Starting a new business is an exciting venture but a well designed business plan is essential to give you the best possible chance of making it a success.
A business plan not only helps you clarify exactly how your business is going to launch (or how its going) but it’s also essential to attract investors, banking finance and attract talent on board.
In this article, we’ve looked at the best business planning software that you can use on your Mac to help you get off the ground.
In our research, we found that there’s actually not a single business planning software that offers a Mac desktop app. In fact, there are very few that even offer Windows desktop apps as almost all of them are web based.
However, the good news is we found some excellent Cloud based ones that work in any browser on a Mac and in some cases, integrate with desktop accounting software on your Mac too.
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Do You Really Need Business Plan Software?
If you’re really on a shoestring budget, you can draw-up a business plan with word processing software or spreadsheet tools such as Excel and Numbers for Mac.
You can also use mind mapping software to help you brainstorm ideas and come up with a basic business plan.
However, using business planning software gives you a more detailed, structured approach and helps highlight your all important Unique Selling Points (USPs) better than a document or spreadsheet.
A business planner will help make it clearer what your strengths and weaknesses are and ultimately help you sell your idea more effectively.
If you’re not good with numbers, business planning software will also assist you in making financial forecasts which is something that word processing tools definitely can’t do.
However, a business planner is only as good as the data and figures you feed it. It can’t make an nonviable business idea sound viable and the effectiveness of it will of course depend on the financial estimates you give it being realistic.
With this in mind, here then are the best business planning tools that you can use on a Mac whether you’re a budding entrepreneur, seeking finance for an existing business or restructuring.
1. LivePlan
LivePlan has been around over 15 years and is one of the most widely used business planning tools available with around 1 million users.
LivePlan uses a series of over 500 templates to help you quickly get a plan started based on your industry or market.
Most recently it introduced an AI powered Live-Plan Assistant that can set the tone of your proposal such as by giving it an Academic or Professional Tone.
If you use Xero or QuickBooks, LivePlan is also integrated with them so that you can cut down on accounting admin if your business launches.
The software also features its own financials that can help you forecast and estimate profit and losses if you’re struggling to come up with figures.
Many professional business consultants use LivePlan to create business plans and the software gives you the best possible chance to sell your business idea.
You can try a live virtual tour of LivePlan to see how to works although unfortunately, there’s no free trial.
Pros:
- Lender ready statements
- Over 500 templates
- AI Assistant
- Easy to follow
- Accounting software integration
Cons:
- No free version or free trial
Pricing: Standard $15/m, Premium $30/m
2. Enloop
The big attraction of Enloop for small startups is that you can use it free for seven days without any credit card. The free trial is definitely worth trying to see what it can do for you before deciding whether it’s actually worth paying for.
Enloop isn’t as glossy and slick as some of the other business planning software we’ve seen but it has got some powerful touches and even generates a lot of the proposal text for you.
Enloop can generate your financials with up to 36 month forecasts and compare your industry performance against up to 16 ratios.
The platform is easy to use and one of the few business planners that allows you to start for free before you decide whether it’s worth subscribing to a plan.
Enloop Plans start at $19.95 which is definitely reasonable compared to most other tools and allows you to share your plan with colleagues, investors and accountants.
Pros:
- Free for 7 days without a credit card
- Financial forecasts up to 36 months
- Automatically generates proposal outlines
Cons:
- Basic interface
- No sharing plans in the free trial version
Pricing: Free Trial / Plans start at $19.95 per month
3. Bizplan
If you want to put your business plan right out there in front of investors, then the big selling point of Bizplan is that it’s made by Startups.com. Bizplan claims to have helped raise over $500 million for startups it has helped draw-up business plans with.
Not only can you get advice from other entrepreneurs and investors but you may also be able to attract investment by putting it out through Funadable.com which connects you with investors.
The Business Plan Creator itself guides you through the planning process and has a web design style WYSIWYG style interface that’s easy to use.
There are also financial tools that give you forecasts, salary estimates, revenue projections and more.
The platform is also full of masterclass videos and tutorials giving you advice on how to make an effective business plan.
Pros:
- Partnered with startups.com to help you get investment
- Slick, WYSIWYG business plan editor
- Lot of templates to choose from
Cons:
- No free version or free trial
Pricing: Plans start at $29/month
4. PlanGuru
PlanGuru is a powerful business planning software aimed at businesses, non profits and advisors that need focus on financials and rolling forecasts.
PlanGuru can run “What If?” scenarios and forecast 3 different financial statements including income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement.
You can build an unlimited number of analysis per company, value a business and even setup a payroll.
There’s also integration with QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online, Xero and Excel accounting software.
If you’re struggling to put together a business plan, there’s also PlanGuru Launch which is a personalized service with business planning experts charged by the hour.
As you’d expect with a business planning platform on this level, pricing isn’t cheap starting at $83 per month going up to $250 per month for multi-department enterprises.
Pros:
- Extremely powerful financial tools
- Suitable for multi department enterprises
- Integration with accounting software
- Free trial available
Cons:
- Pricing
- Complex to use
Pricing: Starts at $83 per month
5. UpMetrics
UpMetrics is an AI driven business planning platform with over 400 business plan templates that aims to help you formulate a business plan as quickly as possible.
UpMetrics uses AI more than any other business planning platform we’ve seen and is great for those that don’t have much confidence in their writing abilities but need a professional plan quickly.
You can choose from “Professional, Academic and Persuasive” tones so that your plan hits the right note for how you want it to sound.
The Business Plan builder guides you through putting a proposal together including clear Financial Forecasts by Month, Quarter and Year.
There’s also a Pitch Deck tool to help you sell your idea via a presentation and more effective visualizations of your plan.
The business plans created by UpMetrics are glossy and professional with minimal effort compared to some of the other tools we’ve seen. You can also invite colleagues or potential partners into the app to view and refine the finished product.
Pros:
- Automates a lot of the planning with AI
- Lots of business templates
- Slick interface
- Good value
Cons:
- No free version or trial
Pricing: Starts at $7/month
Comparison Table
Below is a pricing comparison of each option side-by-side to see how they differ in price.
| Software | Free Trial | Price |
|---|---|---|
| LivePlan | No | $15/month+ |
| Enloop | Yes | $19.95/month+ |
| Bizplan | No | $29/month+ |
| PlanGuru | Yes | $83/month |
| UpMetrics | No | $7/month+ |
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