Horizons Regained

We often focus on setting personal New Year resolutions and goals but what about business goals?

If you work for yourself, January is a good time to take stock and do a business review. It will give you focus over the next few months and the year ahead.

Then, schedule in regular reviews throughout the year (e.g. monthly, quarterly) to check on progress, adjust your plans and re-prioritise where necessary, and of course address any issues and risks.

Not sure where to start? Here is an approach you could use:

1. Identify the top 5 challenges facing your business

Make a list of your challenges and categorise them over different timescales – e.g. over the next 6 months, 12 months, 2-3 years and so on. This will help when you look at priorities.

E.g. cashflow, launch new service, customer retention, attracting new customers etc

2. Analyse your business

There are various tools and techniques available to help you analyse your business and it’s worth doing some research to identify the one’s that will be most useful for you and your business. I have used SWOT and PESTLE as examples below.

- SWOT Analysis

A simple tool for auditing your business.

Strengths and Weaknesses = relate to internal factors

Opportunities and Threats = relate to external factors  

Consider your business against each segment in turn (see table below).

Tip: When using SWOT analysis, consider it against your competitors  e.g. better or worse than your competition

SWOT analysis can be a bit subjective, so use other tools and techniques to supplement your analysis.

Strengths e.g. loyal / returning customers, strong brand, new innovative product	Weaknesses e.g. reliant on labour intensive manual processes, majority of turnover currently comes from one main customer, lack of marketing expertise
Opportunities e.g. strategic alliance, new international market	Threats e.g. new competitor entering market, legal changes

 

- PESTLE Analysis

This stands for – Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, Environmental.

The PESTLE analysis helps you to examine the environmental influences for your business. You can then use the information to guide your strategic decision-making.

The idea is that the better you can review your business in the current environment and assess potential changes, the better you are placed to respond to changes. 

So, think about each influence in turn on your business and note down the current situation and any potential changes you are aware of.

• Political: what’s happening politically in the environment in which you operate, including areas such as tax policy – e.g. standard VAT rate increase to 20% from 4 Jan 2011, changes in government / policy
• Economic: what’s happening within the economy, for example; economic growth/ decline, interest rates, unemployment (local and national), cost of living etc. – e.g. consider the impact of the austerity measures being implemented by the government
• Sociological: what’s happening socially in the markets in which you operate or expect to operate, the cultural norms and expectations, career attitudes e.g. increase in people changing career mid-way through their working life   
• Technological: what’s happening technology-wise which can impact what you do – e.g. social media, gadgets to help with productivity, technology which enables you to provide services to a global market rather than just locally
• Legal: being aware of changes to legislation which could impact your business and / or the products or services you provide e.g. impact on employment, access to resources, taxation etc.
• Environmental: what’s happening with respect to environmental and ecological issues e.g. considering sustainability

Financial position

In addition to the other analysis, ensure you have a good understanding of your current financial position. This will help you to understand your cashflow position, profit margins, funds and resources available to implement any strategies.

Tip: If you work by yourself, you might want to ask for some help – e.g. your accountant, business colleagues to help bring a different perspective and challenge to your thinking and review.

3. Prioritise

Review the challenges and results of your analysis – what do you need to focus on? And when?

The following questions can help you with this. Which will:

• Have the most impact?
• Make the biggest difference?
• Turn the business around?

If you have highlighted certain issues or risks, you will also need to decide how to address them.  (Note: Risk management will be covered in a future blog).

4. Strategies to address the challenges – what action will you take?

Once you have prioritised the areas you want to address, think about the strategies and actions you need to implement, which will feed in to your plan.

A focused plan should include (I have used an example of improving cashflow below):

• Area to address e.g. improve cashflow
• Strategy / key action – description of the main actions you will take e.g.   
  • Implement income management policy and process   
  • Review payment terms negotiated with suppliers
• Key deadline  – when will you complete the action(s) – be specific and realistic (e.g. produce and implement income management policy and process – by 28 Feb 2011)
• Detailed actions – this is when you break the main action in to smaller manageable chunks with timelines e.g. to implement the income management policy and process you will need to:
  • By 15 Jan – complete 1^st action
  • By 20 Jan – complete 2^nd action
  • By 22 Jan – complete 3^rd action
  • And so on…
  • By 28 Feb 2011 – income management policy and process implemented and working
• Resources – what resources do you need to complete your actions e.g. advice from accountant, research
• Dependencies – consider if any actions are dependent on another e.g. do you need to complete one action before you can start another? If this is the case, then you need to ensure you monitor progress on those quite closely, so that your timelines don’t slip. 
• Overall plan – remember to pull together an overall plan for all your strategies and actions, which will help you to understand all your priorities and commitments over the next few months / year and so on. You can use your plan to monitor progress and adjust accordingly, as things change.  It will ensure you retain an overall perspective for your business.
• Monitor and Review – schedule in regular review points, so that you monitor and review progress against your plan and flag up any delays or issues that need addressing in good time. Determine any relevant action required.

