Guide
How to write a business plan for a Saudi venture
Writing your own plan is a reasonable decision. Doing it badly costs more than hiring someone, because a weak document delays funding by months. This is the sequence that works.
A business plan is written in this order: define the funding question, gather evidence, build the financial model, write the narrative around the numbers, then tighten the executive summary last. Writing the summary first produces a persuasive document with nothing behind it.
Step 1: define the decision
Before a single page, write one sentence: this document exists so that [reader] can decide [decision] by [date].
Examples:
- So that a bank credit officer can decide whether to approve a SAR facility by March.
- So that an investor can decide whether to take a first meeting in Q1.
- So that my partner and I can decide whether to sign the lease.
The reader changes the document. A bank wants repayment logic and downside protection. An investor wants growth logic and a defensible wedge. An internal plan wants operational clarity. Trying to serve all three produces a document that persuades nobody.
Step 2: collect the evidence you actually have
List what exists and what does not. Be strict.
| Evidence | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Supplier quotes | Converts cost assumptions into facts |
| Lease terms or rent quotes | The largest fixed cost for most premises-based businesses |
| Salary benchmarks | Staffing is usually the second largest cost |
| Competitor prices | Anchors your pricing and margin logic |
| Customer conversations | Tests demand before capital is committed |
| Existing accounts | Shows what the business has actually done |
Where evidence is missing, you will use an estimate. That is acceptable, provided the plan labels it as an estimate and explains the reasoning.
Step 3: size the market from the bottom up
Top-down statements ("the market is worth SAR X billion") are context, not analysis. A reader wants to know how many customers you can realistically reach and what they will pay.
Build a table:
| Input | Your figure | Source or rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Target customers in catchment | ||
| Purchase frequency per year | ||
| Average spend per purchase | ||
| Serviceable share in year one | ||
| Resulting year-one revenue |
If the bottom-up number is far below the top-down figure, that is normal. Explain the difference rather than hiding it.
Step 4: design the operating model
Describe how the business actually runs on a normal Tuesday. Who opens it, who serves the customer, what is bought, what is stored, what is delivered, what breaks.
For each function, state the capacity limit. A restaurant plan that projects 400 covers a day must show a kitchen and a floor that can produce 400 covers. This is where most optimistic plans fall apart.
Step 5: build the model before the prose
Open a spreadsheet and build, in this order:
- Assumptions sheet — every input in one place.
- Revenue build — volume × price, monthly, with seasonality.
- Cost build — fixed and variable, staffing, rent, marketing.
- P&L — monthly for year one, annual for later years.
- Cash flow — receipts and payments, including timing.
- Funding and debt — drawdown, repayment, interest.
- Break-even — fixed costs ÷ contribution margin.
If the model does not work, the plan will not work. Better to discover that in a spreadsheet than in a credit meeting.
Step 6: write the sections around the numbers
Follow the standard order: executive summary, business description, market, products and pricing, operations, marketing, management, financial plan, funding ask, risks.
Two rules make the writing better:
- Every claim gets a number or a source. "Strong demand" is not a claim; "1,200 households in the catchment, 8% penetration in year one" is.
- Every number gets a sentence of interpretation. A table without commentary forces the reader to do your thinking.
Step 7: write the executive summary last
One page. The business, the customer, the model, the numbers, the ask, the use of funds. It should be readable in ninety seconds and consistent with everything that follows.
Step 8: review for the questions you would rather avoid
Read the draft as the lender or investor. Then answer, in writing:
- What happens if revenue is 20% lower?
- Why will customers switch from the incumbent?
- What has the founder personally committed?
- Which assumption is the weakest, and what would change it?
- What is missing from the team?
A plan that answers those questions is stronger than one that avoids them.
Common failures in Saudi submissions
- Market sections built entirely on national statistics with no local derivation.
- Projections that grow smoothly and ignore seasonality.
- Costs that omit staff housing, transport, licensing or contingency.
- A funding ask that is a round number rather than a sum of line items.
- No downside case.
- Format claims about institutions that were never checked against the institution's own guidance.
Any statement in your plan about a specific institution's required format, eligibility or documentation should be verified against that institution's current published guidance before submission, and the date of that check recorded.
When to bring someone in
If the plan is for your own clarity, self-writing is usually fine. If it goes to a credit committee, and the model is the weak part, commissioning the financial model alone is often the cheapest improvement. The full business plan writing service exists for documents where the narrative and the numbers both have to hold.
A one-page version for very small businesses
Not every venture needs thirty pages. A single-site service business with a small loan can often be described in one page plus a model:
| Block | Content |
|---|---|
| What the business does | One paragraph, plain language |
| Customer | Who pays, how often, how much |
| Premises and operations | Location, capacity, staffing |
| Costs | The five largest monthly costs |
| Revenue | Volume × price, with a ramp |
| Break-even | Units or revenue per month |
| Funding need | Amount and use of funds |
| Risk | The two things most likely to go wrong |
That structure is enough for an internal decision or a small facility. It is not enough for a competitive investor process, but writing thirty pages for a business that does not need them wastes everyone's time.
Where founders get stuck
Almost everyone stalls at the same three points:
- Pricing. Founders underprice because they compare with the cheapest competitor rather than with the value delivered.
- Costs. They estimate the large items and forget the recurring ones — maintenance, software, insurance, replacements.
- The ramp. They assume the business opens at full demand.
If you are stuck, write the worst realistic version of each assumption and see whether the business still works. If it does, the plan is probably sound. If it does not, you have found the real problem early.
When to stop writing and start testing
A plan cannot resolve demand uncertainty. If the central question is whether customers will buy, the answer comes from a small test — a pop-up, a pre-order page, twenty customer conversations — not from another draft.
That is not an argument against planning. It is an argument for planning after the cheapest questions have been answered.
The test of a finished plan is simple: a reader who has never met you should be able to describe the business, the customer and the ask without asking a question. If they cannot, another edit will help more than another page.