Campground Business Plan Template

Whether you want to start your own campground business or expand an existing one, you need a business plan. The following campground business plan template lets you know which elements you need to include in a successful campground business plan.

To ensure your campground business success in this highly competitive market, you need a properly structured campground business plan. With over 12 years of experience, we have helped over 5,000 entrepreneurs create business plans to start and grow their campground businesses. Using the following campground business plan template, you can put together an effective business plan.

Things to Know Before Writing a Campground Business Plan

The industry operates RV parks and campgrounds, as well as recreational and vacation camps. It also includes trailer and caravan parks and wilderness camps. Industry establishments provide recreational facilities for outdoor enthusiasts, such as restrooms, laundry rooms, recreation halls and playgrounds.

With the exception of 2020’s volatility caused by travel restrictions and the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the campgrounds industry experienced relatively steady growth in the five years to 2021. However, the industry is expected to rebound 14.3% to $5.9 billion as the economy recovers from the pandemic.

Camping and RV parks are seen as cost-effective alternatives to traditional vacations since they are considered day trip destinations.

Among the major products and services offered by this industry are

Membership, tuition, and long-term fees at the campground
Campgrounds and RV sites for travelers and others
Accommodations and service fees for other units

Key Success Factors for Campground Business

Despite the challenges of the campground business industry, We have identified 4 factors that can help you boost profitability, efficiency, and ultimately success.

Suitable climate: Successful industry participants take advantage of where they are geographically, whether it is close to national parks or areas with favorable weather.
Multi-skilled and flexible workforce: Labor costs are relatively high in this industry. Using a skilled but temporary workforce can help companies gain a competitive advantage and lower costs.
Membership in an industry organization: The benefit of belonging to an industry organization is that industry organizations help to promote member companies.
By word-of-mouth recommendations: Good word-of-mouth recommendations generate new and repeat customers for businesses.

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What is a Campground Business Plan?

A campground business plan is a road-map for starting and growing your business. Your business plan outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing strategy, and details your financial projections.

Any bank or investor you approach will require a business plan for a campground, so putting one together will be critical to securing funding.

In short, writing a business plan can help you succeed if you’re thinking of starting a campground business or pitching to investors or venture capitalists.

Why You Need a Campground Business Plan

Campground business plans can be used to gain interest from potential investors or to secure loans from banks. They are also helpful to you as the owner. A campground business plan allows you to thoroughly analyze every aspect of your potential business.

A solid, detailed plan gives you a clear path to follow, forces you to examine the viability of a campground business idea, and may help you better understand your company’s finances and competition.

Campground business owners who have a business plan grow 35% faster than those who don’t, and 75% of fast-growing businesses have a business plan.

A campground business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Free: Business Plan Examples

Do you need help creating a business plan? Check out these six free, proven business plan examples from different industries to help you write your own.

Funding Sources for Campground Business

No matter how large or how small your campground business is, you should think about your financing options. Below are three types of funding you should investigate:

Government Incentives

When choosing a business location, you can consider different community incentives before making your final choice. Government incentives can help reduce operating costs and long-term overheads.

You can begin your business with the help of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). You can find government resources about financing your business by using the website’s Loans and Grants Search Tool.

Bank Loans

Many banks offer small business loans. See if a business loan is right for you by contacting your bank. Banks also offer business lines of credit and other resources to help you find the right option.

Investors

Consider finding an investor or group of investors to finance your company. Be sure to do your research and have the numbers and information to back up your business before you contact an investor. You will need to show progress to investors, and they will do research and investigation concerning your business plan for a campground. In return, investors often desire ownership of a part of your company.

How to Write a Campground Business Plan

To write a campground business plan, you don’t need to be an expert. Our step-by-step guide will show you how to write a campground business plan, or you can just download our proven sample business plans to get a better idea.

Campground Business Plan PDF and Word

Download our business plan for a Campground in PDF and Word here.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is the most important part of the document since it outlines the whole business plan. Despite the fact that it appears first in the plan, write the executive summary last so you may condense key concepts from the other nine parts.

It’s a part that catches the investor’s eye and provides key information about your company’s overview and upcoming short- and long-term goals.

Tell them what kind of campground business you have and what stage you’re in; for example, are you a startup, do you have a campground company that you want to expand, or do you have a lot of campground businesses?

Finally, an executive summary should provide investors with a preview of what they may expect from the rest of your document.

Provide a high-level overview of the campground industry
The name, location, and mission of your campground company
A description of your campground business, including management, advisors, and a brief history
Discuss the type of campground business you are operating, Give an overview of your target customers., and how your company differs from competitors in the industry
Create a marketing plan that describes your company’s marketing strategies, sales, and partnership plans.
And give an overview of your financial plan

Free: Executive Summary Examples

An executive summary is the most important part of your business plan, and it need not be challenging to write. This is why we have put together some awesome free Executive Summary examples for you.

