Are you ready to move from brainstorming business ideas to becoming an entrepreneur? It’s a worthy goal and can be incredibly rewarding. If you need a business plan template to create your enterprise’s road map, this article provides what you need.
In 2025, more than 5.6 million people filed applications for new businesses in the US, and those most likely to launch and stay in business do so thanks to planning.
After all, writing a business plan helps you figure out how exactly your business will work. It can also help you secure funding and working capital. Now is not the time to “wing it.” To gain the confidence of lenders and angel investors, it helps to demonstrate your understanding of your business model, your potential in the market, and have a clear, realistic plan.
Ahead, you’ll learn about each section of a traditional business plan, with expert advice from entrepreneurs. You’ll also learn about creating a lean business plan, a one-page document that lays out the basics of how your business will operate. Whichever version you choose, download Shopify’s free business plan template to get started.
Traditional vs. lean business plan
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Researching and writing a traditional business plan can be time-consuming, depending on the complexity of the model or market. A lean business plan offers a succinct alternative. Shopify’s free business plan template includes both.
Here’s how the two compare:
Traditional business plan
A traditional business plan is a detailed account of why your company exists and how it functions. It includes detailed financial information like balance sheets and data-rich components like market analyses. This is the type of business plan you’ll use to find investors or secure a startup business loan.
You might leave out some sections depending on the audience (for example, a bank might not need to know every detail of your marketing plan), but a traditional business plan will always be highly detailed.
Lean business plan
A lean business plan is a shorter version of a traditional business plan. It highlights essential information and forgoes details like quarterly financial breakdowns to help readers understand your company more quickly.
You might create a lean business plan if you’re workshopping several ideas or if you want your audience to be able to read your business plan quickly.
For example, you might share a lean business plan with new hires to help them quickly understand how your company works. Note that lean business plans often omit the financial section entirely, so you shouldn’t create a lean business plan for investors or banks.
You might also have heard the term “strategic business plan.” Generally, this is an internal document, meant for company leadership and sometimes employees. The intention is to clarify the organization’s priorities and goals and how they’ll be executed and achieved.
In broad terms, a business plan’s intent is to prove the business is viable and can succeed. A lean business plan is a high-level, brief version. A strategic business plan shows how the company plans to move toward specific milestones and key performance indicators, or KPIs.
7 elements of a traditional business plan
- Executive summary
- Company overview
- Products or services offered
- Market analysis
- Marketing plan
- Logistics and operations plan
- Financial plan
The process of writing a business plan will help you think through all aspects of running a company. It’s an essential step in both starting a business and scaling one.
Shopify’s free business plan template includes seven key components of a traditional business plan format. However, if you plan to use your business plan to apply for a loan or a small business grant, check with your target banks or investors to see if they have a preferred business plan template.
Here are the sections you’ll find in Shopify’s free business plan template:
1. Executive summary
This is a one-page summary of your whole plan, usually written after completing the rest of your document. In this section, you’ll outline what your company does and its purpose.
You’ll touch on the contents of the rest of your plan, including:
- Product overview. A brief explanation of what you’re selling.
- Target audience. Who will you sell your products to?
- Competitive advantage. Explain what you have that competitors don’t.
- Leadership structure. Explain who will run your company.
- Mission statement. Explain the purpose of your company and why it exists.
- High-level financial and growth plans. Give an overview of your current sales and profits, financial projections, what funding you hope to receive, and how you expect your company to grow.
If you’re making a business plan for potential venture capitalists or angel investors, this section should also include your ask. Hint at how funding your business will benefit investors:
“How do you make the offer or the ask more focused on what value you can provide them versus them helping you out?” Michelle Razavi, cofounder of protein dessert company Elavi, recommends on an episode of Shopify Masters podcast.
“A lot of business owners, especially at the earlier stage, want to just word-vomit the whole story and they send an essay,” says Michelle. “It’s really about thinking about who’s reading it on the other side.”
That’s sound advice. It’s crucial, whether you’re pitching investors, completing a business plan template, or purchasing inventory to know your audience.
2. Company overview
This section of your business plan outlines your business concept and explains how you will execute it. It answers two fundamental questions: “Who are you?” and “What do you plan to do?” You’ll include:
Name
Introduce your business by name, and give any relevant back story on your business name. Bicycle helmet brand Thousand, for example, takes its name from its mission-driven unique value proposition (UVP): to save one thousand lives by making a helmet people actually want to wear.
