This article talks about 50 best free business plan templates which you should check out. A business plan template is one of the most important things for any startup. It helps you to have a good idea of what you want out of your business, what would be your business model, what challenges you might have to face, etc.. It also helps you in attracting the investors to get the seed funding.
You can use any of the free business plan templates included in this post depending upon which one suit your needs. You can also refer to them to have an idea and then create a new business plan from scratch.
So let’s get started.
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1. BPlans:
BPlans is the website which offers you a huge number of free business plan templates spread across various business categories. You can find business plan templates Restaurant, Cafe, and Bakery; Medical and Healthcare; Retail and Online Store; Real Estate; Education and Training; Manufacturing; etc.. You can then click on the category name to see all of the business plans.
On clicking any business plan, the website shows you the plan outline which you can refer to know what are the things included in it. Generally, a business plan template includes Mission, Key to Success, Company Summary, Products, Market Analysis Summary, Management Summary, Financial Plan, etc.. Although, the main content of each of the section will vary on the basis of the business type chosen by you, but the basic overview of the each of the business plan is same.
The only drawback of this website is that it doesn’t let you download business templates. You will have to copy and paste the content in a Word or text document and then modify it as per your needs. Despite this, I have kept this website at the top because of the wide range of business plan templates that it offers for various businesses.
2. BDC:
BDC is the website which lets you download business plan template kit. The kit is available for download in ZIP format which you can extract using any ZIP file extractor. On the extraction of the kit, you will get a Word business plan template, Excel financial appendix, PDF business plan template, PDF financial appendix, and a few more helpful resources.
The business plan template in Word format has 7 sections: Business Overview, Sales & Marketing Plan, Operating Plan, Human Resources Plan, Action Plan, Executive Summary, and Appendix: Financial Plan. Each of the section has blank fields which you have to fill as per your business and its status.
3. Business.gov.au:
The website Business.gov.au provides free business plan template as well as a business plan guide. Both the freebies are available in Word format and can be downloaded for free. This template provided by the website also tells you a few tips about how can you use it to your best benefit. The different sections covered in this Word business plan template are business plan summary, the business, the market, the future, the finances, and supporting documentation. Each of the section has further sub-sections giving you a better and wider view of the things.
Now, talking about the business plan guide, it helps you in a making a unique and new business plan from scratch. It covers all the things which you should keep in mind while making your own business plan. The guide also explains the terminologies used in a business plan model and makes it easier for you to understand them.
4. 100 Startup:
100 Startup is a unique website which offers 1-page business plan template. The template is available in PDF format which you can view using any PDF reader. This PDF business template has various questions which are categorized into 5 sections: Overview, Ka-Ching, Hustling, Success, and Obstacles/Challenges/Open Questions. All the sections are self-explanatory and as for the Ka-Ching, it includes questions related to the revenue generation model of your business.
5. Princes-Trust:
Princes-Trust offers 4 different resources to help you get your business plan right. These are: Business plan guide, Business plan template (Word/PDF), and Business plan financial tables. All of the resources are free to download. The PDF business plan template consists of 11 sections and a Getting Started section. The other sections are related to Executive summary, Owner’s background, Product and services, The market, Marketing strategy, Market research, Competitor analysis, Financial forecasts, etc.. For each section, there are fields which you need to fill depending on the business you have.
6. Business.govt.nz:
The next website in the list is Business.govt.nz which has free business plan template and a guide about how to write a business plan. The business plan template includes sections for entering business profile, contact details, online/social media profiles, and contents (12 sections). Some of the sections are Executive summary, Business background, Business strategy, SWOT and critical success factors, Market research, Market analysis, Marketing strategy, etc.. Like most of the business plan templates, you can also enter details as per your business type.
7. Business.vic.gov.au:
Business.vic.gov.au is the website which provides you with only one free business plan template. The template has a beginning section of how you should use the given template. Once you will go through it, you will find the complete business plan. The plan consists of factors like Set your vision, Visioning map, Mindmapping, SWOT analysis, Force field analysis, One page plan, etc.. For each section, the template explains you the meaning and what is required to be filled in that section.
8. Barclays:
Barclays is the next website in the list for you to check out free business plan templates. The template has blank fields for entering the personal details, business details, information regarding business/finance goals, USP of product/service, pricing, market knowledge, etc.. The business plan template is available in PDF format and details can be filled directly into the PDF with no need of printing it first.
9. Business Gateway:
Business Gateway offers free business plan template which covers points like executive summary, your vision, marketing and sales, running the business, and finance. The template is free to download, but you have to provide a few details like your contact details to get access to the download option. It has a lot of sections and sub-sections to help you out with the business plan thing.
