The Watering Hole revamped

Welcome to our new look Watering Hole.? We’re moving to a monthly publication but with twice as much content to help you to plan your business exit journey.?

Kicking off our new edition is an update from our CEO Martin Brown reflecting on the past 12 months at elephants child, what we have learned, how our growth plans have gone, what we are planning for 2025 and how you can grow your business and plan for exit over the next 12 months.?

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Teamwork will make your dream work?

Are your management team helping or hindering your business? Geoff Gwynn - The Business Growth Expert looks at how you can assess your team.?

Tell-tale signs of a weak or untrusted management team are when you get embroiled in the day-to-day operational minutia, where everyone looks at you to solve problems and your role is mainly answering queries and fixing the mistakes made by others.??

Congratulations you have a management job requiring you to run hard to stand still, and about as far away as you can get from the entrepreneurial leadership role you envisaged.??

The opposite happens when you have a solid management structure. Problems get fixed without your involvement, issues get addressed, mistakes happen less frequently, and the leader gets time to think, plan and look to the future.?

If this resonates with you, breaking the cycle of operational chaos is crucial. As Jim Collins suggests in Good to Great, your organisation should ensure that “the right people are doing the right things right.”?

Read more at https://elephants-child.co.uk/2024/09/26/teamwork-will-make-your-dream-work/ ?

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What does it feel like you sell your business?

Selling your business is such a huge undertaking, and while it is possible to do it without external support, it’s much, much easier to get some support along the way, and could make a big difference to the price you achieve and the terms of that payment.?

Within 14 months of working with ThinkSmart we went from growth plan to exit ready to value crystalised!?

Ignition Law

We're delighted to be working with Ignition Law as a trusted partner for our clients. They're a great match with the work that we do to prepare businesses for a successful exit. ? Toby Gowan explains more about what they do and how they help businesses.?

News from the herd?

Chloe Carey Msc Chartered FCIPD is our HR Specialist, she works with a range of businesses delivering strategic HR projects and ongoing tactical HR support and advice.? Chloe is a Fellow of the CIPD with a demonstrable track record in complex employee relations issues, HR strategy, change management and project management.? She works closely with our clients to create and implement their people strategies and ensure that they are ready for the next step in their business journey.? Having worked in HR for over 30 years, and built and sold her own successful HR business in 2019, she’s well placed with her commercial and pragmatic approach to meet the needs of growing businesses. ?She is passionate about technology, systems, process and efficiency and believes that businesses should leverage the technology they have at their disposal to enable their teams to achieve.? ?Her recent projects include:?

• The successful recruitment of Director level senior management teams?

• Creating a sales team bonus structure focusing on business development of Director level team members and the implementation of a CRM system to effectively manage and monitor the team’s activity. ??

• The design and implementation of a SharePoint team site to bring together a remote workforce enabling collaboration and greater productivity.??

To find out more about how Chloe could support your company with your people agenda please get in touch.?

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It’s never too early to think about exiting your business, the sooner you start planning, the more chance you have of achieving the best possible price for your efforts. You manage your business, we’ll manage your business exit. Contact us to find out how.?