how to write an app business plan

Mobile App Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Business Plan Outline

• Mobile App Business Plan Home
• 1. Executive Summary
• 2. Company Overview
• 3. Industry Analysis
• 4. Customer Analysis
• 5. Competitive Analysis
• 6. Marketing Plan
• 7. Operations Plan
• 8. Management Team
• 9. Financial Plan

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Mobile App Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your mobile app business plan.

We have helped over 100,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their mobile app businesses.

Sample Business Plan for a Mobile App Development Company

Below are links to an example of each of the key elements of a mobile app business plan template:

• Executive Summary – In the Executive Summary, you will provide a general overview of your comprehensive business plan including your target market, business model, and how you plan to make your business successful.
• Company Overview – The Company Overview section will provide an overview of your app idea, business description, company history, mission statement, monetization strategy and milestones achieved.
• Industry Analysis – In the Industry Analysis section, you will use information from your market research to discuss the market demand for your mobile application or business idea, trends, and issues facing your industry.
• Customer Analysis – The Customer Analysis section will describe your target market. This includes information on demographics, psychographics, and behaviors.
• Competitive Analysis – The Competitive Analysis includes an overview of your direct and indirect competitors, their market share, your competitive advantage, and how you plan to compete against them.
• Marketing Plan – The Marketing Plan section will describe your marketing strategy. This includes information on your platform placements (Apple App Store, Google Play, etc.), pricing strategy, and marketing strategies for engaging your target audience.
• Operations Plan – The Operations Plan section of your mobile app business plan will describe your business operations including app development, customer acquisition strategy, and other key aspects of your app company.
• Management Team – The Management Team section will provide information on the management members of your advisory team. This includes their experience, education, and skills.
• Financial Plan – In the Financial Plan section, you will provide the financial model and financial statements for your business. This includes your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

Next Section: Executive Summary >

Mobile App Business Plan FAQs

What is a mobile app business plan.

A mobile app business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your mobile app business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can  easily complete your mobile app business plan using our Mobile App Business Plan Template here .

What Are the Main Types of Mobile App Development Companies?

There are many types of mobile app companies across a variety of categories. There are mobile app businesses that focus solely on mobile games. Others are exercise or wellness focused. Some mobile apps provide guidance on specific topics, some offer music streaming, and other apps provide help or assistance on a variety of topics. Many companies have developed company-specific mobile apps to allow users to become more connected with their products or offerings. For instance, most major brands, restaurants and financial services companies have company-specific mobile applications.

What Are the Main Sources of Revenue and Expenses for a Mobile App Business?

The primary source of revenue for mobile app businesses are subscription paid by the users on an annual or monthly basis. Advertising (selling ad space to other companies on their app) is another significant revenue sources.

The key expenses for mobile app businesses are the costs to advertise and generate users. These expenses are often in the form of targeted social media advertising or online targeted marketing. Some major mobile app businesses pay to have their mobile apps advertised on television commercials or music streaming platforms. Another major expense for app companies are office space, employee salaries and technology licensing fees.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Mobile App Business Plan?

A mobile app startup is most likely to receive funding from angel investors and friends and family. Personal savings and credit cards are also often used. Venture capitalists will fund a business plan for an app once it achieves enough traction (e.g., enough users, in-app purchases, or generating enough revenue).

A well crafted mobile app business plan is essential for attracting any type of potential investor.  Most app startups require funding to get off the ground and cover at least their startup costs.

What are the Steps To Start a Mobile App Business?

Starting a mobile app development company can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Mobile App Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed business plan for an app that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include market research on the mobile app industry and potential market size, information on the mobile app concept, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast.  

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your mobile app business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your mobile app business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Mobile App Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your mobile app business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your mobile app business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 

7. Acquire Necessary Mobile App Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your mobile app business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your mobile app business.  A mobile app marketing plan includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising. 

Learn more about how to start a successful mobile app business:

• How to Start a Mobile App Business
• How to Start a Mobile App Development Business

Where Can I Get a Mobile App Business Plan PDF?

You can download our free mobile app business plan template PDF here . This is a sample mobile app business plan template you can use in PDF format.

Mobile App Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Mobile App Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 5,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their mobile app development company. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a mobile app business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Mobile App Business Plan Template here >

What is a Mobile App Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your mobile app as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for an App Company

If you’re looking to launch a mobile app or grow your existing mobile app you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your mobile app in order to improve your chances of success. Your business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Source of Funding for Mobile App Companies

With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a mobile app are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans, angel investors and venture capitalists. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

The second most common form of funding for a mobile app is angel investors. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding, or, like a bank, they will give you a loan.

Venture capitalists will also fund a mobile app and will take equity in return for their funding, VC funding generally comes after you’ve received initial proof of the mobile app concept or traction with your app.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for a mobile app development company.

A comprehensive business plan for an app company should include the 10 sections as follows:

Executive Summary

• Company Overview

Industry Analysis

Customer analysis, competitive analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management team, financial plan.

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of app business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a mobile app that you would like to grow, or do you already have several successful app businesses?

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the mobile app industry. Discuss the type of mobile app you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target audience. Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.

Company Analysis

In your company overview, you will provide a detailed description of your mobile app business.

For example, you might operate one of the following types:

• Business app : this type of mobile app generally helps increase productivity and/or decrease costs.
• Entertainment app : this type of mobile app includes news, social networking, music, video, etc.
• Lifestyle app : this type of mobile app includes things like fitness, shopping, dating, etc.
• Education app : this type of app must have the primary objective of advancing a user’s knowledge and overall breadth in a particular subject.
• Utility app : this type of app includes things like scanners, trackers, health-related apps, cell service providers, etc.
• Travel app : this type of app aids in planning and booking trips.
• Other app : there are a limitless number of areas in which a successful app could be created

In addition to the business description, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What is your company history?
• What is your mission statement?
• What is your business idea or app idea?
• What is your business model or monetization strategy (i.e., freemium, subscription, in-app purchases, affiliate marketing, crowdfunding, paid apps, sponsored content, etc.)?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales goals you’ve reached, new store openings, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of your app development business.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the mobile app industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards quiz apps, it would be helpful to ensure your plan incorporates gamification into your app.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section:

• How big is the app industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your mobile app? You can calculate this figure by multiplying the size of your target customer market by the amount they might spend per year on your app.

The customer analysis section must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: business operations managers, college students, sports enthusiasts, soccer moms, techies, teens, baby boomers, etc.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of mobile app you operate. Clearly, baby boomers would want different pricing and product options, and would respond to different user engagement strategies than teens.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the business types (if B2B), ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.

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Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other app businesses in your niche.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to achieve similar results to what your app offers.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other app development companies with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be mobile app businesses offering the same type of service or activity that yours does.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What products do they offer?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide superior features?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For an app business, your marketing plan should include the following:

Product : in the product section, you should reiterate the type of mobile app that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific features of your app.

Price : Document how you will price your app and if there will be different pricing levels (e.g., free, entry, premium) and what those levels will be.

Place : Place refers to your distribution method. Document how customers can download your app (e.g., from your website, the Apple App Store, Google Play, etc.).

Promotions : the final part of your mobile app marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your app(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Social media marketing strategy
• Advertising in magazines, newspapers and/or trade journals
• Reaching out to local bloggers and websites
• Pay per click advertising

While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your mobile app such as writing code, building upgrades, fixing bugs, providing customer service, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect your 10,000th app install, or when you hope to reach $X in sales. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch a new location.

To demonstrate your mobile app’s ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.

Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in app development business. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory team. An advisory team would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in mobile apps and/or successfully running small businesses.

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you have 100 downloads per week or 200? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $100,000 on building out your mobile application, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $100.000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in an app startup or growing mobile app company:

• Cost of equipment like computers, data warehousing, etc.
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff and independent contractors
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your store design blueprint or location lease.

Free Business Plan Template for a Mobile App Business

You can download our mobile app business plan PDF template . Our sample mobile app business plan would also be a helpful resource for writing your own business plan.

Mobile App Business Plan Summary

Putting together a business plan for a mobile app will improve your company’s chances of success. The process of developing your plan will help you better understand your target audience, your competition, and your business strategy. You will also develop the marketing strategies needed to better attract and serve your target market, an operations plan to focus your efforts, and financial projections that give you business goals to strive for and keep your company focused.

Growthink’s Ultimate Mobile App Business Plan Template allows you to quickly and easily complete your Mobile App Business Plan.  

Additional Resources for a Mobile App Startup

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Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.   Click here to see how Growthink’s professional business planning advisors can create your business plan for you.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

• Case studies

How to Write a Business Plan for a Mobile App Startup?

Anton Baryshevskiy

Head of Business Development, Co-Founder

Head of Business Development

Get your project estimation!

If you’re on the threshold of launching your mobile app startup, there are numerous things you need to be concerned with: workload, core concept, budget, product implementation area, employees… You need to rightly put all key elements of this puzzle together to provide a clear roadmap for your project — that is, to compile a business plan for mobile app development.

We at Mind Studios know how to make a business plan for an app. Here, you'll find a complete guide to creating a business plan. Also, we’ve added our template to help all stakeholders and investors have a clear and most importantly, equal understanding of your startup idea. So if you don't know how to plan an app yet and where to start, let's find out more about it.

A business plan is a guide that turns your ideas into action

As a rule, you should start with visualizing the project and formulating its key ideas. They will later become the basis of your business plan.

Another vital component of developing your project is writing a product requirements document (PRD) for your app. It consists of three sections: business requirements, user requirements, and software system requirements . The business plan is, actually, a component of the PRD, namely the business requirements part.

All the preceding processes, such as developing a project vision, core ideas, and concepts, creating an app development plan, and drafting a PRD, allow all stakeholders to be on the same page as the startup's founder.

In this post, we’ll go through how to write a business plan for an app startup.

Some statistics

Still not sure if your startup needs a business plan? Numerous studies back up the value of having a well-thought-out business plan for companies on different stages of their business journeys.

According to one study that involved 3,000 company owners from diverse fields, those with business plans were almost twice as likely to succeed as those who didn’t. Furthermore, such strategic-planning companies were more effective in attracting investment or securing loans.

You can find more detailed information in the diagram below:

If your way is developing a mobile application

As of 2021, people have made 230 billion downloads of mobile applications, up by 63% than in 2016. Everyone appears to require mobile solutions these days, so your startup has a lot of room for imagination. You can choose from a wide range of mobile app types. To name a few, it could be a travel, event planner (here's an event app development guide), money management, social networking, or fitness app.

No matter which one you decide to create, a pre-written mobile app business plan can help you seamlessly go through the mobile app development process with its four fundamental stages : discovery, idea validation , design, and actually, development.

A goal without a plan is just a wish

There is a plethora of mobile applications these days. It means, though, that there are hundreds of almost identical apps in each category. Attracting users becomes a task of utmost importance.

Chad Mureta, an app tycoon, says that a developer’s profit directly depends on their knowledge of what’s interesting to the user; that is, to create a successful and profitable application, a developer should think like a user .

Creating a mobile app business plan template based on thorough user analysis will help you explain your business idea to stakeholders. Also, you’ll see a path to a product-market fit. To make that happen, you should determine what your target audience wants, needs, likes/dislikes in competitors’ apps, and tends to expect from using your app.

Therefore, identifying your target audience preferences should be your priority, as it is one of the main drivers of your startup.

Understanding the market is the key to success

The author of the bestseller 4 Steps to Enlightenment. Strategies for creating successful startups , Steve Blank, suggests that very few people understand where their market is. The writer believes it is almost impossible to launch a thriving startup without analyzing the market it’s going to enter.

Before you start writing a business plan, it’s crucial to figure out not only the degree of public interest in your product but also the level of competition in the market you’re going to enter.

Thanks to the preparatory analysis of your rivals and potential app users, you’ll be able to flawlessly identify your product’s objectives, advantages, and unique value proposition (UVP). This will also help you form the basis of a proper business plan.

Review your business plan annually

Steve Blank claims that a business plan is static in contrast to a business model, which is dynamic. A business plan appears to be stable by definition: that’s a document created once and rarely revised after adoption.

But in our quick-to-change world, do you believe there’s anything that could remain static? Especially in terms of business? Investopedia , for example, shares an opposite to Steve Blank’s statement: A business plan should evolve in tandem with a company’s growth.

We at Mind Studios adhere to the last approach and recommend you go through your business plan for an app at least once every year . It will allow you to respond to changes in your users’ demands and assess what goals you have achieved and which ones you still need to accomplish.

Moreover, refreshing a business plan will enable you to keep your finger on the pulse of your startup’s current and upcoming financial needs and, therefore, help you develop efficient strategies to attract investments. Consider it a dynamic document that adapts to your startup’s development path.

Why should you make a business plan for apps?

In addition to helping you get your startup off the ground, a viable business plan acts as an indicator for investors to consider it as a potential asset.

Let’s summarize the main reasons why your mobile app startup needs a business plan:

Both startups and established businesses need business plans, the content of which will depend on the company’s primary goal.

To attract partners, startup owners tend to use a business model canvas — a more flexible model of the traditional business plan. It can seamlessly adapt to the iterative nature of tech startup development, yet providing core information about a project.

However, the business model canvas for an app does not guarantee 100% success; it can only be one of the components that will help your project attract investment. A comprehensive business plan with a detailed description of your company and mobile app, justification of funds use, and coverage of all legal concerns is what can instill trust in all stakeholders of your project.

Is there a difference between a business plan for a mobile app and other software?

There are obvious distinctions between mobile applications, websites, and other software solutions. They significantly contrast in marketing approach, monetization strategy, and feature sets. As a result, business plans for these solutions will differ as well.

A traditional software development business plan might be structured similarly to a business strategy for a mobile app company. However, any document that presents the firm and its product will be distinctive in content. It is reasonable since each project is unique, with its own goals and target audience.

What does a business plan for a mobile app look like?

Your mission is to create a reliable and stable mobile application for either enterprises, individuals, or non-profit organizations. In this case, a business plan will help you pave the road to make your project profitable.

Therefore, when writing a mobile app business plan for startups, you’ll need to estimate the cost of development and commissioning as well as the timing of the return on investment in your project. Only by doing this, will you get a clear picture of your app’s viability.

One of the essential factors in writing a good startup business plan for a mobile app is delivering maximum transparency at each part. Let’s highlight what you should include in your mobile app business plan to make it serve your business in the most effective way possible.

Executive summary

Let’s start with the executive summary . It is the first and most significant part of your mobile app business plan because it’s the first thing an investor will read. The executive summary should be clear and concise, with no detailed information about how your product works. Address the situation in the market, who your target customer is, and what unique problem your application can solve.

Make your proposal unique to distinguish your company from others. In other words, create a unique value proposition (UVP). Use your imagination: consider your executive summary as a movie teaser and your investor as a spectator. Would they like to see your movie?

Specify your goals . These objectives should rely on your business analysis. Investors will examine your aims to see if they satisfy their needs. You also have to determine the ultimate goal of your exit plan . Furthermore, you should establish a list of funding requirements and the proceeds that will be used to boost the attractiveness of your company. One of the essential factors in the startup business plan for your mobile app success is ensuring maximum transparency at each stage.

Make your document convincing . To do this, ensure your product’s concept and goals are crystal clear and do not vary throughout the paper. Provide the reader with accurate data and realistic expectations about your project. Of course, don’t forget to make sure that the name of the person who created the business plan and executive summary and the names of your team members are consistent throughout the documentation.

Business description

Introduce your company in this part, beginning with corporate information and ending with your mobile app concept. This part of your startup business plan will show investors the corporate values of your company, your mission, product vision, and the fundamental factors for your startup success.

This information is vitally important for investors. For example, a technology startup accelerator Y Combinator considers getting money as by far the easiest part whereas working on ideas — the most significant part for any startup in achieving success. In most cases, Y-Combinator-like organizations make compiling a thorough business plan a prerequisite before introducing newly-formed projects to investors.

Company overview

Here you should describe your company’s:

This section should give the reader of your business plan detailed information about your startup: the official name of your company, the location of the headquarters, and its structure, namely the business entity type (LLC, corporation, etc.). Make sure to provide further details about your team, such as the number of workers, their names, job titles, and so forth.

Describe the purpose of your company and the fundamental principles that guide your business in the mission statement. After establishing your mission, outline the primary challenges and solutions your startup can offer.

Company history

Before making any business proposal, describe the history of your company, how your team formed, and how you came up with your idea. In addition, you can talk about the main stages of your company’s development and the experience that precedes the product launch.

Whether you are outsourcing app development process or you have an in-house team, it is often the most significant part of the executive summary because your app development team is the main engine of your project implementation. You should specify each person’s name, position, work experience, and responsibilities in the company. In addition, you can involve an advisory group that will help you make essential decisions. Consultants on your advisory team should have experience in the industry.

Market analysis

Information about the state of the market should be the main factor in your app idea realization. You should be aware of the present situation in your industry, have up-to-date information, and be able to generate a short-term forecast.

To conduct market analysis , you should take several steps:

• Examining existing business environment
• Defining your market research criteria
• Determining your total available market (TAM), service available market (SAM), and service obtainable market (SOM)
• Identifying your direct competitors
• Analyzing your target audience and figuring out the cost per acquisition (CPA) for your niche

No market research in the mobile app industry can be conducted without analyzing Google Play Store and Apple App Store with their ranks for top paid, top free, and top-grossing apps as well as user reviews.

Market forecasts

Forecasting is an integral component of writing a business plan for an app development startup realization.

Forecasts from reputable research firms such as Nielsen and Forrester are of interest when creating any business plan, be it a business plan for an app development, a website, or a traditional software startup business plan. To provide reliable market forecasts, you can:

• Include data on the growth of companies with solutions similar to your mobile app
• Add information on the amount of money poured into similar startups (platforms like Crunchbase or Y Combinator can help with this)
• Enrich your business plan with some forecasts on your target customer behavior

Your goal is to assess whether there’s a real market for your product, whether there are enough customers in the market, and, accordingly, whether those customers are willing to pay money for using your product.

SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method that allows you to present a structured description of your business situation. It can be a great way to evaluate your app startup concept from four perspectives. Namely, its:

• W eaknesses
• O pportunities

It’s natural when a business has weaknesses: knowing about them will serve as a powerful driver for finding solutions and will reduce any risks your company may need to face.

Marketing strategy

An app marketing strategy is a bridge that allows your product to fall into the hands of your customers. You have to convince investors that you have such a bridge. This is an important part of the mobile app strategy.

When drawing up a mobile app marketing plan, you have to define the marketing strategies you intend to use in application promotion. Here are a few examples, along with descriptions of how they work:

Create a landing page

Creating a landing page for your mobile app will help you reach a wider audience by informing users about new features and updates. Make sure your page contains the name of the application, a description of its functionality, promotional videos, and so on.

Launch a website and blog

Launching a website is a great way to promote your application. There, you may, for example, provide more information about your company, its goals and values, and an overview of your future mobile solution.

A website blog is also a helpful thing with your app advertising. You can share news on your upcoming product and publish SEO-optimized articles for better promotion.

Social media marketing

Consider social media marketing while developing a business strategy to promote your app. Describe how you intend to use this form of advertising at various phases of your mobile solution development: before launch while attracting your audience and retaining users.

Estimate your marketing budget

You may estimate the cost of marketing services based on the market analysis you outlined in the preceding section of your business plan. Understanding the marketing budget is essential to all parties: you, the app owner, investors, and other stakeholders.

Product growth

Depending on the type of app startup, growing the user base approach differs, as does the business plan for entering different markets. For example, a massive advertising attack tends to make sense in markets where consumers understand your product or service and its usefulness.

Take, for instance, Uber , which has successfully launched extensive marketing campaigns. The company’s ads have spread globally with Uber localizing advertising for each region.

