business plan for establishing a university

How to Start a University: Everything You Need to Know

When wondering how to start a university, you should be motivated to share your knowledge with students and possess an educational philosophy about which you feel strongly. 3 min read updated on February 01, 2023

Updated October 29, 2020:

Starting a University/College: Introduction

When wondering how to start a university, you should be motivated to share your knowledge with students and possess an educational philosophy about which you feel strongly.

Starting a university can be very difficult, particularly because you will need to meet a variety of regulations intended to ensure you are providing your students with a quality education.

Before you start your university, you will need to decide whether you will run a physical or virtual school. Starting a virtual university can be much less expensive in terms of overhead costs, but you will likely need advanced technical knowledge to set up and run your university. The biggest obstacle to starting a university will be securing funding .

Starting a University/College

The first step of starting your university is determining your area of education and then developing your mission statement .

You should research universities similar to your own to find out what they offer and to decide if you want to provide the same courses and services. It's also important to develop a strategy for outselling other colleges in your area. Students spending money on your school will want to know that you'll provide them with the best educational experience possible.

Attempting to undercut the prices of other universities is a common mistake, as running a college is much more expensive than you might imagine. Universities that do not have a large amount of capital should refrain from listing low-cost as their purpose.

In your mission statement, you should include information about:

• Why your university exists.
• Your university's educational philosophy.
• The curriculum you will offer.
• The personal goals you wish to achieve.

To make sure you've written a strong mission statement, you should let your family and friends read your statement and then ask them for feedback. In particular, you should ask the people that read your mission statement if it would make them likely to send their children to your university or to attend themselves. By using the feedback from your family and friends, you can clarify your mission statement and develop a pitch that you can use to attract investors.

Think about whether your university will have a physical location or if you will run a virtual school. It is also possible for you to combine these two options. If you want to open a physical university, you should be aware that your costs , particularly your startup costs , will be much higher. The facilities that you choose will need to be able to accommodate your projected number of students. You will also need to comply with health, insurance, and safety regulations.

You will also need to choose the right location for your university. To attract students, you will need to choose a safe location that students can easily reach by foot or bike. Finding such a location will usually require you to spend more money. Before choosing your location, it's important to do a lot of research.

When you're first starting your university, only offering virtual courses is a great choice, as this will drastically lower your costs. If you want to offer online courses, you will either need to possess technical expertise or will need to invest in an IT staff. You will also need strong security and privacy strategy, adequate server space, and support staff that your students can contact whenever they need to resolve connection issues. People expect that technology will work immediately, so you should be very careful when planning your courses and starting your virtual school.

It's always a good idea to get advice and guidance from those who possess experience in the educational field, as well as finance and business . Try to schedule a meeting with the founders of universities in your area and ask them for suggestions on how best to overcome obstacles when starting your school.

You should research options for funding your university before you move forward with the process of opening your school. If you plan to establish a non-profit university, you should look for people that are interested in supporting this type of educational institution. Depending on the area where you are starting your university, you may have access to grants. When searching for investors, you should look for people that share your educational philosophy and believe in the stated mission of your university.

To get the help you need to start a university, you can post your legal needs on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

Hire the top business lawyers and save up to 60% on legal fees

Content Approved by UpCounsel

• Bayh-Dole Act
• Using a Virtual Office as a Registered Business Address
• What Is a Company Statement
• How to Start a Virtual Office Business
• Intellectual Property Policy Example
• What Is a Business Lawyer
• Business Philosophy Definition
• How to Start a Furniture Business
• How to Start a Business: A Comprehensive Guide for Entrepreneurs
• Unionization

20+ SAMPLE University Business Plan in PDF

University business plan, 20+ sample university business plan, what is a university business plan, common marketing strategies used by universities, creating a university business plan, what are some of the benefits of a business plan, what are some of the different types of planning, what are college grants.

University Business Plan Competition

University Business Plan Importance

University Small Business Development Plan

Developing Business Plan for the University

University Business Plan for Expansion

University Academic Business Plan

State University Business Plan

University Business Plan Summit

Successful Business Plan of University

University Small Business Development Center Plan

University Transnational Program Business Plan

University Library Business Plan

5 Year Business Plan University

University Basic Business Plan

University Business Plan Implementation

University Business Plan Development for Online Learning

University Standard Business Plan

University Business Plan Program

University Park Community Center Business Plan

University College Strategy and Business Plan

What is a university business plan      , common marketing strategies used by universities    , 1. executive summary, 2. market analysis, 3. university offerings, 4. marketing strategy, 5. financial planning, share this post on your network, file formats, word templates, google docs templates, excel templates, powerpoint templates, google sheets templates, google slides templates, pdf templates, publisher templates, psd templates, indesign templates, illustrator templates, pages templates, keynote templates, numbers templates, outlook templates, you may also like these articles, 5+ sample investment company business plan in pdf.

What do you do when you have tons of spare cash lying around your home or burning a hole in your wallet or expensive jeans pocket? For some people, the…

41+ SAMPLE Unit Plan Templates in PDF | MS Word

As a teacher, you might know about every school policy, the steps to keep classrooms safe for intellectual development, how to set up an organized classroom, and the proposed…

browse by categories

• Questionnaire
• Description
• Reconciliation
• Certificate
• Spreadsheet

Information

• privacy policy
• Terms & Conditions

• Arts & Culture
• Civic Engagement
• Economic Development
• Environment
• Human Rights
• Social Services
• Water & Sanitation
• Foundations
• Nonprofits & NGOs
• Social Enterprise
• Collaboration
• Design Thinking
• Impact Investing
• Measurement & Evaluation
• Organizational Development
• Philanthropy & Funding
• Current Issue
• Sponsored Supplements
• Global Editions
• In-Depth Series
• Stanford PACS
• Submission Guidelines

Creating a University From Scratch

How Minerva is reimagining higher education now and partnering to scale for impact in the future.

• order reprints
• related stories

By Ben Nelson, Diana El Azar & Ayo Seligman May 11, 2020

Imagine building a university from the ground up, and doing it specifically with 21st-century students in mind. It would mean no baggage, no legacy systems, and no outdated curricula. It would also mean attracting a completely new faculty and student body, and raising the funding needed to operate.

This was our challenge. Born in 2012 to address the problems inherent in the centuries-old system of higher education, Minerva’s ambition is to establish a model for the next generation university: intentionally designed to equip future leaders and innovators to solve complex challenges, to make decisions of consequence, and to work collaboratively to improve the world. We’ll not only outline how we began an innovative university from scratch, but how we are will scale our impact through strategic partnerships across educational levels, sectors, and geographies.

Minerva’s model addresses four core systemic concerns: 

• How to admit students based entirely on merit, not wealth, relationships, or athletic ability
• How to provide an exceptional, outcomes-driven education
• How to engage students at the lowest possible cost
• How to produce purpose-driven global citizens, ready to contribute to society

An Unconventional Admissions Process

Because Minerva sought to admit students with the highest potential—regardless of family background, wealth, or geographic location—we needed a new approach to admissions. In addition to high school grades, Minerva considers applicant accomplishments outside of class, their performance on a series of cognitive challenges, and their conduct during a video interview. Standardized test scores  and standard application essays have all been shown to produce bias toward wealthy applicants. Focusing on high school transcripts, extracurricular accomplishments, and cognitive tests allows Minerva to better predict future success.

While Minerva values diversity, there are no quotas or protocols to balance gender, religion, or ethnicity. But focusing on merit alone has attracted a student body that’s almost equally male and female, with a globally diverse student body: roughly a quarter of our students come from North America, a quarter from Asia, a quarter from Europe, and the remaining quarter coming from Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. This organic diversity helps to validate our belief hypothesis that talent is equally distributed around the world.

Our commitment to student access extends to the overall cost to attend, which is kept as low as possible by eliminating superfluous campus infrastructure and amenities (Minerva owns no real estate and only leases student housing). Minerva grants financial aid to every admitted student that demonstrates need: much of it supplied through a robust work-study program, in which students gain professional experience, with the remainder provided by low-interest loans and grants. 

An Intentional Curriculum

Every aspect of the Minerva curriculum is intentionally designed, rather than students picking-and-choosing from a vast array of courses chosen by the subject matter and expertise of research faculty. Our goal is not only to shape a mindset but to impart a universal skill set: in addition to a distinctive way of looking at the world, our students acquire the range of tools necessary to make meaningful, positive change within it.

The educational model is structured by three interconnected features: 1. cross-contextual curricular scaffolding, in which concepts are repeated with increasing complexity, across diverse contexts; 2. fully active learning, where students are engaged in every class session; and 3. systematic, formative feedback and assessment, all facilitated through an advanced virtual learning environment, called Forum™. For example, after students learn the concept of “heuristics” during their first year, they will continuously apply the concept in different subjects and new contexts, demonstrating their command in the classroom through live discussions, polling, and breakouts (while their instructors continuously assess their engagement and understanding using Forum, which registers all interactions).

During the first year, all students take the same four foundational courses— Complex Systems, Empirical Analyses, Formal Analyses, and Multimodal Communications —which are explicitly structured to impart universal cognitive tools and frameworks that can be applied across different domains. In the second year, Minerva students select a major field of study—arts and humanities, business, computational sciences, natural sciences, or social sciences—where they continue to explore their interests before committing to a more focused concentration (for example, data science and statistics, within the computational sciences major). As Minerva students progress, their studies become increasingly individualized and self-directed, including co-design of their fourth-year coursework and an independent project that incorporates both intensive research and creative problem solving. These capstone projects, chosen from within their fields of study, must present novel concepts, just as a graduate thesis would.

This cross-contextual curricular scaffolding continually reinforces pre-established learning outcomes in each class, throughout courses, across domains, and over time. The learning outcomes comprise a set of approximately eighty Habits of Mind (cognitive skills that come to be triggered automatically) and Foundational Concepts (fundamental knowledge that is broadly applicable) . These act as the building blocks of four core competencies: critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication, and effective interaction. The Habits and Concepts (HCs) are introduced early, reinforced often, and consistently assessed. Through deliberate, spaced practice and prompted application, students learn to use them for more effective decision-making, devise inventive solutions to complex challenges, manage ambiguity and navigate uncertainty, and, ultimately, to transfer them to novel situations.

The 80 HCs were identified by Minerva as part of an iterative process to find the paramount skills for the next generation of leaders, innovators, and engaged global citizens . Importantly, though derived from the universal skills employers consistently seek , the HCs used in Minerva’s academic programs need not be identical for other academic institutions.

Flexible and Engaged Pedagogy

When hearing the words “online classes,” many people envision pre-recorded lectures, pre-programmed activities, and other content-driven educational approaches. But simply taking traditional classroom instruction and putting it online has been shown, time and again, to be ineffective, leading to low course completion rates , and result in minimal understanding, retention, or recall of the information being taught.

The Minerva platform was purpose-built to facilitate the learning outcomes of our curriculum. It utilizes live, multi-stream video, integrated course development and management tools, and rich data collection and analysis features. Most importantly, the pedagogy emphasizes fully active learning, in which students are kept engaged during every class session, through guided Socratic discussion, collaborative work, role play, simulations, polling, and other means. This methodology has been repeatedly demonstrated to improve understanding, retention, and recall when compared to traditional lecture-based instruction. All Minerva instructors are trained with an emphasis on tracking learner engagement, progress, and specific educational outcomes.

When students enter class, they are met with a series of activities and discussions that reference reading and other work assigned prior to joining. Imagine being asked, immediately upon arrival, to not only recall, but comment on a scholarly article you read the previous night. Then, as the instructor selects the most interesting answer—not necessarily the most correct—you are asked to opine on your classmate’s comment. Because instructors are directed to speak less than 15 percent of the time in any class session, students are continually called on, keeping them focused so as not to be caught unprepared. Classes often also incorporate a series of small breakout group activities in which students collaborate on problems related to pre-readings or exhibits introduced in class, and the sessions typically end with a synthesis activity, such as a poll. All classes are recorded and student engagement is also tracked throughout each session, enabling instructors to evaluate in-class contributions and measure progress by comparing student understanding from class to class. This performance is a major component of each student’s final grade.

Lastly, Minerva courses are grounded in salient global concerns, from food and water scarcity to scientific advances and complex social and geopolitical dynamics. For example, in the first year, students grapple with big, multifaceted questions, such as “How can we feed the world?” or “Who should own information?” The students engage with these questions using the aforementioned Habits and Concepts: searching for the right problem, breaking it down, conducting a gap analysis, understanding constraints and analogies, and applying heuristics. These are practical concepts that will be used again and again, throughout their courses and across domains.

Beyond Classroom Walls

To augment this rigorous academic programming, Minerva devised a modern approach to experiential learning. Instead of a sequestered life on campus, students are immersed in the world, living and learning in seven diverse cultural contexts: After the first year in San Francisco, students spend the next six semesters rotating through Seoul, Hyderabad, Berlin, Buenos Aires, London, and Taipei. In each of these cities, students engage in a variety of experiential programs, including community projects, working with local businesses and government agencies, and student-centric activities like communal meals, club meetings, and hackathons. These programs incorporate individual coaching and are closely integrated with academics, so students receive formative feedback across multiple dimensions, including professionalism, self-management, cultural dexterity, personal responsibility, and interpersonal engagement.

Such global programming is only possible because classes take place in a digital environment: Because faculty are based anywhere, students can live around the globe while still attending their online seminars every day. Moving students seven times over the course of four years is expensive and logistically complex, but we keep costs down by leasing reasonably priced residence halls, and employing nimble teams in each city (and students manage many of these initiatives themselves, with minimal institutional support).

This approach teaches the skills sought by a variety of organizations, which typically take years of experience to acquire. The global, integrated learning accelerates their development of these universal skills, while fostering a dedication to societal participation. By being continually challenged, students learn to approach problems in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary manner, with an intellectual maturity rarely found at the undergraduate level. 

Scaling for Impact

Seven years after its founding, Minerva saw its first graduating class emerge, nearly 150 strong. While most have already begun making an impact in a broad range of categories—from the sciences, technology, and business to government and social sectors—their numbers remain relatively small. Minerva set out to build the best university, not the biggest, so to have a much greater effect, the model needed to be adopted and adapted by others.

