Are you thinking of starting a new business but don’t know what steps to take?

Perhaps you’re already operating your business and need help with planning, improving cashflow, managing staff, building resilience, finding your work-life balance or learning new skills?

Our new Business Planning Tool will help you to plan, track and learn. Invest in your business and focus on the tasks that matter to keep your business on track.

Business Planning Tool animation

Plan for your business, no matter what stage you’re at

The Business Planning Tool can help at all stages of your business including:

  • Planning – find tools and advice to help evaluate your business idea, create your business and marketing plans, source capital, find licences and registrations and turn your vision into a reality
  • Sustaining – improve your skills so you can run your business more effectively, cut costs, increase profits, find and keep the right people, increase resilience, reduce risk, improve customer satisfaction and more
  • Growing – find new markets both local and overseas, create opportunities to grow and promote innovation
  • Responding to challenges – whether you’re responding to external crisis like a natural disaster, or internal challenges like physical or mental health issues or cash flow problems, find the support and advice you need to deal with challenges and plan your return to normal
  • Exiting – know what steps to take if you’re looking to sell, considering a succession plan, or navigating the challenges of bankruptcy or insolvency.

Make big tasks easy to manage

The Business Planning Tool helps break up complex tasks into bite-sized pieces. In the tool you’ll find:

  • Quick wins – easy tasks to help you make quick improvements
  • Priority lists – series of tasks you can choose to help plan for your business and achieve your goals
  • Upskills – free and low-cost learning opportunities such as courses, workshops, and webinars
  • Resources – free tools such as business planning guides, cashflow templates and online calculators to help you plan and make good decisions for your business.

The Business Planning Tool is web-based and will always be free so there’s no need to download an app and it won’t cost you a cent. Just log in, create your account, and use the app on your phone, tablet or desktop computer. Your personal dashboard will help track progress on tasks and keep you focused on what’s next for your business.

Help using the Business Planning Tool

+ Expand all- Collapse all

Change your password

  1. Log in to your account.
  2. Access Account settings from the Menu.
  3. Enter your current password in the ‘Current password’ field.
  4. Enter a new password in the ‘New password’ field. Ensure it is at least 8 characters and contains a mixture of numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters.
  5. Enter your new password again in the ‘Confirm new password’ field.
  6. Scroll to the bottom and select Save.

Reset your password

  1. Select Forgot your password? from the Sign in screen.
  2. Enter the email address associated with your account in the ‘Email’ field.
  3. Select Verify.
  4. We will send a code to your email address to confirm that it is you. Enter the code in the Confirmation code field. If you don’t receive a confirmation code:
    • Check your junk or spam folders.
    • Add plan@business.vic.gov.au to your address book.
    • To request another email, select Resend confirmation email under ‘Can’t see your verification email?’.
    • Check all email addresses you might've used to sign up or sign in to your account.
  5. Enter a new password in the ‘New password’ field. Ensure it is at least 8 characters and contains a mixture of numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters.
  6. Enter your new password again in the ‘Confirm new password’ field.
  7. Select Confirm.

Fix problems with your password

If you're having trouble resetting your password or can’t sign into your account, contact us for more help.

  1. Access Account settings from the menu. You might need to log in first.
  2. Scroll down to Email notifications.
  3. Click the toggle switches to turn Task notifications and Important updates on or off to your desired settings.
  4. Select Save.

Add new priorities

  1. Go to your dashboard. You might need to log in first.
  2. View the available priorities under ‘Consider adding these priorities’
  3. Select Add to my priorities to add priorities to your dashboard.

Change or remove your priorities

  1. Go to your dashboard. You might need to log in first.
  2. Select Edit under the ‘Your priorities’ section to begin edit mode.
  3. Select the priorities you want to remove. Priorities that have been selected will show a checkmark inside the yellow circle.
  4. Select Remove to confirm or Cancel to end edit mode without changing your priorities.

  1. Access Profile settings from the menu. You might need to log in first.
  2. Under ‘About you’, make changes to your profile using the provided text fields and dropdown boxes.
  3. Select Save to confirm your changes.

  1. Go to your dashboard. You might need to log in first.
  2. From your dashboard, select your business stage. Your business stage is located at the top under your business name – for example, ‘Starting’ or ‘Running, Growing’.

Screenshot of the Business Planning Tool dashboard screen with a yellow highlight box indicating where to find the Business Stage label.

  1. Once selected, you’ll be taken to the ‘What stage is your business at?’ screen where you can choose either Starting a business or Running a business. If you choose Running a business, you’ll then be asked to choose from:
    • Sustaining
    • Growing
    • Responding
    • Exiting
  2. If you’re returning to a stage you’ve accessed before, a ‘Want to start fresh?’ popup will appear. To keep your previous progress and priorities, select Keep my existing tasks. To start fresh with new priorities, select Yes, I want to start over.
  3. Choose priorities to add from the ‘What are your priorities?’ list.
  4. Select Next to update your profile and return to your dashboard.

Why we collect personal information

Small Business Victoria, as part of the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions (DJSIR), collects personal information to create unique user profiles on the Business Planning Tool.

Your user profile enables you to log in and to view and use the information and tools available.

Providing your personal information allows you to:

  • receive personalised progress notifications
  • track your progress
  • access content targeted to you (for example, specific business programs and grants)

For more information, see Privacy.

How we protect your privacy

Your privacy is important to us. All personal information collected as part of the Business Planning Tool will be collected, held, used, managed, shared, disclosed, transferred and stored in accordance with the principles of the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 and any other applicable laws.

For more information on how Small Business Victoria stores and protects personal information, see the Business Victoria privacy statement.

  1. Access Account settings from the menu. You might need to log in first.
  2. Select Delete my account under ‘Delete account’.
  3. A popup  window will appear. Select ‘Yes, delete my account’ to confirm.