The Top 7 Business Plan Examples To Inspire Your Own (2023)

Any aspiring entrepreneur researching how to start a business will likely be advised to write a business plan. But few resources provide business plan templates and relatable examples to really help guide you through writing one of your own.

That’s why we took some real-world and hypothetical examples of product-based ecommerce businesses to show how you can write your business plan.

7 Business plan examples: section by section

The business plan examples we’ll look at below follow this example template:

Executive summary. An introductory overview of your business.
Company description. A more in-depth and detailed description of your business and why it exists.
Market analysis. Research-based information about the industry and your target market.
Products and services. What you plan to offer in exchange for money.
Marketing plan. The promotional strategy to introduce your business to the world and drive sales.
Logistics and operations plan. Everything that happens in the background to make your business function properly.
Financial plan. A breakdown of your numbers to show what you need to get started as well as to prove viability of profitability.

Below, we have some real-world and hypothetical examples of each of these sections to show you how a business plan comes together.

Executive summary

Your executive summary is a page that gives a high-level overview of the rest of your business plan. It’s easiest to save this section for last.

In our business plan template for Paw Print Post, the executive summary is four paragraphs and takes a little over half a page:

An example of an executive summary in a business plan

Company description

You might repurpose your company description elsewhere, like on your about page, social media profile pages, or other properties that require a boilerplate description of your business.

Soap brand ORRIS has a blurb on its About page that could easily be repurposed for the company description section of its business plan.

Orris company description

You can also go more in-depth with your company overview and include the following sections, like we did for Paw Print Post:

Business structure. This section outlines how you registered your business—as an LLC, sole proprietorship, corporation, or other business type. “Paw Print Post will operate as a sole proprietorship run by the owner, Jane Matthews.”
Nature of the business. “Paw Print Post sells unique, one-of-a-kind digitally printed cards that are customized with a pet’s unique paw prints.”
Industry. “Paw Print Post operates primarily in the pet industry and sells goods that could also be categorized as part of the greeting card industry.”
Background information. “Jane Matthews, the founder of Paw Print Post, has a long history in the pet industry and working with animals, and was recently trained as a graphic designer. She’s combining those two loves to capture a niche in the market: unique greeting cards customized with a pet’s paw prints, without needing to resort to the traditional (and messy) options of casting your pet’s prints in plaster or using 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.”
Team. “Jane Matthews is the sole full-time employee of Paw Print Post but hires contractors as needed to support her workflow and fill gaps in her skill set. Notably, Paw Print Post has a standing contract for five hours a week of virtual assistant support with Virtual Assistants Pro.”

Your mission statement may also make an appearance here. Passionfruit shares its mission statement on its company website, and it would also work well in its business plan example.

Passionfruit’s mission statement

Market analysis

The market analysis consists of research about supply and demand, your target market, industry trends, and the competitive landscape. You might run a SWOT analysis and include that in your business plan. Here’s an example SWOT analysis we did for an online tailored-shirt business:

SWOT analysis in market analysis

You’ll also want to do a competitive analysis as part of the market research component of your business plan. This will tell you who you’re up against and give you ideas on how to differentiate your brand. Your competitive analysis might look like this:

Competitive analysis

Products and services

This section of your business plan describes your offerings—which products and services do you sell to your customers? Here’s what we wrote for Paw Print Post:

Products and services offering

Marketing plan

It’s always a good idea to develop a marketing plan before you launch your business. Your marketing plan shows how you’ll get the word out about your business, and it’s an essential component of your business plan as well.

For Paw Print Post, we focused on four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place. However, 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 the different marketing channels. Whatever approach you take, your marketing plan should describe how you intend to promote your business and offerings to potential customers. It’s OK to go high level here.

Logistics and operations plan

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

Financial plan

The financial plan provides a breakdown of sales, revenue, profit, expenses, and other relevant financial metrics related to funding and profiting from your business.

Ecommerce brand Nature’s Candy’s financial plan breaks down predicted revenue, expenses, and net profit in graphs.

Financial plan

It then dives deeper into the financials to include:

Funding needs
Projected profit-and-loss statement
Projected balance sheet
Projected cash-flow statement

You can use this financial plan template to build your own income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement.

Financial plan template

Types of business plans + what to include for each

One-pager

A one-page business plan is meant to be high level and easy to understand at a glance. You’ll want to include all of the sections, but make sure they’re truncated and summarized:

Executive summary: truncated
Market analysis: summarized
Products and services: summarized
Marketing plan: summarized
Logistics and operations plan: summarized
Financials: summarized

Startup

A startup business plan is for a new business. Typically, these plans are developed and shared to secure outside funding. As such, there’s a bigger focus on the financials as well as on other sections that determine viability of your business idea—market research, for example.

Executive summary
Company description
Market analysis: in-depth
Products and services
Marketing plan
Operations
Financials: in-depth

Internal

Your internal business plan is meant to keep your team on the same page and aligned toward the same goal.

Executive summary
Company description
Market analysis
Products and services
Marketing plan
Logistics and operations plan
Financials

Strategic

A strategic, or growth, business plan is a bigger picture, more-long-term look at your business. As such, the forecasts tend to look further into the future, and growth and revenue goals may be higher. Essentially, you want to use all the sections you would in a normal business plan and build upon each.

Executive summary
Company description
Market analysis: comprehensive outlook
Products and services: for launch and expansion
Marketing plan: comprehensive outlook
Logistics and operations plan: comprehensive outlook
Financials: comprehensive outlook

Feasibility

Your feasibility business plan is sort of a pre-business plan—many refer to it as simply a feasibility study. This plan essentially lays the groundwork and validates that it’s worth the effort to make a full business plan for your idea. As such, it’s mostly centered around research.

Company description
Market analysis
Products and services
Logistics and operations plan
Financials

More resources for validating your ideas:

Set yourself up for success

Building a business plan serves as a roadmap you can use for your ecommerce business at launch and as you reach each of your growth goals. Business plans create accountability for entrepreneurs and synergy among teams, regardless of your business model.

Kickstart your ecommerce business and set yourself up for success with intentional business planning—and with the business plan examples above to guide your own path.

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Business Plan FAQ

What 5 things should a business plan include?

Executive Summary: A concise overview of the company’s mission, goals, target audience, and financial objectives.
Business Description: A description of the company’s purpose, operations, products and services, target markets, and competitive landscape.
Market Analysis: An analysis of the industry, market trends, potential customers, and competitors.
Financial Plan: A detailed description of the company’s financial projections and strategies.
Implementation Plan: An outline of the steps, resources, and timeline required to bring the business plan to fruition.

What are the 3 C’s of a business plan?

Concept – your concept should explain the purpose of your business and provide an overall summary of what you intend to accomplish.
Contents – your content should include details about the products and services you provide, your target market, and your competition.
Cashflow – your cashflow section should include information about your expected cash inflows and outflows, such as capital investments, operating costs, and revenue projections.

What are 5 common mistakes of a business plan?

Poor financial projections: Business plans should provide realistic financial projections based on market research and sound assumptions.
Lack of competitive analysis: Business plans should contain a competitive analysis that outlines the competitive landscape, identifies key competitors, and assesses the competitive advantages and disadvantages of the proposed business.
Inconsistent formatting: Business plans should be presented in a professional, consistent format that is easy to read and understand.
Insufficient research: Business plans should be thoroughly researched and include accurate and up-to-date information.
Unrealistic goals: Business plans should set realistic and achievable goals that are in line with the proposed business’s resources and financial abilities.