So, if you’re still working on a business strategy, think about how you’ll expand your user base in advance. This will tremendously assist you in future product growth.

Choose your product launch type

Be sure to indicate the product launch type in your business plan. There are two such types: hard and soft launch . The first one means delivering a finished product to your entire target audience. A soft launch is when you release an MVP or full version of your app, but for a limited audience.

To rightly set out this part of your business plan, you should clearly understand what kind of financing you need to move forward. Moreover, you need to express it as clearly as possible to be sure a potential investor will also understand what funding you need.

The financial model includes, as a rule, a three- to five-year forecast of all the main forecasted indicators, including profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheets, start tables, unit economics calculation as well as your app’s projected revenues and costs. Your financial document has to contain the following components to determine the actual cost and distribution of investments in the best way, with a clear explanation of each.

Startup costs/funding required

Inform your investors about estimated costs. We recommend placing reasonable estimates and leaving room for extra expenses since these numbers might fluctuate.

Designate all types of costs :

• One-time costs (e.g. relocation costs, costs for buying an office space, equipment, servers, software, licenses)
• Fixed costs: they remain unchanged regardless of whether you produce something or not (e.g. rent, insurance, lease payments, fixed salaries)
• Variable costs: costs that change according to the production volume (e.g. wages)

Monetization strategy

It is another section you need to add to your mobile app business plan. By illustrating your monetization model, you’ll demonstrate to your investors and other stakeholders that your project will be profitable and provide a return on investment with positive unit economics. It will also help you be sure that your startup will reach its break-even point.

The most common ways to monetize an application are :

• Advertising
• Charging for the application (if your business model describes a paid application, you need to convince the consumer why they have to pay and what they’re paying for)
• In-app purchases (this is a widespread mobile app business model in iOS and Android applications)
• Subscriptions (this model of monetization is quite popular and works until the user decides to cancel the subscription; in most cases, subscription apps have a free trial period)

One of our prominent projects in which we’ve helped set up a monetization strategy is Fitr. Training , a remote fitness coaching application. Our team analyzed the platform’s performance and discovered we could enhance the conversion rate.

We established a monetization model based on the collected data and customer feedback. Namely, our team launched an efficient subscription option. The results were remarkable: one out of every four coaches now uses the paid membership.

Mind Studios can also assist you in elaborating a potent monetization strategy.

Business plan example for a mobile app startup

We’d like to offer you a business plan template for a startup updated to 2023. Keep in mind that, although this mobile app business plan itself is structured according to all the rules, the calculations are entirely fictional. To complement our business plan, we also provide a mobile app marketing plan template, ensuring a strategic approach to promoting your app in the competitive market. This template includes up-to-date techniques for 2023, guiding you through effective advertising and user engagement strategies.

Download the free PDF business plan template for a mobile app here .

Writing a business plan for a mobile app startup isn’t easy. As a rule, the most challenging part of developing a business plan for a mobile app idea is writing the first page. Many people in this situation rush to find and download a free copy of another company’s business plan. They mistakenly believe that someone else’s business strategy will help them achieve their goals. But it absolutely won’t!

A business plan cannot be a cloned document. It must be one-of-a-kind reflecting your passion and enthusiasm in bringing your idea into life . A successful business plan should demonstrate that your company is viable and financially attractive. The higher the viability, the higher the investment opportunity.

If you need to compile a well-thought-out business plan to attract investments and successfully launch your app, our expert team at Mind Studios is here to help .

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How to Start an App Business in (2024): Step-by-Step Guide

Free Mobile App Business Plan Template

Matthew Khalili

19 Min Read

Are you a startup enthusiast with a brilliant business idea? Or do you want to expand your current business by getting digital?

Well, whatever your motivation is, developing an app is a promising way to translate your business idea into a successful business.

An average American adult spends nearly 88% of their total phone time on mobile apps. This leaves ample space for mobile app businesses to flourish, grow and develop.

Now, don’t let your lack of technical expertise stop you from starting an app. It is possible to not only start an app business but turn it successful if you follow the proper way.

If you are wondering how to start an app business, this blog is a perfect guide.

So without any further ado, let’s get started.

How much money do you need to start a mobile app business?

The cost of starting a mobile app in the US varies between $38,725-$267,850 and more. However, the cost can extend up to $500,000 or more depending on the complexity and scope of your SaaS app.

These costs are highly influenced by factors such as development costs, the complexity of the app, location, and much more.

Pros and Cons of Starting a Mobile App Business

Starting an app business is indeed a rewarding venture. However, like every business, there are both pros and cons to starting a mobile app company.

• Global reach: Easier to tap into the international market and capture a worldwide audience.
• Scalability: Easy scalability to accommodate more features, users, and new trends.
• Low overhead: Less operational and overhead expenses.
• Competition: Intensely competitive marketplace with millions of existing apps.
• Rapid technological changes: Demands constant updates to stay relevant.
• Monetization challenges: The easy availability of free apps makes vcc3 monetization difficult.

A Complete Guide to Starting an App Business

Table of Contents

• Research and validate your app idea
• Brainstorm a mobile app name
• Create an app business plan
• Secure seed funding for your app business (optional)
• Choosing a mobile app development platform
• Develop an app
• Register your app business
• Apply for business licenses and permits
• Get business insurance
• Apply for a bank account & business credit cards
• Pre-launch and mobile app marketing strategy
• Develop a monetization plan
• Build a team as you grow
• Make your app available in app stores
• Release timely app updates

Developing an app might be easier. However, starting a successful app business isn’t. Let’s uncover every detail that goes into starting an app business, right from idea validation to gathering user feedback to testing new ideas.

1. Research and validate your app idea

The first step in creating a sustainable cutting-edge application is to conduct a thorough market research. The quality research at this step will essentially lay the foundation for the success of your mobile application.

Ensure cover a detailed analysis of the following to create a fresh, innovative, and problem-solving solution for your audience:

• Target audience: Identify your target users and analyze their pain points with current solutions. Assess the market size for your solution and determine your targeted available market (TAM).
• Competitors: Identify your potential competitors and assess their standing in the market. Discover problems with their mobile apps and see if your solution fills the gap.
• Failed application analysis: Don’t only choose a successful app for your analysis. Look after failed applications and see where and what they did wrong to avoid the same mistakes in your application.

At this step, simultaneously, you will also work on validating your mobile app idea. The idea behind this entire analysis is to ensure that you chase a problem that’s real and demands a solution.

Instead of jumping in with the first idea, it is better to ideate, analyze, and then finalize an app idea that is better than the rest. Remember to give every idea an equal chance before scraping it off entirely.

Find an appropriate product-market fit for the validated idea and rework the areas where there is a scope for improvement.

Now, with your validated idea move ahead and brainstorm a name for your mobile application.

2. Brainstorm a mobile app name

Before you move to complex parts and start development, finalize the name of your mobile application. However, finding the right name is a struggle in itself.

Now, if you are already operating as a successful business, launch your app with the same name. This will make it easier for your existing customers to find you.

However, if you are launching a new business, here are a few suggestions that can help you brainstorm the perfect name for your app development company:

• Brainstorm the keywords that reflect your business offering. For instance, if you are launching an app in the health and fitness segment, include related keywords in your app name.
• Choose a simple, easy-to-recall and easy-to-spell name.
• Choose a short name. Different app stores have character limits. So better brainstorm the ideas within that range.
• Don’t use heavy jargon or phrases in the name.
• Use online name generators to find name ideas.
• Ask for suggestions from creative people in your social circles to finalize a perfect name.

Overall, keep your brand values and its value proposition in mind and find a name that’s a reflection of those values.

Also, ensure that the name is unique and is available for registration. If you are planning to register the business with some other name, finalize that as well.

Want a Unique Name for your Mobile App Business?

Generate a brandable and catchy business name in seconds with our free business name generator for mobile app businesss.

3. Create an app business plan

From determining the business strategy to executing app development to financing to launching the application and marketing- a lot needs to be planned, executed, and monitored while starting your own app.

Creating a mobile app business plan ensures that you understand the market thoroughly and have every step figured out to withstand the changing tides of the mobile app industry.

Moreover, if you are planning to raise funds for your mobile application, having a well-crafted app plan will give you the edge over other app developers.

Wondering what goes into writing a comprehensive app plan? Here are the most crucial components your business plan must include:

• Executive summary
• Business Overview
• Mobile app industry analysis
• Mobile app services
• Marketing and sales strategy
• Operations plan
• Key management team
• Financial plan

Writing a cohesive actionable business plan is a taxing job. It requires in-depth detailing to present your business idea thoroughly.

Not very good at writing? Need help with your plan?

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4. Secure seed funding for your app business (optional)

Now, you need money for app development and other activities to turn those ideas into a reality.

Assess your monetary position and check if you require additional funds to start with the mobile app development. If so, how much?

Seek out a small loan from family members and friends to avoid any burden of repayment and high-interest rates initially. However, if that’s not the choice, identify the available funding sources and determine the best options for your needs.

Here are a few options for you to consider:

• Crowdfunding
• Angel Investors
• Venture Capitalist firms
• Credit card financing

If you are planning to seek funding from investors, you need to present a pitch of your business idea. For a certain stake in your business, they will provide you with equity.

However, you can always start small and seek funding from outside as you scale the app further.

5. Choosing a mobile app development platform

To begin the app development, first, finalize the ideal platform for your mobile app. All the mobile apps in the market have used one of these 3 app development processes to create apps:

Native apps

Native applications are developed to run on specific devices and operating systems. Such apps have access to the native device’s API, thereby, allowing you to build high-performance apps with a highly refined interface.

These apps are expensive to develop since you need different outputs for different operating systems. But they can be found easily by your target users for downloading. For reference, 80% of mobile traffic is generated through Native mobile apps.

Undertake the market research to gather an in-depth understanding of both the app stores- Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Assess the number of Android apps and iOS apps and the market share and revenue position of these platforms to make an informed choice.

For instance, as of 2023, there were more than 3.6 million Android apps and 1.8 million iOS apps on Play Store and Apple Store respectively.

Identify if your potential app users use Android or Apple devices and also consider the suitability of your native app with a respective operating system.

PWA (progressive web apps)

PWA is a hybrid of web pages and mobile applications. It is a web app that offers users a similar kind of experience to native apps.

These apps require no download and are indexed on search engines. They don’t require access to native device APIs to perform and are perfect for app businesses that require frequent updates.

It’s easier to target more customers with PWA than a native app and it is comparatively cheap to develop.

However, since the PWA’s don’t use native device’s API, it has a comparatively low performance in terms of features compared to native apps.

Lastly, there is an option of hybrid apps for you to consider. An app builder will help you build a cross-platform app for both platforms simultaneously using the same code.

Successful app business launches both Android app and ios app of their app to cater to a larger target audience.

Now allocate the resources depending on the app development method you choose.

6. Develop an app

Have you planned to develop a native app? If so, are you planning to develop an Android app, or iOS app, or both?

After choosing between native, PWA, and hybrid apps, it is now time to gather the resources and start working on the app development.

Here are 3 different methods to choose your development method:

Build your own app

This is perhaps the best method of cost-effective development, if you have proficiency in different programming languages, prior experience in building your own apps, and some time to invest.

Hire a freelancing app developer/ app development agency or an in-house team of app developers

If you are someone with no technical background, you need a bunch of people to undertake the development of your app ideas.

This method is costly. However, you can expect to have complete control over your product and its development.

Use an app builder

Similar to content management systems like WordPress, an app builder allows you to build a website without writing a single line of code. Watch how the user interface of your app turns out while the app builder builds it in real time.

As much as you focus on development, also draw your attention towards delivering a delightful user experience. Hire designers to help you attain a modern and intuitive user experience.

It takes anywhere between 6-10 months to turn your app ideas into a successful product. Follow this app development process to get a structurally correct product:

• Develop a minimum viable product
• Develop a wireframe
• Choose your programming language
• Start the coding
• Work on app design
• Test the app

Now, create a timeline for the launch and get the actual product ready.

7. Register your app business

Now, it’s time to give your mobile app business a legal identity. Register your business in these easy steps:

Select a business entity

A business entity is the legal structure of your business. The business structure you choose will determine the taxes, liabilities, and state regulations of your business.

Here are a few different entities you can choose for your mobile app business:

• Sole proprietorship
• LLC (Limited Liability Company)
• Partnership
• Corporation

Now, each of these entities has its own benefits and cons. Identify the suitable entity structure for your mobile application after thorough consideration.

LLCs and Corporations are more suited for businesses in a way that separates you from your business and keeps your liabilities under control.

Also, consider what are the prevalent business structures if you want to acquire funding from investors.

Apply for tax registration & business EIN

Now, quickly proceed with tax registration and get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) through an IRS portal .

The 9-digit EIN is like a social security number that allows you to open business bank accounts, apply for credit cards, fill the tax forms, and pay salaries.

Once the registration is complete, you go ahead and acquire the essential licenses and permits.

8. Apply for business licenses and permits

Business licenses and permits ensure that your mobile app business is legally compliant and sound. Depending on the nature of your app, its industry, functionality, and the area of operation; research and identify the essential licenses for your business.

Here are a few licenses and permits you must acquire for the mobile app business:

• Industry-specific licenses: Depending on your industry, i.e. gambling, healthcare, beauty, fashion, etc. get the licenses required in that specific trade.
• Zoning permits: If you are getting a commercial place for your app business, get essential building permits. Even if you are going to operate from home, check if your state requires zoning permits for home businesses.
• Software development license: Depending on your state of operation, you may be required to get a software development license to commence development.
• Sales tax permit: To sell physical and digital products, you may need a sales tax permit to accept and remit sales tax.
• Data protection and privacy compliance: Since you will be collecting personal and sensitive information from the users, you will be required to follow data privacy compliances applicable to your business—for instance, CCPA, GDPR, etc.

Hire a professional to look after these matters. Non-compliance with any rule may lead to extremely high penalties and fines.

9. Get business insurance

Insurance is not essential for compliance. However, it will safeguard your business against potential casualties and risks involved in the business.

Here are a few insurance you must consider getting:

• General liability insurance: If there is one insurance you must get, it is this. It offers protection against property damage, injuries, and a variety of business aspects that require coverage.
• Professional liability insurance: If you are going to provide services with your app, get yourself this insurance. It will protect against claims of professional negligence.
• Worker’s compensation insurance: For an app development business that will hire employees on a salaried basis, this license is mandatory. It’s a coverage plan for your employees.
• Cyber liability insurance: Since your business is going to operate in a digitized space, you need a license that protects your business in case of a security breach or leak of information.

Consider your requirements and acquire industry-specific insurance for your mobile app business.

10. Apply for a bank account & business credit cards

Set up a separate accounting system to keep your business and personal expenses separate. This will help you maintain your finances and will also ease the process of filing taxes.

Using that EIN number open a business bank account. Determine the best banking system that will work for your business. And also, apply for a business credit card.

Consistent credit card use will build your credit history and will help acquire loans in the future.

11. Pre-launch and mobile app marketing strategy

Making a perfect app is not enough. It needs to be marketed to the right audience through the right tactics to get traction and downloads.

Start working on your branding and marketing strategy before your app hits the app store. All the buzz and hype you create at this stage will help you when the app actually makes a launch.

Here are the marketing elements you should get in line with before launching your app on the app store:

• Clearly define your branding elements. What kind of image would you like to create in the market? Develop the app’s logo, designs, colors, and overall user interface keeping the branding in mind. Also, ensure that you deliver a consistent brand image through all your marketing channels.
• Identify where will you find your target audience. Will they be more responsive to social media or emails? Do they prefer written content or video content? Are they approachable through any offline channels?
• Create a landing page to promote the app and its features. A well-built landing page with correct strategic placements can be an invaluable asset in getting the desired outreach.
• Get in touch with influencers from your industry and collaborate with them to market your app.
• Create a content bank of content that can be reused for multiple purposes.
• Participate in industry-specific events and seminars to get in touch with your people.

Be generous with the marketing budget and put your app marketing plan into action.

Lastly, never put all your eggs in one basket. Try different marketing strategies and eliminate the non-useful ones as you monitor and analyze the results.

12. Develop a monetization plan

Are you planning to make money directly or through your app? If that’s the case, start thinking about a suitable app monetization model.

Here are a few methods popularly followed by other apps on iOS App Store and Play Store.

• In-app purchases: In-app purchases are for businesses that aim to sell physical or digital products through apps. Consider them as e-commerce apps that facilitate sales for your products.
• Freemium: These are downloadable free apps on the app store. However, only certain contents of these apps are free.  In this method, you earn when a user pays for paid content after using the free version.
• Subscription: You generate weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual revenue by getting repeated subscriptions for your services.
• Paid apps: These apps aren’t available for free download. The user pays a certain fee to download the app and access its content.
• In-app ads: You can generate revenue by renting out advertising space on your app. However, ensure that you don’t sacrifice the user’s experience in this chase.

Each of these monetization models has its advantages and disadvantages. Identify the monetization methods used by your competitors or applications offering similar services. And plan your strategies accordingly.

13. Build a team as you grow

Don’t build a large team right from the beginning. Ideally, get the basic development of your app through freelancers or remote app developers.

Depending on whether you plan to launch an app on the Apple app store or Google Play Store, you will hire professional experts in respective programming languages.

Focus on a small but highly qualified team. Get the work like accounting, legalities, and marketing outsourced.

App development is a costly affair. You better plan the entire development process hourly to keep track of project completion.

14. Make your app available in app stores

You have come a long way. From undertaking market research for your app idea to preparing MVP and developing the app, you finally have your app ready to be launched.

Now you work on your app store optimization to make the app discoverable on app stores. The app market is intensely competitive. Whether you plan to launch an app on Apple’s app store or Google Play store, an optimized app stands a higher chance of being organically visible.

Here are a few things to consider while performing app store optimization:

• App name: Optimize your unique app name within its character limit. The character limit for an iPhone app is 50 while that for an Android app is 30.
• Keyword optimization: Add the relevant search terms of your app to make it easily discoverable.
• App icon: Use a clear distinct icon to your app to create a recalling power.
• Description: Add a captivating description of your app describing its features and benefits. Use bullet points, headers, and subheadings to keep the information easily scannable.
• Screenshots: Add important screenshots from your app design to help users understand what they can expect.
• Video: Add a video of your web app defining its clear purpose, message, and value proposition to connect with the users.

Manage your app store optimization by understanding the requirements of different platforms and making your apps available on app stores.

15. Release timely app updates

Launch the app as soon as your MVP is ready. Don’t wait for the development to end so that you have all the features ready. Focus on essential features and deliver them with your MVP.

Test the app on early adopters and gather the user data for performance on different mobile devices. It will provide invaluable user feedback from further development.

Launching the app is not the end of your app-building process. You need to regularly roll out updates, fix the bugs, and run beta testing of new features to stay ahead in the app market.

Ideally, an app development company should roll out new updates every 3 to 4 months.

Time to take the first step and validate your app idea. Already validated? Well, let’s build a solid foundation for your business idea by writing a stellar app business plan.

Writing a plan will ensure that there is no oversight in app planning and you get a clear direction to run your app business.

Upmetrics offers 400+ sample business plan examples for businesses from varying industries. These examples are perfect for writing a detailed and comprehensive business plan.

Now use our Upmetrics app business plan sample and get started.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks, AI-assistance, and automatic financials make it easy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do i need technical skills to start an app business.

Yes, you can start an app business without any technical skills. There is a variety of app maker that allows you to build an app with simple drag-and-drop options. Moreover, you can always hire a technical partner to look after app development and its complexities.

What platforms should I target for my app (iOS, Android, both)?

Whether to make an Android or an iOS app or launch an app on both platforms, depends largely on your target audience. Conduct research and understand whether your app users will belong to the Android or iPhone cohort. If you can generate a reasonable user base from both platforms, you can consider making a hybrid app.  

