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The Achiever Matrix

Many of the fires being tackled can be put out by concentrating on doing the right things at the right time.The achiever matrix is a great tool to help you work on the right things.The Achiever Matrix is made up of four quadrants and helps you prioritise tasks based on their importance; allowing you to manage your time better and achieve more....

Understanding Your Profit and Loss Statement

Are you using all the information available to run your business or are you leaving it to chance? Your profit and loss statement (P&L) helps you understand your business performance and profitability over time. It’s sometimes called an Income statement and its main purpose is to list income and expenditure. Whereas a balance sheet is a snapshot in time, the P&L shows transactions over a specific period of time. This can be a month, quarter, financial year or any other period, and it can be a s...

The Results Mindset

If you struggle to achieve the results you want, it’s likely you’re disregarding one of the key components of The Results Mindset formula. This formula helps to ensure our ideas are implemented, our goals are achieved, and we obtain our desired results. The formula for achieving results is: Decisions x Actions x Accountability = Results...

Going in a different direction?

This year the globalised economy has created a number of challenges for the average business. Depending on your business purpose and strategy, you may need to either upsize, or downsize, to secure the long-term future of your company. But what are the implications of scaling up, or scaling down, your operations? And how do you refine your business so it's fit for purpose and ready to take on your new aims and goals? The answer is to look carefully at your forecasting and your future decision-mak...

Tale of the Two Lumberjacks

Have you heard about the two lumberjacks? One was continuously swinging his axe chopping wood, the other took frequent breaks throughout the day. At the end of their session the one who took time out had a larger pile of chopped wood. This continued day in day out, week in week out, and eventually the lumberjack who spent his whole day chopping asked how comes you consistently have more wood chopped then me when you spend so much time having breaks. The other replied I was not taking breaks I wa...

7 Ways to Grow Your Business

There are just seven ways to grow your business. The first five grow your sales and the last two reduce your costs. The seven ways are: 1. Increase customer retention.Stop your customers defecting to the competition by keeping them happy. It's easier to retain existing clients than attract new ones. 2. Increase leads generated.Gain more enquiries from people who are not yet customers with improved marketing strategies. 3. Increase your sales conversion rate.Get more of your prospects to buy from...

Quarterly Coaching

Owning your own business is hard work and can often make you feel unsupported. Quarterly Coaching will provide you with accountability and support to keep you on target towards achieving the goals you've set in your Business Plan. We will ensure your Business Plan remains a living, working document and is a filter through which all decisions are made....

Achieving results through accountability

Most business owners understand that the only way to ensure something gets done is to document what is expected, assign it to the right person, and set a due date. But what do you do if the task isn’t done? What are the consequences of this inaction? Think back to your school days when you had homework... maybe you were super organised and got stuck in as soon as the work was assigned, or perhaps you completed it on the school bus the morning it was due. Either way, why did you get it done? Ch...

The fifth way to grow your business - Increase transaction value

During a cost of living crises when we are all feeling the pinch it is more important to remember that the fifth way to grow your business is to encourage your customers to spend more each time they buy. This is not about simply increasing prices it is about adding value to the transaction. Each time someone parts with their hard earned money they weigh up the value they are getting compared to the cost they are incurring. The key is to develop strategies that add value to the transaction instea...

The first way to grow your business - Increase customer retention

Statistics show that it's six times easier and cheaper to make a sale to an existing customer than it is to a new one. Happier customers come back more, spend more money and, most importantly, talk to others. And yet, so many businesses seem focused on getting more customers. Sure, customers are coming in the door, but they might be exiting just as fast, putting a real handbrake on growth. What are you doing to delight your customers? Do you know what your customers want? What is your strategy f...

Budgeting and managing cashflow

If you want to stabilise your finances and grow the business, working to strict budgets becomes a necessity. Managing the cashflow twists and turns of a project can be hard work. But it’s easier to do when you have an agreed budget and can track your spending and performance. So, what’s the best way to stay in control of the budgets you’ve set? And how can you manage your cashflow position to make sure there’s always enough cash to fund the project?...

Coping with the skyrocketing cost of living

Whether it’s refilling your petrol tank or paying at the supermarket checkout, the higher cost of living is hitting every household hard.Across the UK, everyday essentials are surging in price, up 7% on the year to March 2022. Unfortunately, experts predict that prices will keep rising for at least the rest of the year.What can you do to try to keep up with the increasing cost of living? Here are our 12 top tips:...

