why should you review a business plan

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Many of you put a lot of time and effort into creating a business plan for your new business and now it sits on a shelf or in a drawer collecting dust. Maybe you had an executive business plan that you used to entice potential investors, or a managerial business plan to pitch your business to investors, or the full operational business plan that is your true business blueprint and map to show you the way to achieve your business goals.

No matter which type of business plan you created, you should ALWAYS review it on an annual basis at a minimum. Publications such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc. and many more recommend that you conduct a thorough update on your business plan at least once annually.

Apple has their business plans out to the mid-2020, but they update their plans every 90 days. This way they can be adaptable to the market trends, technology, consumer behavior, regulations, and much more.

Updating your business plan regularly can help ensure that you and your partners or co-owners are on the same page if there are multiple owners of your company. 

When major changes occur at your company or in your industry, this is also a good time to update your business plan. Your plan needs to reflect the current situation and it needs to be relevant within the current business landscape that you are operating in. If something major has changed, it is essential that you make an update to your business plan to accommodate that shift.

Keeping your business plan updated is vital because no company can succeed unless it stays current with the times and unless it evolves.

Goals change

The goals that you have for your organization will be different when you first get started than the goals you have once your organization is already underway. You want your plan to reflect the latest goals that you hope your company will accomplish so you have clear and measurable objectives to work towards.

Keeping your plans updated also... 

• allows you to adjust to any changes in the law or market conditions that could affect profitability
• helps you to identify new competitors and new potential sources of business
• allows you to see how your company is progressing with enhancing profitability over time.

Business plans are  living  documents and need to be revisited every so often to ensure they are still relevant. In this way you can continue to use and benefit from the strategies and tactics.

You probably prepared the original business plan yourself, since you were likely the only employee. If you have now grown and added staff, try to involve them so there is buy-in. That way, when it is time to implement the plan, your staff will be on-board, and the activities will go smoother.

To recap on why you should review and update your business plan at least one time every year:

• External and events can trigger the need to update your business plan (consumer trends, competition, regulations, suppliers, market, etc.).
• Internal events have changed (employee growth, new products, systems/processes, etc.). You are not the same company that you were a year ago.
• Updating your business plan is more focused and fun than the writing the original one.
• Involve staff in the updating process-watch how this helps your business.
• It is never too late to create a business plan-start now if you haven’t already.

A SCORE Mentor can help you review your business plan for free! Click here to schedule a meeting at a Phoenix Valley location near you!

Greater Phoenix SCORE also has several workshops that will help you with strategic and management planning. Click here for the full calendar. 

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Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.

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5 Reasons Why You Should Get a Business Plan Review

As an entrepreneur, you understand the value of a well-crafted business plan. It’s the essential roadmap for launching your business and something you’ll use to impress banks and investors. Writing your plan yourself is the perfect opportunity to think critically about every aspect of your business. But it’s easy to get caught up in the process. Here are five reasons you should get a business plan review from a professional.

1. Get Validation

A business plan review is the perfect opportunity to discuss your strategies, plans, and goals with an experienced professional. They’ll give you objective feedback on your idea, flag any potential challenges, ensure you include key information, and present ideas you may have yet to consider.

2. Test Your Pitch

The ability to pitch your business is a necessary skill for any aspiring entrepreneur. At its core, a business plan is essentially an in-depth pitch. Knowing your plan inside and out will foster confidence among all investors you meet. So, having it undergo a review is like a “stress test” for your business. 

3. Know Your Business Model is Viable

No matter how fantastic your business is, you’ll need money to sustain it. Can you demonstrate how your business will generate cash over the next six to 12 months? A business plan reviewer will ensure this is covered. They’ll be able to identify gaps in your numbers, how to adjust, and any minor details you may have missed.

4. Discover What to Tackle First

Getting a second set of eyes on your document will help you identify issues you must tackle before sharing it with investors. An experienced reviewer can clearly identify what to fix first so you can make it presentable as quickly as possible.

5. Gain Clarity in Your Decisions

Entrepreneurship can feel like a lot of pressure. Reviewing your business plan lets you share and discuss your plans and options with an expert. They can help you weigh the pros and cons of your choices and evaluate your decisions objectively. Once you’ve considered their recommendations, you can make an informed decision.

Where to Get A Business Plan Review

There are many more benefits to conducting a business plan review, and Small Business BC’s consulting and review service can help at every step of the way. Work with our expert business plan advisors and get the professional advice you need to turn your business ideas into reality. Download SBBC’s Business Plan Template and Cash Flow Forecasting Tool to get started on your business plan.

Small Business BC is Here to Help

SBBC is a non-profit resource centre for BC-based small businesses. Whatever your idea of success is, we’re here to provide holistic support and resources at every step of the journey. Check out our range of business webinars , on-demand E-Learning Education , our Talk to an Expert Advisories , or browse our business articles .

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Business Plan Review-When and Why Should I Review My Business Plan?

Almost all entrepreneurs should keep in mind the importance of a business plan review and also consider updating the strategies and tactics section of their business plan to meet constantly changing market realities.

The high-level overview

The projects in progress, the financial forecast, the benchmarks, your business plan is a living document, challenge… are you living inside your business plan, why put your business plan into writing instead of just keeping it in your head.

Writing your business plan may have been a pain, but updating a plan is easier because you already have a framework. During your business launch, you probably had little experience, and many of your marketing and operational forecasts were just educated guesses. Now that you have some experience and a proven track record, you know what works and what doesn’t.

Recognizing the important events and changes that may require you to update your tactics is an important skill to acquire. Here are some pointers on how to recognize those times.

You are ready to take your business to the next level. Getting funds from a bank or investors requires a more sophisticated plan. Even if you don’t need additional funding, a business plan based on a certain size of business might not be adequate to support a much larger one, which may need additional employees, square footage, etc.

Uncle Sam throws you a curveball, in other words, regulatory changes impact your business. One potential change in many states is the imposition of a sales tax on all internet purchases. The result could be a leveling of the playing field that will make online and brick-and-mortar stores more competitive with each other.

The economy has changed inflation, recession, and unemployment rates, all impacting your customers’ ability to buy your product or service. This will impact your revenues in a bad way, and depending on your staffing, adjustments may be needed there as well.

Here are some stages that how often should a Business Plan be reviewed

How often : daily The high-level overview is the section I look at most often. It’s my big picture part of the plan. Here’s what it includes:

• What I’m doing – the problems I’m solving
• Why I’m doing it – my vision
• Who I’m doing it for – their problems, needs and wants
• My tagline – so I’m always focused on my business mission
• My sales and marketing strategy – the sales and marketing activities to focus on
• Finances – a summary of major income and costs

Your business plan review is just that – a surface-level overview.

How Often Should I Review My Business Plan: daily and weekly This part of my business plan gets looked at daily, especially when I’m creating things in my business or working on a specific task.

Sometimes I’ll leave it for a few days while I’m focused on client work and routine tasks. But whenever I’ve got projects on the go, which is pretty much always, I check in with this part of my business plan.

I find it really useful to refer to whenever I need to make a decision. For example, I might be thinking about registering a new domain name for my website (buying URLs is fun, right?). But I can look at my plan and ask myself, “Do I really need this?”.

Then I’ll use my template to write a paragraph about the item and how it fits into my business. If I can’t think of what to write, I don’t have a good enough reason for what it would mean to the business and how it fits into the bigger picture. Then I don’t buy it.

I’ve got the same rule for software programs and it stops me from spending all my money on Xero Add Ons ! Because there are few things I love more than looking at all the latest software and seeing what I can implement to make my business (and my clients’ businesses) more efficient. But I know that it’s not efficient to add too many tools to the mix, especially if I’m not really going to have the time or patience to use them.

How often: Monthly I work on my financials and forecast at least every week or once a month. This was an area of real struggle for me.

That was a big shock to me and I never would’ve picked up on that fact if I hadn’t reviewed my finances and thought about how I could do things differently. Once I started to implement some different processes, and actually reviewed the numbers every week, I brought my finances under control.

You’ve really got to practice and discipline yourself. That’s why it’s gotta happen regularly.

It’s a useful way to look at projections and add credibility to your plan, but it’s always important to remember that there’s no business out there exactly like yours.

So your benchmarks are only useful to a certain point. I only look at benchmarks when I do quarterly plans and reviews. It’s interesting to see how I’ve gone over the previous quarter and it’s a useful planning tool for the future. But it’s not something you need to get stuck into every day or even every month.

A business plan is a perfect foundation for your business. Think about the foundation of the home you live in. You wouldn’t just wake up one day and decide to take out that foundation! And you certainly wouldn’t engage a builder who didn’t believe in foundations.

It’s there, underpinning everything you do in your home, adding strength and security. It’s the same with your business plan. You put it in place, and then you build your business on top of it… and it’s there every single day, holding your business firmly together.

I want to know… do you look at your business plan every day like I do?

Maybe you’ve got a business plan (and it’s not working for you), and you’re halfway through one. Maybe you’ve never started one or you’re a bit skeptical and you don’t even know if you actually need one.

I want to challenge you to be your best in your business, step out and start achieving your goals. A lot of the time, the first step is writing out your business plan. The next step is making sure you review it regularly.

Pro Tip: For a perfect business plan you can visit our page on business plan writing services

Writing down your business plan will make it more powerful and real. But let’s get more specific. Here are 6 reasons why you should write a business pla n :

• Keep it real . Once you see things in black and white in writing, they’re much more tangible. Your written business plan can work as a reality check where things aren’t going as well as you thought they were.
• Spot gaps . When you write it down, you can see the gaps and holes that you hadn’t thought of.
• Be accountable and collaborate . Having it written down allows you to show it to others and be accountable.
• Create SMART goals . A written plan can be broken down into steps and scheduled into your calendar. This makes it far more likely that you’ll achieve it.
• Measure your progress. When your plans are written down, you can review them and see your progress. This is especially useful if you’re a type-A personality like me.
• Free up your brain cells . Having your plan written down actually (and literally) frees up your headspace so you can use your mental energy for other more important things.
• Preparing for the future . And let’s not forget the importance of preparing for the future. Keeping your business in your head is not a good business practice for so many reasons.

Related Article: 25 reasons why you need a business plan

It is recommended to review your business plan regularly, at least annually. Additionally, you should consider reviewing your plan during significant business milestones or changes, such as entering new markets, launching new products or services, or experiencing shifts in your industry or competitive landscape.

Reviewing your business plan helps ensure that it remains relevant and aligned with your current business objectives. It allows you to assess the progress made, identify any gaps or areas for improvement, and make necessary adjustments to your strategies, goals, or financial projections. Regular reviews also enable you to adapt to changing market conditions and seize new opportunities.

Reviewing your business plan offers several benefits, including:

• Assessing Performance: Determine how well your business is performing relative to your initial projections and goals.
• Strategy Alignment: Ensure that your strategies are still effective and aligned with your current market positioning and customer needs.
• Financial Analysis: Evaluate your financial projections and make any necessary adjustments based on actual performance and market conditions.
• Risk Assessment: Identify potential risks or challenges that may impact your business and develop contingency plans.
• Opportunity Identification: Recognize new opportunities, emerging trends, or untapped markets that you can leverage to drive growth.

During a business plan review, pay attention to the following key areas:

• Goals and Objectives: Assess whether your goals are still relevant and achievable, and adjust them if needed.
• Market Analysis: Evaluate changes in your target market, customer preferences, and competitive landscape.
• Strategies and Tactics: Review the effectiveness of your marketing, sales, and operational strategies and identify areas for improvement.
• Financial Performance: Analyze your financial statements and compare them to your projections, identifying any gaps or discrepancies.
• Risk Management: Identify new risks and evaluate the effectiveness of your risk mitigation strategies.

