what is timeline in business plan

How to Create a Business Plan Timeline

Below you will learn what a business plan timeline is and where it belongs in your business plan.  

What is a Business Plan Timeline?

A business plan timeline lays out the key milestones you hope to achieve in your business and when you plan to accomplish them.   

The Importance of a Timeline

In running a business, it is very easy to get caught up in day-to-day activities and putting out fires. When you do this, unfortunately, it’s hard to grow your business. Having a timeline that lists your key goals forces you to spend time each day, week, and month to work on key growth initiatives.

Also, if you are seeking funding, investors and lenders need to understand these milestones and your projected dates for accomplishing them. This helps give them confidence that you will successfully execute your plan. 

Also, having a timeline helps you better prioritize your time and hire the right people at the right time.

    Finish Your Business Plan Today!

Where does the timeline go in the business plan.

The timeline belongs primarily in the Operations Plan of your business plan, however, you may include some highlights within the Executive Summary as well. 

Using the established key milestones you have created, you will now assign a timeframe to those milestones to show when you expect to reach each milestone. Remember, use historical data and be realistic in your timeline so that you can meet these goals.  

What Should Be Included in the Timeline?

Your business is currently at point A. Where you want to go is to point B. Now getting from point A to point B requires you to complete milestones.

And the most important ones are what I call “risk-mitigating milestones.” These are the milestones that help eliminate the risk of your company failing.

Some examples of “risk mitigating milestones” may include:

• Finding a location for your business, store, warehouse, etc.
• Getting the permits and licenses
• Building the facility/store
• Hiring and training staff
• New products and services introductions
• Store opening date
• Key employee hires
• Revenue milestones (date when sales exceed $X, when sales exceed $Y, etc.)
• Key partnerships executed
• Key customer contracts secured
• Key financial events (future funding rounds, IPO, etc.)

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, it is your job to identify your risk-mitigating milestones and prioritize them so that you can take steps each day toward the larger business goals.  

How to Create & Prioritize Your Milestone List

Create your detailed risk-mitigating milestone list first. The goal should be to list approximately six major milestones in the next year, five milestones in the following year, and so on for up to five years (so include two in year 5). 

You can use this as a “To Do” list and ensure you achieve your goals each day, week, and month, further developing your business strategy.

Next to each milestone, include the expected timeframe, due date, and the budget you will need to attain them. For example, you may want to launch a billboard marketing campaign over a 6-month period (Expected Due Date: 6/30/2022), and the expected cost is $18,000.

After you create your milestone list, you need to prioritize them. Decide on which milestones you should achieve with the initial funding if needed. Ideally, these will get you to the point where you are generating revenues or profits. This is because the ability to generate revenues significantly reduces the risk of your venture; as it proves to lenders and investors that customers want the products and/or services you are offering.

By setting up your milestones, you will figure out what you can accomplish for less money. And the fact is, the less money you need to raise, the easier it generally is to raise it (mainly because the easiest to raise money sources offer lower dollar amounts).  

How to Develop a Timeline For Your Business Plan

You’ve already completed the hard part. 

Now, it’s time to schedule your milestone list and convert it into a timeline format to give you a quick visual reference. Be sure that your timeline includes all the milestones that you’ve deemed a priority.

There are many businesses that prefer to develop Gantt charts, while others may prefer a calendar, Excel sheet, or another preferred format. Choose the format that works best for you.

There are several format options and platforms to choose from if you do a quick search for “ create a timeline online .” However, keep in mind that it’s not how pretty the timeline is, it’s about functionality and the ease of use to track the progress of all the tasks completed. 

Here are a couple of options:

Source: SlideTeam

This one-page timeline is a downloadable template that is clean and easy to read and follow. While it doesn’t have all the details on this one page, it has enough information to help business leaders understand if the team is on track.

Source: Office Timeline

This is a PowerPoint Presentation add-in that allows you to create a custom Gantt chart with your Microsoft Office account. While the chart above says a 5-year plan, note that they did not include the parts of the milestones beyond Year 1. This may be to reduce clutter and keep focused on the near-future goals. 

Source: GanttPro

This Gantt chart online platform offers another alternative allowing you to assign tasks to others on your team and monitor their progress all in one place. It also tracks the time to complete each task so that you can better schedule in the future for similar projects.

These are only a few of the platforms available online to create an amazing timeline for your business plan. In the beginning, it may be a lot of work to set up, but once you obtain the funding you are seeking, it’ll be well worth the time and effort.

By creating a timeline as early as possible in the business planning process, you can begin to establish realistic goals that can help improve day-to-day decision-making and boost confidence among current and potential stakeholders.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

How Do I Develop a Timeline for a Business Plan?

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A business plan lays the foundation for the organization you’re in the process of starting. It helps you develop and understand your business strategy, and it enables investors to see the potential in your company. When you’re working on the timeline or schedule for your business plan, it’s essential to consider both the big picture and the smaller details to stay on schedule while starting and running your business.

Identify and Schedule Your Key Milestones

There’s a lot to do when you’re trying to get your business off the ground. To determine how to create your timeline or schedule, it’s critical to identify your key milestones. These are the things you need to complete to launch your business.

Your key business milestones may include:

• Legal procedures such as incorporating your business or creating a partnership;
• Acquiring all the required federal, state and county licenses and permits;
• Securing your office, retail or manufacturing space;
• Designing, developing and packaging your product for sale;
• Purchasing business items such as a POS system, shelving or other materials;
• Hiring your employees;
• Launching your marketing campaign; and
• Officially opening your business.

After you schedule the large milestones, you can begin to factor in the smaller targets you need to hit. These may include creating your marketing materials and scheduling employee interviews. The smaller milestones build up to the larger ones.

Consider Past, Present and Future

When you’re creating the timeline for your business plan, don’t forget to factor in what you have already accomplished. The milestones you have achieved should also be part of your timeline. This information helps your investors understand the steps you have already taken and how much further you have to go.

An example of a timeline in a business plan may include market research you have already conducted or relationships with suppliers you have established.

Create a timeframe for each key milestone. Include a start date and an end date for items that require weeks or months of planning and execution. Some items may only require a due date.

Be sure to consider interdependencies for your milestones. Some milestones cannot be started until you have completed others.

For example, you cannot open your business until you have secured your permits. However, certain tasks can be completed in tandem, such as working on your marketing campaigns and obtaining business items.

Your business plan should not only be concerned with the immediate future. Include the milestones you intend to hit one, three and five years from now. You may plan to add new product lines to your business, consider expanding the warehouse facility or anticipate moving into a new downtown office in five years.

Use the Right Format to Create Your Business Timeline

Because business plan timelines have many interrelated components and complex schedules, it’s important to present your timeline in a way that’s easy to read and follow. Consider using a Gantt chart, which is a useful way to visually illustrate a project’s schedule. Gantt charts also show the interdependencies of specific tasks, which is necessary for a business plan timeline. A Gantt chart enables you to input start dates, end dates and hard deadlines.

You can create a Gantt chart in Microsoft Excel with the help of a free template that you download from the Microsoft website. You can also use a specialized Gantt chart solution, such as that offered by SmartSheet. It includes a preformatted template so you can easily add in tasks and dates, establish hierarchies and delineate dependencies.

• Microsoft Office: Present Your Data in a Gantt Chart in Excel
• U.S. Small Business Administration: Write Your Business Plan
• Money Instructor: Business Plans: Initial Start-Up Timeline
• WrittenSuccess: Building a Business Plan Timeline: What to Consider
• SmartSheet: How to Create a Gantt Chart in Excel With a Template

Anam Ahmed is a Toronto-based writer and editor with over a decade of experience helping small businesses and entrepreneurs reach new heights. She has experience ghostwriting and editing business books, especially those in the "For Dummies" series, in addition to writing and editing web content for the brand. Anam works as a marketing strategist and copywriter, collaborating with everyone from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, lifestyle bloggers to professional athletes. As a small business owner herself, she is well-versed in what it takes to run and market a small business. Anam earned an M.A. from the University of Toronto and a B.A.H. from Queen's University. Learn more at www.anamahmed.ca.

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How to Write the Strategy Plan Timeline (+ Examples)

• March 21, 2024
• Business Plan , How to Write

Creating a strategic plan timeline is crucial, especially if you are preparing a business plan for your business. This comprehensive guide simplifies the process, offering a step-by-step guide to crafting a clear, actionable strategy plan timeline tailored for business owners.

Whether you’re launching a new startup or scaling an existing business, you’ll find essential tips to best map out your business’s milestones and objectives. Let’s dive in!

What is a strategy plan timeline?

A strategy plan timeline in a business plan is a comprehensive schedule that outlines the sequence of actions, key milestones, and deadlines required to achieve the business’s strategic objectives.

It serves as a roadmap, detailing how the business will transition from its current state to its desired future state over a specified period.

This timeline is crucial for ensuring that strategic goals are met within realistic timeframes, allowing for efficient resource allocation and enabling stakeholders to monitor progress.

The strategy plan timeline can include some or all of the elements below:

• Objectives: The specific, measurable goals the business aims to achieve, aligned with its overall vision and mission.
• Milestones: Significant achievements or checkpoints that indicate progress toward the objectives. These are often quantifiable and serve as interim targets.
• Actions: The steps or initiatives that need to be undertaken to reach each milestone and, ultimately, achieve the objectives. These are typically assigned to specific teams or individuals.
• Deadlines: The timeframes by which milestones and objectives should be met to keep the plan on track. Deadlines help prioritize tasks and ensure timely progress.
• Resources: An outline of the financial, human, and material resources allocated to each action or milestone, ensuring that the plan is realistic and feasible.
• Review Points: Scheduled assessments of the plan’s progress, allowing for adjustments based on performance, external changes, or unforeseen challenges.

Incorporating a strategy plan timeline into a business plan provides a clear path for growth, operational improvements, or other strategic shifts.

It is essential for aligning team efforts, managing stakeholder expectations, and securing investment, as it demonstrates a thoughtful, actionable approach to achieving business success.

How to create a strategy plan timeline: 6 steps

When crafting a strategy plan timeline for a business plan, the goal is to map out a clear, structured path that will guide the business from its current state to achieving its long-term objectives.

This involves setting specific, measurable goals, identifying key milestones, and allocating resources effectively. Here’s a simplified approach to creating a strategy plan timeline that can be tailored to fit the unique needs of different businesses:

1. Define Your Objectives

Start by clearly defining the long-term goals and objectives of your business. What do you want to achieve in the next three to five years? Objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis

Perform a SWOT analysis to identify your business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This will help you understand the internal and external factors that could impact your ability to achieve your objectives.

3. Set Short-term Goals

Break down your long-term objectives into smaller, actionable short-term goals. These should act as stepping stones toward your larger objectives and be achievable within a year.

4. Identify Key Actions and Milestones

For each short-term goal, list out the key actions or steps needed to achieve it. Then, identify significant milestones within these actions, which will serve as markers of progress.

5. Allocate Resources

Determine what resources (financial, human, technological) are needed to accomplish each action and milestone. Allocate these resources accordingly, ensuring that constraints are considered and managed.

6. Establish a Timeline

Assign realistic timeframes to each action and milestone. Your timeline should reflect the urgency and priority of each goal, balancing ambition with feasibility.

Strategy plan timeline: 2 examples

Here are 2 examples you can use as an inspiration to create yours. These are taken from our coffee shop business plan and hair salon business plan templates.

