Company Logo

[Your business name goes here]

This template should be completed using the guidelines included in the ThinkBusiness.ie
Business Plan Guide

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Table of Contents
[This table of content is automatically generated. When you have completed the business plan
template you should update the table in MS Word]

Table of Contents
Table of Contents........................................................................................1
Confidentiality Agreement..........................................................................3
Explanation of Confidentiality Agreement...................................................................3

1. Executive Summary..............................................................................4
2. Company Description............................................................................5
2.1 Promoters and Shareholders.......................................................................................................... 5
2.2 Advisers............................................................................................................................................ 5
2.3 Legal Status..................................................................................................5
2.4 Main Products and Services...............................................................................5
2.5 Long-Term Aim of the Business..........................................................................5
2.6 Business Goals..............................................................................................6

3. Market Analysis..................................................................................... 7
3.1 PESTLE
Analysis
..7
3.2 SWOT Analysis...............................................................................................8
3.3. Competitor Analysis........................................................................................8

4. Marketing and Sales...............................................................................9

4.1 Customer Trends and Opportunities.....................................................................9
4.2 Marketing/Sales Strategy...................................................................................9
4.3 Sales Strategy................................................................................................9
4.4 Pricing.......................................................................................................10
4.5 Customer Service..........................................................................................10

5. People............................................................................................... 11
5.1 Details of Key Employees...............................................................................11

6. R&D, Business Assets........................................................................... 12

6.1 Research and Development..............................................................................12
6.2 Business Assets...........................................................................................12

7. Financial............................................................................................ 13
7. 1 Financial Information.....................................................................................13
7.2 Assumptions...............................................................................................13
7.3 Funding Requirements...................................................................................14

8. Appendices......................................................................................... 15

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Confidentiality Agreement
[Insert text of agreement here]

--------------------------------[Signature]
--------------------------------[Date]

Explanation of Confidentiality Agreement

[As the promoter you are giving a third party access to your business idea, plans and finances.
You need the third party to agree to keep this information confidential. By getting them to sign the
Confidentiality Clause they are legally committed to keeping all details of your business plan
confidential.]

[Strictly private and confidential]

[Your business name goes here]

1.

Executive Summary

[This section should be completed last, after you have completed all of the other sections of the
plan
Give a brief summary of the business, how you are currently financing the business and the
expected future development of the business and what this will require. Highlight those key
aspects that will be of interest to an investor or lender.
It is important that you capture the attention of potential investors with the Executive Summary,
as they are more likely to study the business plan in greater detail. Key items to consider
covering include:

Purpose of the plan

Description of your product or service and its advantages
Market opportunity
Competitor analysis
Management team
Track record, if any
Financial projections
Funding requirements
Relevant strategic and functional elements of the business

Financial projections should be summarised and highlighted. The following format is suggested
as a guide]
000

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Sales
Exports
Net profit before tax
Investment
Employment (numbers)

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[Your business name goes here]

2.

Company Description

[Include details of the business, history, products, services, markets and other key information]

2.1 Promoters and Shareholders

[Include names, roles and shareholdings of the people involved in the business. For a new
business, detail the founders previous business experience and qualifications. Include any
contacts you have with potential customers and suppliers. Include:

Promoters
Management structure and areas of responsibility
Shareholders names, number of shares, shareholding and cash investment to date]

2.2 Advisers
[List your financial, legal and other advisers, including their names, addresses, email addresses
and phone numbers]

2.3 Legal Status

[State whether the business is a:

Sole trader
Partnership
Limited company
Other (specify)]

2.4 Main Products and Services

[Detail your product or service offering, what it is and what it does. Include:

Background to its development

Benefits and features
Unique selling points
Advantages to customers
Disadvantages or weak points
Planned developments]

2.5 Long-Term Aim of the Business

[Outline your long-term aims for the business (for example, further expansion, diversification,
commercial alliance, acquisition, etc.]

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2.6 Business Goals

[Briefly detail specific goals you have set for the business to achieve over the next three (or five)
years including sales, exports, employment, product development, new factory or outlet etc.
These are the items in which a potential investor will be interested.
Goals should have clear timeframes and be demanding, yet realistic. Outline your goals in the
box below]

XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX

[Strictly private and confidential]

[Your business name goes here]

3. Market Analysis
This section should be completed with the assistance of ThinkBusiness.ies market analysis guide
[Other forms of analyses can be included apart from the PESTLE, SWOT and Competitor Analysis]

3. 1. PESTLE Analysis
A PESTLE analysis is often a useful way of looking at a business or opportunity, from an external
perspective. The lenses or perspectives most often used are (1) Political (2) Economic (3)
Social (4) Technological. (5) Legal and (6) Environmental factors are sometimes considered
as separate lenses, making it a PESTLE analysis. Remember, some lenses will be more
important for some businesses than others, so your lists of factors do not have to be of equal
length.

P [political]

XXX

E [environmental]

E [economic]

XXX

XXX

Business/company name
goes here

L [legal]

S [social]

XXX

XXX

T [technological]

[Strictly private and confidential]

XXX

[Your business name goes here]

3.2 SWOT Analysis

[A SWOT Analysis is a method commonly used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a
business, along with its opportunities and threats, given the resources and capabilities of the
business at the present time. Threats and opportunities refer to those that exist in the
marketplace, often not now, but in the future.]

Strengths

Weaknesses

XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX

XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX

Opportunities

XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX

Threats

XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX

3.3. Competitor Analysis

[You should outline details of your competitors and an analysis of their products or services. You
can use the ThinkBusiness.ie Competitor AnalysisTemplate to assist you with this.]

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[Your business name goes here]

4. Marketing and Sales

[This section should be completed with the assistance of guides and other resources in
ThinkBusiness.ies Marketing and Sales sections.]