It is beneficial to involve key stakeholders in the business plan review process. This may include business owners, management team members, department heads, and external advisors or consultants. Their diverse perspectives and expertise can contribute to a comprehensive assessment of the business plan and generate valuable insights and recommendations for improvement.

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Business Plan Review

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A business plan review is an in-depth examination of your business plan and its viability. It can be conducted by a single expert, a panel of experts, or you and your colleagues.

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is essential for any company wishing to start or expand its operations. It provides a framework for decision-making and helps to make sure that all sections of the organization are working together towards common goals. A good business plan can also help attract investors or obtain loans from banks or other lending institutions.

The main purpose of a business plan is to provide investors with information about the opportunities and challenges facing your company so they can make informed decisions about whether or not they want to invest in it. If they decide to invest, they'll know how much money they are likely to make and what risks might arise during their investment term (usually between five years and ten years).

Of course, not all startups need a full-blown business plan — but if you seek outside funding or investment, it's best to start developing yours as early as possible. And even if you don't seek outside funding, it's still smart to develop a comprehensive plan for your business to clearly define what success looks like and how you'll get there.

What Is a Business Plan Review?

A business plan review should be conducted before you begin your venture, at least once during its life cycle (preferably after you have experienced some success), and when it comes time for you to close up shop. The objective is to identify strengths and weaknesses in your plan so that you can take steps toward improving those areas.

The purpose of a business plan review is not to evaluate the likelihood of success for a given project or company but rather to determine whether the project has been adequately researched and whether the information presented is accurate and comprehensive enough for investors or other stakeholders to make an informed decision about investing in it.

Why Should You Have Your Business Plan Reviewed?

Your business plan is a living document. Over time, it will change as you grow and learn more about your business, market and competition.

But even when the plan isn't changing, it's important to review it regularly to ensure that you're still on track. Here are seven reasons why:

A good review will give you an unbiased look at your plan, highlighting areas where more information is required or gaps in your thinking. This can help ensure that your plan contains everything it needs to, which makes it easier to manage and gives investors confidence in your business.

A business plan is a blueprint for reaching your long-term goals. But a good review will help you see how well your current strategy aligns with those goals and whether there are any holes in the plan. If there are gaps, the reviewer can help you identify what needs to be changed and where resources must be allocated to achieve those goals.

Having someone look over your plan from an objective point of view can help you see potential problems before they become major issues. You might find that something is missing from your strategy or that too many steps are involved in achieving your goals. It could also reveal other important information that will help improve the overall quality of your plan.

Business plans don't just cover what's happened so far — they also forecast what's going to happen next year, six months from now and beyond. So if things change along the way, they may not be reflected in the plan written today. A review can help keep your focus on where you want to go in the future by reviewing your progress each month and adjusting accordingly if needed.

A good consultant will give you constructive feedback about areas where your business plan falls short. This is invaluable when it comes time to revise your plan to more accurately reflect the reality of what's happening in your company, whether due to external factors or internal mistakes. A comprehensive review will also show you where there are holes in your strategy and suggest how they can be filled to strengthen your company's position in its marketplace.

Looking at how your business has performed over time, you can identify areas of concern before they become serious problems.

For example, if sales are declining or profits are shrinking, these trends might be due to temporary factors that can be corrected with better marketing or product development. If sales continue to fall despite these efforts, however, there could be deeper-rooted problems that need addressing.

A good business plan will give you an idea of what your company can accomplish in the short term and over time.

A good business plan also helps potential investors understand what your business is about and why it has the potential for success. This means that if they invest in your company, they can be more confident that they're making a smart choice that will make them money.

• Business Strategy: Planning a company's strategic direction and goals. The business strategy consists of setting a business's vision and mission, identifying its strengths and weaknesses, and evaluating growth opportunities.
• Business Forecast: A business forecast predicts how well the company's revenue and expenses will fare for the next few years. It typically includes financial statements for the current year, estimates for the following year, and projections for two or three subsequent years.
• Bank-Ready Business Plan: A business plan that has been carefully prepared to meet all criteria set by banks when applying for a loan. The bank will want financial projections showing how your business can repay the loan and reasonable evidence that you have identified all costs associated with starting and operating your new business.

Hire the best lawyers for a business plan review through Contracts Counsel where you can find many qualified and vetted lawyers to help you go over your business plan.

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20 Questions for Your Q1 Business Plan Review

The end of Q1 is the ideal time for a business plan review.

So how do you even review a business plan?

You’ve heard me say before that having a business plan is an absolutely essential part of getting to where you want to be in life. But no matter how good of a plan you make, at the end of the day, it’s still only a plan – which means it’s meant to be followed, not written and set aside. That’s what this business plan review is for.

It’s the role of a good coach to check in on your progress and keep you on pace, so that’s exactly what I’m hoping to accomplish here in this blog.

According to your business plan , the strategies you’ve put in place so far can either:

• Launch you to where you want to be (if you refine them) or
• Send you spiraling into a crash (if they’re left unchecked)

It’s probably fair to say you’d prefer the first one, right? In that case, I’m giving you one of my favorite simple business plan review techniques. All you have to do is get all your numbers ready, pull up your business plan, and answer 20 questions.

Got everything ready? Then let’s get started…

How often should a business plan be reviewed?

Your business plan should be reviewed at least once per year. In today’s fast-paced business world, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations and lose sight of the bigger picture. That’s why it’s crucial to schedule regular business plan reviews. Updating your business plan annually helps ensure that your company stays competitive and on track to meet its long-term goals. With so much at stake, you can’t afford to wait until the last minute to sift through all the numbers and make necessary changes. By reviewing your business plan regularly, you’ll be able to identify areas of improvement and make strategic adjustments. Don’t let your business plan become a static document. Keep it alive and thriving by scheduling regular reviews.

Business Plan Review Questions to Ask Yourself

Question No. 1: What’s your WHY? This is something you should already have written in your business plan , but it’s a question worth repeatedly asking not just at the end of every quarter but every day. So look at what you wrote down in December and then ask the question again. Has your answer changed? It’s okay if it has but make the adjustment.

Question No. 2: What’s your role?

Define your job, because your job title defines how you approach both your work and your business plan review. Are you operating as a real estate agent or like the CEO of your company?

Question No. 3: Did you make enough money to achieve your WHY?

Before we dive into any of your actual numbers, let’s establish a monetary value for your WHY. Not everything in life has a price tag: love, peace, honesty… But most things do, or at least money plays a role in them. Maybe you want to pay for your kid’s college. Maybe you want to start investing in properties. So ask yourself if over the last three months you’re on the right track for these goals and what being on the right track would actually look like.

Goals vs. Reality

Question No. 4: Units Closed vs. Goal Units Closed?

Question No. 5: Volume vs. Goal Volume?

Question No. 6: GCI vs. Goal GCI?

Question No. 7: What’s your average price per listing?

Add up the sum total of what all your listings have sold for and divide by the number of listings taken.

Are You Following Your Plan?

Question No. 8: Are you using all the lead sources you said you would on your business plan?

Question No. 9: Which lead sources are you underutilizing?

Question No. 10: Have you put in place the systems you wanted to have by Q2?

Question No. 11: In what ways do you need to adjust your plan to catch up to where you want to be by Q3?

Question No. 12: Expenses vs. Income. Are you staying in the right range?

If not, how far off are you and where is that money going?

Finding Your Personal Metrics

Question No. 13: How many conversations did you have?

Then break this down to how many you had each day, week, and month. Create a daily average.

Question No. 14: How many appointments did you take?

Question No. 15: How many conversations does it take you to get an appointment?

It’s simple division that creates massive predictability for your business. You should know this number and “live it” every day. Remember: Appointments are the only currency that matters today.

Question No. 16: How many appointments does it take for you to convert a listing?

Important Questions to Have Framed in Your Office

Question No. 17: How much money do you make from each conversation you have?

Divide your GCI by the total number of conversations you had. Then take this number and put it somewhere that you and every person on your team can see every day. When you don’t feel like making your calls, just remind yourself that this is how much every call is worth to you.

Question No. 18: What went well for you in Q1 and how can you do more of it?

It’s important to not only focus on where you’ve fallen short, because you’re strengths are what you need to rely on here – which means it’s important to know what they are!

Question No. 19: What do you need to stop doing and leave behind in Q2?

It’s time to strip away all the baggage that’s slowing you down, whether that means it’s time to hire someone or maybe it’s a lifestyle habit that’s getting in the way of your success.

Question No. 20: Are you getting to support you need?

In my 35+ years in this business, I’ve never seen anyone figure everything out by themselves. Even for people who are thriving right now, imagine what you could do if you had professional support to guide you on your journey…

My guess is, you’d learn that you’re not setting your goals high enough. Because we don’t know what we’re capable of until we have a valued mentor bring it out of us, push us to new limits, and show us the blind spots we can’t see for ourselves. So, if you’re ready to take this next step and fully commit to becoming the best version of yourself in Q2 and beyond, self-schedule a free coaching consultation right here . It only takes about an hour and might just change your life.

And if you’re already a coaching member or Sphere subscriber , be sure to watch Kay Fairchild’s webinar on conducting a more detailed quarterly business plan review inside of illūm, where she takes you step-by-step through her own extremely valuable quarterly review process.

Need to create a business plan first?

With access to this on-demand business plan webinar , you’ll gain immediate access to our acclaimed seven-point business plan template, essential tips on fostering the right mindset to conquer today’s volatile market, engaging Q&A sessions, and more insights from Tom Ferry. Don’t miss this chance to arm yourself with the knowledge and tools to thrive. Unlock your access to the full video, business plan template, and more!

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Review your business performance

Once your business is established and running well, you may be inclined to let things continue to run as they are.

However, it's actually time to plan again. After the crucial early stages, you should regularly review your progress, identify how you can make the most of the market position you've established and decide where to take your business next. You will need to revisit and update your business plan with your new strategy in mind and make sure you introduce the developments you've noted.

This guide takes you through this essential process, detailing the stages you should go through to assess how well your business is performing, highlighting your strengths and areas that could be improved and suggesting the actions you need to take to implement the improvements that you've identified.

Why it's vital to review the progress of your business

Assess your core activities, assess your business efficiency, review your financial position, conduct a competitor analysis, conduct a customer and market analysis, use your review to redefine your business goals, models for your strategic analysis, breaking down your strategic review.

It's easy to focus only on the day-to-day running of your business, especially in the early stages. But once you're up and running, it can pay dividends to think about longer-term and more strategic planning. This is especially true as you take on more staff, create departments within the business, appoint managers or directors and become distanced from the everyday running of the business.

Reviewing your progress will be particularly useful if you feel:

• uncertain about how well the business is performing
• unsure if you're getting the most out of the business or making the most of market opportunities
• your business plan may be out of date, e.g. you haven't updated it since you started trading
• your business is moving in a direction different to the one you had planned
• the business may be becoming unwieldy or unresponsive to market demands

It is also useful if you have decided that your company is ready to move on to another level.

Setting the direction

A clear business strategy will help to answer any concerns and show practical ways forward.

Questions you might want to ask include:

• What's my direction? To answer this you need to look at where you are now, where you want to go over the next three to five years and how you intend to get there.
• What are my markets - now and in the future? Which markets should I compete in, how will they change and what does the business need in order to be involved in these sectors?
• How do I gain market advantage? How can the business perform better than the competition in my chosen markets?
• What resources do I require to succeed? What skills, assets, finance, relationships, technical competence and facilities do I need to compete? Have these changed since I started?
• What business environment am I competing in? What external factors may affect the business' ability to compete?
• How am I measuring success? Remember, measures of performance may change as your business matures.

