monthly business planning

Small Business Trends

How to create a business plan: examples & free template.

Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or launching your very first startup, the guide will give you the insights, tools, and confidence you need to create a solid foundation for your business.

Table of Contents

How to Write a Business Plan

Executive summary.

It’s crucial to include a clear mission statement, a brief description of your primary products or services, an overview of your target market, and key financial projections or achievements.

Our target market includes environmentally conscious consumers and businesses seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. We project a 200% increase in revenue within the first three years of operation.

Overview and Business Objectives

Example: EcoTech’s primary objective is to become a market leader in sustainable technology products within the next five years. Our key objectives include:

Company Description

Example: EcoTech is committed to developing cutting-edge sustainable technology products that benefit both the environment and our customers. Our unique combination of innovative solutions and eco-friendly design sets us apart from the competition. We envision a future where technology and sustainability go hand in hand, leading to a greener planet.

Define Your Target Market

Market analysis.

The Market Analysis section requires thorough research and a keen understanding of the industry. It involves examining the current trends within your industry, understanding the needs and preferences of your customers, and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

Our research indicates a gap in the market for high-quality, innovative eco-friendly technology products that cater to both individual and business clients.

SWOT Analysis

Including a SWOT analysis demonstrates to stakeholders that you have a balanced and realistic understanding of your business in its operational context.

Competitive Analysis

Organization and management team.

Provide an overview of your company’s organizational structure, including key roles and responsibilities. Introduce your management team, highlighting their expertise and experience to demonstrate that your team is capable of executing the business plan successfully.

Products and Services Offered

This section should emphasize the value you provide to customers, demonstrating that your business has a deep understanding of customer needs and is well-positioned to deliver innovative solutions that address those needs and set your company apart from competitors.

Marketing and Sales Strategy

Discuss how these marketing and sales efforts will work together to attract and retain customers, generate leads, and ultimately contribute to achieving your business’s revenue goals.

Logistics and Operations Plan

Inventory control is another crucial aspect, where you explain strategies for inventory management to ensure efficiency and reduce wastage. The section should also describe your production processes, emphasizing scalability and adaptability to meet changing market demands.

We also prioritize efficient distribution through various channels, including online platforms and retail partners, to deliver products to our customers in a timely manner.

Financial Projections Plan

This forward-looking financial plan is crucial for demonstrating that you have a firm grasp of the financial nuances of your business and are prepared to manage its financial health effectively.

Income Statement

Cash flow statement.

A cash flow statement is a crucial part of a financial business plan that shows the inflows and outflows of cash within your business. It helps you monitor your company’s liquidity, ensuring you have enough cash on hand to cover operating expenses, pay debts, and invest in growth opportunities.

Tips on Writing a Business Plan

4. Focus on your unique selling proposition (USP): Clearly articulate what sets your business apart from the competition. Emphasize your USP throughout your business plan to showcase your company’s value and potential for success.

FREE Business Plan Template

To help you get started on your business plan, we have created a template that includes all the essential components discussed in the “How to Write a Business Plan” section. This easy-to-use template will guide you through each step of the process, ensuring you don’t miss any critical details.

What is a Business Plan?

Why you should write a business plan.

Understanding the importance of a business plan in today’s competitive environment is crucial for entrepreneurs and business owners. Here are five compelling reasons to write a business plan:

What are the Different Types of Business Plans?

Using Business Plan Software

Upmetrics provides a simple and intuitive platform for creating a well-structured business plan. It features customizable templates, financial forecasting tools, and collaboration capabilities, allowing you to work with team members and advisors. Upmetrics also offers a library of resources to guide you through the business planning process.

Business Plan FAQs

What is a good business plan.

A good business plan is a well-researched, clear, and concise document that outlines a company’s goals, strategies, target market, competitive advantages, and financial projections. It should be adaptable to change and provide a roadmap for achieving success.

What are the 3 main purposes of a business plan?

Can i write a business plan by myself, is it possible to create a one-page business plan.

Yes, a one-page business plan is a condensed version that highlights the most essential elements, including the company’s mission, target market, unique selling proposition, and financial goals.

How long should a business plan be?

What is a business plan outline, what are the 5 most common business plan mistakes, what questions should be asked in a business plan.

A business plan should address questions such as: What problem does the business solve? Who is the specific target market ? What is the unique selling proposition? What are the company’s objectives? How will it achieve those objectives?

What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?

How is business planning for a nonprofit different.

The 24 best planners of 2024, from stylish daily diaries to annual agendas

Start the year with the perfect tools for productivity and organization. The best planner keeps your schedule, deadlines,  goals, and thoughts organized. Though no planner is one-size-fits-all, these daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly diaries allow you to chart your goals, appointments, ideas, and more all in one place. Some planners work great for strictly scheduling the hours of your day, while others work better for your long-term goal-planning success. The best planner for you comes down to personal preference in how you chart your time.

Planner styles get even more detailed, and we break down the ways to choose what's right for you at the end of this guide. We spoke with two stationery store owners and a productivity expert to get their advice on how to pick a planner.

"There are lots of different, great planners, and it just kind of depends on thinking about how you want to plan your week and how you want to visualize your week," said Jeremy Crown, who co-owns Little Otsu , a paper store in Portland, Oregon. Whatever style of planner you prefer, we've covered the basics of the best of what's out there.

Daily planners

For more detailed planning, daily planners offer hourly breakdowns of your day. Daily planners are one of the most popular formats. They tend to be bulkier than weekly or monthly planners but offer the most flexibility. These are ideal for students, teachers, and parents who need to keep careful track of a busy schedule.

When you buy through our links, Business Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

Weekly planners

Weekly planners are great for a zoomed-out view of your goals and to-dos if you'd rather look at the big picture instead of the day-to-day. These planners are less detail-oriented than daily ones but will have daily space to keep track of appointments and assignments. They're ideal for scheduling everything needed to complete multiple goals over a period of time.

Monthly planners

Monthly planners are ideal for professionals or students with several projects or classes to juggle over a long period of time. Though they provide less space than daily and weekly planners, they allow for a strong overview of deadlines and key dates. They're also a great option for parents who need to keep track of doctors appointments, extra curricular activities, and events for a big family.

Yearly and quarterly planners

Yearly or quarterly planners provide the most scope for those with specific personal or business goals. For this category, we considered both big-picture goal planners and 3-month planners that really drill down into how much you can accomplish in 90 days. For the latter category, you'll find that 90-day planners often have weekly and daily pages and space to plan out the quarter. That said, they're still distinct from daily and weekly planners because they focus on achieving longer-term goals, rather than plotting out your days. 

How to choose a planner

There are an overwhelming number of planner types. Chandra Greer, who owns Greer , a stationery store in Chicago, Illinois, prioritizes stocking her store with functional, quality options, knowing they might not be the right fit for everyone. "I'm more interested in the function," she said. "Is the layout useful? Is it something that is going to withstand being your daily friend for 365 days?"

To find out what will work for you, you can start by considering what qualities are most important to you. "I think if you sort of start with, 'What is it that I want to use this for?' that gives you a good starting point," said Alexandra Cavoulacos, founder of The Muse and author of " The New Rules of Work. "

Consider daily, weekly, or monthly formats

For some people, a planner is merely a portable calendar, Cavoulacos said. Other people want to track projects and create to-do lists. The amount of detail per day will start to dictate how much space you need.

Dated or undated

There are many reasons you might decide to buy an undated calendar. "People might decide on March 28th they want a planner," said Greer. "But if a planner is dated, they're already three months through the year." 

Plus, with an undated planner, you can always pick up where you left off without wasting days' worth of paper. 

Horizontal or vertical

When someone comes into Little Otsu looking for a planner, co-owner Jeremy Crown first asks, "Are you more of a task-oriented planner?" He thinks people with detailed schedules or long to-do lists may prefer the column format of vertical layouts, while those who like making notes or doodling might prefer the horizontal layout.

Some planners also use a "dashboard" view, with a week or day on one page and the other dedicated to habit trackers, gratitude prompts, and other fill-in-the-blanks. 

Doctors, nurses, and chefs always want pocket-sized notebooks and planners, said Crown. You might want something big enough to hold your sprawling handwriting but small enough to carry around in your purse or messenger bag. 

Minimalist or full of prompts 

Planner aesthetics range from very bare-bones to packed with extras like quotes, charts, and check-ins. 

"You want your planner to inspire you," Cavoulacos said. "I do think the sort of aesthetic piece, the inspiration piece, is also something that shouldn't be forgotten," she said.  

Both Greer and Cavoulacos point out that you can add your own quotes and personalizations to even the most minimalist planner, as long as there's space. "It could become more of a person's little command center," said Greer. 

Paper quality

If paper quality is high on your list of importance, Greer suggests taking a close look at who makes a planner. 

"I definitely gravitate towards manufacturers who have a background in paper," she said, recommending several Japanese notebook or paper companies with planners such as Midori , Paperways , High Tide , and Kokuyo Jibun Techo .

Even if you're not into paper, you'll want to pay attention to the cover's material. Hardcovers will stand up to more wear and tear than softcovers. "Sometimes people will trade that durability for something that doesn't cost very much, but definitely people are expecting [their planner] to get through the whole year and not look like it was run over by a truck," Greer said. 

Binding 

It's important that planners lie flat since you're writing in them. Many are spiral-bound, but others are stitch-bound. Either will let you write on them, but you can flip one side of the book behind the other with a spiral binding. "A lot of people are kind of indifferent between spiral and stitch bound now, as long as it lies flat because that's really what they're looking for," Greer said. 

Another concern with the binding is whether it will keep the planner together for the whole year. Some glued-in pages might not hold out as well. "If you have something that's stitch-bound or spiral, it's very sturdy for the long haul," Greer said.

Why not just use a digital planner?

"I don't necessarily think a planner is for everybody, just like any particular productivity hack or tool," Cavoulacos said. There are plenty of people who prefer to keep their calendars and notes strictly digital, and getting a paper planner might not make sense for them. 

If you're on the fence, she suggests asking yourself what's attractive about a paper planner. "I think for a lot of people, it's slowing down, right?" Cavoulacos said. "It's like the lack of distraction. It's the moments to think, to cross things off — the satisfaction of crossing things off." 

For Crown, it's more personal than a phone calendar. "It's your life in a book," he said. "[By] the end of the year, you have this book that was like, this is what I did. That's something that the phone doesn't do that well." 

You can purchase logo and accolade licensing to this story here . Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at [email protected] .

• Main content

18 Must-Have Best Planners for Entrepreneurs (2024)

This post contains affiliate links and I may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you sign up or purchase products or services mentioned. Read the full disclosure here.

Last Updated on June 21, 2024

Looking for the best planners for entrepreneurs to make your 2024 business year the most organized yet? This list is packed full of planners to fit any business owner’s busy lifestyle!

As a busy entrepreneur, you know it’s an absolute must to have proper planning tools. Having the right planner can make or break your productivity, so it’s important to choose the BEST planner that’s most tailored to your needs and lifestyle.

But there are SO many planners out there, so how can you know which one is best for you?! 

Don’t fret, I’ve compiled this list of the best planners for entrepreneurs in 2024 so you can sort through them all in one place! It’s a one-stop-shop over here!

I’m including the best daily planners, weekly planners, business planners for professionals, and productivity/goal setting planners for entrepreneurs! Of all the options, you’re sure to find the planner that’s the perfect fit.

Table of Contents

Top 3 Business Planner Picks

• 2024 Business Digital Planner Bundle – Best Work/Business Planner
• Clever Fox PRO Undated Planner – Best Weekly Planner
• 2024 Daily Simplified Planner – Best Daily Planner

This post is all about the best planners for entrepreneurs

Different types of planners for entrepreneurs.

The best planners for entrepreneurs can come in a few different formats. Are you a pen + paper type of person? Love having everything online in one place? Want something you can print yourself on the cheap? There’s a planner for that!

Whether you need help planning how to start a business or you’re a seasoned pro, you’ve gotta have a format that works for you.

Planner Types by Format

Format and convenience are everything when you think about your day-to-day routine with your planner. Do you hate having to grab your physical planner from another room? If so, digital might be your pick. Do you feel motivated by the feeling of pen and paper? Then you may not want to miss out on a beloved physical planner! 

• Physical planners – this is your traditional planner in paper format, typically with the pages bound together. These may come with pre-printed, pre-dated pages, or undated pages so that you fill in the dates and content yourself. 
• Digital planners – If you hate having to carry something around or dislike being unable to access your planner across devices, a digital planner is perfect for you. There are many apps that sync from your phone, to your tablet, to your laptop! This can be as simple as Google Calendar, or you can purchase curated digital planners that are essentially a traditional planner in digital format. 
• Printable planners – one type of planner you may not have thought about is a printable planner. These types of planners allow more room for your own decoration and are frequently found on Etsy. You can print the pages as many times as you like, too! 

Planner Types by Layout

Many planners may be a mix of more than one of these elements, but sometimes they specialize in one layout in particular. Think about your preferences and needs when it comes to the layout and focus of your planner!

• Daily planners – Daily planners can be as general as an overview of your daily plans, goals, and priorities, or they can get as specific as planning by the hour! Think about your preferences on those as you browse the daily planners for entrepreneurs in this post. If you’re a time blocker, you’ll want the hourly. But if that’s too intense, stick with a general daily overview!
• Weekly planners – If you like to take things week by week and plan all your days out in advance, you’ll want to opt for a planner that has a focused weekly format. I find that these are best during years where I anticipate having a lot of appointments. No one likes a dreadful doctor’s appointment creeping up on them day-of!
• Dedicated business planners – yes, standard daily and weekly planners may do the job, but they don’t include the more business-specific things we need to think about to stay on top of our business. As you get more serious about your business, you’ll certainly appreciate having a wide array of business templates in your planner!
• Goal setting planners – Many generic planners have some space for jotting down your goals, but they stop there. They pay no attention to all the systems that need to be in place in order to work toward the goal! That’s why finding a planner with a detailed goal-setting focus, where you can create an action plan and stay accountable, just makes sense!

Format and layout can make or break your schedule, so choose wisely when choosing among these best planners for entrepreneurs.

Want a quick, free, one-page daily planner you can print again and again? Make sure you grab my FREE printable productive day planner below! It’s perfect to use in a pinch before you decide on the perfect planner!

Top 18 best 2024 planners for busy entrepreneurs

Don’t forget about these life changing planners for entrepreneurs! Pin ’em to come back later!

Best Daily Planners for Entrepreneurs

1. the high performance undated planner.

Starting off this list of the best planners for entrepreneurs, we’ve got a half journal, half planner, full performance agenda!

Start this undated daily planner at any time. You get to work out your day schedule alongside morning + evening mindset journal prompts to keep you focused and aware of what each day brings.

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You also get daily goal boxes, weekly habit assessments, monthly project planning, and proprietary whole life balance sheets. Before you know it, you’ll be prioritizing your work/life schedule like a pro!

What’s inside:

• 2-in-1 planner with daily schedule + morning and evening journal prompts
• 60 days, undated, so you can start whenever it’s convenient for you
• Daily pages with morning mindset activities and evening review scorecard
• Weekly pages that allow you to assess your high performance habits
• Monthly Pages that help you strategically outline your long-term goals
• BONUS: you get a free online assessment to track your habits!

RELATED: Gifts for Female Business Owners: 20 Insanely Useful Things She’ll Love

2. Happy Planner Undated Wellness Planner

A very creative option, the Happy Planner has so many cute accessories, stickers, and embellishments perfect for the creative entrepreneur!

This planner is here to help you prioritize wellness in your busy entrepreneur life as you organize your year, reflect on your gratitudes, and practice mindfulness. Undated planners like this one are also perfect if you ever fall off track from your planning because you’ll never waste pages. You just fill in the dates as you go.

• Undated pages
• Unlabeled dividers with month stickers for your own labeling
• Space to write down ways you’re moving, nourishing yourself, staying motivated, and setting intentions.
• Wellness journal sections with reflections, impressions of the day, focuses, grateful moments, and the things you’re loving.

3. Simplified Planner 2024 Daily

What better way to simplify your life than to use a planner MADE for such a thing?! It’s designed minimally on purpose so that you can cut to the chase and get started planning your day the easy way. Pretty much feels the same as starting your day with a breath of fresh air!

• Space for schedule, to-do, notes and meals
• One day per page + shared weekend pages
• Full month views
• 4 notes pages in the front
• Hourly schedule from 6am to 9pm
• 4 pages of Simplified Prep-Work
• Monthly Simplicity Tips
• NEW colorful sticker sheet design
• Pocket inside the front cover

RELATED: New Month Journal Prompts for Goal Setting

4. Daily Planning Package (+ Clipboard + Pen!)

If you’re looking for the full package, this has all of your business planning needs covered! Not only do you get a detailed daily planner notepad, BUT you even get a companion weekly planner.

As if that wasn’t awesome enough… it also comes with a durable clipboard and pen! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a planner come with both a pen AND a clipboard, so this is truly a unique deal.

