business planning for 2022

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The Right Way to Build Your 2022 Business Plan As the last couple months of 2021 approach, it's time to start thinking about how to reach even greater heights next year.

By David Partain Edited by Ryan Droste Oct 22, 2021

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

One thing that never changes is the fact that having a great plan for your organization is essential. Even after you open your doors, you'll continue to analyze, tweak and perfect that plan in order to improve operations. With the pandemic creating so much uncertainty, building a plan for 2022 may feel more difficult than in the past.

However, there's some good news. Sticking to a few key points will take some of the edge off.

1. Identify your assumptions and biases

Most business plans are built around at least a few assumptions. For example, you might assume that you have to follow a specific set of regulations or that you're the right person to run the organization. One thing I've learned in the investment world is that even though cycles repeat, nothing ever goes strictly to plan. What you assumed will happen can be very different from what actually happens.

Take a look at your assumptions from the previous year. What held up? What didn't? More importantly, why didn't they hold up? If you can answer that question, then you can avoid repeating the same mistakes. If you've never built a plan before, then try to identify the biases that could create problems. In either case, give yourself some breathing room and remember that life happens.

Related: How to Build Your 2021 Business Strategy in the Face of Uncertainty

2. Look at your results

Sometimes, your results are very different from expected. This is not necessarily because you did something right or wrong, but it can be because there are so many moving parts involved. Look at what you ended up with, and let those results give the business some direction. For example, if you find that people bought twice as much of a product as you thought they would — and market conditions and attitudes haven't changed — then it would make sense to invest more into that product for the upcoming year. Be discerning about what actually caused your results to know whether they're anomalies or real, long-term trends for the company. But don't start blind.

3. Create some projections

Projections tell people what you're committed to. For instance, you might say you're going to spend $500,000 on advertising or $1 million on Project A. That's very attractive to investors and shareholders who want to know that you know where you're going. In one of the companies that I started, these kinds of projections helped me find partners. If you're both honest and bold enough, your projections can mold your circumstances and influence the support you get.

Projections also acknowledge foreseen issues and anticipate circumstances to keep you prepared. To demonstrate this point, when I started a small business in the FinTech sector, I didn't project that I'd need more funding. I didn't look at what would happen if the stock market really took a dive. I just assumed that everything would work. When venture capitalists asked how it would work financially under different scenarios, I didn't really have an answer for them. When trouble hit, I had no plan for how to survive and the business went under. If I would have outlined what to do in different scenarios, then I might have been able to keep my doors open.

Always look at your best and worst-case scenarios, work with different people across departments, and create projections that paint a realistic picture of the company.

Related: How to Have Meaningful End-of-Year Vendor Meetings — Virtually

Business plans have to be somewhat fluid because both the market and the world change incredibly quickly. Be ready to respond and pivot. You can apply these same three points every time you need to create a plan for your organization. Just start early, define who you are, and make your commitments. The sooner you can clarify your identity and intentions, the faster great things can happen.

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Two business planning approaches for 2022: which is right for you.

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CEO,  Cadilus Inc.

Most would agree these past two years have been unlike anything we’ve experienced before. Consistent, predictable consumer demand has been replaced with dramatic shifts in buying preferences, flooding some product categories with overwhelming demand while seemingly eliminating demand from others. Efficient and optimized “just-in-time” supply chains have been upended, driven by production disruptions, logistical bottlenecks and unexpected demand shifts. Experts generally expect many more months of economic resorting and whipsawing before the business environment returns to a level of pre-Covid stability.

For business leaders trying to navigate such an environment, the traditional methods that seemingly work well in stable environments have fallen short. Nowhere is this more prevalent than the traditional “annual budgeting” process. As business leaders head into another “still stabilizing” year, continuous planning, which has been gaining popularity as a substitute to traditional annual planning, may be something worth considering as a better way to navigate the higher instability and uncertainty that lies ahead.

Before I get into the differences between traditional and continuous business planning, it’s important to highlight the difference between “planning” and “forecasting.” Similar to a square being a rectangle but a rectangle not necessarily being a square, planning is forecasting but forecasting isn’t always planning. In simple terms, the objective of business planning is to align an organization around a road map for execution and accountability. An effective business planning process should do the following:

• Outline what results the organization is committing to deliver in terms of goals and objectives.

• Create a road map of how and when the results are going to be delivered.

• Define who is responsible for delivering the results.

The objective of business forecasting is to provide the most up-to-date translation of information into forward-looking projections to enable the most effective decisions today. An effective business forecasting process should do the following:

• Outline what results the organization believes it’s going to be able to deliver based on the latest information.

• Guide and enhance ongoing decision-making.

• Focus the organization on where special attention is needed.

Business planning outcomes are almost always translated to forward-looking financial budgets. If there’s confidence the business plan can be delivered, it becomes a good forecast. However, with new information continuously becoming available and with new operational decisions being made regularly, the original business plan can become obsolete as a forecast very quickly. Irrespective of the planning process your organization has adopted, “planning” and “forecasting” are essential ingredients. Although there are seemingly endless permutations of business planning philosophies, most organizations have adopted a version of “traditional annual planning.” Although “continuous planning” has been gaining market share, its adoption has been comparatively low. That may be changing rapidly, and you can thank the post-Covid-19 business environment.

With traditional annual planning, how targets are going to be achieved is fully planned up front. This works well in stable organizations competing in mature markets where targets are best achieved through a culture of empowerment and accountability. Here are the components:

• Operational plans and budgets: Operational choices and assumptions are converted into financial budgets, which become the road map for achieving targets. These are set annually and serve as commitments tied to incentives, i.e., “what we are committed to delivering.”

• Monthly forecasts: These are revised operational choices and assumptions to achieve plans based on new information (baseline plus new events) to provide the best possible expectation of future performance, i.e., “what we think is going to happen.”

• Plans and forecasts working together: Monthly forecasts are compared to operating plans to track and highlight areas in need of course corrections.

There are numerous benefits to traditional annual planning. It can foster long-term thinking and decision-making (when annual targets are linked to strategic objectives), empower accountable executives to operate more autonomously within approved budgets, and drive accountability by providing a systematic way to tie accountability and incentives throughout the organization to direct areas of responsibility. There are also organizational costs to traditional annual planning. These include significant time commitments to developing and aligning annual business plans and budgets and rapid obsolescence when the organization is experiencing rapid external and/or internal changes.

By contrast, with continuous planning, how targets are going to be achieved is planned as you go. This works well in rapidly growing and/or changing organizations where targets are best achieved through a culture of agility. Here are the components:

• Targets: Performance goals are established as commitments tied to incentives, i.e., “what we are committed to delivering.”

• Integrated rolling forecasts: Operational choices and assumptions are revised to achieve targets based on new information (baseline plus new events) to provide the best possible expectation of future performance, i.e., “what we think is going to happen.”

The benefits to continuous planning are noticeable. It fosters organizational agility by allowing plans to evolve quickly to match the rate of organizational change and improves stakeholder time efficiency by spreading decision-making, alignment and planning throughout the year as an ongoing process. The organizational costs can be noticeable, as well. There is a risk of short-term thinking and decision-making and reduced stakeholder empowerment due to the continuous need to decide, align and approve new plans.

Which approach is more effective depends on many factors specific to the organization, both internal and external. However, because of continued external instability and uncertainty, there’s no question that more organizations would benefit from continuous planning today than before 2020. If you’re looking for the same planning rigor but more agility, take a look at transitioning to continuous planning. It might be a better way to get you to your long-term goals and objectives.

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Tips for 2022 Business Planning and Goal Creation

One year ago, as organizations were starting to plan for 2021, pretty much everyone threw up their hands and said, “There are too many unknowns with COVID-19 to even try to plan!” Now, driving toward 2022, we feel like we can see a little more clearly… starting to visualize life after COVID-19, though admittedly through a bit of a haze.

That haze continues to make planning tough. Is Delta winding down… what about MU or other variants? Is business travel coming back? What about returning to the office? Sooner… later… never? Suddenly, it starts to feel like late 2020 again.

But we have to plan! We owe it to our employees, customers, capital providers, and to ourselves.

Planning provides an opportunity to reexamine our business strategy, performance drivers and the internal and external forces impacting our business. Planning is never perfect, but it enables us to be better prepared for the inevitable challenges over the coming year.

Here are several recommendations for 2022 planning:

Financial Planning

Whether you call it budgeting, planning or forecasting, putting together a picture of what you expect the next year to look like usually comes down to numbers… orders, sales, margins, expenses, profits, etc. As you look at 2022, keep the following in mind:

• Scenario Planning: It has long been a best practice to consider a variety of alternatives when looking forward. Many terms are used, but the most common practice is to consider the MOST LIKELY case, an OPTIMISTIC case, and a PESSIMISTIC case. In the past, it was not uncommon to consider a range of outcomes +/- 10-20% different from the MOST LIKELY case. If COVID-19 taught us anything, it taught us that the potential range of outcomes is much broader than that. As a result, for 2022 we recommend considering a wider range of possibilities than normal.
• Government Assistance: Based on the large amount of funding already provided and the increasing concern about government debt, we recommend assuming NO additional government support in 2022, even if things slow down again.

