An aspiring entrepreneur researching how to start a business will probably be told to write a business plan. There aren’t a lot of resources that provide business plan examples to guide you.

To show you how to write your business plan, we took some real-world and sample business plans of product-based ecommerce businesses.

Here are 7 examples of business plans: section by section

These are the traditional business plan examples we’ll look at below:

• An executive summary. Your business in a nutshell.

• Description of the company. Describe your business in more detail and why it exists.

• Analyze the market. Get research-based info on your industry and target market.

• Services and products. In exchange for money, what you’re going to offer.

• Plan for marketing. This is how you introduce your business to the world and drive sales.

• Plan for logistics and operations. Everything that makes your business run.

• The financial plan. You’ll need a breakdown of your numbers so that you can prove viability and profitability

• A summary of the executive summary.

• The executive summary gives you a high-level overview of the rest of your business plan. I’d recommend saving this for last.

• Our free business plan template has four paragraphs and takes just over half a page:

A description of the company

It’s okay to repurpose your company description elsewhere, like on your About page, social media profile pages, or other properties that require a boilerplate description.

On its About page, soap brand ORRIS has a blurb that could easily be repurposed for its company description.

Your company overview can also include the following sections, like we did for Paw Print Post:

Structure of the company. The next section explains how you registered your business, whether it’s an LLC, sole proprietorship, corporation, or something else. Paw Print Post will be a sole proprietorship run by Jane Matthews.”

The nature of the business. “Paw Print Post sells unique, one-of-a-kind digitally printed cards customized with pets’ paw prints.”

“Jane Matthews is the founder of Paw Print Post. She’s worked in the pet industry and with animals for a long time, but she’s just got a graphic design degree. The two of her loves are combining to create unique greeting cards with paw prints. There’s no need to cast your pet’s prints in plaster or use pet-safe ink to have them stamp their ‘signature’.”

Business objectives. “Jane will have Paw Print Post ready to launch at the Big Important Pet Expo in Toronto to get the word out among industry players and consumers alike. After two years in business, Jane aims to drive $150,000 in annual revenue from the sale of Paw Print Post’s signature greeting cards and have expanded into two new product categories.”

• “Jane Matthews is Paw Print Post’s only full-time employee, but she hires contractors to support her workflow and fill skills gaps. Paw Print Post has a contract with Virtual Assistants Pro for five hours a week of virtual assistant support.”

Here’s where you’ll put your mission statement. It would work well in Passionfruit’s example business plan, too, since it shares its mission statement on its website.

Analyzing the market

The market analysis consists of research about supply and demand, your target demographics, industry trends, and the competitive landscape. You might run a SWOT analysis and include that in your business plan. 

The following is an example SWOT analysis we did for an online tailoring business:

During the market research component of your business plan, you’ll need to do a competitive analysis. It’ll let you know who your competitors are and give you ideas on how to stand out. Here’s what your competitive advantage audit might look like:

Services and products

How do you sell your products and services to customers? This is the section of your business plan that describes what you’re offering. For Paw Print Post, here’s what we wrote:

Plan your marketing

Developing a marketing plan before you launch your business is always a good idea. As part of your business plan, your marketing plan shows how you’ll promote your business.

We focused on four Ps for Paw Print Post: price, product, promotion, and place. You can take a different approach with your marketing plan. Maybe you can pull from your existing marketing strategy, or maybe you break it down by marketing channel. It doesn’t matter what you do, your marketing plan should describe how you’re going to promote your business. Let’s go high level here.

Plans for logistics and operations

Paw Print Post looked at suppliers, production, facilities, equipment, shipping and fulfillment, and inventory.

Plan your finances

Including sales, revenue, profit, expenses, and other relevant financial metrics, the financial plan helps you fund and profit from your business.

The financial plan for ecommerce brand Nature’s Candy shows revenue, expenses, and net profit.

Then it dives into the numbers to include:

• Needs for funding

• Profit-and-loss statement

• Balance sheet projections

• Cash flow projections

Create your own income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement with this financial plan spreadsheet.

• What to include in each type of business plan

• The one-pager

• One-page business plans are meant to be high level and easy to understand. Include all the sections, but make sure they’re truncated and summarized:

• The executive summary is truncated

• Analyzing the market: summarized

• Summarized products and services

• Summary of marketing plan

• Plan for logistics and operations: summarized

• A summary of the finances

The startup

A startup business plan is for a new company. These plans are typically developed and shared to get outside funding. There’s more focus on the numbers, as well as other sections that determine viability of your business idea — like market research.

• Here’s the executive summary

• Description of the company

• An in-depth look at the market

• Services and products

• Plan your marketing

• Getting things done

• In-depth financials

• Your internal business plan keeps your team aligned and on the same page.

• Summary of the executive summary

• Description of the company

• Analyses of the market

• Our products and services

• Creating a marketing plan

• Plan your logistics and operations

Strategic Finance

A strategic business plan is a long-term, bigger picture look at your business. Thus, forecasts tend to look further into the future, and growth and revenue goals are higher. You want to use all the sections you would in a normal business plan and build upon them.

• The executive summary

• Description of the company

• Analysis of the market: a comprehensive look

• Launching and expanding products and services

• The marketing plan: a comprehensive look

• The logistics and operations plan: a comprehensive look

• A comprehensive look at the numbers

Assessing feasibility

Feasibility business plans are pre-business plans. They are sometimes referred to as feasibility studies. It basically lays the groundwork and validates that a full business plan is worth it. Therefore, it’s mostly about research.

• Description of the company

• Analyzing the market

• The products and services we offer

• Operational plan and logistics

• Detailed financial information

Make sure you’re set up for success as a business owner

A good business plan will help your ecommerce business succeed at launch and as you reach your goals. It doesn’t matter what your business model is, business plans create accountability for entrepreneurs.

With the sample business plans above, you can start your ecommerce business and set yourself up for success.

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You can design your own website. The easiest way to make sure your website can accomplish all of these goals is to hire a pro. You’ll have more time to run and grow your business.

Please download your brochure for your business plan below – Myinvestorchoice is ranked the number 1 Agency on Upwork for preparing business plans