questions for business planning

135 Business Plan Questions

Embarking on the business journey of your dreams begins with a robust business plan. This plan is not just a document—it’s the roadmap to your success, painting a clear picture of where you’re headed and how you plan to get there.

Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or a hopeful startup pioneer, the questions I’ve compiled are designed as your compass, guiding you through the intricate landscape of business strategy.

From your executive summary to the details of your financial projections, each question serves to dig deep into the essence of your vision, solidifying your plan with precision and care.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

What is the core mission of your business?
How would you describe your company’s business model in simple terms?
What unique problem does your business solve for its customers?
What are the short-term and long-term goals of the company?
Who are the intended clients or customers of your business?
What is the vision statement for your business?
Who are the founders and key team members, and what are their roles?
How does your company set itself apart from the competition?
What are the main achievements or milestones of your business to date?
What key opportunities do you see in the market?
How much funding are you seeking, and how will it be used?
What are the main products or services your company offers?
What is the current stage of your business (concept, start-up, growth)?
How do you see your company evolving in the next five years?
Can you summarize the financial outlook and projections for your company?

Company Description Considerations

What is the legal structure of your business (e.g., sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation)?
How did the idea for the business originate, and how has it been developed?
Who are the target customers, and why will they choose your business?
What are the key elements of your business’s operations?
What are the specific advantages of your location or facilities, if any?
How does your company’s history and background set it up for success?
What business sector or industry does your company fall under?
How does your company contribute to the economy and community?
What partnerships or collaborations are essential to your business?
What are the core values and culture of your company?
How does your business respond to changes in the market?
What relevant certifications, licenses, or permits does your business hold?
What are the main risks and challenges your business faces?
What role does sustainability play in your company’s operations?
How does diversity and inclusion manifest in your company?

Market Analysis

Who is your primary target market, and what are their defining characteristics?
How large is the target market, and what is its projected growth?
What are the trends and themes currently shaping your target market?
Who are your top competitors, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
What is your market share, or what market share do you project to capture?
How do your target customers make their purchasing decisions?
What factors influence the demand for your products or services?
What barriers to entry exist in your market, and how can they be overcome?
How does pricing play a role in your market position?
What is your value proposition to customers in comparison to competitors?
How might technology impact your market in the future?
What are the legal or regulatory factors affecting your market?
How have external factors like the economy affected your market historically?
How does geography affect your market and business model?
What are the risks associated with your target market?

Organization and Management Structure

Who comprises the leadership team, and what are their backgrounds?
What is the organizational structure of your business?
How will your management team help achieve the business’s goals?
What gaps exist in your current team, and how do you plan to fill them?
What are the roles and responsibilities of your management team members?
How does the management structure align with your business strategy?
How does your team make decisions and communicate internally?
What systems are in place for performance management and accountability?
What is your plan for recruiting and retaining skilled employees?
How do you approach leadership development and training?
How does the current team’s expertise align with the business goals?
What are the board of directors’ roles, if applicable?
How do you plan to create a productive company culture?
What external advisors or consultants does the business use, and why?
How have you planned for succession in key management roles?

Service or Product Line Inquiry

What are the main products or services your business offers?
How do these products or services fulfill customer needs?
What is unique about your products or services?
How does product/service quality compare to competitors?
What is the lifecycle of your products or services?
How is your product or service produced or delivered?
Are there any patents, copyrights, or trademarks involved?
What research and development activities are you pursuing?
How do you plan to expand your product or service range?
What customer feedback have you received about your product or service?
How does your product or service adapt to changes in the market?
What is the pricing strategy for your products or services?
How does your product or service contribute to your brand image?
What are the future plans for developing your product or service?
How do warranty or guarantee terms play into your offering?

Marketing and Sales Strategies

What marketing channels will you use to reach your target audience?
How will you position your company within the market?
What promotional strategies will you utilize to attract customers?
What is your sales forecast for the first year and beyond?
How will you set sales targets and measure success?
What sales tactics will you employ to enhance customer acquisition?
How will your marketing and sales strategies evolve as the business grows?
What is your approach to online and social media marketing?
What customer relationship management processes will you put in place?
How do you plan to establish your brand identity?
What partnerships or sponsorships will you leverage to enhance marketing?
What are your strategies for repeat business and customer loyalty?
What is your process for tracking marketing ROI?
How do customer service and support fit into your sales strategy?
How does your marketing strategy cater to different customer segments?

Funding Request Fundamentals

How much total funding is required to reach your business objectives?
What specific purposes will the funding be used for?
What is your proposed timeline for the utilization of funds?
What types of funding (e.g., equity, loan) are you pursuing?
How will investors or lenders get a return on their investment?
What is the current financial position of the business?
How much equity are you willing to exchange for investment?
What are the key financial milestones that the funding will help achieve?
What are the terms you’re seeking for any loans?
How do you plan to manage cash flow and ensure financial stability?
What collateral, if any, are you offering to back up your funding request?
How does the funding impact your business’s financial projections?
What is the exit strategy for investors?
How will additional funding influence your strategic business decisions?
What contingencies do you have in place if you don’t secure the expected funding?

Financial Projections and Feasibility

What are your financial forecasts for the next three to five years?
How did you arrive at your revenue and expense estimates?
What are the key assumptions underlying your financial projections?
What are the projected cash flow statements for the next few years?
What is your break-even analysis showing?
What are your strategies for maintaining a healthy profit margin?
How do you plan to monitor and manage financial risks?
What is your approach to pricing and cost control?
How will you balance reinvestment in the business with profitability?
What financial metrics will you use to gauge business performance?
How will you handle unexpected financial shortfalls or emergencies?
What is your strategy for financial record-keeping and accounting?
How do customer payment terms and cycles affect your cash flow?
What financial software or tools do you use for projections?
How will financial trends and economic conditions potentially impact your projections?

Appendix and Supporting Documents

What supporting documents will you include in the appendix?
How will these documents reinforce your business plan’s credibility?
What resumes or biographies of your team members will you present?
What legal documents are relevant to include (e.g., licenses, permits)?
How can we access extensive market studies mentioned in the plan?
What are your key technical product specifications or service descriptions?
How do your financial statements and accounting documents get audited?
What testimonials or case studies from customers can you showcase?
What press coverage or media mentions has your business received?
Can you provide industry endorsements or expert opinions?
How will technology prototypes or demos be made available for review?
What are your policies and procedures manuals like?
How do your charts, graphs, and tables support your plan’s data?
What correspondence or contracts with suppliers/partners are appropriate to include?
How does your intellectual property documentation reflect on your business’s value?

Frequently Asked Questions

Can i write a business plan myself, or should i hire a professional.

Writing a business plan yourself is possible, especially with the aid of specific questions that cover all business aspects. However, hiring a professional can provide expertise and a polished result, particularly if you seek significant funding.

How often should I update my business plan?

Regular updates are crucial—annually at minimum or more often if your business is rapidly changing. This keeps your business plan relevant and useful as a dynamic, guiding document.

What’s the most critical part of a business plan?

While all sections are important, the Executive Summary is critical as it’s often the first (and sometimes only) part read by potential investors or partners. Clear and compelling financial projections are also vital for potential funders.

Final Thoughts

As your blueprint comes together, remember that the strength of your business plan lies in its details and its ability to represent the vision and practicalities of your enterprise honestly.

The questions outlined will challenge you to think critically, anticipate future hurdles, and prepare for success. With these comprehensive inquiries as your cornerstone, you can turn your business from a dream into an actionable, thriving reality.

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Bea Mariel Saulo

30+ Business Plan Questions & Step-By-Step Business Plan Guide

Last Updated: 30 May 2024

10 min read

Table Of Contents

30+ Business Plan Question s

8 Steps to Creating a Full-Proof Business Plan

SurveySparrow: The Best Business Plan Tool

Whether in business, marketing, or sales, you know how crucial a solid business plan is to your success. It’s not just about getting started—it’s about setting a clear direction for growth and innovation. This blog is your first step toward clarity and strategy.

Creating a comprehensive business plan is critical for entrepreneurs and business owners. It serves as a roadmap for your business and helps secure funding from investors and banks.

A well-crafted business plan should address key areas of your business, providing a detailed overview of its objectives, strategies, and financial projections.

Here’s a guide structured around crucial categories, each followed by pertinent business plan questions that will help in developing a robust business plan

30 Critical Business Plan Questions to Ask

Whether you’re steering a startup toward uncharted territories, aiming to elevate an established brand, or driving relentless sales growth, your business plan is the compass that guides your strategy, operations, and financial foresight.

Understanding this, we’ve compiled 30 questions designed to ignite your planning process and refine your business strategy.

Here we go.

Executive Summary

What is your business’s mission statement?
What products or services does your business offer?
Who are the founders, and what is their background?
What is the current stage of the business (concept, start-up, expansion)?
What are the key financial highlights?

Market Analysis

6. Who is your target market, and how large is it? 7. What are the current trends and growth in your industry? 8. Who are your competitors, and what are their strengths and weaknesses? 9. How does your business fit into the market? 10. What is your unique value proposition?

Wait, wouldn’t you need a survey to run these questions and gather feedback? What if I told you that you can do that easily with Surveysparrow .

If you’re ready to chart your business path, grab our Free Business Plan Questionnaire Template . Begin your journey to success now.

Preview Template

Marketing and Sales Strategy

11. How will you reach your target market (marketing channels)? 12. What is your pricing strategy? 13. How do you plan to sell your product or service? 14. What is your sales forecast for the first year? 15. How will you measure the success of your marketing efforts?

Operations Plan

16. What is the location of your business, and why? 17. What facilities and equipment do you need? 18. Who are your suppliers, and what are your supply chain logistics? 19. What is the production process? 20. How will you ensure quality control and customer service?

Management and Organization

21. Who makes up the management team, and what are their roles? 22. How does your organizational structure look? 23. What are the backgrounds of your team members? 24. What gaps in expertise or knowledge exist in your team? 25. How will you fill these gaps (hiring, advisors, etc.)?

Financial Plan

26. What are your startup costs? 27. What is your break-even analysis? 28. What are your projected profit and loss statements for the first 1-3 years? 29. What are your cash flow projections? 30. What are the assumptions underlying your financial projections?

By carefully answering these questions, you can construct a thorough business plan that addresses all the critical components needed for your business’s success. Remember, a business plan is not a static document; it should evolve as your business grows and adapts to market changes.

A Journey Begins: Identifying the Problem
The Voyage of Discovery: Defining Your Customers
The Battle Plan: Reaching Your Customers
Understanding the Landscape: Identifying Your Competitors
The Strategy Map: Outlining Your Operational Plan
Charting the Course: Defining Your Business Structure
The Guardian of Your Venture: Creating a Risk Management Plan
Calculating the Costs: Budgeting and Financial Projections

1. Identify the Problem

Just as any memorable journey starts with a step, every successful business starts with identifying a problem.

The burning question to answer here is: what problem is your business attempting to solve? Remember, the more specific the issue, the better your chances of designing a unique solution that customers will flock to.

2. Define Your Customers

Identifying your target customer is crucial in the business planning process. This involves understanding and defining your potential customers’ specific demographics, psychographics, behaviors, and needs.

By doing this, you can tailor your products, services, and marketing strategies to meet their specific needs. The more precisely you can define your target audience , the more effectively you can serve them and set your business up for success.

3. Reach Your Customers

Now that You’ve discovered your target customers. Now comes the next challenge: How do you reach them?

Consider all possible marketing channels. Will it be social media? Email newsletters? Influencer partnerships? The choice is yours, but ensure it aligns with where your customers spend their time. After all, there’s no point in sending smoke signals if your customers are tuned into the radio.

4. Identify Your Competitors

Now you have your bearings; it’s time to study the lay of the land. This means understanding your competition. The question is: Who are they, and how do they solve the same problem?

Understanding your competitors will help you differentiate your business and position it uniquely in the market. After all, in the quest for customer loyalty, your unique selling proposition (USP) is your Excalibur.

5. Outline Your Operational Plan

So, you’ve identified the problem, defined your customers, planned your marketing, and sized up the competition. You’re almost ready to set sail. But first, there’s another significant piece of the business puzzle to put in place: your operational plan.

Your operational plan should include a detailed plan for sourcing deals. Using the Grata data deal sourcing platform can further help streamline this process and ensure you have access to the most relevant and up-to-date information.

How will your business function day-to-day? What resources will you need? Answering these business plan questions will help you create a clear blueprint of your business operations, ensuring your venture runs as smoothly as a well-oiled machine.

6. Define Your Business Structure

One question that’s often overlooked in the excitement of crafting business plans is this: What is your business structure? Sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or LLC ?

Your business structure will significantly affect taxation, liability, and other legalities. It’s like choosing the right ship for your journey – you need one that will safely weather the storms of your entrepreneurial voyage.

7. Create a Risk Management Plan

In the entrepreneurship journey, bumps and detours are part of the course. Having a risk management plan is essential. The business plan question is: What potential obstacles might you face, and how will you mitigate them?

A well-thought-out risk management plan ensures you’re prepared for the challenges ahead.

8. Create Budget and Financial Projections

Now, onto the numbers. What will be the cost of starting and running your business? How soon before you break even? Financial forecasts might seem as daunting as navigating uncharted waters, but they’re vital in answering the essential business-related question : Will your venture be financially viable?

How Can SurveySparrow Help You in Critical Business Planning

With SurveySparrow by your side, you’re never alone in your business planning journey. Its extensive suite of customer and employee experience tools offers invaluable insights to help answer all these key questions in your business plan.

Use SurveySparrow to conduct comprehensive market research, understand customer behavior, and even keep tabs on employee satisfaction. With this trusty tool, you’re well-equipped to answer all your business plan questions, ensuring your entrepreneurial journey is successful.

Here’s how you can do it.

Market Research : SurveySparrow allows you to design and distribute surveys to gather insights about your market. You can explore potential customer needs, preferences, and pain points and evaluate market trends and size, all of which are critical inputs for your business plan.

Customer Segmentation and Profiling : Using SurveySparrow, you can categorize your potential customers based on their preferences, behavior, demographics, and more. This can help you define your target market, tailor your offerings, and devise effective marketing strategies.

Competitor Analysis : By surveying consumers, you can gain insights about your competitors – their strengths, weaknesses, and what customers think of them. This data can be vital in positioning your business uniquely in the market.

Pricing Strategy : You can use surveys to understand what customers are willing to pay for your product or service, helping you devise a suitable pricing strategy.

Risk Assessment : Use surveys to gather feedback about potential risks or barriers to your business. Understanding these risks in advance can help you form strategies to mitigate them.

Employee Engagement : If you plan to have employees, understanding their needs and expectations is crucial for crafting your operations plan and culture. SurveySparrow can assist with gathering employee feedback and gauging engagement .

Product Testing : Before launching, you can use SurveySparrow to get feedback on your product or service. This can help you fine-tune it according to your target market’s needs and preferences.

Financial Projections : The data you gather from customer and market surveys can help inform your sales forecasts and financial projections, key business plan components .

In short, SurveySparrow can offer a wealth of information, helping you answer the critical questions in your business plan. You’re better equipped to create a robust, data-driven business plan by leveraging these tools.

14-day free trial • Cancel Anytime • No Credit Card Required • No Strings Attached

That’s All of It.

Remember, every successful business starts with a comprehensive business plan. And every comprehensive business plan starts with answering the right questions. So, go ahead and take the plunge. Your entrepreneurial journey awaits, and with SurveySparrow as your co-pilot, you’re set for an exciting voyage.

After all, the sky’s the limit regarding what you can achieve in the business world. Onwards and upwards, future tycoons!

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6 Critical Questions Your Business Plan Must Answer If you want to lay the groundwork for a stable business and attract investors, make sure you're hitting these points.

By Larry Alton Edited by Dan Bova Mar 18, 2015

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Never underestimate the importance of your business plan . It is the backbone of your company, a foundational pillar from which your enterprise will be built. It's going to serve as the first impression for countless potential partners and investors, and it's going to serve as a roadmap for your whole business -- at least for the first several years.

In some ways, writing a business plan is easy -- there are no rules or requirements for length, format, presentation, or even subject matter. But finding the right answers to the right questions is critical if you want to lay the groundwork for a stable business and attract sufficient attention from investors.

Related: 25 Common Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs

1. What need are you addressing?

This is an important question because it extends beyond the simple "What does your business do?" It's one thing to outline your business in general, describing what products you make or what services you offer, but if you want a solid business plan you have to take it to the next level.

It's nice to imagine your business as providing something useful, and if you're excited about the idea, it's that much easier to think about people buying it. But you need to be logical and critical when you consider the driving force behind your customers' purchasing decisions: what fundamental customer need is your business addressing? You'll want to back this up with research that shows the need actually exists.

2. What makes you different?

It's a big world out there, and startups are constantly coming on and off the radar. Chances are, there are multiple businesses out there who are already serving the crucial need you outlined from question one. That doesn't mean you can't serve it better, or serve it in a different way, but therein lies the challenge—figuring out what makes you different.

First, you'll need to acknowledge all the major players in your space, and this is going to require some research. Acknowledge what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong, and how they're going about their business. Identify the differentiating factor that will allow you to stand out, and emphasize it.

Related: Struggling to Define Your Business Goals? Ask Yourself These Questions.

3. Who is your audience?

Here's a hint: the answer can't be "everybody." No matter how useful or practical your product or service is, there's no way you're going to be able to sell to everyone in the world. Think about factors like age, sex, education, geographic location, working status, marital status, and perform some preliminary market research to determine the best path forward.

Your key demographic may evolve over time, so don't stay too committed to one niche. Also remember, that it's easy to expand to other markets once you've established yourself in one, so if you have multiple key demographics, it may be wise to focus on one to start things off.

4. How is your business going to make money?

This seems like an obvious question to answer, but you'd be surprised how many entrepreneurs fail to elaborate on their plan. The brief answer to this question is "sell products/services," but how are you going to sell? Where are you going to sell? How much are you going to sell for?

The other side of the question is what are your operating expenses? Who are you going to pay? What services or partners will you need to pay for? And ultimately, will the amount you sell be able to surpass the amount you owe? When will you break even?