In 2018, Minerva, through its for-profit arm, began offering partners the core elements of the model: the curricular design, the pedagogical approach, the systematic assessment, and the virtual learning environment. Coupled with the deep expertise of the Minerva team, the model enables high schools, colleges and universities, organizations, and governments to help transform learning at every stage and in any part of the world. Partnerships include a top STEM university in Hong Kong, a leading US law school, and the honors students in an all-virtual college preparatory high school. Like students, as faculty and administrators are exposed to the transformative power of the Minerva model, many undergo a shift in perspective: They want more of their colleagues and peers to adopt the approach, so more learners can benefit.

While the spread of COVID-19 has disrupted most academic institutions and pushed them to seek digital solutions for remote teaching, the partnerships that Minerva establishes go far beyond that, helping transform institutions that have a genuine desire to improve the educational outcomes for their students. Like most organizations, Minerva seeks to partner with institutions that share its mission and vision about rethinking what they are teaching and how they are teaching it, whether digitally or physically. Where a digital platform enables the continuous delivery of education in a crisis, as the future of education includes increasingly virtual platforms, academic institutions will need to invest not just in technology, but also in curriculum and teaching methodologies.

What We've Learned Along the Way

While building a university from scratch meant we did not have to grapple with entrenched beliefs or legacy systems, there have been many challenges.

• Gaining accreditation is crucial for establishing the credibility of academic programs, but is typically a painstaking process. New institutions are normally required to operate for a minimum of five years before being accredited, a timespan which would have made it nearly inconceivable to attract the caliber of students we sought from the outset. Minerva therefore adopted an “incubation model,” beginning our programs as part of the already-accredited Keck Graduate Institute (KGI), enabling our students to be confident their degrees would be trusted by employers.
• The admissions process rigorously screens for cultural adaptability and resilience, essential character traits for success at Minerva, and we do not admit students we think will be unable to navigate the intellectual and emotional challenges the program includes. These are highly subjective measures, unfortunately, so we try to minimize built-in bias with automated video interviews (as live interviewers can have unconscious influences on candidate performance), distributed reviews which evaluate each piece of the process independently from the results of other components, and a consistent set of evaluation criteria used to generate scores.
• One of our biggest challenges has been supplying financial aid for nearly 80 percent of our students. In pursuing needs-blind admissions, we underestimated how many students would be reliant on aid. This has meant a continuous effort to secure funds from philanthropic organizations, as well as to identify work-study opportunities for our students. It has also meant maintaining a relatively small student body and collaborating with partners to achieve financial viability through scale.

Hundreds of years from now, if the Minerva vision takes root, the entire educational system will be reformed. Universities everywhere, even those that are centuries-old today, will have changed their approaches, to incorporate deliberate, outcomes-driven instruction and produce legions of more informed and engaged global citizens, more creative and collaborative problem solvers, and wiser decision makers. Only then would we have accomplished our mission to nurture critical wisdom for the sake of the world.

Support  SSIR ’s coverage of cross-sector solutions to global challenges.  Help us further the reach of innovative ideas.  Donate today .

Read more stories by Ben Nelson , Diana El Azar & Ayo Seligman .

SSIR.org and/or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and to our better understanding of user needs. By closing this banner, scrolling this page, clicking a link or continuing to otherwise browse this site, you agree to the use of cookies.

How to Write a Business Plan: Step-by-Step Guide + Examples

Noah Parsons

24 min. read

Updated May 7, 2024

Writing a business plan doesn’t have to be complicated. 

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to write a business plan that’s detailed enough to impress bankers and potential investors, while giving you the tools to start, run, and grow a successful business.

• The basics of business planning

If you’re reading this guide, then you already know why you need a business plan . 

You understand that planning helps you: 

• Raise money
• Grow strategically
• Keep your business on the right track 

As you start to write your plan, it’s useful to zoom out and remember what a business plan is .

At its core, a business plan is an overview of the products and services you sell, and the customers that you sell to. It explains your business strategy: how you’re going to build and grow your business, what your marketing strategy is, and who your competitors are.

Most business plans also include financial forecasts for the future. These set sales goals, budget for expenses, and predict profits and cash flow. 

A good business plan is much more than just a document that you write once and forget about. It’s also a guide that helps you outline and achieve your goals. 

After completing your plan, you can use it as a management tool to track your progress toward your goals. Updating and adjusting your forecasts and budgets as you go is one of the most important steps you can take to run a healthier, smarter business. 

We’ll dive into how to use your plan later in this article.

There are many different types of plans , but we’ll go over the most common type here, which includes everything you need for an investor-ready plan. However, if you’re just starting out and are looking for something simpler—I recommend starting with a one-page business plan . It’s faster and easier to create. 

It’s also the perfect place to start if you’re just figuring out your idea, or need a simple strategic plan to use inside your business.

Dig deeper : How to write a one-page business plan

Brought to you by

Create a professional business plan

Using ai and step-by-step instructions.

Secure funding

Validate ideas

Build a strategy

• What to include in your business plan

Executive summary

The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your plan and is ideally just one to two pages. Most people write it last because it’s a summary of the complete business plan.

Ideally, the executive summary can act as a stand-alone document that covers the highlights of your detailed plan. 

In fact, it’s common for investors to ask only for the executive summary when evaluating your business. If they like what they see in the executive summary, they’ll often follow up with a request for a complete plan, a pitch presentation , or more in-depth financial forecasts .

Your executive summary should include:

• A summary of the problem you are solving
• A description of your product or service
• An overview of your target market
• A brief description of your team
• A summary of your financials
• Your funding requirements (if you are raising money)

Dig Deeper: How to write an effective executive summary

Products and services description

This is where you describe exactly what you’re selling, and how it solves a problem for your target market. The best way to organize this part of your plan is to start by describing the problem that exists for your customers. After that, you can describe how you plan to solve that problem with your product or service. 

This is usually called a problem and solution statement .

To truly showcase the value of your products and services, you need to craft a compelling narrative around your offerings. How will your product or service transform your customers’ lives or jobs? A strong narrative will draw in your readers.

This is also the part of the business plan to discuss any competitive advantages you may have, like specific intellectual property or patents that protect your product. If you have any initial sales, contracts, or other evidence that your product or service is likely to sell, include that information as well. It will show that your idea has traction , which can help convince readers that your plan has a high chance of success.

Market analysis

Your target market is a description of the type of people that you plan to sell to. You might even have multiple target markets, depending on your business. 

A market analysis is the part of your plan where you bring together all of the information you know about your target market. Basically, it’s a thorough description of who your customers are and why they need what you’re selling. You’ll also include information about the growth of your market and your industry .

Try to be as specific as possible when you describe your market. 

Include information such as age, income level, and location—these are what’s called “demographics.” If you can, also describe your market’s interests and habits as they relate to your business—these are “psychographics.” 

Related: Target market examples

Essentially, you want to include any knowledge you have about your customers that is relevant to how your product or service is right for them. With a solid target market, it will be easier to create a sales and marketing plan that will reach your customers. That’s because you know who they are, what they like to do, and the best ways to reach them.

Next, provide any additional information you have about your market. 

What is the size of your market ? Is the market growing or shrinking? Ideally, you’ll want to demonstrate that your market is growing over time, and also explain how your business is positioned to take advantage of any expected changes in your industry.

Dig Deeper: Learn how to write a market analysis

Competitive analysis

Part of defining your business opportunity is determining what your competitive advantage is. To do this effectively, you need to know as much about your competitors as your target customers. 

Every business has some form of competition. If you don’t think you have competitors, then explore what alternatives there are in the market for your product or service. 

For example: In the early years of cars, their main competition was horses. For social media, the early competition was reading books, watching TV, and talking on the phone.

A good competitive analysis fully lays out the competitive landscape and then explains how your business is different. Maybe your products are better made, or cheaper, or your customer service is superior. Maybe your competitive advantage is your location – a wide variety of factors can ultimately give you an advantage.

Dig Deeper: How to write a competitive analysis for your business plan

Marketing and sales plan

The marketing and sales plan covers how you will position your product or service in the market, the marketing channels and messaging you will use, and your sales tactics. 

The best place to start with a marketing plan is with a positioning statement . 

This explains how your business fits into the overall market, and how you will explain the advantages of your product or service to customers. You’ll use the information from your competitive analysis to help you with your positioning. 

For example: You might position your company as the premium, most expensive but the highest quality option in the market. Or your positioning might focus on being locally owned and that shoppers support the local economy by buying your products.

Once you understand your positioning, you’ll bring this together with the information about your target market to create your marketing strategy . 

This is how you plan to communicate your message to potential customers. Depending on who your customers are and how they purchase products like yours, you might use many different strategies, from social media advertising to creating a podcast. Your marketing plan is all about how your customers discover who you are and why they should consider your products and services. 

While your marketing plan is about reaching your customers—your sales plan will describe the actual sales process once a customer has decided that they’re interested in what you have to offer. 

If your business requires salespeople and a long sales process, describe that in this section. If your customers can “self-serve” and just make purchases quickly on your website, describe that process. 

A good sales plan picks up where your marketing plan leaves off. The marketing plan brings customers in the door and the sales plan is how you close the deal.

Together, these specific plans paint a picture of how you will connect with your target audience, and how you will turn them into paying customers.

Dig deeper: What to include in your sales and marketing plan

Business operations

The operations section describes the necessary requirements for your business to run smoothly. It’s where you talk about how your business works and what day-to-day operations look like. 

Depending on how your business is structured, your operations plan may include elements of the business like:

• Supply chain management
• Manufacturing processes
• Equipment and technology
• Distribution

Some businesses distribute their products and reach their customers through large retailers like Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, and grocery store chains. 

These businesses should review how this part of their business works. The plan should discuss the logistics and costs of getting products onto store shelves and any potential hurdles the business may have to overcome.

If your business is much simpler than this, that’s OK. This section of your business plan can be either extremely short or more detailed, depending on the type of business you are building.

For businesses selling services, such as physical therapy or online software, you can use this section to describe the technology you’ll leverage, what goes into your service, and who you will partner with to deliver your services.

Dig Deeper: Learn how to write the operations chapter of your plan

Key milestones and metrics

Although it’s not required to complete your business plan, mapping out key business milestones and the metrics can be incredibly useful for measuring your success.

Good milestones clearly lay out the parameters of the task and set expectations for their execution. You’ll want to include:

• A description of each task
• The proposed due date
• Who is responsible for each task

If you have a budget, you can include projected costs to hit each milestone. You don’t need extensive project planning in this section—just list key milestones you want to hit and when you plan to hit them. This is your overall business roadmap. 

Possible milestones might be:

• Website launch date
• Store or office opening date
• First significant sales
• Break even date
• Business licenses and approvals

You should also discuss the key numbers you will track to determine your success. Some common metrics worth tracking include:

• Conversion rates
• Customer acquisition costs
• Profit per customer
• Repeat purchases

It’s perfectly fine to start with just a few metrics and grow the number you are tracking over time. You also may find that some metrics simply aren’t relevant to your business and can narrow down what you’re tracking.

Dig Deeper: How to use milestones in your business plan

Organization and management team

Investors don’t just look for great ideas—they want to find great teams. Use this chapter to describe your current team and who you need to hire . You should also provide a quick overview of your location and history if you’re already up and running.

Briefly highlight the relevant experiences of each key team member in the company. It’s important to make the case for why yours is the right team to turn an idea into a reality. 

Do they have the right industry experience and background? Have members of the team had entrepreneurial successes before? 

If you still need to hire key team members, that’s OK. Just note those gaps in this section.

Your company overview should also include a summary of your company’s current business structure . The most common business structures include:

• Sole proprietor
• Partnership

Be sure to provide an overview of how the business is owned as well. Does each business partner own an equal portion of the business? How is ownership divided? 

Potential lenders and investors will want to know the structure of the business before they will consider a loan or investment.

Dig Deeper: How to write about your company structure and team

Financial plan

Last, but certainly not least, is your financial plan chapter. 

Entrepreneurs often find this section the most daunting. But, business financials for most startups are less complicated than you think, and a business degree is certainly not required to build a solid financial forecast. 

A typical financial forecast in a business plan includes the following:

• Sales forecast : An estimate of the sales expected over a given period. You’ll break down your forecast into the key revenue streams that you expect to have.
• Expense budget : Your planned spending such as personnel costs , marketing expenses, and taxes.
• Profit & Loss : Brings together your sales and expenses and helps you calculate planned profits.
• Cash Flow : Shows how cash moves into and out of your business. It can predict how much cash you’ll have on hand at any given point in the future.
• Balance Sheet : A list of the assets, liabilities, and equity in your company. In short, it provides an overview of the financial health of your business. 

A strong business plan will include a description of assumptions about the future, and potential risks that could impact the financial plan. Including those will be especially important if you’re writing a business plan to pursue a loan or other investment.

Dig Deeper: How to create financial forecasts and budgets

This is the place for additional data, charts, or other information that supports your plan.

Including an appendix can significantly enhance the credibility of your plan by showing readers that you’ve thoroughly considered the details of your business idea, and are backing your ideas up with solid data.

Just remember that the information in the appendix is meant to be supplementary. Your business plan should stand on its own, even if the reader skips this section.

Dig Deeper : What to include in your business plan appendix

Optional: Business plan cover page

Adding a business plan cover page can make your plan, and by extension your business, seem more professional in the eyes of potential investors, lenders, and partners. It serves as the introduction to your document and provides necessary contact information for stakeholders to reference.

Your cover page should be simple and include:

• Company logo
• Business name
• Value proposition (optional)
• Business plan title
• Completion and/or update date
• Address and contact information
• Confidentiality statement

Just remember, the cover page is optional. If you decide to include it, keep it very simple and only spend a short amount of time putting it together.

Dig Deeper: How to create a business plan cover page

How to use AI to help write your business plan

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can speed up the business plan writing process and help you think through concepts like market segmentation and competition. These tools are especially useful for taking ideas that you provide and converting them into polished text for your business plan.

The best way to use AI for your business plan is to leverage it as a collaborator , not a replacement for human creative thinking and ingenuity. 

AI can come up with lots of ideas and act as a brainstorming partner. It’s up to you to filter through those ideas and figure out which ones are realistic enough to resonate with your customers. 

There are pros and cons of using AI to help with your business plan . So, spend some time understanding how it can be most helpful before just outsourcing the job to AI.