How do I create a business plan for my app startup?

To create a business plan for your app startup, begin by undertaking thorough and detailed market research. Now, translate your ideas onto a paper covering the key fundamentals of a plan. Writing a plan can be difficult. So, it’s better to use templates and plan builders that will help you write a compelling actionable plan.

What are some common mistakes to avoid when starting an app business?

Here are a few common mistakes to avoid when starting an app business:

• Working on too many ideas
• Delaying the launch
• Not marketing it enough
• Not paying enough attention to the user interface

How can I secure funding for my app startup?

Apart from personal savings, here are a few funding options for you to consider:

• Venture Capital Firms
• Credit line
• Friends and Family

How can I monetize my app and generate revenue?

Here are a few ways to generate revenue through your mobile app:

• Offering a freemium model.
• Offering in-app purchases for additional access and services.
• Making it a paid app.
• Generating revenue through ads in your business.
• Getting sponsorships on the app.

About the Author

Matthew Khalili is an experienced business planning expert and the founder of The Plan Writers. With over a decade of experience in the field, he has helped numerous entrepreneurs in creating investor-ready pitch decks and business plans. Matt has enabled 5000+ startups to raise over $1 billion through his business plan, market research, and financial modeling services. Read more

Reach Your Goals with Accurate Planning

How to Write a Mobile App Business Plan + Free Template

Anthony St. Clair

11 min. read

Updated July 29, 2024

Free Download:   Sample Mobile App Development Business Plan Template

When Apple released the first iPhone in 2008, it also launched its App Store—with about 500 apps. Nowadays, the number of apps on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store totals about 5 million. If apps were people, they’d outnumber the population of Los Angeles.

Sure, the “gold rush” days of app development are long behind us, but building apps remains a solid way to bring useful or entertaining services to market. An app can also be part of a narrow or broader business strategy.

But with so much competition, building a profitable, successful app takes more than just an idea and a team of mobile app developers. You need a business plan to help guide your vision and implementation. This article will cover the steps to create your mobile app business plan, along with some tips to run it successfully. 

Need more guidance? Download our free mobile app development business plan for a full business plan outline that you can use to inspire your own plan.

• How to write a business plan for a mobile app

A business plan can be as short or extensive as you need it to be, and not a page more. In fact, you could launch a successful business based on even a one-page plan for your app development firm.

Writing a business plan for your mobile app business comes down to thinking through where you are with your app idea, what you want to accomplish, and how you think you will get there. A good business plan gives you both a starting point and a road map, but you can always review it and update it as you go.

At its heart, that’s all your app business plan needs to do.

Here are some of the key things your mobile app development business plan should include.

1. Determine what kind of app you will develop

Competition and opportunity co-exist throughout every app sector. If you’re still trying to decide where you might want to target your app development , strong contenders and trending app verticals include:

• Productivity
• Shopping (mobile-specific and general eCommerce)
• Health and Fitness
• Personalization

The sector you’re developing your app for influences the type of app you’ll want to build. For example, will you code for Apple iOS, Google Android, or both? Will you focus on a web or hybrid app? Is the app an extension of a website or other business channel? 

You’ll need to have this information defined up front in order to conduct proper research and easily write your business plan . 

2. Conduct market research and identify competitors

It’s one thing to have a good idea for an app. But the real question is, does the idea have a market that will be hungry to buy in?

As you develop your business plan, understanding your potential customer base is key.

For starters, evaluate similar apps and competitors in the vertical you are developing for—especially if there is already an app doing something that you want your app to do. As you conduct research and put together a market and competitive analysis, be sure to think through the following questions:

• Who are their customers?
• Are they the same ideal customer and target market ? 
• What steps will your company take to engage the market and involve them in testing and promotion? 
• What are the demographics (such as profession, age, or sex) and psychographics (such as opinions, hobbies, and lifestyle goals) of your target market? 

If you don’t understand the market for your app, it will be difficult to get them to find, install, use, and tell the world about your app.

Researching the market and your competitors can also clue you into expected app features, pricing and revenue models, gaps in services, and pain points that customers feel aren’t being met.

Understanding these factors can also help your business plan address a potential threat to your app’s viability: abandonment. User retention can be challenging throughout the app market, with 25% of customers using an app one time and then ditching it. So, be sure that you take into account how to attract new customers as well as how you’ll keep them around.

3. Positioning and promotional strategies

Once you’ve proven the market demand for your app’s concept, you should start figuring out how to promote your app and position it in the marketplace. Your business plan doesn’t have to include a detailed marketing plan . But it can be the perfect place to set up a few essentials that can guide your app’s marketing throughout its development and release cycles.

At a minimum your plan should include foundational messaging for pitching, branding, mission, and your overall sales and marketing strategy for your app, such as:

Develop and refine your elevator pitch

How concisely can you get across what your app does, why it’s needed, and what will make people love it? Can you talk up those key points with anyone from potential investors to your ideal customer, developers, and engineers to your mom and your best friend?

Examine how you’ll build awareness, interest, and need for the app

Will early testers be part of your outreach? Will you work with social media influencers, traditional media, or celebrity endorsers? How will you articulate the problems your app solves or the joy it provides?

What are some of the branding and marketing tasks your startup will pursue? 

For example, what is the company name? The app name? How will you engage your market on the social media platforms they like to spend time on? What original supporting content will attract the interest of your key audience?

In your business plan, it’s essential to understand your startup from the point of view of a founder and key player. But the marketing and promotional components of your business plan help you see your app from the point of view of an outsider, such as a customer or investor. The better you understand these other points of view, the better you can develop your messaging, build your app, and make it a success.

Free Mobile App Business Plan Template

Use this proven business plan example to successfully launch a competitive mobile app development business.

Download Now

4. Startup costs, financials, and pricing

Figuring out the potential startup costs for your app is not a one-size-fits-all equation. Generally, these are some of the factors to consider as part of your financial plan .

Platform development

Expect different development costs when developing for iOS, Android, or both. Your process will include defining a function, outlining what you need for your MVP, wire-framing, coding, testing, designing, and more.

Internal employees or outside contractors? 

If you’re planning to build up a full-on firm with employees, benefits, and offices, you will be looking at a different cost structure than if you want to outsource to a contracted development company or work with a freelance team that’s not employed by your app startup. That team may need pros in charge of mobile and backend development, design, QA, customer support, design, marketing, managers, and more.

The resources you have and the resources you need

How long it’ll take to develop and release your app depends in part on the resources you have access to.

Successful apps monitor and improve. Did the app crash? Is it scaling sufficiently to handle increases in use and load? What usage metrics are you monitoring and analyzing? How will you need to update the app to deal with OS updates?

By understanding these and other potential costs, you can develop a budget in your business plan. For more in-depth financial considerations, you should develop forecasts to gauge costs, future cash flow , and how your app company might grow and change over time by hitting release and growth milestones.

5. Development milestones

The release of your app is a milestone that’s farther down the road. In the meantime, you’ll be developing milestones that reflect major accomplishments in the development process. Your business plan can reflect some of those milestones, such as:

• Production of key features and functions
• MVP completion
• Testing and refinement
• Acceptance of app in app stores
• Achievement of sales and adoption goals
• Implementation of new features and versions

Remember, app development takes time. Focus your initial milestones on pre-release goals. From there, you can set and work toward post-release milestones that can pave the way to future growth, releases, and profits.

• Mobile app development tips for startup growth

As you develop your mobile app’s business plan, here are a few other tips and considerations to keep in mind.

Native, hybrid, or web?

Creating apps tailored to each OS—Apple and Android—can cost the most to develop, but also can maximize your app’s performance. The better the performance, the most adoption and use you could see in your target audience. 

At the same time, other apps work solely on the web, and others are developed as hybrids. Hybrid apps can help you manage team and development costs, but they typically can’t take full advantage of each OS.

As a rule of thumb, typically the more complicated or intense the app’s function, the better it tends to be to develop a native app. Lightweight functions may work fine in a web or hybrid environment.

Security and privacy

Privacy and security are at the forefront of customers’ minds as well as industry discussions around app business models. If you are developing for regulated industries—such as health care or financial services—there may also be legal privacy and security requirement to adhere to.

Decide on a platform: Apple, Android, or both?

If your target market is predominantly on one OS, that can guide your development decisions. Developing for both platforms requires more resources, but can give you the benefit of maximizing your ability to develop the app for each OS, and reach the most customers. Another option to consider is launching on one platform and adding another over time, depending on milestones in your business plan.

Offline vs online

A growing consideration in today’s app development firms is whether the apps can only function online, or if it can function offline too. Some level of offline function—and messaging that the app is offline—can make for better customer satisfaction, since users will have access to at least some features regardless of their internet connection.

For example, Google Maps can download route information so a user still has the mapping and some functions, even if they enter a remote location or go through an area where they don’t have a cellular or wifi signal. 

Walking users through what they can and can’t do offline, and how functions can be completed or data can sync once online again—can also go a long way to winning trust and loyalty from your app’s users. You’ll also want to determine if the offline function is something you develop as part of the launch, or if you roll it out in a later version.

Revenue model: Free/freemium, subscription, in-app purchases, ads, or a combo?

Apps can drive revenue in many ways. A common strategy is a freemium model: Offer a free baseline app, but other features can be unlocked with purchase or subscription.

Subscription models (usually with a tie-based free trial period) have also become increasingly popular in companies, and they are finding broad acceptance in the market. An app can also drive revenue by being a mobile commerce tool, helping customers complete a transaction from the convenience of their phone instead of having to go to a browser, non-mobile device, or other fulfillment channels.

Some apps are only available for purchase, often as a way to showcase an app’s superior or unique place in the market. Once purchased, though, other revenue models can come into play. The popular game Minecraft is a prime example: Customers purchase the app, but the Minecraft Marketplace offers in-app purchases to further customize the game.

Test properly before launch

If your app doesn’t work at launch, it may never recover from that stumble.

As the app reaches development milestones, ongoing testing can help you find and resolve problems before you have to deal with them in the deployed product. Conducting extensive testing across various devices, users, and OS versions can help you catch problems before they harm your new app—and your startup’s viability and profitability.

• Download your free mobile app development business plan template

Our free mobile app development business plan can give you the template you need to start setting up your business plan—and your business. It’s just one of hundreds of free sample plans that have been time-tested by our team and by thousands of entrepreneurs all over the world.

The question is simple: What mobile app development business will you create? Whatever it is, your business plan can help you get there. Download your free business plan template now and get started.

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Anthony St. Clair is a business copywriter, author of the Rucksack Universe travel fantasy series, and a craft beer writer specializing in Oregon. Learn more at anthonystclair.com.

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How to write a business plan for your mobile app development project.

Starting a mobile app development project is a great idea because it allows businesses to reach a larger audience with their product or service, and it gives users the convenience of being able to access the app from anywhere on their mobile devices.

But, first thing first, you need to write a business plan.

A business plan is essential for any project, especially for mobile app development. It outlines the goals, objectives and strategies needed to successfully launch the app. It also helps to identify potential risks and provides a roadmap for the project's success.

In short, a good business plan will help ensure the profitability of your mobile app development project .

What are the essential parts of a business plan for a mobile app development project? What is the recommended format? Which important financial measures should be there? What's the best way to create a business plan quickly and effectively?

Please, find comprehensive answers to all these questions below.

Also, please note that starting your business plan from scratch is not mandatory.

You can download our editable business plan for a mobile app development project and adapt it to your project.

How to prepare a business plan for a mobile app development project

Is it worthwhile to invest time in a business plan for your mobile app development project.

Yes, you should invest time in a business plan for your mobile app development project to ensure the success of your project.

Formulating a comprehensive business plan will allow to:

• get familiar with the mobile app development market
• stay on top of the industry's emerging trends
• identify what makes a mobile app development project solid and successful
• understand the target audience's requirements and preferences for mobile applications
• come up with a unique value proposition for your app
• analyze competitor target markets
• identify solid competitive advantages for your mobile app development project
• find a business model that will generate positive cash flows
• implement a well-structured and calculated action plan
• evaluate risks associated with a mobile app development project, including technical challenges, user privacy, and market competition

Our team has created a business plan for a mobile app development project that is designed to make it easier for you to achieve all the elements listed.

How to outline a business plan for a mobile app development project?

A business plan is filled with facts, figures, and indicators. It must be presented in a structured format, to make easy to read and digest.

When we built our business plan for a mobile app , we took care to arrange it appropriately.

The content is arranged in 5 sections (Opportunity, Project, Market Research, Strategy and Finances).

1. Market Opportunity

The introductory section has been named "Market Opportunity".

This section presents a comprehensive report on the mobile app development project, including key data and metrics to guide your decision-making.

We continuously update all the data there.

2. Project Presentation

The second part is dedicated to the "Project" of your mobile app development project. Here, you can outline the purpose and functionality of your app, target user demographics, user interface and experience design, development timeline, app store submission plans, and the unique value proposition that solves a specific problem or provides a unique solution for users.

Remember to introduce yourself at the end of this section.

Discuss your expertise in mobile app development, your range of services, and how you plan to provide innovative and user-friendly app solutions to clients. Highlight your track record of successful projects, your skilled team of developers, and your dedication to delivering seamless and engaging mobile experiences that meet the needs and expectations of users through your mobile app development project.

You'll find wording already provided in our business plan. Tailor it to fit your concept exactly.

3. Market Research

Next up is the "Market Research" section.

In this section, you will find a detailed market segmentation analysis for your mobile app development project.

It includes a presentation of other mobile app development companies in the industry that will be competing with you. Your project's unique app features and competitive advantages are also highlighted. A customized SWOT analysis is included.

4. Strategy

In the "Strategy" section, you will find a detailed growth plan for your mobile app development project, outlining all the necessary steps and initiatives to ensure its high profitability.

Furthermore, there is a marketing strategy, a risk management strategy, and a Business Model Canvas that has been filled in, all included in this section.

5. Finances

Ultimately, the "Finances" section provides a comprehensive view of the financial aspects and metrics of your project.

How to write an Executive Summary for a mobile app development project?

The Executive Summary is like an introduction to the business plan for your mobile app development project.

Keep it brief, not exceeding 2 pages. Stick to the crucial points.

When you show your business plan to an investor, this is what they will read first. It needs to get their attention and make them want to read the rest of the plan.

In the Executive Summary of your mobile app development project, answer these questions: what is your mobile app development project about? who is your target audience? are there any similar projects in the market? what makes your project unique? how much funding do you require?

How to do the market analysis for a mobile app development project?

The market study of your mobile app development project helps you understand external factors such as customer demands for mobile applications, competition within the app development industry, and emerging trends in mobile technology.

By conducting an extensive market study, a mobile app development project can understand user needs, offer innovative and user-friendly mobile app solutions, optimize pricing strategies, and execute targeted marketing campaigns, ultimately leading to increased user adoption, app downloads, and a prominent position in the mobile app industry.

This is what we've outlined in the "Market Research" section of our business plan for a mobile app :

• interesting data points and market insights about mobile app development, including app usage trends, app market revenue, and the growth of app-based services
• a list of potential customer segments for a mobile app development project
• the competitive research
• the competitive advantages for a mobile app development project

The key points of the business plan for a mobile app development project

What's the business model of a mobile app development project, business model of a mobile app development project.

A mobile app development project's business model revolves around creating and monetizing mobile applications for specific platforms such as iOS or Android. Revenue can be generated through app purchases, in-app advertising, in-app purchases, or subscription models.

The business model focuses on identifying market needs or gaps, designing user-friendly and engaging apps, developing robust and scalable code, testing and optimizing app performance, and implementing effective monetization strategies.

Success depends on market research, delivering high-quality user experiences, effective app marketing, regular updates and improvements, and staying responsive to user feedback and evolving industry trends.

Business model ≠ Business plan

Please don't mix up the terms "business plan" and "business model."

A business model outlines the way a company creates value, generates revenue, and operates.

In a business plan, you demonstrate your business model using a structure called the Business Model Canvas.

Rest assured, we provide a Business Model Canvas in our business plan for a mobile app .

How do you identify the market segments of a mobile app development project?

Market segmentation for your mobile app development project involves dividing your potential clients into different groups based on their app development needs, industries, and target audience.

These categories may include factors such as iOS app development, Android app development, gaming apps, or clients from specific industries (e.g., healthcare, finance, education).

By segmenting your market, you can offer specialized app development services and solutions that cater to each segment's specific requirements. For example, you might provide iOS app development services and design user-friendly and intuitive interfaces for Apple device users, offer Android app development services and optimize apps for a wide range of Android devices and versions, specialize in gaming app development and create immersive and engaging gaming experiences, or develop industry-specific apps tailored to the needs of clients in sectors such as healthcare, finance, or education.

Market segmentation allows you to effectively target your marketing efforts, showcase your app development expertise, and deliver high-quality and customized mobile app solutions that meet the unique needs of each client segment.

In the business plan for a mobile app , you will get a detailed market segmentation, helping you understand your target audiences and their needs.

How to conduct a competitor analysis for a mobile app development project?

Without surprise, you won't be the only mobile app development project in the market. There will be other developers working on innovative and user-friendly mobile applications.

Your business plan should encompass an extensive market study that examines your competitors' characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses.

Address their weaknesses (such as inefficient app development processes, lack of user testing, or poor app performance).

Why should you focus on these elements? Well, these weaknesses can hinder the success of mobile app development projects. By addressing these aspects, you can offer innovative and user-friendly app designs, provide efficient and reliable app development and testing processes, and deliver excellent customer support, positioning your mobile app development project as a trusted and preferred choice for businesses and individuals seeking high-quality and functional mobile applications.

It's what we call competitive advantages—building them is key to standing out in the market.

Here are some examples of competitive advantages for an app: user-friendly interface, innovative features, regular updates and improvements.

How to draft a SWOT analysis for an app?

A SWOT analysis can help identify potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that can inform the development of a successful mobile app.

As you can guess, there is indeed a completed and editable SWOT matrix in our business plan for a mobile app

The strengths for a mobile app development project

When we talk about the "S" in SWOT, we mean Strengths, which are the project's positive attributes or advantages.

For a mobile app development project, possible strengths could include a user-friendly interface, comprehensive testing, scalability, and a secure back-end system.

The weaknesses for a mobile app development project

The "W" stands for Weaknesses, referring to the areas or aspects of the project that need to be addressed.

In the case of a mobile app development project, potential weaknesses could include an inexperienced development team, lack of proper project management, and poor quality assurance processes.

The opportunities for a mobile app development project

O represents Opportunities in SWOT, referring to the external factors or conditions that can create opportunities for the project's advancement.

In the case of a mobile app development project, potential opportunities include creating a social media app, a productivity app, a gaming app, and a shopping app.

The threats for a mobile app development project

When we mention the "T" in SWOT, we're referring to Threats, which are the external risks or negative factors that can impact the project's performance.

How to craft a marketing strategy for an app?

A marketing strategy plays a pivotal role in a business plan as it defines how a business will entice customers and generate sales.

An app can attract users by implementing a well-crafted marketing strategy that showcases its unique features, user-friendly interface, and how it solves a specific problem or meets a particular need.

Users won't choose your app without effective marketing; highlighting its features, usability, and benefits is necessary.

Have you explored marketing approaches to attract customers to your app? Consider optimizing your app store presence, running targeted advertising campaigns to reach your target audience, and utilizing social media platforms to engage with users and receive feedback.

No worries if you don't know anything about marketing and communication.

How to build a 3-year financial plan for an app?

A solid business plan must include detailed financial information such as projected income, expenses, cash flow, and balance sheets.

When creating your business plan, you must include anticipated revenue figures for your mobile app development project.

