Business plan basics: idea, mission and vision

Video: how to fill in the basics of your business plan.

A banker reads the first paragraph of your plan with one question in mind: do I understand right away what this business does and why it will work? The basics of your plan give that answer. It is a short section, but it is the part people read first.

Five short steps

1. 01

   Business idea

   In four to six sentences: what you do, for whom, and which problem you solve. This is the pitch a financier reads first.

2. 02

   Mission

   Why your business exists and what you do for your clients every day. A mission describes the present.

3. 03

   Vision

   Where your business wants to be a few years from now. The vision gives direction to the choices later in the plan.

4. 04

   Name

   The name of your business, with a short explanation of why you chose it.

5. 05

   Start date and legal form

   These details appear on the first page of your plan. The start date is also where your financial planning begins.

A business idea that sticks

At the top of every step, a colored block explains what belongs in the field. More info, below the field, gives you extra guidance. Use it as a checklist: does it mention the client, the problem you solve and how you solve it?

The salon in our demo opens with: a hair salon in De Pijp, Amsterdam, for women and men who want a regular stylist who knows their hair and runs on time. Then comes the solution: a regular stylist for every client, online booking and a short hair analysis on the first visit, by a team that works in Dutch and English. In a few sentences, the reader knows who the salon is for and why clients come back.

Improve and Inspire

Below every text field are two AI buttons. Inspire writes an example for your industry, which helps when you don't know how to start. Improve rewrites your own text. You then see your current version on the left and the suggestion on the right, and you choose: accept it or ignore it.