Business plan outline
An outline of a business plan, worked through for one illustrative business: a made-up online subscription for refill cleaning products. It shows how validated assumptions and a financial model become a plan a lender or partner can follow.
This example is for founders writing a business plan for a lender, investor or partner for the first time.
For illustration only: any business or figures shown here are made up, and your own results will differ.
What it contains
- Problem, solution and customer: who has the problem and how you solve it (example: households that want refill cleaning products delivered, served by a $30-a-month subscription)
- Market and competitors: the first segment you can reach and what those customers use today (example: online shoppers in one city who now buy supermarket brands or visit refill stores)
- Unit economics: what one customer earns you and costs you (example: $30 a month at 60% gross margin is $18 of gross profit, so a $90 acquisition cost pays back in 5 months)
- Key assumptions, each with its source and the figures it drives (example: 5% monthly churn from a pilot gives an average customer life of 20 months, or $360 of gross profit per customer)
- The ask and use of funds (example: a $150,000 loan, with $90,000 for stock and packaging, $40,000 for marketing and $20,000 kept as a cash buffer)
How it connects
- Every number links back to an editable assumption (example: the $18 of gross profit comes from the $30 price and the 60% margin)
- Scenarios show what changes in the plan if a key assumption moves (example: at 8% monthly churn, customer life falls to 12.5 months and gross profit per customer to $225)
- The riskiest assumption, named, with how you will test it (example: churn, checked on the first three months of sign-ups before most of the marketing budget is spent)
- A plan written for its reader (example: for a lender, show each loan repayment covered by gross profit from existing subscribers)
Questions founders ask
What should a startup business plan include?
The problem and customer, market context, the business model and unit economics, a financial model with its assumptions, and the ask, each backed by a source or an estimate you can explain.
Is this a fill-in template?
No. It's an outline with a made-up example business. Startup Suite is built so the plan draws its figures from your model, which keeps the numbers consistent with your assumptions.
How do the example figures fit together?
A $30 monthly subscription at 60% gross margin leaves $18 a month. At 5% monthly churn the average customer stays 20 months, so each one brings in $360 of gross profit against a $90 acquisition cost. Every figure is made up for illustration.
Build this on your own numbers
Join early access and build a version of this from your own assumptions and actuals.