To earn the trust and confidence of potential investors, it's crucial to have revenue projections in your business plan that are based on believable and well-founded assumptions.

Our financial plan for a mobile app is straightforward and equipped with automated checks, enabling you to validate and adjust your assumptions easily. This way, we make sure you're building solid financial projections.

It goes without saying that you'll have to develop a provisional budget for your mobile app development project. Pay attention to every expense and don't leave any out (our financial plan includes a complete list for your convenience).

The break-even analysis is central in the financial plan as it will tell you whether your mobile app development project will generate profits or not.

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Guide to writing a business plan for a mobile app business

✓ Updated on 25 April 2024

Mobile app business plans

Thinking of developing a mobile app? Done properly, app development requires a significant investment of time, money and resources. And therefore some careful consideration before you proceed. 

Writing a business plan for a mobile app business, in advance of any development, can really help to clarify your vision as well as identify the steps you need to take to maximise the return on your investment.

We’ve written about how to make an app . But in order to make sure your app pays for itself and provides an income , you really need to make sure you have an app business plan in place.

How to write a business plan for an app:

Make sure you’ve taken the right factors into account

What problem are you aiming to solve with your app?

It’s vital to understand what your competitors are already doing – and how your app will improve on this

Think about your app’s USP and how it benefits your users

No matter how good your mobile app business idea, good financial management will ultimately be key to its success

You will need to give some considerable thought to how you plan to market your app

1. Decide what to consider when writing a mobile app business plan

Mobile apps are continuing to grow in popularity year on year – in fact, mobile apps are projected to hit $188.9 billion in revenue by 2020 – up from just $88billion in 2016 ( Statista ).

It doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable to wonder  what the future holds for mobile apps  – and whether the market is already saturated.

And yet technology is constantly changing (think about the rise of voice-based apps such as Google Home, Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri for instance) along with consumer habits and expectations. 

So there is no doubt that the demand is still there for apps that can genuinely be shown to be more innovative and more engaging than their competitors.

Whatever your business, writing a business plan takes time. But it’s an iterative process can and one that can be hugely helpful in clarifying exactly what you want to achieve in the development of your own app.

So what are some of the key points you might want to consider when putting together a business plan for your mobile app?

To get you started, here is a app business template:

App business plan template

• Executive summary
• Company overview and business goals
• Industry analysis
• Customer analysis
• Competitive analysis and market research
• Marketing strategy plan
• Operational plan
• Management team (if you have one!)
• Financial plan and forecast

2. Define what kind of app do you want to develop

It is tempting to rush into the development of an app simply because other businesses similar to yours already have one.

But it’s worth giving some genuine thought to the ‘problem’ that you aim to solve with the creation of an app.

Businesses build apps for all sorts of reasons, such as branding, improving customer engagement, direct marketing etc. 

But as online publishing platform  Medium  says “Ultimately an effective mobile strategy involves more than just a mobile friendly website.”

3. Research your market

Once you have identified  why  the marketplace needs you to develop the app, it is vital to understand what your competitors are already doing – and how your app will improve on this.

When  conducting market research , you should look at both primary and secondary data and consider key information such as include the size of your market as well as a thorough understanding of pricing. 

A  SWOT analysis  can be useful for understanding your business’ Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. 

LivePlan  explains “Strengths and weaknesses are internal to your company—things that you have some control over and can change. Examples include who is on your team, your patents and intellectual property, and your location.

“Opportunities and threats are external—things that are going on outside your company, in the larger market. You can take advantage of opportunities and protect against threats, but you can’t change them. Examples include competitors, prices of raw materials, and customer shopping trends.”

Building on this, there is also a value in conducting a  PEST analysis  to look at macro economic factors that may influence your business.  These are opportunities and threats due to Political, Economic, Social, and Technological forces. 

Pestle Analysis  explains these four areas in more detail: 

• Political   Here government regulations and legal factors are assessed in terms of their ability to affect the business environment and trade markets. The main issues addressed in this section include political stability, tax guidelines, trade regulations, safety regulations, and employment laws.
• Economic   Through this factor, businesses examine the economic issues that are bound to have an impact on the company. This would include factors like inflation, interest rates, economic growth, the unemployment rate and policies, and the business cycle followed in the country.
• Social   With the social factor, a business can analyze the socio-economic environment of its market via elements like customer demographics, cultural limitations, lifestyle attitude, and education. With these, a business can understand how consumer needs are shaped and what brings them to the market for a purchase.
• Technological   How technology can either positively or negatively impact the introduction of a product or service into a marketplace is assessed here. These factors include technological advancements, lifecycle of technologies, the role of the Internet, and the spending on technology research by the government.

4. Define your app’s unique selling point (USP)

So what problem does your app actually solve? What makes it different from all the other apps out there? Any why will someone download your app rather than another, similar one?

Identifying your app’s unique selling point (USP) is a useful exercise in really understanding what you plan to do that’s different to everyone else. 

It can also help you develop an ‘ elevator pitch ’ – a 20 second, one or two line summary that comprehensively explains your product. And which could, as the phrase suggests, be articulated to a potential investor between the floors of a buildings – should you be lucky enough to find yourself in a lift with someone on the lookout for your product! 

5. Understand your budget and how your app will make money

No matter how good your mobile app business idea, good financial management will ultimately be key to its success.

How, for instance, are you going to make money from your app? You might decide on a freemium model, where basic features are free but full functionality is hidden behind a paywall. You might prefer in-app advertising. Or your app might be for solely for in-app purchases. 

It is reassuring to know that  it is possible to develop a mobile app on a tiny budget  – but that budget still needs careful management.

Alongside all the usual business plan financial headings, you should also consider costs that are specific to app development. 

These can include customer acquisition cost, which  Appster  elaborates as cost per app install or CPI, suggesting “If you want to go one level deeper and be more exact, find out the cost per activation, keeping in mind that there will be a percentage of users who might install the app, and then uninstall it without engaging with the app.”

6. Decide how you plan to market your app

Developing an app is one thing but getting it to arguably saturated marketplace, with good take up is quite another.  

You will therefore need to give some considerable thought to how you plan to market your app once it is built (and possibly even before you have launched it). 

And so taking the time to put together a  marketing plan for your mobile app business  can pay dividends after launch.

Looking for a hand with writing a business plan for your mobile app business?  

If you would like a steer developing a business plan for your mobile app business, then the team at Creative.onl would love to help.

We are a friendly bunch with expertise across all of the following areas: 

• Digital strategy 
• UX design 
• App development
• Web development 
• Responsive web design
• Graphic design
• Video animation 
• Marketing support 

And we would love to help you with any aspect of your digital marketing strategy.

Whatever you are looking for,  get in touch with Creative.onl  to talk through the creative process.

App business plan FAQ

A mobile app business plan is exactly what is sounds like: a business plan, created specifically for a business based on launching a mobile app. Any startup business should have a business plan, and mobile app businesses are no exception.

Follow our 6-step process, and include the following 9 sections: • Executive summary • Company overview and business goals • Industry analysis • Customer analysis • Competitive analysis and market research • Marketing strategy plan • Operational plan • Management team (if you have one!) • Financial plan and forecast

If you feel that you have the expertise then you can go ahead and write your own app business plan yourself, without spending a penny: totally free. Or if you’d like some professional help, you can commission an app launch specialist like Creative.onl to write one for you: this might cost anything from £500 to £5000, depending on the level of support needed.

Every business is unique, whether it’s a mobile app business or otherwise. So this means that every mobile app business plan is also one-of-a-kind of tailored specifically to the business in question. But having said that, most app business plans follow the rough format we detailed, with emphasis added or removed from each section.

Send us an email to [email protected] and let us know what you need, we should be able to provide you with a PDF template.

✓ Reviewed by Joe Dawson , Managing Director

Mobile App Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Writing a Successful Business Plan For Your Mobile App Business + Template

If you’re looking to start or grow a mobile app business, you need a business plan. Your plan will outline your business goals and strategies, and how you plan on achieving them. It will also detail the amount of funding you need, and if needed, present a case to investors and lenders regarding why they should invest in your business.

In this article, we’ll explain why you should invest the time and energy into creating a mobile app business plan, and provide you with a mobile app business plan template that includes an overview of what should be included in each section. Download the Ultimate Mobile App Business Plan Template here >

Why Write a Business Plan For a Mobile App Business?

There are many reasons to write a business plan for a mobile app company, even if you’re not looking for funding. A business plan can help you see potential pitfalls in your business strategy, as well as identify opportunities you may not have considered. It can also help you track your progress and adjust your plans as needed.

That said, if you are looking for funding, a business plan is essential. Investors and lenders want to see that you have a solid understanding of your industry, your customers, and your competition. They also want to know that you have a realistic view of your financial situation and how much money you’ll need to get started.

How To Write a Business Plan For a Mobile App Business

While every business plan is different, there are 10 essential components that all mobile app business plans should include:

Executive Summary

Company description, industry analysis, customer analysis, competitor analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management team, financial plan.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to tailor this information to your specific type of mobile app business, but these 10 components should be included in every plan.

The executive summary is the first section of your business plan, but it’s often written last. This is because it provides an overview of the entire document.

In the executive summary, briefly explain what your business does, your business goals, and how you plan on achieving them. You should also include a brief overview of your financial situation, including how much money you’ll need to get started.

For organizational purposes, you could create headings for each main section of your business plan to highlight the key takeaways.

For example, your mobile app executive summary might look something like this:

Company Overview

[Insert Company Introduction / Short Summary]

Business Goals

[Insert Business Goals & How You Plan To Achieve Them]

Industry Overview

[Insert Industry Statistics on the Size of Your Market]

Competition

[Insert Overview of Competitors & Your Competitive Advantage]

[Insert Information About The Marketing Strategies You Will Use To Attract Clients/Customers]

Financial Overview

You can add and/or remove sections as needed, but these are the basics that should be included in every executive summary.

The next section of your mobile app business plan is the company description, where you’ll provide an overview of your business.

Include information about your:

• Company History & Accomplishments To Date

Mission Statement and/or Company Values

With regards to the company overview, here you will document the type of mobile app company you operate. For example, there are several types of mobile app companies such as:

• Developers (those who design and build apps)
• Publishers (those who market and sell apps)
• Enablers (those who develop the technology or platform that powers apps)

For example, a mobile app company description might look something like this:

We are an X type of mobile app company.

Company History

If an existing company: Since launching, our team has served X customers and generated $Y in revenue.

If startup: I conceived [company name] on this date. Since that time, we have developed the company logo, found potential space, etc. 

This is just an example, but your company description should give potential investors a clear idea of who you are, what you do, and why you’re the best at what you do.

The next section of your business plan is the industry analysis. In this section, you’ll need to provide an overview of the industry you’re in, as well as any trends or changes that might impact your business.

Questions you will want to answer include:

• What is the overall size of the mobile app industry?
• How is the industry growing or changing?
• What are the major trends affecting the mobile app industry?
• Who are the major players in the mobile app industry?

For example, your industry analysis might look something like this:

The size of the mobile app industry is expected to reach $XX billion by 20XX.

It is currently growing at an annual rate of XX% and is predicted to continue this growth in the future.

Major trends affecting the industry are:

– The continued growth of global smartphone usage

– The ever-changing landscape of the app store algorithms

– The rise of in-app purchase models

– The popularity of subscription-based models

How We Fit Into The Industry

This is just an example, but your industry analysis should give potential investors a clear idea of the overall industry, and how your company fits into that industry.

The next section of your mobile app business plan is the customer analysis. In this section, you’ll need to provide an overview of who your target customers are and what their needs are.

• Who are your target customers?
• What are their needs?
• How do they interact with your industry?
• How do they make purchasing decisions?

You want a thorough understanding of your target customers to provide them with the best possible products and/or services. Oftentimes, you will want to include the specific demographics of your target market, such as age, gender, income, etc., but you’ll also want to highlight the psychographics, such as their interests, lifestyles, and values.

This information will help you better understand your target market and how to reach them.

For example, your customer analysis might look something like this:

Target Market & Demographics

The demographic (age, gender, location, income, etc.) profile of our target mobile app customer is as follows: 

– Age: 18-24

– Gender: Male

– Location: Urban

– Income: $50,000-$100,000

Psychographics

Our core customer interests are as follows: 

– Technology: Mobile apps, smartphones, new technology adapters

– Music: Listening to music and going to concerts

– Lifestyle: Progressive and open-minded

– Values: Innovation, creativity and self-expression

– Gaming: Mobile and online gaming

In summary, your customer analysis should give potential investors a clear idea of who your target market is and how you reach them.

The next section of your business plan is the competitor analysis. In this section, you’ll need to provide an overview of who your major competitors are and their strengths and weaknesses.

• Who are your major competitors?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• How do they compare to you?

You want to make sure that you have a clear understanding of your competition so that you can position yourself in the market. Creating a SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) for each of your major competitors helps you do this. 

For example, your competitor analysis might look something like this:

Major Competitors

XYZ Company is our major competitor. Its offerings include this, this and this. Its strengths include XYZ, and its weaknesses include XYZ.

Competitive Advantage

Your competitor analysis should give potential lenders and investors a clear idea of who your major competitors are and how you compare to them.

The next section of your business plan is the marketing plan. In this section, you’ll need to provide an overview of your marketing strategy and how you plan on executing it.

Specifically, you will document your “4 Ps” as follows:

• Products/Services : Here is where you’ll document your product/service offerings.
• Price : Detail your pricing strategy here.
• Place : Document where customers will find you and whether you will use distribution channels (e.g., partnerships) to reach them.
• Promotion : Here you will document how you will reach your target customers. For instance, mobile app businesses often reach new customers via promotional tactics including online ads (e.g., Google AdWords), PR, social media marketing, etc.

For example, your marketing plan might look something like this:

Products/Services

We offer the following products/services: 

We will use a premium pricing strategy to establish ourselves as the highest quality brand.

We will serve customers directly and through a partnership with XYZ company.

As you can see, your marketing plan should give potential investors a clear idea of your marketing objectives, strategies, and tactics.

The next section of your business plan is the operations plan. In this section, you’ll need to provide an overview of your company’s day-to-day operations and how they will be structured.

• What are your company’s daily operations?
• How are your company’s operations structured?
• Who is responsible for each task?

Your operations plan should be detailed and concise. You want to make sure that potential investors have a clear understanding of your company’s day-to-day operations and how they are structured.

You will also include information regarding your long-term goals for your operations and how you plan on achieving them.

For example, your operations plan might look something like this:

Daily Operations

Our company’s daily operations include XYZ.

Operational Structure

Our company is structured as follows:

• Department 1
• Department 2
• Department 3

Each department is responsible for XYZ tasks.

Long-Term Goals

Our long-term goals for our operations are to achieve the following over the next five years.

Date 1: Goal 1

Date 2: Goal 2

Date 3: Goal 3

Date 4: Goal 4

Your operations plan should give readers a clear idea of your company’s day-to-day operations, how they are structured, and your long-term goals for the company.

The next section of your business plan is the management team. In this section, you’ll need to provide an overview of your management team and their experience.

• Who is on your management team?
• What are their qualifications?
• What is their experience?

Your management team ideally includes individuals who are experts in their respective fields. You want to make sure that lenders and investors have a clear understanding of your management team’s qualifications and experience, and feel they can execute on your plan.

For example, your management team might look something like this:

Our management team is comprised of the following X individuals with the following experience.

Team Member 1: 

Team member 1’s qualifications and experience include XYZ.

Team Member 2: 

Your management team should give potential lenders and investors a clear idea of who is on your team and how their qualifications and experience will help your company succeed.

The final core section of your business plan is the financial plan. In this section, you’ll need to provide an overview of your company’s financials.

• What are your company’s projected revenues?
• What are your company’s projected expenses?
• What is your company’s projected growth rate?
• How much funding do you need and for what purposes? For example, most startup mobile app businesses need outside funding for things like initial app development costs, marketing, and operations.

Your financial plan should give potential investors a clear understanding of your company’s financials. While you may include a summary of this information in this section, you will include full financial statements in the appendix of your business plan.

For example, your financial plan might look something like this:

Our company’s projected revenues over the next five years are $XYZ.

Expenses & Net Income

Our company’s projected expenses and net income over the next five years are $XYZ.

Uses of Funding

This is just an example, but your financial plan should give potential investors a clear idea of your company’s financial projections.

The final section of your business plan is the appendix. In this section, you’ll need to provide any additional information that was not included in the previous sections.

This may include items such as:

• Full financial statements
• Resumes of key management team members
• Letters of reference
• Articles or press releases
• Marketing materials
• Product information
• Any other relevant information

By including this information in the appendix, you are allowing potential investors and lenders to learn more about your company.

In summary, writing a mobile app business plan is a vital step in the process of starting and/or growing your own business.

A business plan will give you a roadmap to follow. It can also help you attract investors and partners.

By following the tips outlined in this article, you can be sure that your business plan will be effective and help you achieve your goals.  

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How to write a business plan for your app startup

Table of Contents

Executive summary

Company description , market analysis, market size, projections, competitors, swot analysis, unique selling point (usp), marketing strategy, customer acquisition strategy, social media, startup costs and funding, monetisation strategy, final thoughts…, manage your finances better.

Writing a business plan is the first step to developing your app. It helps you clarify your vision and identify the steps you need to take to reach your goals. 

This guide will show you how to write a business plan for your app startup to help you attract investors, secure funding, and guide your overall efforts. 

You’ll need to include:

• Company description
• Unique selling proposition (USP)
• Monetisation plan

Every business plan should answer whether it’s profitable to produce the product and invest in the business. Use the following sections to get that point across.

This section is the first thing potential investors will see when reading your business plan, so make sure it packs a punch. 

Your executive summary should hook the reader and entice them to keep reading your plan –– and invest in your app startup.  

Make your summary clear and memorable, and answer the following questions:

• What problem do you want to solve with your app?
• What is your solution?
• How will your app change the market? 
• What goal are you pursuing? 
• Why will you succeed?

While your executive summary comes first in a business plan, it’s best to write it last to ensure it highlights all key aspects of the document. You can learn more about how to write an executive summary here .

This section introduces your app startup and app concept to help potential investors understand more about you. Who are you, and what makes you unique?

When describing your business and app, share the following details:

• Business structure (is it a sole proprietorship or limited company ?)
• Company location 
• Information about you as the owner
• Problem your app will solve
• Business mission (why you created your app startup)

Quick tip: People love a good story, so use your company description to tell yours. Explain how you came up with your app idea and why you think it’s important. Keep it short and catchy to win the reader’s attention quickly.

Next, investors need to know how your app will fit into the market. After all, you’re trying to convince them that you’re worth investing in.

First, research what the current market looks like. There are three key parameters to base the market size:

• Total available market (TAM) – the maximum demand for a solution in the commercial market.
• Serviceable available market (SAM) – the portion of the total available market you can target through sales and marketing.
• Serviceable obtainable market (SOM) – this defines the segment of the serviceable available market that includes the first people to use your product or service.

How likely is your app to succeed in the market?

Research firms like Nielsen or Forrester can help you understand your target market size and your industry’s potential for growth . Use success stories of similar businesses to give readers proof that your idea can be profitable.

Key point: Only include statistics that relate to your business. For example, if your app will only serve the local market, try to find local statistics. 

Also research your competitors to demonstrate how your app measures up against other solutions. What makes you different?

Study other app businesses in your industry, including their niche, branding, app functionality, audience size, pricing, marketing, and so on. 

Identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats ( SWOT ) to define where you stand in the market and against your competition. 

Demonstrating your strengths and opportunities shows potential investors why your app startup is a worthwhile investment.

And highlighting your weaknesses and threats shows investors that you know your limits and have a plan to overcome challenges you might face.

Your unique selling point (USP) is what differentiates your app and business from others in your industry. How is your app better than your competitors’?

