Business Strategy

Planning for business success

We turn visions into reality through strategic advice, business planning, implementation and continuous improvement.

Planning is an iterative process

Running a successful business is all about knowing where you are going and how you are going to get there.

It’s the continued and iterative process of business planning that’s important as it helps you to focus, prioritise and make informed decisions. Draw on our expertise. We help you formulate, review and implement your winning strategy so that you achieve your vision and your goals.

Step 1 – preparation

Clarify your business strategy and understand your market place and your niche. If you don’t know where to start or need help with market research then our team will step in with advice and carry out the research and analysis you need. Be clear about your goals and how to quantify and measure them. We will work with you to translate your strategies into practical operational plans.

During the preparation phase we cover the following:

Building a business plan

Creating a marketing strategy

Financial forecasting

Risk analysis

Exit strategy

Building a business plan

Keep it simple and keep your audience in mind. Who are you preparing your business plan for? Is it for internal use or for other stakeholders eg shareholders, investors or a grant or loan application? Will it answer their key questions? As a quick guide your business plan should cover:

your value proposition
your target market
who your competitors are
how you will gain traction
who is going to make it happen
what the risks are
funding
a financial forecast
key milestones
your exit strategy

Our strategy team will guide you through the business planning process and assist with research and analysis, as well as helping you to formulate strategies for your business that will help you achieve your goals.

Creating a marketing strategy

Before you develop your marketing strategy you need to understand your market place:

who your customers are and where they are
how and where they buy
what demand there is for your product / service
how big the potential market is
who your competitors are, how you differ and how you will stand out

Research will help you to validate whether you have a viable product or service to sell, understand how best to sell it and how to manage and minimise risk. But, spend too long researching and someone else will enter the market ahead of you.

Financial forecasting

If the numbers don’t stack up, don’t go ahead. To find out, start by keeping it simple and high level.

Risk analysis

Forewarned is forearmed. We help you to identify and evaluate internal and external risk factors broken down into operational, political and regulatory, economic, social and cultural, and technological. Once you understand how these factors influence your business performance, you will be able to take more calculated risks.

Exit strategy

An exit strategy is not just about when to exit your business once you’ve reached your goals, it’s also about having an exit strategy for your worse case scenario. If things don’t work out, then exiting at the right time and before it is too late, could mean the difference between exiting with a small amount of money versus going into liquidation.

Step 2 – communication & implementation

Effective strategy execution is the process of aligning your business operations to your vision and goals. It means getting your people on board and ensuring they are committed and work towards the same objectives. We help you tackle these challenges by providing training and people management skills. A strategy is only as good as it’s execution.

Step 3 – review and adapt

Business plans are working documents. Use them to monitor progress, evaluate challenges and spot opportunities. Our consultants help you to do this, to be proactive and stay ahead of the game.