Business Advisory Services Sydney

Business Advisory Services Sydney – Everything you need to make the best choice for your business.

I have found over the last 20+ years working in Business Advisory that we (Business Advisors) are clear about who we are and what we do.

My goal in this article is to clear up some of the myths and misinformation about Business Advisory Services and help guide you to make the right decision for you.

The unfortunate reality is that anyone can call themselves a Business Advisor as there is no regulation around the use of this phrase. This has led to dodgy spruikers, charlatans, ultimately leading to lack of trust.

You are in the risky position of having to research and make a decision for yourself around who to trust to get help in your business.

Rest assured most of us are honest and can add significant value to your business. Hopefully, this article will go some way to help you make the right choice.

In this article we will try to answer these questions:

  1. What are Business Advisory services?
  2. How long do Business Advisory Services take?
  3. When might you want/need to engage a Business Advisor?
  4. What to look for when choosing trusted Business Advisory Services?
  5. How to structure your contract for Business Advisory Services?
  6. When should you NOT engage a Business Advisor?

 

1. What are Business Advisory Services?

Business Advisory is a massive category of services which makes this question difficult to answer.

I googled for hours trying to find an unbiased independent definition but I failed.

The problem I encountered was that most definitions ended in “provide advice”. But as a Business Owner, I don’t need advice I need solutions that work. Solutions that add real value to my business.

So here is my definition…

Business advisors analyze problems and potential risks businesses are facing and help by providing practical solutions that add value to the business.

To me, the role of a Business Advisor should go much further than just providing advice.

I have seen too many shiny reports with impractical generic advice that just doesn’t help the business owner.

Beware of shiny reports… 

There are many areas of business advisory services the key ones are:

  • Business Operations – focused on growth/scalability, profit, people management, culture, and innovation.
  • Business Strategy – focused on future planning and branding. This is often separated from Business Operations. In my experience, this creates confusion and poorer results.
  • Sales and Marketing – focused on getting more leads and sales (let’s face Busines Owners usually just need more sales)
  • Technology – focused on security and leveraging technology. This must support rather than drive the Business Operations and Strategy.
  • Compliance – HR, Tax, Legal, and anything else that keeps you out of jail.

There are many more subcategories but these 5 cover the vast majority of Business Advisory Services.

2. How long do Business Advisory Services take?

How long is a piece of string?

I have seen Business Advisory Services being offered from just a few days to several years.

Let’s refer back to my definition of “providing practical solutions that add value”.

According to a 2009 study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes 18-254 days for a person to form a new habit. It also concluded that, on average, it takes 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic.

With perhaps the exception of compliance, most other forms of Business Advisory Services will require a change of people’s behaviors in your business.

When you consider time to analyze, come up with a solution, implement, test, and refine the solution to ensure it’s truly embedded in your business…

I would suggest you are looking at 3-9 months for most Business Advisory Services to be effective.

So if you come across a Spuiker offering big changes in a few days – you might be buying the “shiny report” or a story of how it worked for someone else.

Beware of big results that take no time or effort to achieve…

3. When might you want/need to engage a Business Advisor?

These questions are getting harder…

When you engage may be different for each of the 5 key categories of Business Advisory Service but I would say that for all of them – before it’s too late.

Being proactive will give you the best results.

If you’re experiencing any of these:

  • I can’t take a vacation without checking emails and taking calls.
  • I’ve grown rapidly and now I struggle to keep up.
  • I’m in constant “fire fighting” mode going from one issue to the next – I have to solve every issue myself.
  • I’m trapped in the day-to-day business, I don’t have time to focus on growth.
  • I feel like an employee in my own business rather than a true Business Owner.
  • I stay up at night worrying about…
  • I want to take the business to the next level, but not sure how to get there.
  • Everyone in my business is working hard but the returns just aren’t there.
  • I am moving into a new business/product/service area that I’ve been in before.
  • I think my business is doing well but I can’t be certain.
  • I know my business has more potential…
  • I wish things were moving faster in my business

You might want to consider engaging a Business Advisor to help.

They will likely have a framework or process that will provide clarity, and experience that will get you results faster than if you were to go it alone.

Many Business Advisors offer a free consultation. Don’t be afraid to use them.

They can be very valuable to assess the Advisor but also just to get your thoughts in order.

(Tip don’t feel like you are wasting the Business Advisor’s time. These consultations are valuable to the Business Advisors as they help them understand current issues businesses are facing).

Be proactive, don’t leave things until they become overwhelming… 

4. What to look for when choosing trusted Business Advisory Services?

Trust is super important when you are looking for Business Advisory Services.  So how can you trust?

There are some professional bodies that give you comfort. Whilst these bodies cannot guarantee you are working with a trustworthy business, it is in their best interests to have members that follow the rules.

It is important to note that these bodies usually have quality standards that must be adhered to. They often require members to perform continuing professional development (CPD) in their fields.

Some like the Accounting and Law bodies often have a type of insurance to pay damages to businesses that are affected by members who do not adhere to the rule.

Business Advisors that are part of a professional body usually have more to lose than those that are not. This tends to result in ethical business practices.

Being a member of a professional body, unfortunately, does not guarantee ethical behavior but at the very least it gives a 3rd party that you can lodge a complaint with should things go wrong.

You can ask for client references, however, in some Business Advisory categories discretion and privacy are of utmost importance and it may be difficult to canvas existing clients.

It is also important to recognize that no two businesses are the same what worked for one may not work for the next.

You might look at online reviews and other sources (although these are significantly biased and not always real).

My personal favorite is to speak with the Business Advisor directly, ask a bunch of questions. Ask them to demonstrate what they have done and what they can do for you.

99% of the time after a good discussion your gut will tell you whether you can trust them.

