what is a company description in a business plan

How to write a company description for a business plan

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What is a company description?

What to include in your company description , where , company description example, tips for getting your company description right , stay on top of your new business finances with countingup.

A business plan is essential to setting your business up for success and determining what you want it to look like. One major part of that business plan is the company description. But if you’re unsure how to write a company description for a business plan, we can help.  

This guide will cover how to write a company description for a business plan, including: 

• What a company description is 
• What to include in your company description (with example)
• Tips for getting your company description right

The company description is part of your business plan outlining what your business does and why. It touches on your market and products or services. But it also explains what differentiates you from similar companies.

On top of this, it outlines your company’s mission and vision. Your mission statement specifies your business’s values, ethics, goals, and overall culture. Meanwhile, your vision statement defines where you want your business to go in the future. 

Your business plan will guide you as you start your business, but it’s also essential to gaining external funding. So, the stronger and clearer your company description, the more prepared you’ll look. It shows that you have a detailed understanding of what you do and how you’ll earn money. 

Knowing how to write a company description for a business plan requires some key elements, which we’ll outline below. We’ll also give a brief company description example.  

Start by outlining who you are, including the owner and business name. On top of this, include your business’s market and target audience . You can gain this important knowledge through market research , which will help you understand demand, competition, and your customer base. 

You’ll also need to explain where you’ll run your business. For example, you may explain where you’ll open a shop and why that location will be beneficial. If you plan to run the business from home, discuss how this will work. 

Next, outline the products or services, what problems they’ll solve, and the demand of that market. Aside from what you’ll sell, discuss your short, medium, and long term goals . Clear goals show how you see your business growing over time. Be sure to make these goals realistic and achievable, with ways to measure their success. 

Also, provide an estimated opening date for your business. Then, create a timeline for when you’ll reach profitability . In addition to this, discuss the timeframe for your goals. You may also need to touch upon an exit strategy, such as when you plan to retire or potentially sell. 

Your company description should also clearly describe why you want to start this business. What gave you this idea, and what is your main motivation? Why should customers buy from you? What will you be able to offer them that other businesses can’t? 

Finally, summarise how you’ll operate your business and achieve your goals. How will you structure your business ? This section is crucial for detailing your operations and how you’ll solve potential challenges. So, try to be specific here to show you’ll make your business happen. 

Molly’s Muffins, founded by classically trained baker Molly Smith, aims to redefine the baking market by creating delicious gluten-free and healthy muffins. The shop will cater to a gluten-free audience and target a younger to middle-aged health-conscious demographic. 

Molly’s Muffins will sell in a shop with a fitted kitchen in the higher-income Marchmont neighbourhood of Edinburgh city centre, United Kingdom. The business will serve a variety of gluten-free muffins baked daily in the shop, low in fats and sugars. 

In the short term, Molly Muffin’s aims to develop a loyal customer base in the area and beyond through social media marketing, paid advertising and a rewards program. The medium-term goals of the business include developing an online shop and catering service. In the long term, the business plans to open further locations. 

Molly’s Muffins will register as a limited company to prepare for future growth. With a Bachelors in Bakery and Patisserie science and five years of experience working in and managing a bakery, Molly Smith is prepared to turn her muffin-making passion into a profitable business. 

Molly’s Muffins will open its doors in April of 2022, with a timeline of ten months to reach profitability. The business aims to reach short term goals in three months, medium-term goals in a year, and long term goals in five years. 

Mission statement : Molly’s Muffins mission is to normalise and improve the reputation of gluten-free and healthy food products by making them delicious for all. It prioritises kindness, equality, and a healthy lifestyle.

Now that you know how to write a company description for a business plan, make it clear, detailed, and brief. If your plan is vague, it will be difficult to convince investors of. But, a description with too much detail will be difficult to get through. A clear and grammatically correct description will look more professional.

After writing your company description, be sure to check and update it regularly as it needs to  change with your growing business.

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Business Plan Company Description - How to Leave Your Mark

A business plan company description provides you with an opportunity to introduce your company to the reader whilst showcasing key elements such as your long-term vision and mission statement. The business plan company description forms the backbone of your business plan and lays the foundation for everything that follows. It's where you introduce your business, its legal structure, location, management team, product line, and services, as well as your vision and mission statements. In this blog post, we will delve into what exactly a company description section entails, its importance, and how you can craft an effective one for your business plan. This understanding will serve as a stepping stone towards not only creating a compelling business plan but also setting a strong foundation for your business.

Table of Contents

• Business Plan Company Description - Overview
• Company Description - Key Elements

Company Description/Overview

Legal structure, management team.

• Products & Services
• Vision and Mission
• Tips & Best Practices
• Mistakes to Avoid
• Final Thoughts

Overview of the Business Plan Company Description

The company section of a business plan, often known as the company description or company overview, serves as the introduction to your business. It presents an opportunity to succinctly communicate crucial information about your business to investors, lenders, or any other stakeholders. Your goal for this sector is to provide a high-level view of your business - who you are, what you do, and where you operate. Think of this section as the "book jacket" of your business plan, offering a sneak peek into what your business is all about and providing the reader with more context. There are several key points you should include in the business plan company description, which we will now take you through step by step, including some helpful tips.

Elements of the Business Plan Company Description - An Overview

Let's now delve deeper into the key elements that make up the company section of a business plan. Remember to craft these sections into a succinct final draft. Start with a rough draft and then continually refine and improve as you write the document.

This section will allow you to provide the reader with a basic overview of your company. This includes the business name, the industry you operate in, and the nature of the business - whether it's a retail store, a manufacturing unit, a tech startup, and so on.  To make this section stand out highlight the market needs of your target customers and how you fulfil them with your products and services. The goal here is to convince your reader that your business is viable and has growth potential.

In this section, you will outline the legal structure of your business .  Are you operating as a sole proprietor, in a partnership, as a corporation, or a limited liability company?  Each structure has different legal and tax implications, so it's important to clarify this. You may also want to include any relevant legal agreements or licenses here. This is not merely a declaration of your business's legal form; it's also an opportunity to explain why you chose this structure. Are there for example legal or tax advantages for potential investors?

Provide details about the physical location of your business, whether it's a home office, a shared working space, or a dedicated building. Consider proximity to customers or suppliers, local competition, and the availability of resources. If you are an online business, explain how your digital presence allows you to reach your target market. Try and outline the benefits of your chosen location, such as working remotely due to your national presence online, which means you don't have to be tied to one physical location.

Here, you will introduce your management team and any other key team members. Include each person's name, position, a brief description of their role, and their relevant experience or skills.  Try to highlight what each team member brings to the business in terms of human resources. Is it a specific skill set or decades of industry experience for example?

Product Line and Services

This is where you describe what you're selling or what services you're offering.  Be specific about what makes your products or services unique or attractive to your target market. You can also use this section to highlight what makes your products different to your competitors. You could also discuss any intellectual property rights, research and development activities, or plans for product or service expansion.

Vision and Mission Statements

Your vision statement should outline your company's long-term goals and aspirations. It answers the question, "Where do we aim to be in the future?"  Your mission statement, on the other hand, should clearly express your company's purpose and your key business values. It answers the question, "Why does our company exist?" In this section keep them succinct, clear, and compelling.

By providing a comprehensive and engaging account of your business, you're building a robust foundation for the rest of your business plan. In the next section, we'll provide tips and best practices to help you enhance the quality of your company section.

Tips and Best Practices for the Business Plan Company Description

Crafting an effective company section in a business plan involves more than just including all the necessary information. It's about presenting this information in a way that engages your reader and communicates the potential success of your business. Here are some tips and best practices to help you achieve this:

• Keep it Concise and Clear: Although the company section includes a lot of information, it's essential to keep it as succinct as possible. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point. Use clear, straightforward language and avoid industry jargon where possible.
• Show, Don't Tell: Instead of merely stating facts about your business, show your readers the value your business brings. For instance, rather than saying your product is innovative, explain how it offers a unique solution to a common problem.
• Target it to Your Audience: Tailor your company section to the needs and interests of your potential investors or lenders. Highlight the aspects of your business that would be most appealing to them. If you are seeking investment, emphasise your business's growth potential.
• Be Realistic But Optimistic: While it's important to highlight the positive aspects of your business, avoid exaggeration and stay realistic. Provide a balanced view of your business, addressing potential challenges and how you plan to overcome them.
• Use Professional Language: Your business plan is a professional document, so maintain a professional tone throughout. Ensure your company section is free from errors by proofreading it thoroughly or having someone else review it.

By incorporating these tips and best practices into your writing process, you can ensure that your company section not only provides all the necessary information but does so in a compelling way. In the next section, we'll discuss common mistakes to avoid when writing your company section.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Your Company Description

Writing a business plan company description can be a delicate task, and it's easy to make a few mistakes. To ensure your company section is as strong as possible, be aware of the following common mistakes and take steps to avoid them:

• Overcomplicating Things: While it's important to include enough detail to give a comprehensive overview of your business, avoid including unnecessary or overly technical details. Remember, the goal is to communicate your business idea clearly and concisely not write about the small intricate details of your business.
• Being Too Vague or Too Detailed: Striking the right balance between detail and brevity can be tricky. While you want to avoid being too vague, providing excessive details can also be a problem. Your goal should be to provide just enough information to paint a clear picture of your business.
• Overlooking the Importance of the Management Team: The management team can often be a deciding factor for investors. Don't merely list the names and titles of your team members. Instead, provide a brief overview of their backgrounds, highlighting their relevant experience and skills.
• Overhyping Your Product or Service: While it's crucial to present your business in a positive light, avoid making exaggerated or unsupported claims. Investors will likely be sceptical of these and they may harm your credibility.
• Ignoring Your Competition: Even if your business is unique, you likely have some form of competition. Acknowledge this in your company description and briefly explain how your business differentiates itself from competitors.

Avoiding these common mistakes will strengthen your company section and make it more appealing to readers, whether they're potential investors, partners, or employees. If you would like help on a business plan for a specific industry, please check out our business plan guides homepage.

Our Final Thoughts

Crafting a compelling company section in your business plan is not just about listing out facts about your business. It's about clearly conveying your business's value proposition, highlighting the strength of your management team, and painting a vivid picture of your products or services.  When done right, it can act as a powerful tool to draw in investors, convince potential partners, and attract talented employees. The company section is especially important as it forms the backbone of your business plan and sets the stage for the sections that follow. As you embark on the journey of writing your company section, keep these tips and best practices in mind while avoiding the common mistakes mentioned above. We also have more in-depth guides in our Learning Zone , which can help you craft the best possible business plan.

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How to Write a Company Description for a Business Plan

Nobody does what you do better than you, but … what is it that you do again? You might have trouble describing your business in one sentence or find yourself at a loss for words when writing a company description. Knowing how to write a company description for a business plan helps you communicate with lenders, investors, employees, and potential customers.

How to write a company description for a business plan

You put a lot of thought into your original business concept. Now you need to know how to succinctly describe your business.

Where better to describe your business than in the company description business plan?

What is a business plan?

A company description is just one part of your small business plan . The business plan outlines your goals and how to achieve them.

According to the Small Business Administration , a successful business plan should include the following:

• Executive summary
• Company description (Bingo)
• Small business market analysis
• Organization and management details
• Service or product information
• Marketing and sales overview
• Funding request
• Financial projections

Another thing to note about business plans is that you can’t write one and be done. Your business is always changing. And that means your business plan is always changing, too. Be sure to update it regularly.

What is a business description?

A company description provides an overview of key aspects of your business, like what you do and what makes your business unique. Anyone reading your business description should have no problem understanding the scope of your business.

Lenders and investors should see how your business has a place in the market, as well as its benefits to future customers.

Your business’s mission statement is the part of your company description that you want the public to see. And, you should include your vision statement, too.

Regularly update your company description as your business expands or changes.

Writing your company description

You need to know how to pitch to investors and lenders to captivate their interest. Your description should answer who, what, where, when, why, and how right off the bat.

So, do you know how to write a business description? We’ll walk you through the 5 W’s (and 1 H) to consider when drafting your first copy.

Who are you? Who is your business? Verify that the name of your business is clear in the business description section of your business plan. And, include your name (and the names of any other owners) because lenders and investors want to know the entrepreneur behind the business.

Who is your target customer? Who are you selling to? When describing your business, make sure you know who you appeal to. If you don’t know your target customer, there’s a chance that nobody will be interested in your business.

What is your product or service? If lenders and investors can’t understand what you’re selling or how it’s significant, they may pass on your concept. Be clear, narrow, and focused when telling lenders and investors about your business.

What are your goals for your business? Set realistic short-term and long-term goals. For example, if you plan on selling $20,000 worth of products by the end of the second month, include the goal in your description.

Where is your business located? If you are currently operating your business, list the address. Likewise, make sure you state where you want your business to be if you are still looking for office space.

When will you implement your business plan and see results? Include when you want to open your business (or when you opened it).

When do you plan on achieving your goals? Also, talk about the timeline for your main goals (both short-term and long-term).

When do you think you’ll leave your business? Don’t forget to discuss your exit strategy . Whether you plan on retiring in 20 years, selling your company in 15 years, or closing it down in 10 years, be clear about when you plan on parting ways.

Why would potential customers want to buy from you? Explain why you are different from the competition. This is where you can describe your business’s originality. Lenders and investors want to know why consumers would want to make a purchase at your small business instead of a competitor’s.

Why are you in business? Also make sure you include your business’s mission statement . A mission statement defines why you’re in business and what your goals are.

How are you going to structure your business? Which business structure will you form: sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, or corporation? Explain your structure decision, too. Mention any small business advisor (e.g., business attorney) you work with to help with registration requirements, regulations, and liabilities.

How are you going to achieve the goals you set for your business? Are you going to hire employees to help you, or will you handle all responsibilities on your own? Talk about what steps you’ll take to reach the goals you outline.

How do you picture your company in the future? Include your business’s vision statement in your company description. A vision statement is an internal description that states what you want your business to look like in the future.

Business description example

Still unsure? Take a look at this business description example for more information:

Ann’s Office Hut delivers office supplies to small businesses in Boston, Massachusetts. The business is structured as a sole proprietorship, operating under entrepreneur Ann Smith. Ann’s Office Hut is located in Boston, Massachusetts and will begin operations in February. Ann’s Office Hut recognizes the busy lives of small business owners and wants to bring essential items like printers, cash registers, paper, ink, and envelopes to their doorsteps. Ann’s Office Hut will conveniently provide office supplies to small business owners who are short on time. Other office supply stores cannot match the convenience Ann’s Office Hut will give.

