November 2009 Newletter

This month we wanted to help our readers with ideas and opportunities that business decision makers can use as the economy recovers.

November topics include:

1.     Marketing in the new economy

2.     Why cash is king & how to predict cashflow

3.     Business plans & how to prepare for growth

4.     Does your business need funding?

November news

We have been featured in the latest edition of the 'Business Update' magazine distributed to business owners across South Cheshire.

In an article 'Can we look forward to better year' I talk about how we can plan for 2010 by learning lessons from how we partly talked ourselves into this recession. I am certain that our national press helped contribute to the doom and gloom, switching from hysteria over house prices, to property crash, then back to 'boom starts again' (a Daily Mail headline a few months ago). There appears to be no middle ground with our press, and I feel the consumer picked up on this and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy as we lost confidence and talked up a recession.

A recent survey conducted by the ICAEW suggested that companies are planning for revenue growth over the next few years, albeit at a slower pace than in previous years. The bad news was that over 50% of the respondents said that the UK regulatory and tax environment was not business friendly.

Partly the articles in this newsletter are written to address how businesses can prosper going into 2010.

1 - Marketing in the new economy

We firmly believe that marketing has changed in recent years as the consumer makes decisions based on bombardment of 1000's of messages thrust from numerous media channels. Perhaps too many businesses are still marketing using the old rules and don't appreciate that 'purchasing' decisions have to take account of three critical factors:

1.     Consumers don't have enough time

2.     Businesses need to have a real USP (unique selling point)

3.     Branding must be authentic backed up by service, trust, testimonials, and guarantees

To understand how a business can benefit from a marketing overhaul meeting, try one of our ½ day workshops.

One thing is clear at the moment – don't stop marketing, just do it smarter.

2 - Why cash is king & how to predict cashflow

Many businesses have faced a fight for survival in 2009 by retaining sufficient cash reserves to meet outgoings from lower revenues.

But how do you know how much cash is sufficient and when additional funding is required?

·         You think about the future

·         You operate in a tough economic environment

·         You'd like to know that the numbers support your business strategy

·         You'd like to know that you'll have the cash to pay your suppliers in a year's time

·         You already use spreadsheets

·         You know that trying to build a business forecast by hand could take days and contain costly errors

·         You know that financial accounts are all about historic performance

·         If only there was a solution that would allow you to predict future business performance

We have an ideal solution for you. We have produced monthly profit and loss, balance sheet, and cashflow predictions for clients in less than a few hours.

Our business modelling programme uses a 'financial and business modelling process' that lets executives identify and understand the full financial impact of alternative strategies. We can deliver you the accurate model so that you can better spend time predicting alternative strategies, building contingency plans, and understand the impact of those strategies and plans on your businesses long-term performance.

Do you have a detailed 3 year business and financial projection?

If not, please do book in an independent 'business modelling' session. It could be the key to understand how your business strategy copes in 2010.

3 - Business plans & how to prepare for growth

Numerous studies have shown that a business with a robust plan with mapped out strategies for success, stands a much better chance of reaching and indeed surpassing business targets and goals.

The recession has affected people and their approach to work. Many business people, whether running an existing business or budding entrepreneurs looking to start up in business, have taken the advantage of this 'quite period' to plan for the future.

We've met lots of people with good ideas who are fighting hard to secure a future. We have witnessed a number of excellent business projects recently – now is the time to plan for the future and not viewing the economic climate as a barrier.

If you need to translate, or indeed test, your business ideas we can help. Having written business plans and raised finance for many clients, we know what it takes to translate ideas into a business plan for success.

Please get in touch if you want to know what format to use, what to write about, what research to do, and what numbers to include

4 - Does your business need funding?

If a business need additional finance firstly the owner(s) and stakeholders need to understand how much finance they need.

There are many alternatives and methods for raising finance, but for this article we are concentrating on how to secure additional cash 'equity' funding.

For small businesses such investments often come from family, friends and associates. For larger requirements investments come from high net worth individuals operating as ‘business angels’, and larger deals include private equity funds. Evidence is beginning to suggest that once again 'private' cash is looking for a home.

We have access to select business partners that have investable funds.

Option 1: Direct investment from business angels

Option 2: Private investor network

Option 3: Private Equity

We can bring together investors looking for opportunities and businesses seeking investment.

For the larger SME our partners have an outstanding success in growth capital and MBO deals including commercial property deals.

Together with our partners’ executive team we source, appraise, and negotiate investment opportunities.

For private equity deals we look at all business sectors looking to invest between £1m and £7m. For below £1m we have access to business angel networks.

So if you think we can help you, or you know someone who needs business investment, please get in touch. We are looking for serious business opportunities backed by management expertise and great ideas.

Also if you know of anyone you want to invest in business opportunities and have at least £25,000 to invest please get in touch to discuss how we can help.

As a general rule a successful deal would be one that returns two or three times the invested capital over 3 years.

Call us on 01565 751198 or email us on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to request a meeting to see how we can help businesses. Until next time.

Get in touch and ask us to conduct a FREE Business Evaluation Meeting and find out about our unique way of designing and implementing strategies to generate sustainable business improvement.

December 2009 Newletter