Tip: Need help brainstorming a name? Try Shopify’s free AI business name generator tool.
Location
Where will you base your business? Will you have satellite offices? Will employees work remotely? Where will you do business?
Structure
Note your business’s legal structure. For example, are you set up as an LLC? A partnership? A C corp?
Research the steps to register your business in your area. Depending on where you live, you might need certain business licenses or permits.
You might also need different legal certifications, depending on what you’re selling (and even where you’re selling it from). Starting a home business selling cakes, for example, carries different permit requirements than starting an online t-shirt business.
Business concept, model, and industry
Briefly explain what your business does, its sales model, and its industry. You’ll go into depth on your industry later on.
Competitive advantage
Briefly state what you have that competitors don’t. This is your competitive advantage, and identifying one is an essential part of creating a successful business strategy.
Richard Lee, who launched the pickleball arm of German tennis table company Joola, understood the importance of finding a competitive advantage from the start.
“If we can’t come out with something amazing or something cool or something that’s going to stand out, why bother? Because we’re just going to be gobbled up by someone else,” Richard says on Shopify Masters. He developed top-of-the-line paddles, and now Joola offers other innovative products, too (like glasses that make it easier to see the ball).
Technical innovation isn’t the only type of competitive advantage. Maybe you can sell your product at a lower price than your competitors, for example, or maybe you can deliver better customer service or faster shipping.
You might also be able to carve out a competitive advantage by focusing on a niche market and tailoring your products to consumers in that demographic. Think making stylish lunchboxes for luxury fashion consumers or waterproof phone cases for fishermen.
Mission and values
Identify your brand values and include a mission statement explaining the impact you want your company to have. Solidifying these basic elements early can help you stay on track down the line. They can also hold you accountable to your goals and attract investors who align with your vision.
On an episode of Shopify Masters, Sana Javeri Kadri, founder of spice brand Diaspora Spice Co., explains that she’s seen many entrepreneurs draft business plans focused on profit and promise themselves they’ll add social impact elements later.
“Time and time again, it never happens,” says Sana. “If you’ve gotten used to a really cheap product or really cheap cost of goods, it’s very hard to suddenly say, ’I’m actually going to shave off some of my profit margin to do the right thing.’”
Sana took a different approach. “For me, it was very clear that we were going to build our profit and loss statement from the ground up with the equity baked in,” says Sana. Diaspora Spice Co. showcases this mission front and center on its About Us page, which begins: “We are here to put money, equity and power into the best regenerative spice farms across South Asia.”
Business objectives
Name your goals for the short term (in the next year) and long term (in the next one to five years).
Leadership, management, and employees
What leadership, management, and staff roles will you fill first, and what are the responsibilities of each role? How might the team grow over time? Note your company’s organizational structure and include an org chart, if you have one.
3. Products or services offered
This section goes into detail on your products or services. Explain what you plan to sell, and list your products’ most important features. Include any plans to protect your intellectual property, such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
You’ll also list the prices of your products or services and explain your pricing strategy. This means explaining why your prices make sense given market trends, customer preferences, your business costs, and your company’s goals. If your products are more expensive than competitors’, you’ll need to justify why by listing the specific costs or added value that elevate their prices.
Fly By Jing founder Jing Gao opted for a premium pricing strategy for her chili crisp after noticing that, in North America, Chinese food products were associated with low prices. “It was important for me to really reflect on the value of what’s inside this product and what goes into it, and also the value of the culture behind it,” Jing says on an episode of Shopify Masters.
Jing says there was initial sticker shock at the chili crisp’s price, but it soon found an audience that affirmed her pricing strategy. “The way that we have grown has shown to me that there really is the need for a premium Chinese food product.”
4. Market analysis
A thorough market analysis can reveal untapped markets and even shape your product offerings by helping you hone in on a niche. This is what happened when Tom Aulet began conducting market research for Ergatta, a company that gamifies rowing.
“We spent six months segmenting the market and speaking to would-be customers and getting to know them and their needs, their fitness desires, the times in their life when they actually had a regular fitness habit, and what motivates them,” says Tom on an episode of Shopify Masters.
“We ended up finding a part of the market that was not addressed by current solutions.” This market skewed male, introverted, and competitive, and these consumers had generally struggled to find a fitness routine.
“As we got to know their needs better, we figured out that we could address their needs with the tools of gaming. That was the aha moment,” says Tom. “That was when we figured out we can actually not just identify a problem and a group of people that experience that problem, but now that we understand that problem deeply, we can solve that problem with something that does not exist out there in the world.”
