A business plan appendix is a great way to add depth to your business plan without making it unbearably long and boring.
However, not everyone needs it. And even when you do, it’s important to understand what this section entails and how you can make it useful.
Well, we will figure that out in this blog post.
But before that, what exactly is an appendix in a business plan?
A business plan appendix is the last section of your business plan that contains supplementary information and documents to support the claims your plan makes.
This may include a couple of technical documents, detailed financial statements, charts, spreadsheets, and other additional documents that were too detailed or extensive to include within the main sections.
It’s like a reference point for readers who want to gather detailed insights about the information you presented in your business plan.
Let’s understand what the business plan appendix includes in brief detail:
Depending on your business needs and the intended audience for your business plan, the appendix section may include some of these documents.
Let’s understand what the appendix business plan includes in brief detail:
Here, you can include documents to support and elaborate on some information mentioned in other sections of your business plan.
Some examples of supplementary information include,
Adding legal and compliance documents to your appendix will demonstrate your adherence to regulations and legal standards. Such transparency will help win the trust of your stakeholders and potential investors.
Here are a few examples of the kinds of legal documents you can add.
In this section, you will offer information that will let readers have a peek into the workings of your company and the people behind it. Some of these documents include
The main body of your financial plan already includes adequate financial information. However, depending on your audience, they might need access to certain additional information such as:
Lastly, you can include proof of achievements that can help establish your brand’s credibility and performance. This is a great place to highlight:
And those are pretty much all the things you will include in your plan. Let’s now create an appendix suited for your business plan.
Before you kickstart writing your appendix, we have a few tips to help you make this section more enriching.
Keep the contents of your appendix simple and easy to navigate. If you are planning to add a variety of documents, consider adding a table of contents to help readers find what they need easily.
Everything you include in your appendix should be relevant to the contents and elements of your business plan.
You can add footnotes or a link by referencing the supplementary documents to the business plan information it supports.
If you are adding financial statements or any legally classified information, add a confidentiality statement. This is an effective way of ensuring that the parties with access to confidential information don’t share it with anyone else.
When you write a business plan ensure that the document stands on its own without relying on the appendix. Your readers are likely to skip this section, so you don’t want to risk having inadequate information in the main body.
Your appendix should only cover supplementary and supporting information, not any core detail that the reader must quintessentially know.
Now, don’t get caught up trying to figure out what to include in your appendix. Focus on writing your business plan, and you will eventually get a gist of supporting documents essential for your plan.
However, what if you need help writing your business plan in the first place? In that case, a business planning app or sample business plans would help.
For instance, Upmetrics’ AI business plan generator can help create compelling business plans from scratch in less than 10 minutes.
All you have to do is answer some tailored business questions, and an AI assistant will do everything else for you.
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