Business10 min read
How to write a business plan for an SBA loan with AI, the way lenders read it
The Draimo team
Short answer
A business plan for an SBA loan should follow the SBA's traditional plan: executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, products or services, marketing and sales, funding request and financial projections. Lenders read the funding request and the projections hardest. AI drafts the sections from your facts and, in Draimo, recomputes the totals in every table, so the numbers in your plan agree with each other.
Try it in Draimo
Start your plan
- Write a business plan for an SBA loan for my mobile bike repair business in Austin: a $85,000 loan for a second van, tools and six months of payroll
- Build a 12-month cash flow projection for my bakery from these numbers, monthly for year one, and show how the loan payment is covered
- Documents
- Writes reports, proposals and decks from your brief and files, and downloads them as Word, PDF, PowerPoint or Excel.
- Draimo Pro
- Agent Mode
- Researches current public information and cites every source, so the facts going into a document can be checked.
- Monthly and yearly plans
- Files
- Attach a PDF, Word file, slides or a photo and ask about it.
- One file per message on every plan; several at once on paid plans
What a lender does with your plan
A loan officer reads a business plan to answer one question: will this business repay the loan from its cash flow? Every section is evidence for or against that. The executive summary tells them what you want and why. The funding request tells them exactly where the money goes. The projections tell them whether the payments are covered with room to spare.
Write for that reader. Plain claims backed by numbers beat ambitious language every time.
The sections the SBA recommends
The SBA's guide to writing a business plan lists the sections of a traditional plan, the kind lenders expect:
| Section | What it must show |
|---|---|
| Executive summary | What the business is, what you are asking for, and why it will succeed |
| Company description | The problem you solve, who for, and what sets you apart |
| Market analysis | Your market, its size, your competitors and your edge |
| Organization and management | Structure, ownership and the people running it |
| Service or product line | What you sell, how it is priced, and its life cycle |
| Marketing and sales | How you reach customers and close sales |
| Funding request | How much, over what period, debt or equity, the terms, and what it is for |
| Financial projections | History if you have it, a five-year forecast, and monthly or quarterly detail for year one |
The funding request: exactly where the money goes
The SBA's guidance asks for how much you need, what it is for, whether it is debt or equity, the terms you want and the period the request covers. Lenders want to see the use of the loan line by line: "second service van, $42,000; tools and stock, $18,500; six months of payroll for one technician, $24,500", adding to the amount you request.
Ask Draimo for a use of funds table and it recomputes the total from the lines, so the figure in your executive summary, your funding request and your projections is the same figure.
Projections that reconcile
The SBA suggests monthly or quarterly projections for the first year and a forecast for the next five, matched to your funding request. The most common error in a self-written plan is not an optimistic number; it is numbers that disagree: revenue in the summary that differs from the projection table, or a cash flow that ignores the loan payment.
Give Draimo your assumptions: price per job, jobs per week, seasonal swings, costs, the loan amount, rate and term. It builds the tables, recomputes the totals, and shows the loan payment as a line in the cash flow, so a lender can see it covered month by month. The assumptions remain yours to defend; write them down in the plan.
Market analysis with sources
Lenders discount market claims without sources. Run your local market research in Agent Mode: competitors in your area, their prices, demand indicators. Every source is cited as a link. Then press Make a document under the answer to bring it into the plan, and keep the sources in the appendix.
How to write it with Draimo
See the finished shape first: an Austin business plan for a mobile bike repair business with an SBA loan ask, nine pages, made on Draimo with the prompt shown.
- Gather your facts in one project: prices, costs, past statements if you have them, the loan you want.
- Research your local market in Agent Mode, with sources.
- Ask for the plan in the SBA's sections, with a use of funds table and a 12-month cash flow.
- Edit in plain words: "lower year two growth to 15%", "add a section on our two existing contracts".
- Check every figure against your records, then download the Word file to bring to your lender.
What AI cannot do for your application
A plan supports an application; it does not replace the lender's own forms, your credit history, your financial statements or your judgement. Draimo does not approve, guarantee or apply for a loan. Lenders set their own requirements, so ask your lender what they need to see, and show them a plan that answers it plainly.
Questions people ask
- Can AI write a business plan for an SBA loan?
- AI can draft every section from your facts and build the projection tables. In Draimo, totals are recomputed so the numbers agree across the plan. You must check every figure and stand behind every assumption.
- What sections should a business plan for a loan include?
- The SBA's traditional plan: executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, service or product line, marketing and sales, funding request and financial projections.
- How many years of projections do I need?
- The SBA's guide suggests a five-year forecast, with monthly or quarterly projections for the first year, matched to your funding request. Ask your lender what they require.
- What is a use of funds?
- A line-by-line list of how the loan will be spent, adding up to the amount you request. Lenders read it closely.
- Will Draimo apply for the loan for me?
- No. Draimo helps you write the plan. Your lender handles the application and decides on it.
- Can I download the plan as a Word file?
- Yes, as Word or PDF. Documents are part of Draimo Pro, $28 a month in the US.
Sources we checked
Checked October 21, 2026. Dates and amounts change every year. Ask Draimo for this year's figures, grounded in official sources.
Give Draimo your numbers, and get a plan whose totals agree.
Start the plan