It's doubtful whether you will be able to answer these questions on your own - involving your professional advisers, your fellow directors and your senior staff will all help to make your review more effective.

A good starting point for your review is to evaluate what you actually do - your core activities, the products that you make, or services that you provide. Ask yourself what makes them successful, how they could be improved and whether you could launch new or complementary products or services.

Key questions about your products or services

It's useful to address these questions:

• How effectively are you matching your goods and services to your customers' needs? If you're not quite sure what those needs are, you could carry out further market or customer analysis. See the page in this guide on how to conduct a customer and market analysis.
• Which of your products and services are succeeding? Which aren't performing as planned? Decide which products and services offer both a high percentage of sales and high profit margins.
• What's really behind the problems of a product or service? Consider areas such as pricing, marketing, sales and after-sales service, design, packaging and systems during your review. Look for "quick wins" that give you the breathing space to make more fundamental improvements.
• Are you reviewing costs frequently? Are you keeping a close enough eye on your direct costs, your overheads and your assets? Are there different ways of doing things or new materials you could use that would lower your costs? Consider ways in which you can negotiate better deals with your suppliers.

Answering these questions will give you the basis on which to improve performance and profitability.

Many new businesses work in a short-term, reactive way. This offers flexibility - but can cost time and money as you move from getting the business going to concentrating on growing and developing it.

The best option is to balance your ability to respond rapidly with a clear overall strategy. This will help you decide whether the actions you take are appropriate or not.

At this stage you should ask yourself if there are any internal factors holding the business back, and if so, what can you do about them?

Consider the various aspects of your business in turn.

• What are your long-term commitments to the property?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of your current location?
• Do you have room to grow, or the flexibility to cut back if necessary?
• If you move premises, what will be the cost? Will there be long-term cost savings and improvements in efficiency?
• If you manufacture products, how modern is your equipment?
• What is the capacity of your current facility compared to existing and forecast demand?
• How will you fund any improvements?
• How do you compare with your competition?

Information technology

• What management information and other IT systems do you have in place?
• Will these systems cater for any proposed expansion?
• Will they really make a difference to the quality of product or service your business provides? If they don't, can you change them to make sure they do?
• Do you make best use of technology such as wireless networking and mobile telephony to allow for more flexible working?

People and skills

• Do you have the right people to achieve your objectives?
• Do they know what is expected of them?
• Do you operate a training and development plan?
• Do you pay as well as the competition?
• Do you suffer from high staff turnover? Are staff motivated and satisfied?

Professional skills

• Do you have the right management team in place for growth?
• Do you have the skills available that you need in areas such as human resources, sales and IT?
• Do your staff need new or improved skills or to be retrained?

Businesses often fail because of poor financial management or a lack of planning. Often the business plan that was used to help raise finance is put on a shelf to gather dust.

When it comes to your business' success, therefore, developing and implementing sound financial and management systems (or paying someone to do it for you) is vital.

Updating your original business plan is a good place to start.

When reviewing your finances, you might want to consider the following:

• Cash flow - this is the balance of all of the money flowing in and out of your business. Make sure that your forecast is regularly reviewed and updated.
• Working capital - have your requirements changed? If so, explain the reasons for any movement. Compare this to the industry norm. If necessary, take steps to source additional capital.
• Cost base - keep your costs under constant review. Make sure that your costs are covered in your sale price - but don't expect your customers to pay for any business inefficiencies.
• Borrowing - what is the position of any lines of credit or loans? Are there more appropriate or cheaper forms of finance you could use?
• Growth - do you have plans in place to adapt your financing to accommodate your business' changing needs and growth?

Now that you have been running your business for a while, you will probably have a clearer idea of your competitors. Gathering more information may cost time, money and effort, but there are many benefits to knowing more about what your competition is doing.

What you need to know

The type of competitor information that will be really useful to you depends on the type of business you are and the market you're operating in. Questions to ask about your competitors include:

• who they are
• what they offer
• how they price their products
• what the profile and numbers of their customers are compared to yours
• what their competitive advantages and disadvantages are compared to yours
• what their reaction to your entry into the market or any product or price changes might be

You will probably find it useful to do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. This will show you how you are doing in relation to the market in general and specifically your closest competitors. See the page in this guide on models for your strategic analysis.

How to find out more

There are three main ways to find out more about your competitors:

• What they say about themselves - sales literature, advertisements, press releases, shared suppliers, exhibitions, websites, competitor visits, company accounts.
• What other people say about them - your sales people, customers, local directories, the Internet, newspapers, analysts' reports, market research companies.
• Commissioned market research - if you need more detailed information, you might want to commission specific market research.

When you started your business, you probably devised a marketing plan as part of your overall business plan. This would have defined the market in which you intended to sell and targeted the nature and geographical distribution of your customers.

From that strategy you would have been able to produce a marketing plan to help you meet your objectives. When you're reviewing your business' performance, you'll need to assess your customer base and market positioning as a key part of the process. You should update your marketing plan at least as often as your business plan.

Revisiting your markets

A business review offers you the opportunity to stand back from the activity outlined in your plan and look again at factors such as:

• changes in your market
• new and emerging services
• changes in your customers' needs
• external factors such as the economy, imports and new technology
• changes in competitive activity

Asking your customers for feedback on your business' performance will help to identify where improvements can be made to your products or services, your staffing levels or your business procedures.

At the same time, it is important to remember that while reviews of this kind can be very effective - they can give your business the flexibility it needs to beat off stiff competition at short notice - it is important to think through the implications of any changes. In the new phase of your business you'll need to plan your finances and resourcing carefully at all times.

To remain successful it's vital that you regularly set time aside to ask the following key strategic questions:

• Where is the business now?
• Where is it going?
• How is it going to get there?

Often businesses are able to work out where they want to go but don't draw up a roadmap of how to get there. If this happens, a business will lack the direction needed to turn even carefully laid plans into reality.

At the end of any review process, therefore, it's vital that work plans are prepared to put the new ideas into place and that a timetable is set. Regularly reviewing how the new plan is working and allowing for any teething problems or necessary adjustments is important too. Today's business environment is exceptionally dynamic and it is likely that you will need regular reviews, updates and revisions to your business plan in order to maintain business success.

Continuous improvement

In addition, a simple planning cycle can greatly enhance your ability to make changes in your business routine if necessary. Good planning helps you anticipate problems and adapt to change more easily.

Expert input

You may find at this stage in your business' development that you need external skills to help you with the changes you have to make. In this case you might consider:

• employing skilled consultants in areas where you cannot afford to develop inhouse skills
• appointing an experienced non-executive director who can provide a regular, impartial assessment of what you are doing
• using a management consultant to help you identify how you can strengthen or change your management structure to grow the business

There are a number of useful business-analysis models that may help you think more strategically about your business.

The SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) is one of the most popular. This involves looking at the strengths and weaknesses of your business' capabilities, and any opportunities and threats to your business. Once you've identified all of these, you can assess how to capitalise on your strengths, minimise the effects of your weaknesses, make the most of any opportunities and reduce the impact of any threats.

Opportunities and threats in the external environment

It's important to remember that opportunities can also be threats - for example, new markets could be dominated by competitors, undermining your position. Equally, threats can also be opportunities -for example, a competitor growing quickly and opening a new market for your product or service could mean that your market expands too.

A SWOT analysis can provide a clear basis for examining your business performance and prospects. It can be used as part of a regular review process or in preparation for raising finance or bringing in consultants for a review.

Once you have collected information on your organisation's internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats, enter this data into a simple table.

Other tools include:

STEEPLE analysis - a technique for understanding the various external influences on a business – Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical.

Scenario planning - a technique that builds various plausible views of possible futures for a business.

Critical success factor analysis - a technique to identify the areas in which a business must succeed in order to achieve its objectives.

The Five Forces - the theory that there are five defined factors that influence the development of markets and businesses - potential entrants, existing competitors, buyers, suppliers and alternative products/services. Using this model you build a strategy to keep ahead of these influences.

As owner-manager of your business or as a member of its management team, you should stand back once in a while and review your business' performance.

The areas you need to look at are:

• Your market performance and direction - how well you are performing through your sales results, which markets to aim for next and how to improve your performance.
• Your products and services - how long your existing products will meet your customers' needs and any plans for renewal.
• Operational matters - your premises, your methods, technologies used, your processes, IT and quality. Are there any internal issues that are holding your business back?
• Financial matters - how your business is financed, levels of retained profit, the sales income generated and your cash flow.
• Your organisation and your people - your structures, people planning issues, training and development.

The five steps above will give you a clear indication of any issues that you need to address quickly in order to maintain your business in its early stages.

If you feel all of the areas above are strong, you can start to plan for the next phase and build a cohesive strategy to develop your business. However, if there are areas that need attention, deal with them now so that you can move forward. There are a variety of growth options for every business - it's important that you settle on the right one for you.

Also, once you've isolated your best route for developing your business, you can boost your chances of success by planning it carefully and monitoring your progress against an updated business plan.

Original document, Review your business performance , © Crown copyright 2009 Source: Business Link UK (now GOV.UK/Business ) Adapted for Québec by Info entrepreneurs

Our information is provided free of charge and is intended to be helpful to a large range of UK-based (gov.uk/business) and Québec-based (infoentrepreneurs.org) businesses. Because of its general nature the information cannot be taken as comprehensive and should never be used as a substitute for legal or professional advice. We cannot guarantee that the information applies to the individual circumstances of your business. Despite our best efforts it is possible that some information may be out of date.

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How to Write a Business Plan, Step by Step

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money .

What is a business plan?

1. write an executive summary, 2. describe your company, 3. state your business goals, 4. describe your products and services, 5. do your market research, 6. outline your marketing and sales plan, 7. perform a business financial analysis, 8. make financial projections, 9. summarize how your company operates, 10. add any additional information to an appendix, business plan tips and resources.

A business plan outlines your business’s financial goals and explains how you’ll achieve them over the next three to five years. Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing a business plan that will offer a strong, detailed road map for your business.

ZenBusiness

A business plan is a document that explains what your business does, how it makes money and who its customers are. Internally, writing a business plan should help you clarify your vision and organize your operations. Externally, you can share it with potential lenders and investors to show them you’re on the right track.

Business plans are living documents; it’s OK for them to change over time. Startups may update their business plans often as they figure out who their customers are and what products and services fit them best. Mature companies might only revisit their business plan every few years. Regardless of your business’s age, brush up this document before you apply for a business loan .

» Need help writing? Learn about the best business plan software .

This is your elevator pitch. It should include a mission statement, a brief description of the products or services your business offers and a broad summary of your financial growth plans.

Though the executive summary is the first thing your investors will read, it can be easier to write it last. That way, you can highlight information you’ve identified while writing other sections that go into more detail.

» MORE: How to write an executive summary in 6 steps

Next up is your company description. This should contain basic information like:

Your business’s registered name.

Address of your business location .

Names of key people in the business. Make sure to highlight unique skills or technical expertise among members of your team.

Your company description should also define your business structure — such as a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation — and include the percent ownership that each owner has and the extent of each owner’s involvement in the company.

Lastly, write a little about the history of your company and the nature of your business now. This prepares the reader to learn about your goals in the next section.

» MORE: How to write a company overview for a business plan

The third part of a business plan is an objective statement. This section spells out what you’d like to accomplish, both in the near term and over the coming years.

If you’re looking for a business loan or outside investment, you can use this section to explain how the financing will help your business grow and how you plan to achieve those growth targets. The key is to provide a clear explanation of the opportunity your business presents to the lender.

