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Prepare for success in 2020

Taking the opportunity to review your business sheds light on how it’s performing in key areas. It helps you to identify improvements which can be made, encourages change and helps you to recognise what may need doing differently, in order to increase efficiency and profitability.

Your offer      

A good starting point is to evaluate your offering and whether it still meets your customers’ needs. Which of your products or services performed the best this year? And do you know why this was? Do you need to make changes to your offer? There may be new markets you could think about entering. Also, consider revising your marketing messages to target more opportunities. You may need to conduct market research and survey your customers to find the answer to these questions.

Your People

Your business needs to have the right mix of skills and may need to invest in skills development, in order to keep up with the pace of rapidly changing technology and customer expectations. Are the roles of your staff defined and are management structures effective? Are your employees motivated to succeed?

Your financial management

Look at your finances to identify any trends this year and in previous years, including both peaks and troughs. This will help you to prepare for the costs you will face in the year ahead and help avoid any unwanted surprises.  Start forecasting the best financial scenario and consider the most likely scenario, for your business over the next 12 months. Do you regularly monitor and track how much money comes in and goes out of your business? Do you need external support to do this?

Your planning

Do you know what’s working and what isn’t? You’ll put your business in a better position to set realistic goals to work towards if you can understand your business from your customers’ perspective.

Make use of the information that your review gathers to create a roadmap for the year ahead.

The Hertfordshire Growth Hub can help

Exemplas lead the consortium that deliver Hertfordshire Growth Hub.We have been supporting SMEs to recognise their growth potential for over 25 years and are experts in trusted advice. Find out more about the work we do here.

Hertfordshire Growth Hub offer support to SMEs and can guide businesses through the review process, helping togain a fresh perspective on your business and prepare a plan for growth.  

The Growth Hub can also help you to access funding, including grants to part-fund the costs of accessing external consultancy. As well as, introduce you to other business support organisations who could assist you over the coming year. Find out more about the Growth Hub here.