The depressing and predictable results of a basic SME business survey!

So, I recently conducted a survey of the attendees of 5 networking meetings across the Yorkshire region (the meetings were held at Wetherby, Wakefield, Huddersfield, Barnsley and Leeds). I simply asked 9 straight forward ‘business planning’ questions – perhaps you could answer these yourself now before reading on?:

• Who has a clear idea of their end goal?
• Who has some sort of strategy of how to achieve their goal?
• Who has a written business plan?
• Who has reviewed that plan in the last 3 months?
• Who can name their 3 dream customers instantly?
• Who has a written marketing plan?
• Who has reviewed their competitors lately?
• Who has a ‘word of mouth’ (referrals) plan?
• Who has ever completed a SWOT analysis?

Remember that these meetings are disproportionately represented with business mentors / coaches / consultants / accountants / etc so the results were always going to ‘falsely positive’ but they still proved interesting and I thought I’d simply share them with you for you to comment on.

Who has a clear idea of their end goal? – Result: 82%

My personal comments: In my opinion, not having an end goal for your venture is an issue – if you don’t know where you want to go, you can’t possibly have the clarity of how to get there or how to know when you’ve arrived! In the ‘real world’ of SME’s, I suspect that the actual number is nearer 50%! If you don’t have a clearly defined goal or vision, perhaps now is the time to start strategising?

Action to take: Download a free business plan from Yorkshire Powerhouse and view the article on visions and goals.

Who has some sort of strategy of how to achieve their goal? – Result: 63%

My personal comments: This was a genuine concern to me … note the drop off in numbers from the respondents confirming they have a vision and the number confirming a direction or strategy. This also follows with the next question too.

Action to take: Download a free growth plan from Yorkshire Powerhouse and view the article on designing your business for growth.

Who has a written business plan? – Result: 54%

My personal comments: So, the essence of a formal business plan is to create a serious document that covers all these 9 questions … personally, I like to then condense the plan down to a single page for instant reference and quick review. But the full plan is an essential part of making your visions and goals clear, providing the strategy of getting there and supporting this strategy with marketing plans, etc. 

Action to take: Download a free business plan from Yorkshire Powerhouse and view the article on writing your business plan.

Who has reviewed that plan in the last 3 months? – Result: 40%

My personal comments: So, ‘not’ reviewing the plan is like making home brew cider and not tasting it before throwing a cider party! The plan is important but if you don’t review it from time to time then you can’t possibly know whether you’re still on course! The favourite phrase of the business mentor is based around ‘working ON your business’ rather than ‘IN’ it … part of this process is an occasional review of the overall strategy.

Action to take: Start thinking about more specific things (and reviewing the articles) like developing your sales funnel or understanding your marketing metrics.

Who can name their 3 dream customers instantly? – Result: 35%

My personal comments: This is actually my stand out, all time low comment! If you can’t name or describe your dream customers with a high degree of accuracy then how can you possibly ensure your brand is right, your marketing efforts are targeting the right people and your sales activity is driven correctly. Even in this cohort of highly skilled business owners, only a third could name a dream client! If ever Yorkshire business owners need to take action, it’s on this point.

Action to take: Think about creating a customer profile and review the article on this subject.

Who has a written marketing plan? – Result: 45%

My personal comments: Obviously, there is a question here as there are more respondents confirming they have a marketing plan than respondents who can name their dream customers and that’s just daft! I was formally educated in marketing and, as anyone else who has a similar background will tell you, you always start your marketing by knowing your customer. This then begs to question the quality and value of some of the marketing plans as they must lack complete direction!

Action to take: Download a free marketing plan from Yorkshire Powerhouse and view the article on writing a marketing plan.

Who has reviewed their competitors lately? – Result: 51%

My personal comments: This point would normally form part of a marketing plan and I was surprised to see a highly response on this question that on the previous two. Clearly an indication that we fear our competitors MORE than we care about our own plans and strategy? Yes, reviewing your competitors is important but it is, in itself, an exercise in looking in the rear view mirror – still essential, but looking forward with strategy and plans is better.

Action to take: Review the article on competitor analysis and then download the free guide to help the process

Who has a ‘word of mouth’ (referrals) plan? – Result: 42%

My personal comments: Remember that I was attending a networking event which is a method of generating referrals and nurturing word of mouth. So, I expected this response to be high. However, normally, this would be much lower and yet, almost all businesses I’ve dealt with over the last 20 years confirmed that referrals and word of mouth form the majority of their new business. An essential, but often lacking, part of a marketing plan.

Action to take: Go networking! Review our articles on networking meetings and hints and tips to make your networking time more effective. Also, review the sales funnel article again to see how it ties in.

Who has ever completed a SWOT analysis? – Result: 62%

My personal comments: I was heartened to be asked by one attendee what a SWOT analysis – coaches and mentors ‘assume’ we all understand these ‘common’ words … yet the truth is, most business people can’t even name their dream customers so how can we expect them to understand all the various and complex areas of a full strategic review and plan. 

Action to take: Read our article on SWOT and PEST analysis and then download the free SWOT & PEST template documents.

Summary:

The simple truth is, running a business is hard work – and that’s when you simply have to concentrate on the day to day aspects. Adding in strategic planning, thinking, working on the business, planning for your growth and all the hundreds of complicated areas that also demand your thoughts can end up demoralising the best of us.

The solution is to discipline yourself into a routine and to stick with it. Work ‘ON’ your business for half a day per month and incorporate planning, reviewing and developing your strategy into this time. Seek out support from a mentor or coach if you struggle with this – not only do they bring the additional discipline to the table; they also have the unblinkered vision that you will always inevitably lack. 

Utilise the links and support provided above and ask for help if you need it – very few of us have ever actually been taught how to run or manage a business. Above all other things, in my opinion, educating business owners is the fundamental area regional enterprise agencies should focus on instead of handing out money or concentrating on 'high growth businesses'! If we all skill up by a small additional amount, think what power this would bring to the region!