Explain who you’ll do differently that will make people download your app instead of another, similar one. 

When considering how to write a business plan for your app startup, think about how you can prove to potential investors that you have a plan for promoting your business. 

You want to write a section that details your marketing strategy , including the following aspects:

Lay out your strategies for acquiring new customers, talking about each channel and tactic you plan on using to attract them. 

Try to estimate how much it will cost you to acquire one customer from each channel. For example, if you plan on using paid advertising, how much do you think you’ll need to spend on it?

It’s important to have numbers to show investors to give them an idea of how much money you might need.

Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote a product these days. When developing your marketing plan, find out how many potential customers you could reach through platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and so on. 

Provide readers with details about what channel you believe will be most profitable and why. Remember, you want them to want to invest in you.

Include a reasonable estimate of how much it’ll cost to get your app startup up and running. Investors want to know where their money will go. 

Mention one-time costs, recurring charges, fixed costs, and any other expenses you think you’ll incur. Give an estimation of how much money you’ll need and why. 

This section explains how you’ll generate revenue from your app. The most common ways to monetise an app are: 

• In-app ads – your app is free for people to use, but other brands pay to advertise their solutions to your users. 
• Paid app – this is where users pay a small fee to download and use your app. 
• In-app purchases – here, you offer a basic version of your app for free and encourage people to pay for more features or other privileges.
• Subscription – you can charge monthly or annual fees for people to use your app. Netflix is an example of a subscription app. 

Knowing how to write a business plan for your app startup isn’t always easy. The idea is to prove that your idea is a worthwhile investment by demonstrating:

• Your knowledge about the market.
• Your understanding of your target audience.
• Why your app will succeed in the current market.
• That you’ve done your research to support your concept.

Once you’re done with your research and have written your business plan, remember to proofread it . Use writing tools like Grammarly to make sure your spelling, grammar and style are spotless.

Now that you have a better idea of how to write a business plan for your app startup, you’re one step closer to bringing your idea to life!

You can improve almost every aspect of your business with new technology, including your business bookkeeping. That’s why hundreds of app startups use Countingup to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account and accounting software in one app. Keep your money where you can see them, and your financial data easily accessible whenever you need it. 

• Counting Up on Facebook
• Counting Up on Twitter
• Counting Up on LinkedIn

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How To Write The Best Investor-Ready Mobile App Business Plan

When it comes to launching an app startup, having a strong mobile app  business plan  is important. In the beginning, an app startup business plan helps you plot out your ideas and view your business across several perspectives. During the funding stage, having a business plan becomes a key piece in showcasing the details of your app startup to investors. Writing a business plan can seem difficult – there are many factors to consider and it isn’t easy turning it all into one cohesive strategy. A Google search on business plans pulls up a million different opinions, and 5,000 different templates. Selecting which is the “right” template to use can prove to be tricky, and taking the wrong advice can prove harmful to your funding efforts.

Here at ThinkLions, we’ve written hundreds of mobile app business plans and have worked with entrepreneurs across the world to develop strategies that have raised millions of dollars in seed funding. If it’s one thing we know, it’s business plans for apps – and we want to teach you everything there is to know! While it would take us years to write up everything we have learned over our many years of business, in this post, we’ll give you some really awesome tips to help you draft the perfect mobile app business plan.

Do I Need A Mobile App Business Plan?

While opinions vary on whether app startups need business plans, in our experience, it’s  always  useful. In essence, a business plan will effectively present your app idea and tie together multiple operational elements to create the story of how your business will grow from an idea to success. Business plans come in handy across many situations when trying to present your app idea to another person. Here are a few examples of previous clients who were definitely happy that they went through the mobile app business planning process:

• James was a solo entrepreneur when he asked us to write his app idea business plan. When he hired us for business planning services, his goal was to submit his business plan to a local  startup incubator  that would help grow his business. The incubator rejected him because they only accepted teams with two or more founders. James was later introduced to an interested tech-entrepreneur who already had two mobile applications launched in the market. Chris, the entrepreneur, was interested in James’ idea and asked him for his business plan so he could understand it better. Luckily for him, James already had one handy. James never made it to the incubator; instead, Chris partnered with him 50/50 and funded the launch of his app idea!
• An app startup team approached us last year with the idea of launching an app in the financial space. Initially, they wanted a financial app business plan so that they could understand their business and market better. After the plan was completed, they submitted it to gain entry into a Pitch Competition. With some consultation, they landed first place in the competition and earned $10,000 towards developing their app. Furthermore, an investor in the audience was so impressed with their pitch and  pitch deck , that they offered a  seed funding  of $75,000 in exchange for early ownership in the business.
• Kelly had launched a bare-bones app for pet owners, along with 6 of her friends. While they all had invested money, they had no idea what to do going forward. Members of the team were spending money irresponsibly on any trendy marketing technique, and they had no cohesive strategy to move forward. After working with ThinkLions, Kelly was able to clearly identify a niche market and come up with a plan to reach this market with her app. With a plan, the team was quickly able to stay on track and increased registrations to their app by over 100% in less than 60 days. After updating their document with new achievements, Kelly’s team was able to secure a seed funding investment of $25,000 from a local investor.

A business plan ensures that you know specific things about your business, before seeking funds or going into the development stages. Writing the best business plan early on can save you the headache of rushing to write one when an interested investor says, “Sounds good, let me see your plan!”

The Main Components

Sometimes, specific business plan layouts are required when seeking funding from investors, incubators, and banks. Some require different information to be present and may require  different formats . Generally, however, there are several particular sections that will be included in some form, no matter what the layout. Even with our international clients, we have found that these informational categories are still pertinent.

You won’t be hard-pressed to find a business plan template online. Instead of simply giving you the structure of an app startup business plan, I thought it would be more informative to use my experience and summarize the thought process  of each of these sections. Knowing how to approach this information will help you feel more confident when you begin writing out the details for your own business plan.

Executive Summary

Although written last, most plans begin with an executive summary. By most definitions, an executive summary would be a short version of each section of your business plan. I agree… sort of. A great executive summary DOES summarize all the important details of your business into just a couple of pages, but furthermore, it should also be a persuasive and informative  sales pitch . What are you selling, you ask?  You are selling your worthiness for their attention .

Your executive summary should say, “This is a great app business. It’s bound to grow, it’s fun, it’s exciting, and it’s everything that you want to be a part of.” It should do this by the way, without exceeding two pages. The payoff for an executive summary is rarely an investment into your app business, but instead, it is an attention magnet to make readers curious for more.

Put all of your best details into the executive summary. Avoid any fluff. Make sure to highlight the business’ current achievements. Think of the executive summary like the back of a novel. Does it leave you anxious to dive in and read the rest of the book?

Business Description & Information

Use this section to explain your mobile app concept and introduce your business. This section includes information related to corporate values, objectives & goals, product description, and key success factors. The point of this section is not only to describe your business but to explain what your business has accomplished and what they plan to accomplish in the future.

Stick to the facts, but make sure the facts are worthy enough to put on the paper. It’s easy to go on and on about your idea and to explain 20 different functions that your app will have. In an app startup business plan though, stick to the things that make your app different or better suited to the market. Describe the problem that your consumers face and make sure that you implicitly show how your app will solve this problem.

Think of this section as the “What?” Every following section will be “How?”. Tell them what your app idea is in this section, and in the following sections, we’ll tell them how you’ll get that idea to the market, and eventually, to success.

Market, Customer Analysis

This research section is where you provide the background for your story. In this section, the mobile app business plan shifts from what you believe your app business is, to the hard data that proves your business is viable and that there is actually a need and demand for your solution.

Analyze your market through secondary research, industry surveys, market reports, and most importantly, first-hand primary research. Use your research to estimate how large your market is (by revenue or number of consumers, for example), and try to discover how the industry is performing, trending, and transitioning. During this process, we typically take the following steps:

• Customer Profile:  First, we plot out who our target consumers are. We don’t just explain them, we give them a face and a name. We imagine who they are, what their life is like, what they do for a living, how much money they make, and the challenges they face. We also analyze how our solution can be used to help that specific customer – how they would find the app, why they would use it, how they would use it, etc. This allows readers to easily visualize what type of consumer we serve and how the app would fit into their life.
• Research:  Now that we know what customers we serve, we move into the research phase. We take any pre-existing knowledge we have of the market and combine it with industry research to form a profile of the total market. We seek to identify how many people face the problem that we are trying to solve, where they seek information, how they currently solve their issue, and how much money they spend each year. With this information, we perform a TAM-SAM-SOM analysis to help us identify not only how many people are in our market, but how many of them we can realistically reach with the mobile app solution.
• Insights:  Finally, we consider how all this research pertains to our app idea. Is there a real market? Are there enough people in the market, spending enough money? Would people pay to have their challenge solved? The entire point of the research section is to prove that a need exists for your particular app – have you proven it?

Marketing Strategy

At this point in your plan, you’ve detailed your awesome mobile app concept, identified a niche market, and proved a sufficient need within that market. Using this information, you now must decide how you will reach potential users, introduce them to your app, and persuade them to download and use it.

Investors want to know that there is a clarified  growth strategy  in place for getting your app to the market. The better you can explain this plan with clear steps, backed with accurate data, the more likely you are to persuade an investor to help fund the development of your app.

There are many marketing strategies and techniques available from PPC to social media, and beyond. Choosing which one is right for your business can be difficult. Start small,  perform a SWOT analysis , introduce new solutions, and test your ideas. Over time, as you identify techniques that are working on a small level, scale them upwards and eliminate the strategies that aren’t showing potential.

Furthermore, look at your competitors and identify how they are successfully reaching consumers. The more you know about what has and has not worked for your competitors, the easier it will be to avoid the obstacles that they may have faced previously.

Competitive Analysis

If you haven’t heard this before, let me stress a very important point:  No matter how innovative your app is, there ARE competitors.  Maybe no other app offers exactly what you offer, but there is some other app, process, product, or service that consumers are currently using to solve their problem.

Knowing who your competitors are is important, but knowing their position and operation within the market is a vital key to building a successful business. Investors will want to know that you have detailed knowledge of your competitors and that you have identified valid methods to exploit their weaknesses through your product strengths; creating a path to position yourself ahead of them.

Operational Strategy

To be effective, it is vital to consider how your startup company will operate on a day-to-day basis and how you will build and maintain customer relations. This section will contain information related to how customer service will be handled, how quality assurance will be maintained, how your app will be developed, who will manage the business, and more.

In addition, this section will highlight the user process – how the user will behave from the moment they learn about your app until they spend their first dollar. One of the largest components of this section is the personnel plan, which outlines when and how employees will be hired; how their salaries will be expensed; and how their positions will help progress the business.

Management & Advisor Bios

As mentioned previously, investors heavily consider the abilities of the “team” behind the app startups that they fund. In this section of the mobile app business plan, these team members can be showcased, and their skills can be highlighted to prove that the team has what it takes to propel the startup to success. In addition to co-founders and board members, this section will allow you to explain different advisor relationships you have secured; valuable relationships with non-executive members who are successful in related fields who have agreed to consult and advise the founders as they launch and grow their business.

Financial Model

Once all of this information has been compiled (excluding the executive summary), the financial model can be prepared.  App entrepreneurs  often find preparing their financial model to be difficult and beyond their comprehension. However, if you have prepared all of the previous information correctly, you should know exactly what you will need to fund in order to push the plan forward.

With this model, you will be able to forecast revenues, costs, growth, and other important financial factors. The financial model should include a 3-5 year projection of all the essential forecast models, including Profit & Loss, Cash Flow, Balance Sheet, Startup Table, and Valuation.

Winning Business Plans Aren’t Just Words And Numbers

That finishes the easy stuff. Many entrepreneurs mistakenly think that a mobile app startup business plan is just about plopping down some words on a page. They rush off to download a free business plan program, answer a few questions, or fill in a few blanks, and believe that they now have a business plan that will help them reach their goals.

What your business plan says, is important; but how you deliver the message may be the determining factor to whether you win or lose at  securing funding for your app . These three elements are what we refer to as the ‘secret sauce’ of business plans.

• Passion : I must admit, I’ve been suckered into more late-night infomercial products than I care to admit. On another occasion, I allowed this great door-to-door salesman to convince me to buy a huge box of steaks that were tougher than leather and tasted like Alpo Dog Food. Passion and enthusiasm sell… in a business plan too. It’s not just the words on a page, it’s the passion that is felt behind those words. Passion and enthusiasm are contagious traits, and your enthusiasm alone may be enough to make someone else passionate about what you are doing. Don’t write your plan to simply fill in paragraphs in a “template”, make every word count and make every thought express your tremendous passion for your business, brand, and app idea.
• The Story : Innovative apps are cool, but an app startup with a story… well, that’s captivating! What situation happened that led the founders to come up with the app idea? What problem did it solve for them specifically, that they know it will also solve for others? It’s not just about having a story, it’s about having a story that is relatable to the reader (or investor) – one that aligns with their experience or differs you from your competitors. Consider a company that is building a GPS device for dogs, where owners can use their mobile devices to track exactly where their dog is at any moment, in case they get lost. Maybe the founder lost the dog that she had for 10 years and looked at as her own child. Maybe she invented the device and app to ensure that no other pet owner would ever have to go through the heartbreak that she did after never recovering her companion. An investor who has gone through a similar situation would be able to relate instantly and would be more prone to have an interest in the idea than they would if the story was never told.
• Viability:  Is the plan you present truly viable? Could you actually reach the goals that you have set forth? It’s more than just having a “dreamer’s vision” here, it is about truly showcasing that your idea has legs to stand on. The single most important factor for most investors is whether they will make money. They don’t want your dreams, they want evidence, and the more your plan showcases this viability, the more potential you have to strike an investment deal.

Getting Started With Your Strategy

The hardest part of writing a mobile app business plan is writing the first page. Many people quit their business plan before they even get started on it. Writing a business plan for apps isn’t easy; there is a lot that needs to be known about your business, a lot of research that needs to be accomplished, and a lot of specialized knowledge needed to properly transform your thoughts into a successful document.

Check out our infographic below for more tips on creating an awesome mobile app business plan.

If you’re finding it tough to write your own app startup business plan, we have an expert team ready to help you get on track! Check out this app business plan example to see how our business plan writers put these insights into real plans each and every day. 

Do you have any other awesome tips on how to write an app business plan or a phone app business plan example that you’d like to share? Tell us about it in the comments below!

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How to Write a Business Plan For Mobile App Startup in 6 Steps

Tech Editor and Content Team Lead

Tech Researcher and Writer

Table of content

• An app development business plan is structured into six key steps: executive summary, business description, market analysis, marketing strategy, monetization strategy, and startup costs & funding. Each section addresses specific questions that provide a clear vision of the project to stakeholders.
• Detailed financial planning, including startup costs, funding, and a well-defined monetization strategy, is essential. Understanding the market, competition, and customer persona helps in crafting effective marketing strategies.
• Writing a comprehensive mobile app business plan is crucial for the success of a mobile app startup. It helps clarify goals, allocate resources effectively, attract investors, and reduce risks.

The number of unique, useful apps increases daily.

According to Statista , the number of applications available on the App Store was close to 5 million in 2023. The forecast says the mobile industry will generate almost $520 million in revenue in 2024.

These statistics prove two important statements:

• Running a mobile application is a great business idea with a large monetization potential
• The competition in this industry is intense, and there’s little chance you will start monetizing your app without a proper understanding of the industry, your direct and indirect competitors, and your strategy to outplay them.

If you would like to join this beneficial industry with your great app idea, it is time to take the next step toward your goals and create a great mobile app business plan.

Reasons to prepare an app business plan

When you get a new idea for an app, you feel super excited! You want to start working on it right away because you believe it's going to be a big hit. You're so pumped up that you don't even want to spend time researching the market or making a detailed plan. You just want to jump in and get started on making your idea a reality!

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Benjamin Franklin

As you know, Benjamin Franklin wasn’t involved in software development, but these words highlight the significance of the business plan for an app. Writing a plan enhances your knowledge about the market you are going to enter. It helps clarify your goals, set priorities, and build more accurate forecasts.

When you find out about all the benefits of a business plan for an app, you will get excited about the preparation stage, just as you are about the implementation. So this is why you have to plan your venture from A to Z:

Attracting great minds and great investments

Depending on your situation, you may need a technical co-founder or a development team. However, it is not easy to convince experienced professionals to start working on a product that hasn’t achieved anything yet and exists only in the mind of the initial founder. A detailed business plan may help you change their minds and attract ambitious engineers, designers, and managers.

The same works for investors. You won’t attract a significant sum from angel investors if you can’t prove to them that their money will be in good hands. But by presenting them with your business plan, you can prove your intentions to build a successful company and multiply their initial investments.

A correctly done app development business plan makes you a trustworthy employer and a trustworthy investee.

Allocating resources properly

When starting your app business, your resources are limited. Usually, you wish you could invest more time, money, and effort into your business than you actually can. Does this mean you have to postpone the start and wait until you have more time and money? Definitely not. You have to learn how to profit most from the resources you already have.

Creating an app development business plan allows you to analyze all your needs and decide on effective resource allocation. Taking intuitive steps can cause you to waste more of your resources without even realizing it.

Reducing the risks

Writing a business plan for app development is a way to get closer to your goals and ambitions.

When developing a business plan, you identify multiple risks that could impact your business. Being aware of these helps you either change direction to avoid pitfalls or prepare for potential negative outcomes.

Risk mitigation in software development is the strategy that increases the chances of success for your mobile app business.

Managing and delegating effectively

A business plan provides the vision of the critical tasks and helps delegate each of them to the particularly responsible person.

Yes, at first, it seems that you can manage every aspect of the mobile app startup creation on your own. However, if you want to scale and achieve outstanding results, prepare to hire new people and share the responsibility.

With the business plan, you make sure that every team member knows exactly where you head and can choose the most effective strategies within their responsibility to get the company there.

In short, a business plan helps you get the idea out of your head, digitize it, and build a detailed roadmap for startup to achieve the goal.

Yes, some businesses manage to achieve success without any plan. However, they don’t know which of the dozens of chaotic actions actually brought the desired results. And therefore, they are unable to scale this success.

If your goal is to start a mobile app business and achieve predictable and scalable results, prepare a pen and paper and get ready to draft your app business plan.

Is an app business plan different from a business plan for other software projects?

Here, we have to state that all cases are different. There’s no business plan template you can copy for your project. You have to approach the process wisely and define your goals.

What do you expect to achieve with a business plan document?

• Convincing investors to fund the development process?
• Attracting the best talents to build your startup?
• Creating a roadmap to bring your product to the market?

Depending on your goal, the focus of the business plan may shift.

Investors care more about the numbers. They want to see that you’ve done your homework, analyzing the target audience and proving that you will spend the money you attract in the most effective way.

Your potential co-founders and employees want to see the professional challenges and perspectives of their careers at your company.

This way, the business plan may differ according to your needs and goals. But the type of software you are going to build doesn’t influence the process. You still need to answer the same blocks of questions, whether you are building a simple mobile app, launching a SaaS product on the web, or integrating AI into existing processes of your own business .

So, no matter what type of app you are about to build, prepare to work on your business plan.

How to write a business plan for an app?

A business plan is a document that requires a clear structure. You will aim for high readability and intuitive navigation, which is usually achieved through clear formatting.

Writing a business plan is not about telling a chaotic story of how your app will change the world.

To give your target audience a clear vision of the project, you will have to answer many specific questions. We divide these questions into six blocks:

• Executive summary
• Business description
• Market analysis
• Marketing strategy
• Monetization strategy
• Startup costs and funding.

A business plan for an app usually consists of 20 to 40 pages.