A thorough market analysis includes:
Industry outlook
Use market research to describe industry-wide trends. For example, is your industry expected to grow over the next five or 10 years? By how much? How will industry-wide trends affect your business? Start with free market research tools like Google Trends and sources like Pew Research Center.
Target market
Outline your target market. You can use surveys, focus groups, or existing customer data with a platform like Shopify Analytics to better understand who will buy (or who is currently buying) your products.
Then, use a buyer persona template to help you visualize your ideal customer profile. Detail the following:
- Demographic information: age, gender, geographic location, educational background, and socioeconomic status.
- Purchasing habits: How often your target market buys your type of product, and what similar products they currently buy?
- Decision-drivers: pain points, interests, needs, values, and goals.
Competitive analysis
To conduct a competitive analysis, identify your competitors, then analyze their products, pricing, marketing strategies, distribution channels, and customer base. Use this information to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
SWOT analysis
List your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). Use Shopify’s free SWOT analysis template to get started.
5. Marketing plan
Marketing plans explain how you’ll promote your business and convert sales. This will include:
Product positioning
Product positioning entails describing your product’s value proposition to your target market, how you want your primary audience to think and feel about your product. It also explores how your product fits within the competitive landscape and its unique selling proposition, or USP.
Brand messaging
Brand messaging includes the language and selling points you’ll use to market your products. You’ll need to develop a distinct brand identity and solidify your brand values.
Acquisition channels and tactics
Explain where you’ll attract new potential customers (your marketing channels) and how (your tactics). For example, maybe you’ll attract customers on social media through paid advertising.
Marketing tools
These are the technologies you’ll need to execute your marketing strategy (like email marketing software or social media management tools). Shopify Messaging, for example, helps you execute email and SMS marketing strategies. The Facebook & Instagram app for Shopify helps create targeted ads on Meta platforms and syncs with Shop Pay seamlessly.
Goals and metrics
These are the marketing objectives you want to reach (like a certain number of email sign-ups) and how you’ll define marketing success, such as measuring website traffic linked to certain campaigns).
Include how you’ll track progress toward your goals, including reports created by Shopify Analytics.
6. Logistics and operations plan
Here, you’ll explain everything that needs to happen to turn raw materials into products and get them into the hands of customers. A solid plan is important, but know that developing a quality supply chain can take time.
Sana of Diaspora Spice Co. visited more than 40 farms before landing on a supplier for her brand’s first product, turmeric. It then took seven months to set up import and export companies and an ecommerce business. Expanding her product line meant more time sourcing suppliers.
“We now sell 30 spices. It took me five years to find all of those 140 farmers that we now source from,” says Sana. “I’m an example of slow and sustainable. You can do it scrappily and just keep getting better.”
As you compile the logistics and operations section of your business plan, include information on the following:
- Suppliers and manufacturers. Where will you get your raw materials, and who will manufacture them into your final products?
- Production. How will your products be made? Detail the technologies and processes that facilitate manufacture.
- Inventory management. Will you store your inventory in your own warehouses or outsource storage to a third-party fulfillment partner? Or will you use a dropshipping model and not store any inventory?
- Shipping. Will you ship your products from your warehouses, or will a third-party fulfillment partner do this for you? Do you have any special shipping needs, like extra packaging for delicate products?
Mention any third-party tools you’ll use to streamline your logistics and operations strategies. For example, Shopify Flow helps manage your inventory and order fulfillment, among other tasks. Shopify Shipping helps do things like create shipping labels, recommend carriers for faster shipping, and validate addresses.
7. Financial plan
When you’re just starting out, you’ll want to outline the capital you have and your projected income and expenses. To ensure you understand both the short-term and long-term financials of your business, you’ll create two versions of each of these projections. One will look at the first year, broken down by month or quarter.
The second will look ahead to the five-year mark. You’ll assemble the latter into a five-year financial projection.
Business capital
Outline the capital you have on hand (any capital you’re contributing yourself or from friends and family) and the capital you plan to raise.
Projected revenue
Create a projection of the income that will flow into your business (such as from sales). If you’ve been in business for some time, you’ll use historical data.
If you’re just starting up, you’ll need to make estimates based on businesses like yours. This can be challenging if your business is the first of its kind.
