examples of a lean business plan

Lean Business Plan Template & How-To Guide

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Historically, business owners have devoted months to constructing a detailed plan to establish strategy, executive, and financial numbers for their business. Although a strategic plan is often created, these entrepreneurs often miss a big piece: gathering feedback from potential customers.

Without collecting data and insight from target customers, the detailed business plan becomes a document of assumptions and guesses rather than a proven success blueprint.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here

Lean business planning allows you to more quickly and accurately develop your business plan based on actual customer feedback and interactions.

On this page:

Key benefits of lean startup business planning, can you use a lean plan to raise funding, key elements of a lean business plan.

• Lean Planning Process
• Putting The Lean Plan Into Action

Review Your Results & Revise Your Plan

Lean business plan faqs, other helpful business plan articles & templates.

The lean startup business model is supported by a one-page business plan that does not require extensive financial forecasting or long-term market research and development plans. While the traditional business plan details every aspect of your company’s operations, the lean business plan focuses on key factors that present immediate opportunities for new companies to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. This approach allows you to maintain company focus on your core mission and avoid adding unnecessary information that can weigh down your final document.

The lean startup movement has encouraged entrepreneurs to shorten their plans down from hundreds of pages to a one-page business plan or less – essentially eliminating the need for small businesses to create traditional plans at all. Rather than spending time creating lengthy reports, owners can simply list their core values, mission statement, market analysis, marketing strategies, and projected financial statements – all on one page.

Some companies even document their entire value proposition on a single sheet of paper which serves as both the foundation for further market research and development to improve its product or service offering. By having this type of information readily available to share with investors or clients, your company will appear more professional and prepared without taking up too much time creating unnecessary documentation.

Developing a lean business plan is a critical step in launching or growing your business. However, it’s important to note that if you’re seeking VC funding , bank funding, or angel investors , a traditional business plan is required. Such a plan includes additional research, strategy, and financial forecasts to give investors and lenders the information they need to determine whether they will receive an adequate ROI (return on investment) if they provide funding to you.

Below are nine key elements of a lean business plan example:

Business overview

Describe what the business does.

Value propositions

Detail the value your business brings to the market and the industry.

Key partnerships

List the key partners, including suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, vendors, or software firms, with whom your business will work.

Key activities

List the key activities your business will perform to gain a competitive advantage, grow market share, and fuel profits.

Key resources

List the resources that your business has at its disposal to create maximum value. This could include human capital (your own experience or that of your core team), intellectual property, patents, funding, etc.

Customer relationships

Describe how your customers will interact with your business. Will you have personal or automated channels of communication available? Chart out the end-to-end customer experience journey and how you intend on building customer relationships.

Customer segments and channels

Specify your target audience, what requirements of theirs you cater to, how you reach out to them, and, most importantly, the steps you are taking to generate a customer experience that will result in long-term loyalty.

Cost structure

Define your key costs and variable costs, and how they represent a competitive advantage if applicable. A lean startup business plan (versus a lean business plan for an existing company), needs to also include key startup costs you anticipate in launching your company.

Revenue streams

Describe how your business generates money. What are your revenue streams or sources, for example, selling advertising space on your app or publication, membership fees, direct sales, etc? List all your revenue sources in this section, starting with the source that delivers the largest revenue.

Download Your Free Lean Business Plan Template

Lean Business Planning Process

To create your lean business plan, follow these 4 steps:

Create the Plan

Your lean business plan will start with you, your business idea, and one sheet of paper. Yes, one sheet is all you will need.

Business Strategy

You will first begin by explaining your business strategy. This is simply a summary of what you are planning to do, who your customers are, and who your competitors are.

Identify the problem you are trying to solve along with your solution and potential alternative solutions. Then, describe your target customers. Focus on defining and describing the audience you expect to serve, who they are, where they live, etc. Lastly, explain who your competitors are. Describe what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.

Easy enough, that is all you need for your plan. With lean business planning, you simply create a business strategy that focuses on the essence and function of your business: what you’re doing and who it’s for.

Course of Action

The next piece of your lean business plan is laying out an outline of your course of action. This section will illustrate how you’re going to make your strategy happen. Here, you will focus on sales, marketing, your team members, and any potential key partners or future relationships in the business world.

Sales Strategy

It is important to first begin creating your course of action by establishing just what your sales strategy is. Will you be selling in a physical store or online? Or both? Consider whether or not your product will be sold in stores owned by other companies, and who these companies would be.

Marketing Strategy

Next up is creating your marketing strategy. Think about how you will effectively and attractively reach your potential customers. Here, consider the following:

• Target market
• Online presence
• Advertising
• Public relations
• Special promotions

Team Members

The success of your course of action will be dependent on the team members who execute it. If you need to build a team, think about who the key people are that you will need to hire. What are their qualifications and characteristics? If you already have an existing business, highlight the key members that help run your company and accomplish strategy and success.

Partners and Business Resources

Begin to think of the other businesses that you might want to work with. Most likely there are other companies that you will have to work with to make your strategy work. Brainstorm all key resources, business partners, distributors, and key suppliers that you will need to have relationships with.

After constructing your Course of Action, it’s time to create your schedule. Since lean business planning is centered around efficiency, designing an organized schedule is key.

For startups:

If you’re starting a new business, you should begin with getting to know your customers. For you to grow a viable business, you must understand your customers’ views, wants, and needs. Your goal here will be to ensure that you’ve developed a strategic, organized strategy. A startup’s schedule will often include sending out surveys, interviewing customers, and researching locations.

For established businesses:

For most businesses that have been around, your schedule should be focused on achieving the business goals you have identified. Your schedule should have specific actions with names, dates, and even times. The schedule you create should hold your business and its employees accountable for their work and progress.

The final part of scheduling is to make time to regularly review your Lean Business Plan. As your business progresses, so will your Lean Business Plan. Setting a regular review time is critical to get your business moving in the right direction and your team members on board.

Forecast and Budget

Even if you have the best business idea in the world, if the numbers aren’t there, it won’t work out. The final section of your Lean Business Plan should depict a business model that forecasts and budgets for the future.

Here, all you have to do is create basic bottom-up sales forecasts and a basic budget for expenses. Do not try to sugarcoat here, these numbers should be as practical as possible. With this, you will be able to identify just what will and won’t work for your business.

By taking on this pragmatic sense, you may begin to feel like your business will not be able to succeed unless you are flooding with customers or getting daily news coverage. You may need to alter your business model here and adjust your pricing and expenses to ensure that you can turn a profit. Also, keep in mind any funding options for large-scale marketing and PR campaigns. Keep a realistic view, but also be sure to acknowledge offers that may be available to help you out.

Putting The Lean Business Plan Into Action

After you have completed your lean business plan, it’s time to put it into action. Your main goal here should be to get a deeper understanding of your customers. Is your product solving their problem? Are they willing to pay for it? Do they want something else?

Reaching out to your customers early on will help you get a grasp on their wants and needs to make the necessary alterations to your Lean Business Plan for ultimate success. It will also provide you with some insight as to what products you may want to produce in the future.

As earlier mentioned, your lean plan should be reviewed regularly to discern just what is working and what isn’t. Compare your results with your lean plan. Are sales growing according to plan? Does the plan need to be changed?

For startups who have little to no metrics to track, review your customer interviews, surveys, or any other information that you have gathered about the industry. Here, you can begin to continually refine your plan and strategy if necessary.

If you are an established business, review your recent results with those from the past. Take note of your key metrics as well as foot traffic in stores, website visits, and any other critical units of measure for your business success.

After analyzing your results, it’s time to revise your plan. Remember that your Lean Business Plan is a process rather than a finalized document, and it is made for continuous improvements. Don’t be afraid to make any necessary changes to aid in your business’s success.

Lean business planning might just be the key to your company’s ultimate success. This simple method of business planning has helped many startups and existing businesses advance and flourish such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon. By focusing on reviewing, revising, and business management, lean planning allows you to test out different strategies to find the best one to create a successful business.

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What is a lean business plan?

A lean business plan is a compact, single-page document typically for internal use. Lean planning is a short-term business plan strategy for making small changes and measuring the results to improve the efficiency of the business. This compares to the formal business plan which is typically very detailed, includes 10 key components , and can be up to 15-25 pages in length.

What is the purpose of a lean business plan?

The lean business plan is primarily for internal use, so it doesn’t have to be a fancy document. The purpose of this plan is for you to document the changes you’ve made to your business so that you can analyze their effectiveness in improving business operations, marketing, and/or sales over a short period.

How long is a lean business plan?

The lean business plan is typically a one-page document to describe your business strategy including your goals, targeted audience, your business model, and how your sales and marketing strategies work to support your business goals. 

How do you create a lean business plan?

Refer to our article on ‘ Lean Business Plan: How-To Guide & Template ’ for the 4 steps in creating a lean business plan or a lean startup business plan template . You can also download our free lean plan template to help you get started. 

