business plan for business growth

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Writing a Business Growth Plan

Look ahead and plan for business growth and revenue increases.

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When you run a business, it’s easy to get caught in the moment and focus only on the day in front of you. However, to be truly successful, you must look ahead and plan for growth. Many business owners create a business growth plan to map out the next one or two years and pinpoint how and when revenues will increase. 

We’ll explain more about business growth plans and share strategies for writing a business growth plan that can set you on a path to success. 

What is a business growth plan?

A business growth plan outlines where a company sees itself in the next one to two years. Business owners and leaders apply a growth mindset to create plans for expansion and increased revenues.

Business growth plans should be formatted quarterly. At the end of each quarter, the company can review the business goals it achieved and missed during that period. At this point, management can revise the business growth plan to reflect the current market standing.

What to include in a business growth plan

A business growth plan focuses specifically on expansion and how you’ll achieve it. Creating a useful plan takes time, but keeping your growth efforts on track can pay off substantially.

You should include the following elements in your growth plan:

• A description of expansion opportunities
• Financial goals broken down by quarter and year
• A marketing plan that details how you’ll achieve growth
• A financial plan to determine what capital is accessible during growth
• A breakdown of your company’s staffing needs and responsibilities

How to write a business growth plan

To successfully write a business growth plan, you must do some forward-thinking and research. Here are some key steps to follow when writing your business growth plan.

1. Think ahead.

The future is always unpredictable. However, if you study your target market, your competition and your company’s past growth, you can plan for future expansion. The Small Business Administration (SBA) features a comprehensive guide to writing a business plan for growth.

2. Study other growth plans.

Before you start writing, review models from successful companies.

3. Discover opportunities for growth.

With some homework, you can determine if your expansion opportunities lie in creating new products , adding more services, targeting a new market, opening new business locations or going global, to name a few examples. Once you’ve identified your best options for growth, include them in your plan.

4. Evaluate your team.

Your plan should include an assessment of your employees and a look at staffing requirements to meet your growth objectives. By assessing your own skills and those of your employees, you can determine how much growth can be accomplished with your present team. You’ll also know when to ramp up the hiring process and what skill sets to look for in those new hires.

5. Find the capital.

Include detailed information on how you will fund expansion. Business.gov offers a guide on how to prepare funding requests and how to connect with SBA lenders.

6. Get the word out.

Growing your business requires a targeted marketing effort. Be sure to outline how you will effectively market your business to encourage growth and how your marketing efforts will evolve as you grow.

7. Ask for help.

Advice from other business owners who have enjoyed successful growth can be the ultimate tool in writing your growth plan.

8. Start writing.

Business plan software has streamlined the process of writing growth plans by providing templates you can fill in with information specific to your company and industry. Most software programs are geared toward general business plans; however, you can easily modify them to create a plan that focuses on growth. 

If you don’t have business plan software, don’t worry. You can create a business growth plan using Microsoft Word, Google Docs or a similar tool. For each growth opportunity, create the following sections: 

• What is the opportunity? Is your growth opportunity a new geographic expansion, a new product or a new customer segment? How do you know there’s an opportunity? Include your market research to demonstrate the idea’s viability.
• What factors make this opportunity valuable at this time? For example, your growth opportunity could utilize new technology, take advantage of a strategic partnership or capitalize on a consumer trend.
• What are the risk factors for this opportunity? Identify factors that may make this growth opportunity challenging to execute. For example, challenges may include the state of the overall economy, intense competition or supply chain distribution issues. What is your plan for dealing with these challenges?
• What is your marketing and sales plan? Identify the marketing efforts and sales processes that can help you seize this growth opportunity. Detail the marketing channel you’ll use ( social media marketing , print marketing), your message and promising sales ideas. For example, you could hire sales reps for a new geographic area or set up distribution deals with relevant brick-and-mortar or online retailers .
• What are the costs involved in this growth area? For example, if you add a new product, you may need to buy new manufacturing equipment and raw materials. While marketing costs are a given, remember to include incremental sales costs like commissions. Outline any economies of scale or places where your existing operations make the new growth area less expensive than a stand-alone initiative.
• How will your income, expenses and cash flow look? Project your income and expenses, and prepare a cash flow statement for the new growth area for the next three to five years. Include a break-even analysis, a sales forecast and all projected expenses to see how much the new initiative will add to the bottom line. Include how the new growth area will positively (or negatively) impact existing sales. For example, if you sell bathing suits and you decide to grow by adding cover-ups and sunglasses, you will likely sell more bathing suits. 

After completing this exercise for each growth opportunity:

• Create a summary that accounts for all growth areas for the period.
• Include summarized financial statements to see the entire picture and its impact on the company. 
• Evaluate the financing you’ll need to implement the plan, and include various options and rates. 

Why are business growth plans important?

These are some of the many reasons why business growth plans are essential:

• Market share and penetration: If your market share remains constant in a world where costs consistently increase, you’ll inevitably start recording losses instead of profits. Business growth plans help you avoid this scenario.
• Recouping early losses: Most companies lose far more than they earn in their early years. To recoup these losses, you’ll need to grow your company to a point where it can make enough revenue to pay off your debts.
• Future risk minimization: Growth plans also matter for established businesses. These companies can always stand to make their sales more efficient and become more liquid. Liquidity can come in handy if you need money to cover unexpected problems.
• Appealing to investors: For most businesses, a business growth plan’s primary purpose is to find investors . Investors want to outline your company’s plans to build sales in the coming months.
• Concrete revenue plans: Growth plans are customizable to each business and don’t have to follow a set template. However, all business growth plans must focus heavily on revenue. The plan should answer a simple question: How does your company plan to make money each quarter?

What factors impact business growth?

Consider the following crucial factors that can impact business growth:

• Leadership: To achieve your goals, you must know the ins and outs of your business processes and how external forces impact them. Without this knowledge, you can’t direct and train your team to drive your revenue, and you will experience stagnation instead of growth.
• Management: As a small business owner, you’re innately involved in management – obtaining funding, resources, and physical and digital infrastructure. Ineffective management will impact your ability to perform these duties and could hamstring your growth.
• Customer loyalty: Acquiring new customers can be five times as expensive as retaining current ones, and a 5 percent boost in customer retention can increase profits by 25 percent to 95 percent. These statistics demonstrate that customer loyalty is fundamental to business growth.

What are the four major growth strategies?

There are countless growth strategies for businesses, but only four primary types. With these growth strategies, you can determine how to build on your brand.

• Market strategy: A market strategy refers to how you plan to penetrate your target audience . This strategy isn’t intended for entering a new market or creating new products and services to boost your market share; it’s about leveraging your current offerings. For instance, can you adjust your pricing? Should you launch a new marketing campaign?
• Development strategy: This strategy means looking into ways to break your products and services into a new market. If you can’t find the growth you want in the current market, a goal could be to expand to a new market.
• Product strategy: Also known as “product development,” this strategy focuses on what new products and services you can target to your current market. How can you grow your business without entering new markets? What are your customers asking for?
• Diversification strategy: Diversification means expanding both your products and target markets. This strategy is usually best for smaller companies that have the means to be versatile with the products or services they offer and what new markets they attempt to penetrate.

Max Freedman contributed to this article.

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How to make a business plan

How to make a good business plan: step-by-step guide.

A business plan is a strategic roadmap used to navigate the challenging journey of entrepreneurship. It's the foundation upon which you build a successful business.

A well-crafted business plan can help you define your vision, clarify your goals, and identify potential problems before they arise.

But where do you start? How do you create a business plan that sets you up for success?

This article will explore the step-by-step process of creating a comprehensive business plan.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a formal document that outlines a business's objectives, strategies, and operational procedures. It typically includes the following information about a company:

Products or services

Target market

Competitors

Marketing and sales strategies

Financial plan

Management team

A business plan serves as a roadmap for a company's success and provides a blueprint for its growth and development. It helps entrepreneurs and business owners organize their ideas, evaluate the feasibility, and identify potential challenges and opportunities.

As well as serving as a guide for business owners, a business plan can attract investors and secure funding. It demonstrates the company's understanding of the market, its ability to generate revenue and profits, and its strategy for managing risks and achieving success.

Business plan vs. business model canvas

A business plan may seem similar to a business model canvas, but each document serves a different purpose.

A business model canvas is a high-level overview that helps entrepreneurs and business owners quickly test and iterate their ideas. It is often a one-page document that briefly outlines the following:

Key partnerships

Key activities

Key propositions

Customer relationships

Customer segments

Key resources

Cost structure

Revenue streams

On the other hand, a Business Plan Template provides a more in-depth analysis of a company's strategy and operations. It is typically a lengthy document and requires significant time and effort to develop.

A business model shouldn’t replace a business plan, and vice versa. Business owners should lay the foundations and visually capture the most important information with a Business Model Canvas Template . Because this is a fast and efficient way to communicate a business idea, a business model canvas is a good starting point before developing a more comprehensive business plan.

A business plan can aim to secure funding from investors or lenders, while a business model canvas communicates a business idea to potential customers or partners.

Why is a business plan important?

A business plan is crucial for any entrepreneur or business owner wanting to increase their chances of success.

Here are some of the many benefits of having a thorough business plan.

Helps to define the business goals and objectives

A business plan encourages you to think critically about your goals and objectives. Doing so lets you clearly understand what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there.

A well-defined set of goals, objectives, and key results also provides a sense of direction and purpose, which helps keep business owners focused and motivated.

Guides decision-making

A business plan requires you to consider different scenarios and potential problems that may arise in your business. This awareness allows you to devise strategies to deal with these issues and avoid pitfalls.

With a clear plan, entrepreneurs can make informed decisions aligning with their overall business goals and objectives. This helps reduce the risk of making costly mistakes and ensures they make decisions with long-term success in mind.

Attracts investors and secures funding

Investors and lenders often require a business plan before considering investing in your business. A document that outlines the company's goals, objectives, and financial forecasts can help instill confidence in potential investors and lenders.

A well-written business plan demonstrates that you have thoroughly thought through your business idea and have a solid plan for success.

Identifies potential challenges and risks

A business plan requires entrepreneurs to consider potential challenges and risks that could impact their business. For example:

Is there enough demand for my product or service?

Will I have enough capital to start my business?

Is the market oversaturated with too many competitors?

What will happen if my marketing strategy is ineffective?

By identifying these potential challenges, entrepreneurs can develop strategies to mitigate risks and overcome challenges. This can reduce the likelihood of costly mistakes and ensure the business is well-positioned to take on any challenges.

Provides a basis for measuring success

A business plan serves as a framework for measuring success by providing clear goals and financial projections . Entrepreneurs can regularly refer to the original business plan as a benchmark to measure progress. By comparing the current business position to initial forecasts, business owners can answer questions such as:

Are we where we want to be at this point?

Did we achieve our goals?

If not, why not, and what do we need to do?

After assessing whether the business is meeting its objectives or falling short, business owners can adjust their strategies as needed.

How to make a business plan step by step

The steps below will guide you through the process of creating a business plan and what key components you need to include.

1. Create an executive summary

Start with a brief overview of your entire plan. The executive summary should cover your business plan's main points and key takeaways.

Keep your executive summary concise and clear with the Executive Summary Template . The simple design helps readers understand the crux of your business plan without reading the entire document.

2. Write your company description

Provide a detailed explanation of your company. Include information on what your company does, the mission statement, and your vision for the future.

Provide additional background information on the history of your company, the founders, and any notable achievements or milestones.

3. Conduct a market analysis

Conduct an in-depth analysis of your industry, competitors, and target market. This is best done with a SWOT analysis to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Next, identify your target market's needs, demographics, and behaviors.

Use the Competitive Analysis Template to brainstorm answers to simple questions like:

What does the current market look like?

Who are your competitors?

What are they offering?

What will give you a competitive advantage?

Who is your target market?

What are they looking for and why?

How will your product or service satisfy a need?

These questions should give you valuable insights into the current market and where your business stands.

4. Describe your products and services

Provide detailed information about your products and services. This includes pricing information, product features, and any unique selling points.

Use the Product/Market Fit Template to explain how your products meet the needs of your target market. Describe what sets them apart from the competition.

5. Design a marketing and sales strategy

Outline how you plan to promote and sell your products. Your marketing strategy and sales strategy should include information about your:

Pricing strategy

Advertising and promotional tactics

Sales channels

The Go to Market Strategy Template is a great way to visually map how you plan to launch your product or service in a new or existing market.

6. Determine budget and financial projections

Document detailed information on your business’ finances. Describe the current financial position of the company and how you expect the finances to play out.

Some details to include in this section are:

Startup costs

Revenue projections

Profit and loss statement

Funding you have received or plan to receive

Strategy for raising funds

7. Set the organization and management structure

Define how your company is structured and who will be responsible for each aspect of the business. Use the Business Organizational Chart Template to visually map the company’s teams, roles, and hierarchy.

As well as the organization and management structure, discuss the legal structure of your business. Clarify whether your business is a corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, or LLC.

8. Make an action plan

At this point in your business plan, you’ve described what you’re aiming for. But how are you going to get there? The Action Plan Template describes the following steps to move your business plan forward. Outline the next steps you plan to take to bring your business plan to fruition.

Types of business plans

Several types of business plans cater to different purposes and stages of a company's lifecycle. Here are some of the most common types of business plans.

Startup business plan

A startup business plan is typically an entrepreneur's first business plan. This document helps entrepreneurs articulate their business idea when starting a new business.

Not sure how to make a business plan for a startup? It’s pretty similar to a regular business plan, except the primary purpose of a startup business plan is to convince investors to provide funding for the business. A startup business plan also outlines the potential target market, product/service offering, marketing plan, and financial projections.

Strategic business plan

A strategic business plan is a long-term plan that outlines a company's overall strategy, objectives, and tactics. This type of strategic plan focuses on the big picture and helps business owners set goals and priorities and measure progress.

The primary purpose of a strategic business plan is to provide direction and guidance to the company's management team and stakeholders. The plan typically covers a period of three to five years.

Operational business plan

An operational business plan is a detailed document that outlines the day-to-day operations of a business. It focuses on the specific activities and processes required to run the business, such as:

Organizational structure

Staffing plan

Production plan

Quality control

Inventory management

Supply chain

The primary purpose of an operational business plan is to ensure that the business runs efficiently and effectively. It helps business owners manage their resources, track their performance, and identify areas for improvement.

Growth-business plan

A growth-business plan is a strategic plan that outlines how a company plans to expand its business. It helps business owners identify new market opportunities and increase revenue and profitability. The primary purpose of a growth-business plan is to provide a roadmap for the company's expansion and growth.

The 3 Horizons of Growth Template is a great tool to identify new areas of growth. This framework categorizes growth opportunities into three categories: Horizon 1 (core business), Horizon 2 (emerging business), and Horizon 3 (potential business).

One-page business plan

A one-page business plan is a condensed version of a full business plan that focuses on the most critical aspects of a business. It’s a great tool for entrepreneurs who want to quickly communicate their business idea to potential investors, partners, or employees.

A one-page business plan typically includes sections such as business concept, value proposition, revenue streams, and cost structure.

Best practices for how to make a good business plan

Here are some additional tips for creating a business plan:

Use a template

A template can help you organize your thoughts and effectively communicate your business ideas and strategies. Starting with a template can also save you time and effort when formatting your plan.

Miro’s extensive library of customizable templates includes all the necessary sections for a comprehensive business plan. With our templates, you can confidently present your business plans to stakeholders and investors.

Be practical

Avoid overestimating revenue projections or underestimating expenses. Your business plan should be grounded in practical realities like your budget, resources, and capabilities.

Be specific

Provide as much detail as possible in your business plan. A specific plan is easier to execute because it provides clear guidance on what needs to be done and how. Without specific details, your plan may be too broad or vague, making it difficult to know where to start or how to measure success.

Be thorough with your research

Conduct thorough research to fully understand the market, your competitors, and your target audience . By conducting thorough research, you can identify potential risks and challenges your business may face and develop strategies to mitigate them.

Get input from others

It can be easy to become overly focused on your vision and ideas, leading to tunnel vision and a lack of objectivity. By seeking input from others, you can identify potential opportunities you may have overlooked.

Review and revise regularly

A business plan is a living document. You should update it regularly to reflect market, industry, and business changes. Set aside time for regular reviews and revisions to ensure your plan remains relevant and effective.

Create a winning business plan to chart your path to success

Starting or growing a business can be challenging, but it doesn't have to be. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting, a well-written business plan can make or break your business’ success.

The purpose of a business plan is more than just to secure funding and attract investors. It also serves as a roadmap for achieving your business goals and realizing your vision. With the right mindset, tools, and strategies, you can develop a visually appealing, persuasive business plan.

Ready to make an effective business plan that works for you? Check out our library of ready-made strategy and planning templates and chart your path to success.

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Growth Tactics

Creating an Effective Business Growth Plan

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As a business leader, you understand the importance of continually striving for growth and development in your enterprise. A carefully crafted growth plan can help you achieve your goals by outlining specific strategies and action plans to ensure that your company continues to thrive. In this article, we’ll explore the key components of an effective growth plan for your business and offer practical advice to help you create a roadmap to success.

What is a Growth Plan and Why Do You Need One?

A growth plan is a document that outlines the strategies and tactics that a business will use to achieve and sustain growth over a specified period. This plan should include a clear vision statement, measurable goals , and a detailed description of the strategies, action plans, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that will drive business growth. A growth plan can help you set goals and targets, identify potential challenges and opportunities, and ensure that all stakeholders are aligned with your vision. Furthermore, having a growth plan can help ensure the longevity of your business by providing a roadmap for success.

Factors Impacting Business Growth

Several factors can have a significant impact on the growth of a business. It is essential for business leaders and managers to identify and understand these factors in order to navigate the path to success. Let’s explore some key factors that influence business growth:

1. Economic Conditions

The overall health of the economy can greatly affect business growth. During periods of economic prosperity, with increased consumer spending and confidence, businesses tend to experience growth opportunities. Conversely, during economic downturns or recessions , consumer spending may decline, leading to challenges for businesses.

2. Market Demand and Competitiveness

The demand for a product or service has a direct impact on business growth. Assessing the market demand for your offerings, understanding consumer preferences, and identifying any gaps that your business can fill are crucial steps. Additionally, businesses need to evaluate the competitive landscape, including the presence of established competitors, barriers to entry, and emerging trends, in order to position themselves for growth.

3. Innovation and Technology

Keeping up with technological advancements and embracing innovation is essential for sustaining growth. Businesses that invest in research and development, adopt new technologies, and stay ahead of industry trends are often better positioned for growth. Innovation can lead to improved efficiency, enhanced product offerings, and increased customer satisfaction, all of which can drive business growth.