How to manage poor employee performance

When one member of your team begins to perform below par, this can have a knock-on effect across the whole business. So, dealing effectively with performance issues is a must.Your team is the beating heart of your company. Everyone in your core departments must be able to work productively, with the right levels of engagement, motivation and focus. Productivity will be undermined if employees are beginning to habitually underperform, so it’s important that you look for solutions in a speedy an...

Change happens - have you planned?

Many businesses will have been and are continuing to go through a tough and transformative period as we cope with surging costs and learning to live with covid. In some cases, companies will to have to update, change and pivot just to survive – and this means having to rethink the core mission behind your business. Having got through the pandemic, you now faces a new kind of business reality. It’s a world where buying habits have changed, consumer expectations have evolved, online shopping h...

Are you making time for mindfulness?

As business owners, we all know the pressure of being the driving force behind a business. It can be a stressful experience, and this can have an impact on your wellbeing. Running a business takes up so much of your time, and can consume your waking thoughts. But a tired, stressed and anxious owner is not an effective owner – so there's an increasing need to focus on mental health and to bring elements of mindfulness, meditation and contemplation into your routine. And, investing in employee w...

Adopting an Atomic Habits mindset

We all have habits; some good and some not. Habits are those almost unconscious behaviour patterns we have... so, how do we build better habits? In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear identifies two types of habits; outcome-based and identity-based. Understanding the difference and reframing your mindset will help you adopt an atomic habits mindset and ensure your desired habits stick....

Spring Statement 2022: Your summary of the key points

The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, delivered his Spring Statement on 23 March. Faced with the task of creating a ‘strong economy’ for the UK, against the challenging background of high inflation, rising costs and being outside the single market, he announced a raft of new measures. So, what was in the Spring Statement for your business? And how will these announcements and new initiatives affect the business landscape in the coming year?...

Making Your Business Sustainable, Scalable and Saleable

The decisions you make in your business are only as good as the data you use to make them. The more accurate and up to date your data is, the better your decisions will be. Leveraging your technology will provide you with accurate real-time data to make more informed decisions in your business. Processes and systems drive your business, so it’s important to ask yourself if all of yours are clearly documented and up to date? Some processes may be followed simply because they always have been. A...

What value can automation bring to your business?

Automation has the capacity to revolutionise your efficiency and productivity. But how many of the automation features that are available to you are actually being used? And could you be getting more value by building automated processes into your operational framework?...

Driving your business with reporting

Would you drive a car without monitoring the dashboard? Don’t wait till year end to review your financial results! Respond faster with regular reporting and keep driving your business forward!...

Our Cashflow Management Service

Cashflow planning is critical to survival and growth in any business. Setting cashflow targets will enable you to predict large cash outflows and respond to changes in your business. Looking ahead with confidence and putting in place cashflow maximisation strategies is key to increasing business value. A Cashflow Forecast and our Cashflow Management Coaching meetings give you the chance to: Discuss the Cashflow Forecast and identify your current Cash Conversion CycleIdentify the likely causes of...

Boost your cashflow

Cashflow is the lifeblood of your business. It's also the most common cause of stress. Here are 10 easy ways to boost your cashflow: 1. Agree your Terms of Trade at the start of EVERY job.Your Terms of Trade should cover when and how you'll invoice, when you expect to be paid, and the consequences of late payment or non-payment. 2. Give payment options.Consider a small discount for payment upfront, ask for a deposit before beginning the work, or offer funding through an outsourced provider. 3. I...

Cashflow Freedom

Cash is the life blood of any business. In fact, even profitable businesses can and do fail because of poor cashflow. What’s important is that you understand your key drivers of cashflow. Improving cashflow is often all about changing your business's processes, for example, how you order stock and pay for it, how you bill for your services, and how you make sure you get paid by your customers....

Redefining what success means 

If there’s one positive to take from the events of the last two years, it’s the opportunity to consider what’s important. For those of us in business, it’s important to redefine our plan and goals that ensure the business delivers our definition of success. The natural extension, for those with team members, is to revise what the business needs to deliver to the team....

Accounting Basics

Understanding your finances is a vital part of running your business. But getting down into the nitty gritty of the company accounts isn’t every owner's top skill. If you are new to company accounting, or simply want to expand your knowledge, we can help explain these standard reports. The profit and loss report and the balance sheet are both key reports when it comes to getting in control of your company’s financial health....