Utilising best practice techniques developed by the
world’s most successful strategic consultancies
and drawing on our vast experience of working closely
with growing businesses, we are able to provide and implement
workable, proven solutions for business growth.
- Strategic Planning and Business Direction
We work alongside you to identify the goals for your business and also
the steps you need to implement to achieve your objectives. We help
by creating a clear idea of the financial and lifestyle benefits available,
we help with the implementation and monitor your success along the way.
Going through the process helps you to see the business from a diffrent
perspective with the main output being a clear plan of action stating how together
we can take advantage of your obvious strengths and improve sub optimal performance.
Our indepth approach breaks down your business into external opportunities
and threats affecting the business. We then look at the internal strengths and
weaknesses of your business and break this into areas such as organisational
strategy and structure, products and services, sales & marketing, people,
finance, systems and culture.
- Marketing Your Business
The goal is to turn your prospects into profitable
customers by targeting the most desirable sectors of your prospect
base and executing cost
effective marketing programmes that convert them into customers.
We identify your target markets and put together an acquisition campaign
for each segment and then measure the results. Our focus is on action
and measurement of success.
- Planning for Succession
You should have a clear idea of how you intend to sell or pass
on the business, this is an integral part of your overall game plan.
Putting a formal shareholder succession plan in place will help you to:
- Leave the business on your own terms, when the time is right for you
- Survive any changes in the ownership of the company and continue as a successful entity
- Identify and address family issues before they become a major disagreement
- Make the business as attractive as possible in order to maximise sales
- Ensure a smooth transfer of skills and control to the new owners
- Prepare business and future leadership for the transition
- Obtain the best tax structure and treatment for the ultimate sale
- Valuing the Business
A point often suggested is that companies should be
valued regularly in order to ensure the management are focussing on the
right areas and building up the business value.
The purpose of this valuation is to determine what the
business is worth to a potential buyer. However the basis of valuation
is mostly determined by the reason for the sale. The lowest valuations are normally achieved due
to forced sale. The Highest valuation is generally achieved by companies
with demonstrable profit and sales growth with well developed systems
and a strong management team.
- Preparing the Business for Sale
When or if the time comes to sell, we help make your business as attractive
as possible by preparing ahead of time.
We work with you to establish your exit strategy,(choosing the major points you want to cover) and discuss the options
available.Part of this process involves identifying the unique differenes
in the business and how they can best be presented to potential buyers, whether you expect
to transfer the business to family or sell to employees, a competitor
or merge with another entity.
- Financing and Cash Flow Management
Making use of our well established
links with financial institutions it is possible to assist in obtaining
finance for existing operations, new projects and expansion programmes.
The funding may come from internal loans i.e. shareholders or capital introduced. If this is the case
we are then able to structure valuable protection from creditors.
We also consider any existing pension provision and the availability of
a loan facility from your pension fund. Alternatively we will go to the
market to obtain commercial finance.
- Product Profitability and Pricing Strategies
Without question, pricing drives profitability. Pricing is a crucially important
and difficult area to succeed in and will have a large effect on your bottom
line profits. Our assistance and expertise is often drawn upon to help with determining
the costs involved in delivering the product or service.
By taking into account the margins on each product and the average selling value you
can avoid the pitfall of average costing where the least profitable
product is promoted in error. Another major area is understanding customer needs and
how the product will meet those needs, with our help you will be able to capture the surplus
that consumers are prepared to pay.
- Customer Retention & Acquisition Strategies
Its often the case that it costs four
to five times more to acquire a new customer than it is to keep
an existing one. Hence the reason a customer retention programme
may prove to be a wise way to go. The aim is to keep the customers
of the right type in order to create a long term revenue stream.
This system would work even better if it can be linked to a customer referral system.
this drastically cuts new customer acquisition costs also these referred customers
arrive with a certain degree of trust and favourable orientation towards the business.
It is important to understand the reasons that compel customers to buy from one business
rather than from another. We use a variety of techniques to show the real buying
concerns of your customers, their frustrations and the perceived benefits of your
products or service. Once these factors have been identified we can then make them the basis of
your marketing programme which will then target the customer segment most likely to respond