Schedule in business reviews – it’s useful to schedule in regular business reviews, to enable you to consider the latest factors and influences for your business. This will help you to highlight changes and make you better placed to respond to them.

If you’re running a small businesses with limited staff, a review can help you identify areas where you might need to seek additional support e.g. marketing, financial, legal or even admin support, to release your time to concentrate on managing the business.

I hope these suggestions and ideas have helped you to start thinking about your business review.

Why not make a start today, by making a list of those top 5 challenges facing your business. 

Horizons Regained helps and supports individuals and organisations to embrace change. We specialise in providing change management support for: systems implementation, business process improvement and organisational restructuring.

To find out more contact Joanna Puczkowski for a free consultation on Tel. 07855 369516 / Tel. 020 8505 2316 or visit the website Horizons Regained

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Why not download our FREE  e-book – “Horizons Regained – Discover 9 Ways to Inspire, Motivate and Support You in Achieving Your Goals” from our website

 

With Christmas just around the corner, I got to thinking about the things that make Christmas special for me and one of the things that came to mind was “tradition”.

Although I was born in the UK, having Polish parents, I grew up celebrating “Wigilia” or the Christmas Eve supper with my family.  The Christmas Eve supper is traditionally the most festive and important evenings. I remember there was always a build up to the evening. We would go out and choose the Christmas tree (“choinka”), which we would all help to decorate. And we would help my mum to prepare the various dishes for the supper. The table was laid with a white tablecloth, with an extra place set for an unexpected guest.

We would wait for the first star (or “gwiazdka”) to appear in the sky, in order to start the supper. Before sitting down at the table, it was traditional to share an “oplatek” or wafer with each member of the family and wish them good health, success and happiness for the coming year.  The supper is a meat-free meal made up of a number of dishes including soup (often beetroot), pickled herrings (sledzie), carp, pierogi  (half circular stuffed dumplings), compotes of dried plums, poppy seed cake.

We would listen to Polish Christmas Carols (“koledy”) and after the supper, we would exchange gifts that had been placed under the Christmas tree. Then we would attend midnight mass (“pasterka”), where we would meet up with other family members and friends.

The whole evening was about spending time with the family and everyone helping to make the evening a special one.

I still love the build up to Christmas, going out to choose a Christmas tree, attending a carol service, baking, preparing the Christmas meal, a festive walk. And I love starting the New Year by listening to the New Year’s Day concert from Vienna, a tradition I started a few years ago.

We probably all grew up with certain Christmas traditions and I’m sure in many cases, we continue them with our parents, grandparents, siblings and friends.  If you’ve started your own family, then why not think about forming your own traditions, which will be special to you. Whether it’s attending a family carol service, making your homemade Christmas cake, taking it in turns to host a Christmas get together with your friends or staying at home on Boxing Day and just being together, I’m sure you will find a tradition that suits you. 

Just ask yourself – “What could I do to make Christmas special for me and my family?” and make it the start of a new tradition.

Remember to let us know about your Christmas traditions!

Merry Christmas or Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodeznia (as they say in Poland)

Wishing you peace, health and happiness over the festive season and the the coming year.

Horizons Regained helps and supports individuals to regain their horizons, a new sense of energy, enthusiasm and passion for life. We specialise in helping and supporting women to address major changes at different stages of their lives, to create a life they love. We especially love helping you when you are: facing redundancy (or been made redundant), considering a career change, planning your life “after retirement”. We are here to help and support you on your journey.

To find out more contact Joanna Puczkowski for a free consultation on Tel. 07855 369516 / Tel. 020 8505 2316 or visit the website Horizons Regained

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Why not download our FREE  e-book – “Horizons Regained – Discover 9 Ways to Inspire, Motivate and Support You in Achieving Your Goals” from our website

I help and support organisations to make and deal with change related to organisational structures, policies, people, processes and systems. During those change projects, I often get involved in helping organisations to review their business processes.

So what can business process reviews help to identify? Well, a whole host of things. I have listed below the 5 common themes I come across, together with different examples and illustrations. Whether you’re a micro, SME or large corporate, the common themes are often relevant, so read on and see if they sound familiar. 

1. Processes not aligned to business strategy and objectives

In this case, an organisation will be carrying out processes which do not contribute to achieving their strategy and objectives.