4. Financial Resources

Access to financial resources, such as capital for investment and working capital, is vital for business growth. Adequate funding allows businesses to expand operations, invest in marketing and advertising, develop new products or services, and hire additional staff. Businesses need to assess their financial capabilities and explore funding options to support their growth strategies.

5. Human Capital

The skills, knowledge, and expertise of the workforce are critical for driving business growth. Hiring and retaining talented employees who are aligned with the organization’s goals and values is essential. Businesses that invest in training and development programs, foster a positive work culture , and empower their employees are more likely to experience sustainable growth.

6. Regulatory Environment

The regulatory environment in which a business operates can impact growth opportunities. Compliance with industry-specific regulations, government policies, and legal requirements is crucial to avoid penalties and maintain credibility. Understanding and navigating the regulatory landscape allows businesses to identify potential obstacles and take necessary measures for growth.

7. Customer Satisfaction and Retention

Customer satisfaction and retention play a significant role in business growth. Satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat customers, refer others to the business, and contribute to its growth. Businesses need to focus on providing exceptional customer experiences, delivering quality products or services, and maintaining strong customer relationships to foster loyalty and drive growth.

These factors are just some of the many elements that influence business growth. By actively assessing and addressing these factors, businesses can create strategies and make informed decisions that contribute to their long-term success and expansion.

How to Develop a Growth Plan for Your Business

Developing a growth plan for your business is a crucial aspect of achieving long-term success. To create an effective growth plan, follow these steps:

Step 1: Define Your Growth Goals and Objectives

The first step in creating an effective growth plan is to define your goals and objectives. Think about where you want your business to be in three, five, or ten years and develop specific and measurable goals that will help you achieve your vision.

Step 2: Understand Your Business Needs

In order to create a growth plan that works for your business, you need to understand its needs. Consider the following questions:

• What are your business goals?
• Who is your target market?
• What products or services do you offer?
• What are your current strengths and weaknesses?
• What are the potential growth opportunities for your business?

Answering these questions will help you identify specific areas of your business that require additional attention and focus, and help you create a growth plan that addresses them.

Step 3: Develop a Strategy for Growth

Once you have defined your goals and identified the needs of your business, the next step is to develop a strategy for growth. Consider the following:

• What strategies and tactics will best help you achieve your growth goals?
• What internal resources or external partnerships will you need to execute your plan?
• What role will new products or services play in your growth strategy?
• Are there any particular areas of your business that you want to focus on developing?
• How will you measure success and ensure that your strategy is working?

Developing an effective growth strategy requires careful planning and consideration of various factors that can impact your business.

Step 4: Establish an Action Plan

With your growth goals defined, business needs understood, and a strategy created, the next step is to establish an action plan. This plan should outline specific initiatives that will help you achieve your growth targets, including timelines, milestones, resource commitments, and key performance indicators.

Step 5: Monitor and Adjust Your Plan

Developing a successful growth plan requires ongoing monitoring and adjustment to ensure that you remain on track and continue to grow. Regularly review your progress against your KPIs and take corrective action as needed to keep your business moving forward.

Tips for Creating an Effective Growth Plan

When it comes to business growth, creating an effective plan is crucial to achieving your goals and moving your organization forward. Here are some tips to help you create a growth plan that will work for your company:

Set Realistic Goals

It’s important to set goals that are achievable but also challenging. Make sure you consider your current business situation and resources, as well as your desired outcomes when setting your targets.

Understand Your Market

Your target market plays an essential role in your business growth. Ensure you have a deep understanding of your customer’s needs, their pain points, and the challenges they are facing.

Consider All Growth Strategies

Exploring diverse growth strategies can help you expand your business, reach new customers, and diversify your offerings. This could include everything from developing new products and services, expanding into new markets, or improving your operations and processes .

Focus on the Long-term

While short-term objectives are vital for any business, it’s equally critical to have long-term goals in mind. This ensures that you develop a roadmap to move toward your vision and don’t get sidetracked by short-term wins.

Foster an Organizational Culture of Growth

Building this culture starts from the top and should be reflected throughout your organization. Encourage staff to be innovative , take calculated risks, and capitalize on new opportunities and ideas to drive growth forward.

Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

To effectively measure your progress toward your growth goals, it is important to identify and track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These indicators can include metrics such as revenue growth, customer acquisition rate, customer satisfaction, market share, or any other relevant metrics specific to your business. Regularly monitoring these KPIs will help you assess if your growth plan is on track and enable you to make informed decisions and adjustments as needed.

Develop a Marketing and Sales Strategy

A strong marketing and sales strategy is crucial to drive business growth. Clearly define your target audience, develop compelling messaging, and identify the most effective channels to reach and engage your potential customers. Leverage digital marketing techniques, social media platforms, content marketing, SEO, and other tactics relevant to your industry to maximize your reach and generate quality leads. Align your marketing and sales efforts to ensure a seamless customer journey that leads to conversions.

Invest in Employee Development

Your employees play a significant role in driving business growth. Invest in their professional development and provide training opportunities to enhance their skill sets. Empower them to take ownership of their responsibilities and encourage a culture of continuous learning and improvement. By fostering a motivated and skilled workforce, you can boost productivity , innovation, and overall business performance.

Foster Strategic Partnerships

Strategic partnerships can be a valuable growth strategy for businesses. Look for complementary organizations or businesses with shared target audiences and explore opportunities for collaboration. By partnering with other businesses, you can tap into new markets, leverage each other’s strengths, share resources, and mutually benefit from the synergies created.

Continuously Monitor and Evaluate Your Plan

Creating a growth plan is not a one-time task; it requires ongoing monitoring and evaluation. Regularly review your progress, reassess your goals, and adjust your strategies as needed. Stay updated on market trends, customer preferences, and industry developments to ensure your growth plan remains relevant and effective. Be agile and adaptable in responding to changes and seeking new opportunities for growth.

Business Plan vs Growth Plan

Business plans and growth plans are essential tools for businesses, but they serve different purposes. While a business plan outlines the basics of a company, including its mission, product offerings, and financial projections, a growth plan focuses specifically on strategies to drive business growth. Let’s explore the differences between the two:

Business Plan

A business plan is a detailed blueprint of a company’s goals and objectives, outlining how it intends to achieve them. It typically includes the following components:

• Executive summary: A brief overview of the company’s mission, goals, and financial projections.
• Company description: A detailed description of the company’s mission, historical background, products or services offered, and target market.
• Market analysis: An overview of the industry, including trends, competition, and target audience.
• Organization and management: An overview of the company’s organizational structure , leadership team, and management style.
• Products and services: A detailed description of the company’s products or services, including pricing, distribution, and marketing strategies.
• Financial projections: Forecasted financial statements, including income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.

A business plan serves as a roadmap for a company’s future, laying out how it plans to operate, grow and succeed.

Growth Plan

A growth plan is a strategic document designed to identify and prioritize strategies to drive business growth. Instead of focusing on the basics of the company like a business plan, a growth plan zooms into the company’s growth opportunities. It typically includes the following components:

• Review of business environment: An overview of the current business conditions and the challenges and opportunities that exist in the market.
• Mission and vision statement: A reaffirmation of the company’s goals and aspirations, and how these will translate into growth strategies.
• Goals and objectives: Specific, measurable objectives that align with the company’s mission and growth aspirations.
• SWOT analysis: An assessment of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• Strategies and tactics: A detailed outline of the strategies and tactics that will be used to achieve the company’s goals and objectives.
• Performance metrics: Objective measures that will be used to track and evaluate the success of the growth plan.

A growth plan offers a framework for businesses to identify and prioritize growth opportunities, set realistic growth targets, and develop actionable strategies to achieve those targets.

In summary, while a business plan outlines the basics of a company, including its mission, goals, and financial projections, a growth plan focuses on strategies to drive growth. While both plans are essential for the success of a business, they play different roles in the development and execution of a company’s strategy.

Key Takeaways

Creating an effective growth plan for your business involves identifying your goals and objectives, assessing your business needs, developing a strategy, establishing an action plan, and monitoring and adjusting your plan as needed.

By following these steps and adopting a growth mindset, you can successfully achieve your business goals, help your organization thrive, and continue to grow for years to come. Remember to set realistic, measurable targets, focus on your customers’ needs, and stay open to new opportunities. With a well-constructed growth plan, you can continue to make your business successful and continue to grow.

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How to Create a Growth Plan for Your Business in 6 Simple Steps The new book, "Grow Your Business," offers an easy-to-follow guide to expanding your business and making more money this year.

By Dan Bova Aug 8, 2023

The following is an excerpt from Grow Your Business: Scaling Your Business for Long-Term Success by the staff of Entrepreneur Media and Eric Butow, on sale now.

To grow your company, you need a plan that establishes how you will grow and why your ideal customers should buy from you. Then you need to invest in the people and tools that can turn your plans into reality. If possible, distill your growth plan into a one-page document that will help you focus on the essentials and be easy for your team to digest. Growth plans are different for each business, and you can implement different strategies depending on what type of business you have. But regardless, you need to keep your team thinking in terms of growth. Once you establish a growth mindset in your employees, you and your team can continuously look for new opportunities for growth.

What a Growth Plan Is . . . and Isn't

A growth plan may be hard to wrap your head around when you're getting started in your business. Before you offer your product and/or service to the world, you need to focus on establishing a value proposition for potential customers and find out where your ideal customers are. Once you do, you can measure your progress as you sell your product and/or service. Those measurements will help you identify new revenue streams and let you compare yourself to the competition. That comparison will tell where your strengths are so you can focus on them. And when you have a clear idea of what you do and who your customers are, you can use that information to attract talented employees. Establish a Value Proposition Before you can grow, you need to think about what sets you apart from the competition. For example, some companies compete on authority. Whole Foods Market touts itself as the place to buy healthy and organic foods. Walmart asserts that it's the low-price leader and no one can beat its prices. Whatever competitive advantage you find, stick with it. If you don't, you run the risk of devaluing your business because customers won't know what you stand for.

Grow Your Business: Scaling Your Business for Long-Term Success is available now at Entrepreneur Bookstore | Amazon | Barnes and Noble

1. Pinpoint Your Ideal Customer

You started a business so you could solve a problem for a specific audience. During the startup stage, you may have identified numerous markets you thought you might be able to serve before narrowing it down to your specific niche market. Now you need to hone your target market even further until you've winnowed it down to your ideal customer. Once you know who they are, you can address them consistently in your market or submarket as you grow.

Related: How to Leverage Virtual Sales Events to Grow Your Business

2. Define Key Indicators

You won't be able to measure growth if you can't measure change. Start by identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), which are quantifiable measurements of a company's performance in specific areas over time. (Examples of commonly tracked KPIs include net profit, liquidity ratio, customer satisfaction, and customer retention.) Then dedicate time and money to improving those indicators.

3. Verify Your Revenue Streams

Don't just think about your current revenue streams—think about new revenue streams that could make your business more profitable. Once you've started identifying possible new revenue streams, get in the habit of asking yourself (and your team) if every cool new idea you and they come up with has a revenue stream attached. If it does, ask if that stream is sustainable over the long run.

Related: 5 Reasons Why Your Brand Needs a Chief Growth Officer

4. Research Your Competition

If your company is struggling with something, you likely have a competitor that excels at it. Don't just put your head down and try to surmount a challenge yourself. Look at similar growth businesses to inform your strategies and solutions. If you belong to an industry trade group or a networking organization (and you should), don't be afraid to ask for advice. Why have similar businesses made different choices? Do your competitors' growth choices mean that their businesses are positioned differently?

5. Focus on Your Strengths

Tailoring your growth plan to focus on and maximize your strengths can help you identify strategies for success. That doesn't mean you should ignore your weaknesses, but starting from a position of strength will give your company the fuel it needs to grow.

6. Invest in Talent

Your employees have direct or indirect contact with your customers, so you should hire people who are motivated by your company's value proposition and your plans for growth. Pay and treat your employees well because their positive energy will inspire your customers. Your employees will also listen to your customers and bring back ideas from them that will help you grow your business.

For more growth strategies, pickup Grow Your Business: Scaling Your Business available now at Entrepreneur Bookstore | Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Entrepreneur Staff

VP of Special Projects

Dan Bova is the VP of Special Projects at Entrepreneur.com. He previously worked at Jimmy Kimmel Live, Maxim, and Spy magazine. His latest books for kids  include  This Day in History , Car and Driver's Trivia Zone ,  Road & Track Crew's Big & Fast Cars , The Big Little Book of Awesome Stuff , and  Wendell the Werewolf . 

Read his humor column This Should Be Fun  if you want to feel better about yourself.

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How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)

Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.

If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.

Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.

You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.

1. Secure Funds

One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.

For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.

A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.

Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.

2. Monitor Business Growth

A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:

• The business goals
• Methods to achieve the goals
• Time-frame for attaining those goals

A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.

You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.

3. Measure Business Success

A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.

Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.

You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.

Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.

In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:

• How do you want to reach your target audience?
• How do you plan to retain your customers?
• What is/are your pricing plans?
• What is your budget for marketing?

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.

Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.

A good executive summary should do the following:

• A Snapshot of Growth Potential. Briefly inform the reader about your company and why it will be successful)
• Contain your Mission Statement which explains what the main objective or focus of your business is.
• Product Description and Differentiation. Brief description of your products or services and why it is different from other solutions in the market.
• The Team. Basic information about your company’s leadership team and employees
• Business Concept. A solid description of what your business does.
• Target Market. The customers you plan to sell to.
• Marketing Strategy. Your plans on reaching and selling to your customers
• Current Financial State. Brief information about what revenue your business currently generates.
• Projected Financial State. Brief information about what you foresee your business revenue to be in the future.

The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.

Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.

View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:

• Who is your target audience?
• What sector or industry are you in?
• What are your products and services?
• What is the future of your industry?
• Is your company scaleable?
• Who are the owners and leaders of your company? What are their backgrounds and experience levels?
• What is the motivation for starting your company?
• What are the next steps?

Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.

The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.

If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.

2. Add Your Company Overview

The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.

Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.

Your company overview should contain the following:

• What products and services you will provide
• Geographical markets and locations your company have a presence
• What you need to run your business
• Who your target audience or customers are
• Who will service your customers
• Your company’s purpose, mission, and vision
• Information about your company’s founders
• Who the founders are
• Notable achievements of your company so far

When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.

If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.

• Who are you targeting? (The answer is not everyone)
• What pain point does your product or service solve for your customers that they will be willing to spend money on resolving?
• How does your product or service overcome that pain point?
• Where is the location of your business?
• What products, equipment, and services do you need to run your business?
• How is your company’s product or service different from your competition in the eyes of your customers?
• How many employees do you need and what skills do you require them to have?

After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.

The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.

• Mission Statement

The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.

Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”

When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:

• Founding Date
• Major Milestones
• Location(s)
• Flagship Products or Services
• Number of Employees
• Executive Leadership Roles

When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.

Business Objectives

Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.

3. Perform Market and Competitive Analyses to Proof a Big Enough Business Opportunity

The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.

Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.

This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.

Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?

You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.

Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?

Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?

Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.

Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.

Market Analysis

Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.

The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.

A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.

• Market Research

To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.

• Your target market’s needs or pain points
• The existing solutions for their pain points
• Geographic Location
• Demographics

The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.

Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.

You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.

How to Quantify Your Target Market

One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:

• Your Potential Customers: They are the people you plan to target. For example, if you sell accounting software for small businesses , then anyone who runs an enterprise or large business is unlikely to be your customers. Also, individuals who do not have a business will most likely not be interested in your product.
• Total Households: If you are selling household products such as heating and air conditioning systems, determining the number of total households is more important than finding out the total population in the area you want to sell to. The logic is simple, people buy the product but it is the household that uses it.
• Median Income: You need to know the median income of your target market. If you target a market that cannot afford to buy your products and services, your business will not last long.
• Income by Demographics: If your potential customers belong to a certain age group or gender, determining income levels by demographics is necessary. For example, if you sell men's clothes, your target audience is men.

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.

You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:

• Industry Description. You find out about the history of your industry, the current and future market size, and who the largest players/companies are in your industry.
• Overview of Target Market. You research your target market and its characteristics. Who are you targeting? Note, it cannot be everyone, it has to be a specific group. You also have to find out all information possible about your customers that can help you understand how and why they make buying decisions.
• Size of Target Market: You need to know the size of your target market, how frequently they buy, and the expected quantity they buy so you do not risk overproducing and having lots of bad inventory. Researching the size of your target market will help you determine if it is big enough for sustained business or not.
• Growth Potential: Before picking a target market, you want to be sure there are lots of potential for future growth. You want to avoid going for an industry that is declining slowly or rapidly with almost zero growth potential.
• Market Share Potential: Does your business stand a good chance of taking a good share of the market?
• Market Pricing and Promotional Strategies: Your market analysis should give you an idea of the price point you can expect to charge for your products and services. Researching your target market will also give you ideas of pricing strategies you can implement to break into the market or to enjoy maximum profits.
• Potential Barriers to Entry: One of the biggest benefits of conducting market analysis is that it shows you every potential barrier to entry your business will likely encounter. It is a good idea to discuss potential barriers to entry such as changing technology. It informs readers of your business plan that you understand the market.
• Research on Competitors: You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how you can exploit them for the benefit of your business. Find patterns and trends among your competitors that make them successful, discover what works and what doesn’t, and see what you can do better.

The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.

Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.

• Is your product or service of superior quality?
• What additional features do you offer that your competitors do not offer?
• Are you targeting a ‘new’ market?

Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.

Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.

Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.

Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.

The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.

Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.

When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.

Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.

• What are your successful competitors doing?
• Why is what they are doing working?
• Can your business do it better?
• What are the weaknesses of your successful competitors?
• What are they not doing well?
• Can your business turn its weaknesses into strengths?
• How good is your competitors’ customer service?
• Where do your competitors invest in advertising?
• What sales and pricing strategies are they using?
• What marketing strategies are they using?
• What kind of press coverage do they get?
• What are their customers saying about your competitors (both the positive and negative)?

If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.

If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.

Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.

The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.

Direct vs Indirect Competition

You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.

There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.

If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.

In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.

For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.

There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.

1. Cost Leadership

A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.

A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.

2. Product Differentiation

Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.

Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.

3. Market Segmentation

As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.

If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.

Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.

If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.

Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.

The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.

Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.

Management Team

The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.

Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.

A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.

Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.

Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.

If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

• Who are the key leaders?
• What experiences, skills, and educational backgrounds do you expect your key leaders to have?
• Do your key leaders have industry experience?
• What positions will they fill and what duties will they perform in those positions?
• What level of authority do the key leaders have and what are their responsibilities?
• What is the salary for the various management positions that will attract the ideal candidates?

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team

There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.

Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.

2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles

Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.

While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.

Organizational Chart

Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.

If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.

An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.

