A STRONG VISION... your personal cornerstone

Before starting any business venture, it is important to know your end goal - where you are going and why. This seemingly simple exercise can make the difference between success and failure.

Vision is far better than chaos

George H W Bush, the US's 41st President, famously admitted that he had a problem with projecting the 'vision thing' - packaging his policies in a few stirring sentences.

That is a luxury few business people can afford. Knowing where your enterprise, and you personally, are going pays dividends when key decisions are needed throughout the full life-cycle of any business, from sole-trader to incorporation, expansion, floatation, mergers and acquisitions, succession planning, preparing for sale, retirement, or moving on to greater ambitions in life.

As a leader, you also have responsibilities to inspire employees, monitor, check and continuously re-align your commercial strategy, often on a daily basis.

This is a very practical lesson. It is said that 12 minutes spent planning every morning can save you two hours of work per day - two extra hours to either grow your business, or relax with your family. Not having a plan can be costly!

Digging foundations

Everyone, and every business, needs a strategic plan. Having a long-term vision allows you to break realistic ambitions down into practical, goal-orientated three-year, one-year and quarterly schedules that are tied to tangible goals. When change is needed, you can adapt quickly and confidentially to firm objectives.

Premier Account's vision

Our vision for clients is now based firmly on the state-of-the-art advantages of cloud accounting information, well-informed forecasting, and setting achievable KPIs with an in-built mechanism allowing you as leader to correct errors quickly.

The recommendations we make will again be very practical. For example, a one-minute meeting with each staff member may not only boost morale but also give you a direct and live tab on jobs in-hand, deadlines, being over/under budget, plus simple bottlenecks such as office printer problems!

A good starting point is a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). Don't worry. Your weaknesses may seem legion. Just see them as gateways to improvement. With the advantages of being privy to your full, regularly-updated online financial data and long-term track-record, Premier is in a prime position to help you achieve your goals.

Starting points

Your strengths may include your core team of great people, your experience and your enthusiasm. Your internal processes and management structures are also important. Location can be critical.

Don't let weaknesses get you down. Your internal and external communications with customers may need improving. Your service quality may be compromised at present. Processes are probably applied badly. Debt and WIP (work in progress) factors, plus your pricing structure, could be questionable.

Meanwhile, your opportunities may lie in networking and partnership skills, and even being able to embrace modern internet-based options allowing valuable staff members to work remotely from home around their personal commitments.

Threats is category that you probably know about best! You may be susceptible to negative feedback and failing to keep up with technology.

You might also want to come to terms with your own 'big hairy most audacious goal'. Vision and planning can make achieving dreams possible.

In our own case, Premier is keeping a close watch on trends in digital taxation, Brexit and the Northern Powerhouse.