The Magazine for Business Owners
FLUIDBUSINESS MAGAZINE
SUMMER 17
MAKING BUSINESS DECISIONS: FACT OR OPINION? DISCOVER THE 4 PROVEN STEPS TO BECOMING THE BEST Become the best and achieve goals every time.
LEARN HOW SMES CAN PREPARE FOR UNPREDICTABLE TIMES TURN TO PAGE 8
Scale up with the ONE PAGE STRATEGIC PLAN
CREATE THE BUSINESS
YOU WANT
CONTENTS
04 FLUID INSIDER
A run down of what has been going on over the last quarter at Fluid Business.
05 COACH FOCUS
Our expert coaches lend their advice for your business needs.
06 SCALE YOUR BUSINESS: ONE PAGE STRATEGIC PLAN
Learn about Gazelles International and the proven planning process trusted by high-growth businesses.
08 PLANNING FOR THE UNPREDICTABLE How can SMEs harness their strength and prepare for the future?
10 FOUR STEPS TO BE THE BEST
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An article written by Spencer Gore, MD of the European Medical Journal. He shares the techniques that help him become the best.
STRATEGIC PLANNING IN 8 STEPS
16 IS IT FACT OR IS IT OPINION?
Eight areas that business owners need to consider and include when forming and implementing a strategic plan.
From The Levels Blog, Ray Moore explains why business decisions should be based on facts.
18 THE MOST IMPORTANT
QUESTIONS FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
Do you have your End in Mind? These questions will get you thinking about what you really want for yourself and your business.
NATALIE MOORE Managing Director of Fluid Business Coaching. Welcome to the Summer edition of the Fluid Business Magazine. In this edition the theme is strategic planning. A strategic plan is the road map of how you are going to take your business from one level to the next. It’s the plan of how you will implement and manage the medium- to long-term strategic direction of your business. But, a large proportion of SMEs don’t have a strategic plan. In this issue you’ll find an article covering techniques to help you plan for uncertain times and learn why SMEs are well suited to change.
As a Gazelles' Certified Coaching Practice, we’re taking a look at the Four Decisions framework and how the One Page Strategic Plan could transform your business processes. In this edition, we've also featured an article written by Spencer Gore (MD of the European Medical Journal) - he's taking on a great challenge this year and has written an article on how he ensures sucess. Have a great and successful quarter.
Natalie Moore FBM SUMMER 2017 | 3
FLUID INSIDER!
Fluid Insider ByCHARLOTTE RICHARDSON-BECK MARKETING EXECUTIVE
A look into what Fluid Business Coaching has been doing over the last quarter and a sneak peak into what to expect in the next three months.
I
t’s been a busy and exciting start to the year that looks set to continue through 2017! Here are some of the highlights from Q2:
We’ve launched the newly revised versions of Ray’s books: ‘Can your business step up to the growth challenge?’ and ‘Can YOU step up to the growth challenge?’ Ray’s books are the business owner’s handbook to growing and balancing business. Details on how to get a free copy (+P&P) are on the back page!
DON’T MISS Meet the coaches and find out how business coaching could transform your business in our new short video. Click to watch!
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Andy Sleet has achieved Gazelles International Coaching Certification, joining fellow business coach Peter Boolkah. Find out more about Gazelles International on pages 6-7. The Fluid Business Academy is now live! There are interactive online courses available designed to help business owners develop and build the business they desire. A short program about the Fluid Business Academy will soon be live on Property TV (Sky 198) - make sure you check it out.
Have a great and successful quarter.
Charlotte
COACH QUESTION TIME: WHY DOES MY BUSINESS NEED A STRATEGIC PLAN?
How can we help you?
ANDY SLEET Preparing your business for stability and sale? Speak to Andy
HUGO HEIJ Lead and develop your team on an international scale with Hugo
ANDYSLEET@FLUIDBUSINESS.CO.UK
PETER BOOLKAH Experiencing rapid growth? Speak to Peter
HUGOHEIJ@FLUIDBUSINESS.CO.UK
PETERBOOLKAH@FLUIDBUSINESS.CO.UK
A:
A:
A:
The strategy not only gives a clear view of how you’re going to achieve your goals, but it makes it a lot simpler to communicate this with your team.
