5 big picture questions to help you decide if you need to look at a Turnaround Strategy or business finance support and advice.
It’s often difficult when you are in the middle of a situation every day to see the big picture. What I’m suggesting here is that you take yourself outside the day job for just 5 minutes, to conduct an internal survey, that only you will see the results of, to give a good indication as to whether you need to take more radical action with the business in planning a turnaround strategy and/or seek new or replacement business finance.
1. Does ‘fire fighting’ take an increasing amount of your day?
Do you seem to be constantly dealing with problems, often associated with a lack of cash flow in the business? Are your creditors always on your back? Is everyone taking more time to pay you?
Do you feel this is stopping you getting on with the day job and developing your business?
Mark out of 10 (10 being continual fire fighting) MARK_______
2. How is your morale?
Do you ever wonder why you are doing this?
Have you ever thought …if only someone would take this business off my hands?
Are you losing money every month?
Do you feel the value in your business is slipping through your fingers?
Are you having sleepless nights?
Mark out of 10 (10 being very low morale) MARK_______
3. What is the atmosphere like at work?
Are your employees less helpful? Are you receiving an increasing number of customer complaints? Has absenteeism increased? Are there a number of whispering campaigns going on? What was it like when the business started or when business was booming. What was the employee engagement like at this time?
Mark out of 10 (10 being very poor atmosphere) MARK_______
4. How is your Business Finance provider relationship?
Do you feel your business finance provider is making things difficult for you? Have they turned you down for increased funding? Have they asked for additional security and personal guarantees? Are they doing ever more audits? Have they asked an external professional to conduct an Independent Business Review?
How was the relationship when things were going well? What is it like now?
Mark out of 10 (10 being very poor relationship) MARK_______
5. Is your Business Strategy right for today’s markets?
Are you concerned that your business proposition is out of date, but that as a result of all of the above you don’t have the time or space to do anything about it?
Have all your competitors got great online offerings and you are only just starting to develop yours? Does your brand need refreshing? Have you the in-house skills to develop your business? Do you have the experience to plan a turnaround strategy and revitalise your business proposition?
Rate the relevance of your current strategy to the current market conditions
Mark out of 10 (10 being very poor relevance) MARK_______
TOTAL Score out of 50 ____________
Summary
If you have scored above 25 in this self-survey, and/or you feel that any of the above applies to you and your business, the good thing is that there is help at hand. The value in finding a TRUSTED resource with experience of these situations that will work with you to achieve the results that you want is immense. The web is a fantastic resource for this information, simply type ‘planning turnaround strategy’ into Google, to start your research.
One last point is that I would urge you not to pay up front for any of these services but work with people who will provide the advice and support you need NOW on the basis that they will be rewarded in the future if successful.
As always if you would like to comment on or discuss anything in this article I can be contacted at john.thompson@transcapital.co.uk or on 0845 689 8750.
Image by: Oberazzi