ABP Blog

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How to know when to get outside help with business strategy

ABP_Strategy

From experience people often leave it quite late to seek outside help. We wanted to provide you with a summary of the key themes and patterns we have witnessed over the last 6 years at ABP.

Here are some of the red flags and patterns to watch out for from over 250 businesses that we have consulted with:

1. Financial Health

  • Two consecutive quarters of static or reduced revenue growth
  • A gap of 40% or more between projected revenue or profitability and achieved.
  • When your “days of cash” dips below 3 months
  • When your biggest client represents more than 20% of turnover

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How Do I Sell More? Ten Top Tips From Daryl Woodhouse

Sales blog image

Sales are crucial in any business. And to grow a business, you have to increase sales. This includes both winning and keeping customers.

It’s not just those with ‘sales’ in their job title who need to think about this. After all, there’s more to sales than simply selling products or services. The way we influence, negotiate and form relationships is based on our ability to sell. This goes from landing the career or promotion we want, to influencing our children to make the right decisions in life. The common measures of our overall success are firmly linked to our ability to sell.

For business owners and entrepreneurs, selling is always a part of their role, as at different points in developing their business they have to sell their ideas to funders, colleagues, and customers.

Some people are ‘natural’ at selling. But even they need to work to make sure they’re achieving what they need to do – not just shifting units but also looking after their reputation. This means keeping their promises, and keeping to high professional standards. This drives customer loyalty, and that means future sales.

Of course, there is no one size fits all – each business has a different profile. But there are steps within selling which will help any business increase sales.

So, let’s look at some practical ways to answer the question: how do I sell more?

  1. First, plan and prepare. The importance you place on selling must be reflected in your business strategy. What ‘mix’ of business do you require? How much revenue from new business and how much from your existing base?
  1. Invest time. Don’t rush to make sales before you’re ready. Your efforts will be far more successful if you take time to perfect your offering and the way in which you market and eventually sell it.
  1. Do your research. There needs to be a clear market need for your product or service, and a willingness from customers to pay at a price which covers your margin and provides some profit. Also research your offering; ensure your product or service is proven and tested.
  1. Have high standards. Be professional. Don’t forget the after-sales process (many businesses do forget). Once you’ve found customers, you don’t want them to walk away feeling unappreciated! If you have a robust system for quality customer service, then your clients will keep coming back for more, as well as endorsing you to others and helping you build your brand strength.
  1. Set targets. Work out the sales figures you need as part of your business plan. Then figure out the sales activity needed to reach those targets.
  1. Focus on your customers. Have a simple means of selecting and prioritising ‘best fit’ prospective customers so that you focus your efforts on those who are the most likely to respond to you. On a case-by-case basis ensure that your research points you at the right player/s in the customer’s decision-making process (which will often not be the same person the customer uses to face the outside world).
  1. Think about the challenges you know your customer is facing, or will be facing. (More research for you to do!)
  1. Clarify how you’re different from the competition, and how you will substantiate this. This is how you position yourself in the market so that prospective customers think of you as the obvious choice.
  1. Before meetings or calls, ensure that your preparation includes: a main objective and a ‘fall back’ aim (what you’ll settle for if you can’t secure your principal objective), and a short list of likely objections along with your response to each of them. Be prepared to ask good (usually open) questions which identify and quantify needs and wants for your proposition.
  1. The most common mistake in selling is presenting too early (making too many assumptions is a close second). Do not present anything until you have noted and understood the customer’s needs and wants and gained his/her agreement that you have understood them via a concise summary.

These tips should help you build and maintain a solid, loyal customer base. It’s always going to be more difficult to find new business than to sell to your existing customers, if they know and trust you. So remember – you don’t just want to make sales; you’re building relationships. Do everything you can to make those relationships work for both you and your customers.

