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9 Stunning Sales Business Plan Templates to Close Deals

Written by: Orana Velarde

When sales and marketing teams work together, amazing things can happen for a business. Take, for example, the creation of an integral sales business plan that covers not only the goals the team aspires to but also all the data to support the actions, timelines, roadmaps and org charts.

Your business plan for sales and marketing activities is the guideline by which both teams undertake their tasks, aiming for a common goal. Creating a sales business plan collaboratively can help the teams see the big picture faster and be ready for any eventuality along the way.

In this guide, we will share nine business plan templates to help you build the perfect plan for your teams to work with. Share it digitally with your sales and marketing teams; they will be more productive and close more deals.

Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

What is a sales business plan, what is the sales business planning process, what goes in a sales business plan template, 9 business sales plan templates, sales plan faqs.

• A sales business plan is a document that outlines the goals, strategies and tactics of a company’s sales department, including current state and future plans.
• The sales business planning process includes figuring out the scope, organizing the team and assigning roles, collecting critical information in a centralized location, setting up branded templates, customizing the templates and collaborating with the team to finalize the document.
• The five different types of strategic sales planning are goal-oriented planning, account-based planning, product planning, relationship planning and sales process planning.
• Explore the nine templates provided according to sales business plan examples and choose the one that matches your sales goals.
• Sign up for Visme to create your sales business plans and all your sales and marketing collateral without needing any design skills.

A sales business plan—sales plan for short—is a document or presentation that defines the strategies your team will undertake to close deals, retain clients and bring in new leads. With a business plan , sales are contrastingly better overall.

Each section defines the steps toward hitting milestones and achieving goals. It lays a forecast for all activities that have to do with selling and hitting sales targets. The team members who benefit the most from a sales business plan are the sales reps and marketing strategists. It gives them all a vision of the big picture, a mission to aim for and a roadmap to achieving the goal.

Overall, a well-crafted sales business plan is crucial for optimizing the sales cycle and achieving success in the competitive world of sales.

To create a business plan for sales activities, follow an industry-standard format and add your team's unique content plus the company’s branded elements. Build a sales action plan based on your strategies and goals, backed up by your chosen sales plan template .

Here’s the path to take:

1. Figure out the scope

First, you need to know the scope of possibilities for the sales business plan you’re working on.

To figure this out, you need to answer these questions:

• What do you intend to cover in your sales plan?
• What aspects of the business will the sales plan cover?
• How far can this plan take you?
• Will it span weeks, months, a quarter, or an entire year?
• How many people will need to work together from how many teams?

This is the perfect opportunity to use mind maps . Visualizing your scope with mind maps makes it easy for you to organize the information and communicate it with everyone. And if you want to gather ideas from your sales team, brainstorming is the way to go.

Read this article to learn how to maximize your brainstorming meetings using online whiteboards.

Brainstorm the sales plan with your team using Visme’s infinite whiteboard . Our infinite whiteboard supports real-time collaboration and has more than enough space for you to lay out all the information.

Once you’ve mapped out your scope, create an outline for the overall plan. The outline will be the foundation for the pages and sections in your sales business plan. The next section, “What goes in a business plan” includes a list of essential sections that will help create a business plan for sales.

2. Organize the team and roles within the team

Part of the planning includes organizing a group of people who will work together to meet the goals laid out in the plan. Create a branded org chart visualizing team roles and responsibilities. Include this chart on a page in your sales plan; make it part of the process.

Using hotspots and hyperlinks, connect each team member's photo to their task list on monday.com or your favorite productivity platform.

Do you need more people to achieve the goals you’re pitching? Use this template to assign roles and tasks to team members.

3. Collect all information, analysis and data in one digital location.

No plan gets anywhere without data. Research, analysis, and investigation are your best friends at this point. Collect all the data you need and organize it in an accessible way. This will help immensely when building the sales plan .

Gather raw data about your current sales activities and performance, competitors, user persona, target market, industry analysis and more. Keep all visual documentation and relevant research samples inside a folder in your Visme workspace and name it accordingly.

Give access to those folders only to people involved in the project. The permission settings are in the brand controls for your workspace.

When you take advantage of the workspace organization features in your Visme account, you can plan your team's activity productively.

4. Set up a branded template

Are you regularly creating the same document more than once to share with different people? Branded templates are your secret weapon for any visual asset creation task. It saves time and serves as the guideline for all future versions of that document.

Applying your brand to industry templates is simple. First, pick one of our professionally designed templates, and then use our intuitive editor to change the color scheme, fonts and other design elements. You can also create a master layout to control fonts and logo placements.

Better yet, try Visme's Brand Wizard feature . Input your website URL and follow the steps. In the end, you’ll have a full set of templates with your brand colors and fonts.

5. Create each page in the document/slide in the deck

Transfer content from the outline to the document, section by section. Analyze and customize the visualization of each slide or page so it's optimized for the story you will tell. Yes, even sales plans can use storytelling techniques to be functional and effective. It’s the single most important communication tool in your arsenal.

Customize the sections, pages and slides with all the design elements available inside your Visme editor. Tap into all the interactive features to create an interactive sales business plan experience or make your digital PDF more engaging.

Take note of all the pages and slides as you create them to help you build the "table of contents" page. Use hyperlinking to let readers navigate the sales business plan however they wish.

6. Collaborate with the team

Involve the teams from the start. Task them with providing information or creating sections of the plan that pertain to their sector. Create the pages together, tag team members and leave comments to share information.

Ask managers for feedback through the Visme workspace; send them a live link to the project where they can leave notes and comments for edits.

Use a template to create an org chart that explains and details everyone’s role in the plan moving forward. When you make the process, plan and action collaborative, the team culture is strengthened. It’s a win-win in all directions.

7. Finalize and Share Your Plan

Take care of the last edits and proofread all the content. Double-check all image permissions and finalize all the layouts. Now that all the slides or pages are ready, it’s time to share and present the finished project. Use Presenter Studio to add a personalized message to the sales plan presentation, which is ideal for remote teams.

How do you wish to share the sales business plan with your team?

If there's any degree of interactivity in your plan, digital is the way to go. In the settings tab, publish your Visme project to the web and generate a live link to share with anyone you wish.

Download or share your sales business presentation as a video, a flip book, an interactive PDF or an interactive digital experience. All of these and more are possible with Visme.

There are templates, and then there are branded templates. A regular template has a color palette chosen by our designers for anyone to use. A branded template has all your company colors and fonts ready to fill up with content and finalize.

Here's a comprehensive list of the actual slides or pages in a sales business plan template. These apply to the document or presentation format of a top-down sales business plan.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

 Start with the stunning cover page, then follow up with an interactive table of contents and other pages such as:

• Executive summary. Summarize your company goals, sales objectives, revenue targets, and top-level strategies. This lays the foundation for the rest of your document.
• Business goals (SMART goals & KPIs). Provide clear goals that you'll use to guide your sales plan activities and resources. 
• Current sales performance.  Use data visualization to present an overview of your current sales performance. 
• Industry and market overview.  Provide actionable insights on data or trends to support your sales plan.
• Description of sales strategies and tactics.  Break down the sales techniques that will be used to execute your plan.
• Customer segments.  Define your customer persona , target audience or segmentation, answering the question, "Who do you plan to sell to."
• SWOT Analysis.  Take a look at your sales team or brand's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and potential threats. 
• Resources and team capabilities. Using the organizational chart , visualize the team roles and list resources to accomplish your goal.
• Timeframe for execution.  Provide an estimated timeframe you'll need to execute your sales plan. 
• Budget.  State how much you plan to spend or need to accommodate your sales plan's resources.  

Here’s the collection of sales business plan examples you’ve been looking for. They are available in different selling styles, covering an array of industries. Simply add your brand content with elements of storytelling to make it unforgettable.

If time is running out or you need a speedy start for your sales business plan, Visme's AI business plan generator can get it done in just a few minutes.

These business sales plans are a great starting point for sales managers looking for more templates to use with their team.

1. New Product Sales Plan

Plan the sales strategy for a new product with a new product sales plan template. Put together a strategy to promote the new product to existing clients and new prospects. Look at the data from previous campaigns and use it as the foundation for future product launches and sales plans.

The document-style sales business plan template below has all the pages you need to share information about the products, the goals, the KPIs to follow and the team in charge of getting it done. Finally, there are data pages for the budget and market analysis.

2. SaaS Sales Plan

SaaS companies need effective sales plans to grow their client base and increase quarterly revenue. A comprehensive sales plan for a SaaS company needs specific sections for each item and clear strategies for reaching team goals. Link to the materials the sales team will use, like sales playbooks and surveys .

This sales plan sample template, designed especially for SaaS companies, concentrates on the strengths, opportunities and unique selling points. The color blocks and data widgets offer a quick overview of the foundation, goals and team in charge of taking care of it.

Beyond creating a sales plan, you want to visualize your sales pipeline to see where your sales prospects are in the purchasing process.

3. 30-60-90-day Sales Plan

Maximize the efficiency of your sales team by utilizing this comprehensive sales action plan template. This 30 60 90 day sales plan example template is based on the idea of time. The strategies in the plan are laid out in three sections of one month each. Roadmaps have a timeframe, and there are three sets of goals. The purpose is to integrate new technology better or train a new sales rep into the team.

Get the most from your 30-60-90 sales business plan with the template below. Each page concentrates on the dedicated time period, explaining everything expected from the employee or the team.

4. Territory Sales Plan

Territory sales business plans are based on a specific geolocation or localization where the sales will occur. You need this type of sales plan if your company has client bases in different areas of the country or world. Culturally, each location can have different approaches and sales tactics. Use the dynamic fields feature to reuse territory sales presentations and easily change the location information.

Across nine pages in a purple color scheme, this territory sales plan is ready for your team’s detailed strategic planning. Create a document per location, or use interactivity to create hotspots that change the data or information according to the reader’s choice.

5. Business Development Sales Plan

Strategic business development can mean increasing client reach, improving business partnerships and many other business activities that increase revenue. Using this business development sales plan, your team can strategize different approaches to achieve positive goals.

In the business development sales plan template below, you’ll find all the graphic organizers to help your team see the big picture across different factors. Create timelines , Gantt charts and roadmaps to organize tasks and measure goals.

6. Market Expansion Sales Plan

Expanding the market is a large part of many sales strategies. And it also needs a solid sales business plan for the team and higher-ups to know what they can expect. To expand your target market efficiently, you’ll need to do a lot of research. All the data you collect goes on the pages of the market expansion sales plan in attractive data visualizations and infographic layouts.

Get inspired to set bold market expansion goals with this colorful and clean-cut template design. Each page has a specific function and purpose, and charts and data visualizations grace the pages without visual obstacles. This template is great for fast and easy information sharing.

7. Revenue-based Sales Plan

The name of this sales plan says it all. The entirety of this plan stems from revenue-how much there is, how much the company wants, and how to get it. These are ideal for sales teams that separate the big picture into actionable parts.

With the template below, your team can create an actionable sales plan that moves the needle forward. The angled leading lines on each page take the reader on a visual journey across goals and timelines to success. Part of the plan is to inspire the team members and stakeholders to believe in the process and work together.

8. Real Estate Sales Plan

In real estate, you’ll have to plan strategies for your agents and teams to follow together. Real estate agents must work with the marketing team to be on the same page about messaging, strategies and goals. With a sales plan, you can put it all together into one.

In this template, all the marketing, prospecting, and target market calculations work together to improve your sales strategies. Strategic planning can improve revenue for the agency, the agents, and the homeowners.

9. Sales Training Plan

New sales reps perform better when their onboarding and training are inspiring and motivating. Use this template to plan your training and onboarding strategies and create a better company culture. Instruct new hires in the systems and explain timelines of expected performance during the probation and orientation phase.

The choice of color palette and design elements is important for telling the story of your sales training plan. Cover both high and low levels of the sales process by training efficiently. Plan how to train and get results.

After personalizing your preferred sales business plan template, the next step is to download and share it with your team and stakeholders.

With Visme, you have complete freedom over how you use your documents. You can download the design in various formats, such as PDF, JPG, PNG, and HTML5, or share it online via email or a shareable link.

You can even publish your content anywhere on the internet by generating a snippet of code from the Visme app.

One of our satisfied customers, Sean, a Web Designer & Digital Marketing Specialist, has shared their positive experience with Visme's templates and sharing options.

Web Designer & Digital Marketing Specialist

Q. What Are the Different Types of Strategic Sales Planning?

As a sales leader, it is crucial to avoid poor planning, as it can result in missing up to 10% of annual sales opportunities . Your responsibility is to ensure that your company does not experience this setback.

To help you avoid this pitfall, here are five distinct approaches, each with its own unique flair.

1. Goal-Oriented Planning: This approach begins with setting ambitious yet achievable revenue targets, followed by reverse-engineering your sales process to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) necessary to reach those targets. Sales activities are then meticulously aligned with the overarching goals to create a cohesive roadmap to success.

2. Account Planning: It focuses on developing a comprehensive strategy for managing individual accounts. This type of planning involves researching the account, identifying key stakeholders, and creating a plan to engage with them. Account planning benefits businesses that rely on a small number of large accounts for their revenue.

3. Product Planning: Product planning involves the development of a strategy for selling a particular product or product line. This type of planning focuses on understanding the market for the product, identifying key features and benefits, and developing a plan for promoting and selling the product.

4. Relationship Planning: Relationship selling is a long-term approach focusing on building strong customer relationships. It involves understanding the customer's needs, building trust and providing ongoing support and value. This approach requires excellent communication skills, a customer-centric mindset and a commitment to delivering exceptional service.

5. Sales Process Planning: This involves developing a comprehensive plan for managing the sales process, from lead generation to closing the sale. This type of planning involves identifying the critical steps in the sales process, developing a plan for each step, and establishing metrics to measure the effectiveness of the process.

Q. How Do I Write a Sales Business Plan?

After learning about the various types of sales planning and their advantages, as well as the components of a sales business plan, it's time to delve into the process of drafting one. Let's explore some tips for writing a successful sales business plan.

• Define Your Sales Objectives: Start by defining your sales objectives. What are your revenue goals? What products or services do you want to sell? Who is your sales ICP ? Defining these objectives will help you create a clear roadmap for achieving your sales goals.
• Conduct a Market Analysis: Conduct a market analysis to identify opportunities and threats in the marketplace. Analyze your industry, competitors, and target audience. This will help you understand how to position your product or service in the market.
• I dentify Your Unique Selling Proposition: Identify your unique selling proposition (USP)—what makes your product or service different from your competitors? What are the benefits of your product or service? Understanding your USP will help you market and sell your product or service better.
• Develop a Sales Strategy: Develop a sales strategy that aligns with your sales objectives. This should include a plan for lead generation, lead qualification and the sales process. You can revisit the types of strategic sales planning sections to choose the one that fits your sales goals. Consider the sales channels you'll use, the sales team structure and the sales tools you'll need.
• Define Sales Metrics: Define sales metrics that will help you measure your progress toward achieving your sales objectives. This could include revenue, sales growth rate, conversion rate and customer acquisition cost.
• Develop a Sales Budget: Develop a sales budget that aligns with your sales strategy and objectives. This should include expenses related to lead generation, sales team compensation, sales tools, and marketing.
• Review and Refine: Review and refine your sales business plan regularly. This will help you stay on track toward achieving your sales goals and make adjustments as needed.

Additionally, you can read this article on creating a strategic sales plan to get more help writing your own sales business plan.

Create Your Sales Business Plan With Visme

Jumping right into a project isn’t always the best idea; you won’t be prepared for the obstacles and hurdles. Every layer of your sales stack should be potentially planned and brainstormed for optimal results.

This is where sales business plans come into play. With well-designed and personalized plans, you create meaningful connections with prospects, turning them into loyal clients.

Create an interactive sales business plan to engage your team in a shared journey toward a common goal. Designate roles and link them together in the sales plan and your productivity platform so everyone is always on track.

Visme has plenty of features to help you and your team close deal after deal. Not only can you create a sales business plan collaboratively, but you can also brainstorm, create other content, share it online, track performance and keep all assets organized within your workspace. Make your team more efficient at creating visual content at every level of your organization using our third-party integrations .

Ready to up your company's sales game and close more deals? Book a demo or sign up today to see how we can help your sales team succeed.

Easily put together winning sales business plans in Visme

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About the Author

Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com

How to Write the Products and Services Section of Your Plan

1 min. read

Updated January 3, 2024

A complete business plan describes what you sell: either products, services, or both. This section needs to be more than a simple list of what you provide. It should detail the problem you’re solving, the value you provide, how it compares to the competition, and logistical information like pricing and distribution.

Learn how to go beyond simple product or service descriptions and create a compelling narrative around what you intend to offer.

What to include in the products and services section

What you add to this section fully depends on how much information you need to include in order to fully describe your products and services. While you may end up not including everything, it will benefit your business to work through these common topics.

A description of the problem and your solution

Successful businesses solve a problem for their customers. They make their lives easier or fill an unmet need and you need to identify and effectively describe a pain point that you are solving.

Optional information to strengthen your product and services section

While not required, there are additional pieces of information about your product and service offerings that you may want to include. These can be especially valuable for convincing investors that you have a business worth investing in.

Demonstrate business traction

Traction is an early indication that customers are eager to buy what you’re selling. Early sales, pre-orders, sign-ups, or contracts are just a few ways you can prove your idea has merit.

Understand the importance of intellectual property

Do you have patents, copyrights, or trademarks? It may be valuable to mention them here. They can be further proof that your idea has merit and the legal standing to be successful.

Why is the products and services section important?

The products and services section of your business plan provides the chance to describe why you’re in business. This will range from specific product or service details, such as pricing information, to more personally driven elements like your mission statement.

The point is that you need to paint a convincing picture, both technical and sentimental, of what you offer, how it works, and why it’s valuable. It needs to be a section that stands on its own and that is fully supported by the other sections of your plan.

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Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software , a co-founder of Borland International, and a recognized expert in business planning. He has an MBA from Stanford and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. Today, Tim dedicates most of his time to blogging, teaching and evangelizing for business planning.

Table of Contents

• What to include
• Optional information
• Why is this section important?

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How to Create a Sales Plan: Tips, Examples & Free Sales Plan Template

Tactics and strategies are great. But when you create a sales plan, you set a clear path to success, with each step mapped out ahead of you.

The Internet is full of people who will tell you all about the success they’ve found from their strategies, whether it's personalizing a newsletter subject line or changing the color of the 'Buy Now' button.

But, news flash—these tips and tricks aren’t actual sales strategies .

To create real, lasting growth for you and your company, you need to create your own grand strategy. And that starts with a solid sales plan .

So, what’s your plan? How do you build it (and stick to it)?

We’re about to take a deep dive into sales plans. By the end of this guide, you’ll be completely equipped to win the fight for business growth. And we can't recommend it enough—grab our free sales plan template here in the Sales Success Kit today:

GET THE SALES SUCCESS KIT →

What is a Sales Plan? (And What Makes for Successful Sales Planning?)

Armed with the information you'll compile within your sales plan, you can quickly identify any upcoming problems, sales droughts, or opportunities—and then do something about them.

If done correctly, the right sales plan template empowers you to spend even more time growing and developing your business, rather than responding reactively to the day-to-day developments in sales.

Sound exciting? Let’s jump right in.

Download Your Free Sales Plan Templates Today

Want to build your own sales plan template that'll clarify your business plan and accelerate your growth? Grab the Sales Success Kit , including...

...and more to help you set up strategic sales planning and quotas for your team.

Want to stand out in the competitive market? Explore the insights of challenger selling .

What’s in a Sales Plan? 6 Elements Every Sales Plan Needs

In basic terms, a sales plan template includes:

• Sales forecasting and goal-setting
• Market and customer research
• Prospecting and partnerships

Each part of the sales plan naturally works itself into the next, starting with your high-level goals, then considering market factors, and finally looking at who you know, and how to find more prospects to help hit your sales goals .

Here are the key elements to include in your plan:

1. Mission Statement

What gets your sales reps out of bed in the morning? What’s the clear mission that pushes your team to keep fighting for that win?

Your mission statement is a concise statement of the ‘big picture’—the main idea and goal you want to achieve. Think about your company mission and how the sales team forms part of that overarching goal.

2. Sales Goals and Revenue Targets

A sales plan must include achievable sales goals and the targets your sales reps will be working to reach. Use previous years' results to tell you what's reasonably possible for your team to do. Include specific metrics and KPIs , how these are performing currently, and what you plan to do to improve them.

This may also include information about your product’s pricing , planned discounts, and how your team can focus on the right customers to get the most revenue possible. Link these sales goals to the business goals your company is working to achieve.

3. Analysis of the Target Market

Your plan should clearly identify your ideal customer profile and information about the target market and demographic you plan to sell to. Are you breaking into a new market? Are you targeting small business or enterprise customers ? Give a concise description of your target audience and the stakeholders you’ll need to sell to.

4. Sales Strategy Overview and Methods to Reach Target Customers

This should include a brief overview of the customer journey , pain points , and how your salespeople will engage and follow up with new prospects throughout their journey to purchase. You'll likely outline specific sales activities you'll focus on, such as improving referral numbers, testing new cold-calling email strategies, or dipping your toe in social selling.

You may also include information about the marketing strategy and lead generation methods used to gather new leads and how sales managers will support the team.

5. Use of Resources and Sales Tools

How much does it cost your team to close a new deal? What is your budget for the sales team, or for sales tools ?

Inside your plan, list the resources you have available to you, and how you plan to use them during the year. This includes monetary resources, as well as human resources.

Next, show how your resources will be used. For example, how much will you spend on sales tools? Which CRM software is your team depending on? Briefly explain how you plan to use each tool and why you’ve allocated resources in that way.

6. Sales Team Structure

The structure of your sales team includes which reps are available during what times of the year, their specialties and skills, and where they focus in the sales process .

Also, include information about the sales managers, their teams, and the incentives you offer your reps.

The Benefits of Sales Planning: Why You Need a Sales Plan

Creating a sales plan from scratch can be daunting, even with the right sales planning template. So, why should you have your sales strategy written down and ready to act on?

Let’s talk about the benefits of sales planning to attract new business and grow your market share.

Clear, Time-Bound Goals Help You Reach Revenue Targets

There’s a reason they say, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

If you want your sales team to execute on and accomplish your sales goals, you need to have a plan in place. When targets are linked to specific timeframes and actions, your whole team will see how their individual work is involved in reaching your sales goals.

Prioritize Time and Resources

Without a specific action plan in place , your team won’t be able to prioritize their time with the right sales tactics and strategies to hit their targets.

With a clear outline of the tactics that bring the most significant ROI for your team, each rep can get the best results for the time they spend selling.

Clear Action Plan to Reach Your Goals

With an action plan in place, each team member knows what they’re supposed to be doing, and why they’re doing it. This keeps them motivated and helps them see how their individual efforts make a difference.

4 Types of Sales Plans (How to Choose Which Planning Style is Right for Your Sales Team)

It’s difficult to templatize a good sales plan since every plan is unique to the business and team it applies to. So, what are some examples of the types of sales plans you might create, and how can you choose between them?

• Revenue-based sales plan: If you’re aiming for a specific revenue goal, this type of sales plan will be focused on in-depth sales forecasting and specific actions to improve conversion rates and close more deals.
• Sales plan based on the target market: If you’re selling to vastly different markets, you may want to create a different sales plan based on the market you’re targeting. For example, your sales plan for enterprise companies would differ from your sales plan for selling to SMBs.
• Sales goals plan: A plan that’s focused on goals (other than revenue) may include hiring and onboarding, sales training plans, or plans to implement a new type of sales activity into your process.
• New product sales plan: When launching a new product, it’s a good idea to develop a specific business plan around its launch and continued promotion. This plan may include finding and contacting strategic partners, building a unique value prop in the market, and creating new sales enablement content for the team to use when selling this product. This type of sales plan can also apply to launching new features in your SaaS product.

How to Choose the Right Sales Planning Style

Ultimately, this will depend on factors such as:

• Your revenue goals
• The resources at your disposal
• Your sales team’s abilities and bandwidth
• Your personal commitment to seeing this plan through

When you’ve determined who is involved in sales planning, how committed they are, and the resources you can use to make this plan happen, you can start building your own sales plan.

9 Steps to Create a Sales Plan to 10x Your Sales Team’s Results

It may seem like a lot of work to develop a sales plan at this point. But once you do, you’ll be in a place to take your sales (and brand) to the next level.

Let’s break down this process, step-by-step, so you can start achieving greater results.

1. Define Your Sales Goals and Milestones

With a sales plan, we begin at the end: an end goal.

