What you’ll learn:

  • what a business plan is and how to create one.
  • how to assess your skills, gaps and resources.
  • how to understand your competitors and market position.
  • how to identify opportunities to reach your goals.

How to prepare a business plan

Start your plan or get a fresh perspective on what you’ve already planned. Watch our four short videos – we’ll step you through our business plan template, one section at a time.

learning resource

Business plan template

Use our free template along with our video series to help you write a great plan for launching your new business, or as a refresher of a previous business plan.

Business plan template
Open as a separate page

Business.govt.nz makes it easier for small businesses in New Zealand to understand and comply with government, and succeed. We do this by packaging content and advice from across government into tools and resources designed with small business in mind.

About us

We work closely with small businesses across New Zealand, government agencies, and private sector businesses and organisations, to understand small business challenges and how to address them in the most effective way.

Business.govt.nz is part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and is focused on achieving the Government's Better for Business objectives.

Contribute to our content

We work with experts in the public and private sectors to get best practice advice for small businesses.

If you or your organisation would like to submit an article, event or other content for business.govt.nz, here's how.

Content guidelines for business.govt.nz

We’re looking for website content that:

  • fits our content themes and helps solve common problems for small businesses
  • comes from a credible expert
  • doesn’t contain advertising or product placements
  • has a national focus.

Once we've published your content, remember to tell us if any links to your own — or other websites — change.

Once you’ve read the guidelines below, get in touch — we’d love to hear your content ideas.