Business plan writer cost: what $100, $1,000 and $5,000 get you

By Tom Hill, Editor. Updated November 12, 2026.

What $100 gets you

On Fiverr

Our Fiverr sample is the first results page of a search for “vending machine business plan”, saved by Tom Hill on 12 Nov 2026 during our vending plan research¹. We kept 13 general or vending plan-writing gigs from it: 3 are vending plans and 10 are general business plan gigs that appeared in that search. The search page shows only each gig’s starting tier, in Fiverr’s “Relevance” order, so this is not a random sample. Prices showed in Australian dollars and are converted at the ECB rate of 11 Nov 2026.

Fiverr search page saved by Tom Hill, 12 Nov 2026¹. Our count from the gig titles.

Four of the 13 start under $100 ($26, $26, $37 and $60), and 8 start at $115 or less. Five gig titles mention a financial model, a financial plan or projections. The search page doesn’t say whether the starting tier includes them, so ask the seller before you buy.

On Upwork

Our Upwork sample is the first results page of a talent search for “business plan writer”, saved by Tom Hill on 12 Nov 2026 during the same vending research; the search itself wasn’t about vending². The 10 writers on it charge a median of $32.50 an hour, from $14.99 to $50. Three are US-based, at $30, $35 and $35 an hour.

At the median, $100 buys about 3 hours. Wise Business Plans, a writing firm, gives an hourly rate with hours attached, under a heading on freelance writers: “Business plan writers range from $79 to $149 an hour. Most projects will take a minimum of 20-30 hours”⁸. By our sum that is at least $1,580 to $4,470 a plan. Both figures are the seller’s claims, and Wise gives no source. At the Upwork median of $32.50, the same hours would cost $650 to $975.

Or an AI generator, for less

AI plan generators cost less per month than a $100 gig: afoundersplan sells one plan for $5.99 or five for $19.99¹³, GrowthGrid is “available from $19” without saying how often¹⁴, and monthly tools run $14 to $55^15,16,17. Either way, the numbers still need your own costs and prices behind them, since an SBA lender looks for projections “including the supporting assumptions”²³; our main page compares AI plan generators.

Or free help to write it yourself

SCORE’s template gallery is free: a startup plan template, 12-month and 3-year profit-and-loss and cash-flow templates, a break-even sheet and a bank loan request guide (we opened it by hand during our vending research), plus free mentoring¹⁸. America’s SBDC runs nearly 1,000 local centers offering no-cost consulting¹⁹. SBDC advisers don’t write the plan for you: the California, Pennsylvania and Florida SBDCs all say so^20,21,22. Our route-by-route cost page compares the free routes side by side.

For scale, the cheapest firm package we found is Quality Business Plan’s Express plan. From $500, it is 16 pages with a 12-month pro forma P&L, for businesses with 2 employees or fewer and loans up to $100,000, delivered in “7 days or less”⁵. That is a starting price, not what most plans cost.

If the plan is for you and you’ll do the work, $100 is four months of Draper Start²⁶. Draper’s workshops, about 50 of them, take you through every step of starting the business, building the plan with you²⁷. We make it, and it doesn’t write a plan for a lender.

What $1,000 gets you

At about $1,000 you move from marketplaces to firms that publish what each package contains.

Starting prices. What’s included is summarised from each seller’s page: Quality Business Plan⁵, Business Plan Firm³, Coleman⁴.

SOP 50 10 8.1, the SBA’s rulebook for lenders, says what projections a start-up needs. For a 7(a) Small loan, 12-month projections with supporting assumptions are one way to show the business can repay. A standard 7(a) loan needs projections that show debt coverage within two years, and for SBA Express the lender sets its own rules²³. Business Plan Firm’s 5-year projections and Quality Business Plan’s 24-month P&L run at least two years on paper. Whether your lender accepts a particular plan is the lender’s call. Our main page explains what a bank or SBA lender actually asks for.

At the Upwork median, $1,000 buys about 31 hours of a freelancer’s time², a little over the minimum of 20 to 30 hours Wise gives⁸.

The financial projections are the expensive part. Business Plan Firm and ProjectionHub each sell the projections alone for $750^3,6; our consultants page compares every firm’s model prices.

