Better Business, 5/e

Components of a Business Plan

There is no one right way to write a business plan. Each business is unique, so business plans can be drawn up in a variety of ways. Still, most business plans share a few basic components. A typical business plan for a start-up company is about 35–60 pages in length and contains eight key elements, as illustrated in Figure M2.2. The order in which the key elements are included is not random; they should be in the order of importance to the person reading the document. Therefore, although a complete description of your product may be of utmost importance to you, your investors and key contributors first need to know about the market before the specifics of your product. Let’s look at each of the basic components ...