Start by choosing the sales metrics that matter most to your overall business. This could be:

• Annual or monthly recurring revenue (ARR or MRR)
• Retention or churn rates
• Average conversion time
• Average conversion rate
• Customer lifetime value (CLV)

It doesn’t matter so much which metric you choose —the important point is that it can tell you whether your work has succeeded.

Next, look at last year’s forecast and results . Were you being realistic? How did sales revenue increase annually? How does that compare your company to the industry standards? Use this information to determine what realistically you can bring in based on the size of the market, your company goals, and the experience and resources available to your sales team .

After setting clear sales goals, it’s time to set milestones . This involves breaking that big number down into smaller expectations with strict deadlines. These should challenge and motivate your sales team , without being so difficult they kill morale.

Lean on your sales team during this process. After all, they’re in the trenches with you and probably have the best knowledge about your customers. Learn about what they do during the workweek to close deals. Ask how much they’re currently doing, and how much bandwidth they have to do more. This will give you a real, frontline take on what goals and milestones to set in your sales plan template.

Finally, create specific targets with clear deadlines . For example, to achieve a sales goal of increasing revenue by 15 percent YOY, you might set the milestone of increasing your customer base by 20 percent, or increasing sales by 50% for a specific product.

Brought together, these milestones inform and support your overall sales plan, giving you a clear, actionable workflow to hit your overall goals for the year.

2. Clearly Define Your Target Market or Niche

You need to know the market you’re in and the niche you’re going to occupy so you can properly position your business for growth.

What’s a business niche? It’s more than just what your business specializes in—a niche is the space your business occupies with your products, content, company culture, branding, and message. It’s how people identify with you and search you out over the competition.

As serial entrepreneur Jason Zook explains: “ When you try to create something for everyone, you end up creating something for no one. ”

Don’t do that.

Instead, start by looking at a niche and asking yourself these questions:

• How big is the market?
• Is there a built-in demand for what you're selling?
• What’s your current market position?
• Who are your competitors? What are their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?

If you’re stuck, start by going back to your own strengths . List out your strongest interests and passions. Pick a field where the odds are already in your favor—where you have a proven track record, more expertise to offer, an extensive contact base, and people who can provide you with intros.

These kinds of strategic advantages will help you clarify your buyer persona and amplify the results of your planning.

Start with one product in one niche—you can always branch out to a complementary niche later. Sell beautiful, handcrafted tea cups? How about a booming doily business? Or customizable teaspoons?

A niche doesn’t limit you. It focuses you.

3. Understand Your Target Customers

Chasing the wrong customers will only waste your time and money, so don't allow them to sneak into your sales plan.

Your best customers are the ones that are successful with your product and see the ROI of it. Talk to them, and find out what they have in common.

While defining ideal customers depends on your company and market, here are some basic characteristics you’ll want to identify:

• Company size (number of employees, number of customers, yearly revenue)
• Size of the relevant department
• Geographical information
• Job title of your POC
• Buying process
• The goal they’re trying to achieve with your product or service

Also, don’t forget to think about whether they will be a good ‘fit’. If this is a long-term relationship you’re developing rather than a one-night stand, you want to ensure you speak the same language and share a similar culture and vision.

Use this information to build out an ideal customer profile . This fictitious organization gets significant value from using your product/service and provides significant value to your company. A customer profile helps you qualify leads and disqualify bad-fit customers before you waste time trying to sell to them.

Once you know the type of company you want to target with your sales team, it’s time to get inside their head. Start by hanging out where they hang out:

• Are they on social media? What’s their network of choice?
• Are they members of any Facebook or LinkedIn groups?
• Can you answer industry questions for them on Quora or Reddit?
• What podcasts do they listen to, or what resources do they read?

Get in your customers’ heads, and you’ll be in a much better position to sell to them.

GET THE IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE KIT →

4. Map Out Your Customer’s Journey

The next part of an effective sales plan must address how that ideal customer becomes your customer. Do this by mapping out their journey, including actions and events during the different stages of the sales funnel :

• Consideration

Conduct a customer survey or chat directly with your current, happy customers to gather valuable sales planning insights. Ask them:

• When you became a customer, what did you want our product to do for you?
• What features were important to you? Why?
• What was your budget?
• How did you solve this problem before using our product?

To fully understand their journey as a customer, you can also ask about past buying experiences:

• When was the last time you bought something similar?
• Was that a good or bad experience? Why?
• What was the decision-making process like?
• How did you evaluate different offers?
• Which factors made you choose that particular solution?

Once you’ve identified the awareness, interest, and consideration stages, let your prospects and new customers build the rest of their roadmap by asking them: "What’s next?"

"What needs to happen to make you a customer?"

If, for example, they say they’ll have to get approval from the VP of Finance. Ask:

"Ok, and let's say he agrees that we're the right fit; what's next?"

We call this the virtual close , a way to put your prospect in a future-thinking state of mind that makes them imagine buying from you. Asking this question to several high-quality prospects will tell you those final few steps in the customer journey until they’ve signed on the dotted line.

Finally, piece together the post-sale journey. Once a prospect becomes a customer, what’s next? How do you enable them to use your product and be successful with it? What happened to create your most loyal customers? Understanding this piece of the sales process is essential to managing and increasing customer retention .

5. Define Your Value Propositions

You know your customers. You know their journey. Now, define where you fit in by looking at your competitive advantage . Fully articulating what sets you apart from the competition is a crucial element of your sales plan template.

Start by asking a few simple questions:

• Why do customers buy from us?
• Why do customers buy from our competitors and not us?
• Why do some potential customers not buy at all?
• What do we need to do to be successful in the future?

Remember that customers buy benefits, not features. When describing your value proposition , it’s easy to get caught up in talking about you. What you’ve made. What you do. Instead, flip the script and talk about what your product will do for your customers . A strong competitive advantage:

• Reflects the competitive strength of your business
• Is preferably, but not necessarily, unique
• Is clear and simple
• May change over time as competitors try to steal your idea
• Must be supported by ongoing market research

For example, the competitive advantage of help desk software has nothing to do with its social media integrations and real-time ticket tracking. It’s the fact that it allows its customers to focus on creating a great customer experience.

Here’s the point: Focus on value, not features, in your sales plan template.

Your competitive advantage will inform everything your company does moving forward, from marketing to product development. It’s a great example of where sales can influence the development of a product and the direction of a business.

6. Organize Your Sales Team

The way your sales team is organized can enable them to better serve their customers and bring new revenue into your business faster.

Here are three basic structures for your sales team :

• The island: Individual reps work alone.
• Assembly line: Each sales rep is assigned a specialized role such as lead generation, SDR (qualifier), Account Executive (closer), or Customer Success (farmer).
• Pods: Each sales rep is assigned a specialized role in a pod, or group, that’s responsible for the entire journey of specific customers.

Think about the strengths and weaknesses of your sales team members, and how they will truly thrive as part of the team.

7. Outline the Use of Sales Tools

Now it’s time to think about the tools you’re using. Building out your sales stack takes time and effort, but listing out that stack in your sales plan will help you avoid getting caught up with new tech that may or may not help your sales team.

Basically, you’ll need tools for these areas to cover all aspects of the sales process:

• CRM software (like Close )
• Lead generation and prospecting tools
• Internal communication software
• Engagement and outreach tools
• Documentation software
• Sales enablement stack

Think about how all of your sales tools work together through integrations and where automation comes into play to save your team time, and how you'll drive CRM adoption across your team members.

8. Build a Prospecting List

A prospect list is where we take all the theory and research of the last few sections of our sales plan template and put them into action.

At its core, a prospect list is a directory of real people you can contact who would benefit from your product or service. This can be time-consuming, but it's essential for driving your sales plan and company growth.

First, use your ideal customer profile to start finding target companies:

• Search LinkedIn
• Check out relevant local business networks
• Attend networking events and meetups
• Do simple Google searches
• Check out the member list of relevant online groups

Target up to 5 people at each organization. Targeting more than one individual will give you better odds of connecting by cold email outreach as well as a better chance that someone in your network can connect you personally.

Remember, this isn’t just a massive list of people you could sell to. This is a targeted list based on the research you’ve done previously in your sales plan.

Once you have your list, keep track of your leads and how you found them using a sales CRM. This will keep historical context intact and make sure you don’t overlap on outreach if you’re working with teammates.

9. Track, Measure, and Adjust As Needed

Just because you’ve made a solid sales plan template to follow, doesn’t mean you get to sit back and watch the cash roll in.

Remember what Basecamp founder Jason Fried said about plans:

“A plan is simply a guess you wrote down.”

You’re using everything you know about the market, your unique value, target customers, and partners to define the ideal situation for your company. But yes, try as we might, very few of us actually see anything when we gaze deep into the crystal ball.

Instead, remember that your sales plan is a living, breathing document that needs to account for and adapt to new features, marketing campaigns, or even new team members who join.

Set regular meetings (at least monthly) to review progress on your sales plan, identify and solve issues, and align your activities across teams to optimize your plan around real-world events and feedback. Learn from your mistakes and victories, and evolve your sales plan as needed.

Create a Strategic Sales Plan to Grow Your Business

You’ve just discovered the basics—but I’ll bet you’re ready to go beyond that. Here are some final ideas to take your sales plan from a simple foundation to a strategic, actionable one.

Avoid Moving the Goalpost

Avoid making adjustments to the goals outlined in your sales plan—even if you discover you’ve been overly optimistic or pessimistic in your sales planning. When you're developing your very first sales plan template, it's natural to be wrong in some of your assumptions—especially around goals and forecasting .

Instead of letting it get you down, remember your plan serves as a benchmark to judge your success or failure. As you see places where your assumptions were wrong, carefully document what needs updating when it's time to revise your sales plan.

Invite Your Others to Challenge Your Sales Plan

Never finalize a plan without another set of eyes (or a few sets.) Get an experienced colleague—an accountant, senior salesperson, or qualified friend—to review the document before solidifying your sales plan.

Your sales team is another strong resource for reviewing your sales plan. Ask their opinions, give them time to think about how it relates to their daily work, and agree on the key points that go into your sales plan.

Set Individual Goals and Milestones for Your Sales Team

We talked about creating milestones for your business, but you can take your sales plan to the next level by setting individual milestones for your sales team as well.

These individual goals need to consider the differences in strengths, weaknesses, and skills among your salespeople.

For example, if someone on your team is making a ton of calls but not closing, give them a milestone of upping their close rate . If someone’s great at closing but doesn’t do much outreach, give them a milestone of contacting 10 new prospects a month.

Doing this will help your individual reps build their skills and contribute to their company and career growth.

Ready to Hit Your Sales Goals?

In most sales situations, the biggest challenge is inertia. But with a solid, detailed sales plan and a dedicated team with clear milestones, you’ll have everything you need to push through any friction and keep on track to hit your goals!

All jazzed up and ready to put together your own sales plan? Download our free Sales Success Kit and access 11 templates, checklists, worksheets, and guides.

They're action-focused and easy to use, so you can have your best sales year yet.

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How to Write the Perfect Business Plan: A Comprehensive Guide

Thinking of starting a business here's the best step-by-step template for writing the perfect business plan when creating your startup..

Maybe you think you don't need a step-by-step guide to writing a great business plan . Maybe you think you don't need a template for writing a business plan. After all, some entrepreneurs succeed without writing a business plan. With great timing, solid business skills, entrepreneurial drive, and a little luck , some founders build thriving businesses without creating even an  informal business plan . 

But the odds are greater that those entrepreneurs will fail.

Does a business plan make startup success inevitable? Absolutely not. But great planning often means the difference between success and failure. Where your entrepreneurial dreams are concerned, you should do everything possible to set the stage for success.

And that's why a great business plan is one that helps you  succeed .

The following is a comprehensive guide to creating a great business plan. We'll start with an overview of key concepts. Then we'll look at each section of a typical business plan:

Executive Summary

Overview and objectives, products and services, market opportunities, sales and marketing.

• Competitive Analysis

Management Team

Financial analysis.

So first let's gain a little perspective on why you need a business plan.

Key Concepts

Many business plans are fantasies. That's because many aspiring entrepreneurs see a business plan as simply a tool--filled with strategies and projections and hyperbole--that will convince lenders or investors the business makes sense.

That's a huge mistake.

First and foremost, your business plan should convince  you  that your idea makes sense--because your time, your money, and your effort are on the line.

So a solid business plan should be a blueprint for a successful business . It should flesh out strategic plans, develop marketing and sales plans, create the foundation for smooth operations, and maybe--just maybe--persuade a lender or investor to jump on board.

For many entrepreneurs, developing a business plan is the first step in the process of deciding whether to actually start a business. Determining if an idea fails on paper can help a prospective founder avoid wasting time and money on a business with no realistic hope of success.

So, at a minimum, your plan should:

• Be as objective and logical as possible. What may have seemed like a good idea for a business can, after some thought and analysis, prove not viable because of heavy competition, insufficient funding, or a nonexistent market. (Sometimes even the best ideas are simply ahead of their time.)
• Serve as a guide to the business's operations for the first months and sometimes years, creating a blueprint for company leaders to follow.
• Communicate the company's purpose and vision, describe management responsibilities, detail personnel requirements, provide an overview of marketing plans, and evaluate current and future competition in the marketplace.
• Create the foundation of a financing proposal for investors and lenders to use to evaluate the company.

A good business plan delves into each of the above categories, but it should also accomplish other objectives. Most of all, a good business plan is  convincing . It proves a case. It provides concrete, factual evidence showing your idea for a business is in fact sound and reasonable and has every chance of success.

Who  must  your business plan convince?

First and foremost, your business plan should convince  you  that your idea for a business is not just a dream but can be a viable reality. Entrepreneurs are by nature confident, positive, can-do people. After you objectively evaluate your capital needs, products or services, competition, marketing plans, and potential to make a profit, you'll have a much better grasp on your chances for success.

And if you're not convinced, fine: Take a step back and refine your ideas and your plans.

Who  can  your business plan convince?

1. Potential sources of financing.   If you need seed money from a bank or friends and relatives, your business plan can help you make a great case. Financial statements can show where you have been. Financial projections describe where you plan to go.

Your business plan shows how you will get there. Lending naturally involves risk, and a great business plan can help lenders understand and quantity that risk, increasing your chances for approval.

2. Potential partners and investors. Where friends and family are concerned, sharing your business plan may not be necessary (although it certainly could help).

Other investors--including angel investors or venture capitalists--generally require a business plan in order to evaluate your business.

3. Skilled employees . When you need to attract talent, you need  something  to show prospective employees since you're still in the startup phase. Early on, your business is more of an idea than a reality, so your business plan can help prospective employees understand your goals--and, more important, their place in helping you achieve those goals.

4. Potential joint ventures. Joint ventures are like partnerships between two companies. A joint venture is a formal agreement to share the work--and share the revenue and profit. As a new company, you will likely be an unknown quantity in your market. Setting up a joint venture with an established partner could make all the difference in getting your business off the ground.

But above all, your business plan should convince  you  that it makes sense to move forward.

As you map out your plan, you may discover issues or challenges you had not anticipated.

Maybe the market isn't as large as you thought. Maybe, after evaluating the competition, you realize your plan to be the low-cost provider isn't feasible since the profit margins will be too low to cover your costs.

Or you might realize the fundamental idea for your business is sound, but how you implement that idea should change. Maybe establishing a storefront for your operation isn't as cost-effective as taking your products directly to customers--not only will your operating costs be lower, but you can charge a premium since you provide additional customer convenience.

Think of it this way. Successful businesses do not remain static. They learn from mistakes, and adapt and react to changes: changes in the economy, the marketplace, their customers, their products and services, etc. Successful businesses identify opportunities and challenges and react accordingly.

Creating a business plan lets you spot opportunities and challenges without risk. Use your plan to dip your toe in the business water. It's the perfect way to review and revise your ideas and concepts before you ever spend a penny.

Many people see writing a business plan as a "necessary evil" required to attract financing or investors. Instead, see your plan as a no-cost way to explore the viability of your potential business and avoid costly mistakes.

Now let's look at the first section of your business plan: The Executive Summary.

The Executive Summary is a brief outline of the company's purpose and goals. While it can be tough to fit on one or two pages, a good Summary includes:

• A brief description of products and services
• A summary of objectives
• A solid description of the market
• A high-level justification for viability (including a quick look at your competition and your competitive advantage)
• A snapshot of growth potential
• An overview of funding requirements

I know that seems like a lot, and that's why it's so important you get it right. The Executive Summary is often the make-or-break section of your business plan.

A great business solves customer problems. If your Summary cannot clearly describe, in one or two pages, how your business will solve a particular problem and make a profit, then it's very possible the opportunity does not exist--or your plan to take advantage of a genuine opportunity is not well developed.

So think of it as a snapshot of your business plan. Don't try to "hype" your business--focus on helping a busy reader get a great feel for what you plan to do, how you plan to do it, and how you will succeed.

Since a business plan should above all help you start and grow your business, your Executive Summary should first and foremost help you do the following.

1. Refine and tighten your concept.

Think of it as a written elevator pitch  (with more detail, of course). Your Summary describes the highlights of your plan, includes only the most critical points, and leaves out less important issues and factors.

As you develop your Summary, you will naturally focus on the issues that contribute most to potential success. If your concept is too fuzzy, too broad, or too complicated, go back and start again. Most great businesses can be described in several sentences, not several pages.

2. Determine your priorities.

Your business plan walks the reader through your plan. What ranks high in terms of importance? Product development? Research? Acquiring the right location? Creating strategic partnerships?

Your Summary can serve as a guide to writing the rest of your plan.

3. Make the rest of the process easy.

Once your Summary is complete, you can use it as an outline for the rest of your plan. Simply flesh out the highlights with more detail.

Then work to accomplish your secondary objective by focusing on your readers. Even though you may be creating a business plan solely for your own purposes, at some point you may decide to seek financing or to bring on other investors, so make sure your Summary meets their needs as well. Work hard to set the stage for the rest of the plan. Let your excitement for your idea and your business shine through.

In short, make readers want to turn the page and keep reading. Just make sure your sizzle meets your steak by providing clear, factual descriptions.

How? The following is how an Executive Summary for a bicycle rental store might read.

Introduction

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals will offer road and mountain bike rentals in a strategic location directly adjacent to an entrance to the George Washington National Forest. Our primary strategy is to develop Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals as the most convenient and cost-effective rental alternative for the thousands of visitors who flock to the area each year.

Once underway, we will expand our scope and take advantage of high-margin new equipment sales and leverage our existing labor force to sell and service those products. Within three years we intend to create the area's premier destination for cycling enthusiasts.

Company and Management

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals will be located at 321 Mountain Drive, a location providing extremely high visibility as well as direct entry and exit from a primary national park access road. The owner of the company, Marty Cycle, has over 20 years experience in the bicycle business, having served as a product manager for Acme Cycles as well as the general manager of Epic Cycling.

Because of his extensive industry contacts, initial equipment inventory will be purchased at significant discounts from OEM suppliers as well by sourcing excess inventory from shops around the country.

Because of the somewhat seasonal nature of the business, part-time employees will be hired to handle spikes in demand. Those employees will be attracted through competitive wages as well as discounts products and services.

460,000 people visited the George Washington National Forest during the last 12 months. While the outdoor tourism industry as a whole is flat, the park expects its number of visitors to grow over the next few years.

• The economic outlook indicates fewer VA, WV, NC, and MD cycling enthusiasts will travel outside the region
• The park has added a camping and lodging facilities that should attract an increased number of visitors
• The park has opened up additional areas for trail exploration and construction, ensuring a greater number of single-track options and therefore a greater number of visitors

The market potential inherent in those visitors is substantial. According to third-party research data, approximately 30 percent of all cyclists would rather rent than transport their own bicycles, especially those who are visiting the area for reasons other than cycling.

Competitive Advantages

The cycling shops located in Harrisonburg, VA, are direct and established competitors. Our two primary competitive advantages will be location and lower costs.

Our location is also a key disadvantage where non-park rentals are concerned. We will overcome that issue by establishing a satellite location in Harrisonburg for enthusiasts who wish to rent bicycles to use in town or on other local trails.

We will also use online tools to better engage customers, allowing them to reserve and pay online as well as create individual profiles regarding sizes, preferences, and special needs.

Financial Projections

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals expects to earn a modest profit by year two based on projected sales. Our projections are based on the following key assumptions:

• Initial growth will be moderate as we establish awareness in the market
• Initial equipment purchases will stay in service for an average of three to four years; after two years we will begin investing in "new" equipment to replace damaged or obsolete equipment
• Marketing costs will not exceed 14 percent of sales
• Residual profits will be reinvested in expanding the product and service line

We project first-year revenue of $720,000 and a 10 percent growth rate for the next two years. Direct cost of sales is projected to average 60 percent of gross sales, including 50 percent for the purchase of equipment and 10 percent for the purchase of ancillary items. Net income is projected to reach $105,000 in year three as sales increase and operations become more efficient.

And so on ...

Keep in mind this is just a made-up example of how your Summary might read. Also keep in mind this example focused on the rental business, so a description of products was not included. (They'll show up later.) If your business will manufacture or sell products, or provide a variety of services, then be sure to include a Products and Services section in your Summary. (In this case the products and services are obvious, so including a specific section would be redundant.)

Bottom line:  Provide some sizzle in your Executive Summary, but make sure you show a reasonable look at the steak, too.

Providing an overview of your business can be tricky, especially when you're still in the planning stages. If you already own an existing business, summarizing your current operation should be relatively easy; it can be a lot harder to explain what you plan to  become .

So start by taking a step back.

Think about what products and services you will provide, how you will provide those items, what you need to have in order to provide those items, exactly who will provide those items, and most important, whom you will provide those items to.

Consider our bicycle rental business example. It's serves retail customers. It has an online component, but the core of the business is based on face-to-face transactions for bike rentals and support.

So you'll need a physical location, bikes, racks and tools and supporting equipment, and other brick-and-mortar related items. You'll need employees  with a very particular set of skills  to serve those customers, and you'll need an operating plan to guide your everyday activities.

Sound like a lot? It boils down to:

• What you will provide
• What you need to run your business
• Who will service your customers, and
• Who your customers are.

In our example, defining the above is fairly simple. You know what you will provide to meet your customer's needs. You will of course need a certain quantity of bikes to service demand, but you will not need a number of different types of bikes. You need a retail location, furnished to meet the demands of your business. You need semi-skilled employees capable of sizing, customizing, and repairing bikes.

And you know your customers: cycling enthusiasts.

In other businesses and industries, answering the above questions can be more difficult. If you open a restaurant, what you plan to serve will in some ways determine your labor needs, the location you choose, the equipment you need to purchase. And, most important, it will help define your customer. Changing any one element may change other elements; if you cannot afford to purchase expensive kitchen equipment, you may need to adapt your menu accordingly. If you hope to attract an upscale clientele, you may need to invest more in purchasing a prime location and creating an appealing ambience.

So where do you start? Focus on the basics first:

• Identify your industry. Retail, wholesale, service, manufacturing, etc. Clearly define your type of business.
• Identify your customer. You cannot market and sell to customers until you know who they are.
• Explain the problem you solve. Successful businesses create customer value by solving problems. In our rental example, one problem is cycling enthusiasts who don't--or can't--travel with bikes. Another problem is casual cyclists who can't--or choose not to--spend significant sums on their own bikes. The rental shop will solve that problem by offering a lower-cost and convenient alternative.
• Show how you will solve that problem. Our rental shop will offer better prices and enhanced services like remote deliveries, off-hours equipment returns, and online reservations.

If you are still stuck, try answering these questions. Some may pertain to you; others may not.

• Who is my average customer? Who am I targeting? (Unless you plan to open a grocery store, you should be unlikely to answer, "Everyone!")
• What pain point do I solve for my customers?
• How will I overcome that paint point?
• Where will I fail to solve a customer problem, and what can I do to overcome that issue? (In our rental example, one problem is a potential lack of convenience; we will overcome that issue by offering online reservations, on-resort deliveries, and drive-up equipment returns.)
• Where will I locate my business?
• What products, services, and equipment do I need to run my business?
• What skills do my employees need, and how many do I need?
• How will I beat my competition?
• How can I differentiate myself from my competition in the eyes of my customers? (You can have a great plan to beat your competition, but you also must win the perception battle among your customers. If customers don't feel you are different, then you aren't truly different. Perception is critical.)

Once you work through this list you will probably end up with a lot more detail than is necessary for your business plan. That is not a problem: Start summarizing the main points. For example, your Business Overview and Objectives section could start something like this:

History and Vision

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals is a new retail venture that will be located at 321 Mountain Drive, directly adjacent to an extremely popular cycling destination. Our initial goal is to become the premier provider for bicycle rentals. We will then leverage our customer base and position in the market to offer new equipment sales as well as comprehensive maintenance and service, custom equipment fittings, and expert trail advice.