Some of the questions in these blocks may require additional research, and some others may be too obvious, but we encourage you to write down everything that relates to your future app business. You will be glad you put these thoughts on paper. Let’s start with the first block.

Block 1. Executive Summary

This is the introduction to your business plan and the very first thing your potential investor or partner will see when getting acquainted with your idea.

An executive summary may become a standalone document for presenting your future app business, so make sure you provide the most important information on the first two to three pages of your business plan. Make it clear and remarkable, and answer these questions in your summary:

What problem do you want to solve?

Even though the market is full of different solutions, consumers always face obstacles and complications. You need to find these problems and identify the ones you can solve. Analyze what your target audience needs at the moment, why the existing solutions do not satisfy those needs, and what you can offer to solve this problem.

What is your solution?

First, make sure your application can address the problem. Then, introduce your idea but do not dive into details: it is not the right moment to introduce the functionality to investors. It is time to highlight what your app will do to make the app users happy.

For whom do you create your solution?

Identify your target audience in the executive summary. Provide basic information on your buyer persona, but keep in mind that you will have to describe it in more detail later in the Market analysis section.

What are the competitors' solutions?

Summarize the current market situation to give your stakeholders an overview of your competitors. Present this information to prove that there’s demand for similar solutions and convince them that there is space for your product on the market.

What goal do you pursue?

The primary goal of any business is financial return. In this section, tell what your goal looks like. Provide your vision of the app’s future; say how many users you expect to download your app and what profit it will bring. Visualize your short-term plans and enhance your answer with metrics.

The executive summary should include your unique value proposition (UVP) - the distinctive benefits and features of the app that set it apart from competitors and resonate with the target audience.

The next blocks after the summary will require more details.

Block 2. Company description

When you know what product you want to release, you have to go one step further. What company is capable of building such a product?

Present your current team, as well as the vision of a team in a few years. Pay specific attention to the following:

Mission, vision, and values of the company

In a world of dozens of similar software products, your mission, vision, and values set you apart from other companies in your industry. Consider your organization’s impact on the community; this will help you attract people with similar values.

Basic info about your organization

Your potential partners should know whether your company is an LLC or another entity. The company’s structure defines how the processes will be organized in the future.

Location is essential. If your team works remotely, mention it, too. And don’t forget to emphasize the reasons why you have decided on this location or opt for remote collaboration.

If you decide to delegate some of your operations, such as app development, describe how you choose a software outsourcing company . For example, in one of our articles, we have gathered reasons to hire Ukrainian developers. You can use these to convince your stakeholders that software development outsourcing is a financially rewarding decision.

Team introduction

The mobile app business plan should include details about your team so you can get even closer to the reader. By adding a few words about the company’s founders and employees, you turn a boring description into a real introductory meeting.

Tell the potential investor about your managers and the engineering team. You can specify names, positions, experiences, and even hobbies to make the readers feel like they know the people you talk about.

One more actionable tip is to provide the details about your advisory team. Those experts help you with decision-making, and their names make a difference in the market.

And as we mentioned the market, it’s time to describe it to your potential stakeholders as well.

Block 3. Market analysis

To launch an app startup, it’s essential to conduct market research for a startup . By knowing its past and present, you can impact its future. This stage is a transition from a hypothesis to real statistical data.

How big is the market?

To answer this question, you must analyze the following factors:

• Total Available Market, or market demand for your app,
• Serviceable Available Market, or the number of users you are able to reach out to,
• Serviceable Obtainable Market, or the segment of very first users.

How does the market change?

Analyze the market size five years ago and now. What has changed? How many influencers have broken into the market? How many of them failed? The amount of money spent in the industry will help you see your own potential income clearly.

Who are your direct competitors?

You are most likely entering an established market with players who have a significant impact there. What is their market share, and how did it change over time? How do they obtain new customers and retain existing ones? What services do they provide, and how did their offer change over the last years? Understanding your competitors’ paths will help you plan yours.

What is the customer persona?

The only way to develop a legendary app is to look at it with your customers’ eyes. This is why you need to understand the target audience and create a portrait of a customer. A customer persona is a detailed description of who the user of your app is. Define gender, age, occupation, education, hobbies, and daily challenges he or she faces. It is the portrait of a real person your app will serve.

In this section, you prove you understand the market. But you also have to demonstrate your plan to conquer it. The next block is dedicated to this.

Block 4. Marketing strategy

A solid mobile app business plan should describe the way your app will get to the potential user’s smartphone. Let’s have a glance at how to build a successful marketing strategy:

Decide on metrics

In the beginning, your success will be measured by the number of installations or conversion rates, not by financial revenue. So, decide what metrics will be useful for evaluating your project.

Outline your product launch plan

How do you plan to kickstart your app story? Once the mobile application is ready for release, you have to start implementing your product launch plan . Share your ideas to convince the stakeholders you know how to attract users to your app.

Identify the channels you can acquire customers from

Nowadays, social media marketing is an effective way to promote a product. But will it be enough for your app? Go back to the research phase and find out how many potential users you can meet on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Analyze other possible strategies and provide the stakeholders with the information about which channel may be the most profitable.

Think about collaboration with existing businesses

Referral programs and other types of collaborations may become your growth fuel. Decide on the companies to partner with and explain why you expect this cooperation to be fruitful.

Define the desired marketing budget

Unfortunately, you won’t acquire your users for free. And even if you decide not to use paid promotion methods, you still need to pay your marketing team to grow your brand awareness. How much do you need to spend, to acquire the necessary number of users? Calculate it in advance.

Block 5. Monetization Strategy

At the finish line of your mobile app business plan building, we will discuss the financial part. How do you plan to monetize your app? This question is extremely important, unless you plan to start a non-profit project. If your goal is to turn your app idea into a profitable business, tell the stakeholders how you plan to achieve this. You may choose one monetization strategy or a combination of them, such as:

Charge a subscription

Subscription-based apps are usually affordable and solve a specific need of the target audience. If you believe your service will be useful for your users, you can start with a free plan and charge a subscription for advanced functionality. Investors like the business models that rely on recurring payments as their revenue is more or less predictable. On the other hand, you have to work hard to provide top-notch service, otherwise your users can terminate the subscription and turn to your competitors.

Charge a fee for installation

There are so many free apps on the web. And there are two ways for you to convince them to buy your app:

• to deliver exceptional functionality none of the competitor apps offers
• to build a strong brand and make sure users don’t want any alternatives

Both ways require thorough planning and you have to convince potential product stakeholders that you know how to achieve these results.

Use advertising

You can simply advertise other products within your mobile app. It is a fast and easy way to monetize it; however, you should have an impressive number of active users to implement this strategy.

You can find out about other options to earn money from your digital product from our article on mobile app monetization .

Potential partners and investors will not support your idea unless the monetization strategy is well-defined and clear. So be ready to answer the questions about what financial profit you expect to make of this app.

Block 6. Startup Costs & Funding

Did you know one of the key reasons why do startups fail is financial issues? According to CB Insights , 29% of companies simply run out of cash; 18% of companies have different types of cost issues.

Now when you are as close to your first technology startup business plan as never, consider the importance of costs and funding for your business.

Why is the financial component of planning so important?

• It is vital for you to understand what type of funding you need to get your app up and running;
• It is necessary for your potential partners to know how much money you plan to spend.

The startup’s financial model should reflect the forecast for the next 3-5 years. Add the following data to your plan:

What are the one-time costs?

If you have an offline office, include the setup costs. Estimate your initial recruitment budget to get the core team on board.

If you decide to outsource app development, you can count it as a one-time expense as well. An experienced software development partner can precisely estimate the cost to build an app MVP according to your requirements. Add the figure to your mobile app business plan.

What are the recurring costs?

Here, you will have to estimate the costs to maintain the office space and your equipment.

Also, you will need to calculate the salaries of your full-time employees, or the ones you hire according to the staff augmentation model.

Usually, outsourcing all startup development stages is a better choice as it is more predictable and requires less project management activities from your side. This means, you as a startup founder can focus on strategic tasks.

Think how you can reduce the costs

Creating a software product is never cheap. However, in your mobile app business plan, it’s important to demonstrate to your potential investors that you can allocate financial resources wisely. There are various ways to reduce the overall development costs without compromising quality in any way:

Leverage outsourcing

Outsourcing can significantly cut costs. Instead of hiring in-house specialists to complete certain tasks within your project, you can partner with a reliable vendor and

tap into the expertise you need. In this case, you will pay only for the work outlined in the contract, not for the working hours of your employees. Just ensure you choose a partner with proven experience to maintain quality while reducing expenses.

Opt for remote work

If feasible, consider a remote work model. By eliminating the need for physical office space, you can save on rent, utilities, and office supplies. Remote work also allows finding skilled professionals at lower rates than local hires.

Use open-source solutions

Incorporate open-source software and tools wherever possible. Many high-quality open-source solutions are available for development, project management, and marketing. Utilizing these tools can reduce software licensing fees and other related costs.

Start with MVP

Building an MVP means focusing on developing core features first to test your concept. This approach not only reduces initial development costs but also allows you to gather user feedback and iterate efficiently. Avoid adding unnecessary features in the early stages that can increase both time and expense.

Being proactive about financial management helps you identify potential overspending areas and address them promptly. By thinking strategically about cost reduction from the outset, you can ensure that your resources are used efficiently, giving your mobile app startup a stronger chance of success. Remember, the goal is to maximize value while keeping expenses under control.

Review your mobile app business plan

Reviewing and updating your business plan for an app is essential to ensure it remains relevant and effective. Here’s how you can approach this process:

• Set regular review periods

How long does it take to develop an app ? It’s difficult to answer this question. You may get all that is necessary right away, or you may need some time for it. Regular intervals, such as quarterly or bi-annually, allows you to assess your progress, make adjustments, and stay aligned with your goals. Regular reviews help you stay agile and responsive to changes in the market and your business environment.

• Update market analysis

The market is evolving constantly. Your initial market analysis might become outdated at some point. Revise the latest industry trends, competitor activities, and customer preferences. Staying informed can help you ensure that your strategies remain competitive and relevant.

• Reevaluate finances

Your financial projections are based on assumptions that may change over time. Reevaluate your revenue forecasts, cost estimates, and funding needs to ensure they reflect your current situation.

• Assess your marketing strategy

Are you reaching your target audience? Are your acquisition channels performing as expected? Use data metrics and analytics to measure the success of your campaigns and refine your marketing strategy accordingly.

• Reflect on achievements and setbacks

Take time to reflect on what you have achieved and the challenges you have faced. Identify the strategies that worked well and the areas that need improvement. Learning from your experiences helps you refine your approach and avoid repeating past mistakes.

• Engage your team

Involve your team in the review process. Their insights and feedback can provide valuable perspectives and help identify areas for improvement. Collaborative reviews also encourage a sense of ownership and alignment within the team, helping you in achieving your business goals.

• Adjust your goals

Based on your review, adjust your goals and objectives if necessary. Setting realistic and achievable targets ensures your mobile app business plan remains not a theoretical but practical tool for guiding your startup.

• Document changes

Keep a record of the changes made during a review. Documenting updates ensures transparency and provides a clear history of your business plan’s evolution. This can be particularly useful when communicating with stakeholders and tracking your progress over time.

If you are planning to put your application into the list of top fast-growing startups , regularly reviewing your business plan for an app is essential to ensure your strategies remain aligned with your vision. By staying proactive and adaptable, you can navigate the dynamic landscape of the industry.

In conclusion

Unless you have started bringing your plans to life, a well-structured business plan is your main tool for archiving success. It not only provides a clear roadmap for your startup but also helps attract investors, allocate resources efficiently, mitigate risks, and manage your team effectively. By thoroughly addressing each of the blocks we have mentioned - executive summary, business description, market analysis, marketing strategy, monetization strategy, and startup costs & funding - you can present a comprehensive and compelling vision of your app’s potential.

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How to Write Business plan for your Mobile app?

The search giant Statista quotes that in 2026, users are likely to download 143 billion mobile apps from the Google Play Store, and for the Apple Store, it is 38 billion. These figures show a remarkable growth between 15-30% from the previous years. Even further, during the third quarter of 2022 , more than 3.55 million mobile apps were available on the Google Play Store.

Hence, it is not exaggerated to say businesses should have a foolproof mobile app business plan to find a permanent place on users’ mobile phones because the chances of user engagement and conversion are manifold.

At present, businesses are on the verge of getting completely automated, and any business that does not offer ease to its end users or customers to avail services or buy products are likely to get vanished. If you are an entrepreneur and aim to lead the market with your brand, it is indeed necessary to write specifications for mobile app development before you even think of outsourcing a project to top mobile app development companies.

Table of Contents

Importance of Mobile Apps for Businesses

There are many significant reasons why mobile apps are mandatory for any business; today, mobile apps are not just a trend, but a necessity for businesses in the modern world. They help businesses increase their sales, customer loyalty, brand awareness, accessibility, analytics, revenue generation, and customer service. Mobile apps can also serve as a powerful marketing tool that can reach and engage the target audience with personalized and timely messages.

Here are some reasons why mobile apps are mandatory for businesses today:

Improves accessibility

Mobile apps can improve accessibility by making the business available 24/7 to customers. They can also offer offline access, location-based services, push notifications, and other features that can improve the user experience and convenience.

Increases sales

Mobile apps can boost conversions by offering a fast and convenient way for customers to browse, compare, and purchase products or services. They also offer discounts, coupons, rewards, and other incentives to encourage repeat purchases and referrals.

Marketing tool

Customized mobile apps serve as a marketing tool that can promote the business’s products, services, offers, and events to the target audience. Mobile apps can also leverage social media platforms, email marketing, SMS marketing, and other such digital marketing services to increase the reach and impact of marketing campaigns.

Customer loyalty

Mobile apps foster customer loyalty by providing a direct and constant communication channel with customers. With it you can also offer features such as feedback forms, chatbots, social media integration, and loyalty programs that can help you to enhance customer satisfaction and retention.

Brand awareness

A good mobile application increases brand awareness by creating a unique and memorable identity for the business. You can turn an app idea into reality and portray your business’s values, vision, mission, and personality through design, content, and functionality.

Better analytics

Enterprises, especially startups, primarily focus on analytics as they largely depend on this data to build other business strategies. Thoughtfully built mobile apps can provide better analytics by collecting and analyzing data on user behavior, preferences, feedback, and satisfaction. You can also get better insights into market trends, customer segments, and competitors that can help you improve your business strategies and performance to increase profit and get the best Return on Investment.

Better customer service

Mobile apps can offer better customer service by providing instant and personalized support to customers. It can also offer features such as FAQs, tutorials, videos, chatbots, and call options that can resolve customer queries and issues to increase User Experience (UX).

Having a mobile app is important for businesses today as it can provide many benefits that help them to grow and succeed in the competitive market. With mobile applications, business owners can attract, retain, and delight their customers with a seamless and engaging user experience.

How To Write a Business Plan For a Mobile App?

Executive summary

A concise and clear part about how your product works is an executive summary. Whether you are a CEO of an upcoming big startup or a small business owner, expressing your product should be translucent. The three things to keep in mind while writing an executive summary for your mobile application are:

Unique value proposition

A Unique Value Proposition or a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a section that expresses your mobile app business idea’s uniqueness and distinct selling points about the product or services that you offer.

This is the list of things you will need to incorporate:

• Identify your ideal customer
• List your product’s benefits, value, and how it stands out
• Focus on clarity and specificity
• Test and optimize your UVP and USP

Objectives are the specific steps you and your business organization need to take in order to reach long-term goals. It includes what the business aims to achieve and the overall ideals of the organization. These objectives are based on your analysis for mobile applications.

It mainly focuses on your end goals and the timeline to achieve your goals. These objectives improve customer services, enhance worker productivity, increase profits, and attract investors to your business plan for mobile app development.

This part is a brief outline of the business organization’s goals and purpose for the app development business plan. A good outline includes

• Brief description of products and summary
• Summary of objectives
• Solid description of market
• High-level justification for viability
• Snapshot of growth potential
• Overview of funding requirements

Company synopsis

It is a shortened version that gives the basics of your business plan for a mobile app idea. It attracts financial lenders and inventors to bring in new capital. The pro tip is to include only-need-to-know information by keeping it brief and punchy.

Here are the foundational elements you will need to include in your business description:

The overview is like an introduction to your business. It comprehends the official company name, business entity, year of establishment, headquarters, and other locations if any.

Type of business

Whether it is a limited liability company(LLC), sole proprietorship, corporation, or partnership, this part includes the business structure of your enterprise. Entrepreneurs should carefully consider mentioning the type of business in the company overview.

The facts and concrete details about your business are essential for the readers of your company synopsis, but it is also important to share a glimpse of your mission and future goals. This section provides clarity behind what, who, and why of your company. The best mission statement typically is a succinct single but catchy line.

Statement of Concept

This is the part where you convert your words into reality. Readers by now know who you are and what you do but this acts as a guide and a persuasive tool in decision making. It simply identifies the target audience, defines the problem, and implies how your mobile app will address the problem.

Tell your story. A part of what makes your business plan for mobile application development unique from other businesses and organizations is your story and your experiences. Try to add interesting details and characteristic patterns of where your company comes from, how it came into existence and how you think, feel, and work.

You can list your achievements and milestones through a diagram or a chart so that readers can track your mobile app’s entire journey feasibly. If it’s not a startup, this is the space where you can also talk about the evolution of your mobile app business plan, how it was when it was first launched, how it has grown and changed over the years.

Share the names, photos, and key roles of the ownership and management team of your company. Whether they are remote workers, full-time, part-time employees, app development team, or advisory board members, stakeholders, mention details of their work history, educational background, and skills.

The importance of this section is often understated but giving the details about all the people involved within the company is vital. The readers will be intrigued about your app development team and investors will want to know more about them. Adding a section of your advisory panel and board members who are extremely experienced can be a center of attraction.

Industry Analysis

This section involves a lot of research-based information about your business, rivals, sales, and the overall market. As an entrepreneur, it is vital to collect every grain of information regarding your mobile app business idea from market history to current trends. There are a lot of business factors to consider before launching a mobile app.

The overall information about the market can hugely impact business statistics. This part includes two main segments market analysis and market forecast:

Market analysis

One of the main factors in realizing your mobile application development idea for your business should be data about the state of the market. Collect current information, make short-term forecasts, and have a marketing plan. Market analysis hugely impacts the viability of your mobile app business plan.

Market forecasts

This is an integral part of writing a business plan to realize your mobile app development. Usually, the data on the growth in the number of companies in the mobile app development industry and data on the money spent is incorporated in market forecasts.

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is method of strategic planning that allows you to give a well-structured description of where you stand in the market. It can be used to study new projects, enterprises, regions or even entire countries linked with your mobile app. SWOT analysis is a decisive factor in understanding businesses and plays a huge role in customer satisfaction. Here are the details on what exactly SWOT analysis stands for;

The positive tangible and intangible attributes within the business organizations’ control are mentioned in this part.

All businesses have their individual weaknesses and it is quite normal. The knowledge of potential problems acts as a strong motivator to address solutions to its significant weaknesses.

• Opportunities

The externally attractive factors that represent the reason for an organization to exist and develop are opportunities. List out the opportunities that exist in an environment propelling the organization.

The external factors beyond your organization’s control and can act as an operational risk to your mission should be considered beforehand. Having contingency and backup plans can be a big help to address the threats that may or may not occur.

Marketing Strategy

This section is the bridge that strategically allows your mobile app business plan to fall into the hands of your customers. It helps you outline exactly where your business plan for developing an app fits into the market and how will you price, promote, and sell your mobile app.

The correct marketing strategy gets you more sales and acts as an important source of information for potential investors interested in analyzing your mobile app business plan.

Target audience

You need to pick your target audience and understand them thoroughly before developing a mobile app. For any experienced mobile app developer, knowing the target audience is a critical point. It gives them a chance to figure out the structural behavior of your mobile app.

