A one-page plan an owner sends to a bank, a landlord or a partner ahead of the full version.
A full business plan can run to forty pages, and almost nobody starts there. A loan officer, a landlord or a would-be partner starts with one page: what the business is, what it costs, and what you want from them. This is that page, for a made-up barbershop opening a second shop. Adapt it in a Claude conversation with your own numbers. It doesn't replace the bank's application form.
Who it's for
An owner about to ask for something: a loan, a lease, a partner's money. Send it ahead, so the first conversation is about the numbers.
The long version still has to exist. A bank will want cash flow month by month, the lease, the quotes and your accounts, as files. The barbershop page ends by offering its 31-page plan on request.
What a good one contains
- The ask, twice. The opening lines give the $112,000 cost, the owner's $32,000 and the $80,000 loan. The last section gives the terms: years, monthly payment, security, and the day the landlord stops holding the unit.
- Evidence that people will buy. "A growing market" proves nothing. The barbershop counts 312 regulars who already live near the new shop, and 320 walk-ins it turned away in eight weeks.
- One sale, taken apart. A $36 haircut leaves $15.90 after the barber, products and card fees. From that, a reader can work out the 22 haircuts a day the shop needs.
- Opening costs, with a reserve. Eight lines add up to $112,000, and one is $24,000 for a slow start. A plan with no reserve claims nothing will go wrong.
- Three years in one table. Sales, costs, profit and loan payments, built from things a reader can test: haircuts a day, the price, barbers working.
- The bad year, shown. Year one ends $2,994 short after loan payments, and the chart shows that bar stopping short of the payment line. The next two years are easier to believe for it.
- Risks with a number each. Twenty percent fewer customers, a chair empty for a year, rent as a share of sales.
Numbers a lender will redo
Assume your reader has a calculator open. The monthly payment has to match the rate and the term: $80,000 over seven years at 9.25% really is $1,297 a month.
Say where each assumption comes from: last year's accounts, a builder's quote, a count you did yourself. Then set the first year lower than you hope. If your existing shop does 46 haircuts a day, don't plan the new one at 46.
When a quote or the rent changes, change it in the conversation where you made the plan, replace the page and tell the lender which line moved.
How to send it
With a password. It shows what your business earns and how much you want to borrow. Tell the loan officer the password by phone, and expect an underwriter to need it too.
Every page you publish gets one link that opens in any browser. You choose who can open it: anyone with the link, anyone with the password, or only the people and company domains you name, who sign in with Google or Microsoft. Change the page later and the link stays the same.
