sample business plan apa format

Business Plan Research: APA Style - 7th Edition

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American Psychological Association's APA Style 7th Edition is widely used by students and researchers in the social and behavioral sciences.

Citation Guide

APA Reference Examples

• APA Common Reference Examples APA's common reference examples.
• Sample APA Student and Professional papers Purdue OWL has provided both student and professional paper samples. The "track changes" features is used to make comments in the margins that explain the formatting and directions for writing an APA paper.

Research Citation Management

For more information, see the Zotero Research Guide . 

A Step-by-Step Guide for APA Style Student Papers

Academic Writer Tutorial: Basics of 7th Edition APA Style

• Academic Writer Tutorial: Basics of Seventh Edition APA Style "This tutorial is designed for writers new to APA Style. Learn the basics of seventh edition APA Style, including paper elements, format, and organization; academic writing style; grammar and usage; bias-free language; mechanics of style; tables and figures; in-text citations, paraphrasing, and quotations; and reference list format and order."

APA 7th Edition Changes

Credit: Scribbr (2019)

Intro - 0:00 ​

1. citing sources - 0:25 ​, 2. inclusive & bias-free language - 2:01 ​, 3. apa paper format - 2:52 ​, 4. mechanics of style - 3:56 ​, 5. when to start using the apa 7th edition - 4:11, formatting the reference page.

Credit: Scribbr (2020)

Intro to the reference page - 00:00 ​

Font, line spacing, margins - 00:35 ​, creating references - 1:16 ​, hanging indent - 1:59 ​, annotated bibliography - 2:43, reference list.

Arrange references alphabetically by the author's last name.

Double space the entire reference list.

Begin each entry on the left margin and indent a 1/2 inch from  the second line  onwards.

• Hanging indent in Google Docs
• Hanging indent in Microsoft Word
• Hanging indent in Word Online

See  APA  Publication Manual 7th  Edition ,  pages 39-40 .

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How to Write a Business Proposal in APA Format

by Elaine Riot

Published on 26 Sep 2017

APA (American Psychological Association) style is commonly used for the preparation of manuscripts in business, nursing and the social sciences. Although mainly used to write research papers, it can be called upon as a guide for almost any document. APA style establishes standards regarding the organization of content, writing style and reference citations. Writing a business proposal in APA style makes sense because its familiar structure helps the reader to follow the flow of words and easily find the info they seek.

Gather information to organize your thoughts and formulate the main selling points of your business proposal. Think of the main components: the idea itself, its benefits, implementation, timing, projected costs and possible pitfalls.

Find references that support your premise.

Outline your plan using APA Style sections: an abstract or summary of your business proposal, an introduction, the text of the plan with headings to highlight salient points, a reference list, tables and figures.

Format the business proposal in APA style. Insert the main section headings, including Abstract or Business Proposal Summary, Introduction, and headings for the body of the proposal, ending with the References (which should start on a separate page). This way, you've created a kind of template to facilitate the writing phase. The document should be double spaced on letter-size 20-pound paper, with 1-inch margins all around.

The title page should include the name of your business proposal and your contact information, all centered about one-third of the way down the page. Each page, including the title page, should have a running header with an abbreviated title followed by the page number, flush right in the upper right corner of each page (1/2 inch from the top).

Format references and citations according to APA style. An example of an APA style citation is:

Lname, Finitial. (year). Title article. Journal (italics) volume, pages. Retrieved date, source.

"Retrieved" refers to info that was garnered online.

APA style references should be listed in alphabetical order, by author's last name. The first line of each reference is flush left, with subsequent lines indented 1/2 inch. Like the rest of the proposal, they should be double spaced, with no extra space between entries.

Write your business proposal, following the guide you've prepared. The Abstract or Business Proposal Summary should be a concise description of your proposed plan of action. The one-paragraph Introduction should include supporting background information for your main point. They should both mention benefits specific to the company you are soliciting.

Proceed to the text of your business proposal, where you will include its potential benefits, implementation plan, possible obstacles or concerns, and projected costs. Include in text references that include the author and the year, for example, "Brown (1976) concluded that employees covered by health insurance plans were 25% more productive." Another example would be "Employees covered by health insurance are 25% more productive (Brown, 1976)." Include the detailed citations in the reference list.

