Create a business plan: guide, template & sample

As of: October 2026. On this page you will find the outline, the steps, a template to copy, a sample to download, notes on length and mistakes, and answers to common questions. If you need the plan for the employment agency or for the bank, jump straight to the matching guides further down.

1. Structure and outline: what belongs in a business plan?

A business plan consists of a text part and a financial plan. The text part explains what you intend to do and why it works. The financial plan shows in numbers whether it pays off. There is no legally prescribed structure. Banks, chambers and the employment agency do, however, expect essentially the same building blocks:

1. Executive summary: The key points on one or two pages. Write it last, but place it at the start.
2. Founder profile: Education, work experience and references. They show that you can carry the venture.
3. Business idea and offer: What do you sell, to whom, and which problem do you solve?
4. Market and competition: Target group, market size, competitors, your positioning. For market sizes, the calculation method in Calculating market potential helps.
5. Marketing and sales: How do customers find you, and what does a new customer cost?
6. Organisation and legal form: Location, legal form, staff, insurance and permits.
7. Opportunities and risks: The three to five biggest risks and what you do about them.
8. Financial plan: Capital requirement, financing, revenue and cost planning, profitability and liquidity.

2. Writing a business plan: step by step

1. Clarify the purpose. The plan for the bank answers "Can I repay the loan?", the plan for the employment agency "Will the business support my living costs?". The priorities follow from that.
2. Put the idea in two sentences. Who is the customer, which problem do you solve, and why do they pay for it? If you cannot do this, the idea is not yet ready for 20 pages.
3. Research the market. Use verifiable sources, such as industry associations, chambers or the Federal Statistical Office, and name them in the plan. Figures without a source are noticed immediately by reviewers.
4. Define offer, prices and marketing. Write down how many customers you realistically win per month and what you base this assumption on.
5. Calculate the financial plan. Capital requirement, revenue, costs, profitability and liquidity belong together. The guide: Create a financial plan.
6. Write the executive summary and design the document, including cover page, table of contents and page numbers.
7. Have it proofread. A qualified person reads the plan through the reviewer's eyes. The plan must be understandable without your verbal explanation.

3. Template and sample to download

Template: outline to copy

Copy the outline into your word processor and fill each section with your details:

Cover page (name, venture, contact, date)
Table of contents
1. Executive summary
2. Founder profile (qualifications, experience, references)
3. Business idea and offer (benefits, prices, unique selling point)
4. Market and competition (target group, market size, competitors, sources)
5. Marketing and sales (channels, customer acquisition, costs)
6. Organisation (location, legal form, staff, permits)
7. Opportunities and risks
8. Financial plan (capital requirement, financing, revenue and cost plan,
   profitability, liquidity)
Appendix (CV, contracts, quotations, evidence)

If you prefer to work in a tool, the business plan generator guides you through this outline section by section.

Sample: view examples

• Sample business plan (PDF, real estate)
• Sample financial plan (PDF)
• Business plan example: hair salon
• Business plan example: beauty studio
• Business plan example: Amazon Freight

A sample shows structure and depth. Do not take over any figures from it: market data, prices and costs must fit your venture and your location.

4. How long does a business plan have to be?

There is no minimum or maximum page count. As a guideline from our consulting practice: for smaller ventures, such as a start-up grant or loans up to €25,000, 15–20 pages of text plus the financial plan are usually enough. For bank loans between €25,000 and €150,000, reviewers tend to expect 30–40 pages, and more for investors and large financing rounds (source: our own package scopes, as of September 2026). What matters is not the page count, but that every statement is supported and every figure is traceable.

5. Who are you writing the plan for? Employment agency, bank or yourself

• Start-up grant (Gründungszuschuss): You prove viability to the employment agency with the opinion of a qualified body (§ 93 para. 2 SGB III).
• Bank loan or KfW development loan: What matters most here is whether the loan can be repaid from the ongoing business.
• Write it yourself or have it created? If you do not want to write the plan yourself, you will find our offer under Have a business plan created.
• Software or AI: The business plan tool delivers a first draft. Check every assumption and every figure yourself.

6. The most common mistakes in a business plan

• Figures without derivation: "€10,000 revenue per month" is only convincing if customer numbers, price and purchase frequency stand behind it.
• Thinking the market too big: "The market is worth 5 billion euros" says nothing about what you can reach of it.
• Private living costs missing: The financial plan must include your drawings, otherwise the profit looks larger than it is.
• Start-up phase too short: Customers usually arrive later than planned. Plan liquidity cautiously.
• Risks concealed: A plan without risks looks implausible. Name them and show countermeasures.
• Text and figures contradict each other: The assumptions in the text part must match the financial plan.
• Started too late: The plan is often a prerequisite for applications with deadlines.

7. Frequently asked questions

Further reading

• Create a financial plan: guide
• Creating a business plan cover page
• Business plan generator