How to Write a Business Case? (Guide + Examples)

Picture this:

You’re working for a fashion label and see an exciting opportunity to add a new product line. If this happens, the brand can capture a whole new untapped market. However, you aren’t the decision maker, and your manager at the top needs proof that this project isn’t just a whim.

What do you do?

Write a business case! It will discuss the nitty-gritty details of this project and persuade the decision-makers to favor your project.

In it, you will discuss the opportunities, risks, costs, and viability associated with the project to drive an informed decision.

Ready to create a business case?

With this blog post, we’ll show you how to write a business case and explain its key components. We’ll also offer some business case advice and examples to help you make a strong case.

Let’s dive right in. But before that…

Business case vs. business plan

A business case is a proposal you make while considering a large investment or significant strategic change. This document addresses a specific business problem, reevaluates different approaches, chooses the best solution, and suggests a project roadmap to implement the changes.

A business plan, on the other hand, is a formal document outlining the concept, financial costs, strategies, objectives, and value proposition of an entire new business. Business plans offer a roadmap to guide the business’s strategic, operational, and financial activities.

Key components of a business case

Before understanding how to write a business case, let’s just understand the key elements or components essential to building a successful case.

1. Executive summary

An executive summary is the most crucial aspect of your business case and sometimes the only section the readers might read.

Although it’s placed at the beginning, you should craft your summary after writing your entire business case. This will help you determine the information essential for a highly engaging summary.

In this section, you’ll capture the readers’ attention with a compelling argument. While you can cover everything that seems important, ensure that your executive summary touches on the following key points:

• What is the business problem that this project will solve?
• What will the business achieve by completing this project?
• When will you see the benefits?
• What are the costs involved?
• How does this business case align with your vision and business objectives?

Remember, you only have 1 or 2 pages to summarize your business case. So, write an executive summary that encapsulates all the essential details crisply.

2. Finance section

Business cases must include details about the project finances. This is crucial to help decision-makers understand the project’s cost, ROI, impact on cash flow, and more detail about the finances.

Here are a few aspects your business case must cover while covering the finances:

Cost of a project

Offer a project cost estimate and a breakdown of different cost components. Even if a project is relatively new for your business, it’s important to figure out the costs by conducting some primary and secondary research.

Impact on cash flow

A significantly new project will also cost you significantly. It’s important to study its impact on your cash flow and relate it to the returns on investment (ROI) for informed decision-making.

Consider various progressive and aggressive effects on the cash flow and project it through graphs. Charts, and cash flow statements.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Project initiators need to calculate ROI to show the potential benefits of a project to the readers. It’s important that the ROI you calculate is backed with appropriate assumptions.

This component also explains your assumptions and why those make sense.

Sensitivity analysis

Many variables will influence your business case. So it’s important to explain these variables and how they would influence your projections to make a solid business case.

3. Project analysis

While presenting your business case, offer a descriptive overview of the project you’re proposing and its details. To ensure that you don’t miss any details, consider this checklist:

Project overview

Describe the project and briefly mention what you aim to achieve with it. The project scope should define your goals, milestones, and

deadlines through clear metrics and numeric.

Mention the benefits and limitations of the project and make sure you cover all the aspects offering an unbiased and unhinged point of view (POV).

Options and proposed solutions

Discuss different solutions to a problem, analyze them in detail, and suggest why you’re choosing a particular solution.

While discussing different solutions, offer a brief description of each covering the following details:

• Financial and non-financial benefits
• Quality improvement
• Cost-saving and value-added revenue addition
• Competitiveness to alternative solutions
• Enhanced customer services

Choose the best solution from this. While explaining the effects of your proposed solution also explain what would be the scenario if you take no action at all.

Project risk analysis

An important aspect of project management is also risk assessment.

Whatever you choose, there might be some associated risks with that. Identifying those risks earlier can help you respond to them proactively.

In this aspect of your business case,  identify the risks and outline their priority levels as well as the frequency of occurrence.

This is important to help decision-makers understand the complexities attached to your project.

Project dependencies

Mention if the project relies on some other task that’s currently in progress and clarify if you’ll require help from other departments and to what extent.

Project approach

How will you fulfill the project? Will it be in-house or will you get it outsourced?

Such details are important for readers to understand the approach towards resource allocation, project delivery, and overall implementation.

4. Project organization

Outlining and detailing the project isn’t enough. You need to explain the action plan and roadmap to make your business case worthy.

This component mainly addresses the following:

Project governance

Introduce the people who’ll contribute towards project fulfillment. Show who would be involved in decision-making and describe the flow of responsibility in your organization.

Also, outline the governance rules and procedures that apply to your project.

Project progress

How will you track and monitor the progress of your project? Also, mention how you will communicate the project progress with the stakeholders.

Action plan

Outline your next steps and explain how you plan to move ahead with this project. If the decision-makers accept your business case, you should have the next plan ready.

Now, consider this business case checklist to write your case and make sure you don’t miss out on any nitty-gritty details.

A step-by-step guide to writing a business case

Refer to this step-by-step guide to build a successful business case.

1. Identify the problem

A project is built to solve specific business problems or to create new business opportunities. Without a problem or an opportunity, there’s no base for a business case to stand.