• Achieve the largest market share bicycle rentals in the area
• Generate a net income of $235,000 at the end of the second year of operation
• Minimize rental inventory replacement costs by maintaining a 7 percent attrition rate on existing equipment (industry average is 12 percent)

Keys to Success

• Provide high-quality equipment, sourcing that equipment as inexpensively as possible through existing relationships with equipment manufacturers and other cycling shops
• Use signage to attract visitors traveling to the national forest, highlighting our cost and service advantage
• Create additional customer convenience factors to overcome a perceived lack of convenience for customers planning to ride roads and trails some distance away from our shop
• Develop customer incentive and loyalty programs to leverage customer relationships and create positive word of mouth

You could certainly include more detail in each section; this is simply a quick guide. And if you plan to develop a product or service, you should thoroughly describe the development process as well as the end result.

The key is to describe what you will do for your customers--if you can't, you won't  have  any customers.

In the Products and Services section of your business plan, you will clearly describe--yep--the products and services your business will provide.

Keep in mind that highly detailed or technical descriptions are not necessary and definitely not recommended. Use simple terms and avoid industry buzzwords.

On the other hand, describing how the company's products and services will differ from the competition is critical. So is describing why your products and services are needed if no market currently exists. (For example, before there was Federal Express, overnight delivery was a niche business served by small companies. FedEx had to define the opportunity for a new, large-scale service and justify why customers needed--and would actually  use --that service.)

Patents, copyrights, and trademarks you own or have applied for should also be listed in this section.

Depending on the nature of your business, your Products and Services section could be very long or relatively short. If your business is product-focused, you will want to spend more time describing those products.

If you plan to sell a commodity item and the key to your success lies in, say, competitive pricing, you probably don't need to provide significant product detail. Or if you plan to sell a commodity readily available in a variety of outlets, the key to your business may not be the commodity itself but your ability to market in a more cost-effective way than your competition.

But if you're creating a new product (or service), make sure you thoroughly explain the nature of the product, its uses, and its value, etc.--otherwise your readers will not have enough information to evaluate your business.

Key questions to answer:

• Are products or services in development or existing (and on the market)?
• What is the timeline for bringing new products and services to market?
• What makes your products or services different? Are there competitive advantages compared with offerings from other competitors? Are there competitive disadvantages you will need to overcome? (And if so, how?)
• Is price an issue? Will your operating costs be low enough to allow a reasonable profit margin?
• How will you acquire your products? Are you the manufacturer? Do you assemble products using components provided by others? Do you purchase products from suppliers or wholesalers? If your business takes off, is a steady supply of products available?

In the cycling rental business example we've been using, products and services could be a relatively simple section to complete or it could be fairly involved. It depends on the nature of the products the company plans to rent to customers.

If Blue Mountain Cycling Rentals plans to market itself as a provider of high-end bikes, describing those bikes--and the sources for those bikes--is important, since "high-end cycling rentals" is intended to be a market differentiation. If the company plans to be the low-cost provider, then describing specific brands of equipment is probably not necessary.

Also, keep in mind that if a supplier runs out of capacity--or goes out of business altogether--you may not have a sufficient supply to meet your demand. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships, and describe those relationships fully. 

Remember, the primary goal of your business plan is to convince  you  that the business is viable--and to create a road map for you to follow.

The Products and Services section for our cycling rental business could start something like this:

Product Description

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals will provide a comprehensive line of bicycles and cycling equipment for all ages and levels of ability. Since the typical customer seeks medium-quality equipment and excellent services at competitive prices, we will focus on providing brands like Trek bikes, Shimano footwear, and Giro helmets. These manufacturers have a widespread reputation as mid- to high-level quality, unlike equipment typically found in the rental market.

The following is a breakdown of anticipated rental price points, per day and per week:

• Bicycle $30/$120
• Helmet $6/$30
• Customers can extend the rental term online without visiting the store.
• A grace period of two hours will be applied to all rentals; customers who return equipment within that two-hour period will not be charged an additional fee.

Competition

Blue Mountain Cycle Rentals will have clear advantages over its primary competitors, the bike shops located in Harrisonburg, VA:

• Newer equipment inventory with higher perceived quality
• Price points 15 percent below the competition
• Online renewals offering greater convenience
• A liberal return grace period that will reinforce our reputation as a customer-friendly rental experience

Future Products

Expansion will allow us to move product offerings into new equipment sales. We will also explore maintenance and fitting services, leveraging our existing maintenance staff to provide value-added services at a premium price.

When you draft your Products and Services section, think of your reader as a person who knows little to nothing about your business. Be clear and to the point.

Think of it this way: The Products and Services section answers the "what" question for your business. Make sure you fully understand the "what" factor; you may run the business, but your products and services are its lifeblood.

Market research is critical to business success. A good business plan analyzes and evaluates customer demographics, purchasing habits, buying cycles, and willingness to adopt new products and services.

The process starts with understanding your market and the opportunities inherent in that market. And that means you'll need to do a little research. Before you start a business you must be sure there is a viable market for what you plan to offer.

That process requires asking, and more importantly answering, a number of questions. The more thoroughly you answer the following questions, the better you will understand your market.

Start by evaluating the market at a relatively high level, answering some high-level questions about your market and your industry:

• What is the size of the market? Is it growing, stable, or in decline?
• Is the overall industry growing, stable, or in decline?
• What segment of the market do I plan to target? What demographics and behaviors make up the market I plan to target?
• Is demand for my specific products and services rising or falling?
• Can I differentiate myself from the competition in a way customers will find meaningful? If so, can I differentiate myself in a cost-effective manner?
• What do customers expect to pay for my products and services? Are they considered to be a commodity or to be custom and individualized?

Fortunately, you've already done some of the legwork. You've already defined and mapped out your products and services. The Market Opportunities section provides a sense-check of that analysis, which is particularly important since choosing the right products and services is such a critical factor in business success.

But your analysis should go further: Great products are great, but there still must be a market for those products. (Ferraris are awesome, but you're unlikely to sell many where I live.)

So let's dig deeper and quantify your market. Your goal is to thoroughly understand the characteristics and purchasing ability of potential customers in your market. A little Googling can yield a tremendous amount of data.

For the market you hope to serve, determine:

• Your potential customers. In general terms, potential customers are the people in the market segment you plan to target. Say you sell jet skis; anyone under the age of 16 and over the age of 60 or so is unlikely to be a customer. Plus, again in general terms, women make up a relatively small percentage of jet ski purchasers. Determining the total population for the market is not particularly helpful if your product or service does not serve a need for the entire population. Most products and services do not.
• Total households. In some cases determining the number of total households is important depending on your business. For example, if you sell heating and air conditioning systems, knowing the number of households is more important than simply knowing the total population in your area. While people purchase HVAC systems, "households" consume those systems.
• Median income. Spending ability is important. Does your market area have sufficient spending power to purchase enough of your products and services to enable you to make a profit? Some areas are more affluent than others. Don't assume every city or locality is the same in terms of spending power. A service that is viable in New York City may not be viable in your town.
• Income by demographics. You can also determine income levels by age group, by ethnic group, and by gender. (Again, potential spending power is an important number to quantify.) Senior citizens could very well have a lower income level than males or females age 45 to 55 in the prime of their careers. Or say you plan to sell services to local businesses; in that case, try to determine the amount they currently spend on similar services.

The key is to understand the market in general terms and then to dig deeper to understand whether there are specific segments within that market--the segments you plan to target--that can become customers and support the growth of your business.

Also keep in mind that if you plan to sell products online the global marketplace is incredibly crowded and competitive. Any business can sell a product online and ship that product around the world. Don't simply assume that just because "the bicycle industry is a $62 billion business" (a number I just made up) that you can capture a meaningful percentage of that market.

On the other hand, if you live in an area with 50,000 people and there's only one bicycle shop, you may be able to enter that market and attract a major portion of bicycle customers in your area.

Always remember it's much easier to serve a market you can define and quantify.

After you complete your research you may feel a little overwhelmed. While data is good, and more data is great, sifting through and making sense of too much data can be daunting.

For the purposes of your business plan, narrow your focus and focus on answering these main questions:

• What is your market? Include geographic descriptions, target demographics, and company profiles (if you're B2B). In short: Who are your customers?
• What segment of your market will you focus on? What niche will you attempt to carve out? What percentage of that market do you hope to penetrate and acquire?
• What is the size of your intended market? What is the population and spending habits and levels?
• Why do customers need and why will they be willing to purchase your products and services?
• How will you price your products and services? Will you be the low cost provider or provide value-added services at higher prices?
• Is your market likely to grow? How much? Why?
• How can you increase your market share over time?

The Market Opportunities section for our cycling rental business could start something like this:

Market Summary

Consumer spending on cycling equipment reached $9,250,000 in the states of VA, WV, MD, and NC last year. While we expect sales to rise, for the purposes of performing a conservative analysis we have projected a zero growth rate for the next three years.

In those states 2,500,000 people visited a national forest last year. Our target market includes customers visiting the Shenandoah National Forest; last year 120,000 people visited the area during spring, summer, and fall months.

Over time, however, we do expect equipment rentals and sales to increase as the popularity of cycling continues to rise. In particular we forecast a spike in demand in 2015 since the national road racing championships will be held in Richmond, VA.

Market Trends

Participation and population trends favor our venture:

• Recreational sports in general and both family-oriented and "extreme" sports continue to gain in exposure and popularity.
• Western VA and eastern WV have experienced population growth rates nearly double that of the country as a whole.
• Industry trends show cycling has risen at a more rapid rate than most other recreational activities.

Market Growth

According to the latest studies, recreation spending in our target market has grown by 14 percent per year for the past three years.

In addition, we anticipate greater than industry-norm growth rates for cycling in the area due to the increase in popularity of cycling events like the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo.

Market Needs

Out target market has one basic need: The availability to source bicycle rentals at a competitive price. Our only other competition are the bike shops in Harrisonburg, VA, and our location will give us a competitive advantage over those and other companies who try to serve our market.

You may want to add other categories to this section based on your particular industry.

For example, you might decide to provide information about Market Segments. In our case, the cycling rental business does not require much segmentation. Rentals are typically not broken down into segments like "inexpensive," "midrange," and "high-end." For the most part rental bikes are more of a commodity. (Although you'll notice in our Products and Services section, we decided to provide "high-end" rentals.)

But say you decide to open a clothing store. You could focus on high fashion, or children's clothes, or outdoor wear, or casual--you could segment the market in a number of ways. If that's the case, provide detail on segmentation that supports your plan.

The key is to define your market--and then show how you will serve your market.

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but customers must actually know those products and services exist. That's why marketing plans and strategies are critical to business success. (Duh, right?)

But keep in mind marketing is not just advertising. Marketing--whether advertising, public relations, promotional literature, etc.--is an investment in the growth of your business.

Like any other investment you would make, money spent on marketing must generate a return. (Otherwise why make the investment?) While that return could simply be greater cash flow, good marketing plans result in higher sales and profits.

So don't simply plan to spend money on a variety of advertising efforts. Do your homework and create a smart marketing program .

Here are some of the basic steps involved in creating your marketing plan:

• Focus on your target market. Who are your customers? Who will you target? Who makes the decisions? Determine how you can best reach potential customers.
• Evaluate your competition. Your marketing plan must set you apart from your competition, and you can't stand out unless you  know  your competition. (It's hard to stand out from a crowd if you don't know where the crowd stands.) Know your competitors by gathering information about their products, service, quality, pricing, and advertising campaigns. In marketing terms, what does your competition do that works well? What are their weaknesses? How can you create a marketing plan that highlights the advantages you offer to customers?
• Consider your brand. How customers perceive your business makes a dramatic impact on sales. Your marketing program should consistently reinforce and extend your brand. Before you start to market your business, think about how you want your marketing to reflect on your business and your products and services. Marketing is the face of your to potential customers--make sure you put your best face forward.
• Focus on benefits. What problems do you solve? What benefits do you deliver? Customers don't think in terms of products--they think in terms of benefits and solutions. Your marketing plan should clearly identify benefits customers will receive. Focus on what customers  get  instead of on what you provide. (Take Dominos; theoretically they're in the pizza business, but really they're a delivery business.)
• Focus on differentiation. Your products and services have to stand out from the competition in some way. How will you compete in terms of price, product, or service?

Then focus on providing detail and backup for your marketing plan.

• What is your budget for sales and marketing efforts? 
• How will you determine if your initial marketing efforts are successful? In what ways will you adapt if your initial efforts do not succeed?
• Will you need sales representatives (inside or external) to promote your products?
• Can you set up public relations activities to help market your business?

The Sales and Marketing section for our cycling rental business could start something like this:

Target Market

The target market for Blue Mountain Cycling Rentals is western VA, eastern WV, southwestern MD, and northern NC. While customers in the counties surrounding the George Washington National Forest make up 35 percent of our potential customer base, much of our market travels from outside that geographic area.

Marketing Strategy

Our marketing strategy will focus on three basic initiatives:

• Road signage. Access to the forest is restricted to a few primary entrances, and visitors reach those entrances after traveling on one of several main roadways. Since customers currently rent bicycles in the local town of Harrisonburg, road signage will communicate our value proposition to all potential customers.
• Web initiatives. Our website will attract potential visitors to the resort. We will partner with local businesses that serve our target market to provide discounts and incentives.
• Promotional events. We will hold regular events with professional cyclists, like demonstrations and autograph signings, to bring more customers to the store as well as to extend the athletes' "brand" to our brand.

Pricing Strategy

We will not be the low-cost provider for our target market. Our goal is to provide mid- to high-end equipment. However, we will create web-based loyalty programs to incent customers to set up online profiles and reserve and renew equipment rentals online, and provide discounts for those who do. Over time we will be able to market specifically to those customers.

Just as in the Market Opportunity section, you may want to include a few more categories. For example, if your business involves a commission-compensated sales force, describe your Sales Programs and incentives. If you distribute products to other companies or suppliers and those distribution efforts will impact your overall marketing plans, lay out your Distribution Strategy.

The key is to show you understand your market and you understand how you will reach your market. Marketing and promotions must result in customers--your goal is to thoroughly describe how you will acquire and keep your customers.

Also keep in mind you may want to include examples of marketing materials you have already prepared, like website descriptions, print ads, web-based advertising programs, etc. While you don't need to include samples, taking the time to create actual marketing materials might help you better understand and communicate your marketing plans and objectives.

Make sure your Sales and Marketing section answers the "How will I reach my customers?" question.

Competitive Advantage

The Competitive Analysis section of your business plan is devoted to analyzing your competition--both your current competition and potential competitors who might enter your market.

Every business has competition. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competition--or potential competition--is critical to making sure your business survives and grows. While you don't need to hire a private detective, you do need to thoroughly assess your competition on a regular basis even if you plan to run only a small business.

In fact, small businesses can be especially vulnerable to competition, especially when new companies enter a marketplace.

Competitive analysis can be incredibly complicated and time-consuming, but it doesn't have to be. Here is a simple process you can follow to identify, analyze, and determine the strengths and weaknesses of your competition.

Profile  Current  Competitors

First, develop a basic profile of each of your current competition. For example, if you plan to open an office supply store, you may have three competing stores in your market.

Online retailers will also provide competition, but thoroughly analyzing those companies will be less valuable unless you also decide you want to sell office supplies online. (Although it's also possible that they--or, say, Amazon--are your  real  competition. Only you can determine that.)

To make the process easier, stick to analyzing companies you will directly compete with. If you plan to set up an accounting firm, you will compete with other accounting firms in your area. If you plan to open a clothing store, you will compete with other clothing retailers in your area.

Again, if you run a clothing store, you also compete with online retailers, but there is relatively little you can do about that type of competition other than to work hard to distinguish yourself in other ways: great service, friendly salespeople, convenient hours, truly understanding your customers, etc.

Once you identify your main competitors, answer these questions about each one. And be objective. It's easy to identify weaknesses in your competition, but less easy (and a lot less fun) to recognize how they may be able to outperform you:

• What are their strengths? Price, service, convenience, and extensive inventory are all areas where you may be vulnerable.
• What are their weaknesses? Weaknesses are opportunities you should plan to take advantage of.
• What are their basic objectives? Do they seek to gain market share? Do they attempt to capture premium clients? See your industry through their eyes. What are they trying to achieve?
• What marketing strategies do they use? Look at their advertising, public relations, etc.
• How can you take market share away from their business?
• How will they respond when you enter the market?

While these questions may seem like a lot of work to answer, in reality the process should be fairly easy. You should already have a feel for the competition's strengths and weaknesses--if you know your market and your industry.

To gather information, you can also:

• Check out their websites and marketing materials. Most of the information you need about products, services, prices, and company objectives should be readily available. If that information is not available, you may have identified a weakness.
• Visit their locations. Take a look around. Check out sales materials and promotional literature. Have friends stop in or call to ask for information.
• Evaluate their marketing and advertising campaigns. How a company advertises creates a great opportunity to uncover the objectives and strategies of that business. Advertising should help you quickly determine how a company positions itself, who it markets to, and what strategies it employs to reach potential customers.
• Browse. Search the Internet for news, public relations, and other mentions of your competition. Search blogs and Twitter feeds as well as review and recommendation sites. While most of the information you find will be anecdotal and based on the opinion of just a few people, you may at least get a sense of how some consumers perceive your competition. Plus you may also get advance warning about expansion plans, new markets they intend to enter, or changes in management.

Keep in mind competitive analysis does more than help you understand your competition. Competitive analysis can also help you identify changes you should make to  your  business strategies. Learn from competitor strengths, take advantage of competitor's weaknesses, and apply the same analysis to your own business plan.

You might be surprised by what you can learn about your business by evaluating other businesses.

Identify  Potential  Competitors

It can be tough to predict when and where new competitors may pop up. For starters, regularly search for news on your industry, your products, your services, and your target market.

But there are other ways to predict when competition may follow you into a market. Other people may see the same opportunity you see. Think about your business and your industry, and if the following conditions exist, you may face competition does the road:

• The industry enjoys relatively high profit margins
• Entering the market is relatively easy and inexpensive
• The market is growing--the more rapidly it is growing the greater the risk of competition
• Supply and demand is off--supply is low and demand is high
• Very little competition exists, so there is plenty of "room" for others to enter the market

In general terms, if serving your market seems easy you can safely assume competitors will enter your market. A good business plan anticipates and accounts for new competitors.

Now distill what you've learned by answering these questions in your business plan:

• Who are my current competitors? What is their market share? How successful are they?
• What market do current competitors target? Do they focus on a specific customer type, on serving the mass market, or on a particular niche?
• Are competing businesses growing or scaling back their operations? Why? What does that mean for your business?
• How will your company be different from the competition? What competitor weaknesses can you exploit? What competitor strengths will you need to overcome to be successful?
• What will you do if competitors drop out of the marketplace? What will you do to take advantage of the opportunity?
• What will you do if new competitors enter the marketplace? How will you react to and overcome new challenges?

The Competitive Analysis section for our cycling rental business could start something like this:

Primary Competitors

Our nearest and only competition is the bike shops in Harrisonburg, VA. Our next closest competitor is located over 100 miles away.

The in-town bike shops will be strong competitors. They are established businesses with excellent reputations. On the other hand, they offer inferior-quality equipment and their location is significantly less convenient.

Secondary Competitors

We do not plan to sell bicycles for at least the first two years of operation. However, sellers of new equipment do indirectly compete with our business since a customer who buys equipment no longer needs to rent equipment.

Later, when we add new equipment sales to our operation, we will face competition from online retailers. We will compete with new equipment retailers through personalized service and targeted marketing to our existing customer base, especially through online initiatives.

Opportunities

• By offering mid- to high-end quality equipment, we provide customers the opportunity to "try out" bikes they may wish to purchase at a later date, providing additional incentive (besides cost savings) to use our service.
• Offering drive-up, express rental return services will be seen as a much more attractive option compared with the hassle of renting bikes in Harrisonburg and transporting them to intended take-off points for rides.
• Online initiatives like online renewals and online reservations enhances customer convenience and positions us as a cutting-edge supplier in a market largely populated, especially in the cycling segment, by customers who tend to be early technology adapters.
• Renting bikes and cycling equipment may be perceived by some of our target market as a commodity transaction. If we do not differentiate ourselves in terms of quality, convenience, and service, we could face additional competition from other entrants to the market.
• One of the bike shops in Harrisonburg is a subsidiary of a larger corporation with significant financial assets. If we, as hoped, carve out a significant market share, the corporation may use those assets to increase service, improve equipment quality, or cut prices.

While your business plan is primarily intended to convince  you  that your business makes sense, keep in mind most investors look closely at your competitive analysis. A common mistake made by entrepreneurs is assuming they will simply "do it better" than any competition.

Experienced businesspeople know you will face stiff competition: showing you understand your competition, understand your strengths and weaknesses relative to that competition, and that you understand you will have to adapt and change based on that competition is critical.

And, even if you do not ever plan to seek financing or bring in investors, you absolutely must know your competition.

The Competitive Analysis section helps you answer the "Against whom?" question.

The next step in creating your business plan is to develop an Operations Plan that will serve your customers, keep your operating costs in line, and ensure profitability . Your ops plan should detail strategies for managing, staffing, manufacturing, fulfillment, inventory--all the stuff involved in operating your business on a day-to-day basis.

Fortunately, most entrepreneurs have a better handle on their operations plan than on any other aspect of their business. After all, while it may not seem natural to analyze your market or your competition, most budding entrepreneurs tend to spend a lot of time thinking about how they will  run  their businesses.

Your goal is to answer the following key questions:

• What facilities, equipment, and supplies do you need?
• What is your organizational structure? Who is responsible for which aspects of the business?
• Is research and development required, either during start up or as an ongoing operation? If so, how will you accomplish this task?
• What are your initial staffing needs? When and how will you add staff?
• How will you establish business relationships with vendors and suppliers? How will those relationships impact your day-to-day operations?
• How will your operations change as the company grows? What steps will you take to cut costs if the company initially does not perform up to expectations?

Operations plans should be highly specific to your industry, your market sector, and your customers. Instead of providing an example like I've done with other sections, use the following to determine the key areas your plan should address:

Location and Facility Management

In terms of location, describe:

• Zoning requirements
• The type of building you need
• The space you need
• Power and utility requirements
• Access: Customers, suppliers, shipping, etc.
• Specialized construction or renovations
• Interior and exterior remodeling and preparation

Daily Operations

• Production methods
• Service methods
• Inventory control
• Sales and customer service
• Receiving and Delivery
• Maintenance, cleaning, and re-stocking
• Licenses and permits
• Environmental or health regulations
• Patents, trademarks, and copyrights

Personnel Requirements

• Typical staffing
• Breakdown of skills required
• Recruiting and retention
• Policies and procedures
• Pay structures
• Anticipated inventory levels
• Turnover rate
• Seasonal fluctuations in demand
• Major suppliers
• Back-up suppliers and contingency plans
• Credit and payment policies

Sound like a lot? It can be, but not all of the above needs to be in your business plan.

You should think through and create a detailed plan for each category, but you won't need to share the results with the people who read your business plan

Working through each issue and developing concrete operations plans helps you in two major ways:

• If you don't plan to seek financing or outside capital, you can still take advantage of creating a comprehensive plan that addresses all of your operational needs.
• If you do seek financing or outside capital, you may not include all the detail in your business plan--but you will have answers to any operations questions at your fingertips.

Think of Operations as the "implementation" section of your business plan. What do you need to do? How will you get it done? Then create an overview of that plan to make sure your milestones and timeline make sense.

That way the operations section answers the "How?" question.

Many investors and lenders feel the quality and experience of the management team is one of the most important factors used to evaluate the potential of a new business.

But putting work into the Management Team section will not only benefit people who may read your plan. It will also help  you  evaluate the skills, experiences, and resources your management team will need . Addressing your company's needs during implementation will make a major impact on your chances for success.

• Who are the key leaders? (If actual people have not been identified, describe the type of people needed.) What are their experiences, educational backgrounds, and skills?
• Do your key leaders have industry experience? If not, what experience do they bring to the business that is applicable?
• What duties will each position perform? (Creating an organization chart might be helpful.) What authority is granted to and what responsibilities are expected in each position?
• What salary levels will be required to attract qualified candidates for each position? What is the salary structure for the company, by position?

The Management Team section for our cycling rental business could start something like this:

Jim Rouleur, Owner and Manager

Joe has over 20 years experience in the cycling business. He served for 10 years as a product manager for Acme Bikes. After that he was the operations manager of Single Track Cycles, a full-service bike shop located in Bend, Oregon. He has an undergraduate degree in marketing from Duke University and an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University. (A complete resume for Mr. Rouleur can be found in the Appendix.)