At ABP, all our business mentors have built their own customer bases, and now help businesses like yours to do the same. If you’d like help applying sales expertise to your own business, we’d love to talk to you. We can match you with a mentor who has expertise in your sector and can help you with your own specific sales issues, for example:

  • refining your target market
  • perfecting your sales pitch
  • helping your team improve both sales conversion and average sales values
  • strengthening your customer retention and referral rates.

To discuss the needs of your business, and find out how we can help you increase sales, don’t hesitate to contact us today.

Daryl Woodhouse is a business mentor, author and Head of Strategy & Leadership at Advantage Business Partnerships.

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Is Brexit a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?

Brexit Prophecy image

Cast your mind back a year and you will remember claims and counter claims regarding the consequences of either staying within or leaving the EU. A year later and we have not seen the doomsday scenario of predicted by the stayers, but neither have we seen the Brave New World of the leavers.  Many will argue that it is too early to judge on who was right and who was wrong but, so far, the stayers were right about a fall in sterling in the currency markets and the leavers were right that exports would be helped.

So what does all of this say about the UK’s position in the world as we exit the EU, and what are the longer-term prospects? Judging from the commentaries circulating currently there is too much uncertainty to be able to predict the outcome.  My perspective on this is different. I foresee that the outcome will not depend, ultimately, upon the final position of the Brexit settlement. It will depend instead on the resilience of UK companies and their ability to succeed and to make the most of opportunities in the resulting business environment.

It is because of those characteristics that, in my view, we have not seen inflation rocket, unemployment escalate, the Stock Exchange plummet, and the world come to an end. We all like stability and certainty; that makes life easier to handle and allows us more confidence in our decisions.  That said, when was the last time any of us had that surety? Even if Brexit was clear, the wider business environment is very uncertain: America’s changing position in relation to the rest of the world, China, North Korea, Russia, the Middle East.  Each of these will create difficulties and dangers, but also opportunities.

We are all in business to make a success of whatever it is that we do. We do not expect circumstances to be always in our favour and we adopt and adapt to ever changing circumstances.  Those of us who do this best will be the ones who flourish.  More to the point, collectively, we will not allow Brexit to ruin our businesses.  And that is my point: UK business will not run and hide from the real world, whatever it throws at us.  Instead, we will do whatever it takes to not only survive but to succeed.  That is why Brexit will be a self-fulfilling prophecy – but it will be the achievers who fulfil their own prophecies and not the sooth-sayers.

Garry Smith is a business coach at Advantage Business Partnerships and the co-author of Creating Business Advantage: Setting Up and Running A Successful Business (SRA Books, 2015) ISBN 978-1-909116-43-6

 

 

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Thoughts on the Paris Trade Mission: Optimism and a Warm Welcome

 

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Last month I was part of a two-day trip to Paris from London, representing ABP as part of the Mayor of London’s trade mission into Europe with fellow members of the ‘Go To Grow’ International Business Programme.

The Mayor’s International Business Programme alongside the London & Partners Go To Grow team arranged a very active and quality series of business events and meetings for us with collaborative corporates and supporters of entrepreneurship, as well as high-potential scale-ups in France who are looking to venture and expand into the UK.

Theresa May officially began the Brexit process by triggering Article 50 on Day 2 of our Paris trade mission; thankfully, no one in Paris seemed to hold this against us! The reception we received was tremendous and everyone was incredibly welcoming and positive.  They were excellent hosts, making clear that the British are very welcome in Paris, and reinforcing how much they want to forge closer working relationships with us.

It was also fantastic to see and hear many success stories of innovative companies scaling up in France, along with welcoming firms such as Made.com which was founded in the UK by two French entrepreneurs, and then expanded successfully into France.

Finally, we learnt so much!  ABP were in a cohort from London of 15 scale-ups exploring partnerships and international expansion.  It was good company, and we shared success and failure stories, as well as intelligence on strategic business network contacts.  We also learnt much from the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, VCs, entrepreneurs who have been there and done it before, as well as the mentors and business advisers who were generous with their time at networking events, panel talks and round tables.

