Category: Blog

Over the years I have been posed the question “do business plans work?” from all sorts of people; small business owners, academics, other consultants and business advisers, however there is only one answer that fits all scenarios and the answer is ‘only when they are implemented’.

No matter what size your plan is, whether it’s a business plan or any other kind of plan, (a holiday or moving house) it will only work if implemented. This may sound silly and obvious, however, a high number of my clients have spent money and time putting business plans together and I’m then told they don’t work and yet when exploring the situation I’ve found the reason it “didn’t work” was because no one had thought to actually implement them.

Any business can be improved by simply identifying two or three key areas, setting some simple actions (targets) that need to be undertaken within the business and then following through on these two or three things to make sure they actually happen, resulting in an improvement.

Of course you can have a very complicated business plan and for some of the very large international corporates this could be a plan incorporating a 20 year vision, for example, but for it to work it still has to be implemented.

So my advice is no matter how big or complicated the business is, set up a system to ensure the actions identified in the plan are implemented.

Integrate your plan into your weekly or monthly management meetings so that on a routine basis, either you or your manager’s area being held accountable for implementing the plan.

Summary

A business plan will only work if it is implemented. At the end of the day it is not cost or time effective to spend hours/days/weeks putting together a business plan or any other kind of plan if it never gets implemented.

I have often seen business plans with great vision statements covering their sales, marketing, delivery and ambitions along with a complicated financial forecast that looks and sounds great however they lack a broken down target by target action plan, incorporating all the visions statements into easily doable activity.

So, make sure when you create a business plan you go the extra mile and list out an action plan. Each target on your action plan should be assigned to an individual. The individual as part of the management team would be the person responsible for the implementation, and would have to report progress at your monthly management meeting.

This not only keeps the momentum going but also helps individuals and/or teams to hold focus on what their particular role is within the plan.

It is often better to get others involved in your plans; whether that means telling your friend about them or involving employees on larger scale business plans.

This way the friend/employees will help you keep track by simply asking how the plan is going or offering help on finalising actions for example.

This will keep the plan fresh in your mind and so it will be harder to forget your drive and goal.

Managing people is a very interesting subject and potentially quite complicated. Once you get over the emotional response around the fact that most humans don’t want to be controlled or manipulated.

We all want our free will and self-determination but when it comes down to it unless you manage your staff, you will not have an efficient work force.

Being very controversial people are inherently lazy and will only do the bear minimum that they need to feel secure and safe; of course three is always the odd acceptation to this rule. I’m sure we all know occasional work alcoholic or an individual with ADHD.

So having said all that and offended lots of people let’s get down to brass tacks.

If you want a successful business you need to manage your people.

Now the way you manage them becomes key depending on:-
A) their personality
B) the type of job they are doing and
C) your personality (one day my book will be written covering all of these issues as it’s a massive subject)

Tips and advice

Whether your team is 3 or 30 you must have regular meetings to monitor progress and individuals need to be given responsibility and authority to get their jobs done but there must always be a mechanism for them to report to you on progress and you must always set targets relating to what you want achieved. The larger the organisation and the more senior the position will mean that the targets are more strategic and time scales make it longer i.e. Weekly and monthly as opposed to hourly and daily but the principles are still the same.

Apply a simple process of:-
A) making sure that everyone involved knows what you expect, be very clear and concise about your expectations
B)set time scales
C)get agreement
D) follow-up
E) when completed give praise and recognition of a job well done or constructive criticism if job isn’t quite right.

If you apply those steps A-E to managing your people you will always be successful and respected as a manager.

Managing a workforce will never be a straight forward road but with the right tools it can be a rewarding and gratifying path. The key is to know the difference between leading a team and being the boss of your employees.

As mentioned in my book Getting Down to Business, having employees can be difficult due to different characters and strong opinions bouncing around the workplace, however knowing how to handle them is paramount.

It is imperative you help the employees to understand you are the type of employer who will guide them, make them feel part of a team and gives credit where it’s due. Even small things like saying please and thank you to your employees can mean the difference between quality team spirit alongside a high standard of work and a poor end result.

For me personally it always helps to know what your employees are going through on a day to day basis, they appreciate it when you are able to say things like “when I did this task I found that…” It shows them that at one stage you were in their shoes and puts them at ease. This can also in still trust and respect in the relationship between you and the employee and can help to keep some bosses level headed as naturally the higher up you become, or the more responsibility you take on, the harder it is to remember the days when you were in their shoes.

