22 Oct2018

Writing a Successful Business Plan

Written by Andrew Hayward. Posted in Hints & Tips

It is essential for all businesses to have a realistic, working business plan. It is not only used to monitor your performance and to align your workforce but can also be a useful document to secure external funding.

 

 

What is a Business Plan?

In detail, a business plan is a written document that describes a business, it’s objectives, it’s strategies, the market it is in and its financial forecasts. Business plans work well when updated regularly (every four to six months) as your business grows. This allows the plan to develop into a more comprehensive document as the year’s progress. Every company should have a business plan. This document will help identify any potential pitfalls before they happen, structure the financial side of your business efficiently, focus your efforts on developing your business and finally, your business plan can work as a measure of your success.

Your business plan should provide answers on how you are going to develop your company going forward; When you are going to do it? Who’s going to play a part? How will you manage your finances?

A business plan should be broken down into:

  • Executive Summary

The executive summary is often the most important part of your business plan. The executive summary is a synopsis of the key points of your entire plan. It should include highlights from each section of the rest of the document. Its purpose is to explain the basics of your business in a way that both informs and interests the reader.

  • Business Overview

Give a summary of your business; – History, Industry., Vision, Aims & Objectives. This part of the plan sets out your vision for your business and includes who you are, what you have to offer and the market you want to address. When you started or intend to start trading, the type of business and the sector that it’s in. Make your Vision, Aims & Objectives SMART (Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Timely).

  • Products & Services

Detail the portfolio of your products. What are the benefits and what makes them different from competitors? Why would the market buy your offering over competitors? How you are going to trademark your products. Include designs, pictures of your product. Include all the material necessary for readers to understand the full extent of what you sell.

  • Markets & Competitors

Who are your customers, what are their key drivers? Describe the market you aim to sell in, what’s the market share, who is currently the market leader? How have you segmented the market? Who are your competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Are you operating in an oligopoly or monopoly? These are important questions which highlight how competitive your desired market is.

  • Marketing & Sales

This section should describe the specific activities you intend to use to promote and sell your products and services. It should cover; how do you plan to position your product or service in the marketplace? How will you market your Unique Selling Point (USP)? What is your pricing policy and strategy? How will you promote your product or service?

  • Management & Personnel

Outline the structure and key skills of both your management team and your staff. What leadership style works best with your team? If you’re looking for external funding, your management team can be a decisive factor. Give details of your workforce in terms of total numbers and by the department. Describe what work you plan to do internally and if you plan to outsource any of your operations. Your plan should also include any recruitment or training plans, including timescales and costs.

  • Operations

Your business plan also needs to outline your operational capabilities and any planned improvements. There are certain areas you should focus on such as Location, Production and Technology. Do you have any business property? Do you own or rent it? Do you need your own production facilities, or would it be cheaper to outsource any manufacturing processes? Who will be your suppliers? This section should also cover what technology is used throughout your business. Outline the reliability and the planned development of your IT systems and include the strengths and weaknesses in this area.

  • Financial forecasts

As part of your plan, you will need to provide a set of financial projections, which translate what you have said about your business into numbers. If relevant, how much capital do you need if you are seeking external funding? How do you plan to pay back any borrowings? What are your sources of revenue? Your forecasts should be projected for at least the next 3 years. Include your sales forecast, profit & loss forecast, any cash flow statements and your contingency plans with your risk analysis.

Conclusion

A Business Plan should be written so that an external party with no affiliation to your business can understand exactly who you are, what you do and why you do it. Once the document has been read, the reader should completely understand your current business position and future plan of action. This can include potential investors, mergers, employees and business partners. The more you detail the more accurate of an understanding and service you will receive in return.

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15 Oct2018

Why Contingency Plans are a Must

Written by Andrew Hayward. Posted in Hints & Tips

Why Contingency Plans are a Must

Running a business comes with a lot of stress and can get even more complicated when it grows. Not only do your costs increase, but your workforce and competitors can too. Business can be unpredictable and there are always occasions where the unexpected can and will happen. It could be that your expanded workforce is now very difficult to communicate with, or changes within your target market take a sudden turn. Whatever the situation, you need to prepare for it.

 

What are Contingency Plans?

Contingency plans help you prepare for the unexpected, it forces you to plan out the most suitable route of action in response to a possible disaster or any other company hinderance. You will have first written your business plan, carried out a risk assessment plan and produce your contingency plan as a result. It reduces or negates the risk should it actually happen. Contingency plans are essential to acting quickly and appropriately, minimising any negative backlash.

