4 Ways You Can Improve Your Business Performance
If you’re a business owner, there is probably one thought that’s always running around your head. How can I improve my business? What you have is great, but how can you make it better? The truth is that all businesses are a work in progress, constantly changing and evolving to meet the needs of the owners and their customers. But sometimes you can hit a bit of a roadblock, and not be sure what to do next to improve. So today, we have a few tips for you to try out.
Find The Right Customers
The bottom line is one of the most common measures for business performance, which for most businesses means bringing in more customers. But new customers will only help increase your performance if they are the right type of customers – people that need your product or service, and are the kind of client you want to work with. Finding those customers is sometimes the most difficult part. There are software and tools, that can be used for a variety of purposes in your business. For example, one of the ways CRM can be used is as a lead generator, which means that CRM tools can help your business reach out to new customers who might be interested in buying from your company. You can work with marketing and sales companies to refine your target market and ensure your messaging is correct, and you can engage in networking-style activities to widen your network. All of this will help boost your business, and your revenue.
Choose A Few Well-Defined Goals
Typically, a business with more than 5 major goals won’t be able to focus enough resources on any one of them to do it well. You end up spreading yourself too thin, and while you may achieve one or two, you will very rarely achieve them all, and certainly not to the level you want. Instead if you want to really improve your efficiency and performance, we recommend you choose three or four major goals for your business. When you do, make sure they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and attached to a deadline (or SMART goals if you like an acronym), which will help you understand the steps you need to take to achieve them. Once you know what your goals are, put them in order of priority, and try to focus on only one or two of them at a time. This means you can dedicate more effort and resource to them, and stand a better chance of achieving them. It also helps you understand the nature of your goals – after all, some things will be more urgent, but others might only be achievable with methodical, long-term planning.
Create A Plan
Once you know what your goals are for the business, you need to work out how to get there. That’s where strategic planning comes in. This is different from a business plan – which should outline the business as a whole, but something entirely more focussed. You can break these plans down into actions and milestones to achieve per quarter or even per month, depending on how detailed you want to be. We recommend including the following elements in your plan, which should give you everything you need to get from where you are now, to where you want to be.
- List the necessary actions and tasks needed to achieve your goal in detail, in as granular a way as you can.
- Define a length of time you want each action and task you want to take, with start and end dates to place the tasks in order.
- List the people who will be responsible for the completion of each task.
- List the staff, supplies and other resources that will be needed to achieve this task, including a budget allocation.
- Finally, define the desired result of each task, and how you will measure the success of it.
Work With A Financial Adviser
If you want to achieve all of the above but aren’t really sure where to start, then you can start with this one – find a good financial adviser. Financial advisers work with business owners of all shapes and sizes from all walks of life, helping them put plans in place for the future and manage their money effectively. They are experts in running businesses and will usually have a few ideas about how you can improve your business. Through detailed discussions with an adviser, you will be able to define who your ideal customers are, which gives you the starting point you need to create the marketing plan to find them. They will also help you define your goals, sometimes whittling the list down to just a few you want to focus on in the short, medium and long term. From there, you will work together to create a plan for achieving them, creating a financial roadmap you can follow all the way to success.
At Chilvester Financial, we love helping business owners create and complete their plan for success. We aim to provide just the financial advice you need, when you need it. We don’t use jargon, and because we are independent we are completely unbiased, which means you only get advice that is right for you and your business. What’s more, you’ll find us on the high-street, so you can easily come in and chat things through with us. If you would like to know more about financial planning for your business, just get in touch today and book your consultation with one of our advisers.