Business Plan
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2 min read
A business plan organises your ideas for your dairy farm, creating a roadmap for success. This page reveals that businesses with a plan perform better, as it aligns everyone, identifies opportunities, and avoids problems. The process involves assessing your current situation, considering options, setting priorities, and tracking progress. While the business manager leads the plan, everyone contributes, maintaining focus and building credibility. Your plan should answer critical questions about your farm's purpose, status, ambitions, strategies, and success indicators. Regularly update your plan to adapt to changing circumstances. Guidance is provided to create a comprehensive plan, including vision statements, goals, and actions.
Writing a business plan helps you organise your thoughts and map out the road to where you want to take your business.
Research shows that businesses with a business plan perform better than those without.
Why write a business plan?
Writing a business plan helps you organise your thoughts and map out the road to where you want to take your business. An effective business plan lays the blueprint for future business success. A business plan:
- Helps you organise your thoughts and road map where you want to take your business
- Aligns owners, investors and staff
- Demonstrates you are looking at all possibilities
- Gives you confidence you have the best chance of making your business succeed
- Helps you identify opportunities you may never have otherwise recognised – and avoid potentially expensive problems you wouldn’t have otherwise seen coming.
How does business planning work?
Business planning challenges you to think through your ideas and identify possible issues and opportunities.
- Provides a process to consider where you are now, look at options, seek advice, and select the most important things to take forward.
- Gives you direction, a map to follow, and a sense of urgency - helping you, your staff and advisers prioritise effort.
- Allows you to measure progress towards goals and take action to ensure you keep on track
- Builds credibility and convinces others (including lenders) you know what you're doing.
Who is responsible for the business plan?
The business manager is responsible for the business plan, but good plans are contributed to by staff and advisers, overseen by directors, trustees and owners; reviewed by financiers, and implemented by staff, so all pull in the same direction
What questions should a good business plan answer?
- What are we about?
- Where are we now?
- Where do we want to be?
- How will we get there?
- How will we know we’ve succeeded?
How often do I update my business plan?
At least annually, because no situation stays the same for long; your business will face new challenges and opportunities over the years which is why it’s essential you regularly review and update your business plan.
Write your business plan
Create a business plan suitable for sharing with your bank, potential investors, business partners, farm advisory team or staff.
- Farm Business Plan (Editable pdf)
- Farm Business Plan (Word doc)
- Farm Business Plan template guide (pdf)
Need help creating your vision statements and goals and actions for your business plan? Use the interactive QuickPlan tool to select from examples or create your own.
Starting afresh or revisiting your business planning? Create your vision, assess your situation, set goals and actions; and plan your succession and governance.