Mary Gearset, Assistant Manager

Mary was the 2009 U.S. Mountain Biking National Champion. She worked in product development for High Tec frames, creating custom frames and frame modifications for professional cyclists. She also has extensive customer service and sales experience, having worked for four years as the online manager of Pro Parts Unlimited, an online retailer of high-end cycling equipment and accessories.

In some instances you may also wish to describe your staffing plans.

For example, if you manufacture a product or provide a service and will hire a key skilled employee, describe that employee's credentials. Otherwise, include staffing plans in the Operations section.

One key note: Don't be tempted to add a "name" to your management team in hopes of attracting investors. Celebrity management team members may attract the attention of your readers, but experienced lenders and investors will immediately ask what role that person will actually play in the running of the business--and in most cases those individuals won't play any meaningful role.

If you don't have a lot of experience--but are willing to work hard to overcome that lack of experience--don't be tempted to include people in your plan who will not actually work in the business.

If you can't survive without help, that's okay. In fact, that's expected; no one does anything worthwhile on their own. Just make plans to get help from the  right  people.

Finally, when you create your Management section, focus on credentials but pay extra attention to what each person actually will  do . Experience and reputation are great, but action is everything.

That way your Management section will answer the "Who is in charge?" question.

Numbers tell the story. Bottom line results indicate the success or failure of any business.

Financial projections and estimates help entrepreneurs, lenders, and investors or lenders objectively evaluate a company's potential for success. If a business seeks outside funding, providing comprehensive financial reports and analysis is critical.

But most important, financial projections tell you whether your business has a chance of being viable--and if not let you know you have more work to do.

Most business plans include at least five basic reports or projections:

• Balance Sheet: Describes the company cash position including assets, liabilities, shareholders, and earnings retained to fund future operations or to serve as funding for expansion and growth. It indicates the financial health of a business.
• Income Statement: Also called a Profit and Loss statement, this report lists projected revenue and expenses. It shows whether a company will be profitable during a given time period.
• Cash Flow Statement: A projection of cash receipts and expense payments. It shows how and when cash will flow through the business; without cash, payments (including salaries) cannot be made.
• Operating Budget: A detailed breakdown of income and expenses; provides a guide for how the company will operate from a "dollars" point of view.
• Break-Even Analysis: A projection of the revenue required to cover all fixed and variable expenses. Shows when, under specific conditions, a business can expect to become profitable.

It's easy to find examples of all of the above. Even the most basic accounting software packages include templates and samples. You can also find templates in Excel and Google Docs. (A quick search like "google docs profit and loss statement" yields plenty of examples.)

Or you can work with an accountant to create the necessary financial projections and documents. Certainly feel free to do so, but first play around with the reports yourself. While you don't need to be an accountant to run a business, you do need to understand your numbers, and the best way to understand your numbers is usually to actually work with your numbers.

But ultimately the tools you use to develop your numbers are not as important as whether those numbers are as accurate as possible--and whether those numbers help you decide whether to take the next step and put your business plan into action.

Then Financial Analysis can help you answer the most important business question: "Can we make a profit?"

Some business plans include less essential but potentially important information in an Appendix section. You may decide to include, as backup or additional information:

• Resumes of key leaders
• Additional descriptions of products and services
• Legal agreements
• Organizational charts
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Photographs of potential facilities, products, etc.
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Additional financial documents or projections

Keep in mind creating an Appendix is usually only necessary if you're seeking financing or hoping to bring in partners or investors. Initially the people reading your business plan don't wish to plow through reams and reams of charts, numbers, and backup information. If one does want to dig deeper, fine--he or she can check out the documents in the Appendix.

That way your business plan can share your story clearly and concisely.

Otherwise, since you created your business plan, you should already have the backup.

Tying It All Together

While you may use your business plan to attract investors, partners, suppliers, etc., never forget that the goal of your business plan is to convince  you  that your idea makes sense. 

Because ultimately it's your time, your money, and your effort on the line.

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Business Plan: What It Is and How to Write One in 9 Steps

Business plans aren’t just for entrepreneurs who need to secure funding—they can help you plan and evaluate new ideas or growth plans, too. Find out how to write a business plan and get the most out of the process in this comprehensive guide.

A great business plan can help you clarify your strategy, identify potential roadblocks, determine necessary resources, and evaluate the viability of your idea and growth plan before you start a business .

Not every successful business launches with a formal business plan, but many founders find value in the process. When you make a business plan, you get to take time to step back, research your idea and the market you’re looking to enter, and understand the scope and the strategy behind your tactics.

Learn how to write a business plan with this step-by-step guide, including tips for getting the most of your plan and real business plan examples to inspire you.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a strategic document that outlines a company’s goals, strategies for achieving them, and the time frame for their achievement. It covers aspects like market analysis , financial projections, and organizational structure. Ultimately, a business plan serves as a roadmap for business growth and a tool to secure funding.

Often, financial institutions and investors need to see a business plan before funding any project. Even if you don’t plan to seek outside funding, a well-crafted plan becomes the guidance for your business as it scales.

The key components of a business plan

Putting together a business plan will highlight the parts of your company’s strategy and goals. It involves several key business plan components that work together to show the roadmap to your success.

Your business plan’s key components should include: 

• Executive summary: A brief overview of your entire plan.
• Company description: An explanation of what your business does and why it’s unique. 
• Market analysis: Research on your industry, target market, and competitors.
• Organization and management: Details about your business structure and the people running it.
• Products or services: A description of what you’re selling and how it benefits customers. 
• Customer segmentation: A breakdown of your target market into different groups.
• Marketing and sales plan: The strategy for promoting and selling your products and services.
• Logistics and operations: An overview of how your business will run its daily activities and manage resources.
• Financials: A complete look at projected income, expenses, and funding needs. 

How to write a business plan in 9 steps

• Draft an executive summary
• Write a company description
• Perform a market analysis
• Outline the management and organization
• List your products and services
• Perform customer segmentation
• Define a marketing plan
• Provide a logistics and operations plan
• Make a financial plan

Few things are more intimidating than a blank page. Starting your business plan with a structured outline and key elements for what you’ll include in each section is the best first step you can take.

Since an outline is such an important step in the process of writing a business plan, we’ve put together a high-level overview to get you started (and help you avoid the terror of facing a blank page).

Once you have your business plan template in place, it’s time to fill it in. We’ve broken it down by section to help you build your plan step by step.

1. Draft an executive summary

A good executive summary is one of the most crucial sections of your business plan—it’s also the last section you should write.

The executive summary distills everything that follows and gives time-crunched reviewers (e.g., potential investors and lenders) a high-level overview of your business that persuades them to read further.

Again, it’s a summary, so highlight the key points you’ve uncovered while writing your plan. If you’re writing for your own planning purposes, you can skip the summary altogether—although you might want to give it a try anyway, just for practice.

An executive summary shouldn’t exceed one page. Admittedly, that space constraint can make squeezing in all of the salient information a bit stressful—but it’s not impossible. 

Your business plan’s executive summary should include:

• Business concept. What does your business do?
• Business goals and vision. What does your business want to accomplish?
• Product description and differentiation. What do you sell, and why is it different?
• Target market. Who do you sell to?
• Marketing strategy. How do you plan on reaching your customers?
• Current financial state. What do you currently earn in revenue?
• Projected financial state. What do you foresee earning in revenue?
• The ask. How much money are you asking for?
• The team. Who’s involved in the business?

2. Write a company description

This section of your business plan should answer two fundamental questions: 

• Who are you?
• What do you plan to do? 

Answering these questions with a company description provides an introduction to why you’re in business, why you’re different, what you have going for you, and why you’re a good investment. 

For example, clean makeup brand Saie shares a letter from its founder on the company’s mission and why it exists.

Clarifying these details is still a useful exercise, even if you’re the only person who’s going to see them. It’s an opportunity to put to paper some of the more intangible facets of your business, like your principles, ideals, and cultural philosophies.

Here are some of the components you should include in your company description:

• Your business structure (Are you a sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, or incorporated company?)
• Your business model
• Your industry
• Your business’s vision, mission, and value proposition
• Background information on your business or its history
• Business objectives, both short and long term
• Your team, including key personnel and their salaries

Brand values and goals

To define your brand values , think about all the people your company is accountable to, including owners, employees, suppliers, customers, and investors. Now consider how you’d like to conduct business with each of them. As you make a list, your core values should start to emerge.

Your company description should also include both short- and long-term goals. Short-term goals, generally, should be achievable within the next year, while one to five years is a good window for long-term goals. Make sure your goal setting includes SMART goals : specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

Vision and mission statements

Once you know your values, you can write a mission statement . Your statement should explain, in a convincing manner, why your business exists, and should be no longer than a single sentence.

Next, craft your vision statement : What impact do you envision your business having on the world once you’ve achieved your vision? Phrase this impact as an assertion—begin the statement with “We will” and you’ll be off to a great start. Your vision statement, unlike your mission statement, can be longer than a single sentence, but try to keep it to three at most. The best vision statements are concise.

3. Perform a market analysis

Market analysis is a key section of your business plan, whether or not you ever intend for anyone else to read it.

No matter what type of business you start, whether a home-based business or service-based, it’s no exaggeration to say your market can make or break it. Choose the right market for your products—one with plenty of customers who understand and need your product—and you’ll have a head start on success. 

If you choose the wrong market, or the right market at the wrong time, you may find yourself struggling for each sale. Your market analysis should include an overview of how big you estimate the market is for your products, an analysis of your business’s position in the market, and an overview of the competitive landscape. Thorough research supporting your conclusions is important both to persuade investors and to validate your own assumptions as you work through your plan.

How big is your potential market?

The potential market is an estimate of how many people need your product. While it’s exciting to imagine sky-high sales figures, you’ll want to use as much relevant independent data as possible to validate your estimated potential market.

Since this can be a daunting process, here are some general tips to help you begin your research:

• Understand your ideal customer profile. Look for government data about the size of your target market , learn where they live, what social channels they use, and their shopping habits.
• Research relevant industry trends and trajectory. Explore consumer trends and product trends in your industry by looking at Google Trends, trade publications, and influencers in the space.
• Make informed guesses. You’ll never have perfect, complete information about your total addressable market. Your goal is to base your estimates on as many verifiable data points as necessary.

Some sources to consult for market data include government statistics offices, industry associations, academic research, and respected news outlets covering your industry.

Read more: What is a Marketing Analysis? 3 Steps Every Business Should Follow

SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis looks at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

That involves asking questions like: 

• What are the best things about your company? 
• What are you not so good at? 
• What market or industry shifts can you take advantage of and turn into opportunities? 
• Are there external factors threatening your ability to succeed?

SWOT is often depicted in a grid or otherwise visual way. With this visual presentation, your reader can quickly see the factors that may impact your business and determine your competitive advantage in the market.

Competitive analysis

There are three overarching factors you can use to differentiate your business in the face of competition:

• Cost leadership. You have the capacity to maximize profits by offering lower prices than the majority of your competitors. Examples include companies like Mejuri and Endy .
• Differentiation. Your product or service offers something distinct from the current cost leaders in your industry and banks on standing out based on your uniqueness. Think of companies like Knix and QALO .
• Segmentation. You focus on a very specific, or niche, target market, and aim to build traction with a smaller audience before moving on to a broader market. Companies like TomboyX and Heyday Footwear are great examples of this strategy.

To understand which is the best fit, you’ll need to understand your business as well as the competitive landscape.

You’ll always have competition in the market, even with an innovative product, so it’s important to include a competitive overview in your business plan. If you’re entering an established market, include a list of a few companies you consider direct competitors and explain how you plan to differentiate your products and business from theirs.

For example, if you’re selling jewelry , your competitive differentiation could be that, unlike many high-end competitors, you donate a percentage of your profits to a notable charity or pass savings on to your customers.

If you’re entering a market where you can’t easily identify direct competitors, consider your indirect competitors—companies offering products that are substitutes for yours. For example, if you’re selling an innovative new piece of kitchen equipment, it’s too easy to say that because your product is new, you have no competition. Consider what your potential customers are doing to solve the same problems.

4. Outline the management and organization

The management and organization section of your business plan should tell readers about who’s running your company. Detail the legal structure of your business. Communicate whether you’ll incorporate your business as an S corporation or create a limited partnership or sole proprietorship.

If you have a management team, use an organizational chart to show your company’s internal structure, including the roles, responsibilities, and relationships between people in your chart. Communicate how each person will contribute to the success of your startup.

5. List your products and services

Your products or services will feature prominently in most areas of your business plan, but it’s important to provide a section that outlines key details about them for interested readers.

If you sell many items, you can include more general information on each of your product lines. If you only sell a few, provide additional information on each. 

For example, bag shop BAGGU sells a large selection of different types of bags, in addition to home goods and other accessories. Its business plan would list out those categories and key details about the products within each category.

Describe new products you’ll launch in the near future and any intellectual property you own. Express how they’ll improve profitability. It’s also important to note where products are coming from—handmade crafts are sourced differently than trending products for a dropshipping business, for instance.

6. Perform customer segmentation

Your ideal customer, also known as your target market, is the foundation of your marketing plan , if not your business plan as a whole. 

You’ll want to keep this buyer persona in mind as you make strategic decisions, which is why an overview of who they are is important to understand and include in your business plan.

To give a holistic overview of your ideal customer, describe a number of general and specific demographic characteristics. Customer segmentation often includes:

• Where they live
• Their age range
• Their level of education
• Some common behavior patterns
• How they spend their free time
• Where they work
• What technology they use
• How much they earn
• Where they’re commonly employed
• Their values, beliefs, or opinions

This information will vary based on what you’re selling, but you should be specific enough that it’s unquestionably clear who you’re trying to reach—and more importantly, why you’ve made the choices you have based on who your customers are and what they value.

For example, a college student has different interests, shopping habits, and pricing sensitivity than a 50-year-old executive at a Fortune 500 company. Your business plan and decisions would look very different based on which one was your ideal customer.

Put your customer data to work with Shopify’s customer segmentation

Shopify’s built-in segmentation tools help you discover insights about your customers, build segments as targeted as your marketing plans with filters based on your customers’ demographic and behavioral data, and drive sales with timely and personalized emails.

7. Define a marketing plan

Your marketing efforts are directly informed by your ideal customer. That’s why, as you outline your current decisions and future strategy, your marketing plan should keep a sharp focus on how your business idea is a fit for that ideal customer.

If you’re planning to invest heavily in Instagram marketing or TikTok ads , for example, it makes sense to include whether Instagram and TikTok are leading platforms for your audience. If the answer is no, that might be a sign to rethink your marketing plan.

Market your business with Shopify’s customer marketing tools

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Most marketing plans include information on four key subjects. How much detail you present on each will depend on both your business and your plan’s audience.

• Price: How much do your products cost, and why have you made that decision?
• Product: What are you selling and how do you differentiate it in the market?
• Promotion: How will you get your products in front of your ideal customer?
• Place: Where will you sell your products? On what channels and in which markets?

Promotion may be the bulk of your plan, since you can more readily dive into tactical details, but the other three areas should be covered at least briefly—each is an important strategic lever in your marketing mix.

8. Provide a logistics and operations plan

Logistics and operations are the workflows you’ll implement to make your business idea a reality. If you’re writing a business plan for your own planning purposes, this is still an important section to consider, even though you might not need to include the same level of detail as if you were seeking investment.

Cover all parts of your planned operations, including:

• Suppliers. Where do you get the raw materials you need for production, or where are your products produced?
• Production. Will you make, manufacture, wholesale , or dropship your products? How long does it take to produce your products and get them shipped to you? How will you handle a busy season or an unexpected spike in demand?
• Facilities. Where will you and any team members work? Do you plan to have a physical retail space? If yes, where?
• Equipment. What tools and technology do you require to be up and running? This includes everything from software to lightbulbs and everything in between.
• Shipping and fulfillment. Will you be handling all the fulfillment tasks in-house, or will you use a third-party fulfillment partner?
• Inventory. How much will you keep on hand, and where will it be stored? How will you ship it to partners if required, and how will you approach inventory management ?

This section should signal to your reader that you’ve got a solid understanding of your supply chain, with strong contingency plans in place to cover potential uncertainty. If your reader is you, it should give you a basis to make other important decisions, like how to price your products to cover your estimated costs, and at what point you anticipate breaking even on your initial spending.

9. Make a financial plan

No matter how great your idea is—and regardless of the effort, time, and money you invest—a business lives or dies based on its financial health. At the end of the day, people want to work with a business they expect to be viable for the foreseeable future.

The level of detail required in your financial plan will depend on your audience and goals, but typically you’ll want to include three major views of your financials: an income statement, a balance sheet, and a cash-flow statement. It also may be appropriate to include financial data and projections.

Here’s a spreadsheet template that includes everything you’ll need to create an income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement, including some sample numbers. You can edit it to reflect projections if needed.

Let’s review the types of financial statements you’ll need.

Income statements

Your income statement is designed to give readers a look at your revenue sources and expenses over a given time period. With those two pieces of information, they can see the all-important bottom line or the profit or loss your business experienced during that time. If you haven’t launched your business yet, you can project future milestones of the same information.

Balance sheets

Your balance sheet offers a look at how much equity you have in your business. On one side, you list all your business assets (what you own), and on the other side, all your liabilities (what you owe). 

This provides a snapshot of your business’s shareholder equity, which is calculated as:

Assets - Liabilities = Equity

Cash flow statements

Your cash flow statement is similar to your income statement, with one important difference: it takes into account when revenues are collected and when expenses are paid.

When the cash you have coming in is greater than the cash you have going out, your cash flow is positive. When the opposite scenario is true, your cash flow is negative. Ideally, your cash flow statement will help you see when cash is low, when you might have a surplus, and where you might need to have a contingency plan to access funding to keep your business solvent .

It can be especially helpful to forecast your cash-flow statement to identify gaps or negative cash flow and adjust operations as required.

📚 Read more: Cash Flow Management: What It Is & How To Do It (+ Examples)

Why write a business plan?

Investors rely on business plans to evaluate the feasibility of a business before funding it, which is why business plans are commonly associated with getting a business loan. 

Business plans also help owners identify areas of weakness before launching, potentially avoiding costly mistakes down the road. “Laying out a business plan helped us identify the ’unknowns’ and made it easier to spot the gaps where we’d need help or, at the very least, to skill up ourselves,” says Jordan Barnett, owner of Kapow Meggings .

There are several other compelling reasons to consider writing a business plan, including:

• Strategic planning. Writing out your plan is an invaluable exercise for clarifying your ideas and can help you understand the scope of your business, as well as the amount of time, money, and resources you’ll need to get started.
• Evaluating ideas. If you’ve got multiple ideas in mind, a rough business plan for each can help you focus your time and energy on the ones with the highest chance of success.
• Research. To write a business plan, you’ll need to research your ideal customer and your competitors—information that will help you make more strategic decisions.
• Recruiting. Your business plan is one of the easiest ways to communicate your vision to potential new hires and can help build their confidence in the venture, especially if you’re in the early stages of growth.
• Partnerships. If you plan to collaborate with other brands , having a clear overview of your vision, your audience, and your business strategy will make it much easier for them to identify if your business is a good fit for theirs.
• Competitions. There are many business plan competitions offering prizes such as mentorships, grants, or investment capital. 

If you’re looking for a structured way to lay out your thoughts and ideas, and to share those ideas with people who can have a big impact on your success, making a business plan is an excellent starting point.

Business plan types

Business plan types can span from one page to multiple pages, with detailed graphs and reports. There’s no one right way to create a business plan. The goal is to convey the most important information about your company for readers.

Common business plans we see include, but are not limited to, the following types:

Traditional business plans

These are the most common business plans. Traditional business plans take longer to write and can be dozens of pages long. Venture capitalist firms and lenders ask for this plan. Traditional business plans may not be necessary if you don’t plan to seek outside funding. That’s where a lean business plan comes in.

Lean business plans

A lean business plan is a shorter version of a traditional business plan. It follows the same format, but only includes the most important information. Businesses use lean business plans to onboard new hires or modify existing plans for a specific target market. If you want to write a business plan purely for your own planning purposes when starting a new small business, a lean business plan is typically the way to go. 

Nonprofit business plans

A nonprofit business plan is for any entity that operates for public or social benefit. It covers everything you’ll find in a traditional business plan, plus a section describing the impact the company plans to make. For example, a speaker and headphone brand would communicate that they aim to help people with hearing disabilities. Donors often request this type of business plan.

📚 Read more: 7 Business Plan Examples to Inspire Your Own (2024)

7 tips for creating a small business plan

There are a few best practices when it comes to writing a business plan. While your plan will be unique to your business and goals, keep these tips in mind as you write.

1. Know your audience

When you know who will be reading your plan—even if you’re just writing it for yourself to clarify your ideas—you can tailor the language and level of detail to them. This can also help you make sure you’re including the most relevant information and figure out when to omit sections that aren’t as impactful.

2. Have a clear goal

When creating a business plan, you’ll need to put in more work and deliver a more thorough plan if your goal is to secure funding for your business, versus working through a plan for yourself or your team.

3. Invest time in research

Sections of your business plan will primarily be informed by your ideas and vision, but some of the most crucial information you’ll need requires research from independent sources. This is where you can invest time in understanding who you’re selling to, whether there’s demand for your products, and who else is selling similar products or services.

4. Keep it short and to the point

No matter who you’re writing for, your business plan should be short and readable—generally no longer than 15 to 20 pages. If you do have additional documents you think may be valuable to your audience and your goals, consider adding them as appendices.

5. Keep the tone, style, and voice consistent

This is best managed by having a single person write the plan or by allowing time for the plan to be properly edited before distributing it.

6. Use a business plan template

You can also use a free business plan template to provide a skeleton for writing a plan. These templates often guide you through each section—from financial projects to market research to mission statement—ensuring you don’t miss a step.

7. Try business plan software

Writing a business plan isn’t the easiest task for business owners. But it’s important for anyone starting or expanding a business. 

Fortunately, there are tools to help with everything from planning, drafting, creating graphics, syncing financial data, and more. Business plan software also has business plan templates and tutorials to help you finish a comprehensive plan in hours, rather than days.

A few curated picks include:

• LivePlan : the most affordable option with samples and templates
• Bizplan : tailored for startups seeking investment
• Go Small Biz : budget-friendly option with industry-specific templates

📚 Read more:  6 Best Business Plan Software Platforms (2024)

Common mistakes when writing a business plan

Other articles on business plans would never tell you what we’re about to tell you: Your business plan can fail. 

The last thing you want is for time and effort to go down the drain, so avoid these common mistakes:

• Bad business idea. Sometimes your idea may be too risky for potential investors or too expensive to run, or there’s no market. Aim for small business ideas that require low startup costs.
• No exit strategy. If you don’t show an exit strategy, or a plan for investors to leave the business with maximum profits, you’ll have little luck securing capital.
• Unbalanced teams. A great product is the cost of entry to starting a business. But an incredible team will take it to the top. Unfortunately, many business owners overlook a balanced team. They focus on potential profits, without worrying about how it will be done operationally. 
• Missing financial projections. Don’t forget your balance sheet, cash flow statements, P&L statements, and income statements. Include your break-even analysis and return-on-investment calculations in your financial projections to create a successful business plan.
• Spelling and grammar errors. All the best organizations have an editor review their documents. If someone spots typos while reading your business plan, sloppy errors like those can evoke a larger sense of distrust in your capabilities to run a successful company. It may seem minor, but legibility and error-free writing helps make a good impression on your business plan’s audience. 

Updating and revising a business plan

Business plans aren’t static documents. The business world moves fast and your plan will need to keep up. You don’t want it to get stale. 

Here’s a good rule of thumb for business plan revisions:

• Monthly: Update KPIs like sales, website traffic, and customer acquisition costs. Review your cash flow. Is your money situation as expected? Make the necessary changes.
• Quarterly : Are you hitting your targets? Be sure to update your financial performance, successful marketing campaigns, and any other recent milestones achieved.
• Yearly : Think of this as a big overhaul. Compare projections to actuals and update your forecasts. 

When updating your plan, don’t just go with your gut. Use data like surveys and website analytics to inform each update. Using outdated information will only lead to confusion and missed opportunities.

Remember not to just update one part of your plan—it’s all connected. Fortunately, with business plan software you can easily give your plan attention and help your business thrive. 

How to present a business plan

Here are some tips for presenting your business plan to stakeholders.

