The Magazine for Business Owners
FLUIDBUSINESS MAGAZINE
WINTER 17
SEE CLEARLY IN 2018 THE IMPORTANCE OF CLARITY AND UNDERSTANDING.
BREXIT & BUSINESS GROWTH
WHAT ESSEX BUSINESS OWNERS REALLY THINK ABOUT THE BUSINESS OUTLOOK
IS YOUR BUSINESS READY FOR
an economic winter? FIND OUT ON PAGE 8.
25% OFF COURSES AT FLUID BUSINESS ACADEMY USE CODE: MAG25
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in this issue 04 05 06 08 10 14 16 18
Fluid Insider
A run down of 2017 and what we've got in the pipeline for 2018.
Coach Focus
Tips for success in 2018.
Get the most value from 2018
How to make 2018 the most successful year for your business.
Winter is coming for your business. Are you prepared? Peter Boolkah talks about the 'seasons' of business.
Business Outlook 2018
Here's what YOU believe 2018 will hold for small businesses in Essex.
Clarity and Understanding
A look into why understanding your success and skills is so important.
Challenges for Scaling Businesses
We're taking a look at the challeges reported in the Scale Up report 2017.
The Drivers of Business Growth
Taking a closer look at the four drivers of business growth.
A note fr om. .
NATALIE HARIRAM
Managing Director of Fluid Business Coaching. Welcome to the Winter edition of the Fluid Business Magazine. In this edition, we're focusing on how to make a success of 2018. In this magazine you'll find plenty of actionable advice from our business coaches on how to make 2018 the best year for your business. From making a plan to executing the plan, make sure you follow these tips! On page 8, you'll find an article from Peter Boolkah - The Transition Guy. In his article, he shares an insight into the 'seasons' of the economy and find out how prepared your business is for winter.
In this edition, we're also excited to share the results from our 2018 Business Outlook survey. Thanks to all the business owners and leaders that took part and gave us an insight into what the next 12 months looks like for their business. You'll also find our take on insight from other small-business surveys conducted by industry bodies and banks. We hope that 2017 has been a successful year for your business, and that 2018 continues to be good for business!
Natal ie Har iram FBM WINTER 2017 | 3
Fluid Insider A look into the last 12 months at Fluid Business Coaching and a sneak peak into what to expect in 2018.
ByCHARLOTTE RICHARDSON-BECK MARKETING EXECUTIVE
W months.
e've reached the end of another successful year. The end of the year is always a good time to stop, reflect and review the past 12
Here's a brief run down of some of the projects we've completed over the last 12 months. •
•
Launch of the Fluid Business Academy. We've launched four online courses on the Fluid Business Academy. The Academy is for small business owners that want to develop and build their business the right way. Sky TV launch. We teamed up with Property TV (channel 198) to air a series of short TV shows about the Fluid Business Academy.
g n i c u d o r t In LEVELS ASSESSMENT
•
Reached 100 episodes of the Fluid Business Podcast. We've had over 30,000 downloads of the Podcast in 2017!
•
Relaunch of Ray Moore's books. Both of Ray's books have had a refresh and are proving to be as popular as ever. Covering the principles of the Levels Framework for business growth. The books are a must read for business owners.
•
Andy became a certified Gazelles Coach. We're now the only Gazelles' Certified Coaching Practice in the UK, with Peter Boolkah and Andy Sleet both certified.
Here's a sneak peak into something new that coming in the New Year at Fluid Business Coaching:
Get an accurate insight into your business with the Levels Assessment. Using new technology based on the Levels Framework, get an in-depth personal report on you and your business. Find out which areas of your business are out of balance and how to take the next step.
Have a great and successful New Year.
4 | FBM WINTER 2017
Charlotte
COACH QUESTION TIME HOW CAN I MAKE 2018 THE BEST YEAR FOR MY BUSINESS?
Preparing your business for stability and sale? Speak to Andy
Andy Sleet
A: Every year business owners tell me that next year is going to be the best year for their business since records began. I ask what they will do different to last year to make it the best year and that's where they generally go quiet, because their hope relies on a couple of big orders that may come off. So to make this the best year ever we need to have a plan; the plan must contain a list of activities that are going to improve the situation. If the plan is a good one, and we have the dicipline to complete the actions that we have set out, we will make 2018 the best year!
Experiencing rapid growth? Speak to Peter
Peter Boolkah
A: Don't start the New Year without a plan. Have a really good think about what you NEED to do differently to make your business a success. A New Year doesn't mean success, you will need to have a solid plan. This year don't just have a plan, put deadline dates on the key milestones of the plan and make sure you've put time aside. This needs to be focused time where you wont be distracted to make sure the actions get followed through.