Learn more: 10 AI prompts you need to write a business plan

• Writing tips and strategies

To help streamline the business plan writing process, here are a few tips and key questions to answer to make sure you get the most out of your plan and avoid common mistakes .  

Determine why you are writing a business plan

Knowing why you are writing a business plan will determine your approach to your planning project. 

For example: If you are writing a business plan for yourself, or just to use inside your own business , you can probably skip the section about your team and organizational structure. 

If you’re raising money, you’ll want to spend more time explaining why you’re looking to raise the funds and exactly how you will use them.

Regardless of how you intend to use your business plan , think about why you are writing and what you’re trying to get out of the process before you begin.

Keep things concise

Probably the most important tip is to keep your business plan short and simple. There are no prizes for long business plans . The longer your plan is, the less likely people are to read it. 

So focus on trimming things down to the essentials your readers need to know. Skip the extended, wordy descriptions and instead focus on creating a plan that is easy to read —using bullets and short sentences whenever possible.

Have someone review your business plan

Writing a business plan in a vacuum is never a good idea. Sometimes it’s helpful to zoom out and check if your plan makes sense to someone else. You also want to make sure that it’s easy to read and understand.

Don’t wait until your plan is “done” to get a second look. Start sharing your plan early, and find out from readers what questions your plan leaves unanswered. This early review cycle will help you spot shortcomings in your plan and address them quickly, rather than finding out about them right before you present your plan to a lender or investor.

If you need a more detailed review, you may want to explore hiring a professional plan writer to thoroughly examine it.

Use a free business plan template and business plan examples to get started

Knowing what information to include in a business plan is sometimes not quite enough. If you’re struggling to get started or need additional guidance, it may be worth using a business plan template. 

There are plenty of great options available (we’ve rounded up our 8 favorites to streamline your search).

But, if you’re looking for a free downloadable business plan template , you can get one right now; download the template used by more than 1 million businesses. 

Or, if you just want to see what a completed business plan looks like, check out our library of over 550 free business plan examples . 

We even have a growing list of industry business planning guides with tips for what to focus on depending on your business type.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

It’s easy to make mistakes when you’re writing your business plan. Some entrepreneurs get sucked into the writing and research process, and don’t focus enough on actually getting their business started. 

Here are a few common mistakes and how to avoid them:

Not talking to your customers : This is one of the most common mistakes. It’s easy to assume that your product or service is something that people want. Before you invest too much in your business and too much in the planning process, make sure you talk to your prospective customers and have a good understanding of their needs.

• Overly optimistic sales and profit forecasts: By nature, entrepreneurs are optimistic about the future. But it’s good to temper that optimism a little when you’re planning, and make sure your forecasts are grounded in reality. 
• Spending too much time planning: Yes, planning is crucial. But you also need to get out and talk to customers, build prototypes of your product and figure out if there’s a market for your idea. Make sure to balance planning with building.
• Not revising the plan: Planning is useful, but nothing ever goes exactly as planned. As you learn more about what’s working and what’s not—revise your plan, your budgets, and your revenue forecast. Doing so will provide a more realistic picture of where your business is going, and what your financial needs will be moving forward.
• Not using the plan to manage your business: A good business plan is a management tool. Don’t just write it and put it on the shelf to collect dust – use it to track your progress and help you reach your goals.
• Presenting your business plan

The planning process forces you to think through every aspect of your business and answer questions that you may not have thought of. That’s the real benefit of writing a business plan – the knowledge you gain about your business that you may not have been able to discover otherwise.

With all of this knowledge, you’re well prepared to convert your business plan into a pitch presentation to present your ideas. 

A pitch presentation is a summary of your plan, just hitting the highlights and key points. It’s the best way to present your business plan to investors and team members.

Dig Deeper: Learn what key slides should be included in your pitch deck

Use your business plan to manage your business

One of the biggest benefits of planning is that it gives you a tool to manage your business better. With a revenue forecast, expense budget, and projected cash flow, you know your targets and where you are headed.

And yet, nothing ever goes exactly as planned – it’s the nature of business.

That’s where using your plan as a management tool comes in. The key to leveraging it for your business is to review it periodically and compare your forecasts and projections to your actual results.

Start by setting up a regular time to review the plan – a monthly review is a good starting point. During this review, answer questions like:

• Did you meet your sales goals?
• Is spending following your budget?
• Has anything gone differently than what you expected?

Now that you see whether you’re meeting your goals or are off track, you can make adjustments and set new targets. 

Maybe you’re exceeding your sales goals and should set new, more aggressive goals. In that case, maybe you should also explore more spending or hiring more employees. 

Or maybe expenses are rising faster than you projected. If that’s the case, you would need to look at where you can cut costs.

A plan, and a method for comparing your plan to your actual results , is the tool you need to steer your business toward success.

Learn More: How to run a regular plan review

Free business plan templates and examples

Kickstart your business plan writing with one of our free business plan templates or recommended tools.

Free business plan template

Download a free SBA-approved business plan template built for small businesses and startups.

Download Template

One-page plan template

Download a free one-page plan template to write a useful business plan in as little as 30-minutes.

Sample business plan library

Explore over 500 real-world business plan examples from a wide variety of industries.

View Sample Plans

How to write a business plan FAQ

What is a business plan?

A document that describes your business , the products and services you sell, and the customers that you sell to. It explains your business strategy, how you’re going to build and grow your business, what your marketing strategy is, and who your competitors are.

What are the benefits of a business plan?

A business plan helps you understand where you want to go with your business and what it will take to get there. It reduces your overall risk, helps you uncover your business’s potential, attracts investors, and identifies areas for growth.

Having a business plan ultimately makes you more confident as a business owner and more likely to succeed for a longer period of time.

What are the 7 steps of a business plan?

The seven steps to writing a business plan include:

• Write a brief executive summary
• Describe your products and services.
• Conduct market research and compile data into a cohesive market analysis.
• Describe your marketing and sales strategy.
• Outline your organizational structure and management team.
• Develop financial projections for sales, revenue, and cash flow.
• Add any additional documents to your appendix.

What are the 5 most common business plan mistakes?

There are plenty of mistakes that can be made when writing a business plan. However, these are the 5 most common that you should do your best to avoid:

• 1. Not taking the planning process seriously.
• Having unrealistic financial projections or incomplete financial information.
• Inconsistent information or simple mistakes.
• Failing to establish a sound business model.
• Not having a defined purpose for your business plan.

What questions should be answered in a business plan?

Writing a business plan is all about asking yourself questions about your business and being able to answer them through the planning process. You’ll likely be asking dozens and dozens of questions for each section of your plan.

However, these are the key questions you should ask and answer with your business plan:

• How will your business make money?
• Is there a need for your product or service?
• Who are your customers?
• How are you different from the competition?
• How will you reach your customers?
• How will you measure success?

How long should a business plan be?

The length of your business plan fully depends on what you intend to do with it. From the SBA and traditional lender point of view, a business plan needs to be whatever length necessary to fully explain your business. This means that you prove the viability of your business, show that you understand the market, and have a detailed strategy in place.

If you intend to use your business plan for internal management purposes, you don’t necessarily need a full 25-50 page business plan. Instead, you can start with a one-page plan to get all of the necessary information in place.

What are the different types of business plans?

While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. Here are a few common business plan types worth considering.

Traditional business plan: The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used when applying for funding or pitching to investors. This type of business plan follows the outline above and can be anywhere from 10-50 pages depending on the amount of detail included, the complexity of your business, and what you include in your appendix.

Business model canvas: The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea.

One-page business plan: This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business. You’ll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences. It’s most useful for those exploring ideas, needing to validate their business model, or who need an internal plan to help them run and manage their business.

Lean Plan: The Lean Plan is less of a specific document type and more of a methodology. It takes the simplicity and styling of the one-page business plan and turns it into a process for you to continuously plan, test, review, refine, and take action based on performance. It’s faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your plan is always up-to-date.

What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?

A business plan covers the “who” and “what” of your business. It explains what your business is doing right now and how it functions. The strategic plan explores long-term goals and explains “how” the business will get there. It encourages you to look more intently toward the future and how you will achieve your vision.

However, when approached correctly, your business plan can actually function as a strategic plan as well. If kept lean, you can define your business, outline strategic steps, and track ongoing operations all with a single plan.

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

Table of Contents

• Use AI to help write your plan
• Common planning mistakes
• Manage with your business plan
• Templates and examples

Related Articles

5 Min. Read

How To Write a Business Plan for a Life Coaching Business + Free Example

1 Min. Read

How to Calculate Return on Investment (ROI)

7 Min. Read

How to Write a Bakery Business Plan + Sample

3 Min. Read

What to Include in Your Business Plan Appendix

The Bplans Newsletter

The Bplans Weekly

Subscribe now for weekly advice and free downloadable resources to help start and grow your business.

We care about your privacy. See our privacy policy .

The quickest way to turn a business idea into a business plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

No thanks, I prefer writing 40-page documents.

Discover the world’s #1 plan building software

• Search Search Please fill out this field.

What Is a Business Plan?

Understanding business plans, how to write a business plan, common elements of a business plan, how often should a business plan be updated, the bottom line, business plan: what it is, what's included, and how to write one.

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

A business plan is a document that details a company's goals and how it intends to achieve them. Business plans can be of benefit to both startups and well-established companies. For startups, a business plan can be essential for winning over potential lenders and investors. Established businesses can find one useful for staying on track and not losing sight of their goals. This article explains what an effective business plan needs to include and how to write one.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan is a document describing a company's business activities and how it plans to achieve its goals.
• Startup companies use business plans to get off the ground and attract outside investors.
• For established companies, a business plan can help keep the executive team focused on and working toward the company's short- and long-term objectives.
• There is no single format that a business plan must follow, but there are certain key elements that most companies will want to include.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

Any new business should have a business plan in place prior to beginning operations. In fact, banks and venture capital firms often want to see a business plan before they'll consider making a loan or providing capital to new businesses.

Even if a business isn't looking to raise additional money, a business plan can help it focus on its goals. A 2017 Harvard Business Review article reported that, "Entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than the otherwise identical nonplanning entrepreneurs."

Ideally, a business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect any goals that have been achieved or that may have changed. An established business that has decided to move in a new direction might create an entirely new business plan for itself.

There are numerous benefits to creating (and sticking to) a well-conceived business plan. These include being able to think through ideas before investing too much money in them and highlighting any potential obstacles to success. A company might also share its business plan with trusted outsiders to get their objective feedback. In addition, a business plan can help keep a company's executive team on the same page about strategic action items and priorities.

Business plans, even among competitors in the same industry, are rarely identical. However, they often have some of the same basic elements, as we describe below.

While it's a good idea to provide as much detail as necessary, it's also important that a business plan be concise enough to hold a reader's attention to the end.

While there are any number of templates that you can use to write a business plan, it's best to try to avoid producing a generic-looking one. Let your plan reflect the unique personality of your business.

Many business plans use some combination of the sections below, with varying levels of detail, depending on the company.

The length of a business plan can vary greatly from business to business. Regardless, it's best to fit the basic information into a 15- to 25-page document. Other crucial elements that take up a lot of space—such as applications for patents—can be referenced in the main document and attached as appendices.

These are some of the most common elements in many business plans:

• Executive summary: This section introduces the company and includes its mission statement along with relevant information about the company's leadership, employees, operations, and locations.
• Products and services: Here, the company should describe the products and services it offers or plans to introduce. That might include details on pricing, product lifespan, and unique benefits to the consumer. Other factors that could go into this section include production and manufacturing processes, any relevant patents the company may have, as well as proprietary technology . Information about research and development (R&D) can also be included here.
• Market analysis: A company needs to have a good handle on the current state of its industry and the existing competition. This section should explain where the company fits in, what types of customers it plans to target, and how easy or difficult it may be to take market share from incumbents.
• Marketing strategy: This section can describe how the company plans to attract and keep customers, including any anticipated advertising and marketing campaigns. It should also describe the distribution channel or channels it will use to get its products or services to consumers.
• Financial plans and projections: Established businesses can include financial statements, balance sheets, and other relevant financial information. New businesses can provide financial targets and estimates for the first few years. Your plan might also include any funding requests you're making.

The best business plans aren't generic ones created from easily accessed templates. A company should aim to entice readers with a plan that demonstrates its uniqueness and potential for success.

2 Types of Business Plans

Business plans can take many forms, but they are sometimes divided into two basic categories: traditional and lean startup. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) , the traditional business plan is the more common of the two.

• Traditional business plans : These plans tend to be much longer than lean startup plans and contain considerably more detail. As a result they require more work on the part of the business, but they can also be more persuasive (and reassuring) to potential investors.
• Lean startup business plans : These use an abbreviated structure that highlights key elements. These business plans are short—as short as one page—and provide only the most basic detail. If a company wants to use this kind of plan, it should be prepared to provide more detail if an investor or a lender requests it.

Why Do Business Plans Fail?

A business plan is not a surefire recipe for success. The plan may have been unrealistic in its assumptions and projections to begin with. Markets and the overall economy might change in ways that couldn't have been foreseen. A competitor might introduce a revolutionary new product or service. All of this calls for building some flexibility into your plan, so you can pivot to a new course if needed.

How frequently a business plan needs to be revised will depend on the nature of the business. A well-established business might want to review its plan once a year and make changes if necessary. A new or fast-growing business in a fiercely competitive market might want to revise it more often, such as quarterly.

What Does a Lean Startup Business Plan Include?

The lean startup business plan is an option when a company prefers to give a quick explanation of its business. For example, a brand-new company may feel that it doesn't have a lot of information to provide yet.

Sections can include: a value proposition ; the company's major activities and advantages; resources such as staff, intellectual property, and capital; a list of partnerships; customer segments; and revenue sources.

A business plan can be useful to companies of all kinds. But as a company grows and the world around it changes, so too should its business plan. So don't think of your business plan as carved in granite but as a living document designed to evolve with your business.

Harvard Business Review. " Research: Writing a Business Plan Makes Your Startup More Likely to Succeed ."

U.S. Small Business Administration. " Write Your Business Plan ."