Other things to look for:

  • Do they have a framework/process that they have taken clients through? Usually, a proven framework customized to your business will reduce time, effort, risks, and costs.
  • Do their values align with your values? If you do not share the same values it may be very difficult for you to take on their solutions. (I don’t have a “win at any cost” mentality, I have learned from experience that I don’t work well with people that have that mentality).
  • Are they truly working for you or someone else? Some Business Advisory Services get commissions from other sources, e.g. the IT SAS system, or the insurance provider, in these cases, are they really working for you or the best commission?

Check the Business Advisor has your interests at heart, could there be a hidden agenda…

5. How to structure your engagement for Business Advisory Services?

Once again let’s revisit my definition of Business Advisors: – Business advisors analyze problems and potential risks businesses are facing and help by providing practical solutions that add value to the business.

There are a few keywords that jump out here:

  1. Problems and Risks
  2. Practical Solution
  3. Add value

To me these keywords highlight that this will not the same as buying an existing off-the-shelf product – we are looking for specific solutions to specific problems and risks that work for a specific business.

The practical solution may in fact end up being something off the shelf but the questions asked, analysis done, and options faced will be different for each business.

This highlights a lot of places where the Business Owner and Business Advisor must be aligned to get the most successful outcome.

Value-added results should also increase over time.

Because of this, I believe that Business Owners and Business Advisors alike benefit much more greatly from working as partners. Sharing the successes and failures together.

Therefore I am not in favor of engagements that only focus on deliverables and not on results.

I do believe that both parties should be clear that they both need to take action and hold each other accountable.

I am also in favor of flexible profit/equity share type arrangements that serve both parties a much greater benefit over time.

As we saw in the previous question that results do take time, I think it is really important that either the Business Owner or the Business Advisor can exit the relationship in a fair and equitable way should they feel they are no longer share values or can get the desired results.

Ensure any engagement is results-focused, beware of engagements/contracts that only focus on deliverables with no accountability for results.

6. When should you NOT engage a Business Advisor?

I’ve added this for clarity. You should not engage in Business Advisory Services if you will not take action.

If you have nothing to learn and/or you are not willing and open to change you will likely not take any action on the solutions provided.

It can be hard engaging with independent Business Advisors to look at your business. They may find inadequacies that you want to keep hidden or things that could reflect poorly on you and the management team.

However, failure is the price of wisdom, we must get things wrong to put them right. We must go on an open-minded journey of discovery to truly uncover the golden opportunities in our businesses.

Now, of course, you will find Business Advisors that are happy to take your money whether you implement the solutions or not.

But if you are not going to take action it can have terrible consequences.

Once you engage in Business Advisory Services the people in your business will expect change. Many of the people in your business may be experiencing pain from those problems and potential risks.

The cost of not taking action is far greater than just wasting the money you invested in your Business Advisors, it will often lead to losing staff and even customers as they get fed up with inaction.

Don’t engage if you will not take action. 

Hi I’m Brad Horan the author of this article. I am the Owner of Lucrature® – Business Advisory. I really hope this article has been helpful in providing you with some ideas on how you can determine when you may need a Business Advisory Service, how to select a provider, and how to engage with them.

I’d love to get your feedback on this article so feel free to send me an email or message.

If you are looking to partner with a Business Advisor to help your business to grow, to get more freedom from your business with more time and money, please book an appointment or take a look at our Business Advisory Services.

We offer further education on a number of services

4 Tips to eliminate Business Owner Burnout, and Get Your Life Back

4 Tips to eliminate Small Business Owner Burnout, and Get Your Life Back

Burnout happens to everyone at some point or another. It’s widespread among Small Business Owners because of the many expectations put on us.

You are the boss. You are the problem-solver, you should have all the answers.

No matter how difficult the questions might be.

Small Business Owner Burnout is not one specific thing. It’s an accumulation of stresses that deplete our energy, increase negative thoughts, and reduce productivity.

Burnout causes us to lose our passion for our business. This, in turn, increases stress and fatigue. Leading to more burnout! – it’s a vicious cycle.

Luckily there are some proven ways to reduce and recover from Business Owner burnout.

1. Build a team you love and trust

Building a team is not as simple as hiring the right people. It’s much more than that. What makes a strong team is teamwork.

Every person has strengths and weaknesses (you included). Working on those strengths and weaknesses together gives your team confidence to get the job done.

Even when you’re not there.

This starts to create some freedom to reduce Business Owner burnout and get your life back.

2. Delegate the “on the tools work”

Your biggest value is no longer “working on the tools”. Making sure your teams have everything they need adds more value than doing the job yourself.
As a Business Owner, your job is to make sure your team is successful for you. You won’t see that value until you can get off the tools.

3. Connect with the things you love.

You started your business because you were passionate about what you were good at. You wanted freedom, to connect with family and friends.

But the reality of business is very different. You find yourself working ultra-long hours, sometimes for less money, and more stress.

Take the time to connect with your passions, with your friends and family.

Remember why you got into business.

4. Share the burden

All too often I see Business Owners taking on the burden of solving every problem on your own. If two heads are better than one why not ten heads? Or more?

If you have a problem or opportunity, present it to the staff, ask them for ideas and solutions. Let them take responsibility to put the solution into action.

This reduces your burden, whilst energizing your staff, creating a sense of purpose, and building a better team.

In principle these things are simple. But in practice, it can be really hard.

You may feel you are “airing your dirty laundry” to your staff, it feels like you are giving up control, or giving away your secrets, and uncovering all your vulnerabilities.

It is scary at first, every one of my clients is hesitant to start, but we do it together in a professional, and highly effective manner.

Once you do these 4 things I guarantee:

  • Significant weight will lift from your overburdened shoulders.
  • Your energy levels will increase.
  • Your business will make more money.
  • You will have more time to focus on what you love, and
  • You will get the passion back for your business.

Often the first step is the hardest, but once you make it, everyone around you will love you for it (including you).