For example, if your business is launching a second product line, you might explain how the loan will help your company launch that new product and how much you think sales will increase over the next three years as a result.

» MORE: How to write a successful business plan for a loan

In this section, go into detail about the products or services you offer or plan to offer.

You should include the following:

An explanation of how your product or service works.

The pricing model for your product or service.

The typical customers you serve.

Your supply chain and order fulfillment strategy.

You can also discuss current or pending trademarks and patents associated with your product or service.

Lenders and investors will want to know what sets your product apart from your competition. In your market analysis section , explain who your competitors are. Discuss what they do well, and point out what you can do better. If you’re serving a different or underserved market, explain that.

Here, you can address how you plan to persuade customers to buy your products or services, or how you will develop customer loyalty that will lead to repeat business.

Include details about your sales and distribution strategies, including the costs involved in selling each product .

» MORE: R e a d our complete guide to small business marketing

If you’re a startup, you may not have much information on your business financials yet. However, if you’re an existing business, you’ll want to include income or profit-and-loss statements, a balance sheet that lists your assets and debts, and a cash flow statement that shows how cash comes into and goes out of the company.

Accounting software may be able to generate these reports for you. It may also help you calculate metrics such as:

Net profit margin: the percentage of revenue you keep as net income.

Current ratio: the measurement of your liquidity and ability to repay debts.

Accounts receivable turnover ratio: a measurement of how frequently you collect on receivables per year.

This is a great place to include charts and graphs that make it easy for those reading your plan to understand the financial health of your business.

This is a critical part of your business plan if you’re seeking financing or investors. It outlines how your business will generate enough profit to repay the loan or how you will earn a decent return for investors.

Here, you’ll provide your business’s monthly or quarterly sales, expenses and profit estimates over at least a three-year period — with the future numbers assuming you’ve obtained a new loan.

Accuracy is key, so carefully analyze your past financial statements before giving projections. Your goals may be aggressive, but they should also be realistic.

NerdWallet’s picks for setting up your business finances:

The best business checking accounts .

The best business credit cards .

The best accounting software .

Before the end of your business plan, summarize how your business is structured and outline each team’s responsibilities. This will help your readers understand who performs each of the functions you’ve described above — making and selling your products or services — and how much each of those functions cost.

If any of your employees have exceptional skills, you may want to include their resumes to help explain the competitive advantage they give you.

Finally, attach any supporting information or additional materials that you couldn’t fit in elsewhere. That might include:

Licenses and permits.

Equipment leases.

Bank statements.

Details of your personal and business credit history, if you’re seeking financing.

If the appendix is long, you may want to consider adding a table of contents at the beginning of this section.

How much do you need?

with Fundera by NerdWallet

We’ll start with a brief questionnaire to better understand the unique needs of your business.

Once we uncover your personalized matches, our team will consult you on the process moving forward.

Here are some tips to write a detailed, convincing business plan:

Avoid over-optimism: If you’re applying for a business bank loan or professional investment, someone will be reading your business plan closely. Providing unreasonable sales estimates can hurt your chances of approval.

Proofread: Spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors can jump off the page and turn off lenders and prospective investors. If writing and editing aren't your strong suit, you may want to hire a professional business plan writer, copy editor or proofreader.

Use free resources: SCORE is a nonprofit association that offers a large network of volunteer business mentors and experts who can help you write or edit your business plan. The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Centers , which provide free business consulting and help with business plan development, can also be a resource.

On a similar note...

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When Should Entrepreneurs Write Their Business Plans?

• Francis J. Greene
• Christian Hopp

Don’t write a plan before you understand your customer.

It pays to plan. Entrepreneurs who write business plans are more likely to succeed, according to research. But while this might tempt some entrepreneurs to make writing a plan their very first task, a subsequent study shows that writing a plan first is a really bad idea. It is much better to wait, not to devote too much time to writing the plan, and, crucially, to synchronize the plan with other key startup activities.

It pays to plan. Entrepreneurs who write business plans are more likely to succeed, according to our research, described in an earlier piece for Harvard Business Review . But while this might tempt some entrepreneurs to make writing a plan their very first task, our subsequent study shows that writing a plan first is a really bad idea. It is much better to wait, not to devote too much time to writing the plan, and, crucially, to synchronize the plan with other key startup activities.

• FG Francis J. Greene is Chair in Entrepreneurship in the University of Edinburgh Business School.
• CH Christian Hopp is Chair in Technology Entrepreneurship in the TIME Research Area, the Faculty of Business and Economics, RWTH Aachen University.

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What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, how often should a business plan be updated, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

A business plan is a document that details a company's goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document describing a company's business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company's short- and long-term objectives.
• There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they'll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn't looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, "Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs."

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan for itself.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and highlighting any potential obstacles to success. A company might also share its business plan with trusted outsiders to get their objective feedback. In addition, a business plan can help keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and priorities.

Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they often have some of the same basic elements, as we describe below.

While it's a good idea to provide as much detail as necessary, it's also important that a business plan be concise enough to hold a reader's attention to the end.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, it's best to fit the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and attached as appendices.

These are some of the most common elements in many business plans:

• Executive summary: This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services: Here, the company should describe the products and services it offers or plans to introduce. That might include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other factors that could go into this section include production and manufacturing processes, any relevant patents the company may have, as well as proprietary technology . Information about research and development (R&D) can also be included here.
• Market analysis: A company needs to have a good handle on the current state of its industry and the existing competition. This section should explain where the company fits in, what types of customers it plans to target, and how easy or difficult it may be to take market share from incumbents.
• Marketing strategy: This section can describe how the company plans to attract and keep customers, including any anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. It should also describe the distribution channel or channels it will use to get its products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections: Established businesses can include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses can provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making.

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should aim to entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its uniqueness and potential for success.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can take many forms, but they are sometimes divided into two basic categories: traditional and lean startup. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These plans tend to be much longer than lean startup plans and contain considerably more detail. As a result they require more work on the part of the business, but they can also be more persuasive (and reassuring) to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans are short—as short as one page—and provide only the most basic detail. If a company wants to use this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or a lender requests it.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan is not a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections to begin with. Markets and the overall economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All of this calls for building some flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on the nature of the business. A well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary. A new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers to give a quick explanation of its business. For example, a brand-new company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide yet.

Sections can include: a value proposition ; the company's major activities and advantages; resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital; a list of partnerships; customer segments; and revenue sources.

A business plan can be useful to companies of all kinds. But as a company grows and the world around it changes, so too should its business plan. So don't think of your business plan as carved in granite but as a living document designed to evolve with your business.

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

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How to Run a Productive Monthly Business Plan Review Meeting

Noah Parsons

5 min. read

Updated April 2, 2024

Most people think that meetings are a waste of time. They’re right.

Too many meetings are run poorly, have no real objective, and waste employees’ time—which kills productivity.

There’s tons of advice and information on how to run better meetings and cut down on useless meetings that are making your organization move slower. I absolutely encourage you to  be ruthless in your pursuit of fewer and more efficient meetings .

But, here at Palo Alto Software, we’ve found one meeting that is simply indispensable. It only takes an hour each month, keeps the management team up to speed on everything that’s going on in the company, and helps us plan and manage in a lean and effective way.

This meeting is our monthly plan review meeting. The meeting has been a fixture of our management strategy for years and is simply one of the most effective ways for us to continue to grow the company and adjust our course as necessary.

For us, business planning isn’t just a one-time or annual event. Instead, it’s an ongoing process where we are constantly reviewing our process and adjusting course as necessary while ensuring that we’re  staying on track toward our larger goals .

We treat planning not as a document, but as a management tool  that helps guide decisions and strategy.

Here’s a quick overview of how we structure our monthly plan review meetings and what’s worked for us over the years.

1. Let’s do the numbers

We always start with the numbers first . How did we do last month compared to our forecast? How did we do compared to the same month last year? What does our year-to-date performance look like?

We always spend time drilling into the numbers, beyond the top-line revenue and expenses, to better understand the drivers behind our performance. Did all product lines perform well? Or did some underperform? Did we spend as planned, or were there some areas that we overspent in?

Most importantly, we review our cash position and  cash flow . Did we collect money as planned? What is our cash flow forecast for the next few months?

While financial reports can be reviewed outside of a meeting, reviewing them together as a team encourages questions and discussion around our revenue and spending.

• 2. Are we there yet?

Once we review our financial performance, we review our “ major milestones ”—the big tasks we had hoped to get done in the past month and our plans for the next month.

We discuss how various teams might be working with each other on different projects and talk about the specific milestones that we have planned. Are these still the tactics that we want to work on that will help achieve our goals? Do we need to shift priorities? Is there new learning and information that would have us change our schedule?

By reviewing major initiatives on a monthly basis, we can stay agile  and make changes as needed. As we learn more about our customers and our market, we might shift strategies and develop new milestones.

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• 3. Long-range goals and strategy

Next, we review our long-range strategic goals. While this doesn’t change too often in our situation as an established company, new startups might shift their strategy frequently as they search for a business model that works.

For those early-stage startups, this step of the meeting may be the most important step and take the longest. For more established companies, this part of the meeting might typically only take a few minutes.

Instead of delving deep into a 40-page business plan document to review our strategy, we review our lean plan, or our one-page business plan. It covers our company identity, the core problem we solve for our customers, our solution, competition, and  sales and marketing strategy . It’s  all on one page so it’s easy to read, review, and change quickly .

• 4. Issues to process

Finally, anyone on the team can bring forward any issues that they want to discuss. This could include new opportunities to consider, prioritization of product features, potential partnerships, or internal HR issues.

Everything is fair game and we try to come up with resolutions and next steps for any issue that’s brought up.

We’ve found that this type of open-ended discussion really helps generate new ideas and brings different perspectives from managers of different teams.

I believe that all companies would benefit from a monthly review of their business. These types of meetings keep everyone on the same page, help share information about progress, and turn planning into a tool that helps teams make informed decisions.

To make a monthly strategy meeting successful, you also need to follow a few guidelines:

1. put the meeting on the calendar.

It’s important to make it a formal event that’s on the schedule. It can’t be optional and it has to be at a regular time so that everyone always knows when the meeting is.

For us, we started out with the meeting on the 3rd Thursday of every month. As our bookkeeping and accounting processes have become more efficient, we’ve been able to move our meeting to the 2nd Friday of the month.

2. Follow a repeatable agenda

While different topics will come up for discussion, it’s important that your plan review meeting has a repeatable agenda.

That means making sure that you have your numbers ready for review and that your team has updates on their goals.

3. Be prepared to change the plan

These plan review meetings aren’t just about staying the course and blindly following the plan. Instead, they are about adjusting the plan. Perhaps you’ll discover that you should be investing more in marketing, or that you’re going to be able to expand and hire faster than you originally planned.

The plan review meeting is about making adjustments to your goals and strategies based on what you’ve discovered in the past month.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

Table of Contents

• 1. Let’s do the numbers

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Run » finance, 8 signs it's time to update your business plan.

You should update your business plan more frequently than you might think. Here are eight signs it’s time to update your business plan.

Updating your business plan ensures that the information is up to date and in line with the changing goals of your organization. Here are eight situations where it’s necessary to update your business plan .

It’s been over a year since you updated it

Your business plan is never finished — you should constantly be reviewing and updating it. How often you update it is up to you, but it’s a good idea to schedule regular periods to review and update your plan.

For instance, you could do a minor review quarterly and then conduct a major review at least once per year. This will give you an opportunity to see what’s changed and if there are any outdated items.

You’ve added new products or services

Your company’s products and services are an integral part of your business plan, so when they change, your business plan should change as well. That's because adding new products or services affects your sales projections and how you manage company resources.

