Anyone applying for a loan or a grant for a new business usually needs a business plan. Even without financing, it helps to test the idea. Writing a business plan in Austria does not mean starting from scratch: through the Austrian Economic Chambers (WKO) and the business plan initiative i2b, there is a free business plan template (Businessplan-Vorlage), a handbook and, with Plan4You, a program for the financial plan.
This article shows what a business plan is and which templates and tools the WKO offers. It then goes through the structure chapter by chapter, the writing process in six steps and the WKO design tips. The information comes from the WKO, the i2b business plan initiative and Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws).
Key points at a glance:
- Through the i2b business plan initiative, there is a free WKO business plan template, plus software, a handbook, sample business plans and written expert feedback on the finished plan.
- For the financial plan, the WKO and Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws) offer the free program Plan4You, which plans four years, the first year month by month.
- According to the WKO, a business plan covers, among other things, an executive summary, the offer, market and competition, marketing, the team, financial planning and milestones.
- The executive summary comes first but is written last.
- The plan should not exceed 20 to 30 A4 pages, plus annexes.
What is a business plan?
According to the WKO, a business plan, also called a business concept (Unternehmenskonzept), describes the start-up idea and the steps to put it into practice. Writing it down has several advantages:
Who reads the business plan depends on the occasion: a bank, a funding body, business partners or your own team. The WKO advises thinking about who the plan is for before writing and setting the focus accordingly.
The WKO business plan template and its tools
For the business plan, the WKO offers a whole toolkit. The WKO start-up service (Gründerservice) refers to the business plan initiative i2b, short for “ideas to business”, and to the financial planning software Plan4You. Both offerings are free of charge.
Getting a free business plan template is therefore easy: through i2b there is a template, business plan software with an online assistant, the handbook “Gründen mit Konzept” and sample business plans. After free registration, every complete plan uploaded receives two rounds of written expert feedback, also free of charge. The figures are handled by Plan4You; according to the WKO, the program is also suitable for submission to banks and funding bodies.
Plan4You for the financial plan
Anyone looking for a financial plan template gets a full program with Plan4You rather than a single spreadsheet. The software from the WKO and Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws) calculates total turnover, depreciation and book values, personnel costs and liquidity. Planning data such as turnover, investments, depreciation or personnel costs are entered once and carried over automatically into the following screens.
The planning period is four years, and the first year can be planned month by month. At the push of a button, the program produces a planned balance sheet, a planned income statement and a results overview, plus a print-ready short summary (Kurzkonzept). Different scenarios show how changed assumptions affect the plan. The planning can be shared with the founding team or advisers, with read or write access. Plan4You can also be used in English, and help texts are built into the program.
i2b: templates, handbook and feedback
According to the WKO, the business plan initiative i2b has supported founders in drawing up their business concepts for more than 20 years. Besides the template, software and handbook, the detailed feedback from experts is an important difference from a simple template from the internet: experts read the plan and give written feedback on the individual chapters before it is presented to a bank or funding body.
According to the WKO, i2b also runs a yearly business plan competition with cash and in-kind prizes worth more than €200,000 in total. Taking part is an incentive to finish the plan; it is not required for using the templates. The handbook is also available in English, under the title “Founding with a concept”, which is handy for international founding teams.
Structure of a business plan
For the structure of a business plan, the WKO suggests an outline with eight chapters. The chapters and the questions they should answer:
| Chapter | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Executive summary | Key messages and key figures of the whole project, short and concise |
| Product or service | The offer in detail, strengths and weaknesses, development stage, customer benefit, unique selling point |
| Market and competition | Market size, trends, target groups, competitors and own positioning |
| Marketing and sales | Concrete offer, prices and terms, advertising and sales channels |
| Company and management | Company name, location, legal form, shareholders, team and skills, external partners |
| Profit and financial planning | Capital requirement, financing, costs, turnover and planned income statement |
| Implementation planning and milestones | Who does what by when, important stages |
| Annex | Quotes for investments, CVs, preliminary contracts, action plans |
Depending on the business idea, degree of innovation and investment need, a business plan can run to up to around 30 pages, according to the WKO. The outline is a suggestion that can be adapted to the project and helps make sure nothing essential is missed.
Product, market and competition
The chapter on the offer describes the product or service in detail: strengths and weaknesses, the development stage such as a prototype, the benefit for customers, any unique selling point and the main competing offers. The chapter on market and competition presents the researched data: how big is the market, which trends are emerging, which customers are addressed, what do competitors look like and what sets your own offer apart?
Marketing, sales and team
The marketing part sets out the planned measures for putting the business idea into practice. These include the concrete offer for each target group, prices including terms such as discounts or payment periods, advertising, sales promotion and public relations, and the sales channel, for example personal selling, specialist retailers, an online shop or sales agents.
The chapter on company and management presents the business and the team: company name, location, founding date, legal form, shareholders and management, ownership, team members and their skills, responsibilities and external partners such as a tax adviser.
Executive summary
The executive summary of a business plan gives a quick overview of the whole project and should encourage further engagement with it. It contains the key messages and key figures, presented briefly and engagingly. Typical contents are the offer, the target group, the team, the capital requirement and the expected turnover. Although it comes first, the executive summary is written only once all other chapters are finished, according to the WKO.