Coffee Shop Example

Hair Salon Example

Privacy Overview

Creating a timeline for your business plan

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Introduction

A business plan is a written document describing a company's core objectives and how they intend to achieve them. It can also contain outlines of a company's proposed financials, products and services, marketing goals, and long-term plans. A business plan is essential for any business seeking financing, and often a requirement when applying for a loan or grant.

Having a timeline for your business plan can be immensely helpful in allowing you to track and monitor the progress of your objectives. It also gives you a better view of the key steps you need to take to get from where you are now to where you want to be in the future. With a timeline, you’re more likely to get clear insight and direction on strategy implementation and measurements of success.

Benefits of Creating a Business Plan Timeline

Creating a timeline for your business plan is an important step in planning and executing any strategy for success. Having a timeline in place for completion of tasks within your business plan gives you, as the owner/operator, visibility into all the required steps that need to be taken and the resources necessary to keep your business plan on track.

By creating a timeline for your business plan, you can gain many benefits.

Knowing the timeline for plan execution

The main benefit of creating a timeline is being able to set realistic expectations for when specific tasks will be completed. Having a timeline allows you to determine exactly how long you estimate each task within your plan will take as well as when you will need to complete them. Once you have determined your timeline, you can then use that to create a schedule for implementation and tracking of your business plan.

Cost-effective and time-efficient planning

Having a timeline for your business plan is also a great way to be more cost-effective and time-efficient. By having a timeline in place, it gives you the ability to anticipate any potential issues that you might encounter throughout the life of your plan. By anticipating any potential problems, you can plan ahead to ensure that you have the proper resources available to execute tasks and ensure that your plan is successful.

Easier adjustments for any changes or delays

Finally, creating a timeline for your business plan helps you easily adjust it in the event of any delays or changes that arise. By having an updated timeline, it will be easier to navigate any obstacles that may come up, allowing you to quickly adjust and re-calibrate your business plan as needed. This will help to keep your plan on track and help to minimize any potential losses that could come as a result of not adhering to your timeline.

Examples of Different Timeframes

Creating a timeline is one of the most important steps of developing your business plan. It allows you to break down your goals and prioritize them in order of importance. Before you begin creating your timeline, it's important to know what the different timeframes are. Here, we will discuss examples of different timeframes, such as short-term goals, mid-term goals and long-term goals.

Short-term Goals

Short-term goals are goals that you plan to achieve in the near future and typically within one year. These goals give you something to work towards that is within reach and will help you build momentum for your long-term ambitions. Examples of short-term goals can include launching a new product or service, setting a sales target or increasing your customer base.

Mid-term Goals

Mid-term goals are goals that you plan to achieve in the intermediate future, typically within two to five years. These goals should be ambitious, but achievable and push you to think outside the box and create solutions for challenges you might face. Examples of mid-term goals can include increasing market share, establishing partnerships or launching a new branch of the business.

Long-term Goals

Long-term goals are goals that you plan to achieve in the distant future, typically five years or more out. These goals should be your biggest ambitions and are typically the most important goals to track progress towards. Examples of long-term goals can include conquering new markets, expanding operations or achieving a certain level of profitability.

4. Getting Started

When creating a timeline for your business plan, it is important to set realistic goals, establish the order of operations, and divide tasks among team members.

a. Setting realistic goals

It is important to set goals that are achievable, as this will help you meet deadlines. Of course, striving to do more than expected is admirable. However, always be mindful of the amount of time and resources you have, while also taking into account any potential hurdles along the way.

b. Establishing the order of operations

Once you have set your goals, it is time to consider the order in which tasks should be completed. Think about which operations are necessary for the achievement of the goals, and in what order they should be done.

c. Dividing tasks amongst team members

Once the order of operations is determined, the next step is to divide tasks amongst team members. By assigning each member a set of tasks, it will become easier to work towards the desired goal. This will also help with accountability and completion times, as each team member will be aware of the tasks that need to be finished and when they need to be completed.

Dividing tasks amongst team members should also be evaluated in terms of who can do the tasks most efficiently. This will ensure the best use of team resources and help create a timeline that is both realistic and productive.

Managing the Timeline

Creating a timeline is a key component in any business plan and includes the time-sensitive processes associated with achieving your goals. Creating your timeline is just the first step. It is also important to manage it effectively and all the associated tasks. These tasks involve managing project risks, keeping updated records, and allocating resources.

Managing Project Risks

Managing the risk associated with projects within the timeline is important to ensure projects stay on track. Risks can include a variety of factors such as time, stakeholders, deliverables, budget, and resources. When creating and managing the timeline, it is essential to consider the risks associated with each project and plan for possible contingencies. Staying on top of it is also critical. Making sure to review the risks and update accordingly is an important process for staying on target and keeping updated with changes or updates.

Keeping Updated Records

Keeping records of timelines is also essential in order to effectively manage the timeline. This is important for both short-term and long-term needs. Accurate records detailing project milestones and deadlines can help identify and manage risks as well as give insight into the progress of project tasks so any changes needed can be implemented quickly. Accurate records can also identify potential risks and help measure progress over a given period of time.

Allocating Resources

Allocating resources is an integral part of managing a timeline. This includes both time and money as well as any physical/material resources needed to complete the project tasks. It is important to consider the resources needed and set realistic goals and timelines. Accurately estimating the resources needed helps ensure work is completed according to the timeline and within budget, giving insight into potential risks and better management of resources.

Creating a timeline for your business plan is essential for ensuring goals are met within the desired timeline and budget. Manage the timeline by managing project risks, keeping updated records, and allocating resources. This is the key to ensuring projects stay on track and the desired goals are met in the given timeline.

Implementing the Timeline

Creating a timeline for your business plan is the best way to ensure its successful implementation. Once a timeline is established, it’s important to stick to it for maximum effectiveness. There are a few key components to maintaining the timeline once it’s been created.

Consistent communication

Having a system of consistent communication within the business is essential to ensure that everyone is working together in a cohesive unit. Communication should be frequent throughout the duration of the timeline, to encourage collaboration and efficiency. A specific plan should be mapped out from the beginning, outlining who will communicate with whom and how often.

Keeping track of milestones

It’s important to keep track of all milestones that have been accomplished and those that are still to be achieved. This helps to keep everyone focused on the goal, and to ensure that everyone is on the same page. This can be done manually or with the help of a software application, depending on the company’s resources.

Evaluating success

Once the timeline is complete, it’s important to take stock of the successes and failures of the plan. It’s important to analyze what worked and what didn’t, in order to improve the plan for future implementations. This also helps to foster an environment of continual improvement and ensures that the business is always striving for success.

Creating a timeline for your business plan is a crucial step in launching a successful business. A timeline helps to capture the details of tasks, structural requirements, and expected outcomes. It helps organize the different components of your strategy, ensuring that important details and deadlines are not forgotten.

Summary of importance of timeline

Having a timeline allows business owners to stay organized and on track throughout the development process. It helps to order and prioritize arrangements, tracking progress towards objectives. With a timeline in place, you can better anticipate and prepare for any unexpected changes or issues that may arise. Additionally, it serves as a visual reminder of where your business currently stands and what actions are necessary to achieve the desired end goals.

Key points to keep in mind

• Identify key targets, milestones, and deadlines.
• Break down larger objectives into smaller, actionable goals.
• Assess and adjust your timeline as needed.
• Continually track progress and evaluate success.

Suggestion of further research

Building a timeline is an ongoing process. As you continue to research resources, plan tasks, and develop your overall strategy, you will likely need to adjust your timeline accordingly. Evaluating and updating progress regularly keeps your plan organized and efficient, so that you can move through the planning process quickly and in an organized fashion.

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Top 5 Business Plan Timeline Template with Samples and Examples

Vaishali Rai

US statesman Benjamin Franklin has given the world this timeless piece of wisdom, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” 

Yet, many entrepreneurs leap into initiating their business plans without having a solid business timeline. 

Writing a business plan timeline can sound boring, complex, and a waste of time when you're a busy entrepreneur with so much on your plate. However, for many businesses, the timelining phase is a make-or-break step that could save you time, money, resources, and energy in the long run.

Let's talk about what a Business Plan timeline is.

A business plan timeline is a flexible roadmap to the business's accomplished and pending goals. Any startup or new business must use a business plan timeline to track its achievements, milestones, and failures. In simple terms, a business plan timeline is a guide that outlines and tracks the progress of your business to date. It features the effectiveness of business strategies to track productivity, such as digital marketing tasks, market research projects, and organizational operations activities.

You’ve created a strategic business plan — now what? You need some additional planning documents to help map out your long-term strategy by outlining your daily actions. Stay on track with our carefully structured Top 10 Business Operational Plan Templates with Samples and Examples!

Why do you need a business plan timeline template?

The thought of starting a business plan can be an exciting time. No matter how excited you are to start with your great idea, it pays to slow down and create a timeline that will help determine loopholes in your plan and identify structural weaknesses of your business at an early stage. A good timeline template presents a road map to structure, operate, and grow your business. Competitors are waiting to outshine, even ambush, you. Thus, a business plan timeline template helps identify your company's core strengths using a balanced combination of logic and strategy.

From business analysis to financial projections, our thoughtfully-designed business plan timeline templates will set benchmarks, proactively align your team around a shared objective, and help avoid getting off track.

The 100% customizable nature of the our business plan ppt templates provides you with the desired flexibility to edit your presentations. The content ready slides give you the much-needed structure.

Check these out now!

Template 1: 10-Day Timeline Information Technology Marketing Activities Business Planning

Initiating marketing activities with a clear plan leads to consistent achievements. Use this 100% customized 10-Day Timeline Information Technology Marketing Activities template to present your data in a clear, easy-to-understand format. The template includes 11 slides, including a 10-day timeline, information, technology, marketing, and activities.

Download Now!

Template 2: 3-year Planning Timeline Business Plan Achievement Innovation Development

Keep your audience glued to seats with this professionally designed 3-year planning timeline Template. The template revolves around a new product innovation timeline, including innovation, transformation, strengths, weaknesses, efficiency, and effectiveness of a product. This deck comprises ten slides with creative visuals and well-researched content with appropriate layouts, diagrams, graphs, icons, charts, etc.

Template 3: Three-month Business Planning Timeline

A business plan is a set of actions or processes that describe how an organization plans and runs. This three-month Business Planning Timeline helps you demonstrate business plans essential for an organization to grow and accomplish its goals. The template helps in discussing approaches, techniques, tips, strategies, tools, and processes available with your team to achieve a target.

Template 4: Monthly Business Plan Animation Timeline

Guide your team about theories and methods of the sales planning and selling with this impressive Monthly Business Plan Animation Timeline Template. Clearly share your organization's vision, mission, and milestones timeline with your team. Get an overview of the specific market segments which your organization is targeting. It also helps identify the areas for improvement, failures, and weaknesses.

Template 5: Business Plan Executive Summary Company Timeline

A company's executive summary is like the back cover of your book. Capture and hold interest with this well-crafted and engaging business plan executive summary company timeline template that can effectively display the organization's policy, description, financial information, project fund investment, and market analysis. The template helps decision-makers get the gist of the entire project with just a flip through the executive summary.

THE TEST OF TIME

Multiple business plans come and go, but a business timeline has always stood the test of time. A business timeline is more than a bunch of numbers, scribbles, and buzzwords. It is a visual walkthrough of your business's journey and a roadmap to achieve key milestones while remaining useful and valued among competitors. Creating certainty, clarity, and consistency are the three foundations of a winning business plan template.

