About Business Plan Hub

Written by someone who has
actually built the business

Most business plans are assembled from templates and spreadsheet formulas. Ours are built on 35 years of running real companies — manufacturing, renewable energy, engineering, construction, property, shipping, trade, franchising and finance — across nine markets on six continents. We write plans for every industry — that experience is simply what we bring on top.

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Global Track Record

Business done on six continents

Across 35 years Charl van Zyl has traded, built, exported and invested in these markets — opening his own companies in several of them, and negotiating with banks, investors and investment firms in each. That is where the instinct in your plan comes from.

AFAfrica
MEMiddle East
EUEurope
ASAsia
UKUnited Kingdom
AUAustralia
USUnited States
NZNew Zealand
SASouth America
MUMauritius
SHSt Helena Island
HTHaiti
Every Sector

We write business plans for all industries

We take on plans in every industry — from a single coffee shop to a mining operation, a tech startup, a farm, a clinic, a logistics business or a fund.

What carries across every sector is the part that actually decides funding: how to research a market properly, how to build a financial model that reconciles, how to price risk honestly, and how to put it in front of a bank or an investor. That method is the same whether you make solar panels or sell shoes.

Any
Industry · Any Market
Charl van Zyl, founder of Business Plan Hub
Who You'll Be Working With
Charl van Zyl
Founder · Business Plan Hub

Charl has spent 35 years founding, financing and running businesses, much of it internationally. He has started his own companies in several countries, exported and imported across borders, developed property, delivered engineering and construction projects, built master franchise networks and taken renewable-energy technology to market.

That path means he has sat on both sides of the funding table: presenting to banks, investors and investment firms for his own ventures, and later structuring the plans that others used to raise. He knows which questions get asked, which numbers get challenged, and which slides lose the room.

Every Business Plan Hub client works with him directly — from the first discovery conversation to the final document.

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Our Difference

A spreadsheet is not a business

Anyone can fill in a template and grow the revenue line by 20% a year. Funders see dozens of those every month, and they can spot one in ninety seconds.

The typical plan

Built from theory

  • A generic template with your company name dropped into it.
  • Growth assumptions with nothing underneath them.
  • Costs that ignore what the work actually takes to deliver.
  • Risks listed to tick a box, not because they were lived through.
  • Falls apart at the first serious question from a credit committee.
The Business Plan Hub plan

Built from experience

  • Written from the ground up around your business and your market.
  • Every assumption stated, sourced and defensible under questioning.
  • Real operating costs, priced by someone who has paid them.
  • Risks and mitigations drawn from 35 years of things going wrong.
  • Structured for the exact audience — a lender, or an equity investor.
Who We Write For

Two audiences. Two very different plans.

A bank and an investor are not looking for the same thing. Tell us which room you're walking into and we build the plan to win that room.

The Investor Pitch

Equity · Venture · Private Capital

Investors buy upside. Your plan has to prove the market is big enough, the model scales, the team can execute, and there is a credible way for them to get their money back with a return.

  • How big is the opportunity, really — and what share can you take?
  • What makes this defensible when a competitor copies it?
  • What does every rand of investment actually buy?
  • What is the return, and how does the investor exit?
  • Why is this team the one to back?

The Bank Application

Term Debt · Project Finance

Banks buy certainty. A credit committee is not asking how exciting this is — it is asking whether the loan gets repaid, on time, in the worst reasonable month of the forecast.

  • Does monthly cashflow cover the repayment in every month?
  • What happens to that cover if revenue comes in 20% under?
  • What security, guarantees and owner contribution are on the table?
  • Are the costings and the capital budget realistic?
  • Does the applicant understand their own numbers?
Common Questions

Everything you're wondering

A complete, professionally written and designed document built around 20 core sections — the same structure as the two live sample plans on this site. Here is what is in it:
01

The Case

3 sections
Executive summaryThe opportunity & business modelCompetitive edge & positioning
02

Market & Strategy

4 sections
Industry overview & market sizingTarget market & customer profileCompetitor analysisMarketing & sales strategy
03

