Browse Definitions :
Definition

business plan

A business plan is a document demonstrating the feasibility of a prospective new business and providing a roadmap for its first several years of operation. 

Business plans are an important part of creating new businesses, whether as a startup or an offshoot of an existing business. Business plans for startups are often shared with funding agencies, potential investors and venture capitalists to obtain the necessary funding.

Although the specifics may vary, here are the typical components of a business plan for a new business:

  1. The executive summary is a nutshell version of the entire plan, briefly covering the essentials.
  2. The business description describes the proposed new endeavor, explains its purpose and its target market.
  3. The plan's market analysis section describes the industry and the market environment of the proposed business, including a profile of the competition.
  4. The organizational and managerial section explains how you envision the structure of your business, what types of positions and departments it will encompass. 
  5. The products (or services) section details what you're offering. This section should include a full description of  the products you'll sell and your plan for product lifecycle management (PLM).
  6. The marketing and sales section explains your strategies for branding, marketing and selling your product or service. 
  7. The funding request will differ according to what type of information is required by the funding party. 
  8. The financial projection covers the expected performance and milestones over the first years of operation, usually five years. For an existing business, historical financial data should be included.
  9. An appendix can include useful information that doesn't belong in any of the other sections.

A business plan is similar to a Business model. However, the latter is a representation of how an existing business works, rather than how a prospective business can work. 

This was last updated in August 2018

Continue Reading About business plan

Networking
  • firewall as a service (FWaaS)

    Firewall as a service (FWaaS), also known as a cloud firewall, is a service that provides cloud-based network traffic analysis ...

  • private 5G

    Private 5G is a wireless network technology that delivers 5G cellular connectivity for private network use cases.

  • NFVi (network functions virtualization infrastructure)

    NFVi (network functions virtualization infrastructure) encompasses all of the networking hardware and software needed to support ...

Security
  • virus (computer virus)

    A computer virus is a type of malware that attaches itself to a program or file. A virus can replicate and spread across an ...

  • Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)

    Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) is an advanced certification that indicates that an individual possesses the ...

  • cryptography

    Cryptography is a method of protecting information and communications using codes, so that only those for whom the information is...

CIO
  • B2B (business to business)

    B2B (business-to-business) is a type of commerce involving the exchange of products, services or information between businesses, ...

  • return on investment (ROI)

    Return on investment (ROI) is a crucial financial metric investors and businesses use to evaluate an investment's efficiency or ...

  • big data as a service (BDaaS)

    Big data as a service (BDaS) is the delivery of data platforms and tools by a cloud provider to help organizations process, ...

HRSoftware
  • talent acquisition

    Talent acquisition is the strategic process an organization uses to identify, recruit and hire the people it needs to achieve its...

  • human capital management (HCM)

    Human capital management (HCM) is a comprehensive set of practices and tools used for recruiting, managing and developing ...

  • Betterworks

    Betterworks is performance management software that helps workforces and organizations to improve manager effectiveness and ...

Customer Experience
  • martech (marketing technology)

    Martech (marketing technology) refers to the integration of software tools, platforms, and applications designed to streamline ...

  • transactional marketing

    Transactional marketing is a business strategy that focuses on single, point-of-sale transactions.

  • customer profiling

    Customer profiling is the detailed and systematic process of constructing a clear portrait of a company's ideal customer by ...

Close