old and new technologies.

Excel India Publishers

Bupe G Mwanza, PhD

Plastic waste recycling continues to contribute to sustainable management of resources. Over the past 60 years, the manufacture of plastic packaged products has increased. Majority of plastic products manufactured for the packaging industry have substantive short life spans. These observations indicate the current utilisation of resources (petroleum) for the manufacture of plastic materials is unsustainable. Recycling is one element of the 3Rs (reduce, recycle, reuse) that continues to contribute to resource utilisation in the plastic industry. Opportunities to reduce quantities of Plastic Solid Wastes (PSWs) disposal, carbon dioxide emissions and oil usage are provided through recycling. Despite the existence of plastic recycling for many decades, quantities that are recycled vary contextually depending on the application and plastic type. In many developed economies, high recycling rates for PSWs can be attributed to a number of factors such as technology, regulations and value chain systems. Advanced technologies for recycling such mechanical, feedstock, chemical, pyrolysis and glycolysis have contributed to high recycling rates in developed economies. However, recycling rates in developing economies are still low and a number of factors have contributed. The purpose of this research was; to assess the current status of technology in the industry in Zambia. The objectives of the research were to; determine the types of plastics recycled, products manufactured from recycled PSWs, the types of technology used in recycling PSWs and the technological drivers for improving recycling. Using the database of companies listed by the Manufacturing Sector of Zambia and the Google Search Engine, a list of plastic manufacturing and recycling companies in Zambia were identified. A descriptive research was conducted since the research required understanding the current status on the subject matter. A total of 30 companies were identified in Zambia and a structured questionnaire was designed and distributed to companies using sampling without replacement. 22 companies answered the questionnaires. The results reveal that, plastic products are manufactured by 95.5% of the companies and only 45.5% recycle PSWs. More than 42000 tons of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Polyethylene (PE, LLDPE, HDPE) and Polypropylene (PP) is recycled per annual. The major recycling technology used by the companies is mechanical recycling and majority of PSWs are recycled into plastic bottles and containers. Assessment of the technological drivers for improving recycling, majority indicated ensuring material applicability in recycling processes. This research presents the current state on the application of different types of recycling technologies for plastic recycling as well as providing the way forward on improving recycling from a technological perspective. To plastic recycling companies, the research has proved insights on the different types of recycling technologies for consideration. To policy makers and future entrepreneurs in the field of sustainability, the research presents insights on the different forms of recyclable plastics and the technology that can be implemented. Finally, the research shows that, there is need to improve on the application of advanced recycling technologies in plastic recycling companies of Zambia.

Sustainability focuses on taking into account in our work and in our daily lives all the resources upon the planet. The plastic industry is one of the major users of non-renewable resources and aspects of sustainability have to be considered. Plastic solid waste (PSW) recycling is one of the most important remedies available for sustainable plastic waste recovery and yet the plastic industry faces a number of obstacles to recover this resource. A survey was conducted on a number of plastic manufacturing companies in Kitwe city in Zambia to identify the major obstacles affecting sustainable PSW recovery and recycling. A fishbone diagram was used to categorize the major obstacles into the causes and finally the causes were then grouped according to their economic, environmental and social impacts on these companies.

Rwanda Journal of Engineering, Science, Technology and Environment

Dickson Kwesiga

ioana sauluc

Latchmi Singh

International Forestry Review

Jacob Mwitwa

Bálint Horváth , edmund Mallinguh

Least-developed countries face many challenges regarding their plastic waste management systems. In 2017, Kenya imposed a selective ban targeting manufacturers and consumers of plastic carrier bags. However, this selectivity does not avoid the continuous use of other plastic products. The present paper states that circular priorities, which have been defined to advanced economies, would not be entirely valid for the rest of the world. While high-income countries face only the impacts of their own consumption, developing nations must endure the externalities of these developed economies. Thus, the focus of the least developed part of the world must not be on reducing its relatively normal (or even low) consumption, but to manage its surplus material flow. According to the employed circular evaluation methodology (CEV-Circular Economic Value), the circularity level in Kenya's plastic material flow stands on a rather low stage with 32.72%. This result outlines the linear deficiencies of the plastic waste management system and urges the prevention of further material leakage (such as energy use). Through the Business Model Canvas (BMC) approach this study offers a holistic business solution which can improve the system's sustainability.

