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Building a Business School

A look back at the amazing success of the Stevens School of Business since 2012 from the people who helped make it happen.

At a university steeped in the tradition of engineering a better future through innovation and creativity, one of its greatest stories of transformation is the Stevens School of Business.

The transition from the leadership of Gregory Prastacos, who completed his 12-year tenure in August 2024, to GJ de Vreede marks a fitting moment to reflect on the school's remarkable journey and celebrate its achievements.

While the impact of Prastacos’ leadership on the university, faculty, staff and students is undeniable, many voices helped bring the vision of a world-class business school to life.

Stevens School of Business By the Numbers

In 2012, Prastacos arrived in Hoboken to begin his term as Dean of the Howe School of Technology Management.

In 2012, the Stevens School of Business did not exist. It is now one of the top 75 best business schools in the nation by U.S. News and World Report .

In 2012, the number of applications for the incoming first-year class was 174. In 2023, it was 1,983.

In 2012, the size of the incoming full-time graduate class was 162. In 2023, it was 457.

I n 2012, there were a total of nine programs offered: 2 at the undergraduate level, 6 at the master’s level, and 1 at the doctoral level. In 2023-24, there were 24 programs offered, including 8 undergraduate majors, 13 master’s programs and 3 Ph.D. programs.

The number of tenure-stream faculty more than doubled between 2012 (20) and 2023 (52).

The number of FT50 publications has increased by more than 400% since 2012 and productivity of the faculty in this elite category of journals has almost doubled. Tenure-stream faculty have published an average of 2.29 FT50 articles, an 83% jump from 2012.

“Dean Prastacos was one of the first academic leaders hired during my tenure as President.” Nariman Farvardin said. “He had a vision to transform the former School of Technology Management into a thriving, accredited and nationally ranked School of Business, and he was masterful in executing on that vision—engaging colleagues, focusing on excellence, hiring world-class faculty, building a vibrant research program, developing strategic partnerships with industry, government and alumni and prioritizing the student experience. The School of Business—and Stevens—is a significantly better place—in both substance and in reputation—due to his leadership and impact.”

Laying the Foundation

Gregory Prastacos was a professor of management science at the Athens University of Economics and Business, the leading business school in his native Greece for almost 30 years, serving as rector, the equivalent of a university president, from 2007-2011. His decision to come to Stevens was by no means his first exposure to the United States. He received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate from Columbia University, and from 1978-82 he was an assistant professor of decision sciences at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Prastacos: I was finishing my term as the rector of the Athens University of Economics and Business in late 2011. I saw an opportunity for me and my family to move to the U.S., to continue my career as an academic and also to give my children the opportunity to get a good education in the United States. I saw that Stevens was a perfect choice for me. It was an amazing location. It was a business school that was centered on technology, which was aligned very well with my background, and I saw a lot of opportunities for growth. I was very happy to accept the offer that was made to me.

Michael zur Muehlen (Associate Professor & former Associate Dean of Graduate Studies): I remember when he joined, he visited me at home. He went around and talked to a number of different people in the school to get the lay of the land. I think that is a sign of a good leader, when you listen more than you talk at the beginning. And so that stuck with me. He wanted to figure out who the people were, how this place ticks and how to pick it up from where it was to where it could be over time.

Don Lombardi (Teaching Professor): I remember vividly when Gregory came to Stevens. My goddaughter was in town, and I was with her and her parents. I knew the new dean was coming, but I didn't know when. We went on the elevator, and in came this guy with the most beautiful sports jacket you have ever seen. I mean, it was dynamite. I said, “Oh, you must be the new dean.”

I introduced him to my goddaughter, and he was so nice and so cordial, and the guy didn't know me at all. My goddaughter's dad is one of my old military buddies, and he's hard to impress. When we left, he said, “Man, you're in good shape. He gets it.” The phrase “transformational leader” gets thrown around a lot, but that’s what he is.

Prastacos: During that process, all of us collectively, put together the ambitions and the goals that we wanted to achieve. It is not enough to say, “I want to become a school of business.” We said we wanted to be branded as a school of business very well associated with technology. That means a whole lot of things. It means the programs that we are offering orienting students towards this new era of digital technology. We had to attract faculty who were doing research in those areas. We wanted to attract very technology-oriented students. This is not very difficult because, you know, the younger generation is very much into technology, but still it was an issue that we had to address, and that branding strategy really paid off.

AACSB Accreditation

To make the transition to a true business school, the first step was to achieve accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International, considered the “gold standard” among business schools. AACSB International is the world’s largest business education alliance, and less than 5% of the business schools worldwide are accredited by this prestigious organization.

Prastacos: Stevens is one of the oldest universities in the country and has a very good reputation, but when I came, I saw that reputation was basically the engineering school. Very quickly, I realized that everybody wanted this to be to become a school of business. Students were telling me that they were spending a lot of time during interviews trying to explain what the School of Technology Management was. And faculty also felt that what they were doing really belonged to a school of business. The School of Technology Management was not accredited, and we had to move very quickly towards accreditation. It's a prerequisite if you want to become a respected school of business. So very quickly, we started a process of trying to get the school accredited by the AACSB.

Murphy: We knew that to be a legitimate and well-respected business school, we had to pursue accreditation seriously. Gregory was fantastic at that. There was a team of people, but he spearheaded it. It was very exciting because it felt like we were a startup inside this nearly 150-year-old university.

Ted Stohr (Professor): From the very first day when Gregory arrived, he has led us to achieve his vision of turning to a local school narrowly focused on the discipline of technology management to a globally ranked business school. Gregory not only drove this transformative vision, but his dedication to the school inspired all of us to do a little better. I vividly remember how Gregory worked with us personally on spreadsheets full of the administrative details required for our first successful application for AACSB accreditation in 2015. On several occasions, this entailed communicating with him via email late in the night and even into the small hours of the morning. There was no way we could not succeed!

Gaurav Sabnis (Associate Professor of Marketing): It was very important for me because one of the things I was worried about when I came for an interview was that the school was not AACSB accredited. He told me, “We are getting it.” That showed focus. It was an example of the importance of what I teach my students about internal marketing. So many times, marketing is focused on the outside consumers but many times you have to sell the idea within the institution. Of course, here lot of people came from the engineering side, weren't as aware of the AACSB, and would initially find some of the questions too detailed, too pointless or too jargon-filled. But he was able to communicate not just the importance of getting that label of an AACSB school but also what it would do to help us as a business school grow in a more structured way. I consider that one of his biggest accomplishments because it's not easy.

Prastacos: There was an amazing mobilization of the faculty to get that recognition, that accreditation, and within a record time of three years from 2012 when I joined until 2015, we managed to get full accreditation. I think that process was very important, not only because we got the accreditation, but to get the accreditation you have to really change. You have to change your curricula, you have to change your processes, you have to pay attention to research, you have to pay attention to the student success. All of these happened in those amazing three years. So when 2015 came, we became a school of business.

Major Changes to Major Offerings and Faculty

During the multi-year process that culminated in 2015, the management, marketing, finance, and information systems undergraduate majors and the business intelligence and analytics master’s program were launched in 2013, and the economics major began in 2014. With this rapid expansion of offerings, the faculty also underwent similar growth.

Murphy: Joining more of a “startup” business school might appear a little risky for prospective tenure-stream faculty members. Gregory helped faculty understand that they could be successful at our school and that high-quality research would be prioritized, supported, and rewarded. I think a big factor in us being so successful in recruiting great faculty is because Gregory had such an illustrious academic career before coming to Stevens and that added legitimacy and trust in what he said and did.

Stefano Bonini (Associate Professor of Finance): I had been in the U.S. during my Ph.D., and since the end of 2008 I had been appointed as a visiting associate professor at NYU. At the time of the interview, I had spent most of my time there, returning to Italy as little as possible. My wife and I felt this was a better place for us, and I was working towards a plan to make New York City our exclusive home when Stevens reached out. I had never even known the school existed! I was intrigued but hesitant. After entering the Babbio Center and meeting Gregory I was immediately sold. I have worked a lot in venture capital and Gregory had an entrepreneurial vision that reminded me of successful startups. He wanted the school to become one of the top schools in the country. He was looking for people who could contribute with top research. There were risks, but there was huge potential. In the investment world, there’s a popular saying from Thomas Edison, “Vision without execution is hallucination.” He had the vision, and I was firmly convinced that he could execute.

Sabnis: Until then, the meeting with the Dean was always a formality. They just gave you the spiel about what the school is, and it was the faculty member or the search committee who really talked to you. But here Gregory was very involved. He was talking to me in detail about what my plans were, and he sent me the signal that what he was looking for was not just somebody who churns out 15 mediocre articles. He was looking for someone who was gunning for the Journal of Marketing and top-level things. That is what they wanted. He had a very clear vision of how he wanted to make it a business school with a technology focus as opposed to just an extension of an engineering school.

Suman Banerjee (Associate Professor & Ph.D. Program Chair): I was a little bit worried about how Stevens, as a business school, would be successful in the future. It was an engineering school and engineers dictated the policies for the most part. But his leadership and his assurance that he would let me do things as long as he thought they would be good for the school in the long term swayed me. He gave me freedom in working with the Ph.D. programs, and we are now proud of these programs. He reassured me that he has the same set of goals that I have.

Elaine Henry (Professor & Area Coordinator of the Finance, Economics, Financial Engineering and Accounting): Gregory is undaunted by things that would probably be roadblocks for a lot of other people. The example that comes to my mind is that Stevens, when I arrived, didn't even have an accounting major. And Gregory is just like, “Okay, well, we're going to have one.” Putting together a major that has such different specializations in it is tough, but he just took it for granted that we would make it happen. I think that's the way that he's been able to be so effective. It’s as though he looks at what should be done, what needs to be done and then gets it done. He's not fazed by things that seem near impossible.

Continuing the Momentum

As new programs, initiatives and industry collaborations such as the Hanlon Financial Systems Center , the Industry Capstone Program , CRAFT , the Center for Student Success , COPA , the Inclusive Leadership Program and dual degree master’s programs with international partners were launched, the school had more than just ideas to present to potential faculty hires, prospective students, university leadership and national reputation-makers.

Embedded in a school focused on technology, the School of Business utilized that advantage to continually evolve the curriculum and blend traditional business skills with the latest innovations across every business discipline.

Prastacos: We submitted our papers to U.S. News and World Report . Three years later, we were ranked immediately 103rd among 500 business schools that were submitted, which was very, very impressive, given that it was the first time that we were participating the U.S. News ranking exercise. And from there on, of course, it started becoming better and better because everybody realized the momentum with which the school is moving. I had the huge support from the leadership—President Farvardin and the three provosts that I worked with. All of them were very supportive of the school and of the activities we undertook. There was a budget need every once in a while, and I was happy to be able to receive these additional budgets that we needed in order to grow our faculty.

Jeff Nickerson (Professor and Steven Shulman '62 Endowed Chair for Business Leadership): I think Gregory’s biggest legacy is going to be the superb effort he led on hiring over the last 12 years. He consistently encouraged us to bring the best scholars in our disciplines to campus. He was open-minded when candidates came from one discipline but could be useful to us in another. When candidates exhibited strong potential, he worked hard to recruit them. We now have a set of scholars that are the envy of other business schools. Because we have done so much hiring in the last 12 years, especially relative to the size of our school, we have a dynamic faculty who are knowledgeable in the latest techniques, technologies, and topics – more knowledgeable on average than faculty members in many of the better-established competing business schools. These recently hired faculty members are gaining international attention for their research, and all of us at Stevens are benefiting from the growing reputation of the business school.

Prastacos: First of all, every school tries to be more technology-based these days. This is natural because we see how technology disrupts everything, particularly in business. The roles of the managers are changing and therefore the educational content of what we deliver is changing because you get to teach students different things. We are very lucky to be in the Stevens ecosystem because Stevens is technology. You wake up in the morning, you go to bed at night, it's technology. When you are in that environment, it is very natural to get the input of the engineering school, for example. They're doing brilliant work, so it is very easy for us to develop collaborations with the School of Engineering and Sciences. We do joint research proposals; we collaborate on courses. This collaboration has really benefited the School of Business.

Zachary Feinstein (Assistant Professor and Director of the Fintech Certificate Program): Since I joined Stevens in 2019, and especially after 2021 when we began to return to in-person instruction, Gregory has been a big proponent for advancing financial engineering and financial analytics through the development of Financial Technology programs. Being a business school within a technical institute has meant that we are constantly revisiting our curriculum to introduce new courses, certificates and programs as technologies change. By staying at the forefront of financial technology, our students are constantly challenged to think about new ways of operating which has led to a number of interesting projects and careers.

Adding New Programs

Prastacos: There are so many initiatives that originate from faculty and students, and I'm very open to them. I am the type of person who wants to give opportunities, and therefore, when ideas come to me, usually I evaluate them. I invite a group of colleagues to sit down, think about it, talk about it, and give the person who made the recommendation an opportunity to present the plan. This is how many things have happened. For example, CRAFT, which is the Center for Research to Advance Financial Technologies. I still remember it was an idea that came from Steve Yang, who was a faculty member at the School of Systems and Enterprises. He wrote me a letter. I was the dean of a different school, and I enthusiastically supported him. It was really very gratifying when the whole financial engineering group moved to the School of Business, and Steve already knew that the dean is supporting that initiative, which eventually materialized to this amazing center to advance fintech.

My associate deans have always come with great ideas. I remember Ann Murphy had many ideas about the undergraduate program, Joelle Saad-Lessler comes with so many new ideas to advance the critical thinking of the students and to advance the writing skills of the students. Chihoon Lee, who is the associate dean of graduate programs, as well as Michael zur Muehlen who was the associate dean before him, they came with so many ideas and initiatives to promote international collaboration or to promote excellence in the graduate programs. All of these ideas for me are what we need to advance because the whole world is moving quickly, and unless you have initiatives, you will be left behind. This is something that I actively seek and encourage from the faculty, especially after the first few years when they have established their research. I encourage them to think as a leader and to take leadership initiative, and I will support them if I think that this is aligned with the mission and the goals of the school.

Nicole Malantchouk (former Director for Corporate Outreach and Professional Advancement): Over his tenure, Gregory saw the potential to build resources internally to address industry’s need for talent with both technical and business expertise. With persistence, we grew the program in the School of Business to support student career development and encouraged Faculty to incorporate career-planning skill-building in the classroom. Gregory is strategic at building boards and surrounding the school with influential industry people who can help us break down barriers externally. He attracted board members who were energized and excited to help students and the School of Business.

Bonini: I was firmly convinced that dual degree programs could help in creating a long-term funnel of high-quality, diverse students. I felt that putting my time and efforts into developing such degrees was part of that entrepreneurial vision that attracted me to Stevens and that Gregory was seeking. He gave me full support, and I have now developed programs with six different schools that are constantly sending students who place in top institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Citibank, JP Morgan, European Central Bank, KPMG and the like. Other colleagues have worked along similar lines, and I believe that this is our best growth strategy.

Sabnis: If you come to him with an idea, he's usually going to let you take the ball and run. With marketing, I had his support, and he saw the vision that we can keep growing because not only is the capital of marketing right across the river, but it's also one of those courses that engineering students or music students find helpful. His embrace of technology has definitely given the program an identity of its own. He had that vision that we need to separate ourselves and make our “Marketing Strategy” course “Marketing Strategy in a Digital World.” Generally, in schools, deans or administrations are not enthusiastic about big changes, but he was all in on completely revamping the whole slate of those courses and introducing new ones.

Prastacos: One my favorite parts of being dean is working with the students and including their thoughts in the decision-making process. We have the Dean's Student Advisory Council, which is a group of represented representatives of students with whom I meet regularly. It is really one of the most gratifying moments when I meet with them and I listen to their comments and their recommendations. I really see the future leaders of this country, and that's definitely one of the favorite moments in my daily life here.

Nick Smith (Senior Business & Technology Major, Member of the Student Advisory Council): The Dean has been incredibly open to changes, and I think that's something that a lot of people respect about him. He's also very down to earth because he's not one to get stuck in the status quo. Even in his last couple of months as dean, he's still striving for better. He’s still having conversations with the students about the work that needs to be done or some of the changes that we would like to see made. And without that being a priority, I don't think anything would change. His interactions are always great. He always makes time for students. There have been times that I've emailed him and asked him to talk, and he'll set time up on the calendar within the week.

Sandie McDonald (Third-Year Business & Technology Major & Member of the Student Advisory Council): He has a connection to students, and not just me and the other advisors. I've always heard positive things about him, how he works with the staff, and his personal connections with professors. I think that's really important at the University because to feel that I'm on the same level as the dean, the administration, the professors and my peers is how we can get that synchronization throughout our organization and improve the curriculum overall. I think that his connection to everyone, how well he listens and executes our ideas, and gives us the time of day, is how he shows that leadership.

"Not the time to sit."

One of the keys to building on the successful change and transformation and reaching the school’s potential is sustaining the culture of inclusivity, transparency and collaboration established over the last 12 years. Prastacos set the precedent of leading by example and inspiring those around him to buy into the vision.

Prastacos: I think part of my role is to make everybody feel good and comfortable in their work environment. That involves a lot of empathy. It involves a very strong sense of inclusion for everybody. I am very supportive of the younger faculty who are here. They are spending their first years of their professional career trying to grow and sometimes they face difficulties. If they have questions, I try to be there for them and everyone in the School of Business. Transparency is always important because transparency makes people believe and trust you, and that's the first element of being a leader. You're not going to be a leader unless people trust you.

Crilly: He expects a lot from his team, but he's fair about it. If I was to describe him in one word it would be fair. He’s also very open and transparent about anything that's going on with the school.

Zur Muehlen: He cares. Part of it is that he makes his expectations clear. He has a clear evaluation rubric to say, “Okay, here's how I'm going to figure out how much you're going to teach next year.” Faculty care about their quality of life, and part of that is how much teaching as opposed to research as opposed to service they are going to do. He has a very transparent process for that.

Saad-Lessler: With Gregory, there is a very clear vision—this is where we're going. He is unwavering in the quality he wants to achieve. He’s never going to sacrifice quality, and people go along with it because people believe in the vision.

Jeff Hedrick: His work ethic is incredible. He makes very thoughtful decisions. He seeks input in the decision-making process, and he listens to people. You can change his mind. He’ll have an opinion coming in, but he will listen to the people in the room and solicit a consensus agreement. In the end, it’s his decision but to his credit, he wants input and buy-in from his leadership team. He tries to make decisions and policies fair and transparent.

Chihoon Lee (Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies): Whenever I feel a little overwhelmed and tired, his positive energy is contagious. He encourages me to look at things from a different angle. He has the capability to take the bird’s eye view and also pay very close attention to the details.

Murphy: He’s a hard driver for results, but he has a soft side to him too. He’s a person who knows when the babies are born in the school and asks about my kids or my husband. If someone has a personal challenge, as inevitably people do, he tries to be understanding and accommodate people as best as he can. I know that if I come to him with an issue, he will listen and be understanding. I think he is a mentor for so many of the faculty and staff.

Prastacos: I think the greatest achievement has been to develop a culture at the School of Business where people feel proud of working here, and that is the result of many things. It is the continuous effort that we all put into collaborating and supporting our colleagues. It is the amazing students that we attract and the success as they get into the market. It is the pride we get by looking at our alumni progress.

In some ways, we achieved more than I thought. There is a continuous evolution of what you expect to get and what you want. I didn't come to stay as a dean for 12 years, but they say that appetite comes as you eat. It became more and more exciting to be here, and more and more exciting to participate in this amazing growth and success, but there are many things still to do. I think there's a huge potential for this kind of business school with the location, the branding, the faculty and staff, and the students that we have are amazing resources that the school can move forward.

It is not the time to sit. Everything is changing. Everybody is moving forward. We need to continue improving. We need to pay attention to what we're not doing so well and improve it. And we need to take initiatives that will differentiate this school of business. I look forward to continuing our amazing path to achieve our potential under GJ’s stewardship.

It is a tremendous honor to be entrusted with leading the Stevens School of Business as we write the next chapter in this remarkable success story. The school has accomplished so much in recent years, building an impressive reputation as an ambitious and innovative business program. As we look to the future, we will continue our upward trajectory, preparing students to thrive in the rapidly evolving business landscape.

The role of technology has become even more prominent. The rise of AI requires our graduates to possess the skills to leverage these powerful tools productively and ethically. Students and businesses have instant access to AI-generated insights based on vast amounts of data and information, at times of unknown veracity, so it’s vital to recognize the enduring importance of critical thinking to help students and businesses navigate the wealth of information and insights available to them.

One of the biggest ways we measure our progress is the work our students do after graduation. We want students to be prepared for success in today’s marketplace and be ready to take on the jobs that don’t yet exist!

