It’s fair to say that business owners are always busy. However, there are different kinds of busy from what I’ve seen in my experience. And those different kinds of busy result in two outcomes for the business: growth or standstill.

We all like to tick things off our to-do lists, and this can actually sometimes get in the way of planning our time well. Automatically doing the next thing on our list can drag you into doing activities that could actually easily be delegated or outsourced.

Yes, you get immediate satisfaction (or reward) as you tick action items off, but is that actually what you are meant to be doing with your time?

Let’s put it this way: Doing one task takes you away from doing another. 

So, what kinds of tasks fill your working hours? Are you clear on where you're spending your time?

As time is finite, there’s an absolute need to use the time that you have well.

Take small breaks every now and then to look at your to-do list, and think...

Business Development (BD) is a critical part of your strategy for growing your business and reaching new revenue levels. BD is all about creating and then converting opportunities.

But the question is, if you have people on your team with a BD component to their role - how do you incentivise them to perform better, and also, what’s the best way to remunerate them?

If you’re thinking about offering them an incentive based remuneration model, I want you to think through the whole process first and consider the pros & cons – before you offer this to them.

There are always upsides and downsides to every incentive based remuneration model, so finding the best model for incentivising your BD team is crucial. It can prevent issues and challenges down the track and more importantly prevent poor culture & loss of staff (worst case).

The main model that most would be familiar with is rewarding your BD person or team with a certain percentage of the new deals that...

Having shareholders in your business is what fosters and nurtures business growth. 

However, it’s not only making it attractive for shareholders to buy in that matters. It’s also extremely important to plan for shareholder exits as well. 

Shareholders will eventually put their shares on the table at some point in your business journey. It could be because the shareholder would like to move on, retire or maybe just reduce their percentage of shares.

And, when that happens, you don’t want it to be a surprise. This can be a very hard situation to navigate for many reasons if you’re not prepared for it.

Imagine you haven’t anticipated someone wanting to sell their shares. Nobody in the company has the funds to buy them out, so the person ends up leaving the company (retiring or just resigning) but remains a shareholder. Even worse, they change jobs and start working for a competitor.

So, planning for shareholder exits now will ensure that you...

If you run your own business, one of your aspirations will be business growth. Getting a solid customer/client base, good cash flow and profit are some of the obvious things you’ll want to achieve on your business journey. 

Some business owners have the added motivation to grow their business because their end goal is to eventually sell the business and enjoy time with their family, pursuing other projects & enjoying the fruits of their hard work.

If you are looking to head down that path, then you might be interested in finding out what specific things will give your business a higher valuation when the time comes to sell. 

How can you increase your business sale multiple?

There are several factors that affect your sale valuation multiple. The first one being - your revenue. The higher your revenue, the higher the multiple.

But, it’s not just your revenue. There are many other things that really influence how your business looks to prospective buyers.

...

A 12-month business plan is one of the key essentials to have and to refer to regularly. It’s an accountability tool that will keep you on track for the year ahead. You’ll use it to measure your performance against it and see how well you’re doing.

How do you create a 12-month business plan?

• Be clear on your business vision and where you’re taking your business long term. 
• Do your planning and know what you want to achieve in your business in the next 12 months. 
• Break it down into smaller segments – quarters – so the action list doesn’t seem so daunting. 

Business Vision

Before you start creating your 12-month business plan, you need to get really clear on your longer-term business vision. Where are you going as a business and why? What’s meaningful for you to create as the business owner?

Plan

You’ll then want to do your year ahead planning by having a look at several key categories that you need to consider as...

I’m so busy, I can’t even think about taking a break - let alone do some planning or business growth activities.

I’m so buried in work; I just try to churn out what my clients need and meet all their deadlines.

Is this you? Do you have these moments or is it a constant feeling?

What would you say if I told you that there is a way round this?

The key word in this game is PRIORITIES.

If you feel like you are too busy all the time (meeting your clients’ needs) then you’re putting their priorities first.

That is what actually feeds the feeling (aka monster) of ‘I’m too busy’. And it promotes a reactive way of doing business. You respond to every message at any time, no matter what you’re doing. Maybe you don’t do it immediately, but you do it just after you finish an ongoing task. 

So, you get caught up in this servant like manner of doing business that you eventually forget about your business plans and goals. Or you...

Is your business completely dependent on you as the business owner? What happens if you decide to step away or take a holiday? What happens when you want to retire or go and do something else?

Most business owners can’t step away from their businesses – even for a week! And most definitely haven’t thought about the end game and what happens when they want to exit the business.   

So how can you maximise business growth and how can you put a plan in place, so when it’s time to exit – the business keeps going and you reap the benefits of all of your years of hard work. 

One strategy is to bring on a next generation of shareholders into your business. 

A key benefit of having additional shareholders in your business is that you have more people around you, incentivised and motivated to build the business alongside you. It’s a fantastic way to leverage more people around you – helping you grow the business faster. 

...

Starting a business is one thing, but running it successfully is another. 

Small companies usually have one person that oversees all the areas of the business - the business owner – AKA you! When you own a business of that size, you are the one who’s in charge of admin, marketing, project delivery, sales, etc. You’re basically a one-(wo)man show. 

And it’s understandable that things are like this, especially at the initial stages of the business. However, as the business begins to grow and the management team expands, things begin to change. 

You, the business owner, no longer feel like you’ve got everything under control because while you’re dealing with one area, something might be going on in another.

That’s why it’s crucial that you have your own business dashboard so that you can stay on top of the most important metrics in your business.

You’d be surprised to find out that many small to medium business owners...

If selling your business or setting your business up for sale in the future is on your radar – then I’ve put together a list of the many factors to consider so you get the most out of the sale.

Essentially, you need to understand what potential buyers will look for when assessing the value of the business. 

So, let’s break it down into four areas that we consider to be the key factors (in no particular order). All of these will contribute to the formula that’s used to calculate your business’s worth.

1. Key person risk

This refers to what kind of management structure you have in place in your business and how you spread the risk of the business being solely reliant on one key person. If everything in your business relies completely on you, then potential buyers won’t look on this favourably as there is too much risk placed on you leaving or not being there any more to run things.

However, if you’ve got an established leadership team...

Planning for an exit from your business is something that needs to be done well in advance. Too many business owners leave it too late or don't plan for it at all. Don’t make that mistake because you'll never get what you want for your business to set yourself and your family up properly.

But you might be thinking - why should I plan for my exit now when I’m not even close to retiring? Or perhaps you’ve only recently started your business journey and you’re full of enthusiasm. So why think of an exit now?

Even if you don't plan to leave your business in the near future, it’s so important that you think about your exit strategy now because that’s how you can maximise the value of your business.

So, rather than being a rudderless ship & waking up one day realising that you don’t have a saleable business or an exit strategy – let’s be very strategic about it now.

What does your exit look like?

Being strategic about it starts by...