Business beaver

The Christmas decorations have been packed away, the diet is in place and gym memberships soaring. Once again, for the business owner, the focus returns to work. What does 2008 hold in store for us?

Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, in his address to a group of business people in Bristol in January candidly admitted that the immediate economic environment is going to pose a challenge.

The state of the US economy is a cause for concern with the impact felt globally. The threat of an US recession coupled with crippling high oil prices will inevitably have a significant impact on the UK economy and GDP.

Whilst there are pressures within the current economic environment, the firm hand on the tiller, that Mervyn King promises, should see the UK economy can come through the short term difficulties in a healthy state but 2008 will be a hard year.

What does this mean for the business owner and the local Swindon economy?

The hard truth is this year will be a story of the survival of the fittest. Unless protected in a particularly small specialist niche area, which few are; a business that is weak in the key areas of finance, sales, management and business processes will be at a much increased risk of failure this year. Conversely the business that is well structured controlled and running efficiently will survive and can indeed even prosper as weaker competitors fade away.

As a business owner now is time for you to take a critical review of how your business is running. Do you know how many enquiries you’re getting, how many enquiries you’re converting to quotes, quotes to orders, orders to invoices and invoices to cash?

Do you know why quotes aren’t being taken up; are you delivering the right level of service to keep your customers happy and with the increased growth in internet sales are you positioned to compete and maximise your share. Irrespective of the size of business these golden rules apply.

If your response is “my systems can’t give me that”, “I’m too busy” or “I can’t afford that type of structure” you may be right, but you may also not be in business in December. So talk to your business advisor or give me a call. At the very least you owe it to your employees and yourself to find out more.

This article originally appeared in the February 2008 edition of Wiltshire Business

Return to Morris Owen News menu