Business plan example and template: learn from a worked plan, then write your own

A business plan example is the quickest way to see what a finished plan looks like. Used carelessly, it is also the quickest way to end up with a plan that reads like everyone else's. Lenders and advisers see many plans, and they recognise borrowed paragraphs and round numbers with nothing behind them within minutes.

This page combines a business plan example and template. You get a short worked plan for a fictitious bike workshop, one or two lines per chapter, so you can see the level of detail a reader expects. Below it is an outline of chapters you can copy as a checklist, followed by a method for using any example well. The figures are in euros, but the structure works in any currency and any country.

Which kind of business plan example do you need?

Examples come in three forms, and each is useful for something different.

Decide also how long your plan needs to be. The US Small Business Administration distinguishes a traditional plan, which can run to dozens of pages and which lenders and investors often ask for, from a lean plan that typically fits on one page (source: US Small Business Administration, September 2026). Write the lean version first to test the logic; expand it when a lender, landlord or investor needs the detail.

A business plan example in miniature: Chainline Bike Workshop

Leo has worked for eight years as a mechanic at a bike dealer. He wants to open his own workshop in a mid-sized town with a lot of commuter cycling. This is his plan, reduced to the essentials of each chapter.

Fictitious Firmfocus example. Amounts exclude VAT. The full calculations are in the guides on startup costs, the financing plan, the sales forecast, the profit and loss forecast and the cash flow forecast.

Notice what makes this example work. Each line contains something a reader can check: a price, a volume, a competitor's waiting time, a contract. None of it says "high-quality service" or "a growing market" without saying how Leo knows.

Business plan template: the chapters to copy

Use this outline as your template. Tick off a chapter only when it answers the question in its line.

• Executive summary: what you will do, for whom, how much money you need and why it will work. Write it last and keep it to one page.
• Founder and team: experience, training and network, and the gaps you cover with advisers or partners.
• Offer and prices: the products or services, what customers pay, and what they get that they cannot easily get elsewhere.
• Market and customers: who buys, how many there are within reach, and the evidence: conversations, pre-orders, letters of intent, tests.
• Competition and positioning: who else serves these customers and why some of them would switch to you.
• Marketing and sales: channels, budget and what you expect each channel to bring in.
• Operations: location, suppliers, opening hours, capacity per day or week.
• Organisation and legal: legal structure, licences, insurance and staffing plans.
• Financial plan: startup costs, financing plan, sales forecast, profit and loss forecast, cash flow forecast and your personal budget.
• Risks and scenarios: the two or three assumptions that matter most, a low scenario, and what you would do if it happens.
• Appendices: quotes, CVs, market research, a draft lease, letters of intent.

For a step-by-step guide to writing each chapter, see writing your business plan.

How to use a business plan example well

1. 01

   Copy the structure, not the text

   Take the chapter order, the length per chapter and the level of detail. Write every sentence yourself. A lender wants to hear how you think, and a paragraph lifted from an example tells them nothing about that.

2. 02

   Replace example figures with your own evidence

   For each number, note where it comes from: a quote, a contract, your track record, an industry figure or a test. Leo's 2,000 repair jobs are 8 a day over 250 working days, which matches the 6 hours of repair work a day he managed at the dealer.

3. 03

   Let someone else read it

   Ask an accountant, an adviser or someone who runs a business in your trade to find the weakest assumption. The Firmfocus Advisor can also challenge your reasoning before a lender does.

Checklist for your own business plan

• The request is clear: the summary states how much you need, what for and over what period.
• Revenue is built up: every revenue line is a volume times a price, with a source for both.
• Costs are supported: the larger startup costs are backed by quotes.
• The two columns match: total financing equals total startup costs.
• You are paid: the forecasts include drawings or a salary for you.
• Cash is monthly: the cash flow forecast includes VAT or sales tax, repayments and drawings.
• The text matches the tables: a figure in chapter one is the same figure in the appendix.
• The format fits the reader: you have checked whether your lender or programme requires its own template.

Short plan or full plan

Pitfalls when working from an example

• Example figures left in: margins or rents from someone else's plan that nobody has checked for your location.
• A market chapter without a market: national statistics that say nothing about the customers within your reach.
• A plan and a spreadsheet that disagree: the text promises growth the budgets do not show, or the reverse.
• The hockey stick: modest months followed by a steep climb, with no reason given for the climb.

Once the outline is filled in, the financial chapters take the most work. The overview of business plan financials explains each budget, and Start a business collects every guide for new founders.