Fundamentals of Lean Planning Explained

Noah Parsons

11 min. read

Updated April 15, 2024

Let’s face facts: Writing a traditional business plan is a hassle. 

• A traditional business plan takes too long to write.
• Most people won’t even read it from cover-to-cover.
• It’s often outdated by the time you finish writing it.
• It doesn’t lend itself to frequent and easy updating—and that’s the core of the problem.

Historically, entrepreneurs have taken months to craft detailed plans without even gathering feedback from potential customers. They’ve viewed business planning as a single hurdle to get their business up and running or a thick wad of paper to shove across a banker’s desk in order to get the funding they need.

These business plans end up as just a collection of guesses and assumptions, instead of a proven roadmap for growth. 

But planning is still critical, even if the business plan might be broken. Studies have shown that businesses that set goals and track their progress grow 30 percent faster than those who “just wing it.” Furthermore, even established businesses grow faster when they have a plan . 

So what if I told you there was a better way to do business planning? One that lets you adjust and refine your plan as you gather more information about your business and customers.

A method known as Lean Planning.

• Welcome to the Lean Planning method

Lean Planning is a 4-step process that helps you discover a business model that works and manage your company successfully.

Here’s the Lean Planning process:

• Create a one-page plan
• Test the plan
• Review your results
• Revise your plan

These 4-steps replace the traditionally lengthy business plan with a 20-minute planning process. This ensures that you are taking small steps, reviewing your results, and creating incremental improvements—all while reducing your risk of failure.

It’s also simpler and faster than writing a traditional business plan. And, possibly, the greatest benefit is that this method can benefit both startups and established businesses. 

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If you’re a startup

Lean Planning helps you quickly figure out if your idea is any good and what you need to change to build a viable business.

If you’re an established business

Lean Planning works even if you’re already up and running. It helps you continually refine and tweak your strategy while measuring your progress toward your goals. After all, planning is about making better management decisions, not about producing a thick document that sits in a drawer.

Read on to learn how to make the lean model work by creating your own one-page business plan .

• Step 1: Create a one-page plan

The Lean Planning methodology starts with a one-page plan you can create in 20 minutes .

That’s right—one page. Lean Planning is a simple methodology and your one-page plan should be simple, too. You can download a lean planning template and fill it in as you follow the steps below.

What to include in your one-page plan

• Strategy: What you’re going to do
• Tactics: How you’re going to do it
• Business model: How you’re going to make money
• Schedule: Who is doing what and when

Let’s dive into each section.

Your business strategy

Your business strategy is simply an overview of what you want to do and who your customers and competitors are. Start by identifying the problem you are solving for people and follow up by explaining your solution to this problem.

The problem you’re solving

Businesses exist to solve problems for customers. Their products and services fill a need or satiate a desire. If all you have is a solution that is in search of a problem, you’re going to have a hard time building a successful business. So, start with the other side of the equation and focus on how you can help your customers solve a problem.

Start small with just one or two sentences or a few bullet points to identify the problem you are solving. Do the same thing to describe your solution.

Your ideal customer

Now, quickly describe your target market. Who is your ideal customer? If you know how many potential customers are out there, great. If you’re in the early stages of fleshing out your business idea, don’t worry too much about detailed market research . Instead, focus on defining your ideal customer —who are they, and what are their key attributes?

Your competition

Finally, create a shortlist of your competition . How do your potential customers solve their problems today?

That’s it. A business strategy doesn’t have to be complicated with Lean Planning. It’s just a few bullets points that describe the essence of your business: what you’re doing and who you’re doing it for.

The next section of your one-page plan is a short outline of your business tactics. This is just an outline of how you will make your strategy happen. You’ll be thinking about sales, marketing, the team you might need , and any partners or outside resources you’ll need to leverage.

Your sales strategy

Start by thinking through your sales strategy. Are you selling online or building a physical store? Maybe both? Or, perhaps your product will be sold in stores owned by other companies.

Your marketing strategy

Next comes your marketing strategy. How are you going to reach your customers? How do they find out that you exist and that you solve their problem?

If you need to build a team to grow your business, who are the key people that you’ll need to hire? If you’re an existing business, who are the critical employees that run the company and execute your strategy?

Key partners and resources

Finally, think about other businesses that you might need to work with to make your strategy happen. Are their key suppliers or distributors that you’ll need to have relationships with?

Remember, this is on a single page, so each of these sections should just be three to five bullet points each.

Now it’s time to build a schedule. Lean Planning is all about getting things done, so you need a timeline to follow.

Your next step is to get out from behind your desk and go talk to your potential customers (I’ll go into more detail on this in a moment). Your goal will be to verify that you’ve defined a solid strategy . To that end, a startup’s schedule should include things like conducting customer interviews, sending out surveys, researching physical locations, interviewing potential suppliers, and so on.

Your schedule will probably be focused on specific business milestones that are related to executing your strategy and implementing your tactics.

It’s critical to have accountability here. Your schedule should have dates and people responsible for completing each task.

Finally, make sure to include a time to regularly review your plan. You’ll want to review and revise this plan frequently, so having a regular review point is critical. I recommend a monthly review cycle, but reviewing more frequently is fine, too.

Business model

Even if you have a problem that’s worth solving, a solid solution to the problem, and a target market that needs your solution, you don’t have a business unless the numbers work out. You need a business model that works. The last component of your one-page plan is a basic forecast and budget to ensure that a great idea can actually lead to a great business.

Yes, forecasting and budgeting do mean looking into the future, and no one knows the future (at least I don’t!). But, it doesn’t have to be as difficult as it sounds.

Putting together some basic, bottom-up sales forecasts and a basic budget for expenses will quickly tell you if you have a business model that works—one that can create a viable business that will pay the bills.

At this stage, it’s important not to paint an incredibly rosy picture of your financial prospects. Instead, the sales forecasts should be as realistic as possible. Assume that not nearly as many people as you think will show up in your store. Assume that your website won’t get mainstream press coverage.

With this “realistic” forecast, do you still have a viable business? Can you turn a profit ? If you can only be successful with incredibly high volumes of customers, you may need to take a second look at your pricing, expenses, and other aspects of your business model. Or, make sure that you get the kind of funding that’s needed for large marketing and PR campaigns.

You can get started on your one-page plan right away by downloading our free template . You should be able to complete an initial draft in under an hour—that’s much faster than writing a traditional business plan.

• Step 2: Test the plan

Now that you have your one-page plan in hand, you’re ready to start putting the plan into action to see if your ideas will work.

Depending on your business stage, you’ll do this in different ways. If you’re a startup with an unproven idea or an existing business that’s considering a new strategic direction—your next step is to validate them.

Your one-page plan is just a set of assumptions about a business. Ask yourself:

• Do the target customers actually have the problem that you think they have?
• Does the solution you’re proposing actually solve their problem?
• Do your target customers want to pay for your solution? How much?

Reducing risk is your goal in the early stages of starting a business

Starting a business is full of risks . There are just so many unknowns, and it’s incredibly risky to just build your business based on a set of assumptions about your target market, their problems, and how they’ll react to your solution.

Your plan is a really just a set of educated guesses that need to be answered and then revised on a continuous basis until most unknowns are removed. That’s how you reduce risk.

So, you need to take the very simple, but very challenging step of actually talking to your potential customers .

Look at your first version of your plan as a set of assumptions that need to be proven true or false and then go back and revise your assumptions as you go. Refining your plan so that it’s a collection of facts instead of guesses can be the difference between a successful business and a failure.

If your business is up and running, focus on implementation

For more mature businesses that already know a lot about their target customers, the goal of the plan is to help guide implementation. In this situation, use a one-page plan to get everyone on the same page, set goals, and manage the business.

• Step 3: Review your results

Both Silicon Valley startups and Main Street small businesses need to know how they are doing. Which means  Are they growing according to plan? Why or why not? If not, what changes need to be made? Should the plan change?

For new startups

If you’re just getting started and don’t have many (or any) metrics to track yet, you should be reviewing the results of your customer interviews and any other information that you’ve gathered that would change your strategy. Perhaps you’ll be refining your solution or even tweaking the definition of the problem you are solving. Perhaps you’ll refine your marketing and sales strategy.

For established businesses

Beyond tracking key financial metrics such as cash , sales, expenses, accounts receivable, and accounts payable, businesses must track the other key metrics that are critical to their success. These other key metrics might be website visits, foot traffic in the store, tables turned in a restaurant or any other core number that drives business success.

Reviewing your results regularly is key to better management and success. These metrics should be reviewed at least monthly in a regular plan review meeting with key business partners and employees. This is when you refine your plan and your pitch if necessary and track your ongoing action plan.

• Step 4: Revise your plan

Lean Planning is a process, not just a document. It’s is all about continuous improvement. You’re quickly defining a strategy, experimenting to see if that strategy works, reviewing the results, and revising the plan before you start again.

