Do you want to know what a business adviser can actually do for your business? Keep reading to find out...
1. Even the best performers have a coach
In the world of sport, even the highest performers have a team of coaches, mentors, and advisers to help them get the best out of every aspect of their performance – strategy, tactics, skills, physical and mental fitness, for example.
To perform at the very highest level in business, you need the same – someone to advise you on strategy or tactics; to coach you in the skills you need; to ensure your business has the right resources and is fit for stable, sustainable growth.
2. What does a business adviser do?
A business adviser will give you independent and impartial support, providing guidance on how to implement improvements.
They will help you step back from your business and get a fresh perspective, and will be an empathetic person to listen to the challenges and difficulties you face.They will also hold you accountable and challenge you to go further, to set new goals or achieve better results.
You will get increased confidence, inspiration, and a sounding board to bounce ideas off for growing your business, meaning you’ll have more time to think about your business and to be proactive rather than reactive.
Your team will thank you for it – they will enjoy working with you and get caught up in your renewed sense of purpose, becoming more engaged and valuing the security that comes with stable, sustainable growth.
Your customers will notice the difference as well – your customer service will improve and your business will become more reliable.
In essence, your business will thrive – there will be no more boom and bust – just stable, sustainable growth in sales and profits – our clients always recover their investment with us many times over.
3. How does a business adviser work?
Good business advisers will have a robust process which is proven to deliver benefits to their clients. I can’t talk about how the other guys work, but this is what we do when we work with our Full Service clients.
The Mustard Diagnostic tool is an in-depth look at every aspect of your business. It is based on the themes that you would look at in the “Due Diligence” stage of an acquisition, but we are looking for your perceptions of your business rather than digging for detailed evidence.
As well as general questions about the financial health and risk profile of your business, we ask questions which relate to each of the headings in our 8-step programme.
The diagnostic tool creates a report to show where you are achieving value from your business and where there is more value to achieve. The report is traffic-light colour coded so it is easy to agree priorities with your business adviser.
We do not help our clients create a business plan – that is the role of your accountant! But we do create an action plan that addresses all aspects of your business, from setting out your vision for the company and how that is communicated to your team, through to ensuring your sales team are the most effective they can be.
Our 8-step programme starts with leadership and vision, and includes branding, customer service, people, finance, operations, marketing and sales. We cover marketing and sales last – if all of the other “building blocks” are not in place, and we really drive the sales team – we don’t want the business to fall flat on its face.
Having said that, we remain client-led. If the client’s most pressing business need is to look at people management, or sales first, we will do some “emergency recovery” work to address those issues, but may need to revisit those later once they have clarity on their vision for the business and their brand
4. What to expect
Again, approaches will vary. At Mustard Advisers, we like to work with our clients face-to-face, but can work online too if that is more practical. In a typical session, we will review the business KPIs and the action points from the previous session.
There will usually be an element of knowledge transfer – maybe a workshop – this could be delivered to you, the business owner, or to your senior team. Then we will talk about what you have learnt, and how you are going to apply that knowledge in your business
Finally, we will capture the action points, and agree deadlines.
It doesn’t stop there – we like to keep in touch with our clients in-between sessions to make sure we understand what is going on in their business, and that they are making time to work “on” their business, so we maximise the results they get from working with us.
5. Signs that you need a business adviser
A business adviser is for the good times, and not just the bad. We work with successful, growing businesses, helping them to achieve their potential, so they have more time, more money and more fun
Are you sometimes afraid to take more than a few days off? Do you never enjoy your holiday because you are worried about what will happen in your business while you are away? Do you feel like your time is not your own – you are constantly at the beck and call of customers, suppliers, or employees, morning, noon and night, weekdays, and weekends? Do you never get the important things done?
If you carry on like that, you’ll miss your kids growing up, and you may be storing up health problems for later on life. We can help you have more time for people you love and things you enjoy
Do you feel that you are not getting the rewards for the amount of effort you put in? Has your business reached a ceiling? Maybe you grow, and then something goes wrong and you have to shrink again.
Perhaps you want to grow but don’t know the best way to go about it – which is best – organic growth, acquisitions, or franchising? Maybe you feel you are stuck in a rut – you can’t find the right people – nobody can do the job as well as you can
Or do you wish you had someone to talk to? Being a business owner can be a lonely place, and you can’t always share your fears with your team. Or maybe you want to sell your business and do something more exciting instead – buy a great big yacht and sail around the world.
For more information, have a look at our blog about how to tell if you need a business advisor.
6. What next?
If you’d like to have more time, more money and more fun, please get in touch.
We enable business owners to reach their potential. Our approach is based on making your business less dependent on you, so you can get off that hamster wheel. You might just want to spend more time with your family, or you might want to grow the business – either organically, through acquisitions, or through franchising or licensing. Or maybe you are considering exiting your business and doing something more exciting instead – we can make sure you get the maximum value for your business and the minimum time working in the business when its sold.
We offer a free consultation to get to know you and the challenges facing your business, and from there we can decide whether we can work together, and the programme that would be most suited to your needs.
