WRITING THE
BUSINESS PLAN
Sections in a Business Plan:
1. Cover Page
2. Table of Contents
3. Business Overview
a. Executive Summary
b. Mission Statement
c. History of Business Idea
4. Market Research
a. Customer Profile
b. Study of Competition
c. SWOT Analysis
d. Marketing Mix -The 4 Ps
e. Survey f. Market Size
5. Management and Operations, Suppliers and
Resources
a. Legal Status of Business
b. Resources
c. Suppliers
d. Management Structure
6. Financial Plan
a. Cash Flow Forecast
b. Start-up Costs and
c. Sources of Funding
d. Forecast Notes
7. Appendices
a. Resume
b. Logo Sample
c. Advertisement Sample
d. Survey Sample
WRITING THE
BUSINESS PLAN
Entrepreneurship 110 Business Plan Overview
1. Cover Page
2. Table of Contents
3. Business Overview
a. Executive Summary
i. Name, Business name, Business location
ii. Legal form of business
iii. Advantages of your business
iv. Challenges
b. Mission Statement
c. History of the idea?
d. What is the plan for the future of the business?
4. Market Research:
 Customer Profile, Target market Demographics
 Industry Analysis, (tends & growth), Competition
 SWOT Analysis
 Marketing Mix – 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion)
 Market Survey
 Market Size and potential
5. Management and Operations, Suppliers and Resources Section:
a. Identify who will have what roles and responsibilities in the business.
b. Explain structure if a partnership, Silent partners, or investors.
b. Identify each place where you will obtain the supplies needed to produce your product
or service. Each should include:
c. Company name
d. Address
e. What exactly they will provide your company with
6. Financial Section
a. Financial Goal; You must know your Market Share to complete this section.
How much of the total market do you expect to attract?
b. Start Up Costs/Sources of Funding
c. Cash Flow Forecast/Notes
d. Balance Sheet
e. Income Statement
7. Appendix
a. Resume
b. A copy/sample of the survey that you used for your Marketing Research (not a
completed survey).
c. A sample of the advertising that you will use (i.e., a flyer, business card)
d. A sample of your logo.
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Formatting:
All parts of the Business Plan must be typed.
All parts of the Business Plan must be neat and properly formatted.
All sections must start on a new page.
Page numbers should not start until the page containing the “Executive
Summary” with that page being number 1.
Only use “Times New Roman” font, sized 12.
WRITING THE
BUSINESS PLAN
Entrepreneurship Final Business Plan Rubric
Name:____________________________________
Mark:_________/100
1) Cover Page
/1
2) Table of Contents
/3
3) Business Overview
Executive Summary (Business name, form, location, advantages, challenges)
Mission Statement
History of Business Idea
/8
/3
/3
4) Market Research
Customer Profile (Analysis of Target Market)
Competition (list and analyze each competitor)
SWOT Analysis of Business Idea
Marketing Mix (4Ps) (Pricing Strategy, Place, Promotion, Product/service)
Survey
Market Size (Use the formula and explanation to prove your market size)
/5
/5
/10
/10
/3
/3
5) Management and Operations Suppliers and Resources
Legal Status of Business (as well as location, materials, and supplies)
Resources: Personnel Required, Suppliers
Management structure:
/5
/5
/5
6) Financial Plan
Startup Costs (explanation paragraph and excel sheet)
Sources of Funding (explanation paragraph and excel sheet)
Cash Flow Forecast (explanation paragraph and excel sheet)
Cash Flow Notes (explanation paragraph for above sheet. Where do the numbers come from)
/3
/3
/4
/3
7) Formatting, Grammar, Sentence Structure, and word choice
/10
8) Appendices
Resume, Logo Sample, Advertisement Sample, Survey Sample
& Competition participation
/8
Bonus Points (explained below)
Teacher Comments:
____/100
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Bonus points: Confidentiality statement, …
WRITING THE
BUSINESS PLAN
Table of Contents
Business Overview Page
Executive Summary
Mission Statement
History of the Idea
Future Plans
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Management and Operations, Suppliers and Resources
Roles and Responsibilities
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Employee Flow Chart
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List of Suppliers
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Financial Plan Page
Start-up Costs
Sources of Funding
Cash Flow spread sheet
Cash Flow Notes
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Appendix
Resume
Market Research Survey
Flyer Example
Business Logo
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Market Research Page
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Customer Profile
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Competition
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S.W.O.T Analysis
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Marketing Mix (4Ps)
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Survey
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Market Size (calculations and Stats)
WRITING THE
BUSINESS PLAN
Cover Page and Table of Contents Section
Cover Page and Table of Contents should look like this.
