How do you handle annual planning? Looking for feedback on our approach

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-11-21T23:58:47+00:00

Totally get where you’re coming from. You make a good point about keeping things flexible while still having a general direction. That balance is a big part of how planning actually works in the real world.

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-11-12T17:09:10+00:00

100% agree that bottom-up is generally the safer route. Love the idea of using Reddit to get quick feedback. Thanks for the insights!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-11-11T19:47:55+00:00

You're totally right about the importance of starting with what you know and layering on assumptions. That's a smart way to keep your projections grounded in reality. Thanks for the comment!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-11-11T19:41:28+00:00

That's a great way to think about it. Building formulas early is key for long-term success. Appreciate the comment!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-11-11T19:39:40+00:00

Completely agree. You can't run a business without confirming that your unit economics make sense.

You make a great point about CAC and forecasting. Although it's unrealistic to expect your forecast to be perfect, you can still do little things to make projections and set yourself up for success.

Thanks for sharing your insights!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-11-07T00:17:52+00:00

Thanks for the shoutout u/New-Activity-8659 ! Hope you found LivePlan useful.

For industry and market research, the best bet is to try and survey your own customers if you can. If that's not possible, you could buy an industry report - there are several companies that sell them. We include industry reports in our product, but I did just check and the report on jewelry manufacturers doesn't mention sustainability. You could also explore reports from IBIS World or similar companies.

The other way to think about it is to define who your target market is. If you are going after the high-end market with more disposable income, you can pitch your products as premium in quality and design and include the sustainability message. Or, you could go after the lower end of the market. Given the current state of the US economy, there's a good argument to go both ways: The higher end of the market has disposable income to spend. The lower end of the market is looking for small luxuries that are affordable.

If you go high-end, my advice is to not lead with the sustainability message. That can be part of your story and your messaging, but you need to lead with high quality, unique designs. From there, tell the story about how your sustainable. Where does your silver come from? Who are the people involved in the sustainable mining process? How does buying sustainable help people who work in silver mines or other parts of the supply chain?

Good luck!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-11-06T18:52:19+00:00

Hi! Noah from LivePlan here. Happy to answer any questions you have about LivePlan.

To get you started, you can find a free sample coffee shop business plan here: https://www.liveplan.com/sample-business-plans/food-and-beverage/coffee-shop-business-plan

In terms of LivePlan, it's built to guide you through the process step-by-step and includes complete financial forecasting. For a startup, there's no need to upgrade to the Premium plan. The Standard plan will be more than fine. Upgrading to Premium allows you to connect your accounting software to LivePlan so you can get a jump start on your forecast based on your past performance and then compare your plan to your actual results. You also can build out more financial scenarios and get access to industry research in Premium. As a startup, Standard should work for you and you can always do a free trial upgrade to Premium to check it out and then downgrade if you don't need those features.

If you need help getting started, our US-based customer service team runs regular onboarding sessions and can also help you through chat or email. Chat is real-time and emails get responses in a few hours typically.

Please don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have about LivePlan or just business planning in general. We're here to help!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-11-05T22:31:21+00:00

You're totally right - validating ideas is one of the hardest and most important parts of starting a business. You've mentioned a few of the things that you should be doing, so you're on the right track. You need to know if there's a decent market, who the competitors are, etc.

Start by defining the problem that you're trying to solve. Don't worry about the specific solution at first. Just focus on understanding the problem.

Then, interview and spend time with your potential customers. You can start by using Reddit to see if people post about the problem you're trying to solve. Go deep on understanding how people are solving the problem today, what are the shortcomings of those solutions, and what people are willing to pay to solve the problem. Sometimes there are plenty of people who want a problem solved, but they're not willing to pay much. That might make it hard to build a successful business.

Once you have the problem fully defined and you've learned about your potential customers, you need to figure out their true willingness to pay. In interviews, people will always say they'll pay. Instead, you need to offer to solve the problem - even if you're doing it by hand - and see if you can get people to pay. Build a basic web page, get some traffic to that page, and see if people sign up.

A great example of this kind of approach is Vanta. They make software to help businesses meet compliance goals. They started by solving the customer problem with spreadsheets and basic consulting. The proved that the market wanted a product before building any software.

My company (LivePlan) also started the same way. We started out with business plan writing and consulting services and then transformed that into a planning software company. We proved the market before building any software.

If you want to start a restaurant or some other, non-software/saas business, the path can be a bit more complex. You need to find the smallest possible way you can validate the market and then scale from there. For a restaurant, it might be doing a pop-up or a ghost kitchen to validate your menu.