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Introduction

Direct quotations & paraphrasing, basic citation styles, books (print & online), journal articles (print & online), audiovisual media, other online sources.

• Questions? Ask a Librarian!

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association provides detailed guidelines for using APA style. The current edition (7th edition) of the APA Publication Manual , published in November of 2019 is  kept at the Reference Desk.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association . (7th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Copies are available for use at the library circulation desk.

• The Basics of APA Style A free tutorial for those who are new to APA style
• Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University
• APA style guide from U of North Carolina
• Sample APA 7 paper (pdf via Purdue U Online Writing Lab)
• How to Cite a Webpage or Piece of Online Content in APA 7 format (from Purdue Online Writing Lab)

In-Text Citations

APA Style uses parenthetical, author-date citations. After a quote, add parentheses containing the author's name, the year of publication, and the page number of the work.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Seuss, 2007, pp. 7-8).

If you use more than one work by the same author, use the letters a, b, etc., after the year.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Seuss, 2007a, pp. 7-8).

If more than one author has the same last name, add their first initial.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (D. Seuss, 2007, pp. 7-8).

If two or more authors wrote the work, see the chart below.

If using the author's name in your text, do not include it in the parentheses.

Example: In his scholarly study, Dr. Seuss observed that "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (2007, pp. 7-8). Example: In 2007, Dr. Seuss suggested that "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (pp. 7-8).

If no author name is available, use the first few words of the reference list entry (usually the title). Use quotation marks around titles of articles or web pages and italicize titles of books, periodicals, etc.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" ( Fox in Socks , 2007).

If no pagination information is available, use paragraph numbers instead.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Seuss, 2007, para. 5).

Note: When paraphrasing or mentioning another work, it is helpful to still provide pagination information if the source text is long or difficult, or if it would help the reader find the text being paraphrased.

Source: American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, D.C.: Author.

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How to Write a Business Paper in APA Format

Table of Contents

The APA format is one of the standard business paper formatting styles. When writing your business paper, it’s vital to follow this style, as failure to do this can lead to serious plagiarism accusations. Check each step of your business paper writing to ensure it follows the required standards.

The APA formatting style allows you to communicate the business paper’s main topic efficiently. This style simplifies the writing process and provides a recognizable structure that is easy to follow. Below are the rules for writing a business paper in APA format.

For the APA style format, type your piece of writing onto a standard page of about 8.5″ x 11″ with a margin of 1″ on both sides. The space for the lining should be 2.0 with no additional spacing between the paragraphs in your business paper writing. For all the paragraphs, the first line should be indented to about 0.5″, which creates a hanging indent.

Writing a business paper essay in APA format takes time as you have to plan and follow each step. College life can be full of assignments that should be completed within the set deadlines. To make your work easier at the university, you can use the EduBirdie APA format generator to help you create the bibliography page online. It’s easy, and you don’t need an account to use this tool for your online studying. With a great essay, you will quickly improve your education grades at school. You will also save a lot of time learning different concepts for other units taught at the college.

The page header

Each page of your business paper writing needs to include a page header often referred to as “running head.” Ensure that you follow the APA guide for specifics. You can have your title flush left in capital letters or the page number flush right in the page header. If you must include the page title, ensure that you shorten it to about 50 characters because you have limited space in the page header.

The font used in the APA format should ensure that your piece of writing is legible to all readers and consistent throughout the business paper. Even though there are no specific guidelines you should follow, the instructor will always give the font size required.

The standard fonts that most instructors usually use include:

• 12-point Times New Roman
• 11-point Arial
• 11-point Georgia
• 11-point Calibri

The APA title page of your business paper contains the title of the business paper. It should include the course name, registration number, instructor’s name, page number, and due date.

The title of the business paper contains the first words that reach out to the reader. That is why it should be concise, limited to a few characters, and focused. The recommended length of the title should be about 12 words.

Avoid filler words or abbreviations, as they may be useless to the reader. Immediately after your title, the author’s name should follow in the right order. It should start with the first name, initial/middle name, and last name. After that, type your institution affiliations, followed by course number and instructor’s name. The last thing on the title page should be the date when the assignment is due.