• How to Start a Business: A Comprehensive Guide and Essential Steps 1 of 25
• How to Do Market Research, Types, and Example 2 of 25
• Marketing Strategy: What It Is, How It Works, and How to Create One 3 of 25
• Marketing in Business: Strategies and Types Explained 4 of 25
• What Is a Marketing Plan? Types and How to Write One 5 of 25
• Business Development: Definition, Strategies, Steps & Skills 6 of 25
• Business Plan: What It Is, What's Included, and How to Write One 7 of 25
• Small Business Development Center (SBDC): Meaning, Types, Impact 8 of 25
• How to Write a Business Plan for a Loan 9 of 25
• Business Startup Costs: It’s in the Details 10 of 25
• Startup Capital Definition, Types, and Risks 11 of 25
• Bootstrapping Definition, Strategies, and Pros/Cons 12 of 25
• Crowdfunding: What It Is, How It Works, and Popular Websites 13 of 25
• Starting a Business with No Money: How to Begin 14 of 25
• A Comprehensive Guide to Establishing Business Credit 15 of 25
• Equity Financing: What It Is, How It Works, Pros and Cons 16 of 25
• Best Startup Business Loans for May 2024 17 of 25
• Sole Proprietorship: What It Is, Pros and Cons, and Differences From an LLC 18 of 25
• Partnership: Definition, How It Works, Taxation, and Types 19 of 25
• What Is an LLC? Limited Liability Company Structure and Benefits Defined 20 of 25
• Corporation: What It Is and How To Form One 21 of 25
• Starting a Small Business: Your Complete How-to Guide 22 of 25
• Starting an Online Business: A Step-by-Step Guide 23 of 25
• How to Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business: Essential Tips 24 of 25
• How to Start a Successful Dropshipping Business: A Comprehensive Guide 25 of 25

• Terms of Service
• Editorial Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices

• Business Templates
• Sample Plans

FREE 10+ University Business Plan Samples [ Rice, Online, Private ]

Colleges and universities are either a private or public institutions. Their primary business model is teaching and their products are the students who graduate from their academy. A university is the final learning process of a student and this institutions play a vital role as leaders in teaching and learning, in education, research and technology. In teaching activities, universities provide the professional training for high-level jobs, as well as the education necessary for the development of the personality. To be able to give their students the best learning process, educational institutions need a university business plan in order to sort out their goals, identify their core objectives and activities. Read more about a university business plan in this article and don’t forget to check out our university business plan sample templates below:

University Business Plan

10+ university business plan samples, 1. university business plan sample, 2. blank university business plan, 3. printable university business plan, 4. university academic business plan, 5. polytechnic university business plan, 6. university financial services business plan, 7. standard university business plan, 8. university business plan implementation, 9. university business plan format, 10. basic university business plan, 11. general university business plan, what is a university business plan, how to create a university business plan, i. executive summary, ii. business description, iii. market analysis, iv. competitive analysis, v. development plan, vi. management summary, vii. financial factors, what is the importance of a business plan, how long should a business plan be, who reads the business plans.

• Google Docs
• Apple Pages

Size: 248 KB

Size: 18 KB

Size: 898 KB

Size: 28 KB

Size: 27 KB

Size: 61 KB

Size: 541 KB

Like most businesses, a university also has its own way of running their organization. From planning, operations, decision-making process, marketing, its vision and mission  are all summarized in detailed university business plan. Businesses would not to grow into success without the help of a business plan. Since this document can help you identify a lot of aspects on what it takes to run a complex organization such a university.

A business plan is an essential roadmap for business success. This living document generally projects 3-5 years ahead and outlines the route the university intends to take to grow revenues. The main focus of a university business plan is the overall functioning aspect of the organization which mean including how to incorporate their goals, procedures and processes to the number of departments or faculties under its wing. As complex as it sounds, the contents or format of any business plan would always depend on how a company presents itself and its relevance to the industry. Moving forward, let us check the following basic components of a university business plan:

An executive summary of any business plan is the overview of your entire business plan and should succinctly highlight the most important parts of the plan. You can further subdivide or consider the following aspects below on what constitutes an executive summary:

• Problem: You can define a problem that is related to your line of business, and in this case this should be related to education being the main product of a university, and what your institution can do to respond to this problem.
• Concept Plan: describe a short overview of a new education plan. It can be used to expand on an initial business idea; guide more detailed planning and communicate essential information.
• Mission: describe the university mission and its aims and values

In this section, describe the university and what needs in the public you are trying to meet. This section should also include the types of students you are hoping to serve, along with any advantages your organization has over others that provide the same services.

Through market research identify the following:

• Identify your market for student applicants, who they are, their personal and financial backgrounds.
• Industry Analysis – identify what type of teachers you would wish to have onboard your organization. Check on the demand out in the market and evaluate their skills and assess their teaching experiences.

Every businesses has always had a competitor out in the market most especially if the demand is high. In trying to figure out how your school is going to make money and compete with other businesses that might be offering similar services, you’ll want to perform a competitive analysis. This section of the business plan will feature the strengths and weaknesses of your organization and any barriers that will impede your company’s ability to compete. Some of these barriers might include rapidly changing technology or an inability to hire enough competent teaching staff.

In this section, you should write out how you plan on developing your business. What are your short-term and long-term goals for the school? How exactly are you going to achieve those goals? Describe your growth plan for the next few years, along side your pricing strategy such as would you be offering any scholarships, discounts for overachievers or those who rank high with their GPA’s or SAT scores. Take note that your pricing scheme would depend on your market you aim to serve. Lastly don’t forget to include your marketing strategy to attract students to your school.

It’s important to include in your business plan the organizational structure of the company, ownership details, and who is on the team. If you have a board of directors, you should also discuss their qualifications. This information, the operations and management section should also include the legal structure of your business.

This part of the plan should include your income projections for the next three years, a 12-month cash flow analysis , and a balance sheet and sustainability plan . If you are hoping to attract investors, you should also include a list of  all of your sources of funding, financial statements for the last three to five years, and the owners’ personal financial statements.

If you want to business to grow and be a success, coming up with a business plan is the best to start since this will help entrepreneurs focus on the specific steps necessary for them to make business ideas succeed and would also assist in achieving short-term and long-term objectives.

Measure a plan by readability and summarization. This could be as long as 30 to 50 pages depending on the details and scale of the what the business plan is comprised of. But it is recommended to have it at max of 15 to 20 pages. Besides it is the contents that counts and how well you can deliver it without making it look uninteresting.

Generally, business plans are open for investors, lenders, suppliers and executives who may be joining the company. But there may be some details that are left out and are only available for those within the management.

Universities are one of the most important business institutions in society. This is were future leaders, innovators of society, entrepreneurs, the working class are molded and skills developed in order pave way to the future. All of these lies on the hands of the universities and how skilled they are in helping develop young minds. With the right procedures, aims and objectives all developed in a university business plan, universities can move forward and carry out their goals.

Related Posts

Free 20+ restaurant business plans, free 12+ sample food truck business plan templates, free 11+ it strategy plan templates, free 10+ advertising agency business plan templates, free 10+ value proposition statement samples, free 9+ social media plans, free 8+ distributor business plan samples, free 23+ sample event calendar templates, free 16+ sample hr plan templates, free 11+ valedictorian speeches, free 10+ crisis communication plan samples, free 10+ school strategic plan samples, free 7+ sample business risk assessment templates, free 4+ sample recruiting plan templates, free 9+ how to build a business plan that actually works, free 8+ sample university schedule templates, free 30+ strategic plan templates, free 20+ sample restaurant business plan templates.

• Free Business Plan Template
• Free Online Education to Start Your Own Business

Download: MOBI Business Plan Template

Enroll now: MOBI's FREE Starting a Business course

MOBI Business Plan Template

The primary value of your business plan is to create a written resource that evaluates most aspects of your new business including a description of your target customers and markets, profitability, organization, operations and more. The very process of writing your business plan helps you put your ideas on paper so you can evaluate what resources you have and what you need to be successful.

Your business plan is your blueprint for starting your business, your script to tell the story of your business to others, and your comprehensive analysis of the opportunity for your business. Business plans help you plan your roadmap, state your goals, share your vision, and analyze your strategy. A business plan is an important and valuable tool for new as well as existing businesses.

This MOBI Business Plan Template consists of sections that relate to the content included in the MOBI Starting a Business course . You can also use this template as a guide independently. We have created this template with the input of key stakeholders such as economic development agencies, lenders, mentors and successful entrepreneurs. You can complete sections of the business plan as you go through the course, to apply what you are learning along the way, or you can wait until you have completed the course. This business plan template is a universal model suitable for most types of business, which you can customize to fit your circumstances. MOBI provides leading topics, questions, and suggestions in each section to guide you. Here are some instructions to help you get started:

• On the cover page replace the MOBI spark with your own logo and provide your business name, personal name, contact information, and date.
• Complete each section leaving the main title, such as “Executive Summary,” and using the subtitles and questions as a guideline. Replace those subtitles and questions with the needed and relevant information. If some of the subtitles work with your format, you can keep them. You can type directly over the provided content or delete it as you complete it.
• You might want to start each section on a new page, which can also be helpful if you decide to include a Table of Contents.

Once you complete your business plan, be sure that key stakeholders review it. Business plans are not static; they will change as your business and the business environment change around you. It’s important to continually review and update your business plan to adjust for these changes.

BUSINESS PLAN

Enter Your Business Name

Enter Your Name

 Enter Date

Contact Information

Executive Summary Provide a summary of your business by addressing these key areas.

Name and Description of Business State the name of your business and describe your product or service.

Targeted Market and Customers Describe your target markets and customers and why they want or need your product or service.    

Trends in this Industry What are the current trends in the industry that make this a good time for your product or service? For example, is the market for your product growing, and why? Have others failed to address a particular need that your product or service will address?  

Value Proposition Provide a brief statement of the unique benefits and value your business will deliver to your customers. Describe the unique qualities of your product or service that will enable you to be profitable.

The Vision  Describe the vision of your business and why you are committed to pursuing this vision and making it successful. 

Founder Background: Work/life experience related to the intended business Describe your work/life experience, educational credentials, and how they are related to the business you plan to start. Include a list of your skills and knowledge, which will be required in your business. 

Your Team If you plan to hire full- or part-time employees or seek business partners, describe your plan for engaging with these other members of your team. If you already have employees or partners, describe key personnel and their roles here. 

Goals for business: Outline your key goals for your business. (Explain your plans for growing the business and what you can realistically accomplish in a defined period of time.)

Financing and Financial Projections ( Many business owners require the assistance of a bookkeeper or accountant when completing this section.)

Startup Capital Provide a table or spreadsheet showing the sources of your startup capital including what you or other investors will contribute and what you intend to borrow.  Create a list of what the startup capital will be used for and how much will be left over for working capital ( SCORE Startup Expenses Template ).

Accounting Statements Prepare your starting balance sheet and projected profit and loss (income) statements for the first three years. (By month for the first year and then by year for years two and three.) Forecast your month-to-month cash flow requirements for the first year.  

Analysis of Costs List and explain the key costs and profit margins that are important for your business.  Classify your costs as fixed, variable, product, delivery, etc. 

Break-Even Analysis Based on your costs and pricing strategy, prepare a break-even analysis.

Internal Controls Explain your internal and cash controls. For instance, check signing policy, strategy for controlling shrinkage, and control of incoming merchandise or supplies.

Business Organization

Business Organization Explain the form of business organization you intend to use and why it is best for your business (sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, etc.).

Professional Consultants List the names of your key advisors: bookkeeper/accountant, consultants, lawyer, insurance agent, and any other professionals.   

Business Location

If you need a physical location other than your home to operate your business, identify your business space needs considering all phases of your workflow (production, storage, shipping, potential employees, customer meetings, and future requirements). Explain why the location you picked meets your workflow needs.

Marketing and Sales

Market Research: Your Customers and Competition Describe your ideal customer (who will be purchasing your product/service, key characteristics).

• Include any research that has helped you identify and characterize your target customer.

Describe your position in the market, your strongest competitors, and how you intend to compete. 

Marketing Strategy and Tools Describe your overall marketing strategy, how you will find, engage, and build customers, including:

• Traditional marketing tools (signage, storefront, collateral, advertising, promotion, uniforms,  mail, etc.).
• Online marketing (website, social media, email marketing, text marketing, others).
• Ecommerce (if applicable).
• Describe in detail how you plan to sell your products or services online.
• Describe how your best competitors utilize ecommerce and your strategy to improve on their practices.
• Research and identify the different channels where you will sell your product or services. What is your expectation of sales?
• Detail how will you take orders, process payments, and fulfill requests? 
• Provide a detailed breakdown of the costs involved in creating, operating, and maintaining your ecommerce activities.

Sales Strategy Describe your sales process, activities you will conduct, obstacles you expect, how you will overcome them, and any customer service strategies to retain and expand your customer base.

Include k ey details about how you will operate your business.

• Outline the workflow of your business and the processes and procedures you will put into place.
• If applicable, provide details about how you will procure supplies, manufacture your product, and deliver your product or service to your customer. Include any equipment and facilities that you need.
• Describe how you will measure the success of your operations for quality, efficiency, cost control, or other measures of performance. Include any testing.
• Order fulfillment: describe your order fulfillment process, software to be used, and quality control methods.
• Supply chain: describe products/materials you need to purchase in order to make your product, include primary and secondary sources for these. products/materials, lead times, purchasing methods, and tools.
• Staffing: skill requirements, training program, supervision, outsourced functions, and hiring timeline.

Addendum: Licenses and Permits   *Addendums can include but are not limited to License and Permits*

Make a comprehensive list of all licenses and permits you will need to do business in your area.   

Your list should include the following: (For US-based businesses; requirements differ by country and region.)

• Name under which you intend to do business
• Permissions and/or limitations on the use of your property or facilities
• Federal, state, and local licenses (city/county), permits, and certifications needed to do business in your area (e.g. business tax license, seller's permit, safety certifications, employer identification number, etc.)
• Industry licenses needed for your particular area of business (contractor, electrician, daycare, beauty, etc.)
• International and national intellectual property protection through trademarks, copyright, and patents.

Download:  MOBI Business Plan Template

Follow mobi on social media.

Certificate Courses Login

College Business Plan

When you think of a college business plan , what is often the first thing you think about? The majority may say a business idea of setting up a college or a university for local and international students. Another may see it as a school that offers business as part of their academic course. What reason may it be or what idea you may have, it is always best to have and match it with a business plan. Making a college business plan will also matter and help you in the long run. With that, here are example templates you can download to start now. 

10+ College Business Plan Examples

1. college business plan template.

