Free Business Resources Built from 12+ Years of Real Consulting
If you are starting, growing, or funding a business, the resources on this page are the same tools SGI Consultants applies to client work, made available free of charge. Eleven resources in total: seven downloadable toolkits with over 60 individual templates, and four interactive diagnostic tools that score your business against the criteria UK funders, investors and experienced consultants actually use.
The business plan templates are built to the documentation standards UK banks, the Start Up Loans programme, Innovate UK and institutional investors apply in practice. The funding readiness assessment scores you against the exact criteria that determine whether an application succeeds. The marketing toolkit is built around SGI's proprietary SOAR Marketing System, applied across 2,000+ client engagements. The growth resources use the SGI Business Success Formula—our diagnostic framework for identifying what is actually constraining business performance.
These resources exist because UK founders deserve a proper foundation before deciding whether to engage professional support. Use them, apply them, and build on them. If there comes a point where you want an experienced consulting team working alongside you on a business plan, a funding application, a launch, or a growth strategy, you know where to find us.
Kurt Graver, Founder, SGI Consultants
7
Free Resources
60+
Individual Tools and Templates
90%
90% Funding Success Rate
2000+
Businesses Supported
Not sure where to start? Use the guide below
The resources on this page are organised into three tracks reflecting the stage you are at.
The Start Track is for founders at the idea, validation or early launch stage. If you have a business concept and need to validate it, build a launch plan, and lay the foundations, start here.
The Fund Track is for founders writing a business plan, applying for finance, or preparing to pitch investors. The documentation in this track is built to the standards UK funders actually apply, not the generic templates that look right on the page but fail when funders read them.
The Grow Track is for established UK business owners who are working hard but not seeing the growth that their effort should produce. The resources here address the structural reasons businesses stagnate, not the surface symptoms.
If you are not sure which track applies to you, the four interactive diagnostic tools further down this page will tell you exactly where you stand and what to focus on next.
Free Startup Resources -- The Start Track
For founders at the concept, pre-launch or early validation stage. These resources give you the frameworks and tools to move from an idea to a trading business in the right sequence, without the avoidable mistakes that derail most early-stage launches.
If you would prefer to work through this stage with experienced support behind you, our startup consultants work specifically with UK founders through the validation, planning, and launch process. A free 30-minute consultation covers your specific situation rather than a generic pitch.
The Business Idea to Launch Toolkit
For founders: with an idea who want to validate it properly before committing significant time or money.
Most founders move too quickly from idea to execution. They build before they have verified that enough people want what they are building, at a price that makes the business viable. The Business Idea to Launch Toolkit is the resource SGI built to address this.
It gives you the validation frameworks, business model design tools, and feasibility analysis templates to make the go-or-no-go decision with evidence rather than enthusiasm.
The bar SGI applies to a validated business idea is concrete: at least 10 prospects who fit the target customer profile have demonstrated, through actual purchase intent rather than survey responses, that they will pay the price you are charging for the offer you are providing.
The toolkit takes you through that validation work systematically.
What is included:
- Business idea validation framework
- Business model design canvas
- Feasibility analysis template
- Market sizing and opportunity assessment
- Customer and competitor research templates
- Go/No-Go decision framework
- Early-stage business planning guide
The Startup Launch System
For founders: who have validated their idea and need a structured, sequenced plan to take it to market.
Knowing your idea has merit is one thing. Executing the launch in the right order, without missing the compliance, operational or commercial steps that derail new businesses, is another.
The Startup Launch System is SGI's comprehensive free resource for UK founders going from idea to trading. Nine tools cover every stage of the launch process, including UK-specific regulatory checklists that most US-facing startup resources omit.
The system is built around a 90-day structure with three phases: Foundation (the legal, compliance, and operational setup), Launch (the customer-acquisition mechanics), and Momentum (the early-scaling discipline that prevents premature stagnation).
