How to build a one-page business plan your team will actually read

Long business plans end up in a drawer. A single page that answers five questions gets used every week, by everyone.

Over the past fourteen years we have helped more than 200 companies write their plans. The ones that worked had one thing in common: they were short enough to remember. Here is the format we use with every new client.

1. Where are we now?

Start with three numbers your team already tracks: revenue, margin and number of customers. Write them down with today’s date. Everything else in the plan is measured against this line.

2. Where do we want to be in 12 months?

Pick the same three numbers and set a target for each. Make the targets ambitious but believable; if nobody on the team thinks a number is possible, they will quietly ignore it.

A plan that fits on one page is a plan people can argue about. That is exactly what you want.

3. What three things will get us there?

• Choose no more than three priorities for the year.
• Give each priority one owner, not a committee.
• Write down what you will stop doing to make room.

4. How will we know it is working?

Agree on one number to check every month for each priority. Put the review in the calendar now, before the year gets busy.

5. What could stop us?

List the two or three biggest risks and what you would do if they happen. This is the section most teams skip, and the one they are most grateful for six months later.