[Read more: How to Communicate a Product Discontinuation to Customers ]

The competition is changing

Paying attention to what your competitors are doing can help you determine when it’s time to shift your own business strategy. For instance, let’s say a competitor has copied your product or service or is undercutting you on price. You should take the time to evaluate their strategy and decide whether you want to do anything in response.

[Read more: 6 Steps to Market Your Business in a Competitive Market ]

The market is changing

Anytime there are changes in the market, you should adjust your business plan accordingly. For instance, businesses that relied on in-store traffic to make sales had to make adjustments during COVID.

Current issues like inflation or fears of a recession could affect a customer’s ability to buy your product or service. Any factors that could negatively affect your revenue warrant reviewing your business plan.

When you started your business, it may have just been you and one or two other employees. If your company has experienced substantial growth since then, it’s time to review your business plan.

You’ve experienced a financial change

It’s a good idea to update your business plan anytime you experience a significant financial change, whether good or bad. For instance, landing a major client is a great problem to have. But serving that client may require more time and resources than your team initially planned for.

Likewise, if a long-term customer cancels a major contract, that will affect your future revenue. Each of these scenarios requires you to revisit your business plan and develop a new strategy.

You’re going through internal changes

Internal changes can require you to update your business plan as well. For instance, let’s say you switch to a new tech platform to make your business more competitive. Or maybe you’ve recently switched vendors to deal with supply chain issues.

Losing a key staff member can also deal a major blow to your business. Perhaps that person had strong relationships with many of your customers, so you need to rethink how your business will operate without them.

[Read more: How to Talk to an Employee About Poor Performance ]

Your company has grown substantially

And when you update your business plan, it’s a good idea to involve several key employees. Getting buy-in from your employees helps ensure the implementation will be successful.

You’re trying to obtain funding

You'll need to provide a detailed business plan if you’re trying to obtain funding from a bank or investor. When an investor looks at your business plan, they should understand what your company does and your future financial projections.

Your business plan should include:

• An executive summary.
• An explanation of your total available market.
• A description of how you plan to use the funding.

This may sound complicated, but it isn’t if you follow a free business plan template .

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How to write an effective business plan in 11 steps (with workbook)

February 02, 2023 | 14 minute read

Writing a business plan is a powerful way to position your small business for success as you set out to meet your goals. Landmark studies suggest that business founders who write one are 16% more likely to build viable businesses than those who don’t and that entrepreneurs focused on high growth are 7% more likely to have written a business plan. 1 Even better, other research shows that owners who complete business plans are twice as likely to grow their business successfully or obtain capital compared with those who don’t. 2

The best time to write a business plan is typically after you have vetted and researched your business idea. (See How to start a business in 15 steps. ) If conditions change later, you can rewrite the plan, much like how your GPS reroutes you if there is traffic ahead. When you update your plan regularly, everyone on your team, including outside stakeholders such as investors, will know where you are headed.

What is a business plan?

Typically 15-20 pages long, a business plan is a document that explains what your business does, what you want to achieve in the business and the strategy you plan to use to get there. It details the opportunities you are going after, what resources you will need to achieve your goals and how you will define success.

Why are business plans important?

Business plans help you think through barriers and discover opportunities you may have recognized subconsciously but have not yet articulated. A business plan can also help you to attract potential lenders, investors and partners by providing them with evidence that your business has all of the ingredients necessary for success.

What questions should a business plan answer?

Your business plan should explain how your business will grow and succeed. A great plan will provide detailed answers to questions that a banker or investor will have before putting money into the business, such as:

• What products or services do you provide?
• Who is your target customer?
• What are the benefits of your product and service for customers?
• How much will you charge?
• What is the size of the market?
• What are your marketing plans?
• How much competition does the business face in penetrating that market?
• How much experience does the management team have in running businesses like it?
• How do you plan to measure success?
• What do you expect the business’s revenue, costs and profit to be for the first few years?
• How much will it cost to achieve the goals stated in the business plan?
• What is the long-term growth potential of the business? Is the business scalable?
• How will you enable investors to reap the rewards of backing the business? Do you plan to sell the business to a bigger company eventually or take it public as your “exit strategy”?

How to write a business plan in 11 steps

This step-by-step outline will make it easier to write an effective business plan, even if you’re managing the day-to-day demands of starting a new business. Creating a table of contents that lists key sections of the plan with page numbers will make it easy for readers to flip to the sections that interest them most.

• Use our editable workbook to capture notes and organize your thoughts as you review these critical steps. Note: To avoid losing your work, please remember to save this PDF to your desktop before you begin.

1. Executive summary

The executive summary is your opportunity to make a great first impression on investors and bankers. It should be just as engaging as the enthusiastic elevator pitch you might give if you bumped into a potential backer in an elevator.

In three to five paragraphs, you’ll want to explain what your business does, why it will succeed and where it will be in five years. The executive summary should include short descriptions of the following:

• Business concept. What will your business do?
• Goals and vision. What do you expect the business to achieve, both financially and for other key stakeholders, such as the community?
• Product or service. What does your product or service do — and how is it different from those of competitors?
• Target market. Who do you expect to buy your product or service?
• Marketing strategy. How will you tell people about your product or service?
• Current revenue and profits. If your business is pre-revenue, offer sales projections.
• Projected revenue and profits. Provide a realistic look at the next year, as well as the next three years, ideally.
• Financial resources needed. How much money do you need to borrow or raise to fund your plan?
• Management team. Who are the company’s leaders and what relevant experience will they contribute?

2. Business overview

Here is where you provide a brief history of the business and describe the product(s) or service(s) it offers. Make sure you describe the problem you are attempting to solve, for whom you will solve it (your customers) and how you will solve it. Be sure to describe your business model (such as direct-to-consumer sales through an online store) so readers can envision how you will make sales. Also mention your business structure (such as a sole proprietorship , general partnership, limited partnership or corporation) and why it is advantageous for the business. And be sure to provide context on the state of your industry and where your business will fit into it.

3. Business goals and vision

Explain what you hope to achieve in the business (your vision) as well as its mission and value proposition. Most founders judge success by the size to which they grow the business using measures such as revenue or number of employees. Your goals may not be solely financial. You may also wish to provide jobs or solve a societal problem. If that’s the case, mention those goals as well.

If you are seeking outside funding, explain why you need the money, how you will put it to work to grow the business and how you expect to achieve the goals you have set for the business. Also explain your exit strategy—that is, how you would enable investors to cash out, whether that means selling the business or taking it public.

4. Management and organization

Many investors say they bet on the team behind a business more than the business idea, trusting that talented and experienced people will be capable of bringing sound business concepts to life. With that in mind, make sure to provide short bios of the key members of your management team (including yourself) that emphasize the relevant experience each individual brings, along with their special talents and industry recognition. Many business plans include headshots of the management team with the bios.

Also describe more about how your organization will be structured. Your company may be a sole proprietorship, a limited liability company (LLC) or a corporation in one or more states.

If you will need to hire people for specific roles, this is the place to mention those plans. And if you will rely on outside consultants for certain roles — such as an outsourced CFO — be sure to make a note of it here. Outside backers want to know if you’ve anticipated the staffing you need.

5. Service or product line

A business will only succeed if it sells something people want or need to buy. As you describe the products or services you will offer, make sure to explain what benefits they will provide to your target customers, how they will differ from competing offerings and what the buying cycle will likely be so it is clear that you can actually sell what you are offering. If you have plans to protect your intellectual property through a copyright or patent filing, be sure to mention that. Also explain any research and development work that is underway to show investors the potential for additional revenue streams.

6. Market/industry analysis

Anyone interested in providing financial backing to your business will want to know how big your company can potentially grow so they have an idea of what kind of returns they can expect. In this section, you’ll be able to convey that by explaining to whom you will be selling and how much opportunity there is to reach them. Key details to include are market size; a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis ; a competitive analysis; and customer segmentation. Make it clear how you developed any projections you’ve made by citing interviews or research.

Also describe the current state of the industry. Where is there room for improvement? Are most companies using antiquated processes and technology? If your business is a local one, what is the market in your area like? Do most of the restaurants where you plan to open your café serve mediocre food? What will you do better?

In this section, also list competitors, including their names, websites and social media handles. Describe each source of competition and how your business will address it.

7. Sales and marketing

Explain how you will spread the word to potential customers about what you sell. Will you be using paid online search advertising, social media promotions, traditional direct mail, print advertising in local publications, sponsorship of a local radio or TV show, your own YouTube content or some other method entirely? List all of the methods you will use.

Make sure readers know exactly what the path to a sale will be and why that approach will resonate with customers in your ideal target markets as well as existing customer segments. If you have already begun using the methods you’ve outlined, include data on the results so readers know whether they have been effective.

8. Financials

In a new business, you may not have any past financial data or financial statements to include, but that doesn’t mean you have nothing to share. Preparing a budget and financial plan will help show investors or bankers that you have developed a clear understanding of the financial aspects of running your business. (The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has prepared a guide you can use; SCORE , a nonprofit organization that partners with the SBA, offers a financial projections template to help you look ahead.) For an existing business, you will want to include income statements, profit and loss statements, cash flow statements and balance sheets, ideally going back three years.

Make a list of the specific steps you plan to take to achieve the financial results you have outlined. The steps are generally the most detailed for the first year, given that you may need to revise your plan later as you gather feedback from the marketplace.

Include interactive spreadsheets that contain a detailed financial analysis showing how much it costs your business to produce the goods and services you provide, the profits you will generate, any planned investments and the taxes you will pay. See our startup costs calculator to get started.

9. Financial projections

Creating a detailed sales forecast can help you get outside backers excited about supporting you. A sales forecast is typically a table or simple line graph that shows the projected sales of the company over time with monthly or quarterly details for the next 12 months and a broader projection as much as five years into the future. If you haven’t yet launched the company, turn to your market research to develop estimates. For more information, see “ How to create a sales forecast for your small business. ”

10. Funding request

If you are seeking outside financing such as a loan or equity investment, your potential backers will want to know how much money you need and how you will spend it. Describe the amount you are trying to raise, how you arrived at that number and what type of funding you are seeking (such as debt, equity or a combination of both). If you are contributing some of your own funds, it is worth noting this, as it shows that you have skin in the game.

11. Appendix

This should include any information and supporting documents that will help investors and bankers gain a greater understanding of the potential of your business. Depending on your industry, you might include local permits, licenses, deeds and other legal documents; professional certifications and licenses; media clips; information on patents and other intellectual property; key customer contracts and purchase orders; and other relevant documents.

Some business owners find it helpful to develop a list of key concepts, such as the names of the company’s products and industry terms. This can be helpful if you do business in an industry that may not be familiar to the readers of the business plan.

Tips for creating an effective business plan

Use clear, simple language. It’ll be easier to win people over if your plan is easy to read. Steer clear of industry jargon, and if you must use any phrases the average adult won’t know, be sure to define them.

Emphasize what makes your business unique. Investors and bankers want to know how you will solve a problem or gap in the marketplace differently from anyone else. Make sure you’re conveying your differentiating factors.

Nail the details. An ideal business plan will be detailed and accurate. Make sure that any financial projections you make are realistic and grounded in solid market research. (If you need help in making your calculations, you can get free advice at SCORE.) Seasoned bankers and investors will quickly spot numbers that are overly optimistic.

Take time to polish it. Your final version of the plan should be neat and professional with an attractive layout and copy that has been carefully proofread.

Include professional photos. High-quality shots of your product or place of business can help make it clear why your business stands out.