“we recommend assuming NO additional government support in 2022”  

• It’s not just the P&L: Many organizations prepare just a P&L budget, but this ignores consideration of cash flow and balance sheet impacts. We have seen cases where significant projected P&L growth would require cash or credit facilities well in excess of what current capital providers can provide. Run the P&L projection through the balance sheet and cash flow analysis to anticipate additional funding needs. Don’t forget capital purchases!
• Focus on people costs: We generally see 70-90% of operating expenses being comprised of people costs. In spite of that fact, when it comes time to make hard decisions as part of a planning process, we see the focus often shift to other costs. “Oh, we can save money on office supplies,” or “We can cut back on unnecessary travel expenses.” If you find that you will need to make significant cost reductions to prosper or even survive, you will have to follow the money and look carefully at people costs. Don’t plan on another round of PPP. Alternatively, if you’re forecasting significant revenue growth, don’t forget to account for associated increases in number of people and costs. Key areas to consider include:
• Sales commissions
• Sales support staff
• Warehousing, shipping, and receiving staffing costs
• Back-office operations staffing costs

Non-Financial Planning

In addition to budgeting, many organizations use the 4th quarter to set goals and objectives for the next year. Here are 4 hints for completing that process:

1. Keep consistent with the budget

As you plan new initiatives, make sure that their financial impacts are captured in the financial plan. Evaluate and prioritize now. Aligning what you will commit to do with the dollars in the budget is an iterative process. Make sure you evaluate priorities over the course of the year so you maintain flexibility and can adjust if market conditions or planning assumptions change.

2. Focus on people costs

Some organizations will not be looking to cut people costs, but instead will be looking to staff open or new positions. Finding and keeping good people is very challenging right now. A few ideas to help in this area:

• Don’t lose your A players. Pay them what they are worth and give them more challenging assignments. Build this into your budget.
• Eliminate tasks that don’t add value. What are you doing that you don’t need to do? When I took over as fractional CFO for a company that previously had a full time CFO, I took a critical look at the voluminous reporting package that took days to complete each month. After surveying the recipients of the report, I determined that only one spreadsheet, that could be completed in a matter of minutes, was being used. We stopped doing the rest.

3. Give yourself a full 12 months

It is an annual plan, not a first quarter plan! We see many goals and objectives heavily front loaded to the beginning of the year. Invariably, all of those things do not get accomplished that quickly. Prioritize and be realistic about when various initiatives can be accomplished throughout the year.

4. Incorporate technology

Take a look at your goals and objectives for the year. If they do not include a healthy dose of technology initiatives, go back and revisit. Companies that are not focusing on technology either to improve customer experience, to better support decision making, or to reduce costs run the risk of being left behind in the marketplace.

Need an objective look at your 2022 business plan and goals? Fahrenheit’s experienced advisors work with companies of all sizes across different industries to help them map the straightest path forward. Reach out to us now at [email protected] .

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Planning: how to create a commercial plan for 2022

To achieve the objectives that companies set for themselves successfully (even in a pandemic), they must develop  an adequate commercial plan that is feasible to execute within a certain period.

<<< Main elements of a commercial plan>>>

Its importance lies in the fact that it will allow you to design strategies created jointly from the sales and marketing areas to organize, define and execute the commercial processes that will make your company's business more profitable.

In this guide, you'll get some essential tools to help you design a comprehensive commercial plan for 2022 so that you can achieve the goals that will make your company more scalable and profitable. Below, all the most relevant aspects of the business plan are summarized in four sections :

Executive summary

Internal analysis, external analysis.

• Forecasts and innovations.

Then, in each section, we will break down each of its components.

It corresponds to the first stage of the commercial plan for 2022  and is one of the most important. It contains comprehensive information about the company . This summary should focus on the most specific and vital data, and should not exceed two pages . The priority is to describe the main market that your business is targeting.

Also take into account in this first stage of the commercial plan for 2022 your sources of financing, your financing, and possible investors, which will allow you to have a record of the budget allocation that you can count on for the commercial activities of the year.

The internal elements that you must analyze correspond to the SWOT analysis , regarding the strengths and weaknesses that your company has as regards the availability of personal capital resources, assets, product quality, internal and market structure, market perception, among others.

SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)

it is a tool for studying a situation, institution, project, or person, analyzing its internal characteristics (Strengths and Weaknesses) and its external situation (Opportunities and Threats) in a square matrix.

Here, the objective is to determine the competitive advantages of your company under analysis and the generic strategy that is most convenient based on its characteristics and those of the market in which it is inserted.

Commercial strategy 

At this point, you must describe the actions that your commercial team will carry out using different tools, such as the Gantt Chart, where you can organize and schedule activities, taking into account, among other things, time variables.

Marketing plan

In the marketing department, it is also essential to design a plan. It must have, first of all, the objectives to be achieved in the short and long term. One of them could be to increase the domain authority of your business by generating more content.

<<< 7 tips to maximize your marketing strategy >>>

Also, develop the strategies to implement to attract new customers, that is, what you will do to attract them to meet your objectives, and the planning to carry out the entire plan.

It is very important that you prepare the marketing plan for the following reasons:

• You will obtain a more exhaustive vision of the market sector in which your company is inserted.
• You will know your competitors better.
• It allows you to define a communication strategy, propose actions focused on the objectives of your company and guarantee its coherence with other objectives.
• You'll be able to plan your activities for a year to determine what budget and resources you should allocate to each of them.
• You will be able to anticipate possible unforeseen events that hinder the fulfillment of your objectives.
• You will be able to carry out periodic evaluations of your commercial plan and execute the changes that it needs, as you find possible flaws.

Companies could not exist without an environment that surrounds them , therefore, the external analysis allows you to fix the opportunities and threats that the context of your company could manifest.

The process to understand those opportunities and threats can be achieved by describing the possible events in the context that could influence your company. For this, an important aspect is that you consider how your company is positioned in the market and also concerning the competition.

Market  

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) , more than 436 million companies in the world are at risk of interrupting their activity due to the crisis generated by COVID-19, although we're going through a mass vaccination campaign since late 2020. 

This figure causes a marked imbalance in positioning between different industrial sectors, since while many business areas were affected, such as tourism and hospitality, cinemas and theaters, musical events, etc., others such as software developers and digital platforms were favored by expanding their market and profits.

Taking these figures into account, y our goal should be focused on developing activities that take advantage of the technological boom in digital business management platforms , to adapt to the new business working conditions.

Competition

Naturally, depending on the sector to which your company belongs, you must identify your closest competitors and be attentive to the deployment of strategies that they develop within a certain period, and have knowledge of them to overcome them with more effective and intelligent strategies, or at least not to be badly positioned against said competitors.

Forecasts/Innovations

Forecasts are part of the business plan and will help you anticipate opportunities and potential risks , so you can prepare for obstacles that could hinder the progress of your business.

Do not postpone them, focus now that there is time to write down those ideas that were going around in your head the last semester or in a meeting of design thinking and that could mean guaranteed success to begin 2022.

Some of these ideas that you do not want to miss can be, for example, R&D innovations, which will be a point in favor of the creation of your company's commercial plan for 2022 . These are made and incorporated by corporations and institutions for the development of new products and services.

For example, if you plan to incorporate a new product during the time that the pandemic lasts, you can opt for new management software for your tasks in the company.

Designing a "home office" work plan that minimizes health risks for your employees, but instead maximizes productivity, is among the innovative alternatives that you can implement.

Later, when your collaborators obtain the complete vaccination schedule, you can gradually encourage them to return to face-to-face attendance, but only if it is strictly necessary. Today digital tools have proven to be effective and great allies to increasing productivity at work.

Also, customer satisfaction should be a priority . For this reason, make sure that they have free access to your online store, with detailed products and corresponding payment platforms. Be careful with this because if the conditions for the transfer operations are not right, the client could get scared and not return to your web page.

If you have a physical store, incorporating a device precisely to measure customer satisfaction can be an excellent option to crown the commercial plan for 2022 , and if the device prevents contact, the better. There are already models with this feature on the market.

<<< Commercial area: Establish a sales plan to achieve objectives >>>

You can add more innovations and strategies; this was just an instructional guide for you to plan your commercial plan for 2022 . Remember that no crisis lasts forever, so here is your chance to have the world in your hands.

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Here's the exact agenda the founder of a viral haircare brand uses to set 2022 goals for her company

• Gwen Jimmere is the CEO and founder of the haircare brand Naturalicious.
• Jimmere shared the agenda she uses to plan and set goals for a new year.
• For example, her company has a goal to increase wholesale revenue by 45% in 2022.

When setting goals for your company in the new year, it's helpful to do it outside the office.

Gwen Jimmere, the founder and CEO of Naturalicious , a haircare brand with 47,000 followers on Instagram, takes her executive team on a weekend trip every October to map out their targets for the year ahead.

"We use it as a company retreat and team-building opportunity," she told Insider.

In 2021, Jimmere took her chief financial officer and operations manager to Jamaica. In other years she's booked a nearby hotel in Michigan and hosted a wine tasting at an Airbnb. You don't have to travel far — the important part is to get away from where you normally work, she said. Additionally, there are advantages to going somewhere warm, like getting some beach time once the planning is done.

"You have to take breaks," she said — otherwise "your execution is not as good."

Jimmere gave Insider the agenda she used to set her company's 2022 goals and explained how business owners can use it for their own planning.

Prepare by gathering data

Before planning goals, the Naturalicious team of 11 prepares for weeks. Managers pull reports, and each employee is asked to write a SWOT analysis breaking down strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within their departments.

"It helps them feel connected, like their opinion matters," Jimmere said, adding that it's important not to skip this step. Goal-setting is much smoother when you've gathered all your financials, sales history, and team insight.

On the trip, Jimmere, her CFO, and her operations manager meet, review their agenda, and recap the past year. This is when they read all the SWOT analyses from their team, which can take up to three hours.

Each employee's feedback is important, and many of their insights have had an impact, Jimmere said. For example, an employee suggested adding company benefits, and, last year Naturalicious provided benefits including 401(k), vision, and dental for the first time to all employees.

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"That changed the livelihoods for everybody else, because of one person chiming in," she said.

Review your company's core values and set goals that align with them

Once the annual review is complete, Jimmere's team goes over the company's core values and purpose. Then they set three- to five-year objectives, annual objectives, and strategic initiatives.

"You have to set your core values first because everything else aligns with that," she said.

Your company's core values and purpose should stay consistent from year to year, since they are the founding principles of your business, Jimmere said. One of Naturalicious' values is that "every woman is the standard of beauty" and that its products are made to "help her shine."