For more than 150 years, Stevens has been at the forefront of scientific advances and innovation. The Stevens School of Business is a vital contributor to this legacy, providing an outstanding environment for student learning, faculty research and outreach to the business community. Our goal is to shape the thinkers, doers and innovators who will be the future leaders in business and society.

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Executive Assistant II (Confidential) - Pupil Services/SELPA at Riverside Unified School District (RUSD)

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With schools dating back to the 1870s, the award-winning Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) is now the 16th largest school district in California. RUSD educates nearly 42,000 students across 50 schools in Riverside. The District serves a large portion of Riverside as well as the unincorporated areas of Highgrove and Woodcrest. RUSD is led by its 12th Superintendent, Ms. Renee Hill and is governed by a Board of Education comprised of publicly elected officials who serve five different trustee areas.

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Under the direction of an Assistant Superintendent, Chief Academic Officer or Chief Business Officer of a major District function, perform advanced-level secretarial duties requiring independent judgment and analysis, prepare and process documents and information relating to collective bargaining activities; plan, organize and coordinate office activities and communications to relieve the Assistant Superintendent, Chief Academic Officer or Chief Business Officer of routine administrative and clerical details. REPRESENTATIVE DUTIES: - Serve as secretary to an Assistant Superintendent, Chief Academic Officer or Chief Business Officer; plan, organize and coordinate activities to relieve the administrator of routine clerical detail. - Prepare and process documents and information relating to collective bargaining activities including employee relations and negotiations; maintain confidential and complex files regarding personnel hearing arbitrations and negotiations. - Interview and screen callers and visitors, including students, teachers, administrators, parents, vendors and the public and provide information or direct to appropriate personnel; provide detailed and technical information concerning District policies, procedures and established regulations. - Communicate with parents and District personnel on confidential or sensitive issues, screen incoming calls to gather and exchange information; coordinate communications between supervisor and other District staff and the public. -Maintain a variety of complex personnel records, time sheets, evaluations, files and records, including confidential materials. Please see the attached job description for a complete listing of the job responsibilities.

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Having a family is expensive. Here's what Harris and Trump have said about easing costs

Moriah Balingit

Associated Press

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

FILE - Rylee Monn plays with children in her class at a child care center in Lexington, Ky., March 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Dylan Lovan, File)

WASHINGTON – The high cost of caring for children and the elderly has forced women out of the workforce , devastated family finances and left professional caretakers in low-wage jobs — all while slowing economic growth.

That families are suffering is not up for debate. As the economy emerges as a theme in this presidential election, the Democratic and Republican candidates have sketched out ideas for easing costs that reveal their divergent views about family.

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On this topic, the two tickets have one main commonality: Both of the presidential candidates — and their running mates — have, at one point or another, backed an expanded child tax credit.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who accepted the Democratic Party's nomination last week, has signaled that she plans to build on the ambitions of outgoing President Joe Biden's administration , which sought to pour billions in taxpayer dollars into making child care and home care for elderly and disabled adults more affordable. She has not etched any of those plans into a formal policy platform. But in a speech earlier this month, she said her vision included raising the child tax credit .

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican, has declined to answer questions about how he would make child care more affordable, even though it was an issue he tackled during his own administration. His running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, has a long history of pushing policies that would encourage Americans to have families, floating ideas like giving parents votes for their children. Just this month, Vance said he wants to raise the child tax credit to $5,000. But Vance has opposed government spending on child care, arguing that many children benefit from having one parent at home as caretaker.

The candidates' care agendas could figure prominently into their appeal to suburban women in swing states, a coveted demographic seen as key to victory in November. Women provide two-thirds of unpaid care work — valued at $1 trillion annually — and are disproportionately impacted when families can’t find affordable care for their children or aging parents. And the cost of care is an urgent problem: Child care prices are rising faster than inflation .

Kamala Harris: Increase the child tax credit

When Harris addressed the Democratic National Convention, she talked first about her own experience with child care. She was raised mostly by a single mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who worked long hours as a breast cancer researcher. Among the people who formed her family's support network was “Mrs. Shelton, who ran the day care below us and became a second mother.”

As vice president, Harris worked behind the scenes in Congress on Biden's proposals to establish national paid family leave, make prekindergarten universal and invest billions in child care so families wouldn't pay more than 7% of their income . She announced, too, the administration's actions to lower copays for families using federal child care vouchers, and to raise wages for Medicaid-funded home health aides. Before that, her track record as a senator included pressing for greater labor rights for domestic workers, including nannies and home health aides who may be vulnerable to exploitation .

This month at a community college in North Carolina, Harris outlined her campaign's economic agenda , which includes raising the child tax credit to as much as $3,600 and giving families of newborns even more — $6,000 for the child's first year.

“That is a vital — vital year of critical development of a child, and the costs can really add up, especially for young parents who need to buy diapers and clothes and a car seat and so much else,” she told the audience. Her running mate selection of Tim Walz, who established paid leave and a child tax credit as governor of Minnesota, has also buoyed optimism among supporters.

Donald Trump: Few specifics, but some past support

For voters grappling with the high cost of child care, Trump has offered little in the way of solutions. During the June presidential debate, CNN moderator Jake Tapper twice asked Trump what he would do to lower child care costs. Both times, he failed to answer, instead pivoting to other topics. His campaign platform is similarly silent. It does tackle the cost of long-term care for the elderly, writing that Republicans would “support unpaid Family Caregivers through Tax Credits and reduced red tape.”

The silence marks a shift from his first campaign, when he pitched paid parental leave, though it was panned by critics because his proposal excluded fathers. When he reached the White House, the former president sought $1 billion for child care, plus a parental leave policy at the urging of his daughter and policy adviser, Ivanka Trump. Congress rejected both proposals, but Trump succeeded in doubling the child tax credit and establishing paid leave for federal employees.

In his 2019 State of the Union address , Trump said he was “proud to be the first president to include in my budget a plan for nationwide paid family leave, so that every new parent has the chance to bond with their newborn child.”

This year, there are signs that his administration might not pursue the same agenda, including his selection of Vance as a running mate. In 2021, before he joined the Senate, Vance co-authored an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal opposing a proposal to invest billions in child care to make it more affordable for families. He and his co-author said expanding child care subsidies would lead to "unhappier, unhealthier children" and that having fewer mothers contributing to the economy might be a worthwhile trade-off.

Vance has floated policies that would make it easier for a family to live off of a single income, making it possible for some parents to stay home while their partners work. Along with his embrace of policies he calls pro-family, he has tagged people who do not have or want children as “sociopaths.” He once derided Harris and other rising Democratic stars as “childless cat ladies,” even though Harris has two stepchildren — they call her “Momala” — and no cats.

Even without details about new care policies, Trump believes that families would ultimately get a better deal under his administration.

The Trump-Vance campaign has attacked Harris’ record on the economy and said the Biden administration’s policies have only made things tougher for families, pointing to recent inflation .

“Harris ... has proudly and repeatedly celebrated her role as Joe Biden’s co-pilot on Bidenomics,” said Karoline Leavitt, a campaign spokeswoman. “The basic necessities of food, gas and housing are less affordable, unemployment is rising, and Kamala doesn’t seem to care.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Home » Sample Business Plans » Education » School

How to Write a Vocational School & Training Center Business Plan [Sample Template]

Are you about starting a vocational training center? If YES, here is a complete sample vocational school business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE . Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a vocational school. We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample vocational training business marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for vocational schools. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.

Why Start a Vocational School & Training Center?

There are countless number of people out there who are trying to acquire skills that will enable them put food on their table, pay their bills and ultimately become their own boss, and a vocational school & training center is just an ideal place they can get the journey started.

You can be rest assured that your services will always be in demand not only by young or old people who could not make it to the university or college, but also by graduates who would want to start a skill based business of their own. The truth is that if your vocational school & training center has loads of courses (trades) and is government approved, then you may not have to struggle to persuade students to enroll in your school.

Just like most businesses, the trade and technical school industry is open for as many people that are interested in the industry as long as you have what it takes to run an accredited vocational school & training center. Even if you don’t have the finance and other requirements, you can come into the industry by starting out as a small music school or driving school in your neighborhood.

If you have decided to start a vocational school & training center, then you should must make sure that you carry out thorough feasibility studies and also market survey.

Lastly, you would need a good business plant to be able to launch a successful business, and below is a workable vocational school & training center business plant template that will help your draft yours.

A Sample Vocational School & Training Center Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

Vocational school and training center falls under the Trade and Technical Schools industry, and it comprises of schools that offer vocational and technical training in a wide range of technical subjects and trades. The trainings offered by trade and technical schools often lead to job-specific certification.

Instruction may be provided in diverse settings, such as the company’s training facilities, the workplace, the home or through distance-learning methods. Key areas in this industry include music schools and musical instrument training, cosmetology and barber schools, flight training, apprenticeship training and other technical training.

If you are a keen follower of the Trade and Technical Schools industry in the united states, you will agree that the industry has experienced fluctuations over the last five years due to the recession and stagnant growth in federal funding for such schools.

High unemployment has caused individuals to seek out further education, while employers are increasing their training requirements to remain competitive. Going forward, decreasing unemployment rates combined with the increasing tuition of four-year colleges will both boast enrollment in vocational training, and hamper industry growth.

Statistics has it that in the United States of America alone, there are about 8,876 registered and licensed (accredited) trade and technical schools scattered all across the country responsible for employing about 127,260 people and the industry rakes in a whooping sum of $13 billion annually. The industry grew at -6.3 percent annual growth within 2012 and 2017. It is important to state that there are no establishment in this industry that has a lion market share.

A recent report released by IBISWorld shows that the Trade and Technical Schools industry operates in a countercyclical manner. The report shows that the industry revenue grew significantly as a result slow economic growth earlier over the five years to 2016, but has suffered subsequently. Sluggish economic activity helped the industry to grow as the unemployed sought professional training to improve their job prospects.

As national unemployment has decreased however, so has industry revenue. The report further stated that in recent years, the restructuring of the US economy has accelerated. Service industry professions are in higher demand than ever, while growth in manufacturing continues to fail to impress. As a result, individuals displaced by major economic change are still retooling their skillset.

Due to the fact that it is stressful to get government accreditation for a standard vocational school & training center in the United States, it will be safe to say the industry is under saturated. It is important to state that entrepreneurs who are into training people on various trade/skills such as how to drive, how to play musical instrument, how to cook and how to dance et al can easily be found without stress.

Some of the factors that encourage entrepreneurs to start their own vocational school & training center despite the fact that the business is challenging could be that the business is highly profitable, they can easily get funding and support from government and charity organizations and the business can be started in any part of the world.

Starting a vocational school requires professionalism and good grasp of the trade you want to teach people. Besides, you would need to get the required certifications and license (accreditations) and also meet the standard for such business before you can be allowed to start. One good thing about the Trade and Technical Schools industry is that there is readily available market for their services. So, if you are well positioned and you know how to impart skills to students, you will always smile to the bank.

2. Executive Summary

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is a registered and accredited trade and technical school that will be located in Orange County – California. We are registered under the United States’ Government. We are well equipped to train people on various technical and vocational skills.

We are set to offer vocational and technical trade trainings such as automobiles, electrical works, music schools and musical instrument training, cosmetology and barber schools, flight training, apprenticeship training and other technical training.

At Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC we are passionate in the pursuit of excellence and financial success with uncompromising services and integrity which is why we have decided to start our own vocational school & training center in Orange County – California.

We are quite optimistic that our values and quality of service offering will help us drive our center to enviable heights and also help us attract the number of students that will make the business highly profitable.

We are in the Trade and Technical Schools industry to favorably compete with other leading brands in the industry. Our corporate business goal is to be among the top 5 vocational school & training centers in the United States of America.

As a company, we are willing to go the extra mile to invest in some of the finest professionals we can find and also, we have put process and structures in place that will ensure that we are always at the top of our game when it comes to impacting knowledge. We have been able to secure permits from all relevant departments in the State of California.

We are quite aware that in order to become the number one choice in our city, we must continue to deliver quality and safe trainings and that is exactly what we will do.

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is owned and managed by Richmond Jones and other members of his faculty. Richmond Jones has over 15 years’ hands on experience in the Trade and Technical Schools industry in the United States and he is a Certified Technical Skill Trainer and has certification in a Niche Area (Trade and Technical Vocation).

3. Our Products and Services

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is an accredited vocational school & training center that offers a wide range of services that revolves around the Trade and Technical Schools industry. These are the services we will offer as a vocational school & training center;

• Automobile technology
• Beauty and cosmetology training
• Apprenticeship training programs
• Commercial or graphic art training
• Bartending training
• Electronic equipment repair training schools
• Firefighter training
• Medical technician training

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our Vision is to become the number one government approved vocational school & training center in the whole of Orange County – California, United States of America.
• Our mission as a government approved vocational school & training center is to develop a highly successful, and profitable vocational school & training center which provides quality training in our community and to become a standard for an ideal vocational school & training center.

Our Business Structure

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is aware that the success of any business lies in the foundation on which the business is built on, which is why we have decided to build our vocational school & training center on the right foundation.

We want to build a business of dedicated workforce who will go all the way to ensure that our students are satisfied and they get value for their money when they enroll in our training center. We aware that it takes a business with the right employees and structure to achieve all what we have set to achieve, which is why will be putting structures and standard operating processes in place that will help us deliver excellent trainings and run the business on auto pilot.

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC will employ professionals and skilled people to occupy the following position;

• Head of The School/School Coordinator

School Administrator

Instructors

Marketing and Sales Executive

Client Service Executive

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Head of the School / School Coordinator:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results
• Creates, communicates, and implements the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization
• Reports to the board
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the school
• Regularly hold meetings with key stakeholders (students and member of the school board) to review the effectiveness of the schools’ Policies, Procedures and Processes
• Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Defines job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carries out induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Updates job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities; reading professional publications; maintaining personal networks; participating in professional organizations.
• Oversees the smooth running of the daily activities of the school.
• Responsible teaching students based on the vocation they enrolled for.
• Accesses the progress of students under their care
• Ensures that students abide by the rules and regulations of the regulating bodies in the United States of America
• Contributes his/her quota towards growing the school
• Receives complaints from students and channel it to the appropriate quarters
• Handles any other duty as assigned by the school coordinator.
• Identifies, prioritizes, and reach out to new students, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts
• Develops, executes and evaluates new plans for expanding increase sales
• Documents all customer contact and information
• Represents the company in strategic meetings
• Helps to increase sales and growth for the school.
• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for the organization
• Serves as internal auditor for the organization.
• Welcomes students and visitors by greeting them in person or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with students on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the schools’ products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to students when they make enquiries
• Distributes mails in the organization
• Handles any other duties as assigned by the school authority

6. SWOT Analysis

In the United States, vocational school & training center is one of the many businesses that can easily generate business deals with little stress as long as they are well positioned. We are building a standard vocational school & training center with various training areas which is why we have decided to subject our business idea to SWOT Analysis.

Ordinarily we can successfully run a normal vocational school & training center without the stress of going through the required protocol of setting up a new business, but because of the nature of the vocational school & training center we want to establish, we don’t have any option other than to follow due process.

We hired the services of a HR and Business consultant with bias in startups to help us conduct SWOT analysis for our company and she did a pretty job for us. Here is a of the result we got from the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC;

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is centrally located in an area with the right climatic conditions and demographic composition for the kind of business we want to run. Another strength that counts for us is the power of our team; our workforce and management. We have a team that are considered experts in the vocational school line of business, a team of hardworking and dedicated individuals.

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is a new business and we may not have the financial muscle to acquire the latest equipment needed to train students, to attract and retain the best hands in the industry and also to sustain the kind of publicity we want to give our business.

• Opportunities:

We are centrally located in one of the busiest areas in Orange County – California and we are open to all the available opportunities that the city has to offer. Our business concept and staff strength also positioned us to accommodate over 100 students per time.

The truth is that there are no standard vocational school & training centers within our area; the closest to our proposed location is about 10 miles away. In a nutshell, we do not have any direct competition within our target market area.

Some of the threats that are likely going to confront Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC are unfavorable government policies , seasonal fluctuations, demographic/social factors, downturn in the economy which is likely going to affect consumers spending and of course emergence of new competitors within the same location where our vocational school & training center is located.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

The truth is that any vocational school & training center that has good records and loads of positive testimonials from students who have passed through the school will always thrive.

Another common trend in the industry is that in the bid to survive global economic meltdown and to ensure steady flow of income to effectively run the business, most players in the industry engage in other related services. Some of them even go as far as establishing agency services to provide professional and certified pilots for clients and some also offer specialized training for executive students.

It is a known pattern that as unemployment declines, demand for courses provided by this industry will drop, as further education and training become less essential to finding employment. The national unemployment rate is expected to decrease significantly over 2017, posing a serious potential threat to the industry.

As a matter of fact, about half of total government postsecondary education comes from state governments while federal contributions comprise mostly of grants bestowed on universities to be used for specific research. A rise in government funding for universities will cause enrollment in technical and trade schools to grow, as government funding typically increases affordability for students who need education loans. Government funding for universities is expected to increase over 2017, representing a potential opportunity for the industry.

8. Our Target Market

Prior to choosing a location for our vocational school & training center, we conducted thorough feasibility studies and market survey and we were able to identify those who will benefit greatly from our service offerings.

Essentially, the demographic and psychographic composition of those who require our services cut across individuals, school leavers, corporate organizations, aspiring entrepreneurs and religious organizations who need to acquire trade and technical skill sets.

• Our competitive advantage

In spite of the fact that vocational schools scale through hurdles before they are established does not mean that there are no real competitions in the industry. The truth is that no matter the line of business that you are involved in, as long as it is called business, you will definitely face one form of competition or the other and vocational school & training center is not an exemption.

So, if you are looking towards setting up this type of business, it is advisable to do your due diligence before launching the business if indeed you want to succeed.

Our competitive edge is that we have the ability to quickly adopt new technology, we have access to highly skilled workforce and our location is in fact one of our major strengths because we are located with the right demography for the kind of business we run.

Another strength that counts for us is the power of our team and management. We have a team that are considered experts in the vocational school & training center line of business, a team of hardworking and dedicated individuals.

Lastly, all our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our business aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the Trade and Technical Schools industry and we are going to ensure that we do all it takes to attract both individual clients and corporate clients on a regular basis.

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC will generate income by offering the following services;

10. Sales Forecast

We are well positioned to take on the available market in and around Orange County – California and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income/profits from the first six months of operation and grow our vocational school & training center and our student base.

We have been able to examine the vocational school & training center, market we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. Below are the sales projections for Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC, it is based on the location of our business and of course the wide range of related services that we will be offering;

• First Fiscal Year: $375, 000
• Second Fiscal Year: $650, 000
• Third Fiscal Year: $1 million

N.B : This projection was done based on what is obtainable in the vocational school & training center line of business and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and there won’t be any major competitor offering same related services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

The marketing strategy adopted by Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is going to be driven basically by excellent customer service and quality training delivery. We will ensure that we build a loyal customer base.

We want to drive sales via the output of our jobs and via referral from our satisfied students. We are quite aware of how satisfied students drive business growth especially businesses like vocational school & training centers and related services.

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is strategically located and we are going to maximize the opportunities that is available which is why we spent more to locate the business where it will be visible and accessible to our target market.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets.

Our goal is to grow Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC to become the leading vocational school & training center in Orange County – California which is why we have mapped out strategies that will help us take advantage of the available market and grow to become a major force to reckon with in our line of business.

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

• Introduce our vocational school & training center by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to schools and other key stake holders in and around Orange County – California
• Print out fliers and business cards and strategically drop them in offices, libraries, public facilities and train stations et al.
• Use friends and family to spread word about our business
• Post information about our vocational school & training center and the services we offer on bulletin boards in places like schools, libraries, and local coffee shops et al
• Place a small or classified advertisement in the newspaper, or local publication about our vocational school & training center and the services we offer
• Leverage on referral networks
• Advertise our vocational school & training center in relevant entertainment magazines, newspapers, TV and radio stations.
• Attend relevant expos, seminars, and business fairs et al to market our services
• Engage in direct marketing approach
• Encourage the use of Word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied students
• Join local chambers of commerce and industry and other relevant groups to market our services.

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is set to create a standard for the vocational school & training center business not only in Orange County – California, but throughout the United States of America which is why we will go all the way to adopt and apply best practices to promote our business.

Good enough there is no hard and fast rule on how to promote a vocational school & training center business. Here are the platforms we intend leveraging on to promote and advertise Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC;

• Encourage our loyal customers/students to help us use Word of Mouth mode of advertisement (referrals)
• Advertise our vocational school in relevant aviation magazines, local newspaper, local TV and radio stations
• Promote our vocational school online via our official website
• List our vocational school on local directories (yellow pages)
• Sponsor relevant community programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, twitter, et al to promote our brand
• Install our billboards on strategic locations all around Orange County – California
• Direct coupon mailing approach
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
• Ensure that all our staff members wear our customized clothes, all our mini – aircrafts, and official cars are customized and well branded.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

At Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC we will keep our fees below the average market rate by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance.