However as much as you do empathise with them and look after your team you must also remember that you need a be a little bit of a boss too; this is to make sure jobs do get done and so tasks and business plans run to schedule as well. So instead of deciding to be one or the other, why not find a balance that works well for you and your employees? It will always vary with each employee depending on how you need to treat them to get the work done in a timely but high quality manner but remember to have regular progress checks and refer back to my other blog about managing people for extra hints and tips!

Some people say that achieving goals is the hardest part of the process and they could be right.

However, if you set your goals correctly, (for tips on how to do this, go to ‘Setting your Goal: The Know How’ in the blog section of the website) then achieving goals become easier because you will be motivated enough to achieve your goals especially in business if you have underlying personal goals.

Having set your goals correctly, achieving them becomes the important step, they will not happen just by thinking about it…although this helps! A great way to maintain focus is to get them written up and stick them somewhere that you see frequently as this will remind you.

Even if you don’t stick them on the wall etc, make sure they are written down as this will cement them into your everyday reality.

Having established your goals, you need to think about the key things that need to be done to achieve your goals. These will be your objectives. They are broad, brush statements and the things you need to do or the processes you need in place that will enable you to achieve your goals. For example; if you need to increase the number of customers in your business in order to achieve your goals, then the key objective would be to have a robust sales process in place. In most cases, you would be trying to identify five or six key objectives, which if acted upon, would result in you achieving your goal.

Having done this you should ask yourself one more question and that would be “what would stop me from achieving my goals?” these are the constraints or challenges you will face along the way to completion. By asking questions like this you should be able to identify two or three areas that if not dealt with, will stop you achieving your goals. A common constraint in the business that would definitely stop you achieving your goals would be a poor cash flow.

So this is actually throwing up two or three more objectives because the constraint would then result in finding more objectives that need to be acted upon within the business. Constraint of poor cash flow would result in an objective of putting in a proper credit control process.

This system of setting objectives i.e. things you need to do in order to achieve the goal, also applies to personal goals, for example if one of your personal goals was to buy a large house in the country, you would need to have some objectives in place to identify an area to live in and maybe objectives to generate a large enough deposit etc.

If you feel you need any more help with knowing where to start when it comes to achieving your goals then please get in contact with me at doug@exec-tc.com.

Just before Christmas I explained how you could go about setting yourself goals and how to make them reachable. In this blog I will explain how a simple technique can help you to achieve the goal
you have set yourself in the New Year.

This particular support method has helped me in the past and so by passing it on and sharing with you, I hope it will do the same for you!

 I have found that many people set themselves goals but don’t tell anyone else about them; this may seem like an insignificant detail but actually it may mean the difference between achieving your
goals and losing focus.

There are many situations in life where we set ourselves personal
 goals, for example: losing weight, quitting smoking and many may agree that going to the gym or quitting smoking with a friend is preferable than going it alone. By telling a friend or family member, it is akin to having constant motivation to keep the goal alive and successful. Loved ones can help maintain focus, check up on us when we may slack off or just to provide a reassuring ‘well done’ along the way.

For truly personal goals like losing weight, telling friends and family is fine, however for goals in your working life then the next suggestion may be more beneficial to you than just
telling family and friends alone. It may be better to tell people who are in the business world as well and who can make constructive criticism without being partial in any way.

I, personally have used this technique for a while now and found that it keeps me focussed, balanced and gives me a ‘positive pressure’ (almost like a sweet but firm nudge to keep me at it!) and
 so I recommend this to you all.

This technique is called ‘Masterminding’, some of you may have heard me speak about this but I’d like to really explain what it is and how it can be beneficial to you.

So what is Masterminding?

A Mastermind group is a group of five or six individuals who can be considered peers in terms of having broadly similar experience and career achievements. The group generally meets
regularly, maybe every month or two. The meetings are treated formally – as if it were a meeting with a major client – and social discussion is kept to a minimum to maximise the benefit aspect.

Every group member has an opportunity to discuss with the group what their goals are, and what targets they need to hit to achieve the goals. They also share with the group what problems and constraints stand in the way of the targets being met. Because they understand your business, but are detached from it, the other group members can think objectively and give you helpful suggestions.

