Business Plan Guidelines

Business Plan Format Checklist:The following Business Plan Format checklist is meant as a guideline only listing the sections of the business plan in the order in which they will likely appear in your completed business plan.

Download Business Plan Format Checklist (PDF, 167KB)

The Executive Summary:
While the Executive Summary appears first, this section of the business plan should be written last. It summarizes the key points of the entire business plan and must make sense as a "stand alone" document.

Products and Services:
The Products and Services section should describe what you sell and how you differentiate your products / services mix from other competitive offerings. It provides detail on what your business does and begins to describe how it will generate revenue.

Market Analysis:
The Market Analysis section will provide an overview of the industry that the business will be a part of, primary and secondary tarket markets and investigation of your direct and indirect competitors.

The Market Research: section provides a summary of all information you referred to in order to determine that there is a demand for your product/service.

The Industry Analysis: section will provide trends, major players in the industry, and estimated industry sales. 

The Customer Analysis: section will examine the primary and secondary target markets for the product or service, including geographic location, demographics, target market's needs and how these needs are currently being met.

The Competitor Analysis: section will investigate the business's direct and indirect competitors, assessing the business's competitive advantage and analysising how it will overcome any entry barriers to the chosen market.

Marketing Plan:
The Marketing Plan will explain how the business is going to get customers to buy its products and services. This section will provide a detailed explanation of the business's pricing, promotion and distribution strategies.

Management Plan:
An outline of your Management Plan includes your business's legal structure and management resources, including your internal management team, external management resources, and human resources needs.

Operating Plan:
The Operating Plan provides a description of your business's physical location, facilities and equipment, kinds of employees needed, inventory requirements and suppliers, and any other applicable operating details, such as a description of the manufacturing process. 

Financial Plan:
The Financial Plan includes pro-forma balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements.  The balance sheet compares what your business owns to what it owes.  The cash flow statement compares how much money will be coming in to how much you will be spending.  The income statement compares your revenues to your expenses to see if you are going to make money.

Risk & Contingency Plan:
Your Risk & Contingency Plan should discuss possible challenges, issues, barriers that your business may encounter. These can be external (i.e. economic downturn) or internal (i.e. less than projected sales). State positive plans to minimize these risks.

Appendices:
The Appendices section should include any supporting material that you have referenced in writing your business plan. These materials may include a summary of market research surveys, contracts, price lists, detailed or technical information on your product/service, owners’ resumes, etc.