4.1 Customer Trends and Opportunities

[Outline briefly key customer segments, segment characteristics, whether the segment is growing
or declining, the size of each segment and other factors affecting segment size or growth rate.
This demonstrates the potential for your business to grow. ]

Segment
name

Segment
Estimated number
characteristics
of potential
customers

Segment
revenues/
potential

Other

4.2 Marketing/Sales Strategy

[Explain how you will attain the sales targets that you have set. What are your marketing and
sales strategies? How will you generate interest and deliver your service and/or product for the
market(s) you are targeting? Some points to consider including in your marketing strategy:

Examine the size of the target market. Will it expand or contract?

Which segments of the market will be targeted first, and why?
How will this be developed to reach the full target market?
How will you differentiate your product or service?
What key customer benefits will be highlighted?
What potential customers have you already targeted?
What contacts can be used to generate market awareness and sales?
Are there opportunities for cross-selling?
Do you have a marketing budget? Is it well-resourced?]

4.3 Sales Strategy

[You should detail how you will sell your product or service to the target market. State why you
have chosen that sales option(s), showing your research and the advantages of the preferred
sales strategies, such as:

Direct

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Retail
Distributor
Agent
Sales representatives
Online (your website, other websites)]

4.4 Pricing
[Show your price and your pricing structure and how this pricing structure fits into the market.
Typical factors to consider include:

Production costs and overheads

Quality of product
Competitors prices
Level of competition in the market
Proposed credit terms]

4.5 Customer Service

[Is excellent customer service going to be a defining part of your business model? You should
ask yourself the following questions:

Will you compete on service levels? Are these valued by customers?

Will you obtain the necessary ISO standard?
Will you have a dedicated customer service phone line?
Will your website have a customer care section?
What are your after-sales service terms?
How will you handle complaints?]

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5. People

5.1 Details of Key Employees

[Name

Position

Role

Responsibilities

Qualifications

Projection of employee numbers over coming year, 2 years and 3 years]

[Include sample organisation chart, adding in names and titles where appropriate.]

Name & title

Name & title

Name & title

[Strictly private and confidential]

Name & title

Name & title

Name & title

Name & title

[Your business name goes here]

6. R&D, Business Assets

6.1 Research and Development
[Detail costs incurred by you in research and development (R&D). Include analysis of your R&D
in the appendices. State whether R&D is an ongoing part of the business. Have you any
developments in progress but not yet ready for release? What is the target date for release of
new developments? Have you secured any patents, or are any pending?]

6.2 Business Assets

[Will you be working from home? Do you own the premises? Are you renting the premises?
Where are the premises located, including outlets and branches? Describe properties and title to
properties. If you own the premises, what is its value? If premises are rented, detail the terms,
amount, payment, frequency of rent, lease term, years remaining and rent review periods. This
section is particularly important when the business is seeking asset-backed finance.
List all equipment (including vehicles, furniture and fittings) used for the business currently, as
well as proposed equipment needs. Detailed information should be included on the items, cost,
how it will be funded, when it will be owned/fully paid-off and its current value.]

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[Your business name goes here]

7. Financial

7. 1 Financial Information
[Detail your financial arrangements, how financials are structured, who the providers of finance
are, and how much funding are you seeking. Include:

Names of current lenders

Amounts and terms of loans
Maturity of loans
Covenants
Security and guarantees
Internally generated capital, including directors loans, and terms
Other sources of finance, such as grant aid
Funding sought

Where available, include historic financial statements or summaries for the last few years,
including management accounts for the current period. Include:

Profit and loss account

Balance sheet
Cashflow statement

Projected Financial Statements for three to five years are important. Include:

Cashflow statements, indicating peak borrowing requirements

Profit and loss accounts
Balance sheets

You may wish to add in the above statements from existing documentation (for instance, Excel
spreadsheets). Alternatively you can use the following templates in ThinkBusiness.ie which can
be adapted and formatted to suit the presentation of your business plan:

ThinkBusiness.ie Cashflow Template

ThinkBusiness.ie Sales Forecast Template which has three inter-related resources, the
first is for unit prices which allows you to vary the prices and see the impact. The second
will give you a forecast of sales on a month to month basis. The third is a P&L template
which will show you a net profit.]

7.2 Assumptions
[Set out the key assumptions on which your financial plan is based.

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Sales levels: explain market size, competitors sales levels, your pricing strategy, and the
percentage of the market you hope to attain.
Cost of sales: include materials cost, production costs, efficiencies you have compared to
your competitors, and how or if currency exchange rates are impacting your projections.
Overheads: examine how they may vary, changes in number of staff, increase/decrease in
rent on premises, variation in cost of borrowings depending on cashflow and the level of
borrowings required.
Investment required in fixed assets.
Preferential distribution agreements you hope to achieve.
Any problems you envisage and their impact.

You should also consider including a sensitivity analysis which would show the impact of any
given changes in any of your key business assumptions: for example 10% less sales, 5%
reduction in cost of sales.
Use the ThinkBusiness.ie Sensitivity Analysis template to assist you in conducting this analysis]

7.3 Funding Requirements

You should detail existing and potential sources of funding in this section.
Sources of funding:

Principals

Directors

Other shareholders

Bank loans

Agency grant or loan

Application of funding:

Premises

Equipment

Sales

Staff

R&D

[Strictly private and confidential]

[Your business name goes here]

8. Appendices
It may be useful for you to include supporting pages covering some of the following topics,
depending on the significance of these to your business plan:

Market research
Product brochures
Awards
Customer enquiries/letters of intent
Sales projections
Cashflow forecast
Profit & loss forecast
Sensitivity analysis

[Strictly private and confidential]

[Your business name goes here]