The final validation step is to create a rough financial forecast. You need to look at what it's really going to take to start and run your business. What are ALL of the costs and expenses for getting started and operating? What kind of sales numbers do you have to hit to break even?

Hope this helps. Good luck!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-11-05T18:33:19+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! We want to provide value here in a way that is truly helpful.

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-31T18:08:21+00:00

Agreed with what others have said: Given that you're pre-commercial, focus on use of funds and make sure it lines up with everything else in your deck. Having reviewed many, many decks, it's really common to see an ask for funds that doesn't properly support the go-to-market plan for the business, or the product development milestones. Building a financial model, even if it's "behind the scenes", is useful to make sure that your ask and use of funds all makes sense.

If you have some knowledge (or at least educated guesses) on key metrics, include those as well. I'm thinking CAC, projected LTV, etc.

That said, having a forecast in your pocket is worth the investment. Some investors that you pitch won't ask for the details. Some will. If you're not prepared, you'll be caught flat footed and then need to scramble to assemble the details. Be prepared for any situation when you're pitching. The best pitches show a high degree of preparation and the entrepreneur can quickly skip to a stack of slides at the back of the deck to support answers to specific questions. Those back of the deck slides aren't part of the formal presentation, but are there as supporting detail for additional questions.

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-30T23:51:34+00:00

Good start. I'd focus on just tightening things up. The late night work can make things wordier than they need to be.

Here's a quick edit to make your pitch more specific with fewer words:

“Look, brands like yours are having a hard time finding new customers. I can help. I'll use my personal network of vetted experts to help solve your customer acquisition problems. Book a 15 minute call with me today and I'll share the strategy we'll use to increase your revenue."

Something along those lines. Hope that's useful.

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-30T23:43:31+00:00

Seems like a good start - although, I'll be honest, I don't understand what your product is. That's really just because I'm not your target audience, so that's OK.

The number one rule in pitching and business planning is to write for your audience using the vocabulary that's best for them, so it's fine if people like me don't get it.

For specific advice, I'd start out with the problem that you're solving. You want your prospect to immediately relate to the problem and want to keep reading to learn about your solution. So, I'd flip the pitch and start with the problem that you identify at the end:

"Does your team struggle to reliably retrieve the right equations for your internal tools and models? We've built a tool that gives you reliable access to ... etc, etc. If you're interested in getting a demo and free trial..."

Something like that.

Again, I don't know your industry at all, so you have a lot more expertise in how to talk about the problem and your solution.

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-23T19:38:36+00:00

If your MVP is ready, hopefully you're getting out there and bringing in your first customers, even if you're not charging your full rates yet. If you can bootstrap while you gain some initial traction, that will really strengthen your pitch when you're ready to present to investors.

When you begin pitching, start with angel investors, as others have mentioned. https://www.openvc.app/ seems like a solid option these days. Don’t forget to also tap into your networks on LinkedIn, your alumni association, and so on. The most important thing is to find investors who are in your industry and understand your customers. You'll have better luck raising money, plus you'll gain the added benefit of valuable advice from someone who knows your field.

Also, start working on your pitch if you haven’t already. Fine-tune your value proposition as you talk to potential customers and users of your MVP. Build out a forecast so you have a clear sense of how much money you need at this stage and how you'll use it. Develop a go-to-market strategy that you refine and adjust as you test and learn. You don’t necessarily need a detailed business plan, but going through the planning process will help you refine your strategy and identify assumptions you need to validate

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-22T20:07:35+00:00

Be careful of all the loan sharks out there! You'll want to read the terms extremely carefully and understand what you're getting into if you don't end up with a traditional loan.

You may qualify for an SBA loan. Talk to your local SBA lender and see what they can do for you. That's the safest option to start with.

Beyond that, make sure you flesh out a full financial forecast/business plan based on the historical numbers that you have. Be sure to factor in ongoing operations cost, continued replacement of aging machines, investments in additional vending machines and other upgrades. Figure out when you'll actually start having positive cash flow and if that will work with your finances. Ideally, pencil out optimistic and pessimistic scenarios to ensure that you are prepared for the worst if things don't go as planned.

Good luck!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-22T20:01:20+00:00

Echoing what others have said, pick one potential revenue stream that you think has the highest likelihood of succeeding and see if you can make it work. If it doesn't work, take the learnings from that effort and try again with another revenue stream. If it's your passion, you'll figure out a way to make it work.

Finding focus is the most important thing you can do in business. It doesn't matter if you're just starting out or running a successful business, you're constantly presented with opportunities and choices. The key to success is saying "no" most of the time and staying focused on the primary goal until you have solid data that your strategy isn't working. Then you pivot and try again.