Understand your audience

Start by doing homework on who you’ll be presenting to. Are they investors, potential partners, or a bank? Each group will have different interests and expectations. 

Consider the following about your presentation audience:

• Background: What’s their professional experience?
• Knowledge level: How familiar are they with your industry?
• Interests: What aspects of your plan will excite them most?
• Concerns: What might make them hesitant about your idea?

Depending on who you’re presenting to, you can tweak your presentation accordingly. For example, if you’re presenting to a group of investors, you’d probably want to highlight financial projections and market analysis. 

Structure your presentation

Once you know your audience, you can organize your presentation. Think of this as the story you’ll tell listeners. A well-structured presentation helps listeners follow along and remember key points. 

Your opening should grab attention and give a snapshot of what’s to come. It’s kind of like an elevator pitch that gives an overview of your business idea. 

From there, break your presentation into clear sections:

• Problem: What issue are you solving?
• Solution: How does your business address this problem?
• Market: Who are your potential customers?
• Competition: Who else is in this space, and how are you different?
• Business model: How will you make money?
• Financial projections: What are your expected costs and revenues?
• Team: Who’s involved, and what makes them qualified?

Use visual aids to support your points. Graphs, charts, and even simple illustrations can make your information more digestible. Remember to practice your timing, too. A good presentation flows smoothly, giving each section the right amount of attention for its intended audience. 

Handle objections and questions

Facing objections or questions can be nerve-wracking, but it’s actually a great opportunity. It shows your listeners are engaged and thinking critically about your idea. The key is to be prepared and stay calm. 

Try to anticipate potential questions. Put yourself in the listener’s shoes: What would you want to know if you were them? Come up with clear answers to these questions ahead of time.

When handling questions:

• Listen carefully: Make sure you fully understand the question before answering.
• Stay positive: Even if the question seems critical, respond with enthusiasm.
• Be honest: If you don’t know something, it’s OK. Offer to find out and follow up. 

Use questions as a way to highlight the strengths of your business plan. If a question needs more thought or refresh, it’s perfectly fine to say, “That’s a great question. I’d love to look further into it and get back to you with a detailed answer.”

Handling questions well shows that you’re knowledgeable, thoughtful, and open to feedback—all things that will impress listeners and make them feel confident in your business plan. 

Prepare your business plan today

A business plan can help you identify clear, deliberate next steps for your business, even if you never plan to pitch investors—and it can help you see gaps in your plan before they become issues. 

Whether you’re working on starting a new online business idea , building a retail storefront, growing your established business, or purchasing an existing business , you now understand how to write a business plan that suits your business’s goals and needs.

Feature illustration by Rachel Tunstall

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Business plan FAQ

How do i write a business plan.

Learning how to write a business plan is simple if you use a business plan template or business plan software. Typically, a traditional business plan for every new business should have the following components:

• Executive summary
• Company description, including value proposition
• Market analysis and competitive analysis
• Management and organization
• Products and services
• Customer segmentation
• Marketing plan
• Logistics and operations
• Financial plan and financial projections

What is a good business plan?

A good business plan clearly communicates your company’s purpose, goals, and growth strategies. It starts with a strong executive summary, then adequately outlines idea feasibility, target market insights, and the competitive landscape. 

A business plan template can help businesses be sure to follow the typical format of traditional business plans, which also include financial projections, details about the management team, and other key elements that venture capital firms and potential investors want to see.

What are the 3 main purposes of a business plan?

The three main purposes of a business plan are: 

• To clarify your plans for growth
• To understand your financial needs
• To attract funding from investors or secure a business loan

What are the different types of business plans?

The types of business plans include startup, refocusing, internal, annual, strategic, feasibility, operations, growth, and scenario-based. Each type of business plan has a different purpose. Business plan formats include traditional, lean, and nonprofit. Find a business plan template for the type of plan you want to write.

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The Products and Services Section in a Business Plan

How to Write the Business Plan Products and Services Section

• The Products and Services Section
• What to Include
• Tips on Writing the Section

The products and services section of your business plan is more than just a list of what your business is going to provide. This section of your business plan should include details about how you'll price products and services, how you'll fulfill orders, and other details that investors need to hear before you can get funding .

Additionally, it should outline the unique selling points of your offerings and explain how they stand out from competitors. Providing information on awards received, potential suppliers, and manufacturing processes can also strengthen this section and build investor confidence. Learn more with the guide below.

Key Takeaways

• Business plans include details about the products and services you'll offer, including exactly how you plan to market, sell, and deliver on customer orders.
• The best business plans are clear and concise.
• The products and services section of your plan should show why your product or service is needed.
• The products and services section should also convey the expertise and experience you have to succeed.

Why You Need a Products and Services Section in a Business Plan

The business plan products and services section is the centerpiece of your plan. While other sections of your business plan are important, the products and services section is the essence of your business and the point around which every other part of the business plan is built .

What to Include in a Products and Services Section

The products and services section of your business plan outlines your product or service, why it's needed by your market, and how it will compete with other businesses selling the same or similar products and services.

Your products and services section should include a description of the products or services you are offering or plan to offer (including future products or services). You should explain how your products and services will be priced and a comparison of the products or services your competitors offer in relation to yours.

You should also include the sales literature you plan to use. Detail your marketing materials, and clarify the role your website will play in your sales efforts.

The products and services section will include a paragraph or so on how orders from your customers will be processed or fulfilled, as well as any needs you have to create or deliver your products, such as partnerships, up-to-date computer equipment, or manufacturing processes. If your process depends on intellectual property or legal issues, such as trademarks , then those need to be addressed.

Tips on Writing the Products and Services Section

This section of your business plan should excite those you're hoping will fund your business or work with you. To that end, here are a few tips to create a products and services section that appeals to the reader.

Indicate Why Your Product or Service Is Needed

Especially if you're venturing into a new concept or invention, or a place where there is no current market, you need to explain the need for your product or service.

Highlight the Features of Your Product or Service

A crucial part of business success is the ability to set yourself apart from other businesses that sell the same or similar products and services. What features, such as price point or level of service, do you offer that are unique to you?

Focus on Benefits

Unique features are important, but even more vital is how those features provide value to consumers. Translate your features (i.e., faster or cheaper) into benefits (i.e., get it now or save money). The goal is to highlight how your product or service will fix a problem or improve a client or customer's life.

Be Clear and Concise

Don't let your business plan get bogged down in too much description and information. Use bullets or numbered lists to quickly and easily highlight important information.

Show Off Expertise, Experience, and Accolades

You not only want to describe your products and services but also share why you're the best person to provide them. Include anything in your education or experience that makes you an expert in this business. If you have testimonials, awards, or endorsements, share those. Finally, if you've applied for a patent, copyright, or trademark, include that as well.

Be the Expert, But Use Layman's Terms

You should know your product, service, and industry well, but don't expect your potential funders and partners to have the same level of knowledge. Assume the reader doesn't know as much as you when you explain what you're offering.

Avoid acronyms and jargon when outlining your products and services.

Indicate What's Special About Your Products or Services

Will you be offering a special guarantee or refund policy? Do you have a quicker or more unique way of delivering your product or service? 

Speak to Your Customer

While you don't want to write an advertorial, you do want to be customer-oriented when you write your products and services section.

Examples of a Products and Services Section

The Small Business Administration offers business plan examples that you can draw from to help guide your writing. Here's an example of a products section for someone creating "Wooden Grain Toys."

Wooden Grain Toys will sell wooden toys made from solid hardwoods (maple, beech, birch, cherry, and oak) and steel rivets. The toys are handcrafted and designed for small children to easily use. Our line currently includes the following nine models:

• All-Purpose Pick-Up Truck w/movable doors and tailgate
• Dump Truck w/functioning dumping mechanism and box
• Biplane (two-seater) w/movable propeller
• Steam engine with coal tender - additional cars available separately: caboose, flat car w/logs, box car, tank car, coal car
• Flat-Bed Truck w/logs

Wooden Grain Toys will offer its products for the following prices:

• All-Purpose Pick-Up Truck w/movable doors and tailgate - $25
• Dump Truck w/functioning dumping mechanism and box - $30
• Biplane (two-seater) w/movable propeller - $20
• Additional train cars (single car) - $5
• Additional train cars (three cars) - $12
• City Bus - $12
• Tow Truck - $18
• Flat-Bed Truck w/logs - $35
• Sports Car - $20
• Sedan - $20

What is the products and services section in a business plan?

A products and services section of a business plan clarifies exactly what your business will produce , how much it'll sell for, and other details along those lines.

What are examples of products and services?

A product or service can be anything a business creates to turn a profit. Some businesses have both products and services. For example, a restaurant's services include cooking for and serving customers. The restaurant's products are the dishes and drinks it creates.

Small Business Administration. " Write your business plan ."

How To Build a Strategic Sales Plan + 10 Examples

• March 28, 2024

Every sales team has some sort of plan, even if it’s just “sell more of the product/service that you’re employed to sell.”

A sales plan is a portfolio that includes a layout of your processes, target audience, objectives and tactics. It’s used to guide your sales strategy and predict cost and returns. 

Yet without a codified sales plan, it can be difficult to give a sales team the motivation and purpose they need to successfully engage customers and continue to generate revenue.

Not having a sales plan that’s written down and signed off on by stakeholders can lead to confusion around what sales reps should and shouldn’t be doing , which can be demotivating.

It might seem daunting or time-consuming to put together an entire sales plan, but it doesn’t need to be. Here’s how to create a thorough sales plan in 10 simple steps. 

What Is a Sales Plan? 

A successful sales plan defines your target customers, business objectives, tactics, obstacles and processes. An effective plan will also include resources and strategies that are used to achieve target goals. It works similarly to a business plan in the way it’s presented, but only focuses on your sales strategy. 

A sales plan should include the following three components: 

• Ideas: If you use specific business methodologies, you may choose to outline key principles and examples of them in action within your sales plan. An example could be conversation tactics when pitching your product to your target customer. 
• Processes: In order to streamline productivity and business strategy, you’ll want to make sure your processes are defined within your sales plan. Your sales team should be able to refer to the sales plan when they’re in need of direction. 
• Tools and tactics: The most effective sales plans include not only high-level business strategies, but also step-by-step approaches for your sales team to utilize. These tools can include key conversation pieces for your sales reps to use when pitching a product or content to close out a deal. 

Solidifying a sales plan is crucial for a strong business model. Taking the time to narrow in on the components above will set you and your business up for success down the road. 

Sales Planning Process

It’s important to keep in mind that sales planning isn’t just about creating a sales plan document. A sales plan should be a go-to item that’s used every day by your team, rather than sitting on your desk collecting dust. Creating an effective sales plan requires high-level strategy.

You should: 

• Decide on a timeline for your goals and tactics
• Outline the context
• Write out the company mission and values
• Describe the target audience and product service positioning
• Include sales resources
• Draw out an overview of concurrent activities
• Write an overview of your business road map
• Outline your goals and KPIs
• Outline an action plan
• Create a budget 

 Below we dive into each of these steps to create your ideal sales plan. 

1. Decide on Your Timeline

Setting goals and outlining tactics is not going to be productive if you’re not working toward a date by which you’ll measure your efforts.

Determining the timeline of your sales plan should therefore be your number one consideration. When will you be ready to kick-start your plan, and when is a reasonable time to measure the outcomes of your plan against your SMART goals?

Remember that you need to give the plan a chance to make an impact, so this timeline shouldn’t be too restrictive. However, you also want to make sure that you’re flexible enough to adjust your plan if it’s not producing the desired results.

Most sales plan timelines cover about a year, which may be segmented into four quarters and/or two halves to make it a little more manageable.

2. Outline the Context

Use the first page of your sales plan to outline the context in which the plan was created.

What is the current state of the organization? What are your challenges and pain points? What recent wins have you experienced?

Do you have tighter restrictions on cash flow, or does revenue appear to be growing exponentially? How is your sales team currently performing?

While you’ll discuss your business plan and road map later in the document, you can also outline the long-term vision for your business in this section. For example, where do you want to see the business in five years?

Tip: Comparing the current situation with your vision will emphasize the gap between where you are now and where you need to be. 

3. Company Mission and Values

It’s essential that you put your mission and values at the heart of your business. You need to incorporate them into every function – and this includes your sales plan.

Outlining your mission and values in your sales plan ensures that you remember what the company is striving for, and in turn helps ensure that your approach and tactics will support these objectives.

Remember: A strong brand mission and authentic values will help boost customer loyalty, brand reputation and, ultimately, sales.

4. Target Market and Product/Service Positioning

Next, you’ll need to describe the market or markets that you’re operating in.

What is your target market or industry? What research led you to conclude that this was the optimal market for you?

Who within this industry is your ideal customer? What are their characteristics? This could be a job title, geographical location or company size, for example. This information makes up your ideal customer profile .

If you’ve delved further into audience research and developed personas around your target market, then include them in here, too.

5. Sales Team and Resources

This step is simple: Make a list of your sales resources, beginning with a short description of each member of your sales team.

Include their name, job title, length of time at the company and, where appropriate, their salary. What are their strengths? How can they be utilized to help you hit your goals?

You should also include notes around the gaps in your sales team and whether you intend to recruit any new team members into these (or other) roles.

Tip: Communicate the time zones your team members work in to be mindful of designated work hours for scheduling meetings and deadlines. 

Then, list your other resources. These could be tools, software or access to other departments such as the marketing team – anything that you intend to use in the execution of your sales plan. This is a quick way to eliminate any tools or resources that you don’t need.

6. Concurrent Activities

The next step in creating your sales plan involves providing an overview of non-sales activities that will be taking place during the implementation of your sales plan.

Any public marketing plans, upcoming product launches, or deals or discounts should be included, as should any relevant events. This will help you plan sales tactics around these activities and ensure that you’re getting the most out of them.

7. Business Road Map

For this step, write up an overview of your business’s overall road map, as well as the areas where sales activities can assist with or accelerate this plan. You’ll need to collaborate with the CEO, managing director or board of directors in order to do this.

In most cases, the business will already have a road map that has been signed off on by stakeholders. It’s the sales manager’s job to develop a sales plan that not only complements this road map, but facilitates its goals. 

Tip: Highlight areas of the road map that should be touchpoints for the sales team. 

Ask yourself what your department will need to do at each point in the road map to hit these overarching company goals.

8. Sales Goals and KPIs

Another important part of the sales plan involves your sales goals and KPIs.

Outline each goal alongside the KPIs you’ll use to measure it. Include a list of metrics you’ll use to track these KPIs, as well as a deadline for when you project the goal will be achieved.

It’s vital to make these goals tangible and measurable.

A bad example of a goal is as follows:

Goal 1: Increase sales across company’s range of products and services.

A better goal would look something like:

Goal 1: Generate $500,000+ in revenue from new clients through purchases of X product by X date.

9. Action Plan

Now that you’ve laid out your goals, you need to explain how you will hit them.

Your action plan can be set out week by week, month by month, or quarter by quarter. Within each segment, you must list out all of the sales activities and tactics that you will deploy – and the deadlines and touchpoints along the way.

Tip: Organize your action plan by department – sales, business development and finance. 

While this is arguably the most complex part of the sales plan, this is where sales leaders are strongest. They know which approach will work best for their team, their company and their market.

Budgets vary from team to team and company to company, but whatever your situation, it’s important to include your budget in your sales plan.

How are you going to account for the money spent on new hires, salaries, tech, tools and travel? Where the budget is tight, what are your priorities going to be, and what needs to be axed?

The budget section should make references back to your action plan and the sales team and resources page in order to explain the expenditures.

6 Strategic Sales Plan Examples 

You can create different types of strategic sales plans for your company, depending on how you want to structure your sales plan. Here are a few examples.   

Customer Profile 

A customer profile outlines your ideal customer for your service or product. It will usually include industry, background, attributes and decision-making factors.  

Creating a customer profile helps narrow in on the target customer your sales team should focus on while eliminating unproductive leads.  

Buyer’s Guide

A buyer’s guide is an informational sheet that describes your company’s services or products, including benefits and features. This document is useful both for your sales team but also for a potential customer who requires more information on the product before purchasing. 

30-60-90-Day Plan

This plan is organized based on time periods. It includes outlines of goals, strategy and actionable steps in 30-day periods. This is a useful sales plan model for a new sales representative tracking progress during their first 90 days in the position or meeting quotas in a 90-day period. 

This type of sales plan is also ideal for businesses in periods of expansion or growth. It’s helpful to minimize extra effort in onboarding processes. 

Market Expansion Plan

A market expansion plan clarifies target metrics and list of actions when moving into a new territory or market. This sales plan model is typically used with a target market that resides in a new geographical region. 

You’ll want to include a profile of target customers, account distribution costs and even time zone differences between your sales representatives. 

Marketing-alignment Plan

Creating a marketing-alignment sales plan is useful if your organization has yet to align both your sales and marketing departments. The goal of the sales plan is finalizing your target customer personas and aligning them with your sales pitches and marketing messages. 

New Product/Service Plan 

If your organization is launching a new service or product, it’s best to create a sales plan to track revenue and other growth metrics from the launch. You’ll want to include sales strategy, competitive analyses and service or product sales positioning. 

Sales Plan Template

4 additional sales plan templates.

Here are some additional templates you can use to create your own unique sales plan. 

• Template Lab 
• ProjectManager

5 Tips for Creating a Sales Plan 

Now that you’ve seen and read through a few examples and a sales plan template, we’ll cover some easy but useful tips to create a foolproof sales plan. 

• Create a competitive analysis: Research what sales strategies and tactics your close competitors are using. What are they doing well? What are they not doing well? Knowing what they are doing well will help you create a plan that will lead to eventual success. 
• Vary your sales plans: First create a base sales plan that includes high-level goals, strategies and tactics. Then go more in depth on KPIs and metrics for each department, whether it’s outbound sales or business development . 
• Analyze industry trends: Industry trends and data can easily help strengthen your sales approach. For example, if you’re pitching your sales plan to a stakeholder, use current market trends and statistics to support why you believe your sales strategies will be effective in use. 
• Utilize your marketing team: When creating your sales plan, you’ll want to get the marketing department’s input to align your efforts and goals. You should weave marketing messages throughout both your sales plan and pitches. 
• Discuss with your sales team: Remember to check in with your sales representatives to understand challenges they may be dealing with and what’s working and not working. You should update the sales plan quarterly based on feedback received from your sales team. 

When Should You Implement a Strategic Sales Plan? 

Does your organization currently not have a sales plan in place that is used regularly? Are you noticing your organization is in need of structure and lacking productivity across departments? These are definite signs you should create and implement a sales plan. 

According to a LinkedIn sales statistic , the top sales tech sellers are using customer relationship management (CRM) tools (50%), sales intelligence (45%) and sales planning (42%) .

Below are a few more indicators that you need an effective sales plan. 

To Launch a New Product or Campaign 

If you’re planning to launch a new service or product in six months, you should have a concrete marketing and sales strategy plan to guarantee you’ll see both short- and long-term success. 

The sales plan process shouldn’t be hasty and rushed. Take the time to go over data and competitor analysis. Work with your team to create objectives and goals that everyone believes in. Your sales plan should be updated formally on a quarterly basis to be in line with industry trends and business efforts. 

To Increase Sales

If your team is looking to increase revenue and the number of closed sales, you may need to widen and define your target audience. A sales plan will help outline this target audience, along with planning out both sales and marketing strategies to reach more qualified prospects and increase your sales conversion rate. 

Now that you’ve seen sales plan examples and tips and tricks, the next step after creating your sales plan is to reach those ideal sales targets with Mailshake . Connect with leads and generate more sales with our simple but effective sales engagement platform.

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Original text

The sales and marketing section of your business plan is especially crucial because it determines how you’ll plan on generating profit and describes how you intend to create exposure to best sell your product. It’s in this area of your business plan that you’ll hone the key elements of your marketing strategy. The actual implementation of your sales and marketing initiatives actually occurs before you launch, when you’ve set your go-to-market date so strategize the components of your sales and marketing plan early on.

Here’s a quick guide on what your key sales and marketing considerations should be:

This section should contain the following elements and should be no more than four pages.

Unique Value Proposition

Pricing strategy.

• Sales/Distribution Plan

Marketing Plan

Your unique value proposition is the market need you’re planning to solve. Think of it as your secret ingredient – your “special sauce.” This may be a combination of factors including customer service, technology, a twist on a product or service, etc. Create the case for why your product deserves to have a sustainable business built around it.

Determine your pricing scheme. First, check what your competition is charging. This should give you an indication of what customers are willing to spend. Then, determine how you can add value. Until you get your product out there, it’s hard to know for sure how much your added benefit is worth in the customer’s mind. The keyword here is “reasonable.” You can charge any price you want to, but for every product or service, there’s a limit to how much the consumer is willing to pay.

Remember, even if you’re trying to be the lowest-cost provider, give a higher perceived value to your ideal customer to stand apart from the competition. Competitors can slash their prices to meet or beat yours, so be very careful if you decide to compete on cost.

Sales & Distribution Plan

This section describes how you intend to get your product to customers and how you’ll measure the effectiveness of those methods. For example, once you figure out where you’ll be selling your product – online, at a retail outlet, door-to-door – determine the type of sales team you’ll need and how you’ll compensate them.

In terms of distribution, think about how you’ll actually get the product or service into the hands of the customer. Ultimately, you’ll want to sell your product or service in as many ways that make sense for your company: online, at a retail outlet, via house parties or mail order, or through other companies. Initially, however, focus on selling through just one of these channels so you can build your business before comfortably extending to others.

You’re going to need customers to buy your product. How do you plan to get them? There are many free or low-cost strategies such as referrals, word-of-mouth, public relations, and marketing partners to help cross-promote or sell your product, so I would avoid any expensive print, TV, or radio advertising campaigns at these early stages.

Create your strategy for attracting customers. Before you start actually executing your marketing strategy, however, think about “branding.” This is the look and feel of your business, what customers experience when interacting with it, from the fonts, colors, and text of the website and your business cards to the overall image you portray in the product itself. This branding will be reflected in the execution of your marketing strategy.

Describe how you want customers to experience your product or service. Take a look at products or companies that you really like, and think about why you like them. What makes you feel good about them? Do these characteristics permeate all aspects of the product, from website to packaging to letterhead?

After you document the marketing plan activities, calculate the costs that you expect to incur. For example, if referrals are part of the strategy, then calculate how much you’re willing to pay a referral partner for each new customer they bring your way. Will it be $1, $20, $50, or more? Let’s say, for example, you expect a referral partner to refer 100 clients to you, and each of those referred clients spends $10, giving you a total of $1,000. You’ve agreed to pay this partner $1 for each referral, so you’ll spend $100 on referrals for your marketing strategy. In this example, your cost of acquisition – the cost you pay for each new customer – is $1. You’ll need to know this number, especially when you draft your financial plan.

Business Plan Template for a Startup Business To increase your odds of a successful business startup, download this step-by-step business plan template you can use to plan for your new business.

Every Business Deserves Planning Don’t make the common mistake of dismissing the value of planning. Every well-run business needs to manage strategy, metrics and essential business numbers.

Copyright © 2024 SCORE Association, SCORE.org

Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.

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How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)

Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.

If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.

Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.

You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.

1. Secure Funds

One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.

For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.

A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.

Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.

2. Monitor Business Growth

A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:

• The business goals
• Methods to achieve the goals
• Time-frame for attaining those goals

A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.

You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.

3. Measure Business Success

A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.

Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.

You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.

Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.

In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:

• How do you want to reach your target audience?
• How do you plan to retain your customers?
• What is/are your pricing plans?
• What is your budget for marketing?

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.

Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.

A good executive summary should do the following:

• A Snapshot of Growth Potential. Briefly inform the reader about your company and why it will be successful)
• Contain your Mission Statement which explains what the main objective or focus of your business is.
• Product Description and Differentiation. Brief description of your products or services and why it is different from other solutions in the market.
• The Team. Basic information about your company’s leadership team and employees
• Business Concept. A solid description of what your business does.
• Target Market. The customers you plan to sell to.
• Marketing Strategy. Your plans on reaching and selling to your customers
• Current Financial State. Brief information about what revenue your business currently generates.
• Projected Financial State. Brief information about what you foresee your business revenue to be in the future.

The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.

Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.

View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:

• Who is your target audience?
• What sector or industry are you in?
• What are your products and services?
• What is the future of your industry?
• Is your company scaleable?
• Who are the owners and leaders of your company? What are their backgrounds and experience levels?
• What is the motivation for starting your company?
• What are the next steps?

Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.

The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.

If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.

2. Add Your Company Overview

The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.

Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.

