The definition of a business plan is that it is a written presentation with the purpose to explain the business, its management team, its products or services and its goals, together with clear strategies to obtain those goals. There are several good reasons to create a business plan, the main one being to obtain funding. The Business plan is considered to be a vital sales tool to attract investors, and therefore we have included a whole section that is devoted to the financial plan, plus downloadable financial plan documents which can be modified to accurately represent your business.

Another very important reason for creating a business plan is to organise your thoughts around the new venture, and to think about each aspect of your new business in detail. You want to be certain that the idea is viable and that it has the potential to be profitable. Following the guidelines of a business plan template will oblige the entrepreneur to consider aspects of the business that might have been overlooked in the initial idea conception.

Other important aspects of the Business Plan include: The Executive Summary; Products and/or Services Plan; Marketing Plan; Operations plan; Management plan and the already mentioned Financial Plan.

Have a look at our business plan samples for inspiration.

A great guideline to keep in mind when working on your business plan, it that it should be unique and therefore you don't need to worry about keeping to a specific format. The different sections of the business plan samples have been selected to try and describe all the aspects of a business as thoroughly as possible, but it is still just a guideline.