Table of Contents
CONFIDENTIAL
1.
2.
“Business Name”
Business Plan
Business Owners:
“your name”
3.
4.
5.
Submitted to:
Mr. Mulligan
Date
6.
Business Overview
. . . . .
Marketing Mix
. . . . .
Product
. . . . .
Price
. . . . .
Promotion
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Place
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Market Research
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Customer Profile
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Competition
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S.W.O.T Analysis
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Management and Operations &Suppliers
Financial Plan
. . . . .
Start-up Costs
. . . . .
Sources of Funding
. . . . .
Cash Flow Forecast Sheet
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Cash Flow Notes
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Appendix – Logos/ Survey/ Slogans . .
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Formatting;
The Business Plan should be written in third person. Meaning, if your are Kristie, the plan should
read “Kristie will be leading the production process and Karl in charge of sales…”.
Use Times New Roman 12pt font and keep the titles for each section the same 14pt Bold centered.
Each section is a new page. Be sure to title the excel chart pages and properly label your charts,
within the chart doc. Number the pages and have them match the table of contents.
Any logos, resumes, questionnaires results, or any other ideas or helpful additions to your plan are
included in the Appendix at the end. These are all marked as bonus marks.
WRITING THE
BUSINESS PLAN
Business Overview Section
Your Page 1 -Business Overview –
(this is the first page of your plan, after your table of contents and should contain the following)
1. Executive Summary“-Executive Summary is a one paragraph summary” location, idea, how
you will make money?
The following is an Example of an Executive Summary;
Pet Grandma offers on-site pet sitting services for dogs and cats, providing the personal loving pet
care that the owners themselves would provide if they were there. Our clients are dog and cat owners
who choose to leave their pets at home when they travel or who want their pets to have company
when their owners are at work. Our business will be a general partnership with both owners sharing
equally in ownership responsibilities. Pet Grandma will be located at 123 Sewell Street on
Fredericton’s north side on the property of one of the owners. There is a great opportunity for our
business to be successful as market research shows that 9 out of 10 pet owners polled in Fredericton
would prefer to have their pets cared for by another person when they are absent. Also, our target
market has grown significantly over the past three years with the number of pet owners rising from
200 to 8000. The biggest challenge faced by our business will be capturing market shares from our
well-established competition that already exists in the city, including on the north side.
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Please remember that your Executive Summary must contain:
your business name
the legal form of business
the location of business
2 advantages of your business (or two things that will help to make your business successful)
1 challenge faced by your business (or one thing that might stand in the way of your business
being successful)
2. Mission Statement- speaks a bit of who you are, your target market and or your product or
what you are best at.
JONES SODA- Run with the little guy... create some change.
Nike-"To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world."
To refresh the world...
Coca-Cola corporation-“To inspire moments of optimism and happiness...
To create value and make a difference."
3. History- how it all came together, my idea and my inspiration.
WRITING THE
BUSINESS PLAN
The “Market Research” Section
1.
2.
3.
4.
Create a New Folder
in your Student folder and name it “Business Plan”
In the folder make another folder called “Market Research”
In a Word document you will build 6 documents for the Market Research folder.
Your Market Research will answer the following:
A. Customer Profile – who is my target market?
i. Where do my customers live?
ii. What is their demographic makeup? (age, education, gender, etc)
iii. How many are there? (use statistics where possible)
iv. What makes them tick? (what are their likes and dislikes, tastes etc.)
v. Why will they buy your product/service?
B. Competition – Identify three or four of your competitors
Provide the following information about each competitor:
i. Describe what they offer your target market
ii. Describe overwhelming strengths and weaknesses held by the competition.
iii. Explain what you will do better than the competition.