Company Analysis

The company analysis follows the executive summary as the second section of a campground business plan. Your company overview section in a business plan will be short and clear, similar to the executive summary.

Even if they just have a few minutes, your reader has to understand what your company does and who your customers are.

The following sections will be included in your business plan’s Company Analysis:

Company summary: Your company analysis will describe the type of campground business you are running and its future goals. Seasonal campsites, tent-only campgrounds, year-round campgrounds, RV campgrounds, and campgrounds that cater to specific audiences such as fishing enthusiasts are all popular types of campgrounds.
Company history: When and why did you start your campground business?
What milestones have you achieved so far? Your milestones could include served 100th customer, new fleet purchase, etc.
Legal structure and ownership: Do you have S-Corp status? Is it an LLC? A sole proprietorship? Describe your legal structure.
Mission statement: An overview of your campground company’s guiding principles. Learn how to write a perfect mission statement.

Industry Analysis

You need to include an overview of the campground business in the industry analysis you performed before sitting down to write your business plan for a campground.

While this research may appear to be unnecessary, it helps you to build strategies that maximize business opportunities while lowering or avoiding the identified risk.

Furthermore, market research can improve your strategy, especially if it identifies market trends.

The third purpose for conducting market research is to demonstrate to readers that you are an industry expert.

Industry analysis can be presented as a 8-step process when written as part of a company’s business plan.

Give a quick overview of the campground industry. Define the campground business in terms of size (in dollars), historical background, service region, and facilities.
Examine previous trends and growth patterns in the campground industry.
Identify the market’s major competitors.
Age, gender, and general lifestyle of the targeted market
Determine the factors that have an impact on the campground industry. These might include government regulatory rules and other businesses’ competitive activities.
Using research data, the industry forecast expected growth over the next five to ten years. Predictions should be made for both the long and short term.
Describe how your campground business intends to position itself in the industry. Concentrate on how your campground business can benefit from opportunities highlighted in the industry

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Customer Analysis

The first condition for a campground business is to identify its target customers clearly. Customers can be categorized into the following segments: The general public picnic parties, school’s that are on trips, corporations, tourists etc.

The customer analysis section is an important part of any campground business plan since it evaluates the consumer segments that your company serves. It identifies target customers, determines what those customers want, and then explains how the your campground services will meet those requirements.

Customer analysis may be divided into two parts: psychosocial profiles (why your campground services suits a customer’s lifestyle) and demographic profiles (descriptions of a customer’s demographic qualities).

With regards to demographics, include information about: When moving residential, the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of your customers. When targeting businesses, describe what kind of business, size, and location your target customers are.

The psychological profiles of your target clients reveal their wants and needs. The better you understand and identify these demands, the better your chances of attracting and retaining customers will be.

Competitor Analysis

It is necessary to do a competitor analysis. Because you may use their data to define your goals, marketing plans, tactics, new product lines, pricing, and more. Use competitor analysis to:

Identify the strength and weakness of your campground business competitors.
Search for opportunities to distinguish your campground from competitors.

The first step is to determine who your direct and indirect competitors are.

The direct competitors consists of other campground businesses that offer essentially the same services to the same people as you do.

Your indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. Other types of recreation destinations, campgrounds, and leisure activities are included in this category.

Once you’ve identified the competitors, concentrate on the direct, head-to-head competitors, since they are the most threatening to your campground business— but keep an eye on the indirect competition as well, just in case.

Provide an overview of each direct competitor’s business and detail their strengths and weaknesses.

You will be able to position yourself competitively in the market if you perform proper competition research. Perform a SWOT Analysis to learn your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and competitive advantages in the following areas:

Prices – Are they offering cheaper campground services or more costly than you and other competitors, what value do buyers get for that price?
Quality – Are they offering premium campground services, the perceived worth in the eyes of the customers
Customer service – How they respond to their consumers, whether they treat them poorly or well, and the degrees of satisfaction customers show
Reputation — The sum of everything mentioned above: their credibility, how loved the brand is, and the loyalty of their customers

The final section of your competitive analysis should include a list of your areas of competitive advantage. for example: Are you going to offer premium services? Will you offer products or services that your competition doesn’t? Will you offer better pricing or will you offer greater customer support?

Consider how you will outperform your competitors and include them in this portion of your campground business plan.

Free: SWOT Analysis Examples

Take advantage of our free SWOT analysis examples. Make your business future-proof by identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats using this free SWOT Analysis Template.

Marketing Plan

Creating a marketing plan for a campground business involves identifying the target demographic and finding comfort-ability that suit their preferences.