RAY MOORE MANAGING COACH Author and expert in family business succession planning.
A:
Of course having a plan is important to making a positive change in 2018. However, execution of the plan is just as important.
Ray Moore
The end of a year is often perceived as a deadline and we say we'll either put it off until the New Year, or set the end of the year as a deadline. But, have you ever noticed the 'holiday time warp?' It's a concept that i've noticed, where a deadline like a holiday or break creates a magic deadline and tasks just get done!
Time doesn't slow down, and we aren't suddently capable of doubling our workload, so why does this happen? What actually happens is 'Productive Avoidance' we proactively avoid those important tasks that we don't want to do, by making ourselves busy with other tasks. This year, start setting deadlines for those tasks that never reach the top of your to do list.
FBM WINTER 2017 | 5
GETTING THE MOST VALUE FROM
As the beginning of a New Year comes closer, it's time to start thinking about how to make positive change in your business.
As 2017 comes to a close, it's that time of year when we start to think forward to a fresh start in the New Year. People make grand resolutions to change something in their lives. Often we hear the words, “New Year, New Me!” It is now the time to review! It’s why, if you are a member of a gym, you will notice that in January the gym is packed. You can’t get on to any of the machines and classes are fully booked. Why? Because of that common New Year’s resolution, “this year I must get myself fit.”
6 | FBM WINTER 2017
The issue is, New Year’s resolutions never seem to last. Statistically, people will stick to their resolutions for, on average, six weeks before throwing in the towel. But, there is a positive spin on the whole New Year thing. New Year’s Day highlights the passage of time. It marks the passing of the last 52 weeks and allows us to welcome the next 52 weeks. Indeed, people often say ‘finally, that year is over things will now get better!’ Putting some mystical relevance to this day. Our fortunes are not going to miraculously change with the change of a year number.
year that you achieved or didn’t achieve? Then, what do you have planned going forward?
Start by taking time to reflect how 2017 went for you and your business. As a natural calendar break, it’s a great time to review the whole year, month by month. What went well, what didn’t go so well? What did you plan at the beginning of the
1. Choose the right reasons
By actually committing this to writing, suddenly you have a log of what has been going on. Initially, you may find this difficult to do; often it’s hard to remember what we did last month, let alone 12 months ago, but by persevering you will discover real value.
To gain and maintain motivation to complete your goal, you need to start with the right reason why.
Then take this idea through into the next 12 months, commit to doing a review on a more regular basis, perhaps weekly, because otherwise, often we can’t remember and time just seems to slip by.
The end of the years marks a clear break and signifies the end of the last 52 weeks, and the beginning of the next 52. Can you remember all of your achievements from January 2017? It’s unlikely that we’re able to remember everything we have changed and achieved over the last 12 months.
"New Year's Day highlights the passage of time." So what can we do that will be useful for our businesses in 2018?
Make your New Year resolutions stick!
With the passing of each year aim to build on the experience you have gained in the last and previous years. Now that is an investment that has real value!
Author and speaker, Simon Sinek, wrote the book 'Start With Why' and the same applies to your New Year resolutions. If your ‘why’ is strong enough and has great importance to you, achieving your goal will become much easier. 2. Keep a log
Stay on top of your goal by keeping a log of your progress. You’ll be able to easily see your progress over time. Even if it feels that you’re not progressing, by writing down the small wins over time, you’ll be able to see how you’ve changed or how your business has evolved. Researchers often suggest that two thirds of businesses that set financial goals find progress a motivating factor. 3. Focus on one thing at a time. Let’s be honest, we’re just not that great at multi-tasking! Having multiple large objectives is unlikely to be achievable and sustainable. Of course, some goals are much more simple and straight forward, but others involve more in depth changes. Ambitious goals require more thought and planning, you’ll need to think through the sub-strategies and the individual changes that will contribute to achieving the overall objective.
FBM WINTER 2017 | 7
PETER BOOLKAH - THE TRANSITION GUY
Winter is coming for your business. Are you prepared?
What does ‘winter is coming’ actually mean? (besides the
phenomenon, almost everyone was struggling, businesses
obvious Game of Thrones reference!) Well, in a typical year,
were failing and those that survived were only just scraping
we have four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter.
by.
Generally, the economy also works in a cycle, like the four seasons of the year. We have period of growth and booming
Spring
business, followed by tougher times and possibly even a crash in the economy. Let’s take a closer look at each of the
By 2009, we entered ‘spring’ and started to see the recovery.
