Business Plan Board for Beginners: Fill In 8 Chapters and Finish Your First Plan

Business & Strategy

Business Plan Board for Beginners: Fill In 8 Chapters and Finish Your First Plan

A beginner-friendly business plan template for first-time founders and side-hustlers who need to know how to write a business plan and what belongs in each of the 8 chapters. On the whiteboard, the left page holds a table of the 8 chapters in two columns, what to write and an example, a 3C analysis in three columns and a 4P analysis in four; the right page holds who the plan is for, the five steps of the writing order, three frames of common criticism, a memo of the sales and cost figures and two pre-submission checklists. The task board has five columns, Gathering, Drafting, Numbers, Review and Done, with 4 parent tasks and 3 subtasks each, 16 in all, none of them started. Because every chapter tells you what to put in it, you never face a blank page, even for the first plan you hand to a lender. Amounts are in dollars. If researching the market feels hard, fill the 3C columns first and they become the draft of chapter 4, and the 4P columns become the draft of chapters 3 and 5.

0 Likes 0 Copies Author: WeProcess
business plan startup funding how to write a business plan small business beginner
Sign up free and use this template

Once you have a free account, you can copy this template from the marketplace

Whiteboard preview

Preview mode Business Plan Board for Beginners: Fill In 8 Chapters and Finish Your First Plan
Sign up free and use this template