Jimmere then sets goals starting with long-term ones and breaks them down into objectives for the next year. One of the company's objectives for 2022 is to increase its wholesale revenue by 45% so that its products can be more widely and readily available. This fits into the company's value of serving every woman.

"Not everybody wants to wait for shipping," Jimmere said. "Sometimes they just want to go to the store because it's time for them to wash their hair."

Establish an execution plan and delegate tasks

The next phase of Jimmere's strategy is creating execution plans. First the team maps out revenue and agrees on timelines based on what's feasible.

"The dreamer in you, as the owner, may have these really amazing goals but you don't have a way to get there realistically," Jimmere said. "That's why I always have my operations manager and CFO, because they are the analytical people."

Lastly, they plan for the first quarter. Jimmere creates a color-coded calendar and assigns due dates to every employee. To manage her time well, she follows a rule to delegate, automate, or eliminate every task.

"My job is to help everyone at my company achieve their goals," she said. "You need to create an environment and a culture where it's easy for them to do their job and to do it well for them to succeed."

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9 Business Plan Examples to Inspire Your Own (2024)

Need support creating your business plan? Check out these business plan examples for inspiration and guidance.

Any aspiring entrepreneur researching how to start a business will likely be advised to write a business plan. But few resources provide business plan examples to really guide you through writing one of your own.

Here are some real-world and illustrative business plan examples to help you craft your business plan .

Business plan format: 9 examples

The business plan examples in this article follow this template:

• Executive summary
• Company description
• Market analysis
• Products and services
• Marketing plan
• Logistics and operations plan
• Financial plan
• Customer segmentation

1. Executive summary

Your executive summary is a page that gives a high-level overview of the rest of your business plan. While it appears at the beginning, it’s easiest to write this section last, as there are details further in the report you’ll need to include here.

In this free business plan template , the executive summary is four paragraphs and takes a little over half a page. It clearly and efficiently communicates what the business does and what it plans to do, including its business model and target customers.

2. Company description

You might repurpose your company description elsewhere, like on your About page , social media profile pages, or other properties that require a boilerplate description of your small business.

Soap brand ORRIS has a blurb on its About page that could easily be repurposed for the company description section of its business plan.

You can also go more in-depth with your company overview and include the following sections, like in this business plan example for Paw Print Post:

Business structure

This section outlines how you registered your business —as an LLC , sole proprietorship, corporation, or other business type : “Paw Print Post will operate as a sole proprietorship run by the owner, Jane Matthews.”

Nature of the business

“Paw Print Post sells unique, one-of-a-kind digitally printed cards that are customized with a pet’s unique paw prints.”

“Paw Print Post operates primarily in the pet industry and sells goods that could also be categorized as part of the greeting card industry.”

Background information

“Jane Matthews, the founder of Paw Print Post, has a long history in the pet industry and working with animals, and was recently trained as a graphic designer. She’s combining those two loves to capture a niche in the market: unique greeting cards customized with a pet’s paw prints, without needing to resort to the traditional (and messy) options of casting your pet’s prints in plaster or using pet-safe ink to have them stamp their ’signature.’”

Business objectives

“Jane will have Paw Print Post ready to launch at the Big Important Pet Expo in Toronto to get the word out among industry players and consumers alike. After two years in business, Jane aims to drive $150,000 in annual revenue from the sale of Paw Print Post’s signature greeting cards and to have expanded into two new product categories.”

“Jane Matthews is the sole full-time employee of Paw Print Post but hires contractors as needed to support her workflow and fill gaps in her skill set. Notably, Paw Print Post has a standing contract for five hours a week of virtual assistant support with Virtual Assistants Pro.”

Your mission statement may also make an appearance here. Passionfruit shares its mission statement on its company website, and it would also work well in its example business plan.

3. Market analysis

The market analysis consists of research about supply and demand , your target demographics, industry trends, and the competitive landscape. You might run a SWOT analysis and include that in your business plan. 

Here’s an example SWOT analysis for an online tailored-shirt business:

You’ll also want to do a competitive analysis as part of the market research component of your business plan. This will tell you which businesses you’re up against and give you ideas on how to differentiate your brand. A broad competitive analysis might include:

• Target customers
• Unique value proposition , or what sets the products apart
• Sales pitch
• Price points for products
• Shipping policy

4. Products and services

This section of your business plan describes your offerings—which products and services do you sell to your customers? Here’s an example for Paw Print Post that explains its line of custom greeting cards, along with details on what makes its products unique.

5. Marketing plan

It’s always a good idea to develop a marketing plan before you launch your business. Your marketing plan shows how you’ll get the word out about your business, and it’s an essential component of your business plan as well.

The Paw Print Post focuses on four Ps: price, product, promotion, and place. However, you can take a different approach with your marketing plan. Maybe you can pull from your existing marketing strategy , or maybe you break it down by the different marketing channels. Whatever approach you take, your marketing plan should describe how you intend to promote your business and offerings to potential customers.

6. Logistics and operations plan

The Paw Print Post example considered suppliers, production, facilities, equipment, shipping and fulfillment, and inventory. This includes any raw materials needed to produce the products.

7. Financial plan

The financial plan provides a breakdown of sales, revenue, profit, expenses, and other relevant financial metrics related to funding and profiting from your business.

Ecommerce brand Nature’s Candy’s financial plan breaks down predicted revenue, expenses, and net profit in graphs.

It then dives deeper into the financials to include:

• Funding needs
• Projected profit-and-loss statement
• Projected balance sheet
• Projected cash-flow statement

You can use a financial plan spreadsheet to build your own financial statements, including income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement.

8. Customer segmentation

Customer segmentation means dividing your target market into groups based on specific characteristics. These characteristics can be demographics, psychographics, behavior, or geography. Your business plan will provide detailed information on each segment, like its size and growth potential, so you can show why they are valuable to your business. 

Airsign , an eco-friendly vacuum cleaner company, faced the challenge of building a sustainable business model in the competitive home appliance market. They identified three key customer personas to target:

• Design-oriented urban dwellers
• Millennials moving to suburbs
• Older consumers seeking high-quality appliances

The company utilized Shopify’s customer segmentation tools to gain insights and take action to target them. Airsign created targeted segments for specific marketing initiatives.

Put your customer data to work with Shopify’s customer segmentation

Shopify’s built-in segmentation tools help you discover insights about your customers, build segments as targeted as your marketing plans with filters based on your customers’ demographic and behavioral data, and drive sales with timely and personalized emails.

9. Appendix

The appendix provides in-depth data, research, or documentation that supports the claims and projections made in the main business plan. It includes things like market research, finance, résumés, product specs, and legal documents. 

Readers can access detailed info in the appendix, but the main plan stays focused and easy to read. Here’s an example from a fictional clothing brand called Bloom:

Appendix: Bloom Business Plan

Types of business plans, and what to include for each

This lean business plan is meant to be high level and easy to understand at a glance. You’ll want to include all of the same sections in one-page business plan, but make sure they’re truncated and summarized:

• Executive summary: truncated
• Market analysis: summarized
• Products and services: summarized
• Marketing plan: summarized
• Logistics and operations plan: summarized
• Financials: summarized

A startup business plan is for a new business. Typically, these plans are developed and shared to secure funding . As such, there’s a bigger focus on the financials, as well as on other sections that determine viability of your business idea—market research, for example:

• Market analysis: in-depth
• Financials: in-depth

Your internal business plan is meant to keep your team on the same page and aligned toward the same goal:

A strategic, or growth, business plan is a big-picture, long-term look at your business. As such, the forecasts tend to look further into the future, and growth and revenue goals may be higher. Essentially, you want to use all the sections you would in a normal business plan and build upon each:

• Market analysis: comprehensive outlook
• Products and services: for launch and expansion
• Marketing plan: comprehensive outlook
• Logistics and operations plan: comprehensive outlook
• Financials: comprehensive outlook

Feasibility

Your feasibility business plan is sort of a pre-business plan—many refer to it as simply a feasibility study. This plan essentially lays the groundwork and validates that it’s worth the effort to make a full business plan for your idea. As such, it’s mostly centered around research:

Nonprofit business plans are used to attract donors, grants, and partnerships. They focus on what their mission is, how they measure success, and how they get funded. You’ll want to include the following sections in addition to a traditional business plan:

• Organization description
• Need statement
• Programs and services
• Fundraising plan
• Partnerships and collaborations
• Impact measurement

Set yourself up for success as a business owner

Building a good business plan serves as a roadmap you can use for your ecommerce business at launch and as you reach each of your business goals. Business plans create accountability for entrepreneurs and synergy among teams, regardless of your business model .

Kickstart your ecommerce business and set yourself up for success with an intentional business planning process—and with the sample business plans above to guide your own path.

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Business plan examples FAQ

How do i write a simple business plan.

To write a simple business plan, begin with an executive summary that outlines your business and your plans. Follow this with sections detailing your company description, market analysis, organization and management structure, product or service, marketing and sales strategy, and financial projections. Each section should be concise and clearly illustrate your strategies and goals.

What is the best format to write a business plan?

The best business plan format presents your plan in a clear, organized manner, making it easier for potential investors to understand your business model and goals. Always begin with the executive summary and end with financial information or appendices for any additional data.

What are the 4 key elements of a business plan?

• Executive summary: A concise overview of the company’s mission, goals, target audience, and financial objectives.
• Business description: A description of the company’s purpose, operations, products and services, target markets, and competitive landscape.
• Market analysis: An analysis of the industry, market trends, potential customers, and competitors.
• Financial plan: A detailed description of the company’s financial forecasts and strategies.

What are the 3 main points of a business plan?

• Concept: Your concept should explain the purpose of your business and provide an overall summary of what you intend to accomplish.
• Contents: Your content should include details about the products and services you provide, your target market, and your competition.
• Cash flow: Your cash flow section should include information about your expected cash inflows and outflows, such as capital investments, operating costs, and revenue projections.