The business hopes to have gross sales of $30,000 by the end of one year and $95,000 by the end of five years. To achieve this goal, Ann’s Office Hut plans on offering referral credit.

Company description business plan: Final tips

Writing the business description portion of your business plan should be fun … even though it may feel more like a chore. But, this is your opportunity to talk about your business idea and get other people (i.e., lenders and investors) on board.

Here are a few final tips to keep in mind when learning how to write a company description:

• Answer the 5 W’s and 1 H
• Keep it short, simple, and easy to read
• Proofread, proofread, proofread
• Determine whether it’s interesting

This article has been updated from its original publication date of December 9, 2016. 

This is not intended as legal advice; for more information, please click here.

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How to write a business description that makes your business plan shine

Key takeaways

• A business description is a high-level overview of your company that you include in your business plan
• Your business description should entice readers—like lenders and investors—to look through the rest of your business plan to learn more about your company
• Business descriptions should be concise, error-free, and include only pertinent information about your company

Most successful businesses have one thing in common—they all have a buttoned-up business plan . It lays out the goals of the company, how a company will reach those goals, and when these goals will be realized. And while there are many sections of a business plan, a well-written business description is one of the most important parts.

However, some small business owners may not know how to write an effective business description . Luckily, there’s an easy formula to follow along with a few tips for writing an impactful business description .

What is a business description ?

Also called a company description , your business description summarizes what your company does, its purpose, and what makes it unique. It’s a critical component of your business plan and immediately follows your executive summary . Since it’s one of the first pieces of information a reader will see, it must make a great first impression.

The goal of your business description is to inform readers—like lenders , investors, potential partners, and even employees—how your business benefits consumers and what place your business has in the market. Your business description should give readers a clear understanding of your business and its functions.

Why is a business description important?

A business description is important because it gives readers a single place to learn the details about your company. A well-crafted business description can intrigue readers and encourage them to read the rest of your business plan .

Investors or lenders will have one major thing on their minds—return on investment. They want to know if your business has the potential to be successful and whether it’s worthy of their investment dollars.

Your business description is your first opportunity to wow these investors or lenders and show them why your business will be profitable. It can pique their interest and push them to dig into the rest of your business plan .

What to include in a business description

An effective business description should include information that tells readers exactly what your company does, who is in charge of operations, and what will make your company successful. It should also tell readers what makes you different from competitors and why customers will come knocking at your door with their business.

Below, we’ve outlined every piece of information you should include in your business description . We’ve also created a hypothetical scenario for a hamburger restaurant and added a business description example for each step .

Business name

List the official name of your business as it’s registered with your state. Also include the names of the owner(s) and other key members of your management team .

Example: Jay’s Organic Burger Joint, owned and operated by Jacob Doe

Business goals

Detail the purpose of your business and what you’re aiming to achieve with your venture. These should be realistic short- and long-term goals.

Example: Jay’s aims to grow local brand awareness by 20% and forge partnerships with four additional local suppliers in the next year. The company also intends to expand operations to an additional location in the Chicago area and is seeking an investment of $200,000 in exchange for equity in the company.

Target customers

Have a thorough understanding of who your target market is. Explain who you’re selling to and why they will buy your product or service. Dig deeper into their needs and motivations so you can predict their purchase behaviors. Identifying the demographics of your target market, such as age group, income, and interests, can give you a competitive edge and attract loyal customers.

Example: Jay’s understands that its customers are health-conscious but have busy lives with little time for preparing healthy meals.

Competitive advantages

Describe what makes your business unique from your competitors. Readers should understand why your company will succeed and make you a front-runner in the market.

Example: Unlike its competitors, the restaurant alleviates the target audience’ s pain points by providing quick and easy meals that are also healthy for the entire family.

Business location and opening date

Include where your company is headquartered and where you will be conducting business. Also, share when you opened your business or when you plan on opening if you haven’t already.

Example: Jay’s Organic Burger Joint is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and opened operations in April 2019.

Mission statement

Your mission statement tells readers why your business exists. It should highlight the motivations for starting your business and summarize your product or service, target consumers, and why you’re unique.

Example: Jay’s Organic Burger Joint is a fast-casual restaurant that serves the highest quality hamburgers to hungry and health-conscious customers in Chicago, Illinois.

Products or services

Highlight what products or services you’re offering customers. Also, discuss the benefits your products or services provide and what makes them different from competitors.

Example: The menu focuses on healthy meals using only organic ingredients and grass-fed beef.

Business structure

List what type of business you’re operating. For example, this could be a sole proprietorship , partnership, limited liability company (LLC), or another type of corporation.

Example: The business is a limited liability company owned by Jacob Doe.

Once you’ve included all of these details in your business description , it should look something like this:

Jay’s Organic Burger Joint is a fast-casual restaurant that serves the highest quality hamburgers to hungry and health-conscious customers in Chicago, Illinois. Jay’s understands that its customers are health-conscious but have busy lives with little time for preparing healthy meals.

Unlike its competitors, the restaurant alleviates target customers’ pain points by providing quick and easy meals that are also healthy for the entire family. Jay’s uses local ingredients sourced from farmers in the greater Chicago area. The menu focuses on healthy meals using only organic ingredients and grass-fed beef.

The business is a limited liability company owned by Jacob Doe. Jay’s Organic Burger Joint is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and opened operations in April of 2019.

Jay’s aims to grow local brand awareness by 20% and forge partnerships with four additional local suppliers in the next year. The company also intends to expand operations to an additional location in the Chicago area and is seeking an investment of $200,000 in exchange for equity in the company.

Learn how to reach new customers, cultivate customer loyalty, and elevate your brand with this guide on online marketing for small business .

How to write a business description

Not all business descriptions are made the same. There are a few tips to consider if you want your business description to stand out and wow your readers.

Have an elevator pitch

Your business description should kick off with an elevator pitch . An elevator pitch is typically spoken, but it helps to quickly summarize your company at the start of your business description. This pitch quickly covers the key aspects of your business and should be brief and persuasive. You should get straight to the point and immediately give readers your value proposition.

For example, Jay’s Organic Burger Joint could write something like “We serve the highest quality hamburgers and provide a convenient alternative for health-conscious customers who are always on the go.”

Keep it high level

Although you want your business description to be informative, you want to limit the amount of information you include in this section of your business plan. Keep it high-level and avoid going into too much detail. The subsequent sections of your business plan will cover the finer details. Remember, the goal is to give just enough information to entice readers to go through the rest of your business plan .

Show your excitement

This is your opportunity to show your excitement and give your business plan a human touch. Your business plan isn’t only selling your product or service to investors—it’s also selling you. Let your passion shine through as you explain why you started the company and what you aim to achieve.

Keep it short and concise

It can be easy to get carried away and make your business description too long. Avoid being too wordy, which can overwhelm the reader.

Business descriptions should only be a few paragraphs long for most types of companies. Remember, you’re trying to intrigue the reader and encourage them to read the rest of your business plan . If it’s too long, you’ll lose the reader’s attention.

Proofread for errors

Grammatical errors and misspellings can tarnish your company description . Even if you include all the right information, you won’t impress readers if it’s riddled with errors.

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Engage readers with your business description

A fine-tuned business description will kick off your business plan on a high note. Whether you’re launching a startup or already have your business up and running, knowing how to write a business description will provide a high-level overview of your company and can help you secure investment dollars from potential investors or lenders .

The information above is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice and may not be suitable for your circumstances. Unless stated otherwise, references to third-party links, services, or products do not constitute endorsement by Yelp.

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How To Write a Company Description

A company description is important for a business plan

Alyssa Gregory is an entrepreneur, writer, and marketer with 20 years of experience in the business world. She is the founder of the Small Business Bonfire, a community for entrepreneurs, and has authored more than 2,500 articles for The Balance and other popular small business websites.

What Is a Company Description?

Parts of a company description, how to write your company description, the bottom line on writing a company description, frequently asked questions (faqs).

The company description of your business plan describes the vision and direction of the company so potential lenders and partners can develop an accurate impression about who you are. A good company description should succinctly outline key details while conveying your passion for the mission.

Here's what you need to know to write an effective company description for your small business.

Key Takeaways

• A company description is an overview of the company's plan, vision, and relationships.
• These documents typically include the company's name, business structure, mission statement, and an overview of the target market.
• A good company description is clear and concise, and you can leave out many of the specifics that your business plan covers elsewhere.

The company description section of your business plan is typically the second section, coming after the executive summary . The company description outlines vital details about your company, such as where you are located, how large the company is, what you do, and what you hope to accomplish.

The exact elements included in your company description can vary, but some elements are more common than others and most likely should be part of the section:

• Company name : The official name of your business as registered in the state where you do business
• Type of business structure : Sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, or corporation
• Ownership/ management team : Names of the key people behind the company
• Location : Where is the company headquartered?
• Company history : When was the business started? What inspired you to start the business? What need does your company fulfill?
• Mission statement : A clear statement that represents the purpose of your company
• Products/services and target market : A brief overview of what you plan to sell and to whom
• Objectives : An outline of what you want to accomplish in the immediate future based on the data in the rest of the business plan as well as future growth goals
• Vision statement : A statement about how you envision the future of the company

Once you've organized the key information that you want to include, you need to write the section in a way that will be appealing to readers. Follow five steps to help create a successful company description.

Start With an Elevator Pitch

Begin the company description section with a paragraph that captures all of the vital information about your company. Imagine you are giving an elevator pitch about your company and want to express the key characteristics in just a few sentences. Use the same thought process for your introductory paragraph.

Stick With High-Level Information

Some of the information in your company description will be included in other sections of your business plan. For these parts, provide only a high-level overview and leave all of the specific details for the related section.

Show Your Passion

Let your passion and excitement show in the company description section as you explain why you started the company and what you hope to accomplish. Your excitement should show in the tone of your writing, and your aim should be to get the reader interested in reading the rest of the business plan.

Do a Length Check

When you're writing about the passion and excitement that led you to start your company, it can be easy to get carried away and use more words than necessary to get your point across. Once you've drafted your company description, go back and cut out any unnecessary parts or redundant information to make it clear and concise.

Have It Proofread

Ask someone who hasn't seen various drafts of the company description to review it for typos, grammatical errors, or flow problems that could hurt the impact it has on the reader.

The company description is a crucial part of any business plan. You should use it to highlight key details about your company. Writing a good company description for your small business starts with a solid elevator pitch. A general overview of your vision and goals should be supplemented with details about exactly what your company does, where it is located, how it is structured, and other information along these lines.

What should I write in a company description?

Your company description should include all of the basic details about your company. You don't need to go into granular detail in a company description, but you should give an overview of what you do, how your company is structured , and the vision you have for the future.

What is a company summary?

" Company summary " is another way to refer to a company description. The terms can be used interchangeably.

Clute Institute. " Using Business Plans for Teaching Entrepreneurship ," Page 734.

Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. " Business Plan Guidelines ," Page 2.

How to Expertly Write the Company Description in Your Business Plan

Written by Dave Lavinsky

A key section of your business plan is the one in which you describe your company. This section comes second in your business plan, after the Executive Summary .

The Company Analysis section of your business plan has three main goals:

• to give a brief description and profile of your company
• to detail your past accomplishments
• to specify your unique qualifications.

Note that a detailed description of your products/services generally does not belong in your company section; rather that will go in the Products/Services section of your marketing plan.

Here’s what to include in your business plan company overview:

1. Company Profile

Start with a detailed profile of your company including your:

• Date of formation
• Legal structure (LLC vs. C-Corp., etc.)
• Office location(s)
• Business stage (start-up vs. undergoing R&D vs. serving customers, etc.)
• Type of business: this is where you’ll give a general description of the type of business (e.g., restaurant, software, etc.) you operate

2. Past Accomplishments

Include a chart (or bullets) of your company’s past accomplishments, including descriptions and dates when:

• Prior funding rounds were received
• Products and services were launched
• Revenue milestones were reached (e.g., date when sales surpassed the million dollar mark)
• Key partnerships were executed
• Key customer contracts were secured
• Key employees were hired

This information is critical to investors as it indicates the company’s ability to execute upon a previous game plan. Attaining milestones is an excellent indicator for potential investors that their money will be used to create value and lead to a liquidity event.

3. Unique Qualifications

Finally, detail why your company is uniquely qualified to succeed.

This is often referred to as the company’s “unfair competitive advantage.”

This advantage could include one or more of the following:

• a world-class management team
• proprietary technology
• proven operational systems
• key partnerships
• long-term contracts with major customers
• other successes-to-date

To learn how to expertly complete the other sections of your business plan, reference the best business plan template .  

Other Resources for Writing Your Business Plan

• How to Write an Executive Summary
• How to Write the Market Analysis Section of a Business Plan
• The Customer Analysis Section of Your Business Plan
• Completing the Competitive Analysis Section of Your Business Plan
• The Management Team Section of Your Business Plan
• Financial Assumptions and Your Business Plan
• How to Create Financial Projections for Your Business Plan
• Everything You Need to Know about the Business Plan Appendix
• Business Plan Conclusion: Summary & Recap

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

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How to Write a Company Overview for a Business Plan

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. 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 .

When you start a company, you ideally want it to grow. If you’re seeking business funding to scale your business or an initial investment to get your business off the ground, you’re going to need a business plan . Putting together a business plan can be an intimidating process that involves a lot of steps and writing — but breaking it down piece by piece can help you accomplish this seemingly insurmountable task.

One small piece of your business plan is the company overview, so let’s take a look at what that is, exactly, check out some company overview examples and go over how to make a company overview of your very own.

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What is a company overview?

A company overview provides the reader of your business plan with basic background information about your company so they have an understanding of what you do, who the management team is and what customers your business serves.

The company description is the second piece of a business plan, falling right after the executive summary. Similar to the executive summary, your company overview will be short and succinct. Your reader needs to have a grasp on what your business does and who your customers are, even if they have limited time.

Why do I need a company overview?

The company overview is the part of your business plan that gives the basics and background of your business. It’s the foundation on which you will build the rest of your business plan.

