Every startup begins with an idea. But turning that idea into a sustainable, scalable new business—that’s where nearly 90% of founders hit a wall.
Between fundraising decks and hiring plans, the early stages of building a company are messy. What’s often missing isn’t passion or vision—it’s structure. That’s where a solid business plan can help you.
But starting one from scratch? That’s not how founder life works! That’s why we’ve put together a set of free startup business plan templates from ClickUp—the everything app for work—designed not just to get you off the ground, but to help you scale with clarity.
📊 Research Shows: Businesses with a business plan grow 30% faster than those without clear goals or direction.
Free Startup Business Plan Templates for Scalable Growth
- What are Startup Business Plan Templates?
- 16 Best Startup Business Plan Templates
- 1. ClickUp Business Plan Template
- 2. ClickUp Business Plan Document Template
- 3. ClickUp Lean Business Plan Template
- 4. ClickUp Startup Canvas Whiteboard Template
- 5. ClickUp Business Startup Checklist Template
- 6. ClickUp Business Launch Template
- 7. ClickUp Business Proposal Template
- 8. ClickUp Yearly Goals Template
- 9. ClickUp Small Business Action Plan Template
- 10. ClickUp Strategic Business Roadmap Template
- 11. ClickUp Business Roadmap Template
- 12. ClickUp Business Development Action Plan Template
- 13. ClickUp Milestone Chart Template
- 14. ClickUp Company OKRs & Goals Template
- 15. ClickUp Business Continuity Plan Template
- 16. ClickUp SMART Goal Action Plan Template
- What Makes a Good Startup Business Plan Template?
- Plan Smart, Grow Fast with ClickUp
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat are Startup Business Plan Templates?
Startup business plan templates are ready-made outlines that help you organize and explain how your business will work. Instead of starting with a blank page, you fill in the key details in placeholders—like your product, who it’s for, how you’ll make money, and what steps you’ll take to grow.
These templates help put your ideas on paper, set goals, and keep your team aligned. They also come in handy when you need to show your target plan to investors, partners, or lenders.
💡 Pro Tip: Choose a startup business plan template that thinks like an investor. That means it should highlight traction, market insight, and a clear path to profitability, not just lofty goals. Templates that guide you to back every claim with data are the ones that truly stand out.
Summarize this article for me please16 Best Startup Business Plan Templates
No matter if you’re bootstrapping your way to the top or managing a fast-growing team, ClickUp has a template for every phase of your journey. But most templates feel like homework—these don’t.
They’re smart, sharp, and made to move your business forward.
Jodi Salice, Creative Director, United Way Suncoast, sums it up perfectly,
You too can achieve similar results, and here’s your curated breakdown of the best ClickUp templates for business strategy, plans, launches, and more:
1. ClickUp Business Plan Template
Writing a complete business plan doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. The ClickUp Business Plan Document Template provides a clear and professional layout to help you build your business plan from start to finish.
It includes all the essential sections—like your executive summary, market research, goals, and financial plans—so you don’t have to wonder what to include.
Each section is organized in one place, and you can easily turn your ideas into tasks right inside ClickUp. If you’re working with partners, it also makes it easy for everyone to collaborate in real time. It’s not just a document, it’s a working plan you can build and adjust as you grow.
What you can do with it:
- Organize tasks by business area in the Topics View, ideal for product, crafting marketing plans, funding, and more
- Track real-time status with the Status View to keep everyone aligned
- Build timelines for initiatives in the Timeline View to prevent delays and visualize dependencies
- Store and update planning documents in the Business Plan View for a single source of truth
- Set personalized notifications to stay informed on changes and progress
- Measure task performance to maintain productivity and drive progress
🔑 Ideal for: Startup teams looking to align vision, marketing strategy, and execution inside a real-time business plan
🧠 Hard Fact: Around 70% of venture capitalists refuse to invest in businesses without a solid plan.
2. ClickUp Business Plan Document Template
Every startup needs more than just a pitch deck—a well-structured business plan is what grounds your big idea in reality. The ClickUp Business Plan Document Template is a comprehensive workspace for developing and refining your business model, target market, competitive positioning, revenue strategy, and financial forecasts.
You can collaborate with co-founders, update key sections in real time, and even link tasks to strategic priorities—all while building a team development plan that evolves with your company.
This lets you:
- Decide what you want your business plan to achieve
- Analyze your industry and competitors to understand the market
- Write your mission, vision, and values to explain what your business stands for
- Describe what you’re offering and who your customers are
- Create a budget proposal and estimate your future income and expenses
- Plan your team structure and who you need to hire
- Identify possible risks and how you’ll handle them
- Review your plan and make updates to keep it accurate
🔑 Ideal for: Founders drafting their first business plan or preparing for fundraising conversations.