Lean Planning is never finished. It’s simply a process for running your business better, more efficiently, and setting you and your team up for success.

What if you need a more detailed business plan?

There may be a time when you need a more detailed business plan. There’s nothing wrong with that. Some people might want to read it, you may need to submit a full plan for funding and you might even want to document your strategy in more detail. 

Your detailed business plan will be born from your one-page plan. The ideas will transfer from bulleted lists to sentences and paragraphs. You’ll add more detail to your sales and marketing strategy, your pricing strategy, and perhaps your manufacturing plans and distribution strategy.

For a step-by-step guide to creating a detailed business plan, check out our guide .

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

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Lean Business Planning: The Modern approach to Business Plan Writing

Free Lean Canvas Template

Ayush Jalan

• December 12, 2023

10 Min Read

Planning is essential for any business to attain success and sustain itself in the market. Traditionally, the goal was to formulate a lean business plan that lasts and works in the long run. However, this conventional way of creating a business plan isn’t flexible and doesn’t provide much room for improvement over time.

In an ever-changing business environment, you need a plan that can adapt to your changing needs and not hold you back with its rigidity. This is true especially when immediate actions are needed.

To facilitate the convenience to make modifications, a new method of planning has surfaced. This is called a lean business plan. This simple yet effective method of planning a business reduces the hassle of dealing with complicated documents—all while increasing efficiency and productivity.

What is Lean Business Planning?

A lean business plan is essentially a one-page business plan for companies to kickstart their businesses. Contrary to traditional business plans which are often bulky and complex documents, a lean business plan is a simple, reader-friendly, and easy-to-make document.

It is a streamlined core plan that acts as a basis for a more elaborate one.

If you want to skip the trouble of creating a plan from scratch, a lean business plan template can help you save a couple of hours. If done right, a lean business plan can guide you to reach your goals, keep track of your progress, and manage cash flow .

Why Choose Lean Business Planning?

A lean business plan is similar to creating a map with steps laid out to run your business. It is favorable compared to a traditional plan because:

• It’s faster: It contains summaries rather than detailed processes in each section of the plan. Consequently, making it a simple process that you can complete within minutes—saves you time.
• It lets you stay up-to-date: It’s flexible and hence easier to update. As your business starts to expand, your goals and strategies need to be modified accordingly.
• It’s concise: Conventional business plans are often too detailed for their own good—making it hard to interpret them and draw out actionable results. A lean business plan is simpler, shorter, and smarter.

Steps to Create a Lean Business Plan

Now that we have the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ out of the way, let’s take a look at the ‘how’. Here are the 5 key steps to creating the perfect lean business plan for your company:

• Lay the foundation for your business plan
• Put your ideas to test
• Review your results
• Revise your plan
• Set to launch

For your reference, we’ve created a simple one-page business plan for a barbershop business:

We have used a lean canvas to fit your plan on one page.

Step 1: Lay the foundation for your business plan

The first step is perhaps the most important one. It includes jotting down everything that your business is and does. Here, you summarize who you are, what you do, and how you do it. The plan can also include your target customer base, your goals, your team, and how you schedule tasks.

The foundational aspects of your business plan include:

• Strategy: Define the actions you will take to achieve your long-term and short-term goals
• Tactics: Describe how you use the resources available to implement your actions
• Execution: Specify how you will implement them
• Business model: Explain how you will generate sales and profits

1. Strategy

A strategy is the brain of your business. It encompasses the core identity of your business and the steps you take to run it. Here, you write your plans of action in simple and precise statements. This includes:

• Business identity: Here, you need to describe who you are and how you want your customers to identify you. This can include your business philosophy, company history, and mission and vision statement .
• Problem: Specify the problem that your customers are facing. Try to be as specific as possible with the claims you make. It is vital to understand that a business’s success depends on its reliability to solve its customers’ problems.
• Solution: Mention the solution to the problems you are tackling with your product. It’s important to note that your ultimate offering to the customer is not the product itself, but the benefit that it gives.
• Market: Your brand identity determines which market you operate in and who your target audience is. To get a clear idea of who your ideal customer is, you must understand their values and priorities. To do so, it is advisable to create a solid customer profile first before you think about allocating resources to marketing.
• Competition: It is necessary to keep a close eye on your competitors. In this step, you list down your top competitors, their USPs, their market share, and most importantly, how you are different than them.

Tactics are the key to implementing your strategies. They’re primarily all your plans and marketing techniques to steer your business toward growth.

• Sales channels: Simply making a great product isn’t enough. You need to make sure that it’s actually reaching your customers. For this, you need robust sales channels. This can include walk-in stores, online retail outlets, and even both. You may also list down whether you want to work with distributors or go solo.
• Marketing activities: Marketing is non-negotiable for any business. After all, what is seen is sold. This is where you will list down your marketing strategies to draw customers in and inform them about your product and persuade them to buy.
• Partners and resources: If you have business partners that manage or finance the business, mention them in this step. You can also add any key resources that you use for running the business.
• Team: Mention the key team members in this step and their respective roles. If you don’t have a team yet, you can write down the primary roles crucial for your business and later recruit relevant talents.

3. Execution

Strategies and tactics are wasted efforts without well-defined execution. Everything you have learned in the previous sections will not convert into growth unless you have a systematic assigning of tasks and deadlines.

• Schedule: It is essential to keep a timeline of all the events taking place in your business, along with a roadmap of all future activities. Review your schedule regularly to keep track of what’s working and what’s not. Making changes ensures that you don’t deviate from your goals.
• Assumptions: Assumptions are needed so you have some ground to make decisions. Without them, your team will have a hard time figuring out new strategies. Listing the assumptions you’ve made about your business ensures that everyone is on the same page.
• Milestones: Milestones are the achievements you aim to make with your business plan. They act as indicators that a plan is working. On paper, they might look like just to-do lists with deadlines, but they help track your progress and tackle standstills.
• Metric: There are several metrics through which businesses measure their success. Some of the fundamental metrics are sales, costs, expenses, and more. You can tailor this to your company and write how you want to judge your business’s performance.

4. Business model

A business model is a description of how your business will make money. The clearer this description is, the better. A sloppy business model is a recipe for wasted resources, and time, and can lead to liquidation .

• Forecast sales: Forecasting your sales means making educated guesses about your sales performance. It need not be 100% accurate. Here, you write how your business will create sales in the future. As hard as it may sound to play the guessing game, forecasting is important to compare expected sales to actual sales.
• Budget expenses: Estimating your future expenses and costs is essential to good management. Budgeting and regularly reviewing it helps you understand where you need to cut costs or increase investments to reach your milestones.
• Cash flow: Cash flow refers to the net inflow and outflow of cash in your business. Keeping track of it helps you foresee when you might run into a cash deficit or a cash surplus. You want to stay away from extremes. This assists you to manage your sales and expenses accordingly to maintain a good ratio.

Step 2: Put your ideas to test

After having your strategies made, milestones set, schedules in place, and a tactical plan to get your business up and running, it is time to test their utility. This helps reduce risks, gain insight, and avoid inefficient use of resources.

In this step, you verify the integrity of your business methodologies via extensive research. One of the best ways to do so is by surveying your target customers directly. Record their responses and compare them with your assumptions.

• Is the problem you are solving synonymous with the problem your target customers are facing?
• Does the solution you provide align with their expectations?
• Is there a solution you can provide that your customers don’t yet know they want?
• Are the sales channels you decided apt for your potential customers?
• Are your marketing techniques persuasive enough?

Asking all the above questions will give you a detailed view of what should be revised and what needs to stick.

Step 3: Review your results

The next step is to examine your results. After having put your ideas to test, you must have received some significant outcomes of your decisions. This is your data. You will use this data to figure out what went wrong with the last plan and come to conclusions.

You can review your results by using the same measuring metrics that we talked about earlier. It is important to choose reliable metrics that suit well with your business model. Opting for metrics incompatible with your business can give inaccurate results—making it harder to evaluate your performance.

Step 4: Revise your plan

One of the best things about a lean business plan is that it’s not set in stone. In other words, it’s a flexible plan and is open to continuous refinements as you go along with your business activities. Considering everything you have learned so far, this step is where you revise your lean business plan.

It includes making changes to your assumptions, sales channels, marketing techniques, schedules, budgets, and even your target customers as your business continues to evolve over time. The more mistakes you detect and revisions you make, the more reliable your lean business plan becomes.

Step 5: Set your business to launch

Now that you have a complete lean business plan in hand, one that is tested and refined, all you need to do is set your business in motion. Keep in mind to come back, revise, and keep updating your business plan as and when required. Usually, for most businesses, a lean business plan is all you need to get started.

However, sometimes a more detailed business plan is more suitable for large-scale businesses. This could include specific steps and instructions for your team to undertake complex operations and perhaps even comments for your investors. In case that’s your requirement, this business plan checklist might help you stay on track.

