A considerable number of minor settlements and villages in the Republic of Croatia outside big cities offer various opportunities for tourism development. Particularly contributing to this trend is the fact that more and more people tend to go on vacation to areas where they can escape from everyday crowds, traffic, and commotion. Bearing in mind the potential which rural tourism development offers, the paper elaborates the topic of a business plan for construction of vacation complexes in rural areas. Throughout the paper, theoretical facts necessary for the development of a business plan are exchanged, supported by a possible practical example. As the example mentioned before is visualised as means of developing rural tourism, i.e., a rural vacation home and registered business as a „private landlord“, the paper highlights the most important issues which need to be addressed when contemplating and starting this type of business. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of a business plan before embarking on a business venture in order to perceive the profitability and to evaluate the possibility of success of the mentioned business idea. The paper considers concepts such as a project, a business plan, a business idea, and addresses issuses which might arise when planning the location, target audience, provision of services, competition, and marketing. Also, in practice, it is inevitable to take into consideration the legal regulations, financial obligations, and the analysis of the exetranl and internal environment. All of the aforementioned is included in the paper, both theoretically and in the context of the elaborated example.