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.

Sales Forecast - 1 Year

Forecasting sales of your product or service is the starting point for financial projections. The sales forecast is the key to the whole financial plan, so it is important to use realistic estimates.

Divide your projected monthly sales into "Categories" which are natural divisions that make sense for your type of business. Some examples:

  • Product Lines

  • Departments

  • Branch Locations

  • Customer Groups

  • Geographical Territories

  • Contracts

The key to accuracy is attention to detail. Don't take any shortcuts as this will only hurt you in the long run. This document will also be helpful if you are planning to apply for a bank loan. Note that the bank will also want some proof of your estimates.

BizPro Sales Forecast - 1 Year

Marketing Plan Guide

A well-designed marketing plan can help you raise awareness of your business, attract more customers and boost sales.

Use this guide to develop a 12-month marketing plan and integrate it into your company's business plan. This guide covers:

  • Reviewing the Market

  • Developing a Customer Profile

  • Defining Your Business Goals

  • Developing Strategies and Tactics

  • Determining Your Marketing Budget

  • Identifying Resources

Remember, if you do not have the staff or knowledge in-house, consider hiring a vendor or consultant to help you.

BizPro Marketing Plan Guide

Product and Service Description Worksheet

Developing a clear, easy-to-understand description for your product or service is critical to your marketing and sales success, even if the product or service has been around for a while.

A product or service description is marketing copy that explains why your offering is special or unique. It should move the customer to buy from your company.

This worksheet will help you think about the following aspects:

  • The Product | Idea | Service

  • Special Benefits

  • Unique Features

  • Limits and Liabilities

All these individual pieces come together to form the product description. Which pieces were the most compelling? Start with these.

BizPro Product Description Worksheet

Target Market Data Worksheet

Use this template to help you select the best target markets for your business. Avoid the approach of deciding your target market is everyone, everywhere, all the time. You need to get as specific as possible - even if you're selling bread!

The spreadsheet helps you to determine the following:

  • Distribution Channel

  • Key Demographics

  • Income and Spending Habits

  • Market Size and Share

  • Location for Each Market

You won't target corporate cafeterias with your high-end artisan breads. This applies to all your products and services.

BizPro Target Market Data

Target Market Comparison Worksheet

Use this template to determine the differences between your target customers.

The spreadsheet will help you to determine the following:

  • Do they need the product?

  • What is the profitability?

  • Anticipated sales?

  • Preferred sales channels?

  • Competition?

Being this thorough with your research will have you delivering your high-end artisan breads to coffee shops where there is high demand.

BizPro Target Market Comparison

Distribution Channel Assessment Worksheet

As the business owner you will need to determine if you will handle fulfillment yourself, through a third-party online retailer or with a fulfillment company specializing in end-to-end distribution.

Completing the worksheet will give you a clear understanding of the following:

  • Costs

  • Ease of Entry

  • Geographic Proximity

  • Competitor's Positions

  • Management Experience

  • Staffing Capabilities

  • Marketing Needs

Small businesses have to be extremely deliberate when choosing their distribution channels because very often they only get one chance to get it right.

BizPro Distribution Channel

Annual Marketing Budget Template

Creating a marketing budget for your business is a critical step in your marketing strategy. Without a detailed budget and a well-thought-out marketing plan, you could end dup spending more than you intended on your marketing efforts or spending less that you should have to get results.

There are several factors to consider, including:

  • Your Industry

  • Business Growth Stage

  • Your Goals

Think about marketing as an investment, not an expense. Marketing is how you let people know about your business and persuade them to by products or services, so it is not something you can do without.

BizPro Annual Marketing Budget

Marketing Calendar Template

A marketing calendar can help you plan and track your marketing efforts. Once you have created your marketing plan you can use this spreadsheet to schedule marketing activities through the year.

Once you have planned this out on paper, you can also capture all the marketing tasks into an online calendar. This will be handy for adding alerts and assigning tasks to others.

The template allows for a wide variety of marketing efforts. You can just discard the ones that you will not be using, and also add any others that we may not have covered:

  • Print Ads | Direct Mail | Press Releases

  • Radio Ads | TV Ads | Outdoor Ads

  • Websites | Blogs | SEO

  • Email Marketing | SMS Marketing | WhatsApp Marketing

  • Event Marketing | Trade Shows | Networking

  • Social Media

You must also be sure to track the metrics so that you know which marketing efforts are working, how well they are working, and how much they are costing you.

BizPro Marketing Calendar

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.