Business Monitor Continuously invest in your business
The best advice governing investing in your own business is relatively easy: it should be an ongoing activity – it should be under consideration every month of every year. You may not actually do anything for months or even more than a year at a time but it should be part of your ongoing business thinking. Marketing expert Paul Clapham explains further.
reasonable, but itʼs only part of the picture. Discuss this with your accountant and your bank, both of whom should be delighted at the prospect of a growing client and the latter should recognise an additional business opportunity.
W
hen to invest is likely to draw the response ʻwhen weʼve got the moneyʼ. Thatʼs entirely
Organic growth – where you grow the business by doing more of what you are already doing is both satisfying and comfortable – you know exactly what you are about and you probably have some ideas of how to grow. But it often has limitations.
Growth may be prevented by lack of space and /or a lack of alternative premises. This is often regarded as a retailersʼ problem but in my experience it applies to all sectors. Equally if you donʼt like what is available itʼs useless to you. Keep an open mind. Iʼve spoken to a lot of owners of businesses which have grown by adding extra space nearby rather than hunting the holy grail of being under one roof. None of them planned to expand this way but it has invariably worked for them.
Keep updated
Keep your premises updated. This is particularly true for retailers but it applies to everyone. If your premises look a bit down at heel, it doesnʼt matter how brilliant a job you do, some suppliers and prospective customers are going to down value your excellence. Thatʼs a rotten reason to miss out on a new client. I recommend bringing a fresh set of eyes into play. Another small business owner will give you an honest assessment a favour which you can return. You may be absolutely amazed at what someone else sees, hears or smells. Donʼt be tempted to put off this expenditure. A visibly worn carpet could be losing you turnover every week but nobody is going to tell you (except maybe the owner of a carpet business). You can do partial refurbishments over time to keep the standards up without the costs being a cash flow squeeze. I have been recommended a jar of sugar soap – you can clean up the walls with warm water in jig time without actually repainting.
| 30 | February 2018
I would advise making contact with a business transfer agent. If you have someone keeping an eye out on your behalf you are far likelier to find what you want. Perhaps more to the point, you wonʼt miss an opportunity because you were too busy with existing business activity. What other areas of a business demand investment? The first answer is your people. That includes you the business owner. The fastest way to expand a business is to motivate and enable you and your people to make more sales – a statement of the bleedinʼ obvious, but vital to keep top of mind.
Get things sorted
Start with what you personally want or need. Do your sales skills, your merchandising experience and other skills specific to the business still stand up to scrutiny? If not – and that is often the case with people who have been running their own business for some years – get it sorted!
Start by calling upon the skills of your suppliersʼ reps who can retrain you in the above. Itʼs what they are experts at. Non- retailers may find their suppliers are keen to do the same in their different disciplines. Itʼs somewhat embarrassing, perhaps, but it is free.
But you may need training in a whole new skill set. Your existing skills may have been superseded by technological change such that your 18-year-old staff member has more practical knowledge of how the business operates than you do. Thatʼs not a comfortable thought and for sure itʼs a rarity but it can happen. If this proves valuable for you apply it to any other staff members who want their skills updated. Incidentally, you should not be worried about making your staff more skilled and hence more valuable to competitors who will then poach them. If anything, itʼs the other way round. Employers who invest in their staff with training typically report that it makes them more not less loyal. At the same time, failure to invest in your people is a factor in staff disgruntlement which makes them look for a new job. Note that your staff will talk to competitorsʼ employees and they donʼt just want to know about rates of pay. Look hard at the opportunity offered by concessions. If your own premises have the necessary space, could you bring in another business which would attract more and different customers and give someone to share overheads? Might this justify expanding by taking on larger premises than you actually need?
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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