10. Teagasc:
Teagasc website offers you multiple types of resources to help you with starting and setting up business. The resources include a complete business plan template, budget, cashflow spreadsheet, etc.. The business plan template is free to download and available in Word format. It is a simple to use template with fields for entering the details like product/service information, motivation objective and goals, personal quality, market research & promotion, accounting and taxation, etc..
11. BizConnect:
BizConnect provides you with free business plan template in both PDF and Word format. You can download any one or both of them. The complete business plan consists of Business Details, Executive Summary, General Company Description, Funding Requirements, etc.. Other than this, the website also explains important points to take care of while creating any business plan.
12. BPlans.co.uk:
The next website in the list is BPlans.co.uk, which offers a lot of business plan templates. There are also various categories which will help you find out the best template matching your needs. Some of the categories are Airline and Aviation; Bar and Nightclub; Car Wash and Automotive; Home Business; Personal Services; Farm and Food Production etc.. On selecting the category, you will see the list of the available business plan templates. Choose the one you want to use.
On selecting the template of your choice, you will see the business plan outline. The outline shows you all the sections of the business plan. You can go to a specific section by either going through all the pages or directly by clicking on its name in the outline. The website doesn’t have any option to download the template but you can copy and paste the content to any Word document to start working on it.
13. Smarta:
Smarta is another website with a lot of business plan templates and for different categories. You can choose to go through all the categories or browse the popular ones. The categories cover almost all of the common business fields like Construction and Engineering, Farm and food production, Fitness Center, Medical and Healthcare, etc.. You only have to choose the category matching your business needs.
This website also doesn’t let you download the templates. You have to copy and paste the content to modify it. Each of the templates also comes with the plan outline.
14. NebeginningFarmers:
As the name suggests, the NebeginningFarmers website provides business plan templates for farms. However, you can definitely modify the plan as per your business. As of now, the website has two business plan templates: Carrot farm and Goat Dairy. Both of them are in PDF format and can be downloaded for free.
Both the business plans cover all the important things related to a business. They will tell you about everything like Risk assessment, Production and products, Capital investments, Marketing plan, Long term goals, and much more.
15. Bizhub:
Bizhub is the website which provides you with a business plan creator tool instead of the template. On opening the website, you will see the sections like Executive summary, Objectives, Target customer, SWOT analysis, Assets and equipment, Financial forecasts, etc.. For each section, the website explains its meaning along with details you are required to fill. It also shows an example to help you get a better idea of what you are supposed to fill. When you have filled all the entries, you can download the business plan in Word format.
16. Office Depot:
Office Depot is the popular shopping website, but very few people know that it actually provides some nice business plan templates as well (free). The website offers business plan template in different file formats. There are two templates in RTF, one in RTF with Word tables, and two as Excel files. Each of the file has a unique business template based on the business type. You can download any or all of them for free. Depending upon the business type chosen by you, you will find the content and the sections to help you out with the business plans.
17. Business Tips:
The website Business Tips has the business plan template in PDF which can be downloaded for free. The template includes various sections related to the business plans, along with blank fields. You can fill these blank fields directly in PDF with no need of printing. There are following main sections: Business summary, Market overview, Financial plan, Business structure, Legal and regulatory considerations, Marketing, Insurance, etc..
18. BusinessPlanTemplate.net:
Business Plan Template is the website which has a collection of about 120 business plan templates. All of the templates are free to preview and download. The website provides business plan templates for different type of businesses, like: Retail Store, Restaurent, Catering, Grocery Store, etc..
The unique feature of the website is that it also provides business plan templates for specific purposes. Some of them are: Projected Income Statement Template, Cost Analysis Template, Startup Capital Calculator Template, Startup Expenses Template, Pricing Strategy Template, Business Plan template to get investor funding, etc
All the templates are available in DOC and Excel format and can be downloaded for free.
19. Business.qld.gov.au:
The Business.qld.gov.au website has a free business plan template in Word format and financial spreadsheet in Excel format. Download any of the templates as per your requirement for free. The template consists of sections Executive Summary, Product/Service, Marketing Plan, Operating Plan, Human Resources Plan, Financial Plan, etc.. Apart from this, the financial spreadsheet help you prepare finance plans with points like profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheet, etc..
