Business9 min read
How to write a business plan and cash flow forecast for a Start Up Loan, with AI
The Draimo team
Short answer
The government-backed Start Up Loans programme lends up to £25,000 to new UK businesses, and every application needs a business plan and a cash flow forecast. The plan shows what you sell, to whom and why you will win; the forecast shows, month by month, that the business can make its repayments. AI drafts both from your figures and, in Draimo, recomputes every total so the plan and the forecast agree.
Try it in Draimo
Start your plan
- Write a business plan for a Start Up Loan for my mobile dog grooming business in Leeds: a £12,000 loan for a converted van and equipment
- Build a 12-month cash flow forecast from these figures, monthly, including the loan repayment, and show the closing balance each month
- Documents
- Writes reports, proposals and bids 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 the lender is looking for
Start Up Loans is a government-backed scheme run by the British Business Bank. You apply through one of its delivery partners, who assesses whether the business can afford the repayments. The business plan and the cash flow forecast are how you show that. Every section is evidence for one question: can this business repay from what it earns?
Write for that reader. Plain claims backed by figures persuade more than ambitious language.
What a strong business plan covers
Most plans follow the same shape. What matters is that each section is specific to you:
| Section | What it must show |
|---|---|
| Summary | What the business is, what you are asking for, and why it will work |
| You and your experience | Why you can run this business, and what you have done before |
| Product or service | What you sell, at what price, and what makes it worth buying |
| Market and customers | Who buys, how many of them there are locally, and what they pay now |
| Competitors | Who else sells it, their prices, and your edge |
| Marketing and sales | How customers will find you, and what it costs to win one |
| Use of the loan | Exactly what the money buys, line by line, adding up to the amount |
| Finances | Your cash flow forecast, the assumptions behind it, and your personal budget |
The cash flow forecast: where applications are won or lost
A cash flow forecast shows the money coming in and going out each month, and the balance at the end of each one. It is not a profit forecast: it is about timing. A business can be profitable and still run out of cash in a slow month, and the forecast is how a lender checks that you will not.
Build it from assumptions you can defend: your price, how many sales you expect each month, seasonal swings, your costs, and the loan repayment. Give these to Draimo and it builds the forecast month by month, recomputes every total, and shows the repayment as its own line, so a reader can see it covered. Write the assumptions into the plan; a forecast without them cannot be judged.
Make the numbers agree
The commonest error in a self-written plan is not an optimistic figure. It is figures that disagree: a loan amount in the summary that differs from the use of the loan, or sales in the plan that do not match the forecast. When the plan is a Draimo document, the totals in its tables are recomputed after every edit, and the same figures are corrected in the text, so the plan and the forecast tell one story.
Research your local market, with sources
Claims about demand and competitors carry weight only with sources. Run your local research in Agent Mode: who competes in your town, what they charge, how busy they are. Every source is cited. Then press Make a document under the answer to bring it into your plan.
How to write it with Draimo
See the shape of a finished plan: an Austin business plan with a loan request and a Gothenburg subscription business plan, both made on Draimo with their prompts shown.
- Gather your figures in one project: prices, costs, what the loan buys, your monthly personal outgoings.
- Research your local market and competitors in Agent Mode, with sources.
- Ask for the business plan in the sections above, with a use of the loan table.
- Ask for the 12-month cash flow forecast, monthly, with the loan repayment as a line.
- Edit in plain words: "make March and April 30% slower", "add the second van in month 9".
- Check every figure against your records, then download the Word file for your application.
What AI cannot do for your application
A plan supports an application; it does not replace the delivery partner's own checks, your credit history or your judgement. Draimo does not apply for, approve or guarantee a loan. Ask your delivery partner what they need to see, and give them a plan that answers it plainly.
Writing the plan and forecast as a document is part of Draimo Pro, £20.99 a month in the UK, with a 7-day trial on the monthly plan.
Questions people ask
- Do I need a business plan for a Start Up Loan?
- Yes. A Start Up Loan application needs a business plan and a cash flow forecast.
- How much can I borrow with a Start Up Loan?
- Up to £25,000, through the government-backed scheme run by the British Business Bank.
- What is a cash flow forecast?
- A month-by-month table of the money coming in and going out, and the balance at the end of each month. It shows whether the business can pay its bills, and the loan, on time.
- Can AI write my business plan?
- AI can draft every section from your figures and build the forecast. In Draimo, totals are recomputed so the numbers agree across the plan. You must check every figure and stand behind every assumption.
- Will Draimo apply for the loan for me?
- No. Draimo helps you write the plan and forecast. You apply through a Start Up Loans delivery partner, who decides.
- Can I download the plan as a Word file?
- Yes, as Word or PDF. Documents are part of Draimo Pro, £20.99 a month in the UK.
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 figures, and get a plan and forecast that agree.
Start the plan