5. How will you promote your business?

Promoting your business is just as important as creating it. Otherwise, people will never know who you are. Your marketing strategy should start off based on what similar businesses before you have done. Do they rely on traditional advertising or online marketing? Do they attend tradeshows and local events, or use technology to spread the word about their existence?

Related: The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Business Plan

6. What do you need to get started?

For many potential partners and investors, this is the bottom line. All businesses have to start somewhere, but that starting line varies dramatically from industry to industry and from entrepreneur to entrepreneur. Do you need any advanced equipment? Who will you need to hire? How much will you need for an initial run? These questions should give you an idea exactly how much capital and what resources you need initially.

It may seem counterintuitive, but answering these questions isn't a one-time process. Your business plan should be a living, changing document that evolves along with your company. Throughout your course of entrepreneurship, you're going to encounter new challenges, new opportunities, and hundreds of factors you never considered as significant to your business when you were writing the initial plan. To survive, you're going to have to revise your answers to these questions and update your business plan accordingly.

Related: The Essential Ingredients to Startup Success

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Business Plan Questionnaire

Successful business plans clearly explain a company’s business model, objectives, strategies, and competitive advantages. Use our business plan questionnaire below for a list of the questions you should answer in each section of your business plan to ensure clarity and understanding of your business’s hopes and mission.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here

What Questions Should Be Asked in a Business Plan?

The business plan questionnaire can help you with how to write your business plan . It will give you a concrete set of directions for the future and allow you to further examine and learn about the market you are entering. Be sure to provide answers to the following questions in each key section of your business plan.

Executive Summary Questions

You may ask yourself:

What is the issue your business is addressing?
How are you solving it?
What are your business’s strengths?
Why should an investor be interested in your business?

Company Analysis Questions

Ask yourself the following:

What is your business’ mission?
What is your history?
What are some of your past achievements?
What is your business’ legal structure?
Where is your business located?
Why did you start the business?
How do you measure your business success?

Industry Analysis Questions

Include the answers to the following questions:

What is the size of the market?
What are the characteristics of the market: growth trends, units sold, employment?
What factors are influencing growth or decline in the market?
Are there any barriers to entering the market?
Are there any government regulations that affect the market?

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

Customer analysis questions.

Be sure to include the following in your analysis:

What is the size of the target customer market?
Where are these prospective customers located?
What are their desires and needs, and how will your business meet those needs?
In descriptive terms, who is your target market? (what motivates them to purchase, what influences their purchasing decisions)
Why will your target customers seek out your business?
What trends/purchasing shifts could occur in the market?
How will you monitor customer satisfaction? (e.g., surveys, reviews, etc.)

Competitive Analysis Questions

understand their weaknesses to help your company succeed

First, simply focus on your competition and what they are up to.

Address the following:

Who are your direct competitors? (e.g., other businesses in your genre) What percentage of market share do they occupy?
Who are your indirect competitors? (e.g., other companies that may not be specified in your business’s genre, but provide similar results to that of your business)
What are your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses?
What are their products and pricing like?

Then, look into your business’ competitive advantage to describe how your business will be better.

Will you offer more or better features?
Will you ensure better results for your users?
Will you offer better pricing?
Will your customer service be more efficient?
Will you offer a better overall customer experience?

Marketing Plan Questions

advertising strategy for your organization

A complete plan will include the following marketing plan sections:

How will you communicate to your target customers about your product or service?
Why are you choosing these specific avenues (e.g., website, Social Media, etc.)?
What materials do you have or need, and what will be the cost of this?
What do you plan to spend on marketing per prospect and per client?
How will you retain existing customers?
How will your business attract publicity?
What media will you target?
How will your product or service be delivered to the market?
How might future changes impact your marketing?
How will you price your product relative to others in the market to be competitive yet profitable?
What type of payment will you accept?
Overall, how will your marketing strategy be effective to your target customers?

Operations Plan Questions

operations process for your organization

Consider the following:

What equipment is needed, and what is the cost?
What are your hours of operation and number of shifts?
How many employees will you have?
What are the skill sets required when looking to hire new employees?
What are your practices for scheduling, managing, and hiring personnel?
What are the processes you will use to produce and sell your product or service?
What is your purchasing process?
How will finished goods be distributed?
How will quality be measured and improved over time?
What will your procedures to keep track of inventory look like?

Management Team Questions

keep things simple until you have more clients

In this section, answer the following:

Who are your founding members and what is their background?
Who are your support team members and what are their responsibilities? (include position title, person’s name, and role)
Do you offer any ownership options to attract key management?
Do you have any Board of Directors?
Do you have any outside consultants that will work with your business as it grows?
What is your business’ organizational structure?

Financial Plan Questions

Your financial plan should include:

Profit & Loss statement
Cash flow statement
Balance sheet
Sales volume forecast
Personnel plan
Break-even analysis

Here, you must gather data and convey just how much money your business will need and how much income you will earn, as well as when your business will be profitable.

Be sure to consider the following:

How were your numbers calculated?
Why are the salaries and office expenses you have calculated reasonable to your business?
Why are your expense estimates realistic?
How have you budgeted for unexpected costs?
Is there any debt the business currently has?
What is the amount of equity the owners and stockholders have?
What is your annual interest expense?
What is the percentage of sales issued for returns?
What is your average daily inventory value?
Are you using a fixed or variable inventory method?
What is the limit on your line of credit and the average interest rate?
What is your minimum checking account balance to have at all times?

Your financial plan should prove that you are informed and knowledgeable on the numbers around your business. It should prove that you are aware of all potential unexpected costs or other out-of-the-blue setbacks.

Appendix Questions

Appendices may be anywhere from just a few pages to a hundred or more.

Your appendix can include:

Resumes of key management, blurbs on other management members
Job descriptions/titles
Copies of any agreements having bearing on the business plan
Copies of licenses
Personal and business tax returns (if applying for a loan)
Marketing materials
Photos or sketches of the building, property, equipment, products
Industry studies or other information supporting industry trends
Summaries of secondary market studies

Business Plan Questionnaire Conclusion

The above sample survey questionnaire for a business plan should be a guide for you to use as an outline and checklist of items that will need to be addressed in your company’s business plan. Growthink’s fill in the blank business plan includes each of these key elements and more to help your business succeed.

How to Finish Your Business Plan in 1 Day!

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

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

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Written by Jesse Sumrak | May 14, 2023

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Business plans might seem like an old-school stiff-collared practice, but they deserve a place in the startup realm, too. It’s probably not going to be the frame-worthy document you hang in the office—yet, it may one day be deserving of the privilege.

Whether you’re looking to win the heart of an angel investor or convince a bank to lend you money, you’ll need a business plan. And not just any ol’ notes and scribble on the back of a pizza box or napkin—you’ll need a professional, standardized report.

Bah. Sounds like homework, right?

Yes. Yes, it does.

However, just like bookkeeping, loan applications, and 404 redirects, business plans are an essential step in cementing your business foundation.

Don’t worry. We’ll show you how to write a business plan without boring you to tears. We’ve jam-packed this article with all the business plan examples, templates, and tips you need to take your non-existent proposal from concept to completion.

Table of Contents

What Is a Business Plan?

Tips to Make Your Small Business Plan Ironclad

How to Write a Business Plan in 6 Steps

Startup Business Plan Template

Business Plan Examples

Work on Making Your Business Plan

How to Write a Business Plan FAQs

What is a business plan why do you desperately need one.

A business plan is a roadmap that outlines:

Who your business is, what it does, and who it serves
Where your business is now
Where you want it to go
How you’re going to make it happen
What might stop you from taking your business from Point A to Point B
How you’ll overcome the predicted obstacles

While it’s not required when starting a business, having a business plan is helpful for a few reasons:

Secure a Bank Loan: Before approving you for a business loan, banks will want to see that your business is legitimate and can repay the loan. They want to know how you’re going to use the loan and how you’ll make monthly payments on your debt. Lenders want to see a sound business strategy that doesn’t end in loan default.
Win Over Investors: Like lenders, investors want to know they’re going to make a return on their investment. They need to see your business plan to have the confidence to hand you money.
Stay Focused: It’s easy to get lost chasing the next big thing. Your business plan keeps you on track and focused on the big picture. Your business plan can prevent you from wasting time and resources on something that isn’t aligned with your business goals.

Beyond the reasoning, let’s look at what the data says:

Simply writing a business plan can boost your average annual growth by 30%
Entrepreneurs who create a formal business plan are 16% more likely to succeed than those who don’t
A study looking at 65 fast-growth companies found that 71% had small business plans
The process and output of creating a business plan have shown to improve business performance

Convinced yet? If those numbers and reasons don’t have you scrambling for pen and paper, who knows what will.

Don’t Skip: Business Startup Costs Checklist

Before we get into the nitty-gritty steps of how to write a business plan, let’s look at some high-level tips to get you started in the right direction:

Be Professional and Legit

You might be tempted to get cutesy or revolutionary with your business plan—resist the urge. While you should let your brand and creativity shine with everything you produce, business plans fall more into the realm of professional documents.

Think of your business plan the same way as your terms and conditions, employee contracts, or financial statements. You want your plan to be as uniform as possible so investors, lenders, partners, and prospective employees can find the information they need to make important decisions.

If you want to create a fun summary business plan for internal consumption, then, by all means, go right ahead. However, for the purpose of writing this external-facing document, keep it legit.

Know Your Audience

Your official business plan document is for lenders, investors, partners, and big-time prospective employees. Keep these names and faces in your mind as you draft your plan.

Think about what they might be interested in seeing, what questions they’ll ask, and what might convince (or scare) them. Cut the jargon and tailor your language so these individuals can understand.

Remember, these are busy people. They’re likely looking at hundreds of applicants and startup investments every month. Keep your business plan succinct and to the point. Include the most pertinent information and omit the sections that won’t impact their decision-making.

Invest Time Researching

You might not have answers to all the sections you should include in your business plan. Don’t skip over these!

Your audience will want:

Detailed information about your customers
Numbers and solid math to back up your financial claims and estimates
Deep insights about your competitors and potential threats
Data to support market opportunities and strategy

Your answers can’t be hypothetical or opinionated. You need research to back up your claims. If you don’t have that data yet, then invest time and money in collecting it. That information isn’t just critical for your business plan—it’s essential for owning, operating, and growing your company.

Stay Realistic

Your business may be ambitious, but reign in the enthusiasm just a teeny-tiny bit. The last thing you want to do is have an angel investor call BS and say “I’m out” before even giving you a chance.

The folks looking at your business and evaluating your plan have been around the block—they know a thing or two about fact and fiction. Your plan should be a blueprint for success. It should be the step-by-step roadmap for how you’re going from Point A to Point B.

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How to Write a Business Plan—6 Essential Elements

Not every business plan looks the same, but most share a few common elements. Here’s what they typically include:

Executive Summary
Business Overview
Products and Services
Market Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Financial Strategy

Below, we’ll break down each of these sections in more detail.

1. Executive Summary

While your executive summary is the first page of your business plan, it’s the section you’ll write last. That’s because it summarizes your entire business plan into a succinct one-pager.

Begin with an executive summary that introduces the reader to your business and gives them an overview of what’s inside the business plan.

Your executive summary highlights key points of your plan. Consider this your elevator pitch. You want to put all your juiciest strengths and opportunities strategically in this section.

2. Business Overview

In this section, you can dive deeper into the elements of your business, including answering:

What’s your business structure? Sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation, etc.
Where is it located?
Who owns the business? Does it have employees?
What problem does it solve, and how?
What’s your mission statement? Your mission statement briefly describes why you are in business. To write a proper mission statement, brainstorm your business’s core values and who you serve.

Don’t overlook your mission statement. This powerful sentence or paragraph could be the inspiration that drives an investor to take an interest in your business. Here are a few examples of powerful mission statements that just might give you the goosebumps:

Patagonia: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
InvisionApp : Question Assumptions. Think Deeply. Iterate as a Lifestyle. Details, Details. Design is Everywhere. Integrity.
TED : Spread ideas.
Warby Parker : To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.

3. Products and Services

As the owner, you know your business and the industry inside and out. However, whoever’s reading your document might not. You’re going to need to break down your products and services in minute detail.

For example, if you own a SaaS business, you’re going to need to explain how this business model works and what you’re selling.

You’ll need to include:

What services you sell: Describe the services you provide and how these will help your target audience.
What products you sell: Describe your products (and types if applicable) and how they will solve a need for your target and provide value.
How much you charge: If you’re selling services, will you charge hourly, per project, retainer, or a mixture of all of these? If you’re selling products, what are the price ranges?

4. Market Analysis

Your market analysis essentially explains how your products and services address customer concerns and pain points. This section will include research and data on the state and direction of your industry and target market.

This research should reveal lucrative opportunities and how your business is uniquely positioned to seize the advantage. You’ll also want to touch on your marketing strategy and how it will (or does) work for your audience.

Include a detailed analysis of your target customers. This describes the people you serve and sell your product to. Be careful not to go too broad here—you don’t want to fall into the common entrepreneurial trap of trying to sell to everyone and thereby not differentiating yourself enough to survive the competition.

The market analysis section will include your unique value proposition. Your unique value proposition (UVP) is the thing that makes you stand out from your competitors. This is your key to success.

If you don’t have a UVP, you don’t have a way to take on competitors who are already in this space. Here’s an example of an ecommerce internet business plan outlining their competitive edge:

FireStarters’ competitive advantage is offering product lines that make a statement but won’t leave you broke. The major brands are expensive and not distinctive enough to satisfy the changing taste of our target customers. FireStarters offers products that are just ahead of the curve and so affordable that our customers will return to the website often to check out what’s new.

5. Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis examines the strengths and weaknesses of competing businesses in your market or industry. This will include direct and indirect competitors. It can also include threats and opportunities, like economic concerns or legal restraints.

The best way to sum up this section is with a classic SWOT analysis. This will explain your company’s position in relation to your competitors.

6. Financial Strategy

Your financial strategy will sum up your revenue, expenses, profit (or loss), and financial plan for the future. It’ll explain how you make money, where your cash flow goes, and how you’ll become profitable or stay profitable.

This is one of the most important sections for lenders and investors. Have you ever watched Shark Tank? They always ask about the company’s financial situation. How has it performed in the past? What’s the ongoing outlook moving forward? How does the business plan to make it happen?

Answer all of these questions in your financial strategy so that your audience doesn’t have to ask. Go ahead and include forecasts and graphs in your plan, too:

Balance sheet: This includes your assets, liabilities, and equity.
Profit & Loss (P&L) statement: This details your income and expenses over a given period.
Cash flow statement: Similar to the P&L, this one will show all cash flowing into and out of the business each month.

It takes cash to change the world—lenders and investors get it. If you’re short on funding, explain how much money you’ll need and how you’ll use the capital. Where are you looking for financing? Are you looking to take out a business loan, or would you rather trade equity for capital instead?

Read More: 16 Financial Concepts Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know

Startup Business Plan Template (Copy/Paste Outline)

Ready to write your own business plan? Copy/paste the startup business plan template below and fill in the blanks.

Executive Summary Remember, do this last. Summarize who you are and your business plan in one page.

Business Overview Describe your business. What’s it do? Who owns it? How’s it structured? What’s the mission statement?

Products and Services Detail the products and services you offer. How do they work? What do you charge?

Market Analysis Write about the state of the market and opportunities. Use date. Describe your customers. Include your UVP.

Competitive Analysis Outline the competitors in your market and industry. Include threats and opportunities. Add a SWOT analysis of your business.

Financial Strategy Sum up your revenue, expenses, profit (or loss), and financial plan for the future. If you’re applying for a loan, include how you’ll use the funding to progress the business.

What’s the Best Business Plan to Succeed as a Consultant?

5 Frame-Worthy Business Plan Examples

Want to explore other templates and examples? We got you covered. Check out these 5 business plan examples you can use as inspiration when writing your plan:

SBA Wooden Grain Toy Company
SBA We Can Do It Consulting
OrcaSmart Business Plan Sample
Plum Business Plan Template
PandaDoc Free Business Plan Templates

Get to Work on Making Your Business Plan

If you find you’re getting stuck on perfecting your document, opt for a simple one-page business plan —and then get to work. You can always polish up your official plan later as you learn more about your business and the industry.

Remember, business plans are not a requirement for starting a business—they’re only truly essential if a bank or investor is asking for it.

Ask others to review your business plan. Get feedback from other startups and successful business owners. They’ll likely be able to see holes in your planning or undetected opportunities—just make sure these individuals aren’t your competitors (or potential competitors).

Your business plan isn’t a one-and-done report—it’s a living, breathing document. You’ll make changes to it as you grow and evolve. When the market or your customers change, your plan will need to change to adapt.

That means when you’re finished with this exercise, it’s not time to print your plan out and stuff it in a file cabinet somewhere. No, it should sit on your desk as a day-to-day reference. Use it (and update it) as you make decisions about your product, customers, and financial plan.

Review your business plan frequently, update it routinely, and follow the path you’ve developed to the future you’re building.

Keep Learning: New Product Development Process in 8 Easy Steps

What financial information should be included in a business plan?

Be as detailed as you can without assuming too much. For example, include your expected revenue, expenses, profit, and growth for the future.

What are some common mistakes to avoid when writing a business plan?

The most common mistake is turning your business plan into a textbook. A business plan is an internal guide and an external pitching tool. Cut the fat and only include the most relevant information to start and run your business.

Who should review my business plan before I submit it?

Co-founders, investors, or a board of advisors. Otherwise, reach out to a trusted mentor, your local chamber of commerce, or someone you know that runs a business.

Ready to Write Your Business Plan?

Don’t let creating a business plan hold you back from starting your business. Writing documents might not be your thing—that doesn’t mean your business is a bad idea.

Let us help you get started.

Join our free training to learn how to start an online side hustle in 30 days or less. We’ll provide you with a proven roadmap for how to find, validate, and pursue a profitable business idea (even if you have zero entrepreneurial experience).

