Build A Business Plan with our Walkthrough Form

Are you ready to bring that new idea to life?

Starting a business is both rewarding and stressful. Getting all the pieces pulled together, managing funds, finding out you need more funds, time and help. All this stress can be easily handled, and controlled, when we create a proper business plan.

What Does a Business Plan Do?

Business plans help you create consistency within your brand, operations, and mission. They help establish goals and purpose, operations, guidelines, products, services, and more.

They are crucial when forming a brand, because they shape your company’s behavior, atmosphere, attitude and goals.

They can range from 3-5 pages or be hundreds of pages. The more detailed, the better. They are not set-in-stone and may be modified through time to adapt to the changing of times, and any other directions your business may sway towards.

You and your partners should be able to rely on your business plan to help you make decisions or plan for your future. Designers like me enjoy business plans because they allow us to create to see your vision and create consistency in our messaging.

What’s in a Business Plan?

A good starting layout for your business plan should look something like this:

Executive Summary
Company Description
Visual Identity and Style
Product and Service Lists (categorize)
Market Analysis
Marketing and Sales Strategy
Financial Plan (projections if possible)

Each can be broken down further to include topics like competitor research, target audience identification, or other elements that are crucial to your brand development like Visual Identity elements.

Now, let’s dive deeper into these sections and create our own Business Plan along the way.

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Step 1 of 12 – Build A Business Plan

Build A Business Plan

The goal of this form is to educate and create a business plan that you can save, download and use whenever you’re asked “What’s your plan?”

This Business Plan is free to create and download with no obligation to TMIV Design. Save your progress and you’ll be sent an email that will allow you to pick up where you left off.

When the form is completed you’ll receive a PDF of the document!

Let’s Get Started!

First, Tell Us About You

This information will save your progress and send you links to continue or download your business plan.

Name*

First Last

Phone*

Email*

Now, Tell Us About Your Business

Business Name

Enitity Type

EIN / Tax ID

Industry

Business Type

Business Address

Street Address Address Line 2 City State Zip Code

Business Phone

Business Email

Business Website

Great! Now that we have all your information we can start the fun stuff.

Remember you can always save your progress and come back. You’ll receive a link through your email to return where you left off.

Company Description

The first part of creating a Business Plan is defining who you are as a company. Every company has it’s own identity. Take control of your own brand’s identity by declaring who you are and what your purpose is.

Write 2-5 paragraphs introducing your brand.

Company Description*

Mission Statement

Using the description of your company above, create a Mission Statement. Mission Statements are best kept in 2-4 sentences, but they may be longer.

Tagline / Slogan

Taglines / Slogans are best kept in 2-5 words. “Just Do It”, “Impossible Is Nothing”, etc. These phrases become synonymous to your brand. Think Puns, Rhymes, or Inspirational Quotes.

List 3 Adjectives to Describe your company

Adjective 1

Adjective 2

Adjective 3

Visual Identity

This section is to define your appearance! Upload your logo, tagline, color codes and typefaces (fonts). Add your styleguide to this section if you have one!

Style Guide

Max. file size: 512 MB.

Logo

Max. file size: 512 MB.

Colors (hexcode)

Symbols / Art

Max. file size: 512 MB.

Typography (fonts)

Products and Services

Products and Services can be tailored to your brand through a variety of ways. The key is to find what makes your products or services special. How do they relate to your target audience’s immediate needs? What problems do they solve?

Product and Service List

Product/Service

Benefit and Other Selling Factors

Industry Overview

Understanding your industry and your competition is crucial to creating a successful business plan and identity. The success and failures of your competition can be used to your own advantage.

When is the peak season for the industry?
Where do they advertise?
What social media platforms do they use and which audiences are being targeted?
What messages are being shared?

When doing market research pinpoint the similarities and uniqueness of others in the market. Then find a market gap that your business can fill.

List Competitors, their Unique Selling Values and Personality Type

Competitor Name

Selling Values

Personality/Style

Industry Trends

Marketing Trends

What will make your company different from the competition?

Industry Overview

Using your knowledge of the market and industry, consider where you fit within the market. Who is your target audience?

Each audience has it’s own interests and needs. So, it’s best to define who is most likely to become a long-term customer of your brand. Narrowing down your target audience will allow you to form a brand that relates closely with your customers to form a trustful bond.

Competitor Analysis

Using your knowledge of the market and industry, consider where you fit within the market. Understanding your competitors strengths and placement will help you differentiate yourself from them.

Competitor SWOT Analysis

Company Name

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Troubles

List each competitor and name their strengths and benefits, their weaknesses and downfalls, the opportunities they receive and how they receive them, and the troubles they have to deal with or overcome. Include your brand in the analysis. Startups can predict scenarios.

Your Brand's SWOT Analysis

Capitalize on Strengths

Ways to Improve Weaknesses

Opportunities to Take Advantage of

Prepare for Troubles

How will your brand use the SWOT analysis to improve the quality and trust of your brand? List ways you can capitalize and prepare for the ups and downs of business.

Define Your Audience

Now that you have a good idea of your industry, competitors and where your business can position itself; we can start forming our own plan.

List Demographics

List Psychographics

List Shopping Behaviors

Other Notable Audience Traits

Describe your Target Audience

Creating a Sales Strategy

Keeping your target audience and spending behaviors in mind, let’s make our Sales Plan!

Unique Selling Value

A unique selling value is the main thing that separates your brand, products and services from competitors.

Create a Sales Pitch

List Products and Benefits They Provide

Product

Benefits

Cross-Selling

Product / Category

Cross-Sell Categories

List Products or Categories that are often used together or perform similar functions.

List Objections and Ways of Overturning

Objection

Overturn

Overturning objections actually builds trust with customers. An estimated 60% of consumers will say “no” multiple times before making a purchase. Learn how to overturn by understanding consumer doubt, risk and hesitation.

Operations and Management

This section of your business plan should include information related to the business operations and management needs. It should include things like equipment, products, materials, software, programs and other business expenses.

Equipment Needs

Equipment

Cost

Software and Tech Needs

Software

Cost

Other Expenses

Cost

Financial Planning

It’s no surprise that a big part of building a business is creating a financial plan. When making a financial plan you should always over assume costs and expenses, be prepared for inflation and industry down-times.

Financial Tips

Revenue: Amount of income generated by the sales of goods and services.
Profit: Amount of income that remains after all expenses are paid.
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): The expenses of producing your products and services.
Gross Profit Margin = (Revenue – COGS) / Revenue

Markup Prices 20-50% of COGS
Gross Profit Margins tend to be around 7-15%
Spend 10-30% of Revenue on Advertising
Shoot to Save/Reserve 10% of your business profits for investment, growth and security.

TMIV Design is not a financial planner or accountant. These percentages are not set in stone. Your business will have it’s own needs. Hiring a reliable and trusted financial advisor is recommended for your brand’s growth.

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Author: TMIV

Tom Murphy, IV is a multimedia specialist and creative marketer from Central, PA. Working with small businesses, entrepreneurs and entertainers to set and meet their goals.

Creating A Business Plan

Are you ready to bring that new idea to life?

What Does a Business Plan Do?

What’s in a Business Plan?

Build A Business Plan

Let’s Get Started!

First, Tell Us About You

Now, Tell Us About Your Business

Great! Now that we have all your information we can start the fun stuff.

Company Description

Visual Identity

Products and Services

Industry Overview

Industry Overview

Competitor Analysis

Define Your Audience

Creating a Sales Strategy

Operations and Management

Financial Planning

Financial Tips

Author: TMIV

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