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In our experience, the process of creating and writing a business plan is as valuable as the end product itself - a document that will provide the priorities, context and sanity you’ll need as you start up your business.

Just remember that the most important audience for a business plan is YOU! You’ll be forced to be accountable to all of the statements, claims, stats and facts inside of it.

You may also use your business plan as a tool to generate interest from financiers, prospective employees and strategic partners.

We focus on 3 aspects of business planning to consider as you write a business plan:

1. The "Defining Dozen" questions you must answer
2. Key components of a business plan
3. Writing a business plan

The "Defining Dozen" questions

To write a good business plan, you have to know the answers to the “Defining Dozen” questions, which we describe in detail in “StartupNation: Open for Business,” our book. Jot down the answers to each of these questions and hang on to them. You might not use every answer in writing your business plan, but they could be helpful when you update your plan as your new business grows.

1. What’s your business idea? (Read the book excerpt)
2. How does your idea address a need? (Read the book excerpt)
3. What model suits you best? (Read the book excerpt)
4. What’s so different about what you offer? (Read the book excerpt)
5. How big is the market and how big will you grow? (Read the book excerpt)
6. What’s your role going to be? (Read the book excerpt)
7. Who's on your team? (Read the book excerpt)
8. How will customers buy from you, and how much will they pay? (Read the book excerpt)
9. How much money do you need, and how much will you make? (Read the book excerpt)
10. Where's the startup money coming from? (Read the book excerpt)
11. How will you measure success? (Read the book excerpt)
12. What are your key milestones? (Read the book excerpt)

Once you’ve answered these questions, you should be prepared to write the actual business plan document.