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About Jesse Sumrak

Jesse Sumrak is a writing zealot focused on creating killer content. He’s spent almost a decade writing about startup, marketing, and entrepreneurship topics, having built and sold his own post-apocalyptic fitness bootstrapped business. A writer by day and a peak bagger by night (and early early morning), you can usually find Jesse preparing for the apocalypse on a precipitous peak somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

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Business Plan Questions: How To Set Yourself up for Success

articles--table-of-contents#moveToHeadline" data-target="articles--table-of-contents.section">Why Having a Business Plan Is Critical
articles--table-of-contents#moveToHeadline" data-target="articles--table-of-contents.section">What Are the Four Basic Business Questions?
articles--table-of-contents#moveToHeadline" data-target="articles--table-of-contents.section">Additional Questions To Ask When Starting a Business Plan
articles--table-of-contents#moveToHeadline" data-target="articles--table-of-contents.section">Business Plan Questions Checklist Help You Turn Your Idea Into Reality

“Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.” This is Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs and business school students. But between an idea and its execution is planning. That’s why it’s essential to have an effective business plan. How do you do that? With clear answers to business plan questions. Here we’ve put together an all-in-one roadmap to those planning questions.

Why Having a Business Plan Is Critical

Before we jump into questions a solid business plan should answer, let’s explain why you need business plans anyway.

Your business plan is your company’s foundation and backbone. It’s your business model and should inform every aspect of your company’s operations.
It’s your vision statement. Your business plan lays out your short and long-term objectives and guides you from one milestone to the next. It keeps you focused on what’s relevant, especially when establishing your presence in your industry.
It proves you mean serious business, pun intended. This is important not only if you’re looking for investors or funding but also when hiring the right people. A good business plan gives you credibility and inspires confidence in your ability to implement business success.
It helps you understand the competition. Crafting your business plan involves studying and understanding other players in the marketplace. This will put you in a better position within the competitive landscape.
Whether you own small businesses or large corporations, business planning questions and business plans identify your target market. It points your market analysis in the right direction to cater to your target customer.
It clarifies your financial needs. It lays out the complex numbers. How much capital do you need? How much does everything cost? When can you expect a return on your investment?
It determines your brand’s position in the market. A successful plan shows what niche your company can occupy and how.

What Are the Four Basic Business Questions?

What are the four basic business questions your business plan should answer? They are:

What do you do?
What gap in the market do you fill?
How will you make a profit?
Who is your target customer?

Keep scrolling and see how we dive deeper into each of these inquiries. If you can answer these four, your growing company has the competitive advantage to attract potential customers.

1. Business Plan Questions: What Do You Do?

“What does your business do?”

This is a simple enough question, right? Anyone who wants to start a company has a product or service they want to sell.

But if you want to own a successful business, you need to go further than that. It’s not enough to just know what you want to provide; you need details. For example, say you want to own a restaurant. What kind of restaurant? What food do you serve, what is your service style, and why?

The “why” behind what your business does is crucial. It has to motivate you when presenting to financing partners. It has to keep you going when you’re struggling to attract clients. It has to push you to have a competitive advantage over your neighbors.

Do you need some help getting the juices flowing? Grab a pen and paper and start writing all details about your business and what it does.

2. What Gap in the Market Are You Filling?

What is your niche? How does your brand-new company differ from your competitors? In short, what gap in the market do you fill?

However great your idea is, someone else probably thought of it too. In this fast-paced world, it takes time to develop a new way of delivering a unique product or service.

Successful business plans and models create new ways to solve old problems. You need to find which part of the market other folks overlook and figure out how to fill it. Do that, and you’ll increase your chances of getting more money and funding.

No matter your industry, you’ll face competition that’s been in the game longer than you. They’ll already have a loyal following. You need to offer something different, so customers take notice.

So how do you find your niche? Do tons of research — this time, on the competition. See what others do and identify how to set yourself apart from the crowd.

This could be by presenting your product/service differently or adding something small but special. Or mastering new technology and online marketing tools. Whatever you choose, create a distinct identity for your business and emphasize it from the get-go.

In your plan, describe what makes you different and how you will assert this advantage.

3. Business Plan Questions: How Will You Earn Money?

Money, finance, costs. These (sometimes scary) words are a big part of any effective business plan. That’s why one of the most crucial business plan questions you must answer is: how will you earn money?

And your answer needs to go further than “By selling this product/service, of course.” How your business makes money involves multiple approaches.

How are you going to sell your products/services? Where are you going to sell them? How much do your products and services cost? What unexpected expenses might you have to pay for? Do you need additional funding to cover these costs? How will you pay your workers?

Your business plan should answer all of these questions.

That way, you’ll know if your business is sustainable in terms of your financial projections. Plus, you’ll see how and where you can adjust to achieve your goals in a realistic period. Next, you’ll better understand the necessary financial risks to get your business off the ground.

Lastly, you’ll understand what funding you need to secure and what research you need to do to get there. That way, working out the maximum profitability of your venue or business won’t be such a mystery.

4. Who Is Your Target Customer?

Last on our list of the four essential business planning questions: who is your target customer?

We can talk about sales, financial projections, bright ideas, and marketing all day. But there’s only a point if you know who you’re selling to.

Apart from understanding your goal client’s purchasing decisions, you need to know as much as possible about their demographic. You need to identify their age, gender status, geographic location, education, employment status, marital status, etc.

First, identify your initial demographic. Start-up businesses and businesses that have been in the game for years have different audiences. In general, you want to begin with a specific demographic.

Get as detailed as you can. This way, you set your company up for success with folks who are the most interested in what you’re selling. As time passes, you can expand that radius to reach more people.

The best way to conduct this market analysis is through (you guessed it) research. For example, look at your competitors and see who shops at their establishment or buys their services.

Additional Questions To Ask When Starting a Business Plan

With those four business planning questions, you’ve got the start of a solid business plan. Of course, you can’t just leave it at that. Successful businesses know they must go above and beyond the bare minimum.

With that in mind, we’ve come up with more critical things to focus on if you want to succeed. Here are our top additional questions to ask when starting a business plan.

Business Planning Questions: What Is Your Marketing Strategy?

However tremendous or unique your business model, if you don’t know how to market it effectively, it will fail. Even if you add your business to Google Maps , you won’t rank high on local searches without solid marketing.

That’s why we recommend creating a firm marketing strategy outline addressing your goals and challenges. Base your strategy on your product or service, your niche, your budget, and what your competitors do.

Why do we emphasize competitor research so much? Because it shows you what works and what doesn’t.

Of course, you want to avoid copying whatever they do. (Honest business practices are the best practices.) But you should use them as inspiration for your objectives.

What Do You Need To Turn Your Dreams Into Action?

How do you turn your dreams into reality? In short, how do you go from brainstorming to doing? Say you’re a restaurateur. It’s one thing to figure out how to open a restaurant versus how to win a Michelin star .

Answering this fundamental question for a business plan should give your potential investors a clear picture of the bottom line. That way, they can decide if your business is feasible.

You need initial capital and resources to start. You should identify your starting line and understand that it varies from industry to industry. (For example, the profit that successful bars make is different than what a hotel makes.) Then, provide the details of what you need to spend from this starting line when you craft your business plan.

How much revolving capital will you need for the initial run of your business? Do you need to hire people or purchase/rent equipment? What’s the price of the equipment?

How many costs can you cover out of pocket, and which require additional support? How long will it take before you can circulate your initial capital? Include all these questions and answers in your business outline, and you’ll succeed.

What Are Your Short and Long-term Goals?

Last but not least, for our business plan questions, let’s talk about your goals. No matter your services or products, you need a timeline for short and long-term goals.

Short-term goals are ideally achieved within a startup’s first two years. Long-term goals go beyond the first two years after your business is finally experiencing its initial ROI. (Return on Investment.) Make you have realistic goals and timelines. Here are critical business goals you may want to manage:

Reduce business overhead
Increase productivity
Reach a specific number of followers on social media through organic growth.
Reach a specific number of social media followers through paid advertising
Develop a new product or services
Launch your new product
Open another store

Business Plan Questions Checklist Help You Turn Your Idea Into Reality

We hope this business plan questions checklist and article help you manage your company successfully.

With this, you can craft an impressive plan for potential investors and guide your business from point to point. Remember: your first business plan will evolve as you adapt to new opportunities, challenges, and trends.

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11 Strategic Planning Questions Asked By Business Leaders [With Answers]

Ted Jackson

Ted is a Founder and Managing Partner of ClearPoint Strategy and leads the sales and marketing teams.

Get answers to the top 11 strategic planning questions asked by business leaders. This guide provides direction for effective strategic decision-making.

Table of Contents

After years of helping organizations simplify their strategy and reporting processes, it has become clear that many organizations struggle with similar strategic planning questions. Because all these questions are important—and the answers tend to help organizations get a better grip on their strategy—we decided to share the ones we hear most frequently below.

ClearPoint Strategy is designed to simplify this process by providing a comprehensive platform that addresses these questions efficiently. With ClearPoint , leaders can automate data collection, customize reports, and gain valuable insights , ensuring their strategic plans are robust and adaptable.

See ClearPoint Strategy in action! Click here to watch a quick DEMO on the software

Here are the top strategic planning questions asked by leaders, along with our expert answers to help guide your strategic decision-making.

11 Common Strategic Planning Questions Asked By Business Leaders [With Answers]

1. what time frame should our strategic plan cover.

Your strategic plan should look as far into the future as you’re comfortable looking. But keep in mind, you need to be confident that your company’s environment will be stable during the period of time you choose.

In the 1980s, Japanese automotive companies were looking out 40 years into the future—but this probably isn’t realistic for your organization. Most companies feel comfortable with a three- to five-year strategic planning horizon so long as they review their plan on a regular basis.

2. Who should be part of the strategic planning process?

The strategic planner is typically the leader of this process. They will also need the help of a cross-functional team that includes members of the board or leadership, along with representatives from finance, human resources, operations, sales, and any other critical functions.

That said, we recommend not limiting the planning process to just senior management. If you want the plan to work, it must engage everyone to some degree. So while the leadership team may be more involved in final decisions, those decisions should be based on input gathered from managers and their teams.

What are their thoughts on the future of the business? What do they think your company is doing well, and where does it need improvement? What projects are people working on and how are those contributing to the big picture? Including this type of feedback in your deliberations is the best way to gain buy-in around the strategic plan.

Claim your FREE Strategic Plan Review eBook for better organizational direction

3. how often should we review progress on our strategic plan.

The frequency of plan review varies depending on the goal of the review:

Monthly , to check progress on key themes or goals.
Quarterly , to check progress for your entire strategic plan.
Annually , to ensure your strategic plan is still valid (see question #3).

We recommend setting up these meetings at the beginning of the year to ensure you hit these cadences. At the same time, determine the appropriate participants for each and send out invites.

Monthly meetings might include a director from each department; quarterly meetings require a smaller set of leaders; and annual strategic retreats are usually reserved for the highest levels of leadership. Getting these meetings on the calendar early not only reserves the times, but also sets an expectation for preparedness.

4. When should we change or update our strategic plan?

As mentioned in #2, an annual review of your strategic plan helps ensure the key elements in your plan are still valid. If there’s been a significant shift in the marketplace, for example, you may need to reevaluate your high-level goals and objectives.

Or, you may need to add new projects, change or update how you’re tracking KPIs , or change your KPI targets. Periodic strategy refreshes allow you to keep the elements of your plan that are valid and adjust the parts that are not.

Get your FREE 41-page Strategy Execution Toolkit for enhanced strategic performance

5. do we need a strategic planning office.

Not necessarily. All organizations—even those with only two employees—need to spend time on strategy. If your company fails to prioritize strategic planning, it could get left behind during times of environmental uncertainty or in a tumultuous business market.

So while your organization may not be large enough to have an entire strategic planning office or department, you do need to ensure that at least one person in your company has time on their calendar dedicated to your strategic plan.

6. Do we have to use a Balanced Scorecard?

No. That said, the Balanced Scorecard has proven to be a powerful and time-honored way to plan and execute strategy. Regardless of whether you stick to the Norton-Kaplan methodology or use a variation, understanding the basic principles of a BSC—having clear goals, linking your projects to those goals, and setting up leading and lagging indicators—could help your strategy immensely.

And for any strategic planning model to work, you need to have the right goals and the right way to measure and achieve them.

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7. where do we start when it comes to devising a strategy.

Many companies aren’t sure how to begin developing a strategy—how do you see the best way forward? Here are two important questions to ask during strategic planning, both of which will yield important information that can help you chart a path:

Where are we now and where do we want to be?

As you get started with strategic planning, take the time to understand where you are now—your current business. Know the sales trends in every product/service area, the relative profitability of each of your products and services, the amount of money you have and will have/need in the foreseeable future, and your position relative to your competition, among other things.

And because strategic planning is essentially a roadmap for the future, you also need to clearly describe the ideal desired outcome for your business.

Project forward five years—what do you want your business to look like? The greater clarity you have about where you want to be at a specific time in the future, the easier it will be for you to create a great business plan, or blueprint, that enables you to get from where you are today to where you want to go.

What obstacles lie in our path, and how do we go about removing them?

Every strategic plan will face risks and potential derailments. Some of these risks can be foreseen (for example, the internal weaknesses you discover as part of a SWOT analysis ), while others cannot.

This is one of the most difficult steps in developing a strategic plan, but the long-term success of the company is worth the temporary discomfort of having candid conversations. Management teams should outline the known risks along with financial impacts, and articulate the mitigation plans to prevent or curtail them.

Sometimes, just identifying and removing one critical obstacle can turn your company into a more profitable enterprise.

Companies with written strategic plans in place see a 30% faster growth rate Draft yours with ClearPoint’s expert tools. We make strategy planning simple and effective.

8. What is the difference between a strategic plan and an operational work plan?

A strategic plan is built off a long-term vision for your company’s future. It typically looks out three to five years, involves your key goals, and is broad-reaching across your organization.
An operational work plan tends to be an annual plan for a division or department. It is built with a budget in mind and lists the key activities you commit to executing in a particular year.

Linking your operational work plan to your strategic plan is the ideal scenario. That way, the issues your department or division is focused on for the year are in line with your strategic plan.

This approach also allows for each department to see how their efforts directly impact your strategic goals, which adds an invaluable motivational element.

9. How many measures should our strategic plan include?

At each level in your organization—the enterprise level, division level, and department level—we recommend having 20-30 measures. We’ve found that a number in this range helps each level stay focused on what’s important, and review key data in meetings without distraction or fatigue.

Of course, 20-30 measures in every division described above could leave your company with hundreds of measures, but don’t worry—the goal is never to review every single measure in the organization at the same time. You should plan on reviewing only the information critical to your strategy in your department or division every quarter.

That said, use common sense. If one of the measures at the division level above you or the team level below you is red, you might want to look at it before your review to make sure that it doesn’t impact your team.

10. How do we make our strategic plan flexible to allow for changes?

The best way to make your strategic plan flexible is to have a clear distinction between your goals, measures, and projects, as this enables you to make changes, additions, or deletions more easily.

Goals should be updated every one to five years, and measures should be updated every six to 24 months. Projects can be adjusted on a quarterly basis, with completed projects being rolled off and new ones added. At this time, you may also need to make changes to some aspect of a project, for example changing the end date or adjusting the budget.

11. How can we organize and track strategic planning information and data?

Your strategic plan should touch a variety of departments and divisions. Even if you’re extremely well-organized, keeping track of all the data coming from different individuals and in different formats is very difficult.

Some organizations attempt to use Excel or PowerPoint, but both of these tools fall short when it comes to strategy management. Excel was designed to track data, make tables, and run calculations, but it wasn’t designed to track progress over time, show qualitative analysis (comments), or link strategy elements together.

PowerPoint is great for creating presentations, but you have to build a new deck for every monthly meeting. If you plan to use either of these tools, you can count on putting in hundreds of hours per meeting doing manual calculations, formatting graphs, updating versions, etc.

Automating the process with software like ClearPoint helps tremendously and will, in the long run, save your company a great deal of time and energy. Tracking and reporting tasks that would otherwise take days, takes only minutes with ClearPoint .

Many of our clients have also found that managers are more inclined to stay on top of their metrics simply because the software is so easy to use. When you can produce more informative strategy reports in less time— and get people excited about metrics to boot—it’s a win all around.

What other key questions do you have about strategic planning? Contact us —we’d love to add your question to our FAQ list!

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What are strategic planning tools.

Strategic planning tools are methodologies and frameworks used to help organizations formulate and execute their strategic plans. Common tools include:

- SWOT Analysis: Identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. - PEST Analysis: Examines political, economic, social, and technological factors. - Balanced Scorecard: T racks performance across multiple perspectives. - Porter’s Five Forces: Analyzes the competitive environment. - Growth-Share Matrix: Assesses the potential of different business units or products.

What are strategic planning models?

Strategic planning models are structured approaches used to develop a strategic plan. Common models include:

- Balanced Scorecard: Aligns business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization. - OKR (Objectives and Key Results): Sets clear, measurable goals and tracks their outcomes. - VRIO Framework : Evaluates resources and capabilities to achieve sustained competitive advantage. - Blue Ocean Strategy: Identifies new market spaces with little or no competition. - Ansoff Matrix: Helps plan growth strategies by exploring market and product development options.

How does strategic planning affect the productivity of a business?

Strategic planning affects the productivity of a business by:

- Providing Direction: Ensures all efforts are aligned with the organization’s goals. - Optimizing Resource Allocation: Allocates resources efficiently to priority areas. - Enhancing Focus: Helps employees focus on key tasks that drive success. - Improving Decision Making: Provides a framework for making informed, data-driven decisions. - Monitoring Progress: Regularly tracks performance to make necessary adjustments.

Why is strategic planning important in healthcare?

Strategic planning is important in healthcare because it:

-Improves Patient Care: Ensures resources are directed towards enhancing patient outcomes. - Enhances Efficiency: Streamlines operations to reduce costs and improve service delivery. - Supports Compliance: Helps meet regulatory and accreditation requirements. - Guides Innovation: Encourages the adoption of new technologies and practices. - Ensures Sustainability: Plans for long-term growth and financial stability.

