Business PlanEntrepreneurshipStartup StrategyBusiness DevelopmentInvestor Pitch
Generate Comprehensive Business Plan
T. Krause
Build a complete, investor-grade business plan without a consultant. This prompt generates a structured business plan covering market opportunity, business model, competitive landscape, go-to-market strategy, operations, team, and financial projections — ready to present to investors, partners, or lenders.
A business plan serves two audiences: the investors, lenders, or partners you need to convince, and yourself. The process of building one forces you to confront assumptions you haven't tested and gaps you've been avoiding. This prompt generates a rigorous, complete business plan structure that does both jobs — presenting your opportunity compellingly while testing whether the logic holds up under scrutiny.
What It Does
- Generates a complete business plan structure covering all key sections expected by investors, lenders, and sophisticated business partners, with specific content guidance for each section.
- Challenges your assumptions by prompting you to articulate market size, competitive dynamics, and financial logic in ways that expose gaps before an investor does.
- Produces a document that serves as both a pitching tool and an internal strategic compass as you build.
The Prompt
#CONTEXT:
I need to create a comprehensive business plan for my business or business idea. This plan will be used for [investor fundraising / bank loan / partner recruitment / internal strategic planning — specify]. It should cover the business concept, market opportunity, competitive landscape, business model, go-to-market strategy, operational plan, team, and financial projections. The plan should be both compelling to external readers and rigorous enough to withstand honest internal scrutiny.
#ROLE:
You are a seasoned business strategist and investor pitch advisor who has helped founders raise capital from seed through Series B. You know what investors look for, where business plans typically fall short, and how to present a business opportunity with intellectual honesty rather than just optimism. You flag weak assumptions and help founders strengthen them before they get into the room.
#RESPONSE GUIDELINES:
1. Structure the plan in the standard sections expected by business plan readers — Executive Summary through Financial Projections — with clear guidance on what each section must establish.
2. For each section, ask me the 3–5 questions I need to answer to write that section compellingly, then draft it based on my answers.
3. After each section draft, include a "stress test" box: the 1–2 questions a skeptical investor would most likely ask about this section.
4. Be direct when assumptions are weak or when a section needs more supporting evidence — don't fill space with generic language that sounds good but says nothing.
5. Close the executive summary last, after all other sections are drafted, so it accurately reflects the full plan rather than being a vague preview written upfront.
6. Flag any section where I've provided insufficient information to write convincingly, and specify exactly what additional data or evidence would strengthen it.
#BUSINESS PLAN CRITERIA:
1. Market sizing must use bottom-up methodology (number of target customers × average revenue per customer) not top-down ("we're targeting 1% of a $10B market").
2. Competitive analysis must name real competitors, not generic categories — "existing solutions" is not a competitive analysis.
3. Go-to-market strategy must specify the first 100 customers — how they'll be identified, reached, and converted — not just the eventual scale.
4. Financial projections must link back to operational assumptions — headcount, customer acquisition cost, conversion rates — not just present numbers.
5. The team section must address the experience and skill coverage required to execute the plan, and honestly note any gaps and how they'll be filled.
#INFORMATION ABOUT ME:
- My business name and concept: [BUSINESS NAME AND DESCRIPTION]
- What problem I'm solving and for whom: [PROBLEM AND TARGET CUSTOMER]
- My business model and revenue streams: [REVENUE MODEL]
- My current stage: [STAGE — idea, pre-revenue, early revenue, growth]
- My funding need or planning purpose: [PURPOSE AND AMOUNT if applicable]
- My team: [TEAM MEMBERS AND RELEVANT EXPERIENCE]
- Key traction or validation I have: [TRACTION — customers, revenue, partnerships, pilots, waitlist]
#RESPONSE FORMAT:
[For each section, structure as:]
## [Section Name]
Key questions to answer:
1. [Question]
2. [Question]
Draft:
[Section content based on my inputs]
Investor Stress Test:
- "[Likely tough question 1]"
- "[Likely tough question 2]"
Sections:
1. Executive Summary (drafted last)
2. Problem and Opportunity
3. Solution and Product
4. Market Size and Dynamics
5. Business Model and Unit Economics
6. Competitive Landscape
7. Go-to-Market Strategy
8. Operations Plan
9. Team
10. Financial Projections
11. Funding Ask and Use of Funds (if applicable)
How to Use
- Work through the plan section by section in a conversation with the AI, providing your answers to the key questions before asking for each draft. This produces much stronger output than providing all inputs upfront.
- Use the investor stress test questions seriously — they identify the weakest points in your plan. For each tough question, if you can't answer it confidently, add work to do before the plan is ready to share externally.
- Run your financial projections section through a separate, dedicated financial projections prompt (see the Create Financial Projections article) for deeper detail than this broad plan can provide.
- Have someone unfamiliar with your business read the executive summary and tell you what they understand about the opportunity, business model, and why you'll win. If their understanding doesn't match your intent, revise.
Example Input
## Information about me
- My business: Prompt Consulting — a platform offering expert AI prompt libraries, AI strategy consulting, and team training for SMBs
- Problem and target customer: Mid-sized businesses want to use AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) effectively but don't know how; marketing managers and ops leads waste hours on poor AI outputs or avoid AI entirely
- Business model: $49/month prompt library subscription + $2K–$5K consulting engagements + $1K–$3K group training workshops
- Current stage: Early revenue — $8,000 MRR, 12 consulting clients, 160 library subscribers
- Funding purpose: Business plan for potential angel round of $300K to accelerate content production and add first salesperson
- Team: Solo founder with 10 years marketing background, 1 part-time content writer
- Traction: 160 paying subscribers, 12 consulting engagements, 1,800-person email list, 4.9/5 client satisfaction score
Tips
- Write the executive summary last. Most business plans have a weak executive summary because it was written first as an outline, then never updated to reflect the thinking that happened while writing the rest. Write it last.
- The competitive section is where most plans fail. Investors see dozens of plans that say "we have no real competitors." This is almost never true and always a red flag. Name real competitors, analyze them honestly, and explain specifically why you win.
- Bottom-up market sizing is more credible than top-down. "10,000 target companies × $2,400 ACV = $24M TAM" is more believable than "the AI consulting market is $50B and we'll capture 0.1%."
- Ask for a one-page summary version after completion. Once the full plan is drafted, prompt the AI to create a one-page version — an investor memo format that busy readers will actually consume before deciding whether to engage with the full document.
- Use the plan as a living document. The best business plans are updated quarterly as the business learns. Treat the first version as a hypothesis document, not a final truth.