Planning for a Crisis

If your company was hacked and as a result, a lot of personal data was released to the public. If you have a contingency plan, you could quickly respond to this cyber-attack and address the public with a prepared apology and recovery plan. If no contingency plan existed, it is likely your company wouldn’t be able to respond quickly, and public opinions of your company become more widely known and potentially exaggerated through lack of prompt action.

Contingency plans can also be created for instances not as extreme. For example, you could create a contingency plan for when one of your competitors release news of launching a product very similar to yours. The plan could detail how you would boost the launch of your product beforehand and make it public in advance of the original schedule. You could also plan a way to market your product differently, to appeal to a different audience. This would not have been your original choice but a secondary one.

Another type of contingency plan could refer to environmental disasters. This is particularly important if your company operates in a volatile or high-risk environment. Let’s say you own a manufacturing company and one of your main production facilities, which delivers a third of your product, is affected in a flood. Your plan could consist of the necessary actions to take if this happens.

the production facility was flooded while in operation, and as a result, your assets are affected. Depending on how bad the flood was, determines the action and contingency plan put into effect. If the facility was partially flooded, there would be a contingency plan on how best to fix the facility to resume operations. Another plan could cover if the flood made the facility inoperable. This plan could detail how the company can use back up funds to purchase a new facility or expand an existing one in a different location.

Conclusion

It’s understandable that not every single situation can be mapped out and addressed. There are some circumstances that just cannot be predicted. However, the situations that are likely to happen should be considered. If you operate in a country prone to floods, there needs to be a contingency plan, if you operate in a highly competitive market, there needs to be a contingency plan for what might affect you and the shared market. If you deal with a lot of sensitive client or customer data, there needs to be a contingency plan. There must always be a series of contingency plans suitable for your business and its environment.

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08 Oct2018

Getting the Right Balance – Supply and Demand

Written by Andrew Hayward. Posted in Hints & Tips

Supply and Demand refer to the balance of what a business can deliver and what the target market wants. There are several variables which can affect this equilibrium – the main factors being Price and Quantity.

The selling price of a service or product will be pre-determined by how much suppliers will charge you to produce and deliver the sale. It also depends on how necessary your product or service is to your market. If the supplier price changes, so will your selling price, and if it were to increase, then your customer’s demand may fall. This is the same case for quantity; Create too much supply when demand is low, and this will result in excess inventory leading to a loss profits (you would be holding unsold stock or resources). It is also worth noting that demand can be very high and therefore exceed the quantity that’s provided, causing a loss of potential sales.

Getting the right price and quantity requires the perfect balance between who supplies you with the means to sell and how much is demanded by your market.

 

Get the Right Measures in Place

Getting the perfect balance called Equilibrium between supply and demand requires certain measures in place beforehand to accurately understand your market.

Research your market. Is it Business to Business (B2B) or Business to Consumer (B2C)? Research who has been buying your product/service, what their demographics are. Find out whether they need your product or service, or if it’s purchased just out of interest. This means that the customer does not consider the product or service as a necessity but is still willing to purchase it. Research future demand through surveying existing markets first, then research the possible alternate markets for growth.

Secondly, understand your suppliers. Take care of your suppliers or anyone who is involved in delivering/producing your product or service. This can be your workforce too. Develop good relations as this will help with negotiations and motivation. Allowing you to anticipate any changes that might occur.

How to Adapt to Change

If you understand how important your product or service is to your customers, then you know how to adapt your price and quantity when supplier costs change. It may be that your pricing strategy is Penetration Pricing; – providing a cheaper offering than competitors. It may be the sole reason why you sell well, so if costs were to increase, your selling price increases. The further this increases the less likely customers will purchase your product as alternatives may be more competitive.

The situation may be different if your product or service is considered a necessity for your market. In this case, it’s likely if the price were to change then your market will continue purchasing your product or service. This is due to the value of the service or product exceeding its price point. Therefore, your market will value your service or product offering more highly, trumping the selling price.

There are also be times when the selling price has not changed, but a drop in your sales has occurred. This will be due to changes which affect your market. Factors which impact your market can be economical, political, environmental, social etc. It could be that the country where most of your clients are based is undergoing recession and no longer have the flexible capital to stretch to your prices. Although your product or service is still desired, the market may no longer value your offer above other needs. 

Conclusion

Understanding your market and keeping good relations with your suppliers eliminates most of the variables which are in your control. Knowing how much to sell and at what price is the key to maintaining stable sales. Variables outside your control can still affect this equilibrium and so it is vital you have knowledge of your markets values and needs. This allows for the appropriate contingency plan to be executed; -minimising the losses and securing your sales.

