2013 Top Ten28th December 2013
Just as a collection of bright ties is a matter of taste, of hits and misses, one year on from the launch of FYI's website its time to highlight the hits that have drawn the most attention. So if you've had neither time nor inclination to wade through the lot, here are the edited highlights of 2013: Economic Blogs: 1st: The Hobbit: Tolkien the Economic Libertarian? Drawing global interest and recommendation. Proving that you can't beat contemporary relevance. 2nd: The Economics...
Increasing the value of your business28th December 2013
As we mature most of us will hope to reduce our involvement in day-to-day work activities and extract value from our businesses, either through a business sale, family or management hand-over, or financial restructuring. After all, life is about priorities, and whether it is a fresh challenges or the allure of grandchildren, we all need to enjoy getting the balance right. For some a business exit may happen in their 20s, for others in their 70s, but there tends to be just one opportunity to...
Pricing Strategy29th November 2013
How do you optimise your pricing? If the answer to this question is a mystery, this blog will help ... and being based on a series of presentations that I recently gave to business professionals, I know it hits a chord! Pricing in isolation is nothing ... waving a flag with a price in the middle of a field is unlikely, on its own, to drive anyone to buy your product or service ... so to be effective, a price needs to be a fully justifiable component of your strategy ... and only then...
Introducing The Sellability Score27th October 2013
Why are you in business? Besides the freedom, joy and trauma there are likely to be some lifetime financial goals which, when the time comes, need to be maximized for you and your family. So all of us in business should plan well in advance for unlocking that opportunity. That’s where The Sellability Score comes in, to help you increase its Sellability as you grow your business. Of course a strongly sellable business tends to be a desirable business; desirable not just because it is...
Troubleshooting22nd April 2013
I spend a significant part of my time problem-solving with businesses of all shapes and sizes. Remember Sir John Harvey Jones MBE? His TV show in the early ‘90s, Troubleshooter, and a few successors that have updated the entertainment factor, apparently tell you much of what you need to know about Troubleshooters. Often they show the angry, mistrustful or tearful owners, through a magical process being led through the maze, transforming into re-motivated and joyful beings ... with a little...
Financial forecasting3rd September 2012
Let's be clear why we do forecasting. The time when projections were prepared just to please a banker to tick a box are long gone. In fact that banker probably made good use of them, but they were rarely used for business improvement. And business improvement is why financial forecasting is now so vital. Rubbish in, rubbish out… The greatest skill in preparing a forecast is in setting the variables that go into it. The accuracy and relevance of these assumptions is the single...