Don't wait! Grab your favorite business plan timeline template from the above set, prioritize your time better, and hire the right people at the right time for the right role.

FAQs on Business Plan Timeline

What is a timeline in a business plan.

The timeline is primarily a part of the Operations Plan of your business. However, you can also incorporate some key highlights from the timeline in the executive summary. 

A business plan timeline refers to a timeframe assigned against the established key milestones to show the expected duration to reach each of them. Your business plan timeline depends on historical and real-time data for it to be as practical and realistic as possible. An ideal business plan timeline includes the following elements:

• Where do you want to reach?
• When do you want to reach?
• How do you want to reach?

How do you write a timeline for a business plan?

First, to create a timeline, schedule your milestone list and put it into a timeline format for a quick visual reference. Make sure milestones are sorted by priority. There are many ways to create a business plan timeline. Some of these are:

• Gantt charts
• Excel sheets

Choose the format that works best for you, depending upon the functionality and the ease of use to track progress of completed tasks. However, you can always use our well-designed and researched business timeline templates to curate yours.

What are the seven steps of a business plan?

A good business plan provides direction to the company, attracts investors, and converts visitors into buyers. 

Now, how do you write a business plan?

• Research : To write the perfect plan, you must intimately know your company, product, competition, and market.
• Determine the purpose of your plan : Your plan is a road map that provides directions, steers the business towards gradual success, and helps avoid any bumps.
• Create a company profile : It displays the history of an organization, the products and services offered, the target market and audience, financial resources, and how you're going to solve a problem.
• Document business aspects : Investors want to ensure your business is profitable. Thus, they do in-detail research about your company. Document everything to help with this process, so you don't miss anything.
• Build a strategic marketing plan : A great business plan must include a strategic marketing plan that demonstrates your marketing activities and efforts.
• Make your plan adaptable based on your target audience : Each reader does have different interests. If you're successfully capturing these interests and data early, you can incorporate them while preparing a business plan for a particular audience.
• Explain why you care : Whether you're sharing your plan with an investor, team member, or a customer. Your plan must confidently present that you're passionate, dedicated, and care about your audience, business, and the plan.

What is a project timeline in a business proposal?

A business plan is just a wish list without a clear picture of what will happen. The best way to ensure the business plan stays aligned with the project requirements is by maintaining a project timeline.

A project timeline lays out the milestones of your business plan, employees' details, organization policy, locations, project fund investment, sales targets, net revenue expected and other targets, and the estimated time it will take to meet these.

A project timeline is a chronological list of plans, tasks, and activities that gives project managers a comprehensive view of the project plan. It is usually created in a template or bar chart, where each activity or task is allocated a name along with its start and end date.

Mainly, a project timeline provides an in-depth overview of the project, including its start date, due date, and task dependencies, if any.

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How to Set and Use Milestones in Your Business Plan

12 min. read

Updated March 4, 2024

As a new business owner, there are fewer more exciting moments than seeing your big idea come to life as you open your door (or website) to customers for the first time.

But are you ready for what comes next? 

Mapping out each step of your business’s evolution – from early planning to long-term growth planning – is just as important as knowing what your value proposition is, or who your target customers are. That makes milestone planning a crucial part of your business plan.

After all, you can’t achieve your vision for the business without understanding the steps and resources required to get there. Adding milestones in a business plan helps keep your business on track and ensures progress toward your goals.

In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of milestones in business planning, how to create effective milestones, examples of common business goals, the difference between goals, objectives, and milestones, and tips for managing your milestones effectively.

Why do you need milestones in your business plan?

The Milestones table is one of the most important in your business plan. It sets the plan into practical, concrete terms, with real budgets, deadlines, and management responsibilities. It helps you focus as you are writing your business plan, and helps you implement your plan as you grow your business.

Milestones put some bite into your plan and management strategy by listing specific actions to be taken. Each action becomes a milestone. This is where a business plan becomes a real plan, with specific and measurable activities, instead of just a document.

Milestones play a key role in your business plan for several reasons:

Tracking progress

Milestones help measure progress towards objectives, keeping your business on course.

Encouraging accountability

Milestones make team members responsible for their progress, keeping everyone focused on the goals.

Promoting adaptability

Regularly reviewing milestones lets you identify areas for improvement and adjust your strategy as needed.

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Enhancing communication

Sharing milestones with your team and stakeholders keeps everyone informed about your progress and fosters a sense of shared commitment.

What to include in each milestone?

Set as many milestones as you can think of to make it more complete. Give each milestone the following:

• Milestone name
• Person responsible

These represent what milestone you’re aiming for, when you expect to get there, what resources are required, and who the main stakeholders are for that milestone.

Then, make sure that your team knows that you will be following the plan, tracking the milestones, and analyzing the plan-vs-actual results. If you don’t follow up, your plan will not be implemented.

Examples of common business milestones

Here are some examples of typical business goals you might include in your business plan milestones:

Product development milestones

• Completing product design and prototype
• Finalizing product specifications
• Securing intellectual property rights
• Launching manufacturing processes
• Introducing the product in the market

Sales and marketing milestones

• Developing a marketing plan
• Establishing a sales team or distribution network
• Achieving specific customer or sales revenue goals
• Expanding market reach to new regions or demographics
• Attaining a target market share percentage

Financial milestones

• Securing funding or investment
• Achieving break-even or profitability
• Reaching specific revenue or net income targets
• Reducing operating costs or increasing profit margins
• Boosting the company’s valuation

Operational milestones

• Hiring key team members or filling essential positions
• Implementing new technology or software systems
• Establishing partnerships or collaborations

How to create effective business milestones

Here are some steps to create concrete, actionable business plan milestones:

1. Identify your goals and objectives

Outline your business’s main goals and objectives, such as growth, profitability, and market expansion. These will guide your milestone planning.

2. Break goals into smaller steps

Divide your goals into smaller, achievable steps. These smaller steps will form the basis for your business plan milestones.

3. Be specific, measurable, and achievable

Your milestones should be specific, measurable, and achievable. Use clear metrics to measure progress and ensure your milestones are realistic.

4. Align milestones with your business strategy

Make sure your business plan milestones align with your overall strategy. Each milestone should contribute to your long-term vision and strategic objectives.

5. Set timelines for milestones

Establish a timeline for completing each milestone, including start and end dates. Be prepared to adjust your timeline if needed.

6. Monitor progress and adjust as necessary

Regularly review your progress toward each milestone and make adjustments as needed.

7. Communicate your milestones

Share your milestones with your team and stakeholders to ensure alignment with your company’s goals and objectives.

Common metrics to track in your business milestones

Selecting the right metrics to track in your business milestones is important to accurately gauge your progress.

There are several common metrics that businesses of all sizes use when determining if they’re progressing toward their milestones. Some of them can sound intimidating at first. But don’t worry, they’re concepts that you can grasp with a bit of reading and an understanding of your company’s financials.

You can check out this resource guide to learn more about a wider range of business metrics you may want to track over time. But here are a few metrics that are likely to be important regardless of the type, size, or stage of business:

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): CAC is the average cost of acquiring a new customer. It includes expenses related to marketing, sales, and any other costs associated with gaining new customers. Monitoring CAC helps you assess the efficiency of your marketing and sales efforts and adjust your strategies accordingly.
• Monthly recurring revenue (MRR): For subscription-based businesses, MRR is an essential metric that tracks the total recurring revenue generated each month. MRR helps you monitor the health of your subscription business and identify trends in revenue growth or decline.
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): CLV represents the total revenue a customer generates for your business throughout their entire relationship with your company. Tracking CLV can help you determine the long-term value of your customers and inform your marketing, sales, and customer retention strategies.
• Churn rate: Churn rate measures the percentage of customers who cancel or do not renew their subscriptions within a given period. Monitoring churn rate helps you identify issues with customer satisfaction, product quality, or pricing, and take action to improve customer retention.
• Gross margin: Gross margin is the percentage of revenue remaining after accounting for the cost of goods sold (COGS). A healthy gross margin indicates that your business can cover its operating expenses and generate a profit. Tracking gross margin can help you identify opportunities to reduce costs or increase pricing to improve profitability.
• Burn rate: Burn rate refers to the rate at which your business spends money, typically measured monthly. Monitoring burn rate helps you understand how long your current funding will last and when you may need additional investment or revenue to sustain your business.
• Conversion rate: The conversion rate is the percentage of potential customers who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. Tracking conversion rates helps you assess the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and make improvements to boost sales.
• Revenue growth rate: Revenue growth rate measures the increase in revenue over a specific period, indicating the pace at which your business is growing. Monitoring revenue growth rate can help you set realistic growth expectations and identify trends that may impact your business’s future performance.

The difference between goals, objectives, and milestones

Understanding the distinctions between goals, objectives, and milestones is crucial for effective milestone planning. Here’s a brief overview of these concepts:

• Goals: Goals are broad, long-term, and often qualitative aspirations that your business aims to achieve. They provide a general sense of direction and purpose for your organization. Examples of goals include increasing brand awareness, becoming an industry leader, or providing exceptional customer service.
• Objectives: Objectives are specific, measurable, and time-bound targets that support the achievement of your goals. They are more quantifiable and detailed than goals and serve as stepping stones toward fulfilling your broader aspirations. Examples of objectives include increasing sales by 15% within a year or reducing customer churn rate by 5% in six months.
• Milestones: Milestones are significant events or achievements that mark the completion of a specific objective or a major step towards your goals. They help you track progress and measure the success of your efforts. Examples of milestones include launching a new product, reaching a specific revenue target, or signing a partnership agreement with a key industry player.

What are essential business milestones to hit within the first year

Some milestones are especially important to achieve within your first year of operation:

Establishing a solid customer base: In your first year, one of your primary milestones should be to attract and retain a solid customer base. This involves identifying your target market, developing strategies to reach them effectively, and implementing customer retention practices. Customer acquisition and retention metrics can help you assess your progress. Achieving this milestone is indicative of market validation for your product or service and can also help secure additional funding.

Developing and refining your product or service offerings: Another critical milestone is the continuous refinement of your products or services based on customer feedback and market trends. This includes launching your minimum viable product (MVP), gathering feedback, and iteratively improving upon it. It’s also about ensuring that your product or service remains relevant and competitive. Hitting this milestone shows adaptability and customer focus, qualities that stakeholders appreciate.

Generating a positive cash flow: Achieving positive cash flow is a key financial milestone for your first year in business. Positive cash flow means that the business’s revenues exceed its expenses over a certain period, which can contribute to the financial stability of the business. To reach this milestone, you might focus on strategies to increase sales, reduce costs, or improve collection of receivables.

Building a strong brand and online presence: This involves creating a recognizable brand identity that resonates with your target audience, and developing a robust online presence through a user-friendly website and active social media channels. These efforts can drive customer engagement, generate leads, and establish your credibility in the marketplace. Achieving this milestone can indicate your business’s potential for long-term growth and success.

Establishing efficient operational processes: In your first year, it’s important to develop efficient systems for daily operations, including sales processes, customer service procedures, and supply chain management. This will help your business run smoothly, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce costs. Successfully hitting this milestone signifies that your business is well-organized and capable of scaling up.