Once the trade mission was over, several of us squeezed in a couple of hours’ leisure time into our travel plans to enjoy going to the top of the Eiffel Tower for stunning views, more networking and some wonderful French food and wine.

We came away with a number of fantastic opportunities and meetings to follow up and take our business to greater heights. I’m looking forward to returning to Paris again soon, especially considering it’s only two hours away via Eurostar!

Here are a few points which show how strong the relationship between London and Paris continues to be:

  • London receives more inward investment from France than any other global city, worth an estimated £3.07bn to the capital’s economy, with 11,900 jobs created over the last 10 years.
  • London is also the leading city globally for Foreign Direct Investment from Paris, attracting £2.6bn and 9,498 jobs over the same period.
  • The British capital currently counts over 2,300 companies with a French parent entity.
  • Paris is the largest European destination for Foreign Direct Investment from London. (Data received from The Mayor’s Office)

Everything I saw on the trade mission showed me that Paris is certainly open to collaborating and working with London for business and tourism. We witnessed no negativity resulting from Brexit. Only welcoming optimism.

Daryl Woodhouse is a business mentor, author and Head of Strategy & Leadership at Advantage Business Partnerships.

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Software Development… Where Do You Even Start?

Guest blog image, Softwire

Kicking off a new software development project can be challenging. There are lots of options to consider and often many obstacles to overcome. With years of experience delivering successful projects under our belts, we asked our developers what steps they believe people should be taking before they start a project. They had all sorts of ideas to share but the three main points which came up were: think hard about what you want, plan ahead and work with your developers. So what did they mean?

Think hard about what you want
Getting your requirements together is a hugely important step towards starting a successful project, so it’s important to get this early step right:

  • Try to define requirements primarily in terms of business needs. The fine details of implementation are best fleshed out later in the process, in collaboration with your designers and developers.
  • Try not to make your requirements list too generic, unless it’s strictly necessary. Often very simple sounding requirements like ‘users can define their own reports’ can be very complex to implement and may not be needed.
  • Don’t be constrained by any existing solution! Now is the time to think differently and perhaps the best solution involves a whole new approach. By focusing primarily on your business goals you give the developers room to translate them into the concrete implementation ideas which will suit you best.
  • Prioritise ruthlessly – for each feature ask “if the whole system was ready to launch tomorrow but this wasn’t there, would I delay launching to add this in?”
  • Make sure you understand what your users really want – particularly if your users are customers outside your organisation.
    Note that what they actually want might not be the same as what they say they want – if possible get some hard data from tracking usage or watching how they work.
    And try to avoid “design by committee” – understanding a variety of viewpoints is valuable, but ultimately just one or two people should be responsible for pulling things together in a coherent way.

Plan ahead
It would be nice to live in a world where all projects could be approached footloose and fancy free, but sometimes it pays to be cautious to give your project the best chance of being a success:

  • Allow some slack in your timelines and budgets. Things often change over the course of the project and giving yourself some extra room for these changes gives your project a greater chance of success.
  • Try to favour incremental approaches wherever you can. Releasing partial solutions early, so that users have a chance to test them and give feedback, gives you a chance to create the best solution possible.
  • If you’re replacing a system it can also be useful to have a period during which the old and the new system are running at the same time. This can help flag up any tiny details you may have missed and it also gives people a chance to make the transition.
  • If you’re doing a big marketing launch, plan to run the system for a short while before making any announcements so that it’s been tested by real users.

Work with your developers
When it comes down to it, it’s your developers who are going to be responsible for the delivery of a successful project. Involving your developers from the early stages is important:

  • Whether it’s in-house or third party you should consider getting some expert help to define your requirements. Your developers will be able to help you identify the things which really matter and eliminate risks early on in the process.
  • Get some help with design and UX and don’t leave it until last. The quality of the visual design and ease of use can have a massive impact on user engagement when you launch. You might want to consider commissioning user workshops with a UX professional to map out the most engaging journey.
  • If you’re inviting proposals you’ll get much more satisfying results if you help the developers to do a good job. Give them as much relevant information to work with as possible and tell them what matters to you most, so that they can focus on it when responding.
  • Stay engaged once your project starts. The best results come from projects where there’s a constant flow of ideas and discussion over the course of the project between developers and customers/product owners.