The abstract

Just like the title page, your abstract will also have a dedicated page. The first line of this page should be the word “Abstract.” It should be centered and bold with no italics, quotation marks, or underlining.

The following line of the abstract page should begin with a concise summary of your work. Ensure that you flush it to the left with no indentation. The main purpose of the abstract is to introduce the reader to your research and entice them to read the whole paper. It should contain the research topics, methods, main questions, sentences on results, and conclusions.

Depending on the instructor’s guidelines, you might also be required to include a list of keywords that helps the reader to find your work within different online databases.

The main body

Because a business paper details complicated business issues and demonstrates how to solve the issue, you might be required to have the introduction, methods used, results obtained, and discussion section. The headings and paragraph styles are more significant in the body.

There are different types of headings that are covered in the APA formatting style. There is level one up to level five. In level one, the text for this section begins as a new paragraph. The heading must be centered and bold. For level two, the heading must be flushed left and bold with the text beginning as a new paragraph.

Level three is slightly different as the heading is flushed to the left, bold and italicized though the text is not italicized in the new paragraph. For level four, the heading must be indented, italicized, bold, and end with a period. The text should begin on the same line and continue as a standard paragraph.

The last type of heading style you can use is the level, whereby the heading should also be indented, italicized, bold, and end with a period. For this style, the test should continue on the same line as a standard paragraph with no italicization.

In-text citations

When citing a text within a paragraph in your business paper, you should enclose the author’s last name and the publication year in parentheses. This should be at the end of the sentence before a period. If you are referencing a chapter or page of a large article, ensure that you include page numbers at the end of the citation.

The category under which the citation falls determines the rules you will use in your business paper. For the short quotations, you must include the author, publication dates, and the page number for the text reference. On the other hand, when quoting a long section, you must write it as an entire paragraph indented within 0.5 inches from the left margin.

Suppose the source that you are quoting doesn’t have a page number. In that case, you can choose another logical identifier, like the table number, chapter number, or even the available verses.

Referencing your business paper

References are usually incorporated in the last section of your business paper. A whole page should be dedicated to referencing; each citation in the body must be included in this section. The list of the sources used for the referencing should be organized in alphabetical order.

The referencing styles for the APA format used in the body should also be followed precisely in this section. If you have used any online source, ensure that you include a DOI link at the end of the citation. The first line of the reference must be flushed to the left, and you require more than one line for each reference.

Writing a business paper in APA style takes time as you have to follow all the guidelines outlined. You can use a citation generator to help create the bibliography page to save time. Ensure that all references are written correctly. Following the set guidelines will obtain a great score in your business paper writing.

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APA Publication Manual

Copies are available at each campus library  or visit  APA Style

APA Publication Manual: Notes, Sample Papers, Guides

Sample Papers

Professional Paper - pp. 50 - 60

Student Paper - pp. 61 -67

Check with your instructor to determine which paper format (professional or student) is require. 

APA Style and Grammar Guidelines

Paper Format (Font, Headings, Line Spacing, Margins, Title Page Setup…)

In-Text Citations Basics of Citation, Paraphrasing, Plagiarism, Quotations, Secondary Sources…)

Mechanics of Style   (Capitalization, Italics and Quotation Marks, Punctuation…)

Bias-Free Language (Age, Disability, Gender, Reducing Bias, Identity, Orientation…)

References   (Basic Reference List, Elements of Reference List Entries, Reference Examples…)

Grammar (Active and Passive Voice, First Person Pronouns, Verb Tense…)

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Where can I find an example of a business plan in APA format?

Students should follow the APA guidelines  to write their business plan:

• Set 1” margins: On all four sides (Top, Bottom, Left, Right)
• Times New Roman 12pt
• Calibri 11pt
• Lucida Sans Unicode 10pt
• Georgia 11pt
• Computer Modern 10pt
• Line-spacing: Double-space

To find information on how to write a business plan:

• Write your business plan
• What to put in your business plan

Thank you for using ASK US.  For further assistance, please contact your Baker librarians .