If you’re looking to appeal to investors or potential clients, you need a reader to make an informed decision about your company. Before they can do that, they must know what your company does and who your customer is. Lenders in particular need a reason to keep reading, since they see tons of business plans regularly. The company overview provides those answers, and it will help you get a better sense of your business so you can firm up things like your marketing plan.

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We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to better understand the unique needs of your business.

Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

What should I include in a company overview?

The exact elements that you need in your company overview will depend upon what details of your business are important, but there are some foundational elements that will be included in every company overview.

Once you’ve covered the basics, you can include any other minor details that will benefit a reader who will need to make an informed decision about your business.

Basic company information

Consider the company overview like an introduction for your business. In the opening paragraph of your company overview, you’ll want to include basic company information. That includes:

Your company name: This should be the official name of your business, exactly as it is written when you registered your business with the state.

Business structure: Your reader will want to know what business entity your company comes in: sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership or corporation.

Location(s): Share where your business is headquartered and other locations the business owns.

Ownership and management team

Break down who owns your business and how each owner is involved with the business. What shares of the company belong to whom? If you have a highly involved management team, share their names and key roles with the company as well.

Company history

Part of what makes your company unique is its history. And, even startups have some history. Don’t put too much focus on this section, but do add some personality and interesting details if possible, especially if they relate to your company culture.

Mission statement

Your company’s mission statement should be included in the company overview. If you don’t yet have a company mission statement, that’s okay. Think of a mission statement as the purpose of your company.

If you don’t have one, you can create one with your team. Or you can simply replace the mission statement with a problem statement. Your business idea should exist to solve a problem or pain point faced by your customers. Share what that problem is and what your business does to solve it. That’s essentially your mission statement.

Product/service and customer

This section of the company overview is where you can share the nitty-gritty details of your business. Talk about what product or service you provide and to whom you provide it. You can share some numbers here, but in general, save the numbers for later in your business plan.

The company overview should give the reader a general understanding of your business, your product or service, and your customer. If they’re interested to know more, they’ll reach out to you for a meeting or take the time to read the rest of your business plan. Keep it simple and straightforward here.

Future goals

While concrete details and facts about your business are important to whoever is reading your company overview, it’s also important to share your dreams and your vision. If you’re writing a business plan for a business that’s already in place, it’s very likely you’re looking for business financing to scale or solve a business problem. If you’re just starting out, though, then it’s likely you’re hoping to find startup funding.

The section on your future business goals should include a brief description of your growth goals for your business. Where you are now tells the reader a lot, but they also want to know where you plan to go.

A company overview is comprised of many small parts. Each part shares just a little bit more about your company with your reader.

Tips for writing a company overview

While a company overview is simply the details of your company written out, it might not be easy to write. Break it down into small steps and use these tips to make putting together your company overview just a little bit easier.

Start with the elevator pitch

If your business is already in operation, then you likely have an elevator pitch. Your company overview can start off with your elevator pitch.

The first paragraph of your company overview should include just a few sentences that explain your business and what you do. The shorter and clearer this is, the more likely your reader will understand and keep reading.

Stick to the basics

It’s tempting to pile on all the details when you’re writing a company overview. Remember, many of the details of your company, including the numbers, will be included in later sections of your business plan.

Your company overview should include only the most basic details about your company that the reader needs to know.

Be passionate

When you share the history, mission statement, and vision for the future of your company, it’s okay to show your passion. You wouldn’t be in business if you didn’t love what you do.

Your excitement for your business could spark interest for the reader and keep them engaged with your company overview and business plan.

Keep it succinct

When you’re passionate about something, it’s easy to get carried away. Remember that you’ve got plenty of space for details in your business plan. The company overview should be just the most basic information someone needs to understand your business.

It’s OK if your first draft of your company overview is long. Simply go through and edit it to be shorter, removing unnecessary details and words each time you read through it. Clear, concise descriptions are more likely to be read and to keep the reader reading to other sections of your business plan.

Have structure

Your company overview is just one piece of a multi-tiered business plan. Creating a clear structure for your business plan makes it easier to read. The same is true for your company overview.

Your business plan should have chapters, one of which is the company overview. Then, you can further break down the content for easy skimming and reading by adding sub-chapters. You can denote these breaks in content with bold headers.

While you can break down each section of the company overview with bold headers based on the above suggestions, you can also interweave some information together, such as the company structure and leadership structure. Each section should be only a few sentences long.

Write it later

If you’re struggling to write your company overview, come back to it. Write the rest of your business plan first and then write your company overview.

While this might seem like the opposite way of doing things, knowing what will be contained in the rest of your business plan can help you to focus in on the very most essential details in the company overview and to leave everything else out.

Get a test reader

If you’re struggling to edit down your company overview, get a test reader. Ideally, you’ll want to ask someone who doesn’t know a lot about your business. They’ll help you understand whether or not you’ve clearly communicated your message.

Proofreading is the final step in editing something you’ve written. This type of editing looks for typos, misspellings and grammatical errors that have been missed. Many of these small errors can be difficult to spot in our own writing, so be sure to ask someone who hasn’t seen multiple drafts of your company overview.

Start Your Dream Business

Company overview examples

If you don’t want to shell out for business planning software, but would still like some company overview examples to get you started, there are many places online you can look to for help getting started, like the Small Business Administration and SCORE.

Many successful companies also have some version of their company overview made public as their company profile page online. There are some variations from the company overview steps we’ve listed above, of course, but you can use the language and style of these company overview examples for inspiration:

Starbucks company profile .

Puma company page .

TaskRabbit About page .

Peloton company page .

Nestlé About page .

If you’re still feeling stuck, or want more company overview examples, try searching the websites of your favorite companies for more information. You might be surprised what you find — the Nestlé page, for example, has more information about their strategy and business principles.

On a similar note...

How to Write the Company Overview for a Business Plan

10 min. read

Updated January 17, 2024

What does your business structure look like? Who is involved? What’s your history?

These are all important questions that you’ll answer by writing the company overview section of your business plan. 

We’ll explain what to include, how to write it, and provide completed examples for you to reference.

• What is a company overview?

The company overview (or business overview) section of your business plan briefly explains the legal structure, management team, and history of your business. 

The company overview is typically the shortest chapter of your plan and works as a sort of company record. 

It’s incredibly important if you’re seeking investment as it explains how the business is legally structured and who is involved from an ownership and management perspective.

However, you likely don’t need a company overview if you don’t plan on presenting or sharing the plan with someone outside of your business.

• What to include in the company overview

What’s included in your company overview depends on how you intend to use your business plan. 

For example , if you don’t intend on sharing your plan with anyone outside of your organization, you can likely skip documenting simple legal information.

For this guide, we’ll cover the basics that most businesses should include in their company description.

Business structure

First, you’ll want to define what type of organization your business is registered as. The most common business structures in the US include:

• Sole proprietor
• Partnership

Take some time to understand the differences. Your business structure will impact how you file your taxes , your liability for business debt, and the type of insurance you’ll need. 

For the purposes of this section, it provides context for how your business legally operates. Consider adding an explanation of why you chose this specific structure and how it impacts your business.

Read More: Types of Business Structures Explained

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You’ll also need to outline the ownership stake in your company. Just list out who owns what percentage of your business, even if it’s just you. 

It may also be useful to include how each individual is involved in your business. 

However, if an investor or equity holder is involved in day-to-day operations, you may want to go more in depth on the management portion of your company overview, detailing each member’s experience and qualifications.

Location(s)

Include basic logistical information about where your business is located , additional locations the business owns, and any locations that may be acquired in the near future.

Don’t worry about going overly in-depth regarding each location’s facilities and operational functions. You will cover those details as part of the operations section of your business plan .

Company history

Your company background or history is the “Once upon a time…” of your business plan. At a minimum, you should include:

• When it was founded
• Who was involved
• Major milestones up to this point

The details in this section will vary depending on who this business plan is being presented to and the stage of your company. 

For example: if you’re a relatively young business, don’t assume you have no history. 

It may not be a lengthy epic, but you have the history of who came up with the idea , how they came up with it, and how and why other people joined. 

This can matter to potential investors.

So, stay flexible when describing your history. Always keep your specific business purpose and your target reader in mind. 

If you share your plan with a third party, focus on presenting a strong track record of success and good decision-making. If you have a longer history, there are likely highlights to include and some key points you want to make. 

Just make sure not to bore them by overloading your plan with lengthy information that doesn’t connect back to your key business decisions.

Management team

The management team section of your business plan is where you showcase your team and their finest attributes.

Be sure to include details about yourself and your employees , including: 

• Work experience
• Past successes
• Degrees or other credentials 

Professional gaps and planned hires

There may be team members you know you’re lacking. In that case, mention these roles and your plans to fill them.

Include which people might be taking on multiple responsibilities to fill the current gap. Additionally, if you have specific people in mind, include them, even if they aren’t currently on staff.

It’s worth pulling in supporting data from your personnel forecast that’s part of your financial plan . It doesn’t have to be overly detailed. It can just be a simple personnel table with reference to where the full financial exploration is located.

Board of advisors

If you have mentors or board members who aren’t directly involved, but help you to define your vision and overall strategy—they’re also worth mentioning. 

This can bolster your credibility through association with well-respected and experienced individuals. 

Just like with your management team and staff, include their name, position, credentials, experience, and any other important information that showcases why their involvement is valuable.

Similarly, if you are working with a lawyer , accountant, or other supporting professional—include them.

• How to write your company overview

The company overview is one of the more straightforward sections when writing a business plan. You already know what to include, so here’s how we recommend you approach the writing process.

1. Cover the basics

Start by listing and grouping your business information into the appropriate sections. 

Depending on what you intend to do with your plan, this may be all you need for now. This is a high-level overview of your business; the most important thing is having all the necessary information in one place.

Focus on brevity. 

You can always reference other areas of your plan and house additional documents (like resumes, articles of incorporation, legal documents, full company timeline, etc.) in your appendix .

2. List the high points of your history

Take the time to accurately reflect your company history. Avoid creating a vague story or an overly long narrative documenting every small decision you’ve made. 

Like everything else in this section, keep it short and sweet. Highlight key dates, milestones (like a product or service launch), and other crucial events that impacted the trajectory of your business.

Remember, you can always point to other areas of your plan when necessary.

3. Adjust to your target audience

While we recommend keeping this section simple, it may require updates depending on who is reading your plan. That typically means adding more context or reasoning for why your business is set up as it is.

For example: You start as a partnership and include your business structure as a formality. However, you are now planning to apply for a loan . It would be worth revisiting the overview at this stage to add a brief statement about why you chose this structure and how it impacts your business.

• Company overview examples

Even if you know what to include, it can still be helpful to review completed business overview examples to confirm you’re on the right track. 

Agriculture farm company overview example

Ownership & structure.

Botanical Bounty is an Oregon L.L.C. owned by David and Susan Nealon. The L.L.C. business structure has been chosen as a strategic way to shield the Nealons from personal liability.

Botanical Bounty has been in operation for two years. It started as a hobby where Susan could use her plant biology skills while covering some of the costs. The Nealons were able to achieve this lifestyle due to a windfall that David received as a result of exercising stock options. 

After the second year, the Nealons decided that although they had the money to live on for many years, it would be irresponsible to needlessly spend it so they got serious about the business and made a concerted effort to become profitable.

Botanical Bounty has chosen the Willamette River Valley as an ideal place to grow perennials and owns 10 acres of land used for production. During several of the winter months, production is moved into their greenhouse for propagation. Botanical Bounty employs a drip irrigation system for all of the plants.

Botanical Bounty will be led by the husband and wife team of David and Sue Nealon. David brings a wealth of business and project management skills to the company. 

While working at Yahoo!, David was responsible for the successful launch and market lead capture of Yahoo!’s driving directions section. David will be responsible for the business operations of the farm. 

Sue, with a background in plant biology, will be the driving force of the operation, growing the highest active ingredient content plants in the country. Additionally, because of her wealth of knowledge, she will lead the sales department.

Nursing home company overview example

Ownership & structure.

Bright House is chartered as a nonprofit 501(C)(3) corporation in Middletown, CT, with the goal of providing holistic and respectful assisted living and skilled nursing home care to a small group of elderly residents. 

Our primary location is the old Wayfield Bed and Breakfast on Farmer’s Road, which we have spent the last five months converting into a two-building nursing home facility in line with Eden Alternatives “Greenhouse” model for enlightened elder living.

Management Team

Bright House offers a different management structure from that of the typical hospital-model nursing home. Our primary caregivers, the 6 Elder Assistants, work as a self-managed team. They meet with the Medical Director and the nurse on-call every morning to coordinate care for the coming day.

The Medical Director has the ultimate responsibility for the health and well-being of all residents and visitors. However, the nursing and caregiving staff have unique knowledge about the residents’ physical, social, and mental well-being. They are expected to note, discuss, and recommend courses of action for all residents who, in their combined estimation, need help.

Our compensation packages, management structure, and caregiving requirements are designed to continually remind our LPNs and Elder Assistants how very valuable they are. 

Dr. Mildred Johnson is our Medical Director

Dr. Johnson has served as the head of Gerontology for six years at The Connecticut Hospital and oversaw the creation last year of their Elder Assistant training program, which provides certification for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) to provide in-home hospice and respite care. 

Dr. Johnson has 20 years of experience working with elderly patients in this area and has been integral in designing the physical layout, management structure, and priorities of Bright House.

The rest of our already-hired caregiving staff brings a whopping 75 years of professional experience in caring for elderly patients.

Financial Management

Madeleine Morgan has been overseeing the financial management of nonprofit organizations in Connecticut for 27 years. 

She became involved in our project when her mother developed a long-term care plan with Dr. Johnson which included home-based hospice care.

“I wish everyone could have the same love and attention Dr. Johnson showed to my mother,” Madeleine said. 

Ms. Morgan will be in charge of all financial operations at Bright House, overseeing billing, personnel payment and benefits, and development efforts.

Advertising and Marketing

We are fortunate to have a skilled public relations officer in our group. Janice Ruthers is a retired ad executive living in Middletown with her husband (a professor at the university). 

She will be working 20 hours per week in our offices as a volunteer for the first two years of our plan, helping us design advertisements and brochures and plan events like our Open House in December to let the public see the results of our efforts.

Management Team Gaps

We still need to hire one swing-shift LPN and one Elder Assistant. We are currently recruiting through Dr. Johnson’s connections at The Connecticut Hospital and expect to complete our team by mid-December at the latest.