We are aware that there are some students that would need special assistance, we will offer flat rate for such services that will be tailored to take care of such students’ needs. The prices of our training services and certifications will be same as what is obtainable in the open market.

• Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation in the United States of America.

Here are the payment options that Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC will make available to her clients;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via mobile money platform
• Payment via Point of Sale Machines (POS Machine)
• Payment via check
• Payment via bank draft

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our client make payment for registering and services rendered without any stress on their part. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional material.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

If you are looking towards starting a vocational school & training center, then you should be ready to raise enough capital to cover some of the basic expenditure that you are going to incur. You will need money to secure a standard facility, acquire different types of training machines and equipment, acquire license and permits, relevant software apps and you will need money to pay your workforce and bills for a while until the revenue you generate from the business becomes enough to pay them.

We have been able to pull cash that will be enough for us to successfully launch a standard and government approved vocational school & training center in Orange County – California. The items listed below are the basics that we would need when starting our vocation school and trade center in the United States, although costs might vary slightly;

• The total fee for registering the business in the United States of America – $750.
• Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits – $1,500.
• Marketing promotion expenses (8,000 flyers at $0.04 per copy) for the total amount of – $10,000.
• The total cost for hiring Business Consultant – $5,000.
• The amount needed for the purchase of insurance policy covers (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $30,800.
• The total cost for the purchase of accounting software, CRM software and Payroll Software – $3,000
• The total cost for leasing facility for the business – $150,000.
• The total cost for equipping our lab – $500,000
• Other start-up expenses including stationery – $1000
• Phone and utility deposits – $3,500
• Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, payments of bills et al) – $40,000
• The cost for the purchase of furniture and gadgets (Computers, Printers, Telephone, TVs, Sound System, snooker board, tables and chairs et al) – $4,000.
• The cost of launching a website – $600
• The cost for our grand opening party – $15,000
• Miscellaneous – $5,000

Going by the report from the market research and feasibility studies conducted, we will need about seven hundred and fifty thousand ( 750,000 ) U.S. dollars to successfully set up a medium scale but standard vocational school & training center business in the United States of America.

Generating Funds/Startup for Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is owned and managed by Richmond Jones and other members of the faculty. They are the financiers of the business which is why they decided to restrict the sourcing of the startup capital for the business to just three major sources.

• Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
• Generate part of the startup capital from friends and other extended family members
• Generate a larger chunk of the startup capital from the bank (loan facility).

N.B: We have been able to generate about $350,000 ( Personal savings $300,000 and soft loan from family members $50,000 ) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $400,000 from our bank. All the papers and documents have been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the number of loyal customers that they have, the capacity and competence of their employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business, then it won’t be too long before the business closes shop.

One of our major goals of starting Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need for injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running.

We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer our vocation and trade training services a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

Richmond Jones® Vocational Training Center, LLC will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List/Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check : Completed
• Business Incorporation: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Securing a standard facility and reconstructing the facility: Completed
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating part of the startup capital from the founders: Completed
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
• Design of Logo for the business: Completed
• Purchase of training tools and equipment and supplies: Completed
• Printing of Promotional Materials: Completed
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of furniture, office equipment, software applications, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
• Creating official website for the business: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with vendors and key players in various industries: In Progress

More on School

• Get the Job
• Resumes and CVs
• Applications
• Cover Letters
• Professional References

Professional Licenses and Exams

• Get a Promotion
• Negotiation
• Professional Ethics
• Professionalism
• Dealing with Coworkers
• Dealing with Bosses

Communication Skills

Managing the office, disabilities, harassment and discrimination, unemployment.

• Career Paths
• Compare Careers
• Switching Careers
• Training and Certifications
• Start a Company
• Internships and Apprenticeships
• Entry Level Jobs
• College Degrees

Growth Trends for Related Jobs

How to start a technical school.

Technical schools and colleges are very important parts of the educational system in America. Their main objective is to train and prepare talented students for a wide variety of careers outside of academia. Similar to community colleges , they generally do not offer degrees above the Associate's level. Unlike community colleges, they do offer an array of certificates for entry-level positions in various career fields. Beginning a school is very similar to starting a business, as you will need a proposal, startup funds and future projections to be successful.

Write a School Proposal

Research your intended school. Before you begin your proposal, scour your community, city and even county for research materials. When you start writing you should be able to answer the following questions: What other technical schools are in your area? How and why is yours different? What is the purpose of your school? What ideas do you have for proposed programs and degree plans?

Write a school proposal or business plan. Just like any other business venture, you need a map of where you're going before you begin. Your business plan will have several distinct parts: Summary (what will the plan entail), School Summary (what is the purpose and mission of your school?), Market Analysis (Who are your competitors? How is your school different?), Management & Operational Plan (Where will you host your students? Who will manage the financial and academic pursuits of the school?), Campus Plan (Details about your campus), Financial Plan (How will the school earn money? Will it be a for-profit or nonprofit institution?), Supporting Documents (anything that is not covered above).

Get money for your school. Take your business plan to banks, credit unions, private investors or benefactors and even the government to attempt to secure funds for your school. Banks and credit unions will probably provide the bulk of your funding, but some nonprofits, individuals and government loans or grants may also be able to provide assistance. IFF Loans are a great source of funding for non-profit schools. If you can prove that your school will serve low-income communities, you may be eligible for the CDFI (Community Development Financial Institutions) Fund loan from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Start Your Technical School

Find out about regulations. The federal government, along with local governments, regulates degree or certificate-granting schools of all kind, so be sure to check with the U.S. Department of Education and your state's education agency to find out about compliance.

Design your programs. Depending on what degrees and certificates you want to offer, you will need to structure your student graduation plans. Some certificates require a certain number of classroom hours, while most degree plans require a certain number of credits. Decide how many hours or credits students will need to graduate and which courses will be offered each quarter, semester and school year.

Hire faculty and staff. The professors, deans, counselors and board members that serve your school will double as the face of the school, at least until students begin graduating. Hire talented, motivated and experienced personnel. The minimum staff should include a President, Academic Dean, Academic Counselors/Advisors, Financial Aid representatives and Recruiters/Admissions Personnel. If your school will be a nonprofit, also consider appointing a Board of Directors to make decisions about the school and help to raise money.

Work toward academic accreditation. Two main organizations grant accreditation to technical schools: ACCSC (Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges) and ACICS (Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools). Both of those accrediting bodies require that you are in federal and local compliance, that you are successfully preparing students for their career and that you have operated for at least two years. Because you cannot be accredited before you graduate at least one student, it is not a goal that you can accomplish immediately.

Related Articles

What are the duties of a school finance officer →.

How to Prepare for a Catholic School Principal Interview →

Responsibilities & Duties of a School Auditor →

How to start a seminary school →, how to start a language school →.

For-Profit Schools vs. Non-Profit Schools →

• Starting a Junior College or Technical Institute

Whitney Elaine is a freelance writer in the Washington, D.C. area. Besides contributing to Web sites like BusinessWeek.com, AOL and Parents.com, she's worked for magazines like "Essence," "Heart & Soul" and "Sister 2 Sister." She holds a Bachelor of Arts in print/online journalism from Howard University and has been writing for since 2004.

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BizFundingResource.com

Technical School Business Plan and SWOT Analysis

Technical School Business Plan, Marketing Plan, How To Guide, and Funding Directory

The Technical School Business Plan and Business Development toolkit features 18 different documents that you can use for capital raising or general business planning purposes. Our product line also features comprehensive information regarding to how to start a Technical School business. All business planning packages come with easy-to-use instructions so that you can reduce the time needed to create a professional business plan and presentation.

Your Business Planning Package will be immediately emailed to you after you make your purchase.

Product Specifications (please see images below):

Given the extremely high expenses associated with the acquisition of a college education, many people have turned to technical schools in order to learn a trade. Common trades that are often taught at these institutions include carpentry, electrical contracting, plumbing, roofing, as well as general contracting. Many technical schools also offer a host of automotive focus services so that individuals can become qualified mechanics once they graduate.

One of the primary draws of a technical school so they typically have a much lower tuition rate than that of a college or university. It should be immediately noted that some technical schools are associated with community colleges. However, the demand for comprehensive technical school educations is increasing in many for-profit institutions have begun to develop the services so that individuals can be licensed and properly qualified to get a job upon their completion. In fact, many studies indicate a technical school graduates typically earn incomes of $50,000 to $70,000 per year upon graduation and carry only a fraction of the student at that is normally associated with a college or university education. As such, technical schools are always in demand especially during times of economic recession where people one and refueled where they are guaranteed to get a job upon graduation.

The startup cost associated with the new technical school can range substantially depending on the types of courses offered. Usually, these businesses have a startup cost ranging anywhere from $250,000 to about $1 million. A substantial amount as capital is typically used for the acquisition of real estate coupled with a substantial amount of tangible furniture, fixtures, and equipment. The gross margins generated from services rendered is typically around 80% to 90%.

One of the other important things to know is that many technical schools do have relationships with lenders as well as federal government programs that provide reimbursements and low-cost financing for individuals that want to enroll in the company’s programs. It is imperative that the owner-operator to develop these relationships so that students can easily finance her educations shortly after completing high school.

A technical school SWOT analysis should always be developed. As it relates to strengths, technical schools generate very high gross margins from their services and are relatively immune from negative changes in the economy. People are always going to want to become electricians, plumbers, mechanics, carpenters, and other associated trades people. The demand for the services does not wane during times of economic recession.

For weaknesses, these businesses do have very high operating expenses in their startup cost can be substantial. One of the key issues that is commonly faced by a new technical school is recruiting qualified master trades people that are able to provide instruction to students. However, once this is completed – the ongoing risks associated with these types of weaknesses is pretty minimal.

For opportunities, most technical schools expand their operations by either launching new facilities on their existing campus while concurrently integrating new programs that teach a variety of technical school disciplines. Additionally, many of these technical schools will develop apprenticeship and journeyman programs allow students to get on hands experience with master trades people.

For threats, major changes to federal programs that provide grants and low-cost financing the students for technical schools could change. However, technical school educations do you require substantial amount of money and as such these businesses are generally able to always produce revenues among students that want to learn a specialized trade. There is really nothing about this industry that is expected to change within the next 20 years.

Given the economic stability of these businesses, most financial institutions are willing to provide capital to launch is that the company. Of course, a technical school business plan is going to be required. This business plan should feature a three-year profit and loss statement, cash analysis, balance sheet, breakeven analysis, and business ratios page. Relating to industry research, there are approximately 9,000 technical schools within the United States employs 110,000 people either as a ministry staff or instructors. Each year these businesses generate about $10 billion in revenue. It should be noted that the growth rate of the industry is expected to grow faster than that of the general economy given that more people are turning towards technical school rather than receiving a traditional college or university education. Over the next five years, technical school revenues are expected to increase by about 3% per year.

Also central to the business plan, is the development of a demographic analysis that will showcase the population, population density, annual median household income, percentage of people under the age 18, and the number of people graduating from high school each year within the regional market. Is very important to note that a demographic analysis for this type of business should be heavily skewed towards people that are graduating from high school are not going to be entering college.

For the technical schools marketing plan, and expansive amount of capital should be allocated towards job fairs, developing relationships with high school guidance counselors, and engaging in broad-based online marketing strategy. Foremost, job fairs at high schools and development being relationships with guidance counselors are central to ensuring that the technical school can have near 100% enrollment at the onset of operations. Many guidance counselors, these days especially with the high cost of higher education, are encouraging students who would not typically otherwise enter college to become part of a trade school. This will allow the business to immediately have referrals once the doors open.

As with all businesses these days, a technical school online presence should be substantial. The website should feature information about all courses offered, certificates offered, hours of operation, tuition information, tuition financing information, and any other piece of information that is relevant to the overall operations of the technical school. Many for-profit owned institutions of higher learning will also embed substantial e-commerce functionality into the website so that students cannot only enroll in courses but also make arrangements for payment or receive financing for their educations. This is going to be one of the central ways in which the technical school will be able to reach near 100% occupancy within its first few years of operation. Typically, the cost associated for developing this type of expansive website would be anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on whether or not course selection and related functionality is going to be embedded with e-commerce operations.

Technical schools are an extremely important part of any society, especially in the United States where the specialization of labor is probably prevalent. These businesses are always going to be sought after by recent high school graduates or people that are looking to start a second career. As such, technical schools are a very strong position to continue to grow especially as the labor market within the United States focus is substantially more on services rather than manufacturing. These businesses can be highly lucrative, and they will enjoy substantial growth over the next 10 to 20 years.

• Business Type
• Business Plan for Technical School

Technical School Small Business Idea and Business Plan

Starting your own small business in the UK isn’t easy but having a properly developed business plan will help you achieve success.

To start a Technical School business in the UK, take the time and explain the idea via a business plan.

Understanding all of the aspects of the business idea will be the key to getting the Technical School business running like a well-oiled machine. The business plan you develop will help you organize the elements needed into a strategy that you can actually use to startup, by paving a clear road map as to what you need to follow for the lifespan of your business.

Starting a Technical School business isn’t easy, but when done right, it can lead to a lot of success.

To help you get started, you can use the free business plan builder tool to develop your own Technical School business plan.

The business plan template is very easy to use, is interactive and will quickly and easily help you create your business plan just by answering the needed questions about your small business idea.

Create your own Technical School business plan for free using the Business Plan Builder

The free business plan template builder is divided into a few easy to follow steps.

The free business plan builder template is provided by UKStartups.org to help you develop your own business plan. For step by step guidance, see the 5 steps below.

Once completed, the result will be a clean, professional plan that will help you start your own Technical School small business in the UK.

When you have completed your Technical School business plan, the next step will be to find available funding that will help, or to speak with a funding adviser who will assist you each step of the way to securing the needed funds to make your Technical School business startup.

If you are looking to limit your startup costs when starting up a Technical School small business in the UK, this free business plan builder tool will be it.

Starting a Technical School business is only one of the ways others have used this free business plan tool. There are hundreds of different ideas you can start, and if you need guidance, do reach out to a UKStartups expert to get the needed assistance and guidance.

Step 1. Your business information

To develop a proper Technical School business plan with the free business plan builder template, it is important to answer each of the questions about your business to the best of your abilities.

What is your business? What are the products/services you provide? Who are your customers? What are your goals…etc?

Having a clear explanation will help you create a in-depth business plan that you can actually use to start the Technical School business and to apply for needed funding to cover your startup costs.

Step 2. Projecting your revenues/income

The Technical School industry can have great results. Planning and projecting the financial figures to approximate what you will make each year is crucial to building a strong business plan.

What do you think your business will make from each of its products/services? Simply list your products/services, enter the appropriate financial figures (costs and expenses).

If you don’t have the figures, in many cases it is recommended to do a a bit more research on other Technical School businesses locally and within your own region to get an idea of potential revenue. You can do your best to estimate the figures and growth potential.

If you need assistance in projecting, you can always contact UK Startups funding experts for the help.

Step 3. Your business market

As a Technical School business, having a clear explanation of the market and industry that you are in will help you plan for the figure and will ensure you can take the business to the next level.

Explain your location of business, share specifics about your customers, showcase your competition and explain the advantages you have over your competition.

Step 4. The future plan

Starting your own Technical School business and getting it off the ground is important to you.

No matter if you’re planning on applying for government funding for your Technical School business or not, it is important to plan out the future and provide an explanation of how you will grow the business. This means explaining your marketing plan, your sales strategy and clearly outlining a growth plan for the next few years.

Be sure to break this down step by step to show how you intend on making sure your Technical School business can grow each year.

Keep in mind that often business plans are focused on key people. Be sure to discuss yourself, your role and any other key figures in the business as well.

Step 5. The financials

In the end, it all comes down to the financials. If you are seeking funding, or not – the business plan you develop needs to have clearly defined financials or projections. The business plan builder tool makes it easy to develop your financial charts by simply entering your expected revenues per month and year. If you don’t have the figures as it’s a new business be sure to project the figures based on your expectations. If you need help with this, ask the UK Startups experts .

A clear breakdown of your funding needs is also recommended in case you are seeking funding and this free business plan template will help you with exactly that. When developing your Technical School business plan using this free template, the above 5 steps are recommended in order to succeed. While there are other key points that will assist you in starting your business, finding funding...etc, the free template will help put you on the right path

Be sure to request a professional to review your business plan , to answer any questions you may have and to help you with the funding search once you’ve done the initial free template. You can request this directly via UKStartups.org and through the Small Business Startup Platform as a member.

If starting a Technical School business is just one of your ideas, perhaps considering other options, here are some popular small business’s others have chosen to startup

• Sunglasses Store
• Vintage Clothing Store
• Tax Assessor
• Hockey Rink
• Pet Supply Store

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How To Start Vocational School Business [PLAN]

Vocational school business startup guide.

Want to start a vocational school but can’t figure out how to write your business plan?

Lots of entrepreneurs face such a challenge. However, the good news is that you’re reading this article. Here, you’ll find guidance on how to write one.

This vocational school BUSINESS STARTUP GUIDE helps you with a template with which to work.

This should help resolve any problems you are faced with. The sections included providing a rough sample of what piece of information to have.

You only need to replace such information with what your vocational school business holds.

Executive Summary

Life Goals LLC is an accredited vocational training school in Tucson, Arizona .

We offer a wide range of courses which cater to the market’s needs. Our departments are well equipped to provide hands-on training in all our systems.

A few courses we provide include web development, electrical services, plumbing, HVAC repair, installation, and maintenance , among others.

The economy is skill-driven. As such, college degrees, in most cases, aren’t sufficient to produce the skills needed to boost productivity and creativity.

That has influenced our decision to provide a skilled workforce to drive economic growth.

Mission Statement

We seek to be known as a center of excellence in vocational training not only in Tucson but in the whole of Arizona and beyond.

To achieve this, we will enter into strategic partnerships with colleges within the Tucson area for more comprehensive training of undergraduates in the vocational skills they are interested in.

Vision Statement

Life Goals LLC is building a rich curriculum that will make it the preferred choice among aspiring vocational trainees.

Through our exceptional training services and the recruitment of professional and experienced instructors, our sights are set on becoming the only vocational training school in Tucson.

Our Services

These consist of various courses ranging from electronic equipment repair training, medical technician training, and automobile technology.

Other departments include bartending training, cosmetology and beauty, graphic and commercial art, apprenticeship training, and firefighting .

These are just broad categories, each containing a long list of courses.

Capital Requirement

We are actively seeking ways to raise the needed funding for a full take-off of all our training activities.

This includes the creation of new departments, hiring a more qualified and experienced workforce, purchasing additional equipment, and launching our mechanical workshop.

The needed funding required stands at $3,000,000.00.

This will be sourced through a loan facility obtained from our financial partner Bank ABC. Although current interest rates are low, we will seek ways to borrow and get such loans at lower rates.

We are open to exploring all the recommended alternatives.

SWOT Analysis

Four months ago, we entered the third year of our operation.

To commemorate this anniversary, we hired the services of a business consulting firm for a SWOT test. This is meant to enable us to assess the journey so far.

The results were released with lots of insights about our operations brought to the fore.

The findings are summarized thus;

i. Strength

Our strength lies in the depth of our trainers and our curriculum. We’ve put together a great team of professionals with significant years of experience garnered over a considerable period.

Such experience has been brought to bear regarding our training services.

Another strength is our desire to keep up with the changing times constantly. We have expanded our curriculum to accommodate new courses—the most recent being Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

ii. Weakness

Our vocational school is underfunded. This has restricted our operations significantly. To function at total capacity, adequate funding will need to be sourced. We are currently finding the best ways to overcome this challenge.

We hope to get over our funding challenge within the shortest possible time

iii. Opportunities

The future of work is fast changing. More emphasis is being placed on skills rather than degrees.

The changing trend has made our services indispensable. What more? It has been observed that the number of people seeking vocational training has witnessed a sharp climb within the last half-decade.

Part of our expansion plans is a result of available data that shows the steady rise in demand for our services. We are well poised to take advantage of such opportunities.

iv. Threats

A threat to our business will likely arise from a severe economic downturn or recession.

In such cases, lending institutions prioritize their activities and stop lending to businesses like ours. This stalls growth, resulting in static business operations.

Negative growth is likely to result.

Sales Projection

Sales have seen a modest climb over the entire period of our operations. However, this is likely to change with the planned infusion of cash. With the completion of our expansion drive, we have projected significant sales growth.

This projection covers three years from when such plans are fully implemented. This is shown in the chart below.