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• Last Updated May 19, 2022
• Answered By Baker Librarians

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APA & Writing

• Use APA Style

APA Style for Business Resources

• Avoid Plagiarism
• APA Paper Templates
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• Writing an Annotated Bibliography

Business resources that are commonly used in assignments at CityU can be challenging to cite. APA is not designed for business resources, but there are rules that we can apply to make such citations consistent with APA style. Refer to the following table to see examples from each of our specialized business databases.  

Note:  All academic articles covering business topics can be cited in APA style according to the Use APA Style LibGuide.

• How to Use APA Style

Please note: The in-text citation examples below are parenthetical. You can also use narrative in-text citations when writing, which is encouraged. You can read more about parenthetical vs. narrative in-text citations here:

• APA Style Blog: Narrative versus Parenthetical In-Text Citations

* Note: If you have multiple stats or reports from the same year by the same author, you can differentiate by adding a letter after the year (a, b, c, d, etc.). This is true for any citation which shares an author and a date. You can read more about this here:

• APA Style Blog: Citing Works With the Same Author and Date

Static vs. Non-Static Reports

"retrieved" date rules.

As noted above, citing business resources in APA can be tricky. In general, we want our readers to be able to locate the information we cite. However, many business databases and reports change over time and are not archived.  

Items that are archived are “static,” meaning that they are cataloged and remain accessible in their current form. Items that are regularly updated and not archived are “non-static,” meaning that they change over time (and older versions cannot be accessed).  

For items that are static, no retrieved date is needed. 

Example:  Starbucks. (2020, November 16).  Form 10-K .  https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/#/q=starbucks   

For items that are non-static, a retrieved date is required. The URL you will use in this instance is a generic homepage URL. 

Example:  O’Connor, C. (2019, August). Family clothing stores in the US (Industry Report 44814).  IBISWorld . Retrieved January 27, 2020, from  https://www.ibisworld.com/  

Please note:  In APA 7, you should never use a CityU-specific database URL unless it is specifically requested by your instructor. This is why in the examples above, you see homepage URLs listed for items that can be found in the library collection.

For more information about URL rules in APA style, please visit: 

• APA Style Blog: DOIs and URLs This page addresses when to include digital object identifiers (DOIs) and uniform resource locators (URLs) in APA Style references.
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APA Formatting and Style (7th ed.) for Student Papers

• What's New in the 7th ed.?
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• Basic Paper Elements
• Punctuation, Capitalization, Abbreviations, Apostrophes, Numbers, Plurals
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• Periodicals (Journals, Magazines, Newspapers)
• Books and Reference Works
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• Online Images
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• Missing Information
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• Block Quotations
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APA 7th ed. Fillable Word Template and Sample Paper

• APA 7th ed. Template Download this Word document, fill out the title page and get writing!
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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / APA Format / APA Sample Papers

APA Sample Papers

Ever wonder how to format your research paper in APA style? If so, you’re in luck! The team at EasyBib.com has put together an example paper to help guide you through your next assignment. (Actually, looking for MLA? Here’s a page on what is MLA format .)

The featured example is a research paper on the uses of biometrics to inform design decisions in the tech industry, authored by our UX Research Intern Peace Iyiewuare. Like most APA style papers, it includes an APA title page , tables, and several references and APA in-text citations to scholarly journals relevant to its topic. References are an important aspect of scientific research papers, and formatting them correctly is critical to getting a good grade.

This paper follows the formatting rules specified in the 6th edition of The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (the APA is not directly associated with this guide) . We’ve left comments and tips throughout the document, so you’ll know the specific rules around how to format titles, spacing, and font, as well as the citations on the APA reference page .

The reference list needs special care, as it demonstrates to the reader that you have accurately portrayed your outside sources and have given credit to the appropriate parties. Be sure to check our full APA citation guide for more information on paper formatting and citing sources in APA style. There is also a guide on  APA footnotes in case that is your preferred form of citation.

Download the APA Visual Guide

When citations are done, don’t forget to finish your paper off with a proofread—EasyBib Plus’s plagiarism and grammar check can help! Got a misspelled adverb ? Missed capitalizing a proper noun ? Struggling with subject-verb agreement ? These are just a few things our checker could help you spot in your paper.

