BUSINESS PLAN OUTLINE

Title Page

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary should briefly explain each of the below.

1. An overview of your business idea (one or two sentences).

2. A description of your product and/or service. What problems are you solving for your target customers?
3. Your goals for the business. Where do you expect the business to be in one year, three years, five years?
4. Your proposed target market. Who are your ideal customers?
5. Your competition and what differentiates your business. Who are you up against, and what unique selling
proposition will help you succeed?
6. Financial outlook for the business. If you’re using the business plan for financing purposes, explain exactly
how much money you want, how you will use it, and how that will make your business more profitable.

Limit your Executive Summary to one or two pages in total.

After reading the Executive Summary, readers should have a basic understanding of your business, should be
excited about its potential, and should be interested enough to read further.

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

This Chapter is about ……………………………………… SHORT CHAPTER INTRODUCTION ……………………………

…………………………………………………………..

A. Company Name
o Explain your company name elements.

B. Company Logo
o Explain meaning and relevance of your logo.

C. Business Location
o Business address and reason for choosing the location.
o Add location map.
o The size of your location
o The type of building (retail, industrial, commercial, etc.)
o Zoning restrictions
o Accessibility for customers, employees, suppliers and transportation if necessary
Example:

D. Project Description
o Focus on the type of operations (product manufacturer, retail, service provider, etc.) of your business.
Then introduce your product or service, the market it wants to serve and how your product/service can
satisfy that market.

E. Project Objectives

Short-term Objectives: Maximum 2 Years

Long-term Objectives: 2 Years Onwards

NEW CHAPTER, NEW PAGE

CHAPTER 2
TECHNICAL ASPECT

This Chapter is about ……………………………………… SHORT CHAPTER INTRODUCTION ……………………………

…………………………………………………………..

A. Product Description

Your company’s products and/or services: What do you sell, and how is it manufactured or provided? Include
details of relationships with suppliers, manufacturers and/or partners that are essential to delivering the
product or service to customers.
The problem the product or service solves: Every business needs to solve a problem that its customers face.
Explain what the problem is and how your product or service solves it. What are its benefits, features and
unique selling proposition? Yours won’t be the only solution (every business has competitors), but you need to
explain why your solution is better than the others, targets a customer base your competitors are ignoring, or
has some other characteristic that gives it a competitive edge.

Product Function: Focus on what your product or service features and what it provides. Example (Coffee): For
nourishment, as a morning drink, as a drink after meals, as a drink when spending time with family and friends,
etc.
Product Benefit:

Example (Coffee):

o Health Benefits
o Energizer
o Weight management

B. Raw Material Sources

Potential Suppliers

Supply Level

o Focus on availability and accessibility of raw materials.

Location

o Identify where your resources are coming from and why that location specializes on that particular
material.

Seasonality

o Identify if your product is available only by season or whole year round. If seasonal, identify how do you
manage raw materials availability for your business.

C. Production Process
o Identify the different steps or stages on how you produce your product or provide your service.

D. Production Capacity
o Identify how many units you can produce or customers you can serve based on your limited resources
(manpower, machinery, equipment, facility, etc.).

E. Floor Plan
o Explain the production or service flow.
o Add blueprint of facility. Example:

c
F. Product Costing
o Itemize your costs per unit or per customer.

EXAMPLE:

Qty No. of
Qty Cost %
Price per Servin Selling Gross
Menu Ingredients per per Margi
per bulk Servin gs per Price Margin
bulk Serving n
g bulk

Squid 360/kg 6 pcs 1 pc 6

60.00
Soy Sauce (128 128
1000 7.81
milliliters) 45.00 ml 0.36
Tomato diced (1
Grille 55/kg 12 1 pc 12
large) 4.58
d
Squid Sweet Onion (1 large) 300/kg 8 pcs 1 pc 8
37.50
(Smal
30
l) Calamansi (2 pcs) 75/kg 2 pcs 15
pcs 5.00
Salt (3/8) 15/kg 1 kg 25gms 40
0.38
Ground Pepper (1/4
1 kg 20gms 50
tsp) 220.00 4.40
Total Cost per Serving
112.22 230.00 117.78 105%

F. Investment Budget

CAPITAL EXPENDITURES 1. Construction

2. Renovation
3. Manufacturing /Equipment
4. Kitchen Equipment
5. Furniture and Fixtures
6. Office Equipment
SUB TOTAL:
PRE-OPERATING EXPENSES 1. Rent
2. Transportation
3. Utilities
4. Business Registration Fees
SUB TOTAL:
INITIAL WORKING CAPITAL 1. Raw Materials / Supplies
2. Provisions for Operating Expenses
SUB TOTAL:
TOTAL:
 CHAPTER 3
ORGANIZATION and MARKETING

This Chapter is about ……………………………………… SHORT CHAPTER INTRODUCTION ……………………………

…………………………………………………………..

A. Form of Ownership
o Use sole proprietorship, easiest to setup, low costs and most suited for small startup businesses.

B. Organizational Chart
o Construct an actual organizational chart. Example:

C. SWOT Analysis

D. Target customer

Describe your target customer/market segment. (This is also known as the ideal customer or buyer persona.)

E. Key competitors

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in a business plan is to claim you have “no competition.” Every
business has competitors. Your plan must show that you’ve identified yours and understand how to differentiate
your business. This section should:

List key companies that compete with you (including names and locations), products that compete with yours
and/or services that compete with yours. Do they compete across the board, or just for specific products, for
certain customers or in certain geographic areas?

Also include indirect competitors. For instance, if you’re opening a restaurant that relies on consumers’
discretionary spending, then bars and nightclubs are indirect competitors.
Competitor Data Collection Plan

Price

Benefits/Features

Size/profitability

Market strategy

F. Positioning/Niche

Now that you’ve assessed your industry, product/service, customers and competition, you should have a clear
understanding of your business’s niche (your unique segment of the market) as well as your positioning (how
you want to present your company to customers). Explain these in a short paragraph.

7. How you will market your product/service

Marketing may include:

• Business website
• Social media marketing
• Mobile marketing
• Search engine optimization
• Content marketing
• Networking
• Word-of-mouth
• Referrals
G. Pricing
You explained pricing briefly in the “Products & Services” section; now it’s time to go into more detail. How do
you plan to set prices? Keep in mind that few small businesses can compete on price without hurting their profit
margins. Instead of offering the lowest price, it’s better to go with an average price and compete on quality and
service.

• Does your pricing strategy reflect your positioning?

• Compare your prices with your competitors’. Are they higher, lower or the same? Why?
• How important is price to your customers? It may not be a deciding factor.
• What will your customer service and credit policies be?

REMEMBER:

• Check spelling and grammar.

• KISS: Keep it short and simple
• Delegate, divide work depending on knowledge and skills to be efficient.
• Set deadlines to ensure completion of tasks.