For example – an organisation’s strategy and objectives will often change, to adapt to changing circumstances but often the processes are overlooked and remain the same. There needs to be a link between an organisation’s vision, strategy, objectives and business processes, to ensure they are reviewed accordingly. Business processes should always be up to date to support the organisation in achieving its strategy and objectives.

2. Inefficiencies / not using resources effectively due to:

duplication of effort - e.g. a number of people within an organisation or even a team, carrying out the same processes / tasks. For example – organisations often maintain various sources of customer information instead of maintaining one source e.g. databases, spreadsheets and so on, where the information is never up to date. One organisation identified around 50 different “known” sources of customer information and was implementing a new customer relationship management system to have a single version. 

using manual processes which could be automated – I often come across processes which consist of pieces of paper moving from one team to another, which not only takes time but also leaves scope for papers getting lost and isn’t very environmentally friendly either. Organisations can be looking at ways to further streamline and automate their processes, whilst reducing or eliminating the need for paperwork (e.g. use of online workflow).

re-work due to errors through lack of training / policies – this is a very common theme especially due to lack of or insufficient training. Staff are often asked to perform a task without having received any training or have been trained in their part of the process but not the whole end to end process. This means they don’t have an understanding of how a whole process fits together. A small mistake at one point of the process, can create additional work further along, which then needs correcting. Similarly, staff who don’t follow a company policy or if there is no policy in place, can lead to processes not being followed correctly or processes being “made up”, resulting in errors.
Time spent correcting mistakes is a waste of valuable time and effort or worst case scenario could result in fines / penalties or risk to reputation.

non-value added steps - for example organisations might be using a number of different systems that don’t provide an integrated solution, which often means manual intervention at some point. This leaves room for mistakes and so they end up spending a lot of time and effort reconciling data between the systems. 

Another example I have come across – someone spending a few days each month collating information to produce a monthly report which was sent round to various people. It turned out that no one ever looked at the report, it just got filed away. Things had moved on and the report was obsolete but no one had bothered to tell the person preparing it. Equally, the person never thought to ask why they never received any feedback.

spending time on activities outside the core business – in this case, carrying out processes which are outside your core expertise. This is relevant to smaller and larger businesses. For example an accountant running their own practice might be spending their valuable time on PR and marketing, instead of on client work. In reality, they would be better off engaging an expert in that field to do the PR and marketing for them, whilst they spend their time on their core business.

bottlenecks – this is when a process gets stuck / held up along the way for one reason or another. For example, a decision needs to be made and someone is on holiday, a piece of paper gets lost in the process, someone is unable to complete a process because they are waiting for an additional piece of information.

For a smaller business, an example here could be where a business owner “wears lots of hats”, gets tied up in the day to day work and does not make time to produce and send out invoices after the work has been completed. This in turn has an impact on their cashflow. Or perhaps engaging an answering service to pick up your calls and then not making time to follow up on potential leads.

lack of standard processes – it’s common to come across a team responsible for carrying out a particular process within an organisation, with every single member of that team performing the process in a slightly different way. This often happens because everyone ends up finding a slightly different way of doing something (they tweak the process here and there to make life easier) then they train the next person and so it goes on. Having standard processes makes it easier to train new staff, ensures consistency within the organisation (e.g. customer gets the same experience), and allows for more flexible working including providing holiday and sickness cover.

3. Historical – “we’ve always done it like this”

For example – a task / process has been carried out for many years and no one has questioned its purpose or how it’s carried out during that time.

Another example – is where a small business started out with simple processes, the business has grown, but the processes haven’t changed or evolved to meet the growing needs of the business.

4. One size fits all – “no it doesn’t”

This is where organisations try to use one process for all situations and end up with very cumbersome processes, to meet all requirements.

Do you remember a time when you used to have to wait to get an insurance quote and get it approved? Now we can go online or phone up, get a quote, get it approved and processed in a matter of minutes. Of course, the more complicated scenarios might still require the need for additional approval from an underwriter but the majority of cases can be approved there and then because of the systems the insurance companies have in place.
This is a great example of where simple, straight forward cases can follow a quick approval process. Whereas, anything more complicated would follow a different process. This ensures the simple cases don’t get held up and the more complicated cases are gieven the attention they require . 

5. Lack of controls / separation of duties

It’s amazing how many businesses and organisations think they have suitable and appropriate controls in place, when sometimes they don’t.

For example, an organisation will be relying on a number of signatures on a piece of paper as a control – but the people signing and authorising an invoice for payment, often don’t know enough about the situation to authorise it in the first place.

Or reviewing and signing off a bank reconciliation – does the person doing this actually understand enough about the business and what they are looking for, to identify any potential issues?

