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Create a Personal Business Plan That You'll Really Use Develop a customized tool that will serve to focus you on your most important objectives. Write it in user-friendly prose so you'll check it weekly.
By Marty Fukuda Oct 7, 2014
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Every successful business leader I've encountered is in some way a prolific goal setter. For this reason, the single most important piece of advice I give any aspiring entrepreneur or business professional is to figure out exactly what you want, document it on paper and then attack it every day.
A personal business plan is something that I develop each year to help me put my own advice into action. Creating a plan can clarify your objectives for the coming year but don't just shove it in drawer. It is something that should become weekly, if not daily, reading material.
Related: Why Business Leaders Must Set a Personal Mission
1. Start with a simple brainstorming list.
Break down your role in the company into small parts and be sure it's comprehensive. This could mean taking each department that you oversee or are involved in, and breaking it down into further segments. For instance, for my company's graphic-design department, I would create separate objectives for its leadership development, equipment and software needs, anticipated hiring, the continued education plan and efficiency.
2. Prioritize objectives.
Your brainstorming list probably contains an overwhelming number of potential starting points. The key is narrowing them down into a manageable and realistic number of goals. Since you'll review the finished personal business plan often, don't write a novel.
I made the mistake of developing a massive 100-page personal business plan that I never looked at. The very thought of reviewing it was scary. A user-friendly one- to two-page document will do the trick.
Take your brainstorming list and organize it according to the biggest potential impact. You'll also have some must-dos (if not tackled business will fall apart). Then you'll have some items that aren't necessary or don't require much of your focus and perhaps can be delegated.
My company's CEO, Duane Hixon, does a wonderful job of narrowing down his list into what he refers to as his "rocks." These are the biggest areas of impact, the areas to which a person should offer most of his or her attention. These will make up the heart of the personal business plan.
Related: How to Build a Business Plan For Your Personal Brand
3. Be specific.
Once you've narrowed things down to a handful of rocks, be sure the plan includes specifics that will allow you to measure and track progress. For this year's plan, one of my rocks was maintaining company culture while building the team. Obviously, this is a broad, difficult-to-measure objective. For my plan, I developed a strategy for accomplishing the mission by including more details such as creating a company culture slide show and a plan for both current employees and new hires.
4. Set challenges but be realistic.
A goal that doesn't take much effort to accomplish isn't really a goal. Setting an objective that has a slim chance of realization, however, amounts to little more than a hope and can leave you feeling discouraged. Aim for a perfect balance between the two -- something that stretches you but doesn't break you.
Related: Write a Winning Business Plan With These 8 Key Elements
5. Set deadlines.
The beautiful thing about your personal business plan is that it's yours. You don't have to wait until the start of a new year to create one. While I create a plan annually, that doesn't mean that each objective has a deadline that's one year out. Set a deadline no matter what it is to keep you focused and provide a call to action (as opposed to adopting an open-ended objective).
6. Share the plan.
I recommend that you show your plan to a colleage whom you respect. Ask for feedback. This individual may think of an angle you have not. Equally important, this person will hold you accountable. It's a lot tougher to hit the eject button on a plan after you've shared it with someone you respect. And everyone can use a cheerleader in the workplace from time to time.
I personally love it when an employee shares a plan with me. It shows initiative and forward thinking. There are few things more impressive than when an employee has clear-cut objectives and works hard to meet them.
7. Revisit the plan weekly.
Creating the plan is just the first step. Put the plan in a prominent spot where you're going to remember to review it or place reminders in your calendar.If you've got a great plan, it can and will inspire you every time you see it.
Related: Your Mission Statement May Be Utterly Useless or a Gold Mine
Chief Operating Officer of N2 Publishing
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7 Business Plan Examples to Inspire Your Own (2024)
Need support creating your business plan? Check out these business plan examples for inspiration.
![personal business plan report business plan examples](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/business_20plan_20examples.jpg?v=1685397795)
Any aspiring entrepreneur researching how to start a business will likely be advised to write a business plan. But few resources provide business plan examples to really guide you through writing one of your own.
Here are some real-world and illustrative business plan examples to help you craft your business plan .
7 business plan examples: section by section
The business plan examples in this article follow this template:
- Executive summary. An introductory overview of your business.
- Company description. A more in-depth and detailed description of your business and why it exists.
- Market analysis. Research-based information about the industry and your target market.
- Products and services. What you plan to offer in exchange for money.
- Marketing plan. The promotional strategy to introduce your business to the world and drive sales.
- Logistics and operations plan. Everything that happens in the background to make your business function properly.
- Financial plan. A breakdown of your numbers to show what you need to get started as well as to prove viability of profitability.
- Executive summary
Your executive summary is a page that gives a high-level overview of the rest of your business plan. It’s easiest to save this section for last.
In this free business plan template , the executive summary is four paragraphs and takes a little over half a page:
![personal business plan report A four-paragraph long executive summary for a business.](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/executive_summary_2b780640-bba6-4fa9-979f-f4b7a7baec6d.png?v=1685052930)
- Company description
You might repurpose your company description elsewhere, like on your About page, social media profile pages, or other properties that require a boilerplate description of your small business.
Soap brand ORRIS has a blurb on its About page that could easily be repurposed for the company description section of its business plan.
![personal business plan report A company description from the website of soap brand Orris](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/orris.png?v=1685053110)
You can also go more in-depth with your company overview and include the following sections, like in the example for Paw Print Post:
- Business structure. This section outlines how you registered your business —as an LLC , sole proprietorship, corporation, or other business type . “Paw Print Post will operate as a sole proprietorship run by the owner, Jane Matthews.”
- Nature of the business. “Paw Print Post sells unique, one-of-a-kind digitally printed cards that are customized with a pet’s unique paw prints.”
- Industry. “Paw Print Post operates primarily in the pet industry and sells goods that could also be categorized as part of the greeting card industry.”
- Background information. “Jane Matthews, the founder of Paw Print Post, has a long history in the pet industry and working with animals, and was recently trained as a graphic designer. She’s combining those two loves to capture a niche in the market: unique greeting cards customized with a pet’s paw prints, without needing to resort to the traditional (and messy) options of casting your pet’s prints in plaster or using pet-safe ink to have them stamp their ‘signature.’”
- Business objectives. “Jane will have Paw Print Post ready to launch at the Big Important Pet Expo in Toronto to get the word out among industry players and consumers alike. After two years in business, Jane aims to drive $150,000 in annual revenue from the sale of Paw Print Post’s signature greeting cards and have expanded into two new product categories.”
- Team. “Jane Matthews is the sole full-time employee of Paw Print Post but hires contractors as needed to support her workflow and fill gaps in her skill set. Notably, Paw Print Post has a standing contract for five hours a week of virtual assistant support with Virtual Assistants Pro.”
Your mission statement may also make an appearance here. Passionfruit shares its mission statement on its company website, and it would also work well in its example business plan.
![personal business plan report A mission statement example on the website of apparel brand Passionfruit, alongside a picture of woman](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/mission_statement.png?v=1685053205)
- Market analysis
The market analysis consists of research about supply and demand, your target demographics, industry trends, and the competitive landscape. You might run a SWOT analysis and include that in your business plan.
Here’s an example SWOT analysis for an online tailored-shirt business:
![personal business plan report A SWOT analysis table showing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/swot-example.png?v=1685053230)
You’ll also want to do a competitive analysis as part of the market research component of your business plan. This will tell you who you’re up against and give you ideas on how to differentiate your brand. A broad competitive analysis might include:
- Target customers
- Unique value add or what sets their products apart
- Sales pitch
- Price points for products
- Shipping policy
- Products and services
This section of your business plan describes your offerings—which products and services do you sell to your customers? Here’s an example for Paw Print Post:
![personal business plan report An example products and services section from a business plan](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/products_0d941ab8-5039-424b-8f0e-abd0716b9918.png?v=1685053278)
- Marketing plan
It’s always a good idea to develop a marketing plan before you launch your business. Your marketing plan shows how you’ll get the word out about your business, and it’s an essential component of your business plan as well.
The Paw Print Post focuses on four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place. However, you can take a different approach with your marketing plan. Maybe you can pull from your existing marketing strategy , or maybe you break it down by the different marketing channels. Whatever approach you take, your marketing plan should describe how you intend to promote your business and offerings to potential customers.
- Logistics and operations plan
The Paw Print Post example considered suppliers, production, facilities, equipment, shipping and fulfillment, and inventory.
Financial plan
The financial plan provides a breakdown of sales, revenue, profit, expenses, and other relevant financial metrics related to funding and profiting from your business.
Ecommerce brand Nature’s Candy’s financial plan breaks down predicted revenue, expenses, and net profit in graphs.
![personal business plan report A sample bar chart showing business expenses by month](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/financial-metrics_example.png?v=1685053351)
It then dives deeper into the financials to include:
- Funding needs
- Projected profit-and-loss statement
- Projected balance sheet
- Projected cash-flow statement
You can use this financial plan spreadsheet to build your own financial statements, including income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement.
![personal business plan report A sample financial plan spreadsheet](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/financial-plan-spreadsheet.png?v=1685053380)
Types of business plans, and what to include for each
A one-page business plan is meant to be high level and easy to understand at a glance. You’ll want to include all of the sections, but make sure they’re truncated and summarized:
- Executive summary: truncated
- Market analysis: summarized
- Products and services: summarized
- Marketing plan: summarized
- Logistics and operations plan: summarized
- Financials: summarized
A startup business plan is for a new business. Typically, these plans are developed and shared to secure outside funding . As such, there’s a bigger focus on the financials, as well as on other sections that determine viability of your business idea—market research, for example.
- Market analysis: in-depth
- Financials: in-depth
Your internal business plan is meant to keep your team on the same page and aligned toward the same goal.
A strategic, or growth, business plan is a bigger picture, more-long-term look at your business. As such, the forecasts tend to look further into the future, and growth and revenue goals may be higher. Essentially, you want to use all the sections you would in a normal business plan and build upon each.
- Market analysis: comprehensive outlook
- Products and services: for launch and expansion
- Marketing plan: comprehensive outlook
- Logistics and operations plan: comprehensive outlook
- Financials: comprehensive outlook
Feasibility
Your feasibility business plan is sort of a pre-business plan—many refer to it as simply a feasibility study. This plan essentially lays the groundwork and validates that it’s worth the effort to make a full business plan for your idea. As such, it’s mostly centered around research.
Set yourself up for success as a business owner
Building a good business plan serves as a roadmap you can use for your ecommerce business at launch and as you reach each of your business goals. Business plans create accountability for entrepreneurs and synergy among teams, regardless of your business model .
Kickstart your ecommerce business and set yourself up for success with an intentional business planning process—and with the sample business plans above to guide your own path.
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Business plan examples FAQ
How do i write a simple business plan, what is the best format to write a business plan, what are the 4 key elements of a business plan.
- Executive summary: A concise overview of the company's mission, goals, target audience, and financial objectives.
- Business description: A description of the company's purpose, operations, products and services, target markets, and competitive landscape.
- Market analysis: An analysis of the industry, market trends, potential customers, and competitors.
- Financial plan: A detailed description of the company's financial forecasts and strategies.
What are the 3 main points of a business plan?
- Concept: Your concept should explain the purpose of your business and provide an overall summary of what you intend to accomplish.
- Contents: Your content should include details about the products and services you provide, your target market, and your competition.
- Cashflow: Your cash flow section should include information about your expected cash inflows and outflows, such as capital investments, operating costs, and revenue projections.
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Simple Business Plan Template (2024)
![personal business plan report Krista Fabregas](https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/fit-in/x/https://www.forbes.com/advisor/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Krista-Fabregas_CBheadshot-88x88.jpeg)
Updated: May 4, 2024, 4:37pm
![personal business plan report Simple Business Plan Template (2024)](https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/fit-in/900x510/https://www.forbes.com/advisor/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Simple_Business_Plan_-_article_image.jpg)
Table of Contents
Why business plans are vital, get your free simple business plan template, how to write an effective business plan in 6 steps, frequently asked questions.
While taking many forms and serving many purposes, they all have one thing in common: business plans help you establish your goals and define the means for achieving them. Our simple business plan template covers everything you need to consider when launching a side gig, solo operation or small business. By following this step-by-step process, you might even uncover a few alternate routes to success.
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Whether you’re a first-time solopreneur or a seasoned business owner, the planning process challenges you to examine the costs and tasks involved in bringing a product or service to market. The process can also help you spot new income opportunities and hone in on the most profitable business models.
Though vital, business planning doesn’t have to be a chore. Business plans for lean startups and solopreneurs can simply outline the business concept, sales proposition, target customers and sketch out a plan of action to bring the product or service to market. However, if you’re seeking startup funding or partnership opportunities, you’ll need a write a business plan that details market research, operating costs and revenue forecasting. Whichever startup category you fall into, if you’re at square one, our simple business plan template will point you down the right path.
Copy our free simple business plan template so you can fill in the blanks as we explore each element of your business plan. Need help getting your ideas flowing? You’ll also find several startup scenario examples below.
Download free template as .docx
Whether you need a quick-launch overview or an in-depth plan for investors, any business plan should cover the six key elements outlined in our free template and explained below. The main difference in starting a small business versus an investor-funded business is the market research and operational and financial details needed to support the concept.
1. Your Mission or Vision
Start by declaring a “dream statement” for your business. You can call this your executive summary, vision statement or mission. Whatever the name, the first part of your business plan summarizes your idea by answering five questions. Keep it brief, such as an elevator pitch. You’ll expand these answers in the following sections of the simple business plan template.
- What does your business do? Are you selling products, services, information or a combination?
- Where does this happen? Will you conduct business online, in-store, via mobile means or in a specific location or environment?
- Who does your business benefit? Who is your target market and ideal customer for your concept?
- Why would potential customers care? What would make your ideal customers take notice of your business?
- How do your products and/or services outshine the competition? What would make your ideal customers choose you over a competitor?
These answers come easily if you have a solid concept for your business, but don’t worry if you get stuck. Use the rest of your plan template to brainstorm ideas and tactics. You’ll quickly find these answers and possibly new directions as you explore your ideas and options.
2. Offer and Value Proposition
This is where you detail your offer, such as selling products, providing services or both, and why anyone would care. That’s the value proposition. Specifically, you’ll expand on your answers to the first and fourth bullets from your mission/vision.
As you complete this section, you might find that exploring value propositions uncovers marketable business opportunities that you hadn’t yet considered. So spend some time brainstorming the possibilities in this section.
For example, a cottage baker startup specializing in gluten-free or keto-friendly products might be a value proposition that certain audiences care deeply about. Plus, you could expand on that value proposition by offering wedding and other special-occasion cakes that incorporate gluten-free, keto-friendly and traditional cake elements that all guests can enjoy.
![personal business plan report](https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/fit-in/x/https://www.forbes.com/advisor/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Value_Proposition.jpg)
3. Audience and Ideal Customer
Here is where you explore bullet point number three, who your business will benefit. Identifying your ideal customer and exploring a broader audience for your goods or services is essential in defining your sales and marketing strategies, plus it helps fine-tune what you offer.
There are many ways to research potential audiences, but a shortcut is to simply identify a problem that people have that your product or service can solve. If you start from the position of being a problem solver, it’s easy to define your audience and describe the wants and needs of your ideal customer for marketing efforts.
Using the cottage baker startup example, a problem people might have is finding fresh-baked gluten-free or keto-friendly sweets. Examining the wants and needs of these people might reveal a target audience that is health-conscious or possibly dealing with health issues and willing to spend more for hard-to-find items.
However, it’s essential to have a customer base that can support your business. You can be too specialized. For example, our baker startup can attract a broader audience and boost revenue by offering a wider selection of traditional baked goods alongside its gluten-free and keto-focused specialties.
4. Revenue Streams, Sales Channels and Marketing
Thanks to our internet-driven economy, startups have many revenue opportunities and can connect with target audiences through various channels. Revenue streams and sales channels also serve as marketing vehicles, so you can cover all three in this section.
Revenue Streams
Revenue streams are the many ways you can make money in your business. In your plan template, list how you’ll make money upon launch, plus include ideas for future expansion. The income possibilities just might surprise you.
For example, our cottage baker startup might consider these revenue streams:
- Product sales : Online, pop-up shops , wholesale and (future) in-store sales
- Affiliate income : Monetize blog and social media posts with affiliate links
- Advertising income : Reserve website space for advertising
- E-book sales : (future) Publish recipe e-books targeting gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
- Video income : (future) Monetize a YouTube channel featuring how-to videos for the gluten-free and keto-friendly dessert niches
- Webinars and online classes : (future) Monetize coaching-style webinars and online classes covering specialty baking tips and techniques
- Members-only content : (future) Monetize a members-only section of the website for specialty content to complement webinars and online classes
- Franchise : (future) Monetize a specialty cottage bakery concept and sell to franchise entrepreneurs
Sales Channels
Sales channels put your revenue streams into action. This section also answers the “where will this happen” question in the second bullet of your vision.
The product sales channels for our cottage bakery example can include:
- Mobile point-of-sale (POS) : A mobile platform such as Shopify or Square POS for managing in-person sales at local farmers’ markets, fairs and festivals
- E-commerce platform : An online store such as Shopify, Square or WooCommerce for online retail sales and wholesale sales orders
- Social media channels : Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest shoppable posts and pins for online sales via social media channels
- Brick-and-mortar location : For in-store sales , once the business has grown to a point that it can support a physical location
Channels that support other income streams might include:
- Affiliate income : Blog section on the e-commerce website and affiliate partner accounts
- Advertising income : Reserved advertising spaces on the e-commerce website
- E-book sales : Amazon e-book sales via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
- Video income : YouTube channel with ad monetization
- Webinars and online classes : Online class and webinar platforms that support member accounts, recordings and playback
- Members-only content : Password-protected website content using membership apps such as MemberPress
Nowadays, the line between marketing and sales channels is blurred. Social media outlets, e-books, websites, blogs and videos serve as both marketing tools and income opportunities. Since most are free and those with advertising options are extremely economical, these are ideal marketing outlets for lean startups.
However, many businesses still find value in traditional advertising such as local radio, television, direct mail, newspapers and magazines. You can include these advertising costs in your simple business plan template to help build a marketing plan and budget.
![personal business plan report](https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/fit-in/x/https://www.forbes.com/advisor/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Social_Media_Marketing.jpg)
5. Structure, Suppliers and Operations
This section of your simple business plan template explores how to structure and operate your business. Details include the type of business organization your startup will take, roles and responsibilities, supplier logistics and day-to-day operations. Also, include any certifications or permits needed to launch your enterprise in this section.
Our cottage baker example might use a structure and startup plan such as this:
- Business structure : Sole proprietorship with a “doing business as” (DBA) .
- Permits and certifications : County-issued food handling permit and state cottage food certification for home-based food production. Option, check into certified commercial kitchen rentals.
- Roles and responsibilities : Solopreneur, all roles and responsibilities with the owner.
- Supply chain : Bulk ingredients and food packaging via Sam’s Club, Costco, Amazon Prime with annual membership costs. Uline for shipping supplies; no membership needed.
- Day-to-day operations : Source ingredients and bake three days per week to fulfill local and online orders. Reserve time for specialty sales, wholesale partner orders and market events as needed. Ship online orders on alternating days. Update website and create marketing and affiliate blog posts on non-shipping days.
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6. Financial Forecasts
Your final task is to list forecasted business startup and ongoing costs and profit projections in your simple business plan template. Thanks to free business tools such as Square and free marketing on social media, lean startups can launch with few upfront costs. In many cases, cost of goods, shipping and packaging, business permits and printing for business cards are your only out-of-pocket expenses.
Cost Forecast
Our cottage baker’s forecasted lean startup costs might include:
Business Need | Startup Cost | Ongoing Cost | Source |
---|---|---|---|
Gross Profit Projections
This helps you determine the retail prices and sales volume required to keep your business running and, hopefully, earn income for yourself. Use product research to spot target retail prices for your goods, then subtract your cost of goods, such as hourly rate, raw goods and supplier costs. The total amount is your gross profit per item or service.
Here are some examples of projected gross profits for our cottage baker:
Product | Retail Price | (Cost) | Gross Profit |
---|---|---|---|
Bottom Line
Putting careful thought and detail in a business plan is always beneficial, but don’t get so bogged down in planning that you never hit the start button to launch your business . Also, remember that business plans aren’t set in stone. Markets, audiences and technologies change, and so will your goals and means of achieving them. Think of your business plan as a living document and regularly revisit, expand and restructure it as market opportunities and business growth demand.
Is there a template for a business plan?
You can copy our free business plan template and fill in the blanks or customize it in Google Docs, Microsoft Word or another word processing app. This free business plan template includes the six key elements that any entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a new business.
What does a simple business plan include?
A simple business plan is a one- to two-page overview covering six key elements that any budding entrepreneur needs to consider when launching a startup. These include your vision or mission, product or service offering, target audience, revenue streams and sales channels, structure and operations, and financial forecasts.
How can I create a free business plan template?
Start with our free business plan template that covers the six essential elements of a startup. Once downloaded, you can edit this document in Google Docs or another word processing app and add new sections or subsections to your plan template to meet your specific business plan needs.
What basic items should be included in a business plan?
When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business, an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.
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How to Write a Personal Business Plan
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A personal business plan, sometimes called a personal development plan, is guided by the same principles as a corporate business plan. You write a personal business plan to review your personal goals relating to your career, family and financial development. But writing a personal business plan is only the first step in a process. Once it is written, execution requires reviewing the plan, modifying it and maintaining the discipline to stick to it.
Write a personal mission statement that expresses your core values and your ultimate goals for balance and happiness. Core values might include having a family and perhaps putting career second to children when the time comes. A mission statement is the basis for establishing goals and measuring your success.
List priorities regarding career and personal relationships and the responsibilities involved in each. For example, work is essential for providing a particular lifestyle, but how much are you willing to sacrifice time with friends and family to advance in your career?
Read through the priorities and look for ways to balance different components of your life. Write down goals for areas where you can improve balance between work, family, physical and spiritual growth and development. For example, if your life is running between work and family obligations, you might set a goal of having one hour of personal time daily.