“You’re sort of making your best guess,” Nicola Hamilton, founder of Toronto-based magazine store Issues, says on an episode of Shopify Masters. “There’s nothing like us in Canada, so it’s really hard to compare it, right? You can compare it to places in London, England, or Lisbon or New York, but those markets are different.”
While you want your business plan to be as accurate as possible, remember it’s not a guarantee. Focusing on guaranteed income streams rather than potential ones is one way to strengthen your projections.
Projected expenses
This is an account of the money you expect to flow out of your business.
If you’ve been in business for a while and you’re updating your business plan for investors or lenders, include your financial statements.
- Balance sheet. A record of your business’s assets and liabilities
- Cash flow statement. The cash flowing in and out of your business over a certain time period
- Income statement. Also known as a profit and loss statement, this shows you the company’s income and expenditures over a specific period of time.
Business plan examples
What does a financial projection look like on paper? How do you write an executive summary? What should your company overview include? Business plan examples can help answer some of these questions and help you transform your brick-and-mortar and/or online business idea into an actionable plan.
In Shopify’s business plan template, you’ll find a sample traditional and lean business plan featuring a fictional ecommerce business. These include examples for each section of the two business plans.
Here are a few example sections from a traditional business plan for the fictional Providence Tea Company:
Executive summary example
Providence Tea Company is a sustainable, socially conscious tea retailer that sources and sells high-quality, ethically sourced tea from small farms in India. Our mission is to support small local farmers and promote sustainable agriculture practices in the tea industry. We are one of the few organic specialty tea companies focused on sustainability, setting us apart from our competitors.
We offer a curated selection of premium teas, sourced from sustainable farms across India. Our teas are carefully hand-blended and packaged in elegant, eco-friendly packaging.
Providence Tea Company will be the go-to source for sustainable, premium tea, and has a strong and loyal customer base. With every purchase, we invest in employment opportunities, infrastructure, and education in order to combat poverty and promote sustainable growth for the communities we are a part of.
Discerning tea lovers who look for premium, high-quality teas and tea accessories make up our target market. They are health-conscious and environmentally conscious individuals who value sustainability and quality. Our marketing efforts focus on building a strong online presence and passionate community. Social media and influencer marketing are how we reach our target audience.
We seek investors to help grow our business and expand our customer base. In the next year, we project revenue of $3 million and a net profit of $550,000. We plan to invest in new retail locations, increase our online presence, and continue to source the best tea from India.
Our unique approach to sourcing and selling tea, combined with our experienced team, makes us well-positioned for success.
Market analysis example
Industry outlook:
The global market for at-home tea was valued at $144.69 billion in 2025, and it’s expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.57% through 2029. Our market analysis indicates there is strong demand for sustainable, ethically farmed tea among socially and environmentally conscious consumers, and that the market is growing. By targeting this market and offering sustainably sourced organic tea products, we can meet this demand and grow our business.
Target market:
Providence Tea Company’s target market is the health-conscious and environmentally conscious consumer. They are looking for high-quality, sustainably sourced organic tea. These people are professional young adults and health enthusiasts. Our target market:
- Buys organic tea from competitor brands to drink at home at least once per day
- Is concerned about the impact of conventional tea farming on the environment and passionate about supporting farms that offer fair wages
- Is passionate about supporting small businesses over large corporations
- Is committed to buying only fair trade and organic tea, and willing to pay a premium for these features
- Is interested in the health benefits of tea
Our target market is primarily made up of young US adults, with a median age of 25 to 34 years. This group is evenly split between men and women, and has a median household income of $100,000 to $125,000. The target market is also highly educated, with a majority having a college degree or higher.
Competitive analysis:
Competition in the sustainable tea market comes from three types of sellers:
1. Large, established tea brands. With significant market share and a wide range of tea products, including organic and fair trade options, these companies operate with an economy of scale and offer low prices. They do not have relationships with small farms, favoring larger ones instead.
2. Specialty tea shops. With a focus on high-quality, specialty teas, including organic and fair trade options, they typically have a loyal customer base, and may offer a more personalized shopping experience. However, their products are often more expensive than comparable ones sold online.
3. Other sustainable ecommerce tea companies. They offer products similar to ours and share similar values surrounding sustainability and ethical farming practices. They may also have similar target markets and marketing strategies.
SWOT analysis:
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Marketing plan example
Positioning statement:
Providence Tea Company’s organic and fair trade tea is sustainably grown and harvested. We support fair wages and good working conditions for tea workers. We believe high-quality, organic tea can support the environment, be socially responsible, and taste good, too.
