blog business plan pdf

How to Create a Blog Business Plan (Free Template) 7 Easy Steps to Write a Blog Business Plan: How I've Earned $1 Million+ Blogging

If you want to become a successful blogger, you’re going to need a smart blog business plan that can guide your decision-making, tell you what to invest your time in and keep pointing you toward the next stage in the growth of your blog business. Here’s how to write a blog business plan, including my free downloadable template.

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For more than 10 years since I started my blog , I’ve been strategically implementing my own blog business plans with great results. This guide pulls from that exact plan—and you can download my (free) template to follow along as you grow your blog too.

Want My Free Blog Business Plan Template?

Grab my free blog business plan template in both Google Doc and PDF format (that’s helped me build a six-figure blog) and reach 500,000+ monthly readers today.

Last year alone, my blog generated $449,107 in revenue (see more in my blog income reports ), and it’s been earning in the six-figures for several years now.

Despite the numbers, it hasn’t always been easy—like all entrepreneurs will tell you as any small business owner, there are ups and downs with business blogging, too.

A blog business plan helps you navigate the storm and can keep you on track, working toward your most impactful goals despite short-term fluctuations. At the end of the day, I’m living proof that you can turn your passions into a profitable small business as an entrepreneur through blogging.

To turn your blog into a viable business, though, you need to create a strategic  blog business plan .

How to Create a Blog Business Plan in 7 Easy Steps (Free Template)

• Define Your Blog Business Plans and Set Meaningful Goals
• Do a Competitive Analysis of Other Blogs
• Start and Grow Your Blog (the Profitable Way)
• Map Out Your Traffic Generation Strategy
• Formulate Your Blog’s Work Process
• Launch (and Optimize) Your Blog
• Download My Free Blog Business Plan Template

Disclosure:  Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I’ll earn a commission. When you purchase a product or service using my affiliate link, I’m compensated, which helps me create content like my ultimate guide about how to start a blog free of charge. Know that I only recommend products and services I’ve personally used and stand behind.

What Makes a Blog a Business?

Any blog can easily make you a small business owner with the right level of strategy, care and time investment. The basic foundation of a blog business is that you’ve:

• Developed a repeatable process for publishing content
• Learned how to bring in traffic consistently
• Figured out how to monetize that traffic through a variety of channels

The monetization aspect is where much of your efforts will (soon) be going as your blog evolves into a real business. You’ll experiment with tactics like running ads, taking sponsorships, joining affiliate programs , selling your own physical or digital products, and many other blog monetization strategies .

And in order to execute on these three core components, it helps immensely to have a solid blog business plan telling you what to do next.

What is a Blog Business Plan (and Why Should You Create One)?

A business plan, in its simplest form , is a roadmap for your business. It outlines your business and blogging goals and maps out how you’re going to achieve them. And in order to be effective, your business plan must be written down (so you can reference it often) and must include timelines wherever possible.

So why do you need a blog business plan ?

These are the four main ways you stand to benefit from creating a blog business plan, particularly for beginners:

• A blog business plan gives you a clear picture of what you want to achieve
• It helps you create a greater sense of accountability
• It forces you to set clear priorities (that ladder up to your overall goals)
• It shows you some of the challenges to expect along the way

A smart blog business plan is like a road map. If you follow it closely—and expect to spend some time experimenting, navigating detours and bumpy roads along the way—both the journey and the end destination will be very rewarding.

How do you write a business plan for a blog?

The first step to writing a business plan for your blog, is to define  what your blog business is going to be (the main ways you expect to generate revenue)—and set meaningful, realistic goals that can help you make daily, weekly, monthly progress toward achieving those goals that ladder up to success with your blog business.

From there, you’ll want to research your competitors, start your blog (if you haven’t already), make sure it’s set up the right way with the correct themes & plugins, put in place winning habits that’ll help you achieve your goals, figure out the best ways to drive in traffic and promote your blog content—then begin to work on monetizing.

For a step-by-step walkthrough on the process of writing your blog business plan, grab my free template right here in this guide (through the form just a little bit above here).

Now, let’s discuss how to create a blog business plan that will guide you to your desired goals in the coming weeks, months, and years.

We’ll start by helping you develop your own blog business plans, which will set you on the path to generating revenue as quickly as possible.

1. Define Your Blog Business Plans and Set Meaningful Goals

The very first step in creating a blog business plan is to define what your business is going to be. That’s where we’ll be talking about things like your mission statement (why you’re blogging in the first place)—and while I don’t  love the corporate term, executive summary, defining your blog business will be the closest thing we cover to that.

That means laying the foundation for everything from which niche you’ll be blogging in, who your target audience is going to be , which (tangible) blogging goals are most important for you to aim for, and at least a loose sense of how you’ll plan to make money from your blog in the near future.

Picking a niche

Picking a niche to blog about is one of the most important steps you can take to eventually generate an income from your blog.

A niche is simply a specific range of related topics (segment of a target market or target audience ) that you want to specialize your blog around being a trusted resource. Examples of some highly lucrative niche topics you can blog about include things like:

• Photography
• Personal Finance
• Career Development

When it comes to choosing a niche, the sky truly is the limit. If there’s a topic area that has enough demand—and you’re genuinely interested in building a blog business around it—then you’ve got the makings of a potentially profitable niche. Check out my guide for much more: How to Pick a Niche to Blog About (+ Examples) .

The reason why picking a niche comes first when laying out your blog business plans—is that how your blog functions as a business will be heavily influenced by the niche you’re operating in. It’s only after you’ve landed on a clear niche that you can move into defining and learning more about the audience you’ll be serving.

Learning about your target audience

After your niche, the next most important business decision you need to make is deciding who your target audience will be—and committing to learning more about them.

In a world with billions of people using the Internet , the reality is that not everyone will discover or even resonate with your blog, let alone be willing to buy whatever you’re selling when you eventually start monetizing your content.

You have to research your target audience and understand their pain points and how you can help them through your blog.

Think about your readers in terms of the demographics and psychographics that define them:

• Demographics: The quantitative traits of your readers. Like age, gender, location, and job title.
• Psychographics: More unmeasurable traits like values, interests, attitudes, and belief systems.

In short, who are your target readers, and which problems will you be solving for them?

The answer to that pivotal question will also help you determine the kind of content you’ll create and the best channels to monetize that content.

Determine how you’ll monetize your blog

There are many ways to make money blogging , but it’s extremely important to remember that you can only generate revenue from your blog—once you’ve started attracting an audience.

Still, it helps to plan today for which ways you’d like to monetize your blog (ideally in a manner that engages your own unique strengths & experience).

A few of the most time-tested blog monetization channels include:

• Sponsored Blog Content
• Affiliate Marketing (like how I generate sales from my Bluehost reviews roundup)
• Blog Advertisements
• Sell Online Courses (like my blogging courses and Built to Blog in particular)
• Physical Products
• Release a Software Tool
• Selling Your Own Services
• Writing an eBook and Selling Them (like my blogging books )
• Launch a Virtual Summit
• Business Partnerships
• Podcast Sponsorships (see my guide on starting a podcast )
• Freelancing and more

I’d caution you not to pursue a particular monetization path simply because it’s a money-making opportunity. Your most important task at this stage, is to decide which monetization channels will be best for your niche, the type of audience you plan to attract and how you can best engage your own interests.

Again, keep in mind that your audience will be the lifeblood of your blog—so learning from them in the early days will be key in collecting valuable feedback about how you can best help them. For an in-depth look at my best blog monetization strategies, check out my guide: How to Make Money Blogging This Year .

Setting blog business goals

Lastly, when defining your blog as a business, you have to set clear blog business goals to begin working toward.

This will help you break down the big-picture objectives into bite-sized tasks that won’t overwhelm you on a daily and weekly basis.

Setting smart goals will also help you stay ultra-focused on doing only the activities that move you closer to those goals.

A few examples of goals you  could consider setting for your blog during the first year include:

• Getting to 10,000 monthly visitors (within 12 months)
• Working 15 hours per week on creating and promoting blog content
• Attracting 1,000 email subscribers (within 6 months)
• Earning $1,000 in revenue from your blog (in the first 6 months)

Whichever goals you decide to set for yourself, make sure they’re as realistic as possible, clearly actionable and measurable—so that you can regularly look back and reassess how you’re doing.

Once you’ve laid this solid foundation for your blog business plan, we can move on to analyzing competitors and learning more about how they make it work in your niche.

2. Do a Competitive Analysis of Other Blogs

Before you even launch your own blog (or transform an existing blog into a proper business), you need to learn from your competition.

Yes, that’s allowed. And no, you don’t need to do anything shady—or involve Russian spies.

Spying on your competitors and gathering insights is a great way to validate your own ideas for how to bring a blog business plan to life best. Take a peek at my top small business ideas to see if they inspire any new angles for your full-time (or part-time) business blogging efforts, too.

It’s also a fantastic way to learn what it takes to become successful within your niche. These are the three main things you’ll want to do when it comes to competitor analysis.

Identify your main competitors

Identifying your competitors helps you see the potential your blog business has within the niche you’re operating in.

Even more importantly, it also helps you clearly see the kinds of products your audience loves and is already paying (someone else) for.

So, how do you identify  who your competitors are?

• Do some keyword research to determine which top words & phrases you want your blog to rank for in Google results (considering setting up Google Alerts to monitor them, too)
• Take a careful look at the articles & sites already ranking on the first few pages of those search results
• Examine their content, looking for ads, links to affiliate programs , products they’re selling, and other monetization efforts

For just about every keyword phrase related to your niche, there will already be competitive blogs, websites, and companies intentionally trying to rank their content at the top of those search results (in order to bring in readers and generate revenue somehow). For that reason, learning from the competition can provide meaningful insights to incorporate into your own blog business plans.

Use My Free Keyword Research Tool

Try my free AI-Powered Keyword Tool to get dozens of research-backed ideas for keywords & topics to write about on your blog today.

Research their strengths, weaknesses and top ranking keywords

Another smart reason to do competitor analysis is that it helps you identify your competitor’s unique strengths and weaknesses.

Doing this will help you identify some gaps in the market research that you can (profitably) fill by thoughtfully positioning yourself toward a segment of the audience, learning how to write a blog post that’s more impactful to readers, crafting catchier blog headlines and other ways to grow your blog .

As I’ve already alluded to, one of the best ways to gather this intel is through keyword research .

Keywords are simple words or phrases commonly used by people to search for something on the Internet.

You can use that information to thoughtfully position your own content to rank at the top of those search results.

Thanks to the awesomeness of technology, you can use many free tools (and free blogging resources ) for conducting keyword research today—including my very own free keyword tool . Type in your keyword phrase and get monthly search volume, difficulty & suggestions for other keyword phrases to target for your blog content:

I built this free AI-Powered Keyword Tool to solve a problem I’ve had in the blogging industry for nearly a decade. Anytime a new (free) keyword research tool comes out and gains popularity, a switch flips and it’s suddenly only a paid tool—or has dramatic limitations on usage. This keyword research tool was build to be forever free.

When you type in a keyword you’re considering blogging about, you’ll get dozens of research-backed ideas for keywords & topics to write about on your blog today. You’ll get insights like:

• Monthly Search Volume: A snapshot of how many people search for a particular keyword phrase each month on major search engines like Google.
• Difficulty Level: The difficulty level of ranking for a particular keyword phrase based on the amount of existing (and anticipated future) competition from established websites.
• Country Targeting: The default country view is for the US (United States), but you can select other countries from a dropdown menu to see what regional search volume & difficulty look like for your target keyword phrases.
• Ideas: Use the ideas tab (or click the lightbulb) to get dozens of AI-powered blog topic ideas related to the keyword you’ve chosen. It may even inspire some real business ideas to pursue with your business blogging efforts.

When it comes to competitor analysis, identifying the (most valuable) keywords your competitors are ranking for is a great leg up.

Sure, you can plug in your own keywords you think could be valuable (and attract the right audience), but you also risk choosing keywords that may miss the mark when it comes to driving traffic and ranking well in the search engine results.

Competitor analysis is a great way to find high-ROI keywords that others have already done the research on quickly. It’s also a good way to find lower-competition keyword opportunities to capitalize on yourself.

Which strategies do competitors appear to be using?

Competitor analysis isn’t complete until you have a clear picture of the strategies they’re using, too.

• How do they appear to be monetizing their blog?
• What do they do to promote their content?
• How are they driving traffic to their blog?
• Which keywords are they going after?
• Is there a clear opportunity for creating better (more helpful) content than theirs?

This is particularly effective if your competitors are doing well.

You can learn a lot by studying how they operate—without spending a dime.

Decide how to set your blog apart

At the end of the day, the most important insight to come away with from doing competitor analysis is how you can set yourself apart from the crowd.

With thousands of blogs launched every day, one of the only ways you can succeed in the long term is by carving out a unique position for yourself within your niche.

To do that well, observe out what others aren’t doing—and make a call as to whether or not there’s a need you can fill in the market.

After you’ve spent some time analyzing the competition, let’s build another layer into your blog business plan.

3. Start and Grow Your Blog (the Profitable Way)

Now we come to the fun part—actually starting your blog .

If you already have a blog that’s live, you can skip down to the next section on mapping out your traffic generation strategy by clicking right here .

Starting a blog is very easy, but getting everything set up for being able to (soon) maximize your profit potential is a bit more nuanced.

The main difference is that you need to pay careful attention to your decisions and settings, as your blog is your primary business asset.

All of this is broken down in clear, step-by-step detail in this guide: How to Start a Blog (and Make Money) , but here’s the overview. These are the two most important aspects of setting up your blog.

Get your domain name and blog hosting

In its simplest form, a domain name is the name you give to your blog (.com, .co, .net, or otherwise).

And just like any business name, your domain name has to be registered. Try as much as possible to get a domain name that fits in with your brand, mission statement, or niche you’ll be blogging about. Use my free domain name generator to get tons of clever domain ideas.

Your web hosting plan on the other hand, is the service that actually gets your blog online (and discoverable on the Internet). That hosting service you choose will host your blog on their servers and keep your pages loading fast for the readers that discover your content.

It goes without saying, that you need to invest in a reliable hosting service to make sure you’re maximizing your opportunity to succeed.

I personally recommend Bluehost as they’re one of the most reliable, affordable and capable hosting companies that has a great team to help with technical support as you go.

Plus, they offer free domain registration when you sign up for your hosting plan.

If you’re not quite sure how to best name your blog, then dive a little deeper into this guide: How to Name a Blog (+ Examples) . And if you wan to shop around with your hosting options, check out these comparison guides, I keep regularly updated here on my blog:

• The best month-to-month hosting plans on the market today
• 9 of the best cheap hosting plans for blogging on a tight budget
• My list of the top free hosting plans to get started without a budget

Design your blog with branding in mind

Another advantage of using Bluehost to power your blog is that they offer a one-click, easy WordPress installation immediately after you’ve signed up.

What is WordPress? WordPress is a simple blogging platform started in 2003 to help publishers, bloggers, and businesses quickly build, publish, and maintain websites without having to hire a technical team to do it, but WordPress has since become the most popular publishing platform in the world. Here’s what WordPress looks like behind the scenes:

The fact that WordPress also comes free makes it a no-brainer, as it means cutting down on your expenses (a bonus in any blog business plan).

As you design your website, make sure it feels professional enough to establish trust with the types of readers you want to attract and retain.

One aspect to nail right from the beginning is how you brand your blog. I’m not just talking about a beautiful logo (although that doesn’t hurt). Branding also includes:

• Blog aesthetics : Aesthetics have to do with the visual appeal of your blog. Craft your blog layout in such a way that it’ll be attractive to your ideal audience and easy to navigate.
• Blog personality : Your blog’s personality encompasses your writing tone, style, color palettes, and the vibe you want your readers to pick up on.
• Your vision and mission : This will help dictate the content you produce. For example, my blog is all about helping fellow bloggers (like you) become more successful in turning their interests into a profitable online business.

For more, be sure to read my detailed guide: How to Start a Blog (and Make Money) to get all of the basic foundations squared away on your blog—before switching over to the traffic driving and revenue generating aspects of your blog business plan. And be sure to peek at these blog examples to see how successful blogs operate today.

4. Map Out Your Traffic Generation Strategy

Traffic is the currency of the Internet and one of the primary goals to work toward in your blog business plans. Without traffic, you won’t be able to monetize your blog.

Last year alone, my blog brought in over 4.4 Million readers—and it’s the helpful content I’ve provided for those readers that has helped me to generate in excess of $50,000/mo during some months of the year (through a combination of the many different ways I make money blogging ).

The math is pretty simple here: more visitors = more revenue (potential) .

That’s why mapping out a clear plan for how you’ll bring more traffic to your blog over the long run is a critical step in creating your blog business plan.

Figure out how to nail your traffic sources for the types of readers you want to attract—and your blog business is almost guaranteed to thrive.

So how do you drive traffic to your blog?

Pulled from my (larger) guide: How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog , we’re going to break down a few of the highest-impact strategies for attracting readers to your blog.

Create niche-specific SEO optimized content

The largest single factor that’ll get more people to your blog is creating extremely value content within your niche.

If you can create content that’s worthy of being shared by your readers, then more people who stumble upon your article—whether it be from social media sites, search engines, online communities or otherwise—are going to want to spread the word to others they know.

The foundation for making that happen is providing real value within your niche.

However, no matter how great your content is, it still has to be discoverable on the search engines of the Internet (mainly Google, today).

That’s why you need to learn how to follow SEO best practices that can get your content discovered by more people. That includes things like:

• Nailing your keyword research
• Focusing on user intent and understanding the needs of searchers (not just search engines)
• Taking your time writing SEO-friendly headlines
• Using the right heading tags
• Optimizing your page URL
• Being strategic with your links
• Crafting an enticing meta description
• Optimizing your images
• Ensuring mobile friendliness and reducing page loading times
• Promoting your content (where your audience is spending their time online)

For a deep dive in how to quickly optimize your blog content, read my guide: 10 Blog SEO Strategies to Get More Readers today.

Use guest blogging to increase your reach

Guest blogging is hands down the #1 way to drive the best quality, highly targeted traffic to your blog (from the websites where your ideal readers are already spending their time).

Check out the spike in traffic I got from my very first guest post back in 2014 on the Buffer blog:

So, what’s guest blogging? It’s very simple, really.

Guest blogging is the act of writing a blog post that you publish on another website which is not your own—presumably one that has the right kind of audience you’re trying to tap into. It’s a win-win for the blog or publication that accepts your (high quality) guest post, because they’re getting free content that they want for their readers, and you’re getting the opportunity to tastefully link back to your own blog within the guest article.

Four of the biggest advantages you’ll get from guest blogging are:

• Relevant traffic . This is extremely important, so make sure you’re guest blogging on sites frequented by your targeted audience (this comes down to smart blogger outreach ).
• Build quality backlinks . Guest blogging is a great way to build your portfolio of reputable sites that link back to your blog (which is a positive signal search engines look at when evaluating the trust and credibility of a website). This in turn, will help improve your organic search rankings for your content over time.
• Build brand awareness . Another great benefit of guest blogging as a new blogger is that it helps get your brand in front of more people, giving your new blog an opportunity to connect with new readers.
• Establish your authority . One way you can set yourself apart from your competitors is by establishing yourself as an authority in your niche. Guest posting helps you do just that.

Now, it goes without saying that your guest posts have to be of the highest standards if you hope for your campaign to actually pay off on that objective of attracting readers who want more of your content. This far into your blog business plan though, I have no doubt you’re committed.

Build and grow an email list

Another dependable way of driving traffic (back) to your blog, is by building an email list of readers who’ve already consumed your content—and want to return for more.

Growing your email list (over time) is one of the best ways to consistently bring more people to your blog. And blog email marketing isn’t as daunting a task as it may sound—it can even help you monetize faster with affiliate marketing & create a more successful business for you.