Once you define your strategic direction, you can get operations, sales, marketing, administration, manufacturing, and all other departments moving together to achieve your business’s goals.
Your strategy asks the question, “How can we align our team and allocate our resources to maximise our strategic success?”
A strategy sets the direction and priorities for your business. The planning process will define your view of success and which activities are necessary to achieve this success.
If you find that you have departments working to achieve different aims, or going in different directions, you need a strategy.
Many businesses have their team putting their best efforts into areas that have little or no effect on strategic success; their activities aren’t aligned with the priorities.
RAY MOORE MANAGING COACH Expert in family business, succession planning and author. RAYMOORE@FLUIDBUSINESS.CO.UK
A:
Many business owners have their strategy in their mind; they know where their business needs to be and how to get there. But, the strategy isn’t clear for others to see and it hasn’t been communicated thoroughly. Therefore, the business isn’t moving forward together as a whole.
maximise your success in getting there.
When your staff, suppliers, and even customers know where you’re going, you open the door to greater opportunities and allow people to help you
The business owner plays a critical and important role in identifying the strategic direction, planning the strategy and the implementation phase.
The business owner’s role doesn’t stop at planning. Your role is also to drive the change and implementation of the strategy. Without the commitment and buy-in from your team the chance of success is much less.
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FEATURE
SCALE YOUR BUSINESS WITH A ONE PAGE STRATEGIC PLAN Fluid Business Coaching is the only Gazelles International certified Coaching Practice in the UK. Find out how the Gazelles Four Decisions framework can help your business.
DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR BUSINESS IS GOING?
What is Gazelles International?
The Four Decisions™ Tools
Gazelles International is a worldwide coaching organisation. Certified Coaches work with business leaders across the globe to help them successfully grow their companies.
Verne Harnish originally developed the The Four DecisionsTM in his book ‘Mastering the Rockefellar Habits.’ The Four Decisions refers to the critical decisions that growth companies must get right to maximise revenue, profit and time.
Gazelles International is based on the Four Decisions framework - People, Strategy, Execution and Cash. Fluid Business Coaching is the only Gazelles Certified Business Coaching Practice in the UK with both Peter Boolkah and Andy Sleet being certified. They join just four other coaches in the UK and 110 coaches worldwide. Gazelles International Coaches are specifically and rigorously trained to use tools that support these decisions. Each of the tools are designed to help business owners and leadership teams to focus and grow their business.
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People - Are your team contributing to moving your business forward? If you could start your business again, would you rehire? Strategy - Do you have a comprehensive and sustainable revenue-growth strategy in place? Execution - A common challenge in high-growth companies is the gradual deterioration of the execution of key activities. Cash - Growth consumes a lot of cash. Are you aware of the time between investment and return?
The ‘One Page Strategic Plan’ is the culmination of each of the four critical business decisions. It’s a powerful tool that enables you to refine your vision and strategy into an actionable one-page plan. The plan is proven to assist business owners and their leadership teams to become aligned, focused and strategically working towards the common goal.
If you’re thinking about beginning the process of strategic planning, here are three areas to focus on. Strategic Priorities Identify the direction of your business going forward. Then decide on a number of quarterly objectives aligned to the long-term goal. This method enables you to have immediate focus on the drivers of growth and manage the direction of the business. Resource Allocation Accountability is key. Your employees need to share the vision and help to achieve the quarterly objectives. This will enable you to see the areas where more resources are necessary and which resources can be reallocated. Financial Viability By exploring the key financial drivers of your business, it will provide a clearer picture of your priorities and resource allocation.