Set deadlines for each goal, breaking it down into smaller components if needed. For example, if you want to compete in a triathlon, you may need to first establish smaller training parameters to work up to your ultimate goal. Break larger goals into smaller goals like running three miles per day and then increasing to five per day in four weeks.
Review the plan to ensure you are being realistic regarding your goals and steps. Make adjustments to the overall plan if you feel overwhelmed, but don't hesitate to raise your standards stage by stage. It may sound wonderful to increase income, have more personal and family time and start training for a triathlete, but all these together may be too much to incorporate into any one period. Take a step back and make baby-step adjustments.
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With more than 15 years of professional writing experience, Kimberlee finds it fun to take technical mumbo-jumbo and make it fun! Her first career was in financial services and insurance.
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Personal Business Plan
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Did you have a dream of one day owning your business ? If so, what was your dream about? When I was young, I always dreamed of owning my own business and seeing it flourish . I told myself that one day, I would be able to own a business that involved a hybrid of a coffee and tea shop with a library and a place where animal lovers could simply hang out. Of course that dream is still in the air as it takes a lot of planning and a lot of resources like financial and material resources to make it happen. Another thing to also take into consideration is to have your own plans. Not just one plan but if possible a lot of back up plans that go along with it. Even if your plan may seem or look fool proof, there is still a possibility that you may need to redo it or to have at least a back up plan along with your original plan. What am I even talking about? A business plan of course. Your personal business plan. The difference between a business plan and a personal business plan is found in the article below. So check it all out right now.
8+ Personal Business Plan Examples
1. personal financial business plan template.
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3. Sample Personal Business Plan Template
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5. Personal Development Plan in PDF
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6. Personal Business Plan Format
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What Is a Personal Business Plan?
A lot of people would associate a business plan to a business or a company. But they may never associate the term business plan with personal . However, you can make your own business plan, and it does not have to be focused on a business or a company that you own. It can also focus on you, your family life, personal life, and your development. So what is a personal business plan? A personal business plan is a tool . This tool helps you by giving you a tour, a guide or serves as a road map for you to know how and where you can start out by changing what you want to do in life, or to change something in your business to make it better. For this case, a personal business plan is more associated with how you view yourself and your goals to achieve them. The importance of a personal business plan is to simply help you. Help you by giving you directions. A step by step plan that shows you or how you want to see your future in specific years to come. To show if there is any development that you have made or none at all.
How to Write a Personal Business Plan?
Here’s a fun fact for you. Did you know that having a personal business plan can help you ? Apart from having a positive mindset, having a personal development plan or a personal business plan is also quite helpful. Though it may depend on how you perceive it and use it, but it really is a helpful tool. Something to help you get started on writing are these simple yet easy to do tips.
1. Get To Know What You Want to Write
What this means is, brainstorm. What do you want to write, what do you expect to write and what do you really want to see in your personal development? These are just basic questions to help you when you brainstorm on what you want to place in your personal business plan. The topics could range from family, your dreams, your goals, anything that is achievable. Start from there.
2. Set Your Goals and Objectives
Know your goals and know your objectives . Understand the factors when picking your goals. Always choose an attainable goal. In addition to that, always choose an attainable objective or a series of attainable objectives. This is going to be your guide when you choose what goal you want to achieve. So to make that happen, you must make it happen. It must be achievable. Something possible, not impossible.
3. Make Your Goals Very Specific
One thing you may have noticed is why should you make your goals very specific ? The reason for this is because if you do not make your goals specific, you may end up getting frustrated or end up not bothering to achieve the goal you want. For this to be avoided, it is always best to make every single thing in your plan specific, especially your goals.
4. Set Up Deadlines for Each Goal
In addition to the tips above, here is another tip I can give you. Set up deadlines . For each goal you plan on doing, set up a deadline. Not only will this encourage you to do better and to really find ways to achieve them, it also gives you a sense of accomplishment and responsibility. This is where your development should already be showing.
5. Update Your Progress Plan
Last but not the least, update on the progress you have made. Whether it be a huge milestone or a smaller and simple one. Each milestone you have made is considered progress and should be updated to your plan. This is to show you how far you have gone to reach the goal you decided to do and how far you still need to go and push through to achieve it.
What is a personal business plan?
A personal business plan can also be coined as a personal development plan. This kind of plan is used as a personal growth plan for a person. It helps by outlining your goals and objectives and to record every milestone that has been accomplished at a certain amount of time.
What can a personal business plan be used for?
A personal business plan can be used in a way to help you reach your full potential. It helps by showing you the steps and the things that you can do to reach it.
Is it difficult to make your own personal business plan?
Not at all. Planning on making your own business plan is quite easy. It only takes a few simple steps. To know more about these steps, you can simply check the How to write a personal business plan found in this article.
When you want your dreams to come true, you work hard for it. When you want your goals in life to be achieved, you work hard for it. But there are times that we often mistake what we think we can do to what we can actually do. Always remember that you can achieve those dreams if they are realistic and doable. As well as adding a personal business plan to the mix.
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550+ Business Plan Examples to Launch Your Business
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Need help writing your business plan? Explore over 550 industry-specific business plan examples for inspiration.
Find your business plan example
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Example business plan format
Before you start exploring our library of business plan examples, it's worth taking the time to understand the traditional business plan format . You'll find that the business plan samples in this library and most investor-approved business plans will include the following sections:
Executive summary
The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your business plan and is ideally only one to two pages. You should also plan to write this section last after you've written your full business plan.
Your executive summary should include a summary of the problem you are solving, a description of your product or service, an overview of your target market, a brief description of your team, a summary of your financials, and your funding requirements (if you are raising money).
Products & services
The products & services chapter of your business plan is where the real meat of your plan lives. It includes information about the problem that you're solving, your solution, and any traction that proves that it truly meets the need you identified.
This is your chance to explain why you're in business and that people care about what you offer. It needs to go beyond a simple product or service description and get to the heart of why your business works and benefits your customers.
Market analysis
Conducting a market analysis ensures that you fully understand the market that you're entering and who you'll be selling to. This section is where you will showcase all of the information about your potential customers. You'll cover your target market as well as information about the growth of your market and your industry. Focus on outlining why the market you're entering is viable and creating a realistic persona for your ideal customer base.
Competition
Part of defining your opportunity is determining what your competitive advantage may be. To do this effectively you need to get to know your competitors just as well as your target customers. Every business will have competition, if you don't then you're either in a very young industry or there's a good reason no one is pursuing this specific venture.
To succeed, you want to be sure you know who your competitors are, how they operate, necessary financial benchmarks, and how your business will be positioned. Start by identifying who your competitors are or will be during your market research. Then leverage competitive analysis tools like the competitive matrix and positioning map to solidify where your business stands in relation to the competition.
Marketing & sales
The marketing and sales plan section of your business plan details how you plan to reach your target market segments. You'll address how you plan on selling to those target markets, what your pricing plan is, and what types of activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success.
The operations section in our business plan examples covers the day-to-day workflows for your business to deliver your product or service. What's included here fully depends on the type of business. Typically you can expect to add details on your business location, sourcing and fulfillment, use of technology, and any partnerships or agreements that are in place.
Milestones & metrics
The milestones section is where you lay out strategic milestones to reach your business goals.
A good milestone clearly lays out the parameters of the task at hand and sets expectations for its execution. You'll want to include a description of the task, a proposed due date, who is responsible, and eventually a budget that's attached. You don't need extensive project planning in this section, just key milestones that you want to hit and when you plan to hit them.
You should also discuss key metrics, which are the numbers you will track to determine your success. Some common data points worth tracking include conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, profit, etc.
Company & team
Use this section of your business plan to describe your current team and who you need to hire. If you intend to pursue funding, you'll need to highlight the relevant experience of your team members. Basically, this is where you prove that this is the right team to successfully start and grow the business. You will also need to provide a quick overview of your legal structure and history if you're already up and running.
Financial projections
Your financial plan should include a sales and revenue forecast, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and a balance sheet. You may not have established financials of any kind at this stage. Not to worry, rather than getting all of the details ironed out, focus on making projections and strategic forecasts for your business. You can always update your financial statements as you begin operations and start bringing in actual accounting data.
Now, if you intend to pitch to investors or submit a loan application, you'll also need a "use of funds" report in this business plan section. This outlines how you intend to leverage any funding for your business and how much you're looking to acquire. Like the rest of your financials, this can always be updated later on.
The appendix isn't a required element of your business plan. However, it is a useful place to add any charts, tables, definitions, legal notes, or other critical information that supports your business plan. These are often lengthier or out-of-place information that simply didn't work naturally into the structure of your plan. You'll notice that in these business plan examples, the appendix mainly includes extended financial statements.
Types of business plans explained
While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. To get the most out of your business plan, it's best to find a format that suits your needs. Here are a few common business plan types worth considering.
Traditional business plan
The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used for external purposes. Typically this is the type of plan you'll need when applying for funding or pitching to investors. It can also be used when training or hiring employees, working with vendors, or in any other situation where the full details of your business must be understood by another individual.
Business model canvas
The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea.
The structure ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template. It encourages you to build connections between every element of your business. It's faster to write out and update, and much easier for you, your team, and anyone else to visualize your business operations.
One-page business plan
The true middle ground between the business model canvas and a traditional business plan is the one-page business plan . This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business.
By starting with a one-page plan , you give yourself a minimal document to build from. You'll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences making it much easier to elaborate or expand sections into a longer-form business plan.
Growth planning
Growth planning is more than a specific type of business plan. It's a methodology. It takes the simplicity and styling of the one-page business plan and turns it into a process for you to continuously plan, forecast, review, and refine based on your performance.
It holds all of the benefits of the single-page plan, including the potential to complete it in as little as 27 minutes . However, it's even easier to convert into a more detailed business plan thanks to how heavily it's tied to your financials. The overall goal of growth planning isn't to just produce documents that you use once and shelve. Instead, the growth planning process helps you build a healthier company that thrives in times of growth and remains stable through times of crisis.
It's faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your business plan is always up-to-date.
Download a free sample business plan template
Ready to start writing your own business plan but aren't sure where to start? Download our free business plan template that's been updated for 2024.
This simple, modern, investor-approved business plan sample is designed to make planning easy. It's a proven format that has helped over 1 million businesses write business plans for bank loans, funding pitches, business expansion, and even business sales. It includes additional instructions for how to write each section and is formatted to be SBA-lender approved. All you need to do is fill in the blanks.
How to use an example business plan to help you write your own
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How do you know what elements need to be included in your business plan, especially if you've never written one before? Looking at business plan examples can help you visualize what a full, traditional plan looks like, so you know what you're aiming for before you get started. Here's how to get the most out of a business plan sample.
Choose a business plan example from a similar type of company
You don't need to find an example of a business plan that's an exact fit for your business. Your business location, target market, and even your particular product or service may not match up exactly with the business plans in our gallery. But, you don't need an exact match for it to be helpful. Instead, look for a business plan sample that's related to the type of business you're starting.
For example, if you want to start a vegetarian restaurant, a plan for a steakhouse can be a great match. While the specifics of your actual startup will differ, the elements you'd want to include in your restaurant's business plan are likely to be very similar.
Use a business plan example as a guide
Every startup and small business is unique, so you'll want to avoid copying an example of a business plan word for word. It just won't be as helpful, since each business is unique. You want your business plan to be a useful tool for starting a business —and getting funding if you need it.
One of the key benefits of writing a business plan is simply going through the process. When you sit down to write, you'll naturally think through important pieces, like your startup costs, your target market , and any market analysis or research you'll need to do to be successful.
You'll also look at where you stand among your competition (and everyone has competition), and lay out your goals and the milestones you'll need to meet. Looking at an example of a business plan's financials section can be helpful because you can see what should be included, but take them with a grain of salt. Don't assume that financial projections for a sample company will fit your own small business.
If you're looking for more resources to help you get started, our business planning guide is a good place to start. You can also download our free business plan template .
Think of business planning as a process, instead of a document
Think about business planning as something you do often , rather than a document you create once and never look at again. If you take the time to write a plan that really fits your own company, it will be a better, more useful tool to grow your business. It should also make it easier to share your vision and strategy so everyone on your team is on the same page.
Adjust your business plan regularly to use it as a business management tool
Keep in mind that businesses that use their business plan as a management tool to help run their business grow 30 percent faster than those businesses that don't. For that to be true for your company, you'll think of a part of your business planning process as tracking your actual results against your financial forecast on a regular basis.
If things are going well, your business plan will help you think about how you can re-invest in your business. If you find that you're not meeting goals, you might need to adjust your budgets or your sales forecast. Either way, tracking your progress compared to your plan can help you adjust quickly when you identify challenges and opportunities—it's one of the most powerful things you can do to grow your business.
Prepare to pitch your business
If you're planning to pitch your business to investors or seek out any funding, you'll need a pitch deck to accompany your business plan. A pitch deck is designed to inform people about your business. You want your pitch deck to be short and easy to follow, so it's best to keep your presentation under 20 slides.
Your pitch deck and pitch presentation are likely some of the first things that an investor will see to learn more about your company. So, you need to be informative and pique their interest. Luckily we have a round-up of real-world pitch deck examples used by successful startups that you can review and reference as you build your pitch.
For more resources, check out our full Business Pitch Guide .
Ready to get started?
Now that you know how to use an example of a business plan to help you write a plan for your business, it's time to find the right one.
Use the search bar below to get started and find the right business plan example for your business idea.
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Written by Jesse Sumrak | May 14, 2023
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Business plans might seem like an old-school stiff-collared practice, but they deserve a place in the startup realm, too. It’s probably not going to be the frame-worthy document you hang in the office—yet, it may one day be deserving of the privilege.
Whether you’re looking to win the heart of an angel investor or convince a bank to lend you money, you’ll need a business plan. And not just any ol’ notes and scribble on the back of a pizza box or napkin—you’ll need a professional, standardized report.
Bah. Sounds like homework, right?
Yes. Yes, it does.
However, just like bookkeeping, loan applications, and 404 redirects, business plans are an essential step in cementing your business foundation.
Don’t worry. We’ll show you how to write a business plan without boring you to tears. We’ve jam-packed this article with all the business plan examples, templates, and tips you need to take your non-existent proposal from concept to completion.
Table of Contents
What Is a Business Plan?
Tips to Make Your Small Business Plan Ironclad
How to Write a Business Plan in 6 Steps
Startup Business Plan Template
Business Plan Examples
Work on Making Your Business Plan
How to Write a Business Plan FAQs
What is a business plan why do you desperately need one.
A business plan is a roadmap that outlines:
- Who your business is, what it does, and who it serves
- Where your business is now
- Where you want it to go
- How you’re going to make it happen
- What might stop you from taking your business from Point A to Point B
- How you’ll overcome the predicted obstacles
While it’s not required when starting a business, having a business plan is helpful for a few reasons:
- Secure a Bank Loan: Before approving you for a business loan, banks will want to see that your business is legitimate and can repay the loan. They want to know how you’re going to use the loan and how you’ll make monthly payments on your debt. Lenders want to see a sound business strategy that doesn’t end in loan default.
- Win Over Investors: Like lenders, investors want to know they’re going to make a return on their investment. They need to see your business plan to have the confidence to hand you money.
- Stay Focused: It’s easy to get lost chasing the next big thing. Your business plan keeps you on track and focused on the big picture. Your business plan can prevent you from wasting time and resources on something that isn’t aligned with your business goals.
Beyond the reasoning, let’s look at what the data says:
- Simply writing a business plan can boost your average annual growth by 30%
- Entrepreneurs who create a formal business plan are 16% more likely to succeed than those who don’t
- A study looking at 65 fast-growth companies found that 71% had small business plans
- The process and output of creating a business plan have shown to improve business performance
Convinced yet? If those numbers and reasons don’t have you scrambling for pen and paper, who knows what will.
Don’t Skip: Business Startup Costs Checklist
Before we get into the nitty-gritty steps of how to write a business plan, let’s look at some high-level tips to get you started in the right direction:
Be Professional and Legit
You might be tempted to get cutesy or revolutionary with your business plan—resist the urge. While you should let your brand and creativity shine with everything you produce, business plans fall more into the realm of professional documents.
Think of your business plan the same way as your terms and conditions, employee contracts, or financial statements. You want your plan to be as uniform as possible so investors, lenders, partners, and prospective employees can find the information they need to make important decisions.
If you want to create a fun summary business plan for internal consumption, then, by all means, go right ahead. However, for the purpose of writing this external-facing document, keep it legit.
Know Your Audience
Your official business plan document is for lenders, investors, partners, and big-time prospective employees. Keep these names and faces in your mind as you draft your plan.
Think about what they might be interested in seeing, what questions they’ll ask, and what might convince (or scare) them. Cut the jargon and tailor your language so these individuals can understand.
Remember, these are busy people. They’re likely looking at hundreds of applicants and startup investments every month. Keep your business plan succinct and to the point. Include the most pertinent information and omit the sections that won’t impact their decision-making.
Invest Time Researching
You might not have answers to all the sections you should include in your business plan. Don’t skip over these!
Your audience will want:
- Detailed information about your customers
- Numbers and solid math to back up your financial claims and estimates
- Deep insights about your competitors and potential threats
- Data to support market opportunities and strategy
Your answers can’t be hypothetical or opinionated. You need research to back up your claims. If you don’t have that data yet, then invest time and money in collecting it. That information isn’t just critical for your business plan—it’s essential for owning, operating, and growing your company.
Stay Realistic
Your business may be ambitious, but reign in the enthusiasm just a teeny-tiny bit. The last thing you want to do is have an angel investor call BS and say “I’m out” before even giving you a chance.
The folks looking at your business and evaluating your plan have been around the block—they know a thing or two about fact and fiction. Your plan should be a blueprint for success. It should be the step-by-step roadmap for how you’re going from Point A to Point B.
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How to Write a Business Plan—6 Essential Elements
Not every business plan looks the same, but most share a few common elements. Here’s what they typically include:
- Executive Summary
- Business Overview
- Products and Services
- Market Analysis
- Competitive Analysis
- Financial Strategy
Below, we’ll break down each of these sections in more detail.
1. Executive Summary
While your executive summary is the first page of your business plan, it’s the section you’ll write last. That’s because it summarizes your entire business plan into a succinct one-pager.
Begin with an executive summary that introduces the reader to your business and gives them an overview of what’s inside the business plan.
Your executive summary highlights key points of your plan. Consider this your elevator pitch. You want to put all your juiciest strengths and opportunities strategically in this section.
2. Business Overview
In this section, you can dive deeper into the elements of your business, including answering:
- What’s your business structure? Sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation, etc.
- Where is it located?
- Who owns the business? Does it have employees?
- What problem does it solve, and how?
- What’s your mission statement? Your mission statement briefly describes why you are in business. To write a proper mission statement, brainstorm your business’s core values and who you serve.
Don’t overlook your mission statement. This powerful sentence or paragraph could be the inspiration that drives an investor to take an interest in your business. Here are a few examples of powerful mission statements that just might give you the goosebumps:
- Patagonia: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
- Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
- InvisionApp : Question Assumptions. Think Deeply. Iterate as a Lifestyle. Details, Details. Design is Everywhere. Integrity.
- TED : Spread ideas.
- Warby Parker : To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.
3. Products and Services
As the owner, you know your business and the industry inside and out. However, whoever’s reading your document might not. You’re going to need to break down your products and services in minute detail.
For example, if you own a SaaS business, you’re going to need to explain how this business model works and what you’re selling.
You’ll need to include:
- What services you sell: Describe the services you provide and how these will help your target audience.
- What products you sell: Describe your products (and types if applicable) and how they will solve a need for your target and provide value.
- How much you charge: If you’re selling services, will you charge hourly, per project, retainer, or a mixture of all of these? If you’re selling products, what are the price ranges?
4. Market Analysis
Your market analysis essentially explains how your products and services address customer concerns and pain points. This section will include research and data on the state and direction of your industry and target market.
This research should reveal lucrative opportunities and how your business is uniquely positioned to seize the advantage. You’ll also want to touch on your marketing strategy and how it will (or does) work for your audience.
Include a detailed analysis of your target customers. This describes the people you serve and sell your product to. Be careful not to go too broad here—you don’t want to fall into the common entrepreneurial trap of trying to sell to everyone and thereby not differentiating yourself enough to survive the competition.
The market analysis section will include your unique value proposition. Your unique value proposition (UVP) is the thing that makes you stand out from your competitors. This is your key to success.
If you don’t have a UVP, you don’t have a way to take on competitors who are already in this space. Here’s an example of an ecommerce internet business plan outlining their competitive edge:
FireStarters’ competitive advantage is offering product lines that make a statement but won’t leave you broke. The major brands are expensive and not distinctive enough to satisfy the changing taste of our target customers. FireStarters offers products that are just ahead of the curve and so affordable that our customers will return to the website often to check out what’s new.
5. Competitive Analysis
Your competitive analysis examines the strengths and weaknesses of competing businesses in your market or industry. This will include direct and indirect competitors. It can also include threats and opportunities, like economic concerns or legal restraints.
The best way to sum up this section is with a classic SWOT analysis. This will explain your company’s position in relation to your competitors.
6. Financial Strategy
Your financial strategy will sum up your revenue, expenses, profit (or loss), and financial plan for the future. It’ll explain how you make money, where your cash flow goes, and how you’ll become profitable or stay profitable.
This is one of the most important sections for lenders and investors. Have you ever watched Shark Tank? They always ask about the company’s financial situation. How has it performed in the past? What’s the ongoing outlook moving forward? How does the business plan to make it happen?
Answer all of these questions in your financial strategy so that your audience doesn’t have to ask. Go ahead and include forecasts and graphs in your plan, too:
- Balance sheet: This includes your assets, liabilities, and equity.
- Profit & Loss (P&L) statement: This details your income and expenses over a given period.
- Cash flow statement: Similar to the P&L, this one will show all cash flowing into and out of the business each month.
It takes cash to change the world—lenders and investors get it. If you’re short on funding, explain how much money you’ll need and how you’ll use the capital. Where are you looking for financing? Are you looking to take out a business loan, or would you rather trade equity for capital instead?
Read More: 16 Financial Concepts Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know
Startup Business Plan Template (Copy/Paste Outline)
Ready to write your own business plan? Copy/paste the startup business plan template below and fill in the blanks.