What does strategic planning involve?

Strategic planning involves:

- Setting Objectives: Defining clear, achievable goals. - Environmental Scanning: Analyzing internal and external factors that impact the organization. - Strategy Formulation: Developing strategies to achieve the objectives. - Implementation: Executing the strategies through detailed action plans. - Monitoring and Evaluation: Tracking progress and making necessary adjustments to stay on course.

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6 Questions Every Business Plan Should Answer

Lay out your goals and a road map for achieving them.

An actionable business plan is crucial, whether your business is brand-new or an established player in its field. A business plan is especially vital for SMBs, which often must contend with lower name recognition, fewer loyal customers and other typical business challenges. While it doesn’t guarantee success, creating a business plan with research and care can help a business prepare for any future uncertainties.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners must ensure their business plans address six primary questions. Thinking through these questions and developing potential solutions helps set up your venture for success.

What is a business plan, and why does it matter?

A business plan is a formal document designed to help you set achievable business goals and outline how you’ll accomplish them. The business plan should include various road maps dedicated to the following operational elements:

Product creation
Operational goals

A business plan is a valuable tool internally and externally.

Internal business plan functions: Internally, a business plan helps align its decisions with an overall road map to help it stay on track. Businesses can also use road maps to help think through difficult choices, such as headcount decisions.
External business plan functions: Externally, a road map is critical for securing funding from outside investors like angel investors . A business must demonstrate to investors that it has a solid business plan with achievable goals and a road map to success.

What should a business plan include?

Typically, a business plan should include the following elements:

Executive summary. An executive summary highlights a business plan’s essential elements. Readers should be able to understand your business plan by reading your executive summary, even if they don’t read the rest of the document.
Budget. A small business budget should include overall operational and personnel costs. Consider your payroll budget , marketing budget and other departmental budgets.
Market analysis. A market analysis should include a thorough market assessment that identifies competitors, your target customer , customer buying habits, marketing demographics and what customers are willing to pay. A market analysis may include a competitive analysis that dives more deeply into direct and indirect competitors.
Product analysis. A product analysis outlines decisions about optimal product pricing. While you want to sell as many products as possible, low prices can scare off customers and eat into your profit margins, while prices that are too high will have customers turning to your competitors.
Marketing strategy. Your marketing plan should outline how best to market the business and its products or services. Consider digital marketing targeted to specific online and social platforms, email marketing and local marketing.

Business plans vary in length depending on your business’s size, industry and scope. An SMB typically has a shorter and more succinct business plan than a larger, established business that operates across industries.

Questions every business plan should answer

We spoke with six business leaders who shared their thoughts on the crucial questions a business plan should answer. Consider these six essential questions to optimize your business plan.

1. What is the competitive advantage?

Scott Locke, chair of the intellectual property department at Dorf and Nelson LLP, advises thoroughly researching copyright infringement issues when determining your competitive advantage.

“I always look for what will give the business a competitive advantage relative to businesses that want to offer the same or similar goods and services and an analysis of the competitive landscape,” Locke explained. “I pay particular attention as to whether there is valuable intellectual property, be it patents, trademarks, copyrights or trade secrets, that will serve as barriers to entry for competitors. Similarly, I like to see a discussion of the intellectual property of the most direct competitors and how the new business will avoid infringing on it.”

2. Is the business in a growth market?

Walter Recher, principal consultant at SmallBall Marketing, says your business plan should emphasize how you plan to grow your business .

“The key to any successful business is to be a growing company in a growth market. A business plan should articulate how the entrepreneurs will enter the market, apply their investment to prepare them to grow quickly, and participate in the expansion of an industry that is thriving, with a better-than-average growth trajectory,” Recher said. “As I have spent my career working for hyper-growth companies in rapidly expanding markets, a founder of several small businesses and adjunct professor of a course on entrepreneurship, this has been the common denominator.”

3. Will customers pay for it?

Andi Gray, founder and president of Strategy Leaders, advises examining the risks of entrepreneurship and determining what and how customers will pay for their products and services.

“When looking at business plans, I always want to know how the owners plan to get paying customers to engage at a fee and quantity that allows them, as owners, to be in business and sustain themselves,” Gray advised. “My frequently asked question is, ‘How do you plan to feed and clothe yourself, and where do you plan to sleep while you’re getting this venture off the ground?’ My hope is that it will cause the students to consider why they are planning to take the risks of entrepreneurship.”

4. How will the business be staffed?

Larry Holfelder, senior consultant at DJL Insurance Services Inc., emphasizes the importance of staffing considerations.

“In every business plan, I like to see the recognition of the need to cover and staff the production, sales and finance parts of the business. Roles should be established for the entity as if it were mature and successful,” Holfelder advised. “Multiple roles should be assigned at first, if necessary, and filled with the right people as the entity grows and the timing is right.”

Holfelder says thoughtful staffing coverage shows that the business owners are realistic. “I like to see that type of thought process because it shows me they recognize that they won’t be able to do it all themselves and that business success revolves around collaboration and management,” Holfelder said. “It also shows that they recognize their own limitations, their ability to focus on their strengths, and the need to bring in others who know what they don’t in order to reach the goals they envision.”

5. Is the product innovative?

Irwin Glenn, chief identity scientist at Hunova, stresses the importance of innovation and inventiveness as well as the team’s level of inspiration.

“Is the idea for the product or service innovative, a unique invention, or is the dream truly inspired? Glenn asked. “By innovative, I want to understand if the business plan is centered around a new twist on already-existing technology or services delivered in a new and compelling way. If inventive, can the idea be protected against new or existing competition? Finally, is the team assembled an excellent group that can’t be stopped from succeeding? Are they inspiring to me, each other, and their marketplace?”

6. Are the plans and goals realistic?

Charles North, former president and CEO of the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce, prioritizes a realistic business plan with reasonable expectations.

“I look for it to be a realistic business plan, not something that is pie-in-the-sky. I want to see reasonable expectations,” North explained. “I tend to look more on the conservative side, since I feel that is the safest way to go. The idea doesn’t have to be reasonable; the plan does. The idea can be anything.”

North also emphasizes the importance of sales forecasts . “I always look for projections on what the business will do in the first year, second year, third year and fourth year showing sales, expenses [and the] bottom line as the business progresses. Those assumptions have to be reasonable.”

How planning for success pays off

A great business idea is no guarantee of success, but a solid business plan is a way to start a new business off the right foot and prepare your venture for a lucrative future.

Business plans are a vital resource for businesses of all sizes. While business plans should, at minimum, lay out a series of goals and a road map for achieving them, a business plan should also help answer questions ranging from analyzing a business’ competitive advantages to considering if its goals are realistic.

If you think through these questions while creating your business plan, your business will be in a better position to achieve its goals and weather any challenges it may face.

David Mielach contributed to the reporting and writing in this article.

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A Complete Business Plan Checklist - Key Points to include in your Business Plan and Track Progress

Creating an effective business plan requires addressing specific strategic and tactical questions with a high level of detail.

After you complete writing your business plan, how will you make sure that your business plan is complete and you did not miss any important details?

The best and easy way is to check your business plan with a standard business plan checklist.

Business plan checklist is the list of most important sections of the business plan that you should include into your business plan in the same order.

This checklist will guide you through the step-by-step process of writing an effective and successful business plan for your startup.

Business Plan Checklist

Please check the sections that you have included in your business plan from below list and track your business plan progress .

Explore our 400+ sample business plans prepared for a wide variety of industries to help you start writing and planning your business plan.

Business plan checklist will also help you to write your business plan table of contents and outline of your business plan.

This business plan checklist is a general guideline for any standard business plan. But you should also keep in mind the purpose of your business plan and include specific details accordingly.

For Example, if you are writing a business plan for a loan from a particular bank, you should learn about their mandatory or specific criteria and must include that details into your business plan.

This business plan checklist prepared here will help you to think through your business and document it in a way that investors and other readers fully understand about your business.

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Expensivity

Exploring the world of money and finance

50 Questions to Ask Before Starting a New Business

Starting a business is an inherently risky venture. Getting your business off the ground requires a plan, capital, and a whole lot of hard work. From coming up with a great business idea to creating the proper business structure to execute this idea; from raising the money to fund startup costs to conducting the market research to justify your company’s raison d’etre, there are tons of steps before you can even think about opening the doors (physical or virtual) to your customers.

If you’re looking for a quick pathway from idea to implementation, we strongly recommend jumping from here to our article highlighting the 10 Steps to Starting a Business.

On the other hand, if you’re still in the early planning stages, you’ve come to the right place. The best way to really get the ball rolling is to start by asking yourself all the tough questions first. While you may not have an exact answer for each of these questions, this collection of inquiries is a great way to get you thinking about everything–big and small–that goes into launching your own business.

50 Questions To Help You Start a Successful Business

There’s obviously a lot that goes into getting a business off the ground. So how can you be sure you’ve thought of everything first? Well, you can’t. Rule number one–be prepared for the unexpected as a business owner. That said, you can take every possible step to reduce the risk of the unexpected. We’ve devised 50 critical questions to help you do exactly that. Because there’s a lot here, we’ve divided these questions into specific areas. Read on to find out which questions you should be asking about your Business Idea and Structure, the Competition and Customers shaping the marketplace, the Financial and Organizational components you’ll need to address to build your business, and finally, the Brand that you’ll be working to establish.

The Business Idea

1. What problem are you solving?

This is the very first question you need to ask yourself, because it will ultimately tell you whether or not there’s an actual need for the product or service you plan to market. Where did your business idea come from? Have you observed an unsatisfied demand for a certain product or service, or the need for innovation or improvement in the way a product or service is delivered? Perhaps you’ve found a way to offer quality with greater affordability, or a faster delivery system, or simply with a more customer friendly approach than the industry standard. Whatever it is that roots your business idea, be sure it’s something that addresses an actual problem with a viable solution. Moreover, be sure that the solution you’re offering is also profitable. Indeed, your goal here is to identify the need for your idea as well as the ability of this idea to generate profit.

2. Do you have a business plan?

Of course, it’s one thing to say that you have a great idea that can render a profit. It’s another thing to show it. That’s what your business plan is for. This is your chance to explain your idea in its entirety–to conduct a SWOT (Strengths; Weaknesses; Opportunities; Threats) analysis; to elaborate on the key features of the broader marketplace including the competition and the customers; to present financial forecasts that demonstrate the idea’s profitability; and more. That said, there aren’t necessarily any formal rules on what must be in a business plan. As an article from the Small Business Administration (SBA) notes, “A business plan is a written tool about your business that projects 3-5 years ahead and outlines the path your business intends to take to make money and grow revenue. Think of it as a living project for your business, and not as a one-time document. Break it down into mini-plans – one for sales and marketing, one for pricing, one for operations, and so on.” Ultimately, this will be a valuable document for securing bank loans, investor funding, or just for giving yourself a set of meaningful benchmarks to pursue. Developed properly, your business plan should give you the chance to think objectively about the various moving pieces that must ultimately come together to transform your idea into a reality.

3. What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

What is the value that you will offer your customers? Is there really a demand for this value, and can you actually deliver it? And can you deliver that value in a way that betters the current offerings in the marketplace? The key behind a great idea is that it will likely resonate with prospective customers either because it provides something heretofore unseen in the marketplace, because it significantly improves upon something in the marketplace, because it improves the accessibility of something in the marketplace for which there is great demand, or because it otherwise represents a distinct value to the customer that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Make sure you fully understand what makes your product or service offering unique, and just as importantly, why these unique properties represent a chance for profitability.

4. Is there a proof of concept for your idea?

So you’ve established the unique value proposition implied by your idea. But how can you be sure that it’s something people will actually pay for? That’s where proof of concept comes in. According to the definition provided by the Gartner Glossary of business terms, a proof of concept “is a demonstration of a product, service or solution in a sales context. A POC should demonstrate that the product or concept will fulfill customer requirements while also providing a compelling business case for adoption.” In other words, is there some precedent to prove that people will pay for what you’re offering? While your offering may be a unique proposition, is there a track record of success for similar product or service offerings? Have you yourself experienced even anecdotal success selling others on your product or service? And is that anecdotal success compelling enough to justify the launching of an entire business? In short, you’re looking to find the perfect balance between something that is at once novel and proven–a unique value spin on a product or service with a proven track record.

5. Have you thought of a good business name?

Believe it or not, this is one of the toughest parts of the process. Coming up with the perfect name can be genuinely challenging. And that makes sense. After all, a lot rests on a business name. The right name effectively describes what your business does, conveys the identity of your business, and gives your target customers something memorable to latch onto. While an imperfect name may not doom your business idea to failure, the perfect name could be a real game changer in your pursuit of success. Don’t rush this stage. Take the time to brainstorm ideas, run them by people you know and trust, and don’t settle for something that doesn’t feel right. Once you come up with the right business name, you can move on to the clerical steps like registration, licensing, and tax filing.

6. Can you explain your business idea in just a few words?

There’s an old adage that says, “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” The quote is sometimes attributed to Albert Einstein, though historians have generally disputed this, especially in light of the actual complexity of his scientific theories. To wit, it may well have been coined by an unknown business magnate, because it applies brilliantly to the notion of a business startup. You need to be able to explain your business idea in as little as 30 seconds–the length of the so-called elevator pitch. This is important, because that’s about how long the attention span is of the average person. The attention span may be even shorter for the average venture capitalist. If you’re looking to excite others about your idea, perhaps even enough to net a few worthy investors, you need to be able to convey your business idea in a way that is at once compelling, clear and concise.

The Business Structure

7. What will be the legal structure of your business?

Now is the time to determine the best legal structure for your business based on the scale of your operation, the legal liabilities specific to your sector, and the nature of your product or service. Will your business be a sole proprietorship, a limited liability company, a partnership, or a corporation? Is your business intended as a non-profit entity, a religious organization seeking tax exempt status, or a traditional brick and mortar business in the retail space? Each of these entity types will come with its own specific rules for registration, licensing, tax status, operational regulations, and more. It’s up to you to determine which of these models makes the most sense for your product or service. If you’re not sure, this is a great time to consult a business attorney. You’ll want to be sure you get this step right as so many subsequent steps will hinge on making the right call here.

8. Do you need to register your business?

The answer to this question may be different for every aspiring business owner and will depend on factors like your locality, the nature of your business, and the intended scale of your operation. In most cases, registration will be pretty straightforward, but it may not always be necessary. As an article from the Small Business Administration (SBA) notes, “For most small businesses, registering your business is as simple as registering your business name with state and local governments. In some cases, you don’t need to register at all. If you conduct business as yourself using your legal name, you won’t need to register anywhere. But remember, if you don’t register your business, you could miss out on personal liability protection, legal benefits, and tax benefits.” As long as you’re speaking with a lawyer about the structure of your business, you’ll probably want to inquire about these protections and benefits. Determine whether or not it makes sense to register your business. But bear in mind that you’ll probably need to register your business in order to respond in the affirmative to the next question.

9. Do you have an Employer Identification Number (EIN)?

This is important because you’ll need this number for just about everything else that comes with starting a business. Your EIN is kind of like a social security number, but for your business. This is what the U.S. government uses to identify your business as an official taxpaying entity. As an article from the Small Business Administration notes, “Your Employer Identification Number (EIN) is your federal tax ID. You need it to pay federal taxes, hire employees, open a bank account, and apply for business licenses and permits. It’s free to apply for an EIN, and you should do it right after you register your business.” The SBA explains that you’ll need an EIN to do everything from operating as a corporation to establishing a partnership; from paying employees to filing tax returns for employment; from withholding income tax from employees to overseeing certain tax-deferred pension plans. In other words, getting an EIN should be among your first steps. The good news is that it’s pretty easy to get an EIN directly through the IRS EIN assistance portal .

10. Do you have a general business license? No matter what kind of business you plan to operate, you are required to have a business license. In the vast majority of cases, a General Business License will suffice, and this will usually be issued by your locality. According to an article from Investopedia, “ Any business, including home-based businesses, must obtain a local city or county business license. This is a basic license that allows the holder to engage in business activities within the local jurisdiction. If your city or county doesn’t have a specific business licensing department, you can obtain information on obtaining a basic business license at your local tax office.”

11. Does your business model require a special sales tax license?

Depending on where you plan to operate, this license may already be included as part of the general business license. But this is not always the case. And where it isn’t the case, you are legally liable for ensuring that you do carry this additional licensing. According to the article from Investopedia “A sales tax license may be part of the general business license in some areas. But a separate sales tax license is required in other areas in addition to a local business license. Not sure if you need a separate tax license? The local department from which you obtain a business license can tell you if you must obtain a separate sales tax license and where to get it at either the state or local level. Make sure that you have this covered before you open your business.” Indeed, failure to do so could actually make you criminally liable.

12. Do you require special permits to conduct your business?

However you slice it, you will need to get this license. However, there is also specialized permitting that you may need to get. This will largely depend on the nature of your business. Permits, as per their name, give you permission to engage in specific business activities within your locality, and will usually be granted by a professional association specific to your sector. For instance, say the article from Investopedia, “ Environmental licenses or health department permits are less common for home-based businesses. These documents are most generally required for businesses that engage in the wholesale or retail sale of food and beverage products. In any event, it’s easy enough to check with state environmental protection agencies or local health departments to find out if your business requires any type of environmental inspection or permit.”

13. Do you need specialized insurance?

The answer to this question will depend on the nature of your business, as well as the organization, resources, and personnel involved in this business. If you are a sole proprietorship selling a creative service like web design or digital marketing, you won’t likely require any special insurance coverage to operate out of your home office space. On the other hand, if you plan to rent or purchase property for the operation of your business, you plan to hire employees, you expect to operate vehicles or machinery in the production or delivery of your products or services, or you are manufacturing a retail item that will find its way into the homes of consumers, you may need to carry certain specialized insurance policies. This may include commercial property insurance, professional liability insurance, or general liability insurance. Some small business owners will choose to carry a generalized business insurance simply in order to mitigate unforeseen risks and legal entanglements. If you’re not sure which types of insurance are recommended or required in your sector, consult a business attorney.