One of the most important ways of ensuring that you build an active and engaged email list, is to create a truly beneficial lead magnet that your target audience will find worthy of signing up to your email list, in order to get access to your gated content.

You’ll also need a reliable email service provider to help you with delivering your subscriber emails, eventually setting up automations and more.

If you want a deeper dive on how to be a better email marketer with your blog, read my guide: Email Marketing for Bloggers This Year .

Craft a creative social media marketing strategy

Social media—whether it be Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest (or otherwise)—is a great channel you can use to promote your blog content and drive traffic back to it.

Make sure to genuinely connect with members of your community on the social platform(s) you choose to invest your time on—and be sure you grow a following on the main social media channel that your ideal audience actually spends time on.

If you use Instagram to promote your blog , use an Instagram follower tracker tool. If you see no increase in the number of followers, it means you should improve your content and create more engaging posts.

When you’re just getting started and still on a tight blog budget , organically sharing your content is the best way to go (as it’s completely free), and you can focus on connecting individually with people who seem to fit the profile of a potential reader.

However, as you grow (and start generating revenue on your blog), you can also increase your reach by promoting your posts and targeting a specific audience.

If you can drive traffic to your website (the right traffic, that is), then turning your blog into a money-making machine becomes a matter of giving your audience what they need… and finding win-win ways to provide more value in exchange for a payment.

5. Formulate Your Blog’s Work Process

Formulating a true process by which you’ll bring your blog business plan off the paper and into the real world is a critical step.

Your work process will be the roadmap that’ll direct the activities you spend your time on (creating content, promoting it, monetizing it) in order to push yourself forward and up to hitting your blog business goals. Some of the processes you’ll need to develop a clear game plan for include:

Deciding how often you’ll create and post content

Content, be it written, audio, or video, is the backbone of every successful blog.

The better your content, the more attractive (and profitable) your blog will be. For this reason, you need to develop both a smart blog strategy and a logical content marketing strategy , then stick to it.

Here’s a quick preview of what my content editorial calendar looks like. You can grab a free copy of it right here —and I recommend picking up my free blog post templates too.

Aside from just the editorial calendar that dictates when you should publish new articles (and what those topics/titles should be), other aspects of content creation you’ll need to decide on include answering questions like:

• How are you thinking about your blog titles ? Use my free blog title generator tool to help.
• Will you be doing all of the writing yourself? If not, can you afford to hire writing help?
• What’s a realistic goal for how often you can expect to publish a new article?
• How will you promote your content ?
• Are you going to get any custom designs or images for your content? Who will be in charge of your designs?

The bottom line, as far as content creation goes, is that you have to create high quality content that positively impacts outcomes for your readers (consistently).

When and why you should outsource

As with every business, growth eventually leads to one thing—work overload.

While it may not be today, you do need to anticipate and prepare for this stage in your blog business by determining when you should start outsourcing certain components of your process. The simple reality is that you can’t always do everything, and you’ll stand to get much quicker results on your blog if you can afford to bring on some help every now and then. Plus on the positive side, hiring contractors to help with tasks on your blog can make for a nice deduction when it comes to doing your taxes for bloggers at the end of the year.

It’s also important that you know which tasks you’ll outsource first, and strive to outline that early on in your blog business plans so that you have a set of rules to fall back upon when processes start to break down.

Trying to do everything on your own can lead to quality issues or worse—result in burnout that can lead to abandoning your blog altogether.

How much time you’ll spend on your blog business

One of the biggest advantages of running a blog is that you can do it as a side business for as long as you’d like.

However, just because it’s a side business, doesn’t mean you can neglect your blog and expect it to continue growing in spite of your lack of attention.

You have to decide from the beginning:

• How many hours each day (and week) you can safely commit to your blog business
• Find the exact blocks of time you’ll be using during the day—and put placeholders on your calendar
• Respect the commitment you’ve made to the growth of your blog
• Know that however much time you’re able to invest determines how much bloggers make
• Set realistic expectations for how long it’ll take to make money from your blog

All the planning in the world isn’t worth a thing if you don’t stick to the times you’ve allocated for working on your blog. As a quick aside, if you’re having trouble with your content planning efforts, you can grab my free blog planner bundle and turn things up a notch today.

Carve out as much time as you can realistically spend—and naturally, the more, the better. It’ll not only help you grow your blog (and income) faster, but it’ll also help you view and value your blog as a serious business.

Make sure to detail your work process within your blog business plan (and follow it as strictly as possible).

It’ll require the formation of new habits and a level of discipline on your part—but so does everything in life that’s worth working hard to achieve.

6. Launch (and Optimize) Your Blog

Starting a blog is certainly not the lazy person’s ticket to riches (as many claim it to be). I’ll be the first to tell you it’s a ton of work.

Building a profitable blog takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears… as you can see from my personal journey executing my own blog business plan. But the rewards are well worth the effort.

If you make it this far in your blog business plan—to launching your blog and shifting over to working hard on growing it— then congratulations! You need to reward yourself.

By this point, you’ll have:

• Set your blog business goals
• Carved out a clear niche for yourself
• Researched your audience
• Designed and built your blog (optimizing it for SEO)

And you’ve probably figured out an article or two you’re ready to start writing by now as well. Be sure to try my free AI article writer tool if you want to experiment with how AI writing tools can amplify your blogging efforts.

So… once you officially launch your blog, it’s time to boost the awareness and begin attracting readers.

Tap into the right online communities

There’s an art and science to figuring out exactly where your ideal readers spend their time online. Start by asking them!

My best blogging advice is to experiment with these platforms as well:

• Start answering questions on Quora (and tastefully link back to your blog when appropriate)
• Engage in thoughtful discussion on sites like Reddit and carefully test the waters promoting your blog after building your credibility in a space
• Find niche communities on Slack, groups on Facebook, and forums on LinkedIn, and track down independently owned community sites that focus on your vertical

This is one of the most important times to  start building your good will in relevant online communities within your niche.

It’s these relationships you begin forming today that can lead to years-long collaborations, an influx of targeted readers, and more.

Promote your content on social media

If you already have some followers or friends on a particular social media platform, then start there.

Ask for support, build some buzz to lead up to your launch day and see how involved you can get your social network into your content creation process.

Now, if you don’t have much of a social presence today—that’s ok. It’s time to start planting the seeds of how you’re going to build one .

Check out my in-depth guide about how to promote your blog for several more proven strategies that’ve helped thousands of my readers build more profitable blogs.

Ask your network for help in getting the word out

One of the biggest benefits of blogging, is that it helps you build a network of like-minded people… and the chances are high that you  already have at least a small network of people you relate well with—ranging from friends to family, co-workers, former classmates, industry associates or otherwise.

And guess what? The person behind every meaningful relationship in your life wants to see you succeed.

Don’t be afraid to ask your friends to help you launch your blog. A few ways you can do this is by asking them to:

• Announce your launch by re-sharing your social media posts
• Take a guest post from you for their blog (if it’s a relevant destination)
• Be a featured guest on their podcast—or ask for an introduction to a more relevant show host

There are many other ways you can leverage your network, but this gives you a pretty good idea of where you can start.

7. Download My Free Blog Business Plan Template (Google Doc and PDF)

Your blog business plan only works if you do (first). A blog can become a very meaningful, profitable business venture.

But in order to grow your site to that stage, it requires a strategic blog business plan. I’d highly recommend downloading my free blog business plan template today.

Grab my free blog business planning template in both Google Doc and PDF format (that’s helped me build a six-figure blog) and reach 500,000+ monthly readers today.

More than just a blog business plan, running a profitable blog requires a lot of commitment, discipline, and consistent hard work.

If you can pull it off though, you stand to increase your chances of escaping the 9-to-5 employment world—and give yourself the freedom to live life on your own terms as a full-time blogger with a real business model powering your long-term growth.

So, if you haven’t already, start drafting your own blog business plan using the structure I’ve broken down in this guide.

And if you need more actionable steps on how to turn your blog into a viable business, read my ultimate guide: How to Make Money Blogging This Year .

Hi I'm Ryan Robinson

I'm a blogger, but I'm not my blog. I am not my business either. Occasional podcaster and very-much-recovering side project addict. Co-Founder at RightBlogger . Join me here, on ryrob.com to learn how to start a blog and build a purpose-connected business. Be sure to take my free blogging tools for a spin... especially my wildly popular free keyword research tool & AI article writer . They rule. Somehow, I also find time to write for publications like Fast Company , Forbes , Entrepreneur , The Next Web , Business Insider , and more. Let’s chat on Twitter (X?) and YouTube about our feelings (and business, of course).

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147 replies to “How to Create a Blog Business Plan (Free Template) in 7 Easy Steps: How I’ve Earned $1 Million+ Blogging”

Wonderful, thank you

I really need this information, thank you so much for sharing amazing information. I am currently building a website. Little nervous but I am going to make it.

Wishing you all the luck, Tanmai! You can do it 🙂

Thank you so much for this free blog business plan. I want to create a blog, but didn’t have any idea where to start. Honestly, I rarely give my email address to a website because I don’t think the freebies are worth it. In this case, I’m so glad I did. Your How to Create a Blog Business Plan provided everything a new blogger needs to get their ideas organized and understand the purpose behind it. I will be checking out your site in the future for more guidance as my blog gets rolling. Thanks again for the great content!

You’re welcome, Erin! Looking forward to seeing how you do with your blog soon 🙂 and please let me know anytime you have a question I can help with!

Should I use a pen name? In these polarized times, I am not so sure I would want someone to Google my uncommon, generally unpronoucable, unspellable French Canadian surname and find me, or even worse, since my town posts its tax list online, show up at my door.

Writing would be a new business for me, so no loss of continuity. I have a junk Facebook to join a couple of groups, but my hopes of moving have been put on hold so the information is irrevelant until I can. I have not interacted with anyone there. I doubt I even used my real name!

Is there an advantage to incorporating in a state different than the one of residence? When I Googled “ryanrob” to take me back to this site, I noted a different place of incorporation and was curious.

Good question! Using a pen name is totally your choice, I don’t personally go that route but there’s nothing wrong with it. My business is incorporated in California (where I live), and in my experience there are only advantages to be had by incorporating in more tax-friendly states like Delaware (or other countries) once you have a very substantial amount of income—though I’m personally an advocate of contributing my share 🙂

Want my free blog business plan template?

Grab a copy of my blog business plan template (in a Google Doc and PDF) that helped me build a six-figure blog and reach 500,000+ monthly readers today.

How to Create a Blog Business Plan (FREE PDF Included)

Are you looking to create a blog business plan ? Why, you savvy blogger, you! Having a plan in place BEFORE you start trying to monetize your blog is the fastest way to profitability. Read on to see how to create one, and I’ll even give you a free blog business plan PDF for FREE.

Blog Business Plan? Why Bother?

Every business has a business plan. If you want to make income from your blog, you have to make that mental shift from “this is a blog” to “this is a business.” If you have an income goal (which you should), your blog business plan is your roadmap to get there.

Starting a blog without a blog business plan in hand is like going on a road trip without a map or GPS. It may be fun, but you’ll never get to where you want to go.

*This post has affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you decide to purchase through a link I provide, at no extra cost to you!

Key Elements of a Blog Business Plan

#1 who is your target audience.

Everything you do with your blog will stem from who your target audience is, what problems they have, and how your blog will solve them. Fail to get this step right, and you will fail to have a profitable blog.

It’s best for you to think of one person who would be the perfect reader for your blog . It’s even better if you know this person in real life. Ask yourself these questions about your target audience:

• What is their gender?
• How old are they?
• What’s their job?
• What are their hobbies?
• Where do they live?
• What frustrations and problems do they have?
• What were their last few purchases?

#2 Who are your competitors?

I prefer to think of them as your inspiration, rather than your competitors. Look for bloggers who are writing about the same topics you want to write about. The aim is NOT to copy them, but to see where their strengths and weaknesses lie, and how you can fill those weaknesses with better content.

It will also help for you to look at how they are monetizing their site.

• Who is their target audience?
• Do they have income reports? Analyze these.
• Do they sell products?
• Are there ads on their site?

Looking at all of these elements will give you an idea of how profitable this niche might be.

#3 How will you get traffic?

Traffic Sources:

• Organic search – Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo. Mainly, though, your search traffic will come from Google.
• Social media – Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat. These are all social media.
• Referrals – Referral means traffic that comes from another site linking to you. This can come from guest posts that you wrote that include a link to your blog in your author bio, or interviews you did with another publication that include a link to your blog.

Keywords you can rank for: 

For this section, you need to understand SEO, or search engine optimization. To do keyword research, I highly recommend Jaaxy or Keysearch (less expensive than Jaaxy).

Best social media platform to target:

If you want fast traffic, I recommend Pinterest. Every blogger talks about how amazing Pinterest is, right? If you haven’t heard yet, Pinterest is great because, unlike other social networks, it is optimized for clicks. Every image you pin can lead to your blog post. So for each blog post, you need to be creating vertical images with the blog post title and sharing it on Pinterest in a very strategic way. I use Tailwind to schedule my pins. Click here to learn about the ONLY Pinterest marketing course I recommend .

Guest post and collaboration opportunities: 

Reach out to bloggers in your niche to see if you can guest post on their site or collaborate in some way. PERSONALIZE each pitch so you don’t end up sounding spammy. I get dozens of guest post pitches to my inbox each month, and most are spam.

#4 What will be your blog income streams?

#1 Advertising

Display ads via an ad network

Everyone says display advertising is dead, but I made $1,000 in October 2017 without lifting a finger. How? I’m a member of Mediavine, an ad network for bloggers.

To start with, you can apply for Google AdSense since there are no minimum traffic requirements. You do need to make sure you have a few blog posts up though and that your blog looks legit; otherwise, your application could be rejected.

You can also try  Media.net , a great place to start since they too don’t state a specific minimum traffic requirement.

Popular ad networks:

• Google AdSense

Private ads

This is another route some bloggers take. You can sell ad space in your sidebar or something but directly approaching companies you think might be a good fit for your audience. Simply send them an email with your offer.

#2 Sponsorships

Sponsorships can be paid in cash or “in-kind” compensation. Example: A new hotel in Budapest wants to get coverage by a popular travel blogger. The hotel could pay the travel blogger, but more likely, the hotel will offer a complimentary 3-night stay to the travel blogger for her to review the place.

Alternatively, you can offer sponsored blog posts. Sponsored posts are when bloggers either write a blog post for a company or publish a pre-written post by the company on their own blog. When you get paid to publish a post on your blog, you must disclose by saying something like, “This post is sponsored by [company name].”

Lastly, you can offer sponsored posts on social media. Instagram is a very popular channel for this. If you have tens of thousands of followers, brands may pay you to post a photo of you using their product. Again, this can be in-kind compensation (free product) or paid.

Ways you can find sponsorships:

• Cold pitching

#3 Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you recommend a product and get a commission for each sale made via your affiliate links. When you share affiliate links, you must disclose (it’s an FTC requirement!).

Affiliate marketing is one of my favorite ways to earn income from blogging, because it doesn’t require you to create a product. It allows you to simply earn income from recommending products you use and love!

Products I recommend for learning more about affiliate marketing:

• My biggest recommendation if you’d like to monetize with affiliate marketing is to sign up for the Pajama Affiliates online course .
• I’ve also taken the very popular Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing .  You can read my full review of the course here .

Affiliate programs I recommend you sign up for:

• Amazon Associates; – This is a very popular one, and of course, Amazon has almost everything! I use Amazon Associates to recommend products I use when I travel, for example. Just keep in mind that before you apply you must have several posts on your blog and look legit. Otherwise, they may not approve your application.
• SkimLinks – This is one large affiliate network that automatically transforms any link you have on your blog to an affiliate link! This saves you time because instead of applying to each affiliate program individually, you just apply for SkimLinks, and they’ll take care of the rest for you.
• Any of your favorite products, just Google “[product name] affiliate program” to see if one exists. 

#4 Services

Selling services is the FASTEST and simplest way to monetize your blog . This is because you don’t need to apply for any network and you don’t have to create a product.

Freelance service examples:  Blog coaching, business coaching, tech support, proofreading/editing, content marketing, social media management, copywriting, web design, graphic design, virtual assistance

• I sell freelance copywriting services.
• MeeraKothand.com sells blog coaching services.
• SmashYourToDoList.com sells content writing services.

#5 Your Own Products

Selling your own digital products on your blog has the highest potential of earning the most income. Why? Unlike affiliate products, you’ll get to keep 100% of the sale from your own product (minus payment platform processing fees). Plus, you’ll have more control over the product, and you’ll be able to see more information, such as email addresses of your own customers.

Digital Product Examples:  Online courses,   eBooks, printables, pitch templates, contract templates

• I used to sell a book about how to start freelancing and a Cusco, Peru, travel guide.
• CreateAndGo.co sells awesome online courses, such as Pinterest Traffic Avalanche  (which I LOVE!).
• MeeraKothand.com sells online courses as well as physical books and planners, such as the CREATE Blog & Editorial Planner  (that’s the planner I use!).

Physical Products Examples:  Physical books, planners, T-shirts, mugs, office products

#5 What are your specific and actionable goals for the first 3 months? 6 months? 1 year?

If you don’t have a destination in mind, how will you know if you’ve reached it?  You must always begin with goals in mind for your blog. I like to set goals by quarter (3 months) and by year. It’s OKAY if you don’t reach your goals or if your goals change.

Question 1: What is my blog’s mission? What’s my “why”? 

You need to know WHY you’re starting your blog. There are a million ways to make money, and believe me, blogging is not fast.

It can be a slow and painful path to profitability, BUT it’s the most rewarding, to me, because you completely control your schedule, get to help people, and are building an asset that will continue to grow and make money for you (if you do it right).

So why are you starting your blog? Yes, it’s to make money, but WHY? Why not just start a design agency? Or a freelance writing business? Both would be faster.

For me, I started my blog because I want to help others achieve freedom through remote work and travel.

And the reason I want to monetize my blog, my BIG goal, is to retire my parents. They’ve worked so hard all my life to provide for me, and I want to be able to provide for them.

What inspired this goal? I read a blog post by JohnnyFD about how he set up monthly automatic payment of $1,000 to his mom , so she could quit her job and finally relax. How did he do this?

Through his blogging business! When I started my blog, I wanted to do something similar.

Question 2: What will success look like in 3 months? 

You NEED to define success. Right now.

Because if you don’t, you will constantly feel like you’re not doing “enough.” You need to know when you’ve reached the milestone. Make it specific.

Don’t just say, “In 3 months, I’d like to make money from my blog.” Wrong. Write something like, “In 3 months, I’d like to reach 10,000 monthly pageviews on my blog.” Or “In 3 months, I’d like to have made my first $100 from my blog.”

Repeat that question for 6 months and 1 year. I prefer to set quarterly goals, so if you want to do that, have goals for every 3 months.

If you’re looking for an in-depth, physical blog planner, I use and HIGHLY recommend the CREATE Planner by blogger Meera Kothand. I ordered and looked at several blog planners, but CREATE is the best blog planner I’ve found.

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• The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Blog Business Plan…

The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Blog Business Plan (Updated)

What sets apart the top-tier blogs in every industry and the blogs most people run? What's the difference between success and mediocrity? As often as anything, the answer is a business plan.

When many people start a blog, they don't have a goal, plan, or drive to succeed. They might know some of the basics of how a blog can be a business. They might know some of the elements of SEO, something about marketing, maybe they've read about maintaining a schedule, and an assortment of other tips and tricks for blogging success.

Few people realize that developing and adhering to a business plan is critical if you want your blog to succeed. You can't simply write some content every week and expect to compete on par with industry giants. Even if you keep at it for years, you might never make a break-even point, let alone a successful brand.

What is a business plan? It is many things.

