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A business plan is a formal statement of business goals, reasons they are attainable, and plans for reaching them. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.

Business plans may target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, taxpayer, or larger community. When the existing business is to assume a major change or when planning a new venture, a 3 to 5 year business plan is required, since investors will look for their investment return in that timeframe.

Business plans may be internally or externally focused. Externally focused plans target goals that are important to external stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. They typically have detailed information about the organization or team attempting to reach the goals. With for-profit entities, external stakeholders include investors and customers. External stake-holders of non-profits include donors and the clients of the non-profit’s services. For government agencies, external stakeholders include tax-payers, higher-level government agencies, and international lending bodies such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, various economic agencies of the United Nations, and development banks.

Internally focused business plans target intermediate goals required to reach the external goals. They may cover the development of a new product, a new service, a new IT system, a restructuring of finance, the refurbishing of a factory or a restructuring of the organization. An internal business plan is often developed in conjunction with a balanced scorecard or a list of critical success factors. This allows success of the plan to be measured using non-financial measures. Business plans that identify and target internal goals, but provide only general guidance on how they will be met are called strategic plans.

Operational plans describe the goals of an internal organization, working group or department. Project plans, sometimes known as project frameworks, describe the goals of a particular project. They may also address the project’s place within the organization’s larger strategic goals.

Business plans are decision-making tools. The content and format of the business plan is determined by the goals and audience. For example, a business plan for a non-profit might discuss the fit between the business plan and the organization’s mission. Banks are quite concerned about defaults, so a business plan for a bank loan will build a convincing case for the organization’s ability to repay the loan. Venture capitalists are primarily concerned about initial investment, feasibility, and exit valuation. A business plan for a project requiring equity financing will need to explain why current resources, upcoming growth opportunities, and sustainable competitive advantage will lead to a high exit valuation.

Preparing a business plan draws on a wide range of knowledge from many different business disciplines: finance, human resource management, intellectual property management, supply chain management, operations management, and marketing, among others. It can be helpful to view the business plan as a collection of sub-plans, one for each of the main business disciplines.

Typical questions addressed by a business plan for a start up venture

What problem does the company’s product or service solve? What niche will it fill?
What is the company’s solution to the problem?
Who are the company’s customers, and how will the company market and sell its products to them?
What is the size of the market for this solution?
What is the business model for the business (how will it make money)?
Who are the competitors and how will the company maintain a competitive advantage?
How does the company plan to manage its operations as it grows?
Who will run the company and what makes them qualified to do so?
What are the risks and threats confronting the business, and what can be done to mitigate them?
What are the company’s capital and resource requirements?
What are the company’s historical and projected financial statements?

Attributes:

Fully Editable In Design Template
Compatible (CS4, CS5, CS6, CC )
Clean Design for your Business Plan
RGB – Page Transitions Ready (Export as Interactive PDF)
Single Page Layout for sections
White Page Border for easy Binding!

Included sections:

Executive Summary
General Company Description
Products and Services
Marketing Plan
Operational Plan
Management and Organization
Personal Financial Statement
Startup Expenses and Capitalization
Financial Plan
Appendices

Contents:

.INDD file (compatible with Adobe InDesign CC)
.IDML file (compatible with Adobe InDesign CS4)
.PDF Preview file

Other Notes:

Mockups and images are not included & are used for preview purposes only

How to backwards save InDesign files and open them in previous versions.

Open the .idml file included in itms folder. ( Note: .idml files are compatible with InDesign CS4 and later.)
Save as .indd with your version of inDesign. Now you are ready to edit this template.

Tags: Business, Plan, Digital, Template