There was a time when writing a business plan was frustrating and overwhelming. Thanks to ChatGPT, you can draft a comprehensive business plan in no time.
But there is a catch. You must properly instruct the chatbot to provide accurate, relevant, and factual information.
Want to learn how? Buckle up and get ready to draft a solid business plan in no time flat!
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT needs no introduction; it is a large language model trained by OpenAI, using deep learning algorithms to generate human-like responses to text-based prompts.
It’s a powerful tool for research and content creation. In fact, it crossed a whopping 100 million users just two months after its launch.
Let’s discuss how you can use this chatgpt to write a business plan:
How to use ChatGPT Prompts to Write Your Business Plan
We’ve curated a list of ChatGPT prompts and examples to make it easier for you to instruct the chatbot. Here is the step-by-step process to write a business plan using ChatGPT.
Let’s start by generating a basic business plan outline:
Create a basic business plan outline
You don’t need an extraordinary prompt to create a business plan outline. Simply prompt ChatGPT to provide a business plan outline, like we did here.
As you can see, the response we got was well-structured and included everything that a business plan must include. Still, we tweaked it a little, considering the industry-wide business planning format we follow at Upmetrics.
Here’s the final outline we’ll use to instruct ChatGPT and write a business plan:
- Executive Summary
- Business Overview
- Market Analysis
- Products and Services
- Marketing and Sales Strategies
- Operations Plan
- Management Team
- Financial Plan
- Appendix
Though the outline starts with an Executive summary, we’ll keep it last as It summarizes the entire plan and is written after the plan is ready. Let’s start with the business overview.
Create winning Business Plans with our
AI Business Plan Generator
Plans starting from $7/month
1. Business Overview
The name defines the section itself—business overview, which provides the overview of the entire business.
We have provided the prompt to write a business overview section.
In this prompt, you will need to provide ChatGPT with some critical information about your business, including a detailed business description, location, legal structure, owners, vision, mission, and history.
Here’s a ChatGPT prompt to help you write the business overview section of your business plan:
Check out this example of a business overview section of a dental business plan written using this ChatGPT prompt.
Prompt:
Response:
2. Market Analysis
Market analysis is the study of your external business environment that gives your readers a better understanding of your industry and its dynamics.
Unlike other sections of your business plan, market analysis requires deep research and analytical work.
But as we are using ChatGPT, it won’t bother us much.
ChatGPT will require information about your target market, market size, growth potential, competitors, market trends, and regulatory environment to provide a relevant and accurate response.
You can collect this information through industry publications, news articles, and market research reports—using ChatGPT to organize and analyze data will make things easier.
Here’s a ChatGPT prompt to help you write a Market Analysis section of your business plan:
You may not get the perfect response for your market analysis section on the first try. So, repeat the process, proofread, edit, and modify it until you perfect it.
Here is an example of a market analysis section of a carpet cleaning business plan written using this ChatGPT prompt.
Prompt:
Response:
3. Products and Services
Your entire business plan revolves around this one particular section. After all, your business success solely depends on the value you provide to the end consumer.
You should ask yourself these questions before prompting ChatGPT to write. This exercise will help you clearly understand your products and help generate an informed description using ChatGPT.
- Who can use your product?
- What are the fundamental aspects of your product or services?
- When can one use your product?
- Why should someone consider using it?
- How can it help them?
- Where can someone use it?
Understanding and describing your products and services will be much easier once you answer these questions.
Let’s have a look at the ChatGPT prompt for writing the product and services section of your business plan:
Check out this example of a “product and services” section of a notary business plan written using this ChatGPT prompt.
Prompt:
Response:
4. Marketing and Sales Strategies
It’s crucial to outline your marketing and sales strategies. After all, these strategies determine how your business will get exposure and reach your target audience.
Generally, this section of your business plan includes your marketing, sales, pricing, and customer retention strategies. It also includes business USPs and other relevant information.
Here’s a ChatGPT prompt to help you write a marketing and sales strategies section of your business plan:
Check out this example of a marketing and sales strategies section of a clothing business plan written using this ChatGPT prompt.
Prompt:
Response:
5. Operations Plan
The operations plan section of your business plan describes how your business will achieve the goals and objectives outlined in the previous sections. You can say that this section is outlined to turn your plans into action.
