What evidence should I include in a business plan for a business with no sales yet?

State clearly that the business has not made sales

Give the reader an accurate starting point. State when the business was formed, what preparation has taken place and whether operations have begun. If no customer has paid, say so. A registered company, completed website or attractive product sample is useful context, but none is a trading history.

Separate the founders' past experience from the new company's achievements. Someone who managed projects for a former employer can describe that role accurately. The new business should not claim those projects as its own contracts or turnover. Explain how the experience will help deliver the proposed work and which skills still need to be recruited.

Use a short evidence register alongside the plan. For each material claim, identify a document, date, owner and limitation. This gives the reader a way to distinguish a verified fact from an assumption that still needs testing.

Show what you learned from prospective customers

Describe the customer group narrowly enough to test. A plan for supplying maintenance services to small factories needs different evidence from a plan for selling household cleaning products. Identify who makes the buying decision, what problem they currently face and how they solve it today.

Keep a record of interviews or enquiries, including the questions asked and the number of people who responded. Explain how they were selected. Feedback from three existing personal contacts can reveal useful problems, but it does not establish demand across an entire province. Report the limitation rather than multiplying a small sample into an unsupported market estimate.

Distinguish interest from commitment. An informal enquiry, a non-binding letter of interest and an accepted purchase order have different evidential value. Record conditions such as funding approval, price agreement or product testing. Do not describe conditional interest as guaranteed future income.

Support the cost of starting and delivering the work

Collect quotations for the major items needed to operate. Include what each quotation covers, its date, validity period and exclusions. A machine price may exclude delivery, installation, training or the supporting electrical work. Those omissions matter to the amount the business needs before it can serve a customer.

The IDC funding checklist, for example, requests a business plan, quotations and financial projections. Its requirements belong to that application process. Check the chosen programme's current list and explain which historical documents do not exist for a new enterprise.

Explain how the business will actually fulfil an order

Describe the journey from a customer request to completed delivery. Identify the people, premises, suppliers, equipment and approvals involved. A proposed sales target becomes more credible when the plan shows the practical capacity needed to achieve it.

Use evidence that fits the stage of development. A prototype test can support a claim about the prototype's performance under the tested conditions. It does not prove that the company can manufacture at scale. A supplier's availability statement can support planning, but it is not the same as stock already owned by the company.

Record the dependency that must be resolved before trading begins. If a licence, installation, lease or external certification is pending, show its actual status and the activity that depends on it. Keep the opening date conditional where the underlying evidence does not support a firm commitment.

Connect the evidence to the forecast

Build revenue from understandable inputs such as customers served, jobs completed, units sold and expected prices. Explain the basis of those inputs. A total sales figure without the underlying activity makes it difficult to assess whether the business can achieve the forecast.

Link the cost assumptions to the same volume. More sales may require additional materials, staff time, transport or working capital. Include the gap between paying suppliers and collecting customer money. The business may need funding before its first profitable month simply because cash leaves earlier than it returns.

Keep an assumptions page showing the evidence date, calculation and uncertainty. If a quoted price changes, update both the spreadsheet and the written plan. A reader should not find one equipment amount in the funding request and another in the cash forecast.

Use an honest pre-revenue example

Suppose a new repair business has interviewed eight workshop owners, obtained two equipment quotations and completed a demonstration using rented tools. Three prospects ask for formal prices, but no contract has been signed. These are meaningful preparation steps, provided they are described precisely.

The plan could explain the problems raised in the interviews, the demonstration's limitations and the cost of purchasing the required equipment. Its revenue forecast should remain an estimate. It should not call the three pricing requests a customer base or include their full expected spending as secured revenue.

A useful next test might be a paid pilot with an agreed scope, subject to any required permissions. The plan can identify what that test would establish: delivery time, material usage or willingness to pay. This gives a concrete route for reducing uncertainty without pretending that uncertainty has already disappeared.

Make missing evidence visible and actionable

Create a gap list with a responsible person and next action. Replace vague entries such as research market with a specific task: obtain written feedback from the intended buyer group on the proposed service scope and price. Decide what result would cause the business to revise its approach.

Separate a missing document from an unresolved business decision. A quotation can be requested, while an unproven route to customers may require a different sales approach. Treating both as paperwork can hide the more important commercial problem.

Include a realistic downside case. Show what happens if sales begin later, customers order less or a major cost rises. Explain which spending can be delayed and which obligations remain. The purpose is to understand the funding need, not to suggest that every possible risk can be eliminated.

Explain exactly what the requested money would enable

Break the funding request into uses that can be checked against the operating plan. Distinguish initial assets, setup costs and money needed to cover the early trading cycle. Show the owner's intended contribution separately and explain whether it is already available, committed subject to conditions or still being raised.

Do not count the same contribution twice. Equipment already owned by a founder may support capacity, but its value is not automatically cash available to pay rent. Likewise, a prospective loan should not appear as confirmed opening cash unless the relevant conditions have been satisfied.

Identify the minimum workable launch and any later expansion. This lets a reader understand whether a smaller funding amount would support a viable first stage or leave the business unable to complete its setup. Record the consequences instead of simply reducing every budget line by the same percentage.

Prepare a reviewable application pack

Read the recipient's current application instructions before finalising the file. Map each requested item to a document or a clear explanation. Use consistent company identity, dates, amounts and version names. Keep supporting evidence accessible without burying the main business argument in a large unstructured folder.

Ask a reviewer to trace three important claims back to their evidence and three forecast figures back to their assumptions. Correct broken links, unexplained totals and stale quotations. This practical review often reveals contradictions that a spelling check misses.

Business-plan support can help turn the material into a coherent submission. The owner still needs to confirm the facts, assumptions and intended use of funds. A complete, credible plan supports assessment; it does not promise finance or remove the funder's own decision process.