Can You Create a Complete Business Plan Online Without Experts?

For example, there’s marketing automation software, accounting and payroll software, and design tools like Canva. These all make it easy for individuals without experience to get professional results.

Does this democratisation extend to creating business plans? The answer is yes. With the right business plan creator software, you can generate a complete, investor-ready plan online.

This article explains how to create a DIY business plan without experts — and automate parts of the process — so you can save time and money.

The DIY Approach to Strategic Planning

In the past, business consultants or accountants handled the task of creating business plans, charging high hourly rates and potentially, thousands of pounds for a completed plan. Today, business plan creator software has arrived, democratising strategic planning.

Entrepreneurs can now use web-based tools that automate the creation of every component, including market analysis and financial forecasting. Keep in mind that self-service doesn’t mean zero effort. You still need to know what to include to make your business plan investor friendly and be diligent in ensuring that you cover all bases, verify your research, and be honest about your assumptions.

Investors expect to see a business plan that goes into detail about:

Strategy: Your company’s vision and competitive positioning. It needs to be clear what products and services you offer and what your value proposition is. You also need to include data to validate demand.
Finance: Investors need to see historical financial statements if you’re already operating. Also include financial projections for the next three to five years and a clear explanation of your funding request.
Operations: This section explains how your business runs day-to-day. For physical products, this includes explaining processes pertaining to manufacturing, inventory management, and distribution. For services, focus on the processes involved in delivering those services. In both cases, discuss resource requirements, including human resources.

The Essential Digital Toolkit

Choosing the Right Business Plan Creator

There are many types of tools on the market today that help with business plan creation — some free, others subscription-based, and each with different degrees of automation.

Free platforms provide an accessible starting point for new entrepreneurs who want to experiment before committing financially, while paid tools offer comprehensive functionality. When selecting a tool, key features to prioritise include:

Guided prompts: These turn business terminology into plain language.
Multi-user collaboration: Your partners should be able to work on the document simultaneously.
Competitor analysis templates: Tools like SWOT analyses are commonly used to explain the competitive environment. A business plan creator should be able to generate these.
Powerful research tools: Research is one of the most time-consuming parts of creating a business plan. Make sure your business plan generator can handle that and isn’t just a collection of empty templates.
Financial modelling: Tools that calculate profit and loss projections, cash flow, break-even analysis, and generate financial statements like balance sheets. Venture Planner generates all these and more — and charts to accompany them. It also offers scenario modelling so you can test what-if scenarios based on different decisions, and it can calculate across multiple currencies.
Downloadable templates: Professionally formatted documents ready for investor presentations or loan applications.
Editability: The document should be editable in case you need to tweak any sections before committing to a final draft.

Using Public Data for Market Analysis

Whether you use a business plan creator or not, your plan must use credible data for the market analysis section. Reliable public data sources can fill in the gaps where expert market research would once be required. UK entrepreneurs can consider:

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) — for economic trends, demographic breakdowns, and consumer spending patterns.
NOMIS (from ONS) — for detailed local labour market and employment statistics.
Companies House — for competitor financial filings and ownership structures.
UK Trade Info and Gov.uk — for trade volumes, sector-specific growth rates, and export statistics.
Industry trade bodies — for sector-specific insights and trend reports. Examples include techUK, UK Finance, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Construction Industry Council (CIC), and the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA).
Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) — for regional business support and funding data.
Academic and research institutions — some may publish open-access studies relevant to startups and innovation.

Financial Forecasting with Spreadsheet Software

Spreadsheet programmes like Excel or Google Sheets are still valuable for custom financial models. You can start with pre-designed templates then adapt them to your unique variables. Free templates are sometimes available from financial modelling software providers and through government business support sites.

Spreadsheets allow you to test different pricing, sales volume, and cost structures quickly. Over time, this helps you refine your assumptions with real-world data, improving the reliability of your plan.

Mastering Core Components Without Expert Guidance

The challenge of the DIY approach is mastering the core sections of the business plan without expert input. Here’s how to handle each part effectively.