'seasons' in business:
Businesses started to take off again and the economy was improving.
Winter If you think back to the Great Financial Crisis of 2007/2008,
Summer
it was probably the worst financial crisis that this we have
Experts will argue that we’re now in ‘late summer.’ The
experienced since the great depression. It was a global
economy is strong at the moment and business is buoyant
8 | FBM WINTER 2017
– a lot of businesses are the best they’ve ever been!
Preparing for winter
Markets are at their peak, which is a typical sign that we are at the top of the market.
Now what happens in the winter? The banks are not going to lend to you and, if you don't have the capital reserves
Autumn
behind you, it's going make business very hard. So right
So what comes next? In the ‘autumn’ of the economy,
now you've got to say to yourself, what strategies have
things begin to slow down. If you look at the UK property
you got in place to build cash?
market, things are already starting to cool off. There’s been a slow down in the increase of property prices, which is a
One thing I say to any business owner, is to have 10%
great indication that we could be heading towards winter.
of your turnover available in liquid cash. So if your business turns over £1m, make sure that you always have
What does this mean for business owners?
£100,000 in the bank at any given time. This affords you the flexibility to get through.
When you're out there in spring, you need a lot of capital in your business because you're hiring people and you're
Start looking at your balance sheet, and actually say to
having pretty high growth. It's a beautiful time in business
yourself 'is my balance sheet a fortress balance sheet?'
and you're expanding.
This means if you need to, can you access the cash tied up in your balance sheet? Again, many business owners
And that's even further compounded in summer.
have invested a lot of the profits back into the business.
Summer is when we're at our maximum expenditure.
Which is brilliant, but I've come across businesses that
We're growing very fast, we're extremely busy, and it costs
had £4m tied up in their balance sheet - in machinery
a lot of money to hire people in, buy products, equipment
and stock, and it results in the business being cash poor.
and stock. This tends to be when business is at it's fastest. Now, in an economic winter, you can have a £4m balance And then we start heading towards autumn. Now in
sheet, but that's basically worth nothing to you. If you
theory in autumn, business should be quite stable. There
can't access the money tied up in your balance sheet, and
will be growth in business during autumn, but it's not
you need cash to continue trading, you're going out of
going to be quite as pronounced as it is in the summer.
business.
And really, autumn is the time to start thinking about how can we reserve some capital? How do we start building
This is what I mean by winter is coming. So my
money in the business?
questions to you are:
Despite the Great Financial Crisis being ten years ago,
- Have you got a healthy balance sheet? Is there
there are still many businesses that are struggling to
enough liquid cash in your balance sheet?
recover and build up their capital reserves. Unless these businesses start making money soon, they're not going
- Are you holding too much stock? If you're holding
to have enough money to get through the winter. So
too much stock, and you can't get rid of it, that's
as we approach the autumn, it's about saying 'how as a
going to kill your business.
business can I conserve my cash?' - For companies that are really capital intensive, have A lot of business owners don’t think in this way, but the
you got too much tied up in your capital?
question is, if there's a financial downturn, can your business survive for two years? On average if you look at
Now if you want to have a better understanding of your
a recession, they last anything between 12 and 18 month.
balance sheet, or to get the right amount of cash in your
We don't know what the next one will be like, so we don't
business, you need to change your liquidity. Now is the
know what the rules are going to be. But the reality is
time to start thinking about your strategy to make sure
you've got to think whether your business could survive
that when winter comes you and your business are
for two years during a recession.
protected and survive. FBM WINTER 2017 | 9
BUSINESS OUTLOOK 2018 10 | FBM WINTER 2017
FBM WINTER 2017 | 11
BUSINESS OUTLOOK 2018 If one thing is certain, the UK business landscape is due to change in 2018. With the introduction of new legislation such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation and Brexit negotiations in play, uncertainty is on the horizon. But what does this mean for UK SMEs? Research conducted by Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks shows that despite the economic uncertainty, SMEs are displaying confidence, resilience and are focused on business growth. A third of businesses asked said that they would "identify as being in a growth phase." With two thirds of those
businesses having further growth aspirations, despite challenges like Brexit. Research also showed that many small businesses want to grow, but external factors and the economy are influencing the planning priorities. Coping with increasing costs and planning for Brexit were identified as more prominent issues. Based on the findings of this research, we asked 51 business owners their thoughts on how the business landscape would change for them over the next 12 months. Here's what we found!
