No wonder so many have of them have so little time to “work on their businesses”; exerting themselves by “working in their businesses” instead.  A subtle difference in wording, I know, but those who focus more on the former will succeed much quicker and experience the rewards they deserve.

Complete your business transformation through a change in mind-set
It’s at this time of the year, as the financial year draws to a close, that you should take the opportunity to re-evaluate your business.  Ask questions like “Is there a demand for what I am selling?” and “am I selling to the right market?” and “am I selling at the right price?”

For many of you, it will require a major paradigm shift and also confidence to challenge the “status quo” and ask tough questions, like “what-if….” (replacing the “…” with any question you like).  For example:  “What if I focused more on strategy & planning” and “What if I got someone else to do the stuff I don’t like to do?”.  It will mean you exploring opportunities, exploiting your strengths, eliminating your weaknesses and managing threats.

But by having courage to explore opportunities and become more creative, you can transform your business ten-fold. 

Your business transformation strategy needs to be quantified.  The simplest way you can do this, in financial terms, is to develop a budget for the forthcoming year, showing your income, margins, costs and most importantly, PROFIT!

As a business owner, you may have invested significant capital in your business.  Your strategy for growth will need to translate into healthy cash flows, profit and of course it should increase the value of your business.  Accountants know the advantages of using budgets to manage business finances.  You should use yours to compare your actual financial performance to what you budgeted for and use the results to either take corrective action or exploit what you’re doing right!

Let go and systemise!
To grow your business you’ll need to “systemise” many parts of it.  Document key processes so you can transfer your knowledge to paper and therefore make it easier to train and transfer the task to someone else. 

Start by identifying processes that you hate to do or those that are not making the best use of your time.  Delegate or outsource these tasks, make someone accountable for them and make sure that they understand your expectations and minimum standards.  You’ll then be able to concentrate on those tasks that will start to make you money…such as networking, customer contact and many more.

If part of your business transformation is to expand your business, you’ll need good, documented “systems” so that everyone in your business performs consistently to the standards you set.  

You’ll also increase the value of your business.  Think about it for a moment.  Which would you pay more for?  A “turn-key” business (one that has documented systems; established procedures; consistency, etc).  Or one that has none of these?  It should be obvious.  Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds, knew the answer!

Finally, you don’t have to manage your business transformation alone.  Engage the help of an experienced business transformation expert to propel your business to new heights.

If your business’ systems & structure are solid; you have the right team on board and you have your cash flow under control, there is every chance you will survive a downturn or recession.

At the height of our recession, many small businesses focused on surviving, which is hardly surprising.  Some economic & business confidence surveys have recently shown that confidence is starting to increase for many small New Zealand businesses.

For businesses suffering with “poor financial health” (generally when liabilities exceed assets) recovery and adjusting to market place realities as well as seizing emerging opportunities is not easy.

I have put together these 7 tips to help your business develop:

1.  Stem the flow by immediately addressing any worsening position and seizing control of your cash flows and short term lending.  It begins with you identifying ALL of your cash flows (both incoming and outgoing) and determining the nature of those cash flows.  Where possible, minimise your cash outflows until you have developed a “recovery plan”.  Consider using short term lending as a way of bridging or filling any gaps.

2.  Lead.  Re-evaluate your “people needs” (or “human resources”) and ensure that you have the right people filling the right positions in your business.  Challenge the status quo and ask your staff to prove their value to you.

3.  Focus on strategy.  An essential ingredient to rejuvenating your business is your strategy.  Where will you focus your efforts?  What markets will you target?  What opportunities will you exploit?  How will you resource your recovery or expansion?  If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?

4.  Assign accountability.  As soon as you have decided on your business’ strategies, you’ll need to develop the right environment to make it happen and you’ll need the right people to help you make it happen.  Establish new job descriptions for your team and make them more accountable for day to day results.  Align their objectives (and pay structures) to your business’ objectives.

5.  Cost re-engineering.  Take the opportunity to fully evaluate your business processes.  Look for ways to reduce cost (without compromising service delivery), increase your sales and improve quality and efficiency.  Identify your core business processes and look for ways to run your business more effectively and efficiently.

6.  Debt re-engineering.  List your debts and liabilities and separate them into short term and long term arrangements.  Consider approaching your creditors and lenders and work out if it’s possible to renegotiate their rates or terms.  Consider using short term lending (temporary overdrafts, for example) until your cash flow and profits stabilise and return to some predictability. 

7.  Communicate with key stakeholders.  Regularly communicate with your business’ key stakeholders.  Keep them up to date to prevent them being caught by surprised or off guard

So, as you can see, by making a few minor adjustments to your business, you will have the right platform to survive any downturn.