Business owner/operators are often overwhelmed by the daily challenge of fierce competition, a difficult economic environment and having enough resources to weather soft periods.
“Show me the money”
Leaders often ponder, “How do I get my business to a better place”. If invited, specialized outside eyes would ask a series of questions to identify, analyze and prioritize much of what you already know. The real value comes from the proposed strategy, actions and implementation that emerge from those discussions. Value added actions are integrated into urgent meaningful implementation plans with a significant return on investment. These are lofty words that encompass what a tune up or a more intensive business turnaround does.
“How is it done?”
a. Examine all areas and create
a prioritized inventory of deliverables.
b. Apply aid on strategic areas in a sequenced orderly fashion
c. Coaching & mentoring on corporate best practices learned from the most successful companies.
The key word is “implementation”.
Knowing what to do and effectively doing it are two different things. We often don’t have all the skill sets, time or the patience to effectively run all aspects of our business and quickly make these critical adjustments.
“Bottom line”
Why not periodically seek out outside eyes and listen to their diagnosis. Ultimately you, the owner/manager, have the ability to accept or dismiss the strategy they might propose.
Just a Few Areas to Examine:
- Customer Relations, internal & external communication process, lead management, cycle times, customer satisfaction, customer centric activity
- Management, planning, personnel, duplication& redundancy, organization, training
- Control, measurement, cost cutting, budgeting, credit, collections, vendor relations, purchasing technology, software
- Operations, flow, space utilization, value, lean, processes mapping, performance improvement
- Finance, re-financing, restructuring debt, banker relations, optimizing cash flow, grants, tax credits
- Sales, marketing activity, brand, market research, advertising effectiveness