• 1-Year Daily Planner – 350 pages (50 tear-off pages x 7 days)
• 1-Year Weekly Planner – 50 pages (two-week break for rest!)
• Highly durable clipboard and pen, both made with vegan leather
• Undated and ready to be filled with your dreams, goals, and daily activities

RELATED: Journaling for Entrepreneurs: 40 Business Savvy Prompts

Best Weekly Planners for Entrepreneurs

5. erin condren weekly lifeplanner.

Extremely popular, the Erin Condren Weekly Planner is SO well-designed and ultra-customizable. Aims to keep you organized, reduce stress, and achieve your goals. With its many customization options, you can build the perfect planner that fits your style and schedule!

Also, the covers on these are insanely durable and built to last. I used this planner in high school and would 100% recommend it for any stage in your life, even as an adult. This is one of the best basic entrepreneur planners for 2024!

• Mini months
• Monthly quotes
• Monthly notes and productivity pages
• Dated monthly, weekly spreads
• Additional notes in the back
• Contacts page
• 4 planning sticker sheets
• 1 double-sided pocket folder
• 1 perpetual calendar
• Snap-in ruler

6. Clever Fox PRO Weekly Undated Planner

Straightforward, uncluttered, and easy to use is the Clever Fox PRO planner. I’ve had this planner for years and it never fails me! The weekly view includes everything I could ever want with daily priorities, weekly planning, goals, to-do lists, and habit tracking!

• Short and long term goal planning pages
• Productivity sections
• Undated so you don’t waste pages!
• Vision board pages
• Quarterly goals and mind map
• Monthly review sheets
• 50 dot grid pages in the back for notes

7. Ban.do Weekly Undated Planner

Okay, first things first…what business owner DOESN’T need the reminder on the front of this planner?! I am always having to remind myself that progress is more important than perfection. Anyway…

Ban.do’s planner is perfect for anyone who’s more flexible with their planning needs. They feature weekly note pages, to-do lists, and spaces for reflection. I like that you get the opportunity to think over what went well today and what could be better for tomorrow.

• Artsy cover design
• Concealed spiral
• Sticker page
• Pocket on the inside front cover
• 73 perforated weekly pages and 73 list pages
• Primary layout includes a weekly view on one page and a to-do list on the other

8. Leather 2024 Snap Planner

K, I’ll be honest, you’re going to spend a pretty penny on this planner–but that’s because of the durable full grain leather design (and if you’re on the go a lot, trust me, it’s well worth the money! Nothing worse than torn up planner corners when it’s only halfway through the year.)

This covers all your weekly, monthly, and yearly planning needs. And if you’re a list lover, you will loveee the lists and notes pages for extra checklists, projects, and reminders. This is one classy, high-end planner no doubt!

• 12 month dated calendar agenda
• Full grain durable leather
• 1-Year in Review spread and monthly goals pages for important dates, tasks, and other priorities
• Monthly calendar view and weekly agenda pages for your appointments, meetings, and to-dos
• Lists and Notes pages
• Gold foil stamping on front and back cover; covers made of black cardstock
• Can be personalized

What planners do CEOs use?

Best planners for business owners and entrepreneurs at work, 9. 2024 digital planner bundle for business owners.

This digital business planner has IT ALL! If you need an entrepreneur planner that covers your life and business from A-Z, you’ll want this. There are literally 1,000,000 digital planners in different variations to choose from (yup, you read that right, 1 MILLION!).

It’s highly customizable with 11 different weekly layouts, 8 different daily layouts, and business templates galore. It also helps promote work-life balance by including sections for wellness, fitness, and nutrition too!

Seriously, whatever your business needs are, whether you’re a small business owner or you’re growing like crazy, this will fit them!

• Many business templates like target audience, business goals, sales tracker, tax deductions, content analysis, and so much more
• Productivity, Wellness, Fitness, Nutrition & Finances sections
• Goals section linked to 8 goals pages
• Projects section linked to 8 project pages
• 50,000 stickers in Goodnotes + PNG format
• 500 cover designs

10. Ultimate Business Planner

Rather than a daily/weekly/monthly planner, this business planner takes on a slightly different approach. While it does offer daily and weekly planning and to-do lists, it also goes one step further by including sections for business branding, website building, and social media planning. One of the most comprehensive and best planners for entrepreneurs!

• Over 280 business planner printable pages
• Business planning pages
• Order forms and shipment logs
• Inventory logs
• Business finance planner
• Website building
• Blog planner
• Email planner
• Social media planner
• A year in review

11. Small Business Planner

Unlike the other two business planners and organizers from Etsy, this one is a physical planner! This offers weekly and monthly planning as well as business specifics like branding planning, social media goals, online stats, product idea pages, and more!

• Year At-A-Glance
• Quick Contacts for business-related contacts
• Branding and Demographic visioning
• Revenue chart for a quick look at your profits and expenses
• Recurring Payments tracker
• Social Media goals
• Online Stats tracking
• Events listing/stats and Supply List
• Product Price List
• Product idea pages

Best Productivity Planners for Entrepreneur Goal Setting

12. full focus planner.

This planner stands out because not only does it allow you to plan out your week (as any planner does), but it takes things a step further by helping you reflect on your week in terms of what worked and what didn’t. There is a lot of focusing on properly preparing you for the week ahead, instead of just going through the motions!

Another key feature is the “key projects” pages where you can map out all of your projects for the quarter. Very goal-oriented for sure!

• Designed with a structured achievement program
• Sections for weekly and quarterly previews
• Unique daily framework, separating your highest-leverage activities from your list of daily tasks
• Dedicated goal-setting and project planning sheets

RELATED: 65 Affirmations for Female Entrepreneurs

13. Cultivate What Matters PowerSheets Goal Planner 2024

This results-backed goal planner is organized into 90-day segments–the perfect amount of time to make progress!

This planner prides itself on intention-setting opportunities for choosing the right goals for this season in your life. It also gives you opportunities to revisit and refocus those goals throughout the year.

Before each 90-day window, you can hit the reset button by planning your best routines for the season ahead!

• Streamlined monthly and weekly planning, designed specifically to help you live more intentionally
• Dated weekly planning pages – Monday through Sunday
• Space for your to-do list, top priorities, habit tracking, and a small nudge to tend to what matters most!
• Segmented into 90-day windows with seasonal routine planning

14. BestSelf Journal Goal Setting Planner

This 13-week goal planner is backed by science and psychology, so you know you’ll see results in your productivity. Perfectly designed to better optimize your day, help you crush those goals, and overall live a more fulfilling life!

The Self Journal boasts overcoming “decision fatigue” and helps you focus on what matters most. It’s all about prioritizing your workload, building good habits, and making every day count! This is easily one of the best planners for entrepreneurs. It sets you up for true success.

• Enough pages to guide you through 13 weeks of meeting your goals
• Undated design
• Comprehensive goal-setting page
• Space for everyday bullet journaling
• Space for progress and mindfulness prompts
• Helps to develop daily goal setting and reflection practices through routine encouragement
• Gratitude and self-reflection sections
• Complete guidebook and calendar
• 13-week habit tracker for creating new healthy routines
• Provides space to journal and plan next steps to achieve your goals

15. GoGirl Planner PRO Vertical Hourly Planner

If you love time blocking, this is the planner for you! The GoGirl Planner is a weekly planner with time slots (6am – 9pm) to navigate your daily life the productive way. Also features goal planning pages for all your short and long term goals and helps you create a strategy for achieving those goals. The best perk is that it comes with budget planning pages so you can stay on top of your spending with a monthly financial analysis!

• Weekly planner with vertical time slots + monthly calendar
• Goal setting pages
• Habit tracking pages
• Budget planning sheets
• Comes with a pen holder and 280+ stickers
• Dot-grid pages at the back

16. Poketo Quarterly Goal Planner

Feeling stuck on identifying goals to set? Well, you’re in luck, because this planner has helpful prompts to get your goal ideas flowing!

This quarterly planner is undated and follows all the way through when it comes to goal setting, as you also get to plan the actions you’ll take each week that keep you on track to meet your goals! You get the perfect little game plan to hold yourself accountable for the quarter.

• Quarterly 3 month planner
• Goal setting pages that help you identify potential challenges and plans to celebrate your wins along the way
• Weekly plan that allows space to match your actions/habits to your goals
• Hourly daily layout with short journal prompts to reflect on your day

17. The Daily Grace Quarterly Planner

This quarterly devotional planner promotes spiritual guidance as you navigate your busy life. If you find it tough to manage your business and stay connected to God, this planner will serve as a powerful reminder to prioritize both, if this is your goal!

You’ll get to set quarterly, weekly, and daily goals alongside reflection questions to help you brainstorm those goals and be mindful of your spiritual habits. Includes gospel-centered affirmations to comfort and guide you. 

• Undated devotional planner
• Covers one quarter of the year/roughly 13 weeks
• Monthly spread that gears your attention toward what you wish to accomplish each month
• Weekly actions section with 5 smaller sections: meditate, journal, pray, plan, organize
• Start and end-of-quarter evaluations
• Spiritual disciplines explanation

18. The 12 Week Year Field Guide

This isn’t quite a planner so much as it is a study guide for helping you be efficient and productive. But nonetheless, it is a fantastic business tool you’ll want to have at your fingertips just for the expertise and tips alone!

This is applicable to business growth, career goals, and also just life in general!

Inside, you’ll learn how to…

• Create your own personal and business visions with step-by-step help
• Develop a rock solid 12 week plan for yourself
• Use the many exercises and templates to make your business life a little easier
• Determine a 12 week commitment system that can be applied to your business and life!

Choosing the Right Planner: What to Look For

Every business owner has different needs. When choosing that perfect planner for you out of this list of planners for entrepreneurs, there’s some key features you’ll want to consider before making a decision. Think about what is visually pleasing, what is practical, and what ticks all your boxes!

Dated vs. Undated

When looking at all the planners for entrepreneurs, do you want a planner that already has all the dates filled in for you? Or do you want to be able to pick up and leave off whenever?

Sometimes life gets chaotic and we miss a week or two in our planner. If that tends to happen to you, you may be better off with an undated planner so you don’t waste pages! But if the structure of a dated planner keeps you accountable, that may be your best bet!

The Sections Included

Maybe you want your planner to offer you more than just a calendar. You might want to track expenses, keep lists, track business ideas, brainstorm projects….the list goes on!

If you want a super comprehensive planner that has it all, it may be worth it to seek out a more specialized planner than your run-of-the-mill weekly or monthly planner.

Refillable/Insertable

Some planners allow you to pop in different inserts. This is awesome not only for the customizability, but it’s also far more sustainable, long-lasting, and eco-friendly! Rather than toss out planner after planner each year, you can keep a refillable planner alive forever.

Folders and Pockets

Does the planner feature folders and pockets throughout or in the back? You might not always need these, but they can come in handy for storing business cards, notes, and documents!

Size and Portability

As much as I love a big, large-print planner…sometimes it can get bulky and annoying to carry around.

Especially when it doesn’t fit in my bag! So size and the ability to carry the planner from place to place is definitely something to think about.

If a planner is only going to make your bag that much heavier, it might get old real quick. Think about what will fit in your work bag or backpack and buy accordingly!

Layout Preference

I used to NEED a planner with a vertical, hour-by-hour layout. Now that I use Google Calendar for that function, I like to have my paper planner in horizontal format, where I can just bullet point-list my daily tasks like a to-do list.

Think about what you prefer and what other systems you have in place! If you like to use a digital calendar in conjunction with a paper planner, get a paper planner that offers something your digital calendar doesn’t.

Pro tip: If you’re juggling a ton of tasks, struggling to keep your life organized, AND trying to stay on track with your goals …don’t try to manage your schedule by yourself!

You need to make sure you’re optimizing your time in the best way possible. But what even is “the best way possible”?

Well, you don’t need to waste time figuring that out when the Motion app can literally do it for you.

If you’re sick of feeling like there just aren’t enough hours in the day, Motion can fix that by:

• Automated scheduling that plans your day for you – this app knows exactly how to schedule your daily tasks FOR YOU, in a way that’s most productive for you and your lifestyle.
• Handling emergencies – Motion rearranges everything automatically so that urgent pop-up tasks don’t screw up your day…or your sanity!
• Being a game-changer for ADHD – anyone with ADHD knows the agony of identifying what to prioritize. Motion takes the guesswork out of time management, so you know exactly what to do next!

Motion is the game-changer your schedule has been begging for, so why not give it a shot and lighten your load?

Did these planners for entrepreneurs help you identify the best planner for you?

Whether you’re into goal setting, have a crazy chaotic work schedule, or just want a no-frills simple planner…this list has something for every entrepreneur! From artsy to minimalistic and everything in between, these planners for entrepreneurs offer a huge set of tools to organize your year and make it the best one yet.

Hopefully, your preferences have become a little clearer after weighing all the different variations planners can offer! Because we all know how good it feels to open a fresh new planner that has exactly what we want.

Happy planning!

Don’t forget your FREE productive day planner printable!

More Helpful Tools for Entrepreneurs

Gifts for Female Business Owners: 20 Insanely Useful Things She’ll Love

New Month Journal Prompts for Goal Setting

Journaling for Entrepreneurs: 40 Business Savvy Prompts

65 Affirmations for Female Entrepreneurs

LIKE THESE PLANNERS FOR ENTREPRENEURS? PIN THEM FOR LATER!

Founder & Content Strategist

Hey there! I'm Alexa, and I'm a self-care enthusiast and mental health advocate. At Ambitiously Alexa, I'm here to support women like you who are on a mission to achieve allll the things they're passionate about and make time for self care. I make this balance possible through journal prompts, positive affirmations, and self care ideas you'll love! Here's more about me, including my B.A in Psychology...

Similar Posts

Glow Up Checklist for the Ultimate (Realistic!) Reset

This post contains affiliate links and I may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you sign up or purchase products or services mentioned. Read the…

8 Tips for Moving Out of State Alone: A Step-by-Step Guide

150+ Deep Writing Prompts About Life to REALLY Reflect

2024 Vision Board Ideas for Adults You’ll Want to Copy NOW

Why Expressing Your Feelings on Social Media Can Be Good

Environmental Self Care: 57 Ideas for a Stress-Free Space

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Copy short link

How To Write A Business Plan (2024 Guide)

Updated: Apr 17, 2024, 11:59am

Table of Contents

Brainstorm an executive summary, create a company description, brainstorm your business goals, describe your services or products, conduct market research, create financial plans, bottom line, frequently asked questions.

Every business starts with a vision, which is distilled and communicated through a business plan. In addition to your high-level hopes and dreams, a strong business plan outlines short-term and long-term goals, budget and whatever else you might need to get started. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to write a business plan that you can stick to and help guide your operations as you get started.

Featured Partners

ZenBusiness

$0 + State Fees

Varies By State & Package

On ZenBusiness' Website

On LegalZoom's Website

Northwest Registered Agent

$39 + State Fees

On Northwest Registered Agent's Website

$0 + State Fee

On Formations' Website

Drafting the Summary

An executive summary is an extremely important first step in your business. You have to be able to put the basic facts of your business in an elevator pitch-style sentence to grab investors’ attention and keep their interest. This should communicate your business’s name, what the products or services you’re selling are and what marketplace you’re entering.

Ask for Help

When drafting the executive summary, you should have a few different options. Enlist a few thought partners to review your executive summary possibilities to determine which one is best.

After you have the executive summary in place, you can work on the company description, which contains more specific information. In the description, you’ll need to include your business’s registered name , your business address and any key employees involved in the business. 

The business description should also include the structure of your business, such as sole proprietorship , limited liability company (LLC) , partnership or corporation. This is the time to specify how much of an ownership stake everyone has in the company. Finally, include a section that outlines the history of the company and how it has evolved over time.

Wherever you are on the business journey, you return to your goals and assess where you are in meeting your in-progress targets and setting new goals to work toward.

Numbers-based Goals

Goals can cover a variety of sections of your business. Financial and profit goals are a given for when you’re establishing your business, but there are other goals to take into account as well with regard to brand awareness and growth. For example, you might want to hit a certain number of followers across social channels or raise your engagement rates.

Another goal could be to attract new investors or find grants if you’re a nonprofit business. If you’re looking to grow, you’ll want to set revenue targets to make that happen as well.

Intangible Goals

Goals unrelated to traceable numbers are important as well. These can include seeing your business’s advertisement reach the general public or receiving a terrific client review. These goals are important for the direction you take your business and the direction you want it to go in the future.

The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you’re offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit in the current market or are providing something necessary or entirely new. If you have any patents or trademarks, this is where you can include those too.

If you have any visual aids, they should be included here as well. This would also be a good place to include pricing strategy and explain your materials.

This is the part of the business plan where you can explain your expertise and different approach in greater depth. Show how what you’re offering is vital to the market and fills an important gap.

You can also situate your business in your industry and compare it to other ones and how you have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Other than financial goals, you want to have a budget and set your planned weekly, monthly and annual spending. There are several different costs to consider, such as operational costs.

Business Operations Costs

Rent for your business is the first big cost to factor into your budget. If your business is remote, the cost that replaces rent will be the software that maintains your virtual operations.

