Your first plan should make your next decision easier. Define who buys, what they receive, how you reach them, and whether you can deliver within your actual schedule.
Fill in these eight fields
| Field | Question to answer |
|---|---|
| Customer | Who has the problem and who pays? |
| Problem | What situation makes help valuable now? |
| Offer | What exactly will you deliver and by when? |
| Evidence | What have buyers actually said or done? |
| Acquisition | Where will the next five conversations come from? |
| Economics | What does each sale leave after direct costs? |
| Capacity | How many customers can you serve responsibly? |
| Next test | What will you test, by what date, and how will you decide? |
Worked example: a video-review service
This is an illustrative plan, not an existing business or an income claim. The customer is a club volleyball player with match footage. The offer is feedback on one 15-minute clip, three specific observations, and one follow-up question. The initial acquisition route is permission-based introductions from local coaches.
Suppose the test price is $60 and direct cash costs are $5 per review. That leaves $55 before overhead, taxes, and compensation for the owner’s time. If review and administration take 90 minutes, ten orders require 15 hours. A player with only six available business hours cannot promise ten weekly orders without changing the delivery model.
Plan around your season
Block competition, travel, study, recovery, and family commitments first. Put available delivery windows on a real calendar. Add time for selling, rescheduling, and customer questions. An offer that works during the offseason may fail during tournament travel unless customers know the schedule in advance.
Separate one-time purchases from ongoing obligations. A single clinic has different commitments from an open-ended membership. Before adding recurring billing, define ongoing value and a reliable delivery cadence.
Review the plan weekly
Keep a short table of conversations, offers made, paid bookings, completed deliveries, refunds, and total delivery hours. Review the gap between what you expected and what happened. Update one assumption at a time so you can learn from the change.
This planning worksheet is not a lender-ready funding application or a substitute for professional advice. The SBA planning resources offer a starting point for more formal planning needs.
Use the free plan builder to fill in your answers, download a text copy, or print your plan. No account is required.