Business plan
A document describing a business project, its strategy, target market, business model, financial projections and funding requirements. It serves to persuade investors or partners and to structure the founder’s own thinking.
In practice
A credible business plan rests on explicit, testable assumptions. The three-scenario approach — pessimistic, central, optimistic — forces a stress-test of each hypothesis. Investors read the executive summary (two pages maximum) and the five-year financial projections first. The coherence between growth assumptions and headcount requirements is the most frequently flawed element in amateur plans.