Practical Help to Grow Your Business  

START-UPS AND OTHER COMPANIES

Wealth creation, derived from the huge knowledge and science base in this country, is critical for the UK's continued prosperity.  But turning ideas into saleable, profitable products is not the same as merely turning ideas into products!  It is crucially important to create value from any technology, for all stakeholders.  If you want to make a quick buck, technology exploitation may not be for you.

In all businesses, but especially start-ups, you need to have experienced Sales and Marketing people.  If not, you stand a good chance of failing, unless those involved in the organisation accept this premise and invest in becoming experienced, extremely rapidly.

Every business can be likened to a three-legged bar stool.

Whether you sell products or services, whether you sell to other businesses or to consumers, whether you are large or small, the same model still applies.

One leg of the stool represents your Operations, your 'doing what you do'.  Most businesses were started because someone was particularly skilled at doing something and decided to start a business doing it.  When asked to rate their Operations function out of ten, most business owners would give a score of 8 to 10 - and quite rightly too! Started with a high level of skill and a huge dose of passion, the business is their baby.  If there are any operational problems, this person is onto them in a flash and fixes them almost as quickly.

The second leg of the stool is Financial Management, the 'looking after the money'.  Many business owners would rather not do this bit themselves, but they know that they cannot neglect this area so they get their Accountant to help them.  They may employ the services of a bookkeeper, they may purchase commercial accounts software, but they never lose sight of the fact that managing the finances is an important function.  At least what they believe to be adequate financial management, even if in reality their practices leave a lot to be desired.

The third leg of the stool is Sales and Marketing.  Nothing anywhere else in the business is of any use unless the world knows you have something available for sale and unless enough of them end up buying it from you, a process that generally requires someone to sell it to them.  Many businesses believe that this is a function that can be left until later, or which can be done on the cheap, or which has one universal answer which is suitable for every business, so all they have to do is 'turn the handle'.

Like any other three-legged stool, take one of these legs away and the whole thing falls over.

It can be interesting to ask the owner to rate their business out of ten for both of these other functions too.  Surprisingly often you will find that the Finance score is the average of the Operations score and the Sales and Marketing score!  If indeed this were a law of the Universe, what would it imply?

We can assume a score of ten out of ten for Operations.  If Sales and Marketing was totally neglected, the Financial Management could never exceed five out of ten, no matter how much effort was put into it! But if Sales and Marketing were driven to a score also of ten, then Finance will be at five out of ten before any effort is put into it.  I am not suggesting you totally neglect your finances.  But I am suggesting there's a huge amount to be gained from getting Sales and Marketing as good as they can be.

If a business owner does not already have Sales and Marketing skills, they must acquire them.  The owner doesn't have to be directly involved in the Sales and Marketing functions of the company, but they must know enough to be directing the activities of the individual or department to whom they've delegated the task in reasonable and meaningful ways.  In the UK we seem to be happy to allow those with technical skills to graduate without insisting they all also have some level of commercial, particularly Sales and Marketing, skills too.  If someone leaves school, college or university without the knowledge of how to exploit a good idea should they have one, then we are letting them, ourselves and the whole country down.

And the seat of the bar stool?  That's the processes and procedures that hold the legs of the company together!

If you are going through just these sorts of anxieties and would value a one-off sounding-board, in confidence and without obligation or charge, e-mail me david@davidwinch.co.uk  Many business owners appreciate and value support in times like these.

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