Top 5 Tools for Building Stage Businesses

Helpful Tools for Makers, Service Providers and Food Creators

So you’ve come up with a business idea, congratulations! Now it’s time to make it official. You’ll need to build out a strategy to reach your audience and figure out how much it will all cost so you can set yourself up for financial success. Often at this stage, it can feel overwhelming to know where to start so we’ve provided our top five favourite tools to help you get started.

Create a Business Strategy

Set your goals for the next quarter and for the year. By choosing your goals you are setting the priorities you want to achieve and coming up with ways to measure whether or not you have been successful which is key to building a business that will keep growing.

Tool 1: GTM Hub’s Objectives and Key Results (OKR) Playbook — PDF Download

This playbook explains what OKRS are, how to introduce them for your business, step by step process, examples and common mistakes all outlined.

Tool 2: OKR Downloadable Templates

Pick from a variety of templates to choose the one that is easiest and most efficient for you and start filling out your goals right away!

Marketing Plan

One of the first steps to generating revenue is creating a marketing plan. A great marketing plan helps you to reach the right audience who want your product or service. It’s also a key element for any business plan and can help you to secure more funding for your business.

Tool 3: ATB Marketing Plan Template — PDF Download

This step by step guide walks you through the process of creating your own marketing plan and helps you think through key decisions including: your marketing goals, core brand elements, target market and competition as well as the strategy and materials you will need to reach your  goals.

Financial Tracking

We love making money as business owners however sometimes our systems for tracking what we’re making and what we need to keep operating can be left as an after-thought. Set your business up for success by tracking your finances using these tools.

Tool 4: Business Cash Flow Calculator by Shopify

This tool will help you track how much is coming in and going out of your business each week or month. Input your numbers to get a basic and quick overview of how your business is doing.

Tool 5: Cashflow Tracking Spreadsheet Template by Shopify

Use this tool to track your cashflow in a more detailed fashion so you have records for each month and year. This type of tracking will allow you to start seeing trends in your business, what’s working and what needs to change to help you be more profitable.