20. LocalEnterprise.ie:
LocalEnterprise.ie website provides you 4 types of free Word business plan templates including Budget and Cashflow spreadsheet. In addition to this, there are also 2 more business plan templates which come with useful hints. You can download any of them for free and edit/print them. The templates include all sections commonly found in any business plan. Some of them are Business details, Entrepreneur assessment, Your qualification, Motivational object and goals, etc..
The sections are almost same in all the templates, be it with or without hints. The only difference is that the templates with hints provide you with useful hints regarding how you should fill a particular section. If you are new to business templates, then I would recommend you to go for the templates with hints.
21. LawDepot.com:
Law Depot is the website which doesn’t provide you with a ready-made business template. Instead, it provides you with an online business plan template maker where you will find multiple sets of questions which you have to answer. These questions are divided in following sections: Overview, Structure, Product, Marketing, SWOT, Operations, Financial, and Date. When you have answered all the questions, you will see your business plan with an option to Print and Download.
22. HSBC:
HSBC website has a very nice knowledge section, that also has a section for business plan. It doesn’t provide you with a business plan template; instead, it provides guidelines about how to write a business plan. There are a total of 11 sections, with each of them having sub-sections. For each section and sub-section, the website mentions the points to remember while writing about them. Some of the sections are Executive Summary, The Business, Market and Competitors, Sales and Marketing, Management, Operations, etc..
23. Business Plan Today:
Business Plan Today provides you with various types of business plans which are categorized into various categories. You have to choose the specific category to see the business plans listed under it. Some of the examples of listed business plans are: Bakery, Bar & Grill, Coffee Shop, Food Truck, Ice Cream, Clothing, Car Wash, etc.. On selecting the business plan of your choice, you will see plan overview listing all the sections of the plan. Clicking on a particular section will take you to the page from where you can read about it in detail.
The website doesn’t provide any download option, but you can copy paste the content and modify it according to your needs.
24. Dynamic Business Plan:
The next website Dynamic Business Plan has 4 categories: Business plan templates, Budget templates, Business examples, and Marketing plan. Some of the templates are available in Word, Excel, and PDF format. You can download any of them for free. All of the templates have different type of content, depending upon their main theme. You will have to download each of them to see what it contains.
For example, the business plan template I tested had about 75 questions, which had to be answered. You can choose to skip any question(s) which don’t match with your business. For each question, the website also provides a brief overview that what should go in that section.
25. NiBusinessInfo:
The website NiBusinessInfo includes a step-by-step guide regarding how to write a business plan. In addition to this, the website also provides free business plan template in Word and ODT format. The step-by-step guide includes 7 steps, which will help you in writing a business plan from scratch. If you don’t want to create a new one, then you can download the Word/ODT format template. The template includes various sections with blank fields which you have to fill as per your business type. Some of the sections are Executive Summary, Vision, Marketing, Running the Business, Finance, etc..
26. Creative Plus Business:
Creative Plus Business offers only one business plan template which is available in PDF format. The business plan template provided by this website includes different sections with each of them being explained in detail. The sections also include a few questions which you need to answer on the basis of your business type. In addition to the detailed explanation and the questions, the website also lists various resources which you can refer for help and better understanding.
27. Teneric:
The website Teneric provides you with a single page business plan template. Since it is just a single page template, so you shouldn’t expect the detailed explanation. The template only mentions the name of the sections along with a few lines for giving you an idea of what you need to fill. For a few sections, the website also mentions URLs which you can check out to know in detail.
28. Altinn:
The Altinn website has business plan templates as well as guidelines. Both of them are available in DOC and ODT format. The business plan template provided by Altinn consists of 11 sections with 2 of the sections further having sub-sections. Some of the included sections are Business Idea, Personal Information, The Market, Market Activities, Capital Requirement and Finance, Management, etc.. You can then go to each section where you will find blank fields. You have to fill these blank fields as per your choice.
29. Quote Roller:
Quote Roller is the website which offers the most feature rich online business plan maker. The website provides you with blank fields where you need to enter the details regarding your business and other things asked by the website. There are also various tools which will help you out in formatting the business plan’s content. You can easily set the text alignment and add various types of text fields. Some of the text field types are Dropdown, signature, initials, etc.. When you have made the template, click on Download button to download it in PDF format.
30. Invoice Berry:
The website Invoice Berry offers you different resources related to the business plan. These are business plan templates (Word file), business plan structure & sample (ODT file), business plan presentation (PPT file), business plan checklist (Excel file), and business plan cash budget (Excel file). All of these resources are free to download. All of the resources have content matching to their purpose and the content is written in a way that you won’t find any problem in understanding anything.
