One Page Business Plan Template: Free, With 3 Examples

Each example was made with MakeOnepagers. The businesses and figures are samples, and each one opens as a template you can edit for free.

What is a one page business plan?

A one page business plan is the short form of a business plan: the whole business on one sheet. The U.S. Small Business Administration describes two kinds of plan, traditional and lean, and says lean plans are "typically only one page" (SBA, read 9 October 2026).

The long plan still matters if you are asking a bank for a loan, because the bank will want the detail. But you write the one-page version first, because it forces you to answer the questions that sink most businesses: who exactly buys this, what do they pay, and what does it cost you to deliver.

The 8 boxes of a one page business plan

1. Customers. Who buys, as specifically as you can: "parents of 14 to 18 year olds", not "families".
2. Promise. What they get, in their words. "A grade up in one term, or a free month."
3. Channels. How customers find you: search, referrals, partners, a sales team.
4. Resources. What you need to deliver: people, equipment, a location, software.
5. Costs. Your biggest costs, as a share of revenue if you can: "tutor pay 55%".
6. Revenue. How money comes in: monthly plans, one-off sales, contracts.
7. Pricing. Your actual prices, plan by plan.
8. The ask. What you need and what it pays for: a loan, an investment, a partner.

Add a ninth if you are raising money: the revenue plan, year by year, for three to five years.

A free one page business plan template

Copy this into a document, or open one of the examples below and edit it.

3 one page business plan examples

1. One page business plan for a new business

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A tutoring business on one sheet: the model, the prices, five years of revenue and what the money is for.

What to copy:

• The model as six small boxes. Customers, promise, channels, resources, costs and revenue sit side by side, so a gap shows at once.
• Real prices, with the middle plan highlighted. A reader can do the maths on what one customer is worth.
• The ask in its own dark panel at the bottom: "Raising $1.5M for 18 months." It is the line the reader looks for, so make it easy to find.

Edit for free: business plan template.

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2. Startup plan for investors

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A startup that already has customers: the plan becomes a case for investing, led by traction.

What to copy:

• The thesis as one sentence at the top. "Field service firms lose a day a week to scheduling by hand." Everything else on the sheet supports it.
• Each traction number next to where it was a year ago: $980K against $320K, 9 customers against 3.
• What the money buys, as bars. Engineering, sales, support and a buffer, in dollars.

Edit for free: startup pitch template.

3. Expansion plan for an existing business

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A business that is already running, planning its next step: a second site, the cost and why now.

What to copy:

• "Why expand now" as three facts, not a vision: orders beat capacity 9 months a year, two chains are ready to sign, freight to the west falls by a third.
• One number that makes the case: 96% of today's site is used.
• Today against the plan on one chart: cases per month with and without the new site.

Edit for free: business expansion plan template.

For a startup that wants a short company summary rather than a plan, the business summary for investors puts the business in one line, the market, revenue and capital raised so far on one sheet.

One page plan or traditional plan?

Most businesses need the one-page plan first and the long plan only when a lender asks for it. The SBA offers sample plans of both kinds on its business plan guide.

How to write a one page business plan in 6 steps

1. Write who your customer is, so specifically that you could name one.
2. Write the promise in the words a customer would use.
3. Price it. Real numbers, even if you change them later.
4. List your three biggest costs and what share of each sale they eat.
5. Project revenue for three to five years, starting small and honest.
6. Write the ask: how much, for how long, and what it pays for.

Already have a long plan or a pitch deck? Drop it into the free AI One-Pager generator and get it back as a one page plan, with the figures pulled from your file. If the plan is for a startup, the startup One-Pager guide goes deeper on what investors look for.

One page business plan mistakes

• "Everyone" as the customer. A plan aimed at everyone has no channel that reaches them.
• No prices. Without prices there is no revenue plan, only a hope.
• Revenue that jumps tenfold in year two. Readers stop trusting the rest of the page.
• An ask with no use of funds. Say where the money goes, as shares that add up to 100%.

Make your one page business plan

Open the free business plan template and put in your customers, prices and ask, or drop your long plan into the free AI One-Pager generator and get a finished one page plan back.