3. ClickUp Lean Business Plan Template
If you need a business plan but don’t want to write a lengthy report, the ClickUp Lean Business Plan Template is a wise choice.
Unlike a traditional business plan, it helps you focus on the key aspects of your business, such as customer segments, value proposition, revenue streams, and cost structure, without spending hours writing detailed pages.
📮ClickUp Insight: 92% of knowledge workers risk losing important decisions scattered across chat, email, and spreadsheets. Without a unified system for capturing and tracking decisions, critical business insights get lost in the digital noise. With ClickUp’s Task Management capabilities, you never have to worry about this. Create tasks from chat, task comments, docs, and emails with a single click!
The layout is quick and straightforward to fill out, which is great if you’re still testing ideas or preparing for early investor meetings.
With this template, you can:
- Summarize the main points of your plan in the Plan Summary View
- Visualize your overall business model in the Business Model Canvas View
- Sort and track tasks by importance using the By Priority View
- Organize tasks using Open and Complete Statuses to track progress
🔑 Ideal for: Founders who want a fast, no-fluff way to map out their business idea and test viability.
👀 Did You Know? Professional services teams, like RevPartners, deliver services 64% faster using client delivery playbooks built with ClickUp Templates, which cuts down on time spent organizing and operationalizing work.
4. ClickUp Startup Canvas Whiteboard Template
The ClickUp Startup Canvas Whiteboard Template is perfect if you like to map things out visually.
It helps you sketch out the business case of your startup idea, like the problem you’re solving, your product, who it’s for, and how you’ll reach them. This gives you a flexible, collaborative space to shape your startup vision.
Use it to:
- Map out your value proposition, customer segments, and key activities visually
- Drag and drop sticky notes to brainstorm ideas and connect components
- Collaborate with your team in real time to align on strategy and direction
- Keep all your foundational planning in one shareable, editable space
Watch this video to learn how you can use ClickUp to wow your clients every time👇
🔑 Ideal for: Early-stage teams brainstorming value propositions, customer segments, and key activities visually.
5. ClickUp Business Startup Checklist Template
The idea for your business solves a lot of issues, but you’re unsure of where to begin. This is the story of many entrepreneurs. The ClickUp Business Startup Checklist Template lays everything out step by step, so you don’t miss anything important and get a competitive advantage.
It covers legal setup, branding, website creation, product development, marketing, hiring, and more. Every item is organized into categories, and you can assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress in one place.
This template lets you:
- Create tasks with Custom Statuses to track each step of your startup process
- Use Custom Fields to organize tasks by business name, owner, team members, and more
- Add progress indicators and references directly to each task for better clarity
- Keep everything categorized so you can easily manage who’s doing what and how far along things are
🔑 Ideal for: New entrepreneurs looking for a step-by-step guide to handle setup, legal, and launch tasks.
🧠 Fun Fact: A 60-year-old entrepreneur is 3x more likely to build a successful startup than a 30-year-old. Turns out, age isn’t a barrier—it’s often an edge in the competitive landscape.
6. ClickUp Business Launch Template
Launching your business is one of the most exciting and stressful parts of the process. With the ClickUp Business Launch Template, you can stay in control by breaking down your launch into clear tasks and timelines.
It includes everything from social media content and press releases to internal checklists and launch day plans. You can see what needs to happen, when it needs to happen, and who is responsible for it.
This template lets you:
- Break down launch tasks into manageable steps with clear deadlines
- Assign responsibilities to team members and keep everyone aligned
- Track progress across different areas, from marketing to operations
- Organize internal checklists to ensure nothing is overlooked
- Coordinate press releases and social media content for consistent messaging
- Monitor launch day plans to ensure everything runs smoothly
🔑 Ideal for: Startup teams preparing for go-live with detailed timelines, roles, and pre-launch activities.
7. ClickUp Business Proposal Template
The success of a pitch often hinges on how well it’s packaged. The ClickUp Business Proposal Template gives startups a polished framework to present their ideas with impact.
From clearly defining project goals and deliverables to showcasing pricing, timelines, and team responsibilities, every section of this business proposal template is designed to help you win confidence fast.