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A better way to drive your business

Managing the availability of supply to meet volatile demand has never been easy. Even before the unprecedented challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, synchronizing supply and demand was a perennial struggle for most businesses. In a survey of 54 senior executives, only about one in four believed that the processes of their companies balanced cross-functional trade-offs effectively or facilitated decision making to help the P&L of the full business.

That’s not because of a lack of effort. Most companies have made strides to strengthen their planning capabilities in recent years. Many have replaced their processes for sales and operations planning (S&OP) with the more sophisticated approach of integrated business planning (IBP), which shows great promise, a conclusion based on an in-depth view of the processes used by many leading companies around the world (see sidebar “Understanding IBP”). Assessments of more than 170 companies, collected over five years, provide insights into the value created by IBP implementations that work well—and the reasons many IBP implementations don’t.

Understanding IBP

Integrated business planning is a powerful process that could become central to how a company runs its business. It is one generation beyond sales and operations planning. Three essential differentiators add up to a unique business-steering capability:

• Full business scope. Beyond balancing sales and operations planning, integrated business planning (IBP) synchronizes all of a company’s mid- and long-term plans, including the management of revenues, product pipelines and portfolios, strategic projects and capital investments, inventory policies and deployment, procurement strategies, and joint capacity plans with external partners. It does this in all relevant parts of the organization, from the site level through regions and business units and often up to a corporate-level plan for the full business.
• Risk management, alongside strategy and performance reviews. Best-practice IBP uses scenario planning to drive decisions. In every stage of the process, there are varying degrees of confidence about how the future will play out—how much revenue is reasonably certain as a result of consistent consumption patterns, how much additional demand might emerge if certain events happen, and how much unusual or extreme occurrences might affect that additional demand. These layers are assessed against business targets, and options for mitigating actions and potential gap closures are evaluated and chosen.
• Real-time financials. To ensure consistency between volume-based planning and financial projections (that is, value-based planning), IBP promotes strong links between operational and financial planning. This helps to eliminate surprises that may otherwise become apparent only in quarterly or year-end reviews.

An effective IBP process consists of five essential building blocks: a business-backed design; high-quality process management, including inputs and outputs; accountability and performance management; the effective use of data, analytics, and technology; and specialized organizational roles and capabilities (Exhibit 1). Our research finds that mature IBP processes can significantly improve coordination and reduce the number of surprises. Compared with companies that lack a well-functioning IBP process, the average mature IBP practitioner realizes one or two additional percentage points in EBIT. Service levels are five to 20 percentage points higher. Freight costs and capital intensity are 10 to 15 percent lower—and customer delivery penalties and missed sales are 40 to 50 percent lower. IBP technology and process discipline can also make planners 10 to 20 percent more productive.

When IBP processes are set up correctly, they help companies to make and execute plans and to monitor, simulate, and adapt their strategic assumptions and choices to succeed in their markets. However, leaders must treat IBP not just as a planning-process upgrade but also as a company-wide business initiative (see sidebar “IBP in action” for a best-in-class example).

IBP in action

One global manufacturer set up its integrated business planning (IBP) system as the sole way it ran its entire business, creating a standardized, integrated process for strategic, tactical, and operational planning. Although the company had previously had a sales and operations planning (S&OP) process, it had been owned and led solely by the supply chain function. Beyond S&OP, the sales function forecast demand in aggregate dollar value at the category level and over short time horizons. Finance did its own projections of the quarterly P&L, and data from day-by-day execution fed back into S&OP only at the start of a new monthly cycle.

The CEO endorsed a new way of running regional P&Ls and rolling up plans to the global level. The company designed its IBP process so that all regional general managers owned the regional IBP by sponsoring the integrated decision cycles (following a global design) and by ensuring functional ownership of the decision meetings. At the global level, the COO served as tiebreaker whenever decisions—such as procurement strategies for global commodities, investments in new facilities for global product launches, or the reconfiguration of a product’s supply chain—cut across regional interests.

To enable IBP to deliver its impact, the company conducted a structured process assessment to evaluate the maturity of all inputs into IBP. It then set out to redesign, in detail, its processes for planning demand and supply, inventory strategies, parametrization, and target setting, so that IBP would work with best-practice inputs. To encourage collaboration, leaders also started to redefine the performance management system so that it included clear accountability for not only the metrics that each function controlled but also shared metrics. Finally, digital dashboards were developed to track and monitor the realization of benefits for individual functions, regional leaders, and the global IBP team.

A critical component of the IBP rollout was creating a company-wide awareness of its benefits and the leaders’ expectations for the quality of managers’ contributions and decision-making discipline. To educate and show commitment from the CEO down, this information was rolled out in a campaign of town halls and media communications to all employees. The company also set up a formal capability-building program for the leaders and participants in the IBP decision cycle.

Rolled out in every region, the new training helps people learn how to run an effective IBP cycle, to recognize the signs of good process management, and to internalize decision authority, thresholds, and escalation paths. Within a few months, the new process, led by a confident and motivated leadership team, enabled closer company-wide collaboration during tumultuous market conditions. That offset price inflation for materials (which adversely affected peers) and maintained the company’s EBITDA performance.

Our research shows that these high-maturity IBP examples are in the minority. In practice, few companies use the IBP process to support effective decision making (Exhibit 2). For two-thirds of the organizations in our data set, IBP meetings are periodic business reviews rather than an integral part of the continuous cycle of decisions and adjustments needed to keep organizations aligned with their strategic and tactical goals. Some companies delegate IBP to junior staff. The frequency of meetings averages one a month. That can make these processes especially ineffective—lacking either the senior-level participation for making consequential strategic decisions or the frequency for timely operational reactions.

Finally, most companies struggle to turn their plans into effective actions: critical metrics and responsibilities are not aligned across functions, so it’s hard to steer the business in a collaborative way. Who is responsible for the accuracy of forecasts? What steps will be taken to improve it? How about adherence to the plan? Are functions incentivized to hold excess inventory? Less than 10 percent of all companies have a performance management system that encourages the right behavior across the organization.

By contrast, at the most effective organizations, IBP meetings are all about decisions and their impact on the P&L—an impact enabled by focused metrics and incentives for collaboration. Relevant inputs (data, insights, and decision scenarios) are diligently prepared and syndicated before meetings to help decision makers make the right choices quickly and effectively. These companies support IBP by managing their short-term planning decisions prescriptively, specifying thresholds to distinguish changes immediately integrated into existing plans from day-to-day noise. Within such boundaries, real-time daily decisions are made in accordance with the objectives of the entire business, not siloed frontline functions. This responsive execution is tightly linked with the IBP process, so that the fact base is always up-to-date for the next planning iteration.

A better plan for IBP

In our experience, integrated business planning can help a business succeed in a sustainable way if three conditions are met. First, the process must be designed for the P&L owner, not individual functions in the business. Second, processes are built for purpose, not from generic best-practice templates. Finally, the people involved in the process have the authority, skills, and confidence to make relevant, consequential decisions.

Design for the P&L owner

IBP gives leaders a systematic opportunity to unlock P&L performance by coordinating strategies and tactics across traditional business functions. This doesn’t mean that IBP won’t function as a business review process, but it is more effective when focused on decisions in the interest of the whole business. An IBP process designed to help P&L owners make effective decisions as they run the company creates requirements different from those of a process owned by individual functions, such as supply chain or manufacturing.

One fundamental requirement is senior-level participation from all stakeholder functions and business areas, so that decisions can be made in every meeting. The design of the IBP cycle, including preparatory work preceding decision-making meetings, should help leaders make general decisions or resolve minor issues outside of formal milestone meetings. It should also focus the attention of P&L leaders on the most important and pressing issues. These goals can be achieved with disciplined approaches to evaluating the impact of decisions and with financial thresholds that determine what is brought to the attention of the P&L leader.

The aggregated output of the IBP process would be a full, risk-evaluated business plan covering a midterm planning horizon. This plan then becomes the only accepted and executed plan across the organization. The objective isn’t a single hard number. It is an accepted, unified view of which new products will come online and when, and how they will affect the performance of the overall portfolio. The plan will also take into account the variabilities and uncertainties of the business: demand expectations, how the company will respond to supply constraints, and so on. Layered risks and opportunities and aligned actions across stakeholders indicate how to execute the plan.

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Trade-offs arising from risks and opportunities in realizing revenues, margins, or cost objectives are determined by the P&L owner at the level where those trade-offs arise—local for local, global for global. To make this possible, data visible in real time and support for decision making in meetings are essential. This approach works best in companies with strong data governance processes and tools, which increase confidence in the objectivity of the IBP process and support for implementing the resulting decisions. In addition, senior leaders can demonstrate their commitment to the value and the standards of IBP by participating in the process, sponsoring capability-building efforts for the teams that contribute inputs to the IBP, and owning decisions and outcomes.

Fit-for-purpose process design and frequency

To make IBP a value-adding capability, the business will probably need to redesign its planning processes from a clean sheet.

First, clean sheeting IBP means that it should be considered and designed from the decision maker’s perspective. What information does a P&L owner need to make a decision on a given topic? What possible scenarios should that leader consider, and what would be their monetary and nonmonetary impact? The IBP process can standardize this information—for example, by summarizing it in templates so that the responsible parties know, up front, which data, analytics, and impact information to provide.

Second, essential inputs into IBP determine its quality. These inputs include consistency in the way planners use data, methods, and systems to make accurate forecasts, manage constraints, simulate scenarios, and close the loop from planning to the production shopfloor by optimizing schedules, monitoring adherence, and using incentives to manufacture according to plan.

Determining the frequency of the IBP cycle, and its timely integration with tactical execution processes, would also be part of this redesign. Big items—such as capacity investments and divestments, new-product introductions, and line extensions—should be reviewed regularly. Monthly reviews are typical, but a quarterly cadence may also be appropriate in situations with less frequent changes. Weekly iterations then optimize the plan in response to confirmed orders, short-term capacity constraints, or other unpredictable events. The bidirectional link between planning and execution must be strong, and investments in technology may be required to better connect them, so that they use the same data repository and have continuous-feedback loops.