We hope you’ve found this useful! Look out for more guest blogs from our partners, Softwire, in the future.

(This blog was previously published by Softwire at www.softwire.com.)

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How’s It Going, My Old China?

China blog image

All the talk about the Hinkley Point negotiations has made me reflect on my experiences of doing business in China, and how business and technology have developed in that country in such a short space of time.

I first went to China in the 1990s to negotiate the sale of a manufacturing line and the resultant product in a place called Cheng Du.  Thomas Cook did not go there, and I soon found out why. It was cold and wet and I felt miserable with my surroundings but it was more than balanced by the friendliness and warmth of the people – until they were sat the other side of the negotiation table. They were tough negotiators!  Clearly, they were determined and very ambitious.

My next experience was a few years later in Wu Hu.  Not a dissimilar experience to the first, except that as well as the same degree of ambition, there was a remarkable shift in the knowledge base. My subjective experience was that the Chinese were learning new skills and gaining new understanding both in business and technology. And they were fast learners.

Roll on to the current century and I returned to Wu Hu.  The town was transformed almost beyond recognition, all because the original factory, which built engines, was now a fully capable car manufacturing factory, with superbly skilled staff.  The owners of the factory had set about recruiting Chinese National automotive engineers from the US and Europe, where they had studied and gained experience with the best automotive companies in the world.  What I witnessed was a complete understanding of what they were doing, how they did it, and a constant focus on improvement.  Their attention to detail on all components and assemblies was as accurate as I have seen anywhere.

There were still inconsistencies. My next stop was Quongqing: the strangest thing I saw was a manufacturing line that produced components to a tolerance of two microns and then threw them on the floor before the next process!  But I’ve followed their progress and I know that company are now making the complete product and holding the tolerance all the way through.

It seems to me that the most important thing the Chinese were doing was taking every opportunity they could to learn, whether this was from the usual training routes at home and abroad, from nationals returning from other countries with new knowledge, or simply from their contact with those who had knowledge they might need, including our business negotiations. Yes, in negotiating I think we shared information that was probably more valuable than the bits and pieces we sold them.

Also, they learnt from their mistakes. And that means not being afraid to make mistakes every now and then – another valuable lesson we should all bear in mind. To learn, make progress and succeed, you have to be ready to accept and deal with the occasional wrong turn.

As we all know, the progress of Chinese industry and technology has been remarkable. I now know of Chinese-owned high tech companies operating in the UK that sell their products back to China.  In 25 years China has progressed from being a nation of technology buyers for internal consumption to a producer of high tech for international consumption. I wonder what I’ll see on my next visit. I’ll probably learn a thing or two.

 

Garry Smith is a business coach at Advantage Business Partnerships and the co-author of Creating Business Advantage: Setting Up and Running A Successful Business (SRA Books, 2015) ISBN 978-1-909116-43-6

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The New Apprenticeship Levy: What Do You Need To Know?

Apprenticeship Levy blog image

Are you prepared for the new apprenticeship levy? We’ve gathered together the key points you need to know.

What is it and when does it come into force?

The government are introducing an apprenticeship levy which requires all employers operating in the UK, with a pay bill of more than £3 million each year, to make an investment in apprenticeships. This will be introduced in April 2017. The resulting funding will be made available to support the development of apprenticeships.

The government’s declared aim is to increase the quality and quantity of apprenticeships and to achieve 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020. (You can read the full document or the Executive Summary, published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, here. This document relates to England, as this is a devolved policy and so far details of how the funding will be used have only been published regarding England.)

Even if you don’t have to pay the levy, the new plans are likely to change the way you advertise apprenticeship vacancies, choose training providers and select apprenticeship standards.

