When did you last take a moment to stop & reassess your business?
I’m not so much talking about your business plan, but an overall assessment in a number of key areas. If you’ve been in business for a number of years then this is just as relevant, in fact probably more so, than for a start up. Start ups tend to ‘grow’ into their business & sometimes areas can be overlooked, or bad habits gained.
In assessing any business I review a number of areas that I see as key. Similar to the balanced scorecard in earlier articles the assessment looks across the business as a whole, not just in one particular area.
So what areas would I look at if I was assessing a business?
- Structure
- Governance
- Staff
- Advisors
- Strategy
- Internal analysis – sales & marketing
- Internal analysis – people
- Internal analysis – Systems & IT
- External analysis – Customers
- External Analysis – Competitors
- External Analysis – Suppliers
- Risk
- Facilities
- Disaster Management
- Succession planning
- Immediate issues
As you can see the list is quite extensive but by looking at these areas in more detail opportunity & risk can be identified & dealt with. It is much better to have a clear understanding of what impacts on your profitability & also where your activity should be focused.
If you are interested in completing a full business assessment contact PlanA Consulting for further information.