Marketing and sales costs should be next on your list. Devoting money to making sure people know about your business is as important as making sure it functions.

Other Costs

Although you can’t anticipate disasters, there are likely to be unanticipated costs that come up at some point in your business’s existence. It’s important to factor these possible costs into your financial plans so you’re not caught totally unaware.

Business plans are important for businesses of all sizes so that you can define where your business is and where you want it to go. Growing your business requires a vision, and giving yourself a roadmap in the form of a business plan will set you up for success.

How do I write a simple business plan?

When you’re working on a business plan, make sure you have as much information as possible so that you can simplify it to the most relevant information. A simple business plan still needs all of the parts included in this article, but you can be very clear and direct.

What are some common mistakes in a business plan?

The most common mistakes in a business plan are common writing issues like grammar errors or misspellings. It’s important to be clear in your sentence structure and proofread your business plan before sending it to any investors or partners.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business,  an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

• Best VPN Services
• Best Project Management Software
• Best Web Hosting Services
• Best Antivirus Software
• Best LLC Services
• Best POS Systems
• Best Business VOIP Services
• Best Credit Card Processing Companies
• Best CRM Software for Small Business
• Best Fleet Management Software
• Best Business Credit Cards
• Best Business Loans
• Best Business Software
• Best Business Apps
• Best Free Software For Business
• How to Start a Business
• How To Make A Small Business Website
• How To Trademark A Name
• What Is An LLC?
• How To Set Up An LLC In 7 Steps
• What is Project Management?
• How To Write An Effective Business Proposal

What Is SNMP? Simple Network Management Protocol Explained

What Is A Single-Member LLC? Definition, Pros And Cons

What Is Penetration Testing? Definition & Best Practices

What Is Network Access Control (NAC)?

What Is Network Segmentation?

How To Start A Business In Louisiana (2024 Guide)

Julia is a writer in New York and started covering tech and business during the pandemic. She also covers books and the publishing industry.

• Sources of Business Finance
• Small Business Loans
• Small Business Grants
• Crowdfunding Sites
• How to Get a Business Loan
• Small Business Insurance Providers
• Best Factoring Companies
• Types of Bank Accounts
• Best Banks for Small Business
• Best Business Bank Accounts
• Open a Business Bank Account
• Bank Accounts for Small Businesses
• Free Business Checking Accounts
• Best Business Credit Cards
• Get a Business Credit Card
• Business Credit Cards for Bad Credit
• Build Business Credit Fast
• Business Loan Eligibility Criteria
• Small-Business Bookkeeping Basics
• How to Set Financial Goals
• Business Loan Calculators
• How to Calculate ROI
• Calculate Net Income
• Calculate Working Capital
• Calculate Operating Income
• Calculate Net Present Value (NPV)
• Calculate Payroll Tax

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

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

1. Secure Funds

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

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

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

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

2. Monitor Business Growth

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

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

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

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

3. Measure Business Success

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

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

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

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

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

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

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

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

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

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

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

A good executive summary should do the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Add Your Company Overview

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

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

Your company overview should contain the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Mission Statement

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

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

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

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

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

Business Objectives

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Market Analysis

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

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

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

• Market Research

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

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

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

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

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

How to Quantify Your Target Market

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

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

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Competitive Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Direct vs Indirect Competition

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

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

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

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

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

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

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

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

1. Cost Leadership

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

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

2. Product Differentiation

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

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

3. Market Segmentation

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

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

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

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

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

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

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

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

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

Management Team

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

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

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

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

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

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

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

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

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

Organizational Chart

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

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

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

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

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Unique features
• Translating the unique features into benefits
• The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
• Intellectual property rights or any patents

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

• Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
• Time between purchases
• Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

• The creation of new or existing products and services.
• The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
• Assembling the products
• Maintaining quality control
• Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
• The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

• Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
• What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
• What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
• Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
• Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
• How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
• What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
• What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
• What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
• Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
• Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
• How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

• What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
• What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
• Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
• How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

• Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
• Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
• Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

• Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
• Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
• Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

• Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
• What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
• How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

• What makes your competition successful?
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

• What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
• What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
• What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
• Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
• What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
• Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

• Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
• Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
• Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
• Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
• Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
• Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
• Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

• What is your sales forecast for the next year?
• When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
• What are the core expenses you need to operate?
• How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
• How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

• Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
• Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
• Additional financial documents or projections
• Articles of incorporation and status
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Bank statements
• Business registries
• Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
• Copies of insurances
• Credit histories (personal or/and business)
• Deeds and permits
• Equipment leases
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Industry associations and memberships
• Images of product
• Intellectual property
• Key customer contracts
• Legal documents and other contracts
• Letters of reference
• Links to references
• Market research data
• Organizational charts
• Photographs of potential facilities
• Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
• Purchase orders
• Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
• State and federal identification numbers or codes
• Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

• A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
• A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
• A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Product or service description
• Target audience
• Market size
• Competition analysis
• Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

• Business opportunity
• Company description
• Industry analysis
• Target market
• Implementation timeline
• Marketing plan
• Financial summary
• Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

• The Business Profile
• The Vision and the People
• Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
• Organization
• Licenses and Permits
• Business Insurance
• Communication Tools
• Acquisitions
• Location and Leasing
• Accounting and Cash Flow
• Opening and Marketing
• Managing Employees
• Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Service Line
• Marketing and Sales

8. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Products and services
• Operations plan
• Management organization
• Financial plan
• Conclusion / Call to action
• Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

10. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

• Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
• Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
• The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
• Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
• Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
• Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
• Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
• Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
• Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

• Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
• Solution: The solutions to each problem.
• Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
• Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

• Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
• Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
• Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
• Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
• Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
• Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
• Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
• Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
• Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
• Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
• Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
• Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

• Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
• Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
• Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
• Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time.  They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans.  A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs.  Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

• 12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
• 13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
• 5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
• How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

Was This Article Helpful?

Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

• compare our planners
• Take the Planner Quiz!

Choosing the Best Business Planner for Owners and Entrepreneurs

Staying organized and on top of tasks is crucial for success in most people's everyday lives. In the scope of the business world, that sentiment might ring even more true. Whether you're a seasoned business owner or a budding entrepreneur, having a reliable business planner can make all the difference in managing your daily activities and achieving your long-term goals.

There are countless options available in the market, and that makes choosing a planner daunting. The key is to find a business planner that aligns with your unique needs and preferences. In this guide, our planning experts will help you explore the key factors to consider when selecting the best business planner and highlight some top choices.

Learn more about how to use a planner for beginners .

How to Choose the Best Business Planner

The first consideration when choosing a business planner is the size that suits your lifestyle and workspace. For both large and small business owners, a planner that is too large may be cumbersome to carry around, while one that is too small might not offer enough space for detailed planning. While you’re looking for the right planner size , explore all of your options, from compact options perfect for on-the-go entrepreneurs to larger formats for those who prefer a more spacious layout.

Compact Portability: On-the-Go Entrepreneurs

For those constantly on the move, a compact-sized planner is a game-changer. Compact planners are designed to slip easily into a bag or briefcase, ensuring you have your planning companion with you wherever business takes you. This size is the best planner choice for entrepreneurs who need quick access to their schedules, to-do lists, and important notes without the burden of carrying a bulky planner.

An A5 planner or PetitePlanner Organization System may be just right for you.

Classic Dimensions: The Balanced Choice

Classic-sized planners strike a perfect choice for work-life balance, offering enough space for detailed planning while remaining portable. This 7x9 size is ideal for individuals who want a comprehensive planner that can accommodate both broad overviews and specific daily tasks. It provides enough room for creativity and organization without overwhelming your workspace or bag.

Larger Planners: Spacious Planning for Detailed Minds

For those who thrive on detailed planning and prefer a larger canvas, 8.5” x 11” planners provide an expansive layout. These planners offer more room for intricate notes, elaborate to-do lists, and detailed scheduling. The 8.5” x 11” size is the best planner choice for business owners who appreciate the luxury of extra space and find comfort in having a comprehensive overview of their business activities.

The format of a planner plays a crucial role in how effectively it helps you manage your business tasks. Consider whether you prefer a spiral-bound, softbound, ring binder, or digital planner. Fit your planner to your lifestyle and routine. If you are looking for a compact and portable planner you may want to opt for the softbound version. If your planner will be safely living on your desk then you might prefer the ring binder format.

Everyone has a different lifestyle and your best planner should fit into that routine and schedule. Make sure to look at the different formats of these yearly calendars and find your best fit.

The layout of a business planner determines how information is organized on each blank page. For both physical planners and digital planners, a daily planner is ideal for individuals with a high volume of tasks, while a weekly planner layout provides a broader view of the week ahead. Monthly planners are excellent for setting long-term goals and milestones.

The best planners come in various formats, ensuring you find the one that best fits your planning style. Some individuals prefer a structured layout with designated spaces for specific tasks, while others may prefer a more open and customizable design. Planners are known for their thoughtfully designed layouts that balance structure and flexibility, allowing you to tailor the planner to your unique needs.

Explore more planner layouts for work and all areas of your life.

Investing in a high-quality planner ensures durability and longevity, important factors for a tool you'll be using daily. High-quality planners consist of premium materials, sturdy covers, and thick, high-quality paper.

In a world filled with digital planners a well-constructed paper planner not only withstands the wear and tear of daily use but also provides a satisfying tactile experience.

Personalization Options

A personalized productivity planner can add a touch of your personality to your daily routine. Offering a range of customization options, allowing you to choose the cover design, color scheme, and even add your name or a motivational quote. Personalizing your productivity planner can make it feel more like a reflection of your identity, motivating you to use it consistently.

Learn more about how to start planning .

The Best Planners for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

Life Planner

The LifePlanner™ is a popular choice among business owners and entrepreneurs for its versatility and comprehensive layout. In this list of best planners, the LifePlanner™ is one of the only options with monthly, weekly, and yearly planning sections, it accommodates various planning preferences. The colorful and stylish design adds a touch of creativity to your planning sessions, making it an inspiring tool for achieving your personal goals.

Focused Planner

For those who prefer a more specialized approach, the Focused Planner is designed to help you concentrate on specific areas of your business. It includes dedicated sections for goal setting, project planning, and tracking key performance indicators. This focused approach can be particularly beneficial for entrepreneurs with targeted objectives or ongoing projects.

A5 Weekly Planner Ring Agenda

The A5 Weekly Planner Ring Agenda is a compact and portable solution for busy entrepreneurs on the move. Its industry-standard six-ring binding allows for easy customization and rearrangement of pages, ensuring that your planner adapts to your evolving needs. Despite its smaller size, it doesn't compromise on functionality, providing ample space for weekly planning.

The A5 LifePlanner™ Ring Agenda may be the perfect planner fit.

Custom Monthly Planner

For those who prefer a simplified approach to planning, the Custom Monthly Planner is a clean and minimalist design. It allows you to focus on high-level goals and priorities without the distraction of daily or weekly details. This option is the perfect choice for entrepreneurs who want a bird's eye view of their month at a glance.

Learn more about daily, weekly, and monthly planning tips .

Tips for Using a Business Planner

Streamlining Tasks and Responsibilities

One of the primary purposes of a business planner is to streamline your tasks and responsibilities. Use designated sections for to-do lists, deadlines, and important meetings to ensure nothing falls through the cracks. The planners, with their well-thought-out layouts, provide dedicated spaces for these essential elements of your business routine.

Enhancing Time Management and Productivity

Effective time management is a cornerstone of successful entrepreneurship. Use your planner to allocate specific time blocks for different tasks, helping you stay organized and focused throughout the day. Erin Condren's planners often include features like hourly layouts, ensuring that you can plan your day with precision.

Keeping Track of Important Tasks and Events

As a business owner, it's crucial to keep track of important day-to-day tasks and events that contribute to the growth of your venture. Utilize the monthly and yearly planning sections in your planner to mark significant milestones, deadlines, and business-related events. Having a visual representation of your schedule helps you stay proactive and prepared.

Setting Goals and Priorities

Goal-setting is a fundamental aspect of business success. Use the goal-setting pages in your planner to outline both short-term and long-term objectives. Breaking down larger goals into actionable steps can make them more manageable and achievable. You can find an assortment of planners that include goal-specific sections to guide you through this process.

Organizing Creative Ideas

Entrepreneurship often involves creative thinking and innovation. Use a dedicated section in your planner to jot down creative ideas, brainstorming sessions, and insights. Customizable planners allow you to integrate creativity into your planning process, making it a holistic tool for both analytical and imaginative aspects of business.

Having the right tools can make a significant impact on your success in the business world. A well-chosen business planner not only keeps you organized but also serves as a motivational tool to propel you to reach your goals .

With the diverse range of options offered in the market, you can find a planner that aligns with your unique needs and preferences. Take your time to explore the the best planners that resonate with your style and goals and start the healthy habit of enhanced productivity and business success.

You may also enjoy these business planning tips and productivity hacks:

• How to Start a Business
• How to Use a Planner for Home + Work
• How to Stay Organized at Work

Shop now. Pay in 4. Always interest-free.

Add your favorites to bag

Select Afterpay at Checkout

Log into or create your Afterpay account, instant approval decision

Your purchase will be split into 4 payments, payable every 2 weeks

You must be over 18, a resident of the U.S. and meet additional eligibility criteria to qualify. Late fees may apply. Estimated payment amounts shown on product pages exclude taxes and shipping charges, which are added at checkout. Click here for complete terms. Loans to California residents made or arranged pursuant to a California Finance Lenders Law license. © 2020 Afterpay

Pay in 4 interest-free payments

No impact on credit score and no late fees. Available for purchases of $30 to $1,500.

• Choose PayPal at checkout to pay later with Pay in 4 .
• Complete your purchase with a 25% down payment.
• Use autopay for the rest of your payments. It's easy!

Pay in 4 is available to consumers upon approval for purchases of $30 to $1,500. Pay in 4 is currently not available to residents of MO or NVMissouri or Nevada. Offer availability depends on the merchant and also may not be available for certain recurring, subscription services. When applying, a soft credit check may be needed, but will not affect your credit score. You must be 18 years old or older to apply. PayPal, Inc.: Loans to CACalifornia residents are made or arranged pursuant to a CACalifornia Financing Law License. GAGeorgia Installment Lender Licensee, NMLS #910457. RIRhode Island Small Loan Lender Licensee. NMNew Mexico residents:

Find more disclosures related to Pay in 4.

A Comprehensive Guide to Monthly Planning

We are all aware that being busy does not equate to being productive. With monthly planning, however, you can go from being flat-out busy to efficiently on top of tasks. Think of growing a company like climbing Mount Everest. You can’t start this journey without figuring out how you will do it.

But many companies still don’t have a clear plan for their projects. Most of them are too busy running on the hamster wheel to step back and look at their firm from a birds-eye perspective. A monthly plan and review are particularly useful because they provide the most up- to-date snapshot of the current routines of your organization.

What is monthly planning?

Monthly planning can start with a review or regular team meeting where people talk about their tasks and scorecards and how well their teams are reaching their goals. This meeting is an opportunity for the team lead to assess current performance versus the monthly goals and subsequently create and/or update the master monthly plan.

Monthly planning is an ongoing process. Take the hint from the name – and keep it regular and relevant. The short frame of time (30 days) to set and manage goals as they happen is a key method of keeping teams agile and productive. 

What does the monthly planning process entail?

Planning is a must for business success. When a company has a planning process and a plan to implement, it’s easier for managers to create to-do lists to complete tasks and reach their goals. Monthly planning allows organizations to lead with the best possible resources and achieve their goals with the fewest problems.

Good leaders know that the road to success is paved with ideas and theories that don’t work and you can never be too sure how a set strategy will pan out. To optimize success, good managers will also plan for failure. This small but useful technique can help ensure a business is successful.

Here are a few other things every monthly plan should include:

Understand assumptions at the beginning

A monthly plan review should always begin with a discussion of the underlying assumptions. A lot of assumptions are subject to revision. Since these assumptions are likely to evolve, they cannot form the basis of a project.

That said, assumptions determine critical decisions. You’re continually dealing with the difficulty of when to change the strategy and when to stick to it. If presumptions have shifted, the system must also adjust.

Consistently assess milestones

Planning relies on critical task analysis. Critical task analysis simplifies high-priority activities. Even simple things might be challenging for some people, so a critical task analysis can help us understand how essential project tasks become milestones. Some of the most important events and review sessions can be planned ahead of time. An ideal plan has milestones  and due dates for tasks. Use them to make plans for review sessions.

Review performance against planned metrics

Get the most out of good monthly planning by measuring your results. Use the review meeting to share performance measures, keep track of results and find problems, opportunities and threats.

The most obvious and standard review compares the planned tasks to how well they were completed. In accounting and finance, variance is the difference between what was planned and what happened, and variance analysis looks into that difference. This is a necessary monthly procedure. Look at key financial metrics like sales, sales by product or line, direct costs, expenses, profits, the balance sheet with assets and liabilities, and the cash balance and cashflow.

Don’t forget that good leadership is needed for performance metrics, accountability and peer pressure. You want this to be about making good choices, getting things done, and working together, not threats or fear.