Updating an existing business plan

Some business owners in rapidly growing businesses update their business plan quarterly. Others do so every six months or every year. When you update your plan make sure you consider these three things:

• Are your goals still current? As you’ve tested your concept, your goals may have changed. The plan should reflect this.
• Have you revised any strategies in response to feedback from the marketplace? You may have found that your offerings resonated with a different customer segment than you expected or that your advertising plan didn’t work and you need to try a different approach. Given that investors will want to see a marketing and advertising plan that works, keeping this section current will ensure you are always ready to meet with one who shows interest.
• Have your staffing needs changed? If you set ambitious goals, you may need help from team members or outside consultants you did not anticipate when you first started the business. Take stock now so you can plan accordingly.

Final thoughts

Most business owners don’t follow their business plans exactly. But writing one will get you off to a much better start than simply opening your doors and hoping for the best, and it will be easier to analyze any aspects of your business that aren’t working later so you can course-correct. Ultimately, it may be one of the best investments you can make in the future of your business.

Business plan FAQs

What are common mistakes when writing a business plan.

The biggest mistake you can make when writing a business plan is creating one before the idea has been properly researched and tested. Not every idea is meant to become a business. Other common mistakes include:

• Not describing your management team in a way that is appealing to investors. Simply cutting and pasting someone’s professional bio into the management section won’t do the trick. You’ll want to highlight the credentials of each team member in a way that is relevant to this business.
• Failing to include financial projections — or including overly optimistic ones. Investors look at a lot of business plans and can tell quickly whether your numbers are accurate or pie in the sky. Have a good small business accountant review your numbers to make sure they are realistic.
• Lack of a clear exit strategy for investors. Investors may want the option to cash out eventually and would want to know how they can go about doing that.
• Slapdash presentation. Make sure to fact-check any industry statistics you cite and that any charts, graphs or images are carefully prepared and easy to read.

What are the different types of business plans?

There are a variety of styles of business plans. Here are three major types:

Traditional business plan. This is a formal document for pitching to investors based on the outline in this article. If your business is a complicated one, the plan may exceed the typical length and stretch to as many as 50 pages.

One-page business plan. This is a simplified version of a formal business plan designed to fit on one page. Typically, each section will be described in bullet points or in a chart format rather than in the narrative style of an executive summary. It can be helpful as a summary document to give to investors — or for internal use. Another variation on the one-page theme is the business model canvas .

Lean plan. This methodology for creating a business plan is ideal for a business that is evolving quickly. It is designed in a way that makes it easy to update on a regular basis. Lean business plans are usually about one page long. The SBA has provided an example of what this type of plan includes on its website.

Is the business plan for a nonprofit different from the plan for other business types?

Many elements of a business plan for a nonprofit are similar to those of a for-profit business. However, because the goal of a nonprofit is achieving its mission — rather than turning a profit — the business plan should emphasize its specific goals on that front and how it will achieve them. Many nonprofits set key performance indicators (KPIs) — numbers that they track to show they are moving the needle on their goals.

Nonprofits will generally emphasize their fundraising strategies in their business plans rather than sales strategies. The funds they raise are the lifeblood of the programs they run.

What is the difference between a business plan, a strategic plan and a marketing plan?

A strategic plan is different from the type of business plan you’ve read about here in that it emphasizes the long-term goals of the business and how your business will achieve them over the long run. A strong business plan can function as both a business plan and a strategic plan.

A marketing plan is different from a business plan in that it is focused on four main areas of the business: product (what you are selling and how you will differentiate it), price (how much your products or services will cost and why), promotion (how you will get your ideal customer to notice and buy what you are selling) and place (where you will sell your products). A thorough business plan may cover these topics, doing double duty as both a business plan and a marketing plan.

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Editable business plan workbook

Starting a new business

1 . Francis J. Green and Christian Hopp. “Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed.” HBR. July 14, 2017. Available online at https://hbr.org/2017/07/research-writing-a-business-plan-makes-your-startup-more-likely-to-succeed.

2 . CorpNet, “The Startup Business Plan: Why It’s Important and How You Can Create One,” June 29, 2022.

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20 Reasons Why You Need a Business Plan in 2024

Written by Dave Lavinsky

What is the Purpose of a Business Plan?

The purpose of a business plan is to provide a clear roadmap for the company’s future. It outlines the vision, goals, and strategies of the business, guiding entrepreneurs and stakeholders in understanding its operations and objectives. A business plan template helps attract investors and funding by showcasing the potential for profitability and growth.

Top 20 Reasons Why you Need a Business Plan

1. to prove that you’re serious about your business.

A formal business plan is necessary to show all interested parties — employees, investors, partners and yourself — that you are committed to building the business. Creating your plan forces you to think through and select the strategies that will propel your growth.

2. To Establish Business Milestones

The business plan should clearly lay out the long-term milestones that are most important to the success of your business. To paraphrase Guy Kawasaki, a milestone is something significant enough to come home and tell your spouse about (without boring him or her to death). Would you tell your spouse that you tweaked the company brochure? Probably not. But you’d certainly share the news that you launched your new website or reached $1M in annual revenues.

3. To Better Understand Your Competition

Creating the business plan forces you to analyze the competition. All companies have competition in the form of either direct or indirect competitors, and it is critical to understand your company’s competitive advantages. And if you don’t currently have competitive advantages, to figure out what you must do to gain them.

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4. To Better Understand Your Customer

Why do they buy when they buy? Why don’t they when they don’t? An in-depth customer analysis is essential to an effective business plan and to a successful business. Understanding your customers will not only allow you to create better products and services for them, but will allow you to more cost-effectively reach them via advertising and promotions.

5. To Enunciate Previously Unstated Assumptions

The process of actually writing the business plan helps to bring previously “hidden” assumptions to the foreground. By writing them down and assessing them, you can test them and analyze their validity. For example, you might have assumed that local retailers would carry your product; in your business plan, you could assess the results of the scenario in which this didn’t occur.

6. To Assess the Feasibility of Your Venture

How good is this opportunity? The business plan process involves researching your target market, as well as the competitive landscape, and serves as a feasibility study for the success of your venture. In some cases, the result of your planning will be to table the venture. And it might be to go forward with a different venture that may have a better chance of success.

7. To Document Your Revenue Model

How exactly will your business make money? This is a critical question to answer in writing, for yourself and your investors. Documenting the revenue model helps to address challenges and assumptions associated with the model. And upon reading your plan, others may suggest additional revenue streams to consider.

8. To Determine Your Financial Needs

Does your business need to raise capital? How much? One of the purposes of a business plan is to help you to determine exactly how much capital you need and what you will use it for. This process is essential for raising capital for business and for effectively employing the capital. It will also enable you to plan ahead, particularly if you need to raise additional funding in the future.

9. To Attract Investors

A formal business plan is the basis for financing proposals. The business plan answers investors’ questions such as: Is there a need for this product/service? What are the financial projections? What is the company’s exit strategy? While investors will generally want to meet you in person before writing you a check, in nearly all cases, they will also thoroughly review your business plan.

10. To Reduce the Risk of Pursuing the Wrong Opportunity

The process of creating the business plan helps to minimize opportunity costs. Writing the business plan helps you assess the attractiveness of this particular opportunity, versus other opportunities. So you make the best decisions.

11. To Force You to Research and Really Know Your Market

What are the most important trends in your industry? What are the greatest threats to your industry? Is the market growing or shrinking? What is the size of the target market for your product/service? Creating the business plan will help you to gain a wider, deeper, and more nuanced understanding of your marketplace. And it will allow you to use this knowledge to make decisions to improve your company’s success.

12. To Attract Employees and a Management Team

To attract and retain top quality talent, a business plan is necessary. The business plan inspires employees and management that the idea is sound and that the business is poised to achieve its strategic goals. Importantly, as you grow your company, your employees and not you will do most of the work. So getting them aligned and motivated will be key to your success.

13. To Plot Your Course and Focus Your Efforts

The business plan provides a roadmap from which to operate, and to look to for direction in times of doubt. Without a business plan, you may shift your short-term strategies constantly without a view to your long-term milestones. You wouldn’t go on a long driving trip without a map; think of your business plan as your map.

14. To attract partners

Partners also want to see a business plan, in order to determine whether it is worth partnering with your business. Establishing partnerships often requires time and capital, and companies will be more likely to partner with your venture if they can read a detailed explanation of your company.

15. To Position Your Brand

Creating the business plan helps to define your company’s role in the marketplace. This definition allows you to succinctly describe the business and position the brand to customers, investors, and partners. With the industry, customer and competitive insight you gain during the business planning process, you can best determine how to position your brand.

16. To Judge the Success of Your Business

A formal business plan allows you to compare actual operational results versus the business plan itself. In this way, it allows you to clearly see whether you have achieved your strategic, financing, and operational goals (and why you have or have not).

17. To Reposition Your Business to Deal with Changing Conditions

For example, during difficult economic conditions, if your current sales and operational models aren’t working, you can rewrite your business plan to define, try, and validate new ideas and strategies.

18. To Document Your Marketing Plan

How are you going to reach your customers? How will you retain them? What is your advertising budget? What price will you charge? A well-documented marketing plan is essential to the growth of a business. And the marketing strategies and tactics you use will evolve each year, so revisiting your marketing plan at least annually is critical.

19. To Understand and Forecast Your Company’s Staffing Needs

After completing your business plan, you will not be surprised when you are suddenly short-handed. Rather, your business plan provides a roadmap for your staffing needs, and thus helps to ensure smoother expansion. Importantly your plan can not only help you understand your staffing needs, but ensure your timing is right as it takes time to recruit and train great employees.

20. To Uncover New Opportunities

Through the process of brainstorming, white-boarding and creative interviewing, you will likely see your business in a different light. As a result, you will often come up with new ideas for marketing your product/service and running your business. It’s coming up with these ideas and executing on them which is often the difference between a business that fails or just survives and one that thrives.

Business Plan FAQs

What is a business plan.

A business plan is a document that details your business concept and strategy for growth.

A business plan helps guide your company's efforts and, if applicable, gives investors and lenders the information they need to decide whether or not to fund your company. A business plan template helps you to most easily complete your plan.

Why Do You Need a Business Plan?

A business plan provides details about your company, competition, customers and industry so that you make the best possible decisions to grow your company.

What is the Importance of a Business Plan?

The 3 most important purposes of a business plan are 1) to create an effective strategy for growth, 2) to determine your future financial needs, and 3) to attract investors (including angel investors and VC funding ) and lenders.

Why is a Business Plan Important to an Entrepreneur?

Business plans help entrepreneurs take their visions and turn them into tangible action plans for success.

Need help with your business plan? 

• Speak with a professional business plan consultant from our team.
• Use our simple business plan template .
• Check out our business plan examples .
• Or, if you’re creating your own PPM, you can save time and money with Growthink’s private placement memorandum template .
• Learn more about us via our Growthink Business Plan Review page

The World’s #1 Business Plan Template

Would you like to know the quickest and easiest way to create a winning business plan?

And how to use it to raise funding, improve your strategy, or both?

Well, we’ve developed the ultimate business plan template to help you do this. Simply click below to learn more.

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Factor Review: I’m a Dietitian and Here Are My Thoughts

The meal delivery service can take the stress out of healthy eating.

We've been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process.

What is Factor?

How does factor work, meal choices, what does factor cost, nutrition and ingredients, my experience testing factor, who should order factor, is factor worth it, why trust good housekeeping, pros and cons.

