How to Create a Small Business Plan
Are you finally ready to turn your business owner dreams into reality? Or maybe your hobby is suddenly growing into a second career? Whether you're considering starting a small business or upgrading a microbusiness to something more substantial, one thing is certain: you need a business plan. The good news? There's an easy way to get started—with help from FINSYNC and Fynn, their AI-powered business planning tool.
Here's an overview of how to get started, including one of the biggest questions many entrepreneurs have: Why do I need a small business plan anyway?
Who Your Business Plan Is For
If you're launching or growing a business, your free time is limited. If you're going to invest some of it into creating a small business plan, asking why and for whom you're writing it, is a worthy endeavor. These are the audiences you may be targeting:
- Funders: Whether you're applying for a business loan or seeking investors, a strong business plan makes the case for why getting involved with your company is a smart financial move.
- Potential Business Partners: To gain the support you need to grow, it’s important to help others understand your business. Partners—from local organizations to industry peers—may want to review your business plan to get to know your company and determine how they can contribute to your success.
- Management Employees: When it’s time to hire someone to oversee parts of your business, they—and your company—will benefit from having a full, clear picture of how your business operates and where it's going.
- You: Perhaps the most important reader is you. Creating a small business plan forces you to think through all aspects of your company, identify opportunities, plan for challenges, and understand your financial landscape. These are all critical components for long-term growth and stability.
How to Create a Business Plan
Not every successful small business plan looks exactly the same, but they all have the same impact: generating a holistic, honest view of your company, the business environment in which it operates, and your future plans.
Here's what it may include:
Executive Summary
This important opener is both short and broad. It's longer than an elevator pitch; it's closer in length and detail to what you might share with a prospective business partner over lunch. One page is ideal, but it could be two pages if needed.
Though it should be the first section of your small business plan, you may want to write it last. It will summarize all the information to come, so writing it last can ensure its accuracy. Just like the rest of your plan, it should include:
- Your business description
- Your product/service description
- Top line takeaways from your market research and analysis
- A marketing and sales plan overview
- A summary of your operations plan
- Your current financial analysis and/or funding request
- Financial projections
For an exercise in understanding how creating your business plan changes your view of your business, you can write a draft of what you expect the summary to look like at the beginning of the process and compare it to what you've learned in the final version.
Business Description
Why does your business exist? Who is it for? What are your goals? What is its value proposition? While your entire plan describes different aspects of your company, your business description should tell the overarching story. It should read a bit like a detailed sales pitch, getting readers excited to learn more about how it will all work. You can include goals in this section as well.
Product/Service Description
This section describes what your company will sell—and how that offering will be offered and delivered. If it's a product, describe its lifecycle. If you're a retailer, describe the type of inventory you'll stock and where it will come from. Service businesses should describe what the service is, where the underlying expertise comes from, and the value it brings to customers.
Market Research and Analysis
As unique as your business may be, it will likely fit into an existing industry—whether that's a broad category like a retail gift shop or a subcategory, like a fintech service provider. Your market research should analyze the industry environment your business will operate in. Identify your competitors, what they offer, and how your company will stand apart from them. Also include industry trends and explain how your company will align with, adapt to, or challenge those trends.
Marketing and Sales Plan
How will people discover your company and its offerings? How will you spark your audience's interest, and how will you retain existing customers? This section should outline your sales and marketing channels, planned activities, and the metrics you'll use to measure success.
Operations Plan
An operations plan looks under the hood of your business. What roles will exist? What responsibilities will each role carry? If you know who will be filling those positions, share their names and professional backgrounds.
Clarify your company’s legal structure. Will you form a limited liability company (LLC), incorporate as an S corp, or choose another option? Your company's legal structure is important and can determine how it is permitted to operate—like how you'll process payroll or pay yourself.
Financial Analysis and/or Funding Request
This section will vary depending on your audience. If the first version is primarily for you or your business partners, it could simply be a clear picture of your current finances, including assets, liabilities, and how you plan to generate income and cover expenses.
If you know you'll be sharing the business plan with a potential funder, also include a clear funding request. Specify the amount you need, and how you plan to fulfill the obligations of the financing agreement. This may simply be a plan to pay back a loan or an equity-sharing plan for investors.
Financial Projections
This section shifts the focus to the future. Share your financial expectations in monthly, quarterly, or annual intervals—or all three. If you're a start-up business, financial projections are informed estimates that you’ll refine over time. If you're already operating, include balance sheets, cash flow, and profit-and-loss statements as research for your future projections.
Appendix
The appendix is a reference section. Think of it as showing your work from some of the previous sections. You may include certifications, licenses, resumes, contracts, or any other financial or legal paperwork that supports the information in your small business plan.
A Resource for Getting Started
There are dozens of expressions about the importance of a good plan for a reason: You really can't get anywhere without one. The weight of having a business plan can be intimidating and overwhelming for busy entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners. Luckily, there is a useful tool from our partners at FISNYNC that can help you get started.
The free FINSYNC Business Plan tool, guided by Fynn, their AI-powered assistant, helps transform your business idea into a clear, actionable plan. Fynn combines smart, focused questions about your business to define how it will work and combines that with reputable insights from financial trends, market research, and industry conditions. Local partners like CO.STARTERS facilitators, chambers of commerce, and community lenders can provide hands-on support to help refine your plan and avoid common missteps.
Fynn then delivers a fully structured business plan tailored to your goals—ready to guide real business decisions.
Watch the video1 below to see Fynn in action, or visit FINSYNC’s website to learn more.
