Business Planning | Teik Oh

Six Steps to Make Your Business Resilient

May 11 2015

As I write this, there are fresh concerns across the world economy over recovery in Europe and North America, Chinese GDP is slowing, and the Australian mining boom seems to be coming to an end.

These are world-wide economic affairs, and as owners of small businesses you might be wondering how this affects you, the small fish in a big pond.

The effect on you trickles down from what happens on a global scale. As countries batten the hatches, the larger companies in your nation’s economy slow down because their customers buy less. These larger companies buy from smaller companies, and these smaller companies buy from you. As the larger companies tighten the belt, employees might lose their jobs. Some of these individuals buy from you. Business might still seem good to you today, but it may take some time for an economic crisis to trickle down.

Nevertheless all is not doom and gloom, there are some signs of opportunity that encourages continued optimism. So what do you do today with these mixed messages?

As a small or micro-business you need to recognise and take advantage of modest opportunities to grow, but at the same time recognise the existence of potential downside risks.

Certainly, pay attention to your bottom line but at the same time, focus on cash flow and not just profit growth. Ensure that you are putting away sufficient working capital to survive any shocks. You need to continue pursuing business opportunities, but with discipline and careful planning. And, this is the time to put in genuine efforts at reorganising your business for efficiency.

As a small or micro business today, realising that you are at the mercy of market forces outside your control, I would look at these 6 steps to build resilience into your business.

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Why write an Executive Summary?

May 08 2015

An Executive Summary is a summary of the key items in your planning or other document that is full of facts and information.

The best planning documents, whether strategic plans, business plans, corporate plans, marketing plans, or implementation plans, contain compelling Executive Summaries.

Yet at first glance (or indeed in a badly written Executive Summary) it simply appears as if information has been duplicated. Why can’t the reader simply go into the body of the document to read the information there anyway? The answer is because these documents are meant to be read by busy people. Often, they are to attract investment or engagement from these busy people who would be a befit to your business. They may be investors, bank managers, or even your own busy managers or team members. I order to get past the gate of continuing interest, and to engage them, you need to first draw them in by creating excitement and interest.

The Executive Summary provides that tantalising glimpse into the document – it creates a sense of excitement and gets the document through the gate so that they continue reading the document or pass it on to people who will then go through the document in detail. Business plans written as enticements to invest rarely get past the first executive reading it to see if they will be interested – often because there is no quickly read Executive Summary to entice them in.

This video talks about why you should have an Executive Summary, and what it should contain.

If you want to know more about planning in your business, come on over to teikoh.com and get the planning templates, tools and resources available for free. While you are there sign up for our newsletter that will deliver more resources on developing strategy, providing leadership, and growing your business.

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Are you ready for anything?

Apr 20 2015

If you have been running a business from before the GFC, you have hopefully recovered over the last couple of years as the global economy, while still cautious, has been picking up. For many, times are starting to look difficult again as the possibility of a double-dip looms.

The difficulty in this scenario is that like many others, you had probably implemented many disciplines at the GFC downturn which stood you in good stead, but since, have allowed some of these disciplines to slacken as business became easier in the last few years.

Once the pressure is off, it is easy to slip back into the old ways and gradually allow costs to rise once again. Making disciplines implemented during a difficult period into institutionalised procedures is not as easy as it seems when day to day survival is not such a big worry.

When the economy is good and sales are growing, it is easy to allow discretionary spending into initiatives like “change management”, but when the mood is in withdrawal, you instigate disciplines quickly. Without the proper processes of change management, some of these changes just don’t “stick” and as soon as the belt is loosened, old habits come back.

It is in this atmosphere that the business owner or leaders need to lead by example. People have to be shown what is the right thing to do, and why, and leaders need to make sure that their behaviour is sending the right message to their teams. Read More

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4 Myths why I can’t start a business

Apr 13 2015

Starting a business is not easy, nor is it something that should be taken lightly.

You do need to do your homework; you do need to research the industry, especially if it is not one you have previous experience in; you do need to do your strategic and business planning; and you certainly do need to look at your personal characteristics and beliefs to see if you and your family really want to make the commitment.

However I have spoken to many people who seem to me to have a viable idea for a business, but are put off starting their own business even before they delve further into its feasibility. Their objections are not about being under-prepared; their objections are often based on things that are simply untrue.

I call these the four most common myths that stop people starting their own business.

Myth 1: I’m not smart enough to have my own business:

Perhaps you’re not, but I find that doubtful. Starting and running a business is not for everyone, but I rarely find the reason as being lack of intelligence. Some people are better employees than business owners due to the way they react to the different type of responsibility, but if the question is do you have the smarts to run a business, it is more than probable that you do and you can learn the skills along the way. Read More

Comment 13

A list of Actions is not a set of Goals!

Apr 03 2015

I’ll bet that like many people you have planning days for your company – where you collect information and then book a room for a couple of days to go through your SWOT analysis and your strategies for the year ahead.

At the end of this you probably end up with a list of goals that everyone is satisfied with and you all go away full of enthusiasm and ready to make it happen.

Yet, a year later, not all of it has happened. Only some (if any!) of your goals were achieved. Why is that?

One of the reasons I have seen in over 30 years of facilitating planning sessions is that your list of goals are not goals! Most people end up with a list of actions, and actions are not goals.

Goals are a set of aspirational situations that you want to get to, described specifically, and congruent with your vision. First you need to set the vision of where you want your company to be at some time in the future, then the goals you set are the situational milestones on the journey there. They are not a list of actions – these are the strategies, the detailed steps on how you will achieve your goals.

This video explains the difference:

Comment 13

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Category - Business Planning

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Six Steps to Make Your Business Resilient

Why write an Executive Summary?

Are you ready for anything?

4 Myths why I can’t start a business

A list of Actions is not a set of Goals!