Profit and financial planning
According to the WKO, financial planning is a central element of starting a business and an essential part of a business plan. The financial part should above all answer these questions:
At the end comes the implementation planning with an activity plan: who does what by when, and which steps and events matter most? Detailed or additional documents such as quotes for planned investments, CVs, preliminary contracts or action plans go into the annex.
Writing a business plan: how to go about it
Anyone who wants to write a business plan can do so free of charge and in a clear order with the WKO tools. A possible process, based on the WKO guidance:
Consider whether the plan is meant for a bank, a funding body, partners or your own planning, and set the focus accordingly. A bank looks at different points than a funding body or your own team.
Download the free template and the handbook “Gründen mit Konzept” via i2b and set up access to Plan4You. The handbook explains each chapter of the template with guiding questions.
Describe the product or service, target groups and competitors, and back up assumptions with researched figures and sources. Note what sets your offer apart from competitors.
Enter turnover, investments and costs in Plan4You and check liquidity for the first four years. Use scenarios to also work through a weaker course of business.
Set out who does what by when and record the key milestones. An activity plan shows which steps come first.
Finally, sum up the key messages and key figures briefly. If needed, upload the finished plan to i2b to get written feedback from experts.
WKO design tips
For the WKO, a business plan “in your head” is not enough: structure, form and content largely decide its chances of success. Among the WKO’s tips:
The WKO also recommends writing the business plan yourself if possible. Business consultants can moderate, but in talks with a bank or business partners it is the founder who has to answer questions. Tables, CVs and contracts go into a separate annex; a logical table of contents, page numbers and a consistent layout complete the plan.
Business plan example and samples
A business plan example helps to get a feel for scope and tone. i2b provides sample business plans free of charge. A sample does not replace your own plan, however: figures, market and team differ for every start-up. A sensible approach is to take the outline and the depth of the chapters from a sample and to work out the text and figures yourself. For the figures, the Plan4You short summary (Kurzkonzept) can be enclosed as a compact overview.
The aws template for innovative start-ups
For innovative projects, there is also a business plan template from Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws) for its Preseed and Seedfinancing funding programmes, also available via i2b. At its core it follows the same outline but goes deeper in some places. In the product chapter, it asks about the type of innovation, intellectual property rights such as patents, designs or trademarks, and the value chain. A separate chapter covers the project’s social impact, and the market chapter adds market share and barriers to market entry.
In the company and management chapter, the aws template also asks for the organisational structure, and a further chapter covers the status of the project and the planned goals and milestones. The financial part covers founding costs, capital requirement, sources of financing, a planned balance sheet and a planned income statement. It ends with a SWOT analysis: strengths and weaknesses compared with competitors are set against trends, which gives the opportunities and risks for the business model. For an aws funding application, the template’s headings and a length of 25 pages, plus or minus 5, are binding.
In short: the i2b template and the Plan4You financial planning program are free tools for the text and the figures of a business plan. What matters is a clear outline, figures backed by sources and an executive summary written last.
A business account for putting it into practice
The financial plan also lists the business’s running costs, such as those for the business account. An account of its own helps to keep business and private money apart. A Vivid business account is open to sole traders (Einzelunternehmer) and new self-employed persons (Neue Selbständige) from Austria, and to a GmbH, AG or cooperative once it is entered in the company register. Opening the account itself costs nothing. For the planning:
Even on plans without a monthly fee, individual services can incur charges. These include additional cards, cash withdrawals above certain allowances or premium features from higher plans.
Vivid at a glance: an online business account for the self-employed and for a GmbH, AG or cooperative in Austria, each with a plan without a monthly fee.
From the plan to a company account
Open the Vivid business account online once the business has been founded.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free WKO business plan template?
Yes. Through the business plan initiative i2b there is a free template, plus software, a handbook and sample business plans. For the financial plan there is the free program Plan4You. After registering with i2b, a complete plan uploaded there also receives written feedback from experts.
How is a business plan structured?
The WKO lists executive summary, product or service, market and competition, marketing and sales, company and management, financial planning, milestones and annex. The aws template for innovative start-ups adds, for example, intellectual property rights, social impact and a SWOT analysis.
How long should a business plan be?
The WKO recommends no more than 20 to 30 A4 pages, plus annexes. For an aws funding application, a length of 25 pages, plus or minus 5, applies.
What belongs in the financial plan?
Capital requirement, financing, fixed, running and personnel costs including the entrepreneur’s salary, planned turnover and a planned income statement. The sub-plans have to fit together, and forecasts are backed up with figures and sources.
What is Plan4You?
Free financial planning software from the WKO and aws. It plans four years, the first month by month, and produces a planned balance sheet, a planned income statement and a print-ready short summary. The planning can be shared with the team or advisers.
When is the executive summary written?
Last. It comes at the start of the business plan but sums up the results of all the other chapters. That is why it is written once the offer, market, team and financial plan are finished.
What is a business plan needed for?
As a guideline for your own planning and as a basis for talks with partners. According to the WKO, it is also a basic prerequisite for financing from banks, other investors or funding bodies.
This article is for general information only and does not replace business or tax advice. The offerings and recommendations mentioned are based on information from the Austrian Economic Chambers (WKO), the i2b business plan initiative and Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws); for a specific case, the WKO start-up service (Gründerservice) is the right point of contact. Payment services are provided by Vivid Money S.A., 21 rue Glesener, Luxembourg, L-1631, Luxembourg, an Electronic Money Institution authorized and regulated by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, Luxembourg, under the register number W00000015.