Who will pay and how much?

If you’re an employer in the UK with a total pay bill in excess of £3 million, you’ll be required to pay an annual levy of 0.5% of your annual pay bill. You’ll then have a levy allowance of £15,000 per year to offset against the levy you must pay, which might mean you have nothing to pay. Here are the examples which HMRC provide to show how it works:

Example 1: an employer who would pay the levy

An employer with an annual pay bill of £5,000,000:

  • levy sum: 0.5% x £5,000,000 = £25,000
  • subtracting levy allowance: £25,000 – £15,000 = £10,000 annual levy payment

Example 2: an employer who would not have to pay the levy

An employer with an annual pay bill of £2,000,000:

  • levy sum: 0.5% x £2,000,000 = £10,000
  • subtracting levy allowance: £10,000 – £15,000 = £0 annual levy payment

And it’s worth noting that the requirement extends to any connected companies, or charities, with smaller pay bills. If you think this might apply to you, you should probably start checking on the status of all the companies involved and get all the liabilities clear in advance. As for the allowance, where a group of employers are connected they will only be able to use one £15,000 allowance.

You may already be part of a levy system, or other collective training arrangements. But be aware that, even if you already contribute to one of these, you’ll still need to pay the apprenticeship levy.

How will payments be made?

The apprenticeship levy will be paid to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) through the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) process. The levy allowance will operate on a monthly basis and will accumulate throughout the year. Any unused allowance will be carried from one month to the next. And be aware of your tax allowances – any apprenticeship levy payment to HMRC will be allowable for Corporation Tax.

How will you then access the available funding?

(This relates to England – as mentioned above, this is a devolved policy and so far only England has published details of how the funding will be made available.)

Once you have paid the apprenticeship levy to HMRC, you can access funding for apprenticeships through a new Digital Apprenticeship Service Account. You can use this to pay for training and assessment for apprentices (in England). The service will also help you find training providers to help you in developing and delivering your apprenticeship programme.

You’ll be able to register and create your account from January 2017 and then levy-paying employers will be able to use the service to pay for the training and assessment of apprentices from April 2017.

HMRC will calculate how much you’ll have to spend, based on the levy you’ve paid, and funds will appear each month in your digital account. The good news is that HMRC will also apply a 10% top-up to the funds you have for spending on apprenticeship training so for every £1 that enters your digital account you’ll actually get £1.10.

Don’t forget to spend it! Funds will expire 18 months after they enter your digital account unless you spend them on apprenticeship training.

What else will the Digital Apprenticeship Service Account do?

Whether you pay the levy or not, the digital apprenticeship service will help you to:

  • select an apprenticeship framework or standard
  • choose the training provider or providers you want to deliver the training
  • choose an assessment organisation
  • post apprenticeship vacancies

From April 2017, if you pay the levy you’ll also be able to:

  • see the funds you have available to spend in England
  • set the price you’ve agreed with your training provider
  • pay for apprenticeship training and assessment through the digital apprenticeship service

By 2020, all employers will be able to use the digital apprenticeship service to pay for training and assessment for apprenticeships.

Can you direct funds to other employers?

You may want to direct funds to another employer, for example someone in your supply chain. This is still under consideration – see Gov.UK for the latest updates, along with information on pooling funds with other employers in a group structure, and details of how the levy applies for Apprenticeship Training Agencies.

If you don’t have to pay…

If you don’t pay the apprenticeship levy, you’ll still need to use the digital apprenticeship service to pay for apprenticeship training and assessment but this won’t be until at least 2018.

What do you need to do now?

Get ready.

  • You can start now on the calculations to see how this will affect your business. Make sure you include your corporation tax relief and a potential overall reduction in your training costs through the funding you’ll receive.
  • Make sure your payroll data is up to date so you’re ready to access the levy funds for qualifying employee training.
  • Make sure your HR and payroll staff are fully informed and prepared.
  • And you may want to think about expanding your current apprenticeship schemes, or even possibly converting roles into apprenticeships.