Your company overview should contain the following:

• What products and services you will provide
• Geographical markets and locations your company have a presence
• What you need to run your business
• Who your target audience or customers are
• Who will service your customers
• Your company’s purpose, mission, and vision
• Information about your company’s founders
• Who the founders are
• Notable achievements of your company so far

When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.

If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.

• Who are you targeting? (The answer is not everyone)
• What pain point does your product or service solve for your customers that they will be willing to spend money on resolving?
• How does your product or service overcome that pain point?
• Where is the location of your business?
• What products, equipment, and services do you need to run your business?
• How is your company’s product or service different from your competition in the eyes of your customers?
• How many employees do you need and what skills do you require them to have?

After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.

The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.

• Mission Statement

The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.

Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”

When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:

• Founding Date
• Major Milestones
• Location(s)
• Flagship Products or Services
• Number of Employees
• Executive Leadership Roles

When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.

Business Objectives

Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.

3. Perform Market and Competitive Analyses to Proof a Big Enough Business Opportunity

The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.

Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.

This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.

Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?

You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.

Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?

Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?

Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.

Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.

Market Analysis

Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.

The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.

A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.

• Market Research

To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.

• Your target market’s needs or pain points
• The existing solutions for their pain points
• Geographic Location
• Demographics

The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.

Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.

You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.

How to Quantify Your Target Market

One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:

• Your Potential Customers: They are the people you plan to target. For example, if you sell accounting software for small businesses , then anyone who runs an enterprise or large business is unlikely to be your customers. Also, individuals who do not have a business will most likely not be interested in your product.
• Total Households: If you are selling household products such as heating and air conditioning systems, determining the number of total households is more important than finding out the total population in the area you want to sell to. The logic is simple, people buy the product but it is the household that uses it.
• Median Income: You need to know the median income of your target market. If you target a market that cannot afford to buy your products and services, your business will not last long.
• Income by Demographics: If your potential customers belong to a certain age group or gender, determining income levels by demographics is necessary. For example, if you sell men's clothes, your target audience is men.

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.

You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:

• Industry Description. You find out about the history of your industry, the current and future market size, and who the largest players/companies are in your industry.
• Overview of Target Market. You research your target market and its characteristics. Who are you targeting? Note, it cannot be everyone, it has to be a specific group. You also have to find out all information possible about your customers that can help you understand how and why they make buying decisions.
• Size of Target Market: You need to know the size of your target market, how frequently they buy, and the expected quantity they buy so you do not risk overproducing and having lots of bad inventory. Researching the size of your target market will help you determine if it is big enough for sustained business or not.
• Growth Potential: Before picking a target market, you want to be sure there are lots of potential for future growth. You want to avoid going for an industry that is declining slowly or rapidly with almost zero growth potential.
• Market Share Potential: Does your business stand a good chance of taking a good share of the market?
• Market Pricing and Promotional Strategies: Your market analysis should give you an idea of the price point you can expect to charge for your products and services. Researching your target market will also give you ideas of pricing strategies you can implement to break into the market or to enjoy maximum profits.
• Potential Barriers to Entry: One of the biggest benefits of conducting market analysis is that it shows you every potential barrier to entry your business will likely encounter. It is a good idea to discuss potential barriers to entry such as changing technology. It informs readers of your business plan that you understand the market.
• Research on Competitors: You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how you can exploit them for the benefit of your business. Find patterns and trends among your competitors that make them successful, discover what works and what doesn’t, and see what you can do better.

The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.

Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.

• Is your product or service of superior quality?
• What additional features do you offer that your competitors do not offer?
• Are you targeting a ‘new’ market?

Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.

Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.

Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.

Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.

The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.

Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.

When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.

Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.

• What are your successful competitors doing?
• Why is what they are doing working?
• Can your business do it better?
• What are the weaknesses of your successful competitors?
• What are they not doing well?
• Can your business turn its weaknesses into strengths?
• How good is your competitors’ customer service?
• Where do your competitors invest in advertising?
• What sales and pricing strategies are they using?
• What marketing strategies are they using?
• What kind of press coverage do they get?
• What are their customers saying about your competitors (both the positive and negative)?

If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.

If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.

Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.

The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.

Direct vs Indirect Competition

You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.

There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.

If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.

In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.

For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.

There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.

1. Cost Leadership

A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.

A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.

2. Product Differentiation

Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.

Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.

3. Market Segmentation

As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.

If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.

Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.

If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.

Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.

The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.

Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.

Management Team

The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.

Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.

A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.

Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.

Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.

If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

• Who are the key leaders?
• What experiences, skills, and educational backgrounds do you expect your key leaders to have?
• Do your key leaders have industry experience?
• What positions will they fill and what duties will they perform in those positions?
• What level of authority do the key leaders have and what are their responsibilities?
• What is the salary for the various management positions that will attract the ideal candidates?

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team

There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.

Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.

2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles

Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.

While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.

Organizational Chart

Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.

If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.

An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.

You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.

Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.

The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.

If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”

Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:

• A detailed explanation that clearly shows how your product or service works.
• The pricing model for your product or service.
• Your business’ sales and distribution strategy.
• The ideal customers that want your product or service.
• The benefits of your products and services.
• Reason(s) why your product or service is a better alternative to what your competitors are currently offering in the market.
• Plans for filling the orders you receive
• If you have current or pending patents, copyrights, and trademarks for your product or service, you can also discuss them in this section.

What to Focus On When Describing the Benefits, Lifecycle, and Production Process of Your Products or Services

In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.

When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Unique features
• Translating the unique features into benefits
• The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
• Intellectual property rights or any patents

When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
• Time between purchases
• Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

• The creation of new or existing products and services.
• The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
• Assembling the products
• Maintaining quality control
• Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
• The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

• Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
• What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
• What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
• Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
• Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
• How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
• What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
• What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
• What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
• Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
• Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
• How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

• What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
• What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
• Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
• How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

• Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
• Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
• Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

• Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
• Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
• Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

• Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
• What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
• How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

• What makes your competition successful?
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

• What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
• What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
• What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
• Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
• What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
• Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

• Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
• Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
• Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
• Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
• Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
• Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
• Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

• What is your sales forecast for the next year?
• When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
• What are the core expenses you need to operate?
• How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
• How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

• Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
• Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
• Additional financial documents or projections
• Articles of incorporation and status
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Bank statements
• Business registries
• Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
• Copies of insurances
• Credit histories (personal or/and business)
• Deeds and permits
• Equipment leases
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Industry associations and memberships
• Images of product
• Intellectual property
• Key customer contracts
• Legal documents and other contracts
• Letters of reference
• Links to references
• Market research data
• Organizational charts
• Photographs of potential facilities
• Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
• Purchase orders
• Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
• State and federal identification numbers or codes
• Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

• A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
• A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
• A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Product or service description
• Target audience
• Market size
• Competition analysis
• Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

• Business opportunity
• Company description
• Industry analysis
• Target market
• Implementation timeline
• Marketing plan
• Financial summary
• Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

• The Business Profile
• The Vision and the People
• Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
• Organization
• Licenses and Permits
• Business Insurance
• Communication Tools
• Acquisitions
• Location and Leasing
• Accounting and Cash Flow
• Opening and Marketing
• Managing Employees
• Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Service Line
• Marketing and Sales

8. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Products and services
• Operations plan
• Management organization
• Financial plan
• Conclusion / Call to action
• Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

10. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

• Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
• Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
• The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
• Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
• Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
• Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
• Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
• Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
• Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

• Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
• Solution: The solutions to each problem.
• Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
• Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

• Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
• Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
• Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
• Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
• Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
• Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
• Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
• Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
• Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
• Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
• Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
• Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

• Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
• Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
• Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
• Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time.  They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans.  A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs.  Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

• 12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
• 13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
• 5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
• How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

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• Write Your Business Plan | Part 1 Overview Video
• The Basics of Writing a Business Plan
• How to Use Your Business Plan Most Effectively
• 12 Reasons You Need a Business Plan
• The Main Objectives of a Business Plan
• What to Include and Not Include in a Successful Business Plan
• The Top 4 Types of Business Plans
• A Step-by-Step Guide to Presenting Your Business Plan in 10 Slides
• 6 Tips for Making a Winning Business Presentation
• 3 Key Things You Need to Know About Financing Your Business
• 12 Ways to Set Realistic Business Goals and Objectives
• How to Perfectly Pitch Your Business Plan in 10 Minutes
• Write Your Business Plan | Part 2 Overview Video
• How to Fund Your Business Through Friends and Family Loans and Crowdsourcing
• How to Fund Your Business Using Banks and Credit Unions
• How to Fund Your Business With an SBA Loan
• How to Fund Your Business With Bonds and Indirect Funding Sources
• How to Fund Your Business With Venture Capital
• How to Fund Your Business With Angel Investors
• How to Use Your Business Plan to Track Performance
• How to Make Your Business Plan Attractive to Prospective Partners
• Is This Idea Going to Work? How to Assess the Potential of Your Business.
• When to Update Your Business Plan
• Write Your Business Plan | Part 3 Overview Video
• How to Write the Management Team Section to Your Business Plan
• How to Create a Strategic Hiring Plan
• How to Write a Business Plan Executive Summary That Sells Your Idea
• How to Build a Team of Outside Experts for Your Business
• Use This Worksheet to Write a Product Description That Sells
• What Is Your Unique Selling Proposition? Use This Worksheet to Find Your Greatest Strength.
• How to Raise Money With Your Business Plan
• Customers and Investors Don't Want Products. They Want Solutions.
• Write Your Business Plan | Part 4 Overview Video
• 5 Essential Elements of Your Industry Trends Plan
• How to Identify and Research Your Competition
• Who Is Your Ideal Customer? 4 Questions to Ask Yourself.
• How to Identify Market Trends in Your Business Plan
• How to Define Your Product and Set Your Prices
• How to Determine the Barriers to Entry for Your Business
• How to Get Customers in Your Store and Drive Traffic to Your Website
• How to Effectively Promote Your Business to Customers and Investors
• Write Your Business Plan | Part 5 Overview Video
• What Equipment and Facilities to Include in Your Business Plan
• How to Write an Income Statement for Your Business Plan
• How to Make a Balance Sheet
• How to Make a Cash Flow Statement
• How to Use Financial Ratios to Understand the Health of Your Business
• How to Write an Operations Plan for Retail and Sales Businesses
• How to Make Realistic Financial Forecasts
• How to Write an Operations Plan for Manufacturers
• What Technology Needs to Include In Your Business Plan
• How to List Personnel and Materials in Your Business Plan
• The Role of Franchising
• The Best Ways to Follow Up on a Buisiness Plan
• The Best Books, Sites, Trade Associations and Resources to Get Your Business Funded and Running
• How to Hire the Right Business Plan Consultant
• Business Plan Lingo and Resources All Entrepreneurs Should Know
• How to Write a Letter of Introduction
• What To Put on the Cover Page of a Business Plan
• How to Format Your Business Plan
• 6 Steps to Getting Your Business Plan In Front of Investors

Use This Worksheet to Write a Product Description That Sells It is vitally important that your business plan is able to build a convincing case for the product or service that you plan on selling.

By Eric Butow Edited by Dan Bova Oct 27, 2023

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

This is part 6 / 9 of Write Your Business Plan: Section 3: Selling Your Product and Team series.

Every business has something to sell, and the product section is where you tell readers what it is you're selling. (For simplicity's sake, the term "product" is used to refer to both products and services unless otherwise indicated.) This is clearly a very important section of your plan. Even if you have assembled a brilliant managerial team, or have strong financial underpinnings, unless you have something to sell or at least plans to develop something new, you don't really have a business at all. Business is about providing people with something they need. Your business should solve a problem, make life easier, expedite a process, or even simply entertain, but you need to be selling something to have a business.

Although many businesses are founded to develop new, never-before-seen products, they're still built around a product, even though it may not exist at the moment. And even for these development-stage enterprises, it's just as important to describe the planned-for product and make a presentation that illustrates what people can expect.

Related: How to Craft a Business Plan That Will Turn Investors' Heads

What Is Your Product or Service?

It's easy to talk eloquently about a product you believe in. Some highly marketing-oriented businesses, in fact, are built as much on the ability to wax rhapsodic about a product as they are on the ability to buy or source compelling products to begin with. Think of J. Peterman, the catalog operation that became famous—and highly successful—by selling prosaic products with the help of romantic, overblown advertising copy, prior to going bankrupt in 1999.

It's important in your plan to be able to build a convincing case for the product or service upon which your business will be built. The product description section is where you do that.

Related: How to Write a Business Plan

Product Description Worksheet

Features describe the make, shape, form, or appearance of a product, the characteristics that you use to describe products. These features convey benefits to the customer. Benefits (perceived benefits) are the emotional or other end results that your product or service provides that customer, the satisfaction or fulfillment of needs that a customer receives from your products or services. In the famous phrase, "My factories make cosmetics, we sell hope," cosmetics are the products, hope is the benefit.

Here are a few sample product descriptions:

Street Beat is a new type of portable electronic rhythm machine used to create musical backgrounds for street dances, fairs, concerts, picnics, sporting events, and other outdoor productions. The product is less costly than a live rhythm section and offers better sound quality than competing systems. Its combination of features will appeal to sports promoters, fair organizers, and charitable and youth organizations.

Troubleshooting Times is the only monthly magazine for the nation's 6,000 owners of electronics repair shops. It provides timely news of industry trends, service product reviews, and consumer product service tips written in a language service shop owners can understand.

HOBO, the Home Business Organization, provides business consulting services to entrepreneurs who work out of their homes. The group connects home business owners with experts who have extensive experience counseling home business owners in management, finance, marketing, and lifestyle issues. Unlike entrepreneurial peer groups, which charge members for attending sessions whether or not they receive useful advice, HOBO will guarantee its services, asking home business owners to pay only if they derive solid benefit from the service.

Related: How to Define Your Product and Set Your Prices

A business plan product description has to be less image-conscious than an advertising brochure but more appealing than a simple spec sheet. You don't want to give the appearance of trying to dazzle readers with a glitzy product sales pitch filled with a lot of hype. On the other hand, you want to give them a sampling of how you are going to position and promote the product.

And remember, a business plan product description is not only concerned with consumer appeal. Issues of manufacturability are of paramount concern to plan readers, who may have seen any number of plans describing exciting products that, in the end, proved impossible to design and build economically.

If your product or service has special features that will make it easy to build and distribute, say so. For instance, the portable rhythm machine maker should point out in the business plan that the devices will be constructed using new special-purpose integrated circuits derived from military applications, which will vastly increase durability and quality while reducing costs.

Related: The Basics of Writing a Business Plan

Plan Pointer: Get Creative

No ideas to differentiate your product? Steal someone else's. That is, combine your product with another to create something new. Dry cleaners do this when they offer coupons for the neighborhood pizza parlor—which gives out cleaning coupons with each pie. It's called cooperative marketing.

Related: The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Business Plan

More in Write Your Business Plan

Section 1: the foundation of a business plan, section 2: putting your business plan to work, section 3: selling your product and team, section 4: marketing your business plan, section 5: organizing operations and finances, section 6: getting your business plan to investors.

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How to Market and Sell a Product: 10 Proven Strategies for Maximum Success

Are you looking for advice on how to successfully market and sell a product? If so, this article is perfect for you. In this guide, you’ll be introduced to 10 proven strategies that have been used by successful entrepreneurs and businesses to ensure the maximum success of marketing teams and their products.

From building a brand identity to using the latest digital marketing techniques, we cover a host of topics that will help you better understand the process of product marketing and selling and give you the knowledge and confidence to take your product to the next level.

So read on and take a step closer to realizing your business goals.

Research Your Market and Competitors

Product marketing is a must-have for any business. It’s the process of creating and executing a marketing plan to promote products or services in an effective way. To make sure your product marketing strategy is successful , you need to do some research first. You’ll want to understand the existing market, identify potential customers, analyze competitors’ marketing tactics, and look into customer behavior and preferences.

When it comes to selling new products compared to existing ones, salespeople have more work on their hands. They need more face-to-face meetings with potential customers so they can explain the product’s features and benefits clearly. Plus, experiments like surveys and focus groups help them get a better understanding of who their target audience is – which helps ensure that the product appeals to prospective customers and solves their problems too!

Finally, evaluating pricing fairness compared to competitors is key when adjusting pricing structure for maximum customer satisfaction. Sams should analyze financial reports from related industries as well as customer needs & challenges before making any decisions about prices. All these steps are essential for successful product marketing efforts!

Understand Your Target Audience

Understand your target audience? Essential for product marketing success. But how do you identify them? Customer research can help – in understanding customer behavior, preferences, and feedback. Surveys, focus groups, A/B testing, and customer feedback provide insights into the target audience. Plus, creating buyer personas helps create a tangible outline of the customer base and their needs.

But why is it important to understand customers’ needs, challenges, and pain points? To develop a product that meets their needs! Gather data on customer behavior, preferences, online reviews, and feedback – plus study industry trends. Understanding the target audience also helps determine what type of content to provide based on the customer’s niche.

Analyze Your Competition

Analyzing competitors’ marketing strategies also can provide invaluable insights on how to effectively promote the product and what new audience(s) and markets to launch it in. It’s important to compare the features and benefits of your product with those of competitors’ offerings, as well as use their work for inspiration when creating marketing campaigns.

To identify features that set your product apart, you need to understand competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Analyzing their SEO, social media strategies, email marketing tactics, etc., will help inform which ones are best suited for your own campaigns.

Don’t forget about people heavily invested in the status quo – studying customer reviews on competitors’ products can give you an idea of potential customers’ challenges. Have you explored all possibilities yet?

Conduct Market Research

Conducting market research is a must for product marketing success. It’s essential to understand the existing market and identify potential customers, including researching general market reports and industry trends to determine who the target customer is, what their needs and challenges are, and how many customers gravitate to the product. Additionally, researching customer behavior, preferences, and feedback can help comprehend the target audience.

There are several types of market research that can be conducted – surveys, interviews, focus groups, or data analysis – as well as analyzing competitors’ strategies such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media strategies, or email marketing. Examining customer reviews and feedback on rivals’ products can provide insight into potential customers’ issues.

Knowing your target audience is key to ensuring that your product appeals to them while addressing their problems. Experiments like surveys, focus groups, or A/B testing combined with creating buyer personas will create an outline of your ideal customer base’s needs. Finally, evaluating pricing compared to competitors is also important; analyzing customers’ industries plus financial reports in order to determine strengths & weaknesses relative to other players in the market; understanding customer needs & challenges helps adjust pricing structure accordingly.

Create a Product Marketing Plan

Product marketing is a must-have for any business looking to increase its market share. It’s the key to success, and it involves planning, executing, and measuring the effectiveness of marketing tactics. To get started on your product marketing journey, you’ll need to understand your target audience, research competitors’ products, and services, and conduct market research.

Once you have this information in hand, it’s time to set goals that are specific and measurable with a timeline for achieving them. You’ll also want to define positioning and messaging that will resonate with your target audience – highlighting how your product meets their needs while distinguishing itself from competitors.

Product marketers have plenty of responsibilities when it comes to getting the word out about a new or updated product: creating content that excites customers; managing campaigns like email marketing or social media; engaging directly with customers by building relationships; understanding customer needs & preferences; gathering feedback, the list goes on!

To make sure everything runs smoothly during the process of launching a new product (or updating an existing one), create a checklist. This should include setting primary goals as well as making lists of ideas for promos – plus staying organized, so everyone involved has access to all relevant info about the product (like decks/presentations outlining its strategy).

Set Goals for Your Product

The first step to success? Setting goals. But what kind of goals? Specific, measurable ones with a timeline for achieving them – like increasing sales, acquiring new customers, or launching a new product. It’s important to be realistic and set achievable targets.

Next up is pricing: the tricky part! You need to research the market and understand customer needs before you can make an informed decision. Consider factors such as competition, feedback from customers, customer education, and market trends – all while keeping your budget, resources, and timeline in mind.

Creating a successful product marketing plan is like baking a cake: it takes time, effort, and careful consideration of each ingredient if you want it to turn out just right!

Define Your Positioning and Messaging

Creating a unique positioning and messaging strategy is essential for product marketing. It’s like a map that helps you navigate the features and benefits of your product while also setting it apart from competitors in a way that resonates with your target audience. So how do you get started?

First, identify who your target audience is and create campaigns to reach them through various channels – think content and social media marketing, paid ads, and comarketing – all focused on the customer rather than just the product itself. Share stories about your business values, working process, team members, and commitment to customer service to really connect with them.

When creating those campaigns, consider the product’s features and benefits as well as what’s happening in the competitive landscape around you; take into account customer feedback; encourage customers to stay up-to-date on market trends; be aware of their journey from the initial awareness stage right through to decision stage where they’ll likely weigh up risk factors such as people affected by their choice or regret if they switch products plus any switching costs involved.

Determine Your Pricing

Once the product is ready to blast off, it’s essential to establish pricing. Product marketers have a few strategies at their disposal – cost-plus, value-based and market-oriented pricing – each with its own pros and cons. Cost-plus involves setting prices that cover costs plus a certain percentage of profit; this can be beneficial for products with consistent costs. Value-based means basing prices on the product’s perceived value to customers, great for unique features or benefits. Market-oriented entails setting prices based on competing products and customer demand, ideal for competitive markets.

When determining to price, don’t forget about the customer journey! Reinforce your loyalty program by offering exclusive experiences like prelaunch parties, online tours, previews, and demos – even special invitations to test out your product and give feedback!

To create an effective product marketing strategy , you need flexibility: adjust as needed and review results/analytics regularly, so you know what works best for your target market. With the right plan in place, businesses can effectively promote their products while achieving their goals!

Read also: How to Learn Marketing Skills: 15 Essential Skills

Promote Your Product

Product marketing is a must for any product’s success and the business as a whole. But what channels are available to product marketers? Content and social media marketing are key, allowing businesses to reach out to potential customers, inform existing ones of new products or services, and build relationships with influencers. Plus, email campaigns and social media ads can be used to promote the product even further. But how about paid ads? They’re an effective way to target customers who have already shown interest in the product – plus retargeting them too! And don’t forget cross-selling or upselling related products or services when launching something new. Finally, comarketing is great for increasing brand awareness by partnering with another business or influencer marketing together – creating content together like videos, blog posts, and social media posts that feature both businesses’ products. You could also offer secret sales with coupons just for returning customers or set up a blog subscription for your online store!

Leverage Content and Social Media Marketing

Encouraging customers to try a product is essential for success. Highlighting the benefits, they will experience when using it and educating them about it via email are key steps to take. Combining product posts with other content, such as inspirational, educational, or visually appealing content, can also be helpful. But how do businesses choose the right social media platform? There are many guides available to help – researching user demographics and tailoring content to the platform’s audience should be done before measuring its effectiveness over time.

Utilize Paid Ads

Using social media to market products – can it really be a powerful tool? Absolutely! It’s like a sharp arrow hitting the bullseye of target customers. Businesses can use psychographic information to find people with similar interests or those who have already visited the website and shown interest. Plus, retargeting helps reach these same loyal customers and boost online sales.

Cross-selling and upselling are two helpful strategies for increasing sales. Cross-selling is when you can offer free shipping of related products or services during checkout, while upselling involves offering higher-priced items or services. Scheduling product launches also has its benefits – it encourages customers to visit your website often in search of new drops, helping increase sales even more!

Try Comarketing

Comarketing can be a powerful tool – but how can you use it to your advantage? Comarketing is the practice of two companies working together to promote each other’s products and services. This could involve creating content, offering discounts or free gifts, or setting up affiliate programs.

The benefits are clear: comarketing helps increase brand awareness, build relationships with other businesses and influencers, and reach new customers. It also provides an opportunity for customers to promote products through incentives like coupons or blog posts, or subscriptions.

In short, comarketing is a great way to get your product out there and engage with potential customers. With the right strategy in place, you can reap the rewards of this effective marketing technique!

Monitor Your Results

Monitoring your product marketing strategy is a must for achieving maximum success. It’s essential to track the performance of your product marketing efforts, measure the return on investment (ROI) of the marketing campaign, and adjust strategies as needed. To get an idea of how successful your product is, you can use different metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the number of trials, product engagement rates, lead acquisition, average customer lifetime value, net promoter score, deals won vs. deals lost, new customer revenue vs. revenue from existing customers, selling costs vs. revenue earned market penetration and growth over time.

To keep tabs on campaigns’ results, it’s important to monitor progress and tweak spending accordingly – tracking lead sources and close rates will help you determine which channels are most effective while analyzing repeat purchases and customer journeys can reveal opportunities for growth or areas that need improvement.

Customer feedback also plays a role in shaping your product marketing strategy – by understanding the target market better you’ll be able to adjust positioning and messaging according to their needs more accurately. Additionally, using search engines & social media platforms can help reach a larger audience, thus boosting sales figures even further!

Finally, monitoring how efficiently salespeople perform compared to goals outlined in the sales strategy is crucial for success – CRM tools like Pipedrive enable marketing teams to monitor activities that directly impact goals for selling a product with ease!

