The Customers

Your business plan must be able to answer the critical question: "Who are my customers?"

No matter how great your product or service, your business will not succeed unless someone needs or wants it. Your business plan defines your customers, whether they are individuals or businesses.

INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMERS: If you are starting a women's clothing boutique, you need to collect data indicating there is a sizeable female population in your area, who are the right age to be interested in fashion and with income to afford to shop. Use the Demographic Information section on this Web site's guide to

Market Demographics to get an explanation of the resources that report on population, income, ethnicity and other such data for a particular location.

You can also research consumer spending; what, where and how do different segments of the population spend their income?

BUSINESS CUSTOMERS: If your customers are primarily other businesses, you need to determine what type of business would buy your product, is the number of these companies growing, where are they located and what other factors impact their purchasing decisions? Some of the steps in How to Research a Company or How to Research an Industry will lead you to this data.

Particularly useful resources include County Business Patterns (select "View Hypertext Tables" for the easiest access) from the US Census Bureau, to quantify the number of companies, and Reference USA to get a list of companies (this is an E-Resources, you will need a library card!)

Sample Business Plan Template

Organizing a Business Plan

Description of the Business - Where to Find the Data

Selling and Advertising Strategies

Web Sites

Company Personnel and Managment

Financial Data

Accounting Records