Implement monthly planning in your team

Benefits of a monthly planning schedule

Improve your time management (and the team’s) and gain a long-term company view with monthly planning. Plus a few other key benefits:

Save time and money

With a monthly plan in place, you and your team know what to do and when to do it by. If a problem arises, it’s easy enough to track, delegate or fix on the spot. Plus, with monthly reviews, you can quickly figure out common recurring issues and take steps to correct these. You can also use your money and time wisely because you planned for monthly financial goals, sales goals, marketing goals and so on.

The end goal of any business is to make money. Tools like TimeTrack Timesheet help you plan and monitor your team’s working hours, common disruptions and overall time management skills. With this information at hand, you can easily give everyone feedback on areas of time improvement at the monthly review.

TimeTrack Timesheet

Become a better manager

Theodore Roosevelt once said that sometimes the best thing to do is to step back and let one’s employees do their job.

If managers start to organize and control everything down to the last detail, employees will doubt their decisions and be afraid to take the lead. Instead of focusing on each little thing, spend more time overseeing the big picture (looking over the entire month).

Regular reviews stop managers from micromanaging and instead offers them a chance to give and receive feedback.

Improve communication

One of the most important planning tips is communication. Don’t assume everyone knows what to do. Set up regular quick chats to check in on projects, processes and deadlines. This kind of communication also fosters engagement and enthusiasm amongst the team. Human resource departments are always looking for ways to get employees more involved. By checking in on people often, managers can quickly gauge how interested they are in their work and encourage them to keep going.

Make year-end reviews efficient

Year-end reviews are usually very stressful for both employees and employers because they have to give difficult feedback. In reality, these reviews are not fair at all to the worker. If something is a big enough problem to talk about at the end of the year, it should have been brought up much sooner. This method helps your employees manage their emotions and allows them to schedule follow-ups and improve before it’s too late.

Achieve monthly goals by setting up timely meetings

Promptitude is one of our most important planning tips. By meeting up monthly, individuals make goal-setting easier. Each time managers review; they can talk about new goals and better ways to reach targets and objectives. Schedule monthly meetings to help keep employees on track as they work toward the company’s monthly plans. Even if the timeline doesn’t stay the same, it’s still important to include it in the review. In one study, researchers found that writing down monthly goals made people 33% more likely to reach them .

Create an efficient monthly work schedule

Work the numbers.

It’s always best to begin with the numbers. How did last month go compared to what you thought would happen? How did the team manage deadlines compared to the previous month? Where there any major red flags?

The most important thing to do is look at the cashflow and cash position. Did we get the money we were supposed to? How will our cashflow be over the next few months? Financial reports can be looked at outside of a meeting, but doing so together as a team offers an opportunity to ask questions and discuss how the company makes and spends money. A company’s expansion generates positive cashflows quicker than the economy, which can be reinvested or distributed as dividends reflecting its growth trajectory.

Highlight major milestones

After looking at how the finances are doing, look at the “major milestones,” which are the big tasks the company needs to complete and the plans for the next month.

Discuss how different teams might work together on these projects and organize the specific monthly goals. Don’t be afraid to open up the floor to feedback and input from the team. Ask for and implement great ideas that will improve workflow , time management, efficiency and success. Remember that by looking over big projects every month, the idea is to stay flexible and make changes as needed. As you learn more about your customers and market, you might need to set new goals.

Align long-term goals & strategy with the monthly calendar

Next, take a look at the long-term business goals. As an established company, this doesn’t change too often. However, a new company looking for a good model might change its monthly planner strategy as they try different things.

This step of the process may be the most important for projects in their early stages. Staying up-to-date on various projects across the business is an integral part of your monthly calendar. Automate the process with TimeTrack Project Evaluations which allows you a holistic overview and perspective of projects in real-time, including costs, project hours and tasks.

TimeTrack Project Evaluation

Discuss issues

Everyone on the team should feel comfortable enough to bring up problems or issues they’d like to discuss. This could include new opportunities, product features, possible partnerships or HR issues. Use this opportunity to be honest, transparent and open and try to find solutions and next steps for every problem.

Excellence in the details

Keep in mind that it’s impossible to run your meetings better overnight. It takes time to figure out the best way to organize oneself and the team. Only through regular monthly planning and setting up an excellent schedule can you get a good idea of what works and what doesn’t.

Try these planning tips to set you on the right track and test TimeTrack’s numerous planning and time management features to optimize your efficiency.

Being a digital marketer, I have been working with different clients and following strict deadlines. For me, learning the skill of time management and tracking was crucial for juggling between tasks and completing them. So, writing about time management and monitoring helps me add my flavor to the knowledge pool. I also learned a few things, which I am excited to share with all of you.

You might also like

• Branding and Marketing
• Business and Life Planning
• wjr business beat
• Management and Operations
• social media
• Technology and Web
• Inspiration for Entrepreneurs

• Define Your Business Model
• Plan Your Business
• Plan Your Life
• Start a Business

Building a Monthly Business Plan

While it’s important to create a 10-year business model, your real focus should be on your business plan for three years, two years and one year. Once that’s set, reverse engineer it to the quarter and then down to the month.

StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings on Dell products and accessories: Learn more here

Look at everything from a quantitative standpoint:

• Remember that every single thing you do, positive or negative, compounds consistently over time. So, execution is number one.
• What are the top three specific and measurable things you must do every single day?
• Set your calendar in blocks of 15, 20 and 30 minutes.
• Determine your top three metrics – calls, meetings, proposals – for the activities you get paid for and the ones you don’t. Focus on the things you get paid for; that’s what drives the key metrics of your plan for the month.
• What are your top three personal goals? It’s essential to have a little balance in your life.
• Write out your top five values. You need to be connected to not only your company values, but your personal values.
• Write down what you’re grateful for and what you’re thankful for.
• What is your marketing plan? What top three things are you going to do for it?
• Understand what your purpose is and what drives you. It’s really important to understand your purpose. That is what gives you the energy to wake up every morning and do what you need to do.
• Make sure you have a top 30 client list that includes top 10 current, top 10 prospects, and top 10 centers or spheres of influence. What is your game plan for each?
• What is the one thing you will stop, the one thing you will start, and the one new habit that you will build over the next 30 days?
• Have a mentor and an accountability plan.  It’s easy to build out a plan, but it’s really difficult to stick to it. That’s why I encourage everybody to have a mentor or an accountability partner, someone who is going to push you out of your comfort zone and who will call you out on your excuses.
• Finally, commit to consistent daily execution. Look your plan every morning, every night and throughout the day so you can adjust on the fly as the market determines. Remember, this is a  living business plan. And living your plan is the key to thinking big.

Originally published Jan. 25, 2021.

Sign Up: Receive the StartupNation newsletter!

– Jon

• accountability
• business model
• business plan
• personal growth

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Related Posts

Free Digital Skills Training: From Brand Building to Email Leads

Turning Your Sports Passion into a Side Hustle: A Comprehensive Guide

How to Overcome Challenges of Remote Work

5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in the First Year (and How to Avoid Them)

Successful Monthly Planning for a Productive Month

• Pinterest 54

Table of Contents

How to plan for a new month and do it with ease

Let’s talk about monthly planning .

Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed by your monthly to-do list? Do you find it difficult to keep track of important deadlines and appointments? If this is the case, you’re not alone.

Many of us lead hectic lives that can be difficult to manage. But don’t worry; month-by-month planning is here to save the day .

In this post, we’ll look at monthly planning: what it is, why it’s important, and how to make the most of it.

So, grab your favorite planner, and let’s talk about how to plan your month by following my monthly planning guide.

This post may contain affiliate links. That means that if you click on a link and purchase something I recommend, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Reflect on the previous month

1. analyze your monthly calendar.

Before we learn all about how to write a monthly plan, we have to reflect on the past month .

Examine your calendar from the previous month to get a sense of what you accomplished and when. When reflecting on the previous month, it’s important to pay close attention to your calendar.

Your calendar can be a great tool for understanding how you spent your time and determining your priorities over the previous month.

Take note of any important things, events, or appointments you had, as well as any deadlines or obligations you had to meet.

This can help you understand what consumed the majority of your time in the previous month. It can also help you plan for similar events or obligations in the coming month.

Keep an eye out for any patterns or trends in your calendar.

For example, did you have a lot of meetings or appointments in one week? Did you spend a significant amount of time traveling or commuting?

Were there any gaps in your schedule that you could have filled more effectively?

By reviewing your calendar in this manner, you can better understand your time management habits and identify areas where you can improve .

For example, if you notice that you’re consistently overscheduling yourself, you may need to rethink your daily planning strategy and prioritize more effectively.

2. Review your to-do list

The next step is to examine the tasks on your to-do list for the previous month and determine whether or not you completed them.

Examining your previous month’s to-do list is an important step in the monthly planning process .

Your task list can give you an idea of what you wanted to accomplish in the previous month. It can also help you assess how successful you were in meeting those goals.

Ask yourself a few key questions as you go over your to-do list. First and foremost, did you complete all the tasks on your to-do list?

If not, why not? Were there outside factors that prevented you from completing certain tasks, or did you simply fail to prioritize them properly?

Consider whether the daily tasks on your to-do list were in line with your monthly goals.

Did you prioritize the most important and meaningful tasks, or did you become bogged down in smaller, less important tasks?

Then, consider how you felt while completing your to-do list. Did the tasks you were working on energize and motivate you, or did they drain and overwhelm you?

Understanding your emotional reaction to your to-do list can help you make changes to your approach to planning and productivity in the coming month.

3. Review your goals

Check in on any monthly goals you set and assess your progress toward achieving them. Reviewing your previous month’s goals is an important step among these monthly planning ideas.

Goals provide direction and purpose , so it’s critical to check in on them regularly to ensure you’re on track.

Start by reviewing both the personal goals and professional goals (or even business goals if you have your own business) you set for the previous month. Did you complete them?

If so, congratulate yourself! Take a moment to be proud of yourself for the hard work you put in to achieve your goals.

It’s also fine if you didn’t meet your goals . Use this time to think about what went wrong and what you can do differently in the coming month.

Did you set unrealistic goals, or did unforeseen events hinder your progress? Were there any habits or behaviors that were impeding your progress toward your goals?

Consider these details as you make plans for the coming month.

In addition to reviewing your progress toward previous goals, it’s important to set new ones for the coming month.

Make certain that your goals are specific, measurable, and achievable, and that they are consistent with your vision and values.

4. Identify successes and challenges

Consider what went well for you in the previous month, as well as any challenges or obstacles you encountered.

When reviewing the previous month, it’s important to consider not only your goals and to-do lists but also to step back and consider the big picture .

This entails reflecting on both your successes and challenges over the previous month.

Start by identifying your accomplishments. What accomplishments do you feel particularly proud of?

It could be as simple as sticking to a workout routine or finishing a book you’ve been meaning to read for a long time.

Whatever it is, take a moment to congratulate yourself and give yourself a pat on the back. Reflect on the difficulties or challenges you encountered .

What kept you from achieving certain goals or completing certain tasks? Was it a lack of motivation, a lack of time, or unforeseen events?

By identifying these obstacles, you can start to plan strategies to overcome them in the coming month.

It’s important to approach this step with an open mind. Everyone has setbacks and challenges from time to time, and that’s fine.

The important thing is to learn from them and use them to grow and improve .

One approach to this step is to record your accomplishments and challenges in a journal or weekly planner .

This can help you visually see what went well and what didn’t, as well as provide insight into what changes you should make for the next month.

5. Reflect on your habits

Consider any habits you developed in the previous month, whether positive or negative, and how they affected your productivity and well-being.

When reflecting on your habits, take a step back and assess how they are affecting your personal life as well.

Have you formed any new habits in the last month that have made you feel more productive, focused, or relaxed?

Maybe you started meditating every morning, which helped you stay centered and focused throughout the day.

Perhaps you developed the habit of going for a walk after work, which helped you clear your mind and relax after a long day.

On the other hand, you may have developed some bad habits in the previous month that you want to break.

Perhaps you found yourself scrolling through social media for hours on end, leaving you exhausted and unproductive.

Maybe you were staying up too late binge-watching your favorite show, making it difficult to wake up feeling rested and energized in the morning.

By reflecting on your habits, you can start to identify which ones are beneficial to you and which are detrimental .

From there, you can devise a strategy to reinforce positive habits while replacing negative ones with healthier alternatives. You can use a habit tracker for that.

6. Evaluate your time management

Consider how you spent your time last month and whether you were able to prioritize effectively.

When assessing your time management, be honest with yourself about how you spent your time the previous month.

Have you spent a lot of time on social media or watching television? Did you spend too much time on non-priority tasks while ignoring more important ones?

Reflecting on these questions can help you identify areas where you could improve your time management in the future.

A time-tracking app or tool can help you see exactly how much time you’re spending on different activities.

You can then analyze this data to identify any patterns or trends affecting your productivity.

You may notice, for example, that you’re more productive in the morning and less productive in the afternoon, and you can adjust your monthly schedule accordingly.

Another way to assess your time management skills is to consider how well you prioritized . Did you prioritize the most important tasks first, or did you get sidetracked by less important ones?

The “ eat the frog ” approach, in which you tackle your most difficult or important task first thing in the morning, when you have the most energy and focus, is an effective strategy for prioritizing.

Planning for the next month

1. set goals.

As part of your monthly overview, determine your goals for the entire month and make sure they’re specific, measurable, and realistic.

Setting goals is an important part of any long-term planning process, including monthly planning.

Take some time to consider what you want to accomplish in the coming month. Make sure your goals are SMART goals .

Instead of a broad goal like “exercise more,” try something more specific like “go for a 30-minute walk every day after work.”

This goal is measurable because you can track whether or not you completed the daily walk. It’s realistic because it requires a manageable time commitment that fits into most schedules.

It’s also important to ensure that your goals are consistent with your larger aspirations (yearly goals) and values.

If your monthly goal doesn’t contribute to your overall life vision, you may find it difficult to stay motivated and focused.

Daily self-care checklists for free!

Sign up for my newsletter and get three pages of printable daily self-care checklists!

You’ll also get informational and fun emails from me every now and then.

You can unsubscribe anytime. For more details, review our Privacy Policy.

Opt in to receive news and updates.

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

2. Prioritize tasks

To plan a new month, make a list of the tasks you must complete to meet your goals and prioritize them based on their importance and urgency .

Once you’ve identified your monthly goals, it’s important to break them down into smaller, actionable tasks.

You can accomplish this by creating a list of all the tasks that you must complete to achieve each goal.

It’s now time to prioritize those tasks. Consider which tasks are critical and which are time-sensitive. What’s the most important thing to do first? What can be put off until later?

You can assign tasks a level of importance or urgency, such as high, medium, or low priority.

You could also use a system like the Eisenhower matrix , which categorizes tasks based on their importance and urgency.

3. Schedule events

When you create a monthly schedule, don’t forget to schedule important events and appointments, such as meetings, deadlines, and social engagements, on your calendar.

Scheduling events is an excellent way to keep track of your commitments and stay on top of things.

Whether you have a hectic work schedule, an active social life, or personal obligations, it’s important to make time for the things that are important to you .

To start, go through your calendar and mark any important events or appointments that you’re already aware of, such as work meetings, doctor’s appointments, or social gatherings.

Make a note of these in your calendar so you don’t forget about them.

Next, think about any personal events or tasks you want to complete in the upcoming month, such as setting up a coffee date with a friend or attending a yoga class.

Make a note of these in your calendar as well, and try to schedule them at a time that is convenient for you.

It’s also important to consider your priorities and manage your time effectively when scheduling events.

If you have a large project due at work, you may need to schedule more time for work-related tasks and less time for social activities.

Then, allow yourself plenty of time to prepare for each event or appointment.

Whether you’re preparing for a work meeting or a social event, it’s always a good idea to allow yourself some extra time to ensure that you’re fully prepared and ready to go.

4. Create a to-do list

It’s time to do a brain dump. Make a monthly to-do list that includes both work and personal tasks.

Making a to-do list is the perfect way to stay organized and ensure that you complete all your tasks for the month ahead. Make a list that includes both work-related and personal tasks.

Start by listing all the tasks you need to complete in the next month . This can range from finishing a work project to making a doctor’s appointment to planning a weekend getaway.

After you’ve made a thorough list, prioritize the tasks based on their importance and urgency.

You can also break down larger tasks into smaller, more manageable ones. For example, if you want to finish a work project, divide it into individual tasks like research, drafting, and editing.

This will make the task less daunting and easier to complete.

Once you’ve prioritized your list, fill in your monthly pages by transferring it to a calendar or daily planner.

Then assign due dates to each task . This will keep you on track and ensure that you complete everything on time.

If you’re looking for a simple monthly planner template, Canva has lots of free ones.

5. Allocate time

Set aside time for each task, and make sure you have enough time to work on your goals.

Setting aside time for each task helps you avoid procrastination and last-minute stress by ensuring that you have a clear plan for when you’ll work on each task.