• The importance of setting realistic milestones

Setting realistic milestones is important for maintaining consistency, ensuring steady progress and preventing burnout within your team. Unrealistic or overly ambitious milestones can lead to frustration, disappointment, and loss of momentum. To set realistic milestones:

Evaluate your resources: Assess your available resources, such as finances, personnel, and time, and ensure your milestones align with your capabilities.

Learn from past experiences: Review your previous projects or similar industry experiences to gain insights into what is achievable within a given timeframe.

Break down objectives into smaller tasks: Divide larger objectives into smaller, manageable tasks that can be completed within a reasonable timeframe.

Remain flexible: Understand that circumstances may change, requiring adjustments to your milestones. Be prepared to adapt your plan as needed.

• How to prioritize milestones in a business plan

Prioritizing milestones effectively can help you allocate resources efficiently, focus on the most critical tasks, and drive your business towards success. Here are some tips for prioritizing milestones in your business plan:

Align with strategic priorities: Ensure that your milestones are closely aligned with your strategic priorities and focus on tasks that contribute significantly to your overall business goals.

Assess the impact on your business: Evaluate the potential impact of each milestone on your business’s growth, revenue, and reputation. Prioritize milestones that have the most significant potential benefits.

Consider dependencies: Identify any dependencies between milestones and ensure that they are prioritized accordingly. Some tasks may need to be completed before others can begin or have a more significant impact on subsequent milestones.

Balance short-term and long-term milestones: Prioritize a mix of short-term and long-term milestones to maintain momentum and demonstrate progress while still working towards your larger goals.

Regularly re-evaluate priorities: Periodically reassess your priorities and adjust your milestone plan as necessary based on new information, changing circumstances, or shifts in your business strategy.

• Prepare to manage your business milestones

Incorporating business milestones into your business plan is not only crucial for monitoring progress and ensuring accountability. It also serves as a valuable tool for managing your business growth. As you navigate the process of devising and implementing milestones, remember to maintain open lines of communication, foster adaptability, and monitor progress frequently.

By embracing these strategies, you’ll be better equipped to manage your milestones effectively and keep your business on course toward achieving its goals.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are business milestones?

Business milestones are significant events or achievements that mark the completion of a specific objective or a major step towards your goals. They serve as checkpoints to track progress and measure the success of your efforts. Examples of milestones include launching a new product, reaching a specific revenue target, or signing a partnership agreement with a key industry player.

What is a milestone table for a business plan?

The Milestones table is one of the most important in your business plan. It sets the plan into practical, concrete terms, with real budgets, deadlines, and management responsibilities. It helps you focus as you are writing your business plan, and then, the Milestones table and plan-vs.-actual management analysis helps you implement your plan as you grow your business.

Why are business milestones important?

Incorporating milestones into your business plan helps you:

Monitor progress: Milestones enable you to track your progress towards your goals, ensuring that you stay on track and adjust your strategies as needed. Ensure accountability: By setting clear milestones, you hold yourself and your team accountable for achieving specific objectives. Communicate expectations: Clearly defined milestones help your team understand what’s expected of them and what they need to achieve. Manage resources: Milestones help you allocate resources efficiently by prioritizing tasks that are most critical to your business’s success.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software , a co-founder of Borland International, and a recognized expert in business planning. He has an MBA from Stanford and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. Today, Tim dedicates most of his time to blogging, teaching and evangelizing for business planning.

Table of Contents

• Why you need to track milestones
• What to include
• Examples of business milestones
• How to create business milestones
• Common metrics to track
• Differences in goals, objectives, and milestones
• First year milestones to hit

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How to Develop a Timeline for a Business Plan

by David Weedmark

Published on 18 Oct 2019

Time is a precious resource and is something that business owners can't afford to take for granted, but when it's time to write a business plan, time is something we often underestimate.

If you want to keep your plans on schedule, it's vital that you begin with an accurate estimate of your timeline. There are a lot of steps to take before you can open or expand a new business, with each step often reliant on the steps before it. Having an inaccurate timeline can derail your plans, cost you unnecessary expenses and even scare away potential investors who understand how long setting up your plans should take.

Identifying Time-Crucial Milestones

Certainly, every step in your business plan is going to be important, but some elements are more time-critical than others, particularly the milestones. Milestones can vary from one business to another, but some of the most common ones include:

• Filing articles of incorporation or registering your business
• Securing licenses and permits
• Product development
• Securing a lease for your office
• Purchasing materials
• Hiring staff
• Marketing start date
• Official launch date of your business

All of the other steps in your business plan should lead toward or depend on at least one of these milestones. If your estimates for these dates are inaccurate, you're likely to lose time and money. For example, interviewing for staff shouldn't be done the week before your launch date nor should it be done six months too early.

Charting the Timeline of a Business Plan

A Gantt chart is a perfect way for planning the timeline of any major project, including a business plan. Most project management software products include Gantt charts, or you can use Microsoft Excel. If you use Excel, you can insert the Gantt chart as an appendix to your business plan and then update as needed as you approach your launch date.

To create a Gantt chart in Excel, first list all of your tasks and milestones in one column. Then, in the next two columns, enter the start date and end date for each. Alternatively, you can enter the number of days remaining until the start and end dates instead of the dates. Next, select "Insert Bar Chart" from the Insert menu and then click "Stacked Bar Chart."

Google Charts also has an option you can use for Gantt charts. After creating your table, select "Chart" from the Insert menu and then choose the "Stacked Bar Chart" option. Stacked bar charts are a bit more limited than Gantt charts. However, both Microsoft Office and Google Charts have tutorials on customizing these charts to create full-fledged Gantt charts.

Being Reasonable in Your Estimates

Launching a new business endeavor is exciting, and there is a tendency for business owners to be overly optimistic in their expectations. Some solid research at the beginning will give you good approximations of how long things take to happen. However, there are always more ways for a step or a milestone to be delayed compared to being pushed ahead in the schedule. It's better to slightly overestimate how long something will take rather than being too optimistic.

The Wisconsin Small Business Development Center offers guidelines on setting a timeline for a business launch, which can take nine to 12 months for many businesses, from the date you start your business plan to the date you open your business.

You should, for example, begin interviewing bankers, lawyers and accountants at least six months before your launch date. You should have your business structure in place, including a board of directors if you are incorporating, and have a budget finalized at least four months before the launch date.

Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Simple Business Plan

By Joe Weller | October 11, 2021

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A business plan is the cornerstone of any successful company, regardless of size or industry. This step-by-step guide provides information on writing a business plan for organizations at any stage, complete with free templates and expert advice. 

Included on this page, you’ll find a step-by-step guide to writing a business plan and a chart to identify which type of business plan you should write . Plus, find information on how a business plan can help grow a business and expert tips on writing one .

What Is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a document that communicates a company’s goals and ambitions, along with the timeline, finances, and methods needed to achieve them. Additionally, it may include a mission statement and details about the specific products or services offered.

A business plan can highlight varying time periods, depending on the stage of your company and its goals. That said, a typical business plan will include the following benchmarks:

• Product goals and deadlines for each month
• Monthly financials for the first two years
• Profit and loss statements for the first three to five years
• Balance sheet projections for the first three to five years

Startups, entrepreneurs, and small businesses all create business plans to use as a guide as their new company progresses. Larger organizations may also create (and update) a business plan to keep high-level goals, financials, and timelines in check.

While you certainly need to have a formalized outline of your business’s goals and finances, creating a business plan can also help you determine a company’s viability, its profitability (including when it will first turn a profit), and how much money you will need from investors. In turn, a business plan has functional value as well: Not only does outlining goals help keep you accountable on a timeline, it can also attract investors in and of itself and, therefore, act as an effective strategy for growth.

For more information, visit our comprehensive guide to writing a strategic plan or download free strategic plan templates . This page focuses on for-profit business plans, but you can read our article with nonprofit business plan templates .

Business Plan Steps

The specific information in your business plan will vary, depending on the needs and goals of your venture, but a typical plan includes the following ordered elements:

• Executive summary
• Description of business
• Market analysis
• Competitive analysis
• Description of organizational management
• Description of product or services
• Marketing plan
• Sales strategy
• Funding details (or request for funding)
• Financial projections

If your plan is particularly long or complicated, consider adding a table of contents or an appendix for reference. For an in-depth description of each step listed above, read “ How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step ” below.

Broadly speaking, your audience includes anyone with a vested interest in your organization. They can include potential and existing investors, as well as customers, internal team members, suppliers, and vendors.

Do I Need a Simple or Detailed Plan?

Your business’s stage and intended audience dictates the level of detail your plan needs. Corporations require a thorough business plan — up to 100 pages. Small businesses or startups should have a concise plan focusing on financials and strategy.

How to Choose the Right Plan for Your Business

In order to identify which type of business plan you need to create, ask: “What do we want the plan to do?” Identify function first, and form will follow.

Use the chart below as a guide for what type of business plan to create:

Is the Order of Your Business Plan Important?

There is no set order for a business plan, with the exception of the executive summary, which should always come first. Beyond that, simply ensure that you organize the plan in a way that makes sense and flows naturally.

The Difference Between Traditional and Lean Business Plans

A traditional business plan follows the standard structure — because these plans encourage detail, they tend to require more work upfront and can run dozens of pages. A Lean business plan is less common and focuses on summarizing critical points for each section. These plans take much less work and typically run one page in length.

In general, you should use a traditional model for a legacy company, a large company, or any business that does not adhere to Lean (or another Agile method ). Use Lean if you expect the company to pivot quickly or if you already employ a Lean strategy with other business operations. Additionally, a Lean business plan can suffice if the document is for internal use only. Stick to a traditional version for investors, as they may be more sensitive to sudden changes or a high degree of built-in flexibility in the plan.

How to Write a Business Plan Step by Step

Writing a strong business plan requires research and attention to detail for each section. Below, you’ll find a 10-step guide to researching and defining each element in the plan.

Step 1: Executive Summary

The executive summary will always be the first section of your business plan. The goal is to answer the following questions:

• What is the vision and mission of the company?
• What are the company’s short- and long-term goals?

See our  roundup of executive summary examples and templates for samples. Read our executive summary guide to learn more about writing one.

Step 2: Description of Business

The goal of this section is to define the realm, scope, and intent of your venture. To do so, answer the following questions as clearly and concisely as possible:

• What business are we in?
• What does our business do?

Step 3: Market Analysis

In this section, provide evidence that you have surveyed and understand the current marketplace, and that your product or service satisfies a niche in the market. To do so, answer these questions:

• Who is our customer? 
• What does that customer value?

Step 4: Competitive Analysis

In many cases, a business plan proposes not a brand-new (or even market-disrupting) venture, but a more competitive version — whether via features, pricing, integrations, etc. — than what is currently available. In this section, answer the following questions to show that your product or service stands to outpace competitors:

• Who is the competition? 
• What do they do best? 
• What is our unique value proposition?

Step 5: Description of Organizational Management

In this section, write an overview of the team members and other key personnel who are integral to success. List roles and responsibilities, and if possible, note the hierarchy or team structure.

Step 6: Description of Products or Services

In this section, clearly define your product or service, as well as all the effort and resources that go into producing it. The strength of your product largely defines the success of your business, so it’s imperative that you take time to test and refine the product before launching into marketing, sales, or funding details.

Questions to answer in this section are as follows:

• What is the product or service?
• How do we produce it, and what resources are necessary for production?