• First Fiscal Year                                                       $4,000,000.00
• Second Fiscal Year                                                  $10,000,000.00
• Third Fiscal Year                                                     $55,000,000.00

Marketing Strategies

We are working closely with colleges within the Tucson area to attract undergraduate students to take part-time courses in our school.

Also, we are spreading the word about our services through paid ads in print and electronic media channels. The online space is not being left out, either.

Competitive Advantage

Our advantage over other vocational schools is the depth and quality of our instructors in addition to our curriculum. We have also made the extra effort to provide favorable working conditions and an excellent working environment.

This has resulted in a well-motivated workforce plus graduates that continue to make a mark in their chosen vocational professions.

This vocational school BUSINESS STARTUP GUIDE provides you with a template to work with to create a great plan. As you’ve read, this process isn’t complicated.

It only requires some dedication to organizing your project.

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School Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

School Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 500 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their schools.

If you’re unfamiliar with creating a school business plan, you may think creating one will be a time-consuming and frustrating process. For most entrepreneurs it is, but for you, it won’t be since we’re here to help. We have the experience, resources, and knowledge to help you create a great business plan.

In this article, you will learn some background information on why business planning is important. Then, you will learn how to write a school business plan step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What is a School Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your school as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategies for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a School

If you’re looking to start a school or grow your existing school, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your school to improve your chances of success. Your school business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Sources of Funding for Schools

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for schools are donations and gifts, tuition, personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, and angel investors. When it comes to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to ensure that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business. Personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for schools.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for a school.

If you want to start a school or expand your current one, you need a business plan. The guide below details the necessary information for how to write each essential component of your school business plan.

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your executive summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the kind of school you are running and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a school that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of schools?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan.

• Give a brief overview of the school industry.
• Discuss the type of school you are operating.
• Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers.
• Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team.
• Offer an overview of your financial plan.

Company Overview

In your company overview, you will detail the type of school you are operating.

For example, you might specialize in one of the following types of schools:

• Private K-12 school : this type of school typically charges tuition, and may be affiliated with a religious organization, or specialize in a particular learning method.
• Charter school: this type of school offers primary or secondary education for a tuition, and may receive some public funding, and/or donations. These schools require their students to take state-mandated exams.
• Special subject school: this type of school specializes in teaching a specific subject, such as driving, first-aid, self-defense, fine arts, language, or general tutoring.
• Preschool: this type of school typically serves children who are aged 3 and 4. These schools prepare young children to enter formal education, and are funded by some combination of tuition, donations, and government grants.

In addition to explaining the type of school you will operate, the company overview needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include the number of students served, the number of students accepted into elite formal education institutions, etc.
• Your legal business Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry or market analysis, you need to provide an overview of the school industry.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the school industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your marketing strategy, particularly if your analysis identifies market trends.

The third reason is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your school business plan:

• How big is the school industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential target market for your school? You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your school business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: families with elementary-aged children, families with high-school-aged children, families with preschool children.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of school you operate. Clearly, families with high schoolers would respond to different marketing promotions than families with preschoolers, for example.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, including a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the potential customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can recognize and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other schools.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t directly competing with your product or service. This includes public schools, virtual schools, and families who do homeschooling. You need to mention such competition as well.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their business and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as

• What types of students do they serve?
• What type of school are they?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide specialized instruction, either in subject or in method?
• Will you offer courses or services that your competition doesn’t?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a school business plan, your marketing strategy should include the following:

Product : In the product section, you should reiterate the type of school that you documented in your company overview. Then, detail the specific products or services you will be offering. For example, will you provide religious-focused K-8 education, college preparatory courses, or single-subject instruction like driving or fine arts?

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your plan, you are presenting the courses and/or extracurricular activities you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the site of your school. Document where your company is situated and mention how the site will impact your success. For example, is your school located in a growing neighborhood, in the city center, or will you operate purely online? Discuss how your site might be the ideal location for your customers.

Promotions : The final part of your school marketing plan is where you will document how you will drive potential customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Advertise in local papers, radio stations and/or magazines
• Reach out to websites
• Distribute flyers
• Engage in email marketing
• Advertise on social media platforms
• Improve the SEO (search engine optimization) on your website for targeted keywords

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your school, including answering calls, planning and delivering instruction, applying for grants, fundraising, performing administrative tasks, overseeing instructors, handling discipline, scheduling and monitoring extracurricular activities, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to enroll your Xth student, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your school to a new city.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your school’s potential to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing schools. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in running a school or experience with public school administration or who has served on a public school board.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement

An income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenue and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you enroll 100 or 1,000 students per semester, and/or offer extracurricular activities? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets

Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your school, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a lender writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement

Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and ensure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

When creating your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a school:

• Cost of equipment and supplies
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Other start-up expenses (if you’re a new business) like legal expenses, permits, computer software, and equipment

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your school location lease or a list of elective courses or extracurricular activities you will offer.  

Writing a business plan for your school is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will understand the school industry, your competition, and your customers. You will develop a marketing strategy and will understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful school.

Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your School business plan?

OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You

Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.   Click here to learn about Growthink’s business plan writing services .

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

Your Roadmap to Success: Opening a Tech Training School under an Education Franchise – A Comprehensive Guide

• Wawiwa Tech
• July 18, 2023
• Education Franchise

Empower the Next Generation of Tech Leaders While Enjoying High Returns – Here’s How

In an era defined by rapid technological innovation, there’s no better time to step into the tech education sector. If you’re aiming to create a transformative and rewarding venture, launching a tech training school franchise may be your golden ticket. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve into the step-by-step process of building a successful education franchise. You’ll discover how to cultivate future tech pioneers, all while securing a solid return on your investment.

1. Understanding the Tech Education Landscape

Overall employment in computer and information technology occupations is projected to grow 15 percent from 2021 to 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations. According to Deloitte, this increase is expected to result in about 682,800 new jobs over the decade. 

Reports show that the upskilling industry has a market size of $370 billion . Within the next five years, up to 50 percent of all employees will require some level of reskilling to perform effectively in their role, while nearly 100 million new roles are likely to emerge. 

In the global economy, technology is king. However, a glaring skills gap has opened up, with businesses clamoring for skilled tech professionals while suitable candidates are scarce. This discrepancy presents a remarkable opportunity for tech education franchises. By offering tailored, top-tier training, your education franchise could play a crucial role in bridging this gap. 

The importance of this mission cannot be overstated. By launching an education franchise school in the tech sector, you’re not just starting a business; you’re powering the future of the industry. Each student you train will become a valuable asset to their future employer, pushing the boundaries of what’s technologically possible. 

Yet, the tech industry is not monolithic. To succeed in this sector, you must stay abreast of industry trends and continually adjust your curriculum to meet evolving needs.

2. Identifying Your Focus: Tailoring Your Tech Training Programs to Industry Needs

The world of technology is broad and varied, ranging from AI and Full-Stack Development to Cybersecurity , Data Analysis , and beyond. Your first step to building a successful tech training school franchise is to find your focus within this landscape. Conduct thorough market research to identify the most in-demand skills in your target area. Align your program and course offerings with these findings.

Don’t hesitate to narrow down your focus. Specializing in a specific area, such as AI or cybersecurity, can allow your school to stand out and build a reputation as a leading authority. Moreover, a specialized curriculum can provide your students with the concentrated expertise they need to find a job and excel in their chosen fields.

The essence of creating a thriving tech training school lies not only in offering high-quality programs, but also in aligning those programs with the local industry’s demand for tech talent. By tailoring your program offering and curriculum to the specific needs of your local market, you position your training center as a reliable source for tech talent. This approach maximizes your students’ employability and your school’s relevance. Hence, a localized, industry-specific approach contributes significantly to the success of your tech training school franchise, the employability of your graduates, and the overall growth of your local tech industry.

3. Creating a Successful Tech Training School Business Plan: A Roadmap to Success

Every great venture starts with a robust business plan. It serves as your franchise’s roadmap, outlining your business objectives, strategies for achieving them, potential obstacles, and ways to overcome them. This document is invaluable not only for guiding your venture but also for providing a roadmap through local market research, program offerings, staffing strategies, technical requirements, sales and marketing plans, and innovative training methodologies.

Start by outlining your tech school’s mission, vision, and values. What specific skills gap do you aim to fill? How will you differentiate your tech school from others in the market? What values will guide your decisions and actions? 

Next, dive into the details of your strategy. How will you attract and retain students? What pricing model will you use? How will you ensure that your curriculum stays relevant as technology evolves? 

Finally, remember, a well-crafted business plan doesn’t just set the course; it keeps you on track, encouraging consistent reflection and refinement of your strategies as you navigate the exciting and ever-evolving landscape of tech education.

4. Choosing the Right Franchise: A Strategic Partnership

The franchise model you choose can make or break your venture. Look for a franchisor with a solid reputation, a broad set of comprehensive training programs, advanced learning management systems and education technologies, and robust support mechanisms. A good franchisor will provide you with the guidance and resources needed to navigate the challenges of launching your tech training school.

The best franchisors will work closely with you to ensure your school’s success. They’ll help you tailor your curriculum to the specific needs of your market, provide ongoing training and support, and offer marketing and sales assistance.

It’s also important to share similar values and mission with your franchisor. This alignment will ensure a successful and satisfying partnership.

5. Financial Planning: Ensuring a Sustainable Tech Venture

One of the most critical steps in launching your franchise is developing a comprehensive financial plan. This plan should outline your expected initial investment, ongoing costs, projected revenue, and estimated profitability.

Consider your initial investment, which will likely include franchise fees, setup costs, and working capital. Your franchisor should provide clear information about these costs, helping you understand what to expect.

Ongoing costs will include salaries, rent, utilities, and more. Create a detailed budget for these costs to ensure that your franchise remains profitable.

Finally, analyze your potential revenue and profitability. Consider factors like your tuition fees, the number of students you can realistically expect to enroll, and additional income streams, like offering corporate training or online courses.

6. Legal Requirements and Licensing: Ticking All the Boxes

Before opening your tech training franchise school, you must understand and comply with all relevant legal and licensing requirements. These regulations will vary depending on your location, so thorough research is essential.

Legal requirements may include zoning laws, business registration, and specific educational licenses or accreditations. You may also need to comply with specific laws related to franchising.

In addition to legal compliance, you’ll need to negotiate and sign a franchise agreement. This contract will outline your rights and responsibilities as a franchisee, as well as the support you’ll receive from your franchisor.

7. Location and Infrastructure: Laying the Groundwork

The physical location of your tech training school can greatly influence its success. Consider factors like accessibility, visibility, and proximity to your target market. A location in a bustling business district or near universities may be ideal.

Today, however, a physical location is not the only factor to consider. A strong online presence is equally essential, as more and more students are turning to online learning. Invest in a robust digital infrastructure, including a user-friendly website, reliable video conferencing tools, and secure online payment systems.

Whether physical or digital, your training school should provide an environment conducive to learning. This includes state-of-the-art training equipment, comfortable classrooms (or virtual equivalents), and a variety of learning resources.

8. Marketing and Recruitment: Drawing in the Right Students

To attract students to your tech training school, you’ll need a well-thought-out marketing strategy. This strategy should leverage both online and offline marketing channels to reach your target market effectively.

In the digital realm, consider tactics like paid advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, content marketing, and email marketing. Offline, consider hosting open day events, partnering with local businesses, or sponsoring tech events. You might want to check with your franchisor as they may offer pre-established marketing strategies, saving you some legwork.

Recruitment is not only about drawing students in, but also about selecting the right ones. You’ll want students who are truly committed to learning and advancing their tech skills. A rigorous application and screening process can help you find these students.

Remember that your students might not come only as individuals. Businesses might also send their teams and employees to train at your franchise training centers if relevant programs and short courses are available.

9. Delivering Quality Education: The Heart of Your Business

Ultimately, the success of your tech training school franchise hinges on the quality of the education you provide. Invest in highly qualified teachers who are not only experts in their fields, but also passionate about imparting their knowledge to the next generation of tech professionals. 

Constantly update your curriculum to keep pace with the rapidly evolving tech landscape. You don’t want your students learning about outdated technologies; they should always be at the cutting edge.

Also, consider implementing a blended learning approach. A combination of classroom instruction, hands-on practice, and online learning can cater to different learning styles, ensuring that all students get the most out of your program. A strong Learning Management System is needed to keep track of all students, classes, and homework assignments. 

Case Study: Wawiwa – Shaping the Future of Tech Education Franchising

To illustrate the power and potential of tech education franchising, let’s take a look at Wawiwa . An Israel-based tech education provider, Wawiwa has made considerable strides in shaping the tech skills landscape globally. They’ve successfully established partnerships in various countries such as Canada, Sri Lanka, Romania, Australia, France, Portugal, Japan, Philippines, and Ecuador. 

Wawiwa’s model is a brilliant example of a successful tech training franchise. By partnering with local entities, they establish tech training centers that deliver high-demand tech skills. Their partners benefit from the proven blended training methodology , cutting-edge programs , and a high degree of employability and graduate satisfaction among students.

The company’s success can be attributed to its rigorous approach to curriculum development, strong and supportive partner relationships, and focus on graduate employability. We provide continuous support to our partner-franchisees, ensuring their programs are always up-to-date and that they implement Wawiwa’s JET Design (Job-Effective-Training) training methodology .

Furthermore, Wawiwa has demonstrated that tech education franchising can be a sustainable and profitable business model. Partners benefit from quick onboarding time, a wealth of ready processes and collateral, and the ability to open doors to new students for tech professions in a matter of months.

As you take your first steps towards opening your tech training franchise school, consider Wawiwa’s model. With the right approach, it’s possible to create a thriving business that not only contributes to bridging the tech skills gap but also cultivates a new generation of tech leaders.

In conclusion, the road to opening a tech training franchise school may seem complex, but the journey can be incredibly rewarding. By thoroughly understanding your market, carefully planning your business, choosing the right franchise model, and committing to deliver quality education, you’re well on your way to launching a successful venture. With Wawiwa, you too can play a crucial role in empowering the next generation of tech professionals in your country while enjoying a thriving, fulfilling business. The world of tech education franchising awaits you!

Partner with Wawiwa to offer tech training programs in less than 6 months!

Education franchise , tech training , tech training school, recent posts.

Online Program Management (OPM) Market Trends in 2024

The Online Program Management (OPM) market in 2024 is buzzing with change—new trends, uncertainties, as well as opportunities. As universities adjust to shifting demands, the role of OPM providers is more important than ever. Read this blog to understand what’s driving the OPM market in 2024, the bumps in the road, and why this model might just work for you.

It’s Time to Quit Your Job

Do you dread Monday mornings? Do you feel stuck in a job that no longer excites you? Are you dreaming about doing something different but aren’t sure where to start? If you answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, it might be time to consider a change. Individuals are expected to change careers 5 to 7 times in their working lives, so if you’re feeling the itch to move on, you’re definitely not alone. This blog explores why career change isn’t as risky as you think, how you can still leverage your existing skills in a new field, the long-term benefits of career switching, and why it’s never too late to reskill or upskill.

QA and Automation Specialist Role: Your Entry Ticket to the Tech Industry

Quality Assurance (QA) and automation ensure that software is functional, reliable, and efficient. Imagine launching a new app only to find out it’s riddled with bugs—it’s every developer’s nightmare! That’s where QA and automation come into play, saving the day by catching glitches before they reach the user. This blog discusses what QA and automation are, what it means to have them in place, and the essential skills required to excel as a QA and Automation Specialist.

For more information:

• [email protected]

Computer Training Center Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

Home » Business Plans » Education Sector

Are you about starting a computer training center? If YES, here is a complete sample computer training center business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE .

Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a computer training center. We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample computer training center marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for computer training centers. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.

If you are interested in starting a business in the ICT industry, one of the options open to you especially if you are interested in imparting knowledge is to open a computer training center. Just like most businesses in the ICT industry, computer training center business is open to as many people that are interested in the industry as long as they have the required experience and qualifications.

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In order to capture a fair share of the available market in your location, you would need a good website that is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) compliant. The truth is that your website ensures that your business remains visible to your customers. You can even ensure that your customers get to book and pay online so as to make it more convenient for them.

Lastly, you would need a good business plan to be able to launch a successful business and below is a workable computer training center business plan template that will help you to draft yours.

A Sample Computer Training Center Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

The computer training services industry is made up of centers that offer vocational and technical courses. They also provide courses in computer programming, which include curriculums for software packages, computerized business systems, computer electronics technology and local area network management.

It is important to state that computer training centers may also train their students via online platforms. The computer training services industry provides vocational and certification training in a range of IT-related skills. The industry provides training in computer programming, software development, computer electronics technology and network administration.

Players in this industry range from small private companies providing certified training in specific IT areas, to larger software companies providing training and certifications in their proprietary software such as SAP, Oracle and IBM. Going forward, the computer training services industry is expected to continue declining as competition from other forms of higher education and online learning platforms continue to reduce enrollment in computer training centers.

The Computer Training Services Industry is indeed a large industry and pretty much active in all the countries of the world.

Statistics have it that in the united states of America alone, there are about 16,195 registered and licensed computer training centers scattered all across the United States responsible for directly employing about 2,329 people and the industry rakes in a whooping sum of $3 billion annually.

The industry is projected to grow at -0.4 percent annual growth within 2012 and 2017. It is important to state that SkillSoft has a largest chunk of the available market in the industry.

Please note that the computer training industry has low barriers to entry. The majority of the businesses in this industry are owner operated, and there are few major players that control significant portions of the industry’s total market. In addition, classroom facilities and equipment can be rented on an as-needed basis, resulting in relatively low initial infrastructure costs.

The main factors that may prevent new players from joining the industry include course development and accreditation costs, as well as a moderate level of regulation. Among computer training schools, rapidly changing technology can be costly. Operators must balance the benefit of offering up-to-date courses with the cost of producing such coursework.

The tough part as it relates to start-up costs most likely is the need to secure a standard and well – positioned facility. Regardless of moderate barriers to entry, the competitive nature of the industry makes it very difficult for new operators to break even within a short period of time in the industry.

Lastly, the computer training school services industry is pretty much open for aspiring entrepreneurs to launch their business in the industry.

One good thing about computer training center business is that the business can be opened in any part of the United States and if proper market survey and feasibility studies are conducted, then you can be rest assured of profitability of the business.

2. Executive Summary

The name of our business is Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC; we are a registered and accredited computer training school that will be located in Atlantic Avenue, – Delray Beach, Florida. We are registered under the United States’ Government. We are well equipped to train people that want to acquire computer or IT related skills.

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC will offer computer cum IT trainings such as computer programming, computer software package training, computer systems and database training, computer electronics technology training, Local area network (LAN) management training and vocational training.

We are set to service a wide range of clientele in the whole of Atlantic Avenue – Delray Beach, Florida, we will ensure that we regularly update our teaching approach to meet up the trend in the industry.

At Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC we are passionate in the pursuit of excellence with uncompromising services and integrity which is why we have decided to start our own computer training center in Atlantic Avenue – Delray Beach, Florida; we are in the industry to make a positive mark.

We are quite optimistic that our values and quality of service offering will help us drive our computer training center to enviable heights and also help us attract the number of students that will make the business highly profitable. Our company will be dedicated to establishing good business relationship with our students giving them value for their money and reasons why they should continue to recommend their family members and friends to us.

We are in the computer training Industry to favorably compete with other leading brands in the industry both in the United States and in the globe. Our corporate business goal is to be among the top 5 computer training schools in the United States of America.

As a company, we are willing to go the extra mile to invest in some of the finest professionals (computer cum ICT trainers / instructors) we can find and also, we have put processes and structures in place that will ensure that we are always at the top of our game when it comes to impacting knowledge as it relates to our computer training services. We have been able to secure permits from all relevant departments in the State of Florida.

We are quite aware that in order to become the number one choice in our city, we must continue to deliver quality and practical computer training and that is exactly what we will do. We are open to the use of latest technology in our line of business.

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is owned and managed by Edgar Jones and his immediate family members.  

Edgar Jones has a Degree: B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; M.S. degree in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; MBA from the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business.

3. Our Products and Services

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is an accredited computer training school that offers a wide range of training services that revolves around the computer training industry. We will be dedicated to establishing good business relationship with our students by giving them value for their money and reasons for why they should continue to recommend their family members and friends to us.

We are in the computer training industry to make profits and we will ensure that we do all that is permitted by the law in the United States to achieve our business aim and objectives. These are the services we will offer as a computer training center;

• Provision of programming training
• Provision of software package training
• Provision of computer systems and database training
• Provision of computer electronics technology training
• Provision of vocational training
• Local area network (LAN) management training

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our Vision is to become the number one government approved computer training school in the whole of Atlantic Avenue, – Delray Beach, Florida, United States of America.
• Our mission as a government approved computer training school is to develop a highly successful, and profitable computer training center which provides quality training in our community and to become a standard for computer training schools not only in Atlantic Avenue, – Delray Beach, Florida, but also throughout the United States of America and Canada where we intend attracting students.

