Editing Business plan (section)

==Audience==

Business plans may be internally or externally focused. Externally-focused plans draft goals that are important to outside stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. These plans typically have detailed information about the organization or the team making effort to reach its goals.  With for-profit entities, external stakeholders include investors and customers,<ref>[http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/planning/sbabusplan.html Small Business Notes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101126000028/http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/planning/sbabusplan.html |date=2010-11-26 }} business plan outline for small business start-up</ref> for non-profits, external stakeholders refer to donors and [[Client (business)|clients]],<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20131105152438/http://ase.tufts.edu/yet/pdf/Non-Profit%20Incorporating%20%20The%20Business%20Plan.pdf Tufts University] non-profit business plan</ref> for government agencies, external stakeholders are the tax-payers, higher-level government agencies, and international lending bodies such as the [[International Monetary Fund]], the [[World Bank]], various economic agencies of the [[United Nations]], and [[Multilateral development bank|development banks]].

Internally-focused business plans target intermediate goals required to reach the external goals. They may cover the development of a new product, a new service, a new IT system, a restructuring of finance, the refurbishing of a factory or the restructuring of an organization. An internally-focused business plan is often developed in conjunction with a [[balanced scorecard]] or [[OGSM]] or a list of critical success factors. This allows the success of the plan to be measured using non-financial measures.

Business plans that identify and target internal goals, but provide only general guidance on how they will be met are called [[Strategic planning|strategic plans]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chechi |first=Haris |date=2023-08-01 |title=Strategic planning vs business planning: how they're both key to success |url=https://www.glion.edu/magazine/strategic-planning-vs-business-planning/ |access-date=2024-02-15 |website=Glion |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Operational plans describe the goals of an internal organization, working group or department.<ref>[http://doa.louisiana.gov/opb/faf/OPFormatWord_FY01MWLayout.pdf State of Louisiana, USA] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915165132/http://www.doa.louisiana.gov/opb/faf/OPFormatWord_FY01MWLayout.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.doa.louisiana.gov/opb/faf/OPFormatWord_FY01MWLayout.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |date=2012-09-15 }}  government agency operational plan</ref> Project plans, sometimes known as project frameworks, describe the goals of a particular project.  They may also address the project's place within the organization's larger strategic goals.<ref>[http://www.egovernment.tas.gov.au/themes/project_management/project_management/knowledge_base Tasmanian government project management knowledge base] government project plan {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090622211235/http://www.egovernment.tas.gov.au/themes/project_management/project_management/knowledge_base |date=June 22, 2009 }}</ref>