Template of a Business Plan
Before diving into the business plan template, first, we should know what a business plan is or what is an effective business plan? So, a business plan is a detailed step by step guide which indicates goals and the detailed process of achieving those goals. Or how the business is going to work and what all steps will be taken to make it a success.
Now, what all things should be included in a Business Plan template word? People can find simple and free business plan templates on internet as there are several available. They can be in several formats such as word document, PowerPoint, .odt and many more.
Well, there are several steps that need to be taken care while preparing a detailed Business plan, so a complex or simple Business plan template word includes:
1. Business and Objectives
Firstly, a business plan template word contains what your business is and what kind of products and services that the business is going to offer. And then think about its short, medium and long term objectives. If you have decided to take a start-up loan then think wisely how you are going to use it to make the most of it and how it will help you in achieving your objectives.
2. Skills and Experience
A business plan template word includes the skills and experience of people involved in starting a business as it will give a clear picture about the relevance if it is relevant to the business or not. Business plan template word also includes the gap between the skills, education, or experience and explains the proper justification of it as well.
3. Target Customers
The most imperative step in a business plan template word is to think about the target audience. Age, gender, location, type, and income, all these things should be taken into consideration to set a target of potential customers for a particular financial year. Customers’ feedback and needs should be given priority in order to achieve desired results and to take the business to the next level.
4. Market and competition
This step involves extensive research on market, which includes the region, industry, customers and competitors that can be organized in several ways such as questionnaires, surveys, interviews, testing and many more.
5. Sales and Marketing Plan
This step in business plan template word includes all strategies and plans that will be taken to promote the business like broachers, offline and online advertising, leaflets, exhibitions, social media etc. Along with these marketing plans, one must jot down the top promotional activities and their outcomes in order to find out how effective they are in meeting the business objectives.
6. Operational Plans
It includes the information of key suppliers or relationships that are highly entailed in the execution of the business. It also includes the detailed information of the recruitment of staff for the business like the current status of employees and how many more is required to employ currently or in the next 12 months. Along with this information, venue, rules and regulations or insurance is required to be in place for the business.
7. Back-up Plan
In business plan templates, it is the most critical stage for any business to run successful or if it is not running as per the plan, there should be a back-up plan for the repayment of loans that has been taken for running the business in case of any mishap happens or for any unexpected event occurs.
Free Template
It becomes arduous for every business to create business plan templates from scratch; therefore, some prefer to use free business plan templates that are available on the internet or on several websites in order to save their time and money. Certainly, creation of business plan template word consumes hell lot of time and it is no more than a nightmare for people. Therefore, people prefer to use free business plan templates for their business to save their endeavours. No doubt, business plan templates give a lot of information for the successful running of a business beforehand; however, it is not mandatory to start the plan from scratch. Several free business plan templates are available on web which provides you with a proven structure for your plan, which can be customized according to the ideas and strategies decided by you. Below are the comprehensive free business plan templates which can be downloaded for free to hit the ground running:
1. Score’s Free Business Plan Template for start-ups
It helps organizations and entrepreneurs to start their business hassle-free by providing free business plan templates. This free business plan template word helps people who are trying their hands in writing business plan for the very first time. Free Business Plan Template available as a PDF or as a word document with the continuation of 150 questions answered by people which are quite generic.
2. U.S. Small Business Administration-Free Business Plan Template/Engine
To download this free business plan template, one has to fill it online and then download as a PDF, which is in editable form. If you are not ready with the full-fledged information then there is no need to worry as it can be edited at any time. Though this free business plan template word is a long document, it can be broken into sections and fill this free business plan template as per your ease.
3. The $100 Startup’s One-page Free Business Plan Template
It is not every time necessary to have a long complicated business plan document for your business. Website $100 start-up helps in keeping these free business plan templates simplified and in stripped form for entrepreneurs. One can easily find this super simplify free business plan templates on this website.
4. LawDepot’s WYSIWYG Free Business Plan Template
This free business plan template helps you go through several stages of SDLC phase like marketing, product, SWOT, competitive analysis and many more, where you can fill in your business plan. One can get the downloaded copy of these free business plan templates; however, with the trial pack of subscription.
5. SME Toolkit for Free Business Plan Templates/ Samples
This is one of the free business plan templates that provides you two-page outline of business plan, where few imperative information must be listed like tax officials or authorities and minimum requirements of funders. This free business plan template word provides you with detailed information of each bulletin point at least one-paragraph explanation of each.
6. Office Online Free Business Plan Templates Galore
A lot of free business plan templates have been offered by Microsoft for office users. People can use these free business plan templates for their presentations if they do not intend to use word document. And then these free business plan templates can be customized according to the needs and requirements.
7. vFinance Inc. Free Business Plan Template and Guide
Free Business Plan templates have been provided here which consists of 30-page detailed information. This free business plan template word is pretty comprehensive and contains all plans which allure funders.
8. Invoiceberry Free Business Plan Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT
Few steps need to follow to get the downloaded copy of these free business plan templates. It offers free business plan templates in many formats such as .docx, .odt, .xlsx, .ppt. If anyone doesn’t bother to follow the pre-requisite steps then this must be a great deal for users to use these free business plan templates.
9. Santa Clara University’s My Own Business Institute Plans
This is an initiative started by Leavey School of Business where people can download free business plan templates individually. In addition to the free business plan templates, it offers several other useful resources that help business users to run their business effectively.
10. RocketLawyer’s Free Business Plan Templates by State
These free business plan templates allows you to choose your state before downloading it. One can download the free business plan template word when he/she is ready with their business plans. These plans have been designed to meet the financial requirements in your state by using these free business plan templates.
Simple template for business plan
Simple Business Plan Template word is the one which is simple and intuitive. Simple Business Plan contains a set of steps which is quite self-explanatory and easy to fill.
Below are the steps that are required in creating a simple business plan template word:
1. Title Page
This is the first page of a simple business plan template word which contains information like name, address, phone, email and website of the business.
2. Table of Contents
It contains the headings of the sections that are going to describe in this simple business plan template word.
3. Executive Summary
This is the first step for creating any simple business plan template word. Simple business plan template word includes few questions like what and why there is need of new business, products, and services that are going to offer to customers and many more.
4. Business/ Industry Overview
This step in simple business plan template word includes the overall trend and nature of the industry, sales and statistics, cultural and governmental influences.
5. Market Analysis and the Competition
In this step of simple business plan template word, thorough analysis of target market is required to determine whether there is sufficient demand for the products and services are there to make the business feasible.
6. Sales and Marketing Plan
This step of simple business plan template word includes how to attract customers which persuade them to buy products and services. Advertisement, broachers, leaflets play a great role in making it successful. Simple business plan template describes how these services benefit customers in terms of pricing, sales and distribution. Advertising and Promotion plays an important role in simple business plan template word where products are advertised in order to reach the target audience.
7. Ownership and Management Plan
In this simple business plan template word, ownership, management and staffing information is filled where the information about how much staff is required to run a business is mentioned. Simple business plan template contains legal information about the owners and their percentage, description of managers and their roles and the list of external resources are there which are required to run a business.
8. Operating Plan
This step in Simple business plan template word includes the physical location for running a business such as equipment, office, warehouse, labour etc. As for running a business, these things should be kept in mind as it is not like home-based consulting business. Hence, simple business plan template word includes information from physical location to identifying the time taken for producing a single unit.
9. Financial Plan
This is the most important step in simple business plan template word where the details of finances have been discussed. This simple business plan template word lists and demonstrates all information about the growth and profitability of business. Income statements, cash flow projections, breakeven analysis and balance sheet, everything is there in simple business plan template word.