A well-developed operations plan should outline daily business activities, individuals responsible, tools and equipment required, inventory, cost, and if there are any other special requirements.
Here’s a ChatGPT prompt to help you write the operations plan section of your business plan:
Check out this example of an “operations plan” section of an Airbnb business plan written using this ChatGPT prompt.
Prompt:
Response:
You may include specific details such as location, facilities, equipment, and technology in the prompt or modify the response later depending on your specifications.
6. Management Team
Your business is as good as your team and management. That’s what makes this section a crucial component of a business plan.
A strong management team section not only brings authority to your business plan but also helps investors and lenders be confident about your business idea and vision.
Generally, this section should include founders, key executives, senior management, their educational and professional background, compensation plan, business hierarchy, and business advisors/consultants.
Here is a ChatGPT prompt to help you write a “Management Team” section of your business plan:
This prompt will provide a comprehensive template for your management team section. Just update the necessary details in the content, and your management team section will be ready.
Here’s what it looks like:
Prompt:
Response:
Depending on your requirements, you may update the prompt or ask the chatbot to modify a few sections of the response.
Let’s say you may ask ChatGPT to add the CMO to the management team.
This is just an example; you may need to change certain parts of content based on the response you get.
7. Financial Plan
It is arguably the most crucial section of a business plan when it comes to convincing investors and banks to invest or lend money.
So, it’s critical to justify your business with attractive figures. Unlike some other sections, drafting a financial plan takes a thorough understanding of operational costs, net profit, and financing to estimate revenue projections.
You may provide a ChatGPT prompt to write the section, but it’s up to you to provide accurate numbers.
Here is the ChatGPT prompt to help you write a financial plan section of your business plan:
Here’s an example of a financial plan section of an IT consulting business plan written using this ChatGPT prompt.
Prompt:
Response:
Remember, this prompt will create a basic structure of a financial plan for you. Then you can update the sample data with real numbers.
8. Executive Summary
As mentioned earlier, an executive summary provides an overview of the entire business plan and is usually written after the entire plan is ready. It must be clear, concise, and compelling to provide the reader with a quick understanding of your business.
Make sure to use the same chat you used to create other business plan sections while generating an executive summary.
You don’t necessarily need a structured prompt to prepare an executive summary; simply ask ChatGPT to prepare one for your business based on your previous conversations, as we did here.
Prompt:
Response:
9. Appendix
The Appendix section of a business plan should provide additional information supporting your business plan’s main content.
In addition, it helps readers navigate through the entire business plan and easily find specific information or documents.
Generally, an appendix section in a business plan includes a table of contents, financial statements, market research data, legal documents, and other relevant information.
Here’s a ChatGPT prompt to help you write an appendix section of your business plan:
Furthermore, you may also prompt ChatGPT to provide this information in tabular form.
Check out this example of an appendix section of a medical practice business plan generated using this ChatGPT prompt:
Prompt:
Response:
Again, verify if there’s anything you would like to add or remove and start putting in the right details.
Remember, ChatGPT is still in a learning phase; keep experimenting with different prompts until you get the anticipated response, and be as specific as possible.
That’s it. We’re done using ChatGPT here.
We have generated all the sections required in a business plan—all using ChatGPT.
Now it’s time for some manual work. Human editing.
Human Editing For AI-Generated Content
Now that you’ve finished writing the business plan, it’s time to do some human editing and put it on investors’ desks.
This may take 30 minutes, but you’ll ensure every piece of information you’ve put in is accurate and factual.
Here’s what your editing checklist should look like:
- Fact checks everything: ChatGPT may sometimes generate incorrect information, so consider doing a fact check.
- Make sure it’s up-to-date: Ensure all the information, documents, or financial statements you include are up-to-date.
- Proofreading: Make sure there are no typos, grammatical errors, or readability issues in the entire business plan.
- Editing & Rewriting: Edit and rewrite content where necessary. Make sure it doesn’t sound too robotic.
Once you check these elements off your editing checklist, your business plan is ready to seek investment.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, ChatGPT could be a valuable asset when it comes to helping you with business planning. However, even if it promptly generates high-quality content, it’s wise not to rely solely on AI outputs.
Incorporate, your personal insights and research where necessary and use ChatGPT to streamline the process.
That’s it for today; now over to you. Start creating your first draft using ChatGPT. Happy business planning!