Download free business templates, forms, checklists, and financial tables
These are some of our best resources for setting up and running a successful business, put together after speaking with profitable entrepreneurs and business owners. Use them to help you save loads of time and to create a business idea, write a plan, get funding, launch, and make money. Let’s get started, right now.
Business Plan, Startup Checklist, SWOT Analysis, PESTLE Analysis
Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statement, Startup Costs, Cashflow Forecast, Cashflow Statement
Marketing Plan, Customer Profile, Audience Segmentation, Campaign Brief, Supplier Brief
Top Business Resource Recommendations
Check Ideas
Survey Monkey
The best way to get feedback on your business ideas is to ask your potential customers, family and friends. You can use Survey Monkey for free to create surveys and send out to people that might be interested in your network through email, social media or on websites.
IdeasWatch
Anyone can submit and post an idea on the website. Once posted, all users can like, downvote, share, or comment on that idea. This provides great insight on whether people think an idea is good.
IdeaCheck
Users draft ideas which IdeaCheck puts into a scientifically valid questionnaire and sends to select audiences by country, age, and other demographics. It gauges what select potential customers think.
Create A Website
WordPress
WordPress is free and the world’s largest open source website building platform. You can use it to create websites easily within minutes and without knowing anything about software development by using already existing website themes. It’s great for creating all types of websites particularly blogs, news article, or marketing business websites.
Umbraco
Umbraco is also open-source and allows you to create fully customisable websites quickly. It requires doing minimal software development to customise websites and create some features. Use Umbraco to design a website to look and function exactly how you want. It’s great for creating a website that sells online tools or softwares, and ones that look unique because Umbraco is fully customisable.
Wix
Wix is even easier to use than WordPress and Umbraco, but is not as customisable with as many themes. You can drag-and-drop different website sections and features onto a website you’re creating. It’s great for creating photography, one-man consultant, and boutique fashion business websites.
Inspirational Business Books
$100 Startup
All the entrepreneurs we talked to recommended this book. If want to start a business but don’t have thousands, this book is perfect. It talks about different ways you can start a successful business for $100. Everything from starting small as a sole trader all the way to finishing big or franchising. More importantly it teaches you the mindset of a resourceful entrepreneur who can find ways to make money with little to nothing in your bank.
4 Hour Work Week
This is another great book which many of our entrepreneurs recommend for anyone that wants to earn hundreds of thousands whilst having the freedom to enjoy their life without having to work the long and tireless hours which many entrepreneurs usually do. It’s written by Tim Ferris, one of world’s leading bloggers and podcasters about his experience of creating multiple business sources of income. And setting these businesses up in a way that only takes him 4 hours of work a week to run.
Smarter, Faster, Better
The key message of this book is for aspiring entrepreneurs or current business owners who want to learn how to run their businesses and do what they are doing in a smarter, faster, and better way. The book provides advice and techniques focused on goal setting, decision making, and motivation based on researched stories from successful companies and professionals.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Life and business is all about people. If you ask any entrepreneurs what the most important skill is, they all usually say it’s communication whatever form its in like selling, influencing, presenting, saying no etc. Being able to talk about your ideas and convince or win anyone including investors, employees, or customers to your way of thinking is the biggest key to business success. This book teaches you this using straightforward techniques. For decades, it’s consistently been one of the all time best business books because it’s worth a million dollars.
Motivational Business Podcasts
The Tim Ferris Show
Tim Ferris is the author behind The 4 Hour Work Week, which our entrepreneurs recommend. His podcast is generally said to be the best business podcast worldwide and is the first to reach 100 million downloads. He interviews some of the top performers to get their techniques, habits, and tips on success. It covers everything from exercise, to leadership, mindset, running a business, or parenthood from guests like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Robbins, Lebron James, Neil Gaiman.
Rise and Grind
Daymond John is a investor ‘Shark‘ on one of our top recommended Business TV Shows, Shark Tank. What makes this podcast so good is how openly the guests focus on and talk about the grit, persistence, and hard work it takes to become successful. Anyone listening will definitely pick up on and avoid mistakes the top entrepreneurs, musicians, athletes, actors etc. made to get to where they are.
Beyond the To-Do List
Everyone, especially business owners get overwhelmed by their busy to-do lists now and again. That’s what makes this podcast great, it’s so relatable to anyone because Erik Fisher talks with real people from all walks of life, not just celebrities. They talk about how they fail and succeed at staying productive. One of the key messages from the podcast is about how to be productive whilst working towards your goals and ultimately living a meaningful life.
The Quote Of The Day Show
This podcast is a little hidden gem that not many people know about. A few of our entrepreneurs recommended it for daily motivation. It takes the best clips from world class motivational speakers and top performers in every part of life, and breaks these into small chunks which anyone can listen to for a daily boost and learning. There are clips on mindset, financial success, relationships, business, and leadership.
Great Business TVs Shows
Shark Tank
Shark Tank is a great TV show for idea inspiration and learning how to successfully pitch your idea to investors or ‘sharks‘. Some of whom include billionaire’s like Mark Cuban. Daymond John, the creator of Rise and Grind podcast that our entrepreneurs recommend as one of their best motivational business podcasts, also sits on the shark panel.
Dragons Den
This is the British version of Shark Tank with equally famous UK entrepreneurs who have built massive business empires investing in new and existing businesses. You can really see the difference between UK or European and American types of businesses, but the investors and their way of thinking remains the similar.
The Apprentice UK
If you ever want to know what it’s like to startup and run a business, the Apprentice is the closest thing you’ll get to seeing this on TV. The UK version is more business focused and less like a reality TV show compared to the American version. In the newer series 20 contestants compete in weekly business tasks involved around creating and running a business, with the winner receiving £250,000 to launch their business idea and mentoring from one of the UK’s most successful businessmen.
COMPANY HAND 