Out and about helping YOU succeed

Working with our local sixth form college in Bradford (am I allowed to call them sixth form colleges any more?) this week has been an insight into the way communication methods have changed for the better and a reminder that life shifts at speed.

In designing our contribution to the Freshers' Week for September, we have been looking at the best way to connect with those who seek to leave college at the age of 18 and instead of going into employment, will seek to become enterprising and start their own ventures. It will be good to then stay in touch with them via mentoring support as they and their business progress.

Our contribution to the week will be to have two separate stalls, one for those wanting help finding jobs through our recruitment processes with local registered companies eeking new staff and who will want to take the best and ignore the rest - and why not? The other stall will be more interesting from a Small Business Big Profit perspective given that we will be looking to provide a signposting service to Enterprise activities and engagements.

When you end your full-time education at 18 where do you look for Small Business ideas and guidance? the local Enterprise Agency will be helpful so make contact. The Business Link organisation can provide some very useful contacts and general guidance for most, before passing you on to specialist advisers who will help with technical and legal enquiries.

But the chance for a young adult to be around an existing entrepreneur, around someone who already has that experience to share and that opportunity to promote is a valuable connection to make. With this in mind we are creating connections between Owner-Managers of SMEs who are willing to take someone on for a couple of days to follow them or shadow them in a couple of typical days. This provides an insight into everything from the importance of Skills with people; the need to understand and be capable at negotiating; the means for establishing rapport quickly; to be able to summarise and confirm what is discussed and agreed at a meeting; and the ability to identify and validate the financial opportunities to come from each meeting or transaction.

We will be hosting some local business owners who have agreed to come in and speak about their motivations, about what drives them and helps them to grow and develop their businesses, about theior own personal storied of what makes them 'tick'. At the same time we will also be promoting our own podcasts, videos and blogs in order to connect with and engage our audience of many hundreds of young adults. We will use SMS text messaging to invite them to the event, and then follow this with weblinks and the blogs for the Freshers' Week experience.

No paper in sight and no brochures other than those in PDF and audio file format! A far cry from my own first college Fresher's Week some twenty plus years ago when every piece of information came in it's own envelope and computers were something like a big machine in a room that no-one but 'the few' were allowed into.

Labels: enterprise business partnership, enterprise in schools, mentoring in education, yorkshire business services

When times become tough it is all the more important to KNOW where your business is and what it is doing.

Do you know if you are breaking even?

Do you know what your cash position and forecast are?

Do you know how you are going to get that work done over the holiday period with less staff?

How long can you survive hoping those orders are coming in?

These are just some of the Hard questions we need to ask ourselves, understand the answer and then decide the appropriate actions we need to take.

Despite all the statistics and information telling us how businesses with business plans are more successful than those without we still don’t have a plan. BUT when times get tough the slack or optimism in any of our businesses goes. It can turn very quickly into decline and we need to know what is going on and respond. The “patient” can get sick to terminal in a very short timescale without the right treatment.

This is a time when it is all the more important that you are working “ON” the business and not “IN” the business. Work out your costs and work out your forecast sales and income. BE REALISTIC. Then work it out again assuming the worst case and the lowest of all your assumptions. Take note or when it is that you start losing money and not making money. Look at what actions you need to take to slim down or address unnecessary costs and what you need to do to drive up the income.

Whatever the outcome of your review, the important thing is that you have increased KNOWLEDGE and the information upon which, to make decisions and take actions.

Your chances of survival just increased.

This is not about negative actions but positive actions. They are positive because they are proactive – thought through, in advance and considered.

If this is something you are not used to doing, unsure about how to go about it don’t hesitate – just ask us.

Carol

Call Yorkshire Business Services on 01943-607851 and visit our website and learn more at www.yorkshirebusinessservices.com for more news of what is happening in your own Yorkshire business community.

Labels: business, Change, Growth, planning, Profit, success

Are there opportunities in these tough market conditions? Certainly there are.

The unanimous verdict is yes and a few of the comments are;

• Quoting Warren Buffett

• “I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.”

• Vulture Funds are picking up assets at 50% of their original value - sifting diamonds from the forced disposals

• The "baby and the bath water" - Anytime there are significant efforts to clean up the balance sheet good assets go out with bad. Tighter regulatory controls and more restrictive capital requirements are going to force companies to sell not only the credit asset classes but also other businesses that may be a significant drag to earnings and/or return on capital invested. Another purchase opportunity.

Any business with a sound balance sheet and / or access to cash should think about growth through acquisition. There are, or soon will be, businesses and other assets on the market and in some cases at vastly reduced asking prices when compared to a year ago.

There are other businesses suffering and being squeezed by their funders...they may not be "on the market" but they will be open to an approach now that they would have rejected.

Which side are you? Have you even thought about growth or acquisition?

Take the time to think outside the box - think of the new opportunities for your business in this market.