If you are trying to figure out how to write a business plan, you are not alone. It is one of the most searched questions founders ask, and most of the answers out there are generic fluff written by people who have never submitted a plan to a lender.
Most of the business plans I see from founders who come to us have the same problem. They read like a college paper. Lots of words, very little substance, and nothing that would make a lender or investor feel confident enough to write a check.
A business plan is not an essay about your dreams. It is a financial and strategic argument for why your business will work. And if you cannot make that argument clearly on paper, you will not be able to make it in a room with someone who controls the capital you need.
The Exceptional Plan has written business plans for founders across 65+ countries. We have facilitated more than $2.2 billion in funding and we hold a 100% SBA approval rate. This is how we approach every plan we build, and how you should approach yours.
The best business plan is the one that answers every question a lender will ask before they ask it. If they have to call you for clarification, you already lost ground.
Before You Write Anything
Sit down and get clear on three things. What are you building. Who are you building it for. And how much money do you need to get it off the ground.
If you cannot answer those three questions in two sentences each, you are not ready to write a business plan. You are still in the idea stage, and that is fine, but do not confuse brainstorming with planning. They are different activities.
Once you have those answers locked, everything else in the plan is just proving them out with data, structure, and projections.
The Executive Summary
Write this last. I know it goes first in the document, but you cannot summarize something you have not built yet.
The executive summary is one to two pages that cover what your business does, who it serves, where it operates, how it makes money, how much funding you are requesting, and what you will do with it. That is it. No inspirational quotes. No “we are passionate about.” Just the facts, clearly stated, in the order a lender would want to read them.
Think about it this way. If your lender only has three minutes and they will only read one section, this is the one. Make it count.
Company Description
This is where you tell the reader what your business actually is. Legal name. DBA if you have one. Entity type. State of formation. Founding date. Principal address. Ownership breakdown with percentages.
Then you write the narrative. What does this company do, who does it serve, and what makes it different from the 47 other businesses in the same space. If you need help structuring this section, we put together a full guide on how to write a business description that walks through each piece.
Do not skip the ownership breakdown. Lenders care about who owns what because it affects personal guarantee requirements and decision making authority. If there are multiple owners, list all of them with their percentage and role.
Market Analysis
This is where most DIY business plans completely fall apart. And I say that with love, because I have rewritten hundreds of them.
The market analysis is not a Wikipedia summary of your industry. It is a researched, data driven argument that proves there is demand for what you are selling, in the geography you are selling it, to the customer you are targeting, at the price point you have set.
Start with your Total Addressable Market. That is the big number. The entire universe of potential revenue if you somehow captured every customer in your space. Then narrow it to your Serviceable Addressable Market, which is the slice you could realistically reach based on your location, capacity, and business model. Then narrow again to your Serviceable Obtainable Market, which is what you can actually capture in years one through three.
Your competitive analysis needs to name names. Not “there are several competitors in the area.” Name them. State what they do well. State where they fall short. And explain specifically how you fill that gap. If you want to understand how market research shapes a business plan, we wrote a full piece on it.
Lenders do not want to hear that you have no competition. That is a red flag, not a selling point. It either means you have not done the research or the market does not exist.
Products and Services
Describe what you sell. How you deliver it. What it costs. What your margins look like.
If you have multiple revenue streams, break each one out separately. A coffee shop that also sells retail bags and offers catering has three revenue streams, and a lender wants to see each one modeled independently.
Include anything proprietary. Patents, trademarks, trade secrets, exclusive supplier agreements, proprietary processes. These are competitive moats and they matter to investors.
If your product is still in development, be honest about it. State where you are in the build, what the timeline looks like, and what milestones need to hit before you can launch. Lenders and investors are not allergic to pre-revenue businesses. They are allergic to founders who pretend they are further along than they are.
Marketing and Sales Strategy
How will people find you. How will you convert them. How much will it cost to acquire a customer. And what is that customer worth to you over time.
Those four questions are the entire marketing section. Everything else is detail supporting those answers.
