How to write a business plan for a pop-up shop

Setting up a pop-up shop requires a lot of forward-thinking. Putting together a business plan is a way to set out your intention for your future. You may also need to look for additional sources of finance from investors or loans from banks. This guide will outline the elements you’ll need for your plan to make sure that you provide everything you need to present your business.

To help you create a business plan for a pop-up shop, we will cover:

• Explain the business
• Detail your audience
• Highlight your location
• Carry out a SWOT analysis
• Make financial projections

For the first section of the business plan, you need to make clear what you will sell and how you plan to present your brand.

Your business will sell a product or service. Being a pop-up shop, you’ll likely be near a lot of competition, so it’s important to put across what your main draws are. Your USP (unique selling point) is the thing about your offering that customers can only get from your business. Whether it is the experience you provide or item you offer, use this section to show what you expect people to love about your shop.

It is essential to include your brand in your plan to show how you want your customers to view the business. To explain your branding, you could put together brand guidelines.

Guidelines include a name, logo, colour scheme, and tone of voice you plan to use for your brand. This shows that you have started to consider building a reputation. By explaining your branding decisions, you will lead the company’s scalability. In addition, having planned guidelines ensures your marketing will be consistent.

To have a business plan that shows off your ability to market the shop, you need to demonstrate that you have done research on the market and know who you are going to target.

Conducting market research is a vital part of any new business. Often, potential investors want to see this in your plan. You can research in various ways to find out more about your market. For example, you can either talk to potential customers directly through surveys or investigate who other businesses target by making notes of their marketing activities. 

Many businesses include customer profiles (sometimes called customer avatars) in their plans to show their target audience in a relatable way. This is a hypothetical person who can represent the lifestyles of people you would like to target.

Your customer profiles can include:

• Name
• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Occupation
• Interests

The locations you choose to set up for a pop-up business are crucial for your success. Potential lenders and investors will likely want to know where you plan to be and why you have chosen those areas. 

Be specific if you have one location in mind or if you plan to use multiple places, describe the types of sites they will be. It would be helpful to look at your customer profile and think where you should reach that person to help you decide on a location. Research where you can set up and inquire what it costs to be there.

It could be helpful to do a SWOT analysis to demonstrate that your plan includes considerations from all business areas. This is where you analyse your shops’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Your business’s strengths should be all of the reasons it is likely to succeed. For example, suppose you have identified a busy area that your target audience frequent and have prior knowledge of the site. In that case, this could be a strength.

Every new business is likely to have some weaknesses. By identifying them in your plan, you can show how you intend to overcome them. For example, you may have little experience in managing finances. You can mention using an accounting tool like the Countingup app to make it easier.

Your plan should demonstrate that the business is likely to have growth potential. To do this, include some possible opportunities that you could take advantage of in future. If you sell food, your shop may open in festivals, for example. 

There will likely also be potential threats your business may need to face. By thinking about some things beforehand, you can plan how you would deal with the situations. For example, suppose the COVID guidance encourages people to work from home. In that case, you may also decide to sell your products online.

Another important section to include in your business plan is your company’s expectations for your early finances. You can write this by putting together a sales forecast. This is when you multiply the number of customers you expect by the sale price and work out how much money would come into the business. It can either be used to show a month, quarter or year.

Your numbers must add up and be laid out correctly for your business plan. To ensure that you can manage your finances correctly, setting up a separate current account for your shop may be helpful. With a business account, you can clearly see what comes in and out.

Countingup is the current business account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With the expense categorisation feature, you can ensure that your financial projections are accurate and precise. The app also offers cash flow insights, so you can routinely compare your business’s performance with your plan. 

The app’s ease of use lets you confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. You can also instantly share your bookkeeping with your accountant without worrying about duplication errors, data lags, or inaccuracies. Seamless, simple, and straightforward! 

Start your three-month free trial today. 

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