Business Growth According to the research by Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, a third of SMEs identify as being in a growth phase. Two thirds of those companies have further growth aspiration despite economic uncertainty and Brexit. Supporting this was the result that all of the small businesses we asked, planned to expand their team in 2018 and recruit for new roles. In the past two years there has been a clear shift in recruitment methods. More and more businesses are turning
away from traditional channels and beginning to adopt the use of social media like Twitter and LinkedIn. Infrastructure, including roads and railway links, continue to be a limitation to business growth. As with the 2015 survey, this is the area that business owners would like to see the most investment in 2017. Our survey of Essex business owners revealed that almost half would like to see investment in Essex road and rail links.
42%
want to see investment in Essex rail and road links
26%
want access to more training, in particular management training
The biggest barriers to business growth
40%
40%find - Culture culture a
barrier to growth
12 | FBM WINTER 2017
32%
32% - Accesslack to good marketing access to marketing
think a lack of 28% - Cash andthat funding
28%
funding and cash restricts growth
Brexit Back in 2015, we polled 60 business owners and there was an overwhelming response, with 75% wanting to remain in the EU. This was back before the EU Referendum and the UK voted to exit the EU.
would have.
Now that the dust has settled, we asked business owners what impact they thought Brexit would have on their business in 2018 and almost two third were not sure what impact it
Almost a quarter of those asked thought that Brexit could have a positive effect on their business, while 20% thought it would be negative.
The on going confusion about the Brexit deal and whether it will present a threat or opportunity to small businesses is likely to be the reason for this response.
The Digital Age When asked, businesses saw the most potential growth for their business to be online. This was a change from the survey in 2015, which saw businesses seeing the most potential business growth to be overseas. The uncertainty surrounding Brexit is very likely to be seen as a barrier to international expansion for small businesses.
We’re living in more and more of a digital world where everything is accessible at the touch of a button. This presents a huge opportunity as your target market can increase on a global scale, but it also means that competition is on a global scale. For businesses that seize the digital opportunity, they're now competing on a national or global scale.
We'd like to thank all the business owners that took part in our survey. What do you think of the results overall? Does this reflect your thoughts on the business landscape and outlook for 2018? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook. @FluidBusinessCoaching
Our survey of 60 small business owners in 2015 revealed that 75% wanted to remain in the EU.
When asked what affect Brexit would have on their business, respondents said:
56% Not Sure 24% Positive
20% Negative
10%
want to see WiFi improvements
1/3
see the biggest growth potential to be online
There's a growing shift towards online processes including recruitment. In 2015, offline recruitment methods accounted for more than 75% of responses. This year, results for online and offline recruitment methods were equal.
@FluidBC
FBM WINTER 2017 | 13
CLARITY AND UNDERSTANDING There are an endless number of business opportunities, but we often don't see them as we don't have a clear understanding of our knowledge and experiences. In this article we're taking a closer look at how to get true clarity and understanding to empower you to make the most of business opportunities.
14 | FBM WINTER 2017
As a business owner, you may find that you are successful at what you do. But, you don’t really understand why; what do you do differently to everyone else?
advantage of a large number of the opportunities.
Awareness impacts business
When you take a good look at your experience to date you may be in for a surprise. Maybe the CV says 10, 20, 30 or 40 years’ experience in a particular field. Interestingly, what we think of as 40 years’ experience gained in the business can actually be only five years’ experience that has been repeated over and over again. It just gets photocopied in each successive year.
Thinking outside of the box
But, if it took you this long to gain your current level of knowledge, This often occurs when we don’t how could you possibly increase truly understand a particular it in a reasonable amount of experience. When trying to time? explain what we do to other people, we can’t see why they To see new opportunities, you don’t understand. To us, it is need to be willing to learn and just ‘common sense’ and it can change. Now, it’s easy to say be hard realise that the real that you’re willing to do both. problem lies in our own blind But it’s much harder to put it areas. into action.
There are an infinite number of opportunities that exist. Even when the economy takes a down turn and the market is tough, there are still opportunities available. The trouble is, we aren’t always aware of the opportunities. And, on other occasions, we might be aware of the opportunity, but unable to take advantage of it. Awareness has a significant impact on your business and your approach to business. Expanding your awareness and knowledge is a good way to increase your visibility of the opportunities that surround you.