To start allocating time for your tasks, estimate how long each task will take to complete. Be realistic about potential distractions or interruptions.

Then, add each task to your calendar, leaving enough time between tasks for breaks or unexpected delays.

When allocating time, remember to prioritize your tasks . Prioritize the most important and urgent tasks first, and devote more time to them if necessary.

Besides, it’s important to be adaptable in your time management. Unexpected events or tasks may arise, necessitating a change in your schedule.

Don’t be too rigid with your time allocation, and be willing to adjust as needed.

6. Review your budget for the next month

Review your budget and plan your monthly expenses. Make sure to budget for both necessities and discretionary spending.

Managing your finances and setting monthly financial goals are important aspects of monthly planning.

To start, go over your previous month’s budget and see if there are any areas where you overspent or could cut back.

Make a list of all your monthly expenses , including bills, groceries, transportation, and any other necessities.

After you’ve determined your necessary expenses, think about your discretionary spending. This includes activities such as dining out, entertainment, and shopping.

Set a reasonable budget for these costs. Ensure that you can afford them without jeopardizing your financial stability.

Here’s the best budget planner that I personally use and swear by .

Remember to set aside money for your long-term financial goals, such as saving for a down payment on a house or paying off debt.

7. Do meal planning for the next month

Meal planning is the best way to save time and money while eating healthier and reducing food waste.

To start meal planning for the coming month, make a list of the meals you want to prepare .

Think about your dietary restrictions and preferences, as well as the ingredients you already have on hand.

Make a grocery list of the ingredients you’ll need once you’ve decided on a menu. To reduce waste and save money, choose ingredients that you can use in multiple meals.

Remember to include breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks when planning your meals. You can also plan for leftovers, which you can eat the next day for lunch or freeze for later use.

To make meal planning even easier, consider using a meal planning app or service . Many of these apps allow you to input your dietary preferences and will generate meal plans for you.

They also provide grocery lists and can help you track your food budget.

Here’s a meal planner that also includes grocery lists for menu planning ! How cool is that?!

8. Plan for self-care

Don’t forget to schedule self-care activities like exercise, relaxation, and socializing to keep your mood up throughout the month.

This is one of my favorite monthly planning tips because self-care is just as important as completing tasks and reaching goals.

It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind and forget to prioritize our health. That is why it’s important to plan ahead of time for self-care activities.

Consider activities that will make you feel refreshed and rejuvenated. It could be as simple as going for a walk in the park, reading a book, or catching up with friends over coffee.

Make sure to schedule these activities into your calendar and give them the same level of importance as work-related tasks.

Also, prioritize your physical health by scheduling time for exercise and proper nutrition. This could include making time to go to the gym, attend a yoga class, or prepare healthy meals for the week.

Remember that self-care isn’t selfish ; it is necessary for your well-being and productivity. So don’t forget to prepare!

How to use a monthly planner or a calendar

1. choose the best planner or calendar that works best for you.

The right planner or calendar is important because it serves as the foundation for your organizational system.

There are many options available, ranging from digital apps to paper planners to a wall calendar, so take your time determining what works best for you.

If you prefer a digital planner, you could use an app such as Google Calendar or Trello. If you prefer a paper planner, look for one with plenty of room for notes and goal-setting.

Whatever you decide, make sure it meets your requirements and preferences. I also like to use sticky notes as part of my project planning system.

2. Decide on a planning system for organizing your tasks and events

Once you’ve got your planner or calendar, you’ll need to devise a system for organizing your tasks and events.

Some people prefer to color-code their tasks based on priority or category, while others prefer to use various symbols or stickers.

Experiment with different methods to see which one works best for you .

3. Fill in important dates and events

Fill in important dates and events, such as birthdays, holidays, and appointments, once your system is in place.

This will give you a clear picture of your month and allow you to plan around those events.

4. Prioritize tasks and allocate time for each task

Then, prioritize tasks and allot time to each one. This will help you avoid overwhelm and ensure that you have enough time to complete each task.

It’s important to be realistic with your time allocation and not overschedule yourself. You can also assign a deadline to each task to help you stay on track.

5. Regularly update and review your planner to stay on track

To stay on track, update and review your planner regularly.

This is an important part of using a monthly planner because it will allow you to adjust your plan as needed and avoid missing any important deadlines or events.

Set aside some time each week to review your planner and make any necessary changes.

20 best monthly habits for a successful week

• Review your goals for the month and plan out the steps you need to take to achieve them.
• Create a budget and stick to it to ensure financial stability.
• Schedule regular exercise to maintain physical and mental health.
• Meal plan and prepare healthy meals to fuel your body throughout the week.
• Take time for self-care activities such as meditation, reading, or taking a relaxing bath.
• Make time for socializing and building relationships with friends and family members.
• Set aside dedicated time for work or study, and minimize distractions during that time.
• Get enough sleep each night to ensure that you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day.
• Keep your living space clean and organized to increase productivity.
• Take time to reflect on your achievements and areas for improvement over the past month.
• Keep a gratitude journal to cultivate a positive mindset and increase appreciation for the small things in life.
• Plan out your outfits for the next week to save time and reduce decision fatigue.
• Schedule regular breaks throughout the day to avoid burnout.
• Keep a to-do list and prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency.
• Learn a new skill or take a course to expand your knowledge and improve your career prospects.
• Volunteer or give back to your community in some way .
• Take time to disconnect from technology and engage in activities that allow you to be present in the moment.
• Read for pleasure to unwind.
• Set aside time for screen-free hobbies or creative pursuits to nurture your passions.
• Practice gratitude by thanking those around you and expressing appreciation for the things you have in your life.

FAQ: What is monthly planning, and why is it beneficial?

Having a plan for the month can help you stay on top of your tasks and responsibilities.

Essentially, it entails planning your goals, appointments, deadlines, and other important events at the beginning of each month (or at the end of the month, if that suits you better).

By doing so, you can ensure that you’re making good use of your time and progressing toward your long-term goals.

One of the primary advantages of monthly planning is the ability to see the big picture .

When you plan your month ahead of time, you can get a sense of what’s coming up and ensure that you’re allocating your time and energy as efficiently as possible.

This is especially useful if you’re juggling many projects or responsibilities at the same time. Another benefit of planning by month is that it can help you remain focused and motivated.

You’re more likely to stay on track and avoid getting sidetracked by distractions or competing priorities if you have a clear sense of what you’re working toward and what steps you need to take to get there.

For example, let’s say that you’re planning a big event at work that’s coming up in a few months.

You can use your planning routine to break down the monthly tasks involved into manageable steps and schedule them over the next few weeks.

This can help you avoid the stress and last-minute scrambling that frequently accompany event planning.

What’s your opinion on monthly planning?

I would love to hear how you plan for the upcoming month!

I’m a personal growth and self-care expert, as well as an avid motorcycle enthusiast and coffee and sweets lover. Through Lauraconteuse, I provide insightful and practical advice on topics such as self-care, self-love, personal growth, and productivity, drawing from my very own extensive experience and knowledge in the field. My blog has helped countless people achieve their goals and live more fulfilling lives, and my goal is to continue to inspire and empower others.

You might also like these related posts

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Every product is independently selected by (obsessive) editors. Things you buy through our links may earn us a commission.

Best in Class

• The 10 Very Best Self-Tanners The 10 Very Best Self-Tanners
• The 15 Very Best Women’s Deodorants and Anti-perspirants The 15 Very Best Women’s Deodorants and…
• The 13 Very Best Lunch Boxes and Lunch Gear The 13 Very Best Lunch Boxes and Lunch G…
• 10 of the Very Best Cookware Sets 10 of the Very Best Cookware Sets
• The 7 Very Best Water Flossers The 7 Very Best Water Flossers
• The 13 Very Best High-Waisted Jeans The 13 Very Best High-Waisted Jeans
• The 15 Very Best White Sneakers for Women The 15 Very Best White Sneakers for Wome…
• The 11 Very Best White T-shirts for Men The 11 Very Best White T-shirts for Men
• The 7 Very Best Panini Presses The 7 Very Best Panini Presses
• The 12 Very Best Pajamas for Women The 12 Very Best Pajamas for Women
• The 13 Very Best Removable Wallpapers The 13 Very Best Removable Wallpapers
• The 11 Very Best Men’s Deodorants and Anti-perspirants The 11 Very Best Men’s Deodorants and An…
• The 7 Very Best Box Springs The 7 Very Best Box Springs
• The 10 Very Best Bluetooth Speakers The 10 Very Best Bluetooth Speakers
• The 12 Very Best Drugstore Eye Creams The 12 Very Best Drugstore Eye Creams
• The 9 Very Best Electric Razors The 9 Very Best Electric Razors
• The 7 Very Best Blue-Light-Blocking Glasses The 7 Very Best Blue-Light-Blocking Glas…
• The 7 Very Best Wireless Earbuds The 7 Very Best Wireless Earbuds
• The 11 Very Best Men’s Dopp Kits The 11 Very Best Men’s Dopp Kits
• The 6 Very Best Turntables The 6 Very Best Turntables
• The 8 Very Best Toners The 8 Very Best Toners
• The 7 Very Best Nonstick Skillets The 7 Very Best Nonstick Skillets
• The Very Best Body Washes for Dry Skin The Very Best Body Washes for Dry Skin
• 15 of the Very Best Water Bottles 15 of the Very Best Water Bottles
• The 8 Very Best Facial Masks The 8 Very Best Facial Masks
• The 21 Very Best Sunscreens for Your Face The 21 Very Best Sunscreens for Your Fac…
• The 10 Very Best Mom Jeans The 10 Very Best Mom Jeans
• The Very Best Men’s Razors The Very Best Men’s Razors
• The 11 Very Best White Button-down Shirts for Women The 11 Very Best White Button-down Shirt…
• The 13 Very Best Houseplant Fertilizers The 13 Very Best Houseplant Fertilizers
• The 10 Very Best Menstrual Cups The 10 Very Best Menstrual Cups
• The 8 Very Best Cutting Boards The 8 Very Best Cutting Boards
• The Very Best Strollers The Very Best Strollers
• The Very Best Multivitamins The Very Best Multivitamins
• The 8 Very Best Jean Shorts for Women The 8 Very Best Jean Shorts for Women
• The 10 Very Best Down Pillows The 10 Very Best Down Pillows
• The 12 Very Best Couches The 12 Very Best Couches
• The 18 Very Best Floor Lamps The 18 Very Best Floor Lamps
• The 13 Very Best Vitamin-C Serums The 13 Very Best Vitamin-C Serums
• The Very Best Floor Fans The Very Best Floor Fans
• The 9 Best Baby Carriers The 9 Best Baby Carriers
• The 16 Very Best Car Seats for Kids The 16 Very Best Car Seats for Kids
• The 10 Very Best Body Scrubs The 10 Very Best Body Scrubs
• The 10 Very Best Electric Toothbrushes The 10 Very Best Electric Toothbrushes
• The 9 Very Best Toasters The 9 Very Best Toasters
• The Very Best Carry-on Luggage The Very Best Carry-on Luggage
• The 9 Very Best Packing Cubes The 9 Very Best Packing Cubes
• The 13 Very Best Natural Deodorants The 13 Very Best Natural Deodorants
• The 9 Very Best Cooling Mattress Toppers The 9 Very Best Cooling Mattress Toppers
• 33 of the Very Best Vibrators 33 of the Very Best Vibrators

31 of the Very Best Planners

Including daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly options to help you get things done..

In this article

• Best overall
• Best weekly
• Best monthly
• Best quarterly
• Best customizable

Instead of an app or gadget that claims to jump-start your productivity, consider investing in a good paper planner . There is plenty of research that shows how actually writing down your to-do list and schedule for the day — rather than typing it out on a laptop or iPhone — makes you feel more engaged in the task at hand. And once the calendar year is complete, a physical planner becomes an artifact — a time capsule, if you will — of its happenings. Leafing through the well-loved Hobonichi Techo planners I’ve used over the years brings me almost as much pleasure as scribbling in them did.

While I’ve been devoted to Hobonichi Techo for most of my adult life, I’ve covered the Strategist’s stationery beat long enough to know that finding the right planner out of the very vast and very particular world of paper goods can be overwhelming. (I have, after all, updated this list faithfully every January and was tasked with selecting the best 100 notebooks for our massive notebook-testing story .)

So to find the best planners, I talked to 31 productivity experts, life coaches, and people who love stationery (including a few Strategist staffers) about their favorites, then culled our archives for standout styles we’ve written about before. I’ve included my own thoughts on our best overall planner, which I’ve been testing personally for the past five years. Any of the 33 planners recommended below will surely go a long way toward keeping you on track this year.

What we’re looking for

Arguably, the most essential way to categorize planners is by how they’re broken down: weekly, daily, monthly, or quarterly. According to our experts, daily planners tend to devote an entire page to each day and are best suited for those with lots of daily tasks or for list-makers who need to focus on their day-to-day organization. A weekly planner’s layout allots one to two pages per week and is great for those juggling many weekly meetings, events, and deadlines. A monthly or quarterly planner is great if you have long-term goals and best for big-picture thinkers who have a lot of large-scale projects on their plates. And if none of these layouts sound exactly right for your needs, perhaps you’d prefer a completely customizable planner (which we have a few of below).

Planners come in a range of sizes, which impacts how portable they are and how much space there is to write in. Generally, if you’re looking for something super-portable, a pocket or personal planner is best. If portability is less of a factor or if you prefer roomier layouts, then a half- or full-letter-size planner is probably for you. We’ve noted the exact dimensions of each planner so you can easily measure the size before buying.

Aside from style, the cover impacts how well the planner will hold up against daily wear and tear. It also affects the weight: Is it hardcover, softcover, or leather-bound? If you’re less concerned about adding weight to your bag and want something that’ll definitely hold up all year, consider a leather-bound or hardcover planner. But if you need something lightweight, a well-made softcover planner is a good bet.

Best planner overall

Layout: Daily | Size: 4 by 6 inches | Cover: Softcover

The Hobonichi Techo is a longtime Strategist favorite, used by three of our present and former staffers (all three of whom have used the planner for years to stay organized). This long-term testing and devotion has earned it the top spot here. As New York Magazine deputy editor Alexis Swerdloff wrote in her initial ode to the cult Japanese planner, “The leather-bound book is hefty and feels like I’m actually holding something substantial (unlike a Moleskine ) while still being incredibly compact: It’s little bit taller than an iPhone 6 and about the width of a Kit Kat.” Former Strategist associate editor Louis Cheslaw praises the planner’s “hard-wearing cover, thin (but quality) pages for a slim profile, lie-flat opening, and compact size.” It definitely falls into the “if you know, you know” category of stationery. I find that it’s the perfect size to chuck into any bag and deceptively durable. I’m not precious with my planners and tend to subject them to a lot of wear and tear. The Hobonichi Techo has never torn on me and looks as good on December 31 as it did when I bought it the previous January. I also love that the light gridding on each page grants every day some order but still gives me the space to dash off notes, lists, and doodles.

Best weekly planners

Best weekly planner overall.

Layout: Weekly | Size: 5.75 by 8.25 inches | Cover: Hardcover

I first heard about German stationery company Leuchtturm1917’s weekly planner from self-described “planner power user” Perrin Drumm. As she writes, the planner’s “hardback is perfect for planning on the go or taking notes in your lap.” Cindy Thompson , the blogger behind Instagram’s Plan Another Day , loves this planner because it “features a simple weekly layout that can be utilized in many ways.” While I am devoted to my Hobonichi, I did like the layout of the planner, which has days on one side and spaces for notes on the other. The notebook also features a “project plan” section that I had no use for but could be helpful to those with long-term vision. Plus the feel of the notebooks itself is quite nice with the sturdy hardcover and paper that has some nice heft. If you’re loyal to the Leuchtturm1917 , the brand also makes a two-year version of the planner, which is quite cost-effective.

Best design-y weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 6 by 8.5 inches | Cover: Hardcover

Papier planners are well known for their bright colors and thoughtful designs. Both Strategist writer Rachel Griffiths and Strategist deals editor Sam Daly swear by them. “I like weekly overviews with a lot of space to take notes and doodle, and I don’t need many extras like an address-book page or a place to make a list of intents. And my biggest must-have: a ribbon to keep your place,” explains Daly. “Papier’s planners have all of the above, and its products come in so many fun patterns and designs the hardest part of picking this planner was just choosing one.” Griffiths agress: “I always look forward to picking out my Papier planner because the designs are really cute and colorful.”

Best weekly planner with tearaway corners

Layout: Weekly |  Size: 4 by 6 inches | Cover: Hardcover

This Rhodia weekly planner is organized with the days of the week on one side and a gridded page for notes and scribbles on the other. Each day’s schedule is broken down into hour-by-hour lines (from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.), and the pages have tearaway corners to help you keep your place.

