Business Plan Template: 10 Sections, What to Write in Each, and a Filled Example

Who asks for one

Lenders ask most often. Lenders making SBA 7(a) loans may ask the applicant for a business plan. B:Side Capital’s 7(a) application, for example, asks for one if the business is less than two years old¹. A lender reads the funding request early. The SBA says it should state how much you need, whether you want debt or equity, the terms, the length of time the request covers, and what the money will pay for².

Visa officers read plans too. USCIS sets no explicit business plan requirement for E-2 treaty investor petitions. An immigration law firm’s guide still calls the plan a core piece of most applications³.

The third reader is you. LivePlan’s blog says a study of 622 new ventures found that writing a business plan raised average annual growth by 33.4 percentage points⁴. Our source is that blog summary, not the study, and LivePlan sells planning software. Without the study, you cannot tell whether the plan caused the growth or whether founders who write plans differ in other ways. Treat the figure as a vendor’s claim about a link, not proof of cause. The benefit you can verify yourself is simpler: writing the plan shows which of your numbers have a source and which are still assumptions. In the laundromat example, the market size has a source and the 35% margin is an assumption.

Traditional or lean

The SBA describes two formats: a traditional plan and a lean startup plan². The SBA’s traditional plan has nine sections, in this order: 1) executive summary, 2) company description, 3) market analysis, 4) organization and management, 5) service or product line, 6) marketing and sales, 7) funding request, 8) financial projections, 9) appendix⁵. The lean plan has nine components: key partnerships, key activities, key resources, value proposition, customer relationships, customer segments, channels, cost structure, and revenue streams².

Choose the traditional plan whenever the reader decides whether to fund you or grant you a visa. Choose the lean plan if you are testing an idea and the only readers are you and a co-founder. The lean version has its own page, the lean canvas. The template on this page is a traditional plan with one addition: a separate section for risks and assumptions.

What’s in the file

• The 10 sections in the table below, each with prompt text you overwrite.
• A cover page with fields for the business name and owner, plus a date line.
• An appendix checklist. People: owner résumés. Legal: your licenses and permits, plus a lease or a letter of intent. Numbers: supplier quotes and the list of sources behind your figures.
• The format: Word (.docx), after a free sign-up. Everything in the file is also printed on this page.

The financial sheet is separate: work the numbers out in the unit economics calculator and add them to the appendix.

The 10 sections

One rule runs through every row: each figure has a source, or the word «assumption» in the same sentence.

Compared with the SBA’s list, this template splits market analysis into three sections (customer, market, competition), folds organization and management into section 2, and adds section 8. A lender who reads the risks in your words is less likely to find them first in theirs.

Market analysis and competitor research each get their own guides: how to do a market analysis, how to estimate your market size, and competitor analysis. This page keeps to what goes into the plan.

Startup costs in the financial plan

Split one-off costs from monthly costs. One-off: equipment, build-out, deposits, licenses. Monthly: rent, labor, utilities, supplies. Next to each line, write its source (a supplier quote, the lease, a utility bill from a comparable laundromat) or the word «assumption».

SCORE, a nonprofit resource partner of the SBA⁶, publishes a free Startup Expenses template⁷. Fill it in and attach it to the appendix. The laundromat example below has no startup-cost figures, and its filled plan says so instead of guessing.

Write the executive summary last

The summary repeats numbers that do not exist until sections 9 and 10 are done. Write it first and you will rewrite it.

It holds four things:

• one sentence on what you sell and who buys it where;
• the ask: the amount and whether it is debt or equity;
• the key number from section 9, such as the LTV-to-CAC ratio or the payback period;
• the top risk from section 8 and what you will do about it.

Prompts to answer in one sentence each: name your customer, name the alternative they use today, name the reason they will switch, and name the month the money comes back.

Executive summary

We plan a neighborhood laundromat with wash-and-fold drop-off for renters without in-unit washers in a dense area of Columbus, Ohio. The idea check rated it «Possible, with caveats»^ex with a score of 64^ex. One customer is worth $100.80 over a lifetime^ex against $30 to acquire^ex, a ratio of 3.36^ex. The top risk is Columbus Express Laundry, which already offers most of this service. The funding amount is not stated yet: the check has no startup-cost figures, and the amount waits for equipment and lease quotes.

All figures in this summary come from our example method. Look at the last sentence: a lender trusts a summary that admits a missing number more than one that invents it.

Customer and problem

The check grouped the complaints it found about local laundry options into five themes, example by our method: Price 3^ex, Convenience 3^ex, Quality 2^ex, Reliability and trust 2^ex, Service and support 2^ex. These counts are small, so section 3 uses them to name themes and claims nothing about how common each one is. Each theme gets an answer elsewhere in the plan: price goes to section 6, convenience (hours, drop-off times) to sections 6 and 7.

Market size

The check cites a published market size of US$12.7 billion, 2024, marketresearch.com^ex, example by our method. Our fact check found that this figure covers the U.S. Automated Laundromat Services market⁸, a national category far wider than one storefront. A published market size is a ceiling shared by every seller. Your revenue is a slice you estimate separately.

The local demand source in the check is «none»^ex, example by our method. So section 4 says «local demand: unmeasured» and names the test that would measure it: count the apartment buildings within walking distance that lack in-unit washers, then run a short drop-off pilot and record sign-ups.

Competition

The check found 10 direct competitors^ex. The five with the largest visibility share in the check, example by our method:

Section 5 names each one with its price, then says what the new site does differently. Columbus Express Laundry holds the second-largest share and is also the top risk in section 8.

Financial plan

The unit economics, example by our method: a $6 purchase^ex, 4 purchases a month^ex, a 12-month customer lifetime^ex, a 35% margin^ex and a $30 cost to acquire a customer^ex.

In our example, these inputs (the 0.35 margin is an assumption) give $6 × 4 × 0.35 = $8.40 a month from one customer. Over 12 months that is $100.80^ex. LTV divided by CAC is 3.36^ex, and the $30 acquisition cost pays back in 3.6 months^ex. A common benchmark calls an LTV-to-CAC ratio of 3:1 or higher healthy⁹.

In our example, the 35% margin is an assumption, not a measurement: the check’s own risk list says nobody measured it in Columbus. The example also has no startup costs and no running costs such as rent or labor. Section 9 lists all three as open, with the quotes needed to close them.

To run the same math on your own numbers, enter them in the unit economics calculator.

Risks and assumptions

The check’s four risks, example by our method, highest first:

Below the table, section 8 lists the assumptions in our example: the assumed 35% margin, the local buyer count, and any other input the check took from outside Columbus.