Authorize consequential decision making

Finally, every IBP process step needs autonomous decision making for the problems in its scope, as well as a clear path to escalate, if necessary. The design of the process must therefore include decision-type authority, decision thresholds, and escalation paths. Capability-building interventions should support teams to ensure disciplined and effective decision making—and that means enforcing participation discipline, as well. The failure of a few key stakeholders to prioritize participation can undermine the whole process.

Decision-making autonomy is also relevant for short-term planning and execution. Success in tactical execution depends on how early a problem is identified and how quickly and effectively it is resolved. A good execution framework includes, for example, a classification of possible events, along with resolution guidelines based on root cause methodology. It should also specify the thresholds, in scope and scale of impact, for operational decision making and the escalation path if those thresholds are met.

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In addition to guidelines for decision making, the cross-functional team in charge of executing the plan needs autonomy to decide on a course of action for events outside the original plan, as well as the authority to see those actions implemented. Clear integration points between tactical execution and the IBP process protect the latter’s focus on midterm decision making and help tactical teams execute in response to immediate market needs.

An opportunity, but no ‘silver bullet’

With all the elements described above, IBP has a solid foundation to create value for a business. But IBP is no silver bullet. To achieve a top-performing supply chain combining timely and complete customer service with optimal cost and capital expenditures, companies also need mature planning and fulfillment processes using advanced systems and tools. That would include robust planning discipline and a collaboration culture covering all time horizons with appropriate processes while integrating commercial, planning, manufacturing, logistics, and sourcing organizations at all relevant levels.

As more companies implement advanced planning systems and nerve centers , the typical monthly IBP frequency might no longer be appropriate. Some companies may need to spend more time on short-term execution by increasing the frequency of planning and replanning. Others may be able to retain a quarterly IBP process, along with a robust autonomous-planning or exception engine. Already, advanced planning systems not only direct the valuable time of experts to the most critical demand and supply imbalances but also aggregate and disaggregate large volumes of data on the back end. These targeted reactions are part of a critical learning mechanism for the supply chain.

Over time, with root cause analyses and cross-functional collaboration on systemic fixes, the supply chain’s nerve center can get smarter at executing plans, separating noise from real issues, and proactively managing deviations. All this can eventually shorten IBP cycles, without the risk of overreacting to noise, and give P&L owners real-time transparency into how their decisions might affect performance.

P&L owners thinking about upgrading their S&OP or IBP processes can’t rely on textbook checklists. Instead, they can assume leadership of IBP and help their organizations turn strategies and plans into effective actions. To do so, they must sponsor IBP as a cross-functional driver of business decisions, fed by thoughtfully designed processes and aligned decision rights, as well as a performance management and capability-building system that encourages the right behavior and learning mechanisms across the organization. As integrated planning matures, supported by appropriate technology and maturing supply chain–management practices, it could shorten decision times and accelerate its impact on the business.

Elena Dumitrescu is a senior knowledge expert in McKinsey’s Toronto office, Matt Jochim is a partner in the London office, and Ali Sankur is a senior expert and associate partner in the Chicago office, where Ketan Shah is a partner.

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11 Trends that Will Shape Work in 2022 and Beyond

• Brian Kropp
• Emily Rose McRae

After two years of disruption, volatility will only continue to increase.

We’ve been living through the greatest workplace disruption in generations and the level of volatility will not slow down in 2022. New Covid variants will continue to emerge and may cause workplaces to temporarily go remote again. Hybrid work will create more unevenness around where, when, and how much different employees are working. Many employees will be greeted with real wage cuts as annual compensation increases fall behind inflation. These realities will be layered on top of longer-term technological transformation, continued DE&I journeys, and ongoing political disruption and uncertainty.

At the start of 2021, many of us expected the world to return to normalcy. Vaccines were starting to roll out, and many executives felt like it would be a matter of a few short months before we would all return to the workplace .

• Brian Kropp is chief of research for the Gartner HR practice, which delivers insights and solutions that address new and emerging executive challenges and enable HR leaders to take decisive actions. Brian’s expertise spans all aspects of HR, including talent acquisition and management, employee experience, change management, and leadership.
• Emily Rose McRae is a senior director analyst covering the future of work and workforce transformation, and she leads the talent research initiative for executive leaders. Emily Rose works across all issues related to the future of work, including emerging technologies and their impact on work and the workforce, new employment models, and creating an enterprise-wide future of work strategy.

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How to Start Planning for 2022 Business Goals

by Elizabeth Leon

2022 is just around the corner, which means this is the perfect time to start planning for a new set of business goals. Creating annual business goals is essential to growth, profitability, and relevancy. Whether you’re running a side hustle, a small business, or a multi-million-dollar empire, business goals are essential to success.

Look back at 2021

Before you start looking ahead, it’s important to look back at the last year and evaluate all that you and your business experiences. Was there a critical discovery that led you to pivot your services or offerings? Did the pandemic lead you to transition from brick-and-mortar to an online-only business model? These are all things that are important to note as you look forward and create new goals for your business.

Visualize the year ahead

When you see your future self in 2022, is there anything that looks different? Are you leading a bigger team, packing more orders, or celebrating a record-breaking sales season in July? Visualizing the year ahead can be a great way to begin creating intentional and meaningful goals.

Once you’re done visualizing your best self in 2022, it’s time to turn those visions into SMART goals . Remember, SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. Break down some of your big visions and think about how you’re going to get from where you are now to where you want to be in 12 months.

Schedule check-ins in advance

Oftentimes, especially as busy entrepreneurs, we spend the time to create goals without carving out time to check in on them throughout the year. While creating goals is great, they’re useless if you’re not constantly working toward them and checking in on them to see if you’ve made any progress.

Whether you choose to check in on your goals weekly, monthly, or quarterly, make sure to block out time in your calendar. It will ensure you stay on track and reach those goals.

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Elizabeth Leon

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Business Planning

How to Write a Business Plan That Encompasses Your Vision

Updated: Mar. 16, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What Is a Business Plan?

How to write a business plan, 1. executive summary, 2. business description/overview, 3. market analysis, 4. products & services, 5. marketing strategy, 6. operations & management, 7. financial planning, business plan examples, make your business a success story.

Learning how to write a business plan is a major step for any budding entrepreneur. Business plans can be a great way to track and predict your growth. In fact, business owners that create and use a business plan experience an average of 33.4% more growth than those who don’t. Perhaps you’ve heard of this type of document before but never looked into exactly how to write a business plan. However, it’s a vital component of success, and the benefits of creating one before you start a business and revisiting it each year are invaluable. Read on to learn more about how to create a business plan outline and see examples.

A business plan is the foundation of your business, and it serves as a guide to how to structure, run, and grow your entity. This document will often end up being more than 20 pages by the end of your research. However, business plans allow owners, stakeholders, and investors to discover whether the venture idea is likely to succeed, predict profits, and much more.

The purpose of business planning

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” Business planning is an essential tool that will allow you to make sound decisions, help you identify potential weaknesses, communicate your ideas with key people, and meet your business goals.

By going through this process, you will save time, money, and resources. With a business plan, you will quickly find out if your idea is strong enough to survive the market or requires more resources.

Writing a business plan is easier than you may think. You can follow a business plan outline (traditional format) that will make this process simple and effective. It will ensure no stone is left unturned. By reading through all of the possible sections to include in this document, you can quickly decide which are applicable to your business.

Read on to see business plan outline examples that contain only the parts that apply to the business type. For now, let’s begin by analyzing the first part of any plan, the Executive Summary.

When business planning, the first section should be the executive summary. This section clearly describes what your business is and explains why it will be successful. It should illustrate to the people reading the document how and why you’ll find success.

Each executive summary should also include:

• Your mission statement
• A description of your product or service
• Information about the leadership team
• An explanation of ideal employees
• Information about the location and why it was chosen

Include financial information and any growth plans you may have as well, in case if you plan on acquiring financing for the business.

After reading the executive summary, your business overview will provide more context. Here you have the opportunity to explain what problems your company solves, who your audience/consumer is, and how you fulfill their needs.

You will also want to explain in detail:

• Your competitive advantages
• All of the strengths your entity possesses (List your location, team member expertise, unique position, etc.)

This is the section to truly convey to others why your idea is sure to be a success.

You won’t be able to write a business plan without a target market analysis . This step will allow you to obtain data that will identify trends and themes. Some of the items you will need to complete are:

• Competitor Analysis: What are your competitors doing, and how can you deliver more value?
• Industry Analysis: What is the industry outlook?
• Audience Research: What is your target market?

After this vital step, you should have a clear idea of who is likely to buy the type of product or service you offer, how you can add more value within your industry, and what you’ll need to do to beat your competitors.

Without a winning product or service, you’ll lose time and money and the business can collapse. In this section, describe what the product or service you offer is and how it will directly benefit its intended customer. If you plan to patent a product or copyright work, it’s important to include that information in this section too. It’s beneficial to align your business plan with the type of work your business will be doing. For instance, consider your product sourcing strategy for your industry ahead of time.

Without sales, a company won’t be able to earn revenue. The marketing strategy helps business owners describe how they intend to reach their potential clients and how to retain them. It is important to truly understand your audience. This will help you create a marketing plan to get the most success from a given budget.

Explain who will run your company and how it will be structured. The legal structure of the entity will be important in describing why various key roles/positions are needed and how each person’s experience will contribute to the overall success of your venture.

Feel free to include resumes of key personnel in this section. You will also want to brush up on great ways to improve operational strategy and select what you feel would work best for your company.

Proper business planning requires accurate forecasting. Financial planning will be a necessary component to success, particularly in the first few years of a business.