• Explore more business plan examples

Want to see more examples like these? Check out our library of over 550+ sample business plans to see how other real-world businesses structured their company overview sections. 

You can also download a free business plan template to ensure you cover all the necessary details. It includes step-by-step instructions to make writing quick and easy.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

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

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Everything You Need to Know About Business Description

A business description is included in a small business plan. It outlines objectives and how to achieve them. 3 min read updated on February 01, 2023

A business description is included in a small business plan. It outlines objectives and how to achieve them. The Small Business Administration states an effective business plan will generally include:

• Executive summary
• Company description
• Service or product
• Organization and management
• Small business market analysis
• Marketing and sales
• Funding request
• Financial projections

What is a Business Description?

In most business plans, the company description is included in the section that directly follows the executive summary. The business description is meant to provide an overview of the business, including what the business does and how the company is unique from others in the same industry. This description provides extensive details outlining the business. In addition to outlining goals and how the goals are going to be met, it includes where the company is located and how many people are going to be employed.

It also gives a detailed overview of the vision and direction of the business ; this helps lenders and stakeholders develop a realistic picture of who and what the business are. A business description varies from one company to the next. Generally, though, it will need to look similar to the following:

• The official name of the business
• Where the business' operations are going to be conducted
• Type of structure (sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, or corporation)
• Names of the people who own the company and any senior-level employees
• The address of the company's headquarters
• Date the business was started
• How the company came to be
• Goals the company needs to meet
• Mission statement; this outlines the purpose of the business
• What is being sold and the market segment being targeted
• Future goals (both short- and long-term)
• Vision statement; what is your vision of the company's future

Questions to Ask and Answer When Creating a Business Description

You can ask and answer the following questions to help you create a detailed business description:

• Why should consumers purchase my product?
• Who am I targeting?
• What avenues of communication are in place for me to communicate with customers?
• What services and products am I going to sell? Are there certain products and services that I don't sell that my targeted audience may expect me to sell?
• Where is my business going to be located?
• Where am I going to source the products/services I am selling?
• What will my hours of operation be? Is anyone going to be working for me? If so, who are they and how will I pay them?
• Who is going to handle core operational tasks, like accounting, advertising, and shipping?
• What forms of marketing am I going to use to promote my company?
• Who are my competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• What is it about the business that makes it unique from the competition? (this question needs to be answered from the viewpoint of a customer)

What Goes Into the First Paragraph of a Business Description?

The first paragraph of a business description needs to be extensively detailed, capturing pertinent information about the business. It's in this paragraph that you want to ensure the name of the company is clearly stated. In addition, make sure to outline the present outlook of the company as well as its future potentials.

It is also helpful to include information and data on the markets you intend to offer your products/services in. Furthermore, you should detail any products or developments that are expected to hit the market that could have an impact on your company, whether it be a positive or adverse impact.

The Importance of Citing Your Sources

All of the observations you make should be made using reliable data; include sources to this data in footnotes. You will need to provide these footnotes if you are seeking funding for the company . The investor will want your sources to ensure you are not making projections based on assumptions. Your goal is to captivate their attention and entice them to invest in the company. As you are creating the business description, make sure to outline its structure. Are you a retail company? A manufacturing business? Accounting firm? Are you service-oriented?

Proofreading the Business Description

You should always have your business description proofread. This proofreading should take place by a person who has not been part of creating the business plan ; this allows a fresh set of eyes to examine the description for any typos and grammatical errors.

If you have questions about creating a business description or if you need help developing one, post your legal need on the UpCounsel marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, how often should a business plan be updated, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

A business plan is a document that details a company's goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document describing a company's business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company's short- and long-term objectives.
• There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they'll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn't looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, "Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs."

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan for itself.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and highlighting any potential obstacles to success. A company might also share its business plan with trusted outsiders to get their objective feedback. In addition, a business plan can help keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and priorities.

Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they often have some of the same basic elements, as we describe below.

While it's a good idea to provide as much detail as necessary, it's also important that a business plan be concise enough to hold a reader's attention to the end.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, it's best to fit the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and attached as appendices.

These are some of the most common elements in many business plans:

• Executive summary: This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services: Here, the company should describe the products and services it offers or plans to introduce. That might include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other factors that could go into this section include production and manufacturing processes, any relevant patents the company may have, as well as proprietary technology . Information about research and development (R&D) can also be included here.
• Market analysis: A company needs to have a good handle on the current state of its industry and the existing competition. This section should explain where the company fits in, what types of customers it plans to target, and how easy or difficult it may be to take market share from incumbents.
• Marketing strategy: This section can describe how the company plans to attract and keep customers, including any anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. It should also describe the distribution channel or channels it will use to get its products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections: Established businesses can include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses can provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making.

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should aim to entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its uniqueness and potential for success.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can take many forms, but they are sometimes divided into two basic categories: traditional and lean startup. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These plans tend to be much longer than lean startup plans and contain considerably more detail. As a result they require more work on the part of the business, but they can also be more persuasive (and reassuring) to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans are short—as short as one page—and provide only the most basic detail. If a company wants to use this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or a lender requests it.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan is not a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections to begin with. Markets and the overall economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All of this calls for building some flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on the nature of the business. A well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary. A new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers to give a quick explanation of its business. For example, a brand-new company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide yet.

Sections can include: a value proposition ; the company's major activities and advantages; resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital; a list of partnerships; customer segments; and revenue sources.

A business plan can be useful to companies of all kinds. But as a company grows and the world around it changes, so too should its business plan. So don't think of your business plan as carved in granite but as a living document designed to evolve with your business.

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

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What is a Business Plan? Definition, Tips, and Templates

Published: June 07, 2023

In an era where more than 20% of small enterprises fail in their first year, having a clear, defined, and well-thought-out business plan is a crucial first step for setting up a business for long-term success.

Business plans are a required tool for all entrepreneurs, business owners, business acquirers, and even business school students. But … what exactly is a business plan?

In this post, we'll explain what a business plan is, the reasons why you'd need one, identify different types of business plans, and what you should include in yours.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a documented strategy for a business that highlights its goals and its plans for achieving them. It outlines a company's go-to-market plan, financial projections, market research, business purpose, and mission statement. Key staff who are responsible for achieving the goals may also be included in the business plan along with a timeline.

The business plan is an undeniably critical component to getting any company off the ground. It's key to securing financing, documenting your business model, outlining your financial projections, and turning that nugget of a business idea into a reality.

What is a business plan used for?

The purpose of a business plan is three-fold: It summarizes the organization’s strategy in order to execute it long term, secures financing from investors, and helps forecast future business demands.

Business Plan Template [ Download Now ]

Working on your business plan? Try using our Business Plan Template . Pre-filled with the sections a great business plan needs, the template will give aspiring entrepreneurs a feel for what a business plan is, what should be in it, and how it can be used to establish and grow a business from the ground up.

Purposes of a Business Plan

Chances are, someone drafting a business plan will be doing so for one or more of the following reasons:

1. Securing financing from investors.

Since its contents revolve around how businesses succeed, break even, and turn a profit, a business plan is used as a tool for sourcing capital. This document is an entrepreneur's way of showing potential investors or lenders how their capital will be put to work and how it will help the business thrive.

All banks, investors, and venture capital firms will want to see a business plan before handing over their money, and investors typically expect a 10% ROI or more from the capital they invest in a business.

Therefore, these investors need to know if — and when — they'll be making their money back (and then some). Additionally, they'll want to read about the process and strategy for how the business will reach those financial goals, which is where the context provided by sales, marketing, and operations plans come into play.

2. Documenting a company's strategy and goals.

A business plan should leave no stone unturned.

Business plans can span dozens or even hundreds of pages, affording their drafters the opportunity to explain what a business' goals are and how the business will achieve them.

To show potential investors that they've addressed every question and thought through every possible scenario, entrepreneurs should thoroughly explain their marketing, sales, and operations strategies — from acquiring a physical location for the business to explaining a tactical approach for marketing penetration.

These explanations should ultimately lead to a business' break-even point supported by a sales forecast and financial projections, with the business plan writer being able to speak to the why behind anything outlined in the plan.

Free Business Plan Template

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Free Business Plan [Template]

Fill out the form to access your free business plan., 3. legitimizing a business idea..

Everyone's got a great idea for a company — until they put pen to paper and realize that it's not exactly feasible.

A business plan is an aspiring entrepreneur's way to prove that a business idea is actually worth pursuing.

As entrepreneurs document their go-to-market process, capital needs, and expected return on investment, entrepreneurs likely come across a few hiccups that will make them second guess their strategies and metrics — and that's exactly what the business plan is for.

It ensures an entrepreneur's ducks are in a row before bringing their business idea to the world and reassures the readers that whoever wrote the plan is serious about the idea, having put hours into thinking of the business idea, fleshing out growth tactics, and calculating financial projections.

4. Getting an A in your business class.

Speaking from personal experience, there's a chance you're here to get business plan ideas for your Business 101 class project.

If that's the case, might we suggest checking out this post on How to Write a Business Plan — providing a section-by-section guide on creating your plan?

What does a business plan need to include?

• Business Plan Subtitle
• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• The Business Opportunity
• Competitive Analysis
• Target Market
• Marketing Plan
• Financial Summary
• Funding Requirements

1. Business Plan Subtitle

Every great business plan starts with a captivating title and subtitle. You’ll want to make it clear that the document is, in fact, a business plan, but the subtitle can help tell the story of your business in just a short sentence.

2. Executive Summary

Although this is the last part of the business plan that you’ll write, it’s the first section (and maybe the only section) that stakeholders will read. The executive summary of a business plan sets the stage for the rest of the document. It includes your company’s mission or vision statement, value proposition, and long-term goals.

3. Company Description

This brief part of your business plan will detail your business name, years in operation, key offerings, and positioning statement. You might even add core values or a short history of the company. The company description’s role in a business plan is to introduce your business to the reader in a compelling and concise way.

4. The Business Opportunity

The business opportunity should convince investors that your organization meets the needs of the market in a way that no other company can. This section explains the specific problem your business solves within the marketplace and how it solves them. It will include your value proposition as well as some high-level information about your target market.

5. Competitive Analysis

Just about every industry has more than one player in the market. Even if your business owns the majority of the market share in your industry or your business concept is the first of its kind, you still have competition. In the competitive analysis section, you’ll take an objective look at the industry landscape to determine where your business fits. A SWOT analysis is an organized way to format this section.

6. Target Market

Who are the core customers of your business and why? The target market portion of your business plan outlines this in detail. The target market should explain the demographics, psychographics, behavioristics, and geographics of the ideal customer.

7. Marketing Plan

Marketing is expansive, and it’ll be tempting to cover every type of marketing possible, but a brief overview of how you’ll market your unique value proposition to your target audience, followed by a tactical plan will suffice.

Think broadly and narrow down from there: Will you focus on a slow-and-steady play where you make an upfront investment in organic customer acquisition? Or will you generate lots of quick customers using a pay-to-play advertising strategy? This kind of information should guide the marketing plan section of your business plan.

8. Financial Summary

Money doesn’t grow on trees and even the most digital, sustainable businesses have expenses. Outlining a financial summary of where your business is currently and where you’d like it to be in the future will substantiate this section. Consider including any monetary information that will give potential investors a glimpse into the financial health of your business. Assets, liabilities, expenses, debt, investments, revenue, and more are all useful adds here.

So, you’ve outlined some great goals, the business opportunity is valid, and the industry is ready for what you have to offer. Who’s responsible for turning all this high-level talk into results? The "team" section of your business plan answers that question by providing an overview of the roles responsible for each goal. Don’t worry if you don’t have every team member on board yet, knowing what roles to hire for is helpful as you seek funding from investors.

10. Funding Requirements

Remember that one of the goals of a business plan is to secure funding from investors, so you’ll need to include funding requirements you’d like them to fulfill. The amount your business needs, for what reasons, and for how long will meet the requirement for this section.

Types of Business Plans

• Startup Business Plan
• Feasibility Business Plan
• Internal Business Plan
• Strategic Business Plan
• Business Acquisition Plan
• Business Repositioning Plan
• Expansion or Growth Business Plan

There’s no one size fits all business plan as there are several types of businesses in the market today. From startups with just one founder to historic household names that need to stay competitive, every type of business needs a business plan that’s tailored to its needs. Below are a few of the most common types of business plans.

For even more examples, check out these sample business plans to help you write your own .

1. Startup Business Plan

As one of the most common types of business plans, a startup business plan is for new business ideas. This plan lays the foundation for the eventual success of a business.

The biggest challenge with the startup business plan is that it’s written completely from scratch. Startup business plans often reference existing industry data. They also explain unique business strategies and go-to-market plans.

Because startup business plans expand on an original idea, the contents will vary by the top priority goals.

For example, say a startup is looking for funding. If capital is a priority, this business plan might focus more on financial projections than marketing or company culture.

2. Feasibility Business Plan

This type of business plan focuses on a single essential aspect of the business — the product or service. It may be part of a startup business plan or a standalone plan for an existing organization. This comprehensive plan may include:

• A detailed product description
• Market analysis
• Technology needs
• Production needs
• Financial sources
• Production operations

According to CBInsights research, 35% of startups fail because of a lack of market need. Another 10% fail because of mistimed products.

Some businesses will complete a feasibility study to explore ideas and narrow product plans to the best choice. They conduct these studies before completing the feasibility business plan. Then the feasibility plan centers on that one product or service.

3. Internal Business Plan

Internal business plans help leaders communicate company goals, strategy, and performance. This helps the business align and work toward objectives more effectively.

Besides the typical elements in a startup business plan, an internal business plan may also include:

• Department-specific budgets
• Target demographic analysis
• Market size and share of voice analysis
• Action plans
• Sustainability plans

Most external-facing business plans focus on raising capital and support for a business. But an internal business plan helps keep the business mission consistent in the face of change.

4. Strategic Business Plan

Strategic business plans focus on long-term objectives for your business. They usually cover the first three to five years of operations. This is different from the typical startup business plan which focuses on the first one to three years. The audience for this plan is also primarily internal stakeholders.

These types of business plans may include:

• Relevant data and analysis
• Assessments of company resources
• Vision and mission statements

It's important to remember that, while many businesses create a strategic plan before launching, some business owners just jump in. So, this business plan can add value by outlining how your business plans to reach specific goals. This type of planning can also help a business anticipate future challenges.

