A business plan for a GPS tracking company.
What to put in the plan.
Nine short sections are enough for a lender or a partner. Most of them fit on half a page.
- 1
Summary
One paragraph on what you sell, where, to whom and at what price, and how much money you need. Write it last, once the numbers are in.
- 2
Clients
Name the kinds of fleets you'll sell to first, such as delivery vans, builders or car hire, and roughly how many of them work in your area.
- 3
Services and prices
List basic tracking at a monthly price per vehicle, then add-ons such as dashcams, fuel monitoring and driver ID. Say whether clients buy the hardware or pay for it over a contract.
- 4
Competition
Note who already sells tracking near you, what they charge and what their clients complain about. Those complaints are often your best opening.
- 5
Sales
Explain how you'll find the first 20 clients. For most new tracking companies that means visits, referrals from installers and local business groups.
- 6
Operations
Name your tracker supplier, SIM network, installer and platform. Add who answers when a client calls, and during which hours.
- 7
Start-up costs
The platform, a first batch of trackers, SIM cards, fitting, a domain and some marketing. Get two local quotes for each item that isn't ours.
- 8
A 12-month forecast
Vehicles, monthly income, running costs and gross margin, month by month. The example below shows the shape.
- 9
Risks
Slow sales, a big client leaving, SIM prices going up or a faulty batch of trackers. Write a line on what you'd do about each one.
A worked 12-month forecast.
It uses the margin calculator's starting values of $15 a vehicle a month and $3 of SIM data. They're examples, not market prices, so put in your own.
| Month | Vehicles | Plan | Income | SIM data | Platform | Gross margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | 5 | Starter | $75 | $15 | $50 | $10 |
| Month 3 | 20 | Starter | $300 | $60 | $50 | $190 |
| Month 6 | 40 | Starter | $600 | $120 | $50 | $430 |
| Month 9 | 70 | 100 devices | $1,050 | $210 | $90 | $750 |
| Month 12 | 100 | 100 devices | $1,500 | $300 | $90 | $1,110 |
Gross margin is before hardware, fitting, your time and tax. Between month 6 and month 9 the fleet outgrows Starter, and the platform goes up by $40 a month. The extra vehicles cover that many times over.
Figures a lender asks for.
Have these ready, even as estimates. They show where the money comes from and how steady it is.
- Monthly income from contracts, and how much of it is signed for a year or more
- Income per vehicle after SIM data and the platform
- How many clients leave in a year
- What it costs you to win a new client
- How long a bundled tracker takes to pay for itself
Keep it short
Ten pages is plenty. A one-page summary and the forecast table answer most questions, so add detail only where someone asks for it.
Update it as you go
After three months you'll have real figures for prices, SIM costs and sales. Swap them in for the estimates, and the plan becomes something you run the business with.
Questions about the plan
How many vehicles should the first-year forecast show?
Use numbers you can defend. Base them on how many fleet owners you can visit each week and how many of those visits turn into trials and sales. A slow, believable climb convinces a lender more than a steep one.
When does a tracking business break even?
In the example forecast, income covers SIM data and the Starter plan once you have 5 paying vehicles. Hardware, fitting and your own time push that point later, so include them in your own version.
Do I need a business plan before I order a platform?
No. You can put a Starter plan on your own vehicles while you write it, so you have a working system to show a lender or a first client. Plans can be cancelled at any time.
Read next
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