Business Owner Burnout can lead to serious mental health issues:

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Lost relationships
  • Family tension
  • Money worries
  • High staff turnover
  • Low self-esteem
  • Serious stress-related health conditions
  • Suicide

If you know someone that may be suffering from burnout, reach out and connect with them. If there are health concerns get them the help they need.

Want help?

Lucrature® – is a Business Advisory Service in Sydney. We have a proven framework for profit optimization and continuous improvement. Check out our Framework for Profitable Growth

Other resources you might be interested in:

About the Author:

Brad Horan is an accomplished Business Advisor and Chartered Accountant.

He loves business and particularly the human psychology of business decision-making and its role in achieving success.

Brad has over 20 years of experience in providing Business Advisory services across finance and operations. Early in his career, he recognized that there was a disconnect between operational and financial goals within businesses. This disconnect often resulted in businesses taking different conflicting actions despite trying to achieve the same result.

They unknowingly sabotaged their own business, and in extreme cases, they led to the demise of businesses.

Brad worked with hundreds of businesses over the years big and small, eventually coming up with a framework to drive ownership through all levels of the business. This improves employee relationships, customer experiences, and ultimately reduces work and stress for those managing the business.

Businesses big and small have benefited from Brad’s unique services; Midas, Diamond Pasta, Universal Pictures, HSBC, MetLife, Otis, Transport NSW, Hannover Re, Exxon Mobil, Care Fusion, Cleaning Star, Lonergan Research, Jim’s antennas to name a few.

SME Finance – How to Finance Business Growth

SME Finance – How to Finance Business Growth

Michael Haynes from Listen Innovate Grow kindly invited me to his live stream channel to discuss growth and finances.

In this session we look into a few different ways that SME finances can be arranged to fund growth in 2021.

We are in recovery from a pandemic recession – that means growth opportunities.

Almost every piece of economic outlook data I see is heading north, we are seeing increased raw material costs, logistics, and a shortage of labour here but perhaps more importantly also in the USA which tends to lead the global economic environment.

For SME Financing growth is the most critical task right now. Growth is expensive and if you are not careful it can suck up all your cash flow. I have seen many growth failures where businesses simply ran out of cash due to rapid growth.

Let me show you some super effective ways you can SME Finance – How to Fiance your Business growth.

Watch the Livestream Video

It’s a great session with loads of valuable information from both a finance and B2B growth strategy point of view.

We kick off with a quick review of the Federal budget impact for SME, then got into the Financing Growth discussions.

Here is also the “timestamps” of some of the key topics covered:

8:25 Financial Strategy #1-Borrowing
10:00 Non-Bank Lending
12:20 How to Research Non-Bank Finance Options
14:50 Financial Strategy #2-Inventory and Work In Progress
17:45 Billing Options
23:15 Value-Based Pricing
24:35 Psychology Based Pricing
30:00 B2B Growth Strategy–Influencer Marketing
34:00 How to Identify Influencers
36:00 Advocacy Marketing
40:00 Leveraging Referrals

Don’t forget to share with others that will benefit from this great session.

Want to learn more about our Framework for Profitable Growth?

Cheers

Brad “How to Finance your Business Growth” Horan

Discover more great tools:

Service Businesses – Nailing a More Profitable Pricing Strategy

A Profitable Pricing Strategy is critical to success.

All too often businesses are afraid to raise prices, particularly service businesses with long-standing customers. Business owners are nervous that customers will leave and that is a real risk.

The real issue is that over time costs typically go up and profit goes down. This is not a sustainable strategy!

The Sales & Pricing Strategy Challenge

All too often I see service business owners trapped in an endless cycle of running to jobs making endless quotes and chasing business. Only to find they have been undercut, or are simply missing out on jobs.

There are several issues that are tied up in this approach.

  1. Chasing customers that have a low probability of actually becoming clients
  2. Spending time and energy on quotes outside the customer’s budget (because you don’t know their budget)
  3. Assuming the level of service the customer desires
  4. The whole sales process becomes heavily focused on the cost to the customer rather than the value you provide

Having a cost-driven sales process is flawed…

The reality is that people’s buying decisions are based on value not cost.

A value decision considers 4 key areas: Cost, Speed, Quality, Service

Let’s look at them more closely from the customer’s perspective:

  • Cost – How much do I have to spend? How does this compare to others?
  • Speed – how quickly do I need it?
  • Quality – how much will I use it? How will I look (status)?
  • Service – what if something goes wrong? How much will I enjoy the owning experience?

Are you spinning your wheels with an endless cycle of quotes, and missing out on jobs from others undercutting you?

Do you feel like you are leaving money on the table?

Watch the Video to design your own Profitable Pricing Strategy:

In this video you will learn:

✅ How changing your sales process equals more sales with less effort

✅ How a simple quoting tool will qualify leads and focus on the best sales

✅ How adding buying psychology to your pricing strategy will make you more money

✅ Everything you need to know to design your own Profitable Pricing Strategy.

More of our most popular resources:

  1. How to Get More Money Fast in Your Business
  2. The best way to Measure Business Success
  3. Are you Ready for Growth? – Take the Growth Factor Quiz 
  4. KPI MASTERCLASS – KPI Meaning, KPI Examples, KPI Dashboard, Manage KPI
  5. Roadmap to Recovery – Recession Proof and be a Corona Virus Winner
  6. Business Health Check – Recession Proof your Business

Here to help

If you’d like to learn more about cash flow and how to manage it in your business during these COVID times.

I’m offering a free cash flow strategy session.

It’s 45 minutes.

There’s no obligation.

Feel free to jump on and book a clarity call with me.

Business Advisory – Book An Appointment

Why a Coronavirus vaccine WON’T save the World Economy!

Why a Coronavirus vaccine WON’T save the World Economy!

COVID-19 is having a massive impact on the world economy.

Reports of a deep recession comparable to post World War II.

