Writing Your Business Plan
What additional content can I add to my plan?
In addition to the default plan outline, LivePlan provides a selection of pre-built topics, charts, and tables that may be useful for specific kinds of businesses.
This content is available in the Outline page of the Plan section. You can easily add these items to any section of your plan.
Note: If you need content not included in the list below, you can add custom chapters, sections, and topics to your plan.
Below is a list of these available pre-built Plan items:
Available Topics
Barriers to Entry
Company History
Exit Strategy
Expected Return
Future markets
Intellectual Property
Key Customers
Key Planned Hires
Market Growth
Market Trends
Partners & Resources
Pricing
Regulatory Requirements
Risks & Mitigation
Roadmap
SWOT Analysis
Validation of problem
Validation of solution
Available Charts
Cash Flow
Cash Flow by Month
Cash Flow by Year
Expenses - The total of your direct costs and expenses.
Expenses by Month - The total of your direct costs and expenses, broken down monthly.
Expenses by Year - The total of your direct costs and expenses, broken down annually.
Financial Highlights (Year 1)
Financial Highlights by Year
Gross Margin by Month
Gross Margin by Year
Net Profit (or Loss)
Net Profit (or Loss) by Year
Net Profit (or Loss) by Month
Revenue
Revenue by Month
Revenue by Year
For more information, please see Adding and editing plan charts
Available Tables
Milestones Table
Personnel Table
Projected Balance Sheet
Projected Cash Flow Statement
Projected Profit & Loss
Revenue Forecast Table
For more information, please see Adding and editing plan tables
Adding a SWOT analysis to your plan
A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can help organizations and individuals evaluate their current state and identify areas for improvement or growth. SWOT is an acronym for "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats." Sometimes, it goes by the name "SWOC" instead, as in "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Challenges."
A SWOT analysis involves looking closely at the factors that help your business succeed and the factors that can get in the way so that you can build a more effective business plan. It's a time-honored tool for both for-profit and nonprofit companies.
Our team has written several helpful articles about SWOT analysis for our learning websites. Here are some excellent starting points:
The SWOT analysis is an optional text topic you can add to your plan.
In the Plan section, click Outline:
Click Topics under Available Content:
Locate the SWOT Analysis block:
Click on the SWOT Analysis block in the sidebar, and drag it to the section of the plan outline where you'd like it placed.
For more on how to do this, see Adding a chapter, section, or topic to your plan
Now, click the View & Edit link at the top of the page:
Navigate to the chapter where you placed the SWOT Analysis topic. Use the sidebar to click and expand the chapters. Locate the new SWOT Analysis block, and click the Start writing now link:
Add your text to the editing field, and click Close to save and return to the plan:
Adding a mission statement to your plan
If you'd like to include your company's mission statement in your plan, there are two ways to do that.
You can use the Headline field in the Pitch section for your mission statement. It will appear at the top of the published Pitch, next to your logo in the Headline, as shown below:
If you're creating a detailed business plan in the Plan section, you can add a custom topic to any chapter of that plan, title it "Mission Statement," and add the text of your mission statement. A sample is shown below:
Here is an article from our resource website, The LivePlan Blog on formulating your mission statement:
Adding a marketing plan
LivePlan offers two ways you can describe your planned sales channels and marketing activities:
The Pitch contains a brief summary section, which appears this way in the published pitch:
The Plan offers text topics in the default outline, where you can describe your sales and marketing intentions in more detail, as shown below:
For many businesses, these descriptions may be all you need. To help you decide on the scope of your marketing plan, you may find these articles helpful:
If you require more in-depth sales and marketing details in your business plan, you can easily customize your LivePlan outline to include a custom chapter with custom sections for all the details you like. You can even import images of charts you've created if you like.