14. Are there zoning requirements you need to be aware of?

Before you start a business in your locality, make sure you’re aware of any practical legal limitations on what you can and can’t do. If you’re planning to rent or purchase a property, be sure you understand all the zoning rules in your municipality and county. Will your business objectives be in compliance with these rules? Are there additional steps you’ll need to take, and expenses you’ll need to sustain, in order to achieve compliance? You may need to ask these same questions if you plan to run your business out of your own home. Be sure that you are aware of any rules or regulations imposed by your township or country regarding the operation of certain business types from spaces that are zoned as residential properties.

15. Does your Home Owners Association (HOA) have any rules about operating a home business?`

Speaking of operating a business out of your own home, many communities and developments are overseen by organizations called Home Owners Associations (HOA). HOAs often have pretty far reaching rules about how you can and can’t use your residential space. Some may even have restrictions on operating a business out of your home. This is something you’ll want to be aware of before you attempt to launch a business from your home office or backyard workshop. If your HOA forbids this type of commercial activity, you may be required to rent or purchase an alternative space for the operation of your business. Naturally, this means you’ll need to factor this cost into your operating expenses.

The Competition

16. Who are the leading competitors in the space you’re entering?

Find out everything you can about the businesses that are leading in your space. Which companies are dominating in sales and market share? Which companies have succeeded in establishing a sturdy reputation in the space, and which entrants have made the biggest splash as innovators? In addition to finding out who these competitors are, you should know how each one has built a successful business in the space you plan to enter. An article from Business News Daily advises exploring all aspects of your competitors’ business to achieve a comprehensive understanding of what has allowed them to succeed. According to Business News Daily, “these aspects could be pricing, distribution and delivery strategies, market share, new products or services coming to market, who their long-standing, highest-spending customers are, the quality of after-sales support, and which sales and marketing channels they use.”

17. Is there room for a new entrant?

Now that you understand a bit more about the competition, you should be in a better position to honestly assess this question. How much space is there in the market for a new entrant? Are you facing down a field in which the competition is endowed with billions of dollars in operating capital? Is the field saturated with other startup businesses looking to build their own reputations as trailblazers? (Cryptocurrency industry–I’m looking in your direction.) As you prepare to make your own splash in a selected marketplace, do some honest soul searching about how much space there really is for your idea in this sector. If you find a marketplace that is deeply tilted toward just a few monopolistic entities, or one that is absolutely teeming with would-be innovators, you may want to turn your attention elsewhere.

18. Are you looking to innovate in your field?

Speaking of innovators, are you among them? This ties directly into the question of your Unique Sales Proposition (USP). Are you preparing to offer a product that significantly enhances what has previously been available in the marketplace? Is your service offering a meaningful step forward from previous service offerings in the same space? If you are offering customers something that is truly a distinctive, first-of-its-kind purchasing opportunity, you may be in a position to transform the marketplace, and place yourself at the forefront of this transformation. Before you enter the field, determine whether you plan to work within the parameters already established by those who came before you or whether you plan to disrupt the industry with exciting new innovations.

19. How will you differentiate your business offering from the competition?

Of course, innovation isn’t the only way to differentiate your offering from others in the marketplace. You can find ways to make your products and services more affordable, more accessible, more efficient, or more functional. Even incremental improvements in what’s available could set your company apart. An article from Business News Daily asks, “Could you improve the quality of your products or services by adding or amending a feature, lowering the price to be more affordable or improving after-sales support? Could you achieve a better ROI on your marketing budget by investing in a more capable CRM for better lead management?” Determine how you will set yourself apart, both from those who have established themselves as leaders in the space, and from those who are going head to head with you at the startup tier.

20. Is there anybody else who can do what you plan to do?

Do you have an ace in the hole–something that your business will do or offer that nobody else can replicate? Have you invented an exciting proprietary technology, or created an unparalleled synergy with another business partner, or is your team simply loaded with the type of intellect and talent that other companies can’t match? Identify the greatest strengths that your business has to offer, whether these are features embodied in your personnel, your products, your structure, or all of the above. Once you know what these strengths are, do everything you can to magnify them. These strengths will be your greatest selling point when it comes to beating the competition.

21. How has this industry or space changed in the last several years? Where is it going in the future?

Beyond just studying the current players in your business, you should have a strong sense of the history of your space. What are the trends and innovations that have helped to shape your area of the market? Are there technological or conceptual developments that have been inflection points in this field? And how has the field evolved since these inflection points? Try to gain a full understanding of the leading trends in the marketplace, as well as the path that led to this point. The better you understand what came before, the more readily you will be able to anticipate future developments in your field. Naturally, this anticipation could be the key to tremendous success.

22. What do the success stories in your industry look like?

Speaking of success, it’s not a bad idea to get a firsthand glimpse at exactly what this looks like. You’ve already identified the leading competitors in the field. Now find out what got them to where they are today? What was the unique value proposition that each of these successful businesses offered? What innovations did these businesses bring to the market? In short, what were the keys to their success? Whether you hope to replicate, build on, or surpass that success, the first step is to fully understand how your competitors achieved it. Every company has a story. Explore these stories and think about how they can inform your success.

23. What do the failures in your industry look like?

Not to be negative, but you can also learn a lot from the failures in your midst. Just as the sector you plan to enter is populated with winners, the world of business must also have losers. Find out more about the also-rans, the companies that tried, failed, and folded. These are cautionary tales with tremendous value to you, as a new entrant into the field. What were the causes of their failure–a failure to differentiate themselves, a lack of capital, poor organization, or just bad luck? All are possibilities, and more. Before you launch your business, use these stories of disappointment and poor fortune to identify, anticipate and sidestep your own pitfalls.

The Customers

24. Who are your customers?

Now that you know the competition, it’s absolutely critical that you also identity your customer base. Which demographics do you expect to serve, and more importantly, how well do you know the real people who make up these demographics. You need to understand your target if you are to effectively market to these populations. One helpful exercise here is to actually create target customer personas as hypothetical use cases for your products or services. To clarify, we mean that you should literally write out 300 word descriptions of imaginary customers–who they are, what their needs are, and why they are likely to find your product or service offering to be the ideal solution to that need. Beyond identifying customers by what you perceive to be key demographics, this exercise should allow you to hone in on individual customer types. Create characters around these customers and do your best to put yourself in their shoes. The better you understand exactly who your customers are, the easier it will be for you to identify their needs and provide products and services that effectively meet these needs.

25. Is there a large enough market for your product or service to fuel a profitable business?

Identifying your target customers should naturally lend an answer to this subsequent question. Does the customer base that you’ve identified constitute a large enough population to support your product or service? In the section below, we’ll discuss some of the financial components of starting a business. These will make it a bit easier to address a question like this. But on its own, the purpose of this question is to determine whether there is realistically a large enough market for your offering to fuel a profitable business. Without enough prospective buyers, it won’t matter how innovative your idea is. It will still be unlikely to generate a profit.

26. How will you market yourself to your target customers?

Now that you know who your customers are, and how many of them are out there, you have to figure out how you’ll reach them. This means determining where your prospective customers hang out. Are they online, browsing store aisles, or doing a bit of both? Are they reading print ads, clicking onto products from various social media accounts, or making their purchasing decisions based on word of mouth? This offers further motivation for getting to know your intended target market on a deeper and more personal level. As an article from The Score explains, “Knowing your target audience will also help you know how to market your business. For example, younger audiences may be attracted to social media channels, such as Snapchat or Instagram, while B2B audiences may respond better to webinars and white papers. Do you want to focus on SEO and content marketing or do you want to spend time gaining reviews and word-of-mouth referrals? Before you start a business, it’s important to understand where and how you are going to market that company. The best brands in the world have figured out how to communicate their value proposition effectively.” You need to be able to draw the triangulating lines that connect your marketing strategy, your value proposition, and your customer.

27. What is your marketing budget?

On the one hand, there’s the strategy you plan to implement in order to reach your prospective customer base. On the other hand, there’s the actual amount of money that you have with which to do so. Again, we’ll address some of the financial components of your startup business in the section below. But the purpose of the question in this section is to incline you to think realistically about what it costs to reach your targets through the various channels where you are most likely to find them. Will you be budgeted for a robust marketing campaign right out of the gate, or will you opt for a soft launch while you raise additional funding? The latter option may even be preferable if you are still in the process of working out the kinks in your product or process. In other words, you’ll want to develop an initial marketing budget based both on your available resources and your readiness for an influx of new customers.

28. Are your customers local, online or both?

Speaking of new customers, where are you expecting to find them, and where are you most likely to complete transactions with these customers? Is your business a strictly online business with a national or even global customer demographic? Is your business a strictly local operation like a landscaping business, a wedding cake baker, or a dentist? If it’s the latter, your strategy for reaching customers will likely be quite different from the strategy of those in the former category. Geography matters when marketing to your customer base for a variety of reasons, including its impact on the channels you will use to reach them, the language and tone you will use to engage them, and the nature of the products and services you will make available to them. Make sure your product or service offerings, and your marketing strategy, match the practical geographical expectations of your target.

29. Are there underserved groups in this space, or gaps in the marketplace?

Have you identified a unique subset of your chosen marketplace that is not currently being reached by your anticipated competitors? This could represent the opportunity to fill a need in your space. Remember those target personas that you developed? Now let’s think of some personas that are not having their needs met in the current marketplace. Are there prospective customers who are being priced out by the cost of products and services in your industry? Are there customers who require a more specialized type of service that simply isn’t available? Is there a geographic or cultural enclave that isn’t being reached by the messaging and marketing of current competitors? Try to find gaps in the way the marketplace is being served. These gaps could represent a substantial opportunity both to address unmet customer needs and to facilitate the growth of your business. Depending on the nature of your business, carving out a specialized niche could be just as profitable as taking a lead position in the industry, writ large.

The Financial Components

30. What are the startup costs for your business idea?

Once you’re certain that there is both space for your ideas in the industry and customers to help make your idea marketable, it’s time to get down to dollars and cents. How much money do you need to get your ideas off the ground? Startup costs will usually include a variety of administrative fees for licensing, registration, permitting, zoning, etc. These costs will also include property rental or purchase, any necessary insurance coverage, contract labor, employment costs, production costs, marketing costs and more. Clearly, there’s a lot of expense that comes with the start of a new business. Make sure you have a full sense of what those costs are. Refer back to your business plan for specifics. Hopefully, those specifics will also help you pin down sources for funding, whether these startup costs come from angel investors, venture capitalists, bank lenders, or from your own pocket.

31. What does it cost to make your products or deliver your services?

In addition to start up costs, you’ll need to know the operational costs of your business before you start paying the bills. If you’re manufacturing a product, you’ll need to calculate the costs of materials, labor, and delivery on the supply chain. If you’re delivering a service, you’ll need to calculate the costs of personnel, transportation, and actual labor. Do some research on your competitors to find out what they’re spending on these line items. Before you can determine what to charge for your goods and services, you need to know what it will cost you to deliver them.

32. Are there commodities that you’ll require that come with fluctuating costs?

Of course, that is easier said than done. That’s because many of the key commodities that businesses rely upon for production or for the delivery of services can fluctuate dramatically in price. The most obvious example is gas. Countless factors can impact the price of gas from inflation and supply chain disruption to natural disasters and political unrest. Of course, these occurrences can be highly difficult to predict, which means the price of this essential commodity can be difficult to anticipate. This directly impacts businesses that rely upon gas-powered vehicles for delivery or gas powered machinery for manufacturing. And of course, this is just one example. Shifts in the cost of lumber can have rippling effects on costs for builders and contractors. Changes in the availability of corn, rice, wheat, or soy can impact prices across the food distribution and service industries. These pricing fluctuations can impact profit margins and ultimately shape the price that you pass along to consumers. These fluctuations can be quite unpredictable. As you initiate your business, take into consideration your reliance on commodities that tend to fluctuate in value. To the extent that is possible, you’ll want to prepare for these possibilities in both your budgeting and pricing structure.

33. How will you price your products or services?

Speaking of pricing structure, it’s important to establish a price point for your products and services that makes sense within the scope of your industry and the broader economy. An article from Forbes notes that pricing is a delicate balance. Forbes points out that “You don’t want to over priced, but you don’t want to price your products too low. This is where research comes in handy as you want to look at what your competitors’ price their products at. Are your items the same, more luxurious or more simple? You also want to take into consideration the packaging and postage costing as well as maintaining the business overall. Where do you fit in the market for your target consumers?” Make sure you establish a price that consumers are likely to accept, but one that also ensures the profitability of your business regardless of your operational costs and potential fluctuations in the cost of commodities.

34. What is the product life-cycle for the goods or services you plan to deliver?

Obviously, you want to provide high quality products and services. This is a great way to ensure customer loyalty. On the other hand, nothing lasts forever. Do your products have a relative expiration date? Does the impact of your services have a diminishing benefit over time? In other words, will your customers ultimately need to update or upgrade the products they’ve purchased from you? Will they need regular service visits to ensure the continued effectiveness of the services rendered? This is important to know, because the timeline from initial purchase to subsequent purchase or service visit may tell you a great deal about your company’s profitability. If the goods and services you offer do indeed have a finite lifespan, be sure you have positioned your company to provide the appropriate replacements or repairs when the time is right.

35. How will you define financial success?

We recognize that this is a fairly broad question, but it is worthwhile to identify some financial benchmarks by which to log your own successes. Before you launch your business, you should have a clear sense of the milestones that you will use to mark your progress. Will you be targeting a specific amount of annual revenue; a break even point based on your initial investment; or a certain degree of profitability? What financial achievements will you use to track your company’s progress? Identify these measures in advance so that you have some concrete financial goals to shoot for.

36. Will you be opening a separate business bank account?

This is a good idea even if you operate as a sole proprietorship. A designated business account can make it a great deal easier to conduct effective accounting, to keep your personal finances separate, and to process customer payments. Indeed, you can set your business account to feed inputs into your accounting software, to accept credit card payments, to make payments on your business credit card, and more. In the simplest terms, you really should have a separate business bank account even for the smallest and most independent of operations. It helps to keep things clear and organized while reducing your personal financial risk.

The Organization

37. What skills do you bring to the table? What skills will you need to source from others?

You’ve decided to launch your own business, so obviously you are enterprising and ambitious. But what other virtues do you bring to the table? Are you good at delegating responsibilities and communicating ideas to others? Or are you better at wheeling and dealing with other business leaders? Do you have a gift for understanding and connecting with clients or are your skill sets more technical? It’s important to identify the talents you bring to the table for a few reasons. First and foremost, you’ll want to channel your greatest strengths into helping get this company off the ground. But secondly, and just as importantly, you’ll want to identify the areas where you may not be as strong. These are areas where you might want to enlist engagement from others. If you excel at business planning but are less skilled at engaging personnel, you may wish to partner with somebody who has managerial skills. If you bring a ton of technical expertise to the table but you don’t really know how to crunch the numbers in order to turn a profit, bring in somebody with financial management experience. In short, identify the areas where you excel, and partner with those who excel in areas where you don’t.

38. Are you still planning to work your day job?

This is worth asking if only because it underscores just how much time you’ll be able to invest in launching your own company. It’s understandable that you wish (or need) to retain your paying income even as you work to get a new company off the ground. But if this is the case, you simply need to be realistic about how much time you have to invest in your new venture. Divided attention may delay or even stand in the way of establishing a successful business. Taking the leap from full time work into full startup mode can be scary, but it may also be the only way to make it really work. If you have a day job with flexibility, you may be able to do both. But if your daily work responsibilities are standing in the way of your ability to launch a new company, you may want to think very seriously about taking the full leap into your new venture, and if possible, paying yourself a salary from the startup funding or revenue generated by this business.

39. How many employees will be needed to make this business work?

Speaking of taking a salary, you may not be the only one that your new company must pay. If you are a sole proprietorship, this probably isn’t a concern for you. But most business enterprises require other people to succeed. How many people you need to succeed will depend entirely on the initial scale of your organization. To the point, an article from Forbes notes the importance of anticipating the startup scale of your organization. Realistically speaking, what are the labor requirements for making your idea into a reality? Forbes notes that you may be “starting this business solo or with a business partner, but you also want to consider how many employees you will need as the time goes on. This is important to consider if you are beginning a business with the idea that it will scale up in the future, and require a team for growth.”

40. Is your business idea scalable? Can your company grow, and if so, what will that mean?

Speaking of growth, what do you envision for the future of your company? Are you providing a product that can be manufactured and distributed en masse? Are you offering a service that can be made widely accessible? How realistic is it that your company could expand regionally, nationally, or even globally? And if it did, what would that mean for your overhead costs, the size of your labor pool, and the potential for profitability? While all of these ambitions may be well in the future, you’ll want to anticipate these possibilities even now, at the outset of your business venture. Are these ambitions possible? Does your business model allow for this level of growth? And if not, what must you do to make this type of growth possible? Take steps now to analyze and recognize the potential scalability of your business model. This consideration may prevent you from suddenly realizing at some future date that you’ve reached the limits of your company’s ability to grow.

41. What logistical challenges will you have to address?

While there is a lot that you can control as a business entrepreneur, you must also rely on the competence of others to carry out your work. This may include mail sorters, parcel delivery services, truck driving fleets, port workers and countless others in the supply chain who will contribute to the timeliness of your shipments. Whether you’re waiting for incoming supplies or banking on the expedient shipment of outgoing products, there are logistical factors that will contribute directly to your costs of operation and your organizational efficiency. Make sure you have a full understanding of these logistical factors, and that you’re prepared to manage the challenges that these factors can sometimes impose on your ability to serve customers effectively.

42. Are there political externalities to consider?

In addition to logistical concerns, there are some businesses that are directly at the mercy of external political factors. Are you entering into the type of business that relies on government funding, that requires the efforts of lobbyists, or that touches upon an area that is considered divisive in American politics? Some products and services may even fluctuate in popularity based on their political and cultural appeal. Does your business idea depend on the political dominance of one party or another? Is your business model vulnerable to fluctuations in prevailing political ideals? If this is the case, you should be aware of the potential ebbs and flows this could create in your company’s popularity and relevance. These factors could consequently cause ongoing volatility in your company’s bottom line.