• A business plan is a roadmap. It guides your business from A-B-C and beyond, with each milestone marked as a tangible goal or achievement.
• A business plan is a tangible document. It's something you can open up and reference to ensure that you're keeping your business on track.
• A business plan is for accountability. You have tangible goals and a roadmap to achieving them. If you fall behind or veer off track, your business plan holds you accountable.
• A business plan is priorities. It's a document that helps you guide your efforts to know what to do next and where to spend your energy.
• A business plan is a prediction. No business has smooth, even growth. There will always be ups and downs, challenges and problems to solve along the way. A business plan helps you predict what and when those challenges may occur.

How do you, a newcomer to blogging (and someone using a blog for their business), go about creating a business plan for a blog?

Business plans vary as widely as business owners do. Some businesses run on a single-page document of outlines and a bunch of information in the CEO's head. Others have comprehensive living documents filled to the brim with details, guiding every move the business makes. Most are somewhere in between.

Before you can start making a business plan, you need to know what goes into one. What I've done here is pared down many of the business plan examples I've seen online and added some missing steps to create something that is "middle of the road," so to speak. It's not the most comprehensive and detailed business plan, but neither is it the simplest. You can feel free to pick and choose what ends up being the most useful to you.

For example, if you're starting a blog, how important is setting up a members-only area, subscription service, or affiliate account? In your first month, it's not very important; your first goal is to get traffic because monetization strategies aren't actualized until you have some.

Blog/Brand/Executive Summary

First up, we have the executive summary. While this might sound fancy and over-the-top for a one-person operation like a new blog, it's a pretty critical part of a business plan.

What is it?

Simply put, it's your elevator pitch, your vision, your reminder to yourself of what your blog is and what purpose it serves. It can include elements such as:

• A mission statement.  Why did you make your blog? What is your goal? What do you want your blog to look like when it's successful?
• A growth summary.  If you're starting a blog from scratch, you don't have milestones yet - you can ignore this for now. If your site has been around for a while, this is where you chart out your existing growth milestones. When did you first start to see organic traffic? When did you make your first sale? You can use this as a motivating force, too.
• A monetization summary.  How do you want to monetize your blog? You don't need to go into great detail here; note down the methods you want to use. Display ads, affiliate links, sponsored content, product sales, services, consulting; there are tons of monetization options, and this is where you list what you want to use (and what you don't).
• A goals list.  Later on, you can talk about SMART goals, but you're just listing your pie-in-the-sky goals here. Do you want to make a living? Do you want to get links and citations from major publications? Do you want to network with your favorite bloggers in the industry? This list is where you outline the goals that make you think "I made it" when you achieve them.

Remember, none of this needs to go into great detail. It's an overview, a summary, and it doesn't need to be anything more. That's what your business plan is for; remember, this plan is for your blog.

Your Unique Value

Next up, you need to dig deep and consider what you have to offer to the world via your blog. What are you bringing to the table that makes people want to follow you, read your content, partake in your monetization strategies, and otherwise make your business a success?

Again, we're still thinking in more general terms, not deep specifics. You can dig into the specifics later when you do competitive analysis and take a look at the niche and industry you're entering. So, some ideas to get you started:

• You offer unique insight and information about your topic based on your own experience.
• You offer a look at a newcomer's journey from start to finish that others can use as an example.
• You have a new and innovative product you want to bring to market.
• You can offer an existing product presented in a new and exciting way or for a lower price or higher quality than what already exists.
• You have a unique perspective on your industry based on your demographics, past experiences, or situation.

These ideas exist to get you started as much as anything. Some of these apply more to businesses that want to sell a product and use a blog to do it. People who want to be bloggers and make a living on the side might not have goods in mind. There are many potential unique selling points, so feel free to dig deeper into the subject with posts like this:

Competitive Analysis

What is your niche? Are you starting a food blog? A marketing blog? A blog about sports? Music? Any topic you can imagine is something you can write a blog about, so long as you have the expertise to fuel it, or at the very least the interest to learn. Hobbies, careers, it's all viable. There are people with incredible, insightful, and fascinating blogs about organic chemistry, nitty-gritty marketing subjects, and other narrow niches.

The key isn't just knowing what your niche is; it's about knowing  who else is competing in your industry.  Performing detailed competitor analysis allows you to build an awareness of the field and figure out who you're competing with and aspiring to be.

Before I dig into how to do this, it's worth mentioning that this can change over time. Your focus and direction within your niche can change in response to your interests changing, the interests of your audience changing, and the industry as a whole changing. Your competitor analysis is, as I mentioned up above, a living document. Things change; you need to change with them.

The actual process for competitive analysis can be somewhat complicated. I'm going to simplify it a bit here under the assumption that you're just starting with a blog and business plan, so you might not have a lot of information when you first start. Once you grow and begin to find your feet, you'll be able to refine this. Competitive analysis is something you should often do because competitors come and go.

If you want a more refined look, HubSpot has a great guide here:

In short, you need to:

1. Figure out who your competitors are. Identify as many other blogs in your niche as you can, from other small-scale blogs to the giants in the industry.

2. Figure out the scale of your competitors. Rank them; ones who are smaller than you, ones on par with you, larger than you, and as many tiers larger as you feel like dividing them.

3. Pin down information about your closest competitors. What do they do to monetize? How often do they produce new content, and of what quality level? How do they advertise their blog and their products? What sort of holes in their strategy can you identify and potentially be able to exploit?

4. What kind of audience is the competitor targeting, and how engaged are they?

If you're starting with a brand new marketing blog, don't make the mistake of digging into analysis for "competitors" that aren't your competition. For example, you're more likely to analyze me than you are HubSpot, Neil Patel, or Moz.

We create blog content that converts - not just for ourselves, but for our clients, too.

We pick blog topics like hedge funds pick stocks. Then, we create articles that are 10x better to earn the top spot.

Content marketing has two ingredients - content and marketing. We've earned our black belts in both.

Audience Definition

Armed with information about your competitors, niche, and industry, you can now start to do audience definition. If possible, you're going to want to build up a list of  audience personas . These are sort of like "character sheets" for archetypal examples of a blog reader. Who are you going to try to target with your blog? The single mom, the college student, the theater performer, and so on.

What sort of information is helpful?

• Different age groups like other kinds of content and have different types of interests. Older people might like a more formalized language, for example, and might not get video game references.
• You want to relate to your audience, so knowing the kinds of careers they have can help. A food blog creating elaborate, time-consuming recipes won't resonate with an audience of people who have 10 minutes to cook dinner.
• Understand your visitor's goals. Why is this person visiting your site? Do they want to be educated, need a tutorial for a task, or are they just interested in the subject and want to read about it?
• Other demographics. Gender, sexual identity, general location, income level, marital status; again, all of these help you relate and resonate with your audience and fulfill your reader's needs in a way that keeps them coming back.

Your personas can be as elaborate or as simple as you want to make them. They're also just guesswork, at least initially. If you don't have traffic, you don't have an actual audience to measure, after all. These guesses are just examples of who you want to target. Then, once you have some traffic, you can see who you're attracting and adjust accordingly.

Content Production Pipeline

In my mind, the most critical part of a business plan is establishing a content production pipeline for your blog content. From start to finish, you should have a defined methodology for creating your content.

The number one most critical aspect of content production is topic ideation. You can spend a decade writing content in a niche, but if you're writing random topics that come to mind, you might never resonate with other people, never get picked up by Google, and never have any success.

Every good blog post needs to recognize three things. First, it needs to understand the topic it's covering. Second, it needs to know the audience it's targeting. Third, it needs to grasp the intent of the audience. All three of these combine to create a good blog post.

The audience and their intent can define one subject. For example, let's take a food blog's post about dinner. Your topic is, in general, dinner meals.

• An audience of nutritionists might have questions about the importance of eating dinner, what nutritional profiles it should fit, and how different diets compare.
• An audience of food lovers might be interested in elaborate recipes with stunning presentations that they can replicate or enjoy vicariously.
• An audience of busy working adults might be interested in quick and easy dinner recipes they can follow to make a quick family meal in under an hour.

Thus, by learning who the audience is and what they want, you can shape your content to improve engagement and user experience.

Should it be educational? Should it be deep or superficial? Should it be instructive? All of these have their roles, which is why you need to know what you're producing.

For your blog to perform, it's also necessary for you to focus on competitive topic analysis. You're not the only one covering this topic and probably not the only one targeting this audience with it. How do other blogs compare? Are they shorter, lower-quality posts or longer, high-quality posts? Are they deep or broad? Are the sites that are surfacing small or massive? Did they leave anything out, or can you expand on this topic and create a much better version?

You can also analyze the core keyword of the topic. Specifically, you're looking for subjects that strike the right balance between search volume and competition. A blog topic with too much competition will be impossible to rank for, and a blog post that doesn't get any organic traffic is a failure in my eyes. A topic with too little search volume will get you little or no traffic, even if you rank #1 for it. It would help if you found something in the middle.

From there, your content production pipeline gets into the actual details of production. Here's my general process:

• Begin with topic ideation, as mentioned above.
• Do the research and generate a compelling headline.
• Create an outline for the blog post .
• Flesh out the outline, rearrange sections into a logical order and write the post.
• Edit the post for spelling, grammar, factual information, consistency, and logical flow.
• Add formatting; headings , bold/italics/underlines, symbols, lists, etc.
• Create images. All good blog posts need solid pictures and preferably unique ones.
• Review the post for SEO factors, such as keyword usage, links to other blog posts internal and external, calls to action, and so on .
• Publish the post, or schedule it as part of a backlog for a consistent schedule.

At any given time, I have articles in nearly every stage of this pipeline. I can start and stop as necessary by establishing a defined calendar and maintaining a constant production flow.

A defined pipeline like this also allows you to offload some work to freelancers, contractors, or employees as you grow. For example, you might do your topic ideation and outlining and then hand off the actual writing to a writer, do the editing and formatting, hire someone for graphic design, and do your SEO review and publishing.

Promotion Strategy

Blogs don't work on their own. There's no Field of Dreams-Esque "If you build it, they will come" effect going on. No, the internet is far too packed with content for that to work these days. Today, you need to promote your blog, which means developing a promotion strategy. Your blog business plan should include your primary, secondary, and tertiary promotion strategies in organic and paid methods.

I'm not going to go too deep into specifics about promotion, but here are strategies you can use for ideas and research more into how to do them effectively.

• Paid marketing. Paid ads, sponsorships, paid promotion on social networks; spending money gets you results, as long as you have the money to spend.
• Attract the attention of Google. You want your articles to get ranked for their respective topics and keywords to earn some organic traffic. This one is essential for every blog and the real reason most people start a blog in the first place.
• Link building . One of the core pillars of SEO is links pointing to you from other relevant sites. Getting those links can be complicated and is an industry in and of itself.
• Influencer marketing. This strategy involves networking with influential content creators in your niche, particularly those with active social network audiences.
• Social media posting and sharing. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, Imgur, YouTube; any relevant social network can be a source of traffic when you promote yourself using the site.
• Content repurposing. A blog post doesn't need to stay a blog post. You can use it as a basis for  other forms of content , including videos, podcasts, infographics, and more.
• Newsletter marketing. Building up a newsletter and actively using it is a powerful technique that many bloggers ignore for far too long.

Promoting your content is how you grow. Without it, you're just howling into the void.

Timeline Estimates

Another element of a blog business plan is establishing a timeline. Timelines are flexible, but you can estimate how your blog will grow and set goals to reach specific milestones with SMART goals.

SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Sensitive. SMART goals mean that you can pin them down, measure them, and set them as specific goals with a success or failure attached to them.

A non-SMART goal would be :

"I want to grow my blog."

A SMART goal would be:

"I want to reach at least 100 monthly active users by January 1, 202x."

Developing a timeline helps you set goals and progress towards them, with the added benefit of allowing you to reevaluate and adjust your strategy if you achieve them much earlier than (or fail to achieve them by) the original estimated goal date.

Wrapping Up

While creating a business plan for a blog might sound like unnecessary work, it separates real bloggers from hobbyists. Don't get me wrong; if all you want to do is write about your life in a format you can share with friends and family, that's fine. But, if you're going to earn a living from your blog, you need to treat it like you would anything else you make a living through.

Take it seriously, and your blog will reward you for your effort.

James Parsons is the founder and CEO of Content Powered, a premier content marketing agency that leverages nearly two decades of his experience in content marketing to drive business growth. Renowned for founding and scaling multi-million dollar eCommerce businesses through strategic content marketing, James has become a trusted voice in the industry, sharing his insights in Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Journal, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, and other leading publications. His background encompasses key roles across various agencies, contributing to the content strategies of major brands like eBay and Expedia. James's expertise spans SEO, conversion rate optimization, and effective content strategies, making him a pivotal figure in the industry.

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March 09, 2022 at 7:22 pm

Awesome guide! Extremely useful for a newbie like me.

March 10, 2022 at 9:38 am

Thanks Tom! Good luck with your new blog 🙂 feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

March 23, 2022 at 9:48 pm

What other things should I keep in mind transitioning from writing on a personal blog to a business blog?

March 25, 2022 at 1:50 pm

I think successful blog marketing can be broken down into two categories; research and execution. One falls flat without the other.

Here's an article I wrote on research: https://www.contentpowered.com/blog/blog-topic-ideas-tools/

Here's an article I wrote on execution: https://www.contentpowered.com/blog/blog-optimization-tips-seo/

These two should help you out quite a bit!

March 25, 2022 at 2:01 pm

I wrote a great guide on this here, focused on business blogging: https://www.contentpowered.com/blog/write-first-blog-post/

The most significant shift between a personal blog and a business blog is the increased importance of choosing the correct blog post titles.

Traffic volume, pain points, and conversions aren't always as crucial with a journal or a for-fun blog. With a business blog, those things are essential.

Here's a guide that I wrote on how to find great blog post titles: https://www.contentpowered.com/blog/blog-topic-ideas-tools/

I hope this helps!

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• Sample Business Plans
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Blog Business Plan Template

Are you a fan of storytelling? If yes, then the decision to start a blog business is one of the wisest choices to spread your voice to a lot of people.

But, do you know, without a proper plan it might fail? If you want a successful blog with millions of readers and a lot of affiliate offers, then start it on the right foot.

Get assistance in crafting a business plan for your blog business with the help of our blog business plan template.

How to Write a Blog Business Plan?

Writing a blog business plan is a crucial step toward the success of your business. Here are the key steps to consider when writing a business plan:

1. Executive Summary

An executive summary is the first section planned to offer an overview of the entire business plan. However, it is written after the entire business plan is ready and summarizes each section of your plan.

Here are a few key components to include in your executive summary:

Introduce your Business

Start your executive summary by briefly introducing your business to your readers.

This section may include the name of your blog business, the website’s name, the type of blog business (E.g., fitness blog, educational blog), etc.

Highlight the blog niche you will work in. The USPs and differentiators you offer are always a plus. You may even include examples to show your work to the readers.

Marketing & Sales Strategies

Outline your sales and marketing strategies—what marketing platforms you use, how you plan on acquiring more viewers, etc.

Financial Highlights

Briefly summarize your financial projections for the initial years of business operations. Include any capital or investment requirements, associated startup costs, projected revenues, and profit forecasts.

Call to Action

Summarize your executive summary section with a clear CTA, for example, inviting other bloggers to work with you.

Ensure your executive summary is clear, concise, easy to understand, and jargon-free.

2. Business Overview

The business overview section of your business plan offers detailed information about your company. The details you add will depend on how important they are to your business. Yet, business name, location, business history, and future goals are some of the foundational elements you must consider adding to this section:

Business Description

Describe your business in this section by providing all the basic information like name, website domain authority, etc.

Describe what kind of blog business you run and the name of it. You may specialize in one of the following blog businesses:

• Personal blogs
• Niche blogs
• Finance blogs
• Photography blogs
• News media blogs
• Review blogs
• Educational blogs

List the names of your blog company’s founders or owners. Describe what shares they own and their responsibilities for efficiently managing the business.

Business History

If you’re an established blog service provider, briefly describe your business history, like—when it was founded, how it evolved over time, etc.

Additionally, If you have received any awards or recognition for excellent work, describe them.

Future Goals

It’s crucial to convey your aspirations and vision. Mention your short-term and long-term goals; they can be specific targets for revenue, market share, or expanding your niche.

This section should provide a thorough understanding of your business, its history, and its plans. Keep this section engaging, precise, and to the point.

3. Market Analysis

The market analysis section of your business plan should offer a thorough understanding of the industry with the target market, competitors, and growth opportunities. You should include the following components in this section.

Target market

Start this section by describing your target market. Define your ideal customer and explain what types of services they prefer. Creating a buyer persona will help you easily define your target market to your readers. For example:

The target market of TrendWave Insights

TrendWave Insights aims to capture the attention of a diverse and tech-savvy audience seeking valuable insights into emerging trends across various industries.

The target market likely includes professionals, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts interested in staying ahead of the curve in areas such as sustainability, remote work, wellness, technology, e-learning, health tech, cryptocurrency, diversity and inclusion, and digital marketing. With a focus on providing in-depth analyses and expert perspectives,

TrendWave Insights appeals to individuals and businesses looking for actionable insights and a nuanced understanding of the evolving landscape.

Market size and growth potential

Describe your market size and growth potential and whether you will target a niche or a much broader market.

For example, the number of bloggers in the United States alone was around 32 million in 2020, so you can imagine the competition and market size in the current times.

Competitive Analysis

Identify and analyze your direct and indirect competitors. Identify their strengths and weaknesses, and describe what differentiates your blog page from them. Point out how you have a competitive edge in the market.

Market Trends

Analyze emerging trends in the industry, such as technology, changes in audience behavior or preferences, etc. Explain how your business will cope with all the trends. For example:

Market trends for TrendWave Insights

TrendWave Insights navigates a dynamic market where trends spotlight sustainability, remote work, wellness, and tech innovations. E-learning, health tech, and diverse, equitable practices are on the rise.

E-commerce evolves with personalization and cryptocurrency gains traction. Post-pandemic, hybrid work and digital marketing innovations shape consumer behavior. The entertainment industry has shifted to streaming and niche content. Space exploration, cybersecurity, and privacy also make waves in TrendWave’s trend-spotting journey.

Regulatory Environment

List regulations and licensing requirements that may affect your blog business, such as business registration, insurance, copyright & intellectual property laws, privacy & data protection, etc.

Here are a few tips for writing the market analysis section of your blog business plan:

• Conduct market research, industry reports, and surveys to gather data.
• Provide specific and detailed information whenever possible.
• Illustrate your points with charts and graphs.
• Write your business plan keeping your target audience in mind.

4. Products And Services

The product and services section should describe the specific services and products that will be offered to customers. To write this section should include the following:

Describe your services

Mention the blog services your business will offer. This list may include services like:

• Content creation
• SEO services
• Social media management
• Email marketing
• Affiliate marketing

Additional Services

Mention if your blog business offers any additional services. You may include services like content marketing consultation, guest posting services, online courses, etc.

In short, this section of your blog plan must be informative, precise, and client-focused. By providing a clear and compelling description of your offerings, you can help potential investors and readers understand the value of your business.

5. Sales And Marketing Strategies

Writing the sales and marketing strategies section means a list of strategies you will use to attract and retain your clients. Here are some key elements to include in your sales & marketing plan:

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Define your business’s USPs depending on the market you serve, the equipment you use, and the unique services you provide. Identifying USPs will help you plan your marketing strategies. For example:

Unique Selling Proposition of TrendWave Insights

At TrendWave Insights, we ride the crest of innovation, bringing you a tidal wave of the latest trends across diverse industries. What sets us apart is our commitment to not just reporting trends but diving deep into their impact.

