Business and Marketing Plans

A business plan is a useful tool to help you understand what you need to do to make your business a success. It will give you an accurate picture of how your business will operate and cover areas such as:

• how you will structure your product and/or service so it sells
• market and competitors
• marketing strategy
• financial objectives
• business structure, management and ownership
• action plan

Types of business plans

How much detail and information you need to include will depend on what you want your business plan to achieve.

If you're starting a new business, your business plan can act as your feasibility study and give you an idea of how viable your venture really is. If you’re looking for financing, your business plan will be the lender’s reassurance your business is worth funding.

If you're already running a business, it's never too late to write a business plan. Getting your thoughts down on paper is a good way to make sure you’re working on the business and not in it.

Whatever type of business plan you decide to do, keep your plan high level: write short, concise sentences and use bulleted lists to highlight key points.

1. Business plan overview for start ups or small businesses

If you're starting a new business and don't require a loan or you want to plan for your business's future, a short one-or-two page overview is probably all you need.

	Business Plan Template (DOC 150Kb)
	A generic business plan which you can adapt to suit your business's needs. Download and save to your computer.

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Tools to help you write your business plan
Get help with the research you may need to do while writing your business plan:

• operations: business structure, name and registration, trademarks, patents and intellectual property
• market analysis: market research, branding and packaging, price
• marketing strategy: advertising and public relations, creating a website
• finances: cash flow and break-even point, profit and loss

To get the most from your business plan, you may want to discuss it with a business mentor or adviser. Find an adviser

2. Business plan for securing finances

If you are applying for a loan or seeking investment, it is likely the bank, lender or investors will want a detailed business plan with comprehensive financial analysis.

For this type of plan, look at the templates listed in Business Plans & Checklists (below). You may want to consider discussing your detailed business plan with a business mentor or adviser before submitting it to the lender. Use Find an Adviser to locate a mentor, accountant or lawyer in your local area, some offer a free 30 minute consultation.

Business Plans & Checklists Look for a different business plan template on Business Victoria's Business Plans & Checklists online library. You will find templates from a vast range of websites, rated and reviewed by industry experts and small business operators. These include templates from banks that are built to assist you in getting a bank loan.

3. Marketing plan

Your marketing plans may be covered in your business plan; or you may want a more detailed marketing plan. Whichever method you use your marketing plan must be based on research on your potential customers to make sure your strategies will reach the right people.

Use this research to outline your objectives, budget and action plan on:

• price: your pricing scale
• advertising: internet, print and other media
• direct marketing: contact methods such as mail, email or phone
• public relations: public launches, press releases, other ways to engage community interest
• trade shows or events: assessing customer interest
• customer service: ways to get good word of mouth and customer loyalty

Get help with conducting market research.

	Marketing Plan Template (DOC 266Kb)
	A generic marketing plan which can be adapted to suit your company's needs. Please save to your computer and ensure your macros setting is turned on.

Business planning workshops

Equipping yourself with knowledge and skills gives you more of a chance to make your business succeed. Take a low-cost business planning workshop to help get your business up and running. See list of workshops