(you can use a chart or table if you choose, like the one below)
Competitors
What they do well
How I can Compete
Competitor 1
Competitor 2
Competitor 3
C. The S.W.O.T analysis. Remember this is a detailed reflection, study of your plan
with my completion in mind. As well as objective comments from peers. Be open
with weaknesses and threats. And positive about the strengths and opportunities.
D. Marketing Mix, my 4 P’s. [Product, Price, Promotion, Place] This is a careful
analysis about the price choices; will I come in under or over my competition?
There are good reasons to be over. Where will my venture be? Virtual? Or a
physical location. Where will my customers find me? You must be easily
accessible. How will I promote my product or service?
E. My questionnaire/Survey. How will I get feedback to find out if there is a real
market for my product? I need to convince the bank and investors there is a
market. There are customers out there willing to buy.
F. Market Size. Use the simple formula;
# of people in my target market X $ amount they are spending on this product or
service. (you will need to use imagination/creativity, some)
Then you want to ask yourself, how much of this market can I expect to
capture with my product or service? (This is a percentage%)
WRITING THE
BUSINESS PLAN
Operations, Management, and Suppliers Section
Type of Business:
What is the structure of your organization? Sole proprietorship, Partnership, Corporation, Not-forprofit or Franchise? Following this give a short explainatio how your business will function, how
your structure, management style will work, how the business will flow? Especially if your structure
is a limited partnership, general with different roles etc.
Operations
If you are selling items you produce, what is your production schedule? (timelines)
As orders come in?
How will orders be filled?
How will you assure quality service?
Resources/Suppliers
Where will my supplies come from, who are my wholesalers? This is important for my financial
statements. Think of EVERY item you will need to run your business and where you will find it for
the best price. Lease, rent, buy? (research SYSCO Foods and GFS and sites like www.alibaba.com )
Management
Give a brief summary of everyone who is part of your management team. Write one paragraph for
each member of the Management team including you. What are each of your roles /titles in the
business? (Sales, production, finance, marketing, employees and training etc.) A chart is a great
addition to this section.
WRITING THE
BUSINESS PLAN
Financial Plan Section
A. Cash Flow Forecast – This is a prediction to determine if your prices, sales projections and
costs of operating will return a profit. Use the excel doc. provided in the wiki site. There are
more categories than you need, so delete lines that do not apply.
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb.
Mar
TOTAL
CASH RECIEPTS
Here is where you forecast all money in
TOTAL
CASH DISBURSEMENT
Here is where you show all money out
TOTAL
SURPLUS
DEFICIT
CUMULATIVE
B Start-Up Costs –also has a table, delete lines that do not apply. Think this table over
carefully, do not miss equipment, fees, or anything that cost money, that you need to start this
business. See the many suggestions in the excel. File.
Start-Up Cost
Item
Cost
Total
C Sources of Funding- When you have determined how much money you will need to start
the business, you now have a good idea how much you need to raise. This is a chart to show
where you are going to get the money. A good plan shows diversity. This means show several
sources, don’t just go to the “bank” Show your personal investments, ‘love’ money, Angel
investors, and gov’t grants.
Sources of Funding
Source
Amount
Total
WRITING THE
BUSINESS PLAN
WRITING THE
BUSINESS PLAN
Appendices Section
Resume
Provide a professional resume which will show success with operating a business
(If you need help with this consult the assignments section of my Coop wiki page)
Logos
Provide a sample of your logo and slogan
Advertising
Provide a sample of an advertisement
Survey
Provide a sample of a survey you used to find your target market
(proof people will buy your product).
Logos and Slogans What makes a logo successful?
A logo is a defining source of identity for most companies, therefore it must be
powerful and memorable. A logo can enhance a company's image and give it an advantage over it's
competition.
Simplicity. A simple logo communicates a message clearly and provides the best solution for reproduction and
readability. Often times a simple logo is easier to recognize than one that is complex.
Memorable & engaging. Distinctive features are necessary to create a logo that is memorable. By creating a
visual statement you can engage the audience.
Practice:
5 Tips For Writing a Successful Slogan
1. Give them a rhythm, rhyme, and ring.
2. Highlight a key benefit.
3. Explain the company's commitment.
4. Stay honest.
5. Keep it short.
Practice: