The Ultimate Business Plan Template

1. To-Do today

1.1. Modeling and Messaging

1.1.1. Modeling (Leadership by example)

1.1.1.1. The ONE Thing

1.1.1.1.1. Eisenhower Decision Matrix

1.1.1.1.2. Ask Yourself: "What's the one thing I can do, RIGHT NOW, such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"

1.1.2. Messaging (Communication)

1.1.2.1. Messaging is about consistently communicating your vision and your progress towards the vision with both your internal team and your external community of loyal customers.

1.1.2.2. How do you communicate hot news and enthusiastic encouragement to your team?!

1.1.2.3. How do you communicate value to your customers in order to create top of mind awareness?!

1.1.2.4. Does your organization's messaging reiterate the Purpose and Why?

2. Resources provide leverage via systems so you can focus on what you do best

2.1. TSheets

2.1.1. Humanity

2.1.1.1. WhenIWork

2.2. Expensify

2.3. Verify.cc

2.4. Quickbooks Online

2.5. Wrike

2.6. Mindmeister

2.6.1. Meiestertask

2.6.1.1. Zapier

2.7. MyCompanyWorks

2.8. LegalZoom

2.9. Legal Shield

2.10. Logomyway

2.11. 99Designs

2.12. UpWork

2.13. Zendesk

2.14. Payroll Automation

2.15. Problem Solving Activities

2.16. Logical Thinking

2.17. Uber Conference

2.18. LIFE Leadership Development

2.19. Skill Development Resources

2.20. Tools for creating visual images

2.21. Track Metrics

2.22. FedEquip

2.23. Cake.hr

2.24. Grasshopper

2.25. SmartLine

3. Sales and Marketing is the engine and qualified prospects are the fuel... keep your engine running

3.1. The 6 Scientific Principles of Persuasion

3.1.1. Reciprocity

3.1.1.1. Obligation to give when you receive

3.1.1.2. Be the first to give

3.1.1.3. Give something personalized and unexpected

3.1.1.4. What can you give to begin the conversation?

3.1.1.4.1. Sincere Compliments

3.1.2. Scarcity

3.1.2.1. People want more of those things they can have less of

3.1.2.2. Promote:

3.1.2.2.1. Benefits

3.1.2.2.2. Uniqueness

3.1.2.2.3. What they stand to lose

3.1.2.3. Do we highlight the value because of rarity?

3.1.3. Authority

3.1.3.1. People will follow credible knowledgeable experts

3.1.3.2. Signal that you are an authority by getting someone else to say you are

3.1.3.3. Who else can proclaim your authority?

3.1.4. Consistency

3.1.4.1. Looking for and asking for commitments that can be made

3.1.4.2. Look for voluntary, active, public commitments

3.1.4.2.1. Get those commitments in writing

3.1.4.3. Are you asking trial closes?

3.1.5. Liking

3.1.5.1. We like people that are:

3.1.5.1.1. Similar

3.1.5.1.2. Who pay us complements

3.1.5.1.3. Who cooperate with us toward mutual goals

3.1.5.2. Look for areas of commonality and genuine compliments you can give BEFORE business

3.1.5.3. Are you asking enough sincere questions about them and their needs?

3.1.5.3.1. Are you relatable?

3.1.6. Concensus

3.1.6.1. People will look to the actions and behaviors of others to determine their own

3.1.6.2. Highlight what others who are similar are doing

3.1.6.3. All of the pilots have gone into business

3.1.6.4. Who are you edifying for credibility?

3.2. Who is the target Demographic/ Customer Profile Defined?

3.2.1. Customer Profile

3.2.1.1. Age Range

3.2.1.2. Income Range

3.2.1.3. Lifestyle

3.2.1.4. Geography

3.2.1.5. Title

3.2.1.6. Industry

3.2.1.7. What do these customers want and need?

3.2.1.8. How do these customers like to find solutions?

3.2.1.9. How much are they willing to pay for the solutions?

3.2.2. TAM

3.2.2.1. Total Available Market is the total market demand for a product or service.

3.2.2.1.1. Market Cap

3.2.3. SAM

3.2.3.1. Serviceable Available Market is the segment of the TAM targeted by your products and services which is within your geographical reach.

3.2.4. SOM

3.2.4.1. Serviceable Obtainable Market is the portion of SAM that you can capture.

3.2.4.1.1. Market Share

3.2.5. Market Adoption

3.3. Which marketing channels do they frequent?

3.3.1. Is your website organized with a specific purpose/function?

3.4. How much company budget and personnel is needed to manage advertising channels?

3.5. What are the selling and pain points customers are interested in?

3.6. Where else can they get their needs met?

3.7. What value do we give prospects for giving us permission to contact them? (Call to action)

3.8. Lead Capture

3.8.1. How do we make it easy/painless for them to request additional info?

3.9. Lead Nurturing

3.9.1. What are the main questions we want to answer during our lead nurturing process?

3.10. Lead conversion

3.10.1. What is the next step for the prospect?

3.11. Setting Qualified Appointments

3.11.1. The Law of Averages

3.12. 4 stages of sales cycle

3.12.1. Build Rapport

3.12.2. Identify THEIR need

3.12.3. Tie their need to our solution

3.12.4. Problem solve to help them get what they want and need

3.13. Customer service

3.13.1. How do we create top of mind awareness with our customers?

3.14. Key Ideas for Marketing

3.14.1. Start with a professional website and blog

3.14.1.1. http://webdesign.about.com/od/webdesigntutorials/a/aa070504.htm

3.14.1.2. http://websitehelpers.com/design/

3.14.1.3. http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/tips-812580

3.14.1.4. http://www.wix.com/blog/2014/03/5-web-design-tips-for-a-professional-site/

3.14.1.5. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/5-tips-to-simplify-your-web-design/

3.14.1.6. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/5-tips-to-simplify-your-web-design/

3.14.1.7. http://www.howdesign.com/featured/web-design-tips-7-common-mistakes-designers-make/

3.14.1.8. http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/03/27/25-web-design-tips-to-honor-25-years-of-the-web/

3.14.1.9. http://www.cio.com/article/2385250/online-marketing/13-simple-tips-for-improving-your-web-design.html

3.14.2. Do creative things to get customer attention

3.14.3. Use your domain for knowledge and visibility

3.14.4. Focus on partners and referrals

3.14.5. Generate leads from multiple sources

3.15. Identify and develop relationships with the influencers of your key social networks

3.15.1. (Leverage pre-existing networks)

4. Start with your "Golden Circle"

4.1. Why you do what you do

4.1.1. What is your purpose?

4.1.2. You're not looking to do business with people who need what you do. Instead you're looking to do business with people who believe what you believe!

4.1.3. Spend sufficient time to craft the perfect words for your mission/vision. This document will serve as your internal compass or guiding north star and will be communicated from top down and internally to externally

4.2. How you do it

4.2.1. What is your differentiation?

4.2.2. What is your value proposition?

4.3. What you do

4.3.1. What need do you solve?

4.3.2. What is your product or service?

5. Build your foundation on Economic Principles

5.1. 4 Pre-requisites for successful business

5.1.1. Does your solution apply to a Huge Expanding Market?

5.1.2. Do you offer a Unique & Consumable Product?

5.1.2.1. Otherwise you will be forced to compete on price and convenience while battling the forces of commoditization

5.1.3. Do you understand what creates Timing of the Market Trends and where does your solution fit in the current trend?

5.1.4. Does your program allow people to Get leverage through systems?

5.2. Supply and Demand

5.2.1. Who do you serve?

5.2.1.1. Do you have all of your stakeholders defined and organized by priority?

5.2.1.1.1. Do you understand and manage what each stakeholders expects from you?

5.2.1.2. What is their need?

5.2.1.3. How do you prioritize decisions by their impact on stakeholders?

5.2.2. How else can the need be solved?

5.2.2.1. Competitor Landscape

5.2.3. Do people know they have the need or must they be educated?

5.2.3.1. Is there pre-existing demand that is unfulfilled or must demand be manufactured?

5.2.3.2. Habit change is possible with enough time and money, but you must meet your market where they are at.

5.3. Does your organization have Alignment, Coherence, & Congruence from Vision to Mission to Capacity to Learning Systems

5.3.1. Vision

5.3.1.1. What does the culture look and feel like for your stakeholders in the future?

5.3.1.2. Who do you want to be when you grow up and are you investing your time and resources in alignment?

5.3.2. Mission

5.3.2.1. What are the repeatable action items (baby-steps) that compass your organization towards the desired outcomes?

5.3.2.2. Are you creating duplicable actions that can be demonstrated, taught and mastered?

5.3.3. Capacity

5.3.3.1. What are the systems and process built into the infrastructure that support the efficiency and quality of the mission?

5.3.3.2. Are you building systems and processes that support and reinforce each other in alignment?

5.3.4. Learning

5.3.4.1. What metrics are you studying to identify areas of opportunity to grow and improve your capacity?

5.4. Pricing

5.4.1. What is the Fair Market Value of your product/service?

5.4.2. What is the minimum margin needed for Company Profitability

5.4.3. How do you maximize Income Potential for the Field?

5.4.4. KEY:

5.4.4.1. Overhead is the enemy of profitability!

5.5. Business Models/Plans

5.5.1. Business Approach

5.5.1.1. New Entry

5.5.1.1.1. Pros

5.5.1.1.2. Cons

5.5.1.1.3. Potential Risks

5.5.1.1.4. Potential Rewards

5.5.1.1.5. Competition

5.5.1.1.6. Start-up Costs

5.5.1.1.7. Sales / Revenue Forecast

5.5.1.2. Purchase Existing Business

5.5.1.2.1. Pros

5.5.1.2.2. Cons

5.5.1.2.3. Potential Risks

5.5.1.2.4. Potential Rewards

5.5.1.2.5. Competition

5.5.1.2.6. Start-up Costs

5.5.1.2.7. Sales / Revenue Forecast

5.5.1.3. Franchise

5.5.1.3.1. Pros

5.5.1.3.2. Cons

5.5.1.3.3. Potential Risks

5.5.1.3.4. Potential Rewards

5.5.1.3.5. Competition

5.5.1.3.6. Start-up Costs

5.5.1.3.7. Sales / Revenue Forecast

5.5.2. Business Structure

5.5.2.1. Roles

5.5.2.1.1. Minimum Benchmarks

5.5.2.2. Equity %

5.5.2.3. Where to incorporate?

5.5.2.4. Type of corporation?

5.5.3. Alex Osterwalder Business Model Canvas

5.5.3.1. Customer Segments

5.5.3.1.1. For whom are we creating value?

5.5.3.1.2. Who are our most important customers?

5.5.3.2. Value Propositions

5.5.3.2.1. What value do we deliver to the customer?

5.5.3.2.2. Which one of our customer's problems are we helping to solve?

5.5.3.2.3. Which customer needs are we satisfying?

5.5.3.2.4. What bundles of products and services are we offering to each customer segment?

5.5.3.3. Channels

5.5.3.3.1. Through which channels do our customer segments want to be reached? How are we reaching them now?

5.5.3.3.2. How are our channels integrated?

5.5.3.3.3. Which ones work best?

5.5.3.3.4. Which ones are most cost-efficient?

5.5.3.3.5. How are we integrating them with the customer routines?

5.5.3.4. Customer Relationships

5.5.3.4.1. What type of relationship does each of our customer segments expect us to establish and maintain with them?

5.5.3.4.2. Which ones have we established?

5.5.3.4.3. How costly are they?

5.5.3.4.4. How are they integrated with the rest of our business model?

5.5.3.5. Revenue Streams

5.5.3.5.1. For what value are our customers really willing to pay?

5.5.3.5.2. For what do they currently?

5.5.3.5.3. How are they currently paying?

5.5.3.5.4. How would they prefer to pay?

5.5.3.5.5. How much does each revenue stream contribute to overall revenues?

5.5.3.6. Key Resources

5.5.3.6.1. What key resources do our Value Propositions require?

5.5.3.6.2. What key resources do our distribution channels require?

5.5.3.6.3. What key resources do our Customer Relationships require?

5.5.3.6.4. What key resources do our Revenue Streams require?

5.5.3.7. Key Activities

5.5.3.7.1. What Key Activities do our Value Propositions require?

5.5.3.7.2. What key activities do our distribution channels require?

5.5.3.7.3. What key activities do our customer relationships require?

5.5.3.7.4. What key activities do our revenue streams require?

5.5.3.8. Key Partners

5.5.3.8.1. Who are our key partners?

5.5.3.8.2. Who are our key suppliers?

5.5.3.8.3. Which key resources are we acquiring from partners?

5.5.3.8.4. Which key activities do partners perform?

5.5.3.9. Cost Structure

5.5.3.9.1. What are the most important costs inherent in our business model?

5.5.3.9.2. Which key resources are most expensive?

5.5.3.9.3. Which key activities are most expensive?

5.5.4. Executive Summary by Guy Kawasaki

5.5.4.1. The Grab

5.5.4.2. The Problem

5.5.4.3. The Solution

5.5.4.4. The Opportunity

5.5.4.5. Your Competitive Advantage

5.5.4.6. the Model

5.5.4.7. The Team

5.5.4.8. The Promise $$

5.5.4.9. The Ask

5.5.4.10. Miscellaneous Tips

5.5.5. Business Plan by Guy Kawaski

5.5.5.1. Business Concept

5.5.5.1.1. Define your product or service – outline what you’re offering in its simplest terms.

5.5.5.1.2. What problem does it address – describe the single most important problem is solves.

5.5.5.1.3. This tells the reader what you’re offering and what problem you’re solving.

5.5.5.2. Target Market & Potential Customers

5.5.5.2.1. Who are your target customers?

5.5.5.2.2. What is the market size?

5.5.5.2.3. How large will this market be in the next 2,5,10 years?

5.5.5.2.4. How do you plan to attract customers?

5.5.5.2.5. What is your sales strategy?

5.5.5.2.6. What is your marketing plan to promote your company?

5.5.5.3. Competitive Advantage

5.5.5.3.1. What makes your business unique?

5.5.5.3.2. What patent do you have (or will develop) that will generate royalties?

5.5.5.3.3. What makes your product than others in ways you can quantify? For example, you can provide credit cards to teenagers. Most companies are not authorized to give credit cards to teenager. You can! That’s your competitive advantage.

5.5.5.3.4. Identify the greatest obstacles to the success of your company and not just competitors. Maybe it’s legislation, drug trials, testing, compliance, IT platforms, or other issues such as lack of experience.

5.5.5.4. Competitor analysis

5.5.5.4.1. Who are your three main competitors?

5.5.5.4.2. SWOT - What are their:

5.5.5.4.3. Could you partner with them?

5.5.5.5. Legal & Managerial Issues

5.5.5.5.1. How will you setup the company? Most likely as a limited company but you may also consider making it a partnership, corporation, or other business type.

5.5.5.5.2. What other legal considerations need to be organized, for example, patent protection, and copyright?

5.5.5.5.3. Identify the organizations, companies, groups you plan to build relationships with? For example, Chambers of Commerce, international trade organization, peer groups, industry bodies.

5.5.5.6. Finances

5.5.5.6.1. Using tables or matrices may help present the financial data, especially for projections.

5.5.5.6.2. How much will it cost to make your product?

5.5.5.6.3. How much will it cost for recruitment?

5.5.5.6.4. How much will it cost for marketing?

5.5.5.6.5. How much will it cost for equipment, software, hardware etc?

5.5.5.6.6. How much will it cost for operations, office, infrastructure etc?

5.5.5.6.7. How much will it cost for salaries?

5.5.5.6.8. How much total up-front investment is needed?

5.5.5.6.9. How will your company generate revenue?

5.5.5.6.10. When will your company break even?

5.5.5.6.11. How will you use the profits you generate?

5.5.5.7. Management Team

5.5.5.7.1. Describe each team member’s background.

5.5.5.7.2. Describe the unique skills they bring to the project.

5.5.5.7.3. Explain why this is a winning team? Why the investors should believe in the team.

5.5.5.7.4. What other people/skills do you need to find?

5.5.5.7.5. Add resumes to the appendix.

5.5.5.8. Appendices & Supporting Sources

5.5.5.8.1. Include any supplementary information (graphs, charts, statistics, research etc) that would help you put your idea in context.