43. Will it be possible to delegate leadership responsibilities to others?

What role do you see for yourself in this company? Will you be a hands-on, day-to-day business manager? Or are you more likely to delegate responsibilities and take a hands off approach? The answer to this question should depend on your skill sets. Some business managers prefer to oversee every detail of their company’s operations. But speaking with candor, the most successful business owners are those that can effectively hand business leadership responsibilities over to trusted employees. In an ideal world, you would be able to delegate most daily management tasks to trusted personnel in your organization.

44. Do you plan to exit your business at any time?

This may seem like kind of a funny question to ask when you’re literally at the very start of running your own business. But it may be valuable to consider this question before you get your business off the ground. Do you envision this as a family company, one that you will ultimately pass on to the next generation? Or is it merely a profitable idea that you would ultimately sell to the highest bidder? In short, do you see yourself running this company for the rest of your working life, or would you be just as happy (if not happier) to create a valuable enterprise that ultimately sells to a bigger company for a big price tag? If you chose the latter, we can’t say we blame you.

45. What is your company’s identity, and how does this connect to your target market?

Your brand refers to the way you present yourself. So how do you intend to present your company? This should be a function of your target market. If you’re pursuing a younger demographic, you’ll want to establish an identity that is at once informal and authentic. If you’re pursuing a demographic of business professionals, you’ll want to establish an identity that is polished and articulate. Such is to say that your intended audience will play a big role in defining your brand. Make sure you establish an identity–in your imagery, marketing material, and personnel–that reflects the desires of your target demographic.

46. What are your company values?

Your brand is more than just an abstract vibe. It’s also the foundation underlying your company’s values–the things that your organization stands for. Identify those values from the start and it can help you to better understand your own brand. Is your company focused on affordability, accessibility and inclusion? Do your values emphasize activism in the face of global climate change? Or are your company’s values simply focused on creating profits for your shareholders? Whatever demographics and priorities you serve, take time to articulate your company values now. This may help to create a brand that truly resonates with your target audience over the long haul.

47. Does your company have a mission and vision?

Your values are an indication of what your company stands for. By contrast, your mission and vision speak to what your company actually intends to do. What do you hope to accomplish as an organization? Is it innovation, equality, environmental justice, social progress, or technological advancement, just to name a few of the infinite possible answers to that question? Part of establishing your brand is articulating the mission that your company will actively pursue and the vision that your company will hold as its grandest ambition.

48. How will you convey this brand?

Now that you’ve pinned down your brand, how can you be sure that others will perceive the image that you’re putting out there? Do you have plans to build a website that captures your company’s identity, tone and vibe? Do you have a way to source a logo, color palette, and iconography that match your organization’s culture, energy, and intent? In most cases, these are tasks that you will want to outsource to qualified third-party providers. But you’ll need to establish your own clear sense of these things first. Take time to think about the aesthetic that you believe will best convey your company’s identity and find artists, copywriters and web designers who will work closely with you to capture this aesthetic

49. Do you need any special patents or trademark copyrights?

In addition to working with artists and web designers to create your company’s iconography, you’ll want to work with lawyers to ensure that this ephemera is protected from intellectual property theft. That’s why, according to our own Ultimate Guide to Starting a Business, “Many companies apply for trademarks to protect the unique components of their company. Trademarks can cover a specific brand, a logo, a catchphrase, or product design. Or anything else that sets your business apart from your competitors.” Make sure you apply for these protections in the early going. When your company achieves massive success, you’ll be glad that you secured your images and icons against misuse.

50. Does your company have a story to tell?

Part of your brand identity is your personal history, the history of your idea, and the history of the organization you’ve built to deliver that idea to your customers. Find a compelling way to tell this story in your company’s literature, on your website, and through your marketing materials. Your company’s story can help to personalize the purchasing experience for your customers, to make your brand more relatable, and to ultimately help you establish an identity with lasting commercial impact.

Looking for even more detail on how to succeed at business? Our Ultimate Guide to Starting a Business includes step by step details on how to create a business plan, a rundown of special business permits and licenses, and tons of other actionable tips on getting your business venture off the ground.

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3. Why is a business plan important and who should write it?

A business plan is important because it summarizes both your vision for the company and your blueprint for the company’s operating success. The business plan is a written guide that details the startup and the future direction of your company.Who should write the plan? You, the entrepreneur. No one else knows your business idea and goals better. Yes, there are services that can do the work for you, however, you are the one who must present this business idea to bankers or other investors. Therefore, it is best if you are very familiar and comfortable with the plan.

Although there’s no set format, a good business plan typically includes:

Cover page— Identifies your business
Table of contents— Organizes information for the reader
Executive summary— Provides a “big picture” view of the plan, highlighting the factors that will lead to success
Business background— If it is a brand-new business, include your background and skills
Marketing plan— Relates the business’s marketing strategy
Action plan— Summarizes how you will create and deliver your product or service
Financial statements and projections— Illustrates how the business will perform financially based on the plan’s assumptions
Appendix— Includes statistical analyses, marketing materials, and résumés.
4. If I am not planning to apply for a bank loan, why do I need a business plan?

The fact that a bank or lending institution requires a well-executed business plan is a secondary consideration. The primary purpose of the business plan is to guide the owner or manager in successfully operating the business. Preparing the plan forces the writer to consider all aspects of the business and to confront any problems the plan highlights. For example, a monthly compilation of all known costs, over time, will indicate the revenue necessary to support these costs, plus a profit. This leads to the question of whether or not this revenue number is reasonable. If not, it may cast doubt on the viability of the venture itself. The business plan is a vital management tool that enables the manager to anticipate situations before they become problems — or worse yet, emergencies.

5. How do I determine my startup costs and other expenses?

It is wise to find out what startup costs you will incur before starting the business. Many a budding entrepreneur takes his or her life savings, or will borrow on the equity on their home before figuring these financial factors, only to find that they don’t have enough money. There are many web sites and other resources (including SCORE offices and Business Information Centers) that provide guidelines and worksheets to help determine costs for your business. Each item on your proposed budget sheet should be researched. Closely estimated costs can be obtained from utility companies, trade associations, and networking with other business people who may have already gone through this experience. Do not start buying until the investigation shows this venture is viable and you have all the information needed.

6. What do I need to know about financial statements?

First, you need to know which financial statements are important. They are:

Balance Sheet—shows the financial conditions of your business at a point in time
Statement of Operations (Profit and Loss Statement)—shows whether you made a profit during a specific period of time
Cash Flow Statement—shows what happened to your cash position during a specific period of time

You should have a basic understanding of each of these statements. When compared with statements from prior periods, you can determine whether something is happening in your business that needs your special attention.

Your accountant can prepare these statements for you from the business data that you supply. There are also a number of computer software programs that will help you generate these statements from your input of regular transactions—such as sales, collections, purchases, payments and payroll.

A SCORE counselor can help you understand these statements and may be able to direct you to a workshop on this subject. In addition, most community and business colleges teach courses in financial statement analysis.

7. Why is it important to do a monthly cash flow analysis?

Your businesses cash-flow cycle may differ substantially from the income statement projections. Even if the projected income statement shows a profit, it is possible that the cash flow for the same period is actually negative.The analysis of monthly cash flow can indicate whether your business will collect sufficient cash to pay operating expenses. It will point out specific months during the year when the business may experience operating cash shortfalls and, therefore, either require additional capital or excess cash reserves for payment of expenses. It will also show when you may be able to make debt reductions and when there is excess cash to make major purchases or expand operations. By developing a monthly cash flow projection, you can time cash needs and quantify the amount needed. The cash flow projection is an important management tool and must be developed with very realistic expectations. Sufficient cash is critical for a business to pay its expenses and to enable it to expand. If your monthly cash flow projections indicate frequent cash shortfalls, you should review the type of products and services that you offer, the mix of sales, the pricing and terms of the sale, and your short-term borrowing needs.

8. How can I obtain cash to maintain and grow my business?

Develop a positive business relationship with your bank. Seek your banker’s advice even at times where you are not seeking funds. You may find that every time you go to your bank you speak to a different loan officer, so you should know them all.When the loan officer gets a promotion, you must start all over again with another person. If you want the bank to take an interest in your business, then you have to take an interest in theirs. How?

Know your banker— Take an interest in your banker as a person. Ask your banker to hold on to your account if he or she is promoted. When you go to see your banker, have your business plan and financial papers ready. Make it easy for your banker to see what you want and why. The bank wants to minimize its risk with regard to you and your business. This is where you have to sell yourself.
Know your bank— Know and understand your bank’s annual report. Know your bank’s business direction and plan. Know the bank’s lines of authority. Get on the bank’s mailing list. It’s an easy way to keep up with bank news.
Go to a bank-sponsored seminar— Go to your bank’s seminars on commercial lending. This will teach you how your bank operates in terms of lending policies. By doing this, you also prove that you have an interest in what the bank is doing. Finally, it affords you the opportunity to meet and make an impression on the loan committee.
9. Why is location the most important aspect of my business?

A good location can make the difference between a profitable and a bankrupt business. There are many questions to consider when choosing a business site. Use the questions below as a checklist for potential locations and then compare several sites.

Are there parking facilities?
Is transportation available and convenient?
Is the quality of police and fire service adequate?
Will it be a quality site for the future—not just five years from now, but in 10, or 25 years?
Is nearby housing readily available for management and employees?
Is there nearby competition? Are those sites better or worse than yours?
What is the general business climate in the area? Is this a prosperous market?
Are merchandise and raw materials available? Are your suppliers easily accessible?
How is the traffic flow—can your customers reach you quickly and inexpensively?
Is your building suitable to your kind of business—will it need any major renovations?
Is there an adequate community infrastructure for utilities (sewer, water, power, gas, etc.)?
What is the tax burden—town, city, county, state? Will this impede your business and growth?
What are the costs of operation in this location—will it be too high to offer you an adequate profit?
10. Why is competition important?

No business operates without direct competition. There also may be indirect competition, which has a significant impact on customer’s buying decisions in your market. Direct and non-direct competitors try to convince customers to buy their products or services instead of yours. It is in your best interest to learn more about the companies that are trying to reduce your take-home pay. List the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor. Talk with friends, visit your competition, call for information about their products and analyze how they advertise. Next, take a sheet of paper and list the major competitors. Give each a rating, on a scale of one to 10, for product quality, process, advertising, price and customer satisfaction. You can add other ratings that you feel are important.Your business can become more profitable by adopting practices you admire in competitor operations and by avoiding their mistakes. Some of your competitors have been in business successfully for many years. Certainly, as a new or relatively new business, you can learn a lot from them.

11. How can I better market my business?

To market your business, you must define your customer. To maintain consistent sales growth, you must become knowledgeable about your market. Develop an outline of your “typical” consumer:

What exactly is your market?
Where do the consumers come from (i.e. city centers, suburbs, tourists, international)?
What are customers buying patterns?
Why should they buy from you? Factors could include convenience, price, quality, service, etc.
Should you try to appeal to a niche market segment or the entire market?
Have you missed a new customer segment or special market?
How large is the potential target market (in units or dollars)? Is it growing, stable or decreasing? What percentage of the market do you have?

Research will provide answers that are not available from your business records and a financial analysis. Conduct research through trade associations, your local chamber of commerce, libraries or even ask for the help of a SCORE counselor. Pay attention to how competitors market to their customers. Perhaps, some of their marketing strategies can be adopted for your business, or you may find examples of what not to do.

12. What makes a successful marketing strategy?

When creating a marketing strategy, keep in mind the four P’s of marketing:

Product— What good or service will your business offer? How is that product better than those offered by competitors? Why will people buy/want it?
Price— How much can you charge? How do you find the balance between sales volume and price to maximize income?
Promotion— How will your product or service be positioned in the marketplace? Will your product carry a premium image with a price to match? Will it be an inexpensive, no-frills alternative to similar offerings from other businesses? What kinds of advertising and packaging will you use?
Place— Which sales channels will you use? Will you sell by telephone, or will your product be carried in retail outlets? Which channel will economically reach your market?

The marketing strategy should summarize your findings about the key target buyer description, market segments the company will compete in, the unique positioning of the company and its products compared to the competition, the reasons why it is unique or compelling to buyers, etc.

13. What do I need to know before creating a marketing brochure?

A marketing brochure can be long-lasting or short-term. It can represent your business to potential customers and it can be a referral piece for existing customers. Decide the purpose of and goals for the marketing brochure before you begin to design and write. Remember, this brochure represents you and your business, so be sure its look and feel complements your business.

Here are few tips for when you are ready to begin:

State your message up front—T he selling message should appear on the cover of the brochure. For instance, “The XYZ Company—Consultants on Doing Business Overseas.”
Include artwork— If you have space limitations, one large photograph or graphic is better than several small images that might not clearly portray your services or products.
Photo captions— Photo captions are read twice as often as the main copy.
Create a keeper— Make your brochure worth keeping. Include a calendar of events in your specific industry or some data that will be useful to potential clients in the future.
Quality is key— Your publications reflect you and your business. Using one to four colors in the brochure will make it stand out over one that is black and white. A good quality paper stock is also important (and comes in many colors and shades if you choose to use black ink). Remember to consider the weight of the paper stock in relationship to mailing costs.

It is wise to have your brochure professionally designed. Even if you have computer graphic skills, design is best left to professionals.

14. How can I improve customer service in my business?

Develop a strategy that puts the customer first. Customers will receive the best possible service when employees are empowered to make this happen. This is not to say that you should be lenient with your policies, but have a degree of flexibility. Just remember, a lost customer could spread the word of their discontent, resulting in more lost customers.Review the most common reasons for poor customer service. Use these insights as a way to improve your customer service:

Too many rules— Employees lack creativity in problem solving. Rules are followed and good solutions are not developed because employees do not want to jeopardize their jobs.
Lip service, not customer service— Customer service is really only a name for customer complaints. Time is spent trying to fix problems rather than preventing them from occurring in the first place.
Unempowered employees— Approval is needed by a manager for small problems that can easily be solved by a good employee. This problem leads to long lines and time-consuming waits by the customer, who then refuses to come back-business operations turns a small problem into a large one.
Unmotivated employees— Personnel are not encouraged to please the customer because there is no merit in it for them.
Bad communication— Coordination of functions does not exist-one person may write an order while another picks it off a warehouse shelf and someone else delivers it to the customer. This can result in miscommunication, incorrect goods or services, and time delays.
Arbitrary policies— Policies that are followed blindly without room for situational allowances may result in angry customers. For example, a store’s return policy of 30 days prevents a customer who, with good reason, could not get back to the store in time from receiving a refund. That customer will refuse to do business there anymore.
15. Is there anyone who can answer questions specific to my business?

SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” provides free and confidential business advice and mentoring services to entrepreneurs nationwide. SCORE is a nonprofit association consisting of 10,500 business counselors who donate their time and business expertise to guide small businesses via face-to-face mentoring or online counseling.SCORE, a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), has assisted millions of start-up and growing businesses since 1964.

SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" is America's premier source of free and confidential small business advice for entrepreneurs. Formed in 1964, SCORE provides a public service to America by offering small business advice and training.

Table of Contents

7 Min. Read

10 Things Every Small Business Needs to Do

12 Min. Read

30 Compelling Reasons to Start a Business

7 false assumptions about entrepreneurship

1 Min. Read

7 Very Common False Assumptions in Entrepreneurship

8 Min. Read

Should Entrepreneurs Attend Business School?

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10 Questions Your Business Plan Should Answer

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One reason people are sometimes intimidated by the prospect of writing a business plan is simple: They don't have a clue what a plan should contain. The good news is that there are no hard and fast rules. In fact, no two plans look exactly alike. For a sole proprietor, a business plan may run a couple of pages. A business plan for a large company plotting a turnaround can take up a hundred or more pages, with plenty of appendices. But to be useful and effective, all business plans should provide answers to these ten questions.

What business are you in?

The question sounds easy enough. But for some businesses, the answer isn't as straightforward as you may think. The best way to zero in on exactly what business you're in is by taking time to craft a mission and vision statement.

Consider Amazon. It began as an online bookstore. Then it morphed into a vast online discount retailer, selling everything from food to clothing. A few years ago Amazon turned into a publisher. Now, with the advent of cloud storage, it also provides a place for people to store their books and music.

Even small companies often have to give some thought to defining what their business is. Take the example of a garden maintenance company that found itself gaining a reputation for turning bland yards into showpieces. More and more people began to turn to the company not just to maintain their gardens but also to design them. The company began to realize that it could be much more successful — and charge a whole lot more — if it marketed itself as a garden design company.

How will the business make money?

You may think this would be the most elementary of all questions. But in reality, many start-up enterprises fail to formulate a business model — a fancy term that means how they'll make money. There was even a time, in the early days of the online world, when people dismissed the very notion of a business model as something from the old economy. If you build a website that's cool enough, the thinking went, success will follow. Well, it didn't always. A lot of clever websites found themselves scrambling for a way to pay the bills.

Even many conventional businesses need to think about their business model to ensure success. A hair salon may make some of its money from cutting, shampooing, and styling hair, for example, but it may also find that it can substantially boost the bottom line by selling hair care products. Thinking through all the different ways that your business can make money is crucial to success.

What does your business need to get off the ground?

Start-ups require a lot of enthusiasm and hard work, and often plenty of cold cash. One of the biggest blunders new companies make is not thinking ahead about how much money they'll need to get up and running. When the money runs out before the doors open, the best business idea in the world isn't going to spell success.

A good business plan must take into account everything that is required to start — and how much it's likely to cost. Building a little cushion into those estimates is always wise.

What is the operating budget?

The financial section of your business plan also must address how much it will cost you to run your business, month by month, and how much you need to earn to meet your expenses and make a profit. Chances are you'll need to make a bunch of decision up-front before you come up with a reliable number — decisions about where you'll do business, what kinds of equipment and staff you'll need, a marketing budget, and so on.