Eventually, knowing your audience and targeting just them helps save a lot of money and time for app marketing. Market segmentation strategies also play a huge role in targeting app customers.

Landing page

A landing page is an excellent way to reach out to your target audience. For this, you will need to develop an engaging mockup and provide your collaborators with data on how many customers will discover your product from this landing page.

A mobile app landing page is specifically made for promoting your mobile app concept by describing features and value propositions. A landing page entices users to click on the link, download and install your app.

App rating and review

Mobile app rating is just one of the approaches to position your app for success, but it’s a critical one. Hence, including it in your mobile app business plan is necessary. Nowadays, user often rely on app ratings and reviews to decide whether they should download the mobile app or not. Google is coming up with a new rating formula that rates apps in the Play Store based on their current performance.

Research shows that almost 79% of people will read reviews and ratings before installing an app. So, it is also an important user acquisition factor. Furthermore, you can leverage app reviews to accelerate app growth.

Competitor analysis

Competitor analysis is an indispensable element of any business plan. All businesses religiously perform this step, regardless of the organization type, size, or industry.

Define your competitors, study their weaknesses, brainstorm them into your strengths, learn from them and be aware of their history and capabilities. Make sure, mobile app that you build offers an ample amount of functionalities and is able to cater to customers better than your rivals.

As Gillian Morris states, if you invest in growth before you have customer retention, you are not acquiring mobile app users. You are renting them. You need to focus on activation first and not acquisition.

Your success will be measured by conversion rates or the number of installations and not financial rates, especially in the beginning stages. Mobile app growth can be fueled by referral programs and collaboration with business organizations.

Customer acquisition strategy

The most effective way to promote a product, especially a mobile app concept is through social media. It is simply a marketing phase where you can convey the details and strategies of how you plan to attract new users.

By targeting multiple platforms and spreading the word, you will be bringing your mobile app closer to the intended users. Some of the many marketing channels you can aim to achieve a perfect business plan for monetizing your mobile app after development are:

• Search engine marketing
• Social media ads
• Mobile app walls ads
• Email marketing
• Press releases
• Content marketing
• App store optimization
• Push and in-app notifications
• Incentivized user downloads
• Organic installs
• Public relations
• Event marketing
• Retargeting campaigns
• Partnerships
• Mobile site redirection

Operational strategy

Operational strategy is a total pattern of decisions that shape long-term capabilities of a mobile app and its contributions to the overall strategy. This is the part that drives the business’ operations. It is a strategy for customer relations that also allocates funding to the business. By planning this, a business can examine and implement effective systems for using resources, personnel, and work processes.

Here are the two steps you will need to encounter:

Users process

Since the users first hear about the mobile app and start using it, the user process is a detailed outline of how users are using the mobile app. It involves information about users’ behavior from start to end.

Personnel plan

The personnel plan incorporates all the information about the employees and people working on the project. The process of hiring the employees, their salaries, and expenses are included in this section. The hierarchy of the organization, norms, and stages are outlined in this section.

Financial Plan for Mobile Application

The final step in planning a successful mobile app development for your business is you need to predict the expected revenues and finances of your mobile app. Before moving forward, you must clearly understand the type of finances you are going to need.

Required funding

This is the part where you reveal all information related to funding and finances for your mobile app business plan.

Here are the questions you will need to address:

• How much finance or funds do you require?
• How are you going to make money?
• How much percentage of equity are you proposing to give in return?
• How long will the money be sufficient before you need to propose another funding round?
• How is it going to be, preferred stock or a convertible note?

The two things investors will be most interested in will be the costs and the variables. The cost to develop a mobile app varies depending on app features, app developers’ rates, and the complexity of the application. For a precise estimate, you may request the top mobile app development company for a quote. Some costs are fixed while some are not, here are a few costs you will need to take into consideration:

• One-time costs
• Periodic costs
• Fixed costs
• Variable costs

Revenue models

Revenue models are strategies and resources for managing and promoting a business’ revenue stream. It took 8 years for Facebook and over 3 years for Snapchat to introduce monetization models. But if you do it right, you can achieve amazing results. One of the best examples is Amazon Prime, with analysts pegged Prime’s yearly user retention rate at over 90%.

While planning for mobile app monetization, it is important to monitor the marketing metrics and benchmark them against the industry. This will help you spot weaknesses and align your marketing efforts more efficiently with MVP development .

Revenue models can turn out to be successful with continuous testing and iteration Among a lot of revenue models to earn money via mobile app, we have penned down the most popular and efficient ones here:

• In-App Purchase
• In-App Advertising
• Subscription-Based Model
• Freemium Model
• Premium Subscriptions
• Sponsorship and Partnership
• Affiliate Marketing
• Referral Marketing
• Data Monetization
• Pay Per Download

The average time spent by mobile users on their smartphones is 170 minutes per day. Out of that, apps account for 89% of mobile media time versus around 13% on the web. This is just the data, reality is right in front of us, right in front of you on your screen at the very moment. So, if you have a mobile app business idea , don’t hesitate to make a wonderful plan and create a groundbreaking mobile app because it will grow significantly. Last but not least, plan for what is difficult while it is easy, and do what is great while it is small.

Frequently Asked Questions about Mobile App Business Plan

What is a business plan for a mobile app.

The business plan for a mobile app is detailed documentation that acts as a guide for all the business stakeholders involved in the development project. it enables them to know how to build and launch the app profitably.

How long does it take to write a business plan for an app?

Business plan creation for the app involves identifying USP, target user and competition research and analysis, and the right marketing channels search, which takes around 1-3 months based on the app’s complexity.

Is it possible to create an application without a business plan?

Yes, it’s possible to create an app without a business plan, but an app released in an unplanned way ultimately fails at a later stage even if it’s able to gain enough traction. Having a business plan helps you move in the right direction.

• Top 15 Business App Ideas For Entrepreneurs In 2024
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A professionally engaged blogger, an entertainer, dancer, tech critic, movie buff and a quick learner with an impressive personality! I work as a Senior Process Specialist at Topdevelopers.co as I can readily solve business problems by analyzing the overall process. I’m also good at building a better rapport with people!

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Step-by-Step Visual Guide to Mobile App Planning

Have a promising idea for an app on your mind? Great! That’s 20% of what you need to do to create a thriving product, already done!

Next comes the harder part of it, where you actually have to turn your idea into something that works.

We are about to dig into a visual strategy that could help you speed up your app development process. Read on to find out how to plan an app using easy-to-use visualization tools.

Goals for the App

Who is your target audience, brainstorm solutions, draw user flows, architecture diagrams, your app vs. your competitor’s app, outline your campaign process, putting it all together, working together, now you know how to plan an app. are you ready to plan yours, define the specifications.

There are a few specifications you need to define before you go ahead and develop your app.

These specifications come under your business plan – which documents what you want to do and how you plan to do it.

Check out how to visually improve your business plan here .

During the mobile app planning process, the goals you set will help you decide which features to add and how you should develop and design your mobile app.

Now, goals you set may vary from what you want your app to do to how you will market it to people. It is important to sit down and define what these are. Ask yourself

• What is the purpose of your app?
• How will it help simplify the lives of its users?
• How will it help solve the problems of its users?
• How do you plan to market it to your target audience?

Answers to these questions will help you outline the goals you need to focus on. And once you agree on them, prioritize your goals so you’d know where to start.

Tip: Usually it’s a good idea to keep your goals to 1-2 at max so that your app is focused and easy to use.

Understanding your target audience is vital to the development of your app.

Among information such as age, gender, career, location and other quantitative data, you should also learn about your user’s requirements, challenges, needs, and responsibilities.

Other qualitative information you should have a record of are the technologies your users use, what platforms (Android/ iOS) they are familiar with, what app functionalities they prefer etc.

For example, using a Venn diagram you can identify what app features you should prioritize given the different types of customers you would attract.

Now that you know who your target audience is and what problems they have, it’s time to figure out how to use your app to solve those problems.

This calls for brainstorming for ideas with your team. To facilitate the session, you could use a visual tool like mind maps .  What’s special about mind maps is that it increases productivity by helping you better structure or organize a free flow of ideas.

A completed mind map drawn around a single topic – in this case, the issue your user is facing – will give you a quick overview of how you should approach the situation and make quick decisions.

Tip: Color code – use different colors to represent each of your main branches – your mind maps to organize ideas better.

To determine which features to add to your app, you need to know how users are going to go through it. Is it a registered user who wants to edit information on her account, or is it a new user who wants to create an account?

All kinds of interactions that a user will have with your app can be visualized through use case diagrams – which are basically used to describe what a system does.

It’s the easiest way to convey to the developer what app features need to be focused on and show to your stakeholders what problems you are trying to solve.

Or you can draw some Flowcharts to explain how a user gets something done via the app. This will really help you zero in on how the app is supposed to work.

Start Sketching Your App

Now that you have identified how different users may interact with your app, it’s time to flesh it out. This means, turning your idea into pictures which will be converted into navigable screens during the final stage.

This is where you get to decide how many screens there will be and how each will look like. And putting them in a logical manner will help you get the idea as to how it will work.

Most apps will have some sort of data they have to capture and use. A great way to visually break it down is to use an  Entity Relationship (ER) Diagram. This will allow you to identify the key things you want to capture and how they are related to each other.

ER Diagrams are a really simple tool to do this even if it may sound daunting to use at first.

Based on your user flows and data needs identified earlier, it’s time to define how the app looks and works .

Wireframes are line sketches of the interface of your app. They show how it should work without really bothering about colors, placement, and other styling details. At this stage, it’s more about the functionality vs. styling.

Tip: Link the wireframes together via button clicks to show the navigation experience within the app.

When describing how your app works to outsiders such as stakeholders, you can use architecture diagrams like block diagrams or network diagram (example below).  They simplify complex processes that a non-tech savvy person might find confusing.

Plan Your Promotional Strategy

How many users you attract to your app depends on how you promote it.

Before you plan your strategy, you need to figure out where you are at compared to your competitors. This means analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your app against that of your competitors, and opportunities and threats that you might have to face in the market.

A simple SWOT analysis will help you get a quick overview of these factors.

SWOT analysis to plan your promotional or marketing campaign step-by-step. Get the input of your marketing team as well.

And if you initially want to brainstorm for new ideas, use a mind map to generate promotional campaign ideas .

As you can see, there are a series of aspects that go into creating an app. A great idea is to link these Flowcharts , Mind maps , ER Diagrams and wireframes together in a sensible fashion. This way anyone can really walk someone through the entire app concept and know exactly how things are going to work.

We guarantee you that this clarity will save you a large chunk of money and time when it comes to actual mobile app development.

Building an app is usually not a single person’s job. You’ll have your developers, potential clients/customers, partners all wanting to have a say in how things should work and be done.

Using real-time collaboration when you are on a conference call or even in the same room to update and modify the diagrams as you make decisions is a great way to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

If you are using Creately , you can also use offline commenting so that you can have pointed discussions on various parts of your mind-map, wireframe or flowchart easily with everyone in your team.

Visualization makes communication easier, whether it is between you and your development team or your stakeholders.

As they simplify complex processes, help organize and communicate ideas, visual tools like these make planning an app -well – a piece of cake!

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

FAQs on Mobile App Planning

• Clarifies the purpose and goals of the app, ensuring it meets user needs and aligns with business objectives.
• Takes a user-centric approach by understanding the target audience, their preferences, and behaviors.
• Efficiently allocates resources, estimating budget, time, and development requirements.
• Mitigates risks by identifying and addressing potential challenges in advance.
• Facilitates a seamless development process with a structured roadmap and improved collaboration.
• Enhances user experience through well-planned UX and UI design.
• Considers scalability and future-proofing to accommodate growth and expansion.
• Optimizes cost and time by defining scope, prioritizing features, and streamlining workflows.
• Aligns the app with business goals, evaluating its impact on revenue, customer engagement, and brand awareness.
• Provides a competitive advantage by conducting market research and developing unique features or value propositions.
• Inadequate market research, leading to a lack of understanding of target audience needs and competition.
• Unclear objectives and goals, resulting in a lack of direction and purpose for the app.
• Poor user understanding, neglecting to consider user preferences and pain points.
• Feature overload, including too many features that can lead to a cluttered and confusing user experience.
• Ineffective planning and scope creep, causing delays, increased costs, and compromised user experience.
• Ignoring platform considerations, leading to inconsistent user experiences across different platforms.
• Poor UX/UI design, resulting in confusing navigation and unattractive visuals.
• Insufficient testing and quality assurance, leading to bugs and poor performance.
• Lack of analytics and metrics, missing out on valuable insights for optimization.
• Neglecting post-launch support and updates, hindering user satisfaction and app growth.
• Product manager: Defines app vision, sets goals, and coordinates development process.
• UI/UX designer: Creates intuitive and visually appealing user interface and experience.
• Mobile app developer: Implements app functionality using programming languages.
• Backend developer: Builds server-side infrastructure, handles data storage and integration.
• QA engineer: Tests app for functionality, usability, and performance.
• Project manager: Manages timelines, resources, and communication.
• Database administrator: Manages databases, ensures data integrity and security.
• DevOps engineer: Handles app deployment and CI/CD processes.
• Security specialist: Ensures app security and data protection.
• Marketing specialist: Develops marketing strategy for app launch and user acquisition.

More Related Articles

Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• Initiate with Your Business Concept: Lay the Groundwork: Start by introducing your business idea into Plannit AI's Business Plan Generator. This first step is crucial, as it sets the tone for a tailored, insightful business plan that truly resonates with your vision. Capture the Essence: Our platform is designed to grasp the nuances of your concept, ensuring that the generated plan accurately reflects the core and potential of your business.
• Navigate Through the AI-Guided Questionnaire: Tailored Interactive Experience: Plannit AI’s AI-guided questionnaire is your interactive guide through the planning process. It meticulously gathers information about your business's objectives, strategies, and market positioning, ensuring a comprehensive and reflective plan. Intelligent Feedback and Suggestions: As you progress through the questionnaire, benefit from smart prompts and suggestions, ensuring that your plan is not just detailed but also strategically sound and aligned with industry standards.
• Generate Your Plan with Advanced AI: Intuitive Plan Creation: With the questionnaire complete, Plannit AI's advanced algorithms intelligently analyze your responses. They then craft a detailed, customizable, and strategically aligned business plan, providing you with a structured, coherent, and actionable format. Benefit from AI-Powered Insights: Plannit AI offers AI-driven insights and suggestions, ensuring your plan is not just a document but a strategic tool equipped with tailored AI prompts and an in-app plan editor. Get inspired by browsing through our sample business plans, a collection of successful strategies across various industries.
• Finalize Your Plan with Confidence: Dynamic Adaptation and Refinement: Plannit AI recognizes that a business plan is a living document. Our platform allows for continuous adaptation and refinement, ensuring your strategy remains agile, relevant, and aligned with your evolving business goals. Professional Presentation and Sharing: Once your plan meets your standards, utilize Plannit AI's export features to present your plan professionally. Choose between various formats for exporting your business plan, ready to impress stakeholders, attract investors, or guide your team. Review and Adapt: Ensure your business plan is a living document, ready to evolve with your growing business. Plannit AI's dynamic platform allows you to adapt your strategy as new opportunities or challenges arise.
• Roadmap for Success: At its core, a business plan acts as a strategic guide, providing detailed steps on how your business will achieve its objectives. It helps you navigate the startup phase, manage growth effectively, and tackle unforeseen challenges with a well-thought-out strategy.
• Securing Funding: For startups and businesses looking to expand, a business plan is crucial for securing loans or attracting investors. It demonstrates to potential financial backers that your business has a clear vision, a solid strategy for profitability, and a plan for delivering returns on their investment.
• Informed Decision-Making: A well-prepared business plan offers valuable insights into your market, competition, and potential challenges. This information is vital for making informed decisions, from day-to-day operations to long-term strategic shifts.
• Market Analysis and Strategy: It allows you to conduct an in-depth analysis of your target market, understand customer needs, and position your product or service effectively. The marketing strategy outlined in your business plan helps in identifying the best channels and tactics to reach your audience and achieve market penetration.
• Financial Planning: One of the most critical components of a business plan is the financial forecast. It outlines your funding requirements, expected revenue, profit margins, and cash flow projections. This section is essential for budgeting, financial management, and ensuring the financial viability of your business.
• Goal Setting and Performance Measurement: A business plan sets clear, measurable goals and objectives. It provides a framework for monitoring performance, measuring success, and making necessary adjustments to stay on track.
• Aspiring Entrepreneurs: If you're at the idea stage, looking to transform your vision into a viable business, Plannit AI offers the tools and guidance to bring your concept to life. Our platform helps you articulate your business idea, define your target market, and develop a solid plan to turn your dream into reality.
• Students and Educators: For students delving into the intricacies of business planning and educators teaching the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, Plannit AI serves as an invaluable resource. It provides a practical, hands-on tool for learning and teaching how to create detailed business plans, analyze markets, and understand financials in a real-world context.
• Startup Founders: In the dynamic startup environment, Plannit AI is the ideal partner for founders looking to pivot quickly, secure funding, or understand their competitive landscape. With our AI-driven insights and market analysis tools, startups can make informed decisions and adapt their strategies to thrive in competitive markets.
• Small Business Owners: For small business owners seeking to optimize their operations, expand their customer base, or explore new markets, Plannit AI offers targeted solutions. Our platform simplifies the planning process, enabling owners to focus on growth while managing the day-to-day challenges of running their business.
• Consultants and Freelancers: Consultants and freelancers specializing in business development, strategic planning, or financial advising will find Plannit AI a powerful addition to their toolkit. It allows them to provide clients with comprehensive, data-driven business plans and strategies, enhancing the value of their services.
• Non-Profit Organizations: Leaders of non-profit organizations can leverage Plannit AI to plan initiatives, secure funding, and manage resources more efficiently. Our platform helps non-profits articulate their mission, set achievable goals, and measure their impact, ensuring they can make a difference in their communities.
• Innovators and Inventors: Individuals looking to commercialize innovative products or technologies can use Plannit AI to navigate the complexities of bringing new ideas to market. From patent strategies to go-to-market plans, our platform covers all bases, ensuring innovators can focus on what they do best.
• Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) and Government Agencies: Government and SBA backed entities can greatly benefit from integrating Plannit AI into their services, enhancing their ability to support a larger number of clients more efficiently. By facilitating quicker, more in-depth business plan development, these organizations can spend more time assisting with plan execution and less time on creation, ultimately serving their communities more effectively.
• Anyone with a Business Idea: Ultimately, Plannit AI is for anyone with a business idea, regardless of industry, experience, or stage of business development. Our mission is to democratize business planning, making it accessible, understandable, and actionable for everyone.
• Interactive Questionnaire and ChatGPT Integration: Plannit AI transforms the business planning process into an engaging conversation. Through our advanced ChatGPT integration, we offer a questionnaire that dynamically adapts to your responses, ensuring your plan is personalized, comprehensive, and aligned with your business goals.
• Dynamic Planning Environment: Unlike static templates provided by many, Plannit AI introduces a living platform that grows with your business. It features real-time updates, strategic insights, and a feedback mechanism that keeps your business plan current and actionable.
• Extensive Educational Resources: Our Education Center is packed with articles, guides, and sample plans to bolster your planning process. It's designed to arm you with the knowledge to navigate the complexities of your industry confidently.
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• Customer Success Stories: Our users' achievements are a testament to Plannit AI's effectiveness. These success stories illustrate how diverse businesses have utilized our platform for strategic planning and growth.
• Tailored Business Plan Creation: Our platform stands out with its tailored approach, featuring customizable templates that directly cater to your business type and industry, making plan creation straightforward and relevant.
• Content Generation:: ChatGPT helps draft various sections of a business plan, from executive summaries to marketing strategies, by providing structured and coherent text based on the prompts given.
• Strategic Insights: It can offer suggestions on business strategies by analyzing trends and providing examples from a wide range of industries.
• Financial Planning: While it can't replace professional financial advice, ChatGPT can guide the structure of financial projections and statements, helping you consider important financial aspects of your plan.

