A Business Plan is a formal statement of a largely enforced business goal, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organisation or team attempting to reach those goals.

The business goals being attempted may be for-profit or non-profit. For-profit business plans typically focus on financial goals. Non-profit and government agency business plans tend to focus on service goals.

Business Plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. A Business Plan that has changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a marketing plan.

Business Plans may also be internally or externally focused. Externally focused plans target goals that are important to external stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. They typically have detailed information about the organisation or team attempting to reach certain nonrandom goals. In the case of for-profit entities, external stakeholders would include investors and customers.

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 a restructuring of the organisation.

An internal Business Plan will often be developed in conjunction with a list of critical success factors. This allows 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 Plans.