“Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.” - Khalil Gibran
1. 1-page business plan introduction
While the 3-sentence business plan is my invention to help you ease into business planning, the 1-page business plan is something you can begin to use. Investors or potential partners might ask for it to quickly familiarize themselves with your business.
Let’s begin expanding our 3-sentence business plans into 1-page business plans.
2. 1-page business plan example for a technology product
Title: Mobile app 1-page business plan
Product:
The product is a series of mobile apps on Android and iOS. The apps will help people create a business plan and aid them in starting a business.
The apps will help people plan their businesses in these 3 ways:
Offer tools to help entrepreneurs create a business plan and save their plans on the app
Provide educational tutorials to guide beginners
Offer live help on the app
Marketing:
The marketing of these apps will be through mobile app store search, publicity, our website, and social sharing from people inviting business partners to help plan their businesses on the apps.
Since the bulk of downloads for most apps comes from app store search, that is where we will concentrate.
Monetization:
We will make money by up-selling educational business products, coaching, and in-app purchases.
Profitability:
Since the app has minimal costs to build and maintain it, almost all revenue is immediate profit.
Target customer:
Young entrepreneurs, first-time entrepreneurs, people who need help, guidance, and tools to plan a business.
Size of opportunity:
These apps can reach over 1,000,000 people per year at their full potential.
Founding team:
Alex Genadinik is the founder and the main engineer. This is a single founder business. I’ll outsource design work but can handle all the other tasks.
Previous funding:
None
Costs:
Under $2,000 per year for the initial design and ongoing outsourcing.
3. Analysis of a 1-page business plan example for a technology product
With this 1-page business plan for a mobile app, we took a baby step and expanded the 3-sentence business plan for a mobile app from the previous Post into a 1-page plan.
All it took to go from three sentences to one page is a slight elaboration on the three core components of a business plan, and the addition of secondary sections like team, costs, and previous funding.
We also added sections that describe the target customer and the overall size of the opportunity. You should never start a business without a deep understanding of your target customer and your competitive business landscape. I left out the competition section, but that may also be added. These sections are important in a business plan of this length and longer.
4. 1-page business plan example for a traditional business
Title: Lawn Care Business Plan
NOTE: the statistics used are not real. They are made up for the sake of creating this example.
Executive Summary
Bob's Lawn Care operates within San Francisco, California, and services the area within a 30-mile radius of the city.
Product Overview
The company offers residential lawn care, landscaping, and yard work. The main focus is on providing affluent residential lawn care services.
Current Progress of the Business
The company was founded in April 2012. Since then we have opened a small office and hired a salesperson and two full-time employees.
We currently have 25 residential accounts that we service on a monthly basis.
Our current growth is approximately 5 residential accounts per month while losing about one per month.
Target Market
Our focus is on the high-end residential market. Our research shows that there are 120,000 single-family homes in the area we target.
Market Size
From industry research, we know that approximately 40% of affluent homes hire lawn care companies to maintain their lawns. That leaves us with market size of about 48,000 residential homes.
Additionally, there are 1,000,000 non-affluent homes in the area, 5% of which hire lawn care companies. This adds another 50,000 homes to the target market.
Additionally, there are 10,000 apartment buildings, 80% of which use lawn care companies.
That brings our total market size to 106,000 residences. The average account size brings in an annual $5,000 per account, which makes our total market opportunity: 106,000 residences multiplied by $5,000 = $530,000,000 per year.
Competition
We compete with numerous lawn care and landscaping companies such as John's Lawn Care and Pete's Lawn Care. We are different from most of our competition in the quality of work we provide.
We provide higher quality work at higher prices, which enables us to target more affluent consumers. This will lead to higher margins. Due to our higher quality of service, we will also retain customers for longer periods of time.
Financials
Our current annual revenue from our 25 accounts is $125,000 per year. Our major annual costs are:
1) Staff salaries for the 4 current employees (including CEO): $120,000
2) Office space: $20,000
3) Equipment and vehicles: $30,000
4) Additional, miscellaneous, and one-time costs: $10,000
Total costs are $180,000, which brings us to a net loss of $55,000 per year.
Marketing And Sales
We are currently marketing via 3 methods:
1) Direct sales and reaching out to potential clients
2) Building a professional referral network with other local service providers
3) Online advertising via our website, searches, and listings on other local-service websites
Current Team
Bob, CEO, and founder has over 20 years of experience in the lawn care industry and previously ran a successful lawn care company in Los Angeles, which he sold when he moved to San Francisco.
The rest of the team is comprised of one salesperson and two employees who provide the actual lawn care services.
What We Are Looking For
We are looking for a business loan of $300,000 in order to fund our growth via marketing and sales for the next two years and help us get to 500 accounts, which will result in annual revenue of approximately $2.5 million.
5. Analysis of a 1-page business plan example for a traditional business
You might argue that this 1-page business plan was a little bit longer than a page and you are correct. I expanded on our 1-page app business plan in order to take another step in complexity as we work up to writing the full business plan.
The only thing I did differently here is to dig a little deeper into the financials of this business. I elaborated on the costs, target customer, revenue, and how this business would become profitable.
Now let’s move forward and learn how to write a full business plan. Since we already have the 1-page business plan, this step is not as scary as it would have been if we were starting from scratch.