What do you think the term Business Health Check Means?
Most owners of small and medium enterprises are so focused on satisfying the immediate needs of their customers, staff or suppliers that they forget to plan for the future. When all you think about is working “in” the business without giving a thought to working “on” the business, then it is time to get a Business Coach or a Business Adviser from outside the organisation. In essence, you need to sign up for a Business Health Check.
A Business Health Check can be referred to as a current comprehensive evaluation of the crucial elements of your business. It provides you with several questions to help you concentrate on the business in a way that helps you see it from the point of view of an external expert. This begins with an assessment by you, in your capacity as the owner/manager independent of the business. It involves a comprehensive diagnostic on the business and the outcome will define the strength of the business while pointing out ways of improving the business.
What are the advantages of a Business Health Check?
The process for Business Health Check involves two parts. Firstly, the answers to a succession of questions will be provided. This is the part that involves diagnostics. An experienced business coach and adviser will then review the answers. The review must be carried out by an independent, business coach, who possesses the required knowledge and skill to direct and support the development of a pathway to success. The results are collected in a report format and a follow-up meeting is arranged with the business owner. The business owner has the right to either accept the report, or have it modified.
The business owner, along with the business coach and adviser will decide the actions to implement in other to produce positive changes for the business and put things in place to implement these actions with the resources that were agreed upon within the decided timeframe. This creates clarity and purpose in the business and builds motivation to act and bring about positive changes. Knowledge provides the experts and the entire system with the ability to direct a successful course right from the beginning down to the end of the Business Health Check.
What are the steps involved in completing a Business Health Check?
This is a fairly easy process. By working with a business adviser or coach with experience, the owner/manager is put through every facet of the business. You are given the necessary support needed to make an assessment of the results of the comprehensive diagnostic report and aided in coming up with a plan to put the necessary changes into action. The following are the key areas:
External elements:
How is the business dealing with the factors beyond its control? Some of the factors reviewed include industry, business environment, technology, competition, customers, including owners/shareholders.
Vision for the business:
What do you want the future of the business to be about?
Objectives, Strategies, and Plans: What are the things you need to do to make this vision a reality?
Structure and Culture to provide support for the strategies:
How do you intend to organize the people, funds, resources and everything needed to run the business? What are the fundamental rules of the business?
Marketing, Sales & Business Development:
How do you intend to inform prospects about the business and what are your plans for transforming them into customers? How do you plan to keep and cultivate the best possible customers, products, and services?
Production, Operations & Logistics:
How do you intend to source, produce, and manage goods and services to satisfy your customers while maintaining good quality and consistency?
Accounting, Finance & Cash flow:
How do you intend to manage the bookkeeping, accounting and all the necessary financial information, while making sure that the business requirements can be taken care of by the cash flow and at the same time yield a positive cash flow for the business owner?
People & HR:
How do you locate and manage the people most suitable to run the business?
The Procedure, Systems and Information required to organize everything: What particular system and technique do you require to provide support for every facet of the business? How will you detect when the business begins to operate at its peak?