Step 7: Marketing Plan

In this section, define the marketing strategy for your product or service. This doesn’t need to be as fleshed out as a full marketing plan , but it should answer basic questions, such as the following:

• Who is the target market (if different from existing customer base)?
• What channels will you use to reach your target market?
• What resources does your marketing strategy require, and do you have access to them?
• If possible, do you have a rough estimate of timeline and budget?
• How will you measure success?

Step 8: Sales Plan

Write an overview of the sales strategy, including the priorities of each cycle, steps to achieve these goals, and metrics for success. For the purposes of a business plan, this section does not need to be a comprehensive, in-depth sales plan , but can simply outline the high-level objectives and strategies of your sales efforts. 

Start by answering the following questions:

• What is the sales strategy?
• What are the tools and tactics you will use to achieve your goals?
• What are the potential obstacles, and how will you overcome them?
• What is the timeline for sales and turning a profit?
• What are the metrics of success?

Step 9: Funding Details (or Request for Funding)

This section is one of the most critical parts of your business plan, particularly if you are sharing it with investors. You do not need to provide a full financial plan, but you should be able to answer the following questions:

• How much capital do you currently have? How much capital do you need?
• How will you grow the team (onboarding, team structure, training and development)?
• What are your physical needs and constraints (space, equipment, etc.)?

Step 10: Financial Projections

Apart from the fundraising analysis, investors like to see thought-out financial projections for the future. As discussed earlier, depending on the scope and stage of your business, this could be anywhere from one to five years. 

While these projections won’t be exact — and will need to be somewhat flexible — you should be able to gauge the following:

• How and when will the company first generate a profit?
• How will the company maintain profit thereafter?

Business Plan Template

Download Business Plan Template

Microsoft Excel | Smartsheet

This basic business plan template has space for all the traditional elements: an executive summary, product or service details, target audience, marketing and sales strategies, etc. In the finances sections, input your baseline numbers, and the template will automatically calculate projections for sales forecasting, financial statements, and more.

For templates tailored to more specific needs, visit this business plan template roundup or download a fill-in-the-blank business plan template to make things easy. 

If you are looking for a particular template by file type, visit our pages dedicated exclusively to Microsoft Excel , Microsoft Word , and Adobe PDF business plan templates.

How to Write a Simple Business Plan

A simple business plan is a streamlined, lightweight version of the large, traditional model. As opposed to a one-page business plan , which communicates high-level information for quick overviews (such as a stakeholder presentation), a simple business plan can exceed one page.

Below are the steps for creating a generic simple business plan, which are reflected in the template below .

• Write the Executive Summary This section is the same as in the traditional business plan — simply offer an overview of what’s in the business plan, the prospect or core offering, and the short- and long-term goals of the company. 
• Add a Company Overview Document the larger company mission and vision. 
• Provide the Problem and Solution In straightforward terms, define the problem you are attempting to solve with your product or service and how your company will attempt to do it. Think of this section as the gap in the market you are attempting to close.
• Identify the Target Market Who is your company (and its products or services) attempting to reach? If possible, briefly define your buyer personas .
• Write About the Competition In this section, demonstrate your knowledge of the market by listing the current competitors and outlining your competitive advantage.
• Describe Your Product or Service Offerings Get down to brass tacks and define your product or service. What exactly are you selling?
• Outline Your Marketing Tactics Without getting into too much detail, describe your planned marketing initiatives.
• Add a Timeline and the Metrics You Will Use to Measure Success Offer a rough timeline, including milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs) that you will use to measure your progress.
• Include Your Financial Forecasts Write an overview of your financial plan that demonstrates you have done your research and adequate modeling. You can also list key assumptions that go into this forecasting. 
• Identify Your Financing Needs This section is where you will make your funding request. Based on everything in the business plan, list your proposed sources of funding, as well as how you will use it.

Simple Business Plan Template

Download Simple Business Plan Template

Microsoft Excel |  Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF  | Smartsheet

Use this simple business plan template to outline each aspect of your organization, including information about financing and opportunities to seek out further funding. This template is completely customizable to fit the needs of any business, whether it’s a startup or large company.

Read our article offering free simple business plan templates or free 30-60-90-day business plan templates to find more tailored options. You can also explore our collection of one page business templates . 

How to Write a Business Plan for a Lean Startup

A Lean startup business plan is a more Agile approach to a traditional version. The plan focuses more on activities, processes, and relationships (and maintains flexibility in all aspects), rather than on concrete deliverables and timelines.

While there is some overlap between a traditional and a Lean business plan, you can write a Lean plan by following the steps below:

• Add Your Value Proposition Take a streamlined approach to describing your product or service. What is the unique value your startup aims to deliver to customers? Make sure the team is aligned on the core offering and that you can state it in clear, simple language.
• List Your Key Partners List any other businesses you will work with to realize your vision, including external vendors, suppliers, and partners. This section demonstrates that you have thoughtfully considered the resources you can provide internally, identified areas for external assistance, and conducted research to find alternatives.
• Note the Key Activities Describe the key activities of your business, including sourcing, production, marketing, distribution channels, and customer relationships.
• Include Your Key Resources List the critical resources — including personnel, equipment, space, and intellectual property — that will enable you to deliver your unique value.
• Identify Your Customer Relationships and Channels In this section, document how you will reach and build relationships with customers. Provide a high-level map of the customer experience from start to finish, including the spaces in which you will interact with the customer (online, retail, etc.). 
• Detail Your Marketing Channels Describe the marketing methods and communication platforms you will use to identify and nurture your relationships with customers. These could be email, advertising, social media, etc.
• Explain the Cost Structure This section is especially necessary in the early stages of a business. Will you prioritize maximizing value or keeping costs low? List the foundational startup costs and how you will move toward profit over time.
• Share Your Revenue Streams Over time, how will the company make money? Include both the direct product or service purchase, as well as secondary sources of revenue, such as subscriptions, selling advertising space, fundraising, etc.

Lean Business Plan Template for Startups

Download Lean Business Plan Template for Startups

Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF

Startup leaders can use this Lean business plan template to relay the most critical information from a traditional plan. You’ll find all the sections listed above, including spaces for industry and product overviews, cost structure and sources of revenue, and key metrics, and a timeline. The template is completely customizable, so you can edit it to suit the objectives of your Lean startups.

See our wide variety of  startup business plan templates for more options.

How to Write a Business Plan for a Loan

A business plan for a loan, often called a loan proposal , includes many of the same aspects of a traditional business plan, as well as additional financial documents, such as a credit history, a loan request, and a loan repayment plan.

In addition, you may be asked to include personal and business financial statements, a form of collateral, and equity investment information.

Download free financial templates to support your business plan.

Tips for Writing a Business Plan

Outside of including all the key details in your business plan, you have several options to elevate the document for the highest chance of winning funding and other resources. Follow these tips from experts:.

• Keep It Simple: Avner Brodsky , the Co-Founder and CEO of Lezgo Limited, an online marketing company, uses the acronym KISS (keep it short and simple) as a variation on this idea. “The business plan is not a college thesis,” he says. “Just focus on providing the essential information.”
• Do Adequate Research: Michael Dean, the Co-Founder of Pool Research , encourages business leaders to “invest time in research, both internal and external (market, finance, legal etc.). Avoid being overly ambitious or presumptive. Instead, keep everything objective, balanced, and accurate.” Your plan needs to stand on its own, and you must have the data to back up any claims or forecasting you make. As Brodsky explains, “Your business needs to be grounded on the realities of the market in your chosen location. Get the most recent data from authoritative sources so that the figures are vetted by experts and are reliable.”
• Set Clear Goals: Make sure your plan includes clear, time-based goals. “Short-term goals are key to momentum growth and are especially important to identify for new businesses,” advises Dean.
• Know (and Address) Your Weaknesses: “This awareness sets you up to overcome your weak points much quicker than waiting for them to arise,” shares Dean. Brodsky recommends performing a full SWOT analysis to identify your weaknesses, too. “Your business will fare better with self-knowledge, which will help you better define the mission of your business, as well as the strategies you will choose to achieve your objectives,” he adds.
• Seek Peer or Mentor Review: “Ask for feedback on your drafts and for areas to improve,” advises Brodsky. “When your mind is filled with dreams for your business, sometimes it is an outsider who can tell you what you’re missing and will save your business from being a product of whimsy.”

Outside of these more practical tips, the language you use is also important and may make or break your business plan.

Shaun Heng, VP of Operations at Coin Market Cap , gives the following advice on the writing, “Your business plan is your sales pitch to an investor. And as with any sales pitch, you need to strike the right tone and hit a few emotional chords. This is a little tricky in a business plan, because you also need to be formal and matter-of-fact. But you can still impress by weaving in descriptive language and saying things in a more elegant way.

“A great way to do this is by expanding your vocabulary, avoiding word repetition, and using business language. Instead of saying that something ‘will bring in as many customers as possible,’ try saying ‘will garner the largest possible market segment.’ Elevate your writing with precise descriptive words and you'll impress even the busiest investor.”

Additionally, Dean recommends that you “stay consistent and concise by keeping your tone and style steady throughout, and your language clear and precise. Include only what is 100 percent necessary.”

Resources for Writing a Business Plan

While a template provides a great outline of what to include in a business plan, a live document or more robust program can provide additional functionality, visibility, and real-time updates. The U.S. Small Business Association also curates resources for writing a business plan.

Additionally, you can use business plan software to house data, attach documentation, and share information with stakeholders. Popular options include LivePlan, Enloop, BizPlanner, PlanGuru, and iPlanner.

How a Business Plan Helps to Grow Your Business

A business plan — both the exercise of creating one and the document — can grow your business by helping you to refine your product, target audience, sales plan, identify opportunities, secure funding, and build new partnerships. 

Outside of these immediate returns, writing a business plan is a useful exercise in that it forces you to research the market, which prompts you to forge your unique value proposition and identify ways to beat the competition. Doing so will also help you build (and keep you accountable to) attainable financial and product milestones. And down the line, it will serve as a welcome guide as hurdles inevitably arise.

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What is a Business Plan? Definition, Tips, and Templates

Published: June 07, 2023

In an era where more than 20% of small enterprises fail in their first year, having a clear, defined, and well-thought-out business plan is a crucial first step for setting up a business for long-term success.

Business plans are a required tool for all entrepreneurs, business owners, business acquirers, and even business school students. But … what exactly is a business plan?

In this post, we'll explain what a business plan is, the reasons why you'd need one, identify different types of business plans, and what you should include in yours.

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a documented strategy for a business that highlights its goals and its plans for achieving them. It outlines a company's go-to-market plan, financial projections, market research, business purpose, and mission statement. Key staff who are responsible for achieving the goals may also be included in the business plan along with a timeline.

The business plan is an undeniably critical component to getting any company off the ground. It's key to securing financing, documenting your business model, outlining your financial projections, and turning that nugget of a business idea into a reality.

What is a business plan used for?

The purpose of a business plan is three-fold: It summarizes the organization’s strategy in order to execute it long term, secures financing from investors, and helps forecast future business demands.

Business Plan Template [ Download Now ]

Working on your business plan? Try using our Business Plan Template . Pre-filled with the sections a great business plan needs, the template will give aspiring entrepreneurs a feel for what a business plan is, what should be in it, and how it can be used to establish and grow a business from the ground up.

Purposes of a Business Plan

Chances are, someone drafting a business plan will be doing so for one or more of the following reasons:

1. Securing financing from investors.

Since its contents revolve around how businesses succeed, break even, and turn a profit, a business plan is used as a tool for sourcing capital. This document is an entrepreneur's way of showing potential investors or lenders how their capital will be put to work and how it will help the business thrive.

