For students
A one-page business plan for students
Not thirty pages with a market analysis nobody reads. Eight questions on one page, which is what a business actually needs before it starts \u2014 and what a judge reads at the competition.
The eight questions
What goes on the page
Answer these eight and you have a plan. Every one of them is a decision, not a description.
The problem
One sentence, with no mention of your solution. If you cannot describe the problem without describing your business, you have not found it yet.Who has it
One specific customer, described precisely enough that you could go and find them this afternoon. Not “people who own dogs”. “People on my street who work full time and own a dog.”What they do instead today
They already solve this somehow — badly, expensively, or by ignoring it. That is your real competition, not another business.Your offer
Who it is for, what they get, what it costs, and what happens after they say yes. Four things, a few lines.Your price, and why
What the alternative costs them, and why yours is worth it. A price with no reason behind it is a guess you will be talked out of.How they find you
Two ways, named. Not “social media”. “The five houses either side of my first customer” is a channel. Vague is not a plan.The numbers for one sale
Price, what that job costs you, what is left. Then how many a week you can actually do around school.The next 90 days
The single thing that would make the biggest difference, and three numbers you will check every week.
Marking your own work
What makes an answer good
The difference between a plan that helps and one that just exists is almost always specificity.
- A number instead of an adjective. “$30 a cut, eleven cuts a season” beats “affordable and regular”.
- A name instead of a category. “Mrs. Bennett at number 12” beats “homeowners”.
- Something you actually heard. If you talked to five people, quote one of them.
- An admission. The strongest plans say which number they are least sure about. Judges notice, and so do customers.
You do not have to start blank
Launch League’s free builder writes this page out of the work you do in the 8 Business 101 modules. You answer the questions inside the modules, and the plan assembles itself from your own words.
If you are doing this for school
Using it in class
Teachers can run the whole thing as a unit \u2014 the modules, the plan, and an optional competition entry \u2014 and see who has done what without collecting anything. That is on the schools page, and it is free. If you are a student and your class is not using it, you can still do all of it on your own.
Free, for students
Want help actually starting one?
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