Newsletter – Issue 2
September 1st, 2009
Tip # 2: Take Steps to Review your Business
I hope you put time in your diary to focus on growing your business in the last month. This month I want to give you some thoughts and tips on reviewing where you are today.
To understand the journey you need to take with your business and to help you get where you want to go you first need to understand where you are today.
Many people use that analogy that business planning and strategy is just like setting out on a journey. However it’s not as simple as driving a car to a known destination and asking for directions or reading the map, it’s actually very different.
Chart the course now…
You cannot just step into the business, think about where you want to go and make it happen. Charting a course for the success of your business is not that simple. There are no laid out roads to follow for certain success.
Also you need to remember:
“Success is a journey and not just a destination”
Understand your business…
Think of your business journey as a voyage of discovery. But not a voyage by car, a voyage by ship. The outside elements can easily push you off course. You need knowledge, either personally or among you crew, of how the ship operates, how to set the sails, how to manage the tides and make best use of the winds, and how to navigate your way through uncertain waters.
It’s no good just knowing where you want to get to, you also have to know where you are setting out from and also to understand your current abilities, the abilities of your team and the strengths and weaknesses of each element that make up your ship.
In a car you can follow the signs or your GPS. In a boat, just like in business you need to think further than just the roads you will follow. Following a GPS blindly in business is likely to take you down the wrong path and get you stuck! So, why am I telling you this today?
This issue of the Strategy and Growth newsletter provides more useful tips and tools that you can use to help you fully understand the ship you are sailing and then help you chart your course achieve your goals and ultimately achieve your vision.
Think again…
Dr. Stephen Covey says, “Start with the end in mind.” However, for this issue I am assuming, for now anyway, that you have a vision of where you want to get to. In a later issue we’ll talk again about crystallizing that vision – without it who knows where you’ll end up.
Understanding where you are today…
I have created a series of templates and questionnaires that you can use to guide your thinking to accompany this issue. These worksheets are available for download here – add link to web page or by emailing or calling or create your own.
Give a copy of the worksheet template to each of your team members that you want an opinion from – careful who you choose!
Answer the questions on the template individually – Remember, be honest with your answers.
My suggestion is to review your business in parts according to the key ‘functions’ that you carry out. Below I have suggested a number of points as a starter for you to work with:
Marketing and Selling
- What marketing do you do, how effective is it? What methods do you use – PR, advertising, seminars, email shots, newsletters, exhibitions etc
- How effective are each of your marketing projects. Are you getting the returns you expect? (We’ll be covering some of the methods you can use to communicate with your customers in a later issue – but if you want a list of 101 ways to market your business NOW please go to www.malabarconsulting.co.uk/downloads or email me at downloads@malabarconsulting.co.uk)
- What’s the perception of your brand in the market place? What’s your market position?
- How well do you sell your products and services?
- How many products have you sold this year? How many did you expect to sell? Are you happy with your results?
Operations
- How well organised is your business?
- Does it operate in the most efficient and effective ways?
- Do you have appropriate processes in place?
- Do you follow your processes to the letter?
- Are your staff adequately (well) trained?
- How’s your staff morale?
- Are your machines or people being adequately “utilised”?
- Are you meeting your Quality standards? Always?
Finance
- Are you hitting the numbers you want to be achieving?
- Are you as profitable as you want to be?
- Do you have appropriate performance measures in place?
- Is your Return on Investment what you expect?
- How well managed / organised is your finance team?
- Could you manage with a tax investigation?
- Do you have appropriate controls in place?
- Do you have ‘enough’ working capital?
- Are your invoices paid on time?
- Do you pay your invoices on time?
- Does your accountant understand your business?
As well as these key functions it is also helpful to look at the key areas of your business that support your performance and growth. My suggestion is to score your business against each of these areas:
Resources – Financial Resources; Physical Resources (assets etc); Human Resources – your staff or associates, the management team – what training needs do you have? What gaps exist in your skills?
Experience – experience of running / growing a business of this size; of employing people; in this marketplace; of selling to clients and customers; of introducing new products; in this stage of he economic cycle. Appropriate experience for the future needs of this business
Controls and Systems – related to financial measurement and control, hardware and software systems and quality systems. Does the business collect the appropriate information to make informed decisions? How appropriate is the organisational structure? What quality systems are in place? How relevant are they today and tomorrow?
Ideas and Innovation – ideas that can be turned into profit and for the benefit of the customer (and your business). How innovative is the business? How innovative is the marketing, the service provided, your processes? How do you stay ahead of the competition?Leadership – think about not just the business leader but also the direction of the business – vision, values and purpose. How well is the vision communicated across the business?
While going through this list you’ll find it helpful to make comments on areas that need attention and then to develop actions to do something about it. Knowing there is an issue is one thing – doing something about it is another.
Once you have completed this review you will (hopefully) have a much clearer understanding of where the business is today.
In the next issue we’re going to develop on this enhanced business knowledge to help you understand what makes it the business it is today.