“If it took you this long to gain your current level of knowledge, how could you possibly increase it in a reasonable amount of time? “ What's next? We’ve teamed up with Paula Fisher, Founder of Practical HR, to produce a two-part webinar interview series – Management: Debunked. Paula has more than 30 years of HR expertise and, alongside Ray Moore, they will be covering:
o Employment law o Hiring and firing By truly understanding your o Home-grown managers experience and how you have o Developing the leaders arrived at where you are now, of the future you will become aware of many more opportunities that you will Visit fluidbusiness.co.uk and go be able to exploit in the near to the webinar section to sign future. up for Management Debunked.
The next step is then passing Without additional knowledge on that understanding to your and core understanding, you team so that you can really will be unable to see or take maximise the opportunities.
You'll also be able to access Ray Moore's other recent webinar: Accounts: DEBUNKED, which is now available on demand.
FBM WINTER 2017 | 15
CHALLENGES FOR SCALING BUSINESSES Top challenges for Scale up businesses according to the Scale Up Institute 2017 reports on the Scale Up Landscape. The Scale Up Institute recently released its latest report on the scale up landscape in the UK. The Scale Up Institute aims to support scale up businesses by conducting research and recommendation reports. The institute collaborates with policy makers, corporate partners and educational establishments to put the recommendations forward and into motion. They aim to share a deeper understanding of how to scale up a business and build an effective environment where scaling businesses can grow and succeed. In the latest report released in November 2017, there were six key challenges facing these businesses including: • Talent • International Markets • Domestic Markets • Finance • Leadership • Infrastructure Two of the challenges that stood out to us were Talent and Leadership. Let’s take a closer look at why Talent and Leaderships were seen as challenges to scaleups. 16 | FBM WINTER 2017
Access to talent 90% of scaling businesses cited 'access to talent' as a factor that would aid business growth. In a growing business, it's important to have a team that's ready and willing to grow with your business. A good analogy could be in football, if your team managed to win the Premiere League, does that necessarily mean that they could win the Champions League? Maybe, but maybe not. One of the most important thing to consider when building your team is that you can train skills, but not the willingness to learn. Building leadership through local support It's amazing how much you're able to learn from other business owners that have experience similar scenarios. Join a local mastermind group in or get in touch with a business coach for professional advice. A business coach will teach you, mentor you, help you to learn to do it for yourself. Like a personal trainer or sports coach, you will not see the results unless you do it yourself.
Almost two third of the scaling businesses asked, considered a lack of 'leadership development and training' to be a barrier to their growth.
Did you know? Our Future Leaders programme is designed to develop and grow the leaders of the future. You can't grow your business without growing your team. To find out more, call 01245 423377.
*Statistics sourced from the Scale Up Institute 2017 Report. FBM WINTER 2017 | 17
The drivers of business growth Business owners often believe that by investing more time and hard work, their business will continue to grow. But unfortunately (or fortunately!) that’s not the reality of business growth. Sheer hard work and investing all the hours of the day into the business will help you to grow your business in the early days. But, as the saying goes; what got you here won’t get you there! The reality of business growth is periods of growth, followed by a plateau, which is a cycle that repeats over time – this is the Levels Framework for growth. Start-up businesses can often grow through a couple of plateaus quickly, but can end up falling into the trap of becoming stuck on a plateau for a long period of time and the business owner tends to accept that the business has grown as much as it can.
The Drivers There are four drivers that are active in every business, these are: o Time o Team o Money o Delivery During periods of growth, one or more of these
18 | FBM WINTER 2017
drivers will go out of balance. For example, you might be so busy with orders and running the business that you don’t have enough time to fully train your team. That results in the delivery of your service slipping and customers become unhappy. So you end up loosing customers and money and the drivers naturally rebalance on the plateau. When the business reaches a plateau, each of the four drivers are balanced. When a business grows and the drivers go out of balance, it’s common for the business owner to feel out of control and often the business forced down to the level (or plateau) below.
Growing a Business Sometimes a business will grow and become larger in size, but they make less money than when they were smaller. It’s a common symptom of businesses that have failed to set the business up for growth. The business’ infrastructure and team isn’t ready to undertake a period of intense growth. ‘Setting out the stall' is covered in much further detail here. Achieving a balanced business is so important for success and work for everyone involved. The business owner will have more time, the right people will be doing the right things, there will be more cash and customers will be better serviced.
FRE
E
GROWTHÂ CHALLENGE INVEST 10 MINUTES A DAY FOR 10 DAYS TO BOOST YOUR BUSINESS AND KICKSTART GROWTH.
FOUNDATIONS TEAM Introduce your team members to the basic building blocks of a business without the technical jargon.Â
F L U I D B U S I N E S S A C A D E M Y . C O M