Business Plan Template: The Ultimate Guide for Ecommerce Businesses
Article
by
Alex Sheehan
A business plan is a blueprint for your business. It sets out where you want to go and how you want to get there.
While you might want to jump right into your ecommerce business and start selling, starting with a business plan is the foundation of a thriving business. Harvard Business Review found businesses that take the time to draft a business plan increase their odds at succeeding by 16 percent. And one study by McKinsey & Company found that 79 percent of executives believe a formal planning process contributes significantly to overall business strategies.
Business plans force you to think critically and strategically and can even help you acquire outside funding for your next big investment.
So, how do you put one together? We’ll go over the different types of business plans, what to include in each section, and an easy business plan template for you to follow.
Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Hire yourself and start calling the shots.
Business plans are used for different purposes. Sometimes, it’s to get the internal team on the same page, and other times, it’s to attract potential investors. Depending on who’s reading your business plan and what you’re hoping to achieve, you might adapt it to take a different layout. Here are the main types of business plans and what they’re used for:
General: This is the business plan format you typically see and is often meant for external parties. It’s comprehensive and covers all areas of the business.
Summary: This is a truncated version of the general business plan, sometimes as short as one page. These are better for taking around with you to networking opportunities.
Startup: New businesses will use startup business plans, which outline the steps for launch. This is great for internal teams and attracting investors or lenders.
Strategic: Similar to the “summary” business plan, a strategic one is high level – it’s ideal for board members and other shareholders.
Feasibility: These outline who, if anyone, will purchase the service or product a company wants to sell, and if the venture can turn a profit. This is more commonly used to validate your idea.
Operations/internal: These business plans are for your management team, board of directors and your high-level professional advisors. They focus on inner workings.
Growth: Have growth goals? This business plan provides an in-depth description of how a company plans to scale. This is good for internal teams and potential investors.
Complete: This comprehensive business plan goes into detail about finances – these companies are typically trying to secure funding.
What Is the Format of a Business Plan?
Regardless of the type of business plan you use, most will include some version of the following:
Title page
Table of contents
Executive summary
Company description
Products and services
Industry overview
Market analysis
Marketing plan
Operations and management
Financial plan
Appendix
Title page
This is where you’re introducing your grand idea. What’s the name of the business? Who’s behind it? When was this document prepared? These are all questions the title page should answer.
As far as design goes, keep it simple. Add a company logo (if you have one), but otherwise, keep styling and graphics to a minimum. This is a professional document, not a school project.
Table of contents
We have a lot to cover, and it’s not always necessary to read through every single section. A table of contents makes it easier to find the sections most relevant to the reader or to refer back to sections they want to reread.
The design here should also be simple (you’ll see this is a recurring theme), with a focus on functionality.
Executive summary
Here’s where we start getting into the meat of the business plan. The executive summary is your one-pager, sort of like an elevator pitch. It’s important to hook readers in at this point. If the executive summary doesn’t get them excited, what’s going to motivate them to finish reviewing your plan?
So much to say, so little space to say it. The executive summary needs to be refined and focus on what will get potential investors and lenders jazzed about your idea. What’s so exciting about it? How can you instill faith in your business idea?
Aside from that, it’s important to tease the research you’ve done around making sure this is a viable opportunity. Provide high-level details about:
Tip: Write your executive summary last. Because it’s basically a truncated version of your entire business plan, it’ll be easier to organize your thoughts once you’ve deep-dived into each of the areas below.
Company description
Now, it’s time to get into the nitty gritty about your brand – we’re talking really nitty gritty. Details like business name and address, founding date, legal structure, licenses, ownership details, number of employees, and more.
And then the higher-level fun stuff, like company values (an in-depth exploration of your vision and mission), short- and long-term goals, and positioning in the overall market. This is where you show you’ve done your research on competitors.
Products and services
Here, you define the item that’s going to turn you a profit – in our case, the physical products you plan to dropship. Create a list of each product you plan to offer (and categories, if you have a ton), your pricing strategy and anticipated profit margin, and why customers will want to buy from you.
It’s a good idea to include a bit of information about how products will be manufactured and delivered. Will you be selling direct-to-consumer or through wholesale customers? How will you package and assemble orders? How do the orders get into customers’ hands? And how will you handle returns? These are just a few of the questions you’ll need to answer.
Remember to detail some of the valuable relationships you have in the industry to reinforce your likelihood of success.
Industry overview
This is where we look at the industry as a whole: Who’s operating in the vertical? What do these niche customers want? What are the economic trends for the industry?
U.S. Embassy websites (Hint: Check the sections about people who want to sell abroad for regional insights.)
You can also look for niche publications to find targeted analyses and reports.
Market analysis
A lot of the research you’ve put together for the above sections will inform your overall market analysis. The market analysis is a summary of the aforementioned, plus more information about your target customer.
When identifying your market, you need to consider if the size of your potential customer base is big enough to generate a profit. Usesocial media tools like Facebook Audience Insights to estimate the size of your potential customer base. You can also conduct keyword research to get an idea of how many people are searching for your products – and what their projected search volume is for the future.