IJAR Indexing

The objective of this thesis work was, to look in to the multi-dimensional relationship between the source of plastic waste and the actors involved in the process from plastic waste generation up to the recycling stage; and to identify the three major types of plastic waste used and disposed at a household level (PE, PP, and PET).The thesis work had identified how each player was involved in the chain of functions, the working atmosphere among them was organized, and what the transactions between each participant look like. As the economic impact was the driving force which draws the stakeholders into the process, the benefit each stakeholder was getting at every level was indicated. The plastic waste which was delivered to the recycling factories has shown a significant consumption growth from 2012 up to 2016; where one factory registered 1394% increment in its annual consumption .The thesis also assessed the level of awareness creation and degree of implementation of regulations issued in connection with plastic waste and concluded by forwarding some suggestions and recommendations on the way forward.

Wim Getkate

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New Venture Business Plan Proposal Essay

Concept and its importance.

Nowadays, there are many options for people to develop their business. People should be ready for making fast and well-grounded solutions, get adjusted to the changes, and do not be afraid to try something new. Still, keeping to the tradition is also a good strategy. In this project, it is offered to introduce a new bakery shop.

Modern people are so involved in using numerous technologies that they simply forget about the beauty of the real life. A new bakery shop aims at reminding people about taste, freshness, and the reality that is around and offering the best services at affordable prices. It is a combination of fresh bakery products with supplementary services like coffee, tea, fresh juice, etc.

A fresh bakery concept can be interesting to business people, who want to diversify their routine lives, families, the members of which want to enjoy the quality of food, and even single people, who are able to feel a kind of family support among the workers of the shop.

Concept as an Opportunity

The peculiar feature of the chosen concept is to prove that bakery is not just the sphere for people to work in. It is an opportunity for different people to create something new, special, and tasty. The idea to create a bakery shop with a number of services offered to people is not random. It is developed on the basis of a number of suggestions and opportunities.

First, it is a chance to start cooperating with different stores to deliver the products to and to buy the products for work. Second, it is an opportunity to use the services of independent farmers and rely on their natural products and quality.

Finally, a properly advertised bakery shop with a good reputation is a chance to enlarge the sphere of services and open an online shop offering the products to people from different places and delivery them on good terms. With time, there should be an opportunity to create an attractive discount system that underlines the appreciation to regular customers.

To implement the offered ideas about the bakery shop, it is necessary to choose a good team of workers, the experts from different spheres. To start the chosen business, the following people are required:

• Two bakers to be responsible for the quality of products offered;
• Two people to serve the customers (one female and one male);
• Two managers to choose a building, organize the work, and consider the risks, etc.

The materials should not be all new because the task is to create a home-like atmosphere. It is possible for the chosen people to look for some interesting antique things at home.

Of course, some expendable material should be bought; therefore, it is necessary to take care of the funding details. To avoid any business relations misunderstandings, it is possible to make an agreement with a bank and discuss all conditions on their terms without any threats to a new business development.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, June 24). New Venture Business Plan. https://ivypanda.com/essays/new-venture-business-plan/

"New Venture Business Plan." IvyPanda , 24 June 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/new-venture-business-plan/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'New Venture Business Plan'. 24 June.

IvyPanda . 2019. "New Venture Business Plan." June 24, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/new-venture-business-plan/.

1. IvyPanda . "New Venture Business Plan." June 24, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/new-venture-business-plan/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "New Venture Business Plan." June 24, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/new-venture-business-plan/.

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Caa leaders outline ambitious expansion: an investment bank to fuel big deals.

Jim Burtson, Bob Stanley and M Klein's Michael Klein talk about their plan for the sports, media and entertainment boutique bank.

