Business Plan: Fill & Download for Free

There was never a business plan for Wikipedia.I'm not a big believer in business plans unless you're doing something that is already well-understood like opening a restaurant or car dealership.For something completely new, the business plan is going to be a bunch of made-up nonsense.

A Business Plan is a road map that provides directions so a business can plan its future and helps it avoid bumps in the road. The fact is, more businesses fail each year all because of lack of business plan, without a business plan a business is prompt to crumble easily.In 2014, there were 514,332 new businesses started in the United States; unfortunately, there were 548,159 closures and most of the reason for the business failures was lack of business plan.To have a business success and not a business failure, you need a business plan, a viable strategic and tactical plan. You can seek help, and be smart about how you set up your business and how much you spend to do that.

Here's the thing. If you're a startup company, making a long drawn out business plan is a waste of everyone's time.The Lean Canvas is a great way to gather rapid insight into your business in the early stages. It will take you 5 minutes. All you have to do is answer all of these questions on an A4 piece of paper:A) ProblemDefine the top three problems your customer hasB) SolutionGive one sentence describing your solution. Include at least three differentiating features your product will have.C) Unique Value Proposition (UVP)How are you at least 10% better than your competitors? Why are you different to the 50 other companies out there?D) Unfair AdvantageWhat do you have that can't be easily bought or copied?E) Customer SegmentsWho are your target customers?F) Key MetricsHow will you measure success? Sign ups? Views? Clicks? Subscriptions?G) ChannelsHow will you reach your target customers? Will you be using Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Affiliate marketing?H) Cost StructureHow much will you be paying to acquire a customer? How much are you paying to distribute the good/service?I) Revenue StreamsHow will you make money? Where do you expect to make your money? What is the lifetime value of your customers? What is your gross margin?Answering all these questions is a really quick and basic way to flesh out your business plan on paper. Continually make changes to your Lean Canvas by doing constant customer evaluations. Iterate. Iterate. Iterate.Best of luck!This was taken from my answer: How can I write a good business plan in one week or less? How can I start?