Need help getting your business into shape?
A successful business is never done and is never perfect
It’s a constant process of tweaking, fixing, making tough choices and being accountable for performance.
But when you’re running your business like a boss, life is good. There’s more profit in your pocket, no cash flow stress, less grind and way more fun. And the future isn’t just clear, it’s attainable.
Our business improvement advisors work with clients to tweak, fix, grow and future proof. We give you hands-on help to get your business moving.
Not sure what needs improving in your business? Most often it’s the thing that keeps you awake at night or creeps into your thoughts when you should be enjoying your weekend. Sometimes the problems are clear, but sometimes it times it takes a bit of analysis and experience to figure out what’s holding you back. Have a look at some of the more common problems our clients face and see how we’ve helped.
Bob’s business made $296k taxable income but had little to show for it in available cash. Unfortunately, this assessable income meant a hefty tax bill was looming and Bob had trouble understanding “where all this profit had gone”.
It’s a common scenario whereby profit on paper doesn’t necessarily equate to cash in your account. Paying down suppliers, old debts with the ATO, car and equipment repayments and money pulled out personally by the owners had all contributed to a cash flow scenario where the tax on last year’s profit seemed impossible to pay.
Working together we devised a cash flow budget to ensure money was set aside each month to cover upcoming liabilities. We monitored it monthly to stay on track and reviewed expenditure to determine any cost savings. Bob was running a pretty tight ship so there was little to tweak in terms of money going out so we shifted the focus to revenue. Strategies were put in place with key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure Bob was meeting the revenue targets required to cover the tax bill and future ATO obligations.
Our clients Matt and Oliver were in their third year of running a small business in the hospitality industry. Sales were excellent and the business was growing however they weren’t yet seeing much of a return on their investment. By comparing their business against others in the industry (benchmarking) we were able to identify which areas they were doing well in and where they needed to improve.
Similar to a school report card, we produce a report on the key areas of the business to give a snapshot of business health at a particular time. For Matt and Oliver’s business, the report showed the business as a C++ compared to the industry. We put an action plan in place to focus on the problem areas (red) while maintaining the good results (green). The action plan was monitored on quarterly basis so that we all stayed accountable for improving the business.
Fred had cut back costs as far as possible but was still struggling to make a reasonable profit. To maintain output and quality he wasn’t able to cut back on staff and his staffing costs were in line with the industry average anyway.
We did an analysis of the roles of productive staff versus overhead staff and found that productive staff were doing a large proportion of administration tasks. These role inefficiencies had a huge impact on the productivity of the business as a whole.
Together, we worked on re-defining the roles of the staff and processes so that the productive staff could focus on producing and the overhead staff could focus on supporting. We set up KPI’s for all staff so they could see how they were going which drove their capacity, capability and held them accountable to themselves, their managers and the business. The plan was monitored each quarter with the business owners being accountable for the staff KPIs.
It’s often said that revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is reality. Because cash flow is so crucial to business success, and such a common pain point for small business owners, understanding what drives your business’s cash flow is essential.
Clients John and Jodie were constantly in cash flow crisis mode. They had a heightened interest in controlling it when cash was really tight, but relaxed their monitoring when their bank account looked a little healthier. Most often their focus was on the next 30 days and not beyond that. We did an analysis of their cash flow cycle and it was clear that the amount of time it was taking to turn their product into cash was leaving them out of pocket more often than not. This meant that, in order to bridge the cash gap, they were resorting to overdraft facilities and not paying suppliers or the ATO on time.
We worked with John and Jodie to educate them on what drives their cash cycle, work out what their magic numbers were and develop a cash flow improvement strategy for the business. In their case, two of the simplest strategies we focused on were reducing debtor days and managing the sales pipeline to stabilise revenue.
Not sure what needs tweaking in your business?
We'd love to hear about what's keeping you up at night and work out how to help.
Business improvement services
Taking time to step back and think about your business objectively is a beneficial process for your whole team and gives focus, direction and purpose to your everyday business activities. However, strategy without execution is meaningless so we make sure you stay on task.
We help you develop KPIs for your team and commit to accurately measuring and managing them once in place.
Regardless of where you’re at in your business’ lifecycle, working with an experienced business coach will provide the support and sounding board you need to keep growing and working towards your goals.
A business health check is a great starting point to evaluate current business performance and set goals and strategies for improvement.
Our quarterly meetings are an opportunity for business owners to stay accountable and on task. We review performance metrics, set and manage action plans and keep you focused on the bigger picture.
Whether your plan is to sell, grow, or prepare for succession; we help you manage the factors that contribute to value. Profit is just a starting point. We also work on the less tangible factors which help increase value and result in better exit outcomes.
While you may not intend to exit your business in the near future, succession planning is an important element of your overall business plan. We help you develop exit strategies, make informed decisions about structuring and tax implications and work towards the most beneficial end result for you.
Benchmarking provides insight into how well each aspect of your business is performing in comparison to others in your industry. We help you get insight into areas that need to be worked on, identify roadblocks to competitiveness and develop a plan for improvement.