Creating a business plan is often a difficult and tedious task, but it doesn’t have to be. With the above-mentioned steps and guidelines, you can create a lean business plan that’s right for your company. This compact, tailored, streamlined, targeted, and easy-to-revise document is sure to get your business up and running in no time.

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About the Author

Ayush is a writer with an academic background in business and marketing. Being a tech-enthusiast, he likes to keep a sharp eye on the latest tech gadgets and innovations. When he's not working, you can find him writing poetry, gaming, playing the ukulele, catching up with friends, and indulging in creative philosophies.

Reach Your Goals with Accurate Planning

A Guide to Creating a Lean Business Plan (2022)

Don’t have the time to develop a formal business plan for your startup? Here’s how to create a lean business plan to put things into motion.

Vivienne Chen

Vivienne is a Product Marketer at Bubble. She is a storyteller and is passionate about meaningful ways technology can help foster social solidarity.

More posts by Vivienne Chen.

The dramatic increase of small businesses in the United States during the last five years prompted the business community to rekindle the concept of Lean Business Plans. While having all these start-ups is laudable, 45% of them fail after five years.

The key to having a successful business, small or large, is having the right idea at the right time and crafting a viable business plan to fill that market niche . However, many entrepreneurs don't write business plans because they recoil at writing a voluminous traditional or formal business plan that spans 30 pages and has multi-year income statements and layers of operational complexity.

A lean business plan is the perfect solution for that problem.

Traditional Business Plan vs. Lean Business Plan

Traditional business plans tend to be written for start-ups that have multi-million-dollar revenue objectives and require large amounts of seed funding for a large staff and large office spaces that keep the enterprise running until it turns a profit. Investors want to know how their money will get spent, the potential market share, and the founders' experience. Hence, the 30-page masterwork loaded with numbers, graphs, and charts takes three months to create.

A lean business plan, however, is more effective for a small- to medium-sized business (SMB) because it concentrates on the key elements of the company. You’ll give a traditional plan a big haircut by writing a lean plan that outlines your business idea, what market problem you’re solving, how you’ll solve it, how much money you need, and when you’ll break even.

Why Lean Business Plan Methodology Is Gaining in Popularity

The Small Business Association (SBA) encourages entrepreneurs to develop a lean business plan first , even when contemplating writing a traditional plan later. This approach helps lean startups organize their concepts without getting bogged down with unwieldy traditional plans that often discourage writing a plan in the first place.

Start-ups commonly fail for six reasons . However, entrepreneurs today have access to a greater variety of resources than ever. Web-based apps, digital libraries, government agencies like the SBA, and mobile solutions provide a robust ecosystem for new companies.

These invaluable support systems often mitigate the need to write traditional plans for SMB start-ups because vast data stores are but a click away that can help entrepreneurs and potential investors validate any business model.

Benefits of a Lean Business Plan

Lean Business Plans continue to grow in popularity for these important reasons:

• Accessibility: Lean plans are relatively easy to conceive, formulate, and understand. Anyone with basic business sense can discern the unique value proposition (UVP) and unique selling proposition (USP) without being a former CEO.
• Speed: A lean business plan only takes two to four days to write and requires only three to five pages to complete. Compared to a traditional plan, this lean approach moves at light speed.
• Flexibility: A lean plan allows you to organize the business concept and summarize the UVP and USP in short, easy-to-digest thoughts, which can be modified when new information or investor inputs are presented. And it can be upgraded to a traditional plan later if needed.

The Major Components of a Lean Business Plan

Since you’re writing a lean business plan, you’ll be pleased to learn that such plans still have all the key elements of a traditional plan (again, making it a great foundation to build on later as you grow your business).

• Business Model : There’s no way around this essential requirement. Everyone, especially you, must understand the business model you’re starting to make a profit (e.g., retail, manufacturing, fee-for-service, etc.).
• Strategy: This describes how your company will solve a problem or addresses a market need and how it differs from competitors (aka the differentiator).
• Tactics: Outlines the operational steps needed to manage marketing, sales, and business objectives.
• Schedule: Explains when your business starts operations, where it’s located, when it expects to break even, and when it’s profitable.
• Income/Expense Statement: Summarizes revenues, sales, and expense projections for one year.

What to Include in a Lean Business Plan

The value of “lean” means describing these elements in a few short and clear sentences; write only one paragraph per subject.

• Overview: Describes your company’s mission
• Problem: Shows what problem you’ll solve or market need
• Solution: Outlines how you solve the problem
• Target Market: Defines your customers and the market
• Competition: Identifies competitors and what differentiates your company
• Marketing: Explains how you’ll reach customers
• Sales Channels/POS : Outlines where you’ll meet customer needs
• Revenue: Shows how you’ll make money
• Expenses: Summarizes start-up costs and ongoing expenses
• Milestones/Growth: Projects timelines for attaining business goals
• Partners/Resources: Indicates your business connections and other professional assets
• Talent/Roles: Identifies the team, relevant experience, and type of expertise you still need

How to Write a Lean Business Plan

Since you now understand the requisite elements of a good lean business plan, these links provide excellent resources and apps to help you write a lean business plan document.

• Hoshin Planning Process : Outlines a step-by-step thought process needed to develop a lean business plan.
• SBA Guide to Lean Business Plans : Shows how to write a lean business plan.
• What It Costs to Start a Business in 2022 : The Bubble community offers excellent tips on what it costs to start a business.
• Emerald Insight : Provides insights on what kind of business plan to use.
• Startly : A one-stop service that provides enhanced time and expense solutions.

Important Next Steps

• Add an MVP Summary. A start-up that plans to sell a new version of an existing product should consider adding a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) summary. The MVP protocol is an important testing and engineering process that ensures a prototype gets the proper development and testing prior to release.

The MVP methodology plays well with the lean business philosophy because it enhances the development of existing products rather than starting from square one.

• Get Funding. Once you have a solid lean business plan, you'll be in an excellent position to look for funding. The Bubble community can show you how to get seed funding .
• Getting Started. There is no time like the present to start building your dream. This is your Call to Action (CTA): wake up, get up, and start-up. Today.

How a No-Code Solution Like Bubble Can Help

Bubble’s numerous no-code platform solutions are invaluable tools that help entrepreneurs start new businesses. In addition to saving considerable time and money during the development phase, the Bubble community offers a wealth of know-how and support tools that guide entrepreneurs during the daunting start-up process.

These support structures complement the lean business plan approach because Bubble eliminates many infrastructure costs and operational hurdles a new company must overcome.

About Bubble

Bubble is a leader in the no-code movement. Bubble offers a powerful point-and-click web editor and cloud hosting platform that allows users to build fully customizable web applications and workflows, ranging from simple prototypes to complex marketplaces, SaaS products, and more.

Millions of users are building and launching businesses on Bubble — many have gone on to participate in top accelerator programs, such as Y Combinator, and even raised $365M in venture funding. Bubble is more than just a product. We are a strong community of builders and entrepreneurs who are united by the belief that everyone should be able to create technology.

Start building with a free account

Build the next big thing with Bubble

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• Brand guidelines

Lean Business Plan

Managing a business requires the utmost participation of particular stakeholders especially that of the business owner and the management team. Properly planning business processes, tactic and strategy incorporation, marketing and sales activities, and other corporate undertakings is integral for the growth and development of the organization. A lean business plan is one of the documents that you can use for operational management and planning.

• 45+ Implementation Plan Examples
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Unlike a  remodeling business plan  and other kinds of business plans that are commonly presented to investors and external entities, you have to take note that a lean business plan is commonly used for internally managing the business.

Lean Business Plan Example

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A curation of lean business plan template examples in PDF is available for you to download and browse through from this post. Maximize the usage of these references when creating your lean business plan so you can ensure that your output is well-formatted, comprehensive, and business-appropriate. You may also see  business plan profit and loss template examples .

Lean Business Planning Guide Example

Lean Business Planning Example

Lean Business Planning Format and Instructions Example

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What Does a Lean Business Plan Contain?

When making a workout plan , a lean business plan, or other types of planning documents and tools, it is essential for you to think of the completion of all the information related to the plan that you have in mind. Coming up with a comprehensive document can make it easier for you to execute all your call to actions in a timely manner while maintaining the quality of your work processes. Here are some of the most basic and common information that you can observe once you browse through a lean business plan:

1. Make sure that you will be specific when listing down the date when the lean business plan has been made, the date when the lean business plan has last been updated, and the name of the point person who is responsible for safekeeping the specified document. You may also see  legal strategic plan .

2. Present and define the strategies and tactics that you would like to execute. You need to ensure that there is an organized listing of your strategies so you can also identify the areas of the business where they will be used. Properly presenting your strategies can also help you become more aware of the timeliness of their implementation. You may also like  job plan examples .

3. A guide for action plan execution is important to be included in a lean business plan. No matter how good your strategies and tactics are, they will be useless if you cannot execute them accordingly and in a timely manner. Your execution discussion must have the specification of the channels, touch points and platforms that you will use in varying circumstances depending on the entities that you will be transacting with. You may also see  weekly plan examples .

