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To comment on a blog, please email info@thebusinessconsultants.co.uk 08/08/08 - BUSINESS PLANS Many businesses develop a business plan and stick it in a filing cabinet and do nothing with it. Does this sound familiar? It's probably more important than ever at the moment to have a business strategy that is up to date and relevant to your business, marketplace and competitors in 2008 and beyond. Your objectives should be realistic and the targets you set should be achievable. Don't put high targets down on paper as it makes your plan look good! Each line manager should be responsible for their own part of the strategy and you should be reviewing your objectives on a regular basis (monthly or quarterly Board Meetings are a really good place to start). Don't be afraid to update the plan and keep it relevant to market conditions. So here's a quick checklist: - keep it updated - objectives are realistic and up to date - give your managers ownership - review it on a regular basis - challenge it all the time - use it to help structure and guide your business - DON'T BE AFRAID OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 23rd July 2008 - IS THERE A RECESSION ON THE WAY?: The economy is on the brink of a recession in the UK at the moment. Fuel prices are up 30% on the year and interest rates remain high. The UK summer has been a washout so far and the sales have started early. With Christmas on the way, what does it mean for retailers and the consumer? Having spoken to many people in the home shopping industry, it seems like marketers are buying data and printing their catalogues to their original budgets. It also seems that they are continuing to invest in their online spend. But are the sales going to come in as planned? I'm not sure to be honest. I think Christmas 2008 sales are going to be very tight. Some people will be on par with last year, but many more will be down on last year and there will be lots of casualties. That's an unfortunate opportunity for some businesses who are on the acquisition hunt. The best thing to do is look at your marketing plan and put in some realistic sales plans that reflect the year to date. Christmas will come late this year, so hold your nerve. Keep the costs low now and you'll benefit in January. 2008 is the year for niche businesses and new products to the market as consumers want something different to give friends and family at Christmas. Watch out for some really interesting research that we are planning over the next week or so! 22nd May 2008 - MARKET ENTRY STRATEGIES AND IMPLEMENTATION: I've working with some very interesting clients at the moment and I'm advising them on their market entry strategies. One is looking at coming to Europe from the USA and a couple of others are trying to define how they expand their businesses, profitably, from the UK into mainland Europe. It's possible to do, but can be complicated. The EU was always meant to make cross border selling easier, but each country still has its own peculiarities and customs that need to be accounted for when planning a successful launch. Mail order and especially ecommerce make selling to other countries easier, and when a recession is looming it's a good way of increasing your sales if you set it up properly. May 8th 2008 – BUSINESS STRATEGIES: It amazes me that so few companies have a short term business plan let alone a medium or long term strategy to drive their sales and profits. It’s an integral part of building and growing a business and one of the things that is overlooked so often. I went to a great networking event this morning at Halo Living in Altrincham. It was a breakfast meeting organized by the Institute of Directors (IoD). The guest speaker was Charlie Oulton who has built Halo from nothing into a multi million pound set of businesses. Charlie and his brother fell into the age old problem of concentrating on today’s business at the expense of tomorrow. They grew their business and got a huge shock when profits disappeared one year. They had the foresight to bring an outsider in to help them review their business and help the drive it forward. They focused on some key objectives and set achievable goals. They put in a management structure and reorganized the business and then started pushing those managers to not only achieve, but exceed expectations. It worked and they are now reaping the benefits. I met another CEO and Chairman at the same event that has got a plan in place. He is on the acquisition trail as their industry is starting to consolidate. He is able to identify potential opportunities and then spend the time doing the relevant due diligence to see if the fit’s right. At the business consultants we specialise in companies either wanting to sell their business or acquire a new one. Senior managers often don’t realize that there’s some pain to go through before the deal is done. It’s always worth including an outside set of eyes in the process to make sure you’re not looking at the deal through rose tinted glasses as you’re so keen for the deal to go through. April 15th 2008 – THE BUSINESS CONSULTANTS It’s been sometime since I wrote on my blog. Very naughty! I guess I've been spending the time building my business and recruiting clients. Pretty important thing to do in the early days. Building a new business is fun. The time consuming part is finding new clients and other consultants to work with. The ethos of the business consultants ltd is to find a pool of consultants who have different skills and can be parachuted into a business to help with a project. We call it our “Talent Pool”. We’re all about keeping costs down and ROI (Return On Investment) high for our customers. It’s a waste having a team of people coming in fro endless days on a project when they are only needed for one or two days to add real value. Our clients want to see a positive effect on their business and that’s what we aim to do. 19th November 2007 – BUSINESS START UP My new business was incorporated on 2nd November 2007. Since then, I have been busy working on my business strategy, building this website, incorporating the business and speaking to friends and colleagues. My business idea and name was conceived in June 1995 whilst walking with some friends to the student union at Leeds Metropolitan University. Since then, I have been working and gaining the experience to be able to put my idea into practise. I have a passion to help grow businesses. I aim to do it in an open, honest, ethical and professional way. The plan is for me to build a team of like minded consultants from differing specialist fields. |
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