Submit your complete business plan

• Basic criteria for your business plan
• Steps to take to submit your business plan
• Time to submit your business plan
• Trust Settings
• Tips
• Fact Sheet
• Official Business Plan templates

Basic criteria for your business plan

• You need to have completed your application before you can submit your business plan.
• A business plan consists of two parts: a written part in which you elaborate on the business, the entrepreneur and the development impact of your business, and a financial plan in which you add the relevant financial data of your company;
• Your business plan will only be accepted to the assessment if both parts are present;
• The written part of your business plan must be no longer than 15 pages (Verdana 10 pt and excluding table of contents page, title page and possible photos, logos, graphs, financial tables, appendices, etc.);
• You are free to hand in your business plan in any format you like. If you already have a complete business plan, you may use this. Make sure though it meets its purpose i.e. convincing assessors to accept and investors to invest.

Steps to take to submit your business plan

To ensure that you submit all business plan documents in the right order, you have to upload online:

• your CV, attached to your personal profile;
• your written business plan;
• your financial template including cash flow, budget, balance sheet, financial planning.

To upload your CV:

If you have not uploaded your CV yet to your personal profile, find the procedure here.

To submit your complete business plan (and full financial template):

• Log in and go to your profile;
• Click on the box of your application on the left side of the page;
• Click on ‘Edit this page’ button on the top left of the page;
• Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the button [+ Business Plan Document];
• First upload your business plan document;
• Then upload your relevant full financial template;
• Click on submit to submit your complete plan.
• After you have submitted your complete business plan it will be locked until it has passed assessment, either being rejected or accepted. This means you cannot edit your plan while being assessed.

Even though you have already copied 6 of financial sheets into your business plan document, it is important to also upload the full financial template with all its sheets, so that possible assessors and jury members can check your calculations when necessary.

Please note that the BiD Network crew might use your application in a later stage to interest partners, coaches and investors in your business. Therefore please make sure your application is always attractive and op to date.

Time to submit your business plan

We advise you to submit your business plan as soon as possible, preferably within 90 days after your application was accepted. Please note that the business plan competition you would like to participate in, may have an earlier deadline

You can only create one plan at the same time. If your application has been accepted, it will stay visible to BiD Network visitors for at least a year after your last editing date.

Trust Settings

To make sure your information is visible for the right persons, set the trust settings.
Because your plan will be locked after submission, it is important to set the trust settings before you submit your plan.

Tips

If possible, first submit the Plan Application, and after you receive respective feedback from the experts, then submit the complete Business Plan.

We recommend you to be as specific as possible. Any relevant figures, data, pictures, names and organisations you give will improve the quality of your business plan.

Click on the boxes: "Inspiring business plan examples", "Small business guide", on the top right side of this page for useful tips and instructions.

Fact Sheet

Before investors start reading a business plan, they prefer to see a so called Fact Sheet. This is a one-pager with the most important facts and figures on it. It aims to raise enough interest from an investor to start reading the full business plan. Click here to get more information and to see how easily you can create such a fact sheet.

Official Business Plan templates

If you want to participate in the Farmers in Business Competition please use the templates available here