• Google Docs

2. Centennial College Business Plan

Size: 586 KB

3. Professional College Business Plan

Size: 895 KB

4. College Business Plan in PDF

Size: 122 KB

5. Developed College Business Plan

6. College Leadership Business Plan

Size: 167 KB

7. National College Business Plan

Size: 181 KB

8. Secondary College Business Plan

Size: 314 KB

9. Operational College Business Plan

10. College Business Operation Plan

11. Community College Business Plan

Size: 235 KB

What Is a College Business Plan?

A college business plan is a handy tool used in order to guide the user to better success and better roads. When you think of starting up a college, or adding a business course to a college, you will also need a business plan with it. A college business plan is seen as a means of gathering steps to making it work. May it be through a simple business plan or a complex one. Regardless, the main purpose of a college business plan is to gather steps or strategies to reach the main goal.

How to Create a College Business Plan

When you plan to make a college business plan, you think carefully about the steps that go with it. The most basic thing to see in a college business plan is the summary of your business and of course the marketing strategies. But these are not enough to make your business plan. To get a good idea, here are simple steps to create your college business plan.

Step 1: Always Plan Ahead

This may sound cliché but the most important thing to remember and to get started is to plan ahead . Do some brainstorming and get to know what you want in your business. This helps by making your college business plan better and can reap a better and positive result. Part of planning ahead is to plan for a title page, a title, or a goal you want to achieve. This can sometimes come off as the most difficult part of the entire business plan.

Step 2: Create Your Executive Summary

The next will be to create your executive summary . In this section of your business plan, you will be talking about your business, the timeline of your business, and any information that will help you explain about your business. Basically the executive summary gives you the opportunity to expound on your business and the description and nature of your college business.

Step 3: Discuss Marketing Strategies

Third step to your college business plan is to discuss marketing strategies . Marketing strategies help in maintaining your business goals. If you are not sure where to begin with your marketing strategies, you can always make a marketing strategies checklist . As this also creates ways in helping you figure out how to attract customers or clients to your business. They must also be practical for your business and your management team to do, or the whole marketing plan and strategies will be pointless.

Step 4: Check on Your Business Plan

From the first three steps to creating your college business plan, you may think that everything will be enough. You must be open to checking, updating, and reviewing your college business plan. The whole point of it is to make sure you are open to the ideas of updating progress reports you are going to be getting through the business plan milestones.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a lengthy document that has a complete detail of how a business you plan to set up is recorded. The business plan is also seen as a tool or a roadmap to help you find out the best roads to setting up a successful business.

Why do you need to update your business plan?

The main purpose for updating your business plan is because every progress is important. Every single detail that may show positive or negative changes have to be reported in order to keep your business plan updated as well.

What factors are in a business plan?

The factors you need in order to complete a business plan are the most simple and basic things like:

• executive summary
• practical strategies and steps
• a practical timeline and milestones

When you think of a college business plan, you know for a fact that you will need to make the business plan in a practical manner. Your business plan must have everything that you need to make this a success. With that, download any of the examples to start your college business plan now.

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

Create a study plan for final exams in high school

Develop a project timeline for a middle school science fair.

How to start a business while at university: tips from the students who did it

Three entrepreneurs share the resources and advice that any university student planning to start a business will find valuable.

The Covid-19 pandemic has vastly altered the traditional nine-to-five office job. With many new industries emerging, graduates around the world are beginning to make the most of the changing landscape to develop their own business ideas.

Building your own business as a university student requires huge amounts of creativity, resilience and vision, but it can be an extremely rewarding path.

Want to know more about the University of Dundee School of Business?

Below, three successful entrepreneurs share their top tips and guidance for starting a business at university.

1. Make the most of your university’s resources to develop your idea

Many universities have their own entrepreneurship centre or venture studios, which can help students develop their ideas and access resources and mentoring.

For example, Hadeel Ayoub came to the UK from the Middle East as a mature international student to do a postgraduate degree in computational arts at Goldsmiths, University of London . While there, she founded BrightSign, a company that develops assistive technology such as the BrightSign Glove, which translates the wearer’s sign language into texted speech.

For Hadeel, the support available for entrepreneurial students at Goldsmiths made all the difference.

“Goldsmiths supported me in learning the fundamentals of becoming an entrepreneur, like how to register your company, how to do your taxes, and how to create projections and use them to build a business model,” says Hadeel, speaking at the THE Student Festival: UK in October 2021. “I was also matched with a mentor, who gave me invaluable advice and guidance,” she adds.

Hadeel was later selected to represent her university at the annual Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards, where she won the People’s Choice Award for her work on the BrightSign Glove.

Amar Mehta, an international student from New Zealand studied for a master’s in neuroscience at King’s College London before joining the university’s King’s20 Accelerator programme. Through this scheme, he has been working on the development of Advicely, which uses artificial intelligence in digital advertising for small businesses.

“I have been really impressed by the level of support at my university, all of which has tangibly helped my business,” he says. “I was offered monthly catch-ups to check my progress, access to office space and time with experts associated with King’s, to name a few examples. I even found my current developer through contacts at the King’s Entrepreneurship Institute.”

Accelerator programmes such as King’s20 can also provide funding and visa sponsorship to international students like Amar. After finishing his neuroscience course, Amar was able to get sponsorship for a year-long start-up visa from King’s College London as a member of the King’s20 project. When a new cohort began on the programme the following year, the university offered Amar the chance to remain as a start-up-in-residence to coach the incoming group of entrepreneurs, and it supported him through a new visa application to extend his stay.

Tanuvi Ethunandan, another student entrepreneur, completed her undergraduate degree at the Falmouth University .

While there, Tanuvi joined Falmouth’s Launchpad, a venture studio, where she co-founded Data Duopoly to solve visitor congestion and lack of data insights at venues such as theme parks and museums.

Entrepreneurship is a new career choice for university students How to network as an international student The one skill all students should acquire to boost employability How to boost your career prospects as a university student

2. Know your market

If you want your business idea to succeed, you need a deep understanding of the sector you want to go into, including what’s missing from it, what problems your product or service would solve and what potential competition you might face.

Many students who pursue a subject other than entrepreneurship and business will go on to found companies based on innovations specifically needed in their field.

For Hadeel, studying computing was pivotal to becoming an entrepreneur, as it was during her degree course that she first encountered the machine learning technology that she later applied to create the BrightSign Glove.

“Once I found a new application for the technology and realised people wanted to buy it, my business grew organically out of that,” she says.

“Don’t discount universities as a market in themselves. If you’re a student, you’ll already know about the sector and have contacts within it,” advises Tanuvi. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she shifted gears to apply the technology she developed with her business to help Falmouth University students return safely to campus.

“Focus on building a business and not coming up with an idea to get a visa,” advises Amar. “You need to have a strong business idea that can genuinely provide value to the UK or wherever you want to be located. Make sure you really understand your market and what your audience actually wants, and test and learn as much as possible. Expect your first assumptions about your business to change quickly as you get feedback from your target audience,” he adds.

3. Play the student card outside your university

As well as finding mentors and networking opportunities through your university, you can use your student status to your advantage to seek external advice.

Making inroads into external networks and support systems will also help to ease the transition into the business world once you graduate.

Even if your idea is still in development, there’s no harm in getting in touch with potential mentors, or any incubators and accelerator opportunities early in the process.

“You really can use the student card anywhere,” says Hadeel. “From mentorship, promoting you to their network or even offering you free office space, people want to support you to get your idea out there.”

“If you are booking tickets for trade shows, say that you are a student. You can often get reduced price tickets,” advises Tanuvi.

“Also, take advantage of your long summer holidays,” she adds. “Get to work on your idea or look for a relevant internship or work experience that will complement your business.”

4. Don’t try to do it all alone

The portrayal of successful entrepreneurs as totally self-made and self-reliant can be misleading. Even the most visionary businesspeople will have had a strong support team behind them and will be wise enough to listen to advice from others.

“If you have an idea already, university is a great place to test it,” according to Tanuvi. “Higher education institutions can provide you a safe space to try and fail, while surrounding you with people who are willing you to succeed.

“I would recommend co-founding your business with a partner,” she adds. “You’ll need that person by your side to help you commiserate the lows as well as celebrate the highs.”

Hadeel says: “At the beginning of my journey developing BrightSign, I thought I could do it all on my own. I quickly discovered the very hard way that I couldn’t.”

She points out that as a student at Goldsmiths, she was able to get access to alumni across all University of London institutions, which was a great step up when it came to networking and finding support.

“Once I had the right help, things accelerated fast,” Hadeel says. “I know I lost time from not seeking advice earlier in my journey.”

5. Prepare for long hours

If you want to start your own business, you need to be ready to commit your time.

“Be prepared for long hours,” says Tanuvi. “Working well over 40 hours is not unusual in the beginning.”

“In the early years of building a business, putting in a lot of your time is pretty unavoidable,” adds Amar. “If you’re balancing your business with your studies, this can be really difficult – you’ll need a supportive team you can rely on, and I’d recommend setting strong boundaries of how you’re going to allocate your time.”

Making realistic work plans are key to avoiding burnout. If you’re planning to put in a lot of hours over a certain period, make sure you allot some time for rest and relaxation to recover.

You may also like

.css-185owts{overflow:hidden;max-height:54px;text-indent:0px;} Studying in Canada gave me the opportunities to start my own business

Meti Basiri

Digital Leaders: top universities for digital entrepreneurship

Your student experience is on hold; career development doesn’t have to be

Miguel Rodriguez

Register free and enjoy extra benefits

Start-Up Resources: Write a Winning Business Plan

Click on each heading to learn more about writing a business plan.

Business Plan Basics

Buerk Center Advisory Board members’ presentations on writing a business plan.

Marc Barros , Entrepreneur, co-founder and former CEO of Contour “Start your company! . . . Did you start your company yet? . . . Seriously, you’re already behind!” Marc emphasizes the business plan as a tool to organize thoughts for a business you’ve already started. View slides

T.A. McCann , Gist T.A. is the founder and CEO of Gist, which was acquired by RIM in 2011. His past experience includes Vulcan Capital and Polaris Venture Partners, where he was an entrepreneur-in-residence. View slides

Writing Resources

Resources for writing a stellar business plan.

How to Write a Great Business Plan Harvard Business Review Thorough article that covers the essential elements that belong in a business plan. A must read for anyone about to write a business plan.

How to Structure a Business Plan Inc. Magazine Magazine Extensive resource that covers everything from idea feasibility to presentation.

How to Write a Great Business Plan Inc. Magazine Advice for small businesses on what it takes to create a solid business plan, including forming an outline, integrating financial specifics, and spelling out your marketing strategy.

Business Plan Basics MIT Excellent slide deck from the MIT Course, The Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans . Covers why you write a plan, what you should cover in it, and who should write it. Content starts on slide 13.

Writing a Business Plan Sequoia Capital Includes elements of sustainable companies and a straightforward business plan outline.

Presentations on marketing your start-up. Who are your customers? What drives them to make a purchase? How do you segment the market? How do you market your business on a shoestring budget?

Marketing in a Competitive Environment Sharelle Klaus , CEO of DRY Soda Sharelle brings more than a decade of entrepreneurial, financial and technology experience to DRY Soda. Her presentation provides the tools you need to overcome marketing challenges commonly faced by start-ups. View slides

How to Market Consumer Products Presentation Jason Stoffer , Maveron Jason is a principal at Maveron, a local VC firm that is focused solely on consumer businesses. His presentation covers the key elements of a consumer products pitch, as well as the questions you should be able to answer about your product and the market it exists in. View slides

Presentations on the fundamentals of financial projections–What are they? How do you create them? How do you avoid the common pitfalls that drive investors crazy?

SEC Filings and Forms All publicly traded companies must disclose financial information to the SEC. Research companies that have similar cost structure, distribution channels, customers, etc. to help you estimate costs for your start-up.

Financials and Funding for Start-Ups Presentations Alan Dishlip, CFO of Billing Revolution Alan joined Billing Revolution as CFO in 2009, after holding that position at WildTangent Games for five years. He has both operational and venture capital experience and has been involved in helping build and grow early-stage companies for more than 30 years. View slides

Business Plan Template for University Students

• Great for beginners
• Ready-to-use, fully customizable Subcategory
• Get started in seconds

As a university student with big dreams of starting your own business, having a solid business plan is crucial to turning those dreams into reality. That's where ClickUp's Business Plan Template for University Students comes in handy!

With this template, you can:

• Outline and develop your business idea, strategy, and financial projections
• Create a comprehensive roadmap for your venture, ensuring you stay on track and meet your goals
• Collaborate with teammates and mentors to refine your plan and get valuable feedback

Whether you're majoring in business or simply have an entrepreneurial spirit, this template will help you take your ideas to the next level. Start planning your path to success today!

Business Plan Template for University Students Benefits

A business plan template for university students offers a range of benefits for aspiring entrepreneurs and business-minded students. Some of the key advantages include:

• Structured approach: Provides a clear and organized framework to develop a business idea from concept to execution.
• Strategic planning: Helps students define their goals, objectives, and strategies for their business venture.
• Financial projections: Allows students to create realistic financial forecasts and projections, ensuring they have a solid understanding of the financial aspects of their business.
• Investor readiness: Prepares students to present their business ideas confidently to potential investors or lenders.
• Risk assessment: Prompts students to identify and analyze potential risks associated with their business, enabling them to develop contingency plans.
• Professional documentation: Creates a professional and polished business plan that can be used to showcase their ideas to mentors, professors, and potential partners.
• Entrepreneurial mindset: Encourages students to think critically, problem-solve, and develop a mindset of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Main Elements of University Students Business Plan Template

ClickUp's Business Plan Template for University Students is the perfect tool to help aspiring entrepreneurs and business students outline and develop their ideas into a comprehensive business plan. Here are the main elements of this template:

• Custom Statuses: Track the progress of each section of your business plan with statuses like Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, and To Do.
• Custom Fields: Include important details in your business plan using custom fields such as Reference, Approved, and Section to ensure all necessary information is captured.
• Custom Views: Access different perspectives of your business plan with five different views, including Topics, Status, Timeline, Business Plan, and Getting Started Guide, allowing you to easily navigate and visualize your plan.

With ClickUp's Business Plan Template, university students can efficiently organize and collaborate on their business ideas to create a solid roadmap for their ventures.

