All business owners we work with at ETC are experts in their field. However the reality of dealing with finances and sales and marketing is often a barrier to growing a successful business.
Try as you might, finding time outside of the day job to plan your marketing, or review your finances, or any other managerial task can seem impossible when there are deadlines to meet. Even if you can find the time, do you know where to start? If any of this sounds familiar, don’t worry, you’re not alone!
With these issues in mind we developed Momentum, the Managed Growth Programme. Over the course of three years, this tailored programme guarantees to increase profits by three times its cost and is realistic in terms of practical investment.
So how do we do it? The first step for your assigned business consultant is to complete a free business review so they can get to know your business inside out. The next stage is to visit you for half a day a week over the course of 5-6 weeks to coach you across the eight fundamental areas required when growing a successful business. But it’s not a closely guarded secret, you can get started yourself by getting to grips with the following:
Goal setting
Your business consultant will get you to take a step back and think about your long-term future, what is it you want the business to deliver for you, to facilitate the kind of lifestyle you covet? Find out more about the importance of setting personal goals here.
Key objectives
With personal goals defined, you can establish how to deliver on them by agreeing what actions and processes will be required. There’s more on objectives and how to create a simple business plan in this blog: why have a business plan.
Organisational structure
Growing a successful business requires an understanding of who is in the business. What are their roles and who is responsible for ensuring the expected outcomes of each activity? Find more information about creating your organisational structure here.
Sales and Marketing
Marketing and selling your products and services doesn’t have to be daunting. You simply need to answer the following questions:
– Who is your target market?
– What marketing activities are required to generate prospects?
– What is the sales process to take prospects through the funnel to purchase?
Your business consultant will help establish these answers and give coaching on closing sales. Get started now by taking a look at our post: 3 simple steps to an effective marketing strategy.
Delivery (operations)
Keeping on top of operational commitments is of course paramount to keep customers happy enough to come back. It may sounds obvious, but as your business grows and with it the team, you will need a robust process to keep track of orders and the status of each. Your business consultant will work with you to define a simple process to ensure products and services are delivered in a timely manner and at the quality expected. More detail on this can be found here.
Admin
Support functions are all crucial to keep the business running smoothly, even though they’re often loathed by business owners. Your business consultant will find out how you currently manage these tasks and help identify any streamlining to increase efficiency. There is more advice on how to do this yourself here.
Finance
Every business should understand their break-even point (the cost involved to run the business). Your business consultant will complete an exercise with you to define this. My post: 4 tips for effective cost cutting not only explains how to track expenditure but also suggests ways to cut it!
In addition, your business coach will ensure you have the correct pricing structure in place. At Executive Training & Consultancy, all too often we come across businesses that aren’t charging what they’re worth. Discover why cheap pricing is not not suitable for growing a successful business here.
Management
At the end of the 6 weeks, you’ll be in the right place to start your business growth. That’s not quite it, though. To keep everything running as it should you’ll need to keep track. From how you’re doing against objectives, to whether your customers are happy, to how well your marketing is doing, you’ll need to monitor and measure performance. Find out more about this in our blog: Monitor, Measure, Grow!
Following the intensive sessions, your business consultant will then write up your agreed business plan and provide you with the primary focus for the first quarter. At the end of each quarter from thereon, you’ll have a half day strategy session to look at progress and decide on the actions needed in the upcoming quarter.
Of course in between those appointments, your business consultant is just a phone call away for any help or advice you need!