Our Business Structure

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is aware that the success of any business lies in the foundation on which the business is built on, which is why we have decided to build our computer training center on the right business foundation.

As a matter of fact, we will build a computer training center that will be a standard for the computer training school line of business in the United States of America.

We want to build a dedicated workforce that will go all the way to ensure that our students are satisfied and they get value for their money when they enroll in our computer training school.

We aware that it takes a business with the right employees and structure to achieve all what we have set to achieve, which is why we will be putting structures and standard operating processes in place that will help us deliver excellent training to our students.

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC will employ professionals and skilled people to occupy the following position;

• Head of The School / School Coordinator

School Administrator

ICT Instructors

Marketing and Sales Executive

Client Service Executive

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Head of the School / School Coordinator:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; developing incentives; developing a climate for offering information and opinions.
• Creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the computer training school
• Design job descriptions with KPI to drive performance management for tutors (ICT instructors)
• Regularly hold meetings with key stakeholders to review the effectiveness of the schools’ Policies, Procedures and Processes
• Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Oversees the smooth running of the daily activities of the school.
• Responsible for handling computer cum IT trainings such as computer programming training, computer software package training, computer systems and database training, computer electronics technology training, Local area network (LAN) management training and vocational training et al
• Accesses the progress of students under their care
• Ensure that students abide by the rules and regulations of the regulating bodies in the United States of America
• Receives complaints from students and channel it to the appropriate quarters
• Handles any other duty as assigned by the school coordinator.
• Identifies, prioritizes, and reaches out to new students, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of projects; assures the completion of development projects.
• Writes winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with organizations’ policy
• Responsible for handling business research, market surveys and feasibility studies for clients
• Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the student’s needs, and communicate with clients
• Develops, executes and evaluates new plans for expanding sales
• Helps to increase sales and growth for the school.
• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyzes financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for the organization
• Serves as internal auditor for the organization.
• Welcomes students and visitors by greeting them in person or on the telephone; answering or directing inquiries.
• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with students on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the school coordinator in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the schools’ products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to students when they make enquiries
• Distributes mails in the organization

6. SWOT Analysis

Computer training school is one of the many businesses that can easily generate business deals with little stress as long as they are well positioned and equipped to carry out their trainings. We are building a standard computer training center which is why we have decided to subject our business idea to SWOT Analysis.

Ordinarily we can successfully run a normal computer training center without the stress of going through the required protocol of setting up a new business including writing a detailed business plan, but because of the nature of the kind of computer training center we want to establish, we don’t have any option other than to follow due process.

We hired the services of a Business consultant with bias in startups to help us conduct SWOT analysis for our company and she did a pretty job for us. Here is a of the result we got from the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC;

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is centrally located in a densely populated residential estate in the heart of Atlantic Avenue, – Delray Beach, Florida; our location is in fact one of our major strengths because we are in a location with the right demography for the kind of business we run.

Another strength that counts for us is the power of our team. We have a team that are considered experts in the computer training school line of business, a team of hardworking and dedicated individuals.

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is a new business which is owned by an individual (family), and we may not have the financial muscle to sustain the kind of publicity we want to give our business.

• Opportunities:

We are centrally located in one of the busiest areas in Delray Beach – Florida and we are open to all the available opportunities that the city has to offer. Our business concept and staff strength also positioned us to accommodate over 200 students per time.

The truth is that there are no standard computer training centers within the area where ours is going to be located; the closest one to our proposed location is about 6 miles away. In a nutshell, we do not have any direct competition within our target market area.

Some of the threats that are likely going to confront Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC are unfavorable government policies , seasonal fluctuations, demographic / social factors, downturn in the economy which is likely going to affect consumers spending and of course emergence of new competitors within the same location where our computer training center is located.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

The key to attracting students is the ease at which students learn different computer skill sets in a training school. Any computer training center that has good records and loads of positive testimonials from students who have passed through the school will always thrive.

Another common trend in the computer training industry is that in the bid to survive global economic meltdown and to ensure steady flow of income to effectively run the business, most players in the industry engage in other related services.

Some of them even go as far as establishing agency services to provide certified ICT professionals for clients and some also offer specialized home training for executive students et al.

8. Our Target Market

Before choosing a location for our computer training center, we conducted thorough feasibility studies and market survey and we were able to identify those who will benefit greatly from our service offerings. Basically, those who will benefit from our service offering are students and workers, people who want to get ICT skills and certifications.

Our Competitive Advantage

Despite the fact that the computer training center business has stiff huddles to scale through does not mean that there are no real competitions in the industry. The truth is that no matter the line of business that you are involved in, as long as it is called business, you will definitely face one form of competition or the other and computer training school is not an exemption.

So, if you are looking towards setting up this type of business, it is advisable to do your due diligence before launching the business if indeed you want to succeed. We are well trained and equipped to compete in the computer training school services industry in the United States of America.

Our competitive edge is that we are a government approved computer training center that is centrally located in a densely populated residential estate in the heart of Delray Beach – Florida; our location is in fact one of our major strengths because we are in a location with the right demography for the kind of business we run. Another strength that counts for us is the power of our team.

Lastly, we have the ability to develop courses for new technology, we have a good reputation and the ability to alter services in favor of market conditions.

Plus, all our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category in the industry. It will enable them to be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our business aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the computer training school services industry and we are going to go all the way to ensure that we do all it takes to attract clients on a regular basis. Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC will generate income by offering the following services;

10. Sales Forecast

The fact that the ICT industry is gaining prominence in various aspects of our daily business, means that the services of computer training schools will always be needed.

We are well positioned to take on the available market in and around Delray Beach – Florida and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough profits from our first six months of operation and grow our computer training center and our student base.

We have been able to critically examine the computer training school line of business, we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast.

• First Fiscal Year: N240, 000
• Second Fiscal Year: N650, 000
• Third Fiscal Year: N950, 000

N.B : This projection was done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown or any major competitor offering the same services as we do within the same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

The marketing strategy for Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is going to be driven by excellent customer service and quality training delivery. We want to drive sales via the output of our jobs and via referral from our satisfied students.

We are quite aware of how satisfied students drive business growth especially businesses like computer training schools.

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is strategically located and we are going to maximize the opportunities that are available to us, which is why we spent more to locate the business where it will be visible and accessible to our target market.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited based on their vast experience in the industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be equipped to meet the overall goal of Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC.

Our goal is to grow Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC to become the leading computer training center in Delray Beach – Florida which is why we have mapped out strategies that will help us take advantage of the available market and grow to become a major force to reckon with in our line of business.

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

• Introduce our computer training center by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to schools, corporate organizations and other key stake holders in and around Delray Beach – Florida
• Print out fliers and business cards and strategically drop them in offices, libraries, public facilities and train stations et al.
• Use friends and family to spread word about our computer training center
• Post information about our computer training center and the services we offer on bulletin boards in places like schools, libraries, and local coffee shops et al
• Place a small or classified advertisement in the newspaper, or local publication about our computer training center and the services we offer
• Leverage on referral networks such as agencies that will attract students who would need our services.
• Advertise our computer training center in relevant entertainment magazines, newspapers, TV and radio stations.
• Attend relevant expos, seminars, and business fairs et al to market our services
• Engage in direct marketing approach.
• Encourage the use of Word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied students.
• Join local chambers of commerce and industry and other relevant groups to market our services.

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is set to create a standard for the computer training school line of business not only in Delray Beach – Florida, but throughout the United States of America which is why we will go all the way to adopt and apply best practices to promote our business.

Good enough there is no hard and fast rule on how to advertise or promote a business like a computer training school. Here are the platforms we intend leveraging on to promote and advertise Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC;

• Encourage our loyal students to help us use Word of Mouth mode of advertisement (referrals)
• Advertise our business in relevant education cum ICT magazines, local newspaper, local TV and radio stations
• Promote our business online via our official website
• List our business inn local directories (yellow pages)
• Sponsor relevant community programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, twitter, et al to promote our brand
• Install our billboards in strategic locations all around Delray Beach – Florida
• Direct coupon mailing approach
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
• Ensure that all our staff members wear our customized clothes; all our official cars are customized and well branded.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC will charge our students flat fees except for few occasions where there will be need for us to charge special students on hourly basis.

At Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC we will keep our fees below the average market rate for all of our students by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance. In addition, we will also offer special discounted rates to all our students at regular intervals.

We are aware that there are some students that would need special assistance, we will offer flat rate for services that will be tailored to take care of such students’ needs. The prices of our services will be same as what is obtainable in the open market.

• Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation in the United States of America. Here are the payment options that Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC will make available to her clients;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via mobile money platform
• Payment via Point of Sale Machines (POS Machine)
• Payment via check
• Payment via bank draft

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our clients make payments for our services. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

In setting up any business, the amount or cost will depend on the approach and scale you want to undertake. If you intend to go big by renting a place, then you would need a good amount of capital as you would need to ensure that your employees are well taken care of, and that your facility is conducive enough for your workers to be creative and productive.

This means that the start-up can either be low or high depending on your vision and aspirations for your business. The tools and equipment that will be used are nearly the same cost everywhere, and any difference in prices would be minimal and can be overlooked.

As for the detailed cost analysis for starting a standard computer training school; it might differ in other countries due to the value of their money. We have been able to pull cash that will be enough for us to successfully launch a government approved computer training center in Delray Beach – Florida. These are the key areas where we will spend our startup capital on;

• The total fee for registering the business in the United States of America – $750.
• Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits – $1,500.
• Marketing promotion expenses (8,000 flyers at $0.04 per copy) for the total amount of – $10,000.
• The total cost for hiring Business Consultant – $5,000.
• The amount needed for the purchase of insurance policy covers (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $30,800.
• The total cost for the purchase of accounting software, CRM software and Payroll Software – $3,000
• The total cost for leasing facility for the business – $150,000.
• The total cost for the purchase of computers, laptops and other related software and hardware – $280,000
• Other start-up expenses including stationery – $1000
• Phone and utility deposits – $3,500
• Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, payments of bills et al) – $40,000
• The cost for the purchase of furniture and gadgets (Computers, Printers, Telephone, TVs, Sound System, snooker board, tables and chairs et al) – $ 4,000.
• The cost of launching a Website – $600
• The cost for our grand opening party – $15,000
• Miscellaneous – $5,000

Going by the report from the market research and feasibility studies conducted, we will need about four hundred and fifty thousand ( 450,000 ) U.S. dollars to successfully set up a medium scale but standard computer training center business in the United States of America.

Generating Startup for Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is a business that will be owned and managed by Edgar Jones and his immediate family members. They are the sole financiers of the business which is why they decided to restrict the sourcing of the start up capital for the business to just three major sources.

These are the areas we intend generating our startup capital;

• Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings and sale of his stocks
• Generate part of the startup capital from friends and other extended family members
• Generate a larger chunk of the startup capital from the bank (loan facility).

N.B: We have been able to generate about $150,000 ( Personal savings $100,000 and soft loan from family members $50,000 ) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $300,000 from our bank. All the papers and documents have been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the number of loyal customers that they have, the capacity and competence of their employees, their investment strategy and business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business, then it won’t be too long before the business closes shop.

One of our major goals of starting Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without the need for injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running.

We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer our ICT training services a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are well prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

Pinnacle Hub® Computer Training Center, LLC will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List/Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check: Completed
• Business Incorporation: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts various banks in the United States: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Securing a standard facility and reconstructing the facility: Completed
• Purchase of reliable computers, laptops, hardware and software: Completed
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating part of the startup capital from the founders: Completed
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
• Design of Logo for the business: Completed
• Printing of Promotional Materials: Completed
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the needed furniture, office equipment, software applications, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
• Creating official website for the business: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with vendors and key players in various industries: In Progress

• Sources of Business Finance
• Small Business Loans
• Small Business Grants
• Crowdfunding Sites
• How to Get a Business Loan
• Small Business Insurance Providers
• Best Factoring Companies
• Types of Bank Accounts
• Best Banks for Small Business
• Best Business Bank Accounts
• Open a Business Bank Account
• Bank Accounts for Small Businesses
• Free Business Checking Accounts
• Best Business Credit Cards
• Get a Business Credit Card
• Business Credit Cards for Bad Credit
• Build Business Credit Fast
• Business Loan Eligibility Criteria
• Small-Business Bookkeeping Basics
• How to Set Financial Goals
• Business Loan Calculators
• How to Calculate ROI
• Calculate Net Income
• Calculate Working Capital
• Calculate Operating Income
• Calculate Net Present Value (NPV)
• Calculate Payroll Tax

How to Write a Business Plan in 9 Steps (+ Template and Examples)

Every successful business has one thing in common, a good and well-executed business plan. A business plan is more than a document, it is a complete guide that outlines the goals your business wants to achieve, including its financial goals . It helps you analyze results, make strategic decisions, show your business operations and growth.

If you want to start a business or already have one and need to pitch it to investors for funding, writing a good business plan improves your chances of attracting financiers. As a startup, if you want to secure loans from financial institutions, part of the requirements involve submitting your business plan.

Writing a business plan does not have to be a complicated or time-consuming process. In this article, you will learn the step-by-step process for writing a successful business plan.

You will also learn what you need a business plan for, tips and strategies for writing a convincing business plan, business plan examples and templates that will save you tons of time, and the alternatives to the traditional business plan.

Let’s get started.

What Do You Need A Business Plan For?

Businesses create business plans for different purposes such as to secure funds, monitor business growth, measure your marketing strategies, and measure your business success.

1. Secure Funds

One of the primary reasons for writing a business plan is to secure funds, either from financial institutions/agencies or investors.

For you to effectively acquire funds, your business plan must contain the key elements of your business plan . For example, your business plan should include your growth plans, goals you want to achieve, and milestones you have recorded.

A business plan can also attract new business partners that are willing to contribute financially and intellectually. If you are writing a business plan to a bank, your project must show your traction , that is, the proof that you can pay back any loan borrowed.

Also, if you are writing to an investor, your plan must contain evidence that you can effectively utilize the funds you want them to invest in your business. Here, you are using your business plan to persuade a group or an individual that your business is a source of a good investment.

2. Monitor Business Growth

A business plan can help you track cash flows in your business. It steers your business to greater heights. A business plan capable of tracking business growth should contain:

• The business goals
• Methods to achieve the goals
• Time-frame for attaining those goals

A good business plan should guide you through every step in achieving your goals. It can also track the allocation of assets to every aspect of the business. You can tell when you are spending more than you should on a project.

You can compare a business plan to a written GPS. It helps you manage your business and hints at the right time to expand your business.

3. Measure Business Success

A business plan can help you measure your business success rate. Some small-scale businesses are thriving better than more prominent companies because of their track record of success.

Right from the onset of your business operation, set goals and work towards them. Write a plan to guide you through your procedures. Use your plan to measure how much you have achieved and how much is left to attain.

You can also weigh your success by monitoring the position of your brand relative to competitors. On the other hand, a business plan can also show you why you have not achieved a goal. It can tell if you have elapsed the time frame you set to attain a goal.

4. Document Your Marketing Strategies

You can use a business plan to document your marketing plans. Every business should have an effective marketing plan.

Competition mandates every business owner to go the extraordinary mile to remain relevant in the market. Your business plan should contain your marketing strategies that work. You can measure the success rate of your marketing plans.

In your business plan, your marketing strategy must answer the questions:

• How do you want to reach your target audience?
• How do you plan to retain your customers?
• What is/are your pricing plans?
• What is your budget for marketing?

How to Write a Business Plan Step-by-Step

1. create your executive summary.

The executive summary is a snapshot of your business or a high-level overview of your business purposes and plans . Although the executive summary is the first section in your business plan, most people write it last. The length of the executive summary is not more than two pages.

Generally, there are nine sections in a business plan, the executive summary should condense essential ideas from the other eight sections.

A good executive summary should do the following:

• A Snapshot of Growth Potential. Briefly inform the reader about your company and why it will be successful)
• Contain your Mission Statement which explains what the main objective or focus of your business is.
• Product Description and Differentiation. Brief description of your products or services and why it is different from other solutions in the market.
• The Team. Basic information about your company’s leadership team and employees
• Business Concept. A solid description of what your business does.
• Target Market. The customers you plan to sell to.
• Marketing Strategy. Your plans on reaching and selling to your customers
• Current Financial State. Brief information about what revenue your business currently generates.
• Projected Financial State. Brief information about what you foresee your business revenue to be in the future.

The executive summary is the make-or-break section of your business plan. If your summary cannot in less than two pages cannot clearly describe how your business will solve a particular problem of your target audience and make a profit, your business plan is set on a faulty foundation.

Avoid using the executive summary to hype your business, instead, focus on helping the reader understand the what and how of your plan.

View the executive summary as an opportunity to introduce your vision for your company. You know your executive summary is powerful when it can answer these key questions:

• Who is your target audience?
• What sector or industry are you in?
• What are your products and services?
• What is the future of your industry?
• Is your company scaleable?
• Who are the owners and leaders of your company? What are their backgrounds and experience levels?
• What is the motivation for starting your company?
• What are the next steps?

Writing the executive summary last although it is the most important section of your business plan is an excellent idea. The reason why is because it is a high-level overview of your business plan. It is the section that determines whether potential investors and lenders will read further or not.

The executive summary can be a stand-alone document that covers everything in your business plan. It is not uncommon for investors to request only the executive summary when evaluating your business. If the information in the executive summary impresses them, they will ask for the complete business plan.

If you are writing your business plan for your planning purposes, you do not need to write the executive summary.

2. Add Your Company Overview

The company overview or description is the next section in your business plan after the executive summary. It describes what your business does.

Adding your company overview can be tricky especially when your business is still in the planning stages. Existing businesses can easily summarize their current operations but may encounter difficulties trying to explain what they plan to become.

Your company overview should contain the following:

• What products and services you will provide
• Geographical markets and locations your company have a presence
• What you need to run your business
• Who your target audience or customers are
• Who will service your customers
• Your company’s purpose, mission, and vision
• Information about your company’s founders
• Who the founders are
• Notable achievements of your company so far

When creating a company overview, you have to focus on three basics: identifying your industry, identifying your customer, and explaining the problem you solve.

If you are stuck when creating your company overview, try to answer some of these questions that pertain to you.

• Who are you targeting? (The answer is not everyone)
• What pain point does your product or service solve for your customers that they will be willing to spend money on resolving?
• How does your product or service overcome that pain point?
• Where is the location of your business?
• What products, equipment, and services do you need to run your business?
• How is your company’s product or service different from your competition in the eyes of your customers?
• How many employees do you need and what skills do you require them to have?

After answering some or all of these questions, you will get more than enough information you need to write your company overview or description section. When writing this section, describe what your company does for your customers.

The company description or overview section contains three elements: mission statement, history, and objectives.

• Mission Statement

The mission statement refers to the reason why your business or company is existing. It goes beyond what you do or sell, it is about the ‘why’. A good mission statement should be emotional and inspirational.

Your mission statement should follow the KISS rule (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For example, Shopify’s mission statement is “Make commerce better for everyone.”

When describing your company’s history, make it simple and avoid the temptation of tying it to a defensive narrative. Write it in the manner you would a profile. Your company’s history should include the following information:

• Founding Date
• Major Milestones
• Location(s)
• Flagship Products or Services
• Number of Employees
• Executive Leadership Roles

When you fill in this information, you use it to write one or two paragraphs about your company’s history.

Business Objectives

Your business objective must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.) Failure to clearly identify your business objectives does not inspire confidence and makes it hard for your team members to work towards a common purpose.

3. Perform Market and Competitive Analyses to Proof a Big Enough Business Opportunity

The third step in writing a business plan is the market and competitive analysis section. Every business, no matter the size, needs to perform comprehensive market and competitive analyses before it enters into a market.

Performing market and competitive analyses are critical for the success of your business. It helps you avoid entering the right market with the wrong product, or vice versa. Anyone reading your business plans, especially financiers and financial institutions will want to see proof that there is a big enough business opportunity you are targeting.

This section is where you describe the market and industry you want to operate in and show the big opportunities in the market that your business can leverage to make a profit. If you noticed any unique trends when doing your research, show them in this section.

Market analysis alone is not enough, you have to add competitive analysis to strengthen this section. There are already businesses in the industry or market, how do you plan to take a share of the market from them?

You have to clearly illustrate the competitive landscape in your business plan. Are there areas your competitors are doing well? Are there areas where they are not doing so well? Show it.

Make it clear in this section why you are moving into the industry and what weaknesses are present there that you plan to explain. How are your competitors going to react to your market entry? How do you plan to get customers? Do you plan on taking your competitors' competitors, tap into other sources for customers, or both?