You'll then need to think about how much you'll charge for your product and service and how much you can expect to take in month by month. Needless to say, the more carefully you think through all these questions in advance, the better prepared you'll be.

Who are your customers?

Build a better mousetrap, the saying goes, and the world will beat a path to your door. Maybe. But to build a better mousetrap, you need to know what customers want and how much they're willing to spend.

The more you know about your prospective customers, the more successful you're likely to be. Take the time to look at what your customers like and don't like. The Internet has made it easier to understand customers. All you have to do is read through reviews on Amazon or Yelp to know what people are raving about and what they're dissing, covering a wide range of products and services. But old-fashioned tools are also effective, including customer surveys, focus groups, and simply observing customer behavior.

How will you reach your customers?

You can reach your customers these days in more ways than ever before, ranging from billboards, shop signs, newspaper ads, websites, e-newsletters, tweets, mass mailings, Facebook posts, and more. Your business plan should spell out how you intend to reach your customers and maintain an ongoing relationship with them.

Social media has created brand new ways to engage in two-way exchanges with your customers. Digital communications have greatly improved customer service for many businesses. But be advised that the Internet has also raised expectations about what great service should be. Customers are savvier than ever, and more demanding.

What sets you apart from the competition?

If you've invented something unlike anything the world has ever seen before, congratulations. You're in rare company. If you're like most businesses, you compete in a marketplace with other players. To succeed, you have to give customers good reasons to choose you over your competitors. An effective business plan should spell out those reasons and develop strategies to make the most of them.

To get started, find out all you can about your competitors and their strengths and weaknesses. Then consider how the business you're planning stacks up. Typically, businesses compete on the basis of price, quality, service, and features. But a company's image can also be part of its competitive advantage. For example, people buy Newman's Own foods not only because the quality is good and the price is right but also because of the company's image of doing good by donating a chunk of its profits to good causes. In a similar way, other companies attract customers by promoting their products or services on the basis of environmental protection.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

This question may well be the most important one you ponder as you develop your business plan. Most people have a vague sense of what they do well and what they could do better. If you're part of an organization, you can recognize some of its strengths and weaknesses. But there's a lot that people don't face up to. The process of writing a business plan gives you an opportunity to be far more honest and thorough in your assessment. A formal SWOT analysis grid can allow you to measure your strengths and weaknesses against the opportunities and threats in your business environment.

This question is so important because business success really depends on leveraging your strengths and addressing your weaknesses. For instance, when an orthopedic institute in southern California noticed that its patient satisfaction scores were slipping, the doctors were puzzled. The institute's complication rates were very low. The length of time patients spent in the hospital was below the national average. The medical staff, it seemed, were doing a great job. But in surveys, many patients complained that the care felt impersonal and rushed. To remedy the situation, the institute hired social workers who met with patients when they were admitted and again before discharge to talk over their concerns. The institute also scheduled a follow-up call between surgeon and patient a month after discharge. A year later, patient satisfaction scores were back on top.

What are the biggest challenges you face?

Every business faces challenges, especially in competitive markets or with technological change. Your business plan should describe in detail the particular challenges you face and how you plan to overcome them. The challenges can be part of the business environment you compete in — a crowded field of competitors or regulatory uncertainties, for example. But some of the challenges you face are also likely to be related specifically to your company, such as hiring and holding on to skilled employees, for instance, or responding quickly to changes in the marketplace.

How will you measure success?

The simple answer to this question is money. Make enough money, and any business is a success. But in fact, for most enterprises, the answer is more complex. The most obvious example is a not-for-profit company. Consider a nonprofit community orchestra. Its success is measured in terms of filling seats for its concerts and providing local musicians a chance to play. Or consider a food bank. It spells success in terms of reaching as many people in need and giving them nutritious food as possible.

Your business plan should acknowledge all the ways you plan to measure your success. Your financial section will look at dollars and cents. Your goals and objectives will mark off specific mileposts that will help you chart your progress. Your mission and value statements will serve as a guide to the less tangible items that spell success for you.

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50 questions to ask clients in a business planning questionnaire

A strong business plan helps set the foundation for a successful business venture. Whether you’re a copywriter or a business consultant, you likely spend your days helping entrepreneurs flesh out how they want to present their business to the public, investors, or their target market.

Half of your job involves getting inside the minds of entrepreneurs to pick out all the most necessary information you need to craft a detailed business plan they’ll be happy with. If you’re looking for a way to spend less time gathering information and more time crafting the plan, then crafting a business planning questionnaire will do you good.

In this post, we’ll share a list of questions you can ask entrepreneurs in a business plan questionnaire, plus we’ll share a tool you can use to collect responses quicker than ever.

Why is preparing a business plan questionnaire a good call?

A well-structured questionnaire pushes your clients to think critically about every aspect of their business, ensuring no important elements are missed in the resulting business plan. In a nutshell, the more detailed the questionnaire is, the more organized and comprehensive the business plan will be.

A strong business plan ensures all stakeholders are on the same page when it comes to the business’s direction and objectives. It also answers all questions and concerns investors might have regarding the financial health and trajectory of the business.

Additionally, it acts as a reference point for clients to monitor progress and hold themselves accountable for meeting business goals, providing a framework for regularly reviewing and adjusting their business strategy as needed.

Questions to ask your clients in a business plan questionnaire

Executive summary/business overview questions.

What is your business name?
Where is your business located/based out of?
What is your business’s legal structure? - Sole proprietorship - Partnership - Limited corporation - Unlimited corporation
Describe what your business does in one sentence.
What is the market opportunity or problem that your business aims to address?
What is your business’s mission statement?
What is your business’s vision statement?
What is the return on investment (ROI) your customers can expect to see?
Why should an investor be interested in your business?
What is your unique value proposition?

Market analysis questions

Who are your target customers/ target market?
What are the primary needs and preferences of your target customers?
List some of your main competitors.
List some of your indirect competitors.
What features/offerings differentiate your business from your competitors?

Products and services questions

What products or services does your business offer?
What features of your products or services make them unique compared to other market options?
What is your pricing strategy?
What is your revenue model?

Marketing strategy and sales questions

What marketing channels do you currently use?
How will you measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts?
What are your sales goals for the upcoming year?
What is your sales strategy?
What key performance indicators are you tracking to evaluate the success of your company?

Operations questions

What are the key operational processes in your business?
What technology or tools do you use for your operations?
What are the major challenges you face in your operations?
How do you plan to scale your operations as your business grows?

Financial planning questions

What is your current financial status (e.g., revenue, profit, cash flow)?
What are your projected financials for the next year?
What are your primary sources of funding?
How do you plan to manage your financial risks?

Human resources questions

How many employees do you have?
How many employees make up your management team?
What is your hiring plan for the next year?
What are the key roles you need to fill to achieve your business goals?
How do you plan to develop and retain your employees?

Legal and compliance questions

What legal structure is your business operating under?
Are there any industry-specific regulations or compliance requirements you must meet?
How do you plan to manage legal risks?
What insurance policies do you have in place?

SWOT analysis questions

What are the strengths of your business?
What are the weaknesses of your business?
What opportunities do you see in the market?
What threats could impact your business?

Strategic planning questions

What are your top three strategic priorities for the next year?
What milestones do you need to achieve these priorities?
What resources do you need to meet your strategic goals?
How do you plan to measure the success of your strategic plan?

Supporting documentation

Upload any supporting documentation that can help inform the business plan. (Financial documents, business license, sales/marketing presentations, SWOT analysis image).

What is the fastest way to put together a business plan questionnaire?

You can easily take the above sample survey questionnaire, copy and paste the questions, and throw it into a Word document or form builder tool of your own — or better yet you could save endless time on all the above by using Content Snare instead.

In addition to providing a ready-to-send business plan questionnaire template in its dashboard, it also helps you streamline the data collection process with:

Automatic reminders Ever run into a situation where you request information from clients and they take forever to get back to you? With Content Snare, you can choose a deadline then the tool will remind your clients to complete your questionnaire on time. This means you won’t have to waste time sending endless follow-up emails.

Large document/image uploads Content Snare supports large file size uploads so your clients can upload their business license, sales and marketing presentations, or other financial documents needed for you to write their business plan without any hassle. The tool helps you collect everything all in one place so you don’t have to collect text responses in one place and then use a whole other platform like Dropbox to gather the rest.

Approve/reject/comment features It’s not uncommon for clients to submit insufficient information or upload the wrong files once in a while. Content Snare helps you notify your clients if any of their responses need a revision within the dashboard itself, so you don’t have to chase them over email.

An easy client experience We can all agree that there’s nothing worse than spending ages completing a form, only to get timed out and have to enter all your information again. Content Snare spares your clients from ever having to go through this inconvenience by automatically saving responses so they can exit and re-enter the form as many times as they want. It always helps to use an intuitive tool!

Ready to give it a go? Try Content Snare for free for 2 weeks below!

Create a business plan questionnaire with Content Snare

Sign up for your trial to get our template for free. Send our business plan questionnaire to your clients as-is, or customize it as you see fit.

Sylva Sivz is a seasoned copywriter here at Content Snare, based out of Vancouver, Canada. She has spent years working in agency environments and moonlights as a touring house DJ!

More From Forbes

17 questions you should ask yourself before starting a business.

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Starting a business sounds appealing doesn’t it? You get to be your own boss, do what you love and work your own hours (which really means choosing which 10-18 hours to work). But there are things you need to ask yourself before you start a business which you may not think about in the moment.

Entrepreneur, starting new business, leadership concept.

1. Why do I want to start a business?

This may seem obvious, but sometimes we want to start a business without even thinking about the why. What sparked your business idea and is it something you are extremely passionate about doing?

2. Can this business idea make me money now and in the future?

If the answer is no, then you may want to reconsider. You don’t want to pursue a business idea for it to cost you more than what you make. Yes, money isn't the most important factor, it is the outcome but it is your responsibility to ensure the business has financial viability.

3. Who is my target audience for my business?

You need to tailor your business to a specific target audience. This will be helpful when you are advertising and marketing your business to the niche audience and producing products that they would consume. You need to remember your business cannot be for anyone and everyone, find a niche market and focus on them as this will lead to financial rewards later on.

4. Who are my competitors?

Usually the business idea you have come up with exists somewhere out there, there may even be several variations of your business already. So, it is important to research other businesses similar to yours and see what yours can offer that makes you stand out. Analyse competitors, see how they interact with customers online, how they present their products and how strong their brand is.

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5. What is your USP?

By identifying your competitors this allows you to identify your unique selling point. Ask yourself what makes your business more special? How is it different to the other competitors out there?

6. How will I market my business?

You need to market to your niche audience. By having the best marketing strategy, it is more likely your business website and social media will be seen by the desired target audience which will increase traffic and sales!

7. How will I price my products?

You don’t want to over priced, but you don’t want to price your products too low. This is where research comes in handy as you want to look at what your competitors’ price their products at. Are your items the same, more luxurious or more simple? You also want to take into consideration the packaging and postage costing as well as maintaining the business overall. Where do you fit in the market for your target consumers?

8. Do I have the funds to start this business?

Before you begin making money, you need to put money into your business to start it up. So before beginning, the best thing to do is produce a list of all the things you’ll have to buy before you can officially launch your business .

These may include:

- Registering your company name

- A website

- The product itself / service creation

- Packaging

- Labels

- Money towards advertising and marketing

These are only a few things to consider, but only buy what you absolutely need , not what you’d ideally want. These will follow as your business grows.

9. Am I extremely motivated and passionate?

It is easy to say you want to have your own business, but do you see yourself doing this for a while? Are you extremely passionate about this business idea and motivated that you will work on it consistently until it grows?

10. Can I do this alone?

You need to reflect on the team you need, will you be able to manage this business completely by yourself, or do you need others that you would be able to rely on to help you throughout your journey. Maintaining a business by yourself is not easy and so you may want to consider having someone by your side that is as motivated and passionate about the business. Or joining a community of like minded entrepreneurs.

11. How many employees will I need?

So, you’ll be starting this business solo or with a business partner, but you also want to consider how many employees you will need as the time goes on. This is important to consider if you are beginning a business with the idea that it will scale up in the future, and require a team for growth. Or if you have chosen a 'company of one' how many people do you need to make it efficient.

12. What resources do I already have?

You might get ahead of yourself and think about what you don’t have, but ask yourself what do you already have? Make sure to utilise the resources already available that may you can save money and time.

13. Are you ready to invest your time into this business?

Managing a business takes a lot of time, money and energy in order for it to be successful. So, you want to make sure you are in a good place in your life to begin a business. You also need to be prepared to take a lot of risks and sacrifices to make the business work!

14. How will I set up the legal structure of my business?

It is important to research the legal structure of your business, depending on the product or service you will be selling. Make sure you have chosen the legal structure that secures your business and protects you.

15. What kind of taxes do I have to pay?

These are also the type of questions you will need to be thinking about when you begin your business. As it will be considered your job, it is a legal requirement that you state how much you earn and therefore be taxed by the government. So, this is an important part of research when you are starting a business.

16. What are my goals?

Yes, you want to start your business but what are your goals with it? Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years time? These are some thoughts to have before you begin, it is important you see your business as a long-term goal where one day you will make your income from your business alone.

17. When will I be ready to start?

Make a plan of an ideal date you want to launch your business and work towards it! Create a to-do list and tick off the tasks as you go along in preparing to launch your business. Be realistic about your launch date and plan accordingly.

There are so many questions you need to ask yourself as you get started, the 17 above will get you started and your mentor would be able to help you with the initial questions.

Remember, starting a business isn’t easy and will require a lot of time, patience and energy! Fall in love with your business idea and watch it grow as well as making sure to plan ahead! Good luck on your journey!

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30 Questions to Ask Entrepreneurs (So You Can Become One)

By Hannah Donor • Mar 9, 2023

an entrepreneur being asked questions in an interview

The beginning stages of entrepreneurship can feel overwhelming. It’s hard to know exactly what you don’t know about starting a business. Although internet research can be immensely helpful, it cannot speak to personal experience. By connecting with a successful entrepreneur, you can benefit from their wisdom and gain knowledge that may not be commonly available online, preparing you to start your own business in a completely different way.

Why You Should Interview an Entrepreneur

When starting a small business, it’s important to remember that you’re not alone. Running a business as a solo act is isolating by nature, so forming a network of support from the start can bolster your confidence and help you strategize for more effective growth and sustainable success.

Whether you’ve been in business for a while and are looking for advice on scaling (growing), or are brand new to entrepreneurship and need to know what things to do before starting a business, interviewing someone with real entrepreneurial experience will go a long way in preparing you to enter the field.

Best Interview Questions to Ask an Entrepreneur

1. why did you decide to start your own business.

Every business owner has a “why” – the reason they chose the unconventional route of entrepreneurship as opposed to a corporate career. Understanding their reason for choosing the business owner path can help you to understand what motivated their success and discover your own reason (or reasons).

2. What advice would you give to someone just starting their own business?

This is the most obvious question you should ask, but also one of the most important! Every business owner has gone through the trying and risky experience of being a new business owner, and every one of them will have direct experience with what worked and what didn’t. You’re meeting with this entrepreneur to get their advice, so don’t be afraid to ask for it!

3. How do you deal with fear and doubt?

Even someone as prolific as Maya Angelou experienced the phenomenon known as imposter’s syndrome , once confessing, “I have written 11 books, but each time I think, ‘Uh-oh, they’re going to find out now.’ I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.” By asking your interviewee how they deal with self-doubt as an entrepreneur, you’ll gain strategies for conquering fears that will inevitably come up throughout your own venture into business ownership.

4. What routines do you follow each day?

Success is in the details, and most accomplished people follow strict routines and daily habits to keep their busy days running smoothly. This can be as simple as setting an alarm and always getting up when it goes off, eating the same breakfast each morning, or even having multiples of the same outfit so they don’t have to think about what to wear each day.

5. Where do you see your business in five years? Ten?

No entrepreneur is ever done growing their business – it’s an ongoing journey with ever-changing goals and aspirations. Asking the entrepreneur you’re interviewing what their vision for the future is will inspire you to dream big and never stop pursuing success. It will also give you an idea of future milestones you can pursue in your own business.

6. How does your business look different now vs. when you first started?

Similar to asking for advice on just starting out, ask your interviewee to reflect on how their business has grown and shifted over the years. Are they where they expected to be? Did they pivot a completely different direction than originally planned? How does where they are now compare to where they expected to be at this time in their business?

7. How do you set your business apart from others in your industry?

Small businesses require a special twist that makes them different. This may be a unique spin on their product or service, or it may come down to well-crafted branding . Find out how your fellow entrepreneur has distinguished themself from the competition and brainstorm how you can do the same.

8. How did you market your business when it was brand new?

Without the reputation or booming revenue of a larger business, you’ll need to develop strategies for marketing your business and building a loyal audience from scratch. Every business owner has to tackle this at the start, so you’ll definitely want to find out how the person you’re interviewing did this. How did they leverage networking or advertising or social media to start connecting with potential investors or customers?

9. What is the hardest part of being an entrepreneur?

Running your own business won’t always be easy. Like any job, no one loves it all the time. Starting your own business is going to be difficult. It’s going to take a lot of time and determination to make it a success, but knowing what hurdles you may encounter will make it easier to overcome them.

10. What is your favorite part of being an entrepreneur?

Follow up preparing for the worst by hoping for the best! Find out what your interviewee truly loves about the entrepreneurial path. Why are they glad they chose to start their own business? What makes it fun or exciting? These joys are what you will cling to when times get tough.

11. What qualities do you think every entrepreneur should possess?

Ask them what makes a good entrepreneur, but don’t be downhearted if you don’t possess those qualities! Everyone is different and thus approaches entrepreneurship differently, so you may just not fit the mold they would expect. Nevertheless, this is an important question to ask. It can affirm the qualities you do possess and give you ideas of how you can form new habits and cultivate the qualities of a successful entrepreneur.

12. How have you grown personally from becoming an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship is extremely personal. Your business is completely your own, so it’s impossible to separate it from yourself as you might be able to with a standard employment situation. As such, starting a business will inevitably result in growth and change in you personally. By asking for stories of personal growth from a successful entrepreneur, you can get the inside scoop on how you should seek to grow personally.

