Mind maps can help you organize your thoughts in double-quick time. In business though, time = money… so we thought we’d make it faster. Whether you’re creating a business plan, planning your OKRs, or creating a company org chart, MindMeister has the mind map template to match. Let’s meet the fresh business templates you can use in MindMeister’s all-new editor. Best of all? They’re free!
MindMeister means business. When you start using the new MindMeister, you’ll gain access to a huge range of mind map templates, purpose-built for the brand new editor.
Templates are perfect for the “plug and play” mind mapping that’s key to maximum efficiency – no need to structure and format in advance. As such, templates are the perfect solution if you don’t know where to start with your mind map, if you need to organize information in a predefined way, or if you want to skip the visuals and get straight to your ideas.
Why Use a Mind Map Template for Business?
Whatever type of company you work in, there are two key reasons to use mind map templates in MindMeister. Time and Structure.
Firstly, time. Organizing meetings, creating project roadmaps and running brainstorming sessions can be laborious: especially if you have to create a new mind map for each occasion. A template removes the need to create new topics and layouts for your mind maps, although you can customize them later if you want. To start with though, everything you need is already on the page. By saving you valuable minutes, templates give you time to focus on your ideas.
Structure is the key to any good mind map. If you’re not sure where to begin, a well-designed template will provide a great starting point. Whenever you load up a template in MindMeister, you get a framework with the main topics already in place. This gives you a clear direction as soon as you start mapping.
Our Templates Page has a mind map for every use case – simply find the one you need and start mapping!
How Much Time Does a Mind Map Template Save?
Open the Meeting Notes Template in MindMeister.
Every map is different – some take longer to format, others are done in an instant. The true value of a template is in the time saved over repeated, long-term use. The best example? Meeting management.
You might need 5 minutes each time you have a meeting to create a mind map that leaves space to fill in your meeting objectives, participants, supporting materials and the like. This doesn’t seem like much: but multiply this by the number of meetings you have each year (let’s take the average of 278) and you get to a total: 23 hours per year, around three full working days.
Still not convinced? Let’s find out how you can benefit from MindMeister’s mind map templates.
The Best Mind Map Templates for Business
At MindMeister, we love mind mapping more than anyone. But even we have to ask ourselves sometimes: why start from scratch each time you need to work with a mind map? Templates take the stress out of all types of processes.
In business, there are many tried and tested techniques to strategize your way to success. However, sometimes structuring your ideas can be a challenge. Business plans can descend into a mess of drafts and incomprehensible spreadsheets. Long proposals and analyses can turn into endless PDFs that no one will ever read. Mind mapping is the key to engaging, useful business documents.
Let’s look at three key templates that can provide the maximum value to your work.
Want to Get Started?
It’s easy to make a new mind map from a template: simply go to My Maps in MindMeister, or click New from template when creating a map to get started. Alternatively, you can visit the templates page to choose a template from whichever category suits your needs.
Business Plan Template
Open the Business Plan Template Biggerplate in MindMeister.
Vision is an important part of starting any business, and perhaps even more so when you’re planning next steps for an existing one. In short – you need a solid plan. There are two key aspects to creating a successful business plan: getting your ideas out there and structuring them effectively. Fortunately, this simple, effective business plan template by MindMeister can help you to do both.
The template provides unlimited space for the essentials your plan needs to cover. There are ready-made branches for market analysis, financial information, business strategy and more – but you can customize these however you like. You can even link to other documents that provide depth or context. Here are our top tips for using our business plan template:
- Don’t be shy. You can always edit and refine your ideas later. Focus on getting as much content as possible on the page to start with.
- Centralize. Your business plan isn’t a static document. Use the template as a central point from which you can link to other resources, attach documents and more.
- Implement. Plans are nothing unless they’re carried out. By turning your business plan topics into structured tasks, you can ensure that your best ideas actually come to fruition.
Got it? Once you’ve completed your structured business plan mind map, you can look to the future with confidence.
OKR Planning Template
Open the OKR Planning Template in MindMeister.
OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results – one of the most popular goal-setting frameworks for teams. It not only helps you decide on what’s important, but to track progress as you move toward your goals. Setting OKRs can help teams in many different ways: visualizing what different parts of an organization are working on, motivating team members to work toward a common objective, and providing accountability and transparency to work.
As all business resources are limited, so deciding which objectives to prioritize as OKRs is an essential part of the OKR process. If you believe in bottom-up planning, a collaborative approach to OKR setting is a good way to ensure that ideas from all across the organization are heard. That’s where our mind map template for OKR planning comes in. Here’s how to get the most of it:
- Collaborate in real time. If you meet in a large group to discuss your OKRs, use your template as the centerpiece of the discussion, adding any new ideas generated.
- Collaborate asynchronously. Alternatively, invite your team members to contribute ideas to the mind map template in their own time. This might help less confident colleagues get their ideas out there.
- Make it your own. Every company is different – simply adapt and save the OKR planning template so it fits perfectly to your organization.
Stuck with ideation? You might also be interested in our brainstorming templates.
Company Org Chart
Open the Company Org Chart Template in MindMeister.
Companies often grow quickly, and for remote and hybrid teams particularly, it can be difficult to know who everyone is and what they do. That’s where a company org chart can help you: reducing confusion, improving transparency, and helping everyone get to know each other just a little bit better.
Using the company org chart template by MindMeister, you can create a living, breathing representation of your company that can keep up with rapid changes. It’s easy to add new team members to the diagram, remove those who have moved on, and move people into new teams if there’s a restructuring. Here are our top tips.
- Make it interesting. Rather than just names, add images, personal information and links to LinkedIn profiles to make a more comprehensive who’s who.
- Use color. You might want to have all your developers in green, your marketers in purple and your salespeople in red to provide an at-a-glance overview.
- Use boundaries. Selecting Show as Boundary draws a line around a group of people in your org chart, helping you to depict teams, tribes, or however you’re set up.
Find out how MindMeister helps dynamic teams manage their resources in this case study.
Your Template for Success
No matter how simple or complex your business is, using mind map templates makes planning and management so much easier. From a great starting point, you can use your map as a springboard for better ideation, structure and efficiency.
Whenever you need to make an awesome mind map in a hurry, you can use our ready-to-go mind maps to get your ideas on the page faster.
FAQs
What is the new MindMeister editor?
We’re currently in the process of moving users over to the new MindMeister editor. If you haven’t noticed any changes already, we’ll be in touch when we’re ready for you. Meanwhile, you can find out more about the all-new MindMeister in this explainer post.
Where can I find mind map templates for the new editor?
The all-new MindMeister comes with a full catalog of over 40 different templates: browse the Template Library to create beautiful mind maps, fast.
Which mind map templates are there?
You can choose from templates in the following categories:
Business and Management
Education
Project Management
Brainstorming and Ideation
Marketing
Strategy and Planning