Where to Find Strategies that Can Fuel Business Growth

Creating a Business Plan

Dramatically improving your business performance is not as straight forward as you might expect.  Sure, improving performance might be as simple as increasing revenue and lowering cost.  But is that really simple?  What I often find is that once I take a “deep dive” into my client’s business there are dozens of linkages that are negatively impacting performance and many are not what you would have expected.

Business Plans are Great But Shouldn’t be Static

When you started your company, you likely started with a business plan. It might have been as simple as a plan on the back of a napkin or more elaborate with a 100 pages, charts, forecasts and SWOT analyses.

Regardless, this plan established the direction of your company. Now, years later, you see that your company is not exactly making the strides that you envisioned, but you aren’t quite sure why. Right? Clearly changes need to be made, but what changes and where to make them are not readily apparent. Don’t worry! You are not alone in this feeling. Virtually a week doesn’t go by without me being contacted by a business owner just like you who is looking for help but is not exactly sure what help he or she is looking for!

Diagnosis Before Prescription

Just as you would never trust a Doctor who prescribed a cure before ever conducting a detailed examination, you should never trust a business performance consultant who provides recommendations without first examining your business.

For me, the game is won or lost up-front in the discovery phase of our relationship.  Why? Because all of my recommendations for improvement are built upon the results of my detailed examination! By speaking with all the different departments (even if the departments are just a couple of people wearing multiple hats) and finding out about the various problems that they are facing in meeting their targets, I can get a sense of impact and priority.

With that step complete we can then work together to set realistic targets and establish new strategies and tactics to meet these targets – no matter what the department, function or job title. This approach empowers employees. They gain confidence as they achieve, and this confidence and achievement naturally leads to them working even harder. Once you create an atmosphere where your employees see that they have the ability and support to be successful, you will immediately see a marked improvement in the performance of your company. All of this is of course rolled back into your renewed and vibrant business plan!

Contact me, Jeff Bishop, to see what steps we can take to improve your business’ performance.