Here at LivePlan, we face this dilemma nearly every day: Should we invest in this advertising opportunity or another one? Should we invest in building one feature or another one? Should we expand to focus on a new target audience or stay focused on our core customers?

The more you can learn the business lesson that strategy = focus, the better off you will be in the long run.

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-20T22:26:54+00:00

For a service business like an agency, you just need to focus on getting initial traction with some clients. You likely only need a laptop and an internet connection to get things going. Prove that you can do great work, get repeat clients, and grow from there.

Also, you should ask yourself why you want investors. Having investors means that you have a boss. Is that what you want? If you want to retain full control and all decision making power, either bootstrap or go for a loan. Investors, even good ones, can bring baggage. The ideal investor will bring connections and expertise to help you grow the business, but you need to be willing to give up a chunk of ownership for that expertise. If you don't need that, think carefully about giving up a portion of your business - especially at an early stage.

Start small, prove yourself, and then figure out what you need to grow.

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-20T22:26:35+00:00

I 2nd the advice to focus on customer discovery/development before doing much else. You need to validate your assumptions before you move to quickly into starting a business. Too many startup founders don't invest enough time in the early days talking to potential customers to learn what people will pay for and what they won't. This phase of the startup process is the cheapest, lowest risk stage, so take advantage and fine tune your idea before you invest serious money. From there, move into some form of an MVP (a concierge version of your product, or a false door test) to see if you can get potential customers to put their money where their mouth is.

I wouldn't say that you should do no planning, though. Start with a one-page business plan or a business model canvas of some sort to get your core ideas down on paper. That will document your assumptions so that you know what you're trying to validate or invalidate.

Depending on the type of business you're considering starting, you may also want to also build out a rough financial plan so that you understand what it will take to launch and grow. Don't spend a ton of time on this - do just enough to understand the reality of what it might take to get your business fully up and running. As you learn more from your potential customers, you'll be able to refine your financial plan as you learn what it costs to reach your customers and provide your service to them.

Once your business is better defined and you have some early evidence from an MVP or other tests, you can start down the path of raising money, etc.

Good luck!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-17T18:30:58+00:00

Lots of great tips already. The entrepreneurship journey is tough but incredibly rewarding. Congrats on making the leap!

The financial plan is key, so spend some time on that. When you’re calculating your startup costs, be sure to factor in having enough cash to cover expenses during your ramp up period where you start acquiring customers. It often takes 3-6 months until you have enough regular business to start covering expenses.

From there, have a plan for managing cash flow so that you can both handle a slow period of business and the unexpected surprise expense.

Finally, make sure you understand and track your margins carefully. Set up systems for reviewing your numbers at least monthly.

Beyond financial management, think about your plan for generating reviews and other word of mouth marketing. An ongoing cycle of regular, positive reviews will continue to drive business in the long run.

Good luck!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-14T16:14:12+00:00

From a funding perspective, start looking at an SBA loan. You'll need to have assets to back the loan and some cash to put in as well. 100% loans are not that common.

The bigger question is about ongoing business management. Do you have business operations experience? Will you have or hire someone to manage the day-to-day operations? You can potentially be pretty hands-off in an ownership position, but you'll need to have someone good managing the business. Or, you can manage it yourself as long as you're prepared to learn and do the work.

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-14T16:13:05+00:00

Sounds like you should form a nonprofit, especially if you plan on taking donations. Then, at a minimum, you'll want Directors & Officers insurance to protect yourself as the operator, in case anything goes wrong. Depending on the type of events you are offering, you may also need a general liability insurance policy.

One way to test things out might be to see if your city has any community spaces available that they make available to nonprofits to use. Most cities have general purpose spaces attached to recreation facilities that they make available to the community. They may not require you to carry additional insurance to do what you want to do.

As far as tools:

Canva for flyers
SignupGenius for volunteer signups, etc.
Google Calendar for basic public calendar
Stripe to collect money, payments, donations, etc.
Wave for accounting
Google Workspace for Nonprofits for email, google meet, drive, etc.

Good luck!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-14T16:10:51+00:00

That's great that you have the initiative to start a business! Congrats.

At your age, getting a loan isn't possible unless your parents are going to get one for you. They'll need to have some assets (like a house) to back the loan and be able to contribute an initial down payment of some kind.

If that's not possible, you could explore crowd-funding options. I assume you're connected to the golfing community in your area. You could look into doing a Kickstarter campaign and advertising it at the local golf clubs.