31. Wyen:
Wyen offers you two types of resources to work on your business plan: Sustainable Business Plan (Word file) and Budget & Financial Spreadsheet (Excel file). Both of them are free to download with one click. The business plan template provided by Wyen includes a cover and 5 sections, with each of the sections having sub-sections. The included sections are: Executive Summary, Business Description, The Marketing Plan, The Operations Plan, The Financial Plan, and The Appendix.
For each of the sub-sections, the website explains you about the guidelines to follow and provides a list of questions related to your business. Following the guidelines and answering the questions correctly will lead you to creating a good business plan.
32. TeachingKidsBusiness:
The website TeachingKidsBusiness has two types of business plan templates: Business Startup (PDF file) and Business Plan Example. The latter one is not available for download; you’ve to refer it on the website. You can choose to follow any of the two business plans depending upon your need. As the name suggests, the Business Startup plan is focused on the businesses which are in startup phase. It has 12 sections which are spread over 31 pages. Most of the sections are common ones found in a traditional plan, but it has one extra section called Refining the Plan.
This last section explains you how you should refine the business plan so that it works best for your own business and helps you get maximum benefit out of it. The refining section includes following sections: For raising capital and For type of business.
33. UMTRC:
UMTRC offers you the business plan template in the form of PDF format. The template provided by the website is according to the telehealth, but you can modify it as per your business. The template has a total of 15 sections. Some of them are: Executive summary, Introduction and background, Needs and demand assessment, Service plan component, Internal and external assessment, Marketing plan component, Technical plan component, Financial plan component, etc..
All the sections contains crucial points of any business, in a concise manner.
34. MoreBusiness.com:
The website MoreBusiness.com has 10 types of business plan templates, depending upon the business type. The covered business types are: Retail bike shop business plan, Sports apparel store business plan, Pizzeria business business plan, Manufacturing business plan, Fast food restaurant business plan, Medial tourism business plan, Entertainment business plan, Personal fitness business plan, retail clothing business plan, and trucking technology business plan.
Although, all the business plans are almost same but they differ in terms of the content, which is specific to the selected business type. So, you need to choose the business type matching your business and start working on it.
35. Placester:
Placester provides you with a free Excel business plan template, as well as a set of guidelines. In guidelines, the website explains things like Why create a business plan?, how to create a business plan, defining marketing strategy, creating a financial plan, etc.. As for the downloadable business plan template, it is available in Excel format and divided into 7 worksheets. The worksheets refer to Instructions, Income & assumptions, Startup expenses, goals, etc.. Refer to each of the worksheet and modify them as per your business.
36. NonProfitAssistanceFund:
The business plan template offered by NonProfitAssistanceFund is pretty small as compared to the ones provided by others. The template offered by them consists of sections like Mission, Executive summary, Market analysis, Competitive analysis, Productive/services, Marketing and sales, Operations, etc.. For each of them, the template includes brief points which will help you find out what you have to fill and where. There is also a brief explanation regarding the purpose of each of the section.
37. Form Swift:
Form Swift provides you with an online business plan maker tool. The tools consists of a lot of sections where you have to fill the required details. As you fill up the sections, the tool continuously shows you the % completed and estimated time it will take to fill the it completely. You can then choose to export the template after completely filling it or even in the middle when it is incomplete. The website also lets you check the preview of the business plan template created by you so that you can check everything is correct before going for the downloading part.
38. Middlesbrough:
Middlesbrough is the website which provides you with business plan template in Word format. The template includes commonly found as well as some unique sections. A few of the sections are: Purpose of plan and summary, Details of the business, Management of the business, Products and services, The Market, Employees, Premises, Legal, Quality, Business objective, etc..
For each of the sections, the template includes various bullet points and blank field for you to enter the text. The included bullet points help you figure out what you have to fill in the blank fields.
39. MyOwnBusiness:
MyOwnBusiness website has a number of business plan templates, which are divided across following categories: Printer Friendly Business Plans, Business Plan Samples, Useful Templates, and Financial Templates. The first category includes a single business plan, but each of its section is available in an individual downloadable Word file. If you want the complete business plan, then you have to download all of them. Alternatively, you can download the file of only those sections which are important to you.
There are also financial templates which are available in Excel format. These templates are for Balance sheet, Income statement, and Cash flow.
40. OneStop:
OneStop is the website which provides you with a set of guidelines to follow while writing your own business plan. There are different sections which you can read to get the idea. Some of the covered sections are Cover letter, Business information, Financial information, Supporting documentation, balance sheet etc.. Each of the sections is explained in details making it easier for you to understand things.
