How to Write a Business Plan in an Afternoon (Free Template)

Most business plans are 40-page documents written to impress a bank and then never opened again. Unless you're raising money that specifically requires one, you don't need that. You need a one-page plan that forces you to think clearly.

Here's the entire thing.

The one-page business plan

1. The problem. What painful, real problem are you solving? Who has it?

2. The solution. What exactly do you sell, and how does it fix the problem?

3. The customer. Who pays you? Be specific. "Everyone" is not a customer.

4. The pricing. What do you charge, and why is that a fair trade for the value?

5. How you'll reach customers. Where do your customers already hang out, and how will you get in front of them?

6. The money. Roughly, what does it cost to make/deliver, and what's left over? (This is the difference between revenue and profit.)

7. The first milestone. What's the very next concrete goal — first customer, first $1,000, first 10 sales?

If you can answer those seven honestly, you understand your business better than most people who paid a consultant.

Why one page beats forty

A short plan does the two things a plan is actually for:

• It exposes weak thinking. If you can't explain who pays you in one sentence, that's the problem to solve — not the font on page 12.
• It's actually used. A living one-pager you revisit monthly beats a beautiful document rotting in a drawer.

When you do need the long version

Write the full, formal plan only when someone requires it:

• Applying for a bank loan or SBA loan
• Raising from angel investors or venture capital
• Entering certain grant competitions

Even then, the one-pager is where you start. The long plan is just the one-pager wearing a suit.

Free template

Copy this and fill it in:

BUSINESS: ____________________

1. Problem:      ____________________
2. Solution:     ____________________
3. Customer:     ____________________
4. Pricing:      ____________________
5. Marketing:    ____________________
6. Unit economics: cost ____  price ____  profit ____
7. Next milestone: ____________________

Done. That took an afternoon, not a quarter. Now go get customer number one, then read How to Start a Business for the rest of the sequence.

It's just business — keep the plan short and the action long.