You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.

Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.

The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.

If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”

Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:

• A detailed explanation that clearly shows how your product or service works.
• The pricing model for your product or service.
• Your business’ sales and distribution strategy.
• The ideal customers that want your product or service.
• The benefits of your products and services.
• Reason(s) why your product or service is a better alternative to what your competitors are currently offering in the market.
• Plans for filling the orders you receive
• If you have current or pending patents, copyrights, and trademarks for your product or service, you can also discuss them in this section.

What to Focus On When Describing the Benefits, Lifecycle, and Production Process of Your Products or Services

In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.

When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Unique features
• Translating the unique features into benefits
• The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
• Intellectual property rights or any patents

When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
• Time between purchases
• Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

• The creation of new or existing products and services.
• The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
• Assembling the products
• Maintaining quality control
• Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
• The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

• Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
• What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
• What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
• Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
• Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
• How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
• What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
• What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
• What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
• Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
• Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
• How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

• What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
• What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
• Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
• How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

• Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
• Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
• Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

• Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
• Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
• Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

• Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
• What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
• How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

• What makes your competition successful?
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

• What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
• What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
• What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
• Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
• What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
• Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

• Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
• Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
• Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
• Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
• Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
• Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
• Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

• What is your sales forecast for the next year?
• When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
• What are the core expenses you need to operate?
• How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
• How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

• Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
• Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
• Additional financial documents or projections
• Articles of incorporation and status
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Bank statements
• Business registries
• Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
• Copies of insurances
• Credit histories (personal or/and business)
• Deeds and permits
• Equipment leases
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Industry associations and memberships
• Images of product
• Intellectual property
• Key customer contracts
• Legal documents and other contracts
• Letters of reference
• Links to references
• Market research data
• Organizational charts
• Photographs of potential facilities
• Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
• Purchase orders
• Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
• State and federal identification numbers or codes
• Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

• A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
• A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
• A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Product or service description
• Target audience
• Market size
• Competition analysis
• Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

• Business opportunity
• Company description
• Industry analysis
• Target market
• Implementation timeline
• Marketing plan
• Financial summary
• Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

• The Business Profile
• The Vision and the People
• Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
• Organization
• Licenses and Permits
• Business Insurance
• Communication Tools
• Acquisitions
• Location and Leasing
• Accounting and Cash Flow
• Opening and Marketing
• Managing Employees
• Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Service Line
• Marketing and Sales

8. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Products and services
• Operations plan
• Management organization
• Financial plan
• Conclusion / Call to action
• Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

10. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

• Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
• Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
• The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
• Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
• Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
• Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
• Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
• Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
• Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

• Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
• Solution: The solutions to each problem.
• Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
• Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

• Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
• Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
• Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
• Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
• Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
• Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
• Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
• Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
• Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
• Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
• Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
• Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

• Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
• Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
• Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
• Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time.  They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans.  A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs.  Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

• 12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
• 13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
• 5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
• How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

18 of My Favorite Sample Business Plans & Examples For Your Inspiration

Published: July 01, 2024

I believe that reading sample business plans is essential when writing your own.

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As you explore business plan examples from real companies and brands, it’s easier for you to learn how to write a good one.

So what does a good business plan look like? And how do you write one that’s both viable and convincing? I’ll walk you through the ideal business plan format along with some examples to help you get started.

Table of Contents

Business Plan Types

Business plan format, sample business plan: section by section, sample business plan templates, top business plan examples.

Ultimately, the format of your business plan will vary based on your goals for that plan. I’ve added this quick review of different business plan types that achieve differing goals.

For a more detailed exploration of business plan types, you can check out this post .

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1. Startups

Startup business plans are for proposing new business ideas. If you’re planning to start a small business, preparing a business plan is crucial. The plan should include all the major factors of your business.

You can check out this guide for more detailed business plan inspiration .

2. Feasibility Studies

Feasibility business plans focus on that business's product or service. Feasibility plans are sometimes added to startup business plans. They can also be a new business plan for an already thriving organization.

3. Internal Use

You can use internal business plans to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders. In my opinion, internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals.

4. Strategic Initiatives

A strategic business plan is another business plan that's often shared internally. This plan covers long-term business objectives that might not have been included in the startup business plan.

5. Business Acquisition or Repositioning

When a business is moving forward with an acquisition or repositioning, it may need extra structure and support. These types of business plans expand on a company's acquisition or repositioning strategy.

Growth sometimes just happens as a business continues operations. But more often, a business needs to create a structure with specific targets to meet set goals for expansion. This business plan type can help a business focus on short-term growth goals and align resources with those goals.

I’m going to focus on a startup business plan that needs to be detailed and research-backed as well as compelling enough to convince investors to offer funding. In my experience, the most comprehensive and convincing business plans contain the following sections.

Executive Summary

This all-important introduction to your business plan sets the tone and includes the company description as well as what you will be exchanging for money — whether that’s product lines, services, or product-service hybrids.

Market Opportunity

Information about gaps in your industry’s market and how you plan to fill them, focused on demand and potential for growth.

Competitive Landscape Analysis

An overview of your competitors that includes consideration of their strengths and how you’ll manage them, their weaknesses and how you’ll capitalize on them, and how you can differentiate your offerings in the industry.

Target Audience

Descriptions of your ideal customers, their various problems that you can solve, and your customer acquisition strategy.

Marketing Strategy

This section details how you will market your brand to achieve specific goals, the channels and tactics you’ll utilize to reach those goals, and the metrics you’ll be using to measure your progress.

Key Features and Benefits

This is where you’ll use plain language to emphasize the value of your product/service, how it solves the problems of your target audiences, and how you’ll scale up over time.

Pricing and Revenue

This section describes your pricing strategy and plans for building revenue streams that fit your audiences while achieving your business goals.

This is the final section, communicating with investors that your business idea is worth investing in via profit/loss statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets to prove viability.

Okay, so now that we have a format established, I’ll give you more specific details about each section along with examples. Truthfully, I wish I’d had this resource to help me flesh out those first business plans long ago.

1. Executive Summary

I’d say the executive summary is the most important section of the entire business plan. It is essentially an overview of and introduction to your entire project.

Write this in such a way that it grabs your readers' attention and guides them through the rest of the business plan. This is important because a business plan can be dozens or hundreds of pages long.

There are two main elements I’d recommend including in your executive summary: your company description and your products and services.

Company Description

This is the perfect space to highlight your company’s mission statement and goals, a brief overview of your history and leadership, and your top accomplishments as a business.

Tell potential investors who you are and why what you do matters. Naturally, they’re going to want to know who they’re getting into business with up front. This is a great opportunity to showcase your impact.

Need some extra help firming up your business goals? I’d recommend HubSpot Academy’s free course to help you set meaningful goals that matter most for your business.

Products and Services

Here, you will incorporate an overview of your offerings. This doesn’t have to be extensive, as it is just a chance to introduce your industry and overall purpose as a business. I recommend including snippets of information about your financial projections and competitive advantage here as well.

Keep in mind that you'll cover many of these topics in more detail later on in the business plan. The executive summary should be clear and brief, only including the most important takeaways.

Executive Summary Business Plan Examples

This example was created with HubSpot’s business plan template . What makes this executive summary good is that it tells potential investors a short story while still covering all of the most important details.

Our Mission

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels offers gluten-free bagels, along with various toppings, other gluten-free breakfast sandwich items, and coffee. The facility is entirely gluten free. Our team expects to catch the interest of gluten-free, celiac, or health-conscious community members who are seeking an enjoyable cafe to socialize. Due to a lack of gluten-free bagel products in the food industry currently, we expect mild competition and are confident we will be able to build a strong market position.

The Company and Management

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels was founded in 2010 by Maria Jones, who first began selling her gluten-free bagels online from her home, using social media to spread the word. In 2012 she bought a retail location in Hamilton, MA, which now employs four full-time employees and six part-time employees. Prior to her bagel shop, Maria was a chef in New York and has extensive experience in the food industry.

Along with Maria Jones, Gluten Free Bagel Shop has a board of advisors. The advisors are:

• Jeni King, partner at Winding Communications, Ltd.
• Henry Wilson, president of Blue Robin, LLP.

Our Product

We offer gluten-free products ranging from bagels and cream cheese to blueberry muffins, coffee, and pastries. Our customers are health-conscious, community-oriented people who enjoy gluten-free products. We will create a welcoming, warm environment with opportunities for open mic nights, poetry readings, and other community functions. We will focus on creating an environment in which someone feels comfortable meeting a friend for lunch, or working remotely.

Our Competitive Advantages

While there are other coffee shops and cafes in the North Shore region, there are none that offer purely gluten-free options. This restricts those suffering from gluten-free illnesses or simply those with a gluten-free preference. This will be our primary selling point. Additionally, our market research [see Section 3] has shown a demand for a community-oriented coffee and bagel shop in the town of Hamilton, MA.

Financial Considerations

Our sales projections for the first year are $400,000. We project a 15% growth rate over the next two years. By year three, we project 61% gross margins.

We will have four full-time employees. The salary for each employee will be $50,000.

Start-up Financing Requirements

We are seeking to raise $125,000 in startup to finance year one. The owner has invested $50,000 to meet working capital requirements, and will use a loan of $100,000 to supplement the rest.

Example 2 :

Marianne and Keith Bean have been involved with the food industry for several years. They opened their first restaurant in Antlers, Oklahoma in 1981, and their second in Hugo in 1988. Although praised for the quality of many of the items on their menu, they have attained a special notoriety for their desserts. After years of requests for their flavored whipped cream toppings, they have decided to pursue marketing these products separately from the restaurants.

Marianne and Keith Bean have developed several recipes for flavored whipped cream topping. They include chocolate, raspberry, cinnamon almond, and strawberry. These flavored dessert toppings have been used in the setting of their two restaurants over the past 18 years, and have been produced in large quantities. The estimated shelf life of the product is 21 days at refrigeration temperatures and up to six months when frozen. The Beans intend to market this product in its frozen state in 8 and 12-ounce plastic tubs. They also intend to have the products available in six ounce pressurized cans. Special attention has been given to developing an attractive label that will stress the gourmet/specialty nature of the products.

Distribution of Fancy's Foods Whipped Dream product will begin in the local southeastern Oklahoma area. The Beans have an established name and reputation in this area, and product introduction should encounter little resistance.

Financial analyses show that the company will have both a positive cash flow and profit in the first year. The expected return on equity in the first year is 10.88%

Tips for Writing Your Executive Summary

• Start with a strong introduction of your company that showcases your mission and impact, then outline the products and services you provide.
• Clearly define a problem, explain how your product solves that problem, and show why the market needs your business.
• Be sure to highlight your value proposition, market opportunity, and growth potential.
• Keep it concise and support ideas with data.
• Customize your summary to your audience. For example, you might emphasize finances and return on investment for venture capitalists, whereas you might emphasize community benefits and minimal environmental impact for progressive nonprofits.

For more guidance, check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary .

2. Market Opportunity

This is where you'll detail the opportunity in the market. Ask and answer: Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will my product fill that gap?

To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, you'll want to conduct a TAM, SAM, SOM analysis , a SWOT analysis , and perform market research on your industry to get some insights for this section. More specifically, here’s what I’d include.

• The size of the market
• Current or potential market share
• Trends in the industry and consumer behavior
• Where the gap is
• What caused the gap
• How you intend to fill it

Market Opportunity Business Plan Example

I like this example because it uses critical data to underline the size of the potential market and what part of that market this service hopes to capture.

Example: The market for Doggie Pause is all of the dog owners in the metropolitan area and surrounding areas of the city. We believe that this is going to be 2/3 of the population, and we have a goal of gaining a 50% market share. We have a target of a 20% yearly profit increase as the business continues.

Tips for Writing Your Market Opportunity Section

• Focus on demand and potential for growth.
• Use market research, surveys, and industry trend data to support your market forecast and projections.
• Add a review of regulation shifts, tech advances, and consumer behavior changes.
• Refer to reliable sources.
• Showcase how your business can make the most of this opportunity.

3. Competitive Landscape Analysis

Since we’re already speaking of market share, you‘ll also need to create a section that shares details on who the top competitors are. After all, your customers likely have more than one brand to choose from, and you’ll want to understand exactly why they might choose one over another.

My favorite part of performing a competitive analysis is that it can help you uncover the following:

• Industry trends that other brands may not be utilizing.
• Strengths in your competition that may be obstacles to handle.
• Weaknesses in your competition that may help you develop selling points.
• The unique proposition you bring to the market that may resonate with customers.

Competitive Landscape Business Plan Example

I like how the competitive landscape section of this business plan shows a clear outline of who the top competitors are. It also highlights specific industry knowledge and the importance of location. This demonstrates useful experience in the industry, helping to build trust in your ability to execute your business plan.

Competitive Environment

Currently, there are four primary competitors in the Greater Omaha Area: Pinot’s Palette Lakeside (franchise partner), Village Canvas and Cabernet, The Corky Canvas, and Twisted Vine Collective. The first three competitors are in Omaha and the fourth is located in Papillion.

Despite the competition, all locations have both public and private events. Each location has a few sold-out painting events each month. The Omaha locations are in new, popular retail locations, while the existing Papillion location is in a downtown business district.

There is an opportunity to take advantage of the environment and open a studio in a well-traveled or growing area. Pinot’s Palette La Vista will differentiate itself from its competitors by offering a premium experience in a high-growth, influential location.

Tips for Writing Your Competitive Landscape

• Complete in-depth research, then emphasize your most important findings.
• Compare your unique selling proposition (USP) to your direct and indirect competitors.
• Show a clear and realistic plan for product and brand differentiation.
• Look for specific advantages and barriers in the competitive landscape. Then, highlight how that information could impact your business.
• Outline growth opportunities from a competitive perspective.
• Add customer feedback and insights to support your competitive analysis.

4. Target Audience

Use this section to describe who your customer segments are in detail. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience? I’d recommend building a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and be clear about why you're targeting them. Here are some questions I’d ask myself:

• What demographics will most likely need/buy your product or service?
• What are the psychographics of this audience? (Desires, triggering events, etc.)
• Why are your offerings valuable to them?

Target Audience Business Plan Example

I like the example below because it uses in-depth research to draw conclusions about audience priorities. It also analyzes how to create the right content for this audience.

The Audience

Recognize that audiences are often already aware of important issues. Outreach materials should:

• Emphasize a pollution-prevention practice
• Tell audience a little about how to prevent pollution
• Tell audience where they can obtain information about prevention.

Message Content

• Focus the content for outreach materials on cost savings, such as when and where pollution prevention is as cheap as or cheaper than traditional techniques. Include facts and figures.
• Emphasize how easy it is to do the right thing and the impacts of not engaging in pollution prevention.
• Stress benefits such as efficiency or better relations with government, for businesses not primarily concerned with public image.

Tips for Writing Your Target Audience Section

• Include details on the size and growth potential of your target audience.
• Figure out and refine the pain points for your target audience , then show why your product is a useful solution.
• Describe your targeted customer acquisition strategy in detail.
• Share anticipated challenges your business may face in acquiring customers and how you plan to address them.
• Add case studies, testimonials, and other data to support your target audience ideas.
• Remember to consider niche audiences and segments of your target audience in your business plan.

5. Marketing Strategy

Here, you‘ll discuss how you’ll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. I think it’s helpful to have a marketing plan built out in advance to make this part of your business plan easier. I’d suggest including these details:

• Your brand positioning vision and how you'll cultivate it.
• The goal targets you aim to achieve.
• The metrics you'll use to measure success.
• The channels and distribution tactics you'll use.

Marketing Strategy Business Plan Example

This business plan example includes the marketing strategy for the town of Gawler. In my opinion, it works because it offers a comprehensive picture of how they plan to use digital marketing to promote the community.

You’ll also learn the financial benefits investors can reap from putting money into your venture rather than trying to sell them on how great your product or service is.

This business plan guide focuses less on the individual parts of a business plan, and more on the overarching goal of writing one. For that reason, it’s one of my favorites to supplement any template you choose to use. Harvard Business Review’s guide is instrumental for both new and seasoned business owners.

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

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A business plan is a document that outlines a company's goals and the strategies to achieve them. It's valuable for both startups and established companies. For startups, a well-crafted business plan is crucial for attracting potential lenders and investors. Established businesses use business plans to stay on track and aligned with their growth objectives. This article will explain the key components of an effective business plan and guidance on how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document detailing a company's business activities and strategies for achieving its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to launch their venture and to attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan helps keep the executive team focused on short- and long-term objectives.
• There's no single required format for a business plan, but certain key elements are essential for most companies.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place before beginning operations. Banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before considering making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a company doesn't need additional funding, having a business plan helps it stay focused on its goals. Research from the University of Oregon shows that businesses with a plan are significantly more likely to secure funding than those without one. Moreover, companies with a business plan grow 30% faster than those that don't plan. According to a Harvard Business Review article, entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than those who don't.

A business plan should ideally be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect achieved goals or changes in direction. An established business moving in a new direction might even create an entirely new plan.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. It allows for careful consideration of ideas before significant investment, highlights potential obstacles to success, and provides a tool for seeking objective feedback from trusted outsiders. A business plan may also help ensure that a company’s executive team remains aligned on strategic action items and priorities.

While business plans vary widely, even among competitors in the same industry, they often share basic elements detailed below.

A well-crafted business plan is essential for attracting investors and guiding a company's strategic growth. It should address market needs and investor requirements and provide clear financial projections.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, gathering the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document is best. Any additional crucial elements, such as patent applications, can be referenced in the main document and included as appendices.

Common elements in many business plans include:

• Executive summary : This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services : Describe the products and services the company offers or plans to introduce. Include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique consumer benefits. Mention production and manufacturing processes, relevant patents , proprietary technology , and research and development (R&D) information.
• Market analysis : Explain the current state of the industry and the competition. Detail where the company fits in, the types of customers it plans to target, and how it plans to capture market share from competitors.
• Marketing strategy : Outline the company's plans to attract and retain customers, including anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. Describe the distribution channels that will be used to deliver products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections : Established businesses should include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses should provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. This section may also include any funding requests.

Investors want to see a clear exit strategy, expected returns, and a timeline for cashing out. It's likely a good idea to provide five-year profitability forecasts and realistic financial estimates.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can vary in format, often categorized into traditional and lean startup plans. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These are detailed and lengthy, requiring more effort to create but offering comprehensive information that can be persuasive to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These are concise, sometimes just one page, and focus on key elements. While they save time, companies should be ready to provide additional details if requested by investors or lenders.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan isn't a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections. Markets and the economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All this calls for building flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How Often Should a Business Plan Be Updated?

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on its nature. Updating your business plan is crucial due to changes in external factors (market trends, competition, and regulations) and internal developments (like employee growth and new products). While a well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary, a new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is ideal for quickly explaining a business, especially for new companies that don't have much information yet. Key sections may include a value proposition , major activities and advantages, resources (staff, intellectual property, and capital), partnerships, customer segments, and revenue sources.

A well-crafted business plan is crucial for any company, whether it's a startup looking for investment or an established business wanting to stay on course. It outlines goals and strategies, boosting a company's chances of securing funding and achieving growth.

As your business and the market change, update your business plan regularly. This keeps it relevant and aligned with your current goals and conditions. Think of your business plan as a living document that evolves with your company, not something carved in stone.

University of Oregon Department of Economics. " Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Business Planning Using Palo Alto's Business Plan Pro ." Eason Ding & Tim Hursey.

Bplans. " Do You Need a Business Plan? Scientific Research Says Yes ."

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

Harvard Business Review. " How to Write a Winning Business Plan ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

SCORE. " When and Why Should You Review Your Business Plan? "

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How to Grow Your Small Business

12 min. read

Updated January 4, 2024

Getting your business off the ground is challenging. Continuing to grow your business is just as difficult. 

And while generating new business and growing your customer base is necessary to succeed, it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes effective planning , strategy , and the willingness to get creative.

If your sales have recently hit a plateau, check out these proven ideas on how to grow a business.

1. Understand why you’re not growing

To determine the best way to grow your business, you need to know why performance is stagnating or falling. Here are some common reasons:

• No clear vision for growth
• Inadequate or outdated market research
• Operational inefficiencies
• Financial mismanagement
• Poor customer relationships
• Ineffective marketing

Unfortunately, issues and growth opportunities aren’t always obvious. We recommend starting with a thorough financial review to avoid wasting time and effort in your analysis. 

Look at your current sales , expenses , and cash flow . Compare results to a previous time to understand how your business has changed. If you have forecasts, compare actual results to what you expected to determine where things may have gone wrong.

Maybe sales have declined, certain expenses have increased, or cash flow has been slower. Reviewing your finances should provide you with an idea of the actions you need to take. 

Dig deeper:

6 things that can kill business growth

It may be worth reviewing these common issues if you’re struggling to understand why your business isn’t growing.

7 common business management mistakes

If you try to be an expert in everything, you’ll struggle to manage your business. Learn what common management issues may be hindering your growth.

• 2. Know your customers

Knowing who your customers are and what they need is vital. You identified a target market when developing your business plan , but now you have an active customer base that you need to engage with.

Whether through a quarterly survey, user reviews, or direct customer service communications—you must ask for honest feedback. Take note of consistent grievances amongst your customer base and use those to launch new features, make internal adjustments, or any number of fixes. 

And while direct feedback from your customer base is invaluable, you must also pay attention to the market and your competitors. 

Conducting a market analysis regularly ensures that you’re aware of any competitive moves and how different economic events may affect your customers. Combined with the insightful feedback from your customers, it provides a full picture of potential avenues for growth.

Dig deeper: 8 ways to get more customers

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• 3. Focus on customer retention

Customer churn is part of doing business. That doesn’t mean you should ignore retention efforts—especially if you offer a recurring service . If too many existing customers decide to leave, it can negatively impact your bottom line and potential customers’ perception. 

After all, it is far less expensive to retain a customer than to acquire a new one.

You need to leverage the information-gathering methods mentioned in the last section to reinvigorate your relationships with current customers. Understand why they are leaving, what’s missing in your product/service, and what it will take to make them stay.

Tip: Focusing on quality customer service can be a direct avenue for growth. If your current customers are treated exceptionally, they’ll be more likely to leave positive reviews, recommend you to their friends, and purchase from your business again. 

How to turn first-time customers into repeat customers

Don’t wait to retain your customers. Learn what you can do to make your new customers come back.

10 tips to improve business efficiency

One indirect way to better retain customers is by improving your internal process. The more efficient and effective you work, the more you can focus on your customers.

• 4. Extend value from current customers

When looking for growth opportunities, it’s common to immediately try to attract new customers. But what about your current ones? You’ve built credibility with them, meaning they’re more likely to purchase from you again or even pay more for additional services and new products. 

Explore opportunities to extend the value of your customers. Add a new product line that compliments previous purchases. Test increasing service prices in exchange for additional features, hands-on direction, or other additions that your customers find valuable. 

Just because you’ve possibly hit the limit of growing your established target market doesn’t mean you can’t pull more value from it. And who knows, any changes you make to increase the value for current customers may be a springboard for bringing on new ones.

• 5. Expand your reach

Sometimes, to grow, you need to look beyond your current scope. That may require you to explore a new:

• Customer base
• Geographic territory
• Business model

If expansion appears to be your best option, you need to treat it like starting a new business. You must research, test the idea, understand legal requirements, etc. 

The point is, don’t just jump into launching a new location, targeting a different customer, or adapting your business model. Do your research, test as much as possible, and expand slowly. That way, you can avoid this perceived growth opportunity becoming an incredibly costly failure. 

5 signs it’s time to scale up your business

It may be a good time to expand your business if you’re turning down business opportunities, surpassing your goals, and have strong cash flow and minimal risk.

How to plan a business expansion

Learn how to use your previous experience and business plan to create a detailed expansion plan.

4 tactics to successfully expand your business

If you’re unsure what expansion efforts make the most sense for your business—check out these tried and true tactics.

How to expand beyond your core industry

You may know your industry and customer base inside and out. But how do you apply that knowledge to a new market you know nothing about?

• 6. Grow your team

Growing your customer base and sales typically means growing your team. And just as you need to focus on providing exceptional customer service, you need to focus on the quality of the people who join your team . 

Focus on finding diverse voices that fulfill the role’s duties and provide unique perspectives that challenge your own. Having a staff full of “yes men” is harmful and can lead to poor internal culture and self-serving decisions. Having a vast range of employees who differ in experience, background, beliefs, and specialties brings new perspectives that would be nonexistent without them.

As you look to hire new employees, you’ll also want to focus on your current staff’s professional development. Show them that you value them and their contribution to your business. Give them more opportunities to lead and collaborate, involve them in the goal-setting process, and even foot the bill for them to attend seminars and trainings. 

How you treat your employees will be reflected in how you treat your customers. Start by optimizing internally, and your business will grow from there.

• 7. Eliminate risks

Starting and running a business is inherently risky. That doesn’t mean you can’t minimize and even eliminate risks. Doing so will help you better understand your business and remove blockers to business growth.

Now, eliminating risks isn’t as simple as creating a list and checking them off. It has more to do with active management. Here are a few things you should do:

• Regularly review and update your forecasts.
• Create worst-case forecast scenarios .
• Focus on strengthening your cash flow .
• Avoid taking on unnecessary debt.

None of these actions will remove risk. They will make your business look less risky to potential investors and make you more prepared to handle a crisis . Both of which remove potential barriers to growth.

• 8. Showcase your expertise

You must showcase your expertise to continue building authority amongst your customers and other businesses. This means providing resources, hosting webinars, conducting research studies, and even running Q&A’s through your social channels. Find opportunities to share what you know and present it as a free opportunity to learn and grow.

Just be sure to gather contact information or provide a link to a specific promotional page when you host an event or give access to a download. You’re showcasing expertise and using it to grow an audience that will hopefully one day turn into customers. Follow up and provide valuable insight, and you can turn it into consistent growth.

• 9. Support your community

Giving back to your community and being socially responsible is a great way to grow your brand and showcase your business values. Sponsor or donate to nonprofits, provide free products or services for initiatives you care about, or host community events. You could even partner with businesses that have similar nonprofit interests to promote greater change.

Aside from donating and sponsoring, you can also look internally and promote socially responsible business practices. Maybe this means moving production to renewable energy, giving employees paid time to volunteer, or only purchasing supplies from local vendors. Do the right thing and grow your brand reputation around sustainability and responsibility in support of your community.

• 10. Network

Part of growing your business is making the right partnerships and knowing your business community. Take the time to network and build relationships that can help you grow your business. It’s a great way to share industry insights, emerging trends, and best practices you wouldn’t have found otherwise.

A strong network can lead to new customers, employees , investors , and partnerships. And if you’re seeking a potential partner, you have a pre-vetted selection to reach out to. Remember, whoever you partner with should have a shared vision, complementary skill set, or some other strategic benefit you don’t currently have access to. 

How to get a partnership deal for your business

Learn from real-world experts how to successfully approach and establish a partnership with other small business owners.

5 ways to partner with other businesses

Do you know how you want to partner with another business? If you’re unsure, check out these options.

• 11. Develop additional income streams

Developing additional income streams may be necessary if you’re struggling to grow revenue from your core business model. This could include a new product or service offering, separate pricing models for different customers or subscriptions, or even passive income from ads and sponsorships.

Treat any new income stream as an expansion of your business. You’ll likely want to develop a one-page business plan to ensure the new initiative is viable and your current business can support it. Consider startup and operational costs , your goals with the expansion, and how long it will take to break even.

Lastly, be sure that your new initiative makes sense for your business. It may start as additional income to support operations but may need to transition into a separate business. 

• 12. Measure and iterate

However, if you try to grow your business, ensure you actively measure and track success. It can be really easy to simply make a change and let it run without any goals or key results in mind that determine success. Without them, a growth initiative can easily become a costly idea that sinks your business.

Set your organizational goals upfront , and don’t be afraid to kill or pivot projects if you’re not seeing positive results. You can always set up new iterations and run again, refining your approach to identify the most successful path to success. 

And even when you have hit a home run, continue to measure and iterate. A series of webinars or new product lines may lead to growth for a time, but that could easily change if you’re not paying attention.

• 13. Leverage social media

Diving into social media can be daunting. But here’s the thing, you don’t have to have experience with it to leverage social platforms. It can be as simple as opening a business profile and beginning to grow a community of customers.

You don’t need to post every day or create incredible-looking images and videos but establish a consistent schedule your followers and customers can expect. From there, it’s up to you to actively engage with your followers, read comments, answer messages, and build your social brand.

Overall, it’s a great way to identify customer trends and insights. You can even use the insights you gain and try running social ads. It’s easier than you think and is an inexpensive way to test promotions, gauge the interest of a new customer base, or even run a full-fledged digital campaign. 

• 14. Invest in yourself

Your growth as an entrepreneur directly influences your business. While running a business is often the best way to learn, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore improving specific skills.

Key areas worth focusing on may include:

• Leadership and management
• Financial literacy
• Digital marketing
• Strategic thinking and planning
• Time management

Remember, as you grow, so can your business. You’ll be better equipped to run your business by continuously enhancing your skills. Your education can even impact your employees, making them more confident in your leadership and inspired to grow their own skills.

Dig deeper: 10 opportunities for business owners to grow

• 15. Consider a relaunch

A relaunch might seem drastic, but there are valid reasons to consider this route:

• Rebranding: Your current brand image or reputation may have been compromised or no longer align with your vision. In this case, a clean slate approach may help you redefine brand perception.
• Change in business model: Are you significantly altering your operations or value delivery? If so, launching a new venture rather than transforming your current business may make sense.
• Financial challenges: If your business is burdened with debt or financial obligations—closing and relaunching may provide a more feasible path to profitability.
• Market evolution: If your business no longer aligns with current market demand, a relaunch can be an opportunity to pivot and cater to the evolving needs of consumers.

Closing and relaunching is not an admission of failure. When done correctly, it’s a strategic move that helps you adapt and reposition your business for growth.

Dig deeper: 5 ways to relaunch your business

• Continue to look for growth opportunities

Your business will consistently transition between growth and stagnation. The key is to keep searching for new growth opportunities, not be afraid to get creative, and have measurable results in mind to avoid turning potential growth into a severe misstep.

If you’re unsure whether to pursue a growth opportunity, revisit and update your business plan and forecasts . It can help you determine if your initiative is viable and that your business can manage potential costs or negative cash flow in the short term. 

You can do this manually or try out a planning tool like LivePlan to make updating and tracking results accurate and easy.

Kody Wirth is a content writer and SEO specialist for Palo Alto Software—the creator's of Bplans and LivePlan. He has 3+ years experience covering small business topics and runs a part-time content writing service in his spare time.

Table of Contents

• 1. Understand why you’re not growing

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Blog Marketing Growth Strategy Checklist: Plan Your Business Goals With These 5 Templates

Growth Strategy Checklist: Plan Your Business Goals With These 5 Templates

Written by: Nadya Khoja Jun 16, 2019

I often find that at the end of the year my sense of perspective is heightened and I generally feel a lot more motivated and excited about the future.

Do you feel the same way?

Part of this feeling comes from knowing that a new year is just around the corner, which means a fresh start at tackling any personal or business-related challenges. As a result, it’s the perfect opportunity to start planning your growth goals for the coming year.

But one of the challenges that come with planning our growth strategy is setting realistic and ambitious expectations of what is achievable.

As it turns out, there is a very effective strategy for setting and hitting your growth goals, and by following this strategy you can accurately predict what is possible to accomplish.

I’d like to walk you through the process of not only identifying what those goals are but also how you can break down the actions required to hit them. I’ll also provide you with some useful growth strategy templates that myself and the team at Venngage use to help make the journey a lot easier.

You can also take a look at some other process infographic templates that could help you map out different growth strategies in more detail. Or create a business plan using our online drag and drop tool–no design experience required.

The process for identifying and hitting your business goals can be broken down into five steps:

Step 1: Identifying and setting your high-level goals.

Step 2: Understanding which inputs and outputs impact those goals.

Step 3: Running experiments to impact those inputs.

Step 4: Validating those experiments.

Step 5: Fostering accountability within your team.

By the end of this five-step process, not only should you have a very clear idea of what goals to target for the year, but you will know exactly what is required of you and your team to get there.

Visually documenting the path to hitting your business goals will not only help you have a better understanding of the specific factors that will influence growth, it will also provide the rest of your team with a concise and easy-to-follow growth strategy roadmap as well.

(Oh, and did I mention that we’ve got plenty of roadmap templates to help you visualize your growth strategy?)

Writing out the steps is useful, but showing those steps can help everyone envision the path in question.

Step 1: Start by identifying your high-level business goals

As human beings, we have a tendency to start all journeys at the beginning. And this makes sense of course. After all, if the stories we read started at the end, wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of going through the journey?

Imagine if you were to start reading the Harry Potter series, and J.K. Rowling started the story by saying:

“Hey guys, just so you know, Harry wins and Voldemort is defeated in the end.”

Or if the Star Wars series started with Luke finding out that Darth Vader was his father? Wouldn’t it kind of kill the mood and the anticipation that comes with reading or hearing a story?

Well, the journey to product growth and business growth functions a little bit differently. In fact, it’s almost more helpful to start at the end and work backward, especially when your planning growth .

It makes sense too, right?

If you could know for sure how much revenue your company would make in the long-run before you even started your venture, would that not be helpful in figuring out the best growth strategy to get there?

Starting at the end of your growth strategy:

It’s always helpful to start out with a very high-level and ambitious goal. Many successful and fast-growing companies do this, and all of them have different terms to refer to these high-level goals.

Shopify calls this the BHAG, which stands for big, hairy, audacious goals . This business goal is usually meant to seem a little bit crazy.

Brian Balfour takes a more practical approach and refers to setting high-level goals as using the Top-Down Approach to inform your growth models.

And of course, at Venngage we simply call these our “high-level” or “long-term” goals. But the point is, you need to start out by mapping out a long-term goal, like your 10-year goal.

Where do you see yourself and your company by that time? How much should you grow your business ? How much revenue do you expect your company to generate? How many employees do you see yourself having?

Take a look at the example in this growth strategy template:

These are the High-Level Growth Goals for a hypothetical company called StartUp Masters . Their mission (“ To provide startups with an affordable means of managing projects in order to achieve rapid growth ”) is clearly stated, and their goals are broken down in order to depict where they envision themselves to be In 10 years, 5 years, 3 years and finally 1 year.

At 10 years old, the company expects to be making 100 million in revenue and they expect to achieve this with 120 employees. They’ve also indicated the number of daily active users required to get there.

On top of that, they’ve listed out some steps required in order to achieve those goals. As you glance further down the funnel, you can see that this is, in fact, a pretty audacious business goal considering where the company is probably starting out from.

By working backward, it becomes easier to make somewhat realistic goals of where the company would need to be in 5 years, 3 years and 1 year in order to hit that 10-year goal.

Start breaking down your own high-level goals with the Growth Goals template.

CREATE THIS ROADMAP TEMPLATE

OK great, so you’ve got your high-level goals set out, now you can wipe your hands clean and be done with your growth strategy, right?

This is only one small part of the process. The next step is to figure out how you can hit your 1-year goal, and that means understanding which metrics are most important to improve in order to make a big impact on growth.

Step 2: Know which inputs and outputs impact your goals

Andy Grove’s book High Output Management is one of the most useful resources on building a high-functioning and, of course, high output company.

In this book, he uses the analogy of a breakfast factory to help explain the importance of all the little actions (or inputs) that have an impact on the successful operation and growth of the factory (its output).

What this means is that for every goal you set, there are key metrics and results which will help you identify whether or not you will, in fact, achieve that goal . And of course, there are specific growth strategies that you can follow to help you move the needle on those key metrics.

Identifying your North Star Metric

One of the first metrics you should identify is your North Star Metric . This metric is often described as the one number that best represents the core value that your product delivers to your customers.

For instance, if we take Airbnb as an example, their North Star Metric is the number of nights booked. Why?

Because it’s a clear indication of their product’s value .

If more nights are being booked, and that number is consistently increasing, it means that more customers are having a positive experience with Airbnb and are therefore returning to the platform to book their accommodation.

At Venngage, our North Star Metric is the number of infographics completed. Because if people are completing more and more infographics that they are proud of , it’s a clear indication that they are finding value from the tool.

This number should also have a direct correlation with your company’s revenue goals and retention goals. The more value people are finding from your product, the more likely they are to stay and continue paying for your product.

The next step is identifying what your current baseline is for your North Star Metric. Let’s take a look at the growth strategy template below for our hypothetical company, StartUp Masters .

In the previous template that broke down their high-level goals, they indicated that one of the steps to achieving their 1st-year goal was to increase the retention rate to 30% at 12 months.

If you take a look at the end of the above template, you can see that the baseline of completed projects is indicated under the Retention OKR.

As you can see, they have identified that users have completed 90,000 projects successfully, and they currently have 45,000 Daily Active Users.

Now, in order to hit their revenue and acquisition goals, the company needs to get to 70,000 Daily Active Users. But in order to hit their retention goal of 30%, each of those users needs to complete at least 3 projects successfully which they have calculated as a leading indicator of better retention .

When creating your growth strategy, you need to figure out the overall baselines for your North Star Metric, and how that number will need to change in order to impact your various OKRs .

Setting your OKRs and Inputs

If you weren’t aware of what an OKR is, it stands for Objective Key Results. They refer to specific metrics that you can track which will, in turn, influence your high-level goals.

In most software startups, many founders follow the AARRR framework for setting and tracking OKRs . This stands for Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, and Referral.

Each of these metrics is important for understanding the behaviors of your customers and of course, the growth potential of your business.

Sometimes, however, it can be overwhelming to influence every single one of these metrics, so in this particular growth strategy template, which helps to break down goals, StartUp Masters is focusing on influencing Acquisition, Conversions (Revenue) and Retention OKRs.

Take a look at the Acquisition OKRs they identified while growth planning:

The main metrics that influence acquisition for StartUp Masters is their Organic Traffic goals and their Paid Traffic goals.

They will need to scale their organic traffic by 130,000 unique visits a month, and their paid traffic by 70,000 unique visits a month.

However, if you look at the inputs that impact those specific OKRs, there are multiple pages that drive organic traffic, so they’ve outlined the required traffic to these various sections of their site.

For the sake of simplicity, the OKRs mentioned here only talk about the traffic goals and not on the burn rate of your marketing budget. However, in actual practice, you may also be concerned about your customer acquisition costs .

Typically, paid acquisition channels like Facebook Ads and Adwords have a higher CAC than organic channels like SEO or content marketing. A long term growth plan might hence also include targets to bring your average acquisition costs down.

By continuing to break down their goals into smaller and more specific inputs, it becomes easier to envision the path towards achieving those high-level goals within the growth plan.

When you are setting your own OKRs , you also need to know which metrics you can manipulate at a smaller scale that will have greater leverage . And as you continue to figure out which inputs will impact your OKRs, you can start thinking of experiments that will, in turn, influence your inputs.

Help your team to clearly understand which inputs impact your main OKRs.

CREATE THIS REPORT TEMPLATE

Step 3: Brainstorm experiments to run that directly affect your identified inputs

Coming up with valuable experiments to run is not always as easy as it may seem. In fact, one issue that many startups face when it comes to implementing new product features, or marketing strategies , is waterfalling .

What’s waterfalling , you ask?

Simply stated, waterfalling is what happens when a team continues to add requirements to a project, to the point where the task becomes so large that the time required to implement it keeps increasing. Eventually, what was supposed to be implemented within a two-week sprint, ends up taking months to push out. 

In an effort to avoid falling victim to the waterfall taking over your growth strategy , it’s better to operate on a one or two-week sprint cadence.

This can be achieved by, you guessed it–breaking down these big projects into more bite-sized experiments, or MVTs.

An MVT is a Minimum Viable Test, and its purpose is primarily to derive insights and validate whether or not it’s even worth pursuing the larger-scale project . By running more MVTs, you gain more learnings which can help inform which steps to take next.

Start by deciding which OKR you are trying to impact. As you can see in the growth strategy template below, the OKR that StartUp Masters is trying to impact is their retention metric. The goal is to push more users to complete one additional project in the span of three weeks.

Then, the suggested experiment is to create a pop-up modal within the project dashboard which will push users to begin a new project upon hitting the 80% completion mark.

They’ve even hypothesized the results that this new implementation will reap. If you take a look at the next step, they’ve outlined the effort required by each team. This is usually a pretty clear indicator of whether or not your experiment is veering in the direction of a waterfall.

Your goal when planning out MVTs is to run experiments which require low effort, but have a high output . These are considered to be “slam-dunks” because you can get big results in less time and with less work required.

Naturally, not every experiment will be a “slam-dunk” but as a general rule of thumb, you want to avoid anything that could be considered high effort and low output, which risk becoming “turtles”.

So here’s where the MVT breakdown board comes in handy when planning your growth strategy. Just walk through this process to get an idea of whether or not your suggested experiment can and should be broken down even more.

Using the example above, let’s run through the flowchart.

• Can this experiment be implemented in the span of 1 week?

Well, considering that the Marketing and Engineering effort required is medium, and the Design effort is high, chances are that it will take at least a few weeks to run the test, so the answer is no .

• Has this implementation already been validated and proven to have a direct and positive impact on the OKR via a previous experiment?

Since this is a first test that StartUp Masters is running in order to try and get more people to create a new project, chances are it hasn’t been proven in anyway just yet. So the answer is also no.

• Can this implementation be broken down and tested without the assistance of engineering?

In this case, the answer is yes because there are other means for StartUp Masters to get the insights they require in order to validate their idea. At this point, they would need to list out possible ways to run the test without the support of engineering.

This might mean something as simple as setting up an automated email to a segment of users that is triggered at the 80% completion mark, asking them to start on the next project.

• Will this smaller test still provide useful insights without requiring substantial effort from multiple teams?

Sending an email is a relatively low effort task on the Marketing side which requires little to no support from Design or Engineering, and which will still provide enough information to validate whether the full feature should be implemented. So the answer is a resounding yes .

As a result, by running their suggested experiment through the MVT Breakdown Board, StartUp Masters is able to avoid a waterfall project and gain useful learnings in a shorter period of time.

Are your experiments at risk of becoming waterfalls? Use this chart to help break your projects down into smaller MVTs.

Step 4: validate your experiments with a checklist.

Sometimes, breaking down an experiment to an MVT is still not enough to validate whether that test is worth including in your growth strategies.

You need to know if it will have a positive impact on your users and their needs as well. Afterall, your job is still to provide a great and valuable experience for your customers.

This is where the Experiment Validation Checklist comes in handy.

As you can see, StartUp Masters follows the “Jobs to Be Done” framework , which focuses on the goals a potential user has, rather than solely focusing on who they are as a person (which is more dependent on marketing to personas).

Here we can see the various “Jobs to Be Done” listed out. Moreover, they are also considering personas as an important factor in how they plan out their experiments.

Of course, they include the probability of success as a factor, the effort required per team and the OKR that is impacted from the experiment.

By getting everyone on your team to use this growth strategy checklist when deciding which experiments to go after, it becomes easier at a first glance to know if all the areas of importance are being considered.

Need help validating your experiments to identify their value?

Step 5: foster accountability in your team.

Lastly, it’s important that everyone on your team understands the work that they are doing, and the value they bring to the company with the growth projects they are running.

By getting specific individuals on your team to share the tests they released, as well as what they learned in a given week, you are encouraging them to consistently produce results .

In your weekly meetings , show the rest of the company what was launched, and what results were achieved. Get each person to speak to their own growth experiments so that they can feel accountable for the work they do .

If there are underperformers that have a tendency to work at a slower pace or reap less valuable insights, this growth strategy template will push them to increase their output.

At any rate, the rest of the company will see who the A-players are , and who is falling short, which is often a wake-up call for the latter.

Start tracking which experiments your team members are working on, and monitoring what results they are getting.

There is no silver bullet or quick “hack” that will lead to explosive growth.

In fact, growth is a long process and requires a strong focus and understanding of the data and metrics that influence the various moving parts of an organization. That is why you need a well thought out growth strategy to really succeed.

You can then start the new year right by setting ambitious business goals, and breaking them down into easily digestible inputs.

By continuing to test out various experiments, and analyzing the results of those experiments–in time you will find that achieving the goals your set for yourself and for your company seem a lot more within reach.

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Prepare a business plan for growth

Planning is key to any business throughout its existence. Every successful business regularly reviews its business plan to ensure it continues to meet its needs. It's sensible to review current performance on a regular basis and identify the most likely strategies for growth.

Once you've reviewed your progress and identified the key growth areas that you want to target, it's time to revisit your business plan and make it a road map to the next stages for your business.

This guide will show how you can turn your business plan from a static document into a dynamic template that will help your business both survive and thrive.

The importance of ongoing business planning

What your business plan should include, drawing up a more sophisticated business plan, plan and allocate resources effectively, use targets to implement your business plan, when and how to review your business plan.

Most potential investors will want to see a business plan before they consider funding your business. Although many businesses are tempted to use their business plans solely for this purpose, a good plan should set the course of a business over its lifespan.

A business plan plays a key role in allocating resources throughout a business. It is a tool that can help you attract new funds or that you can use as a strategy document. A good business plan reveals how you would use the bank loan or investment you are asking for.

Ongoing business planning means that you can monitor whether you are achieving your business objectives . A business plan can be used as a tool to identify where you are now and in which direction you wish your business to grow. A business plan will also ensure that you meet certain key targets and manage business priorities.

You can maximise your chances of success by adopting a continuous and regular business planning cycle that keeps the plan up-to-date. This should include regular business planning meetings which involve key people from the business.

To find out more, see our guides on how to review your business performance and how to assess your options for growth .

If you regularly assess your performance against the plans and targets you have set, you are more likely to meet your objectives. It can also signpost where and why you're going astray. Many businesses choose to assess progress every three or six months.

The assessment will also help you in discussions with banks, investors and even potential buyers of your business. Regular review is a good vehicle for showing direction and commitment to employees, customers and suppliers.

Defining your business' purpose in your business plan keeps you focused, inspires your employees and attracts customers.

Your business plan should include a summary of what your business does, how it has developed and where you want it to go. In particular, it should cover your strategy for improving your existing sales and processes to achieve the growth you desire.

You also need to make it clear what timeframe the business plan covers - this will typically be for the next 12 to 24 months.

The plan needs to include:

• The marketing aims and objectives , for example how many new customers you want to gain and the anticipated size of your customer base at the end of the period. To find out about marketing strategy, see our guide on how to create your marketing strategy .
• Operational information such as where your business is based, who your suppliers are and the premises and equipment needed.
• Financial information , including profit and loss forecasts, cash flow forecasts, sales forecasts and audited accounts.
• A summary of the business objectives, including targets and dates.
• If yours is an owner-managed business, you may wish to include an exit plan . This includes planning the timing of your departure and the circumstances, e.g. family succession, sale of the business, floating your business or closing it down.

If you intend to present your business plan to an external audience such as investors or banks, you will also need to include:

• your aims and objectives for each area of the business
• details of the history of the business, including financial records from the last three years - if this isn't possible, provide details about trading to date
• the skills and qualifications of the management involved in your business
• information about the product or service, its distinctiveness and where it fits into the marketplace

If your business has grown to encompass a series of departments or divisions, each with its own targets and objectives, you may need to draw up a more sophisticated business plan.

The individual business plans of the departments and separate business units will need to be integrated into a single strategy document for the entire organisation.

This can be a complex exercise but it's vital if each business unit is to tread a consistent path and not conflict with the overall strategy.

This is not just an issue for large enterprises - many small firms consist of separate business units pursuing different strategies.

To draw up a business plan that marries all the separate units of an organisation requires a degree of co-ordination. It may seem obvious, but make sure all departments are using the same planning template.

Objectives for individual departments

It's important for each department to feel that they are a stakeholder in the plan. Typically, each department head will draft the unit's business plan and then agree on its final form in conjunction with other departments.

Each unit's budgets and priorities must be set so that they fit in with those of the entire organisation. Generally, individual unit plans are required to be more specific and precisely defined than the overall business plan. It's important that the objectives set for business units are realistic and deliverable. However complex it turns out to be, the individual business unit plan needs to be easily understood by the people whose job it is to make it work. They also need to be clear on how their plan fits in with that of the wider organisation.

The business plan plays a key role in allocating resources throughout a business so that the objectives set in the plan can be met.

Once you've reviewed your progress to date and identified your strategy for growth, your existing business plan may look dated and may no longer reflect your business' position and future direction.

When you are reviewing your business plan to cover the next stages, it's important to be clear on how you will allocate your resources to make your strategy work.

For example, if a particular business unit or department has been given a target, the business plan should allocate sufficient resources to achieve it. These resources may already be available within the business or may be generated by future activity.

In practice this could mean recruiting more office staff, spending more on marketing or buying more supplies or equipment. You may want to provide funds through current cash flow, generating more profit or seeking external funding. In general, it is always better to fund future growth through revenue generation.

However, you should do some precise budgeting to decide on the right level of resourcing for a particular unit or department. It's important that resources are prioritised, so that areas of a business which are key to delivering the overall aims and objectives are adequately funded. If funding isn't available this may involve making cutbacks in other areas.

A successful business plan should incorporate a set of targets and objectives.

While the overall plan may set strategic goals, these are unlikely to be achieved unless you use SMART objectives or targets, i.e. S pecific, M easurable, A chievable, R ealistic and T imely.

Targets help everyone within a business understand what they need to achieve and when they need to achieve it.

You can monitor the performance of employees, teams or a new product or service by using appropriate performance indicators . These can be:

• sales or profit figures over a given period
• milestones in new product development
• productivity benchmarks for individual team members
• market-share statistics

Targets make it clearer for individual employees to see where they fit within an organisation and what they need to do to help the business meet its objectives. Setting clear objectives and targets and closely monitoring their delivery can make the development of your business more effective. Targets and objectives should also form a key part of employee appraisals, as a means of objectively addressing individuals' progress.

Once you've drawn up your new business plan and put it into practice, it needs to be continually monitored to make sure the objectives are being achieved. This review process should follow an assessment of your progress to date and an analysis of the most promising ways to develop your business. To find out more about these stages see our guides on how to review your business performance and how to assess your options for growth .

This process is called the business plan cycle . In some businesses, the cycle may be a continuous process with the plan being regularly updated and monitored. For most businesses, an annual plan - broken down into four quarterly operating plans - is sufficient. However, if a business is heavily sales driven, it can make more sense to have a monthly operating plan, supplemented where necessary with weekly targets and reviews.

It's important to keep in mind that major events in your business' target marketplace (e.g. competitor consolidation, acquisition of a major customer) or in the broader environment (e.g. new legislation) should trigger a review of your strategic objectives.

Regardless of whether or not there are fixed time intervals in your business plan, it must be part of a rolling process, with regular assessment of performance against the plan and agreement of a revised forecast if necessary.

Original document, Prepare a business plan for growth , © Crown copyright 2009 Source: Business Link UK (now GOV.UK/Business ) Adapted for Québec by Info entrepreneurs

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10 Business Growth Strategies + Successful Examples

Casey O'Connor

What Is a Business Growth Strategy?

How to develop a business growth strategy, 10 business growth strategies explained, examples of successful growth strategies, tips for business growth in 2023.

All businesses, regardless of size or industry, hope to achieve growth in their lifetime. 

The specific intended outcomes of business growth goals will vary depending on the size of your company, its strengths and needs, and its position in the market. 

Unfortunately, although all businesses aim to grow, only 25% of them make it to 15 years of operation. Effective methods and strategies must be executed correctly in order to expand; this is where business growth strategies come into play.

A business growth strategy is a framework of the actions a business will take to meet their growth goals, and can help your organization achieve them for scalable success. 

In this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know about business growth strategies, including what they are, how to develop one, and ten of the most effective ones available for businesses today. 

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• How to Develop a Business Growth Strategy 

A business growth strategy is an outline of the methods, tactics, and specific actions an organization will use to meet business goals. 

Business growth strategies can help businesses achieve a variety of different goals. 

Some business growth strategies are focused on revenue, while others prioritize the size of the customer base. 

Some business growth strategies are all about increasing an organization’s physical presence (opening a new store location, for example), while others are about developing new products or marketing to new audiences. 

A business growth strategy is basically an action plan, based on relevant market research, that explains exactly how your business will grow. It’s designed to help businesses capture more market share.

The specifics of your business growth strategy will depend on the unique needs of your business.

That being said, the process of developing the framework for new business growth strategies is more or less the same each time. 

1. Perform Market Research

Solid business growth strategies are always based on recent and relevant market data. 

Thorough market research will give you insight into current and potential customer preferences, industry trends, and your company’s position in the market relative to its competitors. 

It’s extremely important to get the lay of the land, so to speak, before you design your business growth strategy. Effective business growth goals need to be created using context from the overall market.

2. Establish Goals

You can’t have a business growth strategy without concrete goals. 

In the beginning, try to plan short-term goals. Your business growth strategies should be focused on month-long or quarter-long periods as you get started. This will enable your team to go through the goal-setting and strategy-planning process quickly and frequently.

3. Identify Your Growth Strategy

There are a number of different specific growth strategies for your team to consider that may meet your growth needs. The growth strategy you choose will ultimately depend on your organization’s budget, opportunities, competition , and goals. 

We’ll go over some of the most effective business growth strategies in the next section of this article. 

4. Map Out Your Execution Plan

Once the high-level planning is complete, it’s time to outline the exact actions your team will take to meet your growth goals. 

5. Create a Forecast

6. Monitor, Measure, and Optimize

Once you start executing your business growth strategy, you need to monitor its progress in real-time. 

Make sure you’re measuring your activities and their results at regular intervals, and follow a standardized process for tracking and analyzing data.

Tip: Ensure you have the right tools in place to ensure growth with our free blueprint below.

Following are 10 of the most effective and common business growth strategies. 

1. Market Penetration

A market penetration strategy is designed to help your organization increase its market share. The goal is to sell more of an existing product in an existing market.

One way to achieve a market penetration strategy is by lowering prices or offering promotions and discounts. 

Market penetration is a particularly effective strategy for SMB businesses because it is low-risk. 

Other effective tactics in a market penetration strategy include:

• Discounts for bulk/volume purchases
• Increase the number of distributors/dealers you work with 
• Offer free trials
• Direct marketing 

The bottom line is to sell more of your product in your existing market. In a market penetration strategy, the company is aiming to reach the maximum number of customers in the market until it becomes saturated.

2. Market Development

A market development strategy is all about selling existing products to new markets. This business growth strategy is aimed at growing the customer base. It works well for companies who are still working to find their position in a strong existing market. 

Market development relies on astute and thorough market research. Succeeding with this strategy is about more than just beating out your direct competitors. You may need to explore new geography, new customer segments, or new channels. Franchising is also a good option for certain industries.

Market development can be very lucrative; most companies achieve the most profitable growth when they’re able to move into an adjacent target market.

3. Product Expansion 

A product expansion business growth strategy relies on the creation of new products and services. These new offerings help your organization increase their market share. 

Many teams get creative with a product expansion strategy. It doesn’t always mean that you need to create brand-new products. You could also add updates to existing products, or add new varieties. You could also create bundles of existing products. 

Market research and marketing strategy analysis will help you determine the market needs and how you can most effectively tweak your offerings to meet those needs. 

4. Acquisition

Most people are very familiar with acquisitions. An acquisition is a business occurrence in which one company purchases another company. 

Acquisitions are sometimes lumped together with mergers, but the two are actually slightly different concepts. In an acquisition, one company takes over another one. In a merger, two companies join together. 

Acquisitions can be extremely profitable, but they require a lot of capital upfront, healthy cash flow, and significant debt capacity. For those reasons, acquisitions are usually completed by mature companies. 

If your organization can manage the expenses, though, they’re a great business growth strategy. Acquisitions reduce competition, give you access to proprietary technology, and expand your customer base.

5. Alternative Channels

One cost-effective business growth strategy is marketing on alternative channels. 

This strategy allows you to potentially reach new markets without creating any product changes. Exploring alternative channels is a very popular business growth strategy for small businesses who are just getting off the ground.

Consider the following alternative channels as you grow your business: 

• Website presence
• Yelp business page
• New platforms for sales, like Amazon, eBay, or Etsy
• Paid search ads
• Wholesalers
• Email marketing
• Social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram)
• Business blog 

Omnichannel marketing is growing in popularity and is a very effective way to meet sales goals in the 21st century.

6. Strategic Partnerships

In a strategic partnership, two companies join forces for mutual benefit, while each still maintaining their own brand identity and operations. 

Partnerships allow each company to access the other’s customer base. It also allows for the shared use of critical resources like manpower, equipment, and technology. 

Because there’s less at stake, partnerships are more common than mergers or acquisitions.

7. Market Segmentation

With a market segmentation growth strategy, sales and marketing teams work to carefully segment their markets based on factors such as geography, demographics, or buying preferences. 

This highly-targeted segmentation allows sales teams to focus on and specialize in segments that are less explored than others already served by the competition. 

8. Organic Growth

The most ideal business growth strategy is known as organic growth. 

Organic growth requires little to no advertising, mergers, or acquisitions, and instead represents an optimized set of conditions that allow your marketing campaigns and products to reach many parts of your target audience without much effort on your part. 

9. Diversification

This type of business growth strategy can be risky, but also has a high return when executed correctly. 

Diversification means that sales teams sell either new products, or sell to new markets — or, in some cases, both. 

• Horizontal diversification: sales reps sell a new product to the current market.
• Vertical diversification: a business starts competing with its suppliers or customers. 
• Concentric diversification: a company creates a new product that’s similar to an existing product.
• Conglomerate diversification:  sales reps sell new products to new audiences.

Diversification requires a lot of capital and has the highest risk of failure out of all of the business growth strategies outlined in this article.

10. Cost Reduction

A cost reduction business growth strategy relies on organizations to reduce their operating costs. This frees up cash for reinvestment into growth opportunities and improves your overall bottom line.

Here are some strategies for implementing a cost reduction strategy: 

• Use accounting software to reduce or eliminate errors
• Go paperless
• Consider automation and/or outsourcing where possible
• Reduce traditional advertising methods and go digital instead

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to business growth strategies. You may find that several could fit the needs of your team, or that your needs change over time. It’s perfectly okay to use a variety of strategies over time — or even simultaneously.

Every brand with even an inkling of name recognition has successfully used a business growth strategy. Here’s a look at how some of the world’s most well-known companies have used popular business growth strategies to succeed.

Market Penetration: Facebook

When Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, he shared the platform with only his fellow Harvard students. He later opened it up to Stanford, Yale, and Columbia. Later, again, he went on to share it among all the Ivy League schools, and some select Boston ones as well.

This is a perfect example of market penetration. Zuckerberg took his existing product and maximized the number of customers he “sold” it to within his market.

Strategic Partnership: Lyft & Taco Bell

Lyft & Taco Bell joined forces for one of the most memorable (and delicious) strategic partnerships in pop culture history. 

During the partnership, Lyft offered riders free access to “Taco Mode,” during which passengers could make a pit stop at Taco Bell on the way to their destination. This drove sales up for Taco Bell, and drew hungry customers away from competitor Uber and into the backseat of a Lyft.

Diversification: Amazon

It’s a well-known fact that the online retailer Amazon started as a books-only e-commerce platform. 

Over time, the company expanded to sell toys, DVDs, music, furniture, and — eventually — just about anything you could ever want. 

This is a textbook example of a diversification business growth strategy.

Here are some of our best tips for business growth in 2023. 

Carefully Consider and Combine Strategies

There are many more than the ten business growth strategies outlined here in this article, and each one has advantages and drawbacks. 

Take time — and even trial and error — discover which meets the needs of your specific business goals at any given time. 

In many cases, it’s also appropriate to use more than one business growth strategy at the same time. 

Understand Your Brand Identity 

In order for your business to grow, you need to have a very nuanced and thorough understanding of your brand, its identity, and its position in the market. 

Your business’s strengths, differentiating factors, unique selling points (USPs) , and core competencies will all help your business grow in a sustainable way.

Be Ready to Pivot

Successful and scalable business growth requires flexibility. 

Business growth strategies are great because they help sales and marketing teams stick to a plan, but they also allow teams to monitor progress and adapt strategies as needed. 

The most successful businesses are the ones that keep a careful pulse on their business progress and are ready to make changes as needed. 

Automate Everything 

Truly scalable growth requires capable systems running behind the scenes. 

Sales reps can’t afford to waste time entering data, manually setting appointments, and collating buyer insights into something actionable. 

Sales software like Yesware can help reps save time by automating administrative tasks, so they can focus on revenue-generating sales activities. 

What business growth strategies have been successful for your business?

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9 Business Plan Examples to Inspire Your Own (2024)

Need support creating your business plan? Check out these business plan examples for inspiration and guidance.

Any aspiring entrepreneur researching how to start a business will likely be advised to write a business plan. But few resources provide business plan examples to really guide you through writing one of your own.

Here are some real-world and illustrative business plan examples to help you craft your business plan .

Business plan format: 9 examples

The business plan examples in this article follow this template:

• Executive summary
• Company description
• Market analysis
• Products and services
• Marketing plan
• Logistics and operations plan
• Financial plan
• Customer segmentation

1. Executive summary

Your executive summary is a page that gives a high-level overview of the rest of your business plan. While it appears at the beginning, it’s easiest to write this section last, as there are details further in the report you’ll need to include here.

In this free business plan template , the executive summary is four paragraphs and takes a little over half a page. It clearly and efficiently communicates what the business does and what it plans to do, including its business model and target customers.

2. Company description

You might repurpose your company description elsewhere, like on your About page , social media profile pages, or other properties that require a boilerplate description of your small business.

Soap brand ORRIS has a blurb on its About page that could easily be repurposed for the company description section of its business plan.

You can also go more in-depth with your company overview and include the following sections, like in this business plan example for Paw Print Post:

Business structure

This section outlines how you registered your business —as an LLC , sole proprietorship, corporation, or other business type : “Paw Print Post will operate as a sole proprietorship run by the owner, Jane Matthews.”

Nature of the business

“Paw Print Post sells unique, one-of-a-kind digitally printed cards that are customized with a pet’s unique paw prints.”

“Paw Print Post operates primarily in the pet industry and sells goods that could also be categorized as part of the greeting card industry.”

Background information

“Jane Matthews, the founder of Paw Print Post, has a long history in the pet industry and working with animals, and was recently trained as a graphic designer. She’s combining those two loves to capture a niche in the market: unique greeting cards customized with a pet’s paw prints, without needing to resort to the traditional (and messy) options of casting your pet’s prints in plaster or using pet-safe ink to have them stamp their ’signature.’”

Business objectives

“Jane will have Paw Print Post ready to launch at the Big Important Pet Expo in Toronto to get the word out among industry players and consumers alike. After two years in business, Jane aims to drive $150,000 in annual revenue from the sale of Paw Print Post’s signature greeting cards and to have expanded into two new product categories.”

“Jane Matthews is the sole full-time employee of Paw Print Post but hires contractors as needed to support her workflow and fill gaps in her skill set. Notably, Paw Print Post has a standing contract for five hours a week of virtual assistant support with Virtual Assistants Pro.”

Your mission statement may also make an appearance here. Passionfruit shares its mission statement on its company website, and it would also work well in its example business plan.

3. Market analysis

The market analysis consists of research about supply and demand , your target demographics, industry trends, and the competitive landscape. You might run a SWOT analysis and include that in your business plan. 

Here’s an example SWOT analysis for an online tailored-shirt business:

You’ll also want to do a competitive analysis as part of the market research component of your business plan. This will tell you which businesses you’re up against and give you ideas on how to differentiate your brand. A broad competitive analysis might include:

• Target customers
• Unique value proposition , or what sets the products apart
• Sales pitch
• Price points for products
• Shipping policy

4. Products and services

This section of your business plan describes your offerings—which products and services do you sell to your customers? Here’s an example for Paw Print Post that explains its line of custom greeting cards, along with details on what makes its products unique.

5. Marketing plan

It’s always a good idea to develop a marketing plan before you launch your business. Your marketing plan shows how you’ll get the word out about your business, and it’s an essential component of your business plan as well.

The Paw Print Post focuses on four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place. However, you can take a different approach with your marketing plan. Maybe you can pull from your existing marketing strategy , or maybe you break it down by the different marketing channels. Whatever approach you take, your marketing plan should describe how you intend to promote your business and offerings to potential customers.

6. Logistics and operations plan

The Paw Print Post example considered suppliers, production, facilities, equipment, shipping and fulfillment, and inventory. This includes any raw materials needed to produce the products.

7. Financial plan

The financial plan provides a breakdown of sales, revenue, profit, expenses, and other relevant financial metrics related to funding and profiting from your business.

Ecommerce brand Nature’s Candy’s financial plan breaks down predicted revenue, expenses, and net profit in graphs.

It then dives deeper into the financials to include:

• Funding needs
• Projected profit-and-loss statement
• Projected balance sheet
• Projected cash-flow statement

You can use a financial plan spreadsheet to build your own financial statements, including income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement.

8. Customer segmentation

Customer segmentation means dividing your target market into groups based on specific characteristics. These characteristics can be demographics, psychographics, behavior, or geography. Your business plan will provide detailed information on each segment, like its size and growth potential, so you can show why they are valuable to your business. 

Airsign , an eco-friendly vacuum cleaner company, faced the challenge of building a sustainable business model in the competitive home appliance market. They identified three key customer personas to target:

• Design-oriented urban dwellers
• Millennials moving to suburbs
• Older consumers seeking high-quality appliances

The company utilized Shopify’s customer segmentation tools to gain insights and take action to target them. Airsign created targeted segments for specific marketing initiatives.

Put your customer data to work with Shopify’s customer segmentation

Shopify’s built-in segmentation tools help you discover insights about your customers, build segments as targeted as your marketing plans with filters based on your customers’ demographic and behavioral data, and drive sales with timely and personalized emails.

9. Appendix

The appendix provides in-depth data, research, or documentation that supports the claims and projections made in the main business plan. It includes things like market research, finance, résumés, product specs, and legal documents. 

Readers can access detailed info in the appendix, but the main plan stays focused and easy to read. Here’s an example from a fictional clothing brand called Bloom:

Appendix: Bloom Business Plan

Types of business plans, and what to include for each

This lean business plan is meant to be high level and easy to understand at a glance. You’ll want to include all of the same sections in one-page business plan, but make sure they’re truncated and summarized:

• Executive summary: truncated
• Market analysis: summarized
• Products and services: summarized
• Marketing plan: summarized
• Logistics and operations plan: summarized
• Financials: summarized

A startup business plan is for a new business. Typically, these plans are developed and shared to secure funding . As such, there’s a bigger focus on the financials, as well as on other sections that determine viability of your business idea—market research, for example:

• Market analysis: in-depth
• Financials: in-depth

Your internal business plan is meant to keep your team on the same page and aligned toward the same goal:

A strategic, or growth, business plan is a big-picture, long-term look at your business. As such, the forecasts tend to look further into the future, and growth and revenue goals may be higher. Essentially, you want to use all the sections you would in a normal business plan and build upon each:

• Market analysis: comprehensive outlook
• Products and services: for launch and expansion
• Marketing plan: comprehensive outlook
• Logistics and operations plan: comprehensive outlook
• Financials: comprehensive outlook

Feasibility

Your feasibility business plan is sort of a pre-business plan—many refer to it as simply a feasibility study. This plan essentially lays the groundwork and validates that it’s worth the effort to make a full business plan for your idea. As such, it’s mostly centered around research:

Nonprofit business plans are used to attract donors, grants, and partnerships. They focus on what their mission is, how they measure success, and how they get funded. You’ll want to include the following sections in addition to a traditional business plan:

• Organization description
• Need statement
• Programs and services
• Fundraising plan
• Partnerships and collaborations
• Impact measurement

Set yourself up for success as a business owner

Building a good business plan serves as a roadmap you can use for your ecommerce business at launch and as you reach each of your business goals. Business plans create accountability for entrepreneurs and synergy among teams, regardless of your business model .

Kickstart your ecommerce business and set yourself up for success with an intentional business planning process—and with the sample business plans above to guide your own path.

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Business plan examples FAQ

How do i write a simple business plan.

To write a simple business plan, begin with an executive summary that outlines your business and your plans. Follow this with sections detailing your company description, market analysis, organization and management structure, product or service, marketing and sales strategy, and financial projections. Each section should be concise and clearly illustrate your strategies and goals.

What is the best format to write a business plan?

The best business plan format presents your plan in a clear, organized manner, making it easier for potential investors to understand your business model and goals. Always begin with the executive summary and end with financial information or appendices for any additional data.

What are the 4 key elements of a business plan?

• Executive summary: A concise overview of the company’s mission, goals, target audience, and financial objectives.
• Business description: A description of the company’s purpose, operations, products and services, target markets, and competitive landscape.
• Market analysis: An analysis of the industry, market trends, potential customers, and competitors.
• Financial plan: A detailed description of the company’s financial forecasts and strategies.

What are the 3 main points of a business plan?

• Concept: Your concept should explain the purpose of your business and provide an overall summary of what you intend to accomplish.
• Contents: Your content should include details about the products and services you provide, your target market, and your competition.
• Cash flow: Your cash flow section should include information about your expected cash inflows and outflows, such as capital investments, operating costs, and revenue projections.

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Choosing to grow: The leader’s blueprint

Growth is something every CEO and business leader aspires to deliver, but for many, it remains elusive. About a quarter of companies don’t grow at all, and between 2010 and 2019, only one in eight achieved more than 10 percent revenue growth annually. 1 Statistics in this section are based on McKinsey’s analysis of data from Corporate Performance Analytics by McKinsey and regulatory filings, S&P Global, for the period 2010–19. Sustained, profitable growth is possible, however, and it comes down to “choice.”

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Michael Birshan , Biljana Cvetanovski , Rebecca Doherty , Tjark Freundt , Andre Gaeta, Greg Kelly , Erik Roth , Ishaan Seth , and Jill Zucker , representing views from McKinsey’s Growth, Marketing & Sales and Strategy & Corporate Finance practices.

Do you, as a leader, make an explicit choice to grow? Or do you pay lip service to your growth ambitions and let your resolve falter if profit isn’t immediate?

When sustainable, inclusive, and profitable growth becomes a conscious, resolute choice, it shapes decision making across every area of the business. Growth becomes the oxygen of an organization, feeding the culture, elevating ambitions, and inspiring a sense of purpose. Growth leaders generate 80 percent more shareholder value than their peers over a ten-year period. Beyond creating shareholder value, growth attracts talent, fosters innovation, and creates jobs.

With only one in ten S&P 500 companies reporting growth above GDP for more than 30 years, sustained, profitable growth may seem difficult. But the choice to grow is paramount—and it is available to every leader, regardless of industry or economic climate. Indeed, many high-growth companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Burger King, Hyatt Hotels, Microsoft, and Airbnb, to name a few, were founded during economic downturns.

Incumbents have also achieved impressive growth during downturns. US-based retailer Target managed to deliver growth during each of the last two recessions. In 2000, Target doubled down on growth investments, adding new locations, products, and partnerships that resulted in double-digit growth for sales and profits. In 2008, Target analyzed customer trends and expanded its food offerings to include more fresh meat and produce; the food category has since added billions to annual revenue. In 2020, Target achieved record growth during the COVID-19 pandemic by investing consistently in online services and accelerating its ability to use stores as distribution centers and enable online-order pickups from their parking lots. 2 Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria, and Franz Wohlgezogen, “Roaring Out of Recession,” Harvard Business Review , March 2010.

The leaders who choose growth and outperform their peers not only think, act, and speak differently; they align around a shared mindset, strategy, and capabilities. In turn, they actively track leading and lagging growth indicators to tie their aspirations to clear and measurable key performance indicators (KPIs). They explore and invest in opportunities both within and outside their core business. Their commitment to growth leads them to invest in an appropriate mix of enablers at the right time and scale, and they stay resolutely faithful to their growth vision in the face of unexpected challenges in their business and operating context, even turning disruption to their advantage.

Drawing on McKinsey’s extensive research into growth and leadership as well as our experience in partnering with leaders in every sector on sustainable, profitable growth , this article explores what happens when business leaders make and follow through on a purposeful choice to grow. 3 For more, see Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley, and David White, The Alchemy of Growth , Basic Books, September 1999; Mehrdad Baghai, Patrick Viguerie, and Sven Smit, The granularity of growth: How to identify the sources of growth and drive enduring company performance , John Wiley & Sons, 2007. The leader’s blueprint for growth shows how subtle changes in thoughts and actions arising from choice can make the difference between sustained standout growth and remaining with the pack.

When a business leader chooses growth, that choice begins to shape behavior, mindset, risk appetite, and investment decisions, creating a growth orientation across the organization. In fact, growth leaders across the C-suite are 70 percent more likely than peers to have growth as their top priority. 4 Biljana Cvetanovski, Eric Hazan, Jesko Perrey, and Dennis Spillecke, “ Are you a growth leader? The seven beliefs and behaviors that growth leaders share ,” McKinsey, September 26, 2019.

Growth-oriented leaders also shape their thinking and actions toward growth over both short- and long-term horizons. They react decisively to shorter-term disruptions that can be turned into opportunities—what we term “ timely jolts ”—and build organizational resilience and agility to respond to change and leverage disruption. These leaders follow a timeless blueprint for growth that flows from mindset into growth pathways and execution (Exhibit 1).

Set an aspirational mindset and culture

C-suite growth leaders share a common series of mindsets and behaviors from their communications to their willingness to learn through failure. Those who display at least three of the five key growth mindsets are 2.4 times more likely to profitably outgrow their peers (Exhibit 2).

The first part of the timeless holistic growth blueprint is to support aspirations with clear targets, milestones, and motivators—creating a North Star that feeds the broader strategic and cultural narrative of the business. Leaders are able to commit their company to action and maintain this focus in the face of timely jolts, inspiring an organization-wide culture that continually seeks out and pursues growth opportunities.

On the other hand, the leader who aspires to growth but underinvests in initiatives or removes funding from growth is one whose actions do not match their aspirations. C-suite leaders who choose growth are much less likely to yield when challenges arise, finding opportunity in headwinds and reasons to innovate where others retreat to conventional defensive playbooks.