How To Use Business Plan Template for University Students

If you're a university student looking to start your own business venture, using the Business Plan Template in ClickUp can help you get started. Follow these four steps to create a comprehensive business plan:

1. Define your business concept

Begin by clearly defining your business concept. What products or services will you offer? Who is your target audience? What problem does your business solve? This step is crucial for setting the foundation of your business plan.

Use a Doc in ClickUp to outline your business concept and brainstorm ideas for your target audience and unique selling proposition.

2. Conduct market research

To ensure the success of your business, it's important to gather information about your target market, competitors, and industry trends. Conduct thorough market research to gain insights into customer needs, market demand, pricing strategies, and potential challenges you may face.

Create tasks in ClickUp to organize your market research activities, such as analyzing industry reports, conducting surveys, and studying competitor analysis.

3. Develop a marketing strategy

A strong marketing strategy is essential for reaching your target audience and attracting customers. Outline your marketing tactics, such as social media campaigns, content marketing strategies, and advertising plans. Consider how you will position your brand and communicate your unique value proposition.

Use the Board view in ClickUp to create a visual representation of your marketing strategy, with columns for different marketing channels and tasks for each tactic.

4. Financial planning and projections

The financial aspect of your business plan is crucial for demonstrating the viability and profitability of your venture. Create a detailed financial plan that includes projected revenue, expenses, and cash flow. Consider factors such as startup costs, pricing strategies, and sales forecasts.

Utilize custom fields in ClickUp to track and calculate financial data, such as revenue projections and expense breakdowns.

By following these four steps and utilizing the Business Plan Template in ClickUp, you can create a comprehensive plan that lays the groundwork for your university student business venture. Good luck!

Get Started with ClickUp’s Business Plan Template for University Students

University students who are aspiring entrepreneurs or are involved in business-related programs can use the Business Plan Template for University Students in ClickUp to create a comprehensive roadmap for their venture.

First, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to develop your business plan:

• Use the Topics View to organize your business plan into different sections such as Executive Summary, Market Analysis, Marketing Strategy, Financial Projections, etc.
• The Status View will help you track the progress of each section, categorizing them as Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, or To Do.
• The Timeline View will allow you to set deadlines and milestones for each section, ensuring you stay on track.
• Use the Business Plan View to get a comprehensive overview of your entire plan, including all sections and their statuses.
• The Getting Started Guide View will provide you with step-by-step instructions and tips on how to use the template effectively.
• Customize the template by adding custom fields like Reference, Approved, and Section to provide additional information and track important details.
• Update statuses and custom fields as you work on each section to keep track of progress and ensure all necessary information is included.
• Business Plan Template for Dental Clinic
• Business Plan Template for Community Leaders
• Business Plan Template for Culinary Professionals
• Business Plan Template for Janitorial Staff
• Business Plan Template for Home Decorators

Template details

Free forever with 100mb storage.

Free training & 24-hours support

Serious about security & privacy

Highest levels of uptime the last 12 months

• Product Roadmap
• Affiliate & Referrals
• On-Demand Demo
• Integrations
• Consultants
• Gantt Chart
• Native Time Tracking
• Automations
• Kanban Board
• vs Airtable
• vs Basecamp
• vs MS Project
• vs Smartsheet
• Software Team Hub
• PM Software Guide

• Create Account

How to Build a Successful Business From Scratch as a College Student

Meta Description: Discover the steps you need to take to launch a startup in college and succeed. Here's your chance to learn how the most successful college entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

If there was ever any doubt about the possibility of launching a successful startup while in college, the stories of Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Dell serve as undeniable proof. The founders of Facebook and Dell Computers, respectively, launched their companies as students and turned them into multibillion-dollar corporations. 

As a student entrepreneur, you already have certain privileges that regular startup founders may lack, such as:

• access to free or subsidized learning resources
• ability to speak to lecturers who could become your business mentors
• business ideas from other students
• access to a talented pool of potential student employees
• availability of customers in the college environment 
• less pressure to succeed

Student entrepreneurship also comes with its obstacles. The most prominent problem is the limited time and stress involved. Already, 20% of small businesses don't survive their first year, according to a report by Fundera. You can only imagine the challenges of having to juggle college and launching a startup.

Fortunately, we've created a guide to help you launch a successful startup while in college, despite the challenges. Let's dive in, shall we?

Develop a Unique Business Idea

You don't have to rack your brain for a mind-blowing idea that no one else has thought of. Start with something easy or an activity you enjoy doing but have yet to monetize. Before you launch a startup in college, you should think of the problems people face that you can solve.

Next, determine if you need to acquire additional resources or skills to solve these problems. For example, if you want to start an electronics repair business and already possess the required skills, you still have to get a repair kit with all the tools and spare parts you will need. 

• Choose electives in school that could be beneficial to your business and give you new skills. Let's reconsider an electronics repair business as an example. Courses aligned with engineering that teach about circuit boards will give you a deeper understanding. 
• Other students in your university might have interesting concepts for businesses. Hence, collaborating with college entrepreneurs may expose you to interesting ideas. 

Do Market Research

You need to understand the market so that you can identify what works and doesn’t. Online surveys are the best way to get information from diverse groups of people with different cultures and backgrounds. Common survey questions such as "How do you make purchases?” and “Where do you go for information?” can give some amazing business ideas for students. It's also important to find out the cultural, social, and economic trends that could affect your business — some of which are:

• Buying habits
• Health consciousness
• Attitude towards ecological products

Gather relevant data about your competitors, such as their pricing, the areas they excel in, and where they're failing. This research will put you in an advantageous position when you launch.

Tip: When business topics are treated in class, you can always ask hypothetical questions to give you more insights into launching your startup. You could also join programs that can help students prepare for entrepreneurship .

During the process of discovering how to have a startup in college, build relationships and connections that will help you to get your first set of customers. You can follow this guide to build a mailing list and get people to sign up:

• Select a provider for email marketing and create your account.
• Set up an opt-in form on your website.
• Create your first newsletter and welcome message. You can choose to create a unique signature for your email.
• Offer a form of bonus or freebie and drive traffic to it.
• Develop a landing page.

Create a Business Plan and Get Adequate Funding

Creating a working business plan is probably the most important piece of the puzzle when you're trying to figure out how to launch a successful startup. A comprehensive business plan with a budget is a crucial aspect of starting any business. Follow this step-by-step guide to create your business plan:

• Start with the executive summary, which gives fundamental details about your business, such as sector, target audience, services, etc.
• Come up with a mission statement, and specify the products or services you wish to offer
• Create a marketing plan that will effectively reach your target audience
• Lay out your operational plan detailing the day-to-day of your business
• List out the managerial organization of your company as well as relevant fiscal planning.

Then there's funding. While having good money-saving habits could help you raise some capital, there are several ways students can get funding to launch a startup in college. Conduct extensive research on grants, loans, and scholarships that can help you in starting your own business while in college. 

Tip: One of the major advantages you would enjoy when you run a business in a university is access to school resources. Free Wi-Fi, an extensive library, printing, and other online resources may be available from your tuition payments, so take advantage of them. Additionally, there are student discounts on software that can be highly beneficial. 

Build Your Brand

You need to create a brand that gives you more legitimacy. A good way to start is to get a website, which doesn’t have to cost money. Free website builders such as WordPress, Wix, Webnode, Ucraft, and Mozello offer great results for no cost.

Your branding process should have a wide range and include social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Social media marketing tools should help make the process smoother. Also, getting a student influencer to further strengthen your brand would be beneficial because statistics show that 49% of consumers rely on recommendations from influencers.

Tip: Many entrepreneurs today forget that word-of-mouth is also an efficient way to build a brand. Don't overlook this goldmine, because statistics show that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over other sources. Tell as many people as you can: friends, classmates, study groups, and even strangers at parties. Feel free to organize get-togethers and parties of your own where you can market your product by giving out free samples and requesting your guests to share their experience on social media. 

Follow Rules and Regulations Strictly

To avoid trouble when you launch a startup in college, you must obey all of the laid-down rules by your institution and government. A common mistake startups make is failing to register the company, which could hurt you later. Also, stay up to date with insurance, licenses, certificates, and taxes relating to your business and personal life. 

Tip: Understandably, during the first few months of your business operation, you might not have enough funds to hire a consultant or lawyer to help you avoid breaking rules and regulations. This is where a mentor comes in. You can leverage the college’s network to get a mentor experienced in the field you're pursuing. Also, online spaces such as FledgeWing and Mogul can connect you to mentors. It's advisable to have a mentor on and off-campus because they will:

• guide you to avoid mistakes
• connect you to other experts in the same field
• expose you to new opportunities

Get Staff and Tools Ready

Before and after you launch a startup in college, find some students willing to collaborate with you and recruit them. However, don't just accept anybody willing to work for your startup. Only choose smart, experienced, and talented students or possibly college entrepreneurs like you.

Get all of the materials you need to work ready such as offices, software, storage space, CRM tools , and gadgets. 

Tip: A good way to choose who to hire is selecting students who are studying courses relevant to your needs. For example, if you need someone to handle your startup's finances, you could hire an accounting student. While hiring for your business, note that flexibility is a major concern for students and most will consider having flexible hours as more important than any amount you’re willing to pay them. 

Launch and Market Your Startup

Next, it's time to get your startup running. In the early stages, communicate frequently with your employees, partners, and customers to ensure the smooth running of your operations. Concentrate on rendering quality service to your first few customers and have them leave reviews on your website if possible.

A huge part of launching your business is making the first set of sales. Reach out to the prospects in your mailing list and let them know about your latest deals. Besides family and friends, they're most likely to be your first customers. You could also offer discounts as incentives.

When you launch a startup in college, it should capture the attention of people within and outside your institution. Trending on social media is a way to do that and using hashtags effectively can boost your chances. Follow these points to get your hashtag to trend:

• Choose a hashtag that captures attention immediately
• Use a maximum of 20 characters in your hashtag
• Study and understand the algorithm of the app
• Promote and share your hashtag any chance you get
• Work with influencers to market the hashtag

Since a large percentage of your customers will be students, you should leverage SMS marketing because students are likely to check their text messages. You can also use content marketing by creating an on-site blog and posting helpful content regularly. Other cost-effective marketing methods you should leverage are:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Pay-per-click ads
• Posting on relevant forums
• Guest-speaking on podcasts and webinars

Tip: Knowing how to start a business in college successfully involves leveraging available marketing resources to save money and stay within your budget. You can advertise your business with the media center at your university. It's a cost-effective resource that gives you access to a lot of students. The various student organizations on campus is another body you can partner with to market your brand.

Maintain Your Priorities

As a business owner, you should have better control of your time. You should also schedule most of your activities. Whether you're starting a tech company, consulting firm, ecommerce store, or service-providing business, entrepreneurship can be challenging to combine with school work. Create a daily to-do list to keep up with deadlines and not fall behind in your studies and work .

Before your first day of entrepreneurship, you need to learn restraint and how to say "no" to distractions when you need to focus. You may have to cut back on surfing the web, texting, and socializing.

Tip: Use a form of reward system to motivate yourself to accomplish tasks. For example, you may decide to go to a party with friends after you have completed all your tasks for the week. Most importantly, assignments and exams should always be on top of your priority list. Your academic performance is key, no matter how your business takes off. 

While the potential of making a fortune from your startup is a major incentive, there are other benefits to gain. Launching your business allows you to implement your innovative ideas while you're young. It's also an excellent catalyst for self-growth and discovery.

By following the guide above and adding the essential ingredient that is hard work and dedication, your dreams of running a successful startup could become a reality. Stay focused, and you may have your own success story to tell in the future.

Alexa Lemzy

Get matched to the best program for you.

Let us know what you're looking for so we can find the best school for you.

Useful Articles

Check Out These Schools

Herkimer College

$5,000—$10,000 Semester

Hillsborough Community College

$10,000 — $15,000 Year

Golden West College

$5,000—$10,000 Year

Featured Programs

Berkeley Global

Typical cost per Semester: $15,000—$20,000

Typical cost per Year: $5,000—$10,000

University of Mississippi

Typical cost per Semester: $10,000 — $15,000

Start your U.S. adventure with Study in the USA

Learn About U.S. education financing, housing, and more

Prodigy Finance

Studying abroad is an invaluable step in your professional and personal growth. Prodigy Finance have helped fund over 20,000 master’s students to pursue their dreams at the best schools of the world.

The Michigan English Test for Higher Education Admissions in the U.S.

Backed by Cambridge University Press & Assessment and the University of Michigan, MET helps you achieve your goals and fulfill your aspirations by providing a trusted English language exam developed for the real world.

Want to intern at big tech companies like Google and Microsoft?

Career Premium Offers Virtual Internships for International Students. You can now apply for a virtual internship and prepare for the global workforce from anywhere in the world. Internships are extremely flexible and run throughout the year, so you c...

Learn about American culture and education direct from our experts at Study in the USA. Read more

Achieving Your Goal

Admissions and placement testing, beyond the basics, education system in the usa, financing your u.s. education, frequently asked questions, life in the usa, student experiences, for students age 10-18, study in canada, student voices, ask studyusa.com, subscribe to get the latest from study in the usa.

You can unsubscribe at any time.

Business Plan

How to Start a University in Nigeria

by BusinessPlan Leave a Comment

Universities abound in Nigeria. Government owned and private owned. Well the focus in this article is starting a university in Nigeria. Universities could be either government or private owned. There is still need to have more universities that could improve our education and give us recognition on a global scale. To be honest, the business it expensive to setup and the challenges great but once you are able to surmount these, the opportunities to become recognized abound, and you can make some money alongside.

The need for privately owned universities is known to so many people. It is not an issue if you do not know. There was a time when government owned institutions were the only ones available. We were beset with a very erratic academic calendar as strikes caused by both student unrest as well as demands by teaching and non-teaching staff forced almost all the universities in Nigeria to be on strike for very long periods at a time, in some cases. So students could be run programs for over 2 years the normal duration without even having extra years.

Also Read: Nursery and Primary School Business Plan in Nigeria

This need to have a stable academic calendar, not easily disrupted and that could be easily managed, gave the private universities an upper hand. Today, we have a healthy number of private universities in Nigeria. To set up a university, you need to be guided. This is because a lot of things come to play and even the government has guidelines for establishing a university.