• Variety of chef-crafted meals to choose from
• No prep or cooking required
• Easy-to-follow heating instructions
• Add-ons include smoothies, snacks and desserts
• Some meals are high in sodium
• Not ideal for larger families

Factor , also referred to as "Factor 75" or "Factor_" is a premier meal delivery service, offering freshly prepared dishes that arrive ready to heat and enjoy. According to Nick Wernimont, one of its co-founders, Factor was born out of a desire to give people more time in their day for moments to spend with family. With a dynamic weekly menu boasting 35 options prioritizing quality protein sources like chicken, beef, pork and seafood, Factor's meals are meticulously crafted by culinary experts and approved by registered dietitians, which was an added bonus for me.

Free from hormones, antibiotics and refined sugars, each dish promises a restaurant-quality experience (which I can attest to), catering to various eating patterns such as keto, vegetarian and high-protein diets. Differing from typical meal delivery subscriptions, Factor eliminates the need for any preparation or cooking; each meal arrives ready to be heated and savored, with minimal effort — what a dream. And if you find yourself unsure of which meals align with your unique needs or seek additional support to achieve your health and nutrition goals, Factor offers access to a team of registered dietitians available for virtual consultations.

Joining Factor is pretty straightforward, whether using the website or the app. After entering your email and zip code, simply pick a weekly meal plan, which can range from six to 18 meals. Then, explore the extensive menu featuring various chef-crafted dishes and add-ons like fruit smoothies and snacks to customize your order.

Deliveries are available on Saturday through Wednesday, depending on location. Modifications to orders can be made until the cut-off time, providing flexibility to match your lifestyle needs.

After your initial order, you'll then receive a weekly box of fresh meals, and you'll have the option to make changes until your cut-off time. Factor requires a week's notice to prepare meals fresh-to-order, ensuring quality ingredients and to avoid excess. The meals are delivered in insulated boxes with frozen gel packs to maintain freshness, and should be refrigerated upon arrival for optimal taste and quality, lasting up to seven days.

Though options are abundant in certain categories such as keto and high protein, others like dairy-free and vegetarian have fewer choices. Unfortunately, meal modifications aren't available currently. Each meal comes with detailed descriptions, ingredient lists and nutritional information in order to make informed decisions. Alongside ready-to-eat meals, Factor offers proteins, snacks, desserts and smoothies to enhance your order.

While there aren't specific meal plans offered, you can filter meals by different diet categories including:

• Chef’s Picks: A wide range of balanced, chef-made meals using wholesome ingredients to match any lifestyle
• Keto: Tasty, keto-friendly meals with about 15 grams or less of net carbs
• Calorie Smart: Portioned meals with roughly 550 calories or fewer per serving
• Flexitarian: Balanced meals focused on veggies and purposeful proteins for flexible eating habits
• Protein-plus: Satisfying meals loaded with 30 grams or more of protein to support your wellness goals
• Vegan & Veggie: Flavorful, meat-free meals for more plant-based eating options

Factor offers a range of meal plans, from six to 18 servings per week, starting at $11 per serving. Choosing larger bundles, such as the 14- or 18-pack, provides greater value, particularly for those desiring daily meals. By opting for bigger orders, you can enjoy savings, reducing the cost per serving.

• 6-meal plan = $13.49 per serving
• 8-meal plan = $12.99 per serving
• 10-meal plan = $12.49 per serving
• 12-meal plan = $11.99 per serving
• 14-meal plan = $11.49 per serving
• 18-meal plan = $10.99 per serving

Factor meals typically range from 350 to 900 calories per meal, averaging around 600 calories. You can easily check the nutrition facts and ingredients for each meal by clicking on the meal images on Factor's menu page.

Also, if you are looking for assistance in choosing meals aligned with health goals, you can schedule a complimentary nutrition consultation with one of Factor's registered dietitians, which I thought was a nice touch, considering most meal delivery companies don't offer this. While low-sodium options are not available, you can check the sodium content of each meal by clicking on its photo.

Factor prioritizes quality ingredients and ethical sourcing, collaborating closely with food purveyors and animal welfare experts. The company shares its U.S. Chicken Welfare Policy for transparency regarding its standards and future goals. One tester said, “I like that it is free of preservatives, and uses mindfully sourced meats and eggs.”

Detailed nutritional information for each meal is accessible on Factor's menu, and allergen information is provided on the website and meal sleeves. Since Factor cannot accommodate all dietary preferences, customers are encouraged to review ingredients before ordering to ensure they meet their dietary needs.

Ordering and meal selection

I was happy that I could easily check the menu before choosing a meal. Being a food enthusiast, I was attracted to the stunning images of gourmet dishes. Factor's dishes felt like an upgraded version of microwave meals. I'm not a fan of microwaveable meals, which all too often suffer from uneven cooking and mushy or rubbery vegetables and meat. I was prepared for the worst, but very hopeful at the same time.

When deciding on my meal plan, I chose the Flexitarian option to enjoy meals containing both animal- and plant-based proteins, along with plenty of vegetables to keep me satisfied and maintain my energy level. Despite my shellfish allergy and lactose intolerance, the wide array of meal choices allowed me to select without any restrictions. I typically strive for a well-rounded combination of protein, carbohydrates and veggies in each meal, and Factor's offerings exceeded my expectations in providing nutrient-rich, balanced options.

Once I settled on my preferred plan, I carefully selected six meals for my delivery, a very challenging decision. Here's what I ordered:

• Goat Cheese Filet Mignon
• Creamed Spinach and Bacon Chicken
• Cilantro Lime Barramundi
• Baja Salmon with Cauliflower Rice
• Baja Tofu Black Beans and Rice
• Roasted Veggie Pesto Tortellini

The final step involved choosing my delivery date and eagerly anticipating the arrival of my Factor box.

Unboxing the meals

When the box arrived, it was in good condition, and all the ingredients were cool and fresh, thanks to the insulated packaging. Everything inside was well-organized, and the meals looked vibrant and high-quality. I also liked that the packaging was mostly eco-friendly, with options for recycling, reusing or composting.

Prep and cooking

The best part? No prep, no cooking — just a quick poke with a fork to ensure proper heating, then straight into the microwave, which is exactly what I did. Alternatively, the Factor team highly recommends that you can heat meals on a sheet pan in a standard oven. One tester loved the simplicity of it all and commented, “It was easy to heat up the food — two minutes in the microwave, and the meals maintained pleasant flavor, texture and overall freshness.”

I noticed that each meal came with specific heating instructions on the packaging so I felt very confident during this process. All meals have to be fully heated to safe internal temperatures of 165° Fahrenheit. While I made sure I met that requirement, I found that one of the meals, the Filet Mignon needed an extra 30 seconds in the microwave to ensure it was warmed evenly. It's crucial to make sure all parts of the meal are heated properly to avoid any risk of food borne illness. Also, just an FYI, the meal trays are not suitable for convection or toaster oven use. Overall, the instructions were clear and easy to follow, which kept the process moving quick for me since I had a long day of to-do's.

Taste and nutrition

The meals were rich in flavor, showcasing thoughtful recipe development with the use of herbs and spices, which was a highlight for me compared to other pre-made options I've tried. The serving sizes were generous, providing ample portions which I found satisfying. The Cilantro Lime Barramundi stood out as a favorite to me and the testers.

After trying the Salmon and Barramundi, one GH tester noted, “I liked the flavor of the main course as well as the overall portion size. The fish seemed like it was very good quality with nice consistency and meatiness. I also liked that the food wasn't watery.”

One of the downsides was the mushiness of some of the sides. Several testers in the Lab tried the vegetarian and vegan meal options. After trying the Baja Tofu Black Beans and Rice, a vegan option, one tester commented, “While I didn't mind the chewiness, the tofu and rice did feel a tad on the soggy side.” Another tester added, “I didn't love that the tofu was somewhat chewy. I think with the spicy flavors, it would have tasted better crispy. I also felt that the portion was a bit small for dinner because I eat a decent amount of food after working out.”

The second dish, Roasted Veggie Pesto Tortellini, was vegetarian. The pesto on the tortellini had a remarkably fresh taste, surpassing some jarred versions I’ve tried. The tortellini itself was cooked perfectly, boasting delightful flavor and texture. However, it lacked sufficient protein, which was a concern for one tester who follows a vegetarian diet and prefers protein-rich meals. They noted, “It did not have a ton of sources of protein, so it's not something I'd look for in a pre-made meal since pasta is a pretty simple dish to make myself.” I wasn't a big fan of the Filet Mignon since the texture was a bit tough for my liking, but the sides (cheesy grits and roasted carrots) were very flavorful.

One drawback of the meals was their higher sodium content — ranging from 800–1200 mg — making them less suitable for individuals with heart or kidney concerns or individuals at risk. It would be great for Factor to explore developing lower-sodium meal options while still allowing customization with salt to suit individual preferences.

While I appreciated the overall convenience, I wished the company provided recipe cards so I could recreate some dishes at home, particularly the Barramundi as I am always looking for new ways to prepare and enjoy fish. Despite this, the meals were of excellent quality, meeting my flavor expectations. I look forward to trying more recipes, especially during extremely busy weeks.

Factor is perfect for busy individuals or couples who want to eat healthily without the hassle of cooking. It's also a fantastic option for those following specific eating patterns like low-carb, keto or high-protein diets, whether you're physically active or just starting your wellness journey and need a little support.

However, Factor isn't ideal for those who are on a tight budget, have families or have a lot of dietary restrictions and needs. While it's not specifically a meal delivery service for weight loss , Factor's meals can support your unique health goals and the company offers complimentary nutrition consultations with registered dietitians, an added bonus compared to other healthy meal delivery services . Factor also integrates their platform with popular nutrition tracking apps like MyFitnessPal for your convenience.

Absolutely. Factor is a top-notch meal delivery service offering freshly prepared dishes ready to heat and enjoy. With a diverse weekly menu of 35 chef-crafted options emphasizing quality protein sources like chicken, beef, pork, and seafood, Factor caters to various dietary preferences, including keto, high-protein, vegetarian, and more.

While there are some drawbacks, notably the higher sodium content, the convenience and quality of Factor meals make it worthwhile. The service is a bit on the pricier side, with one GH tester who noted, “It's way too expensive for me to ever consider buying it myself.” If you're able to budget for these meals, then it might be worth exploring.

Also keep in mind the meals come prepared, likely one of the reasons why it's a bit on the pricier side. Another tester said, “I've always been overwhelmed by which meal delivery service to choose, but I definitely will be ordering Factor for my husband and me. I really appreciate the quality of the meals and how well-balanced they are.”

Having meals delivered eliminates grocery shopping and meal-prep hassle, and the nutrient-packed, delicious dishes are easy to enjoy with minimal effort. Plus, Factor provides access to registered dietitians for personalized support. Overall, Factor is a fantastic solution for busy individuals looking for nutritious, convenient meal options.

At the Good Housekeeping Institute , we test all different types of food products and services. From healthy snacks and supplements to food subscription boxes and meal delivery services, our experts are committed to bringing you the best of the best when it comes to quality, performance, flavor, nutrition and more. In our most recent study of meal delivery services, we recruited over 300 home cooks across the nation, while our in-house experts also tested the services in our Labs. All in all, we evaluated over 50 different meal delivery services, ranging from traditional kits that come with pre-measured ingredients and a follow-along recipe card to fully prepared options. We tested the services over the course of three months in the categories of overall satisfaction, food quality, cost, recycling efforts and availability.

Valerie Agyeman is a women's health dietitian and the host of the Flourish Heights podcast, where she produces science-driven content covering overlooked nutrition, wellness and women’s health topics. She has over 10 years of nutrition communications, corporate wellness and clinical nutrition experience. Agyeman is a trusted expert and regularly appears on networks including ABC’s Good Morning Washington , and she is a contributing expert to publications like Women’s Health , The Thirty and Shape .

