Where Can I Find a Sample Business Plan?

If you need to write a business plan and you haven’t written one before, you may want to first look at a sample business plan. For the obvious reasons, if you can pattern your own plan after a successful sample, you will produce a better plan of your own.

The problem with this notion is that real business plans are usually confidential and distributed to a short list of people, typically only potential investors. Understandably, then, getting a sample business plan to look at can be tough.

Here are some ideas about where you get can a good sample plan.

• If you have colleagues or contacts who’ve invested as angel investors or venture capitalists, these people may be able to get you a sample business plan. (Although you necessarily won’t know, of course, whether the sample business plan is a good one to model your business after because you won’t know how successfully the sample business plan worked.)
• Your professional advisors may in certain limited circumstances be able to supply you with a sample business plan along with information about the success of the sample business plan. Remember, however, that your professional advisors—attorneys, accountants, and so forth—are required to keep client information confidential. They often may not be able to give you a sample business plan or any feedback about how a sample business plan worked.
• Our office has a sample business plan which we can share and discuss with clients who need help crafting a good business plan. This sample business plan described a new technology venture for which Steve, the firm’s founding CPA, was the controller and treasurer. This venture raised several large rounds of venture capital and angel investor money.

If you’re interested in learning more about writing a business plan, don’t hesitate to contact us.