Importantly, after you have received the suggestions from the group, you commit to implementing at least one, and report back at the next meeting on what progress you have made.

The commitment is the critical part: this maybe the only time that you, as a business owner, are held accountable to another person or group, and this is what will drive you to achieve. It also helps if the meeting summary and goals is written down and handed out to members at the end as this reinforces the goals in people’s minds and ensures completion.



What are the general characteristics of a really effective Mastermind group

The participants are people that like and trust each other, but they aren’t just a group of good friends or people that normally meet in a social rather than business context. This is important because they have to be able to be honest and objective, rather than bias or too kind to critique.

 There are no conflicts of interest among the members, so they should not be suppliers, or clients of one another, or members of the same organisation. Again, this is so there are no circumstances in which the members are tempted to be bias.

So, tell others about your goals and get them to hold you accountable to achieve them!

If you would like more tips on how to set up an effective Mastermind
team then please contact me at doug@exec-tc.com.

Many people think that setting a goal is a simple case of “I want a 1 million turnover by the end of a 5 year period” or “I would like to reach 600 clients in 7 years”. If this sounds like you then I would urge you to relook at your goals.

What you should be asking yourself is; “what made you first decide you wanted the 1 million?” To work out what your true goal is you need to be asking yourself a few questions first; “why do you need it?” “What do I want the money for?” Don’t be afraid to keep asking yourself the same questions over and over until your true goal reveals itself.

So what else do you need to ask yourself when sorting out what your goal is? Well as the title may suggest; do you know the difference between target and goals? It is a common misconception that they are the same thing, this may be because they are closely linked and work in tandem if you like.

So let’s explore what defines a target and goal: the goal is what you want to end up with in your business or personal life, a target is a number i.e. the level of income, which the business will have to generate so you can reach the goal.

My book, Getting Down to Business describes this as: ‘not to earn a million pounds but to send your children to university and have the option of retirement at fifty-five.’

Some more examples of goals would be:

“To become an established and profitable recruitment agency operating with three employees and turning over £1 million.”

“To develop the business to operate with a standardised process and procedures, which do not require M to be there all the time, while generating £80,000 profit per year.”

Over the years it has become clear that a great number of business owners do not have a strong idea as to what their goal should be, therefore they are unsure of the direction in which to take the business. Setting goals can make a vast difference, setting them properly is the only way to ensure your targets are set appropriately. Without clear set goals your targets will ultimately struggle to work for you.

Once you have set your goals it may help you to get focus on your business in a way you have never done so before. For example when people set up their own business they envisage their lives going very differently. They see the business as taking off and thriving so much so, that they won’t need to be around much at all and can buy that second home abroad they always dreamt of. This is because business owners are more often than not, optimists, and sometimes this can cloud factual judgement. However if the business owner has not thought through what his goal is and has gone ahead and set up the business in such a way that it is impossible for him to be absent for any length of time then this will be the obstacle to tackle before your goal can be accomplished. Therefore setting a goal and having to refocus is a very sobering process.

Only once your clear goal is in place can you start to implement it and act on achieving it. This can only be attained by planning effectively and setting suitable targets to help aid the process. Consequently bringing you closer to your end goal and finally, your ‘perfect’ life.

If you feel you need more advice on how to set goals for your business or how to go about achieving them, contact Doug D’Aubrey on 07946 730475 or doug@exec-tc.com.

“Which road should I take?” asked Alice.
“Where do you want to go?” answered the Cheshire Cat.
“I don’t know,” said Alice
“In that case,” said the Cheshire Cat, “it doesn’t matter which road you take.”

Like with any business owner it is not unusual for people to put their heart and soul into their business, it’s their ‘baby’ at the end of the day and so we feel, as business owners, that it is in our best interest to make it succeed but to also gain from what we put in…and quite rightly after all that hard work! Therefore is it not also in our best interest to make the company successful by setting ourselves goals that come from a personal place?

When most people think of goals they think of very broad goals like “I want to be able to take a back seat in my company, have someone else do the hard work and reap all the benefits.” I think we would all love this, however as briefly mentioned in my other blog: Targets & Goals- Can you Spot the Difference, it is imperative that the goal be more focussed and for it to come from a personal place. For example would you like to save for a high quality care home for your parents or that extravagant white wedding your partner craves? These goals are more realistic, focussed and attainable now you are at the core and they have a personal meaning, rather than I want ot sit back but make lots of money.