Illustrate the competitive landscape as well. What are your competitors doing well and not so well?

Answering these questions and thoughts will aid your market and competitive analysis of the opportunities in your space. Depending on how sophisticated your industry is, or the expectations of your financiers, you may need to carry out a more comprehensive market and competitive analysis to prove that big business opportunity.

Instead of looking at the market and competitive analyses as one entity, separating them will make the research even more comprehensive.

Market Analysis

Market analysis, boarding speaking, refers to research a business carried out on its industry, market, and competitors. It helps businesses gain a good understanding of their target market and the outlook of their industry. Before starting a company, it is vital to carry out market research to find out if the market is viable.

The market analysis section is a key part of the business plan. It is the section where you identify who your best clients or customers are. You cannot omit this section, without it your business plan is incomplete.

A good market analysis will tell your readers how you fit into the existing market and what makes you stand out. This section requires in-depth research, it will probably be the most time-consuming part of the business plan to write.

• Market Research

To create a compelling market analysis that will win over investors and financial institutions, you have to carry out thorough market research . Your market research should be targeted at your primary target market for your products or services. Here is what you want to find out about your target market.

• Your target market’s needs or pain points
• The existing solutions for their pain points
• Geographic Location
• Demographics

The purpose of carrying out a marketing analysis is to get all the information you need to show that you have a solid and thorough understanding of your target audience.

Only after you have fully understood the people you plan to sell your products or services to, can you evaluate correctly if your target market will be interested in your products or services.

You can easily convince interested parties to invest in your business if you can show them you thoroughly understand the market and show them that there is a market for your products or services.

How to Quantify Your Target Market

One of the goals of your marketing research is to understand who your ideal customers are and their purchasing power. To quantify your target market, you have to determine the following:

• Your Potential Customers: They are the people you plan to target. For example, if you sell accounting software for small businesses , then anyone who runs an enterprise or large business is unlikely to be your customers. Also, individuals who do not have a business will most likely not be interested in your product.
• Total Households: If you are selling household products such as heating and air conditioning systems, determining the number of total households is more important than finding out the total population in the area you want to sell to. The logic is simple, people buy the product but it is the household that uses it.
• Median Income: You need to know the median income of your target market. If you target a market that cannot afford to buy your products and services, your business will not last long.
• Income by Demographics: If your potential customers belong to a certain age group or gender, determining income levels by demographics is necessary. For example, if you sell men's clothes, your target audience is men.

What Does a Good Market Analysis Entail?

Your business does not exist on its own, it can only flourish within an industry and alongside competitors. Market analysis takes into consideration your industry, target market, and competitors. Understanding these three entities will drastically improve your company’s chances of success.

You can view your market analysis as an examination of the market you want to break into and an education on the emerging trends and themes in that market. Good market analyses include the following:

• Industry Description. You find out about the history of your industry, the current and future market size, and who the largest players/companies are in your industry.
• Overview of Target Market. You research your target market and its characteristics. Who are you targeting? Note, it cannot be everyone, it has to be a specific group. You also have to find out all information possible about your customers that can help you understand how and why they make buying decisions.
• Size of Target Market: You need to know the size of your target market, how frequently they buy, and the expected quantity they buy so you do not risk overproducing and having lots of bad inventory. Researching the size of your target market will help you determine if it is big enough for sustained business or not.
• Growth Potential: Before picking a target market, you want to be sure there are lots of potential for future growth. You want to avoid going for an industry that is declining slowly or rapidly with almost zero growth potential.
• Market Share Potential: Does your business stand a good chance of taking a good share of the market?
• Market Pricing and Promotional Strategies: Your market analysis should give you an idea of the price point you can expect to charge for your products and services. Researching your target market will also give you ideas of pricing strategies you can implement to break into the market or to enjoy maximum profits.
• Potential Barriers to Entry: One of the biggest benefits of conducting market analysis is that it shows you every potential barrier to entry your business will likely encounter. It is a good idea to discuss potential barriers to entry such as changing technology. It informs readers of your business plan that you understand the market.
• Research on Competitors: You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how you can exploit them for the benefit of your business. Find patterns and trends among your competitors that make them successful, discover what works and what doesn’t, and see what you can do better.

The market analysis section is not just for talking about your target market, industry, and competitors. You also have to explain how your company can fill the hole you have identified in the market.

Here are some questions you can answer that can help you position your product or service in a positive light to your readers.

• Is your product or service of superior quality?
• What additional features do you offer that your competitors do not offer?
• Are you targeting a ‘new’ market?

Basically, your market analysis should include an analysis of what already exists in the market and an explanation of how your company fits into the market.

Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section, y ou have to understand who your direct and indirect competitions are, and how successful they are in the marketplace. It is the section where you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, the advantage(s) they possess in the market and show the unique features or qualities that make you different from your competitors.

Many businesses do market analysis and competitive analysis together. However, to fully understand what the competitive analysis entails, it is essential to separate it from the market analysis.

Competitive analysis for your business can also include analysis on how to overcome barriers to entry in your target market.

The primary goal of conducting a competitive analysis is to distinguish your business from your competitors. A strong competitive analysis is essential if you want to convince potential funding sources to invest in your business. You have to show potential investors and lenders that your business has what it takes to compete in the marketplace successfully.

Competitive analysis will s how you what the strengths of your competition are and what they are doing to maintain that advantage.

When doing your competitive research, you first have to identify your competitor and then get all the information you can about them. The idea of spending time to identify your competitor and learn everything about them may seem daunting but it is well worth it.

Find answers to the following questions after you have identified who your competitors are.

• What are your successful competitors doing?
• Why is what they are doing working?
• Can your business do it better?
• What are the weaknesses of your successful competitors?
• What are they not doing well?
• Can your business turn its weaknesses into strengths?
• How good is your competitors’ customer service?
• Where do your competitors invest in advertising?
• What sales and pricing strategies are they using?
• What marketing strategies are they using?
• What kind of press coverage do they get?
• What are their customers saying about your competitors (both the positive and negative)?

If your competitors have a website, it is a good idea to visit their websites for more competitors’ research. Check their “About Us” page for more information.

If you are presenting your business plan to investors, you need to clearly distinguish yourself from your competitors. Investors can easily tell when you have not properly researched your competitors.

Take time to think about what unique qualities or features set you apart from your competitors. If you do not have any direct competition offering your product to the market, it does not mean you leave out the competitor analysis section blank. Instead research on other companies that are providing a similar product, or whose product is solving the problem your product solves.

The next step is to create a table listing the top competitors you want to include in your business plan. Ensure you list your business as the last and on the right. What you just created is known as the competitor analysis table.

Direct vs Indirect Competition

You cannot know if your product or service will be a fit for your target market if you have not understood your business and the competitive landscape.

There is no market you want to target where you will not encounter competition, even if your product is innovative. Including competitive analysis in your business plan is essential.

If you are entering an established market, you need to explain how you plan to differentiate your products from the available options in the market. Also, include a list of few companies that you view as your direct competitors The competition you face in an established market is your direct competition.

In situations where you are entering a market with no direct competition, it does not mean there is no competition there. Consider your indirect competition that offers substitutes for the products or services you offer.

For example, if you sell an innovative SaaS product, let us say a project management software , a company offering time management software is your indirect competition.

There is an easy way to find out who your indirect competitors are in the absence of no direct competitors. You simply have to research how your potential customers are solving the problems that your product or service seeks to solve. That is your direct competition.

Factors that Differentiate Your Business from the Competition

There are three main factors that any business can use to differentiate itself from its competition. They are cost leadership, product differentiation, and market segmentation.

1. Cost Leadership

A strategy you can impose to maximize your profits and gain an edge over your competitors. It involves offering lower prices than what the majority of your competitors are offering.

A common practice among businesses looking to enter into a market where there are dominant players is to use free trials or pricing to attract as many customers as possible to their offer.

2. Product Differentiation

Your product or service should have a unique selling proposition (USP) that your competitors do not have or do not stress in their marketing.

Part of the marketing strategy should involve making your products unique and different from your competitors. It does not have to be different from your competitors, it can be the addition to a feature or benefit that your competitors do not currently have.

3. Market Segmentation

As a new business seeking to break into an industry, you will gain more success from focusing on a specific niche or target market, and not the whole industry.

If your competitors are focused on a general need or target market, you can differentiate yourself from them by having a small and hyper-targeted audience. For example, if your competitors are selling men’s clothes in their online stores , you can sell hoodies for men.

4. Define Your Business and Management Structure

The next step in your business plan is your business and management structure. It is the section where you describe the legal structure of your business and the team running it.

Your business is only as good as the management team that runs it, while the management team can only strive when there is a proper business and management structure in place.

If your company is a sole proprietor or a limited liability company (LLC), a general or limited partnership, or a C or an S corporation, state it clearly in this section.

Use an organizational chart to show the management structure in your business. Clearly show who is in charge of what area in your company. It is where you show how each key manager or team leader’s unique experience can contribute immensely to the success of your company. You can also opt to add the resumes and CVs of the key players in your company.

The business and management structure section should show who the owner is, and other owners of the businesses (if the business has other owners). For businesses or companies with multiple owners, include the percent ownership of the various owners and clearly show the extent of each others’ involvement in the company.

Investors want to know who is behind the company and the team running it to determine if it has the right management to achieve its set goals.

Management Team

The management team section is where you show that you have the right team in place to successfully execute the business operations and ideas. Take time to create the management structure for your business. Think about all the important roles and responsibilities that you need managers for to grow your business.

Include brief bios of each key team member and ensure you highlight only the relevant information that is needed. If your team members have background industry experience or have held top positions for other companies and achieved success while filling that role, highlight it in this section.

A common mistake that many startups make is assigning C-level titles such as (CMO and CEO) to everyone on their team. It is unrealistic for a small business to have those titles. While it may look good on paper for the ego of your team members, it can prevent investors from investing in your business.

Instead of building an unrealistic management structure that does not fit your business reality, it is best to allow business titles to grow as the business grows. Starting everyone at the top leaves no room for future change or growth, which is bad for productivity.

Your management team does not have to be complete before you start writing your business plan. You can have a complete business plan even when there are managerial positions that are empty and need filling.

If you have management gaps in your team, simply show the gaps and indicate you are searching for the right candidates for the role(s). Investors do not expect you to have a full management team when you are just starting your business.

Key Questions to Answer When Structuring Your Management Team

• Who are the key leaders?
• What experiences, skills, and educational backgrounds do you expect your key leaders to have?
• Do your key leaders have industry experience?
• What positions will they fill and what duties will they perform in those positions?
• What level of authority do the key leaders have and what are their responsibilities?
• What is the salary for the various management positions that will attract the ideal candidates?

Additional Tips for Writing the Management Structure Section

1. Avoid Adding ‘Ghost’ Names to Your Management Team

There is always that temptation to include a ‘ghost’ name to your management team to attract and influence investors to invest in your business. Although the presence of these celebrity management team members may attract the attention of investors, it can cause your business to lose any credibility if you get found out.

Seasoned investors will investigate further the members of your management team before committing fully to your business If they find out that the celebrity name used does not play any actual role in your business, they will not invest and may write you off as dishonest.

2. Focus on Credentials But Pay Extra Attention to the Roles

Investors want to know the experience that your key team members have to determine if they can successfully reach the company’s growth and financial goals.

While it is an excellent boost for your key management team to have the right credentials, you also want to pay extra attention to the roles they will play in your company.

Organizational Chart

Adding an organizational chart in this section of your business plan is not necessary, you can do it in your business plan’s appendix.

If you are exploring funding options, it is not uncommon to get asked for your organizational chart. The function of an organizational chart goes beyond raising money, you can also use it as a useful planning tool for your business.

An organizational chart can help you identify how best to structure your management team for maximum productivity and point you towards key roles you need to fill in the future.

You can use the organizational chart to show your company’s internal management structure such as the roles and responsibilities of your management team, and relationships that exist between them.

5. Describe Your Product and Service Offering

In your business plan, you have to describe what you sell or the service you plan to offer. It is the next step after defining your business and management structure. The products and services section is where you sell the benefits of your business.

Here you have to explain how your product or service will benefit your customers and describe your product lifecycle. It is also the section where you write down your plans for intellectual property like patent filings and copyrighting.

The research and development that you are undertaking for your product or service need to be explained in detail in this section. However, do not get too technical, sell the general idea and its benefits.

If you have any diagrams or intricate designs of your product or service, do not include them in the products and services section. Instead, leave them for the addendum page. Also, if you are leaving out diagrams or designs for the addendum, ensure you add this phrase “For more detail, visit the addendum Page #.”

Your product and service section in your business plan should include the following:

• A detailed explanation that clearly shows how your product or service works.
• The pricing model for your product or service.
• Your business’ sales and distribution strategy.
• The ideal customers that want your product or service.
• The benefits of your products and services.
• Reason(s) why your product or service is a better alternative to what your competitors are currently offering in the market.
• Plans for filling the orders you receive
• If you have current or pending patents, copyrights, and trademarks for your product or service, you can also discuss them in this section.

What to Focus On When Describing the Benefits, Lifecycle, and Production Process of Your Products or Services

In the products and services section, you have to distill the benefits, lifecycle, and production process of your products and services.

When describing the benefits of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Unique features
• Translating the unique features into benefits
• The emotional, psychological, and practical payoffs to attract customers
• Intellectual property rights or any patents

When describing the product life cycle of your products or services, here are some key factors to focus on.

• Upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells
• Time between purchases
• Plans for research and development.

When describing the production process for your products or services, you need to think about the following:

• The creation of new or existing products and services.
• The sources for the raw materials or components you need for production.
• Assembling the products
• Maintaining quality control
• Supply-chain logistics (receiving the raw materials and delivering the finished products)
• The day-to-day management of the production processes, bookkeeping, and inventory.

Tips for Writing the Products or Services Section of Your Business Plan

1. Avoid Technical Descriptions and Industry Buzzwords

The products and services section of your business plan should clearly describe the products and services that your company provides. However, it is not a section to include technical jargons that anyone outside your industry will not understand.

A good practice is to remove highly detailed or technical descriptions in favor of simple terms. Industry buzzwords are not necessary, if there are simpler terms you can use, then use them. If you plan to use your business plan to source funds, making the product or service section so technical will do you no favors.

2. Describe How Your Products or Services Differ from Your Competitors

When potential investors look at your business plan, they want to know how the products and services you are offering differ from that of your competition. Differentiating your products or services from your competition in a way that makes your solution more attractive is critical.

If you are going the innovative path and there is no market currently for your product or service, you need to describe in this section why the market needs your product or service.

For example, overnight delivery was a niche business that only a few companies were participating in. Federal Express (FedEx) had to show in its business plan that there was a large opportunity for that service and they justified why the market needed that service.

3. Long or Short Products or Services Section

Should your products or services section be short? Does the long products or services section attract more investors?

There are no straightforward answers to these questions. Whether your products or services section should be long or relatively short depends on the nature of your business.

If your business is product-focused, then automatically you need to use more space to describe the details of your products. However, if the product your business sells is a commodity item that relies on competitive pricing or other pricing strategies, you do not have to use up so much space to provide significant details about the product.

Likewise, if you are selling a commodity that is available in numerous outlets, then you do not have to spend time on writing a long products or services section.

The key to the success of your business is most likely the effectiveness of your marketing strategies compared to your competitors. Use more space to address that section.

If you are creating a new product or service that the market does not know about, your products or services section can be lengthy. The reason why is because you need to explain everything about the product or service such as the nature of the product, its use case, and values.

A short products or services section for an innovative product or service will not give the readers enough information to properly evaluate your business.

4. Describe Your Relationships with Vendors or Suppliers

Your business will rely on vendors or suppliers to supply raw materials or the components needed to make your products. In your products and services section, describe your relationships with your vendors and suppliers fully.

Avoid the mistake of relying on only one supplier or vendor. If that supplier or vendor fails to supply or goes out of business, you can easily face supply problems and struggle to meet your demands. Plan to set up multiple vendor or supplier relationships for better business stability.

5. Your Primary Goal Is to Convince Your Readers

The primary goal of your business plan is to convince your readers that your business is viable and to create a guide for your business to follow. It applies to the products and services section.

When drafting this section, think like the reader. See your reader as someone who has no idea about your products and services. You are using the products and services section to provide the needed information to help your reader understand your products and services. As a result, you have to be clear and to the point.

While you want to educate your readers about your products or services, you also do not want to bore them with lots of technical details. Show your products and services and not your fancy choice of words.

Your products and services section should provide the answer to the “what” question for your business. You and your management team may run the business, but it is your products and services that are the lifeblood of the business.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing your Products and Services Section

Answering these questions can help you write your products and services section quickly and in a way that will appeal to your readers.

• Are your products existing on the market or are they still in the development stage?
• What is your timeline for adding new products and services to the market?
• What are the positives that make your products and services different from your competitors?
• Do your products and services have any competitive advantage that your competitors’ products and services do not currently have?
• Do your products or services have any competitive disadvantages that you need to overcome to compete with your competitors? If your answer is yes, state how you plan to overcome them,
• How much does it cost to produce your products or services? How much do you plan to sell it for?
• What is the price for your products and services compared to your competitors? Is pricing an issue?
• What are your operating costs and will it be low enough for you to compete with your competitors and still take home a reasonable profit margin?
• What is your plan for acquiring your products? Are you involved in the production of your products or services?
• Are you the manufacturer and produce all the components you need to create your products? Do you assemble your products by using components supplied by other manufacturers? Do you purchase your products directly from suppliers or wholesalers?
• Do you have a steady supply of products that you need to start your business? (If your business is yet to kick-off)
• How do you plan to distribute your products or services to the market?

You can also hint at the marketing or promotion plans you have for your products or services such as how you plan to build awareness or retain customers. The next section is where you can go fully into details about your business’s marketing and sales plan.

6. Show and Explain Your Marketing and Sales Plan

Providing great products and services is wonderful, but it means nothing if you do not have a marketing and sales plan to inform your customers about them. Your marketing and sales plan is critical to the success of your business.

The sales and marketing section is where you show and offer a detailed explanation of your marketing and sales plan and how you plan to execute it. It covers your pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success, and the benefits of your products and services.

There are several ways you can approach your marketing and sales strategy. Ideally, your marketing and sales strategy has to fit the unique needs of your business.

In this section, you describe how the plans your business has for attracting and retaining customers, and the exact process for making a sale happen. It is essential to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales plans because you are still going to reference this section when you are making financial projections for your business.

Outline Your Business’ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The sales and marketing section is where you outline your business’s unique selling proposition (USP). When you are developing your unique selling proposition, think about the strongest reasons why people should buy from you over your competition. That reason(s) is most likely a good fit to serve as your unique selling proposition (USP).

Target Market and Target Audience

Plans on how to get your products or services to your target market and how to get your target audience to buy them go into this section. You also highlight the strengths of your business here, particularly what sets them apart from your competition.

Before you start writing your marketing and sales plan, you need to have properly defined your target audience and fleshed out your buyer persona. If you do not first understand the individual you are marketing to, your marketing and sales plan will lack any substance and easily fall.

Creating a Smart Marketing and Sales Plan

Marketing your products and services is an investment that requires you to spend money. Like any other investment, you have to generate a good return on investment (ROI) to justify using that marketing and sales plan. Good marketing and sales plans bring in high sales and profits to your company.

Avoid spending money on unproductive marketing channels. Do your research and find out the best marketing and sales plan that works best for your company.

Your marketing and sales plan can be broken into different parts: your positioning statement, pricing, promotion, packaging, advertising, public relations, content marketing, social media, and strategic alliances.

Your Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement is the first part of your marketing and sales plan. It refers to the way you present your company to your customers.

Are you the premium solution, the low-price solution, or are you the intermediary between the two extremes in the market? What do you offer that your competitors do not that can give you leverage in the market?

Before you start writing your positioning statement, you need to spend some time evaluating the current market conditions. Here are some questions that can help you to evaluate the market

• What are the unique features or benefits that you offer that your competitors lack?
• What are your customers’ primary needs and wants?
• Why should a customer choose you over your competition? How do you plan to differentiate yourself from the competition?
• How does your company’s solution compare with other solutions in the market?

After answering these questions, then you can start writing your positioning statement. Your positioning statement does not have to be in-depth or too long.

All you need to explain with your positioning statement are two focus areas. The first is the position of your company within the competitive landscape. The other focus area is the core value proposition that sets your company apart from other alternatives that your ideal customer might consider.

Here is a simple template you can use to develop a positioning statement.

For [description of target market] who [need of target market], [product or service] [how it meets the need]. Unlike [top competition], it [most essential distinguishing feature].

For example, let’s create the positioning statement for fictional accounting software and QuickBooks alternative , TBooks.