5.5.6. Biz Plan Tutorial Videos

5.5.7. Financial

5.5.7.1. What are your 5 year revenue forecasts?

5.5.7.2. What is your cost estimate?

5.5.7.2.1. Hardware?

5.5.7.2.2. Software?

5.5.7.2.3. Personnel?

5.5.7.2.4. Services?

5.5.7.2.5. Legal?

5.5.7.2.6. Inventory?

5.5.7.2.7. Promotional?

5.5.7.3. What is your profit margin for each department?

5.5.7.4. Develop break-even analysis

5.5.7.5. Develop cash-flow projection

5.5.8. Sales Execution Plan

5.5.8.1. Sales

5.5.8.1.1. Direct Sales

5.5.8.1.2. Inside Sales

5.5.8.1.3. channel Sales

5.5.8.2. Partners

5.5.8.2.1. Channel Partners

5.5.8.2.2. Technology Partners

5.5.8.2.3. Solutions Partners

5.5.9. Go to market strategy

5.5.9.1. Positioning & Messaging

5.5.9.1.1. Key Messaging?

5.5.9.1.2. How do we communicate?

5.5.9.2. Promotion

5.5.9.2.1. Marketing Programs

5.5.9.2.2. Advertising

5.5.9.2.3. PR

5.5.9.2.4. Events

5.5.9.2.5. Webinars

5.5.9.3. Demand Generation & Lead Qualification

5.5.9.3.1. Prospect Lists

5.5.9.3.2. Key Questions to ask

5.5.9.3.3. Sales Collateral

5.5.9.3.4. Presentations

5.5.9.3.5. Data Sheets

5.5.9.3.6. White Papers

5.5.9.3.7. ROI Tools

5.5.9.3.8. Other Sales Tools

5.5.10. PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Adjust) Measure and improve:

5.5.10.1. Vital Statistics

5.5.10.2. Sales Programs

5.5.10.3. Internal learning development programs

5.5.10.4. Feedback Loops for staff and customers?

5.5.10.5. Financial metrics and benchmarks

5.5.10.6. Pipeline reports and dashboards

5.5.11. Objectives by Department

5.5.11.1. Marketing

5.5.11.1.1. Increase Revenue

5.5.11.1.2. Reduce Cost

5.5.11.2. Production

5.5.11.2.1. Reduce Cost

5.5.11.2.2. Increase Productivity

5.5.11.3. HR

5.5.11.3.1. Increase Productivity

5.5.11.3.2. Reduce Turnover

5.5.11.4. Finance

5.5.11.4.1. Reduce Risk

5.5.11.4.2. Increase Return

5.6. The three company pillars

5.6.1. Vector's 3 P's

5.6.1.1. People

5.6.1.2. Programs

5.6.1.3. Products

5.6.2. Dell's 3 C's

5.6.2.1. Content

5.6.2.2. Commerce

5.6.2.3. Community

5.7. Branding

5.7.1. Name

5.7.1.1. Easy to say

5.7.1.2. Easy to spell phonetically

5.7.1.3. Relates to your business

5.7.1.3.1. Or a made up word

5.7.1.4. 3 syllables or less for domain name

5.7.2. Logo

5.7.2.1. Start with black and white for shape

5.7.2.1.1. Then add color

5.7.2.2. Simple

5.7.2.3. Scalable

5.7.2.4. Memorable

5.7.3. What emotion do you want associated with your brand?

5.7.4. Website

5.8. Business Function

5.8.1. The function of a business is to get and keep customers.

5.8.1.1. How do you acquire customers?

5.8.1.1.1. How much does acquisition cost?

5.8.1.2. How do you retain customers?

5.8.1.2.1. Retention percentage and revisit frequency?

5.9. Exit Strategy

5.9.1. How will you create opportunities for shareholders to cash out of their investment? (Liquidity Events)

6. The leaders prioritize the objectives, define the playing field, and provide the business rules, so the team can operate with autonomy, mastery and purpose.