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03 Oct2018

Creating an Effective Workforce

Written by Andrew Hayward. Posted in Hints & Tips

In business, developing an effective workforce is key. Workforces are the cogs and gears operating your business, making it tick. If a cog were to get rusty or weaken, then the rest will have to compensate – weakening them too. There must be procedures and measures in place for the workforce to adapt and continue its operations without much setback. However, before this can all happen, you need to create an effective workforce plan to recruit the right people.

 

 What is Effective Workforce Planning?

Workforce planning is simply getting the right number of people with the right skills to fit the business. It’s a method by which a business forecasts how many and what type of employees it needs now and, in the future. Its complementary to a company’s business plan. It is one of the central activities of human resource management and helps organisations to foresee change, identify trends and implement human resource policies.

An effective workforce plan helps a business achieve its corporate objectives by ensuring the business has a workforce of the right size, with the right skills, in the right place giving a company a competitive advantage.

How to Create a Workforce Plan

First, it is always essential to survey and analyse company performance. Look into what departments are doing well, what members make up that department and how does their performance compare with a department who aren’t doing as well. Pick out which individuals oversee what and whether they have several roles to fulfil, take note of any correlations, trends and the results. It is good to get the workforce’s opinion too, this can be done through a survey or by simply asking.

Apply this process in the business’s current position and then project it to the business potential position. This can be done by understanding which internal and external variables such as political or industry matters which in future could affect the business – therefore affecting the workforce.

Once you have identified the opportunities, where employing a new member will alleviate stress from others and provide complementary skills, it is time to create the ideal employee profiles for each job. The ideal employee profile allows employers to really flesh out, what they really want from this individual, not only for the team and department but for the company itself.

How to Recruit the Right People

Once the plan has been established and the profiles set up for who you need now and in future – it’s time to recruit. To align your team with your business, there needs to be a proper introduction into the company and set of procedures and expectations transferred across.

It is important to be clear and descriptive in the job advertisement so that the right people understand the job role. State the desired skills, tasks of the role, performance criteria and pay. Once that is established, describe the personality traits need to fit well with the team and department. Depending on the business’s position, this recruitment process can be for internal and external candidates.

Implementing the Right Attitudes and Procedures.

Now having the right people in place, it’s important to set up measures for how the company carries out its operations. This is where management styles and procedures are put in place – it is also where the employer would state their expectations. This is done during the induction session, where the candidates can meet their teams and understand their role better.

To sum up, clear communication and identified expectations complemented by the candidates desired skills and traits, set a company up for a very effective workforce.

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24 Sep2018

Aligning Company Culture – Its Necessary!

Written by Andrew Hayward. Posted in Hints & Tips

Just like people, companies have unique personalities. It is the personality of a business that encompasses its values, principles and attitudes, making up the brand. A brand should be reflected in a company’s approach and how they operate. This reflection is the company’s culture.

 

What is Company Culture?

Company culture defines the environment in which employees work. It is the physical and immaterial elements surrounding the employee’s environment.

For example, it’s understandable to assume that a graphic design company would have a culture which promotes creativity. Tangible elements could include placing abstract art around the offices and intangible elements could simply be rewarding hard work. In contrast, a financial services firm would have a more autocratic culture. This is not to say that every employee in a graphic design company should be creative – it highlights that each employee should understand and support that aspect.

Why define your Company Culture?

In any company, it’s the employees who deliver the work, which then makes up the brand. It is sensible to create an atmosphere for employees to work in that support the brand’s traits. If this environment is inconsistent due to poor company culture, then the brand’s reliability will weaken.

Being clear on what company culture is, allows for a more accurate brand delivery. It provides current employees with the suited atmosphere to work at an optimum as well as portraying the right ideals to potential customers and employees. See the process as – CEO values translate into the brand, the brand is delivered by employees, the employees are supported by company culture. Therefore, the company culture must reflect the brand.

Developing and Implementing Culture

Company Culture can be difficult to enact and maintain, especially for smaller businesses. This is because developing and implementing the right company culture can be costly and time-consuming. Part of culture implementation involves the acquiring and manipulation of tangible assets, it could be the way you design your office or purchasing a brand of IT equipment. It can also involve intangible assets such as leadership style, attitudes, values and the creation of procedures, which are time-consuming to implement and maintain.

Conclusion

To sum up, Company Culture supports employees in optimising their work to best fit the company’s brand. Culture can be made up of tangible and intangible elements such as office arrangements and management style which can be costly and time-consuming, but both enforce the right culture.