Track Your Sales

Tracking sales and customer retention is a must for any product marketing strategy. But how do you know which strategies are working and which need improvement? By keeping tabs on customer purchases and return rates, you can spot opportunities to grow your business.

To understand what attracts new customers, measuring lead acquisition and marketing channels is key. Track the sources of leads and close rates to identify which channels bring in the most leads – and those that don’t.

Managing your budget throughout the campaign is also essential. Monitor spending closely so you stay within allocated funds – or readjust if needed. Plus, unsubscribe customers who haven’t opened an email after 60 days to keep your list up-to-date with only interested buyers.

Measure Your ROI

Measuring the ROI of a product marketing campaign is essential to understand how successful it was. Track the number of customers gained, revenue generated, and cost of the campaign to determine ROI. Analytics can give you an insight into what’s working and what needs improvement. Look at website visitors, leads generated, social media engagement, emails sent, and click-through rate for this purpose. Plus, customer feedback helps adjust strategies accordingly. Don’t forget to run ads for special promotions every 2-4 weeks – it’ll help engage customers and increase revenue!

Adjust Your Strategies as Needed

It is essential to keep a close eye on product marketing campaigns and make adjustments as needed. This could mean revising the product name, description, positioning and messaging – even changing pricing to better suit customer needs. Managers should also give salespeople time to explore the market and gain an understanding of what customers want. Connecting with customers through email marketing and social media is another great way to build relationships and increase retention. Plus, sharing success stories online can help draw in more customers while boosting revenue too! By monitoring results regularly and adjusting strategies accordingly, you’ll be sure to reach maximum success.

Also feel free to check out our article about What is Door in the Face Technique?

Marketing and selling a product has its challenges, from researching the market and understanding the target audience to leveraging content and social media marketing to create effective campaigns. It is essential for businesses to set goals and objectives for their next product launch, define the messaging and positioning, determine pricing that satisfies customer needs, and remain open to adjustment and improvement of strategies for maximum success.

Conducting market research, tracking sales, monitoring performance of the product, and measuring the return on investment of marketing materials are all necessary steps when creating a product marketing plan. With these proven strategies , businesses can ensure that their products meet their desired results in the most optimized way.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you sell or market a product.

To effectively market a product or service, create customer and loyalty programs and initiatives, leverage content marketing platforms, use targeted ads, offer exclusive previews, create gift guides and bundle collections, implement email signup discounts and subscription services, as well as utilize customer-generated content on social media.

These strategies can help to increase brand awareness, attract customers, build customer relationships, and drive sales. Additionally, they can help to create a positive customer experience and foster customer loyalty.

By utilizing these strategies, businesses can create a comprehensive marketing plan that will help to reach their target audience and increase their customer base. Additionally, businesses can use these strategies to create

What is the marketing sells product?

Product marketing is the process of promoting and selling a product to the target market. It involves understanding customer needs, developing effective marketing messages, utilizing various media outlets and sales channels, and measuring the success of a product in the market.

Marketing messages should be tailored to the target market and should be designed to create an emotional connection with the customer. The messages should be clear and concise, and should

How do you sell a product through marketing?

To successfully sell a product through marketing, you need to identify your target audience, develop a compelling positioning and messages, design an engaging promotion strategy, leverage relevant channels, and continuously measure and optimize your performance.

Identifying your target audience is the first step in any successful marketing campaign. You need to understand who your potential customers are, what their needs and wants are, and how you can best reach them.

Developing a compelling positioning and messages is essential to ensure that your product stands

What are the 4 types of products in marketing?

Marketing products can be divided into four distinct categories: convenience goods, shopping goods, specialty products, and unsought goods.

Each type is characterized by different levels of price, availability, and appeal to customers.

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How to Sell Online: 7-Step Guide To Sell Products Like A Pro

Darren DeMatas

February 21, 2024

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In addition to receiving commissions generated through affiliate marketing, we are able to fund our independent research and reviews at no extra cost to our readers. Learn more.

As ecommerce sales continue to grow, opportunities for entrepreneurs and merchants to start their own online businesses are increasing. A good website builder can help them get started. If you’re thinking about entering the ecommerce fray, there’s a lot you need to know to be successful when you sell online.

In 2023, the number of digital buyers is 2.64 billion ; by 2025, sales are expected to grow nearly 50% to $7.4 trillion .

It’s more than figuring out what to sell on an ecommerce site. It’s also establishing your target audience, choosing a business model, leveraging online marketplaces, accepting payments, figuring out shipping, marketing your products, and handling customer service.

What Products to Sell Online

How to establish a target audience, craft your business plan, places to sell stuff online, accepting payments, shipping your products.

• Marketing and Promoting Products

Customer Service

What will you sell online.

When starting an ecommerce business, it’s crucial to carefully consider your product category and the best shipping options for your ecommerce sales. The first step is to narrow down your options by considering what you’re passionate about and what you know about. Once you know what you’re interested in, research the demand for that product or service online since not all product ideas are created equally.

You can use Google Trends, Exploding Topics, or other keyword research tools to see how popular certain terms are. Trending products are great, but online sellers shouldn’t base their entire business on them. The trends of online shopping change too frequently.

Another critical factor to consider is competition . Suppose there are already a lot of businesses selling what you want to sell. In that case, you’ll need to find a way to differentiate yourself . Try offering unique products or services your competitors don’t. You may also focus on a niche market that isn’t as saturated.

Establishing your target audience is challenging, especially if you’re just starting. But it’s essential to take the time to think about who you want to sell to and why. Once you understand your target audience of online shoppers , you can start to build your ecommerce store around their needs and preferences.

Define Your Ideal Customer Base

Think about your ideal customers. Who are they? What do they need or want? What are their demographics? The better you understand your target audience, the more focused your marketing strategy will be.

Do Some Market Research

Once you have a good idea of your ideal customer, it’s time to do some market research . There are several ways to gather information about your target market, including asking questions in online surveys, conducting focus groups, and customer interviews. This research will help you understand your buyer personas ‘ needs, wants, and buying habits.

Build a Customer Profile

With this information, you can create a customer persona . This profile should include everything from demographics to psychographics and should be used to guide your marketing efforts.

The process of selecting an appropriate business model is vital in the realm of ecommerce.  This significant step in utilizing data analytics can determine the ultimate success or failure of your online enterprise. In truth, your business model is the engine that powers your ecommerce operations , dictating critical elements such as your products or services, pricing strategy, target audience, and marketing and sales approach.

Business Models

Now that you understand the basics of starting an online business, let’s delve further into the various types of ecommerce business models you can adopt: 

• Private Labeling: In this model, you work closely with a manufacturer to create a custom product under your brand name. You have control over the product’s design, packaging, and pricing.
• Dropshipping: With Dropshipping, you sell products from various suppliers without handling inventory or delivery. The supplier is responsible for delivering the product on your behalf to the customer.
• Retail Arbitrage: This model involves buying products at low prices from retailers and reselling them online at higher prices. Your profits lie in the price difference.
• Wholesale : The wholesale model involves purchasing large quantities of products directly from manufacturers or distributors at a discounted rate and reselling them online.
• Print on Demand: As a print-on-demand merchant, you collaborate with a supplier to custom print designs on products only after a customer places an order. This model is commonly applied to clothing and accessories, art prints, and home decor items.
• White Labeling: In a white-label model, you take an existing product, rebrand it, and sell it as your own. It’s similar to private labeling, but there’s no need for customization or design change in the product.

Choosing the right model for your business largely depends on your objectives, capital, and the resources available to you. Start by assessing your business goals and gradually move towards a method that fits your individual needs.

Once you have a good idea on their business model, you’ll be better equipped to finalize your product selection and business model.

Competitive Analysis

Neglecting to invest time and energy into establishing the right model can present roadblocks down the road, slowing your growth and even harming your brand reputation . By the same token, it’s equally essential to scrutinize your marketplace competitors. 

Nail Down Your Brand And Product Pricing

Now that you have decided on your product, it’s time to focus on crystalizing your brand and settling on product pricing . This step is crucial for success in online selling.

In a sea of ecommerce businesses , it’s your brand that will set you apart. Your brand’s identity is more than just a logo; it embodies your vision, mission, and values. It’s what customers associate with your business.

Registering your business is a critical initial step to set you on your way to building a successful ecommerce empire. It brings legitimacy to your business and offers you a multitude of opportunities, ranging from financial advantages to legal protections. However, it also brings some key responsibilities such as setting up taxes. In the world of ecommerce, no business entity can evade the necessity of dealing with taxes, especially when it comes to managing revenue. 

While establishing an ecommerce store , you need to make sure you’re familiar with online sales tax laws in all the states or regions you’re selling to, to keep your business Dealing with taxes for an ecommerce store isn’t always straightforward, but it’s a vital part of operating your venture. A well-thought-out tax plan can save you money and prevent unnecessary complications down the line. 

It’s worth noting that registering your business isn’t just a benefit for you – it’s a requirement for dealing with suppliers. Most suppliers require a business license and tax ID to initiate any business. They typically do not engage with individuals, as they want to ensure their products are being sold through a legitimate business. Therefore, being officially registered makes your online store more appealing and trustworthy to your potential suppliers, giving you access to a broad range of products and services to sell online . In the end, establishing a company is all about managing cash flow and taking the right steps at the right time. Once you get off to a good start, there’s no limit to what you can achieve in the world of ecommerce. Good luck!

 Setting the right price point is crucial for maximizing profit margins and finding the best way to sell your products in this highly competitive ecommerce industry. Finding the balance between profit, revenue, and consumer appeal is crucial for maintaining a healthy income and cash flow. Risks of overpricing include losing potential customers and negatively impacting profit margins, whereas underpricing might devalue your product. 

• Cost-based Pricing: The most straightforward method where you add a profit margin atop your product’s manufacturing cost.
• Competitive Pricing : Setting the price after scrutinizing your competitors’ prices for the same product. Keep it competitive while ensuring your profit.
• Value-based pricing is a strategy that involves setting the price point of a product based on the perceived value it offers to customers. This requires understanding your customers thoroughly.

A strong brand identity and a well-thought-out business plan will separate you from the sea of competitors.

Product Marketing

Product marketing is where your branding comes to life. High-quality product photos play a key role in this area. Consumers are visual creatures and quality images and video can significantly impact a customer’s buying decision. Consider hiring a professional to help you with your product photography.

Provide multiple, professionally taken images from different angles for each product. This helps potential customers understand what they’re buying and can even remove any doubts, they may be feeling about purchasing, especially when they visit your product pages. 

Apart from captivating imagery, product descriptions are just as pivotal in selling a product online. Incorporate detailed, yet concise descriptions for your products. Include essential details such as features, benefits, and technical specifications on your product pages. To foster trust and authenticity, avoid over-hyping your products. Rather, uphold honesty and transparency in your descriptions. 

Sourcing your products is certainly a primary concern. A  reliable product source or supplier guarantees the availability and quality of your merchandise, directly affecting your online store’s credibility. Opt for suppliers who align with your business values , maintain consistent quality, and punctually deliver products. Remember, the quality of your products is reflective of your brand, and conducting thorough research on potential suppliers is a significant step toward building a  successful online business .

There are tons of places to sell online. It’s best to start small and expand your store to other sales channels as you grow.

Your Ecommerce Website

Your own online store is the best place to start selling. Using an app like Shopify, BigCommerce, or Nexcess Storebuilder is ideal for beginners. The best website builder depends on several factors, including the type of product, your business model, level of desired control/technical skill, budget, and product catalog size.

All you need to get started with your online business is a domain name and a well-crafted website design, and you’ll have a home base for your online business. You’ll pay a monthly fee but won’t have to worry about the technical aspects of maintaining your website.

No matter where else you sell, you can always direct your marketing campaigns to your main online storefront.

You’ll need to spend some time on search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing to drive traffic to your own website. This is why selling on other platforms can be helpful when you’re getting started.

Social Commerce

Facebook (and facebook marketplace).

Facebook is a popular social media platform with millions of daily and monthly users . You can sell on Facebook with a Facebook Shop – that can link directly to your ecommerce platform for easier order management.

If you’re not ready to create a Facebook Shop or just want to get rid of a few extra things you’ve got around the house, you can use the Facebook Marketplace to sell directly to another Facebook user.

Our guide to selling on Facebook can help you get started.

If Instagram is one of your favorite platforms, you can also link your Facebook Shop to Instagram and sell there. Read more about how to sell on Instagram .

Online Marketplaces

Over 200 million people worldwide have Amazon Prime accounts , and millions more visit the site regularly. It is the world’s largest marketplace, so it’s worth adding to your long-term marketing strategy to reach global markets.

Amazon makes it easy to sell stuff online. They have a streamlined process for listing and shipping products, and they take care of all the payment processing for you. This makes it simpler and less time-consuming than selling through other online channels, especially when considering the competitive sale price.

Check out our guide to selling on Amazon to learn more.

One of the most popular places to sell stuff online is eBay. People from all over the world use eBay to buy and sell items. You can sell nearly anything, including clothes, electronics, and equipment on eBay.

Our guide on How to Sell on eBay will make it easier for you to get started.

Poshmark is an excellent way to reach more potential customers if you’re selling clothes, jewelry, or accessories. Check out how to sell on Poshmark to learn more.

Mercari is another platform like Poshmark but offers more product categories like sporting goods, toys, and handmade items, making it a versatile option for various markets. Additionally, it provides a convenient package for sellers and buyers.

If you’re selling handmade products , Etsy is a dedicated online marketplace that you’ll want to use. Like with eBay, you’ll pay listing fees for each product you list.

Additional Guides To Online Selling

• How To Sell On Amazon : 7 Step Beginner’s Guide
• How to Sell on eBay: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
• How to Sell on Walmart
• How to Sell on Facebook
• How to Sell on Poshmark
• How to Sell on Instagram
• How to Successfully Sell Clothes Online

As a business owner, you’ll need to accept various payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can do this via platforms like PayPal and Shop Pay for various shipping options (if you have a Shopify store). If you also accept credit card payments in-store, like if you have a pop-up shop, you’ll need a card reader , which you can usually get free or cheap from your payment processor.

No matter how you accept payments, you’ll pay transaction fees on everything except cash . Consider the transaction fees when you choose the credit card processor you’ll use.

When you’re selling a physical product, unless you’re dropshipping, you’ll need to figure out how to get parcels to customers. If you have brick-and-mortar stores, you can offer in-person pick-up to cut shipping costs. If you’re selling digital products , simply deliver via email.

When starting out, it may be easier to ship orders on your own with a flat-rate shipping solution like USPS priority mail. But, as the business scales, you may find the order volume is just too much to keep up with yourself. Using software can help you get the best shipping rates.

To keep shipping costs down, consider partnering with a 3PL that can pass shipping carrier discounts on to you, such as ShipBob or Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). You’ll pass the fulfillment tasks to experts and won’t have to worry about warehouse inventory management. When possible, look for a carbon-neutral shipping option, so you can promote your commitment to the environment in your marketing efforts.

Product Promotion

You can market and promote products with:

• Email marketing
• Content marketing
• Social media marketing (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram)
• Google Ads and Google Shopping Ads

Focus on creating high-quality content to draw in new customers . Whether it’s blog posts, social media posts, or even just product descriptions, quality content is essential for engaging potential customers and convincing them to make a purchase.

Track your analytics results and analyze your performance, specifically conversions, site traffic, and sales. By regularly evaluating your marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to identify what’s working and what isn’t and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Your job isn’t finished after the sale. To ensure customer satisfaction and build audience loyalty, you must stay in touch. Periodically send customer surveys , and figure out how you’ll handle returns, refunds, discounts , etc. with unhappy customers so you can maintain a positive reputation for your small business .

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best website to sell stuff will vary depending on what you’re selling and your target market. However, some popular websites for selling products online include eBay, Amazon, and Etsy.

Etsy may be the best option for you if you are selling handmade or vintage items. If you sell new or used products, then eBay or Amazon may be better choices. Ultimately, choosing a website that will allow you to reach your target market and sell your products successfully is important.

Sites like eBay, Amazon, and Walmart will charge seller fees. You may not have to pay anything to create product listings, but you will pay a percentage of your sale for using the service. There are many ways to sell products online for free.  Post your product on classified ads websites.   Create a blog or website and include a link to your product page in the sidebar or the posts themselves. You can also create social media accounts devoted to promoting your product and post links and content regularly for effective promotion.

To sell stuff on the internet, you must set up an account with a marketplace or classifieds site. Then you can start creating listings for the items you want to sell.  Be sure to include clear pictures and descriptions of the items and your contact information.

Once someone expresses interest in buying an item, you can arrange for payment and shipping. This is a great way to sell and finalize the sale price. You can also set up your own ecommerce business website, but it takes time to drive traffic and earn sales.

Before you start to sell online, take time to validate your business idea . Research profitable products and business potential. Most importantly, develop a business plan and competitive analysis to help you figure out where you’ll fit into the market. Detail the types of products you’ll sell, your marketing spend, and your advertising strategy. The more you know upfront, the better off you’ll be.

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How to sell a new product: 6 tips to drive new product sales

Every year, thirty thousand products are launched and 95% of those products fail. With those odds, businesses risk wasting a ton of time and resources if they don’t get their new product right.

To beat the odds, you need to define your target market, consider risks and ensure you have the right product fit. Armed with a marketing and sales plan, you can sell better , close more deals and boost conversion rates.

In this article, we’ll break down how to sell a new product. Follow these six steps to prepare your business for a successful launch.

1. Define your target market by conducting new and existing customer research

Before building and working out how to sell a new product, find out if there is a large enough need for it.

As part of your research, talk to your existing customers to figure out how new product ideas can help them solve existing or adjacent problems relevant to why they’re already investing in you.

Then, start thinking about who exactly you’ll be selling the product to. Identify your target audience by defining:

Your ideal customer (e.g. occupation, age, location, company worth, etc.)

Their needs (e.g. what problems do they have that your new product can solve?)

Product fit (e.g. will your new business ideas actually help them?)

If you don’t define these foundational target audience criteria, you risk wasting your time and resources developing a product that no one wants or needs to buy.

Next, assess the potential for your product within your target market:

Competition. Research which competitors are already offering a similar product and determine your unique selling proposition (USP). For example, you will want to highlight if it’s more efficient or has been developed by a purpose-driven brand.

Size. Determine whether there are enough potential customers that fit your ideal customer profile (ICP) in your target market to reach revenue goals and forecasted profit margins.

Potential sales. Calculate whether the costs and risks to market and sell the product will outweigh the profit from forecasted sales. This will depend on your target market size. Calculate your total addressable market (TAM), your serviceable addressable market (SAM) and your serviceable obtainable market (SOM).

This market research and strategic thinking will give you a realistic perspective on whether or not your new product is worth the risk in your target market.

Recommended reading

Sales Territory Management: How to break into a new territory

2. Account for operational hurdles of selling products

One of the biggest operational hurdles you’ll have to overcome is the demand on your team’s time. When selling a new product, or product line, you need to account for this increase in time spent selling.

Innovative products will require more sophisticated selling. Reps will need more training to understand them and sell them effectively. They’ll also spend more time with customers showing them how it works. Your sales reps may take more time than with established products to build trust and reinforce the product’s value with use cases and demonstrations.

Your marketing team will also play a role here. Creating and publishing helpful how-to posts on the company blog and hosting webinars are helpful ways to educate potential customers and make them feel comfortable with your new product.

We’ll dive into how you can train and prepare your reps to effectively sell new products in step five.

A final way to gain back time is to automate as many menial tasks as possible. Automations can save a ton of time spent on low-level tasks like updating lead scores or deal stages. Help your people spend time on important jobs, like building relationships, by outsourcing tasks to automation assistants.

3. Create a marketing plan and map the sales process

A successful marketing and sales strategy involves defining the new product’s goals and what actions you will take to achieve them.

A sales plan explaining how to sell new products should include:

Positioning and mission statement. Outline why your product or solution exists, its position in the market and what problems it solves. This section of the plan will have detailed information on your competitors as well as your value proposition (the product’s features and benefits).

Sales team structure. If you’re selling to a brand new market in a new territory, map out what your sales team will look like and its organizational structure. This will include roles, responsibilities and compensation for every sales team member. If you’re selling a new product to the same target market and audience, especially if it’s a technically sophisticated product, define who will need to be involved in the sale (e.g. a sales engineer) and what stages in the sales pipeline you’ll need to bring them in.

Goals. Create revenue goals and calculate sales targets based on past sales activities and performance. Use this section to break down pipeline stages and rep activities across the customer journey. Include detailed information about sales targets (e.g. quotas and metrics), revenue goals and the number of sales reps you’ll need to reach them.

KPIs and performance tracking. The metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) your team will be measured on once they start selling the new product. Include how performance will be measured, KPIs within each sales stage and if you’ll be using sales tracking spreadsheets or software (like a CRM) to track wins.

Once a basic sales plan has been created, you need to think about your sales strategy. Your sales strategy will tie your activity-based goals, results-based goals and positioning to methodologies your team will use to sell the new product.

For example, you may want your sales team to make X number of cold calls per week to potential leads and prospects or hit a certain lead-to-appointment rate in the first 12 months.

No matter your specific goals, make sure to map them to your existing sales process to ensure it aligns with your current workflows and sales pipeline stages. If not, you’ll need to fill in the gaps to ensure your process for selling your new product or solution is optimized for efficiency and success.

As soon as your sales plan and strategy have been created, think about when you’ll be ready to sell a minimum viable product (MVP). This is the first version of your product with core functionality you can release to customers.

Your MVP isn’t a finished product because it can be risky and expensive to invest in the product’s features without getting feedback and surveying early adopters first. Once you have this information, you can tweak the solution so it’ll be a better fit for your customers.

Consider these points when developing your MVP:

Cost. When will your MVP be ready and how much will it cost to develop?

Entry-level price point . Settle on a price point to sell your MVP that’s competitive with the rest of the market.

BETA or not to BETA. Decide if you will offer your existing customer base the MVP for BETA testing. This way you can gather detailed feedback before releasing it to the wider public.

With your sales plan and process mapped out, you’ll now need to prepare a sales and marketing budget.

The Real Estate Sales Process Walkthrough: From Listings to Closing

4. Accurately determine a sales and marketing budget

Before you start selling your product directly to end-users, you’ll need to calculate how much your company is willing to spend on sales and marketing.

These budgets should cover every activity involved in launching the new product, from marketing and advertising to MVP testing and any initial sign-up discounts or product offers.

Let’s start with the advertising and marketing strategy.

A report by Experian states that new businesses typically allocate between 12% to 20% of their gross revenue to spend on marketing. This is split between brand development costs (e.g. promotional channels like your website, social media accounts, blogs and sales collateral) and direct marketing campaign costs like advertising campaigns, SEO and trade events.

Next, think about your sales budget.

Use your existing sales data to get a rough idea about costs and timelines. A typical sales budget will cover weeks, months, or quarters and consider sales cycle lengths and staffing costs.

Drawing on past sales data should give you a rough estimate of revenue and cost. The budget should also break down expected sales within a certain timeframe, the price per product and total overall revenue. Calculating these figures will give you a better idea about how much your sales activities will cost and how much money you have to work with.

Don’t forget to include any basic operational costs associated with marketing and selling the product. These include:

Operational. How much it’ll cost to create and ship your product.

Staff. The money you’ll spend on employees, including bonuses and compensation for sales reps.

General business expenses. Software/hardware, building rent and utilities should all be included here.

Remember, your team will be selling a new product, so it’s essential to train them about its features and use cases.

How to create a go-to-market strategy in sales

5. Prepare your team with in-depth training

Selling a new product will only be successful if your sales reps know it inside and out.

Decide what training your reps will need to sell the new product depending on its complexity, features and price. Work with your product teams to understand the problem it fixes, why it’s useful and how to pitch it to customers in the best way.

It’s crucial to get your sales team excited about the product and its differentiators, as it’ll help them sell it confidently to customers early in the sales cycle. This will also require the sales rep to understand the product’s features and how it can help the customer overcome their problems and pain points.

Your in-depth training should cover:

Using the product. A detailed overview of how the product works in the real world. Show your sales reps how to use it as if they were the customer.

Product benefits and implications. This part of the training should highlight the product’s immediate and long-term benefits and how it’ll make a difference in the lives of the target audience.

Background knowledge. Give your team as much information as possible on the product’s development and use cases. Suppose the new product is email marketing software. In that case, your reps need to understand the basics of email marketing and confidently use industry-specific terms and phrases in their customer conversations.

You should also expand your training to other areas of the sales training process, like how sales reps should qualify leads and handle objections.