And if you need some advice, get in touch. We can help you plan ahead and, if there are opportunities here to reduce your costs and increase your gains, we’ll help you find them.

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The Top 5 Positive Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs

Blog image, Top 5 Traits

Having worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and met well over a thousand of them in the last 15 years, I’ve noticed several trends which separate the good from the not so good.

I’ve met very few entrepreneurs who are both respected by those around them and deemed successful.  Success can mean many things, so for this article, let’s say we’re talking about those in the 20% of UK businesses that are still trading five years after they started out.  Let’s be even bolder than that and define successful entrepreneurs as those who’ve been increasingly profitable over a minimum of five years and have built a team who respect them and can innovate and run the company without the significant involvement of the founder(s) in day-to-day business activities.  Sounds easy, and sounds like you, right?

Such successful entrepreneurs will probably be on good terms with the public and the press as well as with other key stakeholders: suppliers (including advertisers), investors and customers, where relevant. And in my experience they all have certain characteristics in common. But first, let’s look at the others.

Many entrepreneurs whom I have met, who have not yet become successful against the above description, tend to be one of the following types:

  1. ‘Go big or go homers’ – these ambition-fuelled beings are often seen lobbying for large and regular injections of cash with minimal tangible progress to show since their last attempted fundraising campaign. They typically do not spend enough time building realistic business forecasts backed by solid focused actions to grow their business in a calculated and sustainable manner.  The reality is they treat cash as a quick answer rather than a valuable tool or stepping stone to a greater return.
  2. ‘Talk a good gamers’ – they can sell ice to eskimos, but that’s about it! These types often lack substance behind their charm, tales of grand success and over-confident persona.
  3. ‘New idea’ addicts – these entrepreneurs are great at new business ideas, but struggle at sticking to one idea long enough to finish the task and prove it was a good one with any viability. They lack focus and tend to have a new venture every time you spot them in your social media feed or on the networking circuit.
  4. ‘Know it all’ syndrome – many of these have not run a successful business before, nor gained a qualification relevant to their business nor managed people before. But they believe (or appear to believe) that they are naturals and can do it better than anyone. They tend to not listen to good advice when it smacks them in the face.
  5. ‘In denial about their idea’ disorder – these entrepreneurs are so excited and bought into their own idea that nothing or no one can tell them otherwise, not even the compelling and factual market research which they haven’t done.
  6. ‘If it costs I ain’t buying’ complex – such aspiring business owners are great in terms of being conservative and frugal in their spending habits. However, they haven’t realised that many good and useful things in life are not free.  It’s good to be frugal, but to accommodate success and its accompanied wealth you must take calculated risks and spend.  My rule is this: if it’s likely to bring a greater perceived or forecasted return than the cost, then it needs to be seen as an investment and not a cost – in other words, just do it!

If you have any of these traits: think, beware (of yourself) and seek honest, professional business help!

The Five Temptations of a CEO by Patrick Lencioni are very much worth bearing in mind here. They remind us not only of positive ways to lead, but also of the traps we can fall into.

And now, here are the five positive traits I have seen consistently in the most successful entrepreneurs:

  1. Humility – if you have this then you know your limits and aren’t afraid to admit it. You are confident but not too confident.  You plan ahead and recruit to your weaknesses and seek professional, credible advisors who have been there and done it.
  2. Calculated risk taking – if this is you, then you see opportunity, weight up the pros and cons, plan how to capitalise on it, and if still positive then you invest with confidence in a future return. You do the market research, credibility checks and piloting before launching in every country globally.
  3. Time mastery – you place high value on the time of yourself and those around you. You delegate rather than abdicate and are an effective forward planner, maximising output from the time and efforts of yourself and others in a calculated, organised manner.
  4. Influence – you really value your people. All people. Customers, employees, business partners, suppliers, advisers, investors, friends and family.  You inspire and empower those around you with leadership by example.  You’re seen as an effective and inclusive communicator.  Those who work with you feel that their ideas and views are valued with the potential of clear reward such as progression within the organisation.  Your colleagues value your open door policy and skill for rewarding those most loyal supporters.
  5. Action takers – if you are one of these then you talk a good game and deliver to win the game. As an excellent communicator, you rarely miss good opportunities, and always under-promise to over-deliver, never to disappoint those around you.  That’s why they keep working for you, buying from you, giving you supplier discounts, and recommending you.  This is my core reason to explain why you are respected and successful.

