Organise Your Action Plans

For a failing business develop a full plan before you take ownership:

• Detail the spending cuts you’ll initiate for immediate cost savings.
• Decide how many layoffs you’ll need to make.
• Plan your negotiations with creditors.
• Find out how much wriggle room you have regarding contracts.
• Launch your action plan on Day One.

For a Profitable Business, review the options you have and any ideas for:

• New products or services;
• New marketing campaigns;
• Staff training needs;
• Detail your first objectives.

Immediately Upon Taking Over

• Take control of the bank account and keep a rein on spending;
• Hand-deliver your letter of ownership to the bank;
• Restrict purchase authority;
• Destroy credit cards;
• Change all bank passwords;
• Freeze all invoice payments;
• Cancel all direct debits; and
• If the business is distressed, initiate redundancies.

Then in the First 100 Days:

• Review expenditure line by line;
• Identify new revenue streams;
• Review staffing requirements;
• Change computer passwords;
• Seed the client/prospect database;
• Offload saleable assets;
• Seek a rent holiday. You can often get a three-month rent holiday;
• Renegotiate long-term contracts;

Take Steps to Improve Cash Flow Immediately for Instant growth such as:

• Can you increase your prices immediately.
• Offer Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers of your products or services;
• Reactivate lost customers;
• Call your best customers with an upgrade offer;
• Start sending regular emails;

6 Ideas for Long-Term Growth

Run an 80:20 audit to determine your top customers and then focus most of your marketing spend on attracting people like them. If you can focus more of your efforts on the 20% of your best customers you will invest marketing funds more effectively and increase profits faster.

You might also consider:

• Split your mailing list into segments and create relevant offers for each of them;
• Identify new markets. Find out who else will want or need your products or services;
• Find bulk-deal opportunities;
• Create a reseller network;
• Create an affiliate system;
• Create a loyalty programme;
• Forge a joint ventures.
• Develop your marketing – Look at your website, relevant networking and how to maximise referrals and repeat business.

What is your exit?

Think about what you want to achieve with your acquisition and how and when you will move it on, whether that is going to be in a few months or a few years. Is this short term investment or a long term trading venture.

By now you should already have undertaken a strategic planning exercise to identify:

Your strengths and weaknesses

Your long term goals

Your interim stepping stone

The strategies for achieving these goals

Don’t be afraid to ask for advice

You may not have bought a business before so you need someone to help you through the minefield.

You may have bought a business before in which case you already know a lot of the pitfalls. But, you have not bought this business before.

Even if you have done this a number of times, I defy you to tell me that you have not learnt something new with every transaction.

So, there is still stuff for you to learn, and always will be.

 

Alan E Long

The Long Partnership

07770 738770