Strategies & Systems to Streamline your Business

Welcome to our third blog in our recent series all about the key drivers that ambitious entrepreneurs need to focus on in order to scale up and build real asset value, possibly with an eventual exit in mind.

Today’s latest blog focuses in on the importance of building the necessary strategy, structure and systems to facilitate those ambitious growth plans.

Proven Systems & Processes

Scale Up entrepreneurs universally accept that systems and processes are the essential building blocks of every great organisation. Moreover, when constructed well they become the heartbeat of the organisation and are what ultimately drives superior performance.

By working with a great coach with a proven track record of success they’ll leverage all of their experience to ensure that you are using the very best systems, tools and techniques to scale your business in the most efficient and effective manner.

They’ll recognise the changing needs of the business and have experience of developing systems, processes and reporting that supports your innovation and growth plans.?

Whatever the stage of your business’ growth, as your business grows so do the operational needs of the business.?

Maybe you now need help selecting and deploying one of the best cloud based accounting software packages (Xero /Quickbooks/SAGE) to bring the necessary financial controls to bear, a leading edge workflow management system (Big Change/Commusoft) to improve your team’s productivity or a new CRM solution (Zoho/Microsoft Dynamics/Capsule) to manage your burgeoning customer base? Alternatively, maybe you need help building the HR systems (SAGE/Cake/Engagement Multiplier) to ensure you can manage your growing team from both an operational and engagement perspective? As part of that growth journey perhaps you also need to implement better marketing tools such as Hubspot, Hootsuite or Mailchimp to fuel that consistent pipeline of target-market customers.

Whatever the growth challenges are, a great coach will be able to help you develop and implement the right solutions to take your business to the next level.?

A great executive coach will also understand only too well the complexity & magnitude of decisions that you’re now facing as you scale your business.?

They’ll help you develop strong risk/impact/probability models alongside robust decision-making tools (B.R.A.I.N / T.D.O.D.A.R) to make the right decision for you and your business.?

Because they understand the pressures that running a business places on you and your team and that not everything goes to plan, a great coach will help you develop effective contingency planning tools and techniques to navigate even the most turbulent times.

Moreover, your coach will have acquired a reputation for delivering the required RESULTS time and time again.

Strategic & Operational Acumen

For businesses looking to really scale, strategic planning is crucial. It is however as much about the entrepreneur’s mindset as well as the process itself.?

Whether it’s coming up with what Jim Collins described as an organisation’s BHAG or identifying the scale up opportunities having an experienced mentor alongside you is essential. You’ll be able to tap into their wealth of experience, sidestep mistakes and make important decisions by relying on their extensive knowledge of how things work.?

Strategically, they’ll help you assess the suitability, feasibility & acceptability of different strategic options to achieve your growth targets through tools such as SWOT and PEST. Similarly, by working together you’ll learn how to deploy tools such as the Blue Ocean Strategy Planning in order to create USP’s for your business that gives you a genuine, long-term competitive advantage over your competition as part of your growth plans.?

Operationally, a great coach/mentor will also help you develop the management and leadership skills to run your business more efficiently and more effectively. Together you’ll develop and implement the infrastructure to facilitate your rapid growth ambitions.?

They’ll help you decide what structure suits you and your business best. Maybe that’s a classic hierarchical structure based around a functional or divisional team. Alternatively, maybe your organisation suits a more organic design be it a flat, matrix or indeed network based structure. Whatever the right structure is for you and your business a great coach will also help you manage the change and create the right systems and processes to ensure the organisation and its people realise the growth opportunities.?

With the above in mind, in just about every successful business there’s a great team that underpins the strategy and its organisational structure. By working with a great coach you’ll develop the skills and capabilities to recruit and develop a high performing team through whom your growth ambitions can be realised. They’ll help you design and/or improve your recruitment processes to ensure that you only recruit the very best talent and more importantly still the right talent that not only has the desired skills and experience but also the right values-match with you and your organisation.

They’ll have extensive experience of scaling businesses both through organic and investment routes. They’ll be an invaluable asset in helping you decide which routes are the most attractive and achievable for you and your business.

They’ll equally have experience of developing strategies to exploit new routes to market and develop new markets and territories as part of your overall scale-up plans.?

They’ll have experience of helping businesses just like yours develop strategies to divest themselves of less profitable activities, build a multiple asset base and maximise brand equity & value within a business.

Having helped you select the most appropriate routes forward a great business coach will then not only help you build your winning plan but will also keep you accountable for delivering the required RESULTS.

For many entrepreneurs, the ability to work One on One with an experienced growth expert is often like having an additional director by their side to help them maximise the returns from their business.?

More importantly still – by working directly with one of our growth experts with a proven track record of success all of those aforementioned clients have benefited from their advisors’ strategic and operational knowledge. The net result is that they have managed to avoid the costly and time consuming pitfalls that so many other entrepreneurs sadly succumb to.

Experience has taught us that there are no silver bullets and there is no magic system that can guarantee instant results in business.

That’s not to say that our experienced growth experts don’t value and believe in a systemised and structured approach to assessing the individual needs of you and your business in order to help you develop the appropriate strategy, structure, systems, skills, style, staff and shared values within your organisation to unlock its true potential.

By working One to One with one of our growth experts, together you’ll leverage all of their knowledge and expertise to create a strategic and operational plan that’s bespoke to you and your business with the aim of unlocking your true potential, and ensuring that you reach your specific goals.

We hope that today’s blog has added further weight to the two previous blogs in this current series about how successful entrepreneurs recognise the importance of focusing on key revenue, margin, cashflow drivers alongside robust systems and processes in order to really scale up and build asset value.

DON’T MISS the last part of this four part series where we will be exploring further how and why successful entrepreneurs looking to scale up and/or build an exit plan invest in expert advice.