The Business

4 sections
Founders & management teamOperational planStaffing plan & payroll scheduleImplementation roadmap & timeline
04

The Financial Plan

7 schedules
Key assumptions registerStart-up & capital cost scheduleRevenue forecast & cost of salesMonthly cashflow forecastIncome statement & balance sheet (3 & 5 yr)Break-even & funding requirementSensitivity & debt service cover
05

Risk & Close

2 sections
Risk register & mitigationExit strategy & supporting annexures
The seven financial schedules are one linked model, not separate tables. Change a price assumption and the revenue forecast, margin, cashflow, income statement, balance sheet and debt service cover all move with it — so a funder’s “what if” gets answered in the meeting. Larger or multi-entity businesses get additional sections where the deal needs them, and we agree that scope up front.
Both, and we build them differently. A bank credit committee is testing whether the loan gets repaid; an investor is testing whether the business grows and returns capital. Tell us who you're approaching and we structure the plan, the emphasis and the financials around that audience.
It changes almost everything. Someone who has run a factory knows what downtime costs. Someone who has shipped containers knows what really happens to your margin at the port. Someone who has developed property knows how long approvals take. That knowledge lands in your costings, your timelines and your risk section — and it is exactly what a funder is probing for.
All of them. We write business plans for any industry, in any market. Separately, there are 18 fields where we have direct hands-on experience — manufacturing, renewable energy, biochar pyrolysis, structural engineering, construction, quantity surveying, property development, real estate, shipping, import, export, international trade, master franchising, marketing, sales, financing, project management and business plan development — so in those sectors we bring first-hand operating knowledge on top of the research. Outside them, the method that decides funding is identical, and we will tell you honestly up front how much direct experience we bring.
They're year-by-year forecasts of your revenue, costs and profit over three and five years, with every assumption clearly stated. Funders use them to judge whether your business can repay a loan or deliver a return. We make them ambitious but realistic, so they hold up under scrutiny.
Most plans are completed within 15 days of us receiving the information we need from you. Complex or multi-entity plans can take longer, and we tell you that up front rather than at the end. If you are working to a funding deadline, say so at the first conversation and we will agree a delivery date in writing.
The fee is set by the funding or project value the plan is written to raise, and every band is published on our Pricing page in both rand and US dollars — so you can see your number before you speak to us. Plans start at R45,000 for raises up to R3 million and scale with the size of the raise, because a larger raise means deeper research, a heavier financial model and a longer document. A turnkey package that adds company registration, branding and a website is quoted separately. Whatever the scope, you get a fixed quote in writing before any work begins.
Send whatever you already have, even if it is rough, half-finished or written only for yourself. That includes any proposals or pitch decks you have put together, any financial modelling, costings or quotes you have built, your marketing and sales thinking, supplier and pricing information, site or lease details, licences and permits, the CVs of the people who will run it, and — if you are already trading — historic financials and bank statements. Anything that shows us how you see the opportunity is useful.

None of it is a prerequisite. If all you have is the idea and the industry, that is a perfectly good starting point: we take you through the rest in a short discovery conversation and build the research, the strategy and the numbers ourselves. The more you share, though, the more the finished plan reads as your vision rather than our interpretation of it.
No. We're based in Cape Town, but over 35 years we've done business in the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Asia, South America, Australia, New Zealand and across Africa. Plans and models are delivered digitally, and we're comfortable with cross-border markets, multiple currencies and different investor and lender expectations.
Yes — that's our turnkey service. Company registration and founding documents, logo and corporate identity, business profile design, a professional website and social media setup. You walk into the funding meeting as an established business, not an idea.
A strong plan improves your odds considerably — but no honest advisor can guarantee a funding decision, because that sits with the lender or investor and with the merits of your business. What we do guarantee is a credible, thorough, professionally presented plan that puts the strongest possible version of your case in the room.

Put 35 years of experience behind your idea

Speak to Charl directly. Tell us the business and who needs convincing — we'll take it from there.

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