Are you worried if your business can survive? - DONT WORRY - IT CAN!

I've been in the business world for over close to 30 years now and held positions with very large international companies, new start up businesses and even a family business. Needless to say I've dealt with my fair share of challenges along the way.

When I took over as Managing Director in my last business, I wondered what the hell I'd started. I knew I couldn't make it on my own, following Covid and Brexit, Supplier shortages, skills shortages I had nothing left in the tank. So I employed a chap called Andy Henderson "the Sherpa Guide". I'd been following Andy's journey for quite some times and heard what he was doing, I liked it. I fancied a bit of that, so approached the Board, my FD at the time was a business coach too and said "why the hell would I bring a coach in, that's what I do". I managed to persuade everyone to at least listen "I am a salesman". Andy visited and talked about vision, clarity and then need for a map (or plan). It was going to cost a lot of money, So I had to be sure (I was). So I made the decisions and we started, it was magic, so simple but so insightful. The Sherpa guide was helping me to find the path.

The plan began to unearth real truths around our collective visions, they weren't aligned. We all wanted different things and none of us knew how we wanted to the company to function, we hadn't had the real conversations "you just don't, your'e too busy stuck in the day to day grind". We continued over a number of weeks and worked on all other aspects of the business, through our long term goals, short term goals, our marketing message, our dream buyers/customers, partnerships, our marketing message, our resources and so on. Eventually after 8-10 weeks of soul searching. We had a plan, a plan that we could share with our teams, to empty our heads into theirs, To share our vision, we built a whole new management structure that didn't rely on directors micromanaging every aspect of the business. We had the answers all that time, we just didn't have a plan.

Success GPS helped me to turn our business around, we now had Vision. An aligned vision, a laser guided focus on exactly what we did, who we did it for and why we were doing it. Our marketing message was clear, we did this for them and this is exactly who we need to sell it too. Our marketing company and recruitment company loved it, they too knew exactly who to look for. The business now didn't need me anymore, in fact it stood even more of a chance of surviving if I wasn't there, it just worked now "like a well oiled machine".

Roll back to July this year, I made a monumental decision to end my 30 yr corporate career. I left the family business that I had been part of for the last 18 years. I had a dream, a dream to help other business owners. On the 1st September I created Forward Thinking - East Lancashire partnering with Andy Henderson and were now on a mission to change the world. With a very clear goal of helping as many other business as possible to avoid some of the crap that we've both dealt with during our career's. I love it, every day.

My new business has FOUR main pillar's

1. Transformation - Working with businesses to develop their Success GPS plan.
2. Accountability - I'll sit on your board for as long as it takes to make sure the plan works.
3. Community - YAB (Your Affordable Board), a community of other business owners. Large and small, to help you along the way, a room full of business owners who will help us all to solve the problems that the plan may have un-earthed. A community of likeminded, positive people who have your back and want you to succeed. Positivity drives growth, it's like a drug (you just need more and more).
4. Recognition - An awards event unlike any other. You can't nominate your self, you cant trick the judges with a mega presentation. Your staff vote, your customers vote and you can only win if you've genuinely "Made A Difference" to someone life or to your customers.

If your business needs help, I'm asking you or telling you, that there's no shame in asking for help. If your like me, I bet your tanks empty too. We've all gone through so much over the last 2-3 years, but there is a way. There's a community building (certainly in Lancashire) of people who want to help, both Myself and Andy offer Success GPS programmes for businesses of all sizes (￡50K-￡200K) (￡100k - ￡2mill) (￡1mill to ￡10mill) it really doesn't matter. The plan is the same plan, just delivered in a different way. We now have YAB with membership growing by the day (3 groups now, 5-6 by the end of the year). This is your time, this is your community, these are the people that will help you to survive.

Reach out for a chat, we want to help and we want to make a difference.

www.forwardthinking.ltd/east-lancashire