Business Plan Template by Meir Liraz — Practical Review

Meir Liraz's business plan template kit has been a staple Kindle purchase for first-time founders for over a decade. The reason it keeps selling is simple: writing a business plan from a blank document is the single most common thing that stops otherwise competent founders from actually submitting loan applications or pitching investors.

What's Actually In The Package

The Kindle edition bundles a filled-out sample business plan (the narrative), blank Word templates for each section, and a set of Excel spreadsheets for financial projections. You get placeholders for executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization, product line, marketing strategy, and financial projections.

It's not fancy. The Word templates are plain and the Excel sheets are basic (revenue forecast, expense budget, break-even analysis). That's the point. Nothing stops a non-accountant from filling them out.

Where It Earns Its Keep

If you walk into a community bank or apply for an SBA 7(a) loan under $350,000 without a business plan, you get rejected at the first gate. Lenders want to see that you've thought through revenue assumptions, customer acquisition costs, and cash flow — even crudely. Liraz's template gets you from zero to "lender-ready draft" in about a weekend of honest work.

The sample plan included is the real value. You see how someone else answered each section, which means you know what level of specificity the lender expects. Most first-time founders write three sentences where the lender wants three paragraphs.

Where It Falls Short

This isn't a strategic planning tool. If you're trying to model five-year growth scenarios, optimize unit economics, or build a venture-backable deck, Liraz's template is too thin. Use LivePlan or Bizplan for that tier. The financial projections template doesn't handle complex revenue streams (recurring revenue, marketplace take rates, SaaS churn math).

The narrative templates can lead founders into generic, templated-sounding plans if you just mad-lib the blanks. Lenders see hundreds of these — if yours reads like you filled in a template, that's a problem.

Who Should Buy

First-time SMB founders applying for traditional bank loans, SBA 7(a), lines of credit under $250k, or equipment financing — this gets you from "I've never written a business plan" to "I have a solid first draft" for under $10. For that outcome, nothing else on Amazon beats the price/value ratio.

Verdict

A real tool for real founders at a real price point. Use it as scaffolding, not a finish line. Rewrite the templated sections in your own voice once you've seen how the sample plan filled them out.