By Alex Weprin

Alex Weprin

Media & Business Writer

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There’s a lot of dealmaking to come in the entertainment, sports and media sectors over the coming years, and CAA wants to take a bigger slice of that pie.

On Monday, the Artemis-owned talent agency announced a new venture: CAA Evolution, an investment bank and advisory firm focused on sports, entertainment and media clients, one predicated on navigating a rapidly-evolving market for the sector.

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CAA president Jim Burtson, CAA Evolution CEO Bob Stanley, and M. Klein’s Michael Klein discussed their ambitions for the new venture in a joint interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Monday morning.

“What I like about this combination and this partnership is, this is an area where I would like to think we provide tremendous insight in what is an ever changing, ever more complicated sports and entertainment landscape,” CAA Burtson says. “In partnering with M. Klein and Michael, who I’ve known for a long time … We saw the opportunity to get the resources and scale and quality advice that would scale up the size of the clients that we could serve in the marketplace, and do that in a really efficient and potent way.”

EMC had a robust business mid-size companies in the space, like Jason Blum’s Blumhouse, and Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat, and Stanley says they expect that to continue to be a growth area for CAA Evolution.

“We sit in this place where we will continue to do this and you’re in an environment where the mid-cap production companies have a real opportunity to own IP and grow their businesses,” Stanley says. “So we’re going to continue to do that and I think we will do that successfully, and we will be able to do that with more scale based on the fact that our firm just doubled in size.”

“I think we’re going to continue to do what we do now great at scale, and help those companies build their businesses in this evolving content market,” Stanley adds. “But we’re also going to sort of move into a different I’d say, cap size or deal size, that Michael’s expertise is in, and help these sort of larger media companies figure out where the world’s going, because everything’s moving so quickly, and we sit in a place where I think we’ve got a really great perspective of where that’s going.”

Klein adds that the sports market in particular has seen explosive growth over the past few years.

“What is clear is the size and importance of the sports market has become multiple levels beyond where it was even a decade ago,” Klein says. “That means that the transactions require a different set of expertise. They require substantial access to multibillion dollar capital infusions, and they have substantial impact on the long term value of both the investors as well as sponsors, and also on the media outlets that have that content.”

“On the media side as Bob indicated, there’s such a transition today and so many parties, be they activist investors or others who see value in the shifting landscape, that we hope that we have the ability to use the great expertise that CAA has, and perhaps some of our skills to help add value to participants in that market,” he adds.

He tells THR that CAA Evolution is his first advisory business built around “a pure industry expertise.” Klein says he has known Burtson going to back to Burtson’s days as an executive at Time Warner, and with Stanley on both buy and sell-side transactions.

“First and foremost, CAA is unique and extraordinary as a partner,” Klein says.

CAA, of course, is in a moment of transition of its own. The agency sold a majority stake to Artemis, the investment fund controlled by luxury goods mogul François-Henri Pinault, in September.

CAA Evolution is arguably the company’s biggest strategic move since the acquisition, taking on established players in the media, entertainment and sports banking space like The Raine Group, and LionTree.

Of course, the market for M&A, IPOs and other investment banking services has cooled over the last year or so as interest rates have risen and concerns about the macroeconomy have simmered.

The executives say that they expect the pace of dealmaking to pick up across the sectors. “We think there’s gonna be a significant velocity of transactions” in the sports LP (limited partner) market, Stanley says.

As for the entertainment sector, “Historically, there were sort of numerous numerous middle-market production companies, and they sort of evaporated a little bit over time,” Stanley says. “So this is a time when we can help these these companies that we work with get bigger and own their rights, own their IP and create long term value through cash flows and library value effectively.”

“The value embedded in the content and the individuals is growing at rates in some cases that are substantially in excess of the value of the institutions that own them,” Klein adds. “And that generally reflects a mismatch that has to be addressed and adjusted, so I would take the view, as we’ve seen in many transforming industries, that there’s a significant undervaluation that will be recognized over time.”

And as the deals flow in, CAA Evolution thinks it can carve out its own piece of the sector.

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