Best large weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 7.2 by 10.1 inches | Cover: Softcover

If you want something with a simpler, more bold design, you can’t go wrong with this one. According to Drumm , “If Massimo Vignelli had $15 to buy a planner, he’d surely pick this one.” She loves the “non-nonsense” layout: “There is barely any type on the pages, so the dates, and pretty much everything else, are entirely up to you to plot out.” While the planner comes in four sizes, Drumm prefers the large, “which feels less throwaway than the smaller options.” She adds that her design-y friends go for the black-on-black option, but Drumm prefers the planner in Pepto-Bismol pink.

Best vertical weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 4.3 by 8.3 inches | Cover: Softcover

This weekly planner from Traveler’s lets you fill in the dates as you please, so you can start using it at any point in the year. On top of that, because it contains just six months’ worth of undated weekly pages, it’s a great option to consider if you’re picking up a planner later in the year. In addition to those weekly pages, the planner contains a few pages laid out as vertical monthly calendars that you can use to keep track of important dates like birthdays or anniversaries. The paper itself is bleed- and feather-resistant, as well as fountain-pen friendly. While the planner as-is only has a simple card-stock cover, you can get a handsome leather cover to keep it in for an additional $50.

Best weekly planner with hourly columns

Layout: Weekly | Size: 8.5 by 16.5 centimeters | Cover: Hardcover

The Ispira planner’s calendar pages break down each week across two pages; dated columns provide space to jot things down for each day (the columns are broken down into hours for those who plan that obsessively). When it comes to stationery, Drumm calls Fabriano a “gold standard” because of the elevated color combos. Its planners, which she describes as “objects of beauty,” are made in Italy “by paper artisans who are truly deserving of that overused title.” The columns are skinny, though, so folks who like to write a lot in their planners may want something with more space.

Best softcover weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 3.5 by 5.5 inches | Cover: Softcover

This Moleskine has a simple layout: When opened, the left side’s pages are broken down into days of the week, while the right side’s are lined for taking notes. Personally, I find Moleskin planners to be a bit too minimal for my needs (I prefer each day to get a full page), but I could see it being useful for someone who keeps most of their calendar digitally. But for folks who’ve pared down, it’s a solid option.

Best hardcover weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 5.1 by 7.4 inches | Cover: Hardcover

This handsome hardcover planner lays flat and comes in five colors: red, green, gray, brown, and navy. It is also the planner of choice of actress Ayo Edebiri , who uses this diary for planning and scrapbooking . The layout has weekly pages on the left-hand side and gridded pages on the right-hand side, which she says is the superior layout for writing. “It makes me feel like a scientist, even if I’m writing things as simple as ‘Do laundry’ and ‘Seriously, please do laundry,’” she says.

Best time-management-focused weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 7.75 by 9.75 inches | Cover: Hardcover

This planner combines the scheduling elements you’d want in a regular planner with the goal-setting elements you might look for in a journal. In addition to its gridded weekly (and month- and year-at-a-glance) pages, this has space for you to write down both your roles and goals as a partner, employee, and friend. “It goes beyond being a planner and is really a clarifying tool for understanding how you want to invest your time,” explains author and time-management coach Elizabeth Grace Saunders. “It even invites you to track your daily habits” according to different priorities, Saunders adds, allowing users to tackle their goals in a more holistic way.

Best cloth cover weekly planner

In addition to its weekly pages, the Ponderlily planner has monthly ones and spaces for jotting down tasks, notes, and things you’re grateful for (as you might in a journal). Calling out details like “a cloth cover, foiled-copper lettering, lay-flat binding,” and inspiring quotes that begin each new month, Saunders has just one word for this planner: “Beautiful.”

Best weekly planner for heavy notetakers

Layout: Weekly |  Size: 5.75 by 8.25 inches | Cover: Faux leather cover

For those who use digital calendars for scheduling appointments but still want a paper planner to help them make the best use of their time, I recommend the Lemome planner. Instead of writing down appointments and logistics, brand strategist and writer Neha Gandhi outlines each day’s main goal in her planner. That helps her keep focused during the day and track projects over time. “I like this particular planner because it doesn’t waste real estate on huge day-by-day calendars and instead gives only high-level monthly and note-taking weekly views. I can organize meeting notes by the day they were taken (and can then cross-reference the date to the meeting the notes came from in my digital cal) so that I’m not flipping endlessly through a notebook to find one nugget of information that’s somehow always just out of reach,” says Gandhi. She also likes the convenient size: “It neatly fits into any work bag.”

Best weekly planner that doubles as a wallet

Layout: Weekly | Size: 4.7 by 7.5 inches | Cover: Softcover

In addition to being an excellent planner, the Jibun Techo has a card-holder insert that can do double duty as your wallet. “I just need to grab Jibun Techo and my keys and I am ready to head out!” says Wakako Takagi, a co-founder of Los Angeles–based stationery store Baum-kuchen . “I use the weekly pages to keep me oriented with detailed appointments, things to remember, and to document of some of the key ingredients in life (like how many miles I run each day),” she says, adding that it also has monthly pages she uses as a master planner.

Best splurge-worthy weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 5.5 by 7.5 inches | Cover: Leather cover

If you feel like splurging, the Smythson Soho Diary is the way to go. The leather brand has been around for over 100 years and its planners are carried by extremely chic people far and wide. “Larger than a pocket calendar, which affords little writing space, and smaller than a desk diary, which is like lugging around a textbook, the Soho is the ideal size,” says writer Leah Bhabha. She likes the formatting, too. “The weekly agenda devotes a sizable square to each day, and there’s a weekly to-do list on the opposite page.” Plus the paper itself is “half the thickness and weight of normal pages, but suffice to say, they make for easy writing with no ink bleeding through.”

Best (less expensive) splurge-worthy weekly planner

Layout: Weekly |  Size: 4 by 7 inches | Cover: Leather cover

For a less-expensive option from Smythson, I suggest the Memoranda Agenda. The layout divides its dated calendar pages between full weeks (on the left) and a blank lined page for notes opposite each week of the year (on the right). The Smythson agenda linked above has a handy pocket on the back cover to stash bits and bobs, like receipts or a checkbook, though it is available without a pocket (which also saves you a few dollars).

Best thematic weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 7” x 9.5” | Cover: Softcover

For over than 30 years, editor Julian Rothenstein has curated his Redstone Diaries : a planner filled with ephemera all centered on a certain theme (last year’s was beauty; this year’s is family). “As someone who grows paralyzed when faced with a procession of blank pages, I’m not really a big notebook person (most of my stray thoughts are scattered in bits and pieces across the Notes app). But opening a journal where half the pages are already filled with something lovely, creative, and valuable takes all the pressure off and may even inspire some beautiful musings of my own,” says Strategist writer Kitty Guo.

Best productivity-focused weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 5.8 by 8.3 inches | Cover: Hardcover

Clever Fox made its first appearance in our story about the best planners for teachers . But with pages dedicated to goal-setting, list-making, and scheduling, I think this would make a great option for non-teachers as well, especially because the layout breaks down daily tasks so they are less overwhelming.

Best daily planners

Best overall daily planner.

Layout: Daily | Size: 8.3 by 5.8 inches | Cover: Softcover

While I have never strayed from my Hobonichi Techo, this planner above does give me a little pause. Strategist writer (and self-proclaimed stationery nerd) Lauren Ro bought the Hobonichi Techo Cousin, which she describes as “the larger, more souped-up version” of my beloved Techo. It includes monthly, weekly, and daily spreads in a relatively compact size. While she has mostly relied on weekly planners in the past, the added space has become super-helpful for keeping track of both herself and her family. “I appreciate the gridded daily pages for their structured, but not too structured, layout that includes a schedule column on the left and a priority checklist at the top; the rest of the page is open, and I use it for jotting down diarylike musings, family-meal planning, and whatever else I want to commit to paper,” she adds. Because the Cousin does not have the leatherlike cover of the Techo, Ro suggests adding a vinyl protector to reinforce the card-stock cover. But, like the Techo, the Cousin goes in and out of stock, so if you want one for 2024, don’t dilly-dally.

@thestrategist It’s almost time to break in the new planner! 🤗📔 #stationerylover #hobonichicousin #plannertok ♬ original sound - the.strategist

Best undated daily planner

Layout: Daily | Size: 21 by 25 centimeters | Cover: Softcover

Two Strategist staffers have used a version of this planner from Australian stationery store Milligram. One is Ro, who first wrote about it back in 2018: “With a variety of abstract covers, colorways, and programs, they are the planners of my dreams. I chose the daily ‘non-diary’ with dot-grid pages for each day of the year.” The following year , she tried the brand’s Family Life weekly diary , “which includes space for action lists, budgeting, meal planning, and more.” Former Strategist editor Maxine Builder used this dotted non-diary to keep track of the Strategist’s editorial calendar, because each page has plenty of space for the day’s to-do lists and notes, and the planner makes it easy to flip months ahead. “It also just looks very nice sitting on a desk, and the linen wears well over the course of a year,” says Builder.

Best softcover daily planner

Layout: Daily |  Size: 105 by 148 millimeters | Cover: Softcover

For those who prefer notebooks or planners with lay-flat binding, this undated daily planner from Stalogy is extremely flexible. Drumm says it’s made of onion-skin-like paper that “feels wonderfully retro” and doesn’t bleed through despite its thinner consistency. “This fact really deserves more exclamation points, because if you like inky pens and thin paper, then you’ve never gotten your way,” Drumm explains. “As far as layout goes, the type is minimal and the light-gray printing is unobtrusive,” she says, adding that the fill-in-the-date format means “you can start things off whenever you damn well please.”

Best spiral-bound daily planner

Layout: Daily | Size: 7.5” × 9.5” | Cover: Hardcover

If you prefer a spiral bound planner, I recommend Appointed’s daily planners, which feature a brass-wire binding and a foil-stamped, water-resistant cloth cover. “I chose Appointed’s Wire Daily Planner because it has a classy dark-gray cover and is spiral bound, so it will blend into my desk when it’s closed and lay flat when it’s open,” says Strategist managing editor Kelsie Schrader . “Each day is a full page that’s broken into a column for my schedule and one for tasks I have to accomplish, plus plenty of room below those two columns for any other notes I want to make.”

Best to-do-list-focused daily planner

Layout: Daily | Size: 7.5” × 9.5” | Cover: Softcover

Ban.do is one of my favorite sources for cheery, colorful stationery that is beloved by celebrities and teens alike. While former Strategist writer Latifah Miles was a self-described “die-hard planner user” for many years, she found that the traditional calendar layout was no longer working for her current lifestyle. “I still really like to write things down and find that a visual to-do list is super-helpful to my general organization, which is why I ordered this undated daily planner from Ban.do that allows me to list out my tasks when I want without being chained to filling it in every single day,” she explains. Miles especially loves the peppy planner’s “Priorities” section, which she uses to highlight a few tasks from her longer to-do list that need to be accomplished each day.

Best motivational daily planner

Layout: Daily | Size: 6 by 8.5 inches | Cover: Hardcover

The 5 Second Journal, written by motivational speaker Mel Robbins, has more structure than your standard planner — it asks you to fill in everything from your most important project of the day to what time you plan to stop working (to prevent burnout). There is also a small hour-by-hour planner to help you map your schedule more comprehensively and a gridded space meant for jotting down ideas. “For the aspiring planner who has no idea where to begin, I recommend the 5 Second Journal,” says life and career coach Phoebe Gavin .

Best refillable daily planner

Layout: Daily | Size: 5.5 by 8.5 inches | Cover: Leather cover

For a tried-and-true option, try the Day-Timer. Christy Whitman , a life coach and the author of The Art of Having It All: A Woman’s Guide to Unlimited Abundance , has been using the Day-Timer for more than 20 years. “I love this brand because the layout of the pages allows me to have a place for the items to be done today, a schedule, and also a page for writing and taking notes. So each day is on two pages and gives me a full look at my day,” she says. “If I have an appointment scheduled, I can write notes next to the appointment and remind myself of call-in information, the name of the person, or any other important information.” Whitman also loves Day-Timer’s customer service, specifically the reminders to get new pages for the New Year. “They send me an email with the order number, refill numbers, and it is just easy for busy career people.”

Best monthly planners

Best monthly planner overall.

Layout: Monthly | Size: 3.5 by 6 inches | Cover: Softcover

This monthly at-a-glance planner has a super-specific prompt: It asks you to write down the single-most-important thing each day. At the end of the two years it spans, you’ll have a record of all the most essential things you did for those 730 days. “If you’re a big-picture thinker, you’ve built a successful life ignoring anything that does not help meet your grand vision,” says career counselor Penelope Trunk . “But there are some things that cannot be ignored, like calling your mom on her birthday.”

Best binder-style monthly planner

Layout: Monthly | Size: 8 by 9 inches | Cover: Hardcover

Binder-style planners, like this one, have loose pages which can be removed and rearranged if necessary, so they grant a lot of flexibility. Darcy Miller — an author, illustrator, and crafter with a meticulously organized office — uses it for her day-to-day notes and planning and even keeps one for each of her kids to keep track of things like doctor’s appointments and parent-teacher conferences. The eight-inch-by-nine-inch binder is small and light enough to fit in her bag, but when it’s not in there, it looks good if it’s out on the table.

Best quarterly planners

Best quarterly planner overall.

Layout: Quarterly | Size: 5.75 by 8.5 inches | Cover: Hardcover

While it may be more common to plan schedules by weeks, days, or months, planning in quarters can help organize big-picture goals. The BestSelf Co. Self Journal is one such planner that helps break down big goals into digestible 90-day chunks. “ A year is an intimidating thing to plan, but a month is too short for those big, exciting goals,” explains founder of content agency Prolifica Annie Mueller. “With quarterly goal planning, you can push for a goal that’s exciting and stay focused and see progress soon enough that you stay motivated.” Penny Zenker, a life coach, also likes the Self Journal: “I use this now because it is a comprehensive goal-setting-and-tracking system with reflection all in one. It helps me align my goals and my daily tasks, which makes me more productive.” Liz Sumner , a progress and life coach, adds that it combines the best parts of a journal and planner, encouraging reflection in addition to goal-setting.

One thing to note about this and all the quarterly planners on our list: Because they only cover three months at a time, you need to buy four to get through an entire calendar year. The upside of this system is that it offers a bit more flexibility because you can start using one at any point in the year.

Best softcover quarterly planner

Layout: Quarterly | Size: 5.75 by 8.5 inches | Cover: Softcover

The cool-looking Poketo is another quarterly planner with a bit more style. With this set of four, you’ll be covered for a full year no matter when you begin using them, though you can also buy them individually. Mueller calls it “the perfect way to schedule and track quarterly goals and sprints — for work, for your own personal goals, for family projects, for travel. It works for everything.” The planner makes it easy, she says, by “leading you through setting your quarterly goals, tracking monthly milestones, and following a weekly and daily action plan.”

Best hardcover quarterly planner

Layout: Quarterly | Size: 6.25 by 9.25 inches | Cover: Hardcover

Another quarterly option is the Full Focus planner by Michael Hyatt, which is also broken down into 90-day increments. While it lacks the journaling aspect of the Self Journal above, it is still great at keeping you focused. The reason it works so well, personal-brand expert Richard Janes explains, “is that the layout provides clear focus on what is important, while still enabling me to empty my head of all the other tasks that are lurking around. But it doesn’t go overboard so that I can easily get to the actual planning of my day, week, and month.”

Best customizable planners

Best customizable planner overall.

Layout: Customizable   

Golden Coil’s ring-bound planner allows you to customize pretty much everything about it from cover to cover (including its cover, which you can get in several colors and one of two materials: linen or leather). In addition to standard calendar pages, the brand offers themed layouts for wedding planning, wellness planning, recipe planning, and more. It’s another favorite of Hart-Unger, who told us the brand has “very elegant layouts and particularly luxurious paper.”

Best (less expensive) customizable planner

Layout: Customizable

Like Golden Coil’s planner, the Agendio is extremely customizable (but for half the price). That’s because the brand lets you choose between a daily, weekly, or monthly structure for the pages inside of the ring-bound planner. You can also customize the pages’ size and layout and add extras like tabs, elastics, and page markers. Folks can personalize it even further by noting dates for their own special events or activities. “If you can think of an option, Agendio probably has it,” Hart-Unger promises.

Some more planners we’ve written about

Our experts

• Karen Iorio Adelson , Strategist senior writer • Leah Bhabha , writer • Maxine Builder , former Strategist editor • Louis Cheslaw , former Strategist associate editor •  Liza Corsillo , Strategist writer • Sam Daly , Strategist deals writer • Perrin Drumm , writer, editor, publisher • Neha Gandhi , brand strategist and writer • Phoebe Gavin , life and career coach • Rachel Griffiths , Strategist writer • Kitty Guo , Strategist writer • Sarah Hart-Unger , host of Best Laid Plans podcast • Richard Janes , personal-brand expert • Latifah Miles , Strategist writer   • Darcy Miller , author, illustrator, and crafter • Annie Mueller , founder of content agency Prolifica • Dominique Pariso , Strategist writer • Jenna Prada , director of executive functioning at tutoring service Private Prep • Lauren Ro , Strategist writer • Anthony Rotunno , former Strategist senior editor • Elizabeth Grace Saunders , author and time-management coach • Kelsie Schrader, Strategist managing editor • Julie Solomon , business coach and host of The Influencer Podcast • Jane Stoller , organizing expert and business consultant • Liz Sumner , progress and life coach • Alexis Swerdloff , New York Magazine deputy editor • Wakako Takagi , co-founder of Los Angeles–based stationery store Baum-kuchen • Cindy Thompson , Instagram’s Plan Another Day blogger • Penelope Trunk , career counselor at Penelope Trunk • Christy Whitman , life coach and author of The Art of Having It All: A Woman’s Guide to Unlimited Abundance • Penny Zenker , life coach

The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best women’s jeans , rolling luggage , pillows for side sleepers , ultra-flattering pants , and bath towels . We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.

Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.

• the strategist
• productivity
• best in class

Every product is independently selected by (obsessive) editors. Things you buy through our links may earn us a commission.

Deal of the Day

Micro sales, greatest hits, most viewed stories.

• The 21 Very Best Sunscreens for Your Face
• The 13 Very Best High-Waisted Jeans
• 15 of the Very Best Water Bottles
• All the Best Early Labor Day Sales (So Far)
• New Stuff Alert: Away Tennis Bags and Coco Gauff Jean Jackets
• On My Mind: Wedding Shoes and White Mesh Shorts
• The 10 Very Best Bluetooth Speakers

Shop with Google

The Best Free Business Budget Templates in 2024

Published: July 18, 2024

Business budgets are a source of truth for your income and expenses. That includes all the money you spend — from A/B testing your marketing campaigns to your monthly office rent.

In my roles, I’ve needed to create budgets for whole projects and smaller writing projects.

While organizing the numbers may sound difficult, I’ve found that using a business budget template makes the process simple. Plus, there are thousands of business budget templates for you to choose from.

In this article, I’ll share seven budget templates that can help organize your finances. But first, you’ll learn about different types of business budgets and how to create one.

Table of Contents

What is a business budget?

Types of budgets for a business, how to create a business budget, how to manage a business budget, why is a budget important for a business, best free business budget templates.

Free Business Budget Templates

Manage your business, personal, and program spend on an annual, quarterly, and monthly basis.

• Personal Budget Template
• Annual Budget Template
• Program Budget Template

Download Free

All fields are required.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

A business budget is a spending plan that estimates the revenue and expenses of a business for a period of time, typically monthly, quarterly, or yearly.

The business budget follows a set template, which you can fill in with estimated revenues, plus any recurring or expected business expenses.

For example, say your business is planning a website redesign. You'd need to break down the costs by category: software, content and design, testing, and more.

Having a clear breakdown will help you estimate how much each category will cost and compare it with the actual costs.

I Learned How to Write a Budget Proposal (+ Free Template)

How to Manage Your Entire Marketing Budget [Free Budget Planner Templates]

How a Bottom-Up Budget Can Transform Your Company From Bottom to Top

Marketing Budget: How Much Should Your Team Spend in 2024? [By Industry]

How Marketing Leaders are Navigating Recession [New Data]

3 Ways Marketers are Already Navigating Potential Recession [Data]

Marketing Without a Budget? Use These 10 Tactics [Expert Tips]

24 Ways to Spend Your Marketing Budget Next Quarter

Startup Marketing Budget: How to Write an Incredible Budget for 2023

10 Best Free Project Management Budget Templates for Marketers

6 templates to manage your business, personal, and program spend on an annual, quarterly, and monthly basis.

Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform

Business budget templates to help you reach your goals

Keep track of your finances—monitor income and expenses, forecast cash flow and profits, and identify areas for cost reductions—with these free business budget templates..

Free business budget templates

Creating and sticking to a budget is essential to run a successful business. Exceeding your budget can quickly land you in financial trouble. It’s important to keep track of your business expenses, and using a business budget template can help you do so. Creating a business budget can also help you identify unnecessary expenses or help you cut costs. These business budget templates can help you track payroll expenses, insurance fees, utilities, and more. Use these business budget templates for startups, small businesses, or large businesses. You can easily edit these free business budget templates in Excel . Change the fonts, colors, and more, or add your business logo for a professional look. You can use these business budget templates to keep track of weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly business budgets. Print your budget out or share them digitally. You can also upload them to OneDrive if you want to collaborate on your business budget with other employees. Explore more templates that can help you grow your business .

• onplanners.com

Planner Templates 2024 - 2025

Quick jump to:, introduction.

Welcome to our exclusive collection of Planner Templates, designed to bring structure, clarity, and efficiency to your daily life. Whether you're a busy professional, a diligent student, or someone passionate about personal organization, our templates cater to your unique planning needs. From managing schedules to setting goals, these planner templates provide an essential tool to help you navigate through your days with ease and confidence. Explore our collection of flexible and customizable templates and discover the perfect planner to align with your lifestyle and aspirations.

These templates are designed to offer a clear and comprehensive view of your year, month, or week. Essential for planning and tracking important dates, events, and deadlines throughout the year, ensuring no commitments are overlooked. The layout is customizable, allowing you to add personal or business events, making them a versatile tool for both personal and professional planning.

10 Best Planner Apps To Organize Work Better (2022)

Looking for the best planner apps to organize your schedule? This article compares the top apps for planning your day, week, month, or more.

But why do you need a planning app?

Juggling priorities, both on the personal and work front, can be tough.

Thankfully, today you have a number of software options to set a schedule and get work done. Plus, these applications are available for a variety of platforms — web, desktop, and mobile. 

How do you find the best scheduling and work management app?

That’s what this article is about. We look at the best apps for planning your work and life. Each app in this article serves specific planning needs. So by the end of this article, you’ll find one that meets your requirements.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

Ready to dive in? Let’s start.

What are the best planner apps in 2022?

1. toggl plan.

Toggl Plan is the overall best planner app for businesses and teams .

With Toggl Plan, you can plan and track your team’s schedule using simple drag-and-drop timelines. But if you prefer Kanban boards to manage your tasks, Toggl Plan has them too.

You can also set color-coded milestones on the Project timeline . Optionally, you can share important milestones across other plans. 

You’ll also be able to collaborate with your team by attaching files and checklists and adding comments to your tasks.

Best of all, managers can see their entire team’s plan in one place. This helps them identify scheduling bottlenecks and balance team workloads thus preventing overwork and burnout.

Key features

• Plan project or work schedules (including time off) using simple drag-and-drop timelines.
• Get a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual overview of the timeline
• Share a read-only view of Project timelines with external users
• Visualize your entire team’s schedule in one place to avoid overwork and burnout.
• Track tasks visually on Kanban task boards.
• Add color-coded milestones which are optionally visible across timelines.
• In-app and email notifications when something changes in your schedule.
• Integrates with Apple, Google, and Outlook calendars.

Online, iOS, and Android

Price plans

• Forever free plan for solo users
• Team plan at $9 per user per month: Comes with Team timelines and integration with Toggl Track for time tracking
• Business plan at $15 per user per month: Comes with SSO, guest users, and data export for reporting

Try Toggl Plan for free .

If you’re looking for a free task planner app with a calendar view , Trello should be number one on your list.

Everything in Trello revolves around its Kanban board. You can drag and drop a task across columns to change its status and trigger automation workflows.

You can attach files, labels, and checklists to tasks and collaborate with your teammates using comments. But that’s not all. Trello’s task functionality is easily extended to suit your workflows using add-ons (aka powerups).

One such add-on is the calendar view with which you can visualize your plans and scheduled tasks on a calendar.

• Plan and track tasks with simple to-do, in-progress, done, or a custom workflow
• Visualize task schedules on a calendar view
• Visualize tasks on timelines and maps (premium feature)
• Integrates with thousands of other productivity apps
• Automate task works with if/then logic

Online, Windows, iOS, and Android

Trello price plans

• Forever free plan with unlimited tasks and up to 10 task boards
• Standard plan : comes at $5 per user per month with custom task fields and guests on single boards.
• Premium plan : comes at $10 per user per month with dashboard, timeline, and workspace calendar views
• Enterprise plan : comes at $17.50 per user per month with multi-board guests, single sign-on, and unlimited workspaces

If you were to build a list of personal daily planner apps , Any.do would be at the top.

With Any.do, you can visualize your daily plans as a simple to-do list. You’ll see your to-do items segmented by when they are due — today, tomorrow, or someday later.

For each planned task, you can set reminders too.

A planner app isn’t complete without a calendar or a timeline view. Any.do comes with a simple calendar view with which you can filter tasks for a specific date.

In addition to to-do lists, you can also capture notes and file documents.

• Capture and organize to-do items into lists
• Set one-time, repeating, or location-based reminders for to-do items
• Visualize daily plans using the calendar widgets on your phone
• Add grocery items to automatically add them to relevant category lists
• Re-schedule tasks for the day or week with a single tap

iOS, and Android

Any.do price plans

• Forever free plan with unlimited to-do items and lists
• Premium plan : $5.99 per month with advanced reminders, recurring tasks, and customizable color themes

4. TickTick

TickTick is the most versatile work planning app for capturing tasks .

You can capture tasks using voice commands, by sending emails to TickTick as well as via Apple’s Siri app. While capturing tasks, TickTicks natural language processing automatically schedules tasks and creates reminders for a specific time or location.

• Capture tasks via email or voice input
• Organize tasks into lists and folders
• Prioritize and labels tasks
• Visualize tasks on a daily, weekly, or monthly calendar
• Pomodoro timer and white noise for distraction-free work (premium feature)
• Online, Linux, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android
• Extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Gmail, and Outlook

Pricing options

• Free version : limited calendar functionality
• Premium version : $27.99 per year with full calendar features, progress tracker, Pomodoro timer, and white noise

Todoist is a work organizer and planning app for teams .

With Todoist, you can capture tasks for your personal and professional commitments. Once added, you can organize tasks into projects and subtasks.

You can also prioritize tasks, add projects as favorites for quick access, and set reminders for critical tasks.

Todoist also allows you to delegate tasks to your team and visualize everyone’s work on a Kanban board.

• Quickly capture and schedule tasks using natural language processing
• Organize tasks into projects and subtasks
• Share files and discuss tasks with your team
• See your team’s activity by project or team member
• Visualize the productivity of your team over time

Online, macOS, iOS, Android, and Windows

• Free forever : for 5 projects with up to 5 collaborators per project
• Pro plan : $4 per user per month for 300 projects, up to 25 collaborators per project, and reminders
• Business plan : $6 per user per month for 500 projects, 50 team members per project, and team billing 

Twobird turns your email inbox into a work planning tool .

It works with Google and Microsoft email apps including Gmail, Google Workspace, and Outlook. 

Twobird smartly categorizes your emails by priority. Plus, it sets reminders for emails that can be tackled later. In addition, you also get smart notifications to avoid distractions.

• Integrate with Google and Microsoft email
• Prioritize emails and set reminders automatically
• Get smart notifications for distraction-free work
• Unsubscribe from unwanted emails quickly
• Add notes to email conversations

Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android

Twobird is free to use for now and plans to offer premium plans in the future. 

7. Google Calendar

Google Calendar is one of the best online calendar apps out there. It provides one of the best overviews of your work, meetings, and daily agenda. 

Scheduling remote meetings with Google Calendar is a breeze. It automatically takes care of the participant’s time zones. Plus, with integrations for Zoom or Google Meet, you can hop into the meeting right from the notification.

• Create events with smart suggestions for titles, people, and places
• Automatically add events to calendars from flight or hotel booking emails in Gmail
• Day, week, and month views to visualize your schedule
• Free for personal use
• Google Workspace subscription for business at $6 per user per month

8. Things 3

If you’re looking for a daily planner app for iPhone or iPad, look no further.

Things 3 is an award-winning daily task planning app built specifically for iOS. It also works on desktop Mac devices.

To-do items in Things are organized into projects and areas. Areas represent each sphere in your life such as work, family, finance, etc.

• Organize to-do items into projects and areas
• Plan and visualize your daily and upcoming schedules
• Set reminders 
• Repeat tasks automatically on a set schedule
• Integrates with Apple calendar and shows your events alongside tasks
• Create to-do items via email

All iOS devices including Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iWatch

• iPhone and iWatch version : $9.99
• iPad version : $19.99
• Mac version : $49.99

9. Day by Day Organizer

Day by Day is one of the popular planning apps for Android devices.

It integrates Google Calendar and Google Tasks in one Android app. That way you get the best of both worlds — a powerful calendar with simple task management.  

Day by Day keeps your Calendar and Tasks in sync. You can see all your events and tasks in one simple list. Also, you can plan and track tasks for a specific day, week, or month.

• See events and tasks in one list
• Keep your Google Calendar and Google Tasks in sync
• Birthday reminder
• Capture tasks and events with voice input
• Agenda planner view
• Free version with Google Calendar and Tasks synchronization
• Premium version at $4.99 with recurring tasks, subtasks, and task priorities

10. Habitica

Habitica is one of the best daily routine planner apps that helps you form habits

It gamifies your daily routine and encourages you to form habits and become more productive. Every time you perform a routine task on time, you get in-game rewards as well as praise from the community.

Habitica is useful as a student planner app to form study habits. Or as a fitness planner to stay healthy with daily exercise habits.

Best features

• Track and manage habits, to-do lists, and daily goals
• Get in-game rewards as you check off your tasks and goals
• Battle with your online friends using these rewards to earn real-world rewards

Habitica pricing options

• Free version to track your goals and habits publicly
• Premium version at $9 per month + $3 per user per month for private group plans

What is the best planner app for your needs?

There are a lot of options when it comes to planning apps. You get apps for personal and professional use as well as individual and team use. 

So how do you choose the best planner for your needs? Think about it from these angles:

• Does the app meet your/your team’s needs?
• Does it make you more productive when planning your work?
• Do you like working with the app?
• Does it fit your budget?
• Can it integrate with your existing work management system?

These questions will help you decide on the best planning app for your needs.

Most online tools, including Toggl Plan, have a free trial or a forever free plan. Use this opportunity to try out the planning software, along with your team before you decide on the tool of your choice. 

FAQs about planning apps

A planner app is a work management tool that combines scheduling and task management. It captures, organizes, and schedules work tasks using a timeline or a calendar.

A planner helps you and your team get work done by bringing clarity, accountability, and transparency to work. In addition, planners like Toggl Plan help you avoid scheduling conflicts as well as prevent your team from getting overworked and burned out. In addition, here are nine planner ideas to organize your work

There are many types of planner apps depending on the end-users — personal and professional work planners, paper and digital planners, team project planners, etc. In addition, certain types of planners are designed for specific use cases. For example, financial planners, student planners, health and fitness planners, etc.

First, identify the work you need to get done in a specific period. For example, a month, a week, or a day. Second, schedule tasks and projects using a timeline or a calendar while avoiding scheduling conflicts with other work plans, team members, and time off. And third, ensure that everyone’s workload is reasonable.

Google does not have a daily planner app. However, you can combine Google Calendar and Google Tasks to plan your daily work items. In addition, you also get Google Keep which helps you organize your notes and to-do lists as well as get location-based reminders.

Jitesh is an SEO and content specialist. He manages content projects at Toggl and loves sharing actionable tips to deliver projects profitably.

Subscribe to On The Clock.

Insights into building businesses better, from hiring to profitability (and everything in between). New editions drop every two weeks.

You might also like...

Related to Productivity

9 Best Time Management Apps for Peak Work and Personal Productivity (2024)

5 Effective Tips To Meet Deadlines & Get Work Done On Time

Bring Your Team Focus to What Matters with Toggl Track Goals

Take a peek at our most popular categories:

• Credit cards
• View all credit cards
• Banking guide
• Loans guide
• Insurance guide
• Personal finance
• View all personal finance
• Small business
• Small business guide
• View all taxes

You’re our first priority. Every time.

We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. And while our site doesn’t feature every company or financial product available on the market, we’re proud that the guidance we offer, the information we provide and the tools we create are objective, independent, straightforward — and free.

So how do we make money? Our partners compensate us. This may influence which products we review and write about (and where those products appear on the site), but it in no way affects our recommendations or advice, which are grounded in thousands of hours of research. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Here is a list of our partners .

Free Small-Business Budget Templates

Many, or all, of the products featured on this page are from our advertising partners who compensate us when you take certain actions on our website or click to take an action on their website. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money .

A business budget template is one of the most important tools you can use to run your small business. However, many small-business owners skip this vital business management step.

The misconceptions surrounding budgeting are plenty. It seems complicated and time-consuming. But with a good business budget template, the process can be much less daunting.

An effective small-business budget template is a living document. Creating a budget and then forgetting about it is wasted effort. You must compare your actual numbers against your budgeted numbers regularly.

Therefore, your budget should be easy to access and adjust on an ongoing basis. But you don’t have to spend a lot of money on business budgeting software , if you don't want to. There are several free small-business budget templates available online.

advertisement

QuickBooks Online

Additional pricing tiers (per month): $65, $99, $235.  

Why you need a business budget template

A business budget template is an essential tool for business owners who want to take care of their bottom line. Why should you invest in a smart template from the start?

