Business Plan

Overview

A business plan is not a static document you write once and file away. For solopreneurs, it is a living strategy document — a forcing function that makes you think clearly about your business and a reference you update as reality proves or disproves your assumptions. This playbook builds it section by section, in the order that makes each section easier to write because the previous one is already done.

Step 1: Executive Summary (Write This LAST)

Even though it appears first, write this after everything else is done. It is a 1-page distillation of the entire plan.

Include exactly these five elements:

1. What the business does (one sentence)
2. The problem it solves and for whom (two sentences max)
3. The solution and why it's different (two sentences)
4. The market opportunity (one sentence with a number — market size)
5. What you need / what you're asking for (one sentence — funding amount, partnership, or simply your own plan of action)

Rule: If someone reads only the executive summary, they should understand the entire business. If they want details, the rest of the plan delivers them.