With almost 40 million infections and over 1 million deaths globally let’s not forget the real impact COVID-19 is having on real lives.

The great recession in history occurred after World War II, which was also hit by the Spanish Flu claiming 50 million lives.

The key factor now is the impact Coronavirus is having on economies primarily due to restriction of movement to limit the spread of the disease.

Therefore naturally if you can prevent the disease you can re-open the, movement of people and ultimately the economy.

Wouldn’t effective treatments also have a similar outcome?….

Why won’t a vaccine save us from a great Depression?

There are 3 key reasons why a vaccine on it’s own will not be the magic bullet every government in the world says it will be…

Let me explain…

In order to “save the World Economy” we need a solution quickly, the longer it takes the deeper governments go into debt and the more likely businesses are will cut staff and/or shut up shop….. leading to more unemployment and ultimately more government spending.

More people out of work means less consumer spending, less sales for businesses, less sales means less tax for governments.

The longer this goes on the more momentum this downward spiral gains and everything rapidly descends into darkness….

In order to “save the World Economy” we need to open up people movement, back to work, back to shops, back to normality.

Regardless of any solution people must have the confidence to get on with their daily lives.

When people feel their livelihood is uncertain they horde their money and time. Productivity and spending are reduced and we’re back to a downwards spiral….

In order to “save the World Economy” any vaccine but have a certain level effectiveness.

This effectiveness (called efficacy in the science world) will directly contribute to reducing spread and therefore boost confidence.

The level of efficacy of a Coronavirus vaccine to allow people to stop “social distancing” was found by a study by the American Journal of Preventative medicine…..

The Vaccine must be rolled out to a significant number of people to achieve efficacy – that takes time.

Let me explain what all this means….

 

By the way of you are reading this yo might also want know how you can win in a recession – check out our article Roadmap to Recovery – Recession Proof and be a Corona Virus Winner

3 Questions must be answered to determine whether a Coronavirus Vaccine will save the World Economy.

  1. When will a Safe & Effective Vaccine be available?

  2. How many people will take up the Vaccine?

  3. What efficacy is required to abolish social distancing?

Let’s explore each of these questions based on the latest information available…

When will a Safe & Effective Vaccine be available?

There’s lots of debate, and even more speculation on just how long it takes to make a safe & effective vaccine.

Historically the fastest vaccine ever produced was for Ebola – it took five years.

Now you could argue that we had already started research for a COVID-19 vaccine before we even knew about COVID-19… What???

SARS (discovered in Asia in 2003) and Corona virus are 80% identical. Back in 2003 scientist went searching for a SARS vaccine, many current vaccines are leveraging this research to get a head start.

Unfortunately a safe & effective SARS vaccine was not found.  The modern flu vaccine took 15 years and we still don’t have a vaccine for the common cold (there are also similar to Coronavirus).

But that was 2003 and we are now in 2020. The world has never seen so much money time and effort go into producing a vaccine. The scale of the current vaccine research is unfathomable.

As of July 2020, there were 26 vaccines in clinical evaluation and 139 in pre-clinical evaluation.

That gives us some hope, but also shows how complex it is to produce….

Update: In record time we have 2 Vaccines approved! 

How many people will take up the Vaccine?

The answer to this one question can derail all other good or great work.

The real challenge here is the differences that different countries and leaders have taken during this pandemic.

The reality is that it doesn’t matter ow long it takes to produce a vaccine if people don’t feel confident to take it.

How many people will take up the Vaccine?

This graph shows that overall 61% of people strongly believe a vaccine will be safe. Great!

Oh hold on let’s look a little closer…

What is concerning about this graph is the divergence in confidence in a vaccine across regions.

As I explore these results I am assuming that people will only get the vaccine jab once they strongly agree that it is safe.

In some of the less developed nations we have 80%+ people feeling safe to take the vaccine.

The real issue is that in the more developed regions like North America (48%), Western Europe (36%), and Australia & NZ (58%) the confidence is quite low.

Currently most of the viable early stage vaccines are coming from these developed regions where there is high scepticism as to their safety….

Remember earlier when we said confidence was a key factor why a Coronavirus vaccine WON’T save the World Economy!

What efficacy is required to abolish social distancing?

Okay, so we’ve got a vaccine, it’s effective, and some people are willing to take it.

How effective must it be before we can stop social distancing?

This question actually comprises 2 parts:

  1. What is the efficacy of the vaccine i.e. how well does it work
  2. How many people actually get the vaccine (hence the last question around the confidence of people taking the vaccine).

We know that Social Distancing is the key thing that has put the handbrake on the economy.

  • Restaurants, Travel, Hotels, Sports & Music Venues, even The Office have their capacity significantly reduced by social distancing.

Therefore the goal of any vaccine must be to eradicate the need for Social Distancing.

A study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that a vaccine would have to be more than 70% effective before Americans could safely stop practising social distancing.

This means both a high efficacy and a high level of up take of people actually receiving the vaccine.

To put this into perspective, the current flu vaccine is 20% – 60% effective now (given Coronavirus is similar in some ways to the flu this is a reasonable comparison).

But there’s some hope. The measles vaccine for example is 92% – 98% effective.

Let’s bring it all together…

So when you take into account there 3 critical factors:

  1. How long it takes to produce a Safe & Effective Vaccine.

  2. How many people must take up the Vaccine.

  3. The high level of efficacy required to stop social distancing.

It is easy to see why a Coronavirus vaccine WON’T save the World Economy!

Or at least why the odds are stacked so severely against it!

Unfortnately tis opens up more questions than answers…

  • Why are governments pushing this low probability solution?
  • Why have we put so many eggs (money & resources) in one basket (a vaccine)?
  • Why are we not also looking into existing and new treatments rather than being so heavily invested in vaccines?
  • What about other general health & preventative therapies for those at risk?
  • What will happen if a vaccine is produced but it does not reach 70% effectiveness?