Our seasoned editorial team curates content that goes beyond the surface, providing you with insightful analyses, expert perspectives, and actionable insights. Whether you’re a trendsetter, business enthusiast, or simply curious about the world’s latest waves, TrendWave Insights is your beacon to stay ahead, understand the currents, and ride the trends with confidence.

Marketing Strategies

Discuss your marketing strategies to market your services. You may include some of these marketing strategies in your business plan—social media marketing, Google ads, email marketing, content marketing, and affiliate marketing.

Sales Strategies

Outline the strategies you’ll implement to maximize your sales. Your sales strategies may include loyalty programs, offers to repeat customers, referral programs, etc.

Customer Retention

Describe your customer retention strategies and how you plan to execute them. For instance, introducing loyalty programs, personalized service, etc.

Overall, this section of your blog business plan should focus on customer acquisition and retention.

Have a specific, realistic, and data-driven approach while planning sales and marketing strategies for your blog business, and be prepared to adapt or make strategic changes in your strategies based on feedback and results.

6. Operations Plan

The operations plan section of your business plan should outline the processes and procedures involved in your business operations, such as staffing requirements and operational processes. Here are a few components to add to your operations plan:

Staffing & Training

Mention your blog business’s staffing requirements, including the number of employees or writers needed. Include their qualifications, the training required, and the duties they will perform.

Operational Process

Outline the processes and procedures you will use to run your blog business. Your operational processes may include meeting clients, training employees, and blogging.

Adding these components to your operations plan will help you lay out your business operations, which will eventually help you manage your business effectively.

7. Management Team

The management team section provides an overview of your blog business’s management team. This section should provide a detailed description of each manager’s experience and qualifications, as well as their responsibilities and roles.

Founders/CEO

Mention the founders and CEO of your blog business, and describe their roles and responsibilities in successfully running the business.

Key managers

Introduce your management and key members of your team, and explain their roles and responsibilities.

Organizational structure

Explain the organizational structure of your management team. Include the reporting line and decision-making hierarchy.

Compensation Plan

Describe your compensation plan for the management and staff. Include their salaries, incentives, and other benefits.

Advisors/Consultants

Mentioning advisors or consultants in your business plans adds credibility to your business idea.

So, if you have any advisors or consultants, include them with their names and brief information consisting of roles and years of experience.

Here is an example of the management team:

The management team of TrendWave Insights

Founder and CEO – Jessica Reynolds

Jessica is the driving force behind TrendWave Insights. With a background in journalism and a keen interest in emerging trends, she founded the blog to provide readers with insightful content on the latest trends in various industries. Jessica sets the strategic vision for the blog, emphasizing the importance of staying ahead in the ever-evolving landscape of trends and innovation.

Editor-in-Chief – Benjamin Hayes

Benjamin is the editorial lead at TrendWave Insights. With a wealth of experience in journalism and content creation, he ensures that the blog produces high-quality and engaging content. Benjamin oversees the editorial team, guiding them in curating content that reflects the most relevant and impactful trends.

This section should describe the key personnel for your blog business, highlighting how you have the perfect team to succeed.

8. Financial Plan

Your financial plan section should provide a summary of your business’s financial projections for the first few years. Here are some key elements to include in your financial plan:

Profit & loss statement

Describe details such as projected revenue, operational costs, and service costs in your projected profit and loss statement. Make sure to include your business’s expected net profit or loss.

Cash flow statement

The cash flow for the first few years of your operation should be estimated and described in this section. This may include billing invoices, payment receipts, loan payments, and any other cash flow statements.

Balance Sheet

Create a projected balance sheet documenting your blog business’s assets, liabilities, and equity.

Break-even point

Determine and mention your business’s break-even point—the point at which your business costs and revenue will be equal.

This exercise will help you understand how much revenue you need to generate to sustain or be profitable.

Financing Needs

Calculate costs associated with starting a blog business, and estimate your financing needs and how much capital you need to raise to operate your business. Be specific about your short-term and long-term financing requirements, such as investment capital or loans.

Be realistic with your financial projections, and make sure you offer relevant information and evidence to support your estimates.

9. Appendix

The appendix section of your plan should include any additional information supporting your business plan’s main content, such as market research, legal documentation, financial statements, and other relevant information.

• Add a table of contents for the appendix section to help readers easily find specific information or sections.
• In addition to your financial statements, provide additional financial documents like tax returns, a list of assets within the business, credit history, and more. These statements must be the latest and offer financial projections for at least the first three or five years of business operations.
• Provide data derived from market research, including stats about the blog industry, user demographics, and industry trends.
• Include any legal documents such as permits, licenses, and contracts.
• Include any additional documentation related to your business plan, such as product brochures, marketing materials, operational procedures, etc.

Use clear headings and labels for each section of the appendix so that readers can easily find the necessary information.

Remember, the appendix section of your blog business plan should only include relevant and important information supporting your plan’s main content.

This sample blog business plan will provide an idea for writing a successful blog plan, including all the essential components of your business.

After this, if you still need clarification about writing an investment-ready business plan to impress your audience, download our blog business plan pdf .

Related Posts

SEO Business Plan

Guide on Business Plan for a Loan

How to do a Market Analysis for a Business Plan

Financial Plan for Startup Business

Frequently asked questions, why do you need a blog business plan.

A business plan is an essential tool for anyone looking to start or run a successful blog business. It helps to get clarity in your business, secures funding, and identifies potential challenges while starting and growing your business.

Overall, a well-written plan can help you make informed decisions, which can contribute to the long-term success of your blog company.

How to get funding for your blog business?

There are several ways to get funding for your blog business, but self-funding is one of the most efficient and speedy funding options. Other options for funding are:

• Bank loan – You may apply for a loan in government or private banks.
• Small Business Administration (SBA) loan – SBA loans and schemes are available at affordable interest rates, so check the eligibility criteria before applying for it.
• Crowdfunding – The process of supporting a project or business by getting a lot of people to invest in your business, usually online.
• Angel investors – Getting funds from angel investors is one of the most sought-after startup options.

Apart from all these options, there are small business grants available, check for the same in your location, and you can apply for it.

What is the easiest way to write your blog business plan?

A lot of research is necessary for writing a business plan, but you can write your plan most efficiently with the help of any blog business plan example and edit it as per your need. You can also quickly finish your plan in just a few hours or less with the help of our business planning software .

How do I write a good market analysis in a blog business plan?

Market analysis is one of the key components of your business plan that requires deep research and a thorough understanding of your industry.

We can categorize the process of writing a good market analysis section into the following steps:

• Stating the objective of your market analysis—e.g., investor funding.
• Industry study—market size, growth potential, market trends, etc.
• Identifying target market—based on user behavior and demographics.
• Analyzing direct and indirect competitors.
• Calculating market share—understanding TAM, SAM, and SOM.
• Knowing regulations and restrictions
• Organizing data and writing the first draft.

Writing a marketing analysis section can be overwhelming, but using ChatGPT for market research can make things easier.

Can a good blog business plan help me secure funding?

Indeed. A well-crafted blog business plan will help your investors better understand your business domain, market trends, strategies, business financials, and growth potential—helping them make better financial decisions.

So, if you have a profitable and investable business, a comprehensive business plan can certainly help you secure your business funding.

About the Author

Vinay Kevadiya

Vinay Kevadiya is the founder and CEO of Upmetrics, the #1 business planning software. His ultimate goal with Upmetrics is to revolutionize how entrepreneurs create, manage, and execute their business plans. He enjoys sharing his insights on business planning and other relevant topics through his articles and blog posts. Read more

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How To Craft Your Blog Business Plan (Template Included!)

If you’re just starting out, chances are that you would want to create a blog business plan for your business.

If you want to create a successful blog + biz, you need a plan. You can’t just launch a website  (although that’s important) and hope that it would work out.

Yes – your blog business plan is your blog’s BLUEPRINT.

But first, if you have not started your blog yet, here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to start a blog .

You’re back? Great! I will share with you the exact blog business plan template I used… when I first started this blog.

Sounds good?

A blog business plan is great because you get real clear on the direction, goals and vision of your business, leaving no stone unturned. When you organize your thoughts and plans into one central place, it increases the chances of you starting a successful blog .

Clarity = better business!

Without further ado, here are the components of my blog business plan:

You should come up with a brand name. This is the same as your blog name. Don’t need to go over the top – keep it simple. Here’s a tutorial on how to pick a blog name , if you need help.

• Vision & mission of your brand

What’s the vision you have for your blog + business? Why are you doing what you are doing?

• Your brand style

Your branding has to look cohesive. Create a cohesive and attractive brand style. Decide on your brand colors, brand fonts and other aesthetic aspects of your brand. This will be incorporated uniformly across your website, social media platforms, and other collaterals.

• Brand vibes/ values

This is threading into the more intangible part of your brand: What vibe/ values do you want people to associate your brand with?

For instance, for me, its no-nonsense, smart, action-oriented, etc.

2. NICHE & TARGET AUDIENCE

• Target audience

Who are you targeting (specifically) with your website? Why? For more info, there’s a tutorial about defining your target audience on this blog as well.

• Competitors (VERY IMPORTANT)

Who are your competitors? Go scope out the situation. I always tell my 1:1 private clients: You don’t open an offline ice-cream store without checking out the other ice-cream stores down the street, do you?

The same applies to your online biz. One does not simply start a blog without knowing who else is in business.

• Points of difference

This is something I always like to do with all my businesses. How are you different from your competitors?

This could be your experience, your personality, certain things you cover, your brand positioning, better design, better service etc. There’s an article about how to make your brand stand out that could be helpful for you.

• Infrastructure

What host will you be on? What domain name provider will you use? Check out this tutorial on how to start a blog for more information about this.

I highly recommend that you use SiteGround as your host – their support is THE BEST, and my website runs perfectly with them. I have lost count of the number of times that SiteGround has saved me from losing sleep because something on my website messed up.

You also need a website theme – I recommend Divi (very customizable, great for beginners) or Genesis (for the more tech savvy ones).

The best option is my done-for-you website kit made with Divi where you can get an amazing website up by this week… all for a fraction of Divi’s website! Check out  Your Stunning Website 🙂

• Content Planning

What topics will you blog about? Having some idea of what your blog content will consist of. This will save you valuable time later. Make sure it is something that your target audience (that you’ve decided earlier) would want.

Also, how often will you post?

4. EMAIL LIST BUILDING

For my long-term readers you would know that I’m big on email marketing.

If you are new and don’t really know why you need an email list ASAP, check out this post:  Why Building an Email List is a MUST for Your Blog & Business

I highly recommend Convertkit . I love Convertkit so much because it’s just so easy to use, while giving me a ton of functions that my business needs at an affordable price. Click here to check out Convertkit  and get your email list started! Feel free to email me if you’ve any questions about using it.

With that out of the way, some things you need to think about:

• What will you be sending to your subscribers?

For more ideas, you can check out my post about newsletter content ideas  to send and engage your subscribers.

• How often will you send an email out to your subscribers?

Best to get this out of the way and decide once and for all. Once a week is a safe decision.

5. MARKETING: SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is a huge part of marketing your blog + business for most entrepreneurs.

• Facebook fan page strategy

Chances are you will want to create a Facebook business page. You need a plan for that! Some things you’ll have to decide and plan for include: What will you post on the page (make sure it is interesting to your target audience)? How often will you post on your Facebook page?

• Facebook group

Many people decide to create a Facebook group. You can check out mine here .

You don’t need to have a Facebook group. Feel free to skip this section (or any other section in the social media section, actually). Not every business has to be on every single social media platform.

So… do the same for every other social media platform you want to be on:

What’s your Pinterest strategy , if any?

What’s your Instagram strategy, if any?

What’s your Twitter strategy, if any?

Rinse and repeat for any other social media platform that you intend to use to market your online business . REMEMBER, only write a business plan out for social media platforms that you intend to use. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time. You don’t need to be everywhere.

6. MARKETING: OTHER STRATEGIES

Here, you plan for any other ways that you intend to market your business.

For instance, you could choose to collaborate with other businesses, or do networking events offline, etc. Whatever it is, be sure to include it in your blog business plan.

How will you be marketing your business via these channels? When will you start? Who will you be working with? Etc. [Tweet “Great post on how to craft your blog business plan, template included!”]

7. MONETIZATION

No money, no business. Simple as that. You can’t run a charity, trust me!

• Financial goals

What’s your income goal that you aim to reach for this blog + business? Make sure that it’s a specific income goal, and have a timeframe for it too.

• How do you intend to monetize?

What are some monetization channels that you intend to use for your blog? For extra help, you may find my post about having an online business model as well as my post about different online business ideas (where I explore different monetization methods) helpful.

Relevant posts:

• Why I Switched To Teachable To Host And Sell My Online Courses
• The Ultimate Guide: How to Become a Successful Infopreneur Online
• How to Create an Online Course in 72 Hours (With Guided Instructions!)
• How to Sell Online Courses 101
• 10 Highly Effective Tips To Get More Clients Online (From My Personal Experience!)

For me, I do 1:1 coaching (check out how you can work with me here – that’s hands-down the best way you can get success for your blog + biz, as you get personal attention and guidance from a coach that has been there before), courses (I provide step-by-step guidance and give my best tips in my quality courses), and affiliate marketing by recommending helpful blogging tools and resources that you can view  here .

(Update 2021: I no longer do 1:1 coaching. You can check out my programs instead!)

What about you? 🙂

8. ACTION PLAN

Break down what you have to do for your business week by week. I recommend that you have an action plan down for the next 3 months or so.

Having a deadline for certain activities will work wonders for your blog + biz. What will you do each week of your business?

No action, no results! 🙂

That’s all, folks!

I hope that you have found this helpful.

New pin design?

God bless, Raelyn

P.S. Want comprehensive guidance on how you can attract an online audience and get more traffic?

That’s exactly where my signature course, List Building Incubator will help. It’s my step-by-step system to grow & monetize your email list. Check it out here .

A tiny request: If you liked this post, please share this?

I know most people don’t share because they feel that us bloggers don’t need their “tiny” social share. But here’s the truth…

I built this blog piece by piece, one small share at a time, and will continue to do so. So thank you so much for your support, my reader.

A share from you would seriously help a lot with the growth of this blog.

Some great suggestions: –  Pin it!  (I even made a pretty pin for ya!) –  Share it to your favorite blog + biz Facebook group –  Tweet it!

It won’t take more than 10 seconds of your time. The share buttons are right here. 🙂

Thank you so much!

If you enjoyed this post, get updates from me. (it’s FREE)

You’re awesome for staying till the end.  Signup for my newsletter below.

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Free PDF Business Plan Templates and Samples

By Joe Weller | September 9, 2020

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We’ve gathered the most useful collection of business plan PDF templates and samples, including options for organizations of any size and type.

On this page, you’ll find free PDF templates for a simple business plan , small business plan , startup business plan , and more.

Simple Business Plan PDF Templates

These simple business plan PDF templates are ready to use and customizable to fit the needs of any organization.

Simple Business Plan Template PDF

This template contains a traditional business plan layout to help you map out each aspect, from a company overview to sales projections and a marketing strategy. This template includes a table of contents, as well as space for financing details that startups looking for funding may need to provide. 

Download Simple Business Plan Template - PDF

Lean Business Plan Template PDF

This scannable business plan template allows you to easily identify the most important elements of your plan. Use this template to outline key details pertaining to your business and industry, product or service offerings, target customer segments (and channels to reach them), and to identify sources of revenue. There is also space to include key performance metrics and a timeline of activities. 

Download Lean Business Plan Template - PDF

Simple 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template PDF

This template is designed to help you develop and implement a 90-day business plan by breaking it down into manageable chunks of time. Use the space provided to detail your main goals and deliverables for each timeframe, and then add the steps necessary to achieve your objectives. Assign task ownership and enter deadlines to ensure your plan stays on track every step of the way.

Download Simple 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template

PDF | Smartsheet

One-Page Business Plan PDF Templates

The following single page business plan templates are designed to help you download your key ideas on paper, and can be used to create a pitch document to gain buy-in from partners, investors, and stakeholders.

One-Page Business Plan Template PDF

Use this one-page template to summarize each aspect of your business concept in a clear and concise manner. Define the who, what, why, and how of your idea, and use the space at the bottom to create a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) for your business. 

Download One-Page Business Plan Template

If you’re looking for a specific type of analysis, check out our collection of SWOT templates .

One-Page Lean Business Plan PDF

This one-page business plan template employs the Lean management concept, and encourages you to focus on the key assumptions of your business idea. A Lean plan is not stagnant, so update it as goals and objectives change — the visual timeline at the bottom is ideal for detailing milestones. 

Download One-Page Lean Business Plan Template - PDF

One-Page 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template

Use this business plan template to identify main goals and outline the necessary activities to achieve those goals in 30, 60, and 90-day increments. Easily customize this template to fit your needs while you track the status of each task and goal to keep your business plan on target. 

Download One-Page 30-60-90 Day Business Plan Template

For additional single page plans, including an example of a one-page business plan , visit " One-Page Business Plan Templates with a Quick How-To Guide ."

Small Business Plan PDF Templates

These business plan templates are useful for small businesses that want to map out a way to meet organizational objectives, including how to structure, operate, and expand their business.

Simple Small Business Plan Template PDF

A small business can use this template to outline each critical component of a business plan. There is space to provide details about product or service offerings, target audience, customer reach strategy, competitive advantage, and more. Plus, there is space at the bottom of the document to include a SWOT analysis. Once complete, you can use the template as a basis to build out a more elaborate plan. 

Download Simple Small Business Plan Template

Fill-In-the-Blank Small Business Plan Template PDF

This fill-in-the-blank template walks you through each section of a business plan. Build upon the fill-in-the-blank content provided in each section to add information about your company, business idea, market analysis, implementation plan, timeline of milestones, and much more.

Download Fill-In-the-Blank Small Business Plan Template - PDF

One-Page Small Business Plan Template PDF

Use this one-page template to create a scannable business plan that highlights the most essential parts of your organization’s strategy. Provide your business overview and management team details at the top, and then outline the target market, market size, competitive offerings, key objectives and success metrics, financial plan, and more.

Download One-Page Business Plan for Small Business - PDF

Startup Business Plan PDF Templates

Startups can use these business plan templates to check the feasibility of their idea, and articulate their vision to potential investors.

Startup Business Plan Template

Use this business plan template to organize and prepare each essential component of your startup plan. Outline key details relevant to your concept and organization, including your mission and vision statement, product or services offered, pricing structure, marketing strategy, financial plan, and more.

‌Download Startup Business Plan Template

Sample 30-60-90 Day Business Plan for Startup

Startups can use this sample 30-60-90 day plan to establish main goals and deliverables spanning a 90-day period. Customize the sample goals, deliverables, and activities provided on this template according to the needs of your business. Then, assign task owners and set due dates to help ensure your 90-day plan stays on track.

‌Download Sample 30-60-90 Day Business Plan for Startup Template 

For additional resources to create your plan, visit “ Free Startup Business Plan Templates and Examples .”

Nonprofit Business Plan PDF Templates

Use these business plan PDF templates to outline your organization’s mission, your plan to make a positive impact in your community, and the steps you will take to achieve your nonprofit’s goals.

Nonprofit Business Plan Template PDF

Use this customizable PDF template to develop a plan that details your organization’s purpose, objectives, and strategy. This template features a table of contents, with room to include your nonprofit’s mission and vision, key team and board members, program offerings, a market and industry analysis, promotional plan, financial plan, and more. This template also contains a visual timeline to display historic and future milestones.

Download Nonprofit Business Plan Template - PDF

One-Page Business Plan for Nonprofit Organization PDF 

This one-page plan serves as a good starting point for established and startup nonprofit organizations to jot down their fundamental goals and objectives. This template contains all the essential aspects of a business plan in a concise and scannable format, including the organizational overview, purpose, promotional plan, key objectives and success metrics, fundraising goals, and more.