As part of your marketing plan for a campground business, you should include:

Pricing and Product Strategy

Your campground business must offer services that are different from those of your competitors. Research what your competitors offer and how they price their campground services. Unique campground services identifies your campground business as the place to go for unique campground services and differentiates it from others.

Placing and Promotions

A campground’s place refers to its location. Indicate where your campground is located and how it will affect your success. Does your campground have a secluded setting in mountainous terrain, is it near a destination of interest, or is it located just outside the city? Tell the audience how your site might be ideal for your customers.

Promoting your campground business is the final part of your marketing plan. In this step, you document how you will drive customers to purchase your services. A few marketing methods you could consider are:

Discount day’s
Marketing on social media
Web Marketing
Email Marketing
Pre-Opening Events

You should also think about your campground company’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP), which should explain why clients should choose you over other campground businesses. Ensure that your USP is reflected in your marketing.

Pro Tips: Learn how to write a marketing plan in a business plan for your campground business.

Operations Plan

While the previous sections described your goals, your operational plan in a business plan discusses how you will achieve them.

An operations plan is helpful for investors, but it’s also helpful for you and employees because it pushes you to think about tactics and deadlines.

Your operations plan should be divided into two individual parts, as seen below.

Everyday short-term processes include all aspects of running your campground business, such as answering phones, providing camp maintenance, taking reservations, and collecting payments etc.

Long-term goals are milestones you hope to reach. they might be growing your business, such as introducing new items or retail outlets, meeting particular sales milestones, and meeting other essential business-oriented goals like recruiting more staff, opening additional locations, and so on.

Management Team

The management team section in business plan‘ outlines your management team, staff, resources, and how your business ownership is structured.

A strong management team is required to demonstrate your campground’s potential for success. Highlight the backgrounds of your key players, emphasizing the skills and experiences that demonstrate their ability to grow a company.

You and/or your team members should ideally have direct experience managing campgrounds. If so, emphasize your experience and expertise. However, you should also highlight any experience that you believe will help your business succeed.

Consider forming an advisory board if your team is lacking. An advisory board would consist of 2 to 8 people who would serve as mentors to your company. They would assist in answering questions and providing strategic direction. If necessary, seek out advisory board members with experience running a campground.

Financial Plan

As part of your financial plan, you should present a 5-year financial statement broken down monthly or quarterly for the first year, and then annually. Business financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.

Income Statement

A profit and loss statement is more commonly called an income statement. It shows your revenue and subtracts your expenses to determine whether you were profitable or not.

As you develop your income statement, you need to develop assumptions. Will you serve 50 customers per day or 200? Will sales grow by 3% or 10% per year? Your choice of assumptions will greatly impact your business’s financial forecasts. Conduct as much research as possible in order to ground your assumptions in reality.

Free: Income Statement Template

Create a financial statement for your business by downloading our free income statement templates.

Balance Sheet

While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities.

The balance sheet shows your campground business’s net value at a specific point in time. It categorizes all of your company’s financial data into three categories:

Assets: Tangible goods with the monetary worth that the company owns.
Liabilities: Debt owing to a company’s creditor.
Equity: The net difference when the total liabilities are subtracted from the total assets.

The equation that expresses the relationship between these financial data elements is Assets = Liabilities + Equity.

Create a pro forma balance sheet for your campground business plan that highlights the information in the income statement and cash flow projections. A balance sheet is normally prepared once a year by a company.

Balance sheets indicate your assets and liabilities, and while they contain a lot of information, they are simplified to highlight the most important things you need to know.

For example, spending $500,000 to build out your campground company will not result in instant revenues. Rather, it is an asset that should help you earn money for many years to come.

Similarly, if a bank sends you a check for $200,000, you do not have to pay it back right now. Rather, that is a liability that you will repay over time.

Cash Flow Statement:

Your cash flow statement will help you determine how much money you need to start or grow your campground business. In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a campground business:

Fees for registering a campground business
The cost of camping equipment and supplies
Business insurance
Payroll or salaries paid to staff
Other startup costs (if you’re starting a new business) include legal fees, permits, computer software, and equipment.

Pro Tips: If your are a DIY business plan writer, this guide on how to write a financial plan in a business plan can help you to write a winning campground business plan.

Free: Balance Sheet Template

Create a financial statement for your business by downloading our free balance sheet templates.

Appendix

List any additional material you cannot include elsewhere, such as resumes from key employees, licenses, equipment leases, permits, patents, receipts, bank statements, contracts, and personal and business credit histories.

Attach your full financial projections along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling in the appendix.

Bonus Tip: Find out what should be included in a business plan appendix.

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Summary of the Campground Business Plan

A campground business plan is a worthwhile investment. As long as you follow the template above, you will become an expert in no time. By following the template, you will understand the campground business, your competition, and your customers. The plan will help you understand the steps necessary to launch and grow your campground business.

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