How to Find Free Sample Business Plans Online

There are many kinds of free sample business plans that you can use as a template or example when creating your own business. Business plans are important because they can help you determine if your business will be profitable and how operations will work, as well as provide you a document that you can use for getting a loan or investors interested in your idea. Please read the steps below to find free sample business plans that you can use for reference.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Determine what kind of business, or category, you will be planning to start. There are many genres and types of businesses, a lot of which are profitable, so in order to find the right free sample business plans, you'll have to determine what kind of business you are in. This will make your business plan search much easier.
   
   Some of the more common categories are:
   
   * Airline and Aviation
   * Bar and Nightclub
   * Beauty Salon and Day Spa
   * Bed and Breakfast and Hotel
   * Car Wash and Automotive
   * Coffee Shop and Internet Cafe
   * Computer Consulting, Repair, and Reseller
   * Construction and Engineering
   * Consulting
   * Day Care Services and Children's Products
   * Education and Training
   * Farm and Food Production
   * Fitness Center, Golf Course, and Sports
   * Home Business
   * Magazine Publishing and Media Communications
   * Manufacturing
   * Medical and Health Care
   * Nonprofit
   * Personal Services
   * Pet Services and Products
   * Product Development
   * Professional Services
   * Real Estate
   * Recycling and Waste Management
   * Restaurant Cafe and Bakery
   * Retail and Online Store
   * Wedding and Event Planning
   * Wholesale and Distributor

2. Visit the multitude of websites available that will give you access to free sample business plans for your type of business. There is a list of resources below, all of which do not require any type of payment in order to view the free sample business plans.

3. Print out the free sample business plans for your category, even if the business itself mentioned in the sample business plan isn't exactly the same as yours. You want as many as you can so you can learn what works and what doesn't work for each, so you can compile the best features from each into your own.

4. Use a highlighter to highlight certain key points that you like or things that seem to be mentioned in each of the free sample business plans. This will definitely give you an idea of exactly should be included in each business plan, and what is just an add on for that particular company.

5. Organize the free sample business plans that you like into a binder with clear sheets. Keep the ones you like best in the front of the binder so you can easily access them when needed.

Tips & Warnings

• It's smart to collect many different free sample business plans and determine what you like about each (as well as what you dislike about each), and come up with your own.
• When reading through the free sample business plans, pretend your a venture capitalist who has a few million dollar who wants to choose a business to invest in. What stands out to you in the business plans as things that would make you decide one way or the other.
• There are many other websites that say they offer free sample business plans, but end up asking for money from you in one form or another. Please be careful - the ad copy and text on those websites are specifically tailored for those of us wanting to start a business, so it can be really easy to just give in and pay for something that is not necessary to pay for.

Resources

• Free Sample Business Plans
• More Free Sample Business Plans
• Free Sample Business Plans from Entrepreneur.com
• Small Business Institute Sample Business Plans