If you're a founder like I used to be, your planning is probably going to be…more on the flexible side. 

Who has time for developing a long-winded business plan? One that will probably live in the depths of your laptop only to be brought out once a year when you write your annual report (although, if you’re raising capital, it might have slightly more air time). 

Further, who has time when you’ve got so much else on your plate, like building a product, system or service, or producing work for your ever-present clients?

Based on 20 + years of looking at business plans, I’ve established the only 5 sections you really need to include to give the business a strong direction. These key sections will probably even make you want to refer to your plan more than once a year!

Section 1: The Realities 

This section may be the most mundane, so best to get it laid out first. As vision-led as founders often are, a business is built in reality. This means you need evidence of clear market research and the validation of what you’re trying to do. 

As Malcolm Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine, aptly put it, “The best vision is insight.” 

That being said, you don’t want to spend all your time scoping the market when starting your business requires a strong bias to action.

Here’s the questions you need to answer, supported by market evidence, to write this section succinctly:

1. What are the problems our potential customers are facing?

2. How are they currently solving these problems? 

3. What, or are, users paying for a solution to these problems?

4. How many potential customers exist in the marketing we are targeting?

5. What are the key offerings of our competitors (direct and indirect), how will ours differ?

Section 2: The Expectations

This section is all about the assumptions you have about your market, customers and growth trajectory. This part is particularly fun to write. It’s about the vision, rather than just the plain facts. 

To make this section truly valuable, I advise you to develop surveys or interviews for potential customers, so you can back these expectations with some hard evidence. 

Once again, structure this section by answering key questions based on the evidence you uncovered while writing The Realities:

1. Who are our customer groups? What are their key demographics and interests?

2. Why will customers adopt what our business is providing? 

3. How much will they pay us for it? 

4. How much will we grow our customer base in 6 months, 1 year, 5 years?

Section 3: The Declarations

What if you were bold enough to suggest that when your business does X, Y will happen? 

This is exactly what I suggest you do in this section. It’s all about how you’re going to attack the market. 

These declarations are expected to be bold, they are the what you plan to attain rather than the how you will do it. This may seem counterintuitive, this is a business plan after all, but the thing is  - you’d be far better off keeping these declarations short and sharp to give you a clear sense of direction and then to use which would be more actionable in other places, such as your project management platform. 

Here’s how you’ll write this up:

1. List key business areas as headers - e.g. Product, Marketing, Software Development. 

2. Under those headers write at least 3 conditional declarations, e.g. If we consistently publish one weekly blog based on keyword research, our organic traffic will grow by 50 visitors month-on-month. 

3. Develop processes and tasks to fulfil these declarations on your project management platform, rather than outlining them all in your business plan (you can imagine that this would take hours, plus difficult to make directly actionable).

4. Finally, declare your unique value proposition statement. 

Section 4: The People 

This section requires you to think about the people involved with the business. It would also be useful to define the structure of your business here. 

1. Who are your people (directors, investors, shareholders, managers, team)? 

2. Who are the key decision makers? 

3. Who is managing, and what are they managing? 

4. Who do you still need to bring onboard?

5. What shared values and beliefs do you people have?  

Section 5: The Financial Fuel 

Financial resources shouldn’t be the platform on which your vision stands on, but often this is the reality. If you want to get up and running fast, you need a way to fund yourself. 

This section focuses on the commercial side of the business. It’s time to quantify the value chain of your business. You’ll need an Excel spreadsheet (or at least a calculator for this one). 

1. What financial resources will go into the business?

2. What financial targets will we achieve, and when? 

3. Where capital will be invested and what are the likely returns? 

To inform these answers you would be sensible to support it with a break-even analysis, cash flow forecasts and profit/loss statements. 

Want to work through a business plan based on this template together? Let’s take this discussion a step further. I welcome you to book a free 45 minute call with me to discover how I can support, or to answer any questions you may have about this.