Brand messaging:
Providence Tea Company centers its value on sustainable and socially conscious products in all of its external communications. In an approachable yet knowledgeable brand voice, we highlight two key selling points in our marketing materials: Our products are organic and they are all sourced from small farms.
Acquisition channels and tactics:
- Paid advertising. We use Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads to reach customers interested in sustainable and organic products. Targeted ads reach consumers searching for keywords related to organic tea, sustainable tea, and fair trade tea.
- Promotions and discounts. Our team offers promotions and discounts like free shipping, buy-one-get-one-free offers, and limited-time discounts advertised on our website, on our social media channels, and through our email newsletter.
- Public relations. We host sustainability focused in-person events at our headquarters biannually and partner with other sustainable brands to promote our products.
- Content marketing. We create and share valuable and engaging content, like blog posts and videos highlighting the sustainability and ethical sourcing of our tea. Our content educates consumers about the importance of sustainability to build brand trust and credibility with our target audience.
- Social media marketing. We use social media to share information about our products, sustainability practices, and ethical sourcing, and to connect with consumers interested in sustainable products.
Marketing tools:
- Providence Tea Company runs both of its ecommerce and physical stores on Shopify so we get a complete view into our sales, revenue, and identify growth opportunities. For marketing purposes, we use:
- Shopify Forms for email sign-ups
- Shopify Email for sending newsletters
- Shopify’s segmentation tools to segment our email list
- Shopify’s automation tools to send abandoned browsing and abandoned cart reminders
- The Shopify integration Smile for our loyalty program
- Shopify Analytics to track which social media channels drive the most traffic
- We use Google Analytics to measure the impact of our organic blog content and identify website traffic patterns.
- We use Google Ads and Meta Ads to run paid advertising campaigns.
Goals and metrics:
- We want to reach 10,000 Instagram followers by the end of the year.
- We want to grow our email list by 20% after the first year.
- We will measure the success of paid ad campaigns through click-through rate, aiming for 3%.
- We will measure the success of email campaigns through open rate and conversion rate, with goals of a 25% open rate and a conversion rate of 4%.
Benefits of writing a solid business plan
It’s tempting to dive right into execution when you’re excited about a new business or side project. Taking the time to write a thorough business plan allows you to do a number of beneficial things:
Test the viability of your business idea
A business plan can make your unique business idea more tangible, helping you understand whether or not it’s viable from a financial perspective. It can also help you figure out whether or not there’s a market for your products, or what’s known as product-market fit.
Plan for your next phase
Writing a business plan can illuminate the steps you need to take in order to tackle a big, abstract idea. For example, maybe you realize you didn’t think through the shipping and fulfillment process. You can then identify the tasks you need to complete and see a bigger picture of how long it will take to launch your business and make your first sale.
Build partnerships
When you need buy-in from employees and business partners, especially in the early stages of your business, a clearly written business plan is a persuasive asset. It can give potential employees the information they need to make an informed decision on whether or not they want to join your company.
Secure funds
Seeking financing for your business—whether from venture capital, banks, or other programs, like Shopify Capital*—is one of the most common reasons to create a business plan, because many lenders and investors require one before they invest.
While it’s certainly possible to launch an online store with no investment (perusing low investment business ideas can help you get started), attaining a loan can help grow your business.
“If it wasn’t for the business plan, I never would have gotten a loan,” says Stephanie Ibbitson, founder of handbag brand Sonya Lee, on Shopify Masters. “Getting a loan is incredibly difficult, so I really had to know what I was doing.”
Stephanie explains that lenders are hesitant to invest in fashion companies because the industry carries high-risk. Having a thorough plan detailing how she could deliver made Stephanie’s brand more attractive to lenders. With a loan, Stephanie was able to invest in fashion marketing, hire employees, and place a bulk order.
Why you should you use a template for a business plan
There are some key benefits to starting your plan from an existing outline or simple business plan template. Shopify’s business plan template adapts to a number of business types, from service businesses to nonprofits to ecommerce businesses.
Overcome writer’s block
A blank page can be intimidating, even to the most seasoned writers. Using a business plan template helps you get going by breaking down the writing process into actionable steps.
Learn what to include in each section
If you’ve never sat through a business class, you might have never created a balance sheet or a financial projection. Templates that offer guidance—in plain language—about how to fill in each section helps you navigate unfamiliar business jargon.
