Whether you are an established organisation or just starting up, this section includes resources to help you develop ideas and strategies and ensure your organisation’s viability.
- Business Plan – Guidance Notes
- SWOT analysis
- 10 Steps to Earning - The Sustainable Business Development Journey
- Ansoff Matrix - Identify alternative growth strategies
- Break Even Analysis Calculator
- Other Player Analysis - Identify competitors and partners
- Customer Profiling Sheet
- Promoting your Organisation - Guidance Notes
- Marketing - Guidance Notes
Business Plan – Guidance Notes
A business plan is a picture of your longer-term objectives, estimates and forecasts. It should not be something that ties you down but rather something that helps you make decisions. Your forecasts and objectives are likely to change as things develop and your business plan is where you get down your best estimate given the current state of information.
Business Plan – Guidance Notes
SWOT Analysis
This tool is often used in developing a business plan. It captures on a grid a picture of your internal strengths and weaknesses and of the external threats and opportunities you may face. Consider areas such as customer satisfaction, external relationships and skills in the strengths and weaknesses and areas such as competitors, economic conditions and trends when thinking about threats and opportunities.
10 Steps to Earning - The Sustainable Business Development Journey
This document offers a route map to help small voluntary organisations take full control of their future by developing a sustainable income base. 10 steps to earning responds to the funding reality facing many small organisations. 10 steps will broaden your income base - including generating income from products and services alongside grant funding - and secure better control over your future.10 Steps To Earning10 steps refers to a number of tools to help this process. These can be found in the 10 Steps to Earning Toolbox along with a description of the tools and links if appropriate.
Ansoff Matrix - Identify alternative growth strategies
This tool helps to identify alternative growth strategies. By plotting existing and potential products and services in a matrix you can work out what to develop and how to do it. For example, do you need to simply market your existing products to existing customers more effectively or do you need to develop new products for new customers, or a combination of these options.
It is well worth considering this before launching into developing a new product/service.
Download guidance notes and a blank version of an Ansoff matrix here: Guidance Notes and Blank Template
Break Even Analysis Calculator
Break even analysis helps you to set a price for the product and service based on the costs of producing or providing it, in order to break even.
This excel spreadsheet should help you to identify costs and identify what price to charge in order to break even.
Download the Break Even Analysis Calculator
Other Player Analysis - Identify competitors and partners
A key part of market research involves seeking to identify who else has an impact on your market. Consider both competitors and collaborators and seek to understand their strategic development issues.
This simple table might help you to sketch out a profile.
Customer Profiling Sheet
A key part of getting to know your market is getting to know your customers. It is helpful to know as much detail about them as possible. Not just their needs and how they use your service, but also information about how you can communicate with them, what they respond to etc.
This simple sheet helps you to concentrate on building up information about your customers that will help you provide a good service to them.
Promoting your Organisation - Guidance Notes
This information sheet looks at the way you promote your organisation, products and services, and considers what is involved in developing a promotion strategy.
Promoting your Organisation - Guidance Notes
Marketing - Guidance Notes
Marketing is a management process that identifies and anticipates target customers’ needs, wants and demands, and satisfies these with resources available to the organisation. The process involves every aspect of the organisation’s resources and management structures and systems.
Information Sheet: Marketing