The government takes this seriously. Education is paramount to every government as it plays a big role in employment, productivity, innovation and industrialization among others. For this reason, even after establishment the university will have to continue undergoing accreditation periodically. It is important to note that the standard of the school will be scrutinized at every point in time.

Let me take you through much of what you will need to start and establish a university in Nigeria.

According to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a university may be sponsored by the federal government, state government or local government or by a company incorporated in Nigeria or by an individual or group of individuals who are citizens of the said country, and who satisfy the criteria set out in the schedule to the Act for Establishment of Institutions. It will be impossible to start out a university if the criteria set out in this act has been fully met.

It will be important to employ the services of a lawyer or a team of lawyers to handle the back and forth that will assuredly occur during the process of establishment.

The following steps have been outlined by the National Universities Commissions for the establishment of a university.

• You are expected to write an application of intent. This letter of intent should be addressed to the Executive Secretary of the NUC. The letter should include the Name of the proposed university, the location, mission and vision, nature of the proposed university, it proposed area of concentration in the current Nigerian university system, among others.
• The commission will then invite you for an interview. The interview is to establish how serious you are.
• Following a review of the written application and after appropriate deliberation, you will be invited to collect a set of 10 application forms. These forms will be collected in person and a stipulated fee (of N1,000,000 subject to change ) will be made to the commission. Copies of guidelines and other requirements will be issued to assist and facilitate guidance.
• The application forms collected are to be submitted. The forms are forwarded with a non-refundable processing fee (of N5,000,000 subject to change ) addressed to NUC in Bank Draft. The following documents may be attached if prepared and ready. Upon advisement, the last two documents in the list below should not be procured unless the application has reached an advanced stage. The documents are as follows;
• Draft of Academic Brief
• Draft of University Law
• Draft of Masterplan
• Counterpart Deed of Assignment
• Certificate of Incorporation/Registration of Proprietors (along with Articles and Memorandum of Association)
• Deed of Assignment/Certificate of Occupancy
• Letter of Available Liquid Cash and lastly,
• Bank Guarantee of Funds to the tune of N200 from a bank of repute.
• Interactive meeting with the Standing Committee of Private Universities, SCOPU. The members of the Planning and Implementation Committee of the university you intend to establish are invited for an interactive meeting with the aforementioned committee of the NUC. The meeting is a lead up to the initial visit to the campus site of the proposed university.
• Completion of Submission of Relevant Documents left to be submitted.
• Exhaustive evaluation of documents by experts in relevant NUC departments
• First verification visit
• Revision of documents by proprietors based on report by the standing committee of private universities of the commission
• Final site assessment visit
• Security screening of proprietors and board of trustees of the proposed university
• Approval by the management of National University Commission
• Approval by the of National University Commission board
• Approval by the federal executive council (FEC)

Now that the procedure for you need to be sure your University has been spelt out, it is important to figure out all the important things that need to be carried out such as staffing, equipment purchase, marketing, etc. In all truth, setting up a university is a tedious venture, but the payout is much and the trouble worthwhile.

A university is sort of a very large business with tendrils in many directions, each of which needs to be properly managed to achieve best results. Once you have decided to start out and after the registration and approval by the FEC, you need to begin to follow the plan laid out in letter of intent. The vision and mission of the university must always be considered during decision making.

Let us take a look at other things that need to be done outside the NUC, even though they will culminate in the approval of the Federal Executive Council.

Source for Funds

Funding is a great aspect of running an education enterprise the statue of a university. You need to have an ample supply of funds for registration, infrastructure, equipment and facilities, library, research, employment and administration. You may work well within a budget but you may well exceed that budget if you want to build a university of repute, or if you are not careful enough to follow your plans to the letter. You will always find things that remain unresolved or underachieved at any point in time during the planning and running of your university.

It is important to have a timeline for achieving your goals. For instance, you may not be able to purchase of the equipment at the same time, sometimes, some departments may need to share some equipment sometimes. Funding can be by sole proprietorship or partnership. As stated earlier, at least 200 million naira will be needed for this venture. This is excluding money for land and registration purposes.

Land Acquisition

The minimum requirement for land for a university campus is 100 hectares. This land will have to be easily accessible. The campus should also have a water source and electricity source. This land is going to carry infrastructure such as hostel accommodation, classroom and lecture halls, hostel, hospital, security and administrative offices among others. The land should be purchased in the state the university is going to operate from.

Branding your University

It is important that you decide the name of your university early enough. By the time you are submitting the letter of intent, the name of the university should have been decided and should reflect. This is what your university will be known by. Also decide on the logo that will be easy to read from afar and people will easily identify with.

You need to build a website. The website should be fully functional and secure as a lot of personal information and sensitive information will be on it. It should be equipped with a portal for students and staff. It should also have feature for an e-commerce site where payment such as fees and dues could be made.

It should also feature an e-library so that students’ and other researchers could correspond with other libraries around the world.

Build Infrastructure

Infrastructure such as classroom, laboratories, roads, bridges where applicable, hostel, staff quarters, security posts and outposts, lecture theatres and classrooms, hospital, car park, administrative building, sport facilities, etc., need to be built according to the plan submitted to the NUC. Follow standard building guidelines for to ensure that quality work is carried out. It is important to build standard infrastructure because this is a long-term investment.

Employment, Academic Planning and Related Activities

Employment is a very critical aspect of the university setup. You need to employ both teaching and non-teaching staff who will carry out the day to day running activities of the university. Before employment is carried out, you need to have determined how many faculties, departments and programs that will be created and offered yearly.

The management staff which include the board of trustees, principal officers including the pro-chancellor, vice-chancellor, deputy vice-chancellors and registrar etc., need to be appointed and their function spelt out in detail in the university constitution. Functions of the bursar, chief librarian, deans of faculties, Heads of Departments, need to also be spelt out. Committees, like the senate, disciplinary, finance and general purpose committee should also have clearly spelt out functions.

Everyone in the university at any point in time, needs to know what duties are assigned to them for smooth running. Much information on the function the university is expected to achieve can be found in the University of Nigeria Act.

You will need to employ such staff like lecturers, support staff, IT personnel, cleaners, security, doctors and nurses, facility managers etc. Employ the best.

Lastly, an academic calendar needs to be drawn up. This calendar will define the schedule as a timeline of activities to be carried out annually. It will must have a beginning and an end of academic session. The academic session should define the time for resumption, matriculation, duration of semester, examination, convocation and times of meeting of the senate of the university among others.

Equipping the University

Employers and infrastructure will be incomplete without equipment and facilities needed to improve productivity and make work easier. You need to purchase laboratory equipment, furniture for office and lecture, some of which may be permanent fitted. Sport facilities, vehicles for conveyance, medical equipment and facilities, fire extinguishers, security gear, classroom boards and such things that are necessary.

Computers, printers, photocopiers, telephone and fax machines and internet facilities need to be installed for ease of work. Air conditioners and fans should be installed for comfort as learn should be carried out in a conducive environment.

A source of power should be decided upon. It is possible to generate power internally or to use the electricity distribution company in your area. If later will be used, owing to the erratic supply or power it is expedient to also acquire a generator capable of powering the school at any point in time.

Office stationery such as files, paper, letterhead, stapler, paper clips, and filing cabinets need to be purchased.

More than one of these items listed above will be acquired so it is advisable to purchase in bulk. There is no harm in contracting someone to handle procurement while you supervise inventory of supplies.

Lastly, a university must have a library. Books and research materials need to be purchased. They will be mounted on shelves previously installed alongside other furniture for the library.

Market Your University

There is no end to this. You need to do rigorous marketing through media and news print. It is important to start early, at least two years before the commencement of academic activities. Indicate the courses available in every advertisement made. Marketing is something that will continue for as long as the university continues to exist. For this reason, the reputation of the school must be kept intact. Students will tell their friends how good the school is. In fact, they are your biggest advertisers. Secondly, once they are done, they will be employed in the marketplace by companies and NGOs etc. They will appraise the quality of every student from your university. In fact the NUC regularly accredits universities and as such you have a duty to maintain your standard and even improve it as the years go by.

Ensure you carry out studies and make relevant deductions from your studies. With this I believe you can start a university of your choice.

We can write your University business plan for you. To take advantage of our service, pay N50,000 to:

BANK NAME: FIRST BANK PLC

ACCOUNT NAME:  CHIBUZOR TOCHI ONYEMENAM

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 3066880122

After payment, send your full name, email address and topic (i.e. university business plan in Nigeria pdf) to 07033378184. Your business plan will be sent to your email within 72 hours.

How to Start a University in Nigeria © www.businessplan.com.ng

Share this:

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

• Live In The D
• Newsletters

Tempted to try a no-buy year? Here are tips from people doing it

Adriana Morga

Associated Press

NEW YORK – The rules of a no-buy challenge are self-imposed and simple: Make a list of the non-essential items you won't spend money on for a set period of time and stick to it. Easier said than done.

Many people start such challenges at the beginning of the year and commit to keep going until the end of it. But any time can be the right one for those looking to tackle their credit card debt, declutter their homes or to spend less time shopping. Some challenge participants begin with a no-spend month.

Recommended Videos

“I commend anyone who realizes they’re just buying too much because North America is very consumer-focused and there’s too much waste,” said Carrie Rattle, the CEO of financial coaching company Behavioral Cents.

Thinking of what you would be better off living without? These are some recommendations from experts and people already participating in the challenge.

IDENTIFY YOUR WEAKNESSES

Whether it’s makeup, ordering takeout food or buying unnecessary trinkets in the $1 section at Target, knowing your vulnerabilities will help you make a realistic plan for staying on track.

Before starting her no-buy year, Mia Westrap, a Ph.D. student in Southhampton, England, took a close look at what she spent money on during the previous few months. She decided that unnecessary food and beverages were her weakness.

“I figured out that I was spending four figures on just carbonated drinks and Pepsi Max,” she said.

MAKE YOUR OWN RULES

One of the fun parts of a no-buy challenge is that there are no set rules. Individuals choose what to include and exclude.

San Diego resident Amea Wadsworth, 22, used to love spending hours looking at clothes and quirky knickknacks at Target and Goodwill. But when she moved back home after graduating college, she realized how many things she had accumulated through the years.

“When I have those decluttering moments and I look through all my stuff, I was finding things that I bought and spent a lot of money on and then never ended up wearing,” Wadsworth said.

For her challenge, she chose to not buy new clothing items and prioritized spending on experiences with her loved ones. Wadsworth also started her challenge by doing it month by month.

Writing down the rules that fit your needs may help you stay on track. However, it’s also fine to tweak some of the rules as you move along in your experience.

TAKE A PAUSE

Finances are very connected to emotions, and emotions sometimes can make you feel like buying something you don't need. When Wadsworth feels an impulse to get something she saw on social media or at a story, she writes it down instead of immediately purchasing the item.

At the end of the month, she reviews the list and decides what, if anything, still is worth buying.

“I look back and I see how many things I wrote and I’m like ’I’m glad that I didn’t buy that because I really didn’t need it,’” Wadsworth said.

If you impulse buy, it might be helpful to write down the things you want to purchase and take some time to think further about the utility of the item.

UNSUBSCRIBE AND UNFOLLOW

Between pop-up promotions and influencers swooning over new merchandise, social media can be a trigger for unnecessary shopping, according to Courtney Alev, a consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma.

If you think screen time is compounding your overspending habit, Alev recommends taking a break from following accounts that bring on the urge to pull out a credit card.

BE GENTLE WITH YOURSELF

When Westrap began her no-buy year, she felt like the universe was conspiring against her. Her car broke down one month, and the next she received an expensive fine for an overdue parking ticket she was unaware of. Unexpected expenses or weak moments happen to everyone, and it’s OK if you don’t follow your no-buy year rules exactly as you had planned. The effort matters.

“If you fail, you probably need a bit more help. You are not a failure. You have simply failed at one method," Rattle said. "And that’s really important because I don’t want people to feel dejected.”

Building a new habit and managing your finances can be difficult. Try to be gentle with yourself in the process.

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Click here to take a moment and familiarize yourself with our Community Guidelines.

An official website of the United States government

Here’s how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

U.S. Department of Commerce

• Press Releases

Was this page helpful?

U.s. secretary of commerce gina raimondo releases strategic vision on ai safety, announces plan for global cooperation among ai safety institutes, office of public affairs.

As AI Seoul Summit begins, Raimondo unveils Commerce’s goals on AI safety under President Biden’s leadership.

Raimondo announces plans for global network of AI Safety Institutes and future convening in the U.S. in San Francisco area, where the U.S. AI Safety Institute recently established a presence.

Today, as the AI Seoul Summit begins, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo released a strategic vision for the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI), describing the Department’s approach to AI safety under President Biden’s leadership. At President Biden’s direction, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) within the Department of Commerce launched the AISI, building on NIST’s long-standing work on AI. In addition to releasing a strategic vision, Raimondo also shared the Department’s plans to work with a global scientific network for AI safety through meaningful engagement with AI Safety Institutes and other government-backed scientific offices, and to convene the institutes later this year in the San Francisco area, where the AISI recently established a presence.

“Recent advances in AI carry exciting, lifechanging potential for our society, but only if we do the hard work to mitigate the very real dangers of AI that exist if it is not developed and deployed responsibly. That is the focus of our work every single day at the U.S. AI Safety Institute, where our scientists are fully engaged with civil society, academia, industry, and the public sector so we can understand and reduce the risks of AI, with the fundamental goal of harnessing the benefits,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “The strategic vision we released today makes clear how we intend to work to achieve that objective and highlights the importance of cooperation with our allies through a global scientific network on AI safety. Safety fosters innovation, so it is paramount that we get this right and that we do so in concert with our partners around the world to ensure the rules of the road on AI are written by societies that uphold human rights, safety, and trust.”

Commerce Department AI Safety Institute Strategic Vision

The strategic vision released today, available here , outlines the steps that the AISI plans to take to advance the science of AI safety and facilitate safe and responsible AI innovation. At the direction of President Biden, NIST established the AISI and has since built an executive leadership team that brings together some of the brightest minds in academia, industry and government.

The strategic vision describes the AISI’s philosophy, mission, and strategic goals. Rooted in two core principles—first, that beneficial AI depends on AI safety; and second, that AI safety depends on science—the AISI aims to address key challenges, including a lack of standardized metrics for frontier AI, underdeveloped testing and validation methods, limited national and global coordination on AI safety issues, and more.