Download One-Page Business Plan for Nonprofit Organization Template - PDF

Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan PDF Templates

Use these fill-in-the-blank templates as a foundation for creating a comprehensive roadmap that aligns your business strategy with your marketing, sales, and financial goals.

Simple Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan PDF

The fill-in-the-blank template contains all the vital parts of a business plan, with sample content that you can customize to fit your needs. There is room to include an executive summary, business description, market analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, financial statements, and more. 

Download Simple Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan Template - PDF

Lean Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan PDF

This business plan is designed with a Lean approach that encourages you to clarify and communicate your business idea in a clear and concise manner. This single page fill-in-the-blank template includes space to provide details about your management team, the problem you're solving, the solution, target customers, cost structure, and revenue streams. Use the timeline at the bottom to produce a visual illustration of key milestones. 

Download Fill-In-the-Blank Lean Business Plan Template - PDF

For additional resources, take a look at " Free Fill-In-the-Blank Business Plan Templates ."

Sample Business Plan PDF Templates

These sample business plan PDF templates can help you to develop an organized, thorough, and professional business plan.

Business Plan Sample 

This business plan example demonstrates a plan for a fictional food truck company. The sample includes all of the elements in a traditional business plan, which makes it a useful starting point for developing a plan specific to your business needs.

Download Basic Business Plan Sample - PDF

Sample Business Plan Outline Template

Use this sample outline as a starting point for your business plan. Shorten or expand the outline depending on your organization’s needs, and use it to develop a table of contents for your finalized plan.

Download Sample Business Plan Outline Template - PDF

Sample Business Financial Plan Template

Use this sample template to develop the financial portion of your business plan. The template provides space to include a financial overview, key assumptions, financial indicators, and business ratios. Complete the break-even analysis and add your financial statements to help prove the viability of your organization’s business plan.

Download Business Financial Plan Template

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For more free, downloadable templates for all aspects of your business, check out “ Free Business Templates for Organizations of All Sizes .”

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4+ SAMPLE Blog Business Plan in PDF

Blog business plan, 4+ sample blog business plan, what is a blog business plan, different types of blogs, reasons to make a blog, how to write a blog business plan, what are the advantages of having a blog, what is a blog exit strategy, can a blog become a business.

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Step 1: create an executive summary, step 2: brand identity overview, step 3: blog content overview, step 4: blog marketing and promotion strategies, step 5: develop a thorough competitor analysis, step 6: blog monetization plan, share this post on your network, you may also like these articles.

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Blog Business Plan Template

Published Nov.11, 2013

Updated Apr.19, 2024

By: Jakub Babkins

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Table of Content

Introduction

As a blogger, you may have decided a theme and overall ideology. However, you may not have a clear direction without proper planning. You need a  blog business plan to achieve the ultimate goal. It presents methods for content creation, revenue generation, and business that your blog is designed for.

Frequently asked questions of the blog

When starting a blog business plan , here are the questions to look for –

• What are the purposes behind your blog?
• What would be the cost of the domain and hosting of the blog site?
• Who will be in your team?
• Would you promote your blog online or offline?
• What will be your business goals?

Executive Summary

The term ‘Executive Summary’ sounds fancy. Well, it is the first part of your blog business plan example , but usually written last. Take your time for this section. You need to explain what your business is all about. Explain the purpose of your business, i.e. to connect with current customers, attract customers to your business, provide consulting, build loyalty, etc.

Business Description

When writing a business plan for a blog, you need to discuss the culture and organization of your blog business. You may not feel like you are running a company, but you are building a brand, which is almost a similar thing. You need to explain what maintains your blog ahead in the market.

Competitive Analysis

Before you write a  blog business plan example , you need to research the blogs like yours and your competitors so it can help you stay ahead of the game. Be sure to research for analysis purpose, not for stealing ideas. It is no big deal if they have more income or a huge fan base. It is about doing your own research, so you can start building the empire you can call your own.

Audience research

Now that you know about your target market, you need to dig a bit deeper. Surveys are the best ways to know about audience without any guesswork. If your audience base is small, you can observe them on social media. Twitter chats and Facebook groups can give you valuable insight into your target audience.

When wondering how to write a business plan for a blog , you also have to create monetizing strategies. You can decide how you can monetize your blog. Will you offer any online product like software, PDF, business plan application mobile , etc., or services? You need to offer something that your audience needs.

Before getting started with a product using your blog, you need to grow your audience base and community. In order to develop a blog business plan, you can buy books or online courses you like. If they just give strategies to launch and create a product, you may not get the same results without strategies to build a strong audience base and grow your traffic. You need both a product and community to create a successful blog that works.

Financial plan

When creating a financial plan for your blog, you need to define proforma expense and revenue reports for five years and breakeven analysis. You should consider your budget in this section of the business plan for blog . You can start with just $100 or go high at around $10,000. On average, you can earn from $100 to $500 per month, in an ideal scenario.

How to order writing business plan blog?

If you are looking for an internet blog business plan , OGS Capital is your best partner. Our experts create a business plan for all types of businesses. We offer the well-crafted plan for ongoing operations and startups. We can come up with strategies to help you attract investors.

Download Blog Business Plan Template in pdf

Professional writers OGS capital specialized also on a theme such as business plan for freelance , data entry business plan , business plan for a digital printing , magazine publishing business plan , YouTube video channel business plan and many other business plans.

OGSCapital’s team has assisted thousands of entrepreneurs with top-rate business plan development, consultancy and analysis. They’ve helped thousands of SME owners secure more than $1.5 billion in funding, and they can do the same for you.

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How to Build a Detailed Business Plan That Stands Out [Free Template]

Updated: March 29, 2022

Published: March 11, 2022

While starting a company may seem easier now than ever before, entrepreneurs have an uphill battle from the moment they start a business. And without a clear, actionable business plan for selling, marketing, finances, and operations, you're almost destined to face significant challenges.

This is why crafting a business plan is an essential step in the entrepreneurial process.

In this post, we'll walk you through the process of filling out your business plan template, like this free, editable version :

Download a free, editable one-page business plan template.

We know that when looking at a blank page on a laptop screen, the idea of writing your business plan can seem impossible. However, it's a mandatory step to take if you want to turn your business dreams into a reality.

That's why we've crafted a business plan template for you to download and use to build your new company. You can download it here for free . It contains prompts for all of the essential parts of a business plan, all of which are elaborated on, below.

This way, you'll be able to show them how organized and well-thought-out your business idea is, and provide them with answers to whatever questions they may have.

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Building a Successful Business Plan

In the next section, we'll cover the components of a business plan , such as an executive summary and company description. But before we get to that, let's talk about key elements that should serve as building blocks for your plan.

For some entrepreneurs, the thought of writing a business plan sounds like a chore — a necessary means to an end. But that's a bad take.

A solid business plan is a blueprint for success . It's key to securing financing, presenting your business, outlining your financial projections, and turning that nugget of a business idea into a reality.

At the core, your business plan should answer two questions: why your business and why now?

Investors want to know why your business is entering the market, i.e. what problem it's solving and how it's different from what's currently out there. They also want to know why now is the right time for your type of product or service.

At a minimum, your plan should:

• Be more realistic than idealistic: Too often, business plans focus too much on how things could be instead of how they are. While having a vision is important, your plan needs to be rooted in research and data.
• Legitimize your business idea : If an idea fails on paper, it's a signal to go back to the drawing board. In doing so, you avoid losing precious time or money chasing an unrealistic idea.
• Position your business for funding: To get your business off the ground, chances are you'll need financial backing. Even with a solid business idea, investors, lenders, and banks still need convincing. An effective business plan will outline how much money you need, where it's going, what targets you will hit, and how you plan to repay any debts.
• Lay the foundation: Investors focus on risk – if anything looks shaky, it could be a dealbreaker. Ideally, your business plan will lay down the foundation for how you'll operate your business — from operational needs to financial projections and goals.
• Communicate your needs: It's nearly impossible to communicate your needs if you don't know what they are first. Of course, a business’ needs are always changing — but your plan should give you a well-rounded view of how your business will work in the short and long term.

So back to the question of why and why now – consider three things:

• Your industry – How does your product or service fit within your industry? Are you targeting a specific niche? Where do you see the industry going in the next five to 10 years?
• Your target audience – Who are you targeting? What challenges are they facing? How will your product or service help them in their daily lives?
• Your unique selling proposition (USP) – What sets you apart from your competitors? Is it your product/service features? Your company values? Price?

Once you know the answers to these questions, you'll be equipped to answer the question: why your business and why now.

How to Build a Business Plan

• Executive Summary
• Company and Business Description
• Product and Services Line
• Market Analysis
• Marketing Plan
• Legal Notes
• Financial Considerations

Featured Resource: Free Business Plan Template

1. cover page.

Your business plan should be prefaced with an eye-catching cover page. This means including a high-resolution image of your company logo, followed by your company's name, address, and phone number.

Since this business plan will likely change hands and be seen by multiple investors, you should also provide your own name, role in the business, and email address on the cover page.

At the bottom of this page, you can also add a confidentiality statement to protect against the disclosure of your business details.

The statement can read as follows: " This document contains confidential and proprietary information created by [your company name]. When receiving this document, you agree to keep its content confidential and may only reproduce and/or share it with express written permission of [your company name] ."

Remember to keep your cover page simple and concise — and save the important details for other sections.

Why it matters: First impressions are everything, and a clean cover page is the first step in the right direction.

Example of a Cover Page

2. Executive Summary

The executive summary of your business plan provides a one- to two-page overview of your business and highlights the most crucial pieces of your plan, such as your short-term and long-term goals.

The executive summary is essentially a boiled-down version of your entire business plan, so remember to keep this section to the point and filled only with essential information.

Typically, this brief section includes:

• A mission statement.
• The company's history and leadership model.
• An overview of competitive advantage(s).
• Financial projections.
• Company goals.
• An ask from potential investors.

Why it matters: The executive summary is known as the make-or-break section of a business plan. It influences whether investors turn the page or not — so effectively summarizing your business and the problem it hopes to solve is a must.

Think of the Summary as a written elevator pitch (with more detail). While your business plan provides the nitty-gritty details, your Summary describes — in a compelling but matter-of-fact language — the highlights of your plan. If it's too vague, complicated, or fuzzy, you may need to scrap it and start again.

Example of an Executive Summary Introduction

"The future looks bright for North Side Chicago, particularly the Rock Hill Neighborhood. A number of high-end commercial and residential developments are well on their way, along with two new condo developments in nearby neighborhoods.

While the completion of these developments will increase the population within the neighborhood and stimulate the economy, the area lacks an upscale restaurant where residents and visitors can enjoy fine food and drink. Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will provide such a place."

3. Company & Business Description

In this section, provide a more thorough description of what your company is and why it exists.

The bulk of the writing in this section should be about your company's purpose – covering what the business will be selling, identifying the target market, and laying out a path to success.

In this portion of your business plan, you can also elaborate on your company's:

• Mission statement
• Core values
• Team and organizational structure

Why it matters: Investors look for great structures and teams in addition to great ideas. This section gives an overview of your businesses' ethos. It's the perfect opportunity to set your business apart from the competition — such as your team's expertise, your unique work culture, and your competitive advantage.

Example of a Values/Mission Statement

"Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will be the go-to place for people to get a drink or bite in an elegant, upscale atmosphere. The mission is to be North Side's leading restaurant, with the best tasting food and the highest quality service."

3. Product & Services Line

Here's where you'll cover the makeup of your business's product and/or services line. You should provide each product or service's name, its purpose, and a description of how it works (if appropriate). If you own any patents, copyrights, or trademarks, it's essential to include this info too.

Next, add some color to your sales strategy by outlining your pricing model and mark-up amounts.

If you're selling tangible products, you should also explain production and costs, and how you expect these factors to change as you scale.

Why it matters: This section contains the real meat of your business plan. It sets the stage for the problem you hope to solve, your solution, and how your said solution fits in the market.

There's no one-size-fits-all formula for this section. For instance, one plan may delve into its ability to market in a more cost-effective way than the competition, whereas another plan focuses on its key products and their unique features and benefits.

Regardless of your angle, it's critical to convey how your offerings will differ from the competition.

Example of a Product/Service Offering

"The menu at Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will focus on Moroccan cuisine. The stars of the menu (our specialties) are the Moroccan dishes, such as eggplant zaalouk, seafood bastilla, tagine, and chickpea stew. For those who enjoy American dishes, there will also be a variety of options, from burger sliders and flatbread pizza to grilled steak and salads.

The food at Jay Street will have premium pricing to match its upscale atmosphere. During the summer months, the restaurant will have extra seating on the patio where clients can enjoy a special summer menu. We will be open on all days of the week."

4. Market Analysis

It helps to reference your market research documentation in this section, like a Porter's Five Forces Analysis or a SWOT Analysis ( templates for those are available here ). You can also include them in your appendix.

If your company already has buyer personas, you should include them here as well. If not, you can create them right now using the Make My Persona Tool .

Why it matters: Having an awesome product is, well, awesome — but it isn't enough. Just as important, there must be a market for it.

This section allows you to dig deeper into your market, which segments you want to target, and why. The "why" here is important, since targeting the right segment is critical for the success and growth of your business.

It's easy to get lost (or overwhelmed) in a sea of endless data. For your business plan, narrow your focus by answering the following questions:

• What is my market? In other words, who are my customers?
• What segments of the market do I want to target?
• What's the size of my target market?
• Is my market likely to grow?
• How can I increase my market share over time?

Example of a Market Analysis

"Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant will target locals who live and work within the Rock Hill Neighborhood and the greater North Side Chicago area. We will also target the tourists who flock to the many tourist attractions and colleges on the North Side.

We will specifically focus on young to middle-aged adults with an income of $40,000 to $80,000 who are looking for an upscale experience. The general demographics of our target market are women between 20 to 50 years old.

A unique and varied Moroccan-American menu, along with our unique upscale atmosphere, differentiates us from competitors in the area. Jay Street will also set itself apart through its commitment to high-quality food, service, design, and atmosphere."

5. Marketing Plan

Unlike the market analysis section, your marketing plan section should be an explanation of the tactical approach to reaching your aforementioned target audience. List your advertising channels, organic marketing methods, messaging, budget, and any relevant promotional tactics.

If your company has a fully fleshed-out marketing plan, you can attach it in the appendix of your business plan. If not, download this free marketing plan template to outline your strategy.

Free Marketing Plan Template

Outline your company's marketing strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

• Pre-Sectioned Template
• Completely Customizable
• Example Prompts
• Professionally Designed

Why it matters: Marketing is what puts your product in front of your customers. It's not just advertising — it's an investment in your business.

Throwing money into random marketing channels is a haphazard approach, which is why it's essential to do the legwork to create a solid marketing plan.

Here's some good news — by this point, you should have a solid understanding of your target market. Now, it's time to determine how you'll reach them.

Example of a Marketing Plan Overview

"Our marketing strategy will focus on three main initiatives:

• Social media marketing. We will grow and expand our Facebook and Instagram following through targeted social media ads.
• Website initiatives. Our website will attract potential visitors by offering updated menus and a calendar of events.
• Promotional events. Jay Street will have one special theme night per week to attract new clients."

6. Sales Plan

It doesn't matter if your sales department is an office full of business development representatives (BDR) or a dozen stores with your products on their shelves.

The point is: All sales plans are different, so you should clearly outline yours here. Common talking points include your:

• Sales team structure, and why this structure was chosen.
• Sales channels.
• Sales tools, software, and resources.
• Prospecting strategy.
• Sales goals and budget.

Like with your marketing plan, it might make sense to attach your completed sales plan to the appendix of your business plan. You can download a template for building your sales plan here .

Why it matters: Among other things, investors are interested in the scalability of your business — which is why growth strategies are a critical part of your business plan.

Your sales plan should describe your plan to attract customers, retain them (if applicable), and, ultimately, grow your business. Be sure to outline what you plan to do given your existing resources and what results you expect from your work.

Example of a Sales Plan Overview

"The most important goal is to ensure financial success for Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant. We believe we can achieve this by offering excellent food, entertainment, and service to our clients.

We are not a low-cost dining option in the area. Instead, the food will have premium pricing to match its upscale feel. The strategy is to give Jay Street a perception of elegance through its food, entertainment, and excellent service."

7. Legal Notes

Your investors may want to know the legal structure of your business, as that could directly impact the risk of their investments. For example, if you're looking for business partners to engage in a non-corporation or LLC partnership, this means they could be on the line for more than their actual investment.

Because this clarification is often needed, explain if you are and/or plan to become a sole proprietor, partnership, corporation, LLC, or other.

You should also outline the steps you have taken (or will need to take) to operate legally. This includes licenses, permits, registrations, and insurance.

The last thing your investor wants to hear after they've sent you a big chunk of change is that you're operating without proper approval from the local, state, or federal government.

Why it matters: The last thing your investor wants to hear after they've sent you a big chunk of change is that you're operating without proper approval from the local, state, or federal government.

Example of Legal Notes

"Jay Street Lounge and Restaurant is up-to-date on all restaurant licenses and health permits. Our business name and logo are registered trademarks, presenting the possibility of expanding locally."

8. Financial Considerations

Ultimately, investors want to know two things:

• When they will earn their money back.
• When they will start seeing returns on their initial investment.

That said, be clear, calculated, and convincing in this section. It should cover:

• Startup costs.
• Sales forecasts for the next several months/quarters.
• Break-even analysis for time and dollars.
• Projected profit and loss (P&L) statement.

Facts and figures are key here, so be as specific as possible with each line item and projection. In addition, explain the "why" behind each of these sections.

However, keep in mind that information overload is a risk, especially when it comes to data. So, if you have pages upon pages of charts and spreadsheets for this section, distill them into a page or two and include the rest of the sheets in the appendix. This section should only focus on key data points.

Why it matters: One of the most important aspects of becoming "investor ready" is knowing your numbers. More importantly, you need to understand how those numbers will enhance your business.

While it's easy to write a number down on paper, it's more important to understand (and communicate) why you need capital, where it's going, and that your evaluation makes sense.

Example of Financial Projections

"Based on our knowledge and experience in the restaurant industry, we have come up with projections for the business.

Starting with an expenditure of $400,000 in year 1, we forecast sales of $1,500,000 and $2,800,000 for years two and three. We expect to achieve a net profit of 15% by year three."

9. Appendix

A detailed and well-developed business plan can range anywhere from 20 to 50 pages, with some even reaching upward of 80.

In many cases, the appendix is the longest section. Why? Because it includes the supportive materials mentioned in previous sections. To avoid disrupting the flow of the business plan with visuals, charts, and spreadsheets, business owners usually add them in the last section, i.e. the appendix.

Aside from what we've already mentioned – marketing plan, sales plan, department budgets, financial documents – you may also want to attach the following in the appendix:

• Marketing materials
• Market research data
• Licensing documentation
• Branding assets
• Floor plans for your location
• Mockups of your product
• Renderings of your office space or location design

Adding these pieces to the appendix enriches the reader's understanding of your business and proves you've put the work into your business plan without distracting from the main points throughout the plan.

Why it matters: An appendix helps the reader do their due diligence. It contains everything they need to support your business plan.

Keep in mind, however, that an appendix is typically necessary only if you're seeking financing or looking to attract business partners.

Use a Business Plan Template to Get Started

Writing a business plan shouldn't be an insurmountable roadblock to starting a business. Unfortunately, for all too many, it is.

That's why we recommend using our free business plan template. Pre-filled with detailed section prompts for all of the topics in this blog post, we're confident this template will get your business plan started in the right direction.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in June 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Lean Business Model Canvas Template

See your business from a new perspective with Jotform’s Lean Business Model Canvas Template. Simply fill in a short form with problems your business could solve, how they are currently being solved in the market, and how your company can uniquely work to solve these problems. Our template instantly converts the information into polished PDFs you can download or print for your next big meeting.Our Lean Business Model Canvas Template already looks professional, but you can personalize it further to match your business. Jotform PDF Editor lets you rearrange form fields or add your company logo at the touch of a button! By instantly converting your business model into an accessible PDF format, our Lean Business Model Canvas Template can help you see the bigger picture and determine how to take your business to the next level.

