Free Business Resources Small Business Owners

These free resources will help you get started, stay organised, make better decisions, and grow your business step by step.

Brainstorm New Ideas Using the Business Model Canvas

Writing a full business plan can feel quite overwhelming, particularly if this is your first experience as a potential business owner. If so, consider starting with the one-page Business Model Canvas. This is a great brainstorming tool and helps you get your idea onto paper.

Use this template to work through the nine different building blocks of any business.

  • Value Proposition

  • Customer Segments

  • Customer Relationships

  • Channels

  • Key Activities

  • Key Resources

  • Key Partners

  • Cost Structure

  • Revenue Streams

By the end of this exercise you will have identified your strong areas as well as your weak areas. Now you know which areas you need to improve before you launch your business.

The Business Model Canvas was developed by Alexander Osterwalder, Founder and CEO or Strategyzer.

Template for a Business Plan - Startup

Writing a business plan allows you to carefully think through every step of starting your company so you can better anticipate and prepare for any challenges. While a thorough business plan is essential in the financing process, it’s helpful even if you don’t need outside financing.

Creating a business plan will help you:

  • Discover any weaknesses in your business idea so that you can address them before you launch your business

  • Identify business opportunities you may not have considered and plan how to take advantage of them

  • Analyze the market and competition to strengthen your idea

  • Give you opportunities to plan strategies for dealing with potential challenges so that they don't derail your startup

  • Convince potential partners, customers, and key employees that you're serious about your idea and persuade them to work for you

  • Force you to calculate when your business will make a profit and how much money you need to reach that point so that you can be prepared with adequate startup capital

  • Determine your target markets and how to reach them

A detailed step-by-step plan gives you a blueprint you can refer to during the startup process and helps you maintain momentum and keep you focused.

Template for a Business Plan - Established

Business plans are not just for startups. Developing a business plan for an established business serves several purposes: It can help convince investors or lenders to finance your business, persuade a business buyer to purchase your business, or entice partners or key employees to join your company. Most importantly, it serves as a roadmap guiding your business' growth and continued success. It helps you identify weaknesses, identify opportunities, and maintain your long-term focus.

Sections of this business plan include:

  • Executive Summary

  • Company Description

  • Products and Services

  • Marketing Plan

  • Operational Plan

  • Management and Organization

  • Personal Financial Statement

  • Financial History and Analysis

  • Financial Plan

  • Appendices

The last section in the instructions, "Refining Your Plan," explains ways to modify your plan for specific purposes, such as applying for finance, or for specific industries, such as retail.

Template for a SWOT Analysis Worksheet

Use this worksheet to brainstorm and identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your business. This information can help you outlines goals and strategies for your business marketing efforts.

You can use this for brainstorming a new business idea, exploring a new product or service to introduce in an existing business, analyzing a problem such as low sales in a certain period, etc. You can even use it when deciding which candidate to take on as the new hire.

  • Strenghths

  • Weaknesses

  • Opportunities

  • Threats

Be sure to incorporate these details into your business plans. This will demonstrate that you have identified a weakness and explored how to address it, etc. and this adds to your credibility as a busienss owner when you are seeking funding, etc.

Want to Learn Even More?

Our free resources are designed to help you take the first steps.

Our courses go deeper and teach you exactly how to build and grow your business.

Inside our courses you will learn:

  • Business strategy

  • Financial management

  • Marketing systems

  • Business operations

  • And Lot More.

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