D. Complete Sample APA Paper

We’ve included a full student paper below to give you an idea of what an essay in APA format looks like, complete with a title page, paper, reference list, and index. If you plan to include an APA abstract in your paper, see the Professional Paper for an example.

If you’re looking for an APA format citation generator, we’ve got you covered. Use EasyBib.com! Our APA format machine can help you create every reference for your paper.

Below is an example of a student APA format essay. We also have PDF versions of both a student paper and a professional paper linked below.

See Student Paper                                 See Professional Paper

Using Biometrics to Evaluate Visual Design

Jane Lisa Dekker

Art Department, Northern California Valley State University

UXAD 272: Strategic Web Design

Professor Juan Liu, PhD

January 29, 2020

      A vast amount of research has been conducted regarding the importance of visual design, and its role as a mediator of user’s experience when browsing a site or interacting with an interface. In the literature, visual design is one aspect of website quality. Jones and Kim (2010) define website quality as “the perceived quality of a retail website that involves a [user’s] perceptions of the retailer’s website and comprises consumer reactions towards such attributes as information, entertainment/enjoyment, usability, transaction capabilities, and design aesthetics” (p. 632).  They further examined the impact web quality and retail brand trust has on purchase intentions. Additional research examining e-commerce sites has shown web quality has an impact on both initial and continued purchase intention (Kuan, Bock, & Vathanophas, 2008), as well as consumer satisfaction (Lin, 2007). Moreso, research on the relationship between visual design and perceived usability (Stojmenovic, Pilgrim, & Lindgaard, 2014) has revealed a positive correlation between the two. As users’ ratings of visual quality increase, their ratings of perceived usability follows a similar trend. Although this research spans various domains, the reliance on self-report measures to gauge concepts like visual design and web quality is prevalent throughout much of the literature.

Although some self-report scales are validated within the literature, there are still issues with the use of self-report questionnaires. One is the reliance on the honesty of the participant. This tends to be more of an issue in studies related to questionnaires that measure characteristics of the participant, rather than objective stimuli. More relevant to this study is the issue of introspection and memory. Surveys are often distributed after a task is completed, and its accuracy is dependent on the ability of the participant to remember their experience during the study. Multiple research studies have shown that human memory is far from static. This can

be dangerous if a researcher chooses to solely rely on self-report methods to test a hypothesis. We believe these self-report methods in tandem with biometric methods can help ensure the validity of the questionnaires, and provide information beyond the scope of self-report scales.

Research Questions

      We know from previous research that the quality of websites mediates many aspects of e-commerce, and provides insight as to how consumers view the webpages in general.  However, simply knowing a webpage is perceived as lower quality doesn’t give insight as to what aspects of a page are disliked by a user. Additionally, it’s possible that the user is misremembering aspects of the webpage or being dishonest in their assessment. Using eye tracking metrics, galvanic skin response, and facial expression measures in tandem with a scale aimed at measuring visual design quality has a couple of identifiable benefits. Using both can potentially identify patterns amongst the biometric measures and the questionnaire, which would strengthen the validity of the results. More so, the eye tracking data has the potential to identify patterns amongst websites of lower or higher quality.

If found, these patterns can be used to evaluate particular aspects of a page that are impacting the quality of a webpage. Overall, we are interested in answering two questions:

Research Question 1 : Can attitudinal changes regarding substantial website redesigns be captured using biometric measures?

Research Question 2 : How do biometric measures correlate with self-reported measures of visual appeal?

      Answering these questions has the potential to provide a method of justification for design changes, ranging from minor tweak to complete rebrands. There is not an easy way for companies to quantitatively analyze visual design decisions. A method for doing so would help companies evaluate visual designs before implementation in order to cost-justify them. To this end, we hope to demonstrate that biometric measurements can be used with questionnaires to verify and validate potential design changes a company or organization might want to implement.

      By examining data from test subjects during a brief exposure to several websites, we hoped to explore the relationship between the self-reported evaluation of visual design quality and key biometric measurements of a subject’s emotional valence and arousal. Subjects were exposed to ten pairs of websites before and after a substantial visual design change and asked to evaluate the website based on their initial impressions of the site’s visual design quality using the VisAWI-S scale, as shown in Table 1.  