6.1. The Secrets to Motivation

6.1.1. Autonomy

6.1.1.1. How do people self direct within the organization?

6.1.2. Mastery

6.1.2.1. What opportunities do people have to improve at their trade?

6.1.3. Purpose

6.1.3.1. How does their work impact the organization's ONE thing?

6.1.3.2. How does their role help them achieve their personal purpose?

6.2. Prioritization Exercise

6.3. The 13 Principles

6.3.1. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and Jonathan Edwards each made their life choice based on a list of personal resolutions. The Life Business identified the following 13 Principles as common to each gentleman’s list. These 13 Principles act as a framework to guide you through tough business and personal decisions.

6.3.1.1. Purpose

6.3.1.1.1. The Purpose of life is to serve others and we each have unique talents(gifts) that we can contribute today.

6.3.1.2. Character

6.3.1.2.1. Honor your word without fear of consequence

6.3.1.2.2. Character Pre-Requisites

6.3.1.3. Attitude

6.3.1.3.1. Never whine, complain, or make excuses. Instead; give gratitude.

6.3.1.3.2. The Key is to replace Negative Attitudes with positive action

6.3.1.4. Vision

6.3.1.4.1. Consciously consider your purpose, character and attitude while doing a physical activity routine in order to align the more powerful subconscious with the conscious

6.3.1.5. Plan/Do

6.3.1.5.1. Once a purpose is defined; action is simple. What do you want? What does it take? Do it everyday.

6.3.1.6. Check/Adjust

6.3.1.6.1. Your growth can be directly tracked to how quickly you directly confront your errors, so identify measurable benchmarks/targets towards goals and correct deviation immediately

6.3.1.7. Friendship

6.3.1.7.1. Search for and find friends that share your passions/burdens. Always encourage them to be their very best and expect encouragement from them. .

6.3.1.8. Finances

6.3.1.8.1. We have a responsibility to earn as much as possible in integrity; so that we can utilize our resources towards achieving our purpose

6.3.1.9. Leadership

6.3.1.9.1. Leaders use principles to build their character, task management skills, and relationships, in order to create an objective and structure that people follow and duplicate

6.3.1.10. Conflict Resolution

6.3.1.10.1. Quickly confront conflict by affirming the purpose for the relationship and seeking reconciliation

6.3.1.10.2. 5 steps to Resolving Conflict

6.3.1.11. Systems

6.3.1.11.1. A system consists of the whole, the individuals, and the connections between individuals. Learn to recognize a system as any series of interconnected events or things that yield a certain result; then influence their leverage points to get your desired result.

6.3.1.12. Adversity Quotient

6.3.1.12.1. Adversity Quotient is the ability to endure pain on the path towards purpose and it is developed by learning the relationships between the resolutions

6.3.1.13. Legacy

6.3.1.13.1. Leadership legacy is to live the 13 resolutions and help others learn and share the resolutions with future generations. Ultimately the best legacy one can leave is a community of high trust relationships that systematically spreads the truth of these principles through the example of their application. This is the only result that multiplies through leverage and truly lasts forever.

6.4. Replacement Driven Leadership (Level 4 & 5 leaders)

6.4.1. Launching a Leadership Revolution

6.4.2. Keys to Excellence

6.4.2.1. Listening with the intent to understand

6.4.2.2. Believing in and encouraging people

6.4.2.3. Clear communication of purpose

6.4.2.4. Systems to provide leverage

6.4.2.5. Clearly defined milestones to measure progress

6.5. Servant Leadership

6.6. Gamification