FBP 054: Scaling Up - People As a business starts to scale up it is important to get your people in the right roles with the right responsibilities. fluidbusiness.co.uk/054
FBP 055: Scaling Up - Strategy Make sure your company has a 3-5 year plan because you need to know where you are going. fluidbusiness.co.uk/055
FBP 056: Scaling Up - Execution Execution challenges surface when your increasing revenues are not generating increasing profits. fluidbusiness.co.uk/056
FBP 057: Scaling Up - Cash Cash is the oxygen that fuels growth. But what many business owners don't realise is that you can grow at such a rate that you run out of cash.
“A UNIQUE FOCUS ON GROWTH”
The plan has a unique focus on growth. It is specifically designed for strategic planning and strategy execution with priorities set around the Four Decisions framework.
In a four-part series, Peter Boolkah covers the Four Decisions framework in greater detail. The episodes are available on the Fluid Business Coaching website, SoundCloud or iTunes.
fluidbusiness.co.uk/057
If you’d like to discuss strategic planning with one of our Gazelles Certified Coaches, call us on 01245 423377.
FBM SUMMER 2017 | 7
COACHING FOCUS
PLANNING FOR THE UNPREDICTABLE In uncertain times it can be difficult to plan, but it’s time for SMEs to harness their strengths and future-proof themselves against the unknown.
FLUID BUSINESS COACHING www.fluidbusiness.co.uk
The UK faces uncertain political and economical times. Despite employment rates being at the lowest level since 1975 (ONS) and the International Monetary Fund reporting that the UK economy is performing much stronger than expected, consumer spending grew at the slowest annual pace for three years (Reuters). More than 99% of private-sector businesses are SMEs, but figures
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suggest that four in 10 fail within the first five years. It’s time for SMEs to harness their strengths and thrive in the new world of change. So, how can we plan for both new opportunities and unexpected disruptors? Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can prepare your business for the unpredictable:
Strategic planning Your strategic plan will be broken down into smaller goals which help you to reach your long-term goal. The benefit of this is that smaller goals are flexible and can be adjusted to suit changes in the environment. Most opportunities and disruptors are unlikely to have been on your radar even a few months ago. However, by embracing your strategic plan you will have a strong foundation to tackle unexpected events. You’ll begin to find that opportunities and wins are not random; they’re the result of the implementation of your strategic plan. Likewise, you’ll be more prepared for disruptors. The planning process and ongoing reviews are the time to consider ‘what ifs?’ By considering worst-case scenarios you’ll have a better understanding of how your business would cope and what measures need to be put in place. Regular reviews On a regular basis, consider what’s going well and what’s not. Regular reviews with your team enable you to identify potential opportunities and proactively adapt and allocate resources in order to make the most from it. It can also help identify what’s not working and potential threats to your strategic plan. Addressing these disruptors enables you to take steps forward and in the right direction.
Agility of SMEs
Andy Sleet Fluid Business Coach
Small- to medium-sized businesses have the ability to react quickly to emerging circumstances which gives them an advantage over larger businesses. This ability to react quickly and adapt to circumstances enables business owners to become more efficient and effective in their operations. Through strategic planning and regular reviews, SME business owners should have a much clearer oversight of business and so adjusting strategic priorities, resource allocation and financial investments is much simpler. Discuss planning with one of our expert business coaches. Visit fluidbusiness.co.uk or call 01245 423377. FBM SUMMER 2017 | 9
FEATURE
FOUR STEPS TO BE THE BEST Written by Spencer Gore, Managing Director at the European Medical Journal ‘The go-to place for healthcare professionals’.