During this assessment we collected GSR, facial expressions (limited by errors in initial study configuration), pupillary response, and fixation data using iMotions software coupled with a Tobii eye tracker, Shimmer GSR device, and Affdex facial expression analysis toolkit. This data was analyzed, in Table 2, to discover relationships between the independent and dependent variables, as well as relationships between certain dependent variables.  

Jones, C., & Kim, S. (2010). Influences of retail brand trust, off-line patronage, clothing involvement and website quality on online apparel shopping intention: Online apparel shopping intention. International Journal of Consumer Studies , 34 (6), 627–637. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2010.00871.x

Kuan, H.-H., Bock, G.-W., & Vathanophas, V. (2008). Comparing the effects of website quality on customer initial purchase and continued purchase at e-commerce websites. Behaviour & Information Technology , 27 (1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01449290600801959

Lin, H.-F. (2007). The impact of website quality dimensions on customer satisfaction in the B2C e-commerce context. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence , 18 (4), 363–378. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783360701231302

Stojmenovic, M., Pilgrim, C., & Lindgaard, G. (2014). Perceived and objective usability and visual appeal in a website domain with a less developed mental model. Proceedings of the 26 th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Designing Futures: The Future of Design , 316–323. https://doi.org/10.1145/2686612.2686660

APA Formatting Guide

APA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Multiple Authors
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Parenthetical Citations
• Reference Page
• Sample Paper
• APA 7 Updates
• View APA Guide

Citation Examples

• Book Chapter
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Website (no author)
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Example business plan format

Before you start exploring our library of business plan examples, it's worth taking the time to understand the traditional business plan format . You'll find that the plans in this library and most investor-approved business plans will include the following sections:

Executive summary

The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your plan and is ideally only one to two pages. You should also plan to write this section last after you've written your full business plan.

Your executive summary should include a summary of the problem you are solving, a description of your product or service, an overview of your target market, a brief description of your team, a summary of your financials, and your funding requirements (if you are raising money).

Products & services

The products & services chapter of your business plan is where the real meat of your plan lives. It includes information about the problem that you're solving, your solution, and any traction that proves that it truly meets the need you identified.

This is your chance to explain why you're in business and that people care about what you offer. It needs to go beyond a simple product or service description and get to the heart of why your business works and benefits your customers.

Market analysis

Conducting a market analysis ensures that you fully understand the market that you're entering and who you'll be selling to. This section is where you will showcase all of the information about your potential customers. You'll cover your target market as well as information about the growth of your market and your industry. Focus on outlining why the market you're entering is viable and creating a realistic persona for your ideal customer base.

Competition

Part of defining your opportunity is determining what your competitive advantage may be. To do this effectively you need to get to know your competitors just as well as your target customers. Every business will have competition, if you don't then you're either in a very young industry or there's a good reason no one is pursuing this specific venture.

To succeed, you want to be sure you know who your competitors are, how they operate, necessary financial benchmarks, and how you're business will be positioned. Start by identifying who your competitors are or will be during your market research. Then leverage competitive analysis tools like the competitive matrix and positioning map to solidify where your business stands in relation to the competition.

Marketing & sales

The marketing and sales plan section of your business plan details how you plan to reach your target market segments. You'll address how you plan on selling to those target markets, what your pricing plan is, and what types of activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success.

The operations section covers the day-to-day workflows for your business to deliver your product or service. What's included here fully depends on the type of business. Typically you can expect to add details on your business location, sourcing and fulfillment, use of technology, and any partnerships or agreements that are in place.

Milestones & metrics

The milestones section is where you lay out strategic milestones to reach your business goals.

A good milestone clearly lays out the parameters of the task at hand and sets expectations for its execution. You'll want to include a description of the task, a proposed due date, who is responsible, and eventually a budget that's attached. You don't need extensive project planning in this section, just key milestones that you want to hit and when you plan to hit them.

You should also discuss key metrics, which are the numbers you will track to determine your success. Some common data points worth tracking include conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, profit, etc.