Executive Summary Remember, do this last. Summarize who you are and your business plan in one page.
Business Overview Describe your business. What’s it do? Who owns it? How’s it structured? What’s the mission statement?
Products and Services Detail the products and services you offer. How do they work? What do you charge?
Market Analysis Write about the state of the market and opportunities. Use date. Describe your customers. Include your UVP.
Competitive Analysis Outline the competitors in your market and industry. Include threats and opportunities. Add a SWOT analysis of your business.
Financial Strategy Sum up your revenue, expenses, profit (or loss), and financial plan for the future. If you’re applying for a loan, include how you’ll use the funding to progress the business.
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5 Frame-Worthy Business Plan Examples
Want to explore other templates and examples? We got you covered. Check out these 5 business plan examples you can use as inspiration when writing your plan:
- SBA Wooden Grain Toy Company
- SBA We Can Do It Consulting
- OrcaSmart Business Plan Sample
- Plum Business Plan Template
- PandaDoc Free Business Plan Templates
Get to Work on Making Your Business Plan
If you find you’re getting stuck on perfecting your document, opt for a simple one-page business plan —and then get to work. You can always polish up your official plan later as you learn more about your business and the industry.
Remember, business plans are not a requirement for starting a business—they’re only truly essential if a bank or investor is asking for it.
Ask others to review your business plan. Get feedback from other startups and successful business owners. They’ll likely be able to see holes in your planning or undetected opportunities—just make sure these individuals aren’t your competitors (or potential competitors).
Your business plan isn’t a one-and-done report—it’s a living, breathing document. You’ll make changes to it as you grow and evolve. When the market or your customers change, your plan will need to change to adapt.
That means when you’re finished with this exercise, it’s not time to print your plan out and stuff it in a file cabinet somewhere. No, it should sit on your desk as a day-to-day reference. Use it (and update it) as you make decisions about your product, customers, and financial plan.
Review your business plan frequently, update it routinely, and follow the path you’ve developed to the future you’re building.
Keep Learning: New Product Development Process in 8 Easy Steps
What financial information should be included in a business plan?
Be as detailed as you can without assuming too much. For example, include your expected revenue, expenses, profit, and growth for the future.
What are some common mistakes to avoid when writing a business plan?
The most common mistake is turning your business plan into a textbook. A business plan is an internal guide and an external pitching tool. Cut the fat and only include the most relevant information to start and run your business.
Who should review my business plan before I submit it?
Co-founders, investors, or a board of advisors. Otherwise, reach out to a trusted mentor, your local chamber of commerce, or someone you know that runs a business.
Ready to Write Your Business Plan?
Don’t let creating a business plan hold you back from starting your business. Writing documents might not be your thing—that doesn’t mean your business is a bad idea.
Let us help you get started.
Join our free training to learn how to start an online side hustle in 30 days or less. We’ll provide you with a proven roadmap for how to find, validate, and pursue a profitable business idea (even if you have zero entrepreneurial experience).
Stuck on the ideas part? No problem. When you attend the masterclass, we’ll send you a free ebook with 100 of the hottest side hustle trends right now. It’s chock full of brilliant business ideas to get you up and running in the right direction.
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About Jesse Sumrak
Jesse Sumrak is a writing zealot focused on creating killer content. He’s spent almost a decade writing about startup, marketing, and entrepreneurship topics, having built and sold his own post-apocalyptic fitness bootstrapped business. A writer by day and a peak bagger by night (and early early morning), you can usually find Jesse preparing for the apocalypse on a precipitous peak somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
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With our popular online Toolkit, you can create your own Personal Business Plan as an ebook. Regardless of age, location, and how much time you have available, this tool will give results if you are committed. Using 40 interactive exercises, tools, and techniques, we lead you by the hand to develop your individual plan for your career and personal development.
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- UNDERSTAND YOURSELF – Analyze your past and present
- IDENTIFY YOUR DRIVERS – Grasp your personality
- REINVENT YOURSELF – Set your goals
- DESIGN YOUR FUTURE – Plan and execute
Together, we will edit your past, curate your present, and design your future.
We will align your career and personal life, secure your strengths, and make you fully prepared to implement personal and professional changes.
Your output is an eBook, 50-100 pages long or more, containing
- Your life and career overview and
- A plan for your future , ready for execution.
Learn to think like a top executive
What the Toolkit can give you.
What will you get when you subscribe to the Toolkit?
Step-by-step, follow the structured process carefully, apply a consistent effort, and arrive at the result:
YOUR OWN PERSONAL BUSINESS PLAN AS AN EBOOK
- A defined and actionable life and career plan in the form of an eBook, 50-100 pages or more
- With all your insights and conclusions documented
- Ready for you to implement
By subscribing to The Personal Business Plan you will get access to
THE ULTIMATE CAREER DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM
- 40 Interactive exercises
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Complete the Toolkit in any language of your choice. Add the Toolkit to your home screen as an App for easy access. First 24 hours are free.
How does the Toolkit work?
Think of the Toolkit as your own personal coach. ✓ You log in. ✓ You watch a video. ✓ You read an exercise. ✓ You reflect. ✓ You complete the exercise. ✓ You print the exercise or the entire plan. ✓ You save your Personal Business Plan as an ebook. ✓ Later, in the years to come, you revisit your Personal Business Plan from time to time. ✓With new experience and perspective added in your life, you reflect again and update your plan. When you're done with the 40 exercises, you have personal clarity and a career plan for your future. This all takes a good deal of time. Expect at least 10 hours in total for the first completion.
How long will it take until you see results?
Most people find that it takes six to twelve months to develop and implement their Personal Business Plan. Making life changes and growing new habits doesn’t happen overnight.
As with all major transformations, you need to invest time and energy to gain insights, to self-evaluate, to plan, and to stick to your plan. Put in a focused effort, and The Personal Business Plan will empower you to achieve your results.
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Melinda Weston
Melinda is our PBP partner in Australia. She runs her own consultancy business in career coaching and outplacement, creating clarity and direction for her clients.
![personal business plan report Portrait of Stephen Erik Becker - The Personal Business Plan partner](https://thepersonalbusinessplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/StephenBecker-252x252.jpeg)
Stephen Erik Becker
Stephen runs his own consultancy company, focusing on executive search and coaching in a broad range of industries.
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Rajeev Bhadauria
Rajeev Bhadauria is our PBP Partner in India. He runs his own consultancy business in New Delhi after 30+ years as an HR executive. Rajeev works in English, Hindi, and Urdu.
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Stephen Bruyant-Langer
Stephen is the father of The Personal Business Plan. He has successfully transformed thousands of lives through his unique coaching system.
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Ulrik Langermann
Ulrik builds organizational and leadership strength in local and global companies in his consultancy company Valesco (‘Grow Stronger’).
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Ulrikke Olufsen
Ulrikke is an experienced ICF accredited business coach with a strong background as an HR professional and a passion for scale-ups and founders.
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Olivier S.E. Courtois
Olivier is a CEO Advisor, author, speaker, and executive coach for executives and top teams. He has global leadership experience on five continents and works in five languages.
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Kurt Mikkelsen
Kurt is an economist, businessman, and ICF-certified coach. He has life-long experience in making his employees and clients reach their highest potential, especially in demanding times.
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Lena Beck Roervig
Lena runs her own consultancy company, based in New York, Cannes, and Copenhagen. She works with executives across industries worldwide.
![personal business plan report Portrait of executive coach Mikkel Gradert - The Personal Business Plan partner](https://thepersonalbusinessplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/MikkelGradert-252x252.jpg)
Mikkel Gradert
Mikkel runs his own performance coaching company in Copenhagen, focusing on individual performance coaching and organizational changes.
![personal business plan report Portrait of executive coach Thit Aaris-Hoeg - The Personal Business Plan partner](https://thepersonalbusinessplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ThitAarisHoeg-252x252.jpg)
Thit Aaris-Hoeg
Thit is CEO of a private Danish foundation working with social responsibility. At the same time, she runs her own coaching company.
![personal business plan report Portrait of executive coach Rune Sorensen - The Personal Business Plan partner](https://thepersonalbusinessplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/rune-sorensen.jpeg)
Rune Sorensen
Rune is a headhunter and advisor for top executives and board members.
![personal business plan report Portrait of executive coach Tomas Bruun - The Personal Business Plan partner](https://thepersonalbusinessplan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/TomasBruun-252x252.jpeg)
18 of My Favorite Sample Business Plans & Examples For Your Inspiration
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Published: July 01, 2024
I believe that reading sample business plans is essential when writing your own.
![personal business plan report sample business plans and examples](https://www.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/sample-business-plan_11-1.webp?width=595&height=400&name=sample-business-plan_11-1.webp)
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As you explore business plan examples from real companies and brands, it’s easier for you to learn how to write a good one.
So what does a good business plan look like? And how do you write one that’s both viable and convincing? I’ll walk you through the ideal business plan format along with some examples to help you get started.
Table of Contents
Business Plan Types
Business plan format, sample business plan: section by section, sample business plan templates, top business plan examples.
Ultimately, the format of your business plan will vary based on your goals for that plan. I’ve added this quick review of different business plan types that achieve differing goals.
For a more detailed exploration of business plan types, you can check out this post .
![personal business plan report personal business plan report](https://www.hubspot.com/hubfs/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/modules/full-width-cta/Image%20Hackathon%20%E2%80%93%20Vertical%20(54).webp)
Free Business Plan Template
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1. Startups
Startup business plans are for proposing new business ideas. If you’re planning to start a small business, preparing a business plan is crucial. The plan should include all the major factors of your business.
You can check out this guide for more detailed business plan inspiration .
2. Feasibility Studies
Feasibility business plans focus on that business's product or service. Feasibility plans are sometimes added to startup business plans. They can also be a new business plan for an already thriving organization.
3. Internal Use
You can use internal business plans to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders. In my opinion, internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals.
4. Strategic Initiatives
A strategic business plan is another business plan that's often shared internally. This plan covers long-term business objectives that might not have been included in the startup business plan.
5. Business Acquisition or Repositioning
When a business is moving forward with an acquisition or repositioning, it may need extra structure and support. These types of business plans expand on a company's acquisition or repositioning strategy.
Growth sometimes just happens as a business continues operations. But more often, a business needs to create a structure with specific targets to meet set goals for expansion. This business plan type can help a business focus on short-term growth goals and align resources with those goals.
I’m going to focus on a startup business plan that needs to be detailed and research-backed as well as compelling enough to convince investors to offer funding. In my experience, the most comprehensive and convincing business plans contain the following sections.
Executive Summary
This all-important introduction to your business plan sets the tone and includes the company description as well as what you will be exchanging for money — whether that’s product lines, services, or product-service hybrids.
Market Opportunity
Information about gaps in your industry’s market and how you plan to fill them, focused on demand and potential for growth.
Competitive Landscape Analysis
An overview of your competitors that includes consideration of their strengths and how you’ll manage them, their weaknesses and how you’ll capitalize on them, and how you can differentiate your offerings in the industry.
Target Audience
Descriptions of your ideal customers, their various problems that you can solve, and your customer acquisition strategy.
Marketing Strategy
This section details how you will market your brand to achieve specific goals, the channels and tactics you’ll utilize to reach those goals, and the metrics you’ll be using to measure your progress.
Key Features and Benefits
This is where you’ll use plain language to emphasize the value of your product/service, how it solves the problems of your target audiences, and how you’ll scale up over time.
Pricing and Revenue
This section describes your pricing strategy and plans for building revenue streams that fit your audiences while achieving your business goals.
This is the final section, communicating with investors that your business idea is worth investing in via profit/loss statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets to prove viability.
Okay, so now that we have a format established, I’ll give you more specific details about each section along with examples. Truthfully, I wish I’d had this resource to help me flesh out those first business plans long ago.
1. Executive Summary
I’d say the executive summary is the most important section of the entire business plan. It is essentially an overview of and introduction to your entire project.
Write this in such a way that it grabs your readers' attention and guides them through the rest of the business plan. This is important because a business plan can be dozens or hundreds of pages long.
There are two main elements I’d recommend including in your executive summary: your company description and your products and services.
Company Description
This is the perfect space to highlight your company’s mission statement and goals, a brief overview of your history and leadership, and your top accomplishments as a business.
Tell potential investors who you are and why what you do matters. Naturally, they’re going to want to know who they’re getting into business with up front. This is a great opportunity to showcase your impact.
Need some extra help firming up your business goals? I’d recommend HubSpot Academy’s free course to help you set meaningful goals that matter most for your business.
Products and Services
Here, you will incorporate an overview of your offerings. This doesn’t have to be extensive, as it is just a chance to introduce your industry and overall purpose as a business. I recommend including snippets of information about your financial projections and competitive advantage here as well.
Keep in mind that you'll cover many of these topics in more detail later on in the business plan. The executive summary should be clear and brief, only including the most important takeaways.
Executive Summary Business Plan Examples
This example was created with HubSpot’s business plan template . What makes this executive summary good is that it tells potential investors a short story while still covering all of the most important details.
Our Mission
Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels offers gluten-free bagels, along with various toppings, other gluten-free breakfast sandwich items, and coffee. The facility is entirely gluten free. Our team expects to catch the interest of gluten-free, celiac, or health-conscious community members who are seeking an enjoyable cafe to socialize. Due to a lack of gluten-free bagel products in the food industry currently, we expect mild competition and are confident we will be able to build a strong market position.
The Company and Management
Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels was founded in 2010 by Maria Jones, who first began selling her gluten-free bagels online from her home, using social media to spread the word. In 2012 she bought a retail location in Hamilton, MA, which now employs four full-time employees and six part-time employees. Prior to her bagel shop, Maria was a chef in New York and has extensive experience in the food industry.
Along with Maria Jones, Gluten Free Bagel Shop has a board of advisors. The advisors are:
- Jeni King, partner at Winding Communications, Ltd.
- Henry Wilson, president of Blue Robin, LLP.
Our Product
We offer gluten-free products ranging from bagels and cream cheese to blueberry muffins, coffee, and pastries. Our customers are health-conscious, community-oriented people who enjoy gluten-free products. We will create a welcoming, warm environment with opportunities for open mic nights, poetry readings, and other community functions. We will focus on creating an environment in which someone feels comfortable meeting a friend for lunch, or working remotely.
Our Competitive Advantages
While there are other coffee shops and cafes in the North Shore region, there are none that offer purely gluten-free options. This restricts those suffering from gluten-free illnesses or simply those with a gluten-free preference. This will be our primary selling point. Additionally, our market research [see Section 3] has shown a demand for a community-oriented coffee and bagel shop in the town of Hamilton, MA.
Financial Considerations
Our sales projections for the first year are $400,000. We project a 15% growth rate over the next two years. By year three, we project 61% gross margins.
We will have four full-time employees. The salary for each employee will be $50,000.
Start-up Financing Requirements
We are seeking to raise $125,000 in startup to finance year one. The owner has invested $50,000 to meet working capital requirements, and will use a loan of $100,000 to supplement the rest.
Example 2 :
Marianne and Keith Bean have been involved with the food industry for several years. They opened their first restaurant in Antlers, Oklahoma in 1981, and their second in Hugo in 1988. Although praised for the quality of many of the items on their menu, they have attained a special notoriety for their desserts. After years of requests for their flavored whipped cream toppings, they have decided to pursue marketing these products separately from the restaurants.
Marianne and Keith Bean have developed several recipes for flavored whipped cream topping. They include chocolate, raspberry, cinnamon almond, and strawberry. These flavored dessert toppings have been used in the setting of their two restaurants over the past 18 years, and have been produced in large quantities. The estimated shelf life of the product is 21 days at refrigeration temperatures and up to six months when frozen. The Beans intend to market this product in its frozen state in 8 and 12-ounce plastic tubs. They also intend to have the products available in six ounce pressurized cans. Special attention has been given to developing an attractive label that will stress the gourmet/specialty nature of the products.
Distribution of Fancy's Foods Whipped Dream product will begin in the local southeastern Oklahoma area. The Beans have an established name and reputation in this area, and product introduction should encounter little resistance.
Financial analyses show that the company will have both a positive cash flow and profit in the first year. The expected return on equity in the first year is 10.88%
Tips for Writing Your Executive Summary
- Start with a strong introduction of your company that showcases your mission and impact, then outline the products and services you provide.
- Clearly define a problem, explain how your product solves that problem, and show why the market needs your business.
- Be sure to highlight your value proposition, market opportunity, and growth potential.
- Keep it concise and support ideas with data.
- Customize your summary to your audience. For example, you might emphasize finances and return on investment for venture capitalists, whereas you might emphasize community benefits and minimal environmental impact for progressive nonprofits.
For more guidance, check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary .
2. Market Opportunity
This is where you'll detail the opportunity in the market. Ask and answer: Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will my product fill that gap?
To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, you'll want to conduct a TAM, SAM, SOM analysis , a SWOT analysis , and perform market research on your industry to get some insights for this section. More specifically, here’s what I’d include.
- The size of the market
- Current or potential market share
- Trends in the industry and consumer behavior
- Where the gap is
- What caused the gap
- How you intend to fill it
Market Opportunity Business Plan Example
I like this example because it uses critical data to underline the size of the potential market and what part of that market this service hopes to capture.
Example: The market for Doggie Pause is all of the dog owners in the metropolitan area and surrounding areas of the city. We believe that this is going to be 2/3 of the population, and we have a goal of gaining a 50% market share. We have a target of a 20% yearly profit increase as the business continues.
Tips for Writing Your Market Opportunity Section
- Focus on demand and potential for growth.
- Use market research, surveys, and industry trend data to support your market forecast and projections.
- Add a review of regulation shifts, tech advances, and consumer behavior changes.
- Refer to reliable sources.
- Showcase how your business can make the most of this opportunity.
3. Competitive Landscape Analysis
Since we’re already speaking of market share, you‘ll also need to create a section that shares details on who the top competitors are. After all, your customers likely have more than one brand to choose from, and you’ll want to understand exactly why they might choose one over another.
My favorite part of performing a competitive analysis is that it can help you uncover the following:
- Industry trends that other brands may not be utilizing.
- Strengths in your competition that may be obstacles to handle.
- Weaknesses in your competition that may help you develop selling points.
- The unique proposition you bring to the market that may resonate with customers.
Competitive Landscape Business Plan Example
I like how the competitive landscape section of this business plan shows a clear outline of who the top competitors are. It also highlights specific industry knowledge and the importance of location. This demonstrates useful experience in the industry, helping to build trust in your ability to execute your business plan.
Competitive Environment
Currently, there are four primary competitors in the Greater Omaha Area: Pinot’s Palette Lakeside (franchise partner), Village Canvas and Cabernet, The Corky Canvas, and Twisted Vine Collective. The first three competitors are in Omaha and the fourth is located in Papillion.
Despite the competition, all locations have both public and private events. Each location has a few sold-out painting events each month. The Omaha locations are in new, popular retail locations, while the existing Papillion location is in a downtown business district.
There is an opportunity to take advantage of the environment and open a studio in a well-traveled or growing area. Pinot’s Palette La Vista will differentiate itself from its competitors by offering a premium experience in a high-growth, influential location.
Tips for Writing Your Competitive Landscape
- Complete in-depth research, then emphasize your most important findings.
- Compare your unique selling proposition (USP) to your direct and indirect competitors.
- Show a clear and realistic plan for product and brand differentiation.
- Look for specific advantages and barriers in the competitive landscape. Then, highlight how that information could impact your business.
- Outline growth opportunities from a competitive perspective.
- Add customer feedback and insights to support your competitive analysis.
4. Target Audience
Use this section to describe who your customer segments are in detail. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience? I’d recommend building a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and be clear about why you're targeting them. Here are some questions I’d ask myself:
- What demographics will most likely need/buy your product or service?
- What are the psychographics of this audience? (Desires, triggering events, etc.)
- Why are your offerings valuable to them?
Target Audience Business Plan Example
I like the example below because it uses in-depth research to draw conclusions about audience priorities. It also analyzes how to create the right content for this audience.
The Audience
Recognize that audiences are often already aware of important issues. Outreach materials should:
- Emphasize a pollution-prevention practice
- Tell audience a little about how to prevent pollution
- Tell audience where they can obtain information about prevention.
Message Content
- Focus the content for outreach materials on cost savings, such as when and where pollution prevention is as cheap as or cheaper than traditional techniques. Include facts and figures.
- Emphasize how easy it is to do the right thing and the impacts of not engaging in pollution prevention.
- Stress benefits such as efficiency or better relations with government, for businesses not primarily concerned with public image.
Tips for Writing Your Target Audience Section
- Include details on the size and growth potential of your target audience.
- Figure out and refine the pain points for your target audience , then show why your product is a useful solution.
- Describe your targeted customer acquisition strategy in detail.
- Share anticipated challenges your business may face in acquiring customers and how you plan to address them.
- Add case studies, testimonials, and other data to support your target audience ideas.
- Remember to consider niche audiences and segments of your target audience in your business plan.
5. Marketing Strategy
Here, you‘ll discuss how you’ll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. I think it’s helpful to have a marketing plan built out in advance to make this part of your business plan easier. I’d suggest including these details:
- Your brand positioning vision and how you'll cultivate it.
- The goal targets you aim to achieve.
- The metrics you'll use to measure success.
- The channels and distribution tactics you'll use.
Marketing Strategy Business Plan Example
This business plan example includes the marketing strategy for the town of Gawler. In my opinion, it works because it offers a comprehensive picture of how they plan to use digital marketing to promote the community.
![personal business plan report Screenshot of sample marketing plan](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/sample-business-plan-1-20240628-7175828.webp)
![](http://earnmoneybangla.online/777/templates/cheerup1/res/banner1.gif)
Financials Business Plan Example
This balance sheet is a great example of the level of detail you’ll need to include in the financials section of your business plan.
Current Assets
1010 Checking 583,961
1020 Savings 224,600
1030 Petty Cash 89,840
Total Cash - 898,402
1100 Accounts Receivable - 3,593,607
1200 Work in Process - 589,791
1300 Other Current Assets
1310 Prepaid Rent 164,593
1320 Prepaid Liability Insurance 109,728
Total Other Current Assets - 274,321
Total Current Assets - 5,356,121
Tips for Writing Your Financials Section
- Growth potential is important in this section too. Using your data, create a forecast of financial performance in the next three to five years.
