How to write a business plan a bank will actually read

1. One paragraph that says what you sell and who pays

Before anything else, write a paragraph a stranger could repeat back to you: what the product or service is, who buys it, what they pay, and how often. If that paragraph needs two readings, the rest of the plan will not be read.

Avoid mission language. "We help people live better" tells a lender nothing. "We service commercial coffee machines for cafés on a monthly contract" tells them everything.

2. The market, in numbers you can point at

Lenders discount any market size you cannot source. Use published industry figures, competitor counts in your own area, and observable prices. Three sourced numbers beat a page of adjectives.

Show demand where you actually trade. A global figure is background; the local figure is the argument.

3. Similar businesses and what they charge

Never write "we have no competitors". It reads as "we have not looked". List the closest four or five businesses, what each charges, and the one thing you do differently.

Being second into a market with a better cost base is a stronger story than being first into a market nobody wants.

4. Start-up costs, itemised

Equipment, fit-out, stock, deposits, licences, insurance, software, and the professional fees people always forget. Add a contingency line of 10 to 15 per cent and say so — assessors trust a stated contingency more than a suspiciously round total.

5. Running costs and break-even

List fixed monthly costs, then the variable cost of each sale. Break-even is fixed costs divided by the margin on one sale. State it as a plain sentence: "We cover costs at 340 services per month."

If break-even sits above realistic capacity, fix the model before you fix the document.

6. A three-year forecast that ties back

Every forecast line must trace to an assumption stated earlier: price, volume, growth rate. If a reader cannot find where a number came from, they treat the whole table as decoration.

Keep growth conservative in year one. Sandbagged year-one numbers you beat are worth more than optimistic ones you miss.

7. The ask, and what it buys

State the amount, the term, what the money is spent on line by line, what you are contributing yourself, and how it will be repaid from cash flow rather than hope.

Attach licences, quotes, contracts and letters of intent as appendices. Evidence is what turns a plan into an application.

Doing it without starting from a blank page

Idea Vault does this in the order above: it researches the industry around your idea, drafts every section with real figures for your country and currency, and leaves you correcting rather than composing. Your idea itself is encrypted on your own device and never searched.