How Much Does Creating a Business Plan Really Cost?

If you want to save money when creating your business plan, there are several cost-effective options available. You can create parts of the business plan yourself to reduce costs, or you can hire experts to create the entire business plan for you. Business plan consulting provides valuable guidance and helpful feedback. Many companies also offer business plan coaching, where you receive individualized support to develop your business plan independently. Regardless of which option you choose – it’s important to understand the various cost factors and take advantage of funding programs or subsidies to further reduce your expenses. With the right strategy, you can create a comprehensive business plan without exceeding your budget.

If you’d rather not put together your business plan and numbers alone, we support you in Strategy Consulting.

Creating a Business Plan – Costs and Key Factors

When you ask about the costs of creating a business plan, there’s no clear answer without further details – as with many things, it simply depends. Particularly in the planning phase of your investments, this can create uncertainty. To help clarify, let’s examine the most important cost factors.

Dependent on Your Current Situation and Complexity

Depending on the stage your company is in, the costs for a business plan can vary. Founders can expect prices up to €4,000, while established companies with increasing complexity may charge five-figure amounts. These expenses are often justified by the business plan’s objectives.

Dependent on Your Business Plan’s Purpose

The effort required for a business plan depends on its goal. The most common objectives are:

• Convincing investors
• Acquiring funding
• Creating an overview and roadmap for yourself, business partners, and stakeholders

If you secure financing of up to 5 million euros with an investment of €20,000 for a comprehensive business plan, this expense appears like a good deal in comparison. And when you factor in funding programs, your investment becomes even more profitable.

Dependent on Funding Opportunities

With various financing and funding options, you can further reduce the costs of your business plan consulting. Both your current business situation and your location play a role. Common funding programs include BAFA grants, AVGS vouchers for founder coaching, and regional programs.

Dependent on Market Complexity

An important part of a business plan is market analysis. In self-created plans, this is often neglected, making the expertise of a consultant particularly valuable. Market analysis can become very complex depending on your niche and business strategy – which leads to higher costs.

Dependent on Consulting Effort

The consulting effort depends directly on your current situation and your desired outcome. A startup with 4 employees and €5,000 in capital requires different consulting than an established company with 100 employees and €20,000 in capital. This difference is reflected in the costs and required expertise.

Dependent on Expertise and Network

Every service is not only a matter of price, but also of quality. If you try to save money on your business plan and achieve unsatisfactory results, you risk missing important financing opportunities and incurring unnecessary expenses. We recommend working with a business consultant who can demonstrate expertise, success, and a strong network.

At nxt milestone, we place great value on being your trusted partner. With successful consulting, excellent business plans, and as an official BAFA consulting partner, we offer you a clear advantage. Expert advice has its price – and in return, you get a customized business plan and higher financing, which significantly increases your ROI.

Differences in Business Plan Services

When creating a business plan, a distinction is often made between different service scopes. These range from “I already have a business plan and only want feedback from experts” to “I don’t have a business plan and need comprehensive consulting and support as well.”

The possible cost differences can be divided into five categories, with the following prices serving as general benchmarks. They are based on the mid-price segment and provide good guidance for a fair price-to-value ratio from reputable providers.

1. Business Plan Review

A business plan review is typically the most affordable option. Your existing business plan is checked for consistency and potential improvements. Depending on the agreement, the review includes either just a list of improvement opportunities or their concrete implementation as well.

Cost: €200 to €1,500 (Some providers also offer a free preliminary review.)

2. Create Specific Sections of Your Business Plan

If 60–80% of your business plan is already complete and only specific sections need to be added, this service becomes relevant. The areas of market analysis, financial planning, and financial calculations are particularly in demand. It’s also possible that the business plan may need to be revised overall to ensure professional coherence.

Cost: €600 to €2,200

3. Coaching for Self-Creation

Less common, but also an option, is coaching for creating your business plan yourself. Depending on your prior experience and number of participants, this can take anywhere from a few hours to 2–3 days. Costs for this type of coaching vary considerably.

Cost: €100 to €150 per hour

4. Complete Business Plan Including Financial Plan

Complete business plan creation is the most frequently booked service. Here, experts take over the entire development and design of your business plan, including financial planning and modeling. This prepares you optimally for conversations with investors or banks.

A significant advantage of this option is the high professionalism: Funders pay attention to details that are often missing in less professional creations.

Cost: €2,800 to €8,000

5. Additional Services: Pitch Deck and Pitch Coaching

Depending on your goal, it may be worthwhile to add a pitch deck and coaching for compelling presentations. These are often offered as add-on services to the complete business plan.

Cost: €2,000 to €4,000 for pitch deck and coaching

Funding Opportunities

Most people know funding programs only in relation to startups and their direct costs, as is common with well-known funding programs like the Berlin Founding Bonus program.

But not only startups are eligible for funding, and these grants don’t necessarily have to apply to direct expenses – they can also cover consulting services.

At the end, we’ll show you our 3 most frequently successfully used favorites.

BAFA Funding

BAFA funding is consulting support available to all founders and established companies throughout Germany. Depending on location, it covers 50 or 80% of eligible consulting costs up to €3,500; in Berlin it is 50%. That is a grant of at most €1,750 or €2,800.

AVGS – Vouchers for Founder Coaching

AVGS vouchers for founder coaching are placement vouchers from the German Employment Agency for employed individuals and, depending on circumstances, individuals receiving unemployment benefits. These cover comprehensive founder consulting costs up to €6,200 – with the goal of business plan creation and clarification of all aspects of founding, including financing and funding. You have no co-investment, and after founder coaching you’ll have a solid foundation for your business success, a business plan, and you may even receive the additional founding grant – also a subsidy from the Employment Agency. Coaching is in German and requires B2 level or above.

Regional Funding

The list of possible regional funding options is nearly endless. Therefore, we’ll show you an example of our favorite here.

RKW Funding Hessen: RKW Hessen provides funding for qualified consulting for aspiring founders and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). There are various concrete funding programs – depending on the applicant and required consulting type – and these are subsidized up to €6,000 depending on the specific consulting service. The co-investment for most RKW consulting grants is 50%.

Save Costs With Our Help!

Now you know roughly what price range your investment in creating a business plan will fall into. You should also now understand the lucrative benefits of funding programs for consulting services – definitely take advantage of these.

We’d be happy to help you find the best funding for your current situation and support you with the same business plan expertise that has brought success to our clients. We’d love to get to know you during a brief phone call.

Book your initial consultation now.