Business · Planning & strategy
The Best Prompt for Writing a Business Plan
The best prompt for a business plan gives the model your idea, customer, revenue model, resources and the reader the plan is for, then makes it separate what you told it from what it is guessing. This prompt produces a full draft in a fixed order, builds the financial section from your own numbers, and marks every gap with a note on how to fill it. You get a plan you can check and complete, not one padded with made-up market sizes.
Business Plan Draft Prompt
Turns your idea, customer and known numbers into a structured plan draft, with every unverified figure flagged instead of invented.
- Works with
- ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Complexity
- Multi-part reply
- Variables
- 7
- Version
- 1.0
Customize this prompt
Fill in what you know. Anything left blank stays as a [bracketed placeholder]. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
7 variables · fields marked * matter most
# Role You are a business planning advisor who has reviewed plans for lenders and early-stage investors. You are skeptical by habit: you would rather show a gap than paper over it. # What I am giving you - Business idea: [Business idea] - Stage: [Stage] - Target customer: [Target customer] - How it makes money: [How it makes money] - Team, funding and other resources: [Team, funding and resources] - Numbers I already know: [Numbers you already know] - Who will read this plan: [Who will read the plan] # Task Write a business plan draft tuned to that reader. Use these sections, in this order: 1. Executive summary - maximum 150 words. Write it last, place it first. 2. Problem and customer - who has the problem, how they handle it today, and why that is not good enough. 3. Offer - what is sold, at what price, and what the customer gets that they could not get before. 4. Market and competition - use only what I supplied. Do not state a market size. Instead, give a bottom-up method I can use to estimate it, listing the inputs I need to find. 5. Go-to-market - the first two or three channels, the reason each fits this customer, and the first test to run in each. 6. Operations - what has to be true to deliver the offer: people, suppliers, tools, licenses. 7. Financial outline - a table of assumptions, then unit economics and a break-even calculation showing the arithmetic. Use my numbers. Where one is missing, write [NEEDS DATA] and say where I would get it. 8. Risks - the five most likely ways this fails, each with an early warning sign and a response. 9. Next 90 days - milestones with a measurable result for each. # Rules - Never invent statistics, market figures, competitor facts, customer quotes or financial results. - Mark every assumption you make [ASSUMPTION], and label any illustrative figure as illustrative. - Adjust emphasis to the reader: a lender cares about repayment and cash flow, an investor about growth and defensibility, an internal plan about priorities. - Plain language. No filler paragraphs, no mission-statement prose. - If my inputs contradict each other, say so before section 1. # Output format Numbered headings as above. Tables for the assumptions and the risks. Finish with a list titled 'Gaps to close before sharing' containing every [NEEDS DATA] and [ASSUMPTION] item, most important first.
Use it when you are
- Getting a first full draft of a plan before meeting a bank, investor or business advisor
- Stress-testing an idea by seeing which sections come back full of gaps
- Restructuring scattered notes and spreadsheets into a standard plan format
- Preparing an internal one-year plan for a small company or a new product line
Why this prompt works
The reader shapes the plan
A lender, an investor and a founder planning the year look for different things in the same document. Naming the reader as an input, and telling the model how emphasis should shift for each, stops it from producing an all-purpose plan that answers nobody's actual questions.
Market size is replaced with a method
The most common fabrication in AI-written plans is a confident market figure with no source. Here the model is barred from stating one and asked for a bottom-up estimation method instead, with the inputs you need to collect. You end up with a number you can defend because you built it.
Financials come from your numbers, with the arithmetic shown
Unit economics and break-even are calculated from the figures you enter, and the working is displayed so you can check each step. Missing inputs become [NEEDS DATA] items with a pointer to where the figure comes from, which is more useful than a plausible-looking guess.
The closing list is a to-do list
Every assumption and missing figure is collected at the end in priority order. That turns the draft into a work plan: you can see how far the document is from being shareable and which piece of homework matters most before a lender or investor reads it.
How to use it
- Describe the idea in a few plain sentences and name the customer narrowly; 'small businesses' gives the model far less to work with than 'independent dental practices'.
- Enter every real number you have under known numbers, even rough ones, and say which are estimates.
- Choose who will read the plan. Run the prompt again with a different reader if you need two versions.
- Read 'Gaps to close before sharing' first and work through it, then paste your answers back and ask for the affected sections to be revised.
- Recalculate the financial outline yourself in a spreadsheet before anyone else sees it.
- Have an accountant or advisor review the finished plan if it will support a loan or investment.
AI model compatibility
| Model | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Expected to work | A nine-section plan is a long reply. If it stops early, ask it to continue from the last completed heading instead of starting again. |
| Claude | Expected to work | Anthropic's guidance recommends wrapping supplied material in XML-style tags. If you paste a spreadsheet export or long notes, put them inside <numbers> or <notes> tags so they stay separate from the instructions. |
| Gemini | Expected to work | Keep the numbered section list and the output format block as written; Google's prompting guidance favors explicit, ordered instructions. |
“Expected to work” means the prompt uses plain, model-independent structure and has been reviewed for that — not that it has been run on that model. A model is marked Tested only when a test record is published below.
Worked example
Scenario: Two founders preparing a plan for a small-business loan to start a mobile bike repair service. Illustrative inputs only.
