Your IndustryJul 20 2016

Get to the root of the problem to grow your business

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This requires company chiefs to question every facet of their business processes and engage with their workforce to get a more holistic understanding of their firm’s progression status, the founder of The London Coaching Group said.

Ms Jhajharia said customer insight serves to provide clarity on areas within the corporation that are in need of development.

The second step tasks bosses to re-evaluate their vision for the business and check whether it is still relevant to themselves and their employees.

Ms Jhajharia asked: “If so, then does everyone in your organisation have real motivation for achieving it?

“If not, talk to your team and revaluate the vision so it provides a sufficient challenge to achieve more while still illuminating a bright future.

“Write down your vision. Think about your personal goals first. Most successful companies are those where the business goals are working towards helping the business owner achieve their personal goals.”

The next stage is evaluating the existing workforce, which may include running a DiSC assessment – a behaviour assessment tool – to understand their working style and strengths.

Entrepreneurial individuals are paramount during the teething staging of a business. However, as the company grows, different types of personalities and individuals are needed, according to Ms Jhajharia. She added that bosses should seek to recruit individuals with the desired skill set to bolster frailties within the corporate structure.

The next step is to create a proper business structure.

Ms Jhajharia said: “If your organisational structure currently seats yourself – the business owner – in more than one critical position in the company, then you are facing a structure that is inhibiting growth.

“As your business grows, you will need a structured and clear organisational model to allow processes to flow effectively. This allows each employee to have clearly defined roles and accountabilities so they can perform effectively and understand how they fit into the larger picture.”

Lastly, bosses should endeavour to measure business development by defining key performance indicators for employees and devising a robust tracking mechanism.

She added: “You can then get a clearer picture of who is in the right roles, and where there is room for growth – and so you can adjust your business growth strategies to be aligned with the metrics of where your company is currently weakest.”

Adviser view

David Lamb, partner and IFA at Northumberland-based Lamb & Associates Lifestyle Financial Planners, said: “One of the biggest problems of running a business is that it is easy to spend time in the business rather that spending time on developing the business. We advisers spend far too long filling out paperwork to satisfy compliance which eats into the time we put aside to see clients and make new connections.”

Mr Lamb said: “Tracking KPIs is not necessarily difficult. We compare our turnover with other advisory practices and divide that by the number of staff we have. We also look at funds under management to determine the capital value of our business.”