- Include any data that supports your projections to assure investors of the credibility of your proposal.
- Add a break-even analysis to show that your business plan is financially practical. This information can also help you pivot quickly as your business grows.
- Consider adding a section that reviews potential risks and how sensitive your plan is to changes in the market.
- Triple-check all financial information in your plan for accuracy.
- Show how any proposed funding needs align with your plans for growth.
Now that you know what‘s included and how to format a business plan, let’s review some of my favorite templates.
1. HubSpot's One-Page Business Plan
![personal business plan report Screenshot of sample business plan from Hubspot](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/sample-business-plan-2-20240628-7145408.webp)
You’ll also learn the financial benefits investors can reap from putting money into your venture rather than trying to sell them on how great your product or service is.
This business plan guide focuses less on the individual parts of a business plan, and more on the overarching goal of writing one. For that reason, it’s one of my favorites to supplement any template you choose to use. Harvard Business Review’s guide is instrumental for both new and seasoned business owners.
7. HubSpot’s Complete Guide to Starting a Business
![personal business plan report Screenshot of business startup kit download page from hubspot](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/sample-business-plan-7-20240628-9740856.webp)
23 of My Favorite Free Marketing Newsletters
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The 8 Best Free Flowchart Templates [+ Examples]
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![personal business plan report How to Write an Executive Summary Execs Can't Ignore [+ 5 Top Examples]](https://www.hubspot.com/hubfs/executive-summary-example_5.webp)
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20 Free & Paid Small Business Tools for Any Budget
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Maximizing Your Social Media Strategy: The Top Aggregator Tools to Use
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The Content Aggregator Guide for 2024
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2 Essential Templates For Starting Your Business
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Resources for Your Growing Business
Top 10 personal business goals examples for 2024.
![personal business plan report Top 10 Personal Business Goals You Can Set and Achieve](https://www.freshbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/personal-business-goals-examples.jpg)
Do you have a professional development goal? Change can sometimes feel daunting, but it doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task. A lot of successful people set milestones that are specific and measurable to help make a realistic goal become a success.
Everyone works differently and has other things going on in their lives, so some strategies will work better than others. The main thing is to make sure your goals are achievable while you maintain a healthy work-life balance. If they’re not, you are just setting yourself up for failure.
One way to improve productivity while reducing stress and finding more time to do the things you love, like spending time with family, is automating processes, like incorporating accounting, planning, and tracking software into your business processes. Doing this will reduce the time and mental space spent on these tasks, allowing you the freedom to work on the creative side of your business or take a day off every once in a while. A good balance between your personal and professional life can make all the difference in your mental health and achieving your professional development goals.
FreshBooks offers a variety of helpful tools that will help you with everything in your professional life, from bookkeeping to client management .
Click here to learn more about how FreshBooks can improve your overall quality of life and give you more free time to spend away from the computer.
There are also individual business goals that you can set and achieve that will help you avoid becoming overwhelmed in life. Let’s take a look at the top 10 personal business goals that will help you reach professional success.
Key Takeaways
- A healthy work-life balance can help you avoid burnout
- Setting professional development goals and learning new professional skills can help you with your career advancement
- Stepping outside of your comfort zone can help you achieve great results in your professional life
- Being creative and becoming a thought leader can position you at the top of your field
- Keeping the body and mind healthy is the key to stress reduction
- Earning a promotion can be as simple as improving your focus through targeted goal setting
- Knowing your limits while embracing discomfort can help you expand your reach without overextending yourself
- Setting SMART goals is the most effective way to achieve big dreams
Here’s what we’ll cover:
What Are Professional Development Goals?
The top 10 personal business goals, what are personal development goals for work, how can you achieve your career goals, why set goals for work.
Frequently Asked Questions
A professional development goal is any objective you want to set for yourself that will help you enhance your career. Examples of professional goals include learning new relevant skills, finding more satisfaction in the workplace, expanding your network, leveling up your credentials, or taking up leadership opportunities when presented.
Some examples of personal goals you may wish to achieve include incorporating self-care into your routine, improving public speaking skills, limiting social media usage, and working to change procrastination habits.
Both personal and professional development goals can help you get ahead, keeping you productive and up-to-date on new trends, improving networks, and ensuring you build a life that is right for you, so you feel satisfied in your career and life.
The easiest way to set achievable goals, both in your personal and professional life, is by utilizing the SMART method. This means that the goals you choose should be:
- S PECIFIC, with every step laid out including what needs to be accomplished, and the steps that need to be taken
- M EASURABLE, by setting trackable benchmarks, like specific dates you will practice a new skill, the number of hours a week you allow yourself to spend online, a specific financial saving goal, etc.
- A CHIEVABLE, starting small and realistically. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Choose something you can definitely accomplish with a little work.
- R ELEVANT and pertinent to the overall vision. Knowing the “why” behind the goal will keep you motivated, and your goal will keep you moving toward the life you envision for yourself
- T IME-BOUND, as a time parameter, will keep you on track and give you a deadline to hit
When you use the SMART method, achieving personal development goals is much easier. This framework is designed to make goal achievement realistic in both your personal life and your professional career.
You can throw your own personal spin on goal setting and alter them so they work with your needs. There isn’t a perfect recipe for figuring out which goals to set. You just need to make sure you have achievable goals, and they’re attainable and measurable.
This way, you have the best possible chance of success regardless of your ultimate goal or professional development goal. Here are the top 10 personal business goals you can set and achieve.
![personal business plan report Power Up Your Team](https://www.freshbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Leadership_0@2x-1280x258.png)
1. Improve your Online Image
There can be a thousand moving parts to staying relevant online in today’s digital world. But there are certain things you can do to help improve your online image. One of the first things you should do, if you haven’t already, is make sure you own your domain name.
It could be your personal or company name, but try to ensure it’s relevant to your business. You can also think about investing in high-quality headshots from a professional photographer. This will help make your social media profiles and website stand out.
They will also give you something professional to send to organizers if you’re speaking at an event or making another public appearance. As well, spend some time putting together a portfolio of your best work.
You can share it online or post samples to your LinkedIn page. For example, tons of free writing portfolio websites are available that can make it simple and easy to drag and drop documents.
2. Become a Thought Leader
It’s never too early to start to position yourself as a thought leader or authority in your industry. Reach out and contact appropriate business people to try and moderate or speak on a panel. You can also enquire about appearing on a podcast or a guest blog post.
Identifying every opportunity you can to share your knowledge and business expertise can have a positive impact in the long run. You can build your credibility and audience and grow into a thought-provoking leader.
3. Find a New Business Idea
Do you spend a lot of time thinking about your business and ways that you can grow or expand? Some of those ideas might seem far-fetched or out of reach. But why do they have to be? What personal and business goals would you hope to achieve by starting your company?
Develop a new idea, implement it, and establish yourself as a leader in your field. And you don’t just have to limit yourself to things like industry blogs or social media. You can get inspired by other people’s work and put your own spin on it.
4. Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
It might seem like a bit of a cliche, but getting outside your comfort zone can have many positive benefits. It might seem scary, but doing something drastic like speaking in public or attending networking events can be a good start. You can improve your communication skills and take actionable steps toward personal growth.
Sometimes getting outside your comfort zone is simply about finding ways to become better, even in the smallest of ways. It also allows you to realize that there are things about yourself you might have underestimated before and helps build emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
5. Learn a New Skill
Nobody knows everything. There are always opportunities to learn and improve, and learning a new skill is one way to do that. You can meet new people, and there are many free courses and resources online.
Education doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming. Discuss some options with your employer or workplace and see if they offer training. Some of the most desired skills in today’s economy include:
- Excel skills
- Web development
- Copywriting
- Public speaking
- Google Analytics
- Digital Marketing
- Time management
- Project management
Meeting project management goals, collaborating with your team, and tracking time and expenses is so much simpler using FreshBooks project management software. Click here for a free trial, so you can free up mental space and improve your overall productivity.
![personal business plan report Project Management Software](https://www.freshbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/projects-work-faster-rev@2x-1280x477.png)
6. Monitor and Evaluate Your Health
Keeping your mind and body healthy is integral to staying productive, energetic, and engaged in your work. Go to the dentist, schedule a checkup with your doctor, and take plenty of time for self-care. Get creative with your health goals while recognizing areas where you can take a break, reset, and return with more focus and drive. Sleeping well, eating healthy food, and getting exercise will keep your body fit and help you avoid missing work due to stress and preventable physical health issues.
7. Start a Side Hustle
Sometimes, long-term goals don’t necessarily improve your company or allow you to increase your skills. Perhaps you want to start a business, work for yourself, or transition into a different industry or business sector.
A side hustle can help get you there. It can also provide some increased financials that might make it easier to pay off debts or bills if you have any.
8. Earn a Promotion
Earning a promotion takes planning, so it’s definitely a long-term goal instead of a short-term one. You can get started now to prepare yourself for any upcoming performance review. Make it a personal work goal to try and exceed any of your previous performance metrics .
This improvement will demonstrate you have value to the company and you have substantial leadership capability . These are important skills and personality traits businesses want to keep on their team.
Try thinking of some new tasks or projects you could undertake. You could learn new skills or develop relationships outside of business. Whatever it is, it shows initiative and that you are an integral part of the business operations.
9. Improve Your Focus
Learning to tune out distractions and avoid downtime can help increase your productivity. Try and turn off your phone or leave it in another room while working. This will leave you less tempted to check notifications and surf through social media.
It’s difficult to focus when you’re burned out, so try and keep a healthy work and life balance. This will help ensure you’re energized and motivated when you return to work. You can also try and block off certain periods to grab a snack or take a walk to return to your work focused.
10. Boost Your Confidence
Everyone has moments of doubt and feelings of inadequacy. Try and make some personal goals to improve or boost your confidence. You can ask more questions in meetings or learn to trust your gut and intuition.
Accepting that you are going to make mistakes is a great place to start. No one is perfect, and making mistakes allows you to learn. You can understand what happened and ensure you make proper adjustments, so it doesn’t happen again in the future.
Having regular meetings with a project manager or coworker to discuss challenges at work can also make things easier. When details are discussed in the open, it makes them more actionable and real.
Take a look at some of these personal development goals that can make you even more focused and productive at work.
- Include time for personal interests and hobbies
- Embrace saying “no” to certain things
- Keep a journal of daily occurrences
- Volunteer to take a break from the grind of daily business activities
- Become a mentor to share your expertise with the next generation
- Improving communication skills
- Better time management skills
![personal business plan report The Tools Make The Team](https://www.freshbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Leadership_2@2x-1280x258.png)
Taking the first step to achieve your goals is writing them down. But do you have a plan or strategy to reach your goals? How are you going to get to where you want to go?
Here are five tips to help you achieve your career goals.
1. Embrace the journey
It can sometimes take a long time to achieve your career goals, they don’t often happen overnight. It’s important to embrace the experiences along the way instead of being narrowly focused on a singular path. Things can happen differently or unexpectedly, and that’s okay.
2. Know what you’re willing to sacrifice
What are you willing to give up or sacrifice to achieve your career goals? For example, if being close to friends and family is important to you, moving far away for a dream job might not work out. Or, if you love to travel, committing to a job that keeps you behind a desk might be a recipe for disaster. You want your career path to be fulfilling, not draining.
3. Take your struggles in stride
There are going to be rough patches and moments of stress. You can work with a mentor or someone who can help provide advice and solutions to help you get through any struggles.
4. Give back when you can
Paying it forward is one of those things that have unintended positive results. Help other young professionals or students through mentoring or by offering career advice. Do you remember someone who gave you advice early in your career and how helpful it was? Try and return the favor and give back when you can.
5. Set measurable goals
Goals and milestones are useless if they’re not attainable. Use the SMART goals process, which is an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This framework helps ensure your goals are specific and quantifiable.
Setting achievable work goals will keep you motivated and stop your skills from atrophying. Remaining still in one position for a long period of time can become boring and demotivating for many people, so giving yourself additional challenges will keep you engaged and excited.
Goal setting is also important because of it:
- This will set you apart from the rest and give you a good reputation amongst higher-ups as somebody who can achieve great things and is not afraid to try new things
- Encourages optimism in the workplace, which can be contagious and lead to a happier and healthier workplace for everybody
- Helps you manage your time effectively and better focus on relevant tasks
- Keeps you up to date on industry trends and keeps you employable as technology changes
- Keeps your team aligned, which leads to faster growth in small businesses
Balancing work and personal life can become stressful. You want to ensure you are delivering on your tasks and responsibilities at work, but you also want to have time at home with friends and family. It can sometimes be even more difficult to try and set personal business goals to achieve.
The good news is that there are tons of things that you can do to help you set your goals and ultimately achieve them. Becoming a thought leader, generating new business ideas, or improving your focus are just goals you can set and achieve. When you are figuring out which goals you want to set, it’s important to make sure that they’re attainable and specific. If they’re not, your journey to achieving them will become bumpy and likely have some detours. Use the SMART acronym to help make sure your goals are quantifiable and contribute to your growth mindset.
Did you enjoy reading this guide? Head over to our leadership category for more great content!
FAQs on Personal Business Goals
How do you write a personal goal for a business.
When writing a personal goal for your business, it is important to identify your objective, or the “why” behind the goal, to discover what success will mean to you. Using the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based) acronym will help with this step.
Next, you will need to create a plan that can be broken down into small, actionable steps and milestones. This way, you can measure how far you have come toward the goal and make adjustments if necessary. Monitoring your progress and reviewing the plan regularly will keep you on track.
What is a typical business goal?
Business goals vary between industries but will be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. Some common business goals include increasing shareholder value, growing the business, incorporating new services or products, reducing employee turnover, or reaching out to the community. The goal is to keep the business continually progressing and improving.
What are personal and professional goals?
Both personal and professional goals are objectives that can be worked toward in order to improve quality of life in some way. Personal goals often pertain to a person’s lifestyle and family life, while professional goals are aspirations that can help you succeed in your career or improve your workplace performance.
What goals can I set for myself?
Some goals you can set that will help you in your personal and professional life include things like improving your time management , limiting internet usage, taking better care of your physical and mental health, achieving specific financial goals, stepping outside of your comfort zone, or learning new skills.
What personal and business goals would you hope to achieve by starting your company?
When thinking about starting your own company, what are the goals you want to achieve? Some common answers to this question include financial freedom, early retirement, making a career change, professional growth, having flexible hours, and having a better work-life balance .
You will have to think about your own life and what you hope to gain from starting your own company. Will it bring you a higher sense of satisfaction to work for yourself? Will you enjoy having more control over the business end of things?
![personal business plan report](https://www.freshbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Kristen-Slavin-CPAheadshot-219x300.jpg)
Kristen Slavin, CPA
About the author
Kristen Slavin is a CPA with 16 years of experience, specializing in accounting, bookkeeping, and tax services for small businesses. A member of the CPA Association of BC, she also holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Simon Fraser University. In her spare time, Kristen enjoys camping, hiking, and road tripping with her husband and two children. In 2022 Kristen founded K10 Accounting. The firm offers bookkeeping and accounting services for business and personal needs, as well as ERP consulting and audit assistance.
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How to Write a Business Report: A Step By Step Guide with Examples
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Table of contents
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To see what Databox can do for you, including how it helps you track and visualize your performance data in real-time, check out our home page. Click here .
With so much experience under your belt, you already know a lot about business reporting.
So, we don’t want to waste your time pointing out the obvious because we know what you need.
Secrets. Tricks. Best practices.sales rep drilldown business report
The answer to how to write a mind-blowing business report that you don’t need to spend hours and days writing.
A business report that will immediately allow you to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
A report that’ll help you learn more about your business and do more accurate forecasting and planning for the future.
We believe we have just that right here.
With this comprehensive guide, you’ll create effective sales, analytical, and informative business reports (and business dashboards ) that will help you improve your strategies, achieve your goals, and grow your business.
So, let’s dive in.
What Is a Business Report?
Importance of creating business reports, types of business reports, what should be included in a business report, how to write a business report: an 11-step guide.
- Business Report Examples
![personal business plan report profitwell-dashboard-template-databox-cta](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/31065819/profitwell-dashboard-template-databox-cta.png)
Although there’s a variety of business reports that differ in many aspects, in short, a business report definition would be the following:
A business report is an informative document that contains important data such as facts, analyses, research findings, and statistics about a business with the goal to make this information accessible to people within a company.
Their main purpose is to facilitate the decision-making process related to the future of the business, as well as to maintain effective communication between people who create the reports and those they report to.
A good business report is concise and well-organized, looks professional, and displays the relevant data you can act on. The point is to reflect upon what you’ve achieved so far (typically, over the past month, quarter or year) and to use the data to create a new strategy or adjust the current one to reach even more business goals.
Business reports should be objective and based on the data. When stating the facts, people rely on numbers rather than giving descriptions. For instance, instead of saying “our conversion rate skyrocketed”, you would display the exact percentages that back up that claim.
Business reporting matters for several reasons, among which the most important ones are:
Recognizing Opportunities to Grow
Detecting issues and solving them quickly, evaluating a potential partner, having a paper trail, keeping things transparent for the stakeholders, setting new company goals.
In fact, over half of the companies that contributed to Databox’s state of business reporting research confirmed that regular monitoring and reporting brought them significant concrete benefits.
If you never look back at what you’ve achieved, you can’t figure out what you’ve done well and what you can leverage in the future for even better results.
When you analyze a specific aspect of your business over a specific time period and present the data you gathered in a report, you can detect an opportunity to grow more easily because you have all the information in one place and organized neatly.
Is it time to introduce new products or services? Is there a way to enhance your marketing strategy? Prepare a report. Can you optimize your finances? Write a financial business report . Whatever decision you need to make, it’s easier when you base it on a report.
Reports are essential for crisis management because they can introduce a sense of calmness into your team. Putting everything on paper makes it easier to encompass all the relevant information and when you know all the facts, you can make a more accurate and effective decision about what to do next.
Writing business reports regularly will also help you identify potential issues or risks and act timely to prevent damage and stop it from escalating. That’s why monthly reporting is better than doing it only once a year.
Having an insight into your finances , operations and other business aspects more regularly allows you to have better control over them and mitigate potential risks more effectively.
Different types of business reports may be accessible to the general public. And if they’re not, specific situations may require a company to send them over to the person requesting them. That may happen if you’re considering a partnership with another company. Before making the final decision, you should learn about their financial health as every partnership poses a certain risk for your finances and/or reputation. Will this decision be profitable?
Having an insight into a company’s business report helps you establish vital business relationships. And it goes the other way around – any potential partner can request that you pull a business report for them to see, so writing business reports can help you prove you’re a suitable business partner.
In business, and especially in large companies, it’s easy to misplace information when it’s communicated verbally. Having a written report about any aspect of your business doesn’t only prevent you from losing important data, but it also helps you keep records so you can return to them at any given moment and use them in the future.
That’s why it’s always good to have a paper trail of anything important you want to share with colleagues, managers, clients, or investors. Nowadays, of course, it doesn’t have to literally be a paper trail, since we keep the data in electronic form.
Writing business reports helps you keep things transparent for the stakeholders, which is the foundation of efficient communication between these two sides.
You typically need to report to different people – sometimes they’re your managers, sometimes they’re a client. But your company’s stakeholders will also require an insight into the performance of your business, and relying on reports will help you maintain favorable business relationships. A business report shows you clearly how your company is performing and there isn’t room for manipulation.
Once you set business goals and the KPIs that help you track your progress towards them, you should remember they’re not set in stone. From time to time, you’ll need to revisit your goals and critical metrics and determine whether they’re still relevant.
When you write a business report and go through it with your team members or managers, you have a chance to do just that and determine if you’re efficient in reaching your goals. Sometimes, new insights will come up while writing these reports and help you identify new objectives that may have emerged.
Depending on your goals and needs, you’ll be writing different types of business reports. Here are five basic types of business reports .
Informational Report
Analytical report, research report, explanatory report, progress report.
Informational reports provide you with strictly objective data without getting into the details, such as explaining why something happened or what the result may be – just pure facts.
An example of this type of business report is a statement where you describe a department within your company: the report contains the list of people working in this department, what their titles are, and what they’re responsible for.
Another example related to a company’s website could look like this Google Analytics website traffic engagement report . As we explained above, this report shows objective data without getting too much into the details, so in this case, just the most important website engagement metrics such as average session duration, bounce rate, sessions, sessions by channel, and so on. Overall, you can use this report to monitor your website traffic, see which keywords are most successful, or how many returning users you have, but without further, in-depth analysis.
![personal business plan report Google Analytics Website Engagement Dashboard Template](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20051137/hlcmpj9rrij-1000x563.jpg)
Analytical reports help you understand the data you’ve collected and plan for the future based on these insights. You can’t make business decisions based on facts only, so analytical reports are crucial for the decision-making process.
This type of business report is commonly used for sales forecasting. For instance, if you write a report where you identify a drop or an increase in sales, you’ll want to find out why it happened. This HubSpot’s sales analytics report is a good example of what metrics should be included in such a report, like average revenue per new client or average time to close the deal. You can find more web analytics dashboard examples here.
![personal business plan report HubSpot CRM – Sales Analytics Overview](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20051300/Sales-Analytics-Overview-1000x563.jpg)
From these business reports, you can find out if you will reach your goals by implementing your current strategy or if you need to make adjustments.
Research is critical when you’re about to introduce a change to your business. Whether it’s a new strategy or a new partner, you need an extensive report to have an overview of all important details. These reports usually analyze new target markets and competition, and contain a lot of statistical data.
While not the same, here is an example of an ecommerce dashboard that could help track each part of a campaign in detail, no matter whether you are launching a new product, testing a new strategy, and similar. Similar to a research report, it contains key data on your audience (target market), shows your top-selling products, conversion rate and more. If you are an online store owner who is using paid ads, you can rely on this report to monitor key online sales stats in line with Facebook Ads and Google Analytics. See more ecommerce dashboards here.
![personal business plan report Shopify + Facebook Ads + Google Analytics (Online Sales overview) Dashboard Template](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20051408/shopify-dashboard-1000x563.jpg)
As you might guess from its name, you write the explanatory report when it’s necessary for you to explain a specific situation or a project you’ve done to your team members. It’s important to write this report in a way that everyone will be able to understand.