This is super important if you are in business.

Why because you must make your own plans rather than rely on a vaccine as the silver bullet solution.

What you can do for your business!

There are actually many things you can and should do to set your business up for success in the coming months or years.

In reality these things will make your business much stronger in any economy.

  1. Profit Acceleration – this is one of the quickest and most effective ways to strengthen your business. When done well it skyrockets confidence, staff engagement, customer experience and Cash Flow. That’s a win, win, win , win.
    • If you want to join our 25k Profit Acceleration program to get at least 25k more profit in 45 days – contact us.
  2. Readiness Planning – be ready in your business, it’s simple and effective. We have a great tool to help you.
  3. Regular strategy review  – this is critical in times of uncertainty. I’m not talking about a 25 page report. It’s a simple approach to stay on top of the key things in your business. We have a great planner for you.

Cash Flow Management – this is often overlooked. Staying on top of cash flow is critical for success both during tough times and during high growth. (Tip: Profit Acceleration is a great tool here too).

Want someone to talk to about your business Book a Free Consultation.

How to get More Money Fast in your business

Need to get More Money FAST in your business?

I’ll show you how…

Watch the video and/or read below:

(You might also want to check out Roadmap to Recovery – Recession Proof and be a Corona Virus Winner)

Cash Flow is King, Queen and everything in between.

There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world right now and in times of uncertainty.

With COVID-19 we expect ups and downs. The trick is to capitalise on the ups and weather the downs.

Unless you can predict these waves with accuracy you need to know which techniques you can use to get More Money Fast.

Now is the time for businesses to focus on cash flow because that’s what’s going to give you that little bit of extra security to get you through any down period.

There are many techniques and approaches to mange your cash flow we will focus on five 100% legal and ethical ways to boost your cash flow.

Each approach has pros and cons, short and long term costs which we will explore.

Sorry – there is NO one size fits all you need to decide what works best for your business….

But don’t worry I will help you to decide.

5 ways to Get More Money Fast.

I’ll go through one and explain the advantages and disadvantages. (I’ve saved the best for last)

 

  1. Capital Injection

  2. Borrow Money

  3. Inventory / Stock / Work In Progress Management

  4. Payables and Receivables

  5. Profit Maximisation 💥💥💥💥💥

Let’s explore each of these options to Get you More Money Fast.

Capital Injection

Difficulty level: ✔✔✔✔✔

Speed: 🕛

Cost: 💲💲💲💲💲

Capital injection. An investor or someone else buys into your business.

This is very difficult and time consuming as you must pout together a lot of material, have meeting after meeting to convince investors. It can take years.

Having an investor can add lots of value in many ways. But it’s the most expensive way, long term, for you to get cash now because you’re giving up control, you’re going to give up future profits.

An investor is only putting money on the line because they expect to get a whole lot more back…..

Borrow money

Difficulty level: ✔✔✔

Speed: 🕛🕛🕛

Costs: 💲💲💲

Borrowing money is a great strategy for any business if it’s used the right way.

To borrow money to invest (i.e. get a benefit) is a great way to go.

But if you’re borrowing money, just to pay the bills, you end up with interest charges on top of the bills and it just gets harder and harder to pay…. This can harm your cash flow rather than help it.

However borrowing money is cheapest it’s ever been.

Use this strategy where you get an advantage e.g. borrow and pay early to get a discount if I can borrow at 5% (per year) and get a 2% discount every month (24% per year) to pay early. – This gives you a clear wining borrowing strategy.

Inventory / WIP Management

Difficulty level: ✔✔✔

Speed: 🕛🕛

Cost: 💲

Inventory, Stock, Work in Progress management is a fairly quick and extremely effective method of getting more money back in your bank.

For service businesses, it’s work in progress. Any work you’ve done but not yet billed.

For non-service businesses it is whatever you have sitting around that you haven’t yet sold. – the products that are sitting on the shelf.

This is real money sitting idle – it’s money but not in your bank.

You really want to strip this down to a bare minimum, there’s lots of strategies and ways to do that. The difficulty depends on your business model and the types of products/services you have.

Now is the time to focus on managing this area of your business.

Payables & Receivables

Difficulty level: ✔

Speed: 🕛🕛🕛🕛🕛

Cost: 💲

Payables and receivables, payments and receipts is a very quick, cheap, and very easy way to get more money fast in your business.

Once you’ve billed something, how quickly can you get the money in?

The quicker you can get that money in the more you have in your bank, the more cash flow you have.

In recession there is also a risk of people that owe you money not being able to pay. Keeping in front of your customers by making it easy to pay and reminding them even before its can provide fantastic results.

Other strategies (with various costs) include; upfront payment (maybe with a discount offer), buy now – pay later services, factoring (selling your customer debts to a 3rd party).

When you’re making payments make sure that you’re paying on time. Not early.

If you pay early, make sure you get a decent benefit, e.g. a discount greater than your borrowing costs.

You can pay late but of course that could impact your future supplies. You don’t want credit cut-off from a major vendor. Instead think about the borrowing strategy to get a discount for those vendors.

Profit Maximisation

Difficulty level: ✔✔

Speed: 🕛🕛🕛🕛🕛

Cost: 💲

The final one is all around profit. It is the most often overlooked, but provides the most benefit over time.

The key secret about focusing on profit is that it’s fast, it’s effective, it’s cheap to do, and its the gift that keeps on giving into the future.

Most business owners see this task as too hard because the don’t have a framework to drive profit focused decisions.

But the reality is there are not many levers that you can pull to drive profit, when you break it down essentially you have revenue and you have costs.

And so if you think about that. There’s two key things you can look at 1) Effectiveness and 2)Efficiency.

We have, really interesting formula, the 10 X revenue formula that you understand how much benefit you get from being more effective and/or more efficient.

Our clients easily easily pull out $25,000 – $30,000 profit in 45 days.

