Business Plan Help

2 Years Free Banking and Free £75 Google AdWords Voucher

NatWest are currently offering new businesses free business banking for 2 years. Plus, as an added bonus, when you apply to open any NatWest business account online you can also get a free £75 Voucher for Google AdWords.

AdWords is a really effective way to promote your business online, so you can use your £75 of free online advertising to give your venture a great kick-start. This offer isn’t being widely publicised so to get the low-down, click on this link and under ‘Special Offers’ click on ‘Find out more’.

Free business planning software

NatWest are currently offering a free business planning software package. The software allows you to produce a professional business plan, and includes a series of checklists and guides - to help you focus on key aspects of the business. You also get 12 months free use of the award winning MyBusiness Essentials software. You can find out more about the business plan software and download it for free here.

Free Report to Help You With Your Cash Flow

When you are planning your business, cash flow is a topic that you will need to deal with. Cash flow problems can strangle any business - from new start-ups to successful, profitable companies - so you need to know as much about the subject as possible.

To help you to learn about successful cash flow strategies, and how these can help to fund your business, NatWest have produced a brand new guide on cash flow. The report tackles cash flow issues head-on and includes case studies that show how real-life businesses have successfully overcome their cash flow problems. Download a free copy here.

Free business planning software from NatWest

NatWest are currently offering a free business planning software package. The software allows you to produce a professional business plan, which will no doubt impress your NatWest bank manager when you're asking for that start-up loan. The software includes a series of checklists and guides - to help you focus on key aspects of the business - and also gives you 12 months free use of the award winning MyBusiness Essentials software. You can find out more about the business plan software and download it for free here.

Cash Flow Calculator

This cash calculator shows you how business-to-business sales, carrying inventory, and rapid growth can absorb a business' money. Click here for the cash flow calculators or here for more calculators.

12-Month Cash-Flow Forecast Spreadsheet – Free Download

The National Federation of Enterprise Agency’s Small Business Advice website provides a 12-month cash-flow forecast spreadsheet that you can download for free. It’s a lot safer and easier to use a proven cash-flow model rather than setting up your own cash-flow forecast from scratch. Another benefit of using this model is that it allows you to measure your 'Actuals' against your 'Forecasts' – something every good business plan should do. There's also a Profit & Loss forecast spreadsheet that you can download free.

Simple Cash-Flow Forecast Model – Free Download

Portobello Business Centre provides a simple profit & loss cash-flow forecast model that you can download for free from their website. Their cash-flow forecast covers the first 12 months of trading and you can also use it to calculate a basic break-even analysis for your business plan. They also provide a downloadable business plan template for a new business. The sample start-up business plan gives you a detailed business plan structure and contains good advice on writing your business plan.

A Free Cash-Flow Forecast Template for Your Business Plan

Chamber Business Enterprises provides a free template you can use to produce a simple cash-flow forecast for your business plan. You can download the MS Excel spreadsheet in seconds and quickly enter your figures into the template to produce your own cash-flow forecast. This cash-flow forecast template is suitable if you’re writing a business plan for a new business start-up or a small business.

Produce Financial Forecasts for Your Business Plan

Putting together your own cash-flow, profit & loss and balance sheet for your business plan can be a time-consuming and complex task. DO$H Software provides a range of solutions specifically designed for sole traders and small businesses. You can download a free trial of each software package from their website - to see whether it produces the figures you need for your business plan - before you part with any cash.

Quick Start Business Plan and Forecasting Tools

The Microsoft bCentral website gives you a Quick Start Business Plan. The free, downloadable, financial forecasting tools provided include: Profit forecast, Cashflow forecast, and Break-even analysis. They suggest that the tools will help to evaluate how financially viable your business idea is, but you’ll need more detailed tools such as Palo Alto’s Business Plan Pro to produce a full business plan.

Next »