Looking at all these descriptions, of the good and the not so good, I think perhaps the most important skill any of us can learn is objectivity about ourselves. To learn from those we’ve met, whether we want to emulate them or the opposite, we have to be honest with ourselves about our own personality style and behaviours. If you can look at yourself and realise that you’re suffering from, for instance, ‘know it all’ syndrome, then you can start to move towards a more constructive way of looking at your ideas and your business. (The Johari Window is a very helpful exercise for this.) And my five positive traits are things which we should probably all work on, even if they come naturally.

Recognising your own style is the first step towards becoming one of the truly successful I’ve described – and that doesn’t only apply to your business.

Daryl Woodhouse is a business coach and the founder of Advantage Business Partnerships. He is also the co-author of Creating Business Advantage: Setting Up and Running A Successful Business (SRA Books, 2015) ISBN 978-1-909116-43-6.

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5 Steps To Transform Time Management For Your Team

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Along with cash, property or people, time is surely one of the most important business assets you have. But do you manage it as well as you could? Here I’d like to share my first five steps to better time management, for business owners and those employed by them. But first, ask yourself: do any of these challenges apply to you?

  • You often wish there were more hours in the day.
  • You battle delegation in fear of your high standards being dropped.
  • You wish it was easier to increase productivity and profits without increasing overheads.
  • You avoid being “too successful” to prevent the subsequent increase in responsibility from after-sales service and administration or cash flow issues (e.g. late payments).
  • You feel that the only way to meet your objectives or clear your desk is to work longer hours.
  • There is so much to do that you struggle to identify the best decisions and priorities.
  • You regularly feel an imbalance between recognition and reward against your efforts.

It may be that you need to pause and rethink how you and your team are using your time.  The tips below will show how to apply a ‘kaizen’ (Japanese phrase for continuous improvement) ethos to drive continuous improvement in your business or in your role within one. By implementing the key steps below, you can work smarter and make your time work harder for you.

  1. Understand – take time out to map out all the different tasks you undertake in any given month.  How long (as an estimate) do you spend on them?  Which tasks do you enjoy doing?  Who else could do them if you had an unlimited pool of colleagues and what employee grade (wage value) would you put on each task? Look at the total average number of hours you are working each week.  Where would you like those hours to be capped?
  2. Analyse – calculate how many of those tasks and the hours spent doing them would be either enjoyed more by another, or where another would achieve a greater output in less time.  Consider whether there are colleagues who are better skilled than you at certain tasks. Think about the cost to the business of your task allocation.  For example, if you are a business owner trained in marketing, but you are doing operational or administrative tasks, then it’s costing your business more money.  Your hourly value to the business could be some £75–£100 per hour spent on marketing strategy, but might now be as little as £15–£50 per hour spent on operational tasks.  Furthermore, a skilled operations manager or administration assistant will probably do the tasks twice as fast which multiplies the increased value to the business. Our teams have found that strategically prioritising and allocating resources in this way can generate a true saving to the business of three or four fold!
  3. Implement – agree who will do what and when.  Discuss and verify what the benefits or successes will look like for each task type reallocated.  Consider and agree any other support required from the changes, making sure the objectives are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely).
  4. Embed – arrange a 60-day check point with those involved in the acquiring or handling of tasks.  How did it go?  What worked well?  What could be better over the next 60 days?  How does everyone feel about their role fulfilment and productivity?  Agree another later review meeting to repeat the above process and keep driving kaizen.
  5. Enjoy – often a forgotten aspect of work in a busy role or business.  Take time to acknowledge and recognise the improved success of yourself and those around you.