Ideally, you want to forecast what the next five years will look like financially. A few items to include or discuss projections about are:

• Balance sheets
• Cash flow statements
• Income statements
• Capital expenditure budgets

This is the perfect time to include graphs and charts for clarity. Finances can make or break an organization so it’s best to sort out the financial planning early on. You can do this by consulting with an independent accounting firm or by performing a cash flow analysis for your own projections.

There are thousands of business plan examples online. If you want to get a feel for how this looks and comes together, one of the best resources to use is HubSpot. The samples are unique and offer great design ideas to spruce up your plan once the research is finalized.

Now that you have learned how to write a business plan, it’s time to get started. There is no time to waste! Create a business plan outline using the sections above and start backing your idea up with hard data. Various studies show that business owners who plan often achieve a much higher rate of success. Feel confident that your idea can not only survive but thrive in the market by conducting the research necessary to identify all of its strengths and weaknesses. Good luck!

Brontë Fyke

Brontë is a UX/UI designer and marketer based in Los Angeles, CA. She's been creating and promoting content for over 6 years, covering a range of topics in the payment processing industry. Brontë is currently the Director of Marketing at PaymentCloud, a merchant services provider that offers business solutions for companies in all industries - no matter the risk.

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5 Best Business Plan Software in 2022

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When you’re starting a business, developing a strong business plan will be one of the first steps you take. Your business plan will cover everything from a detailed explanation of your products or services and pricing model to at least three years of financial projections—plus much more. Therefore, whether you’re not sure how to get started or you’re just looking to make the process easier, you may want to turn to business plan software for help.

In this guide, we'll break down five of the best business plan software options—discussing their pros, cons, features, pricing, and more—so you have all the information you need to decide which solution is right for your small business.

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Tell us where you're at in your business journey, and we'll direct you to the experience that fits.

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The 5 best business plan software options

The right business plan software will make the process of writing your business plan much simpler. Like many business software solutions, however, there are a number of different business plan software options out there—each of which has a unique set of features, user experience, and price.

This being said, if you're looking for a place to start your search for the best business plan software, you can explore the five top options below:

How much do you need?

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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.

1. LivePlan

Best overall business plan software.

If you want template-rich, modern-feeling business plan software, then LivePlan may be the right pick for you. LivePlan excels with their user interface, which feels updated and slick, and also offers intuitive, easy-to-use features and options.

Their step-by-step instruction will help you kick things off from the beginning, and you can take advantage of their online learning center to continue to gain business skills.

Affordable plans, including pay-as-you-go option

No long-term contracts or cancellation fee; 60-day money-back guarantee

Modern, intuitive interface; cloud-based, can be used on Mac, PC, as well as tablets

Ability to create unlimited plans in one account; over 500 customizable templates

Variety of business resources including video tutorials, step-by-step instruction, and general customer support

Limited integration options

Challenging to enter your own financial modeling projections

Can be difficult to learn

Ability to create an unlimited number of business plans on one account

More than 500 business plan templates spanning various industries

Integration with Xero and QuickBooks Online

Real-time tracking of financial data with accounting integrations

Ability to export your business plan to Word or PDF

Expert advice and step-by-step instruction included

Performance dashboards for tracking against budgets and sales goals

Ability to create and export a one-page pitch executive summary

Annual plan: $15 per month, billed every 12 months

Six-month plan: $18 per month, billed every six months

Pay-as-you-go plan: $20 per month, billed once every month

2. GoSmallBiz

Best for multiple business management tools in one platform.

Next on our list of the best business plan software options is GoSmallBiz, which is much more than just a business plan software. With GoSmallBiz, you have access to business continuity planning software with features that cover creating a roadmap, working through business and legal forms, building a website, and more.

In this way, GoSmallBiz is great for startups or newer businesses looking to access multiple business management tools through one platform.

Unlimited business consultation and extensive library of online resources

Multiple business tools in one software

Website consultation analysis and business assessment

Industry-specific business plan templates with emphasis on financial projections and statements

Expensive monthly cost compared to alternatives

Limited business plan features

Entire business plan can only be exported to Microsoft Word

Outdated interface

Industry-specific business plan templates with step-by-step building wizard

Ability to create financial statements and projections

Free website hosting and website builder

Customer relationship manager with integration with MailChimp

Digital marketing dashboard with social media and Google Analytics integrations

HR document builder

Corporate minutes writer

Business documents library

Business courses library

Unlimited business consultation

$39 per month, no contracts, free cancellation

Best for simple, fast business plan creation.

If you're looking for free business plan software, Enloop will be one of your closest options—they offer an all-inclusive seven-day free trial, no credit card required. Additionally, unlike some of the other options on our list, Enloop is strictly dedicated to business plan creation, including automated text writing, financial forecast comparisons, and a real-time performance score that tracks your progress.

This being said, if you'd prefer the most straightforward, fast, and simple way to write your business plan, Enloop will be a platform worth considering.

Simple and straightforward software, solely dedicated to business plan creation

Seven-day free trial

Automatic text generation available to streamline the writing process

Affordable plans with annual discount option

Limited additional educational resources

Only one template option

No integration options

Ability to create three business plans with customizable text, images, tables, charts, and over 100 currency symbols and formats

Includes automatic text generation for each plan section that you can then customize

Automatically generated financial statements

Includes financial performance comparison analysis (using three ratios with Detailed plan and 16 with Performance plan)

Real-time performance score to track your progress

Ability to invite users to edit (two with Detailed plan, five with Performance plan)

Pass/fail report and certificate to help you identify issues with your plan

Free plan: Seven-day free trial with no credit card required

Detailed plan: $19.95 per month or $11 per month, paid annually

Performance plan: $39.95 per month, or $24 per month, paid annually

Best for startups looking to acquire funding or find investors.

Part of the Startups.com suite, Bizplan gets top marks for their user interface—it’s intuitive, easy to use, and modern. You’ll work with a step-by-step business plan builder to get exactly what you’d like from your business plan. It may remind you of a modern website builder, since it has drag-and-drop tools to build templates.

Moreover, for one subscription fee, you have access to all of the tools in the Startups.com network, including self-guided courses, how-to guides, masterclass videos, and more. All in all, with a direct connection to Fundable, Bizplan is a top business plan software option for startups looking to acquire funding and find investors.

Subscription gives you access to all Startups.com tools

Lifetime access subscription option

User-friendly drag-and-drop business plan builder

Excellent educational resources

Connection to Fundable great for businesses looking for capital

No free trial

No templates based on industry

No mobile access

Drag-and-drop templates for business plan building

Financial command center to track all business financials in one place

Unlimited account collaborators

Ability to share business plan online with investors

Online resources including self-guided courses, masterclass videos, how-to guides, mentorship access

Unlimited software use for Fundable, Launchrock, and Startups.com

Monthly plan: $29 per month

Annual plan: $20.75 per month, billed at $249 per year

Lifetime access: $349 one-time fee

5. PlanGuru

Best for financial planning and budgeting.

Finally, for some of the strongest financial features among business plan software options, including budgeting and forecasting, you might check out PlanGuru. Whereas the other solutions we've reviewed were first and foremost focused on writing a business plan, PlanGuru is dedicated to business financial planning —providing the tools you need to create budgets, financial forecasts, reports, and more.

Therefore, if you need a software solution that can streamline the financial piece of your business planning processes, PlanGuru will certainly have the most to offer.

Extensive financial tools and detailed forecasting, budgeting, and reporting capabilities

Substantial library of resources

Cloud-based and desktop options

14-day free trial and 30-day money-back guarantee

Expensive, especially for additional users

Only focuses on the financial aspect of business planning; no templates or tools for basic business plan writing

Difficult to use without prior financial knowledge

Cloud-based version of software, as well as locally installed Windows version (desktop version has a few more features)

Works with QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Excel

Budgeting and forecasting for up to 10 years

Over 20 standard forecasting methods

Formula builder to create custom methods

Ratios and KPIs

Dashboard and reporting tools

Help guides, video tutorials, knowledgebase, and live U.S.-based customer support

14-day free trial

$99 per month (additional users $29 per month)

$899 per year (additional users $299 per year)

What to look for in business plan software

Ultimately, it's up to you to decide, which, if any, of the best business plan software solutions on our list is right for your business.

So, if you're trying to figure out how to choose between the various options out there, it might be helpful to compare your top choices based on the following criteria:

Features: As we've seen different business plan software solutions offer different features. You'll want to look carefully at the feature list of any software and determine what features are most important for your business needs. Do you need an extensive library of templates with detailed customization? Would you prefer software that includes an online learning center for business skills? Are you looking for a solution that combines business plan writing with other tasks? It may be useful to list out your ideal feature set, so you can compare individual software plans to that list.

Price: Although you might be able to find some free business plan software options (or at the very least, free trials), in most cases, you'll need to pay a subscription fee to access the platform you choose. Therefore, you'll want to think about what your budget is for this business tool and what type of software is most cost-effective for your needs.

User experience: User experience can vary widely among different business plan software options. You’ll find some programs that are newer or have been recently updated. Others might have the kind of interfaces that felt new years ago but are now pretty out of date—and, subsequently, make them a little harder to use. The right user experience for your needs is genuinely a matter of opinion and comfort—nevertheless, it's worth testing thoroughly testing out a platform to ensure that it can truly work for you before investing in a monthly or annual subscription.

The bottom line

There's no doubt that properly crafting your business plan is important for the future growth and success of your small business. Luckily, the right business plan software should make the process much simpler.

This being said, whether you opt for one of the best business plan software options listed here, or another platform entirely, you'll want to take the time to compare multiple solutions and ensure you choose the one that's right for your business.

As we mentioned, it can be helpful to think about the features you're looking for, your budget, and your user-experience preferences ahead of time—that way, you'll have a set of criteria in mind as you explore different solutions.

Ultimately, perhaps the best thing you can do to find the right software is to actually test out the platforms themselves—either by using a free trial or a money-back guarantee.

