Business Strategy and Planning

Building a Business is Hard - But our Business Growth Packages can Help

Building your own business can be frustrating - after all, it's a difficult process and one that can feel almost impossible at times.

It’s not uncommon for new business owners to feel like they’re working too hard for too little progress or that they’re simply not making as much money as they should be. If you feel like this, don’t fret.

You’re not alone. Business is difficult, whether you’re starting from scratch or already own an established business. However, we can help. We can help you grow your business, helping it become stronger. Firstly though, we need to take a look at why some small businesses fail.

Why do so many SME businesses fail?

There are a number of reasons as to why SME businesses often fail.

Confusing cash with profit, causing the business to simply run out of money.
An inability to build a profitable business model.
Failure to create and communicate, while also not standing out in the market.
Without standing out in the market, price becomes your only competitive advantage.
Rapid expansion leads to overspending and running out of money.
And more...

There’s a wide range of issues that SMEs have to deal with, but perhaps the biggest is a lack of business strategy. After all, how is everything else going to slot into place if you’ve got no strategy or understanding of how to help that happen? Strategy is the key to growing your business safely and successfully.

However, business strategy isn’t straightforward. Financial statements are hard to interpret, while it can be hard to make the big, necessary spending decisions.

This is where we come in

Our Business Growth packages will help you identify what you want to achieve and how you plan on getting there. We work with you to create a concise roadmap that helps build a clear image of how you want your business to look. This is just some of the key work we will do for your business in regards to helping it grow:

Produce up-to-date business management information which will help you understand exactly what your current business situation involves.
Analyse financial trends to help you make better business decisions and improve profits.
Conduct regular review meetings - if necessary, we'll even attend your board meetings as a resource you can call upon.
We'll help you set and achieve business and even personal goals.
Perhaps most importantly, we'll help you identify and tackle the major challenges facing your business.

How our Packages Work

Your business is unique to you. We provide you with a range of options to let you choose the package that best meets your needs.

For each business growth package, we offer a fixed price so you can budget and plan accordingly. Each package can be completely customised to meet your specific needs and requirements. We have three packages available: Business Insights, Growth Optimiser and Peak Performance. In the chart below we outline your options and what each package includes.

Benefits of the Business Insights Package

Our Business Insights Package is focused on reporting. We believe this package is a great place to start as it provides you with critical information regarding your business performance. You’ll have access to real-time data presented in an easy to read format, as well as the ability to set measurable targets. There are six core components to this package:

Initial assessment and set up – We set you up with the LivePlan reporting system, linking it to your cloud accounting software. We’re able to provide real-time financial data delivered through charts and graphs for small business owners. We then carry out an initial assessment of your financial data to gain a better, clearer understanding of your business.
Goal analysis and 1-year sales forecast – We work with you to determine what’s important to you, and what you want to achieve. This stage of the package helps clarify where you feel you want to be. We also develop a 1-year sales forecast for you, but our Growth Optimiser Package includes a full forecast.
Financial dashboard – The financial dashboard is perhaps one of the more popular inclusions in this package. It’a a semi-customisable screen that shows you the key financial information you need to run your business.
Benchmark metrics for your business – You’ll have access to industry benchmarks, which are averages on key financial markets. They allow you to see how your business performs against other, similar businesses.
Business summary (plus web page and PPT output) – Together, we’ll produce a one-page business summary which can be offered to anyone interested in your business, from friends to investors. The summary features your logo, headline and unique selling proposition. The summary includes a PowerPoint presentation, web page and also information on your team and more.
Summary management reporting – We help you set up the key reports you need you need so the most important information for you is a mere click away.

Benefits of the Growth Optimisation Package

Our most popular package, we add planning and forecasting so that you have set business goals to track. Planning leads to growth, and the ability to see a plan versus actual financial data on a regular basis leads to smart business decisions. You get valuable reports to help you manage your business and support that helps you understand your numbers. Within this package, you receive:

Financial systems health check – We will periodically review your finances at a frequency of your choice to look for any errors. Even small mistakes can throw off financial data, making the rest of your information misleading. The health check gives you real peace of mind.
The Lean Plan – A well-written Lean Plan could be the biggest game changer for growing your business. We work together to review the four most crucial aspects of your business: what your business sells, who it sells it to, how does it sell and what does it rely on to make it all work? We work alongside you to determine if your business is on track to achieve its goals.
Measuring the things that matter – Numbers are very important and we help you to identify the ones that matter most, as well as help you measure them.
1-year full financial forecast – Our Business Insights Package offers a 1-year sales forecast, which we transform in this package into a full forecast that takes into account your costs and predicts your profits and cash flows for a fully comprehensive look.
Full periodic management reporting – We can produce a full report for you every month (or quarter) which includes your profit for the period compared against previous periods and a detailed breakdown of each sales and expense category again compared to previous periods to give you the best understanding of your costs and sales trends.
Business review meeting – Almost all successful businesses hold regular board meetings to discuss strategy. In our experience, when businesses start holding board meetings they begin to act like their bigger and more successful counterparts. While this package includes monthly review meetings, our Peak Performance Package includes two monthly meetings of this nature, with more advanced strategic planning.
Access to cloud-based reporting platform – We use the industry leading LivePlan system to give you instant access to real-time information. As part of this package, we pay the subscription fee to LivePlan for you.

Benefits of the Peak Performance Package

Ambitious business owners who want to work with their own Business Advisor should opt for this package. You will receive our rolling forecasting service which helps you understand and plan for the future, while also receiving everything in the above two packages.

Dedicated account manager – You’ll be allocated a dedicated account manager who will work closely with you, giving you a constant point of contact.
3-year financial plan – We build you a 3-year, full financial plan including forecasts for the three main financial statements: profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow. The financial plan is the basis for monitoring and measuring your business performance and for your strategic action plan. The full forecast can also be used with lenders and investors where necessary.
Rolling cash flow and profit forecasts – Forecasting and budgeting help you plan and will give you an early warning signal if you’re likely to face cash shortages. Our forecasting option looks at each of your forecast profits, cash and net assets, giving you a complete picture of how your business may look in the future. It’s such a powerful tool that banks often insist on seeing your forecast when you apply for a business loan. The forecast will give you advanced modelling of accounts receivable days, advanced modelling of accounts payable days and allow you to compare projections against actual results.
Financial scenarios – It’s sometimes necessary to model potential financial scenarios based on potential shifts in business. Maybe you want to open a new location, or consider a capital purchase? Our Peak Performance Package offers you unlimited support in developing financial scenarios.
Prioritised strategic action plan – At the end of our sessions together you’ll have a clear picture of what needs to be done and how and when to do it.
Accountability program: Monthly meetings and your Business Advisor – One key to success is taking action, but this can be unfortunately hard to do alongside the day-to-day running of the business. In order to help keep you on track, we bring in an external person to help keep things accounted for. We will schedule a monthly call with you to work through an action plan and provide support.
Unlimited email and telephone support – As part of our Peak Performance Package, you receive unlimited email and telephone support. Your fixed price is fully inclusive of unlimited email and telephone support for advice on ad-hoc matters.

Our Packages are Flexible

All of our packages are flexible, meaning you can change any number of parameters. You can change the frequency of our meetings, or we can meet online if that’s preferable. We can also add enhancements to your packages, including a detailed Power SWOT analysis where we analyse your strengths and weaknesses. We can create a full business plan including a pricing strategy and marketing plan and so much more.

We can also install a cloud accounting system, which will save you a significant amount of time by giving you 24/7 access to up-to-date financial information and reports. There’s no system downtime as all updates are automatically installed and it should reduce your accountancy fees, while helping you get more value from an accountant.