Back to Work Enterprise Allowance business plan: what it must contain and how to write it

What the Department says the plan must contain

The rules are in the Department's operational guidelines, last updated on 23 September 2025. They say the plan should include, as a minimum:

• a full description of the business idea, including how and where you will trade
• business financial planning, with a business cashflow
• evidence that the plan is viable and the business can last
• an answer to any concern about displacement or a crowded local market
• confirmation of how the business is structured

It goes in with form BTW2, a one-year financial projection and confirmation of your Start Your Own Business course.

Who helps you write it

1. Your Employment Personal Adviser at Intreo comes first. The adviser checks that you qualify and looks at the idea under four headings: sustainability, displacement, seasonality and market saturation. Any concern is noted on an assessment of suitability form, which you both sign.
2. Then the Enterprise Officer at your Local Development Company. The officer helps you prepare the plan and form BTW2, and the plan has to deal with each concern the adviser raised. You can see which development company serves your county.
3. Then back to the adviser. If the Enterprise Officer recommends the business, the adviser makes a final recommendation and a Deciding Officer decides.

If you go to the development company first, it sends you back to the adviser for the first assessment.

A section-by-section outline you can follow

The guidelines give no headings. This outline covers everything they ask for.

1. The idea. What you will sell, who will buy it, and how and where you will trade.
2. You. Your training, work experience and any earlier self-employment. Form BTW2 asks the same. The guidelines accept that experience on the job or an apprenticeship can be enough.
3. The structure. Sole trader, partnership or limited company. A company has to show papers from the Companies Registration Office confirming your shareholding.
4. The market. Your customers, your competitors and why there is room for you.
5. Trading all year. Every plan should show year-round income and operations. Seasonal or part-time self-employment is refused.
6. Start-up costs and funding. Each cost, the money you are putting in, and any loan or grant you have applied for.
7. The figures. The business cashflow and the one-year projection.

If the business needs you to spend time outside the State, say so in the plan and attach evidence.

For more under each heading, see our nine-part outline, which also suits a lender.

What the cashflow has to show, and the costs to list

The cashflow is a table of money coming in and money going out. The guidelines for the Short-Term Enterprise Allowance name the usual outgoings: public liability insurance, rent, business rates, stock and equipment.

Leave the allowance out. The guidelines say income from the allowance should not be included in the business cashflow or income projections. The business has to pay its way on its own sales.

Take care if you reuse a cashflow built for a loan. Microfinance Ireland's template has a row for the allowance. The Department wants the opposite. We show a worked example of the month-by-month table.

List the start-up costs you want help with. Once you are on the allowance you can apply for the Enterprise Support Grant, up to €2,500 over the two years. The guidelines say the projected costs should be in the plan, along with your ability to pay your own share. That share is at least 20% of most costs.

Equipment, tools, public liability insurance, a website, signage and accountancy can qualify. Rent, vehicles, stock and travel cannot. Our post on how the grant form and the two quotes work has the limit for each type of cost.

How to answer the displacement question

Displacement means the new business would have an unfair trading advantage over local competitors because of the Department's support. Market saturation means there is already a lot of the same trade locally.

The adviser notes either concern on the assessment form, and the plan has to answer it. The adviser can rely on the Local Development Company's knowledge of the local market, city or rural.

The guidelines do not say what a good answer looks like. Going by the two tests, the plan should:

• name the nearest businesses doing the same thing
• say what you will do that they do not, or which customers they are not reaching
• show the demand, from your own market research
• show a spread of customers. Subcontracting for one main contractor is not accepted

What happens at the 3-month and 9-month reviews

After approval, your adviser meets you at 3 months and at 9 months to check that the business is trading in line with the plan. Bring:

• proof that you are registered with Revenue
• evidence of trading, such as invoices, an order book or bank statements
• a list of your customers
• a list of employees, if you have any

You both sign the review form. If you cannot show a wide customer base at 3 months, or a review finds the business is not sustainable, the adviser can recommend closing the claim. You can ask in writing for that decision to be reviewed.

So the plan is what you are measured against. Keep the sales figures realistic.

The plan for the Short-Term Enterprise Allowance

If you are on Jobseeker's Benefit, you apply for the shorter allowance, which runs for 9 months at most. Its guidelines, updated in July 2026, set the same minimum for the plan and add one item: compliance with all statutory requirements. The allowance stays out of the cashflow there too.

Two things differ. Help from the Local Development Company is advisable but not compulsory, and your adviser can skip it if it would cause a delay. And the allowance only lasts as long as your Jobseeker's Benefit would have, so write the plan early.

Common questions

Keep reading

• who qualifies for the two-year allowance, and who is refused
• the short course you have to finish by your three-month review
• what our business plan pack includes and what it costs