How to use this guide
The prices below are what providers publish on their own websites, checked on 30 October 2026. They change, so look at the current page before you buy. I sell a service in this market, which I come to at the end, and I have tried to be fair to everyone else in it.
Free templates
Start Up Loans publishes a business plan template, a 12-month cash-flow forecast template and a personal survival budget template, and GOV.UK also points to The King's Trust template. They cost nothing, and for a Start Up Loan application they are often all you need if you are prepared to do the work. What they lack: a balance sheet, so nothing checks that the numbers hang together; anything beyond twelve months; a downside case; and anyone to tell you that your month-one sales are fantasy. The real cost is your time, and the risk of an error nobody catches.
Freelancers on marketplaces
The big freelance marketplaces will find you a plan writer within the hour, and the price spread is enormous. A pricing guide published by one specialist firm (Competitor A below) in August 2026 puts freelance writers at £300 to £1,500. One of the largest marketplaces publishes its typical rates for plan writers in US dollars, which tells you where many, though not all, of the writers are based. Some are excellent. The questions to ask before you pay: who builds the forecast, and do they know UK VAT and Companies House filing; do you get the spreadsheet or only a PDF; how many revisions; and will they pick up the phone when the bank asks a question? At the cheap end you are usually buying a template filled in with your answers, which is fine if you know that is what you are getting.
Specialist plan writers
UK businesses that do little else. I have not named them: this is a guide to the market, not an advert for anyone in it. Published prices, as at the date above:
| Provider | Published price | Notes from their site |
|---|---|---|
| Competitor A | From £499 for a complete plan with financial projections | Turnaround 48 hours to four weeks; fixed quote before work starts; VAT position not stated |
| Competitor B | Basic £750, Standard £1,400, Premium £2,500, Elite £3,500 | Prices include VAT; 50 per cent deposit; one to three revision rounds depending on tier; Start Up Loan plans listed separately at £400 to £700 |
| Competitor C | Typically £1,800 to £3,500 | Three- or five-year forecasts prepared by a qualified accountant; three to four weeks; 50 per cent deposit; VAT position not stated |
Competitor A's guide puts specialist consultancies more broadly at £1,500 to £5,000, and visa or investor-grade plans at £2,000 to £10,000 and above. That matches what I see. The spread within the tier is mostly about page count, research depth and how many years of forecast you get.
Accountant-prepared plans
Most high-street accountancy firms will prepare a plan, often as a bolt-on for an existing client. The numbers are usually sound. The narrative and market sections can be thin, because that is not what accountants are trained to write. Pricing is often hourly or quoted per job, and I have not found a reliable published survey of what firms charge, so ask for a fixed fee and ask exactly what is in it. Most firms are VAT-registered: if the quote is before VAT and you cannot reclaim it, add it on to compare like with like.
What moves the price
- Revenue streams. One service at one price is a morning's modelling. Five product lines, two channels and a subscription is not.
- Forecast length. Twelve months monthly is one job. Three or five years, with the first year monthly, is another.
- Research depth. Desk research from published data is standard. Primary research (surveys, footfall counts, mystery shopping the competition) is where fees double.
- Revisions. Every round is time. Find out how many are included and what the next one costs.
- How ready your figures are. If you arrive with a price list, a cost schedule and a bank statement, you pay less than if the writer has to extract them.
- Audience. A bank plan, an investor plan and a visa plan are different documents with different evidence standards.
What should always be included, at any price
An integrated three-statement forecast: profit and loss, cash flow and a balance sheet that balances, because a cash flow with no balance sheet behind it has nothing checking it. A page of assumptions that every number traces back to. A downside case. The spreadsheet itself, unlocked, so you or your accountant can change a number later. And a named person who will answer the lender's questions after delivery. When I ran money, a plan that arrived without the model behind it was a brochure, and I did not invest on brochures. Banks are no different.
If you cannot get the spreadsheet, you have not bought a forecast. You have bought a picture of one.
Where Gregory Analytics sits
My business plans start at £650 under my Christmas offer, until 31 January 2027, and at £950 after that. I am not VAT-registered, so that is the price you pay. The plan comes with an integrated three-statement forecast in Excel, the assumptions, a downside case, a first draft in five working days and two rounds of changes. You pay nothing up front: I invoice when the final version is ready, payable in 7 days. On the table above that puts me between Competitor A's starting price and Competitor B's Standard tier, and below Competitor C's range. What you are paying for at my end is that a chartered accountant who used to read these documents for a living builds the numbers himself. Whether that is worth the difference depends on who is going to read your plan, and how hard they are going to read it.
Common questions
Is a cheap business plan a waste of money?
Not necessarily. For a Start Up Loan, the free templates filled in carefully are often enough. The waste is paying a few hundred pounds for a template filled in badly, with no spreadsheet and nobody to answer the assessor's questions.
Does the price include the financial forecast?
Ask. Some writers quote for the narrative and add the forecast separately, or outsource it. Mine includes an integrated three-statement forecast in Excel, and I build it myself.
Why do some prices say 'plus VAT' and others not?
VAT-registered providers have to add it. If you are not VAT-registered yourself you cannot reclaim it, so compare prices including VAT. I am not registered, so my prices carry none.
Need the document itself?
Fixed fees, no VAT, first draft in five working days, the Excel workbook included. Free 10-minute call, or send the basics by email.
Business plans from £650Get a fixed quote