All banks, investors, and venture capital firms will want to see a business plan before handing over their money, and investors typically expect a 10% ROI or more from the capital they invest in a business.

Therefore, these investors need to know if — and when — they'll be making their money back (and then some). Additionally, they'll want to read about the process and strategy for how the business will reach those financial goals, which is where the context provided by sales, marketing, and operations plans come into play.

2. Documenting a company's strategy and goals.

A business plan should leave no stone unturned.

Business plans can span dozens or even hundreds of pages, affording their drafters the opportunity to explain what a business' goals are and how the business will achieve them.

To show potential investors that they've addressed every question and thought through every possible scenario, entrepreneurs should thoroughly explain their marketing, sales, and operations strategies — from acquiring a physical location for the business to explaining a tactical approach for marketing penetration.

These explanations should ultimately lead to a business' break-even point supported by a sales forecast and financial projections, with the business plan writer being able to speak to the why behind anything outlined in the plan.

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Free Business Plan [Template]

Fill out the form to access your free business plan., 3. legitimizing a business idea..

Everyone's got a great idea for a company — until they put pen to paper and realize that it's not exactly feasible.

A business plan is an aspiring entrepreneur's way to prove that a business idea is actually worth pursuing.

As entrepreneurs document their go-to-market process, capital needs, and expected return on investment, entrepreneurs likely come across a few hiccups that will make them second guess their strategies and metrics — and that's exactly what the business plan is for.

It ensures an entrepreneur's ducks are in a row before bringing their business idea to the world and reassures the readers that whoever wrote the plan is serious about the idea, having put hours into thinking of the business idea, fleshing out growth tactics, and calculating financial projections.

4. Getting an A in your business class.

Speaking from personal experience, there's a chance you're here to get business plan ideas for your Business 101 class project.

If that's the case, might we suggest checking out this post on How to Write a Business Plan — providing a section-by-section guide on creating your plan?

What does a business plan need to include?

• Business Plan Subtitle
• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• The Business Opportunity
• Competitive Analysis
• Target Market
• Marketing Plan
• Financial Summary
• Funding Requirements

1. Business Plan Subtitle

Every great business plan starts with a captivating title and subtitle. You’ll want to make it clear that the document is, in fact, a business plan, but the subtitle can help tell the story of your business in just a short sentence.

2. Executive Summary

Although this is the last part of the business plan that you’ll write, it’s the first section (and maybe the only section) that stakeholders will read. The executive summary of a business plan sets the stage for the rest of the document. It includes your company’s mission or vision statement, value proposition, and long-term goals.

3. Company Description

This brief part of your business plan will detail your business name, years in operation, key offerings, and positioning statement. You might even add core values or a short history of the company. The company description’s role in a business plan is to introduce your business to the reader in a compelling and concise way.

4. The Business Opportunity

The business opportunity should convince investors that your organization meets the needs of the market in a way that no other company can. This section explains the specific problem your business solves within the marketplace and how it solves them. It will include your value proposition as well as some high-level information about your target market.

5. Competitive Analysis

Just about every industry has more than one player in the market. Even if your business owns the majority of the market share in your industry or your business concept is the first of its kind, you still have competition. In the competitive analysis section, you’ll take an objective look at the industry landscape to determine where your business fits. A SWOT analysis is an organized way to format this section.

6. Target Market

Who are the core customers of your business and why? The target market portion of your business plan outlines this in detail. The target market should explain the demographics, psychographics, behavioristics, and geographics of the ideal customer.

7. Marketing Plan

Marketing is expansive, and it’ll be tempting to cover every type of marketing possible, but a brief overview of how you’ll market your unique value proposition to your target audience, followed by a tactical plan will suffice.

Think broadly and narrow down from there: Will you focus on a slow-and-steady play where you make an upfront investment in organic customer acquisition? Or will you generate lots of quick customers using a pay-to-play advertising strategy? This kind of information should guide the marketing plan section of your business plan.

8. Financial Summary

Money doesn’t grow on trees and even the most digital, sustainable businesses have expenses. Outlining a financial summary of where your business is currently and where you’d like it to be in the future will substantiate this section. Consider including any monetary information that will give potential investors a glimpse into the financial health of your business. Assets, liabilities, expenses, debt, investments, revenue, and more are all useful adds here.

So, you’ve outlined some great goals, the business opportunity is valid, and the industry is ready for what you have to offer. Who’s responsible for turning all this high-level talk into results? The "team" section of your business plan answers that question by providing an overview of the roles responsible for each goal. Don’t worry if you don’t have every team member on board yet, knowing what roles to hire for is helpful as you seek funding from investors.

10. Funding Requirements

Remember that one of the goals of a business plan is to secure funding from investors, so you’ll need to include funding requirements you’d like them to fulfill. The amount your business needs, for what reasons, and for how long will meet the requirement for this section.

Types of Business Plans

• Startup Business Plan
• Feasibility Business Plan
• Internal Business Plan
• Strategic Business Plan
• Business Acquisition Plan
• Business Repositioning Plan
• Expansion or Growth Business Plan

There’s no one size fits all business plan as there are several types of businesses in the market today. From startups with just one founder to historic household names that need to stay competitive, every type of business needs a business plan that’s tailored to its needs. Below are a few of the most common types of business plans.

For even more examples, check out these sample business plans to help you write your own .

1. Startup Business Plan

As one of the most common types of business plans, a startup business plan is for new business ideas. This plan lays the foundation for the eventual success of a business.

The biggest challenge with the startup business plan is that it’s written completely from scratch. Startup business plans often reference existing industry data. They also explain unique business strategies and go-to-market plans.

Because startup business plans expand on an original idea, the contents will vary by the top priority goals.

For example, say a startup is looking for funding. If capital is a priority, this business plan might focus more on financial projections than marketing or company culture.

2. Feasibility Business Plan

This type of business plan focuses on a single essential aspect of the business — the product or service. It may be part of a startup business plan or a standalone plan for an existing organization. This comprehensive plan may include:

• A detailed product description
• Market analysis
• Technology needs
• Production needs
• Financial sources
• Production operations

According to CBInsights research, 35% of startups fail because of a lack of market need. Another 10% fail because of mistimed products.

Some businesses will complete a feasibility study to explore ideas and narrow product plans to the best choice. They conduct these studies before completing the feasibility business plan. Then the feasibility plan centers on that one product or service.

3. Internal Business Plan

Internal business plans help leaders communicate company goals, strategy, and performance. This helps the business align and work toward objectives more effectively.

Besides the typical elements in a startup business plan, an internal business plan may also include:

• Department-specific budgets
• Target demographic analysis
• Market size and share of voice analysis
• Action plans
• Sustainability plans

Most external-facing business plans focus on raising capital and support for a business. But an internal business plan helps keep the business mission consistent in the face of change.

4. Strategic Business Plan

Strategic business plans focus on long-term objectives for your business. They usually cover the first three to five years of operations. This is different from the typical startup business plan which focuses on the first one to three years. The audience for this plan is also primarily internal stakeholders.

These types of business plans may include:

• Relevant data and analysis
• Assessments of company resources
• Vision and mission statements

It's important to remember that, while many businesses create a strategic plan before launching, some business owners just jump in. So, this business plan can add value by outlining how your business plans to reach specific goals. This type of planning can also help a business anticipate future challenges.

5. Business Acquisition Plan

Investors use business plans to acquire existing businesses, too — not just new businesses.

A business acquisition plan may include costs, schedules, or management requirements. This data will come from an acquisition strategy.

A business plan for an existing company will explain:

• How an acquisition will change its operating model
• What will stay the same under new ownership
• Why things will change or stay the same
• Acquisition planning documentation
• Timelines for acquisition

Additionally, the business plan should speak to the current state of the business and why it's up for sale.

For example, if someone is purchasing a failing business, the business plan should explain why the business is being purchased. It should also include:

• What the new owner will do to turn the business around
• Historic business metrics
• Sales projections after the acquisition
• Justification for those projections

6. Business Repositioning Plan

When a business wants to avoid acquisition, reposition its brand, or try something new, CEOs or owners will develop a business repositioning plan.

This plan will:

• Acknowledge the current state of the company.
• State a vision for the future of the company.
• Explain why the business needs to reposition itself.
• Outline a process for how the company will adjust.

Companies planning for a business reposition often do so — proactively or retroactively — due to a shift in market trends and customer needs.

For example, shoe brand AllBirds plans to refocus its brand on core customers and shift its go-to-market strategy. These decisions are a reaction to lackluster sales following product changes and other missteps.

7. Expansion or Growth Business Plan

When your business is ready to expand, a growth business plan creates a useful structure for reaching specific targets.

For example, a successful business expanding into another location can use a growth business plan. This is because it may also mean the business needs to focus on a new target market or generate more capital.

This type of plan usually covers the next year or two of growth. It often references current sales, revenue, and successes. It may also include:

• SWOT analysis
• Growth opportunity studies
• Financial goals and plans
• Marketing plans
• Capability planning

These types of business plans will vary by business, but they can help businesses quickly rally around new priorities to drive growth.

Getting Started With Your Business Plan

At the end of the day, a business plan is simply an explanation of a business idea and why it will be successful. The more detail and thought you put into it, the more successful your plan — and the business it outlines — will be.

When writing your business plan, you’ll benefit from extensive research, feedback from your team or board of directors, and a solid template to organize your thoughts. If you need one of these, download HubSpot's Free Business Plan Template below to get started.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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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 ."

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• Project management |
• How to create a project timeline in 7 s ...

How to create a project timeline in 7 simple steps

Wondering how to transform your project management game? Learn how to streamline your tasks and dependencies by creating an adaptable project management timeline that's suitable for any industry and profession.

Fret no more. This guide offers a comprehensive example of how to create a project timeline suitable for any professional, regardless of their job title, industry, or department. Follow these steps and learn how to build project timelines that put you in the driver’s seat and build your own project timeline template .

What is a project timeline?

A project timeline is an important project management tool that visually represents the schedule and details the sequence and duration of tasks. It breaks down a project into parts and supports effective workload management by using integrations such as a work breakdown structure (WBS). A project timeline is more than a static calendar; it functions as a dynamic guide that adapts to the project's developing needs, ensuring that goals are completed quickly and within anticipated timescales, whether in a major enterprise project or a small business initiative.

How to create a project timeline

Creating a project timeline is a structured process that lays the foundation for successful project execution. It begins with defining the project’s scope and objectives.

A good timeline not only displays tasks in chronological order but also incorporates critical elements like task dependencies, resource allocation, and milestones. 

This is where the functionality of the timeline comes into play. It should provide a clear, visual representation of the project’s flow and allow for easy tracking and updates. The timeline should be both comprehensive and flexible, able to adapt to changes while keeping the project on track.

1. Create a project brief

To keep all project stakeholders aligned on the plan, every project should start with a project brief . It serves as a roadmap and is a way to explain big picture details, like the purpose, goals, milestones, and vision of the overall project. Here are a few questions to answer in your brief:

What are your goals for the project, both internally and externally? What are the project deliverables?

Which internal and external stakeholders are a part of the project? What are their roles?

What is the timeframe for the project? What are the most important dates?

What is the project scope ? Do you have a project scope statement?

What are the key milestones of the project?

