Business Plan Checklist
4.8/5 with 305 votes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Our Business Plan Checklist is designed to guide you through the critical steps of creating a successful business plan. Covering everything from financial statements to market analysis, this template ensures you don't miss any essential elements. By using our Checklist App, you can easily save and customize your plan, collaborate with team members, and keep all your information synced across devices. Get started today to build a comprehensive strategy that drives growth and sets your business on the path to success.
Save the full checklist and customize it later.
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- Gather your basic financial statements
- Provide documentation
- Income statement: Your bottom line subtracting costs from revenue to come up with net profit
- Balance sheet: A financial snapshot that shows what you own, what you owe, and what your company is worth
- Cash flow statement: A cash monitor that follows the flow of cash in and out of your company
- Budget: Your financial forecast that indicates where you plan to make and spend money
- Determine your audience
- Identify customers and the competition
- Ask these questions of customers: Who is buying, what do they buy, and why ;do they buy?
- Ask these questions of competitors: How big are they, which customers are they after, and what is their strategy?
- Incorporate these elements
- Executive summary
- Company overview
- Business environment
- Company description
- Company strategy
- Financial review
- Action plan
- Consider these topics
- Plans: Company mission, vision, goals, and objectives that all work together
- Organization: A structure for your company that makes sense
- Procedures: Efficient and effective ways of doing things
- Leadership: An ability to influence and encourage others around you
- Skills: The talents and expertise your people need to succeed
- Culture: Beliefs and attitudes that lead to doing the right thing
- Consider the other factors on this list of business-planning essentials:
- Get everyone involved in setting goals and objectives
- Learn all you can about your customers
- Understand who your competitors are
- Identify your strengths and weaknesses relative to opportunities and threats
- Determine which capabilities you absolutely need to succeed
- List all the things you do that add customer value
- Make sure that you do your financial homework
- Imagine several different versions of your company's future
- Avoid business failure
- Do your research, and prepare
- Establish a long-term company vision
- Prepare for change
- Focus on the customers
- Be a strong leader
Download or Print this Business Plan Checklist
Get a printable version of this checklist in your preferred format: PDF, Word, Excel, or print directly from your browser.
Presented by:
Jake R Brady
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Views: 1,427
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Uses: 187
Tasks
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Tasks: 40
Details
A well-developed business plan is critical for any start-up business. To develop a thorough business plan, research your customers and competition; avoid mistakes that lead to business failure; and know how to implement a business plan and make it work. Your business plan should include a basic financial statement, all major pieces of a business plan, and information from your business-planning checklist.
Tips
- Keep your focus on these three things:
- Cut costs to the bone
- Offer something unique
- Focus on one customer group
Who it's for
This Business Plan Checklist is for teams that want consistent execution, less rework, and clear ownership.
- Standardize quality - run the same Business Plan steps every time, regardless of who executes
- Save time - reuse a proven Business Plan workflow instead of rebuilding processes from scratch
- Improve accountability - assign owners and see what's done vs. what's pending
- Onboard faster - use the Business Plan checklist as the SOP and training guide
- Coordinate across roles - handoffs are clear and everyone works from the same source of truth
How to use it
How to use this Business Plan Checklist:
- Start by saving it - save as a Template if you'll reuse it, or as a Checklist if it's a one-off project.
- Customize it once for your workflow - remove what doesn't apply and add your team-specific steps.
- Assign ownership and execute - set owners/due dates where needed and track completion as work happens.
- Reuse without rebuilding - when Business Plan comes up again, start from your saved version and run it with clear ownership.
Rate this Checklist
5 stars
Scores 4.80 with 305 votes