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Plan fundamentals examples: what a reader can verify in ten minutes
Two annotated plan excerpts for the same bike shop show how naming one reader and one decision changes the lead number, wording and evidence on the page.
What to take away
- Name one reader and one decision before drafting. The reader's approval checklist decides which number leads the page.
- A community bank loan officer weighs debt service coverage, collateral and repayment history. A landlord weighs lease term, personal guarantee and build-out dollars.
- One business can yield two honest plans that share no opening sentence, no headline figure and no evidence packet.
- Put both plans side by side as reader, decision, lead number, attached proof and the missing line that stalls the file.
- Ten minutes with a short checklist finds sections written to please everyone, which persuade no one.
Two excerpts, one shop, two readers
Riverton Cycle Repair runs a mobile bike service van in Columbus, Ohio. Revenue last year was $186,000. The owner wants $75,000 for a second van and a part-time mechanic.
Two readers, two plan excerpts
Excerpt A
- Named reader
- Bank loan officer
- Decision
- $75,000 term loan
- Lead number
- 1.45 coverage
- Proof attached
- Tax returns, van lien
- File stalls on
- No collateral schedule
Excerpt B
- Named reader
- Commercial landlord
- Decision
- Five year lease
- Lead number
- Nine month break-even
- Proof attached
- Guarantee, insurance certificate
- File stalls on
- No build-out estimate
Two draft pages sit on the desk. Both describe the same shop, the same owner and the same twelve month revenue figure.
The difference is the named reader and the named decision. Excerpt A answers a loan officer at a community bank. Excerpt B answers a landlord holding a 1,200 square foot unit at $18 per square foot.
Excerpt A
- Named reader
- Community bank loan officer
- Decision at stake
- $75,000 term loan over five years
- Opening line
- Repayment history first
- Lead number
- 1.45 debt service coverage
- Attached proof
- Two years of tax returns, van lien value
- Line that stalls the file
- No collateral schedule
Excerpt B
- Named reader
- Commercial landlord
- Decision at stake
- Five year lease plus $20,000 build-out
- Opening line
- Occupancy and build-out first
- Lead number
- Nine month break-even on rent
- Attached proof
- Personal guarantee, insurance certificate
- Line that stalls the file
- No build-out cost estimate
Example A: the loan officer deciding on a $75,000 term loan
Excerpt A opens with repayment capacity, not with the market.
Loan excerpt key figures
- 1.45debt service coverage
- $1,480monthly principal and interest
- $75,000five year term loan
Riverton Cycle Repair has covered fixed obligations from operations in every quarter since 2022. The requested $75,000 five year term loan adds $1,480 in monthly principal and interest. Projected coverage is 1.45 times.
The lead number is coverage. The evidence packet is tax returns, a depreciation schedule for the existing van, and a lien position on the new one.
The plan names the documents a loan officer will request, and the SBA 7(a) loan program page describes the requirements and use of proceeds behind that request.
Example B: the landlord deciding on a five year lease
Excerpt B opens with occupancy and build-out, because the landlord decides on the risk of an empty unit and unpaid improvements.
The shop will occupy 1,200 square feet at $18 per square foot, a $21,600 annual base rent, with $20,000 of tenant improvements funded by the landlord and repaid across 36 months.
The lead number is break-even months, not coverage. The evidence packet is a personal guarantee, a certificate of insurance, and signed service contracts with two Columbus property managers.
No lender asks for the property manager letters. The landlord will not move without them.
What the side by side comparison changes
Numbers shift because the decision shifts. Coverage answers a repayment question. Break-even months answers a vacancy question. Same shop, different arithmetic.
Wording shifts too. Excerpt A uses repayment, collateral and amortization. Excerpt B uses term, build-out, guarantee and occupancy. A reader scanning for ten minutes recognizes the vocabulary of their own approval sheet.
Evidence shifts most. Each page attaches only what the named reader can check. Plan fundamentals examples turn on one narrow test: can this person verify the claim in ten minutes?
Looking closely at plan fundamentals means choosing that reader and that decision first, then making every section agree with the model and labeling each figure counted, quoted or assumed.
The SBA guidance on writing a business plan lists the standard sections, but their order and emphasis belong to the reader you named.
Market evidence still has to hold up, and the SBA market research guidance describes the competitor and customer work a plan is expected to contain.
A plan fundamentals checklist you can run in ten minutes
- Write the reader's job title and the exact decision on one index card.
- Circle the number that decision turns on and move it into the first three lines.
- Read the evidence list aloud and delete every item your reader cannot verify.
- Search the page for words your reader never uses in their own files.
- Confirm each figure is labeled counted, quoted or assumed.
- Read the opening section again and ask whether it answers the decision or only describes the business.
