Assessing the business foundation

As a business owner, you may have poured your blood sweat and tears into a business and still not see the business working exactly how you envisioned. It’s not that you are unsuccessful . . .in fact, your business could be making good financial results. But you know that things could be better. Whether its greater efficiency of operations, improved work flow, increased customer satisfaction, or higher employee engagement, you see areas that need improvement. Or maybe you just can’t put your finger on all the areas, but you know that all of it collectively will help your business grow and thrive.

So where do you start?

Whatever age and stage your business is at, it is always critical to assess the foundational pillars that support the business and see what areas need some reinforcement. Over time, as the business environment changes and as the business itself grows and expands, it so critical to assess the business foundations and pivot forward.  

Here a five (5) Key Foundational Pillars to assess:

Each area has multiple factors associated with them but are critical to the continued growth of any organization. Regular assessment will allow the business owner and leadership team to

  • Leadership
    • Continuous Improvement – Are you creating some structure about developing yourself as a leader – reading, course, hiring a coach? Learning something every day keeps you in a continues growth and development phase. Learning is for a lifetime and developing yourself personally spills over in to every area of your life – business, family, relationships, inspiring and encouraging others who are just observing you journey.
    • Developing your management team –
    • Training staff and setting expectations –
    • Vision, mission, values
  • Human Resources
    • Staff Roles & Responsibilities – What is needed from each role? Is it still applicable now or do areas need to be revised? Is the employee functioning in their skillset and strength area? Have you asked employees what could be done better or more efficient? Key point – employees have the answers to better operations and more efficiency. They are down in the operations and details so they know. Have you developed KPI’s for the various teams / business units? How is the employees’ performance measured?
  • Operations
    • Processes & Systems – Do you have all of the processes documented in written or chart form or both? If not, this is a necessary exercise to see each component of the process and if there are ways it can be improved for efficiency
    • Accountability – Knowing and documenting each process, will allow you to create KPIs and hold employees accountabile for
  • Customer Service / Satisfaction & Sales
    • Are you able to measure you customer service satisfaction? Are you meeting the expectations or are you missing the mark?
    • Making assumptions in this area can be dangerous for your business. By the time you realize that customers are dissatisfied, the repair process may be too late and the reputational damage may be significant. Providing avenues for feedback and carrying out surveys can help you gauge ongoing customer satisfaction. This goes hand in hand with processes around serving the customer in a timely, efficient ant friendly manner.
  • Finances
    • Cash Flow Management – Ability to know current and future cash needs. Managing vendor payments and customer receipts. Ensuring that appropriate follow up is done with customers owing and putting measures in place to manage the AR process. Controlling vendor payments and maximizing discounts and credit terms. Having a minimum 3 month forecast of expected payments and estimated receipts / sales.
    • Monthly Close & Reporting – Having all data entered in a timely basis to have accurate and complete info at all times. Have a monthly close process is critical to have appropriate cut off period and reporting and comparing results. Having key reporting function in place

Information / Analytics – Are you getting the information from your systems and staff that allow you to clearly see how your business is performing and allow you to make decisions around expansion or cost savings. Are you able to see areas that may be underperforming that would allow you to investigate what is happening? Are you able track cost? Are you able to see if there is wastage, spoilage? Are you able to forecast cash flows?

Setting up the information reporting systems in the right way that provides you with all of the information that you need in a timely basis is critical for decision making and monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) within the business.