Business plan generator

Lenders, investors and partners read plans in a familiar order. This generator follows it, so the reader finds what they look for in the place they expect it.

• Executive summary: the business in one page, written last in real life but read first.
• Company description: the concept, the location, the legal structure and the stage.
• Market and customers: who buys, why, and how they search and decide.
• Competition: who else they could buy from and why they will pick you.
• Services and pricing: what you sell and how you charge for it.
• Marketing and sales plan: how leads find you and how you turn them into bookings.
• Operations: how the work gets done, the tools you use and the permits to research.
• Team: who does what now, and who you hire next.
• Financial plan: startup costs, a first-year revenue model and monthly costs.
• Milestones: what happens in each of the first 12 months.
• Risks: what could go wrong and what you will do about it.

A plan full of invented market figures does more harm than good: the first banker who checks one stops trusting the rest. So the generator uses only the numbers you give it. When a section needs a number you didn’t provide, it leaves a placeholder in square brackets, like [research this: average wedding spend in your county] or [get a quote].

The financial tables are calculated, not written. Year 1 revenue is your price times the average sales per month times 12, and totals add up to the cent. Any volume the generator had to assume is marked [estimate] so you can replace it.

The US Small Business Administration describes two formats: a traditional plan with every section in full, and a lean startup plan that fits on a page. This tool writes the traditional format. Cut it down if you only need the lean one.

• Population, households and income in your trade area: the US Census Bureau at data.census.gov.
• Zoning, occupancy and permits: your city or county planning and building departments. Call before you sign a lease.
• Free help with the plan itself: your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and SCORE mentors, both supported by the SBA.
• Competitors, their prices and their reviews: Google Maps, industry marketplaces and their own websites. Many list a starting price.
• Build-out, equipment and insurance costs: at least two written quotes for each big item.

Most plans describe marketing in detail and say almost nothing about what happens when a lead arrives. That is where the money is won or lost. Harvard Business Review studied 2,241 US companies and found that firms that contacted a lead within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited longer, and 23% never replied at all.

That is why every plan from this tool treats lead response and follow-up as its own part of the sales plan: answer every inquiry fast, including nights and weekends, follow up by email and text until the customer books, and track where every lead came from. A lender will read that as a business that knows how it gets paid.