5. Business Acquisition Plan

Investors use business plans to acquire existing businesses, too — not just new businesses.

A business acquisition plan may include costs, schedules, or management requirements. This data will come from an acquisition strategy.

A business plan for an existing company will explain:

• How an acquisition will change its operating model
• What will stay the same under new ownership
• Why things will change or stay the same
• Acquisition planning documentation
• Timelines for acquisition

Additionally, the business plan should speak to the current state of the business and why it's up for sale.

For example, if someone is purchasing a failing business, the business plan should explain why the business is being purchased. It should also include:

• What the new owner will do to turn the business around
• Historic business metrics
• Sales projections after the acquisition
• Justification for those projections

6. Business Repositioning Plan

When a business wants to avoid acquisition, reposition its brand, or try something new, CEOs or owners will develop a business repositioning plan.

This plan will:

• Acknowledge the current state of the company.
• State a vision for the future of the company.
• Explain why the business needs to reposition itself.
• Outline a process for how the company will adjust.

Companies planning for a business reposition often do so — proactively or retroactively — due to a shift in market trends and customer needs.

For example, shoe brand AllBirds plans to refocus its brand on core customers and shift its go-to-market strategy. These decisions are a reaction to lackluster sales following product changes and other missteps.

7. Expansion or Growth Business Plan

When your business is ready to expand, a growth business plan creates a useful structure for reaching specific targets.

For example, a successful business expanding into another location can use a growth business plan. This is because it may also mean the business needs to focus on a new target market or generate more capital.

This type of plan usually covers the next year or two of growth. It often references current sales, revenue, and successes. It may also include:

• SWOT analysis
• Growth opportunity studies
• Financial goals and plans
• Marketing plans
• Capability planning

These types of business plans will vary by business, but they can help businesses quickly rally around new priorities to drive growth.

Getting Started With Your Business Plan

At the end of the day, a business plan is simply an explanation of a business idea and why it will be successful. The more detail and thought you put into it, the more successful your plan — and the business it outlines — will be.

When writing your business plan, you’ll benefit from extensive research, feedback from your team or board of directors, and a solid template to organize your thoughts. If you need one of these, download HubSpot's Free Business Plan Template below to get started.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Home » Business Plans

How to Write a Detailed Company Profile for a Business Plan

If you own a company, the only way for people to have a quick preview of what your company is all about, the products or services you offer, and who are the owners of the company is through your company profile. This section of your business plan will fundamentally answer two important questions:

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

Answering these questions in a succinct and simple manner would provide an ample introduction of why you are in business, why you are different from the competition, what you have going for you, and why investing in your business would be a good bet.

In essence, if you want to introduce your company to potential clients or to organizations calling for bids and submission of proposals, then you must have a detailed and self-explanatory company profile.

Interestingly, there are several business doors a good company profile can open. For example, an angel investor who is looking to invest in a business would naturally read through the profiles of all the companies he or she is interested in.

The company profile that catches his or her fancy would no doubt be the company he or she would invest in. This is just a bit of what a good company profile can do for a business.

This section of your business plan also offers you the opportunity, if you haven’t done so before, to evaluate and document the intangible facets of your business principles, ideals, and cultural philosophies that will allow you to better grasp your own corporate identity. Here are the necessary components that should go under your company profile:

What is a Company’s Profile?

A company profile is a formal introduction of your business. It usually contains all you would want potential clients, investors, and the general public to know about your business. It is used as a marketing tool and it is your company’s unique selling point.

A complete company profile is expected to contain the vision, mission, and goals of the company, a detailed description of the product and service offering of the company, the profile of the founding members of the company, a brief story of how the company got started and what they intend to achieve. So also, information like company name, address, phone number, website and email et al must be part of your company profile.

Components of your Company’s Profile

• Structure of your business ( sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, or an incorporated company )
• The date your business was established ( for existing businesses )
• The nature of your business ( what are you selling, or what are you planning to sell ?)
• The industry you are in
• Business vision, mission, and values
• Background information on your business or its history
• Business Objectives ( short and long-term )
• The Business team

Now, let’s discuss tips for tackling some of the more tricky components in the list above:

If you are looking forward to writing a top selling company profile, then the following guide will come in very handy for you.

Study Other Company Profiles

The first step when it comes to writing a good company’s profile is to study other profiles. To better put it, you should go source for companies that are doing the same thing as your do; companies that are selling the same services or products as you do.

If you study their profiles properly, you will be able to have a clear-cut idea of what you should capture in your own profile, and of course, you will be able to improve on it to make yours better.

Please note that you are not expected to plagiarize any company’s profile when writing yours because you can be sued for plagiarism.

Create an Outline

The next step to take after you must have carefully studied several companies’ profiles is to create an outline of your own profile. You can start this by making use of bullet points to highlight the main points you want to make in your company profile.

You should also figure out the angle you want your readers to see your company from, what your company represents, and of course the caliber of people that formed the company et al. This will help you determine what information you need to gather.

Interview Potential Clients

If you truly you want to capture information on your company profile that will resonate with your potential clients, then you will need their inputs. Some of the ways you can get their input is to interview them or via questioners and surveys.

Please make sure that you are prepared with your questions but also be ready to follow the natural flow of the conversation. Ask questions during your meeting that you think readers will want to know.

Pose questions that will encourage your potential clients to give you useful information. Ask them to share anecdotes. Avoid yes or no questions. You want them to open up. Make sure to record and transcribe the entire interview.

As you review their answers on paper or on your computer, highlight the best quotes that can guide you to describe and give reasons why your products or services will better serve them.

Start Writing Your Company Profile

Once you are done with gathering the information that will aid you in writing a fantastic company profile, what is left for you is to start writing. You can settle down in your study, library, hotel room, or any location that will give the concentration that is needed for this all important task.

Although a company profile is not expected to be a large document, but it should capture all that your company represents, the products and services your company offers, and of course all that you want people to know about your company. This information can be captured in a simple and easy to understand format.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

No matter how fantastic your company is especially as it relates to your product and service offering, there will still be some drawbacks that can dissuade potential clients from patronizing your products or services.

For example, if you have someone who has been involved in financial crime in time past as a founding member of your company or a financier of your company, it will not be a wise decision to capture such a person in your profile.

What is expected from you when writing your company profile is to put your best foot forward by projecting people without any controversy around them.

Please note that your company profile is supposed to capture a brief profile of the board of directors, executive members, and key persons that are part of the company.

Edit and Edit

After you have finished writing your profile, you should make sure that it is properly edited. You can contract the editing to a professional. Although it is going to cost you a bit, but trust me, it is worth every cent you will spend.

Please note that you shouldn’t just settle for just one editor, you can give it out to two or more editors to edit until you get a perfect piece. This is important because a good company profile will easily sell your company (products and services) to potential clients with little or no additional effort from your end.

In Conclusion;

A company profile is an essential part of a business plan and a business plan cannot be complete without a company profile. So, when writing your business plan, make sure you come up with a good and highly sellable company profile, and the guide you have here will help you achieve this.

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12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)

Starting and running a successful business requires proper planning and execution of effective business tactics and strategies .

You need to prepare many essential business documents when starting a business for maximum success; the business plan is one such document.

When creating a business, you want to achieve business objectives and financial goals like productivity, profitability, and business growth. You need an effective business plan to help you get to your desired business destination.

Even if you are already running a business, the proper understanding and review of the key elements of a business plan help you navigate potential crises and obstacles.

This article will teach you why the business document is at the core of any successful business and its key elements you can not avoid.

Let’s get started.

Why Are Business Plans Important?

Business plans are practical steps or guidelines that usually outline what companies need to do to reach their goals. They are essential documents for any business wanting to grow and thrive in a highly-competitive business environment .

1. Proves Your Business Viability

A business plan gives companies an idea of how viable they are and what actions they need to take to grow and reach their financial targets. With a well-written and clearly defined business plan, your business is better positioned to meet its goals.

2. Guides You Throughout the Business Cycle

A business plan is not just important at the start of a business. As a business owner, you must draw up a business plan to remain relevant throughout the business cycle .

During the starting phase of your business, a business plan helps bring your ideas into reality. A solid business plan can secure funding from lenders and investors.

After successfully setting up your business, the next phase is management. Your business plan still has a role to play in this phase, as it assists in communicating your business vision to employees and external partners.

Essentially, your business plan needs to be flexible enough to adapt to changes in the needs of your business.

3. Helps You Make Better Business Decisions

As a business owner, you are involved in an endless decision-making cycle. Your business plan helps you find answers to your most crucial business decisions.

A robust business plan helps you settle your major business components before you launch your product, such as your marketing and sales strategy and competitive advantage.

4. Eliminates Big Mistakes

Many small businesses fail within their first five years for several reasons: lack of financing, stiff competition, low market need, inadequate teams, and inefficient pricing strategy.

Creating an effective plan helps you eliminate these big mistakes that lead to businesses' decline. Every business plan element is crucial for helping you avoid potential mistakes before they happen.

5. Secures Financing and Attracts Top Talents

Having an effective plan increases your chances of securing business loans. One of the essential requirements many lenders ask for to grant your loan request is your business plan.

A business plan helps investors feel confident that your business can attract a significant return on investments ( ROI ).

You can attract and retain top-quality talents with a clear business plan. It inspires your employees and keeps them aligned to achieve your strategic business goals.

Key Elements of Business Plan

Starting and running a successful business requires well-laid actions and supporting documents that better position a company to achieve its business goals and maximize success.

A business plan is a written document with relevant information detailing business objectives and how it intends to achieve its goals.

With an effective business plan, investors, lenders, and potential partners understand your organizational structure and goals, usually around profitability, productivity, and growth.

Every successful business plan is made up of key components that help solidify the efficacy of the business plan in delivering on what it was created to do.

Here are some of the components of an effective business plan.

1. Executive Summary

One of the key elements of a business plan is the executive summary. Write the executive summary as part of the concluding topics in the business plan. Creating an executive summary with all the facts and information available is easier.

In the overall business plan document, the executive summary should be at the forefront of the business plan. It helps set the tone for readers on what to expect from the business plan.

A well-written executive summary includes all vital information about the organization's operations, making it easy for a reader to understand.

The key points that need to be acted upon are highlighted in the executive summary. They should be well spelled out to make decisions easy for the management team.

A good and compelling executive summary points out a company's mission statement and a brief description of its products and services.

An executive summary summarizes a business's expected value proposition to distinct customer segments. It highlights the other key elements to be discussed during the rest of the business plan.

Including your prior experiences as an entrepreneur is a good idea in drawing up an executive summary for your business. A brief but detailed explanation of why you decided to start the business in the first place is essential.

Adding your company's mission statement in your executive summary cannot be overemphasized. It creates a culture that defines how employees and all individuals associated with your company abide when carrying out its related processes and operations.

Your executive summary should be brief and detailed to catch readers' attention and encourage them to learn more about your company.

Components of an Executive Summary

Here are some of the information that makes up an executive summary:

• The name and location of your company
• Products and services offered by your company
• Mission and vision statements
• Success factors of your business plan

2. Business Description

Your business description needs to be exciting and captivating as it is the formal introduction a reader gets about your company.

What your company aims to provide, its products and services, goals and objectives, target audience , and potential customers it plans to serve need to be highlighted in your business description.

A company description helps point out notable qualities that make your company stand out from other businesses in the industry. It details its unique strengths and the competitive advantages that give it an edge to succeed over its direct and indirect competitors.

Spell out how your business aims to deliver on the particular needs and wants of identified customers in your company description, as well as the particular industry and target market of the particular focus of the company.

Include trends and significant competitors within your particular industry in your company description. Your business description should contain what sets your company apart from other businesses and provides it with the needed competitive advantage.

In essence, if there is any area in your business plan where you need to brag about your business, your company description provides that unique opportunity as readers look to get a high-level overview.

Components of a Business Description

Your business description needs to contain these categories of information.

• Business location
• The legal structure of your business
• Summary of your business’s short and long-term goals

3. Market Analysis

The market analysis section should be solely based on analytical research as it details trends particular to the market you want to penetrate.

Graphs, spreadsheets, and histograms are handy data and statistical tools you need to utilize in your market analysis. They make it easy to understand the relationship between your current ideas and the future goals you have for the business.

All details about the target customers you plan to sell products or services should be in the market analysis section. It helps readers with a helpful overview of the market.

In your market analysis, you provide the needed data and statistics about industry and market share, the identified strengths in your company description, and compare them against other businesses in the same industry.

The market analysis section aims to define your target audience and estimate how your product or service would fare with these identified audiences.

Market analysis helps visualize a target market by researching and identifying the primary target audience of your company and detailing steps and plans based on your audience location.

Obtaining this information through market research is essential as it helps shape how your business achieves its short-term and long-term goals.

Market Analysis Factors

Here are some of the factors to be included in your market analysis.

• The geographical location of your target market
• Needs of your target market and how your products and services can meet those needs
• Demographics of your target audience

Components of the Market Analysis Section

Here is some of the information to be included in your market analysis.

• Industry description and statistics
• Demographics and profile of target customers
• Marketing data for your products and services
• Detailed evaluation of your competitors

4. Marketing Plan

A marketing plan defines how your business aims to reach its target customers, generate sales leads, and, ultimately, make sales.

Promotion is at the center of any successful marketing plan. It is a series of steps to pitch a product or service to a larger audience to generate engagement. Note that the marketing strategy for a business should not be stagnant and must evolve depending on its outcome.

Include the budgetary requirement for successfully implementing your marketing plan in this section to make it easy for readers to measure your marketing plan's impact in terms of numbers.

The information to include in your marketing plan includes marketing and promotion strategies, pricing plans and strategies , and sales proposals. You need to include how you intend to get customers to return and make repeat purchases in your business plan.

5. Sales Strategy

Sales strategy defines how you intend to get your product or service to your target customers and works hand in hand with your business marketing strategy.

Your sales strategy approach should not be complex. Break it down into simple and understandable steps to promote your product or service to target customers.

Apart from the steps to promote your product or service, define the budget you need to implement your sales strategies and the number of sales reps needed to help the business assist in direct sales.

Your sales strategy should be specific on what you need and how you intend to deliver on your sales targets, where numbers are reflected to make it easier for readers to understand and relate better.