A further differentiator of growth leaders is their ability to build organizational buy-in, including from the board and investors. They tend to directly involve the board in their growth planning and they proactively communicate with investors 5 For more, see “ Where companies with a long-term view outperform their peers ,” McKinsey Global Institute, February 8, 2017. using significant and credible targets to show how the growth plan will generate value. Growth leaders allocate the resources required to achieve goals and are more willing to change their operating model to enable growth, if that is what is needed.

Activate the growth pathways

When leaders choose growth and develop the right leadership mindsets and behaviors to support that choice, their natural position is to look for opportunity wherever it exists. Those companies that set growth strategies to address all available pathways to growth are 97 percent more likely to achieve profitable above-peer growth.

The second part of the timeless holistic growth blueprint is activating three pathways: expanding the core business, innovating into new markets and adjacencies, and purposefully pursuing opportunities for breakthrough growth through new-business building or mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

The most successful companies are able to balance and sequence these growth choices in response to their changing operating environments, advances in technology, and emerging customer needs and preferences.

Mindset to action: Imperatives for Growth

Expand the core business.

Growth begins with the core, and growth leaders understand the importance of optimizing their current core business. With more than 80 percent of total revenue growth, on average, derived from the core, achieving excellence in current operations is crucial. 6 Statistics in this section are based on McKinsey’s analysis of data from Corporate Performance Analytics by McKinsey, regulatory filings, and S&P Global, for the period 2005–19; we have analyzed the 3,000 largest public companies as of 2018 reporting revenues by segment. Total revenue growth split is derived from the summation of the respective company segment revenues in this sample. Some sectors—healthcare, for example—achieve as much as 90 percent of growth from the core business, while others, such as financial services, generate around 74 percent from the core and 23 percent or more from adjacent opportunities (Exhibit 3).

These variations are partly explained by the idiosyncrasies of different industries. For example, healthcare businesses make long-term R&D and capital investments for innovation, but their patents enable them to generate most of their growth within the core. Financial-services companies, on the other hand, tend to be more able to move into adjacent services, with many companies actively making big bets across industry sub-sectors (eg, investment banks entering wealth management, and vice versa).

Regardless of industry, growth leaders turbocharge their core through a mix of strategic shifts to higher growth pockets (for example, shifting product mix to higher growth value or premium segments and higher growth channels such as e-commerce), innovation of the core products and services, and improved executional excellence in their commercial capabilities.

Having a growth mindset is especially important for the core business. Growth outperformers almost always grow their core—either through their main products, sectors, or local market. In fact, it is unlikely that they can raise their growth trajectory without winning in their local market. 7 Defined as the largest region in the portfolio by revenue.  In fact, fewer than one in five of the companies in our sample that had below-average growth rates in their local region managed to outperform their peers in growth.

Whatever the exact mix of strategies and focus areas, growth leaders are maximizing their core through all available means. And they are twice as likely to report having identified pockets of growth within their existing business.

Innovate into adjacencies

Having a strong core is essential. Outperformers build beyond it to achieve their growth aspirations. Businesses that expand into adjacent industries or segments are 20 percent more likely to achieve greater growth than their peers.

The obvious places to look for growth are new geographies and adjacent industries where growth leaders can adapt their existing offerings to serve new customer segments. For example, CVS Health transformed into a consumer-centric, integrated health solutions company by expanding its business from pharmacy and retail to healthcare services, which accounted for 67 percent of the company’s revenue growth from 2005–19.

Growth leaders recognize the need to unlock the next wave of growth through expansion beyond the core. However, choosing the best adjacencies is critical. Growth leaders are increasingly harnessing advanced analytics to identify promising or previously overlooked opportunities that leverage core competencies and provide a good chance to establish a strong leadership position. McKinsey research shows that businesses that expand to adjacencies with high similarity to their core and exploit their unique competitive advantages are more likely to profitably outperform their peers on growth.

Outperformers use the full growth blueprint to excel in adjacencies, with a particular focus on strategies that build on core competencies. They use and refresh growth maps to consistently surface opportunities, to understand which are most achievable, and set growth strategies to capture them. They choose among the different avenues to grow adjacently, such as M&A or business building, and they evolve their operating models to support these growth choices.

Growth leaders are also increasingly building ecosystems around their core capabilities and assets and deploying new offerings into adjacent products or markets. Tencent, for instance, has become an Asian tech giant worth around $500 billion through its online platforms that include messaging, gaming, payments, e-commerce and advertising—in addition to evolving its social messaging app WeChat into an extensive “super app.” Tencent’s full ecosystem offering spans fintech , entertainment and media, cab hailing, location sharing, and more, fueling a revenue compound annual growth rate of 28 percent over the decade 2011 to 2021.

Ignite breakout businesses

According to McKinsey research on more than 1,000 business leaders, on average, executives believe 50 percent of their revenues will come from new products, services, or businesses within the next five years. Not surprisingly, many are looking beyond natural adjacencies to exploit entirely new business opportunities. Between 2018 and 2020, “new-business building” doubled its appearances among the top three items on executive agendas.

Expanding into new markets through business building can unlock new opportunities without cannibalizing existing products and services. Done right, the rewards can be well worth the risk, as illustrated by a number of growth leaders across different industries.

Amazon famously expanded beyond its e-commerce business into public cloud services through Amazon Web Services (AWS). By leveraging its core competencies of brand and commercial strength, it built AWS into a business that generated $62 billion revenue.

Science and technology innovator Danaher Corporation combatted the single-digit growth in its core industrial businesses by looking toward high-growth markets in life sciences and niche diagnostics. After testing the waters with small acquisitions and investing heavily in its platforms business, Danaher spun off its old industrial core, Fortive, repositioned life sciences and diagnostics as its new core business—and beat the S&P 500 by 3.8 times between 2002 and 2016. While core growth is critical, investments in breakout opportunities could enable a long-term shift to a new core within a higher-growth market.

Marcus by Goldman Sachs launched its first digital consumer business in 2016, allowing customers to bank from their phones. In the ensuing six years, it has attracted millions of customers, accumulated deposits of over $92 billion, and made more than $7 billion in loans via a combination of organic growth, acquisitions, and partnerships with Apple and Amazon.

Growth leaders can improve their odds of achieving growth in breakout opportunities by committing to innovation , identifying and understanding the needs and wants of valued customers, and developing the right value propositions to appeal to them. Given the accelerating pace of innovation, growth leaders also look to agile methodologies , strategic alliances, and M&A, with a willingness to rapidly test and learn, fail and iterate, and invest in scaling opportunities.

Of course, pursuing breakout growth can require longer-term investment and commitment before seeing returns. That’s why growth leaders need the mettle to stay the course and make significant investments—or the sense to know when to call it quits.

Execute with excellence

This is the critical and third portion of the timeless holistic growth blueprint, where strategy meets action, and orchestrated execution is the final step in achieving growth. Execution works hand-in-hand with strategy to empower leaders to make the right choices at the right time to drive both short-term and long-term growth.

Leaders who choose growth support their ambitions by prioritizing a critical set of execution enablers: operating model and resource allocation, ecosystems, M&A, joint ventures and alliances, and functional capabilities.

Built-for-growth operating models and resource allocation

Leaders who fully commit to growth choose these initiatives for purposeful and assertive investment and are 60 percent more likely to regularly reallocate resources from lower-return to higher-return spaces. These leaders fund more dynamically, relying less on historical budgets that can be psychologically “anchoring,” and they actively explore how to fuel growth without eroding their existing core businesses. 8 Tim Koller, Dan Lovallo, and Olivier Sibony, “ Bias busters: Being objective about budgets ,” McKinsey Quarterly , September 28, 2018; Michael Birsham, Marja Engel, and Olivier Sibony, “ Avoiding the quicksand: Ten techniques for more agile corporate resource allocation ,” McKinsey Quarterly , October 1, 2013.

Alongside this willingness to dynamically reallocate resources , growth leaders are more likely to have multiple, tailored operating models to support their unique growth initiatives and opportunities. While the core business may have a distinct, more traditional operating model, breakout opportunities may adopt a more agile, learning-driven operating approach , for example, having small, cross-functional teams with the autonomy to focus on rapidly building and testing products, features, or services with customers. They segment their product-development processes and combine standard product-development stage gates for incremental innovations while using venture-capital-inspired stage gates and funding mechanisms for bolder growth projects. This agility helps them respond robustly to timely jolts and opportunities.

In managing performance, growth leaders adopt a growth vocabulary, leveraging the adage, “You get what you measure.” They actively track leading and lagging growth-oriented metrics, such as recurring revenue, revenue per customer, and customer-acquisition cost, tying them to organizational goals and incentives.

Strengthen ecosystems, M&A, and joint ventures

Specialization in a sea of sameness is a differentiator. That’s why growth leaders often look outside of their businesses to find quick access to complementary skills and capabilities to buy or scale innovation and growth. Those who do this are 30 to 50 percent more likely to continually scan for these types of alliances, joint ventures, and M&A opportunities.

In recent years, digital M&A has become increasingly popular and effective, accounting for double the share of all M&A value from 2011–21. Businesses are becoming increasingly strategic about how they evaluate and leverage these digital transactions, from acquiring new talent and capabilities to accessing new markets and products. 9 Michael Bogobowicz, Anika Pflanzer, Leandro Santon, and Brett Wilson, “ How to find and maximize digital value in any M&A deal ,” McKinsey, November 9, 2020; CapitaIQ, McKinsey analysis. Many companies with programmatic M&A strategies (that is, steadily growing through two or more acquisitions of less than 30 percent of their own market cap per year) have added digital-investment themes to their M&A blueprints. Over almost 20 years of research, it has become clear that programmatic M&A is the only M&A strategy that delivers outsized total shareholder return (TSR) . M&A investment themes, especially those on digital M&A, should be highly specific and clearly articulate how they will add value for the acquirer.

Forming ecosystems with partners is another way to build capabilities and expand offerings more quickly, while simultaneously enhancing customer experience and enlarging reach and innovation opportunities across the ecosystem. This creates value along two dimensions—it allows participants to consolidate a range of customers, often across sectors, and to play a pivotal role in optimizing touchpoints in both B2C and B2B.

Functional capabilities

Execution is impossible without the right functional strengths and growth leaders identify which new functional capabilities are needed—or need to change—to support growth initiatives, both in the short term and over longer-term innovation horizons.

From building out AI and advanced analytics platforms to deepening their customer experience capabilities—and even enhancing or modernizing existing capabilities like pricing and marketing—growth leaders ensure the organization’s capabilities are positioned to fuel growth. While the exact blend varies by industry and company, a common cross-sectoral focus point is harnessing digital and analytics to revamp distribution, marketing returns, customer value management (CVM), 10 Customer value management is a systematic approach to working with loyal customers. It is based on personalized offerings targeted to meet particular customer needs, created using advanced analytics, and aimed at increasing lifetime customer value through raising purchasing frequency and average basket size. and dynamic pricing. 11 Rachel Diebner, David Malfara, Kevin Neher, Mike Thompson, and Maxence Vancauwenberghe, “ Prediction: The future of CX ,” McKinsey Quarterly , February 24, 2021; Ralph Breuer, Kedar Naik, Bogdan Toma, and Martina Yanni, “ Executive quick take: A guide to implementing marketing-and-sales transformations that unlock sustainable growth ,” McKinsey, September 23, 2019; Matt Deimund, Michael Drory, Daniel Law, and Maria Valdivieso, “ The five things sales-growth winners do to invest in their people ,” McKinsey, October 9, 2018; Minti Ray, Stefano Redaelli, Sidney Santos, Jared Sclove, and Andrew Wong, “ Accelerating revenue growth through tech-enabled commercial excellence ,” McKinsey, December 4, 2019.

In distribution, e-commerce is a powerful lever for collecting valuable digital customer data along the purchasing journey and ensuring effective and measurable media spend. Nike, for example, was able to increase its nike.com e-commerce platform’s contribution to sales from 7.5 percent to 24 percent, thereby fuelling a compound annual growth rate of 6.7 percent from 2017–21, a time frame that includes the height of the pandemic. 12 Statista, ecommerceDB, and S&P Capital IQ.

For customer value management, investing in greater personalization through advanced analytics and digital capabilities can improve both the customer experience and client lifetime value. American Express, for instance, leverages advanced analytics to provide customized recommendations to customers based on their location, opening additional transaction opportunities both for their partners and for their own credit cards.

Greater analytical sophistication enables companies to differentiate pricing across dimensions such as region, channel, and customer lifecycle. 13 Claus Heintzeler, Mathias Kullman, Karin Lauer, and Maximilian Totzauer, “ Pricing and promotions: The analytics opportunity ,” McKinsey, June 28, 2021. A leading Asian e-commerce company was able to increase gross margins by ten percentage points and gross merchandise value by three percentage points by developing a dynamic pricing capability. 14 Gadi BenMark, Sebastian Klapdor, Mathias Kullmann, and Ramji Sundararajan, “ How retailers can drive profitable growth through dynamic pricing ,” McKinsey, March 27, 2017.

Commercial capabilities are bolstered by investments in digital—in fact, growth leaders are 60 percent more likely to have successfully used AI and advanced analytics to predict customer behaviors and become a “sensing and predicting” organization. Growth leaders also tend to invest in expanding and deepening their customer experience capabilities to streamline and personalize customer journeys.

Beyond the commercial excellence, growth leaders map R&D and product development portfolios, balanced across incremental innovations and bolder long-term breakout initiatives with clear mapping to the capabilities needed to execute. Tangentially, it is imperative to ensure that growth leaders are investing in their people, creating a pipeline of talent that will help strengthen and broaden the tools needed to achieve their growth aspirations.

Choosing to grow: the subtle difference between success and failure

The growth blueprint defines the timeless elements on which leaders need to focus diligently once they’ve made a deliberate and purposeful choice to grow.

This blueprint prepares an organization to grow in the face of timely jolts. The blueprint encourages leaders to answer a series of clear questions:

• Am I setting the right aspiration, mindset, and culture to encourage growth? Are my ambitions high enough, and how can I ensure my organization has the full potential to achieve it?
• Am I actively choosing growth opportunities across my core and adjacencies?
• Am I establishing the right enablers to execute against my growth aspirations and strategies?
• Do I have the right operating model and resource allocation to achieve my growth ambitions?
• And am I investing in the right functional capabilities?

The choices leaders make in response to these questions differentiate those who achieve growth from those who aspire to it but don’t get results.

Take two leaders of similar-sized businesses operating in the same market. Both see an opportunity for growth and pursue it, but their outcomes are very different. Why?

The one who made a choice to grow aligned their board and leadership team on the company’s direction and dedicated the necessary resources to growth. They adapted the operating model for the long term and understood the risk profile of the new businesses they were trying to build. They invested meaningfully in building the right functional capabilities, sometimes at the expense of a few quarters of earnings, to achieve their long-term growth aspirations.

The other leader, who didn’t explicitly “choose growth,” also did a lot of things right. They hired the right talent and took the time to understand the new businesses they wanted to build. They believed they were allocating enough resources to growth, but ultimately their focus was divided by an emphasis on quarterly earnings and short-term profitability. Though they aspired to growth, they didn’t have the long-term strategy or commitment to achieve it. They tried to protect the management team so they could meet their short-term goals but didn’t secure buy-in from the board for long-term growth initiatives.

Making the conscious choice to grow creates powerful momentum that orients the entire business toward that goal, from the C-suite to frontline employees. The growth blueprint defines the timeless elements on which leaders need to focus diligently once they have made a deliberate and purposeful choice to grow. It also prepares an organization to unlock growth opportunities in timely jolts. The clarity of purpose and vision that comes from choice is what helps leaders and their teams believe in the seemingly impossible and make it happen.

Michael Birshan is a senior partner in McKinsey’s London office, where Biljana Cvetanovski is a partner; Rebecca Doherty is a partner in the San Francisco office; Tjark Freundt is a senior partner in the Hamburg office; Andre Gaeta is an associate partner in the Sao Paulo office; Greg Kelly is a senior partner in the Atlanta office; Erik Roth is a senior partner in the Stamford office; Ishaan Seth and Jill Zucker are senior partners in the New York office.

The authors wish to thank Jaidit Brar, Luis Cerquiera, Vincent Cremers, Brian Gregg, Eric Hazan, Martin Hirt, Anna Koivuniemi, Pablo Leon, Duncan Miller, and Dennis Spillecke for their contributions to this article.

We are also grateful to the many McKinsey colleagues who contributed their industry expertise and perspectives to this research: Marco Aukofer, Matt Banholzer, Kurt Bazarewski, Dani Ebersole, Stephen Guerin, Tim Koller, Karin Löffler, Katherine Lovemore, Patrick McCurdy, Sakina Mehenni, Camille Meeùs, Bridget Morton, Michael Park, Tido Röder, Jeff Rudnicki, Manny Sasson, Balint Stellek, Marija Vukojevic, Qian Wan, and Michelle Wycoff.

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Scale Your Business with Precision: A Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing the Marketing Strategy Pyramid

Want to stay ahead of your competition and keep your business growing? A solid marketing strategy and understanding the Marketing Strategy Pyramid are key.

With AI evolving fast, attention spans shrinking, social media algorithms constantly changing, unpredictable ad costs, and tighter privacy rules, it’s easy to get caught up in the latest "quick fixes."

But what your business—or your clients' businesses—really needs is a steady guiding light to stay on track. That’s where the Marketing Strategy Pyramid comes in.

You can catch the podcast episode here if you would rather listen to me talk about the Marketing Strategy Pyramid.

What is Marketing Strategy?

It’s easy to get tangled in the jargon of marketing tactics, but at its core, a marketing strategy is the master plan that sets the direction for how your business will compete and stand out in the marketplace.

For fCMOs and business owners, it's critical to not just know but to master the art of aligning these strategies with broader business objectives. 

For businesses, it’s important to prioritize strategic planning over quick fixes. Strategic planning provides the framework to make decisions that enhance long-term sustainability rather than just immediate gains.

If I were to give marketing strategy an emotional definition, it's how you will place the flag in the sand to say, “Here's how we're going to dominate.” But that probably isn’t helpful in understanding how to create a successful marketing strategy. That is why I built the Marketing Strategy Pyramid.

The Marketing Strategy Pyramid

Think of the Marketing Strategy Pyramid as your roadmap for integrating comprehensive strategies with your business’s key goals. The Marketing Strategy Pyramid shows that there is no one magic marketing strategy or marketing tactic. It's really about integration, and that's what we do for clients, something we call Strategy First.  

The Marketing Strategy Pyramid has five layers to it, and the middle three layers are really the marketing strategy component and everything rests on the overarching business strategy.

