Business Planning
A plan built on your numbers and the life you want
Most business plans start in the wrong place
Most business owners start the planning process with vision and strategy. For small businesses, that's the wrong place to begin. If you don't understand what the numbers are already telling you, where profit is coming from, where cash is leaking out, what's been driving results, you're making decisions without evidence. The financials aren't something you add at the end to make the plan look credible. They're the starting point.
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Every business plan I facilitate starts with financial analysis. Once you can see where you've been and what's been driving performance, you can confidently set your destination and map the way forward.
The business exists to support your life
Most business plans treat the business as if it exists separately from the person running it. For an owner-led business, that's a critical gap.
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A plan that doesn't account for your situation isn't complete. What are you doing in the business day to day? What should you be doing? Is the business generating enough to fund your personal commitments, mortgage, family, lifestyle? What does the business need to look like for it to genuinely work for you?
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These aren't soft questions. They're the foundation of everything that follows. Without them, a plan is just an operational document. With them, it becomes a genuine picture of where you want to go and why it matters.
This conversation, honest, practical, and grounded in real numbers, is usually where the most important thinking happens.
How the process works
Your business planning project will follow a clear sequence across four or five working sessions, typically spread over a similar number of weeks. That spacing is deliberate. It gives you time to reflect on what's emerged from each session before moving to the next, and keeps the process from becoming another thing competing with the day-to-day demands of running your business.
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Stage 1 — Financial analysis. 24 - 36 months of financial history, analysed for patterns, ratios, trends, and the gap between profit and cash. Presented visually so the numbers tell their own story. A scenario planning tool is built alongside it so you can model the impact of different decisions before you commit. This stage is available as a stand-alone project. ​
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Stage 2 — The owner conversation. Before looking at the rest of the business, we look at you. What you're doing, what you should be doing, how your time is spent, what your business needs to pay you, and what you want your life to look like. This grounds the plan in reality and makes sure what follows is built around what actually matters.
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Stage 3 — Now. A structured assessment of your business. We've already covered you and the financial analysis, so now we'll work through the other key parts: services, customers, sales, marketing, people, technology etc. This builds an honest picture of where your business stands, not your best-case view, but what's actually happening, so we know what we're dealing with before clarifying the future.
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Stage 4 — Where. A clear picture of success. A specific, practical vision of where your business needs to be across the same dimensions. Not an aspirational statement, but a concrete description of what it looks like when it's running the way you want it to. We finish by revisiting your initial financial targets to make sure everything looks feasible.
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Stage 5 — How. Priorities and actions. The gap between Now and Where becomes a prioritised action plan: a 24 to 36-month roadmap that will be broken into rolling 90-day plans. Three to four actions per quarter, reviewed monthly, reprioritised as things get done. Practical enough to start immediately.
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By this point, most owners feel they finally have a clear, realistic picture of what they're working towards and how to get there.
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"I wish we had started this process a year ago." MM Director, $5m business
What you receive
You'll receive a complete planning document including the financial model and scenario tool, SWOT analysis, Now-Where-How roadmap, and your first 90-day action plan to get started immediately.
What it costs
Business planning projects start from $5,500 incl GST for a complete, facilitated planning process. The total investment depends on the size and complexity of your business, and whether the financial analysis has already been completed as a stand-alone project. We agree on scope and price before any work begins, no surprises.
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If you're based in the Northern Territory, you may be eligible for an NTG Business Growth Grant that can subsidise up to 50% of the fee. The project can be delivered remotely for clients anywhere in Australia.
Is this right for you?
This project suits owners who feel like they're reacting to their business rather than leading it, who are working hard but not moving forward in the way they want, who want a clear and honest picture of where things stand and what to focus on, or who are considering growth or a change in direction.
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It also suits owners who are thinking about selling, not as an exit strategy, but as a longer-term process of building a business that works better for you now and becomes a more attractive proposition for a buyer in the future. That kind of preparation rarely happens overnight, and a business plan is where it starts.
The real value of the work
A business plan isn't a document. It's a decision-making tool, one that connects where you are now to where you want to be, and provides a roadmap to ensure you get there. Just as importantly, it acts as a filter. When opportunities arise, when your business pulls you in different directions, when the urgent threatens to crowd out the important, a good plan tells you what to pursue and what to leave alone.
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The owners who get the most from this process are usually the ones who are prepared to look closely at their numbers, challenge their assumptions, and make clear decisions about direction. If that's you, get in touch and we can talk it through.