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FBM SUMMER 2017 | 11
Written by Spencer Gore, Managing Director of the European Medical Journal. emjreviews.com
So, how do I become the best? The simple answer is, there is no right or wrong way to become the best, it’s simply whatever works best for you. However, when I started looking at some of the people I regard as the best, whether that’s in business, sport, or any walk of life, I found there are a great deal of similarities. The key is to spot these and use the ones that work best for you. What I’ve found is, if you want to be the best or even try to be the best you need to do these four things. Have the vision Firstly, have the vision, i.e. Choose what it is you want to be the best at and have a clear and defined reason as to why you want to achieve that. This is your BHAG as it’s often called or Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Define your best Secondly, understand what your definition of ‘the best’ is. Do you mean the best in the 12 | FBM SUMMER 2017
world in the case of someone like Mo Farah, the best in your city, company, or just the best you can be? It doesn’t matter what it is but you must have a defined target. Plan The third thing you then need is a plan. This, I split into two. The first part is the plan on how I’m going to achieve the goal, the second part is benchmarking the plan. For your plan, work backwards from the goal to the start of your challenge and work out realistic but stretch targets for you to achieve on the way. For me, the more detailed these are the better. For example, our annual revenue target is broken down to weekly targets and daily KPIs to hit these. This way I can see very early on if we are going off track and make small adjustments; rather than finding out at the end of the month we missed a target but it’s too late to adapt.
The second part is to work out some benchmarks along the way to ensure all the hard work and training we are doing is actually working and having a positive effect. If it is, we continue with the plan, if not you can re-evaluate. Support network The fourth thing I do and I can’t emphasise this strongly enough, is to get the right team in place. My job as the leader of a specific challenge is to
be the ‘conductor’ and make sure I have the best possible ‘musicians’ in place to produce the best results. Now that doesn’t just mean internally. So again, for our revenue target, of course I have to have a great team in-house from Sales to Client Services and Marketing, but also the team publishing our journals, we need the best editors, production staff and designers as well as great support staff.
But what I also need is external support to challenge, push and support me. For this I use the team at Fluid Business Coaching (predominantly Andy Sleet) who coaches me weekly. I also spend two days a quarter with him and the rest of our Senior Management Team looking at our results against our benchmarks and evaluating our plans and strategy for the next quarter. I also meet with Steve Clarke and his Platinum Mastermind
Group for a day each month to increase my own personal development and learn from other business leaders often in a similar boat to me. Along with this I have a couple of mentors I see on an ad-hoc basis as and when needed, so I am constantly learning, innovating and growing as an individual. For me to succeed at any challenge I must do all four of these things and generally if I do them I succeed at the challenge.
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STRATEGIC PLANNING IN 8 STEPS Make a success of the planning process with these eight planning tips. It can be challenging to form your strategic plan as there are a lot of areas that need attention. It’s good to know that your strategic plan has a streamlined focus on your ‘End in mind’ and paves the path on how you will reach that end goal. Here are eight crucial steps that must be followed when forming a strategic plan. End in mind Where is it you want to be in the future? You couldn’t plan a car journey if you didn’t know exactly where you were going; and the same applies to strategy. Define your end goal and your strategic plan will evolve into the road map of how you are going to reach your goal. Current situation Look at your strengths and weaknesses, and possible opportunities and threats. This will give you a snap shot of where you are now. Also take a look around. What external factors could impact your business? It’s important to keep an eye on trends in your industry as they provide an insight into the future direction of your business. This is especially important when forming your strategic plan as these trends and changes could become disruptors. Input from the team Although the business owner should drive the strategic plan, a strong leadership team should also contribute and help to build a robust plan. Include people from across the business in the planning process, this will help you to gain a more realistic perspective into each area. Preparing for change Keep everyone in your business up-todate with the planning process. Thorough planning will challenge all business operations, and everyone within the business needs to be open minded to changing the way things are done.
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Priorities and timescale Identify which activities will have the biggest impact in achieving your end goal with the least amount of resources. These priority activities should become the primary focus in your business. Allocate resources in line with the impact that the activity or change will have on achieving the end goal. It’s also important to give each of these milestones an achievable timescale so that progress can be monitored and any necessary adjustments can be made in order for the overall plan to succeed.
Accountability Develop an accountability process based on regular strategic reviews. Although the business owner is accountable for the ultimate sucess of the plan, it’s a good idea for each member of the leadership team to take responsibility for a section of the plan. You will have a much greater chance for success if key members of your team hold accountability.
“Include people from across the business in the planning process, this will help you to gain a more realistic perspective.”
