What’s the most important thing to have in mind when starting a new business?
Yes, correct, it’s the overall business plan.
A clear and solid business plan gives you a good foundation, even though things might not turn out exactly according to the plan, but that’s normal.
In fact, it’s pretty much a given, and you can always change the plan accordingly.
What’s important is that you have a framework that guides you through the critical startup phase, and a business plan from a good template will give you that framework.
Here are our list of the 5 best free business plan templates:
1. The U.S. Small business administration business plan builder:
The business plan builder from the U.S. Small Business Administration is thorough and has in-depth explanations about every part of the business plan path.
This is the plan for the entrepreneur who likes doing research and analysis and who wants to have as solid and well-grounded a start as possible, and who doesn’t want that?
The builder is targeted small businesses which means that it not only works for existing small businesses in need of a greater foundations and better strategies, but for pretty much everyone who wants to start a business.
My own Business Institute offers several cool features, including a very comprehensive free business plan template broken down into 15 different sections.
The template covers everything from your vision and mission to acquisitions, cash flow, etc.
The formatting is basic and easy to make your own. The sections will get you thinking about business components you may not have thought about.
This particular template may be a bit too detailed for some startup founders, but then you can always use portions of it, and combining them with other templates, which is actually very common.
Bplans give you access to more than 500 free business plan templates! No matter what line of business you are in, you will definitely find a template that fits your company size and business category.
Example: In the accounting, insurance and compliance business category, there are 25 different templates to choose from!
Simplicity is key, especially when venturing into unknown territory, and Oprah’s free business plan template is just that.
It’s actually three sample templates already filled in for different businesses. You can get ideas from these completed models and easily adapt them to suit your business.
It might be a bit too simple for some, but it’s a good template to start with if your business concept is simple, and you want to have a template that can be expanded with you own ideas and learnings in the startup phase.
The business plan template from Forbes is straightforward and crystal clear, and what else do you need?
It takes you through all the important parts, without complicating them, and if you think the plan is too long, and you haven’t yet considered topics like supply chain management, then just skip to the parts you can use.