The AISI will focus on three key goals:

• Advance the science of AI safety;
• Articulate, demonstrate, and disseminate the practices of AI safety; and
• Support institutions, communities, and coordination around AI safety.

To achieve these goals, the AISI plans to, among other activities, conduct testing of advanced models and systems to assess potential and emerging risks; develop guidelines on evaluations and risk mitigations, among other topics; and perform and coordinate technical research. The U.S. AI Safety Institute will work closely with diverse AI industry, civil society members, and international partners to achieve these objectives.

Launch of International Network of AI Safety Institutes

Concurrently, today Secretary Raimondo announced that the Department and the AISI will help launch a global scientific network for AI safety through meaningful engagement with AI Safety Institutes and other government-backed scientific offices focused on AI safety and committed to international cooperation. Building on the foundational understanding achieved by the Republic of Korea and our other partners at the AI Seoul Summit through the Seoul Statement of Intent toward International Cooperation on AI Safety Science, this network will strengthen and expand on AISI's previously announced collaborations with the AI Safety Institutes of the UK, Japan, Canada, and Singapore, as well as the European AI Office and its scientific components and affiliates, and will catalyze a new phase of international coordination on Al safety science and governance. This network will promote safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems for people around the world by enabling closer collaboration on strategic research and public deliverables.

To further collaboration between this network, AISI intends to convene international AI Safety Institutes and other stakeholders later this year in the San Francisco area. The AISI has recently established a Bay Area presence and will be leveraging the location to recruit additional talent.

• Updated Terms of Use
• New Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices
• Closed Captioning Policy

Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by  Factset . Powered and implemented by  FactSet Digital Solutions .  Legal Statement .

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. FAQ - New Privacy Policy

How to start a candle business in 2024: 5 easy steps to selling candles from the comfort of your home

Starting a candle business can be an excellent source of additional income.

Small business owners fear they won't survive a second Biden term

Katlyn Swaffer and Maher Youssef explain how their small businesses have been affected by inflation and call on President Biden to address the issue.

Americans are rapidly working on side hustles as an additional source of income.

Fifty-four percent of Americans have begun a side hustle in the last twelve months, according to MarketWatch, as a means of making more money in addition to a primary source of income. 

All you really need to start a side hustle is an idea and an understanding of how to execute that idea. Taking a creative approach to your entrepreneurship can include a hobby-like business, and one of the more popular ones today is candle making.

Whether you have made a candle before or not, through trial and error, there are simple tricks to producing a product that is unique from what else is on the market.

One side hustle that can bring you extra income is a candle business. You can begin the business at home, selling online and at local craft fairs.  (David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images / Getty Images)

WANT TO MAKE MONEY OFF YOUR FLOURISHING GARDEN? HERE ARE 4 WAYS TO TURN YOUR CROPS INTO CASH 

You can make candles in your own home pretty easily. Here's a guide to get you started on your candle business. 

• Learn how to make candles from home
• Come up with a brand name, logo and label for your candles
• Write a business plan
• Register your business
• Decide how you are going to sell and get your business going

1. Learn how to make candles from home

The first step to starting your business is learning how to make candles. You'll need minimal supplies to get you started, including containers for your candles, wax, wicks and fragrance. 

It will take trial and error to perfect the look of your candle, the wick placement and the amount of fragrance you need for the perfect scent. If you want to add color to your candle, you'll also need to purchase dye. 

At first, the top of your candle may not appear totally smooth, your wick may be crooked, or you may not have enough fragrance for the scent. 

Practice makes perfect. The more candles you make, the better you'll get and the quicker you'll be ready to sell.  (Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)

All the candles you make during your trial and error period can be gifts for friends and family because they probably won't be good enough to sell.

You could also buy wax molds to add uniqueness to your candles. 

TIPS FOR SELLING EGGS AND TURNING A PROFIT RIGHT FROM YOUR BACKYARD 

Once you have made numerous candles with success, you're ready to move to step two. 

2. Come up with a brand name, logo and label for your candles

You will need a unique brand name and logo for your business and a label for your candles. 

Your brand name should be something unique and memorable. You'll also want to create a logo for your business and a label to put on each of your candles. 

On each candle should be your brand name/logo as well as information about the candle itself, like the scent, instructions and safety information. 

3. Write a business plan

All businesses start out with a plan. 

A business plan is a document that describes the company and also highlights its goals. 

In a business plan, you can include elements like the mission statement, the products offered, the target audience of the company, marketing plans and financial information. 

HOW TO START A LEMONADE STAND WITH YOUR KIDS THIS SUMMER 

Your business plan is by no means set in stone. As your company grows and changes, your plan will, too. You can always make edits to your business plan when needed. 

4. Register your business

To run a business, you'll need to register it. The process varies depending on your state, so you'll need to look into the legal requirements where you live to avoid getting fined or having your business shut down. 

Once your business is registered, you'll receive an Employer Identification Number (EIN). This number is given to businesses for tax purposes.  

Also, make sure you obtain any necessary business licenses or permits in the state to legally operate your business. 

You'll want to have all these legal steps taken care of before you start selling candles. 

Make sure to have the scent of the candle and the name of your business clearly displayed on each container.  (David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images / Getty Images)

5. Decide how you are going to sell and get your business going

Now, it's time to officially launch your business. 

You will need to determine a price for your candles. According to Forbes, you'll want to aim for a 25% to 50% profit margin, so keep that in mind when you are considering how much to charge. 

You should create a website for your business with your contact information for customers to reach out to you. You can also sell your candles through your own website. 

Another way to sell is through an online marketplace like Etsy. 

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE 

It's also a good idea to start social media channels for your business. Include high-quality pictures of your product on these channels. 

Social media is not only a great way to market your business, but another way you can sell your candles. 

During the warmer months, consider buying a booth at a local craft fair to sell your products. This is a great way to spend some time outside while also speaking directly with customers. 

In major change, college athletes set to be paid directly by schools

The NCAA and major conferences agreed to a settlement that would establish a revenue-sharing model for athletes beginning in the fall of 2025, though many steps remain to finalize the arrangement.

The NCAA and its five power conferences have approved a deal that paves the way for schools to pay athletes directly, a change that would crush any last notions of amateurism in major college sports.

The agreement, which settles three antitrust cases and was voted on throughout this week, includes almost $2.8 billion in damages. That money will be distributed to current and former athletes, who sued in House v. NCAA over not being compensated for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) on television broadcasts.

In a joint statement Thursday night, the NCAA and its conferences announced that they had agreed to the settlement terms, which also resolve Hubbard v. NCAA and Carter v. NCAA . And no matter how high the damages are, the most far-reaching component is a new revenue-sharing model, which would pay athletes a cut of money their schools generate from broadcast rights deals, ticket sales and sponsorships, among other streams.

Should the settlement go through, revenue sharing would likely begin at the start of the 2025-26 academic year, a seismic shift considering how long the NCAA has refused to have schools compensate athletes. Yet many steps remain before that can happen.

For the next four to six weeks, lawyers from both sides will hammer out the details, though NCAA representatives don’t expect them to look much different than the initial agreement. Judge Claudia Wilken — who presided over major college sports cases such as O’Bannon v. NCAA and Alston v. NCAA — would then call a hearing to review the settlement terms. If she approves, current athletes would have a chance to object or opt out of the agreement. Then, as a final step, Wilken would consider any objections before making her final decision. Attorneys estimate the whole process could take between six and eight months.

“The five autonomy conferences and the NCAA agreeing to settlement terms is an important step in the continuing reform of college sports that will provide benefits to student-athletes and provide clarity in college athletics across all divisions for years to come,” the NCAA and conferences said in their joint statement. “This settlement is also a road map for college sports leaders and Congress to ensure this uniquely American institution can continue to provide unmatched opportunity for millions of students.”

On Wednesday, the NCAA’s Board of Governors voted to implement the settlement terms. It was a landmark moment in that, though they had been heavily prodded, the NCAA’s top decision-makers approved a system for schools to directly pay athletes. The SEC and Pac-12, the last of the five conferences to vote, approved the settlement Thursday. The defendants in House , the most significant of the cases, were the NCAA, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Pac-12.

If Wilken ultimately approves the settlement, the NCAA would reshape its budget to account for about 41 percent of the nearly $2.8 billion in damages. The other 59 percent would be paid by schools across the next decade, most notably through the NCAA withholding some of its March Madness revenue distributions each year. Beyond revenue sharing, the settlement could also establish a new model for at least the power conferences to make and enforce their own rules, according to Yahoo. It’s just another sign of how stratified college sports are in 2024.

As for the revenue-sharing cap, the exact number is still being finalized. But people familiar with the negotiations have mentioned a cap of about $20 million, formulated by taking about 22 percent of the average power conference school’s main revenue streams. The cap will rise slightly each year, then be reset every three years to keep pace with revenue growth. According to Yahoo, a school’s cap spending could include up to $5 million in education-related payments — known as Alston money — and additional scholarships. NIL collectives, the donor-funded groups that have paid quasi-salaries to athletes in revenue sports, should maintain a heavy influence in football and men’s basketball recruiting, though the NCAA is hoping to reimpose stricter rules on how and when collectives can negotiate with athletes.

In the past month, settlement talks went into overdrive because the NCAA and the power conferences wanted to avoid a January trial at all costs. Given the NCAA’s recent track record in court, the defendants clearly didn’t like their chances. If they would have lost at trial, the damages would have tripled. They also would have had to pay them immediately instead of over a 10-year period. But in the past week — despite being happy with the overall outcome — nonpower conferences have voiced displeasure about how the financial liability will be distributed.

Again, the NCAA national office is responsible for about 41 percent. Then the power conference schools will pay 24 percent of the total damages; group of five schools will pay 10 percent; Football Championship Series schools will pay 13 percent; and non-football Division I schools will pay 12 percent, according to an NCAA representative. That means, within the portion paid by schools, 40 percent will be from the power conferences and 60 percent from the other 27 leagues.

Beyond damages, the power conferences will pay for legal fees and the potential addition of scholarships. Many power conference schools would also spend to the revenue-sharing cap. (Because revenue sharing will be optional, lower-revenue leagues are expected to refrain.) Either way, the nonpower conferences’ argument about the damages payments is simple: Not only are they not defendants in the suit, but a large share of the damages will be paid out to former power conference football and men’s basketball players.

“Based on the numbers we have reviewed, the liability of the … non-[Football Bowl Subdivision] conferences under the proposed formula appears disproportionately high, particularly because the primary beneficiaries of the NIL ‘back pay’ amounts are expected to be FBS football players,” Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman wrote in an email to her schools, which was first publicized by Yahoo on Sunday .

“I have voiced the Big East’s strong objections to the proposed damages framework through recent emails to [NCAA President] Charlie Baker and his counsel and through comments during commissioner calls over the past two weeks.”

While the settlement agreement answers some questions, it leaves many more unanswered. One potential complication is Fontenot v. NCAA , a fourth antitrust case brought by a different set of lawyers.

Jeffrey Kessler, a lead plaintiffs’ attorney in House along with Steve Berman, is also representing athletes in Hubbard and Carter , making it easier to consolidate those three cases. Kessler and Berman had hoped to fold in Fontenot , too, which would have offered more clarity on how much antitrust protection the NCAA (and its schools and conferences) would get from a settlement. But on Thursday, a Colorado judge denied the motion to consolidate Fontenot with the other cases.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys in Fontenot, who are against consolidating , have signaled that some athletes would oppose the settlement terms for House, Hubbard and Carter . How many athletes — and whether it would be enough to shake up a reshaped system — is unclear, though those answers will probably depend on what the final settlement looks like. It is also possible Fontenot could be resolved by the settlement at a later date, according to multiple lawyers. NCAA representatives are confident Fontenot will not interfere with the settlement agreed on this week.

“ Fontenot doesn’t have any relevance if our settlement is approved by the courts,” Kessler told The Washington Post on Thursday, adding that, because of the similarities between Carter and Fontenot , it was more important to consolidate Fontenot before Carter was lumped in with House and Hubbard . “Because our settlement will totally resolve all the claims in Fontenot.”

The House, Hubbard and Carter settlement also doesn’t address employment, meaning the NCAA will keep lobbying Congress to pass a bill that keeps athletes from becoming employees and receiving the rights that come with that status. To that end, the level of antitrust protection with this settlement — to shield the NCAA and its members from similar lawsuits in the future — remains murky.

Starting with this coming fall’s freshmen, athletes would have a choice to opt into the new revenue-sharing model. That system was devised by Berman and Kessler and was a critical part of the settlement agreement. Experts and conference officials originally thought there were two avenues to settling without the risk of the NCAA being immediately sued again on similar grounds: a collective bargaining agreement (which was always unrealistic because college athletes are not unionized) or a congressional bill that included some level of antitrust protection (which the NCAA has been lobbying for unsuccessfully for years). Then the opt-in system emerged as option three.

If an athlete objected to the terms, they would have a chance to argue their case in a hearing. The NCAA hopes that, for at least the next 10 years, settling House , Hubbard and Carter together — and having the opt-in system for revenue sharing — will lower the frequency and success rate for antitrust suits over athlete compensation, even with Fontenot lingering. A handful of antitrust experts and power conference officials are not as confident.

Beyond employment, the NCAA will keep pushing Congress for stronger antitrust protections and a preemption on state laws, making it so it can enforce rules without being sued by state attorneys general. The legal and political jockeying are far from over.

“The settlement, though undesirable in many respects and promising only temporary stability, is necessary to avoid what would be the bankruptcy of college athletics,” Notre Dame president John I. Jenkins said in a statement. “To save the great American institution of college sports, Congress must pass legislation that will preempt the current patchwork of state laws; establish that our athletes are not employees, but students seeking college degrees; and provide protection from further antitrust lawsuits that will allow colleges to make and enforce rules that will protect our student-athletes and help ensure competitive equity among our teams.”

And there are major questions about how revenue sharing will work. How will the money be distributed? How will Title IX apply, especially with the NCAA leaving that up to each school? Will a potential hard cap invite antitrust scrutiny? To handle the additional expenses, will schools turn to private equity, especially after two firms announced Wednesday that they’re open for business in college sports?

It won’t be a quiet summer. But in an era of nonstop change, that’s certainly nothing new.