3 Core Components of the Marketing Strategy Pyramid:

• Business Strategy:  This is the bedrock that focuses on growth, dominating your market, and retaining clients.
• Marketing Strategy:  This layer is the heart of the operation, including brand, growth, and customer strategies.
• Team Strategy:  The capstone that ensures your strategies are executed flawlessly by your team.

When we come in to work with a client, the main thing we are there to do is develop the marketing strategy and then the list of tactics to employ that strategy, but everything is based on the overarching business objectives. So if growth is a business objective, if dominance in a market is a business objective if retention of clients is a business objective, then the marketing strategy is built around that and only that to begin with.

Business Strategy

The foundation of all of this is the business strategy, which sets the stage for every tactical decision.

For example, the very first thing we do in working with a client is try to understand where they're going, try to understand the profit that they want to make in this business, try to understand the market share that they want to enjoy before we ever start really suggesting anything.

And unfortunately, very few marketers actually take that approach. Very few business owners actually take that approach. They want to hire a marketer to generate some leads, and that usually leads them to doing a whole bunch of different tactics that they shouldn't be doing and takes them away from focusing on the things that are actually going to allow them to meet their marketing objectives and drive real growth.

Developing a Marketing Strategy

The marketing strategy is the meat of the Marketing Strategy Pyramid and consists of brand, growth, and customer strategies. These three elements reflect the comprehensive journey a customer takes with your business.

At Duct Tape Marketing , we believe this is how a customer or a lead effectively moves through a business. These three elements reflect the marketing journey inside of the marketing strategy. 

Often, people end their marketing strategy with a clever tagline, colors, and logos, and they call it a day. But what I want to suggest is a marketing strategy actually runs through the entire customer journey. 

We use something called the Marketing Hourglass . It’s a tool we use to reinforce this idea of the customer journey. 

The Real Brand Strategy

Brand strategy is where we will help identify who makes an ideal customer, narrow the focus, and define the products and services the customer is looking for. 

We also are going to focus a great deal of attention on messaging. Are we promising to solve that ideal customer's biggest problem as opposed to, here's what we sell, so nobody cares what we sell; they want their problems solved .

Narrowing Focus: Pinpoint your ideal customer to tailor your marketing efforts directly to them.

Defining Offerings: Clarify what you provide that specifically solves your customers' problems.

Messaging: Shift the conversation from what you sell to how you solve their biggest headaches.

For example, consider Cedar Ridge Retreat Homes , who came to us facing significant challenges in marketing their luxury home-building services. Their previous marketing efforts failed to resonate, leaving their brand message unclear and poorly aligned with their business objectives. 

Through our " Strategy First" process, we pinpointed their ideal customer and crafted a resonant brand identity that emphasized retreat spaces over generic rentals. This strategic pivot not only clarified their offerings but positioned Cedar Ridge for substantial growth in their niche market.

Brand strategy development also includes things like how we want to be perceived. Are we fun? Are we very serious? Are we analytical? This drives all of your content. Lastly, many people put this first, we want to make sure that the names, colors, graphics, logos and things all support the message and the brand promise are aligned. That is all the first part of marketing strategy.

Formulating a Growth Strategy

The second part is the growth strategy. What are the tactics we're going to use to attract, build trust, get people to try and buy from us? 

The growth strategy includes all of the communication and content designed to move people through the Marketing Hourglass stages. Certainly, it's advertising and all the things that create awareness. It should also be about building trust and facilitating a seamless buying experience.

Content and Advertising: Use these tools to educate and engage potential customers.

Sales Processes: Create processes that are as streamlined as they are effective.

By staying attuned to the current landscape, we, as fractional CMOs , can pinpoint the opportunities and challenges that will shape the success of our strategies. For instance, if we observe a rising trend in video content consumption and it aligns with the business strategy, it’s essential to weave video marketing into our growth plans to effectively capture and engage our client’s target audience.

Building a Customer Strategy

After the sale, the real work begins. Your customer strategy should aim to turn first-time buyers into lifelong fans and advocates. This includes:

Onboarding: Make their first experience with your brand unforgettable.

Customer Engagement: Keep the dialogue going and the relationship growing.

Referral Programs: Use satisfied customers to bring in new ones. I wrote an entire book on referrals called “The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself ” that covers this topic extensively. 

Our past customers are often our best customers. Did you know 80% of a company's revenue comes from just 20% of its existing customers?  

By investing in these customer loyalty strategies, you can build a base of devoted customers who drive sustainable growth for your business.

Implementing a Team Strategy

So their overarching business builds on this business strategy, has marketing strategy in the middle, and the cherry on top is the team strategy. 

The team is there for the execution. You build it (business strategy), communicate it (marketing strategy), and execute on it (team strategy). 

Team strategy includes:

Team Alignment: Ensure everyone is on the same page and fully equipped to deliver.

Training and Development: Keep your team sharp and informed with regular training.

Culture: Cultivate a team culture that attracts and retains top talent, emphasizing values that elevate both the company and its clients.

As a business owner, the team also allows you to scale efficiently and effectively.

 "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

For fCMOs and business owners, a well-crafted marketing strategy is more than a set of tactics. It’s a comprehensive system that threads through every layer of your business. By leveraging a structured approach like the marketing strategy pyramid, you can align your business goals with your marketing efforts to drive real, sustainable growth.

Visit dtm.world/growth for insights and tools to understand your or your clients' marketing strategy and ultimately grow your business.

Navigating this journey isn’t just about knowing what to do; it’s about making strategic moves that make sense for your business. 

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Maine small business owners tout VP Harris plan for growth

by Sam Wheeler, WGME

PORTLAND (WGME) – Some small business owners in Maine are touting Vice President Kamala Harris' plan for small businesses, which former President Donald Trump says would "destroy our small business economy."

During a virtual Harris rally Friday, they said there were 19 million new small business applications during the Biden-Harris administration, saying it was because the administration made sure money was there for it.

They also touted the vice president's new plan for up to $50,000 in tax credits for new small businesses and her goal of getting 25 million new small business applications in her first term.

• Also read: VP Harris unveils plan to help small businesses at campaign stop in New Hampshire

"She's a champion for small businesses, and I believe her vision will help distilleries like mine and small businesses across Maine flourish," Sam Pierce of Three of Strong Spirits said.

Trump responded to the Harris plan Thursday with a video, writing in all caps, "COMRADE KAMALA'S SMALL BUSINESS 'PLAN' WOULD DESTROY OUR SMALL BUSINESS ECONOMY..." but he doesn't say how.

He said Thursday in New York if re-elected, he'll work toward driving down inflation and putting major new tariffs on foreign goods.

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Scaling your business: strategies for achieving rapid business growth.

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Brandon Dawson is CEO of Cardone Ventures, Leader & Scaling Expert. His mission is to help 1 MILLION business owners 10X their success.

Scaling a business is a significant challenge, but it's also a great opportunity for rapid growth.

As a business scaling expert, I've helped numerous businesses achieve sustainable growth, and I've identified six key areas that every business should know to build and scale the right way—without revenue interruptions or even worse, breaking the business. Trust me, I've seen this happen so many times, and the worst part is that many of these errors could have been fixed with the right knowledge.

Here are some of my key tips for scaling your business exponentially.

1. Develop A Clear Growth Strategy

A clear growth strategy is essential for scaling your business. You may decide to expand your product or service offerings, enter new markets, or develop strategic partnerships. Whatever your strategy is, make sure it aligns with your business goals and objectives. For example, your goals might include increasing market share, expanding into new geographic regions, or achieving a certain revenue target. Prioritize opportunities that have the highest potential for helping you reach your business goals and ensure that these goals are well communicated and understood by your team. Steps for developing a clear growth strategy include:

• Identifying and prioritizing growth opportunities: Start by assessing your current market position and identifying potential growth opportunities. This may involve expanding your product or service offerings, exploring new market segments, or targeting specific customer demographics.

• Conducting market research, analyzing industry trends, and gathering insights from your existing customer base to identify areas with the highest growth potential: Prioritize these opportunities based on their alignment with your business goals, market demand, and competitive landscape.

• Setting measurable objectives and milestones: If you plan to enter new markets, your objectives might include increasing market share by a certain percentage within a specific time frame or achieving a certain level of revenue from those markets. Break down these objectives into smaller milestones to track progress and ensure accountability. Setting measurable objectives will help you evaluate the effectiveness of your growth strategy and make necessary adjustments along the way.

• Determining the resources and capabilities you'll require: Assess your current resources, including financial, human, and technological aspects, and identify any gaps that need to be addressed to support your growth strategy. Determine if you need to invest in hiring new talent, upgrading your technology systems, expanding production facilities, or partnering with external experts.

• Developing a plan to acquire or develop the necessary resources and capabilities, ensuring they align with your growth objectives: By proactively addressing resource requirements, you can better support the execution of your growth strategy and minimize potential bottlenecks.

2. Build A Strong Team

To scale your business, you'll need a talented and dedicated team. Hire the right people and invest in their training and development. Create a culture that fosters innovation, collaboration and a sense of ownership. This will encourage open communication and feedback to ensure everyone is working toward the same goal. You can achieve this by focusing on obtaining the team's individual goals and determining how to accomplish those goals alongside business goals and objectives. Revisiting these goals as the individual seeks guidance and coaching on their specific contributions to the business will help ensure continued engagement with the team and demonstrate the individual's alignment with the business.

3. Leverage Technology

Technology can be a powerful tool for scaling your business. Look for ways to automate processes, streamline operations and improve efficiency. Consider investing in customer relationship management (CRM) software, project management tools, and other technologies that can help you scale more effectively.

4. Focus On Customer Acquisition

To scale your business, you'll need a steady flow of new customers. Develop a clear customer acquisition strategy that leverages both traditional and digital marketing channels. Experiment with different tactics and track your results to determine what works best for your business.

• When you're creating a customer acquisition strategy, consider the following tips and best practices: Define your target audience, conduct market research, leverage a multichannel approach, create compelling and relevant content, implement lead generation strategies, and track and analyze results.

• Conversely, avoid these pitfalls when you're creating a customer acquisition strategy: Overlooking customer retention, focusing on quantity over quality, neglecting data analysis, not adapting to changes and remaining the same.

By following these tips and avoiding these pitfalls, you can create an effective customer acquisition strategy that drives the steady flow of new customers you need to scale your business.

5. Monitor Financials

Your business requires a solid financial foundation. Make sure to monitor key financial metrics such as revenue, gross profit margin, and cash flow to ensure that you're on track to achieve your growth goals. Develop financial projections and revisit them regularly to ensure that you're staying on track.

6. Stay Nimble

You'll also need to be able to adapt to the ever-changing market conditions. Stay nimble and be prepared to pivot your strategy as needed. Monitor market trends and be willing to experiment with new ideas and approaches.

Scaling a business is a significant endeavor that requires careful planning, strategic execution and a commitment to continuous improvement. By developing a clear growth strategy that aligns with your business goals, building a strong team, leveraging technology, focusing on customer acquisition, monitoring your finances, and staying nimble, you can position your business for rapid growth and long-term success.

Remember, you won't successfully scale your business overnight, but you can do so with consistent effort and adaptability. Continuously evaluate your strategies, track your progress, and make adjustments as needed. Seek guidance from industry experts, stay updated on market trends, and learn from both successes and failures along the way.

By following these steps, you'll be better able to navigate the challenges of scaling and unlock the tremendous opportunities that lie ahead. With perseverance, dedication and a well-crafted growth strategy, you can achieve sustainable growth, surpass your financial goals, and pave the way for even greater accomplishments in the future.

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Xtreme One Entertainment Board Approves Strategic Growth Plan, Announces $10 Million Capital Raise to Accelerate Investment in XFC and other Xtreme One Brands

DETROIT, Sept. 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Xtreme One Entertainment, Inc. (OTCPink: XONI) (the “Company” or “Xtreme One”) today announced that its Board of Directors approved a comprehensive strategic plan to continue investing in the Company’s sports brands and accelerating events under the Xtreme Fighting Championships (XFC) MMA property. The Company also announced the finalization of its Regulation 1-A registration statement (Reg A+ Offering) to raise up to $10 million in equity to fund its accelerating events, operations, and to pursue strategic acquisitions.

Xtreme One also announced the engagement of Chicago-based L J Soldinger Associates, LLC to complete a two-year audit to accompany the Company’s planned filing of a Form 10 registration statement and to qualify for listing on the OTCQB exchange. The move to a fully reporting OTCQB company is anticipated to occur in the fourth quarter of 2024.

“This strategic growth plan reflects the shared vision of our Board to build a premier media and entertainment company centered on MMA and other extreme sports and making the XFC the leading development league in the MMA space,” said Jeff Lambert, Board Chair of Xtreme One. “Growing our organization and growing our profile as a public company go hand in hand, and we have a front-row seat to the insatiable demand by fans and investors alike for live sports events and properties. The uplisting to OTCQB and ultimately NASDAQ has been part of our transformation plan since the beginning, and we know raising the Company’s profile will attract the right investors, improve our liquidity, and open the door for more sports fans, fighters and savvy investors to invest in our success.”

The Company intends to use the capital raised from the Reg A+ Offering for continued investment in the production of live events, which it believes will build the Company’s sports brands and drive long-term shareholder value. Management believes that raising the profile of its brand and events will enhance Xtreme One’s ability to attract key talent and sponsors to drive long-term sustainable growth in revenue and enhance profitability. The use of proceeds also includes pursuing strategic acquisitions, licensing agreements and content, and new media and entertainment properties to compliment its global XFC property and operation.

“This capital infusion will allow us to accelerate our pace of live events, including relaunching our ‘Young Guns’ series focused on developing the next generation of MMA fighters, and reintroducing international XFC events starting in Latin America, the birthplace of MMA and the XFC,” added Chris Defendis, president of Xtreme One. “As we grow and attract rising, top-tier talent from across the globe, we intend to raise the bar for what extreme events can be. The Board and management team are locked in on the game plan for sustainable growth and maximizing shareholder value.”

About Xtreme One Entertainment, Inc. Founded in 1995 as a consumer and diversified holding company, Xtreme One Entertainment, Inc. (OTCPink: XONI) is now focused on media, entertainment, live sports, and event marketing. The Company, through its wholly owned subsidiary, XFC Global, Inc. (XFC), is the licensee of all the brands and intellectual property of Xtreme Fighting Championships Inc. worldwide. The XFC has produced over 50 televised professional MMA fights in the U.S. and Latin America since 2006 and was relaunched in 2024 by the new management team and world-class Board at Xtreme One. XFC fights are streamed live on Triller TV, the American Forces Network and a growing number of media platforms. For more information, visit XtremeOne.com or XFCFight.com. For retail investor perks, discounts on merchandise, and VIP access to upcoming events, join the Xtreme Shareholder Rewards program at TiiCKER.com/XONI.

Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company’s beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “target,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “potential,” “continue,” “is/are likely to” or other similar expressions. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the following: the Company’s lack of history of operating profitability, the need to raise significant capital to fund operations and growth, uncertainty concerning the transition of the Company’s business model, uncertainty concerning market acceptance of the Company’s sports and entertainment marketing offerings, competition and the ability to develop or license intellectual property that is critical to the Company’s business, The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof.

Media Contact for XONI Jen Wenk, Xtreme One Entertainment [email protected]

Investor Relations for XONI  Zachary Mizener [email protected]

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Harris breaks with Biden on capital gains tax in plan to spur small business growth

Vice president provides some details on plan to increase new small businesses.

Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Wednesday unveiled a vastly expanded $50,000 tax benefit for new small businesses and a lower long-term capital gains tax than that was proposed by President Joe Biden in his budget blueprint , one of her clearest breaks yet with Biden.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Harris said, “And while we ensure that the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share, we will tax capital gains at a rate that rewards investment in America's innovators, founders, and small businesses,” Harris said before proposing a 28% long-term capital gains tax on people making $1 million a year or more.

Biden previously called for a 39.6% tax rate on capital gains. It is unclear where Harris stands on the additional 5% tax. While Harris' presidential rival former President Donald Trump has not explicitly outlined a position this cycle , in 2016 he supported capping capital gains taxes at 20%, and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 calls for a 15% capital gains tax.

A source familiar with the plan told ABC News that Harris believes a more moderated approach toward capital gains taxes will balance with other measures she supports to crack down on billionaires and big corporations. Harris said on Wednesday that she supported a minimum tax rate on billionaires. The source said she also supports raising the corporate tax rate and quadrupling taxes on stock buybacks.

However, the move comes as Harris and Trump seek to sharpen their economic messages to voters before facing off in their first debate on ABC News in Philadelphia next week. Trump is scheduled to give his own economic policy address on Thursday.

Harris’ announcement is part of a broader effort to generate a record-breaking 25 million new small business applications in her first term if elected, and her tax plan would represent a tenfold expansion of a $5,000 deduction already available to entrepreneurs to help cover startup costs.

An official familiar with Harris' plans said the $50,000 benefit would help offset the $40,000 it costs on average to start a small business. The terms of the proposal would also allow eligible enterprises operating at a loss to delay utilizing the benefit until they turn a profit.

Some profitable businesses could also defer the full benefit, opting to instead use it across multiple years by deducting only earnings from the first year of business and utilizing the remainder of the total $50,000 in future years, according to literature circulated to reporters from the Harris campaign.

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Harris said her administration would also seek to develop a standard deduction for small businesses to reduce the burden and cost of filing taxes, and remove barriers around occupational licensing, which inhibits workers from working across state lines.

While the literature circulated to reporters did not estimate the program's cost, Harris told the crowd that the the plan would provide access to venture capital, support “innovation hubs and business incubators,” and increase the number of federal contracts with small businesses.

Many aspects of Harris' proposed tax program would likely require congressional approval. The current 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law by Trump, is set to expire next year.

Harris also said that her administration would provide low- and no-interest loans to already existing small businesses. The campaign’s literature detailed a fund that would enable community banks and Community Development Financial Institutions to cover interest costs as small businesses expand in historically underinvested regions.

“We will have a particular focus on small businesses in rural communities, like right here in New Hampshire,” she said.

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Both Trump and Harris have repeatedly sought to strike populist economic tones in their messaging, promising to provide relief to middle-class earners and even finding agreement on a proposed phase-out of federal income taxes on tipped wages.

Under pressure to define aspects of her policy agenda, Harris unveiled a slew of additional economic priorities last month that included, among other policies, restoring the American Rescue Plan's expanded Child Tax Credit, proposing $25,000 in down payment assistance to qualifying first-time home buyers, capping prescription drug prices and a federal ban on price gouging in the food sector.

Meanwhile, Trump has advocated for broader reforms to U.S. economic policy, which have included tax cuts for businesses and wealthy individuals alongside an across-the-board tariff hike on imports to the U.S., generally, with tax rates as high as 60% to 100% on Chinese goods.

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