Business Advisory
It's so easy in business to be too busy to see where you're going. As Michael Gerber says, most entrepreneurs within a family business are in there just 'doing it, doing it, doing it', they don’t stand back to see where their business is heading – or what the current industry and business conditions are.
The services 4Front offer are designed to:
- Work with the business owner to develop a simple but effective roadmap for the future (Business Plan)
- Track their business against the competition (Benchmarking)
- Allow business owners to stand back from their business, to be objective and to spend time refining and developing their strategy (Board of Advice)
- Manage the business using key performance indicators, not by the balance of the bank account (Cashflows/Budgets)
- Provide a dynamic dashboard showing as much information as is required for a business owner to ensure the business stays on track (Electronic Dashboard).
As they say, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. It is critical in these times to have a simple but effective business plan. It should address the 4 main areas of:
- People
- Strategy
- Execution
- Cash.
We recommend using the 'One Page Strategic Plan' as the blueprint for the decisions within the business.
Do you know how you are going in comparison to other businesses? We can benchmark your financial data with the leading businesses in the same or similar industries. This enables business owners to see where they can improve their business in a multitude of different ways.
One of our most popular services is to provide a board of advice. This is where we meet with our clients on a monthly or quarterly basis. We follow an agenda and review the results for the last quarter / month and then discuss the budget and strategy for the next 3 – 6 months.
We can discuss anything to do with your business – it is your time to stand back from your business and look at it objectively.
Our clients have found this invaluable since they find themselves so often just working in it. Following the meeting we issue an action report – this is a list of all actions which need to be completed prior to the next meeting.
Our clients enjoy this accountability.
The preparation of cashflows and budgets is a critical part of any business’ planning. It is imperative that the cashflow links with the accounting software so that it can be always updated. Budgets should be prepared for the next 12 months. They are then entered into the accounting package and monthly reports are run comparing actuals with budgets.
It is critical to know your businesses numbers. Our first step is to agree with you which numbers and ratios need to be tracked. We then work with you to calculate targets for the different areas. We use “what if” and “goal seeking” software to assist in determining these targets. The dashboard then will link dynamically with your software so that it is always up to date. Thus at any time you can tell whether your business is on track or whether adjustments need to be made.