This article originally appeared on JustBusiness, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

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5 business planning must-do’s for 2022

From cutting the negativity out of your life to investing in yourself more, start putting a plan in place for success next year while keeping your focus firmly fixed on your goals by following these tips from the experts.

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Any top producer will tell you that to build a solid foundation for your business, you must have a plan (and one that’s actually written down tends to stick and come to fruition).

Performance coach and counselor Dr. Darlene Treese’s five paradigm-shifting steps make a solid framework for developing a business plan, and she would know, having worked on leadership, performance and mental health with students, families and even the Department of Defense. 

We’ve paired some of Dr. Treese’s best advice with that of industry professionals on how agents should approach business planning for 2022. 

Shift your mindset

Many agents view themselves as service providers and see their work as transactional in nature. One of the most important things you can do to develop your business plan is to begin thinking of yourself as a business rather than as a salesperson. 

According to Mark Choey, HighNote founder and CEO, many agents fall into the trap of being super-busy but having very few long-term results that come from all of that busy-ness.

“As an agent, you are not only the CEO, but the CMO, CFO, CTO, Chief Economist, bookkeeper, handyman, janitor, and, of course, the VP of sales!” Choey said. Understanding all of the moving parts of a business can make a huge difference in how effective you are in building your business. 

“Don’t let others define your success. Know yourself.” – Dr. Treese

Begin by determining what type of business entity would work well for you, whether LLC, C-Corp, or S-Corp. Talk to your accountant or financial adviser and your attorney to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of each and to put a plan together.   

Once you start thinking of yourself as a business owner rather than an individual agent, you’ll begin to develop a perspective that helps you think big picture and long term, rather than focusing on immediate results.

Become resilient 

One of the biggest obstacles agents face is, ironically, the one of too much success. This often causes them to get bogged down in the day-to-day of client services, putting out fires and doing little to plan for the future. It keeps them from taking advantage of the potential their business offers. 

According to DOORA Properties broker-owner Troy Palmquist, planning for the year in advance, setting goals, and letting those goals dictate your actions is essential for keeping yourself focused and bringing more consistency to your business.

“So many agents fall on their face when they get busy and then stop doing the things that got them busy in the first place,” Palmquist said. One of the things that he finds particularly effective — sphere of influence marketing — is the first thing to go by the wayside when agents get a few clients in place.

Palmquist stresses the importance of setting a goal and creating a path, then sticking to the path as you have laid it out. Manage the growth as it comes rather than ramping back on your communication and marketing — the things that are working and creating the growth.

“View failure as a learning opportunity. View obstacles as challenges.” – Dr. Treese

According to York Baur, CEO of MoxiWorks, “One of the key resources that agents often overlook is their sphere of influence — their ‘database’ — which is where the majority of their business comes from.”  

Take advantage of the potential of your CRM and transaction management platform to simplify and streamline your operation. Making sure that you have the information you need in a system where you can use it to market is the key to success, Baur said.

Make investments

Investing in yourself and your business often means taking a leap of faith and setting yourself up for success. Part of that process is remembering what activities bring in money — your networking, your outreach, your expertise — and focusing your efforts on those activities.  

Many agents continue to think of themselves as a one-person show with total responsibility for every aspect of their business. According to Choey, the first thing every agent needs to do is hire an assistant if they don’t have one already. 

“If you feel like you can’t afford one, split him or her with another agent … or two! You absolutely need an assistant to handle all the details, admin, payments, scheduling, so you can do the things only you are licensed to do, sell real estate!”

“Invest in yourself. Act like you’ve already won.” – Dr. Treese

Next, Choey recommends hiring a business coach who will hold you accountable to “the numbers you need to hit each and every week and each and every month.” 

Those are not necessarily sales numbers, but numbers going out: 

• money spent on leads
• the number of calls to your sphere
• social media engagement
• time spent at networking events
• email newsletters
• the number of appointments taken
• the number of properties shown or previewed
• the number of clients you are working with

According to Baur, there are no expenses, only investments. “Every dollar, minute, or favor from someone else is an investment that needs to have a return in mind.” This means that everything you do should lead to a potential result or accomplishment. 

Maintaining consistent outward focus will result in consistent dividends. Freeing up your time and giving yourself the opportunity to perform pays for the people who help to make it possible.

Avoid negativity

For many of us, building a business means overcoming a lifetime of messaging about who we are or what we are capable of. Some of us suffer from imposter syndrome — the sense that we are only pretending to be as competent or capable as we appear to be — while others are fighting a childhood context of poverty, educational struggles or other challenges to our self-image.  

If there are people in your life who are constantly telling you what you can’t do or making you feel bad about your efforts and accomplishments, it’s time to avoid them, Dr. Treese says. “Surround yourself with positive people and with those who share your vision and can help it grow. Be with those you want to be like.”  

“Avoid toxic people. Surround yourself with positive people.” – Dr. Treese

Many agents ignore a valuable resource that is constantly available to them at little or no cost — brokerage meetings and masterminds, local associations with training and networking events, and state or national conferences and associational events. Connecting with the best and brightest at these events can be a powerful motivator and a way to learn from the experiences of successful colleagues.  

In addition, if the pandemic has taught us anything, there are a plethora of online resources — from blogs to YouTube channels to webinars and online courses. You can learn anything from social media marketing to graphic design to bookkeeping to the ins and outs of specific real estate niches. 

When you come from a place of possibility and potential and surround yourself with like-minded individuals, fellow entrepreneurs, and positive thinkers, you set yourself up for success.

Take action

Finally, from real estate investor and radio host Abhi Golhar, is the fitting advice to “Stop planning. Start doing.” According to Golhar, too many people set out to spend time convincing themselves that they’ll be successful if only they develop a perfect plan at the outset. “It’s like a rocking chair,” Golhar said. “It gives you something to do but ultimately gets you nowhere.”  

According to Golhar, many agents spend too much time working on step-by-step plans rather than putting their ideas into operation. He offers the example of creating a marketing campaign: You can speculate about which strategy will be most effective, but you’ll get further if you design the graphics, write the copy, and get your ad live. That way, you can compare different iterations and hone in on the one that works best.

“Do what you are most passionate about.” – Dr. Treese

Often, planning is just another word for procrastination, and it’s never going to be foolproof. Make sure the planning process you do for 2022 is meaningful without being an excuse or a means of delaying necessary forward momentum.

Christy Murdock is a Realtor, freelance writer, coach and consultant and the owner of  Writing Real Estate . She is also the creator of the online course  Crafting the Property Description: The Step-by-Step Formula for Reluctant Real Estate Writers . Follow Writing Real Estate on  Twitter ,  Instagram  and  YouTube .

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New Ensemble Practice Study: ‘We Have a Growth Problem’

Diana Britton | Aug 30, 2024

While firms grew their assets under management by 18% in 2023, that figure doesn’t account for market growth, which was at 11.4%, according to a new study conducted by Ensemble Practice and BlackRock.

However, new client AUM, which grew on average 7.5% in 2023, speaks more about the health of an advisor’s business, said Ensemble Practice CEO Philip Palaveev. And when you factor in client departures (-1.8%), organic growth was just 5.7%. That’s low considering most firms he talks to say they expect 10-15% growth.

“For a long time, in many conferences, in many conversations, even in research papers, we’ll point to the growth that’s created by the markets and call it ‘organic growth,’” Palaveev said. “It’s time to separate the markets out of the equation and face the reality that, at least in the last five years, we have not been growing well. We have a growth problem.”

The True Ensemble Data Insights 2024 Survey was conducted in April and May 2024, with BlackRock and Ensemble Practice collecting data from 240 advisory firms about their business growth, profitability and employee compensation. This first report focuses on organic growth.

Palaveev says the average organic growth rate doesn’t tell the whole story; if you look at the distribution of growth results, you have 21% of firms growing new AUM at 11%. Yet more than half of firms are growing at 3% or less.

“If we take those [fast-growing firms] out of the equation, the rest of the firms are actually growing at no faster than 3%.”

To grow, firms need to realize that marketing, like investing, should be a vital function of the firm, he says.

“In most industries, that will be elementary,” Palaveev said. “You don’t need an MBA to come to that conclusion. But in our industry, we don’t trust marketing, and we don’t invest in marketing nearly enough. You will see in this report that firms are spending a minimal amount of money on both marketing budgets as well as marketing staff. Marketing as a function is barely emerging, even at the largest of firms.”

Survey respondents said they spend just 1.4% of their revenue on marketing and 0.7% on compensating marketing employees, on average.

On average, advisory firms spent 1.4% of their revenue on marketing and 0.7% on compensating marketing employees. Even large firms (those with $1 billion-plus in AUM) spend just 0.9% of revenue on marketing department compensation, which comes out to about $114,000.

A good rule of thumb in many industries is that roughly 5% of the revenue should be invested in growth—essentially marketing.

Palaveev says there is data that shows that firms that spend more on marketing actually grow faster.

The report also looked at the sources of leads coming into advisory firms, with the winner being referrals from existing clients, at nearly 58%.

“That’s the way it should be,” he said. “That’s the sign of strong relationships. That’s the sign of a firm doing a very good job for its existing clients. That’s a firm that really really creates strong connections. This is great. But once again, this is slow.”

That was followed by referrals from centers of influence, networking, and marketing leads, at 9.5%.

“These are basically leads generated that are not associated with a person,” he said. “Rather than someone calling and saying, ‘Hey, can I talk to Philip.’ They call and say, ‘Hey, can I talk to the Ensemble Practice, whoever’s available?’ That’s a marketing lead.”

The importance of those marketing leads is slowly but gradually increasing. Palaveev said he’s seen that number grow from about 0% in the 1990s to nearly 10% now.

“I suspect that this is the number that’s going to be the most important industry trend,”

“They say in elections, ‘every party should gets its own party members to go and vote, and then try to win as many of the independents as possible.’ This is almost the same. Every firm should get its members—in other words existing clients—to refer as much as they can. And then try to get as much as they can of the independents. That’s the marketing part.”