Therefore having a personal goal works better than putting a business one in place. By setting the goal of a white wedding you can then work out what you need i.e. cake, dress, car etc. and you can utilise your business to obtain these wants. For example if you know the venue your wife wants costs £7,000 you can make sure you have enough clients coming in to cover this cost.

Like it or not, in this world we need to set ourselves goals in order to achieve anything. They can take weeks, months or ever years to accomplish depending on the size of your goal. Don’t be put off though, the rewards are worth it in the end and if you follow your goals and targets through you should not only have achieved your goals but also have a successful business to show. More often than not these goals come from, what some may consider as, selfish sources however, this may actually be a necessary birthplace for them to grow from.

• So when setting your goal you need to:
• Make sure you get to the core of what your goal is.
• Make sure it’s a personal goal that can be facilitated by your business.
• Make your goal clear and concise and set targets alongside
  (read Targets & Goals- Can you Spot the Difference for tips!)

Remember if you feel you need more advice on how to set goals or how to go about achieving them, contact Doug D’Aubrey on 07946 730475 or doug@exec-tc.com.

As we have seen, poor cash flow management is possibly one of the biggest financial downfalls on the road to survival for any business, new or old, large or small. Cash flow management is a crucial element in the business planning stages and throughout the life of any business.

Perhaps one of the biggest issues that a business stumbles upon and which can cause devastating cash flow problems is the area of VAT and other large government tax bills.

Every quarter a chunk of money has to be found to pay your VAT bill. And every 12 – 18 months, money has to be found to pay for corporation tax. VAT and other taxes belong to the government, but what most of us do is to collect it in with customer payments, put it into our own bank accounts, and then spend it!

As part of a good cash flow management plan we need to account for these monies in advance. A sound idea is to set up a separate bank account for these taxes. At the end of each month, if that’s when you do your accounts, calculate the monies due for VAT and transfer them directly into this separate bank account. If you do your accounts weekly, then do this weekly. Leave this money there.

Interest rates nowadays are pretty low everywhere, but find an account with the highest rate possible and put the money in here. It’s the government’s money – not yours – but in this way, at least the government’s money will be working for you. After three months you will have accrued three month’s interest and made money out of the government!

At the end of the fourth month when you pay your VAT bill, you will have the cash ready to pay. You will have a sum of interest, and NO CASH FLOW PROBLEM!

You have to be pretty disciplined to work this, but once the habit is in place, it will reap the rewards. Of course, this system can be used for your other tax responsibilities as well, making you money all round!

Finance is at the heart of any business and is the one main factor that signifies success or failure. Poor cash flow management is possibly one of the biggest financial downfalls on the road to survival for any business, new or old, large or small. Cash flow management is a crucial element in the business planning stages and throughout the life of any business.

A successful and well thought out cash flow management plan allows your business to do the things you’ve planned to do; it enables you to successfully manage the flow of finance into and out of the company to ensure it stays healthy, to meet all your business obligations and to provide you with a return appropriate to your effort and investment.

Sadly though, it is common for a business to be profitable on paper, but have no ready cash to pay its day to day bills. Why? Because profit is a calculated figure. It is the calculated difference between the cost of producing and selling a product or service and the income received from that sale. It does not necessarily follow that the income is received as soon as the product or service is delivered to the customer. Before payments are received and the profit is made, other bills for future production may arrive. music cloud Other obligations can also soak up the funds available – such as bank loans and fixed costs – all of this resulting in a possible devastating short fall.

There are two common causes of cash flow management problems. Look after these and they will go a long way to ensuring your success.

One – get your invoices out promptly and regularly, and get them paid!
Have a robust system in place which ensures that your customers know when, how much and how to pay. Be sure of this, follow up monies owed, and the cash will be in your bank instead of theirs.

Two – have a cash flow system in place.
Know exactly when you have to pay out for materials and pay for production. Likewise, know precisely when you expect to receive payments from your customers. This allows you to calculate how much ‘working capital’ needs to be available to pay for things when they are needed.

For any small business it is generally more effective to manage finances on a daily basis with a cash flow sheet rather than a profit-and-loss statement. This will help keep finances under control and in your favour, as well as helping to make informed decisions about future spending.

Managing cash flow successfully is essential to generating the kind of lifestyle you aspire to!