Explanatory reports include elements like research results, reasons and goals of the research, facts, methodology, and more. While not exactly an explanatory report, this example of a HubSpot marketing drilldown report is the closest thing to it, as it helps marketers drill into an individual landing page performance, and identify how good their best landing pages are at converting, or which ones have the best performance.
![personal business plan report HubSpot Marketing Landing Page Drilldown](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20052015/khp15fhbq5o-1000x563.jpg)
A progress report is actually an update for your manager or client – it informs them about where you stand at the moment and how things are going. It’s like a checkpoint on your way towards your goal.
These reports may be the least demanding to write since you don’t need to do comprehensive research before submitting them. You just need to sum up your progress up to the point when the report was requested. This business report may include your current results, the strategy you’re implementing, the obstacles you’ve come across, etc. If this is a marketing progress report you can use marketing report templates to provide a more comprehensive overview.
In many companies, progress reports are done on a weekly or even daily basis. Here is an example of a daily sales report from Databox. HubSpot users can rely on this sales rep drilldown business report to see how individual each sales rep is performing and measure performance against goals. Browse through all our KPI dashboards here.
![personal business plan report HubSpot CRM (Sales Rep Drilldown) dashboard template](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20052735/HubSpot-CRM-Sales-Rep-Drilldown-1000x563.jpg)
What does a great business report look like? If you’re not sure what sections your report should have, you’ll learn what to include in the following lines.
Business Report Formatting
Different types of reports require different lengths and structures, so your business report format may depend on what elements your report needs to have. For example, progress reports are typically pretty simple, while analytical or explanatory reports are a different story.
However, most reports will start with a title and a table of contents, so the person reading the report knows what to expect. Then, add a summary and move on to the introduction. After you’ve written the body and the conclusion, don’t forget to include suggestions based on your findings that will help your team create an actionable plan as you move forward.
After that, list the references you used while creating the report, and attach any additional documents or images that can help the person reading the report understand it better.
This outline may vary depending on what kind of report you’re writing. Short business reports may not need a table of contents, and informative reports won’t contain any analyses. Also, less formal reports don’t need to follow a strict structure in every situation.
Business Report Contents
When it comes to the contents of your report, keep in mind the person who’s going to read it and try to balance between including all the relevant information, but not overwhelming the reader with too many details.
- The introduction to the report should state the reason why you’re writing it, and what its main goal is. Also, mention what methodology and reporting software you’ve used, if applicable.
- The body of the report is where you’ll expose all your key findings, explain your methodology, share the important data and statistics, and present your results and conclusion.
- The conclusion , similarly to the summary you’ll add at the beginning of the report, briefly singles out the most important points and findings of the report.
If you decide to include more sections like recommendations, this is where you’ll suggest the next steps your team or the company may want to take to improve the results or take advantage of them if they’re favorable.
PRO TIP: Are You Tracking the Right Metrics for Your SaaS Company?
As a SaaS business leader, there’s no shortage of metrics you could be monitoring, but the real question is, which metrics should you be paying most attention to? To monitor the health of your SaaS business, you want to identify any obstacles to growth and determine which elements of your growth strategy require improvements. To do that, you can track the following key metrics in a convenient dashboard with data from Profitwell:
- Recurring Revenue. See the portion of your company’s revenue that is expected to grow month-over-month.
- MRR overview. View the different contributions to and losses from MRR from different kinds of customer engagements.
- Customer overview . View the total number of clients your company has at any given point in time and the gains and losses from different customer transactions.
- Growth Overview . Summarize all of the different kinds of customer transactions and their impact on revenue growth.
- Churn overview. Measure the number and percentage of customers or subscribers you lost during a given time period.
If you want to track these in ProfitWell, you can do it easily by building a plug-and-play dashboard that takes your customer data from ProfitWell and automatically visualizes the right metrics to allow you to monitor your SaaS revenue performance at a glance.
![personal business plan report profitwell-dashboard-template-preview](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/31070302/profitwell-dashboard-template-preview-1000x563.jpeg)
You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.
To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Get the template
Step 2: Connect your Profitwell account with Databox.
Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.
Note : Other than text, make sure you include images, graphs, charts, and tables. These elements will make your report more readable and illustrate your points.
Whether you’re writing a specific type of business report for the first time or you simply want to improve the quality of your reports, make sure you follow this comprehensive guide to writing an effective business report.
- Do Your Research
- Create an Outline
- Determine Formatting Guidelines
- Think of an Engaging Title
- Write the Introduction
- Divide the Body of the Report into Sections
- Choose Illustrations
- Conclude Effectively
- Gather Additional Documentation
- Add a Summary
- Proofread Your Work
Step 1: Do Your Research
A well-planned report is a job half done. That means you need to do research before you start writing: you need to know who you’re writing for and how much they know about the topic of your report. You need to explore the best business dashboard software and templates you can use for your report.
Also, if you believe you will need additional resources and documents to add in the appendix, you should do it during this phase of report writing.
Step 2: Create an Outline
Once you’ve gathered the resources, it’s time to plan the report. Before you start writing, create an outline that will help you stick to the right structure. A business report is complex writing in which you can get lost very easily if you don’t have a clear plan.
Moreover, the report shouldn’t be complicated to read, so sticking to a plan will allow you to keep it concise and clear, without straying from the topic.
Step 3: Determine Formatting Guidelines
Most companies have their in-house formatting that every official document has to follow. If you’re not sure if such rules exist in your company, it’s time you checked with your managers.
If there arent’ any guidelines regarding formatting, make sure you set your own rules to make the report look professional. Choose a simple and readable format and make sure it supports all the symbols you may need to use in the report. Set up proper headings, spacing, and all the other elements you may need in Word or Google Docs.
Pro tip: Google Docs may be easier to share with people who are supposed to read your business report.
Step 4: Think of an Engaging Title
Even if you’re writing a formal business report, the title should be clear and engaging. Reports are typically considered dull as they’re a part of official business documentation, but there’s no reason why you can’t make them interesting to read. Your title should suit the report topic and be in different font size so the reader can recognize it’s a title. Underneath the title, you should add the name of the author of the report.
Step 5: Write the Introduction
A good introductory paragraph for a business report should explain to the reader why you’ve written the report. Use the introduction to provide a bit of background on the report’s topic and mention the past results if there’s been a significant improvement since your last report.
Step 6: Divide the Body of the Report into Sections
As this will be the most comprehensive part of your report, make sure you separate the data into logical sections. Your report is supposed to tell a story about your business, and these sections (such as methodology, hypothesis, survey, findings, and more) will help the data look well-organized and easy to read.
Step 7: Choose Illustrations
Of course, each of these sections should be followed with charts, graphs, tables, or other illustrations that help you make a point. Survey results are typically best displayed in pie charts and graphs, and these enable the reader to visualize the data better. From the formatting point of view, breaking the long text sections with illustrations makes the report more readable.
Pro tip: Using centralized dashboard solutions like Databox can bring your reporting game to the next level. Sign up for a forever-free trial now to see how you can use Databox to track and visualize performance easier than ever before .
Step 8: Conclude Effectively
Finish your report with a to-the-point conclusion that will highlight all the main data from the report. Make sure it’s not too long, as it’s supposed to be a summary of the body of the report. In case you don’t want to add a specific section for recommendations, this is where you can include them, along with your assessments.
Step 9: Gather Additional Documentation
If you’ve determined what additional documents, images, surveys, or other attachments you may need for your report, now is the time to collect them. Request access to those you may not be able to get on time, so you have everything you need by the deadline. Copy the documents you can use in the original form, and scan the documents you need in electronic format.
Step 10: Add a Summary
The summary is usually at the top of the report, but it’s actually something you should write after your report is completed. Only then will you know exactly what your most relevant information and findings are, so you can include them in this brief paragraph that summarizes your report’s main points.
The summary should tell the reader about the objective of the report, the methodology used, and even mention some of the key findings and conclusions.
Step 11: Proofread Your Work
It may seem like common sense, but this final step of the process is often overlooked. Proofreading your work is how you make sure your report will look professional because errors can ruin the overall impression the reader will form about your work, no matter how great the report is.
Look for any spelling or grammatical mistakes you can fix, and if you’re not sure about specific expressions or terminology, use Google to double-check it. Make sure your writing is to-the-point and clear, especially if you’re writing for people who may not know the industry so well. Also, double-check the facts and numbers you’ve included in the report before you send it out or start your reporting meeting.
Business Report Examples (with Ready-to-Use Templates)
Here, we’re sharing a few business reporting examples that you can copy, along with ready-to-use and free-to-download templates. If you don’t know where to start and what to include in different types of business reports, these business report examples are a great way to get started or at least get some inspiration to create yours.
Activity Report Example
Annual report example, project status report example, financial report example, sales report example, marketing report example.
Note : Each of the business report templates shared below can be customized to fit your individual needs with our DIY Dashboard Designer . No coding or design skills are necessary.
For reporting on sales activity, HubSpot users can rely this streamlined sales activity report that includes key sales metrics, such as calls, meetings, or emails logged by owner. This way, you can easily track the number of calls, meetings, and emails for each sales rep and identify potential leaks in your sales funnel. Check all our sales team activity dashboards here. Or if you are looking for dashboards that track general sales performance, browse through all Databox sales dashboards here.
![personal business plan report Activity Report Example](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20054035/HubSpot-Sales-Activity-Dashboard-Template-1000x563.jpg)
If you’re preparing for annual reporting, you will benefit from choosing this HubSpot annual performance report . It contains all the relevant metrics, such as email and landing page performance, new contacts, top blog posts by page views, and more. See all our performance dashboard templates here.
![personal business plan report Annual Report Example](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20054118/HubSpot-Annual-Inbound-Performance-Dashboard-1-1000x563.jpg)
Project status reports can be very similar to progress reports. If you’re in need of one of those, here’s an example of a Project overview dashboard from Harvest that shows that can help you create simple, but well-organized report based on metrics that matter: hours tracked, billable hours, billable amount split by team members., and more. Check out more project management dashboard templates we offer here.
![personal business plan report Project Status Report Example](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/16054319/harvest-time-report-by-team-1000x563.jpg)
Are you creating a financial report? You will find this QuickBooks + HubSpot integration a great choice for a financial performance dashboard that makes creating a report simple. This dashboard focuses on the essential financial report
ting metrics and answers all your revenue-related questions. See all Databox financial dashboards here.
![personal business plan report Financial Report Example](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20054337/Financial-Performance-Dashboard-Template-1-1000x563.jpg)
If you’re tracking your sales team’s monthly performance, this sales report template will help you prepare an outstanding report. Check out all the vital productivity KPIs, track your progress towards your goals, and understand well how your current sales pipeline is performing. See all sales performance dashboards we have available here.
![personal business plan report Sales Report Example](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20054438/sales-report-1000x563.jpg)
Marketing reports can be easily prepared by using this monthly marketing report template . With HubSpot’s reporting, you can determine where your website traffic is coming from, how your landing pages and specific blog posts are performing, and how successful your email campaigns are. Browse all Databox marketing dashboards or marketing report examples here.
![personal business plan report Marketing Report Example](https://cdnwebsite.databox.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20054820/Marketing-Monthly-Reporting-1000x563.jpg)
Create a Professional Business Report in No Time with Databox
Does creating a business report still sound like a daunting task? It doesn’t have to be with Databox.
In times when we’re all trying to save our time and energy for things that matter rather than scattering valuable resources on tedious, repetitive tasks, it’s critical to optimize your business process. And we want to help you do just that.
Using a business reporting dashboard enables you to track data from all the different tools you’re using – but in one place. With Databox, you can monitor and report on performance in a single dashboard that is optimized for all your favorite devices and you can create streamlined and beautiful dashboards even if you are not that tech-savvy. (no coding or design skills are required).
Automating business reporting has never been easier. And with Databox, you can do exactly that in just a few clicks. Sign up now and get your first 3 business dashboards for free.
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Stefana Zarić is a freelance writer & content marketer. Other than writing for SaaS and fintech clients, she educates future writers who want to build a career in marketing. When not working, Stefana loves to read books, play with her kid, travel, and dance.
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How to Craft a Personal Development Plan that Inspires Meaningful, Long-Term Results
Overview : This in-depth guide provides a comprehensive 7-step roadmap to create a customized personal development plan template to help you actualize your true potential. It also provides a personal development plan template you can use (with examples).
______________
I leaped into the personal development world with a copy of Tony Robbins’ Personal Power program in the early 1990s.
If you’re old enough and living in the States, you know the one I’m talking about (late-night infomercials).
I was 18, and this audio program made a measurable difference in my outlook and behavior.
From that moment onward, I was hooked on personal development.
I jumped from seminar to seminar, book to book. Investing every possible moment I had, I covered a lot of ground in my first five years.
Reflecting over 30 years on my journey, I now see I was missing several vital ingredients essential for long-term, healthy development back then.
In this guide, I will share with you lessons learned and provide a roadmap for crafting a powerful Personal Development Plan. (Also, toward the bottom of the guide, you can download a personal development plan template and an example plan.)
Let’s dive in …
What is a Personal Development Plan?
A personal development plan is like a business plan for an individual. A personal development plan creates a roadmap for an individual’s growth in key categories of life and work.
There’s no set formula or template for creating a personal development plan.
Your plan can be a half-page, a full-page, or 20 pages long. It’s entirely up to you.
To clarify, “individual development plans” are generally more geared toward career development than a personal development plan (or “self-development plan”), but they all share common attributes.
The primary question a Personal Development Plan helps answer is:
Where am I going to place my available time and attention?
Personal Development Definitions
If you examine most people over a decade, you’ll observe little or no change in their development and behavior.
Development implies a permanent change in the structure of your being including your body, brain, or consciousness.
Just because you adopt a new habit , for example, doesn’t mean you have or will grow from it. If this new habit leads to internal growth over time , however, it will facilitate your development.
It’s all too easy to believe we’re developing when we’re not. I know I deceived myself for many years and there’s evidence of this throughout personal development communities.
Reading books in this genre, for example, doesn’t mean you’re developing. You might just be acquiring more ideas.
Personal development books can potentially provide a roadmap for development in certain areas, but real development comes through practice and repetition .
Our behavior and the development of skills, aptitudes, and desired tendencies are where we can observe signs of permanent change.
Personal Development Is Not Self Help
Self-help implies there’s something wrong with us.
The multi-billion-dollar self-help industry profits by subconsciously communicating these “deficiencies” to its unsuspecting audience.
Actual personal development is how humans realize more of their innate potential.
In an ideal environment, this process happens naturally .
Because this perfect environment doesn’t exist in society, the call for personal development is an individual’s choice. It’s up to each individual to say “yes” to their hero’s journey .
Why Personal Development Plans Are Important
When you don’t have a vision, a plan, or a goal, where does your attention go?
For most people, attention goes to entertainment and distraction. Sight, sound, and motion captivate our brains.
Television series, films, video games, social media, sports, and stock prices hook the primitive parts of our brains.
Even if you’re an overachiever who defines yourself by accomplishments and external status, your attention likely gets fixated on more work, higher productivity, and making more money. That’s fine, but this effort doesn’t necessarily support our personal development goals.
When entertainment, distraction, and workaholism consume our attention, something doesn’t feel right within us.
We may not identify it, but a deeper part of us isn’t fulfilled.
Focusing on Growth Needs
Psychologist Abraham Maslow noted that when individuals mainly focus on meeting their basic human needs like physiological needs, security, fitting in, and being liked and respected, they become neurotic.
Self-actualizing individuals, in contrast, are more focused on their growth needs.
Their motivation stems from an internal directive called intrinsic motivation instead of being driven by external forces. (All of our basic human needs are external.)
To have a full and meaningful life requires us to open to deeper aspects of ourselves.
A personal development plan can help us do just that.
But most people don’t know what’s available to them. I certainly wasn’t aware of the options when I started my journey.
Youthful enthusiasm and naivete guided those early years.
If you go to personal development seminars or read books in this genre, you may only think within the confines of the illustrations these resources provide.
![personal business plan report personal development plan roadmap](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PDP-Roadmap-3.png)
7-Step Roadmap to Creating Your Personal Development Plan
Before we jump in, here’s a quick overview of the steps for creating your personal development plan:
Step 1: Discover the Human Potential Landscape Step 2: Envision Your Future Self Step 3: Select your Current Areas of Focus Step 4: Determine Your Key Practices Step 5: Establish Personal Development Goals Step 6: Set Your Schedule for Deliberate Practice Step 7: Monitor Your Ongoing Progress
Step 1 is what’s missing from many people’s approach to personal development.
So we’ll start our journey with a larger vision for our human potential.
Note : Toward the bottom of this guide, you can download a personal development plan template based on this roadmap.
![personal business plan report discover the personal development landscape](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/STEP-1-Discover-the-Personal-Development-Landscape.png)
STEP 1: Discover the Personal Development Landscape
One thing I was missing from my personal development journey was a roadmap of the terrain. How can you navigate through your development without a map?
Every good explorer has one. Such a map shines a much-needed light on the diverse areas of our potential.
A reliable map of human potential wasn’t readily available in the early 90s.
The fields of transpersonal psychology, developmental psychology, integral theory, and neuroscience, however, were converging on one.
Theorist Ken Wilber played a major role in synthesizing many fields of research into a cohesive whole.
Personal Development Categories
In my experience, I’ve found it helps to take an integrated approach to your personal development plan.
That is, know your menu of options so you can select from multiple areas that interest you.
To create a map for our development, we need to know the categories available to us. These categories include:
- Lines of Intelligence (also called Streams of Development)
Skill Development
Major life categories, behavioral change, personality development.
Let’s look at each of these categories in more detail.
![personal business plan report personal development plan multiple lines of intelligence](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MI-Theory.jpg.webp)
Available Lines of Intelligence
While we used to associate “intelligence” with IQ; we now know there are many forms of intelligence.
One popular model comes from the pioneering work of Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner and his Multiple Intelligence theory. 1 Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences , 2011.
In Gardner’s model, there are now nine lines of intelligence:
Logical-mathematical intelligence : logic, abstractions, reasoning, numbers, and critical thinking. This intelligence is associated with IQ and intellectual aptitude. This line is also referred to as cognitive intelligence as explored in Jean Piaget’s research.
Linguistic intelligence : words, languages, reading, writing, telling stories, and memorizing words.
Intrapersonal intelligence : to know oneself including one’s strengths and weaknesses, emotional triggers, and motivations. One’s ability to be introspective and self-reflective. Psychologist Daniel Goleman popularized this as Emotional Intelligence .
Kinesthetic intelligence : one’s ability to control one’s body and one’s skill in using it. Also called body intelligence or body-mind connection.
Musical intelligence : sensitivity to sounds, pitch, rhythms, tones, meter, melody, etc.
Visual-spatial intelligence : spatial judgment and the ability to visualize and imagine with the mind’s eye.
Interpersonal intelligence : sensitivity to others’ moods, feelings, temperaments, motivations, and their ability to cooperate with others. Goleman popularized this as Social Intelligence .
Naturalistic intelligence : sensitivity to one’s environment; the ability to recognize flora and fauna; nurturing and relating to one’s natural surroundings.
Existential intelligence : sometimes called spiritual intelligence; relates to one’s understanding of oneself concerning reality or the cosmos.
![personal business plan report personal development plan Integral map](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/sd_aqal_simple-jpg.webp)
Integral Theory’s “AQAL” Model of Human Development
Additional Perspectives from Developmental Research
Other developmental researchers have studied the stages of growth in morals, values, worldviews, emotions, contemplation, spirituality, needs, and psycho-sexual development.
Do you see the diverse range of our potential?
In Integral Life Practice , Ken Wilber, et al. group these “streams of development” into four categories:
- Cognitive development
- Self-related intelligence (including basic human needs , morals, values, and self-identity)
- Talent lines of development (including musical, visual-spatial, mathematical, and kinesthetic)
- Everything else (including spiritual, aesthetic, emotional, psychosexual, and interpersonal)
We each have a different base level of development in each line of intelligence and an innate potential we can realize through deliberate practice.
Our environment often thwarts this potential in early childhood. As adults, our responsibility is to resume this upward march. A personal development plan can help us with that!
Skill development is a broad category that includes areas where you show interest and/or ability. You can develop skills for personal or professional reasons.
There are skills in problem-solving , communication , collaborating, drawing, computer programming, bookkeeping, writing, analyzing, martial arts, persuading, musical instruments, negotiating, learning , presenting, goal setting, listening, managing, planning, reasoning, and predicting, to name only a few.
All skills are associated with at least one line of intelligence listed above. With sufficient interest, practice, and the right methods, individuals can develop any skill.
One way to get more clarity on your natural skills is to take the free VIA Character Strength survey . Your natural strengths often translate to specific skills.
![personal business plan report wheel of life personal development plan](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Wheel-of-Life-CEOSAGE2.png)
The Wheel of Life Exercise
In your pursuit of personal development, you may have come across the Wheel of Life .
The Wheel of Life is a standard tool that coaches use to illustrate the various categories of one’s life, measure an individual’s status in each area, and set goals to improve in those areas.
Your wheel might include physical health, relationships, social, finances , professional, personal growth, spirituality , creativity , and fun.
The message behind the Wheel of Life is that development occurs through conscious effort and being intentional about how you grow within these key categories.
Who doesn’t have behaviors they would like to change?
We all have set patterns of behavior that get entrenched by unconscious repetition.
Making positive changes to these habits requires repatterning the brain.
For lasting change to occur, we repeat the new habit or behavior over time under various conditions.
The time necessary to install a new habit varies; research suggests it takes 66 days on average. 2 https://www.spring.org.uk/2009/09/how-long-to-form-a-habit.php I’ve found that it’s usually much less.
Why do many personal development programs fail to produce long-term results? Because these programs are “one size fits all.”
Research shows there is a range of psychological types. In the Enneagram system, there are nine primary types and nine levels of development within each one.
Each type has varying propensities, habitual patterns, strengths, weaknesses, fears, and potentials.
If you want to create an effective Personal Development Plan, be sure you’re aware of your psychological type. Each type has a different pathway to higher development.