These marketing leads shouldn’t replace referrals from existing clients, but it will be the vehicle of accelerating growth, he said.

If you look at the organic growth rates by size, the study found that small firms grew new client AUM by 12.9%, while large firms grew by 5.2%. Palaveev attributes that to the ‘denominator problem.’

“The denominator problem is simply, if you’re $100 million in assets, to grow 10% you need $10 million; $10 million is, let’s say, 10 clients, $1 million each. Sounds doable. If you’re $1 billion in assets, to grow by 10% you need to bring $100 million. That’s 100 clients. Suddenly to grow by the same rate, because we’re measuring growth by percentages, you have to bring so many more clients.”

At the same time, large firms have larger marketing budgets, more existing clients to refer and more advisors out there networking and referral relationships with the custodians.

Palaveev argues that the lower growth rate is likely also related to larger firms’ focus on mergers and acquisitions, at the expense of organic growth.

“Large firms today have fallen too much in love with acquisitions as a growth strategy, and perhaps neglected organic growth, because all of the large firms are chasing acquisitions,” he said. “The denominator problem is a problem, but then again that large truck should have a much larger engine. And perhaps that engine is currently busy with M&A.”

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Transition Plan Taskforce Disclosure Framework: A positive move for UK business?

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Rob Doepel, EY Managing Partner, Sustainability, UK & Ireland, comments on the publication of the Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT) Disclosure Framework:

A significant and important step in the right direction

“The TPT Disclosure Framework is comprehensive and an extremely important step in the right direction towards driving the UK towards a net zero future. 

“Fundamentally, implementation of the Disclosure Framework (pending consultation) will force the hand of businesses to produce and implement rigorous net zero plans to deliver on the bold pledges and promises they have made to date. 

“Not only is this a huge step towards making the UK a net zero economy, but is a significant step towards the world’s progression to net zero, elevating the UK into a leadership position in the global economy on holding companies to account on action. Other G20 countries are likely to stand up and take notice of the UK’s progressive approach and it could well create a ripple effect where other countries follow a similar path. 

A ‘maximalist’ net zero plan will be required

“The guidance suggests that businesses should produce a “maximalist” plan covering not only their own decarbonisation plans, but how their plans fit into the UK and the world’s transition to net zero. TPT guidance goes further than TCFD requirements and potentially a long way beyond what many businesses have considered in their net zero planning to date. 

“It is a comprehensive framework, focused on strategy, planning but importantly, the actions businesses will execute to achieve their plans. In particular it picks up on the need for significant behavioural change and change management within an organisation if businesses are going to be able deliver on their ambitious plans. Ultimately, a good TPT plan will result in a roadmap of how an organisation will succeed in a net zero economy.

Tipping Point for UK business

“Importantly, the TPT provides a consistent and rigorous framework by which businesses can be compared with one another. Given that plans will be published at similar times, there is potential that the quality of the plan will have an impact on market value upon publication, due to the view taken by investors, customers and other stakeholders. We believe it is therefore essential to move early and prioritise resource to creating a strong plan. Put simply, ambitious purpose statements and pledges simply won’t cut it anymore.

The challenge for business 

“While an extremely positive step in the right direction, implementation of the TPT Disclosure Framework will undoubtedly present challenges for businesses, who are navigating supply chain disruption, interest rates rises, high energy prices and inflation.

“We know from conversations with clients that many businesses view net zero as an opportunity. However, the short-term costs and a sense of uncertainty as to what makes a net zero plan stand up to scrutiny presents two significant barriers to its adoption. 

“Interactions with our clients tell us that many businesses have climate ambitions and high-level plans in place, but few have plans which would currently meet all TPT criteria.

“The other challenge here is the skills, experience and resource to be able to develop and deliver transition plans. 

“But the opportunity on offer for those who are able to best leverage the UK’s transition to a green economy far outweigh these challenges. From first mover advantage into new areas of economic growth, to new innovations and partnerships across your value chain, there is much to be gained.

What’s coming next?

“The TPT appears to have stayed silent on the timetable for implementation and precisely which type of business the guidance applies to. We must assume at this stage that both the type of business and deadline for submitting plans follow the detail set out in the original announcement, but we would expect further clarification on these points in due course. 

“In addition, while the document signals that the TPT recommendations will become mandatory, it is not explicit. While we recognise the huge challenges that these new regulations will place on UK businesses, inaction is simply not an option. Sustainability and decarbonising our economy are the defining issues of our generation and only by mandating the TPT proposals are we going to drive the pace of change that is needed.”

Financial services perspective

Khadija Ali, UK Financial Services Climate Change and sustainability services partner, says:

“The Transition Plan Taskforce Disclosure Framework is a key milestone on the road towards Net Zero, and it is a huge achievement to have reached this point. The Framework provides a solid foundation for the UK as a leading global market in terms of producing strong, practical guidance, and it will support firms as they move deeper into the implementation stage. The Transition Plan Taskforce Disclosure Framework will help firms to convert plans into action and make tangible progress towards achieving their climate targets. 

“For financial services firms, the implementation effort will arguably be even more significant as the plans of banks, insurers and asset managers will be inextricably linked to wider market transition activities. This will require a detailed review of all financing and investment portfolios. Overall, the Framework will move all firms towards more comprehensive and consistent reporting.”

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Rob Doepel, EY Managing Partner, Sustainability, UK & Ireland, comments on the publication of the Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT) Disclosure Framework

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Par Funding plan would pay victims half their money, for now

After more than four years, some Par Funding investors are closer to getting some of their money back.

Investors in Par Funding, a Philadelphia loan company that collected hundreds of millions of dollars selling unregistered securities to more than 1,700 mostly Philadelphia-area investors before it defaulted on payments in 2020, will collect an average of 49 cents for every dollar they are owed, under a plan filed last week in federal court in Florida.

The proposal would pay a total of $110 million as an “initial distribution” to partly repay long-suffering investors, many of them elderly, on approved claims totaling $225.7 million. The plan was submitted by court-appointed receiver Ryan Stumphauzer to U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz on Aug. 23.

Lawyers familiar with the case expect Ruiz will set a deadline for objections before he signs off on the plan.

The receiver held back $57 million it has collected from Par founders Joseph LaForte, his wife, Lisa McElhone, and people who worked with them, as reserves while other litigation over former Par assets grinds on. Stumphauzer also hopes to raise tens of millions more from former lawyers and others, but those plans also face delays.

Ruiz appointed the receiver in July 2020 after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged LaForte, McElhone, and others with civil fraud for lying about the risks before the investments defaulted and with selling unregistered securities.

The couple and their codefendants agreed not to dispute the SEC charges; the receiver has collected cash and sold properties they owned to raise money to repay investors. The SEC declared the case a Ponzi scheme , in which Par used new investors’ money to pay old investors, covered up bad loans that couldn’t be repaid, and grabbed so much cash for themselves that the company was left vulnerable to default.

Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia later filed criminal charges against LaForte and his brother James , who prosecutors say is a member of New York’s Gambino crime organization, and other Par leaders and employees. The brothers are in federal jail in Philadelphia awaiting scheduled December trials.

Under the “initial distribution” plan revealed by the court last week, some investors would get more, some less.

For example, more than 300 investors who are trying to get back a total of $49 million they put into seven funds set up by A Better Financial Plan, a King of Prussia insurance and investments firm formerly run by Dean Vagnozzi, would get back as much as 63 cents from every dollar invested in a fund called ABFP Multi Strategy II, or as little as 24 cents on the dollar for money invested in ABFP Multi Strategy I. That variance depends on the value of life-insurance policies and other investments those funds mixed with Par loans in each fund.

While proposing partial payments to investors, the receiver declined to offer payments to others who said they were owed Par money, including company insiders, such as former Par chief financial officer Joseph Cole Barleta, who also faces criminal charges, but claimed that he, too, was owed money by Par. Others who were declined include the State of Florida, which says the company failed to pay their bills; small business borrowers who repaid their Par loans and then demanded some of their money back; and former Par employees.

The receiver set aside another $36 million it had collected to pay Par victims as a special reserve while it continues to fight a larger set of claims by members of New York’s Sherebar family (also spelled Cherebar by some members), who own the Rainbow Stores urban clothing retail chain. The Sherebars say they deserve a large share of Par’s former assets because, as major financiers of Par operations, they negotiated priority repayment from Par.

Stumphauzer maintains that the Sherebars, too, were insiders and don’t deserve repayment. A lawyer for the Sherebars didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Another $20 million in receiver funds has been set aside as a general reserve.

The receiver also hopes to collect a proposed $45 million settlement from insurers for the Eckert Seamans law firm. Former Eckert partner John Pauciulo, longtime lawyer for investment salesman Vagnozzi, set up many of the unregistered funds investors used to bet on Par. Vagnozzi later sued Pauciulo and his firm, blaming them for giving him bad advice.

That proposed settlement from Eckert has been held up by lawyers for Vagnozzi, former Par employees, and Par borrowers, who all say their clients are entitled to some of that money. The judge has yet to rule on whether other claims would be allowed beyond the proposed settlement.

The receiver is also trying to collect additional funds for investors by selling remaining properties seized from Par or its owners, with estimated value totaling over $10 million, and as much as $10 million in federal tax refunds for taxes Stumphauzer says were paid on phony profits that tricked investors into believing the company was profitable.

Any money freed up by settling those remaining claims and disputes would go to investors in future distributions after paying the receiver and other contractors who have collected and managed Par assets since the 2020 takeover.

The investors aren’t identified by full names in court papers. Many are included only as a group, under the name of the funds in which they invested. But hundreds of individual investors, and the amount the receiver wants to pay them, are listed by their initials, and the value of their approved claims, in an exhibit attached to the proposed initial distribution. The case is U.S. District Court, Southern Florida: 2020-civil-81205 ; the exhibit is 2014-27.