What is included:
- 90-Day Startup Launch Checklist (three phases: Foundation, Launch, Momentum)
- Business Idea Validation Checklist (25-point)
- Market Research Template (TAM/SAM/SOM, customer interviews, competitor analysis)
- Competitor Analysis Framework (seven-step)
- Startup Cost Estimator with runway calculator
- UK Startup and SME Technology Tools Guide 2025
- Regulated Business Startup Checklist (childcare, FCA, healthcare, food and more)
- Startup Legal and Compliance Checklist
- Business Startup Hacks eBook
Free Funding Resources -- The Fund Track
For founders writing a business plan or preparing for a funding round. The resources in this track are built to the documentation standards that UK banks, Innovate UK, the Start Up Loans programme, and institutional investors actually apply in practice.
Generic business plan templates that look correct often fail under funder scrutiny because they miss the specific elements UK lenders and investors look for. These resources do not.
SGI's business plan writers have written over 2,000 business plans and secured more than £250 million for UK businesses with a 90% application success rate. The templates and frameworks below are the same documentation standards we apply to client engagements, made available free.
The Business Plan Template Masterpack
For founders: who need an investor-ready business plan and want the tools, templates and guidance that give their application the best possible chance.
The Business Plan Template Masterpack is the most downloaded resource in the SGI library. Eleven tools cover the complete business planning and strategy process, from the full business plan structure through financial analysis, competitive intelligence, strategic analysis and 90-day execution planning.
The flagship SGI Business Plan Template is built to the documentation standards required by UK banks (including Barclays and HSBC), the Start Up Loans programme, Innovate UK, and leading UK venture capital firms.
The difference between this template and the free templates available elsewhere is the depth of the supporting material. The completion guide takes you through each section with specific instructions on what funders look for and the common mistakes that cause applications to fail.
The scoring checklist applies the criteria UK funders actually use to evaluate applications. The strategic analysis templates produce the kind of supporting documentation that institutional funders specifically expect.
What is included:
- SGI Business Plan Template (full investor-ready structure with target word counts and worked examples)
- Completing Your Business Plan Guide (step-by-step instructions and common mistakes for every section)
- Business Plan Scoring Checklist (11 sections)
- Business Model Canvas
- SWOT Analysis Template
- PESTLE Analysis Template
- Competitive SWOT Analysis
- Competitor Intelligence Tracker
- Porter's Five Forces Template
- Go-to-Market Strategy Template
- 90-Day OKR Planning Template
The Complete Funding and Investor Toolkit
For founders: who are preparing to pitch investors or apply for funding and want to close the gap between where their business is now and what funders require.
Most UK funding applications fail not because the business is unviable, but because the documentation does not present the business as funders need to see it. The Complete Funding and Investor Toolkit gives you the templates, frameworks and preparation tools to approach a funding round with the same level of documentation that experienced consultants produce for clients. Built on the methodology behind £250 million in client funding secured and a 90% success rate across every major UK funder, from high street banks through to Innovate UK and leading venture capital firms.
The investor readiness assessment alone is worth the download. It scores your business against the five dimensions UK investors evaluate most rigorously, identifies the specific gaps in your current preparation, and tells you which gaps need to be closed before the application is submitted.
What is included:
- Investor readiness assessment and gap analysis
- Funding documentation framework
- Pitch deck structure and preparation guide
- UK funding landscape guide (grants, loans, equity, alternative finance)
- Investor targeting and outreach framework
- Term sheet and due diligence preparation guide
- Financial projections guide for funding applications
- Funding application review checklist
Using these tools and want expert support behind them?
Our startup consultants and business plan writers work with UK founders at every stage -- from first business plan through to funded, trading businesses. A free 30-minute consultation covers your specific situation, not a generic pitch.
Free Business Growth Resources -- The Grow Track
For established UK business owners whose businesses are working but not growing as efficiently as they should. These resources address the structural causes of underperformance, not the surface symptoms.
Most established businesses that come to SGI with a growth challenge are not short of effort. They are short of clarity. The owner is working harder than ever, revenue may even be increasing, but profitability is not keeping pace, and the business still depends on the founder being present in everything. That gap, between a working business and an efficiently growing one, is almost always structural. The tools below help you diagnose it.