“For small business owners who need accounting services, TBooks is an accounting software that helps small businesses handle their small business bookkeeping basics quickly and easily. Unlike Wave, TBooks gives small businesses access to live sessions with top accountants.”

You can edit this positioning statement sample and fill it with your business details.

After writing your positioning statement, the next step is the pricing of your offerings. The overall positioning strategy you set in your positioning statement will often determine how you price your products or services.

Pricing is a powerful tool that sends a strong message to your customers. Failure to get your pricing strategy right can make or mar your business. If you are targeting a low-income audience, setting a premium price can result in low sales.

You can use pricing to communicate your positioning to your customers. For example, if you are offering a product at a premium price, you are sending a message to your customers that the product belongs to the premium category.

Basic Rules to Follow When Pricing Your Offering

Setting a price for your offering involves more than just putting a price tag on it. Deciding on the right pricing for your offering requires following some basic rules. They include covering your costs, primary and secondary profit center pricing, and matching the market rate.

• Covering Your Costs: The price you set for your products or service should be more than it costs you to produce and deliver them. Every business has the same goal, to make a profit. Depending on the strategy you want to use, there are exceptions to this rule. However, the vast majority of businesses follow this rule.
• Primary and Secondary Profit Center Pricing: When a company sets its price above the cost of production, it is making that product its primary profit center. A company can also decide not to make its initial price its primary profit center by selling below or at even with its production cost. It rather depends on the support product or even maintenance that is associated with the initial purchase to make its profit. The initial price thus became its secondary profit center.
• Matching the Market Rate: A good rule to follow when pricing your products or services is to match your pricing with consumer demand and expectations. If you price your products or services beyond the price your customer perceives as the ideal price range, you may end up with no customers. Pricing your products too low below what your customer perceives as the ideal price range may lead to them undervaluing your offering.

Pricing Strategy

Your pricing strategy influences the price of your offering. There are several pricing strategies available for you to choose from when examining the right pricing strategy for your business. They include cost-plus pricing, market-based pricing, value pricing, and more.

• Cost-plus Pricing: This strategy is one of the simplest and oldest pricing strategies. Here you consider the cost of producing a unit of your product and then add a profit to it to arrive at your market price. It is an effective pricing strategy for manufacturers because it helps them cover their initial costs. Another name for the cost-plus pricing strategy is the markup pricing strategy.
• Market-based Pricing: This pricing strategy analyses the market including competitors’ pricing and then sets a price based on what the market is expecting. With this pricing strategy, you can either set your price at the low-end or high-end of the market.
• Value Pricing: This pricing strategy involves setting a price based on the value you are providing to your customer. When adopting a value-based pricing strategy, you have to set a price that your customers are willing to pay. Service-based businesses such as small business insurance providers , luxury goods sellers, and the fashion industry use this pricing strategy.

After carefully sorting out your positioning statement and pricing, the next item to look at is your promotional strategy. Your promotional strategy explains how you plan on communicating with your customers and prospects.

As a business, you must measure all your costs, including the cost of your promotions. You also want to measure how much sales your promotions bring for your business to determine its usefulness. Promotional strategies or programs that do not lead to profit need to be removed.

There are different types of promotional strategies you can adopt for your business, they include advertising, public relations, and content marketing.

Advertising

Your business plan should include your advertising plan which can be found in the marketing and sales plan section. You need to include an overview of your advertising plans such as the areas you plan to spend money on to advertise your business and offers.

Ensure that you make it clear in this section if your business will be advertising online or using the more traditional offline media, or the combination of both online and offline media. You can also include the advertising medium you want to use to raise awareness about your business and offers.

Some common online advertising mediums you can use include social media ads, landing pages, sales pages, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, emails, Google Ads, and others. Some common traditional and offline advertising mediums include word of mouth, radios, direct mail, televisions, flyers, billboards, posters, and others.

A key component of your advertising strategy is how you plan to measure the effectiveness and success of your advertising campaign. There is no point in sticking with an advertising plan or medium that does not produce results for your business in the long run.

Public Relations

A great way to reach your customers is to get the media to cover your business or product. Publicity, especially good ones, should be a part of your marketing and sales plan. In this section, show your plans for getting prominent reviews of your product from reputable publications and sources.

Your business needs that exposure to grow. If public relations is a crucial part of your promotional strategy, provide details about your public relations plan here.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a popular promotional strategy used by businesses to inform and attract their customers. It is about teaching and educating your prospects on various topics of interest in your niche, it does not just involve informing them about the benefits and features of the products and services you have,

Businesses publish content usually for free where they provide useful information, tips, and advice so that their target market can be made aware of the importance of their products and services. Content marketing strategies seek to nurture prospects into buyers over time by simply providing value.

Your company can create a blog where it will be publishing content for its target market. You will need to use the best website builder such as Wix and Squarespace and the best web hosting services such as Bluehost, Hostinger, and other Bluehost alternatives to create a functional blog or website.

If content marketing is a crucial part of your promotional strategy (as it should be), detail your plans under promotions.

Including high-quality images of the packaging of your product in your business plan is a lovely idea. You can add the images of the packaging of that product in the marketing and sales plan section. If you are not selling a product, then you do not need to include any worry about the physical packaging of your product.

When organizing the packaging section of your business plan, you can answer the following questions to make maximum use of this section.

• Is your choice of packaging consistent with your positioning strategy?
• What key value proposition does your packaging communicate? (It should reflect the key value proposition of your business)
• How does your packaging compare to that of your competitors?

Social Media

Your 21st-century business needs to have a good social media presence. Not having one is leaving out opportunities for growth and reaching out to your prospect.

You do not have to join the thousands of social media platforms out there. What you need to do is join the ones that your customers are active on and be active there.

Businesses use social media to provide information about their products such as promotions, discounts, the benefits of their products, and content on their blogs.

Social media is also a platform for engaging with your customers and getting feedback about your products or services. Make no mistake, more and more of your prospects are using social media channels to find more information about companies.

You need to consider the social media channels you want to prioritize your business (prioritize the ones your customers are active in) and your branding plans in this section.

Strategic Alliances

If your company plans to work closely with other companies as part of your sales and marketing plan, include it in this section. Prove details about those partnerships in your business plan if you have already established them.

Strategic alliances can be beneficial for all parties involved including your company. Working closely with another company in the form of a partnership can provide access to a different target market segment for your company.

The company you are partnering with may also gain access to your target market or simply offer a new product or service (that of your company) to its customers.

Mutually beneficial partnerships can cover the weaknesses of one company with the strength of another. You should consider strategic alliances with companies that sell complimentary products to yours. For example, if you provide printers, you can partner with a company that produces ink since the customers that buy printers from you will also need inks for printing.

Steps Involved in Creating a Marketing and Sales Plan

1. Focus on Your Target Market

Identify who your customers are, the market you want to target. Then determine the best ways to get your products or services to your potential customers.

2. Evaluate Your Competition

One of the goals of having a marketing plan is to distinguish yourself from your competition. You cannot stand out from them without first knowing them in and out.

You can know your competitors by gathering information about their products, pricing, service, and advertising campaigns.

These questions can help you know your competition.

• What makes your competition successful?
• What are their weaknesses?
• What are customers saying about your competition?

3. Consider Your Brand

Customers' perception of your brand has a strong impact on your sales. Your marketing and sales plan should seek to bolster the image of your brand. Before you start marketing your business, think about the message you want to pass across about your business and your products and services.

4. Focus on Benefits

The majority of your customers do not view your product in terms of features, what they want to know is the benefits and solutions your product offers. Think about the problems your product solves and the benefits it delivers, and use it to create the right sales and marketing message.

Your marketing plan should focus on what you want your customer to get instead of what you provide. Identify those benefits in your marketing and sales plan.

5. Focus on Differentiation

Your marketing and sales plan should look for a unique angle they can take that differentiates your business from the competition, even if the products offered are similar. Some good areas of differentiation you can use are your benefits, pricing, and features.

Key Questions to Answer When Writing Your Marketing and Sales Plan

• What is your company’s budget for sales and marketing campaigns?
• What key metrics will you use to determine if your marketing plans are successful?
• What are your alternatives if your initial marketing efforts do not succeed?
• Who are the sales representatives you need to promote your products or services?
• What are the marketing and sales channels you plan to use? How do you plan to get your products in front of your ideal customers?
• Where will you sell your products?

You may want to include samples of marketing materials you plan to use such as print ads, website descriptions, and social media ads. While it is not compulsory to include these samples, it can help you better communicate your marketing and sales plan and objectives.

The purpose of the marketing and sales section is to answer this question “How will you reach your customers?” If you cannot convincingly provide an answer to this question, you need to rework your marketing and sales section.

7. Clearly Show Your Funding Request

If you are writing your business plan to ask for funding from investors or financial institutions, the funding request section is where you will outline your funding requirements. The funding request section should answer the question ‘How much money will your business need in the near future (3 to 5 years)?’

A good funding request section will clearly outline and explain the amount of funding your business needs over the next five years. You need to know the amount of money your business needs to make an accurate funding request.

Also, when writing your funding request, provide details of how the funds will be used over the period. Specify if you want to use the funds to buy raw materials or machinery, pay salaries, pay for advertisements, and cover specific bills such as rent and electricity.

In addition to explaining what you want to use the funds requested for, you need to clearly state the projected return on investment (ROI) . Investors and creditors want to know if your business can generate profit for them if they put funds into it.

Ensure you do not inflate the figures and stay as realistic as possible. Investors and financial institutions you are seeking funds from will do their research before investing money in your business.

If you are not sure of an exact number to request from, you can use some range of numbers as rough estimates. Add a best-case scenario and a work-case scenario to your funding request. Also, include a description of your strategic future financial plans such as selling your business or paying off debts.

Funding Request: Debt or Equity?

When making your funding request, specify the type of funding you want. Do you want debt or equity? Draw out the terms that will be applicable for the funding, and the length of time the funding request will cover.

Case for Equity

If your new business has not yet started generating profits, you are most likely preparing to sell equity in your business to raise capital at the early stage. Equity here refers to ownership. In this case, you are selling a portion of your company to raise capital.

Although this method of raising capital for your business does not put your business in debt, keep in mind that an equity owner may expect to play a key role in company decisions even if he does not hold a major stake in the company.

Most equity sales for startups are usually private transactions . If you are making a funding request by offering equity in exchange for funding, let the investor know that they will be paid a dividend (a share of the company’s profit). Also, let the investor know the process for selling their equity in your business.

Case for Debt

You may decide not to offer equity in exchange for funds, instead, you make a funding request with the promise to pay back the money borrowed at the agreed time frame.

When making a funding request with an agreement to pay back, note that you will have to repay your creditors both the principal amount borrowed and the interest on it. Financial institutions offer this type of funding for businesses.

Large companies combine both equity and debt in their capital structure. When drafting your business plan, decide if you want to offer both or one over the other.

Before you sell equity in exchange for funding in your business, consider if you are willing to accept not being in total control of your business. Also, before you seek loans in your funding request section, ensure that the terms of repayment are favorable.

You should set a clear timeline in your funding request so that potential investors and creditors can know what you are expecting. Some investors and creditors may agree to your funding request and then delay payment for longer than 30 days, meanwhile, your business needs an immediate cash injection to operate efficiently.

Additional Tips for Writing the Funding Request Section of your Business Plan

The funding request section is not necessary for every business, it is only needed by businesses who plan to use their business plan to secure funding.

If you are adding the funding request section to your business plan, provide an itemized summary of how you plan to use the funds requested. Hiring a lawyer, accountant, or other professionals may be necessary for the proper development of this section.

You should also gather and use financial statements that add credibility and support to your funding requests. Ensure that the financial statements you use should include your projected financial data such as projected cash flows, forecast statements, and expenditure budgets.

If you are an existing business, include all historical financial statements such as cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements .

Provide monthly and quarterly financial statements for a year. If your business has records that date back beyond the one-year mark, add the yearly statements of those years. These documents are for the appendix section of your business plan.

8. Detail Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projections

If you used the funding request section in your business plan, supplement it with a financial plan, metrics, and projections. This section paints a picture of the past performance of your business and then goes ahead to make an informed projection about its future.

The goal of this section is to convince readers that your business is going to be a financial success. It outlines your business plan to generate enough profit to repay the loan (with interest if applicable) and to generate a decent return on investment for investors.

If you have an existing business already in operation, use this section to demonstrate stability through finance. This section should include your cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements covering the last three to five years. If your business has some acceptable collateral that you can use to acquire loans, list it in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

Apart from current financial statements, this section should also contain a prospective financial outlook that spans the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and capital expenditure budget.

If your business is new and is not yet generating profit, use clear and realistic projections to show the potentials of your business.

When drafting this section, research industry norms and the performance of comparable businesses. Your financial projections should cover at least five years. State the logic behind your financial projections. Remember you can always make adjustments to this section as the variables change.

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section create a baseline which your business can either exceed or fail to reach. If your business fails to reach your projections in this section, you need to understand why it failed.

Investors and loan managers spend a lot of time going through the financial plan, metrics, and projection section compared to other parts of the business plan. Ensure you spend time creating credible financial analyses for your business in this section.

Many entrepreneurs find this section daunting to write. You do not need a business degree to create a solid financial forecast for your business. Business finances, especially for startups, are not as complicated as they seem. There are several online tools and templates that make writing this section so much easier.

Use Graphs and Charts

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business. Charts and images make it easier to communicate your finances.

Accuracy in this section is key, ensure you carefully analyze your past financial statements properly before making financial projects.

Address the Risk Factors and Show Realistic Financial Projections

Keep your financial plan, metrics, and projection realistic. It is okay to be optimistic in your financial projection, however, you have to justify it.

You should also address the various risk factors associated with your business in this section. Investors want to know the potential risks involved, show them. You should also show your plans for mitigating those risks.

What You Should In The Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection Section of Your Business Plan

The financial plan, metrics, and projection section of your business plan should have monthly sales and revenue forecasts for the first year. It should also include annual projections that cover 3 to 5 years.

A three-year projection is a basic requirement to have in your business plan. However, some investors may request a five-year forecast.

Your business plan should include the following financial statements: sales forecast, personnel plan, income statement, income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and an exit strategy.

1. Sales Forecast

Sales forecast refers to your projections about the number of sales your business is going to record over the next few years. It is typically broken into several rows, with each row assigned to a core product or service that your business is offering.

One common mistake people make in their business plan is to break down the sales forecast section into long details. A sales forecast should forecast the high-level details.

For example, if you are forecasting sales for a payroll software provider, you could break down your forecast into target market segments or subscription categories.

Your sales forecast section should also have a corresponding row for each sales row to cover the direct cost or Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). The objective of these rows is to show the expenses that your business incurs in making and delivering your product or service.

Note that your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) should only cover those direct costs incurred when making your products. Other indirect expenses such as insurance, salaries, payroll tax, and rent should not be included.

For example, the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) for a restaurant is the cost of ingredients while for a consulting company it will be the cost of paper and other presentation materials.

2. Personnel Plan

The personnel plan section is where you provide details about the payment plan for your employees. For a small business, you can easily list every position in your company and how much you plan to pay in the personnel plan.

However, for larger businesses, you have to break the personnel plan into functional groups such as sales and marketing.

The personnel plan will also include the cost of an employee beyond salary, commonly referred to as the employee burden. These costs include insurance, payroll taxes , and other essential costs incurred monthly as a result of having employees on your payroll.

3. Income Statement

The income statement section shows if your business is making a profit or taking a loss. Another name for the income statement is the profit and loss (P&L). It takes data from your sales forecast and personnel plan and adds other ongoing expenses you incur while running your business.

Every business plan should have an income statement. It subtracts your business expenses from its earnings to show if your business is generating profit or incurring losses.

The income statement has the following items: sales, Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), gross margin, operating expenses, total operating expenses, operating income , total expenses, and net profit.

• Sales refer to the revenue your business generates from selling its products or services. Other names for sales are income or revenue.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) refers to the total cost of selling your products. Other names for COGS are direct costs or cost of sales. Manufacturing businesses use the Costs of Goods Manufactured (COGM) .
• Gross Margin is the figure you get when you subtract your COGS from your sales. In your income statement, you can express it as a percentage of total sales (Gross margin / Sales = Gross Margin Percent).
• Operating Expenses refer to all the expenses you incur from running your business. It exempts the COGS because it stands alone as a core part of your income statement. You also have to exclude taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Your operating expenses include salaries, marketing expenses, research and development (R&D) expenses, and other expenses.
• Total Operating Expenses refers to the sum of all your operating expenses including those exemptions named above under operating expenses.
• Operating Income refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is simply known as the acronym EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). Calculating your operating income is simple, all you need to do is to subtract your COGS and total operating expenses from your sales.
• Total Expenses refer to the sum of your operating expenses and your business’ interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
• Net profit shows whether your business has made a profit or taken a loss during a given timeframe.

4. Cash Flow Statement

The cash flow statement tracks the money you have in the bank at any given point. It is often confused with the income statement or the profit and loss statement. They are both different types of financial statements. The income statement calculates your profits and losses while the cash flow statement shows you how much you have in the bank.

5. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a financial statement that provides an overview of the financial health of your business. It contains information about the assets and liabilities of your company, and owner’s or shareholders’ equity.

You can get the net worth of your company by subtracting your company’s liabilities from its assets.

6. Exit Strategy

The exit strategy refers to a probable plan for selling your business either to the public in an IPO or to another company. It is the last thing you include in the financial plan, metrics, and projection section.

You can choose to omit the exit strategy from your business plan if you plan to maintain full ownership of your business and do not plan on seeking angel investment or virtual capitalist (VC) funding.

Investors may want to know what your exit plan is. They invest in your business to get a good return on investment.

Your exit strategy does not have to include long and boring details. Ensure you identify some interested parties who may be interested in buying the company if it becomes a success.

Key Questions to Answer with Your Financial Plan, Metrics, and Projection

Your financial plan, metrics, and projection section helps investors, creditors, or your internal managers to understand what your expenses are, the amount of cash you need, and what it takes to make your company profitable. It also shows what you will be doing with any funding.

You do not need to show actual financial data if you do not have one. Adding forecasts and projections to your financial statements is added proof that your strategy is feasible and shows investors you have planned properly.

Here are some key questions to answer to help you develop this section.

• What is your sales forecast for the next year?
• When will your company achieve a positive cash flow?
• What are the core expenses you need to operate?
• How much money do you need upfront to operate or grow your company?
• How will you use the loans or investments?

9. Add an Appendix to Your Business Plan

Adding an appendix to your business plan is optional. It is a useful place to put any charts, tables, legal notes, definitions, permits, résumés, and other critical information that do not fit into other sections of your business plan.

The appendix section is where you would want to include details of a patent or patent-pending if you have one. You can always add illustrations or images of your products here. It is the last section of your business plan.

When writing your business plan, there are details you cut short or remove to prevent the entire section from becoming too lengthy. There are also details you want to include in the business plan but are not a good fit for any of the previous sections. You can add that additional information to the appendix section.

Businesses also use the appendix section to include supporting documents or other materials specially requested by investors or lenders.

You can include just about any information that supports the assumptions and statements you made in the business plan under the appendix. It is the one place in the business plan where unrelated data and information can coexist amicably.

If your appendix section is lengthy, try organizing it by adding a table of contents at the beginning of the appendix section. It is also advisable to group similar information to make it easier for the reader to access them.

A well-organized appendix section makes it easier to share your information clearly and concisely. Add footnotes throughout the rest of the business plan or make references in the plan to the documents in the appendix.

The appendix section is usually only necessary if you are seeking funding from investors or lenders, or hoping to attract partners.

People reading business plans do not want to spend time going through a heap of backup information, numbers, and charts. Keep these documents or information in the Appendix section in case the reader wants to dig deeper.

Common Items to Include in the Appendix Section of Your Business Plan

The appendix section includes documents that supplement or support the information or claims given in other sections of the business plans. Common items you can include in the appendix section include:

• Additional data about the process of manufacturing or creation
• Additional description of products or services such as product schematics
• Additional financial documents or projections
• Articles of incorporation and status
• Backup for market research or competitive analysis
• Bank statements
• Business registries
• Client testimonials (if your business is already running)
• Copies of insurances
• Credit histories (personal or/and business)
• Deeds and permits
• Equipment leases
• Examples of marketing and advertising collateral
• Industry associations and memberships
• Images of product
• Intellectual property
• Key customer contracts
• Legal documents and other contracts
• Letters of reference
• Links to references
• Market research data
• Organizational charts
• Photographs of potential facilities
• Professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business
• Purchase orders
• Resumes of the founder(s) and key managers
• State and federal identification numbers or codes
• Trademarks or patents’ registrations

Avoid using the appendix section as a place to dump any document or information you feel like adding. Only add documents or information that you support or increase the credibility of your business plan.