4. Know how you will manage the team. Come up with a structure for communication flow, decision-making, and other concerns that will allow you to maximize the participation and presence of all your team members. This can also help you identify the strengths, abilities, and other deliverable that you need so you can implement your strategies accordingly. You may also like  simple business plan examples .

5. Aside from the items listed above, it is also important for you to come up with a list of concrete specifics. This area of your lean business plan must present the milestones that you would like to achieve in different time frames, the responsibilities that you will designate to your workforce as well as the performance measures that you will look into when evaluating the output of different activities and programs. You may also see  daily plan examples .

6. Set assumptions and expectations appropriately. You have to be realistic with your presentation so that you can make sure that you are at the same page with your business stakeholders with regards the things that you want to achieve. You may also see transition plan examples .

7. Your lean business plan can also have financial statements and forecasts as well as other budget-related specifications like corporate spending, resource allocation, and projects of the business cash flow. Depending on the scope of your lean business plan, you can add more information that can support the discussion that you would like to present and give focus on.

Lean Canvas Format for Business Planning Example

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Lean Canvas Guide for Business and Project Planning

What Is a Lean Business Plan?

Is it your first time to encounter the term “lean business plan”? Unlike a school operational plan , which most, if not all, of us are already aware of, a lean business plan is a term that is not always used or talked about. If you have no idea on how to develop this document, the first thing that you need to do is to ensure that you will be knowledgeable of what it is all about and how its usage can be beneficial to the business operations. A few descriptions that can help you become more aware and knowledgeable of what a lean business plan is include the following:

1. A lean business plan is a useful business document that follows the plan-do-check-adjust procedure. This means that businesses use a lean business plan to follow a step-by-step guide that can direct the business toward the effective usage of its resources and outstanding implementations of its action plans. Using a lean business plan is essential as it can thoroughly present the deliverable that are necessary to be present so that business actions can yield the most favorable results for the organization and its stakeholders. You may also check out  advertising plan examples .

2. A lean business plan promotes a process of improvement that is sustainable, continuous, and attainable. Hence, a lean business plan consists of measurable and time-bound steps that the business can refer to for particular activities and programs. You might be interested in  event plan examples .

3. A lean business plan is an in-depth discussion of the plans of the business for the future and the attainability of each action plans based on the current capabilities, abilities, and capacity of the business. Through this document, business stakeholders can have an idea on how to develop particular processes so that they can bridge the gap and supply the missing links between the existing state of the business and its desired condition. You may also see  annual plan examples .

Lean Canvas Business Plan Model Example

Business Planning Using a Lean Canvas

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Benefits of Developing a Lean Business Plan

In a nutshell, a lean business plan focuses on creating and testing a lean plan followed by reviewing its results so that proper revisions can be made before the plan’s actual execution. This may sound too simple but precision and critical thinking should always be incorporated within the entirety of the lean business planning so you can make sure that you will come up with reasonable, attainable, relevant, and functional action plans. Listed below are some of the benefits of having a lean business plan at hand. You may also like  company plan examples .

1. Using a lean business plan, just as how the presence of  outreach strategy plan  helps organizations, can make it easier for the business to set a direction that can lead it toward the achievement of its goals. Since it is faster to develop when compared to a lengthy business plan, it is only fitting that a lot of start-ups tend to create this document whenever it needs to plan its operational and management processes.

2. Implementing a lean business plan can save you a lot of time as it is shorter and simpler when compared to a traditional business plan. The lack of length does not mean that a lean business plan will be less effective as it can actually help you and your team to become more focused on necessary items that can be helpful in developing and improving the condition of the business. You may also see  financial plan examples .

3. Having a lean business plan allows businesses to track their progress in particular areas of management and operation. This document can also be used as a reference when identifying the growth or improvement of specific business functions. With this, it will be easier to set the expectations of the stakeholders toward the condition of the business within a particular time frame. You may also check out  quality plan examples .

4. Developing a lean business plan can promote accountability or ownership. Since a lean business plan showcases plans of action, work designation can be determined accordingly. Usually, the call to actions within a lean business plan are aligned with the availability of the workforce and the ability of key persons to execute particular work processes and procedures. Hence, this document can also help your business maximize the deliverable of the workforce as well as its other resources. You may also like  assessment plan examples .

Lean Business Plan for a Start-Up Company

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Business Plan for Lean Tech Academy Example

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Lean Business Systems Visual Guide for a Business Plan

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Useful Tips to Refer to When Creating a Lean Business Plan

If you want to add value to the planning processes of your business and minimize or even eliminate any kinds of waste, it is recommended for you to use a lean business plan. You have to be particular with the requirements and guidelines of making this document so you can easily come up with a comprehensive lean business plan of your own. Here are some of the tips that you can find useful when you decide to start developing your company’s lean business plan draft:

1. Make sure that you will follow simple steps when running your business. A lean business plan is developed so that you can highlight activities that are directly aligned with the achievement of your corporate goals. With this in mind, you still have to consider the threats and risks that you need to prepare for. Hence, you also need to create resilient and adaptive action plans that will allow you to easily shift your efforts and time allocation to another function whenever necessary while still targeting the achievement of a particular goal that you have set. You may also see  business plan outline examples .

2. Focus on what is essential and necessary. Know what your business and your stakeholders need so you can ensure that you are considering decisions and activities that are beneficial to your organization. You may also see  make a business plans .

3. Ensure that the document will remain brief and simple. Use bullet points when necessary especially if you want to present an outlined discussion about the essential key points of the lean business plan. It will also be a lot of help if you can come up with visual aides like tables, graphs, and lists. You may also see  startup business plans .

4. Your lean business plan must be maintained. Consider reviewing and updating the document on a monthly basis so you can identify the revisions that are already necessary to be done especially if the strategies, tactics, and action plans listed in the document are not relevant and aligned with the current needs and demands of the business. Doing this can help the document retain its relevance.

5. Just like when making a  security operational plan , do not shy away from using templates and other references. Being well-guided through the usage of these examples can only add up to your efficiency. More so, having references can give you more options in terms of identifying the proper format for the document that you want to create and the appropriate content that you must gather and put together.

Always keep in mind that a lean business plan is specific and is shorter than a traditional business plan. Even if the range of actions are lesser as processes are stripped to their bare minimum, do not forget that a lean business plan can actually develop and become wider in scope as your business processes progress and more demands are needed to be supplied either from the operations or the stakeholders of the business. Download the lean business plan template examples that we have provided you with in this post and begin the creation of your own lean business plan. You may also see  importance of business plan .

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How to Write a Lean Business Plan

A lean business plan is a tool used by startup companies to validate their business idea and drum up funding from investors. Unlike a traditional business plan, which can be hundreds of pages long, a lean business plan is typically only 10-20 pages.

The advantage of using a lean business plan is that it forces you to focus on the key aspects of your business, such as your value proposition and target market. This makes it easier to communicate your business idea to potential investors.

Tips for Writing a Lean Startup Business Plan

If you’re thinking about writing lean startup business plans , here are a few tips to help you get started:

Keep it short and sweet

Remember, the whole point of a lean startup business plan is to be concise as you try to propose to business partners. So, don’t try to cram too much information into your 10-20 pages. Stick to the essentials and cut out any fluff.

Focus on your value proposition

Your value proposition is what sets your business apart from the competition. It’s what makes your customers want to buy from you instead of someone else.

When crafting your value proposition, think about what benefit your product or service provides for your customers. For example, if you’re selling a new type of toothbrush that is more effective at preventing cavities, then your value proposition might be “The toothbrush that prevents cavities better than any other.”

Know your target market

Your target market is the group of people who are most likely to buy your product or service, sometimes referred to as customer segments. When writing your lean business plan, be sure to include information on who your target market is and how you plan to reach them.

Describe your business model

Your business model is how you plan to make money. There are a variety of different business models, so it’s important to choose the one that makes the most sense for your particular business and is in line with your business strategy.

For example, if you’re selling a physical product, your business model might be “retail” or “direct-to-consumer.” But if you’re selling a service, your business model might be “subscription” or “pay-per-use.”

Outline your go-to-market strategy

Your go-to-market strategy is how you plan to get your product or service into the hands of your target customers. There are several different channels you can use to reach your target markets, such as online advertising, PR, or direct sales.

When outlining your go-to-market strategy, be sure to include information on which channels you plan to use and why you think they will be effective.

Create financial projections

One of the most important parts of your lean business plan is your financial projections . This is where you estimate how much revenue your business will generate and what your expenses will be.

Creating realistic financial projections is crucial for convincing investors to give you funding. But it can also be one of the most challenging parts of writing a lean business plan.

If you’re not sure where to start, there are some online templates and calculators that can help you generate financial projections for your business.