13. What have been some of your biggest learning experiences in running a business?

Failures are opportunities to learn and do better next time, and no business is without their fair share of mistakes and failures. Although you will likely find your own mistakes to make, you can avoid some of them by asking an entrepreneur what failures they’ve learned from over the years.

14. What do you look for when outsourcing or hiring?

When your business outgrows what you can accomplish as a solopreneur, you’ll need to consider hiring employees or outsourcing work to contractors and freelancers . Ask an entrepreneur who has done this before what qualities they look for in potential hires to prepare you for when it’s time to find the right person to further your business’s success.

15. What will you never compromise on with your business?

Whether it be your personal values or your business ethics, you will face situations as a business owner that may require compromise. Decide what your non-negotiables are so you will not compromise yourself or your business from the get-go. Learning what other entrepreneurs won’t compromise on can help you figure out what matters most to you.

Fun Questions to Ask an Entrepreneur:

Who is your biggest role model?
How do you define success ?
What makes a good leader?
At what point did you look at your business and consider it a success?
What would you change about your business journey if you could go back?

Financial Questions to Ask an Entrepreneur

How did you raise funding or financially prepare for your business?
Any advice about setting up a business in terms of legal/accounting?
Should I get an LLC before starting a business?
How do you plan financially for your business’s future?
Have you ever taken out a business loan ? Would you recommend it?

Bad Questions to Ask an Entrepreneur

What do you think of my business?
Do you think my business will fail?
May I pick your brain on something?
Mind if I copy your idea?
How can I make money as fast as possible with my business?

How to Find an Entrepreneur to Interview

Finding a local business owner to interview is the ideal scenario so you can connect in person and form an ongoing relationship. Talk to your local small business development center to inquire about any business owners they would recommend in your area. They’ll also have a lot of resources for helping you get started and to make sure your business is legally above board.

Once you connect with an entrepreneur who has enough experience under their belt to mentor and support your business journey, set up a time to meet, and print a copy of these entrepreneur interview questions to take with you.

Hannah Donor is a freelance copywriter and social media strategist with 5+ years of experience helping small businesses authentically curate the written word to reach and inspire their target market.

By Hannah Donor • Apr 4, 2023

By Hannah Donor • Feb 26, 2023

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Business Law and Strategic Planning

Business law and strategic planning are intertwined, as a thorough understanding of business law fundamentals is vital for making informed business decisions and mitigating potential risks. Effective strategic planning requires a multi-faceted approach, incorporating risk assessment strategies, compliance framework design, and regulatory gap analysis to navigate complex regulatory environments. By integrating business law considerations into strategic planning, companies can guarantee compliance with relevant laws and regulations, minimize the risk of non-compliance, and ultimately achieve long-term success and sustainability. Additionally, exploring the intricate relationships between business law and strategic planning can provide valuable insights into optimizing business operations.

Table of Contents

Understanding Business Law Fundamentals

Grounded in a complex array of federal and state statutes, regulations, and court decisions, business law provides the framework for governing commercial transactions and resolving disputes in the business environment. A fundamental aspect of business law is contract disputes, which arise when parties fail to fulfill their contractual obligations. Effective management of contract disputes is paramount to mitigate financial losses and reputational damage. Corporate governance plays a pivotal role in preventing contract disputes by ensuring that companies operate with transparency, accountability, and fairness. Strong corporate governance structures enable companies to make informed decisions, manage risks, and comply with regulatory requirements. In the event of a contract dispute, corporate governance principles guide the resolution process, promoting fairness, and upholding the rights of all parties involved. A thorough understanding of business law fundamentals is imperative for businesses to navigate the complexities of contract disputes and corporate governance, ultimately contributing to their long-term success and sustainability.

Strategic Planning for Compliance

Effective strategic planning for compliance requires a multi-faceted approach that incorporates several key elements. At the forefront of this approach are risk assessment strategies, which enable businesses to identify and prioritize potential compliance risks. By designing a thorough compliance framework and conducting regular regulatory gap analyses, organizations can proactively mitigate these risks and guarantee ongoing adherence to relevant laws and regulations.

Risk Assessment Strategies

Five key elements comprise a thorough risk assessment strategy, enabling organizations to identify, analyze, and mitigate potential compliance threats. A thorough risk assessment strategy involves risk profiling, which entails identifying and categorizing potential risks based on their likelihood and impact. This helps organizations focus on the most critical risks that require immediate attention.

Cybersecurity audits are another essential element of a risk assessment strategy. These audits involve evaluating an organization's digital infrastructure to identify vulnerabilities that could be exploited by cybercriminals. By conducting regular cybersecurity audits, organizations can identify and address potential weaknesses, reducing the risk of data breaches and other cyber-related threats.

A thorough risk assessment strategy also involves risk prioritization, risk mitigation, and risk monitoring. By prioritizing risks, organizations can allocate resources more effectively, focusing on the most critical threats. Risk mitigation strategies, such as implementing controls and procedures, can help reduce the likelihood or impact of identified risks. Finally, regular risk monitoring enables organizations to stay ahead of emerging threats and adjust their risk management strategies accordingly.

Compliance Framework Design

A well-designed compliance framework is a vital component of strategic planning, as it provides a structured approach to managing compliance risks and ensuring adherence to relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards. This framework serves as a roadmap for organizations to navigate the complex landscape of compliance requirements, fostering a culture of compliance throughout the organization.


	Defines the organization's commitment to compliance and outlines roles and responsibilities
	Identifies and evaluates compliance risks, prioritizing areas for mitigation
	Educates employees on compliance requirements and promotes a culture of compliance

A comprehensive compliance framework design involves integrating these components to create a cohesive and effective system. By establishing a clear framework roadmap, organizations can ensure that compliance is woven into the fabric of their operations, reducing the risk of non-compliance and promoting a strong compliance culture. This, in turn, enables organizations to focus on strategic growth and development, confident in their ability to manage compliance risks.

Regulatory Gap Analysis

Conducting a regulatory gap analysis is a crucial step in strategic planning for compliance, as it pinpoints the disparity between an organization's current compliance posture and the requirements mandated by relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards. This analysis enables organizations to identify areas that require improvement, thereby mitigating the risk of non-compliance and associated penalties. A thorough regulatory gap analysis involves an exhaustive examination of the organization's current policies, procedures, and practices, as well as the regulatory landscape, to determine the gaps between the two.

The analysis should also consider the organization's compliance culture, including the tone set by leadership, employee training, and accountability mechanisms. By identifying gaps in compliance, organizations can develop targeted strategies to address these deficiencies, thereby ensuring alignment with regulatory requirements. This proactive approach to compliance enables organizations to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, minimizing the risk of non-compliance and promoting a culture of transparency and accountability. Ultimately, a regulatory gap analysis is an essential component of strategic planning for compliance, facilitating the development of effective compliance programs that support business objectives while mitigating risk.

Risk Management Through Law

Through a thorough understanding of business law, organizations can effectively identify and mitigate potential risks, thereby protecting their interests and assets. Risk management through law involves implementing strategies to minimize exposure to legal liabilities and financial losses. One key aspect of risk management is the negotiation and drafting of insurance contracts. These contracts can provide financial protection against unforeseen events, such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks, or lawsuits . By carefully crafting insurance contracts, organizations can transfer risk to insurance providers, reducing the financial burden of potential losses. Additionally, liability protections, such as indemnification clauses and limitations of liability, can be incorporated into contracts to further mitigate risk. By understanding the legal implications of these provisions, organizations can effectively allocate risk and protect their assets. A thorough risk management strategy, informed by a deep understanding of business law, is vital for organizations seeking to minimize potential risks and capitalize on opportunities.

Navigating Regulatory Environments

When traversing regulatory environments, businesses must adopt a proactive approach to guarantee compliance with relevant laws and regulations. This involves conducting thorough risk assessments to identify potential vulnerabilities, adhering to industry standards that promote best practices, and engaging in constructive interaction with government agencies to foster a collaborative and transparent relationship. By doing so, organizations can mitigate the risks associated with non-compliance and create a stable foundation for strategic planning and growth.

Compliance Risk Assessment

A thorough compliance risk assessment is a crucial step in traversing complex regulatory environments, as it allows organizations to identify and prioritize potential risks that could result in legal, financial, or reputational harm. This process involves vulnerability mapping, which helps to identify areas where the organization is most susceptible to non-compliance. By conducting an exhaustive risk assessment, organizations can pinpoint high-risk areas and develop targeted strategies to mitigate these risks.

A strong compliance culture is necessary in supporting this process. This involves fostering an environment where employees are encouraged to report compliance concerns and are held accountable for adhering to regulatory requirements. A compliance risk assessment should be an ongoing process, with regular reviews and updates to confirm that the organization remains compliant with evolving regulatory requirements. By adopting a proactive approach to compliance risk assessment, organizations can minimize the risk of non-compliance and guarantee long-term sustainability. Effective risk assessment enables organizations to navigate complex regulatory environments with confidence, facilitating that they can focus on achieving their strategic objectives.

Industry Standards Adherence

Six critical components of industry standards adherence enable organizations to effectively navigate complex regulatory environments, maintaining sustained compliance and mitigating the risk of reputational damage. These components include establishing a robust quality control process, implementing a thorough supply chain risk management system, and conducting regular audits to confirm adherence to industry standards. Additionally, organizations must maintain accurate and transparent records, provide ongoing training and education to employees, and establish a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. By adhering to industry standards, organizations can reduce the risk of non-compliance, improve operational efficiency, and enhance their reputation among customers, investors, and regulatory bodies. Effective industry standards adherence also allows organizations to identify and address potential risks and vulnerabilities, thereby minimizing the likelihood of reputational damage and financial losses. By prioritizing industry standards adherence, organizations can maintain sustained compliance and achieve long-term success in an increasingly complex and regulated business environment.

Government Agency Interaction

Effective navigation of regulatory environments requires strategic interaction with government agencies, as organizations must balance the need to comply with regulations with the imperative to pursue business objectives. This interaction is vital to guarantee that businesses operate within the bounds of the law while also achieving their strategic goals. A key aspect of this interaction is Agency Outreach, which involves building relationships with government agencies to stay informed about regulatory changes and provide input on proposed regulations. This proactive approach enables businesses to anticipate and adapt to changes in the regulatory landscape, thereby minimizing the risk of non-compliance.

Another significant avenue for interaction is through Public Hearings, where businesses can provide feedback on proposed regulations and engage with policymakers. By participating in these hearings, businesses can shape the regulatory environment and guarantee that their interests are represented. By engaging in strategic interaction with government agencies, businesses can navigate regulatory environments effectively, minimize the risk of non-compliance, and achieve their business objectives.

Building a Strong Legal Foundation

In the context of business operations, establishing a robust legal framework is vital to mitigating potential risks, complying with regulatory requirements, and fostering a culture of accountability. A strong legal foundation provides a solid basis for strategic planning, enabling businesses to navigate complex legal landscapes with confidence.

One critical aspect of building a strong legal foundation is selecting the appropriate entity structure. This decision has significant implications for liability, taxation, and ownership succession. For instance, a limited liability company (LLC) may offer greater flexibility and protection compared to a sole proprietorship or partnership. Furthermore, entity structure can impact succession planning, as it affects the transfer of ownership and control in the event of retirement, death, or incapacitation. Effective succession planning guarantees business continuity, minimizes disruption, and optimizes value. By carefully considering entity structure and succession planning, businesses can establish a strong legal foundation, mitigate risks, and position themselves for long-term success.

Aligning Strategy With Regulations

Every business strategy must be carefully calibrated to comply with a complex web of regulations, ensuring that commercial objectives are pursued within the bounds of legal and ethical parameters. Aligning strategy with regulations is vital to minimize the risk of non-compliance, reputational damage, and financial penalties. This requires a deep understanding of the regulatory landscape and its impact on business operations. Regulatory innovation can facilitate this process by leveraging technology and data analytics to identify potential risks and opportunities. Strategic audits are also imperative in identifying areas of non-compliance and providing recommendations for improvement. By integrating regulatory considerations into the strategic planning process, businesses can proactively mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities. This harmonization of strategy and regulation enables organizations to achieve their objectives while maintaining a strong ethical and legal foundation. By adopting a proactive and adaptive approach to regulatory compliance, businesses can gain a competitive edge in an increasingly complex and dynamic regulatory environment.

Avoiding Costly Legal Mistakes

By acknowledging the critical intersection of business strategy and regulatory compliance, companies can avoid costly legal mistakes that can undermine their commercial viability and reputational integrity. Legal blindspots can arise from a lack of understanding of complex regulatory requirements, inadequate risk assessment, or insufficient crisis management planning. To mitigate these risks, companies can take proactive measures to identify and address potential legal vulnerabilities.

Here are three key strategies to avoid costly legal mistakes:

Conduct regular regulatory audits : Regular audits can help identify areas of non-compliance and enable companies to take corrective action before legal issues arise.
Develop a crisis management plan : A crisis management plan can help companies respond effectively to legal crises, minimizing reputational damage and financial loss.
Establish a culture of compliance : Encouraging a culture of compliance within the organization can help prevent legal mistakes by promoting awareness of regulatory requirements and encouraging employees to speak up when they identify potential legal issues.

Frequently Asked Questions

What legal structures are available for social enterprise ventures?.

Social enterprise ventures can adopt various legal structures, including non-profit organizations, cooperatives, and for-profit corporations, each offering distinct benefits, such as tax exemptions, and governance models, which enable social impact while complying with regulatory requirements.

How Do I Protect Intellectual Property in International Markets?

To protect intellectual property in international markets, entrepreneurs should prioritize Trademark Registration and Patent Filing in each target country, ensuring timely and strategic applications to safeguard innovative products, services, and brand identities from infringement and unauthorized use.

Can I Use Non-Disclosure Agreements With All Business Partners?

When collaborating with business partners, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) can be effective in protecting sensitive information, but their applicability depends on partnership dynamics and the inclusion of robust confidentiality clauses to guarantee mutual trust and compliance.

What Are the Consequences of Violating Labor Laws Unintentionally?

Violating labor laws unintentionally can lead to severe compliance errors, resulting in legal ramifications such as fines, penalties, and reputational damage, emphasizing the importance of proactive compliance measures to mitigate these risks.

How Do I Handle a Lawsuit Filed Against My Business?

When facing a lawsuit, develop a thorough litigation strategy, prioritizing crisis management to mitigate reputational damage and financial loss, while maintaining transparency and open communication with stakeholders to facilitate a swift and favorable resolution.

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What We Know About Kamala Harris’s $5 Trillion Tax Plan So Far

The vice president supports the tax increases proposed by the Biden White House, according to her campaign.

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Kamala Harris, in a lavender blazer, speaking into two mics at a lectern with a crowd of people seated behind her.

By Andrew Duehren

Reporting from Washington

In a campaign otherwise light on policy specifics, Vice President Kamala Harris this week quietly rolled out her most detailed, far-ranging proposal yet: nearly $5 trillion in tax increases over a decade.

That’s how much more revenue the federal government would raise if it adopted a number of tax increases that President Biden proposed in the spring . Ms. Harris’s campaign said this week that she supported those tax hikes, which were thoroughly laid out in the most recent federal budget plan prepared by the Biden administration.

No one making less than $400,000 a year would see their taxes go up under the plan. Instead, Ms. Harris is seeking to significantly raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and large corporations. Congress has previously rejected many of these tax ideas, even when Democrats controlled both chambers.

While tax policy is right now a subplot in a turbulent presidential campaign, it will be a primary policy issue in Washington next year. The next president will have to work with Congress to address the tax cuts Donald J. Trump signed into law in 2017. Many of those tax cuts expire after 2025, meaning millions of Americans will see their taxes go up if lawmakers don’t reach a deal next year.

Here’s an overview of what we now know — and still don’t know — about the Democratic nominee’s views on taxes.

Higher taxes on corporations

The most recent White House budget includes several proposals that would raise taxes on large corporations . Chief among them is raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent, a step that the Treasury Department estimated could bring in $1.3 trillion in revenue over the next 10 years.

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COMMENTS

135 Business Plan Questions
135 Business Plan Questions. Embarking on the business journey of your dreams begins with a robust business plan. This plan is not just a document—it's the roadmap to your success, painting a clear picture of where you're headed and how you plan to get there. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or a hopeful startup pioneer, the ...
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135 Business Plan Questions

Executive Summary

Company Description Considerations

Market Analysis

Organization and Management Structure

Service or Product Line Inquiry

Marketing and Sales Strategies

Funding Request Fundamentals

Financial Projections and Feasibility

Appendix and Supporting Documents

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I update my business plan?

What’s the most critical part of a business plan?

Final Thoughts

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Executive Summary

Market Analysis

Marketing and Sales Strategy

Operations Plan

Management and Organization

Financial Plan

1. Identify the Problem

2. Define Your Customers

3. Reach Your Customers

4. Identify Your Competitors

5. Outline Your Operational Plan

6. Define Your Business Structure

7. Create a Risk Management Plan

8. Create Budget and Financial Projections

How Can SurveySparrow Help You in Critical Business Planning

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6 Critical Questions Your Business Plan Must Answer If you want to lay the groundwork for a stable business and attract investors, make sure you're hitting these points.

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2. What makes you different?

3. Who is your audience?

4. How is your business going to make money?

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Business Plan Questionnaire

What Questions Should Be Asked in a Business Plan?

Executive Summary Questions

Company Analysis Questions

Industry Analysis Questions

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

Competitive Analysis Questions

Marketing Plan Questions

Operations Plan Questions

Management Team Questions

Financial Plan Questions

Appendix Questions

Business Plan Questionnaire Conclusion

How to Finish Your Business Plan in 1 Day!

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

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How to Write a Business Plan FAQs

Be Professional and Legit

Know Your Audience

Invest Time Researching

Stay Realistic

How to Write a Business Plan—6 Essential Elements

1. Executive Summary

2. Business Overview

3. Products and Services

4. Market Analysis