6. Competitive Analysis

Providing transparent and honest information, even with direct and indirect competitors, defines a good business plan. Provide the reader with a clear picture of your rank against major competitors.

Identifying your competitors' weaknesses and strengths is useful in drawing up a market analysis. It is one information investors look out for when assessing business plans.

The competitive analysis section clearly defines the notable differences between your company and your competitors as measured against their strengths and weaknesses.

This section should define the following:

• Your competitors' identified advantages in the market
• How do you plan to set up your company to challenge your competitors’ advantage and gain grounds from them?
• The standout qualities that distinguish you from other companies
• Potential bottlenecks you have identified that have plagued competitors in the same industry and how you intend to overcome these bottlenecks

In your business plan, you need to prove your industry knowledge to anyone who reads your business plan. The competitive analysis section is designed for that purpose.

7. Management and Organization

Management and organization are key components of a business plan. They define its structure and how it is positioned to run.

Whether you intend to run a sole proprietorship, general or limited partnership, or corporation, the legal structure of your business needs to be clearly defined in your business plan.

Use an organizational chart that illustrates the hierarchy of operations of your company and spells out separate departments and their roles and functions in this business plan section.

The management and organization section includes profiles of advisors, board of directors, and executive team members and their roles and responsibilities in guaranteeing the company's success.

Apparent factors that influence your company's corporate culture, such as human resources requirements and legal structure, should be well defined in the management and organization section.

Defining the business's chain of command if you are not a sole proprietor is necessary. It leaves room for little or no confusion about who is in charge or responsible during business operations.

This section provides relevant information on how the management team intends to help employees maximize their strengths and address their identified weaknesses to help all quarters improve for the business's success.

8. Products and Services

This business plan section describes what a company has to offer regarding products and services to the maximum benefit and satisfaction of its target market.

Boldly spell out pending patents or copyright products and intellectual property in this section alongside costs, expected sales revenue, research and development, and competitors' advantage as an overview.

At this stage of your business plan, the reader needs to know what your business plans to produce and sell and the benefits these products offer in meeting customers' needs.

The supply network of your business product, production costs, and how you intend to sell the products are crucial components of the products and services section.

Investors are always keen on this information to help them reach a balanced assessment of if investing in your business is risky or offer benefits to them.

You need to create a link in this section on how your products or services are designed to meet the market's needs and how you intend to keep those customers and carve out a market share for your company.

Repeat purchases are the backing that a successful business relies on and measure how much customers are into what your company is offering.

This section is more like an expansion of the executive summary section. You need to analyze each product or service under the business.

9. Operating Plan

An operations plan describes how you plan to carry out your business operations and processes.

The operating plan for your business should include:

• Information about how your company plans to carry out its operations.
• The base location from which your company intends to operate.
• The number of employees to be utilized and other information about your company's operations.
• Key business processes.

This section should highlight how your organization is set up to run. You can also introduce your company's management team in this section, alongside their skills, roles, and responsibilities in the company.

The best way to introduce the company team is by drawing up an organizational chart that effectively maps out an organization's rank and chain of command.

What should be spelled out to readers when they come across this business plan section is how the business plans to operate day-in and day-out successfully.

10. Financial Projections and Assumptions

Bringing your great business ideas into reality is why business plans are important. They help create a sustainable and viable business.

The financial section of your business plan offers significant value. A business uses a financial plan to solve all its financial concerns, which usually involves startup costs, labor expenses, financial projections, and funding and investor pitches.

All key assumptions about the business finances need to be listed alongside the business financial projection, and changes to be made on the assumptions side until it balances with the projection for the business.

The financial plan should also include how the business plans to generate income and the capital expenditure budgets that tend to eat into the budget to arrive at an accurate cash flow projection for the business.

Base your financial goals and expectations on extensive market research backed with relevant financial statements for the relevant period.

Examples of financial statements you can include in the financial projections and assumptions section of your business plan include:

• Projected income statements
• Cash flow statements
• Balance sheets
• Income statements

Revealing the financial goals and potentials of the business is what the financial projection and assumption section of your business plan is all about. It needs to be purely based on facts that can be measurable and attainable.

11. Request For Funding

The request for funding section focuses on the amount of money needed to set up your business and underlying plans for raising the money required. This section includes plans for utilizing the funds for your business's operational and manufacturing processes.

When seeking funding, a reasonable timeline is required alongside it. If the need arises for additional funding to complete other business-related projects, you are not left scampering and desperate for funds.

If you do not have the funds to start up your business, then you should devote a whole section of your business plan to explaining the amount of money you need and how you plan to utilize every penny of the funds. You need to explain it in detail for a future funding request.

When an investor picks up your business plan to analyze it, with all your plans for the funds well spelled out, they are motivated to invest as they have gotten a backing guarantee from your funding request section.

Include timelines and plans for how you intend to repay the loans received in your funding request section. This addition keeps investors assured that they could recoup their investment in the business.

12. Exhibits and Appendices

Exhibits and appendices comprise the final section of your business plan and contain all supporting documents for other sections of the business plan.

Some of the documents that comprise the exhibits and appendices section includes:

• Legal documents
• Licenses and permits
• Credit histories
• Customer lists

The choice of what additional document to include in your business plan to support your statements depends mainly on the intended audience of your business plan. Hence, it is better to play it safe and not leave anything out when drawing up the appendix and exhibit section.

Supporting documentation is particularly helpful when you need funding or support for your business. This section provides investors with a clearer understanding of the research that backs the claims made in your business plan.

There are key points to include in the appendix and exhibits section of your business plan.

• The management team and other stakeholders resume
• Marketing research
• Permits and relevant legal documents
• Financial documents

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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.

Business Plan Section 2: Company Description

The company description provides a snapshot of your business. Check out the 11 components to include in this section of your business plan.

Think of the company description section of your business plan as a snapshot of who you are and what your company is all about. What do you do? How are you different from other businesses? What niche does your product or service fill? It doesn’t have to be lengthy, but it should be well-thought out to present you in the best light while being as accurate as possible. Some specifics to include:

1. Company Name

The official legal name of your business.

2. Business Structure

Are you a sole proprietorship, limited liability corporation, partnership or corporation?

3. Ownership or Management Team

Who are the key players? What makes them (or you) qualified to run your business?

4. Location

Where are you headquartered?

5. Company History

When and where were you founded? What inspired you to come up with the idea for your business?

6. Mission Statement

What is the purpose of your company? What need does your product or service fill?

7. Products or Services

What are you making or selling, or what service are you providing?

8. Target Market

Who are you selling to? Who are the customers, organizations, or other businesses that your company will serve?

9. Competitive Advantages

What separates you from the competition? What is it about you that will make your business a success? Why will people want to do business with you?

10. Objectives

What would you like to accomplish in the immediate future, and what are your longer-term goals?

11. Vision Statement

What does the future of your company look like? How will you craft your vision statement?

Now that you have some ideas of the substance, think about the style. Even though the purpose of the company description is to give basic information about your business, it’s an opportunity to promote yourself and explain why you’re worth loaning money to or being involved with.

If you had just a few moments with a potential customer or investor, what would you tell them about your business? Start with an elevator pitch-a quick, few sentence description that captures all the important information about your company, along with your passion for what you’re doing.

Some of what you’ll want to say about the company will be covered in other sections of the business plan, so keep this part more of an overview.

Let your passion shine. When you share the story about why you started your company and what keeps you motivated, it helps you stand out from the crowd and gives your plan a personal touch. Be professional, but don’t be afraid to let your excitement show and draw the reader in. Make them look forward to reading the rest of the plan.

That said, don’t get carried away. It may be hard to find the balance between brevity and excitement about all you are doing and all you have planned, but it’s important to do so. Get an editor that you trust to make sure you’ve kept a professional tone yet conveyed the essence of what differentiates your business from others.

Editing is important. You may tackle the company description first when writing your plan, then find you cover a lot of the information in greater depth as you go along. Definitely plan to read and re-read what you’ve written, and cut out any unnecessary or duplicate information.

If possible, proofreading is even more important than editing! Few things will have someone take you less seriously than typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors. This advice covers more than just the company description portion of your business plan, of course. Make sure your business plan presents you in the best light, not just as far as content is concerned, but how it’s written, as well.

To sum up, the company description is the basic introduction to your business. If someone reads only this part of your plan, they should be able to get what you’re trying to accomplish.

NEXT ARTICLE > Business Plan Section 3: Organization and Management

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What Is a Company Profile? (And How to Write One)

Whether you’re creating content for an established business or a startup, a company profile should be part of your plan. In this post, we’ll discuss what a company profile is, and how to write one.

A company profile can be an effective way to highlight the business to customers or stakeholders. And you’ll quickly find that it is a vital part of business communication.

It’s a way to state what your business stands for, what your goals are, and where you place your focus. As well as featuring all the practical information that anyone might need to know about your company.

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What Is A Company Profile?

A company profile is a professional introduction to your business. It informs potential customers, stakeholders and the general public about your products, services, and business as a whole.

A company profile can be anything from a few sentences to an entire page on your website – most businesses have a long and short version – and is a good way to differentiate yourself from other businesses.

Why Is It Important?

A company profile is important for several reasons. It is a set of guiding words that describe your business.

Use it to shape how employees talk about your company and present a cohesive and consistent vision of the company to people outside of it.

A good company profile will get used frequently. These words can be copy and pasted into all kinds of other documents – grant applications, social media profiles, websites, professional directories and more.

A well-written company profile communicates three key things:

• It persuades others to interact and engage with your company. The profile should entice people to learn more.
• It includes contact information to build business credibility and tell people how to get in touch with your business.
• It tells your company story and sets a vision for the future. It should mention where you’ve been and where you are going.

How to Write a Company Profile

When it comes to actually writing a company profile, start with a plan.

• Outline a purpose. A company profile will get used in a lot of places. Outline what you want each audience to know and tailor the writing to match.
• Pick a style that matches your brand. Your company profile should read like the other elements on your website. Use the same voice so it feels like it belongs to your company.
• Highlight your mission and tell a story. A well-written company profile often has a narrative that makes people want to know more.
• Include plenty of relevant information at a glance. While the company profile might include a few paragraphs of narrative, you can also use bulleted lists to highlight products or services or key company information. Also, make sure to include a block with contact information and links to your website or social media profiles.
• Spellcheck and edit several times. Nothing is worse than a company profile with errors in it.

Once your write a company profile, you’ll likely edit to a couple of versions:

• Long version for applications and business documents
• Short version for quick introductions or descriptions
• About us page on your website version that includes the full company profile
• Tiny version for about lines in social profiles

Where Will You Use a Company Profile?

You will get a lot of mileage out of a company profile. The great thing about having this description written and ready to go is that you can make small tweaks to use it almost anywhere you need to post business information.

Using the company profile as a starting point will ensure that you post consistent business listings everywhere you provide information.

This includes in web and print materials distributed by your company, as boilerplate content for media and press releases, as descriptions for team members when they have speaking engagements, on social media in profiles for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, in job descriptions and applications, and anywhere you need to tell people about your business.

A company profile is an important element in your overall brand strategy.

Don’t Be Afraid to Design Your Own

While most of the focus is on writing a company profile, the design matters as well.

While you can’t always dictate what a company profile will look like, you can design it on your website or print pieces.

Don’t overlook this important part of your overall design. Too often, company profile pages are stripped down and look like an afterthought rather than a key element in the design. (Did you know that About pages are some of the most read on the web?)

Stick to trusted design principles when planning how company profile information will look.

• Add visuals that relate to your company. Use images of products or services or team members in action.
• Use white space to your advantage.
• Format intentionally and use the same structure as the rest of the design.
• Show off with testimonials, awards or fun company information.
• Organize content into logical sections that are easy to read at a glance.

Every company – no matter how big or small – can benefit from having a strong company profile. This language will get used everywhere and helps establish consistent messaging for your company or brand.

Having a strong company profile will save you time and effort in the long run because you will have a set of guiding words that you can use time and time again to describe your business, product or service.

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How To Write a Business Plan: A Step-By-Step Guide

April 23, 2024.

No matter how unique your ideas are, launching a successful business without a well-crafted plan is tough. That’s why learning how to write a business plan is key to seeing success from the start. 

An actionable business plan helps you and potential investors understand exactly where you want to go and how to get there. And if you aren’t trying to secure funding, a lean business plan can summarize the highlights to help you in other areas. Here’s everything you need to write a business plan that clarifies your company’s vision.

Business Plan Basics

A business plan outlines the company’s products or services, how it makes money, and its customers. It should also identify the business’s long-term goals and how it’ll achieve them.

But what does a business plan look like? There’s no singular format, but most contain the following core elements:

• Executive Summary . The executive summary is a high-level summary of your business plan’s key points. Include this early in the document, but write it last so you can accurately describe what’s in it.
• Company Description . This section covers your company’s mission, leadership team, and goals. If your business has operated for several years, include a history.
• Market Analysis . This is where you’ll write out your market research. Gather data on your industry. That includes target customer segments and the current competitive landscape. This info demonstrates the viability of your business idea. 
• Product and Service Offerings . Describe your company’s offerings and what sets them apart from competitors. This is your unique value proposition.
• Marketing Plan . Outline your marketing tactics and overall strategy. Mention your plan for pricing, promoting, selling, and distributing your products. This helps investors know you have a strategy in place to grow your business. 
• Logistics and Operations Plan . After describing your products and how you plan to generate demand, lay out how you intend to drive, accept payment for, and support sales.
• Management Overview . Potential investors want to know who they’re betting on. This section provides crucial information about who’s in charge. Include their track records of success, relevant expertise, and roles and responsibilities.
• Financial Analysis and Projections . If you have them, include any historical financial details and performance metrics. This includes assets, liabilities, expenses , projected financial statements, cash flow statements, and anything else offering insights.
• Appendix . This final section is a catch-all for any miscellaneous but valuable background information. Examples might be licenses or patents.’