Expedite the research and writing process
Business plan templates consolidate essential elements into a single document. This lets you focus on thinking about your business instead of including the right details in each section.
Templates (like Shopify’s) that include examples also help speed up the writing process. You’ll learn what type of language to use and how to make your sections flow.
Tips for creating a successful business plan
- Understand the audience for your plan
- Take it step by step
- Maintain consistent voice and tone
- Don’t get stuck in the planning phase
These high-level strategies help you write an effective, complete plan while minimizing busywork.
Understand the audience for your plan
Your audience will dictate the points you emphasize and detail in your plan. Sometimes, that means leaving things out.
“The business plan that I wrote for the bank was different than the business plan I actually had in my brain,” says Nicola of Issues. “They just wanted to see that there was a world in which selling magazines could sustain itself.”
This meant only listing one revenue stream (selling magazines at her retail location) in her financial section. “The rest of our offering—everything else that supports the business—they were uninterested in,” says Nicola. Those included things like events programming and working as a magazine consultant. “Those were other streams of revenue that you couldn’t guarantee.”
Take it step by step
If writing a 10- to 15-page document sounds like a lot, tackle one section at a time. You can also start with a lean business plan and expand it to a traditional business plan later.
Start with the sections you feel most confident writing. Jot down bullet-point notes in each section before you start writing to organize your thoughts and streamline the writing process.
Maintain consistent voice and tone
Keeping your voice and tone consistent makes your business plan more professional. As you proofread your plan and check it for factual accuracy, pay attention to stylistic elements as well.
For example, if you adopt a highly formal tone in the first section, don’t switch to an informal one in the second. Visual elements should stay the same, too. If you start with the Times New Roman font, don’t switch to Arial halfway through.
You don’t need to create brand guidelines yet, just keep it consistent. Otherwise, it could be interpreted as “sloppy” or lacking “attention to detail,” (a red flag).
Don’t get stuck in the planning phase
Writing a business plan is an essential step in thinking through the logistical aspects of your business. It also helps other people understand how your company works. That said, there are some things you can only learn by doing.
“You don’t need to spend three years on your business plan,” says Michelle Shemilt, founder of sweat-proof undergarments brand Numi. “Getting into the market and learning and iterating is going to be the most important thing, because you can get stuck in that planning phase and then you’re never going to take action.”
*All loans through Shopify Capital Loans are issued by WebBank. Offers are subject to change based on several factors, including your store’s performance and the review of your financial information. Shopify Capital Loans must be paid in full within 18 months, and two minimum payments apply within the first two six-month periods. Offers to apply do not guarantee funding. Repayments are made based on a percentage of daily sales.
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Business plan template FAQ
What is the purpose of a business plan?
The purpose of your business plan is to describe a new business and its ability to sustain itself. A business plan explains a business’s products or services, place in the market, marketing plan, logistics and operations, finances, and expected growth.
How do I write a simple business plan?
1. Choose between a traditional business plan or a lean business plan format.
2. Find a business plan template, like Shopify’s free template.
3. Read through a business plan example.
4. Fill in the sections of your business plan template.
What is the best business plan template?
If you need help writing a business plan, Shopify’s template is one of the most beginner-friendly options you’ll find. It includes information on exactly what to add to each section and includes examples to help you see what your business plan should look like when it’s finished. It’s an adaptable template that you can use for a range of business types, from ecommerce businesses to nonprofits to retail stores.
What are the 5 essential parts of a business plan?
The five essential parts of a traditional business plan are:
- Executive summary. This is an overview of the business plan, summarizing the main points of the plan.
- Company overview. This section outlines the business concept and how it will be executed.
- Market analysis. This section provides an in-depth look at the target market and how the business will compete in the marketplace.
- Financial plan. This section details the financial projections for the business, including sales forecasts, capital requirements, and a cash-flow forecast.
- Logistics and operations plan. This section describes the business processes that will allow the business to bring its products to customers, like inventory storage and shipping.
Are there any free business plan templates?
There are several free business plan templates for small business owners available online, including Shopify’s own version.
Can ChatGPT write a full business plan?
ChatGPT technically can write a full business plan, but writing one yourself is the best way to develop your business idea. Consider using generative AI to turn your bullet-point ideas into full sentences, or ask it to read your business plan and provide feedback. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can make errors, so thoroughly fact-check the final result and share with real humans for feedback as well.