Here's how a business budget template can set you up for success:

Track cash flow, expenses and revenue.

Prepare for regular business slowdowns.

Allocate your budget to the portions of your business that need capital most.

Plan for business investments and purchases.

Project all costs to starting and running your business.

Generally speaking, your business budget template can act as a business health scorecard if you invest in setting one up properly. Here's our list of the best budget templates available so you can do just that.

Capterra’s Free Small-Business Budget Template

The Capterra small-business budget template has been a fan favorite since it was published in 2015. In this one simple Excel workbook, you can create your monthly budget, your annual budget and then compare your actual numbers to your budgeted numbers. It also has a convenient overview sheet, which gives users access to their performance at a glance.

To help you through the process, Capterra has included a detailed Instructions tab, which walks you through how to use the template step by step. Start here to save yourself hours of time and frustration. As a bonus, there are several resources linked on the Instructions tab to help you create the perfect budget for your small business.

PDFConverter.com 15 Best Budgets

Rather than one bloated Excel workbook that tries to do everything, PDFConverter.com has compiled a library of 15 small-business budget templates.

These templates cover a wide range of budgeting needs, from a basic overview of your business income and expenses to marketing budget templates. The startup budget template is ideal for newbie entrepreneurs still in the planning stage of their businesses. And the cash flow template is perfect for identifying and plugging cash flow leaks.

» MORE: The best accounting software for startups

Annual Business Budget in Google Sheets

Do you love all things Google? You can create a comprehensive budget for your small business right from Google Sheets. Simply navigate to your Sheets and then click on Template Gallery . Our friends at Intuit QuickBooks have created an annual business budget you can use for free.

To fully appreciate the power of the template, review the Summary tab after you have entered your budget figures. The tables and graphs on this tab offer a visual representation of your income and expenses, making it easy to see where you stand at a glance.

Microsoft Office Template

This beautiful template from Microsoft Office focuses exclusively on expenses, but it does that job exceptionally well. There are tabs for planned and actual expenses, a tab for automatically calculated variances between the two and an expense analysis tab complete with pie charts.

Your accounting software

While not a free template per se, you likely have a powerful budgeting tool available right inside your business accounting software . Though not as flexible as a separate template, there are many advantages to using the budgeting feature of your accounting software.

The budgeting feature in your accounting software will coincide with your chart of accounts. Depending on the software you use, you can create a budget to actual comparison reports with the click of a button, making analysis a cinch.

Some software programs even let you set multiple budget scenarios and have “cloning” features, which simplify the budgeting process after the first year.

Designing your budget

Now that you’ve chosen your business budget template, it’s time to start designing your budget. This is where many small-business owners procrastinate because people typically see budgeting as restrictive or punishing.

It's time to shift your perspective on budgeting. Most people start with income and tinker with their expense amounts until they arrive at a balanced or surplus budget. This method usually leads to unrealistic projections and ends in frustration.

Instead of a top-down approach, consider “reverse engineering” your budget by following these four simple steps:

Form your income projections and write those down outside of your budget template. Put this paper or spreadsheet away until after you have completed the next step.

Enter your expenses into your budget template. Be very honest in your entries and include everything. Going through several months’ or even a year’s worth of accounting data or bank and credit card statements will ensure you capture all your spending. This is not the step where you want to try to eliminate expenses. Record everything, only excluding expenses you have already eliminated from your monthly or annual spending.

Enter your income from the projections you formed in step 1.

Review your budget. If your budget shows a projected loss, analyze your expenses and identify areas where you can reduce spending.

This approach makes sure you avoid the temptation of forcing your budget to balance. While you do want your budget to balance — or better, to show a cash surplus — having unrealistic income or expense numbers will lead to frustration and resistance during the budgeting process.

Monthly or quarterly, compare your actual income and expense numbers to your budgeted numbers. Regular tracking helps identify financial pitfalls before they become unmanageable.

Frequently asked questions

How do i make a budget template.

You can create a small-business budget template from scratch by using free software like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. However, it’s often more efficient to download a template (see our list above). A template with built-in tables and formulas makes plugging in your revenue and expenses and calculating your profit or loss quick and straightforward.

What is included in a small-business budget?

Your small-business budget will include your revenue, expenses and your profit or loss. Each section will be broken into subcategories. For example, under revenue, you might have sales and income from sponsorships. Expenses might be broken down into rent, employee salaries and marketing. After you tally your revenue and expenses, you can then calculate your profit and loss statement.

How much should a small-business budget be?

A budget will vary by your business and industry. For example, you can potentially start a social media consulting business for less than $5,000. But a food truck business may necessitate a budget of at least $50,000. You must tailor your small-business budget to your unique needs.

Money blog: One of country's top restaurants reverting to 1994 prices

Welcome to the Money blog, a hub for personal finance and consumer news and tips. Today's posts include Nationwide slashing mortgage rates and a Michelin restaurant reverting temporarily to 1994 prices. Listen to Ed Conway's analysis of UK borrowing and potential tax rises as you scroll.

Thursday 22 August 2024 16:26, UK

• Nationwide trumps rivals to offer new lowest mortgage rate
• One of country's top restaurants reverting to 1994 prices

Essential reads

• Savings account that could put your child on strong financial footing at 18
• 'I cook with air fryer in living room after kitchen win went wrong'
• Ed Conway : Are tax rises inevitable - or is chancellor considering another way?
• Listen to Conway on the Daily above and  tap here to follow wherever you enjoy podcasts

Tips and advice

• How to get money back when purchase over £100 goes wrong
• Cheap Eats : Top Yorkshire chef shares Yorkshire pudding secrets
• 'Should I top up my NI and could it really get me £6,000 extra?'

Asda has introduced a new range of wines from lesser-known regions - all costing £7 or less. 

The Wine Atlas range combines "impressive quality and great value", the supermarket said. 

The wines come from lesser-known grape varieties: Carricante in Sicily, Greece's Rhoditis, Feteasca Regala in Romania, Monastrell Rosado in Spain, Portugal's Jaen and France's Ile de Beaute Corsican Rose.

The supermarket said in a statement: "It's time to put a pause on pinot grigio and say see you soon to sauvignon blanc, because the new range is all about encouraging Brits to broaden their wine horizons by discovering new favourites from lesser-known regions."

The Money blog asked Tom Tryon, the founder of the wine club Vinetribe, for his view, and he said Asda's range was "a great way to showcase some lesser-known grape varieties that will really surprise you.

"We've all had enough sauvignon blanc to last a lifetime, so why not go for it and try something new? 

"Best of all, wines with less famous grapes have to really prove themselves to get on the shelf, so I generally think you get far more for your money," he added.

Economics and data editor Ed Conway   has warned there's going to be "a lot of bad news" in the autumn budget.

Tax rises will feature, but with the chancellor having ruled out raising income tax, national insurance and VAT, what could be set for a hike?

Inheritance tax

One of the taxes most likely to be hiked - the threshold could be lowered from £325,000 when someone dies, or people could pay more than 40% on some inheritances.

A leaked recording of Treasury minister Darren Jones, from before he was in government, suggested he favours such a change.

Council tax

There is speculation council tax is viewed as "out of date".

While Labour said before the election it would not change the banding of council tax, there may be other updates on the table.

Capital gains tax

This levy is imposed on the profit of a sale of assets.

The government could reduce the minimum limit, or raise the percentage of tax levied - with some calling for it to be set in line with income tax.

Business rates

This tax is what business pay instead of council tax on their properties.

The calculations for how much people pay could be updated to reflect a more current situation with property prices.

A tax paid on properties over £250,000, which increases for second homes.

Changing this could increase the volume of transactions and raise more money.

Political reporter Alix Culbertson  goes into more detail on the topic of taxes in the piece here...

One of London's most lauded Michelin star restaurants is turning the clock back on its prices by 30 years next month.

The nose-to-tail cooking specialists at St John, in Smithfield, will charge diners what they would have paid when the eatery first opened its doors in 1994.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, St John will offer the same dishes it served up in the mid-90s for as little as £3.50 (Welsh rarebit, if you were wondering).

Roast bone marrow and parsley salad will set you back just £4.20, while pheasant and trotter pie comes in at a very reasonable £18 between 9 and 27 September.

The Michelin Guide describes the restaurant as creating a "joyful experience" with "very little ceremony".

"As one of the foremost proponents of nose-to-tail cooking, this is the place to try new things," it reads.

The restaurant puts seasonality "at its core", said the guide, which recommends ordering the warm madeleines for the journey home.

Nationwide today slashed mortgage rates across its range - with one of its deals now the cheapest on the UK-wide market.

A rate of 3.78% is now available to any new and existing customers looking to move home on a five-year fix. 

This is how that compares...

The building society says other cuts apply across buyer types.

Justin Moy, managing director at EHF Mortgages, told industry news agency Newspage: "These are significant headline-grabbing rates from Nationwide. These are rates we haven't seen for at least two years. 

"They will give borrowers plenty of confidence to get back into the property market."

Rates have been edging down in recent months as lenders price in forecast cuts in the base rate from the Bank of England.

Here's how average rates currently look - though it's worth saying that many buyers will be able to find deals lower than these averages...

McDonald's is to open more than 200 new restaurants across the UK and Ireland over the next four years.

It will be the fast-food chain's largest expansion programme for more than 20 years and will create 24,000 jobs.

New restaurant formats will be tested as part of the rollout, McDonald's said, including trials for smaller site formats and  "drive to" restaurant sites.

"We have come a long way since we first opened our doors in Woolwich 50 years ago," said Alistair Macrow, chief executive officer of McDonald's UK&I.

"I'm delighted that in this milestone year we are able to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to growth, and announce the creation of new jobs across the country."

The growth plan is driven by a £1bn investment by the chain and its franchisees.

McDonald's revealed a target of building 10,000 more restaurants globally by 2027.

It currently has 1,435 restaurants in the UK, with around four-fifths owned and operated by franchisees.

But this year it was overtaken by Greggs in the breakfast market - with the bakery chain now turning its focus to evening meal customers.

By James Sillars , business reporter

It's a positive start on the FTSE 100.

A 4% rise in JD Sports stock helped the index climb 0.2% to 8,300 points at the open.

Sports fashion retailer JD had earlier reported a 2.4% rise in underlying sales during its second quarter.

That uptick was not enough, however, to bolster the company's annual profit forecast.

Shares fell sharply in January when JD issued a profit warning, blaming higher costs and poor demand.

They remain about 20% down in the year to date.

Elsewhere, oil costs have continued their decline of the past week.

A barrel of Brent crude currently costs $76.

Fears of weak global demand have been largely responsible for the recent easing.

On the face of it, yesterday's public finance numbers provide a clear rationale for the course of action the chancellor has (according to those I talk to in Whitehall) already decided upon: more taxes and more spending cuts in this October's budget.

It will, I'm told, be pretty grim.

However, it's worth saying there is one other way for the chancellor to create extra headroom against her fiscal rules, which is to change the particular measure she's judging that headroom against.

A lot of economists believe the net debt statistic she inherited from the Conservatives is the wrong one to use in her fiscal rules - and that she should use the country's total national debt, not excluding any debt owned by the Bank of England.

Long story short, if she uses this other measure (and I'm told this is something she is considering) then she suddenly has a lot more headroom.

Even so, don't expect her to change the tune at the budget in October. There will be more bad news to come.

Read my full analysis here ...

The new government is considering whether to scrap health and safety regulations that are seeing homebuilders shrink the size of windows, or put bars on them, to stop people falling out, the Money blog can reveal.

The rules, introduced in December 2021 by the Conservative government, are in the first instance designed to guard against "unwanted solar gains" - or, to put it another way, homes becoming too hot as the climate warms.

This, critics say, is resulting in builders installing smaller windows on new builds.

But they also require builders to account for safety - and so upstairs windows in new-build homes must now be at least 1.1 metres (3.6ft) from the floor.

Former minister Michael Gove launched a review of the rules - with the consultation concluding before the Tories lost power in July.

The new government has yet to make a decision.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told the Money blog: "We have closed a call for evidence on building regulations and are considering the responses before we make our decision."

Earlier this year, Nicholas Boys Smith, chairman of the Create Street thinktank on urban design, told the Telegraph the "foolish" regulations have "incentivised the building of extremely small windows".

"People are not able to look out of their windows if they are sitting down," he said.

"This means, in a normal-sized suburban house, first-floor rooms are darker and less pleasant. 

"It's making it nearly impossible to create houses that fit in with their 20th century, Edwardian, Georgian or Victorian predecessors. The majority of England's most beloved buildings would violate these regulations."

For Savings Guide this week, Savings Champion co-founder Anna Bowes looks at the best junior ISAs.

Most parents want to ensure their children have a strong financial footing when they are older, and there are many ways to support them.

What you choose depends on what access you want your child to have, as well as the risk you are prepared to take, but starting as soon as possible can make a huge difference. As can choosing the most tax efficient options, and a junior ISA (JISA) is often the most obvious option.

A JISA is a tax-free savings account for both the parent and the child, so it can be an ideal account to place funds that you gift to your child.

Most children's savings account could have tax implications

Children have their own personal allowance, so for the majority there will be no tax to pay on their savings interest. However, parents should be aware that there may be a tax liability to themselves on the interest earned on any money they gift to their children, until they reach the age of 18.

If the total gross interest earned on all cash gifted by each parent is more than £100 per year, then all of it (not just the excess) will be treated as that parent's interest for tax purposes and therefore they may need to pay tax at their marginal rate - if it takes them above their personal allowance and/or personal savings allowance.

If the gross interest earned is less than £100 for each parent's gift, it is considered so minimal that parents do not need to declare it.

This is a key reason why parents may prefer to place money they gift to their children into a JISA – as this tax rule does not apply.

What about gifts from other family members or friends?

Gifts from any other family members or friends will not be viewed in the same way. Instead, any interest earned will be treated as belonging to the child themselves and therefore can be earned tax free if they are non-taxpayers.

Something that parents should remember is that while in the JISA, the funds cannot be accessed until the child becomes 18, but at that stage they will have unfettered access to the funds.

But they can also transfer their JISA into an Adult ISA to continue to receive tax-free interest/investment returns.

If you, your friends and family were able to gift a total of £9,000 a year to a child from birth (the current JISA allowance), at a rate of 4.95% (the current best JISA rate), you could give them more than £264,000 when they reach 18. Now that's a gift worth having!

Top JISA rates have so far been unaffected by the recent base rate cut, but they are variable rate accounts, so it's important to keep an eye on the rates being earned going forward to make sure your child continues to earn a competitive rate.

A number of supermarkets and health and beauty retailers have been carrying out "concerning" loyalty scheme practices, Which? has said.

This include prices being increased for a product before they are sold on "offer" to members at their original price, according to the consumer group's investigation.

For example, Boots sold an Oral-B iO7 electric toothbrush at a non-member price of £400, while the members' price was £150. 

However, the product had only been £400 for 13 days beforehand, prior to which it was £150 for everyone, Which? found.

Which? says it analysed the pricing history of almost 12,000 products at health and beauty retailers and supermarkets over the past year to uncover how genuine the loyalty savings have been.

It found that some products on a loyalty offer had been at its non-member price for less than half the year.

This applied to one in six Superdrug products and one in 10 at Boots.

At supermarkets, it was 10% with Tesco, 5% at Sainsbury's and 3% at Co-op.

Which? says the guidance on consumer law regarding pricing promotions needs to be updated.

The UK competition watchdog is also currently analysing displayed savings.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is looking into whether non-member, or regular, prices are artificially inflated by supermarkets to make their loyalty prices appear more attractive, but its initial findings last month indicated retailers are unlikely to be misleading shoppers.

What have the supermarkets and retailers said?

A Superdrug spokeswoman said: "Our products are regularly on a mixture of member-only prices, multibuy promos, and price promotions open to all, to ensure all our customers can make savings on their favourite products throughout the year.

"Every month we give our loyal Health & Beautycard members access to hundreds of health and beauty products at a lower price, and the investigation highlights the value this offers our members."

A Boots spokesman said: "We have always been committed to offering customers great value, helping them save money across their health and beauty needs.

"All promotions, including Price Advantage, are assessed against all applicable laws and guidelines set out by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute."

A Tesco spokesman said: "All our Clubcard Prices promotions follow strict rules, including considering how they compare against prices in the market, to ensure they represent genuine value and savings, and these rules have been endorsed by our Trading Standards Primary Authority."

A Sainsbury's spokesman said: "More people are choosing to shop at Sainsbury's and we know our customers are savvy shoppers, who understand that factors like inflation, products falling out of season, or promotions can affect our prices.

"That doesn't stop us following pricing guidance for the industry and offering great value on the products our customers buy most - whether that's with our Low Everyday Prices, Aldi Price Match or Nectar Prices."

A Co-op spokesman said: "We know our member prices provide true value for our members.

"No base prices have increased to accommodate Co-op member pricing and, in fact, many of the 'all-customer' prices were decreased to ensure Co-op was competitive on key lines for all shoppers, whether they are a member or not."

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free