Creative Brief Template

A Creative Brief is used in advertising, branding, and marketing industries. In order to have a strong and outstanding creative campaign, you need to have a game plan to follow. This serves as a guideline that will help in making decisions related to the campaign.This Creative Brief Template PDF discusses the project details like the project name, due date, and project description. The marketing materials that will be used are listed in the document which includes its specifications like the dimension size, the medium that will be used, and the quantity. This is the best Creative Brief Template you can use for your next creative marketing campaign.

Business Model Canvas Template

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About Simple Business Plan Templates

Plans, strategies, roadmaps – Businesses rely on these things to gain perspective on what’s about to happen. Milestones laid down in strategic and careful planning for growth and expansion, visions of where the company’s headed 10 years from now, goals that should meet timelines, all these require a smart, prudent and calculated planning.

Whether you’re a startup, an SMB, or close to a Fortune 500, a solid business plan is crucial. And of course, writing business plans is a huge task. But, what if you needed something that requires input from others though? Say, an online form or a PDF template where responses from your colleagues and managers matter? Well, here’s a collection of PDF templates for business planning.

These are beautifully designed templates, specifically tailored for businesses and companies who don’t know where to start. The hard part was already done and that’s designing the template. These will serve as boilerplates for whatever milestone your business needs. You won’t need to worry on building something from scratch, you just need to focus on the content. Some of these templates will contain or collect executive summaries, opportunities, expectations, execution, financial plans, forecasts, the whole nine yards.

Business plan templates help give a clear vision of what lies ahead. They help you get things organized, planned out, and help you check off items from your to-do list more efficiently.

Frequently Asked Questions

1) what are the seven parts of a business plan.

• Executive summary. This is an overview of your business plan. The executive summary should include your company’s offerings, mission, goals, and projections. Think of it as the elevator pitch for your business plan. If you can’t get investors interested here, it’s unlikely they’ll want to keep reading.
• Company description and history. Describe your business’s legal structure and history in addition to what you do. If you just started this business, you may replace company history with your leadership team’s experience. The purpose of this section is to explain the company structure and build confidence in the people running the company.
• Products and services. Talk about what your company offers, whether that’s products, services, or a combination of the two. Describe your products and services in detail. Explain what makes your offering unique, what your profit margins are, what kind of demand you’re seeing for it, etc.
• Market and competitor research. Investors want to know if there’s demand for your offering. Describe the target market and how your product or service benefits potential customers. Include projections of where the industry is headed over the next few years. Additionally, detail your competitors and how saturated the market is.
• Sales and marketing strategy. This part of the business plan explains how you’ll promote your product. Outline elements such as your ideal customer profile (ICP) as well as your marketing channels, budget, and methods.
• Operations and logistics. Explain how you’ll source materials if you sell products as well as the technology you need to deliver such products and services. Also, provide details about your team, like how many people you’ll need and how you’ll manage employees.
• Financial plan and projections. It’s crucial to prove that your business will be financially viable. For this, you’ll need revenue and expense projections. Many investors want to see sample account statements, balance sheets, and cash flow projections.

2) How do you write a business plan?

Your business plan should be a realistic roadmap that helps you build a successful company. When writing it, take a balanced approach so that you’re not blind to the potential pitfalls and risks. You’ll draft each of the seven sections previously discussed.

Tackling these sections can be overwhelming, so some people like to start with a one-page business plan that includes short paragraphs for each element. Another way to give yourself a head start is by working from a business plan template. Once you have a good start, you can expand each section to make a compelling case for your business.

3) Can I write a business plan myself?

Yes, you can. However, depending on your writing experience and goals, you may want outside help. If the business plan is for internal use with the purpose of improving business functions, you’ll likely be OK tackling it alone. But if you’re trying to secure funding from a bank or investors, a professional business plan writer can give you a leg up.

Even if you decide to do it yourself, have a trusted friend or business mentor review your plan and provide feedback. An objective point of view will help you refine your work.

4) What are the four types of business plans?

• One-page or mini business plan. The one-page option is a great way to improve the focus of your business plan and highlight the essential elements. It can be an effective way to workshop your company’s plan or quickly give others a rundown of your entire business.
• Traditional business plan. The traditional business plan is more in-depth than its one-page counterpart and will be more thorough in each section (often, plans exceed 40 pages). For example, it may contain detailed financials, branding samples, and competitive research documents.
• Business model canvas (BMC). The business model canvas is a more visual representation of your business architecture. It includes sections for infrastructure, offering, customers, finances, etc. Many businesses find the BMC appealing since it can be summarized in a single page.
• Strategic business plan. The strategic business plan can have different purposes, like proving feasibility, discussing planning operations, or projecting growth. It will outline the company’s goals, its strategy for reaching them, and the company structure. The main difference between this and the traditional plan is its focus on specific strategic initiatives.

5) What are the common mistakes in business plans?

• Poor writing. Sloppy writing may suggest that you’re not serious about your business or you lack the needed professionalism.
• Unrealistic expectations. While you should be optimistic about your business, if your financial projections reflect your hopes more than reality, people may hesitate to back your business.
• Lack of supporting documentation. People reviewing your business plan want to see how you back up your claims. You can include research docs, sample financials, and estimates to make your case.
• Failing to define the target audience. For a successful marketing plan, you need to define your target audience. Investors and financial institutions need to see if you’re confident about who you’re selling to.
• Unbalanced. It’s important to lay out the risks and potential upsides. This analysis shows investors that you’re considering the whole picture regarding your business.

These templates are suggested forms only. If you're using a form as a contract, or to gather personal (or personal health) info, or for some other purpose with legal implications, we recommend that you do your homework to ensure you are complying with applicable laws and that you consult an attorney before relying on any particular form.

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5 Types Business Plan PDF Templates with Free Samples

Creating a business plan can be a daunting task for many entrepreneurs. To make the process easier, having a template to work from can be helpful.

We will outline five popular types of business plan PDF templates and provide free samples for each type. This way, you can get a better understanding of which template is best suited to your business needs and objectives. With a suitable template, you can ensure your business plan is comprehensive and professional.

Read on to discover the five types of business plan PDF templates with free samples.

#1 One Page Business Plan Template PDF

Are you starting a business and want a simple plan? The One Page Business Plan Template PDF is perfect! Here are two templates overview you need to know:

Template 1: Blue Business Plan

The Blue Business Plan is a simple yet professional one-page template perfect for small businesses and startups. It's easy to customize and is available in a PDF format for convenient use.

Template Highlights:

Here are some of its highlights:

Clean and minimalist design that looks professional and modern

It provides space for company summary, product/service description, target market, marketing and sales strategies, and financial projections.

Easy to fill out with a straightforward format that eliminates the need for extensive business planning

Try it out with the free sample and see how it can help your business succeed.

Template 2: One Page Business Plan Workbook

This template is a comprehensive workbook that includes everything you need to create a business plan from start to finish. This business plan workbook is perfect for anyone who wants a complete template that guides them through the process step-by-step.

This template breaks down the business plan into clear and concise sections, making it easy to follow.

Each section includes a corresponding worksheet to help you gather and organize the necessary information for your business plan.

The workbook provides detailed instructions and guidance on how to fill out each section, including tips and examples.

#2  Startup Business Plan Template PDF

A startup business plan template PDF is helpful for those wanting to start their own business. Here are two templates overview you need to know:

Template 1: Fox Gradient Business Presentation

Are you looking for a modern and eye-catching business plan template? The Fox Gradient Business Presentation template might be perfect for you! Whether starting a new business or seeking funding, this Fox Gradient Business Presentation template is a great choice to make a lasting impression.

This template has a professional and sleek design that will make your business plan stand out.

Using gradients and geometric shapes creates a visually stunning effect that will impress your audience.

It features customizable icons, maps, charts, and tables to help you present your information clearly and effectively.

Template 2: Startup Business Aesthetic Report

This business plan template is perfect for those who want to showcase their business visually appealingly. The Business Aesthetic Report template is modern and professional and will impress your potential investors.

The template includes 24 unique slides with different color schemes and layouts, allowing you to choose the one that best suits your needs.

It has placeholders for images, so you can easily add your business photos or graphics.

The template also has infographics to help you clearly and concisely present your data.

#3  Small Business Plan Template PDF

If you have a small business, you need a plan! This template can help you get started and achieve your goals. Here are two templates overview you need to know:

Template 1: Weekly Work Plan Summary

This business plan template is perfect for small businesses or entrepreneurs who must organize their weekly tasks and goals. It is simple and easy to understand, even for someone just starting a business.

The Weekly Work Plan Summary template is a one-page document divided into seven days of the week, with sections for morning, afternoon, and evening tasks.

Each day has a space for writing down the top priorities and any additional tasks that must be completed.

There is also a section for noting important weekly meetings or deadlines so everything is organized in one place.

Template 2: Fresh General Plant Work Summary

This Small Business Plan Template PDF is perfect for those who want to focus on their business's operations and daily tasks. Additionally, the financial section provides a clear picture of the company's budget and future revenue projections, making it easier to make informed decisions and plan for growth.

This template includes a one-page summary of the company's operations, sales, marketing, and financial goals.

In addition, it describes the company's products and markets.

The financial section includes a budget for each department and a projection of revenue and expenses for the upcoming year.

#4 Non-profit Business Plan Template PDF

Non-profit businesses also need a plan to reach their goals! Here's a template to help them out. Here are two templates overview you need to know:

Template 1: Store Profit and Loss Analysis Table

This template is perfect for businesses with a physical storefront or online shop. It helps owners track their revenue, expenses, and profits.

The easy-to-read format includes all essential financial information

It helps business owners identify where they can cut costs or increase revenue

Provides a clear snapshot of a business's financial health at a given moment

It can be used to compare performance over multiple periods

It Helps with tax reporting and budget planning

Free sample available for download

Template 2: Profit Financial Management System

The Profit Financial Management System template is essential for businesses looking to manage their finances and track their profits. By providing a clear picture of a business's financial performance, this template can help identify areas for improvement and support financial planning for the future.

This template provides a clear picture of a business's financial performance and can help identify areas for improvement.

Business owners can use the template to set realistic financial goals and track their progress toward meeting them.

The spreadsheet makes it easy to manage finances and track profits, reducing the risk of errors or oversights.

#5 Fill-in-the-blank Business Plan Template PDF

This business plan template is easy to use because it has blanks to fill in with your information. Here are two templates overview you need to know:

Template 1: Modern Black Business Report

The Modern Black Business Report template is a professional and visually appealing option for any business looking to create a comprehensive and attractive business plan. Plus, it's free to download and easily customized to your needs.

Here are the highlights of this template:

This template includes a cover page, executive summary, company description, market analysis, and financial projections.

The cover page has space for your company logo, contact information, and business description.

The market analysis provides an overview of your target market, competitors, and industry trends.

Template 2: Black Business Cover

This business plan template pdf features a stylish, professional-looking cover design, perfect for any business. If you want a professional-looking cover for your business plan that stands out, this black business cover template is ideal for you.

Here are some of the highlights:

The template has a clean and modern black design, making it easy on the eyes and perfect for any business.

The cover is fully editable, so you can add your business name and logo to make it personalized and unique to your company.

The template's sleek and stylish cover gives potential investors and partners a professional impression.

Advantages and Disadvantages of A Business Plan Template

A business plan template's benefits and drawbacks will be discussed here.

Saves Time:

Business plan template PDF files provide a pre-designed structure, making it easier and quicker to create a well-organized plan. This time-saving factor allows entrepreneurs to focus on other critical aspects of their business.

Ensures Comprehensive Planning:

A business plan template PDF prompts entrepreneurs to consider all the essential details and components required for a successful venture. It helps identify potential challenges and solutions, ensuring a more comprehensive planning process.

Professional Formatting:

Using a business plan template PDF ensures that your plan follows a professional format. This consistency helps in presenting your ideas and concepts in a clear and organized manner, making it easier for investors or lenders to understand your vision.

Disadvantages

Lack of Originality:

While templates offer structure and guidance, they may limit creativity and originality. Entrepreneurs may need help to express their unique ideas and differentiate themselves from competitors when using a template.

Not Tailored for Every Business:

Business plan templates are general guidelines that may not address specific industry or business needs. Entrepreneurs must adapt the template to fit their unique circumstances, which can be time-consuming and require additional research.

Potential Inaccuracy:

Templates often provide sample financial projections or market analysis, which may not accurately reflect an entrepreneur's situation. Without in-depth research, relying solely on template data can lead to incorrect assumptions and unrealistic expectations.

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FAQs About Business Plan Template PDF

Q1:what should be included in a business plan pdf.

A business plan template pdf should include details about your business goals, target customers, and marketing plans. It should also have financial projections and an executive summary. Use WPS Office to create or edit your free business plan template pdf.

Q2:How to write a business plan PDF?

To write a business plan PDF, you must start by researching and making a plan.

Look for a free business plan template PDF that fits your needs.

Next, create a clear outline of your business goals and strategies.

Use a startup business plan template PDF or a one-page business plan template PDF to keep it simple.

Remember to include financial projections.

Edit and format your plan using WPS Office, a helpful tool for working with PDF files.

Q3:What are the common mistakes in writing business plan templates?

Some common mistakes are:

Not setting clear goals. Make sure you know what you want to achieve.

Ignoring competition. Research the market and understand who your competitors are.

Underestimating expenses. Be realistic about the costs involved in running a business.

Not including a marketing strategy. Think about how you will promote your business.

You need to update the plan. Your business plan should be a living document that is regularly reviewed and updated.

Q4: How to find a business plan template pdf in WPS Office?

If you need a one-page business plan template pdf, non-profit business plan template pdf, or small business plan template pdf, search online. Once you find a template, use WPS Office to open or edit the PDF file.

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If you want to learn more about the benefits of WPS Office's PDF toolkit, check out their website for more information. You can also download their software and explore their templates to find the perfect fit for your business needs.

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Create a Social Media Strategy Plan and Boost Your Brand

In today's digital age, a social media strategy plan is essential for any business looking to thrive online. With social media's ever-increasing importance in reaching and engaging with target audiences, creating a solid social media strategy is crucial for success. By understanding the critical components of a winning social media strategy plan, businesses can effectively leverage the power of social media to achieve their goals.

Social media allows businesses to connect with their customers on a more personal level, building brand loyalty and trust. It also provides a platform for showcasing products, services, and company culture in a visually appealing and engaging way. By staying active and consistent on social media, businesses can stay top of mind for their audience and drive traffic to their website or storefront.

Why a Social Media Strategy Plan is Essential?

A social media strategy plan is essential because it provides a roadmap for businesses to navigate the complex world of social media. Without a clear plan, companies may struggle to effectively utilize social media platforms to connect with their audience and drive meaningful results. By creating a comprehensive strategy, businesses can ensure that their efforts on social media are purposeful and impactful.

Understanding the Importance of Social Media Strategies

Understanding the importance of social media strategies is crucial for businesses looking to stay competitive in today's market. With millions of users active on various platforms, a well-thought-out social media strategy can help companies stand out from the crowd and connect with their target audience.

In addition to connecting with their target audience, a strong social media strategy can also help businesses improve brand awareness and loyalty. By consistently engaging with followers and providing valuable content, companies can build a community of loyal customers who are more likely to recommend their products or services to others. This word-of-mouth marketing can be incredibly powerful in today's digital age, making a well-executed social media strategy a key component of any business's overall marketing efforts.

Key Components of a Winning Social Media Strategy Plan

The key components of a winning social media strategy plan include thorough research and analysis, setting clear objectives, content planning and creation, community engagement, measurement and optimization, as well as leveraging tools like Strikingly's features for seamless content distribution and analytics tracking.

Research and Analysis

Conducting audience research is crucial to understanding the demographics, interests, and behaviors of your target audience when creating a social media strategy plan. Gathering insights into their preferences and online habits allows you to tailor your content to resonate with them effectively. This involves analyzing data from social media platforms, conducting surveys, and using tools like Google Analytics to understand your audience comprehensively.

Analyzing competitor social media strategies is another essential step in creating a successful social media strategy plan. By studying what your competitors are doing on social media, you can identify gaps in the market, learn from their successes and failures, and differentiate your brand by offering unique value to your audience. This analysis provides valuable insights into industry trends and helps you position your brand strategically.

Utilizing data and analytics in social media strategy planning enables you to make informed decisions based on performance metrics. By tracking key metrics such as engagement rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, you can optimize your content strategy for better results. Data-driven insights also help identify areas for improvement and refine your approach for maximum impact.

Setting Clear Objectives

Andrea may template from strikingly, establishing smart goals for your social media strategy.

When creating a social media strategy plan, it's crucial to establish SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals to guide your efforts. These goals should be specific to your business objectives and measurable so that you can track your progress over time. By setting SMART goals, you can ensure that your social media strategy is focused and effective in achieving desired outcomes.

Defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Social Media Success

To measure the success of your social media strategy plan, it's important to define key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your objectives. These KPIs could include engagement rates, conversion rates, and reach. By defining KPIs at the outset of your planning process, you can better assess the impact of your social media efforts and make informed optimization decisions.

Aligning Social Media Objectives with Overall Business Goals

One of the most critical aspects of creating a social media strategy plan is ensuring that the objectives align with overall business goals. Whether the aim is to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, or generate leads, these objectives must be in sync with broader business objectives. This alignment ensures that social media efforts are contributing meaningfully to the business's overall success.

Content Planning and Creation

Developing a content calendar for your social media strategy.

Creating a content calendar is crucial for your social media strategy plan. By scheduling posts in advance, you can ensure a consistent flow of content that aligns with your overall objectives. It also lets you strategize around important dates, events, and campaigns, ensuring your content remains relevant and timely.

Creating Engaging and Shareable Content for Social Media

When creating content for your social media strategy plan. This means understanding your audience's preferences, interests, and pain points. Utilize various formats such as videos, infographics, and polls to keep your audience engaged while encouraging them to share your content with their networks.

Leveraging Different Social Media Platforms for Content Distribution

Each social media platform has unique features and audience demographics. Tailoring your content for each platform is crucial for social media strategy planning. For example, Instagram may be more visual-focused, while LinkedIn may be more professional-oriented. By understanding the nuances of each platform, you can maximize the reach and impact of your content.

Community Engagement

Strikingly social feeds section, building and nurturing relationships with your social media audience.

Building and nurturing relationships with your social media audience is crucial for the success of your social media strategy plan. Engage with your followers by responding to their comments, asking for their opinions, and addressing their concerns. Show genuine interest in their lives and make them feel valued as part of your community.

Encouraging User-Generated Content and Participation

Encouraging user-generated content and participation is a great way to boost engagement on social media. Encourage your followers to share their experiences with your products or services, participate in contests, or contribute to discussions related to your industry. User-generated content builds a sense of community and serves as authentic testimonials for your brand.

Responding to Feedback and Comments on Social Media

Responding to feedback and comments on social media shows that you value your audience's opinions. Whether it's positive or negative feedback, take the time to acknowledge it and respond appropriately. This demonstrates transparency, builds trust, and shows you are committed to providing excellent customer service.

Measurement and Optimization

Monitoring and Tracking the Performance of Your Social Media Strategy

It's crucial to regularly monitor and track the performance of your social media strategy plan to understand what's working and what's not. By keeping an eye on critical metrics such as engagement, reach, and conversion rates, you can make informed decisions to optimize your social media efforts. Utilize built-in analytics tools on various platforms or invest in third-party analytics software to gain deeper insights into your strategy's performance.