Tips and Strategies for Writing a Convincing Business Plan

To achieve a perfect business plan, you need to consider some key tips and strategies. These tips will raise the efficiency of your business plan above average.

1. Know Your Audience

When writing a business plan, you need to know your audience . Business owners write business plans for different reasons. Your business plan has to be specific. For example, you can write business plans to potential investors, banks, and even fellow board members of the company.

The audience you are writing to determines the structure of the business plan. As a business owner, you have to know your audience. Not everyone will be your audience. Knowing your audience will help you to narrow the scope of your business plan.

Consider what your audience wants to see in your projects, the likely questions they might ask, and what interests them.

• A business plan used to address a company's board members will center on its employment schemes, internal affairs, projects, stakeholders, etc.
• A business plan for financial institutions will talk about the size of your market and the chances for you to pay back any loans you demand.
• A business plan for investors will show proof that you can return the investment capital within a specific time. In addition, it discusses your financial projections, tractions, and market size.

2. Get Inspiration from People

Writing a business plan from scratch as an entrepreneur can be daunting. That is why you need the right inspiration to push you to write one. You can gain inspiration from the successful business plans of other businesses. Look at their business plans, the style they use, the structure of the project, etc.

To make your business plan easier to create, search companies related to your business to get an exact copy of what you need to create an effective business plan. You can also make references while citing examples in your business plans.

When drafting your business plan, get as much help from others as you possibly can. By getting inspiration from people, you can create something better than what they have.

3. Avoid Being Over Optimistic

Many business owners make use of strong adjectives to qualify their content. One of the big mistakes entrepreneurs make when preparing a business plan is promising too much.

The use of superlatives and over-optimistic claims can prepare the audience for more than you can offer. In the end, you disappoint the confidence they have in you.

In most cases, the best option is to be realistic with your claims and statistics. Most of the investors can sense a bit of incompetency from the overuse of superlatives. As a new entrepreneur, do not be tempted to over-promise to get the interests of investors.

The concept of entrepreneurship centers on risks, nothing is certain when you make future analyses. What separates the best is the ability to do careful research and work towards achieving that, not promising more than you can achieve.

To make an excellent first impression as an entrepreneur, replace superlatives with compelling data-driven content. In this way, you are more specific than someone promising a huge ROI from an investment.

4. Keep it Simple and Short

When writing business plans, ensure you keep them simple throughout. Irrespective of the purpose of the business plan, your goal is to convince the audience.

One way to achieve this goal is to make them understand your proposal. Therefore, it would be best if you avoid the use of complex grammar to express yourself. It would be a huge turn-off if the people you want to convince are not familiar with your use of words.

Another thing to note is the length of your business plan. It would be best if you made it as brief as possible.

You hardly see investors or agencies that read through an extremely long document. In that case, if your first few pages can’t convince them, then you have lost it. The more pages you write, the higher the chances of you derailing from the essential contents.

To ensure your business plan has a high conversion rate, you need to dispose of every unnecessary information. For example, if you have a strategy that you are not sure of, it would be best to leave it out of the plan.

5. Make an Outline and Follow Through

A perfect business plan must have touched every part needed to convince the audience. Business owners get easily tempted to concentrate more on their products than on other sections. Doing this can be detrimental to the efficiency of the business plan.

For example, imagine you talking about a product but omitting or providing very little information about the target audience. You will leave your clients confused.

To ensure that your business plan communicates your full business model to readers, you have to input all the necessary information in it. One of the best ways to achieve this is to design a structure and stick to it.

This structure is what guides you throughout the writing. To make your work easier, you can assign an estimated word count or page limit to every section to avoid making it too bulky for easy reading. As a guide, the necessary things your business plan must contain are:

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Product or service description
• Target audience
• Market size
• Competition analysis
• Financial projections

Some specific businesses can include some other essential sections, but these are the key sections that must be in every business plan.

6. Ask a Professional to Proofread

When writing a business plan, you must tie all loose ends to get a perfect result. When you are done with writing, call a professional to go through the document for you. You are bound to make mistakes, and the way to correct them is to get external help.

You should get a professional in your field who can relate to every section of your business plan. It would be easier for the professional to notice the inner flaws in the document than an editor with no knowledge of your business.

In addition to getting a professional to proofread, get an editor to proofread and edit your document. The editor will help you identify grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and inappropriate writing styles.

Writing a business plan can be daunting, but you can surmount that obstacle and get the best out of it with these tips.

Business Plan Examples and Templates That’ll Save You Tons of Time

1. hubspot's one-page business plan.

The one-page business plan template by HubSpot is the perfect guide for businesses of any size, irrespective of their business strategy. Although the template is condensed into a page, your final business plan should not be a page long! The template is designed to ask helpful questions that can help you develop your business plan.

Hubspot’s one-page business plan template is divided into nine fields:

• Business opportunity
• Company description
• Industry analysis
• Target market
• Implementation timeline
• Marketing plan
• Financial summary
• Funding required

2. Bplan’s Free Business Plan Template

Bplans' free business plan template is investor-approved. It is a rich template used by prestigious educational institutions such as Babson College and Princeton University to teach entrepreneurs how to create a business plan.

The template has six sections: the executive summary, opportunity, execution, company, financial plan, and appendix. There is a step-by-step guide for writing every little detail in the business plan. Follow the instructions each step of the way and you will create a business plan that impresses investors or lenders easily.

3. HubSpot's Downloadable Business Plan Template

HubSpot’s downloadable business plan template is a more comprehensive option compared to the one-page business template by HubSpot. This free and downloadable business plan template is designed for entrepreneurs.

The template is a comprehensive guide and checklist for business owners just starting their businesses. It tells you everything you need to fill in each section of the business plan and how to do it.

There are nine sections in this business plan template: an executive summary, company and business description, product and services line, market analysis, marketing plan, sales plan, legal notes, financial considerations, and appendix.

4. Business Plan by My Own Business Institute

My Own Business Institute (MOBI) which is a part of Santa Clara University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship offers a free business plan template. You can either copy the free business template from the link provided above or download it as a Word document.

The comprehensive template consists of a whopping 15 sections.

• The Business Profile
• The Vision and the People
• Home-Based Business and Freelance Business Opportunities
• Organization
• Licenses and Permits
• Business Insurance
• Communication Tools
• Acquisitions
• Location and Leasing
• Accounting and Cash Flow
• Opening and Marketing
• Managing Employees
• Expanding and Handling Problems

There are lots of helpful tips on how to fill each section in the free business plan template by MOBI.

5. Score's Business Plan Template for Startups

Score is an American nonprofit organization that helps entrepreneurs build successful companies. This business plan template for startups by Score is available for free download. The business plan template asks a whooping 150 generic questions that help entrepreneurs from different fields to set up the perfect business plan.

The business plan template for startups contains clear instructions and worksheets, all you have to do is answer the questions and fill the worksheets.

There are nine sections in the business plan template: executive summary, company description, products and services, marketing plan, operational plan, management and organization, startup expenses and capitalization, financial plan, and appendices.

The ‘refining the plan’ resource contains instructions that help you modify your business plan to suit your specific needs, industry, and target audience. After you have completed Score’s business plan template, you can work with a SCORE mentor for expert advice in business planning.

6. Minimalist Architecture Business Plan Template by Venngage

The minimalist architecture business plan template is a simple template by Venngage that you can customize to suit your business needs .

There are five sections in the template: an executive summary, statement of problem, approach and methodology, qualifications, and schedule and benchmark. The business plan template has instructions that guide users on what to fill in each section.

7. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two free business plan templates, filled with practical real-life examples that you can model to create your business plan. Both free business plan templates are written by fictional business owners: Rebecca who owns a consulting firm, and Andrew who owns a toy company.

There are five sections in the two SBA’s free business plan templates.

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Service Line
• Marketing and Sales

8. The $100 Startup's One-Page Business Plan

The one-page business plan by the $100 startup is a simple business plan template for entrepreneurs who do not want to create a long and complicated plan . You can include more details in the appendices for funders who want more information beyond what you can put in the one-page business plan.

There are five sections in the one-page business plan such as overview, ka-ching, hustling, success, and obstacles or challenges or open questions. You can answer all the questions using one or two sentences.

9. PandaDoc’s Free Business Plan Template

The free business plan template by PandaDoc is a comprehensive 15-page document that describes the information you should include in every section.

There are 11 sections in PandaDoc’s free business plan template.

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Products and services
• Operations plan
• Management organization
• Financial plan
• Conclusion / Call to action
• Confidentiality statement

You have to sign up for its 14-day free trial to access the template. You will find different business plan templates on PandaDoc once you sign up (including templates for general businesses and specific businesses such as bakeries, startups, restaurants, salons, hotels, and coffee shops)

PandaDoc allows you to customize its business plan templates to fit the needs of your business. After editing the template, you can send it to interested parties and track opens and views through PandaDoc.

10. Invoiceberry Templates for Word, Open Office, Excel, or PPT

InvoiceBerry is a U.K based online invoicing and tracking platform that offers free business plan templates in .docx, .odt, .xlsx, and .pptx formats for freelancers and small businesses.

Before you can download the free business plan template, it will ask you to give it your email address. After you complete the little task, it will send the download link to your inbox for you to download. It also provides a business plan checklist in .xlsx file format that ensures you add the right information to the business plan.

Alternatives to the Traditional Business Plan

A business plan is very important in mapping out how one expects their business to grow over a set number of years, particularly when they need external investment in their business. However, many investors do not have the time to watch you present your business plan. It is a long and boring read.

Luckily, there are three alternatives to the traditional business plan (the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck). These alternatives are less laborious and easier and quicker to present to investors.

Business Model Canvas (BMC)

The business model canvas is a business tool used to present all the important components of setting up a business, such as customers, route to market, value proposition, and finance in a single sheet. It provides a very focused blueprint that defines your business initially which you can later expand on if needed.

The sheet is divided mainly into company, industry, and consumer models that are interconnected in how they find problems and proffer solutions.

Segments of the Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas was developed by founder Alexander Osterwalder to answer important business questions. It contains nine segments.

• Key Partners: Who will be occupying important executive positions in your business? What do they bring to the table? Will there be a third party involved with the company?
• Key Activities: What important activities will production entail? What activities will be carried out to ensure the smooth running of the company?
• The Product’s Value Propositions: What does your product do? How will it be different from other products?
• Customer Segments: What demography of consumers are you targeting? What are the habits of these consumers? Who are the MVPs of your target consumers?
• Customer Relationships: How will the team support and work with its customer base? How do you intend to build and maintain trust with the customer?
• Key Resources: What type of personnel and tools will be needed? What size of the budget will they need access to?
• Channels: How do you plan to create awareness of your products? How do you intend to transport your product to the customer?
• Cost Structure: What is the estimated cost of production? How much will distribution cost?
• Revenue Streams: For what value are customers willing to pay? How do they prefer to pay for the product? Are there any external revenues attached apart from the main source? How do the revenue streams contribute to the overall revenue?

Lean Canvas

The lean canvas is a problem-oriented alternative to the standard business model canvas. It was proposed by Ash Maurya, creator of Lean Stack as a development of the business model generation. It uses a more problem-focused approach and it majorly targets entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept as the business model canvas, however, they have been modified slightly to suit the needs and purpose of a small startup. The key partners, key activities, customer relationships, and key resources are replaced by new segments which are:

• Problem: Simple and straightforward number of problems you have identified, ideally three.
• Solution: The solutions to each problem.
• Unfair Advantage: Something you possess that can't be easily bought or replicated.
• Key Metrics: Important numbers that will tell how your business is doing.

Startup Pitch Deck

While the business model canvas compresses into a factual sheet, startup pitch decks expand flamboyantly.

Pitch decks, through slides, convey your business plan, often through graphs and images used to emphasize estimations and observations in your presentation. Entrepreneurs often use pitch decks to fully convince their target audience of their plans before discussing funding arrangements.

Considering the likelihood of it being used in a small time frame, a good startup pitch deck should ideally contain 20 slides or less to have enough time to answer questions from the audience.

Unlike the standard and lean business model canvases, a pitch deck doesn't have a set template on how to present your business plan but there are still important components to it. These components often mirror those of the business model canvas except that they are in slide form and contain more details.

Using Airbnb (one of the most successful start-ups in recent history) for reference, the important components of a good slide are listed below.

• Cover/Introduction Slide: Here, you should include your company's name and mission statement. Your mission statement should be a very catchy tagline. Also, include personal information and contact details to provide an easy link for potential investors.
• Problem Slide: This slide requires you to create a connection with the audience or the investor that you are pitching. For example in their pitch, Airbnb summarized the most important problems it would solve in three brief points – pricing of hotels, disconnection from city culture, and connection problems for local bookings.
• Solution Slide: This slide includes your core value proposition. List simple and direct solutions to the problems you have mentioned
• Customer Analysis: Here you will provide information on the customers you will be offering your service to. The identity of your customers plays an important part in fundraising as well as the long-run viability of the business.
• Market Validation: Use competitive analysis to show numbers that prove the presence of a market for your product, industry behavior in the present and the long run, as well as the percentage of the market you aim to attract. It shows that you understand your competitors and customers and convinces investors of the opportunities presented in the market.
• Business Model: Your business model is the hook of your presentation. It may vary in complexity but it should generally include a pricing system informed by your market analysis. The goal of the slide is to confirm your business model is easy to implement.
• Marketing Strategy: This slide should summarize a few customer acquisition methods that you plan to use to grow the business.
• Competitive Advantage: What this slide will do is provide information on what will set you apart and make you a more attractive option to customers. It could be the possession of technology that is not widely known in the market.
• Team Slide: Here you will give a brief description of your team. Include your key management personnel here and their specific roles in the company. Include their educational background, job history, and skillsets. Also, talk about their accomplishments in their careers so far to build investors' confidence in members of your team.
• Traction Slide: This validates the company’s business model by showing growth through early sales and support. The slide aims to reduce any lingering fears in potential investors by showing realistic periodic milestones and profit margins. It can include current sales, growth, valuable customers, pre-orders, or data from surveys outlining current consumer interest.
• Funding Slide: This slide is popularly referred to as ‘the ask'. Here you will include important details like how much is needed to get your business off the ground and how the funding will be spent to help the company reach its goals.
• Appendix Slides: Your pitch deck appendix should always be included alongside a standard pitch presentation. It consists of additional slides you could not show in the pitch deck but you need to complement your presentation.

It is important to support your calculations with pictorial renditions. Infographics, such as pie charts or bar graphs, will be more effective in presenting the information than just listing numbers. For example, a six-month graph that shows rising profit margins will easily look more impressive than merely writing it.

Lastly, since a pitch deck is primarily used to secure meetings and you may be sharing your pitch with several investors, it is advisable to keep a separate public version that doesn't include financials. Only disclose the one with projections once you have secured a link with an investor.

Advantages of the Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas, and Startup Pitch Deck over the Traditional Business Plan

• Time-Saving: Writing a detailed traditional business plan could take weeks or months. On the other hand, all three alternatives can be done in a few days or even one night of brainstorming if you have a comprehensive understanding of your business.
• Easier to Understand: Since the information presented is almost entirely factual, it puts focus on what is most important in running the business. They cut away the excess pages of fillers in a traditional business plan and allow investors to see what is driving the business and what is getting in the way.
• Easy to Update: Businesses typically present their business plans to many potential investors before they secure funding. What this means is that you may regularly have to amend your presentation to update statistics or adjust to audience-specific needs. For a traditional business plan, this could mean rewriting a whole section of your plan. For the three alternatives, updating is much easier because they are not voluminous.
• Guide for a More In-depth Business Plan: All three alternatives have the added benefit of being able to double as a sketch of your business plan if the need to create one arises in the future.

Business Plan FAQ

Business plans are important for any entrepreneur who is looking for a framework to run their company over some time or seeking external support. Although they are essential for new businesses, every company should ideally have a business plan to track their growth from time to time.  They can be used by startups seeking investments or loans to convey their business ideas or an employee to convince his boss of the feasibility of starting a new project. They can also be used by companies seeking to recruit high-profile employee targets into key positions or trying to secure partnerships with other firms.

Business plans often vary depending on your target audience, the scope, and the goals for the plan. Startup plans are the most common among the different types of business plans.  A start-up plan is used by a new business to present all the necessary information to help get the business up and running. They are usually used by entrepreneurs who are seeking funding from investors or bank loans. The established company alternative to a start-up plan is a feasibility plan. A feasibility plan is often used by an established company looking for new business opportunities. They are used to show the upsides of creating a new product for a consumer base. Because the audience is usually company people, it requires less company analysis. The third type of business plan is the lean business plan. A lean business plan is a brief, straight-to-the-point breakdown of your ideas and analysis for your business. It does not contain details of your proposal and can be written on one page. Finally, you have the what-if plan. As it implies, a what-if plan is a preparation for the worst-case scenario. You must always be prepared for the possibility of your original plan being rejected. A good what-if plan will serve as a good plan B to the original.

A good business plan has 10 key components. They include an executive plan, product analysis, desired customer base, company analysis, industry analysis, marketing strategy, sales strategy, financial projection, funding, and appendix. Executive Plan Your business should begin with your executive plan. An executive plan will provide early insight into what you are planning to achieve with your business. It should include your mission statement and highlight some of the important points which you will explain later. Product Analysis The next component of your business plan is your product analysis. A key part of this section is explaining the type of item or service you are going to offer as well as the market problems your product will solve. Desired Consumer Base Your product analysis should be supplemented with a detailed breakdown of your desired consumer base. Investors are always interested in knowing the economic power of your market as well as potential MVP customers. Company Analysis The next component of your business plan is your company analysis. Here, you explain how you want to run your business. It will include your operational strategy, an insight into the workforce needed to keep the company running, and important executive positions. It will also provide a calculation of expected operational costs.  Industry Analysis A good business plan should also contain well laid out industry analysis. It is important to convince potential investors you know the companies you will be competing with, as well as your plans to gain an edge on the competition. Marketing Strategy Your business plan should also include your marketing strategy. This is how you intend to spread awareness of your product. It should include a detailed explanation of the company brand as well as your advertising methods. Sales Strategy Your sales strategy comes after the market strategy. Here you give an overview of your company's pricing strategy and how you aim to maximize profits. You can also explain how your prices will adapt to market behaviors. Financial Projection The financial projection is the next component of your business plan. It explains your company's expected running cost and revenue earned during the tenure of the business plan. Financial projection gives a clear idea of how your company will develop in the future. Funding The next component of your business plan is funding. You have to detail how much external investment you need to get your business idea off the ground here. Appendix The last component of your plan is the appendix. This is where you put licenses, graphs, or key information that does not fit in any of the other components.

The business model canvas is a business management tool used to quickly define your business idea and model. It is often used when investors need you to pitch your business idea during a brief window.

A pitch deck is similar to a business model canvas except that it makes use of slides in its presentation. A pitch is not primarily used to secure funding, rather its main purpose is to entice potential investors by selling a very optimistic outlook on the business.

Business plan competitions help you evaluate the strength of your business plan. By participating in business plan competitions, you are improving your experience. The experience provides you with a degree of validation while practicing important skills. The main motivation for entering into the competitions is often to secure funding by finishing in podium positions. There is also the chance that you may catch the eye of a casual observer outside of the competition. These competitions also provide good networking opportunities. You could meet mentors who will take a keen interest in guiding you in your business journey. You also have the opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs whose ideas can complement yours.

Exlore Further

• 12 Key Elements of a Business Plan (Top Components Explained)
• 13 Sources of Business Finance For Companies & Sole Traders
• 5 Common Types of Business Structures (+ Pros & Cons)
• How to Buy a Business in 8 Steps (+ Due Diligence Checklist)

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Martin luenendonk.

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.

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FoodFun Lifeskills Instructional Software, a start-up computer software developer, creates and produces unique educational training software for students with developmental disabilities.

Educational Software Business Plan

Third Degree I.D. helps corporations, universities, schools and healthcare groups to design and implement e-learning programs which meet accreditation standards.

Educational Software K-12 Business Plan

Curriculum Companion Suites is a start-up educational software development and consulting firm.

Educational Website Business Plan

One Week At A Time is an educational website that teaches busy people how they can help the environment by accomplishing simple weekly tasks over the period of one year.

Education is seeing an expansion and transition toward online schooling. Between YouTube, Skillshare, and a number of other site-specific courses, learning is more accessible than ever. But there’s still a need to develop educational software to support these new online initiatives, providing an opportunity for education technology businesses to make their mark.

If you want to start your own education tech business but aren’t sure where to start, check out our assortment of sample business plans for inspiration. It’ll help you take your education business from concept to full-fledged business with everything you’ll need to be successful.

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