Profit Maximisation should be at the top of your to do list.

Here to help

If you’d like to learn more about cash flow and how to manage it in your business during these COVID times.

I’m offering a free cash flow strategy session.

It’s 45 minutes.

There’s no obligation.

Feel free to jump on and book an appointment with me.

Book An Appointment

More of our most popular resources:

  1. The best way to Measure Business Success
  2. Coronavirus COVID-19 BUSINESS READINESS CHECKLIST
  3. Roadmap to Recovery – Recession Proof and be a Corona Virus Winner
  4. Business Health Check – Recession Proof your Business
  5. KPI MASTERCLASS – KPI Meaning, KPI Examples, KPI Dashboard, Manage KPI

How to Measure Business Success

measure business success

How to Measure Business Success in YOUR business.

Humans love scores, we love to know how we compare to others. Just look at exams, sports, employee evaluations, even surveys.

How many surveys do you see that say test your XXXX score (love appeal, beauty, knowledge, etc) I know a few have caught me hook, line and sinker.

It is really hard to know where we fit if we don’t score, it is impossible to know whether we succeeded if we don’t know the goal.

Not sure how you measure up? I’ll show you how…

It can help to use an existing framework to define how you will score – the most popular in business are:

  1. KPI – Key Performance Indicators
  2. OKR – Objective and Key Results
  3. KRA – Key Result Areas
  4. GMH – Goals, Methods, Habits

Some “experts” will say you must use KPI or only OKR work. I believe you must use what you as a business find resonates.

Ultimately they all have the same task…

To translate goals into measurable targets in order to compare results.

They are all designed to help you Measure Business Success.

Ultimate Customer Value (KPI | OKR | KRA | GMH)

The gold is not in the method you use but how well you execute them.

Our clients use the Ultimate Customer Value metrics system with great success.

Customer Value is made up of the 4 proven analytical (non-emotional) response elements built into the human buying decision.

  1. Cost
  2. Quality
  3. Speed
  4. Customer Service

By setting up a goal and measurement of these 4 things in your business it gives you the Ultimate Customer Value advantage.

You can clearly see the experience your customers are having on a daily basis when they work with you.

They also allow you to do some powerful what-if analysis.

E.g. What if we want to improve quality?

  • We could take more time and care to improve quality – what does that affect
    • Time may affect cost and speed, will it impact service?
  • Perhaps we invest in technology to improve quality
    • This may come at a cost but may actually improve speed
  •   Can we improve the process, training, other component to improve quality
    • what areas will this impact.

Regardless of which area you want to improve you can model the expected impact on other key components of the buyers decision-making process.

Check out our masterclass for on developing your Ultimate Customer Value measures. KPI MASTERCLASS – Develop Kick-Ass metrics to elevate Customer Service and Increase Profit

Compare the business next door….

The most important thing is to set your own goals and measure business success against them.

Often we want to compare ourselves to other businesses – this is a trap.

Every business is different. To compare will always be apples to oranges.

As you achieve increase the target of the goal, aim higher, get better.

Get your staff involved in setting and owning the targets.

Have fun with it, prize givings, awards & recognition – you may be surprised how your staff take over and find ways to improve.

Soon your will know exactly how successful you are!

That is how you measure business success!

If you liked this you might also want to check out:

Coronavirus COVID-19 BUSINESS READINESS CHECKLIST

The coronavirus has taken the world by storm.

It’s not the deadliest virus ever seen but it is extremely infectious.

This has resulted in strict quarantine procedures for possible candidates, which has in turn put a large portion of the population out of action in affected areas,

There are travel bans in place and we have seen panic buying activities.

One business commentator said “This is the largest restriction on the movement of people around the globe since World War II.”

Don’t Panic, Plan

Don’t panic we have seen other similar issues in the past, SARS, MERS, EBOLA etc. all of which were more deadly but less infectious.

What this tells us is that the biggest impact to your business is likely to be the unavailability of something; staff, customers, supplies, cash…

Use the Coronavirus COVID-19 Business Readiness Checklist to formulate your plan.  

How to protect your Business from Coronavirus COVID-19 fallout!

There is little you can do to stop the virus, the best you can do is plan to weather the storm.

Lucrature and Jazoodle have been working in collaboration to provide businesses with a series of useful tools to help provide clarity and plan for anything that may eventuate from the  Corona Virus outbreak.

Download the check list CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 BUSINESS READINESS CHECKLIST

Here

Get your business Coronavirus ready.

Download the check list here: CORONAVIRUS BUSINESS READINESS CHECKLIST

💥💥 New 💥💥

How to survive a corona-virus pandemic induced recession. Check our latest article and free tools; here.

Other Tools for Your Business

  1. Roadmap to Recovery – Recession Proof and be a Corona Virus Winner
  2. How to get More Money Fast in your business
  3. Business Health Check – Recession Proof your Business
  4. KPI MASTERCLASS – Develop Kick-Ass metrics to elevate Customer Service and Increase Profit

How to use the checklist:

This checklist is design to make you think about your readiness, any policies you may need to put in place, risks in your business and outside your business.
It should help you make a plan.
  1. If you have a plan compare your plan to the checklist items and add any items that are missing and relevant to you business
    • For each item that is missing of different to your plan follow the steps in 2) below
    • If you have something in your plan that is not in our checklist please let me know by commenting on this post or message me
  2. If you don’t have a plan yet. Please make one. A plan will help put your and your staff’s minds at ease.
    • Review each checklist item and determine if it is relevant to your business
    • Think about possible positive and negative impacts for each checklist item (there will be opportunities brought by the Coronavirus outbreak)
    • Determine the best course of action for your business.
    • Write down the problems you need to solve
    • Write down your guesstimate of the impact it may have on your business (best, expected, worst case)
    • Write down things you can do to reduce the impact.
    • Rate the things you can do by impact on solving the problem and effort (this is a simple approach to assess cost /benefit)
  3. Take step back, a break, grab a coffee whatever to take your mind off it for 15-30 min
    • Come back and rank each of the impacts and solutions.
    • Take the top 5-10 items and formulate a plan

You cannot do everything so important to focus on the key things for your business.

