How Long Should a Business Plan Be? Why Eight Pages Is Too Few
A business plan is normally between ten and thirty pages, but over the long term it can grow to hundreds of pages through the revisions applied to it. What matters is that you have written down all your ideas and plans for your business.
Do not get excessively preoccupied with volume and the number of pages. Nothing happens if the volume increases or decreases depending on your need.
Of course, if the working plan, which is the complete version adopted for domestic use, contains only eight pages, you must be scared a little bit. Be aware that you probably do not know how to write a business plan, because no one can write down the entire details of his or her work and end up with fewer than thirty or forty pages, even for small businesses. There are numerous issues, and if you predict them, the number of pages will be more than this number.
Preparing the final version is time-consuming. It may be written in two or three days, or it may take thirty days to be completed. What matters is that it is not unalterable, and you can change it over time and according to what happens.
The more details this version contains, the better you show how much information you have regarding your business. When you intend to launch a business, it means you know how to do it. You claim that you know the ins and outs of your own business, and you have used all of your information in preparing the working plan.
Relying on memory is out of place here. All points must be written. The complete version, the working plan, contains more details than the other versions, and it is designed for your own use. In this version, you must show that you know the ins and outs of your business. Every point that occurs to you is written here. Think about every issue and decide how to tackle it.
This version turns into a working version by adding and removing certain parts. Every other version, such as the mini plan of four or five pages, the plan for the investor or the presentation, is written from it. So the length of the working plan is not a vanity measure. It is the proof that you have thought through your business.