Advisory
Strategic Business Planning
Have you ever felt…
- You’re working too hard and too many hours?
- The business isn’t growing fast enough?
- You’re not making enough money?
- Business isn’t as fun as it used to be?
If so, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Building a business is hard and being a business owner can be lonely. It’s difficult whether you’re just starting out, or having an established business. Below we will explore some of the roadblocks that new business come across in the first five years of their journey.
Starting out in business
According to research more than half of new businesses don’t survive beyond 5 years. Here are some of the reasons for such high failure rates:
- An inability to build a profitable business model with proven revenue streams
- Failure to create and communicate value propositions in a clear, concise and compelling way
- No real differentiation in the market, which means competing on price
- Emotional pricing – a lack of understanding of pricing strategy; reacting to gut feel and emotion rather than the facts
- Not really in touch with customers and a lack of understanding of the market
- Lack of business and strategic planning
- Rapid expansion leading to ‘over-trading’ and running out of cash
- A lack of systems
- Poor sales and marketing processes
It doesn’t get any easier after 5 years, there are just a new set of problems.
The established business
Businesses that have been established for 5 or more years have typically gone through an initial high growth phase, but then they start to stagnate. Some of the common problems we find include:
- Constant cash flow issues due to the demands of high overheads and working capital needs,
- Slow growth – or even declining sales,
- Downward pressure on price and margins,
- The business owner working too hard, and
- Consistently falling short of profit targets.
So, what is the solution?
The answer is to revisit your strategy, your reason for being in business and what you want to achieve. We want to help you build your roadmap to give you the life you want.
Our strategic planning days and programme will help you identify what you want to achieve and how to get there. We work with you to create a roadmap that gives you a clear picture of how to build the business you want.
This service is for ambitious business owners who want to get better results.
Some of the key areas that we may cover if they are important to you include:
- How to set and achieve your personal and business goals
- How to identify and tackle the major challenges facing your business
- How to sell your products and services for what they are really worth
- How to win more customers - and earn more money from them - than ever before
- How to never lose another customer ever again by making yours the most talked about customer service in your industry or area
Cloud Reporting: Monthly or quarterly reporting, cash flow forecasting and budgeting
Management reports, forecasting and budgeting help you plan and will give you an early warning signal if you are likely to face cash shortages. Our management reporting service is broken down into three packages so you can choose the one that works best for you. This service will give you a continually up-to-date complete picture of what your business might look like in the future. In fact, this is such a powerful business planning tool banks very often insist on it as part of raising finance.