The One Page Business Plan by Jim Horan, first published in 1998, is a workbook that teaches founders and managers to fit a whole business plan onto a single sheet of paper. Horan ran The One Page Business Plan Company, a planning consultancy in Berkeley, California, and the book grew out of the method he used with clients.
What is The One Page Business Plan about?
Horan’s starting point is that most business plans fail because nobody reads them. Long documents get written for a bank or an investor, then sit in a drawer while the owner runs the business from memory. A plan on one page, he argues, gets pinned to the wall, shared with the team and changed when the facts change.
The plan has five parts. The vision describes what the business will look like in a few years. The mission says in one sentence why customers buy from you. Objectives turn the vision into measurable results with dates. Strategies describe how you will reach those objectives, and action plans list the specific projects, owners and deadlines. Each part uses short phrases instead of paragraphs, which forces clear choices.
The book is a workbook more than a narrative. Exercises, examples and fill-in pages walk you through each section, with sample plans from different types of organisations. Later editions and spin-offs adapted the method for non-profits and other sectors, which shows how general the format is.
What are the main lessons for founders?
- Short plans get used. If your plan does not fit on one page, you have not decided what matters. Cut until every line earns its place.
- Keep the five parts separate. Founders mix vision, goals and tasks into one blur. Splitting them shows where the plan is vague.
- Put numbers on objectives. Write “20 paying customers by 31 March” instead of “grow the customer base”. A number with a date lets you check progress.
- Tie every project to a strategy. If an action does not serve a strategy on the page, drop it or question the strategy.
- Review monthly. The plan is a living document. A monthly review keeps the team honest and shows when a strategy is failing.
Who should read The One Page Business Plan?
It suits owners of small and medium businesses, solo founders, freelancers growing into agencies and managers running a department or a non-profit programme. It also works for founders who must write a plan for a bank, a grant or a partner and want a clear summary before they write the long version.
Founders of very early, uncertain startups can skip it. If you do not yet know who your customer is, a plan with confident objectives is a set of guesses dressed as facts.
How do you put The One Page Business Plan to work this week?
- Write a one-sentence mission that names your customer and why they buy.
- Set three objectives for the next 6 months, each with a number and a date.
- List one strategy and two concrete projects for each objective, with an owner and a deadline, and pin the page above your desk.
When you need a longer document for a bank or grant, the free Business Plan Generator on Fe/male Switch turns your one-page notes into a full draft.
Where does The One Page Business Plan fall short?
The method assumes you already know your market and customers. It offers no way to test whether the plan’s guesses are right, which is the main problem for a new startup. The examples and tone reflect small business planning of the late 1990s, before online sales, subscription models and fast experiments became normal. Financial planning gets little space beyond objectives. For testing the assumptions behind a plan, read The Lean Startup, and for mapping how the business makes money, Business Model Generation.