Her Magazine is New Zealand’s only women’s business lifestyle magazine! Her Magazine highlights the achievements of successful and rising New Zealand businesswomen. Her Magazine encourages a healthy work/life balance.
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/76572
MASTER CLASS :practice makes perfect Step outside your comfort zone and elevate your business to the next level by reviewing and tweaking your practices – your business and your bank balance will love you for it! Performance How you deliver your product or service (and how you fund your business) should be constantly tweaked to achieve maximum efficiency and performance. Whether you research ways to achieve this via the Internet, seminars and workshops or engage the help of an advisor who understands business models, getting it right can make business life a breeze whereas having the wrong model can result in constant struggle and unhappiness for you as the owner. You may think 'why fix what's not broken?' This may be so, but could you do it better? Could you fine tune, add, delete or maximise the higher profit producing areas and reduce the low profit ones? Could you find easier ways of distribution, assembly or delivery? What about staff, could some contribute better in other ways? Evaluate Evaluate your strengths, i.e., how they set you apart in the market place and ask how you can build on them. Then look at your weaknesses and consider what they're costing and how you can improve them. Now evaluate what opportunities are in place to solve your issues. Thanks to the Internet you can do a quick search to find solutions, and help from local and international experts is just a click away. There may be areas in your weakness list that are beyond your control, however, if you consider them and put in place appropriate risk management you'll set yourself above the competition. Results Every business owner should ideally have set up a business that, when it comes time to sell, you've built a solid asset that can be handed over to a buyer for a premium price. Ensure the business is attracting the right results today. The key to constant improvement is listening to staff, customers, suppliers, stakeholders and advisors and having good systems in place that enable absorption of suggested and implemented improvements. Cut the Fat Through the refining process ensure you don't cut 'muscle' in your business, such as effective marketing and good staff, instead look for 'fat' or resources that aren't delivering value. This may mean upgrades that may seem costly at the time but will add significant greater value to your business in the long run. End of resources By 2012 your business may have had a rough couple years and getting to the end of its resources. You may have had to use cash reserves, incur debt or opt for cheaper labour/materials. If you've experienced a cash flow squeeze for the past couple of years and can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, it may be a good time to consult an expert in finance or insolvency. Consulting an insolvency expert can make a huge difference to your personal outcome of business liquidation. They can help you navigate the rules, so you don't end up paying an unnecessarily high personal price. Cash flow If your business is impacted negatively by a particular sector of the market you need to keep a close eye on cash flow. A good indicator of cash flow is calculating liquidity. A good measure of liquidity is 'current ratio', this is the best result of dividing current assets by current liabilities. It shows the number of times current liabilities are covered by current assets. Banks look closely at this ratio when lending, as they want confidence about loan repayments. Business owners need to know this for their own peace of mind. Time Now that the results are in, the evaluations have been made and changes implemented, give it time – and don't let up. By following through and maintaining the drive to see your business through to a new and improved model you will see results and prolong the life of your business. 64 | www.hermagazine.co.nz Practice makes