If it’s for an SBA loan

Several firms label packages for SBA loans:

• Business Plan Firm: SBA plans at $1,000, $1,800 and $2,500. The $2,500 Premium adds “multi-entity or real-estate modeling, broker and lender liaison”³.
• Quality Business Plan: Traditional, from $1,500, its tier for SBA loans up to $500,000⁵.
• ProjectionHub: an SBA-ready plan with projections for $2,500, or $3,500 with its SBA concierge service⁶.
• Plan Writers: from $3,000 for start-up SBA loans under $150,000⁷.

Buying a business with an SBA loan? Business Plan Firm’s acquisition plan, “built to Appendix 15”, costs $1,800, or $2,800 with a model³.

There is also a free route. GoSBA Loans, one SBA loan broker, writes the plan and projections at no cost to you. The lender pays GoSBA a referral fee after your loan closes, disclosed on SBA Form 159¹⁰, so this route fits if you’re borrowing through a broker. And SBA rules let a lender charge a packaging fee, which can include preparing a business plan, and a flat fee of up to $2,500 needs no record of the work done²³; our consultants page explains that rule.

Between $1,000 and $5,000

Several firms cluster at about $2,500. ProjectionHub’s plan with projections is $2,500⁶. Coleman charges $2,500 for a $250,000 to $2 million raise (“SBA loans and seed rounds”), typically in about two weeks⁴. Business Plan Firm’s SBA Premium is $2,500, and its Premium business plan, with a matching investor pitch deck, is $2,800³. SMB Business Plans charges $2,500, according to a review by GoSBA Loans; we couldn’t confirm it on SMB’s own site¹¹. Below that, Business Plan Firm’s $1,800 Standard plan adds a “full 5-year financial model” and unlimited revisions³.

Our Business plan consultants page lists every firm’s published prices and the median by reader.

What $5,000 gets you

Starting prices from Coleman⁴, Quality Business Plan⁵ and Plan Writers⁷.

This tier is mostly for someone raising a large round, or applying for a visa that needs job modelling. For EB-5, the regulation asks for a “comprehensive business plan”²⁴ and USCIS says the plan “must be credible”²⁵. Our main page covers what investors and visa officers ask for.

A visa plan needn’t cost $5,000. Business Plan Firm prices an E-2 or L-1 plan at $1,900, EB-5 or EB-2 NIW depth at $2,400 and economic impact (job) modeling at $3,200³.

Extras at this level are often priced separately. Business Plan Firm’s pitch decks cost $1,950 to $3,950³. Coleman’s financial model costs $3,500 on its own, or from $5,900 when tied to a raise, loan or acquisition⁴.

Speed doesn’t track price. Quality Business Plan promises “7 days or less” at every tier⁵, while Coleman says a short deadline “does not turn the larger plan into a five-day engagement”⁴. None of the 7 sellers that state turnaround terms publishes what a rush costs; Business Plan Firm says its fastest rush is “agreed and priced in advance”³.

Freelancer or firm, US-based or not

A firm’s pricing page tells you what each tier includes, how many revision rounds you get and how long it takes^3,5. A Fiverr search page shows only a starting price¹, so you have to open each gig or ask.

Revisions vary widely, from one round on Business Plan Firm’s Essential plan³ to 30 days of free revisions at Butler Consultants⁹ and up to 90 days at Cayenne Consulting¹²; our consultants page compares what each firm’s quote includes.

In our Upwork sample, 3 of the 10 writers were US-based, at $30, $35 and $35 an hour; the others were in Pakistan (4) and Nigeria (3)². Where a writer lives matters mainly for working hours and for knowing what US lenders and visa officers expect.

Before you hire a writer, check:

• A sample plan for the same reader. Ask to see a plan they wrote for a lender, an investor or a visa officer, whichever will read yours.
• Who builds the model. Ask who builds the financial model and whether it comes as a linked Excel file, as Butler’s does⁹.
• What the tier includes. A Fiverr search page shows only a starting price¹, so check the gig’s or package’s tier before you pay.
• Revision rounds. Ask how many rounds you get and for how long.
• Whether projections are in the starting price. Business Plan Firm and ProjectionHub each sell the projections alone for $750^3,6, so ask whether your quote includes them.

Our consultants page has a longer list to get in writing before you pay.

What no price buys

• Funding. We found no seller that promises a loan: ProjectionHub’s SBA Approval Guarantee refunds only the $1,750 concierge part, not the plan or projections⁶.
• Your assumptions. An SBA lender looks for projections with their supporting assumptions²³, and those come from what you know about your costs and customers.

Our consultants page covers guarantees and red flags in full.