As a business coach to high-performing entrepreneurs for over 25 years, I went through and used most (if not all) personality tests on the market, including popular ones like Myers-Briggs (MBTI), Human Design Engineering (HDe), and DISC.
In my opinion, the Enneagram is the most efficacious, robust, and useful. (MBTI and HDE are insightful too.)
You can take a free Enneagram test here . You can find scientifically validated paid tests online as well.
After you get your results, read more about your type and see if it resonates. Then, look for ways to develop your type. (On the Enneagram Institute website, they offer “Personal Growth Recommendations” for each type.)
![personal business plan report envision your future self](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/STEP-2-Envision-Your-Future-Self.png)
STEP 2: Envision Your Future Self
Consider what the above information means about our potential: Developing any line of intelligence gives us greater sensitivity to the world around us.
We can now process information in new and deeper ways. Every time we grow in a line of intelligence, we perceive the world differently.
We are more aware than before. We have greater sensitivity to the world around us. Our possibilities are remarkable to ponder.
Nietzsche believed it was our destiny to be Ubermensch or Superman. An Ubermensch is an integrated or whole human being accessing his full potential.
Numerous researchers in developmental psychology have come to a similar conclusion, calling the final stage of development “Integrated.”
Maslow called this stage of development self-actualization and later, self-transcendence .
Cast Your Vision
Now, in Step 2, it’s time to create your vision for your future self .
Your vision (and personal development goals) will inspire you if it is true to who you are.
Sometimes we create a vision based on what we should want or what we hope will gain approval from others—our parents, significant others, colleagues, or friends). Such a vision will lack inspiration and will feel meaningless to us.
Don’t worry about creating a “perfect” vision or the “right” vision. Just craft a sentence or two that inspires you right now.
![personal business plan report personal development plan roadmap focus](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/STEP-3-Select-Your-Current-Areas-of-Focus.png)
STEP 3: Select Your Current Areas of Focus
In Step 1, you see a diverse range of options available. Learning about these options can be exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. If you nailed your vision in Step 2, you have more clarity.
Now, depending on your level of clarity, Step 3 can either be the easiest or the most difficult part of this process.
Even when you have a compelling vision for your future self, selecting areas of development to focus on can challenge us because we have limited time and countless options.
We can’t do it all. Creating an aggressive or complicated personal development plan with many goals backfires over time. I can attest to this from personal experience.
An aggressive plan will create additional internal resistance that undermines your efforts.
Over-planning sets you up for failure and discouragement. Eventually, you will burn out (lose motivation) and abandon your plan.
Be Mindful of Your Available Time
We’ll discuss scheduling in Step 6, but consider how much time you have available to invest in your development.
Let’s say you only have 30 minutes a day.
Is it reasonable to expect to make significant changes in six areas of your life within three months?
Developing new skills, for example, may take a minimum of 15 minutes of daily practice.
To set yourself up for success, I recommend picking up to three areas to focus on within the next 90 days.
Where Should You Start?
Select the areas that interest you the most. You’ll learn faster in these areas and have an easier time staying engaged with your practice.
So the question is: What’s most important to you right now ?
What are the areas you are most interested in developing now ?
To help answer these questions, it helps to know what you most value .
Narrow Down Your Search
Be aware of the tendency to overthink the selection process.
Better to dive into something for a month or two and then determine it’s not for you than to analyze your options. Analysis, as the saying goes, often leads to paralysis.
If you’re still having trouble deciding, go with the classic categories of Body, Mind, and Spirit.
![personal business plan report personal development plan body mind spirit](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Body-Mind-Spirit-1.png)
- Body : pick an area that interests you like strength training, stamina, aerobics, or functional training.
- Mind : select one to three topics you want to explore. Read relevant books for each one.
- Spirit : consider focusing on gratitude, acceptance, kindness, compassion, meditation, or service to others.
I also recommend you include shadow work as part of an integrated program.
Include Important Lines of Development
While everyone is different and will create their plan to suit their needs, there are certain areas I believe to be foundational (for at least most people).
Cognitive Intelligence
Research shows that cognition is “necessary but insufficient” for other lines of development. For example, just because you have well-developed cognition doesn’t mean you’ll have moral intelligence.
One way to improve your cognition is to read books that challenge your understanding.
Emotional Intelligence (EI)
EI is, arguably, as important as cognitive development. EI relates to your physical and mental health, the quality of your relationships, and your leadership abilities (including self-leadership ).
One way to grow your emotional awareness is through meditation training . In the context of your personal development plan, meditation is a skill-building exercise. You are developing the skill of attention .
Intrapersonal Intelligence
Your level of self-awareness and knowledge of yourself influences your behaviors, moral development, and psychological development.
The Enneagram system can support the development of intrapersonal intelligence. Another way is to practice self-reflection and journaling.
See this in-depth guide on developing intrapersonal intelligence .
Kinesthetic Intelligence
Your awareness of your body defines the degree of your connection to your instinctive self. The more connected you are, the more mental balance you experience (and vice versa).
You can develop your body intelligence through practices like Yoga and Qigong as well as dancing and functional training. You can also use centering exercises , grounding techniques , and Zhan Zhuang to increase body awareness.
Of course, there are other important aspects of your development. I singled out these four because they influence so much of our behaviors and decisions. Also, many of us are unaware of the profound role they play in our life experiences.
Pushing Beyond Professional Development
One thing I’ve observed in working with high-performing individuals is they tend to focus only on professional goals.
Many of us want to profit from our self-development plan. I’m not suggesting there’s anything wrong with that. Developing your abilities and talents should make you more marketable and of greater value to others.
However, watch the tendency to invest exclusively in this area, denying other aspects of yourself that are still important to a deeper part of you.
If you create a diverse personal development plan, you’ll increase your chances of actualizing your plan. You’ll also find it to be a more rewarding experience.
![personal business plan report determine key practices for personal development](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/STEP-4-Determine-Your-Key-Practices.png)
STEP 4: Determine Your Key Practices
Excellent books like Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code and Anders Ericsson’s Peak: The New Science of Expertise show that talent isn’t born but cultivated through deliberate practice .
Once you have selected the areas of your Personal Development Plan, the next step is to determine your practices.
These practices are the actions you are committing to doing consistently to develop in your particular areas of interest.
Examples of Practices
For example, if you want to improve your writing, write at least 1,000 words every day and edit what you write ruthlessly .
Want to learn to play the guitar? Pick up your guitar for at least 15 minutes every evening.
Want to increase your strength? Determine your training routine and follow through three or four days per week.
You may not know what practices to follow in the beginning. At first, you’ll research different topics through books, videos, and articles.
This exploration will help you to pick your practices. You may also consider hiring a coach or trainer to help you establish your practices.
![personal business plan report establish personal development goals](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/STEP-5-Establish-Personal-Development-Goals.png)
STEP 5: Establish Personal Development Goals
Another common mistake people make with their personal development plan is to set BIG goals.
Big goals are useful for businesses but suboptimal for your self-development plan.
A big goal might be to master a particular instrument within 12 months. Such a goal will go unrealized.
As Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War , “Every battle is won before it’s ever fought.”
To win the battle for your development in the war of distraction, set mini-goals instead.
Mini goals help you build momentum because they’re more readily achievable than big goals.
Yes, have a big vision . But only set mini personal development goals that are fun, engaging, and manageable.
Examples of Mini-Goals
Instead of mastering an instrument, for example, perhaps you establish a mini-goal like learning how to read sheet music or comfortably playing your favorite song.
If you’re just starting with strength training and you can only do ten consecutive push-ups, perhaps you set a goal of 30 push-ups.
If you want to improve as a public speaker, maybe you set a mini-goal to speak in front of a crowd at least once a week.
If you’re getting into meditation, and you can’t sit comfortably for more than a few minutes, maybe you commit to sitting for just 2 minutes once or twice a day for the next 21 days.
These types of personal development goals will inspire your practice and help you build positive momentum.
![personal business plan report schedule deliberate practice for personal development](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/STEP-6-Set-Your-Schedule-for-Deliberate-Practice.png)
STEP 6: Set Your Schedule for Deliberate Practice
Once you know your practices, ensure you block off sufficient time for making progress.
Many people struggle with scheduling for two primary reasons:
- They underestimate how long things take. They get too ambitious with their expectations.
- They don’t honor their calendar unless it involves other people. Time scheduled for ourselves is the first thing to get bumped.
Watch out for both of these common patterns. If you don’t honor your time, I can assure you, no one else will.
Ground Your Plan to Reality
So first ask, How much time can I reasonably commit to my personal development plan?
The question isn’t what you should do; it’s what you think is reasonable and practical in the course of your busy life.
This infographic from Inc. illustrates how 500 chief-level executives spend their day. The average business leader invests 30 minutes a day in personal development—right before bed.
For most people, the two easiest periods to carve out time for your personal development plan are early morning and late evening.
Both of these times share the same two qualities:
- There are fewer distractions and
- You don’t have to interrupt your work/life flow to jump into your practices.
The key is to find times when you can be consistent and then establish a daily rhythm with your practice.
This way you don’t have to make a daily decision of whether or not to practice. You just practice!
Just 10 to 15 minutes is sufficient when you have a busy schedule. On the weekends, you can carve out additional time.
![personal business plan report Monitor Your personal development plan Progress](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/STEP-7-Monitor-Your-Ongoing-Progress.png)
STEP 7: Monitor Your Ongoing Progress
Feedback facilitates the learning process. Athletes and musicians excel when they have experienced coaches to provide the right practices and effective feedback .
In Daniel Coyle’s examination of exceptional talent, he found that having a masterful coach was one of the common denominators for producing talent. 3 Daniel Coyle, The Talent Code , 2009.
Be Aware of Your Overall Mindset
One reason many people fail to develop is because they have a fixed mindset . Individuals with a fixed mindset are more driven to avoid looking foolish than by the desire to learn. They evade any constructive or critical feedback from others.
In contrast, someone on the path to self-mastery accepts failure and mistakes as part of the learning process.
In The Art of Learning , chess master and tai chi champion Josh Waitzkin explains how he became a tai chi champion by challenging superior opponents.
Instead of sparring with opponents of equal or lesser ability, he sought more skilled martial artists. He was often defeated, but he learned quickly.
The Important Role of Attention
Other than outside feedback, the other key to monitoring your progress is to increase your awareness as you practice.
The goal is to become fully present-minded with your practice. (To assist in this process, try using something like The Mastery Method to increase your mental alertness and self-awareness.)
When you bring more awareness to your practice, you ignite an internal feedback loop that facilitates faster learning.
How to Develop Awareness
One way to develop greater awareness is through mind training.
Breathing techniques and meditation help develop parts of the brain (prefrontal cortex region) associated with awareness.
It’s also important to enter a centered state before you practice. It only takes a minute or two, and it will speed up your results.
Do Periodic Check-Ins
Finally, check in with your personal development plan often.
Scan it weekly and revisit it each month to see if there are any adjustments you want to make.
Are you making progress toward your personal development goals? If not, why not?
Evaluate and make course corrections as needed.
Your Personal Development Plan Template (Fillable)
![personal business plan report personal development plan template](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PDP-Template-CEOSAGE-jpeg.webp)
To help you create your plan, I’ve designed a personal development plan template based on the roadmap and principles outlined above. The template is fillable.
Your free kit includes:
- Print-ready PDF of this guide
- Fillable personal development plan template
- Personal development plan example that’s already filled in
Download your free personal development plan kit below.
Note: After you enter your email, you’ll be redirected back here. Links to your free assessment templates will be right here.
Build Your Own Personal Development Plan Template
If you would prefer to create your own template, it’s easy to do. Just include the following elements we just discussed:
- Personal vision (the results from Step 2)
- Areas of focus (the categories selected in Step 3)
- Skills (you’re in the process of developing)
- Practices (you’re using to develop your skills and lines of intelligence from Step 4)
- Mini goals (associated with your skills from Step 5)
All of this information can fit on a single-page template. It will take effort to set up your plan, but once you do, it requires little energy to maintain and update.
Ready? It’s time to create your own Personal Development Plan.
Make Your Personal Development Plan Clear and Practical
It’s important to keep your personal development plan as simple and concise as possible.
The more complicated and robust your plan becomes, the less likely you are to follow through.
For years, I kept my plan on my desk. A 10-second glance at the document was often all I needed.
I used to help my clients create elaborate results plans that often grew into large report-sized documents. We found they were less functional the bigger they became. Eventually, we reduced these plans down to a single page.
Keep your plan to a single page if possible. A one-page personal development plan makes it easy for you to check in often.
Books Related to Personal Development Plan Roadmaps
First, here are a few excellent personal development books cited in this guide:
![personal business plan report mastery george leonard](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mastery.jpg.webp)
Mastery by George Leonard
![personal business plan report talent code daniel coyle](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Talent-Code-jpeg.webp)
The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
![personal business plan report little book of talent daniel coyle](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Little-Book-of-Talent-jpeg.webp)
The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle
![personal business plan report mindset book carol dweck](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mindset.jpg.webp)
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
From my experience, the most neglected step in creating a Personal Development Plan is understanding the terrain of human potential—what I attempted to summarize in Step 1.
Here are a series of books that opened my mind to greater possibilities years ago.
![personal business plan report integral life practice](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Integral-Life-Practice-jpeg.webp)
Integral Life Practice by Ken Wilber, et al.
![personal business plan report what really matters tony schwartz](https://scottjeffrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/What-Really-Matters-jpeg.webp)
3 Vital Stages of Self-Discovery (and Activities for Each Stage)
A Practical Guide to Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey
How to Change Your Mindset from Fixed to Growth
How to Transmute Sexual Energy: An Inner Alchemy Guide
About the Author
Scott Jeffrey is the founder of CEOsage, a self-leadership resource publishing in-depth guides read by millions of self-actualizing individuals. He writes about self-development, practical psychology, Eastern philosophy, and integrated practices. For 25 years, Scott was a business coach to high-performing entrepreneurs, CEOs, and best-selling authors. He's the author of four books including Creativity Revealed .
Learn more >
Business Plan Example and Template
Learn how to create a business plan
What is a Business Plan?
A business plan is a document that contains the operational and financial plan of a business, and details how its objectives will be achieved. It serves as a road map for the business and can be used when pitching investors or financial institutions for debt or equity financing .
![personal business plan report Business Plan - Document with the words Business Plan on the title](https://cdn.corporatefinanceinstitute.com/assets/business-plan1-1024x682.jpeg)
A business plan should follow a standard format and contain all the important business plan elements. Typically, it should present whatever information an investor or financial institution expects to see before providing financing to a business.
Contents of a Business Plan
A business plan should be structured in a way that it contains all the important information that investors are looking for. Here are the main sections of a business plan:
1. Title Page
The title page captures the legal information of the business, which includes the registered business name, physical address, phone number, email address, date, and the company logo.
2. Executive Summary
The executive summary is the most important section because it is the first section that investors and bankers see when they open the business plan. It provides a summary of the entire business plan. It should be written last to ensure that you don’t leave any details out. It must be short and to the point, and it should capture the reader’s attention. The executive summary should not exceed two pages.
3. Industry Overview
The industry overview section provides information about the specific industry that the business operates in. Some of the information provided in this section includes major competitors, industry trends, and estimated revenues. It also shows the company’s position in the industry and how it will compete in the market against other major players.
4. Market Analysis and Competition
The market analysis section details the target market for the company’s product offerings. This section confirms that the company understands the market and that it has already analyzed the existing market to determine that there is adequate demand to support its proposed business model.
Market analysis includes information about the target market’s demographics , geographical location, consumer behavior, and market needs. The company can present numbers and sources to give an overview of the target market size.
A business can choose to consolidate the market analysis and competition analysis into one section or present them as two separate sections.
5. Sales and Marketing Plan
The sales and marketing plan details how the company plans to sell its products to the target market. It attempts to present the business’s unique selling proposition and the channels it will use to sell its goods and services. It details the company’s advertising and promotion activities, pricing strategy, sales and distribution methods, and after-sales support.
6. Management Plan
The management plan provides an outline of the company’s legal structure, its management team, and internal and external human resource requirements. It should list the number of employees that will be needed and the remuneration to be paid to each of the employees.
Any external professionals, such as lawyers, valuers, architects, and consultants, that the company will need should also be included. If the company intends to use the business plan to source funding from investors, it should list the members of the executive team, as well as the members of the advisory board.
7. Operating Plan
The operating plan provides an overview of the company’s physical requirements, such as office space, machinery, labor, supplies, and inventory . For a business that requires custom warehouses and specialized equipment, the operating plan will be more detailed, as compared to, say, a home-based consulting business. If the business plan is for a manufacturing company, it will include information on raw material requirements and the supply chain.
8. Financial Plan
The financial plan is an important section that will often determine whether the business will obtain required financing from financial institutions, investors, or venture capitalists. It should demonstrate that the proposed business is viable and will return enough revenues to be able to meet its financial obligations. Some of the information contained in the financial plan includes a projected income statement , balance sheet, and cash flow.
9. Appendices and Exhibits
The appendices and exhibits part is the last section of a business plan. It includes any additional information that banks and investors may be interested in or that adds credibility to the business. Some of the information that may be included in the appendices section includes office/building plans, detailed market research , products/services offering information, marketing brochures, and credit histories of the promoters.
![personal business plan report Business Plan Template - Components](https://cdn.corporatefinanceinstitute.com/assets/business-plan.png)
Business Plan Template
Here is a basic template that any business can use when developing its business plan:
Section 1: Executive Summary
- Present the company’s mission.
- Describe the company’s product and/or service offerings.
- Give a summary of the target market and its demographics.
- Summarize the industry competition and how the company will capture a share of the available market.
- Give a summary of the operational plan, such as inventory, office and labor, and equipment requirements.
Section 2: Industry Overview
- Describe the company’s position in the industry.
- Describe the existing competition and the major players in the industry.
- Provide information about the industry that the business will operate in, estimated revenues, industry trends, government influences, as well as the demographics of the target market.
Section 3: Market Analysis and Competition
- Define your target market, their needs, and their geographical location.
- Describe the size of the market, the units of the company’s products that potential customers may buy, and the market changes that may occur due to overall economic changes.
- Give an overview of the estimated sales volume vis-à-vis what competitors sell.
- Give a plan on how the company plans to combat the existing competition to gain and retain market share.
Section 4: Sales and Marketing Plan
- Describe the products that the company will offer for sale and its unique selling proposition.
- List the different advertising platforms that the business will use to get its message to customers.
- Describe how the business plans to price its products in a way that allows it to make a profit.
- Give details on how the company’s products will be distributed to the target market and the shipping method.
Section 5: Management Plan
- Describe the organizational structure of the company.
- List the owners of the company and their ownership percentages.
- List the key executives, their roles, and remuneration.
- List any internal and external professionals that the company plans to hire, and how they will be compensated.
- Include a list of the members of the advisory board, if available.
Section 6: Operating Plan
- Describe the location of the business, including office and warehouse requirements.
- Describe the labor requirement of the company. Outline the number of staff that the company needs, their roles, skills training needed, and employee tenures (full-time or part-time).
- Describe the manufacturing process, and the time it will take to produce one unit of a product.
- Describe the equipment and machinery requirements, and if the company will lease or purchase equipment and machinery, and the related costs that the company estimates it will incur.
- Provide a list of raw material requirements, how they will be sourced, and the main suppliers that will supply the required inputs.
Section 7: Financial Plan
- Describe the financial projections of the company, by including the projected income statement, projected cash flow statement, and the balance sheet projection.
Section 8: Appendices and Exhibits
- Quotes of building and machinery leases
- Proposed office and warehouse plan
- Market research and a summary of the target market
- Credit information of the owners
- List of product and/or services
Related Readings
Thank you for reading CFI’s guide to Business Plans. To keep learning and advancing your career, the following CFI resources will be helpful:
- Corporate Structure
- Three Financial Statements
- Business Model Canvas Examples
- See all management & strategy resources
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- Business Templates
- Sample Reports
FREE 10+ Business Plan Report Samples [ Project, Progress, Development ]
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Having a good business plan report must be able to guide you the different stages of managing your own business. When it comes to planning your own business, a business plan serves as a roadmap or guide to tell you how you should structure, run, and enhance the growth of your business. That is why you should be thinking for ways on how you are going to go through with the key elements of your business. Business plans help you get funds and new business partners. Know that almost all investors would really want to feel confident about the way they see the aspect of a return on investment. Your plan will serve as a tool that you can use in order to convince people especially those that are working with you and those that are investing in your own company.
Business Plan Report
10+ business plan report samples, 1. personal business plan report, 2. business plan rating report, 3. business plan service report, 4. business plan project progress report, 5. business plan group final report, 6. business plan advisory board report, 7. business plan inspection report, 8. business plan tracking report, 9. business plan performance report, 10. business plan board report, 11. pension funds business plan report, why do you have to write a business plan report, what are the tips in writing a business plan quickly and easily, what are the components of a business plan, what are usually the components of a lean startup format.
Basically, there is no right or wrong when it comes to writing a business plan report . The most important thing here is to be able to meet the needs of the company. Do you know that there are two types of business plans? First is the traditional. Second is the lean startup. To define, a traditional business plan is mostly common wherein you will be able to use a standard structure and encourages you to go into every single detail in each of the sections. A lean startup business plan still uses a standard structure. However, they are less common. They focus more on providing a summary of the essential points of your plan. They are mostly written in a one-page document.
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Business plan reports help you in many ways.
- It helps your business grow faster. You business plan reports establish a foundation in every business and helps you realize that you are actually working on the core strategy of your own business . This document has to be reviewed and corrected to help you achieve your goals and objectives. Without having a business plan report, you will be having a hard time tracking down your progress and to have the information that is available to make reference with whenever you are making difficult decisions.
- It helps you get funding. Every investors and loan providers has their own need to be able to know whether you have understood the trajectory of the business. You must be able to provide a proof that their is an equally sustainable need for the solution, that you have a strong strategy, and that you are fully financially stable.
- It helps you make good strategic decisions. This will enable you to make critical decisions. It is preferable to have your business plan report updated. You may now have the necessary information that you needed especially when it is about to hire new employees, launch a new product , or even make a purchase.
You have to keep it short, know your audience, test your business idea, establish goals and objectives, and learn not to become easily intimidated.
It includes executive summary, opportunity, execution, company and management summary, financial plan, and appendix.