Since you have decided to write a business case, we’re assuming that you already know of a problem or an opportunity to build your case further.

If you have to select between multiple problems or an opportunity, conduct preliminary research to check which of these problems are worth spending the time, money, and effort on.

Once you determine and finalize the central theme of your project, move ahead to the next step.

2. Identify the solutions

There might be multiple approaches to the problem you want to solve or opportunities you want to create. While you might already have a favorite solution, a business case needs to explore all the solutions in detail, without any presumed bias.

As mentioned earlier, different potential solutions should be evaluated based on monetary and non-monetary business benefits, costs, associated risks, timeline, and feasibility it offers.

Document all these in your business case systematically through brief descriptions, charts, comparison tables, and infographics.

3. Recommend a preferred solution

After discussing the solutions, choose the one that sounds most pragmatic to you.

Offering an unbiased opinion at this stage is essential. To do so, strategically prioritize the projects through metrics.

Firstly, determine the factors that are of utmost importance for this project.

For some projects, this might get complex. But the more you break it down into pieces, the easier it will get to prioritize the projects.

Remember: Cost isn’t always the most important aspect when you prioritize projects.

Document this process, explain any assumptions you make, and present the best solution for this project.

4. Gather input and build your case incrementally

Now, begin the actual process of writing your business case. After determining the problem and offering a preferred solution, it’s time to focus on the project and financial implications.

More often than not, the project might need help and contribution of different business departments. So after creating a rough outline, start gathering help and resources from the finance, IT, managerial, and other concerned teams.

For instance, a subject matter expert from a finance team can help you create a realistic cost-benefit analysis for the project. Similarly, an IT team can help create a realistic business strategy for implementing new technology.

Now, there’s no need to complete your entire business case before presenting it to the project sponsors.

Follow a gradual process. Build a basic outline and make a soft launch with project managers. If they find it feasible, pursue it further. However, ensure that you’re aware of all the deal breakers before investing your time and energy into a project.

5. Structure and present your business case

Now quickly analyze all the information and verify its viability before placing together your business case.

While you can format the case in any way that seems feasible to you, follow this outline to structure your business case:

• Executive summary
• Project analysis
• Financial details
• Project organization

Once everything is placed together, review the case and spot errors, if any. Rectify them and present the final business case to the concerned stakeholders.

Don’t start writing your business case, just yet. We have business case advice for you to help you create a quality business case.

6 Common business case mistakes to avoid

Even the most brilliant business cases might get rejected if they aren’t presented appropriately. To meet the audience’s needs, avoid these common mistakes:

1. Complicating the case

You might be an expert in a project you’re presenting. But, your audience isn’t.

More often than not, project presenters are tempted to add fancy details and jargon to make their case more interesting. But trust us, it’s only distracting your readers and risking their attention.

Instead, explain your proposed business change through simplified approaches. Break down the complex details and make them easily digestible.

2. Lack of structure

Most project presenters are significantly behind when it comes to presenting their business case. After all, offering essential insights isn’t enough. You need to structure your case logically to maintain a cohesive flow of information.

Always add a table of contents and divide the information through appropriate headings and subheadings. Make your sections and information easy to scan. And, most importantly, get a business case template to structure your case.

3. Not communicating the value

Another prominent mistake that most presenters make is focusing too much on the technology, infrastructure, and new proposed changes that they fail to convey the value it has to offer.

Sure, an ultra-cool technology seems to be a wonderful addition. However, the decision-makers are interested in knowing how this technology will result in cost reduction or revenue growth. They want to understand its impact on the cash flow and its impact on business if you implement this solution.

Your business case would be far more persuasive if you prepare it keeping the end audience’s need in mind.

4. Overly optimist overview

Sure you can have a favorite solution. But favoring it in your business case by presenting only positives is not done.

It’s important to remain unbiased and unhinged. Whether you talk about finances, competition, benefits, or the value of the solution—make sure you cover every aspect, positive and negative in depth.

5. Not offering supporting evidence

We’re talking about a significant investment or decision in a business case. Not supporting your claims with evidence will only make it weak.

Whether you’re claiming a significant revenue increase or a cost reduction—explain your assumptions and show how you arrived at those projections.

You can add supporting information like market research data or even an expert opinion on certain aspects to add credibility and weightage to your plan.

6. Not reviewing the case

After you’re done writing a business case, it’s important to review it thoroughly to find loopholes and gaps in your arguments. Review your project plan thoroughly and make essential changes before presenting it to the concerned stakeholders.

Now, these are just bits of advice to help you write a strong business case. Simply making an effort to avoid these mistakes can make your overall case much better.

Business case examples

Now before you start writing, gather some practical overview with these business case examples.

Example 1

A detailed business case example that can be used as a reference point to build yours.

Example 2

Check this short example of a business case that can also be used to present your project plan.

Refer to these examples and use them as a reference point to build your unique business case.

Conclusion

And that’s a wrap.

Now that you understand the fundamentals of a business case and the process of writing one, get started.  A wise choice would be to get a business case template to add structure to your project.

Determine a focal point of your project and undertake its feasibility test before you prepare a fully detailed business case for the project sponsors.

Whether you want to propose a revolting solution or explain the benefit of undertaking a significant initiative—a business case has you covered.