Getting the right culture fit, allows for accurate brand portrayal to both potential customers and employees and increases the probability of acquiring these stakeholders. This, in turn, enforces the right culture and repeats, constantly providing the right people for the right job to deliver the right message to the right customers.

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17 Sep2018

10 Sales Tips from the Hayward Miller Team

Written by Andrew Hayward. Posted in Hints & Tips

Here are the Top 10 Tips the Hayward Miller Team have put forward to help improve your sales:

 

1. Research your Prospect.

It is important to research your prospects – this can include their industry, their company history, financials and their visions. It is vital that you understand your client’s perspective and how your clients got to their position today.

2. Use Open and Closed questions.

Open questions often start with words such as what, why, tell me about, share with me, and how. Open-ended questions should bring about descriptive answers from your prospect, not a yes/no answer.

However, closed questions do consist of yes/no answers or short non-expressive answers. They are primarily asked to get a quick definitive answer.Ensure you are asking both Open and Closed questions to receive the most relevant and applicable information about the client and their company.

3. Prepare for the Initial Meet.

Research your potential client again. This is pivotal research needed to understand your client and their problems much better. It is worth reviewing what you know before you meet with them.

4. Know when to Stop Talking/Selling.

Remember to be cautious in your approach when dealing with any prospective client as there is a possibility of overselling or talking too much. Doing this can intimidate or even put off prospects, so be wary.

5. Be Consistent in your Approach

Have a documented sales pitch that reflects your company’s strengths. Refer back to how their problem can be solved with your help. 

6. Ask the Questions you want Answers to.

This may sound obvious but it’s surprising how little it happens. A good example would be, “Do you have any supply issues we could help you with?”

Be direct, information on your prospective client is necessary. The good and the bad, be clear that you want to help, and you need these answers.

7. Knowledge is Power.

The more you know about the product or service you are promoting, the easier it will be to do so. You must believe in what you are selling. Genuity is easily spotted, it makes you honest and reliable.

8. Understand and Highlight your Unique Selling Point (USP).

Make sure you bring attention to what makes your company stand out from the crowd. Highlight the benefits you can bring which trumps competitor offerings.

9. Be Confident.

Always be confident in your capabilities, in your approach and in your brand. Confidence settles prospective clients, allowing the right mindset to sell effectively.

10. Listen with 2, speak with 1!

There’s a reason we have two ears and only one mouth!

Make sure you listen to what the customer is saying, and what they are responding to when you’re the one doing the talking. Body language can say a lot about an individual’s opinion on a subject, read them and listen. 

Nothing comes across worse than an ignorant salesman, remember to listen for as twice as long as you speak.

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10 Sep2018

Success Does Not Define a Great Leader

Written by Andrew Hayward. Posted in Hints & Tips

In business, we are often inspired by the leaders of successful profitable businesses. We assume that the CEO’s and Managing Directors are the great leaders behind the success simply due to their position and wealth. We assume they possess qualities that led to their position today, however, profitability and successfulness do not determine great leadership.

What is a Great Leader?

A leader is irrelevant without a team to spearhead. The abilities of a team depend on its leadership, good leadership will produce a highly motivated and passionate team; bad leadership will result in a dysfunctional team with a lack of productivity. There needs to be a balance between a kind, forgiving leader and a strict autocratic one – great leadership is that balance.

A great leader can possess an array of personality traits and abilities, however, it’s how they interact with their team that determines the ability of their leadership. By far the most influential act is leading by example, psychology suggests that the people we respect or look up to are the people who we imitate or easily pick up habits from. However, before that can happen there needs to be that initial respect, and respect has to be earned, not given.

How do I Earn Respect?

Earning respect among peers can be different depending on who your peers are and what interests them, but in business, there is a commonality. In business, every member is an interested party. The state of their work directly impacts their lifestyle and mental state. Some may see work as a hindrance, most of these people are working in the wrong environment or atmosphere. However, there is a silver lining, these employees may just need a change in job role or simply a chat to see the reason behind their approach to work.

In business, most people respect leaders who are honest, understanding, passionate, tenacious and positive in their work. Leaders who are patient and hopeful, willing to dedicate themselves fully to their work. An honest leader is a realistic one, someone who is holistic in their approach towards their business position. An understanding leader is empathetic to their employees and can understand varied cultures and environments. A passionate leader is enthusiastic about their work, they have a genuine belief in their business ability and are keen on achieving them. A tenacious leader is determined, someone who will explore every route possible to achieve an objective. Finally, a positive leader is vibrant, someone who sees the light in the dark, the opportunities amongst threats, motivating everyone. 

