10 Reasons Why A Business Plan Works For Your Business
Ceri James BSc DipM MBA
Enabling Ambitious North-West Business Owners Make More Money and Build a Valuable Asset With A Proven 6-Step Process | Coach | Facilitator | Speaker | SSAS Investor | Property Investor
Many small businesses fail. Five years after their launch in the UK, more businesses are dead than alive.
Despite extensive evidence that businesses with a disciplined planning and execution process are more likely to survive and grow faster than businesses without, only the minority of SMEs have a plan that is jointly developed, written down and shared with the whole team.
Here are some of the reasons for having a plan in place for your business:
If this is a wake up call for you, I have a limited number of VIP places for North West business owners for my next?half day business planning session on 23rd June, 12 noon to 5 pm at Wilmslow Rugby Club.?
Click below now for details and registration:
In the Spotlight….How To Recruit People with the Right Cultural Fit.
This Business Spotlight welcomes Emma Cook, MD of Cognisoft Ltd, specialists in supporting training providers with technology to enable learners, working mainly within the public sector.
Emma shares her reflections on her journey to become MD and in particular the challenges of recruiting people with the right cultural fit.
For further details and to arrange a demo, please go to https://www.cognisoft.co.uk/
Get in touch if you'd like to capture and share your journey on one of the Business Spotlight episodes.
And Finally… Do You Have a Management Team in Place So The Business Runs Without You?
Building high performance team members that trust each other and keep each other accountable requires clarity and leadership, and that starts with an organisation chart with a written down purpose for each role, key responsibilities, deliverables and behavioural expectations linked to your values.
The Average Way
You have out of date org charts and job descriptions that are not reviewed and shared. People are unclear about the different roles and responsibilities of each team and each team member.?
Your systems are not documented with a dedicated owner responsible for regular reviews, edits and updates.?
In a rapidly changing world, new initiatives such as social media campaigns leave people wondering why they are expected to contribute and how the activities should be co-ordinated with their colleagues
The Average Result
Shared or confused responsibility means that lots of things slip through the net and you regularly hear phrases such as “sorry I did not realise I needed to do that, I thought John was more involved than me”
The High Performance Approach
You have a current org chart and a 12 month hence org chart, updated every quarter which clearly identifies any new roles and their key responsibilities.?
Each role has a positional contract which people sign to demonstrate understanding and commitment to clear expectations for what they are responsible for delivering and how that is going to be measured and tracked.?
KPIs are in place for each role, each team, for the leadership team and for the business as a whole, all of which are accessible and visible. Each member of the team also has a personal development plan in place
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The High Performance Result
You have a culture of trust and inspiration in the team because good people like clarity and measures that they go the extra mile to exceed because they are being stretched and learning all the time.?
Your winning culture is built upon a learning culture, enabled by absolute clarity of individual, team and business goals, translated into responsibilities and action.
Key Questions
What is the difference between a job description and a positional contract?
Job descriptions are often limited to responsibilities, competencies and skills. A positional contract includes purpose of the role, responsibilities, deliverables with KPIs and clear expectations for living the company values, complete with a section for the role owner to sign and agree to take personal responsibility to deliver against the expectations and metrics.?
Why do I need 2 org charts?
To give people a sense of direction, a reassurance about growth and the message that there will be ongoing and new opportunities to learn and grow through their career.
Example
Steve (Owner of VIP Group of Companies) was busy through lockdown with the purchase of a London based engineering company to give the group a national presence.?
Many of Steve’s team are long-term employees, and the acquisition created the opportunity to re-assess many people’s roles to make adjustments and match with people’s strengths.?
“We worked with Ceri to review our current org charts, ensure we had clear responsibilities and KPIs in place for each role, and mapped that forward to 12 months out.?
What could have been a traumatic period in the business was controlled a lot better. We managed to maintain all London Sales as well as grow in our Manchester branch.?
The financial year therefore saw a large increase in turnover with profit margins maintained.”
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways you can help yourself get what you want from your business:
1 - Take a 3-Minute Next Level Business Assessment
This assessment tool will help you diagnose the potential weaknesses and areas of improvement in your business. It takes just 3 minutes to complete and will reveal which of the 4 key business growth areas you should focus on.?
2 - Create Engaging Content to Share with Your Prospects
Are you looking for ways to create fresh engaging content to go onto our website and social media?
Our Business Spotlight series enables you to share your story and attract new clients via a well edited and packaged video interview.
It will take around 20 minutes and is 100% free.
Book your?30 MINUTE BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW HERE ?and I'll get straight back to you with all the details.
3 - Book a FREE 30m Discovery Call
Go from uncertainty and doubt to clarity and confidence around your business goals and priorities in one 30m ‘Business Health Check’ Zoom call with me - 100% free.