Business Plan Copilot
A working business plan and financial forecast, built section by section
The problem
Most business plans get written twice: once in a template-filling panic before a loan application, and never again. The document runs 30 pages, the numbers were invented at midnight, and by month three it describes a business that no longer exists. What a small business actually needs is shorter and harder: a plan where every number is labeled fact or guess, a forecast that shows its assumptions, and a document that gets revised when reality argues with it.
The tool
Once installed, this skill turns your assistant into a standing planning partner. It builds the plan section by section, interviewing you before writing anything: who pays you, what it costs to serve them, what you charge, what breaks first when you grow. It refuses to fill a section with plausible filler; if you don't know a number, the section says so and gets a plan for finding it.
The forecast is the part most templates fake and this skill won't. Revenue, costs, and cash land in a simple monthly table where every figure carries a tag: FACT (from your records), ESTIMATE (your informed guess, with the reasoning), or TARGET (what you're aiming at). Change an assumption and it re-derives what follows, telling you which conclusions moved. When the plan is for a lender or landlord, it reshapes the same content into the formal structure they expect instead of making you write a second document.
What's inside
- A section-by-section interview: no section written before its questions are answered
- One-page plan first, long-form only when someone external needs it
- Monthly forecast with every number tagged FACT / ESTIMATE / TARGET
- Assumption changes re-derive the numbers and name what moved
- Revision mode: tell it what changed in the business, it updates the affected sections with a dated note
- A "check with your accountant" gate on anything tax, financing, or incorporation shaped
How to use it
- 1Click "Install skill" on this page and copy the install prompt.
- 2Paste it into your AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, anything that accepts pasted text).
- 3Answer the setup questions: the business, the audience for the plan (you, a lender, a partner), and what records exist.
- 4Work through the sections across a few sittings; a session per section beats one heroic evening.
- 5When reality diverges from the plan, come back and say what changed. That conversation is the whole point.
Example
A couple opening a second bakery location works through the skill over a week. The interview surfaces that their "we'll double revenue" assumption rests on the new neighbourhood matching the old one's foot traffic, which nobody has measured; the forecast tags that row ESTIMATE with a note to count passersby for three mornings before signing the lease. The finished one-pager and 12-month forecast go to their bank contact reshaped into the formal layout, with the FACT rows traceable to their point-of-sale export. The lease decision waits two weeks for the foot-traffic count, and the count changes the revenue estimate down 20%, which they take to their accountant before committing.
Pro tip
Build the forecast before the mission statement. Working through the numbers first surfaces the questions the prose sections should answer, and it keeps the writing honest: prose written after the math describes the business you have, not the one you wish you had. Pressure-test the finished plan with the [Business Model Stress Test](/toolbox/business-model-stress-test) before anyone external sees it.
Related tools
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