How to Create a Business Plan in Germany

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If you’ve already thought a lot about your business, let us help you now to sort your thoughts out.

A business model is a concise, detailed description of your business that still focuses on what is important. With the help of a „Business Model Canvas“, you can excellently lay the foundation for your business plan. You may have heard of this term before.

Here you can download your own Business Model Canvas.

By filling out the template, this model-like representation will clearly show you what you have, what you don’t have, and what you want to achieve. It is nowhere near as detailed as a final business plan and contains almost no numbers, unlike the actual business plan, but it gives you an excellent initial overview.

The Value Proposition Canvas and the Team Inventory Canvas are also very helpful in getting a clearer picture of your vision, just from a different perspective. So, just try it out and try to fill in the templates as concretely as possible!

Watch this video to better understand the Value Proposition Canvas!

You should be aware that an enormous amount of work and time must be invested in the creation of the business plan. If you are planning to sell a product, it is best to have tested it on the market beforehand so that you can be sure that your business will be successful. The goal here, however, is to save yourself valuable working time later on. So, if possible, be sure to test some kind of prototype of your offering in advance.

Many startups don’t tackle their business plan until it’s actually needed. You should be 100% sure what exactly your idea is and how it can be designed and successfully marketed. Only then should you worry about a business plan.

With a detailed business plan, you can then also request possible financing for your company. For potential investors such as banks, private investors, or venture capital companies, a business plan is a must for a major investment. It should therefore be clear and comprehensible.

By the way, how you can best finance your business, you will learn in this article.

Unfortunately, start-ups often begin without a real, written business concept. This can greatly increase the risk of business failure. For already existing companies, a business plan gives direction and can also be seen or used as a management tool, among other things.
The business plan is therefore first and foremost an extremely important planning tool for yourself and also certifies the potential of your idea.

Your business plan should basically contain the following:

A clear, sensible structure
Information about you, the founder, or the founding team
Information about the benefits/added value of the product
Service for the customer
Market analysis (including competitor analysis, target group analysis).

However, this should only give a small overview. What else belongs in a detailed business plan, you can find in our business plan checklist.

Here is an overview of the possible structure of a business plan.

Be aware that writing down your initial business model is just a snapshot. Many things are sure to change and many new ideas will emerge along the way to your own business. Even the biggest companies in the world today look very different from what they were once planned to be! So don’t get too attached to your ideas and try to keep a record of what your company looks like and how it develops over time.

Since you want to start up in Germany, your business plan must of course (unfortunately) be written in German. However, if you don’t speak German, that’s not much of a problem these days. For that, there is our business plan template we prepared for you (and translators on the Internet) to do the work.

You can simply download the business plan template for free and write your information in it!

For additional information, use the free access to our community to check out our exclusive online classes!