Your First Business Plan

A book that walks you from "I have never written a business plan" to a finished plan you can hand to a bank, a lender or a business partner, with the numbers done properly.

Most business plan templates are a list of headings with nothing under them, or a slide deck. They tell you to write a "market analysis" and a "financial projection" without showing you how. This book shows you how, with two complete worked examples where every figure is calculated and checked: you can follow every sum.

Who it is for

Anyone starting or running a small business who needs a plan for the first time: to apply for a small loan (an SBA microloan or a bank loan in the US, a Start Up Loan in the UK), to bring in a partner, or to find out whether the idea pays before spending money on it. No business or finance background is assumed. Every term is explained when it first appears.

How it works

• Numbers first, words second, summary last. Part 2 takes you through ten steps: start-up costs, what one sale costs you, running costs, break-even, the sales forecast, the twelve-month cash flow, how much to ask for, a stress test, your own household budget and the profit summary. Part 3 then turns them into the eleven sections of a plan.
• Two businesses go first. Marisol's espresso cart in Virginia (borrowing $26,000 from a microlender) and Kemi's mobile dog-grooming van in Norwich (a £17,000 Start Up Loan) go through every step ahead of you. They are invented, but their figures are fully worked: Marisol's first draft runs out of cash, and you watch her fix it.
• The red pencil. Notes in red handwriting show what a careful lender or adviser would write in the margin, so you can answer the question before anyone asks it.
• Weak draft, better draft. For every section of the plan you see a vague first attempt beside a checkable one, and why the second works.
• Three ways to forecast sales, for a business that sells to passers-by, one that sells its time, and an online shop, each built from something you can count.

What lenders ask for, from their own pages

What the US Small Business Administration and the UK's Start Up Loans say they look at was checked against their own websites in October 2026, including the Start Up Loans rate of 7.5% fixed for loans approved from 6 April 2026, its 12-month cash flow forecast and personal survival budget, and the SBA's guidance on business plans and five-year projections. Sources are named on the pages.

What is inside

• The book (82 pages, US Letter): Start here; Part 1, who reads a plan; Part 2, the numbers; Part 3, the words; Part 4, putting it together, checking it, handing it over and using it once you open; Marisol's complete seven-page plan; Kemi's three Start Up Loans documents; and twenty working pages.
• The working pages as separate printable PDFs in US Letter and A4 (21 pages each), one for each step and each section, each ending with a "done when" test.
• The spreadsheet (.xlsx, for Excel or Google Sheets) in two copies: blank, and filled in with Marisol's figures so you can check it against the book. Type in the yellow cells; it works out the sales forecast, cash flow, loan repayment, break-even, stress test and summary.

What you download

• your-first-business-plan.pdf (the book, with bookmarks and a contents page)
• your-first-business-plan-working-pages-us-letter.pdf
• your-first-business-plan-working-pages-a4.pdf
• A ZIP of everything, including both spreadsheets

Good to know

• The worked examples are in dollars and pounds; the spreadsheet shows plain numbers, so it works in either.
• The forecasts leave out depreciation and sales tax or VAT, and the book says so where it matters.
• The working pages are for printing and writing on; they are not fillable forms.
• This book teaches you to write the plan. It is not financial, legal or tax advice, and no plan guarantees a loan. Loan terms change: check the lender's own pages before you apply.