Business planning

Business planning is an activity that should involve the whole of your management group and wherever possible should involve consultation and feedback opportunities for your members, volunteers and stakeholders.

Writing a business plan will give your group the opportunity to work together as a team to define the mission, vision and aims of your organisation and to develop an action plan for the next working period, for example 12 or 24 months. It needs to be a flexible ‘living’ document which can be used internally to drive the work you do but can also be shared with funders.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) provides guidance on what to think about Before You Start Your Business Plan.

There are a number of guides which can walk you through how to write your business plan along with planning templates which can be tailored for the needs of your organisation:

For museums:

• Association of Independent Museums (AIM) Success Guides – Successful Business Planning
• SHARE Museums East: Forward Planning – A practical guide for museums
• South West Museum Development Programme: Business Development – Forward Planning for Museums

For archives:

• The National Archives – Forward planning guidance

Advice for heritage organisations from major funders:

• Heritage Fund – Business planning template
• Arts Council England – Business planning guidance for arts and cultural organisations
• The Key Fund – Business planning advice

As part of your business planning it is best practice to assess the risk associated with your activity. Please see the Managing Risk subject in this toolkit for further information.