Get feedback from others

Once you’ve completed a draft of your lean business plan, it’s a good idea to get feedback from other people. This can help you identify any areas that need clarification or further development.

You can get feedback from friends, family, mentors, or even potential investors. Just be sure to take all feedback with a grain of salt and use your best judgment to decide what changes, if any, you should make to your plan.

Keep it updated

As your business grows and changes, so too should your lean business plan. Be sure to review and update your plan regularly to ensure it remains relevant and accurate.

Benefits of a Lean Business Plan

Many benefits come with using a lean business plan:

• You can get started quickly : Because they’re shorter and less detailed, lean business plans are much easier to write than traditional business plans. This means you can get started on your business faster.
• You can save time and money : Writing a lean business plan will take less time and money than writing a traditional business plan. This is because you won’t need to do as much research or hire someone to help you write it.
• You can raise funding more easily : Investors are more likely to give you funding if you have a lean business plan. This is because they can see that you’ve thought through your business and have a clear idea of what you’re doing.
• You can adapt more easily : Because they’re shorter and less detailed, lean business plans are much easier to change than traditional business plans. This means you can quickly adapt your plan as your business changes.

Using a Lean Business Plan to Raise Funding

If you’re looking to raise funding for your business, a lean business plan is a great way to do it. Investors are more likely to give you funding if you have a lean business plan because they can see that you’ve thought through your business and have a clear idea of what you’re doing.

To increase your chances of getting funding, be sure to include information on your business model, go-to-market strategy, and financial projections in your lean business plan. You should also get feedback from others to ensure your plan is clear and concise.

Sections of a Lean Business Plan Template

There are some different sections you can include in your lean business plan, but the most important ones are your executive summary, business model, go-to-market strategy, and financial projections.

• Your executive summary should give a brief overview of your business. This is where you can talk about what you’re selling and why it’s different from what’s already on the market.
• Your business model should explain how you plan on making money. This is important for investors to see so they know your business is viable.
• Your go-to-market strategy should outline how you plan on getting your product or service into the hands of your customers. This is important for investors to see so they know you have a growth plan.
• Your financial projections should show how much money you think your business will make in the future. This is important for investors to see so they know your business is a good investment.

Resources needed to Write a Lean Business Plan

The resources you need to write a business plan vary depending on the type of plan you’re writing. If you’re writing a lean business plan, you won’t need as much information as you would if you were writing a traditional business plan.

That said, there are a few resources you should always have handy when writing a business plan:

• Your business idea: You need to have a clear idea of what your business is before you can write a business plan.
• Your target market: You need to know who your target market is so you can create a marketing strategy that reaches them.
• Your financials: You need to know your financials so you can create realistic projections for your business.

Getting Feedback on Your Business Plan

When you’re finished writing your business plan, be sure to get feedback from other people. Ask them if it’s easy to understand and if they have any suggestions for changes. Remember, not everyone will have the same opinion, so it’s important to take all feedback with a grain of salt and use your best judgment to decide what changes, if any, you should make to your plan.”

Actioning Your Lean Business Plan

Once you have your lean business plan written, it’s time to start taking action. This is where you’ll put your plan into motion and start working towards your goals.

Create the Plan

The first step is to create a plan. This means outlining what you need to do to achieve your goals. Write down each task you need to complete, and then create a timeline for when you plan on completing it.

Make sure your timeline is realistic, and don’t be afraid to adjust it as needed. You may find that some tasks take longer than you thought, or that you can complete some tasks faster than you expected.

Get Started

Once you have your plan created, it’s time to get started. Begin working on the tasks you’ve outlined, and make sure you’re staying on track. If you find yourself falling behind, don’t be afraid to adjust your timeline.

Remember, a lean business plan is meant to be flexible. As your business grows and changes, so too will your plan. Be sure to review and revise your plan regularly to ensure it’s still relevant and accurate.

Course of Action

There are a few different courses of action you can take when writing your lean business plan. You can choose to write the plan yourself, or you can hire someone to help you. You can also use a template, or create your own from scratch.

If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend using a lean business plan template. This will give you a solid foundation to work from, and it will make the writing process easier.

Once you have your template, you can start filling in the blanks. If you get stuck, don’t hesitate to reach out to a business consultant for help. They can provide guidance and feedback to ensure your plan is on track.

Forecast and Budget

To get started, create a timeline of when you want to achieve each goal. Then, break down each goal into smaller tasks that you can complete. As you complete each task, check it off your list.

It’s also important to track your progress along the way. This will help you see how well your lean business planning is working and make adjustments as needed.

Reviewing & Revising Your Lean Business Plan

To review and revise your lean business plan, you’ll need to:

• Check your progress against your original timeline using all key resources
• Make changes as needed
• Review your financials, revenue streams, and other vital metrics regularly
• Update your plan as your customer relationships and business planning change
• Get feedback from other people
• Take action on your plan
• Celebrate your successes!

As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into writing and revising a lean business plan. But don’t worry, we’re here to help. Our team of experts can provide guidance and feedback to ensure your plan is on track.

A lean business plan is a great way to get your business off the ground. It’s important to remember that your plan is meant to be flexible, so don’t hesitate to make changes as needed. Be sure to review and revise your plan regularly to ensure it’s still relevant and accurate.

If you need help writing or revising your lean business plan, our team of experts can help. We offer a wide range of services to suit your needs, and we’re here to help you every step of the way.

Lean Business Plan FAQs

What is a lean business plan.

A lean business plan is a concise and effective way to outline your business goals, strategies, and progress. It’s a flexible and adaptable plan that can be updated as your business grows and changes.

Why should I use a lean business plan?

There are many benefits to using a lean business plan, including:

• It’s a great way to get your business off the ground.
• It helps you focus on what’s important.
• It can be updated as your business grows and changes.
• It’s a great way to raise funding.
• It’s a great way to track your progress and ensure you’re on track.

How do I write a lean business plan?

There are a few different ways you can write a lean business plan. You can use a template, hire someone to help you, or create your own from scratch.

How often should I review my lean business plan?

You should review and revise your lean business plan regularly to ensure it’s still relevant and accurate. We recommend reviewing it at least once a year.

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How To Create a Lean Business Plan (2024)

Learn how to create your own lean business plan, with a step by step guide and an example, in this article.

There are two types of entrepreneurs: those who start a business with careful planning and those who jump right into it without a formal business plan. Both offer avenues to success, but starting a business with a plan helps you visualize that path—and, more importantly, stay the course.

But sometimes your business plan is too long or comprehensive for your needs or audience. That’s when your lean business plan comes into play. 

What is a lean business plan?

A lean business plan is a shortened version of your full comprehensive business plan. Lean business plans are useful for when you need to modify your plan for a specific audience. Typically the lean business plan is for internal use. For example, if you want to share your business plan as part of the onboarding process for new hires, you may use a lean business plan to avoid overwhelming them with too much information.

While a detailed business plan may have lots of information and full paragraphs, your lean business plan includes only the most important, need-to-know information. You might use more bullet points and lists in your lean business plan than in your regular business plan.

Further, your full business plan talks about the what, why, who, where , and how behind your business idea. Your lean business plan, on the other hand, zeroes in on the how behind your business.

What are the benefits of a lean business plan?

• A lean business plan enables a business to quickly adapt to new market conditions
• It distills the business’s offerings to their essence
• It highlights what sets the business apart from competitors.
• It takes less time to create
• It makes it easy for investors and business partners to grasp the company’s mission

Lean business plan template

Your lean business plan template should have the following sections:

• Executive summary (optional)

Company description

Market analysis, products and services, customer segmentation.

• Marketing plan

Logistics and operations plan

Many times, you can also omit the financials section of your lean business plan.

If you want to follow along, consider starting with this business plan template as a base and then trimming it down to fit your lean business planning needs.

How to write a lean business plan

For the purposes of this article, we’re going to take our fictional Paw Print Post business plan example and modify it to be a lean business plan. If you don’t already have a full business plan, you can follow this business plan writing guide to get started. Then you can adapt it as follows to suit your lean business planning needs.

Executive summary

The executive summary should have bullet points highlighting what’s to come in the rest of your lean business plan document. The job of the executive summary is to draw your readers in and get them interested in the information that follows. Call out exciting or surprising bits of information to pique their interest.

• List your company’s key points: name, business model, product/service, USP.
• Identify the target market and financial highlights.
• Use bullet points to organize these details in a concise manner.
• Write a draft of your executive summary, ensuring it’s compelling and brief.

In the company description, provide a clear and concise overview of your business. Explain what you sell, your business model , and your business type.

• Summarize what your company does in two sentences.
• Define your business structure and mention the founder’s background.
• Write down your short-term and long-term business objectives.
• Create a bulleted list incorporating these points.

The market analysis section highlights the research you’ve done to validate your business idea. You’ll want to outline the fact that there’s a sizable audience who is willing to spend money with a business like yours.