Making Data-Driven Decisions for Optimization

Data should be at the heart of all optimization efforts for your social media strategy planning. Use the insights from monitoring and tracking to make data-driven decisions when adjusting your content, posting schedule, or targeting strategies. By leveraging data, you can ensure that every optimization decision is backed by evidence rather than guesswork.

Implementing A/B Testing for Social Media Campaigns

A/B testing involves creating two versions of a piece of content or a campaign element and testing them against each other to determine which performs better. This approach allows you to experiment with different variables, such as messaging, visuals, or calls to action, to identify the most effective options for your audience. Implementing A/B testing as part of your social media strategy can lead to valuable insights that drive continuous improvement.

Strikingly Features for Social Media Strategy Planning

Strikingly landing page, leveraging strikingly's social media integration for seamless content distribution.

When creating a social media strategy plan, it's crucial to have a platform that allows seamless content distribution across various social media channels. With Strikingly's social media integration feature, you can easily share your content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, ensuring maximum visibility and engagement for your social media strategies.

Using Strikingly's Analytics Tools to Measure Social Media Performance

Strikingly offers valuable insights into your website's performance, including how social media traffic contributes to overall engagement. By effectively utilizing Strikingly's analytics tools , you can measure the impact of your social media efforts and refine your marketing strategy.

Step 1. Connect Social Media Profiles to Strikingly

To begin, link your social media profiles (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) to your Strikingly website. This integration allows Strikingly to track traffic from these platforms.

Step 2. Monitor Social Media Traffic

Use Strikingly's analytics to track the volume of traffic coming from your social media channels. Identify which platforms drive the most visitors to your website.

Step 3. Analyze Social Media Conversion Rates

Determine how many social media visitors convert into customers or leads. Strikingly's conversion tracking features can help you measure the effectiveness of your social media campaigns.

Step 4. Identify Top-Performing Social Media Posts

Analyze which social media posts drive the most traffic and engagement. Strikingly's data can help you identify content that resonates with your audience.

Step 5. Measure Social Media Referral Traffic

Track the specific pages on your website that receive the most traffic from social media. This information can help you optimize your content and calls to action.

Step 6. Compare Social Media Channels

Compare the performance of different social media platforms to identify which ones are most effective for your business. Strikingly's analytics can provide valuable insights into channel performance.

Step 7. Optimize Social Media Strategy

Use the data gathered from Strikingly's analytics to refine your social media strategy. Allocate resources to channels and content formats that yield the best results.

Step 8. Set Social Media Goals

Establish clear and measurable social media goals based on the insights from Strikingly's analytics. Track your progress towards these goals to assess the overall effectiveness of your campaigns.

Step 9. Integrate Social Media Analytics with Other Data

Combine data from Strikingly's analytics with other marketing tools to gain a comprehensive view of your overall performance. This holistic approach can help you identify trends and opportunities.

Step 10. Continuously Monitor and Adjust

Social media is a dynamic landscape. Regularly review your social media performance using Strikingly's analytics to make necessary adjustments to your strategy and stay ahead of the competition.

By leveraging Strikingly 's analytics tools, you can gain valuable insights into your social media performance and make data-driven decisions to optimize your marketing efforts.

Creating Customized Landing Pages with Strikingly to Support Social Media Campaigns

One key component of a winning social media strategy plan is creating compelling landing pages that support your campaigns. With Strikingly, you can easily create customized landing pages tailored to specific social media initiatives. These pages can be optimized for lead generation, event registrations, or product promotions, enhancing the overall impact of your social media strategies.

Implement Your Winning Social Media Strategy Plan Today

Now that you have a well-crafted social media strategy plan in place, it's time to implement it. Follow the steps outlined in your strategy to implement your plan and ensure that all team members are aligned with the goals and objectives. Consistency and dedication are key to successful implementation.

Now that your social media strategy plan is in place, it's important to regularly monitor and analyze the results. Keep track of key metrics such as engagement, reach, and conversion rates to see how well your strategy is performing. Use this data to make any necessary adjustments and improvements to your plan moving forward. Remember, social media is constantly evolving, so staying flexible and open to change is essential for long-term success.

Measuring the Impact of Your Social Media Strategies

After implementing your social media strategy plan, measuring its impact is crucial. Use analytics tools to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and assess whether you meet your SMART goals. By regularly analyzing data, you can make informed decisions about optimizing and improving your strategies for better results.

Continuing to Evolve and Adapt Your Social Media Strategy

The digital landscape is constantly changing, so it's important to evolve and adapt your social media strategy . Stay updated on industry trends, user behavior, and platform algorithms to ensure your strategies remain effective. Be open to testing new approaches and refining existing ones based on social media's ever-changing nature.

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Retailers’ climate road map: Charting paths to decarbonized value chains

As companies in all sectors work to shrink their carbon footprints and hit their decarbonization targets, the path to reducing Scope 3 emissions is often anything but straightforward. For some, decarbonizing Scope 3 emissions can be more like navigating a particularly byzantine maze. Such is the case for retailers.

About the authors

For the average retailer, Scope 3 metrics capture emissions generated upstream and downstream within the value chains of every SKU it sells—numerous, disparate, and sometimes highly fragmented value chains with multiple tiers of suppliers and inputs. And the emissions generated within this labyrinth of value chains span six energy and land-use systems: agriculture and forestry, building, industry, mobility, power, and waste (Exhibit 1).

Scope 3 emissions are, by definition, indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are generated within a company’s value chain; unlike Scope 1 and 2 emissions, companies do not directly control these emissions. Consequently, reducing Scope 3 emissions depends on the engagement and efforts of all value chain actors, including suppliers, distributors, and consumers, as well as other public and private sector actors—a retailer cannot realize these reductions in isolation.

The breadth and complexity of their Scope 3 emissions have far-reaching implications for retailers in areas including economic, strategic, brand and reputation, and regulatory compliance. This is why retailers worldwide have embraced the opportunities in these challenges, pursuing ambitious sustainability goals and wide-ranging initiatives that have led to meaningful reductions in product value chain emissions. Their efforts include engaging suppliers to improve energy efficiency in manufacturing and transportation, reduce waste, and transition to renewable energy sources.

Some decarbonization efforts, such as converting power grids to renewable or clean energy in geographies where suppliers are concentrated, are longer-term efforts that depend greatly on the actions and decisions of multiple public and private sector players. However, many decarbonization solutions are within reach of retail value chain stakeholders—and are either cost-neutral or cost-saving to implement.

Framed within seven strategic decarbonization action themes, this report illustrates how retailers and other value chain stakeholders could strategically deploy economic resources, natural or physical resources, human resources, low-carbon technology, and data transparency to realize emissions reductions. Because the scale, complexity, and key players for these efforts vary, so does the retailer’s role in the efforts, ranging from leading and scaling to convening value chain partners to collaborating and catalyzing to advocating and supporting actions to reduce emissions across retail value chains.

Reducing the average retailer’s Scope 3 emissions by 15 percent at a system level is feasible by 2030 using existing technologies; however, innovations in technologies and practices could enable an additional 40 or 50 percent reduction.

Retailers’ Scope 3: A complex array of value-chain emissions

Retailers’ reporting requirements are specified in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard and ISO 14064, the international standard series for quantifying and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and removals. Under these standards, a retailer’s Scope 3 emissions metric captures all GHG generated from sourcing, making, transporting, housing, selling, and using every product the retailer carries throughout its life cycle.

This means that for a multicategory retailer, reducing Scope 3 emissions—which include sources that make up around 98 percent of total emissions in retail—involves players from multiple sectors and industries and entails efforts to decarbonize six energy and land-use systems. And about 80 percent of a retailer’s Scope 3 emissions are generated upstream in product value chains via feedstock production, materials and components, processing and manufacturing, and packaging (Exhibit 2).

Retailer challenges in focus: Delineating Scope 3 emissions in three value chains

Each of the millions of product value chains whose emissions are captured in a retailer’s Scope 3 contains multiple tiers of suppliers and inputs from regions around the globe. The commodities involved are often mixed together in agricultural areas or at shipping ports, and each tier within a value chain can be highly fragmented. Additionally, suppliers can change their sources for inputs within the course of a single year. This complexity makes it challenging for retailers to influence how suppliers handle or report on emissions.

Consumers’ use of products—powering electronics or washing and drying clothing, for example—is also captured in the Scope 3 emissions for retailers that carry such products. Thus, reducing downstream product value chain emissions often depends on influencing changes in consumer behavior or the energy sources powering the local electricity supply.

Among retailers’ top 15 most commonly sold products, beef is one of the largest sources of Scope 3 emissions for retailers. Around 86 percent of beef value chain emissions are generated upstream by animal feed farming and production, fertilizer production, and cattle ranching, according to McKinsey analysis. Reducing ruminant methane emissions and shifting toward more efficient use of agricultural inputs, maximizing productivity, and adopting regenerative agriculture practices such as no- or low-till soil and cover cropping are key to realizing reductions in this value chain (Exhibit 3).

In electronics product value chains, decarbonizing power use is retailers’ primary challenge. The majority (80 to 90 percent) of the average retailer’s Scope 3 emissions for electronics products are generated upstream via suppliers in highly fragmented markets. Decarbonization in this stage of the value chain largely depends on the availability of renewable energy where suppliers operate (Exhibit 4).

Likewise, in the apparel product value chain, around 62 percent of emissions are generated upstream via energy use among tier-two and tier-three suppliers engaged in garment processing and fiber production (Exhibit 5).

Thus, substantial reductions in retailers’ Scope 3 emissions will require transformations in energy and land-use systems involving efforts among many value chain stakeholders.

Near-term opportunities for retailers: Reducing emissions across value chains

This report identifies seven decarbonization action themes for reducing the average retailer’s Scope 3 emissions; the themes are based on analysis of technically feasible change levers in several product value chains. The highest reduction potential comes from transitioning to clean and renewable energy, reducing livestock emissions, and adopting regenerative agriculture practices. Examples are provided to illustrate emissions reduction opportunities (Exhibit 6).

As noted previously, if all were deployed at scale, these actions could propel a 55 to 65 percent reduction in the average retailer’s Scope 3 emissions by 2030, although some actions carry sizable costs. Actions that reduce or do not increase costs in the system could yield a 12 to 17 percent reduction in the average retailer’s Scope 3 emissions by 2030.

Catalyzing broader decarbonization: Strategies and considerations for retailers

To help retailers prioritize decarbonization efforts, this report arranges levers that could be deployed by retailers and other stakeholders into four groups (labeled A, B, C, and D), each of which could enable strategic decarbonization actions. The report also illustrates these actions with examples of real-world initiatives involving retailers and their value chain partners.

By focusing on the levers in groups A and B, the average retailer could accelerate efforts to achieve up to a 17 percent reduction in its Scope 3 emissions by 2030. However, deploying levers in groups C and D could unlock an additional 40 to 50 percent, highlighting the importance of multistakeholder collaboration to realize substantial impact (Exhibit 7).

Group A: Cost-effective near-tier levers

Retailers could influence group A levers by engaging their direct suppliers, their direct suppliers’ suppliers, and consumers in efforts to scale decarbonization solutions that would result in cost savings or have no impact on cost (cost neutral). If deployed at scale, levers in this group could help reduce the average retailer’s Scope 3 emissions by up to 2 percent.

Examples of group A levers include forming partnerships that facilitate renewable-energy adoption; providing electric vehicle–charging infrastructure; supporting suppliers in implementing their net-zero objectives; and using consumer-focused marketing and tools to promote sustainable energy consumption habits and reduce waste (Exhibit 8).

Group B: Cost-effective far-tier levers

Retailers could influence actions in group B by engaging suppliers in tier-three levers and beyond (along with other industry partners) in efforts to deploy cost-saving or cost-neutral levers to facilitate adoption of sustainability levers. Deployed at scale, such efforts could potentially help reduce the average retailer’s Scope 3 emissions by around 11 to 15 percent.

Examples of group B levers include providing training, education, and resource initiatives in regenerative agriculture practices and emissions reduction for farmers; sharing and collaborating with peer companies and other value chain stakeholders on best practices to reduce waste and maximize process efficiency; setting supplier standards under deforestation-free and conversion-free (DCF) policies; promoting lean-manufacturing adoption among in-network suppliers via supplier contracts; scaling decarbonization technologies with public and private sector support; and mobilizing value chains to reduce waste via systemwide collaborations.

Group C: Costlier near-tier levers

By engaging their tier-one, tier-two, and tier-three suppliers and other value chain partners, retailers could help spark innovation that could improve the feasibility of interventions that are technically achievable but not cost neutral (but whose costs still fall below the predicted global average carbon price in 2030).

Retailer levers in group C center on collaboration with value chain partners to potentially help reduce the average retailer’s Scope 3 emissions by around 19 to 23 percent.

Examples of group C efforts include collaborating with value chain partners, not-for-profit organizations, and research institutions to support research in advancing sustainability measures; fostering private sector–led investment in emissions reduction innovations; advocating for public sector–led incentive programs aimed at helping value chain partners address costs or resource issues; encouraging and accelerating renewable adoption via supplier engagement; taking part in campaigns to stimulate consumer awareness of, and encourage greater consumption of, plant-based protein; and helping signal demand for alternative protein by engaging suppliers in long-term contracts for plant-based ingredients.

Group D: Cost-prohibitive far-tier levers

Group D levers are far removed from retailers and extremely costly to implement using today’s technology, but retailers can nevertheless support, advocate, mobilize, and engage suppliers beyond tier three and other stakeholders to facilitate breakthrough innovation and solutions to realize systemwide changes. Group D levers deployed at scale could yield a 25 to 30 percent reduction in the average retailer’s Scope 3 emissions.

Group D examples include launching public and private sector–led initiatives to encourage investment in and adoption of renewable technology and clean- and renewable-energy grids; collaborating with value chain partners and other private and public sector actors to invest in and expand circularity of materials by, for example, facilitating consumer access to recycling via collection centers and encouraging recycling via incentives; supporting recycling technology R&D; supporting rare earth recycling and sustainable sourcing; advocating for public sector–led incentives to promote regenerative agricultural practices; and encouraging start-up and technology company-led innovations to support precision agriculture for croplands through pilots and specifications.

Considerations for retailers: Measurement, accounting, and reporting

The complexity and scale of emissions captured in retailers’ Scope 3 present practical challenges in precisely measuring, accounting, and reporting on emissions reduction progress.

Measurement challenges include variability in emissions resulting from changes made in production locations and methods, raw material use and sourcing, energy use, equipment use, and modes of transportation; inconsistent data formats, measurement standards, and infrastructure for data storage and processing; and barriers that prevent retailers from connecting data to batches of commodities or products as they pass from one stage of the value chain to the next.

Accounting challenges for retailers can stem from a disconnect between industry averages and actual decarbonization project impacts in retailers’ product supply chains or items, changes in historical estimates that require companies to revise and restate baseline data and create uncertainty around target setting and management, changes in and uncertainty around GHG accounting methodology, and emissions factor updates that lag behind changes in energy grids and agricultural systems.

Such measurement and accounting challenges can complicate reporting. For many retailers, determining their Scope 3 inventory can seem like a modeling exercise based on broad industry averages and historical emissions factors. It is often difficult for retailers to reconcile and report on actual emissions reductions in their value chains because of barriers to gathering and allocating reliable data and the lack of consistent methodology to adjust industry averages to account for particular decarbonization efforts. Retailers may also face potential competitive risks from disclosing sensitive sales or margin information in reporting category- or item-level emissions. As well, Scope 3 inventory figures can mask differences in decarbonization effort and results: a growing retailer that is decarbonizing its value chain may report the same percentage change in Scope 3 footprint as a shrinking retailer that has not done anything to decarbonize its value chain.

Despite these challenges, retailers are managing such complexity through the following actions:

• working with their individual suppliers and data aggregators to improve the quality and availability of data and the applicability of accounting and reporting standards
• simplifying methodologies to facilitate modeling where data is not available and providing order-of-magnitude estimations of Scope 3 footprint to highlight major concentrations of emissions and inform priorities for decarbonization
• providing supplemental information to demonstrate impact of decarbonization efforts to help stakeholders understand their Scope 3 decarbonization strategy and contribution and their role in emissions reduction
• improving the practicality of measurement, accounting, and reporting by engaging with carbon accounting standards bodies, reporting platforms, and regulators to help address challenges

Considerations for retailers: Engaging with the public sector

On many fronts, reductions in retailers’ Scope 3 emissions are subject to public sector–led initiatives regarding energy and land-use systems; thus, retailers would be well served by a deep understanding of existing and proposed standards and guidelines. Retailers can determine whether or how public guidelines related to emissions affect their business outlook and the effectiveness of their efforts to decarbonize their value chains. Retailers can also help create change by advocating for national and international climate policies that address the interests of stakeholders in their business, value chains, and customer communities.

Decarbonizing retailers’ value chains is feasible—but it cannot be done in isolation. At-scale deployment of the sustainability measures outlined in this report will require system-level change involving farmers and ranchers, manufacturers, suppliers, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), public sector actors, energy companies, financial institutions, data and technology providers, and consumers. Coordinated multistakeholder action is imperative.

Peter Spiller is a partner in McKinsey’s Frankfurt office; Steve Hoffman is a partner in the Los Angeles office; Caroline Ling is a consultant in the New York office; Philippe Diez is a senior client development adviser in the Paris office; and Varun Mathur is an associate partner in the Austin office.

The authors wish to thank Karl Murray, Mekala Krishnan, Miquel Ferrer, Neha Chatterjee, Olorunyomi Joel, and Per-Anders Enkvist for their contributions to this report.

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Press Releases

Intel reports second-quarter 2024 financial results; announces $10 billion cost reduction plan to increase efficiency and market competitiveness, related documents.

NEWS SUMMARY

• Second-quarter revenue of $12.8 billion, down 1% year over year (YoY).
• Second-quarter GAAP earnings (loss) per share (EPS) attributable to Intel was $(0.38); non-GAAP EPS attributable to Intel was $0.02.
• Forecasting third-quarter 2024 revenue of $12.5 billion to $13.5 billion; expecting third-quarter GAAP EPS attributable to Intel of $(0.24); non-GAAP EPS attributable to Intel of $(0.03).
• Implementing comprehensive reduction in spending, including a more than 15% headcount reduction, to resize and refocus.
• Suspending dividend starting in the fourth quarter of 2024. The company reiterates its long-term commitment to a competitive dividend as cash flows improve to sustainably higher levels.
• Achieved key milestones on Intel 18A with the 1.0 Process Design Kit (PDK) released and key power-on of first client and server products on Intel 18A, Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Intel Corporation today reported second-quarter 2024 financial results.

“Our Q2 financial performance was disappointing, even as we hit key product and process technology milestones. Second-half trends are more challenging than we previously expected, and we are leveraging our new operating model to take decisive actions that will improve operating and capital efficiencies while accelerating our IDM 2.0 transformation,” said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. “These actions, combined with the launch of Intel 18A next year to regain process technology leadership, will strengthen our position in the market, improve our profitability and create shareholder value.”

“Second-quarter results were impacted by gross margin headwinds from the accelerated ramp of our AI PC product, higher than typical charges related to non-core businesses and the impact from unused capacity,” said David Zinsner, Intel CFO. “By implementing our spending reductions, we are taking proactive steps to improve our profits and strengthen our balance sheet. We expect these actions to meaningfully improve liquidity and reduce our debt balance while enabling us to make the right investments to drive long-term value for shareholders.”

