Is It Time To Take A Fresh Look At Your Business?
Are you feeling frustrated with your business? Is your business struggling to meet its financial targets and plans? Are
there areas of your business that you have been meaning to change for a while? Is your business growing fast but you are
struggling to cope with the growth? When was the last time you really reviewed all aspects of the business? Wherever you
and your business are it may be time to take a fresh look at your business.
Here are some questions (and links to tips and ideas) to help you take a fresh look at your business which you may want
to use to look at specific areas or to review all areas of your business:
Strategy and planning. What is your vision and strategy for the next 3 to 5 years? What is your plan for
this year? What are your key focus and priorities for the business over the next few months and what about this month? Have
you reviewed the business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? What changes have happened in the wider
business world that may impact your strategy and plan? What areas of your strategy and plan do you need to re-look at? You
may want to also read For some tips and ideas read What are the benefits of having a business strategy?
Sales and marketing. What is your sales and marketing plan? How well is your sales and marketing working? Do
you have regular, consistent and effective sales and marketing activity for your business? What changes do you need to make
on sales and marketing? For some tips and ideas read How can you increase your sales?
Customer service. How is your customer service? What is the feedback from your customers? What customer
complaints have you received? When did you last ask your customers for feedback? What areas of your customer service do you
need to improve? For some tips and ideas read What do your customers think about your business?
Products and services, including pricing. Are your products and services right for today's market place and
your customers? What new products and services do you need to introduce? How does your pricing compare to your competitors?
What changes do you need to make to your products, service and pricing?
Competitors. Who are your current competitors? What are the latest developments made by your competitors?
How are your competitors impacting your business? Do you need to make changes as a result of your competitor review? For
some more information read Do you know what your competitors are up to?
Suppliers. How are you getting on with your suppliers? What about the quality, reliability, pricing and
performance of your suppliers? What are you putting up with from your suppliers? Is it time to change any of your suppliers
or make amendments to your existing contracts?
Financial performance. What is the financial performance of your business? How are you performing against
the plan? How often are you reviewing the financial performance, including profitability, balance sheet and cash flow? Are
you running the business in a tax efficient way? When did you last review your business with your accountant? What changes
do you need to make to improve the financial performance of your business?
Productivity. How productive is your business? How do you measure productivity in the business? How can you
improve the productivity of each member of the team and the business as a whole?
Employees and staffing. Is the business under or over resourced? How competitive are your salaries? How are
your staff performing and how motivated are they? What support and training do your team need? What changes do you need to
make on staff and performance management?
Contracts and agreements. Have you got contracts and agreements in place for all your key business
relationships e.g. customers, suppliers, staff etc.? Have you got insurance in place for all the critical areas of your
business? What contracts, agreements and insurance do you need to put in place?
Barriers. What is stopping your business progressing in the direction you want it to go in? What additional
resources e.g. equipment, IT, funding, staffing etc. do you need to put in place to enable your business to meet its plan?
You may want to also read What are the barriers to business growth?
Personal performance. How are you helping or hindering the success of your business? How can you maximise
your personal performance at work and in your business? What changes do you need to make? Read our article for tips in this
area Are you
hindering the success of your business?
Help and support. What external help and support do you use in your business? What other support would you
and your business benefit from?
Author: Liz Makin
Published: March 2016
Makin It Happen has a range of personal development online courses to purchase, created by Liz Makin, including anxiety management, communication, resilience, soft skills, stress management, time management and coaching. Liz Makin also provides personalised business coaching, business mentoring and stress management services to business owners, directors, managers and professionals.
Please email Liz@makinithappen.co.uk to
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mentoring and stress management services for business owners, directors,
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