For UK businesses past the early validation stage, our business consultants apply the same frameworks with an experienced team behind you when the stakes require it. A free consultation covers your specific situation rather than a generic engagement pitch.
The Business Growth Accelerator Pack
For founders: who are running an established business that is not growing as efficiently as it should, and need to understand which specific structural constraint is holding performance back.
The conceptual foundation of this pack is SGI's proprietary Business Success Formula:
Successful Business = PM + (PS x (EO -- (C+E+P+T)))
The formula evaluates business performance across four strategic dimensions: Profitable Market (PM), Product or Service strength (PS), Engine Optimisation (EO—the operational, marketing, sales, and financial systems), and External factors of Competition, Economic conditions, Political climate, and Technology. The model identifies where the gap between potential and actual performance is concentrated, which determines what to fix first. Most UK SMEs lose performance not because of weak markets or weak offers, but because the Engine Optimisation component has been allowed to drift -- and that is also the component most amenable to deliberate improvement.
Seven tools are built around the diagnostic framework, including the Business Success Assessment Tool, which scores your business across 19 elements and produces a visual gap analysis to help you prioritise improvement work.
What is included:
- Business Success Formula Guide (full explanation of PM + (PS x (EO -- (C+E+P+T))))
- Business Success Assessment Tool (19-element scoring across four sections with visual gap analysis)
- 90-Day Growth Planner
- Cost Reduction and Margin Improvement Framework
- Operational Performance Scorecard
- Team Performance and Accountability System
- Financial Visibility and Decision-Making Template
The Startup Marketing and Sales Toolkit
For founders: who are generating some customers but cannot make the process consistent, repeatable or scalable.
The most common marketing problem among UK founders is not a lack of activity. It is a lack of systems. Social media posts, occasional paid ads, some networking, but no coherent framework connecting them into a machine that produces predictable revenue. The Startup Marketing and Sales Toolkit is SGI's free resource for fixing that. It is built around our proprietary SOAR Marketing System: Standout Branding, Orchestrate Connections, Attract and Amplify, and Revenue Maximisation.
The discipline behind SOAR is sequencing. Most failed marketing programmes invert the order, scaling traffic before validating conversion or running campaigns before establishing positioning. The toolkit walks you through the sequence with templates for each component.
What is included:
- SOAR Marketing Strategy Template (Standout Branding, Orchestrate Connections, Attract and Amplify, Revenue Maximisation)
- SOAR Marketing Planner (tabbed execution workbook with Budget Tracker, KPI Dashboard and 90-Day Action Plan)
- Ideal Customer Profile Framework
- Go-to-Market Strategy Template (Target Segment, Value Proposition, Pricing Strategy, Channel Selection, 30/60/90-Day Milestones)
- KPI Dashboard (40+ Financial, Sales, Marketing and Operational KPIs)
- Email Campaign Templates
- Sales Conversation Framework
- Content Planning Calendar
- Marketing Channel Prioritisation Matrix
The Founder's Operating System
For founders: who have built a business that works—but only because they are personally involved in almost everything, and stepping away causes it to slow or stop.
The most common operational constraint in growing UK businesses is not a process problem. It is a founder problem. The owner has become the system. Every decision routes through them. Every exception lands on their desk. The business cannot scale because it is not built to operate without them.
The Founder's Operating System Toolkit is SGI's resource for addressing this. It gives you the frameworks to build a business that runs as a system, not as a function of your personal presence.
The transition from founder-dependent to systematised business is one of the hardest and most consequential. Founders who do not make this transition cap their business size at their personal capacity. Founders who do, build something that can grow without being constrained by the limits of their own attention.
What is included:
- Founder Role Audit and Delegation Framework
- Decision-Making Architecture Template
- Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Builder
- Team Accountability and Performance System
- Weekly and Monthly Operational Review Templates
- Founder Time Audit and Priority Reallocation Tool
Explore the Full Library and Further Reading
Free Downloads -- Full Details and Download Pages
Each toolkit below has a dedicated page where you can read the full contents, understand which track it belongs to, and download it directly.
