Business Healthcheck

Developing a balanced view of your business

Why a businesshealthcheck?

• Business is not just about selling and making money.

• Successful businesses understand the need for a balanced view

• Includes customer base, staff, processes, sales pipeline and financial state. All are key elements to any business

How to use a healthcheck tool

• Most tools are self-diagnostic

1. Read the following slides and answer the questions honestly. Ask people for their views

2. Identify areas of concern

3. Develop action plans to resolve those areas

Strategy & Governance

Strategy & Governance

• Understanding the direction you want to take your business is core to making it happen

• Creating a clear vision and strategy for your business is the main function of a business owner

• A successful businesses articulate its direction effectively

• Includes staff, suppliers, partner, clients

• At its best, the vision becomes synonymous with your business and brand.

Strategy

• What is the vision for your business?

• Where do you want to be in 2 or 3 years’ time?

• What values do you hold dear for your business?

• What your objectives are for the next year or two?

• Who was involved in setting the vision/strategy/objectives?

• How well do your staff, suppliers and clients understand your objectives?

Governance

• How well does your board support you and your management team?

• How frequently do you meet and what reporting is provided?

• Is reporting to the board onerous? Does it meet their expectations? Is board reporting accurate and timely?

• Are meetings planned and well organised? Do they run to time?

• What succession plans are in place for the management team and the board?

• What skills does the Board have and are there any skills gaps?

Finances

Finances

• Understanding your financial health is paramount to survival for any business.

• Often businesses fail to keep a clear track of their bills, invoices or fail to chase payment

• Managing cash-flow can be the difference between survival and liquidation

Managing Finances

• How successfully are you at forecasting income and expenditure?

• How often monitor your cash-flow? Do you know how to manage peaks and troughs?

• What loans do you have? When did you last review your liabilities? Do you know what alternatives exist?

Financial Control

• How up to date is your book-keeping?

• Do you submit tax returns on time? Have you been fined for late returns?

• Do you have strong audit trails to track money through your financial systems?

• When were you last audited?

Sales & Marketing

Sales & Marketing

• Clearly, sales are the driver to growth and that happens when your sales team deliver against an agreed plan.

• Linking your marketing and sales plan to your overall business plan is a good place to start.

Marketing

• How well do you define your market sectors?

• What market research do you undertake?

• How well do you understand the drivers and blockers of your target customers?

• Do you know what your customers want?

Sales

• Do you monitor your sales pipeline?

• What is the conversion rate between leads and sales?

• Do you have a clear sales process that everyone understands?

• Do you know your cost of sale?

Customers

Customers

• As a friend of mine says, if you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business ... you have a hobby

• One thing to remember: it frequently costs much more to attract new clients than it does to retain existing clients

Customers

• Do you know the number of clients you have and their demographic split (location, sectors, background, gender)?

• How did you attract your clients?

• How much is average spend, how frequently do they buy from you, how long have they been clients?

Customer Satisfaction

• How frequently do you contact your clients?

• When did you last contact ex-customers to find out why they left?

• How do you gauge customer satisfaction?

• Do you get customer complaints?

Employees

Employees

• In many organisations, the highest cost and the most valuable resource are the staff

• Understanding the “health” of the staff is a key ways of assessing the stability of a business.

• Happy staff = productive staff

Employees

• What is the annual rate of staff turn-over? Is it changing?

• Do you have on-going grievances and disciplinaries?

• What percentage of days sickness do your staff take and what are the reasons and trends?

Staff Skills

• What skills do your staff have? Have you undertaken a skills audit?

• How many days of training do you provide your staff annually? Do you know how effective the training is?

• How many errors are due to lack of knowledge or skill?

Performance Management

• Do you have a fit-for-purpose performance management process in place?

• Do your staff have frequent 1-2-1’s with their line managers?

• Do your staff feel comfortable in raising issues and talking about their own prospects?

Next Steps

Any questions?

• If, while reviewing your business, you have any questions, please contact me:

www.pkms.co.uk

paul.kaerger@pkms.co.uk

@paul_pkms

07595 702878