Marketing plan
Not that you know who you’re selling to, it’s time to establish how you’re going to communicate with them. In this section, you need to account for your sales and marketing approach – how you plan to get the word out about your brand and products.
Take what you’ve learned about your audience’s pain points and your competitor’s strengths to inform how you’ll communicate your differentiator. Pay special attention to your website and online channels for dropshipping businesses, as these will be the main touchpoints. It’s also a good idea to outline your post-sales customer remarketing and support plan.
Operations and management
Operations and management details the inner workings of your business. A few areas to cover include:
Legal structure of your business
Backgrounds of the prominent figures in your business – remember to highlight relevant experiences and accomplishments for ecommerce and/or dropshipping
Which facilities, equipment, and warehouse space you’ll need
Supply chain and order and fulfillment processes
Then, you’ll also want to detail the day-to-day operations. How are orders fulfilled? What tech stack are you using to automate specific tasks? Which reports do you run and how often? What third-party vendors will you be working with? If you’re a new business, include any launch schedules as well.
Financial plan
Now for the money talk. Develop a financial plan that details where you are now and where you’ll be five years from now. This can be challenging for new businesses in particular because you don’t have historical data and trends to go off of. This is where you look back at the other research you’ve done and use that to make financial projections for your company’s profitability.
If you’re presenting your business plan as part of a loan application or other funding request, this is where you make the ask. You’ve already laid why and how your business will be successful, so potential lenders and investors will feel more at ease with the risk. More than a quarter of businesses claim they can’t get the capital they need – you don’t want a poorly written business plan to be the reason you don’t.
Beyond stating and asking for the amount you need, you’ll also need to prove how this extra capital is going to fuel additional growth with your company. Outline where you’ll spend the money, what you’ll be purchasing with it, and how this will generate a return on investment for your biz.
Appendix
Rounding out your business plan is the appendix. This is where any supporting documentation goes. We tack it on at the end because they can turn a relatively short business plan into an unwieldy, hundreds-of-pages-long document (nobody has time for that).
The appendix is like a reference section. This way, readers who need to validate something from the earlier sections of your business plan can easily navigate to the corresponding documentation.
Simple Business Plan Template
Title page
Business Plan: Company name
Your name
Date
Business address
Phone number
Email
Website URL
If your business plan is prepared for a specific entity, include a line that says “Presented to:” followed by the individual and/or company name.
Table of contents
Executive summary ………………………..………. page #
Company description ………………………………. page #
Products and services …………………………..…. page #
Industry overview ……………………………..……. page #
Market analysis ……………………………….….…. page #
Marketing plan ………………………………………. page #
Operations and management …..…………………. page #
Financial plan ………………………………….……. page #
Appendix ……………………………………….……. page #
Executive summary
Tip: Keep your executive summary to one or two pages. Remember, this is a highlight reel for what’s to come.
Company description
Having writer’s block? Start out with something like: “‘Company name’ is an ecommerce company in the ____ industry and sells _____ to _____.”
Brief overview of products and services
Short industry overview
Truncated market analysis
High-level marketing plan
Organization description
Management team
Quick financial projections
Summary of funding request
Company description
Business name
Location (both where you operate and where you serve customers)
Founding date
Founders
Legal structure
Ownership details
Business ID numbers
Tax ID numbers
Licenses
Permits
Number of employees
Company purpose, mission, and vision
Current status and stage of business
Notable achievements or milestones
Products and services
Description of product(s)
Product categories (if you plan to sell many SKUs)
Product development stage
Screenshots, diagrams, renderings, or photos of the product
Product manufacturer and supplier partners
Current pricing
Past test results
Anticipated future products and services you plan to introduce
Founders, executive team, department heads, owners, shareholders, board of directors, consultants, and special advisors
Ownership structure
List of employees and salary and benefit costs
Financial plan
Current balance sheet
Two years of financial records
Financial projections for the next five years
Break-even analysis
Cash-flow projections
Income and expenses
Startup cost
Income statements
Funding request
Appendix
Articles of incorporation and status
Resumes for included individuals
Copies of insurances
Licenses
Trademarks and patent registrations
Contracts
Appraisals
Supporting research data and references
Business owner credit history
In-depth market research and competitive analysis
Site, building, warehouse, and office plans
Mortgage documents
Equipment leases
Marketing brochures and collateral
References
Links to your business website
Summary
A business plan is necessary not only for third-party individuals, but also for entrepreneurs who need to get their thoughts down on paper. Business plans hold you more accountable and break long-term goals into short-term action plans.
Determine the audience of your business plan and cater the format and type to them. If you’re applying for a loan, for example, pay extra attention to the financial plan.
Even though the executive summary comes first, you should write it last. You need the information gathered in the other sections to be able to put it together.
If it’s getting too long, add supporting documents and comprehensive reports at the end in your appendix. This will show you’ve done the work and provide additional context without overwhelming the reader.
Your business plan is a living document. Just because you have it written down doesn’t mean it can’t change. And in today’s rapidly changing world of ecommerce, pivoting is becoming the norm. You can also revisit and revise the business plan as needed.
