How to Write a Business Plan: 9 Steps, the Numbers and a Worked Example

Step 1. Decide who reads the plan and pick a format

At the top of your draft, write who will read it: an outside reader such as a lender or partner, or only you. A lender reads for repayment, so the cash flow and the funding request get the most pages. An investor reads for growth, so put the market first and the team right after it. A plan for yourself can stay on one page.

This step hands the next ones a format (traditional or lean) and a depth for each section.

Step 2. Research your market and size it

The market section answers three things.

1. Who buys. Describe a narrow group you can find and reach, such as owners of single-storefront shops in strip plazas along one suburban corridor. A broad demographic band tells a lender nothing about how you will reach the buyer.
2. Market size. Cite a published estimate with its source and year, or build it bottom-up by multiplying the buyers you can reach by your price and by purchases a year. State which method you chose.
3. How you know demand exists. Evidence is search demand, pre-bookings, deposits, signed letters of intent or a waitlist. If you have none, say so.

A published size often covers a whole country. Jobber, citing IBISWorld, puts U.S. window cleaning revenue at $2.9 billion in 2024 and $3.2 billion by 2029⁵; our worked example uses the same $3.2 billion figure^ex. A route business in suburban Columbus reaches a small slice of that, so the plan gives the national figure as context and counts local buyers bottom-up.

In our example, the check found no demand source^ex. A plan in that case says demand is unproven and lists the gap as a risk, as the check does: “Without search-volume data, demand for spring cleans and monthly routes is unproven in this market”^ex.

This step gives step 6 its buyer and the starting count for the sales forecast.

Step 3. Size up the competition

Count every direct competitor first, then pick three to five to study. BDC advises choosing companies that serve the same market and are slightly older than yours, not massive well-known brands⁶. For each one, write down what it offers, its published price, what its customers complain about and what it lacks. Customer reviews hold most of the complaints.

In our example, the check counted 9 direct competitors^ex. Each of the three most visible had 17% of visibility in the check’s search results^exexex. Since no firm holds more, the plan can argue that a new operator wins customers on service.

This step hands step 4 a price range and step 6 the gap your message names.

Step 4. Describe what you sell and set the price

Write the products and services section as answers to the reader’s questions:

• What exactly do you sell, and what is included?
• Who buys each offer?
• How is it delivered, and how often?
• What does it cost the buyer, and how did you arrive at that price?

The price is the unit every later number uses, so define it per job or per month, or per item if you sell goods. In the example by our method, one storefront cleaning costs $200^ex and the route customer buys once a month^ex. That unit covers the monthly-route shop owner only. The spring-clean homeowner is a second offer with its own price and frequency, which the check did not model. Set those from your own quotes and label them as assumptions.

This step hands step 5 the price and the purchase frequency.

Step 5. Build the numbers before the words

The SBA advises projecting finances five years ahead, with monthly or quarterly figures for the first year¹. An established business also includes the last three to five years of financial statements: income statements and balance sheets, plus cash flow statements¹. A startup has no history, so its projections rest on the unit economics in the section “Where each number comes from” below.

To find break-even, subtract the variable cost per job from the price per job and divide monthly fixed costs by the result; that gives the jobs per month that cover costs. Put that count next to your sales forecast. If the forecast reaches it late, the cash flow will show a deep low point.

List startup costs as items before you price them. For a mobile window cleaning business, the list holds:

• a vehicle, bought, leased or adapted
• ladders and safety gear
• a water-fed pole system and water purification unit
• squeegees and applicators, plus consumables
• general liability insurance, and workers’ compensation once you hire
• business registration and any local licenses
• a website, plus software for booking and invoicing
• marketing for the months before revenue arrives

Then find the cash low point. Add the monthly net cash flow month by month from the opening balance. The month where the running total is lowest is your cash low point, and it is the input to step 8.

This step hands step 6 a revenue line to match, and step 8 the low point.

Step 6. Plan sales and marketing as three activities

The sales forecast repeats the step 5 arithmetic month by month: customers × price × purchases a month. When it disagrees with the revenue line in the profit and loss, a reader trusts neither.

Pick three activities and give each a frequency and a cost, plus a metric to track:

Your cost of acquiring a customer is total marketing spend divided by new customers in the same period. Measure it from the first month.