Let’s put this step into practice. You’re responsible for planning this year’s client appreciation dinner. Your personal goal for the event is to be as organized, productive, and efficient as possible . You’re confident you can do it, and understand it all starts by putting together a cohesive brief for your event. Your answers to the four questions listed above are:

What are your project goals, both internally and externally?

The internal goal is to plan a high-impact client event under $15,000. The external goal is to achieve a 50% RSVP rate and 80% attendance rate.

Which internal and external stakeholders are a part of the project?

The internal stakeholders are the event’s planning committee (John, Sam, Tara, Linda), the VP of Client Success, and the Marketing team. Externally, the stakeholders include all current clients, and certain vendors (catering company, event venue, etc.).

What is the time frame for the project?

The project planning kicks off on January 15, and the event will happen on August 30.

Which tasks should be considered project milestones?

Publishing the registration page, securing the venue, and signing certain vendors.

Once you have your project brief and goals outlined, you’ll be ready to work backwards and figure out all of the steps you need to take to get there, and you can start creating a project timeline.

2. List your to-dos

In order to have a successful project timeline, you’ll need to create a list of everything that will need to happen throughout the project planning process, all the way to your final deliverable, whether it is a report or an event. Think both big and small in terms of steps. Any tasks that will help you get your project completed on time and on budget should go on this list.

At this point, don’t worry too much about the order of all of your steps or when you need to get them done—we’ll cover that later.

For example, the breakdown for our client appreciation dinner might look like this:

Write an event plan

Finalize budget

Confirm event venue

Select catering

Choose event theme

Design creative concepts for event

Set up an RSVP page

Send invitations

Advertise event

Finalize presentations

Prepare all event collateral and swag

Create a day-of checklist

For longer or more complex steps, break them into smaller, easy-to-digest subtasks. Not only will it help you figure out the true scope of a step, but it’ll also ensure you don’t forget any small details and make tackling it more manageable.

In our event example, to make the "Select catering" step less overwhelming, we would split this part of the project into a digestible task list:

Create a list of possible caterers

Get quotes from each caterer

Compare quotes and menus

Meet with top picks

Choose caterer

Finalize contract

3. Estimate how long each step will take

Once you have a comprehensive list of every step in your project, you’ll allocate an amount of time each will take to complete. When doing this, balance giving your team enough time to get project tasks finished and staying within your overall time frame. Once you know how much time each task will take, you’ll be able to properly plan and sequence each task to create a project roadmap.

Continuing on with our client appreciation event example, let’s take the “Select catering” step, along with each of its subtasks, and estimate how much time the smaller tasks will take, in chronological order.

Select catering (9 weeks)

Create a list of possible caterers (1 week)

Get quotes from each caterer (3 weeks)

Compare quotes and menus (1 week)

Meet with top picks (2 weeks)

Choose caterer (1 week)

Finalize contract (1 week)

Based on our time projections, the process of selecting a catering company will take a total of nine weeks. By working backwards, you can determine when you need to start on this particular step and fill in your project timeline with actual dates.

4. Map out dependencies

As you’re running a project, some steps can be worked on simultaneously—especially if different teammates are responsible for each of the overlapping tasks. However, others cannot be started or completed until another step is finished. In other words, some steps are dependent on others getting completed first. For instance, you can’t order food before you’ve selected the caterer. This is one of the many reasons why a timeline is so important. Visually seeing each step, how the steps overlap, and the amount of time each one takes will keep you on course.

This is also the time to figure out who’s responsible for each step. Assigning who’s responsible for what to every part of the project early on will help you spot and adjust timing or resource conflicts, and avoid future surprises and delays. In Step 6, you’ll learn how to share your project timeline with those involved, making responsibilities crystal clear.

One of the tasks for our example event is to send out invitations. While this particular step seems like an easy one, there are several other things that need to happen before we can even think about sending invitations. The invites must be designed, and we can’t design them until a theme has been chosen for our event. One task needs to occur before another starts. For example:

Event theme (Event Planning team) → Design concepts (Linda) → Choose design (Event Planning team) → Create invitation (Linda) → Send invitations (Tara)

It’s worth the time to map out each dependency and the sequence (or order) of each task. You’ll quickly start to see your project puzzle coming together. Deciding who will do what is critical as well. Who will be working on finalizing the event theme? Who will design the invitations? Don’t wait until it is time for a task to start before assigning it to someone—get everything ironed out early to avoid conflicts or hiccups.

The good news is the invitation process and catering selections can happen at the same time, which will be shown on our project timeline.

5. Create your timeline

Are you beginning to visualize what your project timeline could look like ? While it’s not practical to keep that image (and all those tasks and due dates) in your head, it is realistic to get them down on paper (or on screen). Your first instinct might be to open up an Excel spreadsheet or Microsoft presentation—but wait. Since neither were designed to plan or manage projects, you’ll run into some challenges you could avoid by choosing a better tool .

Instead, opt for a project management tool that’s designed to build and manage project timelines —like Asana. Not only will it save you time drawing your timeline (since you won’t have to attempt to hack merge cells and add formulas to turn a spreadsheet into a project timeline), it will allow you to continue managing your timeline after the project kickoff. Dedicated project management software allows you to easily adapt your timeline as you work, and update your stakeholders on changes and progress in real time.

With the right tool, your timeline will be tied to your underlying work and will always stay up to date. It can be the difference between a project running on track and one going haywire.

How to create a timeline in Asana

Use Asana’s Timeline feature to create your own project schedule :

Enter all of your project steps as tasks in a list

Add start and end dates to each task

Add a task owner for each one

Draw dependencies between tasks

Click "Timeline" view to see your list translated into a visual timeline.

Tip: If you’ve already created your plan in a spreadsheet, you can quickly import it into Asana using our CSV importer integration , and skip to step four.

Project timeline templates to get you started

The easiest way to set up a project timeline quickly is to start with a project template . Below are a couple of project templates, created by Asana, that you can use now. Each type of project starts as a List View, but you can click the "Timeline" tab to convert it into a Timeline:

Product marketing launch template

Event planning template

Product roadmap template

General project plan template

6. Share it with stakeholders

Remember when you added a list of all project stakeholders to your brief at the very beginning of this process? Now that you’ve built your timeline, it’s important to share it with everyone involved. We can promise they will be thrilled to see how clear your plan is. The easier you make their part of the project, the more kudos will come your way throughout the process.

When you use a project management tool to build your timeline, sharing it is quick and seamless. Forget emails and multiple docs—in no time, your stakeholders will know who’s doing what by when.

For the client appreciation event, we will want to share our timeline with everyone involved in the entire project, not just those who have immediate responsibilities. At any time, someone will be able to track their part of the project and its dependencies without having to ping you for information.

7. Manage and adapt as you go

If you’ve ever worked on any project, you know things don’t always go as planned. However, when you’re prepared to adapt, changes don’t seem so difficult to handle. Timelines aren’t just great for planning; they will also help you adjust as delays or changes inevitably happen.

Moving tasks around doesn’t have to be daunting or disrupt the entire project. If one part of the project runs into a delay, as the project owner, you will have clarity on the impact of the rest of the project. Then, you’ll be empowered to move things around accordingly so the overall project can still move forward productively.

As The Balance Careers notes, project changes can be managed within their own specific steps, but once the change is final, it’s time to update your timeline. Because timelines go out of date quickly when plans change, relying on a project management tool , rather than email or spreadsheets, offers a major benefit. As the project owner, it’s your responsibility to communicate to all stakeholders what the single source of truth is (your timeline) and make sure it’s always updated.

Take immediate action. As soon as the change is confirmed, update your timeline to reflect it.

Notify stakeholders. Anyone that is affected by the change to your project timeline should understand how it impacts them and be able to visually see the change on the project timeline.

Determine the impact. Once your timeline is updated, you’ll be able to see if there are time periods that are overcrowded and stakeholders that have too many tasks. Can you move a task to ensure more time? Can someone else take over that responsibility or lend a hand?

To wrap up our event example, let’s say you managed to choose a caterer for the client appreciation dinner. You’re about to finalize the contract when a call comes in that the catering company double-booked themselves. Unfortunately, you must find a new catering company.

With a timeline, it's easy to adjust due dates for any task or any team members that are impacted by this change. The positive part of this challenge is that we’ve already gone through several of the initial tasks and can see that reflected on the timeline. While this is a frustrating problem, it feels more manageable because our timeline has kept us organized and on track.

Types of project timelines

Project timelines are as diverse as the projects themselves. The reason for this variety lies in the distinct nature of each project, where factors like scope, complexity, industry, and team size dictate the most suitable timeline format. This diversity ensures that every project can have a timeline tailored to its specific needs.

Choosing the right type of project timeline is an important step in project management. The key is to assess the project’s requirements and consider factors like: 

Project duration

Level of detail needed

Team's working style 

For instance, projects requiring close monitoring of deadlines might benefit from a Gantt chart, while those emphasizing flexibility might opt for a Kanban timeline. Additionally, the availability of project timeline software and tools should also be considered to ensure compatibility and ease of use.

Knowing you've selected the right type of timeline often comes down to its effectiveness in project execution. A suitable timeline will streamline the planning process, facilitate clear communication among team members, and provide a realistic overview of the project’s progress. 

If the timeline allows for easy identification of bottlenecks , supports effective time management , and aligns with the team’s workflow, it's likely a good fit for the project.

Gantt chart timeline

A Gantt chart is a popular project timeline tool that provides a visual overview of tasks scheduled over time. It helps teams see the start and end dates of project phases, helping with time management and identifying potential bottlenecks.

For example, a Gantt chart can be used to manage deadlines and identify potential delays in a construction project by outlining stages such as design, procurement, and construction.

Vertical chart timeline

This timeline is a variant of the traditional Gantt chart, displaying tasks along a vertical line. It's effective for smaller projects or when you need a concise list of tasks without detailed scheduling.

In event planning, such as organizing a conference, a vertical timeline can efficiently display the sequence of tasks like venue booking, speaker confirmation, and marketing.

Historical timeline

Particularly useful in educational or retrospective projects, a historical timeline outlines key events in chronological order. When dealing with complex projects, this format can help streamline the visualization of project phases.

A historical timeline, for instance, could be used to help with the educational component of a museum exhibit project by listing important historical events or eras in chronological order.

Kanban timeline

Kanban timelines, inspired by Kanban boards , focus on the progress of tasks from "to-do" to "done." They're excellent for teams emphasizing teamwork and agile methodologies, where tasks move through different stages.

For example, software development teams often use a Kanban board to track the progress of features from conception to implementation. 

Critical Path Method (CPM)

The Critical Path Method is a more sophisticated approach that identifies the sequence of interdependent tasks that affect the project's timeline. It's pivotal in complex projects where time tracking and precise planning are key.

In a big manufacturing project, for instance, CPM can identify and keep track of important steps like design, production, and quality control to make sure the job is finished on time.

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

PERT is similar to CPM but focuses more on the time each task takes. It's beneficial in projects where time estimation is challenging by providing a project plan timeline that considers uncertainty.

In a research and development project, for example, PERT can be used to estimate the time needed for various phases like conceptualization, experimentation, and product testing.

Project timeline examples

Effective project timelines are more than just theoretical concepts; they are proven tools that drive successful project outcomes. They enable precise coordination, effective resource allocation, and timely completion of tasks.

A notable example is NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity Project. The mission's success was heavily reliant on a meticulously crafted timeline, coordinating hundreds of scientists and engineers. This precise planning facilitated the rover's successful landing on Mars in 2012, demonstrating how a well-managed timeline can lead to extraordinary achievements in highly complex projects.

