One-Page Business Plan Template

The one-page business plan is a simplified version of traditional operational plans that focuses on the core aspects of your business. While it may be a shorter business plan, it still follows the structure of a standard business plan and serves as a beefed-up pitch document.

There’s really not a lot of difference between a single-page business plan and a good executive summary. In fact, as you create a more detailed plan you may even be able to use it as your executive summary.

A one-page plan is useful for business owners that are mulling over ideas, just starting, actively managing, or looking to grow a business. It can help validate a business idea, work as an internal strategy document, or as a flexible management tool that can be adapted over time.

You can use the one-page business plan template, or a tool like LivePlan that saves you time by guiding you through each step of writing your one-page plan and pitch.

There are a few key features that make this one-page business template more functional and effective than your average template.

Written by planning experts: This one-page business plan template wasn't just thrown together. It was crafted by seasoned planning experts with a combined 40 years of experience writing and reviewing business plans. Throughout this template, you find their expert tips and tricks, along with detailed instructions.

Works with other Bplans resources: Need additional guidance to write your business plan? Our free one-page business planning guide is built to support this template—giving you even more detailed walkthroughs for each section.

This template includes definitions, guidance, and examples to complete your one-page business plan. After downloading the template, you'll receive instructions for how to fill out each of the following sections:

Identity
What does your company do or offer and to whom?

Problem worth solving
What challenges does your company solve?

Our solution
How does your company solve those challenges?

Target market
Who makes up your target audience? Who are your ideal segments, personas, or customers?

Competitive landscape
Who are your competitors? What makes them successful in your industry?

Sales channels
How will you get your product/service to customers?

Marketing activities
How will you get your product/service in front of potential customers?

Revenue
What goods/services will drive revenue?

Expenses
What items will cost you money?

Funding required
Have what funding total you need front and center to clearly display what you are asking from investors.

Milestones
What projects or tasks must be completed in order to reach your goals?

Team and roles
Who is a critical part of your internal team (name/role)?

Partners and resources
Who else is supporting your venture/business?

This is a printable business plan template that can be downloaded and printed no matter which format you choose.

There are plenty of good reasons why your first step should be writing a one-page plan.

1. It’s faster
Instead of slogging away for hours, days, or even weeks tackling a formal business plan—the one-page format helps you get your ideas down much faster. It removes the complex formatting,

2. A great format for feedback
Need quick feedback from business partners, colleagues, potential customers, or your spouse? Provide them with a one-page plan instead of a lengthy in-depth version for better results.

The one-page plan is more likely to be read and reviewed. And since all of your business information is available at a glance, you’ll receive far more valuable and timely feedback.

3. Easy to update
Entrepreneurs never get things right the first time. You’ll constantly be learning and receiving feedback—requiring you to iterate and revise your business concept. Instead of updating a large document every time, you can do it in minutes with a one-page plan.

4. Direct and to-the-point
Learning to communicate your ideas clearly and directly is critical. You need to be sure that anyone can really understand the essence of your business. Delivering your entire business concept on a single page is a great way to practice this, as it forces you to be succinct.

5. Works as an idea validation tool
Initially, your business is just a set of assumptions that you need to validate. Do your potential customers have the problem you assume they have? Do they like your solution and are they willing to pay for it? What marketing and sales tactics will work?

As you validate these assumptions, you leave them in your plan. But, assumptions that end up being wrong will quickly fall off the page.

6. Becomes an outline for your detailed plan
By “detailed” we don’t mean “long.” If you do need to create a detailed business plan document for investors or business partners, you can use your one-page plan as your core outline. You will just expand and provide more details for each section.

7. No one really reads long business plans
A common problem with traditional business plans is that they are simply too long and overly complex. Even when investors ask for a detailed document, chances are that they won’t actually read every word. They may read certain sections, but often just want to see if you’ve thought through the details of your business, how it will operate, and how it will grow.

8. Useful for any business stage
A one-page plan is useful for business owners that are mulling over ideas, just starting, actively managing, or looking to grow a business. It can help validate a business idea, work as an internal strategy document, or as a flexible management tool that can be adapted over time.

While this template will help you get started, using the #1-rated business planning software, LivePlan has step-by-step guidance, support from our business planning experts, and powerful planning tools like AI-powered writing assistance, automatic forecasting, industry benchmark data, and more.

If you're still struggling to write your business plan even when using a template, you can look into hiring a professional business plan writer. We even have a free resource to help you ask just the right questions to make sure you find the right plan writer.