Build the message from the complaints you collected in step 3. In the example by our method, quality led the complaints at 3^ex, so the message promises a standard: a streak check before you leave and a free re-clean if a window fails it. The value proposition is the one sentence that names that promise for that buyer.

This step hands step 7 the staff the forecast needs, and step 5 the acquisition cost.

Step 7. Describe the company, team and operations

The company description is a short checklist:

• legal name and structure
• location and service area
• start date, or history if you already operate
• mission in one sentence
• measurable goals, each with a number and a date

Test the value proposition in conversations with buyers before you write it into this section.

The team section is a table of who answers for what. List unfilled roles as planned hires or outsourced work.

The operations section grows with the business. For a two-person route business, one page is enough: how you group and schedule routes, which vehicle and equipment you use, the insurance you carry, how you reschedule after weather delays, and how you check quality on each job.

This step hands step 5 the payroll and overhead lines, and step 9 the team sentence.

Step 8. Write the funding request from the cash low point

The ask is the cash low point from step 5 plus a reserve you name and justify, such as a set number of months of fixed costs. A lender who can trace the amount to a month in your forecast has fewer questions about it.

The SBA advises the request state how much funding you need over the next five years, what you will use it for, whether you want debt or equity, the terms you would like and the length of time the request covers¹. If an investor will read the plan, the same figures go into the pitch deck.

This step hands step 9 the ask.

Step 9. Write the executive summary last

Write the summary last, because it condenses figures from steps 5 and 8. Bank of America advises three to five paragraphs on what the business does, why it will succeed and where it will be in five years⁷; Salesforce advises 300 words or less⁸. Three to five short paragraphs meet both.

Open with the buyer’s problem and your solution at its price; follow with the evidence and close with the ask. A sample written from a real check is at the end of the worked example below.

What the check fills and what you still write

All figures in this table are examples by our method.

The complaints become the message

In the example by our method, quality drew 3 complaints^ex, and each other theme drew 1: reliability and trust^ex, price^ex, paperwork and payment^ex. Because quality leads, the marketing section promises a checked result and a re-clean. The route offer answers reliability with a fixed day each month, and one monthly invoice with card payment on file answers paperwork.

The unit row is a hypothesis

The example’s route customer pays $200^ex once a month^ex at a 35% margin^ex over 12 months^ex; winning that customer costs $30^ex (example by our method). The result is an LTV of $840^ex and an LTV to CAC of 28^ex, with payback in 0.4 months^ex. Read literally, the first cleaning repays the cost of winning the customer.

The inputs come from a general local-services category. In our example, a door-to-door sales week in a Columbus plaza may cost more than the example’s $30 per signed customer, and a two-story job may take longer than the category margin allows. Your plan states the row as the target, then replaces each input with a measured figure as jobs come in.

The risks become the risk section

Each risk in the example by our method gets a test that would retire it.

• “Buyers may see the closest competitor as enough, since it already offers about 70% of the idea, so the monthly route offer has little room to stand out”^ex. Test: ask shop owners on the planned route what their current cleaner misses, and whether a fixed monthly day with a re-clean promise would make them switch.
• “Without search-volume data, demand for spring cleans and monthly routes is unproven in this market”^ex. Test demand before you launch: take deposits for spring cleans and signed route agreements before you buy the pole system.
• “Unit economics are an estimate from a general local services category, not measured in Columbus, so the margin and payback may not hold”^ex. Test: time and cost your first jobs, and record marketing spend per signed customer.
• “Quality complaints in the category could hurt a new operator’s reputation if service is uneven”^ex. Test: use a written checklist on every job and track re-clean requests per completed job.

A sample executive summary

The sample below is written only from the check’s figures (example by our method).

Storefront owners in suburban Columbus need clean windows every month, and quality is the most common complaint about local window cleaners, with 3 quality complaints in our review^ex. We offer a monthly storefront route at $200 per cleaning^ex, on a fixed day, with a streak check and a free re-clean, plus spring cleans for two-story homes. U.S. window cleaning revenue is projected at $3.2 billion by 2029^ex. Nine direct competitors serve the area^ex, and none holds more than a 17% visibility share^ex. Our target unit economics are a 35% margin^ex and a $30 acquisition cost^ex, which we will replace with measured figures from our first route customers.

Three sentences are yours to add, because no check can know them. One gives your startup costs from supplier quotes, one describes your team, and one sets your funding ask from the cash low point.