Sustainable Business/Evaluating your business

SB undefined



This should not just be an exercise in ticking boxes but is a principles and methods based report where preset monitoring points are addressed in sentences. The HC would be done with the SBN co-ordinator.

Consider the output measures that should be included in each Methods booklet.

Sanford TBL reporting

The end of a financial year brings with it the opportunity to look back at what happened. One of the very difficult things for the small business person to do is to extricate themselves from their day-to-day role and review their business. Some term this working on the business not working in the busienss.

In the world of bigger business this is the role played by directors at monthly or bimonthly board meetings.

When managers are involved in this process it is not uncommon that they go away somewhere where there are no phones and place themselves in a different environment. For the small businessperson this role has been filled by there accountant or by a business coach. One of the challenges for the small entrepreneur of future will be finding somebody able to help them work on their business in a holistic way. The traditional training of accountants and business coaches does not encompass the wider issues we have been dealing with.

review business performance

as already mentioned review sales weekly and have a more thorough review each month.

what would we do differently

could we do better?

How does the business fit with my personal life?

Reviewing The Value Proposition
Alternative TBL approach

Customer targets

 * have you met your customer service targets
 * number of liaison calls
 * repairs done on time


 * have you met your product or service targets

Life style targets

 * income
 * hours

Financial targets

 * profitability
 * leverage
 * is wealth being accrued?
 * by repaying term loans(that are secured)
 * by increasing the value of the firm

Community targets

 * Hours spent helping
 * advertising placed

Environmental targets

 * waste recycled
 * electricity consumption (as related to activity)

Assumptions
Are the assumptions related to income fair? Are any cost savings over optimistic? Contingency fund

The Owner
Will the businesses surpluses be sufficient for personal spending and investment in the nest 12 months. What needs to change
 * better returns from the business
 * revised personal goals of the entrepreneur

Staff

 * Staff morale
 * Staff training
 * Staffing issues
 * Staff turnover
 * Encouraging staff innovation
 * Family
 * Friends
 * Business enhancement (innovation)
 * Your ideas
 * Staff ideas
 * Implemented
 * Fraud prevention

External

 * Relations with local businesses
 * Relations with industry groups
 * Participation in Chamber of Commerce
 * Participation other networking groups
 * Relations with customers
 * Relations with suppliers (days to settlement of invoices)
 * Financiers/bankers
 * Community engagement through charity support
 * Contacts ideas

Internal

 * Power usage
 * Managed waste
 * Un-recycled waste
 * Material use efficiency

External

 * Customer carbon footprint
 * Our pollution
 * Visual
 * Noise
 * Physical
 * E waste
 * Improvements during the year


 * Our image to the outside world
 * Positive
 * Negative
 * Improvements during the year

How we interpret the results
Change method

Change the ethics (Change value proposition) CGY reminder note

Rules of thumb on when to change.

Is this business working for me
Are you feeling stressed? Is the business encroaching on other areas of your life? If yes are you prepared to tolerate this for another 12 months? 2 years? how many years?
 * time with family
 * time with your local community (friends?)
 * leisure activities

If the business(s) is/are unreasonably encroaching on your life then: how can you lessen your involvement. go back to.......