Businesses need to regenerate “start-up energy” to unlock growth, to rejuvenate the business. Businesses that have “planned growth” can be great places for managers and team members to work at grasping the opportunities for personal development and growth that a growing business presents.
In Australia there are 2million businesses, yet only:
- 300,000 have $1million+ sales;
- 10,000 have $10million+ sales; and
- 2,000 have $20million+ sales.
Does your business have a business growth culture to grow to a new turnover milestone?
Changes are occurring everywhere at a fast pace. Where do you start at rejuvenating a business?
- Renovate your business’ systems. This is the quickest way to get a competitive edge.
- Identify the important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you require – hourly, daily, weekly and monthly – and ensure your system can deliver these KPIs.
- Analyse debtors, stock, and work in progress – can the systems be improved to reduce investment in these items?
- Analyse creditors – are creditors being paid in accordance with the negotiated payment terms? In some instances, a team member may be paying the creditors faster than what management negotiated.
- Expense analysis – can costs be reduced? Are quotations being sought from alternative suppliers?
- The key strategy should be to tackle one project at a time.
- Determine the business’ health:
- sales per full-time equivalent person
- gross profit percentage, preferably divided into products or departments
- net profit percentage
- debtors’ days outstanding
- stock days
- creditors’ days outstanding
- Compare these figures to benchmarks for your industry – how does your business compare against your peers?
- You need to be receiving regular departmentalised financial accounts and regular cashflow forecast reviews on a monthly basis.
- Customers:
- Do you have a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to record all details relating to your customers?
- Have you identified “A-class” customers?
- Do you communicate with your customers regularly?
- For your key customers, do you measure:
- frequency of transactions;
- average size of transactions; and
- gross profit earned per transaction,
to determine ways and means these key items could be increased?
- Marketing:
- Do you have a CRM database for prospects?
- Does the business have a social media policy?
- Do you have a website?
- Team training:
- Do all team members participate?
- Do you need technology upgrades?
- Do you need skills upgrades?
- Should you apply for an Industry Skills Fund grant?
- Management training – is further training needed in corporate governance, business management and company directors course?
- Risk management:
- Are insurance covers adequate?
- Have you instigated strategies to protect intellectual property?
- Are the business assets and transactions protected on the Personal Property Securities Register?
- Location:
- Is the location still suitable for the business?
- Can your customers park their vehicles in close proximity to your premises?
- Exporters/Importers – are you taking currency covers to protect against currency risks?
- Government assistance for exporters – have you thought of applying for an Export Market Development Grant?
- Government assistance – have you thought of a Research and Development Rebate, Accelerating Commercialisation Grant and a Business Growth Grant?
Every business will eventually run out of “gas”, unless a regular program of rejuvenation is incorporated into the business’ culture. If you would like any assistance in rejuvenating your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
