Keep questioning business objectives

Jan 25 2010 By Neil Sowerby, The Journal

THE new year provides a great opportunity to take a step back from your business and assess whether you are heading in the right direction.

Once your company is established and running smoothly, you may be inclined to let things continue as they are, without really checking that you are maximising profits and unlocking your business’s potential.

However, it is vital that practices are continually assessed and that you constantly strive to improve your business performance – minimising costs, maximising profits and actively working towards a clear, defined goal.

After the crucial early stages, you should regularly review your progress, identify how you can make the most of the market position you have established and decide where to take your business next.

Part of this process involves revisiting and updating your business plan with your new strategy in mind. This should allow you to really pinpoint what is needed to reach your business’s objective and will provide the opportunity to look critically at your practices, identifying improved ways of working.

Business Link has a useful guide www.businesslink.gov.uk/northeast which takes you through the business review process, detailing the stages required to assess how well your business is performing, highlighting your strengths and areas that could be improved and suggesting the actions you need to take to implement the improvements that you have identified.

Undertaking a business review may prompt you to consider matters such as:

Business direction – you should look at where you are now, where you want to go over the next three to five years and how you intend to get there.

Your business’s markets – now and in the future, looking at how will they change and what the business needs to do in order to be involved in these sectors.

Gaining a market advantage – exploring how the business can perform better than the competition in its chosen markets.

Resources – what skills, assets, finance, relationships, technical competence and facilities the business needs in order to compete.

Consideration should also be given to the business environment the enterprise is competing in and what external factors may affect the business's ability to compete, as well as how success is being measured. Remember that measures of performance may change as your business matures.

Broadly, regularly asking yourself where is the business now, where is it going and how is it going to get there should help ensure that you have clear goals and that you have taken the necessary steps to prepare your business to meet them.

For more information about reviewing your business performance, you can visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/northeast  or call 0845 600 9 006.

Neil Sowerby, business adviser, Business Link