# Role You are a business planning advisor who has reviewed plans for lenders and early-stage investors. You are skeptical by habit: you would rather show a gap than paper over it. # What I am giving you - Business idea: A mobile bike repair service that visits offices and apartment buildings in Leeds on a fixed weekly schedule, so commuters get repairs done while they work. - Stage: Pre-launch, building - Target customer: Commuter cyclists working in city-center offices, reached through their employers - How it makes money: Per-repair fees plus a monthly maintenance subscription paid by employers - Team, funding and other resources: Two founders, one a qualified bike mechanic; 15,000 in savings; one van already owned - Numbers I already know: Planned average repair price 45; parts cost roughly 12 per job; van running costs about 400 a month; no sales yet - Who will read this plan: A bank or lender # Task Write a business plan draft tuned to that reader. Use these sections, in this order: 1. Executive summary - maximum 150 words. Write it last, place it first. 2. Problem and customer - who has the problem, how they handle it today, and why that is not good enough. 3. Offer - what is sold, at what price, and what the customer gets that they could not get before. 4. Market and competition - use only what I supplied. Do not state a market size. Instead, give a bottom-up method I can use to estimate it, listing the inputs I need to find. 5. Go-to-market - the first two or three channels, the reason each fits this customer, and the first test to run in each. 6. Operations - what has to be true to deliver the offer: people, suppliers, tools, licenses. 7. Financial outline - a table of assumptions, then unit economics and a break-even calculation showing the arithmetic. Use my numbers. Where one is missing, write [NEEDS DATA] and say where I would get it. 8. Risks - the five most likely ways this fails, each with an early warning sign and a response. 9. Next 90 days - milestones with a measurable result for each. # Rules - Never invent statistics, market figures, competitor facts, customer quotes or financial results. - Mark every assumption you make [ASSUMPTION], and label any illustrative figure as illustrative. - Adjust emphasis to the reader: a lender cares about repayment and cash flow, an investor about growth and defensibility, an internal plan about priorities. - Plain language. No filler paragraphs, no mission-statement prose. - If my inputs contradict each other, say so before section 1. # Output format Numbered headings as above. Tables for the assumptions and the risks. Finish with a list titled 'Gaps to close before sharing' containing every [NEEDS DATA] and [ASSUMPTION] item, most important first.
What a good response should contain
- An executive summary under 150 words that leads with what the loan funds and how it is repaid
- A market section with no market-size figure, and a bottom-up method based on offices, cyclists per office and repair frequency
- A break-even calculation that uses the 45 price, 12 parts cost and 400 van cost, with labor marked [NEEDS DATA]
- A risk table that includes seasonality and reliance on a single mechanic, each with a warning sign
- A gaps list asking for insurance quotes, employer interest evidence and the founders' salary needs
This is an illustrative scenario showing how to fill in the prompt and what to look for. It is not a recorded model output. Recorded outputs will be published here once this prompt has a test record.
Testing and editorial review
Status: Untested. Reviewed for structure and clarity by the editorial team. No recorded model test yet.
No test record has been published for this prompt yet. When it is tested, this section will show the model and version, the date, the inputs, the actual output and notes against our seven-point rubric. We do not publish numerical scores.
| Author | TheBestPromptFor Editorial Team — The editorial team writes, reviews and maintains the prompts and guides on TheBestPromptFor. Prompts are drafted with AI assistance and reviewed against published editorial standards. |
|---|---|
| Published | November 15, 2026 |
| Last reviewed | November 15, 2026 |
| Last tested | Not yet tested |
| Version history |
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Limitations and things to check
- The model knows nothing about your local market, regulations or competitors beyond what you enter. Section 4 is only as good as your inputs.
- Arithmetic in long replies can contain errors. Rebuild the financial outline in a spreadsheet.
- This is a draft plan, not financial, legal or tax advice. Licensing, tax and loan terms need a qualified professional.
- Lenders and grant programs often require their own template. Check the required format before you polish this one.
Alternative prompts
Business
Evidence-Based SWOT Analysis Prompt
Builds a SWOT around a specific decision, ties each point to evidence you supplied, and converts the grid into strategic options.
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
Business
Pitch Deck Outline Prompt
Produces a slide-by-slide deck outline with a one-sentence claim per slide, the proof behind it, and the questions your audience is likely to ask.
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
Business
Competitor Analysis Prompt (From Your Own Research)
Organizes the competitor information you have collected into a comparison, a positioning read and a list of what you still need to find out.
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
Research
Desk Market Research Brief Prompt
Produces a desk-research brief on a market, with segments, a range-based size estimate, competitors and pricing, and every figure labeled as sourced, provided or estimated.
- Perplexity
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
Related resources
Guide
How to Write a Good AI Prompt
The five parts of a complete prompt (goal, context, task, constraints, output format), with a worked rewrite and a pre-send checklist.
Technical guide
Prompt Chaining: Breaking a Task Into Linked Prompts
How to split a large task into a sequence of focused prompts, design the handoffs between them, and debug the chain when a step goes wrong.
Frequently asked questions
Can I send the output straight to a bank or investor?
No. Treat it as a structured first draft. The plan will contain flagged gaps and assumptions that you need to replace with real figures, and the financial section should be rebuilt and checked in a spreadsheet. Most lenders also expect supporting documents the model cannot produce.
What if I have no numbers at all yet?
Leave the numbers field empty. The financial outline will then be a list of the inputs you need, such as price, cost per sale and fixed monthly costs, with a note on where each one comes from. Collecting those is the real next step for an early idea.
Why won't the prompt give me a market size?
Because a model has no reliable way to know it, and an unsourced figure damages a plan's credibility when a reader asks where it came from. The estimation method it gives you instead produces a number built from inputs you can cite.
Sources and references
- Prompt engineering overview — Anthropic
- Prompt design strategies — Google AI for Developers
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