Get specific. Do not write “we will use social media marketing.” Write “we will run paid Instagram campaigns targeting women ages 28 to 42 within a 15 mile radius, with a $2,000 monthly ad budget and a target customer acquisition cost of $35.” That is a plan. The other one is a wish.
If you already have a growth strategy, layer it in here. Show the lender or investor what the first 12 months look like from a marketing execution standpoint, with specific channels, budgets, and KPIs.
Organizational Structure
Who is on the team and why are they the right people.
For solo founders, this section is about credibility. What in your background makes you qualified to run this business. What experience have you had that is directly transferable. And who are you going to hire first when the revenue supports it.
For multi-person teams, include bios for every founder and key team member. Focus on relevant experience, not life stories. The lender does not care where you went to high school. They care that you spent eight years managing a restaurant before opening your own.
If you have advisors or a board, include them. Outside credibility reinforces the plan.
Financial Projections
This is the section where the plan lives or dies.
Your financial projections should include a projected income statement (profit and loss) for three to five years, a balance sheet, a cash flow statement, and a break-even analysis. If you are applying for an SBA loan, you need to demonstrate a Debt Service Coverage Ratio of at least 1.25x, meaning for every dollar of debt payment, you generate $1.25 in net operating income.
Build your projections from the bottom up, not the top down. Do not start with “the market is $10 billion and we will capture 1%.” Start with how many units you can sell per day, at what price, with what cost of goods, and what overhead. Then multiply out.
Every assumption needs a footnote or a supporting data point. If you say revenue will be $40,000 in month one, show the math. How many customers per day, at what average ticket, with what conversion rate from your marketing spend. If you cannot defend the number, take it out.
The Exceptional Plan builds every financial model from scratch using the client’s actual business data, not templates. Our models are typically 8 to 14 tabs deep and they are stress tested against industry benchmarks before we submit to a lender.
Funding Request
State the number. State the type of funding. State exactly what the money will be used for.
“We are requesting $350,000 in SBA 7(a) financing” is a good start. Then break it down. $120,000 for build-out and leasehold improvements. $65,000 for equipment. $30,000 for initial inventory. $45,000 for pre-opening marketing and deposits. $90,000 for working capital to cover the first six months of operations.
When a lender sees that level of detail, they know you have done the work. When they see “working capital” as a single line item for $350,000, they know you have not.
Appendix
The appendix is where you put everything that supports the plan. Resumes, tax returns, bank statements, lease agreements, LOIs, licenses, permits, franchise agreements, supplier quotes, and any other documentation your lender or investor has requested.
For SBA loans, the appendix can be as long as the plan itself. That is normal. Your lender will have a document checklist during underwriting, and being able to hand them a complete package on day one saves weeks.
How Long Should This Be?
As long as it needs to be and not one page longer.
An SBA business plan from The Exceptional Plan typically runs 40 to 60 pages with financials. An investor plan might be 25 to 40 depending on the complexity. A strategic internal plan for an existing business could be 15 to 20.
The length is dictated by the audience and the complexity of the business. A single-unit franchise with a proven model needs less narrative than a biotech startup seeking Series A. But both need the same level of financial rigor.
The Real Talk
I have seen founders spend four months trying to write their own business plan and end up with something that gets rejected in 48 hours. I have also seen founders invest in professional support and get funded within 30 days of submission.
The business plan is not the place to cut corners. It is the document that unlocks everything else. The funding, the team, the location, the inventory, the first customer. If the plan is weak, everything downstream is harder.
If you are exploring whether to hire a professional planner, we wrote a guide on what to look for in a business planner and what the investment looks like.
And if you are ready to stop spinning your wheels and start building, book a free strategy call with our team. We will look at where you are, where you are trying to go, and what the right next step looks like. No pitch. Just clarity.
You can also call us directly at 316-218-9898.
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The Exceptional Plan is the only full lifecycle business consulting firm that takes founders from business plan through funding, growth strategy, and eventual exit under one roof. If you came here looking for how to write a business plan, now you know what the process looks like when it is done right. We have worked with businesses across 65+ countries and facilitated over $2.2 billion in funding with a 100% SBA approval rate.