This template allows you to:
- Use Statuses like Blocked, Complete, In Progress, In Review, and To Do to track proposal progress
- Track progress with custom attributes like Effort Level, Task Complexity, and Completion Rate
- Access four Views (Getting Started Guide, Business Proposal Steps, Email Templates, and Priorities) for organized information
- Improve tracking with features like time tracking, tags, dependency warnings, and email notifications
🔑 Ideal for: Agencies, consultants, and B2B startups preparing service or product proposals
👀 Did You Know? 77% of early-stage startups are bootstrapped. Instead of venture capital (VC) cash, most founders rely on personal savings to get started. It’s not flashy, but it’s how real traction often begins.
8. ClickUp Yearly Goals Template
Turning annual goals into focused action can be challenging, but the ClickUp Yearly Goals Template keeps your vision grounded and visible throughout the year.
Instead of revisiting vague resolutions on aspects like employee development, this format helps you stay focused on the key areas. It keeps your big-picture strategy alive with status tracking, visual timelines, and progress views.
Using it, you can:
- Create a project for each 1- 5- 10-year goal to stay focused and organized
- Assign tasks to team members and set timelines for accountability
- Collaborate with stakeholders to brainstorm ideas and build out content
- Set up notifications to stay updated on task progress
- Hold regular check-ins to review updates and resolve issues
- Monitor and review tasks for better resource management
🔑 Ideal for: Startup leadership teams focused on long-term planning and measurable growth.
9. ClickUp Small Business Action Plan Template
When you’re running a small business, clarity in action is critical. The ClickUp Small Business Action Plan Template helps you move from goal-setting to doing—with a flexible task-based layout that organizes every initiative into clear steps, deadlines, and responsibilities.
As you move from planning to action, the Custom Fields in this growth plan template make it easier to assign responsibility, gauge workload, and stay focused on the right priorities.
This template lets you:
- Use the Department field to assign tasks to the right team or business function
- Track how challenging each task is with the Task Complexity field
- Monitor how close you are to hitting each objective using the Goal Progress field
- Categorize work clearly by selecting from the Task Type field (like planning, execution, or follow-up)
🔑 Ideal for: Local business owners and solo entrepreneurs needing a tactical execution plan
10. ClickUp Strategic Business Roadmap Template
Every startup needs a guiding framework that keeps efforts aligned across departments. The ClickUp Strategic Business Roadmap Template does precisely that—laying out your key initiatives across product, marketing, sales, and more in a high-level visual plan.
Once your strategic priorities are defined, these views and fields help you organize the work, monitor progress, and keep everyone aligned along the way.
Use this template to:
- Track how much of each goal is finished with the Completion Percentage Field
- Estimate how much time or effort each task will take using the Effort Field
- Define what success looks like for each strategic initiative in the Expected Outcome Field
- Measure how much impact each task or goal is expected to have with the Impact field
- Monitor overall progress toward strategic goals in the Strategy Progress Field
- Assign and clarify responsibilities using the Team Members Field
🔑 Ideal for: Founders preparing for investor meetings or aligning cross-functional leadership.
🧠 Fun Fact: 95% of entrepreneurs have at least a bachelor’s degree. So, despite the dropout legend, most founders actually stuck around in school!
11. ClickUp Business Roadmap Template
Startups pivot fast, and the ClickUp Business Roadmap Template gives you the space to adapt while staying organized. It provides a flexible format for tracking initiatives, assigning ownership, and keeping your entire team aligned as priorities shift.
To bring your roadmap to life, here’s how the template helps you organize and execute your strategy:
- Plan your roadmap timeline and set quarterly goals using the All Initiatives per Quarter View
- Track progress toward key objectives in the Strategic Goals View
- Visualize your entire roadmap and upcoming tasks with the Roadmap Gantt View
- Prioritize work by category and improve process efficiencies in the Timeline per Business Category View
- Organize tasks using five Statuses: To Do, In Progress, On Hold, Done, and Cancelled
🔑 Ideal for: Early-stage startups managing multiple initiatives across fast-moving teams.
12. ClickUp Business Development Action Plan Template
Business development requires more than networking; it needs a targeted plan and consistent follow-through. The ClickUp Business Development Action Plan Template lets you organize outreach, lead management, and growth experiments into structured initiatives.
This template can help you outline all the essentials needed to plan, manage, and evaluate your project.
Use it to:
- Set a clear timetable for when the project should be completed
- Define specific goals and what you’re aiming to achieve
- Identify key partners and stakeholders involved
- Estimate your budget and create a realistic timeline
- Outline how the project’s success will be measured
- Include contact details for someone who can receive feedback or answer questions
🔑 Ideal for: Business development reps and founders pursuing strategic partnerships or lead generation.
