Once your business is established and running well, you may be inclined to let things continue to run as they are, however, it’s actually time to plan again. After the crucial early stages you should…
- Regularly review your progress
- Identify how you can make the most of the market position you have established
- Decide where to take your business next.
3b will help you revisit and update your business plan with your new strategy in mind and make sure you introduce the developments you have noted.
Assessing Current Performance
It’s easy to focus only on the day-to-day running of your business, especially in the early stages. But once you’re up and running, it can pay dividends to think about longer-term and more strategic planning. This is especially true as you take on more staff, create departments within the business, appoint managers or directors and become distanced from the everyday running of the business. 3b will be able to help you in conducting Strategic Business Reviews particularly if you feel …
- Uncertain about how well the business is performing
- Unsure if you’re getting the most out of the business or making the most of market opportunities
- Your business plan may be out of date (i.e. you haven’t updated it since you started trading)
- Your business is moving in a direction different to the one you had planned
- The business may be becoming unwieldy or unresponsive to market demands
It is also useful if you have decided that your company is ready to move on to another level.
One way in which 3b will help you realise a practical way forward is to clearly define a Business Strategy. Questions you might want to ask include…
- What are my markets? – Now and in the future? Which markets should I compete in, how will they change and what does the business need in order to be involved in these sectors?
- How do I gain market advantage? How can the business perform better than the competition in my chosen markets?
- What resources do I require to succeed? What skills, assets, finance, relationships, technical competence and facilities do I need to compete? Have these changed since I started?
- What business environment am I competing in? What external factors may affect the business’ ability to compete?
- How am I measuring success? Remember, measures of performance may change as your business matures.
It’s doubtful whether you will be able to answer these questions on your own – involving your professional advisers, your fellow directors and your senior staff will all help to make your review more effective.
Setting Vision for Growth
3b will help you to evaluate whether you want to consolidate your businesses position or find ways to grow. If you decide that your priority is growth, 3b will help you plan carefully in order to succeed. Growth has its risks, but the right strategy can deliver stability, security and long-term profits. Once we have assessed your current position and how well equipped you are to handle growth, we can start building your strategy for growth.
3b will show you how to evaluate the right strategy for your business, when to launch it and the finance options available. We look at the pros and cons of diversifying and what other considerations you must think of to ensure development is smooth, on time and on target.
Finance and Logistics
3b can provide you with Project Management. This will provide your businesses with a method of planning, organising, managing and executing a specific task, objective or set of goals. It is widely used in IT and construction but can apply in any business.
A project is a temporary piece of work which falls outside of ‘business as usual’ day-to-day operations and can be anything from moving offices or building a website to carrying out major construction work or complex statistical analysis. Some businesses are entirely project-based.
Proper management of a project can benefit a business in many ways, the most important of which are ensuring costs do not spiral beyond budget, that work is completed on time and to the right quality. 3b Project Management can keep things clear and efficient, and reduce threats to your business or project. It is essential in helping any business grow and is expected by many organisations when tendering for work.
Strategies for growth
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Products and service development
New products and services are the lifeblood of all businesses. Investing in their development is crucial to business growth and profitability. But embarking on the development process is risky. It needs considerable planning and organisation.
3b will outline the key stages in the lifecycle of products and services so you know when the time is right for your business to start the development process. We will explain how a planned and phased development process will help you make the wisest investment and budgeting decisions. We will also advise you on how best to create a product development team and manage a project.
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Sales
Every business needs to think about getting the most out of its marketplace. If you’re not increasing turnover every year, your business is shrinking in real terms. Many businesses simply try to pick up extra sales wherever they can. While this opportunistic approach can be effective in the early days, it is unlikely to sustain longer-term growth. There are several strategic options you can pursue to get the most out of your marketplace such as selling more to existing customers, focusing your customer service and marketing efforts on retaining customers, expanding your customer base to include similar people who are not currently customers, selling through new channels or into new markets and using your core competences to create new products or services. 3b will describe methods you can consider to increase your market share and how to plan, manage and monitor the growth.
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Technology
E-commerce plays an increasingly important role in the way in which products and services are purchased.
E-commerce systems such as your website can be used to market and sell to customers, and to provide after-sales support. E-commerce can also be an important part of strengthening relationships and improving the efficiency of your dealings with suppliers and other key trading partners.
3b will define the key issues to consider when planning for the introduction of e-commerce. See section 3 on our WEB Services Offerings for more information
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Strategic Sourcing
Choosing the right suppliers involves much more than scanning price lists. Your choice will depend on a wide range of factors such as value for money, quality, reliability and service. How you weigh up the importance of these different factors will depend on your business priorities and strategy.
3b can illustrate a step-by-step approach you can follow that should help you make the right choices. We will help you decide what you need in a supplier, identify potential suppliers and choose your suppliers.
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Strategic partnering
Joint venture is when two or more businesses pool their resources and expertise to achieve a particular goal. The risks and rewards of the enterprise are also shared. Reasons you might want to form a joint venture include business expansion, development of new products or moving into new markets, particularly overseas.
Your business may have strong potential for growth and you may have innovative ideas and products. However, a joint venture could give you…
- More resources
- Greater capacity
- Increased technical expertise
- Access to established markets and distribution channels
Entering into a joint venture is a major decision. Here at 3b our experts can give you an overview of the main ways you can set up a joint venture, the advantages and disadvantages of doing so, how to assess if you are ready to commit, what to look for in a joint venture partner and how to make it work.
Tendering for contracts
Submitting a tender is common practice for businesses supplying goods or services to other businesses or the public sector. At a basic level you expect to quote for a job or write a letter saying why you should be given the business. More formal tenders often apply to bigger jobs or for supply contracts spread over time. Public sector work in particular – ranging from your local council or hospital to a central government department – has specific tendering processes.
Even if you don’t win the work this time, writing a tender can clarify your aims, strengths and weaknesses and you can learn for next time by asking for feedback on your bid. It raises your profile with the customer and helps you learn about customers’ needs.
3b can show you how to identify potential contracts, what to include in your tender and how to write it for the best chance of success.
Managing growth
When your business reaches a new stage in its development, you may need to change the way it is organised. For example, as you come to the end of the start-up phase and begin to focus on developing the business, you may need to create a formal structure so that the business is better positioned to achieve its objectives.
In a start-up, staff numbers tend to be limited so employees take on multiple roles. As the business and workload grow, it makes sense for employees to focus on what they do best. Many entrepreneurs choose to bring on board professional finance and sales and marketing staff, for example.
Introducing a solid organisational structure will help you stay in the driving seat while your business expands.
3b can advise you on how planning, training and communication can ease the process of restructuring.