Implementation and roll out Develop a roll-out strategy to explain the strategic plan to the entire company. Don’t just share the details of the plan, but also involve them in the progress you’re making to create a shared vision. Measure and adapt After the hard work you have put into the plan, one of the most important steps now is to continually review progress. Make adjustments if necessary and don’t be afraid to be flexible as long as you’re going in the right direction.
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IS IT FACT OR IS IT OPINION? By Ray Moore, originally posted on thelevelsblog.com
Imagine a market stallholder who pitches up in a different town each day to sell an array of variously flavoured olives. She has a reliable supplier for her goods, a stream of regular customers and sometimes manages to generate new interest from passers-by. Then, one day, a bigger pitch becomes available in one of the towns she frequents. It’s double the size of her existing pitch, offering our olive lady a great opportunity to expand the business. Now, does she simply accept her previously held opinion that the olive market is thriving, order greater quantities from her olive supplier and carry on doing exactly what she has done so far? Well, the problem with that is that olives can be a bit of an acquired taste and the fact of the matter could be that her particular market for olive sales is already at capacity. It seems as though she will continue to sell the same amount of olives to her regular customers, while having to pay a higher rate for her pitch and probably ending up with a significant amount of stock left over at the end of the day. A path towards ruin looms ahead. To manage the opportunity, the stallholder needs to look at all the facts, taking the time out to find out what other offering her customers might like, along with
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sourcing potential new suppliers and closely examining costs and profitability. This is a great example of the reason business decisions should be based on facts. Opinions can often skew our view of the truth and lead to poor decision making. The opinions are often held because they reinforce the decisions we’ve made. It can be difficult to take off the blinkers and see things from the factual viewpoint. Before making any business decision it’s important to take time to find out the facts. Check our opinions against the facts, then make a decision. If we base decisions on opinions or part-truths you could inadvertently be measuring the wrong KPI (Key Performance Indicator) and driving negative behaviour in your business. This type of decision will have a knock-on affect and it’s unlikely you will ever achieve the desired outcome. It’s easy to skew the facts to match our opinion, but we actually need to allow the facts to shape our opinions. By looking at the facts before making decisions or putting KPIs in place, we can identify where we should really allocate our resources to get the maximum impact.
“Facts help to identify where you need to allocate your resources to get the maximum impact.”
- Ray Moore
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Take some time out to review what it is that you truly want. Think about where you see your business in five years, ten years or twenty years. There is no right or wrong answer but you must be happy with your decision. The main thing is to have a clear destination your ‘End in Mind.' Then you can place your cross marker firmly on the hill so that it is always clearly in your sight. Here are the three most important questions all business owner must be able to answer. Find somewhere quiet, away from any distractions, and ask yourself these questions about your business and your future: 1. In an ideal world, what do you want in life? If you’re having problems coming up with an answer, don’t worry. You are in good company as, from my experience, most business owners can’t answer this simple question either. Most of the time they are just too caught up in the daily ‘doing’ and don’t have time to consider the end goal. Sometimes, they just forget the reason why they ever started doing what they are doing in the first place!
Once again, don’t worry how you are going to get there and ignore all doubts that it will never happen. Also put aside all of your friends and family’s freely given advice. While well-meaning, it is rarely helpful and this is a vision which has to come from you. Now answer this. 3. Is the vision of your life and business much bigger than what you have now? Once you have that clear vision of what you want your life to be like, the next step is to work out how much cash flow you would need to maintain that lifestyle. Don’t forget that the cash flow must be passive, meaning it cannot be so reliant on you to produce it that it hinders you from living your imagined future lifestyle. Basically, the business has to be able to run and be profitable without you there. Having a clearly defined end goal for your business brings so many benefits. With total clarity you can align everything in your business to that goal and this in itself is a very attractive and motivating position for your team.
Go on; take a moment to dream your future...
2. If there were no restrictions and no fear of what the outcome might be, what would your business look like? Just get a picture in your head right now… quick… before reality kicks in!
“Having a clearly defined end goal for your business brings so many benefits.”
- Ray Moore
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