Valerie Agyeman (she/her) is a women's health dietitian and the host of the Flourish Heights podcast, where she produces science-driven content covering overlooked nutrition, wellness and women’s health topics. She has over 10 years of nutrition communications, corporate wellness and clinical nutrition experience. Valerie is a trusted expert and regularly appears on networks including ABC’s Good Morning Washington , and she is a contributing expert to publications like Women’s Health , The Thirty and Shape .

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Kristi Noem’s story of killing her dog points to class two misdemeanor

South Dakota governor’s account of family dog Cricket killing neighbor’s chickens may be an offence, according to state law

Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful, may have committed a class two misdemeanor offence when her fated dog Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehair pointer Noem deemed “untrainable” for hunting pheasant, killed a neighbor’s chickens.

Under South Dakota law, “any person owning, keeping, or harboring a dog that chases, worries, injures, or kills any poultry or domestic animal is guilty of a class two misdemeanor and is liable for damages to the owner thereof for any injury caused by the dog to any such poultry or animal.”

Though Cricket’s chicken attack has made headlines in recent days, however, it was not the main subject of such reports.

Instead, Noem’s startling description of her decision to kill Cricket – and also an unnamed, un-castrated and unruly goat – has pitched her into an unprecedented political storm.

The story is included in Noem’s new book , No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward.

The book will be released next month. Last week, the Guardian obtained a copy and reported the passage in which Noem describes killing Cricket and the goat after Cricket first ruined a pheasant hunt, then killed the chickens.

“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, before describing how she shot Cricket and the goat in the same gravel pit, the goat having to be shot twice, the second shotgun blast after Noem left the goat to fetch more shells from her truck.

Noem says what she thought she had to do was not “pleasant”, and describes how her actions startled a construction crew and confused her young daughter.

She also seems to acknowledge the possible effects of including the story in her book, writing: “I guess if I were a better politician I wouldn’t tell the story here.”

News of Noem’s tale did indeed set off a political firestorm , with observers suggesting she had irrevocably damaged her chances of being named running mate to Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president who faces 88 felony charges of his own and was adjudicated a rapist but nonetheless maintains his grip on his party.

Noem twice defended her account of killing Cricket and the goat, saying as she does in the book that such actions are sometimes necessary in farming, and show her willingness to do difficult things in life as well as in politics.

But each defense added to her problems.

In the first statement, Noem both referred to recently putting down three horses and advertised her book, promising “more real, honest and politically incorrect stories that’ll have the media gasping”. That drew accusations of insensitivity.

In her second statement, Noem said she could “understand why some people are upset about a 20-year-old story of Cricket” but added: “The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down.

“Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them” – Noem says the dog “whipped around to bite me” after killing the chickens – “I decided what I did.”

In a separate section of South Dakota’s codified laws, the definition of livestock makes no mention of poultry, which would have meant the law did not apply to Noem.

But asked about a South Dakota legislature definition that says livestock “means cattle, sheep, horses, mules, swine, goats, and buffalo”, omitting chickens or poultry in general, Ian Fury, Noem’s communications chief, advised the Guardian to “take a look at SDCL 40-34-1 and 40-34-2.”

after newsletter promotion

When the Guardian did, questions arose.

Section 40-34-1 of the South Dakota codified laws – Killing of dog lawful when disturbing domestic animals – says : “It shall be lawful for any person to kill any dog found chasing, worrying, injuring, or killing poultry or domestic animals except on the premises of the owners of said dog or dogs.”

Noem writes that she killed Cricket on her own property.

The following section – 40-34-2, Liability of owner for damages by dog disturbing domestic animals – seems to contain greater potential legal jeopardy.

It says : “Any person owning, keeping, or harboring a dog that chases, worries, injures, or kills any poultry or domestic animal is guilty of a class two misdemeanor and is liable for damages to the owner thereof.”

In her book, Noem writes that she apologised to the family that owned the chickens Cricket killed, “wrote them a check for the price they asked, and helped them dispose of the carcasses littering the scene of the crime”.

Asked if SDCL 40-34-2 indicated that Noem might have committed a class two misdemeanor, Fury did not immediately comment.

The South Dakota laws apparently applicable to the case of Noem and Cricket were passed before the dog’s death.

In her weekend statement, Noem said her story was 20 years old. That would place it in 2004, when she was in her early 30s, three years before she entered South Dakota state politics and six years before she won a seat in Congress as part of the hard-right Tea Party wave . Noem was elected governor of South Dakota in 2018.

South Dakota was the last of the 50 states to make animal cruelty a felony, passing legislation in 2014.

• Republicans
• US elections 2024
• US politics
• Politics books
• South Dakota

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Earn $50 bonus when you set up direct deposit

no monthly service fee

• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Build credit with a checking account
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. No minimum opening deposit
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. No monthly fees
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. No overdraft fees
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Early direct deposit
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Online bill pay and money transfers
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Large free ATM network
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Free financial tools
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. No physical branches
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. $3 out-of-network ATM fee
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. No overdraft protection; if a transaction would overdraw your account, it will be denied
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Only works with Experian credit reports

The best checking accounts have low fees and are easy to use — Experian Smart Money offers both with zero fees, plus access to an extensive ATM network and a user-friendly mobile app. The account stands out because it helps you improve your credit score when you make everyday bill payments. For this reason, the account is best for people who are just starting to build credit or could use help improving it.

• Online checking account and debit card aimed to boost your credit score
• Build credit by paying bills that wouldn’t affect your credit score otherwise, including streaming services and phone bills
• 55,000+ free ATMs in the Allpoint network
• Deposits are FDIC-insured for up to $250,000 through partner bank Community Federal Savings Bank

Experian Smart Money Pros and Cons

Experian is one of the three major credit bureaus in the U.S . In 2023, the company unveiled a checking and debit card account called Experian Smart Money to help you boost your credit score.

Experian Smart Money is designed for people actively seeking ways to improve their credit scores and those just starting their financial journey. It doesn't look into your banking history through ChexSystems like most banks do, so poor banking history shouldn't stop the company from letting you open an account. A poor credit profile also isn't a factor in eligibility for an Experian account.

Your deposits are FDIC -insured for up to $250,000. You'll have access to a network of 55,000+ fee-free ATMs worldwide, Experian's highly rated mobile app, and live customer support seven days per week.

The Experian mobile app has 4.8 out of 5 stars in the Apple store and 4.7 out of 5 stars in the Google Play store.

Experian Smart Money Key Features

Experian Boost

The account comes with a free feature called Experian Boost, which gives you credit for paying bills that don't usually impact your credit score. According to Experian, users whose scores increase with Boost see an average FICO score bump of 13 points.

Lenient Opening Requirements

The account has a $0 minimum opening deposit and no monthly service fee. Anyone in the United States who is over the age of 18 can open an account.

You can receive a $50 bonus when you set up direct deposit with this account. You must receive $1,000 in direct deposits in the first 45 business days to get the bank account bonus .

You can open Experian Smart Money if you are at least 18 and live in the United States. You must include your Social Security number when applying for the account.

You can access the Experian Smart Money Digital Checking Account online or via Experian's mobile app. The account connects to Experian Boost to help you get credit for some of the bills you already pay, including:

• Mobile and landline phone bills
• Utility bills (gas, water, electric, solar)
• Online residential rent payments
• Internet, cable, and satellite providers
• Video streaming subscriptions
• Trash collection services

Normally, your payment history for these bills wouldn't factor into your credit score . However, using Experian Boost can help you improve your score, whether you're new to establishing credit or trying to rebuild.

Aside from the Experian Boost feature, the Experian Money Digital Checking Account works similarly to other online checking accounts. You can deposit money by setting up direct deposit, transferring money from another bank account, or depositing cash at a retail store in the Mastercard rePower Load Network .

Is Experian Trustworthy?

In general, Experian is recognized worldwide as a safe and trustworthy credit reporting agency. Still, Experian has a B- rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) due to the number of complaints customers have filed against the business, the length of time Experian takes responding to the complaints, the fact that not all of the complaints have been resolved, and government actions against the company.

In November 2022, 40 U.S. states entered into two settlements with Experian over data breaches in 2012 and 2015. Experian paid money in the settlements, agreed to improve its data security, and promised five years of free credit monitoring to customers who were impacted by the breaches.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center , Experian hasn't had any data breaches within the last five years. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has received only a handful of complaints about Experian Smart Money. However, it has received thousands regarding Experian, most of which involve incorrect information on credit reports.

Compare Experian Smart Money

Experian smart money vs. credit karma money.

The Credit Karma Money Spend Account and Experian Smart Money both offer early direct deposit, online bill pay, and 55,000 free Allpoint ATMs — with no monthly service fees or minimum balance requirements. Credit Karma Money lets you earn cash back on select everyday debit card purchases, which is something Experian Smart Money doesn't offer.

Both accounts help you build credit, but in different ways. Experian Smart Money gives you credit for making everyday bill payments. With Credit Karma Credit Builder , you open a Credit Karma Money Spend Account and receive a line of credit. You can transfer money from your line of credit into your Credit Builder savings account each month, then build credit as you make monthly repayments.

Experian Smart Money may be a better choice if you want credit for the bills you already pay, while Credit Karma makes sense if you can benefit from the line of credit.

Credit Karma Money Review

Experian Smart Money vs. Chime

Experian Smart Money and Chime have similar features, including no monthly or overdraft fees, no account minimums, early direct deposit, and highly rated mobile apps.

Chime offers two opportunities for building your credit. The first is through the Chime Credit Builder Secured Visa® Credit Card , which you can open provided you meet the age and identity requirements. (There's no credit check.) The other way is through Experian Boost, which is integrated into Chime's mobile app. Both are good options if you're actively building your credit or would have trouble qualifying for accounts at other banks.

Chime Review

Experian Smart Money is a digital checking account and debit card that aims to help you build your credit score. The account offers access to 55,000+ fee-free ATMs worldwide, early direct deposit , free credit monitoring, online bill pay, and money transfers.

Yes, Experian Smart Money is a legitimate checking account and debit card. Funds are held at Community Federal Savings Bank, a Member FDIC bank, so your deposits are insured for up to $250,000.

Experian Smart Money is connected to Experian Boost. Experian Boost includes your payment history of certain household bills in your Experian credit profile. You choose which bills to share, and up to two years of payment history is added to your Experian credit report. If you have a history of on-time payments, it can help boost your credit.

You can link Experian Smart Money to external bank accounts. Experian Smart Money also offers online bill pay — it has a list of some bill providers, or you can manually input your bill provider.

Experian Smart Money has no monthly service fee or overdraft fees. There is a $3 out-of-network ATM fee and a foreign exchange fee that's either 3% of your transaction or $3.25 (whichever one is higher).

Experian Smart Money is a unique option because it's automatically linked to Experian Boost, which helps you build credit for making on-time bill payments. Checking accounts usually don't have financial tools that help you build your credit. Instead, you might see tools that focus on managing expenses, like spending buckets or online bill pay.

Experian Smart Money stands out as one of the best free checking accounts because it has no monthly service fee, no overdraft fees, early direct deposit, and free financial tools.

Why You Should Trust Us: How We Reviewed Experian Smart Money

We rate bank accounts on a scale from zero to five stars, with five being the best. We used Business Insider's rating methodology for checking, savings, and money market accounts for our Experian Smart Money review. We generally look at customer support, mobile app ratings, and the company's ethics, including recent public scandals and BBB ratings. We also consider minimum deposits, monthly service fees, overdraft fees, and ATM fees.

Editorial Note: Any opinions, analyses, reviews, or recommendations expressed in this article are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Read our editorial standards .

Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.

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