Free template
Decide whether an idea is worth pursuing, on one page: who the customer is, what you offer and at what price, how people will find and buy it, how you will deliver it, how the money works — and which parts are facts and which still need testing.
Enlarge preview: One-page planThe plan itself — short enough to read in two minutes and update after every test.
Eight boxes on one page: customer and problem, offer and price, why they would choose it, how customers find and buy, delivery and capacity, costs and how you earn money, evidence and assumptions, and next steps.
Blank and an example · Word and PDF
Enlarge preview: Instructions and worksheetAlongside the plan: the guidance, and the detail behind it.
How to fill in each box, an assumptions table that marks every statement as Fact, Estimate or To test with its source, the key figures and where they came from, and an action plan with owners and dates.
Blank and an example · Word and PDF
Choose a document, a version and a format. After the first download, the others need no new form.
Word files open in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Apple Pages and LibreOffice; we checked them in LibreOffice. US Letter; change the paper size for A4. The example is a fictional business with invented figures.
600 grooms at an average of 55 = 33,000 revenue. Costs of 8 a groom (4,800) and 7,500 fixed a year leave 20,700 before the owner’s tax. Break-even is 7,500 ÷ (55 − 8) ≈ 160 grooms. The same figures appear on the plan and the worksheet.
It is written for your own decisions, not as a lender- or investor-approved document. Lenders and investors usually ask for more detail and their own formats — but the evidence and figures you gather here are a good start.
Because they deserve different confidence. A fact has been checked (say how and when), an estimate is based on something, and an untested assumption is a belief. The next steps should test the riskiest assumptions first.
Use the startup cost worksheet for one-off costs, the hourly rate and break-even calculators for prices and volumes, and the monthly sales forecast for revenue — then copy the totals into box 6 and the worksheet so they match.
Keep the plan to short phrases and put the detail in the worksheet. If a box still overflows, the idea usually needs more thought rather than more space.
Word files open in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Apple Pages and LibreOffice; the PDFs print as they are. We checked them in LibreOffice only.