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How To Create a Business Plan

With a clear understanding of these documents, it’s time to learn how to write one. Here’s how to put together a strong business plan for your company:

• Carry out a Market Analysis on target demographics, competitors, industry trends, and market.
• In the Company Description and Products and Service Offerings sections, explain what makes your offerings unique.
• Outline your Marketing Plan and sales strategy. Describe your target market and ideal customer. Include factors like geographic region, age range, and education level.
• Map out your Financial Analysis and Projections. If you’re an established business, include data like profit-and-loss statements, a balance sheet delineating your assets and liabilities, and cash flow statements or projections. If you’re still in the early stages, focus just on financial projections instead. Mention anticipated startup costs and your current cash flow.
• Your Logistics and Operations Plan explains how you’ll execute your ideas. Describe any relationships with suppliers, office space, or equipment. Make sure to mention production logistics and any shipping and fulfillment plans. This demonstrates that you understand the day-to-day operations of producing your product.
• Introduce yourself and/or your Management Team and principal hires. Emphasize past successes in related sectors and any unique expertise your staff has.
• Regardless of what order you prepare your business plan in, write the Executive Summary last. Do this by turning your market research and value proposition into tangible objectives and key milestones. This section is typically the first your readers see, so it should make them want to read more.

Be sure to get feedback from colleagues, industry contacts, and friends and family. The more eyes you get on your business plan, the less likely you are to make mistakes or leave out details.

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What Are Business Plans For?

Writing and adhering to a business plan allows you to think through every aspect of your business. This helps you clarify your vision and shows where your ideas aren’t as developed.

But business plans don’t just clarify the company’s mission and direction. Entrepreneurs hope to answer this tough question with a business plan: how to attract investors. A well-written document can instill confidence by showing how supported it is. This is the main reason many business owners create a comprehensive overview.

And investors aren’t the only ones you’re trying to impress. An inspiring business plan attracts top talent in your industry. It proves that your team is organized, knows what it wants, and has ideas for the future.

Exploring Different Types of Business Plans

Business plans can be categorized based on type and style. Let’s explore three of the most common types.

A traditional business plan is the most common. This is what lenders and investment funds want to see before making any decisions. Traditional business plans are typically long. That’s because they provide a thorough overview of your company’s abilities, finances, and prospects

If you’re not courting investors, you might prefer a lean business plan. This type of document is shorter, focusing on the highlights instead of completeness. A lean business plan is great for brainstorming or onboarding new team members with reduced time and effort. But, because they’re less comprehensive, lean business plans aren’t ideal for seeking outside investment. Investors might not see how viable your business is without the added details. 

Finally, if your organization is a nonprofit, focus on the impact you hope to make for your chosen cause, not how you’ll grow revenue. But donors may want to see a more detailed business plan before making sizable donations.

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Caveats To Watch Out For

An actionable step-by-step business plan requires a strong understanding of how it will help you reach your company’s goals. Now that you know how to start a business plan, here are some common mistakes to avoid when you start writing:

• Putting on Rose-colored Glasses . When you believe in your company and its mission, it’s easy to be too optimistic about future prospects. You might also overlook potential roadblocks. Be sure to keep one foot on the ground to avoid misrepresenting your company’s potential.
• Focusing Too Much on the Details . If your company is new or not yet established, focus on high-level strategy and vision. Save the details for when you’ve generated some actionable data.
• Setting Fuzzy Goals . Keep milestones concrete and measurable to meaningfully track progress.
• Overcomplicating . There’s nothing wrong with being comprehensive, but creating an overly intricate strategy makes it harder to execute. Keep it simple.
• Setting It in Stone . Your business plan won’t be much of a guide if you’re constantly making changes. But it’s important to move on from ineffective strategies or unachievable goals. Striking the right balance between stable ideas and flexible methods ensures your business plan is a help, not a hindrance.

5 Tips for an Effective Business Plan

Now that you know what to avoid, let’s learn some tips for making your business plan as effective as possible:

• Clearly Articulate Your Value Proposition . What unsolved problem does your company provide the solution for?
• Don’t Skimp on Market Research . A seemingly great idea won’t sell if no one is interested in buying it.
• Set Quantifiable Goals You Can Track . It’s difficult to measure progress toward vague, qualitative milestones.
• Hype up Your Team . Lenders and investors want to see that qualified personnel run your company.
• Manage Expectations . Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Surpassing your targets is impressive; falling short isn’t.

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How to Write an Online Business Plan in 2024

Written by Vanessa Petersen on July 26, 2023 Blog , Sell Online .

You’ve committed to turning your ecommerce or online business idea into something real. You want your small business to produce revenue and change the course of your life, but what’s your first step in realizing your dream? Developing a plan. If you’re not sure about how to write an online business plan, you’ve come to the right place.

One of the most essential tasks involved in starting any kind of business is to write a business plan. An online business plan won’t look that different from a traditional business plan and will include many of the same elements.

In this post, we’ll show you how to write an online business plan, including all the components and sections. We’ll also walk through how WooCommerce can help you put your plan to action and achieve your business goals.

Why write a business plan? 

Starting your own business is a great experience and something that will shape your life, fill you with self-confidence and independence, and inspire other people around you. A new business is also a serious endeavor that will take time, money, sweat, lots of decisions, and a degree of risk.

A traditional business plan template helps you document and keep track of your business goals, challenges, opportunities, and all the steps and processes involved with making your idea work. It will help you conduct thorough market research and set you up for success.

When you write a business plan, it can confirm that you’ve found the best online business to start , or provide clarity about the need to pivot.

It details all the things you will need to do in order to successfully launch and grow your business, and may include revenue projections, timelines for specific goals, concept art for products, and architectural drawings for any brick and mortar aspects of your business. 

Business plans help create a structure for your company’s development and keep you grounded in reality, focused, and not distracted by less important matters. 

If you have more than one person helping run the business, the business plan also keeps everyone unified around the same set of goals and objectives. 

Another reason to write a business plan is for situations where you are presenting your idea to someone else and asking them to invest. In that scenario, your business plan is also a sort of sales document. It makes the argument for why your business idea is so good and well-considered that an investor should want to be a part of it. 

But even if you’re self-funding your entire business — which is more common with online businesses — you still want to write the plan for the reasons given earlier.

The benefits of running an online business

Starting an online business or ecommerce store offers many of the same great benefits as any other business, but without as much risk. If you’re thinking of starting a business, here’s why an online one is a great option:

It has low startup costs

Without a storefront, you eliminate so many costs of running a business. With all the bills that come with having property — like rent, parking, furnishings and decor, etc. — there’s a much higher investment required to start a brick-and-mortar-based business. Online businesses still have startup costs, but they are much lower. 

It gives you freedom over your schedule

With an online business, you have more freedom to set your own hours, because you don’t always have to be open during the usual times. You can build your business to suit the lifestyle you want. Rearrange your time to get things done in the fastest possible way and take time off when you need it. 

You can start small

Once you have a location, it’s yours, and you have to make it work. With an online business, you can start very small, offering just a few products or even just a single service. You can more easily test the waters without making huge commitments with inventory, and other physical investments.

You can more easily pivot

If your online or ecommerce business doesn’t do as well as you expected, it’s easier to pivot and adapt to something new because you haven’t committed so much to making your original idea work. There are many business success stories where the business owner adjusted their idea after gaining some experience, and then it took off. It’s a lot easier to do that when you aren’t tied to a physical location.

But, there’s one thing online businesses have in common with every other type of business: You need a robust business plan to help guide your idea from concept to a successful reality that makes money and fulfills your dreams and goals. 

So, let’s get into business planning. 

How do I write my own online business plan?

Most formal business plans and business plan templates include seven sections, plus an executive summary. You’ll need to keep in mind who you’re writing your business plan for. If you are taking this to potential investors or will be seeking a business loan, your business plan needs to sell the idea of your business as a great investment opportunity and communicate the skills, expertise, and commitment you personally bring to the table. 

Here are the key sections of a traditional business plan format:

• Executive summary
• Company description
• Market analysis
• Organization and management
• Service and product line
• Sales and marketing plans
• Financial projections
• Funding request (if working with investors or partners)

Here’s a brief look at each step of creating an online business plan:

Draft an executive summary

In the executive summary, the first section of almost every business plan template, you’ll present your vision and focus on building excitement. If the business plan is a sales document, the executive summary is the lead. It gets the reader engaged and excited to hear more. 

Your executive summary should achieve two goals:

• Deliver the basic facts about your business
• Motivate the reader to keep going and get them excited about your idea

What facts should you include? Whatever helps the reader understand your business idea. Describe the industry and niche. Mention the target market. Briefly state the needs or problems your products and services will be solving. Touch on the potential for growth in terms of revenue and customers. 

For motivation, describe your mission statement and company values. What will set you apart from the competition? What is your value proposition as a business owner? What makes you different? Again — keep this brief. You’ll elaborate later. 

It might be a good move to write all the other sections first, then finish with the executive summary so it will be the most concise and best version of how you describe your business.

Write a company description

Here, you’ll give a brief overview of your company. What are your strengths, skills, and areas of expertise as a business owner that will position you for success? If you have a compelling story behind why you’re starting your business, you can include that too.

Conduct a SWOT analysis 

If you’re not sure where to start, consider doing a SWOT analysis , which is a diagram outlining your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

It’s a common part of many business plans and will help paint a realistic picture of what your business can achieve, and what stands in the way. You won’t include all of this in the company description, but your strengths and opportunities may fit here. 

Create a mission and vision statement

The company description is also the place to create a mission statement and a vision statement. What’s the difference between these? 

The vision is where you’re going, the mission is how you’ll get there. A vision statement paints a picture of a future reality for your customers and perhaps the world at large, as a result of your company’s influence. A mission statement expresses how you will achieve that.

The company description can elaborate on your vision and mission beyond just a single sentence, and later you can fine-tune what you write into a succinct pair of statements. Feeling some writer’s block? See company description templates by industry for some inspiration.

Include any unique attributes

If your company will involve particular attributes such as manufacturing, supply chains, dropshipping, affiliates, coaching or advising, online courses, or other relevant particulars, include that in your company description, too. 

State your business location, industry, niche, and other details

Also, state the location of your business, even though it’s online. Name your industry and niche target market again, and describe the nature of your company. For example, is it an ecommerce business, a consulting firm, delivery service, wholesale, or ad-based website? These are just some of many types of online business structures. 

You may also want to include whether your business is in any special class of business that might position it for special loan or grant opportunities like women-owned businesses or veteran-owned businesses.

After reading your description, readers should have a good understanding of what your business is about, why it exists, and how it works. Here’s a detailed look at company descriptions , with an example.

Perform a market analysis

A market analysis uses industry research to assess the scope of your business’s target market and describe the current competition in your industry. It can help you estimate the potential for success and prepare for the challenges you may face when you launch your online business or ecommerce shop.

Doing this research, and including it your business plan, can also help you:

• Identify industry trends
• Pinpoint opportunities 
• Diminish risks and reduce costs
• Generate new ideas for products and services
• Learn from the failures and shortcomings of your competitors
• Find ways to stand out from your competitors
• Discover new markets
• Refine your marketing plans

Now let’s dig into the elements involved in a thorough market analysis.

Understand your audience

Here, you will explain in detail who your target customers are and why they want or need what you’ll be selling. What problems or needs does your product solve? What will motivate people to buy from you? And why can’t they get it somewhere else just as easily? An ecommerce business competes against other ecommerce businesses as well as brick-and-mortar stores and shopping malls. Stores with omnichannel strategies compete with both. Why would someone choose you?

Share your key customer demographics, psychographics, and interests. Who will you be serving? What drives them? 

What are their values? If your product, service, or personal brand will appeal to a customer segment that also shares particular values, that’s a strength, not a weakness, and you can use that to win them over. 

Perform customer segmentation

Break down different categories of target customers your business plans to serve. One category could be age. Another might be life situations such as retirees, parents, divorcees, or living with older relatives. You could create a segment of people with particular health conditions, or who live certain lifestyles. 

But you can also get way more specific than that. Runners are different from hikers, who are different from bikers, yoga enthusiasts, and gym enthusiasts. Different supplements, philosophies about food, motivations for eating various foods — all of these present near endless possibilities for more narrowly defining your customer segments, all under the broad category of ‘health.’ And you might serve multiple segments. 

The more customer segments you know, the more effectively you can market to them. In an online store, good product descriptions call out the various customer segments that product is designed for.

Also, give a sense of the potential size of your target market. How many people need what you’re selling? Show how this market is large enough to justify your business and drive revenue. You might do this by studying revenue reports from other companies in your industry. Or look at specific products related to yours and research their sales and revenue performance. 

You may also perform a survey of some kind, or an online quiz, and use that to express the needs your potential customers have that aren’t currently being met.

Perform a competitive analysis

Study your competition. What are they doing well? What areas are they underserving? Where are they underperforming? Make note of what other companies in your industry are struggling with or failing at so that you can deliver something more valuable and gain a competitive advantage.

It could be product quality, customer service, or selection. Maybe their ecommerce store is badly designed and hard to use. Perhaps there’s a huge industry serving the masses, but customers who have more particular tastes or needs aren’t being well-served by the big companies. Those customers might spend more on something that delivers what they really want. 

Maybe your key competition has been rocked by scandal. Maybe a company went out of business, was sold, or closed down due to retirement and there’s an opening in the market you want to leverage. 

The main point of the competitive analysis is to persuade investors that there’s an underserved market that your business plans to cater to. You must be able to promise something that no one else is currently delivering. Otherwise, why should your business exist? Put them at ease by demonstrating proper market research.

Refer to your SWOT analysis and present any potential threats from the competition here, too.

Outline management and organizational structure

Next, present your management and legal structure. Is your company an LLC, sole proprietorship, S corporation, partnership, or some other arrangement? Who’s in charge of what? If you have different departments, list out the leadership for each one. If relevant, you might even include some information about the expertise of your leaders concerning the areas under their charge and the tasks they’ll be performing.

Remember — if your business plan will be used to persuade investors to help fund your business idea, this sort of information will reassure them that your company has strong and competent leadership. 

If there’s a chain of command, use a diagram or other method for laying out who reports to whom. 

List your products and services

What are you selling? You’ll touch on this briefly in the earlier sections, but here is where you’ll expand on the details. If you have an array of similar products, such as food flavors or clothing variations, list as many as seem relevant. But focus on the spirit of the business plan — you’re simply communicating what your business is about, not listing every SKU in your projected inventory. 

Also, include information about your products such as quality, durability, expirations, patents, and whatever else will give a clear picture of what you’re selling.

For service businesses and memberships that may include multiple packages, bundles, or tiers, describe each of these so your readers get a sense of how you’ll appeal to different types of customers and price points. 