Project timeline example 1: Digital marketing campaign

In a digital marketing project, a Gantt chart timeline could delineate phases like market research, content creation, and campaign execution. The project team might use timeline tools to track critical tasks, ensuring effective time management when meeting campaign deadlines.

Scenario: A digital marketing team at a tech startup is launching a new app.

Market research phase: The team sets a two-week period for market analysis to understand the target audience.

Content creation phase: Over the next month, the team develops blog posts, social media content, and email campaigns.

Campaign execution: The final phase involves a six-week rollout of the created content across different platforms, with weekly reviews.

With the Gantt chart timeline, the team can see how each phase is progressing, adjust to delays in content creation, and move resources around more efficiently, all of which led to a successful campaign launch.

Project timeline example 2: Boutique retail business

For a small business project, a simple vertical chart timeline or a Kanban timeline might be more suitable. Businesses can use this kind of timeline to make project timelines that are easy to follow and keep up-to-date by showing important tasks like product development, marketing, and sales.

Scenario: A boutique clothing store is planning to expand its online presence.

Product development stage: Tasks include selecting new products and setting up an online store. Each task is moved from "to do" to "doing" to "done."

Marketing stage: This involves social media marketing and email marketing tasks, tracked similarly through the Kanban board.

Sales monitoring: The final stage tracks online sales performance and customer feedback.

Using a Kanban timeline, the store effectively handles its growth into e-commerce, keeping task management flexible and ensuring a smooth transition to online sales.

Common questions about project timelines

Knowing how to create a well-organized project timeline is a great first step towards understanding how to use this powerful tool, but you may still have a few more questions. You’re not alone. Here are answers to a couple common questions people have about project timelines:

What’s the difference between a timeline and a Gantt chart?

Gantt charts focus more on workflow and task dependencies. They are more linear and don’t account for changes or multiple things happening at once. Timelines are flexible and adapt easily to changes in project plans. They allow the workflow to be updated effortlessly. Both are organized as bar charts and serve as visual tools.

How can you track project progress, especially if you’re managing multiple projects?

This is tough to do in spreadsheets, but easier in a project management tool. There are multiple views to be able to see one project at a time, or you can manage multiple projects through a portfolio-style view .

In other words, you can visualize when you’ll have more time to work on specific tasks, and when you’re at capacity, you can adjust as needed to even out your entire team’s workload .

Create your next project timeline confidently

It’s not enough to just come up with a project plan. Determining how to execute it is just as important . Developing a timeline of how the plan will evolve is critical to the planning phase and also makes managing the project more efficient.

Using this step-by-step process for every project management timeline will keep you on task and less stressed. Try it out, adapt it to your business, and share it!

To take your project timelines even further, create your next timeline using Asana .

Related resources

Program manager vs. project manager: Key differences to know

15 project management interview questions, answers, and tips

Critical path method: How to use CPM for project management

Unmanaged business goals don’t work. Here’s what does.

How to write the milestones section of your business plan

Company milestones are integral to effectively communicating the executability of your business plan by committing to when key objectives will be met.

Establishing business strategies and goals, especially for large and complex projects, can be challenging for entrepreneurs. However, milestones offer invaluable support by breaking down the endeavor into smaller, manageable targets.

In this article, we'll explore the significance of milestones in your business plan, how to structure them, and the essential information they should contain. We'll guide you in crafting this section effectively to impress stakeholders and investors.

Ready to make your business plan stand out? Let's dive in!

In this guide:

What is the objective of the milestones subsection of your business plan?

What information should i include in the milestones section of my business plan.

• How long should the milestones section of your business plan be?
• Example of milestones in a business plan
• What tools can you use to write your business plan?

The core objective of the milestones subsection in your business plan is to showcase the business’s progress so far to build trust with potential investors and to communicate your team's objectives for the years to come.

The milestones sections of your businesses plan can help you:

• Convey past achievements - stakeholders are more likely to invest in a company that appears credible because they believe it has a good chance of succeeding. Illustrating that your business was able to meet past goals helps achieve this.
• Explain future business goals and objectives - when providing details about each goal, it’s important to emphasize when and how they will be achieved as well as the projected increase in revenue and profitability that will come about as a result. 
• Monitor progress - if your business plan is also used for internal purposes, the milestones section can also act as a guide for monitoring progress over time. You'll be able to tick off targets that you meet as you grow. This helps signify that the business is headed in the right direction.

Strategic planning for any company relies heavily on striking a balance between setting very modest and heavily ambitious goals. So, when setting business milestones, you need to ensure that they are reasonable and attainable. 

When writing the milestones section for investors and business partners, you should keep the “underpromise and overdeliver” approach in mind. This will help increase the perceived competence of your management team and can aid in securing further funding if needed. 

This is a well known trick used by the management teams of listed companies which all try to “beat and raise” in order to drive the price of their stock's up.

Need a convincing business plan?

The Business Plan Shop makes it easy to create a financial forecast to assess the potential profitability of your projects, and write a business plan that’ll wow investors.

Before we get into the information you need to include in the subsection, you should remember that it is towards the end of the strategy section of your business plan, after the marketing plan and before the risks and mitigants subsection. This means that by that point the reader of your plan is already familiar with what you offer, your market, and your go to market strategy.

You should aim to include key milestones that mark a significant development in your business development. This could include any of the following:

Securing financing

If you are seeking external funding to help start or grow your business, you need to discuss when you anticipate receiving adequate finances. This could include bank loans, equity funding or other forms of financing.

Reaching your break-even point

The milestones section must include the time span you have determined for your business to reach your break-even point (profitability in lay man term).

You should specify a timeframe or set of financial goals by which you hope to have achieved this. For example, this could include selling “X” units of a product or providing “Y” units of a service.

Opening new stores or selling units

If you plan to expand your business in the future, be sure to include milestones about this too. You could talk about dates targeted for opening new stores, manufacturing facilities, and distribution units. 

Acquiring new customers

Emphasize targets for acquiring new customers or growing your current customer base in a predetermined time frame. Here, you can briefly mention strategies that will be used to acquire new customers.

Launching new products or services

When introducing a new product or service, it’s important to provide details regarding the schedule for doing so. If you plan to improve or redesign current products or services, be sure to mention this too.

Expanding into new markets

Specify target dates by which a particular number of stores, branches, or offices are to be opened in a different market. You can also provide brief details about the monetary requirements for entering into new markets.

Hiring new employees

You should also mention when and how you plan to hire essential personnel. Especially if you are writing a business plan to raise funding to scale your business rapidly.

Things to consider

You could also talk about the monetary, human, and technological resources required to achieve each milestone. In addition, you can also include the performance tracking measures and expected challenges.

We recommend using one of these two frameworks when setting milestones:

• The objective key result (OKR) framework - a method of developing, communicating, and monitoring organizational goals and objectives. 
• The SMART framework - a method of setting goals and objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

How long should the milestones section of your business plan be? 

The length of the milestones section of the business plan depends on several different factors. Ideally, this section of the business plan should contain one to two paragraphs for each milestone. However, the following factors determine the level of detail needed for each milestone:

The complexity of the business model 

A technological startup offering complex business products or services would likely need to include more information regarding key milestones than a bookstore operating on the high street.

For example, the “establishing an initial online presence” milestone would look different for both businesses (i.e. a bookstore might just aim to be listed on Google Maps and a handful social networks whilst a tech startup might need to deploy demand generation tactics and capital in order to hit 1M unique monthly visitors).

The significance of each milestone 

If a milestone represents a major achievement, a critical turning point, or a significant investment in the business, it should be elaborated upon in greater detail. You may need to provide additional context, background information, and potential risks or challenges associated with the milestone.

The level of familiarity of the reader

Tailor the level of detail in the milestones section to match the reader's industry knowledge. Take into account the reader's familiarity with your specific industry and adjust the information provided accordingly.

Additional resources

When writing the milestones section, you might need to add additional resources like data charts and graphs for some milestones. 

It’s important to include these details in the appendices section to help keep the milestones section concise.

Remember, the information in your business plan should be comprehensive yet presented in a concise manner. It’s important not to include jargon which might feel complex or technical for the reader.

Need inspiration for your business plan?

The Business Plan Shop has dozens of business plan templates that you can use to get a clear idea of what a complete business plan looks like.

Example of milestones in a business plan 

Below is an example of what the milestones section of your business plan might look like. As you can see, it follows with the marketing plan subsection and is part of the overall strategy section.

The milestones section of a business plan outlines key achievements and events that mark the company's progress over time. It helps investors and stakeholders understand the timeline and critical steps toward the business's growth, development, and success.

This example was taken from one of  our business plan templates .

What tools should I use to write my business plan?

In this section, we will review three solutions for creating a business plan for your business: using Word and Excel, hiring a consultant to write the business plan, and utilizing an online business plan software.

Create your business plan using Word or Excel

This is the old-fashioned way of creating a business plan (1990s style) and using Word or Excel has both pros and cons.

On the one hand, using either of these two programs is cheap and they are widely available. 

However, creating an error-free financial forecast with Excel is only possible if you have expertise in accounting and financial modeling.

Because of that investors and lenders might not trust the accuracy of your forecast unless you have a degree in finance or accounting.

Also, writing a business plan using Word means starting from scratch and formatting the document yourself once written - a process that is quite tedious - especially when the numbers change and you need to manually update all the tables and text.

Ultimately, it's up to the business owner to decide which program is right for them and whether they have the expertise or resources needed to make Excel work. 

Hire a consultant to write your business plan

Outsourcing your business plan to a consultant can be a viable option, but it also presents certain drawbacks. 

On the plus side, consultants are experienced in writing business plans and adept at creating financial forecasts without errors. Furthermore, hiring a consultant can save you time and allow you to focus on the day-to-day operations of your business.

However, hiring consultants is expensive: budget at least £1.5k ($2.0k) for a complete business plan, more if you need to make changes after the initial version (which happens frequently after the first meetings with lenders).

For these reasons, outsourcing the plan to a consultant or accountant should be considered carefully, weighing both the advantages and disadvantages of hiring outside help.

Ultimately, it may be the right decision for some businesses, while others may find it beneficial to write their own business plan using an online software.

Use an online business plan software for your business plan

Another alternative is to use online business plan software .

There are several advantages to using specialized software:

• You are guided through the writing process by detailed instructions and examples for each part of the plan
• You can be inspired by already written business plan templates
• You can easily make your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you without errors
• You get a professional document, formatted and ready to be sent to your bank
• The software will enable you to easily track your actual financial performance against your forecast and update your forecast as time goes by

If you're interested in using this type of solution, you can try our software for free by signing up here .

Also on The Business Plan Shop

• How to do a market analysis for a business plan
• What is a business plan and how to create one?
• How to write the products and services section of your business plan?
• How to write the risks and mitigants section of your business plan?
• How to write the suppliers section of your business plan?

Know someone who needs to write the milestones section of their business plan? Share this article with them!

Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd

Guillaume Le Brouster is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier.

Guillaume has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade and has first-hand experience of starting, running, and growing a successful business.

Prior to being a business owner, Guillaume worked in investment banking and private equity, where he spent most of his time creating complex financial forecasts, writing business plans, and analysing financial statements to make financing and investment decisions.

Guillaume holds a Master's Degree in Finance from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business & Management from Paris Dauphine University.

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