Executive Summary

Even though the executive summary is the first section of a business plan, it should be written last because it includes key highlights from other sections. Investors typically decide whether to read further based on this section alone so it must be compelling.

An effective executive summary answers these questions concisely:

What problem do you solve?
Who are your customers?
How will you profit?
Who are your team?
What are your goals?

Your executive summary should be a maximum of two pages. State your business name and date of formation, then give a compelling overview of your vision, mission, business model, products and services, customer base, and financial highlights. You should also briefly introduce your senior team.

Market Analysis

The market analysis needs to prove there’s demand for your product or service. Start with an overview of your industry, including its size and growth potential. Next, define your target market through segmentation, considering:

Demographics: Age, gender, income, and education.
Geographics: Local, regional, or international reach.
Psychographics: Lifestyles, values, and buying motivations.
Behavioural traits: Frequency of purchase, brand loyalty, and decision triggers.

Next, estimate your Total Addressable Market (TAM), Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM), and Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM). Some business plan creators can generate these figures automatically based on your inputs.

Moving on, you need to include a detailed competitor analysis. It should cover direct and indirect competitors and note their pricing, strengths, weaknesses and market share. Tools like Google Trends can supplement government data for online visibility and demand trends.

Within this section, you need to show how your company differentiates itself from your main competitors. Also discuss market trends (current and emerging) and potential barriers to entry. This could include regulation or high startup costs. This demonstrates how potential competitors may struggle to compete with you once you’ve gained significant market share.

Organisation and Legal Structure

Make it clear what type of legal entity your company is registered as. In the UK, it will be one of the following:

Sole trader: A simple setup where one individual owns the business, with full personal liability for debts or legal claims. It’s suitable for freelancers and very small businesses.
Partnership: Shared ownership and responsibility between two or more people and joint liability for debts and legal claims.
Limited company: A separate legal entity offering liability protection but requiring formal reporting to Companies House.

Product or Service Line

This section explains your value proposition and pricing. Clearly describe what you offer, how it benefits customers, and how it differs from alternatives. Include pricing models (i.e., cost-plus, value-based, subscription-based, etc.) and consider how economies of scale might affect your future margins. A good AI business plan generator will help you establish a profitable pricing strategy.

Financial Plan

Your financial plan must include the following:

Cash flow forecasts: Projecting money in and out, typically over 12 months.
Profit and loss statements: Showing income, expenses, and net profit.
Balance sheets: Summarising assets and liabilities.
Break-even analysis: Determining the sales volume required to cover all costs.

A high-quality business plan creator will automate calculations and visualise key metrics in charts. While you don’t need an accountant to get started, make sure that your assumptions are realistic; overestimating sales or underestimating costs can reduce your credibility significantly.

Limitations and Risk Mitigation

Some companies will still need to seek expert advice to complement their DIY plan. Some examples include companies subject to niche tax law or that have complex intellectual property. If you’re seeking substantial investment through venture capital or large bank loans, investors will expect audited financials and legal clarity. Likewise, highly-regulated industries like healthcare, fintech, or transportation demand precision that only specialists can provide.

Self-guided plans can be prone to confirmation bias — the tendency to favour data that supports your idea. This can distort market analysis or financial projections. To counter this, seek feedback from impartial sources. Ultimately, treat your DIY plan as a first draft. Once it’s complete, invest in a short consultation with a solicitor or accountant to verify critical sections. This keeps costs manageable while preserving professional credibility.

Conclusion: The Verdict on Self-Sufficiency

Can you create a complete business plan online without experts? Yes — but with caveats. Any entrepreneur can now use web-based tools to develop a comprehensive, investor-ready document. The best tools handle structure, research, formatting, financial projections, and scenario modelling. They also help plan strategy surrounding pricing, marketing, and distribution.

Combined with credible data from government sources, these tools make strategic planning accessible. However, the quality of the outcome depends on the rigour of your research and the honesty of your assumptions. The best approach is to generate a draft using a business plan creator and budget for a solicitor or accountant to review legal and financial sections.

To get your business plan off the ground fast, start a free trial with Venture Planner today.