Plan for business challenges

Importance of Client Relations

Keep clients satisfied, and watch the success of your business grow. Brookfarm has an individual follow-up system for this reason. “Our customers are an integral part of our business,” says Brook. “We don’t have those systems where people press buttons to talk to machines. We have direct contact with our customers”
For Brookfarm, providing quality products, at the guaranteed time, ensures customers are left with a good impression, and results in return business.

Understanding what customers really want is essential, and the necessary tool can be as simple as a survey.

Finding out your ranking in comparison to the competition, and making changes to your service if necessary, will also help. A major contributor to business failures is a lack of understanding when it comes to client relations and the competition.

“Ninety-nine percent of businesses are still unable to compare key performance components of their business with direct competitors and make critical alterations to make decisions accordingly. The result is tens of thousands of businesses still fail in Australia each year,” says Chris Russell, Business Reporting Bureau CEO. 

Planning for Business Survival

With so many unpredictabilities in the business environment SMEs need to firmly manage the little they can control. “This means putting in place solid cash flow, receivables management and risk mitigation processes.

“SMEs should delay outlays for as long as possible while encouraging anyone who owes money to pay as rapidly as possible,” says Christian.

Prompt payment requirements include a solid receivables management function that provides clear credit terms, tracks customer payments, and acts against debtors.

“In addition, SMEs should implement simple credit checking processes to ensure they have a thorough understanding of the financial health of their customers. This includes an awareness of customers’ ability and propensity to pay on time,” explains Christian.

“Having a complete picture of business incomings and outgoings, and understanding customers’ financial health will be the key to SME survival in 2008.”
If necessary, enlist the help of a financial advisor to ensure you do have the complete picture, but makes sure you get started today. Create a solid plan to face these factors head-on. And while you should review 2007, don’t dwell on it. SMEs can all learn from Percy Bysshe Shelley; “Fear not from the future, weep not for the past.”

Setting Business Goals

With the New Year comes a brief period of quiet, as the population collectively sighs in relief. It’s all over; at least it is for another year. And this time of year offers the perfect opportunity to look closely at the business and where it’s headed. Use this time to take stock of the year that was, and set solid and achievable goals for the year ahead.

But why is it essential to set goals? “Setting goals is an important initial part of the business planning process,” says Gavan Ord, CPA Australia business policy advisor. “Goals help to clarify what business owners want to achieve and also set the climate for a business plan.”

Reaping the benefits of having a well thought-out plan is Martin Brook, co-founder of Brookfarm, gourmet food manufacturing. Having recently won a Telstra Business of the Year Award, Brook believes it takes serious planning to manage a business and its growth. “Planning is just an integral part of our business. We all need to know how we’re going to get to our destination,” says Brook. “It’s up to us to create this roadmap and then bring everyone else along on the journey.” And he does appear to be on the right path. “We are growing so quickly we have to continually review our business plan, and adapt to the circumstances that we find ourselves in due to our expansion,” he explains. “We review our business plan every six months.”

Frequent reviews are productive, especially when it comes to the budget. While budgeting isn’t everything, it does draw the boundaries of your business’s capabilities, so you’ll want to make sure it’s on track. Ord advises start-ups to review their budget monthly. “Or if a business is going through cash flow problems, you might want to look at your budget more regularly than once a month,” he adds. “After two or three years, you might review it every six months, or every year.”