You can use this Checklist in conjunction with other tools Jazzodle.com & Lucrature.com are creating as you read this. But please don’t wait get planning.

Whats coming next?

In the coming days I will be releasing more tools, tips etc. Here is a preview:
  • Risk assessment tool – this will help you assess the biggest risks in your business
  • Financial Health checklist – this will come with no obligation 3 months free access to Jazoodle.com to help you model possible financial outcomes from Coronavirus
  • Early warning KPI – these are 3 KPI you can track to alert you to issues in your business before they happen.

Why be concerned about Coronavirus?

As you will be well aware Coronavirus extremely effective a spreading within our communities. It is not particularly deadly what is all the fuss about?
  • First there are a lot of unknowns which scare people.
  • Second It is highly infectious. far more than common flu and previous Coronaviruses e.g. SARS/MERS (but not as deadly)
  • Third people that are severely affected need intensive care, and may need help with breathing. This combined with the need to quarantine means the use of ICU units – these are in relatively short supply, making it easy for our hospital systems to overwhelmed.
    • The contagiousness of the virus also means that many staff will be unavailable (in quarantine) at any given time (when the Doctor in NSW tested positive over 50 other staff in the same hospital went into quarantine). How can we run hospitals without staff?

Business Health Check – Recession Proof your Business

Your Business Health Check assesses the resilience and robustness of your operations. Business Health Check

Ensuring your biggest income generating asset is healthy is more important than ever.

The COVID-19 pandemic recession has caused severe damage to economies.

Many businesses are propped up by government stimulus. Banks have provided deferred payment options. Landlords have provided rental relief.

All of these benefits WILL come to an end. Sooner than most businesses would like.

4 Pillars for Success

There are 4 key aspects that businesses must have working together to ensure success.

Businesses can and do survive without these but if you want to do more than just survive, if you want to have a true success, these are a “must have”:

  1. Vision, Strategy & Goals
  2. Business Functions & Processes
  3. Customer focused KPI
  4. People Management

The Business Health Check

You go to your doctor for physical, you put your car in for warrant of fitness/service.

But what about your business? It also needs regular check-up and care.

This is the same health check we use with our clients on a regular basis.

The Business Health Check looks at capabilities, systems, and processes across 3 key areas of your operations.

  • Planning
  • Execution
  • Results Management

This automatically hones in on the problem area without wasting any time or energy!

The Check-Up Process

I find it interesting that when I bring this out, my customers often let our a big sigh. I feel like I’m a teacher giving a report card to a naughty child.

The reality is, that this has nothing to do with me, they are holding themselves accountable through this process.

It’s a super simple process to assess yourself.

Simply answer each question openly and honestly. Once all questions have been answered you will get a score in the blue box.

For more information about what your score means register your email and I’ll send you a comprehensive report that tells you how you scored and what you need to take your business to the next level.

You can do the Business Health Check online below or sign up to get the free excel version that you can use over and over and over again – just as my clients do.

(if using a mobile phone turn screen on it’s side to widescreen)

If you need any help with the Business Health Check feel free to book an appointment here.

Register your email for your own copy of the full featured Business Health Check



     

    Other great reading:

    1. Roadmap to Recovery – Recession Proof and be a Corona Virus Winner
    2. How to get More Money Fast in your business
    3. The best way to Measure Business Success
    4. How to Protect your business from a COVID-19 Coronavirus Recession

    Roadmap to Recovery – Recession Proof and be a Corona Virus Winner

    (Scroll down to get your Free COVID-19 Priority Planner)

    On the Corona Virus | COVID-19 Roadmap to Recovery there will be clear winners (and unfortunately some casualties).  I’m guessing, like me, you’d prefer to be a winner.

    I’ll show you how…

    Although I work primarily with Service businesses and therefore my tools and techniques focus on the specific needs of service businesses, this approach has been applied to many industries with incredible success.

    The pandemic driven recession is a bit different to other recent recessions primarily due to the extended period of uncertainty that we will likely experience. We have seen 2nd and 3rd waves of COVID-19 around the world which has resulted in further restrictions, thereby increasing the depth of recession.

    It is also likely that governments will not continue to fund stimulus at the same rate as more waves of the pandemic occur purely due to the enormous cost and future political fallout (they still want to be in power on the Road to Recovery).

    As we’ve seen from previous flu like pandemics the virus will mutate, this brings with it further challenges and opportunities.

    COVID-19 the road to recovery will be bumpy and at times may feel more like a rollercoaster, but you are not alone, hang in there and focus on the few key thing you need to get through this.

    Just like any other recession there will be massive risks but also massive opportunities. Be ready to grab on to any opportunities that come knocking! – The Most successful businesses will not just reopen but reinvent…

    Don’t miss:

    1. The Road To Recovery video
    2. The Road to Recovery planner link
    3. I’ve also added a link to a vlog series that shows you how you can develop your strategy for 2021.
    4. Check out our Content-Hub for loads of free information to make your business great

    What to focus on:

    With so much uncertainty and change it is important to be stay focused on what is really important and remove the noise. There are 7 key areas that we have identified are critical to success in the current recession. Forget the rest!

    1. The six key components you need to ensure maximum success as we navigate through the next recession
    2. What keeps you up at night – critical to give you the confidence you need to move forward
    3. Cash flow matters – critical to success in uncertain times
    4. Innovation – critical to get and stay on top
    5. Communication – in our new world this may have the biggest impact on your business
    6. Opportunities – discovering and assessing ability to exploit opportunities is the key
    7. Well Being – surprisingly important in current times

    Watch the 3 min video below to learn more.