13. ClickUp Milestone Chart Template
Progress becomes real when it’s visual. The ClickUp Milestone Chart Template helps startup teams stay focused on key accomplishments, rather than getting lost in daily to-dos.
From early-stage product builds to investor updates and launch timelines, this template helps you break down complex projects into easy-to-understand and track milestone checkpoints.
Use this template to:
- Track progress and align your team around project goals
- Share a clear overview of the project timeline and how things are moving
- Spot key points in the schedule that need extra attention
- Give stakeholders a clear picture of the plan and current progress
- Brainstorm and sketch ideas for the best project management using the Whiteboard View
- Organize tasks with two simple Statuses: Open and Complete
🔑 Ideal for: Startup teams coordinating major product releases, launches, or investor milestones.
14. ClickUp Company OKRs & Goals Template
If your team is busy but unclear on what moves the needle, the ClickUp Company OKRs & Goals Template brings structure and focus.
It turns company objectives into actionable key results, each tied to measurable targets and assigned accountability.
Here’s how you can use it to align your team’s work with the bigger mission and give everyone visibility into how their efforts contribute:
- Submit OKR items directly using the OKR Submission View
- Track all goals, OKRs, and objectives in one place with the Board View
- Get a complete overview of related tasks with the All Related OKR Items View
- Plan start and end dates for each OKR item in the OKR Calendar View
- Organize tasks using detailed Statuses like To Do, Needs Attention, Off Track, and more to stay on top of progress
🔑 Ideal for: Scaling teams looking to link day-to-day tasks with company-wide goals.
15. ClickUp Business Continuity Plan Template
Most startups don’t think about contingency plans until it’s too late. Avoid being one of them with the ClickUp Business Continuity Plan Template. It gives you a structured way to prepare for disruptions without pausing business operations.
The template includes areas for risk analysis, emergency contacts, system dependencies, and recovery plans, all centralized in an easy-to-navigate layout.
You can make your business development efforts more focused with these key views and tools.
This template lets you:
- Use the Priorities View to focus on the most important tasks first
- Visualize your plan and track progress in the Board View
- Organize tasks into categories and monitor progress in the List View
- Manage action items using three Statuses: To Do, In Progress, and Complete
🔑 Ideal for: Tech-driven startups and remote teams needing operational resilience plans.
16. ClickUp SMART Goal Action Plan Template
Measurable execution is complex, even when you have all the ideas ready. The ClickUp SMART Goal Action Plan Template helps startups define clear, realistic goals using the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).
Each goal is broken down into tasks with owners and timelines, making progress transparent and easy to follow.
Here’s how you can make the most of the SMART Goal Action Plan Template:
- Use the Timeline View to set deadlines and keep track of due dates
- Track your SMART goals in the SMART Goals View
- Monitor your progress and stay productive with the Goal Health View
- Organize tasks using five Statuses: Not Started, Planning, Execution, Evaluation, and Complete
🔑 Ideal for: Founders and project leads focused on building accountability into goal setting.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Makes a Good Startup Business Plan Template?
Here’s what sets a great startup business plan template apart:
- Clear structure: Guides you through each section in a logical, easy-to-follow order to create a business model
- Essential components included: Covers key areas like your business idea, market, product, pricing, marketing, and financials
- Customizable format: Allows you to adjust sections to fit your industry, goals, and growth stage
- Goal-setting support: Helps define measurable objectives and outlines how to reach them
- Built-in prompts or examples: Includes helpful cues or scope for using AI to write a business plan
- Collaboration-friendly: Makes it easy for team members or advisors to review and contribute
- Useful across stages: Applies whether you’re just starting or revising a plan during growth
- Presentation-ready design: Features a clean, professional layout to share with investors or stakeholders
- Digital compatibility: Works smoothly in project management and business process automation tools like ClickUp, Google Docs, Word, or Notion for easy editing and sharing
📊 Research Shows: Entrepreneurs who write formal business plans are 16% more likely to achieve business viability.
Summarize this article for me pleasePlan Smart, Grow Fast with ClickUp
A bold idea might spark a startup, but scaling it depends on execution, adaptability, and keeping your team aligned as the company grows.
That’s where ClickUp’s free startup business plan templates step in. They help you clarify your vision, map out every phase of growth, and keep your team focused on what matters most.
From MVPs to market expansions, each template is designed to grow with you, not just get you started. And because everything stays in ClickUp, it’s easier to pivot, track progress, and collaborate in real time—without getting buried in cluttered spreadsheets or static docs.
Sign up for free. Start with a solid plan. Scale with structure.
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