It includes details about key partnerships, key activities, key resources, value proposition, customer relationships, customer segments, channels, cost structure, and revenue streams.
Each business is unique. Each business plans must also be unique too. You must know how to apply the tips that you have learned in order to achieve what you desire. If you want to see more samples and format, try to check out some business plan report samples and templates provided in the article for your reference.
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What Is a Business Plan?
Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, 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.
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A business plan is a document that outlines a company's goals and the strategies to achieve them. It's valuable for both startups and established companies. For startups, a well-crafted business plan is crucial for attracting potential lenders and investors. Established businesses use business plans to stay on track and aligned with their growth objectives. This article will explain the key components of an effective business plan and guidance on how to write one.
Key Takeaways
- A business plan is a document detailing a company's business activities and strategies for achieving its goals.
- Startup companies use business plans to launch their venture and to attract outside investors.
- For established companies, a business plan helps keep the executive team focused on short- and long-term objectives.
- There's no single required format for a business plan, but certain key elements are essential for most companies.
Investopedia / Ryan Oakley
Any new business should have a business plan in place before beginning operations. Banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before considering making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.
Even if a company doesn't need additional funding, having a business plan helps it stay focused on its goals. Research from the University of Oregon shows that businesses with a plan are significantly more likely to secure funding than those without one. Moreover, companies with a business plan grow 30% faster than those that don't plan. According to a Harvard Business Review article, entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than those who don't.
A business plan should ideally be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect achieved goals or changes in direction. An established business moving in a new direction might even create an entirely new plan.
There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. It allows for careful consideration of ideas before significant investment, highlights potential obstacles to success, and provides a tool for seeking objective feedback from trusted outsiders. A business plan may also help ensure that a company’s executive team remains aligned on strategic action items and priorities.
While business plans vary widely, even among competitors in the same industry, they often share basic elements detailed below.
A well-crafted business plan is essential for attracting investors and guiding a company's strategic growth. It should address market needs and investor requirements and provide clear financial projections.
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, gathering the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document is best. Any additional crucial elements, such as patent applications, can be referenced in the main document and included as appendices.
Common elements in many business plans include:
- 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 : Describe the products and services the company offers or plans to introduce. Include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique consumer benefits. Mention production and manufacturing processes, relevant patents , proprietary technology , and research and development (R&D) information.
- Market analysis : Explain the current state of the industry and the competition. Detail where the company fits in, the types of customers it plans to target, and how it plans to capture market share from competitors.
- Marketing strategy : Outline the company's plans to attract and retain customers, including anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. Describe the distribution channels that will be used to deliver products or services to consumers.
- Financial plans and projections : Established businesses should include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses should provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. This section may also include any funding requests.
Investors want to see a clear exit strategy, expected returns, and a timeline for cashing out. It's likely a good idea to provide five-year profitability forecasts and realistic financial estimates.
2 Types of Business Plans
Business plans can vary in format, often categorized into traditional and lean startup plans. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.
- Traditional business plans : These are detailed and lengthy, requiring more effort to create but offering comprehensive information that can be persuasive to potential investors.
- Lean startup business plans : These are concise, sometimes just one page, and focus on key elements. While they save time, companies should be ready to provide additional details if requested by investors or lenders.
Why Do Business Plans Fail?
A business plan isn't a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections. Markets and the economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All this calls for building flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.
How Often Should a Business Plan Be Updated?
How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on its nature. Updating your business plan is crucial due to changes in external factors (market trends, competition, and regulations) and internal developments (like employee growth and new products). While 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 ideal for quickly explaining a business, especially for new companies that don't have much information yet. Key sections may include a value proposition , major activities and advantages, resources (staff, intellectual property, and capital), partnerships, customer segments, and revenue sources.
A well-crafted business plan is crucial for any company, whether it's a startup looking for investment or an established business wanting to stay on course. It outlines goals and strategies, boosting a company's chances of securing funding and achieving growth.
As your business and the market change, update your business plan regularly. This keeps it relevant and aligned with your current goals and conditions. Think of your business plan as a living document that evolves with your company, not something carved in stone.
University of Oregon Department of Economics. " Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Business Planning Using Palo Alto's Business Plan Pro ." Eason Ding & Tim Hursey.
Bplans. " Do You Need a Business Plan? Scientific Research Says Yes ."
Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."
Harvard Business Review. " How to Write a Winning Business Plan ."
U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."
SCORE. " When and Why Should You Review Your Business Plan? "
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The Personal Business Plan: A Blueprint for Running Your Life 1st Edition
Plan for success
No one would embark on a business venture without a thorough and coherent plan. So why are so many of us happy to stagger through life with no real plan – just going with the flow, seeing what happens? It’s time we gave our lives the same importance we give to our business exploits. The Personal Business Plan offers a practical, field-tested method for effectively planning out what you want from life and exactly how to achieve it. It will change the way you look at yourself, your job and your career. This is an essential toolkit for all ambitious career professionals who want to know how to thrive in their job and simultaneously become a happier and more effective person. Creating your own personal business plan will help you to define your purpose, plan your actions, break through limiting beliefs and reinvent yourself.
- Written by a top executive coach and head-hunter with the world’s leading Talent Management and Executive Search firm who has changed the lives of thousands of people
- A field-tested methodology for identifying your mission, setting your critical success criteria, defining your agenda, keeping to the point and become more fulfilled and happier
- A complete life view – how to excel in your chosen career and simultaneously enjoy a happy personal life
- ISBN-10 1118744136
- ISBN-13 978-1118744130
- Edition 1st
- Publisher Wiley
- Publication date October 14, 2013
- Language English
- Dimensions 6.8 x 0.9 x 9.7 inches
- Print length 240 pages
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Stephen Bruyant-Langer is happily married to Mette, who is a Vice President in a publicly listed company. Together they have four grown-up children. The family lives in Denmark, near the sea and the forest. Stephen enjoys dual French/ Danish citizenship, has lived in Belgium, France and Denmark and is fluent in English, French and Danish.
Product details
- Publisher : Wiley; 1st edition (October 14, 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1118744136
- ISBN-13 : 978-1118744130
- Item Weight : 1.3 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.8 x 0.9 x 9.7 inches
- #41,292 in Business & Finance
- #408,360 in Business & Money (Books)
About the author
Stephen bruyant-langer.
Stephen Bruyant-Langer is a senior partner with Korn/Ferry International, the world’s leading Executive Search and Talent Management firm. He has successfully transformed the lives of hundreds of top-level executives through his world-class Executive Coaching Program. For more than 15 years, he worked as a Marketing Executive for global market leaders such as L’Oréal and The Coca-Cola Company before reinventing himself as a Headhunter and Executive Coach in 1996.
For more than 17 years he has pursued, in parallel, an academic career as an External Lecturer at the Copenhagen Business School, focusing on Strategic Market Management and Corporate Communication. He has published more than 400 articles and columns on leadership and is widely used as a keynote speaker at conferences. In March 2012, he published his Danish best-selling leadership book Your Next Career – The Headhunter’s Guide to Lifelong Success.
Stephen Bruyant-Langer is happily married to Mette, who is Vice President in a publicly listed company. Together they have four grown-up children, two of whom have studied in the US and the UK. The family lives in Denmark, near the sea and the forest. He has dual French/Danish citizenship, has lived in Belgium, France and Denmark, and is fluent in English, French, and Danish.
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7+ personal business plan templates.
Are you planning on starting a business? Then careful planning is a necessary step before you can even start doing what you have in mind. And since the human mind is not infallible, you would need a document with a specific format that you can use to write your plan samples for your business. And this is where business plans come into play.
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Advantages of Having a Business Plan
- A well-written business plan allows you to see a better picture of the whole business.
- A business plan helps you focus on the right things and the most important things. And you will be able to allocate your time and resources strategically.
- A good business plan helps in keeping track on the flow of income, and if problems are identified, the business will be able to adjust to it easily.
- A business plan can be used to set targets for new collaborators, and you may choose parts of your plan to communicate with those collaborators.
Guidelines on Making a Business Plan
- Research on businesses that offer similar services and learn about their mistakes so you can do the opposite.
- Make your business plan clear, concise, and direct to the point.
- Seek assistance from other people, if possible, those who have written their own business plans and learn from them.
- Know your target clients and adapt to their interests and preferences.
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Personal Development Plan Templates for Success
Did you know you can make your dreams and aspirations a reality by focusing on your own individual personal development plan ?
Your potential is limitless, and investing in personal development is a way to harness your many talents.
Establishing goals for what you want to achieve — where you would like to go in the short term or long term — can improve your personal development.
In this guide, I’ll help you understand what personal development means and its importance, what a personal development plan is and why you should make one, and how to write a personal development plan.
I’ll also share with you my personal development plan template to get you started on your path to reach your personal development goals, complete with helpful examples and resources to support you.
What Is a Personal Development Plan (PDP)?
A personal development plan is a guideline for your life and your future success.
Personal development is an ongoing process of improving oneself through conscious habits and activities. It is the pursuit of personal growth to enhance your quality of life and to achieve your dreams and aspirations.
When you create a plan, you start to define the kind of person you want to be, the skills you want to have, and the accomplishments you want to achieve. And then you map out your long-term and short-term goals to realize these aspirations and set timelines for when you want to reach them.
Many people underachieve in their careers because they do not realize the areas of personal development that can help achieve mastery in any field.
Effective leaders focus on continual self-improvement and know there is no substitute for hard work.
When you practice self-discipline by setting a goal, making a plan, and working on it every day, you will see personal development and progress within your career.
The Importance of Personal Development
Most of the time, what you think about is what you become. From the moment you wake up until the moment you close your eyes at the end of the day, everything you experience plays a factor in your development.
When you take greater control over your experiences, you can guide your personal development and accelerate toward what you want to become instead of leaving it to chance.
Setting, striving for, and meeting personal development goals opens up a world of new possibilities for you to increase your quality of life.
For example, as a result of creating and following your personal development plan, you may gain more responsibility for work and open up opportunities for higher pay. This growth could qualify you for a better career trajectory to increase your overall happiness, job satisfaction, and ability to provide for the life you want for you and your family.
Focusing on your personal development also gives you better decision-making abilities so you can avoid problems that may have plagued you in the past or are holding you back now.
At the end of the day, personal development helps you create more positivity and harness the power of positive thoughts , which can transform your life.
When you give time to yourself by focusing on your professional and personal growth, you are better able to achieve your version of success because of personal development opportunities.
Personal Development vs Self-Improvement
Recognizing the difference between self-improvement and personal development can be a little tricky.
While they are similar in that they are both very instrumental in achieving your goals and improving yourself, there are key differences between a self-improvement plan and your own personal development plan.
Personal development is the work you are putting in to transform yourself on a daily basis. It’s the efforts you’re making to advance in your work, lifestyle, attitude, physique, and sociability.
Setting personal and professional development goals and creating a plan helps you take full advantage of any opportunity that may come your way and make the most of your potential.
Self-improvement is an inner transformation. It is a self-motivated study to improve one’s character, status, or knowledge by their own efforts.
Self-improvement is a lifelong process of constantly searching for ways to change your habits so you can reach your fullest potential.
The specific efforts you put into personal development lead to self-improvement.
Start Achieving All of Your Goals Today! Download my FREE Personal Development Plan Template
The 7 Categories of Personal Development
Focusing on personal development categories such as personal skills, personal growth, and personal power can create habits for personal improvement.
Personal growth is founded on education and skill. Through education and experience, you increase your skill level and your ability to succeed in your field.
There are seven main categories of personal development.
Personal Skills
Personal skills can be ones you were born with as well as those you gain through deliberate practice. They’re often referred to as soft skills.
Examples of personal skills are decision-making, teamwork, organization, and communication.
If you’re looking to develop skills at work, try working on your personal skills. The highest-paid, top individuals in their field are the ones who focus on growing their personal skills.
Knowing what areas you excel in and which need development is very useful in your personal and professional life.
Personal Growth
Having a personal growth plan is one of the first steps toward bettering yourself and stepping out of your comfort zone.
Humans and the human mind are constantly evolving. Think about it: you are not the same person you were a year ago. You’ve learned more, grown in many different ways, and have experienced more life events to further shape your personality, beliefs, and world outlook.
To experience personal development and have a growth mindset, strive to be a better version of yourself today than you were yesterday.
Personal Power
Personal power is the authority others believe you to have in certain situations and is fueled by your contacts, knowledge, and financial status.
Developing an ever-widening circle of contacts, seeking to learn more, and growing financially increases the number of doors that others will leave open for you to step into.
Expanding your network, knowledge base and financial status will also allow you to help others do the same, further increasing your personal power and opportunities for personal development and growth.
Personal Improvement
Personal improvement stems from good work habits and having a positive mental attitude.
Thinking before you act is critical to developing a strong amount of personal improvement. To help you think first, try to set priorities on a list and consider the likely consequences before beginning.
Working on personal improvement and generating a positive mental attitude will also reduce the amount of time that it takes you to achieve your goals.
Personal Empowerment
Personal empowerment is similar to Personal Power, except empowerment is the power to reflect what you see within yourself, instead of how others view you.
Promoting a positive image and adopting creativity within your daily life can speed up the time it takes to achieve personal empowerment and your goals.
To help you increase your personal empowerment, consider looking for new, creative ways to finish a project in a faster, easier or cheaper way without compromising the end result.
Personal Analysis
It is very important to be conscious of areas in which you are naturally gifted as well as analyze areas in which you need improvement. This is called personal analysis.
Being truthful about where you currently stand is the first step to moving forward. You should be constantly evaluating where you are when achieving your goals and ambitions.
Personal Objectives
Ambition goes to waste when there are no clear goals in sight. Developing clear direction for short-term and long-term goals is a pivotal step in actually accomplishing them and growing as a person.
Having a set plan will help you have a clear understanding of which strategies are necessary to reach your desired destination.
Why Make a Personal Development Plan?
The reason you need to create a personal development plan is that making a plan will help guide you to better decision-making and remind you of where you want to go.
In other words, good preparation increases the probability of success and decreases the risk of things going wrong along the way.
Creating a plan for personal development helps you get a better sense of control over your life and will make you better prepared for whatever comes your way.
Consider these benefits of having one:
- It brings your vision to reality.
- It ensures you take appropriate and logically planned action.
- It helps you improve your time management skills so you can achieve your goals.
- It’s a plan to keep track of progress, which serves to motivate you when you want to give up.
- It’s been proven to reduce stress, improve balance in life, and increase self-confidence.
Developing your personal development plans and goals for work can make the difference between success and failure. Creating a self-growth plan for your personal life can mean the difference between life-long happiness and regret.
Skills & Objectives
The objectives of personal development are continuous personal growth, increased potential for success, and capitalizing on potential opportunities.
You can practice your personal development skills by setting aside time for the important people in your life, performing action exercises that force you to perform at the highest level, and studying growth performances to help ensure you continue to climb the ladder of success.
An action plan has to include measurable objectives so you know the exact steps it will take to reach your goals. Objectives break your larger personal goals into bite-sized pieces so you can know where you are headed and check off your progress along the way.
There are no limits except for the limits you place on yourself with your thinking.
Commit yourself to a life of constant learning. Even if you are at the top of your field, there is always something to learn.
Once you have mastered a new skill, move on to learning another one. Constantly learning new skills keeps your mind fresh and active and opens doors that would otherwise be closed to you.
You will become unstoppable and you will see your entire future open up in front of you if you live a goal and growth-oriented life.
How to Set Personal Development Goals
Before you can set up a plan, you need to do some self-reflection and answer personal goal questions.
A few questions you should develop before laying out an idea for a specific plan of action are:
- What do I want to make out of my life?
- What are my goals and ambitions?
- What is currently standing in my way of achieving these goals?
After answering those questions, you can create a personal plan that contains a few key components.
The key components you should focus on are having a specific outcome that you are constantly working towards, planning and paving a path towards achieving it, being mindful of the obstacles, and understanding the bigger motivation behind your actions.
When developing a personal development plan for work, you should focus on SMART goals. SMART stands for “Specific”, “Measurable”, “Achievable”, “Relevant”, and “Time-Bound.”
By following this easy-to-remember acronym when goal setting, you can improve both your personal and professional life:
- Specific: Write goals that are detailed and clear instead of broad and general.
- Measurable: Set milestones that will let you know you are achieving your goal.
- Achievable: Make goals that are challenging yet can realistically be achieved.
- Relevant: Align your goals with your personal self-improvement plan.
- Time-Bound: Pick an end date by which you want to achieve your goal.
Set Goals for Professional Life
To make progress that you can see and track in your professional life, you need to document a detailed plan of action for your personal development.
Some examples include answering the following questions:
- What do I want to learn?
- What do I have to do?
- What support and resources will I need?
- How will I measure success?
Be as specific with your answers as possible. The more precise, the easier it is to track your progress.
Seeing how far you have come and how your hard work is paying off will give you a boost of confidence and provide a sense of accomplishment.
Some examples of personal development goals for work include the Golden Hour and the 21-Day Mental Diet.
The Golden Hour Rule
The Golden Hour Rule steers the trajectory of your day.
Beginning your day early and investing your first hour in yourself will make a tremendous difference in the way you feel, and you will begin to see positive results in your day.
You will begin to see yourself in a more positive light and improve on your self-awareness and personal development.
The 21-Day Mental Diet
The 21-Day Mental Diet personal leadership plan example means waking up early and investing at least the first two hours of your day in yourself.
With this extra time, set clear goals you can work to achieve in the workplace. This can improve your productivity and efficiency to help you get that promotion or earn a raise.
Your goals may also include education. You need to learn more to earn more.
Try setting a goal to read something educational, motivational, or inspirational every day before you go to work.
Set Goals in Your Daily Life
Outside of the workspace, it’s important to focus on some personal goals as well. Similar to your work plan, your personal plan requires you to focus on key points to achieve your goals.
Here are some sample questions to ask yourself:
- What are the important goals that you want to achieve?
- When is your set deadline?
- What are your biggest strengths?
- Who or what are your biggest threats?
There are several aspects of personal development disciplines that will make achieving success possible if developed correctly.
A few of these disciplines include goal setting, planning and organizing, and concentrating on high-value activities.
Goal Setting
Goal setting can be done in the early morning and take only a few minutes of your day.
It can be as simple as purchasing a spiral notebook and writing out your ten goals at the beginning of each day. This will program them deep into your subconscious mind and help you actually follow through on accomplishing them.
Planning Your Day
Planning and organizing at the end of the day can help you better prepare for the coming day.
When you plan out your day, put it down on paper, you can begin to visualize your important tasks and make sure you are working to complete them throughout the day.
Concentrating On Your High-Value Activities
High-value activities are the things you choose to do throughout the day that will give you the biggest return on your efforts to get you closer to your goals.
Concentrating on your high-value activities will help keep you focused and contribute to your success as much as any other discipline you can develop.
Promoting the highest value activities will make a powerful difference in how quickly you achieve them and the goals they relate to.
Personal Development Plan Template
Creating a plan for personal development will help you get a better sense of control over your life and your goals…and it doesn’t have to be a daunting task!
Follow this template to get started and achieve your goals.
There are six core steps in this template that will help you take action and measure your progress.
Step 1: Set Your Goals
Write a list of the top 10 most important goals you would like to achieve. I encourage you to really write them down somewhere — on paper or on your computer — instead of just keeping them in your head.
People who write their goals and have a clear plan are 30% more likely to achieve their goals.
Search deep within yourself and identify the things you really want out of life. Do not be hindered by thoughts of roadblocks that may get in your way. Open yourself up to all the possibilities that would make you truly happy in life.
These are life goals. Life goals are meant to be challenging, so they may seem huge, overwhelming, or even scary. But that’s why they will be broken down into digestible and manageable smaller goals.
For example, providing for your family is an important long-term goal, but figuring out the steps to get there is the challenge. Your smaller personal development objectives will help you identify those steps so you have a clear road map to follow.
With each of the 10 goals you identify, also define your “why:” Why do you want to achieve this goal? What will it mean for your personal life, your career, your mental health or, your loved ones?
Knowing your why will help set you up for success. It will keep you motivated to continue progressing forward until you have achieved what you want to.
Step 2: Prioritize Your Goals
Once you have identified your top 10 goals, write which of those 10 is the most important to you and why.
Starting with your highest priority goal, identify the short-term goals and steps that are needed to achieve your long-term goals.
What needs to happen today so you can move on to the next movetomorrow?
This may require some research on your part, depending on your goal.
For example, say your goal is to become a leader in your field. Some of the short-term goals you will prioritize to reach this personal leadership plan example may include the following:
- Choose a topic or niche in your industry that you want to specialize in.
- Learn everything you can about the issue by talking to people in your industry, reading about your topic, attending seminars and webinars, and so on.
- Educate others by writing regular blog posts.
- Start a podcast and offer valuable information.
- Give interviews on podcasts, local radio and TV stations, and news outlets.
- Write a book and get it published.
- Become a public speaker at industry conferences or hold your own conference.
Step 3: Create a Timeline for Achieving Your Goals
Setting goals and deadlines in your process is crucial. Without them, your goals can get lost in the everyday chaos of life or forgotten completely.
Write down a specific timeline for achieving each of your goals, but be realistic in your timing and know the likelihood ahead of time of achieving your goal within a certain timeline to avoid discouragement.
While you may want to become debt-free by next year, you will first need to do what is necessary to earn more income or reduce your expenses. This could involve getting more education, finding a better job, or making major life changes, which could take more than 365 days.
Once you assign a due date to each of your short-term goals, tackle the hardest goal first . This will help you realize you can actually achieve your goals faster and give you the motivation you need to propel yourself forward.
If you’re unsure of the timeline you should set for accomplishing your goals, speaking to other people who have achieved the goal you are striving for will help you set a realistic deadline.
Conducting online research could also help in defining a timeline to accomplish your goals.
Knowing that it takes four to five years to earn a Ph.D. in business lets you know how long it will likely take you. If you can only attend school part-time, you know it will take longer, perhaps twice as long.
Step 4: Analyze Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Write down your strengths and weaknesses. Remember that skills like perseverance, positive attitude, and creativity are strengths and weaknesses as much as educational level, experience, and having a strong network of professional contacts.
