OE1-4.3 The Business Plan
You can write a business plan with its standard elements, fill a Business Model Canvas, and carry out technical, profitability, financial and marketing analysis, feasibility studies and an executive summary.
The Business Model Canvas is the fastest way to see whether an idea holds together — nine boxes on one page, and the empty box is usually the real problem. Feasibility study and business plan are different documents doing different jobs: the first asks whether this can work, the second argues that it will, and doing them in that order saves writing a persuasive case for something unworkable. The financial analysis is where most student plans fail, usually by assuming revenue and underestimating time to it.
Work through these
Introduction to the business plan
What the document is for, which is thinking rather than persuading. The version you show an investor comes after the version you write for yourself.
Elements of a business plan and its salient features
The parts, and which of them do the work. Most readers never finish it, which is why the summary item at the end of this topic matters.
The Business Model Canvas
The one-page alternative, which forces you to state the whole model in a form you can revise. It is more useful early than a long document.
Technical analysis
Whether the thing can actually be built, which is the section an engineer is best placed to write. Being honest here is worth more than being optimistic.
Profitability and financial analysis
Whether it makes money, and when. The cash flow timing usually kills more ventures than the profit margin.
Marketing analysis
Who buys it and why they would. This is the section engineering founders most often write badly, by describing the product instead of the customer.
Feasibility studies
Studying whether to proceed at all, before committing. A study that can conclude no is the only kind worth doing.
The executive summary
The part that gets read, written last and placed first. If it cannot be written clearly, the plan underneath it is not clear either.
Sign in to keep your progress.
Free resources
We haven't checked most of these for screen reader use yet.
Links last checked 30 Aug 2026.
Stuck here?
Ask a mentor. A real person answers, and they can see exactly which topic you're on. Usually within a couple of working days.
Checking your session…
Topics shown in module order.