The Business Plan Template Masterpack -- 11 tools covering the complete business planning process, built to UK bank, Start Up Loans, Innovate UK and investor standards. View the Business Plan Template Masterpack
The Complete Funding and Investor Toolkit -- 8 tools covering investor readiness, funding documentation, pitch preparation, and the UK funding landscape. View the Complete Funding and Investor Toolkit
The Business Idea to Launch Toolkit -- 7 tools for founders at the concept stage covering idea validation, business model design, and feasibility analysis. View the Business Idea to Launch Toolkit
The Startup Launch System -- 9 tools covering the complete pre-launch process, including UK-specific legal and compliance checklists. View the Startup Launch System
The Startup Marketing and Sales Toolkit -- 9 tools built around SGI's SOAR Marketing System, from strategy through to execution and measurement. View the Startup Marketing and Sales Toolkit
The Business Growth Accelerator Pack -- 7 tools built around SGI's Business Success Formula, including a 19-element diagnostic and 90-day growth planner. View the Business Growth Accelerator Pack
The Founder's Operating System Toolkit -- 6 tools to help founders build businesses that operate without them at the centre of everything. View the Founder's Operating System Toolkit
Further Reading - Content Hubs
The content hubs below contain in-depth guides, frameworks, and articles on every topic covered by the resources above. Each hub is built from real consulting experience across 2,000+ client engagements -- not generic business advice.
Business Planning and Strategy Guides covering every aspect of writing, structuring, and using a business plan -- from initial planning frameworks through to investor-ready documentation. Includes articles on financial modelling, market research, competitive analysis, and strategic planning methodology.
Browse the Business Planning and Strategy hub
Business Funding and Finance In-depth guides to the UK funding landscape -- bank loans, Start Up Loans, Innovate UK, angel investment, venture capital, crowdfunding, grants, and alternative finance. Covers what each funder requires, how to approach them, and what makes an application succeed.
Browse the Business Funding and Finance hub
Startup Development Practical guides for founders at every stage of the startup journey -- from idea validation and business model development through to legal setup, team building, and first revenues. UK-specific throughout.
Browse the Startup Development hub
Startup Guides and Business Ideas Guides covering over 60 UK business sectors -- what each type of business actually costs to launch, what the regulatory landscape requires, and what separates businesses that reach sustainable revenue from those that do not. Includes idea generation frameworks and feasibility tools.
Browse the Startup Guides and Business Ideas hub
Marketing and Sales Practical guides to building a marketing and sales system that produces consistent, predictable revenue -- covering the SOAR framework, digital marketing, content strategy, customer acquisition, pricing, and sales process development.
Browse the Marketing and Sales hub
Business Optimisation and Growth Guides for established business owners focused on improving performance, profitability, and operational efficiency -- covering the Business Success Formula, Engine Optimisation, cost reduction, team performance, and 90-day growth planning.
Browse the Business Optimisation and Growth hub
The Entrepreneur Journey Articles covering the broader founder experience -- decision-making under uncertainty, managing growth, building resilience, the realities of consulting and fundraising, and the patterns that separate founders who succeed from those who do not.
Ready for Professional Support Behind These Tools?
Most founders who download these resources are at the beginning of the process—validating an idea, preparing a funding application, or trying to understand why a business that should be growing is not. The tools above are the right starting point.
There comes a point in most business journeys where the tools are not enough. When the funding application needs to be investor-grade rather than just complete. When the growth strategy needs to be stress-tested against real market conditions. When the operational system needs to be built by someone who has done it across 2,000 businesses, not just designed in a template. That is what SGI's consulting engagements deliver.
A free consultation with SGI is not a sales call. It is a 30-minute conversation with an experienced consultant about your specific situation—where you are, what you are trying to achieve, and what the realistic path looks like. You will leave with clarity on whether you choose to work with us.
No obligation. No sales pressure. Just clear, expert guidance.