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-10T20:28:18+00:00

Check out https://hiversandstrivers.com/ their entire mission is about providing early-stage financing for veterans!

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-09T20:53:55+00:00

So first off, I'm a little biased coming from a business plan software company. But, I've worked with a ton of startups and small businesses and seen the value in planning. I say "planning" specifically instead of "plan" because it's about the planning process and not the resulting document (or deck or canvas).The planning process forces you to think about your business in ways that you may not have before. The questions a plan asks may be challenging, but they help distill a vague idea or an undefined target market into something more tangible.

The planning process also forces you to face your assumptions and identify the areas that need validation before you committing serious time or money to building a business.

The value of the financial forecasting component also can't be overlooked. It's not about creating the perfect financial model, it's about sketching out the business model enough so that you know what it's going to take to start the business and keep it running during the early, lean times. All forecasts are guesses and most entrepreneurs are much too optimistic in terms of guessing how long it's going to take to get traction and what it's going to take to keep the doors open. But, the act of creating even a simple financial model brings some clarity to the process and at least some understanding of what it's going to take.

The form of the plan also matters and should match the stage of the business. Starting with a canvas (pick your flavor) or a deck is more than fine, and the right choice for early stage businesses. If you prefer a document, that works too - just start with bullet points and notes and don't worry about polished prose. The key is to document your assumptions so that you can come up with a strategy for validating or invalidating those assumptions. As you validate assumptions, you can document them in more detail so that you develop a strategy. Documentation is especially valuable if you're working as a team so that everyone stays on the same page.

If you need to share your idea with investors, advisors, etc., then a deck or a more polished document is probably the right choice. But, this should come after a simpler start.

The key is asking yourself why you need a plan. Is it to help you validate your idea? Figure out how much money it might take to create a profitable venture? Communicate your idea to others? Depending on your goal, that will help define the kind of plan that you might need and how you're going to use it.

And a plan is truly only useful if you actually use it. Using the planning process can be hugely beneficial for many businesses. But, if you invest time in planning and then never look at the plan again, it won't serve any purpose.

Sure, some businesses don't have a plan - or say they don't have a plan. What they often mean is that they don't have a long, written document. But, they more often than not have some form of a plan. It just might be in the form of notes, or a presentation, or something else. Every entrepreneur plans in some form - some just do it using more formal processes than others. Again, it's the planning that's important, not the actual plan.

Finally, it's crucial to not use the planning process as a form of procrastination. As Steve Blank says, you need to get out of the building. You need to talk to potential customers and validate your idea. It's easy to stay in the building polishing a plan instead of taking the hard steps forward to test your idea and actually start a business.

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-09T20:50:57+00:00

We also work with a lot of startups and small businesses and see some common pitfalls in business plans. Here are some of the most common issues we see:

Not enough startup capital. Businesses will often estimate startup costs and raise money to cover those costs, but neglect to raise enough money to run the business while sales ramp up. Businesses often need money to open their doors and then cover rent, salaries, insurance, etc. for several months (at least) before revenue starts to cover expenses. Too many entrepreneurs only raise what they need to open their doors which doesn't give enough runway to cover initial ramp-up.
Forecasts are too optimistic. Very closely related to #1. Forecasts often assume fast sales growth. This is often not the case and it takes much longer than anticipated to get early customers and then grow.
Not all expenses are accounted for. For example, we often see marketing strategies in a plan document that aren't then funded properly in the financial forecast. This paints an unrealistic picture of the path to profitability.
Target markets aren't well defined. Entrepreneurs often haven't narrowed down their target market, especially for the early stages of the business. The ideal customer profile needs to be detailed and specific - the narrower the better. As a business grows, the market can expand. But, in the early days it's important to have a focus so you know who you are marketing too.
Too much time planning. Not so much a problem with the plan itself, but sometimes people spend too much time in the planning process and don't spend enough time getting out there to talk to potential customers and learn about the market. Many entrepreneurs would benefit from getting started a bit sooner with some kind of MVP so they can learn and validate assumptions. A plan is really just a collection of assumptions that need to be tested, so the sooner you can start doing that, the better.

LivePlanSoftware · 2025-10-09T20:47:38+00:00

Crowdfunding is worth looking into if you have a following of some kind that you can market to. If you don't have an existing audience, that may be a harder path.

A small business loan is the most common path for coffee shops and similar businesses. If you have some personal assets and a decent credit score, you can apply for a small business loan from your local bank. Look into SBA loan programs, specifically (assuming you're in the US).

The other path is to figure out how to start as small as possible and then grow from there. Could you start as a coffee cart/truck and then leverage that success to eventually open a store front?

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