Your market analysis section of your lean business may also consist of a SWOT analysis of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You may also summarize your competitive analysis , perhaps listing your competitors and their strengths and weaknesses.

• Gather research data on your industry and target market.
• Perform a SWOT analysis for your business.
• Identify key competitors and note their strengths and weaknesses.
• Bullet your findings for inclusion in the lean plan.

This section of your lean business plan will outline what exactly you plan to offer for sale for your customers. 

• List all products or services your company offers.
• Describe the customer experience from start to finish.
• Keep descriptions clear and brief.

This section of your lean business plan puts your audience into groups based on shared characteristics. Customer segmentation is helpful because it allows you to define specific audiences and create targeted promotions and messaging that appeal directly to those groups.

• Define your primary customer segment.
• List the characteristics that define this segment.

Marketing strategy

The marketing plan should outline your pricing strategy , promotional channels, and sales venues.

• Detail your pricing model and justify it based on your market analysis.
• List your main marketing and promotional strategies.
• Define where and how customers can purchase your products or services.

This section will cover the day-to-day operations, including suppliers, production, and shipping.

• List your suppliers and their role in your business.
• Detail the production process step by step.
• Explain your shipping and fulfillment strategy.

For each section, ensure you focus on the essentials that matter most to your business’s strategic planning and operation. Keep it concise and actionable with bullet points for easy reading.

Lean business plan example

Here is a lean business plan example you can use to inspire your own. 

COMPANY: Paw Print Post

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Paw Print Post is a sole proprietorship that sells customized greeting cards featuring a pet’s unique paw print. Founder Jane Matthews runs the business using her extensive experience in the pet industry and formal graphic design training.

The pet industry generates $100 billion each year, globally. Paw Print Post’s high-end greeting cards fill a niche in the market serving pet owners who don’t want the mess of a traditionally captured paw print involving ink or plaster. All customers need to do is send in a digital image of their pet’s paw.

Paw Print Post’s ideal customer is a woman based in North America who considers herself a “cat mom” or “dog mom.” These greeting cards are priced as premium cards with volume discounts for larger orders.

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

Type of business : sole proprietorship run by owner Jane Matthews

Industry: pet industry (primary); some goods could be categorized in the greeting card industry

Business objectives:

• Immediate: Launch at the Big Important Pet Expo in Toronto
• Two-year goals: (1) Drive $150,000 in annual revenue from the sale of Paw Print Post’s signature greeting cards; (2) Expand into two new product categories

Team: Jane Matthews is the sole full-time employee

• Contractors hired as needed to support her workflow and fill gaps in her skill set.
• Standing contract for five weekly hours of virtual assistant support with Virtual Assistants Pro.

MARKET ANALYSIS

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Paw Print Post’s flagship product is a line of greeting cards customized with a pet’s unique paw print. Here’s how it works:

Customers send a digital image of their pet’s paw

Paw Print Post edits the image and adds it to the front or interior of several card options, including:

• New pet welcome
• Pet loss condolences
• Pet birthdays
• Adoption milestones
• Training course completion
• Service pet work commencement

CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION

• A woman who owns a cat or dog
• Lives in North America, 25–55 years old
• No children
• Shops online at least once a week
• University-level degree
• $50,000 average annual salary
• Values her time
• May refer to herself as a “cat mom” or “dog mom”

MARKETING STRATEGY

• Price. A single card costs $9.50, while bundles of identical cards reduce the price, with three for $20 and six for $30.
• Product. Paw Print Post’s greeting cards solve a specific problem—pet owners want custom, high-end products featuring their pet, and a paw print is a unique and affordable way to do so. Since pet owners only need to take a digital image of their pet’s paw, it’s a lower-effort way to customize cards than what exists in the market currently.
• Promotion. Leading industry trade shows, partner promotions with established products, and digital ads on both Facebook and Instagram.
• Place. Paw Print Post will have an online store at pawprintpost.ca where customers can place their orders. Paw Print Post will ship all orders to customers’ chosen addresses.

LOGISTICS AND OPERATIONS PLAN

Suppliers: Local print shops for one-off prints, given that each item needs to be made to order, and cheaper offshore options won’t work.

Production:

• Customer places order and sends their digital image
• Jane takes five minutes to process the image in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop before sending to the local printer
• Local print shops offer one- to two-day turnaround for custom orders. Each custom card will cost $2 for setup and 75¢ for each print, so the costs for each bundle offered are:
• One card: $2.75 (Price: $9.50, margin: $6.75)
• Three cards: $4.25 (Price: $20, margin: $15.75)
• Six cards: $6.50 (Price: $30, margin: $23.50)

Facilities: Jane processes images and ships orders from her home office; all contractors maintain their own facilities.

Equipment: Paw Print Post already owns the required software and hardware to process the images.

Shipping and fulfillment: Paw Print Post will fulfill orders using Shopify Shipping and may look into local fulfillment options or contractors to help scale if needed.

Inventory. Paw Print Post does not hold inventory and all orders are created as they come in.

Lean business plan FAQ

How do you write a lean business plan.

• Start with an executive summary: Write a high-level overview of your business strategy, objectives, and how you plan to achieve them.
• Describe your business: Detail the products/services you offer, how you will price them, how you plan to market them, and how you plan to organize the business.
• Identify your target market: Describe your target customer, the size of the market, and how you plan to reach them.
• Outline your financials: Provide a financial overview of your business, including projected income and expenses, break-even analysis, and financial goals.
• Define your operating plan: Outline the day-to-day operations of the business, from staffing to inventory management to customer service.
• Provide supporting documents: Include any supporting documents, such as résumés, contracts, or legal documents.

How long is a lean business plan?

A lean business plan is typically shorter than a traditional business plan, usually no more than two pages in length. It usually consists of a brief overview of the business, the current situation, the goal, the action plan, budget and timeline, and a conclusion.

What are the 4 types of business plans?

• Startup business plan: A detailed document used to define and plan your business’s objectives, strategies, and tactics.
• Growth business plan: A plan used to identify and capitalize on opportunities for growth.
• Internal business plan: A plan used to assess the internal strengths and weaknesses of a company.
• Strategic business plan: A plan used to set long-term goals and strategies for achieving them.

How is a lean plan different from the traditional business plan?

A lean plan is a simplified version of a traditional business plan that focuses on the core elements of the business, such as the mission, strategy, and key activities. It emphasizes identifying and testing assumptions, keeping plans short and simple, and focusing on the customer. The traditional business plan is more comprehensive, with a greater focus on financials, market analysis, and operations. It also requires a longer timeline and more resources to complete.

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Write a Lean Business Plan with this Template

Insight into what a lean business plan is, a template to help you write one, and how a lean business plan differs from the traditional business plan.

People often say that to succeed, businesses must have a business plan . However, this statement has slightly changed over the years.

It is said that to succeed, businesses must have a lean business plan . So you guys must be thinking, what the difference between these two is?

Today we will discuss how the lean business model differs from the traditional business model and what the lean business model is in general.

To operate a business, it is essential to construct a business model first. A business model provides a plan to run the business by identifying the customer base, sources of revenue, sources of financing, and the product that is to be offered.

Businesses make business plans to get direction. A business plan helps in making the business strategy and prioritizing tasks. Therefore, businesses must develop a business plan to operate in an organized manner.

The traditional business plans were used to cover all the details about a business, due to which they used to be 45-50 pages long. However, as time passed, businesses needed to make shorter and more precise business plans.

There were specific reasons why the need for shorter business plans was felt. One of the reasons was the argument that people don't read lengthy business plans, due to which their purpose is not fulfilled.

Moreover, it was considered that short and precise business plans were more efficient and productive since businesses require less time to implement them, and it is easy to understand.

To overcome the shortcomings of a traditional business plan, the lean business model was introduced. The term "lean startup" was coined by Eric Ries, an entrepreneur, a decade ago. However, Henry Ford was among the first entrepreneurs who practically used lean business plans in the 20th century.

The success of implementing a lean business plan can be estimated from the fact that in recent times, many successful businesses such as Zappos , Buffer, and Dropbox adopted lean business plans to provide direction to their businesses.

A lean business plan is a shorter and more precise version of the traditional business plan, which consists of small steps prescribed to the management to make a business successful.

The lean business plan includes the business's strategy, the tactics to implement the strategy, the schedule for monthly reviews, and the forecast and budgeting of the business.

Let's proceed further to get more insight into the lean business plan and see its significance in the modern business era.

How to Write a Lean Business Plan

A lean business plan is similar to the traditional business plan as they both provide direction to the business. However, a lean business plan consists of only one page since only vital points are written in the form of bullets.

The usage of lean business plans is increasing in the business sector as it is considered more efficient and effective. In this section, we will discuss how to write a lean business plan.

1. Business Strategy

Similar to the traditional business plan, one of the main components of the lean business plan is the provision of a business strategy. Although a business strategy summarises your plans, it also identifies your customers and competitors.