Another example is where the same person is involved in a process from start to finish, with no separation of duties. Where this involves expenditure for example, this could mean a conflict of interests and potentially leave the company exposed to fraud.

So do any of these sound familiar? Can you recognise these themes? Have the examples made you think about your organisation?

I hope the examples above have helped to illustrate how business process reviews could help you and your organisation (large or small) to identify areas for making improvements. Next time we’ll look at some key questions, to help you move forward with your review process.

In the meantime, if you would like to know more, please feel free to contact us.

Horizons Regained supporting change in your organisation 

Horizons Regained uses a “coaching style” approach to consultancy. This helps you to achieve results whilst enabling your staff to learn through their experience, to equip them with the tools and techniques they need to address future changes and challenges. So it’s about empowerment and transition of skills and RESULTS for your organisation!

• Are you undertaking / about to undertake a change within your organisation?
• Do you need support with your change programme?
• Do you need help to carry out your business process reviews?

If you answered “yes” to these questions, then why not contact Joanna Puczkowski for a free confidential consultation.            

Contact us on: Tel. 020 8505 2316 / Mobile. 07855 369516  or via the website

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Whilst on a hiking holiday in Austria last week, I came across a book “Out of the Head and into the Heart” by Franz X. Buhler which was full of inspiring thoughts, poems and quotes. Yes it snowed in Austria in August on one of the days (see below), so I had time to catch up on some reading! One of the poems which really stood out for me was “Take your time”. It really hit the spot during my holiday and I thought I would share it with you. Enjoy!

“Take your time” – Unknown

Take your time to work,
it is the price of success.
Take your time to think,
it is the source of power.
Take your time to play,
it is the secret of youth.
Take your time to read,
it is the fundamental of knowledge.
Take your time to be friendly,
it is the gate to being happy.
Take your time to dream,
it leads the way to the stars.
Take your time to love,
it is the real joie de vivre.
Take your time to be merry,
it is the music of the soul.
Take your time.

Photograph – by kind permission from Andy Brown, taken Aug 2010 - Saalbach / Hinterglemm, Austria

Horizons Regained helps and supports individuals to regain their horizons, a new sense of energy, enthusiasm and passion for life. We specialise in helping and supporting women to address major changes at different stages of their lives, to create a life they love. We especially love helping you when you are: facing redundancy (or been made redundant), considering a career change, planning your life “after retirement”. We are here to help and support you on your journey.

To find out more contact Joanna Puczkowski for a free consultation on Tel. 07855 369516 / Tel. 020 8505 2316 or visit the website Horizons Regained

Follow on Twitter

Why not download our FREE  e-book – “Horizons Regained – Discover 9 Ways to Inspire, Motivate and Support You in Achieving Your Goals” from our website

“Perseverance opens up treasures which bring perennial joy.” Mohandas Gandhi

A few years ago, whilst on holiday in Kenya, I was lucky to be able to observe the local weaver bird at close quarters, in the grounds of the hotel. It was the mating season and the male birds were weaving nests to attract the females. I was amazed how much time, effort and determination went in to building each nest. The birds weave their nests on branches and it all starts with finding that first perfect blade of grass, to start the weaving process. As I observed, I noticed a bird could spend several hours flying backwards and forwards, looking for and trying out different blades of grass, in order to find that perfect one.

Watching the birds in action, it made me think how often we decide on a goal we want to achieve but then all too quickly give up at the first hurdle because suddenly, it seems too difficult or something gets in the way.

So next time you start on your journey to achieve one of your goals, think about the weaver bird and don’t give up at the first hurdle. Remember, just like the weaver birds, you can change tact and do something differently, to help you achieve that goal in the end.

After all, if the weaver birds gave up that easily, the end result just wouldn’t be the same!

Summary considerations

1. Don’t give up at the first hurdle
2. Make changes to your plan to help you on the way
3. If something is stopping you from moving forward, identify that something and take action to address it

Horizons Regained helps and supports individuals to regain their horizons, a new sense of energy, enthusiasm and passion for life. We specialise in helping and supporting women to address major changes at different stages of their lives, to create a life they love. We especially love helping you when you are: facing redundancy (or been made redundant), considering a career change, planning your life “after retirement”. We are here to help and support you on your journey.

To find out more contact Joanna Puczkowski for a free consultation on Tel. 07855 369516 / Tel. 020 8505 2316 or visit the website Horizons Regained

Follow on Twitter

Why not download our FREE  e-book – “Horizons Regained – Discover 9 Ways to Inspire, Motivate and Support You in Achieving Your Goals” from our website