Use This Business Plan Format To Get Your Project Approved Fast

Learn the professional business plan format and get your small business idea approved with minimum effort.

We have put together a tried and tested format to act as your standard checklist, only requiring you to write missing details as may be required by the recipient of your business plan.

Remember, most plans are aimed at meeting the approval of different people outside the normal running of your business, such as your bank manager. Therefore, you need the business plan format that will effectively ‘sell’ your business idea.

The Way To Go

History And Background

If already in business, start by explaining the history of your business because a good business plan format has to demonstrate your experience or background to the intended recipient.

• It shows when you started trading and what progress you’ve made to date?


• Who may have owned the small business originally?


• Shows the current ownership structure?

A Case For The Business Idea

Describe what your product or service is. Avoid technical jargon if possible and as expected of a professional business plan format. This is because your recipient might miss understand your intentions.

• In general, explain what makes your business idea different?


• What benefits does your idea offer?


• What are its disadvantages or short comings?


• How are your planning on developing the idea further?

Out look on the Market, Demand and Competition

Give your projected market segments and competition reasonable coverage in your business plan format and show :

• How large each market segment is ?


• What your current market share is?


• What the important trends are, such as market growth or changing tastes in your business environment?
  Explain the reasons behind the trend.


• What the key drivers affecting each important market segment are?


• What the outlook for those drivers and the market is?

Describe the nature and distribution of your existing customers in your business plan format and explain.

• Whether they fit the profile of your chosen market segment. If not, explain why ?


• Whether you highly depend on any individual customers for the bulk of your sales.

Make an outline of your principal competitors and show.

• What their competing products or services are?

Who their products suppliers are?

• What are their product advantages and disadvantages compared to your own?
  For example, price, quality, distribution.


• Why will customers buy your products or services instead ?


• Never appear to overtly criticise or underestimate your competitors in a professional business plan format.

Making your case on the competition

Start by identifying and then show what makes you better than the competition. Think also about what the key ingredients of your future success will be and how you will strengthen your position in the existing market.

Establish your overall business aims — and show where you realistically intend to be in three years’ time.

Decide on at least half a dozen objectives, each of which will make a significant difference to the future of your business.

Define clear targets for these — so your business plan format shows exactly what you want to achieve, and by when.

Marketing and Sales

In this section of the plan, you usually address five major scenarios.

First, explain where you position your product or service in the market place.

• Is it high quality and high price?


• Is it marketed as a specialist product due to a particular feature?


• What unique selling features does it have?


• Which of these features are you going to concentrate on?

Secondly, show your pricing policy in the business plan format

• Explaining how price-sensitive your products are.


• Looking at each product or market segment in turn.

Identifying where you make most profits and where there is scope to increase margins or sales.

Thirdly, show how you are promoting your products or services

Each market segment will have one or two optimum methods. For example, direct marketing, advertising or PR.

• If you are considering using a new method, start on a small scale.

Forth, show how you reach your end users or customers in the business plan format

• By Comparing your current channels with the alternatives.


• Noting the distribution channels used by your competitors.


• Looking at the positive and negative trends in your chosen distribution channel.

Fifth, show how you do your selling

Analyse the cost efficiency of each of your selling methods. For example, telesales, a direct sales force, through an agent or over the Internet.

• Include all the hidden costs of the direct sales force, such as management time.

Management and Personnel

At this stage in your business plan format, set out the structure and key skills of the management team and the staff.

Identify any areas of deficiency, and your plans to cover these weakness.

• Explaining your recruitment and training plan, including timescales and costs.

Where applicable, analyzing the workforce in terms of total numbers and by department.

Compare the efficiency ratios with competitors, or with similar industries.

• Useful figures here might be sales, average salaries, employee retention rates and measures of productivity.

Be realistic about the commitment and motivation of your workforce. Consider how you would survive the loss of a key worker.

Effectiveness of Current business Operations

Analyse the capacity and efficiency of your operations, and show in your business plan format how you plan to improve.

• Describing the premises your business has.


• Disclosing any long-term commitments to the property.


• Highlighting any advantages and disadvantages of the present location.


• Explaining if the business should expand or move.

Where relevant, talk about the production facilities you have and explain how you organize production.

• Explain how modern your production equipment is


• The capacity of your current facilities compared with existing and forecast demand.

Management Information Systems

What management information systems are in place?

• Are they reliable?


• Can they cater for any proposed expansion?

A financier would be very concerned if your management information systems were inadequate. Your business plan format needs to shows how management of your small business has greatly improved because of the quality of information available.

Information technology (IT) is a key strength (or weakness) of almost any business these days. The reliability of your IT and the development of IT systems to help your business are usually important issues.

You may identify any quality or regulatory standards that the business must conform to (eg ISO 9000 or CE approval).

Financial Performance

Your financial forecasts translate what you have said about your business into numbers. Set out the historical financial information for the last three to five years, if available in your business plan format.

• Break total sales figures down into component parts.

• Show the gross margin for each component of sales. List what costs are included as direct costs for each component.


• Show the movement in the key working capital items of stock, trade debtors and creditors.

Use ratios such as stock turnover (in months), debtors period (in days), and creditors period (in days).

• Highlight any major capital expenditure made in the period.


• Provide an up-to-date balance sheet, and a profit and loss account.

Explain the reasons for the movements in profitability, working capital and cashflow. Compare them with industry norms.

Provide financial forecasts in your business plan format for the next three (or even five) years.

• The sophistication of your forecasts should reflect the sophistication of your business. A small business may only need profit and loss, sales and cashflow statements.

  A more complex asset-based business — or one with complex working capital requirements — will need balance sheet forecasts as well.

• Use the same format as for the historical information, in order to aid comparisons.
• Clearly state the assumptions behind the forecasts. These should tie in with statements in the rest of your business plan format.

For example, if your plan states that the market is becoming more competitive, then your profit margins should probably be falling.

• Look at the overall trends of the historical and forecast numbers. Are they believable?


• Have you made an allowance for the possibility of problems and delays in your forecasts?

• If you are raising finance, use the cashflow forecast to predict your cash requirements in the business plan format.
• Add a contingency element on to the funding requirement shown in the forecast. (This is often 10 to 20 per cent.) Consider what the mid-month peaks might be.
• Include the likely interest or dividend costs of any new finance.
• Carry out sensitivity tests on the cash required by reducing key items, such as sales or margin. Note the outcomes.
• State why you need the cash.

SWOT Analysis

Conclude by setting out a one-page analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats as a part of your business plan format.

• Strengths might include brand name, quality of product, or management.


• Weaknesses might be lack of finance, or dependency on a few customers.


• Opportunities might be increasing demand or a competitor going bust.


• Threats might be a downturn in the economy or a new competitor.

Be honest about your weaknesses and the threats you face.

• Spell out any mitigating circumstances and the defensive actions you are taking to have a complete professional business plan.

Writing business plans can be quite complex and stressing depending on how complex your business operations are.

You will most likely need the input of a professional accountant to get your business plan format right. You maycontact us for further assistance.

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