The business strategy part of the lean business plan identifies the problem which your product will solve. It then tells how your product will solve that problem. For example, suppose there's a lack of homemade food available in your town, and you plan to work on that. In that case, your business strategy will identify the problem and provide a solution for it.

Business strategy also describes the details of the product's targeted audience and potential business competitors. For example, it tells what gender and age group your product will target. Moreover, it also makes the business aware of the competitors in the market.

2. Business Tactics

The lean business plan also identifies the tactics used to execute the business strategy. Another significant component of the lean business plan is developing business tactics. The business tactics provide a pathway to implement the business strategy.

This section of the lean business plan narrows down how the business strategy should be implemented. For example, it highlights what the marketing, sales, and HR strategy should be to make the business grow effectively.

3. Schedule

Every lean business plan must contain the schedule part. The schedule section ensures that all the employees' business strategies, tactics, and work are revisited. Since a lean business plan is all about efficiency, designing a good schedule leads to an effective business plan.

With the help of a schedule, the goals and milestones set by the business can be reviewed to see where the business is standing in reality. Moreover, indicators and statistics help in analyzing the performance of the business.

However, the type of schedule varies for startups and established businesses. The schedule of a startup will analyze the consumer's demands and market trends . To do that, the startup will send out questionnaires and surveys to get all this information.

On the other hand, for a well-established business, the focus of the schedule is to analyze the goals to be achieved. Moreover, the workers' performances are analyzed after a set interval time. All this is done to analyze whether the business is moving in the right direction.

4. Forecast and Budgeting

Finally, the lean business plan should contain forecasts and budgeting statistics. No matter how good a business plan is, as long as you have not sorted out the cash flows and calculated the expected revenues, your business plan can't succeed .

Forecasting and budgeting help to convert the business plan into a reality by estimating sales and expenses. The business model is restructured if the expected revenues are insufficient to meet the expenses or generate good profit.

In the next section, we will look at an example of the lean business plan template. So let's move ahead and see what the template looks like.

Lean Business Plan Template

The above template shows how the lean business plan can precisely present a business plan on one page. Although it contains the entire business plan, it is very precise and easy to understand.

Difference Between a Traditional Business Plan and a Lean Business Plan 

Both the traditional business plan and the lean business plan provide a business plan to the management. Working on this plan, a business can succeed since a set pathway and direction are provided in the plan.

For decades the traditional business plan has been used to set the direction of the business. However, in the past few years, the lean business plan has been adopted by businesses all over the globe. This section will discuss the difference between a traditional and a lean business plan.

1. Size of the Document

Although there are many differences between the traditional and lean business plans. However, One of the visible differences between the two is the size. The traditional business plan consists of nearly 45-50 pages or more, whereas the lean business plan fits on one page.

2. Detail Presented

The traditional and lean business plans cover a business plan's main aspects. However, they differ when it comes to the details which are present in the business plan. The traditional business plan is known for the details it covers. It explains every component of the business plan in detail. This provides clarity to the reader.

Whereas the lean business plan is famous for having pointers that give a general idea to the reader without explaining anything in detail. This saves time for the reader and makes it easy to understand.

3. Time Required to Construct

The traditional business plan and lean business plan also vary when it comes to the time needed to construct the business plan. The traditional business plan requires more time to construct since much research is needed before constructing it.

On the other hand, the lean business plan requires less time since no detailed analysis is required to construct it.

Advantages of Lean Business Plan

Until now, we discussed how to construct a lean business plan and the difference between a traditional and a lean business plan. However, in this section, we will look at what are the reasons that businesses have decided to adopt the lean business plan instead of the traditional one.

1. Quick Access to Market

As we discussed earlier, the lean business plan is famous for being less time-consuming as it doesn't involve many details. Moreover, it requires less time to make a lean business plan than the traditional one.

All these factors help the business to introduce its product in the market early. Therefore, the lean business plan is extremely efficient and beneficial in highly competitive or time-sensitive markets.

2. Less Time and Money Spent

Since the lean business plan doesn't contain much detail, no detailed analysis is done. Hence, less time and money is spent on constructing the lean business plan. For any business, especially for startups, this factor holds great significance.

Due to this trait of the lean business plan, even if the business crashes, not much time and money is wasted in constructing the business plan.

3. Attracts Investors

Every business is looking to catch investments to ensure the smooth running of the business. As a result, businesses that have lean business plans often attract investors compared to businesses with traditional business plans.

The reason why a lean business plan attracts more investors is that investors are busy people who have more money and less time. Therefore, any investor would read a one-page lean business plan but not be interested in reading a 50-page business plan.

Lean Business Plan: Final Word

At the end of this article, let's summarise whatever we have discussed.

In this article, we gave you guys an insight into what a lean business plan is. We shed light on a traditional business plan and how a lean business plan differs from the traditional business plan.

Moreover, the components of the lean business plan were also highlighted. The lean business plan consists of business strategy, business tactics, schedule, forecasting, and budgeting.

Furthermore, to make you guys better understand what a lean business plan is, a template of the lean business plan was made available to the readers.

The differences between traditional and lean business plans are highlighted in this article. It was established that the lean business plan is more precise, less time-consuming, and less detailed.

In the end, some advantages of the lean business plan were discussed. For example, a lean business plan attracts more investors. Moreover, constructing a lean business plan is less costly and time-consuming. We hope that you'll enjoy this article and gain awareness about the lean business plan.

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Lean Business Plan Template

Used 4,995 times

Use this Lean Business Plan Template to enlist your business with the applicable agency in your jurisdiction. All of the areas are fully customizable and can be tailored to your detailed necessities.

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Created by:

​ [Sender.FirstName] [Sender.LastName] ​ [Sender.Company] ​

​ [Sender.Company] was founded in (XXXX) year, with the aim of doing (Aim) . Although we began in [Sender.City] , we now plan to expand our reach to (Number) of countries.

After witnessing the problem of (name of problem) in (number of cities) amount of cities, we realized that there was a dire need for a solution. And through collective effort, we were able to create a strategic plan to launch [Sender.Company] .

​ [Sender.Company] aims to promote [Product.Name] through (name of marketing strategy) . As of (Year), [Sender.Company] is the only player in the market to promote [Product.Name] to fully address (name of problem) .

Our competitors may come close, but due to our USP, which is (describe USP) , our prediction is that we will remain a few steps ahead of the curve — and therefore our competitors — at all times.

Our current product selection includes:

Name of product

Revenue Channels

​ [Sender.Company] aims to be present on multiple social marketplaces to promote our products. Along with this, we will have an offline presence. Overall, our revenue channels include, but are not limited to:

Name of revenue channel

Pricing and cost structure

Cost of Product A – $0.00 ​

Cost of Product B – $0.00 ​

Cost of Product C – $0.00 ​

Business owners/business partners

Tupac James

Head of Production

Target market and Ideal customer

Our primary target market is: (Explain primary target market)

Our secondary target market is: (Explain secondary target market)

Our ideal customers would be females between the ages of 30-40, residing in (city, state, region or country), with a spending power of (amount) amount of dollars. These women would ideally like to shop for [Product.Name] for (primary reason to buy the product) , and we cater to that demand with our USP.

Competition and competitive advantage

Name of Competitor 1

(Describe what they do, their experience, their USP, and what competitor edge they have against you)

Name of Competitor 2

Name of Competitor 3

Competitive Advantage of [Sender.Company] ​

​ [Sender.Company] excels in (X, Y, and Z) , due to our years of experience in the industry and the USP we have. We plan to bank on (name of competitive advantage) to set a niche for ourselves and to reach our target milestones.

Describe milestone 1

Describe milestone 2

Describe milestone 3

Marketing plan

Our marketing strategy is divided between short-term and long-term. For the short-term strategy, we plan to use content marketing to educate the audience about our product/services. For our long-term marketing strategy, we plan to use content marketing, as well as offline channels such as billboards, kiosks, and pop-ups, to promote our product and to build relationships with our customers in real-time.

Financial projections

​ [Sender.FirstName] [Sender.LastName] ​

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Lean Business Plan Template

Create a plan that adds value without getting lost in the tiny details. monday.com's lean business plan template will help you create a streamlined visual that focuses on your business model, schedule, strategy, and tactics..

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Tips for creating a lean business plan with our template

Include key aspects, organize assets, collaborate with ease, lean business plan template key features.

• monday Workdocs Create your business plan on a collaborative document where stakeholders can add input without disrupting your work.
• Views Get the full picture of your strategy. Choose from views such as Gantt charts, Calendar, Kanban, Table, and others.

Create a flexible, customizable plan with monday.com

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Frequently asked questions.

• What is a lean business model? A lean business emphasises value and minimizes waste. This model focuses on optimizing processes to deliver value to the customer.
• What is a lean start up plan? A lean startup business plan is a short roadmap that specifies the startup's goals and what's needed to reach them. This plan often begins by identifying a problem and solution.