Strategic Planning
A business should be moving forward all the time. In the market place you have to keep ahead of the competition, trying out new ideas, improving profitabilty. Even if your organisation is one that doesn't have to worry about market share, it still has to move forward. The search for better products, better ways to serve the customer and more efficient procedures is a never ending one. Once you stop, the business would stall and quickly start to decline. Your staff and customers would become disillusioned.
So who keeps the business moving? You, together with your fellow directors or partners if applicable. It is your responsibility to draw up a strategy. After all, if you do not know where you business is going how do you know when it has got there?
Strategies and business plans must not be set in stone, it is far more important to be moving forward in broadly the right directions than to be stuck still without the business going anywhere but unless a company is progressing the whole time, it is, in fact, moving backwards. It is quite impossible to maintain the status quo.
So, as discussed, every successful business must plan ahead, but all too often the pressures of keeping the business going on a daily basis mean that strategic planning is not given the attention it deserves. The result is often rushed judgements, over- or under-capacity, or missed opportunities.
Every business owner needs a planning adviser who has the time and space to take the long term view and advise on an appropriate course of action. That is where we can help. We have a wealth of experience to draw on and can see "the wood from the trees" in assisting you in devising and monitoring your business strategy.
Exit strategy
Having built a successful business the next thing you need to consider is your exit strategy.
Here are some important questions that need to be asked:
- Will you withdraw from the business, leaving it for the next generation, or will you hope to sell the business?
- If you intend to hand the business over, do you have a workable succession plan?
- If you intend to sell, how will you value the business, find a suitable buyer, etc.?
- Are you aware of all the tax implications of the timing of disposals?
Please contact us for a strategic review of your business.