Great session on growing your business from four different perspectives with Smart Company this morning - my contribution attached

1. GROWING into your business
Stories of success and failure

2. What do you want to get out of this
morning?

3. So – who am I – and what might that
mean for you?

4. How closely are you linked to your
business?
The need to see strategic planning as a means
to create a dividend yielding asset

5. IS GROWTH IMPORTANT?
• Depends on your plan for the business
• Depends on where the business is in its
lifecycle

6. Traditional business life cycle

7. Sigmoid curve

8. Is strategy important?

9. “The secret of success is consistency of
purpose."
- Benjamin Disraeli

10. What is strategic planning?

11. Strategic plan - alignment
• People
• Finance
• Marketing
• Sales
• Operations
• Aligned and delivering value to customers who pay and
help create value in your business

12. Strategic planning as a “cover story”
It’s all about execution

13. Some numbers*
50 4 2

14. Some more numbers**
46 4 2
0%-5% 10%+ 25%+

15. An example – the importance of
reporting and governance***
Revenue $2.123m $2.654m $3.815m
Gross margin $.871m $.375m $.910m
EBIT $.185m $.650m $.525m

16. Business Model Canvas

17. Focus as an entrepreneur
• Focus on the problem you solve – what is your “market
offering”
• Charge and collect on sales
• Keep customers happy and the business generation model
working
• Prepare cash flow and budgets
• Monitor performance weekly and manage cash daily
• Understand your value chain and the need to collaborate

18. Some personal experience

19. Metering Co. – what worked as we
grew
• Industry undergoing significant change
• Held our pricing model
• Missed a lot of tenders – stayed at 30 people and $2m for longer
than we wanted
• Recovered when competitors failed – grew to 200+ people and
$8m quicker than we wanted
• Identified further opportunities to entrench market position
• Successful exit – taken over by public company – still operating

20. Supply chain solutions – what worked
• Market change created niche opportunity
• Large competitors targeted top 50 companies
– we targeted next level down
• Built a great team and had fun
• Managed cash carefully and had good
relationship with bankers and suppliers

21. A growth trajectory – Supply chain
solutions
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
2000
2002
2004
2006
Revenue
(ooo's)
Profit
(ooo's)

22. Avoiding common traps
• Have enough money to cope with growth – equity – suppliers –
clients - banks can help
• Capacity constraints – systems and people – be prepared so you
can cope with extra workload
• As your organisation grows it changes – be aware of what to
expect and prepare for worst case or back off – manage the
downside risk to ensure survival
• Employ people who are good at what the business needs
• Prepare for exit from day one – even if you never do

23. Some suggestions
• Clear goals about what you do (and make the choice about
what you won’t do)
• Be objective – get an advisory board/independent advice
in need
• Know when to recruit - Hire right – people to do the job
not who you like – and get diversity in the company
• Invest in yourself and your team

24. Useful help
http://www.business.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx
Entrepreneurs’ Infrastructure Programme
Templates
Guide to range of Federal and State government
initiatives

25. Resources
Barry J Moltz You need to be a little CRAZY
http://barrymoltz.com
Michael Bungay Stanier Do More Great Work
http://www.domoregreatwork.com
Al Ries and Jack Trout Positioning
http://www.ries.com
Jim Collins Good to Great
http://www.jimcollins.com
Robert Kaplan & David Norton The Strategy Focused Organization
Dr. Tom McKaskill Invest to Exit
http://www.tommckaskill.com/

26. Don’t forget our host (and sponsors)
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/

27. So what did I pick up today that is of
use that I can take back to my
business and put into practice?

28. Thanks
Mike Sewell 0400 647 840
mike@marketgap.com.au
@marketgap