    After watching the video keep reading to learn how to recession proof your business.

    How can you ensure your business wins?

    I’m about to give you all the tools you need to beat the competition.

    Best of all because I believe in the KISS (keep it simple stupid) method anyone can do it for their business.

    So how bad is it?

    SCOMO (the Australian Prime Minister) calls it “The recession we didn’t have to have”.

    I don’t agree,  as I posted back on 11 March:

    As you can see I thought there were already cracks in the economy and had a high probability of a recession.

    IT IS BAD!

    Take a look the major headline and the statistics that go with it.

    Worst recession in 100 years.

      • I don’t know about 100 years, but it is certainly much much worse globally than the 2009 Global Financial Crisis (GFC).
      • 3000% greater reduction in GDP (global production) is expected.
        • See the following from the IMF website
    • Unemployment is a major indicator of economic health. Although the numbers are bad, it is not uniform
      • Globally it has been estimated that we have over 350,000,000 job losses from COVID-19 whereas the number was around 25,000,000 during the GFC. (I heard this statistic from a call with global business leaders but have yet been able to verify it).
      • In Australia during the 1990’s recession unemployment peaked at 11%, now we are sitting right around 7.1%. Ahh so maybe we are ok…? Ahhh well… There are some catches:
        • 6.6 million Australians (estimated) are on Job keepers, who might otherwise be unemployed. They are counted as employed.
          • What will the end of reduction of Job Keeper look like? 
        • Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that “unemployment rates have become successively higher with each economic downturn”. (Also jobs don’t fully recover…)
          • This indicates that based on history the worst is yet to come…
        • Under-employment sits at 13.1% that means these people are employed but with reduce wages.  Unfortunately this stastictic is relatively new so we don’t know what it looked like back in the 90’s

     

    What do all these numbers and graphs really mean?

    Essentially what all this tells us is that the current state is very bad. The worst that anybody currently working in a job or has a business has ever seen.

    It is significantly (10 times) worse than the GFC and likely worse than the 80’s/90’s recessions.

    Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

    But there is hope.

    There is history and history tells us that we can get through it and there are some specific things you can do to protect your business to ensure your come out a winner.

    Watch the Roadmap to Recovery 3 min video to learn how.

    This simple priority planner brings all the key strategic, financial, customer, staff, and well-being focal points into a simple 2 page plan.

    It should be updated and revisited regularly. You can use for yourself personally, your whole business or for each key business department/function.

    It’s simple but powerful!

    Get your free copy of the Corona Virus | Roadmap to Recovery Priority Planner, make sure you come out a winner:

    Roadmap To Recovery Priority Planner V1.0

    Download the planner to use in your business today. It’s free, no obligation no sign-up. It’s a simple 2 page plan.

    It is your plan, feel free to adjust it, change it to specific things in your business and life, make it your own. Use this plan with your managers and staff, let them adjust it for their needs.

    The key thing with any plan is motivation, when someone is engaged in the planning process and writes their own plan they are more likely to hold themselves accountable and ultimately achieve against it.

    This plan is for you, make the most of it!

    Want some help ensuring your business is on the winning side?

    I am opening up my calendar to support businesses. If you want help to understand and/or apply these tools to your business. Please book a 45 min phone meeting with me here.

    Book An Appointment

    Recession-proof Your Business

    In good times and in bad there are some things you can do in your business to ensure your prosper no matter what the conditions are.

    1. Create and Live your Vision – this is critical. The vision sets the scene for decisions made in your business.  These serve as the “house rules” that help people choose right over wrong.
      1. Learn how to create your vision & strategy here.
    2. Design deliberate Business Processes – these are the engine room of your business. They must fit your Vision and easier they are to follow the better they are. Business processes are happening with or without you… Make it with you.
      1. We have some great articles about setting up your business processes here.
    3. Measure – you only “manage what you measure”. There are some rules around measuring your business. My absolute No.1 rule is make then Customer Focused.
      1. Get our Ultimate Customer Value KPI Masterclass here.
    4. Actively Manage your business – this is not for your to do it is for you to manage. You didn’t build your business to work 100 hrs a week. You don’t need to if you have the right people management framework in place.
      1. Learn more about Active Management here.

    Create your Roadmap to recovery today!

    More Corona Virus | COVID-19 Free tools:

    Free Downloads:

    Make your business a winner with our proven  Corona Virus | COVID-19 Roadmap to Recovery Planner

    COVID-19 Road to Recovery

    FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):

    Will this work for my business?

    • Yes. The concepts addressed in this article are tried and true business and management techniques. They have been around for decades – and with good reason – they work.

    Do I need special IT systems or knowledge to use your Roadmap to recovery planner?

    • We use Excel and have built this planner in Excel however you can use a PDF versions and print a hard copy, if you are a google user you can usually open Excel files and convert to google sheets. If you have any issues just reach out to me.  (If using a hard copy you may need calculator…)
    • This is a simple planner and I don’t think you need any specialised knowledge, but you may need to apply some thought to some areas if you have not considered them before.

    If I have questions about this article how can I get them answered?

    • I love questions particularly difficult ones. Please feel free to reach out to me using the contact us form or connect with me on LinkedIn and we can chat.

    What happens if I download the planner but need some help?

    • Great if yo need help that means you are taking action. I love helping action takers. Reach out me via our contact page, or simply reach out to me via LinkedIn for a chat. I’m also offering a free call to anyone that gets “stuck” book a call with me here (they are 45 min slots but we can finish early).

    Why are you giving away great content for free?

    • I am passionate about helping businesses achieve their goals. I strongly believe that in most cases great advice comes at great expense, however, I am working hard to bring costs down by leveraging technology and new approaches. Despite this I recognise not everyone is ready or in the financial position to use my paid services. However, if I help you now hopefully you will see the value and join me when you are ready.