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• Figure out who your customers really are
• Clarify what problem your business is solving
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The entire process typically takes just 60 minutes – you can even write it on your smartphone with our app for business planning. And once finished, you'll get a better idea of how to position your business for success.

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There’s no escaping it: banks and investors want to see a complete, detailed business plan that includes strong financial forecasts.

LivePlan’s business plan writing app guides you through the entire business-planning process with:

• Simple step-by-step instructions
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Create financials without tricky calculations

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Just answer a few questions about your sales and revenue and LivePlan will handle the calculations automatically using built-in formulas. That means you get ultra-accurate cash flow projections with a minimal amount of effort.

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Your business plan will be optimized to earn you funding

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Once complete, download your plan as a PDF or Word doc. Or you can print it to get a professional document

Then track your actuals against your plan to grow 30% faster

The LivePlan Dashboard is a dashboard that makes it easy to compare the financial projections in your plan to your actuals. That way, you can make adjustments on–the–fly to optimize your business.

The Dashboard connects to Xero or QuickBooks, so there's no manual data entry.

LivePlan’s business plan app features that help you succeed

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Keep your business on track by scheduling milestones for key tasks or projects. It's an easy way to make sure you hit all the most important goals.

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Totally risk free. 35-day money-back guarantee., frequently asked questions, how does liveplan ensure the security of my data.

Yes, all your personal and business data are safe with us. All account and plan data are written to multiple disks instantly, saved every few seconds, and stored in multiple locations. Your business plan will remain completely confidential and entirely private unless you choose to share it via exporting or inviting guests to your account.

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Yes, the LivePlan business plan app is compatible with QuickBooks Online and Xero, allowing you to bring your accounting data directly into your financial forecasts and keep them up-to-date.

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Does LivePlan offer industry-specific business plan templates?

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• Best Business Plan Software

10 Best Business Plan Software In 2024

Updated: May 3, 2024, 5:15pm

Writing a business plan not only helps you stay on track as you start a new business but it can also help you secure funding. You can create one from scratch with a simple template, but business plan software often has features to make it easier, more nuanced and overall better. It could even make the difference between bringing investors on board and going it alone. So, Forbes Advisor found the best business plan software that has the features you need at an affordable price.

• Best Project Management Software
• Best Construction Project Management Software
• Best Project Portfolio Management Software
• Best Gantt Chart Software
• Best Task Management Software
• Best Kanban Software

The Best Business Plan Software of 2024

Forbes advisor ratings, methodology, how to choose a business plan software, benefits of business plan software, frequently asked questions (faqs), next up in business.

Featured Partners

From $8 monthly per user

Zoom, LinkedIn, Adobe, Salesforce and more

On monday.com's Website

Yes, for one user and two editors

$9 per user per month

Google Drive, Slack, Tableau, Miro, Zapier and more

On Smartsheet's Website

Yes, for unlimited members

$7 per month

Slack, Microsoft Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Timely, Google Drive and more

On ClickUp's Website

$9.80 per user per month

Salesforce, Adobe, Miro, Netsuite, Quickbooks, SAP

On Wrike's Website

• Wrike: Best overall
• Smartsheet: Best for goal management
• LivePlan: Best for financial forecasting
• Aha!: Best for roadmapping
• Bizplan: Best for beginners
• IdeaBuddy: Best for ideation
• iPlanner: Best for no-frills business planning
• Enloop: Best for automatic business plan creation
• AchieveIt: Best for consultant groups
• Business Sorter: Best for teams

Best Overall

Starting price

Free; $9.80 per user

Team messaging

Roadmapping

Wrike is a project management (PM) tool that works well as business plan software because it gives you tools to help you gather and compare your data. Wrike makes it easy to start your business plan with its collaboration tools, business plan templates , drag-and-drop interface and goal management features. Another benefit of using Wrike to build your plan is that you see your ideas and goals from multiple views: Gantt chart, calendar or board views.

There are a few reasons why it’s a good idea to use Wrike for your business plan. First, you can map out exactly what your business goals are in a project, invite teammates to collaborate and message business partners to discuss everything. Plus, you can export your data when you’re ready to put all the details into a presentation to hand over to potential investors.

Wrike offers a free plan that’s good for putting your vision down in task and project form, but you may want to upgrade to a paid plan to invite collaborators, get custom workflows and add more views and automations. Paid plan pricing ranges from $9.80 per user, per month, to $24.80 per user, per month, both billed annually.

Learn more: Read our full Wrike review .

Who should use it:

Wrike makes it easy for any new business owner to create a business plan and collaborate with others on the financial and operational goals. Plus, it provides value after you finalize your business plan because it’s a good pick for a PM tool.

• Roadmapping ability
• Multiple views (Gantt, calendar and board)
• Business plan templates included
• Goal management via projects and tasks
• Free plan available
• Affordable plans
• No pitching tools
• No financial tools

Best for Goal Management

$7 per user, per month

(billed annually)

(added cost)

Using PM software like Smartsheet is a good idea for starting a business plan because it includes all the tools you need to collaborate and plan across multiple teams or stakeholders. It’s especially good for real-time goal management. Get your ideas in place, go over market and competitive research from other teammates and finalize everything together.

Smartsheet won’t help you write your business plan, but it does give you a place to compile all the data and then you can use one of its free business plan templates. As you figure out your milestones, you can invite an unlimited number of viewers to see how it’s going. The only downsides are that Smartsheet doesn’t have a native messaging app (you’ll have to use an integration), only commenting allowed and there’s no free plan.

Paid plans from Smartsheet cost $7 per user, per month, or $25 per user, per month (billed annually for both). The low-priced Pro plan limits you to 10 editors, but the Business plan allows unlimited editors (but it also has a three-user minimum).

Learn more: Read our full Smartsheet review .

Smartsheet lets you make changes in real time, so it’s a good option for those who are just starting to piece together a plan and looking for a way to manage ideas and goals before finalizing a business plan.

• Discounts for nonprofits available
• Automations on every plan
• Popular integrations allowed on low-tier plan
• 30-day free trial
• No free plan
• Only 10 viewers allowed on low-tier plan
• Three-user minimum on Business plan

Best for Financial Forecasting

$15 per month

One of the strongest cases for using LivePlan to create your business plan is its financial forecasting. It isn’t just a single feature, rather it’s a tool that lets you turn your balance sheet and cash flow statements into charts, graphs and what-if situations to help you show possible investors the best- and worst-case scenarios for your business.

There are two plans available: Standard or Premium (there is no free plan). The low-priced plan, which costs $15 per month (billed annually), doesn’t limit your contributors or guests and includes instructions to help you complete a business plan. It even includes the financial forecasting features and more than 500 sample plans to get you started.

The Premium plan costs $30 per month (billed annually), but it’s full-featured. You get a milestone planner and industry benchmark data, which can save you research time. Another timesaver: At this plan level, you can integrate QuickBooks or Xero to add your financial data seamlessly.

LivePlan is business plan software that includes prompts and accounting software integrations, making it great for new business owners that want easy financial forecasting.

• Unlimited guests and contributors
• Export finished business plan as PowerPoint presentation
• Includes step-by-step instructions with prompts
• 35-day money-back guarantee
• No free trial

Best for Roadmapping

$59 per user, per month

Every business plan starts with strategy and Aha! makes it easier to map out what you plan to do to get from point A to point Z. Aha! is primarily roadmapping software that product teams use to plan features, products or bug fixes. Any business in any industry can use it to shape ideas and strategy into plans and milestones.

Much like product development, business plans have phases and Aha! is ideal for the first few phases of business planning. Although you won’t find a scorecard feature with Aha! Roadmaps, you can score and prioritize your business vision and goals. Finally, you can present your plan to viewers (stakeholders) before you create your official business plan and secure funding.

There are three plans from which you can choose: Premium at $59 per user, per month; Enterprise at $99 per user, per month; and Enterprise+ at $149 per user, per month, all billed annually. The only reasons to upgrade to either Enterprise plan is if you want to add on automation, development tools and custom worksheets and tables.

Aha! Roadmaps is a great tool to help you strategize and get your ideas for your business in one place. You can use the presentation feature to share your business’s roadmap on your way to creating your finalized business plan.

• User-friendly interface
• Ability to score and prioritize ideas
• Share roadmaps with others
• Expensive for business plan creation
• Has a bit of a learning curve

Best for Beginners

$20.75 per month

Bizplan is specifically for business plan creation. It offers a guided walkthrough of each section you need for a complete business plan to use for funding or pitching to partners. Plug in the information, from your mission and goals to financial forecasts, and Bizplan will do the math and create the visual charts you need to get your point across.

Bizplan is very easy to use because it includes prompts and questions that take away the manual effort of figuring out what you need, so you can simply focus on providing the answers. When you’re satisfied you included all the data needed, you can invite stakeholders and consultants to look it over and add comments for approval or change requests. A unique feature of Bizplan is it gives you access to Fundable, a crowdfunding platform, on which you can share your business plan to try to generate funding.

Monthly pricing costs $29, but you can opt for annual pricing that averages to $20.75 per month. If you expect to need business plan software for much longer than a year, there’s a lifetime access option for $349 flat. All plans come with all features and access, including business courses, business planning tools and a route to investors.

If it’s your first time creating a business plan, Bizplan is a great choice to help guide you through all the sections you need to include in your plan for potential investors and partners.

• Monthly, annual and lifetime plans
• Unlimited business plans
• Unlimited collaborators
• Step-by-step instructions
• Modular, drag-and-drop interface
• Online business courses
• Access to Fundable
• Financial forecasting
• No roadmapping tools
• Lack of customization
• Only integrates with Xero

Best for Ideation

Free; $6 per month

IdeaBuddy is a basic business plan tool that lets you start for free, which is great for beginners who aren’t quite ready to create a plan. The idea plan feature is great because it lets you lay out your business plan on one page, giving you an overview. There are built-in sticky notes for brainstorming and custom templates to start you off with a bit of a guide (or just create your own).

Another great feature of IdeaBuddy is the whiteboard, which lets you drag and drop various elements, draw on it and collaborate with others to come up with your perfect business idea. That feature is locked behind the highest tier, so you’ll have to pay $22 per month (billed annually) to use it. However, that plan also gives you up to 10 collaborators and 10 ideas.

Other plans are more limiting: The free plan is for a solopreneur who has a single idea to work on and the Dreamer plan is $6 per month while the Founder plan is $12 per month, both billed annually. The Dreamer plan is also limited to one idea, but you get one collaborator while the Founder plan gives you up to three ideas and three collaborators. Plus, you’ll get access to the paid plans to export and share your plan with viewers.

IdeaBuddy is just what it sounds like: It’s best for ideation. You can create a full-fledged business plan, but this program is best suited for the very beginning stages of business creation.

• Free forever plan
• Affordable paid plans
• Monthly and annual billing options
• Easy to use
• Export to Word, Excel or as PDF
• Flexible whiteboard feature
• May be too basic for some users
• Doesn’t offer much guidance

Best for No-Frills Business Planning

$55 for one year

Business plan software doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective, and iPlanner certainly fits that bill. It’s been around since 2007 and it doesn’t appear to have updated its look or functions. The browser-based business planning software gives you a place to build out your business model and a business plan.

There are two different software options from iPlanner: Strategy Designer and Startup Framework. The Strategy Designer costs $59 for three plans, but it’s a one-time fee for the year. Choose it if you want a more condensed and no-frills kind of business plan. You can export it to Word or as a PDF.

The iPlanner Startup Framework is $55 per year, which gives you one plan to create. It’s similar to the Designer version, but you can create a business model, separate financials and build a team with various roles (view only, project owner or consultant).

iPlanner is best for those who have created a business plan before and don’t need hand-holding or fancy features.

• Business modeling option
• Samples on site for demoing
• Export to Word or as PDF
• No free plan or trial
• Not a lot of guidance
• Outdated interface

Best for Automatic Business Plan Creation

$11 per month

Enloop is a unique business plan app that generates a business plan for you based on information you provide. You can edit the text Enloop writes for you to make it more specific or change numbers in your financial forecasts as you see fit. Enloop offers a scorecard that updates as you change things, finish sections and make your business plan overall better.

Then Enloop compares your financial forecasts to industry standards, so you don’t have to do the research. The software shows you up to 16 ratios, such as sales, inventory and payables and then shows you what the average is for your industry as it compares to your financials. Enloop then gives you either a pass or fail so that you can modify your plan before you put anything into play.

Although Enloop doesn’t offer a free plan, there is a free trial for one week so you can see if it’s right for you. The Detailed plan costs $11 per month while the Performance plan is $24 per month, both billed annually. The biggest difference between the two plans is how many financial ratios Enloop analyzes: The Detailed plan only gets three ratios and Performance plan gets 16.

Enloop is best for those who have some experience creating business plans, not necessarily for those who are starting from scratch as there are no brainstorming or strategizing tools included. Use Enloop to create business plans quickly.

• Three business plans for each tier
• Generates a business plan automatically
• Compares your financials to industry standards
• Seven-day free trial available
• Scorecards indicate odds of success
• No messaging team members through app
• Not meant for strategizing

Best for Consultant Groups

$80 per, user per month

Not everyone wants to go it alone when creating business plans and consultants are often hired for industry expertise and business plan creation. AchieveIt offers generous plans that won’t limit the number of plans and projects you can create, so you can work on multiple business plans at one time.

Specifically, AchieveIt is planning software meant for medium to large teams to work on projects simultaneously. For business planning, it’s a great option for those strategizing and analyzing a variety of data points with multiple people—all of AchieveIt’s plans have a minimum requirement of 20 users.

Plans are pricey, especially when you consider the user minimum. Core, the lowest-priced plan, costs $80 per user, per month, and Plus is $90 per user, per month, both billed annually. So, it’s going to cost $1,600 per month, at least, which puts this software out of reach for most small businesses.

AchieveIt is a good choice for large businesses that need planning software and for business plan purposes, it makes most sense for established consultant groups.

• Unlimited plans and projects
• Collaboration tools
• Goal management
• 20-user minimum
• Pricier than most competitors
• Integrations at added cost

Best for Teams

Business sorter.

$10 per month

When you’re ready to craft your business plan, it can help immensely to have business planning software like Business Sorter. The cloud-based app makes it easy for you to start a plan and kicks off your business planning with a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). Then, you can follow a guide to build your plan with each section divided by areas. After which, you can choose cards to help steer you toward the right objectives and goals for your business.

You won’t find roadmapping tools in Business Sorter, but the card system keeps you on track (and even gives you goals you may not have considered). As you prioritize goals, you’ll find steps you need to take that guide you to completing your business plan. Every plan allows multiple users, so you can collaborate on what takes precedence.

Plans start at $10 per month, billed annually, and allows you to have three users on board. For 10 users, the Medium plan costs $30 per month, billed annually, and if you need 30 users, the Large Team plan will run you $80 per month, billed annually. It’s one of the most affordable business planning apps for teams.

Although Business Sorter doesn’t offer a messaging tool, it’s still one of the best options for teams. You don’t have to pay per person, but you can add multiple people to the account to work on creating business plans.

• Easy-to-use business plan templates
• Free trial available
• Card system helps guide your goal setting
• Create up to 40 business plans
• Plans limit user count
• No messaging in app
• Very limited integrations

Forbes Advisor carefully considered a variety of software to choose the right business planning apps for this ranking. We compared features, ease of use, costs and collaboration. We ranked each company based on these factors using a 5-star rating system. The highest possible score is 5 out of 5 stars.

Here are the details of the factors we considered:

• Features: We looked at general and unique features of each app and gave more credit to software that provides better functionality for business planning.
• Cost: Regardless of your business size, cost is an important factor to consider when you’re adding new software to your tech stack. We awarded a higher score to those that offer free trials, free plans and affordable options.
• Ease of use: Programs that have a steep learning curve aren’t likely to be adopted by you or your team, so we chose software that’s user-friendly. Drag-and-drop interfaces or guidance through features and tools are helpful for any team.
• Customer reviews: An important factor for any software is how the general public views the program. We considered other ratings and studied the pros and cons listed by other users of the software to help us with our ranking.

Technically, you don’t need business plan software, but using it can make the entire experience easier and you’ll have better odds of creating a solid plan. You don’t even have to choose software made specifically for business planning—project management software is great for roadmapping and goal management. Aside from looking for software that includes financial forecasting, you’ll want collaboration tools, a user-friendly interface, affordable plans and ways to brainstorm or roadmap for your business idea.

One of the most important sections of any business plan is the financials. If you haven’t already done the research and calculations, look for a business plan app that automatically calculates these numbers for you.

Collaboration is also key if you’re working with a partner, team or consultants. At the very least, look for software that lets you invite viewers to see the work you’re doing, but the best business plan software lets users leave comments or work on a plan in real time simultaneously.

Ease of use is nearly as important as pricing. You’ll need software you and your team will use without spending too much downtime learning how to use it. It also makes no sense to choose a cost-prohibitive tool for creating a business plan—most of the software Forbes Advisor suggests is appropriate for small business budgets.

Finally, depending on the stage you’re in of business planning, you may want a tool that offers features that make it easy for you to create a roadmap for your business. If you’re in the early stages, these tools can help with brainstorming, prioritizing goals and managing your goals before you finalize your actual business plan.

Most business plan software helps guide you through the creation of a business plan with prompts, suggestions or tips. So, using business plan software is especially helpful for new business owners who don’t know all the sections to include to increase the odds of getting funding or luring a partner to join your operation.

Business plan software can also automate some processes, such as calculations of financials or comparisons of those finances with industry standards. Some business planning apps give you whiteboards or editable cards you can use for brainstorming. Other features may include scorecards to let you know if you’re on the right track or roadmapping tools to give you an overview of your business plan.

The biggest benefit of business plan software is that it helps you organize and prioritize all of your goals so you can more easily analyze and then compile the data you need to create your business plan. After that, you can create your plan from scratch or if you’re using business planning software made specifically for crafting plans, you can piece it all together and then export it as a PDF or to Microsoft Word.

Which business plan software is the best?

Forbes Advisor suggests Wrike, Smartsheet or LivePlan to help you write your business plan. Depending on the stage you’re in of business planning, one tool or another may be better for you.

How do I create my own business plan?

There are several steps you should follow to create a good business plan, but there are different types of plans you can create. Every business plan starts with a strong executive summary and includes your business goals and financial forecasting. Follow a guide on how to create a business plan to ensure you include all the sections needed.

What are the different types of business plans?

There are many types of business plans you can create and the one that makes the most sense for you depends on your situation. A standard business plan is meant for when you need to present to investors or a bank for financial help. A lean plan doesn’t include all the summaries and background information a standard plan does, so it’s more suitable for established business owners. There are also one-page business plans that are more like pitches. You may also run across operational, tactical, strategic and contingency business plans. We created a simple business plan template that you can use to get started when launching a side gig or small business.

Is business plan software secure?

As  with most types of software, the best business plan software programs offer many levels of security. When choosing this type of software, you want to look for security features that include multifactor authentication (MFA), intrusion detection, the monitoring of user activities, documentation that shows frequent security updates and patches, data encryption and privacy protection.

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Amy Nichol Smith spent more than 20 years working as a journalist for TV and newspapers before transitioning to software and hardware product reviews for consumers and small businesses. She has been featured in publications such as L.A. Times, Tom's Guide, Investopedia and various newspapers across the U.S.