Simple Business Plan Template – A Proven and Easy 10-Step Formula

Writing a plan dramatically increases your chances of success as an entrepreneur. This simple business plan template is an excellent tool to get you thinking about your business idea and help you describe the fundamentals of a business. This easy 10-Step formula covers the basics that any reader of a business plan will want to know to evaluate the business quickly and easily. There are a very few reasons why you would want to write a business plan. 1. To evaluate initial startup costs. 2. To establish the fundamental viability of a project 3. To define your products, services and customers and assess competitors. 4. To map out the business model, the goals and the strategy used to achieve them. 5. To communicate to others (banks, investors, partners, etc.) the business idea. A simple business plan can be written very quickly by just completing the following easy 10 step formula. 1.I am... Introduce yourself. Tell the reader of your business plan who you are, your background, education, professional experience, your successes to date. 2.My product or service is... Tell them what product or service is, what it does for the customer, any unique features or facets, how it is produced, etc. 3.My customers will be... Describe your target customers and why you have chosen to market to these customers. Use any back-up evidence from your experience, reports, white papers, market research, etc. 4.My customers will buy from my business because... Describe any unique selling points or advantages you have. Are you providing better value, guarantees, superior quality, reduced risk, better location, etc? 5.My customers will pay... Explain how much your customers will pay for each of the products or services you will provide. Describe any up-selling or cross-selling opportunities and how many times a customer will buy from you in a typical year. 6.I can make... Explain how many products you can produce or services you can provide in a typical year. Back this up with whatever evidence you have to support this. 7.To make each unit of product costs... Explain how much each unit of product costs to produce. If your business is a service business describe how much it costs to provide the service. 8.The start-up investment I require is... Detail how much start-up investment the business will require and what you require it for. 9.I have a viable business because Explain why your business is viable and what evidence you have to support this claim. This will require some market research to demonstrate there is a viable market for your product or service. 10.In summary... On a single page, list the main points of you plan in bullet point form. This is single most important part of your business plan. It will be read first by all readers of your business plan and will determine if they will read further and ultimately support you business idea or not. Write this summary last but put it at the front of you plan. Now that you drafted a simple business plan you are in a great position to assess the initial viability of a business at a very high level. You may want to consider fleshing out this simple business plan into a more standard, detailed business plan format before presenting it to potential investors, partners or banks. They will want to see some detailed financials also – Income Statement (Profit and Loss), Cashflow Statement and a Balance Sheet.