You can get a head start with these training materials by using existing information from past product launches or finding free sales courses online. For example, Pipedrive Academy has online video training courses that teach sales reps techniques to overcome objections. The training shows reps what to do when they hear common objections in the early stages of discovery and ensure that the lead is a good fit for the product.

Here’s an example that’s also available on YouTube:

6. Measure success and create sales and marketing feedback loops to improve

Once your team is prepared and your product has been released to the public, track the success of your sales and marketing efforts.

Tools like product surveys and feedback forms will help you tweak the product after its initial release. You should also collect testimonials from early adopters to make ongoing improvements and use success stories as social proof in marketing efforts.

Some metrics will prove useful when measuring the success of your new product. Basic KPIs to consider measuring are:

Average customer lifetime value

Net promoter score

Deals won vs. deals lost

New customer revenue vs. revenue from existing customers

Selling costs vs. revenue earned

Market penetration

Growth over time

In addition, specific metrics like the number of new product trials and engagement rates are especially useful when measuring the success of a new product:

New trials. It’s crucial to know how many people are signing up for your new product and how many of them become paying customers after their trial period. A lower conversion rate may indicate that customers are dissatisfied with the product or that it’s priced too high. Tools like customer surveys can help you find out why.

Product engagement rates. New trial statistics don’t always tell the full story, which is why it’s also important to track how customers are engaging with your new product. If engagement levels are low, it could indicate a lack of features or a UX problem that’s impacting their experience and needs to be fixed.

Lead acquisition. Tracking lead sources and close rates are also a great way to measure how effective lead acquisition and marketing channels are and decide whether you need to move resources elsewhere. If your marketing team realizes that most of your new clients are coming through Twitter, it may decide to move some advertising budget from another channel that isn’t performing well in order to boost revenue even more.

Using a CRM tool like Pipedrive , your team can also measure activities that directly impact the goals you’ve created for selling your new product.

For example, managers can track how efficiently their salespeople are performing compared to the goals outlined in the sales strategy. If individual reps are expected to make 100 cold calls a week or book ten meetings a month, their efforts can then be compared to the original goals.

Final thoughts

With the odds stacked against you, it’s crucial to prepare your business for launch.

You can do this by investing time into reading up on your new market and researching your target customers and creating a sales strategy that ties your revenue goals to your product. With the proper training, your sales and marketing teams will also know how to sell new products confidently to new customers. If you need expert advice, why not try reading a sales book from an experienced seller.

Measure your efforts and ask for customer feedback so you’re always improving your product. Tweaking your product in the early stages of release and adding desirable features can help make your launch a success and boost your bottom line.

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How To Sell On Amazon: 2024 Guide

Updated: Jul 26, 2024, 5:45pm

Popular with both sellers and customers alike, it’s no wonder Amazon is a multibillion-dollar company. The site gives sellers an easy way to get their products in front of a global audience. Getting started on the platform might seem intimidating, but it’s easier than you might think. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to sell on Amazon in five simple steps. Here’s everything you need to know to get started.

Up to 5X Reward Rate

Earn unlimited 5% back at Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, and on Chase Travel purchases with an eligible Prime Read More

Welcome Bonus

Get a $100 Amazon Gift Card

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20.49% - 29.24% Variable

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Good, Excellent (700 - 749)

For existing Prime members who frequently shop at Amazon and Whole Foods, the 5% rewards rate is stellar. To further sweeten the deal, the Prime Visa card offers a 2% rewards category plus Visa Signature benefits.

• 5% cash back on all Amazon and Whole Foods purchases
• No spending required for part of the welcome bonus
• No foreign transaction fees
• Travel and shopping protections
• Requires an Amazon Prime membership
• No introductory APR
• Low cash back for purchases outside of bonus categories
• Get a $100 Amazon Gift Card instantly upon approval exclusively for Prime members
• Earn unlimited 5% back at Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market and on Chase Travel purchases with an eligible Prime membership
• Prime Card Bonus: Earn 10% back or more on a rotating selection of items and categories on Amazon.com with an eligible Prime membership
• Earn unlimited 2% back at gas stations, restaurants, and on local transit and commuting (including rideshare)
• Earn unlimited 1% back on all other purchases
• No annual credit card fee
• No more waiting. Redeem daily rewards at Amazon.com as soon as the next day
• Member FDIC

Two Different Ways To Sell on Amazon

There are two different ways to sell on Amazon, but they’re not exclusive. You can use both options simultaneously. You can ship your slower-moving bulky or heavy items yourself while relying on Amazon to ship your lighter, fast-moving products.

Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA)

FBA means you ship your products to Amazon’s warehouse, and when you sell a product, Amazon ships it for you. There’s a caveat to this—in addition to your monthly service fee, you must also pay monthly inventory storage fees.

With FBA, Amazon also takes care of all customer support. If you don’t have a place to store your inventory and you’re okay with giving the reins to Amazon, you might like using FBA. Products best suited for FBA are small and lightweight with rapid turnover.

Ship Products Yourself

Also known as fulfilled by merchant (FBM), this means you store and ship your own products. You also handle all customer service, so it’s important to have a system set up to address inquiries and any issues that arise with your products.

Sellers with products that are bulky or heavy and don’t sell fast tend to use FBM. This way, they’re not paying for storing a product in an Amazon warehouse. The logic is that the longer a product sits on an Amazon warehouse shelf, the more it costs, thanks to long-term storage fees.

Start Selling on Amazon in 5 Steps:

Here’s how to sell on Amazon in five simple steps:

1. Conduct Market Research

Before you begin selling on Amazon, you must check the restricted products list . Some categories, like jewelry or DVDs, require approval before listing, whereas some products are restricted completely. Restricted products are usually federally regulated.

To narrow down a potential product, consider looking at private labeling of a successful product. This means the manufacturer adds your company label to an existing product. Look at what products are popular and trending.

After deciding on a product or niche of products, look at the top listings for what you want to sell. Is there a lot of competition? If the competition all offer Prime shipping, use FBA and have lots of 4.5- and 5-star reviews, it may be challenging to compete.

You want a product that is in demand but has a lower barrier of entry. Once you find a product, you need to get a supplier. Negotiate and ask for samples—the last thing you want is a product that breaks easily or doesn’t look like the pictures.

After finding a supplier, you must calculate your cost per unit. Are your margins high enough to make your product viable? If not, you may need to consider a different product. Ideally, you have enough of a margin to offer discounts or coupons. You may need to do a viability test on several options before you settle on your first product.

2. Set Up Seller Account

To set up a seller account, you must have the following details on hand:

• Bank account number and routing number
• Credit card
• Government-issued national ID (such as a driver’s license)
• Tax information
• Phone number

After you’ve gathered those details, navigate to Seller Central and choose a selling plan. The Individual selling plan is best for those who sell less than 40 units per month. Think of it as a pay-as-you-go plan because it’s 99 cents per sale.

The Professional selling plan is best for sellers who sell more than 40 units per month and need access to advanced reports and APIs. To sell on Launchpad or Handmade , you must have a Professional account. Professional runs $39.99 per month, no matter the amount you sell.

3. Add Products

There are two ways to add products: use an existing listing of an identical product or create a new listing. If you’re the only seller for a particular product, you must use a new listing.

A listing includes the following details:

• Product identifier (GTIN, UPC, ISBN or EAN)
• Stock keeping unit (SKU)
• Price, product condition, available quantity and shipping choices
• Product name, brand, category, description and images
• Keywords and search terms

Your product descriptions need to be optimized for search engines (known as SEO). Researching keywords for your listings is a significant element of SEO. The idea is to add keywords to your listing that people search for, and adding irrelevant keywords can hinder your visibility. If writing isn’t your strong suit, consider hiring a copywriter to write optimized product descriptions for you. You can find copywriters on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork.

Similarly, images are as important as the product description. Photos should have a white background and have a minimum dimension of 500 x 500 pixels. For high-quality listings, increase the file size to 1000 x 1000 pixels. Many sellers use a lightbox to take product images; otherwise, some companies can take photos for you if you send them your product.

4. Attract Customers

With the enormous amount of Amazon listings, yours must stand out. The best practices to attract customers involve pricing, shipping and advertising.

• Set competitive pricing. Amazon has built-in seller tools that automatically reprice your listing to an optimized price based on parameters you set (this way, you’re still making a profit). It also has bulk pricing to attract Amazon Business customers.
• Ship fast. If you don’t use Amazon Prime shipping, the next best thing is to make sure you ship your products quickly when you use FBM.
• Advertise with sponsored listings. When you turn your listing into a sponsored listing, it appears on product pages and in search results. These ads operate on a cost-per-click basis (CPC). This means that every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay whether or not they make a purchase. This can be pennies, or it can cost several dollars per click.

5. Get Reviews

There are strict rules for what is and isn’t allowed when asking for reviews from your customers. If caught providing incentives for your customers to leave a review, your account can face a permanent ban, withholding of funds and even legal action.

What you can do is:

• Ask for a review, but don’t offer compensation, free product, refunds or discounts for doing so
• Sign up for Amazon’s Early Reviewer Program , which provides an incentive to reviewers for providing authentic reviews

Just because you see another Amazon seller doing it doesn’t mean it’s okay. It’s not worth getting caught and losing your seller account.

Bottom Line

While the steps to sell on Amazon are relatively simple, success takes selecting the right products and carefully optimizing your listings. Even after seeing success, keeping ahead requires constant maintenance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do i need a business license to sell on amazon.

Generally speaking, no, you do not need a business license to sell on Amazon. However, your state or jurisdiction may have special rules.

Does Amazon report income to the IRS?

Amazon is required by law to report your income to the IRS if you sell more than $20,000 in gross payment volume and have more than 200 transactions in a year. They will issue a 1099-K so you may file your taxes.

What is dropshipping?

When you sell products via the FBA method, you are doing so using dropshipping. Dropshipping occurs when you sell products that you do not physically have at your location. In the case of FBA, they are kept in one of Amazon’s warehouses. When you sell a product, you send the information to your supplier (FBA in this case) and they ship it out to the buyer for you. Any costs that you incur for shipping and handling are built into the dropshipping agreement you have with the supplier.

What products are in demand?

Doing this research on Google Trends and various social media websites will help you figure out what is best to sell.

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Katherine Haan is a small business owner with nearly two decades of experience helping other business owners increase their incomes.

Cassie is a deputy editor collaborating with teams around the world while living in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. Focusing on bringing growth to small businesses, she is passionate about economic development and has held positions on the boards of directors of two non-profit organizations seeking to revitalize her former railroad town. Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a content operations manager and copywriting manager.

Where Are You Headed? Chart Your Marketing Course

A PLAN IN PLACE: Having a set strategy allows HVAC contractors to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to marketing. (Courtesy Of Getty Images)

Last year, during a podcast interview for ACHR NEWS , I had the pleasure of speaking with Editor Kyle Gargaro. I also had the honor to share the podcast mic with esteemed former Nexstar Business Coach Bryan Buckley. Together, we discussed how vital planning is for PHCE owners as they scale their businesses. Our key takeaway: Business planning provides an economic roadmap, while marketing planning enables precise targeting and messaging. Together, these plans create a foundation for sustainable growth, even amid unforeseen detours. Aligning your business and  marketing plans will help you steer your business toward success.

Because it’s my specialty, I’d like to focus specifically on marketing planning today. I invite you to start thinking of your marketing plan as a reliable compass. Your marketing plan should point you in the right direction to reach your target audience effectively, and to maximize your company’s growth.

Don’t have a marketing plan? You need one, I promise. Here are just a few ways having a well-crafted, strategic marketing plan in place will contribute to your business:

• A marketing plan sets clear goals. It also sets the strategy for the year, allowing you to be proactive versus reactive. You use it like a compass and follow it to success.   
• Your marketing plan outlines the key tactics (such as TV, radio, billboards, print, online, social media, and targeted local campaigns) needed to achieve your goals and maintain a balanced marketing mix.
• Your plan should include a timeline and a blueprint of allocated resources for each marketing activity. For instance, you can plan seasonal promotions and partnerships to generate awareness and drive sales during peak-demand periods. Planning like this will also help you get you in front of shoulder season – eliminating panic.
• When you include specific marketing objectives and goals (such as call volume, reach and frequency, website traffic, click-through rates, and conversion), you can track the success of your marketing efforts and make data-driven adjustments to optimize performance.
• A strategic marketing plan helps you define and understand your target audience. Being mindful of the audiences you’re reaching will ensure you’re selecting the appropriate tactics.

What makes marketing exciting is that the destination remains constant, but there are numerous ways to get there. If you stay agile, you can adjust your route, if needed, while always keeping a watchful eye pointed toward your marketing plan. A detour can become a learning opportunity, or a big win. Don’t be afraid to test and learn – marketing allows you to tailor your messages, understand your customers’ priorities, and position your company as a valuable choice in any economic climate.  

Ready to get started? Gather your team and intentionally evaluate your results from last year. What worked well? What fell flat? When did you pivot and adjust, and what was the outcome? Consider attending a marketing planning workshop, which will provide you and your team ample time to dive deep and focus. I’m a big believer in immersive workshops – they provide a unique opportunity to learn from experts, gain valuable insights, and connect with industry peers. At Nexstar, we see that our members who actively participate in marketing planning workshops with their teams experience significant growth and overall success.

Any well-planned trip starts with a charted course. The same holds true for marketing your business: Equip yourself with the tools and knowledge to maximize your growth, and you’ll scale your business for years ahead.

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James Braasch brings more than 20 years in the marketing industry to Nexstar Network, where he helps members become their best selves. He can be reached at  [email protected] .

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A Beginner's Guide To Selling Your Online Business

Published: August 27, 2024

When you start a new company, you probably aren’t thinking about handing it off to someone else. It’s your baby!

But over time, some entrepreneurs “outgrow” their business, due to a shift in direction, priorities, or opportunities.

When that happens, your best option could be to find a buyer.

Alexis Grant knows all about that. After two successful exits, she started a new company, They Got Acquired , to help online businesses, well, get acquired.

Source: Simon Owens

From Getting Acqui-Hired to Helping Others

In 2010, Alexis started a content marketing agency that ran blogs for other businesses. The Penny Hoarder , a personal finance blog, was one of her clients.

The blog’s founder, Kyle Taylor, was meeting Alexis for a strategy weekend when he popped the question:

“What if I bought your business?”

The Penny Hoarder was crushing it at the time, but Kyle did it alone. Seeing the great fit in this opportunity, Alexis joined as Employee No.2, bringing along some of her teammates.

The site was acquired for $102.5m in 2020, and earns 4.4m monthly traffic today. Source: The Penny Hoarder

That was an acqui-hire  — when someone brings your entire team in-house to run a certain aspect at their company.

She wasn’t planning to sell, but it made sense

“ I liked his vision for the business, and knew how we would work through things together,” Alexis said. “Knowing the buyer definitely gave us an advantage.”

She sold another site after that, this time via a multiple-buyer bidding process that she had to learn from scratch.

“There are lots of resources and people to help you if you're selling for tens or hundreds of millions — those are the kinds of stories we hear about most often,” Alexis said. “But if you have a six- or seven-figure sale, how do you find the support and people who could help you through that?”

And that’s how They Got Acquired was born.

Why You Should Care

It’s never too early to think about selling a business, even if you’re not planning to.

Things are looking rocky for the VC-backed startup world — Carta reported more closures  on its platform in Q1 2024, and many founders thought about calling it quits  this year.

Source: Carta

But there’s plenty of hope  for indie firms and bootstrappers that are solving real problems and focusing on profit.

So if you’re considering building a small online business, or already have, Alexis’ got tips galore on getting your payday.

4 Common Ways to Sell A Business

But first, let’s look at how a business acquisition usually takes place.

1. You get an offer from a buyer:  It can be great when someone comes knocking on your door, but you ideally want to have more than one offer, so you have some leverage to negotiate a better deal.

2. You pitch buyers: It can be warm or cold pitching. If cold pitching, be direct about your ask — Alexis has seen a lot of sellers do this successfully.

3. Work with a broker or advisor: They can help you position the business, and find the buyers for you. But try to find ones that specialize in your kind of business (e.g. online vs. brick and mortar).

4. Marketplace : If you’re making under $250k in revenue, it might be hard to get a broker interested because they make commission like real estate agents. Marketplaces are a good, affordable option to broaden your buyer pool.

5 Tips to Prepare Your Business for Sale

A major challenge in selling a business is getting a lower-than-expected valuation.

The reasons vary depending on the business. It's typically tied back to your revenue and profit in some form, but more often than not, it’s a result of not thinking about selling before you want to sell, Alexis said.

“There are certain things you can do to optimize a business to sell,” she said. “Understanding the levers you can pull to increase the valuation of your business helps you build with that in mind.”

And guess what? All these tips would help your business run better even if a sale is not in the cards.

1. Build Relationships Early

Early on in your business, make a spreadsheet with information on:

• Your competitors
• People who do things like you
• People who could benefit from adding your services

It’s good to build those relationships so that by the time you’re ready to sell, you know who to approach.

Get on their radar, build a partnership — maybe one day they’ll decide to bring you in house. This is how many acqui-hiring happens, Alexis said.

2. Clean Up Your Books

Before selling, you need to make sure that your finances are buttoned up in a way that makes sense to a buyer.

Depending on the size of your business, you might need to work with a CFO or a bookkeeping company with experience prepping books for M&A.

Clean books let you make better decisions because you'll have more transparency on your finances.

It also avoids surprises during the sale process — if it comes out in later stages of selling that your books aren’t clean, your valuation could suffer, and you might be too invested to walk away at that point.

3. Focus On Profitability

This is simple, but worth emphasizing: Revenue numbers don’t mean much if there’s nothing left for the buyer to take home (also not great for you as a founder).

Companies are usually valued through “multiples.” As a reference, six-figure content businesses typically sell for around 3x their revenue, Alexis said. E-commerce is usually lower than that.

But no matter what business, the more money you can take home, the higher multiples you’re likely to get.

If two businesses both have $100k in revenue each year, but one founder takes home only $20k but the other $85k, you can bet that the one with higher profitability is going to sell for a lot more.

4. Make The Business A Well-Oiled Machine

If your presence is essential to the business, you’ll have a hard time handing it off to someone else.

So have the right team in place, and try to pass as much as possible off to your team so that you're not an essential piece of this puzzle. Build processes to make sure your company runs efficiently.  

“Any buyer who's looking at a business basically wants a machine — something they can buy that'll keep running itself and making them money,” Alexis said.

5. Negotiate The Earn-out

Many founders, when selling their business, have an earn-out  component to their compensation.

It means that they get paid a portion up front, but have to earn the rest of their compensation over time, based on certain deliverables.

It’s risky to agree to an earn-out because it could tie the founder to the company years after closing the deal. Alexis suggested that founders try to negotiate themselves out of it.

Jody Cook, a social media agency founder Alexis worked with, did it successfully because she had a system in place for the company to run without her well before the seven-figure sale .

⭐ Bonus Tip

If you need a hint on what businesses you can build to sell, there’s a huge market for content sites and online communities, said Alexis.

Acquiring an audience is a popular bet because buyers can get built-in trust for the brand instead of doing it from scratch, which could take years. 

What Happens After You Sell

It's common for founders to have a “lost period” after they sell, Alexis said.

If your identity is tied to the business, and you don’t yet have a next project lined up, it can feel very disorienting.

Her advice is to remind yourself of what you enjoyed from building that business.

Source: Giphy

There are founders who sell multiple businesses because they prefer starting. They sell it because they want to start a new one. And there are others who feel like they're better at scaling, people managing, or running a much bigger business.

Ask yourself what’s most satisfying to you in the process, and focus on that for the next phase of your career.

Believe You Can Sell

Surprisingly, many founders don't realize their small businesses are even sellable until someone tells them.

After seeing (and facilitating) many six, seven, or even low eight-figure deals, Alexis believes that most businesses are sellable.

Don’t be discouraged by a “bad market.” For smaller deals, your specific business performance trump macro trends.

Even in downturns, great businesses find buyers. So don't let an opportunity slip away.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Watch CBS News

Bugs, mold and mildew found in Boar's Head plant linked to deadly listeria outbreak

By Alexander Tin

Edited By Allison Elyse Gualtieri

Updated on: August 29, 2024 / 4:35 PM EDT / CBS News

Inspectors turned up dozens of violations at a Boar's Head plant in Virginia now linked to a nationwide recall of deli meats, according to new records released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including mold, mildew and insects repeatedly found throughout the site.

Last month, Boar's Head recalled all of the deli meats made at its plant in Jarratt, Virginia, after a listeria outbreak was blamed on products distributed from the facility. 

The outbreak has grown to  57 hospitalizations  in 18 states linked to recalled products from the plant. At least nine deaths have now been reported, including two in South Carolina and one each in Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, New Mexico and New York.

"This is the largest listeriosis outbreak since the 2011 outbreak linked to cantaloupe," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

Samples from unopened products distributed from the Boar's Head plant were found by authorities in multiple states to be contaminated with the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes. Genetic sequencing linked the bacteria from the products to the strain driving the outbreak.

People are urged to double check their fridges for the recalled meats and to clean any surfaces that might have touched them.

"Consumers who were unaware of the recall may have eaten recalled products. People may also have a prolonged course of illness," a spokesperson for South Carolina's health department said in a statement following the new deaths. 

Records released by the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service to CBS News through a Freedom of Information Act request tally 69 records of "noncompliances" flagged by inspectors over the past year at the Jarratt plant.

While the service is ultimately responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations at the plant, a spokesperson for the agency said Thursday it was relying on staff from Virginia — not USDA employees — to man the site.

The agency is now working with the state to "ensure the establishment has an effective system in place to produce safe food for the public."

"FSIS has suspended inspection at the Boar's Head establishment in Jarratt, Virginia, which means that it remains closed until the establishment is able to demonstrate it can produce safe product," an FSIS spokesperson said in a statement.

It's unclear whether Boar's Head will face any penalties by the USDA for the repeat issues. Reports published by the agency so far show no "enforcement actions" taken against the company in the past year.

The agency spokesperson said that Boar's Head "implemented corrective actions in keeping with FSIS regulations."

In a statement, a Boar's Head spokesperson said the company deeply regrets the impact of the recall, and said that food safety is their "absolute priority."

"As a USDA-inspected food producer, the agency has inspectors in our Jarratt, Virginia plant every day and if at any time inspectors identify something that needs to be addressed, our team does so immediately, as was the case with each and every issue raised by USDA in this report," company spokesperson Elizabeth Ward said.

All operations have been suspended at the Jarratt plant, Ward said, and the company is working to disinfect the plant and retrain employees. No product will be released from the plant "until it meets the highest quality and safety standards."

"During this time, we have partnered with the industry's leading global food safety experts to conduct a rigorous investigation to get to the bottom of the events leading to this recall," said Ward.

Beyond issues like paperwork lapses and leftover meat on equipment, the records show inspectors faulted Boar's Head several times for mold or mildew building up around the company's facilities in Jarratt.

In July, federal inspectors found what looked to be mold and mildew around the hand washing sinks for the workers tasked with meats that are supposed to be ready to eat.

Mold was also found building up outside of steel vats used by the plant, previous records show, as well as in holding coolers between the site's smokehouses.

"A black mold like substance was seen throughout the room at the wall/concrete junction. As well as some caulking around brick/metal," they wrote in January, saying some spots were "as large as a quarter."

Other locations were found to have a number of issues with leaking or pooling water, including a puddle found to have "a green algal growth" inside and condensation that was found to be "dripping over product being held." 

After inspectors flagged one of the leaks to the company, workers tried to mop up the leaks.

"The employee wiped a third time, and the leaks returned within 10 seconds," inspectors wrote after one condensation issue was raised on July 27, near fans that looked to be blowing the liquid onto uncovered deli meats.

In February, an inspector found "ample amounts of blood in puddles on the floor" and a "rancid smell" throughout a cooler used at the plant.

A number of records also flag sightings of insects in and around deli meats at the plant, including one instance that prompted the agency to tag more than 980 pounds of ham in a smokehouse hallway to be "retained" for an investigation.

In June, another record flagged concerns over flies going in and out of "vats of pickle" left by Boar's Head in a room. 

"Small flying gnat like insects were observed crawling on the walls and flying around the room. The rooms walls had heavy meat buildup," they wrote.

Other parts of the facility were also found to have bugs, including what looked to be "ants traveling down the wall," as well as a beetle and a cockroach.

USDA FOIA records requested by Alexander Tin by CBSNews.com on Scribd

Alexander Tin is a digital reporter for CBS News based in the Washington, D.C. bureau. He covers the Biden administration's public health agencies, including the federal response to infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19.

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