Free tool · Gap analysis template
Gap analysis template: find the one gap to close first
Score six areas of your business as they are today and where you want them in a year. The template measures each gap, ranks them, and shows you what to focus on next. Download it as an action plan for Excel when you’re done.
Strictly private. The figures you type stay on your device. They are never sent to us or kept on our servers. The only details we hold are your name and email.
How to use it
How do you do a gap analysis for a business?
1. Where you are now
Score each area of the business as it is today. Use evidence where you have it: the sales figures, the margin, the hours you worked last week.
2. Where you want to be
Score where you want each area in a year. Not perfect: the level that would make the business pay off for you.
3. Measure the gap
Gap = where you want to be − where you are nowRank the gaps. The biggest one is usually the constraint: the thing holding everything else back. Fixing it moves the rest; fixing anything else first mostly moves nothing.
4. Plan to close it
Write down what’s causing the gap, the action that closes it, who owns it and by when. One gap at a time, for a quarter, then score again. The download gives you those columns ready to fill in.
Business gap analysis example
The template opens with an example owner. Sales score 5 now and 8 wanted, marketing 4 and 8, team and leadership 4 and 9, cash and profit 6 and 8, what the business pays them 3 and 8, and their time 3 and 7. The biggest gaps are team and leadership, and pay, both 5 points. Team comes first: until people can run their area without the owner, the owner can’t free the time, and the business can’t afford to pay them properly. Close the team gap and the pay gap starts closing with it.
Business audit or gap analysis?
A business audit usually means a statutory or financial audit: an accountant checking that the accounts are true and fair. Most small companies are exempt; GOV.UK sets out when you need one. A gap analysis looks forward instead: not whether last year’s numbers were right, but how far the business is from where you want it, and what to fix first. If you want a broader score of the whole business, take the free business health check.
Want me to find your gap with you?
Owners are often the last to see their own gap, because they’re inside it. The business gap analysis is two to four hours with me on Zoom, working through your numbers, team and priorities. You leave knowing your gap and what to focus on next. £699 plus VAT, and the fee comes off your first month if you carry on.
Questions people ask
Do you keep my answers?
No. Everything runs on your own device: what you type is never sent to us or kept on our servers. To see your result you enter your name and email, and those are the only details we hold.
What is a gap analysis?
A comparison of where something is now with where you want it to be, so you can see the gap between the two and plan how to close it. For a business, it means scoring each area today and in a year’s time, finding the biggest gap, and deciding what to do about it first.
How do I write a gap analysis?
Four steps: describe where you are now, describe where you want to be, measure the gap between them, and write the actions that close it, with who does what by when. This template does the first three for the six areas of a business and gives you the fourth as a download.
How do I create a gap analysis in Excel?
Use one row per area and six columns: where you are now, where you want to be, the gap, what is causing it, the action, and who owns it by when. Fill it in here and download it as a CSV, which opens in Excel or Google Sheets with those columns ready.
Can ChatGPT do a gap analysis?
It can lay out the steps and suggest actions, but it can only work from what you tell it, and owners are often the last to see their own gap. The useful part is an honest score from someone who knows how businesses like yours run, then the discipline to act on the biggest gap first.
What is the difference between a gap analysis and a SWOT analysis?
A SWOT lists strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A gap analysis measures how far each area is from where you want it, so it tells you where to act first. Many owners do a SWOT and still don’t know what to do on Monday; the gap answers that.
Built by Dr Lewis Haydon, a business coach and mentor in Birmingham, UK, who owns and runs businesses. Related: the owner time audit, the profit margin calculator and the sales plan template.
Next step
Want me to find your gap with you?
The business gap analysis: two to four hours with me on your numbers, team and priorities. £699 plus VAT, and the fee comes off your first month if you carry on.
Not sure I’m the right fit? Compare me with other coaches and mentors, honestly, including where others are the better choice. Want something built around your business? Request a tailored quote and I’ll call you to go through it.