Company & team

Use this section to describe your current team and who you need to hire. If you intend to pursue funding, you'll need to highlight the relevant experience of your team members. Basically, this is where you prove that this is the right team to successfully start and grow the business. You will also need to provide a quick overview of your legal structure and history if you're already up and running.

Financial projections

Your financial plan should include a sales and revenue forecast, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and a balance sheet. You may not have established financials of any kind at this stage. Not to worry, rather than getting all of the details ironed out, focus on making projections and strategic forecasts for your business. You can always update your financial statements as you begin operations and start bringing in actual accounting data.

Now, if you intend to pitch to investors or submit a loan application, you'll also need a "use of funds" report in this section. This outlines how you intend to leverage any funding for your business and how much you're looking to acquire. Like the rest of your financials, this can always be updated later on.

The appendix isn't a required element of your business plan. However, it is a useful place to add any charts, tables, definitions, legal notes, or other critical information that supports your plan. These are often lengthier or out-of-place information that simply didn't work naturally into the structure of your plan. You'll notice that in these business plan examples, the appendix mainly includes extended financial statements.

Types of business plans explained

While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. To get the most out of your plan, it's best to find a format that suits your needs. Here are a few common business plan types worth considering.

Traditional business plan

The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used for external purposes. Typically this is the type of plan you'll need when applying for funding or pitching to investors. It can also be used when training or hiring employees, working with vendors, or in any other situation where the full details of your business must be understood by another individual.

Business model canvas

The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea.

The structure ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template. It encourages you to build connections between every element of your business. It's faster to write out and update, and much easier for you, your team, and anyone else to visualize your business operations.

One-page business plan

The true middle ground between the business model canvas and a traditional business plan is the one-page business plan . This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business.

By starting with a one-page plan , you give yourself a minimal document to build from. You'll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences making it much easier to elaborate or expand sections into a longer-form business plan.

Growth planning

Growth planning is more than a specific type of business plan. It's a methodology. It takes the simplicity and styling of the one-page business plan and turns it into a process for you to continuously plan, forecast, review, and refine based on your performance.

It holds all of the benefits of the single-page plan, including the potential to complete it in as little as 27 minutes . However, it's even easier to convert into a more detailed plan thanks to how heavily it's tied to your financials. The overall goal of growth planning isn't to just produce documents that you use once and shelve. Instead, the growth planning process helps you build a healthier company that thrives in times of growth and remain stable through times of crisis.

It's faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your plan is always up-to-date.

Download a free sample business plan template

Ready to start writing your own plan but aren't sure where to start? Download our free business plan template that's been updated for 2024.

This simple, modern, investor-approved business plan template is designed to make planning easy. It's a proven format that has helped over 1 million businesses write business plans for bank loans, funding pitches, business expansion, and even business sales. It includes additional instructions for how to write each section and is formatted to be SBA-lender approved. All you need to do is fill in the blanks.

How to use an example business plan to help you write your own

How do you know what elements need to be included in your business plan, especially if you've never written one before? Looking at examples can help you visualize what a full, traditional plan looks like, so you know what you're aiming for before you get started. Here's how to get the most out of a sample business plan.

Choose a business plan example from a similar type of company

You don't need to find an example business plan that's an exact fit for your business. Your business location, target market, and even your particular product or service may not match up exactly with the plans in our gallery. But, you don't need an exact match for it to be helpful. Instead, look for a plan that's related to the type of business you're starting.

For example, if you want to start a vegetarian restaurant, a plan for a steakhouse can be a great match. While the specifics of your actual startup will differ, the elements you'd want to include in your restaurant's business plan are likely to be very similar.

Use a business plan example as a guide

Every startup and small business is unique, so you'll want to avoid copying an example business plan word for word. It just won't be as helpful, since each business is unique. You want your plan to be a useful tool for starting a business —and getting funding if you need it.

One of the key benefits of writing a business plan is simply going through the process. When you sit down to write, you'll naturally think through important pieces, like your startup costs, your target market , and any market analysis or research you'll need to do to be successful.