By making your time work smarter and harder you will increase the job satisfaction, life–work balance and overall productivity of yourself and those around you.  Analysing and prioritising where it is best to leverage the time of yourself and your colleagues will enable you to value and reward each team member’s contribution. It will also simplify decision-making around resource allocation, creating productivity uplift and leading or supporting those around you.

And how do we measure this? Of course, the value of time isn’t directly itemised on a company profit and loss account. In contrast, business property, rent and people (employee wages, NI, training) directly and indirectly appear in financial accounts, as a cost or asset.  At ABP we have tried and tested a plan which attaches monetary values to the different and multiple activities you and your colleagues undertake, so you can directly and more easily form a strategy to get more from your time. This is one way to measure the value of your time, and can help immensely in deciding how you spend it.

It’s too easy to overlook how you’re using this most precious resource. After all, once time is spent, you cannot reclaim it!

Daryl Woodhouse is the founder of Advantage Business Partnerships and the co-author of Creating Business Advantage: Setting Up and Running A Successful Business (SRA Books, 2015) ISBN 978-1-909116-43-6.

The 5 steps given here are taken from the ABP 3E System.  For more information or for a helping hand with maximising effectiveness, profit and staff satisfaction, then do speak to a member of our team on 0203 384 0276 or contact us via www.advantagebusinessltd.com.

 

 

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Business Leaders – How Should We Respond to Brexit?

Response to Brexit blog image

What will be the outcomes for business of the Brexit vote? Let’s face it, no one knows. The dust has not yet settled – far from it. So how should we be responding to what has happened, when we don’t yet know what the consequences will be?

First and foremost, before the Brexit negotiations have even started, let’s aim for business as usual. Nothing changes at this stage and the fundamentals remain the same. Keep working on all the basic good practices as any SME should at any time. But ensure there is a Plan B – all businesses should have a contingency plan (a fundamental good practice of its own!). Your contingency plan should cover many of the possible consequences of Brexit so if you don’t yet have one, it’s time to draw one up.

There are four main areas that are likely to be affected in the short term or at least while the current uncertainty continues:

  1. Currency exposure – any sustainable business should be managing its currency exposure appropriately (you can get help with this from us at ABP, or from companies such as our partners Smart Currency.
  2. Supply chain – ensure you’re not over-reliant on one or two suppliers and always have reserves on the bench who can be used if needed.
  3. Customer markets – you should never rely too much on too few customers in too few markets – diversification is key to growth.
  4. Employees – do assure your loyal staff that you are there for them and that you want to keep them. The rights of EU migrants already in situ are under consideration (though they might choose not to stay, of course) – but, again, we don’t know what will happen and considering all the possibilities should be a part of your contingency planning.

In summary, during the immediate term, reassure your employees and aim to ensure your supply chain and customer base is diversified outside the EU. You might also be able to set some action for how to capitalise on the weak pound which will help with being more competitive in Asia and Americas’ dollar markets.

While we wait for answers to all the questions, we all need to be patient, calm and, if possible, optimistic. Be ready to take advantage of any new opportunities which might arise, as well as preparing for possible difficulties. Perhaps SMEs are in a better position than larger businesses, as they can adapt and change more quickly. And meanwhile, we all need to stay focused on the core principles of good business and work activities while we ride out any storms.

All in all, we are where we are. It is of no use wishing we were somewhere else and that it wouldn’t be like this if the result had gone the other way.  It didn’t and nobody has any influence to change it.  So accept that the game has changed and respond actively to the new situation. Your success depends upon being successful in the current and future circumstances.

So keep calm and carry on…

If you think you might benefit from some advice from an experienced business mentor at this uncertain time, do give us a call to discuss your situation and find out how we can help. Call us on 0203 384 0276 or contact us online.

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