Whiteboard preview

1. The 8 chapters (what to write, wit... 4. What a business plan is and who re... 5. The writing order (content, then n... 6. Common criticism (numbers) 7. Common criticism (content) 8. How to fix a comment 9. Where the figures come from (sales... 10. Before you submit (form) 11. Before you submit (content) Business Plan Out... How to use: (1) D... The goal and what... Chapters and deci... What readers pick on What your researc... What to write Example 1. Business summary What you sell, who to and how, in three lines.Write it last and put it first. e.g. ready meals for dual-income households, on a monthly plan, picked up on weekday evenings at the shop by the station or delivered. 2. Why you start Why you, of all people. Give the experience, the training and the trigger as facts. e.g. seven years in a deli, three as manager. Friends working two jobs kept asking what to eat at night. 3. Product and se... Items, price, cost and what sets you apart.Add a draft menu if you have one. e.g. $4.50 a meal (cost $1.80). Two sides included. A dietitian keeps the salt under 2 g. 4. Market and rivals Local population and households, the price and strength of three rivals, your winning angle. e.g. 4,200 dual-income households within 2 km. Two supermarkets and one lunchbox shop. Nobody hands food over after 9 pm. 5. Sales plan How people hear of you, how they buy, and how they keep buying. e.g. flyers outside nurseries and social posts. Half price the first month, then a plan of 8 meals a month. 6. Team and staff Who does what. Headcount, contract type and the wage bill. e.g. the owner (cooking and buying) plus two part-timers, 7 to 10 pm. Wages $2,300 a month. 7. Profit plan Sales, cost, expenses and profit month by month. Twelve months for year one. e.g. sales $9,000, cost $3,600, expenses $4,100, profit $1,300. Break-even is sales of $6,850. 8. Funding and ti... How much you need, where it comes from and what happens when. e.g. equipment $25,000 plus $8,000 working capital. Own funds $13,000 plus a $20,000 loan. Sign in March, open in May. 2. 3C analysis (m... CustomerBuyers and market Who buys, in one linee.g. households with two jobs who cannot cook after 8 pm on a weekday Give the local count a sourcee.g. 4,200 dual-income households within 2 km (2025 census) Use the buyer's own wordse.g. "no deli around here is open at nine" CompanyYour own business Put strengths in a form chapter 4 can usee.g. seven years in delis, 10 meals prepped in 20 minutes How much you can supply todaye.g. 80 meals a day (this ceiling caps the sales plan) Write one weakness tooe.g. no delivery experience (year one is mostly collection) CompetitorRivals Visit the three neareste.g. two supermarkets and one lunchbox shop Time the closing hour and note the pricee.g. $2.80 to $4.80 a meal, all shut at 9 pm Put the point you win on in one linee.g. nobody hands food over after 9 pm = the winning line for chapter 4 3. 4P analysis (m... ProductWhat you sell Narrow it to one thinge.g. a meal box of one main and two sides (salt under 2 g) PriceWhat you charge Put price and cost side by sidee.g. $4.50 (cost $1.80, a 40 per cent cost ratio) PlaceHow it reaches them Where you hand it overe.g. collection at the shop by the station and delivery within 2 km PromotionHow they hear Two ways at moste.g. flyers outside nurseries and social posts What a business plan ise.g. a document setting out what the business does and how much it needs and earns, in a form an outsider can judge. Five to ten A4 pages is usual. Who reads it (pick one)e.g. the small-business loan desk at your bank, reading it to decide on a $20,000 startup loan.Others: investors / sorting out your own thinking / a supplier The three things a reader wantsWill it really sell / can you pay it back / can this person do it.A plan that leaves any of the three unanswered comes straight back. 1. Gather the materialGet the local data, the rivals' prices and your own record to hand first.e.g. take the population from the census and buy something at all three rivals. It cuts the time spent staring at a blank page.Stick what you gather on the three … 2. Write chapters 3 to 6Fill them in order, product, then market, then selling, then people.This is the body of the plan. Write what you can state as fact and move on, leaving the doubtful parts blank.Fill the 4P analysis (board 3) before you write chapter 5. 3. Work out chapters 7 and 8Calculate in order, sales, cost, fixed costs, profit, then the money you need.Copy each figure onto the memo (board 9) so the source stays with it. 4. Write chapters 1 and 2Only once content and numbers are settled do you write the summary and the reason.Written last, the summary fits in three lines. Written first, it always gets rewritten.e.g. ready meals for dual-income households, picked up on weekday eveni… 5. Have it readAsk one person, family, someone in the trade or a support office.Add wherever they stumbled to boards 6 and 7, then fix it by adding one line of evidence. e.g. the sales figure rests on nothing but we will work hard e.g. cost and wages left out, so the profit looks too big e.g. the loan repayment is missing from the cash plan (the principal is not an expense, so cash still leaves in a profitable month) Explain every figure as unit price times quantity e.g. writing that you have no competitors e.g. the buyer ends up being everyone e.g. your own experience has nothing to do with the business Make the chapters that answer will it really sell the thickest Do not delete the comment, add one line of evidence and fix it Park a figure you cannot get yet and write the source beside it e.g. 4,200 households within 2 km (2025 census) Keep the date of each fix and never overwrite the old version Where the sales figure comes frome.g. $4.50 x 80 meals x 25 days = $9,000 a month.The 80 comes from timing the rivals and from how much you can prep. Cost and variable spende.g. $1.80 of ingredients a meal (40 per cent of the $4.50 price). At 2,000 meals a month that is $3,600.Boxes and packing sit inside the $4,100 of expenses in chapter 7. Keep the quotes from both suppliers. Fixed costs and repaymente.g. rent $1,200, wages $2,300, utilities $350, packing and sundries $250, giving $4,100 of expenses.On top of that $350 of loan repayment leaves in cash (the principal is not an expense). All 8 chapters are there No figure contradicts another from chapter to chapter One currency throughout, with no mixing of units Read it once through for typos and name spellings Chapters 4 and 5 answer will it really sell Chapters 7 and 8 answer can you pay it back Chapters 2 to 6 answer can this person do it A stranger who reads it can explain the business in three minutes
100%

Drag to move, scroll to zoom

Task board contents

Gathering 16 items

Learn the 8 chapters
Write the content
Build the numbers
Finish and submit
Pick your reader
List the 8 chapters
Read a sample plan
Describe the offer
Research the market
Plan how you sell
Forecast the sales
List the costs
Write the funding
Write the summary
Get a second read
Final check

Drafting 0 items

Numbers 0 items

Review 0 items

Done 0 items