Focus on the attributes that are needed to achieve your goal. Then, write how your strengths can help you achieve this goal and how you plan to overcome those weaknesses.
Use a SWOT analysis to organize your thoughts and develop a strong strategy for achieving your goal. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Ask yourself questions similar to these to help you develop insights for each part of a SWOT analysis:
- What sets you apart from your peers?
- What is your competitive advantage?
- What do others regularly praise you for?
- What do people ask you to help them with?
- What parts of yourself are you confident about?
- What values are important to you?
- What do you usually avoid doing because you don’t think you can?
- What kind of tasks do you procrastinate?
- Where are you lacking in skills, experience, or education?
- What resources do you lack?
- What areas do you feel you need improvement?
- What gets in the way of your work performance or relationships with others?
Opportunities
- What technology can help you achieve your goal?
- What promotions or financial incentives are available at work?
- Who can help you reach your goal?
- What changes are happening or are projected to happen in your industry or personal life?
- What conferences, classes, or networking events are available to you?
- What are your competitors failing at that you can learn from and improve on?
- What obstacles do you face that may hinder your progress?
- Which of your weaknesses could lead to threats?
- Who is trying to achieve the same goal that may get in your way?
Step 5: Write an Action Plan
Write actions that you need to take to achieve your goal. These can be things you need to add to your daily routine as well as things you need to eliminate from it to achieve the success in life that you are looking for.
Doing this will help you to achieve each goal faster.
Whether you use a notebook or your computer, just make sure you’re also physically writing down your plan so you can see it every day and hold yourself accountable.
Step 6: Measure Your Progress
The final step in your personal development plan template is to mark your progress.
Write down what has been working well, what you have accomplished, what you still need to improve, and what skills or knowledge you have gained along the way.
People who set up a system to report on their goals weekly achieve 40% more than people who do not.
To help you in this final step, consider using a tracker to take notes, measure progress, and be analytical about what works and what does not.
Sometimes it is necessary to change courses midstream or add a step that you were not initially aware of. That doesn’t mean you should abandon your goal out of discouragement. It just means you need to adapt, and this is where a tracker can help you determine if it’s time to pivot.
Remember it’s okay to be flexible. Doing so will allow you to make changes when needed that will propel you toward your goal more efficiently.
This could be a good opportunity to use another piece of data about how people who write things down/journal are much more likely to be successful.
Personal Development Courses and Programs
Personal development courses, coaches, and programs can also help you hit your goals.
A personal development program accompanied by a personal development coach helps to keep you disciplined and moving forward.
If you are looking to transform your life, check out these courses and programs that include all of my knowledge, distilled into powerful lessons to help you achieve immediate success in your own life. They will teach you how to stop worrying and stressing out and how to take control of your life, forever.
Power Of Personal Achievement
Learn the right way to visualize your ideal future. This course will teach you how to set your goals and methodically achieve them with more efficiency than ever before.
This program will teach you how to ditch the negative emotions that have been hindering your success as well as how to redirect your energy and resources towards your personal mission.
The Science Of Self-Confidence
In this course, you’ll learn just about everything I’ve learned about self-confidence during the past four decades.
I reveal the secret of the four Cs that teach you how to escape the endless loop of failure. You will find your true self and, as a result, finally feel truly confident.
Maximum Productivity
This course will equip you with the skills to discover your special calling. You will learn everything you need to know how to take the shortest, fastest route possible to your destination.
Ultimate success is achievable when you know how to dramatically improve your productivity.
Create Your Personal Development Plan Today
Don’t wait to start improving your life.
Follow a personal development plan for work and your personal life or use a template to start accomplishing your goals and improving your life.
For the easiest way to get started, download my free Personal Development Plan Template to organize your goals over the next few months and years and optimize your success.
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Money blog: Couples reveal how they split finances when one earns more than other
Welcome to the Money, your place for personal finance and consumer news and tips. Read our weekend feature on relationship finances below and let us know how you and your partner divide money in the comments box. We'll be back with live updates on Monday.
Saturday 17 August 2024 12:43, UK
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By Emily Mee , news reporter
Openly discussing how you split your finances with your partner feels pretty taboo - even among friends.
As a consequence, it can be difficult to know how to approach these conversations with our partner or what is largely considered fair - especially if there's a big imbalance salary-wise.
Research by Hargreaves Lansdown suggests in an average household with a couple, three-quarters of the income is earned by one person.
Even when there is a large disparity, some couples will want to pay the same amount on bills as they want to contribute equally.
But for others, one partner can feel resentful if they are spending all of their money on bills while the other has much more to spend and is living a different lifestyle as a result.
At what stage of the relationship can you talk about money?
"We've kind of formally agreed there is some point in a relationship you start talking about kids - there is no generally agreed time that we start talking about money," says Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Some couples may never get around to mentioning it, leading to "lopsided finances".
Ms Coles says if you want to keep on top of finances with your partner, you could set a specific date in the year that you go through it all.
"If it's in the diary and it's not emotional and it's not personal then you can properly go through it," she says.
"It's not a question of 'you need to pull more weight'. It's purely just this is what we've agreed, this is the maths and this is how we need to do that."
While many people start talking about finances around Christmas, Ms Coles suggests this can be a "trying time" for couples so February might be a "less emotional time to sit down".
How do you have the conversation if you feel the current arrangement is unfair?
Relationship counsellor at Relate , Peter Saddington, says that setting out the balance as "unfair" shouldn't be your starting point.
You need to be honest about your position, he says, but your conversation should be negotiating as a couple what works for both of you.
Before you have to jump into the conversation, think about:
- Letting your partner know in advance rather than springing it on them;
- Making sure you and your partner haven't drunk alcohol before having the conversation, as this can make it easy for it to spiral;
- Having all the facts to hand, so you know exactly how much you are spending;
- Using 'I' statements rather than 'you'. For example, you could say to your partner: "I'm really worried about my finances and I would like to sit down and talk about how we manage it. Can we plan a time when we can sit down and do it?"
Mr Saddington says if your partner is not willing to help, you should look at the reasons or question if there are other things in the relationship that need sorting out.
If you're having repeated arguments about money, he says you might have opposite communication styles causing you to "keep headbutting".
Another reason could be there is a "big resentment" lurking in the background - and it may be that you need a third party such as a counsellor, therapist or mediator to help resolve it.
Mr Saddington says there needs to be a "safe space" to have these conversations, and that a third party can help untangle resentments from what is happening now.
He also suggests considering both of your attitudes to money, which he says can be formed by your early life and your family.
"If you grew up in a family where there wasn't any money, or it wasn't talked about, or it was pushed that you save instead of spend, and the other person had the opposite, you can see where those conversations go horribly wrong.
"Understanding what influences each of you when it comes to money is important to do before you have significant conversations about it."
What are the different ways you can split your finances?
There's no one-size-fits-all approach, but there are several ways you can do it - with Money blog readers getting in touch to let us know their approach...
1. Separate personal accounts - both pay the same amount into a joint account regardless of income
Paul Fuller, 40, earns approximately £40,000 a year while his wife earns about £70,000.
They each have separate accounts, including savings accounts, but they pay the same amount (£900) each a month into a joint account to pay for their bills.
Paul says this pays for the things they both benefit from or have a responsibility for, but when it comes to other spending his wife should be able to spend as she likes.
"It's not for me to turn around to my wife and expect her to justify why she thinks it's appropriate to spend £150 in a hairdresser. She works her backside off and she has a very stressful job," he says.
However, their arrangement is still flexible. Their mortgage is going up by £350 a month soon, so his wife has agreed to pay £200 of that.
And if his wife wants a takeaway but he can't afford to pay for it, she'll say it's on her.
"Where a lot of people go wrong is being unable to have those conversations," says Paul.
2. Separate personal accounts - whoever earns the most puts more into a joint account
This is a more formal arrangement than the hybrid approach Paul and his wife use, and many Money blog readers seem to do this in one form or another judging by our inbox.
There's no right or wrong way to do the maths - you could both put in the same percentage of your individual salaries, or come up with a figure you think is fair, or ensure you're both left with the same amount of spending money after each payday.
3. Everything is shared
Gordon Hurd and his wife Brenda live by their spreadsheet.
Brenda earns about £800 more a month as she is working full-time while Gordon is freelance. Previously Gordon had been the breadwinner - so it's a big turnaround.
They each have separate accounts with different banks, but they can both access the two accounts.
How much is left in each account - and their incomings and outgoings - is all detailed in the spreadsheet, which is managed weekly.
Whenever they need to buy something, they can see how much is left in each account and pay from either one.
Gordon says this means "everyone knows how much is available" and "each person's money belongs to the other".
"We have never in the last decade had a single disagreement about money and that is because of this strategy," he says.
Money blog reader Shredder79 got in touch to say he takes a similar approach.
"I earn £50k and my wife earns just under £150k. We have one joint bank account that our wages go into and all our outgoings come out of. Some friends can't get their head around that but it's normal for us."
Another reader, Curtis, also puts his wages into a joint account with his wife.
"After all, when you have a family (three kids) it shouldn't matter who earns more or less!" he says.
Reader Alec goes further and says he questions "the authenticity of any long-term relationship or the certainly of a marriage if a couple does not completely share a bank account for all earnings and all outgoings".
"As for earning significantly more than the other, so what? If you are one couple or long-term partnership you are one team and you simply communicate and share everything," he says.
"Personally I couldn't imagine doing it any other way and I do instinctively wonder what issues or insecurities, whether it be in trust or something else, sit beneath the need to feel like you need to keep your finances separate from one another, especially if you are a married couple."
A reader going by the name lljdc agrees, saying: "I earn half of what my husband does because I work part-time. Neither of us has a solo account. We have one joint account and everything goes into this and we just spend it however we like. All bills come out of this too. Sometimes I spend more, sometimes he spends more."
4. Separate accounts - but the higher earner pays their partner an 'allowance'
If one partner is earning much more than the other, or one partner isn't earning for whatever reason, they could keep separate accounts and have the higher earner pay their partner an allowance.
This would see them transfer an agreed amount each week or month to their partner's account.
Let us know how you and your partner talk about and split finances in the comments box - we'll feature some of the best next week
By Jimmy Rice, Money blog editor
The centre-point of a significant week in the economy was inflation data, released first thing on Wednesday, that showed price rises accelerated in July to 2.2%.
Economists attributed part of the rise to energy prices - which have fallen this year, but at a much slower rate than they did last year.
As our business correspondent Paul Kelso pointed out, it felt like the kind of mild fluctuation we can probably expect month to month now that sky high price hikes are behind us, though analysts do expect inflation to tick up further through the remainder of the year...
Underneath the bonnet, service inflation, taking in restaurants and hotels, dropped from 5.7% to 5.2%.
This is important because a large part of this is wages - and they've been a concern for the Bank of England as they plot a route for interest rates.
On Tuesday we learned average weekly earnings had also fallen - from 5.7% to 5.4% in the latest statistics.
High wages can be inflationary (1/ people have more to spend, 2/ employers might raise prices to cover staff costs), so any easing will only aid the case for a less restrictive monetary policy. Or, to put it in words most people use, the case for interest rate cuts.
Markets think there'll be two more cuts this year - nothing has changed there.
Away from the economy, official data also illustrated the pain being felt by renters across the UK.
The ONS said:
- Average UK private rents increased by 8.6% in the 12 months to July 2024, unchanged from in the 12 months to June 2024;
- Average rents increased to £1,319 (8.6%) in England, £748 (7.9%) in Wales, and £965 (8.2%) in Scotland;
- In Northern Ireland, average rents increased by 10% in the 12 months to May 2024;
- In England, rents inflation was highest in London (9.7%) and lowest in the North East (6.1%).
Yesterday, we found the UK economy grew 0.6% over three months to the end of June.
That growth rate was the second highest among the G7 group of industrialised nations - only the United States performed better with 0.7%, though Japan and Germany have yet to released their latest data.
Interestingly, there was no growth at all in June, the Office for National Statistics said, as businesses delayed purchases until after the general election.
"In a range of industries across the economy, businesses stated that customers were delaying placing orders until the outcome of the election was known," the ONS said.
Finally, a shout for this analysis from business presenter Ian King examining what's gone wrong at Asda. It's been one of our most read articles this week and is well worth five minutes of your Friday commute or weekend...
We're signing out of regular updates now until Monday - but do check out our weekend read from 8am on Saturday. This week we're examining how couples who earn different amounts split their finances.
Each week we feature comments from Money blog readers on the story or stories that elicited most correspondence.
Our weekend probe into the myriad reasons for pub closures in the UK prompted hundreds of comments.
Landlords and campaigners, researchers and residents revealed to Sky News the "thousand cuts" killing Britain's boozers - and what it takes to survive the assault.
Here was your take on the subject...
I've been a publican for 19 years. This article is bang on! It's like you've overheard my conversations with my customers - COVID, cost of living, wages - the traditional British boozer going out of fashion. (My place: no food, no small children). Hey Jood
I own a small craft ale bar or micropub as some say. The current climate is sickening for the whole hospitality sector. This summer has been ridiculously quiet compared to previous ones. Micropubs were on the rise pre-COVID, but not now even we're struggling to survive… Lauren
I am an ex-landlord. It's ridiculous you can buy 10 cans for £10 or one pint for £5 now. It's not rocket science, it's a no-brainer: reverse the situation. Make supermarket beer more expensive than pub beer, then people will start to go out and mix again rather than getting drunk at home. Ivanlordpeers
Bought four pints of my regular drink at a supermarket for less than one pint in our local pub. It's becoming a luxury to go to a pub these days. Torquay David
Traditional pubs are being taken over by conglomerates who don't sell traditional beer, only very expensive lager, usually foreign, and other similar gassy drinks. How can they be called traditional pubs? Bronzestraw
The main reason for pubs closing is twofold! 1: The out-of-reach rents that the big groups charge landlords. 2: Landlords are told what stock they can hold and restrict where they can purchase it from. Strange, but most pubs belonged to the same groups! A pub-goer
Less pubs are managed now, pub companies are changing them to managed partnerships, putting the pressure onto inexperienced young ex-managers. Locals complain that their local pub has gone. but they don't use them enough. Can government regulate rents and beer prices for business owners? John Darkins
I was a brewery tenant in Scotland for many years and sequestrated because of the constant grabbing at my money by greedy brewers who wanted more and more. I made my pub very successful and was penalised by the brewery. James MacQuarrie
The only reason pubs are closing is locals only use them on Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, and one Sunday a year. Plus breweries don't need pubs, they sell enough through supermarkets! Use them or lose them. Peter Smith
The closing of pubs is a terrible shame. I still go to my local and have great memories of getting drunk in many in my hometown. They are important places in society. As someone once said: "No good story ever started with a salad." Kev K
It's the taxman killing pubs. £1 of every £3 sold. Utter disgrace. Stef
I go with my girlfriend, Prue, every day to my local. It's a shame what's happening to prices. It used to be full of people and joy but now it's a ghost town in the pub since prices are too high now. I wish we could turn back time and find out what went wrong. Niall Benson
Minimum wage is around £11 and the tax threshold is £12,600 per year. How can you possibly afford a night in a pub out when a pint costs between £3 and £8 a pint on those wages? Allan7777blue
Unfortunately, the very people who have kept these establishments going over the years (the working man) have been priced out, and they're paying the price. Dandexter
The pubs are too expensive for people to go out regularly as we once did a decade or so ago. People's priorities are on survival, not recreation. Until the living wage increases beyond an inflation that wages haven't risen above in years, then we will see shops, pubs, etc. close JD
Who wants to spend hard-earned money going into a pub that's nearly always empty. It takes away one of the main attractions - socialising. Michael
Monzo has been named the best bank in the UK for customer satisfaction, according to a major survey.
More than 17,000 personal current account customers rated their bank on the quality of its services and how likely they would be to recommend to friends or family.
Digital banks made up the top three, with Monzo coming out on top, followed by Starling Bank and then Chase.
Some 80% of Monzo customers said they would recommend the bank.
The digital banking app said topping the tables "time and time again" was not something it would "ever take for granted".
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was bottom of the ranking for another year.
The banks with the best services in branches were Nationwide, Lloyds Bank and Metro Bank.
Gail's bakery chain has come under fire for repurposing unsold pastries into croissants and selling them for almost £4 the next day.
The retailer lists the "twice baked" chocolate almond croissants as part of its "Waste Not" range, which means it is made using leftover croissants that are then "topped with almond frangipane and flaked almonds".
The scheme has been hit with criticism online, with many pointing out the £3.90 price tag is 95p more than the original croissant.
One X user said: "The audacity of bragging about it being part of their 'Waste Not' range like we should be grateful to them and proud of ourselves for contributing to reducing food waste when they could just sell it for less money – not one pound more than yesterday.
"Unsure whether to be impressed or horrified that someone has come up with a concept to capitalise on yellow sticker goods to make more profit."
It should be added, however, that the practice was not invented by Gail's - and almond croissants were originally created by French boulangeries to reuse day-old croissants and stop them going stale.
When factoring in the extra ingredients (almond frangipane and flaked almonds) and baking time, the bakery chain would likely defend the increased price by pointing to the additional costs incurred.
It comes as locals in a trendy London neighbourhood signed a petition against a Gail's bakery setting up shop in their area.
After (unconfirmed) rumours began circulating that the chain was looking to open a site in Walthamstow village, more than 600 have signed a petition opposing the plans.
The petition says the village "faces a threat to its uniqueness" should Gail's move into the area (see yesterday's 11.54am post for more).
Gail's has been contacted for comment.
British retailers saw a rise in sales last month after a boost from Euro 2024 and summer discounting, according to official figures.
High street retailers said sales of football shirts, electronics such as TVs, and alcoholic drinks were all stronger amid the Three Lions' journey to the final.
Total retail sales volumes rose by 0.5% in July, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. It was, however, slightly below predictions, with economists forecasting a 0.7% increase.
It followed a 0.9% slump in volumes in June as retail firms blamed uncertainty ahead of the general election and poor weather.
ONS director of economic statistics, Liz McKeown, said: "Retail sales grew in July led by increases in department stores and sports equipment shops, with both the Euros and discounting across many stores boosting sales.
"These increases were offset by a poor month for clothing and furniture shops, and falling fuel sales, despite prices at the pump falling."
The data showed that non-food stores saw a 1.4% rise, driven by a strong performance from department stores, where sales grew by 4% for the month as summer sales helped to stoke demand.
However, clothing and footwear shops saw a 0.6% dip, whilst homeware retailers also saw volumes fall 0.6%. Food stores, meanwhile, saw sales remain flat for the month.
There are fears that the £2-cap on single bus fares could be scrapped after the government declined to say whether the policy would continue past December.
Bus companies said it was vital the cost of using their services is kept low for young people to "enhance their access to education and jobs".
Alison Edwards, director of policy and external relations at industry body the Confederation of Passenger Transport, said: "Bus operators are working closely with the government so that together we can find a way to avoid a cliff edge return to commercial fares.
"Analysis has shown that supporting fares, which can be done in a range of different ways, is great value for money and can support many other government objectives.
"For example, keeping fares low for young people would enhance their access to education and jobs, while also encouraging them to develop sustainable travel habits to last a lifetime."
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said in a recent interview with the PA news agency that her officials were "looking at various options" in relation to the cap, including whether they could "target it better".
It's been a busy week on the economic front.
There was no major shift in the overall outlook - since Monday we've had it confirmed that the UK economy has lower inflation and more growth than the last two years, while wages have grown faster than the overall pace of price rises.
On the back of all that news the pound is at the highest rate since early this month against the dollar, worth $1.2882, and the highest since July when it comes to buying euro with one pound equal to €1.1733.
Signs of a recovery from the global market sell-off of Monday last week can be seen in the share prices of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Share prices have grown among the most valuable companies on the stock exchange, those that comprise the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 list of most valuable companies.
Today though, this benchmark UK index fell 0.19% but finishes the week higher than the start.
Also finishing the week higher than the start are the more UK-based companies of the FTSE 250 (the 101st to the 250th most valuable firms on the London Stock Exchange).
On Friday morning that index was up 0.08%.
With tensions in the Middle East and Eastern Europe high as Iran mulled a retaliatory strike on Israel and Ukraine made incursions into Russian territory, there had been concern about energy price spikes.
But the benchmark oil price has remained steady at $80.13 dollars for a barrel of Brent crude oil.
Gas prices have remained below the Monday high of 100 pence a therm (the measurement for heat) and now are 94.50 pence a therm.
A Cabinet Office minister has said it is "unfair" to suggest other public sector workers will be queuing up for a pay rise after the government's offer of a 15% increase for train drivers and junior doctors.
"I think that's an unfair characterisation as well," paymaster general Nick Thomas-Symonds told Times Radio.
"I think what is absolutely crucial here is we are a Government again that is sticking to the promises we made in opposition.
"We promised we would sit down and find solutions, and people expressed scepticism about that, but actually that is precisely what we have done in Government."
Last month, the government and the British Medical Association struck an improved pay deal for junior doctors in England worth 22% on average over two years.
Meanwhile, train drivers will vote on a new pay deal following talks between representatives of drivers' union ASLEF and the Department for Transport.
The new offer is for a 5% backdated pay rise for 2022/23, a 4.75% rise for 23/24, and 4.5% increase for 24/25.
The Dartford Crossing is the highest-earning toll road in the UK, new data shows.
The Kent to Essex route raked in £215.9m in the last year - 2,159 times more than the Whitney toll bridge in Hereford.
The crossing, which was supposed to stop charging customers in 2003, costs between £2 and £6 to use (depending on the vehicle you're driving) between 10am and 6pm every day.
Car finance company Moneybarn found it earned just over £209m in 2022.
It topped the chart of 13 toll roads in the country, making over £100m more than the second highest-earning road in 2023 - the M6 Toll in the West Midlands.
In third place was the Mersey Gateway Bridge between Halton and Cheshire, which made £48.9m.
You can see how the other toll roads fared below...
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Separate personal accounts - both pay the same amount into a joint account regardless of income Paul Fuller, 40, earns approximately £40,000 a year while his wife earns about £70,000.
Beyond his new ideas, Mr. Trump is also seeking to extend many of the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017. Ms. Harris has also effectively promised to extend many of those tax cuts beyond 2025 ...
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