Conclusion

A leader is an individual that possesses these qualities and has a team to engage with. Leaders may not even be in leadership positions but have the capability to do so. Not all leaders are necessarily business experts or high-level managers – they are people with a certain outlook on their environment. A certain outlook can translate failures into successes.

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30 Aug2018

New Recruitment Client Saves You Time and Money

Written by Andrew Hayward. Posted in News

CWS Group is a search and selection recruitment company specialising in sectors including but not limited to; – engineering, automotive, landscaping and ground maintenance. The company is based in Leicester and have been in the industry for 27 years saving companies time and money.

The CWS group dedicate their time and efforts towards getting to understand both their clients and potential candidate’s needs. Essentially, they will find the right job for the right people and with many years of experience behind them and a great understanding in several sectors, CWS are professionals in their field.

They offer a selection of bespoke enlisting systems tailored to each of the sectors they specialise in and provide several different styles of sourcing their candidates. This, in turn, allows the company to have a wider array of potential candidates, varying different contract types to suit their clients desired profile.

Free skill tests are offered to candidates to safeguard validity before suggested any roles, some of which include:

LANDSCAPING & MAINTENANCE – Candidates specialising in Hard & Soft Landscaping, Tree Surgeons, Grounds Maintenance, Fencing and Horticultural Workers.

TECHNICAL, ENGINEERING – CNC Machinists, Sheet Metal Workers, Welders, Quality Inspectors, Grinding, Injection Moulding and Maintenance Engineers.

AUTOMOTIVE & DRIVING – HGV & Car Mechanics, Panel Beaters, MET Technician, Paint Sprayers, Tyre Fitters, Van & 7.5 Tonne Drivers.

SUPPLY CHAIN – Warehouse & Production Workers, FLT Drivers, Stores, Despatch, Quality Control, Sales, Administration& Accounts.

Hayward Miller are working alongside the CWS Group as an extension to their salesforce, using our Managed Services package to increase their sales. We have begun targeting their customers in the Landscaping and Grounds Maintenance Recruitment sector where we’ve contacted many leads and already have customers in direct contact with key decision makers. Having had experience working in the recruitment industry before we are knowledgeable of CWS Group’s industry sectors.

If you’d like to know more about CWS and what they offer, please contact the CWS team at Hayward Miller: – Call: 01842 821440

Email: [email protected]

To see the CWS Group website: www.cwsgp.com

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24 Aug2018

New Client Makes Water Savings Simple

Written by Andrew Hayward. Posted in News

Peritus is a completely independent energy & water consultancy company who uniquely specialises in validating and auditing business energy and water billing. The company manages energy and water on behalf of businesses ranging from small to very large. The process is very simple. A new client grants a ‘Letter of Authority’, a document allowing Peritus to contact the customer’s utility supplier on their behalf to manage the client’s business needs accurately and concisely.Breaking News: Peritus has just achieved a 50% discount (£43,624 reduction!) off a client’s electricity bill with seven years to pay the outstanding balance. This amazing result is the culmination of years of knowledge and experience, together with the ability to ‘take on’ major energy and water suppliers.

Other key energy and water services include: –

  • Procurement
  • Conservation
  • Identification
  • Control of Waste

So confident is Peritus, that in most cases they don’t charge an upfront fee, rather, a share of any financial successes they secure.

Once Peritus is engaged, savings and even refunds relating to incorrect charges previously raised are quickly found in a manner of ways clients least expect. With over twenty years’ experience in the industry, Peritus staff are extremely focussed on details such as the minutia of billing, because it’s here that clients are least aware.

Peritus has enlisted Hayward Miller’s support to reach out to new clients identified as having issues with their water billing. Contacting new clients has always been the most difficult operation, especially in this situation where they would be unaware of Peritus. Hayward Miller’s function is to create a stable and growing sales pipeline. 

Thanks to Hayward Miller for securing a meeting, Peritus are in discussion with a client operating in 4OO sites spread across the UK.  Peritus began the project by issuing a database of target companies. Hayward Miller formatted the data and then completed any missing information ready for the Telemarketing team to begin connecting with customers and building a steady rapport.

This is always in the pursuit of B.A.N.T. certified leads; – a method of assessing the quality of prospects and tracking them through the sales qualification process. Hayward Miller has systems and procedures in place designed to filter leads down to the most promising and likelihood of sale.

If you’d like to know more about Peritus Energy & Water, please contact the Peritus team at Hayward Miller: – Call: O1842 82144O

To see the Peritus website: www.peritusenergyandwater.co.uk

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