Business Adviser

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T17:58:00.000Z

Well 2008 has arrived at last and I hope you all had a great holiday.

Most of the business world here in the UK closes down over Christmas and the New Year holiday, so it takes some time to bump start business again and I guess that is the same with all of us (bump starting our brains!!)

But if you own your own business then this is a good time to review the past year and look forward to the next business year. It is a good time to carry out a review and to make forward plans.

Due to the sub prime credit crunch that all the pundits say we will suffer from this year, it is more important than ever to assess how your markets might change and how you can adapt to take full advantage of this chage. Just because the doom-sayers are getting morbid about future prospects for SME businesses does not mean that you cannot plan to take full advantage of any opportunities out there.

Feel free to email me (bob@abio.ltd.uk) or respond to this post if you want to discuss any issues that are affecting your business.

Good luck for 2008

Back up your data!

2007-11-23T17:48:00.000Z

So someone at the HMRC otherwise known as the Tax Office has lost the data on 25 million citizens! It would be funny if it were not so serious. It is obvious that a catalogue of errors from the top down has compounded the view of the average person that the Revenue is incompetent to handle the affairs of the tax payer and credit reciever in this country.

But this has got me thinking about how my clients back up their data and, as importantly, how they manage their data. For instance could one of your junior employees download your entire customer base and remove it from your office? If you say no, how do you know this, who checks and what procedures are in place to prevent this happening?

On a simple level what happens if there is a fire, flood or a simple computer virus that affects your business? How quickly could you recover? Could you go somewhere else and start up immediately with little or no disruption?

I have come across a product that can give you this peace of mind for a very low price. It is a web based intranet service www.intranet.uk.com which allows you to upload your documents and data at any time of the day or night. This data is securely stored off site and you can have access to it at anytime and anywhere. So that if some calamity overtakes you, your business will be able to run smoothly within minutes if not hours.

At least then you will not have egg on your face like the tax man.

If you want to see how you can ensure that your data is safe and secure either contact me at bob@abio.ltd.uk or go to www.abio.ltd.uk/downloads

Who needs the Fall in New England

2007-11-07T18:19:00.001Z

Travelling around the country recently I have been delighted by the autumn colours now on display. As a collegue said who needs Fall in New England when you can have Autumn in (good) Old England! The trees are putting on a magnificent display of reds and gold, greens and browns and I think this is one of the best autumns in a long time.

Talking of winter approaching, now is a good time to think about 2008 and to start your business planning for the next year. Many clients do not do any planning at all and some only have a rudimentary grasp of what is required. As a consequence how do they know what has worked and what does not because it is certain that if they do not plan, they do not measure the results of activities.

And yet business planning is not complicated. For a small SME a simple one page plan can be enough. All that is needed is a set of objectives broken down by costed and timed activities that will achieve the objectives. Often what is required first however is a thorough review of the business to identify weaknesses or gaps. This business health check can then be used to set the agenda for the business plan for next year.

We help clients in many ways and business planning is only one. If you need help in this area contact me at bob@abio.ltd.uk and we can discuss how you can develop a plan for next year that will drive your business forward.

It is typically of the British weather! You just mention how nice autumn is and the heavens open and thunder and lightning strikes and the area is covered by hailstones!

A day in the life of..

2007-11-06T18:34:00.000Z

This is my first blog entry and I aim to mix business issues with general musings that I hope will interest readers.

Today was an ordinary day as far as business was concerned. I saw two clients one that was well run and had some interesting thoughts on the internet websites blogs and all. This is what triggered me to start this one.

The other, new client for whom I was carrying out a business healthcheck has got themselves into all sorts of personal and business debts that will be difficult to recover from. It never ceases to amaze me that people persist in trying to run their business without one eye on the financials. This business has been run on negative cash flow for sometime and whatever resources the owner had have now gone to the extent that he has entered a voluntary arrangement with his creditors. I do not think I shall be seeing this client again! (Not least because they cannot pay my very modest fees)

If nothing else if you run your own business look after cash as profit is sanity and turnover is vanity!