The website also provides you with a downloadable business plan template in Word format. The template includes the sections as explained above, but each of the sections include questions. You have to answer as many as questions you can or want. When you will be done with the questions, you will be ready with your own business plan.
41. 4Children:
The website 4Children provides a free business plan template and answers to commonly asked questions: What is a business plan and Why have a business plan. The website gives a brief explanation of both the questions and as for the downloadable template, it is available in PDF format. The template covers a lot of sections including even the basic ones, like: preparing a business plan, what information you need to write in your business plan, legal guidance, structure of the business plan, etc..
All the sections have list of points with each point asking you a few questions. You have to answer the questions in order to write the business plan.
42. Sport England:
The next website Sport England doesn’t provide any downloadable business plan template, but it does provide on one of its webpages. The website displays the template in two column view with one column for Sections and other one for Supporting information. The Sections column includes different sections which have the list of questions which you need to answer. You have to answer the questions to the best of your knowledge.
On the other column, you will find the information regarding the documents or any other information which you can provide in support of your answers. For some questions, you will also find URLs which you can refer for more information.
43. Template.net:
The other website for you to try out is Template.net. As the name suggests, this website is dedicated only to templates for different types of purposes. The website provides business plan templates in a zipped file (.rar format), which you have to download and extract. On extracting the file, you will get 4 business plan templates. Two of them are in Word format and other two are in PDF format. All of them are free to download. The templates include the sections like Company description, Market analysis, Marketing/Sales strategy, Staffing & Operations, Financial projections, etc..
44. Entrepreneur:
The Entrepreneur website provides you with the business plan template online. It means you can go through the complete template directly on the webpage without any need of downloading it first. If you like the template, then you can download it easily with just one click on Download button. The template included on the website covers sections like Executive Summary, Strategies, Products & Services, Revenue Sources, Marketing Plans, etc.. The template explains all the sections including what you have to fill, where and how.
45. Futurpreneur Canada:
Futurpreneur Canada provides you with an online tool to create the business plan. There are 6 sections and multiple sub-sections which you need to fill. For each section and sub-section, the website explains its purpose. It gives you a better idea of the things which you need to fill and talk about, while creating the business template. The main sections are: Executive Summary, Company Profile, Market Research, Sales & Marketing, Operations, and Financials. There’s also an option to add the custom section(s).
When you have finished working on it, they provide you with the option to download and print it. The download option lets you choose the file format as Word, PDF, and Excel Spreadsheet.
46. Lloyds Bank:
The Lloyds Bank website explains everything regarding how to write a business plan. You will find guidelines regarding what are the benefits, what to include in your plan, the essentials of your plan, etc.. There is a detailed explanation for everything. The explanation has also been divided into sections to make it easier to understand.
Apart from this, there’s also a downloadable business plan template which is in PDF format. The template is based on a fictional sandwich company, but you can modify it as per your business. It has only 6 sections: Executive Statement, Business Summary, Market Analysis, Financial Projections, Start-up Costs and Funding, and Reports.
47. Enterprise-Ireland:
The next website in the list is Enterprise-Ireland. It provides the business plan template in Word format. The template is free to download and consists of 10 sections including Confidentiality Agreement and Appendices. The sections are the commonly found ones like Company description, Market analysis, Research & development, Staffing & operations, Financial projections, etc.. There are bullet points in each of the sections for your better understanding of what to expect and what to write.
48. Wesst:
Wesst is the website which is dedicated to providing the business plan tools and examples. It provides you various resources related to business plans in PDF format. Out of all the resources, there’s also a business plan template. There are sections like: Executive Summary, Loan Request, Mission Statement, Business Description, Market Analysis, Marketing Plan, etc.. You can go to each of the sections and read about it in detail.
49. SMEPals:
As the name suggests, SMEPals provides business plan template focused on SME. The template is available in PDF format. The sections covered in the template are Executive Summary, Content Description & Overview, Products, Marketing Plan, Operational Plan, Expenses, etc.. Each of the sections is explained to you using points and examples. The template also provides you with external URLs under Recommended Reading category. You can refer to those URLs for additional information.
50. Think Business:
The last website in this list is Think Business. The business plan template provided by the website is really good and covers almost all the commonly found sections. A few of these sections are: Company Description, Market Analysis, Marketing and Sales, People, R&D, Financial, etc.. All the sections have explanation and bullet points to help you out with what you have to include and not.
These are the 50 best free business plan templates. Check them out to see which one works for you. If you know about more free templates, feel free to get in touch with me via comments section below.
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