Cost-Reduction Plan

As Intel nears the completion of rebuilding a sustainable engine of process technology leadership, it announced a series of initiatives to create a sustainable financial engine that accelerates profitable growth, enables further operational efficiency and agility, and creates capacity for ongoing strategic investment in technology and manufacturing leadership. These initiatives follow the establishment of separate financial reporting for Intel Products and Intel Foundry, which provides a "clean sheet" view of the business and has uncovered significant opportunities to drive meaningful operational and cost efficiencies. The actions include structural and operating realignment across the company, headcount reductions, and operating expense and capital expenditure reductions of more than $10 billion in 2025 compared to previous estimates. As a result of these actions, Intel aims to achieve clear line of sight toward a sustainable business model with the ongoing financial resources and liquidity needed to support the company’s long-term strategy.

The plan will enable the next phase of the company’s multiyear transformation strategy, and is focused on four key priorities:

• Reducing Operating Expenses: The company will streamline its operations and meaningfully cut spending and headcount, reducing non-GAAP R&D and marketing, general and administrative (MG&A) to approximately $20 billion in 2024 and approximately $17.5 billion in 2025, with further reductions expected in 2026. Intel expects to reduce headcount by greater than 15% with the majority completed by the end of 2024.
• Reducing Capital Expenditures: With the end of its historic five-nodes-in-four-years journey firmly in sight, Intel is now shifting its focus toward capital efficiency and investment levels aligned to market requirements. This will reduce gross capital expenditures* in 2024 by more than 20% from prior projections, bringing gross capital expenditures in 2024 to between $25 billion and $27 billion. Intel expects net capital spending* in 2024 of between $11 billion and $13 billion. In 2025, the company is targeting gross capital expenditures between $20 billion and $23 billion and net capital spending between $12 billion and $14 billion.
• Reducing Cost of Sales: The company expects to generate $1 billion in savings in non-variable cost of sales in 2025. Product mix will continue to be a headwind next year, contributing to modest YoY improvements to 2025's gross margin.
• Maintaining Core Investments to Execute Strategy: The company continues to advance its long-term innovation and path to leadership across process technology and products, and the increased efficiency from its actions is expected to further support its execution. In addition, Intel continues to sustain investments to build a resilient and sustainable semiconductor supply chain in the United States and around the world.

Intel is taking the added step of suspending the dividend starting in the fourth quarter, recognizing the importance of prioritizing liquidity to support the investments needed to execute its strategy. The company reiterates its long-term commitment to a competitive dividend as cash flows improve to sustainably higher levels.

Q2 2024 Financial Highlights

In the second quarter, the company generated $2.3 billion in cash from operations and paid dividends of $0.5 billion.

Business Unit Summary

Intel previously announced the implementation of an internal foundry operating model, which took effect in the first quarter of 2024 and created a foundry relationship between its Intel Products business (collectively CCG, DCAI and NEX) and its Intel Foundry business (including Foundry Technology Development, Foundry Manufacturing and Supply Chain, and Foundry Services (formerly IFS)). The foundry operating model is a key component of the company's strategy and is designed to reshape operational dynamics and drive greater transparency, accountability, and focus on costs and efficiency. The company also previously announced its intent to operate Altera ® as a standalone business beginning in the first quarter of 2024. Altera was previously included in DCAI's segment results. As a result of these changes, the company modified its segment reporting in the first quarter of 2024 to align to this new operating model. All prior-period segment data has been retrospectively adjusted to reflect the way the company internally receives information and manages and monitors its operating segment performance starting in fiscal year 2024. There are no changes to Intel’s consolidated financial statements for any prior periods.

Intel Products Highlights

• CCG: Intel continues to define and drive the AI PC category, shipping more than 15 million AI PCs since December 2023, far more than all of Intel's competitors combined, and on track to ship more than 40 million AI PCs by year-end. Lunar Lake, the company’s next-generation AI CPU, achieved production release in July 2024, ahead of schedule, with shipments starting in the third quarter. Lunar Lake will power over 80 new Copilot+ PCs across more than 20 OEMs.
• DCAI: More than 130 million Intel ® Xeon ® processors power data centers around the world today, and at Computex Intel introduced its next-generation Intel ® Xeon ® 6 processor with Efficient-cores (E-cores), code-named Sierra Forest, marking the company’s first Intel 3 server product architected for high-density, scale-out workloads. Intel expects Intel ® Xeon ® 6 processors with Performance-cores (P-cores), code-named Granite Rapids, to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2024. The Intel ® Gaudi ® 3 AI accelerator is also on track to launch in the third quarter and is expected to deliver roughly two-times the performance per dollar on both inference and training versus the leading competitor.
• NEX: Intel announced an array of AI-optimized scale-out Ethernet solutions, including the Intel AI network interface card and foundry chiplets that will launch next year. New infrastructure processing unit (IPU) adaptors for the enterprise are now broadly available and supported by Dell Technologies, Red Hat and others. IPUs will play an increasingly important role in Intel’s accelerator portfolio, which the company expects will help drive AI data center growth and profitability in 2025 and beyond. Additionally, Intel and others announced the creation of the Ultra Accelerator Link, a new industry standard dedicated to advancing high-speed, low-latency communication for scale-up AI systems communication in data centers.

Intel Foundry Highlights

• Intel is nearing the completion of its promised five-nodes-in-four-years strategy, with Intel 18A on track to be manufacturing-ready by the end of this year and production wafer start volumes in the first half of 2025. In July 2024, Intel released to foundry customers the 1.0 PDK for Intel 18A. The company’s first two Intel 18A products, Panther Lake for client — the first microprocessor to use RibbonFet, PowerVia and advanced packaging — and Clearwater Forest for servers, are on track to launch in 2025.
• Ansys, Cadence, Siemens, and Synopsys announced the availability of reference flows for Intel’s embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB) advanced packaging technology, which simplifies the design process and offers design flexibility. The companies also declared readiness for Intel 18A designs.
• During the quarter, Intel named industry veteran Kevin O'Buckley to lead Foundry Services. The company also recently appointed Dr. Naga Chandrasekaran to lead Intel Foundry Manufacturing and Supply Chain. Their leadership will support Intel’s continued development of the first systems foundry for the AI era.

Other Highlights

Intel announced its second Semiconductor Co-Investment Program (SCIP) agreement, the formation of a joint venture with Apollo related to Intel’s Fab 34 in Ireland. SCIP is an element of Intel’s Smart Capital strategy, a funding approach designed to create financial flexibility to accelerate the company’s strategy, including investing in its global manufacturing operations, while maintaining a strong balance sheet.

Q3 2024 Dividend

The company announced that its board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.125 per share on the company’s common stock, which will be payable Sept. 1, 2024, to shareholders of record as of Aug. 7, 2024.

As noted earlier, Intel is suspending the dividend starting in the fourth quarter.

Business Outlook

Intel's guidance for the third quarter of 2024 includes both GAAP and non-GAAP estimates as follows:

Reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures are included below. Actual results may differ materially from Intel’s business outlook as a result of, among other things, the factors described under “Forward-Looking Statements” below. The gross margin and EPS outlook are based on the mid-point of the revenue range.

Earnings Webcast

Intel will hold a public webcast at 2 p.m. PDT today to discuss the results for its second quarter of 2024. The live public webcast can be accessed on Intel's Investor Relations website at www.intc.com . The corresponding earnings presentation and webcast replay will also be available on the site.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Words such as "accelerate", "achieve", "aim", "ambitions", "anticipate", "believe", "committed", "continue", "could", "designed", "estimate", "expect", "forecast", "future", "goals", "grow", "guidance", "intend", "likely", "may", "might", "milestones", "next generation", "objective", "on track", "opportunity", "outlook", "pending", "plan", "position", "possible", "potential", "predict", "progress", "ramp", "roadmap", "seek", "should", "strive", "targets", "to be", "upcoming", "will", "would", and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, which may include statements regarding:

• our business plans and strategy and anticipated benefits therefrom, including with respect to our IDM 2.0 strategy, Smart Capital strategy, partnerships with Apollo and Brookfield, internal foundry model, updated reporting structure, and AI strategy;
• projections of our future financial performance, including future revenue, gross margins, capital expenditures, and cash flows;
• projected costs and yield trends;
• future cash requirements, the availability, uses, sufficiency, and cost of capital resources, and sources of funding, including for future capital and R&D investments and for returns to stockholders, such as stock repurchases and dividends, and credit ratings expectations;
• future products, services, and technologies, and the expected goals, timeline, ramps, progress, availability, production, regulation, and benefits of such products, services, and technologies, including future process nodes and packaging technology, product roadmaps, schedules, future product architectures, expectations regarding process performance, per-watt parity, and metrics, and expectations regarding product and process leadership;
• investment plans and impacts of investment plans, including in the US and abroad;
• internal and external manufacturing plans, including future internal manufacturing volumes, manufacturing expansion plans and the financing therefor, and external foundry usage;
• future production capacity and product supply;
• supply expectations, including regarding constraints, limitations, pricing, and industry shortages;
• plans and goals related to Intel's foundry business, including with respect to anticipated customers, future manufacturing capacity and service, technology, and IP offerings;
• expected timing and impact of acquisitions, divestitures, and other significant transactions, including the sale of our NAND memory business;
• expected completion and impacts of restructuring activities and cost-saving or efficiency initiatives;
• future social and environmental performance goals, measures, strategies, and results;
• our anticipated growth, future market share, and trends in our businesses and operations;
• projected growth and trends in markets relevant to our businesses;
• anticipated trends and impacts related to industry component, substrate, and foundry capacity utilization, shortages, and constraints;
• expectations regarding government incentives;
• future technology trends and developments, such as AI;
• future macro environmental and economic conditions;
• geopolitical tensions and conflicts and their potential impact on our business;
• tax- and accounting-related expectations;
• expectations regarding our relationships with certain sanctioned parties; and
• other characterizations of future events or circumstances.

Such statements involve many risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied, including those associated with:

• the high level of competition and rapid technological change in our industry;
• the significant long-term and inherently risky investments we are making in R&D and manufacturing facilities that may not realize a favorable return;
• the complexities and uncertainties in developing and implementing new semiconductor products and manufacturing process technologies;
• our ability to time and scale our capital investments appropriately and successfully secure favorable alternative financing arrangements and government grants;
• implementing new business strategies and investing in new businesses and technologies;
• changes in demand for our products;
• macroeconomic conditions and geopolitical tensions and conflicts, including geopolitical and trade tensions between the US and China, the impacts of Russia's war on Ukraine, tensions and conflict affecting Israel and the Middle East, and rising tensions between mainland China and Taiwan;
• the evolving market for products with AI capabilities;
• our complex global supply chain, including from disruptions, delays, trade tensions and conflicts, or shortages;
• product defects, errata and other product issues, particularly as we develop next-generation products and implement next-generation manufacturing process technologies;
• potential security vulnerabilities in our products;
• increasing and evolving cybersecurity threats and privacy risks;
• IP risks including related litigation and regulatory proceedings;
• the need to attract, retain, and motivate key talent;
• strategic transactions and investments;
• sales-related risks, including customer concentration and the use of distributors and other third parties;
• our significantly reduced return of capital in recent years;
• our debt obligations and our ability to access sources of capital;
• complex and evolving laws and regulations across many jurisdictions;
• fluctuations in currency exchange rates;
• changes in our effective tax rate;
• catastrophic events;
• environmental, health, safety, and product regulations;
• our initiatives and new legal requirements with respect to corporate responsibility matters; and
• other risks and uncertainties described in this release, our 2023 Form 10-K, and our other filings with the SEC.

Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made in this release and in other documents we file from time to time with the SEC that disclose risks and uncertainties that may affect our business.

Unless specifically indicated otherwise, the forward-looking statements in this release do not reflect the potential impact of any divestitures, mergers, acquisitions, or other business combinations that have not been completed as of the date of this filing. In addition, the forward-looking statements in this release are based on management's expectations as of the date of this release, unless an earlier date is specified, including expectations based on third-party information and projections that management believes to be reputable. We do not undertake, and expressly disclaim any duty, to update such statements, whether as a result of new information, new developments, or otherwise, except to the extent that disclosure may be required by law.

About Intel

Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is an industry leader, creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. Inspired by Moore’s Law, we continuously work to advance the design and manufacturing of semiconductors to help address our customers’ greatest challenges. By embedding intelligence in the cloud, network, edge and every kind of computing device, we unleash the potential of data to transform business and society for the better. To learn more about Intel’s innovations, go to newsroom.intel.com and intel.com.

© Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

For information about our operating segments, including the nature of segment revenues and expenses, and a reconciliation of our operating segment revenue and operating income (loss) to our consolidated results, refer to our Form 10-K filed on January 26, 2024, Form 8-K furnished on April 2, 2024 and 10-Q filed on August 1, 2024.

Intel Corporation Explanation of Non-GAAP Measures

In addition to disclosing financial results in accordance with US GAAP, this document contains references to the non-GAAP financial measures below. We believe these non-GAAP financial measures provide investors with useful supplemental information about our operating performance, enable comparison of financial trends and results between periods where certain items may vary independent of business performance, and allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in operating our business and measuring our performance. Some of these non-GAAP financial measures are used in our performance-based RSUs and our cash bonus plans.

Our non-GAAP financial measures reflect adjustments based on one or more of the following items, as well as the related income tax effects. Income tax effects are calculated using a fixed long-term projected tax rate of 13% across all adjustments. We project this long-term non-GAAP tax rate on at least an annual basis using a five-year non-GAAP financial projection that excludes the income tax effects of each adjustment. The projected non-GAAP tax rate also considers factors such as our tax structure, our tax positions in various jurisdictions, and key legislation in significant jurisdictions where we operate. This long-term non-GAAP tax rate may be subject to change for a variety of reasons, including the rapidly evolving global tax environment, significant changes in our geographic earnings mix, or changes to our strategy or business operations. Management uses this non-GAAP tax rate in managing internal short- and long-term operating plans and in evaluating our performance; we believe this approach facilitates comparison of our operating results and provides useful evaluation of our current operating performance.

Our non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with US GAAP, and the financial results calculated in accordance with US GAAP and reconciliations from these results should be carefully evaluated.

Intel Corporation Supplemental Reconciliations of GAAP Actuals to Non-GAAP Actuals

Set forth below are reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable US GAAP financial measure. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with US GAAP, and the reconciliations from US GAAP to Non-GAAP actuals should be carefully evaluated. Please refer to "Explanation of Non-GAAP Measures" in this document for a detailed explanation of the adjustments made to the comparable US GAAP measures, the ways management uses the non-GAAP measures, and the reasons why management believes the non-GAAP measures provide useful information for investors.

Intel Corporation Supplemental Reconciliations of GAAP Outlook to Non-GAAP Outlook

Set forth below are reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable US GAAP financial measure. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with US GAAP, and the financial outlook prepared in accordance with US GAAP and the reconciliations from this Business Outlook should be carefully evaluated. Please refer to "Explanation of Non-GAAP Measures" in this document for a detailed explanation of the adjustments made to the comparable US GAAP measures, the ways management uses the non-GAAP measures, and the reasons why management believes the non-GAAP measures provide useful information for investors.

Intel Corporation Supplemental Reconciliations of Other GAAP to Non-GAAP Forward-Looking Estimates

Set forth below are reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable US GAAP financial measure. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with US GAAP, and the reconciliations should be carefully evaluated. Please refer to "Explanation of Non-GAAP Measures" in this document for a detailed explanation of the adjustments made to the comparable US GAAP measures, the ways management uses the non-GAAP measures, and the reasons why management believes the non-GAAP measures provide useful information for investors.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240801042170/en/

Kylie Altman Investor Relations 1-916-356-0320 [email protected] Penny Bruce Media Relations 1-408-893-0601 [email protected]

Source: Intel Corporation

Released Aug 1, 2024 • 4:01 PM EDT

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Generative AI Has a 'Shoplifting' Problem. This Startup CEO Has a Plan to Fix It

Bill Gross made his name in the tech world in the 1990s , when he came up with a novel way for search engines to make money on advertising. Under his pricing scheme, advertisers would pay when people clicked on their ads. Now, the “pay-per-click” guy has founded a startup called ProRata, which has an audacious, possibly pie-in-the-sky business model: “AI pay-per-use.”

Gross, who is CEO of the Pasadena, California, company, doesn’t mince words about the generative AI industry. “It’s stealing,” he says. “They’re shoplifting and laundering the world’s knowledge to their benefit.”

AI companies often argue that they need vast troves of data to create cutting-edge generative tools and that scraping data from the internet, whether it’s text from websites, video or captions from YouTube, or books pilfered from pirate libraries, is legally allowed. Gross doesn’t buy that argument. “I think it’s bullshit,” he says.

So do plenty of media executives, artists, writers, musicians, and other rights-holders who are pushing back—it’s hard to keep up with the constant flurry of copyright lawsuits filed against AI companies, alleging that the way they operate amounts to theft.

But Gross thinks ProRata offers a solution that beats legal battles. “To make it fair—that’s what I’m trying to do,” he says. “I don’t think this should be solved by lawsuits.”

His company aims to arrange revenue-sharing deals so publishers and individuals get paid when AI companies use their work. Gross explains it like this: “We can take the output of generative AI, whether it's text or an image or music or a movie, and break it down into the components, to figure out where they came from, and then give a percentage attribution to each copyright holder, and then pay them accordingly.” ProRata has filed patent applications for the algorithms it created to assign attribution and make the appropriate payments.

This week, the company, which has raised $25 million, launched with a number of big-name partners, including Universal Music Group, the Financial Times, The Atlantic, and media company Axel Springer. In addition, it has made deals with authors with large followings, including Tony Robbins, Neal Postman, and Scott Galloway. (It has also partnered with former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.)

Even journalism professor Jeff Jarvis, who believes scraping the web for AI training is fair use, has signed on. He tells WIRED that it’s smart for people in the news industry to band together to get AI companies access to “credible and current information” to include in their output. “I hope that ProRata might open discussion for what could turn into APIs [application programming interfaces] for various content,” he says.

Following the company’s initial announcement, Gross says he had a deluge of messages from other companies asking to sign up, including a text from Time CEO Jessica Sibley. ProRata secured a deal with Time, the publisher confirmed to WIRED. He plans to pursue agreements with high-profile YouTubers and other individual online stars.

The key word here is “plans.” The company is still in its very early days, and Gross is talking a big game. As a proof of concept, ProRata is launching its own subscription chatbot-style search engine in October. Unlike other AI search products , ProRata’s search tool will exclusively use licensed data. There’s nothing scraped using a web crawler. “Nothing from Reddit,” he says.

Ed Newton-Rex, a former Stability AI executive who now runs the ethical data licensing nonprofit Fairly Trained , is heartened by ProRata’s debut. “It’s great to see a generative AI company licensing training data before releasing their model, in contrast to many other companies’ approach,” he says. “The deals they have in place further demonstrate media companies’ openness to working with good actors.”

Gross wants the search engine to demonstrate that quality of data is more important than quantity and believes that limiting the model to trustworthy information sources will curb hallucinations. “I’m claiming that 70 million good documents is actually superior to 70 billion bad documents,” he says. “It’s going to lead to better answers.”

What’s more, Gross thinks he can get enough people to sign up for this all-licensed-data AI search engine to make as much money needed to pay its data providers their allotted share. “Every month the partners will get a statement from us saying, ‘Here’s what people search for, here's how your content was used, and here's your pro rata check,’” he says.

Other startups already are jostling for prominence in this new world of training-data licensing, like the marketplaces TollBit and Human Native AI . A nonprofit called the Dataset Providers Alliance was formed earlier this summer to push for more standards in licensing; founding members include services like the Global Copyright Exchange and Datarade .

ProRata’s business model hinges in part on its plan to license its attribution and payment technologies to other companies, including major AI players. Some of those companies have begun striking their own deals with publishers. (The Atlantic and Axel Springer, for instance, have agreements with OpenAI.) Gross hopes that AI companies will find licensing ProRata’s models more affordable than creating them in-house.

“I’ll license the system to anyone who wants to use it,” Gross says. “I want to make it so cheap that it’s like a Visa or Mastercard fee.”

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