You'll also look at where you stand among your competition (and everyone has competition), and lay out your goals and the milestones you'll need to meet. Looking at an example business plan's financials section can be helpful because you can see what should be included, but take them with a grain of salt. Don't assume that financial projections for a sample company will fit your own small business.

If you're looking for more resources to help you get started, our business planning guide is a good place to start. You can also download our free business plan template .

Think of business planning as a process, instead of a document

Think about business planning as something you do often , rather than a document you create once and never look at again. If you take the time to write a plan that really fits your own company, it will be a better, more useful tool to grow your business. It should also make it easier to share your vision and strategy so everyone on your team is on the same page.

Adjust your plan regularly to use it as a business management tool

Keep in mind that businesses that use their plan as a management tool to help run their business grow 30 percent faster than those businesses that don't. For that to be true for your company, you'll think of a part of your business planning process as tracking your actual results against your financial forecast on a regular basis.

If things are going well, your plan will help you think about how you can re-invest in your business. If you find that you're not meeting goals, you might need to adjust your budgets or your sales forecast. Either way, tracking your progress compared to your plan can help you adjust quickly when you identify challenges and opportunities—it's one of the most powerful things you can do to grow your business.

Prepare to pitch your business

If you're planning to pitch your business to investors or seek out any funding, you'll need a pitch deck to accompany your business plan. A pitch deck is designed to inform people about your business. You want your pitch deck to be short and easy to follow, so it's best to keep your presentation under 20 slides.

Your pitch deck and pitch presentation are likely some of the first things that an investor will see to learn more about your company. So, you need to be informative and pique their interest. Luckily, just like you can leverage an example business plan template to write your plan, we also have a gallery of over 50 pitch decks for you to reference.

With this gallery, you have the option to view specific industry pitches or get inspired by real-world pitch deck examples.

Ready to get started?

Now that you know how to use an example business plan to help you write a plan for your business, it's time to find the right one.

Use the search bar below to get started and find the right match for your business idea.

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APA Formatting and Style Guide (7th Edition)

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APA Headings and Subheadings | With Sample Paper

Published on November 7, 2020 by Raimo Streefkerk . Revised on October 24, 2022.

Headings and subheadings provide structure to a document. They signal what each section is about and allow for easy navigation of the document.

APA headings have five possible levels. Each heading level is formatted differently.

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Table of contents

Additional guidelines for apa headings, how many heading levels should you use, when to use which apa heading level, section labels vs headings, sample paper with apa headings, using heading styles in word or google docs.

As well as the heading styles, there are some other guidelines to keep in mind:

• Double-space all text, including the headings.
• Use the same font for headings and body text (e.g., Times New Roman 12pt.).
• Don’t label headings with numbers or letters.
• Don’t add extra “enters” above or below headings.

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Depending on the length and complexity of your paper, you may not use all five heading levels. In fact, shorter student papers may have no headings at all.

It’s also perfectly fine for some sections in your paper to go as deep as five levels, where others use only heading level 1.

Heading level 1 is used for main sections like “ Methods ”, “ Results ”, and “ Discussion ”. There is no “ Introduction ” heading at the beginning of your paper because the first paragraphs are understood to be introductory.

Heading level 2 is used for subsections under level 1. For example, under “Methods” (level 1) you may have subsections for “Sampling Method” and “Data Analysis” (level 2). This continues all the way down to heading level 5.

Always use at least two subheadings or none at all. If there is just one subheading, the top-level heading is sufficient.

In addition to regular headings, APA works with “section labels” for specific parts of the paper. They’re similar to headings but are formatted differently. Section labels are placed on a separate line at the top of a new page in bold and centered.

Use section labels for the following sections in an APA formatted paper :

• Author note
• Paper title
• Reference page

Instead of formatting every heading individually, you can use the “Styles” feature in Word or Google Docs. This allows you to save the styling and apply it with just a click.

The first time you use APA Style, you need to update the default heading styles to reflect the APA heading guidelines. Click here for the instructions for Microsoft Word and Google Docs .

An added benefit of using the “Styles” feature is that you can automatically generate a table of contents .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Streefkerk, R. (2022, October 24). APA Headings and Subheadings | With Sample Paper. Scribbr. Retrieved April 8, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/apa-headings/

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