Develop a sales and marketing strategy

Having products is great, but how do you intend to sell them? How will people find your business? How will anyone know you exist? And once they know, what will motivate them to buy from you and not from your competition? What is your unique value proposition — the thing that sets you apart from your direct competitors?

You’ll need to develop an initial marketing plan to help promote your business, products, and services to your target customers.

And remember, competition isn’t limited just to other businesses. Sometimes, competition is against the customer’s time, or their budget, or mere indifference — the conflict between doing something and doing nothing. Your SWOT analysis should touch on several of these potential barriers to the success of your online business.

Your marketing plan will obviously change over time, but give your readers and potential investors a sense of how you plan to launch and grow your business. 

Discuss media channels you plan to use, such as pay-per-click (PPC) ads , social media , email marketing , affiliate marketing , direct mail, referrals, joint ventures, search engine optimization (SEO), webinars, influencer marketing , and live events. Describe the ones you actually plan to use, and explain the core strategy you’ll begin with and how you will measure success. 

Also, include a sense of your marketing budget. If you will have a dedicated marketing team, or actual sales professionals using a particular process or sales script, discuss that as well. 

For ecommerce businesses, include a discussion of how you plan to leverage platforms like WooCommerce, which features a host of extensions that can help manage your business , engage customers, save money, and promote growth .

Make financial projections

You’ve made a lot of claims in your business plan, but how will your investors be convinced of your future success? At some point, you have to show them the money. 

If this is a brand new business with no income, where will your finances come from for the first year? Give realistic financial projections for anticipated profits and losses, as well as growth expectations for the first five years. Include financial documents if you have them, including profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. Include costs of employment, manufacturing, and other investments both one-time and ongoing.

Your financial projections should reference your:

• market analysis 
• anticipated sales volume 

Investors will feel more confident when they can see your business plan does not rely entirely on just one or two ‘wins.’ For example, if your entire plan hinges on selling on eBay or Amazon , what happens if Amazon suspends your store, changes the terms, or you struggle to get noticed there? 

If your plan depends on winning over a few Instagram influencers, what if they don’t come through? It’s really easy to say what you hope will happen. But actually making it happen is another thing. Business success happens more easily when you apply a multi-channel marketing and sales approach. 

Your financial projections will feel based in reality, when you can demonstrate some prior successes, either in other businesses you’ve already launched, test audiences, local sales you made, prior experience, or data from other businesses. 

Explain your funding request — if applicable

If you intend to ask investors to help fund your business idea, present your request in the final main section of your business plan. If you’ve already secured funding from other sources, include that here as well. An investor will feel better knowing they are not the only one who believes in the potential of your business. 

Will your funding request be for a one-time payment, monthly, annually, or at some other interval? How do you plan to repay their investment? Will you allow them to charge interest? How much ROI can you promise them? 

How WooCommerce can help

WooCommerce can help you build a scalable online business that supports your business plan. No matter what you’re selling, WooCommerce offers a suite of flexible tools that allows you to customize your store to meet your needs and goals. 

Here are just some of the benefits your business will enjoy when you choose to build your store with WooCommerce:

• Sell absolutely anything you can imagine . From physical items and digital downloads to subscriptions, memberships, bookings, courses, and affiliate products, WooCommerce provides everything you need. Want to run a wholesale store? You can do that, too!
• Harness the power of WordPress . Since WooCommerce is a plugin specifically for WordPress, you can take advantage of powerful features like the block editor and blogging capabilities. 
• Capture payments securely. Choose from a large number of payment gateways, from popular options like PayPal and Stripe, to more niche processors for specific locations and types of regulated products. And with tools like WooPayments , you can keep customers on-site, capture a variety of currencies, and even accept digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• Customize your shipping options. Offer free shipping, charge based on weight, set fixed prices, or calculate shipping costs based on real-time carrier rates. You can even use extensions like Table Rate Shipping to create complicated shipping rules based on conditions that you set. And with WooCommerce Shipping , you benefit from discounted shipping labels and the ability to print right from your dashboard. 
• Connect to your social media channels. Use extensions to sync your store with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. You can even sell on those platforms alongside your store without having to update inventory and information manually.
• Integrate with marketing tools. Quickly connect your store to any number of marketing tools, from email platforms like MailPoet to CRMs like Jetpack CRM . You can also implement a number of marketing strategies, from abandoned cart emails to loyalty programs.
• Keep track of your numbers. Ecommerce accounting is a big part of running an online business. While you can easily view data in your dashboard, you can also sync with tools like QuickBooks to make your accountant’s life a little bit easier.
• Manage inventory. Update your inventory levels manually or connect to tools like Scanventory to sync with your warehouse. Running low or out of stock? Add a wishlist option so customers get an alert as soon as it’s available.

As you can see, WooCommerce is well-equipped to handle any type of online store and support you as you grow. Here are a few more reasons that WooCommerce should be your go-to choice for implementing the ecommerce side of your online business plan:

WooCommerce itself is free! Many extensions for WooCommerce can also be found for free in the WordPress.org plugins library or on the Woo Marketplace . If you need to start your website with a limited budget, but want to build on a platform that can grow to support a thriving, high-traffic store, WooCommerce is an excellent option.

You have full control over your store

Unlike other ecommerce solutions that are tied to the platform’s own web hosting, WooCommerce is designed to be used with WordPress along with any hosting provider of your choice. You are also free to use whatever payment processor you want without any additional fees from WooCommerce. You can also customize your site’s appearance and functionality more extensively than you can with other ecommerce platforms and with less (or no) coding knowledge.

Thousands of free and premium extensions

There are over 800 free and premium extensions for WooCommerce on WooCommerce.com alone and over 1,000 in the WordPress.org plugins library . There are also hundreds of independent developers and agencies that offer premium and custom extensions for WooCommerce so that you can customize your store with the exact features you need. 

Excellent support and large community of users

WooCommerce is used by over 3.9 million stores — 23% of all online stores worldwide . The support team is available to answer questions and the documentation library is extensive and thorough. There are also plenty of independent resources for learning how to use WordPress and WooCommerce.

Dedicate time and resources to put your online business plan in action

A successful business plan is one that empowers and guides the business owner to launch their online or ecommerce business, and possibly secure funding. But it only works if you use it.

One advantage of starting an ecommerce store or online business is that you aren’t as locked down by deadlines. With a physical location, once you start paying the rent, you better have your business plan ready to put into action. 

But the beauty of being online is that you have more flexibility on the front end. Despite having more wiggle room with your timelines, you still need to keep your momentum going forward. Staying on track with your business projects and goals is one of the keys to reaching profitability sooner and turning your business plan into reality. A few quick tips:

• Schedule your time. Block out hours and specific days to work on your business.
• Treat it like a job, not a hobby. Build on your momentum week after week.
• Always keep learning. Research your industry, competition, target audience, and potential customers. Learn marketing — you can never know too much.
• Try stuff! Take risks, make calls, create campaigns, write content.

Your business plan template should give you a concrete list of tasks and business objectives. Once you write a business plan, then you can implement it.

Frequently asked questions about writing an online business plan

What are the seven steps of a business plan.

The seven key elements of a business plan are the executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, services and products, marketing plan, and financial projections. If you’re making a funding request, that would be an eighth section.

Where can I find business plan templates?

You can find a free business plan template online, for general business plans as well as for specific industries. However, since each business is different and your plan must be authentic and specific to your company — a business plan template can only get you so far. 

If you need design inspiration for your own custom business plan template or want to start with a pre-designed template that you can customize, you can purchase one for a relatively low cost through a stock resources site like Envato Market or Creative Market .

Do I need a business plan if I am already running an online business or ecommerce shop?

Business plans aren’t only for people who are launching new businesses. You can create a business plan at any time to help you maintain or change the direction of your store or just to get a better picture of the health of your business. Below are a few different types of business plans that you might want to consider for your established online business:

• Operational business plan. Outlines the structure of your business operations, staffing, and logistics.
• Feasibility plan. Feasibility plans are like mini business plans that cover new business ideas and outline steps for implementation.
• Growth business plan. This plan is for businesses that want to demonstrate opportunities and plans for growth to attract investors.
• Maturing business plan. This plan is for businesses looking to merge with or acquire other companies, significantly expand, or go public.
• Strategic business plan. Any time your business wants to shift strategies regarding products or marketing or any other major changes to your previous business plan, you’ll want to create a new strategic business plan to address your new goals and the steps involved in achieving them.

What software should I use for my online business plan?

Your business plan should include some images, graphs, and graphic elements in the layout, so you’ll want to at least use word processing software to put your business plan together. If you have access to Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Canva, or Adobe Creative Cloud, you’ll have some other options that might lead to a more professional layout.

Here’s a list of free and paid software that can help you put together your online business plan outline:

What do investors want to see in a business plan?

The most important piece of information to show investors in your business plan is potential for profitability. Investors don’t want to throw money at a sinking ship, no matter how cool and exciting the business sounds. 

Most investors also want to make sure that they’ll see a decent return on their investment in a relatively short time period — probably around 5-7 years. How much of a return they’ll expect will depend on your industry and what kind of investor they are. 

Investors will also want to see that you clearly understand your business, your industry, and that you have concrete, actionable steps for achieving, maintaining, and growing profitability. They’ll want to make sure that the key people on your team also understand your business and the roles they play and they’ll want to see that each person has a good amount of experience in their field and the required skill sets to fulfill their job duties, if not go above and beyond. 

Any details you can include that highlight unique aspects of your business will also be important. Any area where you have a competitive edge, are offering a unique or proprietary solution, have established any celebrity endorsements, have the backing of other investors, or have secured special grants will be of special interest to investors.

Create your plan for success

Now that you understand what goes into creating a formal business plan, it’s time to write one! Take the time to think through and consider each aspect of the list included in this article, and you’ll be well on your way to finding success.

And WooCommerce is here to support your business every step of the way, with powerful and flexible tools that help your business grow. Start selling online today !

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It's already hard to get your Fisker fixed. Bankruptcy could make it impossible.

• Fisker has warned it faces the possibility of bankruptcy.
• Fisker Ocean owners are worried their cars might be bricked if the company goes under.
• Some owners have experienced multiple software issues with the car since its release last year.

Fisker is poised to break ground in the EV market, just not the way it wanted to.

As the electric-vehicle startup founded by millionaire car designer Henrik Fisker teeters on the verge of bankruptcy , no one is quite sure what will happen to the roughly 6,000 vehicles already delivered to customers since June 2023.

If Fisker folds — as it warned is possible for the third time on April 16 — it will be among the first EV startups of the modern age to go belly-up, testing the longevity of a fleet of vehicles dependent on proprietary software and technology to keep them running.

"We're running into uncharted territory," said Sam Fiorani, the vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions. "Nearly any mechanic can work on a traditional internal combustion engine, but when you have a software-defined vehicle, it takes somebody who understands all the lines of code to keep it up to date."

Business Insider spoke with seven Fisker Ocean owners who shared their anxieties about what will happen to their cars if Fisker is no more.

"If Fisker goes bankrupt, who is going to keep the software running?" said Kurt Mechling, who returned his Fisker Ocean in January after a series of technology failures that he said left the car so undrivable he had to put soap under the locked wheels to get it on a tow truck bed.

"These cars are basically computers, and they need software updates," Mechling said. "If they get stuck on what's out there right now, pretty quickly they'll be bricked just like mine was."

Since the Ocean's release last year, owners have raised several safety-related concerns, including ADAS errors, issues with the car's seat monitor not recognizing a driver's weight for airbag activation, and shifting issues. In other cases, owners reported difficulties charging or instances when the vehicle's 12-volt battery, which powers the vehicle's infotainment system and lock and unlock functions, died altogether.

Fisker has also stopped giving customers new key fobs, due to a shortage of available equipment, two current employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Business Insider. At the time of delivery, owners were only given a single key fob to access the car in addition to the Fisker app which can lock and unlock the vehicle. Multiple owners told BI their key fobs have died repeatedly or failed to connect with the car, making it difficult to access the vehicle.

A spokesperson for Fisker did not respond to a request for comment.

The deadline is approaching to get your Fisker repaired

Chris Salvo, the CEO of EV repair shop Electrified Garage, told BI his company has received more than a dozen calls from Fisker Ocean owners asking whether his shop could service the vehicle if Fisker went out of business. Salvo said they likely won't.

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Aside from minor servicing like tire fixes, Salvo said it would be difficult to diagnose the car because Fisker hasn't open-sourced its software.

"There's no real financial incentive for repair shops to spend the money it would take to fix it," Salvo said.

Fisker has been struggling to respond to a backlog of customer service complaints, one of the employees who spoke to BI said, especially as owners rush to get repairs done before any potential bankruptcy filing.

"People are now acknowledging that we are probably going bankrupt and asking for service/parts before we do so they can have working cars," the employee said. "People are genuinely worried they won't have a working car if we go under."

It's unlikely that every Fisker will be bricked overnight if the company goes bankrupt, Fiorani said, but some cars may stop working over time due to bugs or other maintenance issues that can't be fixed by a company that doesn't exist anymore.

Some Fisker owners said they are already struggling to get service and parts.

Three Fisker ocean owners described instances where the vehicle was bricked for days after their 12-volt battery died. The owners were only able to access their vehicle after a Fisker technician installed a new battery — a process that took up to nine days, the owners said.

Patrick Burrell, a Fisker owner in California, said his car has been in a Fisker-approved repair shop for 10 weeks for a minor repair to a portion of its trim and paint job.

What Fisker's failure would mean for its competitors

If Fisker files for bankruptcy, there are likely to be ripple effects for other EV startups, Fiorani said.

The high-profile failure of an electric car startup couldn't come at a worse time for the EV market, which is already experiencing a new wave of pressures that have thrown industry executives through a loop.

Electric car shoppers are becoming a more practical group — favoring legacy car companies over unproven startups. That change in attitude, plus a renewed interest in hybrids, is already taking a toll on newer EV companies, including industry leader Tesla.

Fisker's contemporaries, like Rivian and Lucid, should be taking note of the worry among Fisker owners and doing their best to reassure their customers and potential buyers that they have the money to take care of their fleets for the long run, Fiorani said.

"If Fiskers start falling off the side of the road in the next few months because there's no one to update them, that's going to put fear into a lot of electric vehicle owners — not just Fisker owners," Fiorani said.

Watch: How did Tesla's bulletproof Cybertruck become so expensive and so delayed?

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